The series continued in April with a recital by the internationally acclaimed Irish pianist, Finghin Collins, featuring piano works by Schubert, Haydn, Chopin and Berg.
This concert was available to view from April 17th to May 15th 2021.
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Sonata in E minor, Hob XVI:34
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Four Impromptus, D.935
Alban Berg (1885-1935)
Sonata, Op.1
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Scherzo No.2 in B flat minor, Op.31
Finghin Collins (piano)
View or download programme notes here: Programme Notes
One of Ireland’s most successful musicians and significant musical ambassadors, Finghin Collins has made a significant contribution to Ireland’s musical landscape as Artistic Director of Music for Galway, the founding Artistic Director of the New Ross Piano Festival, as well as the founding co-Artistic Director of the International Master Course at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.
“It is lovely to have the opportunity to perform again for the Cork Orchestral Society, and to be back in the Curtis Auditorium with its beautiful Steinway piano,” says Collins ahead of the performance. “Of course it is not the same without a live audience. That difference cannot be understated. I am grateful, however, that we can bring streamed performances to the regular Cork audience and to audiences around the globe, thanks to the miracle that is the internet.”
Collins’ international career was launched by winning first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland in 1999. He has performed in concert and with major orchestras throughout Europe and the United States, as well as in the Far East and Australia.
“At the centre of today’s concert programme are the four late impromptus of Schubert,” he explains. “These are substantial works that have a huge emotional range, from the the dark melancholy of the opening movement to florid lines of the theme and variations third movement. I open the recital with one of Haydn’s most immediately appealing sonatas with its jaunty first movement and cheeky finale. We also hear Alban Berg’s astonishing Opus 1 Sonata, a student work that was to be the only piece he ever wrote for solo piano. The recital finishes with the dramatic flourishes of Chopin’s Second Scherzo.”
Filmed and edited by Barra Vernon.
Audio recorded and mixed by Donncha Moynihan.
Special thanks to MTU Cork School of Music.
Cork Orchestral Society is funded by Cork City Council and the Arts Council of Ireland.