Photo: Nikola Segan

A part of the ArtePiano Series on CityMusic Live, this musical journey through various historical periods contains works that portray the idea of "images" in music in very different ways. Chopin's Preludes are a one-of-a-kind collection of twenty-four relatively short pieces, each of which can be considered an image itself. According to Jeffrey Kresky, each of them portrays and explores not only a different key, but also a different mood. As a cycle, they come together in an especially connected manner, such that the whole opus is truly more than just a sum of its parts. The E-flat Major Sonata by Beethoven, with its title "quasi una fantasia" and its four intertwined movements, each with a different character, conjures up images in a differend, perhaps more abstract manner. Finally, the Petrouchka Suite by Stravinsky is a transcription of a ballet, so the images contained in it are much more tangible and follow the actual plot of the ballet involving puppets brought to life at the Saint Petersburg Shrovetide Fair ("Maslenitsa").

F. Chopin: 
24 Préludes, op. 28

L. v. Beethoven:
Sonata in E-Flat Major, op. 27 no. 1

I. Stravinsky: 
Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka