The Finalists

Antonii Barishevskyi – The young competitor from Ukraine played Liszt’s piano concerto No.1 for his first final performance with orchestra. I immediately noticed a particular artistic individuality in his playing, when performing Liszt and later also Rachmaninoff piano concerto No.3. He demonstrated to understand the polyphonic structure of the musical score, but his technical skills were not developed enough to use them with a better knowledge for the interpretation. We come to the conclusion that Barishevskyi is still looking for his own pianistic identity, but his approach to a polyphonic playing could guide him to a good development according to the good old German-Russian piano tradition.

Anna Bulkina – The young Russian lady showed her pianistic character right after performing Liszt’s piano concerto No.1. I missed a certain long-vibrating piano sound, her playing was generally too dry, nevertheless her technique could perfectly fit to Prokofieff’s concerto No.2.
Conclusion: Bulkina’s performance was too accurate, no musical shaping of the Prokofieff’s concerto, her musical expression was just based on a technical aspect. Appropriate to Prokofieff’s style, not for the other works of the wide piano literature.

Tatiana Chernichka – Clear technique, appropriate pedalizing, a good team-work with the orchestra. Chernichka performed well both with Liszt’s piano concerto No. 2 and Rachmaninoff concerto No.3. Sometimes her playing was too “nice”. Rachmaninoff Concerto No.3: her interpretation was not creative enough, her playing remained closed but not intrinsic, which is actually a demanding character particularly by Rachmaninoff.

The “other” prize winners

Three further participants were not admitted to the great final stage of the Busoni competition: Alessandro Taverna, Min Soo Hong, Sun-A Park. It was not difficult to guess their artistic profile just by listening to the orchestral performance with Liszt’s piano concertos. Each of them presented a very personal interpretation of the work, according to a romantic Franz Liszt’s style. Particularly Alessandro Taverna showed sometimes polyphonic playing.

The jury’s decision

The international jury at the last Chopin piano competition in Warsaw 2010 (Martha Argerich was joining the jury), expressed an absolutely incompetent vote by awarding Evegeni Bozhanov only fourth prize. His playing was brilliant, of a high-professional polyphonic technique and a maturity in his interpretations.
We have a similar combination at Busoni competition: the jury, with Argerich as a president and other members as Mrs. Stephanovich, showed again their limited art of voting, especially when they did not recognize the polyphonic signs in Barishevskyi’s or even Taverna’s playing. This led finally to a not-awarded first prize.
Ferruccio Busoni was acclaimed and recognized as the most polyphonic pianist all-time. Right for the Busoni competition I would have wished a jury with a deeper pianistic knowledge.

Brendel is talking about his young pupil as an “extraordinary talent”. He will be his mentor as long as the young man will be able to express his artistic personality and his passion in piano playing.
A quite interesting TV-documentation, yet not extended enough to discover talent and capabilities of this young pianist, which I could nevertheless recognize. Kit Armstrong’s approach to music is unprejudiced, he is open-minded for new things, his analytic thinking and artistic creativity are can be found in his already clearly expressed compositions. Maybe a new “Glenn Gould”-similar personality is arising? Yes, but his mentor should not be Alfred Brendel.

Brendel’s teaching style reminds me of a typical Viennese piano lesson, hedging around interpretation of Schubert, encouraging to use more pedal for the upper voice without giving exact advice on pedalizing technique, glorification of the beautiful, rounded piano sound, as this topic would be the ultimate truth about piano playing. Why not explaining in details how a really beautiful and cultivated piano sound can be produced?

Dear Mr. Brendel, sound esthetic originates from a profound knowledge of polyphonic playing ( !!! ).
You are mentioning polyphony when teaching your pupil, but any of Your performed works in a polyphonic way is totally outside of my knowledge.
Why?

There is one question without answer:
What is “Viennese piano tradition”? What is “Viennese piano school”?

After 6 years I spent at the Wiener Musikhochschule for further musical education, at that time, I deeply regret about Viennese piano teachers as Paul Badura-Skoda, Hans Petermandl, and, last but not least, Alfred Brendel. They used a teaching method consisting in “cloning” their students.
Not even a single one has any idea about polyphony or polyphonic piano playing, let alone knowledge about the right piano technique. Last was always considered as a tabu, like topics about sex or money…
No dedication into depth, no exploring the truth in music, only a superficial imposing of a pseudo Viennese style has been done. In other words: didactic razzle-dazzle.

“Moaning” on the piano, this is the impression I immediately get when Viennese pianists play Schubert.
Or the typical textual fidelity on Beethoven-Sonatas: “Everything is written in the score, nothing more is required…”
Perhaps we will find out what real Viennese Piano tradition has once represented. But we should get back to Leschetitzky, Paderewski, Schnabel, Moiseiwitsch, Friedman…
And this is another story.

The magnificent sound of the organ offers a great variety of harmonic structures, particularly when the use of the pipes through wind reproduces different timbres and volume. Another characteristic of the organ is given by the manuals and the pedalboard. The player is using them separated or in combination with each other, depending on the requirements of the music score.
But the inherent polyphony, which is produced by the pipes sounding simultaneously, can be considered as the real nature of the organ.
The richness of that polyphonic timbre should be the source of inspiration for the study at the piano. We cannot forget that the piano has a close relationship to the organ, even though reduced to one keyboard and three pedals which are only working in direct connection with the sound. But the harmonic structure and the tone extension of our instrument allow us to be able to imitate the organ sound, not only by taking care of a specific touch technique as tenuto and legato but also developing a polyphonic playing.

Play Bach, listen to the organ, and your piano playing will be improving to a higher level…

It is known that Rachmaninoff suffered from a severe depression, caused by a breakdown after the premiere of his First Symphony. An unproductive period of about three years stressed him that much, but finally he recovered through a hypnotic therapy by the psychologist Nikolai Dahl. He was able to compose again and he wrote his gorgeous Second Piano Concerto, which was dedicated to his therapist. He recovered from that deep psychological crisis, finally being successful with the premiere of the Concerto.

Nevertheless a sort of darkness characterized the soul of his following works. Even his playing changed and became the idealized source of sadness of his inner being.
Probably because of his emotional power Rachmaninoff´s music has been often criticized by puristic tendencies, reduced just into sentimental patterns.
Of course we would face his works on the wrong side when accepting this theory, rather a deep understanding of his personality and his highly-structured music would bring us to a more faithful interpretation of the great composer.
In conclusion, Rachmaninoff remains an Immortal in the universe of great pianists.

“Beethoven wrote everything in the score!” – some insiders would certainly affirm that. And it is true.
But most pianists seem to forget, or at least, to let expression completely aside when playing Beethoven.
The musical power of communicating was the real language that Beethoven consequently used to express all thinkable human emotions. From anger to serenity, from sadness to happiness, from pain to freedom, from resignation to joy. Each Beethoven sonata is a reflection of his spirit at that particular time of the Opus number and year thereof. When a pianist is playing his sonatas, then he is reading his musical diary. When a pianist has understood those works, then he is experiencing Beethoven.

Meeting Beethoven means facing his spirit. This can be possible only when letting go the inspiration through the expression of his works. Interpretation is not just textual fidelity to the score, it is far more than that. It is discovering the truth between the notes, understanding the meaning of an abstract language like black lines and signs and points on the paper, it is finally enhancing the human power of expression to reach the spiritual need of the soul.
That´s Beethoven, force of spirit.

Unfortunately, most pianists are not aware of this, they prefer to stay attached to the music text, thinking this is interpretation.

What made his approach to the piano that singular?
He was able to focus on the keys with astonishing concentrating power, his interpretations were full of inventive musical atmosphere, he always created inspiring piano recitals for the audience.
Shura never played the same piece the same way. Spontaneity and freshness characterized his playing, the purpose of creating the music in every single moment drove this excellent artist to the highest level of musicianship.

One of the best recordings of Shura Cherkassky to be absolutely mentioned is Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 B-Flat minor. The best Maestoso of this concerto ( first movement ) ever played.
No other other pianist could reach this peak in this particular piece like Shura Cherkassky. Hard to believe, but true.

A tribute to his teacher Hofmann: Kaleidoscope

He was born on September 25, 1932.
If he still lived, he would celebrate today his 77th birthday.
Glenn Gould, a unique musical personality of the 20th century, one of the greatest pianists and a controversial figure, yet a remarkable thinker and philosopher regarding musical points of view and composing.
Doubtless this genius is still among us, we can feel his presence, especially when we listen to his unforgettable recordings…
Happy birthday Glenn!

One of Gould´s funniest moments of his creative streak – Scottish Rhapsody

Sometimes his performances have been criticized as “cold”, without the proper expression of feelings in the music.
But his intention was targeted at an execution of the composer´s work to the letter, he saw himself as an interpreter, being just between the composer´s message and the receiver – the audience.
He didn´t want to “recreate” the work, rather be captured and dissolved in the music.

Richter was enigmatic, a personality outside every normal path of musician. Probably, that´s why he gained his fame.

We don´t need to approve all his ideas and interpretations. Yet there are some performances of Sviatoslav Richter which are simply overwhelming and distinguish his charisma from other pianists.
Even Glenn Gould praised him as “one of the most powerful communicators the world of music has produced in our time”.

The musical titan, his force of expression, his masculine character, his spirit, his work, his piano sonatas: all these attributes led me as an artist to be devoted to Ludwig van Beethoven´s work.
I didn´t really know why I was going to engage myself with it, as I began to be intensively involved in the study of the 32 piano sonatas.
But I felt with the power of spirit that I have to go on this journey. Those compositions were “sleeping” in myself for a long time, just waiting to awaken, so I did it and let them come out.

Since I feared his most difficult work, the Hammerklavier Sonata, I had first the intention to study it when I would have finished the work with all the other sonatas.
But this turned out as a false conclusion.

An inner voice was suddenly speaking to me and saying: „Start immediately with the Hammerklavier Sonata! Don´t wait! This piece will be like a „love-hate“ relationship until you will be able to really understand it.“
Hereupon I began to study the work very intensively, the Hammerklavier sonata became my daily bread and butter, I never hated the piece for a single moment, and I was obsessed particularly with the final Fugue.

I discovered that this sonata is the key to all other Beethoven´s sonatas. Once the Hammerklavier has been understood, the musical message of Beethoven has been disclosed.

This is certainly one of the most demanding tasks for a pianist, but to approach labyrinthine and complicated things is a perfect challenge for me, trying to reveal the quintessence of them.

As a woman I feel a big duty coming closer to Beethoven´s musical message.

By all means I do not intend to compete with other male colleagues, but rather to create another way to experience Beethoven´s music.
This has nothing to do with ego, it rather leaves out egocentrism to reach selflessness.
Thereby the identification with Beethoven happens.
As an artist it is a mission for me to perform this wonderful symphonic piano music for the people and to make it hearable as the Master himself was able to hear it only with his heart and inner ear.