Innehållsförteckning för 127 från Pianist

Upon hearing a teenage Israeli prodigy performing at the Piano aux Jacobins Festival in Toulouse, the critic of Diapason did not beat about the bush: ‘Yoav Levanon is not only a stunning virtuoso. His assertive interpretative choices already make him an authentic musician who has everything to become one of the major pianists of this century.’ It’s quite an assertion, but Levanon’s progress since then seems to suggest that it may just be right. He is now 18 and his first album (on Warner Classics) was released into the wild in May this year. It centres on two enormously challenging Romantic masterpieces: Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and Schumann’s Fantaisie in C Op 17, along with works by Mendelssohn and Chopin. All four of the composers were involved in helping…

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 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 pianist-composers. His editions are…

DON’T MISS MELANIE SPANSWICK’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE Henry Lemoine was the son of a major Paris music publisher. When he took on the family firm, he published Chopin and expanded the educational pieces, using materials from the likes of Berlioz but also his own, based on his own experience as a teacher of piano and harmony. This pleasant piece comes from a collection of 50 studies ‘pour le petit main’ (for the small hand) published in 1841. No 26 from the same set featured in issue 88. Read Melanie Spanswick’s lesson on this piece.…

DON’T MISS NILS FRANKE’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE As Nils Franke states in his lesson, Clara Schumann’s piano solo arrangements of her husband’s songs are testimony to her skills as a pianist: she simply knew how to capture the essence of a piece. With Mondnacht (‘Moonlight’), she assumes a thoroughly ‘modern’ approach of letting the original piece speak for itself. No showmanship, just the spirit (and beauty) of the original song. The original ‘Mondnacht’ is the fifth song from Robert’s 1840 masterpiece song cycle, Liederkreis Op 24. Read Nils Franke’s lesson on this piece.…

A child prodigy, Cuban pianist and composer Ignacio Cervantes was encouraged to study at the Paris Conservatoire by the American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk. There, he studied with none other than Charles-Valentin Alkan. Playing tips: Feel the Cuban-style sway and make sure to follow all the articulations on the score (such as the slurs, staccatos etc). Both hands will need to move quickly around the keyboard – it helps to keep them as close to the keys as possible. The piece rounds off with a short, animated eight-bar scherzando section (bar 25 to the end). Then return to the start and play the piece over again. Note: Whilst learning this score, pianist Chenyin Li thought it felt musically ‘wrong’ that the piece finishes on the dominant chord, so she has…

DON’T MISS MARKVINER’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE In recent years, the music of French composer Cécile Chaminade has been receiving somewhat of a well-deserved revival. Some of it is gorgeously romantic and fits well under the fingers. One of Chaminade’s most famous pieces, the virtuosic Automne Op 35 No 2, appeared inside issue 86, along with a lesson by Lucy Parham. La Lisonjera (translated into English as ‘The Flatterer’) is not quite as virtuosic as Automne, but it requires careful practice and lots of flair. Chaminade expert Mark Viner talks about the composer and the origins of the piece – including the background behind its title – in his article. Mark Viner plays La Lisonjera on this issue’s album. Read his in-depth lesson.…

Imagine it’s the 18th century. You are looking down onto a haunted ballroom from the balcony. The lighting is dim, and the cobweb chandeliers are twinkling. The spirits take to the dancefloor dressed for this spectacular event. The Spectre’s Waltz opens with an introduction of four bars that set the scene as the ghosts take their place on the dancefloor. Be sure to set a firm tempo and establish a waltzing pulse from the onset. Make use of cantabile playing to bring out the melodic line clearly above the LH accompaniment, balancing the parts to ensure that the LH does not drown the RH. In bar 5, in the treble, the D# to E drives the phrase upwards to the F# in bar 7, before the phrase ends on E. These…

Beethoven wrote his Bagatelle WoO 54 in 1802. Whoever gave it its nickname ‘Lustig und Traurig’ (‘Happy and Sad’) remains unclear. Playing tips: You will see that the first section of the piece (bars 1-16) is marked Lustig (‘Happy’), so it will require a brighter, optimistic feel. Think in long four-bar phrases; the first four bars appearing as a type of question with the next four as the answer. Try to use a good legato touch and remember to lift the hands for the rests. Marked Traurig (‘Sad’), the key shifts to C minor at bar 17, so a more poignant and expressive style will be needed (though don’t give in to rubato). Here you will benefit from a lighter touch, but make sure that each note depresses all the…

A neurological illness ended the virtuoso piano career of the German composer and pianist Moritz Moszkowski, but that didn’t stop him from composing many works for the piano, including this heartbreaking, romantic gem from his Op 36 set. Playing tips: The opening should have a very improvisatory feel, so don’t be afraid to use rubato. Voice the chords in order that the top melody line stands out, and make sure to phrase this introduction. Even if a tempo marking is supplied, this should be fluid, so try not to think too much about it until bar 18 when the pulse of the main melody begins. Now bring out this ravishing melody, allowing the LH accompaniment to follow. At bar 26, the melody blooms even more (with the RH part now…

Throughout his career, the Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti wrote 555 keyboard sonatas. They are single movements and mostly in binary form. Playing tips: This feisty Sonata will require lots of practice: rhythmic precision is of the utmost importance, as is an even articulation and a forward drive. In true Scarlatti style, the score comes without dynamics, allowing for the performer to be creative. In order to play it well and with an Allegro tempo, some might class this sonata as ‘Advanced’, but we believe intermediate-level pianists can benefit from learning it. Enjoy Chenyin Li’s sparkling performance. Pedal is not required.…

‘Well of course you can trace my pianistic lineage back to Liszt’ is a commonly-heard proud announcement and a terrific boast when pianists hang out together. It’s a fun thing to think about – that what you may have learned is perhaps something that Liszt himself taught to a student. But what exactly gets passed on through generations and stands the test of time? This is inextricably linked to the concept of ‘schools’ of piano playing (a term I don’t particularly like), with certain nationalities and even regions allegedly using a specific hand position and physical approach to the keyboard. I’m from the region of Essex in the UK, and we view these types of conundrums in a slightly simpler way: you are either good or you ain’t. I don’t…

Fort Worth, Texas. Home to the Kimbell Art Museum, the Stockyards rodeos and a National Cowgirl Museum, the fifth-largest city in Texas is an unlikely destination for the musical elite. However, every four years, pianophiles and classical music executives descend upon it to find the virtuosos of tomorrow at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. To make it here, the finalists have already passed a stringent selection process. Delayed by a year due to the pandemic, a record number of 388 pianists from 51 countries made an initial application, including Russian and Ukrainian candidates. The competition’s administration grasped the nettle in early March and indicated that Russian-born pianists would be permitted to audition, as they were neither officials of their government nor state-sponsored. Several other classical music organisations followed suit;…

Notes from the composer: If you look at red and yellow tulips together, they are a bold, colourful sight. This is characterised by the joyful key of G major combined with the constant shift to the flattened sixth, which runs throughout the piece; it offers a bright yet slightly ominous quality. I hope that the continual swift quaver movement might be reminiscent of walking or running through a field full of these beautiful flowers. To learn the note patterns, ‘block out’ (or play as a group) the notes for every minim beat. The figurations are mainly built around chords and this type of practice will help familiarise yourself with the hand shape needed. A metronome will be useful to keep the quavers running evenly and smoothly, and this will be…

Michelle Lord is the winner of the 2022 Pianist Composing Competition. Lord wowed the judges with her 56-bar waltz, The Spectre’s Waltz. Full of unexpected twists and turns, the two-page composition will suit intermediate-level pianists with good sense of imagination. Lord says it took a while to get the piece in good shape: ‘I didn’t sit and compose it in one go. I kept going back until I was happy with it. I had two endings and I couldn’t decide which to do. I went with a Chopin left-hand style towards the end, because I felt that it displayed more of an understanding between different styles. And I used a tremolo in the last bar because I wanted a really dramatic ending!’ Read Michelle Lord’s in-depth practising tips inside this…

Playing tips: Poignant as this arrangement is, try not to drown it in pedal. ‘Spiccato’ is a string technique involving detached notes played with a bouncing bow, so one needs to emulate that articulation. The tempo is slow, but keep the pulse flowing. We suggest listening to the original Largo from Bach’s Organ Concerto for guidance. Take your time over the stretched broken chord. They should not sound ‘grabbed’.…

Russian composer Alexey Stanchinsky was somewhat of a child prodigy – composing and performing his first works when just six years of age. There’s no doubt that Scriabin, whom Stanchinsky met during his studies with Taneyev, influenced his writing. His two Songs without Words were composed around 1903 and this No 2, in the key of D minor, might sound a little like early Scriabin (with hints of Chopin and Schumann). Playing tips: The LH is the lilting accompaniment over which the RH has to sing. Work on your cantabile, pressing the notes deep into the key bed. We suggest working hands separately: the LH, with its big stretches, wanders all over the keyboard, so will need serious practice. The RH chords will need careful voicing coupled with a good…

More than two years since the first Covid lockdown and a few months since the last restrictions were lifted, at least in England, it’s back to reality. Family and office gatherings, meals out, trips to the cinema… they’re all back. So what’s the future for all those ‘mindful’ activities that were so popular during the pandemic when there was nothing else to distract us – such as reading, painting, or playing the piano? Regarding that last one, in the June-July 2021 issue of Pianist (No 120) I reported that piano sales boomed during lockdown, with many people keen to learn the instrument or pick up from where they left off as children. For evidence, look no further than Steinway. Worldwide, its sales of pianos increased by 30% to almost £412…

In the world of chemistry the symbol ‘pH’ stands for ‘potential of hydrogen’. In the world of design, the same two letters stand for the Danish designer, academic, architect, writer and all-round polymath Poul Henningsen (1894-1967). Funnily enough, both abbreviations refer to explosives. Poul Henningsen presented his first piano to the world in 1931. It was an extraordinary design with eye-popping tracery, concave legs, and a clear celluloid lid which was curved so that people wouldn’t be able to litter the surface with photos, knick-knacks and domestic detritus. In 1937 he introduced another revolutionary shape of piano with a lid which looks something like the Sydney Opera House, and which is bored with sound holes looking something like portholes. With both instruments he was aiming to light a firework under…