Musical Offerings - 6. The Seasons (Michael Song, piano)

The Seasons — piano solo: Michael Song

As the seasons turn, music transforms.

Pianist Michael Song presents a recital exploring change, character and imagination through two very different musical worlds: Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons and Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A major, K. 331.

Written as a musical journey through the year, Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons captures fleeting scenes of nineteenth-century Russian life and landscape: winter firesides, the first signs of spring, summer evenings, harvest, hunting and the melancholy of autumn. Each miniature creates its own world, while together they trace the passing of time and the changing moods that accompany it.

Mozart’s A major Sonata approaches transformation from another direction. Rather than beginning with a conventional sonata movement, Mozart opens with a graceful theme and six variations, continually rediscovering the same musical idea through changes of character, texture and expression. A Minuet follows before the sonata bursts into the famous Alla turca: the brilliant “Turkish March” that has become one of Mozart’s most recognisable works.

Together, the two works explore music in motion: one through the changing months of a year, the other through the changing possibilities contained within a musical idea.

Presented as part of Musical Offerings 2026 by L’Accademia. Proudly supported by Orakei Local Board.

Bio

Michael Song is a New Zealand pianist whose musical development began under the mentorship of Flavio Villani. He later completed a Bachelor of Music with First-Class Honours at the University of Auckland, studying with Rae de Lisle, and a Master of Music Studies in Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Paul Rickard-Ford. His musical interests span classical performance and improvisation, and he has performed in New Zealand, Australia and Europe.