Innehållsförteckning för 116 från Pianist

Towards the end of this unusual summer I enjoyed listening to archive broadcasts of BBC Proms. One concert which had me on the edge of my seat was a 1997 Prom – the first solo piano recital in the festival’s history – given by Evgeny Kissin. It touched me to learn from the presenter’s introduction that Kissin’s teacher – Anna Kantor, of the Gnessin Academy in Moscow – had been in the audience that day. Kantor has followed her pupil ever since his feet could reach the pedals, almost as a member of the family. Her influence over him has been immense. As the beneficiary of selfless dedication, Kissin is hardly alone. Warwick Th ompson’s feature (p68) explores the history of great pianists and their teachers, beginning with Carl Czerny…

A range of new digital instruments from Yamaha features, among other developments, a new action which should further refine the relationship of the player to their piano. Depending on the model, all pianos feature either the GrandTouch or the new GrandTouch-S keyboards. Both claim an outstanding level of authenticity and rich harmony, partly achieved by the different key lengths, counterweights and the pivot point between the white and black keys. In addition, they offer a high degree of expressive control in individually shaping the tone from pianissimo to fortissimo. GrandTouch was the first major innovation in the Clavinova action when the CLP-600 series was launched in spring of 2017; it is based around the mechanical ‘escapement’ characteristic found on acoustic instruments. There are six new models, ranging from the simplest…

Pianists are often encouraged to think more like singers. There’s a long history of such advice, and by grasping the potential link between our ‘real’ voice and our ‘pianist’s’ voice, our playing should sound more compelling. From a rich literature on cantabile playing, dip into Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger’s wonderfully readable book, Chopin: Pianist and Teacher, which pulls together countless quotes and anecdotes from pianists, composers and critics. Seen often through the eyes of Chopin’s pupils, we realise just how lyrically-conceived good piano playing often is – and indeed how a close affinity with the human voice should ideally inform what we are doing when we tease out a melody, whether this be an upper or an inner line. In an earlier article (issue 100) I focused on the need to bring…

Piano practice involves a fair amount of repetition to get our pieces to the stage where we know what we want to do with them musically, and the physical movements involved have become automated (meaning we no longer have to think about them consciously). However, repetition comes at a price. We all know the expression ‘practice makes perfect’, but it turns out only perfect practice makes perfect! If we bear in mind that ‘practice makes permanent’ we can guard against a mañana attitude to practising, where we put off making corrections or improvements; instead of sorting these things out immediately when they arise, we ingrain habits that end up being remarkably difficult to shift later. The danger of repetition is that our practice can so easily become mindless and mechanical…

Key A flat Tempo Andante tranquillo Style Romantic Will improve your: ✔Voicing of melody ✔Phrasing ✔Thumb agility This glorious piece began life as a Mendelssohn song. Called Auf Flügeln des Gesanges (On Wings of Song), the song is No 2 from the 6 Gesänge Op 34. The text is by Heinrich Heine, the German poet to whom many of the great Romantic composers turned to for inspiration during the 1820s and 30s. Mendelssohn’s song was later transcribed for solo piano by Liszt, which is lucky for us as pianists because it enables us to play it without the addition of a singer! During his lifetime, Liszt transcribed numerous songs by his contemporaries; most especially those composed by Schubert. The fact that Liszt toured throughout Europe with these transcriptions enabled this…

Along with John Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker, Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, and Edward MacDowell, American composer George Whitefield Chadwick was a representative composer of what is called the Second New England School of American composers of the late 19th century. (The First New England School includes the late 18th- and early 19th-century composers). This cheeky little piece is No 6 from a set of character pieces called 10 Little Tunes for Ten Little Friends. Read Melanie Spanswick’s step-by-step lesson on page 20.…

Born in Rome, Clementi’s prodigious talents were recognised by a travelling Englishman who brought him to Dorset. There, age 13, he made the first steps of a long career that would see him tour as a keyboard soloist, run a publishing and piano-making firm, and compose many fine solo keyboard works such as this sonatina. So what’s the difference between a sonata and a sonatina anyway? We’ve been asked more than once over the years! In short, a sonatina is literally a small sonata. As a musical term, sonatina has no single strict definition; it is rather a title applied by the composer to a piece that is in basic sonata form, but is shorter and lighter in character, or technically more elementary, than a typical sonata. Playing tips: There…

Scarlatti was a virtuoso keyboard player as well as a composer, and his catalogue includes some 555 keyboard sonatas, many very demanding to play. This sonata dates from the early 1750s when the Italian-born composer had settled down in Madrid, Spain. Today’s concert pianists continue to programme his music; past and present advocates include Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Emil Gilels, Vladimir Horowitz, Ivo Pogorelich, Lucas Debargue and Scott Ross (the first performer to record all 555 sonatas!). Chenyin Li plays the sonata on the soundtrack and, as is customary with Baroque music, she adds extra ornaments here and there. With regards to tempo, she takes an andante pace (as marked above the score here). Other performers might prefer a faster tempo. Read Nils Franke’s step-by-step lesson on page 21.…

This lyrical and rather sentimental piece by Alkan is the third of his six Recueil de Chants (Collection of Songs) Op 65. Alkan wrote five volumes of Chants: Opp 38 (two books), 65, 67 and 70. He took as his inspiration and model Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, not merely sharing their harmonic language and length, but following the key sequence of Mendelssohn’s first book, Op 19 (E major, A minor, A major, A major, F sharp minor and G minor), even ending with a barcarolle. Mendelssohn’s ‘songs’ were composed between 1830 and 1845; Alkan’s between 1857 and the early 1870s. Pianist Mark Viner has added some detailed fingerings onto the score (note that those fingerings in italic are by Alkan himself). For playing tips, read Mark Viner’s article on page…

Well, this wasn’t something I ever intended to do at the outset, but was a gradual conviction. I always wanted to eventually record the major works and had at least a third of his oeuvre in my repertoire already. So after I recorded the Douze Etudes dans tous les tons majeurs Op 35, which was actually something my producer persuaded me to do initially, it gradually occurred to me that if anyone were to make a complete recording of Alkan’s piano works, I should be the one to do it. I’ve known and studied this music most of my life and have always had a strong sense of conviction when it came to interpreting it so, ultimately, it feels like it is a duty of mine to make a reliable,…

After the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony, Sergei Rachmaninov was plunged into a depression that lasted for three years. He suffered insomnia, lost his self-confidence and stopped composing. In desperation and on the recommendation of his aunt, he sought help from Dr Nikolai Dahl, a hypnotherapist who also employed cognitive therapy techniques. Rachmaninov recalled that at the end of each session Dahl would put him into a trance and reassure him that he would compose a great concerto. As the treatment progressed, Rachmaninov noticed his depression lift and he began work on the piece that would seal his reputation, the Piano Concerto No 2. It is dedicated to Dr Dahl.…

EMAIL: editor@pianistmagazine.com WRITE TO: The Editor, Pianist, Warners Group Publications, 31-32 Park Row, Leeds, LS1 5JD. Letters may be edited. Learning to perform I was delighted to read about the EPTA Festivals project inside Pianist 113 [www.epta-uk.org]. I have been running a festival for almost 30 years based at Somerset College on the Gold Coast, with the same ethos – it is all about learning to perform – and getting a positive boost from one’s hard work, with acknowledgement of the effort. At this stage, we only run the festival on one weekend based around junior performers (up to 14 years) but use up to ten venues at times, with up to some 3,000 entries in music and speech. I am so pleased to see the turn from the overcompetitiveness…

One small but significant side effect of Covid-19 in the UK has been the rediscovery of art music by the mainstream media. Apparently paralysed by the slow creep of cultural anxiety over the last half-century, print and broadcast outlets have steadily shrunk their classical coverage in response to fretful concerns over dread buzzwords: elitism, diversity, accessibility. Is it vain to hope that the pressures of quarantine have reversed the direction of this ever-decreasing vicious circle? Front Row is the daily shop window for the arts on BBC Radio 4, and between March and June the pianist Víkingur Ólafsson spoke and played weekly to an audience far more numerous and less specialist than devotees of the classical-centred Radio 3 (which has also enjoyed a Covid-related uptick of listeners). I can’t have…

1 Think like a singer. Choose speeds, phrase shapes and pedalling to create inner lines that sound singable, and which avoid the appearance of disconnected melodic notes. 2 Hunt out inner voices. These may languish inconspicuously lower down in a score, or else feature more prominently in the middle stave when three are used. 3 Mark in lines to indicate inner lines that might go unnoticed. Also mark in loops to remind you which hand/finger works best. 4 Be bold with dynamics, especially crescendos and diminuendos, to help bring out inner voices. 5 Practise inner lines in isolation at first, to lift them out of richer textures, then slowly reintroduce harmonies and accompanimental notes.…

Key C major Tempo Allegro moderato Style Late-Romantic Will improve your: ✔Hand-crossing technique ✔Articulation ✔Grace notes This light-hearted piece was written by American composer George W Chadwick. [There is more to read about Chadwick above the score, p30.] The suggested tempo marking of crotchet equals 104-118 beats per minute will help to procure a sparkling and bright performance with a hint of playfulness. Let’s begin with the LH. The accompanying chords demand a crisp touch, as indicated by the staccato markings. Try to ‘block out’ chords in each bar in bars 1-16 and 30-45. For example, play one triad for bar 1 (C, E, and G), then follow suit for all subsequent bars. This will give you an overview of the chordal structure and help assimilate note patterns and fingerings.…

LESSON 43: REPEATED NOTES On these pages, Pianist covers the most basic stages of learning the piano through a series of lessons by Hans-Günter Heumann. This lesson features a two-page exercise that will help you take control of your repeated-note technique. Notice how the fingerings constantly change; alternating the fingers allows for a more relaxed hand. Finger changes on the same key When playing the repeated notes, imagine that the tips of your fingers are lightly ‘scratching’ the keys. Hans-Günter Heumann continues his series for beginners in the next issue. To find out more about Heumann, visit www.schott-music.com…

Amy Beach, also known professionally as Mrs. H.H.A. Beach, was born into a prominent Massachusetts family and was a piano prodigy, giving her first public recital age seven. Following her marriage to a physician, she focused on composition, writing art songs, chamber music, concertos and many works for solo piano. This lively Gavotte is the second of five pieces that comprise her 1897 Children’s Album for the piano (the first piece appeared inside issue 84 and the fifth inside issue 110). Playing tips: This piece is in A-B-A form. For the entire A section (bars 1-16), there is continual, quick interplay between the hands; make sure you have a crisp and precise touch. Also try to keep the hands as close to the keys as possible, even if it is…

Brighton-born Frank Bridge achieved success as a composer, conductor and viola player. His early works show influences of the Romantic composers such as Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Franck, but in the period leading up to the First World War he demonstrated an interest in modernist tendencies, most notably in Dance Poem of 1913, which suggests the influence of Stravinsky and Debussy. During the War and immediately afterwards, Bridge wrote a number of pastoral and elegiac pieces that appear to search for spiritual consolation, and this second of three Miniature Pastorales, composed in 1917, portrays this mood. Playing tips: Nice to see the LH taking the role of melody for a change! At the start it does just that, so you will need to produce a rich, sonorous tone with the LH…

Introduction by Mark Viner: Alkan’s 25 Préludes dans tous les tons majeurs et mineurs Op 31 were first published in three volumes by Brandus of Paris in 1847 bearing a dedication to Mme. James Odier, wife of the cellist who was to later become dedicatee of the Sonate de concert Op 47 (1857) for cello and piano. While we may feel tempted to draw an invidious comparison with the set by Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), which appeared some eight years earlier, a cursory glance at Alkan’s example reveals the two composers’ intentions were vastly different. It would also be fair to argue that, like Chopin, Alkan cultivated the form of the prelude into a more elevated art form which is justified in its own right, rather than a quasi-improvised prefix rattled…

The original melody On Wings of Song (‘Auf Flügeln des Gesanges’) is a song by Felix Mendelssohn, and is the second from his set of six songs for voice and piano – the Op 34 Gesänge – written in 1834. The words are from a poem written in 1827 by the German Romantic poet Heinrich Heine. Liszt was so taken by the melody that he arranged it for solo piano in 1840. Note: The melody-line notes feature stems up and stems down: Stems up indicate that the notes are to be taken by the RH and stems down by the LH. Even if the score might seem a tad intimidating, Lucy Parham guides you calmly through it in her lesson. Read Lucy Parham’s step-by-step lesson on page 22.…

It’s a fairly simple story. When I was a pupil at the Purcell School of Music, every year there was a spring piano course focusing on a particular area of the repertoire. Each student was assigned a piece and participated in masterclasses given by a distinguished visiting pianist. At the end of the course, we presented our pieces in a joint concert. The first year I was in school, it so happened that the focus was the music of Alkan and Chopin: more specifically, the Douze Etudes dans tous les tons majeurs Op 35 of the former presented alongside the Douze Etudes Op 25 of the latter together with a shoal of miscellaneous pieces by both composers. Initially, I was given the eighth number of the 25 Préludes dans tous…

READY TO PLAY BOOKS 1 & 2 Sally Cathcart Alfred Music ISBN: 9 781470 613440 (Bk 1); -613457 (Bk 2) Sally Cathcart is a piano teacher, ABRSM examiner, and co-founder of The Curious Piano Teachers, an online community for piano teachers. These two workbooks aimed at young beginners and written for the first year of study are quite unlike any educational piano book that I have come across. The development of musicianship comes first in these books, utilising activities that focus on rhythm, pulse, singing, and creativity, underscored by solfège and the Kodály method. The piano is merely the instrument through which these concepts are explored, so they are designed to be used alongside, rather than in place of, piano tutorials. Attractive illustrations and novel ways of explaining concepts enhance…

Rameau had little money until late in life. Only in the last 20 years of his career did he start to mass-manufacture the operas that made his fortune. And yet he didn’t change a thing about the way he lived. He kept working at his harpsichord. He supposedly had a single pair of boots, one or two suits of clothing and he was a generous man. Debussy also didn’t have a comfortable life. He was doing all sorts of other things into his 40s when all he wanted to do was compose. He was a music critic, and he was a very tough one! But he wrote this about a performance of Castor et Pollux: ‘Rameau seems to be our contemporary’. And that became the seed for my album. The…

Bridge Miniature Pastorale No 2 (p43): For the first 16 bars, play the crotchet staccato chords very lightly to help focus the listener on the tune. Through bars 37-52, a similar effect is doable, though this will be harder to pull off because the melody and accompaniment are closer together, lower down the keyboard. Between bars 17-36, bring out the inner voices, which wind their way flowingly between the hands. Alkan Prélude Op 31 No 1 (p51): The octave Gs, which form a slow-moving ostinato for the opening four bars, distract us from the all-important inner voice – you could omit these octaves at first. Be happy to break an occasional more challenging stretch, for example the ninths in bars 2, 5 and 6. Pedal certainly eases the process of gluing the…

Key F major Tempo Allegro/Andante Style Baroque Will improve your: ✔Non legato ✔Ornamentation ✔Use of dynamics Playing Baroque keyboard music on the piano can attract strong views. But only because performers have so many choices to make. The following four points should help you decide how, and why, you want to play this sonata in a particular way. Decision 1: Touch. Written for the harpsichord (the strings are plucked) and nowadays played on the piano (the strings are struck), Scarlatti would have heard a crisp, clear sound. Pianists tend to translate this into the use of non legato on the piano. You might adopt the view that the mechanics of playing the piano (e.g. use of arm weight) are different from playing the harpsichord and require a more legato touch.…

Throughout his life, English composer Thomas Attwood benefited from the patronage of the royal family, who even sent him to Vienna to study with Mozart. The royal investment was not wasted: Mozart was impressed by him. This is the first movement from his Sonatina No 3. Playing tips: The LH is the accompaniment, so make sure to keep it flowing and to stick to a solid tempo, with a slight emphasis on the first beat. There should be no bumps at all; smoothness is the key to success! The melody in the RH should sing sweetly. Make sure to shape the melodic line by thinking in four-bar phrases. Build up a nice crescendo from bar 13 and then, at bar 19, when the RH starts to descend, make a gradual…

This is an enchanting and hypnotic piece. We stumbled across it a few months back and we think readers will love it. Introduction from the composer: Prelude No 3 is part of a forthcoming album called Preludes – Before Play. Throughout the past year, I began revisiting some of my piano compositions written over the past few years. Piecing them together, the image I gleaned was a portrait of childhood, both past and in the process of becoming. This piece was one of my first movie soundtracks written when I was still in music school. Composer’s playing tips: I recorded Prelude No 3 on my upright piano and used the una corda (middle) pedal. It should be played softly and calmly as if it was the music of an old…

The jazzy number They Can’t Take That Away from Me was introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film Shall We Dance and gained huge success. With music by George Gershwin and lyrics by brother Ira, it has been performed by an array of artists including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Van Morrison and Robbie Williams. This attractive arrangement is penned by pianist, teacher, composer and arranger, John Kember. Playing tips: The interpretation on the Pianist album might sound a little ‘straight’. We suggest allowing for more rhythmic liberty – i.e. for swing-style quavers, which will make for a more syncopated interpretation. (In swing style, the beat is divided into two, but unevenly, reflecting an underlying triplet feel. Downbeats are 2/3 of a beat in length while upbeats are only 1/3…

Alkan’s 25 Préludes dans tous les tons majeurs et mineurs were first published in 1847, and were designed to be played on the piano or organ. The préludes go through all 24 keys, returning to a final Prière (Prayer) in the original key of C major. The 25 Préludes comprise three suites (Nos 1-9, 10-17 and 18-25). The first set starts out calmly with No 1, printed on the previous page, and proceeds in a sequence of keys that moves alternately up a fourth and down a third. La chanson de la folle au bord de la mer (The song of the mad woman on the shore) has a completely different feel, conveying deep tones of the sea itself combined with increasing tension from the mad woman’s ‘voice’. For playing…

‘Moving forward.’ Seldom will two words bring greater joy to piano teachers as they look forward, at long last, to their first face-to-face lessons with pupils. However, must we relish the possibility of shunning Zoom, Facetime and Skype for good as we return to our happy lives as piano teachers in the real world? Let us not be too negative about the past six months. True, it has been hard and tiring. At times, when the internet has been dodgy or when it has been difficult to get hold of copies of pieces, it has been frustrating and exasperating. But lockdown has made many of us stronger, more resilient, organised, lateral-minded and creative. In the major crisis that we have all been through it has been necessary for many of…

Prélude Op 31 No 1 (p51) The smooth, glassy textures of this opening prélude, together with its nonchalant rhythmic scheme, instills a sense of serenity through its iterations. The melody, harnessed within the conffines of an octave, render it effectively a miniature study in voicing which might serve as a valuable pendant to the study of other such pieces – notably the second of Saint-Saëns’s Six Etudes Pour l’indépendance des doigts Op 52 or, closer to home, Alkan’s mighty étude, Posément, the eleventh number of the Douze Etudes dans tous les tons majeurs Op 35. The main difficulty in such writing lies in voicing the melodic line while ensuring that the rest of the notes in the chord are struck with it simultaneously; a tall order, on reffection, as this…

Reading music and playing the piano enhances mood and quality of living, especially among older adults. Studies have reported less acute feelings of isolation, reduced anxiety and enhanced brain function. The brain functions on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis and playing a musical instrument such as the piano helps reorganise the brain’s neural pathways. Playing a musical instrument, as distinct from merely listening to music, helps reduce the incidence of dementia. Studies have found six months of piano lessons in older adults improves brain function, memory and dexterity. Playing the piano lowers cortisol levels and decreases anxiety, which also aids disease prevention.…