Hanover Square Lunchtime Concert: Ulrich Lehensteiner
About this Event
Today's Hanover Square Lunchtime Concert is given by pianist Ulrich Lehensteiner, who will perform the following programme:
Mozart - Piano Sonata in C minor KV 457
Lehensteiner - Piano Sonata in B minor
As always admissionis free with a retiring collection.
Ulrich Lehensteiner is an Austrian composer based in Vienna. His music continues the expressive and formal traditions of the concert hall in a contemporary tonal language, combining rhythmic precision, expansive melodic writing and a distinctly dramatic sense of musical architecture.
Rather than treating tradition as a closed historical style, Lehensteiner understands it as a living process. Classical forms, motivic development and long-range harmonic direction remain central to his work, but are shaped by the musical experiences of the present. Alongside Beethoven and Rachmaninoff, his influences include the theatrical writing of Andrew Lloyd Webber and the narrative immediacy of composers such as Yoko Shimomura and Nobuo Uematsu.
The resulting music is energetic, image-rich and strongly oriented towards dramatic progression. Quiet, introspective passages frequently develop into broad climaxes; rhythm is often not merely an accompanying element but the physical driving force of the musical argument. Although many of his works suggest landscapes, characters or narrative situations, they are intended to leave space for the listener’s own imagination.
Lehensteiner’s catalogue includes music for piano and organ, chamber works, vocal compositions and works for orchestra. Among his central compositions are the Piano Sonata in B Minor, Fantasia Fanatica, "Tundra" for piano and string orchestra, the Organ Concerto, the five-movement piano trio "Paranormania", the String Quartet in A Minor and the "Intimate Mass" for solo voice and organ.
Lehensteiner not only composes his works but also brings them to the concert stage himself. As a pianist and organist, he regularly performs his own music, offering audiences a direct encounter with the composer’s original artistic conception.
His concert activity therefore reflects his identity first and foremost as a composer. Performance is not presented as a separate artistic field, but as the most direct means of bringing his works to life and establishing a connection between their creation and their experience in the concert hall.
His performances have included appearances at the Ehrbar Hall and St Peter’s Church in Vienna, the Wiener Orgelkonzerte and the Lange Nacht der Kirchen, as well as concerts in the United Kingdom. His performances of his music have also repeatedly been broadcast by ORF and Radio Stephansdom.
He has composed music for the video game "Mind Garden", released in March of 2026.
Lehensteiner studied composition with Rina Furano from 2015 to 2019. In 2024, he received four awards in the composition category of the Bach International Music Competition.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
