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Pianist 82
CONTENTS
February-March 2015 The next issue of Pianist goes on sale 27 March 2015
78
8
68 4
Editor’s Note Romancing the piano
4
Reader Competition Win the new
all-Schumann CD from Boris Giltburg
6
Readers’ Letters
8
News Dame Fanny Waterman steps down, Rubinstein Competition winner makes London debut, Tim Stein on bringing out inner melodies and more
10 It’s All About Piano! The immersive and imaginative piano festival returns to London in March (and you can win tickets to the opening concert)
12 Boris Giltburg He might have
taken his time to get there, but the Israeli pianist is now at the top. Jessica Duchen talks to him about Schumann, memorising and learning from the critics
16 How to Play Masterclass 1 Mark Tanner on perfecting your Romantic pianism
18 How to Play Masterclass 2
Graham Fitch on controlling tone in loud and soft playing Don’t miss Graham’s online lessons!
20 How to Play 1 Melanie Spanswick on
Bach’s Minuet in B minor (Scores page 30)
22 How to Play 2 Janet Newman on
Schumann’s ‘Abschied’ (Scores page 52)
12 24 How to Play 3 Lucy Parham on Brahms’s Capriccio op 76 no 1 (Scores page 60)
26 Composing Competition Enter our composing competition with a creative arrangement of your favourite piece and you could be featured in Pianist!
27 The Scores A pullout section of 40 pages of sheet music for all levels Plus read about our online lessons!
45 Beginner Keyboard Class
Hans-Günter Heumann’s Lesson No 10: The Romantic Period
67 Joan Havill Past pupils such as Paul
Lewis pay homage to the legendary teacher who is celebrating 35 years at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama
68 Brahms and the piano John Evans tells the story of Brahms, a Romantic composer caught between the restraints of the past and the freedom of expression offered by the future
72 Pianist Digital Store Find out
about the handy online Pianist online store where you can download any score you want from past issues
74 Starting Over It’s never too late to
return to the piano, says Inge Kjemtrup, who speaks to re-starters about the joys of coming back to the piano after years away
Cover photo: © Chris Gloag. Images this page, clockwise from top left: © Sasha Gusov (Giltburg); © Andy Manning (Waterman) Notice: Every effort has been made to secure permission for copyrighted material in this magazine, however, should copyrighted material inadvertently have been used, copyright acknowledgement will be made in a later issue of the magazine.
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82 78 Lights, Camera, Action! Ever
thought of videoing your playing? You’ll improve your playing immeasurably, says Alisdair Hogarth, who shows you how simple it is to make your own video using minimum kit
80 Subscribe today for just £4.50 an issue by Direct Debit and receive a free John Kember sight-reading book worth up to £12
82 How history shaped the piano
From revolution to railways, we look at ten important historical events that contributed to creating the modern piano we know today (first of two articles)
86 CD Review Marc-André Hamelin’s
Debussy shimmers, while Khatia Buniatishvili shows her sensitive side and Konstanin Scherbakov gets his fingers round a fiery Godowsky
88 Sheet Music Review Lang Lang’s
new piano method books from Faber, more sight-reading from ABRSM, plus a touching Paderewski tribute, Ginastera, Rachmaninov and more
89 Classifieds
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter Make sure you keep in touch with our editorial team and receive exclusive extra articles and interviews. To register, visit:
www.pianistmagazine.com
08/01/2015 16:45
Editor’s note
I
always enjoy reading the first Sunday papers of the New Year, and Cosmo Landesman’s column in the Sunday Times was certainly interesting. He was talking about New Year’s resolutions, and admitted that high up on his resolution list is to learn an instrument (this ambition apparently also made his list in 1971). So many adults share that long-held dream of learning an instrument, and in most cases, the instrument they’re dreaming of is the piano. The timing is perfect, then, as one of our top features inside this issue covers the subject of returning to the piano later in life. In her article on page 74, Deputy Editor Inge Kjemtrup talks to a handful of enthusiastic ‘re-starters’ about the joys, challenges and surprises they’ve found in coming back to the piano after years away. One compelling reason to return to the piano is to explore all that gorgeous Romantic repertoire. You’ll find an abundance of it in what I’ve come to lovingly call our ‘Romantic issue’. Firstly, on page 68, John Evans looks at Brahms, the man and his music, while Lucy Parham’s How to Play focuses on the composer’s passionately turbulent Capriccio opus 76 no 1 (article page 24; score page 60). Because Brahms was so close to Schumann, we’re featuring a Schumann piece in the Scores as well: the beautiful ‘Abschied’ on page 52, with a How to Play from Janet Newman. Meanwhile, Mark Tanner’s Masterclass on page 16 is on ‘Perfecting your Romantic Pianism’. There are more Romantic scores inside for all levels, including a Liszt waltz and a Chopin mazurka. My discovery piece for this issue is the Robert Fuchs Consolation – what a tender, romantic jewel. You can listen to how Chenyin Li creates magic with these pieces on the covermount CD. Now, about getting back into the swing of things for the year ahead, why not think about videoing yourself at the piano? You’ll learn so much about your playing, believe me, and Alisdair Hogarth makes getting the equipment and setting things up so very simple (page 78). It’s interesting to note that our cover artist, Boris Giltburg, says his most important learning tool is recording his playing and then listening to it. Finally, why not take a stab at our composing competition (full details on page 26)? You can make an arrangement in any style you like – whether it be Baroque, jazz or something utterly Romantic.
ERICA WORTH, EDITOR
Make sure that you keep in touch with me – what I’ve been up to, which pianists I’ve spoken to, exclusive extra articles and interviews – by registering for our FREE e-newsletter. All you need to do is go to www.pianistmagazine.com
COMPETITION
ENTER ONLINE AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM
WIN THE NEW ALL-SCHUMANN CD FROM BORIS GILTBURG,
ISSUE NO 82’s COVER ARTIST
Answer the question below correctly, and you could be one of three winners to receive the new Boris Giltburg all-Schumann CD from Naxos records (read all about his love for Schumann on page 12) Which composer were Clara and Robert Schumann very friendly with? A: Liszt B: Brahms C: Chopin ENTER ONLINE AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM Postcard entries are also accepted. Please send to Erica Worth, Editor, COMP PIA0112, Pianist, 6 Warrington Crescent, London W9 1EL, UK. Competition closes 27 March 2015. Quote PIA0112 and remember to put your name, address and telephone number on the postcard as well as your answer. Answer to the page 4 competition in Pianist No 79: C: Two. Congratulations to the winner Mr Gordan Ristic from London, who won a pair of tickets to Daniil Trifonov’s London recital.
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Pianist
www.pianistmagazine.com PUBLISHER Warners Group Publications plc Director: Stephen Warner Publisher: Janet Davison EDITORIAL 6 Warrington Crescent, London,W9 1EL, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7266 0760 Fax: +44 (0)20 7286 0748 Editor: Erica Worth
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Readers’ Letters Get in touch
WRITE TO:The Editor, Pianist, 6 Warrington Crescent, London, W9 1EL, UK OR EMAIL:
[email protected] STAR LETTER wins a surprise CD. Letters may be edited.
STAR LETTER My left thumb Forty years ago, when my 1874 Steinway concert grand was restored, it was left with a heavy action. As I’m tall, I elevated the grand for the sake of my knees. For all those years I sat lower at the piano than Tim Stein would advise. Twenty years later I began to feel pain from the jolt of my left thumb striking a key. My doctor told me I had osteoarthritis in the CMC joints of both thumbs. ‘But don’t worry,’ he said, ‘My patients who play golf just get a new hobby.’ I told him, ‘The piano isn’t my hobby, it’s my life.’ So I continued practising with a heavy action and a low bench. My thumb pain worsened. I wondered why the left thumb was my nemesis. As one of five digits, my left thumb’s share of the notes played should be 20 per cent. I found that with the classics it was often 30 per cent, and with ragtime and stride, once my specialty, it approached 40 per cent. With my thumb stretched away from my fingers, as with octaves and tenths, the pain increased. About a year ago another pianist suggested that I sit higher. He told me: ‘That way your thumb will be more like Little Jack Horner, plunging in his thumb to eat his Christmas pie.’ He also advised that I try a lighter action. So I got a higher bench. I switched to my Steinway upright with its much lighter action. I diminished my practice of left-hand tenths and octaves. My practice became softer, slower and often with each hand alone. And those changes over the past year have brought my pain under control. I know my arthritis will never be ‘cured’, but I can still play. It’s better than learning to play golf. Gary Rinehart, Piedmont, CA, USA Thank you for your letter, and we’re delighted to hear that your thumb is back in action on the piano now. A surprise CD is on its way to you.
Benchmarking the bench
I have been subscribing to your magazine for about four years, since I began playing, and I enjoy it very much. I invented a technique for pianists regarding piano bench height adjustment and would like to share it (perhaps it is already known but I have not been able to find any previous references). The technique is to simply turn your bench at right angles to the piano. Doing so configures your arm along the key bed. Adjusting the bench height in this orientation allows you to accurately determine your elbow height with respect to the keys. I then just place my hand with a proper arch on the keys and adjust the bench height until my elbow touches the top of the key bed. I find this to be useful for consistent and accurate adjustment. Eric Gross, Rochester, New York
Arrangements welcome!
I thoroughly enjoyed learning some of the arrangements that appeared in the last issue (I am still learning them, of course). I have always wanted to play the Brahms Lullaby and I think the standard is just perfect for my intermediate level. I also thought Danny Boy was a very moving arrangement, even if tricky in places. If you can supply more of these kinds of arrangements, I’m sure that I won’t be the only reader to be delighted. Because of its advanced level, I didn’t attempt learning the Liszt arrangement
of Schubert’s song Der Müller und der Bach in the same issue, but it was heavenly to hear Lucy Parham play it on the Pianist CD. Simone Warren, Lancs
What’s up Down Under
Thought you might like some feedback from the other side of the world. Pianist is the only publication that I immediately devour as soon as I receive it (unlike the accountancy and finance publications I tried to read but never finished during my former life as an accountant). I am now a mature age student, having just retired. I studied to Grade 4 as a kid and eventually got into rock and jazz bands and never really stopped playing all these years. But I always harboured an inner desire to get back to playing classical. I have been able to do that in the past 12 months as I gradually wound down my work commitments. I am now preparing for my Grade 7 exam and it’s fairly hard going. I’m also about to start teaching beginners and jazz piano one day a week at a local music school. It’s not easy to stay inspired enough to keep plugging away through the really hard stuff but I have a great teacher who keeps on encouraging me. I do find many of the articles and tips in Pianist extremely useful and hearing stories about battlers who love music as I do and who want to pursue playing the piano to the best of their ability is highly motivating. I’m thinking of
starting up a piano club, for example. Anyway, I thought you might like to hear how much your work is appreciated ‘down under’. Greg Eden, Port Lincoln, South Australia
From keyboard to guitar
I have been buying Pianist magazine since the first issue and think it is wonderful. Your articles about arrangements (issue 81) prompted me to write. As well as being a keyboard player I am also a classical guitarist and I play with a partner. Guitar music isn’t always very easy to read and finding duets can be quite difficult, so I often use piano pieces, which work very well. The Pianist scores are always beautifully and clearly produced. Pieces such as the Bach Two-Part Inventions are beautiful on classical guitar and are very evenhanded so each player has an opportunity to shine. By coincidence, I’m currently working on a guitar arrangement of Rameau’s Les Sauvages, published way back in Pianist No 7. Ruth Hughes, Cumbria
Pianist’s composing competition
I was excited to read in the last issue about the launch of the Pianist composing competition. I’ve dabbled a bit trying to make good arrangements of various songs that are dear to me, but have never been inspired enough to finish something right to the end as a polished work. Now’s my chance! I’d like to know when the deadline is for applications, as I will be away for a work project for two months and want to be able to work on it when I am back. Any further information about the competition greatly appreciated. Mark Sinclair, Shrewsbury We are glad to hear you are keen to enter our competition. Turn to page 26 to find out all that you need to know. The deadline is not until the beginning of May, so this gives you lots of time to put pen to paper and send your masterpiece in to us!
Unfazed by a Fazer piano
I was interested to read the letter from Tony Bowden in Pianist No 81 concerning Fazer pianos. I have owned a Fazer since 1990 and am very happy with it. They are fairly unique as they have a laminated soundboard. The only problem that can arise is that the Langer action can stiffen up. This happened to mine and it affected the repetition of the notes. Fortunately I am a piano technician and was able to rectify the problem myself, by re-centering the hammer and lever flanges and jacks. That was around seven years ago and it has been fine ever since. I think the company went out of business in the mid-1990s. David Lancaster, Hartlepool
6• Pianist 82
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15/01/2015 16:26
News
All the latest news from the world of the piano
Piano retailers take it away at the MIA Music Awards
© Aline Paley (Argerich); © Jack Liebeck (Lewis); © Andy Manning (Waterman)
HOT TICKETS: TYROS AND TITANS We all have our favourite piano superstars, and for many listeners, Martha Argerich is the biggest star of all. To add to her allure, her concert appearances are so rare that they attract legions of fans – especially when she plays some of the great standards that made her name. This February, for three nights (12, 14 and 15), you can hear Argerich (pictured above), along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under up-and-coming Slovakian conductor Juraj Valčuha, in the Schumann Concerto, a work she has recorded multiple times. From the established titan that is Argerich, we move to a young tyro, Ukrainian pianist Antonii Baryshevskyi. The winner of last year’s Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition, Baryshevskyi makes his Wigmore Hall debut on 2 March in a varied programme with three Scarlatti sonatas, Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata, Chopin mazurkas, selections from Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus, and Schumann’s Second Sonata. If ever a programme were designed to show off the multiple sides of a pianist, this would seem to be it. No longer a youthful tyro and fast approaching titan status is Paul Lewis. His busy February and March sees a date with the Philharmonia at Royal Festival Hall in Mozart’s Concerto in C K503 (8 Feb), a duo recital at Wigmore Hall with violinist Lisa Batiashvili (23 Feb) and several dates with a recital of late sonatas by Beethoven (20 Feb, Saffron Walden Concert Hall; 27 Feb, Bristol St George’s). Lewis (above) will be on a North American tour at the end of March. Like Paul Lewis, the recently knighted András Schiff has lately been exploring composers’ last utterings. He tackles Beethoven’s opus 110 Sonata in a Carnegie Hall recital (12 Mar), along with the final pianistic works by Haydn, Mozart and Schubert. One titan assays others! For complete details on the concerts described above, go to laphil.com, wigmore-hall.org.uk, paullewispiano.co.uk and carnegiehall.org
Est
Cavendish Pianos won Best Acoustic Piano for the Cavendish Contemporary 121 Upright at this year’s Music Industry Association (MIA) awards. Adam Cox of Cavendish (pictured, centre) said, ‘We are thrilled to bits with our Cavendish contemporary model and are so pleased that others view it in the same way!’ Montague Pianos, a family music shop in Northchurch, Hertfordshire, won ‘Take it away Retailer of the Year’ at the awards. ‘Take it away’ is an Arts Council England initiative that makes owning a musical instrument accessible for children and young people. A supporter of the scheme, Montague Pianos received the award for going ‘above and beyond the ordinary in supporting music making in the community’. Cheltenham Piano Centre, founded in 1965, will be shutting its doors for ever in the spring as a result of the retirement of its current owner, businessman Clive Francis, and several key staff members. Cheltenham Piano Centre is holding a retirement sale to clear the remaining stock. Find more information about these retailers at at cavendishpianos.com, montaguepianos.co.uk and cheltenhampianocentre.co.uk
Dame Fanny Waterman to retire from Leeds Competition Dame Fanny Waterman, who was inspired by a dream to found the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1961, has announced that this year’s competition will be her last as Chairman and Artistic Director. The actual retirement date of this piano legend, who celebrates her 95th birthday in March, hinges on the start date of her successor, who, as we went to press, had not yet been chosen. As the search for her successor begins, Dame Fanny stated, ‘I feel ready now to hand over the reins, confident that it will continue to thrive and grow, offering a platform of opportunities for young pianists, music lovers and audiences long into the future.’ ‘The Leeds’ has seen some formidable players as first prize winners (including Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia and Artur Pizarro) and as finalists (including András Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida and Lars Vogt).
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American pianist Claude Frank, celebrated for his interpretation of Classical-era composers and his excellent teaching, died on 27 December after suffering dementia for several years. The chronicle of Frank’s early years reads like the plot of a thriller. Born into a Jewish family in Nuremberg, Frank moved with his parents first to Brussels and then to Paris, where he studied at the Paris Conservatoire. Staying one step ahead of the Nazis, the family made its way over the Pyrenees to Lisbon. There his performance at the Brazilian Embassy attracted the attention of the American ambassador who helped him escape to the US. He served in the military during the war, becoming an American citizen in 1944. Frank studied with Artur Schnabel and Maria Curcio, launching his international career with a New York Town Hall recital in 1950. His recording of the complete Beethoven sonatas on RCA is highly regarded, and he also recorded frequently with his violinist daughter, Pamela Frank. Frank was a noted teacher whose pupils included Richard Goode. A former Curtis Institute dean, Robert Fitzpatrick, commented, ‘What I remember most about Claude Frank is the elegant playing of his students who seemed to share his concept of tone production, his seemingly effortless technique, and his consummate ability to shape a phrase.’
BORIS GILTBURG SCHUMANN “The three works on this CD are a kaleidoscopic swirl, richly varied, with scenes, moods and characters shifting quickly before our eyes” Boris Giltburg
© Sasha Gusov
Claude Frank dies at age 89
Q&A with Tim Stein
A great deal of the music we play contains an inner melody. When we play, we should always pay close attention to the sound we make, and try to imagine the various melodic lines in a vocal or instrumental way. This will make our playing more interesting. Because music was sung before it was written down, our music is often written down in a vocal way, with upper melodies (soprano), middle melodies (alto/tenor) and lower notes (bass). The music of Romantic composers such as Brahms, Schumann and Chopin contains many inner voices, and Rachmaninov is full of them. I’ve talked previously about the need to bring out, or accent, notes within a chord, and the same principle applies here. Once you have identified the inner melody, often a kind of accompanimental figure to the main melody, you can practise the two parts separately. When you can play each part well, you can bring the parts together by incorporating the ghost playing technique. In this case, you would practise bringing out one of the parts, while the other finger (or fingers) silently plays the other. It takes a degree of coordination, but doing it really slowly will always help. When practising this way, you can experiment with various levels of dynamic, from p to pp and from mf to f, and so on, changing the balance of sound between the parts until you are able to produce the sound you want. When you bring both melodies together, it should be easier to play. Another useful trick for bringing out different voice parts (a Bach fugue is an excellent example) is to use two different hands, even when the music is written for one. Play the upper part with the right hand and the inner melody with the left, imagining that the hand that has the lower part is acting as a kind of accompaniment and trying not to drown out the main part. When you come to play both parts in the same hand, the hand needs to be well balanced. More often than not, when you actually try to focus on bringing out one voice, the hand miraculously adapts, but you can help this along by applying a little more weight to the more important melody by tilting the hand and fingers a little in the direction you want more sound. Another tip, a kind of throwback to a style of playing in the early 20th century, is to practise deliberately de-synchronising the parts, where you play one part a fraction of a second before the other. It can be a really useful exercise for the independence of the fingers. Go to www.pianistmagazine.com to watch Tim’s online lessons for beginners, and visit Tim’s own website at www.pianowithtim.com
8.573399
My teacher keeps asking me to bring out the inner melodies in the music I play. Any advice for how I should do this?
CARNAVAL DAVIDSBÜNDLERTÄNZE PAPILLONS “For me, it is in the small musical scenes that Schumann is at his best.” Boris Giltburg First prize winner at the 2013 Queen Elizabeth Competition, Boris Giltburg is one of today’s most thrilling young pianists. This release marks the start of an exciting new collaboration with Naxos. “Once again he shows himself the possessor of a massive and engulfing technique, this time supporting interpretations that glow with warmth and poetic commitment” Gramophone “This young Russian has remarkable range and a sublimely assured artistry” International Piano
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News
All the latest news from the world of the piano
© Guy Vivien (Guy); © Mai Wolf (Hewitt); © Carole Belaïche (Katsaris)
THE IMMERSIVE AND IMAGINATIVE PIANO FESTIVAL RETURNS TO LONDON FOR A THIRD YEAR It’s All About Piano! may not be one of London’s best-known music festivals yet, but with its jam-packed programme of top-flight pianists, instrument experts, creative encounters between artists and pianists, collaborations between top-rated conservatoire players, an improvisation recital based on a champagne tasting and much more its, it’s just a matter of time before pianists from everywhere are flocking to it. Now in its third year, the festival (27-29 March) continues its tradition of presenting French pianists not well known to UK audiences alongside more familiar names. Most of the events are based at the sponsoring location, the Institut français, but this year It’s All About Piano! has a partnership with Kings Place for three concerts. The opening concert, at Kings Place, features Mikhail Rudy in a programme of Janáček (synchronised with an animated film by the Quay Brothers on the theme of Kafka’s Metamorphosis) and Mussorgsky (played alongside a film on Kandinsky). As in previous years, this year’s It’s All About Piano! offers some uniquely French events, such as a talk about the art of champagne making by Maud Fierobe, oenologist and a co-founder of French Bubbles, that is combined with keyboard improvisations by Cyprien Katsaris based on tastings of five champagnes. Another innovative concert features a musical depiction of five major cities using ‘a new musical/audio language based upon cartographic statements and architectural characteristics’. The exceptionally varied programme also takes in recitals by Peter Donohoe, FrançoisFrédéric Guy and Romain Descharmes, along with a Bach-themed jazz concert from Edouard Ferlet, workshops for young players, presentations about the instrument from leading tuner-technicians including Steinway’s Ulrich Gerhartz, French silent films accompanied by Pierre-Yves Plat and much more. This year’s cross-Channel music partnerships include
27-29 MARCH 2015
1
A FESTIVAL CELEBRATING ALL FORMS OF PIANO www.itsallaboutpiano.co.uk
‘Hands of tomorrow’, a concert featuring students from both the Guildhall School and the Paris Conservatoire, some of whom will also participate in a masterclass with Angela Hewitt. Festival director Françoise Clerc is especially excited by a joint recital by British pianists Peter Donohoe and Peter Hill. Hill will give the European concert premiere of Messiaen’s La Fauvette passerinette (The garden warbler). For a truly concentrated piano immersion and a glass of champagne or two as well, don’t miss this year’s It’s All About Piano!. A votre santé! To book tickets and for full details for It’s All About Piano!, go to www.itsallaboutpiano.co.uk. Pianist is media sponsor of this festival.
Images above, from left to right: Peter Donohoe, François-Frédéric Guy, Angela Hewitt, Cyprien Katsaris, Mikhail Rudy
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INTERVIEW
NEW! Boris Gilburg’s first Naxos release is an all-Schumann CD featuring Papillons, Carnaval and Davidsbündlertänze. It is released on 2 February (Naxos 8.573399).
LISTEN Tap the play buttons to hear our bonus tracks
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SCHUMANN WIE AUS DER FERNE FROM AVIDSBÜNDLERTÄNZE OP 6
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SCHUMANN NO 8 FROM PAPILLONS OP 2 SCHUMANN NO 9 FROM PAPILLONS OP 2
Boris Giltburg
TAKING THE SCENIC ROUTE
On his way to a brilliant career, Boris Giltburg has taken a few detours – like entering a major competition just two years ago. He talks to Jessica Duchen about his new Schumann disc, memorising and learning from his critics p12_interview-FINAL.indd 12
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topping in London’s St Pancras Station in between train journeys, Boris Giltburg is surrounded by luggage, music and technological contraptions. His intense concert schedule has not given him much time to relax before travelling to the next destination, but I have managed to catch him for an interview en route. Giltburg’s career to date suggests that this exciting young artist is not interested in making things easy for himself. He is only 30 (‘I think I am already 30,’ he counters ruefully), but seems to have been on the pianistic scene for a remarkable length of time. Most unusually, he has gone through not one bout of competition entries, but two. He was all of 18 when he won the Santander Competition, scooping both first prize and audience prize; a debut CD for EMI followed not long afterwards and was warmly received. In 2013, however, he stormed to victory at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, having taken second prize at the Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv two years before – and all this despite already enjoying a strong presence at recital series the world over. Why would anyone put himself through that stress again when his shelves are groaning under the weight of awards previously received? First of all, Giltburg declares, entering the Queen Elisabeth Competition was a challenge to himself. ‘This competition in particular is very special to me because several of its winners are my personal heroes: Emil Gilels and David Oistrakh, and later Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gidon Kremer and more,’ he says. ‘That year was my last chance to enter the competition because of the age limit.
‘It’s only for real when you’re playing for a real audience – this magic of feeling the music being created live, right now’
Up Close
BORIS GILTBURG
If you could play only one piece in the whole repertoire from now on, what would it be? Either of the two Brahms concertos. If you could play only one composer from now on, which would it be? Either Rachmaninov and Prokofiev as a pair, or Bach. One pianist, dead or alive, you’d travel long and far to hear? Sviatoslav Richter. One concert hall you’d love to play in? The Musikverein in Vienna.
What would be your advice to amateur pianists about how to improve? Record yourself, listen back and see what gap there is between what you think you’re doing and what you’re really doing. Then if you’re not happy with what you hear, think about what you can change to get closer to how you want the piece to sound. If you weren’t a pianist, what would you be? The practical answer: something with computers. The non-practical answer: something with languages. I speak six languages – Russian, Hebrew, English, French, German and Spanish – and I’ve started translating poetry into Hebrew. One person you’d love to play for? John Eliot Gardiner, because I’d love to play with him! He’s one of my biggest musical heroes. One composer you’re not quite ready to tackle? Chopin. What other kind of music do you like to listen to? Jazz, especially early jazz from the 1930s-40s and pianists like Fats Waller.
Boris Giltburg appears in recital at Reading Town Hall on 6 February, with works by Brahms, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov. Read Boris Giltburg’s blog at borisgiltburg.wordpress.com and find out more about him at intermusica.co.uk/giltburg
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Life among the pianists Giltburg’s path to the top has been both rapid and fascinating. He left his native Moscow with his family when he was five years old. The Giltburgs were among some half million Russian Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union: ‘This was 1988-89,’ Giltburg says. ‘It became legally acceptable to emigrate, and the floodgates opened. I still remember the plane journey quite vividly. When we arrived, someone gave me a bag of sweets at the airport and it contained some white chocolate. I’d never heard of or tasted it before!’ His mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were all piano teachers, he adds, and for that reason his parents were reluctant to encourage him in the direction of music – ‘There were quite enough
Any technical struggles? Trills, the double glissando in Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and certain things for very big hands, like Petrushka or Bartók’s Second Concerto, that I just can’t do. Sometimes the nastiest passages are not the most apparent – for instance, the run at the beginning of the last movement of the Grieg Piano Concerto I find really difficult.
All photos © Chris Gloag
‘The next reason was that when I won second prize at the Rubinstein Competition in 2011, I also received a lot of criticism,’ he explains. ‘Most of it suggested that I was trying too hard to be “perfect”, not allowing myself enough freedom or emotional expression, not allowing myself enough time. In the next two years I had quite a lot of concerts, so I used them to try to get away as far as I could from that kind of playing. And in some ways Brussels was like a personal test for me to see if I was on the right track.’ It seems he was indeed on the right track, for the first prize and also the audience prize were soon his. ‘Winning the vote of both the jury and the public was like saying: yes, keep going, this is the right direction.’ For an artist to take criticism on board and set about changing his own approach in the light of it seems little short of astonishing. Giltburg, though, doesn’t think so. ‘I’m almost never happy with my playing,’ he says. ‘I really am not. When I listen to myself I want to be like a listener hearing somebody else and I want to be completely captivated – and it almost never happens. I find generally this a good thing because it keeps pushing me forward. It took me many years to be able to analyse why I didn’t like something, then change it for the next concert the next day. So these kinds of comments confirmed me in my suspicions and it was my big push to try and change things.’
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INTERVIEW BORIS GILTBURG ON… PRACTISING AND MEMORISING I have developed my own system for memorising. It’s something I find difficult, so I had to work out an extra-musical system for myself. It turns out I can remember intervals and numbers easily, so I write in numbers – melodic intervals, jumps, the intervals between the top note and the bass note, sequences in the bass lines, etc. Because you’re using a different part of your brain [from the muscular control], it’s like dual systems: if one fails, the other keeps going. Just knowing you have this provides some extra security, which is great. Insecurity is one of the main reasons things go wrong: you fear something is going to happen – and it does. I don’t practise scales because I find the works themselves contain such an array of technical challenges. It’s always more rewarding to work on those because in most works you feel the technical aspects are in the service of the music, so it doesn’t feel you’re working only on passages. You don’t mind practising the difficult bits, because it’s for the greater good! I think it’s valuable to run something through for some friends almost on a daily basis, because having even one other person listening to you is like having a switch in your head: ‘Ah, this is a performance – I cannot just stop if something goes wrong.’ And perhaps the most important tool I have is recording myself and listening back to it. I find that working on several pieces at a time is better than doing just one. Switching attention between them helps to keep up your freshness and concentration – and often it’s valuable to be forced to use varying sounds and techniques. When I was learning the Brahms Piano Concerto No 2 for the first time, I worked on only that, and nothing else, for a month. But then, when I returned to something that required a small, detailed finger technique, I realised there is almost none of that in the Brahms – and after a month of playing nothing but that concerto I felt very rusty-fingered.’
pianists in the family,’ he laughs. ‘But I insisted. We always had a piano at home and to me it seemed completely obvious that I should play it. What is a piano for if not to be played? I was very stubborn and kept on at my mother until she agreed to start me with some lessons.’ The family shipped their piano from Russia to Israel by sea, so were without an instrument for a good while upon first arrival, only a few months after Boris had started his first lessons. ‘I tried the violin instead. That was a disaster…’ he recalls. ‘But the piano always felt very natural to me. To this day one of the things I enjoy about it is how visceral it is. It’s a very physical thing, besides emotional and intellectual, and sitting at the piano one feels one’s in a very safe environment.’ Speaking of safe environments, Giltburg has been fortunate enough to score an exclusive recording contract with Naxos, an accoutrement in relatively short supply these days. He had won much acclaim for his previous CDs on Orchid Classics of Romantic sonatas and Prokofiev’s ‘War’ Sonatas – both made it to Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, with the reviewer commenting that his Prokofiev sonatas ‘eclipse all others on record, even… Richter and Gilels’. But now he has been signed to Naxos, and for them he is turning his attention to two much-loved areas of the repertoire: Schumann and Beethoven. The first CD to be released will be the Schumann, featuring Papillons, the Davidsbündlertänze and Carnaval. ‘Schumann was an even earlier love for me than Beethoven,’ Giltburg says. ‘I remember listening as a small kid to Horowitz playing the Arabesque and later to Michelangeli playing Carnaval. For me, Schumann is an explorer of the heart. He knows. It’s as if he’s seen every corner, every shade of emotion from happiness to despair and everything in between; he knows how to create scenes with very little means to make us feel those shades. Some of his works are so emotionally strong that as a performer you cannot keep your distance: they attach themselves to you as a second skin. ‘I feel he is at his best in the small pieces, out of which he creates long cycles. In the Davidsbündlertänze, Carnaval and his Lieder, the worlds he creates – no matter with what type of emotion – are always life affirming. Even when it’s not so dramatic, you always feel that he is in love with life. NEW! Boris Gilburg’s first Naxos release is an all-Schumann CD featuring Papillons, Carnaval and Davidsbündlertänze. It is released on 2 February (Naxos 8.573399). LISTEN! You can hear three tracks from the release on this issue’s covermount CD (see track listing for details).
‘It’s wonderful piano writing, full of invention,’ he adds. ‘Just think of the end of Papillons: this multi-layered thing, one waltz in the left hand, another in the right, a note held for 26 bars in the bass and above it, six high As as the clock strikes 6am and the sounds of the carnival night die away – and this is effortless.’ He loves accompanying Schumann’s song cycles, too: ‘My favourite is Liederkreis opus 39 – there’s a kind of dark colour to it, which I really love – it feeds directly into the imagination. I very much like science fiction and fantasy fiction and I’m a keen photographer too; there we always start thinking of what is beyond what you’ve seen.’ The Beethoven disc [scheduled for an autumn release] involves three of the composer’s most famous sonatas, each in C minor or C major: the ‘Pathétique’, the ‘Waldstein’ and the final Sonata opus 111. ‘When I think of Beethoven, the first thing that always comes to mind is the strength and greatness of his spirit,’ says Giltburg. ‘It is a bit of a fighting spirit, one that never gives up, as he himself did not give up; that resonates in the music. And for me he is very much connected with his way of piano writing: as if I hear music, I write it down and I really don’t care how you’re going to play it! Some of it is quite finger-breaking. Any of the Romantic composers would be more comfortable to play, even if they might sound more difficult technically. To have life, line, duration and a singing sound inside those passages of fast fingerwork, that sometimes can be a big challenge.’ Everything, though, is a challenge in its own way, and for a pianist like Giltburg this is part of the joy of his profession. Away from the piano, besides his passion for photography, he is both an excellent writer (he started a blog and now writes for some Hebrew webzines) and a self-confessed computer geek (he says he is computer consultant to all his parents’ friends); it seems he loves to take things apart and put them together again, always with fine analytical detail, yet never losing sight of the bigger picture. But in the end, he agrees, it is the sheer addictiveness of live performance that keeps him in the pianistic fast lane. ‘I like making recordings as a different experience,’ he remarks. ‘It’s not better or worse than a live concert; it allows you to experiment much more. You can try out things you wouldn’t dare do in a performance and if it doesn’t work, nobody hears it! But what I miss in recording is the atmosphere of a concert. I don’t try to re-create that on record; you cannot chemically make wine and expect it to taste like real wine, and similarly you cannot re-create the concert experience. ‘It’s only for real when you’re playing for a real audience – this magic of feeling the music being created live, right now. You’re the conduit for it; there’s a flow through you and at the best concerts, if you’re able to get a tiny bit of distance to think a few bars ahead, sometimes you sense the silence of the audience. It’s like a sound-space into which you can place the notes. This is why there’s always a craving to go on stage. It’s intoxicating. Time stops. And nothing else exists.’ ■
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HOW TO
Perfecting your
ROMANTIC PIANISM
Playing Romantic repertoire requires expression and inflection as much as bravura and virtuosity. Pianist and teacher Mark Tanner guides you through a safe route around the common pitfalls
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he piano came of age at the peak of the Romantic period, around 1860. Over 150 years, the momentum towards perfection transformed the piano from a wooden-framed domestic keyboard hardly able to compete with the harpsichord for power to an iron-framed, red-blooded concert platform instrument. In parallel with these developments emerged an innovative repertoire that took advantage of the instrument’s richer and more sustained sound, its wider range of notes and its immeasurably more expansive dynamic palette. With all this evolutionary change came an implicit requirement to substantially reinvent the techniques used to play the instrument. Enter the era of the composer-pianist – Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms – musicians who not only understood the instrument inside out from a compositional perspective, but also ranked among the most prodigious players. The digital style of playing characteristic of the Baroque and early Classical period that was ideally suited to the lighter touch intrinsic to early keyboards gave way to a somewhat more muscular skill-set, for it was now possible to envisage the instrument as a pocket orchestra, teeming with possibilities. Romantic pianism has tended to become synonymous with virtuosity, bravura and fireworks. In reality it has as much to do with expression, inflection and introspection. In many of Liszt’s high-octane transcriptions there are calm, poetic corners to savour, and the contemplative passages in Balakirev’s Islamey play no small part in heightening the work’s extreme athleticism and volatility. Conversely, the ‘agitato’ region commonly found midway through a Chopin Nocturne only really works because it resides within the context of dreamier, atmospheric music. [Notice the Agitato marking in the Brahms Capriccio inside this issue, on which Lucy Parham gives a lesson.] Consequently, while it may seem that we must move at high speed in order to thrill and excite in Romantic piano music, no amount of technical wizardry is worth a jot if you cannot ‘sing’ and bring shape to your playing.
The main technical challenges in 19th-century repertoire are several discrete, though related, concepts. Octaves, fast-moving chords, repeated notes and filigree cadenzas, not to mention the more intricate pedal techniques, all have their roots in far less challenging skills that really need mastering first. (For a splendid survey of the fundamentals and how to acquire them, see Murray McLachlan’s The Foundations of Technique, published by Faber.) When executed successfully, the more advanced motor skills should come together seamlessly so that the listener is only subliminally aware of the involvement each component has within a performance. The stamina required to dispatch a complex sequence of technical motions takes time to build, just as preparing for a marathon will make very different demands than training to be a sprinter. Physique plays a significant part, which is why pianists often home in on the repertoire of a particular composer or idiom if it happens to suit their ‘machinery’. Fortunately, the pianist with smaller hands can still tackle a good amount of 19th-century repertoire. Romantic piano technique is not a single skill but a multitude of individually honed skills: while your octaves may not be
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TOP TIPS
REVELLING IN ROMANTICISM
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Celebrate all chances to relax the wrists and fingers when practising for prolonged periods, especially with strenuous Romantic techniques. This will reduce tension and minimise the risk of injury.
2
When working up octaves and chordal passages, consider the trade-off between speed and volume: slower, louder, deeper versus faster, quieter, lighter.
3
Repeated notes should always sound clear, but don’t feel obliged to change fingers unless the context prioritises slickness over explosive power.
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Filigree cadenzas need your most sensitive teasing out – ease back from the keyboard, relax the shoulders and target light, even fingerwork. Exploit the assistance offered by all three pedals.
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Your hard-won skills should never be self-serving. For maximum impact, aim to connect up each element – octaves, cadenzas etc. – seamlessly and unannounced.
Mark Tanner is a pianist, composer, ABRSM examiner and writer. A dozen of Mark’s compositions appear on the current TCL and LCM syllabuses. Spartan Press has published nearly 50 volumes of his compositions and arrangements, and five pieces appear on the current TCL piano syllabus. Mark’s ‘Scapes’ series for piano, in five volumes, has been shortlisted for Best Print Resource at the 2015 Music Teacher Awards for Excellence. He is guest editor of the latest issue of Piano Professional, EPTA’s flagship magazine. Find out more at www.marktanner.info
majestic, there’s an outside chance your double thirds might rival Horowitz’s! The pianist’s challenge is to ensure each skill does not appear overly self-conscious or deliberate, as this will lead to a less-than -compelling performance. A defining feature of one’s playing ability is whether one is able to switch elegantly and unannounced from one skill to the next, so that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Preventing tension and injury Making the most of opportunities to relax while working on strenuous skills such as octaves or wide leaps is as important as knowing how best to execute them, especially if we intend to practise them repetitively. A student friend of mine put himself out of action for an entire year by practising Liszt’s Mazeppa incessantly, unaware of the progressive damage he was inflicting upon his wrists. The concept of relaxing is vital when practising any of the elements I’m discussing. For example, if the pianist attempts to ‘hit’ a fortissimo octave or chord by attacking it from an inch above the keys and then bearing down on it fiercely with white knuckles instead of approaching it from a little higher, sinking into it with a supple wrist, before coming up for air again in a relaxed, flexible way, the outcome can only be one of physical tension. Tension is unquestionably the pianist’s bête noire, and quite apart from
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MASTERCLASS increasing the risk of sustaining tendinitis or carpal tunnel syndrome, the resultant sound will surely be hard-edged and insufficiently sonorous. If you listen carefully to an expert performance of Chopin’s ‘Octave’ Etude (opus 25 no 10), you will notice the pianist creates minuscule strategically placed ‘breathing’ places, especially where the more daring shifts in register arise. Funnily enough, the inclusion of these, irrespective of whether the composer has expressly marked them in the score, invariably helps the music to have greater impact than would charging at it like a bull at a gate. Composers are all too aware of the performer’s need to rest and will often have factored in such places for us. I’d suggest marking your own breathing places into the score with a ‘V’. Octaves and thick chords Even when dispatching a rapid chain of octaves, the like of which pervade the Liszt Sonata, there are surprisingly frequent, albeit brief, opportunities to find repose. Incorporate as much or as little upper-body power as the occasion demands, guarding all the time against any stiffening of the wrists or fingers. Dare to look away from time to time in order to really feel your way around the passage in question, then do it again with eyes on the job to correct any awkwardness that may have crept in. You might try playing an octave sequence with the thumb alone, albeit with the rest of the hand still outstretched – for, due to its physiology, the thumb is more likely to be the cause of lumpiness and fatigue if not approached correctly. A few minutes practising in this way should mean that subsequently reinstating the fifth finger makes octaves a breeze! As with staccato scale practise, you may have spotted that the further the wrists travel in pursuit of volume, the slower your octaves and chords generally need to go – faster playing, by definition, will require you to operate closer to the keys and hence cannot permit quite such power. For each of us, the trade-off will be different, nevertheless, it is important to operate comfortably with our resources. Try a variety of attacks. Start by playing slow, pianissimo, crotchet-length repeated octaves before going to adjacent notes and working up to louder, faster, punchier staccato octaves in scales, diminished sevenths and arpeggios. These will involve an increasing degree of leaping around the keyboard in conjunction with rotary arm movement. There are as many possible applications of octaves as there are, say, trills or leaps, and for each you will need to recalibrate your technique accordingly. For example, your briskest leggiero octaves ought to be relatively shallow-glancing and mindful of the horizontal musical line, while your most impassioned dramatico octaves and chords will require you to transfer power from the shoulders through
the upper arms and down to the wrist in a flowing, effortless gesture. If you struggle to stretch an octave, you may need to adjust your wrist height and angle to optimise speed and agility (experiment with your stool height, too). Also consider coming in more from the front than from above, to avoid collisions with black notes. With larger hands, try ‘pinching in’ the thumb and fifth finger, as if picking up a stack of dominoes – this will increase security and accuracy in octave/chord playing, especially when coming down from a greater height in pursuit of thunderous martellato force. There is no need for octaves to cause undue consternation. Paradoxically, double-octaves may actually make life easier psychologically, as they offer the pianist a rare opportunity to launch manfully into the passage in question with a single purpose in mind. Conversely, when octaves are to be played in one hand and running notes in the other, the need for independently rehearsed skills returns. Repeated notes In my article on fingering in Pianist No 74, I touched on the subject of repeated notes, that is, whether to re-apply a finger, such as 2-2-2-2, or switch fingers ‘on the rebound’, at the top of the bounce (say, 4-3-2-1). However, in reality, success in playing repeated notes, not unlike octaves, comes down to weighing up the particular effect demanded. This will be determined not so much by your technical prowess as the musical context. Just as brass players will opt for double or triple-tonguing for a machine-gun effect, but rapid singletonguing for louder, fanfare-style repeated notes, we pianists also need to balance priorities. There are essentially two considerations here: the speed your repeated notes ultimately need to go, and the volume you are hoping to pile on. The repeated note ‘variation’ in Liszt’s La campanella is a good example of where a feathery execution of 4-3-2-1 is unbeatable, whereas in Funérailles you will need ffff power, so it’s best to bunch the whole hand up and attack like a crazed woodpecker! (Check out Evgeny Kissin playing this on YouTube.) A measure of compromise is inevitable, for pace and power tend to make conflicting demands of the same resources, so gauge what works best for you. Ascertain your optimum speed with a metronome so that you practise consistently, and aim to build on your agility patiently over time. Filigree cadenza passages Often notated in smaller font size to suggest something rather special and spontaneous sounding is wanted, the ‘fioritura’ that crop up regularly in Chopin and Liszt can appear maddeningly fiddly. The problem, in many instances, is that pianists simply work too hard, applying ungainly wrist movements, hunching
ROMANCING THE SCORE
Mark Tanner’s tips for finding the right feeling for 3 of this issue’s Romantic works
1
Griboyedov Waltz [Scores page 40]: This charming waltz calls for superlative touch control and imaginative shaping of the long phrases. Top-voice the opening chords with your richest, most sustained legato. Hone your most silvery top-of-the-note articulation for the rapt Chopinesque melody at bar 5. Don’t stiffen up on the f chord at bar 15, for it shouldn’t frighten the horses – in this context it functions more as an unexpected puff of perfume than a detonated bomb!
2
Liszt Valse de Marie [Scores page 49]: If proof were needed that Liszt had an understated side, you’ll find it here. Though not expressly notated as such, the melody oozes out from the first note of each right-hand (RH) triplet so that legato fingering is paramount. In bars 17-30 Liszt takes us on a miniature chromatic detour before landing us firmly back in the home key, so this is where you can add a little extra rubato. Throughout, aim to lift the left wrist well off the keys at the end of each bar to aid relaxation and honour Liszt’s articulation.
3
Chopin Mazurka op 68 no 2 [Scores page 57]: This mazurka alters its tonality from minor to major (in the central più mosso section) and back again, though it never needs to sound hurried or histrionic, even in the trickiest spot, bars 31-32, where you’ll need to remain as calm as a mountain stream.
over the keys and bearing down from the shoulders instead of trusting the fingers and maintaining a ‘quiet’ wrist as in a Baroque piece. Don’t concern yourself with the marked dynamic at first, even if it happens to be fortissimo – caress the keys lightly, lean back a little in your seat and take full account of the capacity for all three pedals to enrich the effect. Frequently, cadenzas are pattern or sequence based, which emphasises the need to play as evenly as possible. Pedalling My article on pedalling in issue 76 outlined some ways in which pianists can garner the full sonority and grandeur of the instrument, e.g. using half-pedalling to partly flush out high register notes while simultaneously sustaining bass notes. An amount of blurring is not only acceptable, but often implied in the soundworlds of Rachmaninov, Schumann and even late Beethoven – they will often have taken account of the assistance the pedal can offer in busier, more impassioned passages, and, to an extent, when played up to speed the smallest unintended blurs become camouflaged within the larger musical tapestry. Bear in mind that the slower you practise a virtuosic passage, the more exaggerated both your dynamic shaping and pedalling are likely to become, so take account of this when trying out sections at different speeds, listening intently all the while. ■ In the next issue Mark Tanner discusses the art of playing musically.
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HOW TO
How to control tone in
LOUD AND SOFT PLAYING
If you can learn to conjure up a broad spectrum of dynamics, you’ll become a more exciting player almost by magic. Teacher and performer Graham Fitch shares a hatful of clever dynamic tricks
T
he first time I heard Vladimir Horowitz in recital, I was hugely impressed by the vast dynamic range and incredible array of sounds he managed to produce from the piano. If, like Horowitz, you are able to control the piano from the slightest whisper in pianissimo to the most sonorous and mighty fortissimo with all gradations in between, your playing will have far greater range and expressive power. You’ll be able to do much more with the music if your sound reflects all the dynamic levels that the composer demands and the sounds that you hear in your imagination. Isn’t it ironic that listeners tend to equate virtuosity with loud and fast playing, whereas control of tone in pianisissmo is actually more demanding technically? Tone is hardest to control at either extreme of the dynamic spectrum, and really soft playing demands the most control. It is not that hard to produce loud sounds on the piano – maintaining the good tone is another matter. When things are not working as they should, soft playing can end up sounding wispy, unfocused and threadbare, and the loudest playing noisy, monochrome and ugly. You need to consider if your mezzo piano is discernibly different in character from your mezzo forte. In this article, I will discuss how to maintain quality in your tone at both ends of the dynamic spectrum, and show you some ways to control your sound. Let’s start off by looking at the ingredients of pianissimo playing. I would like to dispel the myth that soft playing somehow equates to weakness. Unless you are creating a special impressionistic effect, a kind of intentional transparent mistiness, you will still need to send the key from top to bottom, and very often the fingers will need to be firm. Not weak and floppy but firm! The importance of sending the key right down to the key bed (or sounding point if you prefer) in soft melodies and chords cannot be overstated. Sometimes what we do at the piano seems counterintuitive. You might imagine that to play really softly you must play on the surface of the keyboard, hardly sending the keys down at all. Actually, the opposite is true. When we play pianissimo, we aim for the key bed perhaps even more consciously than when we play at other dynamic levels. Many years ago when I was finishing my postgraduate studies, my teacher (Nina Svetlanova, a student of Heinrich Neuhaus) gave me a suggestion that I initially dismissed as fanciful. She told me that in pianissimo the finger should already be halfway into the key before you sound the note. Some years later this notion finally germinated in my playing. If you want to experience the control that playing from inside the keys offers in pianissimo, start by simply feeling the surface of the key under your finger before you allow the key to descend. Little by little, you will discover the activity happens at the very bottoms of the keys and not, as you might think, on the top. The founding father of Russian pianism, Anton Rubinstein, played legato cantabile melody lines in a way that he called ‘The Dog’s Paw’. Instead of articulated finger movements, he would roll the hand inside the keys, not really concerned with the releases – these would happen naturally as the hand rolled on the pads of the fingers from one note to the next. It was when I was studying the trio section from Chopin’s Marche funèbre (from the Sonata in B flat minor opus 35) that I inherited this concept:
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Graham Fitch is a pianist, teacher, writer and adjudicator. He gives masterclasses and workshops on piano playing internationally, and is in high demand as a private teacher in London. A regular tutor at the Summer School for Pianists in Walsall, Graham is also a tutor for the Piano Teachers’ Course EPTA (UK). He writes a popular piano blog, www.practisingthepiano.com.
The control needed to play pianissimo is significantly greater than the control needed to play loudly. If you are having problems with any passage, be it loud or soft, practising it extremely slowly, softly and evenly is a very strengthening process. Afterwards, it feels as though the muscles have become stronger, but actually it is the reflexes you will have sharpened up. Sending the key down from top to bottom in such a way as to produce a true pianissimo requires considerable motor skill and control. In music marked pianissimo, it is often a very concentrated sound we need – low in decibels perhaps but not necessarily low in intensity. By focusing the rays of the sun through a magnifying glass to a tiny dot, we can create fire. To develop quality and control in soft playing, it is a wonderful thing to practise very slowly going deeply into each key. Take pains to produce the level of sound you want to hear (the softer the better) and relish the contact with the key beds as though you were glued there.
I would like to dispel the myth that soft playing equals weakness: unless you are creating a special impressionistic effect, the fingers will need to be firm and send the key from top to bottom In the early 1980s I had the great good fortune to have a few lessons with András Schiff. I remember one occasion when I arrived at the building and, having been admitted by the doorman, made my way to the apartment. As I walked down the corridor, I heard the master practising, but extremely softly. Fascinated by what I was hearing, I was in no hurry to press the buzzer. Assuming this had something to do with the neighbours, I was surprised to learn that he almost always practised softly, saving big playing for the concert stage. Effort and release While the distance the key has to travel from top to bottom remains the same whether we are playing soft or loud, fast or slow, the speed at which the key descends is greater in forte and fortissimo. The faster we put the key down, the louder the sound. There is one more factor we need to consider when we play at the louder levels, and that is the principle of effort and release. Tobias Matthay referred to the fault of unnecessary pressure against the bottom of the keys as ‘key bedding’. To maintain looseness and flexibility in fortissimo it is essential to release effort the moment you sense you have arrived at the bottom of the key. The recovery time at the key bed
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MASTERCLASS (for a skilled pianist) is a tiny fraction of a second. Physical problems in loud playing come from an excess use of force, and a slow recovery – this translates into tension, which gets carried from one event to the next. The sound gets rougher and rougher, the body gets more and more tired. If you want to improve the quality of your fortissimo playing, take a series of chords (I like common chords in every inversion, major then minor throughout all the keys). Play them from the surface of the keys (never drop from a height) and consciously switch off all effort immediately you reach the key beds. All arm muscles need to be loose and free before and after each and every chord. When we are physically free and loose, our muscles can work for us rather than against us. If we tighten up at the keyboard, we have one set of muscles opposing another and they cancel each other out. Two equal teams involved in a tug-of-war exert enormous forces on the rope, and yet the rope will hardly be moving. I also highly recommend practising loud passages softly, very regularly. By doing this, you can keep yourself physically loose and avoid possible injury. The looser you are muscularly, the more mobile your are and the greater your command of the keyboard. Conversely, if the muscles are tight, you are sluggish and will find it much harder to move. When you practise softly you minimise the participation of the upper arm, which allows finger activity to be perceived more clearly in the brain. By reducing the involvement of the big muscles, you enhance the finer sensations of the small finger muscles. I often notice that there’s a tendency in loud passages for inflection to disappear from the playing. Each note comes out equally loud, like a series of detonations, and subtleties of timing go out of the window. Unless the music is describing something robotic or mechanical, this type of sound feels impoverished. I think of the parallels with speech. Unless he is shouting, an actor who is delivering the lines loudly will still inflect them (some syllables will be stronger than others and timings will still exist). By practising softly we can respond to shadings, timings and refinements of phrasing, and a residue of our sensitivity to this remains when we play at full voice. Were we to practise loud passages always loudly, we risk dulling our ear to these possibilities. Voicing and layering Harshness in fortissimo comes not only from tight muscles and excessive force but also from a lack of voicing. No matter how loud the passage, chords and textures still need to be voiced and layered. Put simply, this means some notes are stronger than others. Let’s take two examples from the repertoire, starting with the climax of Rachmaninov’s beautiful Elegie:
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ample triple fortissimo without it, especially if you have wrung out the maximum amount of good quality tone from the bass octave. The middle part contributes little to the overall decibel level of the passage, and rather than hammer it out it is much more effective to shape it so that it starts life at a single forte and rises to no more than a fortissimo by the second bar. At no point should it cover the top line. The great pianist-composers understood the piano completely, and wrote with the strengths of the instrument in mind. The secret here is to let the piano do the work for us, and never to force the sound even in the biggest climaxes. Always keep a bit in reserve so that sound never degenerates into noise. Similarly, when you play the big tune from Chopin’s Ballade No 1 in G minor opus 23, you will find yourself playing the middle part of the texture less because your sound focus will be the top of the right-hand chords, supported by the LH thumb (the top note from the octave). If we add a subtle arch shape to the middles, these filler harmonies can imbue the passage with breadth and nobility:
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No discussion of control of texture would be complete without a thorough investigation into the vital role of the pedals, but it is in fact too big of a subject to explore in a single article. I will devote a series of articles on pedalling in future issues. Layering, pedalling and sensitivity to wide variety in touch are paramount to making good sound on the piano, but ultimately the way we play is determined by our ability to re-create at the instrument what we hear in our imagination. As in all matters of piano playing, our ear must be our ultimate guide. The quality of piano we are playing on does of course make a big difference. A beautifully regulated grand in a performance space will naturally give us a wider range of dynamics and colours than a small upright in a practice room. This is why it is important to gain access to great pianos whenever you have the chance. ■ In the next issue Graham starts to discuss the different techniques of using the pedal to enhance your playing.
WATCH GRAHAM ONLINE
A three-layered structure is clear here, with the main melodic line in the right hand, the bass A (intended by Rachmaninov to last all the way through the two bars in one long, deep pedal) and the middle part. Now this middle part supplies not only the harmonic filling but also forward momentum and a certain turbulence but it should not be on the same tonal level as the top or bottom. Experiment with omitting the middle part completely and you will discover that you can already achieve an
Don’t miss Graham Fitch’s video lessons, which you’ll find on the Pianist website at www.pianistmagazine.com. Graham demonstrates everything that he discusses on these pages – and more. His current lessons are filmed at Steinway Hall, London, on a Model D concert grand. There’s nothing like watching the expert!
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’T MISS NIE DON MELA K’S SWIC SPAN PIECE ON THIS E
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
N LESSO
TRACK 2
HOW TO
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BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE
Minuet in B minor from French Suite No 3 BWV 814
PAG 20
When Bach completed the six French suites, he had already composed several major keyboard works, including Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and he was making the transition from his job at the court of Cöthen to employment as Kantor in Leipzig. The suites (the ‘French’ in the title was not Bach’s) each have five to seven movements; this Minuet is the fifth in the Third Suite. Playing tips: Start practising extremely slowly, hands separately. You need to feel
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every single note press down into the keys in the RH. The sound needs to be even too. The LH should plod along, 100 per cent in time. It is the foundation, but it should never drown out the RH. You can use the metronome if you wish, now and then, but it’s even better to use your own inner metronome inside your head. Pedal tips: No pedal needed at all, as this needs to sound well articulated and ‘clean’. Read Melanie Spanswick’s step-by-step lesson on this piece on page 20.
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Minuet in B minor from French Suite No 3 BWV 814 30• Pianist 82
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For this Baroque charmer of a piece, teacher and author Melanie Spanswick encourages you to step outside of your comfort zone by trying some period styles and different touches Ability rating Beginner Info Key: B minor Tempo: Moderato Style: Baroque
3 Hand/finger independence 3 Rhythmic pulse 3 Balance between the hands
Dance music pervades Bach’s keyboard works. Keep this in mind as you study and perform the attractive, engaging Minuet in B minor. Bach wrote six French Suites between 1722 and 1725, and this poignant little piece is the fifth movement of French Suite No 3. It’s tempting to play this in an energetic manner, but the 18thcentury minuet was an elegant, stately, graceful dance. The tempo marking of crotchet equals 120 beats per minute captures the essentially noble character. If preferred, this work could be performed at a slightly slower speed too, allowing ample time to fully articulate the phrase markings providing a more refined, shapely account. Begin by practising hands separately. Baroque works often feature a contrapuntal compositional style (counterpoint), meaning they consist of independent musical lines all sounding at the same time. Therefore separate hand practice will prove crucial in the total mastery of these musical threads, ensuring absolute hand and finger independence. A successful performance will depend on finding a suitable rhythmic pulse and sticking to it. Find the ideal speed while working hands separately, and establish the necessary three-in-a-bar character, leaving enough ‘time’ between each quaver beat, allowing for perfectly even placing. This will create an unhurried yet precise rendition. Sub-divide the beat to obtain this accuracy; counting in semiquavers might be prudent.
© Fabrice Rizaato
Melanie Spanswick is a classical pianist, teacher, adjudicator, author and presenter. She regularly conducts workshops and masterclasses in Germany as well as for EPTA (European Piano Teachers Association). She adjudicates for the British and International Federation of Festivals and curates the Classical Conversations Series, where she interviews eminent classical pianists on camera. These interviews are published on YouTube. Her book, So You Want To Play The Piano? has been critically acclaimed. Find out more about Melanie at www.melaniespanswick.com and www.soyouwanttoplaythepiano.com
Will improve your
Fingering in this piece requires care and attention. I have added some suggested fingering in the score. A good practice is to write all the intended fingering into the score first, ensuring the same fingerings are used at every practice session, resulting in smooth, fluent playing. In order to play suitable fingerings comfortably, the upper body will need
to adopt a flexible posture, from both the shoulders and arms, through to the wrists and hands. Only the fingers should be like steel, working assiduously from the knuckles. Movement must be encouraged, and the use of a rotational wrist motion will be useful, even though the hands and fingers should be kept as near to the keys as possible. The left hand (LH) material especially requires substantial wrist motion, needing real flexibility and freedom in order to negotiate the turns and hand position changes. In bars 1-4, for example, the LH will need to turn speedily to reach the F© above middle C (the last beat in the second bar), returning to the original hand position by bar 4. Moving freely will benefit accuracy, speed and help to produce a warm sound too. Address the balance between the hands with judicious use of sound and articulation. Articulation is of utmost importance in Bach’s music. The slurs and phrase marks in Pianist’s edition of this work offer one possible interpretation. Generally, the LH crotchets must be light and non-legato (or slightly detached), capturing the necessary majestic mood. The melodic material requires sonority, colour and shape, which is achieved by creating a deeper, richer tone, by using the pads of each finger-tip and sinking to the bottom of the key bed. This is particularly important on the first beat of every bar, projecting the dance character by accentuating the three-in-a-bar feel. Quavers must be legato and slurred in accordance with the markings. When playing slurred quavers, which appear in pairs in the right hand (RH) (for example those in bars 2 and 4), rhythmical precision is vital and there should be a drop/lift motion; dropping the wrist on the first quaver and lifting it on the second, proffering a lighter
second beat (which is detached from the following quaver, giving the appropriate ‘lift’). However, the second quaver must still be of full value, so resist the temptation to come off too quickly, snapping it short, otherwise there could be rhythmic instability.
Learning Tip
Use the metronome sparingly, and instead cultivate a regular, reliable pulse from within.
Longer phrases, such as those in bars 5-8 and bars 26-29, should be played with sufficient contour, definition and musical line. The LH quaver figurations from bars 18-23 could be highlighted with greater tonal variation because the pattern is similar to that of the RH at the opening, bestowing a stylish, delicate counter-melody to the RH melodic material. The sequential figures from bars 26-29 and key flirtations from bars 22-30, can be suitably defined with a continuous crescendo throughout the phrase, adding a yearning quality, building in tension towards the end, where the suggested dynamic of fortissimo, brings this Minuet to a jubilant close. Experimenting with various touches between the two musical lines can prove interesting. Both sections (bars 1-17 and bars 18-37) are repeated, thus providing a chance to vary dynamics, articulation, touch and mood. When practising though, try to incorporate different dynamic ranges between the hands; perhaps playing the RH material fortissimo while the LH plays pianissimo and vice versa. This is an efficient way of note learning as well as training the mind to multi-task. It can also work well with articulation too, again ensuring independence between the right and left hands, hence encouraging clean, clear two-part playing. ■
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’T MISS DONJANET S MAN’ NEW PIECE ON THIS E
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
N LESSO
TRACK 9
HOW TO
INTERMEDIATE
Abschied, No 9 from Waldszenen op 82
PAG 26
The nine movements of Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) were composed by Schumann in 1848-9. As the title suggests, the pieces tell stories about the forest, with the character of the hunter playing a prominent role. ‘Abschied’ is the final piece in Waldszenen and is often played on its own as an encore in recitals. Playing and pedal tips: This is an incredibly tender and loving piece. ‘Abschied’ means ‘farewell’, and one can definitely sense this heartfelt sentiment. Here are a few highlights
before you read Janet Newman’s in-depth lesson on page 26. Make the top A in bar 8 sound out like a shining pearl, and again at bar 26. See how on that note alone, there’s a crescendo/diminuendo. The coda begins at bar 40, and you will notice the words ‘Immer schwächer’ at bar 46, which means ‘always weak’. In the context here, that means you should play even more subdued. Pedalling is marked. Read Janet Newman’s step-by-step lesson on this piece on page 26.
Nicht schnell q = 80
b &b c Œ
FULL SCORE ON PAGE 52
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8
Abschied, No 9 from Waldszenen op 82
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Teacher and performer Janet Newman explains that to play this lyrical gem, you must sort out balance and projection issues from the outset – and do lots of hands separately practice Ability rating Intermediate Info Key: B flat major Tempo: Nicht schnell (not quick) Style: Romantic
Will improve your
3 Strength of weaker fingers 3 Control of texture 3 ‘Two against three’ rhythm
Waldszenen was composed around 1848-9, an intensely productive time in which Schumann composed 40 new choral and chamber works. Like Schumann’s other poetic keyboard cycles, such as Album for the Young, Scenes from Childhood and Album Leaves, the collection of pieces that form Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) was primarily intended for private enjoyment at home rather than for the concert stage. ‘Abschied’ (or ‘Farewell’) is a beautiful piece to study, and although it will definitely challenge you with some of the technical demands, I hope it will inspire you with a sense of achievement and give you a great deal of personal enjoyment – much as Schumann intended!
When you think that you’ve had enough of practising the top part and the accompaniment separately, keep going and do even more! In my own teaching, I know that this is something that pianists cannot do enough of, and it takes time to accept that what seems fundamentally uninspiring will eventually yield so much more technical equipment and control, which in turn leads to real rewards musically.
Start by playing just the melody line in the opening two bars to establish the fingering and the melodic shape. It is very important to try to truly join the crotchet line as you need to differentiate between what is melody and what is accompaniment. This is one of the main difficulties of this piece for all pianists as the melody is written in the weakest part of the hand (the fourth and fifth fingers) and it can be hard to sustain fully. It might help to imagine that the tune is being sung – or played by a violin – and that what remains is a piano accompaniment. This can help you to sort out the intricacies of balance and correct projection. This method of practice will apply throughout the piece, so as you continue, play the top line alone to firmly understand the direction and shape. The next step is to practise the accompaniment separately. You will need to play it more quietly than you play the top part, so try to keep your thumbs especially gentle – thumbs have a tendency to overplay and drown out the weaker fingers. Keep them curved and be aware of using them with care. Listen very hard at all times to the balance between the parts. [Read Graham Fitch’s article on Texture in Pianist No 81, as that will surely help you with finding the balance between the lines.]
Whenever the texture gets thicker (such as in bars 6, 24, 40-41), take your time and allow the music to be extremely expressive. Give yourself a sense of spaciousness within the music by practising the chords alone in particular as this can help you to play with greater security and tone control. You might remember a method of practising chords by breaking them down that I have suggested in previous articles. This would definitely help in managing balance and evenness within the hand and also prevent any sense of rush or urgency from creeping in.
Although Schumann essentially wrote the piece in 4/4 time, the crotchet beat is divided into three and so overall, there’s a feeling of 12/8. In bars 8-9, the right hand (RH) plays duplet quavers against the left hand (LH) in triplets (two against three), which can be an awkward rhythm to master, especially if you’ve not encountered it before. Use a metronome and set it to crotchet = 60, then tap out in the RH two quavers per beat, and then in the LH, three quavers per beat. Then try to put the two together, making sure that the second RH quaver comes absolutely in the middle of the second and third quavers in the LH. If it helps, say the phrase ‘nice cup of tea’ as you tap – it should fit the rhythm exactly!
Janet Newman is Head of Keyboard at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford. In addition to her teaching, she is in demand as a freelance pianist and is an examiner for the ABRSM.
Bars 11 and 12 serve as an introduction to the second section. After that, the melody line starts to move around between the hands much more frequently. This can be confusing at first, but as before, if you separate the strands and learn each part cleanly, you will have a much more secure sense of direction. Play the LH alone in bar 13 but recognise that the melodic shape leads to the minim C in the RH taken by the second finger in bar 14, and the tune in the LH passes back to the RH in bar 17.
Balance in these bars is very important so that the musical shape is clearly defined. Bar 20 leads back into the main thematic material. Relaxing the tempo will allow you to place the
Learning Tip
The pedalling will come more naturally if you practise it when you play the LH alone – this helps with the hand/foot coordination.
accompaniment carefully here and with the correct rhythm in place. Let this bar breathe before the melody returns at bar 21, and enjoy the moment fully – there is no rush! In bars 29-31, Schumann once again moves the melody between the hands, so you will need to play this line alone using the correct fingers quite a few times in order to master it. When hands share melody lines, make sure that it all sounds evenly graded as there should never be an awareness that something different has happened to the melodic direction. It is hard to make it sound fluent and seamless, but this is what you aim for and without meaning to labour the point, parts-alone practice helps a great deal! Having spent much of this article talking about the importance of the melody, I must put in a word about the bass line. You can see that right from the start Schumann has written a semibreve (on B¨ in bar 3) and it is his intention that this note should last throughout the bar despite the pedal change. Hold these notes as faithfully as you can (and at all the other points in the music), as the bass line gives a stability, texture and depth to the music that you will really notice if you let them go. There are places where you probably cannot sustain them as the stretch is too large in the hand (bars 36-37, for example) but here the pedal will help you. My final practice suggestion is to play just the bass line plus the melody line as often as you can. These lines form the scaffolding that underpins the entirety of the music, and if you can secure this, will give you every chance of fully achieving this lyrical gem. ■
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Explore the Piano Syllabus An exciting range of repertoire for you to discover, including new arrangements of Over the Rainbow, Dance of the Hours, and September in the Rain. Share your favourites: #piano15 Look out for Mark Marshall’s El cant dels ocells (The Song of the Birds) in the Scores section of this issue (page 29) – a new selection for Grade 1.
www.abrsm.org/piano15
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23• Pianist 82
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play
HOW TO
BRAHMS
Capriccio in F sharp minor op 76 no 1
To create a suitably dark and moody atmosphere, you will need to play this piece with warmth and legato, while overcoming the awkward stretches, advises concert pianist and teacher Lucy Parham Ability rating Info Key: F sharp minor Tempo: Un poco agitato Style: Romantic
Advanced
Will improve your
3 Voicing/balance 3 Strengthening of weaker fingers 3S ense of long line
The Capriccio in F sharp minor is the opening piece in the set of eight pieces that form Brahms’s Klavierstücke opus 76. They were composed in the summer of 1878 at Lake Wörth. A close friend of Brahms wrote that the pieces were ‘magnificent – beautiful and interesting to play’. It is always a mystery to me that these Klavierstücke are far less frequently played and less well-known than the subsequent sets, opps 117, 118 and 119. These eight pieces deserve to be heard more often but it must be said that these are some of the most technically challenging and musically diverse of his short solo works and, perhaps a little less audience friendly than some of the later pieces. I clearly remember when I first heard this Capriccio and I immediately fell in love with it. It casts a dark and moody spell on both the performer and on the listener. There is a tenderness and deep sadness below the surface that is very important for the performer to capture. And underlying all of it is the marking ‘un poco agitato’ (or ‘unruhig’ in German), which is a mood and atmosphere that is present throughout this piece.
© Sven Arnstein
The Capriccio is a deceptively challenging piece to play. Sometimes the stretches require innate flexibility, and balancing and voicing all the partplaying is a real art. And it also requires a real sense of line.
Lucy Parham performs her words and music programme Nocturne at the Richmond Theatre, London on 4 Feb (Harriet Walter/Henry Goodman). She appears in the Joan Havill Celebration concert at Milton Court Concert Hall, London (see article, page 67) on 17 Feb. On 22 Mar she performs the Mozart C minor Piano Concerto with the Southern Pro Arte at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford as part of the Guildford International Festival. Her CD of Odyssey of Love with Juliet Stevenson and Henry Goodman has just been released on the DeuxElles label. For other dates and details, please visit www.lucyparham.com
Every note here must sound really melodic; each note has its own weight and voice. The small hairpin crescendos in bars 2 and 4 allow you to spread the chord a little more slowly. The first ten bars of the piece serve as an introduction but don’t lose sight of the fact that you are making a gradual crescendo towards bar 10 and grade your sound accordingly. You need to feel as if you are winding into the main theme that begins at bar 14. This marking of ‘espress’ is contained in a very intimate sentiment. You want to try and coax the sound out of the instrument. The first five or so notes in the left hand (LH) in bar 9 are awkward because of the stretch. I suggest practising this in different keys to get the leap of a tenth (this can be applied to the RH also). I also advise taking the penultimate quaver (C©) in bar 11 in the RH. In bar 12, notice the portamento slurs in the LH and give them real weight and meaning. Always play with great warmth and with an overlapping legato. Try practising bar 14 and subsequent bars with no melody (i.e. all the semiquavers) so that your accompaniment becomes very secure. Once that is the case, you can add the melody over the top. When you reach bar 20 you want to feel that you are at the top of the phrase but careful not to rush through it. Bar 22 should project even more than bar 20 – almost like a second utterance. Take note of the portamento quavers in
Take special note of the marking ‘sotto voce’ at the start and find a soft yet legatissimo touch. I take the fifth, sixth and seventh notes of the first bar and subsequent bars in the right hand (RH) with the fingering 3-2-1. It is much easier to take this in the RH, especially for small hands. Try to fit your hands around the key like a glove. You want to have a very close contact with the keyboard here – no ‘strumming’ the notes! You should feel as if you are enveloping the keyboard.
bar 20 and in bar 22 and weight them accordingly (i.e. the last three quavers of the bar). They should never sound staccato, even if they are marked with staccato – remember, it’s all in context. There is a lot of emotion and expressive quality in these three notes.
Learning Tip
Work on the accompaniment without the melody.
Pay extra attention to the low bass notes in bar 24 and 25. They provide a real cushion of sound for the harmony above them. Sink into them! At bar 26 there is a long sfp note (C©) in the RH. This is a very foreboding sound and it is mirrored in the LH for two bars. It should sound like a bell when you play this C© – really sink into the note and luxuriate in its tone. This section from bar 26 is very much a duet. The right and left hand are taking alternate phrases with the melody and it is important that you never lose this dialogue between the hands. The sense of agitato is very prevalent here. From bar 30 onwards the tempo marking is stringendo (which means ‘gradually getting faster’), so move it on and also make a crescendo towards the climax at bar 38, when you need to revert to Tempo 1 as indicated. This augmentation of the theme (in dotted minims) in bar 38 is particularly beautiful and it is therefore absolutely vital to voice this melody with great care. Also, the quavers in this bar, and the three subsequent bars, are equally as important in shape as the melody, so please do not treat them as merely an ‘accompaniment’. Bar 42 is, for me, the most heavenly phrase of the whole piece. It is simply breath-taking in its beauty and should convey an almost heart-stopping moment. The three-note descending semiquaver accompaniment (originally heard in bar 14) has now been inverted. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned pedalling so far, and that there are no pedal markings on the score. I could spend an entire lesson on pedal alone but this is very hard to
24• Pianist 82
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’T MISS DONLUCY AM’S PARH
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
N SO PIECE LES ON THIS E
TRACK 11
ADVANCED
Capriccio in F sharp minor op 76 no 1
PAG 24
This Capriccio is the first of Brahms’s Eight Klavierstücke, which were published in 1879 and composed in 1871-8. The collection is comprised of four capriccios (lively in style) and four intermezzos (more lyrical). Two of the intermezzos (Nos 3 and 7) were presented in the scores section of Pianist (issues 57 and 50, respectively).
Playing and pedal tips: There’s so much to absorb within this monumental work, but it’s well worth the hard work. It’s great to have in your repertoire. Read Lucy Parham’s step-by-step lesson on this piece on page 24 and don’t forget to read the Brahms article on page 68.
Un poco agitato
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FULL SCORE ON PAGE 60
Unruhig bewegt # #6 ‰ Œ
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write about rather than demonstrate! I also hope that by this stage in your playing, that you will be able to use your ears and work out a pedalling that works for the music. Just one thing I would urge you to remember: always aim to have the bass notes in the pedal, especially when they are long, sonorous notes. From bar 42 until bar 48, I advise practising and isolating the accompanying semiquavers alone until they are perfectly balanced. Add the melody afterwards. You can also reverse this process by practising the melody alone and then adding the accompanying semiquavers. Again, note the difference between the slurs and the portamento markings. This passage needs to have a perfectly graded crescendo and not a sudden one. Really aim for the climax of the phrase in bar 48. When you reach bar 48, use the LH quavers under dotted crotchet chord to give extra tone and weight. They have their own melodic importance as well. At bar 51 you need to try and melt in to the recapitulation/coda section at bar 52. This is a moment of pure magic and should really hold the attention of the listener. Bar 52 until the end is essentially one long line. Take your time at the beginning of this section as you need to have space and regain the tempo a little bit at a time. At the climax at bars 59 and 60 a certain broadening will help you; you certainly do not
08/01/2015 16:44
want to rush here. It is mighty in its strength and sentiment. Bar 60 is challenging because of all the work the fourth and fifth fingers in the RH need to do. You could try to make some exercises up here, in order to strengthen those weaker fingers. I like to hold the thumb down and then repeatedly play that fifth and fourth one after the other, that is, if you can stretch a ninth! As you play the rit here, note how the last half of bar 63 moves from six notes to five. This becomes a written-out ritardando. When you reach bar 64 make sure your LH octaves are legato and that the LH ‘pedal note’ (the F©) is always resounding and sonorous. At bar 72 those with small hands may like to take the fourth semiquaver (F©) with the LH. You can also repeat this in bar 74, of course. The melody is now in the LH, and you want to project it with warmth. The dolce marking here is crucial – this passage needs to sound very enveloping and gentle. The accented Ds in bars 78 need to feel that you are leaning into them; this should not be a strident accent at all. Each bar needs to unwind even more than a previous one so that you have reached the lowest level you can when you get to the last two or three bars. The two final chords need to have the top notes voiced really beautifully. Imagine you have a steely top finger and really sink into them as if they were velvet! Release the pedal slowly and let the sound linger. ■
Lucy Parham on more Brahms to try For another piece in the vein of the Capriccio in F sharp minor, try the final piece (No 8) from Klavierstücke opus 118, the Intermezzo in E flat minor. It’s all diminished arpeggio chords, and it has a real energetic drive to it. For something by Brahms with much more tranquility, I’d suggest the set of opus 117 – the three Intermezzi, which date from 1892. I particularly like No 2, which has a very emotionally dark quality. The Klavierstücke opus 76, which includes eight pieces in total, is not often played. Give No 2 in B minor a try from this set. It’s very good for controlling moderato staccato in the right hand, and has some difficult thirds in the right hand too – but it’s a gem. The opus 76s provide a different type of intellectual challenge for the performer from the final opuses 117-119. I love to play the Intermezzo opus 119 no 1 [which appeared inside issue 65, with a ‘How to Play’ by Parham]. Brahms wrote it for Clara Schumann. He wrote her a letter about it, hoping she would be happy with it. Lucy Parham plays the Brahms Capriccio op 76 no 1 on this issue’s covermount CD. Turn to page 68 to read more about Brahms and his music for piano.
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E PIA XC NI LU ST SI RE VE AD TO ER S
ENTER THE
PIANIST
COMPOSING
P
COMPETITION The winning arrangement will be featured inside the Pianist Scores and on the covermount CD! In the last issue of Pianist we featured an article on the art of arranging, and we included an array of arrangements inside the Scores section. Now it’s time for you to get creative with your very own arrangement. Make an arrangement of a piece you love and enter it in the Pianist Composing Competition. Your arrangement can be in any style you like – from Bach to Basie to Bacharach and more – and can be based on any music from any genre. Basically, anything goes! The winner will have their composition featured inside the Scores section in a future issue of Pianist and on the covermount CD, and will be interviewed for the magazine by editor Erica Worth. Your piece will be seen by thousands of readers around the world!
THE RULES Eligibility You can reside anywhere in the world and can be any age, nationality, and of any profession. However, you cannot derive your income from composing/arranging. Style and length of arrangement Your arrangement should be based on a piece that’s already established – whether it be classical, modern, jazz, blues, rock, folk, musicals, or other. It can be in any style you like. It should be written for solo piano and for any level (easy, intermediate, advanced). The length should not exceed 64 bars. You are welcome to submit a sound file with your own interpretation to accompany the entry, if you like, but it’s not imperative. Recordings cannot be returned. Format of arrangement You can compose in any software program
‘We’re looking for someone to inspire with style and flair. The piece doesn’t need to be particularly complicated or advanced – it’s the feeling that matters. I want to be proud to have it appear in our magazine!’ Erica Worth, Editor, Pianist
you wish (Sibelius, Finale etc), but make sure to convert it into a PDF file before sending it in. Or you can compose straight on to manuscript paper. (Please make sure it’s legible.) How to submit your entry You can submit your entry via either of these methods: As a PDF by email to
[email protected] As a PDF in the post to the address opposite As manuscript paper by email scan and send to
[email protected] As manuscript paper by post to the address opposite NOTE: Please also make sure to include a brief note about yourself, and give us all your contact details.
Deadline for entries Monday 4 May 2015. Winner will be notified by Wednesday 1 July 2015. One entry per person please. Judges The entries will be judged by a panel of experts, including Pianist magazine editor Erica Worth, ABRSM Syllabus Director Nigel Scaife and Ronnie Scott’s house pianist James Pearson. TO ENTER BY POST Send your entry to: Erica Worth, Pianist Composing Competition, Pianist, 6 Warrington Crescent, London W9 1EL. Please include full contact details. (Please mark on the entry if you do not wish to receive information by post, telephone or email from Pianist.) Any queries, please contact the editor at
[email protected] or telephone +44 (0)20 7266 0760.
F
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Pianist 82 February-March 2015
O S
Scores Contents
Exciting news!
A
s a passionate amateur pianist, you likely spend much of your time alone behind closed doors practising your heart out. That means you don’t always have many opportunities to show the results of all your hard work.
Now Pianist is offering you the chance to be creative at the piano and have your work heard and played by thousands of readers, by entering our composing competition, described on the opposite page. All you need to do is to think of a tune you really love – your favourite song maybe – and make it your own. Adapt it, re-arrange it, add to it… just give it your own style. We’re not looking for something overly complicated. After all, we all know that the simplest of chords can have the most powerful effect. What we’re looking for is your own personal stamp on a piece. If a particular song or piece doesn’t spring to mind, you could always flip through some back issues of Pianist and choose a score that you have enjoyed learning, and work from that. Think of the ‘Moonlight’ first movement, and the ways in which you could go off on a tangent with such a melody. Or what about Joplin’s The Entertainer, with a Baroque Bach feel to it? You could arrange a tune from a famous orchestral work (Ode to Joy and Nimrod spring to mind). Or you can just take any old standard song and make your own version. You can also take a short existing melody – some two to four bars’ worth – and elaborate on that. Anything’s possible! And if getting the notes down on the page concerns you, you shouldn’t let that put you off. I am sure you can find a colleague or a teacher to help. So for now, get cracking. You have until 4 May to deliver the goods. Take a look at the rules opposite and if you have any queries, do not hesitate to contact me at
[email protected].
28
SCHYTTE No 25 from 25 Melodious Studies
29
TRAD. CATALAN ARR. MARSHALL El cant dels ocells
30
JS BACH Minuet from French Suite No 3
32
FUCHS Sweet Consolation, No 11 from Album for the Young op 47
34
KUHLAU First movement from Sonatina op 55 no 1
37
HELLER Gypsy Dance, No 19 from Album for the Young op 138
40
GRIBOYEDOV Waltz in A flat
42
MOZART Andante in B flat K15ii
45
KEYBOARD CLASS The Romantic Period
49
LISZT Mariotte – Valse de Marie S212a
52
SCHUMANN Abschied, No 9 from Waldszenen
57
CHOPIN Mazurka in A minor op 68 no 2
60
BRAHMS Capriccio in F sharp minor op 76 no 1
Good luck!
ERICA WORTH, EDITOR
Learn more with our video lessons Go to the Pianist website to find an array of video lessons – from the basics of playing to more demanding technical issues. All you need to do is go to www.pianistmagazine.com/tv to get started with the complete piano learning experience! Graham Fitch continues his Masterclass series for Pianist – this time the subject is how to control your tone in very loud and very soft playing. Graham’s lessons come directly from Steinway Hall, London, where he demonstrates on a Model D concert grand.
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For a full list of Scores from past issues, go to www.pianistmagazine.com Tel: +44 (0)1778 392 483 E:
[email protected] p26-7_Scores_Intro-FINAL-EW.indd 27
Typesetting by Spartan Press Music Publishers Ltd
Quick guide to UK/North American note value terminology w = semibreve/whole note h = minim/half note q = crotchet/quarter note e = quaver/eighth note x = semiquaver/16th note y = demisemiquaver/32nd note 16/01/2015 13:31
Ludvig SCHYTTE (1848-1909)
TRACK 1
BEGINNER
No 25 from 25 Melodious Studies op 108
Here’s hope for late starters: the Danish pianist and composer Ludvig Schytte had little musical education until he was 22, but caught up quickly, studying with Liszt and Gade. He became a respected teacher and wrote many pedagogical works. Playing tips: Notice how this piece is almost forte throughout. It has to sound decisive (there’s a ‘deciso’ marking at the start). There’s something peasant-like about it too; Notice how the dynamics are loud throughout, with just a brief decrescendo at bar 8.
Moderato ma deciso q = 108 4 5 Moderato ma deciso 2 2 2 q = 108 5
most probably the intervals of the fifths in the LH create this feel. Make sure you keep in strict time. You’ll need even dotted crotchets and quavers. And try to always bring out the top note of the RH chord. Study the fingering too, which should help. Fingers need to be secure on the keys. No pedal needed. Enjoy playing those meaty chords! Take a look at the technical tips within the score. Bring out the top notes of the RH chords. Notice the phrasing in the first two bars and repeat that phrasing throughout in similar bars.
5
4
3 1 5 108 3 1
4 3 1 4 3 1
5 3 1
4 3 1
5 3 1
4 3 1
Raise the hands for the rests.
j ma deciso j j q = j j bcModerato j ™ ™ f f f f b ‰ ‰ simile f ™ f ™ & ff ™™ ffj fff ™™™ fffj ff ™™ ff ff ™™ f f f ™ f ™ ™ f ™ f f f f f j f ™ f ™ ™ The key is f ™™q = 108 fj f ™ ‰ f ™ f ff ™ ffj f ™™ fj f ™ ‰ bbcModerato ff ™™ ff ma deciso B flat major f ™ f & f ffsimile ™™ ff ff ™™ ff ff ™ ff ff ™™™ ff ™ fj ff ™™ ffj ff ™™ fff fff ™™™ (accidentals of j j f ™ f f fj f f f ‰ bbc f ™ f f f f f j B flat and E flat). ™ ? f f f f f f f f b ‰ f f & b c f‰ff ™™ f f ff‰ ff‰ ™™™ f f ff‰ ff‰ ™™ f f ff‰ f‰ff™™ f ‰ ff‰simile ™™ f f ff‰ fff‰ ™™™ f f fff‰ ff‰ ™™ f f ff‰ f‰ff™™™ f ‰ f f ™ f ™ f j J J J J J J J J ? bbc ‰f ™ ff ff f‰ f‰ ™ ff ff f‰j ‰ ™ ff ff ‰j f‰ ff ff ‰ f‰ ™ Jff Jff f‰j f‰ ™ Jff Jff f‰j f‰ ™™ Jff Jff f‰j f‰ Jff Jff ‰ sure we LH quavers& to be even ff ™ ff ™™ Jthe ff fff ™™ J J fff ffJ™™™ J ff ™™ J J ff ff ™™ J J ff fff ™™ J J fff ffJ™™™ J f ™ J J ff Make Jrests. ‘hear’ in sound and touch. ? bbc ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ f‰ ff ffThis‰ is the‰ only ff dynamic ff ‰ change ff inffthe‰whole‰ ff ff ‰ f‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ f 5 J™ J j J J JJ J Jpiece. MakeJthej Jmost of the decrescendo! J Jj JJj JJ j f ™ f b ? f f f f f f f f f f f f f f ff f f b 5& b f f ™™ b cffJ ‰fffJ™™ fJ ‰ ff‰j fJfff fJ™™™ ‰ fff‰j fJffffJ™™™ ‰ ‰‰ fJ ffJ ™™™ ‰ ‰ fJfj fJn ff‰ ™™™ ‰ fJ ffJ ‰ f ™™ ‰ fJ fJfj‰ f ‰™™ fJ fJ ‰‰ f ff f fj f f f ff ff ™™ b ff ™™™ ff ff ™™ f ™ f ‰ b ‰ f f ™ f ™ f mff ™ f f & f f™ fj f ™ ff ™™ ff n ff ™™ ff ™™ 5 fj ff ™™ f ™ J f f f bb ff ™™™ f f ff ff ™™ f f ff ff ™™ f f ff f ™ f f ‰ f ™ f f fj f ™ f f j ff ff fj ff ff ‰ ? b f f f ‰fJ ‰f ™ f f ‰f ‰f ™ f f ‰f ff‰ ™™ f f ‰ ‰f ™™ f f f‰ n ‰f ™™ f f ff‰ ‰f ™™ J J ‰ mf‰f ™™ J J ‰ 5& b ‰ ? bb ‰ff ™™™ Jff Jff ‰ff ‰ff ™™ Jff Jff ‰ffj ‰ff ™™ Jff Jff ‰ffj f‰ ™ Jff Jff ‰ ‰ff ™ fJf fJf ff‰j ‰ff ™ fJf fJf f‰j ‰f ff ff ‰ffj ‰f ff ff ‰ & f J J fJ f ™ J J f f ™ J J f ff ™™ J J ff ™™ J J ff n ff ™™ Jf Jf fff ff ™™ J J f mfff ™™ J J ? bb ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ f f ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ J J mf J J 9 J J J J J J J J J J J J f f j j ? bbb ‰f ™ ff ff ‰f ‰f ™ff ff ‰fj ‰ ™ff ff ‰ j ‰ ff ff ‰‰ ‰f ™ff ff ‰f ‰f ™ f f f‰j ‰ ™ ff ff ‰ j ‰ ff ff ‰ 9& b ff ™J Jrepeatffof theffopening. ff ™™toJforteJ ffj ff ™™J JThe RHffjis a straight ff ™™J J ffj ff ™™ J J ffj ff ™ J J ffj ffJ™™ J ™™™ J The LH differs Back J b j f ™ f f ™™ f f ™ ‰ f (loud) again. f though, with more jumps. Be prepared.! ™ ™ b ‰ f f f f ™ f f ™ f ™ & f f f ff ff ™™ ff ff ™™ ff ™™ ff ff ™™ 9 ff ff ff ™™ ff ff ™™ ff ff ™™™ f ™™ fj f ™ j j f j j bb f ™ j ™ ? f f f f f f b ‰ f f f ff ™™ fj fj ff‰ fff‰ ™™™ f f fff‰ fff‰ ™™™ fj fj fff‰ f‰ff™™™ f ‰ ‰ff ™™ fj fj ff‰ fff‰ ™™™ f f ‰fff ‰fff ™™™ fj fj fff‰ f‰fff™™™ ff ‰‰ 9 & b f‰ ? bb ‰f ™ fj fj f‰j f‰ ™ Jff Jff f‰j ‰ ™ fj fj ‰j f‰ Jff Jff ‰ ‰f ™ fj fj f‰j f‰ ™ Jff Jff ‰fj ‰ ™ fj fj ‰j f‰ Jff Jff ‰ & fff ™™ f f ff ff ™™ J J ff ff ™ f f ff ffJ™™ J ff ™™ f f ff ff ™™ J J ff ff ™ f f ff ffJ™™ J f ™ f ™ ? bb ‰ fj fj ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ fj fj ‰ f‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ fj fj ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰f ™ fj fj f‰ f‰ ff™ ff ‰ f 13 ff ff ff ff ff ff J J j ff ff j J J J J j Jf Jf j f ™ f b ™ ™ ? f f f f f f f f b 13& b b ‰ff ™™ fj fj ‰ff ‰ff ™™fJ fJ ‰ ffj ‰ ffff™™™j fj ‰ fffj‰ ffffJ™™™ fJ ‰ ‰‰ fffj ™™ fj ‰ ‰fffj fJffffJ™™™ ‰ ‰ffffjffff™™™ j ‰ J‰ ffJFF ffJ ‰ j f f™ Re the lastf LH and RH chords: b ff ™™™ f f fJf ff ™™ ™™ f f f ™ f f f f f f ™ f ™ b f f ‰ ff ™ Try yourJutmostF to play all four f ™ f f ™ f fJ f ™ ff ™fingerings. ff ff ™™ sure to follow the fj f ™ f 13& fj ffMake f ™Mark any f ™ notes simultaneously. F changes onto the score. j f f j f ™ f b ™ ™ f f f f f f f f ™ ™ f ™ f f ™ ™ ™ ? bb ff ™ j j ‰ff ‰ff ™ ff ff ‰ff ‰f ™™#ff ff ‰f ff‰ ™ f f ‰‰ ‰f ™™ f f ‰f f‰ff™ f ‰ff ‰ff ™ ff ff J F 13& b ‰ f f f™ f f f fJ™ fJ f f ™ F ? bb ‰ff ™™™ ffj ffj ‰Jff ‰ff ™™ Jff Jff ‰ffj ‰ff ™™#Jff Jff ‰ffj f‰ ™™ Jff Jff ‰ ‰f ™™ Jff Jff ‰fj f‰ f™ f ‰fj ‰f ™ Jff ff f FFF & f f f fJ f ™ J J f f ™ J J f ff ™ J J ff ™ J J ff ffJf™™ Jf ff ff ™™ J J F ? bb ‰ fj fj ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ #ff ff ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ f f ‰ ‰ ff ff F Jf Jf ff ff F Jf Jf Jf Jf J J J J J ? bb ‰ j j ‰ ‰ ff ff ‰ ‰ #ff ff ‰ ‰ f f ‰ ‰ f f ‰ ‰ f f ‰ ‰ ff ff F J J ff ff FF J J J J J J J J J
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simile ‘Simile’ means ‘the same’.
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Don’t slow down at the end.
28• Pianist 82
P28 Scores SCHYTTE-FINAL.indd 28
08/01/2015 16:35
TRAD. CATALAN arr. MARSHALL
BEGINNER
El cant dels ocells (The Song of the Birds)
Richard Jones, Editor for ABRSM, writes: This song, thought to date back to about 1600, comes from Catalonia – a principality that lies across the southern tip of France and northeastern Spain – where the Catalan language is still spoken today. The words refer to Christmas, describing many different species of birds visiting the baby Jesus in his manager in Bethlehem. In modern times, the carol has been revived in various arrangements, notably by the cellist Pablo Casals and the
singer Joan Baez. In this piano arrangement, the birdsong is heard in bars 7 and 14-16. The arranger, Mark Marshall, lives in Vivès, a village in French Catalonia. Pianist’s playing tips: Look at all the markings on the scores, including pedal. There’s a lot to absorb. It should sound expressive. Note: You can hear the track at www.abrsm.org/pianotracks.
Unhurried, expressive q = c. 96 1
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P29 Scores ABRSM-FINAL.indd 29
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29• Pianist 82
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El cant dels ocells (The Song of the Birds).Traditional Catalan.Arranged by Mark Marshall © 2014 by The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Reproduced from “Piano Exam Pieces 2015 & 2016,ABRSM Grade 1” by permission of ABRSM.
Unhurried, q = c. 96 4Œ Ó expressive Œ
08/01/2015 16:35
ISS ’T MIE N O N D MELA K’S SWIC SPAN IECE HIS P ON T AGE
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
ON LESS
TRACK 2
Minuet in B minor from French Suite No 3 BWV 814
P 0 2
When Bach completed the six French suites, he had already composed several major keyboard works, including Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and he was making the transition from his job at the court of Cöthen to employment as Kantor in Leipzig. The suites (the ‘French’ in the title was not Bach’s) each have five to seven movements; this Minuet is the fifth in the Third Suite. Playing tips: Start practising extremely slowly, hands separately. You need to feel
Moderato q = c. 120
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every single note press down into the keys in the RH. The sound needs to be even too. The LH should plod along, 100 per cent in time. It is the foundation, but it should never drown out the RH. You can use the metronome if you wish, now and then, but it’s even better to use your own inner metronome inside your head. Pedal tips: No pedal needed at all, as this needs to sound well articulated and ‘clean’. Read Melanie Spanswick’s step-by-step lesson on this piece on page 20.
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30• Pianist 82
P30 Scores BACH-FINAL.indd 30
08/01/2015 16:36
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
TRACK 2
Minuet in B minor from French Suite No 3 BWV 814
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3
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4
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4
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1
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f f f f f f
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3
2
3
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2
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1
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f f f
5
3
4
f f f f f f
f f f
4
f f f
f f f f f f 1
2
2
f f ? ## ™™ f f f f
22
BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE
2
1
f
f f f f
f
f
f
3
2
4
4
3
1
2
3
f f f f f 1
3
1
2
f
f
f
2
3
1
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f 1
1
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5
31• Pianist 82
P30 Scores BACH-FINAL.indd 31
08/01/2015 16:36
Robert FUCHS (1847-1927)
TRACK 3
BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE
Sweet Consolation, No 11 from Album for the Young op 47
Brahms praised the music of Austrian composer and pianist Robert Fuchs, who went on to become a prominent teacher of the likes of Mahler and Sibelius. ‘Sweet Consolation’ (in German, ‘Süsser Trost’) comes from his 24-part Album for the Young. Playing tips: There is definitely a sense of Schumann in this piece. It’s all in the RH melody, which needs to sound so tender and loving, and indeed, the marking at the start, ‘Zart und inning’, means tender and heartfelt. The LH has to follow the melody. On the CD, you will be able to listen to the beautiful singing tone that our pianist
Chenyin Li creates. Pay attention to the long phrases – the music should never sound static. At the end of bar 16, a slightly a brighter section appears, which is repeated a second time. Aim to make it more heart-breaking the second time. The grace notes at bars 19 and 23 should be prolonged, almost as part of the melody. Taper away at the end, with a little diminuendo and a little ritardando. Pedal tips: Legato pedalling is marked on the score, with two changes per bar. Hence, ample pedalling will be required.
Zart und innig
b 6Zart™ und innig f™ f &b 8 f b 6Zart™ und innig f™ f & b 8 fp b 6 fp ™ undf innig f™ bf f ff & b 8Zart f bb 66 ff ™ f f b p f f™ & f bf f f & b 88 ° f ø ø b6 f b f f p 8 & f fø bf ø ° f b 6 & b 8 ° f f føj bf f fø f f bf f™ f™ j ° f bfø f ™ ø f™ f f f fff™ nf bfj bff ™ b f f ™ f f f j bf f ff™ n f f b f ™ f f bf f ™ f f f ff™ nf f bf b f f ff™ f f nff™ f f f™bf b f ff f™ f™ f™ f pp f™ f™ f™ f pp f ‰f™ f f f bf f f ™ f ff f f™ ‰ f f pp f b f f f f™ f f ‰ f pp f f f bf f f f f j ™ f f‰ f b f bf j f ff™ f f f f f f™ f bf f ™ ™ f f nf f bfj bf ™ ff™ f f nf f fj bf fff™ ™ b f™ f f f nf ff™ f bf ff™ f f nf f f bf 3
4
b 4 &b b 4& b b b 4& ? bb b ? & bbb ? bb 8 b 8? & bbb b b & 8 bb b & 8& b b &b b 12& b b 12& b bb 12& bb 12& ? bb b b & ? bb ? bb
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1
1
3
5
3
3
3
3
4
2
1
3
3
4
2
1
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4
2
1
3
4
2
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3
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3
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2
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2
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3 3
3
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f f f™ f nf ™ bf nf J ™ f f f f nf ™ bf nf J f f f ™ bf nf ™ f f f f f f f f f bffJ nff f ff ff f ™ f bf nff ™ f ff f bJff nf f fø f ø ø sim. J f f f f f f f fø f bf fø f f fø sim. J b f f f f f f f f fø f f f fø sim. ø ™ f f nf bf f Jbfj f nf ™ ™ j ø nf ™ ø sim. f nf bøf f fdim. bf f f f bf ff ™ f b f f f bf dim.n f fj ff f f nf f ™ n f b f f f f ™ f bf f f n f fj f b f f dim. f f b f f nf f ™ f f f f f b f nff f bf n f bff f f fdim. f ff ff ff ™ f f b f f f bf n f f f f bf nf f f nf ™ J f f f™ f nf ™ bf nf J f f f™ f ™ nf bf nf f ff f ™ f bf f f f f f Jf f f f f ™ J f f f f bf nff f f f f bfJf nff f J b f f f f f f f f f f f f f J ™ f b f n f b f f f f f ff f f f f f nff ™ f J f nf bf f ™ nf ™ b f f ff nf bff ff ™ f b f nff ™ f b f f f nff bf ff ™ f b f f f f nf ™ bf f f f f f f bf f f bf f f f f f f bf f f 1
4
1
4
1
4
1
2
42
3
2
3
2
3
2
2
3
2
3
1
3
1
3
1
3
1
2
1
3
4
5
3
2
1
2
4
1
3
4
5
3
2
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2
4
1
3
4
5
3
2
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bf bf bf bf
32• Pianist 82
P32 Scores-FINAL.indd 32
09/01/2015 12:31
Robert FUCHS (1847-1927)
TRACK 3
BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE
Sweet Consolation, No 11 from Album for the Young op 47
15
b &b f
j bf f
{
1
j # f f™
1
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f™
f f f nf ™
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?bf b
p
1
4
1
3
5
4
3
5
19
b & b j #f ™
{
nf
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&
5
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3
f™ 3
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1
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23
f nf f f ™
bf ™
1
3
4
4
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nf ™
p
f f f f f bf f f f f f f n f b f f f bf f f f f f f f 4
27
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33• Pianist 82
P32 Scores-FINAL.indd 33
09/01/2015 12:31
Friedrich KUHLAU (1786-1832)
TRACK 4
Born in Germany, Friedrich Kuhlau enjoyed his greatest success writing stage works for the Danish court. Kuhlau wrote this sonatina in 1823 in Copenhagen. Playing tips: This piece is great for working on your scales and runs. A lightness is needed, along with evenness of touch and sound. One might think it’s written by Clementi or Mozart. Really articulate your fingers and make each finger be as independent as possible. It will help to study the fingerings. There are many accents
and changes of dynamics throughout. Notice, too, the crescendos within the runs. The development starts at bar 21. When there are repeats, try to make it the second time around different, such as the run at bars 27-28 and at bars 29-30. Remember to keep a good pulse with the LH: it is the foundation of the piece and the Alberti bass should be even and rhythmic. Pedal tips: No pedal needed, as this has to sound articulated and ‘clean’.
Allegro
j f f f f f ™ j f f f f f f f f f f f f f #f f nf f f f Allegro f™ c & Allegro f f f f f #f f nf f f f f f j j f f f f™ f f ™ f f f f & c p fj f f fj f f fff . f f. f #f f nf f f . . ff f™ FF f f f f ff ™ FF f f f f ff f f f ff f f ff cAllegro & f f ? c pf F . F j f f ff f ff. ™ FF j f f ff f ff. Œf f ff. f Œf f fff. f #fŒ f nÓf f f f f™ p c ? c f Ff & ff. FF f ff. f Œ ff. Œ ff. Œ Ó ff ff F . ? c pf Œ . Œ Œ Ó . FF ff. FF ff. ff ff. ff ff ? Œ f f F Œ Óf f f > . > . Œ >f >f c f. f > > f f f . f> >f f f f >ff ff f f f f ff >ff ff >ff ff f f #f f f f F ffff ff ff f ff >ff f f f f. >ff f. ff f. f f #f f f F f. f. > f. ffff >f >f f f f > > f f f dolce f f # f f f f f f f f f f f f > > f f f >fff >fff f f f ff. >fff ff. >fff ff. dolce Ff f f f f ff f f f >>ff >>ff f f > f > f f . . . f f f > f # f > dolce f f f f f f >f >f fÓ f f >ff >ff fÓ f f ff. ff ff. ff ff. f Œ Ó ffffffff f. >f f. >f f. Œ Ó >ff >ff Ó >ff >ff Ó dolce ff f ff f ff ffffffff f f Ó >ff >ff Ó . >ff f. >ff f. Œ Ó >f >f f ffffffff f f Ó f f f Ó Œ Ó f f f f f f f f f ™ f f f f f f #f f f f #f f f #f f J f #f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f #f f f ™ #f f f f f f f f f f f f #f f f f f f f f f f f f f ff #f ff f ™ f Jf f #ff f ff f ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff #ff ™ ff J ff ff fff f f f ff f f #fff f fff f fff f fff f ff f ff f ff ff #ff ff ff f f f f #f ff ff f Œ fff Œ f f f f f #f f f f f ff f ff f ff f ff f ff f ff f ff f ff f #ff f ff Jf ff f ff f ff Œ ff Œ Œ Œ f f f f f f f f f f f f f ff ff ff ff f ff ff ff ff #ff ff ff ff ff Œ Œ fff f fff f f f f f f #f f f f f f f #f f f f f f f f #f ff f f f f f f f f f f # f f f f f f f f #f f f f ff f f #f f f f f f f f f #f f f f f f f f f f f f f f #f f f f f cresc. f #f f f sf f f f f f #f f f f f f #sff f f f f f f f f f f #sfFf f f f ff Œ Ó f f #Óf f f&f sffF f f f f Œf f Óf #f f ? F Ó ff f Œf f #fff f Œf f fff cresc. f f f F cresc. sf sf f f f ? Ó f f #F fF f f f Ó & F ff Œ Ó f Œ ff Œ ff Œf f Ó FF ? Ó Œ Ó Ó & sfFF Œ f Œ ff Œ Ó cresc. sf F f f ff FF ? Ó Œ Ó Ó & F Œ f Œ ff Œ Ó F 5 1
& 5 & 5& ? & ? ? 5
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10
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& 14 & 14& ? ? & ? 14
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5 1
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1
5
3
3
1
5
3
2
5
2
4
5
5
1 3
2 5
2
1
5
4 2
1
2
1 33 5
1
2
3
5 1
1
2
4
2
3 1
1
2
4
2
3 1
1
2
4
2
3 1
4
2
3 1
1
2 5
4 2
5
3
2
2
2 5
4 2
5
2
1
2
3
1
3
1
3
2
1
3
2
4
2 5
4 2
5
4
2
1
3
2
2
1 3
1 3 3 5
5
4
2
5
5
5 1
3
5
1
3
3
5
1
3
5
INTERMEDIATE
First movement from Sonatina op 55 no 1
3
2
3
2
4 2 4 2 4 2 4 2
3
1
2
3
1
1
2
3
1
1
2
3
1
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
1
2
3
1
1
2
3
1
1
2
3
1
1
5
5 5
5
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
3 3 3
2
3
1
2
2
3
1
2
2
3
1
2
2
3
1
2
2 4
3 5
2 5
3 5
1 2
2 4
3 5
2 5
3 5
1 2
2 4
1
3
2 143 1
3
1
3
2 2
1 1
2 2
4 4
2
1
2
4
2
1
2
4
1
2
1
2
1
3 3
2
3
2
3
1
3 5 2
3 1 52 1
2
1
2
3
1
2
3
3
1
2
3
3
1
2
3
4 4
1 1
4
2 5
2 4 52
1
4
4
1
4
1
3
1
2
3
3
1
2
3
3
1
2
3
2
1
2
1
3
2
2
1
2
1
3 3
3
3 5
2
1
4
2
1
4
2
1
4
2
1
4
5 5
4
3
5
2
3
2
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3
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2
1
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2
2
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2
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2
3
2
1
5
2
3
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1
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1 5
2 4
1 5
2 4
1 5
2 4
1 5
2 4
3
1
2
3
2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5
2
3
1 3
2 5
1 3
2 5
1 3
2 5
1 3
2 5
34• Pianist 82
P34 Scores KUHLAU-FINAL.indd 34
08/01/2015 16:37
Friedrich KUHLAU (1786-1832)
TRACK 4
19 5
2
2
3 1
& f. f f #f f. f f f f. f f
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24
&
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INTERMEDIATE
First movement from Sonatina op 55 no 1
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5
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1
3
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3
1
5
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4
28
2
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2
1
5
f f bf f f f f f 3
1
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3
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2
1
3
2
2
3
mf
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3
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2
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32
4
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4
1
3
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4
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37
5
3
1
3
3
1
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2
4
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4
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3
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35• Pianist 82
P34 Scores KUHLAU-FINAL.indd 35
08/01/2015 16:37
Friedrich KUHLAU (1786-1832)
TRACK 4
> > >f f f b f f f > > f f f f f f f f ff ff f f ff >ff >ff Ó Ó ff & f f Ó f> >f >
f f f f f f f nf >f >f f f &
42
5 1
1
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1
2
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2 5
47
1
4 2
3 1
2
& nf
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INTERMEDIATE
First movement from Sonatina op 55 no 1
3
5
3
2
1
1
1 3
f . ‰ fJ ff 4 2
5 3
ff
ff
ff
f
2
4 2
4 1
5
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3 1
51
1
3
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4
5
1
5
1
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5
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1
f
f
1
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2
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2
1
3
2
3
4
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3
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5
1 3
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4
5
1 5
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3 1
2
f f f f f J 1
3
2
1
2
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3 5
1
2 5
1
& f f f f f f f f ff f ff f ff f ff f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f & 5
4
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55
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4
4
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36• Pianist 82
P34 Scores KUHLAU-FINAL.indd 36
5
2
3
1
ff
ff.
ff
1
2
f ff. fff
3
5
fff
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1 2 4
08/01/2015 16:37
Stephen HELLER (1813-1888)
TRACK 5
Hungarian-born composer and pianist Stephen Heller wrote over 150 pieces for the piano. Album for the Young (original: ‘Notenbuch für Klein und Gross’) is from 1874. Playing tips: The most important thing in this piece is to find a suitable gypsy feel. The LH has a lilting quaver-crotchet-quaver accompaniment, but the main melody and work are within the RH. Most of the piece is played piano, so you need a really sensitive touch. In order to create that gypsy ‘allure’, pay great attention to the
Allegretto Allegretto 5 ## 2Allegretto f5 & # 4Allegretto f
2 & ### 42 pff ff f & ## 42 pf f ff & ? ## 442 pj f ff ? ## 42 #pfj f fj ? ## 42 #° f fj ? ## 42 #° #f ° ° 5 # 5 # f f f f f™ 5 & ## f f f f f™ 5& # # & ## ff f f f f ™ f fff ™ f ff ™ & ? ## j ff ™ f ? ## fj fj sim. ffff ™™ f ? ## Ped. f fj sim. ? ## Ped. f Ped. sim.
{{
{{ 9 9 9 9
5 5
# & ### & ## & ## & ## & ## & ## & ## &
13 13 13 13
5
1
5
1
5
1
5
1
3
2
3
2
3
3
2
3
2
3
3
2
3
2
3
3
2
3
2
3
1
1
Ped. sim.
f f f f 3 3 3 3
1
2
f f f f 2 2 2
j fj fj fj f
3
2
3
2
3
2
f f f f f f f f ff™ ff™ ff™ ff™ 3
2
f f f
2
3 3
3
3 3
f f f f
f f f f f f f f
5
4
f f f f FfJ FfJ FfJ FfJ
f f f f
f f f f f f f j f #fj #fj #° fj #° f ° ° 5 5
3
5
5
3
f f f f f f f f
3
5
3
f f f f j fj fj fj f
3
ritardandos followed by the ‘a tempos’ – not to mention the pauses. You need to feel a real ebb and flow. The ritardandos create poignancy, but the a tempos bring things back to reality again. It’s a bit like give and take. Notice also the accents and the staccato notes – they will bring even more character to the work. Bar 37 onwards is a sensitive coda. You will enjoy playing this. It will really draw you in as you work on it. Pedal tips: Take a look at the markings on the score.
3
f f f ff f f Jf f Jf f fJ J
3
4
f f f f
3
> >f >f >f f j fj fj ° fj ° f ° °
f f f f Ff FfJ FJf FfJ J
f f f ff Jf Jf fJ J
f™ f™ f™ f™
104 104 104 104
f f f f 2
4
= = 5 5= =
3
2
2
q q q q
2 2
4
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INTERMEDIATE
Gypsy Dance, No 19 from Album for the Young op 138
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37• Pianist 82
P37 Scores HELLER-FINAL.indd 37
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Stephen HELLER (1813-1888)
TRACK 5
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Gypsy Dance, No 19 from Album for the Young op 138
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38• Pianist 82
P37 Scores HELLER-FINAL.indd 38
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Stephen HELLER (1813-1888)
TRACK 5
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Gypsy Dance, No 19 from Album for the Young op 138
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Ped. al Fine 39• Pianist 82
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Alexander GRIBOYEDOV (1795-1829)
TRACK 6
INTERMEDIATE
Waltz in A flat
Teacher and music blogger Frances Wilson writes: Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov was a Russian diplomat, playwright, poet, and composer. A contemporary of Alexander Pushkin, his best-known work is the verse play ‘Woe from Wit’, a comedy of manners that lampoons Russian bureaucracy, but he also wrote prose and plays and translated many texts. He was one of the most educated men of his time, with a fine command of languages, and also possessed musical talent. He was an excellent pianist and also a composer. It is possible that as a child Griboyedov was taught by John Field, whose Nocturnes delighted all of Europe and Russia during the composer’s stay in the country. The two waltzes (this being the first) – the only surviving musical compositions by Griboyedov – certainly show the influence of Field in the singing RH melody and
flowing LH accompaniment. [Griboyedov died in dramatic circumstances when the Russian embassy where he was stationed in Tehran, Iran, was attacked by a mob.] Playing tips from Frances Wilson: The piece begins with a short chordal introduction with some interesting suspensions, which veers briefly into the minor key. Make sure you feel very connected to the keys when playing the RH melody: aim for a smooth, singing cantabile with sensitively defined phrasing. A relaxed, flexible wrist is essential for the quaver figures in the LH in this section: a good fingering scheme and a sense of balance between the hands, together with careful pedalling, will ensure this passage ripples gently beneath the expressive melody. In the middle section, the RH takes over the flowing quaver figure. Keep the LH chords soft throughout this section.
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40• Pianist 82
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Alexander GRIBOYEDOV (1795-1829)
TRACK 6
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Waltz in A flat
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P40 Scores GRIBOYEDOV-FINAL.indd 41
f
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41• Pianist 82
08/01/2015 16:39
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
TRACK 7
This piece comes from a collection known as the ‘London Notebook’ for having been written when Wolfgang, along with his family, was on tour in London from 1764 to 1765. No surprise that the musically skilled Mozart family wowed the British court. Playing tips: It is important to find the right tempo from the outset. Firstly, see how fast you can manage the demisemiquavers at bar 10, and then work backwards from that. There should be a detached quality to the notes, especially in the LH, but the
Andante e = c. 84 Andante e = c. 84 4 2 1 4r Andante f b 2 f1 44r f f fe ff= c. 84 f4r f2 b & b 42Andante 1 fr f f e = c.f84 f4r 2
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INTERMEDIATE
Andante in B flat K15ii
4
1
2
1
2 2
1 1
2
1
2
5
2
2 2
5 5
2 2
2
5
2
5
3
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3 3
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3
5
1
2
1
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2 2
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slurs should be joined, of course. The RH runs should also be seamless. Listen to our pianist on the CD and how she makes that wonderful detached sound in the LH at bar 17. That’s what you’re aming for! At bar 22, during the short development, in true Mozart style, the composer introduces some poignant harmonic changes. The opening returns at bar 28, with some variants in the RH. Tail off elegantly towards the end. Pedal tips: Hardly any pedal needed. The odd dab here and there, on first beat.
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42• Pianist 82
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Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
TRACK 7
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18
1
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f
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27
INTERMEDIATE
Andante in B flat K15ii
4
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43• Pianist 82
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Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
TRACK 7
bf f f b &
31
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INTERMEDIATE
Andante in B flat K15ii
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40
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44• Pianist 82
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A Z E R T Y
H A NS - G ÜNTER HEUMA NN
B E Gzerty INNERS XXXX (XXXXX)
PLAGE
KEYBOARD CLASS LESSON 10: THE ROMANTIC PERIOD
On these four pages, Pianist covers the most basic stages of learning the piano through a series of Keyboard Class lessons created by Hans-Günter Heumann. This tenth lesson goes a little bit off-piste to focus on the history of Romantic period, or era. It should help you with your interpretation of Romantic piano music. Plus, there’s a lovely arrangement to learn on pages 46 and 47.
The Romantic period • In music history, the Romantic period is about 1820 to 1900. It was a time in which composers allowed themselves to be particularly influenced by their imagination, feelings and fairy tales, and expressed this in their music. • Public concert life continued to develop during the Romantic period, and anyone who could afford to pay for a ticket was able to attend a concert. Musical events took place in concert halls, opera houses and churches. In addition, salons and cafés become established as places where you could listen to music. Music in the home (‘Hausmusik’, to use the German word) was very popular and, possibly because of this, the piano was very much the leading instrument of the Romantic period.
Important musical forms of the Romantic period • Programme music In the Romantic period, programme music (music related to extra-musical ideas) developed into an independent genre. Programme music makes particular use of tone painting, the representation of a painting with music. It includes the imitation of natural phenomena such as bird song (heard in Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, for example), a sunrise or a storm. Programme music tells a story or describes particular events or locations, such as Smetana’s Vltava (The Moldau), which describes the course of the famous river. • Symphonies and operas The Romantic era adopted all the musical categories of previous eras, albeit in extended forms, with symphonies and operas much larger and longer in duration than those of earlier eras. • Salon music So-called salon music, generally light entertainment music, became popular in salons and coffee houses, with particularly famous locations found in Paris and Vienna. • Character pieces The character piece played an important role in Romantic piano music. A character piece is a short composition that aims to capture a particular feeling or effect. The title usually tells all: among Schumann’s character pieces are Träumerei (‘Dreaming’), Wilder Reiter (‘Wild Horseman’) and Bittendes Kind (‘Pleading Child’). • Art song The German art song – Kunstlied – reached its culmination in the Romantic era with the composers Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf. The singer is usually accompanied by the piano.
Turn the page to learn an easy piano arrangement of a piece of programme music.
45• Pianist 82
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HANS-GÜNTER HEUMANN KEYBOARD CLASS
A Ball PLAGE
A Z E R T Y XXXX (XXXXX)
zerty
Theme from the second movement of Symphonie fantastique op 14 by Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)) arr. Hans-Günter Heumann
A
This piece is an example of a programme music, one of the important musical forms of the Romantic period. du faux texte Bella terra et mari civilia externaque toto in orbe terrarum saepe gessi, victorque omnibus veniam petentibus civibus peperci. Externas gentes, quibus tuto ignosci potuit, conservare quam excidere malui. Millia civium Romanorum sub sacramento meo fuerunt circiter quingenta. Ex quibus deduxi in colonias aut remisi in municipia sua stipendis emeritis millia aliquanto plura quam trecenta, et iis omnibus agros adsignavi aut pecuniam pro praemiis militiae dedi. Naves cepi sescentas praeter eas, si quae minores quam triremes fuerunt.Bella terra et mari civilia externaque toto in orbe terrarum saepe gessi, victorque omnibus veniam petentibus civibus peperci. Externas gentes, quibus tuto ignosci potuit, conservare quam excidere malui. Millia civium Romanorum sub sacramento meo fuerunt circiter quingenta. Ex quibus deduxi in colonias aut remisi in municipia sua stipendis emeritis millia aliquanto plura quam trecenta, et iis omnibus agros adsignavi aut pecuniam pro praemiis militiae dedi. Naves cepi sescentas praeter eas, si quae minores quam triremes fuerunt.Bella terra et mari civilia externaque tot.
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HANS-GÜNTER HEUMANN KEYBOARD CLASS
A Z E R T Y XXXX (XXXXX)
zerty
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) Country: France Period: Romantic
PLAGE
Although Berlioz’s musical talent was apparent from an early age, he first studied medicine and changed to study music at the Paris Conservatoire in 1826. In 1830 he won the highly acclaimed Prix de Rome at the Conservatoire. He proceeded to establish himself as a pioneer of Romantic music with operas, choral works and symphonies. Berlioz exploited the tone colour of orchestral instruments with great knowledge and skill. His idée fixe was a precursor of the leitmotiv: a short, characteristic music figure that frequently recurs in opera or in instrumental programme music where it will have a particular significance, symbolising a person, object, idea or feeling. He also wrote a comprehensive Treatise on Instrumentation. Berlioz was not only a composer and conductor but also a music critic. His most well-known works are Symphonie fantastique (see these two pages for an arrangement from this piece), the dramatic legend La damnation de Faust and the opera Les Troyens.
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PLAGE
The Romantic orchestra A
Z E R T Y XXXX (XXXXX)
zerty
The Romantic orchestra was considerably larger than its Classical predecessor. New instruments were added and the number of instruments, particularly strings and wind, increased, creating a huge sound. Berlioz had a great influence on the sound of the Romantic orchestra. Today’s large symphony orchestra is used primarily for concert works of the late 18th to the early 20th centuries. du faux texte Bella terra et mari civilia externaque toto in orbe terrarum saepe gessi, victorque omnibus veniam petentibus civibus peperci. Externas gentes, quibus tuto ignosci potuit, conservare quam excidere malui. Millia civium Romanorum sub sacramento meo fuerunt circiter quingenta. Ex quibus deduxi in colonias aut remisi in municipia sua stipendis emeritis millia aliquanto plura quam trecenta, et iis omnibus agros adsignavi aut pecuniam pro praemiis militiae dedi. Naves cepi sescentas praeter eas, si quae minores quam triremes fuerunt.Bella terra et mari civilia externaque toto in orbe terrarum saepe gessi, victorque omnibus veniam petentibus civibus peperci. Externas gentes, quibus tuto ignosci potuit, conservare quam excidere malui. Millia civium Romanorum sub sacramento meo fuerunt circiter quingenta. Ex quibus deduxi in colonias aut remisi in municipia sua stipendis emeritis millia aliquanto plura quam trecenta, et iis omnibus agros adsignavi aut pecuniam pro praemiis militiae dedi. Naves cepi sescentas praeter eas, si quae minores quam triremes fuerunt.Bella terra et mari civilia externaque tot.
A
Famous composers of the Romantic era Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Frédéric Chopin (1810-1856) Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Richard Wagner (1813-1883) Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)
Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825-1899) Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) George Bizet (1838-1875) Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Hans-Günter Heumann continues his beginner series in the next issue. To find out more about Heumann, go to www.schott-music.com
48• Pianist 82
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Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
TRACK 8
INTERMEDIATE
Mariotte – Valse de Marie S212a
As the booklet for Leslie Howard’s complete Liszt box set (Hyperion Records) notes, this little-known piece was ‘found among Liszt’s correspondence with Marie d’Agoult, his long-time mistress and the mother of his children, and is an utterly charming trifle.’ Playing tips: Even though this piece is marked Allegro, it should not sound fast or rushed. Each note means something! Practise both hands separately at first. The LH has to be solid – start off very slowly and try not to look at the keyboard. With the RH, the first note of every triplet needs to sound out a bit more, even if every note still
matters. Tip: keep the fingers close to the keyboard, like a spider crawling over the keys. Pay attention to the dynamic markings. There is a long crescendo from bar 25, leading to the climax of the piece at bars 29-30. Notice that this is the only place where the piece comes to a brief halt. You may find that there is a strong temptation to make a ritardando at the the end – resist that temptation! Pedal tips: Just one change per bar. But remember to lift the pedal just before the end of the bar (i.e. this is not legato pedalling).
Allegro q = 132
Allegro q >= 132 ff f f f f q f= f132f f f f f b 3 b f f f f f f nf f f f b Allegro f & bb 4 f > f f f > f f f f f f f f f f nf f ff ff 3 b f b 3 3 3 4 mff f q >f= 132f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f nf f & bb Allegro f f f 3 & bbbb 4 mff 3f f >f 3f f f 3f f ff f f >f f f ff f f f f f f f f f f f nf f f > 3 ? & bbbbbbb 4 mfŒ 3f f f 3f f ff 3f f ff f f ff f f ff f f f f f f ff f f f f f > ? bb b 43 Œ 3 ff f f3 f f 3 f b f f f ° ff ° ff ° ? bb b 43 mfŒ ff f f f f f f ° ° ° ff ff ? bbbb>43 Œ ff f 4 f >f f f ° ff ff ° bbb f f fb f f f f f° ff f f f f f f 4 f f f b > &b f f f f f f f > f f f° f ff f f f f f f° f f °f f 4 & bbbb f f >f f f f >f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f ff>fffff f 4 & b bb f f ff f f f f ff f f f ff f ff f ff f f > f f ? bb ff ff ff f f f f f f f ff f f f Ff ™ f f f f f f f f f b b f & f f f f ff f f f f fF ™ f f f f f f f f f f ff f ? bb b f ff f f f f f ff ff fF ™ f f ? bbbbsim.f ff f f b sim. f f f f f fF ™ f f ? f f f f b 8 b f bbb sim. ff ff ff fff f f f f f b n f f f 8 & bbb sim. f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f 8 & bbbb f f f nf f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f nnff f f ffffff 8 & b bb f f ff f f f f f f f ff f f f f f f f f f f f ? b b Ff ™ nf f f f f f f f f f f ff f f f f f f f f f f f f b b f f nf f f f f f ff & ff f ff fffff ? bb b F ™ f f f f f f f f f ff ff ff ? bbbb fF ™ nf f f f f f b f f f nf ff f f ? f b F ™ f f 12 bbbb f f f f f f ff ff f f f f f f f f f f nfff bf f 12 b bb f fff f &b f f f f f f f f f f f ff f f f f f f f f nf f bf f f ff f f 12 b bb f &b f f f f f ff f ff f f f f f f f f f f f f f f nf f bf f p 12& b bb f f f f f f f f f f f bbbbb f f ff f f f f f f ff f f f f f nf f bf f ff f f ff f f f f f p j ‰ ‰ ? b f f &b b f ff f ff f ff f f f pffj ff ff f f ? bb b f f f f f ‰f ‰f f f f f f ff ff ff f f pfj f f f f ? bbbb f ffj ‰ ‰ f f ff b f f f f f f f f f ‰f f ? bb b f f f f ‰ f f b f f f f f f
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49• Pianist 82
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Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
TRACK 8
INTERMEDIATE
Mariotte – Valse de Marie S212a
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50• Pianist 82
P49 Scores LISZT-FINAL.indd 50
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Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
TRACK 8
INTERMEDIATE
Mariotte – Valse de Marie S212a
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51• Pianist 82
P49 Scores LISZT-FINAL.indd 51
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ISS ’T M DONJANET ’S MAN NEW IECE HIS P ON T AGE
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
ON LESS
TRACK 9
INTERMEDIATE
Abschied, No 9 from Waldszenen op 82
P 6 2
The nine movements of Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) were composed by Schumann in 1848-9. As the title suggests, the pieces tell stories about the forest, with the character of the hunter playing a prominent role. ‘Abschied’ is the final piece in Waldszenen and is often played on its own as an encore in recitals. Playing and pedal tips: This is an incredibly tender and loving piece. ‘Abschied’ means ‘farewell’, and one can definitely sense this heartfelt sentiment. Here are a few highlights
before you read Janet Newman’s in-depth lesson on page 26. Make the top A in bar 8 sound out like a shining pearl, and again at bar 26. See how on that note alone, there’s a crescendo/diminuendo. The coda begins at bar 40, and you will notice the words ‘Immer schwächer’ at bar 46, which means ‘always weak’. In the context here, that means you should play even more subdued. Pedalling is marked. Read Janet Newman’s step-by-step lesson on this piece on page 26.
Nicht schnell q = 80
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ø 52• Pianist 82
P52 Scores SCHUMANN-FINAL.indd 52
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Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
TRACK 9
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13
INTERMEDIATE
Abschied, No 9 from Waldszenen op 82
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53• Pianist 82
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Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
TRACK 9
INTERMEDIATE
Abschied, No 9 from Waldszenen op 82
3 2 1
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P52 Scores SCHUMANN-FINAL.indd 54
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54• Pianist 82
2 3 5
ø
2 4 5
ø 08/01/2015 16:43
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
TRACK 9
INTERMEDIATE
Abschied, No 9 from Waldszenen op 82
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P52 Scores SCHUMANN-FINAL.indd 55
5
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55• Pianist 82
j f
1 3 5
1 3 5
ø ø
ø 16/01/2015 15:01
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
TRACK 9
5 3 1
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INTERMEDIATE
Abschied, No 9 from Waldszenen op 82
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56• Pianist 82
Œ
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08/01/2015 16:43
WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS PIECE AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM
Frédéric CHOPIN (1810-1849)
TRACK 10
INTERMEDIATE/ ADVANCED
Mazurka in A minor op 68 no 2
Though this mazurka is one of four that was published six years after Chopin’s death, it was composed in 1827, making it one of his earliest mazurkas. Chopin came from the Mazovia region of Poland, where the mazur or mazurka, is a popular dance. Playing tips: There’s no doubt about it – the trills in this piece need special care! Chenyin Li, the pianist on the CD, says one should really take time over them. You might prefer the fingering of 2/4 for the trills, rather than 2/3. It’s a matter of taste
and how each hand differs. This mazurka needs to sound wistful, so a sharp, quick trill is certainly all wrong! The middle section is more resolute – observe the change of speed here (it’s quite unusual for Chopin to alter the speed in a mazurka). In the first section, you will notice that the accents fall on the third beat. That gives the mazurka its character. In the middle part, however, the accents fall on the second beat. Pedal tips: See markings. Make sure to lift the pedal way before the end of the bar.
Ÿ 3 r f™ f j f™ f f #>f ‹f f f ™ f f f &4 f Ÿ f 3 r f™ f j f™ f f #>f ‹f f f ™ f f f & 4 pf Ÿ f > > f™ f f 3 # f ‹f f f ™ f ff f f j ? 443 fp≈r f™ & f >Ÿf f f Œ f >f ‹f f f ™ f f f f™ f 3 # f f r ff f j ? 443 fp≈ f™ & f f Œ f f f f >f f f ° ° ? 43 p≈ Œ f f f f f f >f f f f ° ° 3 ? f f f f 4 f Ÿf 4≈ Œ > ≈ f f #f° ° f f ‹f f f ™ f f f ≈ ≈ f f 4& f f ≈ Ÿ . f . f . f ≈ f f #>f° ° f ‹f f f ™ f f f ≈ ≈ f f 4& f Ÿ . ≈ f . . f ff ≈ ff ≈ f f ≈ f f #>>f ‹f f f ™ f ff f f 4? & . ≈ f f. f >Ÿf f f f ff. ≈ f f f > f ™ f f f ff f # f f ? f. ≈ f ff. ≈ f ff. ≈ f & f f ‹f f f f f f ° ° ° f f f >f f f ? f f f f f f f f f ° ° ° >f f f f f f f f f f f f 8? Ÿ fj f f f ° ° ° > ‰ ™ r f™ f j f ™ f f #Ÿf ‹f f f ™ f f f 8 & f f f f ° °f >f ‹f f f ™ °f f ™ # j ™ f f r ‰ f f j 8& f Ÿ> f f™ f f f pp r f™ f j f ™ f ff #>Ÿff ‹f f f ™ f fff ff 8& ? fj f ‰f™ pp f Œ f f ™ f f #>>f ‹f f f ™ f ff f f j f ™ f r ‰ f™ f j ? & f pp f f f f f Œ f f f f > f f f f ff ° ° ? ° f pp Œ f f f f f f > f f f f ff ° f ° ° f f fŸ 12? f Œ Ÿ f f . > ≈ f f #f ‹f f f ™ f ° ° ≈ f f. ≈ f f. ≈ f f ° f f f ™ f #f #Ÿf 12& f f >Ÿ . ° .f ≈ ° f f #f ‹f f f ™ f f ° f f f ™ f #f #f 12& f . ≈ f f. ≈ f f. ≈ f. ≈ f >>Ÿ Ÿf f f ™ f f f f f f # f f ‹f ff f f ™ f #f #Ÿf 12& ? f. ≈ f ff. ≈ f ff. ≈ f . f f Ÿ > f f ≈ f f #>f ‹f f f ™ f f f ff ™ f f f ff f ? f. ≈ f fff. ≈ f fff. ≈ f & f f #ff #ff f f f f ° ° ° ° > f f f f f f ? f f f f f f f f f f f f f ° f f f ° ° ° >f f f f ? f f f f f f f f f f f f ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° 2
4
{{ {{ {{ {{ {{ {{
4
{{ {{
1
5
1
5
5
3
5
3
1 5
2 5
1 5
2 5
1
1 5
2 5
1
1 5
2 5
1
5
3
5
2
4
3
5
2
4
3
5
2
4
3
5
2
4
2
4
1
5
3
2
1
5
3
2
4
1
5
Ÿ f ™ f #f #f f f Ÿ f ™ f #f #f f f Ÿ f ™ f #ff #ff f f ff ™ f f Ÿf #ff #ff f f f ° f f f f f ° f fŸ f °f ™ f #f #Ÿf f f °f ™ f #ff #Ÿff f f f ™ f #f #Ÿf f f ff ™ f f f #ff #ff f f f ° f f f ° f f f Ÿf f ° f ™ f #f #Ÿf f f ° f ™ f #f #Ÿf f f f ™ f #ff #Ÿff f f ff ™ f f f #ff #ff f f f ° f f f f f ° f f f f °j ‰™ nfr f™ f ff f f °j ‰™ nmffr f™ f ff f f ™ nfr f™ f j f f ‰ f f f f Œ mfr Œ f j f f ‰Œ ™ nmff Œf™ ff f ° ff Œ mf Œ ° ff Œ °Œ 2
3
5
2 1
3
5
2 1
3
5
2 1
3
5
2 1
2 2 2
1 1 1 1
°
57• Pianist 82
P57 Scores CHOPIN-FINAL.indd 57
09/01/2015 12:29
WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS PIECE AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM
Frédéric CHOPIN (1810-1849)
TRACK 10
INTERMEDIATE/ ADVANCED
Mazurka in A minor op 68 no 2
17
1
Ÿ #>f
f f
# >f f
2
f™ f f ™ & ™ 5
{
3
? ™™ f
&
{
?
#f f
f
° j f
Ÿ #>f #f f f ≈ f f
>f
f f
# >f f
f f
>f f
2 5
1 5
5
Ÿ f™ f f #>f p
‹f f
>f f
f f
f™ f f
f
f f
f f
f
f °
° Ÿ ™ f f #f #f f
°
Ÿ ™ f f #f #f
f f f f
f f f f
{
?
f >f f f
f °
f °
f °
{
f™ f ff ff
f f
mf
j f
ff
### f™ f & ff ff
ff
33
f f
ff
ff
f™ f ff ff
4 2
f
? ### f f °
3 1
Œ
4 2
P57 Scores CHOPIN-FINAL.indd 58
1 3 5
2 4
1 2
ff
ff
ff
ff
f f
f ™™ #f fj #f ™ f # f f f™ f™ f F °
58• Pianist 82
2.
j f
f
™™
3 1
ff J
f °
# ‰™ r ™ ## ff f f f
###
Œ
ff™™ ff nff ™™
3 5 4 1 2
f ##ff
ff J
pp
ffj
ffj
ff ™™ ## ff n ff ™™ F™
1 3
mf
ff
f #ff
1 4
f f
mf
ff ™™ ## ff n ff ™™ F™
ff
p
°
‰ ≈ nfr f ™ f ™™
ff ™™ ##ff nff ™™
f f
f f
f f
f
f
f f f J ‰ °
cresc.
ff
4
f. ≈ f f. ≈ f f. ≈ f
f
? ### ™™ f f °
{
1.
1
F™
ff
°
Poco più mosso
### ™ f™ f ™ f & ff f
29
f f
°
Ÿ f. ≈ f f #>f ‹f f f™ f f f &
25
f f
ff
rit.
3
2
f
°
a tempo
21
1
f ™ f f 4
j f f
f ™™ #f #f f #f f
f f
™™
f
™™
pp
F f
f™ f F F °
09/01/2015 12:29
WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THIS PIECE AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM
Frédéric CHOPIN (1810-1849)
TRACK 10
INTERMEDIATE/ ADVANCED
Mazurka in A minor op 68 no 2
### nf ™ f & nff fff
37
{
5
4
legatissimo
? ### f f
f f
f ff
f™ f ff ff
f f
f f
ff f °
f f
### f™ f & f ff ff f
f f
f™ f f f #ff nnff ff f f
f f 2 5
f f
1 5
? ### f f
ff ™ f nff f #f n f ff
ff ff
f™ f ff ff ff f f
f f f f
f f
°
f™ f ff ff
f f
ff ™ f ff f f
f f °
f f
f f
f f
nf f
nnn
ff ff
°
f >f f f
p
f °
°
Ÿ Ÿ . ≈ f #>Ÿf f f ™ f f f ‹f f f f ™ f #f #f & f ™ f #f #f f f f. ≈ f f. ≈ f f. ≈ f
{
?
f °
f °
f f
f f
f °
f >f f f
f ™ f f #Ÿ>f #f f f™ f f #>Ÿf #f f f ≈ f >f f & f # >f f # >f f >f f f f f ? f f f f f
f °
{
°
°
f f f f
ff
°
j ff f
f f f f
f °
rit.
53
f
°
{
f °
f °
f f
f f
F™
j f
f f f #ff f °
f °
f >f f f
f °
mf
Œ
Ÿ f ™ f f #>f ‹f f f™ f f f a tempo
p
f >f f f
f °
f f f f
f °
f f f f
f °
Ÿ Ÿ . ≈ f #>Ÿf f f ™ f f ™ ™ f f ‹ f f f f f f ≈ ≈ ≈ f & #f #f f f f. f f. f f. #f #f f f f f
‰™ nfr f™ f
ff Œ
59
?
f f
f f f f
f
47
f f f f
f ff
Tempo I nnn f ™ f f #>Ÿf ‹f f f™ f f f j f
poco a poco rit.
42
{
5 3 2
4 1
f f f f
j ff f
f
Œ Œ
f f Œ f °
59• Pianist 82
P57 Scores CHOPIN-FINAL.indd 59
09/01/2015 12:30
ISS ’T M DONLUCY ’S AM PARH IECE HIS P ON T AGE
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
ON LESS P 4 2
This Capriccio is the first of Brahms’s Eight Klavierstücke, which were published in 1879 and composed in 1871-8. The collection is comprised of four capriccios (lively in style) and four intermezzos (more lyrical). Two of the intermezzos (Nos 3 and 7) were presented in the scores section of Pianist (issues 57 and 50, respectively).
Un poco agitato Unruhig bewegt
### 6 Π& 8
{
? ### 68
f f f™ f fff ff ° f °
f f f™ f fff ff ° f °
7
f
ff f f ™ f f f ff ™™
f f f™ f fff f #f
{
rf
#f
f
f f #f ™ f f f #f ff
nf
f f f™ f f #ff ™™ f
{
1
f f f ™ f #f ff f # f
rf
Ϊ
5
. f ### f f ? #f #f #f #f f j f. J ff & f #f #f f #f #f f ‰ ‰ f f J f f f.
nf f f™ f #f #f nf f f
1
” # f # f f #“f # f 5
f
ff
f
f
#f #f f #f #f f
3 1
#f #f f
&
#f #f
. . . ™ ™ ff ™ f f ff ™ f f ff ™™ Œ™ ‰ . ‰ ‰ f f . . . . .
sf
∏∏∏∏∏
5
ff
sost.
<“> f f ### f #f #f f #f #f f & f #f #f f
10
f
ff
f f f™ f fff f #f
nf ™ f # f nff ™™
f f f™ f f fff f
# ff ™™ f ™ f f #f
### ff ™™ & f™ ? ###
f
f
f
poco a poco cresc.
∏∏∏
{
ff f #ff ™™ f f f #f ™
sotto voce
### #f ™ & #ff ™™ ? ###
Playing and pedal tips: There’s so much to absorb within this monumental work, but it’s well worth the hard work. It’s great to have in your repertoire. Read Lucy Parham’s step-by-step lesson on this piece on page 24 and don’t forget to read the Brahms article on page 68.
f f ff ™™ f™ f
‰
3 5
4
ADVANCED
Capriccio in F sharp minor op 76 no 1
∏∏∏
TRACK 11
60• Pianist 82
P60 Scores BRAHMS-FINAL.indd 60
08/01/2015 16:44
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
TRACK 11
### f ™ & ≈fff‰
14
{
p espress.
? ### j ‰ f
### & ff f ≈
j ff #ff™ ≈ f
17
{
? ### j f
fff
f™ f f f ‰ #f≈ ™ f f f ‰ ≈
f ™f f f‰ ≈
fff J
f
ff f J
‰
j f
fff J
‰
#f ™ f f ≈
f
{
? ### j ≈ f
### #ff & f ≈
23
{
? ### j f
ff
f ‰
j ff ff ≈f
f #f f
f j #f
j f. . . f f≈ f ff ff
ff f j # f f f #f ≈ f
f f #f J
‹f ™ f f ≈
f™ f ≈ f
f™ f ≈ f
ff
fff f
‰
f f ≈ f
#f f f ff j j ff #f f ≈ f f f fj ≈ ≈
. . . j j ff f fff f j ff ≈ f ≈ f f f≈ #f f f ≈ ff ff #f f f f f # f f f j ≈ f #f j ≈ f j ≈ ™ ‰ ≈ f f f
. . . j f f # # <#>f f f #f f &# ≈ f ≈ f
20
ADVANCED
Capriccio in F sharp minor op 76 no 1
j ff ff
f #f
f
f
#‹ff f ≈ j f
j ff ff ≈f fff
f j f
j #f f ff
f f
# ff f ≈ j f
j ff # ff f ≈
fff
f j f
j ff f f #f
f
61• Pianist 82
P60 Scores BRAHMS-FINAL.indd 61
08/01/2015 16:44
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
TRACK 11
### &
26
{
? ###
sfp
p
ff f #f ff ff ‰ fJ ‰ fJ
fJ
? ### ≈ f f f
{
f ≈f f f
f™
### ≈ &
{
ff
f™
≈f
f ff
&
nf
fnf ™
32
? ###
j f ™ ≈F
j f
j™ f ≈ F
29
? ###
ADVANCED
Capriccio in F sharp minor op 76 no 1
≈
nf f
nf ™
nf nf
nf f ### ≈ n#ff ‰ ≈ f nf ‰ n f & f
{
? ### j nf
≈
f nf
f™
35
b f n f nf j ≈ f
sfp
fJ
f fnf
?
fff ‰ f
nf
≈ f
fJ
nf f ‰ fnf
nf f
nf bf ™
j #f
#f
j f F™ ≈ fJ
f bf
nf f ‰ #fnf
≈
≈
f ff
f™
j f fff ‰ f
fJ
r ≈ bf bff nf
string e cresc.
f nfj ‰ nf f fj
ff
ff
≈ ff
≈nfr f ff
f #f # ff f ≈ f ‰ ≈ #f #f ‰ #f f f ≈ j f
≈
ff
‰ f #f ff ‰ f™
j nf
≈ fjF p
f
ff‰ ≈ #f #f ‰ fJ
j #f
‰
bf bf
n ff #f ≈ nf nf ‰ ≈ f f#f ‰ #f
j #f
≈
f nf
nf
j ≈ f
ff
#f
62• Pianist 82
P60 Scores BRAHMS-FINAL.indd 62
08/01/2015 16:45
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
TRACK 11
ADVANCED
Capriccio in F sharp minor op 76 no 1
a tempo
### nF ™™ f & b F nf ‰
F™ F™
38
{
? ###
f
bf
j f
f bf
ff
f f
ff
nFF ™™bf ‰ f j f
p ≈ f f f ‰ ≈ #f f f ‰ f™ #f ™
FF ™™ bf f
f
ff
f
f nf f
#f f j f f f ≈ f #f
p cantando
j #f ≈
≈ f f ‰ ≈ f #f #f ‰ ≈ f f f ‰ ≈ #f nf f ‰ f fJ #f f f f fJ f f f f . . . . . . cresc. ff ff ff f # f f j n f # f j # ? ## j ≈ f #f ≈ nf f ≈ f f j ≈ #f f f ≈ f j ≈ #f J f #f ### ≈ f nf nf ‰ & f ™
≈fff‰ f™
43
{
j f f # f f f ≈ ≈ j f ™ ‰ ≈ #f f f ‰f #f f f f . . . ### f f f f f ff ff #ff f ff nfff ™™™ & f J # f f J . . . ≈ ≈ f f f nf ff #f f f f f f # f ? ## j ≈ j ≈ f fj f f #f j f f f nf nf f #f ≈ f f J f f f
46
{
∏∏∏∏∏
f™ # fff ™™™
poco a poco a tempo
Ff ™™™ f Ff ™ f™™
j ? ### ff j f f f f F ™™ f f f F
f f f™ pp
≈ fff f™ f™ >
∏∏∏∏∏
{
rit.
f f ff
ffff f f fff ™™™ f
f ff ™
f f ff
j f f f ffff
nfff ™™™
fff
poco a poco cresc.
ff f #ff ™ ™ f f f f #f ™
∏∏∏
### f ™ & fff ™™™
50
f j j fff f f f nff™™
ff
ff
ff
f
ff
63• Pianist 82
P60 Scores BRAHMS-FINAL.indd 63
08/01/2015 16:45
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
TRACK 11
ADVANCED
Capriccio in F sharp minor op 76 no 1
” “f” f f f f “ # f f # f f f f f f f f # f f f f “f”# f f f f ### # f f f # f f f f f #f f #f f &
55
∏∏∏∏∏
∏∏∏
f f f™ ff f f ™ f f™ f
f f
f
ff
f
n f ™™ f f nff ™
∏∏∏∏∏
{
#f ™ ? ### #ff ™™
f
ff
ff
f
“f” f f f f f f f f f ### f f &
f f f f f “f” f f f f f f
f nf f f f f f f f f f f
ff ™™ ? ### f ™
f
sf
58
#f f
f
&
#ff ™™ #f ™
∏∏∏∏∏
∏∏∏∏∏
{
#f f
f
?
f n f #f & f f #f n f sost. #f sf
?
j f f
&
ff ff
ff ™™ ff ™™
rit.
### f f f f f f f f f f f f f ffff ff ff ff f f f & f f f f f f 5 p dim. j ### fj ‰ ‰ Œ ™ ? #F ™ f ‰ ‰ f f f f ™ & F f ff ™ ™ ‰ ‰ F f fJ F™ f
61
∏∏∏∏∏∏
{
### ™ & # ff ™ f™
66
{
? ###
ff ™™ nf ™ f ™ nff ™™
ff j f f ##ff ™™ f
###fff ™™™ #f ™ ## ff ™™
#f f f ™ j #f f f ™ f
ff ™™ #nff ™™ f ™ nf ™
f j f ff #f ™ #f ™ f
ff ™™ f™
ff j f f ##ff ™™ f
f ™™ ff ™
ff ™™ f™
ff ™™ ff ™™ #ff ™™ f ™ f ™ #f ™
p legato
f f f™ f f f™ j f f f™ j f f f ™ f f ° ° ff ™™ #ff f ™ f.
f f f™ j f f f™ f
4
ff ff f. # f. p #f f j #f fJ f
ff f. f f
64• Pianist 82
P60 Scores BRAHMS-FINAL.indd 64
08/01/2015 16:45
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
TRACK 11
“f” f f f f f f f # f # ff ff f f f f ### f ™ f ff # f & f ff ™ legato dolce f™ #f ™ f™ ™ F ™ # F ? ### F ™ FF ™™ F™ 1
72
5
5
4
5
4
3
1
2
1
5
{
<“> f # f # f ffff f ### f #f f f &
75
{
fF ™ # # ? ## F ™™
#f ™
{
fF ™™ F™
‰
f #f f f f f f f f #f f f f f f f # F ™™ f F f #FF ™™ f f f f f f f > > # FF ™™ F ™
# FF ™™ F ™
f f f f f f #ff f f f f f f f #f f f f ‰ f ™ #f ff f ‰f f
‰
f™
#FF ™™ F™
∏∏∏∏
? ### #ff ™ f
81
#f
ff
f f #f
“” #f f f f #f f f f f # f f f f #f f f f f f #f f f #f #f ™ dim. n f™ f™ f FF ™™ ‰ #FF ™™ F™
∏∏∏∏
{
? ### f™ FF™™
f
?
f f™
“” f f f f #f f f f
∏∏∏∏
### f f f & f ffff
78
? ###
ADVANCED
Capriccio in F sharp minor op 76 no 1
fF ™™ F™
f
‰
#FF ™™ FF ™™
&
FF ™™ #F ™ p
FF ™™ F™
F™ #FF ™™
U #FF ™™™ F U #F ™ FF ™™
65• Pianist 82
P60 Scores BRAHMS-FINAL.indd 65
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The complete method for beginners or those returning to the piano In 3 levels, perfect for the first years of piano lessons
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www.pianostreet.com/instructive 66• Pianist 82
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G R E AT T E A C H E R S
JOAN HAVILL A CELEBRATION
This February, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama marks Joan Havill’s 35 years of teaching with a special concert starring some of her most famous former pupils, including Paul Lewis and Lucy Parham. Erica Worth sounds out four of them to uncover what makes their teacher so special oan Havill is one those sought-after piano teachers who attracts students from all corners of the globe. Having studied with some greats herself – Nadia Boulanger, Ilona Kabos and Louis Kentner – Havill has been a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama since 1980. Her students have picked up top prizes at some of the world’s leading international piano competitions such as Van Cliburn, William Kapell, Leeds, Chopin and Marguerite Long – and many have gone on to pursue major international careers. The list of successful Havill alumni is so long that I’d need an extra page to include it. In the quest to find out what makes Havill so special, I turn first to one of her former pupils and the curator of the celebration concert, Pianist contributor and concert pianist Lucy Parham. ‘I felt her work and dedication to all her students should be celebrated and recognised,’ says Parham, affectionately. ‘She is much loved by so many. I wanted to bring everyone together for her – like a big party! I went a bit further back in time and asked pianists to take part who had studied with her way back, and I wanted some who don’t live in the UK anymore – all with successful performing careers. It wasn’t easy because there are so many who love her, and I wanted to ask everybody. But it wasn’t possible, or the concert would have to run for some ten hours.’ One of those Parham asked to be part of the stellar line-up is Paul Lewis. He clearly recalls his first Havill lesson: ‘It was a consultation lesson in December 1989. I played Beethoven opus 101, which was a piece I was struggling with and that I really had very little idea of how to manage. It was clear from the start that Joan had a huge understanding of how things work pianistically, something I hadn’t really been shown up to that point. It was a very important and exciting lesson for me, and I can still remember much of it a quarter of a century later!’ For Chenyin Li, Pianist’s house pianist, the first lesson was a bit touch and go. ‘I played the fourth [Chopin] Ballade. It didn’t go so well. I had been playing it, but not really working on it. But she still had a lot of faith in me. That shows some real vision.’ Tom Poster, who started with Havill age nine, recently came across the notebook she wrote in during his first lesson, which includes ‘exercises to improve my pedalling and to strengthen my fourth finger!’ Technique and devotion Parham says Havill’s fingerings are ‘legendary. She makes the impossible possible! I remember in my first year with her, learning this huge piece by Lyapunov – a Transcendental etude called Lesghinka. It nearly put us both in the mad house! But I could really play it by the end.’ Poster adds that ‘there’s a brilliance, inspiration and intensity to Joan’s teaching. She can be very demanding, in that she expects her students to treat music with the same devotion as she does, but she can be extremely funny too. She is brilliant at finding solutions to technical problems – it’s very hard
to get away with anything when she’s listening! Not many of her students have escaped the much-feared request following an insecurely memorised passage, “Come on darling, let’s hear it left hand alone”.’ Lewis follows suit: ‘She’s an incredibly devoted teacher, certainly not someone you could describe as a clock-watcher! At the time I was studying with her she really would teach from morning until night, and lessons would continue until she felt the job was done – not when the time was up.’ Li believes Havill’s guiding principle is that it’s ‘always for the music. It doesn’t matter how hard you have to work or what sacrifice you have to make – that’s what she won’t compromise on. Even in normal practise, she won’t allow for mistakes. That’s an important point I keep telling my students too’. Poster says, ‘She’s the only teacher I know of, who, if a student cancels a lesson at the last minute, will phone round her other students to find someone who can make use of the time, rather than enjoying a welldeserved moment of freedom!’ That’s devotion. So what will we hear at the celebration concert? Li will be playing a piece by Anthony Herschel Hill, Havill’s husband, called Litany. ‘It’s very beautiful,’ recounts Li, ‘and apparently he composed it after their holiday in Venice. I’ll also play Debussy L’Isle joyeuse, one of her favourite pieces.’ Poster will offer up more of a surprise: ‘I’m planning to play Ravel’s La valse. I wanted to play something I hadn’t worked on with Joan, but that would be a fitting tribute to her. She loves Ravel, and Paris, and dance, and La valse is such a riot of colour and pianistic brilliance.’ Lewis will perform ‘a short piece of Schubert, the Allegretto in C minor D915. It is something I played from my student days, so has some nostalgic value as well!’ Meatier works include Sa Chen playing Chopin’s Barcarolle and Serhiy Salov with the First Ballade. The former Havill pupils I spoke with for this article might have gone on to forge their own successful careers, but they remain in touch with their teacher. Li says she asks her for advice all the time. ‘I call her and we have a meal together. She’s very generous to her students, particularly with time.’ Lewis hasn’t played for her for around 20 years, but says ‘I still think of much of what she said in our lessons. Many of Joan’s teaching ideas have formed the foundations of my own methods.’ Parham says, ‘I might play for her if I had a big date coming up. I always trust her judgment – she has X-ray ears!’ Poster concludes: ‘Joan taught me nearly everything I know about playing the piano. I owe her so much, and my life would have been very different without her.’ n
JOAN HAVILL CELEBRATION
7pm, 17 February Milton Court Concert Hall, Guildhall School of Music & Drama With Sa Chen, Read Gainsford, Paul Lewis, Chenyin Li, Lucy Parham, Stephen de Pledge, Tom Poster, Serhiy Salov and Ruya Taner For tickets, go to www.barbican.org.uk
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H I S TO R Y IN THIS ISSUE’S SCORES
Brahms Capriccio op 76 no 1 on p60 with a lesson by Lucy Parham on p24
Brahms and the piano Torn between the rigour of the Classical composers he venerated and the greater freedom of expression his creative mind sought, Brahms would ultimately find his own balance. An admiring John Evans tells the story of this great composer and his piano music
T
he back cover was lost long ago but the front remains. It has faded now and there are light pencil marks over it. In the top-right corner I’ve written my name and a date: 1976. That’s the year I bought this Peters Edition of Brahms’s Klavierstücke opus 118, and if my house were on fire it would be one of my possessions I would try hardest to save. It has been with me through my last years at school, my five years of conservatoire study and beyond. I know each of the pieces intimately, and still play them. There’s No 1, a nervy, turbulent piece that finishes, gloriously, in A major.
In so doing it heralds No 2 – Intermezzo – a calm and reflective work with a sweetly lyrical middle section. This gives way to a restful chant-like bridge that takes us back to the first idea, this time expressed with more urgency and longing. No 3 – Ballade – is in a brooding G minor and shakes us from our reverie with its thick textures and stabbing, forthright character. But like a storm that blows itself out, its rage quickly evaporates to be replaced by a lilting, yearning central section in B major. Not for long, though. Soon the clouds roll in and the storm erupts once more until at last the wind drops, and all is calm.
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No 4 – Intermezzo – in F minor is a fidgety, tormented and unsettled work filled with barely suppressed anger and an impatience that is expressed by disruptive cross-rhythms and, at times, shifting, elusive pulse. There’s a dreamy central section but as ever, the angst-ridden drama returns only to give way, in the final bars, to an almost apologetic sigh. After all that unbridled emotion comes No 5 – Romanze – a beautiful, innocent-sounding piece that ushers in a welcome calm. Especially in the middle section with its bird-like improvisations and trills, the Romanze conjures up an idyllic country walk far from the stresses and strains expressed by its sister works. And finally, we arrive at No 6 – Intermezzo – an astonishing work of enormous emotional power and breadth that ends not in some breezy, forward-looking major key but in a wholly darker E flat minor, heavy with finality and resignation. Of course they’re not easy works to play even remotely well, but by and large they do lie nicely under the hands. In that respect they are pianistic though, at times, highly virtuosic, too. Their challenge lies in conveying each piece’s shifting character sincerely and accurately. For all Brahms’s markings, the Klavierstücke seem to inspire truly individual and contrasting performances. Personally, I love Radu Lupu’s account on Decca, released in 1990 (I love his Brahms playing full stop). Ivo Pogorelich takes No 2 Intermezzo, which he recorded in 1996 on DG, at too glacial a pace for me, however. Pogorelich has been much criticised for this by reviewers, but Brahms does mark the score Andante teneramente, or ‘tenderly at a walking pace’. That the portly, cigar-puffing Brahms probably walked at Pogorelich’s speed on his daily visit to the Red Hedgehog, his favourite tavern in Vienna, is probably not relevant here. What is, though, is how Lupu’s and Pogorelich’s hugely contrasting interpretations highlight how differently even the greatest pianists respond to these rich, probing and multi-faceted works. And therein lies their genius. The Klavierstücke opus 118, dedicated to his closest friend, Clara Schumann, are among a number of solo piano works and other instrumental pieces that Brahms composed in his final years. He completed the collection in 1893, four years before he died. For what it’s worth, I believe opus 118 to contain some of the greatest pieces of piano music ever composed, each a perfect balance of form and freedom – the ultimate Romantic miniatures crafted to perfection. And, because Brahms was fortunate enough to live for four more years, to the ripe old age of 63, they are a distillation of a lifetime’s experience, evident in their knowing, restless moods, major-minor tensions and alternating emotions, concluding in the head-bowed acceptance of the closing E flat minor spread chord of No 6. But not everyone agrees. Not just over whether these are among the greatest pieces for piano ever composed (hands up, it’s a provocative claim) but whether the man who composed them is worth the candle.
Suggested listening from John Evans Radu Lupu Klavierstücke opp.117, 118, 119 Decca 417 5992 Deeply penetrating accounts you’ll return to time and again Grigory Sokolov 4 Ballades op 10; Sonata No 3 in F minor op 5 Opus 111 OPS 30-103 DDD Sokolov’s playing probes the depths of this intense music Emil Gilels Seven Fantasias op 116; Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 DG 447 4462 (2CDs) Magisterial performances from a giant of the keyboard Julius Katchen Works for Solo Piano Decca 455 2472 6 (discs) As a survey of the composer’s complete solo piano compositions, this collection is unmatched Beaux Arts Trio Compete Piano Quartets Philips 454 0172 2 (2 discs) Music and performances both crafted to perfection Stephen Hough Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2 Hyperion CDA67961 My former college contemporary shines in these glorious works
uncertain than it is today, it was probably of little consequence. That said, writers have since attributed his contradictory view of women as people either to be worshipped or played with to these early experiences, and believe they glimpse this in his tendency to retreat from unbridled expression in favour of Classical control. Brahms took piano lessons from teachers who could claim connections to long-dead composers such as Mozart and Schubert. He composed, too, and became an effective choral and orchestral conductor known throughout Hamburg. But it was a concert tour he embarked on with the violinist Eduard (Ede) Reményi in 1853 that would prove vital in securing him his first step on the ladder to success. During it he met Franz Liszt (and offended him by falling asleep during a performance of the composer’s
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Brahmsian hang-ups The fact is, Johannes Brahms divides audiences like few others (Wagner is another). In Brahms’s case his critics seem to dislike his heavy Germanic seriousness, which they consider contrived, his composing ethic that relied more on solid graft than divine, cloud-gazing inspiration, and his tendency, in musical terms, to look back to the great Classicists and earlier, rather than forward to the music of his peers whose explorations and experiments in form and tonality he publicly derided. In truth these Brahmsian hang-ups are probably shared only by critics, reviewers, music historians and composers, dead and alive. The rest of us – performers and lovers of music – will, like magpies, take what we like of his music, leaving behind what we don’t, and think nothing more of it, as we do with all composers. He was born into a Lutheran family in the great port city of Hamburg, in northern Germany. His parents were humble people: father a musician, and mother a seamstress. Their first house was near the port itself. It is tempting to speculate how Brahms’s early experiences of life in a busy port city with its brutal and brutalising work, its craving for instant pleasure, its transient population and its grinding poverty might have shaped him, establishing a lifelong contradiction between the impulsive hedonist and the stiff-backed Lutheran, but we can never know for sure. What we do know is that as a young boy he supplemented the family income playing the piano in dance halls or brothels. We shake our heads prudishly at such an idea but then, when life was so much more raw and
Brahms piano music: the great recordings
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H I S TO R Y Sonata in B minor, an act that would be the catalyst for a sustained musical disagreement between the two) but more importantly, the influential violinist, conductor and composer Joseph Joachim, who gave him a letter of introduction to one Robert Schumann. Brahms duly arrived at the composer’s home in Düsseldorf, and so began a friendship that would change Brahms’s life forever. Today people say it was the pressure Schumann put Brahms under when he announced in the music journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik that here was a young composer ‘destined to give real expression to our times.’ His admirer’s claim certainly rattled him, forcing him to write to Schumann: ‘[Your praise] will arouse such extraordinary expectations by the public that I don’t know how I can begin to fulfil them.’ Schumann’s wife Clara shared her husband’s opinion of Brahms and, following Schumann’s admission to a mental asylum in 1854 (he died in the asylum in 1856), she and Brahms forged a close, supportive and enduring friendship. It seems that Brahms may have loved Clara, 14 years his senior. She on the other hand, while being deeply fond of him, regarded the young composer as a son. Whatever their relationship, Clara’s influence on Brahms and his music – unlike her husband, she was not a progressive – was powerful.
Klavierstücke opus 118 contains some of the greatest pieces of piano music ever composed, each a perfect balance of form and freedom – the ultimate Romantic miniatures crafted to perfection Around the same time that he was getting to know the Schumanns, Brahms composed his opus 10 Ballades for piano on the Scottish ballad Edward, and the Piano Sonata No 3, whose Andante second movement bears a quote from a love poem at its head. These works are significant because they show the composer being influenced by literature at a time when, with Clara’s approval, he was immersed in the forms and structures of Baroque and Classical music (he venerated Bach, Handel and Beethoven). Commentators believe this regard for the music of the past was a reaction to the more relaxed attitude of his early teacher in Hamburg, Eduard Marxsen, and his own fears that he lacked a proper musical education. From the Schumanns he was developing a taste for musical ciphers: notes that represent letters. But whereas earlier generations imbued the technique with religious symbolism, Brahms used it to express emotional feelings
Brahms inside Pianist Just some of the Brahms scores in past issues
Ballade op 10 no 2 (Pianist No 49) Ballade op 10 no 4 (37) Intermezzo op 76 no 3 (57) Intermezzo op 76 no 7 (50) Intermezzo op 116 no 2 (24) Intermezzo op 116 no 6 (27) Intermezzo op 117 no 1 (5) Intermezzo op 117 no 2 (32) Intermezzo op 117 no 3 (35) Ballade op 118 no 3 (44) Intermezzo op 118 no 2 (65)
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The opus 76 collection, comprising four caprices and four intermezzi, sees Brahms breaking away from Classical forms. Of the 30 pieces he was to write in opp 76, 116, 117, 118 and 119, none made use of sonata form or variation form. To be played with grace and expression, this piece only occasionally and briefly rises above a piano marking – the crescendo/decrescendo markings that look like hairpins (e.g. bars 1 and 2) should be closely observed. The left hand is the hardest hand to master and needs to have a light but incisive touch. Practising the left-hand part on its own is a must. The hand moves around a lot and you need to be confident as to which notes(s) come next. Note too, that the left hand
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Plus various Hungarian dances and waltzes
Clara and Robert Schumann, with whom Brahms had a close relationship
more in tune with the Romantic period, such as his recurring motif F-A-F: ‘frei aber froh’ (free but lonely). Brahms referenced Clara in many of his pieces, and in his Piano Concerto No 1 (1859), it is her husband Robert who receives a tribute, most notably in the second movement, which is a form of requiem for his friend. All this is significant because it points up the internal conflicts in Brahms’s musical world between the discipline and rigour of the Classical composers he increasingly strove to emulate, and the greater freedom of expression his creative mind sought. Torn between the old and the new, in the end, he would achieve a sublime blend of both. Musical ciphers During these early years, piano music figured large in Brahms’s output. His works include three piano sonatas, the Four Ballades (music that in its natural lyricism and broad emotional palette seems to anticipate his later works) and sets of variations – a form that suggests a taste for the intellectual as much as the emotional, including Variations on a Theme by Schumann, and in light of his fascination with the music of the old masters, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. (To support himself during these years, Brahms taught, conducted choirs and gave concert tours.) The war of words between the progressives on the one hand and the ‘traditionalists’ (Brahms and his allies) on the other waged on. It reached a head in 1860 when Brahms attacked the musical progressives, whose number included Liszt, in a pamphlet entitled ‘Music of the Future’. It was widely condemned and Brahms decided never to raise the subject again. However, his unwise act doubtless contributed to his enduring reputation as an old stick-in-the-mud. In 1865 he composed 16 Waltzes opus 39. By this time, his music had grown in popularity and he in confidence. He moved from the familiar surroundings of northern Germany to Vienna, from where he composed some of his greatest choral, orchestral and chamber works. The piano appeared to have taken a back seat until the emergence, in 1879, of his Klavierstücke opus 76 [the No 1, Capriccio, appears in this issue’s Scores, with a lesson on it by Lucy Parham on page 24]. These were followed by Two Rhapsodies opus 79, full-blooded works by a composer at the top of his game, taking Classical forms (in this case, sonata form) and bending them to his will. The stream of melodic and emotional invention is pure Brahms. In 1890 he announced his retirement, an act that reveals much about his view of the composer as craftsman rather than artist. Fortunately for us, and for the piano, Brahms went back on his decision, embarking on a final burst of creativity that would spawn some of his greatest music: Seven Fantasias opus 116 (1892), Three Intermezzi opus 117 (1892), Klavierstücke opus 118 (1893) and, his last works for piano, Klavierstücke opus 119 (1893). Brahms died on 3 April 1897, aged 63. He left behind a treasure chest of music for the piano, works which, in their emotional and spiritual richness, structural genius and understanding of what it is to be human, remain a source of inspiration to pianists everywhere. ■
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NEW! PIANIST DIGITAL STORE We are delighted to announce the launch of the Pianist Digital Store, where you can buy scores from our huge back catalogue
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ver the years, readers have contacted me asking for scores from back issues that were no longer in print. I didn’t want to disappoint any of you, so now, with our new online Pianist Digital Store, you can access the huge catalogue of pieces that have been published inside the magazine. You might have a certain composer you love to play. You could be looking for a piece of music that suits your level of playing (whether you’re beginner, intermediate or advanced). You might have a favourite style of music – Romantic, Classical, Impressionist, Ragtime or Jazz, maybe? With the Pianist Digital
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......................................................................................................................... . . . . . .WOULD . . . . . . . . . .YOU . . . . . .LIKE . . . . . . .TO . . . .GET . . . . . PAID . . . . . . . .TO . . . .TRAVEL . . . . . . . . . . THE . . . . . .WORLD . . . . . . . . . . AND . . . . . . .PLAY . . . . . . .MUSIC . . . . . . . . .EVERY . . . . . . . . .NIGHT? .............
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PERSONAL BEST
STARTING
OVER
Whether you’re coming back to the piano after years away or you’re just thinking about it, here’s what’s best about being a ‘re-starter’. Inge Kjemtrup listens in as re-starters tell their tales
I
magine that you’re about to meet up with a dear friend you haven’t seen for years and years. Suppose that you were close in your childhood and adolescence, and it was only with the greatest regret that you allowed life – education, work, family – to sunder the friendship. Your eventual reunion with that friend would be something extraordinary and potentially life-changing, wouldn’t it? Imagine now that this long-lost friend is the piano. You may have fond memories how you first came to know each other and how you developed a certain familiarity and a level of comfort with each other. But then reality pushed the piano out of your life until you arranged for this reunion. Reader, this story has played itself out in some form or another in the lives of many piano ‘re-starters’. They all know that you can indeed return to the piano after many years away and combine it successfully with the rest of your life. The rewards are great – fair warning, though, you may find yourself venturing into serious obsessiveness with the piano, its music and its top players (and of course that obsessiveness is why Pianist exists). Ask any re-starter about the most rewarding aspect of returning to the piano, and they will first point to ‘the sheer enjoyment of it all. I have now reached a reasonable standard in playing the instrument I have loved all of my life,’ as Chris Byrne of Dorset puts it. American Sally Olson describes playing the piano as ‘magical. When I play, it becomes so all encompassing. So much so that there is no room to worry about the chaos in the world or stressful things in my daily life. My world becomes music, period.’ Another re-starter, Colchester-based Tina Sivyer, returned to the piano after having had several children and a high-
well-plotted play. So I present a typical re-starter trajectory here, with tales from re-starters themselves along with comments from teacher Tim Stein, whose Q&A column is a reader favourite.
Above: Sally Olson likens returning to the piano as an adult to ‘an unexpected adventure’ Opposite page, clockwise from above: Sally Olson’s Chicago piano club; the re-starter couple of Chris and Pat Byrne
pressure career. She was very surprised to find ‘that age has not wearied me, nor the years condemned. What I lack in agility compared to when I was 18, I have made up for in emotional maturity and the ability therefore to add something to what I play.’ I spoke with several re-starters (most of whom had been inspired to write a letter to Pianist) for this article and heard many stories like Sivyer, Olson and Byrne’s. I began to notice a common narrative, which I thought read like a
Act I: Childhood piano lessons I was surprised to find that those first childhood experiences with the piano, whether positive or negative, do not necessarily have a bearing on whether a life-long spark for the piano was lit. Sivyer’s youthful experiences were quite positive. She achieved Grade 7 by age 17 and though she stopped taking exams during her A-levels, the piano was central to her teenage years. ‘It was an absolute pleasure – an obsession even – and was the thing that defined me out of school. I could happily spend a whole half term learning a Chopin waltz. My school friends would come round and I would accompany them while we sang. From the age of 14 I had a Saturday job in a music shop, Hodges and Johnson in Southend, Essex. It was an amazing opportunity for me to play fabulous pianos, as I had only an old banger at home where the B just below middle C didn’t work properly. At work I could demonstrate a Yamaha baby grand to customers, so I was in heaven.’ For those re-starters whose youthful piano experience was less ideal, the word ‘duty’ comes up frequently. Pat Byrne recalls of her early piano-playing, ‘I enjoyed it initially but I had many other interests inside and outside school, and found it a duty in the end just to please my parents.’ She had to choose at age ten between piano or violin. The violin won out, though not with some regret on Pat’s part. For Jane Bellingham, while she enjoyed playing the piano, ‘it was also what was expected of me and I didn’t feel I could give up even if I wanted to.’ Sitting music exams, a feature of British piano education, called up mixed
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‘When I play, it becomes so all encompassing, so much so that there is no room to worry about the chaos in the world or stressful things in my daily life. My world becomes music, period’ -Sally Olson, Chicago up, but it was hard at university as I didn’t have a piano. I still played a lot in the holidays.’ Sivyer’s remark brings up another obvious reason that people drop the piano: they no longer have access to an instrument. ‘I had a full-time job and then moved house and had no piano or just a small keyboard,’ says Jane Bellingham. ‘If I did play, it was very frustrating and off-putting not to be able to play pieces I liked and had formerly been able to manage easily. This was a huge disincentive.’ Act II: Renewed interest Though having children can make giving attention to the piano an impossible feat, the fact that these children may themselves want to study piano can be crucial. Just ask Sivyer, the mother of four, about this. ‘My oldest two began learning to play in 2009. I was helping them, and, realising that I was going to have a longish career break, I asked their teacher to help me sit the Grade 8 I had withdrawn from in 1988.’ Jane Bellingham’s two children were indirectly responsible for her return to the piano. ‘What inspired me to
▲
memories from many re-starters. ‘My mother encouraged me to have lessons, but partly owing to a somewhat uninspirational teacher, I discontinued these as soon as I could convince my mother to allow me to do so,’ says John Eliot, from Lincolnshire. ‘I always enjoyed playing for fun, but found the exam routine rather irksome.’ His views on exams altered when he took up the piano again: ‘In my early-to-mid thirties I suddenly decided that if I were to continue to enjoy playing, I must set myself targets and adopt a more formal approach to learning – the antithesis of my approach in the early days!’ Such a focused approach may be necessary: as commitments increase, the extra hours meant for piano practice have a way of turning into extra hours for study, family time or work. After graduating from high school, Sally Olson joined the US Air Force, then finished college, had two children and operated a fascinating variety of businesses. ‘I had very little time to pursue the piano. My various careers and being a single parent took most of my time.’ The demands of law school put pay to Sivyer’s playing. ‘I never deliberately gave
6
TOP TIPS
FOR RETURNING TO THE PIANO
1
Make a commitment to playing. Pat Byrne says that ‘If you are going to get results, you must put in the practice.’
2
Seek out a a good teacher. ‘Many teachers like adult pupils, because they are prepared to work hard,’ notes Chris Byrne. Jane Bellingham comments, ‘You don’t have to have lessons very often, but they give you purpose and a sense of achievement – and a shared enjoyment of the piano with at least one other person.’ Sally Olson adds, ‘Don’t be afraid to go through two or three piano teachers before you find one that works for you.’ Teacher Tim Stein suggests booking a trial lesson.
3
Practise regularly and practise intelligently. John Eliot tries to follow this evergreen advice: ‘Amateurs practise until they get it right; professionals practise until they can’t get it wrong.’
4
Buy a piano that you’re happy to play. Buy the best you can afford. Pat and Chris Byrne even had their home altered to accommodate their ideal piano.
5
Keep in touch with the piano world. ‘Remember you have the benefit of technology, so take advantage of it,’ says Olson, who follows her favourite artists on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, live concerts and in the pages of Pianist magazine.
6
Don’t worry about the speed of your progress. ‘You are going to make lots of mistakes initially even if you were an accomplished player years ago, but it’s surprising how it comes back,’ says Pat Byrne.
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PERSONAL BEST practise seriously again was attending a Christmas concert organised by my daughter’s teacher. I heard an adult re-starter play who was my age with four young children. I was then asked to play by the teacher but I refused. I regretted this immediately and started practising properly again.’ Like many Pianist readers, Pat Byrne returned to the piano when job and family commitments eased. ‘It had been on my mind for a long time,’ she explains. ‘I was planning to retire and knew that I would have the time to devote to it and that it would also be a new challenge for me at the age of 61.’ For some people, just the fact of having access to a piano again revived the obsession. ‘I did not miss playing the piano, that is, until I walked into a room that had a piano and then – well, I was drawn to it like a magnet,’ says Olson. ‘There’s something magical about touching a note and hearing a sound and how you can control that sound.’ Act III: The return What are the greatest challenges in coming back after years away? Teacher Tim Stein finds that his adult students ‘have a more specific idea of what they want to get out of it. They have more of an awareness of what’s involved.’ On the down side, sometimes their reach exceeds their grasp, he says. ‘What often happens is they have whole suitcase full of music beyond their capabilities, so you have to be tactful. Sometimes it’s stuff they struggled with when young and sometimes things they wanted to do. More often than not, it’s stuff they never played. So we might start with something a few levels below.’ Pat Byrne’s experience seems to bear out Tim’s observation: ‘I had to learn to read music again as I had forgotten most of it. I found that I was very nervous playing for my teacher even though he was very patient and kind.’ Time can also take its toll on physical aspects such as flexibility. ‘My left hand was very “un-agile”,’ says Sivyer. ‘And with four children and a resurrected career as a lawyer, finding the time is hard. But I am determined, and being part of a successful duet partnership encourages me. I also like to set my children a good example and make sure that piano is a way of life for them.’ Bellingham finds playing for others to be more difficult this time around. While the technique came back more easily than she had anticipated, having a teacher who has been challenging some of the ideas and approaches to playing she took from childhood was unexpected. ‘I’m now being made to learn to play from memory and not be fixated by the score. I had always assumed that I couldn’t play from memory at all, but now am slowly beginning to do so.’
Tina Sivyer (left) with her duet partner, Jane Bellingham
Tim Stein sees other commonalities among his adult students, namely that they are ‘definitely limited in time and not being able to know what to practise. The age-old problem: they need to be taught how to use time economically when they have little of it.’
‘What I lack in agility compared to when I was 18, I have made up for in emotional maturity and the ability therefore to add something to what I play’ -Tina Sivyer, Colchester Act IV: Playing is pleasure The first stop for most re-starters is in the studio of a good teacher (see boxout, previous page). ‘I never had a really good teacher when I was young, so I was never really introduced to good technique,’ says Olson. ‘When I started again, I became obsessed with developing outstanding technique. I quickly realised that I needed a good teacher willing to take on an adult in order to improve my playing.’ That very first lesson can be nervewracking for both teacher and pupil. ‘When they come to me they are very nervous, but hopefully they are less so afterwards,’ says Tim Stein. ‘I try to boost their confidence and push them when they are ready.’ ‘The highlight of my week is taking my piano lesson,’ Olson continues. ‘I think I drive my teacher crazy as I
am always picking pieces that are too difficult. It has taken some seven years of lessons before I can now see a real improvement. I finally learned Chopin Nocturne opus 9 no 1, which, for me, is a real accomplishment. I struggle with what piece to learn next from my long list of “wanna play this”.’ Tim Stein has seen this kind of behaviour in his adult students, and admires it, as over the top as it can be sometimes. ‘They come with huge amounts of enthusiasm. I find some of the adult students produce the most beautiful natural tone and you have something to work with. With kids, they have no sense of what they’re doing, and you have to refine.’ Olson describes returning to the piano as an ‘unexpected adventure – the discovery of new pieces I had never heard before, meeting other classical piano enthusiasts, going to concerts and meeting like-minded people in line.’ She describes it as ‘a kind of quest’ and savours the rewards of learning a new piece and ‘owning’ it after much study. She also credits piano playing with helping dissipate her arthritis and says ‘my mind is much sharper because I play piano.’ ‘Take it slowly, give it priority, and enjoy it,’ is Sivyer’s advice for would-be re-starters. ‘I also like to bear in mind the splendid advice of my teacher when I returned to lessons after 22 years. I told her that my husband, a former rugby player, had said not to feel bad as he would also lack the agility he’d had at 18 if he tried to return to rugby in his forties. She said “Hmm, well, he won’t be doing that again, but we’ll have you playing the piano, don’t you worry.” And she was right!’ ■
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HIGH TECH
MOTION
PICTURE If you’re looking for more feedback on how you play, you’ll find that videoing yourself at the piano can be hugely beneficial – and with today’s technology, it’s easier than ever to do. Concert pianist and video blogger Alisdair Hogarth shows you how to get started and what you’ll need
M
aking a video of your own piano playing can be a revealing – and sometimes humbling – experience, but it is an invaluable aid for being able to assess your own playing and how you might improve it. While it is certainly helpful to hear yourself performing a piece on an audio recording, it is even more informative to see yourself playing it on a video. In the same way that you might notice things you never realised you were doing aurally when you listen to an audio recording, when you watch a video, you will notice things that you never realised you were doing physically. Are your shoulders and upper body relaxed? Are you sitting at a comfortable height? Do you execute any particular passages with an excess of energy? Are you preparing your fingers for the positions they are about to occupy? Looking at a video can give you a fresh perspective on your playing. There are a myriad of benefits to making a video, whether you want to produce something just for your own use, or whether you want to produce something more professional for auditions or for posting online. Plus, with recent advances in technology it is now easier and cheaper than ever to make high-quality videos of your own playing. I’m a Linn Records artist and a classical pianist, and last year I started a piano video blog (or ‘vlog’) called Classical Underdogs. In these vlogs, I talk about and play pieces that I consider to be the musical middle ground; pieces that are neither the most famous nor the most rare by the great composers. I decided to learn how to produce and edit these videos myself, with the direction of the marketing team at Linn, and it has been a fun thing to learn to do. The best way to get started is simply to be experimental. A lot depends on what your purpose is in making the video. If you are doing it purely for your own benefit – to check your own performance of a piece and see how things are working – then a mobile phone or a camera with a video function on it is probably all you will need. In fact, recent iPhones, from iPhone 5 onwards, have terrific video cameras, and provided the light is decent, you can get some really excellent results. I’ve filmed some decent video footage on a couple of iPhones at my own concerts. Start by setting the mobile phone or camera a few feet from the side of the piano on a table – or propped up on some books if you need more height – so that you can see your entire body, including your feet, to check that you aren’t stamping the pedals, or doing anything weird with the una corda foot! Review the first video and look out in particular for what you do physically before, during and after technically challenging passages; acknowledge it, and then film another performance trying to improve only a few of these things at a time. It’s a great way to be your own teacher, and means that when you go to a teacher with a piece, you will already have sorted lots of external physical factors. A lot of piano playing is invisible and internal (as Tobias Matthay
elucidates in his rather heavy tome on piano technique), but it is useful to be able to sort at least the external physical stuff yourself. One of the most important benefits of videoing yourself as a performer is to check that you are not doing any physical movements that don’t align with the character of the music. For example, in a slow, lyrical and melodic Chopin nocturne, you don’t want to whip your hands off the keyboard at the end of the piece as if you have just tried to take a casserole out the oven without a pair of oven gloves. Good technique is a lot about having the discipline to stop and look, and notice exactly what you are doing physically when a problem arises – is your hand in the optimum position for a particular passage, are you preparing a leap early enough, does your fingering make for an awkward twist, and so on. Professional polish Should you want to produce a more professional video, whether it be for an audition or to release online, you might want to invest in more kit. This is a huge topic, but let me suggest some basics, and remember, unless you are trying to make some bit of cinematic history, most videos like this are viewed on a laptop or smartphone, so commercial video quality is not so necessary. If you wanted to produce something of higher quality with a shallower depth of field (meaning the background is blurry and the subject is sharply in focus) which gives the video a more artsy, cinematic look you might want to consider investing in a DSLR [Digital Single Lens Reflex] camera. The most popular brands are Canon and Nikon, which are the cameras of choice for most YouTube vloggers. I use a Canon DSLR for my Linn vlogs. They are relatively simple to use and produce broadcast quality results. If you go for a DSLR, you’ll also need a tripod to go with it. By using a tripod, you will be able to achieve a greater range of angles in your videos and you won’t get jerky footage that looks like you’ve had one too many cappuccinos before picking up the camera. (There are some inexpensive tripods on the market from Manfrotto.) Sound is obviously highly important when recording music videos. In most cases, using the microphone built into the camera will not produce such good results, and it would be worth investing in a separate microphone that you can plug into the camera. If you have a DSLR, a great microphone is the Røde Video Mic Pro, which costs around £125 and mounts on the top of the camera. Another option is to record the sound on a separate device, such as a Zoom H1, and then sync up the sound and the picture when you edit the video. This leads us to the topic of video editing. For iPhone and iPad users, the iMovie app is inexpensive (£2.99) and perfect for doing basic editing, plus you can add simple transitions between shots and add titles. It is also intuitive to use and boasts a useful help feature that explains what the different tools do on each editing screen. This app is particularly suitable if you are on the
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move and just want to edit up short videos on the go; you can also upload them easily to YouTube. If you want something with more features to make your video more individual, there are a range of options. I edit my Linn vlogs with Apple’s Final Cut Pro X, which I find user friendly and fairly easy to use now that I know my way around it. Other options are Adobe Premiere, which you can now purchase on a monthly subscription package that includes other useful editing software such as Photoshop. A third option is Avid, which is used to edit a lot of TV shows. A lot of these applications offer 30-day trials, so it would be worth testing a few out to see which suit you the best. My advice for learning to use these editing apps is to check out tutorials on YouTube that explain the specific things you want to be able to do. These apps are extremely powerful and have many features that you won’t need for a simple music video, so it is not necessary to learn how to use the entire program. If you have recorded in HD, the resulting edited video can potentially be an enormous file. Should you then want to upload the video to a sharing site such as YouTube or Vimeo, you’ll need a application that compresses the file. Again, there are lots of apps on the market, depending on exactly what you need it to do. I have found that an app called Compressor by Apple works well with Final Cut Pro and allows me to select the platform that I am going to upload the video on. It will adjust the size for you. Lighten up Once you have all the equipment you need for your particular requirements, there are a few practical aspects of recording a video that are worth considering. Firstly, good lighting is extremely important. You can have the fanciest, most expensive camera in the world but if you don’t get the lighting correct, it can look amateurish. Again there are some helpful tutorials on YouTube about this, but in general, try to avoid positioning the main light source (whether it be from a window, or a lamp) behind the subject, otherwise the result is a silhouette and it can look like you are trying to re-create some kind of dark Tim Burton movie. To make your videos look more professional, try to incorporate several different angles: maybe a closeup shot of the hands, a side view, a shot through the lid of the piano, even a shot of the feet on the pedals. Avoid using zoom unless you are a pro, and in the editing process avoid gimmicky templates and fancy transitions that distract from the video content. Finally, don’t forget that recording is a process, whether video and audio, and you can develop an interpretation through the recording process rather than trying to lay down the perfect track first time. Even in professional recordings, first takes are rarely usable, so enjoy the process of honing your interpretation during each performance. Whatever your reasons for making a video, have fun with it! ■
IMOGEN
COOPER
CHAN 10841
‘This disc contains some very distinguished Schumann playing.’ International Record Review
Alisdair Hogarth performs regularly at major concert halls such as Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, as well as live on BBC Radio 3. He was named in the Observer’s Best Classical Music of 2012 and his recordings for Linn have garnered critical acclaim. He also presents a piano vlog for Linn Products(linn.co.uk) and is the director of the well-established piano and vocal ensemble, the Prince Consort. Find out more at www.alisdairhogarth.com
5
TOP TIPS
MAKING A VIDEO
1
If you are filming yourself for self-improvement, when evaluating your performance, watch what you do physically before, during and after a technically challenging passage. Check that your physical movements match the mood of the music.
2 3
Make sure you are filming in good light, otherwise you’ll find that the most expensive cameras produce poor-quality footage.
4 5
Try to use different angles, so that your video has more interest.
CHAN 10755
‘Imogen Cooper has produced quite a gem.’ international piano choice International Piano
You don’t need lots of expensive kit to produce decent results. You can get excellent footage just using a couple of mobile phones, natural light and some simple editing software.
DON’T MISS Imogen Cooper’s recital at Wigmore Hall 13 February 2015, 7:30pm
1836–1846 – Parallel Paths: Pieces by Chopin and Schumann
Enjoy doing several takes of the same piece and treat the recording process as an opportunity to fine-tune your interpretation.
STAY IN THE KNOW New releases • Reviews • Special offers • Artist features 79• Pianist 82
www.chandos.net • www.theclassicalshop.net (24-bit studio masters, lossless, MP3)
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MAKERS
10 EVENTS
that shaped the
modern piano
Part 1
The piano we know today might have been entirely different – or not come into being at all – had it not been for some fortuitous historical events, explains Gez Kahan. First of two articles
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emember Connections, a series of television programmes in the 1970s by the science historian James Burke? Burke would show how random events and developments had had consequences undreamt of at the time. For example, the Black Death caused a shortage of monks (who were also scribes), meanwhile, a welcome medieval trend towards more frequent changes of underwear meant that rags were plentiful, and rags were used to make paper, which therefore became cheap; and that meant the post-1350 world was ready for the invention of the printing press. And how about the development of the modern piano? What unthoughtof of factors might have impinged on that? We pianists are, at least when engrossed in Chopin and Rachmaninov, generally unconcerned with the great political and economic movements that shake the outside world. But the very instrument has been shaped by those events, and without them today’s piano and piano industry would arguably be vastly different. Here, in roughly chronological order, are five external influences on the early piano (to be followed by five more modern examples in the next issue).
1
2
1760: The Industrial Revolution begins Whether by design or happy accident, Silbermann’s pupils arrived in England when the country was on the verge of unprecedented economic growth. The industrial revolution, generally reckoned to have started in Britain in about 1760, had profound effects for the piano. At a practical level, it eventually led to much more efficient working practices such as division of labour (though that principle was already well understood, and anyway it is only really possible within larger-scale operations). Additionally, improved materials, such as felt and better quality strings, became available, and new production techniques led to the affordable iron frame. That last improvement didn’t only mean that an ordinary piano could now withstand a performance by Franz Liszt – it also meant that bigger pianos with greater projection could be built, just in time for the boom in concert-going. And concert-going itself flourished because of the changes in society that followed industrialisation. While the poor remained poor, the middle class not only prospered but grew in numbers, and wanted the same
Opposite page, clockwise from top: mills from the early days of Industrial revolution; Frederick the Great of Prussia; Frederick the Great giving a flute concert in Sanssouci; philosopher John Locke Above: a cast-iron piano frame, made with a manufacturing process developed in the Industrial Revolution
privileges as aristocracy had long enjoyed – including music. The middle classes might not be invited to courtly performances of Baroque masterpieces, but they were a ready audience for public events, as entrepreneurs found. The newly affluent middle class increased the reach of music and therefore of musical instruments by taking on patronage of the arts, and made it much more accessible to the public than it had been when it was the preserve of the landed gentry. And they bought pianos, because they also wanted status-enhancing accomplishments – playing musical instruments among them – for their sons and daughters. Had the revolution come earlier, perhaps the harpsichord would have been the beneficiary. As it was, the piano became big business.
3
1762: The Social Contract Even before the emergence of the bourgeoisie as a political and economic force, there were moves to limit the authoritarian power of monarchs. During the 17th century, the English had rejected the notion of the divine right of kings and moved towards a constitutional monarchy; thinkers during the 18th century expanded on the theme to invoke a sense of governments ruling only by consent of those ruled. While Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s 1762 treatise Du contrat social (The Social Contract) is perhaps the best-known work along these lines – and provided the intellectual justification for the French Revolution – more far-reaching for the development of the piano was the philosophy of John Locke. His thinking, and particularly his Two Treatises of Government, published a century before the storming of the Bastille, were the ideological core of the American Declaration of Independence. Had America not voted for independence in 1776 (and won it
▲
1756-1763: The Seven Years’ War The problem with picking a trigger moment is that no event happens in isolation. The Seven Years’ War, a spat centring on imperial ambitions and the balance of power between Europe’s great monarchies, involved nearly all the world’s powers from 1756 to 1763. But this could itself be seen as a continuation of the War of Austrian Succession, which in turn leans on the wars of Polish Succession and Spanish Succession, not to mention the prior Nine Years’ and Thirty Years’ Wars. Anyway, would the war have taken the same course had Frederick I of Prussia, a quarter of a century earlier, not caught his army officer son at the point of deserting Prussia for England and pardoned him, albeit after imprisoning him and forcing him to witness the decapitation of his co-conspirator and closest friend, Hans Hermann von Katte? Frederick II (later the Great) ascended the Prussian throne in 1740 and bought several of the first pianos to made by Gottfried Silbermann to Bartolomeo Cristofori’s original design. So he was fairly important in establishing the instrument’s early foothold. But he was also unknowingly pivotal in expanding its manufacturing base and introducing
improvements to its keyboard action. Frederick’s Prussia fought Austria for control of nearby territories, which made for uncomfortable living conditions for those stuck in the middle, such as Silbermann’s pupils. At length, during the Seven Years’ War, fed up with armies tramping through the countryside, a dozen of them emigrated to England where they contributed to the development of the ‘English action’, the forerunner of the modern grand piano’s action. Had the war not happened, perhaps the ‘Viennese action’ (as perfected by another of Silbermann’s pupils, Johann Andreas Stein), would have prevailed.
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MAKERS
in 1783), who can say whether the country would have, as it did, become the natural destination for Europeans fleeing political upheaval and economic turmoil during the next century – among them, Heinrich Steinweg.
4
1848: Revolutions in Europe Although the French had their revolution, republicanism there was short-lived. Almost immediately there came a period of instability and infighting (during which Sébastien Erard, piano maker to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, fled to England and there filed a patent for the double escapement action, still used in grands to this day). That was followed by the Directoire, which proved inefficient, self-interested and to a large extent undemocratic. Ten years after the revolution had begun, Napoleon grabbed power and began a campaign of military expansionism. A few years later he declared himself emperor and,
Images, clockwise from top left: philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, author of the influential Social Contract; storming the barricade at Konstablerwache, Frankfurt,1848; train on the Reading, Pennsylvania, railroad; the American Declaration of Independence
after his defeat, the French restored the monarchy, while the rulers of lands he had conquered were given back their titles and powers. That, of course, wasn’t that. The ideals of democracy and nationalism may have been quietened, but they rumbled on, and broke out from time to time across Europe in violence and attempted revolutions during the 1820s, 1830s and in 1848. Not only did that lead to political concessions that ensured the continued rise of the European middle classes, and thus a continuing rise in the piano’s popularity, but it was the 1848 revolutions that persuaded many Germans to seek their fortunes in the USA. The foundation of Steinway in New York was therefore directly attributable to the upheavals of 1848, but its success drew on other factors too, including the industrial revolution, which by then had spread to Europe and beyond. By 1848 America was well on its way to taking over from Britain as the world’s industrial and economic powerhouse. In this, it was helped by its open immigration policy. International travel back in the 19th century wasn’t the simple matter it is now, so anyone emigrating to start a new life in a new country practically defined himself as a striver. The American economy benefited from the influx, while those who arrived found social conditions in which they could thrive.
5
Mid-1800s: the railway Steinway is an important name in the history of the piano not only because of the quality of its instruments – there were plenty of others making fine pianos at the time – nor even just through the many improvements and innovations it introduced in its early years, but because its marketing first made it the world’s pre-eminent piano brand and then acted to reinforce and retain that reputation. Whether that would have happened without the railways is debatable. America’s railroads had opened and helped civilise the formerly wild west, bringing prosperity and a hunger for the same cultural experience as was
enjoyed in the established Eastern cities. Steinway, in 1872, engaged the Russian virtuoso Anton Rubinstein to play 215 concerts in 239 days – a feat that would certainly have been impossible without rail transport – thereby inaugurating the Steinway Artist programme, which has kept the company’s name at the forefront of concert performance ever since. Not that it will necessarily have harmed other brands. The very fact of such a huge concert tour dedicated to one instrument must have increased sales of pianos generally – and not every prospective purchaser would have been able to afford a Steinway. The railways also helped European manufacturers, of course. They speeded up delivery of materials to the factories and finished instruments to retail centres in the decades before motor transport. Sadly though, they also had a more pernicious effect on piano manufacture in the old world – think of troop trains in 1914 or the infamous sealed train three years later – though that is a story for part two of this article. Until then though, let’s concentrate on the positive effects that world events had on the development of the modern piano during its first 200 years. How the ‘12 apostles’ of Silbermann migrating to London during the Seven Years’ War accelerated the introduction of the double escapement action, later refined by Erard, whose reason for exile could be traced back to the Social Contract; how the Industrial Revolution in tandem with the philosophy of the social contract improved manufacture and materials and increased the social standing and the purchasing power of the middle classes, and led to a greater market for the instruments; and how political upheaval in the mid-19th century further expanded the piano’s market both by further democratizing Europe and by exporting know-how to the burgeoning market in America. n In the next issue, Gez Kahan considers the effect that Das Kapital, the Treaty of Versailles, the digital revolution and more had on the modern instrument.
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Teaching and Learning with Bärenreiter Piano Urtext Editions MENDELSSOHNBARTHOLDY
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BA 4861 Piano Sonatas I BA 4862 Piano Sonatas II
BA 10851 Grande Sonate pathétique BA 10852 Appassionata Sonata
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BRAHMS BA 9630 Piano Pieces op. 118 BA 9607 Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel op. 24
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LISZT BA 9650 Sonata in B minor
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REVIEW CD
Marius Dawn is enchanted by Marc-André Hamelin’s debut Debussy disc, Buniatishvili’s ‘utterly charming’ latest and Scherbakov’s fierce Godowsky Pianist star ratings: ★★★★★ Essential – go get it! ★★★★ Really great ★★★ A fine release ★★ Average ★ Fair Buy these CDs from the Pianist website.Visit http://pianistmag/cdreviews
Edit o r’s
ALESSIO BAX
C HOI C E MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN
Debussy: Images, Préludes Book II Hyperion CDA67920 ★★★★★
★★★★★
To start your first Beethoven release with the gigantic ‘Hammerklavier’ shows chutzpah – and Bax has that in spades. No technical demand scares him, and he often chooses tempos faster than many other pianists, though without ruining the musical sense. His ‘Hammerklavier’, which stands comparison with the finest on CD, is followed by the popular ‘Moonlight’, where Bax glides his way gracefully though the dreamy first movement, never dragging and never pedantic. Only his utterly wild and racing last movement is not to my liking. His own two idiomatic arrangements of music from The Ruins of Athens round off a Beethoven CD in a class of its own.
If ever a pianist entered the concert world with a big bang, it was Khatia Buniatishvili. She has recorded some of the zippiest Liszt piano music, and in concert, she has impressed with her vigorous Stravinsky. But this utterly charming and beautifully recorded CD shows a different side. All the pieces are in a slow, silent and reflective mood, and are performed with taste and pianistic flair, but never sentimental, even if the Clair de lune verges on sugary. The four-hand Dvořák Slavonic Dance played with her sister is a feast, and her arrangement of a traditional song from her Georgian motherland is sensitive and indisputably musical. Pianist and repertoire makes this a gem of a CD!
KONSTANTIN SCHERBAKOV
LADA VALEŠOVÁ
★★★★
★★★★
★★★★★
★★★
Garrick Ohlsson is a pianist with a formidable repertoire who has been very busy producing CDs for Hyperion. This selection of minor piano pieces, most with the title Poème, comes from the last part of Scriabin’s creative life. Other than the Vers la flamme, none is more than a few minutes long. Each is a minidrama of concentrated music that demands full attention: to hear them one after another is almost too much. Ohlsson has a wide range of colours, and his razor-sharp rhythmic sense brings clarity to the harmonically advanced late Poèmes. The first-rate recording captures the smoky and narcotic world of the late Scriabin as if entering an opium den.
This is Volume 12 of Scherbakov’s complete piano music of one of the most interesting and pianistically demanding composers, Leopold Godowsky, (in)famous for his études based on the Chopin études that often combine two études in one. Konstantin Scherbakov shows us not only the impossible difficult Godowsky, but also a highly original composer who could produce tender and musically satisfying compositions. At the same time, he arranged songs for piano, turning them into miniature musical poems. I can only urge you to seek out the previous 11 releases, all brimming with playing that only a pianist of the calibre of Scherbakov can provide so convincingly.
GARRICK OHLSSON The Mozart Album. Piano concertos, sonatas, etc Nikolaus Harnoncourt/ Vienna PO Sony Classical 8843082532 (2 discs)
You might not place your bets on the success of a Mozart release featuring an 84-year-old conductor with a lifetime of Mozart experience and a relatively young pianist not known as a Mozart specialist. But the dark horse – Lang Lang – is the surprise, overturning the odds with a stylish, joyful Mozart. His technically accomplished playing is at its most refined in the G major Concerto. Harnoncourt follows Lang Lang as a fleet shadow in the fast outer movements of the C minor, and only in the slow movement is the pianist allowed a little dreamy pulling around of tempo. These are small complaints in an excellent release, which includes a second CD with solo pieces played with Lang Lang’s usual joie de vivre.
Motherland. Ravel, Handel, Liszt, Brahms, Ligeti, Kancheli, Buniatishvili, etc Sony Classical 88883734622
★★★★
Marc-André Hamelin has established himself as a super virtuoso, and his recordings of the impossibly difficult piano music of Godowsky cannot be bettered. He has ventured into byways of finger-squeezing piano music where few, if any, pianists will dare. All his many formidable rare piano releases of lesser-known composers are jewels in the Hyperion crown. But Hamelin has also recorded music by Haydn, Chopin, Liszt and Brahms. So with his total finger control and perfect sense of colour, it was only natural that he should eventually enter into Debussy’s Impressionistic world, where, more than anything, one needs an incredibly sensitive touch to produce the many layers of tone Debussy demands. Hamelin catapults himself into the top league of Debussy players not only by performing every single nuance but also by avoiding the temptation to play purely for effect. From the opening bars of ‘Reflects dans l’eau’, Images is executed with a superb sense of musical line. Not since Michelangeli have I heard such perfect piano control. Préludes Book II, with its often sarcastic and eccentric piano pieces, shows Hamelin with tongue-in-cheek humour (try Général Lavine) and playfulness (Les tierces alternées). He’s at his most sparkling in Feux d’artifice. This may be one of the finest Hamelin releases in years.
LANG LANG
KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI
Plays Beethoven. ‘Hammerklavier’ and ‘Moonlight’ sonatas; The Ruins of Athens (arr. Bax) Signum Records SIGCD397
Scriabin: Complete Poèmes Hyperion CDA67988
Leopold Godowsky Piano Music Vol 12. Six Waltz-Poems for the left hand, Concert Study, transcriptions Marco Polo 8.225364
Dumka: Solo works by Dvoˇrák, Suk, Balakirev, Martin˚u, Liszt, Lysenko Avie Records AV2288
A CD featuring music based on the dumka, an old Slavic ballad form, is on paper a good idea, however the problem is that there are few original and striking works to fill an entire recital. Probably the best known here is Dvořák’s Dumka opus 35, a sevenminute interesting and varied piano piece. The efforts by Suk, Balakirev and Tchaikovsky are simply boring, and the only ones we really want to hear twice are by Martinů. The stylish and excellent pianist Lada Valešová ends this rather uninteresting recital with the highlight: her own improvisation on Czech and Slovak folk songs. Judging from these few minutes she could easily fill the next CD with her own creative writing.
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NEW PIANO RELEASES CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Images & Préludes II A new album from Marc-André Hamelin is always cause for celebration. Here in his first Debussy recording for Hyperion he presents the two books of Images: Debussy’s colouristic masterpiece, a bewitching compendium of ‘scents, colours and sounds’. Also recorded is the second book of Préludes, in a poetic and evocative performance. ‘Hamelin’s glistening sonority is flawlessly captured by the Hyperion team. This is a disc to treasure’ (Gramophone)
CDA67920
MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN piano
FRANZ LISZT
Piano Sonata & Sonnets Angela Hewitt’s notes for this important new album describe a teenager’s moment of revelation when she first came to appreciate the epic masterpiece that is the Liszt Piano Sonata. Here we have a heart-felt recording where this palpable sense of wonder is manifest alongside Hewitt’s enthralling technical facility at the keyboard. Also recorded are the Dante Sonata and the three Petrarch Sonnets. ANGELA HEWITT piano
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CDA68067
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
Complete Poèmes For all of his short adult life, Alexander Scriabin wrote—or planned to write— monumental works of great import, and in between these he produced a steady torrent of miniatures, tiny concentrated droplets of this same expansive genius. The designation ‘poème’ is applied both to symphonic perorations and to the extended series of little piano pieces recorded here. American pianist Garrick Ohlsson is an acknowledged master of the genre, and this new recording will enhance an admirable reputation.
CDA67988
GARRICK OHLSSON piano
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ERNO DOHNA NYI
The Complete Solo Piano Music – 3 The penultimate volume in Hyperion’s four-part survey focuses on music from the period when the composer’s pre-eminent position was being assured. Martin Roscoe inhabits the world of Dohnányi’s music like no other, and this new recording is a joy. MARTIN ROSCOE piano CDA68033 Available March 2015
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REVIEW SHEET MUSIC Michael McMillan’s round-up this issue includes Ginastera, Rachmaninov, the new Lang Lang Piano Academy series, a sight-reading series and a Paderewski curiosity LANG LANG PIANO ACADEMY: MASTERING THE PIANO
JOINING THE DOTS Levels 1-5 Faber Music ISBN: 978-0-57153851-5 (Level 1); -53852-2 (2); -53853-9 (3); -53854-6 (4); -53855-3 (5)
Lang Lang is probably the only classical pianist the average teenager can name. His superstar status has apparently already inspired more than 40 million Chinese children to take up the piano – an impressive figure that comfortably exceeds the entire population of nations such as Canada, Poland and Australia – and his global fame will ensure these books attract many budding pianists. This is not the Lang Lang method of piano playing, however. As Lang Lang makes clear in his introductory notes, these books do not constitute a method or tutorial. Instead, the 24 pieces in each book are intended to provide supporting repertoire towards a student’s curriculum. The pieces are equally divided into eight units, with each unit focusing on a particular facet of playing such as Legato Pedalling, New Accompaniment Styles and Developing Dexterity. All the books begin and end with a few photographs of Lang Lang playing the piano along with nuggets of advice such as: ‘to play a great staccato you need to think about a beautiful, very light, very naughty cat!’ Lang Lang introduces each unit with a short message and one or two brief warm-up exercises to prepare learners for the pieces in that section. In terms of repertoire, roughly half the pieces in the Level 1 book were written by Faber’s in-house composers (e.g. Pam Wedgwood, Richard Harris, and Alan Bullard), while there is a certain degree of overlap between these books and previous repertoire collections from Faber – namely, Keynotes and The Best of Grade 1-5. This raises the question about how much original influence Lang Lang had in selecting the repertoire, but I have no hesitation in recommending Levels 4 and 5 for their motivating choices. Apart from an obvious misprint in the 20th bar of Britten’s Nocturne (Level 5), the music in all the books is clearly and accurately presented, with helpful fingering and pedalling indications. Peel back the hype created by his publicity team, then, and what you’ll find are decent repertoire books supplemented by photos of Lang Lang and his tips on how to approach the pieces. Teachers may find the snippets of advice obvious, but having had a student once remark that he would consider writing in fingering ‘only if Lang Lang does as well’, one ought not to underestimate the impact of the words coming from Lang Lang!
HOMAGE TO PADEREWSKI
Boosey & Hawkes ISBN: 978-3-79314003-0
Now here’s an interesting historical document: a collection was originally intended for publication in 1941 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Paderewski’s first American concert tour (1891). His untimely death in mid-1941 caused it to be released a year later, as a posthumous tribute. It contains 18 pieces, and all 16 composers who contributed to the project – including Bartók, Benjamin, Milhaud, Martinů, and CastelnuovoTedesco – were living in North America at the time (except Ernest Schelling, who had already died). Ranging in length from one to eight pages, and in difficulty from Grade 5 to Grade 8+, several of the pieces are worth exploring. Look out for a CD on the Hyperion label with the same title featuring convincing performances by Jonathan Plowright of all these pieces.
PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA SOLO BOOKS 1-3
ALBERTO GINASTERA
Robert Vandall Alfred ISBN: 978-1-47061452-2 (Bk 1); -14539 (Bk 2); -1454-6 (Bk 3)
Robert Vandall is a prolific American contemporary composer and arranger of educational piano music. These three books each contain seven or eight solos, most of which are under four pages long. Difficulty starts at around Grade 3 in Book 1, and just scratches Grade 6 by the end of Book 3. Vandall’s writing is always highly patterned in both musical and technical aspects, which allows for swift learning of his music. The music is composed in a modern, popular style that is easy to grasp, and with its catchy tunes and driving rhythms, it will primarily appeal to the teenage market. Perhaps these are not Vandall’s most inspired pieces, with some coming across a little too predictably, but their superficial appeal and ease of learning are plus points for the player.
Suite de danzas criollas; Rondó sobre temas infantiles argentinos Boosey & Hawkes ISBN: 978-1-48036396-0
Ginastera wrote these two pieces in 1946-7. The five short movements of Suite de danzas criollas display a wide range of character, from the rapid percussive second movement to the rather mysterious fourth, and range in difficulty from Grades 6 to 8+. The Rondó contains direct quotations of four Argentine nursery tunes and was dedicated to his children, although they were unlikely to have played it, being just three and five at the time. The book’s first 16 pages have a wealth of interesting information from Michael Mizrahi about Ginastera’s music, as well as detailed performance notes. The editor also provides idiomatic fingerings. The price of the book includes access to his excellent audio recordings online through a code printed inside the book. All in all, a very well-presented package.
Grades 6-8 Alan Bullard ABRSM ISBN: 978-184849-574-6 (Grade 6); -575-3 (Grade 7); -576-0 (Grade 8)
Joining the Dots is a series of sightreading books written to complement the ABRSM’s graded piano syllabus. Subtitled ‘A Fresh Approach to Piano Sight-Reading’, each volume contains 40-odd likeable pieces for each level. The ‘fresh approach’ comes from: 1) the way the music is organised in keys, rather than other features such as rhythm, time signature or difficulty 2) one or two introductory workouts that help you to feel and hear each key, and 3) opportunities to try your hand at transposing and composing. The Joining the Dots series can be used as a methodical alternative to the ABRSM’s specimen sight-reading tests, and should be considered alongside Paul Harris’s Improve Your Sight-Reading series from Faber. The books for Grades 1-5 are in a similar format and have been available since 2010 (reviewed in Pianist No 54).
SERGEI RACHMANINOV Études-tableaux Henle Verlag ISMN: 979-0-20181202-1
Rachmaninov wrote 17 Études-tableaux (‘Etude-Paintings’) between 1911 and 1917. The first book, opus 33, originally contained eight studies, but Rachmaninov removed two before publication. The second book, opus 39, has nine pieces. Henle’s new edition is primarily based upon the respective first editions (i.e. the 15 studies authorised for publication by the composer) and also contains the two discarded etudes (in the Appendix). Rachmaninov’s fingering is printed in italics, and are supplemented by MarcAndré Hamelin’s suggestions. Unless you’re willing to spend over £150 to buy the linen-bound Rachmaninov Critical Edition, this quality edition should be considered alongside the paperback of the Rachmaninov Critical Edition from Russian Music Publishing distributed by Boosey & Hawkes.
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