Impromptu No. 1 performance

Stephen Kovacevich is one of the most searching interpreters at the keyboard, winning unsurpassed admiration for his playing of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert. Alongside his long and distinguished career as a soloist he has conducted for many years, earning warm praise for his work with orchestras throughout the world in repertoire from the 18th and 19th centuries. Born in Los Angeles, he made his concert debut as a pianist at the age of 11. At 18 he moved to England to study with Dame Myra Hess. His international reputation has been built both on his concert appearances, renowned for their thoughtfulness and re-creative intensity, and on the highly acclaimed recordings he has made throughout his career. Kovacevich has enjoyed two long-term relationships with recording companies, first Philips and then EMI. His concerto recordings for Philips, including Beethoven, Schumann and Bartok, have long been staples of the catalogue. As an exclusive EMI artist, he recorded both Brahms Piano Concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sawallisch. The other great projects of his work with EMI were a compelling series of Schubert Sonatas and a set of the 32 Beethoven Sonatas completed in 2003, hailed as one of the most authoritative ever recorded. His recording of the Diabelli Variations for Onyx won the 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Editor's Choice award. Studying with Kovacevich is a direct line into that interpretive mind: how he shapes a phrase, finds the architecture in Schubert, Beethoven and Chopin, and turns technique into music that genuinely means something. It is a rare chance to learn this repertoire from a pianist who has spent a lifetime living inside it. read more