Neighbor News
Chopin's Epic Journey with Concert Pianist Brian Ganz
Brian Ganz, recognized as a leading pianist of his generation, performs Chopin's last sonata and explores the story behind the music.
On Friday, August 28 at 8 pm the founder and artistic director of the 4th Friday Concert Series Brian Ganz will offer a program entitled “Chopin’s Epic Journey.” The concert will feature Frédéric Chopin’s last sonata for solo piano, Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58. Ganz will engage the audience in exploring the story behind the music and share his love of Chopin, the renowned Romantic Polish composer and pianist. He will discuss the sonata’s craftsmanship and play excerpts to highlight the discussion, following this with a complete performance of the work. Ganz has been engaged by the National Philharmonic at the Strathmore Music Center in North Bethesda to perform all of Chopin’s works over a ten year period and has completed his fifth sold out performance. This late-summer concert is part of the 4th Friday Concert Series held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, 333 Dubois Road in Annapolis. Tickets are $15 at the door. For more information, visit www.tinyurl.com/UUCA-concerts or call 410-266-8044 Monday through Thursday.
“I call this sonata ‘Chopin’s epic journey’ because it shows his extraordinary gift for creating a large-scale work that tells a grand and sweeping story and yet holds together beautifully,” said pianist Ganz. “Chopin is best known … as a miniaturist, but he was no less gifted with larger structures. This sonata is possibly his greatest large-scale work and I want to help listeners understand why.”
Brian Ganz is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation. Washington Post critic Joan Reinthaler has written: “One comes away from a recital by pianist Brian Ganz not only exhilarated by the power of the performance but also moved by his search for artistic truth.” Mr. Ganz has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony, the National Philharmonic and the City of London Sinfonia. He has performed with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Mstislav Rostropovich, Philippe Entremont, Pinchas Zukerman and Leon Fleisher. Mr. Ganz is an artist/editor for the new Schirmer Performance Editions and a faculty member at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and at Peabody Conservatory.
Mr. Ganz was a winner of the 1989 Marguerite Long Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris and in the same year won a Beethoven Fellowship awarded by the American Pianists Association. In 1991 he was a silver medalist in the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Piano Competition. After his performance in the Brussels competition, the critic for La Libre Belgique wrote: “We don’t have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy.”
This program is part of a ticketed concert series offered monthly on the 4th Friday at 8 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis (UUCA). A Friday Five Pack ticket ($12 per concert) can be obtained at the door for $60. The fall season begins on September 25 with Ginger and David Hildebrand performing Music of Colonial Annapolis. See www.tinyurl.com/UUCA-concerts for future programming.
