News Flash

2023-12-29

Bavouzet's Haydn Top Rated

In the course of 2023 a select number of big recording projects came to fruition, prime among them Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's complete Haydn piano sonatas.
Read more at ft.com

2023-12-28

Advice From The Maestros

Aspiring pianists would do well to mull over experienced pianists' perspectives and integrate them into their own approach to the instrument. Enjoy five giants suggesting new ways to think about common problems.
Read more at interlude.hk

2023-12-27

Who Plays Piano in "Maestro"?

Actor Bradley Cooper plays legendary American composer Leonard Bernstein in the self-directed movie and the role demands quite a bit of the star. Most notably, it requires him to play the piano, a skill few people realized Cooper possessed.
Read more at thecinemaholic.com

2023-12-26

AI Helps Disabled Pianists

An AI-powered piano made its debut in Tokyo, allowing three musicians with disabilities to perform Beethoven at a Christmas concert.
Read more at borneobulletin.com.bn

2023-12-25

Christmas Piano at King's Cross Station

Is that the sound of reindeer and sleigh bells? No! It's world-famous pianist Lang Lang doing another performance at one of the UK's busiest railway stations in "The Piano At Christmas".
Read more at theguardian.com

2023-12-24

A Lipatti Archive Dive

Dinu Lipatti is justly celebrated for his performances of Bach. He had a remarkable capacity to vary the attack used by different fingers even within the same hand so that the voicing of each line was thoroughly consistent, to a degree rarely heard in other artists.
Read more at thepianofiles.com

2023-12-23

Bernstein With and Without Piano

Interlude chooses the five most popular Leonard Bernstein performances on YouTube, going from least viewed to most viewed including the story behind each performance and what makes each one so special.
Read more at interlude.hk

2023-12-22

Sumino in Gershwin's Footsteps

NHK showcases a Japanese pianist who is pushing the envelope in the world of music. He is in New York to refine his talent, and explore new genres and influences.
Read more at nhk.or.jp

2023-12-21

A Pianist Talk

Korean pianist Soo Jung Kwon is promoting her Nanum (sharing) concert series, showcasing and promoting music's healing powers. With over 20 years of experience, Kwon's performances have been described as mesmerizing and awe-inspiring.
Read more at meettheartist.online

2023-12-20

Film Director on "Pianoforte"

A new documentary follows talented young pianists as they compete in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Poland. NPR talks with its director, Jakub Piatek.
Read more at npr.org

2023-12-19

Famed Pianist Returns

57-year-old Stanislav Bunin first stepped into the world's spotlight after winning the prestigious International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition when he was 19.
Read more at mainichi.jp

2023-12-18

Before Lang and Wang

Pianist Kong Xiangdong wowed audiences with his interpretations of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. Now, he has a new mission: raising awareness about mental health issues.
Read more at sixthtone.com

2023-12-17

Vikingur Olafsson on Goldberg

Reflecting on the moment he first encountered the piece through pianist Glenn Gould's performance at the age of 14, Olafsson recalled, "I think my 14-year-old brain exploded a little bit with so many sensations."
Read more at koreaherald.com

2023-12-16

Stolen Piano Found

The State Police in Palermo recovered a grand piano worth one hundred thousand euros, belonging to pianist Michail Pletnev, which had been stolen recently.
Read more at pianistmagazine.com

2023-12-15

The Pianist with 50 Fingers

Pianist Pascal Amoyel recounts his first encounter with Gyorgy Cziffra. In 1983, at the age of 12, the French pianist, on the advice of his concierge, sought out the Hungarian virtuoso, who was already living in Paris and had shortly before set up a foundation to support young artists.
Read more at hungarytoday.hu

2023-12-15

A Pianist's Memoir

Inna Faliks talks about her book; "Weight in the Fingertips: A Musical Odyssey from Soviet Ukraine to the World Stage". Born in Odessa, Ukraine, part of the Soviet Union at the time, Faliks and her family fled Soviet repression and antisemitism, and endured a long journey that took them through Vienna, Rome, and ultimately to Chicago.
Read more at schoolofmusic.ucla.edu

2023-12-14

Pianist Building Bridges

In 2016 pianist Miki Sawada loaded an out-of-tune piano onto a van. Then she set out on a tour hoping to connect Americans using classical music.
Read more at wbhm.org

2023-12-13

Famed Pianist in Going Home

The Going Home Project is an Orchestra in which musicians from all over the globe "come home" to Korea every now and then. Son Yeol-eum, recently orchestrated a surprise concert for patients and hospital staff.
Read more at koreabiomed.com

2023-12-13

Yuja in Conversation

As we learn during the candid two-hour chat with Wang, a similar sense of transparency characterises the pianist herself. Here, she shares more about her craft, her role models, and what female empowerment truly means to her.
Read more at thepeakmagazine.com.sg

2023-12-12

The Importance of Pianist Cohen

Harriet Pearl Alice Cohen was born in London on 2 December 1895. We may have largely forgotten her today, but this little girl turned out to be one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century.
Read more at interlude.hk

2023-12-11

Lang Lang's Disney World

Lang points to one of the earliest films, 1940 masterpiece Fantasia, with its interpolations of music by composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Igor Stravinsky as an example of the way classical music inspires Disney films.
Read more at thenationalnews.com

2023-12-10

What about Khachaturian's Piano Concerto?

Bold, brash and bombastic - as well as beguilingly beautiful - Khachaturian's Piano Concerto is a showstopper. Like much of the composer's music, it draws on a colourful timbral palette.
Read more at classical-music.com

2023-12-09

Pratt Premieres Montgomery's Rounds

Pianist Awadagin Pratt commissioned Montgomery to write a work based on selected prompts from T.S. Eliot's "The Four Quartets". "Rounds" was one of six compositions recorded for the Stillpoint album, released by New Amsterdam Records.
Read more at theutahreview.com

2023-12-08

Napoleon's Piano

In Ridley Scott's pyrotechnics-heavy biopic "Napoleon", a simple melody emerges from the delicate sound of an old piano. It's more than 200 years old and once belonged to the French emperor himself, who gifted it to his second wife, Marie-Louise.
Read more at knkx.org