“Montero’s playing has everything: crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power … soulful lyricism … and best of all, unsentimental expressivity.”

The New York Times

The dazzling Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero makes her first appearance at 92NY in Westward – a dynamic program exploring the immigrant experience. Montero presents works by three of Russia’s most prominent composers, each of whom emigrated to the US in the early 20th century (Prokofiev temporarily) to escape oppression in their homeland. Montero closes her program improvising in real time to a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s short film The Immigrant, the tale of an everyman immigrant making his journey across the ocean to America. It’s the work that inspired Montero to create Westward, and a stunning coda to an artistically brilliant and relevant program.

Concert available for viewing online for 72 hours from time of broadcast.

Program
Prokofiev Sarcasms
Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 14
Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36
Stravinsky Piano Sonata in F-sharp Minor (1924)
Chaplin The Immigrant