‘Maxim Bernard’

In 2016, we are half-way through the centenary commemorations of the First World War. The "war to end all wars" is being remembered in a great variety of ways, by political leaders, museums, educational systems, and artists. And by musicians too. The Canadian pianist Maxim Bernard makes his contribution in a programme he has put together of music from the years 1914–1918, illustrating the role of the First World War as a moment of rupture. Composers such as Rakhmaninov and Medtner still looked back nostalgically to a romanticised past, while Bartók and Hindemith looked ahead. Bernard presents a wide-ranging programme of strong and contrasting emotions and moods.