Klavierdebüt III Markus Becker, Séverine Kim, Robert Neumann

Concert featuring Markus Becker, Séverine Kim, and Robert Neumann

The spirit of Haydn and Mozart permeates Maurice Ravel's Sonatine in F-sharp major - a neoclassical work, densely crafted in classical sonata form with impressionistic tonal colors - and Ravel's "Menuet Antique," performed by Séverine Kim. It is the first work Ravel himself published, particularly interesting given that minuets did not exist in antiquity.

The ability to musically shape characters as Haydn and Mozart possessed is also evident in Robert Schumann's Fantasiestücke, from which his namesake Robert Neumann performs a selection. The Tübingen pianist studied with Monika Giurgiuman and Elza Kolodin and currently studies with Eldar Nebolsin at Hochschule Hanns-Eisler in Berlin. The afternoon concert culminates in an impulsive Haydn Sonata, interpreted by Markus Becker, which he perceives as "The Melancholic," as he once revealed in an interview. Becker's Haydn recordings have been called by Aachener Nachrichten a "Haydn edition of the highest class."

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Sonatine in F-sharp major and "Menuet Antique"
Séverine Kim - piano

Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Selection from Fantasiestücke op. 12
Robert Neumann - piano

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Sonata in E minor Hob. XVI:34
Markus Becker - piano