A Dramatic Piano Recital

This week’s Music at Lunchtime concert was given by Form 7 Music Scholar, Samantha, who performed an exciting mix of Classical and contemporary music for piano.

Samantha’s recital opened with the first movement of Beethoven’s fiery Piano Sonata in C minor, op. 10 no. 1. The performance was full of energy with strong contrasts between the driving dotted rhythms and the expressive warmth of the second subject. Samantha’s performance did justice to the drama of Beethoven’s music with both a strong sense of momentum and great lyricism.

The second piece in the recital was the first movement from Night Pieces, ‘Snow, Moon and Flowers’, by Peter Sculthorpe. This provided a complete contrast; the three miniature sections of the movement were serene with a great sense of time and space.

The final piece in the recital was Fazil Say’s ‘Black Earth’. This was striking; the piece alternated playing the piano keyboard with plucking the piano strings, to imitate the sound of the Bağlama, a plucked string instrument often found in Turkish folk music. With the richness of the lyrical sections, this piece really showed off the different soundworlds of the piano.

Samantha performed her carefully crafted programme with great musicality- congratulations! Our next lunchtime concert is given by Form 7 Music Scholar Daniel who will be singing music by Brahms, Burleigh, Mozart and Vaughan Williams.