A history of the piano sonata from the Baroque to the Romantic

Joining us from Germany, British pianist Anna McCargow — Absolute First Prize-winner at the 2024 Làszlò Spezzaferri International Music Prize in Verona, Italy, among many other accolades — brings us a history of the piano sonata, from its origins in the Baroque, via its Classical masterpieces, to its expressive flowering in the Romantic era.

PROGRAMME

Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757), Selected Sonatas

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791), Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor K. 457 (1784)

Molto allegro

Adagio

Allegro assai

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827), Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major Op. 109 (1820)

Vivace ma non troppo — Adagio espressivo

Prestissimo

Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung. Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo

Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886), Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata (1849)

(After a Reading of Dante: Fantasia in the style of a Sonata)

ANNA McCARGOW

Anna McCargow, 24, is an award-winning British pianist based in Germany. Anna started playing piano at the age of five. She has received a broad musical education. From 2012 til 2019, Anna regularly attended masterclasses at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy, Salzburg. Since 2016, Anna has been studying at the Talent Music Master Courses, University of Music in Brescia, Italy, with Prof. Andreas Frölich, Prof. D. Alexeev, and Prof. D. Yoffe. In July 2021, she entered the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Cologne, under Prof. Andreas Frölich.

Passionate about classical music, Anna is actively pursuing a career both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. In 2021 and 2022, Anna took an active part in the Musica Mundi International Chamber Music Festival in Belgium. In 2024, she initiated the organisation of a chamber music section within the framework of the Clavis International Music Festival in Füssen, Germany (Artistic Director Natalia Panina-Rummel). In 2025, Anna participated in the Chetham's International Piano Summer School, where she had masterclasses with Peter Donohoe and Murray McLachlan.

Since 2018, Anna has regularly performed with orchestras in Germany, Italy and the UK under such conductors as Uri Segal, Sergio Baietta, Raffaele Napoli, Timo Handschuh, Tim Redmond and Robert Guy. Her active repertoire includes piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg and Schumann. Since January 2023, Anna McCargow has been a volunteer musician for the Live Music Now Cologne e.V. project of The International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.

Anna is a winner of several International piano competitions: Val Tidone, Italy, 2016, 1st Prize; Leganes, Spain, 2018, 2nd Prize; International Piano Festival, Malaga, Spain, 2019, 1st Prize; César Franck International Piano Competition, Brussels, Belgium, 2020, 3rd Prize. Her most recent awards include: the Brigitte-Kempen-Competition, Aachen, Germany, 2023, 2nd Prize; Music of the World International Piano Competition, Astana, Kazakhstan, 2023, 1st Prize; Làszlò Spezzaferri International Music Prize, Verona, Italy, 2024, Grand Prix in the Professional Category and Absolute 1st Prize; 3rd Ariano International Piano Competition, Irpino, Italy, 2024, Absolute 1st Prize; Stockport International Young Musicians Competition, UK, 2025, 1st Prize; Júlio Cardona International Music Competition, Portugal, 2025, 3rd prize.

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