Current Issue
Diary
The Second African Concert Series
The Second African Concert Series at the Wigmore Hall will be held on Saturday May 13th under the directorship of the Series founder, Dr Rebeca Omordia, who begins the day’s three concerts at 11.30 with a solo piano recital, ‘African Pianism’. Dr Omordia opens her...
Newbury Spring Festival
Artists appearing at this year’s Newbury Spring Festival include Jess Gillam, Steven Osborne, Lucy Crowe, Sir John Tomlinson, Symphonic Brass of London, The Tallis Scholars, Barry Douglas, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Doric String Quartet, Ben Goldscheider,...
Oxford Lieder Festival
The Oxford Lieder Festival (from 14 – 29 October) will celebrate its 21st birthday this autumn, coming of age in a fortnight that focuses on song as an intimate art form with its origins in friendship and conviviality. An array of artists will appear in around 80...
2022 Presteigne Festival
After two years of uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Presteigne Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary in late August. With an international reputation for the commissioning of important new work and the support of young generation performers and...
A New Bliss Biography and celebratory Recital
The Arthur Bliss Society presents a Talk and Recital featuring Arthur Bliss and Ian Venables at the Birmingham and Midland Institute (9, Margaret Street, Birmingham) on Saturday October 29 at 2.30pm. Paul Spicer will talk about his recently-published biography – Sir...
Beethoven Birthday Marathon from Julian Jacobson
On November 12th, Julian Jacobson will perform the Beethoven Marathon – all 32 piano sonatas from memory - in celebration of his 75th birthday at St. John’s Church Waterloo London SE1, from 9 am to 10 pm. The performance will be in three sessions (morning, afternoon,...
Oxford Lieder Festival’s 21st Year
This year’s Oxford Lieder Festival will contain nearly 80 events. The Festival’s title, Friendship in Song: An Intimate Art, focuses on song as an art-form that grew up around the piano, at social gatherings and salons, among friends. Nearly 200 singers,...
New Recital Series from Lisa Peacock Concert Management
Lisa Peacock Concert Management Ltd announces the greatly anticipated appearance in London of Juan Pérez Floristán, Gold Medallist of the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition 2021 in music by Chopin, Liszt, Wagner/Liszt and Beethoven on Saturday...
Explore By Topic
Leslie Howard: Great Russian masters at Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall, London
July 17th, 2022
Leslie Howard’s all Russian programme for his annual concert at Wigmore Hall on July 18th at 7.30pm should be warmly welcomed. At such a time of international tension, it is of course unproductive to blame a whole country for the malpractices of its leaders, and Russia is no exception to this dictum.
Famous for his scholarship and understanding of Liszt as well as for his many performances and recordings of that composer, Howard’s love of the Russian composers Glazunov, Borodin and Rubinstein is unsurprising in that they all owe a debt to the Hungarian composer and pianist in one way or another.
It was Liszt after all who took the burgeoning Borodin under his wing and conducted his music whenever he could. They exchanged a lively correspondence, and Borodin dedicated his orchestral masterpiece In the Steppes of Central Asia to Liszt; Glazunov visited Liszt in Weimar in 1884 (Liszt arranged for the teenager’s 1st Symphony to be performed, and the 2nd Symphony was dedicated to Liszt in gratitude). Although Liszt did not need to help the young Rubinstein in promoting his compositions, the lad had spent much time studying the master’s performance technique and was soon to be celebrated as the greatest pianist after Liszt; his virtuosic compositions surely owe a debt to the Romanticism of that composer. In the 1850s Liszt conducted the première of Rubinstein’s opera The Siberian Hunters, and dedicated to him both the prelude and the variations on Bach’s Weinen, Klagen.
Howard’s programme begins with Alexander Borodin’s Petite Suite and Scherzo, easily recognised as his most important work for the piano. Then the other Alexander – Glazunov – with his Thème et Variations, opus 72. This piece is based on a Finnish folk-song and is one of the composer’s most technically demanding works, comparable with the two Sonatas that he wrote in immediate succession.
The evening ends with Anton Rubinstein’s monumental Sonata No 4 in A minor (opus 100), which was written in 1876 and while showcasing bravura playing is nonetheless full of wonderful melodies and originality.
These composers who in their day formed part of a brilliantly talented group of Russian composers are often neglected on the concert platform today. But Leslie Howard has continued to champion them and this concert along with the recently re-released recordings on Heritage will, one hopes, bring the spotlight back onto these great masters. Tickets: wigmore-hall.org.uk
