News Flash

2023-09-10

Schiff and Perspectives

"There are 14-year-olds who've never even played a two-voice invention, but who learn the "Art of Fugue" in a week... You can't take it seriously. We wouldn't go to a philosophy lecture held by an 8-year-old child, or a 'King Lear' with a teen in the title role. But somehow it's tolerated in music.
Read more at van-magazine.com

2023-09-09

World's Eyes on Rachmaninoff

Composer anniversaries are a gift to unimaginative concert planners, but they have their uses: and in this double anniversary year (150 years since his birth, and 80 since his death) it does feel like our perception of Rachmaninoff is evolving.
Read more at spectator.co.uk

2023-09-08

Gramophone Awards Piano Shortlist 2023

Pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Bertrand Chamayou, Benjamin Grosvenor, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Krystian Zimerman and amateur pianist, Paul Wee are all short listed for a possible Gramophone Award.
Read more at gramophone.co.uk

2023-09-07

Pianist Scott's Lifelong Struggle

In the face of extreme bigotry, and with everything to lose, Scott took a stand, including her refusal to play segregated shows. The jazz virtuoso was heavily influenced by her mother, Alma, from her piano playing to her political consciousness.
Read more at teenvogue.com

2023-09-06

Arsenii Mun Wins Busoni Competition

Pianist Arsenii Mun, who considers himself half Korean, won the Busoni Prize at the 64th International Piano Competition in Ferruccio Busoni, in Bolzano, Italy. Additionally he also won the Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize, which has not been awarded for 15 years.
Read more at donga.com

2023-09-05

21st Century Lisztomania

It is not impossible to imagine what Liszt was like: chaotic, mesmerizing personalities populate the artistic sphere in every era. But what did he sound like? The extant testimony is of only limited help.
Read more at newyorker.com

2023-09-04

Do You Know Vitezslava Kapralova?

The highly productive conductor and composer (of two piano concertos) Vitezslava Kapralova, was set between the two world wars in the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic to whose modernist movement she belonged.
Read more at interlude.hk

2023-09-03

Olafsson Goes Down Under

Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson will make his Australian debut in March 2024 bringing Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Adelaide Festival and Ravel's G-major Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Read more at limelightmagazine.com.au

2023-09-02

A Jazz Talk with Pianist Moran

Jason Moran talks jazz and plays selections from his latest recording, which borrows from the music of James Reese Europe, the composer and musician who led the Harlem Hellfighters regiment band during WWI.
Read more at npr.org

2023-09-01

Pianist for a Good Cause

Pianist Nurry Lee decided to organise a fundraiser at The Bath Guildhall, after her father was diagnosed with Motor Neurons Disease.
Read more at bbc.com

2023-08-31

Albert Hall on Short Notice

2021 Leeds International Piano Competition winner Alim Beisembayev replaced a suddenly indisposed Benjamin Grosvenor on very short notice, in a televised performance of Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto.
Read more at bbc.com

2023-08-31

Mark Ainley on Pianistic History

International Piano introduces a new regular column by historical pianists guru Mark Ainley, where he explores historic treasures both familiar and obscure, recommending new discoveries and encouraging fresh listening.
Read more at gramophone.co.uk

2023-08-30

Pianist Pratt's Sweet Spot

Awadagin Pratt has just released his first album in 12 years. The pianist devoted five years of careful thought to the release, commissioning new pieces from six composers.
Read more at npr.org

2023-08-29

Dinnerstein's Need for Rest

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein reflects on her performing life as well as the need for rest and return.
Read more at wamc.org

2023-08-28

Pianist Kim on Great Collaboration

Hyemin Kim is pursuing a doctorate in piano performance at Michigan State University when she discovered she also really loved collaborative piano. "I realized I wanted to learn how to collaborate with them, rather than just playing as a soloist".
Read more at interlochenpublicradio.org

2023-08-27

Apple and Classical Music

When I looked up "Frank Martin," the top result was Frank Zappa's "Funky Nothingness." A search for the Beethoven Fifth brought up the disco hit "A Fifth of Beethoven," the fifteenth variation of Bach's Goldberg Variations, and Allan Sherman's "Beethoven's Fifth Cha Cha" - but no recordings of the symphony.
Read more at newyorker.com

2023-08-26

Spotlight on Pianist Melnikov

Alexander Melnikov has had a private pilot's license since 2000. Now he is in the process of applying for a job as a pilot at Eurowings. What made him want to become a commercial pilot alongside his music career?
Read more at van-magazine.com

2023-08-25

Iconic Ashkenazy Podcast

In this second podcast, Gramophone's James Jolly talks to the New York-based critic, composer, broadcaster and piano enthusiast Jed Distler about the Russian-born pianist and conductor, Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Read more at youtube.com

2023-08-24

Piano Suite for the Climate

The Fairfield-based composer Brian Field's connection to climate disasters inspired him to write "Three Passions for our Tortured Planet", a 12-minute solo piano suite performed in three parts.
Read more at ctinsider.com

2023-08-23

The Best of Grimaud

Pianist Magazine (UK) picks six of the French pianist Helene Grimaud's most captivating performances. Bach, to Mozart, to Schumann and more.
Read more at pianistmagazine.com

2023-08-22

Steinway's Kitchen Piano

Steinweg had his own workshop in the town, but local regulations only allowed him to use it to repair instruments, not build them. He therefore secretly constructed his new piano "off-site".
Read more at worldpianonews.com

2023-08-21

Contemporary Piano at Tiny Desk

Pianist Sarah Cahill sat down at the piano behind Bob Boile's desk, where she focused not so much on new music which she is famous for, but instead the plight of women composers.
Read more at npr.org

2023-08-20

Piano Competition Attracts Thousands

The 16th Shanghai International Youth Piano Competition drew nearly 1,600 contestants selected from tens of thousands of children and adolescents from 36 provincial-level administrative regions all over China.
Read more at chinadaily.com.cn

2023-08-19

The Amazingly Productive Jeno Jando Dies

The prolific Hungarian pianist and professor Jeno Jando died July 4 at the age of 71. He is one of the most recorded pianists. For Naxos label he recorded more or less the complete Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Bartok and Chopin.
Read more at telegraph.co.uk