A preview of tomorrow's concert, courtesy of WQXR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrFNWSbZtOA


I think there are still tickets left if anyone's interested.

At the Royal Festival Hall in London tomorrow, I am going to hear Maurizio Pollini. He was a favourite of my mother's (via recordings), but up to now I have never seen him live. This is the programme:

Chopin: 2 Nocturnes, Op.62; Polonaise in F sharp minor, Op.44; Mazurka in C minor, Op.56 No.3; Berceuse in D flat, Op.57; Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor, Op.39

Debussy: Préludes, Book 1

Quick “review” of Evgeny Kissin tonight at the Vienna Musikverein.

First of all, I had one of the best seats in the house, I couldn’t believe it: Right next to him very slightly to the left, he was literally five feet away! And the ticket cost me all of 41 EUR - ask me again if it was worth it joining the Musikverein and getting first pick of the tickets a week before everyone else!

I really got to watch his technique. His idiosynchracies are getting more pronounced the older he gets, he often sits hunched over the keys and he makes a lot of “hm!” sounds as he plays (other than Ivo Pogorelich, who just breathes very loudly). I find it interesting, but I honestly don’t give a toss - as long as he plays like this, he can do what he likes. And if all this sounds a little cramped, his hands belie the intensity: they’re dancing across the keyboard, seemingly caressing it - quite literally too in case of the glissandi in Debussy’s Feux D’artifice.

Here’s the program. I won’t review the individual pieces for fear of endlessly repeating myself: Everything instantly became my (new) reference version. My personal highlights were the Schumann sonata, which I love anyway - gods, you should have heard that fourth movement, I fell even more in love with it tonight - and the Scriabin.

Easily the most outstanding thing for me was to witness (literally, because I was so close) his absolute control of the dynamics. Slipping back and forth between a powerful forte and the most delicate pianissimo with an almost surreal ease and of course, without ever “ghosting” any notes (damn him).

So that’s what I learned from my two very different all-time favourites this past month:

Pogorelich - 1. There’s no hurry, 2. Every single note has a purpose.
Kissin: 1. Control is light, featherlight in fact, 2. Dynamics make or break it.

He played four encores and I liked that he went for popularity over virtuosity (after all, the program itself didn’t exactly consist of “crowd pleasers”):

1. Schumann, Traeumerei
2. Debussy, Golliwog’s Cake Walk
3. Chopin, Valse Brilliante op. 34/2 in A flat major (when he announced a Chopin waltz, I hoped for “my” waltz for a moment, the one I’m currently practising, op. 62/2 - but I’m not complaining, it was beautiful!)
4. his own composition “Dodecaphonic Tango”, which frankly knocked my socks off - it’s not fair, can he be anything other than brilliant at something??

I was very lucky to have this amazing seat, as well as lovely “neighbours” around me, who all were as blown away as I was, including one music critic! Seriously, it doesn’t get any better than the way he played tonight.

The audience couldn’t have been more different from the one in Nuremberg three weeks ago: From the first encore onwards, the entire room was on their feet for every new round of applause.

To top it all off, I ran into him and his group of friends in a cafe afterwards I got to shake his hand and thank him, and we actually chatted for a minute or so. He’s completely unassuming, friendly, and funny, and not that that’s important to the way he plays the piano, but it’s still lovely and warms my heart.

And that’s it! What a highlight of this trip! I’m completely wrecked now, off to bed I go.

What a fantastic experience! Lucky you!

What an awesome way to cap off a magical evening. Sounds like your visit to Vienna this time has been a rousing success!

Absolutely amazing experience!!! It sounds almost surreal, indescribable to see a master in Vienna. How utterly amazing!

Wow! It's amazing that you met him afterwards! What was the cafe -for future reference?

I love his Schumann. I would give anything to hear his rendition of the third sonata!

About Beatrice Rana's recital tonight at Carnegie's Zankel Hall:

It was great to meet Jon. We spoke quite a bit before the concert and at intermission.

I loved her playing. The only downer (don't worry y'all, this isn't serious, it's stupid humor) was that I couldn't help thinking that if there are five people like this in the Boston amateur competition (in June), I have no chance to make the finals no matter how well I play.
My wife said don't worry, there aren't five people like this in the world. I think I agree.

I looked to see if any reviews appear online yet, and they don't, BUT, I see that she recently played the same program in Boston and then in Chicago, and, you can't imagine two more different reviews. The Boston reviewer loved her; the Chicago reviewer not so much -- like, get a load of this thing he said: "Rana needs either to learn to play deeply into the keys in high-decibel, high-energy music or stay away from scores that demand a sound she cannot yet produce."
I can't believe anyone would see fit to say she "needs to learn" anything.

The Boston reviewer, amidst the love, did offer a criticism ("The sound of the grand piano sometimes skewed toward bottom heaviness"), and I felt somewhat the same thing. It was the only aspect where I felt it could have been even greater, and I wondered if maybe it was that the piano was too big or too bright for the hall, which BTW was a chronic thing for almost every pianist in the old Carnegie Recital Hall (I put this in the past tense because I haven't been there in years; I think it's now called Weill Recital Hall). She did beautiful and wonderful things with both melody and accompaniment, basically all the time, but I often wished the accompaniment were more subdued.

Here are links to those two reviews:
Chicago
Boston

I love reading the reviews posted by PW members. Keep them coming please!

Link for NY Times review of Beatrice Rana

He liked her as well as I did. What he says about the Chopin is (IMO) spot-on, and totally divergent from what the Chicago reviewer felt.

I do think some criticism of the balance of melody and accompaniment in the Chopin (not in the other pieces!) would be well taken, although the NY Times review makes no such mention.

Thanks again.

I'm starting to wonder if the Chicago atmosphere isn't a bit staunch as far as their musical convictions, or maybe just the Tribune's reviewers. Anyways, it's kinda fun. Reminds one the picky reviewers of the past.

I see him at Carnegie on April 7th with Brahms and Schumann in place of the Debussy.

BRAHMS Three Intermezzos, Op. 117
SCHUMANN Piano Sonata No. 3
CHOPIN Nocturnes, Op. 62
CHOPIN Polonaise in F-sharp Minor, Op. 44
CHOPIN Berceuse in D-flat Major, Op. 57
CHOPIN Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39

Although mentioned in the ABF thread, Einaudi has several US concerts coming up (and one in Canada).


31 MAY 2019: Washington, DC – US

01 JUNE 2019: Philadelphia, PA – US

04 JUNE 2019: New York, NY – US

06 JUNE 2019: Chicago, IL – US

08 JUNE 2019: Denver, CO – US

11 JUNE 2019: San Francisco, CA – US

14 JUNE 2019: San Diego, CA – US

16 JUNE 2019: Los Angeles, CA – US

18 JUNE 2019: Seattle, WA – US

19 JUNE 2019: Vancouver, BC – CAN

This week, we'll get an actual pianist in the West of Ireland! It's a very rare occurence, I can tell you, and I'm definitely going.

I hope this link works... I've tried to link before, but can't seem to get a link for the actual event, only a general page about the festival. Anyway, it's on the 29th and it's Alexander Ardakov!

Wonderful Sibylle, and you aren't even going to have to do a Plane, Trains, and Automobiles to get to the concert. Do tell us how the performance is!

Good for you! And, coincidentally, we will be getting a pianist from Ireland in April. Finghin Collins, a former student of John O'Connor, will be performing at the Washington Conservatory April 20th. Tyrone Slothrop, you may be interested in this: http://www.washingtonconservatory.org/html/concerts1819_collins.htm

Hope you enjoy hearing Mr. Ardakov, Sibylle. Let us know how it goes!

The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society's piano series often includes some well-known names (Andras Schiff, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Mitsuko Uchida) but occasionally features an "unknown" pianist of high quality. Such is the case with Hungarian pianist Denes Varjon. I first heard him in recital in 2016 and he was outstanding, so I'm looking forward to his next recital on April 5. If you're in the Philadelphia area (or plan to visit) at that time, come to this recital!

Denes Varjon recital - April 5 2019

Thanks, guys. SiFi, I've never even heard of Finghin Collins, you'll have to tell us all about it afterwards.

So I went to Ardakov's recital in a little church in the middle of nowhere in East Co Clare on Friday. It was a little bizarre! I enjoyed it immensely, although he's certainly no Kissin. But I wasn't going to sit there and dissect every note - who am I anyway to criticise anyone of that calibre.

And in fairness, the program was one it would be very hard to please me with. All three of my favourite composers, including my favourite sonata! There's not much I'm more critical about.

Again, it was lovely overall, although I have to say, his Chopin isn't my Chopin, a lot of it was just - loud. The Tempest sonata was interesting, I've never heard the second movement so fast, and it was very good, although again not my cup of tea in terms of interpretation. Then again, the Tempest sonata has been a done deal for me since the 16th of March 1988, so maybe I should just be quiet, haha.

In contrast, I loved the Scarlatti and especially the Rachmaninov and the Schumann. All the sensitivity I missed in the Chopin pieces, was present here. He played a number of encores, among them "Wedding Day in Troldhaugen" by Grieg, and since I'm in a bit of a Grieg phase right now, this was right up my alley! I managed to talk to him for a bit afterwards, and he's a lovely guy.

I asked him why he plays sitting on a chair like that. He said he likes to sit low! I made my friend take a picture of it, because I knew I had to show it to you guys and you wouldn't believe me without evidence When I first came in, I thought, wow, they forgot to put the piano stool there - and then it turned out he prefers this:



Now I've seen it all!

I hope you enjoy! I have seen him play a few times, though not recently, and always have always enjoyed his performances.
Anecdote time - I took a Russian class with him about 25 years ago. He was 18 at the time, which seemed very young to me as I was the ripe old age of 23 :-)
It was unexpected when he told us during the intros that he was going to be a concert pianist! The rest of us had much more mundane reasons for being there. He was a lovely guy, so I've always been rooting for his success in what is such a competitive field.