Christmas Recital Regina Albrink: Beethoven, Chopin en Gottschalk

Chopin and Beethoven

Chopin's nocturnes are masterful outpourings. Sounds like 'off the cuff', but on closer inspection they are full of the most subtle counter-voices. Beautiful, that's what people agree on these days. We'd like to hear them more often! The Fantaisie-impromptu, on the other hand, is among the most played piano music. Pleasantly contrary, the piece is much better than some would claim. Beethoven's Opus 26 is the sonata with the funeral march. For a 'hero', but who that might have been is unclear. The last movement is like a perpetual mobile: a continuous movement, almost unstoppable, and extremely grateful to a modern listener.

Gottschalk

For those who want something different (there used to be people like that too) there is Gottschalk, from Louisiana. He was not admitted to the Paris conservatory because America was considered a country of steam engines, not of pianists. But he could play, and he could compose too. All of Europe resounded with his compositions. The Last Hope became one of the best-known Christmas carols in the United States, also sung by Dutch choirs.