About the Concert

Multi-talented Sydney-born pianist Alexander Yau makes his debut recital at the Independent Theatre with works by Beethoven, Ravel and Liszt. Described as ‘A master at the piano’ by pianist Balazs Sokolay who praises his 'artistic taste is good enough not to make any any kind of “show” even in the most brilliant parts of great masterworks', Alexander Yau continues to seek deep and meaningful interpretations of the great works in classical music and present them to the wider public in its truest and purest form. He is a sincere artist and thoughtful musician, who uses his flawless technique for the sake of showing the greatness and genius of the composers.

In this concert, Alexander will take us into the poetic and fantasy world of piano music which contains direct references and allusions to other art forms, summoning the marriage of poetic ideas and musical thought. He will open the concert with two evocative and rather 'fantasia-like' Sonatas Op. 27 by Beethoven, no. 2 being the famous 'Moonlight Sonata' and then proceed to Ravel's fiendishly difficult yet the most intricate and formidable piano work, Gaspard de la nuit, based on the 3 poems by Aloysius Bertrand. In the second half of the program, Alexander will take us into the journey of Liszt, in a selection of divine and highly passionate works from his Harmonies Poétiques et religieuses and Années de pèlerinage, Year 2 Italy.

2025 marks an important year for Alexander in which he has commenced his position as Associate Lecturer in Collaborative Piano Faculty at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. This recital celebrates his early staged and promising career in some of his best interpretations of the great masterpieces by Beethoven, Ravel and Liszt.

DATE/TIME: 24th May, 2025, 7:00pm

VENUE: The Independent Theatre

PROGRAM

Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata no. 13 in E-flat major Op. 27 no. 1 “Sonata quasi Fantasia”

Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp minor Op. 27 no. 2 “Moonlight”

Maurice Ravel
Gaspard de la nuit

----Interval----

Franz Liszt
Harmonies Poétiques et religieuses, S. 173

- Funerailles

- Benediction de dieu sans la solitude

Années de pèlerinage, Year 2 Italy, S. 161

- Sonetti 104 del Petrarca

- Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia Quasi Sonata

Alexander Yau, piano

(Approximately 100 minutes, inclusive of a 15-minute interval)

About the Artist

His major concerto appearances as soloist include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Rachmaninoff’s Concerto no.3, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra with Rachmaninoff’s Concerto no. 1 and a major tour with the SBS Youth Orchestra in Australia, with Rachmaninov’s Concerto no. 2, concertos performances with the Festival Orchestra Sinfonica “Duchi d’Acquaviva” and the Budweis Philharmonic Orchestra, finally the Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra with Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 2. He has given solo and chamber music performances at the FOCUS Festival in Lincoln Centre NYC, Villa Reale and Teatre Commune di Atri in Italy, locally in Troldhaugen (Grieg's home) in Bergen, Oslo Museum, Rexxam Hall in Takamatsu, as well as at the Australia International Canberra Music Festival, the Phoenix Central Park and City Recital Hall in Sydney. In 2022 he released his first album in collaboration with clarinettist Deborah de Graff, featuring his own compositions and works by other Australian composers.

He has been awarded numerous prizes such as 6th Prize at the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, 3rd Prize at the Teresa Carreno International Masters Piano Competition and special prizes at the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition. He was the winner of the Sydney Kawai Piano Scholarship, top prize winner of the Australian National Piano Award and the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition. He is Masters Graduate of the renowned Juilliard School studying under prof. Matti Raekallio. He completed his Bachelor of Music piano performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, with first class honours studying with Daniel Herscovitch and Elizabeth Powell.

Outside of the piano, Alexander is also a fine clarinetist, vocalist, composer and music arranger. He studied clarinet with Deborah de Graaff and composition with Dr. Trevor Pearce at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He was awarded his AMusA diploma for clarinet in 2012 and the James Easton Memorial Award for composition in 2013. His work ‘Grand Passacaglia for Clarinet and piano’ is performed and recorded by his teacher Deborah de Graaff at the ABC classic fm. He gave the Australian premiere his newly written virtuosic transcription of “Dance of the Seven Veils from Richard’s Strauss’ Salome” for solo piano at the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition, as one of the 3 Australian competitors.

Alexander studied conducting with Christopher Seamens and Jeffery Milarsky at the Juilliard School. He served as an assistant conductor for the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour Production of Madama Butterfly in 2023. He recently participated in the Pehlivanian Opera Conducting Academy in Slovenia and conducted a tour of 9 performances of Puccini’s La Boheme in various cities. He and pianist Ching Pong (Dono) Ng, co-founded the Nikolai Medtner Chamber Orchestra, where Alexander conducted the Shostakovich Piano Concerto no. 1 and Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings at its inaugural concert. He and Dono have been pioneers of the works of Nikolai Medtner and have put on a concert series 'Medtner and his Pianism' at the Sydney Conservatorium on a regular basis promoting his works in conjunction with other composers around this time such as Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Arensky, Prokofiev as well as Medtner's great inspirations from the past in the likes of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms.