Little Missenden Festival 2008
Little Missenden Festival 2007
|
Ludwig van Beethoven |
Six Bagatelles, op 126 Sonata no 32 in C minor, op 111 33 Variations on a waltz by Diabelli, op 120 |
Event 13 2007
Late Beethoven piano
Gary Cooper
Sunday October 21st, 3.00pm
Little Missenden Church
Tickets £16, £12, £8
Gary Cooper Graf piano
The Festival ends with three outstanding late Beethoven works played by Gary Cooper on a copy of a piano of the early 1820s.
Brendel declared the Diabelli "the greatest of all piano works". It's curious that such a mighty plant grew from unpromising soil. Beethoven dismissed Diabelli's "cobbler's patch" of a theme, but was eventually driven to write 33 variations which boil with invention and span nearly an hour.
The last sonata, opus 111, is another transcendent masterpiece. Dramatic and dissonant
opening gestures dissolve into the radiant serenity of a song-
"When you are stuck in hell, you look up; he makes you look up, and there is heaven, a glimpse of it. And that unbelievable optimistic spirituality is so gripping" (Mitsuko Uchida)
Gary Cooper has given many unforgettable Little Missenden recitals -
As the Sunday Times recently declared of his solo playing, "music-
Gary will play a copy of a Graf piano from the 1820s, the sort of instrument Beethoven would have known and used. This instrument will give us some idea how late Beethoven piano music might have sounded in the composer's day.
Join us after the concert for AFTERNOON TEA (kindly provided by the Friends of the Little Missenden Festival), and a chance to talk further with Gary Cooper about Beethoven and the way he performs this music.
In Little Missenden Village School,
opposite the church, to the right
Concert sponsored by Pat and Alan Hedges
Gary Cooper
Little Missenden Festival 2007