News Flash

2022-12-02

The Forever Current Radu Lupu

Pianist, radio host and educator Donna Weng Friedman shares her memories of Lupu with The Classical Network's Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler.
Read more at wwfm.org

2022-12-01

Listening to and Remembering Lars Vogt

The harpist and book reviewer Susan Miron accumulated a tall pile of Vogt CDs, as she read and listened to several long interviews (including an excellent two-hour talk with Czech harpist Jana Bouskova).
Read more at artsfuse.org

2022-11-30

Who Was Helene de Montgeroult?

By her death, in Florence in 1836, she had written nine piano sonatas and, between 1788 and 1812, her magnum opus: 114 Etudes, which appeared in the hefty Cours complet pour l'enseignement du forte-piano of 1816 alongside a selection of fantasies, nocturnes for voice and piano and other short pieces.
Read more at classical-music.com

2022-11-29

Adult Piano Learning?

There are basically two groups of adult piano learners: "How I wish I'd had lessons as a child", and "How I wish I'd kept it up", are common refrains we all hear again and again from friends and acquaintances who have grown long in the tooth.
Read more at pianistmagazine.com

2022-11-29

Michael Ponti Remembered

Jeremy Nicholas remembers pianist Michael Ponti, who recorded little known romantic composers: "I've played 73 different works for piano and orchestra with 172 different conductors..."
Read more at rhinegold.co.uk

2022-11-28

The Piano as One of Three

The piano trio one is of the most popular ensembles in chamber music: "The piano trio had to wait upon the evolution of a truly efficient instrument, one with enough power to match the strings in the ensemble and sufficient mechanical capability to ensure clarity in the attack and release of notes and precise damping."
Read more at interlude.hk

2022-11-27

A New Esbjorn Svensson Recording Released

Swedish jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson tragically died in a scuba diving accident. He left behind a powerful EST back catalogue, augmented by the occasional unearthed live recording.
Read more at theguardian.com

2022-11-26

Pianist Back to His Roots

Anyone who is familiar with Korean surnames would assume that the German pianist Christopher Park has some Korean roots. And, indeed, he has. He was born to a German mother and a Korean American father in 1987.
Read more at koreaherald.com

2022-11-25

Playing Piano Benefits

It's true that piano lessons benefit young children, but they benefit grown-ups as well. In fact, they may advantage grown-ups even more.
Read more at ondon-post.co.uk

2022-11-24

Bezuidenhout's Fortepianos

To present a program on four different historical instruments - as Bezuidenhout was going to do later that day, in a recital for the Berkeley series Cal Performances - is to invite chaos. On a modern piano, performers have to play Mozart with restraint, but on an earlier instrument they can push to extremes.
Read more at newyorker.com

2022-11-23

Pianistic Geography

Pianist Evgeny Grinko's music carries traces of his geography. "Generally, I was fascinated with all the cities I went to in Turkiye. I strongly believe that every city that I gave a concert had a different magic."
Read more at dailysabah.com

2022-11-22

A Fashion and Pianist Merge

Meet the Taiwanese-American pianist Weiyin Chen, who also just happens to be a Vogue-featured fashion designer.
Read more at pianistmagazine.com

2022-11-21

Top Rated Pianism

To the joy of The Guardian's critic, Stephen Hough playing his own Partita alongside Debussy, Scriabin, Mompou and Liszt, showed the artist being equal to any technical demand.
Read more at theguardian.com

2022-11-20

Piano and Indian Silent Films

Pianist Robert Piechaud, who is researching in the archives of the National Film Archive of India, is working towards creating a repertoire of cine concerts with Indian silent films.
Read more at indianexpress.com

2022-11-19

To Compose for Piano?

Pianist and composer Carlos Gardels shares his creative experience to help readers in general or those who are thinking of entering Pianist Magazine's composing competition.
Read more at pianistmagazine.com

2022-11-18

The 2023 Chopin Competition on Period Instruments

The Fryderyk Chopin Institute invites pianists to take part in the 2nd International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments, which will take place next year in Warsaw. The success of the first edition (2018) ensured the organisers that the regular organisation of the event (every five years), in parallel with the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition
Read more at nifc.pl

2022-11-17

Meet Pianist Brianna Matzke

Dr. Brianna Matzke is a pianist, educator, collaborator, producer, as well as an advocate of new music. "The art form of classical music is a living, breathing art form! I can't tell you how often a new acquaintance is surprised to learn that there are still living composers; there is too much of an association between classical music and being old and/or dead."
Read more at interlude.hk

2022-11-16

Ravel's Social Circle

Even though Ravel was a private and secret person, he did enjoy the company of others and was faithful in his friendships to a rare degree. He used to say; "One does not prove he has a heart by simply opening up his chest."
Read more at interlude.hk

2022-11-15

Daniel Barenboim at 80

The legendary pianist and conductor turns 80 today, but deteriorating health has kept him from the celebrations he had long planned. The Staatsoper unter den Berlin has announced that Barenboim will miss his birthday celebration.
Read more at nytimes.com

2022-11-15

The Young Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim's early pianistic career produced performances distinguished by flexibility, spontaneity, and quick sensitivity. His emphasis on freedom of expression also informs his personal aesthetic.
Read more at interlude.hk

2022-11-14

Valentyn Silvestrov in Interview

In a recent article Piano Street featured the collaboration between pianist Boris Berman and Valentyn Silvestrov. The Ukrainian-born composer has lived long enough to write nine symphonies and have his music be censored by both Soviet apparatchiks and Putin's police. He lived in Kyiv for 84 years until this March, when he left the country due to Russia's invasion.
Read more at van-magazine.com

2022-11-13

Classical Concerts on Wrong Track?

If you picture a classical music concert, the average person will come up with an image of instrumentalists in old-fashioned evening wear, badly lit concert halls, and older audiences politely clapping at the end of their favourite Brahms or Haydn symphonies.
Read more at classical-music.com

2022-11-12

Veteran Plays Schumann in Israel

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson is far from being a stick-in-the-mud and is cognizant not only of the stylistic timeline his predecessors traveled but also aware of the need to keep the creative ball rolling.
Read more at post.com

2022-11-11

Chopin's Vast Universe

Chopin's music offers pianists a wealth of expressivity, requiring a combination of superior technique, which always serves the music (rather than as an end in itself), refined touch, a beautiful cantabile (singing) tone, highly nuanced dynamic shading, supple phrasing and rubato, and an appreciation of the interior architecture of this multi-layered music.
Read more at interlude.hk