Romantic Piano Classics by Candlelight

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This Valentine's Day, celebrate the power of music and love with a romantic candlelit piano recital at St Vincent's Chapel by award-winning concert pianist Matthew Shiel.

About Romantic Piano Classics by Candlelight

Listed Under Music Events / Nights Out Events / Valentines Events

Tonight, this magnificent and historic 19th Century chapel is transformed by moonlight and candlelight into a place of calm, mystery and loving inspiration.

Roses, Belgian chocolates and hot chocolate will be served in the interval to heighten the experience.

PROGRAMME:

Chopin: Etude Op. 25 No. 1 ('Aeolian Harp')

J.S. Bach: The Anna Magdalena Bach Book of 1725

INTERVAL (Belgian Chocolates and Hot Chocolate will be served)

Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3 ('Love Dream')

Debussy: Clair de Lune

It is said Bach presented a remarkable book of keyboard pieces to his second wife on the occasion of their wedding anniversary. The Anna Magdalena Book contains pieces composed by their children (including Johann Christian and Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach), contemporaries (Couperin, Hasse and Petzold), anonymous folk dances and Johann Sebastian Bach's own most loved compositions including the Prelude in C (BWV 846) and the opening aria from his Goldberg Variations (BWV 899).

This recital concludes with three of arguably the most romantic piano pieces ever composed in music history: Chopin's Aeolian Harp, Liszt's breathtakingly virtuosic Liebestraum No.3 in A-flat major and Debussy's haunting Clair de Lune.

Matthew Shiel is a concert pianist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the recipient of a scholarship to study piano at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he graduated with first class honours and several academic and performance prizes including: J.S. Bach Competition Prize for Piano, Harpsichord and Organ, Mary and Raymond Thomson Organ Scholarship, and Agnes Millar Prize for Outstanding Harmony and Counterpoint.

He has performed piano solo and duet recitals at venues such as St Giles' Cathedral, Sage Gateshead, Unitarernes Hus (Copenhagen) and Reid Concert Hall (University of Edinburgh) and has been invited to be a guest speaker to the Wagner Society of Scotland and the University of Middlesex. He has performed several concertos with the Abbotsford String Orchestra, Little Biggar Orchestra and the Àirigh Orchestra including: J.S. Bach's Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor (BWV 1052), Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor (K.466) and No. 27 in B-flat major (K.595) and Kozeluch's Piano Concerto for four hands in B-flat major (P:IV.8). He was also entrusted to give the world première of Dr Alfredo Caponnetto's Baroque Concerto (PhD, University of Edinburgh), which the composer kindly dedicated to him.

Matthew teaches piano at the University of Edinburgh.

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