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When

Occurs on Saturday December 3 2022

Approximate running time: 2 hours

Venue

General Admission - Online
50 Valparaiso Avenue
Atherton CA 94027

Event Notes

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Music@Menlo’s Focus Residencies offer a unique, mini-festival experience over two days. On the first evening, an immersive Behind the Music learning event explores music, history, and art, and on the second, a Concert Program showcases the works discussed.

This December, renowned pianist Gilles Vonsattel presents a brand-new residency, titled The End/So Beautiful and Free. The program explores the sense of endings in music, and is built upon Ludwig van Beethoven‘s final piano sonata. As Gilles says, “The title refers to the extraordinary way in which Beethoven chooses to end his piano sonatas - a kind of celestial evaporation. I’ve always loved the famous Doors song The End, and there is something I found oddly similar in spirit between these two pieces of music.”

Gilles will begin with selections of J.S. Bach’s final work, The Art of Fugue, which deeply impacted Beethoven, before proceeding to the music of two other admirers of Bach: Shostakovich and Mendelssohn. Join us for a fascinating journey through some of the most beautiful piano music!

Program: Bach Selections from Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), BWV 1080 (ca. 1742-50)

Shostakovich Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues, op. 87 (1950-51)

Mendelssohn Variations sérieuses in D minor, op. 54 (1841)

Bach Prelude in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (1744)

Bach Prelude in C minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II (1740)

Beethoven Piano Sonata no. 32 in C minor, op. 111 (1822)

Artist: Gilles Vonsattel, piano

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