Monday at Last with Strings and Piano

Monday at Last is the concert series where Cecilia Zilliacus and Kati Raitinen invite guest artists to join them in performing both new and older music. This time, the guest is Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson.

Alasdair Beatson combines a career as one of Britain’s leading chamber pianists with regular solo appearances – often in a highly varied and adventurous repertoire. In recent seasons, he has performed several times at London’s Wigmore Hall, alongside artists such as cellist Steven Isserlis and violinist Viktoria Mullova.

Here we hear him in a series of exciting duos with Cecilia Zilliacus and Kati Raitinen: Benjamin Britten’s Suite for Violin and Piano, Ravel’s homage to his fellow countryman Gabriel Fauré – and to demonstrate just how deserved that homage was, also Fauré’s First Cello Sonata and Allegretto. The Allegretto, originally for two cellos, is performed here in an arrangement by Kati Raitinen for violin and cello.

Alone at the piano, Alasdair Beatson performs Piano Figures – ten exquisite miniatures for solo piano by George Benjamin. The concert concludes with Debussy’s impressionist masterpiece La mer, in a piano trio arrangement by acclaimed British composer Sally Beamish.