Lukas Geniusas, St John's Smith Square

Although he took silver medal the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition in 2010, the Lithuanian-Russian pianist Lukas Geniusas has only just become familiar to London audiences. In April 2015, he made his debut on the Wigmore Hall stage; this January, he will make his first appearance in the Southbank Centre’s International Piano Series. Praised in Russia for his distinctively contemporary style and mastery of an obscure repertoire, Geniusas has every chance of becoming a future favourite. Catch him before he becomes an instant sell-out.
For his recital at St John’s Smith Square, Geniusas will present a winningly diverse encompassing four great composers. The evening starts with Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 1 (1795). Dedicated to classical maestro Joseph Haydn, it shows the then teenage composer skilfully picking up his tutor’s style. It will be followed by Brahms’ own Piano Sonata No. 1 (1853), his first published work. This begins where Beethoven left off, taking its opening from the Hammerklavier sonata before its three later movements play around with different forms.
After an interval, Geniusas will shoot off into the twentieth century. Bartok’s 3 Burlesques (1908-11) saw him return the folk-based style of his earlier works. They mix the traditional with the jagged shocks of the new. The evening closes with Piano Sonata No. 7 (1942) by Prokofiev. One of the composer’s three ‘war sonatas’, it was written soon after the Soviet secret police had murdered a close friend. The result sees him at his most dissonant and explosive. The first movement moves from anticipation to violence, turning the sonata form into a terrifying echo of itself. The second is an outpouring of grief, while the virtuosic finale feels like a crazed dance with death, spinning out into a frenzied toccata. Ironically awarded a Stalin Prize, it one of the most powerful sonatas of the modern age.