playing four wonderful pieces

Beethoven Piano Sonata
in F sharp major, op. 78

Chopin Ballade No. 4
in F minor op.5

Chopin Etudes, Op. 10, No. 8
in F major, No. 9 in F minor

Beethoven Sonata for Piano
and Violoncello in A major, op. 69

Friday, May 30, 2008, 7:00 pm
Burlingame Hall, 252 West Spain Street
Sonoma. Ticket information click here.

Elizabeth Dorman is a 20 year old San Francisco pianist whose playing has been described “…as striking for its restraint as for its technical assurance … unnervingly precocious. She has soloed with several Bay area orchestras, has won numerous competitions throughout the Bay area, and has been a featured performer at the Junior Bach Festival, the Carmel Bach festival, and the Yehudi Menuhin Chamber Music Seminar.

Tanya Tomkins is a virtuoso on both the Baroque and modern cello, having been described as “a cellist with a very special and unusual intensity,” and one “who combines and intense dramatic fire with Apollonian poise.” She serves as co-principal cellist of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, has toured as a member of the Euridice String Quartet and the SoLaRe Trio, and is a part of the Ziivan-Tomkins Duo and a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and the San Francisco String Trio. She has recorded Baroque and later music on a variety of labels, including Koch, Avie, Bis, Centaur, and Vanguard.

Program Notes
Beethoven, Piano Sonata #245 in F-sharp minor, op. 78, was written in 1809 and was one of Beethoven’s special favorites. A two-movement work that takes less than 10 minutes to play, it is an example of an originality that is breathtaking, and the more so for seeming off-hand.

Chopin, Etudes, Op. 10: No. 8 in F major, No. 9 in F minor. The Etudes, Op. 10, are Chopin’s first complete masterpiece, a revelation of his genius and marked by a quite astonishing power of invention. They are some of the most challenging and simultaneously evocative pieces of all the works in the concert piano repertoire.

Chopin, Ballade No. 4 in F minor, op. 52. The Op. 52, the fourth of Chopin’s ballades for solo piano, is considered one of his masterpieces and one of the masterpieces of 19th century piano music in general. Few of his other extended works can match it in formal sophistication and in the powerful goal-directed sweep of its musical ideas.

Beethoven, Sonata for Piano and Violoncello in A major, op. 69. The Op. 69, the third of five sonatas Beethoven wrote for piano and cello, was composed in 1808. Originally intended for public rather than private performance, it allows both instruments to shine individually as well as allowing for contrapuntal and melodic interplay between the two players.