Grote Pianisten: Jonathan Fournel

Jonathan Fournel

It was clear to the Queen Elizabeth Competition 2021 jury that the winner was Jonathan Fournel. A few years have passed, and his star is rising. The young Frenchman loves to tell stories. 'It's not about polishing the notes beautifully, but about telling a story,' says Fournel, who presents great music by Beethoven and Schubert, among others.

Schubert's 'Wanderer' and Beethoven

What meaning should we attach to the names of musical pieces? Did Schubert compose his Wanderer Fantasy while walking? The answer is sometimes simple. Schubert incorporated the melody of one of his songs, Der Wanderer, into the fantasy. The Wanderer Fantasy was written for a piano student of the composer Hummel – hence the high degree of difficulty. Van Beethoven plays Fournel's Variations on an Own Theme and Sonata No. 22 . The latter is a wonderfully light-hearted, short sonata that is sometimes overlooked because it is surrounded by two 'heavyweights' in Beethoven's oeuvre: the Appassionata sonata and the Waldstein sonata.