This program invites listeners into a rich tapestry of twentieth-century piano music where echoes of the Baroque tradition inspire new, individual voices.

It opens with the shimmering, impressionistic landscapes of Debussy’s Préludes, whose titles are placed at the end of each piece to reflect his unique poetic approach. Bach’s enduring influence is celebrated in Busoni’s immortal piano transcription of the Chaconne from the Second Violin Partita, a work that became an instant staple of the repertoire. Gubaidulina passionately reimagines the continuous variation form in her 1962 Chaconne. Throughout her life, she felt a profound affinity with Bach, especially in their shared fascination with number, numerical symbolism, and his chorales—elements that resonate strikingly and form the very foundation of her own Chaconne. Together, these works chart a lineage of innovation—composers who, like Debussy and Gubaidulina, forged unconventional paths of timbral and structural exploration.

The journey culminates in Ralf Yusuf Gawlick’s Mysterium doloris quintae (Tropen-Kreuz), a meditation on the crucifixion that takes shape as a musical cruciform. Quotations from Bach, Mozart, and children’s songs from around the world intersect within an aural cross that binds Christ’s suffering to the pain of all innocents. Bach’s Mache dich, mein Herze, rein and the Crucifixus stand at its core, while Mozart’s K.414 Andante and Contessa perdono introduce moments of purity, mercy, and forgiveness. Suspended between recitations of the Ave Maria plainchant, the work collapses past and present, revealing Golgotha as an ever-present reality wherever innocence suffers. In this cruciform, suffering is transformed into a space where grace, mercy, and hope break through, embodying Christ’s words: “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them. For such is the kingdom of heaven.”