Artists:
Anton Lyakhovsky, piano

On 22 November, at 19.00, pianist Anton Lyakhovsky will give a solo concert at Dzintari Concert Hall, performing works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, as well as Sergei Rachmaninoff’s late masterpiece Variations on a Theme of Corelli.

Since winning the Grand Prix and the Audience Choice Award at the Jāzeps Vītols V International Piano Competition in Riga in 2008, pianist Anton Lyakhovsky has become a favourite of the Latvian public and regularly appears in Latvia for many concert programmes. His musical understanding and creativity are complemented by an excellent technical command of a virtuoso instrument. Lyakhovsky has the rare gift of drawing forth a tremendous spectrum of emotions from the piano while interpreting the score with such purity that the audience cannot help but to feel the very presence of the composers themselves.

The London-based Russian pianist received his musical training in St Petersburg, at Trinity College of Music, London, and then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The European Piano Teachers’ Association regularly invites Anton Lyakhovsky to give piano lectures and masterclasses. He has performed at London’s Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, the Harlow Piano Festival, the Rush Hours Recital Series and other prestigious European and American concert venues.

In his solo concert at Dzintari Concert Hall, the pianist will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s elegant and playful early piano cycle Aria variata alla maniera Italiana BWV 989, in which Bach put his keen interest in Italian piano music on full display. We will also hear Franz Liszt’s charming piano paraphrase of Franz Schubert’s waltz and excerpts from the cycle Years of Pilgrimage, which reflects the composer’s vivid impressions of his travels in Italy. There will also be performances of Frederic Chopin’s First and Fourth Ballades – a golden repertoire of Romantic piano music with a wide emotional range from subtle lyricism to dramatic intensity.

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 42 was completed in 1931 when Rachmaninoff was already living in exile in the United States. The 20 variations composed by Rachmaninoff are like a series of fireworks on the piano. Although the Variations on a Theme of Corelli did not win immediate acclaim, they are now considered a masterpiece of Rachmaninoff’s late work, like a weathered man’s resigned reflections on his turbulent life.

Approximate duration: 2 hours