Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Kirill Gerstein plays Debussy and Liszt

Live at Wigmore Hall, Kirill Gerstein plays two of the most demanding works in the solo piano repertoire: Debussy's late, great 脡tudes and Liszt's ground-breaking B minor Sonata.

Internationally renowned Kirill Gerstein plays an exciting programme requiring a transcendent technique. From 1915, Debussy's 12 脡tudes are widely considered his late masterpiece. At once playful and unrelenting in their technical demands the Studies are musically richly rewarding, too, each a mini tone-poem with endlessly varied textures. Debussy wrote, impishly gnomic, to his publisher 鈥楾hese 脡tudes conceal a rigorous technique beneath flowers of harmony. To put it another way, 鈥測ou don鈥檛 catch flies with vinegar!鈥'

Although Liszt's groundbreaking B minor Sonata was declared musically incomprehensible and technically impossible at its premiere, it has long been accepted as his greatest solo piano work, a conerstone of the repertoire and a satisfying emotional and musical journey which unfolds in one vast, irresistible and inevitable movement.

Introduced by Martin Handley, live from Wigmore Hall.

Debussy: 脡tudes
Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor S178

Kirill Gerstein (piano)

Followed by music off disc, including, at 9:05pm:
Max Bruch
Symphony No 3 in E major, Op 51
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Robert Trevino

2 hours, 28 minutes

Last on

Fri 2 Oct 2020 19:30

Music Played

  • Claude Debussy

    Etudes Book 1 and Book 2

    Performer: Kirill Gerstein.
  • Franz Liszt

    Sonata in B minor

    Performer: Kirill Gerstein.
  • Max Bruch

    Symphony No 3 in E major, Op 51

    Orchestra: Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Robert Trevino.
    • CPO.
  • Max Bruch

    15 Swedish dances Op.63 (Set 1)

    Orchestra: Gewandhaus Orchestra. Conductor: Kurt Masur.
    • PHILIPS.
  • Max Bruch

    Romance for viola and orchestra Op.85

    Performer: Janine Jansen. Orchestra: Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Conductor: Riccardo Chailly.
    • DECCA.

Broadcast

  • Fri 2 Oct 2020 19:30