Gstaad Piano Academy with Maria João Pires

Sofya Menshikova, Piano

R. Schumann (1810-1856)

Piano Sonata no. 2 g-minor op. 22

Recorded live on 9 August 2023 in the Kirchgemeindehaus Gstaad.

Last year, the Gstaad Piano Academy’s students had a very special professor: The legendary pianist Maria João Pires worked with them for three days on pieces by Mozart, Schumann and Chopin. She did not just focus on technical aspects of piano playing and the best posture at the piano. Pires was even more concerned with the big questions: What is music? Where does musicality come from? And how can one understand and play a piece properly? Her answers and thoughts are as fascinating as they are instructive.