The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is delighted to announce that, having just completed his acclaimed Beethoven Sonata series, Llŷr Williams is about to embark on a three-year Schubert series, exclusively at the College.
The first performance will take place on Thursday 9th November in the College’s Dora Stoutzker Hall.
“A pianist of probing and restless intellect” and “remarkable artistry,” …. “simply heavenly playing.”
Guardian reviews of the Llŷr Williams Beethoven series at RWCMD
Llŷr Williams’ performances are prized for their lucidity, transparency of texture, deep understanding of music and text, and for the concentration and focus of his platform presence. This series of concerts will include most of Franz Schubert’s important piano works, as well as several fascinating and virtuosic transcriptions of Schubert’s songs by Franz Liszt.
“Having reached the end of my Beethoven project at the Dora Stoutzker Concert Hall I was delighted when the Royal Welsh College suggested I should continue my association there with a further series of recitals.
I consider the Beethoven concerts to be one of the highlights of my past few years: the acoustics in the hall are among the best in the country and I feel that I’ve been able to take the very enthusiastic audience on a special journey.
The piano music of Schubert seems a very natural place to go after Beethoven, not only does it start chronologically roughly where Beethoven left off, but there is also a similar mixture of large-scale sonatas and shorter works from which one can build varied programmes.
I also hope to include some less frequently-played rarities and some transcriptions of Schubert Lieder during the five-concert series.”
Llŷr Williams
As well as attending all of his performances, Royal Welsh College students benefit from masterclasses with Llŷr in his role as the department’s Artist in Association.
“Llyr has devised a wonderful, innovative set of programmes, exclusively for his performances at the Royal Welsh College, in which he will focus on different aspects of Schubert’s piano music. Just as the Beethoven series has had a major impact on our students, these Schubert recitals will inspire our student pianists to explore this extraordinary repertoire for themselves.”
Simon Phillippo, Head of Keyboard
Llŷr Williams has made an international reputation both for his performances of piano concertos and sonatas, including the complete Beethoven sonata cycle, and for his piano accompaniments for Lieder singers, with whom he has regularly performed at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.
Llŷr completes his Beethoven Sonata Cycle at the College on 18 May. He is also performing Songs Without Voices on Thurs 15 June at 1.15pm as part of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
The College’s Summer Season What’s On with information on forthcoming events including BBC Cardiff Singer of the World is available here.
For more information on Llŷr’s performances visit the College’s website: www.rwcmd.ac.uk
Tickets are available online or from RWCMD Box Office: 029 2039 1391 029
For press tickets contact helen.dunning@rwcmd.ac.uk
Editors notes
Programme 1: 9 November 2017 7.45pm
Sonata in G major, D 894
Three songs, transcribed by Liszt
‘Ständchen’ von Shakespeare (‘Horch, horch die Lerch’)
‘Auf dem Wasser zu singen’
‘Ave Maria’
Sonata in C minor, D 958
This concert includes two of Schubert’s late sonatas, the tranquil G major Sonata, and one of his most troubled and brooding works, the C minor sonata. Between them are three virtuosic transcriptions by Liszt of songs by Schubert, taken from the set of 12 Lieder von Schubert which Liszt published in 1838.
Programme 2: 1 February 2018 7.30pm
Moments musicaux D 780
Sonata in B major D 575
Three songs from Schwanengesang, arr. Liszt
Four Impromptus, D 935
Among Schubert’s most charming piano pieces are his six Moments musicaux, written between 1823 and 1828, the year of his death. Schubert’s B-major Sonata, D 575, dates from 1817, when Schubert was only 20, but already an established composer. It was published posthumously. Liszt’s three transcriptions from Schwanengesang include the vocal line along with Schubert’s original piano accompaniment. The four Impromptus D 935 are among Schubert’s best-loved piano pieces.
Programme 3: 3 May 2018 7.30pm
Sonata in D major, D 850
Sonata in A major, D 959
Schubert wrote his D-major Sonata 1825 at the spa town of Bad Gastein, and it became known as the ‘Gasteiner’. It was the second of his piano sonatas to be published. Its first movement has a fast and lively tempo, and the themes are built of scales and chords. The last movement is a technically challenging rondo. The late A-major Sonata, his second in this key, was written in 1828 and was Schubert’s penultimate sonata, completed only a few months before his death.
Programme 4: 11 October 2018 7.30pm
Fantasy in C major, D 760, ‘Wanderer’
Sonata in A major, D 664
Sonata in A minor, D 784
Four Impromptus, D 899
Schubert himself found his own Wanderer Fantasy too difficult to perform, and said of it ‘the devil may play it’. In four movements, played without a break, it is based on the theme of his song ‘The Wanderer’, which is repeated in different forms at the start of each movement. The ‘little’ A-major Sonata is so-called to distinguish it from the 1828 work performed in Programme 3, while this Sonata in A minor, the second of three sonatas Schubert wrote in this key, was composed in 1823, the same year as the song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. The Four Impromtus D 899 are lyrical and dance-like.
Llyr Williams presents his Beethoven Sonata Series in the Dora Stoutzker Hall over a three year period
Programme 5: 31 Jan 2019 7.30pm
Sonata in A minor, D 845
Sonata in B flat major, D 960
This final programme in Llŷr Williams’ series of recitals of Schubert’s piano music begins with the late Sonata in A minor, composed in 1825. The recital concludes with Schubert’s last piano sonata, D 960 in B flat major, written in September 1828. Schubert died the following November, at the age of 31. This last sonata is widely considered to be among Schubert’s greatest works in any form.
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