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Guest pianist Gregory Partain presents a solo piano recital that draws together three masterworks of the classical piano repertoire. From J.S. Bach’s dizzying Fantasia in C minor, the program leaps forward a century to Beethoven’s final piano sonata, Op. 111 for a glimpse into the deaf composer’s wonderous and all-encompassing inner world. The program concludes with the ecstasy of Franz Liszt’s “Water Fountains of the Villa d’Este,” a dazzling adventure in sound.
Program
Fantasia in C minor, BWV 906 (1738)
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Sonata no. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 (1822)
L. van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Les jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este (The Water Fountains of the Villa d’Este; 1877) Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Gregory Partain's Bio
In his nearly four decades on the concert stage, Gregory Partain has performed as piano recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber music collaborator throughout the United States, as well as in Germany, Poland, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Russia, and Greece.
Concerto appearances include performances with the Seattle Symphony, the Lexington Philharmonic, the City of Athens (Greece) Symphony, the Yaroslavl (Russia) Symphony Orchestra, the Eugene (OR) Symphony, and the Sunriver and Peter Britt summer festival orchestras. Recent solo piano projects include Beethoven’s Odyssey—a seven-evening lecture-recital series comprising 22 Beethoven sonatas, with performances in Lexington (KY), Portland (OR), Boston, and Chicago. This year, he is collaborating with a playwright to develop an original play about Clara Wieck Schumann and Robert Schumann, to be premiered at Transylvania U. in Lexington, KY in May, with Partain performing the music.
Partain has garnered consistent critical acclaim for his recordings of a wide-ranging repertoire spanning the 17th to 21st centuries: "Gregory Partain is a gifted pianist, and every item is intelligently and sympathetically played” (BBC Music Magazine); “This is my kind of pianism: strong, intelligent, unshowy, authoritative and deeply satisfying” (Terry Teachout); "Some of the best Scarlatti I've ever heard...Dare I say it? These approach the same level as Horowitz's legendary recordings” (American Record Guide); “Gregory Partain is a composer of significance” (Fanfare Magazine).
As a composer, Partain has focused primarily on vocal genres. In fall of 2015, the Lexington Singers and University of Kentucky Chorale presented Requiem, Partain’s major work, scored for double chorus and orchestra. In 2022, he released his third compact disc recording, “Intimations of the Immortal Beloved,” a collaboration with tenor Daniel Weeks. The album includes vocal music by Beethoven, solo piano music by Robert Schumann, and Partain’s original song cycle “Come to the Garden in Spring,” inspired by love poetry of Rumi. An active member of the Kentucky Music Teachers Association and Music Teachers National Association (KMATA), Partain was named 2005 KMTA-MTNA Commissioned Composer. He has also performed recitals as the featured conference artist for the KMTA and Hawaii MTA.
Originally from Camas, WA, Partain received his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of Washington and Masters and Doctoral degrees from The University of Texas at Austin. Since 1991, Dr. Partain has taught at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and chairs the Music Program.
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