Martin Oei gives a special afternoon concert on a special grand piano. We get to see beautiful visualizations of his performance of two famous Sonatas, an Etude, a “Soiree” and a Love Song by his favorite composer Franz Liszt – visualizations that depict Liszt’s life journey. Liza Verboon, Jet Westbroek and Lamine Ndiaye created the unique film material, at Oei’s request, intended to appeal to a young audience as well. In the case of the Dante Sonata, this resulted in a film based on the surrealist painting the Garden of Delights by Hieronymus Bosch.
Martin also plays a ballad by Chopin, Liszt’s most famous contemporary. He closes with the Hungarian Rhapsody; at this, he shows the Tom & Jerry cartoon in which Tom plays this Rhapsody, while Jerry, as always, thwarts him quite a bit. But the sound we hear with the film comes from the 1846 Erard grand piano of Maison Erard in Enkhuizen, the Netherlands.
WORKS
Liszt
Wilde Jagd, no. 8 (from “Études d’exécution transcendante,” S. 139, LW A172)
Schumann/Liszt
Widmung (Liebeslied)
Liszt
Sonata in b, S. 178
Liszt
Soirées de Vienne, S. 427, LW A131
Chopin
Ballade no. 1 in g, op. 23
Liszt
Liebesträume, S. 541
Liszt
Après une lecture du Dante, Fantasia quasi Sonata
Liszt
Hungarian rhapsody no. 2 in c-sharp, S. 244