“He commands the stage with aristocratic ease … Mr Grosvenor makes you sigh with joy … A temperament rare in yesteryear, let alone now.”

The New York Times

We are thrilled to welcome the highly in-demand British concert pianist Benjamin Grosvenor to Duke Arts this season. His virtuosic performances have made him one of the most important pianists working today, both in recital and concert halls and in the studio.   

Grosvenor is a renowned interpreter of Chopin, bringing two of the composer’s most popular works to the Baldwin Auditorium. To Schumann, Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 “seemed to be the work closest to his genius,” and to Chopin himself, it was his “dearest work.” Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 is best known for its third movement, the “Funeral March,” written first and believed to be the motivating force for the other three movements. In the second half of the concert, Grosvenor showcases another composer with whom he is closely associated: Liszt, whose Berceuse borrows many characteristics of Chopin’s writing. Liszt’s Sonata in B minor completes the recital, a work praised by Wagner as being “beautiful beyond compare.”   

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Program

Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, op. 23 
Chopin: Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, op. 35
Liszt: Berceuse in D-flat Major, S. 174 
Liszt: Sonata in B minor, S. 178