Pianist Sarah Grunstein Returns To Sydney Opera House

Internationally acclaimed Australian pianist, Sarah Grunstein, returns to the Sydney Opera House by popular demand, to perform two concerts in 2019. While Grunstein is distinguished for her interpretation of Bach's works, described by The New York Times as "tempestuous" and "imbued with a luminous calm", the praise she has received is not limited to her performances of this composer. Her two different 2019 recital programs include works by Beethoven as a prelude to his 250th birthday celebration, as well as Chopin, Schumann, and Debussy.

The first Sydney Opera House concert on October 3 presents a canvas of contrast and textured landscapes: Beethoven's Pastorale Sonata, Op. 28, Chopin's Funeral March Sonata, Op. 35, and Schumann's impassioned and deeply personal Carnaval, Op. 9. Grunstein remarks, "We journey through the pastoral nature of Beethoven's Op. 28, then -- in Chopin's 2nd Sonata -- through Chopin's structure of drama and evocation of death. Finally, with Schumann, we find ourselves amidst the parade, characters, and dances at the masked ball depicted in his Carnaval.

Of Grunstein's Beethoven performance The New York Times wrote: "Beethoven's Sonata in D was delivered with a directness that only heightened the tragedy that propels the central Largo; the surrounding three movements danced with appropriate grace..."

In the second concert, Sarah Grunstein juxtaposes Debussy's Impressionist Estampes, Beethoven's heroic Waldstein Sonata (Op. 53), and Chopin's pianistic, nostalgic romanticism: a selection of Chopin's mazurkas and nocturnes, his Berceuse, and his passionate first Ballade (Op. 23).

Many will remember Sarah Grunstein as the pianist who, as a young teenager, performed the soundtrack for Bruce Beresford's early Australian film, "The Getting of Wisdom." Sarah Grunstein soon after moved to New York, graduating from The Juilliard School (where she was later appointed as a Teaching Fellow), and earned her doctorate at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her career has included concerts at London's Southbank Centre, New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Italy, Austria, Hungary, the U.K., New Zealand, and her homeland.