Piano - my/maSCENA

Delta Piano Trio’s Fresh Take on Shostakovich

By Norman Lebrecht on 22 December 2017 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano, Strings

Shostakovich, Auerbach: Piano Trios Delta Piano Trio As the last releases of the year drop through the door, this is an instant ear grabber. Debate has raged for three decades as to whether Dmitri Shostakovich was a limp Soviet puppet or a secret resistant. The first view was advanced by US musicologists, who would not be satisfied until they had a signed document saying ‘I hate Stalin.’ Russian friends and fans of the composer heard his dissidence expressed in the music. Thankfully, the dispute is being resolved by a new generation of musicians who come fresh to the music. The…

Lebrecht Weekly Album of the Year 2017

By Norman Lebrecht on 14 December 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano, Romantic

In these diminished times, any year that yields a couple of releases that can rank with, and perhaps displace, the legends of recording history must be counted a good one. On these terms, 2017 was a pretty good vintage. There was an impressive Berlioz Requiem from Erato, a Hänssler retrieval of the last known recital of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the first in a promising Chandos series of the orchestral works of Richard Rodney Bennett and, at the opposite end of the scale, a Jonas Kaufmann assault on both tenor and mezzo parts of Das Lied von der Erde – a Sony…

Lucas Debargue: Nomadic pianist

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 4 December 2017 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Piano, Quebec Music

Lucas Debargue, the enigmatic pianist whose career took off after he was placed fourth at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015, performs in Quebec for the first time in two highly-anticipated concerts. The young pianist appears on December 4 at Quebec City’s Palais Montcalm and on December 9 at Montreal’s Place des Arts. Who is he? Lucas Debargue is a French pianist who has had an unusual career. In 2006, at age 16, he quit formal studies, preferring improvisation and sight-reading. In 2008 he entered Paris Diderot University to study literature. This “break” certainly influenced his playing, but he admits…

Yannick and the Orchestre Métropolitain: A Grand Finale in Paris

By Arthur Kaptainis on 4 December 2017 Art Song, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Orchestral, Piano, Romantic, Strings

PARIS – Ever seen a conductor cry on stage? I mean, other than Leonard Bernstein? We can add to this exclusive list the name of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who was seen wiping his eyes discreetly on Sunday after Elgar’s Enigma Variations, a performance that marked the official conclusion of a six-city, seven-concert European tour by the Orchestre Métropolitain. There would be an encore: Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, done in the supplest tones imaginable. We must resist the temptation to deem the last thing heard as the best. But goodness, what a sound. And what an ovation from the Parisians, who packed…

Tristan Longval-Gagné

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 3 December 2017 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Piano

Originally from Sherbrooke, pianist Tristan Longval-Gagné, fell into the “musical pot” early. In fact, his parents were both musicians and ran a music school in their home. He is now proudly a co-owner and teaches at the school. His first memories are therefore inevitably related to music and to his piano-teaching father, Tristan’s first teacher. After attending McGill University where Tristan studied with Sara Laimon whom he describes as his real mentor, he continued his studies at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. In 2009, he won first prize at the OSM Standard Life Competition and in 2010 the…

Kings College Choir Delivers Uplifting English Brahms Requiem

By Norman Lebrecht on 24 November 2017 Choral, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano, Romantic

Brahms: An English Requiem (Delphian) Mary Bevan, soprano Marcus Farnsworth, baritone James Baillieu and Richard Uttley, piano Choir of Kings College London, conductor Joseph Fort This has to be the least expected record of the year – a performance of Ein deutsches Requiem in the original English, at least in the texts of the original English Bible. The work was so popular on reception, at a time when Bismarck was planting German boots all over Denmark, Austria and France, that London impresarios felt it might be prudent to produce it in a less contentious language. Since Victorian concertgoers knew their…

Lebrecht Weekly – Krystian Zimerman’s Schubert Sonatas on DG

By Norman Lebrecht on 10 November 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano, Romantic

Schubert: Sonatas D959, D960 (DG) Some records grab you by the ears, others take longer to impress. It is in no sense to Krystian Zimerman’s discredit that his first attempt at late Schubert took three spins on my deck before I grasped the originality of his interpretation. Rather, it is a mark of Zimerman’s thoughtfulness that the heart of the music is revealed layer by layer in a manner that makes you want to listen again and again. Winner of the 1975 Chopin competition, the Polish pianist has been playing these pieces for half his life before he was ready…

Lebrecht Weekly: Daniil Trifonov: Chopin Evocations (DG)

By Norman Lebrecht on 13 October 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano, Romantic

Daniil Trifonov: Chopin Evocations (DG) FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (Arr. By Mikhail Pletnev), Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” Works by Barber, Grieg, Mompou, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Daniil Trifonov, piano; Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev, conductor 2 CDs, 0289 479 7518 2 The 2011 Tchaikovsky winner has lost none of his capacity to surprise. Daniil Trifonov thinks nothing of coming on stage with one wrist in a bandage, no explanation offered, or of asking the audience not to applaud at any time through a 90-minute recital. His powers of concentration are phenomenal and he expects no less from his listeners.…

Zhan Hong Xiao

By Olivier Gentil on 12 October 2017 Classical, Interviews, Piano

Zhan Hong Xiao On Radio-Canada’s Virtuose By Olivier Gentil “For me, music is the highest form of communication, the highest form of language.” This 17-year-old piano prodigy came to Quebec’s attention when he appeared on Radio-Canada’s Virtuose, broadcast last spring and hosted by Gregory Charles. At the end of the show he played the fourth movement of the Piano Concerto in E flat by Liszt. “I only entered by chance, because my prof told me about it,” he recalls. “I was surprised to be selected!” And he doesn’t regret it in the least. “There was nothing to worry about, it…

Jean-Michel Dubé

By Olivier Gentil on 11 October 2017 Classical Music, Piano

Jean-Michel Dubé Canadian Music Competition – Tremplin Section By Olivier Gentil Last July, Jean-Michel Dubé won the Canadian Music Competition – Stepping Stones. Over four rounds, this challenge represented the performance of nearly three hours of repertoire, and Dube presented Prokofiev’s 7th Sonata, Liszt’s Obermann Valley, a work by Brahms and an impromptu by Schubert. In the finale, the young pianist presented Beethoven’s Piano Concerto # 2. More recently, last September, Jean-Michel Dubé was awarded the Best Performance Award for the imposed work of the German Music Prize, an international competition in the very heart of Berlin. The particular work…

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