Kevin Chen by Scarlatti, D., Chopin, Moscheles, Schumann, From (2024/2024), University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, United Kingdom

Generations of musicians have responded unusually yet fiercely to Domenico Scarlatti’s strangely enigmatic yet crystal-clear piano sonatas – micro-dramas in which musical motifs form the characters, from the villainous and heroic to the lonely and lost. Poulenc described them as ‘my favourite Brut Champagne’. A young colleague of the composer’s talked of Scarlatti’s ‘ingenious jesting with art’. Kevin Chen launches his recital at the University Church with a selection of these intriguing works in the fine company of repertoire staples by Chopin and Schumann, and the most affectionate of Ignaz Moscheles’s vivid set of Étude caractéristique.