Pianist

For all the dizzying bravura of Hélène Grimaud’s Barbican recital in May, it was her interpretation of the three late Intermezzi Op 117 by Brahms – spanning the berceuse-like No 1 to the achingly sorrowful bare-octave No 3 – which had the audience sp

Tech buffs will be familiar with overclocking. You fine-tune a processor so that it runs at a higher than intended speed. In theory you’ll get more out of your computer, more quickly, but you have to know what you’re doing. Hélène Grimaud’s mind runs

I started piano relatively late on, at nearly eight, but I took to it right away. I was obsessed with it. I was very lucky with my first teacher. Jacqueline Courtin was such a fine person, gentle but strict, extremely dedicated to the music. She had

As apiano student I sometimes resented the amount of time I had to spend in ear training, theory and harmony classes – time I could be spending practising the piano, building up my repertoire and technique. Now I see that a solid background in musica

Menahem Pressler in recital, 2018 Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet with Quatuor Èbene The Beaux Arts Trio play Schubert My first quality-time encounter with Menahem Pressler was at his elegant Chelsea home in London, over afternoon tea. He was 95. He told

For many pianists a desire to push forward, widen knowledge and become ever more ‘tooled up’, becomes hard-baked into the approach. Stretching ourselves can also appear synonymous with lofty notions of self-discipline, rigour and drive. The repertoir

This little gem comes from a set of 25 preludes written in 1901 by the Russian composer, César Cui. He is the least known of the group of five Russian composers, the so-called ‘Mighty Handful’, who came together in the second half of the 19th century

Key A minor Tempo Allegro maestoso Style Classical Will improve your ✓Passagework ✓Trills ✓Sudden dynamic contrasts Mozart composed only two piano sonatas in a minor key. This Sonata is the first of the two, and it is particularly significant for th

Key A minor Tempo Largo con estro poetico Style Romantic Will improve your ✓ Chord progressions ✓ Voicing ✓ Legato An intense, dark character pervades this beautiful little piece. In the key of A minor, it consists of just 13 bars, yet still manages

Félix Le Couppey was born in the French capital, taking his studies at the famous Paris Conservatoire. In adulthood he became a professor of solfège and then a piano teacher at the Conservatoire (Cécile Chaminade was among his students). His ABC du p

DON’T MISS MELANIE SPANSWICK’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE Grieg’s popular Lyric Pieces have been studied and performed by many an aspiring piano student. But what about his other fine compositions, such as the 23 Little Pieces (‘Smaastykker’, in Norwegian)

Notes from the composer: A Solitary Tale, in the desolate key of G minor, features a wistful melody played by the RH part coupled with a fairly sparse LH accompaniment. This little piece reminds me of the isolation felt when left alone with my though

Composed between 1717-20 (but not published until 1802), this elegant prelude is the second of Bach’s Six Little Preludes (BWV 933-938). All six preludes are short, pedagogical works, but they still require a strong understanding of technique. They w

Notes from the composer: I think of this piece as an exciting children’s story, the main theme representing the protagonist who clearly becomes involved in some kind of chase or calamity (the middle 16 bars.) But of course all ends well! The tempo sh

Born in Hungary, the well-connected pedagogue and composer Stephen Heller met Beethoven and Schubert early in life before coming under the patronage of the magnificently titled Count Friedrich Fugger-Kirchheim-Hoheneck. He settled in Paris for the la

Sometimes called ‘the Italian Brahms’, Giuseppe Martucci was a composer, conductor, pianist and teacher – and was influential in reviving Italian interest in non-operatic music. Nevertheless, as a conductor, he helped to introduce Wagner’s operas to

TRACK 8 Little-known German composer and pianist Jacob Schmitt was born in Obernburg am Main, studying music under his brother Aloys. He settled in Hamburg, where he became a well-known piano teacher. Publishing many piano pieces, his opus number rea

TRACK 9 DON’T MISS MARGARET FINGERHUT’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE César Cui, one of the group of five nationalist Russian composers of the second half of the 19th century known as The Five or The Mighty Handful, was the son of a French officer who had rem

TRACK 10 CLICK HER TO WATCH CHENYIN LI PLAY THE PRESTO In order to learn the entire Presto movement, you will need to own a copy of the previous issue No 132. Here we feature the second part of the movement – from bar 60 to the end. (The recording,

TRACK 11 It is all thanks to a reader’s letter inside issue 132, asking us to feature more Chopin mazurkas, that we decided to sieze the moment and present another as soon as we could. In the key of G minor, this Mazurka Op 67 No 2 contains two very

As we guide students towards an even deeper love of music through inspiration and example, our prime goal as professional enablers should be to encourage self-dependency and clarity of thinking. From Lesson 1 we have a duty of organisational care tow

TAP TO WATCH Tom Borrow’s Wignore Hall recital Ican’t resist, and I apologise in advance. But during our Zoom chat, I ask 23-year-old Tom Borrow a decidedly cheesy and soundbite-ish question (my mitigation being that a certain A-list superstar once g

TRACK 12 DON’T MISS LUCY PARHAM’S LESSON ON THIS PIECE Mozart’s Piano Sonata No 8 in A minor K 310 was written in 1778. The sonata is the first of only two Mozart piano sonatas in a minor key (the other being No 14 in C minor K 457). It was composed

Once, the legendary pianist Shura Cherkassky – who was known for his superstitions around concert routines – suddenly and unexpectedly required a lemon in the interval of a recital in London. Goodness knows what for. Eccentric as this may sound, even

‘With voicing you determine character, colour, sonority, sustain, dynamic range and orchestral balance within a piano,’ says Ulrich Gerhartz. ‘Through proper voicing, it is possible to make a harsh, uneven piano feel and sound utterly different and c

His early musical training was in the hands of Thomas Garland, organist of Norwich Cathedral, and before he was eight years old, James Hook was playing in public. Thereafter his career did not mirror that of his contemporary Mozart, but he made a suc

The very simplicity of Grieg’s melodic invention can present challenges of its own compared with more superficially demanding works such as the Wedding Day at Troldhaugen from the same set. Playing tips: A quintessential Lyric Piece, this Peasant’s S

The extraordinary life of this one-armed Hungarian aristocratic virtuoso was retold by Warwick Thompson in Pianist 104, our ‘left hand’ issue. Perhaps Zichy conceived it originally for LH alone – the opening has the characteristic texture of such pie

This delightful miniature was valued even when Scriabin and his theosophical, not to say egomaniacal, ambitions were held in some suspicion. Its debt to Chopin makes it no less suitable for playing on the organ. A sense of freedom is needed in the me