| Tuesday 27 April 2021 | 19:30 |
| Federico Colli | Piano |
After a dazzling Southbank Centre debut in 2014, the Italian pianist presents a recital taking in five of his most beloved composers.
The evening takes in music of delight, devotion and resistance written by rule-breakers.
Nobody knows much about Domenico Scarlatti, but the attention-grabbing brilliance of his weird and wonderful piano sonatas speaks for itself. As on his recent recording of the composer’s works, Colli brings crispness and flair to Scarlatti like few others.
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata is the composer’s best known piano sonata, famous for the nocturnal singing of its slow movement but also offering music of all-conquering force.
There is intense drama in Mozart’s Fantasia in C minor, a piano work that seems as suited to the opera house as the recital stage, drenched in despair and stalked by fear.
Dmitri Shostakovich felt similar emotions in Soviet Russia, where he lived in constant fear of arrest by authorities who disapproved of his art.
His 24 Preludes and Fugues are terse, enigmatic and intensely personal statements that salute his predecessor Johann Sebastian Bach while enshrining his deeply felt pain.
From the mighty conclusion to Shostakovich’s work, Colli turns to its chief inspiration. Bach’s Chaconne, arranged for piano by Ferruccio Busoni, is a life-affirming journey through multiple examinations of a single melody – music that reaches into the soul.
