Florian Hölscher

Piano recital

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
8 Variations on "Ein Weib ist das herrlichste Ding" in F major, KV 613
Anton Webern
Variations for Piano, op. 27
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Ludwig van Beethoven
33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, op. 120

The programme is entirely devoted to works in variation form and marks the festival's conclusion. Mozart's eight variations on "Ein Weib ist das herrlichste Ding" were composed in the year of his death and are considered far more substantial and weighty than many of his earlier variation cycles, despite the rather trivial title. As a musical contrast, Webern's variations follow, drawn from his final creative period: a fusion of twelve-tone technique with variation form, which the composer recommended should be played as if it were Bach.

The programme concludes with Beethoven's last great piano work - the Diabelli Variations, op. 120. Here too we witness the art of radically transforming a banal waltz theme into entirely different, profound characters - from the parodistic to the sublime.

Florian Hölscher studied with Robert Levin, Michel Béroff and Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Freiburg, Paris and Cologne; he also received crucial impulses from conductor Peter Eötvös. His repertoire spans solo and chamber works from the 17th to the 21st century. He has performed solo programmes at festivals including Présences (Radio France, Paris), Eclat Stuttgart, the Salzburg Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, the Lucerne Festival and Kunstfestspielen Hannover-Herrenhausen. Since 2018 he has held a piano professorship at HfMDK Frankfurt.