International Piano #17

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OSBORNE BORNE NO SCORE UNTURNED

FROM 7 INTERVAL STUDIES

NO 4: FOURTHS BY JOHN RAMSDEN WILLIAMSON

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Contents InternatIonal PIano No 17 jaNuary/february 2013

18 Cover story

Steven Osborne and his thirst for life

23 Wagner bicentenary The history of operatic piano transcriptions

26 In retrospect

5 letters

40 masterClass

Your thoughts and comments

Things that go bump in the night

6 news

43 helPIng hanDs

The latest news and events from the piano world

Building staccato technique

10 letter from Us

From 7 Interval studies: No 4 – ‘Fourths’ By John Ramsden Williamson

Alexander Brailowsky (1896-1976): a reassessment

From Russia, with talent

30 Pierre Boulez

13 Comment

The modern master on his pianistic training

36 Poulenc’s legacy Marking 50 years after the French composer’s death Cover image ©beN ealovega

REGULARS

53 Symposium The modern-day ‘woman pianist’

64 Profile Frédéric Meinders and the art of arrangement

69 Summer schools Top residential courses to attend in 2013

45 sheet mUsIC

Fifty shades of pianism

58 ComPetItIon rePort

15 one to watCh

The Honens International Piano Competition

Jean Muller

17 DIary of an aCComPanIst In which Michael Round meets a star, and a Planet

32 rePertoIre

61 PIano makers The domestic piano market

74 revIews The latest CDs, books, DVDs and sheet music, plus international

Clélia Iruzun discovers Mompou concerts

35 take fIve

88 mUsIC of my lIfe

The music of John Lewis

Alice Sara Ott

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International Piano May/June 2012

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Welcome Welcome O TT

heacultural UK’s cultural landscape hasedshift ed uneasily during the recession, he UK’s landscape has uneasily during the seminal recession, so it so it n recent wintry night inshift London, two pianists gave recitals. was pleasure with pleasure weBehzod observed its recent international success. Millions was with we observed its recent international success. Millions Twenty-two-year-old Abduraimov made his hotly anticipated watched and participated in across London 2012, as sports andcollided arts collided all manner watched and participated inwhile London 2012, as sports and arts in all in manner Southbank debut, town, Evgeny Kissin showed a packed of weird and wonderful ways. Shakespeare toput shot tothe Stockhausen, of weird and wonderful ways.always From From Shakespeare to shot toput Stockhausen, Barbican crowd that his will be a truly special talent. Kissin, formerthe the country was awash withaccount courageous artistic endeavour. 20 million people country was awash courageous artistic endeavour. Nearly million wunderkind, gave awith sublime of Beethoven’s Sonata inNearly C20minor, Oppeople 111 and attended concerts, exhibitions and events across the country ofLondon theseen London attended concerts, exhibitions events across the partasofpart thenever his Hungarian Rhapsody No 12and channelled Liszt in acountry way thisaswriter has 2012 Festival, curated alongside the Olympics, and around 300,000 tickets were 2012 Festival, curated alongside the was Olympics, and aaround 300,000 tickets were done before. Abduraimov’s playing reportedly magnifi cent concoction of fisold re sold foryear’s thisWe year’s Proms. for this Proms. and poetry. know – painfully so – that the arts world is in flux, but this double

booking of stupendous artists on one night is not untypical in the capital – nor, Asin leaves turn rainbow colours andabest fall, new is upon us. While others indeed, many international cities. The weseason can show greatly we value As leaves turn rainbow colours and fall, newaway season is upon us.how While others may be mourning the loss of sport from their screens, piano fans, rejoice: the is to vote with our of feetsport – and boththeir these eventspiano were sell-out affairs.the But the mayarts be mourning the loss from screens, fans, rejoice: BBC isthe dedicating six weeks of(yet) programming toinstrument. the instrument. Running until what about pianists who aren’t household These Running are the ones who BBC is dedicating six weeks of programming to thenames? until 6 November, of television and radio shows will New cover a range need our support ifthe thecollection nextof generation isand to grow. So, make your Year’s 6 November, the collection television radio shows willit cover a range of of pianistic from ‘Aof tothe Zrecital; ofpiano’ the you piano’ on Radio 3, to footage resolution to gosubjects, tofrom an unknown be surprised –from and,from pianistic subjects, the ‘Athe to artist’s Z on might Radio 3, to footage the the Leeds International Piano Competition (see our report on pp31, 33, and hopefully, delighted.Piano Competition (see our report on pp31, 33, and sheet sheet Leeds International Waterman’s new book, Treasury, on pp47-52) musicmusic from from DameDame FannyFanny Waterman’s new book, Piano Piano Treasury, on pp47-52) with with As wecontributions sing Auld Lang Syne, we Donohoe, usherAshley in the next batch of Labèque musical anniversaries. from Peter Ashley Wassthe and the Labèque Sisters, contributions from Peter Donohoe, Wass and Sisters, as wellasInaswell as 2013, Wagner’s bicentenary large, and Lang in thisLang’s issue, not wishing to be aRichard special documentary by Yentob Alanlooms Yentob to mark 30th birthday. a special documentary by Alan to mark Lang Lang’s 30th birthday. left out of the operatic celebrations, IP dons a party hat and highlights the plethora of piano transcriptions within hiswelcome oeuvre (pp23-25). We the alsomainstream mark 50 years since the receives attention media, WhileWhile pianopiano musicmusic receives welcome attention in theinmainstream media, we we deathdedicate of Francis Poulenc with a timely reassessment of the French composer’s piano IP isavailable now available IP is now our pages to some neglected Composers, arrangers and conductors dedicate our pages to some neglected topics.topics. Composers, arrangers and conductors for iPad, your iPad, for your legacyhave (pp36-39). been orchestrating for generations; IP examines the good, the bad have been orchestrating pianopiano musicmusic for generations; IP examines the good, the bad iPhone and online iPhone and online and the ugly over on p23. Elsewhere, we delve into the archives for part one of our from pocketmags. and the ugly over on p23. Elsewhere, weour delve into the archives for one of our from pocketmags. May I take this opportunity to wish all readers, contributors andpart advertisers a on historical women pianists (pp36-39) and explore the heady world of piano com and comthe and the series series on historical prosperous 2013. women pianists (pp36-39) and explore the heady world of piano app store. iTunesiTunes app store. competitions on p27. competitions on p27. Buy thefor app for Buy the app only £1.99 only £1.99 and and receive receive your fiyour rst first issue FREE! issue FREE!

EditorJackson Claire Jackson Editor Claire

Managing Keith Clarke Managing Editor Editor Keith Clarke

Sub Femke Editor Lauren Lauren Colborne Strain Strain Sub Editor

Managing Director Mark Owens Managing Director Mark Owens

Editorial Editorial +44 (0)7824 Tel: +44Tel: (0)7824 884 882884 882 [email protected] [email protected] Designer BeckMurphy Ward Murphy Publisher Designer Beck Ward Publisher Derek BDerek SmithB Smith www.rhinegold.co.uk | www.international-piano.com www.rhinegold.co.uk | www.international-piano.com CONTRIBUTORS NUMBER 16 CONTRIBUTORS @IP_mag 16 NUMBER 17 Twitter:Twitter: @IP_mag Zsolt Bognár, Michael Church, Colin Clarke, International is published in January, Zsolt Bognár, Michael Church, ColinColin Clarke, Jessica Jessica Colin Anderson, Michael Church, Clarke, Telephone may be monitored for purposes training purposes International Piano isPiano published January, March, March,Telephone calls maycalls be monitored for training Printed by Wyndeham GrangeinLtd Duchen, Benjamin Ivry, Joe Laredo, Graham May, July, September and November Duchen, Benjamin Ivry, JoeFerraccioli, Laredo, Graham Jessica Duchen, Leandro David May, July, September and November Subscriptions Subscriptions Distributed by Comag Specialist Division Lock, Murray McLachlan, Malcolm Miller, Jeremy Lock, Murray McLachlan, Miller,Graham Jeremy Hackston, Benjamin Ivry, Malcolm John Joswick, Printed by Wyndeham Grange Ltd Tel:844 0844 844| +44 0936 1795 650 (overseas) Printed by Wyndeham Tel: 0844 0936 (0)| +44 1795(0)414 650414 (overseas) Tel: +44 (0)1895 433800 Grange Ltd Nicholas, Geoffrey Michael Round, Nicholas, Geoffrey Norris, Norris, Michael Round, Jeremy Jeremy Lock, Murray McLachlan, Risto-Matti Marin, [email protected] [email protected] Distributed by Comag Specialist Division Distributed by Comag Specialist Division Siepmann, Michael Stembridge-Montavont, International Piano, 977204207700505, is Siepmann, MichaelGuy Stembridge-Montavont, Jeremy Nicholas, Rickards, Michael Round, 800 Avenue, Guillat Avenue, Kent Science 800 Guillat Kent Science Park, Park, +44 (0)1895 433800 Tel: +44Tel: (0)1895 433800 published bi-monthly by Rhinegold Publishing, StephenStephen Wigler Wigler Jeremy Siepmann, Harriet Smith, Stephen Wigler Sittingbourne, ME9UK 8GU, UK Sittingbourne, ME9 8GU, International Piano,WC1N 977204207700505, is International Piano, 977204207700505, is 20 Rugby Street, London, 3QZ, UK Head of Design & Production Head of Design & Production published bi-monthly by Rhinegold Publishing, published bi-monthly by Rhinegold Publishing, Advertising BeckMurphy Ward Murphy Beck Ward 20 Street, Rugby London, Street, London, WC1N 3QZ, UK 20 Rugby Tel: +44 (0)20 7333 1733 WC1N 3QZ, UK Production Designer Production Designer Joanne Joanne RobertsRoberts Advertising Fax: +44Advertising (0)20 7333 1736 Head of Advertising Myles Lester of this publication may be reproduced, in a retrieval Head of Advertising Myles Lester No part ofNo thispart publication may be reproduced, stored in astored retrieval +447333 (0)201733 7333 1733 Tel: +44Tel: (0)20 Production or transmitted in or anyany form or any means (electronic, system or system transmitted in any form means (electronic, Fax: +447333 (0)201736 7333 1736 Advertising mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior Fax: +44 (0)20 Advertising Sales Sales mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior Tel: +44 (0)20 7333 1751 of Rhinegold Ltd. The views expressed here permissionpermission of Rhinegold PublishingPublishing Ltd. The views expressed here Louise Greener Louise Greener Production Fax: +44Production (0)20 7333 1768 arethe those of the authors of the publisher, editor, Rhinegold are those of authors and not ofand the not publisher, editor, Rhinegold [email protected] Ltd or its employees. We letters welcome [email protected] PublishingPublishing Ltd or its employees. We welcome but letters reservebut reserve +447333 (0)201751 7333 1751 Tel: +44Tel: (0)20

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right edit forofreasons of grammar, and the right tothe edit for to reasons grammar, length andlength legality. Nolegality. No responsibility accepted for photographs returning photographs or manuscripts. responsibility is acceptedis for returning or manuscripts. cannot acknowledge or return unsolicited We cannotWe acknowledge or return unsolicited material. material.

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November/December International November/December 2012 International PianoPiano January/February 2013 2012

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Letters

NO.16 NOV/DEC 2012

£5.50 l US$10.99 l CAN$11.99 www.international-piano.com

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READING RACHMANINOV

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WELL ORCHESTRATED before the echo of the Fantasy’s conclusion Dear IP, had completely died away’ became – no Michael Round’s round-up doubt because of myabsorbing infatuation with of could myorchestrated own writing –piano ‘died music away with annot hope to be complete, but Stokowski’s ominous whisper’. myriad arrangements surely deserved Finally, I want to assure International more ranging from Bach, Piano’sattention, readers that I was indeed at Mr Beethoven andand Chopin Goode’s concert heardtoallScriabin, of it. In fact, Debussy, Rachmaninov and Mussorgsky. I went backstage afterwards and talked to the orchestral arrangements MrOf Goode for about 30 minutes and of have Debussy, Caplet’s Children’s spoken to André him since. Corner Suite (Cala CACD1024) merits Stephen Wigler a special mention. Incidentally, Weingartner’s 1930 recording of his INSPIRED CHOICE ‘Hammerklavier’ orchestration is readily available (except in the US) on Naxos 8.110913. Jeremy Nicholas SYMPOSIUM NO.15 SEPT/OCT 2012

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ON EDUCATION THE MUSIC OF CONLON NANCARROW

THE MEANING OF FORTE JOHN CAGE Dear IP, ON DISC I PLUS enjoyed Jonathan Biss reading Nikolai Hamish Milne James P Johnson Demidenko’s perceptive remarks about Rachmaninov’s pedaling [Symposium, 10-CD SET July/August, issue 14]. Demidenko’s claim that ‘Rachmaninov could create a huge volume of sound by INSIDE colouring his tone with an extraordinary SHEET darkness and depth, giving the impression MUSIC EXCERPTS FROM SOUND SKETCHES of huge power even when the decibel BY GRAHAM LYNCH WITH ONLINE VIDEO DEMOS level was still piano’ led me to ponder what Dear the IP, ‘forte’ dynamic actually means. According to my Apekisheva musical dictionary, I went to see Katya at forte means loud. it was more packed Preston University; Bach didn’t any fortes, leaving than usual andwrite she played Schubert’s it to theinperformer’s discretion; Sonata B D575. This was the best Mozart a single his piano classicalwrote pianist I haveforte everin heard. The compositions; two, Liszt playing was so Beethoven majestic I wanted to three, Villa-Lobos five I go home and havefour, a goAlbeniz at the pieces, and Tchaikovsky nine. pianos have I realised this is how youAsplay Schubert. become louder brighter, andbut actions already had theand pieces at home never ever faster, I feel pianists have played them until I heard thisfollowed girl, now down the them same evolutionary path. I practice both. I was very glad My question is her this:playing is it possible you talked about in the last to teach pupils a great magazine (issueto 15,achieve Sept/Oct 12). volume of sound through sonority and Gerald Burke colouring, rather thanI am decibels, or is Many thanks, Gerald, delighted this justthat theyou preserve ofthe geniuses such as to hear enjoyed article and Rachmaninov Ogdon? were inspired byorKatya Apekisheva’s Robert Warwick musicianship. Ed

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012

OF SCHUBERT WORKS by Michael Endres

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rears its ugly head. But, like it or not, GOODE CORRECTION performers are in the entertainment Dear IP, business, glamour is an inescapable I read andand enjoyed the July/August part of it.but was quite puzzled by the edition, Liszt exploited following comment in Stephen Wigler’sit, international with salons full of review of the pianist Richard Goode WOMEN PIANISTS swooning admirers. (Seeing is believing, Letter from US, Paderewski built issue 14). Embedded in the discussion a career a huge of Goode’s performance of theonMozart NIKOLAI following. Sonata and Fantasy infemale C minor, Wigler LUGANSKY INSIDE Arthur Rubinstein, writes the following sentence: ‘The SHEET MUSIC by an hisominous own as Fantasy died away with well as others’ accounts, spent as much whisper, not only ushering in the sonata time playing roving Lothario as he did but also making it seem inevitable’. playing pianist. Jean-Yves Since theworld-class Fantasy most definitely does Thibaudet hasa been photographed not end with ‘whisper’ in every in aedition sweetheart pose with Renée Fleming of Mozart Sonatas extant, but for cover. Raymond in aa‘f’CD scale starting from Lewenthal an octave swirled his black cape well asabove, his below middle C to twoasoctaves fi ngers. enforcing the previous ‘ending’ thereby Schwarzkopf LPC, sleeves in Elisabeth ‘p’ thirds leading to the ’s first some bore fabulous by Fayer. concerns arise. portraits I am extremely curious Christian photographed about this Steiner explanation. Beverly Sills in a very Professor Robert Pironslinky black dress for her Vienna album. Elvis Presley hisgratitude jeans distinctly on I want towore express to Professor the tight side Sir Tom Jones gets Robert Piron forand correcting what I think knickers him. is my worstthrown error inatmore than 35 years of Eileen Joyce changed herask: frocks from music journalism. I can only What time time. Hélène Grimaud very was I to thinking? Like everyone elseisfamiliar beautiful. YujaCWang a great with Mozart’s Minorhas Fantasy (K pair 457), of legs.itLang dresses the part and I know endsLang with one of the composer’s is seen in the right places. Stephen cataclysmic outbursts – powerful minorHough wears funny and Valery by key scales, made all thehats more dramatic Gergiev thedeliberately best-trimmed stubble Mozart’s has having misled us to in music history. Barbara Strozzi suspect that the piece will end softly.boosted her fame by publishing her works in single-composer volumes. I can only relate the events inThat’s the process show business. that led to my mistake. Richard Goode’s Finally, I was most interested performance of the Fantasy and Cin Minor Michael piece Sonata (KRound’s 475) made the on caseorchestrations more of piano music. of ever them werethat persuasively thanSome any I’ve heard familiar, but the arrangements Ravel’s these pieces can (and deserve) to beofheard own pianowork. pieces other launch hands are as a single MrbyGoode’s into all to me. concept of the new Sonata, withThe the whole Fantasy’s conclusion arrangement and I’m still ringing in is mymost ears,fascinating, underlined their athematic great fan of piano and arrangements connections made themfrom seem orchestral originals, well asrecitative the other as closely related as anasoperatic way round, as discussed. and subsequent aria. In writing and editing Douglass my review,MacDonald ‘Mr Goode began the Sonata

International Piano

IMPORTANT CORRECTION KEYBOARD POETRY Dear IP, It was shocking for me to Carleton read the I recently graduated from article Act of Touch by Michaelwhere CollegeThe in Northfi eld, Minnesota, Stembridge-Montavont the last issue I had the good fortune toinstudy piano of International [Nov/Dec, issue with Ken Huber.Piano When I expressed 16], in which six passages my frustration at extended my inability to get were lift word forout word from my book, theed right tone of the instrument, French Pianism,that without any citation. I Ken suggested maybe pianists refer to portions of myquality interviews can’t control the tone of thewith Magda Tagliaferro, Perlemuter, instrument at all. If Vlado you play a single Yvonne Lefébure you and can Pierre note in isolation, playBarbizet. it louder These interviews not onlythe done or softer, but you were cannot make sound by me,or but alsoringing, translated by delicate me. Mr or richer more more Stembridge-Montavont used this more ethereal. This argument surprised material as though he had done all the me because I had always been taught that work himself. tone quality was influenced by the way passages that Stembridgein The which I moved myMr arms and fingers Montavont plagiarised are from pages when I played. If variations in tone 103, 104, 106, and 221 the does latestit quality are an 220 illusion, theninwhat version the book, published mean toofinterpret a piece on theby piano? Amadeus 1999, and pages is81, And if thePress only in thing that matters the 82, 84, 168 andhammer 169 in the first edition velocity of the as it strikes the (published by Pro/Am and piano-playing Kahn & strings, doesn’t that reduce Averill in technical 1992). exercise: hitting the to a mere Furthermore, in his lastvelocity two paragraphs, right keys with the right at the Mr Stembridge-Montavont liftsbelow, two in right time? I wrote the poem, sentences from page 63 of the book. response to these questions. Charles Timbrell So, piano, do you do tone quality? The did indeed lift sections Yes,article you: impersonable box of from strings, Charles waykey. the A dozenTimbrell’s moving book, partsand for the every quotations were presented would have led To mechanised, well-regulated things most readers to assume that the interviews In thrall were your devisers; still I had been undertaken by Mr Stembridgethought Montavont. unacceptable and weeach You felt theThis wayisthe hand attacked apologise note, profusely. The article has since been removed from the digital versions of finely And somewhere in that structure the magazine. Mr Stembridge-Montavont wrought, would like touch to pointthrough out that subtle the published By subtle sound article emote.was an excerpt from a larger piece, due to beonly published which included There’s pitch,online, velocity, sustain, aAnd bibliography. timing; from these meagre threads we weave A shared illusion of 16 shared life – we train FEEDBACK: ISSUE Our ears Dear IP, to hear you laugh, and love, andLaredo grieve. [Candid Camera, Nov/Dec, Joe But if16] imagined, it thus less real issue worries isabout ladies being To hear in on youthe thebasis things wish to feel? promoted of we their looks Ben Hellerstein rather than their pianism. Oh dear – sex

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January/February 2013 International November/December 2012 International Piano Piano

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news events Fazillondon Say faces trial over Tweets JulIa cload conference launch: 1946-2012 ‘Music represents freedom,’ she turkey Turkish pianist and composer InternatIonal PIano symPosIum UK The first in a series of three-day piano conferences will take place in London in February. The event will be hosted by the London International Piano Symposium (LIPS), founded by Cristine MacKie, and held in association with Steinway & Sons. IP is the symposium’s media partner. The LIPS conferences will welcome everyone interested in the performance of piano music: artists, scientists, academics, teachers and fans. There will be opportunities to hear papers, lecture recitals and debates on the art and science of piano performance by distinguished researchers and practitioners.

Fazil Say, 42, has been charged with DuringIslamic the first conference, insulting religious values inwhich takes placehefrom 10 February comments made8ontoTwitter. The at London’s Royal College Music, pianist denies the charges andof faces trial leading researchers and practitioners on 18 October. will examine evidenceThe case hasinterdisciplinary, captured the attention based directives to enhance modern piano of pianists worldwide, including performance practice. Gokcin, They will fellow Turk AyseDeniz whoassess research into inspirational performers played Say’s piece Alla Turca Jazz on 50 and teachers, and in present different street pianos Londonscientific during models of performance recent July to show her supportreflecting for the artist. developments in performance science, The pianos were presented by the including neuroscience, City of London Festival aspsychology part of theand physiology. ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ project created by British artist Luke Jerram, which has www.londoninternational been touring internationally since 2008. pianosymposium.co.uk Gokcin says that the project ‘represents my wishes for a more democratic and tolerant Turkey in which artists, writers and intellectuals can think and speak freely. Pleshakov and his wife have made recordings individually and together for Orion, Dante, Naxos, Marquis, L’Empreinte Digitale, De Plein Vent, unusual collaboration. Sonpact and Reference Vita. Their The Loewe ID isdiscography said to includes some 85technology works recorded boast cutting-edge with a for the firstdesign time,featuring including compositions refined a hand-polished by Rachmaninov, Balakirev, wood finish, comparable to that Medtner of and Shostakovich. Fazioli’s instruments.The couple gave a performance at the Theater The first order has MIM comeMusic from Prince to celebrateofthe loan of the pianos.who Alexander Schaumburg-Lippe, has requested a Reference ID inscribed with his family coat of arms.

tsar PIano loaned to musIcal Instrument museum In arIzona US The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix, Arizona, has acquired three rare 18th-century pianos including an 1826 Tischner Grand Fortepiano, one GerMANy/ItALy In a somewhat of only three known to exist and believed unlikely pairing, electronics to have belonged to Tsar I. manufacturer Loewe has Nicholas teamed up The instruments have been loaned with Italian piano makers Fazioli to by Vladimir Pleshakov and his wife create a swanky new flat-screen TV. Elena Winther. The pair have also The technology specialists saidprovided that ‘in a 1788 Longman & found Broderip and awho 1799 Fazioli, Loewe has a partner Johnstrives Broadwood. also for perfection’, citing the piano makers’ select production and use of premium materials as reasons for the

Piano makers think outside the box

continues. ‘It is everywhere just like the air we breathe, and as long as the universe exists, it cannot be destroyed, nor can its freedom be taken away... Because the power of the notes is stronger than anything you can ever imagine. I wish artists, authors and thinkers in Turkey, my home country, could also be as free.’ Gokcin’s video can be viewed here: http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=HG4wPVysgxM&. Say, who has frequently criticised Turkey’s pro-Islamic Justice and Development government over UK/FRANCE Party English pianist Julia Cload, its cultural and social policies, publicly recognised as a leading interpreter of Bach defines himself an atheist a illness. and Haydn, hasasdied after a–long controversial the country, Those who admission knew her inwill remember which is overwhelmingly Muslim. her great musicality and her delightfully Say could face aside, maximum witty humorous which term often came of one a half years in prison if he out in and her playing. is convicted. Cload was born into a musical family. Her father John, a viola player, was a founder member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) and her mother was a violinist and later a teacher. As a student at the Royal College of Music in London, Cload won the LPO Concerto Competition. She made her debut with the orchestra playing Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto under Sir Adrian Boult. She went on to win a three-year scholarship to the Liszt Academy in Budapest, studying under Lajos Hernádi, a student of Bartók and Schnabel. She continued her studies with Maria Curcio and Hans Keller, soon making her much acclaimed Wigmore Hall debut, which led to with her pianist playing Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with most of theand major British orchestras Roger Vignoles, Mark Padmore, including thetwo Royal who will give songPhilharmonic cycles with and the Hallé. pianist Simon Lepper. Based in actress France,Patricia CloadRoutledge became a Elsewhere, regular recitalist at tell London’s and pianist Piers Lane the storymajor of concert hallsGallery and recorded regularly the National Concerts during for theSecond BBC asWorld well being invited to play all the War that were over theby world. of Hess, the highlights of inspired DameOne Myra and her career was playing Goldberg novelist, journalist and IPBach’s contributor Variations at the 2001 Besançon Jessica Duchen presents her play, Festival. A Walk TONY BARLOW Through the End of Time.

Petrushka and puppets for Wimbledon music festival

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uk Russian pianist Mikhail Rudy will present a quirky new production of Stravinsky’s Petrushka in November, based on his own transcription and combined with puppetry (pictured). The world premiere is hosted by London’s International Wimbledon Music Festival and the Little Angel Theatre. The annual festival, now in its fourth year, takes place from 10 to 25 November, and also features Christine Brewer, who will perform International Piano November/December 2012 International Piano January/February 2013

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In Brief RNCM tuRNs 40

FRANCE Piano maker Pleyel has teamed up with manufacturer Peugeot to create an instrument that aligns cover and keyboard to allow audiences to see the artist perform from any viewing angle. Working with Pleyel’s engineers, Peugeot Design Lab replaced the traditional piano lid prop with a self-supporting lid mechanism

that can be raised with one hand – an idea borrowed directly from a car’s tailgate. The piano body and soundboard are made of wood, and the lid and leg have been made of carbon fibre. The piano was launched in Paris over the summer following 18 months of design and development.

IdIl BIret records her 100th dIsc Turkish pianist Idil Biret’s latest recording, a disc of all five works for piano and orchestra by Hindemith, marks an impressive milestone: the two-CD set, to be released on her own IBA label next year to mark the 50th anniversary of Hindemith’s death, will be her 100th recording. The five works include his Piano Music with Orchestra Op  29, for left hand alone. This work was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, rejected by him, subsequently hidden in his study and not discovered again until after his widow’s death in 2002. Of her 99 other recordings, among those she feels closest to are her discs of Schubert songs transcribed by Liszt and the second version of her two recordings of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, again in Liszt’s piano

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transcription. She said: ‘Liszt’s Beethoven Symphony transcriptions, which I recorded for EMI in 1985/86, the Chopin Mazurkas, Liszt’s Grandes Etudes, Rachmaninov’s Second Sonata (first version), the three Boulez Sonatas and the Ligeti Etudes are some of my personal favourites among the many professional recordings I have made since 1959.’ Biret recently finished recording two solo piano works by the Turkish composer Ertug ˇrul Og ˇuz Firat. After the Hindemith, she is planning discs of the two books of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Scriabin’s Sonatas and other works, as well as some of Mozart’s piano concertos. A 10-CD box set of all her recordings of 20th-century composers is to be released in 2013. International Piano

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SHEET MUSIC

EXCERPTS FROM SOUND SKETCHES

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is welcoming back some of its most distinguished alumni. Over the past few months, the School of Keyboard Studies has been visited by current cover artist Steven Osborne, Christian Blackshaw, Vovka Ashkenazy and Jin Ju. Stephen Hough was scheduled to work with students on 10 December, and Peter Donohoe, Mark Anderson, Martin Roscoe and Ian Fountain will all participate in recitals, masterclasses and departmental activities in 2013.

Play Me, I’M youRs

Cambridge University’s Faculty of Music was disappointed to discover that a piano intended for members of the public to play had been dragged across a park and abandoned after the wheels fell off. The instrument was one of 15 that had been decorated by local artists and placed around the city for the university’s Festival of Ideas. The project, called ’Play Me, I’m Yours’, was the concept of the British artist Luke Jerram.

aPPassIoNato exhIbIted

Stephen Hough has exhibited his ‘Appassionato’ series of paintings at London’s Broadbent Gallery. Hough said he found painting ‘a great release from the tension of practising’. ‘On the keyboard, I love thinking about colour and transparency of texture: how you can hear different lines through the use of the pedal and the tone, and how those different lines each have an independent rubato, an independent life,’ he said. ’It’s similar with paintings: I’m interested in abstract art where you see many different layers, rather than just blocks of colour.’ Examples of Hough’s visual artwork appear on his website www.stephenhough.com.

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Highlights of the Year Debussy

Complete Works for Piano Collector’s Edition

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s vivid and personal interpretations of Debussy’s complete works for piano are presented here in a five-volume Collector’s Edition box set. AWARDS:

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BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1

BEETHOVEN: Complete works for piano and orchestra

ENESCU: Piano Quartets, Nos 1 and 2

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c o m p e t i t i o n s , awa r d s Federico Colli wins Leeds French award for Grosvenor International Competition Italian pianist Federico Colli, 24, (pictured, below) has won the 2012 Leeds International Piano Competition. The first prize includes a £18,000 cash prize, donated by the Liz and Terry Bramall Charitable Trust, and the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Gold Medal, sponsored by Michael J Gee, Rowland J Gee and Nigel Gee of the Cecil Gee Charitable Trust and the Champs Hill Records Award, which enables the winner to record his debut solo CD at the Music Room, Champs Hill. The finals, broadcast live by BBC Radio 3, saw Colli give outstanding Benjamin Grosvenor hasanwon the ‘Jeune performance Talent’ award of at Beethoven’s the DiapasonFifth Awards Piano Concerto at CD Leeds 2012 for his debut on Town DeccaHall with the Hallé Orchestra (Chopin, Liszt and Ravel, directed reviewedby in Sir Mark Elder. issue 9). The 20-year-old pianist was The other prize were presented with thewinners prize from theLouis Schwizgebel, from Switzerland leading French24, classical music magazine (second prize);in Jiayan 22, from at a ceremony ParisSun, in November, China (third prize), Andrejs Osokins, which was broadcast on Radio France. 27, frominLatvia (fourth prize), Andrew Earlier 2012, Grosvenor received two Tyson, 25, from the USYoung (fifth prize), Gramophone Awards: Artist of and Jayson 26, from Australia the Year andGillham, Instrumental Award for the (sixth prize). www.leedspiano.com same recording. He also won the Classic Brits Critics’ Award in the same week. A full competition Grosvenor’s latest report Deccacan CDbeis found reviewed on on p31 page 80.

Zoe Rahman scoops a MOBO

Pianist Zoe Rahman beat tough competition from other nominees – the Mercury-nominated Roller Trio, cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson, singer Zara McFarlane and guitarist Femi Temowo – to win the prestigious MOBO Jazz Award. Rahman, an occasional contributor to IP, spent 2012 touring her

& signings

Sasha takes first acclaimedGrynyuk Kindred Spirits album. She is prize at Grieg Competition no stranger to high-profile awards: her

New international piano the audience prize, young audience contest for Kingston prize, the Breguet special prize and the

2006 album Melting Pot was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

Sony signs Igor Levit

Sony Classical has signed an exclusive recording deal with German-Russian pianist Igor Levit, aged 25. His first recording for the label, to be released in 2012, will feature solo works by Beethoven. A current BBC New Generation Artist and 2012-13

Ukrainian pianist Sasha Grynyuk, 29, (above) has won first prize at the 13th International Edvard Grieg Piano Competition in Bergen, Norway. European Association GrynyukConcert scoopedHall €30,000 and won Rising Star, Levit took four prizes at the engagements for several high-profile 2005 International Arthur Rubinstein appearances in 2013: solo recitals Piano Master Competition. at the Bergen International Festival and the University Hall of Oslo, and at Troldhaugen, he 21C will be ‘pianist Joyce Yangwhere joins Media of the week’. 21C Media Group has announced that The be Russian pianist Anton Igubnov, it will handling public relations 23, won both audience prize for Joyce Yang,the silver medallist (and and second prize, while 30-year-old the youngest contestant) at the 2005 Mamikon Nakhapetov from Georgia Van Cliburn International Piano took third prize. In was the final, the an three Competition. Yang awarded finalists eachCareer gave solo performances Avery Fisher Grant – one of with themusic’s Bergen most Philharmonic classical prestigious Orchestra, orchestra, accolades –Grieg’s in 2010own at the age of 24.inHer the Grieg Hall in Bergen. 2012-13 season features debuts with jury comprised Leif Ove theThe Toronto and Detroit Symphonies Andsnes, Oxana Yablonskaya, under Peter Oundjian; she alsoBernd makes Goetzke, Piotr Paleczny, Jens Harald her German debut with the Deutsches Bratlie, Einar Steen-Nøkleberg Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, led (chairman), and Marc-André by James Conlon, and returnsHamelin. to The 14th Edvard Grieg Australia forInternational a concert with the Sydney Piano Competition will be held in Symphony Orchestra. Bergen during 2014. www.griegcompetition.com Soulès triumphs in Geneva French pianist Lorenzo Soulès has Marc-André Hamelin is interviewed won first prize at the 2012 Geneva for ‘Music of my Life’ on p88 also took Competition. Theover 20-year-old

Jamaican pianist Orrett Rhoden will host the first ever international piano competition in his hometown of Kingston during 8-11 November 2013. Applicants – who can be of any age, and any nationality – will compete to win a first prize of £50,000. ‘I am looking for an “old fashioned romantic” similar to that of Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein in the world we live in today,’ Rhoden told IP. ‘I thought, there must be such aAir pianist, we have become often FranceasKLM special prize, too which hypnotised mereticket technicians consists of a by return to one ofwho are capable ofdestinations playing faster the only 230 worldwide in and the louder somehow have missed the airline’sand network. Twenty-eight-yearreal meaningSporov of music making. I am old Mikhail from Russia won looking for an artist, one with real second prize and Aya Matsushita, also imagination and a sense of individual 28, came third. The Georges Leibenson style and sophistication; with–all Special Prize, awarded byone the jury the necessary tools, ofJanina course, which includedtechnical Dmitri Alexeev, but also with something Fialkowska and regular IPunique, Symposium personal and different toElton say. In otherto contributor Christopher – went words, a modern day poet!’ Lee. A full Rachel Cheung and Chulmin Rhoden first came tobe international competition report will published in attention after appearing in two BBC the next edition of IP. documentaries on the 1983 visit of The Queen and Therecords Duke of Edinburgh Plowright Brahms to Jamaica. The programmes featured Rhoden playing background music while the Royal couple toured Devon House, and also used his recordings throughout the films. Subsequently, Rhoden was booked to give his London debut as the soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 at the Barbican in 1984. www.orrettrhoden.com British pianist Jonathan Plowright has commenced a recorded cycle of Brahms’s works for solo piano with the BIS label. The first disc, released in December, comprises the monumental Piano Sonata No 3 in F minor, coupled with the celebrated Handel Variations, two of the major landmarks in the 19th-century solo piano literature. ‘I am absolutely thrilled to have established this new relationship with BIS Records to record Brahms, a composer whose music has always been close to my heart, and these two giants of the piano repertoire are a very good place to start,’ said Plowright.

January/February 2012 2013 International Piano November/December

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let t er from U. S.

From Russia Russia with From with talent talent

the immense pianistic talent from the countries of the former Soviet Union continues unabated, reports US correspondent Stephen Wigler

N N

o piaNistic IS o piaNisticpleasure pleasure greater is greaterthan thanone onelong long delayed and finally gratified – especially when it surpasses all expectation. Such was the case on 2 october, in Seully Hall at the Boston Conservatory, when I finally got to hear a Cuban pianist whom I had first heard about more than years earlier earlier:when at a lunch with Jorge 30 years I had lunch with Bolet,Bolet, during his visit rochester, NY, Jorge during his to visit to rochester, to perform andand record NY, to perform recordthe thetwo two liszt Concertos with David Zinman and the Philharmonic orchestra. orchestra rochester Philharmonic Bolet had been talking about the Cuban piano tradition, when I mentioned my admiration for Horacio Gutierrez, who had left Cuba at the age of 13 in 1961 with his family because of Castro’s accession to power a few years earlier. ‘You know, even Castro hasn’t prevented Cuba from producing talented pianists,’ Bolet told me. ‘there’s another Cuban boy, even younger than Gutierrez, about whom I’ve been hearing great greatthings.’ things.’ According to According to –Bolet, ‘boy’ – who, Bolet, this ‘boy’ who, this unlike Gutierrez, unlike Gutierrez, had remained in had remained in Castro’s Cuba with

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his familyCuba – waswith considered so talented Castro’s his family – was that he had been awarded that a scholarship considered so talented he had to in russia at the to moscow beenstudy awarded a scholarship study Conservatory and had recently been in russia at the moscow Conservatory awarded the first prize the prestigious and had recently been in awarded the first long-thibaud Competition in Paris. I prize in the prestigious long-thibaud took note of his name I– took Jorgenote luisof Prats Competition in Paris. his –name, and hoped thatPrats, it would not bethat long Jorge luis and hoped it before gotbe a chance to hear him. would Inot long before I got a chance got him. that chance – on a recording, to Ihear at I least – shortly In 1980 got that chancethereafter. – on a recording, the Deutsche Grammophon in at least – shortly thereafter. label In 1980 its long discontinued the now Deutsche Grammophon‘Concours’ label in series, introduced winners of its nowwhich long discontinued ‘Concours’ important competitions, series, which introduced released winners the of then 23-year-old Prats’s recorded debut – important competitions, released the performances of Prats’s Beethoven’s Sonata No– then 23-year-old recorded debut 28, Schumann’softoccata in C and ravel’s performances Beethoven’s Sonata No Gaspard de la toccata Nuit that considered 28, Schumann’s in CI and ravel’s comparable bestthat on records. Sadly, Gaspard de to lathe Nuit I considered it was to be to Prats’s comparable the last besteasily on available records. Western-made for a last longeasily time Sadly, it was recording to be Prats’s –available more than 30 years. Itrecording was at about Western-made for a that DG than also began recording long time time that – more 30 years. It was another piano at about that timecompetition that DG alsoveteran, began almost exactly Prats’s age.competition Ironically, recording another piano he was also a foreign-born pianist who veteran, almost exactly Prats’s age. had won a he scholarship study at the Ironically, was also to a foreign-born moscow Conservatory he had been pianist who had won and a scholarship to Prats’s in Conservatory Paris 1977 when study atroommate the moscow and they in roommate the long-thibaud he hadcompeted been Prats’s in Paris Competition andcompeted where the 1977 when they in roommate the longfailed to get past the semi-final round. thibaud Competition and where the more ironically still, thethe Croatian roommate failed to he getwas past semipianist, whose more failure ironically to get past the semifinal round. still, he final round three pianist, years later in Warsaw was the Croatian whose failure made one semi-final of the most to get him past the roundfamous three pianists on in theWarsaw planet: Ivo Pogorelich. years later made him one of andplanet: his thePogorelich’s most famous celebrity pianists on the provocatively controversial interpretations Ivo Pogorelich. helped make celebrity his records Pogorelich’s helpedbest-sellers make his and earned him carte-blanche at carte DG. records bestsellers and earned him Interestingly, Pogorelich’sPogorelich’s earliest blanche at DG. Interestingly, releases featuredfeatured repertory rather similar earliest releases repertory rather

to that on Prats’s out-of-print similar to that onsoon-to-be Prats’s soon-to-be outDG album: late Beethoven (opus(opus 111) of-print DG album: late Beethoven and Schumann’s toccata inin1982 111) and Schumann’s toccata 1982 and ravel’s Gaspard in 1983. I thought all of Gaspard in these performances, while ‘sensational’ in some respects, much less satisfying than those of Prats. But while Pogorelich enjoyed superstardom for more than 15 years, very very little littlewas washeard heardfrom from Prats. Prats. Although his biography liststhat, other Prats’s problem was partly as recordings, that Ihewas aware of a resident ofallCuba, travelled on ina the almost three that decades his first Cuban passport madesince performing recording outUS of print were some impossiblewent in the and difficult in terrific dating from the most of performances, Western europe, thus confining 1990s, of rachmaninov his career largely to latinconcertos America. (Nos that 2began and 3toand the rhapsody onago a theme change a few years when of Paganini) a mexican Prats, along recorded with his with family, moved orchestra Batiz to miami. conducted A recital inbytheenrique 2007 miami available onlyPiano on thefestival small, rather poorly International was recorded distributed, and on video by infrequently VAI and its reviewed extraordinary now discontinued classicalPrelude label. performances of theASV Bach-liszt (All three inperformances have been in fugue A minor, Scriabin’s 24 reissued the super-budget and Preludes,on op 11, ravel’s regis Gaspard, Brilliant labels.) in addition to encores by lecuona, Prats’s problem was partly that, as Cervantes, moszkowski and Wagneraliszt, resident of Cuba, he travelled on a resulted in invitations to perform Cuban passportfestival, that made performing at the Verbier in Amsterdam’s impossible in the USSeries and for difficult Concertgebouw Piano four in most ofyears Western thus consecutive and to aeurope, contract with confining his career latin Decca, which recentlylargely issuedtoLive in America. that began transcript to change ofa few Zaragoza, an unedited the years ago whenAmerican Prats, along with his Spanish-latin programme family, moved miami. A recital in Prats gave early to in 2011 in the new hall the 2007 miami International Piano in Zaragoza, Spain. Although Prats’s festival recordedincludes on videomost by VAI extensivewas repertory of and extraordinary of the its major works by performances Bach, mozart, the Bach-liszt Prelude in fugue in A Beethoven, liszt, Chopin, Schumann, minor, op 11, ravel, Scriabin’s Debussy 24 andPreludes, the russians, ravel’s Gaspard, in addition encores what I heard in Boston was ato‘Spanish’ by lecuona, Cervantes, programme: Granados’s moszkowski Goyescas, and Wagner-liszt, in invitations Guererro’s Suite resulted Havana. Busoni’s to perform at theonVerbier festival,and in Chamber-fantasy Bizet’s Carmen Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Piano three pieces (Corpus Christi en Sevilla, Series four from consecutive years Jerez, andfor Lavapies) Albéniz’s Iberia.

International Piano January/February 2013

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let t er from U. S. I have never heard better performances of any of these pieces – not by Alicia de larrocha or even by Nelson freire – the pianist whom Prats seems to resemble most in the ease of his all-encompassing technique, improvisatory freedom, poetic imagination and uncanny and unshakeable sense of rhythm.

A

lIttle more tHAN tWo weeks later (18 oct) I returned to Boston to hear Nikolai lugansky (pictured, right) perform rachmaninov’s Concerto No 3 with the BSo and conductor Charles Dutoit. two years ago in New York when I heard lugansky in the same composer’s Concerto No 2, his olympian detachment made me compare him to his Norwegian contemporary, leif ove Andsnes. After hearing lugansky on this occasion, I stand by that comparison – except that I now think he’s even cooler than Andsnes. this is not to say that he is a cold pianist – although the knowledgeable friends with whom I attended the concert disagree with me. But if evgeny Kissin (with his trademark warmth of expression, his sonorous and singing lyricism and his relaxed and spacious phrasing) occupies one end of the russian pianistic spectrum, lugansky (with his objectivity, his whirlwind, motor-like tempos, his lightness of touch and razor-sharp precision) occupies the other. I can’t think of another current pianist who more closely resembles rachmaninov himself. With tempos in the first movement fleeter than any of his contemporaries, lugansky was able to lift the third concerto’s lyrical themes aloft in a manner that eschewed hearton-sleeve sentiment. It is also no accident that unlike most of today’s pianists he elects to play the shorter, less showy cadenza. He built it to a conclusion of tremendous force and weight without threatening the movement’s architecture, which the longer cadenza can do. the second movement, also taken at a faster than usual tempo, might have shortchanged the music’s brooding emotion, but the mercurial lightness of the contrasting middle section could not have been finer. the finale, though played at a near phenomenal tempo,

never faltered in its steadily accelerating momentum and concluded in a clearly articulated blaze of glory. Some of the best ‘russian’ pianists are actually from Georgia. this is true of such now senior figures as elisso Virsaladze and elisabeth leonskaya, each of them well over 70, and the somewhat younger Alexander toradze (born in 1952). these important Georgian-born pianists, however, concluded their studies in moscow. two much younger and much talked-about Georgians, the 25-year-old Khatia Buniatishvilli and the 31-yearold Nina Gvetadze, never left tbilisi for either moscow or St Petersburg; they proceeded straight to careers in the West. Another world-class Georgian pianist, who resisted the pull of the russian cultural centres, is the 47-year-old Alexander Korsantia, who won first prizes in 1988 at the Sydney International Competition and in 1995 at the rubinstein Competition in tel Aviv. A career as a member of the piano faculty at as fine a music school as the New england Conservatory in Boston, where he now makes his home, is nothing to sneer at, but Korsantia deserves to be better known. His all-Beethoven programme at the conservatory (Jordan Hall, 22 october) was well planned and splendidly executed. I remained in Boston until 8 November so that I could finally hear Daniil trifonov, the biggest prizewinner of the 2010-11 season (third prize in Warsaw and firsts in tel Aviv and moscow). With Giancarlo Guerrero conducting the Boston Symphony (Symphony Hall), he gave the finest performance of tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 that I’ve heard in recent years. more than any russian pianist since the lamentably short-lived Youri egorov, the 21-year-old trifonov’s playing evokes a vocal rather than a purely instrumental model. the variety of his touch and his mastery of tonal shading combine with an improvisatory freedom of expression to suggest a voice in flight. this is why he can make bravura passages, such as the avalanches of double octaves most pianists deliver as if they were studied declamations, sound like bursts of unexpected song.

Despite the flood of talented pianists from the far east, Yuja Wang has said, ‘russia’s continues to be the world’s pre-eminent piano school.’ She must be right – for the flow of immense talents from the countries of the former Soviet Union continues unabated. one week after trifonov, I was in back in Baltimore to hear 26-year-old Denis Kozhukhin (pictured, left), who came in third at the 2006 leeds and first at the 2010 Brussels, perform the Brahms Piano Concerto No 2 with the Baltimore Symphony and music director, marin Alsop. lanky and relaxed, his long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, Kozukhin always seemed to be enjoying himself. And for good reason: he has all the technique in the world. He made Brahms’s gigantic, leaping chords and man-killing trills sound like child’s play. His sound – forceful when necessary, but never harsh or percussive – is beautiful at all dynamic levels. He brought out the Beethovenlike grandeur of the first movement, set a bracing tempo in the demonic scherzo without sacrificing its details and inner voices, made the gentle Andante sing poetically and performed the playful finale with crisp articulation and cheeky grace. He may have missed a few of the larger structural details of the concerto, but this was still an accomplished performance of one of the repertory’s most intimidating behemoths – a remarkable achievement by any pianist, particularly one so young.  January/February 2013 International Piano

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NEW PIANO RELEASES NEW YORK CITY

THE ROMANTIC PIANO CONCERTO – 58

Jerome Rose, Founder & Director Julie Kedersha, Festival Director

Pixis & Thalberg

This 58th volume of the Romantic Piano Concerto series presents two composer-pianists who contributed to Liszt’s piano extravaganza Hexaméron. Thalberg also famously took part in a pianistic ‘duel’ with Liszt, and was acclaimed as the greatest pianist in the world during his lifetime. Johann Peter Pixis is completely unknown now—these are premiere recordings of his charming Piano Concerto and Piano Concertino.

With the Participation of at

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HOWARD SHELLEY piano TASMANIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Concerts, Lectures & Masterclasses Nikolai Demidenko, Marc-André Hamelin Andrea Lucchesini, Jerome Rose, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet Massimiliano Ferrati, Alexander Kobrin, Steven Mayer Yuan Sheng, Mykola Suk, Jeffrey Swann Ilya Yakushev, David Dubal, Emanuel Krasovsky Nina Lelchuk, Michael Oelbaum, HaeSun Paik Victor Rosenbaum, José Ramos Santana, Boris Slutsky Eduard Zilberkant, Nina Tichman, Jed Distler, Noam Sivan Asaf Blasberg, Gabriele Leporatti, Gesa Luecker

Prestige Series Magdalena Baczewska (MacKenzie), Seong-Jin Cho (Tchaikovsky) Federico Colli (Leeds), Kotaro Fukuma (Santander) Dudana Mazmanishvili (MacKenzie) Momoko Mizutani (MacKenzie), Quynh Nguyen (MacKenzie) Hélène Tysman (MacKenzie), Andrew Tyson (YCA) Ilya Rashkovsky (Hamamatsu)

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Keyboard Sonatas – 2

A welcome second volume of CPE Bach’s startlingly original and inventive keyboard sonatas, performed with authority and style by pianist Danny Driver. DANNY DRIVER piano

ERNO” DOHNÁNYI

The Complete Solo Piano Music – 2

CDA67908

A second volume of Dohnányi’s deeply appealing yet neglected piano music, performed by the living master of the repertoire: Martin Roscoe. A highlight of the album is the Variations and Fugue on a theme of EG, Op 4—a monumental work that would soon be hailed by the Viennese press as ‘the most valuable enrichment of music literature since Brahms’. MARTIN ROSCOE piano

MODEST MUSORGSKY

Pictures from an Exhibition

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SERGE PROKOFIEV

Sarcasms & Visions Steven Osborne has become one of the most valuable pianists recording today. His recent complete Rachmaninov Preludes release was critically acclaimed as the greatest modern version since Ashkenazy. Now he turns to further cornerstones of the Russian repertoire in this recording of Musorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition, and two sets of Prokofiev’s miniatures. STEVEN OSBORNE piano

CDA67896 FEBRUARY RELEASE

MP3 and lossless downloads of all our recordings are available from www.hyperion-records.co.uk

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CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH

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Benjamin Ivry offers an antidote to the piano sadism in the recent bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey

The EL James trilogy has sold millions of copies; the books were followed by EMI’s Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album, also a bestseller

Fifty shades of pianism

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HE SPLENDID PIANIST AND delightful writer Arthur Loesser (18941969) physically resembled a garden gnome but, as he would tell his students at the Cleveland Institute of Music, whenever he played the piano he was more beautiful than the comeliest damsels in his class. As Arthur Rubinstein’s memoirs state and Harvey Sachs’s rollicking biography (Grove Press) of the keyboard virtuoso confirms, although Rubinstein was no Don Juan either, he enjoyed an exuberant romantic life, with his piano playing proving a seductive force. In our literal-minded age, artistic beauty is sometimes sidelined in favour of more visually quantifiable gratifications. And thus the novel Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels have sold millions of copies, followed by EMI’s Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album. The CD, itself a bestseller, is heavily weighted with piano music, since the book tells the story of the relationship between Anastasia, a student, and Christian Grey, a billionaire and amateur pianist. Of Grey, readers are assured: ‘He’s not merely good looking – he’s the epitome of male beauty, breathtaking.’ Fifty Shades author EL James somewhat ambiguously informed the Daily Telegraph that Grey was a ‘talented but not particularly gifted pianist’. Listeners will note that the EMI CD features an odd mix of selections. Two Chopin pieces by the alcoholic, amphetamine-popping Frenchman Samson François sound understandably medicated and distracted, while Rachmaninov is played absently by Cécile Ousset. Bach by Maria Tipo is both trivialising and tubby-sounding. Two further tracks evoke the character of the sadistic plutocrat Grey, whether consciously or not: Bach played by Alexandre Tharaud in a cool, emotionally distant Gallic way is echoed by the coldly mechanical Alexis Weissenberg. Of all these pianists, Moura Lympany evokes the most sympathy, as a worthy artist captured for eternity in the wrong repertoire: a Debussy rendition which was not her finest moment. Piano lovers can only hope such a compilation will encourage consumers to further investigate the works included; they might discover more rewarding performances of the same works which, in the age of YouTube, are but a few clicks away.

Examples might include Edwin Fischer’s spiritually intense performance of JS Bach’s Concerto No 3, BWV 974, an adaptation of an Adagio from an Alessandro Marcello oboe concerto. Or Chopin’s Prelude No 4 in E minor played with stark emotional impact by Rudolf Serkin on a recent Sony CD reissue. Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 is well represented in discography by a performance with the composer himself as soloist, while Moura Lympany should be allowed to redeem herself with her admirable rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne No 1 in B flat minor. Bach’s Goldberg Variations have been recorded by many fine artists, among them Murray Perahia and András Schiff. Debussy’s ever-popular The Girl with the Flaxen Hair has been performed with apt tenderness and innocence by Youri Egorov (on one of the many excellent EMI archival recordings which, mysteriously, were not chosen for the new compilation) and Gaby Casadesus. To fully plumb the grace and exaltation of JS Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring as transcribed by Myra Hess, why not listen to Hess herself, or Dinu Lipatti, yet another EMI artist? Hearing a variety of different – and perhaps better – performances of these long-appreciated works reminds us of what is primordially important: the music, not the marketing. Consumers who buy erotica are most likely out for instant gratification, yet as any sybarite knows, there are degrees of refinement even in wanton self-indulgence. Sadism and the piano seem inexorably linked in the public’s mind after screen epics such as The Seventh Veil (1945), The Piano (1993) and The Piano Teacher (2001), which all feature sadistic elements. The piano has been saddled with this image perhaps because the notion of a sadistic fiddler or tuba player would be overtly comic even to the most humourless author of erotica. An ideal answer to such grim and glowering images, domineering and paininducing, would be some of the more joyous and loving interpreters who have rightly won audience allegiance over the years – the same audience which has the artistic imagination to reject pianists, even those who are the ‘epitome of male beauty, breathtaking’, if they are merely ‘talented but not particularly gifted’.  January/February 2013 International Piano

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ip exClusive Courtesy of Jean Muller and Fondamenta we are offering International Piano readers the opportunity to download two tracks from Jean Muller’s latest release. Chopin Recital, 2011 © Fondamenta

© Marlene Soares

Tracks available to International Piano readers: • Chopin – Ballade No.1 • Chopin – Mazurka in C Major

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to ClaiM youR FRee download, visit www.Rhinegold.Co.uk/ ipdownload

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O N E T O WAT C H

Onwards and uPwards Both of Muller’s parents are musicians. His mother is a viola player in the Philharmonic Jean Orchestra of Luxembourg. His father, Gary Muller, a piano professor at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg, is one of the strongest influences on his playing: ‘I have to say his influence was always not direct, meaning that he was never my formal teacher – which was probably a wise decision. He put me into the class of a colleague at the conservatoire, Marie-José Hengesch.’ Muller was six at the time, and only a year later made his first public appearance, premiering a work by his compatriot Alexander Mullenbach. He remained at the conservatoire until the age of 15, when he began studies at the Academy of Music in Riga. ‘But during all these years, my father guided me a lot, sometimes encouraging me to do crazy things which my piano teacher would not have,’ he says. ‘For instance, when I was seven years old, I absolutely wanted to play the study in thirds by Chopin. Everybody said I was crazy, which I probably was, but my father gave me the score and wrote down the fingering. I learnt it – of course I didn’t play it very well, but I got round it. Musically and technically, what he says to me is still very important. Now, we are colleagues. I work at the conservatoire with him.’ Muller has been active on the competition circuit for some years but there is, he agrees, a time to stop. ‘Unfortunately, it doesn’t often bring as much as you would dream of. That’s something that younger pianists may not be aware of. It might bring you something but it can be deceptive. Let’s put it that way. It’s certainly not the best way to improve musicianship.’ Although not yet a big name in the profession, Muller is well known in his own country (‘But then, my country is very small!’). In 2007, His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg made Muller a Chevalier de l’Ordre de Mérite Civil et Militaire d’Adolphe de Nassau. It is something of which the pianist is immensely proud – quite rightly, as it’s an award that is usually only given to much older people. ‘I had been playing at quite a few state visits and somehow they must have liked my performances,’ he says modestly. The date is set for his next recording: Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes in July 2013. ‘I’ve been working on them for two years,’ he says. ‘I’m still a little nervous but I now know what I want to do with these pieces. I’m also doing a tour of the pieces on my Chopin disc. So there is plenty to do.’ 

Outside his native Luxembourg, Muller’s profile has been fairly low – until now. Jeremy Nicholas finds out why

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EAN MULLER, BORN IN 1979 IN LUXEMBOURG, has won 12 piano competitions since 1994 and made a number of recordings. His latest, a terrific Chopin recital (Fondamenta, FON1005008) has received wide critical acclaim, with one reviewer declaring that ‘few pianists of any age or nationality have recreated the storming codas of the First and Fourth Ballades [...] with such brilliant fury’. So why haven’t we heard of him? ‘Well, life is complicated and things don’t always kick off like they should,’ he says. ‘And also, I have to confess that my first priority has always been the quality of my playing and not the development of my career. So maybe that’s why it was long time before I had the confidence to be more known and play in other countries [outside Luxembourg]. I did play in some, but perhaps not with the same energy as I have done in the past few years.’ Muller edits all his recordings himself (‘I feel that, as an artist, one shouldn’t give something one has invested so much time in to another hand’) but has not been tied to a single label. Is that a good idea? ‘That’s probably not a good idea!’ he laughs. ‘Nevertheless, I have to say that the latest, Fondamenta, have been very encouraging since I’ve been with them.’ One of his previous discs was devoted to the music of Stéphane Blet. ‘He is a modern French composer who was a pupil of Byron Janis and also had several lessons from Horowitz in the 1980s,’ Muller says. ‘I think he’s a very interesting figure, maybe not mainstream but more so than you might expect for a modern composer. His music carries some intensity – that’s what interested me in his work.’ It’s not a choice of repertoire that is a strong commercial proposition. Blet, I suggest, is not going to sell many discs. ‘Yes. I have often taken decisions which go against what people advise me. Even when I recorded the Ballades of Chopin. But of course it’s very encouraging when, later on, it transpires to have been the right choice.’

IP readers are invited to download a selection of tracks from Jean Muller’s Chopin disc, courtesy of Fondamenta. Visit www.rhinegold.co.uk/ipdownload and click ‘download now’. January/February 2013 International Piano

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pianostreet.com - the website for pianists, teachers, students and piano enthusiasts

The newly discovered piano piece by Johannes Brahms - download the score at: pianostreet.com/albumblatt

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Diary of an accompanist

ILLUSTRATION © ursula URSULA round ROUND IllustratIon

whichMichael MichaelRound Roundsamples meets athe star, and a Planet InInwhich Mysterious East MONDAY Am to AccompAny tV MONDAY, WEEKfor 1 Exciting times. sitcom, miming on-screen actorAm at to fly tomusic Gulf already state forreceived four weeks’ work piano. by motorplaying Edwardian-themed background cycle courier: thoughtful of tV company chamber musicsame, in newthough hotel. Organiser to provide scarcely there warns,in‘Bring necessary this own case,tuning-hammer being simply –offenbach nearest piano-tuner lives thousands of can-can theme, scrawled on miles away, charges a fortune, stave. and leaves plain paper with hand-drawn instrument in worse statecleverly than before’. Reach tV studio, built Wish knew more aboutnight-club piano tuning, to resemble decrepit and but sounds ascast if plus can’tsound, lose. lighting, Discuss crammed with potential shortagewardrobe, of femalehair, company electrics, camera, makethere during pre-takeoff chat withLocate wellup and stage management crews. wisher. to get to thecue camels producer‘Bein sure mêlée, ascertain and early,’ herequirements. suggests, ‘you’ll a pretty musical nowant hurry: whole one, won’t you?’ Coarse fellow. company on break, awaiting actorTake-off , flofight. Study Arabic phrasepianist (star scene). Wander backstage, book journey. Diffi cult and language. locate on caterers, learn food drink Read, ‘Produce consonantproducer in back all free: cease this wandering. of throat, as if retching.’ Attempt same. calls for rehearsal: minion dispatched Passenger winces, edgesreports away. to locate alongside star. minion returns, Passing stewardess look concerned, asks, star currently in dressing-room seeking ‘Do you need Resolve to use inspiration in some can ofwater?’ Guinness. company only in future. waitsvowels patiently, at incalculable expense. Touchdown. Disembark, sniff (like Star finally lurches into view: amair startled oven), reach hotel air-conditioned, to recognise as (palatial, comedian from several icy), examine ago, performance venue (hotel generations long thought dead. foyer: ditto, ditto, ditto plus fountain), costume includes illuminated bow-tie, piano (9-ftbySteinway grand, activated star himself and brand-new), intended to meet colleagues (acclimatised, sunburned). revolve as he delivers punchline of scene. Rehearse. play can-can on cue. TUESDAY Start ‘can work.music Music producer asks, be salonmore orchestra stuff, painless: nearby fountain Folies-Bergèrish?’ Have never been asked so that most bass-notesnonplussed, inaudible. thatloud before. momentarily Puzzled by unwritten trills an and octave headthen restart with tune swivellings other players. Seems higher and from accompaniment sprightlier. trill is unoffi cial signal prettySlow girl producer adds, ‘…and that slower.’ has entered is down: tune foyer: soundshead-swivelling awful thus but other players straining OK if girl producer pleased so do to notlook. argue musical expatriate, but am fearful of being niceties. Rehearsal resumes, ends.caught Break staring local women and wonder before at first take: wardrobe, hair what and equivalent musical warning signal is: make-up crew descend en masse to tidy March tolike the Scaff old, possibly. up cast, ox-peckers on herd of rhino.

First take goes well, up to punchline: star WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY forgets words and cannot As read Tuesday, autocue. except Friday (holy more day, no work). Break: for minion brings Guinness, Meet violinist, Arab writes local punchline in bigtraditional letters on board music specialist. Tunes violin to be held in view of star but not out to of G-Dshot; A-E but G-D-G-C. Intriguing. ox-peckers reappear, descend, disappear. Second take: star delivers words but bowMONDAY, WEEK 2 Break: Time to tune piano. tie fails to revolve. Guinness and Nothing with plus it, but job crowd must ox-peckerswrong re-emerge, small be seen to be analysing done. Passing expatriate of electricians bow-tie. Report invites me to tune pianotake. in town all satisfactory, readyown for third Bowaft because nearest electricians tuner lives tieerwards, again fails to revolve, thousands of miles away, had etc. forgotten Tell him puzzled: actor confesses am inexperienced, butproceeds, this apparently to activate on cue. Day reaches no drawback. not want piano seventh take Hope beforedoes producer satisfied. tuned to match Job done: submitArab hugeviolins. invoice.Alternative Go home, career beckons.

Producer asks, Frontmusic leg ofbe piano ‘Can more catches in fold of Folies-Bergèrish?’ carpet, snaps off, pondering cost per minute of whole piano nose-dives project, and being glad was on receiving

end of some of it. THURSDAY Excitement. Complete car showroom installed About WEDNESDAY Am intohotel playfoyer. celeste in 20 vehicles on always display. Tumultuous Holst’s Planets: a joy, however applause performance, but well, can hackneyedduring the piece. Rehearsal goes take credit: applause is forextended passing couldnofinish early: anticipate sheikh who just bought them colleagues, all. Linger meal-break with friendly aft in hope Start of being given e.g.er performance beautiful harpists. Neptune one as tip, but to no avail.marvelled that the Mystic: have always off-stage choirs stay so well in tune SUNDAY, WEEK 3orchestra Cause confusion by with pp on-stage so far away, playing printed trill. proves Heads exception, swivel in but current choir vain, automatically looking wincingly flat and way behindfor thepretty beat. girl (in short supply lately). Rehearsal ends: prepare to Apologise, escape for promise to ignore in future. meal with harpistsprinted but amtrills asked to stay behind for emergency choir rehearsal. WEDNESDAY Drama. dog-eared Piano tovocal be Am reverently handed relocated to ballroom for apparently evening. score, archive rarity dating

from Holst’s time and labelled ‘this Laundry conscripted en differ: masse music is workers irreplaceable.’ Beg to for move, possibly welcome changeatfrom contains no piano reduction all, daily Assemble, pushcues. piano at simplyroutine. voice parts with few Glad great red-carpeted knowspeed piece down well: jettison item corridor. and play Front leg of piano catches fold of piano accompaniment by ear.inBut choir carpet, off, late: piano incurablysnaps flat, and eagernose-dives. backstage Nothing carryviolinist, remains employee,daunted, familiarworkers as former of piano ballroom and prop on offers to to fetch instrument fromtail home edge of table. level among thus, though and help out Nearly by playing them challenging to play on. Other players in performance. conductor desperate: gleefully contemplate time agrees. Hastily depart forthcoming in search of meal off , piano surelybefore unusable this and (and harpists) can aft beer asked to certainly unsightly. accompany violin rehearsal. performance. Neptune arrives, choir’s THURSDAY as usual, aftviolin, er all. first entranceBusiness ditto, plus distant Seems spare but Steinway in firmly ten on beat ahead grands of choir. hotel basement: one more has been up conductor winces, so hauled as chorus (presumably by laundryviolin workers), parts move, not all-too-audible now unwrapped and pair brought connecting every of notesinto withplay. oldPretend tune it in readiness (though fashionedtoportamento. Effect decidedly sounds perfectly OK to me). Again, non-mystic: orchestra platform beginsam to booked by silent passinglaughter. expatriateconductor to tune shake with another piano in town Unoccupied afterwards, hisses ‘Stop him, somebody.’ because nearest tuner lives thousands of percussionist volunteers, leaves platform: miles, etc. Isbackstage being usedfootsteps by touring jazz retreating clearly combo. being caught out this time audible Fear in general pp. music proceeds by knowledgeable butabruptly accept regardless. off-stagemusician, violin stops job venue, locate in regardless. mid-phrase; Locate on-stage orchestral piano, raisespreads lid, affito x tuning-hammer, merriment audience. choir play note.ends Door– opens, jazz pianist fades,one music not imperceptibly, enters. is reaction, ‘Sounds sounds much as Holst‘Ah’, wrote, but with distinct better already’. be able to oblige of firmly closedGlad doorto and dropped offso quickly. stage violin. Ironic cheers mingle with applause, possibly a first with this piece. SUNDAY-THURSDAY, WEEK 4 General desperation. No auditions. pretty girlsSeefor days. FRIDAY theatre familiar Have also for played every pieceRecall: of music face, join coffee break. was about Spend afternoon in extra ten in times. monday’s tVfree filming. chat, town. camel-train. Fear I may have marvelSeeafresh at extravagant cost, been here too long: camel far ‘oh, end contemplate possible repeat atfees. looks quitehear?’ pretty. if Foreign didn’t you saysWonder extra. ‘they cut the Legion needs piano-tuner. e it.’  scene. the director didn’t like

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‘I don’t want to sound immodest, but integrity has always been enormously important to me’

a keen intellect scottish pianist Steven OSbOrne has omnivorous repertoire tastes that extend from Beethoven to Britten to free improvisation – just don’t ask him to play chopin. By Jeremy Nicholas

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OH, I WAS WRONG. SO WRONG!’ LAUGHS STEVEN Osborne. I’ve just shown him, in the interests of continuity, the final quote from his last interview in IP (Sept/Oct 2007), when he announced his intention to record Ravel’s complete piano music. ‘I’ve just got Gaspard to learn,’ he had volunteered cheerily before adding, ‘I wish I’d done Gaspard before, but my feeling is that it’s not quite as hard as it’s made out to be...’ What had made him think Gaspard, one of the literature’s most challenging pieces, was a piece of cake? ‘It’s so lucidly written on the page, but what he asks you to do is very, very

taxing physically – I mean simply playing the notes – and I underestimated that,’ he says. We are sitting in Osborne’s dressing room at the City Halls in Glasgow. Later in the day, he will rehearse Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with Andrew Manze and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for performances here and in Perth. He’s dressed in his trademark T-shirt, casual trousers and trainers. He celebrated his 40th birthday last year but could easily pass for one of the many students who crowd the city centre at lunchtime – though few would be organised enough to have an umbrella and a bottle of water loaded into the back of their rucksack, as Osborne does. With a pepper-and-salt wig, he might be Simon Rattle’s younger brother: the two have an uncannily similar smile. Osborne laughs often and generously, but in conversation, he is among the most thoughtful and serious of musicians. You sense he is never happier than when analysing a musical problem. Since that earlier interview in IP, his career has gathered pace. There have been recordings (all for Hyperion) of Tippett (nominated for BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone awards), Britten (winner of a Gramophone Award), Rachmaninov Preludes (nominated for the Schallplattenpreis and a Gramophone Award), Beethoven Sonatas, Beethoven Bagatelles and Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony. ‘And the Schubert duets with Paul Lewis,’ Osborne reminds me. ‘That was a lovely record to make. So fun. It was quite interesting to see how someone else works in the recording studio. He’s much more relaxed than I am. I tend to be quite obsessed and go for every last detail. He wanted to just do something that felt satisfying. We finished in the middle of the afternoon on the last day, which has never happened to me, and I really learned a lot from it. I hadn’t played duets for a while, and when you’re used to filling the musical space yourself, filling only half of it – or maybe not even that – is really, really difficult.’ His first recordings for Hyperion were of piano concertos by fellow Scots Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Sir Donald Tovey, Kapustin’s Preludes in Jazz Style and – the one which brought the pianist to international attention – Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus. Is there a pattern, a long-term plan behind his eclectic choice of repertoire? ‘I feel I’m very omnivorous. I choose by instinct. There’s a never-ending stream of masterpieces to learn. It depends on what I am aching to do.’ Osborne has a distinctive, transparent sound, one which suits some composers better than others. ‘More and more, I like digging in,’ he says. ‘One of the most important piano lessons I ever had was about three years ago with Alfred Brendel. Ever since I was quite young, I’ve found his playing magnetic and I now realise what it was that drew me to his playing: his ability to characterise. Not just the sound of it, but the rhythm. There was a strong sense of what the music was about and I was curious to know how he did it. So he agreed to let me play for him and it was fascinating.’ While Brendel and Osborne may not be peas in a musical pod, what they do have in common is their love of the intellectual rigour of music. ‘Yes,’ he agrees. ‘But not for its own sake. It works in something like Tippett, where certain things are very complex, but where the complexity is part of January/February 2013 International Piano

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the character and the emotion of the piece. It’s the same with Beethoven. Brendel kept talking about getting to the bottom of every key – one of the most basic things, but so easy to forget. That creates a fantastic projecting sound, a way of engaging with the keyboard that really speaks. ‘You also have to have an interest in everything else that’s going on – all the supposedly redundant notes in a chord, for instance. You’re actually engaged with all of it. Normally, at music college, you practice in a shoe box but you have to play with four times the intensity in a concert hall. It’s hard to train yourself to do that because it seems so uncomfortable, so loud. I have quite an average piano at home – deliberately – because it helps so much coping with different pianos. It’s terrible if you have a wonderful piano at home, because then you’re always disappointed when you’re travelling around! I’m fairly unfussy. A piano has got to be really bad before I get upset about it.’

Does he have any sympathy with people like Michelangeli, cancelling concerts because the piano was not to his liking? ‘Well, I think it’s probably a way of transferring your nerves onto something else,’ he says. ‘I’m not completely dismissive of people like that because you’ve got to find some way of dealing with those things – but I think you make your life more unhappy.’ Does he get nervous? ‘I’ve been lucky. I don’t really suffer from them. If I have, then it’s only been for a short period. If I’m feeling nervous on the day of a concert I generally try to take a long bath and quietly mull it over. Nerves are very irrational. They don’t correspond with reality. I play better when I’m not nervous. I don’t agree with people who say you need adrenaline to play well. Playing a concert in conflict, you can’t have a conversation with the audience. The best conversations are when you are really relaxed. Of course it’s difficult in a concert to have the same outlook as you would at two o’clock in the morning talking to one of your best friends, but that’s what you have to aim for.’ Oh dear. That’s the trouble with a good talker like Osborne. We’ve been chatting for half an hour, wandering engagingly up and down the byways, and I’ve forgotten that what I’m here to talk about is his latest recording: Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition paired intriguingly with Prokofiev’s Sarcasms and Visions fugitives. ‘Pictures is such an amazing shape and concept for a piece and so incredibly done,’ he says. ‘I played it at college and since then I’ve probably played it more than any other piece. It feels really part of me. ‘On a superficial level, I thought it would be nice to pair Pictures with Visions fugitives, but I really wanted to record the Prokofiev. Not an obvious coupling, but there is something in the first of the Sarcasms which corresponds with Mussorgsky – that kind of light brutality.’ I ask him if he is happy with the results. His reply is admirably honest. ‘You never get everything that you really want. The problem is how you get something really visceral like a concert performance. The first take usually has it, but the longer you keep on, the more difficult it is to retain that initial intensity.’ Raised in Linlithgow, Osborne has a solidly middle-class background. Both his parents played the piano a bit and shared a love of duets. ‘My dad was a civil engineer but he played the organ as a locum in various churches. My mum was a pharmacist.’ He has a brother, a couple of years older, who started out as a cellist. ‘We both went to the Royal Northern College of Music [RNCM] but he got an injury in his arm. He wasn’t sure, anyway, whether he wanted to do music as a profession. He ended up training to be an accountant. He’s now head of finance and administration at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. It’s rather nice. He pays my cheques!’ The moment when a child first shows exceptional musical talent is always memorable. Osborne clearly remembers picking out by ear the tunes of nursery rhymes and playing them with one finger. And then there were his parents’ records. ‘There was a mixture: Oklahoma; the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony. If I had to take one disc to my desert island, it would be the ‘Pastoral’. I can’t hear it and not feel happy. ‘When I was about seven, apparently I told my mum that I couldn’t live without the piano. When I was 10, I went to St

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Mary’s Music school [in edinburgh, attached to the cathedral]. one of the teachers there had heard me in a competition when I was eight or nine and came up to my mother and said: “you should think about music school”. It was an amazing place – only about 40 pupils – with a lot of influential people there, but chiefly Nigel Murray, the head of music, one of the those really inspirational figures. He had such a broad view of music and what music was about. He had this way of making you curious. ‘After that I went to the rNcM, where I had an amazing teacher – richard Beauchamp, a New Zealander, a very musical man and very interested in the physical set-up, physiology, how do you work best with your muscles so you’re not working against them.’ (osborne, by the way, can stretch a 10th ‘or an 11th at a push’). ‘renna Kellaway was my main influence,’ he continues. ‘she was great. she really got down to the nittygritty of how you strengthen your fingers and things like that. she gave me more of the tools I needed. If the fingers aren’t strong you have to compensate with your arm – that tightens up and you’re really limited.’

‘There’s a neverending stream of masterpieces to learn. It depends on what I am aching to do’

As to osborne’s future recordings, all the stravinsky works for piano and orchestra are already in the can. At the end of the year he’ll be setting down rachmaninov’s second sonata and corelli variations, and Medtner’s B flat minor sonata. Away from the classical repertoire, osborne has always had an interest in jazz. But what he is more passionate about is free improvisation – ‘where you start travelling without knowing what is going to happen’. ‘I’ve done quite a bit of that in concert,’ he says. I actually taught improvisation at the University of connecticut about 10 years ago. We started off just improvising on simple modes, experimenting with different rhythmic and structural approaches. It’s fascinating because you see really transparently what someone’s like when they improvise. And it’s been really important for my classical stuff. I’ve been much more in touch with my musical personality, so to speak, as a result.’ How does he define that personality? He doesn’t, I observe, like frippery or hyphenated composers, and, unusually for a pianist, has no affinity with chopin. ‘I want to get to the essence of something,’ he says. ‘I want to play music that is directly engaged – like Beethoven. As a performer, it might sound pretentious but there are two main pitfalls: one is that you feel horribly on the spot and worried you’re going to make a fool of yourself; and the other is that you just love being looked at and you think you’re fantastic. Both those cut off the possibility of communicating.’ can he tell me what he thinks marks him out from his peers? For once, this fluent talker is flummoxed. He answers hesitantly. ‘I don’t know how much this distinguishes me and I don’t want to sound immodest, but integrity has always been enormously important to me. I’ve almost consciously run away from cheap things, musical gimmicks to score easy points. that’s partly why I’m attracted to complex music.’  Steven Osborne’s Mussorgsky/Prokofiev disc is out now on Hyperion January/February 2013 International Piano

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WA G N E R B I C E N T E N A RY

Wagner bicentenary January marks the beginning of bicentenary celebrations for RICHARD WAGNER, the pioneering opera composer whose works continue to inspire devoted followers throughout the globe. Risto-Matti Marin examines the history of piano transcriptions within this oeuvre Translation by David Hackston

Wagner for seasoned pianists and amateur musicians

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N THE 19TH CENTURY, ARRANGEMENTS OF Richard Wagner’s operas and orchestral works were produced for all manner of ensembles. The photograph on the right, of a catalogue of Wagner arrangements printed on the back cover of a Breitkopf & Härtel publication, serves as an excellent illustration of this. On the left is a list of the piano scores of entire operas, intended either for practice purposes or as a way of acquainting the user with the works. The catalogue then lists arrangements of individual orchestral works or opera fragments and various potpourri fantasies. There are even some arrangements for pedagogical purposes (Leichte Stücke für den Unterricht). In addition to works for solo piano, there are also arrangements for other standard ensembles, from violin-piano and cello-piano duos to arrangements for wind instruments, organ and larger chamber ensembles. Notably, the catalogue features a wealth of arrangements for the harmonium and for piano-harmonium duos, harking back to the time when the organ harmonium was a standard feature of many homes. The one category missing from this catalogue is that of concert transcriptions, generally produced by the great piano virtuosi. Most significant among these, from Wagner’s perspective, was Franz Liszt.

Franz Liszt and his students

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was by far the most significant pianist and piano arranger in Wagner’s social circle. Liszt’s impact on Wagner’s life and career took various forms. They had a personal friendship (albeit, at times, a problematic one) as well as a musical relationship: Liszt organised concerts dedicated to

Wagner’s music and, as one of the most influential musicians of the day, did much to further the cause of Wagner’s operas. Indeed, his 15 piano arrangements of Wagner’s operatic music form an integral part of Liszt’s work. In the 1840s-60s, Liszt was a far more renowned musical figure than Wagner, and the scores of January/February 2013 International Piano

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his arrangements were widely distributed throughout Europe. Liszt’s arrangements are examples of concert transcriptions, the elite among piano arrangements. They were intended to be performed in public and not to be used merely as practice material or for performance at home like the arrangements listed in the Breitkopf & Härtel catalogue. The idea of piano arrangements as a substitute for sound recordings, a notion prevalent to this day, did not apply to concert transcriptions, which were conceived as independent artistic entities with a status separate from that of the original work, though a link to the original naturally existed. In this category of arrangement, the personality of the arranger is brought to the fore. Wagner’s full-bodied, colourful orchestration presents great challenges to any arranger, who, using the piano’s somewhat more limited means, must aspire to reproduce an expressive palette equal to and as diverse as that of the symphony orchestra. Liszt’s exceptional command Wagner at the piano of the keyboard and of the piano’s expressive possibilities is exemplified in his Wagner arrangements. Published in 1849, his arrangement of the overture to Tannhäuser is a towering example of his skill; here, he succeeds in making pianistic fireworks an organic part of the original’s sublime pathos. Liszt’s Wagner arrangements reveal much about his own stylistic development. The 1859 work Phantasiestück über Motive aus Rienzi Santo Spirito cavaliere is closely related to the fantasies that Liszt produced based on Italian and French operas, which he performed regularly at the height of his career. In this work, Liszt incorporates an array of bravura techniques from rapid octave passages to ‘three-hand illusions’ in the manner of Thalberg. If we compare the Rienzi fantasy to Liszt’s final Wagner arrangement, the Feierlicher Marsch zum heiligen Gral aus Parsifal (1882), we can see the illuminated asceticism of Liszt’s later style shining through. In the Parsifal arrangement, there is no longer any trace of pianistic brilliance for brilliance’s sake; rather, Liszt’s whole approach to Wagner’s music now seems more introspective and profoundly intimate. This same simple beauty can be heard in Liszt’s Am Grabe Richard Wagners, written in memory of Wagner in 1883, which can also be seen as a fantasy on motifs from Parsifal. In all of Liszt’s Wagner arrangements, Liszt’s own voice is always present. Several of Liszt’s pupils also went on to become notable Wagner arrangers. Of his early students, Karl Klindworth

(1830-1916) and Hans von Bülow (1830-1894) are perhaps the most closely associated with Wagner. Klindworth prepared the first piano scores of many of Wagner’s operas, while Hans von Bülow’s Wagner catalogue includes both piano scores and concert transcriptions. Klindworth’s arrangements were intended solely for personal study and practice. For this reason, he was unable to deviate from the original scores or add any pianistic decoration. The same asceticism applies to Bülow’s piano scores; even Bülow’s concert transcriptions are a touch too literal and sound rather stuffy in performance. carl Tausig (1841-1871) acquainted himself with Bülow’s piano score of Tristan and Isolde while visiting Wagner’s home. Tausig was later to prepare his own splendid three-part suite for piano on themes from the same opera. Tausig is often considered to have been Liszt’s most accomplished student, and he was admired not only by Wagner and Liszt but also by Johannes Brahms and his great patron Eduard Hanslick. Tausig’s Wagner arrangements combine a deep understanding of the original works and the freedom to integrate pianistic figurations into the texture. all the pianistic effects used are in perfect balance with the structural integrity of the music. For instance, in his arrangement of the Ride of the Valkyries, Tausig develops increasingly intricate textures to lend the arrangement a sense of expressive abundance. Though the figurations mark a radical departure from Wagner’s original, they always remain in clear relation to the overall form of the work. The great crescendo towards the end is created simply through the relentless motion of everdenser textures. Tausig’s arrangements are technically challenging, but the Wagner arrangements of Liszt’s Bohemian student august Stradal (1860-1930) are, in places, almost impossible to perform. as well as studying with Liszt, Stradal was also a pupil of another significant piano pedagogue, Theodor Leschetizky, and studied with anton Bruckner. Stradal’s catalogue of arrangements is immense, yet it has been almost entirely forgotten since his death. He produced seven Wagner arrangements in total, ranging from the standard pianoreduction style of his solo piano arrangement of the Wesendonck Lieder to the highly challenging and virtuosic transcription of the Ride of the Valkyries.

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Wa G n E r B I c E n T E n a ry Other notable 19th-century Wagner arrangers

There were notable Wagner arrangers outside Liszt’s immediate circle, too. Of greatest interest is perhaps Louis Brassin (1840-1884), the Belgian student of Beethoven’s student Ignaz Moscheles. Brassin arranged a five-part piano suite from the Ring tetralogy, comprising the movements Walhalla, Sigmund’s Liebesgesang, Feuerzauber, Walkürenritt and Waldweben. Brassin’s arrangements are conceived in more of a ‘salon style’ than those of Liszt or Tausig and do not appear to strive towards an orchestral weight of sound. They display two prevalent features: firstly, they are meticulously constructed as regards the physicality of the keyboard and the hands, making them pleasant to play. Secondly, Brassin highlights the sonic dimensions of Wagner’s music, so much so that at times the music sounds almost like the piano music of the Impressionists, lending his arrangements an exceptional sheen. Brassin’s arrangement of Feuerzauber was the first Wagner arrangement ever to be recorded, when the legendary pianist Josef Hoffmann played it on to a phonographic roll in 1896. Later, in 1923, he also made a studio recording, which ranks among the greatest commercial recordings he ever made. Like Brassin, Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) and Ernest Schelling (1876-1939) also strove towards arrangements that explored Wagner’s timbral dimensions while remaining technically ergonomic. Moszkowski’s arrangements of the Venusberg music from Tannhäuser and Isolde’s Liebestod come close to Liszt’s arrangements in the sheer richness of their sound. Schelling’s arrangement of the overture to Tristan and Isolde is like a notated improvisation. Schelling, student of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, makes notable departures from the original score with regard to pianistic figurations, and truly succeeds in making this an independent work for piano. Paderewski’s recording of Schelling’s Tristan arrangement is one of the most towering performances of any Wagner transcription.

Wagner arrangements at the Fin de Siècle

Two of the most significant pianists of the late 19th century, Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) and Leopold Godowsky (18701938) also felt the influence of Wagner’s music. Both made Wagner arrangements, though Busoni produced only one. In his youth, Busoni was something of a Wagnerian, though later in his career he made a clear break with Wagner’s style. Busoni’s arrangement of the funeral march from Götterdämmerung is one of the best Wagner arrangements of all time. Like Liszt and Tausig, Busoni uses the full gamut of pianistic expression in conjuring his own vision of Wagner’s original. Busoni’s fingering solutions, figurations and ‘orchestral’ approach represent the same deep understanding of the piano’s idiosyncrasies that he developed much later in his volumes of Klavierübung. In addition to ingenious virtuoso arrangements, Leopold Godowsky’s oeuvre encompasses both original works and a wealth of pedagogical material. Godowsky arranged volumes of operatic and orchestral repertoire for his students, and his Wagner arrangements belong to this category. Though their

The opening of Gould’s transcription of the overture to Die Meistersinger is written for two hands, but about halfway through there appears a part for a third hand levels of technical difficulty are deliberately kept to a minimum, these arrangements are well crafted; very subtly, Godowsky makes the piano sound far more fully than his simple notation suggests. Through these arrangements, the student not only has access to excellent music but can deepen his or her understanding of the piano’s sonic possibilities. Godowsky’s Wagner arrangements deserve to re-establish themselves as standard pedagogical material.

From Glenn Gould to the present day

after the Second World War, arrangements seemed to disappear from musical life. a change in aesthetics notwithstanding, one reason may be the advent of radio and the recording industry. recordings soon replaced sheet music as the primary method of music dissemination, and the practice of ‘domestic music-making’ began to dwindle. The tradition of arranging, however, continued as a performer’s art, albeit one that was considered of less value than compositional art. However, a number of interesting Wagner arrangements were produced after the Second World War. Perhaps the most important among them are those by Glenn Gould (1932-1982). Gould’s passion for the possibilities of studio technology can be heard in his Wagner arrangements, recorded in 1973. Of these, only his transcription of the Sieg fried Idyll can be played entirely with two hands. The opening of his transcription of the overture to Die Meistersinger is written for two hands, but about halfway through there appears a part for a third hand. Gould originally recorded these separately using multitrack technology. The arrangement of Sieg fried’s Rhine Journey also features a third hand. Gould’s Wagner arrangements divide opinion, partly because of his use of studio technology. Still, they form an integral part of Gould’s artistry. His performances of Wagner – like his Bach recordings – reveal his understanding of polyphony and stern rhythmic structures. The age of Wagner transcriptions is not over, though plenty of recordings of the original works are available. Successive generations of pianists enthuse over Wagner’s music and wish to share their own visions through arrangements. It would appear that pianists still wish to interpret arrangements by Liszt, Tausig and others in concert. Moreover, the piano scores by Klindworth and others still help musicians acquaint themselves with Wagner’s operas just as much as when they were first published. Using these and, say, Godowsky’s pedagogical arrangements, amateur pianists and young players now have full access to Wagner’s world.  January/February 2013 International Piano

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in r et rospec t

A fAllen Angel

restored chopin specialist AlexAnder BrAilowsky

photograph © tully potter ColleCtion

(1896-1976) remains largely forgotten or misunderstood, despite his notable career. John Joswick sets the historical record straight

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amentabLy, the pubLication a decade ago of my article on alexander brailowsky’s prodigious career (Sovereign Command, IP, september/october 2002) does not seem to have bolstered the pianist’s reputation appreciably, for highly diverse and often misconceived opinions about him still abound. For example, a Wikipedia article stating the brailowsky reached his zenith between the two world wars and thus implying that he descended abruptly and irreversibly into eclipse thereafter is a particularly egregious distortion. in contrast, James methuen-campbell presents a more positive assessment of the calibre and durability of brailowsky’s career in the New Grove Dictionary, opining that ‘his warm personality and discernment in presenting effective recital programmes ensured a lasting success’ and lauding his ‘cleanly articulated phrasing and technical panache.’ others have decried brailowsky as a perfunctory musician whose interpretative affinities were ill-suited to the most sublime works of beethoven and schubert. seymour bernstein, despite his esteem for brailowsky, has voiced some dismay over his idol’s seemingly non-intellectual approach to music and unwillingness or inability to offer specific pedagogical advice during the handful of coaching sessions brailowsky was able to accommodate annually. piano devotees are thus confronted by a bewildering farrago of divergent claims about brailowsky. the resulting confusion warrants an examination

of how these conflicting statements comport with the historical record. seymour bernstein recounts a rare traumatic session with his maître brailowsky prompted by disagreement over a tempo indication in beethoven’s op 110 sonata that underscores how greatly our urtext-obsessed age diverges from the Leschetizky era in matters of beethoven interpretation and musical scholarship. in defense of brailowsky, it should be noted that he, benno moiseiwitsch, and mark hambourg took particular pride in being able to trace their musical lineage directly to beethoven via Leschetizky’s studies with beethoven’s disciple czerny, who claimed that the titanic composer was capricious in the performance of his piano sonatas. Ferdinand ries, a beethoven pupil, is quoted by anton schindler as observing that beethoven varied his tempi widely to produce subtle emotional colorations. For example, in the execution of a crescendo passage in one of his sonatas he introduced ‘a ritard, which produced a beautiful and highly striking effect.’ if ries’s accounts are reliable, beethoven seems to have emphasised dramatic conception and rhetoric over scrupulous observance of textual minutiae, and the interpretations of many of today’s beethoven specialists would, if the composer were now in our midst, no doubt strike him as arid. brailowsky and his contemporaries, their adherence to long obsolete von buelow editions notwithstanding, thus saw themselves as true exponents of the beethoven tradition

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IN R ET RoSPEC T given their anecdotal knowledge of the composer’s performance practices. The scholarly focus of these pianists was confined largely to exploring a composer’s mind-set and milieu to illuminate the meaning underlying the notes. An obsession with textual matters would have been considered pedantic. Brailowsky’s attitude toward the interpretation of Beethoven and other monumental composers was by no means cavalier. He considered knowledge of the scores of Beethoven’s symphonies and string quartets an essential underpinning for interpreting the piano sonatas. He had also been influenced by hearing Busoni in Beethoven. Bernstein might well be astonished to learn that Brailowsky’s debut in 1919 was not in one of the hackneyed virtuoso vehicles but in Beethoven’s G major concerto under Camille Chevillard. For many years he also pondered including the Hammerklavier sonata in his recital repertoire. The related misconception that Brailowsky was preoccupied with the virtuosic side of piano playing to the detriment of musical values, which is also Bernstein’s assumption, is a regrettable consequence of the piano legend’s reluctance to speak about his artistic convictions. From the inception of his career, Brailowsky, in various publications, vehemently denied that routine scales and exercises were part of his daily practice regimen. He asserted repeatedly that technique should always be subordinated to musical expression and once loftily described the virtuoso as ‘a missionary of the musical gospel.’ As the following excerpt from The Training of a Pianist (The Etude, February 1949) substantiates, his principles were largely in accord with Bernstein’s: The pianist who spends half his life training his fingers to feats of strength, speed, and skill does not necessarily make himself a musician. During the average concert season, one is made all too aware, alas, of the number of young aspirants who give the impression of having a splendid technical equipment – a well-developed means of voicing musical utterance – but with nothing to utter in a musically revealing way. Bernstein, who no doubt regarded Brailowsky as a potential wellspring of

pianistic and musical insight, found his quest for such knowledge thwarted by the veteran performer’s apparent ineffectuality as a teacher. Brailowsky rarely did more than demonstrate his own conceptions of the works Bernstein presented for comment and, when asked for the secret of his so-called dimensional tone, would reply unhelpfully, as if he had been asked to explain something ineffable, ‘What do you mean, how do I produce my tone? It is an expression of my soul!’ Similarly, Arthur Rubinstein once proclaimed to a BBC interviewer who pressed him for the secret of his expressive tone, ‘Quite frankly, I don’t know how I do it!’ What comes to light through Bernstein’s encounters with Brailowsky is the contrast in attitudes toward pedagogy between virtuosos rooted in the 19th century and those of our era. Like his friend Rachmaninov, Brailowsky believed pianistic ability to be innate and thus only minimally improvable through teaching. These sentiments derived from figures such as Leschetizky, Liszt, Busoni, and Anton Rubinstein, who did not espouse specific methods but focused solely on encouraging talented pupils to become self-reliant interpreters. Although Bernstein was the only pianist Brailowsky, despite his disinclination to teach, was willing to hear a few times each year for two decades, he also counselled or worked intensively for short periods with William Kapell, Joao de Souza Lima, Yara Bernette, Leo Nadelmann, the French resistance fighter Francois Lang, Eve Curie and Raymond Lewenthal among others. He once even discussed an approach to an accord glissando in one of the Brahms Paganini Variations with Rudolf Serkin. During these more limited encounters, Brailowsky, in contrast to Bernstein’s experiences with him, reportedly was willing to impart specific technical and interpretative advice. The personality of each pupil apparently dictated his approach. The Swiss pianist Leo Nadelmann, who sought Brailowsky’s insights into the complete works of Chopin in 1940, recalled spending ‘three unforgettable weeks’ with the renowned Chopin interpreter during which ‘we played Chopin from morning to night,

Seymour Bernstein’s autobiographical Monsters and Angels: Surviving a Career in Music the sequel to this pianist’s major pedagogical work With Your Own Two Hands, is a telling exposition of the often brutal realities confronting those who pursue careers in music – a profession ‘fraught with frustration, deception, and heartache’. Nevertheless, as both books compellingly demonstrate, music has intrinsic values that transcend these mundane considerations. Bernstein’s gallery of monsters and angels is populated by several of the 20th century’s most distinguished performers and pedagogues, including his esteemed mentors Sir Clifford Curzon and Alexander Brailowsky. The observations on Brailowsky are noteworthy because they rescue a particularly generous musical angel from relative obscurity more then 35 years after his death by rightly recalling not only that his popularity rivalled that of Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz but that his amiable personality, in contrast to some of his colleagues, was informed by an unfailing graciousness and selfless concern for others.

examining his complex works over and over again.’ In point of fact, Brailowsky presented highly articulate statements on rotational motion, pedalling, and tone production in various interviews. Indeed, in the following excerpt from An Approach to Chopin Playing (The Etude, February 1944), he was less reticent about tone production than he had been with Bernstein: While it is extremely difficult to offer any general counsels on the way in which to secure tone quality, I may say that the thing to watch for in attacking Chopin’s chords and octaves is the approach. Do not let the attack fall noisily from above, with full body weight concentrated in the shoulders or upper arms. Do concentrate the body weight in the forearms and the wrists and hands, allowing the attack to reach the keys firmly, forcefully, yet with that sense of sinking deep into the keys that precludes all hardness. In Master Secret of a Great Teacher (The Etude, June 1925), Brailowsky referred to ‘a natural flow of energy to the keyboard, through the arms, from the shoulders’ with the fingers prepared in advance of each attack rather than permitting the ‘hand to jump spasmodically and hysterically toward the keys in a kind of musical epilepsy.’ January/February 2013 International Piano

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Finally, Bernstein raises the issue of what some perceived as a decline in Brailowsky during the 1960s and speculates about the possibility of senility or some specific malady. Having enjoyed several extended conversations with the pianist in the mid-1970s, I can attest that, aside from the effects of sciatica and osteoporosis of the spine, no debilitating illness or neuropsychiatric impairment was evident, and Brailowsky’s brother-inlaw of 40 years, the eminent neuroscientist Alexander G Karczmar, MD, PhD, has confirmed my impression. Indeed, whenever I would have the pleasure of visiting with Brailowsky, he would with great wit and animation regale me for hours nonstop with detailed memories of his career interspersed by demonstrations at the piano. There was, however, an aspect of Brailowsky’s psychological makeup that may have eluded some observers and may not have been evident to Bernstein given the time limitations imposed by Brailowsky’s frenetic touring schedule. Although invariably congenial, he would often extricate himself from socially awkward or embarrassing situations by becoming aloof or appearing to enter a trancelike state as a defense mechanism. He once described himself as being ‘intriguingly withdrawn’ and spoke of deliberately cultivating such a state. Conductor Massimo Freccia reported that Brailowsky at a luncheon that caused him social discomfort began going through the motions of playing Mozart’s K 488 concerto on a tabletop and became entirely oblivious to the other guests. What also belies the notion of deterioration is the sheer scope of Brailowsky’s professional activities in the 1960s and beyond, for he continued to concertise extensively throughout Europe and North America during the 1960s, offering substantial recital programmes as well as several abbreviated Chopin cycles for the composer’s sesquicentennial in 1960. He also returned to then Soviet Russia in 1961 for the first time in 50 years for recitals and concerto performances in leading cities and was even offered a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory. His artistic activities extended into the 1970s and included performances, interviews with

Radio Canada, and adjudication at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, where he had previously served on the piano jury in 1956 and 1964, in 1972 at the age of 76 in the company of Gilels, Fleischer and others. Another contention is that the alleged erosion of Brailowsky’s psychological and physical health was paralleled by a precipitous downturn in pianistic prowess and interpretative insight. In point of fact, Brailowsky’s keyboard

‘The pianist who spends half his life training his fingers to feats of strength, speed, and skill does not necessarily make himself a musician’ From The Training oF a PianisT, The eTude, February 1949 fluency and level of musical inspiration fluctuated perplexingly throughout his career. Bryce Morrison, who has conceded Brailowsky’s ‘immense fame and stature,’ concurs with this view and has characterised the artist as having been ‘wildly inconsistent.’ Some commentators found his playing at times headlong and percussive in the late 1940s through the 1950s, whereas the post-1960 period was perceived as being marked by greater mellowness and renewed artistic commitment recalling the best playing of his earlier years. In March 1959, Harold Schonberg lauded Brailowsky’s ‘dashing account’ in Carnegie Hall of the Liszt B minor sonata and the ‘high degree of nuance with phrases carefully built up and released’ that informed his diverse program. A reviewer in the British Times also extolled a 1958 Brailowsky performance of the Liszt sonata in Festival Hall ‘as a magnificent interpretation … of a richness of keyboard orchestration and pungent phrasing rarely heard on the concert platform,’ although minor reservations were voiced about other portions of the programme. A few broadcast recordings substantiating that Brailowsky remained

capable of performing at a high level after 1960 can also be cited. For example, a tape of a noteworthy April 1962 collaboration with Louis de Froment and the Luxembourg Radio Orchestra in the Schumann concerto evidences technically secure, emotionally engaged, and expressive playing that surpasses what can be heard from the documentation of a September 1955 traversal of the same concerto with Adrian Boult at the helm. The finale of the concerto in the 1962 version is dispatched with a verve and artistic commitment that would have been unattainable by a pianist on the verge of senility. On the other hand, the March 1967 Carnegie Hall Chopin recital discussed by Bernstein did not exhibit the more uniform excellence of the New York programmes given in 1962 and 1965. Nevertheless, I still vividly recall his stirring account of the concluding Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise and the thundering ovation it elicited from the capacity audience. The image of his literally sprinting unto the platform and pouncing at the keyboard to repeat the Op 25, No 12 ‘Ocean’ Etude followed by a dozen encores remains indelibly impressed in my mind. A survey of Brailowsky’s recordings reveals a similar pattern of fluctuation in quality rather than continuous decline. Despite the prevailing opinion that Brailowsky reached the acme of his success as a commercial recording artist in the late 1930s, his muchvaunted 1938 London HMV discs are arguably outstripped by some of his last recordings for RCA in 1957 and 1958 as well as, perhaps, by one or two of his Schumann interpretations and the Saint-Saens and Rachmaninov C minor concertos. A 1958 encores compilation contains, for example, the most convincing of his three recorded versions of Scriabin’s tumultuous D-sharp minor etude, and the purling legato in the passagework of Chopin’s trifling Trois Ecossaises evident in the 1958 recording makes the execution of the same pieces in the 1938 production seem laboured by comparison (some of these recordings from the 1950s were reissued on BMG 09026-68164 and 68165). Interestingly, the rhythmically robust account of

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IN R ET ROSPEC T Chopin’s Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise from Brailowsky’s final Columbia Masterworks sessions in April 1963 (reissued in France in 1989 on CBS CD MPK 45554) ranks among his best studio efforts. Also notable is the unissued material recorded by French Philips between 1959 and 1961 for Columbia Masterworks that now has fallen into obscurity because most of the master tapes and session information appear to have vanished. On the other hand, some of the mid-1950s RCA recordings intended to display Brailowsky’s affinity for Liszt seem curiously lacklustre and wanting in the pianist’s usual assurance. What factors may account for the variability that informed Brailowsky’s playing from the inception of his career? Rumours of Brailowsky’s Russian proclivity for heavy social drinking circulated in the late 1920s and early 1930s during the period of the pianist’s contract with Polydor. Henry Chwast, a Polish friend of the Karczmar family living in Paris, accompanied Brailowsky on a tour of Scandinavia before his 1931 marriage to Ela Karczmar and reported that both he and the pianist had spent many nights ‘drinking mightily’ throughout the tour. It is imperative to emphasise, however, that there is no evidence that Brailowsky, unlike Josef Hofmann, was afflicted by alcoholism. By dint of sheer discipline augmented by stern postmarriage measures imposed by his new wife, the pianist was transformed into a virtual teetotaler and was able to pursue his career without disruption. He is not known to have relapsed, and I perceived no signs of alcohol consumption during my conversations with him. Any lapses, however, would inevitably have had short-term deleterious effects. Ela Brailowsky once observed to me that her husband possessed such a phenomenal musical facility that he was seemingly able to assimilate reams of music almost instantaneously without always immediately seeking to hone thorny passages to the highest level of Fingerfertigkeit before beginning to experiment with performance possibilities. Brailowsky’s mother would sometimes chide her son for a lack of Sitzfleisch in his practising for fear this tendency might give some observers the

impression of nonchalance. Brailowsky prized virtuosity and could always summon the requisite brilliance when he felt disposed to do so, but his paramount aim was to communicate with his audiences through music – to musizieren rather than to wow his listeners with tawdry pianistic stunts. The quest for achieving perfection in sterile recording studios thus did not always engage his interest. RCA producer Richard Mohr described Brailowsky as once leaving a session in some displeasure and asking the engineer to select the take with the fewest mistakes. Gyorgy Sandor commented that recordings could never convey the highly individualistic approach of a Brailowsky. As an audience-oriented musician, Brailowsky’s deepening awareness of a major transformation in the nature of performance over the course of his career undoubtedly contributed to the pensiveness and nostalgia he sometimes manifested in his later years. In the early decades of the 20th century, recitalists and audiences interacted directly, and the primitive recordings of that era were regarded as mere momentos of an artist. Brailowsky averred that ‘I have a passion for my art and the taste for communicating through it with others.’ He elaborated on the nature of that communion by noting that ‘There is no such thing as an unresponsive audience; different people respond to different things. The pianist must make them respond! It is up to him to make the audience understand what he is trying to say. If he doesn’t have that “sparkle,” that special ability to communicate, he fails to make contact with his listeners.’ By the 1950s, however, recordings had substantially altered the personal, creative dimension of this interchange by supplanting the concert experience with a medium that invited listeners to analyse and compare the minutest details of interpretations and to place performers in hierarchies accordingly. The ability to edify and uplift through the concert experience came to matter less. As stated in my 2002 article, Brailowsky had a chameleonic susceptibility to his environment when playing. The presence of receptive listeners could elicit moments of breathtaking brilliance and

spontaneity from him. I still vividly recall his illustrating passages from Chopin’s B-flat minor Nocturne, Schumann’s Humoresque and first Novelette, and the Grieg sonata when he was in his late seventies. I marvelled at his uncontrived rubato and expressivity and mused that he would have felt more constrained and self-conscious in some performing or recording situations. Bernstein aptly described Brailowsky’s demonstrations at the piano as creating the sense ‘that the music was playing him, and not the other way around.’ Brailowsky’s Ampico roll of Chopin’s ubiquitous Op 9, No 2 Nocturne, which features more sensitive, less constrained agogics than are evident from his three commercial versions for the phonograph, gives some sense of his capabilities when he was most inspired and uninhibited. In a brief interview from the 1972 Queen Elisabeth Competition excerpted for a DVD (A Queen’s Competition, Cypres 1105), Brailowsky, when he was asked if piano playing had ‘evolved’ and young pianists had come to play ‘differently’, replied that he believed this observation to be true but perhaps with a tinge of irony implied that it was technical proficiency that had evolved without commensurate development in musical expression and the cultivation of a strong interpretative personality. He would often lament to me that pianists – particularly highly gifted competition victors – who had no ability to engage the interest of concertgoers were establishing careers solely through recordings. Whatever else may be said about Brailowsky, he derived as much pleasure from communicating through the piano as his audiences did in hearing him. The aphorism ‘Happy is the man whose vocation is his hobby’ he frequently quoted in relation to himself is especially telling in this context. The piano was so much an extension of his being that he seemed to embody the notion that ‘playing the piano is experienced as a Gestalt, a totality of activity enjoyed from childhood as naturally and unconsiciously as any other form of play’ (Harold Taylor, The Pianist’s Talent, Taplinger, 1982). He admirably embodied Bernstein’s ideal of self-integration. e January/February 2013 International Piano

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m Pierre boulez at the luCerNe FeStiVal aCademy iN 2009 © Peter FiSChli/luCerNe FeStiVal

odern master

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at 87, Pierre Boulez is revered for his complex writing and inspired educational work; musical spheres influenced substantially by his pianistic training. Jessica Duchen meets the conductor-composer in switzerland

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reat musicians today come in many shapes and sizes, to say nothing of ages, nationalities and stylistic inclinations. nevertheless, there is one man whose artistic stature seems to cast most others into the shade, whether it is for the music he writes, the works he conducts or the influence he has had on generations of younger composers and performers. notorious for his outspoken tendencies in his youth but revered by even the most hard-bitten orchestral players, his star has never dimmed. He is, of course, Pierre Boulez. i was fortunate enough to meet Boulez at the Lucerne Festival in the summer, where he was giving conducting masterclasses and had hoped to give a concert too, though problems following

an eye operation prevented this at the last moment. at 87, Boulez may no longer have the physical stamina that attended him when he conducted Wagner’s Ring cycle in the now legendary production by Patrice chéreau in 1976. But his mind is as incisive as ever, and still bubbling non-stop with creativity. Boulez’s first musical training was as a pianist, and that experience has had a lasting effect on his musicianship and the way he approaches his compositions. ‘i write for the piano much more easily than for other instruments, and even more easily than for the orchestra, because it was my instrument when i was young,’ he says. ‘i was never performing in the virtuosity department, but i know what virtuosity is: i tried to be a virtuoso myself and i know the problems. the

questions are not abstract, but practical: if i put the digit like that, it will not sound well. With other instruments i have a less direct sense of the necessary technique than with the piano – therefore i like the piano.’ Boulez’s piano music is not extensive – indeed, his entire output is not especially extensive – but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in concentration and impact. His second Piano sonata, written in 1947/48, remains one of his most famous and uncompromising works, and a landmark in the canon of 20th-century piano music as a whole. so demanding is it that the great French pianist yvonne Loriod – wife of messiaen, who was Boulez’s most important teacher – is rumoured to have burst into tears at the prospect of performing it.

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Perhaps the pianist who is most familiar with Boulez’s working methods and closest to his heritage is Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who was for many years a member of Boulez’s Ensemble Intercontemporain and has a mix of technical wizardry and inside understanding that few can match. That doesn’t mean Boulez’s work comes easily to him, of course. ‘It’s extremely challenging music,’ Aimard comments. ‘Boulez loves complexity, difficulty, virtuosity. It is one of the hardest musics to play because you have every dimension in it: the hypersensibility of a great artist, the superior thought of one of the most marvellous brains in the history of music, and this taste for challenge and virtuosity. So this mix means that the real pieces by him – not pieces like Notations for Piano, which is a youthful piece that he didn’t intend to be printed – are very often among the hardest. And, by the way, they are very little played.’ The Second Piano Sonata, he remarks, is ‘a nightmare’. ‘That’s really one of the hardest pieces ever composed. It has a level of architecture to render, and a length also [around 30 mins] which makes it one of the most demanding of all piano compositions.’ Boulez’s mind, it seems, never stops probing at new pathways, whether they are directly musical or concern music in the practical sense – the ways, means and settings with which and in which to perform it. His electronic works, and the pioneering studio he founded in Paris in the 1960s, IRCAM, broke new ground in the field, opening up a world of sounds that would have been unimaginable to any previous generation. But the piano is not exempt from his explorations and he has intriguing ideas about how the instrument itself could be further developed. ‘I tried to interest Steinway – but they were not interested – to enrich the piano like the harpsichord,’ he says. ‘To have, for instance, stops – a stop that muffles the strings, as the harpsichord has, or to allow some notes to resonate more than others. But as long as the piano does not sell to everybody, they are not interested to do that. This I regret. We can make this modification to the sound with a computer, but it is not a direct sound;

it is a sound through a loudspeaker, which is different. Also, I would like to try to make certain things easier, for example, to transform the tuning of the piano. Again, we can do this through the computer – immediately you can have everything at your disposal. But I would like much more a mutual influence between computer technology and the old instrument technology.’ Boulez has never worked rapidly, and his Third Piano Sonata still remains unfinished. Will he write any more piano music? ‘Maybe,’ he replies. ‘I am not sure. In Sur incises I’ve given an example of what I think the piano can be: virtuoso in the sense that there are a lot of notes per minute, but also in terms of the piano resonance.’ This work (written in

years later, sometimes decades later. He may reuse the material in another work, make developments, make experiments, try things, achieve something, or not. Or then take the material and make something else.’ The old image of Boulez as a nearincendiary iconoclast was very much of its time. His most controversial statements – his declaration that opera houses should be burned down even saw him added to a terrorism blacklist – date from the 1950s and 1960s. It is not that Boulez is less of a firebrand today – but he is, of course, older, and also wiser. ‘I was not more radical than now,’ he reflects. ‘But I was, I suppose, more frank than now. Now I see that maybe, sometimes, given the situation, you have to be less direct

‘I write for the piano much more easily than for other instruments, and even more easily than for the orchestra, because it was my instrument when I was young’ 1996-98) is scored for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists and is a powerful example of Boulez’s fascination with timbre and resonance, musical elements that often lead him to choose instrumentation that might never occur to a more earth-bound imagination. The virtuosity of resonance, he says, is something that ‘I did in my Third Sonata also. And that’s why I did not continue with the Third Sonata, because I looked at what I had written in the other movements and it was too close to what I had written in the two movements which are finished.’ Only two movements and a fragment of the third have been published. He kept working on it up to 1963, but he doesn’t seem to have written off entirely the idea of completing it, some 50 years on. ‘Maybe if I reach 103, like Elliott Carter, then I will do it.’ ‘Creators are not always people who constantly speak about how they are creating,’ remarks Aimard. ‘But Boulez has spoken, and taught, and written. It’s not a secret that he always comes back to previous pieces to recompose them. There are ideas for materials that he prepares; he starts to work on them and gives up and comes back to them

and more effective in yourself. But when things are wrong, or insufficient, or not exactly the way they should be, then you have to say so. And I did tell it, sometimes with paradox or provocation – all right, but I did not stay at this point. I am not speaking now of doing or writing the way I was in 1950. People think generally of me as a man of 1950 and not a man of today. I have to accept that.’ ‘He’s an adorable person,’ says Aimard. ‘He’s very generous with his time, very dedicated to what he does and a very noble soul – which is not what his image has been.’ Boulez has been phenomenally misjudged, he feels, ‘by people who just look at this in a superficial way. One picks up a couple of sentences of some text from the youth of somebody who is polemical – and that’s all? That makes no sense. I think one should look at the complete picture of what somebody has done – and then the evidence is so high that there is no discussion any more.’ Can such a composer have a successor? Aimard believes not. ‘I think that somebody with this strength and multifaceted constructed world, and with this originality, has certainly no successor. And should not have.’  January/February 2013 International Piano

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R epeRtoIR e

Discovering

Clélia iruzun

is best known for championing south american repertoire, but for her latest recording she was drawn to Catalan composer frederic mompou. Leandro Ferraccioli finds out why

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t sounds somethIng of a neat cliché, but as I am welcomed into the charming West London home of Brazilian pianist Clélia Iruzun and her husband Renato, there is a palpable, infectious south american warmth about the couple. Iruzun leads me to their comfortable music study, which is filled with a brace of steinways. In no time at all, conversation flows as easily as the fine Brazilian coffee, covering everything from formative influences and a fascination for philosophy to her latest recording of mompou for the somm label. ‘I’m fortunate to have met some very interesting musicians,’ she says. ‘When I was 13 I met nelson freire, who has always been a hero of mine. I played for him in his house in Rio and he said many interesting things which immediately

M o M p o u

helped me. he then gave me sort of regular lessons, but never charged me. he used to say, “Just play for me. It’s not a lesson, it’s just listening.” sometimes he would set me pieces to learn – horrendous fugues with four or five voices – and I would think, why am I studying this? “It’s good for you,” he would say. another pianist I worked with was Jacques Klein. he’s not very well known outside Brazil, but he was a real pianist’s pianist. they were not my teachers and it was all very informal, but I was extremely lucky to have such great artists help me in the beginning of my development.’ a significant part of Iruzun’s extensive recorded output covers south american composers. ‘as a teenager I just wanted to play all the Romantic works, the big concertos – like every young pianist, I suppose. I had played Villa Lobos and

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R EPERTOIR E others, but I didn’t realise just how much good music there was. Perhaps I had to leave Brazil in order to look back from another perspective and see what it had to offer. ‘In London, when people asked me if Brazilian music was any good, my pride was a little dented. I thought I must investigate more and began listening, researching. Now I have a whole library of scores, most of which are out of print. Of course I play lots of standard repertoire in concerts, which I love, but it’s much more useful if I record things which are less well known, especially from my country. I would say it’s almost a mission.’ Iruzun is the dedicatee of a number of works by contemporary South American composer Marlos Nobre and the late Francisco Mignone, with whom she struck up an artistic kinship at the tender age of seven. She smiles fondly at the memory. ‘I met Mignone by total coincidence. He was staying in

the same hotel where I was holidaying with my family. The place was run by priests and they had a church with a little two-pedal harmonium. I was a curious child and wanted to play it, so one of the priests said, “Okay, you can play in the Sunday mass.” I couldn’t even reach the pedals; someone sat beside me and operated them while I played a short piece by Mignone called Japanese Toy. Mignone happened to be there and afterwards told me he was the composer of the piece I’d just played. ‘Years passed then, and my piano teacher in Rio, Mercês de Silva Telles (a wonderful lady and a pupil of Claudio Arrau who knew Mignone very well), said she would teach me one of his famous waltzes and take me to play it for him. When I did play for him, we had a connection straight away – he was a lovely, gentle man. Months later, his wife called my mother and said that he had written a suite of five children’s pieces for me, which I premiered in Rio. He even came to the concert. Actually, his birthday was one day after mine. On my 15th he celebrated his 81st along with me: we blew out the candles on the cake together. I still have the photos.’ Iruzun’s latest recording project is a recital disc of Mompou’s early Impresiones Intimas, the first six Canciones y Danzas,

‘With Mompou it’s a journey of learning’

Pessebres and the Chopin Variations, a canon that is still woefully underplayed. ‘I don’t know why this is,’ she says. ‘His music is so special. I don’t find it at all unapproachable: I hadn’t played it in my young years, but I immediately saw that he has a unique, intimate language; he’s a master of emotions. ‘The atmosphere of Mompou’s music goes beyond even Impressionists like Debussy or Ravel. It’s like there’s a complete stillness sometimes, a directness – he starts to remove bar lines, to break away from any structure that may restrict freedom. But this is difficult. You have to free yourself completely from all that accumulated orthodox learning: we are told to respect bar lines, not to lose tempo or break lines; suddenly, you have to break with this in order to do justice to the music. It’s challenging: with Mompou it’s a journey of learning.’ I suggest we are very fortunate to have the composer’s own recordings as a reference point. ‘Yes, they are beautiful – a great inspiration and you have to respect that reference. He was a fantastic pianist and really knew how to write for the instrument. He probably had very big hands. I have reasonably big hands for my size, so normally I more or less manage, but his music has large stretches and chords. You have to get your hand loose and the balance right so you can lift some harmonics and try to hear more things coming through. You can lose yourself experimenting with the sound. That’s why, when I listened to my first take of the recording yesterday, I thought, one could go on forever with Mompou – reading between the lines there is so much.’ Between being a mother to two children, giving concert tours, masterclasses and performing with the Warwick-based Coull Quartet, will there be time for more recordings? ‘Yes, there will be at least one more recording of Mompou as I want to complete the second book of dances and some other pieces. I’m also thinking of doing some Ernesto Nazareth and there are many, many other things I want to play. Lots of notes to learn!’  Clélia Iruzun’s disc Federico Mompou, Selected Works Vol 1 will be released on 17 December on the SOMM label January/February 2013 International Piano

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The London International Piano Symposium February 08-10th, 2013 in association with Steinway Hall, London Welcome to The Art and Science of Piano Performance: an interdisciplinary symposium for the enhancement of teaching and performance in the twenty-first century. The first of three, three-day London International Piano Symposiums will begin on the 8th, 9th & 10th February, 2013 at the Royal College of Music, London UK, We warmly welcome everyone interested in the performance of piano music: performers, scientists, academics, teachers, young people, and all those who love just to listen. For the first time this symposium will provide an opportunity to hear papers, lecture recitals and debates on the art and science of piano performance by distinguished researchers and practitioners on the 8th & 9th February. On the 10th February, workshops with the Royal Ballet and Prof Kneebone of Imperial College, a recital by Sofya Gulyak, the winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition 2010, and a round table will offer a rich experience for the professional and lovers of piano performance alike. To book for the conference on the 8th & 9th go to: www.londoninternationalpianosymposium.co.uk To book for the 10th February go to the Royal College of Music Box Office:

020 7591 4314 or in person 10.00am – 4.00pm (weekdays only) and up to one hour before the event. Or, http://www.boxoffice.rcm.ac.uk

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John Lewis recording at the Broadcast Studios in Geneva on 5-6 July 1972 (Photo courtesy of Jean-Jacques Becciolini/Jazclass)

IP’s jazz columnist Graham Lock suggests a clutch of recordings by John Lewis

J

ohn Lewis has many cLaims to fame. of course, he’s remembered 1. One Never Knows, from chiefly for his time with the modern No Sun in Venice Jazz Quartet (mJQ), the group he co-led by the MJQ (Atlantic, for more than 40 years. yet even before the 1957) mJQ formed in 1952, he’d appeared on 2. Skating in Central some notable recordings, including charlie Park, from Odds Against Parker’s Parker’s Mood and miles Davis’s Tomorrow by the MJQ Birth of the Cool, to which he contributed his (Blue Note, 1959) own Rouge. 3. Two Degrees East, Three a prolific composer, he wrote highly Degrees West, regarded scores for Roger Vadim’s film from The Wonderful World No Sun in Venice (1957) and Robert wise’s of Jazz by John Lewis thriller noir Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), (Atlantic, 1961) and later became a leading figure in the 4. Gemini, from Private Third stream movement of the early Concert by John Lewis 1960s, which strove to combine elements (Emarcy, 1991) of jazz and european classical music – a 5. Django, from Evolution project Lewis had anticipated in pieces by John Lewis (Atlantic, such as Vendome and Three Windows, which 1999) introduced fugue and counterpoint to the mJQ’s repertoire. Fascinated particularly by baroque music, in the 1980s he recorded his own versions of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier. Lewis’s first love, however, was jazz; steeped in bebop, blues and swing, he saw himself primarily as an improviser, once confessing to writer Len Lyons that he never wrote out anything he played himself: ‘i invent the piano part each time. For me, improvisation is the main attraction.’ he was never a flamboyant or demonstrative performer; his elegant, concise style, a refinement of count Basie’s adroit functionalism,

Take Five

Ta k e Fi V e was directed towards the greater cohesion of the music. The members of the mJQ embodied this collective ideal, able to improvise together with the kind of polyphonic intricacy more often associated with classical string quartets. Though criticised by some for its formality and european influences (controversial in a period when black cultural nationalism was on the rise), the mJQ proved extremely popular and its style of chamber jazz was here to stay. There are several mJQ recordings from the 1950s and 1960s i could recommend, but i’ll limit myself to just two personal favourites. One Never Knows, from No Sun in Venice, tends to be overlooked, perhaps because it doesn’t sound very ‘jazz’-like (it’s a set of improvised variations), although its melancholy theme is hauntingly beautiful: fragments of melody shimmer and float like lights on water as Lewis and vibist milt Jackson take turns to reflect on the tune. Skating in Central Park, a lilting waltz from Odds Against Tomorrow, is (in the words of critic Gunther schuller) ‘a marvel of musical integration and continuity’; Lewis, ‘the perfect inspired accompanist’, both supports Jackson’s solo and engages in elaborate interplay, piano and vibes chiming together to create what schuller calls the ‘almost magical, luminous sonority’ that is the mJQ’s unique signature. There are later live versions too, though for me, the group’s original Blue note recording achieves a matchless poise and rapport. Lewis enjoyed a similar affinity with guitarist Jim hall, who featured on a handful of the albums the pianist made away from the mJQ, notably Grand Encounter and The Wonderful World of Jazz. Lewis wrote Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West for the former, but i prefer the latter’s more flowing, polished take. he is again the inspired accompanist, in dialogue with hall’s pellucid guitar, and here adds a sparkling solo of his own, its relaxed swing (a Lewis trademark) the ideal tempo for this urbane blues. when the mJQ broke up in 1974, Lewis began to explore other creative avenues, such as a chamber jazz line-up with violin and flute (kansas city Breaks) and a duo partnership with fellow pianist hank Jones (an evening with Two Grand Pianos); then, in 1981, the mJQ reformed and these albums remain as tantalising signposts to roads not taken. an alternative path Lewis did continue to pursue was the solo recital, and in 1990 he took his steinway into the crystalline acoustic of new york’s church of the ascension to record Private Concert, one highlight being his minor-to-major composition Gemini. Terse, insinuating melody, spacious yet emphatic swing – imagine a synthesis of erik satie and the blues. his final solo set, Evolution, dates from almost a decade later, just two years before his death in 2001. Lewis revisits several old favourites, though only to dissect and reconfigure them; so Django, his best-known work (a tribute to guitarist Django Reinhardt, first recorded by the mJQ in 1954), becomes an angular, attenuated tango, beset by teasing haydnesque pauses. The reworking feels experimental and valedictory at the same time, a curious blend of the edgy and the crepuscular that is utterly compelling.  Graham Lock has written several books on jazz, including Forces in Motion, Chasing the Vibration and Blutopia January/February 2013 International Piano

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P OU Le nC a n n i v e r sa ry

Poulenc’s Piano legacy

Were Francis Poulenc’s piano works as bad as he believed them be? as we reach the fiftieth anniversary of the french composer’s death, Benjamin Ivry calls for reassessment

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he fifTieTh anniversary of the quintessentially french composer francis Poulenc’s death of a heart attack on 30 January 1963 is a good excuse for looking at his paradoxically pleasing piano legacy. a gifted pianist himself, Poulenc wrote a quantity of works for piano solo in addition to concertos and chamber music with piano, but openly disliked many of them. Poulenc’s statements are unambiguous, causing some problems in france, where composers’ oeuvres are either totally idolised or wholly shunned, making the idea of selective achievement difficult for some Gallic piano lovers. There is also the general question of whether a composer is necessarily the best judge of his own creations. a sophisticated author such as Poulenc, who wrote a delightful book – published in english translation in 1982 by Dobson Books but alas long out of print – explaining why he adored the music of emmanuel Chabrier, was a more acute critic of music, including his own, than many another more naïve or guileless composer for piano. readers of Poulenc’s lucid Journal de mes Mélodies, an english translation of which, Diary of My Songs, was reprinted by Kahn & averill Publishers in 2007, or his voluminously witty letters, published by Les editions fayard as Correspondance, 1910-1963 in 1994, can only admire his self-awareness both as a man and a composer. and Poulenc was quite open and above-board in writing both for publication and in letters to friends

that he felt his solo piano works were disappointments. This point of view is emphatically not shared by some admiring listeners, and Wilfrid Mellers’ Francis Poulenc (Oxford University Press, 1995) makes a sympathetic, if not entirely convincing, case for liking even those works denigrated by Poulenc. Uncompromisingly, Poulenc wrote: ‘it is paradoxical, but true, that my piano music is the least representative genre in my output.’ The paradox lay in the fact that Poulenc was intimately involved in piano sounds, as a pupil of the gifted virtuoso ricardo viñes, a pioneering performer of works by Debussy, ravel, and others. Poulenc even tried to explain the reasons for what he saw as his failure to compose wholly satisfying solo piano works: ‘Many of my pieces have failed because i know too well how to write for the piano...as soon as i begin writing piano accompaniments for my songs, i begin to be innovative. similarly, my piano writing with orchestra or chamber ensemble is of a different order. it is the solo piano that somehow escapes me. With it i am a victim of false pretences.’ The notion that an overabundance of knowledge or understanding about the piano led Poulenc to write badly for the instrument seems a cop-out at best. yet we can draw from his words the useful thought that he was also aware that some of his most characterful and zesty works include the piano, whether his 1932 Le Bal Masqué, a ‘profane cantata’ for

baritone, piano and chamber ensemble; his 1937 song cycle, Tel jour telle nuit setting poems by Paul Éluard; his 1946 Story of Babar, the Little Elephant (Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant) for narrator and piano; or his 1957 flute sonata. in all of these, the writing for piano is masterfully collaborative and individually expressive at the same time. The surrealistically willful abruptness of le Bal Masqué – set to wild poems by Max Jacob – is enhanced by the festive atmosphere of the piano part. for Poulenc, an accomplished composer of sacred choral works, the piano seems to have been mostly a profane instrument to express worldly pleasures – as indeed it is in le Bal Masqué. still, in other, loftier works such as Tel jour telle nuit, in which the idealistic Éluard addressed topics from romantic love and nature to brotherly affection, Poulenc achieves a metaphysical density unusual in his piano writing, adding a keyboard postlude which Graham Johnson aptly compares to the postlude that robert schumann wrote for the pianist in his 1840 song cycle Dichterliebe. Poulenc belonged to a generation some of whom – following the example of Jean Cocteau who, despite not being a musician, proffered dictatorial opinions about music – explicitly rejected the German introspective school of piano composition. Beethoven sonatas were scorned by Cocteau as ‘music you have to listen to holding your head in your hands,’ as if the very thought of pensive, inward-

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p ou le nc a n n i v e r sa ry

‘It is paradoxical, but true, that my piano music is the least representative genre in my output’ January/February 2013 International Piano

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looking keyboard sonatas was inherently ridiculous. Despite such fashionable strictures, Poulenc would create refined and sensitive piano writing for song texts he genuinely adhered to, such as Louis Aragon’s comparably idealistic C, with its allegorical references to the wartime Nazi occupation of France. Expressing an entirely different emotional spectrum, Babar is particularly rewarding for a pianist with a strong stage presence and a sense of humour. Those fortunate enough to hear the French pianist Billy Eidi, a pupil of Magda Tagliaferro, perform Babar alongside the great Swiss tenor Hugues Cuénod as narrator will never forget the experience. Such works by Poulenc are theatrical without being superficial; indeed, their innate theatricality is profoundly pleasing because of its candidly open-hearted emotional generosity and humour. They share these permanent qualities with Poulenc’s best songs, such as Le Bestiaire (settings from 1918 and 1919 of poems about diverse fauna by Guillaume Apollinaire), not coincidentally also bringing the animal world to life via keyboard characterisations, much like Babar. This vivacity is also present in Poulenc’s works written for piano, such as his 1953 Sonata for Two Pianos, where a combination of soloists conducts a conversation. Poulenc was surely capable of writing ephemeral music for two pianos, as such Le Voyage en Amérique and L’Embarquement pour Cythère, both from 1951, which only mean to please and succeed well enough in this limited ambition. However this is the exception, rather than the rule, for Poulenc’s work for two pianos. When he wrote for a single pianist, even if the results were as charming as Les Soirées de Nazelles (Evenings at Nazelles) written from 1930 to 1936, the results can resemble lightweight salon music. Even though Poulenc’s inspiration for Les Soirées de Nazelles was social, as a recollection of pleasant evenings with friends gathered around the piano as he played, the musical monologue framework still prevents any enlivening spark which would turn a placidly pleasant work into a more bitingly pointed one. Poulenc was particularly

harsh about Soirées de Nazelles, feeling the need to ‘condemn [it] without reprieve.’ Given these tendencies, it is understandable that Poulenc’s 1932 Concerto for Two Pianos (Le Concerto pour deux pianos en ré mineur) is a joy to hear and perform, with its sassy mutual undercutting, as well as call and response between the soloists. As a devotee of interchanges as a group musical statement, Poulenc was inspired in part for his Two Piano Concerto after hearing a Balinese gamelan orchestra at the 1931 Paris International Colonial Exhibition. The gamelan, as an ultimate jangly expression of urban group endeavour in Asia, was understandably attractive to Poulenc, the Parisian bon viveur. This aspect is especially audible in the recording – a performance also filmed for French TV and posted in part on YouTube.com – in which Poulenc is partnered with his old friend and fellow gay denizen of Parisian high society, the champagne-dry pianist Jacques Février. The kind of socially based exchange which is fundamental to this work can be sensed in performances by other artists, and must have been present even in 1945 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, when Poulenc performed his Concerto for Two Pianos with the composer/ pianist Benjamin Britten, with whom he was barely acquainted at the time. Characteristically, Poulenc saw his 1949 Piano Concerto as a disappointment, although it was indubitably fun for him to perform. Poulenc privately referred to his Piano Concerto as the Concerto en casquette, or Concerto While Wearing a Cap. During its amusing passages verging on burlesque, the soloist was meant to impersonate an athletic, naughty working-class humorist such as the young Maurice Chevalier, whom Poulenc admired. Although it is still performed by aspiring soloists, it clearly lacks the depth of Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos.

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ouLENC WAS FIRST AND foremost a society composer in the broadest sense of the term. Born in 1899 to wealth as an heir to what became the Rhône-Poulenc chemicals and pharmaceuticals fortune, Poulenc lived his life in cushy circumstances, although constantly crabbing about

money to his richer friends, and complaining that he had to ‘work for a living.’ I well recall a chat in Paris decades ago with the charming French publisher Gérard Worms, husband of the gifted author Jeannine Worms, who often dined out in the 1950s with Poulenc and Jean Cocteau (on separate evenings). Worms exclaimed, ‘Neither of them [Poulenc or Cocteau] ever picked up a cheque!’ Whether such stinginess ever translated into a lack of emotional generosity in Poulenc’s piano works is a moot point. More pertinent is that beyond the high society setting of Poulenc’s life – aptly enough he dropped dead in his flat in one of Paris’s poshest neighbourhoods, on the rue de Médicis just across the street from the Luxembourg Gardens – Poulenc was, more than a mere social butterfly, a devotee of interpersonal communication. The eminent choral conductor Robert Shaw once told me that Poulenc adored gossip: ‘He was like an old woman!’ Shaw chuckled. Poulenc’s finest works involving piano convey an aura of avid and much-relished discussion, whether spicy discord or mutual emphatic concord among instruments, such as his 1926 Trio for oboe, Bassoon, and Piano; his 1931-32 Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet; and his 1962 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano. In these works, the piano, as well as solo instruments, seem to speak in human voices. As a great reader of French literature, Poulenc knew that examples of breathless gossip elevated to the rank of

all photos © tully potter collection

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P Ou LE NC A N N I v E R SA Ry the fine arts distinguished some highly esteemed writers, from Saint-Simon and Tallemant des Réaux to Madame du Deffand. In its intensity and urgency, gossip or ‘bavardage’ to use the French term, could be the basis for permanently admirable artistic statements. Perhaps because of their orality, wind instruments were particularly attractive to Poulenc, whereas he was less drawn to string instruments. Harsh on his solo piano works, Poulenc felt comparable dislike for his sonatas for violin and cello, with some justification. His 1929 Aubade (subtitled as a ‘Choreographic concerto’) is a hybrid work that succeeds more in its chamber aspects than in solo writing for the piano against an orchestral palette. His earlier 1927-8 Concert champêtre, intended for Wanda Landowska’s built-up Pleyel harpsichord as solo instrument, has often been performed by a solo pianist instead. Even when the piano soloist was Poulenc himself, or a keyboard artist as accomplished as Emil Gilels, the results could sound ungainly. Nor is Concert champêtre among Poulenc’s most communicative works, even when played by a harpsichordist, although it is often performed as one of the few palatable modern works for that instrument.

Poulenc: a selective discograPhy Compiled by Benjamin Ivry Francis Poulenc Plays Poulenc and Satie (1950 recording), CBS Masterworks Portrait reprinted by ArkivCD Composers In Person, EMI Classics, includes Poulenc’s recordings from the 1920s and 30s of such works as his Nocturnes, Novelettes, Improvisations, and Aubade for Piano and 18 instruments Pierre Bernac & Francis Poulenc, Preiser Records, includes songs by Poulenc, Chabrier, and Ravel The Essential Pierre Bernac, Testament Records, reprints the recordings Poulenc made with baritone Pierre Bernac, from the 1930s and 40s, their artistic peak as performing partners Poulenc: Concertos, EMI Classics, includes the recording by Poulenc and Jacques Février of Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos in D minor conducted by Pierre Dervaux Walter Gieseking – A Retrospective Vol 1, Pearl Records, includes Gieseking’s 1930s recording of Mouvements perpétuels Rubinstein Collection Vol 7, RCA Victor

An effusively oral type, Poulenc always made much of his appreciation of gourmet delights and the wine available in the region of his country estate outside Tours. Reportedly a longtime cruiser at gay pickup sites around Paris, Poulenc further indulged his oral inclinations, as his now-published private letters amply state. All of these tendencies point to a composer who became himself when surrounded by and communicating with others. A social being, he might have concurred with the poem Lauds by Wystan Auden: ‘Men of their neighbours become sensible:/ In solitude, for company.’ In Poulenc’s best works, the piano is acutely sensitive to its neighbouring instruments, and the only solitude that really suits Poulenc is indeed the kind that turns out to be a form of companionship. One exception is Poulenc’s Mouvement Perpétuel No 1 (1918), a consciously simple effort in the Erik Satie vein by a young Poulenc that gained celebrity by its inclusion on the soundtrack of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 Hollywood thriller Rope. Hitchcock scholars have long noted the director’s intermittent cinematic obsession with the subtext of homosexuality, and for this adaptation

of a 1929 play about two real-life gay child-killers, the notorious Leopold and Loeb, Hitchcock hired gay author Arthur Laurents to write a screenplay for two gay lead actors, John Dall and Farley Granger, as the murderous duo. Granger, who portrayed a pianist in the story – keyboard talent often being a Hollywood screenwriter’s tipoff that something sinister is about to occur – plays Poulenc’s Mouvement Perpétuel No 1. Practising this piece even when interrogated about the murder by a suspicious visitor, Granger at the keyboard speeds up the tempo to indicate his emotional distress, in a typical Hitchcock touch. Despite this dramatic usage, Poulenc made no major claims for his Mouvement perpetual, classing it in Me and My Friends, a 1963 book of conversations with Stéphane Audel, among his ‘modest beginner’s works, fairly infantile.’ Like the benevolent Wilfrid Mellers, we may retain a trifle more affection for Poulenc’s piano compositions than he himself did, while admitting that with his customary acumen, he may well have been correct in his judgment about them. And even if infantile, Poulenc, as composer and man, always played well with others. 

Red Seal, reprints Arthur Rubinstein’s 1938 recording of Poulenc’s Mouvements perpétuels

and L’embarquement pour Cythère among other works major and minor

Rubinstein Collection – Works By Ravel, Poulenc, Faure, Chabrier, RCA Victor Red Seal, reissued on ArkivCD. Contains Poulenc’s Intermezzo No 2 in D flat major and No 3 in A flat major, as well as Mouvements perpétuels as interpreted by a fellow bon vivant

Theo Bruins 1929-1993, Globe Records, contains a live 1974 performance of Poulenc’s Pastourelle from a recital at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, by his fellow composer/ pianist the Dutchman Bruins

Horowitz – Legendary RCA Recordings, RCA Victor Red Seal, includes Poulenc’s Presto for Piano in B flat major (written in 1934) recorded in 1947 by Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Horowitz – The HMV Recordings 1930-1951, EMI Classics Références reissued on ArkivCD. Includes 1932 recordings of Poulenc’s Pastourelle and Toccata Andor Foldes – Wizard Of The Keyboard, Deutsche Grammophon, includes Poulenc’s Nocturne for Piano No 4 in C minor Bal fantôme Shura Cherkassky – The Complete HMV Stereo Recordings, First Hand Records, reprints Cherkassky’s 1950s recording of Poulenc’s Toccata Poulenc: Works for 2 Pianos, Jacques Février, Gabriel Tacchino, EMI Classics reissued on ArkivCD. Includes the Sonata for Two Pianos

Poulenc: Aubade, Concerto Pour Piano, EMI Classics reissued on ArkivCD. Includes 1960s recordings by the Février student Gabriel Tacchino Legendary Treasures – Sviatoslav Richter Archives Vol 16, Doremi Records. The great Richter as soloist in Aubade and with Elisabeth Leonskaja in Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos in D minor may be like putting borscht in champagne, but is a must-hear at least once Kaleidoscope, Marc-André Hamelin, Hyperion Records, includes Poulenc’s Intermezzo No 3 in A flat major Gilels, BBC Legends, includes Emil Gilel’s performance of Poulenc’s Pastourelle Poulenc: Le Bal Masqué, Decca Records, features Pascal Rogé’s propulsive performance of the piano part in this vocal work

January/February 2013 International Piano

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ma as st te er rc cl la as ss s m

Things that go Mind gapnight BUMPthe in the

Seamless phrasing is skill a tricky Even playing is a vital for atask, but IP’s resident expert Murray McLachlan pianists’ CV. Murray McLachlan has some advice outlines some useful techniques

W F

Prolific concert and recording artist Murray McLachlan is head of keyboard at Chetham’s School of Music and a tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is also artistic director of the Chetham’s International Summer School and Festival for Pianists

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e all knoW that aWful inding a way to phrase feeling of powerlessness seamlessly, to ‘hold the line’ and that upon us when unifycan the come melodic contours of awe try to play evenly, but end up accident piece into an organic whole, is clearlyprone of – even in the most simple of passages. accents, paramount importance in music-making. bumps, unexpected silences and uneven jolts with advanced students, teachers normally can be most disconcerting for both player spend a considerable amount of time and and listener, yettowards are very discussed energy working thisrarely essential in textbooks on technique. It can be really ideal, as it is only by cultivating convincing unsettling to find that a well intentioned phrasing that a pianist can hope to emulate attempt pianissimo relatively the art ofata great singer. in Butawithin this easy piece (such as the opening of Debussy’s unified melodic flow, the music also needs Clair de lune even something as modest to breathe andorhave expansive spaciousness. as edward MacDowell’s To a Wild Rose) in technical terms, too, it is essential to becan lead to disaster, with half the notes failing to aware of the points of repose: of the silences, sound, or at least failing to sound as evenly pauses for consideration and space that and as intended. Soashow can we existscarefully in virtually every piece. pianists guarantee that a chord will ‘speak’ when with so many notes to play, we can all too we depress the keys? how can we avoid readily fall into the trap of forgetting that a jarring in silences the middle a pianissimo it is the accent rests and that of often make phrase? Being able to control sounds an interpretation really convincing. andat all times has to be a top priorityterms whenalone, building in down-to-earth, technical ait successful and reliable technique. let’s is this awareness of musical space – of look at causes for mishaps – –forthat ‘bumps thethe ‘gaps’ between the notes can and blanks’, so to speak – and then try to and find mean the difference between reliability some practical solutions so that they can insecurity. Let’s look at some of the ways inbe avoided as much the as possible. which ‘minding gap’ can make a huge lack of control in this sense is chiefly difference. caused by itstiffness in the wrists and elbows. Firstly, is important to remember to It is vital to remain flexible and supple in both, finish what you are doing before moving as well as in the shoulders and neck. firm on to something else! too often technical finger work from the knuckles downwards problems occur because players are thinking is essential for reliable articulation, of the next challenge too early. Lack of but must be co-ordinated and clarity and control often occurssynchronised at the end of with relaxation therather rest than of at the a musical sentence from or period body. of course, wayward instruments with the beginning. reduce problematic passages poor can be aunits law unto to theregulation smallest musical you themselves, can:

but thechallenges, odds of being to control sounds isolate andable celebrate the musical are made more favourable when the player space between each challenge. Being able is able to adopt a few requisite technical to ‘live in the present’ and stop worrying principles are tobasic to next healthy about what that is about happen is theand reliable pianism at all levels. solution to numerous technical issues. take Begin preparing notes inlengthen advance; time whenbypractising to radically never attack the keys from above. this will space between phrase markings and during eliminate percussive sonorities from rests. Before the gaps, you can experimentthe tonal palette, ensuring that thelouder. arm and by slowing down and getting if body are directly involved in the production of the you work on small passages, one at a time, sound. this technique can be described as a with repetition, ritardando and a consistent ‘touch and press’ approach, and immediately crescendo in place on each re-playing, then ensures that sounds are to being controlled you are much less likely panic when youby much more than mere fingertip come to perform these passages in brilliance. public. If you are aboutcomes whether Clarity andfeeling controluncertain in articulation or not notes will ‘speak’ when you attempt from being aware of what you are doing at to depress them, it can be also be helpful all times. exaggeration by augmentation ofto begin ‘touch technique with musicalthe space willand helppress’ with this, as it helps ayou small upward ‘backswing’ – keeping to focus on smaller musical units. the fingers stuck on thedoes keysfaratmore all times But musical space than – so that you have more leverage. at the just enhance technical control: it also precise moment thetonote(s) doessospeak, take special enables you feel, and show colouristic care to ensure that your wrists and forearms differences much more easily between are in perfect alignment, forming a phrases that follow each other. it is a straight line. avoid allmany costsofwrists that stick historical factatthat the great either upwards or downwards. this political orators knew and exploited isviavitally important it is only through excellent impeccableastiming the art of milking a coordination between wrists and arms that you pause. we pianists should always be aware can be guaranteed control over your playing. of the acoustical power of exploiting example one (bars 1-4 of the second silences, no matter how short. movement in Beethoven’s Sonata D major, it is all too simple to forget thatinthe op 10 no 3, ‘largo e mesto’) is taken at an acoustics of a hall, and the distance between exceptionally broad tempo and so requires the audience and the concert platform, confident excellent co-ordination are crucial.control notes and played take time to if ‘bumps and blanks’ are to be avoided. ‘register’ in the ears of listeners who may try using concentrated armfrom movement sit hundreds of metres away a solo on every first. albert the ‘touch and press’ pianistnote in theatroyal or Carnegie technique described above will halls. young pianists in particular can enable be beautiful to emerge, and each one of overcome sounds by adrenalin and so rush forward the six notes in each chordover should in performance, tripping restssound and out with appropriate hushed resonance accelerating from phrase to phrase in aif you try small back swingsthat in your helter-skelter manner at bestpractising makes foras a sense meansof towards perfect ensemble agitation and at worse leadsplaying to on each chord. sure thator your wrists disasters such as Make memory lapses complete and forearms are in perfect alignment at the technical breakdown. point at which the key is depressed fully. use aeXaMpLe mirror to one examine where your wrists and shows the infamous double arms end up after each quaver is struck. third opening (bars 1 and 2) of Beethoven’s example (bars of Chopin’s third pianotwo sonata in1-2 C major op 2 ‘aeolian no 3 harp’ etude in a flat op 25 no 1) can be – a ‘horror spot’ that becomes user-friendly notoriously hard students to realise when ‘mind the gap’for thinking is applied. effectively. too often, notes remain silent players frequently panic about this excerpt,

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examples

example 1

example one: Beethoven piano sonata in D major, Op 10 No 3, second movement ‘largo e mesto’, bars 1-5

example 2

example two: Chopin etude in a flat Op 25 No 1, bars 1-2

example 3

example three: liszt ‘sposalizio’ from annees de pelerinage volume two ‘Italy’, bars 1-4

after they have been played, leaving holes in the texture for the listener and a sense of real bewilderment and frustration for the pianist. It is all too easy to rush over the less vital arpeggiated accompaniment flourishes in the treble and bass parts of this Etude by focusing exclusively on the fifth finger notes in both hands. Of course, fifth finger notes are vitally important here, but in order to play everything in the texture (rather than omitting literally dozens of notes!) it is essential to listen out when practising for everything. Try stopping at the end of each bar and using your ears to detect if there are any notes missing in the beautiful chords that you sustain with the pedal after every beat. If you

notice holes, then you can concentrate your efforts when practising by using a little arm movement on every single semiquaver. When you have finished working in this way and are ready for a performance, try using the momentum of one single arm movement from each fifth finger note as you play through every beat in the study. Try and keep your fingers as close as possible to the keyboard. Ideally, you should also adopt the ‘touch and press’ technique here, along with a subtle rotary movement as the arpeggios gently oscillate. Example three (bars 1-4 of Sposalizio from Liszt’s Anneés de Pèlerinage, book two) shows a much more Spartan texture than the Chopin Etude – but therein lies

the problem. Often, a shortage of notes means that the player becomes more concerned than ever about mishaps and a lack of control. Bars 1-2 can be mastered by gently swinging from one note to the next with economical but concentrated wrist movements. Use clockwise rotary movements to firmly navigate your accent-free path down the pentatonically flavoured left hand fragment. In contrast, bars 3-4 can perhaps best be viewed as a musical sigh. Take each three-note phrase as a one-movement gesture. Relax and enjoy sinking into these delicious sounds; the other notes will float effortlessly out from the impact you have created via relaxed, co-ordinated arm movements.  January/February 2013 International Piano

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DE HASKE HAL LEONARD 17/18 Henrietta Street Covent Garden London WC2E 8QH [email protected]

MGB HAL LEONARD Via Liguria 4, Sesto Ulteriano 20098 S. Giuliano Milanese (MI) ITALY [email protected] www.mgbhalleonard.com

FRENCH VERSION

Ballades Opp. 23, 38, 47, 52 SLB 3833 [Fr] Ballads Opp. 23, 38, 47, 52 SLB 3834 [En] Etudes (12) Op. 10 SLB 3798 [Fr] Studies (12) Op. 10 SLB 3799 [En] Etudes (12) Op. 25 SLB 3821 [Fr] Studies (12) Op. 25 SLB 3822 [En] Impromptus (4) Opp. 9, 36, 51 - Fantaisie-Impromptu Op. 66 SLB 3830 [Fr] Mazurkas (21) Vol. 1: Opp. 6, 7, 17, 24, 30 SLB 3844 [Fr] Mazurkas (14) Vol. 2: Opp. 33, 41, 50, 56 SLB 3845 [Fr] Mazurkas (15) Vol. 3: Opp. 59, 63, 67, 68 posth. SLB 3846 [Fr]

ENGLISH VERSION

Nocturnes (10) Vol. 1: Opp. 9, 15, 27, 32 SLB 3838 [Fr] Nocturnes (10) Vol. 1: Opp. 9, 15, 27, 32 SLB 3839 [En] Nocturnes (8) Vol. 2: Opp. 37, 48, 55, 62 SLB 3840 [Fr] Nocturnes (8) Vol. 2: Opp. 37, 48, 55, 62 SLB 3841 [En] Polonaises (7) Opp. 26, 40, 44 - Polonaise héroïque Op. 53 - Polonaise-fantaisie Op. 61 SLB 3828 [Fr] Préludes (24) Op. 28 SLB 3816 [Fr] Preludes (24) Op. 28 SLB 3817 [En] Rondos (3) Opp. 1, 5, 16 SLB 3886 [Fr]

Scherzos (4) Opp. 20, 31, 39, 54 SLB 3836 [Fr] Sonate Op. 35 SLB 3852 [Fr] Sonate Op. 38 SLB 3853 [Fr] Valses (14) Opp. 18, 34, 42, 64, Op. 69 nos 1-2, Op. 70 nos 1-2-3, Op. posthume en mi min. SLB 3831 [Fr] Waltzes (14) Opp. 18, 34, 42, 64, Op. 69 nos. 1-2, Op. 70 nos. 1-2-3, Op. posthume in E min. SLB 3832 [En] Œuvres posthumes SLB 3887 [Fr] Pièces diverses Vol. 1 SLB 3829 [Fr] Pièces diverses Vol. 2 SLB 3885 [Fr] Introduction to the Cortot Editions of Chopin (selected pieces) SLB 3818 [En] [Fr] French Edition / [En] English Edition

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Pianists are often expected to perform herculean intervallic jumps and chords, but there are certain tricks of the trade, suggests McLachlan H eElLPPMurray Ng G h H An Nd DsS h II n a Pianists are often expected to perform Many pianists struggle with Coping with awkward stretches herculean intervallic and chords, but articulation, but, jumps as Murray

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NE OF THE MAJOR difficulties encountered when learning the piano is coping with stretches. Students with smaller hands frequently discover chords and intervallic jumps, to say nothing of octaves that they find extremely challenging to cope with. There is NE OF THE MAJOR nothing more dispiriting than finding difficulties encountered when passages in the music you long to learningUILDING the piano is coping with AND EFFECTIVE perform that youAN find uncomfortable stretches. Students with smaller reliable staccato technique or even impossible to execute. Tootakes hands frequently discover chords co-ordination. It often patience negativityand and frustration sets in, and intervallic jumps, toprocess say nothing can prove a frustrating if left for with complaints and defeatism then of octaves– that theyisfioften nd extremely too this case, afflong ectingand a player’s overallsadly confithe dence. challenging to cope with.toThere isstaccato asThe many teachers refuse teach truth is much more positive: It is nothing dispiriting finding inalways the more earliest stages. than From worth remembering thatcertain one passages in the music you long to viewpoints this is understandable, of the greatest performers of the last as perform that you find examination douncomfortable not scales century, theboards late Alicia derequire Larrocha, or even impossible to execute.articulation Too tohad be miniscule played with staccato hands, yet she was able oft en negativity and frustration setsoften in, until after Grade 5. Teachers to play Granados, Albéniz and even with complaints and defeatism then mention that legato playing is essential the Liszt B minor sonata with mastery aff ecting atoplayer’s overall confising, dence. inand order make the try piano authority. So let’s and find and The truth is much moreispositive: It isways that staccato playing in many ways to make what appears impossible always worth remembering that one and contrary to this, causing stiffness manageable, and let’s try and bury for of the greatest performersthat of the last is tension. I would good the notion argue that certainstaccato works century, the late Alicia de Larrocha, a basic touch, is required in music from should never be attempted by pianists had miniscule hands,and yet she was able the earliest grades, is more easily with smaller hands. to play Granados, Albéniz sooner and evenrather mastered when tackled Many players restrict their flexibility the Liszt B minor sonata with mastery than later. Stiffness and tension can be and range at the keyboard by being and authority. So let’s try and find avoided in staccato playing through too stiff, fixed and rigid in their elbows ways to make whatfrom appears impossible good teacher and and monitoring wrists. Old myths the about keeping manageable, and let’s try andthe bury for intelligent awareness from student. your arms close to your torso in a good notion that certain Asfixed inthe most technical work, works progress position still circulate and causeis should neverthrough be attempted bysessions pianists of best made small considerable harm. By using your wrists with smaller hands. daily rather irregular and practise elbows as pivotsthan it is with possible to Many players restrict their flexibility marathon stints of work. Economy and extend your ability. Find different angles and range at the keyboard byare being concentration of movement essential and positions by using your wrists with too stifftechnique. , fixed andWhen rigid in inrelaxation this youtheir playelbows staccato and flexibility. Playing will and wrists. Old myths aboutarm keeping trybecome not to move your entire on every much more comfortable and your arms close to your torso in a note. Focus on your fingertips. manageable. Obviously this is a huge fixed position still circulate staccato and cause Before analysing subject that requireshow an experiencedcan considerable harm. By usingityour beteacher effectively achieved, is wrists worth for guidance and development and elbows asthat pivotsthere it is possible tokinds mentioning are all through weekly lessons. extend your ability. Findtouches differentin angles of different staccato If flexibility with relaxed freedomthe and positionsfrom by using your wristsdelicate with repertoire, the most at the instrument is insufficient to relaxation and flexibility. Playing will become much more comfortable and manageable. Obviously this is a huge subject that requires an experienced teacher for guidance and development through weekly lessons. 045_IP1112 signed off by If Claire.indd flexibility45with relaxed freedom at the instrument is insufficient to

middle voices are often less there are certain tricksOmitted of the trade, suggests McLachlan explains, it’s never too noticeable when the top melodic line Murray and supporting bass are played more late to McLachlan develop detached playing

overcome a particular technical issue then other pragmatic solutions can be considered. Cunning fingering and/or shrewd re-distribution of notes between the two hands can often work wonders. Don’t forget that your thumb can play more than one note at a time! This is particularly useful for chords with four overcome a particular technical issue or more notes. Re-distribution between then other pragmatic solutions can be two hands of passages designed to be considered. Cunning fingering and/or leggiero Mozart through to the played sounds by onlyinone is a black art that is shrewd re-distribution of notessounds between heavy, detached but resonant in most successful when it goes unnoticed the two hands cancomposers. often work Obviously, wonders. Brahms and later Don’t forget that your thumb can play in we need to adjust our technical set-up more onewith notestylistic at a time! This is and order than to cope demands, particularly four with this in useful mind, for it ischords useful with to identify or more Re-distribution between and worknotes. at three basic staccato touches two of passages fromhands the earliest stagesdesigned of work.to be played only with one is‘close a black art thatThis is Let’sby begin staccato’. most successful whenbyit goes unnoticed can be introduced placing your 10

strongly.

Coping with awkward stretches O

Building staccato technique O

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F COURSE THERE ARE MORE subtle methods of coping with stretches, as the two examples Omitted middle voices are often less below from the second movement of noticeable when the top melodic line Beethoven’s Sonatina in F, Anh 5 show. andpractised supporting are more be onbass the hand lid played ofCthe piano or Example one’s left major chord strongly. on a worktop surface. Stiffness can make requires swift execution and can prove wrist staccato challenging, to say the EXAMPLE 1 F COURSE ARE MORE least, and though THERE loosening of the wrists subtlechallenging, methods of progress coping will be can prove with stretches, the two examples possible when as work is taken at a calm belowwith froma the second movement of of pace, gradual build-up in terms Beethoven’s Sonatina in and F, Anh 5 show. both quantities of notes velocity. Example one’s left handcomes C EXAMPLE major chord 2the The excerpt below from requires in swift execution andSuite can prove Gavotte JS Bach’s French No 5 in

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16-20). The fingers over 10 notes on the keyboard. G major, BWV 816 (barsEXAMPLE 1 leftImagine they are literally held down by hand quaver runs require concentration superglue and cannot move off the keys. and economy of movement if they are be realised effectively a delicate Try staccato with the eachcomposer’s finger in toawkward byand the play listener. Provided unless a ‘split’with realisation in leggiero staccato touch in performance. turn. This version of staccato technique message remains undisturbed, then which the lowest note is played first is independence andhere theis helpful ability is there very useful for specific musical effects Finger is nothing wrong with editing utilised. Using the pedal EXAMPLE 2 to keep the hand still while adopting inyour performance, as well as for facilitating music to make performance a as it means you can release the lowest lateral movements up and down more technicalpossibility. control. comfortable note arm and so avoid discomfort when the keyboard are necessary for an accurate Next try ‘leggiero staccato’. As in Doctoring of impossible passages playing the remainder of the chord. realisation of passages like this. does close staccato, work can begin here follows the same maxim – if no-one Example two shows a possibleItsolution not matter if you decide to play all of bynotices again what placing your fingers over 10 you are doing, then its fine to the octaves and chordal stretchesthe by the listener. Provided the composer’s awkward unlessora choose ‘split’ realisation in notes staccato slurred notes. Keep both hands still and draw to do it! There is nothing wrong with in the movement’s final to twomix bars. By message remains undisturbed, then in a notes whichwith the lowest note isofplayed firstnotes. is short groups staccato each finger towards your body missing out the odd note here and there omitting the ‘middle’ notes in the there is nothing wrongas with editing utilised. Using the pedal here is helpful Whatever you choose to do will require scratching movement you play. This in a chordal passage if the omissions texture and projecting the highest and your musicbe tobuilt makeup performance a and aas itconcentrated means you can release thetechnique. lowest non-legato touch to a fast Of speed makecan performance possible. course lowest lines, minimum disruption to the comfortable possibility. note and so avoid discomfort when This can be effectively developed is the extremely effective in baroque music, skill lies in knowing which notes to composer’s intentions will occur. e Doctoring of impossible passages playing the remainder the chord. through careful and ofregular staccato certain scales Mozart miss out. In in general in and theseornamental situations follows the same maxim – if no-one Example two shows a possible solution scale practice. filigree passages in Chopin, to give a it is best to avoid leaving out the lowest notices what you are doing, then its fine to the octaves and chordal stretches few examples. and highest notes. Middle notes in to Finally, do it! There is nothing wrong with an in the movement’s final two bars. By there is ‘wrist staccato’, chords and lower notes in octaves Visit the missing outwhich the odd note here and there omitting the ‘middle’ notes in the approach perhaps best tend to work wellcan when it comes to be Rhinegold in a chordalaspassage if the omissions texture and projecting the highest and described a Experimentation vibrato technique. Shopthe for being deleted. with It Visit RhinegoLd make performance possible. Of course lowest lines, minimum disruption to the involves rapid fire, concentrated ricochet sheet music balancing dynamics in the texture shop foR intentions will occur. e the skill lies in knowing which noteswork to composer’s and more movements from the wrist. These can make doctored passages more sheet miss out. In general in these situations most effectively when the with fingers convincing. Avoid playing an are Music and it is best to avoid leaving the lowest close to the Theout technique equality ofkeyboard. tone through each part. can MoRe and highest notes. Middle notes in chords and lower notes in octaves Visit the tend to work well when it comes to November/December Rhinegold 2012 International Piano Shop for being deleted. Experimentation with sheet music balancing dynamics in the texture and more can make doctored passages more 01/10/2012 convincing. Avoid playing with an equality of tone through each part.

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The Piano Music of Piano Music The Piano Music of TheThe Piano Music of of

John Ramsden Williamson John Ramsden Williamson John Ramsden Williamson John Ramsden Williamson www.jrwilliamson.com www.jrwilliamson.com www.jrwilliamson.com www.jrwilliamson.com www.jrwilliamson.com

Discover New Piano Repertoire!

The reader may find it unbelievable when I write that all of the music The reader may find it unbelievable when I write that of music the music The reader find unbelievable when I write that recognisable all ofallthe which I havemay seen is ititimmediately individual, instantly as The reader find unbelievable when I write that all of the music which I may have seen is immediately individual, instantly recognisable which I have seen is immediately individual, instantly recognisable as as John R. Williamson rather than any other composer. It is certainly which I have seen is immediately individual, instantly recognisable as John R. Williamson rather than any other composer. Itcertainly is certainly John R. Williamson rather than any other composer. It is highly unusual in contemporary music that such a late, intensely prolific Johnhighly R. Williamson rather than any other composer. It intensely is certainly unusual in contemporary music that such a late, prolific highly unusual in contemporary music that such a late, intensely prolific flowering as this can also be regarded, subjective opinions highly unusual in contemporary music thatwhatever such a late, intensely prolific flowering as this can also be regarded, whatever subjective opinions flowering as this can also be regarded, whatever subjective opinions on the quality of the music mayregarded, be, as unique, extraordinary, but true. flowering this can also be whatever subjective opinions on quality theasquality of music the music be,unique, as unique, extraordinary, but true. on the of the maymay be, as extraordinary, but true. on the quality of the music may be, as unique, extraordinary, but true. Murray McLachlan ‘Unsung Heroes, Piano’ (Rhinegold Sept/Oct 2004) (Rhinegold Sept/Oct 2004) Murray McLachlan ‘Unsung Heroes, Piano’ (Rhinegold Sept/Oct 2004) Murray McLachlan ‘Unsung Heroes, Piano’ (Rhinegold Sept/Oct Sept/Oct 2004) 2004) Murray McLachlan ‘Unsung Heroes, Piano’ (Rhinegold Publications: 11 Preludes, (vols 1 & 2), Publications: Publications: Publications: Sonatina, 2 Part Inventions, 7 Interval Studies, Sonata no. 5 Sonata (www.dacapomusic.co.uk) 7 Interval Studies, no. 7 7 Interval Studies, Sonata (www.dacapomusic.co.uk) 7 Interval Studies, Sonata no. 5no. 5 (www.dacapomusic.co.uk) (www.dacapomusic.co.uk) 7 Interval Studies, Sonata no. 5 (www.dacapomusic.co.uk) Discs: 3 Volumes of Piano Works - Murray McLachlan, piano Discs: 3 Volumes of Piano Works - Murray McLachlan, piano Discs: 3 Volumes of Piano McLachlan, piano (Divine ArtWorks Label --- Murray www.divine-art.co.uk) Discs: 3 Volumes of (Divine Piano Works Murray McLachlan, piano Art Label - www.divine-art.co.uk) (Divine Art Label - www.divine-art.co.uk) (Divine Art Label - www.divine-art.co.uk) For extract or purchase visit DIVERSIONS ddv24144 Selected Works in Mss: c160 Preludes, 9 Sonatas, 5 Pft Concerti Selected Works in Mss: c160 Preludes, 9 Sonatas, Pft Concerti Selected Works in Mss: c160 Preludes, 9 Sonatas, 5 Pft5Concerti Selected Works in Mss: c160 Preludes, 9 Sonatas, 5 Pft Concerti

Sound Sketches

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An exciting new series of graded piano pieces by Graham Lynch that will appeal to pupils of all ages.

Dances of Our Time A collection of new pieces for piano by 75 composers from 26 countries 350 pages ISMN: 979-0-001-19144-9 ED 21470 · £ 33,50 These ‘sound images’ are evoked through strong melodic ideas which hide their technical challenges within a sense of the delight that can be had from conjuring music from the keyboard. Pieces to be enjoyed, and performed!

For videos, programme notes and details on this unique project, log on to

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‘What is special here is that Lynch succeeds triumphantly in realising his noble ambition of writing relatively easy music that has substance’ International Piano Vol 3

To purchase, or find out more, please visit: www.soundsketches.co.uk

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SHEET MUSIC

Seven Interval Studies, No 4: Fourths By John Ramsden Williamson

About the music

This study is one of a collection of seven pieces that focus on basic intervals, from octaves to seconds. The basis of its harmonic construction is not the major or minor modes, but key-centred modes. The key-centred modes relate to pentatonic and palindromic features in chordal and melodic structures. The opening t wo -bar phrase uses both of these ideas, with contrar y motion between the hands, showing movements of chords in fourths through shifting progressions. This method of composition may appear mechanical, but the result is of musicals atisfaction. The basic chord of these harmonic movements is heard at page one, line four, bar 2; this cadence produces a palindromic chord – CFGC – characteristic of all more complex harmonic structures. In performance, any voice may be expressed at will, be it in the lower or inner parts. The unresolved fourth, originally a suspension to the third, follows a trend in harmonic evolution: discords were usually derived from suspensions; modulations between keys have found new resolutions. This study in fourths is not modulatory and does not relate to traditional harmonic progressions. Note the new treatment of the middle section on page t wo: the fourth is augmented, sounding a contrasting mood using antiphonal inversion. Note also the final eight bars, showing palindromic chords sounding the same in rising or falling arpeggio fashion.

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Throughout the history of music, composers have used technical devices – canons, inversions, augmentations and so on – as a means to create satisfactory musical expression. In the construction of this study, and many of my other works, every device used has a musical purpose. My style of composing evolved gradually from imitation of traditional methods and use of traditional harmony. An earlier work – 12 New Preludes – illustrates my first successful attempts to be free from the two traditional modes. Following the establishment of well-tempered tuning, composers after JS Bach have continued to develop the traditional 24-key system as a formal design; so we have the 48 by Bach; the famous 24 Preludes by Chopin; the more contemporar y approach of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues. The Debussy Etudes go part of the way in numbers two to five, with pieces exploiting thirds, fourths, sixths and octaves. My constructions in the Interval Studies show a total development of the interval throughout all parts, again with the use ofi nverted andp alindromict echniques. I am most indebted to Murray McLachlan for recording this work as part of volumes on the Divine Art label; the three volumesc ontain av arieds election of my other pianow orks. Visit www.divine-art.com for a sample extract | Diversions DDV24144 Piano Music Vol 2, track 21

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© John Ramsden Williamson

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This music is copyright. Photocopying is ILLEGAL and is THEFT.

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© John Ramsden Williamson

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This music is copyright. Photocopying is ILLEGAL and is THEFT.

04/12/2012 17:25:06

© John Ramsden Williamson

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This music is copyright. Photocopying is ILLEGAL and is THEFT.

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© John Ramsden Williamson

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This music is copyright. Photocopying is ILLEGAL and is THEFT.

04/12/2012 17:29:53

© John Ramsden Williamson

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This music is copyright. Photocopying is ILLEGAL and is THEFT.

04/12/2012 17:30:43

Piano Logistics; a name renowned within the music industry for providing a prefessional piano removal and storage service. We carry out thousands of piano moves a year for piano manufacturers, music venues and private individuals. Delivering the majority of new pianos in the country gives us the infrastructure to reach most of he UK weekly.

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November/December 2011 International Piano

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VIVE LA DIFFERENCE!

illustration © Matt herring/Mattherring.coM; iMogen cooper © sussie ahlberg; Janina Fialkowska © Michael schilhansl; angela hewitt © bernd eberle; noriko ogawa © ben blackall

With distinguished guests, Jeremy Siepmann explores the role, and the experience, of the modern-day ‘woman pianist’

THE PANEL (left to right): Imogen Cooper, Janina Fialkowska, Angela Hewitt, Noriko Ogawa, Susan Tomes JEREMY SIEPMANN: ‘A womAn’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.’ Thus spake one of England’s great misogynists, Dr samuel Johnson. And a woman’s playing? It is not only done well; it is often done supremely well, and we shouldn’t be in the least surprised. But if it be not less in quality than that of men (this 18th-century stuff is catching), wherein lies the explanation of its doers’ comparative neglect in concert series and record catalogues around the world? Exploring this vexed topic below are five of the best in the business, and they begin by going back to basics. Are there, in fact, any differences between the playing of male and female pianists? IMOGEN COOPER: There must be! Why else, when a woman pianist cancels, do promoters look for another woman?

ANGELA HEWITT: We certainly have more stamina. I was part of a group we had in Canada, called Piano Six – three women, three men – and whenever we rehearsed a work for six pianos, which of course wasn’t all that often, the three women – Janina, Angela Cheng and myself – were all still going strong when the men began to wilt. JANINA FIALKOWSKA: But one has only to sit on an international jury and listen to hundreds of pianists, one after another, to notice immediately that the vast majority of men have a higher volume level than their female counterparts. There are exceptions, naturally, but on the whole, if a ‘normal’ male pianist attempts a long, fortissimo octave passage, he’ll generally find it easier to do and will achieve it with a louder sound than a ‘normal’ female pianist. Because of this (and for other reasons) most female pianists have gravitated to the works of the classical and baroque composers and the

French Impressionists. I’d like to say that women have a certain delicate sensitivity in their playing that eludes most male pianists, but then my mind immediately conjures up pictures of Radu Lupu or Murray Perahia. I do think, though, that there are certain composers for whom women seem to have a special and unique understanding, which translates itself into their performance – Bach and Schumann being the two biggest examples. NORIKO OGAWA: I’ve noticed, too, that some male pianists enjoy learning and playing acrobatic and very athletic repertoire – Horowitz transcriptions, for example. This is one field I’ve never been interested in, and I’ve come across very few women pianists who are. As for myself, I never try to excuse or explain anything because of my gender. It never occurs to me. As it happens, I’m physically quite strong. I’m not into weight-lifting, but luckily I’m  strongly built.

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SUSAN TOMES: I really don’t think there’s any direct correlation between physical size, gender and the sound made at the piano. How pianists use their natural forces has much more effect on their sound than whether they’re male or female. We’ve all heard plenty of men with a feeble, indistinct sound and plenty of women with great power and control. However, my family has noticed that when male pianists come for a lesson at our house, on my piano, they do tend to generate a higher volume level than I do.

‘She shouldn’t play with her hair up’ and ‘She’s been around a while’, and this just made me furious. I mean, they wouldn’t have said that kind of thing about Richard Goode or Alfred Brendel. The whole idea that a female artist should be sexy and have long hair and look like she just came out of the shower or the bedroom is disgusting. And of course it can work against female artists. It makes it harder for women who allow themselves to be portrayed in that way to be taken seriously as artists.

come from a more traditional society, where, funnily enough, 90 per cent of active pianists are female. Lots of little boys are discouraged from continuing their musical studies at an early age. To do music isn’t ‘proper’ for a man. But while boys grow up with social pressure like that, girls happily continue practising and make their way to the top. They’re much more imaginative and ambitious. I know Japanese women have a gentle image, but don’t you believe it! We’re a strong and determined species.

JS: Are there particular challenges facing women pianists that male pianists don’t experience?

OGAWA: And then there’s what you might call the stalker/groupie factor. I’ve received letters and emails from some men with completely misguided, over-the-top feelings towards me. Lots of male pianists probably get similar things from passionate fans too. But when one is a woman, one feels much more vulnerable and scared. JS: So much for promoters and the public. Have you experienced much in the way of so-called ‘gender discrimination’ among colleagues and agents and so on?

FIALKOWSKA: Good managers hide episodes of ‘gender discrimination’ from their clients. But there have been a couple of glaring exceptions in my case, one being a critic in Montreal who truly loathes women. More dangerous to me personally, though, were a couple of powerful orchestral managers who considered the term ‘misogynist’ a compliment! When I was starting my career in the 1970s, many promoters felt that the public preferred to hear male pianists. Nowadays, though, I think this kind of discrimination has virtually disappeared.

OGAWA: I’ve been lucky to feel very little discrimination in my career. I

COOPER: It seems that a lot of men can’t cope with ‘strong’ women and,

FIALKOWSKA: Wardrobe! COOPER: Oh god, the late-night ironing sessions on eves of departure, the realisation that you’re out of that vital hair product! Grrrrrrr! Mr X or Y or Z doesn’t have to deal with this! HEWITT: In these days of emphasis on ‘image’, women have a much more complicated time of it than men. When I was looking for a new agent some years ago, my American agent came over to London to talk to some of the big agents over here, and one of them told him,

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‘I never try to excuse or explain anything because of my gender. It never occurs to me’ Noriko ogawa often unknowingly, use condescending language that gently keeps us in our place – language they wouldn’t dream of using with men. And it would seem that if you come over too directly or seductively, you’re a nymphomaniac, and if you’re seen as more compliant, you’re patted on the head as if you were a child. I’ve had this experience, intermittently, from every corner of the profession. HEWITT: When I was a competitor in the Bach Competition in Toronto in 1985, one of the judges marked me down for playing the Brahms F minor Sonata (even before I began to play!) on the grounds that no woman could play Brahms. I know this because one of the other judges told me so. And another time, when I played the complete Chopin Nocturnes in Europe, a very misogynist German declared that women could never understand male romanticism! JS: Do conductors, who are still mostly male, treat female pianists differently from male pianists? COOPER: Russian ones, yes! Almost universally. HEWITT: Isn’t that interesting? The two worst cases of that kind of thing that I’ve known both involved Russian conductors, who were quite clearly trying to intimidate me. Both, by the way, were trying out for positions with the orchestras I was playing with, and I complained very strongly to the management about their attitudes, because I really think that kind of behaviour is inexcusable. Neither of them, I’m happy to say, got the job.

FIALKOWSKA: The younger men tend to tease or to flirt; some of the older ones, in my past, tried to dominate; very few harassed me unpleasantly, but basically it follows the patterns of everyday male-female relationships. Come to think of it, rather a lot of younger male conductors now like to confide in me – I have reached motherly middle age! TOMES: I’ve never played a concerto under a female conductor, but I’ve certainly had some strange psychological vibes with male ones. The worst was when I felt frustrated with a conductor for not saying all kinds of things to the orchestra that I felt really needed to be said. Time was very short, and I asked his permission to say a few things myself. Very sarcastically, he pretended to hand me his baton with a flourish, and stood back with arms folded, looking at the ceiling while I said my bit. From that moment on he made life as difficult as possible for me, though whether this was because I had crossed a boundary of orchestral etiquette, had insulted his ego or was a woman (or the last two combined), I don’t know. OGAWA: I’ve come across some conductors who wanted to get to know me away from the piano – which I absolutely hate. But usually, these days, they’re straightforward. Once, a fledgling conductor told me that men prefer having lady soloists rather than males, because they look nice on the stage, are more fun to work with and are less problematical or argumentative. So, they’re usually ‘nicer’ to us. JS: But there are some (there used to be very many) whose ‘niceness’ is in fact quite the opposite, and comes into play before rather than at or after the engagement. I have it on the good and disgusted authority of a highly experienced agent that it definitely goes on still. On one occasion, his wife, already a very successful pianist, was actually propositioned by a conductor in his presence. And I know of more than one occasion on which a promised engagement was actually withdrawn when the soloist refused

to go to bed with the conductor. But having brought sex into the discussion, this might be the time to ask whether family life poses special challenges for women pianists. FIALKOWSKA: For younger women it’s definitely a problem. Until relatively recently, a great many women pianists only began to achieve renown after their 50th birthday or so, once their childbearing and child-raising years were over. In fact, I was told by my first manager, at the venerable Hurok agency in New York (now long gone), that I should expect my career to be a struggle but if I could hang on until I was 50 I’d be a ‘star’. JS: Which brings us inevitably to the question of children. How difficult is it to combine having and raising them with practising, preparing for concerts and being on the road? FIALKOWSKA: Only superwomen can manage this one. I can think of no man who has single handedly been able to raise children (not to mention the fact that they avoid the pregnancy part!), practise and tour. A few women have done – I think of Clara Schumann, Teresa Carreño, Martha Argerich, Alicia de Larrocha, Maria João Pires and my extraordinary colleague Angela Cheng, who’s crucially supported by a wonderful husband. But so many of us are childless because it’s just such an impossible combination. I don’t care what anyone says, finding a husband willing to stay home and devote his life to kids, house-cleaning, ironing and cooking is still extremely rare. OGAWA: This really is the biggest problem every woman pianist has to face. I could never see myself having children. Since I go back to Japan on average 12 times a year, it could only be a disaster. Ever since I made my debut in 1987-88, Japanese people – audiences, fans and promoters – have asked me when was I getting married and having children (it’s perfectly normal for Japanese people to ask such personal, threatening questions, in total innocence). I give away very little of my January/February 2013 International Piano

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personal life because there’s no other pianist in Japan (male or female) who travels as much as I do. COOPER: I know very few women who haven’t agonised over this decision. For some it means functioning in a fog for a few years while they sort out the dilemma, simply being less focused than a man would. Coming to terms with this is a major challenge in itself.

JS: And returning to the strictly pianistic: what about small hands? Is this a liability? TOMES: I have small hands, and there’s certainly some repertoire which is literally outside my scope. Liszt, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, certain pieces of Chopin and Brahms. To stretch enormous intervals or chords, I have to ‘break’ them, and the sound annoys me after a while. There are, however, quite a few ‘big works’ which I have gradually found a way to play, usually

by lateral extensions and sometimes sheer willpower. But luckily, the pieces I can’t stretch to tend to be the sorts of pieces which don’t interest me anyway. I’m happy to leave the famous warhorses to people who find them exciting and convincing. HEWITT: It cuts both ways. Women with rather more delicate fingers are often at an advantage in playing lots of filigree stuff, and things like the C sharp major Fugue from book one of The Well-Tempered Clavier, where so much of the playing is between the black keys. Pianists with big hands, mostly men, are often at a disadvantage when it comes to writing of that kind. OGAWA: I’m fortunate to have big hands for a Japanese female. I can reach a 10th all right. But in the end, how we work our hands is the most important thing, I think. My technical shortcomings have nothing to do with the size of my hands!

photo © Lorenzo Dogana

TOMES: I could write a book about this! I was a lone parent for 10 years while trying to stick with my concert commitments, coping throughout with what seemed like an endless series of unsatisfactory au pairs and childcare arrangements, and the stress level was intense. As each year ended, I found myself thinking, ‘I got through that, but could I do it again?’ My daughter kept asking why I couldn’t have got a job as a baker or a librarian working down the road. The worst aspect is that concerts

happen in the evenings. This makes our working hours far more unsocial and difficult to organise than for 99 per cent of working parents. I had countless babysitters who told me that they’d be happy to stay until the usual 11pm or so, but not until 2am to allow me to get back from a concert in another town, and certainly not overnight. Thinking back about all this still makes my blood pressure soar.

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FIALKOWSKA: One beauty of being a pianist is that the repertoire is so huge that it can accommodate all kinds of hands and minds. But of course the shape and strength of the hands dictates the kind of repertoire one plays, whether one is male or female. In general, a small-handed person would be wise not to attempt the Brahms B flat concerto – but then there’s Ashkenazy, and Gina Bachauer and Rosalyn Tureck and some others, so it’s risky to generalise. JS: What role, if any, does being a woman have in your playing? COOPER: At one level, none at all. I’m a musician. On another, deeper level, a great deal. I’m among those who believe that what you are on stage is what you are off it (there are those who believe there’s no connection whatsoever), and as I believe women are capable of a broader overview of life than men, that they can be more intuitive, look more for connections in everything, I feel that when my own inner channels of communication are clear, I can fruitfully bring this to what I do. FIALKOWSKA: For me it plays no role at all, to tell the truth. Generally

speaking – up until the cancer in my left arm a few years ago – the repertoire I didn’t feel up to physically wasn’t of much interest to me. The pieces that were considered more for males that I did wish to play (pieces of Brahms and Liszt), I played without problems. They fit me physically just fine. I’ve never really thought about being a woman when I actually play. My interpretation has very little to do with what sex I belong to. It’s what the music says to us and how we express it.

they can approach the instrument with lighter touches and can understand the composer’s mind with more intuition. And maybe some of this is true, but again, there’s a wealth of male pianists past and present whose playing highlights all these qualities, so it’s hard to generalise.

JS: Do you think you can hear the difference between a female and a male pianist? Is there a difference in sound, colour, power?

TOMES: I think this has a lot to do with family matters and the fact that it’s still not accepted – not even within the family, sometimes – that a woman needs to fulfil her talent. Even when it is accepted, many women themselves find it excruciatingly difficult to walk away from little ones who hate to see them going out of the front door with a suitcase. Looking around, I see male colleagues who are fond fathers but don’t seem to experience the same visceral longing to be with their children. They never agonise about whether or not to accept concerts, because they know their wives will be at home with the kids. My friends often said to me, ‘What you need is a wife!’ 

FIALKOWSKA: For me, it’s more of a question of the individual and not whether they’re male or female. When I hear Imogen on the radio, or Angela, or Martha Argerich, I recognise their playing immediately, but not because of their gender. Great pianists can all be recognised by their unique sound quality. It would be tempting to say that women pianists are more subtle, have more pianissimo colours in their palette, are more sensitive to the delicacies and shadings in their interpretations, that

JS: And finally, any ideas why there are still far fewer female pianists who’ve gained international recognition than male?

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emembeR that weekend last may when a dog won £500,000 and a sensationally talented 14-year-old cellist just £2,000? Pudsey and his owner ashleigh attracted an audience of around 14.5 million as they won Britain’s Got Talent, and grabbed the front pages of all the tabloids the following day. Laura van der heijden’s considerable achievement in winning bbC Young musician of the Year was, by contrast, hardly deemed worthy of a column inch. that’s pop culture, you might surmise, and classical music will always be a niche art form. but does it have to be like that? what happens if you have a competition that is not simply about a group of young artists doing battle but gets an entire city behind it? what if you can bestow on the winner a life-changing sum of money, plus the support to build on their promise? what if you look for an artist who is not just flashy-fingered and capable of thrilling, but a chamber musician as much as a soloist? these are all questions that have been taken on board by the honens International Piano Competition, held every three years in the Canadian city of Calgary. the competition itself was the brainchild of the remarkable esther honens. She was a self-made millionaire with a passion for the piano, who saw what the Van Cliburn competition had done for Fort worth and aimed to

create something comparable in Calgary. that was back in 1991, with the first competition occurring a year later. It was the only one honens lived to see – she died five days after the final, aged 89. the finals of the latest competition took place in October 2012. the winner of the honens is awarded the accolade ‘Prize Laureate’ and Ca$100,000, the most substantial prize on the competition circuit. but there’s a lot more to honens than the money. add to the cash prize a career development programme that includes worldwide management for three years, dates at major venues, residencies at the nearby banff Centre, a recording with hyperion and mentorship from artists including Jean-efflam bavouzet (himself a honens laureate) and Stephen hough, and you can see why this package – said to be worth around half a million Canadian dollars – attracts some of the best talent from around the world. though it’s now deeply unfashionable for competitions to admit that they’re looking for the next super-virtuoso, the honens goes further than most in its quest to find the all-round musician. Last year’s seven-strong jury consisted of not only four concert pianists but also a cellist, a conductor, a festival director and an a&R specialist from the record industry. and the semi-finalists had to offer not only a solo recital but a chamber one, too. these two each counted for 30

per cent towards the total mark, with a concerto counting for another 30 per cent and the final 10 per cent coming from an interview – presumably a particularly daunting prospect for those whose first language was not english. the chamber round was demanding, too, with a choice of three programmes featuring works such as Schumann’s Second Violin Sonata, mendelssohn’s Second Cello Sonata and songs by composers as tricky as debussy, bridge, Schoenberg and wolf. It did cross my mind that prowess in this wide range of fields doesn’t necessarily equate to a great pianist – imagine Shura Cherkassky, arcadi Volodos or Grigory Sokolov being asked to do such things. but, of course, this is true to honens’s concept of the ‘complete artist’. what was very evident from the atmosphere during the event was that the competition has become a source of civic and even national pride. In years gone by, Calgary was better known for its annual Stampede and its proximity to the Rockies than for its cultural credentials. much of the credit for changing that must go to the competition’s extraordinarily energetic and determined president and artistic director Stephen mcholm. he has taken esther honens’s vision and brought it firmly into the 21st century, while simultaneously bringing together arts and business in a very north american way, with ample and highly visible sponsorship. the whole city

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the triennial Honens InternatIonal PIano ComPetItIon offers the most substantial prize money on the circuit, but, as Harriet Smith reports from Calgary, the winner reaps far greater rewards than just cash

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COMPET IT ION R EPORT seemed to take on a festival atmosphere, with music going on late into the night at Le Bison Noir, a Calgarian take on New York’s famous Poisson Rouge, where members of the jury and laureates could be heard playing everything from Schubert’s mighty E flat Piano Trio to Dudley Moore’s devilish take on Beethoven. Horowitz’s famed Steinway D was also in town, and you could not only see it but touch it, too. There were screenings of Bruno Monsaingeon films and a touching photography exhibition dedicated to Glenn Gould. But the key question is: did it work? The eventual winner was the Russian pianist Pavel Kolesnikov (affectionately known as Kalashnikov, though there was nothing brutal about his playing), a

Roberto Minczuk, who led the Calgary Philharmonic in the five concertos, later told me that once he heard Kolesnikov’s reading of the first-movement cadenza he was convinced that he was a great artist in the making. Of the other four finalists, three performed Brahms’s First Concerto, which made for fascinating comparison. First up was the Italian Lorenzo Cossi, the only player to choose the Fazioli over the Steinway. The performance sounded slightly underpowered; it was almost as if this wasn’t the right choice of work, though he clearly loves Brahms, having programmed him in earlier rounds. On the second evening, 30-year-old Maria Mazo from Russia went for the epic and coaxed from the keyboard some

Pavel Kolesnikov with the Calgary Philharmonic

was full of panache, glee and wonderfully imaginative touches. To hear two such compelling performances of this warhorse in a single evening perhaps demonstrates how strong the line-up was. The remaining finalist, American Eric Zuber, had the unenviable task of going first. His Rachmaninov Concerto No 2 was not lacking in virtuosity but it was not the most characterised of performances and at this stage it did feel as if the orchestra was still getting into the swing of things. Did anyone slip through the net? Perhaps one: Zenan Yu, from China, who produced some particularly outstanding Debussy in the semi-final and whose ‘Hammerklavier’ proved he had power and drama running through his veins. The finalists

Lorenzo Cossi

baby-faced 23-year-old who is currently studying in Moscow (at the State Conservatory) and at London’s Royal College of Music. His performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto played down the work’s barnstorming qualities and emphasised its poetry. The sounds that he produced from the Hamburg Steinway were suitably poetic, though to my mind it wasn’t an entirely joined-up performance in terms of piano and orchestra. Conductor

truly ravishing sounds: although such an Olympian approach was not to my taste, she almost convinced me, such was the belief in her interpretation. She’s a pianist of great variety: in the previous round she’d given an outstanding reading of Boulez’s Notations. In complete contrast, Jong-Hai Park, the 22-year-old South Korean pianist, seemed at times determined to break the speed limits in his Brahms D minor. But, though at times too mercurial for its own good, it

So did Honens get it right? On balance, yes. And it will be fascinating to follow Kolesnikov’s career over the next few years. It will also be interesting to see how many other talented pianists this competition will attract in 2015 and beyond.  Gilles Vonsattel, a Honens Laureate from 2009, will be making his Wigmore Hall debut on 5 April 2013. This concert is part of his prize from the Honens January/February 2013 International Piano

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Piano dealer Concert & domestic hire Music rehearsal rooms C

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capital gains amid economic turmoil and social upheaval, the domestic piano market has changed dramatically. But a promenade around london’s dealerships offers a snapshot of an industry determined to prosper. By Claire Jackson

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nce upOn a time, the pianO ruled the roost. it sat proudly in the best room of the house, played regularly by family and friends. the piano is as culturally relevant as ever, but its role in society is evolving. in a domestic capacity, smaller accommodation and changing priorities means that space is at a premium. Financial pressures ensure that cost is at the forefront of consumers’ minds. how do piano dealers harness demand in a market that everyone agrees – albeit in hushed voices – is contracting at worst and challenging at best? during the early 20th century, when the piano was first produced for the mass market, there were around 100 small-scale factories and workshops in london alone. the factories may have moved to more exotic climes, but the capital still boasts a relatively wide range of piano shops. a visit to a selection of london showrooms illustrates how organisations are responding to the ever-challenging world of piano sales, and how, while the economy continues to threaten to knock the unsuspecting off course, the industrious remain determined to get the instrument back into the home. non-musical parents need particular guidance when purchasing a piano for their offspring; the range on offer can be baffling, and without a certain level of customer service, one wouldn’t blame them for giving up in entirely and purchasing a guitar instead. With prices as equally intimidating, many dealers now offer pay-monthly hire schemes, often from as little as £500 a year, including delivery. piano Warehouse has around 600 acoustic pianos out on rental at present, and the organisation has a strong focus on helping families make the right choice. ‘We are very familyoriented,’ says manager martin Weedon. ‘We go out of our way to make people feel comfortable. a lot of parents aren’t pianists and they are encouraging their children to take up the piano, and it can be daunting. We try to be friendly and approachable; if the children don’t learn, then who will be the piano-buying public in generations to come?’ as we talk in the company’s newly opened Willesden Green branch (it also owns premises in Surbiton), a young girl comes in for her piano lesson in the shop’s practice room. piano Warehouse has resident teachers in both shops, and the lessons add a sense of community. the space used to be a car showroom – in fact, Weedon bought a car here in the early 1990s – but

piano Warehouse undertook an intensive three-week building programme to turn it into a room fit to house around 100 pianos (pictured, overleaf). it’s bright, clean and welcoming, and neatly presents acoustic and digital pianos from Yamaha, Kemble, Weber, Steinmayer, roland and electronic instrument specialist Kurzweil, for whom the company is now the sole distributor. Families are also well catered for over at markson pianos near regent’s park. the showroom is an aladdin’s cave of pianistic treasures, filled with restored pianos from bygone eras; such as a beautiful italian-made Furnstein and a rare Bechstein upright with a rosewood inlaid case. there are also new instruments for sale too, including digital models. the company has been operational for 100 years and its sales department is bolstered by a thriving event hire service (markson pianos has instruments in the elgar room at the royal albert hall and many of the West end theatres, for example), and a piano maintenance department (work is undertaken in the uK and in poland). there is an atmosphere of earnest musicianship; an apprentice piano tuner works on a newly restored upright and a technician recalls the time he was sent to paris to fix a piano emergency for elton John. in truth, it’s a little jam-packed and in need of a lick of paint – but then, that’s part of its charm. Both first-

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Our competitive edge is rather blunt At Grand Passion Pianos we don’t have the biggest showroom for our selection of Steinway, Bösendorfer, Pleyel and Rönisch pianos. In fact we don’t have a showroom. We don’t have the slickest sales team. Actually, we don’t have a sales team. We don’t have the widest range or the biggest advertising budget (as you can see). What we do have on our side is the most powerful force in business – love. We’re driven by an inborn passion for rescuing forgotten luxury pianos and painstakingly hand restoring them to their former glory, piece by piece, day by day. Find out more or book a viewing at www.grandpassionpianos.co.uk Grand Passion Pianos – pianos for pianists by passionistas.

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The World Pianist Invitational (WPI) is poised to take its place as the world’s premier international classical piano competition 25 finalists in five age groups will perform live at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The competition is open to aspiring classical pianists from ages five through 29 All entries will receive written feedback from two judges

SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS APRIL 13, 2013 Live Performance at

To register or learn more visit

www.worldpianist.org

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time buyers and connoisseurs stand a strong chance of finding a special ‘one-off’ piano here. The sales environment couldn’t be more different from that at Steinway on Marylebone Lane or Blüthner in Berkeley Square. Both showrooms are, unsurprisingly, presented with impeccable taste and offer the highest levels of customer service. But then, their customers regularly spend upwards of £70,000 in one sitting. The two shops focus on their own branded products, but Blüthner also supplies Haessler, Irmler and Rönisch pianos. Director Peter Corney explains that Blüthner clients seeking a piano with ‘the golden tone’ expect and deserve to be treated with class. The shop is situated in the most exclusive postcode in the country – its neighbours include Bentley and Porsche – and its practice room is the only one in Mayfair, upstairs in Blüthner’s roomy two-storey suite. There is no sales patter and customers benefit from additional services, such as extra visits from piano technicians and free delivery. Maintenance and repairs are done in-house, in the UK. While many of us can only dream of spending such amounts on a piano, there is a strong argument in favour of mid to top-priced acoustics, simply because these instruments will last a lifetime, if looked after properly. Of course, new students or families may not want to make such a commitment, but for serious amateurs and professional musicians, it is an important investment. Recently launched Grand Passion Pianos specialises in Rönisch, Steinway, Pleyel and Bösendorfer, and director Muzz Shah agrees that you get what you pay for: ‘You’re buying the Rolls-Royce of pianos and it will probably last longer than a sports car.’ Grand Passion Pianos doesn’t have a permanent shop floor. ‘The key part of our business is that we don’t use traditional showrooms,’ says Shah. ‘We display pianos in private homes and art galleries. We only exhibit one piano at a time so that we can focus all our attention on rebuilding and researching the instrument to the highest level’. The company has already had healthy interest in its current offering, a rare Bösendorfer model 180, which is displayed in a trendy east London warehouse apartment. ‘In a showroom, you can’t get a good idea of what the piano will sound like in your home, so we use intimate settings that

are acoustically checked beforehand,’ Shah says. ‘Some people find piano showrooms intimidating, and because we aren’t a shop we can allow people to practise in private, even at, say, 9pm on a Sunday.’ Not having permanent premises allows Grand Passion Pianos a certain economic freedom that the owners are keen to pass on to their customers. One gets the distinct impression that a lot of time and love has gone into the project; one of the partners is pianist Daniel Grimwood, who demonstrates the instruments to interested parties, and is amenable to offering complimentary recitals to the winning bidder – a cultural sales bonus that befits the ‘boutique’ nature of the business. Elsewhere, other piano dealers have chosen to specialise in certain brands. Peregrine’s Pianos on Gray’s Inn Road is the exclusive London dealer for German maker Schimmel (as outlined in issue 13, May/June 2012) and Jaques Samuels on Edgware Road has a specially created room – complete with temperature and humidity settings – for Italian-made Fazioli pianos, famously supported by Angela Hewitt. Both Peregrine’s and Jaques Samuels offer a range of other pianos, as well as practice rooms, but have gained credibility through specialisation. ‘For most people, purchasing a piano is an event that they do not often go through and the dealer should exercise the integrity to advise the customer properly,’ says Dawn Elizabeth Howells, proprietor of Peregrine’s. In a similar vein, Chappell of Bond Street promotes Yamaha instruments, including Bösendorfer and Kemble, and a large selection from the company’s digital range. This study of mainstream piano shops in the UK capital clearly has its limitations, and it would be useful to repeat the exercise elsewhere in the country, and further afield, in order to gain a detailed picture of how piano sales are developing. It would also be relevant to compare and contrast actual sales figures from each store, although for obvious reasons dealers are reluctant to release such sensitive data. But this research does provide a broad overview of the different approaches piano sales teams are focusing on today, loosely split into the following categories: family friendly; elite service; new wave; and specialist brand knowledge.  January/February 2013 International Piano

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Weaving melodies Composer and pianist Frédéric Meinders tells Leandro Ferraccioli how a rebellious rearrangement opened the door to an absorbing world of transcription

Frédéric Meinders at the home of friends in the Hague. Photograph by Leandro Ferraccioli

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ine, i’ll admit it: i am a transcription junkie. and it is precisely this fixation that led to my extended correspondence and friendship with frédéric meinders. pianist, composer and transcription wizard, he is probably one of the best-kept secrets in the piano world, performing mostly in Brazil or at specialist events such as Germany’s Husum festival, to which keyboard anoraks such as myself flock compulsively. When we meet in the Hague, meinders’ native city, he plays for me at length with seemingly boundless energy, as well as regaling me with stories and musical insights, all conveyed with an irrepressible, trenchant wit. i ask why, 15 years ago, despite a flourishing concert career, he decided to step out of the limelight and settle in Belo Horizonte, in south-eastern Brazil. ‘my wife, who is Brazilian, was studying piano in the Hague and after we married we decided to continue our life here. But it was exhausting: i was teaching and playing too much, working too hard – there were some years when i gave over 80 concerts a season. so, when my wife went back to visit her mother, who was unwell, i thought maybe i could do something in Brazil instead. ‘i was already composing a little, but wanted to do more. if i’d stayed in Holland i would have given many more concerts but, in all honesty, creating and writing music makes me happier than performing. Who is really happy after a concert? there are always things where you say, “ah, it could have been better”. But if you have a composition you’re satisfied with and you never revise the score, then you’re really happy. With so many concerts, you think: “oh god, 40 minutes were good but in one moment i played a horrible note.” this is terrible for pianists.’ When we talk of meinders’ formative years, two particular figures loom large: dutchman (and cor de Groot pupil) Jan de man and Georgian-russian master technician nikita magaloff. ‘magaloff had a facility for control and light playing – something martha [argerich], who introduced me to him, also says. i was playing very fast at that time, perhaps too fast, so he taught me about the “hold back” as he called it. He gave me exercises that help if you have problems with control (which many people do) and i still use them every day. it’s useful in the finale of chopin’s second sonata, which is difficult for everybody: the first time chopin played it he was afraid of that movement. now i can play it without any problem, which wasn’t always the case. ‘Jan de man, on the other hand, taught me nothing about technique because he said i could do it at home; he focused instead on interpretation. for example, the first time i played the liszt sonata (i was 17 or something), i came for a lesson and he said, “oK, play the first note staccato”. so i did. “no,” he said. “try again. and again.” He spent about half an hour just on how the first note should sound. He said: “i closed my eyes and didn’t feel anything. You must play it as if it’s the middle of the night: you’re in bed, it’s midnight and the moon comes out slowly; you’re nearly asleep and then you hear a knock. You must play it so i become afraid and say, “my god, who is behind the door?” a wonderful lesson!’ i remember i also had a very interesting session with cor de Groot the week before taking part in the scriabin competition in olso [1972]. in the end i won first prize and it marked the start

of my piano career in Holland. de Groot was not only a great pianist but also a very good composer and transcriber, he knew so much about music. the lesson was on scriabin’s fifth sonata because this was the compulsory competition piece. at one point – and i’ll never forget this – he asked me what the sonata’s opening could mean? Well, i had no idea then. for instance, what do you think it could mean?’ His question catches me off guard: given the great work’s radical departure from previous scriabin, with its ‘floating’ harmonic nature, i speculate it could be some abstract representation of the dissolution of tonality. at this he suppresses a convulsion of laughter, his wry smile confirming the real explanation’s incongruity. ‘Well, de Groot told me that scriabin had a cleaning lady who worked for him and, one day, he heard her cleaning his piano with a duster [he mimics the sonata’s opening skittish presto ascent up the keyboard] – and this is what scriabin wrote down! isn’t that just an amazing story? Because then you also try it like that; you say to yourself “i’m simply cleaning the piano” and you have to play it as the cleaner would – so you don’t perform it too chic. But nobody had ever told me about that before; or perhaps nobody else knew and de Groot only did because he was a friend of Gilels.’ despite something of a resurgence in the past few decades, transcription is more associated with the piano’s so-called Golden age, and meinders mentions Vladimir Horowitz and alexis Weissenberg as two of the greatest exponents from that period. But of the bijou group of pianists who still practise this art form today, whom does he admire? ‘stephen Hough and, in particular, arcadi Volodos. in the Volodos in Vienna recital [sony classical] he plays his version of tchaikovsky’s Lullaby in a Storm. i also transcribed that song a long time ago for my old friend nelson freire, but i think Volodos’s version is much more interesting; it’s more modern. i did it with rachmaninovlike harmonies, but Volodos goes further. there’s no pianist in the world – let’s say after Horowitz – who amazes me so much, not only as a pianist but as a transcriber. His harmonies, how he writes – his arrangement of the andante of rachmaninov’s cello sonata is just amazing.’ aside from the pianist-transcribers, i ask him about contemporary interpreters he esteems. ‘compared with the rest, pianistically and musically, Volodos is still absolutely mr God. though there is one other pianist for whom i have great respect: enrico pace. He’s a devil at the piano sometimes. i heard him in Utrecht playing schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze, which was just amazing – so poetic that i said to myself: this is the second cortot.’ meinders recalls that his very first transcription (of fritz Kreisler’s Schön Rosmarin) was actually ‘an act of revenge’; written to spite the the royal conservatory of the Hague’s avant-garde director, who forbade him from playing Kreisler with a violin student at an end-of-year concert. He grins at the memory of this chutzpah. ‘Yes, i love Kreisler’s music – he’s just a fantastic composer. i started with him because i discovered the rachmaninov Liebesleid and Liebesfreud. if i can blow my own trumpet for a moment, when cor de Groot heard my Schön Rosmarin he said, “Well, violinists should listen to it because you can play the rubato on the piano better than most violinists.”

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Contrapuntal studies for two hands by Frédéric Meinders. Full version available to download from www.international-piano.com

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PROFILE What fascinated me when I heard Rachmaninov was that he was transcribing music for two instruments onto one piano. And why did he do it? Because he loved these pieces and he loved Kreisler as a musician.’ For pianists seeking new repertoire, Meinders’ website is a veritable Ali Baba’s cave: a brief perusal reveals a staggering catalogue of 750 or so works, consisting of originals and transcriptions. Around 150 of these are for the left hand alone. So what is his fascination with this pianistic ‘straitjacket’ – the technical test? The compositional challenge? ‘Both. I have sold many left-hand scores, so don’t forget there are actually more people than you might imagine who cannot play with the right hand. I have also been invited to perform in the Evmelia Festival in Greece in 2014 and the director, Dino Mastroyiannis [a former pupil of Roberto Szidon], asked me to compose a piece for left hand and chamber orchestra based on Greek songs. ‘I played many Godowsky left-hand works for the radio in Holland and, compositionally, I was very inspired by him: I think this technique where a person can play with the left hand alone but make it sound as if there are two hands is just fantastic. The left can play bass, melody and harmonies, so in your mind you get a better idea of the piano. You can learn a lot, too: when you are writing, you try it and then say, “Oh, this is possible, how fantastic!” So you enrich yourself in the process.’ Putting aside the superficial consideration of keyboard tightrope-walking, I wonder just what it is that Meinders the transcriber admires about Godowsky the transcriber. ‘Well, the first thing is the harmonic aspect. If you divide music into three components – melody, harmony and rhythm – I would say harmony is the most important, perhaps even more so than melody. And I think this may be the case for Godowsky, otherwise why would he transcribe Bach’s Cello Suites and Violin Partitas? He wanted to put in the implied harmonies. And if I listen to a Bach Partita, where the violin plays a single note, I feel the harmonies on the piano. In his reworking of Chopin’s Etudes, I believe he wanted to modernise them; this is what I love in his work. There are moments where you wonder how it is possible to find this amazing harmony or that counter theme. For instance, where he takes the Third Nouvelle Etude and discovers an absolutely gorgeous melody.’ Purists tend to take a dim view of such tinkerings, and one of Meinders’ favourite musical tricks, guaranteed to raise urtext hackles, is the so-called quodlibet. This is the technique of interposing a second melody (usually a popular tune) with a classical theme as counterpoint or a second melodic line – frequently to humorous effect. Bach did this, notably in the last of his Goldberg Variations, and another example of just how beautifully this ‘sacrilege’ can work is Meinders’ delicious reworking of Somewhere over the Rainbow, with no fewer than four counter-subjects. The arrangement begins with an original theme, which forms a counterpoint with the Somewhere over the Rainbow song; then, alongside this, appear Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring and two themes from Chopin’s Impromptu in G flat. You can try it for yourself, as the score is reproduced here and on IP’s website, with the composer’s kind permission. ‘You see, counterpoint is for me something fascinating – as it was, of course, for Godowsky. His 53 Studies on Chopin’s

‘Compared to the rest, pianistically and musically, Volodos is still absolutely Mr God’ Etudes opened my eyes and influenced me a great deal, because then I also noticed this aspect in other Etudes – where Chopin didn’t explore it so explicitly. For example, in Op 10 No 11 I realised that you can combine other Etudes as a sort of counterpoint. Or even a Chopin Impromptu in the left and a Chopin Etude in the right.’ (Meinders has, in fact, written a remarkable set of elaborations on Op 10 No 11 and others on the Second Nouvelle Etude.) ‘Well, if you see these things in Chopin then you can go completely crazy – you start to put “Happy Birthday” in a Beethoven sonata!’ I laugh, thinking this is merely rhetorical. But no: to prove it he makes for the piano and, with subversive glee, proceeds to weave the melody into Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, then Beethoven’s Sonata Op 110, followed by Chopin’s Etudes Op 25 Nos 1, 2 and 9. I get the feeling he could keep going all afternoon. A favourite discussion point for Meinders, which has sparked many an exchange of ‘email tennis’, is the issue of style, both in interpretation and transcription. ‘What is allowed and what is not is an interesting question. I can’t explain why, in some Schubert songs, you can go further – as Rachmaninov did, for instance, in Wohin. It depends also on the person who plays or listens to it. For example, my teacher thought Rachmaninov was wrong, but I’m more modern and believe what he did with the chromaticism is fascinating. However, if you take another Schubert song and do the same, it might well be horrible. So I can’t explain why this “modernising” works with some Schubert Lieder and not others. It comes down to what you feel.’ In terms of style, I suggest that the great pianists of the past did things with which people wouldn’t necessarily agree, but did them with such conviction that one is compelled to listen. ‘Yes, “magic” is the word pianophile Farhan Malik uses for Horowitz and I can see what he means. Yet my wife finds Rubinstein more magical than Horowitz and, while I also love Rubinstein, for me it’s not “magic”. Horowitz is really a pianist for pianists, I think. Sometimes he seemed to be out to prove to other pianists that they couldn’t play like him. He was a one-off.’ As well as composing tirelessly, negotiating with Schott to publish his latest transcriptions of Gieseking’s (unfortunately unknown) songs and preparing for concerts, Meinders has lately been focusing more on the music of Bach. ‘These days I’m coming back to Bach, whom I never loved when I was young; I’m listening a lot to Rosalyn Tureck. Some pianists play Bach as if it’s all about sound-making, as in Chopin. But Bach’s music has nothing to do with creating a beautiful sound on the modern piano – it’s the structure that has to be shown. So I am learning from Tureck as well as listening to old music; one is never too old to learn.’  January/February 2013 International Piano

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Alfred Brendel Patron András Schiff President Marios Papadopoulos Artistic Director

Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival and Summer Academy

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28 July - 6 August 2013

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Masterclasses and Concerts in Oxford

Artists to include Federico Colli Mahan Esfahani Peter Frankl Rustem Hayroudinoff Niel Immelman Yoheved Kaplinsky Stephen Kovacevich Tessa Nicholson Marios Papadopoulos Christoph Prégardien Menahem Pressler András Schiff Tel: 01865 980 980 [email protected] www.oxfordphil.com

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How well do you stand up to the world’s best? Find out this summer.

July 3-Aug. 2, 2013 • Calgary, AB Canada Program highlights include our International Concerto Competition where finalists have the privilege of performing in concert with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra! Cash prizes are awarded — first prize includes a $2,500 cash award.

MMB alumni include international concert artists like Yuja Wang and Ning Feng; members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, London Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Montreal and Toronto Symphony Orchestras; and top prize winners of the Tchaikovsky, Paganini, George Enescu and Wieniawski Competitions. Applications must be received by Feb. 15, 2013

mtroyal.ca/musicbridge

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Summer SchoolS

Sumer is icumen in

While the elements may suggest otherwise, summer will be here before we know it – and it’s never too early to plan which residential courses to attend. IP lists the best piano summer schools for pre-professionals and amateurs from across the globe Switzerland Verbier Festival Academy 19 July-4 August 2013, Verbier All pianists play in solo masterclasses with two distinguished teachers and participate in a piano quartet as part of the chamber music programme. Closing date for applications: 21 January Fees: CHF2,500; scholarships available Age/ability level: Pre-professionals aged up to 27 Faculty: Christian Thompson, academy director Tel: +41 21 925 90 60 Email: [email protected] www.verbierfestival.com/academy

UK Aldeburgh Festival/ Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme 7-23 June 2013, Suffolk The Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme forms an integral part of the Aldeburgh Festival as well as offering a year-round programme of concerts and events. In 2013, programming celebrates Britten’s centenary. Closing date for applications: 3 December 2012 Fees: Various Age/ability level: Advanced music students; no formal age limit but applicants are usually aged 19-30 Tel: 01728 687100 Email: [email protected] www.aldeburgh.co.uk Chetham’s International Summer School and Festival for Pianists 14-20 and 20-26 August 2013, Manchester

Residential and non-residential piano courses for pianists of any age – young children, amateur adults and aspiring young professionals. Individual lessons with international faculty of over 50 teachers. Extra courses in jazz, improvisation, organ, composition and piano duets. Closing date for applications: 8 June Fees: One part £595. Discounts available for multiple bookings Age/ability level: Courses for all ages and abilities Faculty: Murray McLachlan, artistic director Tel: 01625 266899 Email: [email protected] www.pianosummerschool.com

chamber music, and informal performance opportunities. Tuition from worldrenowned pianists. Closing date for applications: Various, according to course Fees: From £600 for a week for full board accommodation, courses and concerts; financial assistance available Age/ability level: All ages and abilities Faculty: John Woolrich, artistic director; Emily Hoare, creative producer; Esther Robinson, administrator; Sophia Sheridan, bookings administrator Tel: 01803 847 080 Email: [email protected] www.dartington.org/summer-school English retreat: The grounds at Dartington

City Lit Various, London Courses for adults all year round in piano and other instruments, mainly at City Lit’s premises in central London; all levels accommodated. Closing date for applications: Various, depending on course Fees: Various, depending on course Age/ability level: Adults 18+ Faculty: Janet Obi-Keller, head of music Tel: 020 7492 2630 Email: [email protected] www.citylit.ac.uk Dartington International Summer School 27 July-31 August 2013, South Devon Five-week summer school featuring various piano masterclasses, workshops and courses. Opportunities for solo, duet, ensemble, accompanying and

North London Piano School From 11 August 2013 at the Purcell School, London Summer school and competition; ensembles, accompaniment, one-to-one lessons, masterclasses, lectures, January/February 2013 International Piano

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JERSEY INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL for AMATEUR PIANISTS 25th MAY – 2nd JUNE 2013

Chetham’s International Summer School & Festival for Pianists

Masterclass / Student Class by

idil biret

Artistic Director: Murray McLachlan

Individual and Group Tuition

Part One: 14–20 August 2013 Part Two: 20–26 August 2013

Extensive practice facilities - one piano per person

The Friendliest Piano Summer School in the World! Faculty includes: Elena Ashkenazy, Philippe Cassard, Peter Donohoe, José Feghali, Carlo Grante, Harry Harris, David Horne, Eugen Indjic, Nikki Iles, Matthias Kirschnereit, John McLeod, Noriko Ogawa, Artur Pizarro, Vladimir Tropp. With daily concerts, lectures, improvisation, jazz, composition, intensive one-to-one coaching, duets, organ and harpsichord.

For further information call +44 (0)1625 266899 or email [email protected] www.pianosummerschool.com

Summertrios

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Introduction to the piano method of Alfred Cortot Many opportunities to perform Closing Public Concert to be recorded by BBC Radio Jersey Option of staying with host families

www.normandypianocourses.com [email protected]

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A vibrant musical experience offering chamber music for amateur and professional musicians

June 2013 Bryn Mawr and Chambersburg Application Deadline: March 1st 2013 Unique piano-centred chamber music summer school Premium, regular and concerto programs available 001 212-222-1289 [email protected] www.summertrios.org

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Summer SchoolS CD recordings on site, preparation for solo recitals, competitions and auditions, daily concerts. Gala concert at the Royal Academy of Music. Closing date for applications: 31 May Fees: From £470; some bursaries available for students Age/ability level: Grade 6+ to postgraduate level Faculty: Professors from the UK and abroad. Michael Schreider, artistic director; Lesley Willner, executive director Tel: 020 8958 5206 Email: [email protected] www.learn-music.com/nlps2 Oxford Philomusica International Piano Festival and Summer Academy 28 July-6 August 2013, Oxford An international forum of performing artists, pedagogues and students, celebrating all aspects of the instrument. Featuring public masterclasses and concerts, lectures and classes with internationally recognised artists. Closing date for applications: May (TBC) Fees: Approx £200-£800 (TBC) Age/ability level: Grade 8+ Faculty: Past members have included Dame Fanny Waterman, Marios Papadopoulos and Christopher Elton. Marios Papadopoulos is artistic director Tel: 01865 987 222 Email: [email protected] www.oxfordphil.com/piano

US Aspen Music Festival and School 27 June-18 August 2013, Colorado Programmes in collaborative piano, solo piano and chamber music. Piano programme features masterclasses, workshops, performance opportunities; also includes a festival of music events throughout the summer.

+1 970 925 9042 (box office) Email: [email protected] http://aspenmusicfestival.com Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Piano Program 16 June-10 August 2013, Massachusetts In association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the course offers private lessons, daily masterclasses and select chamber and large ensemble opportunities. Two three-week programmes; some students stay for all six weeks. Closing date for applications: 8 February Fees: From $2,805 including accommodation, depending on length of stay; scholarships available Age/ability level: Ages 15-18 Faculty: Sharon Boaz, director Tel: +1 617 353 3386 Email: [email protected] www.bu.edu/cfa/music/tanglewood California Summer Music 6-29 July 2013, California A chamber music festival featuring solo and chamber performances, masterclasses, collaboration with student composers in premieres of their works, daily chamber music coaching and individual lessons. Closing date for applications: 23 January Fees: $4,200 for tuition, room and board Age/ability level: Ages 11-25, advanced students Faculty: Timothy Bach, Lori Lack, Julie Nishimura and Hans Boepple Tel: +1 415 753 8920 Email: [email protected] www.csmusic.org

Golandsky Institute Summer Symposium and International Piano Festival 13-21 July 2013, Princeton, New Jersey Seven-day programme focusing on the Taubman approach for pianists and string players. Private lessons, masterclasses, technique clinics, performance opportunities, concerts and more. Closing date for applications: TBC; check website Fees: TBC Tel: +1 877 343 3434 Email: [email protected] www.golandskyinstitute.org Universty of Houston’s International Piano Festival 1-3 February 2013, Houston, Texas Festival run by the Universty of Houston’s Moores School of Music. Students must apply to participate in masterclasses with artists. See website for more information and details of how to apply for masterclasses. A number of guest artists perform recitals during the festival. Closing date for applications: 4 December 2012 Fees: Single masterclasses from $5 Age/ability level: Three levels: ages 13-14, 15-17 and 18-graduate Faculty: Markus Groh, Alberto Reyes, Abbey Simon Contact: Alan Austin, director of special projects Tel: +1 713 743 3167 Email: [email protected] www.music.uh.edu/pianofestival

Institute founder: Edna Golandsky

Closing date for applications: Varies according to programme Fees: $3,200 per course plus $3,300 room and board; scholarships available Age/ability level: Advanced students; young musicians Contact: Jennifer Johnston, vice president and dean of students Tel: +1 970 925 3254 (office); January/February 2013 International Piano

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C H A U TA U Q U A M U S I C F E S T I VA L June 22 – August 8, 2013

AIMS INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SCHOOL at Eastbourne College AUGUST 18th – 25th 2013

PIANO C H A U TA U Q U A , N E W Y O R K

CLASSES FOR STUDENT PIANISTS The seventh Summer School for Singers run by Neil & Penny Jenkins will take place once again in Eastbourne. David Willison will again be running the Piano accompanists course, and will give every student pianist at least 2 solo sessions. Pianists are encouraged to form partnerships with the solo singers on the Singers’ course, and accompany them to their sessions. Please indicate if you need to be paired up, or if you have partnerships already in place. There will be group sessions every day, when the accompaniments to selected repertoire will be studied with either David, Terence Allbright or Eugene Asti. In 2013 the songs of the featured composers Britten & Poulenc will be particularly studied. There will be a visit by Julius Drake on Monday 19th August for a special masterclass; and at the end of the week there will be an Informal Concert. The week will commence with a Gala solo Recital by Catherine Wyn Rogers accompanied by Eugene Asti. Comments from past students include: “...I am an AIMS ‘virgin’ - my first time, but certainly not my last. I was totally inspired and in absolute heaven!” “...Once again it was a wonderful week of learning, performing, and appreciating wonderful music and wonderful singing.” “...Theatre critics would have the heading’Triumph’. I cannot but totally admire the administration: it is faultless ...” “...The concerts have been wonderful, the masterclasses enlightening, the warm-ups and vocal technique classes huge fun. Thank you for making the week such a fulfilling experience...”

For details of fees for Residents and Non-Residents contact:

Rebecca Penneys, chair www.rebeccapenneys.com

XVIII Chautauqua Piano Competition First Prize: $7,500 Second prize: $3,000

Telephone: 01903 879591 Email: [email protected]

Significant financial assistance available

http://music.ciweb.org The Chautauqua Institution uses Steinway pianos exclusively for its festival. The family of Steinway designed pianos at Chautauqua are facilitated by Denton, Cottier & Daniels, Buffalo, New York.

Address: AIMS, Barn End, Castle Lane, Bramber, West Sussex, BN44 3FB Full details are shown on the website: www.AIMS.uk.com

Application deadline: March 15 To apply, visit our website below.

CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION • CHAUTAUQUA, NY

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International Music Course 11th - 18th August 2013 hosted by the Purcell School

STRING PLAYERS, PIANISTS, VOCALISTS Soloists, Duos, Accompanists, Ensembles ASSOCIATE TEACHERS INVITED Tuition by professors from world leading conservatoires Concerts and masterclasses. CD recording on site Individual schedule for everyone

Gala Concert Sunday 18th August Contact : Dr Michael Schreider 78 Warwick Ave. Middlesex HA8 8UJ, United Kingdom Tel. +44 (0)20 8958 5206 / 8363 3858. Fax +44 (0)560 312 4864 e-mail: [email protected] Website: Learn-music.com/nlps2

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The IP wishlist Essential – and non-essential – items to take on this year’s residential courses 1 iPhone case

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Show your allegiance with this piano keys case, available for iPhone 4/4S/5 Price: $17.99 (c.£11.53) | iCaseSeraSera www.etsy.com

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2 Lanyard A stylish way to keep ID cards and keys safe while travelling from dorm to masterclass Price: £5.45 | SewMuchDetail www.etsy.com

3 Diary 2013 This bestselling music diary features composer anniversaries and events so you won’t forget a thing. Cover design based on The Rite of Spring manuscript Price: £6.99 shop.rhinegold.co.uk

4 Piano Manual Know about the ‘Hammerklavier’ but less about the hammers? Expand your knowledge of piano care with the classic Haynes manual Price: £19.99 | ISBN: 9781844254859 www.haynes.co.uk

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5 Shower gel Brighten up someone’s washbag with this piano-inspired novelty shower gel Price: £3.50 shop.rhinegold.co.uk

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REVIEWS Concerts UK

Francesco Piemontesi: ‘supremely accomplished’

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Stifters Dinge – revisited Heiner Goebbels University of Westminster, London 4-18 November

Heiner Goebbels is a multimedia artist whose works, such as Hashirigaki, Eislermaterial and Surrogate Cities, combine classical, jazz and popular genres. Some have been released on disc, particularly on ECM – notably Stifters Dinge, in 2012. But Goebbels’ home is the theatre and his works really need to be experienced live. Stifters Dinge, a homage to Austrian nature writer and poet Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868), is realised over 70 minutes by a ‘piano sculpture’ of five pianos without pianists, mechanically rigged to produce a huge range of sounds and set against recorded montages of elemental sources including wind, water and ice, and speech and music. Having experienced the wonderful Hashirigaki three times live, I eagerly anticipated this ‘performance without performers’ or ‘performative installation’, and it didn’t disappoint. The production took place in the work’s original 2008 home, the cavernous Ambika P3 underneath Marylebone Road, where concrete was tested for the Westway flyover and which is now a University of Westminster art project space. Artangel, sponsor of work by Brian Eno, Michael Landy, Rachel Whiteread and others, commissioned Stifters Dinge in 2008, and under their aegis Goebbels transformed this vast concrete box into a site for a compelling multimedia experience. The five stripped-down pianos – we are told all are grand pianos but only one seems to be – are mounted on a stage, which is set on rails and can move towards and away from the audience; two instruments have had keyboards removed, their strings now

‘played’ by means of various mechanical contraptions, and all of them are operated through computerised player-piano mechanisms. In front of the stage is an area of illuminated floorspace. The event begins when two stagehands – the only visible human presence throughout – sprinkle salt over this area. Wall-mounted pipes are struck mechanically and water falls over the powder to create an artificial illuminated lake. The scene is now set for The Trees, full of foreboding, featuring a long – perhaps overlong – recorded reading by Bill Paterson of The Ice Tale from Stifter’s My Great Grandfather’s Portfolio. (The only possible slight misjudgment by Goebbels.) With a fluidity that marks the transition between scenes, The Storm builds from Nancarrow-ish multiple piano glissandos as dry ice rises from front of stage. The Rain sets an interview with a pessimistic Claude Levi-Strauss, against Bach’s Italian Concerto on one of the pianos, and sounds of flowing water. The Thunder begins with cavernous industrial sounds, on which William S Burroughs’ gravelly monotone gradually intrudes; a quicker cross-rhythm introduces Malcolm X’s stirring declamation. Almost human, the pianos take a concluding ‘bow’, moving forwards, backwards, then forwards again. In this ingenious setting, Goebbels creates a unified effect from disparate collage elements – music, sound, staging and lighting, all beautifully judged. ANDY HAMILTON Nicolas Hodges/Philip Thomas Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, St Paul’s Hall/Phipps Hall, Huddersfield 17/22 November At this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, two solo piano recitals stood out. During the first weekend, Nicolas Hodges presented the work of Jean Barraqué (1928–1973), still a neglected modernist despite the early advocacy of André Hodeir; the jazz writer and composer who argued that Beethoven and Debussy, Barraqué’s idols, had only one successor – Barraqué himself. The composer’s six works are all substantial; for him, artistic creation was a Promethean act ex nihilo. Like fellow Messiaen student Pierre Boulez, he followed the path of total serialism. But the formidable 40-minute Piano Sonata (1952) opposes that strict, almost automatic tendency with a freer style. The

Sonata was the centrepiece of Hodges’s recital, an incandescent performance of controlled explosive brilliance. The Sonata is Barraqué’s official Opus 1, but earlier works were discovered recently in a loft in Paris. The recital featured a selection, all short or relatively so, and written in 1945-49. Retour is tonal; Intermezzo is transitional to 12-tonal. None were forgotten masterpieces, but they provided interesting historical background to the composer’s mature output. Philip Thomas’s project Canada Connections features Canadian and British experimental composers. His recital presented three pieces focusing on irregular progression and sustained sounds: Christopher Fox’s L’ascenseur, Martin Arnold’s Points and Waltzes and Cassandra Miller’s Philip the Wanderer, dedicated to Thomas. By ‘progression’ I don’t mean ‘development’, which these pieces avoided. The pianist pointed out afterwards that similarities between the pieces were accidental, as they were all new commissions – world premieres, indeed. Arnold is a Toronto-based composer who studied with Rzewski, Cage and Andriessen, and makes his living as a landscape gardener. His delightful Points and Waltzes exhibits a subtle, indirect propulsion, imitating the ‘wonderful, non-narrative polyphonic meander of Elizabeth fantasies’, as the composer puts it – a ‘point’, in 16th-century England, was a piece of counterpoint. Arnold’s composition is not a set of pieces, but an extended reflection expressed through the medium of the slow waltz. It begins minimally as two single lines in the middle and upper registers, a quixotic discourse that eventually dissolves into hypnagogic musings that at times suggested Ran Blake’s oblique jazz harmonies. Christopher Fox is a real musical thinker, a conceptual artist in the best sense. L’ascenseur exploits an obvious but ingenious and engaging idea, creating a kind of process music of jagged, apparently fumbling, effortful-seeming rhythms. The composer’s surreal musical wit – bland and inscrutable as a Thelonious Monk smile – informed proceedings. Equally obsessive rhythmically was Philip the Wanderer by young Montrealbased Cassandra Miller, an adaptation of traditional music from Mozambique. The piece punctiliously follows the original rhythms, filling them out harmonically to create a rich, multi-faceted, larger-thanlife portrait. AH

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REVIEWS Books, DVDs & software

Lennox Berkeley and Friends: Writings, Letters and Interviews Edited by Peter Dickinson

Boydell Press, 344 pages, £45.00 ($90.00)

Schumann Davidsbündlertänze, Op 6; Fantasiestücke, Op 12; Etudes symphoniques, Op 13; Kreisleriana, Op 16; Piano Sonata No 2 in G minor, Op 22 Jerome Rose (pf)

Medici Classics M60079 (Blu-Ray), 134 minutes, PCM stereo

Pianoteq 4 Pro From Modartt

From €29 | www.pianoteq.com

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Oxford-born Lennox Berkeley (1903-89) composed delectable music for keyboard, including Three Pieces (1935), Paysage (1944), Six Preludes (1945) and his Piano Concerto in B flat major (1947/48). As anyone who knows the recordings by Colin Horsley and Margaret Fingerhut (on Lyrita and Chandos respectively) will be aware, these works are urbane, charming and pleasurable. Lennox Berkeley and Friends is lovingly edited by the British composer and pianist Peter Dickinson, author of The Music of Lennox Berkeley (Boydell) as well as studies of Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland and Lord Berners. Berkeley’s writings reveal the same kindly, urbane and by no means undiscerning personality that is heard in his music. Pianistic matters are central to his imagination and, at a 1930 concert at which Walter Gieseking

played Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto, Berkeley has this to say: ‘The piano seemed to have more variety of tone colour than the orchestra.’ A year later, Berkeley praised further performances by Gieseking for their ‘utter absence of show and exterior effect [...] one had the feeling of listening for the first time to things that one knew by heart.’ Vladimir Horowitz was another favourite: as Berkeley was finishing his Four Concert Studies in 1939, he wistfully wrote to Nadia Boulanger that Horowitz would be ‘needed’, but unlikely to embrace the new works: ‘Like most virtuosos, he’s probably not dying to play modern music.’ Friendships with other composer-pianists, from Francis Poulenc to Benjamin Britten – the latter a one-time lover – only helped deepen Berkeley’s lifelong fascination with the instrument.

There is nothing worse than over-excitable, overinterpreted Schumann, so it comes as something of a relief to encounter this second volume of favourite works from Jerome Rose, who absorbs the composer’s free-flowing imagination into compelling musical paragraphs. Even when the flights of fancy come thick and fast, as in Davidsbündlertänze, one is left with the sensation of supreme logic binding everything together. In the Op 12 Fantasiestücke, not a single ugly note is sounded. No matter how awkward and fatiguing Schumann’s figurations – most infamously in Traumes Wirren – Rose maintains a remarkably relaxed action, so that at times it looks as if he is merely flopping his fingers gently onto the keys and somehow sounding the right notes. Not surprisingly, the Etudes symphoniques (without the posthumous numbers) respond particularly well to his ability to sustain the long

line that underpins the whole structure. Without resorting to extremes of dynamic or articulation, this is a reading that emphasises the ‘symphonic’ rather than the ‘etude’. However, there are technical triumphs along the way too, not least in Etude 10, where Rose manages to despatch the toccata-like figurations against continuously sounded dotted rhythms without using the sustaining pedal. Kreisleriana is another magisterial conception that refreshingly avoids outbursts of mannered interpretative rhetoric, yet it is the Second Sonata that really lifts the roof off, with its combination of high-velocity agility and velvety sonorities. The recording and pin-sharp picture quality capture Rose’s effortless playing to perfection, and the direction rightly focuses our attention on where it needs to be – those amazing hands.

At the 2012 Frankfurt Musikmesse, Modartt’s Niclas Fogwall joked that his team of programmers were ‘too good’; the release of Pianoteq 4 was delayed because the developers kept suggesting improvements to the existing design. So, after three years in the making, does the finished product live up to expectations? Modartt has been making ‘virtual pianos’ for use on home computers since 2006. A Steinway D grand piano from Hamburg serves as the reference for the new D4 preset range, while the latest upgrade offering is a Blüthner Model 1 addon, authorised by Blüthner and the world’s first physical model of its prized concert grand. While I’d hesitate to make a judgement as to whether Modartt has captured that famous ‘golden tone’, the preset sounds are imbued with a real warmth and surprising depth, capable of achieving everything from treble twinkles and shimmers to crisp staccatos and sonorous bass. There are no sampled sounds here; everything

BENJAMIN IVRY

JULIAN HAYLOCK

is based on physical modelling with real time response – but at the same time, the entire package is only 20MB in size, making it extremely economical in terms of both cost and space. There’s the freedom to adjust up to 22 parameters, from the tuning, shape of the soundboard, hammer hardness and damper control to the position of the lid and even the mic placement. The note edit window allows you to edit the parameters of each individual note, allowing for limitless customisation. One handy new feature is the automatic save. Even if you haven’t clicked the record button, your last performance will be saved on file; useful for those moments of inspired improvisation. It’s a thoughtful addition, but a loop playback button would be an even more welcome component. All in all, this is an excellent new offering, and at just €29 for an upgrade to version 4, existing Pianoteq users will find real value here. LOUISE GREENER

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REVIEWS DVDs CHOICE

Glenn Gould on Television: The Complete CBC Broadcasts, 1954–1977 Glenn Gould (pf/narrator)

Sony 8697952109 (10 DVDs, 19 hours 12 minutes)

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Released in celebration of what would have been Glenn Gould’s 80th birthday (he was born in 1932), this deluxe 10-DVD set offers Gould’s Canadian television broadcasts over nearly a quarter of a century. Although much has been previously available, the present set creates an opportunity for proper reappraisal of Gould’s art, while simultaneously reminding us of his unique genius. The earliest footage here is of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, captured in December 1954. Though it’s in grainy black and white, with the orchestra sounding none too clear, there’s an unmistakable vivacity to Gould’s reading (he plays his own cadenza, which is unsurprisingly highly contrapuntal). Even at this early stage, Gould’s mannerisms are in evidence, most notably his mobility on the piano stool, his swaying made even more giddying by a camera that seems loath to stay still. Sharing the first disc is a 1961 broadcast entitled The Subject is Beethoven, with Gould assuming the roles of both performer and educator for the first time (it is preceded by a passionate studio recording of the ‘Tempest’ Sonata of 1960 that tests the tape sonics to their limits; there is also a 1967 performance in better sound later on in the box). Throughout his commentaries and interviews, Gould manages to mix approachability with nuggets of great insight. His enthusiasm is infectious – his talk on Beethoven that precedes the performance of Beethoven’s Third Cello Sonata (with Leonard Rose) is compelling, closed by an emphatic ‘Let’s just play it’, which leads to a remarkable example of true chamber music, with two great artists in complete accord. That is more than can be said about the encounter between Gould and Menuhin, a striking example of two musical minds not meeting (in Beethoven’s Op 96 Sonata, at least). More enlightening is Gould in conversation with Humphrey Burton, which includes the pianist’s take on recording and the death of the concert hall: Burton’s incredulity forms the bedrock from which Gould’s flights of fantasy take wing. The second interview centres on Beethoven: Gould’s Columbia recording of the ‘Emperor’ with Stokowski is invoked, with the idea that it ‘sounds as much like the “Eroica” with a descant piano as we could’ (there is, incidentally, a Toronto performance of the ‘Emperor’ included in this set); and two more films explore Schoenberg and Richard Strauss. Gould’s love of Strauss is palpable and reinforced by a 1967 Toronto performance of the Burleske.

The polemic Gould is found in purest form is his talk ‘I detest audiences’. The reaction from a young Zubin Mehta says it all: ‘I think he’s out of his mind’. Gould on music in the USSR is highly stimulating and his reading of Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata is the antithesis of Pollini’s mechanistic take, yet no less powerful for it. And how amazing to find him extemporising a fugue on ‘Doe, a deer’ from The Sound of Music in the exemplary lecture ‘The Anatomy of the Fugue’ before he traces the fugue from its prehistory (Marenzio, Lasso) through Bach, on to Hindemith and beyond. Gould’s talk ‘Richard Strauss – a Personal View’ finds him describing himself as addicted to Strauss as some people are ‘to chocolate sundaes’. Lois Marshall gives a tremendous Cäcilie, as well as the three of the more progressive Ophelia-Lieder; Oscar Shumsky is superb in the first movement of the Violin Sonata. The talk ‘Anthology of Variation’ (including an astonishingly beautiful Sweelinck Fantasia) is remarkably informative, focusing on the canonic variations from the Goldbergs before springing off to Webern. He is most persuasive, perhaps, in the final two DVDs, where he persuasively presents music by Scriabin, Walton, Poulenc, Křenek and Casella, among others. We also see Gould also as conductor and pianist/director. He conducts Mahler (‘Urlicht’ with Maureen Forrester), although in truth it looks as if he is directing traffic. He directs a luscious performance of Bach’s Cantata BWV54 (Russell Oberlin, countertenor; Julius Baker, flute and Oscar Shumsky, violin). There is fun here, too: the 1974 commercials for Musicamera with Gould as Sir Nigel Twitt-Thornwaite, Dr Karlheinz Klopweisser (no relation to Stockhausen, surely?) and Myron Chianti. ‘That magnificent non-conformist Johann Sebastian Bach’, as Gould refers to him, and with whom his name is forever inextricably linked, forms a thread running through the set. Among the many items is a programme that finds Gould playing a rather strange hybrid, the ‘harpsipiano’, in the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto (where he is joined by Isaac Stern and Oscar Shumsky). ‘Pay no attention to critics, ever,’ Gould says at one point. Perhaps pay attention to this, though: this is a remarkable box covering territory from Sweelinck to Webern, Walton and Hindemith via Bach that offers the most eloquent tribute imaginable for Gould’s 80th. COLIN CLARKE

January/February 2013 International Piano

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REVIEWS CDs

Weinberg Volume 9: Piano Sonatas: No 1, Op 5; No 2, Op 8; No 3, Op 31; 17 Easy Pieces, Op 24 Divine Art dda25105, 71 minutes Weinberg Volume 10: Piano Sonatas: No 4, Op 56; No 5, Op 58; No 6, Op 73. Divine Art dda25107, 67 minutes Murray McLachlan (pf)

A Tcherepnin Sonatas: No 1, Op 22a; No 2, Op 94 a; Four Préludes nostalgiques, Op 23a; Prelude, Op 85 No 9a; Moment musical; Petite Suite, Op 6b; Rondo à la Russe; Entretiens, Op 46b; Polkab; Scherzo, Op 3b; Expressions, Op 81b; La Quatrième Alexander Tcherepnin, Mikhail Shilyaev (pfs) Toccata Classics TOCC 0079, 80 minutes

Here are Volumes 9 and 10 of Divine Art’s ever-enterprising Russian Piano Music Series. My colleague Colin Clarke reviewed a rival Grand Piano Weinberg sonata CD for IP in July/August, and supplied some background. There is now a Grand Piano sequel (GP607), coupling the Fourth Sonata with the Sonatina, Op 49 and the 10-movement Partita, Op 54, placing the two labels in more direct competition. First impressions of Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–96), alias Moishe Vainberg? Shostakovich without the jokes, you may think. The sound-world is bleak and often frenzied, unsurprisingly recalling Shostakovich, given the older man’s friendly (and on one occasion life-saving) influence. The humourlessness is understandable, given Weinberg’s hounding by – successively – the Nazis and Stalin, and is summed up with artless understatement in the notewriter’s comment, ‘A Jewish artist in the Soviet Union did not exactly enjoy an easy life’. Weinberg composed indefatigably, however: just six piano sonatas (1940–60) but, among his total of 154 opus numbers, there are also 22 symphonies and 17 string quartets and a Trumpet Concerto that piano accompanists may already know. The best entry for newcomers – be they listeners or players – is the Fourth Sonata (premiered by Gilels, no less), the most wellknown and arguably finest piece in these two volumes. Murray McLachlan’s performance, here as elsewhere, is brawny, relentlessly energetic and fully committed, encompassing the slow movement’s gigantic stretches with enviable ease. Nervous listeners should warm up on the 17 Easy Pieces, all very short, enticingly harmonised and many of them ripe for early-grade exam syllabuses. Both discs were originally recorded in Sweden in 1996 and issued on Olympia: the recorded piano sound stops just this side of twangy.

A Tcherepnin Complete Piano Music, Volume 1: 10 Bagatelles, Op 5. Sonata No 1, Op 22; 9 Inventions, Op 13; Sonata No 2, Op 94; 10 Études, Op 18 Giorgio Koukl (pf) Grand Piano GP608, 63 minutes

MICHAEL ROUND

A Tcherepnin Complete Piano Music, Volume 2: Sonatine romantique, Op 4; Petite Suite, Op 6; Toccata No 1, Op 1; Pièces sans titres, Op 7; Nocturne No 1, Op. 2 No 1; Dance No 1, Op 2 No 2; Nocturne No 2, Op 8 No 1; Dance No 2, Op 8 No 2; Scherzo, Op 3. Message, Op 39 Giorgio Koukl (pf)

Grand Piano GP632, 63 minutes

It is 14 years since Alexander Tcherepnin’s centenary (not celebrated at the time as widely as it should have been) and 36 since his death so the appearance of three discs of his piano music in rapid succession is as welcome as it is unexpected. The Toccata Classics disc opens with archival recordings made by the composer in New York in March 1965 (produced by the composer Philip Ramey, a former Tcherepnin pupil and subject of an earlier Toccata Classics release) of the two sonatas, Préludes nostalgiques and the ninth of his Op 85 Preludes. The performances are the most exciting of any under review here and have been remastered very finely under the auspices of the Tcherepnin Society. The greater part of the disc is made up of a deliciously varied selection of his smaller pieces (the earliest, the Moment musical of 1913, dating from his midteens) and sets of miniatures – the early Petite Suite (1918–19), Entretiens (1920– 30) and 10 Expressions (1951) – all played with compelling assurance by Mikhail Shilyaev. With the exception of the Expressions, all the pieces performed by Shilyaev are

first recordings. The second of Grand Piano’s two releases, between them initiating a series devoted to Tcherepnin played by Giorgio Koukl, would have been almost entirely of premieres had not Toccata Classics pipped them to the post with the Scherzo and Petite Suite. However, the Op 1 Toccata was recorded by Murray McLachlan for Olympia in 2000. On Koukl’s Volume 1, the 1921 Inventions and 1920 Études also appear for the first time on disc; note the misleading opus numbers, respectively 13 and 18, do not reflect the sequence of composition; the Études originate from the same period as the Bagatelles (1912– 18). Indeed, both Grand Piano volumes focus on early works, the exceptions being the Second Sonata (1961; Volume 1) and the essay in rhythmic virtuosity Message (1926; Volume 2 – how has this not been recorded before?). The early sets that rework juvenile miniatures do so with considerable acuity and charm, not least the Bagatelles, Petite Suite and Pièces sans titres. The Op 1 Toccata and Op 3 Scherzo (Koukl’s account a touch slower than Shilyaev’s but better characterised) foreshadow the later creative giant while the pairs of Nocturnes and Dances Opp 2 and 8 indicate the range of influences on his then still-forming creative personality. Koukl – fresh from his revelatory recordings for Naxos of Martinů’s complete piano music and concertos – proves himself a most sympathetic advocate for Tcherepnin’s music, whether on a small or large scale. It is instructive to compare his interpretations of the sonatas with the composer’s somewhat wayward ones: Koukl may not achieve the same fury in the First Sonata’s opening Allegro commodo but his pacing and structuring of the movement, while subtly different, is just as convincing; and his playing as a whole, especially in the Second Sonata, is much more precise. The sound for both discs is top-notch. GUY RICKARDS

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REVIEWS CDs

Play Braxton Marilyn Crispell (pf); Mark Dresser (bass), Gerry Hemingway (drums) Tzadik TZ 7640, 40 minutes

From 1985 to 1994, Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway were three-quarters of the Anthony Braxton Quartet, one of the most exciting and innovative groups in jazz, which explored new kinds of structure and fresh approaches to improvisation. The trio re-formed in 2010 to play at Braxton’s 65th-birthday festivities, whereupon Tzadik invited them to record this disc. Given the trio’s familiarity with so much of Braxton’s enormous oeuvre, the CD’s meagre 40-minute duration is inexcusable; however, the playing itself is top notch and the works chosen, though all written pre-1985, do indicate the variety of Braxton’s innovative forms, from Composition 23C’s catchy ‘additive repetition’ to Composition 116’s layered, synchronised ‘pulse tracks’, sounding here like a spiky, demented march music. As before, the trio deal expertly with the music’s technical complexities and rise to its more poetic moments, such as Composition 110A, once likened by Braxton to ‘the sensation of “blowing winds and trees” (on an island experiencing a rainstorm)’. They bring their own fierce clarity to the music too, showing it can stand apart from its creator; with his reeds absent, Crispell’s piano becomes the lead voice, hammering an intense improvisation from Composition 69B’s ‘language music’ and skipping gaily through the bebopinspired Composition 40B. Dresser and Hemingway are just as superb in what is essentially democratic ensemble music. So, though it may only be half a CD, it’s definitely half full rather than half empty. GRAHAM LOCK

Rhapsody in Blue: Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor, Op 22; The Swan (trans. Godowsky); Ravel Piano Concerto in G; Prélude in A minor; Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue (original jazz band version, arr. Grofé); Love Walked In (trans. Grainger) Benjamin Grosvenor (pf); Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/James Judd Decca 478 3527, 66 minutes

Shostakovich Complete Music for Piano Duet and Piano Duo, Volume 1: Symphony No 9 in E flat major, Op 70; Waltz and Polka; Korzinkina’s Adventures, Op 59 – No 3, The Chase; Suite in F sharp minor, Op 6; Tarantella, Op 84d; Merry March, Op 84c; Concertino in A minor, Op 94 Vicky Yannoula (pf), Jakob Fichert (pf) Toccata Classics TOCC0034, 75 minutes

This is Benjamin Grosvenor’s first concerto disc. The programming is exemplary, with each major piece followed by an intriguing, brief encore; in two cases, transcriptions add another musical voice to the mix. Grosvenor’s way with Saint-Saëns’s Second Piano Concerto is most affecting, capturing not only its fantasy but also its Bachian inspiration. The major competition here comes from Stephen Hough (Hyperion), and if Grosvenor does not quite match Hough’s lightness of touch in the central Allegro scherzando, he certainly gives him a run for his money in the breezy finale, where fleet fingerwork and fizzing trills lift Grosvenor’s performance to another level. The filigree of Godowsky’s Swan transcription takes the music’s trajectory closer to Ravel. He gives a fine account of the Ravel concerto too, if not quite scaling the heights of Michelangeli’s legendary reading. The recording allows for plenty of orchestral detail and Grosvenor highlights the intimacy of the first movement, thus linking it to the heartfelt central Adagio assai (where the pianist is eclipsed by a heartbreaking cor anglais solo). But it is in the finale that he finally hits true form. The 1913 Prélude is a blissful encore. The clarinet’s sliding glissando that opens the Gershwin is alone worth the price of the disc. The sound stage for the jazz band is generally convincing, although there is some spotlighting. Nevertheless this is a bright and breezy account, full of felicitous touches from Grosvenor, complementing rather than eclipsing Previn/LSO’s full-fat Gershwin.

When Shostakovich graduated in 1925, he was regarded as a pianist first and foremost, who also composed. That perception changed with the First Symphony’s premiere a year later but he wrote for the keyboard throughout his life, not least with four-hand reductions of his symphonies. Toccata Classics’s new series devoted to his complete works for piano duo and duet opens with the Ninth Symphony and it should be no surprise that it transfers remarkably well to the keyboard. The early F sharp minor Suite of 1922 is much less characteristic, stylistically – with ambition outstripping technical ability – yet its four movements make a considerable cumulative impact, suggestive of the symphonist to come (the suite may have originated as an abortive attempt at a symphony). Vicky Yannoula and Jakob Fichert provide sparkling interpretations throughout their hugely entertaining programme, which concludes with the A minor Concertino (1953) that followed hard on the heels of the 10th Symphony. Older listeners may recall the composer’s 1956 recording with son Maxim (at one time reissued with Shostakovich and Weinberg performing the four-hand version of No 10), which is over twoand-a-half minutes shorter. Yannoula and Fichert are less hectic but what they lack in sheer excitement is made up for in superb precision and a genuinely rethought interpretation. Punctuating the main works are a handful of lighter pieces, the pick of which is The Chase from the film music to Korzinkina’s Adventures (1940). Recommended. GR

COLIN CLARKE

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REVIEWS CDs

Mozart Piano Concertos: No 17 in G major, K453; No 22 in E flat major, K482; Rondo in A major, K386 Kristian Bezuidenhout (fp), Freiburger Barockorchester/Petra Müllejans (violin) Harmonia Mundi HMC902147, 73 minutes

Mozart Piano Concertos: No 17 in G major, K453; No 26 in D major, K537, ‘Coronation’ Ronald Brautigam (fp); Die Kölner Akademie/Michael Alexander Willens BIS BIS-1944, 55 minutes

In 1802 music theorist Heinrich Christoph Koch praised Mozart’s concertos for their ‘passionate sense of dialogue’ between soloist and orchestra. His remark appears in the notes to Ronald Brautigam’s CD, although it’s the South African pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout and the Freiburger Barockorchester (FBO), on their first disc of Mozart piano concertos, who bring this sense of dialogue gloriously to life. Key to their success, as Bezuidenhout explains in his own CD note, was an experimental recording set-up – strings in a semi-circle behind him, winds in a line facing him: a layout designed to bring the winds ‘to the fore of the sonic picture’ and to allow ‘more natural and vivid interplay’ between piano and winds. These priorities are historically appropriate, reflecting the more innovatory aspects of Mozart’s later piano concertos, not least K453, one of the first to assign to the winds a prominent role, and K482, the first to feature clarinets. The result, as Bezuidenhout notes, is ‘the piano, playing both solo and continuo, darts in and out of the lush orchestral texture’; the listener is there too, in the midst of the action, hearing the music as if from the inside. Perhaps it won’t be to all tastes, but I found this immediacy thrilling; the extreme textural and dynamic variations give the music terrific bite, especially in K482, with its extrovert tutti flourishes and pockets of hushed intimacy (enhanced by the reduction of strings to one-per-part). And if Bezuidenhout sometimes risks compromising the bigger picture in his scrutiny of the closeup – particularly striking in the Andante of the G major, where he turns gentle

pathos into near despair – his playing is always imaginative and constantly engaging. He’s vivacious in the A major Rondo, delightfully zestful in K453’s buffa finale and subtle yet expressive throughout the dark-hued and brighttinted contrasts of the magical E flat major work. Bezuidenhout plays a recent copy of an 1805 Walter fortepiano, which is technically 20 years too advanced, but has a clear and pleasant tone. Ronald Brautigam’s fortepiano is a modern copy of a Walter from c1795; its slightly thinner, more pinched tone is presumably closer to Mozart’s own Walter (c1782) – but is his disc any closer to that Mozartian spirit of interaction? Certainly he and Die Kölner Akademie enjoy a good rapport (this is their third disc of Mozart concertos), though I’d describe it as a courteous rather than passionate relationship, and one that exists more between pianist and orchestra en bloc than between individual players. Die Kölner Akademie’s orchestral sound is smooth and more homogenous than the FBO’s, and their sculpted phrasing complements Brautigam’s own: everything is nicely shaped and crisply articulated, if a little detached. I enjoyed their brisk, coolly measured take on the relatively lighthearted G major Concerto, although a similar approach to K537 made its stylised elegance seem overly chilly and inscrutable. The disc will have its admirers, but that ‘passionate sense of dialogue’ is more fully embraced by Bezuidenhout and the FBO, who revel in the colours and dramas of Mozart’s richly volatile music. GL

Nebra Desde el silencio / From silence Moisès Fernádez Via (pf) Verso VRS 2118, 60 minutes.

The music of the Spanish baroque remains a largely unexplored treasure trove, especially on record, hence the evocative title for this selection of Nebra’s long-lost sonatas and toccatas for keyboard, although to open the disc with a track of symbolic silence is possibly to labour the point. José de Nebra (170268) – or Joseph Nebra, as Verso calls him – was the most celebrated member of an influential musical dynasty, famous chiefly for his many zarzuelas, operas and sacred works, though renowned also as an organist and teacher (his pupils included his nephew Manuel Blasco de Nebra and Antonio Soler). Nearly all the pieces on this disc are manuscript copies unearthed in private collections and archives; most are undated and devoid of tempo and dynamic markings, which suggests Nebra used them for teaching. Though probably intended for clavichord or harpsichord, they sound perfectly suited to the piano on this superbly recorded live recital, and, didactic or not, they make delightful listening, full of darting rhythms, vivacious flourishes and ingenious harmonic twists. The young, prize-winning Spanish pianist Moisès Fernádez Via makes a persuasive advocate, keenly alert to Nebra’s finesse and lively idiosyncrasies, from plangent yearning (Toccata in C minor) and skipping gaiety (two Toccatas in G major) to the serene calm and deft filigree of the Grave on the 8th Tone. Via closes his recital with a rapt improvisation on a fragment from a lost Grave; it’s a lovely gesture, cajoling new beauty from old as he draws Nebra into the 21st century. GL

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REVIEWS CDs

CHOICE

In Brief... Beethoven The Piano Concertos Daniel Barenboim (pf); Staatskapelle Berlin Decca 478 3515 (3CD), 183 minutes

These 2007 performances have been previously available on DVD and are Barenboim’s third Beethoven cycle in which he appears as soloist. The first thing to strike the listener is the wide recording range and involving soundstage. The orchestra is superb, too, with a gloriously warm sound, and Barenboim’s rapport with the players is palpable. In the First Concerto he plays his own cadenza (the remaining concertos feature Beethoven’s own). Barenboim projects the melodies of the slow movements to perfection (try No 1’s Largo, for instance, with its superb sense of dialogue). If No 2’s orchestral exposition sounds almost Mozartian, it is to match Barenboim’s grace and clarity of articulation; but on the whole he sounds less involved in this piece than the First. The final two concertos are puzzling in that No 4 is the weakest of the set (uninvolving, with some irritating agogics), while No 5, full of energy and depth, is its crowning glory. CC Pixis Piano Concerto in C major, Op 100; Concertino in E flat, Op 68; Thalberg Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 5 Howard Shelley (pf), Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Hyperion CDA67915, 70 minutes

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Johann Peter Pixis (1788–1874) was a respected virtuoso in his day, perhaps best known for his contribution to Liszt’s collaborative work Hexaméron (to which Thalberg also contributed). The soundworld of Weber looms large both in Pixis’s Concerto, both in its scintillatingly virtuoso passages and in the dark, forestlike atmosphere of the Adagio cantabile. The music can sound over-decorative in places, but its sheer vivacity holds it all together. The earlier Concertino is extremely charming, with some gloriously imaginative scoring.

Sigismond Thalberg (1812–71) is somewhat better known, and there exist alternatives to this recording by Francesco Nicolosi (Naxos) and Michael Ponti (Vox). Ponti has plenty of charm but the recording and orchestra let him down; Nicolosi gives a grand and thoughtful reading that complements Shelley, but it is the new Hyperion disc that is most consistently convincing. Perhaps the finest movement is the gorgeous Adagio, with its Chopinesque arabesques. A superb disc. CC Schubert Fantasy in C major, ‘Wanderer’, D760; Four Impromptus, Op 142 (D935); Four Impromptus, Op 90 (D899) Viviana Sofronitsky (fp) Avi Music AVI8553250

Equally excellent are the production values on Avi Music’s new disc of Schubert on the fortepiano featuring Viviana Sofronitsky, whose father Vladimir will be familiar to older pianophiles. The rather clattery tone of the instrument takes a bit of getting used to and, in a Wanderer Fantasy executed a touch faster than usual, does not always help clarity of articulation. Matters are easier in the two sets of Impromptus with their more lyrical, at times lilting, melodies. The variation-form B flat major Impromptu (D935 No 3), based on one of Schubert’s best-known tunes, is very neatly done. Sofronitsky’s strong interpretation of the set seems to support the view (first put forward by Robert Schumann) that this is in fact a free-format sonata. The D899 tetralogy is scarcely less cohesive a design and is delivered with panache. GR F Schmitt Complete Original Works for Piano Duet and Duo, Volume 1: Trois Rapsodies, Op 53; Sept Pièces, Op 15; Rhapsodie Parisienne Ivencia Piano Duo (Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn, pf) Grand Piano GP621, 54 minutes

The music on this disc highlights the highly perfumed world of French composer Florent Schmitt (1870–1958) and

presents two world premiere recordings. Only the three Op 53 Rapsodies of 1903–4 for two pianos are otherwise currently represented (on Dutton Vocalion), although they were previously recorded by Robert and Gaby Casadesus in the 1950s. The central Polonaise has an energy and ferocity that seems to prefigure the wildness of Ravel’s La valse. Schmitt’s finale, itself a waltz (‘Viennoise’) is harmonically adventurous and the duo bring great swing to its later stages. At over 30 minutes, the Sept Pièces was Schmitt’s first large-scale cycle for piano duet and it exudes a mood of sweet reminiscence. The Rhapsodie Parisienne, with which the disc ends, is again for piano duet and is currently unpublished. The Invencia Duo’s nonchalant delivery perfectly matches the spirit of the piece as they track the harmony’s sweet twists and turns with exquisite precision. CC Schumann Complete Piano Works, Volume 3: Charakterstücke I: Abegg Variations, Op 1; Papillons, Op 2; Drei Romanzen, Op 28; Intermezzi, Op 4 plus shorter pieces Florian Uhlig (pf) Hänssler Classic CD98.646, 76 minutes

This is the gem of my selection for this issue. Uhlig has embarked on a project to record all of Schumann’s piano pieces on 15 discs. He is a true visionary (as anyone familiar with his Black Box CD Venezia, featuring music by Wagner, Chopin, Galuppi, Alkan et al., will know). In Papillons, Uhlig seems alive to every nuance. His playing is full of cheeky staccatos and evinces a great sense of fluidity, line and texture. There follow an exquisitely planned sequence of short pieces related in various ways to Op 2, forming a magical musical appendix. Every item in this enterprise, no matter how small, is clearly a labour of love. The Op 28 Romanzen find Schumann focused on weightier matters and again they are ideally shaped by Uhlig, while Op 4 adds drama and virtuosity to the mix. CC

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REVIEWS CDs

In Brief... Debussy Children’s Corner; Suite bergamasque; Danse; Deux Arabesques; Pour le piano; Masques; L’isle joyeuse; La plus que lente Angela Hewitt (pf) Hyperion CDA67898, 80 minutes

Angela Hewitt’s previous recordings of Bach, Mozart and Ravel – with their combination of rigour, precision and poetry – stand her in good stead in her new recital for Hyperion, which comprises the essential Debussy piano music outside the Préludes, Études and Images. Children’s Corner is delightfully light and airy, with some remarkably delicate touches, culminating in a rollicking Golliwog’s Cakewalk. The playing in the Suite bergamasque is near ideal, Clair de lune weaving its subtle magic but as a part (for once) of a convincing whole. The Arabesques, Masques and Pour le piano sparkle in her hands but it is in the Danse (originally the Tarantelle styrienne, later orchestrated by Ravel) and L’isle joyeuse that the most sublime playing is to be found. La plus que lente completes a hugely enjoyable disc. Hyperion’s production values are superb. GR Le Bœuf sur le Toit – Swinging Paris Miniatures and arrangements for piano Alexandre Tharaud (pf), Frank Braley (pf), with Bénabar, Jean Delescluse, Juliette, Madeleine Peyroux, Natalie Dessay (vocals), David Chevallier (banjo), Florent Jodelet (percussion) Virgin Classics 5099944073725

Alexandre Tharaud’s new Virgin Classics album Le Bœuf sur le Toit is a 26-track evocation of ‘Swinging Paris’ built around arrangements or compositions by Clément Doucet and Jean Wiéner (who between them contribute 12 pieces, including four joint arrangements for two pianos). Doucet’s Chopinata is a fun foxtrot based on Chopin themes as is his Liszt skit, Hungaria. However, Isoldina trivialises its Wagnerian material, showing poor musical judgment.

Milhaud’s title-track appears only by virtue of the extracted Tango des Fratellini (its most famous passage, for sure) as does Caramel mou, one of several tracks to include guest performers: here tenor Jean Delescluse. An ethereal-sounding Natalie Dessay turns up in Wiéner’s Blues chanté and Madeleine Peyroux gives a mannered and tedious rendition of Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It. Tharaud’s playing, when the music gives him anything interesting to do – as in the Gershwin songs – compels attention; otherwise this is no more than frothy wallpaper music, pleasant enough in a hotel bar, but I could not wait to return to Debussy, Schubert and Tcherepnin. GR Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No 2 in B flat minor, Op 36 (1913 version); Morçeaux de fantaisie, Op 3; Variations on a Theme by Corelli, Op 42 Alessandro Mazzamuto (pf) Arts SACD47761-8, 71 minutes

This is a remarkable debut disc from the young Sicilian pianist Alessandro Mazzamuto, who was born in 1988. The booklet notes talk of Mazzamuto’s approach being closer to that of an older era of pianists (something that is often said about Benjamin Grosvenor, too) and it is easy to see what they mean. Although Hélène Grimaud on DG opts for a slightly different, hybrid text of the Second Sonata, it is still instructive to compare the two and it is Mazzamuto who triumphs in his remarkably fluency. He balances the textures impeccably (though perhaps the bell-like descants are slightly under-accented) and the Non allegro is tender without a hint of wallowing. This is a thinking man’s Rachmaninov. Even the famous Prelude in C sharp minor (from Op. 3) becomes a miniature tone-poem. The Corelli Variations (given as one track) unveils itself mysteriously in playing that belies the pianist’s tender years. CC

Ravel Sonatine; Gaspard de la nuit, Menuet antique; Le tombeau de Couperin Paolo Giacometti (pf) Channel Classics CCS SA 31612 (2CD), 134 minutes

Each work here is performed twice, on an Érard and on a Steinway. Ravel had experience of both and composed using the French instrument. The older piano is featured on the first disc. The Érard has a dulcet, even ethereal timbre and is slightly fuzzy (perhaps because it was recorded in a church) but it has an attractive sound, with no excessive brightness in the treble and with a dry bass that that doesn’t obfuscate Ravel’s textures. It’s a little waterysounding at times, somewhat tinkling, but that is analogous to the refined soundworld that Ravel conjures. Gaspard de la nuit is perhaps the biggest test of the Érard’s potential. This is not the most powerful account around, but it’s certainly vivid, not least in Scarbo, brought off by Paolo Giacometti with dash and drama. The Steinway, unsurprisingly, offers a wider dynamic range, a growly bass and a dazzling treble, all of which is exploited by Giacometti while remaining sensitive to Ravel’s unique aural imagination. The sound-image has a greater clarity, the Steinway having been recorded more closely and in a dryer acoustic. It might have been better if the same venue had been used for both instruments. Overall, Giacometti is a sensitive and innate performer, giving shapely, thoughtful and vibrant interpretations, responding to and working within the pianos’ respective qualities and offering subtle differences in the same works. However, Ravel’s music seems less magical and less involving – heavier, in fact – when heard on the Steinway, so in this particular contest it is the Érard that wins the day! COLIN ANDERSON

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REVIEWS SHEET MUSIC Beethoven · Rondo B-dur WoO 6 (Klavierauszug)

Beethoven Schumann Urtext Urtext

Rondo B-dur Allegro h-moll für Klavier und Orchester Opus 8 WoO 6 · Klavierauszug Allegro Rondo in b Bbminor major for Piano and Orchestra op. 8 6 · Piano Reduction WoO

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Beethoven Rondo in B flat major for Piano and Orchestra, WoO 6 (Edited by Hans-Werner Kuthen, fingering by Andreas Groethuysen, reduction for two pianos by Johannes Umbreit)

G. Henle Verlag ISMN 979-0-2018-1149-9 Beethoven produced four versions of his Second Piano Concerto (which, in fact, was his first). This delightful Mozartian Rondo was originally the final movement of the piece and it is the earliest surviving example of a Beethoven orchestral score. Though heavily indebted to Mozart in terms of structure (it seems modelled on the finale of Mozart’s E flat Concerto, K271, as both works have slower central sections in opposing rhythmic metres to their outer ones) it is far from anonymous. Indeed, there are lots of welcome bravura passages for the soloist, including challenging figurations in 10ths and some cadenza-like flourishes. But overall, there is less rhythmic energy and melodic memorability than in the eventual last movement of the Second Concerto. The orchestral writing is also much more conservative. Nonetheless, the piece deserves to be much better known and could be useful material for younger pianists and school orchestras to use. Solo Tango Vol 2 Solo piano arrangements by Gustavo Beytelmann

Universal Edition UE 35029 ISMN 979-0-008-08406-5 The first volume of Beytelmann’s solo tango arrangements was a treasure trove of contrasted delights. In this follow-up anthology, we are offered a further seven highly individual, often quirky transcriptions that are full of intrigue, originality and provocation. Agustín Bardi shows vivid and unexpected twists of harmony, texture and mood in his highly energised Qué noche!. In contrast, Melodia de Arrabal by Carlos Gardel works as a slow crescendo, leading to an extremely invigorating climax. Heightened expressivity and intense sentiment are hallmarks of Francisco de

Caro’s Flores negras, while passion really lets fly with abandon in Gardel’s Por una cabeza. In total contrast, the minimalist textures and sparse non-pedalled sounds of Don Juan by Ernesto Ponzio are impressive, while the almost philosophical quiet musings of Bardi’s Nunca tuvo novio, complete with its memorable melodies, make for a poignant conclusion to the collection. Warmly recommended. Mendelssohn Rondo capriccioso, Op 14 (Edited by Ullrich Scheideler, fingering by Hans-Martin Theopold)

G. Henle Verlag ISM M M-2018-0919-9 Ullrich Scheideler’s painstakingly researched new edition of Mendelssohn’s beloved party piece involved no fewer than three autograph scores, three first editions and two later editions during its preparation. As someone who has performed this work for many years, I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to find that there are no major differences on offer from what has been presented in the past from other houses. But Scheideler’s workmanship exudes authority and it is fascinating to read his footnotes, where alternatives are given to the precise placements on the score of ‘a tempo’ markings following ritardandos. Precision in terms of pedalling in the opening Andante is also most welcome here, and it was interesting to note just how few pedal indications Mendelssohn actually wrote. Excellent background notes on the gestation of the piece are included, while Hans-Martin Theopold’s fingering is both practical and intelligent. Edward Gregson An Album for my Friends (2011) Novello NOV 100452 Edward Gregson (born 1945) has an idiomatic understanding of the piano, and this is impressively on display in this charming suite of baroque dance movements. Each movement is dedicated to a particular friend, and cunningly modelled on a particular piece from one of

the Bach French or English suites. For example, Adam’s Allemande (dedicated to composer Adam Gorb) is extremely close motivically and in character to the Allemande from Bach’s G major French Suite. Gregson’s harmonic vocabulary makes use of sequences, dissonances and lots of superimposed fourths, but always combined with a populist appeal. These pieces will be extremely useful to talented younger players in particular as they search for material to present in competitive festivals and school concerts. It would be wonderful to juxtapose the original dances with these charming new pieces in performance, though they can equally stand on their own. ° La revue de cuisine – Bohuslav Martinu Version for piano from the concert suite, edited by Christopher Hogwood

Leduc AL18 054 ISMN-CZC-0-046-18054-5 Those who enjoy Martinů’s Etudes and Polkas will find this jazz-influenced reduction from his ballet score La revue de cuisine surprising. Though perhaps less individual in style than his piano concertos and arguably less idiomatic in terms of pianistic layout than his most famous solo pieces, this newly edited version by Christopher Hogwood of the composer’s own solo piano suite certainly makes for enjoyable sight-reading. Martinů made his arrangement for solo piano in 1930. The ballet itself shows influences of popular music, including jazz, tango, foxtrot and Charleston, as well as shades of Poulenc, Stravinsky and possibly a little of Martinů’s teacher Albert Roussel. Perhaps too much of it sounds like a reduced orchestral score when played on piano for it to be included in recital programmes, but this music will certainly provide lots of stimulation in private study. In this sense, it can be favourably compared with the reductions for solo piano of the great Debussy orchestral scores such as Jeux and Prélude à L’après-midi d’un faune. MURRAY MCLACHLAN

January/February 2013 International Piano

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Music of my life

Alice Sara Ott The German-Japanese Marc-André Hamelin discusses the pianist shares recordings recordings thather inflfavourite uenced him most

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the intonation is not always perfect, it has soeverything. much character charisma absorb You can and imagine, given –how butmuch it never One day I want of a disturbs. ground-breaker Scriabin to recording of Schubert lieder was,make how aincredibly fascinating this music accompanying singer coupled was to me. It’s nota for everybody, but Iwith some Liszt transcriptions still have a very high regardofforthe it. songs. IAdiscovered Cziffstudent ra through Liszt. My friend, a fellow at the fi rst teacher, who I studied with for six or Vincent d’Indy School [in Montreal], seven years,me wasto Hungarian and introduced Pierre Henry andhehiswas aApocalypse great fandeofJean, Cziff There’s no of doubt a ra. setting of part that he isofone of the greatest interpreters the Book Revelations. It’s an electroof Liszt’swork music, butnarration two years ago I first acoustic with – that’s heard him playingelements French Baroque music to say it combines of musique –concrète Couperin, Rameau. purely Tambourin with Lully, music produced by that he plays I love because of the electronic instruments. Henry usesrhythm these he had in his blood. special. Nobody resources to paint a It’s verysopowerful picture can copy this.There’s When you hear thewhere piece of Revelations. one passage you imagine Gypsies – soulsalso are crying and Henryand usesdancing the and Cziff is a master at this sounds ofraa hoard of little babyGypsy-style wolves. rhythm. You also feel it in the Hungarian It’s an extraordinarily evocative work – Rhapsodies or that anything he does. there are parts are quite terrifying. I was on one the hour train45tominutes Verbierand with It lasts about is Steven Isserlis andenriched he askedmeme which a piece that I know greatly version of the Cellois Suites I liked artistically. The Bach narration in French but best and I saiddeter Daniil Shafran! said that shouldn’t anyone from He hearing that was all great right,work he in wouldn’t hate what is a truly my opinion. me! I first heard this recording AllWhen these choices, I’ve realised, are from Imywas in Russia. Some friends played student days before I left Montreal at it was doing thefor ageme. of 19One to gooftothem the States. There’san exam somethingcalled on Shafran and so a labelor in California 1750 Arch IRecords found and out they a lotissued about him. You can The Complete really theofway he plays that Player hear Pianofrom Studies Conlon he has dedicated his one). wholeI came life toacross music. Nancarrow (volume It have been took very itdiffi cult– for thismust just by chance, home andhis wife music was hisstudy priority. I was because just floored! The third is inNo 5five is parts my favourite. One day when I have and is subtitled Boogie-Woogie more time I’d like to takeit cello lessons. Suite. Someone described as 16 Art It wouldplaying be mytogether! goal to It play the Gigue Tatums opened up a from Suite. totallythe new world of musical perception special always forDiscovering me. There have beenrecordings various re-issues happens when I’mOther with Minds friends, always but the one on the label is a by accident.inOne time was remastering a 4-CD set–ofitthe onebefore Deutsche I bought. Grammophon signed me – I was with aa Hungarian friendfanatic and we I became true Frank Zappa were having some nice wine and after someone played meTokai an album he putStudio on Cortot playing Chopin called Tan, which wasthe basically Waltzes. From the first note–I as was really a collection of instrumental shocked because sound of a opposed to vocal – the tracks. One was side was diff erenttotime, a different world. devoted a 20-minute piece calledToday

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Zappa: The Adventures of Chopin: Waltzes Greggery Peccary Alfred Cortot (pf) Frank Zappa & others Naxos 8.111035 Zappa 3857

we have time for anything. Thedon’t Adventures of Greggery Peccary.You It’s see people at the opera.thing They’re not chatting a wild and woolly narrated by to eachhimself other with anymore. They’re only Zappa all kinds of voices. communicating their The music is verywith dense, veryBlackberries tricky and very iPhones. Nobody has the time cartoon-ish. Everything in to just sit down on the ground and listen to the music illustrates the narration. the air,absolutely to the birds. Cortot It’s an sillyListening story but to you is a sound fromata the timecomplexity, when people have to marvel thehad time to enjoy and these It’s a sound inventiveness thethings. imagination we have Zappa. lost. It He’s makes yourather drunk. Not of Frank been because of the Tokaihis but because of the overlooked because music didn’t music! I can’t put it in diffdance erent way. lend itself to airplay orathe floor – and rhythmically liked to trip people INTERVIEW BY JEREMYhe NICHOLAS up. You can also pick The Adventures of Greggery up on a compilation Alice SaraPeccary Ott’s Mussorgsky and Schubert of Zappa’s instrumental called disc is released by Deutscheworks Grammophon Läther. It’s got Ott a nice pictureatof a cow on on 21 January. performs London’s the cover! e Hall on 12 February, as part Royal Festival of the International series INTERVIEW BY JEREMY Piano NICHOLAS

PHOTO ©© ESTHER HAASE/DG PHOTO SIM CANETTY-CLARKE

IT

T’S VERY DIFFICULT FOR ME TO talkHERE’S about NO music. I’m doing music SINGLE PIANIST because I am a person whothan can who has inflnot uenced me more expressanother, her feelings very well group in words. but that whole It’s easier with the piano! My first teacher of Golden Age pianists – Hofmann, didn’t support the method of teaching Lhévinne, Rosenthal, Rachmaninov – verya child or Hanon studies. He much with did. ItCzerny was more the over-arching thought I should dealinfl immediately style of the period that uenced me.with real So heis gave Bach: the C Mymusic. first choice John me Kirkpatrick major was theSonata, very firecorded rst piece playingInvention Ives’s ‘Concord’ Iinever played. was three years old 1968. It still Ihasn’t been issued on and putting alltothe different voices CD. My together father used subscribe to what was then just like puzzle magazine. game for For me. So calleda Clavier for the centenary first few years I played nothing the Ives in 1974, the October but – Two-Part and then ThreeissueBach devoted much space to his music Part Inventions.this Then a friend and mentioned recording. I wasof my parents bought me the Glenn and Gould 13 and very intrigued. My parents Goldberg Variations as a present. I were living at that time in Laval I[awould have been six or seven. I fell inI went love with suburb of Montreal, Quebec]. the Goldbergs – itsmall just record happened down to our local shopto be Glenn Gould It was and they had a playing. copy. It was the fionly rst later that I found out for about hisand, character. recording I bought myself in It inspired not most to listen to anyone a sense, this me was the important else’s interpretation of a piece I was one because it introduced me tothat record preparing, because need to shock find your buying – and what ayou wonderful own waywas! – and that’s exactly what he’s the piece It opened up a new world doing. not something you can copy becauseIt’s nothing I’d experienced before or You can learn from or, it, of wasimitate. like it harmonically, spiritually course, butpianistically. it’s always been important of course, I listened to thatfor me to findliterally my ownallapproach. recording summer. I bought One dayand when wasscore ten orineleven, I was it in June gotIthe September. home alonerecorded in Munich. I gotbefore boredinwith Kirkpatrick it once practising I just wanted of to the playLP some 1948, rightand at the beginning other music to the piece was rehearsing. era. Sony, issue these twoI performances So lookeddisc! at my mother’s score shelf on aI single and found some Schubert (she is A year later in 1976, in thatlieder same little amusic pianist butI she uptwo singing lessons store, cametook across double when to Grammophon Germany). I started albumswe onmoved Deutsche of playing the piano parts and played singingbythe the complete Scriabin sonatas melody and really lovedreason it. The Roberto Szidon. For some my next day I went toScriabin this very goodinDVD shop father had no scores his library, we havepieces in Munich – people love going so these were totally unknown to there because theattracted people who work there both of us. What me initially know lot about music. It’s not was thea artwork onclassical the album covers like recommended (sadlythis not anymore! reproducedThey for the CD release): Fischer-Dieskau with Gerald Moore. abstract shapes in wonderful colours. I Later I listenedfamiliar to soprano versions was reasonably with all of the and Hermann Prey butbywhat liked about standard repertoire then, Iespecially the Fischer-Dieskau’s that, even though Romantics, and hadisa fanatical desire to

International Piano Piano January/February November/December International 2013 2012

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