Music at St Cuthbert's | Simone Tavoni - piano

Italian pianist Simone Tavoni comes to St Cuthbert’s with a thrilling programme spanning three centuries – from the intricate brilliance of Bach and the brooding intensity of Beethoven to the intimate world of late Brahms and the spectacular colours of Stravinsky’s The Firebird.

The recital opens with Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C minor, a work of extraordinary variety in which stately grandeur, dance and dazzling virtuosity sit side by side. From Bach we move to one of the most famous works in the piano repertoire: Beethoven’s Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 – the “Moonlight” Sonata. Far more than its celebrated, dreamlike opening movement, the sonata traces an extraordinary journey from stillness and mystery to the barely contained fury of its final Presto agitato.

After the interval comes one of Brahms’s great late masterpieces, the Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118. Written towards the end of his life, these six miniature worlds range from tenderness and nostalgia to passion, turbulence and profound melancholy. At their heart is the much-loved Intermezzo in A major, music of exceptional warmth and intimacy.

The evening ends in an explosion of orchestral colour. Pianist Guido Agosti’s legendary transcription of three movements from Stravinsky’s The Firebird transforms a single piano into something approaching an entire orchestra. The savage energy of the Infernal Dance gives way to the haunting Berceuse before the work’s magnificent, blazing Finale – a formidable showcase for both pianist and instrument.

Simone Tavoni has appeared in concert halls across Europe and the United States, with performances at Wigmore Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields and St John’s Smith Square in London, the Liszt Museum in Budapest, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona and Tallinn Philharmonia, among many others.

Selected for the BBC Pathway Scheme, he worked and performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with performances subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3. In 2019 he was chosen as both a Park Lane Group Artist and Keyboard Charitable Trust Artist, and received the Luciano and Giancarla Berti full scholarship to study with Fabio Bidini at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival and School.

His musical training has taken him from Italy to the Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart and London’s Royal College of Music, where he studied with Andrew Ball, followed by an Artist Diploma at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Paisajes Piano Festival in Spain.

Recent performances have drawn praise for his “poetic insight and curiosity”, his “subtle delicacy and exquisite phrasing”, and playing of passion, colour and brilliance.

Programme

J. S. Bach
Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826

L. van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2
“Moonlight”

Interval

J. Brahms
Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118

I. Stravinsky / G. Agosti
Three Movements from The Firebird
Infernal Dance – Berceuse – Finale