Famed Russian Pianist Opens Distinguished Artist Series September 23

September 16, 1999

by Richard Veit

Internationally renowned Russian pianist Vladimir Feltsman will perform a concert on Thursday, Sept. 23, to open Baylor University's 1999-2000 Distinguished Artist Series. The concert will be presented at 8 p.m. in Roxy Grove Hall.
Following his well-publicized departure from the Soviet Union in 1987, Feltsman has established himself in the front rank of the world's keyboard artists. Initially recognized as a champion of the Russian music literature (Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofieff), he has developed a repertoire that ranges from Bach to 20th century composers.
The concert will begin with Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826. This six-movement suite was written in 1731, when the great German master was 46 years old and at the height of his creativity.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, too, was a mature composer of 25 when he penned his Piano Sonata in C major, K. 330. It dates from late 1781, and Mozart wrote it either in Munich or soon after his move to Vienna.
Following intermission, Vladimir Feltsman will perform Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." This famous suite for piano was created in the spring of 1874, and it depicts the composer's musical tour through a gallery displaying the paintings and architectural drawings of his late friend, artist Victor Hartmann. In all, 10 of Hartmann's artworks are depicted, neatly joined together by Mussorgsky's innovative promenade music, as the gallery visitor passes from one to another.
Tickets for this concert by Vladimir Feltsman are priced at $12--with Baylor students, faculty, and staff admitted for $8. For more information, call the Baylor University School of Music at 710-3991.