The Festival Finale celebrates Rachmaninoff’s 150th year with selected solo piano compositions including his Second Sonata, a work that encapsulates many hallmarks of Rachmaninoff’s style. From brooding chromaticism to lush harmonies, soulful melodies and stunning virtuosity, the work continues a line of great composer-pianists writing in this form, carrying a Romantic tradition of the sonata into the 20th century. History has linked this sonata with Vladimir Horowitz who not only championed the piece, but made his own edition, combining the original 1913 and revised version of 1931.
Rachmaninoff and Horowitz met frequently in Beverly Hills in the early 1940’s, and so it is fitting that we head over to Hollywood for a screening of Buster Keaton’s riotous College (1927) with original score by Stephen Prutsman for piano quintet. Keaton co-directs and stars as Ronald, the valedictorian who curses the sports culture of his school, only to learn that his beloved can only be won over by olympian displays of athleticism. Hilarity ensues. The film will be accompanied live by the Telegraph Quartet and Mr. Prutsman at the piano. College is the perfect close to a season of musical transformation—don’t miss this constellation of internationally renowned musical stars!