Programme
Haydn | Keyboard Sonata No.53 in E minor, Hob.XVI:34
Mozart | Rondo for piano No.3 in A minor. K.511
Mozart | Piano Sonata No.18 in D major (“Hunt”) K.576
Schubert | Piano Sonata No.20 in A major, D.959
Leon McCawley’s concert performances and extensive discography have established him as a pianist of great integrity and variety, bringing freshness and vitality to Classical, Romantic and 20th century repertoire. After his performance for us in 2018, there were immediate calls for a speedy return visit, so we are delighted to welcome him back with a recital of masterworks from the Classical era through to the dawn of Romanticism, repertoire in which he has few peers.
Haydn’s Piano Sonata in E minor was written in the late 1770s and published in London in 1783. Mozart’s Piano sonata no. 18 in D major nicknamed “The Hunt” for its horn-like opening, was his last (1789). Both these works have been recorded by Leon as part of complete boxed sets for which he received “Editor’s Choice” and “Diapason D’Or” accolades. Be prepared for a heart string tug when you hear the melancholy Mozart Rondo for piano no.3 in A minor that comes between the sonatas.
Schubert’s penultimate Piano Sonata D.959, September 1828, is one of three that he wrote after Beethoven’s death (1827) and only three months before Schubert’s own death. Pianist Jonathan Biss called the andantino 2nd movement “a composed hallucination”, whilst the final Rondo, based on the finale of Beethoven’s Sonata No.16 in G, reflects Schubert’s admiration for the great master.
