This program tells a story through some of the most beautiful pages of French music. Extracted from Olivier Messiaen's "Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus" (Twenty Views of the Infant Jesus), "Première communion de la Vierge" (First Communion of the Virgin) envelops us in a mystical gentleness where the piano recites a silent prayer and time seems suspended. Returning then to the 18th century with Jean-Philippe Rameau's Suite in G major and G minor, we discover the refinement and vivacity of the harpsichord transposed under the pianist's fingers. In a suite full of charm, irony, and tenderness, Claude Debussy takes us back to the intimacy of childhood with Children's Corner. Finally, the concert culminates with a breathtaking and virtuosic dance. Paying homage to the famous Viennese genre, while simultaneously deconstructing it, Maurice Ravel's La Valse sweeps us away in a hypnotic flight where brilliance and collapse intertwine.

Leaving his native Russia after the 1917 revolution, Rachmaninov was forced to rebuild his career from scratch. He revised his works and republished them, allowing him to sign publishing contracts in the United States without conflicting with Russian publishers who already held the rights to his earlier compositions. Thus, in 1931, he revised his Sonata No. 2, Op. 36. By removing vast sections, it became shorter and its form clearer. It remains rich. Indecently so, even. Prokofiev was an enfant terrible. Loud and eccentric, he shook up modern traditions; his "football-like" style obliterated the norms of piano playing, relegating legato from its dominant position. Yet, this clamor harbors a crystalline lyricism and a myriad of subtle emotions. This is how Visions fugitives, Op. 10, is constructed. 22: Sometimes it's just a single idea that crosses your mind, then another… a moment, an impression… and off you go. Then, he abruptly interrupts this imaginary flight and falls back into reality.

The program features 19th-century works from Schubert—generally considered the first Romantic composer—to Richard Wagner, already considered post-Romantic. One of Schubert’s last works, the Impromptus Op. 90, is linked to a deeply personal experience in my life. They were the last piece I performed in Russia, when the war had already begun and it was clear that it would not end quickly. At its premiere in 1865, Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde caused a scandal. Over time, the opera became a staple of the repertoire: the overture is often performed separately, becoming a symbol of the exaltation of desire. Liszt transcribed it brilliantly for piano. Toward the end of Romanticism, the complexity of harmonic language and developmental processes led to the emergence of freer musical forms. Liszt's Sonata in B minor is one of the best examples. Its incredible semantic density imposes its own rules and defies any pre-existing structure. Finally, the program concludes with four works by Friedrich Nietzsche, recognized as one of the greatest German philosophers rather than composers, and inspired by the music of Wagner.

A program featuring the works of the great poet of the piano