A concert like no other will be happening at the Manoel Theatre featuring Chopin’s original 1847 piano and the première of Vuković’s Piano Concerto. This will be a rare opportunity to hear one of only three pianos in the world which were touched by the great composer, Frédéric Chopin, and are still playable – a Pleyel piano from 1847. Chopin had selected this specific piano at the Paris shop of Pleyel, purchased and sent it to his partner, George Sand with the intention to compose upon it during the summer of 1847.
The mechanism of this piano has been meticulously restored and, for this concert, the piano will be tuned in the same manner recommended by the maker in Chopin’s days, not like a modern piano is tuned. Two formations of sextet, comprising a total of eight musicians, will be performing. Pianist-composer, Nikolai Vuković, will be joined by Monika Kammerlander – the long-standing ex-leader of the Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg, and fine musicians from the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra to perform some of the greatest masterpieces of Chopin in the first part of the concert.
The opening work will be the Grande Polonaise Brillante Op. 22 arranged for piano and string quintet by Vuković, specifically for this concert.
The Romance (Larghetto) from the first piano concerto Op. 11 arranged for sextet by R. Hofmann will then follow. Chopin never published a third piano concerto and everyone was left to wonder what it would have sounded like ...until now. A very beautiful but relatively unknown masterpiece entitled Allegro de Concert Op. 46 was published as a solo piece for piano, based on a sketch that he had made for the third concerto, exhibiting sections which were meant to be played by orchestra and others for piano.
The final major highlight is Vuković’s own Piano Concerto in B-flat major Op. 6 which will be premièred in the second part of the concert on a another historic piano.
The Pleyel Sextet plays Chopin & Vuković takes place at the Manoel on Sunday, December 8 at 5pm. Tickets available at teatrumanoel.com.mt