FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2020 at 8:00 PM - POSTPONED

Coolidge Auditorium

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(tickets available 12/11/2019, beginning at 10 AM)

Adam Golka, piano
Verona String Quartet
Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro, violins 
Abigail Rojansky, viola   |  Jonathan Dormand, cello

Pianist Adam Golka and the Verona Quartet present an intensive focus on Beethoven’s Hammerklavier sonata: two visions of the work in back-to-back performances, with David Plylar’s transcription for string quartet followed by the composer’s original version for piano. Reviewing Franz Liszt’s 1836 likely premiere of the sonata nearly a decade after Beethoven’s death, Hector Berlioz called it “a sublime poem that until this day was but the riddle of the sphinx for nearly all pianists.” Massive in scale, extraordinary in concept and design, the sonata still provides formidable challenges not only for players but for listeners, carrying harmonic and formal innovations that remain astonishing for modern audiences. Through the revelatory medium of transcription, refracting musical ideas through a prism of new timbres and techniques, our concert offers an immersive experience of the Hammerklavier—perhaps still a riddle—and illuminates a transcendant masterwork.