Aristo Sham Plays Brahms' Piano Sonatas
About the event
The New York Times describes him as a pianist 'whose playing combines clarity, elegance, and abundant technique'. Cliburn winner Aristo Sham makes his debut in Amsterdam. His program includes Brahms' piano sonatas, music by 'a youth at whose cradle fairies and heroes stood guard', according to Robert Schumann. Bach, Chopin, and Schumann himself also color the evening. Aristo Sham
Aristo Sham has been playing the piano since he was three years old; in 2025, at the age of 29, he won the world's largest piano competition: the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. His victory was followed worldwide: livestreams attracted millions of viewers from more than 145 countries. The New York Times describes him as a pianist 'whose playing combines clarity, elegance, and abundant technique'. Although Sham is versatile, the Hong Kong-born pianist plays primarily romantic music during his Amsterdam debut.
Brahms' piano sonatas
'And he has come, a youth at whose cradle fairies and heroes stood guard. His name is Johannes Brahms…' With these words, Robert Schumann, the most important critic of his time, placed a heavy weight on the shoulders of the young Brahms in 1853. After two early successes, his First and Second Piano Sonatas, Brahms presented his Third Sonata a few months after Schumann's Olympic prediction. That year, Brahms made the leap from an unknown nineteen-year-old pianist to a twenty-year-old sensation. With his Third Piano Sonata, a work of symphonic grandeur, Brahms firmly established himself on the musical map in one fell swoop.
