Escape from Reality
When asked, what is music to you, cellist Oliver Herbert replied, “great music can make you feel like you are the center of the universe.”
Cellist Oliver Herbert from San Francisco, California, graduated from Curtis in 2019. When asked, what is music to you, His reply was “great music can make you feel like you are the center of the universe.” Pianist Xiaoxuan Li from China entered Curtis in 2017, answered the same question, saying “music is like medicine, it calms me down and relieves stress.”
Beethoven: Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102, No. 2
Oliver Herbert, cello; Xiaohui Yang, piano
Composed 1815 this 20-minute sonata for cello and piano was unprecedented during this period. This was Beethoven last work written for a solo instrument and piano. The technically challenging work has three movements: Allegro con brio; Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto; Allegro—Allegro fugato.
Liszt: Étude No. 10 in F minor, from Études d’exécution transcendante
Xiaoxuan Li, piano
What is interesting about Études d’exécution transcendante series of twelve compositions for piano by Liszt it that Liszt had written several versions of the series. Liszt first wrote the études in 1826 when he was only 15 years old. The last version of Études d’exécution transcendante published in 1852. Étude No. 10 in F minor is the tenth of the twelve and considered the most popular of all the études.
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