Pianofest 3 – RECITAL 4 – Eleni Mavromoustaki

Programme

• Rameau: Suite in G minor, RCT 6
• Schubert: 4 Impromptus, D899, Nos. 2 & 4
• Schubert: Marche militaire in D major, D733/1
• Janáček: Piano Sonata ‘1. X. 1905, from the street’
• Schumann: Kreisleriana, Op. 16

• Special guest: Orpheus Tristan Kerr

PIANOFEST3 concludes with the recital of Eleni Mavromoustaki, who is described as a highly accomplished pianist with determination and outstanding expression. Eleni has performed in prominent venues worldwide, such as the Athens Concert Hall, the Rialto Theatre in Cyprus, and the Seoul Concert Hall. She has collaborated with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, and the Scottish Ensemble. Her studies at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Scottish Conservatoire were accompanied by awards in competitions such as the Maria Callas Grand Prix and the International Mozart Competition. She resides in London, where she enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and children’s yoga instructor. She is the artistic advisor of Cyprus Music Makers and frequently collaborates with her sister Victoria and the Isolde Piano Trio.

The recital begins with the Suite in G Minor by the harpsichordist Jean-Philippe Rameau, one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century. After Jean-Baptiste Lully, he is considered the leading composer of French opera, and his music for the harpsichord is regarded as comparable to that of his contemporary François Couperin. The Suite in G consists almost entirely of character pieces rather than conventional dance movements from various nationalities, as was customary. The listeners are invited to use their imagination to discover how musical sound can evoke the rapid and nimble movement of hands engaged in weaving, represent a musical portrait of a hen, two Huron Indians, or even the mystery of an Egyptian gypsy.

Following, are two works by Franz Schubert, dating from 1827: the masterful Impromptu in E-flat Major with its dramatic middle section, and the melancholic Impromptu in A-flat Major with a lyrical middle section from the composer’s first set of four Impromptus. At this point, the artist will invite the ten-year-old Orpheus Tristan Kerr to the stage, with whom she will perform the famous Military March in D Major for four hands.

Continuing the programme is the remarkable work “1. X. 1905 From the Street” by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, often referred to as a sonata. The piece is inspired by the death of a 20-year-old apprentice carpenter, František Pavlík, which occurred because of the police and military dispersing a gathering that supported the Czech population of Brno’s request for the establishment of a Czech university in this bilingual city.

Ms. Mavromoustaki concludes her recital with the magnificent Kreisleriana by Robert Schumann. This work draws its primary literary inspiration from the writings of Jean Paul (1763-1825) and E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822), where the boundaries between reality and fantasy, the ordinary and the absurd, often blur. Kreisleriana combines elements of fiction and autobiography. The title refers to Schumann’s fascination with the character Johannes Kreisler, a fictional pianist from Hoffmann’s stories, who represents the ideal Romantic composer in Schumann’s eyes.