Gorka Plada-Girón (ES/UK) – Lettres à Napoléon
Gorka Plada-Girón about his piano piece “Lettres à Napoléon”:
“This piece is linked to all the emotions Beethoven was feeling when he found out that Napoleon Bonaparte coronated himself the emperor of the French Empire. Beethoven had dedicated his Eroica Symphony to Napoleon at first, and the story tells that he was so angry at the fact that he crossed the dedicatory so violently that he broke his pencil. From this point I put myself in Beethoven’s mind and tried to imagine all the thought process he had gone through after the news: rage, confusion… and this is what made the structure of the piece. I also added motifs from the symphonic masterpiece, in its original form as well as inverted with negative harmony, giving it a direct link to what it was going to be the Bonaparte Symphony.”
Special thanks to John Cooney (Yehudi Menuhin School, UK) for advice and support.
Piano piece “Lettres à Napoléon” – in concert:
2nd February 2020 – world premiere – Frauenmuseum Bonn – Susanne Kessel, piano
Gorka Plada-Girón (*2002)
Born in 2002 in El Puerto de Santa María (Spain), Gorka showed his interest in music at a very early age. He began teaching himself the piano from the age of five, before joining the local music school three years later where he received piano tuition from Maria Jesús Durán. In 2016, Gorka joined the Yehudi Menuhin School where he studies piano with Marcel Baudet and was awarded a scholarship by the UK’s Music and Dance Scheme.
Gorka has performed throughout Spain, UK, Germany and Holland participating in festivals including the Wimbledon Festival, Segovia Music Festival and Maryat Players Festival. He has had considerable success in numerous competitions, concerts and festivals as both soloist and chamber musician. He was awarded 1st prize and Chopin prize in the Julio Casas International Piano Competition, 2nd prize in Enschede Piano Competition 1st prize and audience prize in Lorenzo Palomo chamber music competition, 3rd prize in the Intercollegiate Beethoven competition and 1st prize in Santa Cecilia Piano Competition. Gorka has received masterclasses from Robert Levin, Cordelia Höffer, Paul Roberts, Claudio Martinez Menher and Ángel Sánzo, among many others.