International Piano No1 - 2 January - February 2017

International Piano
NO.41 JAN/FEB 2017

£5.50
www.international-piano.com
ELDER STATESMAN
INSIDE Politics and passion
in the playing
SHEET MUSIC of Paderewski
FANTASTIC BEASTS AND
WHERE TO FIND THEM
FROM ALFRED MUSIC PASTORAL CARE
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
SEE PAGE 49
Championing the music
TWO PIECES FROM THE of Vaughan Williams
BOOK OF PIANO MAGIC
BY PETER RUDZIK
SEE PAGE 55 PLUS
PIANISTS FOR
CHAIN OF ALTERNATIVELY
SIZED KEYBOARDS
INFLUENCE
Melvyn Tan celebrates KEY INTERNATIONAL
Romanticism’s greatest COURSES THIS SUMMER
piano pedagogues
JEAN-EFFLAM THREE
BAVOUZET
MONTHS’ FREE
MEMBERSHIP
SEE PAGE 86
Questing spirit
01>
077005
772042
9
IPJF17_001_Cover E_0112OM.indd 2 08/12/2016 10:48

17638 Steinway Int. Piano (LangLang) Jan-Feb17_Layout 1 07/12/2016 16:42 Page 1
“ I f I a m t o p l a y m y b e s t , t h e r e i s n o w a y b u t s t e i n way .”
LANG LANG
s t e i n way a r t i s t
photo: robert ascroft, courtesy sony classical
STEINWAY HALL L O N D O N 4 4 m a ry l e b o n e l a n e , l o n d o n w 1 u 2 d b
f o r m o r e i n f o r m at i o n o r t o a r r a n g e a p r i vat e a p p o i n t m e n t
at o u r l o n d o n s h o w r o o m s , p l e a s e c a l l :
0 2 0 7 4 8 7 3 3 9 1 o r e m a i l i n f o @ s t e i n way. c o . u k
IPJF17.indd 2 12/12/2016 15:51:07

CONTENTS
20 29
© BENJAMIN EALOVEGA
© EOIN CAREY
32 62
© TULLY POTTER COLLECTION

© KIM LEESON
Contents
5 EDITORIAL 18 ILL-TEMPERED CLAVIER 66 LIVE REVIEWS SPECIAL FEATURES
Art and propaganda Why politics and pianism Recital and concerto
don’t mix coverage from London, 20 QUESTING SPIRIT
6 LETTERS Belfast and Copenhagen French pianist Jean-
Your thoughts and 34 COURSE TO SUCCESS Efflam Bavouzet brings
comments Learn to be a piano 72 ROADS LESS erudition, insight and
teacher with EPTA UK TRAVELLED boundless energy to his
9 NEWS & EVENTS Mark Bebbington extols complete cycle of
New global vision for 37 PLACES IN THE SUN the piano music of Ralph Beethoven sonatas
Leeds Competition | NY IP’s pick of the top Vaughan Williams
Philharmonic launches summer courses for 29 YOUNG AT HEART
major piano prize | Zoltán pianophiles 75-86 NEW RELEASES Melvyn Tan marks his
Kocsis dies aged 64 | DVDs, CDs, books and 60th birthday with a
British piano restorer 42 HELPING HANDS sheet music project celebrating
enters retail market | Ideas to keep your Romanticism’s greatest
Letter from Montreal | practice fresh 87 NEXT ISSUE piano pedagogues
and more… Find out what’s coming
45 MASTERCLASS up in IP Mar/Apr 2017 32 PERSONAL TOUCH
14 ONE TO WATCH Thinking beyond Dr Carol Leone on the
Honens winner Luca notation 88 TAKE FIVE benefits of alternatively-
Buratto gives his Wigmore Love and playfulness in sized piano keyboards
Hall debut 49 SHEET MUSIC the jazz of Guus Janssen
Fantastic Beasts from 62 KEYNOTE SPEECHES
17 COMMENT Alfred Music PLUS 90 MUSIC OF MY LIFE Ignacy Jan Paderewski
What can we learn from Two fairytale miniatures Versatile virtuoso and the art of the musical
historic piano recordings? by Peter Rudzik Kathryn Stott soundbite
January/February 2017 International Piano 3

IPJF17_003_Contents0712OM.indd 3 08/12/2016 11:07
FIFTEENTH
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ANNE-MARIE McDERMOTT (UNITED STATES), ALEXANDER TORADZE (GEORGIA / UNITED STATES)
ARTISTIC COLLABORATORS: LEONARD SLATKIN (CONDUCTOR – FINAL ROUND), NICHOLAS McGEGAN (CONDUCTOR – SEMIFINAL ROUND),
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EDITOR’S NOT E
Welcome
W
hen historians look back at our current age,
Editor Owen Mortimer
2016 will doubtless be remembered as the Associate Editor Ashutosh Khandekar
year of political shake-ups. From Brexit to Head of Design & Production /
Donald Trump, our news channels have carried stories Designer Beck Ward Murphy
of little else since the spring. Production Controller Gordon Wallis
Advertising Sales Edward Croome
What impact does this have on classical music? Edward.Croome@rhinegold.co.uk
European funding for UK cultural and creative Marketing Manager Alfred Jahn
organisations looks set to dry up after Brexit, and the Publisher Derek B Smith
growing issues around immigration are going to make it Printed by Latimer Trend Ltd, Estover Road,
harder for musicians to travel. More important still, we Estover, Plymouth, Devon PL6 7PY
are seeing a shift in political values that is likely to have a Distributed by Comag Specialist Division
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profound impact on artists.
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Liberal ideals have been in the ascendant in recent Tel: +44 (0)20 7333 1733
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arts. Take the British concert pianist Stephen Hough, who responded to the Brexit vote with Production
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us down but music can lift us above the fighting and the mistakes,’ said Hough. ‘It does not
Editorial
offer answers to specific political questions. Instead it looks beyond them.’
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The response to Donald Trump’s election has been even stronger, from cast members of international.piano@rhinegold.co.uk
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Twitter: @IP_mag
that peppered the 2016 American Music Awards. These protests have been reported widely
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Our dyspeptic columnist Charivari (page 18) is certainly no fan of artists who turn the 800 Guillat Avenue, Kent Science Park,
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concert platform into a soapbox, and makes a strong case for pianists to leave aside political
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In truth, no artist can bury their head in the sand and transcend politics. Artistic responsibility is accepted for returning photographs or manuscripts.
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expression and cultural identity go hand in hand, meaning that the arts play a big role in International Piano, 977204207700507, is published bi-monthly by
shaping our political landscape. ‘All art is propaganda,’ said Orwell – though perhaps we Rhinegold Publishing, 20 Rugby Street, London, WC1N 3QZ, UK.
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Beethoven when he wrote the Eroica Symphony, or Shostakovich in his many masterpieces
offering a hidden critique of the Soviet establishment. Classical musicians today need to
regain this status as cultural commentators whose opinions are heard through powerful
music of lasting appeal, not by becoming mere entertainers offering a temporary escape
from reality.
OWEN MORTIMER
© Copyright Rhinegold Publishing 2016
EDITOR
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International Piano
NO.41 JAN/FEB 2017

£5.50
ELDER STATESMAN
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INSIDE Politics and passion
in the playing
SHEET MUSIC of Paderewski
WHERE TO FIND THEM
FROM ALFRED MUSIC PASTORAL CARE
SEE PAGE 49
GooglePlay – read on your

TWO PIECES FROM THE of Vaughan Williams
BOOK OF PIANO MAGIC
BY PETER RUDZIK
SEE PAGE 55
CHAIN OF
PIANISTS FOR
PLUS
IN TER N ATIO N A L
PIANO
ALTERNATIVELY
SIZED KEYBOARDS
INFLUENCE
iPad, iPhone, Android device,

Melvyn Tan celebrates KEY INTERNATIONAL
Romanticism’s greatest COURSES THIS SUMMER
piano pedagogues
JEAN-EFFLAM THREE
BAVOUZET S ER IES 2 0 1 6 /1 7
MONTHS’ FREE
MEMBERSHIP
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SEE PAGE 86
Questing spirit
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App FREE, single issues £2.49

9

IPJF17_005_Editorial0912OMv2.indd 5 09/12/2016 11:35
LETTERS
LETTERS
Write to International Piano, 20 Rugby Street, London, WC1N 3QZ, email
international.piano@rhinegold.co.uk or tweet @IP_mag. Star letters will receive SPONS OR ED BY
a free CD from Hyperion’s best-selling Romantic Piano Concerto series H Y PER ION R EC OR DS
A LITTLE LIST might, I think, be less prone to dissent, that was sadly common among Russian
I read with interest and not a little though of course there will never be pianists of his time – for example, the
stimulation the article by Charivari in IP consensus. The other thing that struck extraordinary Rosa Tamarkina). Indeed,
November/December (‘The Ill-Tempered me when I read Charivari’s article was Sofronitsky’s godliness exceeded even
Clavier’, page 16) about the list of ‘great how close the author came to promoting Richter: that is enough for me.
pianists’ recently produced by Classic FM. his own list, despite criticising the I have excluded Horowitz because of
I think, however, that he is being rather underlying concept of ranking composers inconsistencies in much of the repertoire
unfair. The audience addressed by those in this way. We are all ‘listomanes’ (or is it he chose to play; and Michelangeli
who run Classic FM isn’t, on the whole, ‘Lisztomanes’?) at heart. because of his grotesquely small repertoire
as musically sophisticated as the one that My own list, excluding pianists who did which in my view excludes him from
patronises (sic) BBC Radio 3, and a list of not record, is as follows: Busoni, Cortot, serious consideration.
the kind Charivari prefers would mean Friedman, Gilels, Godowsky, Hofmann, I’d be glad to hear other views!
very little to many of them. Better Classic Lipatti, Rachmaninov, Richter and John Mallison, Oxted, UK
FM than nothing, surely, when it comes to Sofronitsky.
the appreciation of ‘serious’ music? A few explanatory comments: I entirely COMPARING NOTES
As regards listing the ‘greatest’, whatever agree that Arrau and Brendel were and I am a pianist, guitarist and composer/
Classic FM comes up with, my guess is continue to be overrated and do not performer and am readily susceptible
that 25 is too large a number that will belong in any pantheon; but Pollini to well-written prose about music. Your
inevitably provoke controversy and was wonderful in his younger years and magazine’s recent interview with Angela
disagreement. I give my alternative list of would have been a candidate for my list Hewitt about Bach’s Goldberg Variations
10 below, which on account of its brevity had he kept it up. Hofmann’s recorded encouraged me to search the internet until
legacy is poor and he seems I found a 15 ips master tape of Ito Ami
to have deteriorated badly performing the Goldbergs (pretty expensive
from the early 1930s onwards, but an absolute jewel!). I already had a
but research I’ve done using recording of Bernard Labadie conducting
mainly American newspaper his arrangement of this music with Les
reviews from 1914 onwards, Violons du Roy, but the piano version is
suggest he was a giant in his much more delicate and inspirational.
prime, though largely the Your editorial in the same issue
recordings don’t support (IP September/October 2016, page 5)
this. (It’s very sad, indeed nicely tied together the Goldbergs with
scandalous, that there’s still Beethoven’s later piano variations, which
no worthwhile book on him.) I also have on master tape. These articles
I would have included helped me to appreciate the inner order
Lhévinne were it not for the and organisation of this music, as well
competition and his extremely as highlighting some key comparisons
small recorded legacy: again, his between the two pieces.
reviewers were largely ecstatic. John Burke, via email
Lipatti died young but I feel
he did enough in his blessed The Editor replies: Thank you for sharing
short life to join the elect. this feedback. It’s always good to know
And Sofronitsky was regarded when something published in the
in Russia as an absolute god magazine has been thought-provoking,
throughout much of his quite especially if it encourages further research
short career (a curtailment and listening. To read more about Bach’s
Golberg Variations turn to page 75 of this
issue, where we have reviewed three new
A giant in his prime: recordings – including Angela Hewitt’s
Josef Hofmann (1876-1957) latest version for Hyperion Records.
6 International Piano January/February 2017
IPJF17_006_R_Letters0712OM.indd 6 08/12/2016 10:28

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IPJF17.indd 8 12/12/2016 15:51:09
NEWS & NOTES
news notes
NEW GLOBAL VISION FOR LEEDS COMPETITION JUNIOR CONCERTO CONTEST
T
RETURNS TO MANCHESTER
T
HE NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTORS with leading promoters and venues
of Leeds International Piano – including Wigmore Hall, London’s HE 5TH MANCHESTER
Competition (LIPC) have Southbank Centre and the Royal Liverpool International Concerto
announced a raft of changes to transform Philharmonic. Winners will also continue Competition for Young Pianists
the triennial event and bring it to wider to receive a generous cash sum. will take place in August at Stoller
audiences internationally. International first rounds will now Concert Hall, a new 480-seat venue within
take place in Berlin, Chetham’s School of Music.
New York and The biennial competition ran from 2007
© SIMON JAY PRICE
Singapore, before the until 2013, when financial pressures caused

competition returns it to close. The relaunch follows hot on
to Leeds for the the heels of the opening of Stoller Hall in
semi-final (featuring April, and will feature six finalists selected
a chamber music to perform concertos with the Manchester
element) and concerto Camerata under Stephen Threlfall.
final. The performer- ‘In an era where it is increasingly difficult
led jury will be for talented pianists to gain experience of
chaired by Lewis, with performing with orchestras, we hope the
other judges including competition will act as an exciting stimulus
Imogen Cooper, and goal for achievement’, says chairman
Lars Vogt, Thomas Murray McLachlan.
Larcher and Henning This year’s competition is for pianists
Kraggerud. aged 22 and below on 1 August 2017. Up to
Paul Lewis and Adam Gatehouse In a bid to ensure 18 competitors will be selected for the semi-
the competition is ‘a finals at Stoller Hall on 25 and 26 August,
Co-directors Paul Lewis and Adam rounded and enriching experience for with six finalists joining the Manchester
Gatehouse have revealed that LIPC will all who enter’, it will feature an expanded Camerata on 27 and 28 August. All semi-
be live-streamed for the first time in programme of events and activities. Daily finalists will be given accommodation and
2018 thanks to a new partnership with masterclasses, talks, films and discussions full access to the Chetham’s International
medici.tv. The competition will offer will result in an event ‘more like a festival’. Summer School and Festival for Pianists
winners a ‘portfolio prize’ encompassing The competition has also formed new (see page 37 for details).
management from Askonas Holt, concert partnerships with the Wigmore Hall and Winners receive a package of cash prizes,
and recording opportunities in partnership Southbank Centre to launch a Leeds lessons with members of the summer
with BBC Radio 3, a debut recording Piano Festival, the first of which will take school faculty, performance opportunities
with Champs Hill Records, personal place in Leeds and London in May 2018. and bursaries.
mentoring from Paul Lewis and other
international pianists, and engagements www.leedspiano.com www.pianoconcertocompetition.com
NY PHIL LAUNCHES MAJOR PIANO PRIZE

B
RITISH PIANIST BENJAMIN engagement and education initiatives The Ackman Prize will be awarded every
Grosvenor has been named as around New York City as a classical music three years to an up-and-coming pianist or
the inaugural recipient of the ambassador. piano duo chosen by a panel comprising
New York Philharmonic’s Ronnie and ‘To be the first recipient of this prize is prominent pianists, New York Philharmonic
Lawrence Ackman Classical Piano Prize, an immense honour, said Grosvenor. ‘I was leadership, and other leading musical figures.
worth $30,000 (£24,470). fortunate in making my New York debut The Ackman Prize is made possible by
The 24-year-old Grosvenor will also in Carnegie Hall when I was 13 and from a gift from Philharmonic board member
perform with the New York Philharmonic, that occasion onwards have always been Lawrence Ackman and his wife, Ronnie.
play chamber music with Philharmonic touched by the warmth I have experienced
musicians, and take part in community from New York audiences.’ www.nyphil.org/ackman

IPJF17_009_R_News0812OM.indd 9 08/12/2016 17:23
NEWS & NOTES
OBITUARY: ZOLTÁN KOCSIS

T
HE HUNGARIAN PIANIST AND orchestral transcriptions of piano works.
© FORTEPAN / URBÁN TAMÁS

conductor Zoltán Kocsis, who Kocsis’s studies at the Franz Liszt
died on 6 November aged 64, Academy of Music with Pál Kadosa,
exemplified unity in diversity. In duo Ferenc Rados, and György Kurtág, left
performances with Dezső Ránki and him with almost too much idiomatic
Sviatoslav Richter, Kocsis combined facility in Liszt, where technical problems
different musical approaches in cohesive posed no terrors, so glitz was dispatched
performances. to better arrive at musical substance. In
Aside from his collaborative skills and 2012, he survived emergency surgery to
powerful conducting talent, Kocsis is repair an aorta which, Kocsis explained to
best remembered as a confident soloist in the Hungarian press, was replaced with
Bartók and Rachmaninov concerti played 25cms of plastic pipe. Even before this, his
with monumentality, immediacy, and playing showed awareness of mortality.
freshness. By audibly donning the mantle His highly dramatic readings of Schubert’s
of each composer’s thought processes Piano Sonata in B-flat major D960 featured
and moods, Kocsis enlivened familiar rumblings in the bass like warm-ups for a
warhorses. This newness and vigour drew funeral parade, with apt raging against the
attention to the works themselves, rather dying light in this posthumous work.
than to the pianist. The memento mori aspect enriched
Kocsis seemed born to interpret Kocsis’s artistry, further inspired by the
many composers: his Mozart had artistic influence of predecessors such
soulfulness, his Chopin hectic emotion, as Rachmaninov, Josef Hofmann, Dinu
Zoltán Kocsis in 1972
his Bach measured gravity, and Beethoven Lipatti, Ernő Dohnányi, Bartók and
seemingly infinite melodic line. With Richter. Among pianists closer to his own
these and other composers, Kocsis generation, Kocsis admired Maurizio interviewer, Adrienn Csepelyi, who
revealed a concentrated command of Pollini and regularly conducted concertos mentioned that Yuja Wang sometimes
entire musical scores during each moment for his friends Olli Mustonen, Arcadi attracts controversy for her racy onstage
of a performance. This profound grasp Volodos, Alexander Toradze, Michel attire, he dismissed such qualms as ‘envy
of musical thought inevitably led to an Dalberto and Yuja Wang. of the incomparable virtuosity’ with which
expanded focus on conducting, although In June 2016, his stoic approach to she plays. As a benevolent and skilled
Kocsis preferred to be thought of as health challenges was typified by a defender of composers and fellow pianists,
a musician rather than primarily as a response to Index.hu that as a result of Kocsis will be much missed.
pianist or conductor. In May 2013 he told blood clots in his brain, he had to change
Fidelio, ‘My generation inherited a musical some fingerings in performance, but BENJAMIN IVRY
approach that is much closer to the otherwise his memory remained intact; he
exact sciences’. At one time a methodical was still able to learn a major orchestral Zoltán Kocsis, Hungarian pianist and
transcriber of orchestral works for the score, such as Franck’s Symphony in conductor, born 30 May 1952; died 6
keyboard, he later segued into creating D minor, in a single day. To the same November 2016
BRITISH PIANO RESTORER ENTERS RETAIL MARKET

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IANO RESTORATIONS LTD IS Jubilee (£33k), a Steinway Model A circa pianos in the mid-1950s, while Colin’s
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their reputation as a leading company in the Established by Colin, Derek and Paul Apprenticeship. They founded Piano
field of historic instrument restoration and Leverett, the family business has over 160 Restorations Ltd in 2003, after Blüthner
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Leverett Pianos will offer brand new trade. All their restoration work is done by Piano Restorations have restored
instruments as well a wide range of hand, including fitting instruments with instruments for many leading musicians
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Open for study to pre-college pianists ages 13-18 | Prizes totaling $9,000 | Apply online at southeasternpianofestival.com
ANDERSON AND ROE FREDERIC CHIU WASHINGTON GARCIA VADYM KHOLODENKO
and
Arthur Fraser
International Piano Competition
BORIS SLUTSKY BARRY SNYDER ILANA VERED
2017
15
June
18-24
Celebration
15th Anniversary
APPLICATION DEADLINE:
March
15 2017 Marina Lomazov, Artistic Director
Joseph Rackers, Program Director
Weill Music Institute
February 19 and 20 at 4 PM
JONATHAN BISS
MASTER CLASSES
As a complement to his concerts this season at
Carnegie Hall that focus on the way composers
create at their career’s end, pianist Jonathan Biss
offers six young artists a chance to delve into the late
Jonathan Biss solo works of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert.
Tickets: $15
Workshops for pianists are made possible, in part, by The Gary C. and Ethel B. Thom Fund
Benjamin Ealovega
for Piano Performance and Education.
Workshops and master classes are made possible, in part, by Mr. and Mrs. Nicola Bulgari
and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
carnegiehall.org | 212-247-7800
Box Office at 57th and Seventh
IPJF17.indd 11 12/12/2016 15:51:09

NEWS & NOTES
AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION

The proliferation of music of changes. The prize money has increased Among the prodigious talents that have
competitions around the dramatically – from around $84,000 emerged from the resurrected Montreal
(Canadian dollars) to more than $130,000. Competition and have not received
world means that events are This is due to the addition of a $50,000 due recognition are – just to mention
now vying with each other career development grant to the first-prize the pianists – Sergei Salov and Daria
to provide added value to winner. The gift comes from Montreal’s Rabotkina (2002), Nareh Arghamanyan
performers and audiences Azriel Foundation, which has made the (2008) and Kate Liu (2014).
award to honour Joseph Rouleau, the ‘Compared to Fort Worth’s Cliburn,
alike. Stephen Wigler well-known Canadian operatic bass and Warsaw’s Chopin and Moscow’s
discovers how the Montreal co-founder of the CMIM. Tchaikovsky, we are a young competition
Competition is making its The CMIM actually had a predecessor, and, internationally speaking, I would
presence felt this year the Montreal International Music say we are doing very well,’ says CMIM’s
Competition/Concours international de LeBlanc. Indeed it seems that the
musique de Montréal, held from 1965 competition’s laureates may well stand
P
a better chance to gain an international
IANO COMPETITIONS ALLOW profile: the $50,000 grant for career
pianists to compete among development should certainly help the
themselves for prizes. However, next first-prize winner.
the growing abundance of such contests Other developments augur well for the
has created a new phenomenon: in Montreal Competition’s future. CMIM
recent months, established competitions has assembled a remarkable jury, which
such as the Van Cliburn in Fort Worth easily matches the calibre of those found
and the Cleveland International Piano at more famous international contests.
Competition have increased their prize Among the panel are distinguished
money, levels of career support and the international pianists such as Idil Biret,
number of events and festivities during Dang Thai Son, Christina Ortiz and
the course of the competition. Gabriel Tacchino, joined by R Douglas
‘Competitions are now competing Sheldon, senior vice president and director
with each other,’ explains Christiane of Columbia Artists Management, who
LeBlanc, the executive and artistic director is one of classical music’s best-known,
of the Concours Musical International influential and powerful artist managers.
de Montréal (CMIM, known in the The CMIM has also engaged Claus
Anglophonic world as the Montreal Peter Flor, one of the finest conductors
International Music Competition). LeBlanc of his generation, to lead the Montreal
was discussing the CMIM’s forthcoming Symphony in the competition’s final
edition (2 to 12 May 2017), which will Christiane LeBlanc round. ‘For young musicians – even if
be devoted to pianists. Unlike any other they do not win first prize – it will be an
competition in North America, the CMIM until it was discontinued in 1991 because extraordinary opportunity to work with so
is held every year, devoted to voice, violin it ran out of money. With the exception major a musician and to benefit from his
and piano in a three-year rotation. of soprano Measha Brueggergosman experience and guidance,’ says LeBlanc.
This year’s focus on the piano will be (2002) and pianists David Fray (2004) Over the course of the next few seasons,
especially significant, adds LeBlanc: ‘We and Beatrice Rana (2011), very few of the CMIM has arranged for more than 20
are celebrating our 15th anniversary, along the laureates of the current Montreal engagements – mostly in Canada, but also a
with the city of Montreal which celebrates Competition have attained the stature few in Europe – for its laureates and finalists.
its 375th birthday. So we are part of this of the laureates of the first one. This has ‘So many very gifted musicians enter
beautiful city’s festivities. In addition, we a great deal to do with the proliferation this competition,’ says LeBlanc. ‘What all
are hosting the general assembly of the of international music competitions: competitions are obliged to do is to give
World Federation of International Music when the first Montreal Competition these young artists opportunities
Competitions (10 to 12 May): 85 delegates began in 1965, there many fewer such to shine.’
will be attending the CMIM’s Gala events. Another factor is the bewildering
concert on May 12, at which our three and growing superabundance of great The fifth Concours Musical International de
top-prize winners will perform.’ talents over the last 20 years, along with Montréal dedicated to piano will take place
The importance of this year’s the dwindling of the audiences needed to in Montreal, Canada, from 2 to 12 May 2017.
competition can be gauged by a number support their careers. www.concoursmontreal.ca

London Symphony Orchestra
LSO St Luke’s
Four pianists delve into the riches

of the Russian piano repertoire before
and after the momentous events that
took place in 1917, 100 years ago.
Russian Thu 2 Feb 2017 1pm

Prokofiev, Schnittke, Tchaikovsky
with Elisabeth Leonskaja
Revolutionaries Thu 9 Feb 2017 1pm

Prokofiev, Medtner, Rachmaninov
with Alexei Volodin
BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts Thu 16 Feb 1pm

Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev
at LSO St Luke’s with Anna Vinnitskaya
LSO ST LUKE’S Thu 23 Feb 1pm

161 OLD STREET, LONDON EC1V 9NG Rachmaninov, Medtner
lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts | 020 7638 8891 with Vadym Kholodenko
Great piano in Monaco !

Classical and contemporary repertoire by
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Bruno Leonardo Gelber,
Hélène Grimaud, Ivo Kahanek, Jan Michiels.
285 guest artists performing 18 concerts

in 12 dream concert venues.
Further highlights
Tribute to Hector Berlioz Top young talents

Piano and cello recitals
The French Renaissance
Music conservatories
The emerging generation
The festival "Surprise Trip"
High tech
Event Congo The «IanniX» workshop
A unique classical concert
by the Symphonic Kimbanguist
New and transverse
Orchestra (Congo RDC)
The «Monaco Music Forum»
and the Monte-Carlo
Philharmonic Orchestra
+377 93 25 54 04
TICKETS / MEDIA / MUSIC HOLIDAYS
printempsdesarts.mc
161123_press_piano.indd 1 01/12/2016 15:27
IPJF17.indd 13 12/12/2016 15:51:10

O N E T O WAT C H
Game, set and match

Luca Buratto’s success at the Honens Piano Competition has
propelled him into the international limelight. The young Italian
talks to Claire Jackson about his strategy for a long career, and how
watching tennis has inspired his winning streak
C
ANADA’S TRIENNIAL HONENS INTERNATIONAL hopefully a long career. Usually there are cases of people who win
Piano Competition sets the bar high for its winners. a competition and then they disappear.’
Finalists must demonstrate that they are ‘complete Buratto has been able to draw on advice from Russian pianist
pianists’ – rounded musicians who understand the importance of Pavel Kolesnikov, who won Honens in 2012. ‘We have been
audience engagement. Luca Buratto, the Calgary-based contest’s playing together,’ says Buratto. ‘It’s fun. And I have been back to
newest laureate, certainly meets the criteria: his performances Calgary several times to give concerts.’ Other engagements include
during the latest instalment of the Competition, held in October performances earlier this year at the Marlboro Music Festival and
2015, were compelling, moving and consistently brilliant. ‘I work at Martha Argerich’s series (Progetto Martha Argerich) in Lugano.
well under pressure,’ says Buratto. Indeed, the 23-year-old is laid- ‘Unfortunately I did not meet her’, Buratto notes, with regret.
back both on and off the stage. The Italian has also been working in the UK – he recorded his
Winning a major competition like Honens is just the start, of debut disc for Hyperion over the summer.‘It was my first experience
course; the focus must then shift to building a life as a professional of a commercial recording; it was an intense few days,’ he smiles.
musician. But unlike other international competitions, Honens ‘We recorded in a studio in Wales. I wanted to go with Schumann
offers its laureates wide-ranging opportunities towards the next as he is a composer I feel very close to. I wanted something personal
stage in their development, including support with management for the first CD. I had a few options, but this was my favourite.
and a recording with Hyperion. ‘The Competition is really helpful,’ The repertoire is closely connected to Clara and it shows how
Buratto confirms. ‘Winning means that you are more recognised, Schumann has moved on from his earlier writing.’
though this puts more responsibility on you, because people are Although he played a Fazioli in the Honens finals, Buratto
watching to see how you develop during this first step of what is chose a Steinway for the studio. ‘At home I have a Yamaha. I don’t
Luca Buratto: ‘I work well under pressure’
© MONIQUE DE ST CROIX
IPJF17_014-015_R_OnetoWatch0712OM.indd 14 12/12/2016 13:27

O N E T O WAT C H
have a preference for a particular brand. If it’s a good piano, I’m

happy.’ While in London to select his instrument from Steinway’s ‘Winning means that you are
hallowed showroom in Marylebone Road, Buratto attended Llŷr
Williams’ Beethoven recital at the Wigmore Hall. more recognised, though this
Buratto will be making his own Wigmore debut in January –
another aspect of the Honens prize. His programme features puts more responsibility on you’
William Byrd’s keyboard arrangement of John Dowland’s
Lachrimae Pavan, ‘Flow my tears’; Darknesse Visible and Traced
Overhead by Thomas Adès; Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata; and He’s performed in several high-profile competitions to date:
Schumann’s Beethoven-inspired Fantasy in C major Op 17. It’s a in 2012 Buratto received third prize at the International Robert
heady mix of early and contemporary genres, with an interesting Schumann Competition in Zwickau; the following year he was a
concoction of lesser-known and mainstream works. Buratto is finalist at the Van Cliburn Competition.
a fan of Adès: ‘When you’re not preparing for competitions you When not at the piano, Buratto enjoys tennis and table tennis: ‘I
can explore repertoire outside of the standard fare.’ He goes on do like playing but it’s not healthy for a musician. I watch a lot of
to describe a ‘liquid atmosphere’ within Lachrimae Pavan: ‘I find tennis – it’s similar to playing the piano somehow. You can see how
Dowland is like Schumann in this and many other respects.’ the player has an internal fight.’ e
Buratto has music in his blood: his great-grandfather was the
composer Renzo Massarani, whose works were banned in Italy Luca Buratto gives his Honens Prize Laureate Recital at London’s
under Mussolini. Massarani eventually settled in Brazil, where he Wigmore Hall on Sunday 22 January, 7.30pm.
worked as a music critic. When Buratto was 10 years old, he helped
boost posthumous interest in Massarani when he gave a recital of His debut album of works by Schumann will be released on the Hyperion
his music at Milan’s Sala Verdi on Holocaust Remembrance Day label in summer 2017. www.hyperion-records.co.uk
in 2003. Buratto went on to study at the Milan Conservatory and
received his postgraduate training at the Bolzano Conservatory. www.lucaburattopiano.com

IPJF17_014-015_R_OnetoWatch0712OM.indd 15 12/12/2016 13:28
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IPJF17.indd 16AD FP.indd 1 20/07/2016
12/12/2016 14:05:57
15:51:10
COMMENT
In the beginning
Through all their 1904 he had persuaded Grieg, Saint-Saëns,
Chaminade, Hofmann, Pugno and other
pianists who grew up during that era, and
for whom the Romantic style was part of
scratches and crackle, great names of contemporary pianism

to immortalise their performances.
their living tradition. We have recordings
by pupils of Liszt and Clara Schumann
early recordings have Meanwhile, other recording companies

were springing up: Victor and Brunswick
and by people who knew Debussy, Fauré
and Tchaikovsky. Surely in our present age
a lot to teach us in the US; Pathé, Odeon and Fonotipia
in Europe. Gradually, though still rather
of ‘historically informed practice’ when
we struggle so hard to get things right
about the art of 19th- swamped by everything else, more piano
recordings were made. The biggest names
in the Baroque and Classical periods, we
shouldn’t ignore this first-hand evidence
century pianism. of the time – Paderewski, Godowsky,
Cortot, Rachmaninov – began to record
from the Romantic period. Want to hear
how Brahms’ Ballade Op118/3 sounded at
Michael Spring urges in the second decade of the new century. its first public performance? Listen to Ilona
The next big breakthrough was the Eibenschütz’s 1903 recording made nine
pianophiles to open development of ‘electrical’ recording in years after she gave the premiere (and it
their ears to the past

1925. Although 78rpm discs were still does raise one or two questions when we
‘crackly’, at last the piano began to sound consider how the piece is generally taken
full-bodied and its full frequency range today). Meanwhile, if you want to hear
could be captured. Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 as the
V
composer heard it, just listen to the work’s
IENNA, JUNE 1899: IN A premiere recording by Vassily Sapellnikoff.

makeshift studio, local pianist Composer and pianist performed it
and composer Alfred Grünfeld together many times.
began to play ‘Papillon’ from Grieg’s Lyric I think the key to understanding the
Pieces, while a recording horn beside the approach and variety exhibited in early
piano channelled the sound waves to a recordings is to realise that, until about
mechanical cutter which spiralled across a the 1940s, Romantic pianism was a living
seven-inch wax disc. The first commercial language and pianists breathed it as do jazz
gramophone recording of classical piano musicians today. They were all expected to
music was born. compose, and indeed the recorded output
The technology of recording developed of dozens of these early recording artists,
gradually through the 1890s in two from Paderewski to Una Bourne, and
competing formats: cylinder, championed of course greatest of all, Rachmaninov,
by Thomas Edison; and flat disc, the includes examples of their own works. The
invention of Emile Berliner. Both were Alfred Grünfeld (1852-1924) printed page was only an imperfect map,
Americans, though Berliner had German not a guide to be slavishly followed.
origins. The cylinder proved hard to mass- With all the wonderfully recorded Perhaps today when the language of the
produce and Edison, in spite of his fame, performances of the last 50 years, do these 19th century is not our native tongue but
was to lose out to Berliner in the format old recordings still have a place in our just one of the many musical languages we
wars. In 1898 a company was formed in record library? It’s obvious that someone have to learn to be a complete performer,
London to back Berliner’s invention and who runs a historic reissue label is going to we do need to follow the guide more
American Fred Gaisberg was dispatched answer an emphatic ‘Yes’ – but let’s look carefully; but let’s not forget what can
there to commence recording. It was he at why. be learned from these early discs. Once
and his colleague William Sinkler Darby It reveals little to say ‘they played you learn to listen through the imperfect
who made that first piano recording (along differently then’, though they did. What sound, I guarantee you will come across
with five others) in Vienna as they crossed is more interesting is that there is a much some of the most wonderful performances
Europe establishing a catalogue for what wider range of styles to be heard than ever recorded. e
was the Gramophone Company, perhaps we encounter in today’s players. And
the greatest name in recording history. generally, the further back in time you go, Michael Spring is the owner and director of
Early recording was primitive and the the more alien the playing sounds. The Appian Publications & Recordings (APR), a
piano was hard to capture – singers were the core of today’s piano repertoire is still the label specialising in historic piano recordings
thing. Nevertheless, Gaisberg had a vision music of the great 19th-century composer- with a catalogue of more than 150 titles.
of what the gramophone could do, and by pianists, and here we have recordings by www.aprrecordings.co.uk

IPJF17_017_R_Comment0712OM.indd 17 08/12/2016 10:30
T H E I L L -T E M P E R E D C L AV I E R
Do music and politics really mix? Though culture often goes hand-
in-hand with contemporary issues, Charivari takes a dim view of
musicians who turn the concert platform into a political soapbox
Ladislav Kovachev addressed the audience after until… Mr Kovachev decides to express journalist. Thrilled at the prospect of hearing
his second encore: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, thank his views on vegans. (He could, of course, this great musician hold forth on the subject
you for sharing this wonderful music with me. have expressed the opposite view and told for which he is universally revered, a full
And now I have something else to share with you,’ his captive audience what a load of self- house revelled in the illuminating insights,
he announced in his heavily-accented English. obsessed, delusional zealots they are.) the waspish anecdotes and the surprising
‘I am a vegan. I want to take a moment to tell Whether you are for or against the vegan revelations about the particular piece of
you that since I adopted this way of life, my way of life, is Mr Kovachev entitled to use his music being examined. But then came the
world has become filled with wonder, curiosity recital to publicise his eating habits? Should moment when the journalist (admittedly
and a passion I never thought possible. Opting he be told to shut up or should we, no matter singularly ill-informed about the piece,
for a plant-based diet is physically, mentally, what our views may be on the subject, allow the composer and the piano in general)
emotionally and spiritually healing. You are him to change the nature of the event? decided to hijack the event by asking the
showing compassion for the most important I invented Ladislav Kovachev. He doesn’t pianist’s views on Brexit. Moreover, the
person in the world – you.’ exist; but people like him do. A few months journalist began promulgating his own
At this, several members of the audience ago at a music festival, a well-known pianist strongly-held anti-Brexit views. The pianist
shuffled uneasily in their seats. Three or four was interviewed on stage by a well-known was sophisticated enough to know that only
actually rose and left them. Others made a
close study of their shoelaces as Kovachev Artist and activist: Daniel Barenboim
continued to lecture his captive audience with
enthusiasm...
T
HIS REPORT OF THE
Bulgarian pianist’s concert
highlights an all-too real
contemporary phenomenon, one which
delights some and infuriates others: the
artist who loses no opportunity to air his
political views; the musician who doubles
as a political mouthpiece; the actor as vocal
© PAUL SCHIRNHOFER / DG
polemicist. You have bought tickets for an

event. You have paid to see the performance
of a play or hear a concert. That is the extent
of your expectation: to be entertained
or spiritually nourished or amazed or
whatever else one might expect from an
evening out. It all goes according to plan
IPJF17_018-019_R_ITClavier0712OM.indd 18 12/12/2016 13:51

T H E I L L -T E M P E R E D C L AV I E R
a guarded and anodyne response would debate around controversial issues. Daniel musical Hamilton anticipate a post-show
be acceptable in the circumstances, and by Barenboim uses his celebrity to advance plea to uphold American values, not least
some elegant footwork managed to dance the cause of peace and co-operation with Vice President-elect Pence to whom the
his way out of controversy. his East-West Divan Orchestra (admirable, remarks were addressed.
A chance conversation in the foyer but one wonders how effective this gesture Music has frequently shown itself to
afterwards with a middle-aged music-loving has been). Valery Gergiev is an apologist for be more powerful than any speech or
couple from Reading revealed two people President Putin. Pianist Gabriela Montero lecture; it can be difficult and, indeed,
who were infuriated at the turn of events. has been exiled from her beloved Venezuela not always possible to separate it from
(The husband turned out to be a Remainer, because of her outspoken views on the politics. But concerts, operas, ballets and
the wife a Brexiteer.) Had they known that government there. Madonna, Beyoncé, recitals should remain events where people
this piano and lecture recital, for which Lady Gaga, George Clooney and Meryl of all political creeds and persuasions can
they had paid handsomely in terms of Streep backed Hillary in her bid for the come together to celebrate their shared
tickets, travel and food, would be turned White House (though some have suggested humanity – without any unexpected
into a political event, they would not have these endorsements helped her lose). vocal proselytising from the stage. I may
dreamt of booking. Nor, they informed At least the audience at those events not share the political views of someone
me, would they dream of booking for any knew what they had paid for and why they who voted Remain but I can share their
similar event at next year’s festival – just in were there. It is when the artists themselves love of late Beethoven piano sonatas. Just
case the same thing happened. walk through the fourth wall that trouble don’t ask me to join them at their favourite
‘All art is propaganda,’ said George ensues. Those who were at the Barbican vegan restaurant afterwards. e
Orwell, yet many of us start to prickle when last year to see Benedict Cumberbatch in
artists use their celebrity status to advance his sold-out Hamlet did not go expecting charivari
their own political views. Of course, art a curtain-call featuring an expletive- 1. a discordant mock serenade for newlyweds
itself does not exist solely to uplift, educate, laden rant about the British government’s made with pans, kettles, etc
comfort or entertain. It can also provoke, approach to the Syrian refugee crisis. Nor 2. a confused noise; din [C17: from French,
challenge, instigate change and stimulate did a more recent audience at the Broadway from Late Latin caribaria headache]

IPJF17_018-019_R_ITClavier0712OM.indd 19 12/12/2016 13:52
C OV ER S TORY
First person
singular
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s irrepressible passion for music
sweeps you off your feet, whether he’s discussing his own
provocative reworking of classical cadenzas, the
grammatical characteristics of a composer’s style, or why
2,000 recordings of Beethoven’s complete sonatas still
wouldn’t be enough. Jeremy Nicholas finds himself bowled
over by the Gallic charm and boundless enthusiasm of
this unique and stimulating talent
‘C
OME! COME! I HAVE nearby hotel where Bavouzet and his wife Fischer is another. And I cannot omit the
to show you this first.’ used to stay. lovely lady you just met – my wife. She is
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is The pianist’s all-too-brief association Hungarian and both my daughters speak
bursting with energy as he ushers me down with Georg Solti had a profound effect on fluent Hungarian, so I’ve been hearing
the stairs to the basement of the house him. It was not just the musical influence Hungarian at home for 35 years! Now who
where he is staying in London. ‘Look here.’ and advice. ‘I claim to be the most else is there?’
He indicates a glass case resting on a table Hungarophile of all French musicians,’ I offer another name: the great Hungarian
at the foot of the stairs within which is a Bavouzet says. ‘I’ve been lucky to have been pianist and composer György Cziffra.
tiny miniature railway running through in contact with many great Hungarian Bavouzet explodes: ‘Cziffra! Cziffra! Cziffra
a mountainous papier-mâché Swiss musicians, apart from Solti. For instance, gave me my very first concert back in 1979.
landscape. ‘I made this. It was a present I worked in detail on Bartók’s Second Oh, I have a marvellous story to tell you.
from me to Lady Solti.’ Concerto with György Sándor (who I am 17. I win a prize in a minor piano
We are, indeed, in the elegant home of premiered the Third Concerto), and in competition and part of this is a recital at
Lady Solti, widow of Sir Georg. Widely 1995 I played 12 two-piano concerts with Cziffra’s Foundation on an autumn Sunday
considered to be the great conductor’s last Zoltán Kocsis to mark the 50th anniversary afternoon. On the morning of the concert
discovery, Bavouzet was engaged by Solti to of Bartók’s death. They changed my life for I received a phone call from Cziffra’s wife.
make his debut with the Orchestre de Paris ever – they were like a point of no return. “The concert is cancelled. The roof of the
in Bartók’s Piano Concerto No 3 in 1998. Zoltán is a giant of music with literally Chapel has let in water.” Your first concert
Sadly, the conductor died in September 300 years of music in his head. [By a sad is cancelled. Cheerful news, right? In the
1997 before they could appear together coincidence, Kocsis died just five days afternoon she calls back. “The maestro will
in public; but a deep friendship with the after this interview took place.] Then there give a benefit concert the following Sunday
Soltis had been formed. The landscape for is János Starker, Miklós Perényi, István to raise money for the roof of the Chapel.
the railway features a model of the Soltis’ Várdai and Kristóf Baráti from the younger He heard that your concert was cancelled, ⌂
Swiss villa set in the mountain above the generation, plus Gábor Takács-Nagy. Iván so he proposes that you play at the end of
IPJF17_020-026_F_CvrStory0812BWM.indd 20 12/12/2016 13:57

C OV ER S TORY
‘When you record

Beethoven the first thing
you want to do when
you have finished is
to do it again’

Barry Douglas
plays Schubert, Works for Solo Piano T HE S OU ND OF CLA SSICA L
In this second volume, Barry Douglas probes the

romantic aspirations of Schubert’s writing, whether
in the intimate melodies and contrasts of the
impromptus, or in the monumental Sonata in A,
the extraordinary range and technical challenges of
which call for the virtuosity of the interpreter while
plunging the listener into the illness, pain, and hope
of the composer’s final years.
Also Available
BRAHMS: Works for Solo Piano, the complete series
CHAN 10807
CHAN 10933
‘An excellent disc’

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Gramophone
VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE www.chandos.net STAY IN THE KNOW

for CDs, downloads and much more MP3, lossless, studio, surround New releases . Reviews . Special offers . Artist features
IPJF17.indd 22 12/12/2016 15:51:11

C OV ER S TORY
‘I claim to be the most Hungarophile of all French musicians’
⌂ the first half of his concert.” So, instead of works of Ravel and a Liszt recital; and, closed. Now, listen to Wilhelm Kempff’s
playing for 34 people with all my family before that, discs of Schumann, Maurice Beethoven. I admire and cherish him as a
and friends, I played for the full hall and Ohana (12 Études d’interprétation) and man and a pianist tremendously, but it is
for maybe 20 minutes. Extremely generous Stockhausen. The latest Chandos discs are his playing of Brahms and other composers
man. Nice of him, yes?’ the third volume in his ongoing complete that speaks to me more. Yet in his day
cycle of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas and the first he was considered the reincarnation
H
in a series of Mozart concerto discs with the of Beethoven. We are in a completely
UNGARY IS CLEARLY A Manchester Camerata and Takács-Nagy. different social, cultural and spiritual
subject that is quick to spring to I decide to play devil’s advocate by asking environment than we were only 80 years
Bavouzet’s lips, but the ostensible Bavouzet why he felt compelled to record ago, let alone 100 – or exactly 200 as we
raison d’être for our meeting is to celebrate another Beethoven sonata cycle: do we are now after Opus 101 was composed.
the release of two new CDs, part of an really need it? ‘Well, 25 years ago I would And we are still finding out things about
ongoing project in an exclusive recording have said it was completely ridiculous it. This music is life. It is alive. It has to be
deal with Chandos. Every addition to his to add to the 270 there were at the time,’ transmitted by musicians live in concert.
varied and impressive discography seems, he replies, candidly. ‘But then my mind So for me it is inevitable: if there are 270
without exception, to win awards, editors’ changed. Let’s look at the question the recordings, it’s not enough. There should
choices and benchmark recommendations. other way around. Let’s assume that every be 500! 2,000!’
His recorded repertoire is voluminous. pianist says it’s not necessary to record all I was bowled over by Bavouzet’s
On Chandos, there’s everything from these sonatas, because we have Schnabel, Beethoven, characterised with the same
Janáček, de Falla, Pierné, Stravinsky and Gulda, Backhaus, Kempff and so on – clarity as his Debussy. Volume 3 opens
the three Bartók concertos to the complete all of them very different. So we don’t with a notably rugged account of the
solo works of Debussy, the five Prokofiev record Beethoven sonatas any more. The rarely played Sonata in F major Op 54. I
concertos, both Ravel concertos, a disc of evolution of Beethoven interpretation felt I was hearing it for the first time in
Haydn concertos and five volumes of his comes to an end. We will have no record Bavouzet’s hands. On occasion it is almost
sonatas. In an earlier incarnation on MDG, of the different way in which the music vehement, not pretty. This, you feel, is how ⌂
Bavouzet recorded the complete piano spoke in the time after this chapter was Beethoven would have played it. ‘Brutality

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IPJF17.indd 24 12/12/2016 15:51:11

C OV ER S TORY
⌂ and violence is used by composers more ‘The most fascinating thing about on making comments and criticisms and
often than one would think,’ he responds. Beethoven,’ he explains, ‘is that his music was never satisfied until one of the players
‘There are composers for which this doesn’t combines every element of music – interjected, “Come on, we are not your
work at all. Mozart, for instance, is never emotional, physical, virtuosic, extremely slaves!” And Ravel said “Yes – that’s exactly
brutal. He can be violent but never brutal. intellectual. A friend asked me the what you are!” Meaning the interpreter
Debussy, on the other hand, has passages other day which composers wrote in should do exactly what is in the score and
– Jeux, for example – which he asks to be the first person and which in the third nothing more. The opposite is Liszt who
played violently.’ person? Who says “I” and who says “we”? said “The music is nothing without me. If I
When I was planning my interview We agreed on every one. Beethoven is do not play it, you cannot hear it.” In other
with Bavouzet, I set out to trawl through definitely “I”. That’s also why when you words, I am God giving life to the piece.
every sonata on the three-disc set – but record Beethoven the first thing you want I have full power. Quite paradoxical for a
things didn’t work out that way. Now, to do when you have finished is to do it composer who wrote so many indications
in the presence of this great artist and again. Because by the time the recording in his score as to how the music was to
irrepressible thinker, I tear up my own is out, you have changed. Your response to be played. Don’t ask me which is my way,
script: I want to hear him talk about “I” is different. because I understand both.’
Beethoven in particular and piano playing ‘The most “we” composer is Stravinsky. Mozart crops up next in our conversation.
in general. He speaks excellent English, Ravel – sometimes “I”, mostly “we”. Bavouzet’s first disc of concertos contains
rarely having to search for a French- Debussy – it depends, but I would say third the adorable G major (No 17) and the
to-English translation and coloured person. Chopin definitely “I”. Schumann seldom-heard No 18 in B-flat major.
delightfully by a Central Casting French also. Liszt – a mixture. But Beethoven What informed such an unusual pairing?
accent. His boyish enthusiasm for his is the most “first person”, in my view! ‘Frankly, I didn’t notice. I chose No 17, and
subject is reflected in his animated face. Now as an interpreter there are two basic then I said why don’t we do all six concertos
One thing is clear immediately: here is a attitudes: either the Liszt or the Ravel one. written in 1784? The G major for two
deep-thinking musician without a trace There is the story of an ensemble playing reasons: I have done it with Gábor already,
of vanity. Ravel’s quartet to the composer. Ravel kept and in the late 1980s I wrote cadenzas for
⌂
‘The most fascinating thing about Beethoven is that his music combines every element of music’

C OV ER S TORY
⌂ it. At the time I was playing a lot of fusion makes control of fast ornamentations like four more Mozart concertos with Gábor
jazz and crossover things. I was struck by mordants and trills easier.’ Takács-Nagy in March.
the harmonies of that specific concerto The relationship with Chandos began at
I
where you have a sequence of major a fortuitous time, just after his recordings
sevenths, something which Mozart used of Liszt and Ravel on MDG. ‘They came to WAS CURIOUS TO KNOW MORE
rarely. I’ll show you…’ Bavouzet heads hear me, made a proposal for collaboration, about his unusual name. ‘If you meet
for one of the two concert grands in the I was very happy, and they said what shall another Efflam, let me know – call me
studio where we are sitting. He plays the we start with? At that time, I was a victim immediately!’ is Bavouzet’s urgent reply. ‘It
Mozart and without a break segues into a of the “Debussy maladie” – do you know comes from Brittany. He was an Irish saint
pop-music riff using the same harmonies. this? – where you can’t hear two notes of who evangelised Brittany in the 5th or 6th
He admits that writing cadenzas for this Debussy without having the Pavlovian century. Bavouzet? That’s from Nohant.
concerto can be considered provocative on reflex of crying and being completely The village of Georges Sand and Chopin.’
two levels: ‘First,’ he says, ‘we have Mozart’s melancholic, even if it is the ring tone on The pianist was born in 1962 in Lannion
own; secondly, what I wrote used idioms someone’s mobile. Not anymore. I have but grew up in Metz (home of Gabriel
and harmonies that were anachronistic. got over it. But at that time I proposed to Pierné, incidentally) where his mother
Whenever I played this concerto I played Chandos the complete Debussy solo works was a music teacher. ‘It was a town where
my cadenzas. They were fun. So when we in four volumes. It was a big emotional crisis in the 1970s there was a big international
came to make the recording we decided for me. I had to do it. Eventually we did a contemporary music festival. For four
to use them – but also made extra tracks fifth volume with Khamma (which I did not days your ears were really cleaned out by
of Mozart’s originals because they are so know existed), La Boîte à joujoux and my things you could never have heard before.
beautiful.’ transcription for solo piano of Jeux. After I have some vivid memories of Kontakte by
Bavouzet’s cadenzas are hugely that came the Bartók concertos – a CD I am Stockhausen, of works by Boulez – I even
enjoyable and slightly mischievous, very, very proud of – then the disc of Ravel, made a happening with John Cage.’
beginning firmly in the classical idiom Debussy and Massenet works for piano and Finally, I wanted to know what sort
and transmuting cleverly into something orchestra. Then I started the Beethoven.’ of music we might expect to hear chez
like a cross between Nikolai Kapustin Listening to Bavouzet’s two new releases Bavouzet, relaxing among friends: ‘You
and Oscar Peterson before returning us made me aware of a pianist with very strong mean after we’ve had some wine? That
to Mozart’s world again. ‘But I can give fingers which, especially in Beethoven, no helps! Well, I play jazz. No way can I touch
you many examples of such anachronism. matter how rapid the passagework really classical music. Sorry. That’s the way my
What about Beethoven’s later cadenza for penetrated the keys. ‘This I got from my brain functions.’ Would he ever record
his Piano Concerto No 2 which sounds teacher [Alexander] Edelman! I was also any jazz? A pause. ‘No. No – because I am
like the Hammerklavier, and not like the extremely well-trained by Pierre Sancan not good enough. I play better jazz than
Haydnesque concerto at all? In fact, I also in Paris. He was the first pedagogue to probably most of my classical friends but
added my own cadenza in the Haydn adopt the Russian school’s style of playing not good enough for a CD.’ I wonder…
concerto discs we made.’ At the piano from your toes to your head. I was his It’s something I for one would pay good
again, he plays the cheeky modulation in last student before he got Alzheimer’s. money to hear. e
his cadenza. It is straight out of the slow I continued this path with Edelman. There
movement of Ravel’s G major concerto. was nothing like using just the wrist or just
the fingers. The energy starts in the back
B
and goes to the fingers without any loss
AVOUZET’S PREFERRED of energy.’
venue for his solo recordings is So far, Bavouzet’s recordings concentrate
at Potton Hall in Suffolk on a mainly on the core piano repertoire. With
Steinway Model D. The sessions for the the exceptions of Massenet and Pierné,
Mozart were in Manchester on a Yamaha there is little outside the mainstream.
CFX. ‘Yamaha pianos are for me perfect Does he have any sympathy for what might
for Haydn and Mozart. Not that you can’t be called lighter repertoire – Moszkowski,
play other composers on them! But the for example, or Chabrier? ‘Yes, but it’s
precise and focused sound they produce a question of time. Look at the amount
fits my aesthetic idea of a classical period of recordings in the last seven years! It’s
instrument. I chose a Yamaha for my very very intense. I went up to recording 14 The third volume of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s
first recording [1992] which was dedicated concertos in one year. That’s enormous.’ complete Beethoven Pianos Sonatas cycle
to Haydn and I had so much pleasure at This year, he is recording the Grieg is now available from Chandos Records
that time I wanted to repeat this experience Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic (CHAN10925). www.chandos.net
every time. Also their keyboard action has and Ed Gardner. There are at least six
a lightness and directness of touch which or seven volumes more of Haydn; and www.bavouzet.com

Alfred Brendel
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IPJF17.indd 27 12/12/2016 15:51:12

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» The chance to learn from award-winning teachers, pedagogues
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IPJF17.indd 28 12/12/2016 15:51:13

RHINEGOLD LIVE
YOUNG
© SHEILA ROCK
AT
HEART
Melvyn Tan’s career
has taken him on a
fascinating journey
from his beginnings
as a precocious child
in Singapore to
international acclaim
as a pioneer in the
art of playing
A
LITHE, IMPISH PRESENCE AT concerts at Wigmore Hall and exploring an
period keyboard the keyboard, brimming over with
boyish charm, it’s hard to believe
ever-broadening range of repertoire.
Tan at 60 shows no sign of diminishing
instruments. Today, that Melvyn Tan celebrated his 60th artistry: his new CD, Master and Pupil, was
birthday in October last year. His music- released last September by the independent
he has returned to making remains wonderfully youthful label Onyx. He played the programme
too, charged with a nimble grace from the CD at his Wigmore Hall birthday
the modern piano, and lyrical precision that have won him recital on 13 October, culminating in an
championing new
a legion of international admirers. The astonishingly intense, daring performance
first of these was an enraptured Qantas of Liszt’s devilish Sonata in B minor.
music while airline stewardess who heard him play

in a house concert presented by his
Master and Pupil compiles works by
Beethoven, Czerny and Liszt, three great
remaining true to his then teacher and paved his way, aged
12, to a private scholarship to Britain’s
composer-pianists who expanded the
boundaries of pianism over the course of
classical roots. Robert Menuhin School, where he was one of

the first Asian students.
around 30 years. Tan chose Beethoven’s
Sonata in E major Op 109, along with the
Turnbull meets a Born in Singapore, but stripped of his
citizenship more than 30 years ago by
extraordinary (late) Bagatelles Op 120. With
regard to the famous but underperformed
distinctive, energetic Singapore’s prime minister Lee Kuan
Yew for having avoided military service,
Czerny, he considered one of the lengthy
sonatas, but then opted for a little-known
musical personality Tan has made Britain his base ever since.
Living in West London with his partner
funeral march which Czerny dedicated to
Beethoven. A copy of the first edition was
as he celebrates his the violinist Paul Boucher, he is a popular duly supplied by Dr Michael Ladenburger
and long-standing member of the musical of the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, though
60th year establishment, regularly giving sold-out there is no evidence that it was actually
⌂

IPJF17_029-031_F_MelvynTan0712OM.indd 29 08/12/2016 11:17
RHINEGOLD LIVE
⌂ performed until discovered by the pianist the virtuosity of the Russians,’ he says. colleagues; so it must have been even
Vladimir Horowitz centuries later. Tan Lessons at the ultra-demanding Menuhin more of a surprise when he decided to
first learnt Liszt’s titanic B minor Sonata School with celebrated pedagogues Nadia return Steinways and their ilk in 2004.
at college; though it’s among the heaviest Boulanger and Vlado Perlemuter were Tan’s explanation is perfectly rational:
pieces he has played, he sees it as being invaluable but only added to the pressure. ‘I wanted a bigger sound. Early instruments
quite classical in structure and ‘really well It was with some relief when in 1974 he had obvious limitations, especially in
placed for my hands’. entered the more relaxed environs of the recording,’ he says. ‘Besides, I had basically
The CD’s theme is self-evident: Czerny Royal College of Music; and it was there said all I wanted to say on them and missed
was introduced to Beethoven aged 10 and that the requirement to learn a second the challenge of having other repertory
went on to be his student, eventually giving instrument brought him into contact to play.’
the premiere of the Emperor Concerto. A with the keyboards that would dominate Did this mean he had to relearn the
few years after he penned an authoritative his next two decades: the harpsichord and techniques he had unlearned? ‘Not really,
guide to performing Beethoven’s piano fortepiano. Tan had discovered his niche. although the tougher action of modern
works, he began teaching a young Franz At the time, the adoption of period pianos certainly taxes the finger muscles,’
Liszt. Elements of Beethoven’s style instruments was still in its infancy and he says. ‘In fact the technique came back
pervade Czerny’s music, but Tan is also not always taken seriously. For Tan it quickly, maybe because at the Menuhin
of the view is that the rapid figuration seemed ‘completely natural and a source School another of my teachers was Marcel
we associate with Liszt might not have of joy’ to play them, while the subsequent Ciampi, who insisted his students play
been possible without Czerny’s famous discovery of early pianos manufacturers everything without pedal.’
exercises. Meanwhile, plans to record more such as Broadwood and Stein elicited fresh The move back to the pianoforte
late Beethoven sonatas, to complete the set insights into the classical repertory that had a positive effect on his classical
begun by EMI, are in the offing. was to become his speciality for the next repertory: ‘My playing became much
With Catching Fire, a major commission 20 years. more articulated and clear, not only on
by the British composer Jonathan Dove, modern pianos but fortepianos as well,’
A
Tan showed himself to be a sensitive he says. ‘But in a way I had an advantage:
interpreter of contemporary music. He PERFORMANCE OF A one thing I always recommend to other
premiered the piece to great acclaim at Beethoven concerto with Roger pianists is that they try out music on the
Cheltenham Festival in July before taking Norrington at St John’s Smith instruments for which they were written,
it to the Netherlands, Singapore, Australia Square in 1988 prompted the then EMI whether or not they eventually perform on
and eventually back to Britain where he doyen Peter Alward to sign Tan for the them.’ A 40th birthday concert at London’s
gave its London premiere at the Spitalfields label. The plan was to record all five Wigmore Hall, in which he played both
Winter Festival in December. It was Dove, concertos, but this extended to virtually types of pianos, proved his versatility: he
moreover, who asked Tan to perform all the composer’s early and middle period wasn’t just a ‘genre pianist’ but could turn
Messiaen’s monumentally demanding sonatas. Tan is typically self-effacing his hand to a variety of repertory with the
cycle Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus at about this major landmark and important same degree of sophistication and depth.
Spitalfields Summer Festival in 2005, his legacy: ‘The early recordings were politely
A
first major venture into modern classics, received for sure, but I don’t think all
which took him two years to prepare. commentators really understood them. Of N ENTIRELY NEW AVENUE IN
One focus in the reviews of Catching Fire course now, 20 years later, the critics say Tan’s career opened up in 2005
was his stamina: ‘He looked only half his these interpretations are ground-breaking,’ when, after three decades of exile,
age and the brilliance of his performance he says with a wry smile. he negotiated his return to his homeland,
suggested his youthful energy is In 1992, Roger Norrigton and his welcomed back by Singaporean officialdom
undiminished,’ wrote blogger Roger Jones, London Classical Players embarked on a as a valuable cultural asset. Although, he
almost as if he was writing about Roger major international tour, with Tan playing says, he has to judge his public appearances
Federer. Over the years, Tan has been Beethoven’s very own Broadwood piano. there carefully, there’s no doubt that
popular with critics, with the notorious Audiences were fascinated, but may not the opportunity to reconnect with his
exception of his first Wigmore Hall recital. have known that the piano was so valuable roots could not have been better timed.
‘I don’t want to give the journalist’s name,’ that two Interpol officers were ordered to While musical life in the West is
says Tan, ‘especially as he is no longer sleep beside it every night. ‘The insurance contracting for lack of funds, Singapore
with us; but he was unbelievable cruel alone cost a ridiculous amount of money’ has become the latest of Asia’s artistic
and destructive.’ says Tan, ‘and this also meant that there hubs, competing with Hong Kong for a
If these days he’s much less bothered by were some cities we couldn’t travel to, kind of regional supremacy.
other’s opinions, it wasn’t always the case. among them Berlin and Paris.’ A number of new concert halls have
As a student he struggled with a degree of Giving up the modern piano altogether been built or restored, most famous
insecurity, especially in technical matters. involved ‘a process of unlearning a lot among them the Esplanade (affectionately
‘I was made to feel that I would never have of stuff’ and shocked a number of his know as the ‘Durian’ on account of its

RHINEGOLD LIVE
resemblance to a spiky-skinned local fruit) concerto as well as Dove’s new piece took continue. ‘One of the nicest things about
where Tan sold out a 2011 recital. Musicians place during the pianist’s most recent reaching 60 is a feeling of inner confidence
have been pouring into the country since Singaporean sojourn, for which Paul both personally and musically,’ he says.
the creation of the city’s Conservatory of Boucher trained the string section. ‘It’s as if suddenly one is able to pass on
Music, named the Yong Siew Toh after the Tan is determined to to be part of his knowledge that one has amassed over the
family that underwrote its creation. Today native city’s cultural regeneration, taking years, and somehow people actually listen
the well-established Singapore Symphony on a number of young Singapore-based to you!’ e
Orchestra has plenty of competition, the students as part of a personal mission
latest being re:SOUND, a new chamber to energise the musical community Melvyn Tan will perform a Rhinegold LIVE
orchestra (modelled on the Chamber there. From 2012 to 2015, Tan shared recital of works by Beethoven, Czerny and
Orchestra of Europe) which contains a his knowledge of all eras and styles of Jonathan Dove at London’s Conway Hall on
number of Yong Siew Toh graduates as piano-playing as artist-in-residence at the Tuesday 28 February 2017. Register online for
well as musicians from other parts of Asia. Conservatory and was prolific in taking free tickets and a complimentary drink:
A concert with Tan featuring a Mozart part in its various projects. The process will www.rhinegoldlive.co.uk
Touring with Beethoven’s Broadwood in 1992

RECORDING FOCUS
PERSONAL TOUCH
Dr Carol Leone challenges the orthodoxy of a one-size-fits-all
approach to the piano through her advocacy of
alternate‑sized keyboards that open up new horizons
for small‑handed pianists
A
confession: I am a professional on concert Steinways retrofitted with size-fits-all conventional keyboard.
pianist and university professor narrower keys. I want to share this Recent research has shown that our
with a small handspan. As I age, alternative with pianists, piano teachers, conventional keys are too wide for the
my handspan is actually shrinking. Since and piano students around the world majority (87 per cent) of the world’s adult
the year 2000, I have been performing dealing with problems related to a one- female population as well as a proportion
Carole Leone: ‘Adopting an alternative size‑standard offers extraordinary benefits to pianists of all ages’
IPJF17_032-033_R_PTouch0812OM.indd 32 12/12/2016 11:27:32

RECORDING FOCUS
was the problem!’ they might cry, as they

bury their head in their hands, shedding
tears. This year, there is a new graduate
performance student in my studio,
Kahoru Amano, an advanced and mature
young artist who has a hand span of only
15cm. She is now reaching octaves for the
first time in her life, using our keyboard
with the smallest octave size (14.1 cm).
Watching Kahoru and other students soar
with their new-found abilities has been a
Conventional keyboard 16.5 cm octave Narrower keyboard 14.1 cm octave
distinct privilege as a teacher.
With full access to the conventional piano
(24 per cent) of the male population. Yet security, control, and more intimacy with keyboard and two smaller-sized keyboards
the 20th century quietly passed without the instrument. for practicing, teaching, performing, and
any serious questioning of a size-standard Through my advocacy since 2000, my recording, I know that I must be one of
established toward the end of the 19th university, SMU Meadows School of the the luckiest small-handed pianists alive.
century, and most solutions have addressed Arts in Dallas, Texas, has become a centre But I envision a future in which all pianists
the problem by adapting the hands through of research and performance for narrower with smaller hand spans have equitable
stretching exercises, compensatory piano keyboards. We have demonstrated that opportunity. I impatiently await the day
techniques and even surgery rather than these keyboards can be implemented that manufacturers will offer actions with
ergonomically redesigning the instrument. successfully in a university music school an alternate keyboard size for their concert
Adopting an alternative size-standard environment. The majority of pianists and artist instruments, for university
offers extraordinary benefits to pianists of adjust very easily to the keyboards and it pianos, and for the home. I may be a pianist
all ages, ranging from injury prevention generally takes one hour or less of practice with a small hand, but I am on a big mission
to expanded repertoire choices, extended to adapt. My students and I move easily and this goal is now within reach. e
careers and significantly improved musical back and forth between two or three
and technical outcomes. keyboards, even within the same recital. Dr Carol Leone is a founding member of the
For my solo recording, Change of Keys, Our concert instrument has three actions international advocacy organisation Pianists
released last September on the MSR (with octave sizes of 14.1cm, 15.2cm and for Alternatively Sized Keyboards. Her solo
Classics label, I performed on one concert the conventional 16.5cm), which can be album Change of Keys is now available from
Steinway using three keyboard actions changed in a matter of five minutes, simply MSR Classics (MS1616). www.carolleone.com
with different key widths, allowing me by unscrewing the endblocks, sliding out
mastery of repertoire that would usually one action, and sliding in the next.
lie beyond my stretch, such as the Chopin’s In the spirit of promoting equal
Ballade No 1 and the Bartók Sonata. Built opportunity for more pianists, SMU
by Steinbuhler & Co, using the Donison- also hosts the Dallas International Piano
Steinbuhler Standard, the keyboards are Competition, which offers a choice in
approximately 7/8 and 15/16 the width of keyboard size to competitors. The 2015
the standard keyboard. The sizes of these third prize winner, the Israeli pianist Anna
alternative keyboards allow my hands Arazi, bravely and brilliantly performed on
to remain closest to an ideal playing the DS6.0® (15.2cm octave) without having
position and enables me to play tenths (my previous access to a keyboard with an
handspan on the conventional keyboard alternate size. Afterwards, her response was
reaches a ninth at best). In the images pure exhilaration: ‘Usually when I perform
above, you can readily see how the interval this concerto, I experience such discomfort
of the 6th taken with fingers 2 and 5 goes that I barely have the stamina to get to the
from being stretched and contorted to end. Today I felt as if I could have played the ONLINE RESOURCES
solid and balanced. entire concerto twice without stopping!’ Dallas International Piano
With a compact hand position, I can Over the past 16 years, I have been in Competition www.dallasipc.org
produce more power and speed than with the company of hundreds of professionals, Pianists for Alternatively Sized
my hand extended. A beautiful legato is students and amateur players who visit my Keyboards www.paskpiano.org
more possible, as is the voicing of chords. university and home studios to experience Small Piano Keyboards
www.smallpianokeyboards.org
When my hand is in an anatomically the keyboards. I love these encounters, for
Steinbuhler & Co
natural position, I use smaller, more they are often filled with joyful emotions
www.steinbuhler.com
refined movements, which promote and startling realisations. ‘It’s not me that

IPJF17_032-033_R_PTouch0812OM.indd 33 12/12/2016 11:27:35
EP TA U K
COURSE TO SUCCESS
There are literally dozens of courses for amateur and professional
pianists, but where do you go if you want to train as a piano
teacher? Jennie Parke Matheson from EPTA UK introduces their
pioneering Piano Teachers’ Course for newcomers to the
profession and experienced teachers in need of a refresher
T
HE PIANO TEACHERS’ COURSE you can be sure that from day one you will and listening, broadening your repertoire,
run by the European Piano be energised and bursting with ideas. using the voice and movement, access
Teachers Association (EPTA) is the The course comprises 13 full-on days to apps – plus of course playing and
only course of its kind in the UK. It’s a with our Tutor Team, interspersed with interpretation. If you admit to having issues
great place to train from scratch or enhance written and practical assignments. It around playing in front of people – sight
your existing skills. It’s pretty hard work – explores every element of piano teaching, reading, playing by ear and improvisation,
definitely not for the faint-hearted – but including business skills, communication among others – then these will be subjects
to investigate further.
There are six excellent tutors with a vast
array of complementary skills between
them. You’ll be placed in a tutor group of
five students, though not with a tutor you
already know or who has taught you – so
you get the experience of working closely
with someone new. Once full, the course
has 30 students representing a wide range
Music for all ages: course participants

try their hand at a range of keyboard
instruments, from harpsichords to acoustic
grands and digital pianos
IPJF17_034-035_F_EPTA0812BWM.indd 34 08/12/2016 12:34

EP TA U K
of ages, backgrounds and experience. A huge bonus of the PTC is that it offers
TESTIMONIALS It’s a place to forge new friendships and Open Days to prospective students, so you
Recent graduates share their become part of a nationwide group can visit the current course for one or two
experiences of the EPTA UK Piano
of alumni. days each spring to observe our classes.
Teachers’ Course
The course is ideal for anyone who wants This is an excellent opportunity to gauge
‘The PTC teaches you how to teach, to add more ideas and skills to an already the academic level of the course as well as
and gives you the tools you need to active and successful career, but it’s also a to meet the tutors and current students. If
be able to develop your teaching as suitable way for participants – women in the course isn’t for you but you still want to
you progress in your professional
particular – to re-introduce themselves brush up on some of the subjects we cover,
life. This excellent foundation is
to teaching, having had a family or an you can visit us just for that.
well structured, well managed, and
alternative career. At the end of the course, if you’ve
excellent value for money.’
All applicants need to have Grade 8 attended enough days (10 minimum,
‘My confidence was very low when piano and Grade 5 theory. If you don’t meet though preferably all of them) and passed
I started this course and I was this requirement you will struggle with the written assignments, you will become a
nervous about how I would fit in.
the level of musical knowledge expected. Cert PTC – a Level 4 qualification under the
However, it is structured in such
That doesn’t stop anyone with a degree UK’s National Qualifications Framework.
a way that students are nurtured
or masters joining the course, but it’s not Another benefit of taking the course
continuously and learn through
their own practical experiences – an a competition: the focus is on individual is that if you intend to take further
approach I have found invaluable. development. Each person has their start qualifications, the ABRSM now accepts
I have learned so much and am point and their finish point – you grow the main PTC Essay Assignment as a full
now far more confident both as from where you begin. substitute for the written elements of their
a teacher and as a performer. I The course dates tally with the academic Teaching Dip.
have also made new friends, and year, so the first weekend is in October The final jewel in the PTC crown is the
we continue to provide a support and the last day is in June. The dates also ABRSM Certificate for Music Educators
network for each other.’ coincide with school holidays and half – a new qualification piloted last year
‘I’ve rediscovered the joy of learning terms, so it’s unlikely to get in the way of for anyone teaching children and young
a piece so thoroughly that it feels other work commitments. The venue for people up to the age of 25. It’s a UK
like it is coming from within me, the course is the Purcell School of Music government Ofqual qualification (also
and I’m getting closer to enjoying in Watford, just north of London and at Level 4), which is more research and
performance as an opportunity to easily accessible by road or rail. The School evidence-based than the Cert PTC. This
share something that I love – rather provides a wide range of excellent music too is hard work, but will put you at an
than dreading it! I now think of facilities: enough high quality pianos for advantage if you want to work in schools
myself as my own piano teacher, 26 people to play at the same time, plus or music organisations – or simply explore
with the ability to find my own large and small recital spaces and plenty your own teaching even more intensely. e
solutions and seek advice from the
of practice rooms. Even some of the
right people when needed.’
bedrooms have pianos. Applications are now open for the 2017-18
Piano Teachers’ Course, priced at £2,550
per person including accommodation and
meals. For further details please contact course
administrator Jennie Parke Matheson on
+44 (0)7831 164430 or email
info@pianoteacherscourse.co.uk.
www.pianoteacherscourse.org
Facebook facebook.com/ThePianoTeachersCourse
Discussion Group facebook.com/groups/
ThePianoTeachersCourse
Events Group facebook.com/groups/
Promotions.for.Piano.Teachers
LinkedIn uk.linkedin.com/in/
thepianoteacherscourse
Twitter twitter.com/@PTCEPTAUK
Instagram instagram.com/ptc_epta_uk
YouTube youtube.com/channel/
UCdj2j1GODJiVcE7S5ghcjiA
Vimeo vimeo.com/thepianoteacherscourse

IPJF17_034-035_F_EPTA0812BWM.indd 35 08/12/2016 12:34
Inspiring all piano teachers, performers and enthusiasts
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• The Piano Teachers’ Course EPTA UK Artur Pizarro, Matti Raekallio, Jason Rebello,
for new and experienced teachers Sandro Russo, Nelita True, Ashley Wass
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Enquiries to The Administrator

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4 Guildford Rd, Dukinfield,
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An international training program for young musicians

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July 6 – August 4, 2017
in Boston, USA, in collaboration with
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
For more information or to apply, visit
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IPJF17.indd 36 12/12/2016 15:51:14

SUMMER COURSES
PLACES
IN THE SUN
Whether you’re an accomplished soloist, a lapsed amateur or a
rank beginner, there’s a world of piano summer courses offering
the tuition you need. IP surveys some of this year’s most enticing
options
UK performer-teachers. This year’s recitalists space where evening recitals and concerts
Chetham’s International Summer and faculty members include Leon will take place. This year also sees the re-
School and Festival for Pianists McCawley, Leslie Howard, John Lenehan, launch of the Manchester International
Open to all ages from Grade 1 to concert Noriko Ogawa, Artur Pizarro, Jonathan Concerto Competition for Young Pianists
standard, this week-long residential course Plowright, Ashley Wass and composer-in- aged 22 and below (see page 9 for details).
at one of Britain’s pre-eminent specialist residence John McLeod. Courses include a young pianists’
music schools, based in Manchester, Facilities at Chetham’s International programme, harpsichord, jazz, composition,
is firmly established as one of the Summer School include seven recital adult amateur, duet, organ, sight-reading
most inspirational and friendly events halls, 100 practice rooms, on-site and improvisation courses. The schedule
of its kind. Participants enrol from all accommodation and meals. New this year of lectures and evening recitals promises
over the world to be taught by a is the outstanding new Stoller Concert to be entertaining and thought-provoking,
faculty of more than 60 eminent Hall – a world-class, 420-seat performance providing a contrast to the one-to-one tuition
which will take place during the morning
Manchester’s new Stoller Concert Hall will play host to more than 25 concerts at this year’s and afternoon sessions each day.
Chetham’s International Summer School and Festival Dates: 17 to 23 & 23 to 29 August 2017
Fees: A wide range of options is available,
starting from £62 for a daily observer
up to £715 for adult participants in
single bedrooms with private bathrooms.
Scholarships are available for talented young
pianists in financial hardship.
www.pianosummerschool.com
EUROPE
Jersey International Festival for
Amateur Pianists
The Jersey International Festival for
Amateur Pianists (JIFFAP) is a unique event
that showcases the talents of serious amateur
pianists, exploring the potential to raise the
level of their playing through high-calibre
individual coaching and masterclasses.
The annual festival began in 1999 as ⌂
the Normandy Piano Week, established

IPJF17_037-041_F_SSchools0812OM.indd 37 08/12/2016 17:20
Seattle International
Piano Competition
Piano Academy Singled out in 2010 by the
Karen Taylor and David Cartledge, Wall Street Journal as
Directors one of the world’s most
inclusive competitions,
June 24 – July 15, 2017 the SIPC continues to
Grades 7 through 12 provide one of the most
equitable opportunities for
Edward Auer, Hans Boepple, Arnaldo Cohen,
artistic recognition in the
world.
Read Gainsford, Norman Krieger, Roberto
Plano, Menahem Pressler, and Karen Shaw
Competition Deadline:
May 15, 2017
Prize Money: up to $3,000 Competition Divisions:

Office of Pre-College Final Round Program: up to 20 min * youth (age 9 or under)
and Summer Programs Repertoire: free to choose * youth (ages 10-13)
* youth (ages 14-18)
musicsp@indiana.edu * amateur
812-855-6025 * collegiate
* professional
music.indiana.edu/precollege/summer/piano seattlepianocompetition.org
XI Darmstadt
International
Chopin Piano
Competition
6. - 16.10.2017
CHOPIN Competition in 3 rounds

Application period: 1.4.2017 - 1.6.2017
Final round: Concerto with orchestra
and one work for piano and cello
Age limit: Born on or after 1.1.1987
Total prize money: € 30,000
CHOPIN-GESELLSCHAFT
in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland e.V.
Kasinostr. 3
D-64293 Darmstadt
www.chopin-gesellschaft.de
IPJF17.indd 38 12/12/2016 15:51:14

SUMMER COURSES
Montemuse, in the heart of the Apennine

PLAY THE PIANO WITHOUT TENSION mountains near Macerata.
Pianist and composer Christine historic stone house near Saulges
MHI also offers one-on-one masterclass
Jeandroz runs a specialised course for in the Pays-de-la-Loire region
advanced students and professional of northwest France – an idyllic courses that include a minimum of
pianists, teaching them how to play environment 90 minutes by train from four hours personal coaching every day,
effortlessly and avoid fatigue or Paris. Two quarter-size Schimmel unlimited practise time, and pampered
muscular tension – even when playing grand pianos are available for private attention from dawn to dusk – a stress-free
fast or fortissimo. practice, and each participant is given
way to learn a great deal in a short time.
The course curriculum combines the opportunity to perform a concerto
group lessons in relaxation and of their choice accompanied by Participants keen to explore the region
piano positioning plus individual Jeandroz. can combine their masterclasses with a
tuition in technique, repertoire and Optional extras include a final range of other activities from cooking to
interpretation. Each participant concert in the presence of a selected paragliding.
receives more than 20 hours of tuition, audience, and a personalised
Course director Gil Jetley is a dedicated
including classes on how to manage photo book created by the fashion
stage fright with stage director photographer Pauline Cheyrouze. pianist and teacher who won the 2012
Julien Ostini, and understanding the Dates: 1 to 29 July 2017 International Chopin Competition for
functioning of the body in relation to Fees: €1,000 – special discount for IP Amateurs in Warsaw. Jetley will be joined
the piano with osteopath Matthieu readers (normally €1,248) in 2017 by guest tutor Martin Roscoe, a
Armelin.
professor of piano at London’s Guildhall
All classes take place in Jeandroz’s www.cours-stages-piano.com
School of Music.
Dates: April to October
Rustic delights: Christine Jeandroz (right) with students at her course in northwest France
Fees: £1,250 for group masterclasses / £2,500
for one-on-one masterclasses
www.musicholidayitaly.com
NORTH AMERICA
International Keyboard Institute and
Festival
The International Keyboard Institute
and Festival (IKIF) is a two-week
course featuring lectures, concerts and
⌂
masterclasses aimed at intermediate to
© PAULINE CHEYROUZE
IKIF founding director Jerome Rose
⌂ to celebrate the profound and influential Dates: 28 May to 4 June 2017

teaching philosophy of the great Swiss Fees: Contact Michael Stembridge Montavont
pianist Alfred Cortot (1877-1962). In 2013, for details at normandypianocourses@
the event moved to Jersey, the largest of the hotmail.com
Channel Islands, establishing itself as the
Jersey International Festival for Amateur www.normandypianocourses.com
Pianists, following the same pattern as its
Normandy predecessor. Music Holiday Italy
Highlights of JIFFAP 2017 include a Music Holiday Italy (MHI) is for pianists
masterclass and student classes by Éric who love music, sunshine and Italy.
Heidsieck, as well as individual and group Amateur pianists, teachers and students
© JOHN LANDOLFI
tuition from the pianist and conductor are given the opportunity to learn from
Frédéric Aguessy. As in previous years, the colleagues in a relaxed, inspiring setting.
Festival’s closing concert will be recorded The informal one-week group masterclass
live by BBC Radio Jersey on 3 June 2017. courses run from April to October at

SUMMER COURSES
⌂ advanced players. All events take place at Morningside Music Bridge Cliburn Piano Institute), was founded
Hunter College in New York City, with Morningside Music Bridge is a in 1981 during the Sixth Van Cliburn
daytime and evening concerts at the Kaye performance-oriented training programme International Piano Competition.
Playhouse and Lang Recital Hall. for young musicians of exceptional talent. Over the years, this event has evolved
The IKIF faculty for 2017 brings together Emphasising solo and chamber music nto an international music festival,
a raft of distinguished performers and performance opportunities, the course renowned for its solo, concerto and
pedagogues, including Vladimir Feltsman, focuses on young students at a critical time chamber music concerts.
Nikita Mndoyants and IKIF’s founding in the development of their performance The International Academy plays an
director, Jerome Rose. skills. Students study on a tuition important role in imparting musical
Participants may compete for the IKIF scholarship basis, making outstanding insights and understanding of the
scholarship awards worth $10,000. talent the only criteria for participation. professional music world to talented
Dates: 16 to 22 & 23 to 30 July 2017 Morningside Music Bridge is now young pianists, while presenting special
Fees: $590 per week / $950 for the complete course inviting piano, violin, viola and cello programmes for dedicated teachers and
students ages 12 to 18 to audition for passionate amateurs.
www.ikif.org their summer 2017 course in Boston, The annual PianoTexas transforms
Massachusetts, presented in collaboration into a different programme whenever the
Jacobs School of Music Piano with the New England Conservatory Van Cliburn Competition takes place.
Academy of Music and in partnership Calgary In 2017, many of the eminent Cliburn
The Jacobs School of Music Piano Philharmonic Orchestra. Competition jurors will give masterclasses
Academy brings serious young pianists Dates: 8 July to 4 August 2017 (Application and presentations. These include Arnaldo
together with outstanding teachers and deadline: 22 February 2017) Cohen, Christopher Elton, Marc-André
renowned guest artists in an intensive and Fees: Students are admitted on a full Hamelin, Joseph Kalichstein, Anne-
varied programme. scholarship basis Marie McDermott, Leonard Slatkin
In addition to two individual lessons per and Alexander Toradze. Participants
week with core faculty members, daily group www.mmb.international will further enhance their educational
classes feature a variety of programmes: experiences with eminent teachers and
interactive sessions (student performances PianoTexas International Academy performers such as Fabio Bidini, Yoheved
with discussion by classmates and teachers); and Festival Kaplinsky, Vadym Kholodenko, Harold
guest lectures; faculty lecture-recitals and PianoTexas International Academy & Martina, John Owings, Igor Resnianski,
presentations on effective practising, aspects Festival (formerly known as the TCU/ Robert Roux and Tamás Ungár.
of style and interpretation, technique,
memorisation, performance preparation and
Tamás Ungár puts amateur pianist Jose Mauro Peixoto through his paces at PianoTexas
repertoire. There is also weekly coaching in
piano duet or chamber works, together with
opportunities to perform ensemble music
in recital.
Other highlights include theory classes
and daily supervised practice periods,
with experienced teachers and practice
coaches on hand to help students work
productively and progress rapidly. An
optional three-week series of eight classes
is available for students wishing to learn
the Feldenkrais Method, which focuses on
how to relax and function more effectively.
Students admitted to the Academy should
bring at least three pieces for study: one
thoroughly perfected, one in the refining
stage, and one that is new or ‘rough’. Selected
students will be invited to take part in master
classes with members of the faculty.
Dates: 24 June to 15 July 2017
Fees: Contact Dr Karen Taylor for details at
© DAVID FRICK
karmtayl@indiana.edu
www.music.indiana.edu/precollege/summer/piano

SUMMER COURSES
Young Artists Program All application materials must be between teachers and amateurs creates a
Participants (17 May to 10 June 2017) | submitted by 20 February 2017. Active friendly, lively dynamic. Performers will
Active Observers (20 May to 10 June) Observers receive two private lessons and if play in one masterclass, receive two private
Challenging and stimulating, the recommended by the teachers will perform lessons, and perform in recitals. Amateurs
PianoTexas Young Artists Program has in one of the recitals. General Observers Performers will be selected from submitted
achieved distinction as one of the world’s may attend all scheduled events. online video or audio recordings.
leading summer piano courses. Combined All application material must be
with the opportunity to attend the Teachers and Amateurs Program postmarked 7 March 2017. Active
complete 15th Van Cliburn International Session I (31 May to 17 June) | Session II Observers will receive two private
Piano Competition, the Young Artists (6 to 17 June) | Session III (11 to 17 June) lessons and may perform in a recital
Program offers aspiring young pianists In 2017, PianoTexas International Academy upon recommendation by the private
intensive training and performing & Festival will again combine the Teachers lesson faculty teacher. General Observers
opportunities at a professional level. This and Amateurs into one programme can attend all scheduled events during
is a demanding programme, providing which has proved itself to be invaluable their Program.
an invaluable experience of learning to active pianists striving to sharpen their Dates: 17 May to 17 June 2017
and interacting with leading music performing skills, as well as to teachers Fees: Tuition fees range from $200 to $700,
professionals, including jury members, wishing gain more knowledge and insight including transportation between the TCU
orchestral players and artist managers. into their craft. For amateur pianists, campus and Bass Performance Hall where the
Performers receive two masterclasses and this is the perfect opportunity to study Cliburn Competition takes place. Performers
two private lessons, playing in recitals with professional musicians and witness selected to join the Young Artist Program
and in the concerto competition for the outstanding talent in the Van Cliburn will receive a tuition scholarship worth $850
Concerto Master Class with Maestro Competition. Regardless of level, the plus complimentary tickets to the Cliburn
Leonard Slatkin. Performers are selected Program aims to be fun and entertaining, Competition. e
through online video submissions, and 24 while at the same time offering intensive
will be offered partial tuition scholarships. and demanding study. The camaraderie www.pianotexas.org
JERSEY
The 5th Manchester International Piano
Concerto Competition for Young Pianists INTERNATIONAL
23–29 August 2017 FESTIVAL for
Stoller Hall, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester AMATEUR PIANISTS
Founder: Murray Mclachlan
28th May – 4th June 2017
EnTRY CATEgoRY Masterclass / Student Class by
• 22-and-under
EMInEnT jURY of InTERnATIonAl
eric heidsieck
ConCERT PIAnISTS
Individual and Group Tuition
under the chair of Murray Mclachlan
Mc
PRIZES Extensive practice facilities - one piano per person
Participants perform for over £3,000
prize money, performance opportunities, Introduction to the piano method of
bursaries for study, scholarships Alfred Cortot
fInAlS to be accompanied by Manchester
Many opportunities to perform
Camerata with conductor Stephen Threlfall
on 27 & 28 August
Closing Public Concert to be recorded by
In association with
BBC Radio Jersey
Option of staying with host families
Deadline for entries: 4 june 2017

email: info@pianoconcertocompetition.com www.normandypianocourses.com
www.pianoconcertocompetition.com normandypianocourses@hotmail.com

HELPING H A NDS
Murray McLachlan offers some practical

suggestions to help put the freshness back into
your practice and avoid becoming jaded
Freshening up
A
SSIMILATING NOTES AND work on just three pieces, the results of of a restricted musical diet. Yet if they were
coming to terms with the which will be presented at a grade exam or a to concentrate on more than three pieces
challenges of new repertoire local competitive festival. at any given time, the chances are that they
C.P.E
C.P.E Bach
Bach Solfeggietto
Solfeggietto bars
inevitably takes time for most pianists. For bars 1-2
1-2
Such a narrow focus can commonly lead would flounder too: inexperienced players
intermediate level players, this commonly to a lack of drive and sparkle from students will not progress if they spread their wings
means a couple of terms of hard grinding who simply lose interest through the limits too widely and end up with a large but
Examples: Bars 1-2 of C P E Bach’s Solfeggietto

Presto
Presto non troppo
Presto non
non troppo
b œœ œ œœ œœ œœ œœnnœœnœ œ
(a) Four semiquavers in one slur for each beat
troppo
rr
& bb bb cc œœ œœ œ œœ nn œœr œ œœ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ nœ œ œ œœ œ
{ œœ œ
? œ œ n
nœ
œ
? bbbbb c œœ œ œœ œ
RR œ
œ
b
bbbbb rr œœ œœ œ. œœ. œ œœ nnœœnœ œ œ

(b) In each beat the first two notes slurred, the third and fourth semiquavers staccato
& r œœ œœ œ œ œ .. .. œ œ œœ. œ
& œ œœ œœ.. œ.. nn œœr œ.. œ.. œœ œ œœ. œ..
. œ..
{ . œ. .
? . ..
œ œ nœ. œ.
? bbbbb œœ
RR
œ
.
œœ œ œ œ
b
bbbbbb œœ œœ œ œœ. œ œœ nnœœ nœ œ

(c) In each beat the first three notes slurred, the fourth note staccato
& r œœ œ œ œ rr œ
& œ œœ œœ œ.. nn œœr œ œ.. œœ œ œœ œ.. . nœ.. œ œ œœ œ.
{ .. œ.
. œ
?
? bbbbb œœ œ œœ œ. œ nnœœ œ
b RR œ
(d) In each bear the first note staccato, the second, third and fourth note slurred
& bbbbbb r œœ. œ œ œ rr œ œœ. œœ œ œœ œ. œœnnœœnœ œ

. nœ œ. œ œœ œœ
& œœ. œœ œœ œœ nn œœr œœ. œ œœ œ
. nœ œ . œ œ
{ . œ .
?
? bbbb œœ. œ œœ œ œœnœ œ
b RR œ
IPJF17_042-043_R_HHands0812OM.indd 42 12/12/2016 15:23

HELPING H A NDS
completely approximate repertoire. the music in your head. If you need to

Is it possible to work at length with move your fingers on your knees as you Slow and quiet
an intense, purposeful approach without look at each note, that is fine. Virtual reality
becoming completely disillusioned performances in the auditorium of your practising focuses
in the process? Happily, my answer is, inner ear are extremely inspiring because
unequivocally, ‘Yes’. Here are some ways in it is possible to make these mental musical the brain
which you can retain freshness, creativity, efforts perfect. If you have an inner ideal for
interest and focus with only a couple of your repertoire, you have a sense of purpose
pieces in your daily practice regime for and direction. This will do wonders for your different dynamics, tempos and articulation
months on end. practice time at the keyboard. markings. Make up words for the melody
First, avoid playing straight through your When you do return to practising out line. Sing the tune while playing the
pieces at practice time. There is nothing loud, make the conservation of energy a top accompaniment. Try dancing round the
more likely to lead to boredom that the priority. By that, I mean avoid working at room in time to the piece. Or if that is
relentless repetition of music day after day. optimum speed and dynamic levels for the too embarrassing, try conducting instead.
Start from the premise that you are trying most part. Slow and quiet practising focuses Make up little studies or improvisatory
to avoid the piece sounding recognisable to the brain and makes it possible to play for flourishes based on your favourite parts of
anyone who may happen to overhear your longer stretches at a time. It also makes it your repertoire. Try transposing selected
practising, and you won’t go far wrong. possible for you to be more aware and phrases into nearby keys. ‘Camp up’ your
Take small sections at a time, and resist precise, simply because you are working well performance with flamboyant physical
the temptation to ‘play through for fun’. By within your physical limits and so have the gestures for a bit of amusement. In the
starving yourself of your pieces, you will time to notice much more than when you example above from C P E Bach’s Solfeggietto
develop a healthy craving to play them. are stressed and mechanically challenged. it can be technically empowering as well as
Try at least one mental performance of Finally, remember that piano playing artistically stimulating to practise it with
your pieces every day. Sit away from the is creative and stimulates lateral thinking. at least four different articulations – I’ve
piano with your music in hand and ‘play’ ‘Play’ with your music, experimenting with suggested some ideas to get you started. e
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IPJF17.indd 44 12/12/2016 15:51:15
M A ST ERCL A SS
I
N OUR ERA OF AUTHORITATIVE There are pedalling issues in many
OFF
Urtext editions, we have made a virtue composers apart from Beethoven. For
of being loyal to composers’ intentions. example, dealing with instructions on
However, this sort of ‘authenticity’ can authoritative editions of Chopin can be
SCRIPT
come at a price: there is a danger that complicated since they frequently lead to
performers and teachers can become too harmonic clashes, or else to accentuations
fixated on the printed music, as opposed to and breaks in the line that appear rather
how it sounds in the auditorium. insensitive. We should remember that
Don’t misunderstand me – fidelity Chopin frequently changed his mind over
to the text is a vital consideration and details in his music, and prioritise what we
a worthy discipline for any performer. consider works in the best interests of the
However, it can also be misconceived. music’s phrasing and tonal hierarchy.
Pianists should be more than mere aural Moving away from pedalling, it is very
photographers. We forget at our peril easy to become overly fussy with quiet
that markings on the score count for dynamics in concertos. Performing with an
very little if the audience, as opposed to orchestra requires projection and strength
the performer, fails to pick up on them: if the audience is to be able to hear what
there is no guarantee that our efforts to you are doing. So, beware of becoming too
capture details will be heard by listeners, conscientious when dealing with dynamic
as we naively assume they will. We must indications in the likes of Poulenc’s
get away from the mindset that the score sparking Piano Concerto, or the first two
is always a ‘roadmap’ for interpretation, a movements of Prokofiev’s Third Concerto.
set of instructions that will take us towards In practice these works, and numerous
artistic Parnassus. More often than not, others, require the pianist to play fortissimo
the text outlines the composer’s own so that the audience can hear what they are
desired artistic effects. Yet in order for playing, even when the score states a much
performers to achieve these, it’s often softer dynamic: Poulenc and Prokofiev
necessary to do the complete opposite of write the quieter dynamic levels as a means
what is written. Let’s explore this idea with of indicating what they wish their music to
In our quest to some concrete examples. sound like. With these dynamic markings
Beethoven’s pedalling can seem too they are not giving pianists instructions on
be faithful to emphatic or eccentric if attempted on how to play their concertos!
the composer’s a modern instrument. The opening
movement of the Moonlight Sonata, for
We should extend this principle of
avoiding rigid adherence to quiet dynamics
intentions, we are instance, instructs the performer to hold in concerto playing to articulation in
down the sustaining pedal for its entire solo repertoire. This is especially true
apt to take written duration! Clearly this is inadvisable on with ‘physical’ or ‘overlapping’ legato
a 21st-century concert grand, though fingerwork, a laudable discipline which
scores too literally. the instruction itself can be distilled and many teachers rightly insist on in lessons
Think beyond the assimilated interpretively, so that through
subtle blurring and discreet overlapping
whereby you finger-pedal via overlapping
articulation between notes. Sadly, this
exact indications of harmonies, the listener is given the approach can be totally misguided in many
impression of a sonority that evokes an contexts as fluency, ease and sparkle in
in the original otherworldly dreamscape of fantastic pianism largely come from freedom, firm
beauty and spacious wonder. There are fingerwork and the ability to release rather
text, says Murray similar if not quite so extreme examples than hold onto notes. A blindly militant
McLachlan, and in other works, notably in the concertos
where the performer is frequently
approach to legato can lead to angst and
insecurity. This can be seen most clearly in
you’re more likely instructed to hold the pedal down through Mitsuko Uchida’s wonderful performance
extended passages of 10 or more bars in of Debussy’s second Etude (‘For Thirds’),
to discover the real which the harmonies change. Should we where she adopts a leggiero touch in many
worry about the sonic hash that results? places, as well as lots of the technically
musical impulse Personally, I think we should, and opt for a challenging passages in Chopin’s Preludes,
behind the notes pragmatic compromise. Not all colleagues
agree, opting instead to depress the pedal
Ballades and Scherzos. In bars 5-8 of the
Prelude in D major Op 28/5, for instance,
⌂
only to the smallest degree. use of the pedal and a light leggiero touch

IPJF17_045-047_R_Mclass0812OMv2.indd 45 12/12/2016 15:12
M A ST ERCL A SS
Chopin prelude no.5 bars 5-8
Example 1: Chopin Prelude in D major Op 28/5, bars 5-8
Allegro molto
# 3 œ nœ
& #8œ œœ œ œ œ nœ #œœ œ œ œ #œ œ #œ
œ œ œ nœ
nœ œ #œ œ
œ #œ œ
{ ? ## 38 œ œ
œ œ œ
œ œ
Cramer œ
œ
œ
etude œ
œ œ œ œ
no.2 bars
œ œ
13-16
œ œ nœ
œ œ œ
œ
Example 2: Cramer-Bülow Etude No 2 in E minor, bars 13-16
#c ˙ œjœ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ
Allegro
& ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
‰
{ œ
3 3 3 3
œ œ œ œ
3 3 3 3
? # c œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ œ œ
3
œ œ œ j
3
œJ & œ œ œ
3
3 œJ 3
3
3
3
˙ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ w œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
# œ œ œ œ œ
& ‰ ‰ ‰
{
3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3
# ‰ ‰
œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ w œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ
3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3
?
& John
˙ McLeod˙Piano Sonata No.5 bars 260-265
Example 3: John McLeod Sonata No 5, bars 260-265
U
˙
3 bbœ˙ ™ œ 4 nw 3 œ bœ œœ bœ œœ œ 4
& 4 b˙ ™ 4 &4 4
nœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
{ U
˙˙ ™™
? 43 ˙ ™
# œ̇ œ
4 nœ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 3
4 #w
˙
&4
bb œœ
bbœœ bbœœ 4
4
4 ##˙™™ nœœ 3 œ̇ œ nœ
∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏
?
&4 4 ˙ ™™ bbœ̇ ™ œ
∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏∏
{ 4
& 4 n˙˙˙ ™™™ bbbœœœ
b ˙˙ ™™
? 3 ˙™
4
˙™
n˙˙ ™™

M A ST ERCL A SS
⌂ will make for a much more exhilarating, of the repertoire needs oxygen, musical and expressive intensity largely depend
idiomatically energised impression than punctuation and flexibility to come alive. on minute dynamic inflexions that exist
the use of overlapping fingerwork (which This is good news for students who may in every phrase when an authoritative
tends to make the music sound too heavy struggle to keep going with a singular pianist plays but which are too small, too
and laboured – see Example 1). pulse, falsely believing that they would be variable and too subtle for the composer
In terms of tempo and pulse, we risk doing the music a disservice by allowing to be able to notate. In terms of voicing,
becoming ‘beat bound’ – corseted to time to pinpoint selected notes, harmonies it’s vital that melodic strands are projected
a dogged metronome marking simply or cadences. Provided that there is no with confidence and presence over
because the composer has suggested a unnatural interruption of the music’s flow, accompaniment or subsidiary notes. This
specific tempo at the beginning of a piece. there is everything to be gained from is true in numerous styles and contexts
Though there are many pieces which taking time to enjoy your music-making. (especially so in song transcriptions by
seek to recreate the motoric pounding Even Etudes need this approach. Bars 13- Liszt and others); I’ll close, however, with
of machinery (think Bartók’s Allegro 16 of the Cramer-Bülow Etude No 2 in E a contemporary example. Bars 260-265 of
barbaro and its like) the vast majority minor needs tenutos on many of the held the Piano Sonata No 5 (2013) from the
minims to make musical sense. If they are Scottish composer John McLeod contains
dispatched without delay, they become a ravishing melodic line in the top part
uncomfortable to play as well as musically which would be obscured and lost if
questionable (see Example 2). projected with the ‘pp’ dynamic indicated
Melodic shaping and tonal balancing earlier in the score. In order to achieve a
Pianists should be can also become too limited if the text
is followed literally. It’s all too easy to
singing line here it is essential to realise
the notes at forte, keeping the lower voices
more than mere aural assume that an exclusive reproduction of perhaps as quiet as triple pianissimo. This
dynamics from the text is enough. Nothing will result in an overall impression of
photographers could be further from the truth: phrasing pianissimo (see Example 3). e
What if you could always practice

in a structured and efficient way?
Piano Street’s Instructive Editions are designed to support in the beginning stages of the learning process. Try a sample now at:
www.pianostreet.com/instructive

The curious
may scan here
and discover more
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Alfred Publishing is distributed to the Music Trade throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland by FM Distribution Ltd
The Book of Piano Magic

Intermediate Piano Solos
by Peter Rudzik
PETERRUDZIK.COM
IPJF17.indd 48 12/12/2016 15:54:09

international
SHEET MUSIC
Three pieces from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
by James Newton Howard
(Alfred Music)
About the music
T
he film Fantastic Beasts To counteract this opening ‘Jacob’s Bakery’ introduces the
and Where to Find Them tonic minor and a host of blue notes in a no-nonsense, ‘living the
takes us to a new era in dream’ swing rhythm. A stride pattern left hand with syncopated
JK Rowling’s wizarding world, melody lends this exuberant Rag a sense of the successful life,
decades before Harry Potter full of joy and hard-earned reward.
and half a world away. The closing bars return to the earlier mood, but now in C
This folio presents piano minor: the swing rhythm lapses into a stately lilt that recalls the
solo/vocal arrangements of music of Copland, with recurring E-flat chords just before the
selections from the film’s bar lines adding a subtle rhythmic impulse. The unusual closing
sweeping score, penned imperfect cadence offers a reflection on what is lost and perhaps
by A-list composer James hope for what is to come.
Newton Howard. For the
pianist these pieces are a great way to End Titles Part 2
connect with new concertgoers and to add some contemporary ‘End Titles Part 2’ expresses the playful yet haunting qualities of
colour to your recitals in the tradition of the ‘lollipop’ encores magic realism. A jaunty rhythm is spiced up by the use of F-sharp
from earlier times. minor with melodic emphasis on the minor sixth – a technique
There are many ways of putting together a recital programme reminiscent of the original Harry Potter themes (and, incidentally,
from this selection, but here are three pieces that make a the Allegro of Mozart’s Symphony No 40 in G minor K550).
satisfying concert experience – their variety of textures and A pizzicato bassline underlines a steady rhythm to begin, but
moods provide a strong narrative as well as having a sense of quickly dissolves into short three-note phrases that cut across the
beginning and end. bar lines. The ensuing three-part invention drives this rhythmic
dislocation to its climax on a dark F-sharp minor chord,
Newt Says Goodbye To Tina/Jacob’s Bakery introducing a choral version of the main theme which gradually
Friendship is at the emotional heart of the film, giving James softens and subsides to a close.
Newton Howard the chance to flex his lyrical muscles. ‘Newt
Says Goodbye To Tina’ in C major exploits the yearning tones of Andrew Higgins
the augmented fourth (B) on the F chord. The halting 5/4 – 4/4
phrasing of the opening suggests an unwillingness to separate Selections from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is now
on the part of the protagonists, followed by an outpouring of available from Alfred Music Publishing (ISBN 1470638126).
moving and unabashed lyricism. www.alfred-music.co.uk
IPJF17_049_R_SMusicIntro(1)0812OM.indd 49 08/12/2016 11:41

IPJF17_050-054_R_SheetMusic(1).indd 50 08/12/2016 10:35
international
SHEET MUSIC
‘An Ogre and a Mermaid’ and ‘A Troll’s Rag’
from The Book of Piano Magic by Peter Rudzik
About the music

C
anadian composer with this is the shimmering, carefully voiced lyricism for the
Peter Rudzik moved mermaid.
to Calgary, Canada, ‘A Troll’s Rag’ surprisingly bears the influence of Debussy,
from his native Poland in where Rudzik emulates Debussy’s tongue-in-cheek way of
1990. Once settled, he quickly playing with his materials and expectations. Here, the traditional
established one of the city’s harmonic boundaries and rhythmic predictability of ragtime are
high-profile piano studios. His teased with slippery, not- quite-definable harmonies, and cloying
compositional urge surfaced rhythmic dalliances. Rudzik explains: ‘I wrote it as a really fun
about 10 years later when, piece for kids’.
with an American lyricist Peter is enthusiastic about how other pianists play his pieces.
Allan Provost, he co-wrote the He is happy to include a link to all YouTube performances of his
musical comedy You Can’t Live pieces on his website, so do keep him informed!
in L.A. Without A Car. The past
two years have seen a narrowing of Rudzik’s endeavours with For more details and to purchase Peter Rudzik’s scores visit
a focus on solo piano works aimed at intermediate to advanced www.peterrudzik.com
students. He has already published five imaginative collections
of such pieces and recently became a member of the eclectic and Peter Rudzik
vibrant group of composers who collectively publish as ‘Red Leaf
Pianoworks’.
The Book of Piano Magic is Rudzik’s fifth and most recent
publication. With titles in it such as ‘Dancing Witch’, ‘Carefree
Wizard’ and ‘Two Wands, Three Spells’, it clearly fulfils his
desire to write a set of pieces that tap into the current adolescent
fascination with the mystical, the magical and the fantastically
improbable. ‘An Ogre and a Mermaid’ and ‘A Troll’s Rag’ are
both from this collection.
‘An Ogre and a Mermaid’ contrasts the gruff, clumsy gait of
a troll with the alluring, ephemeral beckonings of a mermaid.
Here, the performer needs to develop a strong, slightly comical
rhythmic bite to portray the troll effectively; contrasting
IPJF17_055_R_SMusicIntro(2)0712OM.indd 55 08/12/2016 10:37

IN R ET ROSPECT
Keynote speeches
Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a consummate musician and an
influential orator, using his international concert tours as a platform
for passionate speeches calling for the independence of his Polish
homeland and the alleviation of the suffering of his countrymen in
the interwar years. Benjamin Ivry examines the close relationship
between music and speech in Paderewski’s artistic and political life
And with the pedal I love to meddle about composers or, in the case of who fall in love, and his feet tap alternately
When Paderewski comes this way Vladimir de Pachmann (1848-1933), to as he recites his lines, as if pedalling the
I’m so delighted if I’m invited remind audiences how splendidly he was words to add emphasis or nuance. This
To hear that long haired genius play. playing. Paderewski, however, spoke of physical response was likely involuntarily;
a free and independent Poland and the the film contains no other such subtlety.
– Irving Berlin, I Love A Piano (1915) welfare of his homeland’s citizens. Polish Pedalling memorised verbiage might be
Americans looked to him, especially expected from a musician noted for his
A
during and after the First World War, as artful use of the pedal.
P
BRILLIANTLY ENGINEERED a charismatic leader whose oratory about
release of the Victor recordings by Polish independence would bring results. ADEREWSKI’S IDENTIFICATION
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) This despite the fact that historians have of pianism with public speech
tells us much about how this celebrated disagreed with Paderewski’s memoirs extended to the choice of music he
Polish pianist and statesman linked music about his own personal influence on recorded in America. America was also,
to speech as a wellspring of his artistry. American President Woodrow Wilson’s for him, a miracle of high technology
This is not just because the set includes two decision to make an independent Poland a and efficiency. Early biographers recount
speeches recorded in 1941 during the dark condition for German surrender at the end how Paderewski cross-crossed the nation
days of the Second World War. Possibly of the Great War. Advocating tirelessly for on a private railway carriage, where he
Paderewski’s final recording – he died a few Polish orphans and widows, Paderewski slept, avoiding the cost and inconvenience
months later – was a spoken-word appeal excelled in the piano recital/verbal of hotels. With a practice piano made
for the welfare of children in wartime. In exhortation, a new genre. In recognition available to him in transit, the railroad
this address, marking the 50th anniversary of his campaign, he was for a short time abode worked ideally until he suffered
of his American debut, Paderewski pointed named first prime minister and minister neck and spinal injuries in a train accident
out that acclaim should go first and of foreign affairs of independent Poland. in 1905. In April 1905, The New York
foremost to war combatants. He expressed Although he only fulfilled these political Times spread the alarm that due to a train
gratitude for the homage he received ‘in duties from January to December 1919, derailment, ‘it is even rumoured that his
the name of the countless Polish children Paderewski would continue to identify muscular power may never be restored’.
whom your contributions will save from music with rhetoric. In the British film During his first tour of America in 1891,
starvation’. One can see why, to those Moonlight Sonata (1937), Paderewski played Paderewski had already suffered a muscular
familiar with his life, Paderewski was more an extended role as himself, residing injury. After playing 107 performances in
than a pianist: he was a figure of virtue. with a Swedish countess after a forced fewer than 120 days, while performing
His biographer Adam Zamoyski described airplane landing. His stilted, emphatic, Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata in
him as ‘ultimately just a good and noble heavily accented readings of lines echo Rochester, New York, he tore and strained
man… on a truly epic scale’. Bela Lugosi in films directed by Ed Wood. tendons and damaged a finger. Despite
Throughout his career, Paderewski Yet the elderly Paderewski is nonetheless dire medical diagnoses, he continued the
gave hundreds of speeches at concerts in a charismatic screen presence, somewhat tour and eventually responded to physical
America and around the world. Other reminiscent of Mark Twain. Shortly after therapy. Due to these physical issues, some
turn-of-the-century pianists spoke in the half-hour mark of Moonlight Sonata, critics, including Harold Schonberg, have
public to give lecture-demonstrations Paderewski sits discussing a young couple speculated that Paderewski may have
IPJF17_062-065_R_InRetro0812OM.indd 62 08/12/2016 10:38

IN R ET ROSPECT

Paderewski delivers a broadcast on American radio in 1941
peaked as a pianist technically before the to make nationalistic statements. Included of the Pièces de clavecin from which the
turn of the century. on the new APR reissue are two works selections on the APR reissue are drawn.
With these incidents in mind, it is by François Couperin, La Bandoline and They were recorded by Paderewski a few
small wonder that while still capable of Le Carillon de Cythère. Written for the months before the outbreak of the First
stretches of delicate, virtuoso playing and harpsichord, these are played with sobriety World War, the carnage of which would
overall lovely tone, Paderewski strove to and seductive tone, although completely later be commemorated by Maurice Ravel
add extramusical meaning to his public out of style. Paderewski presented a in his Tombeau de Couperin, individual
appearances. As a performer of Chopin certain view of France through the 17th- movements of which are dedicated to war
or of his own compositions, he was century composer esteemed by Johannes casualties. Concerned with stylistic details
naturally cheered for incarnating a free Brahms, who included Couperin’s less than national essence, Paderewski was,
and independent Poland. Playing music compositions in his own piano recitals in part, presenting a personal celebration ⌂
from other nations, he could also appear and contributed to a German edition of Gallic culture.

IN R ET ROSPECT
⌂ Comparably, Paderewski’s rendition in as its composer would have recognised Paderewski also paid tribute to the pianist-
1928 of Anton Rubinstein’s Valse-Caprice it, the pianists Ignaz Friedman and Josef composer Sergei Rachmaninov, recording
in E-flat major Op 118 evokes a burly Hofmann are more faithful guides in their the Prelude in C-sharp minor and the
Russian dancing bear. The notes contained recordings. Yet Paderewski’s incarnation Prelude in G-sharp minor in 1930. The
in the composition were of secondary of Rubinstein, his predecessor as a Polish pianist delivers the former work
import, and Paderewski omitted a world-renowned pianist and composer, with vehement smashes and crashes,
number of them. To hear the Valse-Caprice was indubitably heartfelt. Similarly, making Rachmaninov’s own sonorous
Peddle power: Paderewski in 1930
Paderewski was more

than a pianist: he was
a figure of virtue

IN R ET ROSPECT
electrical recording seem almost sedate by wish you could have heard Paderewski’s whether this performance really benefits
comparison. Paderewski’s hectic, almost speeches for his country. He touched his reputation. The film The Moonlight
frantic rendition of the Prelude in G-sharp chords more sublime than when he Sonata (1937) prudently included only his
minor was a further gesture towards an moved thousands as he commanded playing of the first movement, marked
essential statement about Russian art harmony from the piano.’ Adagio sostenuto. This might have been
and identity. If people who heard his speeches because, as E F Benson’s comic novel
G
compared them to his piano recitals, this Queen Lucia states of its eponymous
ENERATIONS OF WRITERS may not have been mere facile praise. By heroine: ‘She could never bring herself
have been punctilious about Paderewski’s era, a longstanding tradition to believe that [later movements of the
divorcing the politician existed of issuing records of political Moonlight Sonata] were on the same
Paderewski from the pianist. Some argue speeches. In 1888, Gladstone was recorded astounding level as the first, and, besides,
that a unified identity might be a more speaking on an Edison cylinder. From the they “went” very much faster.’ In 1939,
accurate reflection of the man, who turn of the century through the First World Paderewski’s car-crash rendition of the
retained his courtesy title of President for War, recordings were made by presidents final movement, marked Presto agitato,
the remainder of his life. In Paderewski: such as William Howard Taft and William certainly agitates the listener – but not in
His Country and Its Recent Progress McKinley, as well as activists and political a good way.
(1928), the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, candidates such as William Jennings Rather than regretting that Paderewski
an admirer and creator of the Mount Bryan, Eugene V Debs, Samuel Gompers did not preserve longer works for
Rushmore National Memorial in South and Booker T Washington. Recordings as which his technique may not have been
Dakota, described Paderewski as an orator, frozen, permanent examples of rhetorical adequate, we should celebrate him as he
pleading for the Polish cause in 1915: verve may have especially appealed to has been handed down to us, as a pianist
Paderewski, ever-aware of the fragility of of the soundbite. Sound engineers such as
‘[Paderewski] began his speech much as his digital powers. Mark Obert-Thorn, Ward Marston (Naxos
Like soundbites of today, Paderewski’s 8.112011) and Seth Winner have presented
he plays [...] As his nimble fingers move up
late brief recordings reminded listeners his recordings in alluring, enticing,
and down the keyboard, so ran his nimble of his continuing presence. This would credible ways.
mind up and down the difficult and likely explain why he carried on recording To complement APR’s complete series
troubled frontiers of the Russian and into the 1930s, after his technique had of Paderewski reissues (APR6006 and
Teutonic peoples… Paderewski’s manner of declined dramatically. By then, the overall APR5636), we may hope for further
speaking was simple. The management of message was no longer limited to how he documentation about the inner man,
voiced certain musical phrases; nor was including a long-overdue volume of
his voice astonished me. I felt that I was
it a matter of urgency whether his two his selected letters in English, were any
listening to a great product of art, a gifted hands played together, or if his rhythms publisher public-spirited enough to take
orator, telling the epic of a people. By a were regular. Instead, the recordings were on such a project. e
curious magic of his personality he had physical evidence, in musical form, that
produced a hush and the audience Paderewski was still among us. Paderewski: The American Recordings.
listened with an attention that admitted Jan Henrik Amberg, a Swedish diplomat The Complete Victor Recordings 1914-1931
who provided ardent booklet notes for is now available from Appian Publications &
no applause ... I have heard nearly all the
the APR release, declares: ‘It is then a Recordings (APR7505, 5CDs).
great speakers of our time, excepting pity that Paderewski never recorded any
Gladstone – and I have heard none who large-scale works, where the approach of www.aprrecordings.co.uk
seemed to have the power of Paderewski a pianist-composer with a charismatic way bAPR7505_bAPR7505.qxd 24/07/2016 11:48 Page 1
and the sincerity that made me think of of communicating his musical ideas could
be better served. As a result, he is today
what the great Greeks and Romans must
principally regarded as a miniaturist…
PADEREWSKI
have been. Everybody felt as I felt. The The
Although he performed very rarely with
audience rose in its unrestrained homage.’ the orchestra once he had reached the American
recordings
height of his fame, it is still lamentable not The complete Victor
In the January 1936 edition of Foreign to have any larger works recorded. There recordings 1914 –1931
Affairs magazine, Lord Howard of Penrith are practically no live recordings left to
recalled hearing Paderewski speak soon posterity either.’
after the First World War: ‘He was a In February 1939, shortly before his
consummate orator, speaking equally well last-ever American recital in April,
in French and English. In Polish he was Paderewski played on NBC Radio’s Magic
a really great orator.’ In 1916, Woodrow Key Program, including a full Beethoven
Wilson reportedly told a colleague: ‘I Moonlight Sonata. It is difficult to tell

R EV IEWS | CONCERTS
UK reminded me of Beethoven’s pupil Carl

Czerny’s description of this piece as ‘calm,
originality) and don’t expect to hear again:
the first of each pair of notes was turned
LONDON artless, tender and innocent’. It also into a harshly clipped appoggiatura,
Wigmore Hall Jeremy Denk 17 reminded me of Donald Francis Tovey’s creating a machine-gun effect. Why did he
September; Nick van Bloss 18 September; verdict (after stressing Beethoven’s do it? Because he can, I suppose. This was,
Angela Hewitt 25 September; Igor Levit 9 instruction allegro ma non troppo) that ‘in however, a travesty.
October; Llŷr Williams 11 October the first movement a brilliant rendering is The Sonata in E-flat Op 7 that followed
St John’s Smith Square Geoffrey Saba 18 simply detestable’. But this was because (a) was masterly. The first movement of this
October; Danny Driver 3 November it wasn’t what Czerny described and (b) it early work is full-on heroic, while the
Wigmore Hall is running two Beethoven came perilously close to what the second is an utterance of huge emotional
sonata cycles in tandem but at different magisterial Tovey, whose judgments are resonance. Levit brought out the drama of
speeds: while Igor Levit gets stuck into his imprinted in the minds of everyone who the key-shifts and muscular syncopations of
cycle, Llŷr Williams continues his in a more grew up playing the Associated Board the Allegro, and expanded the Largo into
leisurely arc. And since in October these edition, was gunning for in these works. something majestic, with a middle section
cycles came within two days of each other, Levit pulled the first movement about in suggesting fate ticking like a giant clock in
comparisons are mandatory. a way which subverted the artlessness a dark and malevolent universe. Levit’s
The media-friendly Igor Levit may be Czerny praised, and in his hands the second strength lies in effects created through a
one of the most promising young pianists – a miracle of terse elegance – was rendered finely calibrated control of texture; he
to come out of Russia via Germany, but his knotty and tricksy, particularly in its sweetly turned the minore section into an excited
quest for originality can lead him astray – rushing pairs of quavers. Levit did rumble, found fire and thunder at the heart
as it did with his first piece, the Sonata in something with these which I have never of the Rondo, and made the most of the
F-sharp major Op 78. His approach before heard (full marks at least for radiant key-change which is that
Igor Levit displays his for gift for finely calibrated textures
© GREGOR HOHENBERG
IPJF17_066-070_R_Concerts0812BWM.indd 66 09/12/2016 12:43

movement’s most bewitching moment two pieces brushed away the tears with the gnomic Six Variations on an Original
before its nonchalant disappearance into joyful lightness; she gave the Fantasy and Theme Op 34, and continuing with the
the distance. He had fun with the clownish Fugue a grand-diapason conclusion. But in Sonata No 3 in E-flat Op 31, followed by
finale to Op 14/2 and gave a vivid account this situation the Fazioli on which she was the Appassionata, he played with
of Les Adieux. playing counted for little: the qualities immaculate authority. The spaciousness
Levit’s nervy approach to the keyboard which make this instrument so with which he invested the variations
suggests a repelling/attracting electrical wonderfully suited to Chopin don’t do high-lit their mystery, and he brought
charge: on finishing a piece he springs much for Bach. Hewitt won’t thank me for playful brilliance to the E-flat sonata; the
back, hands in the air, as though any saying this, and it may sound counter- Scherzo was full of slap and tickle, the
further contact would burn him. Llŷr intuitive, but the character and colour of Menuetto emerged with a touch of menace,
Williams, in contrast, treats his this music can emerge more vividly on a and, if his tempi had hitherto been on the
instrument as an extension of his body, harpsichord. slow side, the concluding Presto went like
and with the three Opus 10 sonatas plus The American pianist Jeremy Denk likes the wind. My only reservation with his
the Diabelli Variations he took us onto an to strike out in new directions, and his Appassionata concerned the Andante, which
altogether more exalted plane. Composed Wigmore recital was the most original I was too pulled-about to create the necessary
when Beethoven was in his mid-twenties, have ever heard – beginning with deep calm before the Presto (which flew);
the Opus 10 sonatas bristle with wit and Guillaume de Machaut and spanning seven the Allegro assai had thunderous grandeur.
invention which Williams put into high centuries. As Paul Griffiths observed in a During this Wigmore-dominated period
relief; he rendered the arcane mysteries of programme essay, although Machaut didn’t I must also record one foray elsewhere – to
the slow movements with oracular power. write for the piano, he and his the rejuvenated St John’s Smith Square to
Compared with Levit’s, his touch seemed contemporaries may well have tried out catch yet another all-Beethoven
at first both heavy and pedantically their compositions on the organ and, as the programme, this time by Geoffrey Saba.
precise, until one got a sense of the arc his music moved chronologically forward via This veteran Australian pianist may not be
recital would follow. Ockeghem, Dufay, Josquin and Byrd, the a front-rank virtuoso, but his performance
The way he motored through the first development of harmony was presented of the last three sonatas plus the Opus 126
few Diabelli variations, passing up all with startling clarity. Certain pieces marked Bagatelles was heart-warmingly true to the
pretexts for incidental drama, suggested great leaps forward – a Scarlatti sonata spirit of the music. He gave the Opus 109
that no great surprises lay in store. It was which broke its own rules, Bach’s Chromatic grace and glow, and offered a notably clean
only when we were called to attention by Fantasia and Fugue, Beethoven’s Sonata No and unfussy account of Opus 111 – one had
the dry staccato commands of Variation 13 5, then Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, the feeling he was simply letting the music
that his intention became clear: from that Schoenberg, Stockhausen and Ligeti, before speak for itself; the variations had a gentle
point on we were in uncharted territory, so circling back to a medieval motet. The swing, with the line of thought remaining
profoundly original was his take on this whole thing was too brisk and busy for any unbroken while the colouring went
sometimes too-familiar music. The drifting work to emerge transcendent, but Denk’s through its many transformations. As a
Wagnerian tonalities in Variation 20 pianism was bracing in the extreme: if he cornucopia of ideas, Beethoven’s piano
became newly mysterious, and in 29 the repeats this thought-provoking stunt I will music is inexhaustible.
arioso had an exquisite warmth which certainly be there. MICHAEL CHURCH
continued ever more persuasively through Neurologically speaking, Peter Schaffer’s
the following two variations, with every Amadeus has a lot to answer for. It was Danny Driver’s programme for his
demisemiquaver of the ornamentation largely thanks to this jeu d’esprit on genius International Piano Series debut showcased
given full expressive value; the final that people started thinking Mozart repertoire from two territories: Germany in
transformation of the original theme suffered from Tourette’s syndrome. He the first half (Bach, Schumann); Russia in the
brought a sense of wonder. At its best, didn’t, of course, but the connection second (Balakirev, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev).
Levit’s playing elicits admiration; Llŷr between music and Tourette’s is sometimes Driver played on a Steinway and
Williams’s playing is fuelled by love: if very real – and never more so than in the projected well in the tricky acoustic of St
Levit is a painter, Williams is a poet. case of the pianist Nick van Bloss, who is John’s. Opening with Bach’s French Suite
now defying his condition in the most No 5, his strength lay in the more
The first leg of Angela Hewitt’s Bach dramatic way. Yet ‘defy’ is the wrong word: reflective side of this music: the highlight
Odyssey was neither as grandiose nor as the 38,400 tics he endures daily may once was the delicate Louré. Driver presented
predictable as its title might have led us to have pushed him out of concert life, but the bare textures with profundity, yet never
expect. Instead of core stuff, she played he’s now discovered how to harness them, got inside Bach to the extent of Murray
rarities: the Capriccio ‘on the departure of to a point where their rhythms have Perahia.
his beloved brother’, a theme and become – at least in part – the key to his Schumann’s Études symphoniques found
variations ‘alla maniera Italiana’, a Fantasy artistry. ‘Tourette’s is my fuel,’ he says. ‘It’s Driver more at home. Though it was rather
and Fugue in A minor, plus the complete the fire within, the burning energy. And the bass-led, his interpretation was clearly the
sets of Two-Part Inventions and Sinfonias. ironic – even beautiful – thing about my result of much reflection: lots of detail,
The way Hewitt delivered the latter gave condition is that once I sit down to play the beautifully articulated and best in the
the impression of one single variegated piano, there’s nothing to see.’ interior moments. Yet ultimately this was
work, with the plangent ninth forming its There certainly wasn’t when Van Bloss Schumann that meant well, rather than
dark heart – like the Black Pearl variation sat down to make his Wigmore return with being laid bare. ⌂
in the Goldbergs - after which the following an all-Beethoven programme. Starting with If there is something of watered-down

⌂ Liszt about Balakirev’s Nocturne No 2, it After the first interval, Owen and his Day two got off to a stronger start with
remains a fine piece. The Rachmaninov co-artistic director Katya Apekisheva Charles Owen’s memorable solo recital of
Études-tableaux Op 39/1-3 offered the clear delivered a beautifully nuanced Bach’s Partitas Nos 1, 2, and 4 – perfect
highlight of the evening, the C minor’s Rachmaninov Suite No 1, with Apekisheva repertoire for a Saturday morning. His
torrent of notes well judged, the A minor’s in particular shaping the melodic lines pellucid sound interlaced perfectly with his
bittersweet quality perfectly caught, the most appealingly. Both players seem at one spot-on judgement of the acoustic.
F-sharp minor finding Driver very sensitive in tracing the ecstatic rise and fall of ‘La Impressed by what they had heard,
to its harmonic flavours. nuit … l’amour’, while there was no missing audience members queued eagerly after the
Prokofiev’s Sonata No 7 inevitably carries the Easter bells in the finale (‘Pâques’). concert to get Owen’s signature on their
memories of Pollini’s DG recording. The same kind of ecstasy suffuses Ravel’s copy of his new Bach Partitas album from
Driver’s finger strength gave great clarity, La Valse: while perhaps not as mistily Avie Records.
but the finale lost momentum midway; he mysterious as one might have hoped in its Kathryn Stott’s fascinatingly
was at his finest in the tender Andante opening by O’Hora and Ashley Wass, the programmed recital ‘The French F-sharp
caloroso. One encore (the Allemande from piece nevertheless gained in excitement Connection’ held plenty to hypnotise, not
Bach’s French Suite No 2) rounded off a and was characterised by sheer cleanliness least in Ravel’s Sonatine and Messiaen’s ‘Le
mixed evening. of delivery. baiser de l’enfant-Jésus’ from Vingt Régards
COLIN CLARKE The final section of the Gala featured the – though the final of ounce of magic was
world premiere of a specially missing from the latter’s ultra-high filigree.
LONDON PIANO commissioned piece: Nico Muhly’s Fast
Patterns is a brief work in which most bars
Her sturdy performance of the mighty
Dutilleux Sonata was the highlight here.
FESTIVAL begin with a unison note. Muhly describes
Kings Place Charles Owen, Katya this as ‘a super-fast game of tennis’, a Pressed to pick the finest solo recital, I
Apekisheva, Kathryn Stott, Dénes
Várjon, Noriko Ogawa, Lucy Parham, perpetuum mobile expertly played by wouldn’t hesitate in plumping for
Julian Joseph, Alfred Brendel, Ronan Owen and Apekisheva. It acted as a bridge Apekisheva’s exquisite recital of
O’Hora, Martin Roscoe, Ashley Wass, to the 20th-century lightness of Milhaud’s Impromptus. Her Scriabin Opp 12 and 14
Stephen Kovacevich 7 to 9 October Le Boeuf sur le toit in a performance that pointed towards an outstanding interpreter
was rather over-resonant, blunting of this most elusive of composers.
The centrepoint of this magnificent Milhaud’s pungency. Nevertheless, the Brilliantly enigmatic and beautifully
weekend festival (previewed in IP Sep/Oct playing demonstrated plenty of character, shaded, this was some of the finest Scriabin
2016), was a Two Piano Gala on the culminating in what might be best I’ve heard from any source, including
Saturday night. Seven pianists graced the described as a joyous cacophony. Sofronitsky. Four Fauré Impromptus acted
stage of Kings Place in a succession of Next, Ashley Wass and Kathryn Stott as a reminder of the fascinating nature of
pieces that moved from the heady had fun with three Piazzolla tangos in these pieces, before the three Chopin
intellectualism of Busoni’s Fantasia arrangements by Kyoko Yamamoto: the Impromptus plus the Fantaisie-Impromptu
contrappuntistica (Ronan O’Hora and grief-ridden Adiós Nonino, the heat-hazed revealed a Chopin interpreter of the highest
Martin Roscoe) to Grainger’s happy-go- Milonga del Ángel and finally the driven sensitivity and intelligence.
lucky Fantasy on Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Michelangelo 70. These were pleasantly Children were in for a treat on the
(Kathryn Stott and Roscoe). entertaining, but given the length of the Sunday morning, as Noriko Ogawa
This was a rare opportunity to hear the Gala, decidedly optional. Finally, charmingly entertained young listeners of
1921 two-piano version of the Busoni, an Grainger’s roll-call of themes from Porgy all ages, encouraging dancing in the aisles
arrangement that allows for better textural and Bess. Roscoe’s sparkling articulation with her selection of well known and lesser
clarity than the solo version. The piece uses was particularly impressive, Stott his known composers (Clara Schumann made
the fourth theme from Bach’s Die Kunst der absolute equal. ‘Summertime’ was a proper it in there). There were some technical
Fuge as main theme as well as referencing oasis of stillness. issues for Lucy Parham’s ‘Rêverie: The Life
Busoni’s own third Elegy. Exchanges and Loves of Claude Debussy’, a narrated
between O’Hora and Roscoe were perfectly The Festival opened with a Friday night tale of what it says on the tin, beset by
judged, and there was a real feeling of lecture on Liszt’s Sonata in B minor by wayward lighting and feed-through of
organic growth coupled with an imposing Alfred Brendel, one of this work’s finest dismembered voices from somewhere
sense of inevitability. Textures, however interpreters of recent decades, though he offstage. Perhaps distracted by these
thick, never became overloaded. has now retired from giving concerts. external shenanigans, Parham’s playing was
Two Debussy pieces followed: first, the Instead, audiences were treated to a moving unfortunately rather weak and
rarely heard, atmospheric Lindaraja, a piece performance by the Hungarian pianist disconnected from the composer. L’Isle
that invokes the habanera in its sultry Dénes Várjon, who Brendel himself joyeuse in particular lost its magic. Actor
rhythms, evocatively executed by Charles complimented on having achieved an Henry Goodman was a fine and
Owen and Stephen Kovacevich; the same organic vision of the Sonata’s complex entertaining narrator.
pair gave the two-piano arrangement of the structure. The former Guardian editor Alan The Festival wound down with a real treat.
famous Prélude de l’après-midi d’un faun, in Rusbridger rounded off proceedings by London jazz pianist Julian Joseph began with
which the washes of sound and the deeply interviewing Brendel, though his questions the line, ‘You do realise you should all really
resonant, beautifully balanced chords were seldom penetrating and could barely be at church’ before launching into a highly
captured the richness of the original’s be heard due to a technical issue with his imaginative set. His solo recital moved from
orchestral palette. microphone. pieces by Thelonius Monk (‘Blue Monk’),

AMY T ZIELINSKI / GETTY IMAGES

Stars of the London Piano Festival: (l-r) Charles Owen, Martin Roscoe, Kathryn Stott, Stephen Kovacevich, Katya Apekisheva, Ashley Wass,
Nico Muhly and Ronan O'Hora
Duke Ellington and Cole Porter to some of

his own compositions, including a set of five
breath-taking performance and the
orchestra under conductor Rafael Payare
DENMARK
U V Consolations dedicated to the memory of responded to every nuance of his subtly COPENHAGEN
his mother (inspired by Liszt’s pieces of that phrased interpretation. Nothing was done DR Konserthuset Alexandre Tharaud 13
name); one in particular seemed to take for effect – it was like hearing a October
delight in destabilising patterns and was conversation of great emotional variety and
most involving. I wonder if Joseph enjoys depth for the first time. While we’re all marveling at the fluency
classical-oriented occasions, as one of his Douglas’ command of the first and skill of composer Hans Abrahamsen
albums was recorded live at the Wigmore movement’s fast ascending chordal passages following the success of his song cycle let
Hall. He is a pianist of the utmost was truly exhilarating. His richness and me tell you (winner of a Gramophone
imagination and great character, both aspects roundness of tone, even when playing Award, an RPS Award and the 2016
emerging beautifully in his playing. His own pianissimo, made the lonely reflections of Grawemeyer Award), we shouldn’t forget
compositions and his interpretations of the second movement glisten like droplets that the composer experienced a 10-year
others’ are characterised by a searching of icy water. And he achieved heroism in creative block before the turn of the
musical intelligence: a magnificent way to the thundering octave scales that herald the century in which he mostly filled his
close a wonderful festival. work’s final tutti theme. time making arrangements of music
CC Just like the best Russian pianists, by others.
Douglas has angels and demons in his That block ended, spectacularly, with
BELFAST fingertips; yet he also has the mercurial
nimbleness of a sprite that knows all the
Abrahamsen’s Piano Concerto (1999-2000)
dedicated to his new piano-playing
Ulster Orchestra 50th Birthday Concert,
hiding places and can appear from nowhere partner. It is a work of irascible
Ulster Hall Barry Douglas 30 September
to set a different course. His perfectly changeability despite its frequent stillness,
The Ulster Orchestra celebrated its 50th judged encore was a beautiful and intimate and one in which the piano sounds almost
birthday with a crowd-pleasing programme reading of the wistful ‘Autumn Song’ from constantly, often indulging in short
crowned by Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons. monologues in the form ⌂ of cadenzas that
No 1. Soloist Barry Douglas gave a STEPHEN TURVEY appear to stop time.

⌂ The second movement Adagio signs off, The textures, though, are no less delicate, the mechanism with his own hands (he also
tellingly, with a left-hand only farewell: despite the angular caper of the opening instructs the woodwork to be knocked with
Abrahamsen was born with a condition and the occasional cascade of bleached the hand), Tharaud held the score with his
that limits the use of his right hand. He sounds (echoes of let me tell you). The right hand.
played the horn as a student but speaks second movement (of six) ‘Slowly walking’ Despite the capering gait of those
frequently of his love for playing the piano is a tiptoed dance between piano and spare quicker passages, the concerto’s heart
as well as he could, with an emphasis on percussion; the fourth, ‘Slowly’, is a coiled emerges in its stillness. Like Abrahamsen’s
left-hand repertoire. dialogue between piano and horn title, it seems to speak of the loneliness not
The composer says his 2015 concerto for anchored on a perfect fifth; the sixth ‘In a only of the pianist’s (and composer’s)
the left hand Left, Alone is ‘not written for tempo from another time’ sees the pianist single hand – despite that hand’s traversal
a pianist with only one hand, but rather by surround his own single, repeated note of both low and high notes – but also of a
a composer who can only play with the with cloud-like chords, before the winds deeper musical and personal isolation that
left hand.’ It was written, in fact, for drift down in support. has its own beauty as well as its own pain.
Alexandre Tharaud, who gave the world Tharaud had the measure of all these, The soloist is, in fact, left out of the
premiere in January in Cologne and came and his faster passagework revealed how concerto’s orchestral ending. But as the
to Copenhagen for this, the second much his technique has benefitted from the orchestra suddenly and perhaps even
performance and Danish premiere. The likes of Scarlatti. The soloist looked vacuously disappears at the last, the effect
piano is more subsumed into the orchestra determined, reptilian even, but read from a is only a reinforcement of the pianist’s will
than in the Piano Concerto, the score; when Abrahamsen instructs the and wisdom.
relationship firmer and less fragmented. pianist to activate the hammers from inside ANDREW MELLOR
Hans Abrahamsen’s new left-hand concerto finds beauty in loneliness
© LARS SKAANING

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XXX CITY OF CULTURE
its magic, with more than £1bn of indus-

trial investment coming in since it was
announced in 2013, and there is a £100m
be sung in a new English translation by the
baritone Roderick Williams, accompanied
by Christopher Glynn. On 23 February the
CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG JANUARY 2017 £5.50
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cultural infrastructure programme under New London Ensemble will give a wind
CLASSICAL MUSIC
way. The great musical legacy will be Hull’s quintet’s take on Mozart there, and the fol-
new £36m 3,500-seat music and events lowing afternoon the actor Simon Callow
centre, Hull Venue, but that won’t be joins the band with musical stories from
finished until 2018 so the multiplicity of Prokoviev’s Peter and the Wolf to Martin
music on offer will take place in the city’s Butler’s Dirty Beasts for a family show.
existing venues. The ensemble deNOTE reveals some se-
However, Hull University’s Middleton crets of 18th-century chamber music, using
FORMATS
Hall has just reopened ready for 2017 after a period instruments, on 2 March, and on 31
£9.5m refit which includes a 400-seat concert March Mica Levi brings to the Middleton
hall where, on 9 February, Chinese guitar the London Sinfonietta, which she will
virtuoso Xuefei Yang will give a recital, and conduct in Under the Skin, her Bafta-nomi-
where a week later Schubert’s Winterreise will nated score for the sci-fi film. ►
Ancient and modern: City Hall (left) is principal venue while the city awaits completion of Hull Venue
© BBC/BRIAN TARR
BENJAMIN
XXX
Time To roar
Later in the 17th century the poet Andrew
GROSVENOR
Marvell was Hull’s MP; so was William
Wilberforce a century later, launching his
anti-slavery campaign from here.
With whaling coming to the port in
the 18th century it continued to flourish,
A small city with a large past, Hull is pushing the boat out as City of Culture 2017. and fishing generally became Hull’s main
Simon Tait reports source of prosperity through the 19th

century, with railways making distribution
relatively easy. With prosperity went civic
pride, marked by the creation of buildings
Wunderkind to superstar
‘E
veryone back to ours’ is the home- the bridge itself caught by Hull-based sound like the majestic Guildhall.
ly, welcoming slogan for Hull’s artist Jez Riley French, all experienced by After the first world war housing estates
year as City of Culture in 2017, the audience through earphones during a were built and there was more urban
but the city’s front parlour is so crowded walk across the 2,200-metre bridge. development, but overfishing in the 1920s
JANUARY 2017
that its director, Martin Green, has only an- It is an ethereal, futuristic offer from a and 1930s set off an industrial decline. In
nounced the first quarter’s programme. little city, population 258,000, with a large the second world war Hull was devastated
© BBC/BRIAN TARR
At the end of this opening period, past. Kingston-upon-Hull was invented by by bombing raids, and post-war reconstruc- XXX
though, will be what promises to be the Edward I as a supply base for his campaigns tion was slow and laborious, while fishing
most extraordinary event of them all, oc- of Scot hammering, at the spot where the declined more. The old docks were closed,
cupying the ethereal and beautiful Humber rivers Humber and Hull meet the North a new dock to handle container traffic
© KARL ANDRE PHOTOGRAPHY
Bridge, the longest single span suspension Sea, and through the middle ages it became opened in the sixties, and Scandinavian
bridge in the world when it opened in 1981. the main port to import cloth, iron ore, oil super-ferries operate from there. But un- Goldscheider alongside fellow BBC Young Musician category winners Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jackie Campbell, Andrew Woolcock and Jess Gillam
In April the orchestra and chorus of Opera seed and timber from northern Europe. It, employment is now among the highest in
North will turn it into the biggest concert and its merchants, grew rich. When Charles
Silver lining
the country, and the floods of 2007 made
stage ever with a musical installation pre- I tried to take control of the city’s arsenal in thousands homeless. Hull needs this year’s
senting a new piece by Norwegian trum- 1642 he was turned away at the gates, laid boost, and it has recruited battalions of
peter Arve Henriksen and collaborators Jan siege and after five weeks was defeated, thus music to give it a fair wind.
Welcoming the world: Martin Green Bang and Eivind Aarset, with the sounds of providing the first action of the civil war. The City of Culture has already worked
46 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG JANUARY 2017 JANUARY 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 47
CM0117_046-49_F_Hull OK.indd 46 12/12/2016 12:22:55

CM0117_046-49_F_Hull OK.indd 47 12/12/2016 12:23:09 A chronic lung condition was the unlikely starting point for this year’s brass winner of
BBC Young Musician. Femke Colborne meets Ben Goldscheider
Goldscheider alongside fellow BBC Young Musician category winners Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jackie Campbell, Andrew Woolcock and Jess Gillam
HEALTH FOCUS
Hearing, injury and B
en Goldscheider might never have
picked up a French horn had he not
come down with a chronic lung concon-
on a four-year period of study at a highly
selective new music academy set up in Berlin
by Daniel Barenboim – and has even been
the age of 13, he decided it was time to make
a decision about the direction he wanted his
life to go in.
Silver lining
A chronic lung condition was the unlikely starting point for this year’s brass winner of
dition. At the age of nine, he was diagnosed described as ‘a musical Bear Grylls’ by the ‘I gave up the cello and the tennis because
dementia with bronchiectasis, an abnormal widening
of the passageways into the lungs leading
Huffington Post. He has also just recorded
his first CD with Willowhayne Records,
I needed to focus,’ he says. ‘It was just a case
of time. It’s not possible to do four or five
BBC Young Musician. Femke Colborne meets Ben Goldscheider
WELCOME B
en Goldscheider might never have on a four-year period of study at a highly the age of 13, he decided it was time to make
to a persistent cough and increased risk of featuring works by composers including things and do them all to the best that you picked up a French horn had he not selective new music academy set up in Berlin a decision about the direction he wanted his
come down with a chronic lung con- by Daniel Barenboim – and has even been life to go in.
infection. It occurred to his parents, who are Schumann, York Bowen, Kalevi Aho and can. It became more enjoyable after that. I
TO HULL THE PAY QUESTION
dition. At the age of nine, he was diagnosed described as ‘a musical Bear Grylls’ by the ‘I gave up the cello and the tennis because
both professional musicians, that playing a Esa-Pekka Salonen. loved that I could sit in my room for as long with bronchiectasis, an abnormal widening
of the passageways into the lungs leading
Huffington Post. He has also just recorded
his first CD with Willowhayne Records,
I needed to focus,’ he says. ‘It was just a case
of time. It’s not possible to do four or five
brass instrument might help to strengthen Born in Colindale, north London, Gold- as I wanted and focus on getting better at to a persistent cough and increased risk of featuring works by composers including things and do them all to the best that you
City of Culture plans Internships vs diversity

infection. It occurred to his parents, who are Schumann, York Bowen, Kalevi Aho and can. It became more enjoyable after that. I
his lungs. scheider had an early musical start in life something. I just loved music and it seemed both professional musicians, that playing a Esa-Pekka Salonen. loved that I could sit in my room for as long
It was a match made in heaven. Ten years thanks to his mother and father, a violinist natural to do what my parents were doing. brass instrument might help to strengthen
his lungs.
Born in Colindale, north London, Gold-
scheider had an early musical start in life
as I wanted and focus on getting better at
something. I just loved music and it seemed
later, Goldscheider is celebrating having and violist respectively. He started playing And I loved the sound of the instrument,
SEE PAGE 46 won the brass section of this year’s BBC the cello aged six, but music was not his only and was listening to CDs and YouTube all
It was a match made in heaven. Ten years
later, Goldscheider is celebrating having
thanks to his mother and father, a violinist
and violist respectively. He started playing
natural to do what my parents were doing.
And I loved the sound of the instrument,
CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG
won the brass section of this year’s BBC the cello aged six, but music was not his only and was listening to CDs and YouTube all
NEW HALLS
Young Musician (and reaching the grand passion – he also played tennis at a national the time. That lit my fire and that was it.’
Young Musician (and reaching the grand passion – he also played tennis at a national the time. That lit my fire and that was it.’ final alongside Jess Gillam and winner level, at one point training for 25 hours a Goldscheider studied for eight years with
final alongside Jess Gillam and winner level, at one point training for 25 hours a Goldscheider studied for eight years with Sheku Kanneh-Mason), has just embarked week, plus matches and tournaments. But at Susan Dent, initially at the Junior Royal ►
Sheku Kanneh-Mason), has just embarked week, plus matches and tournaments. But at Susan Dent, initially at the Junior Royal ► JANUARY 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 61
London, Edinburgh, JANUARY 2017 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG 61 CM0117_061-063_F_Ben Goldscheider OK.indd 61 12/12/2016 12:30:37
plus Antwerp QEHCM0117_061-063_F_Ben Goldscheider OK.indd 61 12/12/2016 12:30:37
PLUS: ALPESH CHAUHAN | BEN GOLDSCHREIDER | SISTEMA GREECE
CM0117_001_Cover.indd 2 12/12/2016 15:45:55
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CMSUBS.indd 32 12/12/2016 15:50:08

CD PR EVIEW
Roads less travelled

Ralph Vaughan Williams is hardly renowned for his piano music, but
intrepid musical explorer Mark Bebbington has unearthed a discful of
little-known works, from original piano solos to striking arrangements of
familiar orchestral pieces. Jeremy Nicholas reports
‘V
AUGHAN WILLIAMS? PIANO
music? Really?’ This might be
the entirely justifiable reaction
from most music lovers for, apart from the
relatively well-known Piano Concerto (in its
original or two-piano version), what else is
there? Well, as pianist Mark Bebbington has
discovered, there’s a whole discful of works
to enjoy, many of them recorded for the first
time on a new release from the enterprising
Somm label.
Among the titles on the Complete Piano
Music of Vaughan Williams are two of the
composer’s most popular works: Fantasia
on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (arranged for
two pianos) and Fantasia on Greensleeves
(arranged for piano duet). Bebbington is
joined in these by the brilliant young half-
© RAMA KNIGHT
Romanian, half-Nigerian rising star Rebeca
Omordia. The version of Greensleeves is a
world premiere recording, as is another
item, the 1947 Introduction and Fugue.
‘It’s the key work to this release,’
Bebbington tells me, ‘a significant work
which happens to have been written for
one of my teachers, Phyllis Sellick.’ She and
her husband Cyril Smith, Britain’s leading
piano duo of the time, tried it out in the
late 1940s but, says Bebbington, ‘it didn’t sit
well with The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba Sir Adrian Boult’s recordings of Vaughan because the [orchestral] premiere was in
and Scaramouche. It had too much gravitas Williams’ music are some of the greatest Gloucester Cathedral, but a tradition has
for their audiences in the 1940s and ’50s.’ we have, so it is an exquisite irony that this grown up that makes it much slower. VW’s
The duo dropped it. ‘The mood of the piece recording of the composer’s piano music marking was 13 minutes. Some conductors
is uncompromising. Some of the loudest was the last to be made in Birmingham’s come in at 18, 19 or even 20 minutes. This
passages are marked ffff ! It’s based on the Adrian Boult Hall. The building was is not VW’s idiom, yet we’ve become
Dies irae theme. Everything is organic in demolished shortly after the sessions were accustomed to it. There’s an elegiac quality
such a way that when I first got the music completed in March 2015. in the original which translates quite
I couldn’t believe that he had written a Bebbington’s enthusiasm for the VW nicely to two pianos.’
double fugue for two pianos that lasts the project is infectious. ‘The arrangement Has any pianist done more to promote
best part of 14 minutes. As we got into it, of the Thomas Tallis Fantasia is absolutely British keyboard music of the last
we came to appreciate it and realise that as fascinating because it has such clear century than Bebbington? His impressive
a piece of music it sits alongside the Fourth metronome marks from Vaughan discography suggests not: the complete
Symphony and the later Sixth Symphony.’ Williams. I don’t know whether it is solo works of John Ireland, Arthur Bliss
IPJF17_072-073_R_CDPrevRVW0712OM.indd 72 12/12/2016 15:27

CD PR EVIEW
and Frank Bridge, discs of Ivor Gurney learn them in a few days. Wow! No way. from the peripheral to the mainstream: by
and Howard Ferguson, Malcolm Arnold Some of them are absolutely mesmerising.’ your Schubert, Chopin and Rachmaninov
and Constant Lambert, William Alwyn, The genial Bebbington, now in his shall ye be judged. Nevertheless, one hopes
Reginald King, Elgar (his Symphony No 1, mid-forties, began his association with there will be no lack of discoveries from
transcribed by Karg-Elert), sonatas by Dale the Somm label by releasing a disc of him in the future, for straying off the
and Hurlstone, concertinos by Bax and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, repertoire suggested beaten track is something that Bebbington
Frederic Austin, concertos by Rawsthorne, by his teacher Aldo Ciccolini. It garnered does supremely well. Whatever comes
Ireland, Jacob, Carwithen, Williamson and very positive reviews. That led to a disc of next, piano lovers everywhere are already
Mathias, not to mention a disc of chamber Ivor Gurney’s piano music and the utterly much in his debt. e
music by Ian Venables. unplanned path his recording career
As to the other works on the new has since taken. It was the late Italian
disc, in The Lake in the Mountains, also maestro who planted the seed of pianistic
written for Sellick, you can hear that inquisitiveness that has resonated with
VW’s lessons with Ravel had borne fruit. such fruitful consequences. Bebbington
‘The astonishing thing about that piece,’ is also keen to acknowledge that what
Bebbington tells me, ‘is that it starts in he has achieved could never have been
D-flat major and ends in D minor.’ This accomplished without Somm: ‘We are
is a charming work; but the discovery for very supportive of one another. There is a
many people, I suspect, will be the Suite mutual trust. I doubt whether I’d ever find
of Six Short Pieces, better known in its another label where there was the same
later version for strings as the Charterhouse degree of underpinning.’ Mark Bebbington’s Complete Piano Music
Suite. ‘I have tackled some difficult stuff for Last year Bebbington spread his wings. of Vaughan Williams with Rebeca Omordia
Somm, such as the Benjamin Dale Sonata, A widely-praised disc of Gershwin brought will be released by Somm Recordings on 27
but the Six Short Pieces are astonishingly him the international attention that had so January 2017 (SOMMCD 0164).
hard to play well. I thought I’d be able to far eluded him. It might mean a move away www.somm-recordings.com
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IPJF17_072-073_R_CDPrevRVW0712OM.indd 73 12/12/2016 15:28
DAZZLING, VIRTUOSO CLASSICAL
& THUNDERING, FOOT STOMPING BOOGIE WOOGIE
WWW.TOMBELLPIANO.CO.UK
“Tom Bell: The Face of “Balm to the Soul”

Classical Blues”
Fanfare Magazine
(USA)
Blues in Greece
“Face to Face is an “Tom Bell is beyond

album that needs to be exceptional”
heard to be believed.”
Des Coleman
Kathy Parsons: www.mainlypiano.com TV Presenter, Actor & Singer
IPJF17.indd 74 12/12/2016 15:54:33

REVIEWS | CDs
J S Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 J S Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Angela Hewitt (pf) Zhu Xiao Mei (pf) Marie Rosa Günter (pf)
Hyperion CDA68146, 82 mins ACCENTUS ACC30372, 76 mins Genuin GEN16435, 77 mins
lllll lllll lll
Hewitt’s decision to re-record the Goldberg Returning to the Goldberg Variations after a The German pianist Marie Rosa Günter,
Variations, given the hugh success of her gap of some 20 years, Zhu Xiao Mei born in 1991, has studied with Wolfgang
1999 recording, is both brave and presents a reading of the utmost purity, Zill and Bernd Goetzke, both of whom
remarkable. Yet it offers listeners an exemplified immediately by her way with were pupils of the distinguished pedagogue
opportunity to trace the deepening of the Theme, which exudes a lovely sense Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. As such, she has
Hewitt’s Bach playing: in May 2015, Hewitt both of flow and peace. been well trained, as anyone must be who
gave a performance of Die Kunst der Fuge There can be no greater praise for this ventures into the crowded field of
at London’s Wigmore Hall that revelled in reading that it loses out not one jot to recordings of the Goldberg Variations. A
that piece’s more progressive textures; and Hewitt’s recent Hyperion reading. Mei has decade ago, she was placed first at the
there is an element of that sense of ‘Bach the most glorious staccato (try Variation I) National Bach Competition for Young
the explorer’ in her new recording of the and her Steinway is caught perfectly in Pianists in Köthen, Germany. Yet at times
Goldbergs. this superb recording. Neither has she lost this CD sounds a trifle dogged, vehement,
Another aspect to note is the move from the sense of rhythmic energy and drive and adamant, especially in quicker
the Steinway of 1999 to her beloved that characterised her earlier recording. variations.
Fazioli, which she finds a most ‘creative’ The re-recording came about as a result Günter somehow sidesteps most of the
make of piano that doesn’t lose its ‘ring’ at of prolonged exposure to the score and a inherent charm in this work, making it into
lower dynamic levels (comments taken need to re-communicate her ideas. Mei a duty instead. Had Günter followed more
from Hewitt’s Wigmore masterclass in sees the long Variation XXV as the apex of closely the general educational example of
April last year). The earlier version is the work, and feels that this later her instructor Goetzke, who worked with
indeed magnificent; it is only when one recording captures this moment better. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and delved
encounters this most recent reading that Including all repeats, she presents a varied widely into 20th-century repertoire, the
one realises things could indeed be taken terrain wherein each texture is present CD might express a bit more
further. There is no loss of that magnificently prepared and delivered: imagination, fantasy and variety.
characteristic excellence of textural clarity, witness the superb continuous movement Competent to the point of being humdrum
but there is a deepening, evident right of Variation VI; the robust Variation VIII; like an efficient nurse dispatching hospital
from the statement of the Theme, which is or the way that she highlights the duties, Günter’s approach to Bach is
more inward-looking and given more progressive, almost modern, writing in laudably pared-down.
space. This sense of depth maps onto a Variation XII. The delicacy of the close of A CD released in 2014 from Bremen
heightened sense of tranquillity: take Variation XV, imbued with the Affekt of Radio Hall Records (brhCD1403) of
Variation VII, which exudes calm and lachrymose descending-scale fragments, is Günter’s chamber duo with French cellist
control; Variation X now comes with extra one of several remarkable moments on Stanislas Kim offers works by Bach,
profundity and underlying peace; this journey; meanwhile Variation XXV Beethoven and Franck, occasions for
Variation XI with extra limpidity. At other seems to contain all of humanity’s pain. heavy-fingered Romanticism from Kim and
times, Hewitt finds a new objectivity that Variation XXIX brings a positively self-effacing, at times mannered reactions
allows the music to speak for itself organ-like sonority, so that the contrast from Günter. Playing solo Bach eliminates
(Variation XI). She also allows herself with the whispered reappearance of the these flaws found in partnership, bringing
more agogics, while the final return of the theme a few variations later could hardly out the best in Günter’s pianism. It will
Theme, crystalline and ultra-quiet, offers a be greater. surely be worth hearing how her
moment of utmost stillness. There is a DVD, also from Accentus, of interpretations evolve in the future.
The new venue (Berlin’s Christuskirche) Mei performing the Goldberg Variations in Currently occupying a ‘middle ground’ in
is a little more open than London’s Henry Leipzig’s Thomaskirche (where Bach was the recorded legacy of Goldbergs, Günter
Wood Hall. A salutary reminder that Kapellmeister). Additionally, her story is has yet to approach the accomplishments of
recordings which one thought couldn’t be told in her touching book, The Secret Murray Perahia, András Schiff or Peter
bettered, actually can – remarkable. Piano. This most recent Goldberg set, Serkin. Nor need the ghost of Glenn Gould
COLIN CLARKE though, is a stunning achievement. CC be worried – at least not yet. BENJAMIN IVRY

IPJF17_075_R_CDRevs0812OM.indd 75 08/12/2016 16:42
REVIEWS | CDs
Brahms: Works for Solo Piano Volume 6 Brahms Piano Concertos: No 1 in D minor Op Brahms Lieder & Liebeslieder Waltzes Opp 52 & 65
Rakoczy March Anh III/10; Intermezzos Opp 15; No 2 in B-flat major Op 83 James Levine, Yefim Bronfman (pfs); Andrea
76/7, 118/6; Canon in F minor Anh III/2; 2 Gigues Maurizio Pollini (pf); Staatskapelle Dresden/ Rost (sop), Magdalena Kožená (mez), Matthew
WoO4 posth; Capriccios Opp 76/5, 76/8; Gavotte Christian Thielemann Polenzani (ten), Thomas Quasthoff (bar)
by Chr W Gluck Anh Ia/2; Studies Anh Ia/1 Nos Deutsche Grammophon DG 4793985, 2 CDs, 92 mins Deutsche Grammophon DG 002498202, CD, 81 mins
1-3, 5; Hungarian Dances WoO1 Nos 2, 4, 6-10 ll lll
Barry Douglas (pf)
Chandos CHAN 10903, 77 mins
llll
The final release in Barry Douglas’ Brahms Brahms’ two piano concertos are Brahms’ Lieder & Liebeslieder Waltzes for
survey is another mash-up of pieces from monumental tests of stamina for any soloist. piano four-hands and vocal quartet have
different sets and periods. The works span Piano lovers expect them to sound ursine, but attracted many gifted pianists to their
the full gamut of the composer’s career not to recall the title of a droll orchestral freewheeling, emblematic vignettes of
from 1852 to 1893. work by the Czech composer Julius Fučík, romantic joys and woes. Benjamin Britten
Five studies – a set of pieces assembled translated as ‘The Bear with the Sore and Claudio Arrau (IMG Artists/
piecemeal and published together in 1877 Head’ (Der alte Brummbär). Recorded in 2011 BBCB8001-2); Clifford Curzon and Hans
– include re-workings of Weber, Chopin and 2013, before and after Maurizio Pollini’s Gál (Decca 0289 425 9952 9); Rudolf Serkin
and Bach; the transcription for left hand of 70th birthday, these concertos find the and Leon Fleisher (Sony 545997); and Dinu
Bach’s great Chaconne is here set apart virtuoso in relatively good form (though Lipatti and Nadia Boulanger (Cascavelle
from the rest to conclude the programme. most would agree that Pollini’s first recording 3081) have left us memorable recordings
Douglas’ performance is the highlight of from 1980 of the D minor concerto with the with characterfully expressed passion,
the disc, indeed one of the high points of Vienna Philharmonic led by Karl Böhm is sentiment and wit.
the survey: Bach’s ‘whole world of the more representative of the Italian’s artistry). The Verbier Festival in 2003 featured
deepest thoughts and most powerful On these two more recent occasions, the conductor and pianist James Levine and
feelings’, as Brahms described it, conducting is by the German maestro virtuoso Yefim Bronfman dispatching these
transcribed with ‘overwhelming Christian Thielemann, who favours works with four opera singers. A piano
excitement and awe’ and executed with muddy-textured, ominous sounds, as if the student of Serkin and Rosina Lhévinne
consummate virtuosity. Brahmsian bear were afflicted by migraines. before his noted conducting career, Levine
This is a beautifully balanced recital Overindulgent, stretched-out orchestral has often served as a vocal accompanist for
alternating arrangements and original tempos, teetering on the edge of flatulence, opera singers. For this reason, perhaps, the
works in lively, illuminating relationships, further reduce vivacity. Pollini manages to most impressive part of the programme is
starting with the famous anonymous singlehandedly maintain the momentum the quasi-operatic Liebeslieder Waltzes,
Rakoczy March from the early 1850s, and forward-leaning impulse of these works, depending more on drama than charm.
succeeded by the beautiful late but such heavy lifting seems an Possibly aiming for a relaxed quality in
Intermezzo, the spare, brief Canon (1864), unreasonable burden for a soloist in his age other songs, Levine and Bronfman sound
two Gigues (possibly left over from group. This becomes particularly apparent in offhand at times. In these straightforward,
discarded pastiche suites) and three pieces the B-flat major concerto, where at times he unsentimental renditions, the only emotional
from Op 76 not present in earlier volumes. seems to brood fretfully over the keyboard. excess heard is from the overheated audience,
The variety of moods and textures are Op 83 is a pitiless test of endurance, with whose screams of bravo were immortalised
well realised by Douglas, whether the heavyweight demands on the by the sound engineers. The Op 52 collection
neo-Bachian severity of the Canon and musculoskeletal frame. Neither concerto, it is so brisk that it leaves scant room for charm,
Gigues, Gluck’s Gavotte or the warm must be said, is a friend to old pianists. the raison d’être of these songs. Some
Romanticism of the Capriccios and Thielemann’s wandering and divagating light-hearted ensemble numbers are taken at
Intermezzos. drain the energy even more. such a clip that they evoke hectic virtuosity
The seven Hungarian Dances (omitted Fortunately, the artistry of Pollini in his rather than lovability. In solo songs, Levine is
from Volume 5) lighten things up, framed prime is well preserved on CDs and DVDs, supportive but muted, neutral, and remote, as
by the four Studies. Chandos’s sound is, and future listeners need not rely on these if somehow preoccupied. This cool approach
once again, bright and clear, providing the lesser efforts to understand why he has been to Lieder pianism went out of style with the
ideal ambience for Douglas. so justly applauded by generations of English ‘Am I Too Loud?’ school of the 1940s
GUY RICKARDS audiences. BI and 50s. BI
IPJF17_076_R_CDRevs0812OMv2.indd 76 08/12/2016 16:42

REVIEWS | CDs
Liszt Transcendental Etudes S139 Transcendental: Daniil Trifonov plays Liszt Funérailles; Piano Sonata in B minor Fauré
Kirill Gerstein (pf) Franz Liszt 12 Etudes d'exécution transcendante Nocturnes Nos 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 Peter Uppard (pf)
Myrios Classics 8019, 64 mins S139; 2 Etudes de Concert S145; 3 Etudes de Green Label GLMSP02, 74 mins
lll Concert S144; Grandes Études de Paganini S141 llll
Daniil Trifonov (pf)
Deutsche Grammophon DG 94795529, 2 CDs, 117 mins
lllll
Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes are a magnum With this two-CD album, Daniil Trifonov Here is a unique coupling of polar opposites:
opus and a lexicon of technique, including gives us Liszt’s complete Etudes (apart from Liszt’s rhetorical grandeur is followed by
lyricism as well as outsized virtuosity. ‘Ab Irato’ – a rarely played but suitably Fauré’s subtle understatement. Yet Fauré’s
Previous recordings, notably by Lazar ferocious pendant to the Transcendental Nocturnes Nos 11-13 – a summation of his
Berman and György Cziffra, have Etudes). At 25 years old, Trifonov is every art – mirror a dark night of the soul, a ‘rage
emphasised an explosive, cutting-edge inch a master pianist. Blessed with a rare against the dying of the light’, remote from
brilliance that (in Cziffra’s case) comes with technical prowess, he complements his often popular misconceptions of him as a
lurid distortion. So it’s fascinating to find phenomenal expertise with an interpretative conservative salon figure. Few works in the
Kirill Gerstein playing down the histrionics flair that brings every bar of the entire repertoire create a more painful and
in favour of a vein of poetry never far from Transcendental Etudes to scintillating life. He disquieting desolation, a reflection of Fauré’s
the surface of the work’s many outlandish plays with complete awareness that lyricism
difficulties. For all their overall mastery, these is as much a part of Liszt’s style as fierce,
are deliberately restrained performances that high-blown virtuosity: his ‘Paysage’ finally
go against the grain of convention. recedes into the far distance; he reminds us
As Gerstein himself says in his that Busoni’s description of ‘La Ricordanza’
accompanying interview, the Transcendental (No 9) is ‘like a packet of yellowed love
Etudes have been subjected to too much letters’; and he alternates grandeur and
speed and noise: their title surely implies introspection in ‘Harmonies du soir’.
something beyond the obvious. Nonetheless, ‘Feux Follets’ is full of glistening sonority,
Peter Uppard
there is an impressive flexing of muscles in intricate detailing and, for once, a regard for
the opening ‘Preludio’, while in ‘Paysage’ Liszt’s allegretto marking – a true will-o’- circumstances, his mundane marriage, the
(No 3) he resists a temptation to languish or the-wisp. In ‘Wilde Jagd’ (No 8), the hunt is trauma of his father’s death and most of all
sentimentalise. ‘Feux Follets’ (No 5), described in full cry, making it hard to imagine a his increasing hearing disability. The austere
by Jean Muller as the most cruelly demanding more vivid evocation, and the untitled F elegy of No 11, composed in memory of
of all etudes, is wittily detailed, the tempo minor (No 10) puts you in mind of King Noemi Lalo, evolves in Nos 12 and 13 into a
closer to Liszt’s prescribed allegretto than, say, Arthur wresting Excalibur from its rock. despairing cry at life’s cruelties. It is greatly to
Richter’s manic pace. Meanwhile, Trifonov’s mournful retreat Peter Uppard’s credit that he unravels such
There is a fine sense in the conclusions to from elemental storms in ‘Chasse-Neige’ emotional force and complexity with rare
Nos 6 (‘Vision’) and 11 (‘Harmonies du (No 12) shows you that he is a pianist- lucidity and sensitivity. He is no less acute in
soir’) of sumptuous visions gradually composer at heart, such is the immediacy of the romantically susceptible Nocturne No 6;
receding. Elsewhere, you miss a greater his inventiveness. and in the uneasy climbing of No 7, you
sense of commitment to Liszt’s cause with a There is superhuman nimbleness in many already sense the torment beneath Fauré’s
tendency to let the tension down. of the other Etudes, with ultra-precise outwardly serene surface.
The scale is smaller than from the cascades of thirds at the climax of ‘La Thankfully Uppard’s Liszt is more
infinitely grand Claudio Arrau, less urgent Leggierezza’, while his ‘Un Sospiro’ is very musicianly than overt or spectacular: there
than from the previously mentioned Jean much the concert study, its glitter far is never a hint of effect-making. In both
Muller. A sometimes overly modest view is removed from the moonlit sheen cast across Funérailles and the Sonata, everything is
also underlined by a recorded sound that, its pages by Géza Anda. unfolded with a quiet poetic intensity and
while warm and fluid, lacks immediacy. For I would never want to be without the control (try the fugue from the Sonata) yet
virtuosity on a necessarily epic scale, Berman or Cziffra recordings of this music, complemented by a fearless sense of drama.
Berman (whose performance inspired but for a performance that ties everything Green Label’s sound is exemplary,
qualified praise from Solomon) remains a together in the finest balance of pianistic faultlessly capturing performances of a very
touchstone. BRYCE MORRISON skills, Trifonov is your man. BM special calibre and distinction. BM

IPJF17_077_R_CDRevs0812OM.indd 77 08/12/2016 16:42
REVIEWS | CDs
Emil Gilels: The Seattle Recital Works by Dedications Recitals in homage to Horowitz, movements are the highlight here, beautifully
Beethoven, Chopin. Debussy and Prokofiev Emil Richter, Gilels and Van Cliburn introspective.
Gilels (pf) Live: Seattle Opera House, 6 Dec 1964 Steven Spooner (pf), Chris Thompson (bar), Volume 4 of Richter is Spooner’s tribute to
Deutsche Grammophon DG 4796288, 75 mins Borromeo Quartet, Kremlin CO/Rachlevsky his teacher, Nodar Gabunia (Five Pieces); an
lllll A LIFE OF MUSIC 84512 098914, 15 CDs, 1,987 excellent Schnittke Concerto for Piano and
mins; DVD Live at Swarthout, 94 mins Strings (Kremlin CO/Rachlevsky); and a
llll piece dedicated to Spooner by the young
American composer Mohammed Fairouz,
The greatest of Emil Gilels’ American This is a huge, laudable project, in which perhaps reflecting Richter’s interest in
appearances came in the 1960s – the same pianist Steven Spooner plays recitals of contemporary music. The next volume
decade that saw Sviatoslav Richter tour to repertoire associated with pianistic deities, contains two of the performances of Debussy
the US three times (1960, 1965 and 1970). culminating in a filmed recital. The discs are Préludes I, one on an 1886 Bechstein that
Although they were very different artists, arranged so that Horowitz is accorded three offers great clarity of tone; Spooner’s
Gilels felt he was competing with Richter discs, Richter eight, Gilels one and Van ‘Cathédrale engloutie’ is magnificent in both.
for the affections of the American audience, Cliburn one. There follow two discs of He adopts the same comparative approach in
a fact borne out by this remarkable recital ‘Memories’ and the DVD recital. two powerful performances of the Liszt
recording from Gilels’ 1964 tour. Spooner starts with Horowitz. The dark Sonata. Richter’s solo Schubert was
Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata was one of colours of Bach/Busoni open his vast journey monumental, and Spooner’s homage is the
his calling cards and this performance is into the world of pianism, followed by a D960 sonata (a less than involving
even greater than his splendid studio clutch of Scarlatti Sonatas performed on performance). The rather bitty Volume 8 fares
version for DG recorded in 1972. In the first Horowitz’ own piano, where the sound better, including a superb rendition of
movement, he wisely eschews any attempt suddenly brightens. It is important to note Schumann’s Papillons.
to plumb serious depths. Its lively, energetic that Spooner is not imitating Horowitz’s Gilels is honoured by one volume
mood is presented with a degree of reserve playing. These are Spooner’s own comprising characteristic repertoire such as
that makes the pianist’s power and interpretations, crisp and stylish: Horowitz’s late Brahms (Op 116) and a selection of Grieg
virtuosity seem all the more staggering. The beloved Scriabin comes in a melancholy Lyric Pieces, the former delivered with
second movement is appropriately dreamy guise; Mozart’s K330, however, is rather understanding, the latter with sweetness. Van
and pensive, while the finale is a tour de shallow. In general, this set really shines in the Cliburn has a whole album of shorter pieces
force. The Rondo’s allegretto moderato grows less obvious areas of the repertoire. Arensky’s (inspired by Cliburn’s own LPs), the highlight
inexorably into a hymn of immeasurable rarely heard Elegie is gloriously shaded, while of which is the innocence of MacDowell’s To
joy. The prestissimo coda astonishes with its Spooner’s own input comes in the form of A Wild Rose.
glissando octaves in alternating hands and his Concert Etude for Vladimir Horowitz (on The final two CDs are ‘Memories &
the extraordinary way in which Gilels, with music by Queen). A whole disc of Chopin Inspirations’, alternating between Spooner’s
a single hand, simultaneously plays the Mazurkas finds Spooner nicely attuned to the recollections and other short pieces. A clutch
melody and its accompanying trill. idiom, if some way from a recommendation. of hymn transcriptions refers to his youth.
Chopin’s Variations on ‘La ci darem mano’ Far more special is the disc of Schubert/Liszt The DVD pulls everything together
are delivered with wit and delicacy. Lieder (tenderly done) and Liszt’s Legend beautifully: Debussy in the first half then a
Prokofiev’s Sonata No 3 is a tectonic No 2, a performance of terrific power. selection of virtuoso pieces paying homage to
plate-shifting eruption, while six of the Intriguingly, the Richter marathon opens Bolet’s Liszt (Ständchen) plus his own concert
composer’s Visions fugitives demonstrate with Schubert’s Winterreise (with baritone etudes for Argerich, Jarrett and Horowitz.
Gilels’ ability to create exquisite textures Chris Thompson). A considered reading, it Spooner has set himself quite a task, as he
and timbres through precisely weighted does rather pale in comparison with Hotter, will doubtless be judged against the greats to
chords and imaginative pedalling. The Fischer-Dieskau and of course Richter/ whom he pays homage, and inevitably found
colours of French impressionism are Schreier. Another aspect of Richter’s artistry wanting. Yet, on its own terms, this is a
represented by Book I of Debussy’s Images was his commitment to chamber music, and fascinating collection with an intriguing
and Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso. The here we have the Brahms Piano Quintet with spread of repertoire. CC
encores include two Gilels specialities: a the Borromeo Quartet in a tender and
spectacular ‘Danse russe’ from Stravinsky’s affectionate performance (Richter left a Steven Spender’s Dedications is
Trois movements de Petrouchka; and an legendary account with the Borodin Quartet). available from iTunes.com/StevenSpooner
ineffably lovely Bach-Siloti Prelude in B Richter had a soft spot for Haydn, and and alifeofmusic.com/records/
minor.STEPHEN WIGLER Spooner presents five sonatas: the slow catalogue/#dedications
IPJF17_078_R_CDRevs0812BWM.indd 78 08/12/2016 15:46

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was the problem!’ they might cry, as they
bury their head in their hands, shedding
tears. This year, there is a new graduate
performance student in my studio,
PRINT & DIGITAL

Kahoru Amano, an advanced and mature
Dr Carol Leone challenges the orthodoxy of a one-size-fits-all young artist who has a hand span of only
15cm. She is now reaching octaves for the
approach to the piano through her advocacy of first time in her life, using our keyboard
with the smallest octave size (14.1 cm).
alternate-sized keyboards that open up new horizons for Watching Kahoru and other students soar
small-handed pianists
with their new-found abilities has been a
FORMATS
International Piano
Conventional keyboard 16.5 cm octave Narrower keyboard 14.1 cm octave
distinct privilege as a teacher. NO.41 JAN/FEB 2017
With full access to the conventional piano
£5.50
(24 per cent) of the male population. Yet security, control, and more intimacy with keyboard and two smaller-sized keyboards
A
the 20th century quietly passed without the instrument. for practicing, teaching, performing, and
confession: I am a professional on concert Steinways retrofitted with size-fits-all conventional keyboard. any serious questioning of a size-standard Through my advocacy since 2000, my recording, I know that I must be one of
pianist and university professor narrower keys. I want to share this Recent research has shown that our established toward the end of the 19th university, SMU Meadows School of the the luckiest small-handed pianists alive.
with a small handspan. As I age, alternative with pianists, piano teachers, conventional keys are too wide for the century, and most solutions have addressed Arts in Dallas, Texas, has become a centre But I envision a future in which all pianists
my handspan is actually shrinking. Since and piano students around the world majority (87 per cent) of the world’s adult the problem by adapting the hands through of research and performance for narrower with smaller hand spans have equitable
the year 2000, I have been performing dealing with problems related to a one- female population as well as a proportion stretching exercises, compensatory piano keyboards. We have demonstrated that opportunity. I impatiently await the day
techniques and even surgery rather than these keyboards can be implemented that manufacturers will offer actions with
ergonomically redesigning the instrument. successfully in a university music school an alternate keyboard size for their concert
Carole Leone: ‘Adopting an alternative size-standard offers extraordinary benefits to pianists of all ages’ Adopting an alternative size-standard environment. The majority of pianists and artist instruments, for university
offers extraordinary benefits to pianists of adjust very easily to the keyboards and it pianos, and for the home. I may be a pianist
all ages, ranging from injury prevention generally takes one hour or less of practice with a small hand, but I am on a big mission
ELDER STATESMAN MUSIC OF MY LIFE
© NIKOLAJ LUND
to expanded repertoire choices, extended to adapt. My students and I move easily and this goal is now within reach. e
INSIDE
careers and significantly improved musical back and forth between two or three
and technical outcomes.
For my solo recording, Change of Keys,
keyboards, even within the same recital.
Our concert instrument has three actions
Dr Carol Leone is a founding member of the
international advocacy organisation Pianists
Politics and passionMusic of my life
released last September on the MSR (with octave sizes of 14.1cm, 15.2cm and for Alternatively Sized Keyboards. Her solo
in the playingOne of the most versatile pianists of today,
Classics label, I performed on one concert
Steinway using three keyboard actions
the conventional 16.5cm), which can be
changed in a matter of five minutes, simply SHEET MUSIC
album Change of Keys is now available from
MSR Classics (MS1616). www.carolleone.com
of PaderewskiKathryn Stott’s extraordinary musical gifts first
with different key widths, allowing me by unscrewing the endblocks, sliding out
mastery of repertoire that would usually one action, and sliding in the next.
lie beyond my stretch, such as the Chopin’s In the spirit of promoting equal came to light in humble circumstances in
Ballade No 1 and the Bartók Sonata. Built opportunity for more pianists, SMU WHERE TO FIND THEM northwest England, where early influences
by Steinbuhler & Co, using the Donison-
Steinbuhler Standard, the keyboards are
also hosts the Dallas International Piano
Competition, which offers a choice in FROM ALFRED MUSIC PASTORAL CAREranged from opera to soul music
approximately 7/8 and 15/16 the width of keyboard size to competitors. The 2015
SEE PAGE 49
the standard keyboard. The sizes of these third prize winner, the Israeli pianist Anna
of Vaughan WilliamsM
alternative keyboards allow my hands Arazi, bravely and brilliantly performed on
to remain closest to an ideal playing the DS6.0® (15.2cm octave) without having Y PARENTS USED TO there. He would swan around looking Imp. In the ’60s everyone played there
position and enables me to play tenths (my
handspan on the conventional keyboard
previous access to a keyboard with an
alternate size. Afterwards, her response was
TWO PIECES FROM THE collect 78s of opera music –
mainly tenors – and they were
incredibly glamorous and elegant – and
smoking a cigar! Can you imagine?! I
from the Beatles and the Hollies to Dusty
Springfield and Cilla Black, but that had
reaches a ninth at best). In the images

above, you can readily see how the interval
pure exhilaration: ‘Usually when I perform
this concerto, I experience such discomfort
BOOK OF PIANO MAGIC always playing the duet from The Pearl
Fishers. I was probably about seven or
eight, and I just remember how beautiful
had learnt the piano accompaniment for
the Dvořák Cello Concerto to play with
another cellist at the Menuhin School, so
all finished by the time I started going. I
was 15 and I had to lie about my age. They
used to run Soul Nights and the record,
BY PETER RUDZIK
PLUS
of the 6th taken with fingers 2 and 5 goes that I barely have the stamina to get to the the voices were. I loved the tune: I can I knew it inside out. I was obsessed with Can’t Give You Anything (even though the
from being stretched and contorted to end. Today I felt as if I could have played the ONLINE RESOURCES
solid and balanced. entire concerto twice without stopping!’ SEE PAGE 55International Piano
Dallas
remember every single note of it right it – the part where it goes into G-sharp in opening is slightly out of tune, which can
PIANISTS FOR
now. I have a deep love of opera and of the first movement. Gendron was a lovely be irritating) brings back that whole era
With a compact hand position, I can Over the past 16 years, I have been in Competition www.dallasipc.org lower voices – tenors and cellos and all cellist and his recording of the Concerto of being a dancing teenager. I’ve never
produce more power and speed than with the company of hundreds of professionals, Pianists for Alternatively Sized that. I kept asking my parents why Pearl was the only one I ever listened to then. He said this in an interview before – it’s a
my hand extended. A beautiful legato is
more possible, as is the voicing of chords.
students and amateur players who visit my
university and home studios to experience CHAIN OF Keyboards www.paskpiano.org
Small Piano Keyboards
www.smallpianokeyboards.org
ALTERNATIVELY
SIZED KEYBOARDS
Fishers wasn’t performed more. How did
I know it wasn’t? Maybe they told me.
Anyway, I wrote to Charles Mackerras at
also played Silent Woods on the same disc. I
remember having it on repeat endlessly. It
must have driven my parents mad!
first! Just listen to the beginning. It used
to make us so happy. If I hear the opening
of it now, I feel delirious. I love it. It
INFLUENCE
When my hand is in an anatomically the keyboards. I love these encounters, for
Steinbuhler & Co English National Opera asking him why. Peter Norris was another of the teachers showed me that I could enjoy music of all
natural position, I use smaller, more they are often filled with joyful emotions
www.steinbuhler.com He was the only person in the opera world at the Menuhin [who went on to become kinds – and still do. Though I like silence
refined movements, which promote and startling realisations. ‘It’s not me that
my parents could think of. They were a the School’s director]. He introduced us to a bit more these days. e
32 International Piano January/February 2017 Melvyn Tan celebrates33

January/February 2017 International Piano KEY INTERNATIONAL
working-class couple in a council house
in Nelson, Lancashire, who loved music;
a huge amount of music, including Wagner
operas, which he was absolutely crazy INTERVIEW BY JEREMY NICHOLAS
Romanticism’s greatest
but they weren’t going to the opera all about. We’d often have sessions of listening
COURSES THIS SUMMER the time. The miracle was that Mackerras
replied to my letter.
to music while sitting on the floor in his
apartment. I can remember very clearly
piano pedagogues I was about 11 when some quite wealthy

people in Lancashire invited me and my
hearing the Liszt Sonata for the first time,
played by Horowitz. Towards the end of
Bizet
‘Au fond du temple saint’ – duet from
The Pearl Fishers
parents round to their house. I think they the big slow passage in the middle, I found Jussi Björling and Robert Merrill,
must have heard about me somehow – this myself thinking, ‘Gosh I’ve never heard the RCA Victor SO / Renato Cellini
RCA G010000245072X
JEAN-EFFLAM
was way out of my parents’ comfort zone piano sound quite like that!’ I can still hear
– but they had a very nice piano and let it now: it was a revelation. I’ve never really Granados
Goyescas
me play it. I think they just wanted to help idolised Horowitz since then, but this was Alicia de Larrocha
me in some way. They gave me an LP of a defining moment. It wasn’t about his Decca 4481912
THREE
BAVOUZET
Alicia de Larrocha, who I’d never heard virtuosity at the keyboard. It was about Dvořák
MONTHS’ FREE of, playing Spanish music which I’d never the sound – so different to Perlemuter and Cello Concerto
MEMBERSHIP Maurice Gendron, LPO / Bernard Haitink
SEE PAGE 86 heard either. I felt very grown up – very others at the School. It made me realise
Decca 4823864
special. This was something none of my that the piano can have all these different
friends would have had. It was the first sounds. I was moved by it. That was it. Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor
time anyone had ever given me anything I used to love going dancing when I Vladimir Horowitz
like that. came home to Nelson. I had a friend RCA 09026614152
from there – she was really the only one
Questing spirit
I was eight when I went to the Menuhin
01>
Hugo & Luigi / Weiss
School. Far from being homesick, I took that I’d remained friends with – and we Can’t Give You Anything (But My Love)
used to love soul music. We would go to The Stylistics
to it like a duck to water. The great French
Avco Records 6105 039
cellist Maurice Gendron used to teach the Imperial Ballroom – we called it the
90
077005
International Piano January/February 2017
772042
IPJF17_090_R_MOML0712OM.indd 90 08/12/2016 10:42
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IPSUBS.indd 71 12/12/2016 11:22:04

REVIEWS | CDS IN BRIEF
Beethoven Two Rondos Op 51; Enescu Suite mind of Boulez’s energy-drenched Games, Chorales and Fantasy Works by Bach,
No 2 Op 10 Chopin Ballade No 3; Nocturne in performances of the 1980s; The Firebird Kurtág and Schubert Françoise-Green Duo (pfs)
E-flat Op 55/2; Introduction and Rondo Op 16; finds Gergiev and his players painting in Claves 50-1601, 45 mins
Polonaise No 6 in A-flat Op 53 the finest colours. lll
Charles Richard-Hamelin (pf) The best performance, though, is the
Live: Quebec, Canada, May 2016 Bartók Concerto. It is up against fearsome This is a very curious programme. György
Analekta AN 2 9129, 69 mins competition (Anda, Katchen and Kurtág’s ongoing series of miniatures Játékok
llll Kovacevich to name a few), but it holds its (Games) has reached eight volumes, the
head high. Interestingly, the piece feels most recent scored for piano duo. Taking
Fascinating programming easily lends this disc more raw than is often the case, with the their cue from Kurtág himself, a selection of
to recommendation, especially given odd rough edge in the orchestra enhancing nine Games are interspersed with the
Richard-Hamelin’s assured playing. The this impression. Bronfman never bangs, and composer’s arrangements of Bach chorales
Beethoven Rondos are fine works (Brendel, the piano/tutti interactions are beautifully (part of another ongoing series, known as
Richter and Sokolov all left memorable managed. The central Adagio religioso Àtiratok). I find the juxtaposition here as in
versions) and Richard-Hamelin plays with finds the LSO strings in shining form; the other recordings curiously unsatisfying,
with real affection and style. The Enescu comes nocturnal suspense here is magnificent. though this is no reflection on the
up against Luiza Borac (Avie) and Maria Bronfman’s technique is impeccable, his performances which seem very well
Fotino (Pearl), the latter even more bell-like variety of touch a joy. This performance acts prepared. The penultimate track is
than Richard-Hamelin in the opening Toccata as a splendid appendix to Bronfman’s Schubert’s great Fantasia in F minor D940. It
and more tender in the Sarabande. Yet lovely Sony recording (LAPO/Salonen). CC takes up over a third of what is a very short
Richard-Hamelin delivers a fabulous, lyrical disc and is very well played. The duration
Pavane, and convincingly highlights the overall is quite fast (17’ 45”) where many
Ravellian flavour of the final Bourée. Feldman Intermission 5; Piano Piece 1952; rival accounts run to a minute or three
Richard-Hamelin’s Chopin is more Extensions 3; Palais di Mari Crumb Processional; longer. However, what it is doing in this
mixed; he is at his best in the lyric A Little Suite for Christmas, AD 1979 Steven programme I have not the slightest idea –
moments of the Ballade and the Osborne (pf) though it does provide some welcome
crepuscular melancholy of the Nocturne. Hyperion CDA68108, 63 mins musical development. GUY RICKARDS
For Op 16, Richard-Hamelin sits lllll
somewhere in between Ian Hobson’s rather
disconnected version (Zephyr) and Morton Feldman liked to say his music was György and Márta Kurtág play Kurtág
Horowitz’s magnificence. By far Richard- ‘inside silence’; Palais di Mari (1986), his final György Kurtág, Márta Kurtág (pfs)
Hamelin’s finest performance is the work for solo piano, illustrates the point. BMC CD 233, 41 mins
Polonaise, dramatic, broad and confident Possibly the quietest music ever composed, its llll
with the muscular bass well caught by the barely audible beauty is like an intermittent
recording. CC thread that glints through the fabric of This is a Budapest Music Center Records
silence, outlining the spare, asymmetrical compilation from Hungarian Radio, some
patterns that typified Feldman’s later works. recorded in 1955, but mostly between 1988
Bartók Piano Concerto No 3 Sz119; Suite from Steven Osborne’s acutely sensitive pianism, and 2001. The featured pieces are from the
The Miraculous Mandarin Sz73 Stravinsky The aided by Hyperion’s recording expertise, Játékok (Games) series and Suite for Four
Firebird (complete) Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet: superbly captures those elusive sounds as they Hands (1950-51).
Montagues and Capulets Yefim Bronfman (pf), shimmer on the edge of perception. Osborne The 42 tracks, from studio and concert
London Symphony Orchestra/Valéry Gergiev impresses too in the three early Feldman recordings, mostly under a minute each,
Live: New Jersey, USA, October 2015 works, which experiment with repetition and were selected by the Kurtágs, making an
LSO Live LSO5078, 97 mins dynamic extremes, and in two contrasting excellent supplement to their wonderful
lllll pieces by his contemporary George Crumb. ECM recording. The composer began the
Processional (1982) is restless, volatile; A Little Játékok series in 1973, as a liberating
This live concert, caught right at the end of Suite for Christmas, AD 1979 (1980), inspired approach to music-making that is ‘possibly
Gergiev’s tenure with the LSO, finds the by Giotto’s frescoes, is an ‘aural tableau’, which for experimenting and not for learning to
orchestra on top form in a blazing Osborne imbues with a magical delicacy. play the piano’. There’s an obvious change
performance of the Bartók that puts one in GRAHAM LOCK from the folk-like, rather naive early Suite
IPJF17_080-081_R_CDsIBrief0812OM.indd 80 08/12/2016 17:31

REVIEWS | CDS IN BRIEF
(tracks 29-32), but all performances reveal above), the envelope of expression extended ‘Brad Mehldau is more creative, but Keith
great sensitivity, in the service of intense in both directions. The recorded sound is [Jarrett] is looser in some way,’ was Lee
artistic truth. ANDY HAMILTON on the thin side, which can detract but also Konitz’s interesting judgment, which I
imparts an almost bell-like quality (Batagov often recall when listening to these great
plays a Fazioli).Batagov finds great delicacy pianists. This is the first duo album by
Glassworlds 5 Glass Mad Rush; Metamorphosis in the half-hour ‘Trial’ (not to be confused longtime collaborators Mehldau and
II (version for solo piano); 600 Lines Simon The with Glass’s mini-opera on Kafka, The Trial) Redman, recorded live during their recent
Sound of Silence (arr Glass) Nicolas Horvath (pf) and in the process delivers a sometimes European tour. Mehldau first became
Grand Piano GP745, 73 mins magical experience. From Koyaanisqaatsi, known as a member of Redman’s quartet in
lllll ‘Prophesies’ speaks with great power at the 1990s, appearing on the classic
lower dynamic ranges. Back to Einstein, and Moodswing (1994). On Nearness, three tracks
Nicolas Horvath’s sterling Glass series the playful ‘Night Train’ moves from are originals, and three are standards. The
continues with a volume containing two frivolity to aggression; Batagov seems to finest of the latter is Monk’s ‘In Walked
extended pieces, Mad Rush and 600 Lines. find the latter fulfilling (one is reminded of Bud’, dedicated to fellow bopper Bud
Originally for organ, Mad Rush was most his recordings of Mosolov). Finally, the Powell – though I’m reminded of Monk’s
famously performed by the composer at the slow-moving, monumental ‘Knee 5’ mastery of space, and how Mehldau could
Dalai Lama’s first visit to New York in 1981. provides the perfect close. CC use more. It’s one of three excellent tracks
There is more peace here than the title that make up the album’s first half,
implies, and Horvath gives a including a delightful ‘Ornithology’, and an
characteristically assured performance. Michael Finnissy: Beat Generation Ballads engaging original, ‘Always August’. The
Glass’s hypnotic harmonic progressions Philip Thomas (pf) later tracks disappoint, with both originals,
unfold with mesmeric inevitability. The end Huddersfield Contemporary Records HC011, 69 mins ‘Melancholy Mode and ‘Old West’,
morphs into the newest, still unpublished lllll becoming rather relentless. AH
version of Metamorphosis II. Heard in the
context of all five Metamorphoses on This disc celebrates Michael Finnissy’s 70th
Glassworlds 3, it sounds darker there in the year with premiere recordings of two major Face to Face Works by Bell, Chopin, Lux Lewis,
earlier version; the alteration is tiny but piano works: First Political Agenda (1989-2004) Beethoven and Pinetop Smith Tom Bell (pf)
significant. More rugged, 600 Lines (1967) and Beat Generation Ballads (2014) with www.tombellpiano.co.uk, 45 mins
plays with rhythm in a highly focused way. Phillip Thomas as a persuasive interpreter. llll
There is a purity that is astonishing and Finnissy is a prolific composer with a gamut
Horvath’s concentration does it full justice. of influences, styles and references. His music An intriguing disc which at first glance
Finally, an unexpected but haunting is often forbiddingly complex, especially looks like as if it shouldn’t work, but does.
arrangement of a Paul Simon song: Glass rhythmically. Beat Generation has four short Boogie-woogie and blues (by Bell and
seamlessly takes the original on a walk into movements that refer to Allen Ginsberg, others) are pitted against well-known pieces
minimalism and back again. CC Beethoven’s Op 74 quartet, an Irish by Beethoven and Chopin. The Chopin
Republican song and Bill Evans’ ‘My Foolish items plus the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata
Heart’. These are followed by a 34-minute set finale share with boogie-woogie a need for
Glass (arr Batagov) Einstein on the Beach: Trial, of variations based on their material. The style finger fluency and velocity, and Bell
Night Train, Knee 5; Koyaanisqaatsi: Prophecies has rightly been called digressive, locking the provides those in spades. Contrasts are
Anton Batagov (pf) listener into the moment, and references and finely drawn (between Bell’s Boogie and
Orange Mountain Music 0110, 67 mins allusions are buried deep. Music to admire Chopin Op 10/1, for example).
llll but not – except for a small number of Bell is finest in his own works, spewing
cognoscenti – to love. AH forth froth like a malfunctioning barista.
Cleverly and effectively presenting music The frivolity is infectious, the atmosphere
from Einstein on the Beach and closer to that of live performance than the
Koyaanisqaatsi in his own arrangements, Mehldau/Redman: Nearness studio; but underlying all of this is Bell’s
Batagov presents a homage to Glass’s Brad Mehldau (pf); Joshua Redman (sax) rock-solid sense of rhythm. Chopin’s
operatic genius. Generally speaking, Nonesuch 7559794561, 74 mins Ballade No 4 hints at depths Bell can
Batagov’s mode of delivery is perhaps more llll achieve in the standard repertoire. Well
shaded than that of Nicholas Horvath (see recorded, this is something of a treat. CC

IPJF17_080-081_R_CDsIBrief0812OM.indd 81 08/12/2016 17:31
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IPJF17.indd 82 12/12/2016 15:54:51

REVIEWS | SHEET MUSIC
Having said that, it is the moments of

repose, serenity and reflection that perhaps
make the most memorable impression in
Holt’s orchestral scores. There are
significant piano works too. Having
savoured the esoterically powerful
challenges of Tauromaquia and Black
Lanterns for solo piano, it was with eager
anticipation that I opened the pages of
Holt’s latest offering, an eight-minute ‘suite’
in all but name, with an intriguing
subtitled micro-note that cunningly makes
an anagram of each title in five movements:
‘Darling Eve is lost in the evil garden,
Koželuch: Complete Sonatas for Simon Holt: Darling Eve in the evil unaware of the vile danger all about her. In
Keyboard – Volume Four garden – five pieces for piano failing to notice the blackest raven glide by,
Edited by Christopher Hogwood Chester Music she incites, in the Devil, anger’. ‘Darling Eve’
Bärenreiter Urtext CH84249 for right hand alone sets the scene with
ISMN 979-0-2601-0504-1 delicate quietude that is characterised by
striking and demanding soft filigrees at the
T HE EXTRAORDINARILY RICH inexperienced player while allowing them the
© MARCO BORGGREVE
repertoire of 18th- and early 19th- satisfaction of managing structures every bit
century keyboard music has long been as expansive as the first four Beethoven
dominated by the ‘Big Four’, namely Haydn, sonatas. Having said that, the galant style in
Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. This is many of Koželuch’s slow movements (for
our loss, as so many outstanding composers instance, the serenely elegant Adagio from
from this period remain eclipsed yet deserve Sonata No 47 in E-flat) would still prove
to be heard. Happily, the late Christopher challenging to players of Grade 8 and beyond.
Hogwood and Bärenreiter have done a It is especially fascinating to study the
splendid job of rescuing the distinguished sweet-natured theme-and-variations first
Czech Leopold Koželuch (1747-1818) from movement from Sonata No 45 in A major Simon Holt
21st-century neglect. and its relationship to the opening
The son of a shoemaker, Koželuch rose to movement of Mozart’s celebrated sonata in topmost register, fluttering obsessively
such fame that Gerber’s Lexicon of 1790 the same key, K331. Koželuch’s sonata dates around a seven-note cell and breaking off
described him as ‘without question the from pre-1776 and is much more limited in systematically with short but intense
greatest living composer, most loved by terms of contrasts between variations than crescendos and barbaric accented fortissimo
young or old’. He was certainly prolific, Mozart’s, which dates from circa 1783. single notes. The silences add an ominous
leaving over 400 works, including 22 Nevertheless, there are enough similarities quality which is finally realised in the
concertos and 50 sonatas for piano. In fact, to suggest a kindred spirit, if not a direct pessimistic and hard-hitting left-hand solo
Koželuch was a shrewd businessman in that influence, that Mozart must have felt from ‘Devil, anger’, which concludes this
he perfected the art of writing attractive the older Czech musician. miniature suite with angular ferocity and
keyboard works which remained within the This volume is full of instantly likeable and sweeping angst.
technical limitations of amateur players. playable music, so that there is no reason why This is not music for the faint hearted,
Describing his sonatas to a publisher, he once 21st-century keyboard players cannot get just and perhaps only the most super-charged
wrote: ‘They are not difficult, they are as much pleasure from it as their 18th-century of pianistic virtuosos could have any hope
melodious and brilliant and the passagework forbearers evidently did. The lack of dynamic of bringing it off convincingly in
in them falls automatically under the fingers.’ and articulation markings on the text performance. In between the two outer
This current collection of sonatas includes encourages players to add their own ideas, movements come a pair of uneasy
the last 12 (Nos 38-50) and certainly encouraging creativity in young musicians. A miniatures (‘evil garden’ has strikingly
demonstrates Koželuch’s attractive fascinating and potentially invaluable issue. explosive flourishes for both hands whilst
immediacy and accessibility. Why, one MURRAY MCLACHLAN ‘vile danger’ makes the most of augmented
wonders, do students always have to struggle and diminished triads in percussive triads
unsuccessfully with some of the more
technically challenging well known classical
works when they could do so much better by
B OLTON-BORN, MANCHESTER-
trained Simon Holt has produced a
significant corpus of music that shows
at the extreme tessituras). Perhaps most
striking of all is the ‘raven glide’, marked
sempre pianissimo and requiring the utmost
laying strong foundations via the exciting, influences not only from Messiaen and control and deftness of touch from any
impressively crafted and showy exuberance of Xenakis but also from Morton Feldman. pianist brave enough to attempt its
movements such as the Rondo from His large-scale works often appear complex shimmering 32nd-note atonal passagework.
Koželuch’s Sonata No 38 in E-flat? This is and enigmatic but can be strikingly Challenging, striking, bold and
music which can instil confidence in an powerful and monumental. impressive music of our time. MM

IPJF17_083_R_SMusicRevs_0812OM.indd 83 08/12/2016 14:56
REVIEWS | BOOKS
Rich pickings
Michael Johnson reviews an engaging memoir by Jacques Leiser, a
doyen of artist management and friend, mentor and confidante to
some of the the most preeminent pianists of the postwar era
I
N HIS RECENT MEMOIR, a true musician. He has also picked out
veteran impresario Jacques Leiser sums Tamas Erdi of Hungary and a young Swiss-
up his 60 years of toil with some of the based Russian, Igor Andreev. ‘I’m more
world’s greatest pianists, violinists and interested in musicians than performers,’
singers. These days, he is worried about a he says. Indeed, it is the current emphasis
drift in the music business. He believes that on performance that gets under his skin.
too many young artists fail in their first few ‘The trend is toward entertainment,’
years because professional management no he adds, which can sometimes pull in
longer guides them through the labyrinth. audiences, but for the wrong reasons.
‘They can’t do it on their own, and sadly Leiser makes a distinction between the
they get left behind,’ he says. agent and artist manager, although the
What has gone wrong with artists’ two roles can overlap. The agent is focused
management – once the key to success – in on bookings; the manager becomes an
recent times? ‘It has become quantity over intimate partner in the player’s enterprise.
quality,’ Leiser says. ‘Quantity is where Leiser develops this idea in his new
the money is.’ The trend among today’s memoir, a rich compendium of anecdotes
managers is toward a large stable of clients titled A Life Among Legends: An Impresario
– often too many to nurture effectively. Looks Back, just published as an e-book.
‘They don’t furnish what the budding A good manager, he writes, ‘is an unsung
artist needs for growth and development. hero… he becomes a friend, confidante,
They don’t have the knowhow. Their input adviser, lawyer, medical adviser, and the
is too limited.’ architect of a career.’
Leiser, one of the doyens of international Leiser’s own credentials were lacking at
artist managers and a former representative the outset. He trained as a pianist but has ‘I’m more
of EMI and Philips, worked with some of always relied more on his ‘gut feeling’ to
the greatest names in music, beginning
with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and
identify talent that he wanted to work with.
‘I had to see qualities in the artist that could
interested in
moving on to Sviatoslav Richter, Lazar
Berman, Maria Callas, David Oistrakh,
be developed. I had to feel something.’ He
developed his instinct for musicianship by
musicians than
Dame Moura Lympany, Georges Cziffra,
Paul Badura-Skoda, Bella Davidovich and
starting a record collection that continues
to grow ever more vast. Early in his career,
performers’
Krystian Zimerman, among others. recordings ‘became the bridge which led
At 85, he still has a sharp eye for me to management. My fascination with
talent. From his residence in Montreux, records remains a source of inspiration.’
Switzerland, he continues to monitor Born in France and educated in the
young artists, and intervenes when he United States, Leiser did not lack chutzpah. management at all,’ Leiser recalled for me.
discovers someone with potential. ‘I His business development technique was ‘I was very enthusiastic about his playing
have never really retired,’ he says. ‘It’s in simply to contact the player or singer but when he agreed to work with me, I was
my blood.’ and offer his services. Inexperienced and amazed myself.’
Leiser has recently supported Joseph only 25 years old, he approached Arturo Looking back over his career Leiser
Moog, 28, a rising piano talent from Benedetti Michelangeli at his home near today concludes, ‘The music world that
Germany who is gaining a reputation in Milan in 1963. They got on well and he young musicians are entering has changed
Europe. Moog fits into Leiser’s vision of made his first deal. ‘Michelangeli had no almost unrecognisably.’ Among other
IPJF17_084-085_R_Books0712OM.indd 84 08/12/2016 10:40

REVIEWS | BOOKS
ON MICHELANGELI

The legendary Arturo
Benedetti Michelangeli asked
me, ‘Do you think you could
get me engagements?’ to
which I boldly replied, ‘Most
certainly!’ He didn’t even
know or ask if I had ever
managed anyone! And then
he said, ‘Why don’t you look
into it?’ […] I was dazed
suddenly to find myself the
world representative for one
of the greatest living pianists.
My enthusiasm and passion
were such that I did not even
consider this ‘work’. I was
determined to overcome any
obstacles in my way. As it
turned out, there were many
– including those created by
the Maestro, who was rightly
considered to be one of the
world’s most difficult and
demanding artists.
ON CORTOT
Alfred Cortot’s early
recordings displayed
tremendous, even spectacular, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)
technique. He was a poet at
the keyboard. His playing it because it was so heavy. He The listeners’ attention was
when he was in his sixties, put it down and said, ‘Maestro, absolutely focused – nothing
however, would not work what do you have in your else existed except the sound
today; audiences would suitcase? I can hardly lift it’. of the music. He created an
neither understand nor accept Cortot turned to him and said, almost orchestral dimension
it. He would be criticised for ‘It contains my wrong notes’. that was beyond ordinary
wrong notes and not invited interpretation; he was incredibly
back. Franco Passigli, the ON RICHTER inspired. Richter’s death was a
Italian director of the Florence When Sviatoslav Richter was severe personal blow to me, as
Friends of Music knew Cortot in form, everything flowed, well as a great loss to the world
well, and happened to meet crescendo after crescendo, of music. I had known him for
him on the train in Geneva. it was overwhelming. He thirty-seven years. He was a
Cortot was then in his eighties. captivated his audiences in a Renaissance man, inspired by
Passigli reached for Cortot’s way that no one else could, music, art, literature and theatre
suitcase and almost dropped almost spellbinding them. – by life itself.
things, he is dissatisfied with concert- artists have to take on numerous accomplishments, which should, of course,
goers: ‘People today are rarely nurtured to additional time-consuming burdens be the artists’ principal undertaking.’ e
classical music, and few young people are connected with their careers, often to
exposed to cultural education that would the detriment of artistic achievements. A Life Among Legends: An Impresario
create audiences for classical musicians.’ ‘It is like having two full-time jobs,’ he Looks Back by Jacques Leiser is now available
Worse, he writes in his memoir, writes, ‘and this distracts from artistic as an e-book from www.amazon.co.uk

IPJF17_084-085_R_Books0712OM.indd 85 08/12/2016 10:40
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IPJF17.indd 86 12/12/2016 15:55:15

Rhinegold
LIVE
Next issue
MARCH/APRIL 2017
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concerts in the heart
© ESTHER HAASE / DG
of London
© SHEILA ROCK
Yuja Wang
Tuesday 28 February 2017

ASIAN TIGER
Melvyn Tan Yuja Wang’s thrilling pianism offers an ideal
Conway Hall, London mix of charisma, sensitivity and technical
Melvyn’s work as a piano recitalist, chamber musician prowess in repertoire from Beethoven
and concerto soloist has been heard at many of the to Bartók. We meet this superlative artist
world’s leading concert halls, from the Amsterdam at home in New York to discuss her next
Concertgebouw and Vienna Konzerthaus to London’s London recital
Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall and New York’s
Lincoln Center.
MERCURIAL CHARMS
We join Melvyn’s 60th birthday celebrations, IP marks the centenary of Romanian pianist
exploring a new work written for his 60th year by Dinu Lipatti, whose extraordinary artistry and
Jonathan Dove, Beethoven’s Bagatelles Op.126 and exalted reputation continue to outlive his
Czerny’s Variations on a Theme by Rode. all-to-brief career
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IPJF17_087_R_NxtIssue0712OM.indd 87 08/12/2016 10:44

TA K E FI V E
outset demonstrated a rare ability to create at the highest levels
© FRANCESCA PATELLA
in both composed and improvised music. He was pianist in the
Asko Ensemble, which premiered his Octet in 1978, while his
first improvising ensembles helped develop the emerging Dutch
style, blending fully notated and free elements. His work ranges
from composed improvisations such as Brake for piano solo, to
improvised compositions such as his Violin Concerto, or his opera,
Noach. He has performed with a wide range of musicians from
John Zorn to Gidon Kremer.
There’s a playful, Haydnesque whimsicality to Janssen’s music,
whether improvised or composed – a capacity to surprise, within a
logical construction. Like Haydn, he loves musical games, and his
music is capricious, disorienting and restless. He approaches musical
tradition with an ever-innocent ear – estranging jazzy harmonies or
Baroque trills from their origins, to hilarious and disconcerting effect.
These abilities are heard on one of his most delightful recordings,
with Dutch quartet Sound-Lee! featuring alto-saxist Jorrit Dijkstra,
freely interpreting earlier compositions of saxophonist Lee Konitz.
Konitz was a disciple of New York composer and pianist Lennie
Tristano, whose school developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The school strongly influenced Janssen, its complex, beguiling
compositions offering fertile ground for his contrapuntal
improvisations. ‘The uneven phrases in the themes of Konitz invite
GUUS JANSSEN
you to play games with the tension between the regularity of the
chord changes of the old standards and their own whimsicality,’
the pianist commented. He appreciates Konitz’s remark on the
project: ‘They missed the point, but found another one.’
The pianist performs with Konitz himself on the title track of
One of the great jazz improvisers his recent Meeting Points, a free, spontaneous, intensely melodic
duet. The album compiles various recordings from Amsterdam’s
of our time, Guus Janssen’s Bimhuis made with several groups from 1989 onwards. Another
strongly Tristano-flavoured album is Lighter from 1995, with
playfulness and love of springing Ernst Glerum on bass and brother Wim on drums. Janssen’s
comment, ‘I never really played jazz and I am not very familiar
surprises puts him in the same with the Broadway songbook’, seems absurdly modest in light of
this album’s profoundly jazzy interpretation of Tristano’s ‘Lennie’s
musical bracket as Haydn. His Pennies’, based on ‘Pennies from Heaven’. The Caribbean-inflected
‘Mikstuur’ is replete with Haydnesque wit, while ‘One Bar’ has a
performances, infused with a brilliantly syncopated, crazily extended one-note theme, even
twinkling sense of humour, aim

more minimal than Thelonious Monk’s one-note ‘Thelonious’.
Monk was Janssen’s first major jazz influence before Tristano. On
to delight and amuse his

Lighter, ‘After LT’ refers to Tristano, while ‘After AT’, with a timbral
whimsicality in its theme, celebrates Art Tatum. ‘Marshcello’ is a
audiences with their zany energy. mischievous take on ‘Marshmallow’, the Tristano school composition
by Warne Marsh, based on the chords of the standard ‘Cherokee’. I
By Andy Hamilton hear Tristano’s sound rather than Monk’s in his pianism, and there’s
a classical lucidity and brilliance not too common in jazz.
Lighter is a modern classic, and its coruscating brilliance again
leaves me wondering why Guus Janssen isn’t better known. Zwik
T
has the same personnel, and is equally fine. The solo album Klankast
HE NAME OF GUUS JANSSEN ISN’T WIDELY KNOWN mainly features improvisations, and despite the jazz content,
outside the Netherlands – yet he is one of the finest overall there’s a less jazzy feel. There are two ‘real compositions’,
improvising pianists of our time. Born in Heiloo, says Janssen: ‘Dik en Dun’ (Thick and Thin) and ‘Functional’, a
near Amsterdam, in 1951, from his teens Janssen and his two title that refers to the Monk composition, an unadorned blues that
brothers developed their own approach to improvisation. Guus long fascinated him. ‘Like Monk, I am not into ornamentation or
studied at Amsterdam’s Sweelinck Conservatory and from the embellishment,’ he explains, ‘but more after the heart of things.’
IPJF17_088-089_R_Take50712OM.indd 88 12/12/2016 15:43

TA K E FI V E
Dutch free master Misha Mengelberg was very important in

Janssen’s early career, in particular his anarchistic approach: ‘I never
Take Five: Guus Janssen
opted for his theatrical side’, the pianist adds. Later, British free 1. ‘Lennie’s Pennies’ from Lighter (Geestgronden)
improvisers Derek Bailey and Evan Parker exerted a fascination. In 2. ‘Meeting Points’, with Lee Konitz, from Meeting Points (Bimhuis)
classical terms, Janssen comments, ‘I never had a major influence, 3. ‘One Bar’ from Lighter (Geestgronden)
but Dutch pianist Theo Bruins was important for me – and through 4. ‘Scarlatti mix: chords and diversions from the sonatas’ from
him Sviatoslav Richter’. As an influence on his composing, Haydn Out Of Frame (Geestgronden)
was important, he says, and also Ives, Xenakis and Carl Philippe 5. ‘Ice Cream Konitz’ from Sound-Lee! plays the Music of Lee
Emmanuel Bach. His classical side is featured on the CD/DVD Konitz (Geestgronden)
Guus Janssen on Attacca, which has four solo concertos plus
documentary material on Janssen and his brother Wim. Most of
Janssen’s jazz recordings appear on the Geestgronden label. They Janssen replaced the ailing Mischa Mengelberg in the ICP (Instant
are contemporary classics that should be recognised as such. Composers Pool) Orchestra last year, where he works with old
friends from the 1980s. ‘The trio with Ernst [Glerum] doesn’t play
so much anymore as unfortunately a “jazz piano trio” is difficult to
sell these days,’ Janssen explains. ‘The Dutch culture cuts affect my
‘There’s a playful, Haydnesque working position.’ With frankness, he adds: ‘No complaints, in the
past we were also a little spoilt’. Sometime colleague, pianist John
whimsicality to Janssen’s music, Snijders, comments that ‘in the Netherlands he is often considered
whether improvised or composed – to be the most Dutch composer alive, and we’re always pleasantly
surprised if his compositions get recognition abroad’. Snijders adds:
a capacity to surprise, within a ‘His Dutchness is more a feeling than anything else, perhaps.’ e
logical construction’ Janssen recordings are available from www.subdist.com
NELLY BEN-OR
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IPJF17_088-089_R_Take50712OM.indd 89 12/12/2016 15:44
MUSIC OF MY LIFE
© NIKOL AJ LU ND
Music of my life
One of the most versatile pianists of today,
Kathryn Stott’s extraordinary musical gifts first
came to light in humble circumstances in
northwest England, where early influences
ranged from opera to soul music
M
Y PARENTS USED TO there. He would swan around looking Imp. In the ’60s everyone played there
collect 78s of opera music – incredibly glamorous and elegant – and from the Beatles and the Hollies to Dusty
mainly tenors – and they were smoking a cigar! Can you imagine?! I Springfield and Cilla Black, but that had
always playing the duet from The Pearl had learnt the piano accompaniment for all finished by the time I started going. I
Fishers. I was probably about seven or the Dvořák Cello Concerto to play with was 15 and I had to lie about my age. They
eight, and I just remember how beautiful another cellist at the Menuhin School, so used to run Soul Nights and the record,
the voices were. I loved the tune: I can I knew it inside out. I was obsessed with Can’t Give You Anything (even though the
remember every single note of it right it – the part where it goes into G-sharp in opening is slightly out of tune, which can
now. I have a deep love of opera and of the first movement. Gendron was a lovely be irritating) brings back that whole era
lower voices – tenors and cellos and all cellist and his recording of the Concerto of being a dancing teenager. I’ve never
that. I kept asking my parents why Pearl was the only one I ever listened to then. He said this in an interview before – it’s a
Fishers wasn’t performed more. How did also played Silent Woods on the same disc. I first! Just listen to the beginning. It used
I know it wasn’t? Maybe they told me. remember having it on repeat endlessly. It to make us so happy. If I hear the opening
Anyway, I wrote to Charles Mackerras at must have driven my parents mad! of it now, I feel delirious. I love it. It
English National Opera asking him why. Peter Norris was another of the teachers showed me that I could enjoy music of all
He was the only person in the opera world at the Menuhin [who went on to become kinds – and still do. Though I like silence
my parents could think of. They were a the School’s director]. He introduced us to a bit more these days. e
working-class couple in a council house a huge amount of music, including Wagner
in Nelson, Lancashire, who loved music; operas, which he was absolutely crazy INTERVIEW BY JEREMY NICHOLAS
but they weren’t going to the opera all about. We’d often have sessions of listening
the time. The miracle was that Mackerras to music while sitting on the floor in his
replied to my letter. apartment. I can remember very clearly
I was about 11 when some quite wealthy hearing the Liszt Sonata for the first time, Bizet
‘Au fond du temple saint’ – duet from
people in Lancashire invited me and my played by Horowitz. Towards the end of The Pearl Fishers
parents round to their house. I think they the big slow passage in the middle, I found Jussi Björling and Robert Merrill,
must have heard about me somehow – this myself thinking, ‘Gosh I’ve never heard the RCA Victor SO / Renato Cellini
RCA G010000245072X
was way out of my parents’ comfort zone piano sound quite like that!’ I can still hear
– but they had a very nice piano and let it now: it was a revelation. I’ve never really Granados
Goyescas
me play it. I think they just wanted to help idolised Horowitz since then, but this was Alicia de Larrocha
me in some way. They gave me an LP of a defining moment. It wasn’t about his Decca 4481912
Alicia de Larrocha, who I’d never heard virtuosity at the keyboard. It was about Dvořák
of, playing Spanish music which I’d never the sound – so different to Perlemuter and Cello Concerto
heard either. I felt very grown up – very others at the School. It made me realise Maurice Gendron, LPO / Bernard Haitink
Decca 4823864
special. This was something none of my that the piano can have all these different
friends would have had. It was the first sounds. I was moved by it. That was it. Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor
time anyone had ever given me anything I used to love going dancing when I Vladimir Horowitz
like that. came home to Nelson. I had a friend RCA 09026614152
I was eight when I went to the Menuhin from there – she was really the only one Hugo & Luigi / Weiss
School. Far from being homesick, I took that I’d remained friends with – and we Can’t Give You Anything (But My Love)
used to love soul music. We would go to The Stylistics
to it like a duck to water. The great French
Avco Records 6105 039
cellist Maurice Gendron used to teach the Imperial Ballroom – we called it the
IPJF17_090_R_MOML0712OM.indd 90 08/12/2016 10:42

“The Shigeru Kawai’s velvet tone and super responsive action
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© TULLY POTTER COLLECTION

January/February 2017 International Piano 3

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Four pianists delve into the riches

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Tribute to Hector Berlioz Top young talents

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