FORTE/PIANO, a festival celebrating Pianos in History, kicks off today, August 5, 2015. The five-day event takes place at the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

With a full program of events, masterclasses and concerts, the festival aims to present pianos and repertoire from virtually every epoch of the instrument’s history, from a Florentine piano of the 1730s, through the late eighteenth-century Steins, Walters and Broadwoods, to the Grafs and Streichers and mid-nineteenth-century French Pleyels and Erards to the Steinway model of the 1870s and onwards.

We would like to highlight here the fascinating program for the Beethoven Reunion Concert, which will take place on Saturday August 8, 2015. Six pianists reunite for an evening of music by Beethoven, two decades after their complete recording on period instruments of the composer’s piano sonatas.

The evening’s program is fascinating for its choice of compositions. This is a unique opportunity to discover or renew acquaintance with important piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed on period instruments.

Beethoven Reunion Concert, Part I

Ursula Dütschler, piano
Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat Major, op. 27, No. 1 “quasi una fantasia”

Tom Beghin, piano
Andrew Willis, piano
Grande sonate pour le pianoforte à quatre mains, in B-flat Major, op. 106

Beethoven Reunion Concert, Part II

Zvi Meniker, piano
Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, op. 31, No. 2

David Breitman, piano
Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, op. 110

Bart van Oort, piano
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, op. 27, No. 2 “Moonlight”

Malcolm Bilson, piano
Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, op. 109

For more details see the Forte/Piano festival presentation page