It's the 150th anniversary of the death of Chopin this year, and the best commemoration to date has surfaced in Bantry, home of the West Cork Chamber Music Festival. That mercurial talent and innovative programmer, Russian pianist Nikolai Demidenko (left), is involved in two recitals. He gives the first tonight in partnership with the cellist Leonid Gorokov. They play Chopin's late Cello Sonata in the context of works by Shostakovich (his early Cello Sonata) and Schubert (a cello arrangement of the Violin Sonata in D, D384). Tomorrow night, in a solo recital, Demidenko plays all four of Chopin's Ballades, along with original music and operatic arrangements by Liszt.
