Haydn: Sonata in G major, Hob.XVI:39
George Benjamin: Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm
Beethoven: Diabelli Variations, Op. 120
Ariel Lanyi opened the 2026-27 Salon series with a program of music spanning 200 years, treating Haydn, George Benjamin, and Beethoven with equal reverence and facility.
A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, Ariel Lanyi is based in London, and was fresh off the airplane for his concert here. He performs with several European orchestras and records for major record labels.
The enormous Beethoven Diabelli Variations Op 120, clocks in at about 50 minutes, exploring permutations on a simple waltz tune. Ranked along with Bach’s Goldberg Variations, this monumental piece tasks the pianist with producing a volcano of rhythmic and melodic turns, twists, combinations, permutations, rhythms, dynamic contrasts, and moods. The beautifully restored Mason & Hamlin piano handled the job well: Its upper register sparkled, the low register thundered.
Variations On a Theme also underlay the George Benjamin composition “Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm” (1982). (The iambic rhythm in poetry sounds ta-Dah, ta-Dah, ta-Dah). A simple idea, yet this piece was challenging to digest: Neither melody nor traditional harmony were the primary consideration. Benjamin ran the iambic rhythm through the entire range of the keyboard. One could hear the influence of his teacher, Olivier Messiaen: Sprinkles and jabs and clusters sprang from the Mason & Hamlin as the pianists’ hands worked together and against each other.
Lanyi opened his concert with the music of Haydn, who was Beethoven’s teacher in the 1790s. Haydn’s Sonata in G Major, Hob. XVI:39 is a crisp, crystalline jewel, and thanks to Lanyi’s careful attention to phrasing and articulation, one could easily imagine being seated in an elite 18th-Century drawing room, somewhere in Vienna.
Paul Baker
