Critically-acclaimed American pianist Robert Henry presents his highly anticipated debut recording “Twelve Nocturnes and a Waltz“.
Released in 2010, this recording is a compilation of some of the world’s best loved melodies, featuring Nocturnes of Chopin, Fauré, Grieg, Liszt and many others, including the world premiere of Alexei Stanchinsky’s forgotten Nocturne from 1907.
We asked Robert about his discovery of this previously unrecorded piece.
- It is unusual to find a piece that has yet to be recorded. Nevertheless, Alexei Stanchinsky’s forgotten Nocturne from 1907 has somehow slipped under the radar for over 100 years. It is indeed unrecorded and the sheet music is long out of print. Perhaps the treacherous difficulty of this piece has scared pianists away; this is easily the most difficult Nocturne of the CD, if not the entire repertoire. Or, perhaps the suicide of the 26-year-old Stanchinsky invites an unwelcome element of macabre. Whatever the reason for the neglect, it is undeserved; Stanchinsky was considered by his colleagues and professors to be potentially a greater talent than fellow classmate Rachmaninoff. With this world premiere recording of Stanchinsky’s Nocturne, I hope to have surfaced a long buried treasure, and helped to restore Stanchinsky’s prestige as an immensely talented young composer.
As a tribute to one of his musical mentors, Robert has created his own transcription of Chet Atkins’ Waltz for the Lonely. Regarding his transcription, Robert adds: - I think the original Waltz by Chet is truly a fine piece of music, intimate and quaint. I’ve played it all over the world, even at Carnegie Hall. For years, my arrangement was simple and a bit different from one performance to the next, but for this recording I decided to go for it and created a 1920’s Grand Romantic transcription in the manner of Leopold Godowsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff, gently bordering on jazz. I tossed in a bit of Copland, too, and the rest is myself. When I release the sheet music later this year, I’ll include this much harder version and a simplified arrangement. I hope everyone can enjoy both playing it and listening to it.
A video documentary of Robert’s recording experience, “The Making of Twelve Nocturnes and a Waltz”, has recently been awarded two Telly Awards. View the documentary:
Back in 2001, when Piano Forum was started, Robert was one of the very first contributors. Exclusively for Piano Street and its members, Robert has now kindly provided a free sample track from the CD, Liszt’s Liebestraume:
Robert Henry is an internationally distinguished pianist who has been heard throughout the world as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician, presenting critically-acclaimed solo debuts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. A recently named Steinway Artist, he has enjoyed success in nearly every important piano competition in the world, winning the Gold Medal in four International Piano Competitions in the 2001-2002 season alone. Future projects include a London debut in Wigmore Hall and a debut recording of Nocturnes, to be released in 2009. He currently serves as Artist-in-Residence at Kennesaw State University. Mr. Henry earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland.
Recorded and filmed live in Vienna’s legendary Musikverein concert hall, the Sony Classical debut is available on August 24 in multiple formats including vinyl and 3D video.
This release represents Lang Lang’s second live recorded recital to date after the best-selling “Live at Carnegie Hall” in 2004, which marked his international breakthrough as a recording artist. He has performed the new album’s program at the world’s major concert venues and will continue to tour with it throughout 2011.
This recital, one of 2010’s most eagerly-awaited classical recordings, is released in its entirety on the following multiple formats: Deluxe limited edition, Blu-ray, DVD, LP vinyl and Digital formats. For the first time Lang Lang will be performing some of the album’s repertoire in the new spectacular 3D format which will be a bonus feature on the Blu-Ray. This will include the first movement of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata, Evocation from Albeniz’s Iberia suite, the explosive finale of Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata and Chopin’s “Heroic” Polonaise. This forms part of Lang Lang’s commitment to reaching new audiences through innovative technologies, a goal he also aims to realize through his global brand ambassadorship with Sony Electronics. The Blu-Ray will be released in October 2010. The CD, DVD, LP vinyl and CD/DVD combo will release on August 24, 2010.
Promotional video:
Sheet music of Chopin’s Polonaise “Heroic” to download and print:
Lang Lang began playing the piano at the age of three and had already won the Shenyang Competition and given his first recital by the tender age of five. He shot to world-wide fame at seventeen when he triumphed in the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the “Gala of the Century”. Since then he has become one of the most sought-after musicians around the globe and was listed by TIME magazine among the “100 Most Influential People in the World”. Watched by more than five billion viewers, he played at the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and performed alongside Herbie Hancock at the 50th Grammy Awards. In December 2007, Lang Lang was guest soloist at the Nobel Prize concert in Stockholm, an event attended by the Nobel Laureates and members of the Royal Family. He returned as soloist for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony and concert for President Barack H. Obama.
Lang Lang is an inspiration to young musicians everywhere and has made it his personal mission to broaden the appeal of classical music to the widest possible audience. He has founded the “Lang Lang International Music Foundation” with the aim of identifying and supporting exceptionally gifted piano students between the ages of six and ten, and he made a historic appearance on the finale of “Oprah’s Search for the World’s Smartest and Most Talented Kids,” duetting with three young musicians from his Foundation. Ever since the pianist shot to fame, China has been in the grip of a piano-learning frenzy known as the “Lang Lang Effect,” and Steinway has recognized the pianist’s popularity with children by creating five versions of the “Lang Lang Steinway,” designed for early music education. An estimated 40 million children in China are learning the piano because of the “Lang Lang effect.” While performing around 130 concerts a year, he also manages to find time in his packed schedule to be a UNICEF ambassador and work with the Montblanc Cultural Foundation.
The British may be a nation of music lovers, but they are clueless when it comes to classical composers, a survey revealed today. One in three people (33%) have never listened to classical music and 4% of those surveyed wrongly identified Bocconcini – small Italian cheese balls – as a composer.
Bocconcini - not a composer
The Reader’s Digest survey of 1,516 people also found that most were unable to link composers to their masterpieces. Three out of four (75%) did not know that Elgar wrote Pomp and Circumstance, and 27% did not even know he was a composer. Sixty-eight percent did not know Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture.
The Welsh were more likely to own a Vivaldi or a Wagner, with 72% possessing at least one classical CD compared with the British average of 59%.
Most participants (61%) said they liked classical music, with the older generation much keener than the younger generation.
Gill Hudson, editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest, said: “As our survey shows, there’s clearly an appetite for classical music. I suspect that a combination of uninspired teaching and the elitism that surrounds much of the genre has alienated many people, hence the lack of knowledge of some of the greatest classical music and composers of all time.”
He added: “Classical music at its best can be moving, life-enhancing and uplifting. It should be accessible to all.”
An early piano believed to have been played by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has surfaced in Germany and could be worth millions of euros, a radio station reported.
Public broadcaster SWR said the instrument was built in 1775 and acquired in the 1980s by piano manufacturer Martin Becker in the southern German city of Baden-Baden from an antiques dealer in Strasbourg, eastern France. When Becker decided to auction off the fortepiano, a music historian noticed the offer and “had a hunch that it could be the same long-lost instrument that Mozart played whenever he was in Strasbourg,” SWR said. “I had the idea to offer it on (online auction site) eBay and maybe get between 30,000 and 40,000 euros for it,” Becker told the radio station.
A historic oil painting in Vienna shows the composer Joseph Haydn, a Mozart contemporary, playing what may be the same instrument. The fortepiano, built by Christian Baumann, is one of eight known examples. Mozart was known to be a fan of Baumann’s work, SWR said. SWR said auction house Christie’s confirmed the piano’s provenance in 2003, but a company spokesman told AFP that its US-based musical instrument specialists had never examined it. Experts said the piano could be worth millions if its illustrious pedigree is established.
All About Chopin is an international challenge testing your knowledge about Chopin and an initiative of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, implemented by the Krystyna Bochenek Katowice Cultural Centre, the Chopin 2010 Celebrations Office and the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw. The contest marks the Chopin Year and will take place on October 16th – 17th 2010 in Katowice. It is addressed both to Polish and international Chopin enthusiasts eager to test their knowledge about the life and work of the Polish composer.
At only 26, Anna Vinnitskaya has already established a flourishing international career, both in recital and orchestral performances. In 2007, she won first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels becoming only the second woman in the history of the competition for piano to do so, after Ekaterina Novitskaya in 1968.
Anna Vinnitskaya was born in Novorossijsk, a Russian town next to the black sea, into a family of musicians. She got her first piano lessons at the age of six and played her first full solo recital at the age of nine. Three years later their family moved to Rostov on Don, so that Anna Vinnitskaya could study with Sergej Ossipenko at the Sergej Rachmaninov Conservatoire. During a piano competition in the year 2001 Ralf Nattkemper invited her to the “Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg”. From 2002 to 2009 she studied there with Evgeni Koroliov.
New signing and exclusive Naïve Classique artist, she makes her much anticipated debut album on the Ambroisie label featuring an all-Russian programme of piano sonatas by Rachmaninov, Medtner and Prokofiev and a piece by Gubaidulina. This is Anna Vinnitskaya’s first ever recording and it has already been met with high critical acclaim. Since its release in France, it was awarded the “Diapason d’Or” (within the “Discoveries” category) and most recently, the “Choc du mois” by Classica Magazine. It was also picked as CHOICE by International Piano Magazine.
Interview with Naxos’ Founder and CEO, Klaus Heymann
The record label Naxos has gone from budget outsider to industry leader in its 20-plus years of existence. But what does the future hold for any record label at a time when CD sales are plummeting and downloads are stagnant?
Classical music festivals are not usually synonymous with youth, but this year’s edition of the world-famous Verbier Festival has more than its pick of today’s young stars. Look out for enchanting Frang, dramatic Carpenter, sparkling Wang and the indefinable Armstrong, who combines mathematics with piano and who wrote his first symphony at the age of ten. They make Verbier youthful and just a little hip. Or what about David Kadouch from France, a 25 year-old protégé of pianist Daniel Barenboim who won Verbier’s honor prize last year and who has recently published an integral of Dmitri Shostakovich’s preludes.
Watch him in the delightful and lively Beethoven Rondo Capriccio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWTd-e41U0
Starting July 16 until August 1, the alpine village of Verbier comes alive with the sound of music. With impromptu performances, master classes and open rehearsals accessible to the public at no cost, the festival is not just a glamour trip for the well-heeled.
Follow the Verbier Festival 2010 at MEDICI.TV covering 28 live concert performances: http://www.medici.tv/
The Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition began in 1976 as the Brigham Young University Summer Piano Festival. In 1978 the name of Gina Bachauer was given to the competition in honor of the great Greek pianist who was a celebrated favorite of Utah audiences and often appeared with Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony. In 1980, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition relocated to Salt Lake City under the patronage of the Utah Symphony. The competition was held on a biennial schedule, every other year, during the month of June. During this period, the Gold Medalist received a Steinway Grand Piano and a New York recital debut. In 1995, the four-year cycle of various international competitions was set into the Foundation’s schedule. They included the two Junior Competitions, the original Artists Competitions of ages 19-32, and the newly created Amateur Piano Competition for non-professional musicians ages 33-100.
Competitors in the 2010 Artists Competition perform in two rounds of recitals for an international jury of distinguished artists. As there are no requirements of repertory, competitors can display their artistry and virtuosity with music of their own choice. No elimination occurs until the final round and the opening two rounds saw 37 competitors from 17 countries, each playing 35- and 50-minute programs.
A nine-member jury with the Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition has now selected six finalists to perform a concerto of their choice with the Utah Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lawrence Leighton Smith:
Wednesday, June 30
Zhang Zuo: Rachmaninoff – Concerto No.2 in C Minor, op. 18
Kotaro Fukuma: Schumann – Concerto in A Minor, op. 54
Serhiy Salov: Brahms – Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, op. 83 Thursday, July 1
Dmitri Levkovich: Rachmaninoff – Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, op. 18
Yunjie Chen: Chopin – Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, op. 11
Lukas Geniusas: Rachmaninoff – Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30
Gina Bachauer (1913 – 1976), was a Greek classical pianist who toured extensively in the United States and Europe.
She recorded for the HMV (His Master’s Voice), RCA Victor and Mercury labels and she gave hundreds of concerts – including 630 for the Allied troops in the Middle East during World War II. Gina Bachauer was also the piano teacher of Princess Irene.
British composer Geoff Smith has invented a new instrument – The Fluid Piano – an acoustic piano which enables musicians to alter each note individually and separately by precise microtonal intervals per note before or during performance.
“…here, at last, is a piano that can easily sit within any musical context in the world, and that opens up new and infinite horizons of expressive possibilities.”
Pam Chowhan, pianist, composer,
Head of Planning, London’s Southbank Centre.
So what makes the Fluid Piano so special?
If you imagine an Acoustic piano with no tuning restrictions, a piano with an immense diversity of ‘bespoke‘ tuning layouts and ‘indigenous’ scales from around the world (e.g. from Middle Eastern cultures) and a piano that even allows you to alter the tuning whilst playing – or simply to remain in the standard ‘western’ tuning should you wish – then you are half way to imagining the Fluid Piano. One of its beauties is that it enables musicians to alter each note individually and separately by precise microtonal intervals per note, before or during performance. This liberates the instrument from the restrictions of ‘western’ tuning to make the Fluid Piano the first ‘multi-cultural’ Acoustic piano.
Critically-acclaimed American pianist Robert Henry presents his highly anticipated debut recording “Twelve Nocturnes and a Waltz“.
Recorded and filmed live in Vienna’s legendary Musikverein concert hall, the Sony Classical debut is available on August 24 in multiple formats including vinyl and 3D video.
A historic oil painting in Vienna shows the composer Joseph Haydn, a Mozart contemporary, playing what may be the same instrument. The fortepiano, built by Christian Baumann, is one of eight known examples. Mozart was known to be a fan of Baumann’s work, SWR said. SWR said auction house Christie’s confirmed the piano’s provenance in 2003, but a company spokesman told AFP that its US-based musical instrument specialists had never examined it. Experts said the piano could be worth millions if its illustrious pedigree is established.
All About Chopin is an international challenge testing your knowledge about Chopin and an initiative of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, implemented by the Krystyna Bochenek Katowice Cultural Centre, the Chopin 2010 Celebrations Office and the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw. The contest marks the Chopin Year and will take place on October 16th – 17th 2010 in Katowice. It is addressed both to Polish and international Chopin enthusiasts eager to test their knowledge about the life and work of the Polish composer. 
At only 26, Anna Vinnitskaya has already established a flourishing international career, both in recital and orchestral performances. In 2007, she won first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels becoming only the second woman in the history of the competition for piano to do so, after Ekaterina Novitskaya in 1968.
Interview with Naxos’ Founder and CEO, Klaus Heymann
Classical music festivals are not usually synonymous with youth, but this year’s edition of the world-famous Verbier Festival has more than its pick of today’s young stars. Look out for enchanting Frang, dramatic Carpenter, sparkling Wang and the indefinable Armstrong, who combines mathematics with piano and who wrote his first symphony at the age of ten. They make Verbier youthful and just a little hip. Or what about David Kadouch from France, a 25 year-old protégé of pianist Daniel Barenboim who won Verbier’s honor prize last year and who has recently published an integral of Dmitri Shostakovich’s preludes.
The Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition began in 1976 as the Brigham Young University Summer Piano Festival. In 1978 the name of Gina Bachauer was given to the competition in honor of the great Greek pianist who was a celebrated favorite of Utah audiences and often appeared with Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony. In 1980, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition relocated to Salt Lake City under the patronage of the Utah Symphony. The competition was held on a biennial schedule, every other year, during the month of June. During this period, the Gold Medalist received a Steinway Grand Piano and a New York recital debut. In 1995, the four-year cycle of various international competitions was set into the Foundation’s schedule. They included the two Junior Competitions, the original Artists Competitions of ages 19-32, and the newly created Amateur Piano Competition for non-professional musicians ages 33-100. 
