Baylor Piano Faculty Celebrate Franz Liszt Bicentennial with Recital

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Four members of the Baylor University music faculty will perform a concert of piano music by 19th-century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, in Roxy Grove Hall on the Baylor campus.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth. Liszt was born on Oct. 22, 1811.

Dr. Brian Marks, associate professor of piano at Baylor, will open the program with Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-sharp minor," composed in 1847.

Dr. Kae Hosada-Ayer, associate professor of piano at Baylor, will perform the first of Liszt's four "Mephisto Waltzes." The piece is one of the composer's most famous works and was dedicated to his favorite pupil, Polish pianist Carl Tausig.

Jane Abbott-Kirk, associate professor of piano at Baylor, will continue the program with "Vallée d'Obermann" from Liszt's Années de pèlerinage, Première année: Suisse (Years of Pilgrimage, First Year: Switzerland). Composed in the early 1850s, the piece was inspired by Étienne-Jean de Senancour's "Obermann," a novel about the title character, whose misfortunes drive him to seek consolation in a rural area of Switzerland.

Krassimira Jordan, artist-in-residence and professor of piano at Baylor, will conclude the concert with Liszt's 1863 "Spanish Rhapsody." The piece is one of the most technical and demanding compositions in the romantic piano repertoire.

Roxy Grove Hall is at 624 Speight Ave.
For more information, call the Baylor University School of Music at (254) 710-3991 or click here.
by Katy McDowall, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805