Biography

Since winning the Silver Medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, American pianist George Li has rapidly established a major international reputation for himself with his effortless, grace, brilliant virtuosity, and poised authority. The Washington Post noted his “staggering technical prowess, a sense of command, and depth of expression”. Li is an exclusive Warner Classics artist. His debut recital album, recorded live from the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, was released in October 2017; two years later came Tchaikovsky’s famous concerto. In 2011 Li performed for President Obama at the White House. In the summer of 2018, he graduated from the joint program of Harvard University and the New England Conservatory. In his spare time Li enjoys reading and photography. He is also a sports fanatic. First LMMC performance.

https://www.georgelipianist.com/

Notes

Bach’s Partitas, English Suites and French Suites – six of each – collectively rank among the glories of the keyboard literature. Each is a four-part sequence of dance movements, all in the same key but varied by rhythm, tempo and mood: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue. To this basic framework additional movements (Galanterien) are found between the Sarabande and Gigue. These dance movements are generally in binary form, with each half repeated. In artistic expression, emotional intensity, structural ingenuity and technical range, there are few works in the pianist’s repertory to compare with Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas. “I know of no work which makes such a powerful impact in such a short space of time as the Sonata Opus 109” writes pianist Anton Kuerti. “Each movement is like a sonnet, beautifully formed, not wasting a word”. In each of the three movements, it is Beethoven’s innovative, unique and masterly control of form, whether perceived on a conscious or unconscious level by the listener, that carries us into musical realms and through voyages of spiritual discovery seldom encountered anywhere else in music. More words have probably been written about Liszt’s B-minor Sonata than about any other single piano composition of the nineteenth century. Pianist Alfred Brendel considers it “the most important, original, powerful and intelligent sonata composed after Beethoven and Schubert”. In this sonata, Liszt brought to perfection the absorption of the four-movement sonata into a gigantic, single-movement work in several sections, all unified through the continuous process of thematic transformation. The sonata is full of virtuosic effects, dramatic outbursts, profoundly meditative passages and intriguing variants of the basic motivic material.

Robert Markow