Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano

About This Performance

Long recognized as one of today’s most gifted artists, Ignat Solzhenitsyn returns for his 27th appearance with PCMS. Enjoying an active career as both conductor and pianist, he has earned critical acclaim throughout the world for interpretations of great lyricism and poignancy. For the first half of his January recital, Solzhenitsyn has chosen a selection of Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues highlighting the composer’s melancholy, acerbic wit and technical genius. Schubert’s last piano sonata concludes the evening. Written two months before his death, the opening two movements contemplate his impending mortality. An energetic scherzo lightens the mood before the rondo finale, in which Schubert looks back to Beethoven and the closing movement of his idol’s Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130.