piano
'This experience has revealed just how much I love music': pianist Paul Lewis on life in lockdownTuesday, 09 June 2020
As an instrumentalist, you can sit down and play music and escape from the stress. It’s a privilege to be able to do something that takes you to a different place – you’re removed from everything that’s happening. When you stop, there are reminders... Read more... |
Classical music/Opera direct to home 13 - piano marathons and string masterclassesFriday, 29 May 2020
In an atmosphere of uncertainty created by a government desperate to boost the economy despite the COVID-19 infection rate not reducing significantly, some UK venues and organisations are moving responsibly towards some kind of new normality. The... Read more... |
'Artists' online rivalry feels stronger': pianist Joseph Moog on the difficulties of performing in lockdownSaturday, 23 May 2020
It can be found in any contract. Both artists, as well as promoters, are aware of it, but it used to be an exception so rare that only a few have ever experienced it: the clause of "force majeure". Now it is sadly commonplace in the world of the... Read more... |
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 7 - Jeremy Denk's well-tempered Bach revelationsFriday, 17 April 2020
One person playing one instrument from home to the edification and delight of thousands: it's been a constant in these confining days, and well meant even if the sound isn't always up to it, a necessary substitute for live communication on both... Read more... |
'Most significant is the experience of being confronted by different ideas': Steven Osborne on free piano lessons from quarantineThursday, 02 April 2020
How fast the world can change. What seemed unimaginable just weeks ago, the effective shuttering of our societies, is now a reality in many countries for at least weeks and quite possibly several months to come. I hope for the health and security of... Read more... |
Classical music/Opera direct to home: 2 - Boris Giltburg and Igor LevitFriday, 20 March 2020
Maybe it's not so surprising that the musicians one has long thought of as true Menschen of the profession - that applies to both sexes, of course, and maybe it's just more about the artists in question being natural communicators - have been among... Read more... |
Denk, LPO, Vänskä, RFH review - 200 years of joy and sorrowSaturday, 29 February 2020
Three works two centuries apart, two of them rarities, with 100/200 years between each: that's no guarantee for programming success, and no way to fill a hall (though the London Philharmonic Orchestra admin deserves a good medal for the intricacy of... Read more... |
Simon Trpčeski, Barbican review - a charismatic chameleonWednesday, 26 February 2020
When Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski first bounced on to the concert scene, he seemed part will-o-the-wisp, part jack-in-the-box, a real personality of coruscating brilliance. Time has passed, and deeper, more reflective qualities have emerged... Read more... |
Aimard, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Roth, RFH review - Beethoven as avant-gardistSaturday, 22 February 2020
In Beethoven anniversary year, there are three ways to enhance our ongoing concert dialogues with the composer beyond the bog-standard overture-concerto-symphony format: complete cycles of the quartets, symphonies and sonatas, preferably without old... Read more... |
Angelich, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place review - warm embraces from good companionsMonday, 10 February 2020
"New Dawns" as a title smacked a bit of trying to shoehorn a fairly straightforward Aurora programme in to Kings Place's Nature Unwrapped series. Only Dobrinka Tabakova's short and sweet Dawn made the link, and that was old, not new (composed in... Read more... |
Sophy Roberts: The Lost Pianos of Siberia review - a distant musical journeySunday, 09 February 2020
For travellers, “music is a passport, especially in Russia…” Borrowing an adage from the British diplomat Thomas Preston, Sophy Roberts could be speaking about the eccentric quest that lies behind The Lost Pianos of Siberia. Preston, as consul in... Read more... |
Beatrice Rana, Wigmore Hall review - fantasy and sonority writ largeSaturday, 08 February 2020
Not even the unengaged or terminally weary could have dozed through this. Pianists have often commented how the Wigmore Steinway is too big for the hall, and most adjust accordingly. Not 27-year-old Italian Beatrice Rana, but not in the bad way of... Read more... |
