On this week's episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network's Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler presents four works, each with three movements.
"I actually didn't realize that the four works I was thinking of putting together each contained three movements," Jed says. "But somehow the 'triptych' concept helped to further unify my program choices, and I think that these four compositions would actually work in a piano recital context. Certainly they add up to a satisfying our of radio, in my unhumble opinion!."
The program begins with Sophie Svirsky playing Pescetti's Sonata No. 4, followed by Debussy's Estampes with pianist Robert Casadesus. Hindemith's rare heard Exercise in Three Pieces features pianist George Friedrich Schenck, which leads into Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7.
" For the Prokofiev, I picked a recording that will surprise everyone, yet I fell that it's quite possibly the best recording of this warhorse out there," Jed says. "Many years ago I had to review a disc featuring a pianist named Wojciech Kocyan. I'd never heard of him, and I thought, 'okay, just another CD.' But his Prokofiev Seventh totally knocked my out: it was technically dazzling, musically intelligent, and so full of character in every bar. To this day I'm still impressed!"
Tune in to Between the Keys this Tuesday night at 10, with a rebroadcast Wednesday at noon, exclusively on The Classical Network and WWFM.org