Concert «Classical Smackdown – Heart & Soul: Debussy vs Prokofiev»

   This is a piano recital where the audience keeps score. Two composers are put head to head, you hear them alternate, and after each round you vote. The voting is not a gimmick bolted on at the end — the whole evening is built around it.

   Your host and performer is the American pianist Frederic Chiu, who invented the «Classical Smackdown» format. He alternates works by Claude Debussy, born in France in 1862, and Sergei Prokofiev, born in Ukraine in 1891, and talks you through what makes two contemporaries sound so unlike each other before he plays them.

   Four rounds, and here is what is in them:

• — Round 1 — Debussy: Prelude, Clair de Lune and Passepied from Suite Bergamasque; Prokofiev: three pieces from «Romeo and Juliet» (1935), with «Public Merrymaking» in Chiu's own arrangement
• — Round 2 — Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28 (1917); Debussy: «L'isle joyeuse» (1904)
• — Round 3 — Prokofiev: «Sarcasms» Op. 17 No. 1, two «Fugitive Visions» Op. 22, «Diabolic Suggestions» Op. 4 No. 4; Debussy: «Cloches à travers les feuilles» and «Jardins sous la pluie»
• — Round 4 — Debussy: «Rêverie» (1890); Prokofiev: Toccata in D minor, Op. 11 (1912)

   Chiu has played Lincoln Center in New York, Le Châtelet in Paris and the Mozarteum in Buenos Aires, and has collaborated with Joshua Bell, Pierre Amoyal and the St Lawrence String Quartet. He recorded the most extensive complete Prokofiev piano cycle on disc and knows the composer's family personally; his 30-plus albums also cover Chopin, Liszt, Ravel, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Rossini and Grieg. He teaches at Carnegie Mellon University and The Hartt School.

   If classical programmes usually leave you unsure what you are supposed to be listening for, this format answers that directly: the performer explains first, the comparison gives you something to hold on to, and your opinion is counted. The venue is the Academy's main hall on Hao Nam, about fifteen minutes by taxi from the Old Quarter.

   Tickets are sold in six price bands depending on where you sit; the seating plan and booking are on the event page.

   Bring an opinion — you will be asked for it four times.