Konzert: Wednesday, 13.01.2027, 7:30 pm, C. Bechstein Centrum Nürnberg
Soloist: Janick Cech, piano - "My personal heroes"
Who are the composers that shape a young pianist? Those who accompany him through his years of study, through sleepless nights before a concert, through the moments when music becomes more than notes on a page? For Janick Čech, they are Rameau, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven - and with his recital "My Personal Heroes", he offers his audience an unusually intimate glimpse into his musical inner world.
Jean-Philippe Rameau opens the programme — a hero of order and sensuality. His harpsichord pieces Le Rappel des Oiseaux, Les Tendres Plaintes, and La Poule are transformed at the piano into filigree miniatures full of wit and grace — heroism not of the battlefield, but of the spirit and the craftsman's ideal. Then follows a dialogue between two titans of Russian Romanticism: Alexander Scriabin, the visionary and mystic, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, for whom the human, the weighty, and the yearning were always the driving force. Alternating between études and préludes, Čech sets two visions of heroism against each other — each needing the other to be complete. The evening closes with Beethoven's Sonata in F minor Op. 57, the "Appassionata" — perhaps the most searing heroic drama in the entire piano literature. To be a hero here means not triumph, but steadfastness in the face of the abyss.
Works
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
- Le Rappel des Oiseaux, RCT 2
- Les Tendres Plaintes, RCT 3
- La Poule, RCT 6
Alexander Skrjabin (1872–1915) & Sergei Rachmaninow (1873–1943)
- Prélude B-Dur op. 11 Nr. 21 (Skrjabin)
- Étude-tableau d-Moll op. 39 Nr. 8 (Rachmaninow)
- Étude fis-Moll op. 8 Nr. 2 (Skrjabin)
- Prélude g-Moll op. 23 Nr. 5 (Rachmaninow)
- Étude cis-Moll op. 2 Nr. 1 (Skrjabin)
- Étude cis-Moll op. 42 Nr. 5 (Skrjabin)
- Prélude D-Dur op. 23 Nr. 4 (Rachmaninow)
- Étude dis-Moll op. 8 Nr. 12 (Skrjabin)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Sonate f-Moll op. 57 »Appassionata«
- I. Allegro assai
- II. Andante con moto
- III. Allegro ma non troppo – Presto
Subject to change.
Janick Cech, piano
Janick Cech, born on 26 April 2004 in Munich, is one of the most compelling piano talents of his generation. He received his first piano lessons from his father at the age of six, and from 2015 continued his studies with Maria Ilyashov. From 2019 to 2022 he was a junior student at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in the class of Prof. Michael Schäfer, with additional impulses from Claudio Martínez Mehner, Lev Natochenny and Antti Siirala.
His international breakthrough came in 2021 with the First Prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition in Düsseldorf; in 2024 he won First Prize at the International Volodymyr Krainev Competition (Kharkiv Meets Zurich), and in May 2026 he continued this run of success with First Prize at the International Dinu Lipatti Competition. Since October 2023 he has studied at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar with Prof. Michail Lifits, and holds a scholarship from the International Music Academy Liechtenstein.
He made his debut as a soloist in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz with Mozart's Piano Concerto A major K. 414; further appearances have taken him across Central and Eastern Europe. At the Nürnberg Recitals 2027, he is our Young Artist.