Columbus Citizens Foundation: The Program

An homage to Venice, gondolas, moonlight and the Villa d’Este make up the pieces on my New York recital program.

In my posts this past week I have been discussing how to choose pieces for a program, and some of the ideas I use in order to create a complete story for the audience.  It can sometimes help to think of each work as one would chapters of a book.

For my next New York recital I will be playing for an organization made up largely of people from Italy, so I have chosen pieces that are about water in general, and Venice in particular.  This is the program:

I

“Songs Without Words”

“Venetian Boat Song” Op. 30, No.6

Felix Mendelssohn (1809—1847)

II

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2

(Quasi una fantasia) (“Moonlight”)

i Adagio sostenuto     ii. Allegretto     iii. Presto agitato

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770—1827)

III

Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 1

Franz Schubert (1797—1828)

IV

Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este

The Water Games at the Villa d’Este

Années de Pèlerinage — Troisième année, S. 163

Years of Pilgrimage—Third Year

Franz Liszt (1811—1886)

V

Barcarolle, Op. 60

Frédéric Chopin (1810—1849)

I want to take the audience on a journey through Italy where, for the most part, we will be traveling by water.  We start and end with music that makes us passengers in Venetian gondolas, witnesses to moonlight, and a chance to look deep inside one’s own soul courtesy of Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt.

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