Tuesday, March 31 at 8:30 PM at Sala 500
A pianist of formidable technique and rare intellectual depth, Marie-Ange Nguci is one of the most exciting talents of her generation. She makes her debut at Lingotto with a program that transforms pure virtuosity into a literary narrative. The performance on Tuesday, March 31 at 8:30 PM at Sala 500, charts a journey from Chopin’s Rondò Op. 16 to Schumann’s Kreisleriana on the first half, going on with Liszt’s Aux cyprès de la Villa d’Este. Thrénodie I,II and Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este from Années de Pèlerinage: Troisiéme Année S. 163 and closing with Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit.
Marie-Ange Nguci
Growing up in Albania, she entered the Paris conservatory at the age of 13 and studied with Prof. Nicholas Angelich. She studied orchestra conducting at Vienna’s Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, and was admitted at the age of 18 for a PhD-DMA degree in Music at the City University of New York. She also holds an MBA degree in Cultural Management. Regular guest of some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, such as Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Tokyo Suntory Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Zürich Tonhalle and Sydney Opera House, Marie-Ange Nguci has firmly positioned herself as one of today’s leading young soloists. She collaborates with important orchestras as Oslo Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Estonian Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, working with conductors such as Paavo Järvi, Fabio Luisi, Stéphane Denève, Alan Gilbert, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, John Storgårds, Marc Albrecht, Dalia Stasevska and Marie Jacquot.
A program of visionary brillance
The recital opens with Chopin’s Rondo in E-flat major, Op. 16. Composed in 1832, this work captures a young artist transitioning toward expressive maturity, where a passionate introduction gives way to a joyful, contrasting main theme. This same interplay of light and shadow defines Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (1838), a cornerstone of Romantic visionary art inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s eccentric Kapellmeiste Johannes Kreisler, which explores extreme emotional shifts through abrupt, restless transitions. Aux cyprès de la Villa d’Este. Thrénodie I,II show Liszt’s introspection and meditation where Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este anticipates the impressionistic textures of Debussy and Ravel: the concert closes with his Gaspard de la nuit (1908), where Aloysius Bertrand’s prose poems are transformed into musical imagies.