Pianist Michael Houstoun's prodigious achievement for a second time, after 20 years since first completed, of all thirty two of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas, comes to a climax with the final three concerts in the series at the end of next week.
Back in Napier's Century Theatre with the re-opening of the museum, there will be concerts on successive nights - at 8pm Friday and Saturday October 11 and 12 with the final recital at 5pm on Sunday October 13. As with the previous four concerts, each programme will feature four or five sonatas cleverly built around one of the most significant and best-known sonatas - Sonata No 8 in C minor - Pathetique on Friday, Sonata No 14 in C sharp minor - Moonlight on Saturday and, appropriately on Sunday , Sonata N 26 in E flat, Les Adieux.
A special feature of the final recital is that the programme starts with the first Sonata - No 1 in F Minor Opus 2, No 1 and ends with Sonata No 32 in C minor, Opus 111, so the audience will be able to hear and assess just how far Beethoven developed as a composer and expanded the sonata form over a 30 year period.
The difference between these two sonatas in structure, tension, thematic development and emotional impact is astounding, an insight into the mind and thinking of a music genius.
In this series, performed also in three other centres and in part in six other cities, it is abundantly clear that Michael Houstoun has matured as a pianist and is now the absolute master of his craft - especially significant given his recovery from the debilitating focal distonia which threatened to end his career.
