Music in Peebles presents Leon McCawley

Haydn                   Keyboard Sonata No.53 in E minor, Hob.XVI:34

Mozart                 Rondo for piano No.3 in A minor, K. 511

Mozart                 Piano Sonata No. 18 in D major (“Hunt”), K.576

Schubert             Piano Sonata No.20 in A major, D.959

After Leon McCawley’s performance for us in 2018, there were immediate calls for a speedy return visit, so we are delighted to welcome him back with a recital of masterworks from the Classical era through to the dawn of Romanticism, repertoire in which he has few peers.

Haydn’s Piano Sonata in E minor, published in London in 1783, is followed by Mozart’s final sonata, named the ‘Hunt’ for its horn-like opening. Leon’s recordings of these works have received “Editor’s Choice” and “Diapason D’Or” accolades. Between the sonatas comes Mozart’s melancholy Rondo for Piano no.3 in A minor.

Schubert’s penultimate Piano Sonata D.959 is one of three that he wrote after Beethoven’s death and only three months before Schubert’s own death the following year. Pianist Jonathan Biss called the andantino 2nd movement “a composed hallucination”, whilst the final Rondo, based on the finale of Beethoven’s Sonata No.16 in G, reflects Schubert’s admiration for the great master.

“One of today’s most impeccably musical pianists.”  (International Piano)