March April 2021.Pdf

Home , Awadagin Pratt, Benjamin Dale, Burkard Schliessmann, Chandos Records, Eugen Indjic, Philip Fowke

No. 72 • March/April 2021 www.international-piano.com INSIDE 14 PAGES OF

EXPERT ADVICE FOR EVERY PIANO ENTHUSIAST SHEETFREE MUSIC IVAN I L I C Off the beaten track with Reicha in rural France SUMMER NOTES ITALIAN Festival highlights STYLE in 2021 Pianism in the land of opera

£5.99

PLUS Russian pianist Yulia Chaplina on Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby Should we care if Chopin was gay? NEVER FELT SO GRAND

THE NEW CLAVINOVA CLP SERIES With stunning new Yamaha CFX and Bösendorfer concert grand binaural samples and ultra-responsive GrandTouch™ keyboards, the new Clavinova CLP-700 Series delivers the innovative playing features of a digital piano with the sound and touch of a grand.

Colours / Finishes

Polished Black Dark Dark White Polished White Ebony Rosewood Walnut Ash White

CLP-785 available in Polished Ebony, Black and Polished White only. CLP-765GP and CLP-795GP available in Polished Ebony and Polished White only.

® yamaha.com/clavinova CONTENTS

5 EDITORIAL Sonatas in the sun 6 LETTERS 24 Your thoughts and comments 14 7 NEWS & NOTES COLLECTION POTTER TULLY Remembering Chinese pianist Fou Ts’ong ••• Leeds Competition announces Virtual First Round shortlist ••• Kawai unveils new Digital Grand series 10 ONE TO WATCH Luxembourgian pianist and teacher Sabine Weyer 12 IN BLACK AND WHITE Should we care if Chopin was gay? 24 RUSSIAN COCKTAIL Nicholas Walker introduces his complete 39 recorded survey of Balakirev’s piano works 26 MORE TO EXPLORE Howard Shelley leads the London Mozart Players’ Piano Explored concerto series 33 SOUND TRUTHS Part VI – e methodological magic of micro-practising 36 NOURISHING STUDIES How to develop all-round musicianship rather than focusing on technical achievement SHEET MUSIC 74 39-43 REPERTOIRE FOCUS Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby Op 16/1 39 Masterclass with Yulia Chaplina 41 Know the score 45 NEW MUSIC I Mosaic from Editions Musica Ferrum 53 NEW MUSIC II Two pieces by Patrick Brandon JULIE KIM FLORENT LARRONDE FLORENT 58 COMMUNICATING WITH CONVICTION Jean Muller on the latest instalment of his SPECIAL FEATURES Mozart sonatas cycle 14 KEYBOARD MAVERICK 22 MAESTRO OF MECHANICS 60 DREAMING OF BRAHMS Serbian-American virtuoso Ivan Ili´c Colin Clarke visits the workshop of Pianist Nada completes her comprehensive shares his fascination with the music legendary Italian piano technician survey of Brahms’ piano music of Reicha Angelo Fabbrini 62-72 NEW RELEASES CDs, DVDs, books and sheet music 19 SINGING THEIR PRAISES 28 FESTIVAL FOCUS 74 MUSIC OF MY LIFE Italy is celebrated as the birthplace Live and online events for pianists Clare Hammond reveals the recordings that of opera, but what is the essence of around the globe in 2021 have helped her in times of diculty Italian pianism?

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 3 New for March The next eagerly awaited instalment in Bavouzet’s acclaimed Haydn cycle features six sonatas from Haydn’s early, middle, and late periods.

‘Bavouzet more than holds his own and, ,me and again, seems to oﬀer a fresh ear to these sonatas, as if this is as much his ggreat adventure as ours’ - Gramophone

‘This con,nuing series is turning into a real classic’ -The Observer CHAN 20131 EDITOR’S NOTE Sonatas in the sun

estival promoters had a particularly hard time during the rst technicians: Angelo Fabbrini, whose modi ed Steinway pianos are wave of the pandemic. Box o ces were already open when the favoured by gures such as Pollini, Brendel, Barenboim, Zimerman and lockdowns began, prompting a slew of cancellations across Schi . What makes his instruments unique? Find out on page 22. the world. So it’s heartening to see a large number of festivals Talking of the qualities that make a good piano, our cover artist Fbouncing back con dently with exciting plans for 2021, ranging from Ivan Ilić has recently fallen in love with the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX – the full-scale live events to online programmes. Japanese maker’s agship instrument, built using what the company It’s interesting to note the di erent approaches being taken by website describes as an ‘Experimental creation process’. Ilić explains promoters, depending on their location. European festivals are being the why this is his ideal piano, and how it is helping to take his artistry to most bullish with their plans to present live concerts, while UK promoters new heights. We also get a glimpse inside his studio in Southern France, are typically o ering a mix of live and streamed programming – hedging a ording us some much-needed cheer while we wait for the summer their bets in case the lockdown continues (or returns) in the summer. season to roll round… Several of the key North American piano festivals are yet to Owen Mortimer, Editor announce any plans for 2021, but those which have are shifting much or all of their activity online. Our Festival Focus International Piano off ers a rich mix of inspiration and guidance to on page 28 o ers a round-up of highlights con rmed so far. pianists and piano fans around the world, from dedicated amateurs I for one can’t wait to get back on the road and and students to professional pianists, teachers and afi cionados. experience the thrill of live music-making. In the meantime, Celebrating the piano in all its forms, including the fortepiano and I’m doing my best to travel vicariously, which is why this digital keyboards, each edition of our magazine is packed with interviews, features, news and reviews showcasing the top artists of issue of International Piano includes a special focus on piano today and yesteryear. Practical advice for players runs the gamut from music in Italy. It’s curious that despite the piano having been articles on technique and repertoire to learning resources and study invented in Florence, there were no great Italian piano makers courses, plus the latest developments in piano technology. until Paolo Fazioli founded his workshop in 1981. On the Our goal is to draw together the fascinating strands that make other hand, Italy has produced its fair share of piano the piano such a popular instrument, enhancing every composers from Scarlatti to Einaudi, as well reader’s knowledge and supporting those who strive to master its challenges. as some of today’s leading artists – Maurizio Pollini, Federico Colli and Beatrice Rana, to INTERNATIONAL PIANO PARTNERSHIPS name just three. Notable Italian piano makers may be thin on the ground, but in Pescara near Venice you can nd the workshop of one of the world’s most famous living piano

@IP_mag fb.com/internationalpiano

EDITORIAL ADVERTISING © MA Music, Leisure and Travel Ltd, 2021. All rights reserved. No part of International Piano may Phone +44 (0)20 7333 1702 Phone +44(0)207 333 1741 be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, Editor-in-Chief Owen Mortimer Group Sales Manager Alisdair Ashman photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written [email protected] [email protected] permission of the publishing director. The views expressed Editorial Director Ashutosh Khandekar Production Controller Daniela Di Padova do not necessarily represent those of the editor. The presence of advertisements in International Piano implies Design Louise Wood +44 (0)20 7333 1727 no endorsement of the products or services off ered. Every Music Typesetting Beautiful Setting [email protected] www.markallengroup.com eff ort has been made to ensure the accuracy of statements in this magazine but we cannot accept responsibility for [email protected] errors or omissions, or for matters arising from clerical PUBLISHING or printers’ errors, or an advertiser not completing their , ISSN 2042-0773, EDITORIAL BOARD International Piano contract. We have made every eff ort to secure permission Phone +44(0)20 7738 5454 (USPS 7295) is published monthly by to use copyright material. Where material has been used Iain Burnside, Peter Froundjian, Adam Publishing Director Owen Mortimer MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd, St Jude’s Church, inadvertently or we have been unable to trace the copyright owner, acknowledgement will be made in a future issue. Gatehouse, Stephen Hough, Donald Manildi Director of Marketing & Digital Strategy Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, United Kingdom. Please read our privacy policy by visiting Simon Markson, Charles Owen, Roberto Luca Da Re http://privacypolicy.markallengroup.com. Prosseda, Johan Sandback, Mike Spring Marketing Manager John Barnett The US annual subscription price is $91.99. Airfreight and This will explain how we process, use and safeguard your data. Group Institutional Sales Manager mailing in the USA by agent named WN Shipping USA, 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Printed in the UK by SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BACK ISSUES Jas Atwal Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431. Pensord, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood, NP12 2YA Production Director Richard Hamshere US Postmaster: Send address changes to International Newstrade distribution by Seymour 020 7429 4000 Phone UK 0800 137201 Piano, WN Shipping USA, 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Circulation Director Sally Boettcher Overseas +44(0)1722 716997 Jamaica, NY 11434, USA Managing Director Paul Geoghegan Email [email protected] Subscription records are maintained at MA Music, Leisure Chief Operating O cer Jon Benson Subscriptions Manager Bethany Foy & Travel Ltd, Unit A, Buildings 1-5 Dinton Business Park, Chief Executive O cer Ben Allen Catherine Ford Road, Dinton, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP3 5HZ. UK Subscription Rate £64 Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent. Chairman Mark Allen

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 5

Distributed by in the UK www.international-piano.com EQUAL TEMPERAMENT SPONSORED BY SPONSORED RECORDS HYPERION di erent and special the to works di erent works and the greatest they play, no single so that multifaceted are interpretation fulls all aspects. is it a the impact that Ultimately particular interpretation makes us that personally of each on most.matters Australia Louw, Albury, John woke/non-woke test Charivari’s 70, page 14) will (Issue doubtless comments. many prowoke fairly split are preferences My groups the two between evenly composers s/he and pianists of this is what just cites.Perhaps would predicted Charivari have opposed I am to case, for my in whether extremism, all of forms liberal or conservative. Bruno Repp, via email Discover here: Discover Francesco Piemontesi Francesco , Nostalghia On Bach transcriptions for piano. for transcriptions smarturl.it/NostalghiaPiemontesi day musicians aim to revive the revive to aim musicians day presents original works of Bach, Bach, of works original presents pianist pianist Schnaus. Whereas many modern- many Whereas Schnaus. alongside Bach transcriptions and alongside Bachtranscriptions instruments used in Bach’s own time, time, own in Bach’s used instruments works inspired by Bach from Ferruccio Ferruccio Bach from by inspired works Busoni, Wilhelm Kempﬀ and Maximilian Wilhelm Kempﬀ Busoni, Piemontesi explores the tradition of Bach of tradition the explores Piemontesi You have a range of superb superb of a range have You wonderful so many are ere today but deserve but today recognition for their unique artistry and interpretations the of classics. reviewers on your whose sta articles found extremely I have and enjoyed informative overenormously the – such years Nicholas, Bryce Morrison as Jeremy but mention to Ivry, and Benjamin I hope be they willing may toa few. suggestions. my pursue it that today around pianists riches. of is embarrassment an Nevertheless, nd myself I still the to who pianists returning initial introduction to my were come I have to music. classical trying that realise identify to the is work any of best interpretation time. great All a waste of largely interpreters bring something www.pentatonemusic.com NEW ALBUM!

EACH TO HIS OWN Joseph Laredo, via email International been reading I have Piano since its inception and seems Vásáry notice Tamás that under slipped theto have in radar pianist is a superb He years. recent who musician wouldand great be interview an for idealan subject or and Kemp Arrau article. Similarly, fashion of out seem be to a bit was encouraged to study was encouraged to study Second Concerto Brahms’ (a as quintessentially work) ‘male’ As Grimaud, for I a teenager. remember hearing of a broadcast Concerto First her playing Brahms’ – having missed the beginning and not knowing who was Her playing. the on music brutal assault almost this was a that no inkling gave interpretation! ‘feminine’ International Piano Re-establishing a rich pianistic tradition pianistic a rich Re-establishing March/April 2021 March/April

PIANO PTC 5186 846 So it was refreshing to turn to turn to So was refreshing it LETTERS 6 , St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, Road, London Church, Dulwich Piano, St Jude’s International Write to @IP_mag . Star letters or tweet email [email protected] series Piano Concertos Romantic Hyperion’s best-selling a free CD from will receive PATRIARCHY PATRIARCHY I noticed an interesting thread I noticed thread an interesting 70 – that running Issue through music, to attitudes women’s of women to attitudes and men’s that know We musicians. composers like Alma Mahler and Schumann Clara had to abandon their because ambitions how but pressures, patriarchal of the least) say (to disappointing Schi András a man of that ’s world the in music standing a chauvinist should express women towards vis-à-visattitude hisBeethoven. own not sure I’m playing can even be described as e ete. – I often nd it ‘masculine’ Grimaud Hélène of the attitudes Stefanovich, and Tamara the latter that read and to NEWS NOTES

Remembering Chinese pianist Fou Ts’ong NEWS IN BRIEF

ith the death of Fou Ts’ong Fou Ts’ong (1934-2020) e celebrated American Wthe world has lost an artist pianist and composer Chick of a rare and distinctive eloquence. Corea has died aged 79. e e rst Chinese pianist to Grammy Award- winning achieve international recognition, Corea was a giant of the jazz he came to attention at the 1955 COLLECTION POTTER TULLY scene whose experimental Chopin Competition in Warsaw approach saw him play a where he won third prize (the rst lead role in the development went to Adam Harasiewicz, the of jazz-rock fusion during second to Vladimir Ashkenazy). the early 1970s, working ere was surprise at his idiomatic alongside the likes of Miles command of the Mazurkas, then Davis, Keith Jarrett and John seen as the exclusive province McLaughlin. Corea was also of Slavic pianists. Today, as a noted performer of classical training and performance become repertoire and featured pieces ever more international, such from Bartók’s Mikrokosmos an assumption seems quaint, in duet concerts with fellow a damning with faint praise. pianist Herbie Hancock at Unsurprisingly, during his long the end of the ’70s. Corea and intensive career Fou Ts’ong went on to record two albums became a specialist in Chopin with Austrian concert pianist and recorded most of the major Friedrich Gulda, including a genres, apart from the Waltzes and double piano improvisation Impromptus which he viewed as on Brahms’ Wiegenlied and salon alternatives to seriousness. Mozart’s Concerto for Two Settling in London he married His eetness and compulsive Vnukowski. Warsaw’s Fryderyk Pianos K365. Corea gave the into musical royalty, the Menuhin brilliance made him born for Chopin Institute praised Ts’ong’s premiere of his own piano family, and his subsequent Scarlatti, often in the lesser- ‘unique gift for conveying concerto with the London divorce was a blow to his early known sonatas, and there were Chopin’s greatness to the world Philharmonic Orchestra in career prospects. His intellectual exceptional readings of Bach, both in words and, above all, 1999. A full assessment of parents had both committed Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and through his playing.’ Corea’s life and work will be suicide, victims of China’s Cultural especially Debussy. Few pianists A special album marking published in the May/June Revolution, and it is possible to have played a more evocative Ts’ong’s 60th birthday was issue of International Piano. hear in Ts’ong’s playing of Chopin ‘La cathédrale engloutie’ or jointly issued in 1994 by Martha chickcorea.com – particularly in the later stages captured the thrumming guitars Argerich, Leon Fleisher and Radu of his career – a vehemence, even and sultry Spanish atmosphere Lupu. ey wrote: ‘Fou Ts’ong Applications are now open anger, underlying that composer’s of ‘La sérénade interrompue’ became one of the great teachers for the 5th Takamatsu tormented genius. Ts’ong with sharper focus. Like all great of our time. We are obliged to International Piano compelled you to rethink Chopin artists Ts’ong’s playing invited Fou Ts’ong for all his new ideas Competition, which will take through playing of an intense, controversy, but even when in and for opening new musical place in Takamatsu City, Japan, vivid and personal commitment. later years you might object to a horizons for all of us.’ from 15 to 28 March 2022. e In his hands, Chopin was no certain angularity and push-pull Fou Ts’ong was a force rst prize package comprises drawing-room dreamer or dandy rubato, your attention was riveted of nature, a mesmeric and JP¥3m (£20,400) plus but a gure of formidable and by the force of personality. irreplaceable artist. opportunities to give recitals challenging poetic strength. Tributes to Ts’ong have poured BRYCE MORRISON and concerto performances in But if Chopin was at the in from many quarters, including Japan and overseas. Deadline: heart of Ts’ong’s repertoire, pianists Yuliana Avdeeva, Fou Ts’ong, pianist, born 10 March 20 September 2021. For details it was nonetheless extensive. William Youn and Daniel 1934, died 28 December 2020 visit tipc.jp

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 7 NEWS & NOTES

Leeds Competition announces NEWS IN BRIEF Virtual First Round shortlist Pianist Richard Goode has been appointed to join he Leeds International Piano BBC Four TV will cover the nals. the distinguished artist TCompetition has selected e concerto nal with the Royal faculty of Maryland’s

63 pianists from 28 countries to PRICE SIMON JAY Liverpool Philharmonic will be Peabody Institute at Johns take part in this year’s Virtual conducted by Andrew Manze, Hopkins University, lling First Round, which will be held in the orchestra’s principal guest the vacancy left by Leon cities around the world from 6 to conductor. Fleischer’s death in 2020. 10 April 2021. Adam Gatehouse said: ‘It is Goode is celebrated for his e competition’s pre-selection clear from the large increase in interpretations of Classical jury, chaired by artistic director the number of applicants we’ve repertoire and was the rst Adam Gatehouse, listened to received that musicians have American-born pianist to 264 applicants – a 43 per cent a strong need to be heard and record a complete cycle of increase in applications since the connect with audiences. We are Beethoven’s piano sonatas. previous competition in 2018. Adam Gatehouse: ‘We are here here to support all our pianists Fred Bronstein, dean of Four British nationals have been to support all our pianists on their on their Leeds journey, and will the Peabody Institute, said: selected as well as competitors Leeds journey’ provide a programme of advice, ‘Richard is one of those from Morocco, Kazakhstan, masterclasses and industry rare ed artists whose Tajikistan, Iran, Israel and Peru. 2021. Cash prizes worth over insights to help build their careers, depth of musical thinking Local lm crews have been £90,000 are up for grabs, together no matter how far their journey and communicative lined up to capture the rst-round with a prize package that with the competition takes qualities make his performances in high-de nition includes artistic management them. We aim for everyone to be concert performances sound and vision. e jury will by Askonas Holt, concerto and transformed by the experience and masterclasses truly hear a 25-minute recital from recital engagements with leading of coming to our city and taking memorable events. He will each of the 63 pianists before international orchestras and part, whether that’s through the be an inspiring presence for selecting 24 to go through to the venues, a studio recording with friendships they make or the faculty, students, and our second round in Leeds. Warner Classics and mentoring opportunities they nd.’ entire Peabody community.’ e second Round, semi- nals from the performer-led jury, e full shortlist of 63 pianists Goode will take up his new and nals of the 20th Leeds chaired by Imogen Cooper. chosen to take part in the Virtual position at the beginning of International Piano Competition All rounds will be broadcast First Round can be found on the the 2021-22 academic year. are scheduled to take place in on BBC Radio 3 and streamed Leeds Competition website. peabody.jhu.edu Leeds from 8 to 18 September worldwide by Medici.tv, while leedspiano.com Kawai unveils new Digital Grand series

awai has launched a new reproduces the distinctive tonal Kseries of high speci cation character of the Shigeru Kawai Digital Grand pianos with the SK-EX concert and SK-5 chamber touch and sound of an acoustic grand pianos, plus a wide variety grand piano. e rst model of other acoustic pianos and in the new range is the DG30, instrumental sounds. ese are priced at around £4,000. heard via a powerful 4-speaker is compact, a ordable output system developed in piano combines the latest collaboration with Japanese advances in keyboard design audio specialists, Onkyo. and sound technology. Features e DG30 also incorporates include Kawai’s ‘Responsive Bluetooth technology, allowing Hammer III’ keyboard action, the instrument to integrate with incorporating graded hammers, a wide variety of apps, as well as counterweights and triple- for audio stored on a smartphone sensor key detection to o er or tablet to be played wirelessly an authentic grand piano feel. through the piano’s speakers. Kawai’s DG30 ‘Progressive Harmonic Imaging’ kawai.co.uk Digital Grand

8 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com

ONE TO WATCH VITO LABALESTRA VITO

Mysterious a n i t i e s

Sabine Weyer talks to Colin Clarke about her new solo album that pairs two composers whose work is mutually illuminating, in spite of living a generation apart and in diﬀ erent cultures

ysteries, a new album from Ars Produktion, could be more so.’ She was introduced to Myaskovsky by con rms that the Luxembourg-born Sabine Nicolas Bacri, the companion composer on the Mysteries Weyer is among the most important young disc. When she took Bacri’s Second Sonata to play to him, pianists of today. Coupling music by Nikolai the composer asked whether she knew his ird Sonata – a MyaskovskyM (1881-1950) and French composer Nicolas work dedicated to the memory of Myaskovsky. ‘I knew some Bacri (born 1961), the recording demonstrates a questing of Myaskovsky’s symphonies, but I didn’t know he wrote intellect in tandem with fearless technique. piano sonatas. I got interested in the huge evolution of Music was very important in Weyer’s family. ‘One of this composer from full-blown Romanticism to something the highlights was when I heard Grigory Sokolov. He had much more expressionistic later on, then retreating a little a huge impact on my understanding of music and the under Stalin to a more traditional style. It was quite clear way I wanted to perform it. I was studying Beethoven’s I’d like to play Sonatas Nos 2 and 3 early on, and that makes Tempest Sonata. Sokolov played it very di erently from sense as I was studying Bacri’s Second and ird Sonatas.’ me, exaggerating everything, and for the rst time I Her new album is titled Mysteries because of experienced someone so extreme in their convictions. It Myaskovsky’s Second Piano Sonata, with its ‘mysterious, overwhelmed me. It made me realise that as an artist you lugubrious, passionate feeling; one can also feel fear and have to believe so deeply. He did it so honestly.’ anger, which was to be explored further in the ird Honesty is something I hear in Weyer’s recordings too, Sonata, mirroring what was happening in Russia at the including her fabulous account of Shostakovich’s Second time.’ Myaskovsky’s piano writing, says Weyer, is ‘very Concerto with the Nordwestdeutche Philharmonie pianistic in the way you feel he’s coming from Chopin and Sabine Weyer: ‘As (ARS38256). Weyer admits a ‘particular a ection’ for the late Scriabin Sonatas. But it is also virtuosic. It was a an artist you have to Russian music, especially from the early 20th century: huge challenge for me, and that’s why I’m so happy to have believe so deeply’ ‘ ere are so many works that are not well known and done it. You can’t say it’s anti-pianistic, it’s just di cult.’

10 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com ONE TO WATCH

Myaskovsky was a lifetime professor of composition in at’s something I admire.’ Playing to Bacri himself was Moscow, but he never taught piano. important: ‘Speaking with him, he’s passionate about e Second Sonata features the Dies irae – shades composers who are not known. He’s like a dictionary. of Rachmaninov perhaps? ‘I don’t know of any speci c Talking to him was inspiring.’ Rachmaninov in uences, but I think this is just very So far, Weyer’s discography features Baroque, Romantic Russian,’ says Weyer. She opted to couple the Sonatas with and modern repertoire, but nothing Classical. ere’s no Myaskovsky’s lighter Eccentricities – a set of short pieces particular reason for this, she says, though admits she reminiscent of Proko ev’s Visions fugitives in the manner has made a conscious decision only to record music ‘that of a sketchbook. really matches who I am’. While preparing for the new recording, Meyer went to e pandemic has a ected musicians especially, but Moscow to meet Myaskovsky’s grand-niece, who took her Weyer can still teach, which provides some income. to the apartment where the composer worked. ‘I played ‘It’s hardest psychologically to know you’re preparing his piano and saw where he spent most of his time. ere something that might not happen.’ Hobbies of reading were some manuscripts, but most of them had been given and classical dance keep her sane. ‘I do ballet, not on a to the Moscow Library. I play the Sonatas from the Chant professional level, but I take classes almost every day. It du Monde edition.’ requires the same discipline and focus as music.’ IP Weyer feels that Myaskovsky and Bacri illuminate each other: ‘ e dark moods; the use of a single movement; the use of fugue. Bacri’s ird is dedicated to Myaskovsky – the spirit is the same. Bacri is not a contemporary composer who likes to write serial or atonal music, he Sabine Weyer’s Mysteries is more into tonality, melody.’ Indeed Bacri believes that is now available from Ars music should be written for the audience, expressing Produktion (ARS38313). humanity. Weyer describes Bacri’s music as lyrical, deep, sabine-weyer.com rich and authentic. ‘He’s always resisted compromising.

MSMNYC.EDU Oce of Admissions and Financial Aid Manhattan School of Music 130 Claremont Avenue, New York, NY 10027 917-493-4436 [email protected] it all happens here. www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 11 IN BLACK AND WHITE Should we care if Chopin was gay? Debating the sexuality of musical icons oﬀ ers a fuller and more tolerant understanding of our formative cultural inﬂ uences, argues Benjamin Ivry

he sexuality of composers has rarely infl uenced performances of Frédéric Chopin Ttheir works. Biographies describing (1810-1849) Benjamin Britten as a paedophile and Percy Grainger as a fl agellant have not altered the way their music is played or heard in concert and on recordings. So why was vast international media attention accorded to a Swiss Radio (SRF) broadcast in November 2020 that claimed to ‘out’ Chopin? Th e programme, authored by broadcaster Moritz Weber and still available on the SRF website (in English), provocatively targeted a Polish cultural institution, confusing it with the national politics of the country in which it is located. According to SRF, the ‘powerful’ Fryderyk Chopin Institute deliberately mistranslated Chopin’s aff ectionate letters to a male friend to hide the correspondents’ gayness. It so happens that Poland’s president Andrzej Duda was re-elected in August 2020 on an anti-LGBTQ+ platform. However, to assume that a piano institute located in Poland is equally hate-fi lled as President Duda, who called the LGBTQ+ movement ‘worse than communism’ and LGBTQ+ citizens ‘not people’, invites misunderstandings. Mistranslations always occur in publishing, but rarely intentionally. And gender controversies surrounding Chopin are nothing new. Across Europe through the 19th century, Chopin was routinely described as eff eminate, androgynous and womanly. Concluding that he was gay is neither novel, nor particularly insightful. Th e SRF SRF also alleges that Wikipedia is a Chopin’s purported gayness. Crowded with programme includes a number of dubious ‘reliable reference source’, before charging such errors and misinterpretations, the SRF assertions, implying for instance that ‘most it with overlooking Chopin’s sexuality. Yet programme nevertheless raised an extra- researchers’ agree that Chopin’s love aff air Wikipedia, usually shunned by academic musical question of value to piano lovers. with the writer Amantine Dupin, better researchers as a documentary source, What, if anything, should be done when a known under her pen name George Sand, features a ‘Talk’ section, extending over national composer, such as Tchaikovsky in was somehow fraudulent. Th is is in fact by no hundreds of pages in printed format, in Russia, might inconveniently belong to a means a majority view. which contributors and editors debate loathed and oppressed minority group?

12 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com IN BLACK AND WHITE

In the Nazi era, piano music by Jewish society, of erasing and effacing gay people notion of variant sexuality as if it were an composers such as Mendelssohn was and their cultural expressions. Realistically, unacceptable stigma, and on the other leaping simply banned in Germany or reattributed though, how much progressive thinking can to the conclusion that by acknowledging to acceptably Aryan creators. Today, in be expected from musicologists and music this sexuality, we might transform our entire homophobic countries such as Russia and critics, many of whom struggle to evaluate understanding of the piano music itself. A Poland, pianists (Sviatoslav Richter is one music itself competently, let alone delve into middle ground would be more productive: to example) and piano composers are fêted as subjects pertaining to human life, civil rights celebrate the personal complexities of Chopin national heroes while their status as despised and music’s role in wider society? and other potentially LGBT+ piano composers homosexuals is conveniently ignored. In the The SRF offered cod psychoanalysis of the intelligently and sensitively, without picking a US this year, minions of Donald Trump (who Scherzo No 4 in E major Op 54 as supposedly fight with anyone who fails to agree or even to made frequent statements hostile to LGBTQ+ reflecting ‘extreme holes in [Chopin’s] music’, show interest. rights during his presidency), bizarrely all because the composer was closeted. In this Some will always loftily dismiss such plagiarised music by gay American composer piece, we are informed, one portion is ‘very discussions with shrug, saying ‘What does Aaron Copland for a TV advert. sunny, and in the middle there’s one of the most it matter?’ But when minority rights are still In this context, open-minded discussion of depressing, melancholic and sad passages’. in the balance internationally, it does indeed the sexuality of piano composers has definite Meanwhile, in a diametrically opposed matter if a great keyboard composer was educational value. Perhaps some LGBT+ approach, in Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and gay, even if knowledge of Chopin’s sexuality piano students might be inspired to explore Times (Faber, 2018), the deservedly admired is unlikely to fundamentally change our music composed by gender pioneers and musicologist Alan Walker gave short shrift to perception of a figure whose music will inspirational forebears more diligently. the notion that Chopin may have been gay, with continue to be revered, gay or otherwise. IP Good-humoured tolerance of such debate is apparent distaste for the subject itself. one way of compensating for the tradition that Both extremes are unhelpful when it comes ‘Chopin’s Men’ can be streamed at has existed throughout history and in every to Chopin, on one hand shunning the very srf.ch/kultur/musik

Recently DiscoveReD RecoRDings

LimiTed QuanTiTies Order TOday

The www.marstonrecords.com Complete Josef Lhevinne 610 690 1703

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 13 COVER FEATURE Keyboard maverick Ivan Ili has taken a highly individual approach to his career as a pianist, from his esoteric choice of repertoire to the unusual instruments he plays. Michael Johnson visits the pianist in his characterful studio, hidden away in an idyllic corner of France

ust north of Bordeaux, the Médoc vineyards stretch to the horizon and graceful French chateaux punctuate the plantations. In the shadow of Château JPalmer, strains of Antoine Reicha’s piano music can sometimes be heard wafting across the ripening grapes. Ivan Ilić is practising on his Shigeru Kawai. e pianist is bringing Reicha’s music back into the mainstream with his third album in a series called Reicha Rediscovered, released by Chandos. Reicha’s L’Art de varier is the most ambitious cycle of variations for keyboard written between Bach’s Goldbergs and Beethoven’s Diabellis. For its range and technical demands, it clearly deserves a place in the repertoire. Ilić, 42, is an amiable, intellectually-driven musician who for 10 years has kept up a steady ow of neglected works that he discovers and introduces in recitals and recordings. Reicha’s music is his current favourite. His satisfaction comes from ‘developing an appetite for something that didn’t exist’. Bringing these works into the open, he says, ‘is probably the most important thing I can do.’ Recording the old warhorses of the repertoire yet again seems ‘wasteful’. e Serbian-American credits his bicultural background with broadening his outlook beyond his upbringing in Palo Alto, California. His parents, both con rmed music- lovers, kept young Ivan close to the arts world in San Francisco and in frequent exposure to his Belgrade roots. ‘If I didn’t have this Serbian background, I probably would not have become a musician,’ he says. Aged around 10, he had an awakening when he saw young Serbians performing at a very high level in Belgrade concert halls, many of the players around his own age. ‘It was like coming to another planet,’ he recalls. Audiences seemed to know the music and enjoy it in a relaxed atmosphere. e dominant wardrobe was casual. ‘I saw things that were unimaginable in California.’ Returning to the United States, he realised that a San Francisco concert was a very di erent a air – a glamorous, elitist, dressed- up social occasion for the well-heeled. He remembers being motivated to practise harder. ‘I wanted to be like those Belgrade kids,’ he tells me. Ilić’s American friends sometimes took music lessons after school but they didn’t see it leading anywhere. Outdoor sports were what attracted Californian youngsters. eir goals were to compete in state

FLORENT LARRONDE FLORENT championships or the Olympics. e fact that he was

14 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com COVER FEATURE

drawn to music is, he feels, inexplicable: ‘Some people are just hard-wired for it and some aren’t.’ After completing his undergraduate studies in music and mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, LARRONDE FLORENT Ilić moved to Paris aged 22 where he won a rst prize at the Paris Conservatoire and then went on to study at the city’s École Normale de Musique. By then, he had accepted that he was di erent. His studies in advanced mathematics transferred naturally into his music interests. Both are constructed on cerebral building blocks and both are complex pursuits, although he has no sympathy for aspiring pianists who complain about the di culty of learning fugues. ‘Compared to my university maths classes, complexity in music is a joke!’ he says. Shifting from maths to music as a mission in life just happened, he recalls. ‘I can’t even say it was a choice, because it didn’t feel like one. Something just clicked.’ He graduated with a double major, then plunged into music. Contemporary composition attracted him while still at university. ‘I took to it immediately,’ he recalls, and had the opportunity to give premieres of chamber and orchestral works. He has never found new works challenging: ‘Frankly, learning modern pieces felt easy to me compared to traditional repertoire.’ At Berkeley, he had worked under Robert Helps, a composer and pedagogue of some renown. Ilić still listens to recordings of Helps playing his own music, which he describes as ‘breathtaking’. Helps’ teaching style suited Ilić because it left room for independent study: ‘I knew I sti ing methods of its rival. It is less about practising the Ilić favours Shigeru was not going to be subjugated or hypnotised by a single standard repertoire and more about insights gleaned Kawai pianos for their teacher.’ Besides, Ilić believes most pianists are largely from lessons and masterclasses devoted to others. ‘I had a warmth, sparkle and autodidactic. ‘A teacher might contribute 20 per cent bird’s-eye view of the process – a most useful experience.’ reliability to a pianist’s development,’ he explains. ‘ e rest is Ilić favours the European touch, tone and repertoire, self-taught.’ but cannot work up much enthusiasm for the world of Ilić is happy to be a soloist, eschewing most ensemble music anywhere. Comparing the US to Europe, he warns work that comes his way. He also chooses to work that players in both worlds have become risk-averse over alone because he nds ensemble players can be poorly the past two or three decades. More than ever, recital rehearsed. Soloists, on the other hand, have their own programmes rely on the familiar warhorses such as Chopin, quality-control. ‘Ultimately, I’m a loner,’ he says. Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann. e occasional new Missing from his biography is any reference to piece might be o ered, but it will be dominated by old piano competitions, a traditional route to public favourites. ‘Without these composers, who would buy recognition. He once entered a competition in tickets?’ he wonders. ‘It’s really hard to ll 2,000 seats today.’ Norway but found the economics didn’t add up. After But he is trying, collaborating with living composers such realising he could record a demonstration CD for less as Scott Wollschleger, Keeril Makan and Melaine Dalibert: investment, he never entered another competition. ‘All three write music that I feel born to play.’ He has built a career on his own terms, seeking out On a more global level, he sees conditions worsening. music that appeals to him. ‘Look at the shrinking number of people who make music. His solo recordings have spanned past and Who has the drive to play the piano for their own pleasure present, including Debussy’s Préludes (on the Paraty after a day of work?’ In France, where he is now based, label), Godowsky’s 22 Chopin Studies (Paraty), e ‘how many schools have a music room or even a piano?’ Transcendentalist (Heresy Records), Feldman’s He deplores the vanishing piano in private homes both For Bunita Marcos (Paraty), Haydn symphonies in Europe and in the United States. ‘ ings are getting transcribed by Carl David Stegmann (Chandos) and much worse,’ he fears. ‘For all our careers and higher Reicha Rediscovered, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 (Chandos). incomes, we are much poorer, culturally speaking.’ He e École Normale de Musique was more to his recalls his own early years in an American public school, taste than the rigid Paris Conservatoire. Founded studying piano and singing in the school choir and even by Alfred Cortot in 1919, the school intentionally harmonising in a barbershop quartet: ‘Unimaginable broke from what Cortot considered to be the today… e free recorded music on internet sites is merely

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 15 Chandos Recording Reicha for 16 COVER FEATURE COVER

March/April 2021 D yourself,’ says. he substitute andapoor paradigm, for music-making play.a way of people watching other It’s dierent avery quality instruments available, to handicapping avoid like me’.someone in practising He best on the believes sparkle make dierence’. the all will ‘Shigeru the for which adistinct has French composer Belgian of late this sound, Joseph Jongen musicupcoming e for Chandos. CD, also to, butprobably plans yet recorded for his with aShigeru, drawnqualities. was ‘I to its warmth,’ says. He he hasn’t that Ilić for its sparkle loves reliability, and other among atop-of-the-line instrument from Kawai, JapanShigeru Musicians New Music of by and 20-volume the Grove Dictionary dwarfed all of papers, loose piles and folders albums, under are groaning bookshelves hundred the scores, and piano extremelyis t. Scattered around room are the probably a t to play piano,’ the very keep he And explains. he indeed, to need ‘I for afewminutes. pumping 60kg weights demo, oor,the Ilić andbefore our interview starting a gives me litters equipment toreorient myself. Exercise minutes few a property surrounded by needed I acres of vineyards. International Piano International Ilić for piano ideal Kawai ‘the says Shigeru is the private study, arefurbished outbuilding on his myuring Médoc, to the visit Ilić into his me led . e centrepiece disarray in this . e arare is six-foot

breaking the rules.’ the breaking ‘really Reicha at point which the was is started fugues. composer’s most famous, or infamous, 36,his set of Opus immediately andwas attracted name the to the journal that discussed Reicha’s Ili´c fugues. remembered Normale Musique, de pickedÉcole he up amusicology years in Paris, later studying andthe Conservatoire at the of recorded Several his music were found. to be nowhere at university while name 20years but samples ago some past. with the Ili´cencounters Reicha’s hearing recalls accidental of most important one Antoine his is Reicha dierent, caseis Each says, and he discoveries. to new onserendipity him depends and tolead mind curious He anaturally has have behind. composers left long-dead room andsending shivers downmy spine. around the reverberating powerfully out of Shigeru, the touch andrangene of dynamics. of Awall bursts sound insists, before ademonstration he givingme true!’ of his quality, warmth the of lacking European the tradition. ‘Not metallic generalisation have that pianos Asian acold, musically,’me, against And explains. warns he he the day ‘opened has almost every up alotof avenues for instrument the with hours Spending essentials. other phrasing with and him toexperiment encourages and oers variety Shigeru ofhimself. him e awide colours Friends often ask him where he nds the music the thatFriends nds oftenask he him where www.international-piano.com

SIMON ASTRIDGE COVER FEATURE

‘Watching free music on internet sites is a poor substitute for music-making yourself ’ FLORENT LARRONDE FLORENT

Ilić studied more Reicha scores and ‘couldn’t What might be next for Ilić? Could he become a ‘Ultimately, I’m a loner’ believe what I was reading’. Well ahead of its time, conductor – an increasingly frequent career path for the language was similar to that of Beethoven and ambitious pianists? He dismisses that idea as something Haydn but occasionally foreshadows Schumann, Liszt of a cliché. Although he studied conducting as a young and Alkan, all composers who were not yet born. One music student, he considers it like ‘falling into a trap’ for a of his Fantaisies was in 5/8 time, an innovation that pianist. Instead, he concentrates on the keyboard instead Bartók and Stravinsky were to discover later. ‘So much of ‘waving my arms in front of an orchestra and hoping no piano writing in this era was light and decorative, one will notice’. even frivolous. But Reicha is meaty, and that got More pressing is the impact of the pandemic, which has me interested.’ He learned some of the fugues and devastated the prospects and earnings of so many soloists. started programming them into his recitals. He had no In the short term, he said, the impact is catastrophic. notion what to expect but the audience reaction was Most of his solo concerts in France and elsewhere around ‘overwhelmingly positive, thankfully,’ he recalls. Europe have been cancelled, often at short notice. But How could it be that 15 hours of this innovative he sees reason for optimism. In the medium term it may piano music, composed by a student of Haydn, bring the emphasis back to more intimate salon-style friend and contemporary of Beethoven, and teacher concerts, which he prefers. IP of Berlioz, Liszt, Franck and Gounod, remains so little-known today? As Ilić took an active interest in Reicha, he discovered that virtually nobody had heard his piano music. Only his works for wind ensembles had achieved some recognition. Nobody could even pronounce his name. Producers at Swiss Radio, where Volume 3 of Ivan Ilić’s Ilić had been an active contributor, heard him play the Reicha Rediscovered fugues and suggested an album. Ilić had already been series is now available in touch with Chandos Records, but as soon as the from Chandos Records Swiss said it, ‘I knew this was absolutely what I had to (CHAN20194). do.’ A series of ve CDs was soon launched, to critical ivancdg.com acclaim across Europe.

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 17 PIANOS FOR LIFE

For generations, the Kawai family has blended knowledge, skill, technology, and heart in the quest to perfect the art of the piano. So, whether you’re a world-renowned concert pianist or an artist on a journey to greatness, a Kawai piano is the perfect choice. www.kawai.co.uk

@KawaiUK @KawaiPianosUK The Future of the Piano NATIONAL STYLES Singing their praises Italy’s reputation as a centre for opera has overshadowed the nation’s rich pianistic heritage, full of formative inuences from the Baroque to the present day. Bryce Morrison gets to the heart of the Italian style

taly is, rst and foremost, the land of opera. In any technique and its teaching during a career largely based discussion of Italy’s musical legacy, the great names of in England. Clementi’s large-scale sonatas are of a opera trip o the tongue: Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bellini, signi cance in the development of piano composition Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini... If you’re looking that far outweighs his better-known studies collected Ifor emotion writ large, Italian opera has it all – the ideal in Gradus ad Parnassum. Later, Tuscan-born Ferrucio outlet for the natural and proverbial warmth and volatility Busoni (1866-1924) combined his virtuosity as a player of a nation. with his epic compositions (at the heart of Alfred Brendel’s It’s hardly surprising, then, that the musical gures repertoire) which range from a jeu d’ésprit such as his who rst spring to mind in connection with Italy are the Carmen Fantasie to gaunt, less genial oerings such as his likes of Caruso and Pavarotti. Yet it would be wrong if the Toccata and Elegies. dominance of opera were to overshadow Italy’s substantial Schools of piano-playing abound in Italy. e most pianistic heritage established over centuries, which is at prominent are based in institutions such as the least the equal of more obviously celebrated centres of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, founded piano playing. in 1585; the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan; In the early 18th century, there was Domenico Scarlatti. the Naples Conservatory of Music, whose graduates His 555 bi-part Sonatas may have been written in the include Aldo Ciccolini and Sergio Fiorentino; and the Iberian Peninsula where he spent most of his life, but International Academy Lake Como founded in 1933, Founding fathers: Scarlatti was a proud Neapolitan by birth. Meanwhile, now with Martha Argerich as its president and William Domenico Scarlatti Muzio Clementi, born in Rome in 1752, was a formative Grant Naboré as its director. e most recent arrival on (1685-1757) and Muzio inuence in keyboard playing, revolutionising its the scene is the grandly named Fondazione Accademia Clementi (1752-1832) CASA DOS PATUDOS DOS CASA BIBLIOTHEK DIITALE WOLFENBTTELER

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 19 NATIONAL STYLES

he two most celebrated of all Italian pianists Texemplify the stylistic opulence and temperamental extravagance of their cultural origins: Michelangeli and Pollini. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was wrapped in a skein of legends. Famously ‘dicult’ and aloof, his life TULLY POTTER COLLECTION POTTER TULLY was a rich source of gossip in which fact and ction were dicult to separate – worthy, indeed, of an operatic prima donna. Researching for a talk I was invited to give in Rome at a ‘Michelangeli Symposium’, I was shown a trunk full of papers in which EMI attempted to negotiate recordings with the Maestro: ‘No, I no longer want to record the Schumann Concerto…’ ‘Yes, I will consider the dates you mention…’ And, ‘Dear Mr Michelangeli, we would like to suggest...’ On and on it went with few conclusions – apart from the legendary release of Rachmaninov’s Fourth and Ravel’s First Concertos. Asked what he thought of contemporary music, Michelangeli asked, ‘What music?’ Interviewers who did not speak Italian were scorned; and his reputation as a teacher was no less eccentric. Asked about his work with Martha Argerich he said, enigmatically, ‘I taught her the music of silence’. Other students arrived for lessons only to nd that the maestro had departed for another country. But then there was the playing. is varied from what seemed like virtual perfection to a cold indierence (I once heard him in Mozart’s K488 Concerto and, as my then teacher, Ronald Smith put it, ‘It was as if he hated the music’.) Yet it was somehow typical that he should record Rachmaninov’s Fourth Concerto at a time when it was rarely played. Initially described by Alfred Cortot as ‘a new Liszt’, Michelangeli’s playing displayed a ‘Michelangeli sought Pianistica Internazionale di Imola ‘Incontri col Maestro’, exibility and warmth that as his repertoire diminished for a seemingly founded by Franco Scala in 1989. became increasingly severe. e technique remained unattainable ideal’ Accomplished musicians from all round the world have impeccable but the musical quality – though with poured out of the St Cecilia Academy, while the Verdi memorable exceptions – became increasingly detached, Conservatory counts Michelangeli and Pollini among its at several stages removed: a freezing up of the heat of life. graduates. But it is in Imola, to the east of Bologna, that Michelangeli sought for a seemingly unattainable ideal. international credentials really come to the fore: Vladimir In his latter years of concert-giving, the promise of new Ashkenazy is the honorary president of the academy repertoire-– in one case of couple of Chopin Waltzes – there and its faculty has included the virtuosic Russian would be cancelled and replaced by his old favourites. Lazar Berman. e Russian-Italian Boris Petrushansky is Maurizio Pollini’s career took a not unrelated trajectory. a major gure at the Imola Academy today. His prize- Rubinstein’s comment, ‘Technically, he plays better than winning students include Olga Kern and Sofya Gulyak, any of us on the jury,’ made after Pollini’s triumph in both Russians, and most recently and remarkably the the 1960 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, had a built-in Italian Federico Colli. quali cation: a hope, perhaps, that such mastery would Meanwhile, Italian teachers have been hugely inuential later extend to greater character and warmth. As it was, in shaping a generation of great pianists: Guido Agosti’sku Pollini’s rst major London all-Chopin recital was of a students include Maria Tipo and Hamish Milne; Vincenzo heroic grandeur and brilliance that I have seldom heard Scaramuzza taught Martha Argerich and Bruno Leonard- equalled. His performances of the F-sharp minor and Gelber; and Maria Curcio boasts an extraordinary list that A-at major Polonaises remain an indelible memory. A features Argerich, Barry Douglas, Leon Fleisher, Terence subsequent concerto appearance in Beethoven’s ird was Judd, Radu Lupu, Raphael Orozco, Mitsuko Uchida, etc. more unsettling. For one writer, he played as if ‘anxious ough Aldo Ciccolini made his home in Paris he was not to miss the next train from neighbouring Waterloo originally Italian and his international career still allowed station’. Afterwards, a polite question concerning Pollini’s him time to achieve a formidable reputation as a teacher. choice of tempo was answered with a ferocious scowl His students included Jean-Yves ibaudet (France), from the pianist. A hiatus followed before Pollini resumed Artur Pizarro (Portugal), Nicholas Angelich (US), Antonio a career that at one level carried all before it. e manner Pompa-Baldi (Italy) and Alfonso Soldano (Italy). was nervy and patrician and the term ‘Olympian’ became

20 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com NATIONAL STYLES

a byword in descriptions of his performances, notably in a pianists such as Andrea Lucchesini and Pietro de Maria Festival Hall recital of Schubert’s last three sonatas. remind me of the stylistic approach of a bygone era. I Pollini’s was a new, in nitely re ned voice – as if a recall Lucchesini’s dismay, when we were jury colleagues, reaction to past freedom, rebelling against the loose Italian at a pianist who bludgeoned us into submission with stereotype of ‘La dolce vita’. He made the world of those speed and noise. But listening to Federico Colli’s London who saw a composer as a springboard for personal and debut in Scarlatti and Schumann’s F-sharp minor Sonata preening excess seem oddly archaic and irrelevant, out of was to be reminded of an imaginative daring outside touch with musical truth. For some, his pianism seemed the bounds of the safe and narrow. Alfonso Soldano’s inexplicably removed from a composer’s emotional life. recording of Rachmaninov’s First Sonata, too, suggests Richter, always on the qui vive where other pianists were a willingness to ‘let go’. e playing is overwhelmingly concerned, saw Pollini’s playing as limited, provoking the vivid and intense. Beatrice Rana is another pianist of the comment, ‘Do you like armour-plated Chopin?’ younger Italian generation who has caught the public and I should add that, unlike Michelangeli, Pollini’s early critics by surprise with her impassioned performances. diculty with his public has resolved into a gracious Such artists would surely agree with Miss Jean Brodie’s and touchingly modest manner. He was saddened by belief that ‘safety does not come rst: goodness, truth and claims that he didn’t like Rachmaninov: in a 60th birthday beauty come rst’. interview he told me, ‘I don’t play him because he doesn’t e list of outstanding young Italian pianists is suit my temperament, but I would travel a thousand immense, a tribute to Italy’s conservatoires and a miles to hear Martha [Argerich] play the ird Concerto.’ lyrical tradition of music-making which promotes ‘the Pollini’s early recording of the Chopin Preludes, his rst perfectly balanced singing line’ (a comment on the pianist disc of the Chopin Etudes, the Polonaises, Schumann Benedetto Lupo). Ultimately the ‘school of Italian pianism’ Fantasie, etc remain classics of the recorded repertoire. is characterised by those who break with tradition and e history of piano-playing is one of action and recreate something unique for each generation. ese reaction – perhaps no more so than in the Italian School. are musicians who realise that in the long term, while Freedom gives way to severity, aloof re nement to schooling and tradition provide an invaluable foundation, Left, Aristocratic emotional audacity. It’s a bewildering mix of losses and in the nal resort you remain an individual. e motto of renement auriio gains. Today, the pendulum has swung away from the Italy’s piano world: ‘You have no choice – you can only be Pollini; Below, Emotional aristocratic worlds of Michelangeli and Pollini. Italian true to yourself ’. IP audacity: Beatrice Rana MATHIAS BOTHORD MATHIAS SIMON FOWLER

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 21 TECHNICIAN PROFILE

Maestro of mechanics CHRIS CHRISTODOULOU What deﬁ nes the exquisite sounds of a Fabbrini Steinway Colin Clarke visits the technician’s workshop in Italy to discover why his instruments are so highly sought after by the world’s great pianists

ngelo Fabbrini’s fabled Steinway showroom is time of visiting, pianos were travelling around the globe. a cornucopia of pianistic excellence, located a e transition time from factory Steinway to Fabbrini stone’s throw from the Adriatic Sea in Pescara, Steinway is around a year. I’m told Pollini has three or four Italy. e maestro himself was there on the day pianos reserved just for himself… IA visited, along with his coterie of devoted sta . anks to My host for the tour was the incredibly knowledgeable the translating skills of John Anderson, founder and owner and helpful administrative director Luca De Romanis. He of Odradek Records (also Pescara-based), I was able to explained that most of the Steinway pianos are selected enjoy an interview with the master piano technician. personally by Fabbrini himself because of their sound, Just as images of Michelangeli and Pollini adorn the their action, or a particular quality of tone. Fabbrini then Fabbrini website, so the walls of the Fabbrini o ce are presents them in optimal condition. ‘It is a challenge of bedecked with signed photos from the likes of Schi course to keep that condition, that character, without and Michelangeli. Elsewhere, one nds pianos signed by changing their personality,’ says De Romanis. Murray Perahia, Bruno Canino, Carlo Grante and Gianluca Meeting Angelo Fabbrini himself was a pleasure. I Cascioli, to name but a few. mention that I’ve been told how much work goes into the e showroom o ers pianos for students on one side, pianos. Fabbrini explains: ‘When I choose a piano it’s for professionals on the other. Not only Steinways reside here: a speci c quality that I like, so the job then is to maintain Yamaha, Kawai and Ho mann are all to be found. But it is that quality, and do everything possible to enhance Sir ndrs Schi plays the Steinways adorned with Fabbrini’s signature that hold it … It’s like a violin: sometimes it can be an excellent a abbrini Steinway at the principal draw. ere is a concert eet too, so what instrument, but changing the bow brings out still more. the C roms we see in the showroom is only part of the story – at the It’s the same with the piano. Despite the fact that many

22 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com TECHNICIAN PROFILE

people have already worked on the piano, you can work rst of all, it’s the artist who makes the sound. Our job is further on some of the mechanics, for example, which to provide an instrument that translates the idea to sound exalt the qualities of the piano even more.’ in a transparent way.’ ere are 15 technicians in Pescara, It is fascinating to learn something of Fabbrini’s own and a total of 30 throughout the company in Italy. Having history. His father worked in piano manufacture, then made such signi cant contributions to the piano world, Angelo worked in a Steinway factory (and others). But most it’s important to Fabbrini that he creates a lineage who of his experience has been in his own ‘laboratory’: ‘ e test, will continue his work. ‘Firstly there’s my son and nephew, when working with a speci c pianist, is to see if the work then there are young technicians who are promising.’ you’ve done pays o and is appreciated by that pianist.’ Fabbrini has occasioned music himself: ‘I am working Having experienced Pollini’s performances on many with a composer to create a piece for 100 pianos and occasions, I wanted to ask about Fabbrini’s relationship soloists – I can’t say the composer yet because rst I want with the great pianist. Fabbrini instruments naturally to hear the composition!’ In 2012, Polish composer Piotr have to compete with the pianos already provided in Lachert dedicated his Divertimento Maclé to Fabbrini as concert halls, ‘and in 60 years of activity Pollini has a surprise gift. Scored for piano four hands and ‘orchestra’ always maintained his loyalty,’ Fabbrini a rms. He then comprising up to 99 pianists, it was recorded in concert at mentions working with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli for the Pescara showroom by Duo Maclé (Annamaria Garibaldi over 17 years, and for 12 years with Nikita Magalo . e and Sabrina Dent) with an ensemble of 60 pianists list expands: Brendel, Barenboim, Zimerman, Maria Tipo conducted by the composer (see y2u.be/iLtMhxx8b5o). and András Schi (this last a 30-year partnership). Possibly the most fascinating exchange of our discussion For Michelangeli, it was consistency in the piano that comes when I ask Fabbrini about digital pianos: the very was important – hence turning o air conditioning Italianate dismissive gesture that preceded his words is at concerts, which can a ect the instrument. Both untranslatable but clear. He has now set up a promotion Zimerman and Barenboim liked their Fabbrini pianos o ering €1,000 part-exchange to take digital pianos if so much they bought them on the spot. But it was a student is willing to buy an acoustic piano. A way of Magalo who, Fabbrini says, paid him the highest ‘getting the guns o the streets’, one might say. compliment when he said, ‘ ank you, today I played In a nutshell, perhaps Michelangeli summed it up best without any mechanics’. Fabbrini explains that ‘the when he said to Fabbrini, ‘I’m the artist, but you prepare mechanics shouldn’t be an interruption, they should be a the colours for me’. Fabbrini’s job is to prepare the palette of conjunction. is is an impossibility, but it is sometimes the rainbow before each artist picks the colours they want. possible to create that sensation, at which point the Interestingly, Fabbrini names his pianos after painters: pianist is happy.’ When the pianist feels that their Giotto, Velásquez, Picasso and so on. But surely Fabbrini is thoughts are translated directly into sound, ‘they can an artist too: he still owns the rst Steinway he purchased, forget there is a mechanism in the way’. which has now become a piece of living history. e idea of a ‘Fabbrini sound’ can be a di cult concept It was inspiring to meet this maestro of mechanics and to grasp. More than 20 Japanese technicians tried to hear his pianos in action. Fabbrini’s old-style aesthetic and replicate the sound and were shown how Fabbrini painstaking hard work are rare qualities to be cherished. IP technicians work in the laboratory. But Fabbrini told them, ‘I can’t tell you how to get to the sound because, fabbrini.it

abbrini’s showroom in escara Inset ngelo abbrini ‘hen I choose a piano it’s for a speci c uality that I like’

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 23 PERSONAL TOUCH Russian cocktail Balakirev was a leading ﬁ gure of Russian Romanticism, with a colourful, contrapuntal style that left an indelible impression on the music of his compatriots. British pianist Nicholas Walker introduces his complete recorded survey of the composer’s virtuosic piano works

he only piano pieces by Balakirev that people minor, Piece in F-sharp minor (also completed by me), generally know are Islamey and e Lark, his Fandango-étude and Élégie on the Death of a Mosquito. famous transcription of Glinka’s song. Indeed, Finally, I added Balakirev’s coda to Chopin’s Scherzo as a student, the rst piece of Balakirev I learnt No 2 from her Compozitor Publishing House edition, Twas Islamey. My then teacher, the late and remarkable expanding my original ve-album plan to become six. Gordon Green, told me the Royal Academy of Music had Among the 69 works I’ve recorded there is not a single a large collection of Balakirev’s works and suggested I dud. A few pieces of juvenilia could be said to be slight, such should explore it. Strangely, apart from e Lark, I couldn’t as the Piece in F-sharp minor and Nocturne in G-sharp make much sense of them, though instinctively felt there minor, but they are always very attractive. e vast majority was something there. Several years later, I proposed of Balakirev’s output is of the highest quality, and some are recording Richard Strauss’s complete piano works for the undoubted masterpieces – such as the Sonata in B- at label ASV but was rejected (someone else was doing it), so minor Op 5, Scherzos and Reminiscences from Glinka’s ‘A Life spontaneously mentioned Balakirev. ey jumped at the for the Tsar’. Balakirev’s music has great charm, warmth, idea and I went on to make two Balakirev albums for ASV nostalgia and sincerity, and on each hearing it seems better before the company’s sad demise in the late 1990s. and better (with plenty of ‘ear-worms’ to boot!), which is ere was a long hiatus before Naxos revived the project. always the sign of good music. His style is rich in orchestral In the intervening years, I realised that Balakirev’s piano colour and contrapuntal detail, giving greater depth to output included a lot of unpublished and previously the texture. I think of it as a wonderful Russian cocktail of unknown work. I Chopin, Liszt and the orient. discovered some of Balakirev’s most famous piece is in many ways not it while visiting the typical of his output: Islamey is commonly perceived as Russian National oriental, percussive and designed for showing o , yet Library in St Petersburg only the oriental epithet is true. I would not describe in 2007, and was Balakirev’s music as percussive, though one might helped enormously by describe certain performances as such. e repetitions meeting Dr Tatiana in Islamey do indeed look percussive on the page, but in Zaitseva, a professor the folk music traditions of the peoples of the Circassian at the St Petersburg region of the North Caucasus, where Balakirev collected Conservatory and the main theme, percussion instruments only feature celebrated author of six to keep the beat, rather than carry the musical line. books about Balakirev. Traditional Circassian instruments are a three-stringed She facilitated copies of lute, a ute and an oriental type of violin, as well as wood the manuscripts of the blocks and a drum; the use of the accordion is a 19th- Sonatas Opp 3 and 5, as century addition, but one that has become characteristic. well as the 1884 version When I began to learn of these things my understanding of the Fifth Mazurka, of Islamey was completely changed. Besides, I had which I completed. always regarded it as being more orchestral than simply I was introduced to percussive. In this way the piece can be heard as music, several other works rather than as a gymnastic exercise. via Dr Zaitseva’s Each composer has their own soundworld: articulation, fascinating book Mili dynamics, phrasing and texture are completely di erent Alekseyevich Balakirev: in Mozart, Haydn and Clementi. Similarly, not all Russian Sources (Kanon, music should sound like Rachmaninov or Proko ev: Saint Petersburg one can’t simply apply the classic Russian/Soviet piano 2000), including the sound to Balakirev, Lyadov, Liapunov, Arensky or even Nocturne in G-sharp Tchaikovsky. If a composer is less familiar it often takes

24 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com PERSONAL TOUCH

time to understand and empathise with the way Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (1837-1910) they conceive sound. One of the reasons this series took me so long was that in he had indicated, and frequently entire order to play Balakirev’s music properly passages in other people’s compositions I had to become a much better became his and not their putative TULLY POTTER COLLECTION POTTER TULLY pianist. e music of Chopin, Liszt author’s at all.’ and Rachmaninov, to take three is is why we tend to think that pianist-composers, is often very Balakirev’s music reminds us of, say dicult, but it is almost always Borodin or Rimsky-Korsakov, but pianistic. Balakirev’s music has it’s really the other way around, in more in common with Beethoven that Balakirev’s musical language or Bach, in that it is music rst and precedes that of his students: the keyboard music very much second. Élégie on the Death of a Mosquito, Its Romantic textures are also for example, seems to have the greatly complicated by Balakirev’s sort of eccentricity later found contrapuntal approach, though to the in Musorgsky; the violin solo that listener this should sound completely represents the storyteller in Rimsky- natural, as it does in Chopin (whom, Korsakov’s Scheherazade is lifted straight incidentally, Balakirev adored). from Tamara; the augmented seconds so When I rst looked at Balakirev’s charming typical of Balakirev’s melodies – think of the Tyrolienne I thought it would not take long to opening of Islamey – are also beloved by Borodin. learn this apparently easy piece, but it took me over 20 In Balakirev, chromaticism ornaments a tonal fabric, years! I lived with the B-at minor Sonata for 14 years rather as the decorative frame of an icon ornaments before I felt ready to record it. Never before have I had the image. is became a feature of many later Russian such experiences (for instance I learnt Tchaikovsky’s composers, in particular Rachmaninov, whose symphonic First Concerto in ve days and Ravel’s G major Concerto poem e Rock also owes a debt to Tamara. Another in two-and-a-half weeks). A good number of Balakirev’s inuential feature of Balakirev’s style was his love of pedal works are at least as dicult as Islamey, if not more so, points. ey often recall Sibelius, simultaneously pulling some even bordering on impossibility such as the Sonata the musical fabric in two directions, which is as much Op 5, the transcription of Glinka’s Jota Aragonesa and the a feature of Balakirev’s early style (Islamey, the Polka, transcription of the Allegretto from Beethoven’s String the early sonatas, Mazurka No 1, Scherzo No 1) as his Quartet Op 59/2, to name just three. later style (the Sonata of 1905, In the Garden, La Fileuse, ere is only one biography of Balakirev in English, Gondellied, the Toccata, Tamara). Apart from piano that of the late Edward Garden. Very little else has been works, Balakirev also wrote really marvellous orchestral written about him, except in Russian, so you have to music and over 40 beautiful songs. read Tatiana Zaitseva to put Balakirev’s life and output in For the nal album in my series, I decided to transcribe context. Lots of musicians and writers dismiss Balakirev Balakirev’s masterly symphonic poem, Tamara, for solo based on a hearing of Islamey and the negative things piano, inspired by the fact that Balakirev played this Rimsky-Korsakov wrote in his memoirs, My Musical work on the piano for years before nally committing Life. us the image of Balakirev is skewed and largely it to paper. An ex-student of mine, Misha Krivoruchko, understood from a point of ignorance. He was an himself a wonderful pianist and enthusiast of Balakirev enormously inuential composer – hugely admired by and Lyapunov, said he thought transcribing it would be his contemporaries, a masterly pianist often compared impossible. I tinkered around the edges of the project for a favourably to Liszt and Rubinstein, and an inspirational long time until nally biting the bullet and devoting ve- teacher. Looking at the early works of Rimsky-Korsakov, and-half weeks to it, standing at the piano writing and for example it’s amazing that Balakirev saw any talent in experimenting for eight to ten hours every day – except them. Yet he encouraged the young composer to dare, one spent gathering rowanberries! I tried to make the which is what a good teacher should do. If Balakirev piece as easy as I could but Balakirev’s musical thought had made his pupils write harmony, counterpoint and is so rich that the resulting transcription is yet another orchestration exercises, as Rimsky-Korsakov later said piece bordering on the impossible. I’ve had a number of should have happened, I doubt we would have had the excellent teachers, Gordon Greene and Philip Fowke in marvellously disparate voices of the Mighty Handful. In particular, but Balakirev has been, from beyond the grave his memoirs, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote of Balakirev: ‘… he through his music, the greatest of them, teaching me how was a marvellous critic, especially a technical critic. He the impossible is in fact possible. IP felt instantly every technical imperfection or error, he grasped a defect in form at once [...] forthwith seating Nicholas Walker’s six-album series of Balakirev’s complete piano works is now himself at the piano, he would improvise and show how available from Grand Piano Records. nicholaswalkerpiano.com the composition in question should be changed exactly as

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 25 PREVIEW More to explore Howard Shelley unearths some unusual specimens of the piano concerto repertoire in his latest Piano Explored series with the London Mozart Players. Report by Jeremy Nicholas

usic lovers are all feeling like parched Players (LMP) led from the keyboard by their conductor travellers crawling across the desert in laureate Howard Shelley. Delayed from October 2020 to search of water, such is the thirst, still a starting date of 10 February this year, the series at the largely unquenched, for live concertgoing. historic church of St John’s Smith Square is being lmed for MIn London, one oasis that stretches across the horizon is online streaming and, if government rules allow, will open the latest Piano Explored series with the London Mozart up to a socially distanced audience as we go into the spring. So, some good news for concertgoers at last. And there are some surprises in store too: piano concertos CONCERT 1 | Now available ONLINE CONCERT 4 | Tuesday 27 April, 1:05pm by Moscheles and Hummel alongside more familiar fare Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto 2 in G / ONLINE from 13 May, 1:05pm from Mozart and Saint-Saëns. I asked Howard Shelley minor Op 22 Mozart Piano Concerto No 11 in F about this leap into the little-known. ‘We have a very loyal Mendelssohn Capriccio brillant in B major K 413 audience and as we’ve already done all the Beethoven minor Op 22 Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 2 in F concertos twice, along with the Grieg, Schumann, major Op 102 Mendelssohn and Shostakovich concertos, I thought it CONCERT 2 | Wednesday 10 March, was safe to try a few more unusual composers on our 1:05pm / ONLINE from 18 March, CONCERT 5 | Wednesday 26 May, audience. at’s how I came up with Moscheles and 1:05pm 1:05pm / potentially LIVESTREAMED Hummel. We did Cramer last season and that went down Mozart Piano Concerto No 21 in C Mozart Piano Concerto No 6 in B- at very well. Of course, these works really need more than major K 467 major K 238 one hearing to judge them, but they certainly contain a lot Moscheles Piano Concerto No 1 in F of beautiful music.’ CONCERT 3 | Wednesday 14 April, major Op 45 e LMP and Shelley are also presenting the unusual 1:05pm / ONLINE from 22 April, pairings of Mozart’s K413 with Shostakovich’s Piano 1:05pm All concerts will remain available to view online Concerto No 2, and Mozart’s rarely heard K238 with Hummel Piano Concerto No 4 in E for six months (except the Shostakovich Moscheles’ First Piano Concerto. ‘Having done nearly all major Op 110, ‘Les Adieux’ concert on 13 May – 30 days only). the Mozart concertos,’ Shelley adds, ‘I wanted to nish the job and play some of the early ones which are less

26 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com PREVIEW

well known – and, incidentally, less like Mozart. Both of these lovely works are interesting in the way they show Mozart’s early development. Moscheles’ First Piano Concerto is also an early work and not representative of his fully developed style, which became The 8th much more dramatic and virtuosic. But it shows clearly how he loved Mozart. It’s a beautiful, smiling, vivacious, lyrical piece.’ In 2019, Shelley played Hummel’s seldom-programmed F major Concerto in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, but I wondered when the last time Hummel’s Op 110 or Moscheles’ Concerto No 1 were last heard in a major venue? ‘Well, Moscheles has been forgotten but he was a very important gure in the development of music. is is the thing about Hummel and Moscheles: they both played vital roles in everything that was going on in the era of the piano’s development.’ Shelley is convinced that the lockdown is building a greater appetite for live music than before. ‘I think it has created a huge pent-up demand, from what people say to me. Because streaming can only take you so far, especially given the variability of sound quality for those in poor broadband areas. You can witness quasi-live performances but you’re not always going to experience the fulness of live sound, no matter how good the recording equipment. People are desperate to hear something in a live concert setting. So, yes, they will probably listen with more open ears to any type of music.’ No one has done more than Shelley, with his myriad recordings for the Hyperion and Chandos labels, to revive the forgotten and once-popular concerto repertoire of the 19th century. I suggest that European venues are more eager than those in the UK to programme rarer concertos. Shelly concurs. ‘I think audiences and orchestras there are more used to the model of subscription concert series. So promoters know they are more secure nancially and can take risks, even if a certain composer might bring their audience down a bit. e places where I’ve played more Piano Section unusual repertoire tend to be those that I go to regularly, where June 11 – June 26, 2022 the audience comes through loyalty. at makes it easier to programme these lesser-known works, knowing the audience is Violin open to trying them.’ Section May 21 – June 5, 2022 A special feature of the Piano Explored series is the audience talk Shelley gives on each work. ‘It’s all quite relaxed. I’ll turn to the orchestra and say, “Can you play bar 50,” and they’ll rustle their Eligibility Born on or after January 1, 1992 papers to nd the place in the score for us to demonstrate – so Irrespective of nationality the audience can make links with what they are about to hear. For Application From June 10, 2021 through November 10, 2021 instance, with Mozart I’ll quite often compare one concerto with Period another and show he goes back to a similar idea. It’s astonishing 1st prize Cash prize of JPY 3,000,000; Diploma; Gold Medal; how he wrote so many concertos yet eectively never repeated CD Production; Concerts with major orchestras in Japanan; himself. I think the reason Mozart’s work seems so perfect and Recitals in Japan well-proportioned is because, although his tunes all sound so 2nd prize Cash prize of JPY 2,000,000; Diploma; Silver Medal Cash prize of JPY 1,000,000; Diploma; Bronze Medal fantastically dierent, they have very strong things in common that 3rd prize bind them all altogether.’ IP ”Travel Expense Grants” and ”Accommodation” are available. International Piano readers will receive a £1 discount o tickets for Piano Explored online concerts purchased directly via the LMP website using code LMPPIANO1 Contact: Secretariat of Sendai International Music Competition londonmozartplayers.com/piano-explored 3-27-5, Asahigaoka, Aoba-ku, Sendai City, Miyagi Pref. 981-0904, Japan Phone:（ +81） 22-727-1872 Fax:（ +81） 22-727-1873 A 20 per cent discount is also available for tickets to the E-mail: [email protected] concerts on 14 April, 27 April and 26 May purchased via the Please see details at: https://simc.jp/en SJSS website using code INTPIANO20 sjss.org.uk/whats-on SIMC focuses on the concertos in its repertoire. www.international-piano.com FESTIVALS 2021 Festival focus The year ahead promises a rich mix of live and online events for pianists, running the gamut from major festivals showcasing world-class artists to digital platforms that invite participation from players of every standard. International Piano chooses the pick of the crop

UK was founded by Marios Papadopoulos, music young aspiring professionals with invaluable London Piano Festival director of the Oxford Philharmonic, in 1999. performing experience. London e objective of the festival is to inspire, rvipw.org.uk 8 to 10 October 2021 support and encourage piano playing of the highest quality. Young pianists have Wales International Piano e London Piano Festival (LPF) was the opportunity to learn from a wealth of Festival launched in 2016 by artistic directors Katya distinguished soloists and teachers, which have Caernarfon Apekisheva and Charles Owen. Taking place at previously included Sergei Babayan, Richard 15 to 18 October 2021 Kings Place in October each year, the festival Goode, Marc-André Hamelin, Joanna MacGregor presents solo recitals, jazz performances, and Menahem Pressler. Alfred Brendel is the e Wales International Piano Festival takes family events and a Two-Piano Gala featuring festival’s patron, and András Schi its president. place in the port town of Caernarfon and plays many rarely heard masterpieces. Past oxfordphil.com/oxford-philharmonic/oxford- host to three piano competitions – Junior performers at LPF have included Stephen piano-festival Solo, Senior Solo and Piano Accompanist – Kovacevich, Kathryn Stott, Pavel Kolesnikov, complemented by concerts and masterclasses. Nelson Goerner and Alexandra Dariescu. Ribble Valley International e 2021 festival pays homage to Beethoven LPF celebrated its fth anniversary in 2020 Piano Week and his pianistic legacy, with other programming with a one-o gala concert in aid of the 2021 Blackburn strands including the music of the 1920s and festival, which will welcome international 14 to 17 July 2021 new commissions from Welsh composers. artists and a new commission by Sally Festival patron and renowned Beethoven Beamish. Full programme details to follow in Since 2011, this intimate piano festival has interpreter John Lill will give the opening recital, the May/June issue of International Piano. been held at the Croston eatre, Westholme and a chamber concert will feature Beethoven’s londonpianofestival.com School, bordering the glorious countryside of Archduke Piano Trio alongside the composer’s the Ribble Valley in Lancashire. Martin Roscoe arrangements of Welsh folk songs for voice and Oxford Piano Festival is the festival’s artistic director, and the line-up piano trio (WoO 155). Oxford of performers over recent years has boasted pianofestival.co.uk 31 July to 8 August 2021 such names as Angela Hewitt, Stephen Hough, Benjamin Grosvenor and Peter Donohoe. e Oxford Piano Festival is a week- e festival presents piano trios, quartets EUROPE long celebration of the piano comprising and other ensembles alongside solo recitals. En Blanc et Noir masterclasses, concerts and talks. e festival ‘Rising star’ lunchtime concerts provide France 10 to 14 July 2021 Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva receive rapturous applause at the 2019 London Piano Festival e picturesque village of Lagrasse in Southern France plays host each July to the piano festival En Blanc et Noir. Daily recitals showcase young international artists in free open-air concerts in the historic village square. Conrmed artists for 2021 include festival artistic director Bobby Mitchell, Orléans Competition winner Maroussia Gentet and leading French-Hungarian pianist Suzana Bartal. Cuban-Greek duo Yamilé Cruz Montero (piano) and Christos Asonitis (drums) will bring proceedings to a playful and colourful close with music from their new album, Cuban Rhapsody.

VIKTOR ERIK EMANUEL VIKTOR enblancetnoir.com

28 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com FESTIVALS 2021

La Roque d’Anthéron France 23 July to 18 August 2021 v RENAUD ALOUCHE v RENAUD La Roque piano festival was founded in 1981 by the mayor of La Roque, Paul Onoratini, his son Bernard and artistic director René Martin. e festival presents an exceptional summer programme of piano music: all genres are represented, from classical to contemporary and jazz, and the starry line- up features both newcomers and established international names. A half-open dome structure in the beautiful grounds of the Château de Florans provides La Roque d’Anthéron’s acoustic dome in the the main performance venue, while other grounds of Château de Florans, Provence concerts take place in nearby towns and villages in the Provence countryside. festival-piano.com open-air auditorium lets visitors enjoy Latvia’s Ticino Musica warm summer evenings. Switzerland Rarities of Piano Music Pianists appearing at the 2021 edition 18 to 31 July 2021 Germany include Behzod Abduraimov, Yem Bronfman, 13 to 21 August 2021 Alexandre Kantorow, Víkingur Ólafsson, With roots in Assisi and Riva del Garda in Arcadi Volodos and Yuja Wang. András Schi Italy, this international gathering of young e picturesque town of Husum on Germany’s and Leif Ove Andsnes will give masterclasses musicians moved to the region of Ticino in northern coastline plays host to this unique as part of the Riga Jurmala Academy, a new southern Switzerland in 1997. e festival annual festival featuring neglected and lesser- education programme established last year in comprises a varied programme of events, known piano repertoire. All recitals are held in collaboration with the J¯azeps Vītols Latvian including recitals by established artists and the 17th-century Schloss vor Husum, a gentle Academy of Music. Participants will benet rising stars, contemporary music, seminars 10-minute stroll from the harbour. from one-to-one lessons, workshops and and exhibitions. Ticino Musica is also home to e 2020 programme, which had a special performance opportunities, and selected the Silvio Varviso International Opera Studio, focus on Leopold Godowsky in celebration young artists will be invited to perform in which will stage Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia of his 150th anniversary year, has been future editions of the festival. this summer. rescheduled for 2021. Events include a recital riga-jurmala.com All guest artists contribute to an Academy by Andrey Gugnin of works paying homage to programme that oers intensive teaching Godowksy, a lecture by IP contributor Jeremy Schleswig-Holstein Music and support to the festival’s students. Nicholas and an exhibition running for the Festival Faculty members for 2021 include Adrian duration of the festival. Germany Oetiker (piano) and Ulrich Koella (piano e festival organisers are also presenting 3 July to 29 August 2021 accompaniment and chamber music). a ‘Six Petits Concerts’ mini-festival from 13 ticinomusica.com to 15 May 2021. e title refers to Charles- Since its inception in 1986, the Schleswig- Valentin Alkan’s concert series in the 1870s in Holstein Festival has been presenting Verbier Festival Paris’s Salle Érard. Each of the six concerts will concerts in striking and unusual settings, Switzerland feature a piece from Alkan’s Chants in addition from castles, churches and historic manor 16 July to 1 August 2021 to works by little known composers such as houses to shipyards and industrial halls. Hélène de Montgeroult. Soloists include Marc- Alongside the main summer programme, the Now in its 28th year, the Verbier Festival André Hamelin, Clare Hammond and Artur festival is known for its family-friendly events returns for two weeks of world-class music- Pizarro. encompassing musical picnics in country making this summer. Set high in the Swiss piano-festival-husum.com estates and workshops for children. Alps, this annual event attracts leading Each year the festival shines a spotlight international artists and oers a series of Riga Jurmala Music Festival upon a particular composer; the 2021 edition elite training programmes that showcase the Latvia will focus on the works of Franz Schubert. talents of emerging musicians. e festival 16 July to 29 August 2021 Programme highlights already conrmed was founded by Martin Engstroem, who also include a Schubert-centred recital by Dutch directs the Riga Jurmala Festival. e Riga Jurmala Festival takes place across piano duo Lucas and Arthur Jussen. e full e piano line-up for 2021 features festival four weekends in July and August, staging festival programme was about to be published favourites Sir András Schi, Evgeny Kissin, concerts in the Latvian capital and in the as IP went to press.. Arcadi Volodos, Mikhail Pletnev, Sergei forested Jurmala seaside resort, where the shmf.de Babayan and Fazil Say. Notable Verbier debuts

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 29 FESTIVALS 2021

Maria João musicians in residence and two piano fellows, Kozhukhin performing Tchaikovsky's First Pires makes and the summer internship programme Concerto and Yem Bronfman in Beethoven's her Verbier launches careers in arts administration. Free ird Concerto. At the heart of the festival’s Festival debut talks, masterclasses and open rehearsals are extensive seven-week programme is the this July also oered as part of the festival experience. GTMF Festival Orchestra, comprising bravovail.org musicians from America’s top orchestras and led by music director Donald Runnicles. Select Festival for Creative Pianists performances in 2021 will be streamed online. Online gtmf.org 4 to 13 June 2021 Miami International is unique festival and competition promotes Piano Festival classical, jazz and other musical genres, along Online with improvisation and composition, in a e Miami International Piano Festival of

MAY ZIRCUS MAY fun educational setting. e event is open Discovery was created in 1998 as the ospring to pianists of all ages, in three categories: of Patrons of Exceptional Artists, a publicly include Maria João Pires in a programme of Budding Pianists (12 and under), Teen Pianists supported foundation dedicated to developing duo works with French violinist Augustin (13-19) and Lifelong Learners (20+). the careers of future performers. e festival Dumay; Mozart’s complete piano sonatas A team of adjudicators awards certicates has since established itself as an important performed by Japanese pianist Mao Fujita; to each participant to recognise their nest year-round platform for emerging young and solo recitals by Abisal Gergiev and achievement. e awards celebrate Baroque artists who bring a distinctive approach to Nobuyuki Tsujii. e festival’s chamber music to contemporary repertoire as well as their playing, comprising two recital series and series ‘Rencontres Inédites’ also features underrepresented skills such as concerto a summer academy. pianists Denis Matsuev and Lahav Shani cadenzas and classical embellishment, versatility, In response to the Covid pandemic, the alongside other leading new generation improvisation, composing and transcription. festival has developed a virtual platform instrumentalists. e 2021 festival will take place online and oering live courses, webinars, masterclass For those unable to attend in person, the applications are now open – deadline 28 April. series, and access to the festival’s extensive festival will be streaming concerts, artist pianofestival.org archive of 1000+ hours of concerts and lectures. interviews and educational content via its Featured artists include Dmitry Ablogin, Zlata digital hub VF at Home. e festival will Gilmore International Chochieva, Fabio Martino, Florian Noack, also expand its ‘Unlimited’ series of cultural Keyboard Festival Walter Ponce and Andrew Tyson. engagement events which take place in the Online miamipianofestacademy.com beautiful surroundings of Verbier. Until May 2021 verbierfestival.com PianoTexas International is year’s Gilmore Festival has been replaced by Academy & Festival a virtual season of concerts and events. Coming Texas US up in the Rising Stars series is a recital of Bach, 3 to 30 June 2021 Bravo! Vail Beethoven, Chopin and George Walker by Evren Colorado Ozel; a jazz programme from the Glenn Zaleski Founded in 1981 during the 6th Van 24 June to 28 July 2021 Trio; and a performance by Avery Gagliano, Cliburn International Piano Competition, rst prize winner at the 2020 National Chopin PianoTexas celebrates its 40th anniversary Since its beginnings in 1987, Bravo! Vail has Competition of the United States. Tickets are this year. e four-week programme features evolved from a small chamber music series to available on a ‘name your own price’ basis. a Distinguished Artist recital series, concerto an international music festival set against the Special events include the world premiere of evenings with the Fort Worth Symphony stunning backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. Marc-André Hamelin’s new composition Suite Orchestra, and community concerts. Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott took over à l'ancienne, commissioned by 2008 Gilmore Running concurrently with the festival is the as artistic director in 2011 and under her Young Artist Rachel Naomi Kudo, and an all- PianoTexas Academy, which oers immersive leadership, chamber music has been brought Bach programme from Angela Hewitt. training programmes for young artists, back into the spotlight. Upcoming plans thegilmore.org teachers and amateurs. Participants benet include immersion weekends combining from masterclasses, private lessons and public single-composer programming with Grand Teton Music Festival ‘conversations’ with professional artists about contextual talks and lms. Wyoming how to build and maintain a career in music. Bravo! Vail is committed to education and 4 July to 21 August 21 e Young Artist programme has gained a engagement initiatives such as after-school reputation for nurturing concert pianists of music lessons for youngsters and professional is year marks the 60th anniversary season the future: alumni include Yundi Li, Eric Lu, development programmes for outstanding of Grand Teton Music Festival, set against the Szymon Nehring and Beatrice Rana. Several performers in the early stages of their careers. spectacular mountain backdrop of Wyoming’s alumni return as distinguished artists in 2021. Each year the festival selects chamber Teton Range. Piano highlights include Denis pianotexas.tcu.edu

30 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com FESTIVALS 2021

Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival Seattle International Piano Southeastern Piano Festival Florida Festival & Competition South Carolina 6 to 25 July 2021 Washington 12 to 20 June 2021 Autumn 2021 Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival (RPPF) takes Held in Columbia each summer, the place at the University of South Florida in e Pacic Northwest area of America has built Southeastern Piano Festival provides a high- Tampa. is free-tuition festival is designed for a formidable reputation for its musical and level training ground for budding performers. aspiring pianists aged 18-29 enrolled in higher artistic life, centred around the city of Seattle. Twenty young pianists participate in a week- education. Each participant typically receives e Seattle International Piano Festival (SIPF), long programme comprising daily lessons the equivalent of a term’s worth of private founded in 2005, aims to support pianists of with an esteemed faculty and masterclasses lessons, alongside masterclasses, lecture all ages, foster appreciation of the art of piano with guest artists. Alumni of the festival recitals, special topic classes and forums. e playing, and showcase lesser-known repertoire have the opportunity to collaborate with RPPF Ambassador Series oers performance and performance styles. the Conductors Institute of South Carolina, opportunities throughout Tampa Bay. e centrepiece of SIPF is the Seattle studying a concerto with a symphony e 2021 faculty includes teachers such International Piano Competition, which is orchestra in a relaxed rehearsal atmosphere. as Alvin Chow, Kevin Kenner and Jerome unusual in welcoming entries from professional, e festival opens with the Piano Extravaganza Lowenthal, while special classes span yoga, student and amateur pianists worldwide, as well Gala, featuring multiple pianos and multiple Dalcroze Eurhythmics and stress management as promoting aspiring local talent from Seattle. pianists, and culminates with the Arthur Fraser techniques. In their free time, students can enjoy Participants may select repertoire of their own International Piano Competition oering $9k in excursions to the beach and a dolphin cruise. choice without any specic requirements. cash prizes and performance opportunities with e festival also runs RPPF-Mini, a virtual e SIPF programme also includes guest the South Carolina Philharmonic. roughout boot camp on career strategies for pianists aged recitals, masterclasses and lectures by leading the week, festival attendees will be able to hear 21-31, and a ‘Watch and Study’ programme for artists, while smaller competitive events such as recitals by guest artists, which in 2021 include teachers, students and pianophiles wishing to the Bach Festival, Classical Viennese Festival and Richard Goode, Yaron Kohlberg, HaeSun Paik observe a variety of RPPF events. Virtuoso Festival take place throughout the year. and Awadagin Pratt. IP rebeccapenneyspianofestival.org seattlepianocompetition.org sepf.music.sc.edu

A Uniue Playing Experience

Each piano make possesses its own secrets which contribute to a characteristic tone

and performance. That is why specialism is the key to success. At Grand Passion Pianos

we only offer pianos from Steinway and Pleyel, and ensure that each instrument we

present is ready for a world class performance.

“I chose to buy from Grand Passion Pianos because I found their pianos to be finer than any others I explored.” Mr F. Tahmasebi, repeat customer.

grandpassionpianos gppianos www.grandpassionpianos.co.uk [email protected] 0800 233 5213

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 31

SOUND TRUTHS Murray McLachlan weighs up the pros and cons of traditional piano pedagogy Part VI: e methodological magic of micro-practising

o many notes, so little time! With such a on the notes. is is when micro-practising experimentation, exploration, and repetition Scolossal repertoire it is little wonder that becomes paramount. For generations, piano of the smallest of musical units. many pianists nd it hard to focus on one teachers have encouraged us to begin by In our ongoing development we should thing at a time. e default practice mode of working ‘hands separately’, clapping out never forget that the most powerful musical talented but inexperienced players is often rhythms with a metronome and taking the statements often come from the smallest slapdash and undisciplined. Not that this is learning process incredibly carefully and number of sounds. Dame Myra Hess entirely bad: adrenalin can re motivation and seriously. Yet problems can arise when players once recalled hearing Busoni in the 1920s build stamina during a wave of determined feel overwhelmed by the vast number of bars performing Beethoven’s Hammerklavier endeavour to get a quick overview of a new in a piece, and underwhelmed by the apparent Sonata. Forty years later, the memory of party piece. But initial enthusiasm will wane dryness of this approach. Not that it should Busoni playing the opening two octaves of the if a cavalier, broad-brush approach is allowed be considered cerebral and unengaging. slow movement still sent shivers down Dame to continue without check. As is well known, Inspiration will always ow if you remain Myra’s spine – but those were the only two in classical piano playing the devil is in the fascinated by tone production. Sound should notes she could recall from his whole recital! detail. Huge dierences in quality arise from be the rst and last concern of all musicians, We would do well to remember this every making the smallest adjustments. Re nement, and for pianists it provides a gateway time we sit at the piano. Ronald Stevenson craft, and inner awareness of the technical into the most concentrated approach via suggested that daily practice should ‘begin and musical machinations of a composition will not be attained without disciplined work. Master of micro-practising: Does that mean practising is rather dull and Shura Cherkassky (1909-1995) lacking in fun? Not at all! Certainly, we do not want to dampen enthusiasm by dourly suggesting that practising should always be sectionalised, sober and ponderous. Indeed, there is a great case to be made for beginning a new piece with fun sessions involving sight-reading and scanning whole movements. is process can continue for a few days, allowing the player to enjoy wearing their proverbial new shoes without worrying about consolidating details. Always give yourself time for a honeymoon period in your relationship with a new piece. Scanning through music will do wonders for your sight- reading skills and can be taken as slowly or quickly as you feel able. is is ‘playing’ rather than working the piano, and should be lavishly celebrated with more than mere note- nding: listen to recordings, look at the score away from the piano, hear the music in your head… and when you feel suciently con dent and energised to start dedicated work, begin practising with concentrated care and love. Our ears need to be acutely aware of what our ngers are doing. When you get down to intense piano practice, it helps to have a clear head that is unconcerned with anything apart from the task in hand – namely focusing COLLECTION POTTER TULLY

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 33 EDUCATION

in the fact that you can play two notes from Allegro q = 1 44 Liszt’s Feux follets as nimbly and dexterously sempre legato f as the greatest exponents of this work! A f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f # n n#f # positive attitude helps to build your own c f f f f f f # # n interpretation of the study as a whole. f # n#f # n & f R R R Another extremely useful form of two-note R R cresc. micro-practising involves isolating joins p f f. between position shifts. Playing the last note nf. f of an arpeggio followed by the rst note of the ? c fj f fj fj { ‰ ‰ ‰ J ‰ ‰ next aords time to analyse and coordinate . J . f your hands and ngers. It conserves energy . and focuses your practice on a speci c issue. is invaluable approach can help in countless Example 1••• Chopin Etude in A minor Op 10/2, bars 1-2 contexts. In Chopin’s Op 10/2 (Example 1, opposite) it makes sense to isolate the right- with a sonority test’. He recommended seem extreme, but if you have a clear idea of hand triads by practising them with their slowing repeating individual notes with one the sound you want to produce, are attentive preceding semiquavers. nger at a time, stroking the keys towards to your physical sensations and take time to By many accounts, the late Shura your body while holding down the sustaining review everything you have done, the eort Cherkassky was a master of this kind of micro- pedal and aiming for half re-takes on each will certainly be worth it. I also recommend practising. Prior to an Edinburgh International repetition. e idea was not just to relax varying the sound with each repetition: using Festival performance of Berg’s Sonata Op 1, he physically, but also to open your ears to the dierent voicing and varied touches keeps warmed up by playing each of the exposition’s reverb and oating tone of each note (they all you rmly in control as well as exploring the three voices in turn. We can emulate this have dierent personalities). highly creative approach to practice in all Taking time to make single notes magical ‘Practising is essentially kinds of contexts. Try experimenting with is a great warm-up for creative practising – three-note groups in Scriabin’s First Etude Op and should never be intimidating. Indeed, a threefold process: pre- 2/1 (Example 2, below), bringing out each of according to a scienti c study conducted the voices fortissimo while playing the others in the 1930s (Hart, Fuller and Lusby at the playing notes in your pianissimo. As well as revelling in the top and University of Pennsylvania), there is no bass lines, it can be wonderful – as Horowitz dierence in the sound curve between single head, playing them showed us – to enjoy the tenor voice in the notes played by weights dropped on the keys literally, then reviewing left hand too. We can even experiment with and those played by celebrated virtuosos! allowing the lower right-hand part to be given Remembering this fact is reassuring, as it them mentally’ the lead role. is proof that we can all play single notes as It is worth recalling that many of the perfectly as we wish. music’s expressive possibilities. Extend the greatest teachers and most famous Frank Merrick’s celebrated 1958 book process to include four notes. As you work on masterclasses have focused on tiny details for Practising the Piano suggests that practising the tiny fragments of music it can be bene cial long periods of time. It is not uncommon to is essentially a threefold process: pre-playing to get softer and lighter on each repetition, hear of teachers who spend an entire lesson notes in your head, playing them literally, then though in many contexts getting heavier and on the rst line of Brahms’ Handel Variations, reviewing them mentally. is approach works louder is also an option. Notice how deep the opening chord of Beethoven’s Fourth well with the smallest number of notes and into the keys you are sinking. Experiment Concerto, or the beginning of Chopin’s Fourth can be capitalised upon with micro-practising. with shallower and fuller approaches. Can Ballade. By all accounts, the legendary teacher Working through Chopin’s Etude in A you control how you handle the point of eodor Leschetizky was a stickler for detail minor Op 10/2 in two-note sections may escapement? Take pleasure and satisfaction and frequently devoted his attention to just one bar of music per lesson! When making music, the moment is # # f f™ f F everything: thinking ahead dilutes focus # # f f f f f f # f f f f and engagement. Micro-practising aords & f f f ff f f f ‹f f f us the opportunity to savour the moment, f f be mindful and thereby enter ‘the zone’ of cresc. f fj f™ f Ffj fj peak experience. By focusing exclusively on ?# # f f fjf ‰ f‰ f f # f f f the present, we can aord ourselves golden { # # # opportunities to be immersed in the music f f f J J J we love. Such glorious saturation will lead to # even more love and inspiration, and encourage ever-expanding positivity in every aspect of Example 2••• Scriabin Etude No 1 in C-sharp minor Op 2/1, bars 9-10 our piano playing. IP

34 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com EDUCATION Nourishing studies Suzuki teacher Jenny Macmillan emphasises the importance of developing all-round musicianship rather than focusing solely on technical achievement at the piano

chieving the technical mastery required to play hear their children’s progress, and they and their children complex piano repertoire is a primary goal are inspired by other children’s performances. e shared for many students, but as Murray McLachlan community spirit is incredibly important in motivating notes in his excellent article on ‘levelling’ in children to continue with their regular practice. Meanwhile, InternationalA Piano (Nov/Dec 2020, page 39), ‘Beauty for parents gain a group of friends whose children are also beauty’s sake can be lost as complexity rises’. learning a musical instrument, and they support each other I believe many disadvantages of the exam-focused in the children’s musical journey. traditional lessons McLachlan identi es can be resolved by following the Suzuki approach. One issue he raises is he Suzuki piano repertoire has been carefully that of parents wanting kudos from seeing their children Tconstructed to develop the skills necessary to become progress through graded exams, moving ever ‘upwards’ a ne pianist. e majority of techniques are encountered with no consideration for the breadth of the young as early as Book 1, then developed incrementally through person’s musical development. to Book 7 and the Italian Concerto. e focus of lessons, Murray writes: ‘Young players can become xated, from the very beginning, is always on encouraging seeing progress exclusively in terms of managing greater children to listen, especially to their tone quality – to be and greater levels of technical diculty.’ As a result, some aware of the sound they produce. traditional teachers feel forced to teach from one exam to e basics, such as sitting position, height of stool Jenny Macmillan: the next. ey nd themselves unable to persuade pupils of with feet supported on a footstool, posture, hand shape, ‘The magic of the the importance of developing their technical and musical and so on, are dealt with in great detail from the rst Suzuki approach is abilities in order to play with maximum elegance and style. lesson (children often start lessons at the age of three or that children maintain Suzuki-trained children love progressing through four). Early pieces, initially a set of rhythmical variations their repertoire, and the repertoire too, but they also appreciate thoughtful on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, cover nger staccato, continually return to interpretations and beautiful tone quality, rather than just legato and dynamic contrasts. For example, each note of pieces to improve learning to play faster and more technically challenging Variation 2 is played staccato-legato-staccato and p-f-p their technique and pieces. Many Suzuki parents grasp the broader (see Example 1, p36). musicianship’ educational bene ts of learning a musical instrument, so do not push for progress ever onwards and upwards. Suzuki-trained children rarely take exams until they reach Grade 8. Instead, pupils give recitals as they complete each Suzuki book. ere are seven books in the piano repertoire, taking children from the very earliest stages with folk songs, minuets and sonatinas, through to pieces such as the Bach Italian Concerto, Mozart sonatas, Chopin Nocturnes, Bartók’s Romanian Dances and Villa- Lobos’ O polichinelo. On completion of each book, pupils give a polished performance for their family, friends and other families in their teacher’s circle. Two or three children may perform on the same occasion (each book lasts about 20-25 minutes), typically followed by a tea party provided by the parents of the children performing. Each pupil giving their book recital learns how to communicate musically and form a connection with their audience. ey share their music, rather than having to perform three pieces in a clinical environment to one examiner tasked with giving them a mark. ese recitals provide all the evidence necessary of attainment that McLachlan mentions. Parents can see and

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 35 EDUCATION

f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f c J J J J J J & J J J J J J J J J J p f p p f p

Example 1••• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star ariation f f f f F f f f f f f c f f f f f f F f f F & f f f f f f f f f F f f f f F f f f f f f F & p f

Example 2••• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star – Theme

Teachers help to emphasise the subtle shaping of sounds. a certain level. e magic of the Suzuki approach is that In the Twinkle theme, pupils are encouraged to listen to children maintain their repertoire, and continually return repeated notes and play the second softer than the rst, to to pieces to improve their technique and musicianship. ease o at the ends of phrases, and to play an echo in the e repertoire forms a ‘nutritious and inspirational repeat of the middle section (Example 2, below). ese regime’, to use McLachlan’s expression. Each piece is a subtleties may not be possible in the very early stages of little gem which easily bears repeated study. learning, but will be encouraged as the child moves through In Book 2, children are introduced to grace notes, more the rst book and reviews earlier repertoire. complicated two-part writing in one hand, slurs, upbeats, Other early Book 1 pieces include ve- nger scale extended scale and arpeggio passages, thirds and sixths in passages, broken chords and rests. For accompaniments, one hand, sliding from a black note to a white note, changing three- and four-time Alberti basses, block chords and nger on a held note, triplets, feminine endings, left hand broken octaves are introduced. Balance between hands tonic-dominant-tonic cadences, um-cha-cha basses and becomes a key focus in lessons. ere are hand-position arpeggiated chords. While learning these new skills, children changes to contend with, along with leaps and soft continue to review Book 1 pieces and techniques. repeated obeat bass notes. New ideas and challenges are Book 3 develops passagework and staccato. Pupils introduced at every turn: combinations of staccato and meet chromatic scales for the rst time, along with legato in one hand or both, nger changes on repeated more elaborate ornaments, sforzandi, block octaves and notes, wrist rotation and musical concepts like ritardando, pedalling. Book 4 includes extended part-writing, such as fermata and a tempo. At the end of the book, a piece Minuet II from Bach’s First Partita (Example 3), as well as includes two voices to be played in one hand. examples of crossed hands, like the Gigue from the same All these techniques are introduced and mastered at Partita (Example 4). After completing a book, Suzuki children don’t drop f f pieces and focus solely on new material. Each lesson their b 3 F f f Œ f f f f f f f &b 4 f f bF n f teacher will hear one or more of their repertoire pieces and help them play it with greater understanding. So a child f f on Book 4 will play their Book 2 pieces more imaginatively F™Œ f f F™F f Ff f f f f F than when they rst encountered them. And the more ? 3 { bb 4 musically children play the pieces from previous books, the Œ more stylishly they play their newest pieces, because they Example 3••• J S Bach artita in at maor inuet II, bars are building a library of skills (for instance balance between 3 3 1 5 b c f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f &b ‰ f ‰ f ‰ f ‰ f ‰ f ‰ f ‰ f ‰ f ‰ fn ‰ fn ‰ fn ‰ fn ‰ f ‰ f ‰ f ‰ f f f f f f f f f b c ? f f f f f f ? f {&b & b b f & Example 4••• J S Bach artita in at maor igue, bars

36 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com EDUCATION

hands, or shaping slurs, or breathing between phrases) on quality of sound – that prepares them well for the speci c which to draw when learning new repertoire. requirements of graded aural examinations. Quoting McLachlan again: ‘We can all return to simpler McLachlan suggest that ‘we need to develop a … repertoire and bring more intensity, imagination and curriculum that nourishes the whole musician’. I believe facility to it after having worked at apparently more the Suzuki repertoire, taught by trained Suzuki teachers, challenging fare.’ Indeed, understanding ‘voicing, tone meets this need. It includes most, if not all, of the essentials quality and phrasing’ in a simpler piece prepares students necessary for the nourishment and development of for incorporating these elements into more complex all-round musicianship, evidenced by the many Suzuki music. Audiences always prefer to hear an elementary students who demonstrate elegance and agility in their piece ‘executed with grace, agility and elegance’ than the playing, as well as their genuine love of music. IP ‘ungainliness in the more challenging burden’. And this is exactly what Suzuki teachers encourage their pupils to Jenny Macmillan do – to give ne performances of old and familiar pieces, is the author of rather than uncomfortable renditions of pieces that are Successful Practising: currently beyond their capabilities. A handbook for In the Suzuki approach, teachers move at a pace that pupils, parents and suits each child. ere is no hurry to move through the music teachers. She repertoire – teachers do their best to challenge each pupil runs a Suzuki piano without overwhelming them ( nding the ‘sweet spot’ teaching practice in identi ed by Daniel Coyle in e Talent Code). e Suzuki Cambridge, UK, and approach trains rather than tests. Scales, reading and aural leads a Suzuki piano are all covered – at a time and pace that is right for each teacher training course, child, not just so they can jump through the next exam currently online. hurdle. Moreover, Suzuki-trained children develop acute jennymacmillan.co.uk aural awareness – an ability to hear subtle dierences in

Ludwig van Beethoven • 3 Sonatinas • For Elise / Piano Piece ‘Lustig und Traurig’

Beethoven Three Sonatinas Three Sonatinas Beethoven For Elise, Piano Piece ‘Lustig und Traurig’ For Elise WoO 59 UT 50290 UT 50425 Piano Piece ‘Lustig und Traurig’ Editor: Jochen Reutter WoO 54

Fingerings and Notes on Beethoven Beethoven Für Elise Editor: Jochen Reutter Drei Sonatinen interpretation: Nils Franke Klavierstück „Lustig und Traurig“ Reutter/Franke Difficulty: easy Reutter/Arnold Fingerings: Sheila Arnold Languages: ger/en/fr Difficulty: easy – intermediate Neuausgabe Languages: ger/en/fr

Wiener Urtext Edition Wiener Urtext Edition Schott / Universal Edition Schott / Universal Edition

UT 50290 UT 50425

• Urtext Edition based on the sources • Urtext free from unauthorised changes of the 20th • Interesting background information century • Practice tips • Answers to frequently asked questions • Character piece ‘Lustig und Traurig’ (‘Cheerful and Sad’) as a preparation for For Elise NEW!

www.wiener-urtext.com

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 37 GUIDE TO INSTRUMENTS & ACCESSORIES 2021 FREE GUIDE

GUIDE TO INSTRUMENTS & ACCESSORIES www.international-piano.com 2021

Our new digital guide showcases instruments from the world’s top manufacturers, ranging from digital pianos for use in homes and studios to professional concert grands that grace the stages of major international venues.

Profiles of 15 leading brands are complemented by features, reviews and interviews highlighting the latest developments in piano design and technology.

Read for FREE at www.international-piano.com/guide21 MASTERCLASS

Russian pianist Yulia Chaplina contemplates the simple yet sad beauty of Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby

he compositions of the great Russian Tcomposer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840- 1893) are distinguished by one special feature – all of his works go straight to the heart and are deeply moving. e main themes of Tchaikovsky’s work are the ght between good and evil, a longing for happiness, and recognition of the sad truth that it may never be achieved. ere is always an element of tragedy, even in his lightest and happiest works, and he expresses all of his internal su erings through his music beautifully and sincerely. His emotional honesty and the simplicity of his writing make his compositions instantly recognisable. Lullabies are originally folk songs and are still very popular in Russia. Tchaikovsky’s lullabies are truly wonderful and unlike those of any other composer – unmistakable musical pictures that follow authentic, simple harmonic structures with lots of repetition and characteristic accompaniments (slurred, in two) that create the e ect of a mother rocking her child. Several of Tchaikovsky’s most famous lullabies are scored for voice (Op 16/1, Op 54/10 and Maria’s aria from his opera Yulia Chaplina: ‘All of Tchaikovsky’s works go Mazeppa), but he also composed lullabies for straight to the heart and are deeply moving’ solo piano, including the Berceuse Op 72/2 and PERRY GAYNOR his own transcription of Op 16/1. e Lullaby in A- at minor Op 16/1 was the Greek archipelago and studied ancient e Wind’s mother has been asking: composed in 1872 and transcribed for the Greek history, culture and language. His ‘Where have you been for so long? piano by Tchaikovsky in 1893. It was dedicated ‘Cradle song’ is the rst poem of his cycle Have you been ghting the stars? to Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s wife, Nadezhda Pesni novoy Gretsii (Songs of Modern Greece) Have you been chasing the waves?’ Rimsky-Korsakov (1848-1919), who was 24 and depicts a wonderful picture of the ancient at the time and expecting her rst child. Greek world: ‘I haven’t been chasing the sea-waves, Nadezhda was a prominent pianist and I haven’t been touching the golden stars, musicologist who arranged many of her Sleep, my baby, sleep, fall asleep, sleep, I have been guarding a baby husband’s works for solo piano. e use of her fall asleep! And rocking gently his little cradle.’ maiden name – ‘Purgold’ – in the dedication Beckon sweet dreams to yourself: leaves no doubt as to its dedicatee. I’ve hired as nannies for you Sleep, my baby, sleep, fall asleep, sleep, e text that inspired Tchaikovsky is taken e Wind, the Sun and the Eagle. fall asleep! from a set of Greek folk songs translated into Beckon sweet dreams to yourself: Russian by the then-famous Russian poet e Eagle has own back home, I’ve hired as nannies for you Apollon Maykov (1821-1897). Maykov was e Sun has hidden under the waters, e Wind, the Sun and the Eagle. known in St Petersburg for his Roman and And three nights later Translation copyright © 2007 by Laura Claycomb and Peter Grunberg, Hellenic themes. He travelled extensively in e Wind is rushing away to her Mother. reprinted with permission from the LiederNet Archive

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 39 MASTERCLASS

Tchaikovsky makes some adjustments to Similar inconsistencies exist in the recording element that creates the rocking e ect Maykov’s text, for example moving the rst by another star pairing, Anna Netrebko and throughout the piece stanza to the end and extending the rst Daniel Barenboim. Netrebko’s interpretation Right hand – accompaniment only line. After Tchaikovsky used two of Maykov’s is very charming, albeit perhaps too happy for poems for his songs, Maykov’s cycle attracted its A- at minor key signature, but Barenboim’s To achieve independence between the much interest from contemporaries and accompaniment is full of unnatural phrasing hands, one must practice the melodic and followers, including Arensky, Ippolitov- that disturbs the music’s ow. accompaniment elements separately, only Ivanov, Tcherepnin and Taneyev. Maykov’s Mastering the accompaniment in combining them when individually mastered. I ‘Cradle song’ also inspired Tchaikovsky’s Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby is pianistically would also highly recommend practising these classmate at the St Petersburg Conservatory, challenging, especially for pianists with without the vocal part. Aleksandr Rubets (1838-1913), and later smaller hands – such as myself - who cannot During the rst seven bars, it is important Fyodor Akimenko (1876-1945). However, it is reach the frequently occurring interval of a to create the sense of an introduction before Rachmaninov’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s 10th in the left hand. e pedal provides a the vocal part enters in bar eight, with the Lullaby (1941) that brought the piece solution, but with the constant risk that the sense of one breath throughout. From here to pianists’ attention, to the extent that two notes might sound separated or, worse, onwards, the melody should be played softly, few pianists today know of Tchaikovsky’s that there is an audible ‘jump’. observing every slur. original transcription. is ‘jump’ should be avoided at all costs, e middle section has a beautiful, although ere is another wonderful transcription of typically by pressing the thumb deep into somewhat sad development. e degree of the Lullaby by the prominent Russian pianist the sustained crotchet. Some additional polyphony is reminiscent of a Bach fugue, Pavel (Paul) Pabst (1854-1897). Pabst studied pressure needs to be applied through the and the wonderful chromatic notes in the alongside Rachmaninov under Nikolai Zverev left-hand thumb to highlight the important middle voice of the right hand should be and at the Moscow Conservatoire, as well melodic contribution of the crotchets and, nurtured carefully to evoke the bitter sadness as receiving lessons from Liszt in Weimar. subsequently, the quavers marked with of the music. Tchaikovsky admired Pabst’s piano playing and vertical stems. ese need to be distinguished In the reprise, it is important really to ‘feel’ often attended his recitals. He referred to Pabst from the rest of the accompaniment. the top register and make the most of the as ‘a pianist of divine elegance’ and ‘a pianist is conscious distinction between melody gorgeous crystal sound at the top of the piano. from God’. In 1884, Tchaikovsky appointed and accompaniment within the left hand must is is the moment to indulge in the beauty Pabst to edit his piano works for publication. be maintained throughout the whole piece. of the A- at minor arpeggio in the recitativo All three piano arrangements of the is includes the middle section where the – the only real di erence between the original Lullaby Op 16/1 (by Tchaikovsky, Pabst and left-hand pattern starts to di er, despite the vocal version and the piano melody. Rachmaninov) are available via the IMSLP same polyphonic texture, as well as sections Once the slurs and the simultaneous website. Each presents technical challenges where two notes are marked under one slur. melody and accompaniment have been relating to balance and phrasing – but In these places, vertical stems distinguish the mastered, this piece is a joy to play. One nal Rachmaninov’s arrangement stands out for melody from the remaining accompaniment. tip – always keep the elbows free, imagining its idiosyncratic virtuosity. Tchaikovsky’s own e same pattern, and therefore rules, apply that you are a magic Tsarevna Swan from one arrangement is nothing more than the vocal in the right hand, starting in the third bar of of the Russian fairy-tales! IP part superimposed onto the original piano the piece. From bar seven, where the right part, but there is much beauty in its simplicity. hand expresses the vocal part, the mastery When learning a piano transcription, I between important and transient notes always recommend listening to the original becomes even more important. e division version. ere are some lovely video between melody and accompaniment in the recordings on YouTube by Russian singers opening bars is as follows: such as Anna Netrebko, Tamara Sinyavskaya and Sergei Lemeshev. My favourite version Bars 1-2 is by the famous Russian soprano Galina Left hand – both melody and accompaniment Vishnevskaya, accompanied by her husband within the left hand Mstislav Rostropovich. is choice is perhaps Right hand – accompaniment only in uenced by my acquaintance with the singer, as a former student of her husband’s, Bars 3-5 Yulia Chaplina’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s for theirs is a deeply personal and charismatic Both hands – melody and accompaniment, Lullaby Op 16/1 can be heard on her 2014 interpretation. Despite Rostropovich’s with a dialogue between the melodies album Yulia Chaplina plays Rachmaninov, formidable talents as an accompanist, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin & Gubaidulina in addition to his fame as a cellist and Bars 6-7 (Champs Hill Records CHRCD070). conductor, his contribution here is somewhat Left hand – melody and accompaniment, with yuliachaplina.com rushed and agitated. the sustained crotchet an important melodic

40 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com Lullaby

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Andantino b 2 f f f f ≈ ffj ≈ ≈ fj ≈ &b bbbb 4 ≈ f ≈ f ≈ f ≈ f f™ f f f b f f ∫ n ™ b f f 2 f > f > f f > ? 4 f f ? f f ? f f ? { bbbb b & f & f & f b b f f bf ‰ J ‰ J ‰ J

4 b b ≈ ffj ≈ ≈ fj ≈ ≈ f f ≈ f f f f &b b bb f™ f f f nf f f n ™ ≈ f ≈ f b ∫ n ™ b f™ J f f f f f > f f > f f ? f f ? f f ? f { bbbb b & f & f b b f ‰ J f ‰ J ‰ J

f f™ f f f f f f b b b f f f f f fj f f f f f f f f f f f f &b b b b ≈ f ≈ f n ≈ ≈ ≈ f f f f f f f f f f f f ? f f f f { bbbb b b b

11 f f f f f f f f f™ f f f j f f f f f bbbb b f f f f f f f f f f & b b ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ n f f f f f ff f f f ? f f f f f { bbbb b b b

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 41 14 f f f™ b b b F f f f f f f f fj f f f f f f f f &b b b b f f ≈ f ≈ f ≈ n ≈ ≈ ≈ f f f f f f f f f f f f ? f f f f f f f f { bbbb b b b

18 f f f ™ fj b f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f F f &b bbbb f f f f f f f nf f f f b ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ f ≈ f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f > ? f f f f ? { bbbb b & f b b f ‰ J

22 b f f ≈ ffj ≈ ≈ fj ≈ ≈ ffj ≈ ≈ fj ≈ b bb b ≈ f ≈ f f™ f f f f™ f f f & b b f ∫ n ™ b ∫ n ™ b f f > f f > f f > ? b f f ? f f ? f f ? { b bb b & f & f & f b b f bf f ‰ J ‰ J ‰ J

25 b ≈ f ≈ f f f f f f # # b bb b f f f f™ ≈ f ≈ f ≈ f ≈ f # ## & b b f™ n J f f f f f f f f > f f f f ? f f ? f f # # { bbbb b & f # ## b b ‰ J f ‰ J

28 f f™ f # # f™ f f f f™ f f f f™ f f f f # ## f f f f f#f f f f #ff f f f ff f # f & ≈ ‹ ≈ ‹ ‹ n più ≈ f f f f f # f f # f f # f ?# # fF fF fF { # ##

42 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com 1 f f f™ f f f f f # ## f™ f f f f f f f & # # # n ff f f f f f f ff f f f f f f # # n # n ‹ f n ‹ ≈ f f f f f f f f f ?# # fF f ‹F f f f { # ## F

4 f f f f f # f™ f f f f f f f f ## # f f f f f f f ‹f f f f f f f ‹ b b & # ‹ F # ‹ b b bbb i f f f f f F f f f f f f ?# # F f f b b b { # ## & F b b b b

f f f f f f f f™≈ f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f n f bbbb b f & b b J n

b b f f f f ff {&b b bbb f f f n f f f n ff

4 f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f b b ff™ f f f f &b b bbb J f f f f n f f f f f f b b f f ? f ? {&b b bbb & f

4 f f ≈ f f ≈ f f f™ b b b F f f f f f f fj f f f f f f f f f &b b b b ≈ ≈ f ≈ n f f f f f f f f f f ? f f ? f f f f { bbbb b & f f f f f f b b f

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 43 4 Ff f f F f f f f f f f f f F b b Ff f f f f f f &b b bbb f f f f f f f f ? f f f { bbbb b f f f f f b b nf n 5 f™ f b fj f f f f f f f F f &b bbbb f f f f f f f nf f f b ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ f ≈ f f f f > ? f f f f f ? { bbbb b f f & f b b f ‰ J

5 b f f ≈ ffj ≈ ≈ fj ≈ ≈ ffj ≈ ≈ fj ≈ &b bbbb ≈ f ≈ f f™ f f f f™ f f f b f ∫ n ™ b ∫ n ™ b f f > f f > f f > ? b f f ? f f ? f f ? { b bb b & f & f & f b b f bf bf ‰ J ‰ J ‰ J

5 b ≈ f f ≈ f f f f f f b bb b nf f f ™ ≈ f f ≈ f f & b b f™ J f f > f f > f f > ? f f ? f f ? f f ? { bbbb b & f & f & f b b ‰ J f f f ‰ J ‰ J ‰ J f f F 5 f f f f F b b f f &b b bbb ≈ f > f F f > f f ? f f f { bbbb b & f b b f ‰ J ‰ J 44 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com SHEET MUSIC

Editions Musica Ferrum Mosaic Volume 3 – Intermediate GEORGE S BLONSKY GEORGE HUGHES GERARD Composers Anna Blonsky, Ben Crosland and Paul Poston

osaic is a popular series of graded e title of Ben Crosland’s light-hearted right hand plays only the white keys. Editorial M piano volumes from publisher Editions piece Sambamamba is a play on two of suggestions have been taken into account so Musica Ferrum, featuring some of today’s most its distinctive features – the strong Latin the above is not always the case (eg bars 2, 4, compelling contemporary composers. e in uence and the scales in its opening and anywhere else where a chromatic scale three pieces reproduced here are taken from theme. Make sure to bring out the upper is involved), but otherwise the bishops play a the third volume of Mosaic and re ect the note of the left-hand chords in the melody fair game. IP diversity found throughout the series. where appropriate; this will require precise Anna Blonsky’s Valse Triste is a melancholic coordination to ensure the right hand lifts waltz, reminiscent of the Romantic era. e cleanly and smoothly. Watch out for the subtle Mosaic – Volume use of your second nger in the right hand is change in rhythm in bars 17-18, and observe 3 is now available advised for the ascending melodies that begin the pedal markings closely to preserve the from Editions on a sharp. Attention should be given to the contrast between the crisp, staccato chords Musica Ferrum. descending melody in bars 12-14 and 36-38, and the longer, pedalled ones. Read Murray where a delicate balance will facilitate the If you’ve ever played chess, you know the McLachlan’s exchange of notes from right hand to left. Where bishops can only move diagonally along either review on page 72

ÈÒÌÍ OMOÚFÚMFNGJMÚKFÚI Vol.3 the melody occupies the bass clef, use forearm the white or black squares of the chessboard. Barbara Arens, Anna Blonsky, Jaap Cramer, Ben Crosland, of this issue. Andrew Eales, Andrea Granitzio, Simon Hester, Sarah Konecsni, O"/;2/20#=@CA

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 45 Valse Triste

Anna Blonsky

oeto 5 1 5 4 2 1 1 œ. œ # œ œ œ œ œ œ & Œ œ Œ œ Œ œ# œ J Œ œ do p ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ? # ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ 1 1 œ5 2 œ 2 œ œ œ 4 4

2 1 1 œ œ œ # Œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ. œ œ œ Œ œ Œ œ & J Œ P ˙ ˙ n˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ? # ˙ ˙ ˙# ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ# œ œ œ

5 1 poco rit. a tempo 2  4 3 3  2 1 2 1 2 œ. œ œ œ œ # J œ œ œ œ ∑ Œ Œ œ œ & œ ˙ œ œ œ sro œ#  œ# ˙ œ œ P ˙ œ œ œ# œ œ œ ˙œ. œ œ ˙ ? # œ ‰ œ œ œ 2 3 1 3 2 1 2 ˙ œ2 1 œ . 2 œ1 œ2 œ# 3 œ 4 2 1   5 4 5

8 #   œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ œ Œ œ œ & œ œ œœ œœ œ# œ œ œ œ œ. œ ˙ œ œ ? # œ. œ œ œ# . œ œ œ 2 J œ# & œ. J 1 2 œ œ

46 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com a tempo rit. 1 23 U 5 4 5 œ œ  , # œœ œœ ˙ œ œ œ œ & Œ Œ ˙# Œ œ Œ œ Œ œ œ P ˙ ˙ ˙ # U ? ˙ ˙ ˙ œ. œ œ# ˙. & J œ œ œ

28 2 3 1 2 # œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ œn & œ. J Œ œ Œ œ Œ œ J

˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ? # ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ #˙ œ œ œ œ œ#

5 5 3 1 4 2  33 1  œ œ œ œ. œ œ # œ œ œ J œ œ œ œ & Œ Œ Œ œ œ ∑ ˙ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ ? # ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ ‰ œ# œ œ œ œ œ 3 1 3 2

poco rit. poco più lento moto ra. 5 1 5 4 39 2 2 2 4 1 2 1 œ# ˙. ˙. # œ œ œ ˙. ˙. Œ Œ œ œ# œ œ# œ & œ ˙ œ œ# œ#  #œ smorzando p . ˙ ˙ œ ? # ˙œ œ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ ˙# . ˙ & œ 2 . œ œ 4

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 47 Sambamamba

Ben Crosland  . œ . & b ‰ œ œ œ . ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ œ p œœ. œœ œœ œœ. œ. œ. œ. œ. ? œ . œ. œ. œ œ œ œ œ b ‰ ‰ ≈‰ J Œ ≈ ‰ 2 J 4 3 1.

& b ‰ œ œ œ . œ ≈ ŒŒ ≈ . œ œ œ œ œ œ . œ. œ. œ œ œ . . . . ? œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ b ‰. . ‰. ≈‰ J œ ≈ œ Œ‰ .

5 2.     œœ. œœ œœ. œœ œœ. œœ. œ. œ œ. œ œ. œ. b ≈ ‰ j ≈ ? . ‰ œ œ œ# ≈ œ œn œ ‰ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ œ & . 2 œ œ œ œ J J . . . œ. œ œ œn œ. œ. œ. ? œ ≈ œ œ ≈ . b ‰ J œ œ# œ . œ œ œ œ œ4. œ w w 8 1. œ. œ œ. œ œ. œ. œ. œ. . œ œn œ ? œœ œœ œœ# œœ œœn œœ œ ≈ œ œ œ . b ‰ J ≈ Œ≈ .

? . b œ œ œ ≈œŒ≈ œ œ# œ . w œ. œ. œ. œ 10 2. .  .  ...... œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ. œ œ œ ˙. œ œ œ ˙ ? ‰ œ œ œ# ≈ œ ≈ œ ‰ œ ≈ ‰ J . b J J .  .  j j ? œ œœ ≈œœ ‰ œœ ≈ ‰ œ œ. œ ˙ b œ. œ œ w2 œ œ. œ. œ. œ. œ . J ° 48 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com 4 4

13 ˙. œ œ œ œ ˙. œ œ œ œ ˙. œ œb œ ? œn œ. œ ˙ œ œ. œ ˙ œ œ. œ# œ œ œ œ b ‰J ‰ J ‰ œ# Œ .  .  J.    .  j .j    ? bœ œ. œ ˙ ‰ œ œ. œ ˙ j j b wn ‰ œ œ ˙ œ œ. œ ˙ Œ‰œ ≈ œ . œ w w ° 3 ° 4 1 ˙œ. œ œ œ ˙. œ œ. œ ˙ œ œ œ œ w œ œ. œ ˙ ? œ œ. œ ˙ ≈ œ ≈ œ. œ ˙ ≈ œ ≈ œ . œ ˙ b J J J  ‰ .  .  . .j  j ? ‰ œ œ. œ ˙ ≈ bœ ≈ œ. œ ˙ ≈ j ≈ œ œ b . œ œ. œ œ œ2 œ w b œ. œ œ ˙ œ. œ. œ œ 1 ° ° ◊ ˙˙ ? ˙˙ . œ . b Œ & ‰ œ œ œ . ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ œ π p ...... ? œ œ œ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ œ œ œ b ≈ ‰j‰ ‰. . ‰. ≈‰ J Œ ≈ ‰ J œ. œ. œ. (◊) . œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ œ œ œ œ. œ. j  .  & b ‰ ≈ Œ≈ œ œ œ œn œ ‰ œœ œœ œœ ≈ œœ œœ œœ . œ. œ œ# œn . œ. . œœ j ? . œ œ# œ œ œ ? ‰. & œœ ‰œœ ≈‰ œœ œ ≈ œ Œ≈ œ œ w b œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. 5 √. œœ. œœ œœ. œœ œœ. œœ. œ. œ. œœ j  .  œ œ œ# œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ & b ‰ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ œ ‰ J ≈ Œ Œ œ. œ œ œ œ. œ. p π œ œ ? w œœ œ ? b & œ œ œ œ ≈ œ Œ Œ œ œ œ . . œ œ. www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 49

Opposing Bishops

Paul Poston 5  4 2 1 2 3 2 4 1 1 2 5 2 5 3 j j 7 3 j 4 3 & 4 ‰j‰ œ ‰ œ 8 ‰ j‰ œ œ# œ. œ# . 4 ‰j‰ œ ‰ j 4 ‰ œ ‰ œ# œ. œ# . œ. 4 œ. . . œ . . œ. . œ . œ. . p . . . . œ# . F . . œ# . . œ# . œ# œ# ‰ . œ# . œ# œ# ‰‰ ? 3 œ# ‰ J ‰ J ‰ 7 Ó 3 œ# ‰ J ‰ J ‰ 4 Ó 3 4 J5 3 2 8 1 2 4 J 4 4

55 1 2 3 4 3 j j 7 3 j 4 œ & 4 ‰j‰ œ ‰ œ 8 ‰ j‰ œ œ# œ. œ# . 4 ‰j‰ œ ‰ j 4 ‰ œ ‰ œ. œ# . œ. . œ. . . œ. . . œ. . œ. . œ. p . F . . œ# . œ# . œ# . œ# . œ# . œ# ? 3 œ# . œ# 7 ‰ 3 œ# . œ# 4 ‰‰ 4 J ‰ J ‰ J ‰ 8 Ó 4 J ‰ J ‰ J ‰ 4 Ó 5 1 99 œ. œ. œ. œ. œ œ œ œ œ. 2 J 3 j & Ó Œ. 4 œ œ Œ Œ œ Œ ‰j‰ œ ‰ j œ. œ. œ. œ œ f p F œ# œ# ? Ó ‰Œ 3 #œ œ Œ Œ #œ Œ œ# ‰ J ‰ J ‰ œ# œ œ# œ j 4 # œ œ # œ J5 1 œ# 5 œ . œ# œ œ ...... ° 1414 2 3 . . j j œ œ ‰ j ‰ œ œ# ‰j‰ ‰ j 4 ‰ œ ‰ œ# œ œ# œ Ó œ œ & œ œ œ œ. œ 4 . œ . . . . f . . . œ# F . œ# . œ# . . œ# . œ# ‰‰ ? J ‰‰J œ# œ# ‰ J ‰ 4 Œ J ‰ J 4 Ó œ# œ# œ œ Ó rit. a tempo 1818 1 2 3 4 . . œ. œ. œ. œ. 2 œ œ œ œ œ œ j & Œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œn Œ Œ Œ. œ œ# œ œ# 43 J nnœ œ œ œ œn œ# ...... p . . . . f. . . p. ##œ œ œ œ #œ œ #œ œ ? œ# œ j‰Œ œ# Œ # œ œ Œ# œ Œ œ ∑ 43 œ# œ. œ. œ# ° 50 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com 2 1 3 j 4 œ œ œ & 4 ‰j‰ œ ‰ j 4 ‰ œ ‰ œ# œ. œ# . œ. ‰ ‰ œ ‰ ‰ œ j‰Œ œ œ. . œ. . œ. . œ. . œ. . œ. F . p ƒ . œ# . œ# . œ# . . œ# . œ# ‰‰ . œ# . œ# ‰ ? ? 3 œ# ‰ ‰ J ‰ 4 Ó œ# ‰ ‰ ‰ & ‰ Ó 4 J 4 œ# œ# 3 J œ# 4 2 1 5 1 5 œ œ œ œ œ œ ? œ œ œ œ ? œ & Œ Œ Œ œ Œ Œ Œ & œ Œ œ Œ œ œ

? ? ? Œ & œ# Œ Œ Œ Œ & Œ Œ œb Œ œ# 5 œ# 1 œ# œb 5 1 œ# œ# œ# œb œ# œ# œ# œ# œ# œb 11 ° . . ? œ. œ. œ œ œ. œ. œ œ Ó Ó & œ œ Ó œ œ Œ œ Œ œ Œ œ Œ œ Œ œ œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. p F f p . . F ? #œ œ #œ. œ. œ. #œ. œ. #œ. œ. œ œ Ó bœ œ Ó # œ œ Ó # œ œ Œ œ Œ# œ Œ œ Œ# œ Œ œ bbœ œ b œ. œ. 1 . .2 1 . j 3 j j 7 3 j 4 & Œ œ# œ œ# œ. œ# . 4 ‰j‰ œ ‰ œ 8 ‰ j ‰ œ œ# œ. œ# . 4 ‰j‰ œ ‰ j 4 . . . œ. . . œ. . . œ. . œ. p . F . œ# . œ# . œ# . œ# . ? 3 œ# . œ# 7 ‰ 3 œ# . œ# 4 ∑ 4 J ‰ J ‰ J ‰ 8 Ó 4 J ‰ J ‰ J ‰ 4 4141 j 4 ‰ ‰ œ# œ 3 ‰j‰ j‰ 7 ‰ j‰ œ œ# 4 ‰ ‰ ‰ & 4 œ œ œ# œ. . . 4 œ œ œ 8 œ œ# . . 4 œ ‰ œ œ . . . . . . œ. . . . . œ. . . p . F p œ# . œ# . œ# . œ# . œ# . œ# . œ# . ? 4 ‰‰ 3 œ# . œ# 7 ‰ 4 œ# . ‰ œ# ‰ 4 Ó 4 J ‰ J ‰ J ‰ 8 Ó 4 ‰ ‰ &

4545 . . . . œ œ œ œ . œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ J ? & j‰Œ& œ Ó Œ. nnœ œ Ó Ó œ. . . œœ œœ ƒ F . . #œ. œ. p ‰ œ# Ó ? Ó ‰Œ # œ œ Ó Ó & œ# œ# œ# œ œ# œ j # #œœ œœ œ# . œ. œ# . œ. œ. # œ. œ. °* ◊ www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 51 STRAIGHT STRUNG CONCERT GRAND PIANOS

What if the Concert Grand evolved with parallel stringing instead of cross stringing ? The worlds rst modern straight strung concert grands: disruptive innovation, made in Belgium. For the rst time in decades musicians can discover a genuinly new world of sound. Want to know more? Look at the Chris Maene website or youtube channel for more info, or contact us at +32 51 68 64 37

CHRIS MAENE FACTORY - INDUSTRIESTRAAT 42 - 8755 RUISELEDE -BELGIUM WWW.CHRISMAENE.COM

Warrant Holder By Appointment to the Court of the Belgian Court of the Netherlands SHEET MUSIC

Patrick Brandon Two Pieces ‘Leap Y’ere!’ and ‘Fast and Furious’

atrick Brandon was born in Essex in Composer Patrick Brandon P1946 and studied music at Reading University. He initially pursued a career teaching music in schools and colleges, where he got the opportunity to write for various instrumentalists of di ering abilities, often in unusual groupings. During this period he also became a pro cient player of the tenor horn, bass trombone, double bass, B- at tuba, and even the Japanese koto. Brandon subsequently changed career and entered the Christian ministry, but continued to pursue his musical activities. Over the past ve decades, Brandon has composed a large number of works in a wide range of styles and genres, including solo piano, vocal and choral, orchestral, music for brass, organ and guitar. Two of his collections are available from Universal Music Publishing, while the rest is is self-published. Brandon’s music has received a number of high-pro le performances, including a recital by Gillian Weir at Liverpool Metropolitan is most evident in his choral output, which Cathedral featuring one of his extended organ includes Easter Music, Christmas Cantata, works. e same piece was later performed in Communion in Jazz, and e Shoah oratorio An A PIANO ALBUM St Paul’s Cathedral in London and Auckland for jazz quartet and choir. He has also penned Englishman’s Cathedral in New Zealand. Other works by numerous jazz compositions and many by Brandon have been heard in Ely Cathedral. Christian solo and congregational songs. Irish Patrick Brandon Meanwhile, as the winner of a BBC Young Brandon’s extensive piano catalogue Songbook

Composers Competition, his Sonatina for solo includes An Englishman’s Irish Songbook, a A PIANO ALBUM

ute was broadcast on Radio 3. collection of 21 pieces celebrating the essence by

Brandon enjoys a strong pro le in East of Irish music. ese were written in honour Patrick Brandon

Anglia, where he has received several of Irish relatives and inspired by visits to For further information contact [email protected] commissions from St Peter’s Church in Ireland. ey are accessible to most pianists Fordham, Cambridgeshire. ese include but can be freely adapted and lled out. ‘Leap Millennial March for a local brass band of Y’ere!’ features a jerky rhythm reminiscent of a For further information, samples and national reputation, two song cycles setting reel, though is rather unsteady, with dynamic purchases, please contact poems by a Victorian poet from the area, and contrasts for emphasis. [email protected] a clarinet quartet rst performed by Chinook. A Piano Album comprises seven pieces, Involved for many years in the local jazz mostly from Brandon’s earlier years, plus some An Englishman’s Irish Songbook | £7.00 scene as a pianist, saxophonist and band recently adapted from his guitar works. ‘Fast A Piano Album | £5.50 leader, Brandon has sought to integrate jazz and Furious’ barely stops for breath and should Pricing includes UK postage elements into several of his compositions. is be approached with reckless impetuousness! IP

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 53 Leap Y’ere!

Patrick Brandon Like a drunken Irish dance - unequal semiquavers ( = 200)   3        3            3         3 f                    

3   3         3            3        3 pp subito                    

5   3         3            3        3 ff                    

7 3              3               p f                    

9                   3       mp sonoro                           1980 Brandon © Patrick   Copyright © Patrick Brandon 1980 54 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com                       3      mp  rs                        

3                     3     rs   f                       

5                                    p subito f subito                            7   3  3      3            3          3    mp subito pp mp                             

     3                          p pp i in                                  www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 55 Fast and Furious

Patrick Brandon

Vivace furioso ( = 138)                         f                                       7                              mf legato                                 

12                                                  

18                                 f leggiero                    

22                                    legato     ff                        

27                              cresc.                            © Patrick Brandon 1966 Brandon © Patrick Copyright © Patrick Brandon 1966 56 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com                                          esate    f                                                                                   mf leggiero ff      f mf                                                                                f esate ff   f                                                        ff                                              sfz                          www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 57 RECORDING FOCUS

Communicating KIKKAS KAUPO with conviction Jean Muller’s latest disc in his complete Mozart sonatas cycle reveals stylish performances imbued with spontaneity and authority, says Colin Clarke

Jean Muller: ‘I strongly believe that as a performer you need to evolve constantly’

y meeting with Jean Muller took really started to dive into it, and the joy of life pessimism: ‘Mozart always believed that place last February in the achingly and humour that is so characteristic of Mozart somehow, even through the adversity, he Mstylish lobby of his hotel, the fascinated me more and more.’ would prevail. He was right, though sadly evening before his recital at the Kleine Saal Artur Schnabel famously said that Mozart’s did not live to see it. But I also nd that the of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. He was to sonatas are ‘too easy for children, and too few sonatas in minor keys (A minor and C perform four Mozart piano sonatas (K311, 330, dicult for artists.’ Muller agrees, but also minor) have a tragic voice that’s inconsolable. 331 and 333) plus the C minor Fantasia K475 points out the instrumental challenge. ‘is It’s a quality that even in Beethoven is rare. – an appropriate programme to dovetail with music was not written for the instrument I am Beethoven always wins or transcends; with his ongoing Mozart sonatas cycle for Hänssler playing today. When using a modern piano, Mozart, the C minor Sonata ends very darkly, Classic, the rst three volumes of which have you need to shape every sound so that it in turmoil.’ met with critical acclaim. corresponds to the music.’ Other Mozart interpreters who have Born in Luxembourg in 1979, Muller studied Preparing to play Mozart is a huge inuenced and impressed Muller include in Riga, Brussels, Paris and Munich with and daunting task, so Muller spent time Solomon, Gieseking and Clara Haskil. He such luminaries as Eugen Indjic, Gerhard considering Mozart’s biography: ‘Maybe not particularly admires Gieseking’s Mozart for its Oppitz and, later, Anne Queélec and Leon my main source [of inspiration], but I wanted limpidity: ‘I really like the way he touches the Fleisher. Music has always been in his blood: to know who this person was, otherwise piano’. e names of Cortot and Edwin Fischer his father is a pianist and his mother played I am working in a vacuum.’ He also found also crop up in our discussion, particularly the in an orchestra, so he heard a lot of concerts inspiration in Charles Rosen’s book e latter’s Emperor Concerto with Furtwängler, when he was a child, and his parents had an Classical Style, which explores Mozart’s music and his Brahms Second Concerto. extensive record collection encompassing in great detail. ‘e expression is so much in Muller is a Steinway artist. He was involved some of the oldest classical recordings the formal structure that if you don’t analyse in shaping the Steinway Luxembourg available. Yet when it comes to Mozart, it was these pieces it’s very hard to understand them,’ B-211 edition which boasts a modi ed lid a case of what he refers to as ‘love at second says Muller. mechanism (the lid is raised completely from sight’: ‘I have to admit that when I was young, He nds a wide range of emotions in the piano body) and minimises extraneous I was not very interested in his music. en I the sonatas, from sunny optimism to deep reverberation. e Instrumagic Buttery

58 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com RECORDING FOCUS

D-SET of vibration harmonisers Muller likes to the opening Adagio of K282, which has a sense Goldberg Variations. He blends humility and use in performance also lessens reverberation of continuous unfolding. It also partly explains gentleness with a sense of recreative urgency, in the piano mechanism. Alas, he didn’t bring his success in capturing Mozart’s humour (try respectful of the composer but with a need the set to Hamburg, but at a concert back the rst and last movements of the C major to communicate with the listener. ‘ere is a home in Luxembourg a few days later his Sonata K279). Muller aims to minimise re- core message in Mozart’s music that everyone audience experienced the technology. ‘It really recording as much as possible, since too much can uncover in his or her own personal way.’ works,’ he says. ‘It enhances the basic qualities repetition leads to psychological tiredness. ‘My Muller’s mission is to reveal this truth with and it’s as though you are lifting a weight, so recording sessions are more like recitals, and the highest level of energy and conviction. His everything becomes very clear. I don’t always even though there may not be many listeners, results speak for themselves. IP travel with this set because it’s still logistically I work closely with my producer, Marco a little dicult.’ e technology is used in his Bottistella, whom I trust fully.’ Mozart recordings for Hänssler. Muller marks up and edits each recording e act of recording – setting down one’s himself. ‘I believe that because I put so much thoughts in a nite moment in time – tends eort into playing these pieces, I should to be associated with striving for a de nitive choose which parts appear on the nal disc,’ interpretation. Muller disagrees: ‘ere is no he explains. ‘It’s kind of an interpretation of such thing,’ he says. ‘I strongly believe that as the interpretation. When I like something, I a performer you need to evolve constantly, so want to have it on the album.’ Gut feelings, I try to play dierently every time. It is a very then? ‘Absolutely, it’s all emotional decisions.’ hard thing to x something down; it’s just a Muller has previously stated that he has momentary snapshot.’ to play Liszt; it’s a need. He feels the same Jean Muller: Mozart Piano Sonatas Vol 3 His recordings have a sense of spontaneity about Mozart, and that conviction shines is now available from Hänssler Classic despite their studio origins. Muller performs through these stylish performances. In fact, (HC20065). each piece in full, which works particularly well it is the de ning factor in everything he pianistjm.com in the more expansive slow movements such as has recorded so far, including a fabulous

THE SUMMER SCHOOL FOR PIANISTS

Stowe School, Buckingham, UK 14th – 20th August 2021

TUTORS: Graham Fitch; Daniel Hill; Karl Lutchmayer; Ann Martin-Davis; Christine Stevenson CONCOURS

GÉZATH ANDA The Summer School for Pianists has moved to a glorious home at Stowe! 15 INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION

An exciting week of masterclasses, tutor recitals, presentations and student ZURICH 27 MAY 5 JUNE 2021 concerts. One of Britain’s friendliest courses! Ample practice facilities at this All-Steinway school. Accommodation in single en-suite bedrooms on site. JURY PRESIDENT

For further details contact: The Administrator NELSON FREIRE Telephone: +44 (0) 7853 415393 Email: [email protected] OVERALL VALUE OF FIRST 3 PRIZES Website: https://www.pianosummerschool.co.uk/ £ 67,000

REGISTRATION st from 1 December 2020 The Summer School for Pianists is a charitable incorporated organisation, registered charity number 1174674. GEZAANDA.CH © MIMIXDESIGN 2020 GÉZA-ANDA FOUNDATION

Ad_GA_International_Piano_94x132_E.indd 1 13.10.20 12:14 www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 59 RECORDING FOCUS Dreaming of Brahms Pianist Nada’s deeply felt connection with Brahms is borne out in her comprehensive survey of his music on disc. Colin Clarke reports

ebanese-born Nada Lout , who she learned all his music. Brahms’ goes by the moniker ‘Pianist piano writing is indeed demanding, LNada’, has recently released the even though much of it lies under the nal volume in her survey of Brahms’ ngers. ‘It’s not free virtuosity,’ she piano music for the US label MEII explains. ‘If you play Liszt, everyone Enterprises. is three-disc set features is dazzled by the music’s technical the ird Piano Sonata, Paganini and brilliance. But Brahms’ Paganini Handel Variations, Klavierstücke Opp Variations are much more challenging 116 and 118, plus a fascinating selection because they have many layers. His of shorter works. music is very dense, so you need to Nada’s life story is one of triumph make sense of it.’ over adversity. She left war-torn An interesting aspect of Nada’s Lebanon (her mother was killed in Brahms survey is her inclusion of the the con ict) to study at the Paris Op 122 Chorales (originally for organ) Conservatoire in the mid-1980s, where strewn like petals through each of she was the rst Middle Eastern album. ey sound like the very essence woman to win a First Prize. Eventually of Brahms. e Chorales needed she settled in America. Music was adaptation, not really transcription, in ‘like a call’ to her: irresistible and order to include the organ’s pedal notes. inevitable. While in Paris, she earned e nal one we hear is in F major, the the nickname ‘Clara Haskil’ because home key of the Deutsches Requiem. of her a nity with Mozart; but she ‘My feeling about the last organ pieces also expanded her repertoire to early is that Brahms composed them at the 20th-century French composers such piano,’ says Nada. e words of that nal as Maurice Emmanuel and Gabriel Chorale are incredibly poignant: “O Welt, Pierné. ich muss dich lassen” – O world I must Nada has performed a vast array leave you.’ of music, including that of Lebanese e last word here, however, must composer Elias Rahbani (who died go to Pianist Nada: ‘What I’ve learned of Covid on 4 February this year), but from this experience is that Brahms is the music of Brahms is her abiding passion. Pianist Nada: ‘Brahms’ music is very dense, so endless, continuously yielding more and In 2016, her disc Nada in Hamburg began her you need to make sense of it’ more layers of beauty. I’ve never experienced journey in the recording studio through the such beauty in any other music.’ IP composer’s output that culminates in the talk, imagining Brahms was there: “Well,” present release. I said to him, “if I’m going to perform your Pianist Nada’s route to Brahms is music” – I was planning the F minor Sonata unconventional. She had performed some – “I need to understand it”. Something very of the composer’s music (including the special happened. Suddenly the Deutsches First Piano Trio with the Chausson Trio, Requiem – a work I had never been able to around the time of her mother’s death), but engage with – had me shedding tears from then experienced a revelatory moment few the rst movement until the end. I could not musicians enjoy: ‘I received a visit. I had the disconnect, and everything became so clear. habit of listening to France Musique on the I understood every moment. I was crying radio every night with my dear dog. And one because of the beauty of the music. When it night Mr Brahms happened to be there. e ended I was so moved, I thought that’s it! I was Pianist Nada’s three-disc set of Brahms’ piece was the Deutsches Requiem. I remember going gure out where his music came from. I piano music is now available from thinking I couldn’t listen to this in its entirety, had to devour everything.’ MEII Enterprises. and a miracle happened. I felt there was Nada admits that she was ‘afraid of Brahms pianistnada.com some other presence with me. I started to – it’s so di cult’, yet over the next seven years,

60 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com CHETHAM’S INTERNATIONAL PIANO SUMMER SCHOOL and JUNIOR PIANO ACADEMY in August 2021 will be UPDATED ANNOUNCEMENT ONSITE and ONLINE! Artistic Director: Murray McLachlan

The friendliest piano summer school in the world! 7–8 & 13–16 August 2021 | Junior Piano Academy Open to under 18s only 16–21 August 2021 | CIPSS Part 1 21–26 August 2021 | CIPSS Part 2

■ Over 50 outstanding faculty ■ 15 course options including jazz, composition, harpsichord and organ, piano teachers’, aural, sight-reading and theory ■ Over 25 faculty recitals - all live streamed

Faculty includes: Katya Apekisheva, Boris Berman, Ronald Brautigam, Peter Donohoe, Christopher Elton, Margaret Fingerhut, Peter Frankl, Carlo Grante, Grigory Gruzman, Michael Lewin, Paul Lewis, Joanna MacGregor, Wolfgang Manz, Leon McCawley, Pascal Nemirovski, Nikki Iles, Noriko Ogawa, Steven Osborne, Charles Owen, Martin Roscoe, Sandro Russo, Graham Scott, Balázs Szokolay, Martino Tirimo

Booking opens 10 January 2021 www.pianosummerschool.com REVIEWS • CDs Critic’s choice

his most assertive and deant declamations). greatest pianists of our time. Indeed, his Otherwise a superb release, particularly when appearances and recordings are su ciently rare heard in Hyperion’s golden sound. to make them red-letter events. Here, he turns BRYCE MORRISON to Book 2 of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues with a selection explained in his characteristically modest but personal accompanying essay. For him they are not an inevitable sequence, but rather a series combining ‘contrapuntal science’ and ‘character,’ a combination of ‘rigour and beauty’ communing and mirroring one other. Vida Breve Such an outlook places him outside legendary Works by Bach-Busoni, Chopin, Liszt, recordings by Glenn Gould, Roslyn Tureck, Busoni, Hough and Gounod Edwin Fisher and Samuel Feinberg. Stephen Hough pf is is playing of unadorned purity, shorn Hyperion CDA68260 of all extra-mural attractions in performances J S Bach that often transcend even the most exalted e awe-inspiring range and command of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2 names. ere is none of Gould’s eccentricity Stephen Hough’s pianism may be a given, (Excerpts) or Tureck’s occasional pedantry, let alone but here in his latest programme entitled Piotr Anderszewski pf Richter’s claim that Bach is useful from a ‘Vida Breve’ – the short span beneath birth Warner 9029511875 hygienic standpoint. Anderszewski’s contrast and death – he has rarely sounded more between the cascading momentum of Prelude imperious. His Bach-Busoni Chaconne iotr Anderszewski confesses to a profound No 11 in F major and its bounding Fugue challenges Michelangeli’s legendary if chilly Pambivalence regarding his career, shying could hardly be more vivid. And what other- account, while in Chopin’s Second Sonata away from descriptions of him as one of the worldly beauty he achieves in the Prelude No 9 Hough forges a formidable unity from ‘four of the composer’s maddest children’(Schumann). Impatient with the opening Grave he also misses the daemonic element in what I like ALBUM OF to call Chopin’s ‘Mephisto’ Scherzo. But the Funeral March is grim and remorseless, THE MONTH an uninching evocation of national and ceremonial grief. A hair-raising blend of mastery and imagination characterises the nale’s whirling diablerie. Similarly overwhelming is the central octave galop of Funérailles, where Liszt recalls the hoofbeats of the Polish cavalry he heard in Chopin’s A-at Polonaise. Hough takes the listener on a mesmeric journey from swashbuckling bravado to bleak tragedy in Busoni’s Chamber Fantasie on Carmen, following it with his own Fourth HIPIC Sonata, ‘Vida breve’, an enigmatic and ith this, his second album for BIS of all composers.’ At the same time, Liszt would attenuated utterance that evokes the brevity WRecords, 23-year-old Turkish pianist not be Liszt if his pianistic embellishments did not of life. Two encores oer unforgettable solace: Can Çakmur oers a revelatory view of Liszt proclaim an apt and illuminating rather than self- Hough’s own arrangements of the serene the transcriber and Liszt the dark-hued serving presence. e result is music that captures Korean folksong Arirang and Gounod’s Ave prophet of his nal years. Rarely can the all the radiance of ‘Liebesotschaft’, plus the Maria, showcasing his liquid honey touch and scope of Liszt’s extraordinary genius have cloudier, more menacing regions of ‘Der Atlas’ and caressing instinct for nuance and inection. been more potently caught. ‘Am Meer’. All this is conveyed in playing where a His prefatory note may raise a few eyebrows, e conjunction of two wholly disparate technique as superlative as it is unobtrusive exists as will the claim (not by Hough) that the composers in the transcription of Schubert’s to express the deepest sense of poetry. openings of Chopin’s and Hough’s sonatas Schwanengesang is the reverse of jarring, but Liszt’s strange and hallucinatory Valses share a sense of fragility (Chopin’s is among an expression of Liszt’s love for ‘the most poetic oubliées are meditations on what he saw as a

62 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com CDs • REVIEWS

in E major. He makes you long for more Bach, Petrarch Sonnets reveal a more ruminative, ‘Il vecchio castello’. With a top-notch recording or indeed any other great composer. A pianist reective side to his artistry. All three present a and generous playing time, this is a must-have. who oers no concessions, who remains master storyteller with impeccably projected COLIN CLARKE entirely himself, Anderszewski achieves melodies, nowhere more than in the beautifully something of Lipatti’s level of exaltation. troubled opening of Sonetto 123. BRYCE MORRISON e centrepiece of Grosvenor’s programme is the B minor Sonata, its opening descent pedalled spectacularly. His reading takes real interpretative risks, throwing out fragments separated by silence, as it should be. e slow movement has the inexorable quality of molten lava, while the fugato is crisp as can be. is is visceral and exciting playing. e Berceuse (the more ornamented second version) oers perfect post-sonata balm. Good Night e concert paraphrase on Bellini’s Norma is Works by Janek, Liszt, Lyapunov, Chopin, uncompromising fare, yet Grosvenor elevates illa-Lobos, Bonis, rieg, Dessner, Busoni, Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor; Berceuse it to far more than a pot-boiler. e Schubert/ Lachenmann, Brahms, Martin, Balakirev S174; Années de pélèrinage S 161, Liszt Ave Maria acts as an encore to round o and Alkan Tre Sonetto del Petrarca; Réminiscences proceedings. A superb disc. Bertrand Chamayou pf de Norma S394 COLIN CLARKE Erato 9029524243 Liszt/Schubert Ave Maria S558 Benjamin Grosvenor pf Bertrand Chamayou’s programme of nocturnal Decca 4851450 enchantment weaves a magic spell – though the unwary should be warned that there Benjamin Grosvenor’s sixth Decca release are disturbed as well as good nights. It is demonstrates his deep resonance with the music surprising that a recital of lullabies has not of Liszt. e British pianist’s prestidigitation been thought of before (though Gordon has often been the cause of comment, but his Fergus-ompson’s 1992 album Reverie comes close) for the genre is richly varied. Chamayou’s programme oers optimum Revelatory: Can Çakmur contrast, with notable discoveries by Mel Debussy Children’s Corner Bonis and Helmut Lachemann plus a new Chopin 24 Préludes commission by Bryce Dessner set alongside Musorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition more familiar oerings. e two masterpieces Bezhod Abduraimov pf are by Chopin and Liszt (who wrote four Alpha 653 Berceuses, of which two are given here – the rst brief and crepuscular, the second sumptuously Bezhod Abduraimov was born in Uzbekistan ornate and extended). Austere and forbidding and emigrated to the US at 16. He has released Busoni is contrasted with Balakirev, who takes a succession of notable discs, yet none that us on a journey from sweetness and solace demonstrate his ability to negotiate distinct through nightmare to a vision of butteries and Schubert-Liszt Schwanengesang soundworlds like this one. He is a major talent. silver bells. ere are two examples by Lyapunov Liszt Valses oubliées e album opens with a perfectly calibrated (the second opens his 12 Transcendental Etudes) Can Çakmur pf Children’s Corner before immersing us in and notable miniatures by Janáˇcek, Villa-Lobos, BIS 2530 Chopin’s world. Abduraimov’s Préludes oer Grieg, Brahms, Martin˚u. e programme closes a reminder of the importance of Bellinian with a faux-naive oering from Alkan. misspent past (his ‘glanz’ or glitter years) singing lines, particularly in Nos 4 and 8. e e listener is generously served and and subsequent desolation. Oddly described E-at minor (No 14) is remarkable, occupying Chamayou’s performances are musical and by John Ogdon as ‘delightful’, there are few the hairline between detail and eect, its empathetic, making you long for a sequel more unsettling or disquieting pages in all unsettling atmosphere a perfect foil to the so- comprising more Liszt, York Bowen, Palmgren, keyboard literature. In an essay as acute called ‘Raindrop’ that follows. Single lines can Feinburg, ‘Jimbo’s Lullaby’ (Debussy) and as it is evocative, Çakmur asks, ‘Are they speak volumes, despite – or perhaps because Schumann’s ‘Child Falling Asleep’ (a lullaby wistful? Ironic? Sardonic? Self-loathing? of – Abduraimov’s restraint. in all but name). Above all, Chamayou Melancholic? Perhaps all at once.’ is is an Musorgsky’s Pictures ushers in a more prompts the listener to ponder Anthony album to haunt the mind and imagination, vertically oriented, forbidding terrain. Storr’s paradoxical observation that music and it is perfectly recorded. Abduraimov oers a technically perfect yet encourages both sleep and rapt attention. IP BRYCE MORRISON exciting reading, including a beautifully sculpted BRYCE MORRISON

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 63 REVIEWS • CDs

Beethoven Complete Piano Sonatas; Diabelli Variations Daniel Barenboim pf Emotionally distant: Deutsche Grammophon 4839320 – 13 CDs Daniel Barenboim FELI BROEDE D FELI BROEDE

hen the rst Covid lockdown cancelled an orchestral score before a performance, Intimacy is conveyed in the Sonata No 4 WDaniel Barenboim’s Beethoven sonata without concern for pianistic niceties. in E-at major, but at points the results also cycle in Vienna, scheduled for May 2020, the is impression is paradoxical, since appear limp and disjointed. For an unexplained 78-year-old pianist and conductor decided Barenboim’s live Beethoven recitals are played reason, throughout this set, movements to preserve these performances for posterity, from memory, without the presence of a score. marked Menuetto are played laxly to the point recording them at an empty Berlin concert hall. Why should the absence of written music of near-inertia, losing the intended allusion to ey join his earlier recordings, including be impressive in and of itself, especially on a dance; Sonatas No 7 in D major and No 11 in an EMI cycle from the late 1960s, followed by recordings? Punters and even some critics B-at major are two examples. one for Deutsche Grammophon in the early who laud Barenboim’s mnemonic feats e Moonlight Sonata No 14 in C-sharp minor 1980s, generally seen as a high point in his lower the pianistic art to the level of music is surprisingly humdrum, as if playing it were discography, with a DVD (EuroArts) directed hall artistes such as Mr Memory in Alfred drudgery. A similar foursquare, duty-bound by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. In 2005 Barenboim Hitchcock’s lm e 39 Steps. approach drains the vivacity of even the thrilling produced another cycle of Beethoven sonata Nevertheless, Barenboim’s swashbuckling opening of the Waldstein Sonata No 21 in C major. performances from the Berlin State Opera, Diabellis contain plenty of dash, despite a Mitigating any sense of an empyrean paired with masterclasses, released on DVD notable absence of Beethovenian sarcastic statement from a senior musician is a certain (EMI) and CD (Decca). humour. Instead, a glowering persona is emotional parsimoniousness, a hallmark Accustomed to long, variegated orchestral expressed, the tantrum-prone lout who of Barenboim’s rather distanced pianism scores, Barenboim conveys close anities to inspired Steven Isserlis’s book for children, throughout his career. Where poignancy was Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which plainly Why Beethoven rew the Stew. Tonal warmth, intended by the composer, listeners receive suit his interpretive personality more than one of the most regularly appreciated aspects distended phrases spun out to quasi-in nity, even Ludwig’s most monumental sonatas. of Barenboim’s recitals of Beethoven sonatas, as in Les Adieux Sonata No 26 in E-at major. e Diabellis’ vast aural landscape, lled with is discarded at times. Instead of heartfelt feelings creeping incident and radically varied moods, is in some A true curate’s egg, this 13-CD box includes through the extra roominess, a marmorean ways akin to complex opera scores conducted a shapely and vivacious third movement impression is conveyed of a self-consciously stirringly by Barenboim, such as Berg’s Wozzeck. of the Pathétique Sonata No 8 in C minor, grandiose, generalised statement. When the By contrast, in performance Beethoven’s after listeners have survived an oppressive, piano’s tone sounds clangorous, lugubrious, sonatas require overall shaping and cohesion suocating opening to the rst movement. or pettish, as in the nal movement of the that have never been among Barenboim’s Barenboim achieves a jaunty Presto con Appassionata Sonata No 23 in F minor, the strong points as a pianist. He is a musician fuoco movement in e Hunt Sonata No 18 in results are even less moving. of incidents rather than all-embracing E-at major, although his left hand audibly Still, for a Diabelli Variations that is patterns. Discontinuity and de-emphasis on experiences diculties in generating the quintessential Barenboim, this set is worthy structure, with a tendency to dawdle over required dynamism. of esteem. An added bonus of recordings of some passages and hurry brusquely through Age per se is not the issue. Arthur ‘name’ sonatas by the teenaged prodigy from others, have been trademarks of his approach Rubinstein, who recorded Beethoven 1958 are merely smart alecky, with a tendency to Beethoven’s piano works. concertos in 1975 with Barenboim on to favour smashing and bashing, and less tonal A dozen years ago, Barenboim was already the podium, retained a youthful spirit at sophistication than he would soon acquire. lamenting to interviewers that he was hobbled the keyboard in his late eighties. Here, is adolescent brashness was happily by gout. Any current health issues apart, the however, even sprightly passages like the outgrown, and mainly serves as a reminder deliberate bluntness of recent Barenboim fourth movement of the Sonata No 2 in A to value Barenboim’s mostly superior middle- keyboard performances may be likened major, marked Rondo: Grazioso, is played so career Beethoven sonata cycles. IP to those of a conductor rushing through deliberately as to sound resigned. BENJAMIN IVRY

64 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com CDs • REVIEWS

HISTORIC RECORDINGS is is an enormously important issue that SOLO REPERTOIRE shows why Michelangeli said of Fiorentino, ‘He is the only other pianist.’ BRYCE MORRISON

Sergio Fiorentino: Live in Germany 1993 Beethoven Sonatas Opp 101, 109 and 111 Works by Beethoven, Chopin, Scriabin, Nikolai Lugansky pf Schumann, Gounod-Liszt, Johann Harmonia Mundi HMM 902441 Strauss II-Tausig, Strauss-Godowsky, Emma Boynet: The complete solo 78 Tchaikovsky-Fiorentino, Brahms- recordings and Fauré LPs Replacing Beethoven’s Opus 110 with 101 Fiorentino and Bach-Busoni Works by Schubert, Weber, Faller, Vetter, is a novel alternative to a more familiar Sergio Fiorentino pf Haydn, Chabrier, Debussy, Pierné, Philipp, sequence. For his mentor Tatyana Nikolayeva, APR 6034 – 2 CDs Severac, Ibert, Rutini and Fauré Lugansky was ‘the next one’ and as his sizeable Emma Boynet pf discography – chie y of the Romantics – tells is double album from APR is a reminder APR 6033 – 2 CDs us he a pianist of exceptional power and of a great pianist whose appearances were eloquence. But late Beethoven poses a radically sporadic due to injury and a modest and To take issue with Emma Boynet (1891-1974), a dierent challenge, and here there is a sense withdrawn personality. Even in his native Italy born keyboard charmer, might seem churlish; that Lugansky’s unfailing mastery and musical recognition for Fiorentino was slow. I recall notes pour en cascade from her extraordinary honesty are also limitations. His playing mention of his death as a mere footnote on a ngers like stardust. Yet while never less than may despise artice but it fails to achieve a noticeboard at the Busoni Competition. musicianly in a limited sense, her way with transcendence at the heart of late Beethoven. Yet a steady stream of Fiorentino’s Schubert’s G- at Impromptu re ects a long- You miss a greater sense of light and shade, the recordings has poured out over the years, and defunct view, that of a minor Viennese gure. chiaroscuro of Kemp or the sense of wonder this latest issue provides ample conrmation In the Weber Rondo brillante she comes close achieved by Solomon in the opening of Opus of a stature too long unrecognised. ere were to whirling the music out of existence, while in 101. All these performances are admirable as far times early in his career when Fiorentino’s Fauré’s Second Impromptu she even outpaces as they go, but they do not go far enough. immense facility made him over-reach Eileen Joyce in agility, if not in poetry. BRYCE MORRISON himself, when his playing became facile e second CD in this collection is and uncontrolled. Later it acquired a depth exclusively devoted to Boynet’s Fauré, elevating and radiance given to very few pianists. His him to something more than Debussy’s and nonchalantly deployed technique took care Ravel’s poor country cousin in the French of large swathes of the repertoire, but he was hierarchy. Once more the playing ashes with above all a pianist for whom the Romantics, intermittent sensitivity, yet too often within notably Chopin, Schumann and Liszt, came limited horizons. In the ird Barcarolle naturally and eortlessly. Here, he was in his she is matter-of-fact when she should be element. insinuating, her rushed tempi making subtle, e treacherous leaps at the close of luminous music sound inconsequential. Her the march from Schumann’s Fantasie hold Fauré Nocturnes show greater inwardness and no terrors for Fiorentino, and I doubt capacity to probe below the surface, notably in Spira, Spera whether you will often hear – not even from No 7 where she dips her toe into a darker, more J S Bach arranged by Saint-Saëns, Busoni, Moiseiwitsch – a more inward or communing tormented world. Here Fauré moves towards Siloti, Hess and Theodor Szántó sense of rapture in the nale. By contrast, his later sobriety, the orid and erotic charms of Emmanuel Despax pf Fiorentino’s ear-tickling virtuosity in Gounod- his earlier manner a distant memory. Signum SIGCD 665 Liszt and Strauss-Godowsky could make even APR’s superb and extensive accompanying the greatest pianist pale with envy, while his essay by Frédéric Gaussin charts the strenuous e title of this album comes from Hugo’s Bach-Busoni is scarcely less remarkable. In journey of a clearly prodigiously gifted pianist Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and means Scriabin’s Fourth Sonata, Fiorentino takes towards nal recognition. Yet overall, Boynet ‘Breathe, Hope’. In the wake of the re at a mercurial ight close to but never over is a bewildering case, her immense talents Notre-Dame cathedral, Despax oers a the edge. He concludes with four delectable oset by a memory of Myra Hess’s aggrieved cry powerful programme of transcriptions, encores, including two of his own witty and regarding excessive speeding, ‘Vive le sport!’ including by the Busoni pupil eodor Szántó scintillating arrangements. BRYCE MORRISON (1877-1934). ‘I used to enjoy thinking … that

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 65 REVIEWS • CDs

if physics’ String eory was true … the tiny vibrating strigs were probably vibrating to the modern E-272 concert grand in the second. music of Bach,’ says Despax, whose reverence Armstrong provides a fascinating comes across in his interpretations. collection of music – not least in the Playing on a Fazioli, Despax gives vent to inclusion of Wagner’s Piano Sonata WWV85 a truly epic Bach-Busoni Chaconne. He lets (1853, Zürich). Its full title is ‘Eine Sonate für the nal chord resonate longer than most, as das Album von M.W.’, dedicated to Mathilde if allowing the import of what we have heard Wesendonck and cast as a one-movement to take eect. By contrast, he draws out the fantasia like the Liszt. is fascinating piece celebratory nature of the Bach-Saint-Saëns oers ashes of characteristic Wagner, to Ouverture BWV 29. which Armstrong imparts a lovely sense of Listening to the great A minor Prelude and ow, almost like Weber past his time. Fugue BWV 543 against David Goode’s recent e Liszt is more variable: Au bord d’une organ recording (also on Signum), one can source feels rather fast, but Aux cyprès is hear how Liszt and Despax capture the work’s Wagner Piano Sonata in A-flat WWV85 phenomenal, seemingly sitting between the grandeur. And when it comes to the Szántó Liszt Piano works, including Sonata Wagner Sonata and Tristan. Regarding the Liszt transcriptions, Despax is awe-inspiring in his in B minor Mozart Fantasy in C minor Sonata, Armstrong is unfortunate to come up combination of virtuosity and intellectual 5; Suite in C major 3, Allemande against Grosvenor this month. Armstrong can grasp. A fascinating album by a pianist of Mozart/Liszt Ave Verum Corpus S461a feel studied, even pedestrian, in comparison. erce intellect and consummate technique. Kit Armstrong pf Good to hear the Mozart C minor Fantasy COLIN CLARKE C major 756508 – DVD on its own, here a poignant post-Sonata meditation, though not suciently sustained. Recorded live at the Margravial Opera House in e Ave Verum Corpus transcription is far more Bayreuth, this recital features two Steingraeber touching. A variable recital, valuable mainly for pianos: a lighter-toned 1890 instrument identical the location and the Wagner Sonata. to that owned by Liszt in the rst half, and a COLIN CLARKE

hypnotises the listener with its jagged knottily contrapuntal, it attracts only the ‘staircases’. A wonderful release, recorded superhumanly equipped or the quietly insane. with Hyperion’s characteristically excellent No complaints about Ullén’s technique: he piano sound. has to contend with a ‘Coda-Finale’ that is Ligeti The 18 Etudes COLIN CLARKE just under an hour in duration and includes Danny Driver pf a quintuple fugue (the entire set of Studies Hyperion CDA68286 takes 8 hours 20 minutes to perform). He also projects the character of each piece: a terric is is, surely, a personal triumph for Danny ‘Tango habanera’, a scintillating ‘Chopsticks’ Driver. Much though I have enjoyed him on and a freewheeling fantasia on Bach’s Chromatic disc (particularly in Balakirev, Benjamin Dale Fantasy contrast with oases of extreme and Schumann), this is his pinnacle to date. beauty (No 96). Caught in ne sound, this is Up till now, the Ligeti Etudes have largely unhesitatingly recommended to the brave. been the territory of one man, Pierre-Laurent COLIN CLARKE Aimard, whose hair-raising performances are shot through with frenzied electricity. Driver’s readings are calmer, but no less convincing. Sorabji 100 Transcendental Studies – We hear a quirkiness and humour (Etude No os 8-1 3 ‘Touches bloquées’, for example) that is not Fredrik Ullén pf only charming but enables us to make sense of BIS 2433 – 2 CDs Ligeti’s thematic disjunctions. Some moments would benet from a Brevity was rarely Kaikhosu Shapurji Sorabji’s touch more variety: the fanfares of No 4 lack strength. Here, Fredrik Ullén completes verve and No 7 (‘Galamb borong’) fails to his recording of the 100 Transcendental achieve the intensity of Aimard. Rather, Driver Studies. Until recently a composer known emphasises Ligeti’s beauty: try the exotic mainly for his similarly awe-inspiring Opus Bowen Fragments from Hans Andersen; fragrance of No 11 (‘En suspens’) and stained- clavicembalisticum, Sorabji (1892-1988) Concert Studies o 1 in G major Op 2, glass colours of No 12 (‘Entrelacs’). produced a vast catalogue of works. His o 2 in major Op 32; 12 Studies Op Driver’s nest performance is ‘L’escalier music inspires fanaticism: sometimes heady, Nicolas Namoradze pf du diable’ (unsurprisingly No 13), which always uncompromising, often gritty and Hyperion CDA68303

66 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com CDs • REVIEWS

Nicolas Namoradze is a pupil of Ax, Kocsis Many of the performances verge on e Variations on a eme by Haydn make and Eliso Virsaladze. He won the 2018 Honens caricature, with the sort of overheated a substantial ller. Here, Silver and Garburg Competition in Calgary and his rst release playing that gives Rachmaninov a bad name play on two pianos and the sound is perhaps featured live recordings from that event, but (his Vocalise arranged by Alan Richardson), a touch clattery, but there is no denying the this new studio album gives a much stronger a grotesquely slow Scarlatti sonata, and a vivacity of their playing. sense of his capabilities. Brahms Intermezzo (Op 118/2) alternately GUY RICKARDS Hyperion has done much to further the cause static and hysterical. Yet from one extreme to of the English composer York Bowen (1884- another, Buniatishvili shows herself a wonder 1961). His ten Fragments from Hans Andersen of wit in Serge Gainsbourg’s winking, teasing are delicious little character studies, which in La Javanaise. is apart, Buniatishvili has you Namoradze’s hands sound like an Anglo-Danish longing for a more natural showing of her Kinderszenen with virtuosity (try No 7, ‘ e undoubted but blighted gifts. windmill’) or, in ‘ e marsh-king’s daughter’, BRYCE MORRISON a rst cousin to Liszt’s Gnomenreigen. is is remarkably inventive music, brilliantly played. PIANO CONCERTOS By comparison, the two unashamedly Romantic Concert Studies cast their stylistic glance backwards. Namoradze projects Catoire Piano Concerto in A-flat major the grandeur of the rst and the Lisztian Op 21; Piano Quintet in G minor Op 28; pyrotechnics of the second to perfection. e Piano Quartet in A minor Op 31 rst of the Op 46 Studies (‘Chords of heavy Oliver Triendl pf Berlin Radio Symphony quality’) is like a slowed-down Debussy ‘Étude Orchestra/Roland Kluttig; Vogler String pour les accords’, while the cascading gestures Quartet of No 3 point towards Impressionism. No 7 is Capriccio C5403 Bowenised Chopin. Fascinating in terms of repertoire, this album Georgi Catoire (1861-1926) was a Russian also introduces Namoradze to the international Brahms Concerto in G minor for piano composer whose grandparents emigrated stage in a sonic jewel of a recording. four hands and string orchestra (after from Lorraine in the early 19th century, COLIN CLARKE Piano Quartet Op 25, arr Dünser); settling in Moscow. Although a mathematics Variations on a Theme by Haydn Op 56 graduate from Moscow University, the young Silver-Garburg Piano Duo Sivan Silver, Catoire had studied music from his early Gil Garburg pfs Vienna Symphony teens, devoting himself to composition at the Orchestra/Florian Krumpöck encouragement of Tchaikovsky. His teachers Berlin Classics 0301263BC included Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov, and he went on became a respected professor at Although Brahms penned several works Moscow Conservatory. After his death, aged for piano duet, a concerto was not one of 64, Catoire’s music fell into oblivion, but has them. If he had, it would doubtless have recently been rediscovered by artists such as sounded very like Richard Dünser’s 2016-7 Marc-André Hamelin and Anna Zassimova. arrangement of the Piano Quartet Op 25. Catoire was not prolic, completing just 36 Labyrinth Unlike Schoenberg’s famous orchestration works. His sole Concerto (1909, premiered – Works by Morricone, Satie, Chopin, Ligeti, of this work, Dünser has sought to preserve disastrously – in 1911) is an ebullient, youthful J S Bach, Rachmaninov, Gainsbourg, the original score’s interplay of keyboard and and richly romantic in character. Stylistically, Villa-Lobos, Couperin, Vivaldi-Bach, strings while creating a truly concertante it lies between Schumann and early Brahms, Pärt, Glass, Scarlatti, Liszt, version. His solution to the problem of Rachmaninov, with hints of French music as Cage and Marcello-Bach instrumental balance that bedevils Brahms’s well as Wagner in the heady mix. Its opening Khatia Buniatishvili pf textures is to have two pianists at one piano, span comprises a set of six large variations Sony 19439795772 providing a heaviness of sound equal to the followed by a songlike Andante cantabile and string ensemble. bright Allegro risoluto nale. is perplexing album, depicting a ‘labyrinth Sivan Silver and Gil Garburg provide e Piano Quintet dates from circa 1914, of the mind’, ranges from minimalism (Arvo a nely shaped, nuanced performance, and the Quartet – Catoire’s nal extended Pärt) to the darkly luxuriant (Villa-Lobos). ably supported by the Vienna Symphony composition – from 1916. eir leaner textures ere are no liner notes apart from some Orchestra. Florian Krumpöck holds the and sparer writing point to how his music rambling and sententious comments by the whole together rmly, never letting the pace might have developed, as does their relatively pianist, so you are left in the dark regarding ag, especially in the ‘gypsy’ nale which rened harmonic language. Although the identity of ‘Deborah’ (Ennio Morricone’s zings along. e rst two movements also composed just ve and seven years after the Deborah’s Dream) as well as to ponder the progress with determination while never Concerto, they feel like the products of a much silence of John Cage’s 4’32”. sounding driven. older and wiser mind.

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 67 REVIEWS • CDs

Oliver Triendl is an exemplary advocate for in expression. e opening Allegro appassionato these long-forgotten works. His account of the is overlong but Elmas’ touch is surer in the Concerto with the Berlin RSO under Roland central Andante (with its allusions to Mozart’s Kluttig is rst-rate, while his excellent rapport K466) and lively Chopinesque nale. Shelley with the Vogler Quartet results in some once again has the work manifestly under his delightful and superbly balanced playing. ngers and directs the excellent Tasmanian GUY RICKARDS Symphony Orchestra with assurance. Great Hyperion sound make this a sonically pleasing, well-executed curiosity. GUY RICKARDS Schubert Arpeggione Sonata D821; CHAMBER MUSIC Piano rio o 2 in -flat major D2 Aapo Häkkinen fortepiano Erich Höbarth vln Alexander Rudin arpeggione, vcl Naxos 8.573884

More familiar in its cello alternative, Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata was written for a fretted Elmas Piano Concertos o 1 in G minor; six-string bowed guitar developed brie y o 2 in D minor around 1823. is Finnish-originated recording, Howard Shelley pf Tasmanian Symphony simulating the kind of Viennese soundworld Orchestra/Howard Shelley and acoustic the composer would have known, Hyperion CDA68319 features a modern reconstruction. Harnessing Belle Époque 1886 its ethereal character to expressive eect, Rudin Stéphan Elmas (1862-1937) was the rst Franck arr. Delsart Cello Sonata Godard (a Shafran disciple) negotiates the instrument Armenian composer to write a piano Cello Sonata Op 104 deftly, nding aectionate space, like Häkkinen, concerto. He produced four in all (the last Petr Limonov pf Corinne Morris vlc to let the music’s charms and cadences bewitch left unorchestrated), of which the rst two Somm SOMMCD 0626 without compromising formal sensibility. are given here. ey are large, technically Schubert’s late E- at Piano Trio, harder to bring challenging works designed primarily as Remembered for a handful of songs and salon o than its B- at cousin, sees everyone in classy vehicles for his own virtuosic display. miniatures, Benjamin Godard (1849-95) had the form – Höbarth (one-time leader of Harnoncourt’s Elmas was an accomplished pianist and desire, if not always the capacity, to think big, Concentus Musicus Wien) soaring dolcissimo and played throughout Europe. Although born publishing operas, concertos and symphonies. attacking orchestrally; Rudin responding to bass in Smyrna (modern Izmir), where his innate His Sonata in D minor (1886-87) is a muscular lines, mid-range voicings and sharpened details musicality surfaced early, he went on to study canvas, scored frequently from an orchestral of articulation; and Häkkinen enjoying the pearly in Weimar and Vienna, coming into contact standpoint. Cellists are aorded an eloquent ring yet strength and body of his 1827 Conrad with Liszt and Anton Rubinstein and studying slow movement, while pianists will nd the Graf. With exposition repeats, the nale following with Anton Door. He moved among some opening Moderato’s stormier, thicker textures the longer autograph version (Neue Schubert- of the most renowned creative artists of his unusually cast. e concertante nale sets into Ausgabe), there’s purposeful music-making here day, not least Victor Hugo, Massenet and the motion repetitious agitated rhythms, climaxing as informed and involving as any around. disabled artist Aimée Rapin, with whom he in a heroic peroration. ATE S ORGA was romantically involved for the rest of his life. Delsart’s arrangement of Franck’s Violin Elmas’ output mainly comprises small- Sonata written for Ysaÿe (1886), central to scale, salon pieces for his own instrument. Gallic cello repertory between Alkan and Fauré, He was much in uenced by Chopin (indeed, appeared in 1889. Putting beauty before bravura, he is sometimes described as the ‘Armenian Corinne Morris lingers on Franck’s lyricism Chopin’), but while his music at times mimics before confronting Godard head-on, passion the Polish composer’s it is by no means close at full throttle. Equal to the test, digging deep to it in quality. e youthful First Concerto harmonically, Petr Limonov proves a supportive (completed during the early 1880s) is a case in duo partner, taking care to give her air and room point: technically challenging – and thrown in the latter’s many passages of congested lower o here with exhilarating panache by Howard register writing. Shelley – it is expressively very similar to Recorded in a seemingly conned acoustic, The Soul of Russia many other Romantic-era concertos. Its rather this release won’t challenge the plusher, brisker Works by Balakirev, Borodin, Rimsky- bland melodic material oers little by way of a Hyperion competition of Isserlis (Franck, ve Korsakov, Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Arensky, distinguishing musical personality. minutes quicker) or Lidström (Godard). But its Rachmaninov, Rebikov, Tcherepnin, Glière, e Second Concerto (1887) is more hand-on-heart honesty and determination will. ngel, ikolayev, Pachulski, Catoire, Medtner, characterful in its melodic material and livelier ATES¸ ORGA Sabaneyev, Stravinsky and Scriabin

68 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com CDs • REVIEWS

Trio Then-Bergh Michael Schäfer pf Ilona Recorded in Munich, featuring a 21st-century as a performer – though the Sonata is not Then-Bergh vln Wen-Sinn Yang vlc Bösendorfer Imperial with the luminous particularly demanding. It’s Glass’s rst sonata for Genuin GEN 21727 tone yet smoky earthiness of an instrument a solo piano, cast in three movements and lasting hundred years older, this is a beautifully judged roughly half an hour. e programme is completed is cross-section of Golden Age Russian tri es album, impeccably played and produced. by two other recent piano works, the Passacaglia is at rst glance merely another collection of o- ATE¸S ORGA ‘Distant Figure’ (2017) and Etude No 20 (2012). the-shelf arrangements. Look closer, however, Glass claims that ‘in the last three or four years and it’s a compellingly crafted symposium of CONTEMPORARY/JAZZ there is a dierent sound to the music I’m writing transcriptions from the pen of one of Russia’s – I began to see a new language emerging.’ leading early 20th-century Jewish voices, Unfortunately, he is not simply mistaken, but Alexander Krein (1883-1951). Commissioned deluded. e Sonata and other pieces feature in 1912 by Moscow’s leading publishing house, familiar surging motifs, major-minor cross-play, Jurgenson, 25 numbers take us from Rimsky- bustling oscillating patterns and passages of Korsakov in the 1860s, through Tchaikovsky and elegiac tenderness – all of them utterly predictable. sundry masters, mostly forgotten, to pre-Great As the New York Times commented, ‘e work War innovation in the guise of Sabaneyev, is light, even supercial, a revue of Glassian ris Stravinsky and Krein’s friend, Scriabin. that’s pleasant and passing.’ Such comments In an elegant booklet note, the pianist of the are surely damning for a composer who was a ensemble, Michael Schäfer, draws attention to major, radical gure in his early career. I wish the cleverly ‘composed’ design of the whole, Glass Piano Sonata; Passacaglia, Distant I could say that writing a piano sonata has taking into account chronology, key, genre igure; tude o 2 inspired Glass with its ambition, but the result is and expressive character. He likens Krein to Maki Namekawa pf utterly vapid – a classic case of ‘Emperor’s New the ‘maîtres de chai of the famed cognac and Orange Mountain Music OMM0149 Clothes’ for those involved in its performance champagne houses’ of his era, a man whose and promotion. Economic attractions and the selection and mixing of ingredients dened Over the past decade, Philip Glass’s piano power of fame have blinded all concerned. IP taste, high artistry and courtly conventions. compositions have moved beyond his capacity ANDY HAMILTON

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 69 CHOOSE YOUR PACKAGE SUBSCRIBE TODAY Never miss an issue of International Piano. ere are three fantastic subscription options to choose from!

THE PREMIUM PACKAGE

INTERNATIONAL PIANO PRINT & DIGITAL BEST VALUE Our premium subscription option is a must-have for every piano enthusiast. Combining both our print and digital subscription packages into one, our premium package is the most comprehensive and cost-e ective way to enjoy International Piano.  6 print issues each year, delivered directly to your door  6 digital issues, available to read on your phone, tablet or digital devices  Access to our digital archive, allowing you to explore every issue of International Piano since 2012

From £5.50 every month

INDIVIDUAL SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGES

INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL PIANO PIANO PRINT DIGITAL 6 issues per year 6 digital issues, plus digital archive From £2.88 From £2.88 every month every month

Three easy ways to subscribe

magsubscriptions.com/international-piano +44 (0)1722 716997 [email protected]

Stated subscription rates are based on a monthly credit card payment. Annual rate by credit or debit card is £39.00 for print; £39.00 for digital; or £59.00 for print & digital. Postage and packaging is not included for overseas orders and will be applied at checkout. If you have a subscription enquiry then please email [email protected]. BOOKS • REVIEWS

oderick Elms is hardly a household name Ras far as the general music-loving public is concerned, but in the music business – and certainly to his musician colleagues – he is a legend. Lockdown memoirs are being self-published by the barrowload (what else do you do when all the gigs have gone?) but Elms’ is the rst I can recall by an orchestral keyboard player. Of course, he is much more than that – pianist, organist, accompanist and composer – but he is known principally as one of the go-to orchestral pianists, organists, harmonium and celeste players (though he never quite gets round to explaining to anyone not au fait with his job exactly what it entails). For over 40 years he has played and recorded with the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, London Symphony and BBC Just a Little from the Top: Reﬂ ections The Musical Life: Hedwig Stein – Emigrée Concert Orchestras, both as soloist and in from the Keyboard and Beyond Pianist myriad works where a keyboard is part of the Roderick Elms Helen Marquard orchestral texture, from Brahms’ Requiem, The Choir Press, 198 pages Troubador Publishing, 328 pages Carmina Burana and the Sinfonia Antartica to e Lord of the Rings trilogy, e Planets and illustrated with 183 photographs of variable and David Wilde. Yet Stein too had a coterie of Carnival of the Animals. Elms is an impressive quality from the family album (session photos, protégés who, like Maxwell Davies, considered talent. Some years ago, I had the unnerving wedding reception, enjoyable meals with her ‘quite an amazing person, full of ideas.’ task of narrating Alan Rawsthorne’s Practical chums, the nice view from the hotel window, Among these was Helen Marquard, a post- Cats for a Radio 3 broadcast with the BBC etc). But it’s all charmingly homespun, o ering doctoral biochemist at Manchester University Concert Orchestra. e conductor Barry a rare and refreshingly candid view from the who sought piano lessons and was guided Wordsworth called a piano rehearsal. Elms was middle of the orchestra. towards the ‘eccentric’ Stein. She befriended booked for this ungrateful task and somehow JEREMY NICHOLAS her instructor, but their interaction faded played at sight a piano reduction of the score. to an exchange of Christmas cards after Part-autobiography part-reminiscences, Just hen pianists who teach leave no Marquard left town for professional reasons. a Little from the Top is an engaging read full of Wrecordings to posterity, their artistry So it often goes with piano teachers, even valuable insights into a side of the profession resides in their pupils’ memories. those who form friendships with students, only that is unsung and under-appreciated. e In a 2009 interview, the composer Peter to be discarded when the latter are distanced book is awash with anecdotes of memorable Maxwell Davies praised his keyboard geographically. e present memoir, leavened performances, musicians and mishaps, instructor at the Royal Manchester College of with quotes from Stein’s diary, represents appealing chie y to Elms’ colleagues. ey Music (later amalgamated with the Northern posthumous reparations for previous neglect. will doubtless empathise with his frequent School of Music to become the Royal Northern Even without recordings, one can get an admonitions of those with whom he has College of Music). Maxwell Davies described impression of Stein’s approach, honed by her worked – ‘a certain conductor’ or ‘a well- German-born Hedwig Stein (1907-1983) and own studies with the Austrian Richard Glas, known singer’ as they are referred to – who her husband, the Russian émigré pianist Iso a Godowsky pupil, and the Dutch-German ‘have treated orchestral musicians without Elinson (1907-1964), as ‘people who breathed James Kwast, who had played duos with due credit for their professional experience’. music and lived it without inhibition and Clara Schumann. ere are rather too many recollections without bitterness.’ Stein’s digital-centric description of rst of missed meal breaks, petty a ronts and Mr and Mrs Elinson had cause to feel bitter, meeting her future husband during student Pooterish asides, plus too many of the ‘you not least that after professional struggles the days in 1930s Berlin focuses on his ‘very strong had to be there’ former dropped dead during the interval of compact-looking hands… His outer hand had stories that begin a charity concert at King’s College, London. tremendously developed muscles and his promisingly then As Stein noted in her diary, her spouse ‘had thumbs and fth ngers were far stronger in zzle out. ere been found on the oor by the patron of the action than those of other players I knew (his are also far too concert who thought the pause after the ngers were not long or tapered).’ many exclamation second Beethoven sonata (he had played the Although verbose and overwritten in parts, marks! e 183 Pathétique and Moonlight) seemed a little long.’ Marquard’s remembrance is an a ectionate pages of text are Of the two, Elinson had a more high-pro le salute to two piano teachers whose e orts career, both in the recording studio and as a brought keyboard culture to the North of Roderick Elms at teacher of celebrated students such as John England for decades. IP

Abbey Road Ogdon, Ronald Stevenson, Maureen Challinor BENJAMIN IVRY

www.international-piano.com International Piano March/April 2021 71 REVIEWS • SHEET MUSIC

BY MURRAY McLACHLAN hen Anton Diabelli It is intriguing to see this diverse Wcommissioned variations fare presented in a single volume. from the great and the good in Many of the composers featured Vienna in 1819, the response was are long since forgotten, though extraordinary. Not only did the there are also contributions request from Austria’s famous from the young Liszt, Schubert, publisher-composer lead to the Mozart’s son Franz Xaver and creation of possibly the greatest Carl Czerny. Watch out for the set of variations for solo piano of colossal stretching required all time (Beethoven’s Op 120), but for Schubert’s chromatic and a further 50 leading composers expressive variation. Elsewhere, responded with their own takes virtuosity can be found in the on Diabelli’s waltz. mountains of fast passagework Bärenreiter are to be by Czerny, as well as by skilful congratulated on this innovative minor composers such as Carl Beethoven Bach-Busoni and thrilling new publication, Maria von Bocklet and Leopold Diabelli Variations Op 120 Toccata in D minor which presents Beethoven’s Eustachy Vincenty Czapek. An Czerny, Liszt, Moscheles, BWV 565 masterpiece alongside the augmented variation by Joseph Schubert, et al G. Henle Verlag HN 1479 ‘other’ Diabelli variations. Unlike Drechsler entitled ‘Quasi Overture’ 50 Variations on a Waltz Beethoven’s Op 120, however, the comprises 170 bars of inspired Bärenreiter BA 9656 his invaluable new urtext 50 variations cannot be considered energy, while the most expansive Tedition of the Bach-Busoni a uni ed piece, but constitute o ering is Emanuel Aloys Förster’s e inclusion of Beethoven’s Toccata in D minor follows a varied corpus of work when ‘Capricco’, which runs to almost masterpiece in a fresh and Henle’s impeccable and considered collectively. Over the 300 bars. Numerous smaller and beautiful new layout is more than illuminating treatment of the years there have been some brave quieter contributions ensure an added bonus – it makes this Bach-Busoni Chaconne (HN commercial recordings of this ‘set’, there is something for everyone, issue an absolute ‘must-have’ 557). Regardless of whether and a handful of performers have and the scholarly care taken by for all pianophiles. A wonderful or not the Toccata is actually attempted to play them together editor Mario Aschauer makes for edition to which I will return by Bach (or even for the organ in recital. fascinating and pleasurable study. again and again. IP – many gurations seem more appropriate for violin) it remains an iconic piece, and ollowing on from the huge Melodies’, which is delightful is thoroughly convincing in Fsuccess of the rst two for its crossed-hand passages Busoni’s sonorous, ‘broken volumes of Mosaic (pieces from and complications that arise as octave’ reworking. ough many each can be found in current melodies converge, overlap and of us are used to studying the Trinity and ABRSM grade exam disrupt each other. notes via the ancient Dover or syllabuses), this third volume From the dance-inspired Breitkopf editions, Henle o ers presents 26 short pieces for numbers, I was particularly a superior alternative, not least intermediate players from a taken by the charming naivety of for the intelligently considered wide range of international Christine Artemis Pappa’s ‘Baby ngerings from Marc-André composers, including Barbara Rag’, as well as by the exoticism Hamelin. His suggestions are Arens, Ben Crosland, Alison of Paul Poston’s ‘A Sword sh ÈÒÌÍ OMOÚFÚMFNGJMÚKFÚI Vol.3 Barbara Arens, Anna Blonsky, Jaap Cramer, Ben Crosland, Andrew Eales, Andrea Granitzio, Simon Hester, Sarah Konecsni, often illuminating and always Mathews, Nikolas O"/;2/20#=@CA

72 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com Introducing the new one-stop hub for music NEXT ISSUE professionals MAY/JUNE 2021 D H KONG

ON SALE 27 APR

DAUNTLESS INTELLECT Kirill Gerstein is one of today’s most versatile and imaginative pianists, with a career that spans performing, recording, teaching, writing and broadcasting. We meet to discuss his latest album of Mozart duo works Classical Music magazine is going online with the GRANDE DAME Ruth Slenczynska – a student of Schnabel, launch of our new website Petri, Cortot, Hofmann and Rachmaninov, who for industry professionals, is still performing at the age of 96 bringing you: BEETHOVEN ODYSSEY Boris Giltburg completes his streamed cycle of  Daily news updates Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas  Expert analysis & opinion UNSUNG HEROINE  Practical advice & resources Celebrating Hephzibah Menuhin’s legacy on disc VISIT SOUNDS SUPERB CLASSICAL-MUSIC.UK Innovative technology from Pianoteq MUSIC OF MY LIFE

INTERVIEW BY JEREMY NICHOLAS Sounds of solace Clare Hammond picks recordings that have helped her overcome signiﬁcant challenges in her professional and personal life JULIE KIM

y family was not particularly musical Etude album for the BIS label, which I think over the years. But the disc with Akrostichen- and no-one played classical music. is one of the more signicant projects I’ve Wortspiel (Acrostic Wordplay) is one that I’ve MHowever, my grandfather was an done over the years. e repertoire [works by played to my girls. I try to play them as wide avid fan though he would only listen to Haydn, Lyapunov, Szymanowski, Kapustin and Chin] a range of music as possible, and I always give Mozart and Beethoven. When we were children is phenomenally dicult technically and I them a story to go with it or explain what’s we would stay with my grandparents during got very bogged down in the sheer number going on emotionally. If you played it to most the holidays, and in the evenings we had a set of notes I had to play. I went for a lesson adults there would be a barrier of some kind, routine. After quite a formal dinner, they would with my teacher at the time, Ronan O’Hara. but the girls were enraptured by the voice and sit and do the crossword while we listened He was wonderful and recommended that I strangeness of what they heard. ey had all to music – usually Beethoven. Youra Guller’s listen to Oscar Peterson to get a sense of the kinds if ideas about what might be going on Beethoven Sonatas is one of the recordings I improvisatory feeling that you need, along in the music. It was so exciting to see their joy remember being really struck by at the time. I with the exhilaration and joy of playing very and discovery, and how they could respond couldn’t tell you why, but I had a sense of the dicult and rapid music. Peterson is very imaginatively and emotionally without the power of it. en, when I was eight, I heard a impressive technically, but his playing also barriers we gather in later life. IP live performance that really moved me and I displays a thrilling nuance of tone and colour decided I wanted to be a pianist. Before that, I that’s dierent from traditional classical Beethoven just had a sense of connection with this music, pianists. I nd that very inspiring and get lots Sonatas Opp 110 & 111 but wasn’t able to verbalise it in any way. of new ideas from hearing the way he plays. Youra Guller pf Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 was Schumann’s Humoresque is related to a very Apex 2564 69899 8 a great favourite of mine during childhood. specic period in my life. After the births of Rachmaninov It was also the rst concerto I played with my two children, now four and two, I suered Piano Concerto No 2 orchestra, so it is a very signicant piece. I quite badly from postnatal depression. I had Moura Lympany pf, Philharmonia Orchestra/ have a reputation for doing more unusual always avoided Schumann’s music. I loved it Nikolai Malko repertoire but the common thread with and I loved hearing it but when I tried to play it Magdalen METCD8016 many of the pieces I play is their high level of I felt there was something there that I couldn’t Oscar Peterson virtuosity and complexity. e Rachmaninov capture. And then when I was recovering from Unmistakable certainly falls into that camp. It’s a piece I’ve my postnatal depression and at my lowest Oscar Peterson pf lived with for a long time now. Actually, I ebb, I started working on the Humoresque and (Zenph historic re-performance) hadn’t heard Moura Lympany’s recording until suddenly found a volatility in the music that Sony 88697951702 last year. I was astonished because there’s a I could understand instinctively. is came Schumann mercurial quality to her playing that you don’t directly from my terrifying experience of feeling Humoreske Op 20 often hear in Rach 2. It doesn’t detract from sanity sliding away. Radu Lupu’s performance is Radu Lupu pf the romanticism or the lyricism or the power important because of the sheer variety of colour Decca 4404962 of the piece, but it does bring something fresh he achieves. He creates a tone that’s incredibly Unsuk Chin to it – which with such a well-known work is delicate and almost pearlescent, which I’ve Akrostichen-Wortspiel quite a phenomenal achievement. never heard elsewhere. Piia Komsi sop, Ensemble Contemporain Oscar Peterson’s album Unmistakable Unsuk Chin is an important composer Kairos KAI0013062 came into my life while I was preparing my for me and I’ve performed her Etudes a lot

74 March/April 2021 International Piano www.international-piano.com BLACK MASTERPIECE LIMITED EDITION In honour of the 20th anniversary of the Steinway Crown Jewels series we present BLACK MASTERPIECE – an edition limited to 20 models worldwide with a sophisticated black look that will delight lovers of clear design.

BLACK MASTERPIECE grand pianos are issued as model B 211cm and are equipped with , the most modern technology Steinway currently has to offer.

Steinway Hall London W1U 2DB For more information or to arrange a private appointment at our London showrooms, please call: 0207 487 3391 or email [email protected] BURKARD SCHLIESSMANN Recipient of Goethe-Prize 2019 of Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Global Music Awards 2018: 2 Gold Medals “Awards of Excellence” (Schumann) Global Music Awards 2018: 3 Silver Medals “Outstanding Achievement” (Bach) Global Music Awards 2017: 3 Silver Medals “Outstanding Achievement” (Chopin)

“A fantastic Bach recital all around, and in an SACD recording that projects the piano right into your listening space with a three-dimensional effect that spreads the keyboard in front of you from left to right and the full length of Schliessmanʼs Steinway concert grand from front to back. This earns the strongest of recommendations.” Jerry Dubins, Fanfare

“I rank this Chopin among the best available. With both the technique and intellect to do just about anything he wants, Schliessmannʼs strength is in the lyrical, legato “Schliessmannʼs playing is melodies that make representative of the best of Chopinʼs music such a the modern school ...” cornerstone of the piano Harold C. Schonberg, repertoire ...” The New York Times James Harrington, American Record Guide