Piano Recital - Kevin Chen

Generations of musicians have responded unusually yet fiercely to Domenico Scarlatti’s strangely enigmatic yet crystal-clear piano sonatas – micro-dramas in which musical motifs form the characters, from the villainous and heroic to the lonely and lost. Poulenc described them as ‘my favourite Brut Champagne’. A young colleague of the composer’s talked of Scarlatti’s ‘ingenious jesting with art’. Kevin Chen launches his recital at the University Church with a selection of these intriguing works in the fine company of repertoire staples by Chopin and Schumann, and the most affectionate of Ignaz Moscheles’s vivid set of Étude caractéristique.

Scarlatti Sonata in D minor, K. 1
Scarlatti Sonata in B flat major, K. 266
Scarlatti Sonata in G major, K. 124
Scarlatti Sonata in B minor, K. 87
Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61
Chopin Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23
Moscheles Étude caractéristique, Op. 95 No. 7, ‘Zärtlichkeit’
Schumann Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 14

Kevin Chen piano