José López – Sunday, November 18 at 4 pm
Franz Schubert Allegretto in C minor, D. 915
Franz Schubert Sonata in C minor, D. 958
Franz Liszt from Album d’un voyageur – No. 4: Vallée d’Obermann
Nicolás Ruíz Espadero Souvernir d’autrefois, Op. 11, plus operatic transcriptions of works by Verdi, Donizetti, and Gounod.
This program commemorates the 190th anniversary of Schubert’s death with 2 late works in the key of C minor: the Allegretto and Sonata D. 958. Liszt’s Album d’un voyageur (1837–8) represents the genesis of the subsequent Swiss volume in the Années de Pèlerinage (1848–54). This initial version of the popular Vallée d’Obermann offers a very distinct outlook on musical material common to both versions. The five Grand operatic transcriptions (a Bay Area premiere) by 19th century Cuban-born composer Nicolás Ruíz Espadero are not free paraphrases in the Liszt tradition but rather faithful adaptations utilizing the pianistic style of both Liszt and Alkan.
José López is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Keyboard Studies Program at Florida International University in Miami, Florida and is the President of the South Florida Chapter of the American Liszt Society, inaugurated in 2010. He has performed throughout the United States, Italy and Central and South America with orchestras, solo recitals, and chamber groups in concert halls, summer festivals such as the Music Festival of the Hamptons in New York and the Killington Music Festival in Vermont.