Piano Recital IV – Ivo Kahánek

A Czech evening, that's what the concert of the talented Czech pianist Ivo Kahánek could be called. The dramaturgy will present the works of Czech composers from the 19th and 20th centuries. Older, melodic and harmonically pleasing works from the pens of the giants of the 19th century Czech music school Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana will be complemented by more daring newer compositions. The four compositions that make up the cycle In the Mists by Leoš Janáček have an impressionistic character. Connoisseurs consider this work to be the pinnacle of Janáček's output in the piano genre. Bohuslav Martinů dedicated his Sonata to Rudolf Serkin, who premiered it at Carnegie Hall in 1957. The consonant dance movements, which evoke folk songs, contrast with the darker, even demonic passages of the work. A trip into Czech provenance will be extended by the work of Přerov native Gideon Klein. The talented musician's life was extinguished very soon. Because of his Jewish origin, he was deported to concentration camps, where he died at the age of twenty-five. The Piano Sonata was written during his three-year imprisonment in Terezín.