Romantic Depth, Modern Brilliance

Aristo Sham, 2025 Van Cliburn Gold Medalist, presents an evening of profound intimacy and radiant romance, revealing the piano’s full spectrum through the transcendent lens of Busoni’s masterful transcriptions and the eloquent voice of Brahms.

Busoni’s Chaconne in D minor transforms Bach’s violin masterpiece into a sweeping, Romantic tapestry, where solemn architecture blossoms into grand pianistic vision. His transcriptions of six Brahms chorale preludes shimmer with his own sonority while preserving Brahms’s twilight introspection. In the 1922 Variations and Fugue on Chopin’s C minor Prelude, Busoni elevates a granite-like miniature into a majestic, soaring tribute that stretches far beyond its original spark.

Brahms’s late Klavierstücke—Opp. 76 and 116–119—whisper his twilight voice in luminous, intimate miniatures, and Aristo Sham will present a carefully chosen selection of these treasures. The evening culminates with Brahms’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, Op. 1—a youthful, bold spark already bearing the unmistakable voice of a master.