KU Professor and Concert Pianist Steven Spooner to Celebrate Concert Series Completion and Release of CDs and DVD
LAWRENCE-American Concert Pianist Steven Spooner has released his groundbreaking five-CD set, “The Historical Piano Recital Series,” and the live concert film, “Aspects of Liszt”. This series commemorates the great Russian pianist, Anton Rubinstein, and is one of the largest, most comprehensive piano series undertaken by any pianist in the 20th century.
A CD release party and mini-concert will take place on Saturday, September 22, 1PM at the Spencer Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, KS. The event is free and open to the public.
The five volumes of recordings explore keyboard music from the 18th century to present day. Volume five, dedicated completely to piano works by the great Hungarian virtuoso Franz Liszt, was recorded on one of Liszt’s last pianos, an 1886 Bechstein concert grand on permanent display at the Spencer Museum of Art. The concert film, “Aspects of Liszt,” was recorded before a live audience during the recent LISZT BICENTENNIAL in 2011 and features the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Arab-American composer, Mohammed Fairouz. The concert film and commission were generously sponsored by Reach Out Kansas, Inc.
Dr. Spooner, associate professor of piano at the University of Kansas, has gained a global reputation as a pianist of inimitable gifts and innovative programs. Just this past season he has performed at major international venues such as Carnegie Hall, National Gallery Series, Santa Cecilia (Rome), Esplanade (Singapore), and just completed his second CD for Naxos along with concert tours that take him regularly across the globe. He is the winner of top prizes at each of the seven international piano competitions he has entered. Steven is a Steinway Artist. For more information, please visit www.stevenspooner.com
Recent Press Quotes: Washington Post Interview
"The recital was so absorbing for both pianist and audience that the customary quarter-hour intermission was completely forgotten when Spooner offered to play requests. Most votes went to Liszt’s Thirteenth Hungarian Rhapsody with Horowitz’s elaborations, last heard here played by Arcadi Volodos in 2005. If anything, Spooner displayed a greater sense of freedom in the slow lassu introduction, and more than matched the regaled Russian in the furiously fast friss to close.”
-STRAITS TIMES
For more information, contact the KU School of Music for more information at 785-864-3436. MUSIC.KU.EDU.
