Summer-Festival: Debut Bridget Yee

This pianist fits into no mold. Bridget Yee was born in Malaysia in 2004, came to London at age eleven to study, and went on to win the Windsor International Piano Competition, among others. Yet she doesn’t shine only at the keyboard: she also trained as a cellist and double bassist, performing in orchestral concerts under Jac van Steen and Benjamin Zander. That broadened her horizons, she says — and benefits her piano playing, too. As a performer, Bridget Yee is tireless in seeking inspiration outside of music: you just have to look around, she insists. She usually introduces her recitals herself — much to the audience’s delight. And she has a distinct taste for unusual, original programs. For her Lucerne Festival Debut program, she has chosen works ranging from Haydn to the present day. Two famous transcriptions, as different as can be, are part of the mix: Isolde’s Liebestod by Wagner and Gershwin’s Embraceable You. With Samuel Barber she salutes an American classic, and in Liszt’s great B minor Sonata, she brings together sheer virtuosity with a razor-clear sense of structure.

Performers:
Bridget Yee, piano

Program:
Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
Isolde’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde. Piano version by Franz Liszt, S 477

Samuel Barber (1910–1981)
Movement I from Excursions, Op. 20

George Gershwin (1898–1937)
Embraceable You from Seven Virtuoso Etudes on Gershwin Songs for Piano, arranged by Earl Wilde

Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Fantasia (Capriccio) in C major, Hob. XVII:4

Samuel Barber (1910–1981)
Movement III from Excursions, Op. 20

Laila Arafah (*2004)
shadow undulations of a bellflower
Swiss premiere

Franz Liszt (1811–1886)
Piano Sonata in B minor, S 178

This concert has no intermission.

Tickets from 24.03.026 | 10 am (CET)