Seth Carlin performs work of Bach, Ravel and Schumann March 28

Renowned pianist Seth Carlin, professor of music and director of the piano program in Arts & Sciences, will perform music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Maurice Ravel and Robert Schumann at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 28, in Washington University’s Edison Theatre.

Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call (314) 935-4841.

For Carlin, the concert represents a new approach to the repertoire he chooses to perform on the modern piano.

“In the past I’ve dedicated my career to performing music on the type of instrument for which it was actually written.” Carlin said. “But recently I have come to the thinking that today’s piano accommodates very well a broad range of music, including works composed before its emergence.

“On this recital, I’m playing a work by Bach because of my own need to perform this great music, despite the fact that in recent decades performances of his keyboard works frequently have been reserved for the harpsichord.”

(The harpsichord was the primary keyboard instrument of Bach’s time, the Baroque period, followed by the fortepiano in the Classical period of Haydn and Mozart. The modern piano did not reach its current form until about 1860.)

Carlin will begin his program with Bach’s Partita in B-flat Major, BWV 825. He then moves to the 20th century for Ravel’s Miroirs, a set of five distinct pieces that includes the popular “Alborada del gracioso.”

The program concludes with Schumann’s Carnaval, a monument of the piano literature consisting of 21 short compositions titled to represent the composer’s friends, colleagues, figures of commedia dell’ arte and even philosophical opponents. Though some pieces are less than a minute in length, several make extreme technical demands on the performer. Notably, Schumann depicts himself as both introvert and extrovert — poignant considering his struggles with manic-depressive disorder.