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Proms Chamber Music: Jeremy Denk

Proms chamber music from the archive. American pianist Jeremy Denk performs Beethoven’s final piano sonata, plus Bartók’s Piano Sonata and Scriabin’s ‘Black Mass’ Piano Sonata.

In 2020, Â鶹Éç Radio 3 is bringing together musical greats, from the past and the present, in one extraordinary Proms season. Radio 3 is broadcasting the best of four decades of unmissable Proms concerts.

Bartók: Piano Sonata
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 9, 'Black Mass’
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111

Jeremy Denk (piano)

(From Â鶹Éç Proms 2015, 24 August)

Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists – a musician the New York Times hails as someone ‘you want to hear no matter what he performs’. In 2015 he put Beethoven’s final piano sonata at the core of his debut Proms recital. This majestic work – which he later recorded for a 2019 disc entitled ‘c.1300–c.2000’ – blends extrovert passion with a depth that characterises all of the composer’s late works.

Denk paired the Beethoven with Bartók’s only piano sonata – a piece strongly coloured by Hungarian folk melodies and rhythmic attack – and Scriabin’s ‘Black Mass’ Piano Sonata. His most famous work in the genre, Scriabin’s sonata is a disconcerting, phantasmagoric musical journey – and a gleeful vision of horror.

57 minutes

Last on

Sun 19 Jul 2020 13:00

Music Played

  • Alexander Scriabin

    Sonata No. 9 In F Major Op.68 (Black Mass) For Piano

    Performer: Jeremy Denk.
  • Béla Bartók

    Sonata Sz.80 For Piano [1926]

    Performer: Jeremy Denk.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Sonata No. 32 In C Minor Op.111 For Piano

    Performer: Jeremy Denk.
  • Igor Stravinsky

    Tango

    Ensemble: Apollon Musagete Quartet.

Broadcast

  • Sun 19 Jul 2020 13:00

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