How did you choose the set of pieces for your recital (inspiration from situations, person etc. / self interests with repertoires you have discovered)

 - Regarding the “Night Wind” sonata of Medtner, I chose this piece because I’d grown to like it through my professor with whom I studied at Université de Montréal, Paul Stewart. I first encountered it when I listened to one of his students playing it; my first impression was that of confusion, for it is such a long, contrapuntally complicated piece that it is a challenge for both listener and performer alike. However, it is the strength of the melody in the introduction (which becomes a leitmotif throughout the piece in countless iterations) that burrows its way into the listener’s memory. During the pandemic, the “Night Wind” Sonata became a colossal project for me, as I worked on it, either continuously or in the background of my other studies, until I felt ready to perform it. I recently performed it in the final round of the “American International Piano Competition and Festival” in May in Washington DC, an event that is part of the “14 Ways to Dubai” series of competitions dedicated to Maltese composer Alexey Shor. I hope that my conception of the piece can make audiences like it upon first listening, for I firmly believe, as the sonata’s dedicatee Rachmaninov did, in the genius of the work. 

As for some of the other works in the program, the Scriabin fantasy I chose because it is a work that I’ve always wanted to play, and I found the occasion of the anniversary of Scriabin’s birth an apt year to play it. I’ve prefaced it with the brooding, colorful prelude Op. 37 #1 in Bb minor  with which Arcadi Volodos initiated his legendary 2009 “Volodos in Vienna” concert at the Musikverein. Albeniz’s “La Vega” is also a piece which I discovered through Volodos’ art. It is a piece that precedes and presages many of the innovations Albeniz would later use in his Iberia suites. Originally supposed to be part of a proposed suite about the Alhambra in Granada, the piece evokes the serene splendor and majestic grandeur of the Alhambra.

Rameau came to me more recently in life, when I had the chance to take a class at Université de Montréal that explored the work of baroque court composers such as Rameau, Lully, Couperin and Gluck. I found subjects like the polemic between French and Italian styles of operatic composition (the “querelle des bouffons which pitted the lyrical tragedies of Rameau’s opera against Italian comic opera such as with Pergolesi and Gluck) fascinating, and thus I felt the need to explore and play much of his work. Lastly, the Schulz-Evler transcription of Strauss’ “Blue Danube Waltz” is a fitting conclusion to the program given that Danube sits in Hungary! My only regret is not bringing some Liszt to play in Hungary, so I hope to do so next time.