What does it mean to play one of the most demanding programmes in the piano repertoire?
Zeju Fan’s debut at Smith Square Hall opens with Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata — brilliant, propulsive, and immediately engaging. Berg’s Op. 1 follows: compact, intense, and emotionally charged.
After the interval, Ligeti’s Études Nos. 10 and 13 raise the stakes entirely. Rhythmically intricate and physically demanding, they lead directly into Liszt’s B minor Sonata — thirty minutes of continuous, evolving drama, building to one of the most powerful conclusions in the repertoire.
Fan is a full scholarship holder at the Royal Academy of Music and a prizewinner at international competitions. This is a focused, high-impact programme built around contrast, energy, and scale.