Bach – Beethoven

Shaped by pianist Andrew von Oeyen’s experience of lockdown, this solo recital comprises Bach’s eight-movement Overture in the French Style BWV 831, Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas No 13 in E flat and No 23 in F minor, ‘Appassionata’, and arrangements by Wilhelm Kempff of two movements that Bach wrote for accompanied flute and harpsichord, respectively.

“Perhaps more than any other composer, Bach expresses the clearest sense of order in a chaotic world,” says von Oeyen. “If Bach served as my first musical mooring in confinement, I returned to Beethoven for second-wave pandemic relief … I was now ready to weigh anchor and face the storm in the company of stalwart and indestructible 19th century sonatas. Crises, for all their destructiveness, can also lead to renewal and discovery.”