Junyan Chen, piano

Saturday 11 July, 7.30pm

Venue: Thaxted Parish Church.
Tickets: £38*, £34, £30, £22, £14.
Age 30 and under: £10; age 18 and under: £5.
*Premium seating in front rows.

Programme

Karen Tanaka: Three Techno Etudes
Sergei Rachmaninov: Études-Tableaux, Op 33
Earl Wild: Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin
Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No 2 in B♭ minor, Op 36 (1931 version)

Junyan Chen gained second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2024, and we are delighted to continue our association with The Leeds in this performance. Junyan’s virtuosity will be highlighted across these highly challenging works, ranging from Tanaka’s short contemporary Techno studies, through to Wild’s Gershwin variations with their jazz rhythms and complex harmonies.

Rachmaninov’s Etudes-Tableaux are nine short evocative works, painterly, descriptive and narrative. The composer kept the stimulus for each one a secret: ‘Let the listener paint for themselves…’. His second piano sonata is a huge mountain for the soloist to climb. The second movement is a jewel, equal in beauty to the lyricism of his second symphony.

'Exhilarating and technically thrilling performance.' The Gramophone

Venue: Thaxted Parish Church.
Tickets: £38*, £34, £30, £22, £14.
Age 30 and under: £10; age 18 and under: £5.
*Premium seating in front rows.