Concert Amstelkerk Jan 3

Metamorphosis
A Recital for Piano and Soprano
Tonight's program traces a journey of transformation—the essence of musical metamorphosis. From Beethoven's witty dialogues to Liszt's heroic struggles, each piece explores change: of themes, emotions, and states of being.

We begin with Beethoven's Sonata Op. 14, No. 2, where musical conversation transforms into architecture. Prokofiev's Op. 12 fractures tradition into modernist fragments. My own "There's a certain Slant of light" (world premiere) sets Emily Dickinson's poem about perceptual transformation, followed by Mozart's timeless plea in "Porgi, amor" and Dvořák's magical "Song to the Moon," where a nymph begs to become human.

After intermission, Tchaikovsky's "Méditation" provides reflective space before Brahms's Paganini Variations demonstrate theme-alchemy in fourteen dazzling transformations. The journey culminates in Liszt's "Mazeppa," where struggle becomes triumph in a virtuosic finale.

Each work is a different metamorphosis—structural, emotional, magical, contemplative, virtuosic, heroic. Together, they form a complete narrative of change through sound.