Innehållsförteckning för 115 från Pianist

LESSONS FROM THE EXPERTS MELANIE SPANSWICK is a pianist, writer, teacher and composer. As an author, she is published by leading publishing houses, and has written a three-book piano course for those returning to piano playing; Play It Again: PIANO (Schott Music). Melanie teaches the piano at Junior Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Eton College. As a composer, her music is published in the renowned Edition Schott Composer Series. Read Melanie Spanswick’s lesson on page 20 NILS FRANKE is Dean of Higher Education at the University Centre Colchester, UK, having previously held posts at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and the University of Reading. He has recorded for Warner and Brilliant Classics. Nils specialises in historical performance pedagogy, with a particular focus on 19th-century…

Best known as the composer of the waltz that is the basis of Beethoven’s famous variations, Diabelli was an accomplished musician and teacher. In 1818, he founded a music publishing firm in Vienna that published much of Schubert’s music. This is a good warm-up for the beginner and a good sight-reading piece for those more advanced. Look closely at the technical tips within the score. The key is C major. The melody comprises short, two-bar phrases. Think of the second phrase (bars 3 and 4) as answering the first phrase (bars 1 and 2). And so on. Don’t let the phrase markings fool you into thinking that this piece should be played legato. Quite the opposite: You should aim for a slightly detached sound – but not staccato (listen to…

This elegantly conceived piece could almost be one of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words. However, the great Romantics were still children when Paris-born composer Boëly was writing works like his Caprices and character pieces. This is the final piece from his Op 46. Playing tips: At the start, the top part takes care of the rippling accompaniment while the LH carries the melody – which is often played by the thumb. The bass notes of the LH should descend in a tranquil fashion through bars 1-3 (F#, E, D) reaching the C# in bar 4. When practising, don’t always play all the lines of music. For example, leave out the semiquavers and just play the melody line (whether it be in the LH or RH). By doing this, you will have…

A Grieg Lyric Piece has often found its way into our Scores section. To date, we have featured some 20. We felt that this one – the evocative Summer’s Eve from Op 71 – was apt, due to the current time of year. Playing tips: Glance over the pages, and it is obvious where the tricky moments appear. Yes, it’s those RH semiquaver patterns in bars 14, 16 etc, and then again on the last page. Take these bars out of context and practise the RH on its own, slowly. Fingerings have been suggested, but you can come up with your own. These semiquavers should sparkle – try to play them evenly, but always remember to shape them so that they tail off naturally. Make sure the RH grace notes…

WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM Though Anatoly Liadov was an important member of composer circles in St Petersburg that included Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, his self-critical and indolent behaviour meant he never reached the top ranks. Nonetheless, works such as this Barcarolle, published in 1898, remind us of his charming and utterly Romantic style. Read Lucy Parham’s step-by-step lesson on page 22. DON’T MISS LUCY PARHAM’S LESSON ONTHIS PIECE PAGE 22…

In the first chapter of Charles Rosen’s fantastic book, Piano Notes, he talks about the conventionally accepted way of playing scales by crossing the thumb under the hand. He quotes Dinu Lipatti: ‘You know, it has been at least ten years since I last crossed my thumb under the third finger.’ Instead of crossing the thumb under the hand, Rosen himself goes on to say that: ‘It is better for me to keep my hand at a steady angle and displace the arm quickly to the right when shifting from the third finger to the thumb, and I have learned how to accomplish this legato.’ I was delighted when I read this, since this technique of shifting to the left or the right in a quick lateral movement is one…

Pianos go out of tune for many reasons. Older ones can suffer from loose tuning pins while all are sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity. Too dry and the soundboard can split; too wet and glue can dissolve, wooden parts rot and strings rust. In houses with underfloor heating, fitting a dedicated piano carpet beneath the instrument with a heat deflecting material is a good idea. Strategically placing a bowl of water in an upright piano to keep the air moist is popular with owners, but tuners are wary of water inside pianos – and in any case, most bowls are rarely topped up. To help your piano stay in tune, invest in a combined temperature and humidity sensor and make sure your piano room remains within a temperature…

Answer the question below correctly, and you could be one of three lucky winners to receive Mariam Batsashvili’s acclaimed debut on Warner Classics. Deadline for entries: 24 September 2020 Gounod’s Ave Maria is based on an original piece by which composer? A. JS Bach B. Liszt C. Schubert Answer to page 4 competition in issue 112: B, Opus 57. Congratulations to winner Mr William Seaman from St Asaph, Wales. Answer to page 4 competition in issue 113: A, Johann Maelzel. Congratulations to winner Alan Jones from Hull, UK. ENTER ONLINE AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM…

Austrian composer Carl Czerny is most remembered for his abundant number of studies. As the title implies, this Op 823 set of studies is aimed at the young student – but we think it’s a good exercise for all ages! Playing tips: The most tricky thing to perfect in this short piece is the ability to master all the different articulations. You will notice that the hands usually ‘act’ separately: for example, at the start, notice how the LH plays four bars of legato, while the RH plays one bar legato, one bar staccato and so on. When playing the repeated notes, try to make a slight emphasis on the first one (as it’s the first beat of the bar). Implementing the dynamics will help add colour and variety. Pedalling…

Having heard her play Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ and Grieg’s A minor Concertos, George Bernard Shaw proclaimed Norwegian composer and pianist Agathe Backer Grøndahl as ‘one of the century’s greatest piano artistes’. However, she withdrew from a concert career in 1889, dedicating her time to composition and teaching. Her practical knowledge of the keyboard was brought to bear on exquisite character pieces such as an Op 45 set of Fantasiestykker (Fantasy Pieces, in the genre of Schumann’s Fantasiestücke) in which this Song of Youth appears. The first piece from the set, Summer Song, appeared in Pianist 102. Playing tips: Try to feel a strong pulse before you begin; the melody is static and slow, so you will need to work with the tempo, shaping the melody and making it move. Voice the…

Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn) composed over 460 pieces of music, but due to social conventions of the time about the roles of women, some of her works were published under her famous brother Felix’s name in his Op 8 and 9 collections. Pianist has featured two pieces by Hensel in past issues: the ravising Mélodie Op 4 No 3 appeared inside issue 94 and the enchanting Bagatelle No 2 inside issue 110. Playing tips: It is clear by the harmonic language and chord progressions, that Hensel was influenced by the sounds of the organ; from beginning to end, there is a real chorale-like feeling to the Prelude. In order to produce a rich, sonorous and often forte sound in the octaves and thick chords, dig into the key bed –…

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. As piano teachers, it is vital that we remain creatively charged and imaginative. We often hear the same pieces, scales and studies played week after week by pupils who can get stuck in a routine full of limitations. We need to stimulate their energy and curiosity. This can be done by openly expressing a desire for change, contrast and new angles with the same materials they bring to the weekly lesson. With scales and arpeggios, boredom can be transformed…

A typical day always begins the same way: strong Italian coffee! I’m not really a morning person, so a caffeine hit first thing is essential. My recording studio at home also serves as an office, so once I’ve opened up the studio and had some Weetabix, I spend the first hour of my day dealing with emails. By 11am I am ready to immerse myself in whatever the priority project is for that particular day. During lockdown, I have been working on two creative projects. The first of these was a morale-boosting effort for the UK theatre industry. Our friends and colleagues in the performing arts world are facing a real challenge in that no theatres are likely to reopen anytime soon; so I teamed up with colleagues Martin Milnes,…

What does heaven sound like? We’ll never know until it’s too late, but if there are angels and harps involved, they will surely be playing ‘the’ Ave Maria. Lifting my gaze into the blue yonder I see poor Gounod sitting on a cloud and cursing his luck that it took another half a century – and campaigns first by Johann and then Richard Strauss – for the principle of music copyright and composers’ rights to gain legally binding force. But who’s that hurling thunderbolts from a higher realm? I spy the stern countenance of JSB brandishing a divine writ with menaces. Everyone borrows from Bach, but surely no one since Gounod has done it so brazenly, or for that matter with such complete success. This is the mark of a…

German composer and pianist Ferdinand Beyer wrote a famous piano method (Vorschule im Klavierspiel Op 101) as well as making numerous arrangements of works by Bellini, Wagner and others. This calm study is No 17 from the set. Look closely at the technical tips within the score. The key is C major. When you start learning this piece, begin at a very slow tempo, building up the speed over time. Find a nice, calm tempo. It helps to count a couple of bars silently before you start. In the RH, make sure that the semibreves are legato and that the sound of the notes last the entire bar. Also try to shape the long 8-bar phrases.…

WATCH WORBEY & FARRELL PLAY THIS PIECE AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM Playing tips from Steven Worbey: Keep the RH wrist free and fingers firm in order to play the broken chords evenly. Make sure the RH thumb isn’t too heavy; the thumb can be clumsy, so you need to be aware of its natural weight compared to the other fingers. As the person who is in control of the sustain pedal, you are responsible for making sure that the melody – played in both hands by the Primo part – is caught with the pedal. These melody notes are not always held as long as they would be in a solo performance of this piece. Note: keep your RH as low as possible because the LH of the Primo part will need…

This Adagio is the second (and final) movement of this incomplete two-movement work, which was believed to have been written before Beethoven left Bonn in 1792. If you are keen to learn the whole Sonatina, the first movement appeared inside issue No 114. Playing tips: Fingering is always subjective, but as the pedal is to be used liberally, why not go with ‘easy’ hand positions? The melody should sing sweetly over a calm LH accompaniment. Make sure that the rapid RH semiquavers – e.g. end of bars 5 and 6 – don’t stick out; they should be light, melodic and graceful, and should move towards the next bar. The rests are important, so make sure that the listener can ‘hear’ them. Pedal tips: Even if there are markings on the…

In 1789, Haydn composed an Allegro and Minuet, possibly intending them to stand as a two-movement keyboard sonata. The following spring he added an Adagio e cantabile to create a three-movement work, Sonata No 49. Although the autograph carries a dedication to Maria Anna (‘Nanette’) Jerlischeck, of the Esterházy household, Haydn intended the Sonata for his close friend and confidante Maria Anna von Genzinger. Playing tips: This has to be the happiest piece inside this issue’s Scores! The simple, yet adorable, RH tune appears five times (once with a brief change of key into E flat minor at bar 61); when it appears for the final time – end of bar 102 – it should sound triumphant (played forte). The LH has the role of a calm but secure accompanist.…

Thank heavens for Wigmore Hall, which came out of lockdown early in June to present a daily series of lunchtime recitals live on BBC Radio 3. The last but one of them was given by the reigning queen of Bach on the piano, Angela Hewitt. She had been due to receive the Wigmore Medal – bestowed before now on piano luminaries such as Martha Argerich, Menahem Pressler and Sir András Schiff – on 2 June, when she would have played The Art of Fugue as the culmination to a four-season Bach Odyssey. Covid-19 may have put a stop to that, but once the microphones were off, the medal was still presented by the Hall’s executive director, John Gilhooly. Since her debut there in 1985, Hewitt has given more than 80…

In Mary Wollaston, a novel by Henry Kitchell Webster published in 1920, a young man called Anthony March wins the heart of the story’s title character through his physique and intellect – and ability to tune a grand piano. It’s hard to imagine a piano tuner being the hero of a romantic story today, but in the real world, these skilled professionals with their keen ears and almost magical skills don’t need to be a brainy beefcake to impress. Who hasn’t listened with growing anticipation in an adjoining room as the tuner painstakingly revives our piano? And then, when their work is done, dashed to the instrument to play, inspired by its refreshed tones? It makes you wonder why so many of us allow months to pass between tunings. In…

Although my teacher Marjorie Withers encouraged me in every way, and got me to a standard where I was able to play on ‘Music Club’ (a programme on the Childrens’ Department of the BBC Home Service when I was 13 years old), it never occurred to me that this could be a profession. But when I was 16, my father and aunt took me to the Royal Festival Hall to hear Julius Katchen, and that was a turning point. I remember feeling cross that he could play Brahms’s Paganini Variations better than me! I was determined to try to reach his level from that moment on. It was in a tea shop in Beaconsfield that I told my mother that I wanted to become a pianist. Marjorie was wife of…