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Imogen Cooper CBE, one of the world’s most outstanding pianists is to perform in Sydney in August, as part of her first solo tour of Australia under the auspices of Music Viva.<\/p>\nImogen Cooper CBE, one of the world’s most outstanding pianists is to perform in Sydney in August, as part of her first solo tour of Australia under the auspices of Music Viva.<\/p>\n
Her Sydney programme includes Schubert’s Piano Sonata no 21 in B flat major, D960. <\/em>Recently, Cooper completed\u00a0a cycle of Schubert\u2019s solo works at the Wigmore Hall; and in her second appearance at the 2013 Proms, she performed a Schubert recital in the Royal Albert Hall.<\/p>\n Much of the tour programme is inspired by the powerful musical and emotional kinship between Clara and Robert Schumann and their friend and prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Johannes Brahms with a special focus on Clara’s prodigious talent as a pianist.<\/p>\n \u201cThe program will include Brahms\u2019 Theme and Variations from the String Sextet, op 18<\/em>, of which Brahms did an arrangement for Clara Schumann, because she loved it so much,\u201d says Ms Cooper.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cooper will present her own adaptation of this. She says \u201cStrangely enough, Brahms simplified one or two things, or rather, he took out some, to me, absolutely salient harmonies or spacing chords. I can\u2019t believe it was to protect Clara in any way, because she was a fabulous pianist. Maybe he just did it in a hurry. Anyway, I put them back; I hope he doesn\u2019t mind. I think my version sounds better, if I may say so.\u201d<\/p>\n