The 2024 InClassica International Music Festival, organised by SAMIT Event Group, marks its second day on Friday 2nd February with a special concert featuring the talents of the globally-acclaimed UK pianist Ashley Wass, a Gramophone Award nominee, winner of the London International Piano Competition in 1997, prizewinner at the Leeds Piano Competition in 2000, and a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Returning to Dubai solely for this event, Wass will be taking to the stage of the spectacular Dubai Opera for a solo recital, where he will be presenting a special hand-picked programme that opens with Ludwig van Beethoven's Bagatelles, Op. 126, a set of six pieces that published late in his career, in 1825. Next comes Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor’s lyrical and melodic Piano Sonata No. 2, before a rendition of Percy Grainger’s arrangement of Gabriel Fauré’s celebrated Après un rêve. The programme continues with Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 1, coming from the influential 1893 Trois Gnossiennes, followed by the famed Clair de lune from Claude Debussy. Finally, Wass will bring the evening to a close by delighting audiences with his interpretation of César Franck’s 1884 Prélude, Choral et Fugue, FWV 21 for piano solo, a striking work that is often held as a particularly distinctive example of the use of cyclic form in piano music.
