D Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor, Kk.213
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
Liszt: Après une lecture de Dante – Fantasia quasi sonata from Années de pèlerinage
Ligeti: Etude No.13 (L’escalier du diable)
Eleanor Alberga: Cwicseolfor (Quicksilver)
Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op.28
The 27-year-old pianist Alim Beisembayev has planned a magnificent array of music for his recital.
Beginning with an energetic sonata by Scarlatti and Ravel’s hypnotically beautiful Valses Nobles et sentimentales, he moves on to Liszt’s powerful evocations of hell and redemption in the fantastical sonata Après une lecture du Dante, plus Ligeti’s most celebrated Etude, ‘The Devil’s Staircase’.
The second half begins with a new work written especially for Beisembayev by the Jamaican-British composer Eleanor Alberga, whom he also chose to write him a new concerto as part of his prizes at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition.
The concert sweeps to a close with Chopin’s 24 Preludes, each one a poetic miniature full of visionary imagination.