« All Activities
Brought to you by: Story & Song Bookstore Bistro
Ukrainian concert pianist Olena Blagulyak presents a program that spans four centuries of keyboard music—from the refined elegance of French Baroque in François Couperin’s Ordre for harpsichord, to the mystical and rarely performed Forgotten Melodies, Op. 39, by Nikolai Medtner, featuring his more widely known Sonata Tragica.
The second half continues with Stravinsky’s Three Movements from his ballet Petrushka—a vivid retelling of the puppet Petrushka’s unrequited love and tragic fate. Full of rhythmic brilliance, bold harmonies, and theatrical flair, this 1921 transcription remains one of the most technically demanding works in the piano repertoire.
The program concludes with the dazzling, jazz-infused Toccatina by Ukrainian composer and pianist Nikolai Kapustin, who explored jazz during a period of limited artistic freedom in the Soviet Union.