Fire, Fantasy & Gershwin

This isn't a program assembled for a living room. It's a competition program you happen to be hearing in one.

Pianist Lisa Spector is preparing for an international piano competition, and this Groupmuse program is a preview of the full solo repertoire she's been building toward that stage.

The music ranges from Bach's towering Chaconne arranged by Brahms for left hand to Earl Wild’s arrangements of Gershwin's jazz-laced wit, with detours through Ginastera's Argentine ferocity, Chopin's revolutionary fury and Villa-Lobos clowning around.

The program alternates between music for two hands with music for left hand only, but if you close your eyes, you’ll never be able to tell the difference. Heard from six feet away, the effect is something a concert hall can't replicate.

This is piano music the way it was meant to be experienced.

This program spans roughly 300 years, from Bach's Baroque grandeur to Gershwin's jazz-age swagger. The Chaconne was originally written for solo violin by J.S. Bach and later arranged for left hand alone by Brahms. Ginastera was one of the great Argentine composers of the 20th century, and his First Sonata crackles with the energy of his homeland. Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasie is one of his last and most searching works. Earl Wild's arrangement of Gershwin brings the American songbook into the concert hall as pure virtuoso piano music. Villa-Lobos, Brazil's most celebrated composer, gets the last word, and he's in a playful mood.