PIANO EXPLORED LMP’s popular orchestral lunchtime concert series, live and online for 2021 in association with Expert advice for every piano enthusiast PIANO No. 60 • October 2019 • £5.99 www.international-piano.com EXPLORED INSIDE 14 PAGES OF London Mozart Players FREE EXPERT ADVICE FOR EVERY PIANO ENTHUSIAST SHEET MUSIC Howard Shelley: Piano DANIIL TRIFONOV Russia’s white-hot ONLINE: from 18 February 1:05pm Tickets: virtuoso on why he loves Rachmaninov and Scriabin SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto 2 in G minor, Online concerts: £8. Op.22 SPEAKING MENDELSSOHN Capriccio Brillant in B Buy & Watch via the LMP website: VOLUMES How Schimmel minor, Op.22 londonmozartplayers.com/piano-explored became Germany’s largest piano maker LIVE concerts (when audiences permitted): HISTORIC ONLINE: from 18 March, 1:05pm £25 (LMP Friends 20% discount) RETURN A homage to Horowitz at Carnegie Hall MOZART Piano Concerto No.21 in C major, Box Office: 020 7222 1061 K.467 St John’s Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA Why can’t music education be made available to everyone? PLUS Igor Levit’s complete Beethoven sonatas cycle on disc Book online: www.sjss.org.uk 01_IP_1019_CoverOMv2.indd 1 11/09/2019 17:34 ONLINE: from 22 April, 1:05pm Booking fees per transaction: £2.75 by telephone / £1.75 online HUMMEL Piano Concerto in E, Op.110 St John’s Smith Square Charitable Trust Registered Charity No. 1045390 International Piano offers unrivalled coverage CONCERT: Wednesday 26 May, 1:05pm Registered in England Co. ONLINE: Wednesday 26 May, 1:05pm of the piano in all its forms MOZART Piano Concerto No.6 in B-flat major, K.238 HIGH PROFILE ARTISTS WIDE-RANGING REPERTOIRE SHEET MUSIC MOSCHELES Piano Concerto No.1 in F major, Op.45 Interviews with leading stars of the Whether you read, listen or play, IP Every issue comes with musical scores piano, and helping you discover the explores keyboard classics from Baroque showcasing core repertoire, new releases best performers of tomorrow. to contemporary, jazz and beyond. and rarities to add to your collection. Save 15% on subscriptions with code LMP21 Visit magsubscriptions.com/international-piano or call +44 (0)1722 716997 Concerts will be on demand from go-live date for 6 months. Full annual retail price for International Piano (6 issues) is £35.94; annual Direct Debit subscription price for ‘Print’ or Digital’ packages is £35; ‘Print & Digital’ package is £55. Postage and packaging is not included for overseas orders. If you have a subscription enquiry then please email [email protected] IntPiano_London Mozart Players_(01-21)_A5.indd 1 29/01/2021 09:24 A message from Julia Desbruslais Executive Director, London Mozart Players We are so pleased that after a very sad and This series will be performed under difficult time caused by the pandemic, LMP different circumstances than the usual is finally able to proceed with our ever- lunch hour gatherings of the past. The popular Piano Explored series. We have a four-concert series will go ahead with wonderful range of piano works lined up for concerts every month from February to this, our seventh series, and both LMP and May. Concerts will be performed under our great friend Howard Shelley OBE are Covid guidelines without an audience (until looking forward to gathering at St John’s audiences are permitted to attend) and will Smith Square (under Covid guidelines) to be filmed for online viewing, with the films perform for you. broadcast shortly after filming, except for the final concert which will be livestreamed. If you are new to Piano Explored, it has long been a firm favourite with Piano Explored is a real jewel in our London’s lunchtime concert-goers. LMP’s crown and for the players, these concerts Conductor Laureate Howard Shelley are some of our most enjoyable musical directs proceedings, giving an entertaining experiences. We know that our audience and insightful introduction to one or two really adores this series, whether they famous or not-so-famous works for piano know everything or nothing about and orchestra, before performing them with individual pieces. Howard’s insightful and the London Mozart Players. This season witty introductions throw fresh light onto we’ll be performing a couple of the best these much-loved works, paving a way in loved virtuosic classics of Mozart and Saint- for newbies to the piano repertoire. We Saëns, a favourite work by Mendelssohn, cannot wait to perform this exceptional and relatively unknown pieces by Hummel concert series for you, whether in person and Moscheles. (eventually), or via the internet. How to enjoy Piano Explored concerts To attend a LIVE concert at SJSS: How to Buy & Watch our Piano Explored When audiences are permitted to attend, films online tickets will be on sale via the St John’s Smith Square website. www.sjss.org.uk • Visit: londonmozartplayers.com/piano-explored • Click ‘Buy & Watch’ for your chosen online concert. • You will be taken through the payment process to buy a ticket for that con- cert. If you don’t have an account on our website, creating one will be part of the process. • After payment, your ‘ticket’ will be logged in your ‘My on Demand’ page which you can access via the button at the top of the home page. • Once the concert is live, you simply visit that concert page (you will need to be logged in) and the video will be visible. • You can play the video as many times as you like. Howard Shelley OBE Piano ‘The journey which the London Mozart Howard has a special relationship with the Players and I have taken with our audiences London Mozart Players with whom he has at St John’s Smith Square in London over worked closely for 45 years. They have the past six seasons has been wide-ranging given hundreds of concerts and made many and exhilarating; and we have illustrated recordings and overseas tours together. In and performed over forty piano concertos. recognition of this the orchestra appointed From the time of Mozart on, the devel- Howard their Conductor Laureate. In March opment of the piano, and its ability to 2020, to mark Howard’s 70th birthday, he engage dramatically and powerfully with performed all Beethoven’s piano concertos the orchestra, has inspired composer after with LMP in a single day at St John’s Smith composer to write some of their greatest Square, London. works, and it is a true joy to continue our exploration again this season, even if, for Howard Shelley is married to Hilary Macna- the time being, this must be done online. mara and they have two sons. An Honorary We very much hope, however, that this dis- Fellow of the Royal College of Music, he tinctive way of presenting a treasure-trove was awarded an OBE for his services to of wonderful works will attract many more classical music in 2009. friends and listeners from around the world, and we warmly welcome all who join us.’ Howard Shelley ‘[an] aristocratic command of the glittering keyboard pyrotechnics.’ Daily Telegraph As pianist, conductor and recording artist ‘How he manages to play with such convic- Howard Shelley has enjoyed a distinguished tion and apparent ease while conducting career since his acclaimed London debut from the keyboard with such precision and in 1971, performing with renowned orches- sensitivity is one of the musical marvels of tras around the world. He has been closely the age.’ Gramophone associated with the music of Rachmaninov and has performed and recorded complete and award-winning cycles of that compos- er’s solo piano works, concertos and songs. Most of his current work is in the com- bined role of conductor and soloist. This is reflected also in his discography which now exceeds 180 CDs, all highly praised. As conductor he has worked with all the major London orchestras and many other orchestras in the UK and abroad including the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, Seattle Symphony, City of Mexico Philharmonic, Munich Symphony and Nuremberg Symphony. He has toured to Australia for over 35 consecutive years, and has performed with all the orchestras there, particularly the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has recorded over 20 volumes for Hyperion’s Romantic Piano series. Concert one Saint-Saëns and Mendelssohn CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS audience reacted negatively to the work’s Available on CD: The Andante has a lyrical theme, with the (1835–1921) stylistic swings. piano accompanied by delicately plucked Chandos [CHAN10509] strings, in B major, while the Allegro is in B Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op.22 The Second Concerto might be regarded Schumann/ Grieg/Saint-Saens: Piano minor, and is suitably fiery. There are two as a different kind of tribute to Liszt, one Concertos: Howard Shelley & Opera North main themes, which Mendelssohn cleverly I Andante sostenuto that reflects the senior musician’s influence Orchestra combines in the middle section, before a II Allegro scherzando rather more directly, while at the same time return to the opening theme leads into a III Presto showing a sense of individuality. The form, ‘The fact that Howard Shelley directs these vigorous coda. The whole work lasts a little as in Liszt’s own concertos, is unusual for inspirational performances from the piano over ten minutes. Camille Saint-Saëns was one of the most its time. The first movement opens with a is nothing short of remarkable. In his hands, precocious musicians ever, beginning piano cadenza and has only minimal participation sparkling virtuosity and interpretative ease © Ian Lush lessons with his aunt at two-and-a-half by the orchestra, by way of punctuating combine to form a perfect musical mar- and composing his first work at three.