Alim Beisembayev in Recital
The winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition 2021 conjures up contrasting virtuoso marvels, including Chopin’s poetic and powerful 24 Preludes.
The 27-year-old pianist Alim Beisembayev has planned a magnificent array of music for his recital.
Beginning with an energetic sonata by Scarlatti and Ravel’s hypnotically beautiful Valses Nobles et sentimentales, he moves on to Liszt’s powerful evocations of hell and redemption in the fantastical sonata Après une lecture du Dante, plus Ligeti’s most celebrated Etude, ‘The Devil’s Staircase’.
The second half begins with Cwicseolfor (Quicksilver), a new work by the Jamaican-British composer Eleanor Alberga, written for Isata Kanneh-Mason and premiered in Budapest as part of a European concert hall tour in 2021.
Now, at last, it gets its Southbank Centre premiere under the fingers of Beisembayev, who has become a significant advocate of Alberga’s music. Last year, Beisembayev gave the world premiere of Alberga’s Piano Concerto, which was commissioned for him as part of his prizes at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition.
The concert sweeps to a close with Chopin’s 24 Preludes, each one a poetic miniature full of visionary imagination.
Performers
Alim Beisembayev piano
Repertoire
D Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor, Kk.213
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales
Liszt: Après une lecture de Dante - Fantasia quasi sonata from Années de pèlerinage
Ligeti: Etude No.13 (L'escalier du diable)
Interval
Eleanor Alberga: Cwicseolfor (Quicksilver)
Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op.28
Need to know
Find out more about the music with our free programme.
View the programme
Reviews
‘A performance of the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 of the kind I thought we could hear only in our dreams’The I
‘Alim Beisembayev of Kazakhstan delivered high-powered Beethoven, fiery Prokofiev and shimmering Rachmaninoff… he is impressive and clearly worth watching’Wall Street Journal
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