Emanuel Ax, piano

Fantasies

at NEC's Jordan Hall (Boston, MA)

NEC's Jordan Hall

Sun. October 13, 3:00 PM

Celebrity Series audiences love Emanuel Ax! After more than 30 appearances on the Series, he always impresses with his impeccable skill at putting the music first.

The two sonatas of Beethoven’s Opus 27, rarely heard together, throw the form’s rules aside: tempo, structure, and flow are at the composer’s whim. Ax pairs these sonatas with selections from Schoenberg's fascinating keyboard repertoire. In a review of a similar program, SeenAndHeard International praised the pairing:

"Through Ax’s masterful interpretation, Schoenberg’s atonal landscapes revealed their hidden Romantic heart, while Beethoven’s sonatas, especially the Op.2, No.2, showcased the composer’s revolutionary spirit."

Ax concludes his program with Schumann's virtuosic early Romantic showpiece Fantasie in C Major, dedicated to Liszt, published to raise funds for a statue of Beethoven in Bonn, and written—in part—as a love letter to the brilliant young pianist Clara Wieck. With this constellation of inspiration, how could the piece be anything other than a celebration of artistry, passion, and unbridled expression?

Hear a master of his craft uncover unexpected connections and share moments of beauty when Emanuel Ax returns to Celebrity Series. 

Program Details

Fantasies

"We have one set of expectations of a “fantasy,” another of a “sonata” … We are satisfied if a second-rate talent shows that [they have] mastered the traditional range of forms, whereas with a first-rate talent we allow that [they] expand that range. Only a genius may reign freely."
—Robert Schumann

Emanuel Ax's program explores the keyboard fantasy in works by Beethoven, Schoenberg, and Schumann. Each piece invokes the expressiveness, freedom, and improvisatory spirit embodied in the genre. As Romantic compositional style evolved to provide less room for true improvisation, the fantasy became increasingly bound to the notes on the page. Despite the restrictions of notation, this malleable genre, perhaps more than any other, reveals the fantasy and skill of the author who created it.
—Andrew McIntyre, program annotator

Program note to come

For information on Groton Hill Performance

“How many artists have performed at his level for so long? How many have treated us so reliably to such taste and good sense as he? How many have had his ability… to make music sound so simply right?”
The New York Times