Benjamin Grosvenor

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is an international sensation, heralded as a ‘genius who has reached the height of his interpretative powers’ (The Spectator). The youngest British musician ever signed as a Decca Classics recording artist, Grosvenor has performed with (among others) the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, London Philharmonic Orchestra and is a regular soloist at the BBC Proms. As a recitalist he has concertised everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Wigmore Hall, and in 2024 premiered Brett Dean’s Hommage à Liszt.

Renowned for both his virtuosity and poetic sensitivity, Grosvenor makes his much-anticipated UKARIA debut in this recital featuring three giants of the solo piano repertoire. Beginning with a sonata that flummoxed Schumann – Frédéric Chopin’s ambitious and convention-defying Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 – Grosvenor will then delve into the world of literary-adjacent music. Ravel’s 1908 work Gaspard de la nuit takes three poems – Ondine, Le gibet, and Scarbo – from Aloysius Bertrand’s collection of the same name and transforms them into three darkly atmospheric movements of fiendish difficulty. The result is a suite that the legendary pianist Alfred Cortot described as ‘one of the most extraordinary examples of instrumental ingenuity ever produced.’ To close the program, Grosvenor presents Modest Mussorgsky’s beloved Pictures at an Exhibition in its original 1874 version for solo piano. Dedicated to the composer’s deceased friend, the artist and architect Viktor Hartmann, the ten-piece suite mimics the experience of touring an exhibition of Hartmann’s work at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg, each colourful miniature inspired by a painting.

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 [23']

I. Grave – Doppio movimento
II. Scherzo – Più lento
III. Marche funèbre: Lento
IV. Finale: Presto

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Gaspard de la nuit [22']

I. Ondine
II. Le Gibet
III. Scarbo

Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881)
Pictures at an Exhibition [40']

Promenade I
I. Gnomus

Promenade II
II. Vecchio Castello

Promenade III
III. Tuileries
IV. Bydło

Promenade IV
V. Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks
VI. Samuel Goldenburg und Schmuÿle

Promenade V
VII. Limoges, le marché
VIII. Catacombae (Sepulcrum romanum)
IX. The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba-Yagá)
X. The Great Gate of Kiev