Indian dance

Just returned to Taipei after a 9 day trip to southern India. We watched a lot of Indian classical dance at the Mamallapuram dance festival.

The complexity of the dance steps, the arm and hand motions, the facial expressions, were impressive. But most of all, the very good dancers unify it all and convey a sincerity of expression that is very moving.
In piano performances these days, while the fingers, arms and pedalling are energetic and have a surface appearance of being difficult, nevertheless a sense of meaningful, sincere, expressive effect is often quite absent.
Why does Rachmaninoff write in octaves? He is expressing warm-heartedness and passionate sincerity. It is no good just playing octaves to be loud or to show off skill if there is no warmth.
There needs to be a connection between the outward expression of a thing, and the inner essence which is being expressed.
Piano recitals these days are like a digital image of the fruit peel, without any taste of juice, pulp or seed. 
 

Upcoming Lecture Recital

Piano Mastery Secrets Unlocked 

Part 1: Rachmaninoff and his circle

Lecture recital presented from the keyboard by pianist Kong Tienxi (Matthew Koumis) in English, with visual presentations and simultaneous Mandarin translation (90 minutes total duration)

Works performed include
Liadov / Siloti: I danced with a Mosquito
Tchaikovsky / Pabst: Lullaby Op 16:1
Rachmaninoff: Prelude in G-sharp minor Op 32:12
Strauss / Godowsky: Standchen Op17:2
Rachmaninoff: Lilacs Op 21:5
Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C minor Op 23:7

Through what alchemy does the early 20th century Russian school of pianism succeed in touching our hearts so deeply? And what role did literature and painting play in inspiring their piano compositions? Technical elements, including fingering, pedalling, tone production and phrasing, will be explained from the editions, writings and recordings of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943); his piano teacher Alexander Siloti (1863-1945); his senior colleague Paul Pabst (1854-97); and two pianists whom Rachmaninoff greatly admired, Josef Hofmann (1876-1957) and Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938).

 Booking through this link here; Tickets: 300 NTD, unreserved.

wouldn't wish to change a note

Here is a trio of classical music performances that really capture the different moods of relationships just right. As Moriz Rosenthal said, "it's not servants of art we need, it's masters!" and these are all masterful interpreters.

For Russian singing these days you can't beat Anna Netrebko, in Rachmaninoff she is superb, also in Rimsky Korsakov; if this doesn't remind of your passsionate first love... as Anna de Noailles wrote, music promises more than love...

As for Rachmaninoff's friend Chaliapin, you can't beat this performance of Glinka for conveying the paranoid mood of the song to perfection, this really makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

But if it's vocal style of piano playing you are looking for, Shura Cherkassky is your man, as in this setting of a Tchaikovsky Lullaby, transcribed by Pabst. When Cherkassky was asked what he had learnt from his legendary teacher Hofmann, he replied: "Pedalling, dynamics, general vibration". Well, his general vibration is sounding pretty darned good!

new recordings!

Hi everybody! I just uploaded three recordings to YouTube. Rachmaninov’s Preludes in C minor and G sharp minor, plus Manos Hadjithakis ‘Conversation with Sergei Prokofiev’ taken from his suite ‘For a Little White Seashell’, op 1. I recorded them in Forum Auditorium in Taipei 2 weeks ago. I hope you enjoy them! Here is Prelude in c minor Op 23:7

Great sense of rhythm! Goldenweiser and Ginzburg.

Rhythm is elusive. If you play just like a metronome it can sound just like a robot.
Rhythm should have a lusty sense of vitality, like a horse breathing, in a positive sense!

The best two pianists for rhythm that I have heard in recording are Rachmaninoff and Percy Grainger. The two have some genealogy in common: despite living half-way round the world from each other, they had related teachers (in Russia and Australia respectively)  brothers Pavel and Louis Pabst. Here is a two-piano piece by Rachmaninoff, dedicated to Goldenweiser, and performed by Goldenweiser with the astonishing pianist's pianist Grigory Ginzburg.
If you find your finger or toe tapping along, conducting in time with the music, you know that the performers can indeed say "I got rhythm!"

PS aficianados will find great interest in this interview with Ginzburg tucked away in the internet...
 interview with ginzburg.pdf

Nina Koshetz - Wonderful Russian voice from the past

I have been reading a fascinating biography about the wonderful musician Alexander Siloti, who was a cousin of Rachmaninoff's, and a favourite pupil of Liszt's. The biography mentions Nina Koshetz, a pianist and singer, who counted Horowitz and Rachmaninoff among her accompanists. For more information about her life click here

Koshetz went to America appearing in a few hollywood movies, and even opened a Russian restaurant.
Meanwhile click here to listen to her singing, and sharing a beautiful flavour of Old Russia that goes straight to the soul

Wonderful Brazilian Pianist

Guiomar Novaes (1895 - 1979) was considered the finest lady pianist of her day, and every bit the equal of Hofmann and Rachmaninoff. She was "A musician by the grace of God" according to the New York Times.

Just listen to a minute or two and you will become converted to the warm charms of this veritable Queen of piano playing, who sprinkles gold dust with every note.

Enjoy!

(for more information about this remarkable pianist click here)



Standchen, song by Strauss, transcribed for piano by Godowsky
(another version exists transcribed by Walter Gieseking)
"Sit down! The darkness is mysterious here / Under the lime trees"

Albeniz Tango, transcirbed by Godowsky

Sofronitsky and Rachmaninoff

I cannot resist sharing more comments by these wonderful artists about the nature of musical inspiration and soufulness:

First of all, a performance requires a will. A will- meaning to want a lot, to want more than you have now, more than you can give. For me the entire effort is strengthening the will. Here is all: rhythm, sound, emotion. Rhythm should be soulful. The whole piece should live, breathe, move as protoplasm. I play-and one part is alive, full of breath, and another part nearby may be dead because the live rhythmic flow is broken. Rachmaninoff, for instance, could create a rhythmic pulse that was unfailingly alive. He had the enormous artistic will of a genius. He had a greater will than any of the modern pianists. The same with Anton Rubinstein... [who] had an enormous will for hearing, for rhythmic life. And another point, most important: the more emotionally you play, the better, but this emotionality should be hidden, hidden as in a shell. When I come on stage now, I have «seven shells» under my tuxedo, and despite this I feel naked. So, I need fourteen shells. I have to wish to play so well, live so fully, as to die and still feel as if I have not played. I have nothing to do with this.

http://www.sofronitsky.com/publications/publication-03.html

Rachmaninoff said:
"Real inspiration must come from within: nothing from outside can help. The best in poetry, the greatest of painting, the sublimest of nature cannot produce any worthwhile result if the divine spark of creative faculty is lacking within the artist….
[the listener] should] “paint for themselves what the music most suggests"