91Èȱ¬

In 2020, 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 is bringing together musical greats, from the past and the present, in one extraordinary Proms season. Radio 3 is broadcasting the best of four decades of unmissable Proms concerts.

Bartók: Piano Sonata
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 9, 'Black Mass’
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111

Jeremy Denk (piano)

(From 91Èȱ¬ Proms 2015, 24 August)

Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists – a musician the New York Times hails as someone ‘you want to hear no matter what he performs’. In 2015 he put Beethoven’s final piano sonata at the core of his debut Proms recital. This majestic work – which he later recorded for a 2019 disc entitled ‘c.1300–c.2000’ – blends extrovert passion with a depth that characterises all of the composer’s late works.

Denk paired the Beethoven with Bartók’s only piano sonata – a piece strongly coloured by Hungarian folk melodies and rhythmic attack – and Scriabin’s ‘Black Mass’ Piano Sonata. His most famous work in the genre, Scriabin’s sonata is a disconcerting, phantasmagoric musical journey – and a gleeful vision of horror.