Lorenzo Soulès, one of Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s master pupils, is already returning to the Ruhr Piano Festival for the 15th time. This year he rises to the challenge of one of the most fascinating, multicolored, dazzling cycles in piano repertoire: Isaac Albéniz’s “Iberia”, a sound pilgrimage that takes us all across Spain – at a time when travel has become more yearning than reality. Written between 1905 and 1908, this impressive piano cycle is regarded as the Spanish composer’s masterpiece. Soulès worked on the cycle over the course of three years in Barcelona with the legendary Alicia de Larrocha, who had drawn the attention of music lovers and connoisseurs to the work by recording it three separate times and earning it a place of privilege in the European music pantheon. The cycle is seldom performed live in its entirety, but Soulès shall accomplish this feat for the first time at the Ruhr Piano Festival on this occasion.