Elisabeth Leonskaja, piano recital

Oxford Philharmonic Piano Festival

Schubert: Sonata in D major, D. 850, ‘Gasteiner’
Sonata in A minor, D. 845

Elisabeth Leonskaja makes her Oxford Piano Festival debut at the church of St John the Evangelist with an all-Schubert programme focused on the blossoming of the composer’s piano sonatas in the year 1825. That year, Schubert wrote three sonatas intended as a trilogy, two of which we hear in this concert. In his sonata D. 845, Schubert already appears to be feeling his way into new territory. By the Sonata D. 850, cryptic exuberance has become extroverted virtuosity – music ‘constantly enthralling and stirring,’ in the words of Robert Schumann.