The legacy of Ricardo Viñes

I had been learning Spanish music since I was a schoolboy, everything from major composers such as Isaac Albeniz and Enrique Granados to lesser-performed Catalan composers such as Ricard Lamote de Grignon and Ricardo Viñes.  With equal part fantasy and theatre, Spanish and Catalan music never fails to captivate me.  Here is something by Catalan composer and pianist Ricardo Viñes (1875 - 1943), recorded eons ago at a home concert.  

Ricardo Viñes (1875 - 1943) is a personal hero of mine, as he was the pianist credited with the most number of premiere performances, of works by his contemporaries such as Debussy and Ravel and Turina and Mompou and all.  Abandoning the traditional recital programme of Austro-Germanic piano works, Viñes was responsible for spreading and campaigning the names of "new " composers to audiences in Spain and France and Latin America. Without Viñes we might never hear of them today.

Possible concert idea: "Shuck and Play" with music by Breton composers?

There are other composers who wrote great Nocturnes too, you know.  Guy Ropartz (1864 - 1955) was a French composer who added three beautiful Nocturnes to the piano repertoire. His music can sometimes take after Cesar Franck and Vincent d'Indy, especially apparent in the first Nocturne; at other times, like in the second and third Nocturnes his music offers a palette of stunning harmonic colours and nuances that are unmistakably French.  

Though living well into the 1950s, his late-romantic language

Harking back to a bygone age - recital at the 1901 Arts Club, London

Music had, for centuries, played an important role in our society.  Paintings and documents have long afforded us a glimpse into the vibrant musical life of generations past, particularly the music salons of 19th century.  These salons were meeting places for music lovers, performers, composers,  instrument makers, and the curious minded public of every walk of life - a cocktail of interesting characters unlikely to come together if not for the occasion.  Several performers would take to the stage, with slightly less fanfare than at a concert hall proper but every bit as compelling and

Book Review - The Recorded Legacy of Vladimir Horowitz

Photo with 'Recorded Legacy of Vladimir Horowitz' author, Jun Kinoshita

I often call pianists of my age the 'Horowitz Generation'.  I grew up listening, watching, and reading about Vladimir Horowitz; my parents weren't using Mozart as a ruler for pianistic excellence, but Horowitz.  In our modest collection of recordings at home, Horowitz' far out-numbered any other pianists.  

At Juilliard, I sat in David Dubal's class.  Mr. Dubal is well-known far and beyond for his radio programme, his encyclopedic knowledge of the piano repertoire, as well as his association with Vladimir Horowitz.  

Editorial Boileau - one of the greatest Spanish music publishers of all time

Editorial Boileau, or affectionately known simply as Boileau, has been and is still one of the most well-known and important music publishers in the world.  Based in Barcelona, it champions the publishing of Spanish music over the last 100 years. 

Pianists and musicians will not be foreign to its books with the signature light beige cover.  It is also one of the most easily readable and durable scores I have come across.  I have amassed a collection of its earlier publications as well as newer ones.  This past July, as an incentive to some

Interview with Mark Ainley

Few personalities in the classical music world garner as much serious attention as Mark Ainley, whose daily updates on his Facebook page "The Piano Files" demand thoughtful consideration from piano-philes all over the world.  If there is ever an internet jukebox for the greatest piano performances, it would have to be Mark's brilliant selections. 

Facebook has become a successful platform for sharing knowledge, useful or otherwise, and our generation has come

With Koji Attwood in Paris

Pianist and pedagogue Koji Attwood has been a close friend since my Juilliard days, and is still one of the pianists I most admire and respect.  When we weren't dissecting the shoulder of a Neapolitan jacket or recipes from previous episode of Iron Chef, we dissertated on the nuances of certain Horowitz recordings or Scriabin harmonies, over Chinese food or industrial strength espressos in Little Italy.  When we

Tickling the ivories in Barcelona

Piano: Fazioli

Looking back at the past 4 years of playing concerts in Barcelona, I have to say that performing for the Catalan audience is one of the most enjoyable experiences.  They arrive at the concert on time; they fully appreciate every musical work (and you know how obscure some of the stuff I play); they are very vocal about their opinions (which, thank god, are mostly praises); and they drink.  

Let me be very honest here: there is nothing more inviting to a concert pianist than an enthusiastic audience and a bottle of wine after the concert.  Nothing.  Not the money, not the hotel, not the anticipation of the next concert the next day at the next destination. 

回顧過去四年在西班牙巴塞隆拿擧行的演奏會，我可以說這裏的樂迷是一群很值得讚的粉絲。他們除了準時來到音樂會，欣賞每一首演奏作品，當中更包括一些很不普及的作品，而且他們更會毫不吝嗇地給我寶貴的意見及對音樂會的看法！而更重要的是，他們在演奏會後都會跟我去把酒談歡！

 

我可以很老實的跟你說，對一名演奏者來說，世界上没有一樣東西比一班熱情而又真誠的樂迷來得更珍貴！

Piano: Steinway & Sons

Piano: Fazioli

 

Piano: Bechstein

 

Kazakhstan Series: Recital in Shymkent

Shymkent is the capital city of South Kazakhstan region.  It is the last place I expect myself to appear on stage, and yet there I was, in a beautiful concert hall that has a calendar as filled-up as Carnegie Hall, giving a recital to local South Kazakhs of all shapes and sizes who rushed to the recital like it was sales at Harod's.  A translator who spoke as much English as I could speak Kazakh read out a brief bio of me (I can only hope!) and announced each pieces as I happily banged away on a 7-foot white Yamaha concert grand.  I played the whole recital without an intermission - I couldn't look up "intermission" in Kazakh.  The audience loved it nevertheless and the concert was really well received.  One lady audience even rushed up on stage, gave me a rose and a kiss!  I can only hope that isn't a Kazakh proposal of marriage...

La dolce vita: Concert and Cava in Barcelona

This is my third time performing at the Reial Cercle Artistic in Barcelona, all thanks to a chance encounter with some great people back in 2011 - and if one day I were to reduce my life into an aphorism, you won't miss the words 'chance encounter' in it.  Ever since then, I have enjoyed every return to the Reial Cercle Artistic (the Royal Circle of Artists, or Royal Artistic Circle, you get the gist), its curators, the Spanish audiences ... and the cava. 

This recital was also quite fitting as I started the programme with couple of works by Joaquim Malats, a composer from Barcelona.  For the symmetry of things, we opened a couple bottles of Spanish cava (sparkling wine from Catalonia) at the end of the concert.  Life doesn't get any better than this.