Beethoven 250: Ingrid Jacoby

About

Saturday 16 May 2020 | 11:00am
Djanogly Recital Hall, Lakeside Arts
Tickets: £12
Part of the Beethoven 250 Festival

American-born pianist Ingrid Jacoby is directly descended from Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, the pianist and composer to whom Beethoven dedicated his Third Piano Concerto. Her many recordings include a CD of Beethoven piano works voted the Classic FM 'Top Classic Release' in 1995 and the five Beethoven piano concerti with Sinfonia Varsovia which received glowing reviews.

Sonata No.20 (along with its contemporary, No.19) was described as an 'easy sonata', and its relative simplicity offers a fascinating contrast to the much longer Sonata No. 15, whose sense of calm and measured pace may have been more the inspiration for its nickname than any evocation of nature. There's a point of connection here with Beethoven's 25th Sonata, which similarly avoids grandstanding gestures whilst managing to be quietly evocative. Indeed, its distinctive repeating patterns earned it the nickname "The Cuckoo". The last piece in Ingrid's recital is one of a set of three that Beethoven composed between 1801 and 1802, and marks a point when he began to break away from the Classical style. Deliberately unconventional, it subverts harmonic precedents and displays flashes of the irony and robust humour that would define much of his later output.

Piano Sonata No.20 in G major, Op.49 No.2
Piano Sonata No.15 in D major, Op.28 'Pastoral'
Piano Sonata No.25 in G major, Op.79
Piano Sonata No.16 in G major, Op.31 No.1

Post-concert Q&A with Ingrid Jacoby
5 minutes after the performance

For more Beethoven 250 events please click here.