Aristo Sham – From Prodigy to Star Pianist

Soloist: Aristo Sham, piano

Aristo Sham is a fearless young pianist who approaches the great virtuoso masterpieces without hesitation – an approach that in 2025 earned him not one but two top prizes at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, one of the world’s most prestigious music competitions. As a small child, he appeared as the star of a British television documentary about the world’s most gifted prodigies, but unlike many child geniuses, Sham’s talent has continued to grow. Today, he stands as one of the most commanding pianists of the new generation.

At his Tivoli concert, Sham performs Rachmaninov’s sumptuous Variations on a Theme of Chopin – a monumental set of variations that explores every corner of the piano’s expressive and technical range. The work is rarely heard in concert, not least because of its merciless virtuosity, but Sham relishes precisely this kind of challenge and will almost certainly set the great Steinway ablaze in the final variation’s cascading torrents of sound. We will also hear Chopin’s four exquisite Impromptus, where Sham’s lyrical sensitivity is given full freedom to unfold.

The programme is framed by Beethoven: two of his most radical and visionary piano sonatas, Nos. 13 and 14, both bearing the subtitle Quasi una fantasia – “almost a fantasy”. Beethoven’s piano sonatas are milestones of the repertoire, and every pianist has their favourites among the astonishing set of 32 works, each of which revolutionised the instrument in its own way. The evening’s final piece will be familiar to everyone in the hall: Beethoven’s perhaps greatest hit of all, the Moonlight Sonata, which opens with its world-famous slow movement before ending in a fierce and virtuoso rush.