It is always such a pleasure to welcome Leon McCawley back to Luton, where he has given us so many memorable concerts in recent years. Pursuing our theme of The Ties between Pupil & Teacher, Leon comes with an enviable pedigree having studied with Eleanor Sokoloff and Nina Milkina. He is himself now a much respected Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music in London, where his expert guidance is much sought after by a new generation of young pianists.
Rudolph Johann Joseph Rainier, Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia and Cardinal-Archbishop of Olomouc was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and an Austrian clergyman and noble. More than all this in 1803 he became a pupil of Ludwig van Beethoven. Known for his patronage of the arts, he became a loyal sponsor to the Viennese composer and Beethoven dedicated several of his most significant works to him, including the Archduke Trio, the Hammerklavier Sonata, the Emperor Concerto and the Missa Solemnis. The Piano Sonata Les Adieux (‘The Farewells‘) was gifted to Rudolf just before his flight from Vienna with the Royal family on the occasion of the 1809 invasion by Napoleon.
Richard Sisson (Programme Planner)
Programme
Josef Haydn – Sonata No.38 in F major HobXVI/23
Frederic Chopin – Two Nocturnes Op 55
Ludwig van Beethoven – Sonata in E flat major Op 81a Les Adieux
INTERVAL
Johannes Brahms – Two Rhapsodies Op 79
Robert Schumann – Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Carnival Jest from Vienna) Op 26
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