Festival Warm-Up Concert: Tra Mondi – Between Worlds | Cornèr Banca Preview

Grigori Sokolov describes the talent of pianist Alexandra Dovgan, born in 2007, as extraordinary—she is not only a child prodigy but also a mature artist with impressive depth in her playing. This year, Alexandra Dovgan will make her debut at Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Philharmonie. In 1808, Beethoven performed his Piano Concerto No. 4 as both soloist and conductor. The Viennese audience’s reactions ranged from enthusiasm to exhaustion, as the work was part of a concert marathon lasting over four hours. It also caused a stir when Beethoven knocked the candelabra off the piano while conducting. His student Carl Czerny compared Beethoven’s appearance while playing to that of Robinson Crusoe, whose “jet-black hair stood bristling around his head.” Less wild, with a full beard and dressed in a dark frock coat, the 51-year-old Antonín Dvořák traveled to America with his wife and two of his children. The voyage by ship from Bremen to New Jersey took nine days. Dvořák had been commissioned by a patron to develop a distinctly American national music while serving as director of the New York Conservatory. The premiere of his Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” on December 17, 1893, became the musical event of the century in New York. Indeed, the premiere of the “Ninth” at the famous Carnegie Hall was met with thunderous applause—the beginning of a success story that continues to this day.