Beethoven's Complete Works for Piano: Jordan Hall

Mon, February 10, 2020 | 7:30pm

Thu, February 20, 2020 | 7:30pm

290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA
United States

Is Beethoven’s music great? How do we know? Piano department chair Bruce Brubaker encourages curious concertgoers to celebrate and reconsider Beethoven’s music and legacy.

75 NEC pianists present every work for piano that Beethoven ever wrote over the course of 13 recitals in spring and fall 2020. Hear well-known favorites like the “Moonlight” Sonata and “Für Elise” alongside rarely-performed works and decide for yourself: what does Beethoven mean today?

A virtuoso pianist himself, Beethoven composed dozens of works for the fortepiano, often making use of the new musical resources of the instrument as it developed rapidly throughout the composer’s lifetime. Approximately 1/3 of each concert program will feature rarely performed sets of variations that may offer insight into Beethoven’s own performances as an improviser.

Spring 2020:

Fall 2020:

Seven concerts, to be announced. This series ends with a monumental 10-hour tour de force of all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas performed in one day.

Artists

Bruce Brubaker, Piano Department Chair

February 10

WoO 63: Nine variations for piano on a march by Ernst Christoph Dressler (1782), You Bin Lee
Opus 2, No. 1: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Hongbo Cai
Opus 2, No. 2: Piano Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Nan Ni
Opus 2, No. 3: Piano Sonata No. 3 in C Major, Ji Youn Lee
Sonata in F Minor, WoO 47, No. 2, Alice Chenyang Xu
Opus 7: Piano Sonata No. 4 in E-flat Major ("Grand Sonata") (1797), Andrew Li
February 20

Opus 89: Polonaise (1814), Ranfei Wang
WoO 73: Ten variations for piano on "La stessa, la stessissima" from Antonio Salieri's opera Falstaff, Hongzhen Wang
Opus 31, No. 1: Piano Sonata No. 16 in G Major, Yucong Huang
Opus 31, No. 2: Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor ("Tempest"), Jiawen Eric Guan
Opus 31, No. 3: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat Major, Lucas Thomazinho
WoO 69: Nine variations for piano on "Quant'e piu bello" from Giovanni Paisiello's opera La Molinara, Adalia Wen
Opus 110: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major (1821), Yutong Sun
In Honor of Marion Rubin Berman ‘31