Description

?LISABETH PION
Quebec born pianist ?lisabeth Pion, known for her curiosity and innovation, performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and artistic collaborator both on the Canadian and on the international cultural scene. Having previously worked with Francine Lacroix, Suzanne Goyette and André Laplante in Montreal, ?lisabeth is now based in London where she is currently finishing the Artist Diploma ? Performance degree with Ronan O?Hora at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She was winner of the Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize in 2019/20 but her debut solo performance at the Wigmore Hall has been delayed until 19 July 2021

A passionate chamber musician, ?lisabeth is the pianist of the De Beauvoir Piano Trio, with En Yuan Khong and Charlotte Kaslin. The Trio is the Ensemble in Residence 2021/22 of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, and receives professional mentorship from Chamber Studio UK.

Laureate of the Sylva Gelber Foundation Music Prize 2020, she is grateful for the support of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Kathleen Trust, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, Help Musicians UK and Talent Unlimited UK. ?lisabeth became an Imogen Cooper Music Trust scholarship holder in 2020.

PROGRAMME

W.A. MOZART (1756?91) Sonata No. 12 in F major K332 (1783)
I. Allegro 2. Adagio 3. Allegro assai

In 1781 Mozart broke with his patron the Prince-Archbishp of Salzburg and decided to move to Vienna where he stayed with his friends the Webers, a family of musicians and singers. After a fraught courtship Mozart married Constanze Weber in July 1782. His bride sang soprano solos at the 1783 première of his great Mass in C minor. At the time Mozart's compositions, including the set of three piano sonatas he wrote in 1783, were influenced by music of the Baroque period, particularly the lyrical style of J.C. Bach, the youngest son of J.S. Bach.

LILI BOULANGER (1893?1918) Prélude in D flat major (1911)
Trois Morceaux pour piano ? D?un jardin clair, D?un vieux jardin, Cortège (1914)

Lili Boulanger, younger sister of the famous teacher and composer Nadia Boulanger, was a child prodigy whose life was cruelly cut short at the age of 24. Among her handful of compositions, only now being rediscovered as masterworks, is a little gem, the Prélude in D flat major. Much admired in her lifetime, at the age of 19 Lili became the first female composer to win the prestigious composition prize the Prix de Rome, which enabled her to live and work in Italy. While staying outside Rome at the Villa Medici she wrote the Trois Morceaux pour piano.

OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908?92) Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant Jésus, No. 15 Le baiser de l'Enfant-Jésus (1944)

In 1944 Messiaen was a professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire. His style of composition, described as a complex of sounds, absorbed many global musical influences outside the Western tradition including Hindu and Japanese ? and birdsong. Twenty visions of the infant Jesus is a profound meditation inspired by the composer's Catholic faith. Vision No. 15 can be interpreted as a lullaby that evokes the spirit of joy.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875?1937) Gaspard de la nuit, No. 1 Ondine, in C sharp major (1909)
Ravel is often associated with the avante garde impressionist movement in music. His experimental compositions using harmonic textures to focus on mood and atmosphere were deplored by the Paris Conservatoire from which he was twice expelled. Twenty years later he was being hailed as France?s greatest living composer. Ondine is the first of a suite of three movements based on poems by Aloysius Bertrand. It tells the story of the alluring water nymph Ondine.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770?1827) Sonata No. 23 in F minor op 57 (1804?06) 1. Allegro assai 2. Andante con moto 3. Allegro ma non troppo ? Presto
The so-called Appassionata sonata was dedicated by Beethoven to his aristocratic friend and patron Count Franz von Brunswick during a stay at the Count's palace in Martonvásár, Hungary. The Count's sister Therese was one of the composer's gifted pupils with whom he fell passionately in love. The sonata was published in Vienna in 1807 but was never performed in public during Beethoven's lifetime. The period from 1803 to 1812 is known as Beethoven's heroic middle period when dissatisfied with his earlier compositions he was seeking a more ambitious, dramatic style. The composer himself declared this sonata to be his most tempestuous composition to date. The period also marked the onset of his deafness when Beethoven was forced to come to terms with the seriousness of his slowly deteriorating hearing.


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Description

30 Pavilion Road,

Knightsbridge,

London,

Greater London,

England,

SW1X 0HJ.