International Piano NO.44 JUL/AUG 2017 £5.50
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International Piano International NO.44 JUL/AUG 2017 £5.50 www.international-piano.com PEAK PERFORMANCE INSIDE Beethoven’s mighty SHEET MUSIC Hammerklavier CHRISTOPHER NORTON’S PACIFIC PRELUDES on disc JULY/AUGUST 2017 FROM BOOSEY & HAWKES SEE PAGE 43 SCORING POINTS Editing Hummel’s COMPOSING Concerto No 2 AT THE KEYS Do we judge the works of pianist-composers PLUS NEW TECHNOLOGY too harshly? FOR TUNING MAKE SCALE PRACTICE FUN MARC-ANDRÉ www.international-piano.com HAMELIN Irrepressible explorer 07> 077005 772042 9 IPJA17_001_Cover 0706OM.indd 2 07/06/2017 14:54 Shigeru Kawai Concert Series Beautiful Grand Pianos In 6 Sizes, Crafted By Master Piano Artisans In Hamamatsu, Japan. /KawaiUK www.shigerukawai.de IPJA17.indd 2 06/06/2017 15:29:39 CONTENTS © SIM CANETTY-CLARKE © SIM CANETTY-CLARKE 16 34 © ABU DHABI FESTIVAL © PRINTEMPS DES ARTS DE MONTE- © PRINTEMPS DES ARTS 52 57 Contents 5 EDITORIAL willing to explore International Music SPECIAL FEATURES Finding solace in music unusual repertoire? Competition 16 SHARED EXPERIENCE 6 LETTERS 34 RED OCTOBER 52 LIVE REVIEWS Canadian virtuoso Your thoughts and London Piano Festival Concert coverage from Marc-André Hamelin comments marks the centenary of London, Bergamo and shares his passion for rare Russia’s 1917 revolutions Monaco’s Printemps des repertoire and explains 8 NEWS & EVENTS Arts festival why it’s important to Steinway & Sons opens 36 IN TUNE WITH understand the mechanics Paris showroom | The THE TIMES 57 CULTURAL PEARL of music Leeds announces annual New technology that’s Abu Dhabi’s flourishing piano festival | New changing the art of piano festival puts a spotlight on 25 OWN BRAND Chopin competition on tuning culture in the Arabian IP celebrates the period instruments | Gulf achievements of pianist- and more… 39 KEY NOTES composers How to practise scales – 65-74 NEW RELEASES 10 ONE TO WATCH and make it enjoyable CDs, DVDs, books and 30 SCORING POINTS Russian émigré Yulia sheet music Andrew Brownell Chaplina 43 SHEET MUSIC introduces his new The Christopher Norton 76 TAKE FIVE edition of Hummel’s 13 COMMENT Pacific Preludes Collection Jazz legend Duke Concerto in A minor Don’t underestimate pianists from Boosey & Hawkes Ellington in their youthful prime 61 PEAK PEFORMANCE 48 COMPETITION FOCUS 78 MUSIC OF MY LIFE Beethoven’s mighty 14 ILL-TEMPERED CLAVIER Down to the wire at this Hungarian pianist and Hammerklavier Sonata Why aren’t audiences year’s Montreal conductor Tamás Vásáry on disc July/August 2017 International Piano 3 IPJA17_003_Contents 0706OM.indd 3 07/06/2017 15:03 18501 Steinway Int. Piano (Grimaud) July_Layout 1 07/06/2017 16:30 Page 1 “Thank you for providing pianos that have personality and even more importantly, soul.” HÉLÈNE GRIMAUD steinway artist photography: mat hennek mat photography: STEINWAY HALL LONDON 44 marylebone lane, london w1u2db for more information or to arrange a private appointment at our london showrooms, please call: 0207 487 3391 or email [email protected] IPJA17.indd 4 07/06/2017 16:46:06 EDITOR’ S NOTE Welcome henever a society suffers an appalling Managing Editors Ashutosh Khandekar, trauma, such as the recent terror attacks on Owen Mortimer the UK, concerts can become a focal point Editor Owen Mortimer Wfor bringing people together. They are opportunities for Head of Design & Production / communities to share complex feelings – grief, anger, Designer Beck Ward Murphy Production Controller Gordon Wallis solidarity and empathy – through music. Advertising Sales Edward Croome It was a cruel irony, therefore, that the bomb detonated in [email protected] Manchester on 22 May should have been directed at music Marketing Manager Alfred Jahn Director of Finance and Operations Tony Soave lovers leaving a concert. The following morning, pianist Publisher Derek B Smith Igor Levit posted a brief message on his Facebook page that Printed by HALSTAN UK, 2-10 Plantation Road, summed up the sense of helplessness and incredulity many Amersham, Buckinghamshire HP6 6HJ of us were feeling: ‘A terrifying horror,’ he began. ‘How do Distributed by Comag Specialist Division you work? How to make music? Just “shut off”? Every Tel: +44 (0)1895 433800 thought goes to the victims and their families.’ Advertising Then, a few hours later, another message from Levit: ‘Music doesn’t help sh*t’. He Tel: +44 (0)20 7333 1733 Fax: +44 (0)20 7333 1736 was reacting to a post from a fan who said artists should ‘respond with something other Production than despair and hate and helplessness’, but his bluntness and negativity prompted an Tel: +44 (0)20 7333 1751 immediate outcry. ‘At first I was very upset with you, but then I listened to your music’, Fax: +44 (0)20 7333 1768 said one comment: ‘I cried, I smiled, I felt happy then very sad again. So what the hell is Editorial wrong with you?’ Tel: +44 (0)7824 884 882 A top flight performer whose recordings of works such as Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations [email protected] www.rhinegold.co.uk | www.international-piano.com have been widely praised, Levit is clearly capable of deep emotion. His negativity, however, Twitter: @IP_mag stemmed from a rejection of the bigger claim often made about music, namely that it is Subscriptions a force for moral good – an idea that goes back to Plato’s Republic. Recent history is more Tel: +44 (0)1795 414 650 equivocal on this point, demonstrating that even inherently ‘good’ music can be co-opted [email protected] 800 Guillat Avenue, Kent Science Park, for evil ends. Sittingbourne, ME9 8GU, UK Beethoven is the supreme example of a composer whose music is frequently associated No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or any means (electronic, with goodness, yet his assertion that ‘strength is the morality of the man who stands out mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior permission of Rhinegold Publishing Ltd. The views expressed here from the rest’ was also beloved of the Third Reich. This underscores the fact that the arts are those of the authors and not of the publisher, editor, Rhinegold Publishing Ltd or its employees. 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Music may NY 11434, USA Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent. then help enormously in making a positive contribution to society, counteracting the Editorial and image research services for International Piano are despair (so vividly expressed by Levit) that follows horrific events. provided by C Sharp LLP OWEN MORTIMER EDITOR © Copyright Rhinegold Publishing 2017 International Piano is proud to be a media partner of the International IP is available as an interactive International Piano NO.44 JUL/AUG 2017 £5.50 www.international-piano.com Piano Series at Southbank Centre digital magazine from PEAK PERFORMANCE INSIDE Beethoven’s mighty SHEET MUSIC Hammerklavier CHRISTOPHER NORTON’S PACIFIC PRELUDES on disc pocketmags.com, iTunes and JULY/AUGUST 2017 FROM BOOSEY & HAWKES SEE PAGE 43 SCORING POINTS Editing Hummel’s COMPOSING Concerto No 2 AT THE KEYS INTERNATIONAL Do we judge the works GooglePlay – read on your PLUS of pianist-composers NEW TECHNOLOGY too harshly? FOR TUNING MAKE SCALE PRACTICE iPad, iPhone, Android device, FUN PIANO MARC-ANDRÉ www.international-piano.com HAMELIN Irrepressible explorer 07> SERIES 2016/17 Kindle Fire or computer. 077005 772042 9 App FREE, single issues £2.99 July/August 2017 International Piano 5 IPJA17_005_Editorial_0806OM.indd 5 08/06/2017 12:59 LETTERS LETTERS Write to International Piano, 20 Rugby Street, London, WC1N 3QZ, email [email protected] or tweet @IP_mag. Star letters will receive S P O N S O R E D BY a free CD from Hyperion’s best-selling Romantic Piano Concerto series HYPERION RECORDS SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL pianist who plays Rachmaninov’s Piano FOR THE RECORD Thank you for your recent cover article Concerto No 3 but has chosen not to I find it puzzling that Bryce Morrison, about Yuja Wang. I especially enjoyed the perform No 2. Does this make her less of a surveying recordings of Liszt’s Bénédiction additional commentary about Martha pianist than someone who performs both de Dieu dans la solitude (IP May/June, Argerich, since Ms Wang and Argerich concertos? My friend also happens to have page 57) chooses Alfred Brendel and happen to be two of my favourites. However, the Tchaikovsky Second Concerto in her Garrick Ohlsson for special praise, but I was unsettled by the following assertion: repertoire but has only had two or three only in their first recordings of the work ‘There are several ways in which Yuja opportunities to perform it.