Alissa Firsova (piano): Sturm und Drang

Frédéric Chopin composed his 4th Ballade inspired by an old Polish legend, one of his most refined pieces. From Poland Firsova takes you to Hungary in the gripping Two Elegies of Béla Bartók. Equally poignant is La lugubre gondola II, also an elegy, that Bartók's compatriot Franz Liszt wrote about the death of his son-in-law Richard Wagner. From Wagner himself you hear Isoldes Liebestod, in the transcription for piano solo by his father-in-law Franz Liszt. Also from Firsova itself there is a piano transcription on the program, namely the blood-curdling beautiful Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony by Gustav Mahler. Firsova concludes her recital with the work that finally opened the gateway to romanticism: Beethoven's sonata no 32, also his last sonata.