CHRISTIAN LEOTTA IN CONCERT IN TEL AVIV
“Scarlatti, Beethoven, Schubert: the Art of Sonata Form and its Evolution”
Studio Annette, Shvil ha-Merets 2, Tel Aviv-Yafo
June 10, 7:30 PM
First concert in Israel
Pianist Christian Leotta arrives in Israel for the first time with a program of extraordinary intensity, bringing three centuries of piano music into dialogue across different eras and musical languages: from the expressive tension of the Neapolitan Baroque to the grand formal architectures of Classicism, through to the poetic restlessness of early Romanticism.
Opening the evening will be the Sonata in F minor K 466 by Domenico Scarlatti, followed by the Sonata in C major Op. 53 “Waldstein” by Beethoven, one of the most visionary and innovative works in the entire piano repertoire. The second half of the concert will feature the Sonata in F-sharp minor D 571 “Unfinished” by Franz Schubert, followed by the monumental Sonata in C minor Op. 111, the last of Beethoven’s output.
A concert that invites the listener to reflect on how a single musical architecture – sonata form – can contain profoundly different expressive worlds, in the hands of three composers who each found their own way to reinvent it.
Christian Leotta is internationally recognized as one of the foremost interpreters of Beethoven of his generation. Born in Catania and based in Como, he first captured public attention at just twenty-two years of age with a complete performance of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas in Montreal — a feat he has since repeated in numerous cities around the world.
Trained at the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory in Milan and the Tureck Bach Research Foundation in Oxford, he deepened his studies with leading figures such as Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Rosalyn Tureck. He has collaborated with major orchestras including the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Kammerorchester, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, and has performed at the world’s most prestigious concert halls and theaters, from the Konzerthaus in Vienna to the Great Hall of the Bunka Kaikan Theatre in Tokyo and the Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou.
For the Canadian label Atma Classique, he recorded the complete Beethoven sonatas to widespread critical acclaim. The German magazine Rondó wrote that Christian Leotta “possesses that rare Beethovenian gene, which reveals an interpreter of Beethoven hardly comparable to any other pianist of his generation.”
The concert will take place at Studio Annette, in the heart of Kiryat HaMelacha, the rapidly regenerating neighborhood in south Tel Aviv where the old industrial city merges with the new: former workshops, craft studios, and print shops now coexist with artists’ ateliers, contemporary art galleries, and creative spaces, in an urban transformation that has made it the city’s new artistic and cultural hub. Studio Annette is part of the prestigious Felicja Blumental Music Center, Tel Aviv’s leading institution for classical music, active since 1998 in promoting chamber music and supporting the finest Israeli and international musicians.
June 19 | 7:30 PM – Tel Aviv, Studio Annette
PROGRAM
“Scarlatti, Beethoven, Schubert: the Art of Sonata Form and its Evolution”
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Sonata in Fa minore K 466
Andante moderato
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata per pianoforte in Do maggiore Op. 53 “Waldstein”
Allegro con brio
Introduzione. Adagio molto
Rondo. Allegretto moderato – Prestissimo
Intermission
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Sonata per pianoforte in Fa diesis minore D 571 “Incompiuta”
Allegro moderato
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata per pianoforte in Do minore Op. 111
Maestoso. Allegro con brio ed appassionato
Arietta. Adagio molto semplice e cantabile