Work: Well-Tempered Clavier 1: Prelude and Fugue no. 4 in C sharp minor, BWV849

Bach presented in various orchestral transcriptions made for a powerful, entertaining evening in Barcelona. 

Though born in America, Stephen Kovacevich has lived in London since moving there to study with the great Dame Myra Hess at the age of eighteen. He clearly has a special rapport with British audiences, as his amiable manner in discussing his encores demonstrated.

Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and Mozart: four insurmountable composers, each a titan of classical music in his own right. Every one of these composers would normally dominate a position of focus in a classical concert programme. It is rare, therefore, to see these composers side by side in a concert, simply due to a need for variety and not a heavy-handed evening filled with canonical works.