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Three great pianists perform works close to their heart as part of the Perth Piano Series. Alexander Gavrylyuk opens with Haydn’s Sonata in B minor, composed in the fashionable ‘Sturm und Drang’ style of the time. Its minor key, unusual for Haydn, and its moment of drama point forward to the romantic era to come. Llyr Williams offers early and late Beethoven Sonatas throughout this week. Today’s recital features his Sonata No 2, which was dedicated to Haydn and was described by the great musicologist Donald Tovey as ‘flawless in execution and entirely beyond the range of Haydn and Mozart in harmonic and dramatic thought, except in the Finale’. Danny Driver brings the first part of of his recital imaginatively intertwining the works of Bach and Ligeti’s cycle of Études for solo piano. White on White is a white-key study beginning with a canon. Galamb Borong is a title which sounds like it derives from the gamelan style based on whole tone scales but is actually Hungarian for ‘melancholic pigeon’ and Fém is the Hungarian word for metal and is based around open fifth chords.

Haydn: Sonata in B minor No. 47 XVI:32
Beethoven: Piano Sonata no.2, in A major
Bach: Praeludium from Partita No 1 BWV 825
Ligeti: 18 Études: White on White, Galamb Borong, Fém

Alexander Gavrylyuk, piano
Llyr Williams, piano
Danny Driver, piano