This spring, Swedish pianist Per Tengstrand returns to Scandinavia House for the Music on Park Avenue concert series and concludes his performances of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas.
This concert is devoted to the longest, most difficult of them all — the Hammerklavier was deemed unplayable and not performed in public until more than 50 years after his death. Nevertheless, Beethoven considered the Hammarklavier sonata the best he had composed.
About Per Tengstrand
Per Tengstrand has firmly established himself as one of today’s most exciting pianists. He has been described by The Washington Post as “technically resplendent, powerful, intuitively secure,” and by The New York Times as “a superb Swedish pianist” whose recital “was rewarding, both for its unusual programming and for his eloquent, technically polished performances.”
Tengstrand is the subject of the acclaimed Swedish documentary The Soloist, directed by Magnus Gertten and Stefan Berg (Sweden, 2003), which was featured at the International Festival of Cinema and Technology in New York. In 2005 he was decorated by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden with the “Litteris et Artibus” Medal for outstanding service to the arts.
Tengstrand’s 2014-15 concert season included performances on both sides of the Atlantic: in Sweden he played Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18 (1900-01), Johannes Brahms’ Concerto No. 2, Op. 83 (1878-81), and Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (1923-24); and the Tengstrand-Sun Piano Duo performed an adaptation of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (1913) before returning to the U.S., where he continues his Music on Park Avenue series at Scandinavia House in New York City. He was recently named artist-in-residence at the new Spira Concert House in Jönköping, Sweden.
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Courtesy of Per Tengstrand
THU—March 22—7:30 PM
Pre-concert talk, 7 PM
$25 ($20 ASF Members)