Boris Giltburg

With two recitals in March and June, Boris Giltburg completes his complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas at Flagey. In the Beethoven Year 2027, he brings to a close this project that began last season.

For his final solo recital of this cycle, Giltburg groups four sonatas into contrasting pairs, each pairing an early work in a minor key with a major-key sonata from Beethoven’s middle period. The nervous drama of Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor is thus set against the heroic grandeur of the Waldstein Sonata, while melancholy and playfulness contrast in the remarkably concise Sonatas No. 19 in G minor and No. 25 in G major. Finally, all these contrasts converge in the late Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, which sounds both like a recollection of Beethoven’s early style and a visionary glimpse towards the music of the 20th century.