Samuel Barber: 'Piano Works' - Friday 12th March National Concert Hall (John Field Room), Dublin

Nóta presents a lunchtime piano recital at 1.05 p.m. by celebrated Barber pianist  Lilia Boyadjieva at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, in celebration of the centenary of American Composer Samuel Barber.  

Biographer Barbara B. Heyman will give a preconcert lecture at 12.00 noon on the genesis of the piano works.

Our lunchtime audience will experience the blues and jazz tones of Barber’s early years, the peace of his Nocturne for John Field, and the pathos, power and pace of his great Sonata (written for Vladimir Horowitz), about which fellow composer Francis Poulenc wrote:

“It pleases me without reserve.  It is a remarkable work from both the musical and instrumental point of view. In turn tragical, joyous and songful, it ends up with a fantastically difficult to play fugue. Bursting with energy, this finale knocks you out in five minutes or less.” 

“As one of the most important composers of his generation and as the most frequently performed American composer in Europe and the Americas during the twentieth-century Barber deserves to be honoured worldwide on the centenary of his birth” 

Musicologist Barbara B. Heyman, biographer of Samuel Barber

Programme

Fresh from West Chester (some jazzings) (1925)    

1. Poison Ivy,
2. Let's Sit It Out; I’d rather watch – A Walls.

Four Excursions for piano, op. 20 (1942-44)               

1. Un poco allegro
2. In slow blues tempo
3. Allegretto
4. Allegro molto

Sonata for Piano, Op. 26 (1949)                                              

1. Allegro energico / Un poco meno mosso / Tempo primo
2. Allegro vivace e leggero
3. Adagio mesto
4. Fuga

Nocturne for piano (Hommage to John Field) op. 33 (1959)

Ballade for piano op. 46 (1977)

Lilia Boyadjieva