© Felix Bröde

Certain Farewells

A Rising Star of BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, and Elbphilharmonie

Elisabeth Brauss, piano

Elisabeth Brauss is an award-winning and acclaimed young German pianist who has won several international competitions and performed on some of the world's most prestigious stages, including the BBC Proms, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Her recordings have received five-star reviews from BBC Music Magazine, and she is considered one of the most promising pianists of her generation.

Brauss received outstanding reviews for her recital at Wigmore Hall — the very programme she now brings to the audience of the Urkuyö ja Aaria Festival. Beethoven composed his Les Adieux Sonata in 1809 during turbulent times in Vienna. As Napoleon's forces approached the city, Beethoven's patron, Archduke Rudolph, along with the imperial family, was forced to flee. Schumann's Geistervariationen (Ghost Variations) is the last work he composed before being admitted to the asylum in Bonn-Endenich. At the time, Schumann’s mental health was deteriorating, and he believed he was surrounded by spirits who would bring him, at times, terrible and at times wonderful music. According to his wife Clara, the spirits even threatened to cast him into hell. Prokofiev's Seventh Piano Sonata, nicknamed Leningrad, is one of his three so-called "War Sonatas." Premiered in 1943, the work bids farewell to a world of balance and harmony, progressing towards an ominous atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty.

This concert is organized in collaboration with Mänttä Music Festival.

Duration approx. 70 minutes, no intermission.

Tickets €15–35 + order fees (from €1.50 + 0.65% per order at www.lippu.fi)