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A decade or so ago I was invited to a private performance given by this month’s cover artist, Gabriela Montero. Sitting at the piano without a score in sight, she asked the audience for melodies on which to improvise. As someone who has played with my eyes glued to the page for most of my life, I was in awe. How did she do it? Where did she learn to improvise? Was it a gift, a talent or a carefully honed skill? It had me thinking about organists in the French tradition – running from Marcel Dupré to Jeanne Demessieux to Olivier Latry – who continue to improvise every week: it is part of their craft. Why then, as Warwick Th ompson puts it in his feature on the subject,…

Grieg Berceuse Op 38 No 1: This exquisite Lyric Piece has many pedal markings, and these need an assiduous treatment to prevent muddled harmonies. That said, a tendency to clear the pedal a fraction too early may sometimes cause tiny but unwanted breaks to the musical flow. Practise the all-important transitions, e.g. bars 58-59, to preserve a smooth LH delivery while the RH repositions itself. The final bars show Grieg at his most magical; here I like to be deliberately a fraction ‘late’ with the changes and live right on the edge of harmonic blurring! Cervantes Cuban Dance No 1: There are plenty of possibilities for colourful pedalling in this marvellous Cuban dance. These are often so subtle, personal and dependent upon the degree to which you’re wanting to tease…

Key G major Tempo Andante Style Late Romantic Will improve your ✔ Legato playing ✔ Pedalling ✔ Left-hand leaps This endearing miniature was written by the little-known British Romantic composer Cuthbert Harris. It moves along calmly at a dotted crotchet equals 56 beats per minute. Comprising four-bar phrases, a successful performance rests on a supportive and gentle LH accompaniment combined with an expressive, cantabile RH melodic line. By using the pedal with the LH on its own, you will be able to hear the sound and the resonance more clearly Let’s start with the LH. The barcarolle-like rhythmic pattern remains constant throughout, with harmonies changing every bar. Bar 1, for example, comprises the G major tonic chord – G, B and D. I suggest reading through the piece and determining…

So, as we can see in Bach’s original – that is to say, in the printing supervised by him, which is pretty rare for Bach sources and something that we’re very lucky to have – the ‘melody’ in crotchets has the stems pointing upwards whilst the quaver figurations have the stems pointing downwards. This is irrefutable evidence that Bach intended for the RH to play the melody. Now, you might be noticing a lot of videos on YouTube and elsewhere of great pianists (most notably Sokolov, whose playing of Bach’s music I absolutely treasure above all others) playing the melody with the LH. There are a few reasons for this. Early 19th-century editions of Bach did this to make it easier to play the Giga faster. As far as I’m…

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. Now I Lay Me Down is No 2 from Chadwick’s volume entitled Ten Little Tunes for Ten Little Friends. No 6, The Cricket and the Bumblebee, appeared inside issue 116 with a lesson by Melanie Spanswick. Playing tips: The RH carries the melody. In order to shape it well, follow the phrase markings and dynamics. Even if the LH takes the role of underlying accompaniment, it has its own melodic line, so make sure to phrase it as well, ensuring all the notes are audible. Bars 17-24 see a brief…

Tchaikovsky composed his Album for the Young in 1878, exactly 30 years after Schumann composed his volume of works which bears the same title. The German composer wrote a prolific 43 small works in his album, whereas Tchaikovsky decided on a more modest 24. Playing tips: The short and solemn Morning Prayer, which opens the set, is basically a chorale for four ‘voices’. The technical difficulty here is the ability to highlight the differences in the voices, especially the RH upper voice which is usually played by the ‘weaker’ fingers. Lean the hand slightly to the right, so that there is more arm-weight over those fingers, and keep the alto line quiet. Marked Lento, the piece might have the tendency to drag, so follow the musical line and be aware…

Criticism of Nielsen’s piano music has centred on its perceived ‘unpianistic’ qualities, and it’s true that, like Sibelius, the piano was far removed from the centre of Nielsen’s composing activity. However, also like Sibelius – and Grieg – he had a master composer’s gift for creating and sustaining a particular mood from very early in his career. The Folk Tune which opens this set of five pieces was printed in Pianist 99 and the Dance of the Elves, the final piece, was printed in Pianist 106. Playing tips: Start out by practising slowly and hands separately: the RH melody should dance and flow, whilst the LH accompaniment needs to master jumps and octaves. Some of Nielsen’s harmonies might sound odd (e.g. the RH line in bar 6), but that only…

WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM French Romantic composer Melanie Helene Bonis (known as Mel Bonis) wrote some 300 works – including pieces for piano solo and piano four hands. First published in 1909, the romantically lyrical Phoebe is the opening piece of Bonis’s Trois Pieces pour Piano. Playing tips: Firstly, even if this piece has an improvisatory feel to it, try to keep a steady pulse. The tempo is Andante and the whole work, from beginning to end, should feel like one big dream. Yes, there are fluctuations in tempo (see bar 15, as one example), but still keep moving. The hardest technical challenge is in the LH: the constant run of semiquavers should be played evenly and quietly. Not an easy thing to do! When you practise…

For Charles Darwin, improvisation was an essential foundation of evolutionary success. ‘[It is] those who have learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively who have prevailed,’ he wrote in On the Origin of Species. For many musicians however, the word ‘improvisation’ can sound uncannily like the phrase ‘tooth extraction without anaesthetic.’ If improvisation is vital for our success as a species, why is it that so few of us feel able to conquer our fears of improvising at the piano, even in private? One answer could be that the best improvisers are simply differently wired to the rest of us. As Jessica Duchen suggests in her cover article, Gabriela Montero’s brain might have peculiar neural pathways which aren’t found in most other craniums. She was born an improviser. Th at’s…

Moniuszko ‘Opera Songs for Piano’ Cyprien Katsaris Frederick Chopin Institute NIFCCD113 Typically quirky, beautifully sprung accounts of effortlessly memorable salon miniatures Szymanowska Mazurkas, Nocturnes, Preludes etc. Anna Ciborowska Dux DUX0450 Maria, not Karol: gently ruminative nocturnes and mazurkas by Chopin’s notable female predecessor, the mother-in-law of Adam Mickiewicz Różycki Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2 Jonathan Plowright, BBC Scottish SO/Borowicz Hyperion CDA68066 Fire-breathing solo writing, grandly sweeping melodies and a melancholy turn of mind: a Polish (but French-accented) Rachmaninov? Zarębski, Bacewicz Piano Quintets Warsaw Quintet Dux DUX0530 High-Romantic and postwar Polish musical voices and big personalities, both in command of scintillating piano writing within a chamber context and for the really adventurous… ‘100 for 100 – Musical Decades of Freedom’ Anaklasis ANABOX (36CDs plus 10 booklets and a book) The…

THE PIANO: A HISTORY IN 100 PIECES Susan Tomes Yale University Press ISBN: 978-0-30025-392-4 This is Susan Tomes’s personal tour through the rich history of the piano’s repertoire – and what an interesting, entertaining, and enthusiastic guide she is over the course of its 350-odd pages. The selection of 100 pieces she chooses to stop and talk about aren’t limited to solo works but also include chamber and concerto works, reflecting her own considerable experience as a soloist and chamber musician. The author draws upon her intimate knowledge of the music to detail her observations about the piece and its performance as well as relating its historical background. She does so with wonderfully eloquent and descriptive writing that reminds me of the wordsmithery of the most engaging musician-authors such as…

EMAIL: editor@pianistmagazine.com WRITE TO: The Editor, Pianist, Warners Group Publications, The Maltings, West St, Bourne, PE10 9PH. Letters may be edited. ‘Vanilla’ articulation In Graham Fitch’s ‘Legato & Staccato’ video lesson on YouTube, he points out that his so-called ‘vanilla legato’ is the default touch in piano playing. Is this also true when there are no legato markings (or any other) in the score? Silke Reddemann, Hilfarth, Germany Contributor Graham Fitch responds: In the 18th century non legato was the default touch; legato was indicated by the composer and used for expressive effect. Notes that had no articulation markings (slurs, staccato dots or dashes, etc.) would have been played with separations between them, the amount of separation depending on the context (more separation in crisp allegros, less in cantabile adagios).…

The team at Johns Hopkins put me into the MRI scanner tube with a small keyboard. On this I had to respond to random instructions to play a Bach minuet, to improvise or to play a scale, without knowing which would be next. The point was to see how my brain would behave comparatively in the different scenarios. I could not move my head, otherwise the resulting images of my brain would be fuzzy. After the initial 30 minutes, the team was so astonished by what they were seeing that they asked if we could continue for another hour and a half. After a while, Charles Limb asked me if I see anything while I improvise. I don’t – I’m not visualising someone running through the fields or meeting a…

In a passionate desire to become masters of our instrument, we pianists spend lots of time learning repertoire and building up a strong technique. But what use is technique without solid general musicianship, and a reliable ear? I advise my students to include transposition as a regular part of their practice; they tell me the improvement to the way they listen to their playing is noticeable after just a few minutes. In this article I’m going to look at how we can use transposition to refine our listening skills and improve our tactile awareness as we move around the keyboard. For building real security into a piece we need to memorise, there is nothing better than being able to play it in a couple of different keys – albeit slowly.…

Key G major Tempo Allegretto tranquillo Style Romantic Will improve your ✔ Two-against-three ✔ Understanding of structure ✔ Phrasing What is it about the success of Grieg’s piano music? I think Rachmaninov had worked it out: ‘Grieg … had the gift of writing beautifully for the piano and in pure klaviermassig style.’ Rachmaninov’s perception of the German word klaviermassig was that it stood for ‘lies well under the fingers’ and ‘is comfortable to play’. From a pianist’s perspective, that sense of idiomatic writing must surely be part of the essence of Grieg. Berceuse is the opening piece of Grieg’s second volume (Op 38) of Lyric Pieces. Th ough published in 1883, sketches for some of the Lyric Pieces go back to the mid-1860s, when Grieg became more interested in the…

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 Hanon study which is great for warming up the fingers. Exercise for agility and evenness This exercise appears as No 4 of Hanon’s famous volume of exercises, The Virtuoso Pianist – a compilation of 60 exercises meant to train the pianist in speed, precision, agility, and strength of all of the fingers and flexibility in the wrists. Practise slowly at first, remembering to give the same weight and touch to each note. As you build up the tempo, you will notice how easily the fingers run over the keys. Now enjoy playing around with the dynamics and phrasing.…

Paris-born Cecile Chaminade was a prolific composer. Not only that, but her music was hugely popular in its day, especially in France, England and the United States. Readers of Pianist may remember a different, more challenging version of this piece – Aubade Op 140 – appearing inside issue 118. We have since received requests for the simpler version to be featured: so here it is – the Aubade from Chaminade’s Album for the Young Op 126. Playing tips: How nice that the LH carries the melody for a change! Use your sweetest cantabile and keep the RH accompaniment quiet. The RH takes over with a new melody at bar 17, though not for long, as the opening material appears again at bar 25. From bar 29 to the end, try…

Published in five separate volumes, the collection of 66 Lyric Pieces includes several of the Norwegian composer’s best known pieces, such as Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, To Spring, March of the Trolls and Butterfly. The theme of the first piece in the set, Arietta, was known to be one of Grieg’s favourite melodies. He used it to complete the cycle in his last Lyric Piece, Remembrances, this time as a waltz. Both pieces, and more, have appeared in past issues. Some of the Lyric Pieces are technically challenging, whereas others – such as this endearing Berceuse – are perfect for the intermediate-level pianist. Turn to Nils Franke’s lesson for further guidance.…

Son of American choral composer Lowell Mason and brother of a co-founder of the Mason & Hamlin piano company, William Mason studied piano with Moscheles, Dreyschock and Liszt in Europe. Back in the US, he enjoyed a long career as a performer and composer, writing many pieces for piano. Playing tips: ‘Impassioned and restless’, yes. But the melody is everything, so shape it well, think in long phrases and don’t rush. Notice the variety of articulations and all the quick dynamic changes; there’s lots to absorb so practise slowly. Follow the many shifts of tempo, too. At bar 17, and again at bar 37, the LH takes over the melody, which has a calmer feel. There is a fair bit of repetition in this piece, so use your imagination! Pedal…

WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM Pianists often refer to the last movement of Bach’s Partita No 1 as the Gigue. But, as harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani points out in his lesson inside this issue, Bach himself was clear that it should carry the jig’s Italian way of spelling, Giga. A note about the fingering: Look at performances on YouTube and speak to pianists who have performed this piece, and you will find that most choose to play the crotchet melody notes with the LH and the inner triplets with the RH. Esfahani argues that the composer intended the reverse: that is, the crotchet melody notes with the RH and the inner triplets with the LH. (It’s a shame we can’t ask Bach!) We present both versions: fingering in bold/black…

Although my notated composing portfolio is still quite small (a piano concerto, a piano/orchestral tone poem, a violin/piano piece and ‘Babel’ for piano and chamber string orchestra), I could argue that I have composed thousands of pieces. You see, in my experience, improvising and composing are so closely related that they are almost indistinguishable one from the other. I say this because I want you to consider not only the theoretical processes of notating musical architecture but – long before the first note is written down – where, why, and how the musical idea comes into existence. To some like myself, a work begins as an experience, conscious or not, that needs to inhabit a musical space in real time. It travels from my head, my heart, my memories, my…

The sustain pedal is the piano’s Swiss Army knife. That inconspicuous piece of brass resting under the right foot is how we access a dizzying complexity of sounds, effects, textures and colours. The other two pedals – the sostenuto (or more often a ‘practice’ pedal on an upright) in the middle, and the una corda, off to the left – are far less habitually used devices, yet each of these opens up its own Aladdin’s Cave of effects. Though we tend to think of the sustain pedal as helping us to achieve two things – a legato or sustained effect and a warmth or ‘bloom’ of tone – in reality this hardly scratches at the surface of its possibilities. The extent to which an intentional blurring or colouring of sound…

Key B flat Tempo Giga Style Baroque Will improve your ✔ Hand-crossing technique ✔ Use of dynamics ✔ Slurs Let us start out with a bit of informed housekeeping. If you have the volume of all Six Partitas (BWV 825-830), casually glance through it to familiarise yourself with the variety of movement names. In this particular Partita, Bach is very particular when he chooses to use the Italian name for the jig – the giga. Th is is Bach showing us that he can write in different styles and with various aims in mind; as Bach points out on his title page, these works are for a ‘refreshment of the spirit’. The giga is a lively dance in compound time. Th is means that the bar comprises two or four…

Cuthbert Harris was born in Holloway, London, in 1870. Chiefly an organist, he held organist positions at various churches throughout London including St. Leonard’s Parish Church, Streatham, where he played a III/31 stop Walker organ. Harris also taught harmony and voice at the London Academy of Music, taught music by correspondence, prepared students for music examinations, wrote articles for music periodicals and penned various compositions. Subtitled ‘On the Lake’, Regent’s Park is the sixth in a set of 13 pieces entitled London Scenes. (Other pieces include The Nelson Column, Old Bond Street, At Madame Tussaud’s and Buckingham Palace.) A colleague of the editor remembers learning it when young, and was so taken by its charm that he suggested its inclusion. Read Melanie Spanswick’s lesson on this piece.…

Friedrich Kiel was a German Romantic composer and music teacher. Writing of the chamber music of Kiel, the scholar and critic Wilhelm Altmann notes that it was the composer’s extreme modesty which kept him and his exceptional works from receiving the consideration they deserved. Kiel wrote an array of works for solo piano including Romances, Variations, Impromptus and Fantasies. Published in 1864, Notturno is the final piece from his Suite Op 28. Playing tips: A steady pace should prevail, but allow for occasional rubato. Start off by practising hands separately: The LH needs to be solid, and there are leaps to be mastered (try not to look down at the keys). The RH will benefit from slow practice, too, especially from bar 17 where the sextuplet figurations begin. Bars 31-33…

Cuban composer and pianist Ignacio Cervantes studied with Gottschalk and Alkan, but it’s the music of his native Cuba that we hear in this piece from his six Danzas Cubanas (Cuban Dances). Cervantes’s Cuban-style music has certainly been popular with readers; Cuban Dance No 2 appeared inside issue 63 and No 6 inside issue 79. Playing tips: The metronome marking should be viewed as ‘approximate’ – that’s because this sultry dance should be played with lots of freedom and a real feel for the syncopation. You will notice that there are scatterings of accidentals throughout, which could be a stumbling block, so we suggest learning very slowly in order that the odd wrong note doesn’t find its way into your practice. From bar 17 onwards, a faster tempo is required…

Schubert wrote his Adagio D178 in 1815 – the year which was known as the composer’s ‘annus mirabilis’ (miraculous year): He composed over 20,000 bars of music, more than half of which were for orchestra, including nine church works, a symphony, and about 140 Lieder. Playing tips: This gorgeous G major Adagio shows Schubert at his most sublime. There is a certain simplicity which confirms that less can often be more. However, heaps of musicality will be needed in order to bring the piece to life. Just look at those first eight bars: how simple the music seems, right? The notes certainly aren’t hard to master, but it’s what we do with them! Phrasing, rhythm, voicing, articulation… all need to be fine-tuned to perfection – and that includes the rests!…

When a toddler first finds a piano, inspiration inevitably flourishes as fistfuls of keys are taken in both hands with uninhibited relish. What fun to be had! Inspiration is immediate, impulsive, and intuitive. But sadly, for many pianists it is an unknown, mysterious field. The first thing to say is that it is impossible in improvisation to make a mistake. Any single action at the piano immediately triggers another action. And of course, silence is an extremely potent force in extemporisation (as indeed it is when interpreting rests on a printed score). So, it is important to relax about the whole thing, and realise that improvisation comes in many different forms and guises. You can begin improv work from the very first lessons by encouraging beginners to play single notes…

MARTHA ARGERICH Debussy: Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra, Violin Sonata, Cello Sonata, La Mer Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim Deutsche Grammophon 483 7537 The cover of this album gives few clues to its contents, so let me help. The Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra, with which it opens, is the piano concerto Debussy never wrote – or at least called as such. This is Martha Argerich’s first recording of it, not that you’d know from her easy familiarity with the music. Happily, it’s a joint effort thanks to a score that gives equal prominence and interest to the orchestra as to the piano. Argerich and the Staatskapelle, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, shine one moment and support or partner the next. The Violin Sonata was the last piece Debussy completed. Composed in 1917,…