Leon McCawley

Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata in A major, op 2, no 2 Sergei Rachmaninov - Étude-tableau in A minor, op 39, no 2 Johann Sebastian Bach arr. Liszt - Organ Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV543 Interval Felix Mendelssohn - Rondo capriccioso, op 14 Felix Mendelssohn - Six Songs Without Words, op 19b Robert Schumann - Piano Sonata no 2 in G minor, op 22

Described by International Piano as “one of today’s most impeccably musical pianists”, we are delighted to welcome back Leon McCawley to the University. Winner of the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna and 2nd prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1993, Leon's fascinatingly wide-ranging programme includes Beethoven’s youthful and startlingly original early Sonata, op. 2, no. 2, the desolate, soulful and bell-inspired Étude-Tableau, op 39, no 2 in A minor by Rachmaninov, and the dramatic and masterly transcription of Bach’s cathedral-like Organ Prelude and Fugue in A minor by Liszt. The second half of the programme couples Mendelssohn’s joyous and playful Rondo Capriccioso with his first set of intimate Songs Without Words, op. 19, and closes with Schumann’s passionate Sonata in G minor, op. 22.