L. van Beethoven / Franz Liszt
Symphony No. 5

Franz Liszt
Ballade d'Ukraïne (Dumka)

Viktor Kosenko
Suite »Eleven Etudes in the Form of Old Dances«(Selection)

Sometimes, the music lover witnesses masters from different eras meeting on stage, as if a time machine were at work. The young Bach rewrites Couperin’s suites, whom he never personally met. Half a century later, Beethoven’s teacher, Neefe, introduces his student to the treasures within the works of Bach, Handel, and Haydn… Mozart predicted a brilliant future for the aspiring composer; the latter, in turn, recognized the genius virtuosity of the still-young Franz Liszt. When Liszt was a guest of Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein after several performances in Kyiv, he heard some Ukrainian folk songs, whose melodies he processed into a small cycle. The life and work of the Ukrainian composer and pianist Kosenko were geographically and temporally distant from Liszt and Beethoven; and his musical journey began with the memorized performance of Beethoven’s eighth sonata – freely by ear! In his later years, he created the extensive suite »Eleven Etudes in the Form of Old Dances.« Liszt gifted the world with fantastic transcriptions of all nine Beethoven symphonies for the piano. In the so-called romantic reception of Beethoven, Beethoven’s »Fifth« was interpreted as a fate drama, a musically objectified narrative of defeat and triumph, of the eternal human struggle with fate, of suffering and redemption. Kosenko translated the work of Baroque masters into the language of musical Romanticism. I cordially invite you to explore with me how musical legacies are passed down from generation to generation and can be viewed through a kaleidoscope of different eras in a single program.