One year after his last performance at the Teatro del Maggio, pianist Grigory Sokolov returns for a concert in co-production between Teatro del Maggio and Amici della Musica - Florence on Monday, March 11th 2024 at 8pm in Zubin Mehta Hall.

Compositions by Bach, Chopin and Schumann are on the programme.

Florence, March 7th, 2024 - On Monday, March 11th, at 8pm - in the Zubin Mehta Hall - the pianist Grigory Sokolov returns, one year after his last performance, for a concert in co-production between Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Amici della Musica -  Florence. On the bill are the performances of the Four Duets, BWV 802-805 and the Partita n.2 in C minor, BWV 826 by Johann Sebastian Bach, to continue through the romantic repertoire with the Mazurkas op. 30 and op.50 by Frédéric Chopin. The concert ends with Forest Scenes (Waldszenen) Op. 82 by Robert Schumann.

Grigory Sokolov, who made his Maggio debut in the spring of 2015, made his debut in the Amici della Musica’s seasons in 1969 and started playing the piano at the age of five; two years later, he began studies with Liya Zelikhman at the “Central Special School” of the Leningrad Conservatory. He went on to receive lessons from Moisey Khalfin at the Conservatory and gave his debut recital in his hometown in 1962. Sokolov's talent was recognized in 1966 when at 16 he became the youngest musician to receive the Medal of gold at the “International Tchaikovsky Competition” in Moscow. He performed extensively as a soloist in concert with orchestras of the highest level, collaborating among others with the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Philharmonia London, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Munich Philharmonic, before deciding to concentrate exclusively on solo performance.

The concert: 

Johann Sebastian Bach
"Vier Duette" BWV 802-805; 
Match no. 2 in C minor BWV 826

In the Leipzig years, in addition to his musical commitments as Cantor of the Church of St. Thomas, Johann Sebastian Bach also dedicated himself to the composition of keyboard pieces which were published in the quadripartite collection entitled Clavier-Übung. Among the numerous pages, the Six Partitas for harpsichord stand out, already published separately in previous years and then collected in the first part of the Clavier-Übung published in 1731. In Bach's time the term 'partita' was synonymous with suite and indicated a sequence of dances introduced by an improvisational piece which could indifferently take the name of prelude, symphony, overture, fantasy, toccata. Then followed four canonical dances (Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabande and Giga) and two other dances, inserted between the Sarabande and the Giga, which could vary from time to time. Match no. 2 in C minor BWV 826, however, represents an exception to the rule as it consists of six parts instead of seven and includes two final pieces foreign to the tradition of the suite: a Rondeau after the Sarabande and a Capriccio elaborated contrapuntally in place of the usual Giga. Even the beginning is not exactly traditional, it is in fact a symphony with three connected movements (Grave, Andante and a fugato for two voices) which refer to the French, Italian and German national styles.

The Harpsichord Duets BWV 802-805 were instead published in 1739 in the third part of the Clavier-Übung totally dedicated to organ pieces such as Preludes, Chorales and Fugues. The reason why Bach chose to conclude the monumental organ collection with four harpsichord pieces still remains a mystery. The Duets follow the model of the two-voice Inventions and, while the first and third are distinguished by their extemporaneous character, the second and fourth are written in counterpoint in the form of a fugue. Overall they therefore present themselves as a pair of prelude and fugue but with always different tones.

Frédéric Chopin
Mazurkas op. 30; Mazurkas op. 50

Chopin composed his first mazurka when he was just over ten years old and his last, which remained in draft form, a few days before his death. The mazurka for piano is inspired by a Polish dance of popular origins from the sixteenth century which in the following centuries rose to the rank of court and then hall dance. Ternary tempo, moderate pace and main accent shifted to the weak tempo of the bar are its distinctive features. Chopin had a particular predilection for this dance, composing fifty-nine mazurkas over the course of his creative parable. Compared to the polonaise, another dance much loved by the author, the mazurka is a simpler and smaller composition. Intended for the intimate environment of the living room rather than the concert hall, it becomes the repository of the affectionate re-enactment of distant memories in an intimate dimension far from the rhetoric of the most ambitious compositions. The four Mazurkas of the op. 30, composed between 1836 and 1837, offer an example of the variety of images and feelings found in the corpus of Mazurkas: from the poignant melos of the first to the explicit reference to dance in the second and third, up to the melancholic languor of the fourth. The three mazurkas op. 50, were instead created between 1841 and 1842 and present the stylistic features of Chopin's last period. The form expands and the lexicon is enriched with increasingly varied harmonies and rhythmic asymmetries, especially in the last mazurka, in C sharp minor, a page of enigmatic beauty.

Robert Schumann
Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) op. 82

Robert Schumann created the piano cycle Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) op. 82 in the space of a few days between the end of 1848 and the beginning of 1849. The nine short pieces of the collection are inspired by the world of nature of which Schumann becomes a free interpreter by mixing irrational and poetic images. Sounds, voices, suggestions of a forest with an ambivalent appearance, reassuring and threatening at the same time, take shape song after song. After the quiet and muffled entry into the magical sylvan world, opposing figures alternate: the joyful Landscape and the cursed Place, described by the grave gait and full of sinister omens; the Hunting Song, robust and decisive and the Lurking Hunter characterized by a pressing and aggressive rhythm; the Solitary Flowers with their graceful and almost whispered melody and the mysterious song of the Prophet Bird as it changes color from one arpeggio to another; until the closing entrusted to the nostalgic melody of Addio which closes the imaginary journey into the forest.