Innehållsförteckning för 145 från Pianist

Like countless musicians and listeners, I was saddened to learn of the death of Alfred Brendel in June. He lived a long, rich life, of course, and he touched the lives of so many others – not only as a consummate pianist, but as a writer and a thinker. I grew up on his Philips recordings of the Beethoven sonatas. His Liszt, too, came as a revelation to me. If anyone dares tell you that Liszt is gushy and sentimental, just guide them to Brendel playing Vallée d’Obermann: pure painting in sound. Our cover artist Francesco Piemontesi is one of countless younger musicians who benefitted directly from Brendel’s generous guidance. This autumn sees the release of Piemontesi’s recording (on Pentatone) of Brahms Concerto No 2. His approach to the piece…

When you’re speaking to someone devastatingly fluent in four tongues (Italian, German, French and English) the subject of language naturally leads to some curiosity. Especially from a somewhat green-eyed monolinguist rarely able to muster much comprehensibility in his own mother tongue, let alone three others. So that’s where I begin when I speak on Zoom with the thoughtful, much-lauded Swiss-Italian pianist Francesco Piemontesi. ‘In Switzerland, sometimes even the people of a neighbouring valley will speak another language, so you’re obliged to learn in order to communicate,’ he explains. ‘I come from Locarno in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, so Italian is my mother tongue, but I started learning French and German at five, like everyone else. I think having that linguistic ability makes you very receptive to other cultures. I…

LESSONS FROM THE EXPERTS MELANIE SPANSWICK is a pianist, writer, teacher and composer. As an author, she is published by leading publishing houses, and she 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 YEVGENY SUDBIN is an exclusive BIS Records artist. His recordings have earned numerous accolades, including Gramophone Editor’s Choice and BBC Music Magazine CD of the Month. His Scriabin album won the MIDEM Classical Award and was described by Gramophone as ‘a disc in a million’. In 2016, he was nominated for Gramophone Artist of…

INTERMEDIATE This well-known piece appeared in its duet version inside issue 144. Playing tips: As both parts are quite different, we suggest practising hands separately at first. At bar 8, play the RH appoggiaturas on the beat (the pedal will take care of sustaining the notes). Pedal tips: Use shallow pedalling, with a change on every beat. Try the sostenuto (middle) pedal in bars 5-7 and 17-19. It will take some practice if you haven’t used it before.…

INTERMEDIATE Read all about the arrangement of this piece by Alessandro Marcello (1669-1747) in Colin Clarke’s article on Italian composers. Playing tips: A good way of finding the right tempo is by going to a bar that contains the ‘quickest’ notes (e.g. bar 33), and to see how you can manage it. Think in long lines and try not to be too ‘static’. The RH needs a singing quality while the LH should be voiced well. We suggest taking out the complicated bars and practising them separately. Pedal tips: In the first three bars, you can use one long pedal change per bar. From then onwards, we suggest a change on every crotchet beat depending on what the RH is doing, harmony-wise.…

INTERMEDIATE Domenico Cimarosa was a Classical composer of the Neapolitan School. He wrote more than 80 operas, most of them comedies, but he also composed instrumental works and church music. He wrote a number of piano sonatas, which were discovered in manuscript in the 1920s. Playing tips: The gigue (or ‘giga’, in Italian) was a lively Baroque dance, often found as the final movement in a suite. It originated from the English jig and is characterised by its upbeat tempo and compound meter (such as 6/8 or 12/8). Needless to say, this brilliant sonata needs a quick tempo! Start out slowly of course, making sure that the notes are even and rhythmic. This piece is a great exercise for articulation in general, and also for improving your arpeggio playing. Notice…

INTERMEDIATE/ ADVANCED WATCH MARCO GRILLI PLAY THIS PIECE AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM/LESSONS Italian composer and pianist Giuseppe Martucci first learned the piano with his father, and by the age of eight was already performing on the concert platform. He went on to study at the Naples Conservatory and became a professor there in 1880. He wrote numerous romantic piano works, including this tender Melodia No 1 Op 16 written in 1874. Learning tips from the pianist Marco Grilli: The opening melody requires a particularly wonderful singing tone – I suggest practising it with arm weight whilst maintaining finger independence for the accompanying figures. The middle section presents some technical challenges with the arpeggiated passages; slow practice with attention to hand-position changes is essential. Martucci’s romantic Italian style calls for rubato, but always…

When we think of all things Italian, in general terms, what do we think of? And how does that translate into music? As a musician, one might think of the heightened emotions of the Romantic era – specifically perhaps, the verismo operatic tradition (think Puccini). But piano? It’s not so clear. Indeed, most (but not all) of the composers we will consider here were active at least to some degree in opera. And then there is the keyboard/piano question: In the Baroque, keyboards were of course harpsichord, spinets, clavichords and the like. But such a minor detail has never stopped pianists: Where would we, as pianists, be without Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)? He must be included here. Scourge of many an ABRSM exam, he penned the magnificently memorable number of 555…

I have had the pleasure of sitting on the judging panel for several years now, and it’s always a highlight in my calendar. I’ve seen compositions that have clearly had huge amounts of effort put into them, often with potential for further development, and some that were full of interesting ideas that would have benefitted from being structured a little more coherently. One shouldn’t feel the need to impress with torrents of fast notes written for the sake of it. In fact, the jury would far prefer to enjoy a simple, well-structured piece which has something clear to say. So whether you’re entering for the first time, or we’ve enjoyed your work before, here are a few valuable things for you to consider. Remember who you are writing for. Many…

BEGINNER Conjuring up an image of the elegant courts of the 16th to 18th centuries, the gavotte is a dance of French origin. It is always in duple metre and often appears in suites of music from the Baroque era. Here you can almost picture a dancer making the nimble, graceful steps of a gavotte (notice the grazioso marking at the start). Playing tips: The key is F major, with just a B flat in the key signature. The RH needs an even touch and an even tempo, but always remember to bring out the LH melody (e.g. in bars 1-2, where it acts an an ‘echo’ of the RH). Take note of the phrasing and all the different articulations, such as staccatos and accents. Also make sure to observe…

BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE READ MELANIE SPANSWICK’S LESSON Today, little is known about the Russian composer, teacher and pianist, Konstantin Eiges. He attended the Moscow Conservatory between 1900 and 1905, where his teachers included Sergei Taneyev (counterpoint) and Adolf Yaroshevsky (piano). Colleagues included Rachmaninov and Medtner. As well as composing, Eiges wrote numerous articles on music and philosophy, including essays on Wagner and Scriabin. Most of his compositions are for piano solo, including this short Canon. Pianist contributor Melanie Spanswick thought it would make a great introduction to contrapuntal playing. Read Melanie Spanswick’s lesson on the Canon.…

INTERMEDIATE This elegant movement should be played with all the grace in the world. Keep the tempo even, with a slight emphasis on the first beat. Make sure to round off the phrases nicely, even if it means making the slightest of ritardandos in those bars. Notice how Chenyin Li adds some ornaments on the repeat of the first section. You can create drama to the second section (which starts at bar 18) by making the most of the subito pianos (e.g. bar 25) and the sudden fortes (e.g. bar 30). Pedal tips: Use occasionally on strong beats or to accentuate the phrasing.…

INTERMEDIATE/ ADVANCED READ MATTHEW MILLS’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE Italian composer Ottorino Respighi was born just as Italy was beginning to expand its musical horizons beyond the operatic stage. His early musical education included violin, composition, and piano, and his later studies in Russia with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov broadened his artistic outlook, and gave him the rich and colourful orchestral palette for which, particularly through the Roman trilogy – Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, and Roman Festivals – he remains best known today. Respighi’s output for piano is significant and stylistically diverse. He produced original works and transcriptions, much of it informed by his interest in early music. Respighi’s piano writing is generally idiomatic, sometimes densely contrapuntal, sometimes evocative and transparent. This Minuetto, the fourth movement from Respighi’s set of…

ADVANCED READ YEVGENY SUDBIN’S LESSON During his early years of writing (before 1903), Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin was influenced by the music of Chopin. He composed in a relatively tonal, late-Romantic idiom. Later, he developed a more dissonant musical language that transcended usual tonality, but was not atonal. He was drawn to the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (roughly meaning ‘Total work of art’) as well as synesthesia, and associated colours with the various harmonic tones of his scale, while his colour-coded circle of fifths was also inspired by theosophy. Scriabin’s 12 Etudes Op 8 were written between 1894-1895. Two more sets of Etudes followed: the Eight Etudes Op 42 (1903) and the Thee Etudes Op 65 (1911-1912). As Yevgeny Sudbin mentions in his lesson, the Etudes in general are…

BEGINNER Composer’s learning tips: In the key of F major and characterised by a free-flowing melody with an Alberti-bass accompaniment, Little Sonatina’s texture weaves between the hands. The quaver accompaniment, generally played by the LH, should be tonally and rhythmically even. Start by ‘blocking-out’ each minim beat: play the four quavers within the beat as a chord, and then add the two RH crotchets into the mix, so that you run through the piece chunking each minim beat (e.g. the first two beats in bar 1 would be an F, A, C in the LH and a C and A in the RH). This will solidify fingerings and note patterns. Aim for a cantabile tone in the melodic line and keep both hands’ musical lines very smooth and legato. Think…

INTERMEDIATE Luigi Denza is the composer of the famous Neapolitan song Funiculì, Funiculà. With lyrics by Peppino Turco, the song was written in 1880 to celebrate the inauguration of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius. It became a huge success, published by Ricordi and selling over a million copies within a year. Playing tips: Listen to Pavarotti’s performance on YouTube, and you will know what’s needed to make this piece come alive. Yes, brilliance and bravura! The biggest technical challenge here is the execution of the repeated chords, which need to be rhythmical and quick. You will see that the fingerings sometimes change from one chord to the next repeated chord; this helps to keep the wrist relaxed. The soloist’s proud melody appears at bar 19. The short RH…

INTERMEDIATE WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS PIECE AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM/LESSONS The Baroque Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti produced so many wonderful keyboard sonatas – 555 in fact! We’ve placed a lot of them inside the pages of Pianist. This one is particularly elegant, and is tinged with a touch of poignancy. Playing tips: Even if marked ‘Allegro’, try out the metronome marking and you will note that it’s a very elegant, non-rushed tempo. The melody in the RH should be phrased well; a good idea is to find the high point of a phrase, and also the ending, and then write it into the score. Follow all the articulation markings as well, such as the slurs and staccatos in bar 5, and so on. The phrase markings don’t mean that you should…

INTERMEDIATE Born in Rome, composer and pianist Giovanni Sgambati had come into contact with musicians from elsewhere in Europe early on in his career. His friend and teacher Franz Liszt enabled him to move to Germany, where the world of instrumental music appeared to be following completely different rules, with many possibilities for composition and performance. This dreamy, barcarolle-like piece comes from his 12 Mélodies poétiques, which were composed in 1903. Playing tips: The tempo marking is tranquillo, so you can allow for a leisurely tempo. And because of the generous use of rubato that you will be able to use, there’s little sense to offer a metronome marking. The melody should move seamlessly between the hands, always with an emphasis on the bell-like RH dotted minim. Die away into…

Pollini: perhaps the most revered Italian pianist in recent history Ask if national schools of piano really do exist, and one might be tempted to reply that there are only as many schools as there are pianists. Yet, the idea of a distinctive musical heritage, preserved through generations of pedagogues and disciples, continues to fascinate even against the backdrop of today’s cosmopolitan landscape. The Russian and French schools, together with their unique characteristics, remain the most well-known; but there is also much to be said of the Italian tradition and the pianists that make up its past and present. Our survey begins in the mid-19th century, not with an Italian, but with an Austrian – the legendary Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1871), disciple of Hummel, Kalkbrenner and Moscheles, who famously confronted Liszt…

JOSEPH MOOG Belle Époque: Works by Liszt, Bortkiewicz, Rosenthal, Albéniz, Scharwenka, Bowen, Alkan, Chaminade, Ravel and more Naïve V8675 ★★★★★ In the notes to this album, German pianist Joseph Moog suggests that the term Belle Époque ‘denotes a nostalgia, a longing for a time characterised by creativity and intellectual opulence.’ I think that may really be a fancy-pants way of saying ‘virtuosic, tonal showpieces’, but whether it is or not, it’s what we are offered on this rapturously big-hearted album. It’s lavish in all senses of the word: in technical display, certainly (sometimes astonishingly so: Moriz Rosenthal’s Papillons is performed with jaw-dropping finger control), but also lavish in poetic delicacy, and in showcasing out-of-the-way composers such as Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952), Mel Bonis (1858-1937) and a personal favourite, York Bowen (1884-1961.)…