Bennett Lerner Rescheduled

Friday, November 6th, 6pm

Revisiting Old Friends

a program of piano music played by

Bennett Lerner

Friday, November 6th, 6pm

Schumann: Variations on the Name “ABEGG”, Op. 1

Mendelssohn: Rondo Capriccioso in E Major, Op. 14

Chopin: Nocturne in F# Major, Op. 15, No. 2

Liszt: Ballade No. 2 in B Minor, S. 171

Tcherepnin: Autors des Montagnes Russes (Riding the Roller Coaster) (1937)

Copland: The Cat and the Mouse (Scherzo humoristique)

Irving Fine: Diversions for Piano (USA, 1914-1962)

Debussy: “Suite bergamasque No. 2”
Masques (Masks)
D’un cahier d’esquisses (From a Sketchbook)
L’isle joyeuse (The Joyful Island)

Bennett Lerner was my piano teacher for a few years, many years ago in Bangkok. He is one of the most respected piano teachers in the country, having taught at Payap University in Chiangmai, amongst other places. I look forward to him revisiting an old friend (me) and giving his first performance at Eelswamp.

Here is his official biography:

American pianist Bennett Lerner (b. 1944) is well-known in his country as a performer of contemporary music.  He has performed with major orchestras in the USA, such as the New York Philharmonic (in a nationally-televised concert celebrating composer Aaron Copland’s 85th birthday), the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Cleveland Symphony.  Mr. Lerner has numerous recordings: American Piano Music, Vols. 1 and 2 (Etcetera, 1984, 1986), Piano Music of Alexander Tcherepnin (Etcetera, 1985), Exposition Paris 1937 (Etcetera, 1988), Music by My Friends (Albany, 2004), and The Complete Piano Music of Claude Debussy, Vols. 1-4, (Bridge, 2006-7).  He has lived in Thailand since 1990 and was Head of the Piano Department of the Chintakarn Music School in Bangkok.  In 1995, Mr. Lerner moved to the northern city of Chiang Mai to teach at Payap University, where he is now an Honorary Professor.  After a six-year hiatus from performing, he celebrated his 72^nd birthday with gala concerts in Chiang Mai and, also, with the premiere of “Luminary”, a piano concerto written in honor of Mr. Lerner’s birthday by his student, Narong Prangcharoen, performed by another of his students, Christopher Janwong McKiggan, with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra.  Mr. Lerner has participated in the Thailand International Composition Festival since the festival’s inception in 2005.  In March of 2018, Mr. Lerner played Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the Thailand Philharmonic.  Mr. Lerner’s formative teachers were the Chilean virtuoso Claudio Arrau, Arrau’s associate and compatriot Rafael de Silva, the Cuban pedagogue German Diez, the Argentinian virtuosa Arminda Canteros, and the American pianist-composer Robert Helps.  Mr. Lerner has his B. Mus. and M. Mus. from the Manhattan School of Music and his D. M. A. from City University of New York.  His YouTube channel is “bennettlerner2”.

Reservations: 1,000 baht or donation. Limit to 25 adults.

Tickets: No tickets will be issued for concerts. Admission to the music room on the day of the concert will be in accordance with the sequence of receipt of payment (ie, who pays first goes in first and can select their desired seat).

Etiquette: No photos allowed during the main performance. But photos may be taken during encore. Please do not upload videos to Youtube.

Children: Children aged eight years and older may attend the concert depending on the suitability of the program. Smaller children may be left with the nanny on the premises. 

Cancellations and credits: Credit will be allowed for future concerts in the event of cancellation provided that the concert for which the original booking was made breaks even.

Directions to Eelswamp: search for 'Eelswamp' on google maps. Directions can be found at the bottom of this page: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html

Taxi service to Eelswamp: Grabtaxi Just enter "Eelswamp" in the destination box.

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Eelswamp Calendar 2020 January to June

Eelswamp has been cancelled until after the Covid

Calendar 2020 - The first six months

January: Sergey Sobolev, piano  

Friday 24th: All Beethoven: Symphony no. 7 transcription by Liszt, Eroica Variations op. 35 and the last set of Bagatelles, op. 126

Sunday 26th: Mostly Russian

Chopin: Two Nocturnes op.15 no1 and op.62 no1 and two Mazurkas op.30 no. 4 and op.50 no 3

Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata in G major op. 37

Stanchinsky Sonata in E flat minor and 

Prokofiev:  Sonata no 8 in B flat major op. 84

Book now: email asiachart@hotmail.com 

February - Ilya Kondratiev, piano

Violin programs cancelled. Ilya will play two solo piano programs

Friday 14th: Ysaye Six Sonatas for Solo Violin - cancelled

Saturday 15th Ilya Solo 1

Schubert Sonata no.16 in A minor, D845  and 

Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition.

Sunday 16th: Ilya Solo 2

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E♭ major, Op. 31, No. 3

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 26 in E♭ major, Op. 81a, Les Adieux

Liszt Sonata in B minor.  

Beethoven Violin Concerto in D op.61, Korngold Violin Concerto in D op.35 - cancelled

Book now: email asiachart@hotmail.com 

Full details here: https://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-musical-feast-in-february.html

March - Andrey Gugnin, piano - Sadly, cancelled

September 4th: Scriabin, Complete Mazurkas

September 6th: Beethoven Sonata no. 29, op. 106 'Hammerklavier'

Chopin Preludes op. 28.

https://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2020/02/gugnin-2020.html

Book now: email asiachart@hotmail.com 

Saturday 21st: Bennett Lerner Birthday Concert

https://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2020/03/bennett-lerners-birthday-bash.html

Works by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Copland and others

April

Sunday 5th April

Siddharta Bhose, sarod and Sandip Ghosh, tabla

May

Martin Malmgren, piano





Friday May 8th, 6pm: All Bach: Partita no. 4, English Suite no. 5 and Bach transcriptions
.
Sunday May 10th, 5pm: Chopin The Mazurkas

June 

Tasana, Dimitri and Alexandre piano trio

Tasana Nagavajara, violin

Dimitri Papadopoulos, piano

Alexandre Vay, cello

Wednesday 3rd June: All Bach: 

Two Cello Suites: numbers 1 and 2

Godowsky piano transcription of Cello Suite no.2 and 

Partita no.1 in B flat major BWV 825

Friday 5th: 

Beethoven Violin Sonata no. 2 in A major, op.12 no.2 and 

Dvorak Cello Concerto

Sunday 7th: Beethoven Trios op. 70 nos 1 and 2.

Eelswamp made a donation to the Human Help Network

Gugnin 2020

Postponed until September

Please note the new dates
and cross your fingers!

Andrey Gugnin, piano

Winner of 2014 Gina Bachauer Competition

Winner of 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition
Nominated BBC Classical Music CD of the Year

"Gugnin’s new disc is nothing short of disarming. This is some of the finest Liszt-playing one is likely to encounter these days..." — Gramophone Magazine

"An all-Shostakovich triumph from pianist Andrey Gugnin" Classical-music.com and recording of the month

"Gugnin's nervy, energised and involved playing... made him the clear winner." - Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald 24 July 2016

"What really impressed was Gugnin’s assurance – his absorbed, crystalline playing – so by the cadenza ... you were beguiled by a flawless technique." David Truslove, Classicalsource.com, commenting on the LPO performance, January 2018

Friday 4th Septmber, 6pm 

Scriabin: Mazurkas Complete

Comprising opuses 3, 25 and 40, the mazurkas trace the development of Scriabin from a Chopin acolyte to a composer with a unique language. The early mazurkas are easy listening, but far more original and inventive than merely regurgitated Chopin. Gradually we hear Scriabin's style develop until, by opus 40, Scriabin has shed the Chopin cocoon entirely and emerges metamorphasized.

Sunday 6th September, 5pm

Beethoven:  Piano Sonata No. 29 in B♭ major 'Hammerklavier'

This is grandest of the Beethoven's 32 Sonatas. Completed in 1818, it stretched the boundaries of the sonata form with four movements in classical form but on a monumental scale. The first known public performance was after Beethoven's death, by the 25 year-old Liszt, perhaps because the sonatas was generally regarded as so technically demanding as to be unplayable. I saw Andrey give a superb performance of the Hammerklavier at the Beethoven Competition in Vienna, 2013. It was so impressive that I invited him to come and visit us. I look forward to hearing Andrey's rendition of the Hammerklavier again, after seven years.

Chopin: 24 Preludes op. 28

Needs no introduction. One of the greatest collection of miniatures in the repertoire.

Andrey Gugnin has a special relationship with Eelswamp. He was the first musician whom I invited from overseas and he has visited us annually since then. This will be his seventh visit. During those years, we have seen Andrey's career skyrocket, winning two prestigious international competitions, releasing numerous CDs and most recently, gaining a management contract from one of the top management companies in the world (with a clause allowing continued visits to Eelswamp).

Reservations:  One concert for 1,200 baht or 2,000 baht for both. Email asiachart@hotmail.com or call 038 069681 office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Tickets: No tickets will be issued for concerts. Admission to the music room on the day of the concert will be in accordance with the sequence of receipt of payment (ie, who pays first goes in first and can select their desired seat).

Etiquette: No photos allowed during the main performance. But photos may be taken during encore. Please do not upload videos to Youtube.

Children: Children aged eight years and older may attend the concert depending on the suitability of the program. Smaller children may be left with the nanny on the premises. 

Cancellations and credits: Credit will be allowed for future concerts in the event of cancellation provided that the concert for which the original booking was made breaks even.

Directions to Eelswamp: search for 'Eelswamp' on google maps. Directions can be found at the bottom of this page: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html

Taxi service to Eelswamp: Grabtaxi Just enter "Eelswamp" in the destination box.

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Official media partner

Ilya solo

Ilya Kondratiev, piano 

Saturday 15th
 and 
Sunday 16th February

Saturday February 16th, 5pm 

Mussorgsky and Schubert

Recently joined the faculty of the Royal College of Music, London.

Fourth visit to Eelswamp

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition - Картинки с выставки


One of the most popular works in the piano repertoire, Pictures at an Exhibition is a tour de force of imagery and drama. It is one of the most challenging works for the virtuoso and one of the most engaging for the audience. 

Written in 1874, Pictures has a genius structure which makes the work unique in the piano repertoire. It is a suite of ten short pieces woven together with recurring variations on the 'Promenade' theme. We can conceive of the work as a theme and variations, interspersed with programmatic miniatures. This double, intertwined structure, makes the work original and interesting.

The occasion for the composition was an exhibition of the paintings of the artist Viktor Hartmann, a friend of the composer. Hartmann died tragicly at the age of 39 from an aneurysm. The exhibition was held shortly after the artist's death to commemorate the short but prolific life of the artist. Mussorgsky then wrote his masterpiece in two inspired weeks.

Schubert: Piano Sonata no.16 in A minor, op.42, D.845

This is a wonderful sonata from the beginning of the late period, 1825, three years before Schubert's untimely death. 1825 was a period of respite from ill-health; symptoms of syphilis abated, giving the 28 year old composer more energy, exuberance and a sense of grandeur. The Symphony no. 9 in C Major, "The Great", with its triumphal opening march theme, was sketched out during this period. The A minor sonata contains some of the mood of the symphony albeit in the darker, relative minor key. It has a march theme in the first movement, sometimes triumphal, sometimes mysterious and ending on a dark, A minor, crescendo. Even the charming slow movement is infused with drama. 

Sunday February 16th, 5pm 

Beethoven and Liszt


Two of Beethoven's much loved sonatas from the middle period

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E♭ major, Op. 31, No. 3, The Hunt
and

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 26 in E♭ major, Op. 81a, Les Adieux

Liszt Sonata in B minor.  

Liszt wrote two piano sonatas. The Dante Sonata-Fantasy in 1849 and the B Minor Sonata in 1853. These one-movement works revolutionized the piano sonata. But Liszt's vision wasn't taken up until fifty years later, notably by Scriabin, whose fifth to tenth sonatas were all one movement. Although regarded with scorn at the time of publication, the Sonata in B minor is now recognized as one of the great works of genius of the nineteenth century and one of Liszt's greatest achievements.

Ilya Kondratiev is a graduate of Moscow Conservatory and the Royal College of Music, London. He has won numerous prizes in international competitions, notably the Weimar Liszt and the Budapest Liszt Competitions. Recently, Ilya was appointed to the position of Piano Professor at the Royal College of Music, in London.

Reservations: 1,200 baht for one concert. 2,000 baht for two
Email asiachart@hotmail.com or call 038 069681 office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Tickets: No tickets will be issued for concerts. Admission to the music room on the day of the concert will be in accordance with the sequence of receipt of payment (ie, who pays first goes in first and can select their desired seat).

Cancellations and credits: Credit will be allowed for future concerts in the event of cancellation provided that the concert for which the original booking was made breaks even.

Directions to Eelswamp: search for 'Eelswamp' on google maps. Directions can be found at the bottom of this page: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html

Taxi service to Eelswamp: Grabtaxi Just enter "Eelswamp" in the destination box.

A member of 

Official media partner

Beethoven and the Russians: Sobolev's Sixth Orbit

Sergey Sobolev
plays

All Beethoven and Two Grand Russian Sonatas

Friday, January 24th and Sunday, 26th

Winner of Berliner International Music Competition, 2017

and prizewinner of the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elizabeth Competitions, among others

Friday 24th January, 6pm

All Beethoven

Horowitz loved it!

Symphony no. 7 op. 92 transcribed for piano by Liszt. Of one the finest performances that Sergey gave us was the Liszt transcription of Symphony no. 3, Eroica. I have been begging him to do another one of the Liszt transcriptions. "Well, Mr Barton, it's a lot of work." Finally, he has agreed. 

In the words of Vladimir Horowitz, 

"these are the greatest works for the piano – tremendous works – every note of the symphonies is in the Liszt works."

"Eroica Variations"15 Variations and a Fugue for Piano in E-flat major on an Original Theme, Op. 35 

This work shares the theme from the Symphony No. 3, "Eroica". (Although the variations were written before the symphony.) It is highly virtuosic and requires a top notch pianist to perform it. This comment quoted from Hyperion website sums it up:

"Best I have written"

Op 35 is a singular masterpiece: an extraordinary composite of passacaglia, chaconne, variation, fugue, canon, dance, aria, fantasy … a towering edifice of pianistic bravura, of orchestral allusion, of vocal suggestion.

Bagatelles op.126 Six miniature masterpieces. This is Beethoven's last major work for the piano. In Beethoven's own modest words, "Probably the best I have written". 

Sunday 26th January, 5pm

Two Grand Russian sonatas... and a bit of Chopin

Chopin: Two Nocturnes op.15 no1 and op.62 no1 and 
two Mazurkas op.30 no. 4 and op.50 no 3

Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata in G major op. 37
This is a work which Tchaikovsky found difficult to compose: "It doesn't come easily" he moaned to his brother. But was so delighted with the premier that, "I left the hall completely enraptured." It was written in 1878, a year before the first revision of the Piano Concerto no. 1. The sonata has many of the same rhythms and textures as the concerto, so if you like the concerto you will certainly appreciate the sonata. 

Alexei Stanchinsky

Stanchinsky (1888 - 1914) Sonata in E flat minor (1906) One of music's tragic figures, died in 1914 at the age of 26. His sonata in E flat minor is reminiscent of Scriabin. It sits somewhere between Scriabin's third (bass line dotted rhythm) and fourth sonatas. Perhaps we could call it Scriabin's Sonata no. 3.5.

Like Scriabin, Stanchinsky suffered from mental health issues and was confined to an institution before being discharged as incurable. He was probably schizophrenic, with hallucinations and inexplicable rage. However, he had periods of normality and eventually went back to the Conservatory.He died mysteriously. After disappearing from his friend's estate his body was discovered, two days later, by a river bank. 

Richter:"This is the richest"

Prokofiev:  Sonata no 8 in B flat major op. 84 This is one of Prokofiev's greatest works, the third of the so called 'war sonatas' written during WW2. It comprises three movements, beginning with a haunting lullaby and contrasting with a violent, gurgling allegro. The second movement is a brief, stately, andante, leading in to a rambunctious finale. Sviatoslav Richter said that the sonata was one of his three favourites: 

"Of all Prokofiev’s sonatas, this is the richest. It has a complex inner life, profound and full of contrasts."

Sergey Sobolev is a Russian pianist. He graduated from Moscow Conservatory and the Royal College in London. Sergey has visited Eelswamp on five previous occasions. He has a brilliant technical level, great musical taste and an encyclopedic knowledge of music.  According to at least two members of the audience Sergey's Scriabin was the best they had ever heard. Not surprising as Sergey is a student of one of the great Russian pianists and pedagogues, Mikhail Voskresensky, who won a prize at the first Van Cliburn Competition in 1962 and is head of the piano department at Moscow Conservatory.

In 2017 Sergey won first prize in the piano section of the Berliner International Music Competition. He performed his winning recital in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. He is also a prizewinner of two of the world's most prestigious piano competitions: the Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow and The Queen Elizabeth Competition, Belgium. Sergey has also won prizes in The Liszt Weimar Competition, Nikolai Rubinstein Competition, Scriabin International Competition Moscow and the Santander Competition.

Reservations: 1,200 baht for one concert. 2,000 baht for two in the same series. 

Email asiachart@hotmail.com or call 038 069681 office hours. Due to limited number of places payment must be received before the day.

Tickets: No tickets will be issued for concerts. Admission to the music room on the day of the concert will be in accordance with the sequence of receipt of payment (ie, who pays first goes in first and can select their desired seat).

Cancellations and credits: Credit will be allowed for future concerts in the event of cancellation provided that the concert for which the original booking was made breaks even.

Directions to Eelswamp: search for 'Eelswamp' on google maps. Directions can be found at the bottom of this page: http://eelswamp.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-music-room-at-eelswamp.html

Taxi service to Eelswamp: Grabtaxi Just enter "Eelswamp" in the destination box.

A member of 

Official media partner