Innehållsförteckning för 114 från Pianist

The tango dance originated in Buenos Aires and is based on a binary 2/4 beat. It comprises two people dancing in close proximity. Our 2020 Composing Competition winner Giuseppe Capasso writes con sentimento at the start of his Blue Habanera tango, so make sure to bring passion and feeling to the music. Think of the dancers facing each other and staring into each other’s eyes, their movements almost entwined. Playing tips: The LH is the rhythmic foundation over which the dramatic RH melody shines. Feel the sultry ebb and flow of the music (notice the rallentandos and a tempos), but the pulse, even if sometimes abrupt, should always be solid. When the LH jumps around the keyboard (which happens throughout), try hardest not to look down at the keys; instead,…

Notes from the composer: Amazing Grace is a popular Christian Hymn, recorded by many singers from R&B artists such as Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles to country singers Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. It has been said that Amazing Grace is performed over 10 million times per year and has been recorded on albums exceeding 11,000. The words were written by John Newton in 1772 and the hymn published back in 1779. Amazing Grace is played regularly in Methodist and Baptist churches across the USA and this arrangement in 3/4 uses typical Gospel harmonies found in these churches. To give Amazing Grace its ‘swing’, triplets are used throughout the music as well as octaves and big four-note chords to make this wonderful hymn sound authentic. When playing the grace notes,…

Some say Sonata; some say Sonatina. We go with the latter as the title for this incomplete two-movement work, which was believed to have been written before Beethoven left Bonn in 1792. Playing tips: Right from the start (before the first barline) you’re faced with a technical hurdle. Yes, it’s that trill! Play into it gently, keeping it light, making sure that it moves towards the minim of the next bar. Triplets appear in bar 9, so be ready for the rhythmic change. Duple time returns again at bar 32 (start of the development). The LH acts mainly as the accompaniment, but there are a few lovely lines to bring out (e.g. bar 27). In the development section, try not to rush or ‘collapse’ into the arpeggiated chords. These chords…

Pedalling is such a huge topic, you could write a book about it. In fact, people have, among them the pianist Alexander Bukhovtsev who, in 1896, wrote Guide to the Proper Use of the Pianoforte Pedals (Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-42782-X), using examples of the great pianist Anton Rubinstein’s performances to illustrate his points. Just skimming Bukhovtsev’s chapter headings alone opens one’s mind to the possibilities and challenges of the pedals: Use of the pedal with single notes or chords; The action and effect of the pedal on rests or pauses; The management of the pedals in passages of thirds; The use of the (right) pedal in chord passages, chromatic and otherwise. Among the ideas discussed in Bukhovtsev’s guide is the new legato or syncopated pedalling technique that was then emerging…

At the end of 1967, Dave Brubeck disbanded his famous quartet. Ever since 1958, when the group’s line-up stabilised around Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto saxophone), Eugene Wright (bass) and Joe Morello (drums), the ‘classic’ Dave Brubeck Quartet had been an essential part of the modern jazz landscape. Brubeck’s 1959 album Time Out, in which he presented the first versions of ‘Blue Rondo à la Turk’ and ‘Take Five’, took instrumental jazz to the pop charts for the first time since the 1930s, when the likes of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw had been the pop stars of their day. Brubeck disbanded the group because quitting while he was ahead seemed sensible, but also because he wanted to devote his creative energies to writing choral and orchestral music. fiat aspiration,…

Kathryn Page has appeared in concert and on television as a soloist and in chamber music. She is a teacher, adjudicator and administrator for Chetham’s International Summer School and Festival for Pianists, as well as the Manchester International Concerto Competition for young pianists. She lives in Cheshire and has five children. Like so many other professional colleagues over the past few months, Covid-19 has forced me online in order to continue teaching. Now that I have got into a routine with it all, it has become evident that online one-to-one pedagogy is incredibly good Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for piano teachers – not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of organisation, delivery and variety of style, and managing energy levels. In short, I cannot emphasise enough just…

This tender lullaby by German Romantic composer Carl Reinecke appears in his Ein Neues Notenbuch für Kleine Leute (a new notebook for small people) which comprises 30 pieces – many of which feature endearing titles such as At the mill, Children and cuckoos and Dragonflies in the sunshine. Playing tips: Try to keep the fingers as close to the keys as possible. The staccatos, even if detached, should be played within the context of a lullaby – hence, keep them soft and gentle. In the LH, you will see that the thumb often plays a black note; students are often told to avoid thumbs on black notes, but it’s often actually the best fingering, as it is here! Make a well-judged decrescendo towards the end, aiming for your quietest pianississimo.…

WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM/LESSONS Quite the virtuoso, Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk bridged the gap between the Classical and Romantic eras in his musical writing. However, this energetic and playful Allegro, written in 1810, is 100 per cent Classical in style. Playing tips: In order to play this piece with physical ease, you might wish to adjust your piano stool a little, moving it slightly to the right. That’s because there’s a fair amount of playing in the upper register of the piano – even the LH often appears in the treble. A notable feature throughout is the accent on the second beat in the RH (seen first in bar 5). Try to ‘fall’ onto the note, so as to bring out the witty syncopation – this will…

French harpsichordist and composer Pancrace Royer was Director of Paris’s Opera orchestra and teacher to the children of King Louis XV. Today, his name has all but vanished from the music history books and one wonders why; his Premier Livre de Pièces de clavecin, of which this catchy L’Aimable is No 6, is full of pianistic delights. Playing tips: On the recording, Chenyin Li takes liberties with ornaments, many of which are inverted mordents rather than normal upper-note mordents. Taking such liberties was normal practice in Royer’s day, so the performer can decide what to do, always with good taste in mind. The Dal Segno repeat sign (at bar 53 and at the end), and the Fine (bar 33), might confuse, so here is how it should be played: bars…

DON’T MISS LUCY PARHAM’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE PAGE 22 WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM/LESSONS This wistful waltz was written in 1890, when Debussy was in his late 20s. He started working on his groundbreaking Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune just a year later, in 1891, but it is clear to the ear the huge difference in style between the two works.Valse romantique is written in Debussy’s Late Romantic style. Read Lucy Parham’s step-by-step lesson on page 22.…

Hearing loss, sometimes avoidable, often the gift of advancing years, has ended the careers of too many fine musicians and blighted those of others. The subject remains one of the great taboos among professional performers – a burden never to be shared for fear of losing out to younger colleagues. It can also drain the spirit from keen amateur music makers, those who play or sing for pleasure, reminding each of their failing powers. While hearing health tops the musicians’ list of wellbeing concerns, sight loss is often ignored until those little black and white notes on a page have turned from familiar friends into blurred battalions. Pianists returning to, or learning the instrument as a retirement project, may discover that what once could be taken for granted – shifting…

One track has been streamed three and a half million times, and another a mere two and a half million. They’ve recorded composers you’ve never heard of, and composers you’ll wonder how you lived without. They’ve even persuaded top virtuosi to record Grade 1 exercises. Whether you’re looking to explore the music of Mozart’s contemporaries, or kick your heels to some fabulous foxtrots, or just let your jaw drop at extravagant displays of keyboard fireworks (‘Liszt on steroids’ as one reviewer described a recent recording of a little-known composer), then you need look no further than the feisty and brilliant label known as Grand Piano. ‘There really is something for everyone,’ says Astrid Angvik, the director of the label. ‘We’ve got around 200 titles now, and it continually amazes me…

Filling in my diary at the start of the year, I noted down Yuja Wang at the Barbican in March, the launch of the BBC Proms in April, the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv in May. You will have had red-letter dates of your own. Diaries everywhere, of course, now lie useless and unopened during our months of lockdown as we protect ourselves and everyone else from the spread of Covid-19. What to do, for the amateur pianist and piano lover? Practise, of course. What about the professionals, and the rest of the music industry? Th e concert halls whose chairs are empty? Th e festivals who have cancelled for the year? Th e teachers who can no longer accept pupils past the front door? Th ey must…

DON’T MISS MELANIE SPANSWICK’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE PAGE 20 German Romantic composer Hermann Berens was born in Hamburg into a musical family. After completing his studies in Dresden under the composer Carl Gottlieb Reissiger (famous, even today, for his popular Weber’s Last Waltz), he located to Stockholm, Sweden, where he died. Berens wrote a great deal of chamber music, including trios and duets, but he is best remembered for his compositions for solo piano. This piece is No 4 from a set of 20 ‘easy’ studies, and is a joy to play and listen to. Tune in to Melanie Spanswick’s step-by-step lesson on page 20.…

The Minuet in C sharp minor is somewhat of an enigma: It has been suggested that the piece, along with the Trio in E (D610), together form a third movement to the Sonata in C D613. But that’s as far as the suggestion goes. While the Trio dates from 1818, the same year as the Sonata D613, the Minuet was re-dated to 1813 and is therefore probably unrelated to the Trio or the Sonata. No matter what, it’s a startlingly ahead-of-its-time piece, made famous by Arcadi Volodos, who often likes to perform it as an encore. Playing tips: The articulation is challenging: the RH needs to be sempre legato and the LH sempre staccato. Rather than play the LH too detached and dry, aim to make it tread carefully and…

Finnish composer Oskar Merikanto seems to be a real hit with our readers. Ever since we published his Valse lente inside issue 78, we’ve had requests for more. Playing tips: The hardest technical challenge in this piece is the execution of the thickly textured, wide-interval chords, such as at bars 22 and 25. If they prove too difficult (remember, never stretch to the point of pain), leave out the note that is doubled. In the più mosso section at bar 29, keep the wrists loose through the octave playing. The recitative-like section at bar 49 takes us back to the opening melody, and the magical coda (starting bar 71) brings the piece to a poignant close.…

In the sixth and final lesson of this series, John Geraghty wraps things up by taking a look at thirteenth chords, and demonstrates how to harmonise any piece of music with these chords Introduction In the last lesson (issue 113), you learned how to create eleventh chords, how to voice them with both hands and how to add them to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. In this last and final lesson, you will learn about: • Thirteenths – seven-note chords using the C major scale • Seven-note chord voicings for both hands • How to harmonise Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with thirteenth chords How to create a thirteenth chord – seven-note chord Using the numbered system, the thirteenth note is, of course, the thirteenth note within the major scale. A quicker…

One of the most exciting things about the Pianist Composing Competition is the moment when the judges know they’re on to a winner. We look at each other – that’s me, musician Alexis Ffrench, composer John Kember, music educator Nigel Scaife and pianist-composer Melanie Spanswick – with a certain smile. Just one last play-through and we’re nearly there. Yes, this piece fits well under the fingers, it makes coherent musical sense and it’s not too hard. Oh, and it’s a joy to play! Having waded carefully through over 100 entries, the decision is unanimous: Italian music-school teacher Giuseppe Capasso is this year’s winner – with his sultry and dramatic Blue Habanera. Some days later, I call Capasso to break the news. He is, of course, beyond delighted. ‘I didn’t expect…