In case you were wondering what Grigory Sokolov has been up to with so many concerts cancelled. I know I was worried that he had moved to the Bahamas and grown a beard, but no. He actually played a special concert in December in Geneva to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. It looks like the audience was just a few UN functionaries. But never mind! We can listen to it.
Amazing program: all Schumann in the first half and pieces I don't know. Four fugues? A lot of short pieces. Second half: four polonaises by Chopin. Unique program. His practice in the last few years is to devote one half of each program to a single composer. I haven't gotten to the end of the concert yet, but it looks as if he didn't play any encores.
UPDATE: As I listen to the program and notice there are something like eight people in the audience I wonder about the economics of it. Lemmesee, I once calculated that Sokolov's fee for a recital is perhaps €50,000 (in Euros because he only performs on the European continent). Divided by eight auditors that comes to €6,250 per person. That's a pricey ticket! Usually he plays 2,000 seat halls and fills them.
Nope, no encores, so just 2/3rds of a concert.
2 comments:
Four Schumann fugues.
Looks like he gave two 'regular' concerts in Geneva on the 11th and the 13th, a Beethoven sonata and the 11 bagatelles and then Schubert impromptus, followed by "Schubert x 2, Rameau x 2 (but not La Poule as reported in Crescendo Magazine-- it was Les Sauvages and Le Rappel des Oiseaux), Scriabin and Debussy". He's got concerts scheduled in the new year but whether they will all happen as planned depends on the silly governments.
That UN recital remains available on Medici.tv.
I heard him play the Beethoven bagatelles in Salzburg in 2019. Glad to see that he is getting some concerts in for regular folks.
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