Pianist No124 February-March 2022 [PDF]

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HELPING YOU BECOME A BETTER PLAYER

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Get the most out of your piano playing  Untangle your chromatics  Hands separate practice  Learn to play with style

VIVA ESPANA 12 Scores with Spanish flair Spain’s greatest composers Spaniards who sizzle on the keys

JAVIER PERIANES On finding his musical voice

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CONTENTS

Pianist 124 February-March 2022

The next issue of Pianist goes on sale 18 March 2022

10

72

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Editor’s Note A fitting time to address all things Spanish

4

Reader Competition Win inspiring Spanish sheet music from Editorial Boileau

6

8

Readers’ Letters Returning to the piano and a left hand omission Nelson Freire Respected the world over, John Evans pays tribute to Brazil’s most cherished classical pianist

10 Javier Perianes The Spanish pianist talks to Peter Quantrill about the thrill of discovering repertoire by today’s composers 14 How to Play Masterclass 1 Mark Tanner on the necessity of learning one hand at a time 16 How to Play Masterclass 2 Improving your chromatics isn’t as daunting as you might think, explains Graham Fitch

20 How to Play 1 Melanie Spanswick uncovers a delightful miniature by little-known composer Narcisa Freixas 21 How to Play 2 Nils Franke is intoxicated by Granados’s haunting El Caminante 22 How to Play 3 Sink into one of the most evocative pieces by Debussy with Lucy Parham, working bar by bar through La soirée dans Grenade 24 Beginner Keyboard Class Lesson 51: Repeated notes

68 Spanish Creators Piano music by such varied composers as Granados, Freixas, Rodrigo and more deserves to be studied and performed, says Douglas Riva 72 Sensational Spaniards Apart from the illustrious Alicia de Larrocha (and this issue’s cover artist, of course), are there really any other legendary Spanish pianists? Warwick Thompson goes on the lookout 76 Piano Round-Up Writer Matt Ash turns his attention to a Kawai acoustic upright and an iconic American electric piano

25 The Scores 12 pieces full of Spanish spice including Falla’s steamy Serenata Andaluza, Albeniz’s chillier Winter, Le Couppey’s Spanish Air and Soler’s sparkling Sonata No 84

78 Brush up on your Scales Three pages of Scales and Arpeggios publications are put to the fluency test by reviewer Michael McMillan

67 Piano Teacher Help Desk How do you teach a student to bring personality and style into their playing? Kathryn Page has all the answers

82 Album Reviews Marc-André Hamelin and Leon McCawley receive five-star status, plus an interesting Proust album by newcomer Shani Diluka

Cover image: © Igor Studio. This page, from left to right: © Gregory Favre/Decca; © Igor Studio Notice: Every effort has been made to secure permission for copyrighted material in this magazine, however, should copyrighted material inadvertently have been used, copyright acknowledgement will be made in a later issue of the magazine.

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Sketches of Spain Like many of us who grew up in northern climes, I adore Spain. The Basque country of the north, with its meat-heavy dishes and the stunning Guggenheim museum of Bilbao; balmy Andalusia farther south, where orange trees line the streets of Seville and the Moorish Alhambra Palace stands above the hills of Granada; the quiet parks of Madrid and the nightlife that wakes up once midnight has struck... There is so much of Spain to explore – yet when it comes to music, how many of us can say we have looked past the headline names of Falla, Albéniz and Granados? Until now, this magazine has never featured a Spanish pianist on the cover, and so I decided it was past time to redress the balance with Javier Perianes. The Scores section features a tapas menu of Spanish composers. You will find the usual suspects listed above, of course, but also Santiago de Masarnau and Narcisa Freixas. Some harmonies are exotic and fragrant, others fresh and lightly seasoned. I have turned up another unrelated Albéniz, Mateo, whose Classical-era Sonata sparkles like a glass of cava. I could hardly leave out examples of the composers inspired by Spain: Debussy with his La soirée dans Grenade, and the simpler but still evocative Spanish Air by Félix le Couppey. I was delighted to ask the Granados specialist Douglas Riva to investigate the nature of ‘Spanishness’ in music, and he has come up with countless fascinating composers for us to discover. In a similar way, Warwick Thompson looks back over the lineage of Spanish pianists, and finds out whether they have something in common that might help the rest of us to play Spanish music to the manner born. What technique or feeling did Alicia de Larrocha have in her tiny hands that so few pianists before and since have been able to emulate? Evidently, it takes more than memories of the habanera and strumming guitars in order to bring this music to life. Deep in midwinter, perhaps with a summer holiday in mind, why not relax and think of a night in the gardens of Spain?

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P.S. Thanks to everyone who entered the Pianist Composing Competition. The judges are debating and the winner will be announced towards the end of March.

Keep in touch with us for the latest news from the world of the piano. Sign up to our FREE mailing list to receive exclusive how-to-play tips from our experts, exciting news and special offers. www.pianistm.ag/regnow

WIN!

TWO VOLUMES OF

PIANO MUSIC FROM EDITORIAL BOILEAU

Answer the question below correctly, and you could be one of three lucky winners to receive these unique volumes of music: - Alicia de Larrocha: Pecados de juventud Vol 2 - Enrique Escudé-Cofiner: Estampes Gitanas/ Intermezzos/Juliol Full information at www.boileau-music.com Deadline for entries: 18 March

© Benjamin Ealovega

Granados’s piano suite Goyescas was inspired by which Spanish artist’s work?

A Picasso B Velázquez C Goya

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LETTERS

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HAVE YOUR SAY EMAIL: [email protected] WRITE TO: The Editor, Pianist, Warners Group Publications, The Maltings, West St, Bourne, PE10 9PH. Letters may be edited.

One happy returnee Pianist issue 123 – you have saved my life! At 16 I could play anything without a care in the world. Chopin Polonaise in A? No problem! Skip forward to a life where I was travelling, with no piano. In my 40s I did have a glorious Steinway grand, but more travelling ensued, again without a piano. I am now 76 and there has been a gap of 30 years with no music. Six months ago I bought a decent digital and tried again. Fingers ok, motivation good, memory zero! Despair. That’s until issue 123 fell through my letterbox. I now feel inspired. I may not be as good as the clever teenager I once was, but I think I can do it. Thank you. Linda Randall, Scarborough, UK Christmas cheer Mark Tanner might be pleased to learn that his little gem of a piece, The Holly and the Ivy, was the postlude to a church

service recently. I was playing piano for a children’s Christingle service and had been looking for a short Christmassy piece with a tune that children would recognise. I was delighted to come across the piece in the Scores section of issue 123. Many thanks, Mark! Dr Judith Langfield, Bristol, UK Bertenshaw’s the business One of the greatest things Pianist did was choose Derry Bertenshaw’s arrangement of Scarborough Fair as the winning piece in the magazine’s 2016 Composing Competition. I decided to learn it in a heartbeat and it is still one of my most cherished pieces. I couldn’t have been happier when I saw another arrangement of his, Silent Night, in issue 123. Mr Bertenshaw’s style of composing and arranging touches me deeply. That’s how I’d want to write music one day. Ahmad Alshemali, Boston, USA

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Where was Janáček? In his ‘Left Hand Forward’ article inside issue 122, Nils Franke mentions some concertante works highlighting the left hand, but missed referring to Janáček’s Capriccio for Piano Left Hand and Chamber Ensemble. It was written for the Czech pianist Otakar Hollmann who had a similar problem to Paul Wittgenstein (lost use of his right arm in the First World War). I also felt you could have given Pianist readers something else to ‘sink their teeth into’ by printing one of Godowsky’s Studies on Chopin’s Etudes, which would probably keep them busy for some time to come. It probably just about gets into the Advanced category! John Greenaway, Earley, UK Thank you for the mention about Janáček. We do think, however, that the Godowsky Studies are a tad too difficult. They’d be labelled ‘Way Beyond Advanced’!

Pianist 124 LISTEN • LEARN • PLAY BEGINNER ARRANGEMENT

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NICO MUHLY Six Piano Etudes to be premiered by faculty artist Conor Hanick in Spring 2022

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LI N EG T EERNVDI ESW

THE PIANIST’S PIANIST

Nelson Freire (1944-2021)

T

he music world is mourning Nelson Freire, a pianist of rare quality who tempered his prodigious musical gifts and a capacity for life with a genuine regard for the instrument’s past masters. I was fortunate to speak with him at the London offices of Decca Records in 2014. The occasion was the release of a two-CD collection of his broadcast recordings from 1968-1979, performances that shone a light on the 70-year-old pianist after a career spent partly in the shadows. I was struck by his serenity, humility and perfect manners – qualities that were also evident in his playing. However, he was surprisingly open, too, at one point revealing how he miraculously survived a bus crash in which his parents were killed, a tragedy he admitted he’d only recently been able to talk about publicly. Born in Brazil in 1944, from a young age Freire, a child prodigy, was destined for a career as a concert pianist. His parents changed jobs so they could leave their sleepy hometown

of Boa Esperança for the bustling city of Rio de Janeiro in pursuit of teachers who could nurture and develop their talented son. There he was taught by Lucia Branco, a former student of Arthur De Greef, who was taught by Franz Liszt. Other people close to Freire in those early years could claim similar connections to the same composer and also to Chopin. ‘I consider myself a privileged person who learned as a child what came from the past,’ he told me when we met, adding that Rachmaninov, Novaes, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Gieseking, Gilels and Michelangeli were the pianists who interested him most. At the age of 12 he performed Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto and at 13 came seventh in the Rio Janeiro International Piano Competition, an achievement that earned him a scholarship to study in Vienna the following year. He was there for two years during which time he formed what would become a lifelong friendship with a pianist destined for the front rank: Martha Argerich (the pair appeared in concert many

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© Gregory Favre/Decca

Known for his retiring demeanour and respect for the score, Brazil’s most cherished classical pianist will be missed. John Evans recalls time spent in his company

times). However, as he told me during his interview, he became distracted by the Viennese life: ‘I rather neglected my studies; instead enjoying the café life a bit too much. I learned to live in Vienna and saved the music for later, when I had digested it.’ In this age of young, superstar pianists who appear to arrive ready-formed and be in a headlong rush to establish themselves before the next newcomer elbows them aside, this admission comes as a surprise until you realise that as a child, Freire found music and playing came easily to him. ‘I had a normal childhood and clever parents who didn’t force me to practise beyond two hours a day,’ he told me. ‘If you spend your life only practising, what are you going to express in your music? You shouldn’t shut out life when you are young. I see artists today who seem obsessed not even by music but by their careers. I’d hate to be starting out now; there’s too much pressure.’

‘They say I could have promoted myself harder, but I care only for the music’ 8YVRMRKTSMRX Unfortunately, Freire’s fondness for Viennese café culture meant that when, at the end of is studies, he returned to Rio, he wasn’t as accomplished a pianist as his friends and associates had expected. Crushed by the weight of their disappointment he abandoned the piano altogether until, in 1962, aged 18, he gave a well-received concert in the city that led him in 1964 to enter the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He finished nowhere but a few days later, he entered the Vianna da Motta International Music Competition in Lisbon at which, remarkably, he won first prize. Shortly afterwards, in London, he was awarded the Dinu Lipatti Medal. Nelson Freire was on his way – and then, three years later, tragedy struck when the bus he and his parents were travelling in to Boa Esperança, where Freire was to give a concert, left the road and plunged down a ravine. Everyone apart from Freire and a fellow passenger was killed. Freire himself only survived because half an hour before the accident he had changed places with his father to escape a draught. ‘I escaped with nothing but a cut to my hand,’ he told me. ‘It is only recently that I have been able to talk about the accident.’ That he could was thanks to his relationship with music, a relationship that had supported and sustained him before as a child. ‘Growing up, I suffered serious allergies and spent long periods on my own,’ he told me. ‘I felt cockeyed. It was only when I played the piano [he mimicked his sister’s playing before he had any lessons] that I could see into another, happier dimension and that feeling has remained with me ever since. I don’t know what I’d do without music; it is my oxygen.’ Nelson Freire had an inexhaustible supply of it. Following his 1964 success in Lisbon, he was in demand the world over, at his height giving 60 concerts a year, recording for many of the major labels and establishing a reputation as a warm and sensitive artist, albeit one who avoided excessive self-promotion. Thanks to his early teachers, as well as his capacity for quickly absorbing music, he had a vast repertoire and was loathe to focus on one composer or their collected works. In recent

years he had planned to play and record more Schumann, Schubert and Scriabin plus music by French composers Poulenc and Ravel. &I]SRHFEWLJYP He considered himself to be an instinctive pianist. ‘I’m not an intellectual,’ he told me. ‘I can’t rationalise the way I play. The music just flows. A pianist once told me he didn’t believe in inspiration. I disagree.’ It was why he never listened to his own recordings. ‘Music is natural and unrepeatable. Your interpretation changes while a recording stays the same.’ Freire was often referred to as a ‘pianist’s pianist’. If this means he was loved by his peers but not so well known by the wider public, then perhaps he was. Despite his wide discography and busy concert schedule even he admitted he was not an instantly recognisable ‘name’, a fact, he suggested may have been to do with his distaste for self-promotion. ‘People say I was lazy; that I relied too much on my natural technique, and my excellent sight-reading and memorising skills,’ he told me. ‘Maybe they are right. They say I could have promoted myself harder, too, but I care only for the music.’ And his dogs. Away from the stage and the studio Freire told me he loved the company of his two boxer dogs, which he enjoyed taking on long strolls in Rio. ‘They have serious faces but the sweetest eyes,’ he said. He also admitted to enjoying old Hollywood movies of the 1940s and 50s. ‘I love dark thrillers with stars like Richard Widmark and Rita Hayworth. Bette Davies: what an actress. I belong to that period.’ What he struggled with, he said, was living among people. Fortunately, this didn’t prevent him communicating with them through his recordings. Nelson Freire has died but his music lives on. n

FIVE OF THE BEST Nelson Freire on disc

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Chopin Piano Concerto No 2 plus selected solo works Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/Bringuier Decca 4785332 Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5 ‘Emperor’ plus Sonata No 32 Op 111 Gewandhausorchester/Chailly Decca 4786771 Nelson Freire: Radio Days 1968-1979 Decca 4786772

Bartók & Ravel: Works for Two Pianos With Martha Argerich Deutsche Grammophon 4398672 Nelson Freire: The Complete Columbia Album Collection Sony 88875002282

INTERVIEW

The foremost Spanish pianist of his generation, Javier Perianes talks to Peter Quantrill about the joy of opening a new score and the organic path of his own career

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Photos: © Igor Studio

n e p O k o bo

O

n a Zoom call from his home in Madrid, Javier Perianes cuts a lively and amiable figure: chatty, helpful, on first-name terms from the off. I feel as though I have known him for years (not a privilege commonly granted by interviewees in my experience). And in a way I have: it was 15 years ago that I first saw him play, also via a small screen, under the genial tutelage of Daniel Barenboim in a series of Beethoven masterclasses released on film by EMI. Judging from previous interviews, it turns out that I was not alone in making my acquaintance with Perianes this way: not altogether fair on the creative personality of a pianist who has gone on to carve out a distinctive career for himself, documented along the way by an increasingly impressive catalogue of albums for the French label Harmonia Mundi. Nevertheless, the experience was a formative one for the Spanish pianist, shooting him into the spotlight and placing him in the already distinguished company of Lang Lang, Jonathan Biss and Alessio Bax, who also submitted themselves to Barenboim’s avuncular guidance. ‘I remember discussing it with them,’ he recalls, ‘and we all had the same feeling that we were living a beautiful dream. Things that you often take for granted he wanted to be very specific about. I didn’t feel I was being criticised. You have all these paths, he was saying: now you need to find your own. He was giving us certain tools, not to make it easier, because playing Beethoven is never going to be easy, but at least we would have something to work on and something to aspire to.’ At any rate, Perianes has chosen a repertoire – or the repertoire has chosen him – that emulates Barenboim’s respect for the canon while searching for additions to it in the most interesting and original composers of our own time. As we talk, he has lately returned from a trip to San Francisco, where he was playing Mozart but also sitting down with the Peruvian composer Jimmy López, to discuss the finer points of a new concerto dedicated to the pianist. Perianes is due to give the premiere with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on 23 February, and he can’t wait.

‘Each of my teachers had their own style, but they taught me to find the best way for myself’ the nether regions that exist beyond piano and pianissimo dynamics – regions which most pianists find impenetrable – he thrives within them and is capable of producing an astonishing variety of tones and timbres.’ López himself came to renown with Perú Negro, a big orchestral showpiece, which in its way is as impressive and yet unrepresentative of the composer he has become as the Beethoven masterclass is of Perianes’s development as an artist. ‘Remember,’ says the pianist, ‘Jimmy’s whole background and teaching is Finnish. He speaks Finnish perfectly, and he has good connections with Finnish conductors such as Klaus Mäkelä who will do the premiere with me and the London Philharmonic. I was asking him the other day about “Latin” rhythms in the finale of the new concerto, and he told me that it’s much more inspired by Arabic scents and fragrances: cinnamon, sandalwood, patchouli. Some of his early pieces were very successful thanks to the Latin American colours and rhythms, and promoters were asking him for more of the same. But he didn’t want to carry on writing like that.’ 7XVMOMRKEGLSVH Musicians outside the central European, North American and Asian mainstreams often have unusual tales of how they fell in love with music, and Perianes is no exception. He was born in 1978 in the town of Nerva: mining country, east of Seville, near the source of the rust-coloured Rio Tinto river. As a lad he joined one of the wind bands which form the principal source of communal music-making in several areas of Spain. ‘My family tell me that I wasn’t exactly a calm boy. The beginning of everything was when they brought me to a piano recital in a small village close to my home town. I sat there for over an hour, listening without moving a muscle. And so my parents discovered that maybe music could mean something for their little boy.’ The turning point came on a summer holiday when Perianes was eight years old and about to get his first clarinet. ‘One of my aunts heard about this plan to play the clarinet. She was a pianist, and she took me to a big hotel where there was a piano in the foyer. She sat down at the keyboard and started to play a

11• Pianist 124

V

8LVMPPSJXLIRI[ ‘I love opening the score of a new piece,’ he says, ‘and asking myself, how is this going to be? It’s different with repertoire works, because when you begin to learn them you already know them on one level. I feel as though I am one of the first pianists – Clara Schumann, Hans von Bülow – when they opened the score of a big new Romantic concerto. Jimmy and I are continually in touch about little things. This phrase, that chord – I would have loved having this kind of conversation with Schumann.’ There are pianists who will pay lip service to new music by playing a showpiece commission once in a blue moon. Then there are the likes of Barenboim, Aimard and Perianes, who make it part of their (and their audiences’) diet. Another concerto for him is in the works from fellow Spaniard Francisco Coll, and Coll’s beautifully turned language promises another substantial addition to the repertoire. Yet the sound of each composer could hardly be more different from the other, as Perianes acknowledges – the scintillating textures of Coll set against the bigger sweep and pulsing rhythms of López’s music – and he relishes the contrast. ‘Otherwise I would only be playing Mozart!’

The provisional title of López’s new concerto is Ephemerae, referring not to trivial impressions of the everyday but to the elusive and fleeting nature of fragrances (Pavel Kolesnikov discussed his fascination with the subject in Pianist 103). We plunge deep into a musky forest in the second movement, guided by both composer and pianist: ‘I cannot overstate,’ López has remarked, ‘how virtually impossible it would have been to conceive this movement had I not been inspired by Javier’s otherworldly touch. Not only is he capable of reaching

INTERVIEW piece for me – and it was like, wham! She asked me what I thought, and I said, it’s like an orchestra. I hardly knew what an orchestra was, but I had the sense that everything was there.’ Back in Nerva, his destiny now set on its path by his aunt’s intervention, Perianes began taking lessons with a nun, Sister Julita Hierro. Pupil and teacher (now 92 years old) still stay in touch by phone wherever Perianes is in the world. He made strides, and began travelling to Seville for lessons with Lucio Muñoz. Later on, under the guidance of Ana Guijarro and Josep Colom at the conservatoire in Madrid, he began to enter and win competitions, but Perianes has a sense of the positive qualities shared by his teachers at every stage of his education. ‘Sister Julita was very aware of what was needed to teach someone like me,’ he says. ‘She realised that I had a thirst for learning new repertoire, and I would learn it quickly. Like all my teachers, she was disciplined and demanding but in a nice way, so I never felt pressure. At the same time, it never felt like a game. Some people think that learning an instrument is a game or that it should be a game, but I felt responsible for all the effort my parents were putting in to help me, coming from a humble family. They had to make so many efforts for me and for my brother, who’s now a doctor in Spain. ‘Each of my teachers had their own style, but they taught me to find the best way for myself. It’s very easy for a teacher to intervene: this is how you have to play that. They were the opposite.’ He remembers a pearl of wisdom from Barenboim: ‘It has to make sense, in terms of figuration, harmonic tension and release. I can respect that someone has a different approach to a particular passage of a sonata but if the only reason that you’re giving me is that you like it – well, that’s not enough. “Like is not good enough,” Barenboim said.’

His approach to recording is no less personal. From 2006, the album of Federico Mompou’s Música Callada (Music of Silence) is an overlooked classic, making full use of the intense sensitivity to quiet dynamics remarked on by López. Later concerto albums – Grieg and Falla in London, Bartók in Munich – have been made live, but Perianes feels at ease in the studio, partly because he never goes there alone. ‘I bring a couple of old friends with me, and it’s like I’m playing for them when I’m recording. And I record quite fast. I’ll play the first movement of a Chopin Sonata two or three times. And then, that’s it. Because if I’m endlessly going back over this bar here, that bar there, you lose part of the essence of the music.’ &I]SRHFSVHIVW Circling back to Beethoven, Perianes played a cycle of the concertos in 2019 with the London Philharmonic. On that occasion he was joined by Juanjo Mena, but he has also worked closely (and recorded) with the other notable Spanish conductors who, like them, have begun to widen the international reputation of musicians from the Iberian peninsula, such as Pablo Heras-Casado, Gustavo Gimeno and Josep Pons. Once upon a time, as he acknowledges, there was the paradigm of Alicia de Larrocha, for whom he played once or twice, and substituted (in a Beethoven concerto) to make an early and important debut in Spain. De Larrocha stood alone in international renown much as the cellist Pablo Casals, the conductor Ataúlfo Argenta and the soprano Victoria de los Ángeles once did in their own fields. To see and hear where Perianes is coming from, however, try comparing Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto on YouTube, played by Perianes with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, and by his teacher Josep Colom in Madrid from the 1980s: both beautifully weighted, rhythmically free, and open to the kind of improvisational spirit that seems written into the fabric of the score. Perhaps there has always been a ‘Spanish tradition’ of interpretation beyond the picturesque music of its own lands. Perianes is just helping the rest of us to catch up with it. n

‘Playing Beethoven is never going to be easy’

1YWMGEQSRKJVMIRHW Perianes has followed his own instincts throughout his career, and that includes his move away from the competition circuit at the early age of 22. He shares an individualistic bent with other pianists in the Harmonia Mundi stable, past and present, from Alain Planès to Paul Lewis. ‘The only competition in this business comes from yourself,’ he recalls Barenboim telling him. ‘No one else will play like you, will have the same sound, the same approach. Don’t search for some kind of originality. Find your voice, but also why you are making a particular choice.’

Javier Perianes plays the first performance of the Piano Concerto by Jimmy López at the Royal Festival Hall on 23 February (see lpo.org.uk for details). The Second and Third Sonatas by Chopin featured on his most recent Harmonia Mundi album (HMM902391). Perianes returns to the UK in May for concerts in Parbold and Oxford (see javierperianes.com for all concert details). He performs Falla’s Serenata Andaluza on this issue’s covermount.

12• Pianist 124

HOW TO PLAY GOING IT ALONE

THE VALUE OF HANDS SEPARATE PRACTICE Approached methodically, practising hands separately is undoubtedly among the most effective ways of perfecting what we’re playing, says 1EVO8ERRIV

W

hile ultimately the challenge for pianists is often to do with hand assembly, it certainly makes sense for us to divide up the specific difficulties posed by a piece of music at regular stages along the learning journey. In fact, it’s never too late to be working hands separately, however long you’ve been learning a piece – even in the hours leading up to a performance or exam. Hands separate practising sharpens the focus and often gives us a salutary reminder of what isn’t yet sounding quite as accurate or evenly controlled as we’d like it to. While it may be tempting to leap intrepidly into the more problematic areas of a piece hands together, delayed gratification is a key element of effective learning. %TVSFPIQLEPZIH© … is a problem solved! What we play confidently, we’ll often play better. Depending on the repertoire, or the stage of learning we’ve currently reached with a piece, hands separate work might take a number of different forms. Changing rhythms, playing quiet music loudly, staccato notes legato, fast music slowly (or even vice versa), and so on, are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding strategies for profitable hands separate practise – we’re really only limited by our own imagination! Perfecting an Alberti bass accompaniment, for example,

could first be a question of minimising hand position changes while optimising fingerings, and then improving evenness and lightness; but beyond this, we can perhaps think about finger pedalling – holding down the bass notes while the others continue with appropriate clarity – before connecting in our mind’s ear each of these bass notes to give a welcome sense of harmonic progression. Interleaved with this activity, we can enjoy working at what’s required from the other hand – improving accuracy, nimbleness and musical control.

5

TOP TIPS

,EPJ[E]LSYWI

1

Hands separate practice isolates problems and returns focus to where it’s needed.

2

Musical as well as technical aspects often improve better when tackled in isolation, but regularly reunite the hands to keep coordination skills improving and to ensure balance remains a priority.

3

Practising the LH with pedal (if needed) often works especially well.

4

Guard against fatigue, or relaxing into an undesirable posture when working for extended periods with one hand alone.

5

Keep your hands separate practising lively and interesting by continually varying the approach – swap around the hands, or reimagine rhythms/ dynamics/articulation.

14• Pianist 124

In contrapuntal repertoire, hands separate work, though equally invaluable, needs to take account of the ‘friction’ between the notes that are to be taken in the other hand; it must also, of course, utilise fingerings that will still work just as well in assembly. Thinking not just about the mechanics of what each hand is required to do, but also about a) the particular rhythmic, lyrical or harmonic motivation that appears to be driving it, and b) the relative importance of one hand’s music over the other’s, becomes increasingly important. 7YWXEMRMRKMRXIVIWX Hands separate work, regularly punctuated by practising hands together, often makes for a more consistent, progressive learning experience. It also places into immediate context any particular aspects we’ve been patiently working at. This is vital, not just for our sustained positive psychology, but to ensure we are taking account of how the music may be continually shifting its primary points of focus between the hands. Rather like watching a tennis match, where our eyes are continuously drawn from one side of the net to the other, in piano music we’re often called upon to create the equivalent audible experience. This happens more automatically when we’ve taken the trouble to refine in technical and musical terms what each hand is charged with doing separately.

From here, balancing the different dynamics or articulations needed in each hand often becomes more instinctive, more purposeful. 8LITIHEPJEGXSV In late Classical, Romantic and more modern repertoire, piano textures often rely to varying degrees on the sustain pedal, perhaps to trap a bass note/octave lower down the keyboard before adding harmonies above – or to capture a sweeping pattern of notes, for example in Chopin, Liszt or Rachmaninov. Though not by any means always the case,

This is a good brain activity, for sure, but also a surprisingly good opportunity for one hand to ‘teach’ the other hand something it hadn’t noticed. Though fingerings will need a degree of spontaneous compromise to make this possible, you may suddenly notice an interesting sub-theme or other buried treasures in the music. Crossing the hands, still with the roles swapped, opens up a whole new world of fun coordination challenges. Coming at problems from different angles usually sorts them out more effectively than sticking doggedly to one approach.

It’s never too late to be practising hands separately, however long you’ve been learning a piece

7MRKPILERHIHWYGGIWW

1EVO8ERRIV’s tips for using hands separate practice in three of this issue’s scores Freixas’s Diu que una rosa... is a beautiful miniature, which couples together the simplest of accompaniments and an exquisite rose-petal melody.
Hands separate practice will allow
the LH to gently murmur away with
its open fifths and grace notes, almost without having to think
about it, as though it’s being strummed on the open strings of a guitar. The tune needs a perfumed quality – careful, independent practice will help – until it could almost sound like someone humming in the room next door. TRACK 3

%ZSMHJEXMKYI One potential drawback from prolonged hands separate practising, is unwittingly tensing up while we attempt to perfect a tricky manoeuvre – for example an awkward leap, stretch or repeating pattern. This serves to remind us to share hands separate work more equally between the hands to avoid strain or fatigue, and also to dovetail the approach with short bursts of playing hands together, perhaps initially at a slower pace. We should also make sure we guard against allowing poor posture to gradually have a detrimental effect – with feet crossing, slumping of the upper body, sitting sideways on etc.! 1M\XLMRKWYT Try playing small sections of the left hand’s music at the same register with the right hand on its own, and then vice versa.

%XXMXYHIWSJQMRH Whereas in sight-reading we are often attempting to keep going at all costs, compromising where necessary but involving both hands as we do so, it’s probably best not to let this approach inadvertently spill over into how you set about properly learning a piece. These are quite different attitudes of mind, though each have their place. In music which has whole sections built from a repeating ostinato accompaniment, such as the Freixas Diu que una rosa…, Fallas’s Serenata Andaluza or Le Couppey’s Spanish Air (all wonderful Spanish-style pieces included in this issue), there is much to be gained from working to achieve an autopilot level of dependability, so that we can devote more attention to shaping and refining the tune. But hands separate practice goes further than simply perfecting melodies and accompaniments. While not a panacea for all ills, hands separate practising usefully spotlights where the real basis for a difficulty lies, as well as where musical nuggets may be lying in wait. At the same time, it adds to the satisfaction of feeling we’ve tackled issues head-on. The point isn’t to become forensic killjoys, or to self-micromanage 15• Pianist 124

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Falla’s Serenata Adaluza will benefit from a good amount of sectional practice before attempting to combine these into one. Once the LH has gained the
freedom to move lightly and
rhythmically – often covering wide
intervals – one objective will be to find ways of presenting the
different melodies so that they don’t appear hemmed in or bound by bar lines. The flamenco-type rhythms that magically materialise towards the end of the piece need to be played quite strictly, while avoiding sounding overly prominent. Manuel de FALLA (1876-1946)

TRACK 8

INTERMEDIATE

Serenata Andaluza


 

                   
             


       




   





   









   





                                     


        
                             



pedalling is often best practised with the left hand in isolation, since it is here that the harmonic and rhythmic drive of the music may well be found. When we’re adding the right hand, we can then begin to finesse an appropriate balance and ensure we achieve textural clarity.

Narcisa FREIXAS (1859-1926)

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In his Spanish Air, Le Couppey is an example of a French composer writing in a Spanish style, and he was certainly in esteemed company – Debussy,
Ravel and Bizet, to name but a
few. The LH notes should be
staccato throughout, and this makes it an excellent contestant
for hands separate practice, since the RH’s melody is mainly flowing and smooth. Accents on the off-beats are among its Spanish character-giving traits, though these oughtn’t cut in like shards of glass – more like the natural stresses a singer might make on certain words or syllables. Félix LE COUPPEY (1811-1887)


 



 



 







 






 





 

 



























 










  

 

 





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Spanish Air, No 29 from L’ABC du piano

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our time, but to give structure to our learning, so that we feel we are always moving forwards, to a point where we can trust each hand to do what it’s been taught to do. By regularly switching between these varied modes of learning, our sense of achievement will doubtless increase tenfold. n More about Mark Tanner at www.marktanner.info.

HOW TO PLAY BE KIND TO YOUR NEIGHBOURING NOTES

NIMBLE CHROMATICS

Chromatic writing – whether appearing in scales, thirds or octaves – can unnerve even the most accomplished pianist: EPPMXXEOIWMWWSQIGPIZIV½RKIVMRKWE]W+VELEQ*MXGL

D

mitri Shostakovich’s Fugue No 1 in C Op 87 is rare in that it uses only the white notes on the piano, constructed solely from the seven different notes of the scale of C major with no accidentals. Virtually all music based on the major-minor tonal system moves from one key to another, modulating by use of chromatic notes and chords. Composers also use chromatic notes to add colour to a line by decorating it with lower neighbours, but this does not necessarily mean a change of key (the opening D# at the start of Mozart’s Sonata in A minor K310 is a case in point). A chromatic scale uses all 12 notes within the octave and can be fingered in a number of different ways. In this article I discuss the fingering options according to the level of the player, as well as the speed and dynamic level where we find chromatic passages in the repertoire. I also look at my favourite fingering for chromatic double thirds and explore the choices for chromatic octaves.

use of the thumb tends to slow us down). In this extract from Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’, avoid lifting up or curling under the outer fingers, fourth and fifth, as this causes tension in the hand and leads to uncontrolled results. There is no substitute for a skilled teacher to remedy this common technical problem, but by putting your attention on your fourth and fifth fingers as you practise you can gradually encourage them to remain close to the key surface, in neutral. The outer fingers go along for the ride, but they don’t participate or get in the way. Play on the agile tip of the thumb (by the nail groove), not on the sluggish side of the thumb. Keep all motions to a minimum.

&EWMGGLVSQEXMGWGEPI½RKIVMRK The first chromatic scale fingering we learn uses just three fingers: 1, 2 and 3. Use the third finger on all black keys and the thumb on the white keys – except on the two adjacent pairs of white keys, when we need the second finger.

                   





































    

   

   



   

   

   
































































       

   



       

   










































This fingering is perfectly serviceable for all beginner and intermediate level repertoire, and in chromatic scale passages from advanced pieces that require strength (that comes from using the three strong fingers) but are not too fast (frequent

                     
  









   






 

 


















 




























%HZERGIHGLVSQEXMGWGEPI½RKIVMRK Because the basic chromatic fingering involves frequent use of the thumb, it is not always ideal for fast or light scales. A much faster fingering is to use a large group of consecutive fingers from 1-4 (or 4-1) whenever possible, except when to do so would position the thumb on a black key – in which case use a smaller group of consecutive fingers from 1-3. The fifth finger may be used where appropriate at the end of a pattern, or when the scale changes direction. The easiest way to learn the fingering is hands together in contrary motion, either from Ab or D (the two points of symmetry on the keyboard). Each finger is mirrored in the other hand, and a black or white note maps to a black or white note in the other hand. You’ll find these fingering patterns already familiar, as they alternate short (1, 2, 3) and long (1, 2, 3, 4) groups like diatonic scales. For practice, play the thumb followed by the finger groups together as blocks. To add speed, play the notes in each hand position as fast as possible, as a

16• Pianist 124

WATCH GRAHAM’S ONLINE LESSONS AT WWW.PIANISTMAGAZINE.COM/LESSONS

single gesture (like an arpeggiated chord), then join two groups together until you have linked them all seamlessly. See my video demonstration for how this works.

                 
                                                           
























































 






 





















 

                        


















      

If you use this fingering to begin an ascending chromatic scale on E in the RH, for example, starting from the thumb, you will discover the fingering groups do not alternate so neatly; you will encounter two consecutive short groups from the B. However, the brain soon gets used to the principle of avoiding thumbs on black notes and steers the hand up and down with no thinking necessary. In this example from Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso there are two optimal fingerings, the first spanning two octaves before the pattern repeats, and the second involving a small tweak that preserves the same fingering for each octave.

 
   
















black key and 4 on a white key – except where we find two white keys in a row (E-F and B-C), where we use 5 on the second white key. Again, familiarise your hand with the outer fingering before putting the thirds together. Rarely will we be faced with such a scale both hands together, so practise them hands separately. If you would like to rise to the challenge of playing the scale hands together, do so firstly in symmetrical inversion (if the RH starts on A#/C#, the LH will start on D#/F#).































           




In chromatic double third passages that need full power, aim to use 5 and 1 on the white-note thirds

                 










onto the adjacent white note – the note we slide off changes depending on whether we are ascending or descending. When learning this fingering, I suggest thinking of the scale as two independent voices (top and bottom). Start by becoming very familiar with the sliding component of the scale, thumb and second finger (lower RH, upper LH). The principle for the outer fingering (involving fingers 3, 4 and 5) is to use 3 on a

 

 

 

 

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Tel: 01344 873645

'LVSQEXMGQMRSVXLMVHW Passages in chromatic minor thirds occur often in the Romantic repertoire. In my experience, the best general fingering involves sliding the second finger off the end of a group of black notes 17• Pianist 124

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This fingering gives a smooth result in legato situations, since we can achieve a perfect finger legato in both upper and lower lines. Here is an example from Chopin’s Berceuse (from bar 25).


                                            


 







 

 










 

 




 





   


 


 




 




 

 



                                      




   




 

 

  




 






 



In chromatic double third passages that need full power, aim to use 5 and 1 on the white-note thirds. Percy Grainger’s fingering for the passage in the first movement of the Grieg Concerto uses 5 and 1 on all but one of the white-note thirds, allowing for more finger articulation at the forte dynamic than the sliding second finger fingering provides (see top of next column). 'LVSQEXMGSGXEZIW The tradition of using fourth fingers on black notes can work well for legato-style octaves, for those with large enough hands to avoid twisting at the wrist. However, using the fourth finger is never mandatory. The virtuosic chromatic double octave passage towards the beginning of Liszt’s Concerto No 1 in E flat relies on plenty of pedal to supply the resonance necessary to make the piano roar. In my opinion, the best fingering for a passage like this is to use all fifth fingers on the outer notes.

 

 




 

 




 

 




 




 

 




 







  

   





                 







                       



 




 







 









                      
            


 




 

 




 




 

 




 




This way we can maintain a firmly braced fixed hand position allowing us to use whole-arm bounces. The sensation is like the mechanism of a jackhammer (or pneumatic drill!) – a series of energetic rebounds from the keyboard. The fingers are essentially extensions of the arm and need to be firm enough to support the arm’s power. Keep the wrist firm (but never stiff) and unbending.
     

               
  
           

 

          





                                  



                                                            

                                                 





 

               

   







   

  

When it comes to these different fingerings for chromatics, it helps to understand the underlying principles behind them so you can apply the best one to the relevant passage in your piece. Remember that printed fingerings vary depending on the editor, and it is well worth comparing different versions of the score to help you settle on the fingering that works best for your hand. n For more information on piano playing (technique, practice method, style and interpretation and a whole lot more) from Graham and his team of contributors, head over to the Online Academy at https://online-academy.informance.biz.

18• Pianist 124

THE SCORES Pianist 124 • Read the lessons • Play the scores

MELANIE SPANSWICK is a pianist, writer, teacher and composer. As an author, she is published by leading publishing houses, and has written a three-book piano course for those returning to piano playing; Play It Again: PIANO (Schott Music). Melanie teaches the piano at Junior Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Eton College. As a composer, her music is published in the renowned Edition Schott Composer Series. Read Melanie Spanswick’s lesson

NILS FRANKE is Dean of Higher Education at the University Centre Colchester, UK, having previously held posts at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and the University of Reading. He has recorded for Warner and Brilliant Classics. Nils specialises in historical performance pedagogy, with a particular focus on 19th-century pianist-composers. His editions are published by Wiener Urtext and Schott Music International. Read Nils Franke’s lesson

LUCY PARHAM is a concert pianist, writer, teacher and broadcaster. She has performed with all the major British orchestras and is a regular presenter and contributor on Radio 3 and 4. Her Composer Portraits series – featuring the lives of Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Schumann and more – has resulted in hundreds of performances with some of the UK’s finest actors. Lucy is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Read Lucy Parham’s lesson

CHENYIN LI is a celebrated concert pianist known for her fiery and intelligent performances of a wide variety of repertoire. Having won multiple international competitions, she has established herself as a versatile player who shines in both solo repertoire as well as concerto. Chenyin has performed in many prestigious venues across the UK, Europe and Asia and her extensive discography includes more than 50 albums for Pianist. Listen to Chenyin Li perform on this issue’s CD

SCORES

24

KEYBOARD CLASS Repeated notes

25

SPANSWICK Iberian Mist

26

BIZET Habanera from Carmen (arrangement)

28

FREIXAS Diu que una rosa...

29

GRANADOS Stories of the Young Op 1 No 6

30

LE COUPPEY Spanish Air from L’ABC du piano

32

MASARNAU Waltz in G from Le Parnasse No 2 Op 10

34

GRANADOS El Caminante, No 3 from Six Expressive Studies

37

FALLA Serenata Andaluza

46

MATEO ALBÉNIZ Sonata in D

50

ISAAC ALBÉNIZ Winter from The Seasons Op 201

54

SOLER Sonata No 84 in D

58

DEBUSSY La soirée dans Grenade from Estampes

Typesetting by Spartan Press Music Publishers Ltd

© Erica Worth (Spanswick); © Sven Arnstein (Parham); Hao LV/Lumira Studio (Li)

LESSONS FROM THE EXPERTS

HOW TO PLAY %&-0-8=6%8-2+BEGINNER

NARCISA FREIXAS DIU QUE UNA ROSA…

8LMWHVIEQ]'EXEPERQMRMEXYVI[MPPFIRI½XJVSQEWXIEH] FEWWPMRIERHERYRHIVWXERHMRKSJWYFXPITYPWIGLERKIW 1IPERMI7TERW[MGOtalks you through it Key A minor Tempo Moderato Style Late Romantic Will improve your Phrasing Rhythm Legato touch

Spanish sculptor, painter and composer Narcisa Freixas (18591926) was born in Barcelona. She studied the piano with Juan Bautista Pujol, who numbered Enrique Granados among his pupils. Freixas published collections of Catalan songs and nursery rhymes, and she also implemented a musical education programme for school children.

sonority – thus providing a stable and seamless tonic pedal. The LH’s upper part requires a smooth legato touch, too. First, work at the Es alone, without the ornamental D#s. The syncopated rhythmic pattern can be practised using a metronome: set a quaver pulse and be sure to precisely ‘place’ the crotchet/quaver Es in each bar. The crotchet needs a deeper touch than the quaver, which must be piano as indicated.

The title of the piece, Diu que una rosa…, means ‘They say that a rose...’. It stops right there, as if the start of a poem. The piece, which exudes a colourful exotic charm, comprises a simplistic melody in the RH and an almost continuous two-part accompaniment figure in the LH – the latter decorated by repeated acciaccaturas. The tempo suits crotchet equals 69-72 bpm.

Now add the acciaccaturas. They must be soft yet quite insistent, as is typical of this style. Whilst it can be beneficial to practise acciaccaturas with a heavy touch (in order to encourage clear, clean articulation), when playing this musical line, keep the ornaments light and sound them on the beat almost at the same time as the Es. When working at the two LH lines together, remember that the As must be held for their full value, with the Es acting as a rhythmic ‘murmur’.

© Erica Worth

Let’s begin with the LH. There are two parts, or lines, to the LH, and a particularly useful exercise would be to separate them when learning. That is, practise the lower part (the repeated minim As) and the upper part (off-beat Es preceded by D# acciaccaturas) on their own. Aim to keep the low As extremely smooth. Release the note by bringing up your fifth finger at the very last moment (just before the bar line), depressing the subsequent A fairly slowly for a soft sound, matching that of the previous A. Whilst the LH should provide a soft accompaniment, the minim As must always offer a rich

TRACK 3

Narcisa FREIXAS (1859-1926)





 







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composer Narcisa Freixas in Catalonian style. You can read all about Melanie Spanswick’s step-by-step lesson.

syncopated, strum-like LH What a delightful miniature this is. The RH melody capture the essence of acciaccaturas and Moorish-sounding





      





 

  

 




  







  

       

  

 



  






 

 

   

        

  

 






  

 




 


 

     






   


 

 



 



  







    

 

 



  
















      
 





      



   

   

 














             



  

  

   











 

    



  







 







  












 



  









  

 









  




7))7'36)7 7)'8-32

Time to work on the RH part. An interesting feature of the melodic line is the staccato articulation on the first note of many phrases (as in bars 2, 4, 7, 11 etc). This adds the all-important Spanish inflection. This note must be quiet and not too short. The rest of the phrase should be legato and well-shaped, with a carefully ‘placed’ top E (as in bars 3 and 8). Observe the acciaccaturas in 20• Pianist 124

bars 14 and 21; they will require a deeper touch and a different colour to those in the LH, as they are part of the tune. This melodic line is akin to a folk melody, so the embellishments can be articulated quite coarsely – or with a slight accent – as if sung by a folk singer.

0)%62-2+8-4 In order to master the LH, learn its two parts separately.

Start practising both hands together. Set the metronome to a quaver beat, ensuring that all notes are secure and rhythmically placed. Phrase well, keeping the line smooth, and try to introduce the sustain pedal where indicated. Plenty of relaxed arm weight will be needed for the LH fortissimo chords (bars 9-11 and 18-20) which are then followed suddenly by two tender pianissimo chords. Make a slight ritenuto (slowing down) on the pianissimo chords. Moments such as these act as ‘punctuation’ to the melody. Moments of reflection, maybe? There is also a real pause at bar 20 (notice the fermata sign). Tempo changes are a crucial feature for this style of music, so once you can play the piece rhythmically, relax the pulse for a true authentic Spanish character. n More about Melanie Spanswick at www.melaniespanswick.com.

HOW TO PLAY %&-0-8=6%8-2+INTERMEDIATE

GRANADOS

EL CAMINANTE (THE WANDERER) FROM SIX EXPRESSIVE STUDIES In this hypnotically atmospheric piece from Spain’s most revered composer, it’s all about sound and technique: 2MPW*VEROIlooks at Granados the teacher Key E minor Tempo Moderato Style Romantic Will improve your Evenness Hand balance Understanding of Granados style

Enrique Granados (1867-1916) needs no introduction. But much of his music does. Admittedly there are a few of his works that feature in pianists’ repertoire, but more often than not as encores. There is much excellent music waiting to be played more widely, from the highly pianistic Piano Quintet in G minor to the transcriptions of Scarlatti sonatas.

for the musical talent of my students, but, if they work as they should, I am responsible for their technique’. It’s the focus on technical development that is an ever-present theme in Granados’s teaching pieces, and there are quite a few, ranging from Grades 2 to 8. Unlock what he is trying to develop, and you can get the most out of his music.

Teaching was central to Granados’s life. It’s how he earned a living, and it’s a part of his legacy that deserves to be looked at more closely. The composer ran his own music school, the Academia Granados, as it was named from 1901 onwards. It’s worth thinking about what was important to him as a teacher, because some of it can be applied to this piece. Granados rejected the type of pedagogy that he had experienced in his early studies, concluding instead that ‘I have attempted not to impose my personality on those students who have shown features and traits of something special and definite.’

El Caminante (The Wanderer) is the third of Six Expressive Studies in the Form of Simple Pieces. There is no date, and only an autograph of the sixth piece has survived. Let’s start with an overview of this one. There seem to be two different textures that dominate the main sections of the work: a chordal LH melody line and a busier RH pattern. Within the RH pattern, the reoccurring themes are (i) needing to reposition the second finger quickly and (ii) achieving an even sound when using fingers 3-4-5.

To Granados, technique and expressivity warranted separate attention. It was in the former that he recognised his work as a teacher. Granados met his students twice a week, once for technical work and once for musical issues. He believed that with the right sense of application and guidance, anyone could develop good keyboard facility, declaring that ‘I cannot be responsible

Enrique GRANADOS (1867-1916)

TRACK 7

El Caminante, No 3 from Six Expressive

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Granados wrote piano music, Concert pianist and composer Enrique trio, music for violin and chamber music (a piano quintet, a piano scenes), and an orchestral tone piano), songs, zarzuelas (spoken and sung Many of his piano compositions poem based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. guitar. His six-piece suite, Goyescas, have been transcribed for the classical








     




 










 

    

INTERMEDIATE

Studies

Goya, became one of his most which is based on paintings of Francisco and the Nightingale, appeared in famous piano works (No 4, The Maiden El Caminante (The Wanderer), is issue 96). This beguiling piece, entitled Studies. Listen to Chenyin Li’s the third of Granados’s Six Expressive Read Nils Franke’s lesson. performance... and you’ll be hooked!

  

    

















  

      

  





                                   

  





 

 



 





                                              
                                 









   



 



  



 



 





7))7'36)7 7)'8-32

Granados the pianist understood only too well that maintaining the same pattern for too long can risk tension creeping into the playing. So he uses bars 10-12 to vary the pattern in the RH. In bar 10 he also changes the hand position to being based on the black notes, so that the F# can be taken comfortably by the thumb. The alternative fingerings for E# and F# in the RH are both equally valid, so choose whichever comes more naturally to you. 21• Pianist 124

)RUWKHPRVWSDUWWKHÀQJHULQJV on Pianist’VVFRUHIROORZWKHÀUVW edition. They are testimony to an individual form of pianism. For example, the semiquaver pointing upwards in the LH pattern of bar 27 is marked ‘2’, as is the subsequent note, C#. What’s not clear is whether the ‘2’ on the G is played by the RH, and hence the upward pointing stem (the second finger crossing over the thumb), or the LH, thus giving it that ringing sound quality of a note that is emphasised intentionally, though not for any other reason than that the composer liked the idea of it (I have also included an alternative fingering of ‘1’). We’ll never know, but it’s the sort of thing performers can end up having strong views on.

0)%62-2+8-4 Never accept that something has to sound the way it does when you first try a piece, or passage.

The pedal markings follow the ÀUVWHGLWLRQ But be careful: what works up to speed and in performance can often sound blurred and over-pedalled in slow practice. Keeping an open mind –revisiting the pedalling decisions taken every time you move the tempo up a notch – is an important thing to do. After all, it’s Granados, so it’s all about the sound. n Find more information about Nils Franke at www.nils-franke.com.

HOW TO PLAY %&-0-8=6%8-2+ADVANCED

DEBUSSY

LA SOIRÉE DANS GRENADE In order to conjure up the languid steaminess of an evening in southern Spain, 0YG]4EVLEQ suggests establishing a steady pulse before giving way to the rubato heat Key A major Tempo Mouvement de Habanera Style Impressionist Will improve your Rhythm Pedalling Flexibility of tempo

Claude Debussy was a marvellous miniaturist and a master of detail. His threemovement work Estampes, which was completed in 1903, is widely recognised as one of the composer’s greatest solo piano works. ‘La Soirée dans Grenade’ is the central piece in Estampes and if you’re not familiar with the other two works (‘Pagodes’ and ‘Jardins sous la pluie’), I would highly recommend immersing yourself in the whole set.

heat, strumming guitars and dancing during an evening in Grenada. We know that although Debussy rarely visited Spain (a day trip to a suburb of Madrid was the most experience he’d had of the country at the time of composing Estampes), he was greatly inspired by Spanish culture. It is extraordinary how he captures the intensity of the southern Spanish rhythms and vibrant colours in this single, brief piece. Subtle use of pedalling is vital in this work. This requires some demonstrating, which is obviously not possible here, but bear in mind that covering the piece in excessive pedal is not the way to go. Clean pedals, whilst always capturing the bass, should be the first step.

This piece is one of my favourites to play in public. It requires the performer to cast a spell over the audience and take them on a fiveminute visit to Granada. I always find this a challenge (especially on a tricky piano) but it’s one that I enjoy immensely because one can elicit so many different sounds and colours from the instrument. Debussy gives us a new sound world which demands the highest concentration from the pianist.

© Sven Arnstein

As the listener, you should be taken straight to the evening

TRACK 12

0)7732

Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)

ADVANCED

La soirée dans Grenade from Estampes

is the central piece within La soirée dans Grenade (‘Evening in Granada’) It uses the Arabic scale and Debussy’s three-movement suite, Estampes. of Granada, Spain. At the time mimics guitar strumming to evoke images experience with the country was a of its writing, Debussy’s only personal Reyes near Madrid. Despite this, few hours spent in San Sebastián de los

said of the movement: ‘There is the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla from the Spanish folklore, not even one measure of this music borrowed minute details, conveys and yet the entire composition in its most admirably Spain.’ Read Lucy Parham’s lesson.



 
         
     


                                                                


   

 
  
 




    


















                     







        











       



  











     

         

   



   

 

   

     

         

        

 




  



            
                   

        
     
     

    


     
                      





  

 



'HEXVV\LVDOZD\VYHU\VSHFLÀF in his performance markings. This piece is no exception; minute attention to detail is required. There are even more directions on this piece than in many of his other works. Mouvement de Habanera is the marking, and it is subtitled by asking the performer to begin ‘slowly, in a nonchalant but gracious and delicate rhythm’.

The lowest note in bar 1 is crucial. It’s a low C# and it pervades the opening bars. Brace your fifth finger and make this C# really resonate. This note is significant, as it is also the highest note in the RH entry (a few bars in), requiring you to ‘ping’ it like a bell. The challenge for the pianist in the opening is the nearlyimpossible-to-execute dynamic marking of ppp; take care to make the LH sound with quality, yet not too forcefully.

7))7'36)7 7)'8-32

In the ensuing bars you need to establish your rhythm straight away. It must be exact and yet retaining flexibility. When the LH enters with the gloriously enticing 22• Pianist 124

melody in bar 7, it needs to be expressive, sensuous and languid. Lean into that opening slur (D to C#) whilst pinging out the RH C#s with your steely fifth finger. The retenu marking in bar 15 is very important. Make sure it is an even retenu, spaced gradually over the two bars – and that you then ease slowly into the tempo giusto. This marking is often misunderstood. Sometimes you will hear interpretations where pianists play this section a lot faster – but tempo giusto means ‘exact tempo’. So it should be rhythmic, tight and definitely not rushed.

0)%62-2+8-4 The dotted Habanera rhythm that pervades the piece is sometimes difficult to capture – but it is important to keep it at the heart of your interpretation.

Grip the RH chords in this section (bars 17-18 and 19-20). At the end of the second bar of each, spread the rolled chord with a sensuous quality rather than grabbing it. The crescendo should not be too much – and then at bar 21 make a subito piano. The rubato section at bar 23 QHHGVWREHYHU\ÁH[LEOH Pay attention to the middle notes in the RH chords as it is easy to overlook them. All the notes need to sound here, and they’re tricky to

play. Try practising them without the fifths and then without the thumbs. Notice the LH has one repeated note, in the habanera rhythm. It is easiest to play this with your third finger, keeping your LH as far up the key as you possibly can. The marking at bar 38 is Très rythmé. It is here that Debussy requires his performer to be a little slower and to project the rhythm with even greater intensity. This is the section where the passion emerges and the RH melody in bar 41 should immediately grab the attention of the listener. Bars 45-50 feature expressive slurs that require the middle ÀQJHUVRIWKH5+WRSURMHFW FOHDUO\ Again, brace your second and third fingers as they are just as important as the top notes. This is followed by a long diminuendo that needs to be well judged and balanced, as it lasts for four bars. %DUEULQJVDVKRUWWUDQVLWLRQ SDVVDJHWRWDNHXVEDFNWR7HPSR 1 at bar 67. Debussy instructs us to play with ‘plus d’abandon’ (more abandon) – so you must let go, with joy and passion. However, in order to do that, you need to know that you have a very secure foundation with the RH. It’s one of the most technically challenging sections of the piece and an easy place to lose grip if you haven’t practised this well. ,ZRXOGVXJJHVWSUDFWLVLQJWKLV VHFWLRQZLWKRXWWKHWKXPEVRI WKH5+Small hands may benefit from some rearrangement of the lower parts of the RH. Some of these notes can be taken over by the LH. It’s very individual, but there is scope for it in this passage, so do try experimenting. $SURMHFWHGWRQHLVQHHGHGLQ EDUZLWKLQWKHYDU\LQJGHJUHHV RIp and pp. It’s also important that you pay real attention to the subito pp in bar 78. This should sound glorious and sensuous, and to achieve it I would suggest focusing on the fifth finger of your

RH to help project this melody with intensity, whilst keeping it very quiet. You will definitely need the una corda here, too. 'HEXVV\XVHVWKHVLQJOHQRWH/+ KDEDQHUDUK\WKPWRJUHDWHIIHFW at bar 90. It then ‘melts’ us back into the return of the tempo giusto. %DUFOHYHUO\SLWFKHVWKHWZR GLIIHUHQWWKHPHVDJDLQVWRQH DQRWKHUZKLOHDGGLQJWKHORZ QRWH( LQWKHEDVVThis bass note recalls the opening bass C# and proves a logistical problem for the LH which now needs to move like quicksilver between the bass whilst keeping the melody alive. It is important that you can play your LH alone here. For security try practising it with your eyes shut! $JDLQWKHVLQJOHQRWHKDEDQHUD GRWWHGUK\WKPWDNHVXVWR DQRWKHUVHFWLRQDWEDU Debussy writes Léger et lointain

(light and distant). He also includes a very precise marking that the crotchet now equals the quaver of the preceding bar. It is important to work this out exactly. You can hear the strumming of the guitars here and the rhythm must be tight and crisp. Tempo 1 at bar 113 brings us a UHPLQGHURIWKHRSHQLQJ It is like a ghost from the past that then disappears. All the ideas are now speaking to one another and requiring us to juggle them, one after the other, like quick snapshots of a distant memory. 7KHZRUNHEEVDZD\ZLWKWKH KDQGVPRYLQJIXUWKHUDQGIXUWKHU apart. Pluck the RH bells and ‘pizzicato’ the single LH notes as this evening in Granada slowly evaporates away. n Further information about Lucy Parham at www.lucyparham.com.

Reconditioned, restored and new pianos for players of all levels. Free delivery and a 5-year guarantee. The perfect piano for everyone! Nevill Estate Yard, Eridge, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN3 9JR Tel. 01892 543233

www.thepianoshopkent.co.uk 23• Pianist 124

HANS -GÜN T E R H EU MANN

BEGINNERS KEYBOARD CLASS LESSON 51: EXERCISE FOR REPEATED NOTES

On these pages, Pianist covers the most basic stages of learning through a series of lessons by Hans-Günter Heumann. This time it’s an exercise for repeated-note playing. Inside this issue there are some scores that feature repeated notes – albeit, the harder pieces such as the Soler and Mateo Albéniz Sonatas. Nevertheless, there’s no time like the present to start getting used to the technique!

Ludwig Schytte Etude Op 108 No 10 Keep the repeated-note fingers close to the keys and ready for attack. Don’t tense up the wrist. Start out slowly.

Allegro moderato q = 108 3 2 1 5 3          

p sempre staccato

     





     

5 2      

     

 

 

 

3

2





2 4

5

2

3

1

1





3

1





1 4

       

     

     

     

 

  

3

2

1

4



2

3



2

1



5

3

9

3 2 1        

f





2

3



1 2

1 3 5

   

2

1



5

3

2

1

    p      



1 2

1 2 5

1 3 5

     

     

     

 

 

 

3

2

1





2

3

1





3

2

1





2 4

13

3 2 1        

     

    

 





3

2



1



1 3 5

4

   

3

 1  3    5   

    

1

2

5

   

1 2

Hans-Günter Heumann continues his series for beginners in the next issue. To find out more about Heumann, visit www.schott-music.com

•

24• Pianist 124

5

Melanie SPANSWICK

TRACK 1

BEGINNER

Iberian Mist

Melanie Spanswick’s playing tips: I love Spain! It’s a wonderfully diverse country with a warm Mediterranean climate, gorgeous cities and towns, and beautiful vistas. There’s a depth to the culture, and the music sparkles with energy and passion. Iberian Mist offers a less obvious Spanish vibe: its atmospheric and esoteric character comes from the calm, misty mountain ranges of the Sierra Nevada in Andalusia. To capture this, keep all quavers completely smooth, even and rhythmical throughout, with

the exception of the ritenuto at the end. The melodic material in the RH part would be effective with a slightly deeper touch: For example, in bars 1-3, the quaver Cs need a little more colour – but it’s the Bs which are the focal point, so ‘place’ them carefully. Similarly, in the LH part, the Es in bars 5, 6, and 7 also require more sonority. Observe the pause at bar 9 and experiment with various timbres from bars 10 to 15 where both hands move up the octave.



















  

 

  





     




  



    

    

  

 



          

    

  









          

  

  








         









  





   





 










    

 





 




    

     
   

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Georges BIZET (1838-1875)

TRACK 2

BEGINNER

Habanera from Carmen (arrangement)

This well-known theme comes from the opera Carmen, one of Bizet’s most celebrated works. It was premiered in Paris in 1875, the year of Bizet’s death. With its inspiration coming from a Cuban dance, the Habanera comprises two parts, each 16 bars long. The first, in D minor, offers a sweet theme, which is often syncopated and makes use of chromatic descending notes. The second part, in D major, is more

resolute. As one might expect, the accompaniment throughout is given to the LH. You’ll see that the LH’s rhythm is the same from beginning to end. Make sure to balance the LH against the RH melody, keeping it light so the melody can be heard. Rhythmic stability is essential in this adaptation (practising hands separately at first should help). More advanced pianists will be able to use this piece as a warm-up.


   







  





      












      









 










   



   

     



















  

















   

   



 

   















    








 






       











   



















  





  























 




  



  


















  




















  














  


















   

   

  

  



  



  





  





  





  











































 
















      




 


















       





















 





      







 













   



   



   



   


































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TRACK 3

(32´81-77 MELANIE SPANSWICK’S

Narcisa FREIXAS (1859-1926)

ON THIS PIECE

Diu que una rosa...

0)7732

BEGINNER

Catalonian style. You can read all about composer Narcisa Freixas in Melanie Spanswick’s step-by-step lesson.

What a delightful miniature this is. The syncopated, strum-like LH acciaccaturas and Moorish-sounding RH melody capture the essence of





 










  

 












 
















    



  





  
 

 

 

    






















            
    










 
  



  












     

   











 

     

 








 










 



 




 

  









  



 



 













  

 









 



  


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Enrique GRANADOS (1867-1916)

TRACK 4

BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE

Lento con tenerezza, from Stories of the Young Op 1 No 6

Written for the younger, less experienced pianist, Granados’s Stories of the Young comprises ten contrasting pieces – some poignantly lyrical, some spirited and lively. Being appealing to the ear as well as the fingers, they have been popular with Pianist readers (Nos 2, 3, 5 and 7 have appeared in past issues). All the pieces bear descriptive titles – such as ‘La mendiga’ (the beggar girl) and ‘Canción de mayo’ (May Song) – but here, for

No 6, Granados just gives us the marking Lento con tenerezza (very slow, with tenderness) at the start. Playing tips: Singing tone and good phrasing are key elements for making a successful interpretation. Follow the phrase markings and notice the subtle changes in tempo and dynamics. Be as tender as you can! Pedal tips: See markings on the score. Ample pedalling is required.


 


 




     

   










    











     

 

















    









     








 

 












    



 

 







 














 








 







 



 
  




 













    










    






 








     

      


 



    











  














    

 

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Félix LE COUPPEY (1811-1887)

TRACK 5

BEGINNER/ INTERMEDIATE

Spanish Air, No 29 from L’ABC du piano

Marie-Léontine Pène, and Marguerite Lartigue, the second cousin of Manuel de Falla, who became in due course the mother of Jacques Ibert. Playing tips: Keep the LH accompaniment light and secure, allowing for

Remembered now, if at all, as a pedagogue more than a composer, Le Couppey taught generations of French pianists at the Paris Conservatoire. Having studied there himself he took up his first post at the prodigious age of 17, was appointed professor of solfège in 1837 and continued to oversee the conservatoire curriculum, with its rigorous insistence on the establishment of a firm technique, until the year before his death. Among his many pupils were the composer Cécile Chaminade, celebrated soloists of their day such as

the RH melody to dance gracefully and impishly over it. Take note of all the different types of articulations (staccatos, accents, phrase markings etc) and note all the changes in dynamics. End with a flourish. Pedal tips: Pedal is not required, but the odd dab here wouldn’t go amiss.


 



  








 








 







 








  


 






  









   




   



 

 



 







  



 

 







 

  





    












 



 












 

 
























  





















 


















 

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Santiago de MASARNAU (1805-1882)

TRACK 6

INTERMEDIATE

Waltz in G from Le Parnasse No 2 Op 10

years). Alkan dedicated his Trois Etudes de Bravoure Op 16 to Masarnau. Playing tips: This adorable waltz, full of charm and grace, needs a light touch. With the RH part, we suggest some serious, slow practice – especially when working on the recurring trills. The LH part is less challenging, but the semiquaver section (from bar 9) will need to sound effortlessly even, with a slight emphasis on the first-beat chords. Pedal tips: See suggestions on the score.

Born in Madrid, Santiago de Masarnau (known also as Santiago Masarnau y Fernández, Santiago Fernández de Masarnau or Santiago Masarnau) was a Spanish pianist, composer and religious activist for the poor. He abandoned his original intentions of a career in engineering and went to study music in Paris, where he became acquainted with Cramer, Monsigny, Rossini, Paganini, and Mendelssohn. He also became a close friend of Alkan (as evidenced by an exchange of letters extending over 40



 


  





  

                   






 
 








 
















   









 

    







                  
            


















     







 



   

   

      

 



      

      

















  









 

      

      

     



                                        

 

  
           






    

 



         



  

       

      




       







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Enrique GRANADOS (1867-1916)

(32´81-77 NILS FRANKE’S

TRACK 7

INTERMEDIATE

El Caminante, No 3 from Six Expressive Studies

0)7732 ON THIS PIECE

which is based on paintings of Francisco Goya, became one of his most famous piano works (No 4, The Maiden and the Nightingale, appeared in issue 96). This beguiling piece, entitled El Caminante (The Wanderer), is the third of Granados’s Six Expressive Studies. Listen to Chenyin Li’s performance... and you’ll be hooked! Read Nils Franke’s lesson.

Concert pianist and composer Enrique Granados wrote piano music, chamber music (a piano quintet, a piano trio, music for violin and piano), songs, zarzuelas (spoken and sung scenes), and an orchestral tone poem based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. Many of his piano compositions have been transcribed for the classical guitar. His six-piece suite, Goyescas,















                                 








  









 






 








                                 




  











 



 

 





     

                                  



















  








 



 

























 














                                        









   





  





  



  

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36• Pianist 124

          





   




   

  




      

 



                  







  




  







 



     

Manuel de FALLA (1876-1946)

TRACK 8

INTERMEDIATE

Serenata Andaluza

but in truth, the notes fit very well under the hands. We suggest that you mark out the different sections before you begin, so that you gain an understanding of the overall structure. The melody, which first appears at bar 17, should be played a tempo, con abandono (in tempo, with abandonment). So don’t hold back! Pedal tips: Some suggestions are marked on the score (first page only). Cover artist Javier Perianes plays this track on the Pianist album.

Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega and Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla was one of Spain’s most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century – though the number of pieces he composed was rather modest. Serenata Andaluza was composed in 1900 and, being a fine pianist himself, Falla first performed it in Madrid that same year. Playing tips: Although the work covers a hefty nine pages, notice that there is a lot of repetition. The writing might also look quite challenging,


 

                         
            




















 


         

















    









    













    





                                  










       




                   
             








  





                                    






 
 
                                                 






      






 






 

 

           

   



 








   


 



 

 




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Mateo ALBÉNIZ (1755-1831)

TRACK 9

INTERMEDIATE

Sonata in D

Mateo Albéniz was born in the Basque region of northern Spain. He was unrelated to Isaac Albéniz but he was the father of Pedro Albéniz, a Spanish pianist and composer. Mateo composed masses, vespers, motets, and other church music as well as works for the harpsichord and fortepiano. The work by which he is best known today is the Sonata in D, of which a popular transcription for guitar has been made. Playing tips: Mateo Albéniz might have been born some years after Scarlatti died, but the resemblance to the Italian composer’s Baroque

keyboard style is evident from the outset. Rhythm needs to be spot-on throughout; start out by practising slowly, making sure that the playing is clean and error-free. The fingerings for the LH repeated notes (see bar 15) should help avoid a tense wrist. Enjoy making dynamic contrasts with the many repeats (the echoe style is always effective). Endings of phrases can be bold or soft: Chenyin Li tries both approaches in her interpretation on the Pianist album. Experiment with the dynamics. Pedal tips: A few dabs of pedal at the ends of phrases will suffice.




 

 

       
            
       












 
   




 



                













                  

            

 

    

 

        






 

   






 

  

       





  

 







 

 

 



  



  

 




  
       
 

 





    




 










    




 

 



 

 













        

    



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Isaac ALBÉNIZ (1860-1909)

TRACK 10

INTERMEDIATE

Winter from The Seasons Op 201

Virtuoso pianist, composer and conductor Isaac Albéniz was one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era. Transcriptions of many of his works, such as Asturias (Leyenda), Granada, Sevilla, Córdoba, Mallorca, and Tango in D, are important pieces for classical guitar, though he never composed for the instrument. His rarely-performed four-piece suite, The Seasons Op 201, was composed in 1892. Playing tips: There are many different playing styles to master in this tricky but effective piece. At the start, the two-bar staccato quaver passages in both hands require a light, bouncy touch; notice how the

hands and fingers barely need to move. Yet just two bars later they are required to dart all over the keyboard – and in a legato fashion, too. At bar 9, make the most of the glorious bell-like LH bass note A, over which the RH chords should sing sweetly, and at bar 29, bring out the passionate LH melody. A new section appears at bar 41, and it’s the LH again that carries the melody. The opening material returns at bar 60, followed by a brief coda which brings all of the textures of the piece – both staccato and legato – to a poignant close. Pedal tips: See suggestions on the score.


 


    


                                      
      

  




 







 

 





 









            
                    















     

      






     

        






     


      




 

 

      












  

 

 

 






 
 
 
  
   
 
 
    

 



  

 

  


 

 

    



     




      






      




 

  





 

 

           








  

           

               



 





          














 




        



    


  



  






















  

 



 

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Antonio SOLER (1729-1783)

TRACK 11

INTERMEDIATE/ ADVANCED

Sonata No 84 in D ;%8',-%+32Ïg)>40%=8,-74-)')%8;;;4-%2-781%+%>-2)'31

Playing tips: This is a great finger workout! Not to mention all those repeated notes. As is customary in Baroque writing, the performer can add extra ornaments here and there. The score features editorial dynamics – but experiment, as they aren’t set in stone. A steady pulse is necessary, though take a quick breath now and then (e.g. at bars 26 and 78). Pedal tips: Less is more; the odd dab at the end of phrases will suffice.

Born in Catalonia, composer Antonio Soler’s works span the late Baroque and early Classical music eras. He is best known for his many mostly one-movement keyboard sonatas which constitute a very important, quite underrated contribution to the repertoire of that period. Even if Soler was born four years after Scarlatti’s death, he’s never received the acclaim that was bestowed upon the Italian composer.


 












 



 
 
























               


























   



 




















 





                       
















 



 







 













 

 

 

 



                  





  

        

   







 











 
 



           
 




















 






































 






              

















  







  













      
                          
  















  





  

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Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)

ON THIS PIECE

La soirée dans Grenade from Estampes

0)7732

ADVANCED

the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla said of the movement: ‘There is not even one measure of this music borrowed from the Spanish folklore, and yet the entire composition in its most minute details, conveys admirably Spain.’ Read Lucy Parham’s lesson.

La soirée dans Grenade (‘Evening in Granada’) is the central piece within Debussy’s three-movement suite, Estampes. It uses the Arabic scale and mimics guitar strumming to evoke images of Granada, Spain. At the time of its writing, Debussy’s only personal experience with the country was a few hours spent in San Sebastián de los Reyes near Madrid. Despite this,


   

         

 
  
 


 
 

      


 


 

 
            







         






   




             

  

   

 

             


        

    

     





     

   

     






             













   



   

       




      


       
 

    

                   










        



 



   



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TRACK 12

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o n a i P e n i l n O t r Three-Pa s e i r e S s s a l c r e t Mas Alisdair Hogarth

Returning to the Piano as an Adult • 21 February • 8 March • 22 March

JUST

0 5 £

F O R T H E T E AC H E R

PIANO TEACHER HELP DESK

n io t ic v n o c h it w r e Charact With a Spanish-style theme running throughout this issue’s Scores, /EXLV]R4EKI addresses the subject of personality within the music

© Erica Worth

H

ow can interpretive flavour be stimulated? Is it possible to transform bland, generic performances of music from three contrasting periods so that they no longer sound monochrome but rather emerge as though realised by three totally different instruments? My emphatic answer is ‘Yes’! As far as personality, character and interpretive variety is concerned, as teachers we have a huge duty to inspire – drawing out possibilities from our pupils’ fingers that they may well not have considered. I often say that the ability to mimic accents and sounds is an invaluable one for pianists to possess (always allowing for caution lest one offends anyone!), but in order to start with an organic development of characterisation, it is necessary to begin with the printed text of the music in front of us. Look at the title of the piece. From the Romantic era onwards, we can gain so much inspiration before we even play a note by really taking on board what Amberley Wild Brooks, Reflets dans l’eau or The Maiden and the Nightingale could imply. Let your imagination soar! If you are playing a song transcription, take the time to fully immerse yourself in the words. And sing! If you do not vocalise your melodic line, it will not have personality. Playing Balakirev’s transcription of Glinka’s The Lark is a huge interpretive challenge because you need to project the sad romantic imagery of the words in a dramatic way whilst also tackling the problems of being both soloist and supporting background artist!

Kathryn Page has appeared in concert and on television as a soloist and in chamber music. She is a teacher, adjudicator and administrator for Chetham’s International Summer School and Festival for Pianists, as well as the Manchester International Concerto Competition for young pianists. She lives in Cheshire and has five children.

*VSQHYPPXSHVEQEXMG

When faced with bland or generic titles such as ‘Impromptu’ or ‘Sonata’, we need to look at notational basics. Bring the black and white dots on the printed page to life. There is a grave danger of students finding details pedantic and dull: our job as mentors is to show that the devil is indeed in these details, and that an additional dot or two on the repetition of a melodic phrase can make all the difference between musical engagement with the listener on the one hand and tedium on the other. Naturally, pulse and rhythm are of paramount importance in bringing character to virtually everything we play. If you are going to play a Chopin Polonaise or Mazurka, it is essential to have an internal conviction – not only about the triple-time meter involved, but also about the subtle agogic inflexions that make all the difference and which stop mazurkas sounding like Viennese waltzes. Its not enough simply to smack out accents on the second or third beats as Chopin may have marked. Accents have to feel organic. They need to be incorporated into the musical fabric of the line. Try internally dancing your mazurka as part of pre-play preparation. If you can feel the rhythms naturally and 67• Pianist 124

physically, then the rhythmic character should emerge strongly. Beyond rhythm, it is vital even from the earliest stages with fledgling players to project a sense of colouristic awareness into every lesson. Scales can be played with character, not only by requests from the teacher for different dynamics, but also for different articulations. Do different things in each hand to stimulate an awareness of voicing that could lead to stronger polyphony and the use of ‘colour counterpoint’ later on in repertoire. Look at music from a non-pianistic perspective – can you hear an organ in the Bach Prelude in F minor from Book 1? Is the opening of the E major Prelude from the same book a duet between oboe and viola da gamba? We can stimulate different colours by varying the curvature of our fingers, adopting faster or slower speeds of attack and release into and away from the keys, overlapping notes (or not overlapping!) and varying the pedal. Above all we need to encourage our students to listen as they practise, to repeat small fragments of music with pauses for review – and so nurture an awareness that every phrase they play has the potential to really move the listener and emerge with individuality and star quality. n

R E P E R TO I R E

SOUL OF

SPAIN

In order to understand the unique musical writing of Granados and his Spanish compatriots, American pianist Douglas Riva takes us on a colourful journey through the landscapes, dialects and sun-drenched sounds of Spain

piano music, dating from different periods and composed by many other composers in varied styles. Spanish music is frequently (and perhaps thoughtlessly) categorised as ‘Nationalistic’. Curiously, Debussy and Ravel are never considered as ‘Nationalistic’ composers although they are unmistakably French. Why, then, are Albéniz, Granados and others grouped together under the limited and slightly pejorative umbrella of ‘Nationalism’? Piano music by such varied composers as Joaquín Rodrigo, Narcisa Freixas, Enric Morera, Enrique Escudé Cofiner, Pau (Pablo) Casals, Salvador Bacarisse, Óscar Esplá, Pauline Viardot, Manuel Blancafort, Julián Bautista, and Xavier Montsalvatge, along with numerous others, deserves study and performance by pianists of all nationalities. 0ERHWGETIWERHNI[IPW For an understanding of Spanish music, it is important to remember that Spain is a country divided into strikingly different regions, with highly varied geography, climates, cultures and languages. The people of each region speak, think and feel in surprisingly different ways. 68• Pianist 124

Although all Spaniards speak Castellano (literally the language of the province of Castile), commonly called Spanish, many millions of people regard their native language as one of the regional languages, Catalán in Catalonia, Gallego in Galicia, Valenciano in Valencia and Euskera in the

SPANISH MUSIC INSIDE THIS ISSUE Freixas Diu que una rosa... (with a lesson by Melanie Spanswick) Granados Stories of the Young Op 1 No 6 Masarnau Waltz in G from Le Parnasse No 2 Op 10 Granados El Caminante (with a lesson by Nils Franke) Falla Serenata Andaluza Mateo Albéniz Sonata in D Isaac Albéniz Winter from The Seasons Op 201 Soler Sonata in D

Images: © Editorial de Música Boileau

E

spaña. The word itself may call to mind colourful images: silvery olive groves surrounding tranquil towns of white-washed houses, Gothic cathedrals surrounded by narrow cobblestone streets, the luminescent glow of evening in vibrant cities and the sparkling colours of the Mediterranean. Spain has one of the world’s richest cultures and Spanish composers have produced a vast archive of beautiful and important music which, for whatever reasons, has not received the attention such a musical treasure deserves. Given today’s international travel with permanent and instant worldwide communication the question arises: is there still such a thing as ‘Spanish piano music’? Obviously, any piano music composed in Spain or written by a Spanish composer is unquestionably Spanish piano music. Yet many people still continue to regard the works of Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Manuel de Falla as those which define Spanish piano music similar to the way that the names of Debussy and Ravel dominate the French piano music. However, the reality in Spain, just as in France, is that there are numerous types of Spanish

SUGGESTED WORKS BY GRANADOS All published in the Complete Piano Works by Enrique Granados (Volume numbers indicated)

Left to right: Enrique Granados (main image), Isaac Albéniz, Frederic Mompou, Granados

Basque provinces as well as several others. These are not dialects of Spanish but distinct languages which shape the characters of those who speak them. Geographically, the regions of Spain differ widely. The Mediterranean coastline of Catalonia with its rocky coast is strikingly different from the architectural austerity of Madrid washed with the luminous light which suffuses the center of Spain. It is difficult to imagine that the verdant greenery of the mountainous north of Spain is a part of

intensely ‘Spanish’ works that I know yet it has absolutely no trace whatsoever of Spanish nationalism. Nevertheless, all Spanish piano music has a distinctive sound of its own. In my opinion, the single most captivating facet of Spanish piano music is the rich variety of textures which, in the words of critic Ernest Newman, give both the pianist and the listener the sense of passing masses of richly coloured jewels through the fingers. Like most masterpieces, the greatest Spanish piano

‘Without doubt Granados is one of the Spanish composers who has best brought the Spanish soul to life in music’ works require a virtuoso technique with complete command of tonal colour and a flexible and subtle rhythmic sense. Also, the ability to negotiate dense textures with ease is essential. That said, there are many wonderful works accessible to pianists at all levels. 1SRYQIRXEPYRHIVXEOMRK My relationship to Spanish music began in childhood when I heard Alicia de Larrocha perform Albéniz’s Triana on television. I was captivated by the brilliance of the music as well as her artistry. As a student I studied works by Turina, Albéniz, Falla and others but when I began to study Goyescas my life was transformed. I fell in love with this glorious music and became obsessed with playing as many works by Granados as

V

the same country as the dazzling sunlight of Andalusia. In fact, Andalusia is the Spain that many people imagine as typically ‘Spanish’. Without question, the most widely recognised and performed piano music from Spain is that inspired by the exotic colour of Andalusia, such as Albéniz’s suite Iberia, Turina’s Sanlúcar de Barrameda or Falla’s Fantasía baetica. However, it was not only the exotic beauty of Andalusia that inspired Spanish composers. Granados´s ‘El amor y la muerte’ from Goyescas, certainly one of the finest Spanish piano works, was inspired by the Madrid depicted in Francisco Goya´s capricho of the same name. Another interesting example is Mompou´s Música Callada (Silent Music), one of the most

69• Pianist 124

)EWMIVLMKLP]ETTVSEGLEFPI [SVOW From Álbum, París, 1888, Vol 5: Preludio, F Major. RH single-note melody over a flowing LH accompaniment. Primavera (Spring). Sustained RH melody with 16th notes. Conte (A Story). Simple melody with eighth-note accompaniment. Mazurka, G minor. Chopin! A mazurka recalling Chopin. From Vol 6: La sirena (The Mermaid). A waltz with a few double notes. From Vol 12: Danza de la rosa (Dance of the Rose) from Escenas poéticas (Poetic Scenes). A two-page jewel. 1SVIHMJ½GYPX[SVOW Allegro vivace from Álbum, París, 1888, Vol 5. Brilliant. Pastoral, Vol 6. Bucolic. 1 page. Exquise!, Vol 6. A charming waltz published under the pseudonym ‘Henri Gaziel’. Bocetos (Sketches), Vol 7. Four pieces, highly evocative, especially La campana de la tarde (The Afternoon Bell). 1SVIEHZERGIH[SVOW From Vol 8: Allegro appassionato. Energetic, flowing 16th-note patterns. Andantino espressivo. Four varied sections using different techniques. Cuentos de la juventud (Stories of Youth). Ten expressive and beautiful pieces. From Vol 12: Libro de horas (Book of Hours). Three pieces, especially En el jardín (In the Garden).

R E P E R TO I R E

possible. With a foundation grant to support preparation of my doctoral dissertation I went to Barcelona to study at the Academia Marshall, founded by Granados. Through Alicia de Larrocha, then the Director of the Academia, I met the composer´s youngest daughter Natalia and her husband Antoni Carreras. They invited me to study in the Granados family archive. In the course of my

curriculum included courses in piano, violin, chamber music, solfège, music history, theory, harmony and composition. Granados also organised concerts, such as the then unusual cycle of complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas offered by Edouard Risler as well as lectures by Felipe Pedrell. After Granados’s death his student Frank Marshall became the Director of the Academia Granados, changing its name

‘Like most masterpieces, the greatest Spanish piano works require a virtuoso technique with complete command of tonal color and a flexible and subtle rhythmic sense’ research there I discovered a significant number of unpublished piano works by Granados which I premiered in Barcelona and recorded. Later, Yolanda Guasch, the Director of the music publisher Editorial de Música Boileau, proposed a critical edition of the complete piano works by Granados to be directed by Alicia de Larrocha and prepared and documented by myself. This monumental 18-volume work was published in 2001. It contains over 250 compositions, 104 of which were published for the first time. While preparing the edition Naxos contracted me to record the complete Granados piano works, a series of eleven CDs. In 1901 Granados founded the Academia Granados in Barcelona. The

to Academia Marshall. Later Alicia de Larrocha was Director and today this fine institution continues under the direction of Alba Ventura. 8LI+VEREHSWIJJIGX Granados wrote several pedagogical studies, among them: Some Brief Thoughts About Legato, Special Difficulties of the Piano, and the Theoretical and Practical Method for the Use of the Pedals – all published in the Complete Piano Works of Enrique Granados. Throughout his compositions Granados included very specific indications for the application of the pedal, reversing the standard indication of Ped. followed by an *. Granados claimed that his pedal method 70• Pianist 124

was the first, an assertion which was probably true, although Tobias Matthay was writing on the subject in London around the same time. Without doubt Granados is one of the Spanish composers who has best brought the Spanish soul to life in music. The outward ‘Spanishness’ of some of his works has led many to consider Granados as a composer of the Nationalist school. Influences on Granados and his sources of inspiration were much more varied and richer than the limiting designation ‘Nationalist’ would suggest. Granados has often been described as ‘the last Romantic’, ‘Spain’s Schubert’ and ‘the Spanish Chopin’, however, no single characterisation adequately describes Granados’s distinctive and highly complex style of writing. His music is the product of an individual and personal style – one that is instantly recognisable and entirely his own. His luminous harmonies, rich palette of pianistic colour, loose formal structures and vivid imagination place him firmly within the Romantic school. Granados was primarily influenced by mid-19th century European Romanticism, especially the music of Schumann and Chopin. In addition, like virtually every composer of his era, he was also profoundly affected by the music of Richard Wagner. However, Granados was not inspired to compose in large forms, such as sonatas and concertos. Although he began sketches for a piano concerto, a cello concerto and a symphony, he dropped these plans when they did not fulfill his musical needs. His

Images: © Editorial de Música Boileau; © Photo by courtesy of the Victoria and Joaquín Rodrigo Foundation (Rodrigo)

Joaquín Rodrigo, Xavier Montsalvatge, Enric Morera

artistic personality was better suited to shorter, rhapsodic forms, especially those based on variations. His most extended piano works are groups of individual movements, none longer than approximately ten minutes. 0MZMRKXLIPMJI One does not have to be Spanish to interpret Spanish music, nor Norwegian to interpret Grieg, Russian to play Rachmaninov, French to perform Debussy or American to understand the Rhapsody in Blue. But, living in each of those countries certainly makes the all-important understanding of the cultural influences that formed these composers an easier task. I believe that it is critical to know as much as possible about the composer of every work we study and perform. It is important to read biographies, correspondence, study the influences (and not only the musical ones!) that shaped the music. In my study of Granados, for example, I made it my business to read numerous books and newspapers that he would have read, theatrical works that were popular during his life, searching out popular music and paintings of the day, works by his musical and literary colleagues, etc. In addition, I studied and performed virtually all of the repertoire that he performed in concert. No one has enough time to do this for every composer, but even a little extra effort can amplify your insight into the music you are studying. For much of the past 40 years it has been my great privilege to live and work in Spain. I have been fortunate to meet a wide variety of people there, however, it is impossible to generalise what specific traits all Spaniards share. The one characteristic that they all have in common is that they are universally communicative. As a group, Spanish composers are highly communicative in conveying emotions, sensations, tone colours, landscapes as well as evoking people and places in their music. Let their imagination inspire you in playing this glorious music. n Douglas Riva performs Granados’s Impromptu in C Op 39 No 3 on this issue’s album. His recordings for Naxos, of the complete Granados piano works, can be found at www.naxos.com. For further information about the 2001 critical edition of the complete piano works by Granados, go to www.boileau-music.com.

A SUBJECTIVE LIST OF SUGGESTED WORKS BY OTHER SPANISH COMPOSERS By chronological order Sonatas by Antonio Soler, student of Scarlatti. Two of the finest are in C minor and F sharp major. Sonatas by José Blasco de Nebra, José Herrando, Francisco Courcelle and Mateo Albéniz (no relation to Isaac Albéniz) which are not overly complicated. Tres Estudios o Caprichos (Three Studies or Caprices) by Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga. From the early 19th century, a vast number of piano works were composed, published, studied and performed in Spain. Many of these are in a salon style, pleasurable to play and accessible to many pianists. Composers include Nicolás Ledesma, Marcial del Adalid, Juan María Guelbenzu, Santiago de Masarnau, Carlos Vidiella, Joaquín Malats, José María Usandizaga, Vicente Costa y Nogueras. Beginning around 1860 and continuing well into the 20th century, Spain enjoyed a glorious period of piano works. A few lesser-known works include: Minuetto del gallo from the Sonata Op 82 by Isaac Albéniz. Enric Morera composed three Dansas and a Scherzo for piano as well as many ‘easy’ pieces. Pau (Pablo) Casals composed quite a number of piano works which have been recently published. Especially enjoyable are the Quatre romances sense paraules (Four Romances Without Words). Frederic Mompou is highly regarded and many of his works are often performed and recorded such as his series of Canciones y Danzas (Songs and Dances). No 14, published in 1979, is not well-known but rewarding. There are 12 Preludios, varied and beautiful. Joaquín Turina composed numerous works, many very well known, such as Danzas gitanas and the brilliant and difficult Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Lesserknown quality works include Por las calles de Sevilla (On the Streets of Seville), En la zapateria (At the Shoemakers) and Mallorca. Joaquín Rodrigo, extremely well-known for the Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra, also composed a wide variety of piano works. Some were intended for his daughter, Álbum de Cecilia (Cecilia’s Album), and for his granddaughters, Sonatina para dos muñecas (Sonatina for Two Dolls), for piano duet, both intended for children to perform. More difficult, but highly rewarding, are the Cuatro piezas para piano (Four Pieces for Piano), especially the very beautiful Plegaria de la Infanta de Castilla (Prayer of the Princess of Castile). Two renowned Spanish pianists, Alicia de Larrocha and José Iturbi, also composed rewarding works. Iturbi’s Pequeña danza española (A Little Spanish Dance) is a three-page charmer. Alicia de Larrocha composed almost 50 works in her youth, recently published as Pecados de la juventud (Sins of Youth). Highly enjoyable!

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LEGENDS

Alicia de Larrocha

STAR SPANIARDS

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hen the editor of Pianist suggested writing a piece about Spanish pianists, I immediately thought ‘how lovely – a chance to wax lyrical about the incomparable Alicia de Larrocha. And of course there’s also… erm… erm…’ Apologies, dear reader, in attempting to summon some other Spanish keyboard names, off the top of my head, at the level of de Larrocha, I have to confess that I struggled (aside from, of course, our dashing cover artist Javier Perianes). And before you clutch your pearls in absolute horror, and scream ‘Falla’ and ‘Albéniz’ at

me, my defense is that we had already decided not to focus on the great composer/pianists in this piece. They are covered in a separate article about their work as composers. So, who are the other super-famous pianists? After chatting with much better-informed friends, I realised that I wasn’t the only one to have something of an embarrassing lacuna in my knowledge on this topic. Of course there have been, and are, thousands of successful Spanish pianists: a quick trip to Wikipedia soon jogged my memory. And as soon as their names come to be mentioned in this piece, I’m sure that plenty of recollections will be unlocked for you, too. But that 72• Pianist 124

said, it does seem a curious fact that while Germany, America, Austria, England, Russia, Poland, and other countries have produced heaps of above-the-marquee names, Spain has not. Why should this be? Is there something in the water? Is it to do with the national psyche? Are Spaniards all out strumming guitars and playing football instead of learning their Czerny? For what it’s worth, my guess is that the climate has had a lot to do with it. It’s fascinating to note that the piano, as an instrument, did not really take off in Spain until the second half of the 19th century. Nor, for that matter, did it take root in Italy, the country of its birth.

© Decca

Alicia de Larrocha was the leading Spanish pianist of her time – but how many others came close? Warwick Thompson SXWVRQKLVÁDPHQFRVKRHVDQGJRHVLQ search of the best interpreters of Iberian music

After Bartolomeo Cristofori produced his earliest successful models in the first decade of the 18th century, it was in the cooler climate of Germany that the instrument was initially developed most successfully. The English began producing pianos in about 1760, and their instruments gained a firm foothold in the market. France joined the party in about 1777. %R-XEPMERMR7TEMR Could it be that the excessive heat – coming in both dry and humid conditions in different parts of Spain – held back the development of the piano there? (And in Italy, as well?) Piano pieces were written, of course, and men and women learned to play them, but somehow the instrument does not seem to have fired the imagination of the Spaniards to the extent that it did elsewhere. The most important figure in early Spanish keyboard music, curiously enough, was an Italian. Domenico Scarlatti (born in 1685, the same year as both Bach and Handel) was appointed teacher of Barbara Maria, the Infanta of Portugal, when she was just a child. After her marriage to the future Ferdinand VI of Spain, Scarlatti followed her first to Seville and then Madrid. He lived in Spain from 1719 until his death in 1757. Maria Barbara was apparently a very accomplished keyboard player, and a fine musician. It is known that she owned 12 keyboard instruments, and that five of them were fortepianos, probably made by Cristofori or his pupil Giovanni Ferrini in Florence. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about my climate conjecture. The point of this

little historical diversion is to point out that although Scarlatti had access to the best possible royal pianos, he chose to keep writing for the harpsichord: suggesting, possibly, that the instruments were simply not up to the job of the technical demands he liked to make (and I’ll come to some of those in a moment). Was it because tuning them was so much more labour intensive and timeconsuming than tuning harpsichords? Was the wooden piano frame, with its greater tension, unable to stand the climate? I haven’t seen this idea explored elsewhere, so I offer it as a mere possibility. 0EKKMRKFILMRH It’s worth noting that no great native composers or performers appeared in the wake of Scarlatti in the later 18th century to develop a national school. As Linton E. Powell writes in his exhaustive A History of Spanish Piano Music, things only got worse afterwards too. ‘In the early nineteenth century in Spain, Italian opera reigned supreme, and Spanish composers of piano music contributed only light salon music and fantasies on operatic themes, or continued the style galant’. So, all a bit of a musical hinterland, then. Spain was losing ground to other nations: and perhaps by the time that the strength of the piano had developed sufficiently to cope with the climate, those lost years seem to have been too difficult to make up in a single generation. It wasn’t until Albéniz (1860-1909), Granados (1867-1916) and Falla (1876-1946) appeared on the scene, 73• Pianist 124

like blazing comets from the heavens, that Spanish pianism was ready to take on the world. 7XEVMRXLIQEOMRK One of Granados’s pupils was Frank Marshall, a Spaniard born to parents of English heritage. Marshall took over as head of the Academia Granados on the death of the older man, who drowned in the English Channel after a German U-boat attack in 1916. In 1920, the institution was renamed as the Marshall Academy, and it was here that Marshall’s best-known pupil was to receive her training. Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009), frequently hailed as the greatest Spanish pianist of the 20th century, appeared in the wake of the blazing triumvirate mentioned above, and drew inspiration from their efforts. She was also regarded as an incomparable interpreter of their works and, although her repertoire covered all the usual concerto and recital warhorses, she was associated most particularly with the music of her compatriots throughout her life. In an interview in 1978, she had this to say about them: ‘To me, each of them is a different world. Granados was the only one that captured the real romantic flavour… his style was aristocratic, elegant and poetic. Falla really captured the spirit of Gypsy music. And Albéniz was more international than the others. His music is Spanish in flavour, but his style is completely impressionistic.’ ‘Aristocratic, elegant, poetic.’ De Larrocha is talking about the

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José Iturbi

Joaquín Achúcarro

LEGENDS

4IHEPQEOIWTIVJIGX One particular quality of her playing gives me a chance to pivot into the question of whether there exists such a thing as a specifically ‘Spanish style’ of playing. An adjectival phrase often applied to her performances is ‘jewellike’. She prized crystalline clarity and emotional control above all else, and was no doubt encouraged in her taste by her teacher. Both Granados and Marshall, in their roles as pedagogues, paid particular attention to the use of the pedal, and its effect on resulting sonorities; the latter

Rafael Orozco

Ricardo Viñes

even published a book on the subject called Estudio práctico sobre los pedales del piano (A Practical Study of Piano Pedalling) in which he attempted to develop a more detailed system of notation of pedalling marks. And it was not only Granados and Marshall who focused on this element of performance. Another important Spanish pianist of the golden Albéniz/Falla/ Granados era was Ricardo Viñes (18751943), whose career – although international in scope – centred on Paris. His pupil Francis Poulenc had this to say about him: ‘I admired him madly. He used to kick me in the shins with [Spanish style] button boots whenever I was clumsy at the pedals. No one could teach the art of using the pedals, an essential feature of modern piano music, better than Viñes. He somehow managed to extract clarity precisely from the ambiguity of the pedals.’ Is there a clue here to Spanish style? In the realm of composition, we tend to associate Spanish works with sultriness and sexiness; the languor of hot nights and the ecstasy of wild flamenco; with Moorish scales and gypsy melodies; and above all with the sound of the guitar. Much has been written, in fact, about Scarlatti’s use of sounds derived from this instrument, from strummed chords, to internal pedal notes (when changing chords on a guitar fret, the finger which plays the common note between them is often held as anchor, thus creating a pedal note), even to recreating the guitarist’s slap of the wood in punchy, 74• Pianist 124

dissonant, staccato chords. But those are all stereotypical qualities of Spanish compositions. In the realm of performance, it is more often a quality of control and restraint that gives these works their force. Is that what ‘Spanish style’ is? De Larrocha’s obituary in The Guardian hints that it might be. ‘Her playing was above all controlled, formal (checking the opposite tendency in the styles [of Albéniz and Granados], grounded as they were in folk music and improvisation), yet it is also warm, with a radiant jewel-like tone quality.’ So are clarity, transparency, careful pedalling true marks of Spanish performances? I’ll leave it to others to continue the debate. Discussions of national style can all too easily descend into easy and unpleasant clichés – ‘Russian style’ as muscular pounding, ‘Japanese style’ as over-precision, and so on – but with sensitivity it can also be an illuminating discussion. In an era of bland globalization (what we might call the ‘Starbucksification’ of culture), aren’t the qualities which mark us out as different the ones which become most valuable? Answers on a postcard, please. 'SPSYVJYPTIVWSREPMXMIW Back to the overview of important pianists. Mention must be made of the colourful José Iturbi (1895-1980), as much for his Hollywood career as for his performances. A handsome and charismatic man, he appeared (as himself ) in several film comedies, most notably Anchors Aweigh with Frank

© David Farrell/Warner Classics

compositions of these three men rather than their style of playing (although the two are surely related), but those words might sum up her own approach to performance, inherited from Marshall. Apparently, he did not allow her to play Spanish music until her mid-teens, insisting instead that she first ground herself in the music of earlier masters. ‘Spanish music is very, very, very hard, and if you cannot play Bach and Mozart well, you cannot play Spanish music well,’ she once said. ‘It must have the right rhythm, just as Bach and Mozart must have the right rhythm.’ There’s not a huge amount to say about de Larrocha’s life, which was, on the whole, calm and well-grounded in family affection. Her obvious talent was recognised while she was still an infant, but she wasn’t paraded as a prodigy. She was a young adult when her career took off after the war. Then she travelled widely, and recorded copiously. She was rewarded with honours during her life, and continued to perform until her old age.

Sinatra and Gene Kelly, and in a leading role in Three Daring Daughters with Jeanette MacDonald. Although he was noted for his flamboyance as a young performer, it’s generally thought that his playing suffered after his film career, and became more routine; apparently his fans didn’t want to hear ‘difficult’ works of late Beethoven or Schumann, but expected endless repeats of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1, and this had a deleterious effect on his performances. He continued as a successful conductor, however. A young pianist who made a noisy splash was Rafael Orozco (1946-1996), who won the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1966. Afterwards it was revealed that the jury had been violently split, and some members made their feelings all too public. One of those members was William Glock, who in his other role as head of Radio 3 and the Proms seemed to ensure that Orozco wasn’t given as much exposure in the UK as he otherwise might have received. The few recordings he made before his death at the age of just 50 show him to have been a pianist of unforced poetry and strength.

Another pianist who has made an important mark on the international stage is Joaquín Achúcarro (born 1932), who has performed with just about every major orchestra under the sun. Very much of the de Larrocha mould, his performances show a restrained and Apollonian personality, very much at home in Brahms and Ravel; he performs Spanish music, but hasn’t specialised in this area. De Larrocha herself took on students, and one of them, Alba Ventura (born 1978), has also attracted plenty of attention, and is now herself head of the Marshall Academy. Check out her delightful disc Études, containing vivid performances of pieces by Czerny, Liszt, Chopin and others for a sense of her limpid and polished style. 2SXUYMXI7TERMWL I can’t resist mentioning Daniel Barenboim here, if only partly in fun. Barenboim holds citizenship of several countries, including Argentina, Israel, Palestine and – you’ve guessed it – Spain. Does this make him a Spanish pianist? Technically, of course, yes. But I’ll leave

May 2022 natjecanje.hr

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geo-political-musical heads wiser than mine to argue over the Spanish nature of his Argentinian musical heritage. One thing I would note though: I wouldn’t place him in the ‘restrained, crystalline, transparent’ category of Spanish musicians, even if those are undoubtedly qualities he can summon up when he wants. Researching this article, I came across plenty of other names who were completely new to me: the Carles and Sofia Piano Duo, for example, and Teresa Llacuna. Miguel Ituarte, and Claudio Martínez Mehner to name a few. And I couldn’t help but be impressed by the biography of high-ranking administrator Paloma O’Shea, 1st Marchioness of O’Shea, founder and president of the Albéniz Foundation. None of these people have reached that Empyrean realm of recognition enjoyed by de Larrocha, but all are well worth investigating further; and in doing so, it might help us to understand why Spanish pianism in the 20th and 21st centuries hasn’t always taken the highest place at the musical table, and whether it’s time to rethink the seating plan. n

MAKERS

PIANO ǧ This issue 1EXX%WL looks at instruments both electric and silent, and ends with a few words about a very special cause

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ew instrument launches are few and far between at present, as manufacturers and retailers grapple with the challenges of meeting demand for existing models, particularly digital pianos reliant on integrated chips which are in short supply. All is not silent however, though some of the new acoustic instruments being launched offer that option. Kawai has been evolving the AnyTimeX range of hybrid pianos for many years, incorporating new technologies from the maker’s digital range as they develop. AnyTimeX combines a complete acoustic piano with the technology required to play silently with headphones. I feel somewhat aged by the realisation that when I worked at Forsyth in Manchester I sold first generation ATX models and saw the launch of ATX2. Fast forward to 2021, and Kawai has now launched ATX4. The newly upgraded system is available on selected upright and grand piano models covering key sizes and price points. These models are fine acoustic pianos in themselves with a pleasing balance of tonal warmth and good harmonic clarity. The sweet spots in the new range for me are the K-300 upright, and the GL-30 and GX-2 grands – and these are available as the K-300 ATX4, GL-30 ATX4 and GX-2 ATX4 respectively. Key features of the ATX4 models include compatibility with Kawai’s PianoRemote app which offers comprehensive control including an enhanced version of the Virtual Technician feature which has been a developing part of Kawai digital pianos over several years. This enables players to make detailed adjustments to the playing experience and sound when using headphones, although you may well find the latest rendering of the flagship Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand satisfying and inspiring as it is.

The app also offers a built-in library of piano music as well as recording and metronome functions. PianoRemote is available on iOS and Android platforms, and in my experience is much nicer than grappling with multi-function buttons on a control panel. The grand piano ATX4 models benefit from a newly developed GP Touch Muting System, which eradicates the need for regulation to be adjusted to accommodate the AnyTimeX4 features. If you want an acoustic piano which adds speakers as well as everything offered by the ATX4 system, it’s the new AURES2 models you need to try, based on the K-300 and K-500 uprights, and the GL-30 and GX-2 grands. AURES2 utilises Kawai’s soundboard speaker system, which essentially marries purpose-developed transducers to the soundboard to create a rewarding and lifelike experience. &EGOXSXLIJYXYVI

Kawai isn’t the only manufacturer bringing exciting new models to the market. The Rhodes name is ubiquitous with much of the popular music of the last 75 years – its keyboards having been a significant part of the sound of many artists including Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Stevie Wonder and The Beatles. For those who aren’t familiar, the Rhodes started out as the Xylette, a piano design by Harold Rhodes on which injured airmen were able to learn during convalescence in World War II. The Rhodes adopts the principles of the acoustic piano to create a unique electric piano which produces sound using hammers hitting a steel tine and tone bar. Electronic pickups, like those found on an electric guitar, capture the sound for processing and amplification, with a wealth of soundsculpting at hand. One of the key qualities of the Rhodes is its ability to cut through the sound of a live band or busy mix without resorting to harshness. The big news is that after several iterations under owners including CBS and Roland, UK-based Rhodes Music Group

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has now exclusively licensed the name and this iconic American instrument has been, to quote the press-release, ‘rethought, rebuilt, and reborn at its new home in Leeds’. The MK8 (pictured opposite) is a hand-built development of the Rhodes with a wide range of custom options, moving the instrument forward whilst retaining its instantly recognisable form factor and sound. The new model utilises a 73-note keyboard built by Kluge Klavierturen GmbH (part of the Steinway Group), which it is claimed offers ‘unprecedented expression and a nuanced piano-like feel’. The price of the new Rhodes MK8 electric piano starts at £8,224, with customised options available at an additional cost. Each instrument is handmade to order and 500 will be made each year. %GGIWWMFMPMX]JSVEPP

Getting excited about new instrument launches is one thing, but I’m constantly reminded by posts on online forums, in my contact with education organisations through my work at the Music Industries Association (MIA), and by ABRSM’s recently published Making Music 2021 report, that affordability remains a barrier to many people being able to buy and learn to play an instrument. Good quality instruments don’t come cheap and the ability to practise between lessons or to participate in lessons online requires learners to have access to their own instrument. Whether you are a professional musician, learner, parent or teacher, you should know about Take It Away – a scheme supported by Arts Council England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and 130 retailers. The scheme offers interest-free loans as a way to help make buying a musical instrument more affordable. Take It Away is operated by Creative United, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, whose mission is to ‘build a sustainable and resilient creative economy, making the arts accessible for all’. At its heart is the recognition that making music can be costly and this prevents a huge number of people who would like to learn and perform from doing so. Take It Away also acknowledges the additional challenges faced by those with disabilities: it does great work in this area including the downloadable Guide to Buying Adaptive Musical Instruments which offers invaluable information about possibilities you may not be aware of. You can find out more about Take It Away by visiting its website, where you can also find information on participating retailers and links to the other excellent work that Creative United undertakes. n

Forsyth’s friendly and knowledgeable team look forward to helping you discover your ideal piano. Our clean and safe showrooms have an unrivalled display of quality pianos, all tuned and prepared by our in-house technical team, so whatever your requirment you are sure to find something of interest.

www.kawai.co.uk www.rhodesmusic.com www.takeitaway.org.uk 77• Pianist 124

We are happy to help over the phone & email providing tailor-made video demonstrations of any pianos of interest. Our showrooms are open to the public and you can book an appointment to have exclusive access to our extensive stock. Agents for August-Förster, Bechstein, Bösendorfer, Fridolin, Hoffmann, Kawai, Ritmuller, Schimmel, Shigeru-Kawai, Wilhelm and Yamaha Rebuilt Steinway & Sons pianos To start you journey call direct on 0161 519 1996 email: [email protected] www.forsyths.co.uk

REVIEW

The scale of things

Why not make 2022 the year to take scales and arpeggios seriously? 1MGLEIP1G1MPPER rounds up the many publications on offer that will put your ¾YIRG]XSXLIXIWX

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hat’s the point of playing scales and arpeggios? Students often respond that they need to learn scales and arpeggios because examining boards assess them. So why do examining boards test them? The answer to this is not, as one student facetiously opined, to abuse candidates. It is because scales and arpeggios help to promote good fingering habits, improve evenness in both tone and rhythm, develop coordination, enhance one’s sense of keyboard geography, and elevate understanding of musical keys. Scales and arpeggios have been used by pianists for hundreds of years to reap these benefits, and their appearance on exam syllabuses reflect their importance as a core part of one’s technical education. Two of the most widely used examining boards – ABRSM and Trinity College London – publish their set of scale/arpeggio requirements in contrasting ways. ABRSM have individual books devoted to the requirements of each grade. Trinity used to do this too, but now incorporate them within their books of repertoire for each grade. These are clearly presented with no frills, and show the notation for the relevant scale/arpeggio requirements. But these are not your only options within the graded system. There are other books tailored specifically to the syllabus requirements with significant differences in the mode of presentation. Scale Shapes for Piano by Frederick Stocken, for example, which is based on the new ABRSM syllabus and available up to Grade 5, eliminates the process of reading musical notation by laying out each exercise graphically, i.e. by printing the fingering of each exercise on the keys of a fouroctave keyboard. Bypassing the notation enables quicker learning for many people, particularly in the lower grades, but surely there would be no downside to including the notation somewhere on the page to mentally relate and fix the physical patterns. This is exactly what Jane Mann has done in her set of three books titled The Key to Scales & Arpeggios published by Alfred. Though not as smartly presented as Scale Shapes, they cover more bases by encompassing both Trinity and ABRSM syllabuses (though some Trinity Grade 2 syllabus requirements are missing), and include helpful fingering pointers. With the exception of five pages that are devoted to broken chords in the Grades 1-2 book, the complete contents of it and the Grade 3-4 book are reproduced in the Grade 5 book. Putting those five pages of broken chords into the Grade 5 book, and relabelling it as Grades 1-5 (which happens to be all the diatonic scales and arpeggios) would have made that book a much more attractive proposition. And, finally, Scale Explorer is a series of books written by Alan Bullard to complement the ABRSM syllabus. These are thorough, notation-only books that aim to solidify the student’s knowledge of exercises through the use of short, scale and arpeggio-based workouts. The books are detailed and will certainly improve a student’s playing, although I imagine that the type of student that has the dedication and motivation to work through these books probably won’t need them in the first place. 78• Pianist 124

)\TPSVEXMSRWFSXLFEWMGERHGSQTPI\ Moving away from books linked to the exam syllabuses, there are several ‘all-inone’ products that cover all diatonic scales and arpeggios whilst differing in the amount of additional forms (e.g. scales a third apart, arpeggios in inversions) they depict. The most basic of these is Scales & Arpeggios Exercises by David Dutkanicz, published by Dover. It includes notation-only presentation of major and minor scales (in melodic, harmonic, and natural forms), arpeggios in root position, and a brief introduction to chromatic, pentatonic, whole-tone, modes, and blues scales. If you can look past the smaller book dimensions and uninspiring front cover, this is a useful reference volume, particularly for early learners who will appreciate the larger font size it employs. The Piano Trainer Scales Workbook, published by Faber, combines both notation and pictorial descriptions of pretty much the same material, but there is also a significant amount of editorial input in the form of activity pages and ‘scale coach’ tips. The overall presentation lends itself very well to the lesson environment and this book is warmly recommended to pianists up to Grade 5. Moving up a step in terms of complexity, Faber’s notation-only Complete Scales and Arpeggios is easy on the eye despite detailing up to 12 scales and arpeggios per double page. Two-octave major, melodic minor, and harmonic minor scales are printed in octaves, contrary motion, a third/tenth apart, sixth apart, and double thirds, whilst major and minor arpeggios are given in root position, first and second inversions. Dominant and diminished sevenths are also given for all notes, and a selection of chromatics and whole-tone scales are included at the back of the volume together with pentatonic and blues scales starting on every note. This amount of coverage is suitable for the vast majority of Grade 6 to Diploma level pianists. ABRSM’s Manual of Scales, Broken Chords and Arpeggios is similarly organised and equally impressive in terms of presentation. It doesn’t address pentatonic or blues scales, but is more comprehensive in other areas, giving contrary motion scales a third and sixth apart, double sixths, double octaves, and broken chords in all keys; these make the book 50 per cent thicker, and a little bit more expensive. Additional qualities to this volume are its superior, smyth-sewn binding, and alternative fingering suggestions which are included not just for double-thirds and chromatic thirds, but also for octave apart scales such as D and G major which some educators prefer over the standard fingering. The next two offerings originate from the United States, and both feature cadences in addition to scales and arpeggios. Hal Leonard’s All-in-One Piano Scales, Chords & Arpeggios includes a puzzling selection of exercises, however. Whilst all the other books addressed on this page print two-octave scales and arpeggios, Hal Leonard have chosen to print each major scale in one, two, three, and four-octave versions, melodic and harmonic minors in two octaves, and harmonic minors in two, three, and four octaves. Arpeggios in root position, I-IV-I-V-V7-I cadences, broken triad inversions, and chords of the scale are included for each key, but staples at this level such as dominant sevenths, inverted arpeggios, and scales in different intervals are not included. Wouldn't the inclusion of these items be more useful than the superfluous repetition of scales in different lengths? The only index is the list of keys on the first page of the book, and the overall package has a rather workmanlike feel. What this book could have been is Alfred Music’s Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences which begins with a 14-page explanation of the musical theory behind the various exercises. Major scales in thirds and sixths, dominant sevenths, and arpeggios in inversions are included in addition to what appears in Hal Leonard’s volume, and the general presentation is far more inviting; if you’d like to have cadences in your exercise routine, this is the book for you.

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%RHXLIVIWX Briefly summing up a few other books on the market, the presentation in Madeleine Dinsart’s Scales and Arpeggios, published by Schott, is too dated and uninviting to warrant serious consideration. Visual Piano Classical Essential Scales takes the notation-cum-pictorial approach, but the graphics

REVIEW fall well short of the standards set elsewhere. And Visualize Keyboard Scales & Modes from Hal Leonard lists seven modes for every note, along with melodic and harmonic minors, graphically and using notation. No fingering is given and this is a rather niche product, but I imagine there will be some people interested in exploring modes who will find the book useful as a reference volume. In conclusion, there is no single book that caters best to the requirements of all pianists, but if you’re following an exam syllabus, the associated book from the relevant examining board is an obvious choice. But if reading notation is problematic, Scale Shapes and The Key to Scales & Arpeggios are equally attractive alternatives. If you aren’t on the exam trail, The Piano Trainer Scales Workbook is an excellent choice for pianists up to Grade 5 level, and, for more advanced pianists, Faber’s Complete Scales and Arpeggios and ABRSM’s Manual of Scales, Broken Chords and Arpeggios represent outstanding options. n

BOOKS DISCUSSED

(in order of appearance)

Scales & Arpeggios ABRSM Grade 1-8 (ABRSM ISBN: 978-1-84849951-5 (Grade 1); -952-2 (2); -953-9 (3); -954-6 (4); -955-3 (5); -957-7 (7);-958-4 (8)) Piano Exam Pieces & Exercises (Trinity College ISBN: 978-0-85736933-8 (Grade 5) Scale Shapes for Piano (Chester Music ISBN: 978-1-70511-475-9 (Initial & Grade 1); -479-7 (3); -475-9 (5) The Key to Scales & Arpeggios (Alfred Music ISBN: 978-1-47061-219-1 (Grades 1 & 2); -220-7 (3 & 4); -221-4 (5) Scale Explorer for Piano (ABRSM ISBN: 978-1-84849-859-4 (Grade 1); -860-0 (2); -861-7 (3); -862-4 (4); ISBN: 978-1-84849-863-1 (5) Scales & Arpeggios Exercises (Dover Publications ISBN: 978-0-48682393-5) The Piano Trainer Scales Workbook (Faber Music ISBN: 978-0-57154189-8) Complete Scales and Arpeggios (Faber ISBN: 978-0-571-52192-0) The Manual of Scales, Broken Chords and Arpeggios (ABRSM ISBN: 978-1-86096-112-0) All-in-One Piano Scales, Chords & Arpeggios (Hal Leonard ISBN: 9781-4950-8441-6) The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences (Alfred Music ISBN: 978-0-7390-0368-8) Scales and Arpeggios (Schott ISMN: 979-0-54350-232-1) Visual Piano Classical Essential Scales (Pêle-Mêle Works ISBN: 978-1939619-52-5) Visualize Keyboard Scales & Modes (Hal Leonard ISBN: 978-1-54008788-1) 80• Pianist 124

REVIEW

ALBUM reviews 7)32+.-2',3

Reviews by.SLR)ZERW, 4IXIV5YERXVMPP and ;EV[MGO8LSQTWSR

Chopin: Concerto No 2 in F minor Op 21; 4 Scherzi. LSO/Gianandrea Noseda (IYXWGLI+VEQQSTLSR 4860435 +++ Seong-Jin Cho won the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, the first South Korean pianist to do so. His achievement places him in the august company of pianists including Martha Argerich (1965) and Krystian Zimerman (1975). Is he in their class? Not on the strength of this disc. He’s still only 27 – and so has years to mature – but for now Cho is a glittering virtuoso who seems to find Chopin’s pianistic writing, with its dramatic flourishes and emotional contrasts, an irresistible showcase for his fleet fingerwork. Musically, he has little to add to our appreciation of these works. He canters through the Scherzi and is capable of such string-busting sforzandi that in the Concerto the recording level dips noticeably in response. In fact, the piece suffers from an imbalance in favour of Cho’s bright-sounding piano. The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, is a willing, albeit shadowy, partner. JE

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CPE Bach Sonatas & Rondos ,]TIVMSR CDA68381/2 (2CD) +++++ Poor old CPE Bach, middle son of the great JS. History has more or less consigned him to the role of ‘gap-filler’. Someone who appeared in the hinterland between the High Baroque and the Classical eras. Someone who wrote for the ugly-duckling early piano before it had become a swan. And so on. But perhaps things are looking up. For the tercentenary in 2014, Ana-Marija Markovina recorded the first comprehensive survey of his piano music, and now the more highly celebrated Marc-André Hamelin has put together a selection of sonatas, rondos and character pieces too. The results are superb. Hamelin responds now with fire and now with melting lyricism to the extraordinary modulations, unexpected rhythms, and Empfindsamkeit of CPE’s sound-world, and clearly has a ball with the amusing character pieces (including the sometimes-anthologized L’Aly Rupalich). He takes the music seriously, without diminishing its fantastical playfulness. Let’s hope there are more discs in the offing. WT

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