....a roundup of Chopiniana: current news, views, reviews, recordings and performances in the runup to the 200th birthday of the matchless Polish keyboard composer.
Emanuel Ax plays "a concerto by a composer who never wrote an opera but was deeply influenced by bel canto vocalism (Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2)."
For the Chopin concerto, the soloist is Emanuel Ax, always welcome.
With his avuncular presence belying an acute touch, Ax knows the Chopin concertos inside out, having even recorded them both on a period instrument. Orchestral writing wasn't this composer's thing, but Ax made the keyboard lines shine like a buffed pearl. In the melodic Larghetto, he coaxed sighs without ever being fey, the minute hesitations seeming like dramatic inflections in an unspooling aria.
Cult-figure pianist Konstantin Lifshitz plays an ambitious program that starts with Bach. "He then tackled all 12 of Chopin's Op. 25 Études - and when was the last time you heard a pianist play the full dozen, and from memory? before conjuring the dread of midnight with some Schoenberg and wrapping up with Brahms' gargantuan Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel...."
The dozen Chopin studies, each demanding mastery of a particular technical concern, began with racing arpeggios, butterfly-soft, and ended with more racing arpeggios, stamped with a murderous clout. In between came galloping tempos and visits to windswept, desolate landscapes - and, except for a few short instances of over-pedaling, all of it was super-clear, voiced and colored to tell stories.
How the pianists in the audience felt listening to Lifschitz, it's hard to imagine. Because he was not only whizzing through Chopin's impossible sequences of parallel thirds (Étude No. 6 in G-sharp minor), hand-splitting sixths (No. 8 in D-flat major) and octaves (No. 10 in B minor), he was journeying through emotional worlds.
Pianist Grace Nikae blogs about her recording session....
Recording of the Schumann G- minor sonata was completed in the past two days, and due to scheduling conflicts for all the parties involved, recording of the Chopin third sonata will take place next month. If all goes well, ...
Previewing his appearance in the Vermont capital, Quebec pianist shares his approach to Chopin:
André’s first point was that Chopin (1810-1849) was a great pianist, and that the piano, not other instruments or the orchestra, was his medium.
“So, you listen to purely Romantic music that was extraordinarily written for piano,” André said. “A lot of pianists are interested in playing Chopin because it’s wonderfully written for piano and, also, it’s wonderfully expressive.”
“He has something to say, but it’s very atmospheric, very imaginative, very colorful,” André went on. “He knew absolutely what you could do with the piano.” Still, a lot depends on the performer.
“If you add structure and add a sense of line, it becomes even more beautiful because it is so well composed,” André said. “With Chopin, you have everything that is pianistic, everything that’s musical, and everything that’s well put together.” André cited the B-Flat Minor Sonata....
The extreme precision of Neiman's playing displayed the details of Chopin's "Concerto No. 1" while his sensitive nuances imbued the work with emotional depth. Both soloist and orchestra dramatically contrasted the music's dainty passages with its fiery outbursts. The Symphony's fine Steinway, with its clear and vibrant tone, responded admirably in both the forceful and delicate realms. In the "Romance: Larghetto" movement, Neiman's piano set a dreamy ambiance above a seamless fabric of strings. The bassoon, played by Jane Orzel, sang beautifully in a rare romantic role. Though this concerto has no solo cadenzas, it brims with virtuosic passages, which Neiman executed with polish and verve.
Applause for Ax and his approach to the other Chopin concerto:
In the mid-1990s, Emanuel Ax decided to get a more intimate connection to the music of Chopin by recording on an Erard piano -- the same type on which the composer wrote many of his most famous works. His playing of Chopin since then has been greatly informed by this wise excursion from the concert grand, and yesterday he again found a way to bring that more agile sound to the larger tone of the Steinway.
Ax's light attack not only fit Chopin's phrasing for the pianist, but lent the concerto an improvisatory spirit (I could swear he gave a few extemporaneous flourishes, too). The only downside was it further exposed Chopin's stilted writing for orchestra. Clearly the best parts of this work occur when the pianist plays. Ax substituted for Alfred Brendel three weeks ago. It would be a shame not to hear him again for a while.
Baron said he can't resist the lure of playing vocal music arranged for piano.
"As pianists, we play on what we don't like to think of as a percussive instrument," he said.
"Many of us look at the voice as the ideal instrument. That's the challenge for me: to imitate a crescendo on a single note, or a perfect legato."
The program begins with "God Save the King" - known in the United States as "America" - followed by Beethoven's variations on the theme.
There will be songs by Beethoven, Schubert and Alabiev, each followed by Franz Liszt's solo transcription.
"Then we're doing the opposite," Baron said - a group of vocal arrangements of Chopin mazurkas by Pauline Viardot-Garcia, a singer of Chopin's era and one of the composer's close friends.
With the ISO, she will perform Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor. Chen sees what’s often called a light orchestral accompaniment as a dialogue between soloist and ensemble.
“It’s sentimental, dramatic and operatic, and it’s, in many ways, like a conversation with a lot of musically folksy elements,” Chen says of the Polish composer’s work. See all stories on this topic
The PR department at Warsaw city council is thinking of throwing pianos out of windows as a public relations exercise to publicise the capital.
During the anti-Tsarist Uprising of 1863, Chopin’s piano was thrown out of the window of his sister’s apartment by the soldiers of the Tsar and smashed on the street below.
The PR Department in the Warsaw City council has come up with an idea of drawing on that historical episode in the promotion of Warsaw to tourists.
Vienna has its Mozart, London has its Sherlock Holmes, why not throw replicas of grand pianos out of the window as a promotion gimmick, Warsaw PR people say....
Preview and profile of pianist Konstantin Lifshitz, as a prelude to his April 10 performances and masterclasses in San Jose...
He's including the 12 Études of Chopin's Opus 25 in preparation for a week of master classes at Aix-en-Provence, and concludes the recital with Brahms' Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. In between he's slipping in Schoenberg's Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11, the composer's early, bracing venture into atonality. While he commits most of the music he performs to memory, he'll have the Schoenberg sheet music on hand. Lifschitz may be a genius, but he's not foolhardy.
Emanuel Ax comes to Steel City to play and share some thoughts about his "musical first love:"
Ax recalls that he began playing Chopin when he was 7 or 8. "I'm Polish by birth. All Polish pianists play Chopin, quite apart from him being a large part of every pianist's life, really.
"I certainly love Chopin as much as any composer. He was probably my first love in the sense that I also grew up with (Arthur) Rubinstein, who was known to me as 'the Chopin pianist.' He played a lot else marvelously, too."
Ax's family moved to Canada in 1959 and settled in New York City in 1961. After studying at the Juilliard School of Music and Columbia University, he began winning piano competitions. But his career really took off after winning first prize in the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in 1974.
"After I won, he was very kindly. When he came to New York several times a year, he always found a little time for me. We had a few lessons, among them the Chopin F minor Concerto. He had a lot of stuff to say, unbelievably exact and instructive. I got to have dinner with him a few times, too. I was moving in high circles," says the modest pianist.
Chopin and Debussy "are the most astonishingly original composers I know, Ax says. "With Beethoven, you see it's incredible music, but you can trace connections to Mozart and Haydn writing at the time. Chopin comes from Warsaw and explodes on the scene. It's a pretty revolutionary way of hearing music." See all stories on this topic
Shot at the world famous Pere-Lachaise cemetery, the largest in Paris, the film explores the thoughts and feelings of those who have come to the gravesites to pay tribute to famous people such as Chopin, Modigliani, Apollonaire, Balzac, Proust and Oscar Wilde as well as ordinary folk who lived and loved and have been remembered. It is a moving experience that engages both the mind and the heart.
The film opens with the story of pianist Yoshino Kimura, a young Asian woman who performs the work of Frederic Chopin as a means of connecting with her deceased father who loved his music. Scenes of Kimura playing the pensive melodies of Chopin's Nocturnes in concert are shown as the camera offers loving close ups of the pianist, the emotion revealed in her eyes.
Although she's only 20 years old, the Asian-American Kudo is a veteran of numerous international competitions. During the past three years alone, Kudo is the 2007 winner of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, too second prize at the 2005 U.S. National Chopin and was the only American finalist at the 2005 Chopin Piano Competition in Poland. She has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Fukui Symphony Orchestra and numerous other U.S. ensembles.
From the "Fly Funky Diva" blog, memories of a Miss America with some major Chopin mojo....
Marjorie's piano rendition of this Chopin masterpiece went down as one of the most brilliant talent performances in Miss America history. She also looked incredible! Marjorie Vincent was crowned Miss America this year making her the fourth african-american woman to hold the title.
A preview of a benefit concert by Dariusz Pawlas for Project Launch - a Texas-based organization that While the April concert centers on Autism, the overall target population of Project Launch includes children and adults with myriad conditions that significantly impair their ability to learn fully, encompassing those with ADD/ADHD; Dyslexia; Autism; Aspergers; Depression; Bipolar Disorder; Tourette’s Syndrome; Mental Retardation; Cerebral Palsy, etc.;
Now a teacher of piano at both Rice University and the University of Texas in Austin, Dr. Pawlas is famous for performing in Frederyk Chopin’s home at the Poland International Festival. Dr. Pawlas has performed in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Holland, Italy, and Chopin’s birthplace in Zelazowa Wola, as well as the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. He is the winner of the prestigious Estrada Mlodych Polish Piano Festival and recipient of the Frederyk Chopin Society of Warsaw scholarship.
Dr. Pawlas was born in Poland in the Silesian city of Rybnik, where he began his musical studies at age five. He graduated with the highest honors from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, and Rice University in Houston. Earning recognition internationally for his extraordinary talent, Dr. Pawlas has played with the Silesian Philharmonic of Katowice and Artur Rubenstein Philharmonic in Lodz.
More praise for Emanuel Ax's performance of the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Madison Symphony Orchestra....
But the heart of the MSO concert for me, a avowed piano fan, was Ax (whose picture by J. Henry Fairfax is at the top). The quicksilver fleetness of the notes, the delicacy of the articulation and lightness of the touch, the rich tone, the lyrical legato - it all made for an experience that was memorable and nothing short of extraordinary.
L.L. Flails in Fort Worth, to the dismay of a Dallas critic...
Subtlety isn't Mr. Lang's forte. With Liszt's chattering and booming octaves sometimes pounded within inches of the Steinway's life, with the simple little tune so pushed and pulled that it was sometimes barely identifiable as such, this was vulgarity in excelsis.
In the Chopin E major Etude, [Op. 10 No. 3] played as an encore, excessive rubato distorted the main tune, and the middle section was crudely banged. It sounded like a parody of Liszt parodying Chopin. See all stories on this topic
The main theme to this work, popularized as "No Other Love," and the one translated into "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," are the two most well-known of Chopin's melodies. If you've never heard the lovely real thing, here it is. There was a time when I could play this thing, except for the middle part. Most avocational pianists will say the same thing.
Madison reviewer likes the player, if not necessarily the repertoire...
For its March 28-30 concerts in Overture Hall, the Madison Symphony Orchestra's mandatory guest soloist is pianist Emanuel Ax, a fine musician always welcome. Would that his vehicle had been better chosen.
I must admit straightway that Chopin's two piano concertos have long ago worn badly for me. They were composed as necessary calling cards to launch Chopin's performing career. Chopin knew he was no master of the orchestra or of large-scale forms. His short concerted works are more satisfactory because they do not have to be fitted into classical multi-movement molds. It is significant that his only subsequent ventures into such established-form territory were his Cello Sonata and his three Piano Sonatas, which are at least written on a more congenially intimate scale.
With mediocre thematic material and bland orchestral writing, the two concertos might easily have faded among the dozens of such diffident ventures that cluttered the second quarter of the 19th century. (Anyone for Kalkbrenner, Henselt, Moscheles, or their ilk?) The one saving grace for Chopin's two is their solo piano writing, which set the composer on course to create thereafter some of the greatest music ever written for his instrument.
And now, an opposing viewpoint as to the merits of the Chopin concerto....
Ax, a perennial Madison favorite, performed Chopin's Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra in F minor, Op. 21. The pianist's superlative technique, tempered with his elegant style, delivered a wonderfully emotive, technically perfect performance that characterized the definition of great music. No other performer this season has captured the brilliance of a composition to the same degree as Ax.
The Concerto No. 2, written when Chopin was 19, captures the composer's sentiment at the height of romantic youth. Ax's technical mastery explores those passages benefiting from development, while controlling the composer's occasional excesses. The result of those efforts brought the audience to its feet, a show of appreciation rewarded by an impromptu encore, Chopin's Nocturne Op. 7, No. 21. Similar musical themes came forward from the solo piano performance, which was every bit as compelling as the longer orchestral work.
A moving eulogy to a Boise piano teacher and her motivational techniques:
My next lesson came. I started playing the Mozart, and Mildred interrupted me and said, "Let me hear the Chopin." I was shocked because it was the last lesson we would have before the recital. I started playing the Chopin. I was still angry that I would not be playing it for the recital, and I played it with anger. Soon the room was engulfed with the sounds of Chopin coming from this grand piano. At some point during a very agitated part of the Polonaise, Mildred came over, placed her hands on my shoulders and said to me, "Feel the fire of that!" It was the most pivotal point in my music career. The fire she talked of was passion, and I realized that it had taken me over.
She then pulled out the program for the recital that had been printed up two weeks before. It listed me playing the Chopin. She had faith in me and knew how to motivate me, even when I didn't.
Review of a CD compendium of two recitals (in 1984 and 1987) given by the venerable Polish pianist at the Aldeburgh Festival:
If ever a musician could be “venerated,” it would have to be Mieczyslaw Horszowski (1892-1993), the Polish virtuoso who excelled as solo pianist, teacher, and accompanist, and whose “staying power“ at his chosen instrument lasted 80 years. A pupil of Theodor Leschetizky, Horszowski mastered every degree of nuanced keyboard playing without percussiveness, and the entire Slavic-German repertory lay under his command. [...]
Horszowski opens with an homage to his dear friend, Pablo Casals - an extensive Prelude that plays like a nocturne, dramatic in parts with touches of what sound like Rachmaninov’s famed C-sharp Minor effort. Horszowski takes a broad tempo for the first movement of the Chopin B Minor, allowing Chopin’s modal counterpoint to shine through as well as the second subject to bask in burnished space. The development becomes thick without succumbing to metrical sag or emotional pretentiousness. Horszowski has a few finger slips in the gnarly Scherzo, which he takes rather gingerly. Despite the flaws, the music enjoys the contours of a water-piece, Debussy not far away. The third movement Largo seeks a balance of nocturne and barcarolle, in which Horszowski imbues the repeated arpeggios and colored chords with timeless, singing reverie. Herculean efforts move the Presto movement forward, Horszowski’s attacking the galloping figures with the audacity of one two generations younger than he. At the last chord, the audience whoops its appreciation for the gallant efforts.
Review of a Beirut recital by Lebanese composer-pianist Rami Khalifé:
Khalifébegan Wednesday's concert with a selection of Chopin "Etudes." Presumably he wanted to shake off the nerves and warm up his hands. Having the contemporary centerpiece prefaced by the work of one of the best-loved composers of the romantic period also satisfied those especially fond of a better established repertoire - indeed, the audience erupted with applause after each etude.
Emanuel Ax comes to the Wisconsin capital, Chopin in tow....
It starts with three performances by the Madison Symphony Orchestra with Emanuel Ax soloing in Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor. (Actually it was Chopin's first concerto, but was published second.) The first might be more virtuosic and sophisticated in its composition, but the second has tender beauty to behold, nowhere more so than in the opening of the slow second movement, a love song by the 20-year-old composer.
Pianist Boris Konovavlov will perform and discuss a special program, "The Unknown Chopin" in Yellowknife.... Northern News Services (subscription) - Yellowknife,Northwest Territories,Canada "This time it will be some special event, because the whole evening will be dedicated to the music of Chopin, and I will talk about it, about his music," ... See all stories on this topic
Orli Shaham in a stunning all-chopin recital in St. Louis. St. Louis Symphony Music Director David Robertson is a surprise guest.... St. Louis Post-Dispatch - MO, United States Pianist Orli Shaham had the stage to herself in an all-Chopin recital. Well, almost to herself. After an opening barcarolle she talked a bit about ... See all stories on this topic
Piotr Anderszewski surprises locals by declaring his favorite Polish composer is Karol Szymanowski... Daily Camera - CO,USA Anderszewski disappoints those who expect a Polish pianist to play Chopin. "I did play some Chopin at the outset of my career," he says, "but I do not have ... See all stories on this topic
Video of adorable tot playing competent Chopin on out-of-tune Kawai... By admin 8 1/2 years old Hannah Hua played on a Kawai RX-7 Semi-Concert Grand Piano. Recorded on 07Oct06. ShareThis. FREE VIDEO DOWNLOAD HERE ! - http://www.musicxeed.com
Chopin Music of the Day: The "Autoharp" Etude: (Op. 10 No. 11 in E-flat)
Chopin Project concert series, Artistic Director Arthur Greene plays gives a performance of the tricky Etude in E-flat Major, Op. 10, No. 11, a piece that might have been inspired by the zithers (early autoharps) that Chopin heard in his Polish homeland...
Microphone Exhaustion
