Jonathan Powell brings a programme of substantial solo piano repertoire, from composers preoccupied with the transcendental power of virtuosity.

Alkan – Concerto For Solo Piano; Sorabji – Le Jardin Parfumé; Busoni – Fantasia Contrappuntistica.

Alkan’s Concerto For Solo Piano requires the performer to act both as soloist and orchestra, and speaks a highly colouristic and perfumed musical language influenced by Liszt. Concluding the programme, Busoni’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica filters pianistic transcendentalism through a rigorous contrapuntal technique: a completion of the final, unfinished Contrapunctus from Bach’s The Art of Fugue, the piece is both an expression of admiration for the German composer and, arguably, the culmination of the Romantic ideal of virtuoso piano writing.

Tickets available from www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ticketsoxford/#promoter=340