Tristan Lee – Between Heart & Head

Conflicts of human nature unleashed through captivating Romantic piano masterpieces.

Embark on a captivating journey as acclaimed pianist Tristan Lee, delves into the profound conflicts of human nature through three transcendent Romantic piano masterpieces. The opening bars of Beethoven’s late Piano Sonata Op.90 serve as a gateway to this exploration, with its two movements embodying what Beethoven’s biographer, Schindler, describes as a relentless ‘struggle between the heart and the head, and a conversation with the beloved’. As the program surges forward in Chopin’s fiercely ironic Scherzo No.3 Op.39, in C minor, be immersed in a world of ferocious octave passages set against moments of sublime beauty and poetic lyricism.

Lee’s command over these compositions is enriched by his profound familiarity with Liszt, a composer who revered and regularly performed the works featured in this program. Liszt’s monumental one-movement Sonata, often associated with the Faustian legend and its moral dilemmas bears the imprint of the preceding masterpieces, displaying their unmistakable influence.

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No.27 in E minor, Op.90

Frédéric Chopin Scherzo No.3 in C-sharp minor, Op.39

Franz Liszt Sonata in B Minor S. 178, S. 178