Music@Menlo's Focus Residencies offer a mini-festival experience over two days, with an immersive Behind the Music learning event on the first evening, and a concert program on the second, to perform the works explored in their entirety.
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!