The man never stops. Having barely escaped a snowstorm in in Colorado the night before, Ilya Yakushev arrived in Madison just in time to teach an afternoon masterclass before his fifth performance for the Salon Piano Series.
Ilya Yakushev won his first prize at age 12 at a Young Artists Concerto Competition in his native St. Petersburg. In 1997, he received the Mayor of St. Petersburg’s Young Talents award and, in 1998, the Russian Federation’s Minister of Culture presented him the National Award for Excellence in Performance.
Yakushev’s February 17 Salon program enthralled the packed audience with masterpieces from Austria and Russia: Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Prokofiev. He introduced Mozart’s “Fantasy in D minor as “one of Mozart’s weirdest.” Written during Mozart’s maturity, it remained unfinished and was completed by another composer. Yakushev said it reminded him of Beethoven because of its changes in tempos, dynamics, and in keys.
Beethoven was still relatively young when he composed the Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, the Pathetique. Although it follows a traditional 3-movement sonata form, it defies tradition by opening with a slow movement. The second movement, Adagio cantabile, is widely known as the theme song for the Karl Haas radio program, Adventures in Good Music.
Listen Adventurously 
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