Kevin Chen, a rising star on the piano scene, is making his debut at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl with an extraordinarily diverse programme that he has conceived as a multi-layered exploration of the art of variation, transformation and musical imagination. In order to demonstrate the principal of constant metamorphosis, Chen begins with Ludwig van Beethoven’s arrangement of the Russian folk song Schöne Minka (Lovely Minka) then proceeds to his radical 32 Variations in C minor. Felix Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses expand the variation form, taking it into the Romantic era, whilst Franz Liszt’s view of Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte transports it into a new musical dimension while at the same time linking up with the works that opened this matinée.

After the interval, Aleksander Scriabin’s visionary soundscapes reveal a transcendental space, then Liszt’s Fountains at the Villa d’Este and his Les Préludes (here arranged for solo piano by Chen himself) combine Nature, water, iridescence and pianistic fireworks. In this manner, everything comes together in a journey from the variation to the visionary.