Cambridge Summer Music Festival presents Leon McCawley

Mozart Sonata No. 1 in C K279
Beethoven Sonata No. 32 in C minor Op. 111
Schumann Abegg Variations Op. 1
Hans Gál Three Sketches Op. 7
Brahms Klavierstücke Op. 119
Chopin Polonaise-Fantasie Op. 61

One of Britain’s foremost pianists, Leon McCawley has forged a highly successful career since winning first prize in the 1993 International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition the same year. Since then, his concert performances and extensive discography have established him as a pianist of great integrity and variety. In this concert for Cambridge Summer Music, he celebrates some of the firsts and lasts of great piano composers, from Mozart's first piano sonata to the last of Chopin's polonaises.

"His seemingly ascetic, self-contained persona would deftly step aside to allow comedy, fantasy and passion to hold the floor, on the back of a disarmingly profound and mercurial virtuosity…" Classical Source

"We have perhaps more media-glittering pianists, but none can surpass McCawley in his thoughtfulness of approach, and his ability to make himself as one with an instrument new to him." Birmingham Post