Robert Schwartz – February 8, 2013
J. S. Bach Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV 828Frédéric Chopin Polonaise-Fantasie in A-flat major, Op. 61Claude Debussy Préludes, Livre 1Robert Schwartz returns to Old First Concerts with a varied program that moves through three distinct musical worlds. He will open the program with J. S. Bach’s luminous Partita No. 4 in D major, beginning with the grandeur of a French Overture followed by 6 dances that culminate in the joyously energetic double fugue of the Gigue. Schwartz will also perform Frédéric Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie, the extraordinary late masterpiece in which the composer achieved the perfect synthesis of the heroic and the poetic. The second half of the program will be devoted to Claude Debussy’s Preludes Book 1: twelve dazzling and fascinating tone poems that represent the composer at the height of his creative power and reveal the composer’s limitless imagination. Audiences and critics alike have widely acclaimed Schwartz’s definitive interpretations of the French repertoire, particularly of the works of Debussy. This program is not to be missed!