Enlarge image The talented Jamina Gerl delighted a DC audience with a piano recital on May 3. (© Germany.info) Stunning in a flowing red evening gown, Jamina Gerl took the stage at the United Church in Foggy Bottom last night for a piano recital featuring works by Mozart, Smetana, and Liszt. The concert, cosponsored by the German Embassy and Concordia D.C., the cultural programming arm of the United Church, drew around 100 classical music lovers to the historic German-American house of worship.

Gerl, a native of Bonn currently studying for her Ph.D. in Musical Arts at Catholic University in Washington, DC, began with the Sonata No. 8 in A minor K. 310 by Mozart. Composed in 1778 around the time of the death of Mozart’s mother, it is one of only two Mozart sonatas in a minor key.

The next concert segment featured the Czech Dances and Sketches of Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884), who in his homeland is revered as the founding father of Czech music. The compositions, published in two cycles in 1877 and 1879, were written for the purpose of “idealizing the polka, as Chopin in his day did with the mazurka,” as Smetana explained, referring to the Polish folk dance. Despite the difficulty of the composer’s last major piano works, Gerl’s performance was masterly and “expressive,” according to one concert attendee.

The final piece performed by Gerl was Franz Liszt’s challenging Fantasia quasi Sonata: “Après une lecture de Dante,” also known as the Dante Sonata. Completed in 1849 and inspired by the reading of The Divine Comedy, it ranks among Liszt's most demanding single works. After the final note was played, the audience responded with rousing applause.

The German Embassy would like to thank Jamina Gerl for her excellent performance, and wishes her continued success as her musical career unfolds.