Alexandre Kantorow

French pianist Alexandre Kantorow, admired for his “assured, eloquent playing” (The New York Times), makes his Berkeley debut in a fascinating program of thoughtfully-curated keyboard music.

The recital includes Liszt’s haunting piano variations on themes from Bach’s twelfth cantata, Chopin’s dreamy C-sharp minor Prelude, and Scriabin’s Sonata No. 10, nicknamed the “insect sonata” because of all the restless trills in the score. Nikolai Medtner’s rarely performed first sonata is all lyricism and logic.