Jeremy Denk In Recital – Lammermuir Festival

Master pianist Jeremy Denk’s residency at the 2021 Lammermuir Festival offered a remarkable musical feast. The concerts were extraordinary, leaving us no choice but to beg him to come back this year.

He begins with a characteristically ambitious programme that explores a huge range of emotions, pianistic challenges and striking juxtapositions. Contrasting aspects of Ravel – the classical purity of the Sonatine and the demonic virtuosity of his Gaspard de la nuit – sit on either side of Mozart’s strangely shadowed sonata. Three different approaches to virtuosity, culminating in Ligeti’s breathtaking Devil’s Staircase, lead to Beethoven’s penultimate sonata, music that scales sublime heights and offers a life-enhancing experience.