Name: Richard Stokes author; Juliane Banse soprano; Lizzie Bett Estrada soprano; Aksel Rykkvin baritone; Günther Groissböck bass; Joseph Middleton piano
Start: 2026-10-10T12:00:00
Location: Wigmore Hall

Günther Groissböck

Joseph Middleton

Aksel Rykkvin

Juliane Banse

Lizzie Bett Estrada

Wigmore Hall

Tamara Stefanovich offers a programme that reflects music’s power to transcend the ordinary and touch aspects of the human spirit that words cannot express. The Grammy Award-nominated pianist, hailed by the Guardian as ‘Fearless, dazzling, exceptional’, creates a feeling of sacred space and intimacy with a lunchtime recital that rises from Bach’s Aria variata and embraces Messiaen’s tender meditations on the infant Christ.

Tamara Stefanovich piano

Elisabeth Leonskaja’s recording of the complete works of Schubert stands among the finest in the catalogue. ‘No question about it,’ notes Gramophone, ‘Leonskaja’s Schubert … should provide you with a lifetime’s worth of musical nourishment.’ The esteemed Austrian pianist opens her recital with the 20-year-old composer’s Piano Sonata in B, a delightful companion to the poetic nuances of his four late Impromptus D935. Post-interval, she turns to the radiant charm and playfulness of the sonata Schubert composed during a summer visit to the spa town of Bad Gastein.

Elisabeth Leonskaja piano

The works in Clare Hammond’s recital demand a union of exceptional technical skills and deep artistic sensibility, qualities she possesses in abundance. The British pianist’s programme reflects her profound interest in the music of Poland and determination to broaden the keyboard repertoire with new work, present here in the form of the world première of two études by Emma-Ruth Richards, a composer praised by Musical Opinion for the ‘exceptional refinement and subtlety’ of her music.

Clare Hammond piano

The Danish String Quartet, known for its adventurous programming and heartfelt artistry, is joined by Johannes Rostamo in an engrossing programme. Schubert’s String Quintet in C, completed just weeks before his death in 1828, is a magical work suffused with inventive brilliance and an astonishing breadth of moods. Thomas Adès’s Wreath – for Franz Schubert, a single-movement composition commissioned by the Danish String Quartet, echoes elements of Schubert’s Quintet as it explores the complexities of existence.

Danish String Quartet; Johannes Rostamo cello

Zee Zee’s Piano Festival programme combines coruscating examples of the art of transcription and original compositions by Schubert and Liszt. Schubert’s C minor Piano Sonata combines the composer’s lyricism with the energy and dramatic contrasts he absorbed from the music of Beethoven. The Chinese American pianist ends with Liszt’s near-mystical vision of the Villa d’este fountains and fiendishly difficult Tarantella.

Zee Zee piano

Join Ian Page to discuss the evening concert.

Pre-Concert Talk: Ian Page

Friedrich Klinger’s play Sturm und Drang, which retrospectively gave its name to the emotionally turbulent movement that swept through literature, art and music in the 1760s and 1770s, was written 250 years ago in 1776. To mark this anniversary, Ian Page and The Mozartists present a characteristically dynamic and highly-charged programme, culminating with Haydn’s celebrated and darkly dramatic ‘Farewell’ Symphony.

The Mozartists; Ian Page conductor; Alexandra Lowe soprano

200 years after its first performance, Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 130 with its original Grosse Fuge finale has lost none of its revolutionary force and power to shock. The Belcea Quartet prefaces the composer’s late masterwork with the first of his string quartets, itself a radical statement of musical democracy in which all four players serve as equals.

Belcea Quartet

Julia Hamos’s debut album, including Bartók’s Hungarian Peasant Songs together with works by Ligeti and Schubert, prompted Gramophone’s reviewer to praise the ‘sheer finesse, innate musicality and total commitment informing every note she plays.’ The Hungarian American artist, Sir András Schiff’s assistant at the Kronberg Academy in Germany, offers an equally satisfying lunchtime repertoire menu with her vibrant programme.

Julia Hamos piano

Thomas Adès launches a three-concert Residency with a carefully curated programme hallmarked by the noble beauty and inventive richness of its contents. The British composer, pianist and conductor, hailed by Prospect magazine for his ‘uncanny brilliance’, explores the art of variation and musical reflection, the latter infused in his Vesper, dedicated to the memory of Henry Purcell.

Thomas Adès piano

Whether collaborating with others or holding the stage as soloist, Katya Apekisheva’s pianism radiates from the kaleidoscopic range of timbres and expressive nuances she’s able to draw from her instrument. The Russian-born, UK-based pianist, praised by Gramophone as having ‘already achieved artistic greatness’, returns to Wigmore Hall with two works from Vienna, separated in time by 80 years yet both deeply infused with the spirit of Romanticism.

Katya Apekisheva piano

Hyeyoon Park’s debut concerto album, chosen by BBC Music Magazine as its Recording of the Month in January 2026, confirmed her place among today’s most expressive and thoughtful musicians. Since becoming the youngest ever winner of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2009, the South Korean violinist has generated international critical acclaim with interpretations described as ‘breathtaking’ by the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Hyeyoon Park violin; Juho Pohjonen piano

This important recital, which launches Richard Stokes’s new book, A Carl Loewe Song Companion, presents some of the composer’s greatest ballads, his wonderfully tender Frauenliebe, a group of his finest Goethe-Lieder, and several of his unaccountably neglected lyrical gems.