Piano Street's Classical Piano News

After extensive preparation and years of living with the piece, Lang Lang premiered J.S. Bach’s opus magna on March 1 at the Kurhaus Wiesbaden. In September his recording of the work will be released on DG.

Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations stand alone in the piano literature as a work of unique artistry and brilliance. Lang Lang first began exploring this masterpiece more than 20 years ago and presents this record as the outcome of a long personal and emotional journey. Marking a new stage in Lang Lang’s artistic development, it is the project of a lifetime. Alongside a studio recording is a contrasting performance, a single take from a recital in Leipzig’s iconic St Thomas Church, where Bach worked and is now buried.

“For the ones of you who would like to join me on my journey to the Goldberg Variations, we have created this little mini-series. This is the first episode, which documents my first ever concert I gave with this piece.”
— Lang Lang

Follow along behind the scenes during Lang Lang’s premiere of the work, his first solo recital in three years.

Lang Lang’s recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations will be released on 4 September 2020.

Read more:
deutschegrammophon.com: Lang Lang records Bach’s Monumental Goldberg Variations
udiscovermusic.com: Lang Lang Announces New Recording: Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’

/nilsjohan

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This Thursday evening the world was fortunate to be able to enjoy Martha Argerich solo – something which is utterly sensational as the legend these days exclusively appear in concerts with orchestras and in chamber music collaborations.

Symphoniker Hamburg is running a now ongoing Internet festival at Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, created and designed as musical collages themed around Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Ensembles, chamber music and solo performances are presented in a fine multimedial blend.
On the festival’s first day we could hear Martha Argerich and Nicholas Angelich play Maurice Ravel’s La Valse (31,22).

In the evening of the second day, a streamed live concert with classical music eminence took to the stage, Martha Argerich joining violinist Renaud Capuçon for a recital which evidently also included a big and unexpected surprise: Argerich performing Chopin’s 3rd Sonata in B minor, a work she didn’t perform in public for decades.

After weeks of streaming audience free performances you are getting used to empty halls and the noise free environment. Probably, in one way appreciated by the musicians too. The recording situation comes to ones mind amplified by Argerich’s sporadic smiles and half glances out into the empty auditorium. After the glorious performance one could trace Argerich’s slight but evident uncertainty regarding who to thank for the missing applaudes. The world surely wants more solo Martha Argerich!

Festival calendar

About the festival (eng)

/patrick

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In a bid to raise awareness of all musicians who have been silenced by the coronavirus pandemic, finding themselves suddenly out of work, pianist Igor Levit performed Erik Satie’s piano piece Vexations in a 15-hour long virtual performance on May 30.

Watch the complete recording of the livestreamed event >>

The inhuman marathon challenge ”doesn’t feel like a ‘nuisance’ or ‘torture’ to me, as the title would suggest, but rather a retreat of silence and humility. It reflects a feeling of resistance”, Levit said prior to the performance. However, after the session he said: “I got so tired that literally my fingers stopped moving… Maybe a chord came a second late, but nobody died because of it. I’m OK with that; it’s part of the performance.” Levit continues; “That’s why it feels right to play the Vexations right now. My world and that of my colleagues has been a different one for many weeks now and will probably remain so for a long time. Vexations represent for me a silent scream.”

The event was massively noted by the international press:
The Gilmore
NY Times
The New Yorker

Vexations – a mysterious piece

Vexations was written in 1893 and the manuscript score is just four lines of music. No instrument is indicated but it is probably intended for harmonium or piano. The score also includes a mysterious inscription for the performer: ”In order to play this motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.”

The minimalist composition is the first known experiment in organized total chromaticism and continual, unrelieved dissonance with no obvious sense of direction or tonal centre. It is the first piece to explore the effects of boredom, even of hallucination, both on the performer and on the audience.

Vexations – PDF piano score to download:

The meaning of the work is unclear and has been widely debated, and it has been theorized as a private joke, as a theoretical experiment and even as a response to failed love. Even though Erik Satie composed Vexations circa 1893, the work was virtually unknown until an associate of Satie brought it to light in 1949.

Historic performances

The world premiere which took place in 1963 at the Pocket Theater in New York City, was organized by avant-garde composer John Cage and performed by a team of 11 pianists dubbed “The Pocket Theatre Piano Relay Team” playing in twenty-minute shifts. That first performance lasted nearly 18 hours and 40 minutes and has become the stuff of legend. The New York Times wrote: ”Whatever it was, it made musical history.” The Pocket Theater in 1963 offered no Green Room and the event was casual. Some players even left at one point to have dinner in Chinatown.

Contradictory to Satie’s instruction “to prepare oneself beforehand…”, the piece is often performed by a team of pianists sharing the task. In an earlier solo attempt in 1970, pianist Peter Evans nearly lost his senses while attempting all of “Vexations” on his own. He quit after 595 repetitions and was said to have experienced evil thoughts and visions. Mr. Evans later claimed that pianists who take on the piece “do so at their own great peril.” Some call the piece dangerous and evil. Many pianists believe from performing the piece, that the material mystically somehow defies memorization.

840 times of what?

Although the inscription suggests how to prepare if one would play the motif 840 times, the score contains no repeat signs or da capo instructions that indicates that the piece should be repeated. But if one insists to take the “840 times” suggestion seriously, what is then the word “motif” referring to? A motif is usually a shorter musical enitity than a “theme” but in this case it seems most reasonable that the “motif” is the 13 beats long “theme”. In the score this motif exists in three differently arranged versions and, if played in tempo 40 BPM, each version of the “motif” takes 19,5 seconds. Consequently, a “complete” performance takes around four and a half hours.

Cast your vote!

Have Cage, Levit and others misinterpretated the instruction regarding the “motif”? What do you think?

Please vote and post your comment below!

/nilsjohan

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Iranian pianist Ramin Bahrami is considered one of today’s most interesting interpreters of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music. A regular performer at Cremona Musica, Bahrami and flutist Massimo Mercelli presented works from their latest CD, “Bach Sanssouci”, on the Decca label. Piano Street’s Patrick Jovell was happy to get the chance to talk to the inspirational performer.

Piano Street:  Through your recordings you have gone through almost all keyboard music by Bach. Such a giant project makes us think in terms of a statement. How did your relation with the Leipzig master start and with what means have you created your own unique ”Bach universe” on a map counting many stellar performers over the years?

Ramin Bahrami: I was 5 years old when I heard Glenn Gould – the great Canadian pianist – for the first time and I immediately fell in love with Bach and Gould’s way to play this wonderful music. With Bach’s music I began my mission as a musician. Bach is for me not only the greatest composer ever – he is also a master of life and harmony: he is the fifth evangelist!

PS: When we perceive Bach’s music the polyphony is an unrivaled factor – his friend Forkel observed that Bach saw music as a conversation between human voices. His music sounds good on any instrument. Which specific qualities can be found in the flute sonatas?

RB: In the flute sonatas and generally in all Bach’s melodic lines you have beauty and grace. He is always very elegant and refined. He reflects something very Italian and with German rationality.

PS:  When we start working on a Bach piece, which should be our best approach? Should we start with the polyphony, melodic lines, articulation, harmony, or sound? Can you tell us how you prepare?

RB: The first approach – not only in Bach – must be the emotion, the feeling, and the human side of the composition, and thereafter of course all other elements, like melodic lines and different voices, harmony, polyphony, and natural sound. But the first step is always to understand the “Affektenlehre”. My personal approach begins with love and concentration and I try to discover the principal character of the music.

PS: Highly evident when hearing interpreters playing Bach is the concept of rhythm and the variety of different approaches. Bach’s friend Forkel wrote about how captivating Bach’s own playing was in this sense. This makes us think about the dances and the Suites. How would you elaborate on this important factor in Bach’s dance forms?

RB: I absolutely agree with you. Dance and rhythm are very important factors. He is always dancing and singing. He didn’t like too slow tempi, as Forkel wrote. John Elliot Gardiner once said: “Bach is Dance”. I think in the same way. The Bach Suites are not only wonderful selections of different dances of different countries but there is also a European Parliament in there. You can even find the Middle East nations like Persia in the Sarabande for example.

PS: You recorded the Piano (Keyboard) Concertos with Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly. These are done with a ”modern” instrument and setting. Which are your ideas about performances using historical instruments?

RB: I have a very positive idea. Because if you want to have a rich idea about Bach’ s music today, you must know very well your past and all origins. You must know where you’re from. Personally I think that for transmission to modern audiences, the modern instruments such as the wonderful, dark golden sound of the beautiful Gewandhausorchester and the modern Steinway are really appropriate for the universal message of the Master. I loved very much to find a most comfortable nuance with Maestro Riccardo Chailly and his vivid intentions, and the work with the Gewandhausorchester and their modern instruments was truly fantastic.

PS: With your vast experience we must take the chance to ask you which of the less familiar Bach keyboard pieces we should look out for and play? There must be many not-so-known Bach works to discover?

RB: I suggest to young colleagues, for example: Bach’s Transcriptions of the Italian Masters, and the Keyboard Sonatas. I like very much the D Major Sonata with “la Gallina Cucca Fugue”, or the early Suite in f minor BWV 823. Aria variata alla maniera Italiana BWV 989, Four Duets BWV 802-805, Suite in A major BWV 832, Suite in e minor BWV 996, and of course other pieces. Bach is like an ocean. “Nicht Bach, Meer sollte er heissen” – “Not Bach (German for brook or stream), he should be called the Sea” – as Ludwig van Beethoven wrote about Johann Sebastian Bach.

PS: You are a prolific music personality and often appear on television, speaking about music. You are also an author of many books. Which are your quests as a writer?

RB: My principal aspiration and quest as interpreter and music divulgator is to have a friendly relationship with the public and to familiarize the young people with this immense legacy. I am only a Bach lover and I hope to see many youngsters at classical concerts. Why not at Bach evenings? It’s a hope!

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Bahrami’s Bach journey on record

In 2009 Decca Universal released the 6-CDs box ”Ramin Bahrami plays Bach”, with all Bahrami’s Bach recordings up till then, including a selection of live performances and in 2010 came the French Suites. Before that, the Goldberg Variations, the seven Partitas and the Art of Fugue, released respectively in 2004, 2005 and 2007 which launched Bahrami as a popular and sought after artist. The recording of The Art of Fugue reached the top ten of pop-music best sellers in Italy – keeping this position for seven weeks. After this followed the release of ”Concerto Italiano”, with Bach works inspired by Italy (Concerto Italiano, Aria variata nella maniera italiana, Capriccio sulla lontananza del fratello dilettissimo, Quattro Duetti etc.), and in 2009 Bach Sonatas BWV 963-968 received important evaluations from critics and audience. In 2011 followed the Bach Concertos with Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, 2012 the English Suites, 2013 Inventions & Sinfonias and 2014 Flute Sonatas with flutist Massimo Mercelli. That same year “Bach for Babies” was released and followed by Bach’s Musical Offering in 2015.

Selected albums available on Piano Street / Naxos (for Gold Members):

/patrick

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With music venues on lock down across the world and many of us spending a lot more time at home, we can now enjoy the growing supply of concerts via live stream to watch from home on our TV, computer or smartphone.

The trend took off quickly, with production values ranging from tinny iPhone videos to cinema-ready sophistication. On March 12, the day New York theaters shuttered, the pianist Igor Levit gave his first lo-fi performance from his living room, while the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra played to empty halls and audiences at home. Since then, a day hasn’t gone by without something new to watch.

Many of these online broadcasts have been more personal than a typical classical concert, with a casual dress code, pianos out of tune and imperfect production. It is a unique opportunity to hear what it sounds like when great artists are practicing at their own piano at home – perhaps a realistic chance to compare how your own piano playing is measuring up!

The new list of upcoming livestreams

Piano Street has now launced a new feature to help you keep track of upcoming livestreamed piano events. Watch the new ticker on our homepage >>

Note that all start times are given in GMT (UTC). We wish you best of luck with the challenging work to convert them to your own time zone!

/nilsjohan

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