Program Architecture
85 Minutes
A complete recital arc in two parts, with a historical first half
and a culminating contemporary statement
Part I
45 Minutes
Historical Preludes
across eras
Part II
40 Minutes
Auerbach’s 24 Preludes
for Piano
A CURATED CONCERT EXPERIENCE
Lera Auerbach
Art of Preludes
A Journey through time, memory, and transformation – from Bach, Chopin, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich to Lera Auerbach’s own complete cycle of 24 Preludes
THE IDEA
Art of Preludes
A complete world
In Art of Preludes, the prelude is treated not as a curtain-raiser, but as a fully realised act of thought: condensed, lucid, and profoundly human. The program places fragments across centuries into dialogue, revealing a hidden architecture that links structure, emotion, memory, and time. What begins in order passes through intimacy, fracture, and irony before arriving at a contemporary cycle that gathers the form back into wholeness.
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Totality — each prelude as a complete world
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Contrast — meaning through juxtaposition
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Time — memory, return, and transformation
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Architecture — the cycle, the complete form
THE ARC
Preludes across history
The evening progresses from foundational clarity to psychological depth, mystical dissolution, memory, irony, and finally
a complete contemporary synthesis.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Architecture of Time
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN
Intimacy of Feeling
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
Mysticism and Dissolution
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
Memory and Resonance
DIMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
Tension and Irony
LERA AUERBACH
A Full Cycle, A Return, A Reimagining
THE EXPERIENCE
Beyond a recital.
A field of listening
Time becomes material. Memory becomes sound.
Each prelude functions as a threshold, self-contained, yet transformed by what surrounds it. The result is not a sequence of miniatures, but a living dramatic arc.
For presenters, it offers a program with both immediate emotional power and deep intellectual identity.
Philosophy of Listening
Silence shapes. Listening creates.
Listening is reimagined as an active, shaping force in which silence, resonance, and attention themselves become the primary materials of musical thought.
An Architecture of Time
Fragments become form. Time becomes structure.
Each prelude stands as a self-contained threshold, yet, through sequence and resonance, it unfolds into a continuous temporal structure shaped by memory, contrast, and return.
A Program of Distinction
Immediate in feeling. Enduring in thought.
The program offers presenters a rare synthesis of direct emotional impact and conceptual depth, creating a distinctive artistic statement that resonates with both audiences and institutions.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lera Auerbach
Lera Auerbach brings to the piano not only interpretive authority, but the rare perspective of a major composer thinking from within the form
In this program, historical repertoire is not merely revisited. It is reheard through an artist for whom music, language, memory, and structure belong to the same
★★★★★
“A Pianistic Powerhouse”
Washington Post
Joseph McLella
★★★★★
Music of extraordinary power and intensity.
The New Yorker
Alex Ross
★★★★★
This is music of emotional, or at least rhetorical extremes: furious toccatas and frozen stasis, grandiose chordal explosions and tunes tricksily harmonised. The sincerity is unquestionable.
BBC Music Magazine
Carlun McDonald
for presenters
Elegant to present
Easy to Program
Repertoire
PART I
Perfect for maintaining your look
45 min.
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- Prelude in C major, BWV 846
- Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
- Prelude in C major, Op. 34 No. 1
- Prelude in A minor, Op. 34 No. 2
- Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915)
- Prelude in A minor, Op. 11 No. 2
- Prelude in E minor, Op. 11 No. 4
- Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
- Prelude in A minor, Op. 28 No. 2
- Prelude in G major, Op. 28 No. 3
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Prelude in E minor, BWV 855
- Dmitri Shostakovich
- Prelude in E minor, Op. 34 No. 4
- Frédéric Chopin
- Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4
- Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)
- Prelude in G major, Op. 32 No. 5
- Alexander Scriabin
- Prelude in D major, Op. 11 No. 5
- Frédéric Chopin
- Prelude in D major, Op. 28 No. 5
- Prelude in B minor, Op. 28 No. 6
- Alexander Scriabin
- Prelude in B minor, Op. 11 No. 6
- Dmitri Shostakovich
- Prelude in B minor, Op. 34 No. 6
- Frédéric Chopin
- Prelude in E major, Op. 28 No. 9
- Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 28 No. 10
- Prelude in B major, Op. 28 No. 11
- Alexander Scriabin
- Prelude in B-flat minor, Op. 11 No. 16
- Dmitri Shostakovich
- Prelude in E-flat minor, Op. 34 No. 14
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Prelude in E-flat minor, BWV 853
- Alexander Scriabin
- Prelude in E-flat minor, Op. 11 No. 14
- Frédéric Chopin
- Prelude in G minor, Op. 28 No. 22
AMERICAN PREMIERE
PART II
Our most requested experience
40 min.
- Lera Auerbach (b. 1973)
- 24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
- Moderato in C major
- Presto in A minor
- Moderato in G major
- Appassionato – Nostalgico in E minor
- Andantino sognante in D major
- Chorale in B minor
- Andante in A major
- Presto in F♯ minor
- Allegretto in E major
- Largo in C♯ minor
- Misterioso in B major
- Allegro bruto in G♯ minor
- Andante in F♯ major
- Allegretto in E♭ minor
- Moderato in D♭ major
- Allegro ma non troppo, tragico in B♭ minor
- Adagio tragico in A♭ major
- Grave in F minor
- Adagio religioso in E♭ major
- Misterioso in C minor
- Allegro moderato in B♭ major
- Andante in G minor
- Allegretto in F major
- Grandioso in D minor
- 24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 41
- Encores
Contact
Bring the Art of Preludes to your Stage
Designed not simply to be performed, but to transform the space in which it is heard