In the later nineteenth century, the German make of Bechstein was perhaps the most highly-regarded piano builder, particularly for concert instruments. Bechsteins featured prominently upon the stage of many of the world’s concert halls. An instrument very similar to this one still exists today in Liszt’s house in Weimar, Germany. That instrument was gifted to him in the late 1870s—in precisely the period when he was writing his “Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel’s Almira,” which is the centre-piece of the concert I'll be giving this week, entitled "Noble Simplicity and Calm Grandeur." The beautiful Christ Church in the leafy suburb of Claremont, Western Australia is home to a Bechstein grand of the same era.
To view the contents of the program as a PDF file, click on the cover image below:
