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San Francisco International Piano Festival
Festival Finale: Les Années Folles
Jory Vinikour, harpsichord
Philippe LeRoy, harpsichord
Gwendolyn Mok, piano
Jeffrey LaDeur, piano
Nadia Boulanger Vers la vie nouvelle
Francis Poulenc Suite Française
François Couperin Les Folie Françoises; Passacaille
Germaine Tailleferre 2 Valses for two pianos
Maurice Ravel La Valse
The festival concludes Season 4.5 through the lens of an historical epoch that is both precedent and premonition: the 1918 Spanish Flu, the armistice of 1919, and the advent of the roaring twenties. The Piano Festival takes its inspiration from this moment and follows the thread of innocence lost and reclaimed, tragedy mourned, joy in rebirth, and the dizzying juxtaposition of folly and destruction.
Highlights include performances of Couperin and Poulenc with Jory Vinikour and Philippe LeRoy, works by Nadia Boulanger and Germaine Tailleferre, and the vertiginous La Valse by Ravel reimagined through multimedia.