Innehållsförteckning för 141 från Pianist

At this time of year, I often feature seasonal pieces of music that celebrate Christmas or evoke the winter season. I wanted to do something different this year, and my thoughts turned to bells – not only the bells that ring in Christmas, but the sound of festivity and memory. The piano repertoire echoes with the sound of bells: evening bells, bells of farewell and of joy, funeral bells, bells that uplift the soul and pay solemn tribute, as well as ringing in the new year. Liszt wrote numerous pieces with bells in mind, such as Les cloches de Genève, Abendglocken from the Christmas Tree Suite, and of course that virtuoso showcase from the Grand Etudes de Paganini, La campanella (The little bell). But there are other, more accessible pieces…

For a performing musician, every recording becomes a portrait of the self, just as a composer lets go of something inside them when they complete a new piece. This is true to an unusual degree for the Russian pianist Zlata Chochieva, whose new album on Naïve takes a sideways look at the Russian concerto tradition. She made the album in Glasgow with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, who accompanied her UK concerto debut back in 2020. Later the same year, she talked to Pianist and recounted how she had been ‘discovered’ by Mikhail Pletnev after she gave a televised Moscow recital at the age of 14. He invited her to play with his Russian National Orchestra, and asked her to take on the Piano Concerto by Rimsky-Korsakov which opens her…

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 IAGO NÚÑEZ is a pianist and accomplished musician who has great experience as a soloist, accompanist and teacher. He has written arrangements for a multitude of ensembles as well as editing, filming and producing music. Iago currently teaches music history, analysis, composition and performance at Bishop’s Stortford College, UK. He has also been on the…

ABILITY RATING LATE ELEMENTARY Key A minor Tempo Allegretto Style Classical Will improve your ✓ LH agility ✓ RH phrasing ✓ Sense of pulse August Eberhard Müller (1767-1817) was a popular German composer, organist and choir leader. He wrote a considerable number of works for the piano – particularly popular are his studies of which he wrote a total of six books, published in 1817. This is the final piece from his Easy Pieces (Leichte Handstücke). The Allegretto tempo marking suggests a fairly calm pulse. A metronome marking of a crotchet equals 52 works well. In the key of A minor and constructed in four-bar phrases, this study is in Binary form (that is, an AB structure). The LH part is a fine example of an Alberti bass accompaniment. This…

BEGINNER Beethoven wrote many short works for the piano, including waltzes, dances and écossaises. This elegant German Dance WoO 42 No 4 in the key of A major was published in 1795 and shows how much the composer was in tune (excuse the pun) with the dance form. Playing tips: Maintain a lightness and poise throughout, always making a slight emphasis on the first (strong) beat of the bar. Though not marked, the repeated notes in bar 1 and elsewhere should be slightly detached/staccato. At the start, think in two-bar phrases: bars 3 and 4 should come as an ‘answer’ to bars 1 and 2. Then, bars 5-8 should be one long phrase. The first section should be repeated. In the second section, which starts at bar 9, make sure…

INTERMEDIATE Alkan wrote his 49 Esquisses (Sketches) between 1847-61, arranging them into four suites. ‘Les cloches’ (the bells) is the fourth piece within the first suite. Playing tips: The LH G at the start represents the first bell. Keep this important tied G pronounced throughout, as the bell continues to be struck. At bar 2, an eerie melody in sixths appears above it; shape the melody but always make sure the bell is heard. New bells appears from bar 6, when the sustained note changes to the D, then to an A, and so on. Pedal tips: Try to join the notes using finger legato rather than pedal.…

INTERMEDIATE American composer Amy Beach was a member of the ‘Second New England School’ or ‘Boston Group’. The other members were composers John Knowles Paine, Arthur Foote, George Chadwick, Edward MacDowell, George Whiting and Horatio Parker. Beach’s writing is mainly in a Romantic idiom, often compared to that of Brahms or Rachmaninov. In her later works she experimented, moving away from tonality, employing whole tone scales and more exotic harmonies and techniques. In the key of A flat major, The Old Chapel by Moonlight was composed in 1924, and depicts its title perfectly. Read Mark Tanner’s playing tips in his masterclass on creating a bell-like sound. For more information on the piece, read Matthew Mills’ survey on piano repertoire that evokes bells.…

ADVANCED Debussy’s Images is a suite of six substantial pieces for solo piano. The works were published in two books/series, each consisting of three pieces. Composed in 1907, ‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’ (Bells through the leaves) is the first piece within the second book, and was inspired by the bells in the church steeple in the village of Rahon in Jura, France. Rahon was the hometown of Louis Laloy, a close friend of Debussy and also his first biographer. Playing tips: Needless to say, the aim is to create your best ‘bell-like’ tone from the outset, making sure to bring out the long held notes. The bells here have an almost misty quality, so aim to produce a veiled sound (with the accompaniment even more muted, but always flowing…

GILA GOLDSTEIN Latin American Piano Gems: Works by Guastavino, Villa-Lobos, Lecuona, Ponce, Piazzolla Centaur CRC4083 There’s something extrovert and unabashedly emotional in Gila Goldstein’s delivery of these gorgeous South American miniatures, and it results in a disc of gloriously dramatic highs mixed with sultry languorous sighs. Imagine watching a passionate tango while warm nocturnal citrus breezes waft past you, and you get an idea of the atmosphere she creates. She’s unafraid of big gestures in pieces such as Ernesto Lecuona’s Malagueña, and creates something red-blooded and fiery, but is equally exciting in the shimmering, melancholy guitar-like ripples of Manuel Ponce’s Intermezzo 1. She’s captivating too in further dances, romances and suites by Villa-Lobos and Carlos Guastavino, and also offers her own arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s ever-popular tango Oblivion. The recorded…

Maykapar discovery I enjoyed reading the article on Samuil Maykapar inside issue 138. The composer is totally new to me, so Matthew Mills’s article was illuminating. As an intermediate-level pianist, I’ve been able to play The Little Orphan and the Arietta, and am enjoying them immensely. Might you be able to suggest similar composers (or repertoire) for me to investigate? I really like Maykapar’s style, which I assume is Romantic and Russian. Steven Abrahamson, Boston, USA Matthew Mills writes: I am delighted that the article was useful! Aleksandr Grechaninov’s Arabesques Op 150, Bagatelles Op 112 and Aquarelles Op 146 are similar in style and generally somewhere between the levels of the Maykapar selections in the magazine. Anatoly Lyadov is also worth exploring. Like Maykapar, he wrote a collection called Biriulki, although…

The piano’s capacity to evoke other instruments, the human voice, animals, or even the weather, contributes in no small way to its universal attractiveness. We love the piano because it sounds like a piano (of course!), but also for its quasi-orchestral dimension, its unique ability to transition seamlessly between textures or soundworlds, and to trigger emotions and narratives. The instrument’s expansive register, dynamic and tonal range, together with its infinite capacity to combine notes and articulations from the fingers and pedals, makes it a uniquely flexible instrument. A full-size grand piano can sound crystal clear, even when surrounded by a hundred other musical instruments played at full tilt. And then there’s the piano’s impressive duration, which, depending on variables of acoustic, attack and pedals – permits notes to sustain for…

ABILITY RATING INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED Including this sumptuous miniature in the scores section for Pianist is rather fitting, as it first appeared in the sheet-music supplement to the fourteenth issue of the magazine La Semaine artistique et musicale, on March 16th, 1889. On the whole, the piece requires good chord-playing and voicing. Don’t worry about the wider chords: it is completely acceptable in Late-Romantic style to roll them. With careful planning you can always turn adversity to advantage by allowing yourself extra time to negotiate any awkward corners in a musically convincing way. Throughout, Saint-Saëns is fastidious with his articulation. Try to differentiate between the various accents marked on the score; there are at least three types! The first section, bars 1-14, reappears as an interlude (bars 31-44) and as a codetta…

BEGINNER Written by Pianist contributor Mark Tanner, this piece appears inside Faber’s The Piano Book in Black and White – a book for the more independent adult learner, says Mark. For those of you who don’t know what a carillon is, it’s a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. But it can also be a piece in its own right (e.g. Louis Vierne’s organ solo inspired by Big Ben, ‘Carillon de Westminster’). So, as there is a ‘bell’ theme running throughout this issue, we asked Mark, and Faber, if we could publish this atmospheric piece. It’s a great exercise for tied-note playing and listening to sonorities through the long sustain pedal. Read Mark’s Tanner’s learning tips on this piece in…

BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE READ MELANIE SPANSWICK’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE August Eberthard Müller was a German composer, organist and choir leader. He was taught by his organist father, making his first public performance at the young age of eight. He went on to study under Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach at Bückeburg, where Müller served as organist at the Ulrichskirche until 1788. From 1789 he worked as choir leader, teacher and organist in Magdeburg and was made organist of the St Nicholas Church in Leipzig in 1794. His final post was in 1810, when he became Kapellmeister of the ducal court in Weimar. Müller kept JS Bach’s works in the repertoire and also contributed to the spread of Viennese Classicism. In 1801 he conducted the first performance outside Vienna of Haydn’s popular…

INTERMEDIATE Steve Langford was the winner of Pianist’s 2023 Composing Competition. Last year he wrote this arrangement of the traditional 18th century English Christmas hymn, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and kindly gave it to us to include inside this December issue. We hope readers will enjoy learning (and performing) it during the festive season. In terms of learning tips, Steve says that as it’s jazz inspired it’s best to use your ears and eyes for pedalling and fingering. The phrasing should be obvious as well. He suggests trying to distinguish between the ‘sedate’ first 16 bars and the more jazzy sections that follow; these should be played with more of a swing!…

INTERMEDIATE Folk songs were a major inspiration for Liszt, who adapted them in paraphrases, fantasies and trascriptions. In the key of E flat, the evocative La cloche sonne (the bell rings) is based on an old French song. Playing tips: In the first part, the LH takes the melody while the RH, playing repeated pp open fifths, evokes the tolling bell of the title. To play these notes, keep your hand close to the keys, gently raising and lowering the wrist as you play each pair of notes. The LH melody should be played quietly but firmly (notice the marcato). The RH takes the lead at bar 13, when the bell has stopped ringing. At bar 25, the time signature returns to 3/4, and the piece dies away as the…

ADVANCED READ IAGO NÚÑEZ’S LESSON & WATCH HIM PLAY ASTURIAS AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM Albéniz’s Suite Española comprises eight pieces is an early composition. Each piece represents a different region of Spain and is written as a dance, song, or musical form characteristic of that area. Asturias, more famous in its guitar transcription, is in three parts and is in the style of flamenco. The title Asturias is often seen with the word ‘Leyenda’ (Legend) as a subtitle, usually in parenthesis. Albéniz did not give the piece this title; it was an editorial decision made by the publisher. In fact, every piece within the Suite Española bears a title and a subtitle. Publishers created such titles in order to make the pieces sound more enticing (hence, more buyable!). It is interesting to…

In our practice, we can often experience a false sense of comfort with a piece after working on it for an hour or so only to discover, to our dismay and frustration when we return to it the following day, that nothing much seems to have stuck. In performance, we don’t have the luxury of warming up in front of our audience, ironing out the wrinkles, repeating a few sections and then launching into it. When we set about learning a piece we are going to be performing at some point in the future, there are different processes involved in the preparation than if we were learning it to be able to play it for ourselves. We need to train for those factors involved in the added stresses of performance:…

ABILITY RATING ADVANCED The title of Isaac Albéniz’s famous composition, Asturias, presents us with a bit of a contradiction. Albéniz, who was a great connoisseur of the various musical traditions of Spain, did not name it; the title was added by publishers when it was included in Suite Española Op 47. Originally it was called ‘Prelude’ and was part of Chants d’Espagne (1892). For those familiar with Spain’s regional music, the name ‘Asturias’ is misleading, as the music of this Northern province of Asturias is influenced by Celtic traditions and is very different from the flamenco-inspired style of this piece. The music clearly reflects the sounds of gypsy music, mimicking the guitar and Cante jondo (a flamenco style, characterised by intense singing, emphasising raw vocal expression over strict melody or…

BEGINNER Notes from the composer: We all need a ‘Lucky Dip’ at Christmas time: whether that be in our Christmas stocking or meeting new friends around the fire at a Yuletide party, this little piece aims to capture the festive cheer. The staccato touch is important throughout, but start practising without it until note patterns are secure. In the key of F major, the LH part stays firmly in a five-finger position (until the final bar), from F to middle C, which makes for easier learning. The RH part moves around a little more: be sure to change your hand position at bars 5 and 12. Notes are split between the hands almost throughout, and because of this it’s easy to rush; therefore, in order to produce a strong, rhythmic…

BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE By spelling his name backwards, the 19th-century Belgian pianist and composer Jean Louis Gobbearts created the pseudonym under which he published many of his pieces. He published over 1,200 piano compositions, and as he became more famous as a composer (and less so as a concert pianist) he was more widely recognised as Streabbog. Playing tips: This is a delightful piece for the late beginner/intermediate-level pianist to enjoy. Make sure that the quaver triplets are light and even, and that the LH carries a firm pulse. For the RH, it’s a great exercise in ascending and descending arpeggios, while for the LH it’s all about quick leaps, so keep the hand close to the keyboard in order to save time. At bar 26, allow yourself a small ritardando…

INTERMEDIATE French composer Déodat de Séverac first studied in Toulouse, then later moved to Paris to study under Vincent d’Indy and Albéric Magnard at the Schola Cantorum, an alternative to the training offered by the Conservatoire de Paris. There he studied organ with Alexandre Guilmant and worked as an assistant to Isaac Albéniz. Séverac is noted for his vocal and choral music, but his compositions for solo piano have also won critical acclaim; many were pictorial evocations and published in the collections Chant de la terre, En Languedoc, and En vacances (‘On holiday’). This delightful piece appears within En vacances. Playing tips: Exquisite from the start, this piece depicts the sweet, high chimes of a musical box to perfection. The LH is relatively easy to learn; there’s a lot of…

INTERMEDIATE/ ADVANCED READ MATTHEW MILLS’ LESSON ON THIS PIECE Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era. He was a musical prodigy – making his concert debut at the age of ten. His best-known works include the Second Piano Concerto (1868), the First Cello Concerto (1872), Danse macabre (1874), Samson and Delilah (1877), Symphony No 3, ‘Organ’ (1886) and The Carnival of the Animals (1886). Although a famous pianist himself, his piano compositions left little mark. He wrote sets of bagatelles, études and fugues, and his Étude en forme de valse still attracts pianists eager to display their LH technique. In general, Saint-Saëns’ works for the piano are single short pieces; in addition to established forms such as song without words and the mazurka,…

Back in the last century it was often a haphazard affair trying to obtain recordings (or even just a single performance) of the repertoire my teacher set me. I vividly remember in 1982 how frustrated I became over the fact that a recording of Howard Ferguson’s woefully neglected Piano Sonata was unobtainable at the time I was set it by my enterprising piano teacher Sylvia Ingman for performance in the Park Lane Group Purcell Room Recitals. To work on such a substantial musical challenge without reference to what others may have done was daunting in the extreme. But was this really such a terrible thing? Because I had no other performances to compare to my own, I was forced in between weekly lessons to make my own interpretive and technical…

GHOSTLY PIANO TALES Melanie Spanswick Schott Melanie Spanswick has recently been sighted as an editor of several commendable books for Schott, such as anthologies of Women Composers, and collections of pieces by Amy Beach and Narcisa Freixas. In Ghostly Piano Tales, she shapeshifts into a composer of 24 pieces, slicing them into three equal portions to be undertaken by brave souls at Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3. The idea is creative, the front cover is suitably dark and creepy, and the detailed explanation of the meaning behind each piece provides intrigue and helps the performer to understand the spirit of the music. Some neat effects, such as knocking on the piano, or holding notes down silently create ghostly touches that will appeal to younger learners, and the level…