WATER & FIRE
RUPERT EGERTON-SMITH
PIANO
WEDNESDAY 11th and THURSDAY 12th DECEMBER
7.30pm Doors 7.00pm
£20
We are thrilled to welcome back award-winning pianist Rupert Egerton-Smith with a new recital programme 'Water and Fire’ in our "Music in the Malthouse” series.
Rupert will take us on a virtuosic journey through the Elements of Water & Fire following a narrative through the imagery of many popular and some less well-known piano works.
Opening with the fountains of Ravel's Jeux d’eau, the bell of a submerged cathedral tolls in Debussy's La cathédrale engloutie, as a lone swan glides on the surface of the lake in Godowsky’s Saint-Saëns arrangement. A boat begins its voyage in Chopin’s Barcarolle, the waves building like immense swells on the open ocean. St Francis of Paulo, denied his passage to Sicily by a boatsman, performs the miracle of walking across the strait of Messina in the second of Liszt’s Deux Légendes.
Fireworks open the second half, the intensity rising through De Falla’s fire dance and Florence Price’s Flame, before the recital culminates in Agosti’s monumental transcription of three movements of Stravinsky’s Firebird.
Rupert has performed in Carnegie Hall, Paris’ Salle Gaveau, the Berlin Philharmonie and played piano concertos internationally. France 2 broadcast his live performances of Scarlatti sonatas and Balakirev’s Islamey. Of his debut recording, the UK Daily Telegraph wrote, “the sheer technical accomplishment in Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit is stunning and the real strength of the disc.” He won 1st prize in the Bradshaw and Bouno piano competition and was appointed Artist-in-Residence with the Orchestra of St. John’s in 2022. This year he has performed with the Orchestra of St. John's, Southbank Sinfonia and Bristol Classical Players the Schumann Piano Concerto, Tchaikowsky 1st, Beethoven 2nd, 4th and 5th as well as playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on the 100th anniversary of its composition with the Grenadier Guards and Band and Bugles of the Rifles Regiment for HRH The Queen in Salisbury Cathedral.
New York Concert Review commended the ‘electrifying energy’ of his recent US recital, describing him as ‘a pianist and musician of the highest calibre’ and highlighting in particular his performance of Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Sonata.
Rupert Egerton-Smith is represented worldwide exclusively through Alexander & Buono Artists.
Listen and view here:
https://www.rupertesmusic.com/listen