Sunday, December 9 4:00 PM

Maurice Ravel
  Mirrors, three excerpts (1905)
Claude Debussy
  Etudes, three excerpts (1915)
  Sonata for cello (1917)
Franz Liszt
  Fountains of the Villa d’Este (1877)
Toru Takemitsu
  Litany II (1950, revised 1989)
Karel Goeyvaerts
  Step by Step (1985)
Olivier Messiaen
  Eight Preludes, four excerpts (1928)
  Vocalise-Etude (1935) 99th Birthday

Steven Vanhauwaert, piano
Timothy Loo, cello

The roots of Messiaen's early style grew in the fertile ground of French impressionism and its musical wellspring Franz Liszt, at his innovative best. Liszt's touchstone of tone painting joins Ravel's innovative reflections seventy years after his death. The artists bring passion and sensitivity to Jacaranda's complete survey of Debussy's very personal last thoughts. Messiaen's Vocalise was written for soprano, but sometimes heard with clarinet. Here the soaring vocal line is aptly taken by the full-throated cello of Mr. Loo.

Messiaen's later styles influenced the leading composers of Japan and Belgium in these fresh and engaging reveries for piano. On the 2006 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Belgium's leading newspaper, Het Nieuwsblad, wrote that Mr. Vanhauwaert's "thrilling performance…left a deep impression...a bright career is certainly awaiting him."