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Pianists Llyr Williams and Danny Driver perform more Beethoven, Bach and Ligeti from their respective recitals at Perth Concert Hall. Opening with a rising arpeggio reminiscent of the classical ‘Mannheim rocket’ melodic shape favoured by Mozart, this is the young Beethoven ready to impress the Viennese nobles. Dedicated to Haydn, the sonata includes four movements instead of the usual three by Haydn and Mozart as if to elevate its importance to that of a string quartet or a symphony. Danny Driver comes to the end of his Ligeti/Bach sequence beginning with Désordre, a perpetual motion-style with two hands falling in and out of synchronisation to produce interference patterns like ripples in a pond and ending with the monumental L’escalier du diable (the devil’s staircase), the longest and probably most demanding of all the Etudes. It’s named after the mathematical term denoting unequal steps such on a cliff face and also features the devil’s own interval, the tritone.

Beethoven Piano Sonata no.1, in F minor
Ligeti 18 Études: Désordre, Cordes à vide, Pour Irina
Bach – Sarabande from Partita No 1 in B flat major BWV 825
Ligeti 18 Études: Automne à Varsovie
Bach Partita No 1 in B flat major BWV 825 – Menuet I and II
Ligeti 18 Études: En Suspens, Entrelacs
Ligeti 18 Études: L’escalier du diable

Llyr Williams, piano
Danny Driver, piano

Photo credit: Kaupo Kikkas