STARS VON MORGEN - Christian Sommerfelt 13.12.2024

The Norwegian pianist Christian Sommerfelt plays works by Handel, Beethoven, Brahms

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Program:

G. F. Handel: Suite No. 7 in G minor, HWV 432
-Ouverture
-Andante
-Allegro
-Sarabande
-Gigue
-Passacaille

L. van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 28 A major, Op. 101
I. Allegretto ma non troppo
II. Vivace alla marcia
III. Adagio, ma non troppo, with affetto
IV. Allegro

PAUSE

J. Brahms: 7 Fantasies, Op. 116
1. Capriccio in D minor. Presto energico
2. Intermezzo in A minor. Andante
3. Capriccio G minor. Allegro passionato
4. Intermezzo E major. Adagio
5. Intermezzo E minor. Andante con grace ed intimissimo sentimento
6. Intermezzo E major. Andantino teneramente
7. Capriccio in D minor. Allegro agitato

IntroductionIntroduction: Evgeniia Lianskaya-Lininger

As soon as the reserved, Norwegian pianist CHRISTIAN SOMMERFELT When he sits down at the piano, he seems to become a different person. In deep concentration, he creates his personal narrative of each piece with uncompromising determination and elegant creativity. If you are looking for the sensitivity of an artist, you will find it in him. His playing is intimate, versatile and energetic and powerful in the right places; the listener is inevitably drawn under his spell. This gives him the chance to experience a piece he knows in a completely new way and with more multifaceted details.

Sonatas, suites and fantasies are ideal for this. Because in terms of composition they have a development that extends over several parts. In this way, a dramaturgy and an arc of tension can be built up in the way of interpretation. Where other pianists in the series Stars of Tomorrow im First district baroque pieces are usually only used to warm up, with CHRISTIAN SOMMERFELT you can also expect the 22-minute, six-part Suite No. 7 in G minor, HWV 432from GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL - created around 1720 in the "orchestral" harpsichord style, combining Italian virtuosity with the French "style brisé" - is presented in such a varied way that the flow of repetitions characteristic of the Baroque does not obscure the narration.

A compositionally radical one LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN was a dramatic master in his own right. If now a “SOMMERFELT” whose 23-minute piano sonata No. 28 A major op. 101from 1817, which defies the usual formal genre conventions of the time, is interpreted, it will definitely be an expressive highlight from melancholy to rebellion to crazy triumph . The sonata begins in the first lyrical movement “lively with the most intimate feeling”, in the second, conflict-filled movement it becomes “lively, march-like”, interspersed with quiet, wild figures with a canon-like trio, followed by a “slow and longing” third movement with baroque echoes to Bach and Handel and a renewed outline of the first movement, which culminates in quick trills as an introduction to the Allegro finale in the fourth movement is to play “quickly, but not too much, but with determination”. This finale with a fugato is one of the most technically demanding sections of Beethoven's piano art.

“Monologues of a Lonely One” in a predominantly minor key are the Seven Fantasias, op. 116 by JOHANNES BRAHMS, which the High Romantic composer wrote in 1892 after a long period of time Piano piece composition break, four years before his death. He titles almost every part as a slower “Intermezzo” or a faster “Capriccio” in order to express himself in passing, between the lines, without claiming anything meaningful. In truth, this “unconcreteness” was so important to him that he chose this work for publication while destroying others. Brahms, who is taciturn in large company, but who argues lively in intimate circles, corresponds in a certain way to SOMMERFELT's character, who can show on the piano stage, to the fascination of the audience, the emotional highs and lows that take place inside him and result in a beautiful sound language.< /p>

Christian Sommerfelt was born in 1997 in Bergen, Norway. He started playing the piano at the age of 6. He is a laureate of several Norwegian youth music competitions and winner of the 2019 Chiaro di Luna competition in Fermo, Italy. He has appeared as a soloist with several Norwegian orchestras, including several times with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. As a soloist and chamber musician he has played in Finland, Lithuania and Malta as well as throughout Norway.

Christian Sommerfelt is currently doing his master's degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Prof. Lilya Zilberstein.