RECITAL

Carnegie Hall
Maurizio Pollini - Piano

• SCHUMANN Arabeske in C Major
• SCHUMANN Kreisleriana
• CHOPIN Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45
• CHOPIN Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor
• CHOPIN Berceuse in D-flat Major
• CHOPIN Polonaise in A-flat Major

"A perfect combination of intellect and insight grace Maurizio Pollini’s performances, bringing a fabulously sensitive touch, subtlety, and a grasp of form that is unparalleled. The Boston Globe declared, “Pollini makes an elegant craftsman. The result is exceptionally intelligent expression, craft so accomplished it thrills on its own terms.” Pollini returns to Carnegie Hall in one of the season’s most eagerly awaited recitals."

"Both born in 1810, Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin are celebrated as pioneers of Romanticism. Though their compositional styles both exhibit improvisational qualities and a devotion to counterpoint, their works are aesthetically distinct and their creative lives very different. Chopin was on the whole a composer for piano, straying only occasionally to other instruments or to orchestral works (and, in those cases, to accompany the solo piano). Schumann, on the other hand, wrote for many instruments and in nearly every genre, including symphonies, as well as vocal and chamber music. The pianistic outputs of both composers, however, are now staples of the concert repertoire and pose great technical and interpretive challenges to the artist.

While Chopin was a celebrated piano virtuoso, a hand injury cut short Schumann’s career as a concert pianist, and he began to favor writing and composing. He co-founded the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, a journal in which he commented on new music of the day. He is particularly well known for his first and last reviews, each of which heralded the arrival of a young musical genius: Chopin in 1831 and Brahms in 1853.

Though the composers lived in different regions (Chopin mostly in Paris, Schumann in Leipzig and other German cities), traveled in different circles, and had little if any personal contact, they obviously respected each other and their works. Chopin dedicated his F-Major Ballade to Schumann, and Schumann dedicated Kreisleriana, on tonight’s program, to Chopin."