Musical Tribute to David Hockney

To pay tribute to the great master, pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy embark on a two concert journey, inspired by David Hockney’s life and work. Springtime is an infinite source of lifelong fascination and inspiration for Mr Hockney who made many hundreds of drawings, sketches and paintings of nature’s awakening. In 1981, Mr Hockney designed the set for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in New York. In this concert, set against lighthearted melodies of Strauss’ delicious Frühlingsstimmen, Stravinsky’s groundbreaking masterwork will be performed in the author’s original four hands piano version, emphasising its astonishing graphic vigour. The pianist duo has played this vibrant and primal score in Hockney’s studio, at his request, demonstrating the intimate ties between music and the painter’s work. 

Also for this concert, the great Russian soprano Elena Stikhina will lend her voice to celebrate the music of Richard Wagner, a composer that Mr Hockney highly appreciates, with an anthology of excerpts from Wesendonck Lieder and Tristan und Isolde. The audience will also have the chance to see the film Wagner Drive, a rare but nevertheless iconic work directed by David Hockney, in which Wagner’s music is dovetailed with the landscapes along Californian roads at dusk.

Programme:

• Johann Strauss
  Frühlingsstimmen, arrangement for two pianos
  
  
• Igor Stravinsky
  The Rite of Spring, for piano four hands
  
  
• John Adams
  Short Ride in a Fast Machine, arrangement for two pianos 
  
  
• Richard Wagner
  - Der Fliegende Holländer, overture
  Transcription for two pianos by Claude Debussy
  - Wesendonck Lieder (excerpts), for soprano and piano
  - Tristan und Isolde, Isoldes Liebestod, Transcription for soprano and two pianos by Franz Liszt/Pavel Kolesnikov
  - Der Ring des Nibelungen (excerpts), Transcription for two pianos by Max Reger/Pavel Kolesnikov