Verona Maier, one of Romania’s most distinguished pianists, is to perform two of Johann Sebastian Bach’s best-loved compositions at a concert in Rickmansworth on Wednesday, November 16.
Verona, who is vice-rector of the National University of Music in Bucharest, first performed for Three Rivers Music Society in October 2021. She made such an impression that she was immediately invited to return this November.
Although much of her life has been devoted to the piano and teaching, Verona is also a highly regarded harpsichordist and organist and is often asked to provide music advice for film production companies. Her credits include An Unforgettable Summer, a 1994 film starring Kristin Scott Thomas.
At her solo recital on November 16 she will play Bach’s Partita No. 1, the first of a set of six keyboard suites composed between 1725 and 1731. Bach said he wrote the ground-breaking compositions to refresh the spirits of music lovers, and almost 300 years later they are still achieving that aim.
The concert’s second Bach work, his Fifth French Dance Suite, also dates from the 1720s. It is regarded as the most cheerful of his six French dance suites, but it has nothing to do with France. The suites were misnamed after Bach’s death and this particular one actually has an Italian musical flavour.
At last year’s Three Rivers Music Society concert, Verona and violinist Thomas Bowes performed a sonata by George Enescu, one of the greatest musicians that Romania has produced. This time she will play two ‘miniatures’ by Enescu, who taught Yehudi Menuhin.
She will also perform eight other miniatures to introduce her audience to the music of Romanian composers of the 20th and 21st century who are less well known than Enescu. Among the eight composers she will highlight will be Constantin Silvestri, who defected to Britain in 1961 and became principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He is credited with raising the orchestra’s musical standards and earning it the international reputation that it has retained to this day.
The concert will be held in the Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth, WD3 1EH. It will begin at 7.30pm. Tickets £16 at the door, including free concert programme, pre-concert talk (from 7.15pm) and refreshment. Reduced prices for TRMS members/patrons and advance online booking. Free entry to under-25s.
For more information visit http://trms.uk/