Echoes of Iberia: A Piano Recital

Featuring works by prominent South African composers alongside works from the Spanish Baroque and modern Latin America, Echoes of Iberia demonstrates how Spanish musical idioms have travelled across time and space to inspire new artistic expressions.

The program opens on a poignant note with the world premiere of Momentos de vacío by South African composer Alexander Johnson. Written shortly after the passing of a lifelong friend and mentor, this elegiac new work offers a meditation on grief and memory.

From intimacy, the program moves into brilliance with a selected group of keyboard Sonatas by Spanish Baroque composer Antonio Soler. Grounded in the keyboard traditions of his contemporary Domenico Scarlatti, Soler’s sonatas demand virtuosic dexterity while radiating the distinct colours, rhythms, and warmth of 18th-century Spanish popular music.

Continuing the cross-cultural thread, a first South African performance of our very own Chris van Rhyn’s brand-new work, Artefactos. A vivid and playful exploration, the piece deconstructs and reinterprets rhythmic and harmonic elements from both Spain and Latin America, creating a dialogue between tradition and modern inventive pianism.

The classical core of the evening returns to Domenico Scarlatti. A carefully curated set of his sonatas illustrates why Scarlatti remains celebrated alongside Bach and Handel as one of the masters of the Baroque keyboard era, showcasing his daring harmonic language and boundless rhythmic vitality.

Closing the performance is Costa Rican composer Manuel Matarrita’s Milonga for the Left Hand Alone. Representing an echo of Iberian heritage transplanted into Central America, this evocative work demands both physical and expressive mastery, weaving a rich musical tapestry using only a single hand across the keyboard.