CLASSICAL

June 26, 2 pm, Rachmaninov Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, 13 Bolshaya Nikitskaya Ul., m. Okhotny Ryad

Pianist Sofia Lisichenko is giving one of the last piano recitals this season at the Rachmainov Hall.

The daughter of two solid pianists and professors of the Moscow Conservatory (the late Yury Lisichenko and Irina Plotnikova), she is a perfect example of a fruit of the Russian piano school’s traditions.

Her programme this time is eclectic, beginning with a Mozart sonata. One of Beethoven’s later sonatas (No. 31, Opus 110) follows, and after the intermission, there will be Schumann’s romantic and stormy “Kreisleriana”. The composition in eight movements shows Schumann’s interpretation of the fictional character Johannes Kreisler from the works of E.T.A. Hoffman. Like Kreisler and the composer himself, the music stands out for its manic-depressive fits, repeatedly switching from dreaminess to turbulence.

Last on the programme is a work by Soviet Armenian composer Arno Babajanian, “Poem for Piano”. Babajanian was an outstanding composer and pianist; his music is a curious blend of Armenian folk themes mixed with Prokofiev- or Bartok-like cool drive.