Michael performs a solo fortepiano recital of works by C.P.E. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven for the North Shore Music Teachers Association.

Rigorous Imagination: 18th Century Fantasies and Sonatas for Fortepiano

Rhetoric and oratory enveloped 18th-century thinking about musical composition and performance. Just as a speaker must move his audience through skilled declamation, so must a musician move his audience through affective playing. But whereas an orator would deliver an originally composed speech for a specific event, I -- a 21st-century fortepianist -- am performing works composed by others. Performative personae have fascinated me in 18th-century music. Who am I trying to be while performing: the inventive composer, a dutiful interpreter, characters who emerge from an imagined musical drama, or some combination of all of these? This program explores the role of the (re)creative artist through the lens of 18th-century music and aesthetics. Fantasies and sonatas by C. P. E. Bach, W. A. Mozart, and L. v. Beethoven will be performed on a replica of a 1795 Viennese fortepiano built by Chris Maene after Anton Walter. Audience members will be invited to try the instrument after the recital.

Program:

C. P. E. Bach
Fantasy in F Major, Wq 59/5
Sonata in E Minor, Wq 59/1
i. Presto
ii. Adagio
iii. Andantino

W. A. Mozart
Fantasy in C Minor, K. 475
Sonata in C Major, K. 330
i. Allegro moderato
ii. Andante cantabile
iii. Allegretto

L. v. Beethoven
Sonata in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27 no. 2 "Quasi una fantasia" ["Moonlight"]
i. Adagio sostenuto