Cecile Licad responds to questions:Why this repertoire? Why now?

PCMS:  Why did you choose this particular repertoire for your concert?  Why perform these pieces at this time?

Cecile Licad

Cecile Licad:  (as edited by Peggy L. Curchack, Education Director)

I don’t really know why and how I put these pieces together.  Perhaps I like driving myself nuts in terms of the challenge … to pull through a program like this.

Regarding the Scriabin Impromptu — I played his late sonatas at my last PCMS concert, so I thought I’d try working on his early work, which offers quite a contrast from his late ones and has a quite a clear relation to —  or seems somehow inspired by — Frederic Chopin.  With the Janacek I was fascinated by it, for it’s nothing like any other piece I have done; [it] has a completely different hue, tonal qualities and colors and rhythms, and a very hypnotic quality.  With the Schumann and Chopin, they are composers I have worked on my whole life but are still mysterious.  Whenever I sit down and start practicing and work on these great pieces there is always something to work on, and I have discovered that it takes so much patience working and experimenting in revealing the beauty of these works.   Apparently the Schumann Sonata Op.14 hasn’t been done in a PCMS concert before so that’s kind of cool, and I am very excited to present it for it’s an unbelievable piece of music -- “Difficult as hell” --but that’s where I am.

I love stuff that challenges me and pushes me to what I can do as a musician.