The Age of Silver and Gold

Maria Razumovskaya, piano with students from the Faculty of Music in collaboration with the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford

Staggeringly passionate playing — Gramophone

Fin de siècle? Which one? A wonderful coming together of minds – a conversation (or several conversations!) between the Director of the Oxford Festival of the Arts, and the Director of Musical Performance & Performance Studies at the University of Oxford, Dr Maria Razumovskaya, each with their own fin de siècle. One, the Silver Age of Russian poetry, and how composers like Schubert impacted Russian and European pre-revolutionary creatives; the other the Vienna Secession, the lushness of that sound, and the beauty of its philosophy: To every age its art, to every art its freedom.
Maria Razumovskaya has been described as a ‘virtuoso story-teller of the piano’ (Le Courrier), and possessing a ‘beguiling musical artistry’ (BBC Radio 3). She is always keen to share her curiosity for the stories behind the music and its makers.

Programme

Franz Schubert                                                   Sonata in B♭ major, D 960
—
Gustav Mahler (arr. M. Castelletti)        Adagietto from ‘Symphony No 5’ (arranged for harp and string quartet)
Arnold Schoenberg                                         Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op. 4