Finals of famous Queen Elizabeth competition (with a taste of Korea)

http://www.cmireb.be/en/


You can listen pianists-finalists live, http://www.cmireb.be/en/p/2/12/143/147/finalisten.html

within a schedule as follows, http://www.cmireb.be/data/presse/Final%20programme-01.pdf

on this http adress: http://video.cmireb.be/live .

If you can't make it, you can listen to their recordings later, from the data-base of competition: http://video.cmireb.be/vod


I wish you a lot of pleasure!

In the name of...

Today marks one week and one day since the morning, when a strange silence woke me up. "What is this," I asked myself, "How can it be, that my street is empty at a time when usually it is teeming with people? What are all these low-flying helicopters doing above my head?" It seems as though we were just before the bombing." Then I think more and I remember...the Pope has arrived to the city.
Pope brings hope, they say. Great. I really didn't want to discuss about money, why the quality of positive human feelings (which elicit from admiration of the Pope and his presence among people) are unapproachably more valuable than material sacrifices required by his four-day visit. But come on, all has its limits! Portugal is in severe economic crisis (soon after Greece), threatened by financial meltdown. However, a clever government declared a national holiday everywhere, where the Holy Father pleased to step and give away his hope and compassion. If I'm not mistaken, in practice this meant at least two new festive days. You can imagine what does one day of inertion mean for the state economy, especially if it is in such dire straits ... No, no, this is something one sober individual can't understand.
I respect all catholic believers and I know that in their system of belief Pope represents someone who is closest to one, whom they aim to - to God (although, if I may, in this striving they all too often forget that the latter doesn't sit on the clouds, but they themselves are part of Him and therefore very much responsible for their actions), yet ...
The reality of today doens't speak in favor of Portugal. Let's say that the pope brought endless hope and love, that he brought together all the believers (ie the vast majority of the Portuguese) for four days - marked by the highest human values. Wonderful job! But what about the day after his departure? I haven't noticed any particular optimism, great hope, any refined human virtues, and even less a recrutial of the (poor) state economy. No, the streets were with same melody again and they hosted the same people and the same concerns (only one day older).
Why? Because; True human virtues can not be learned in such partial way (when the Pope comes, in the time of Christmas and at Easter...), conquest of them requires continous self-preoccupancy and finding your own truth (based on your own experiences and feelings). Then the hope (as well trust) comes by itself, it grows out from the vision that we can have control over our lives and creating, that the quality of our life depends mainly on ourselves and on what we think, what we do and how much are we in tune with our wishes and that, to which we devote our time, effort, our love and our life.

Let's go to demonstrations!

The day before yesterday was a sad day for the history of higher education system in Slovenia. The mass of students (about 10,000 of them) ended their tumultuous demonstrations infront of the Parliament, in rather wretched way ...

I quote from the daily Slovenian newspaper Dnevnik (20. 5. 2010):
"...The facade of Parliament is bruised, almost all the windows smashed, broken glass of the front door. Angry crowd of student demonstrators who protested yesterday "to improve the social status of students and pupils" threw in the building everything they could lay in their hands first; eggs, toilet paper, bottles, beer cans and bottles, the granite blocks. Each time the glass was broken, the loud whistling and cries of "Yes" could be heard from a huge mass of young people. There was even one "Molotov", which flew towards Parliament and burned some bushes and a part of the facade. The protesters were finally surrounded by one hundred police officers (from special units), but this didn't stop them as well. They continued with pelting; first with stones, then with rocks and eggs, and finally with the bottles. "At least we've hurt one!" said proudly one hazy protester..."

It would be nice to have an insight into the statistics of how many of those students who participated on turbulent wednesday demonstrations, had actually experienced studying outside their native country for a longer period of time. I'm pretty sure that there weren't so many, since it would otherwise be clearly affirmed, how fierce and hard are the conditions for students abroad or. on the contrary - how privileged they are, in many areas of socio-cultural life, students in Slovenia. This insight would probably cause much grief to them, forwhy they would have to admit in evidence that they have made a big mistake; that they had to destroy a work of art in order to express the black-and-white belief of a crowd, a work of art, that has nothing to do with violence and destruction (even if the politics do) and on the contrary symbolizes their roots and embodies the highest humanistic values. Finally, that they have dishonoured an institution, which (despite all the controversial laws, which were and are still to come) raised up the possibility of quality education and worthy life in a country, where they had been born.

GABRIELA MONTERO: How couldn't I know about her?!?!

"When improvising," Gabriela says, "I connect to my audience in a completely unique way - and they connect with me. Because improvisation is such a huge part of who I am, it is the most natural and spontaneous way I can express myself. I have been improvising since my hands first touched the keyboard, but for many years I kept this aspect of my playing secret. Then Martha Argerich overheard me improvising one day and was ecstatic. In fact, it was Martha who persuaded me that it was possible to combine my career as a serious 'classical' artist with the side of me that is rather unique."

Everything else you can read here:

http://www.gabrielamontero.com/

Let's go to "Casa da Musica"!

Piano recital of EMANUEL AX: Porto, Casa da Musica, 15. 5. 2010

Beethoven: Sonata in C-major, op. 2, no. 3
---> Unforgettable, I understood every tone. What a differentiation in sound, what a clear structure and how much magical moments. And oh, that Beethoven! Bravo!

Kaija Saariaho: Ballade (for Manny)
---> what he did with this ballad is really nice.

Beethoven: Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 81a "Les Adieux"
---> Copying comment of the first sonata ... Bravo!

Chopin: Polonaise-Fantasie in A-flat major, Op. 61 --->
Good, understanadble, with magic, yet, Chopin would need a bit of another dimension of sound, for example some briliance.

Chopin: 3 Mazurkas
E-minor, Op. 41 No. 1 ---> I miss dancing, double stylisation,
C-major, op.21 No. 3 ---> Nice, some additional clarity in
ornamentation wouldn't do harm,
C-minor, Op. 56 No. 3 ---> Very stylized mazurka, but still ...

Thomas Ades: Three Mazurkas, Op. 27
---> Beautiful mazurkas, with obvious Chopinian impact, but still in their own language. Exploiting the extreme possibilites of piano. Very nice.

Chopin: Scherzo No. 2 in b-flat minor, Op. 31
---> Really well. Everything in its place, only that brilliance at certain points... it could be the issue of pianism ...

An exceptional musician, this Ax! I highly recommend it!

INGRID HÄBLER - what a reference for Viennese classic and Schubert!

Ingrid Haebler was born in Vienna (Austria) on June 20, 1929. She studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum, Vienna Music Academy, Geneva Conservatory (Nikita Magaloff) and privately in Paris with Marguerite Long. She toured worldwide, but is best known for a series of recordings from the 1950s to 1980s. Her complete recording of Mozart's piano sonatas for the Denon label are still regarded as among the finest sets. Haebler also recorded all of Mozart's piano concertos (almost all of them twice) - often with her own cadenzas - and all of Schubert's sonatas. She was one of several Austrian musicians to experiment early with period instruments, having recorded music of J. C. Bach on a fortepiano. Her recordings of Beethoven with violinist Henryk Szeryng are particularly prized.

Mozart: Sonata in A-minor, KV 310

Schubert: Sonata in A-major, D 664

Why the hell this shoes?!

I guess it is illegal to make anti-advertisment for shoes, so I will try to avoid photographic material. Though, there are plenty of shoes to see - shoes, that have nothing to do with aesthetics.

I have always been attracted to detail. That doesn't change here, in Porto, where I've come across one funny "General Shoesy Surprise."
Sometimes the sun is very strong, and that diffuse light before the spring-shower forces me to look towards the ground and find a moment of peace for my eyes. But look, the devil, then I see all those shoes ...
Then I see young people wearing this multi-beloved sneakers that are a bit wider and higher, so they can stuck their trousers inside. And then there are those, how do we call them?, yellow and hairy half-cowboy ones (which, I thought, died out decades ago), then there are ALLSTAR shoes (which are legendary, but they don't go so well together with the black trousers or linseed skirt, which you have bought in Zara), and of course, then there are Nike sneakers of all types or even ordinary sport slippers, which we used to wear in lessons of physical education - comfortable but ugly as hell... Well, ofcourse you can find people that doens't hurt the eye too much, although they have maybe inherited the foot-wear habits from their grandfathers.
Nevertheless, these shoes are not the worse thing. Worse then the shoes is a combination of shoes and clothing, why shoes (which are somehow more old-fashioned or infantile) almost never blend with the dress, the materials and colors which currently dominate the global ready-made fashion (by the way, also worthy of consideration). Of course, men are generally slightly less aesthetic then women, but that is mostly the guilt of global clothing industry, which offers to women ten times greater selection of clothes. However, I have to admit that woman are surprising me more in negative then in positive direction as well. In my opinion the most aesthetically arranged and most consistent with their clothing is older population who has maintained and preserved that good measure from old days.

After all, why do I care? But I do. I always care about everything and I can not pretend that I don't see. And I have special affinity for nice shoes ... I'm sorry, I am just about to make a horrible generalization again, but it's is obvious: Portuguese general "Foot-wear Taste" (if not a general taste for dressing) is worse than I was accustomed to. When you look at a being in those shoes, in that outfit ... No. Things just don't go together. It's not the best.

Long live exceptions, long live the children with their fairytale-shoes! :)

Schostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2: Children's music or a piece of a great value?

Today is Maxim Schostakovich's 72nd birthday. 10th of May 1957 was also the day, when the latter earned his Moscow Conservatory diploma by performing the premiére of father's (Dmitri Schostakovich's) 2nd Piano Concerto - dedicated to his son.

Dmitri Schostakovich on his 2nd piano concerto: "...I compose badly. Have just finished a piano concerto of absolutely no artistic or idealistic value."

Well, I don't know if I can agree on that strong self-critisism. It is true that the Second Piano Concerto is simpler then then other concertos, it's true that it is not calling for typical Schostakovich's sarcasm and satire (though there are very evident conflict points, as well as lots of humour in 1st and last movement). It's true that it is written in neoclasical style, in conventional thre-movement sonata form of an Allegro followed by romanticly inspired and melancholic middle movement closing with a joyful last movement. However, inspite of all this we must not overlook the fact, that its classical language is developed to the highest level (in derivation of motives, skilful use of poliphony, creation of characters and coulours, in building an unique musical thoughts and unit) and that in the same time it represents marvellous pedagogic tool - why it is accessible to many young people.


Yefim Bronfman, piano

Happy birthday giants! (Tchaikovsky 170, Brahms 177 today!)

Piotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky

Piano trio in A minor, op. 50

Arthur Rubinstein, piano
Gregor Piatigorsky, cello
Jascha Heifetz, violin












Johannes Brahms

Piano trio in B-flat major, op. 8

Julius Katchen, piano
Janos Starker, cello
Josef Suk, violin

Technique of playing an instrument; ugh, how ugly words!

When it comes to art, I don't like to hear this word: technique.
It makes me remember all those poor piano students who are versed in all kinds of finger exercises; being promissed (by their uninspired professors) that this is the shortest and best way to achieve top-pianism, they are diligently lifting and descending their fingers every day, day by day, year by year... Well, nowadays the things are not so cruel anymore, why anybody can read in almost every good methodic book how isolated "gymnastic finger exercices" represent reverse process from that which grants true musical results.

So what was the first? The soul or the body? I don't need to answer that, do I? Similarly we can think of technique and (poetic) musical content. Was technique the first? "Of course not," you say. And of course you are right. It was Chopin with his great soul and music (which came to the world through his invaluable internal hearing), it was him who set new technical requirements infront of pianists of 19th century. Not vice versa - it was not technique who dictated Chopin to write the genial two opuses of studies (how absurd this sentence sounds, no?).

Thus music with its written record (and what lies "behind the notes") dictates technique. In other words, technique represents means to achieve the objective - the embodiment of music content. How do this means of achievement work? Mind (brain) creates a special movement or operation of the arm, fingers, other parts of the body, what ultimately produces the sound (of the instrument) for which musical content is calling for. Piano technique could simply reflect in the "reciprocal relation between the weight of hands and activity of the fingers"; simply put: production of sound in specific moment depends on the fact - how much weight do we give to the hands and how active are the fingers. But let's not forget the most important: this mutual realation of weight and activity of the fingers varies depending on the requirements dictated by the musical content. The technique is therefore not something separated from music, it's not a pill that you need to eat, to speed-up your fingers. Finger-speed, by the way, doesn't depend on unstopable playing of "soul-killing" finger exercises, but mainly on the speed of our thoughts - produced by the great will of the creative artist. Technique is the consequence of our will, the will of our spirit, to create the true beauty.

Concluding from this, isn't it better to solve a technical problem when it occurs - because of the music content, and not when we don't see the reason for it's genesis (eg, in finger exercises)? So when a problem of thirds occurs in Bethoveen's Sonata, we will solve the problem there - trying to understand a musical value of the mentioned problem, when a problem of cantilene occurs in Chopin's Nocturne, again, it will be solved there - in order to achieve natural music flow, we will solve problem of octaves in a study of Moszkowski, problem of Alberti's bass in Mozart's sonatas, etc.. Music has made all that we call technique, so why not to start our work by understanding the music and its content - seing what constitutes a musical idea, what does this idea mean, which technical requirement does it create, and why.

I hate when one says: "Oh no, I can't play Chopin's study Op. 10 No. 4, because it is so technically difficult." Not really. You can not play it, because you are diligently lifting your fingers - not taking into consideration that the "beloved presto" has its melody as well, melody which has its stable and unstable tones, which has it's way, its peaks, that this melodic line (although in presto) calls for the idea of the sound-beauty (which means that you have to - in order to achieve uniformity of sound and derivation of fast musical thught - economize all movements to the extreme point, that you have to set your hand completely free in order to facilitate the speed of the fingers, etc.), that besides that, it is extremely important to keep an eye on the left hand (which we love to neglect, while being obsessed with the complexity of the right hand), because the latter is the one, which dictates the pulse, music breathing, since the latter is responsible for the harmonic flow, etc.. So, you can't play the study, because you do not have clear sound picture - internal hearing of what lies "behind the music notes". If you are completely sure of why each tone lies where it lies, you will soon unclear also how to transform the internal hearing into representative sound. Even if you do not know yet what kind of gestures you will have to create in order to achieve certain sound, at least you are sure of what you want to hear. And because you are full of creative power, because your will is strong as a mountain, you will be looking for that sound as long as it needs to be found. Of course, musical vision is constantly changing during a long-time practising process, but this does not invalidate the fact that we have to create a "crystal clear sound picture of the piece" already in the beginning of practising.

Much more important, then an isolated practising of technique, is therefore practising how to understand the music score and music content, because it is only the latter, which talks about what does specific tone mean, why is it necessary to create certain sound and suggests how (technical solution and installation of the sounds in time).

Finger-speed and relaxed hands by itself don't meen anything. Their symbiosis dictated by emotional-lyrical content of music is what we might call a technique (for example of piano playing). Nevertheless, for insight into the emotional-lyrical content it is not enough to move your fingers ten hours per day. It is necessary to go out of the room, it's necessary to hug the whole world with your large extensible fingers of love, because the world is the one who gave you and me the invaluable opportunity to be able to hear beauty.

Let's go to Casa da Música

Concert of Miguel Borges Coelho {Porto, Casa da Música, 28. 4. 2010}

Beethoven: Bagatelles Op. 126

---> Sophisticated, beautiful and wise sound in the slower and more "singing" parts of Bagatelles, stiff upper hand in the rapid and dynamic parts, as result tone is not clear and uniformed; consequence: overall picture of some Bagatelles is not the most clear.

Arnold Schoenberg: Suite Op. 25

---> Very good and clear temporal structure, in my opinion lack of differentiation in the sound and a bit "tight-fisted" use of the pedal; so complex dodecafonic content is (despite good timing) difficult to understand without the latter.

Claude Debussy: Suite Pour le Piano

---> Solid.

Alexsander Skriabin: Five Preludes Op. 74

---> Late and great Skriabin's work. Despite the apparent continuity of the Preludes I missed some of substantial differences (surprises and diversity) in the sound, everything was "in the same room". However, I don't know the piece - maybe it is supposed to be like that.

Jorge Peixinho: Etude III in B-flat major

---> Beeing placed between this giants's works, (despite interesting and humorous experimentations around B-flat major chord) study comes out as a little bit banal. But once more, as I don't know the piece, I feel incompetent to evaluate the performance.

Bela Bartok: Suite Outdoors

---> In my opinion, first three movements were to smilar to eachother in terms of sound qualites (the first - "brutal one" was very well played, but then the second and the third were a bit too "brutal" as well), the fourth was great! (In direction of musical thought and even more in the sound - "almost out of this world"), fifth was powerful and soverign.

---> Encore: Satie ...

Who goes for contemporary?

Madalena Soveral; one of the world's leading pianists specialized in the field of contemporary music




Madalena Soveral was born in Porto, where she studied music. She continued her training at the Porto Conservatory of Music, an then, sponsored by a grant from the SEC, at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, where she obtained the “Licence de concert”. First studing under mother guidance, Hélia Soveral, she also studied under Reine Gianoli, Marian Rybicki, and Claude Helffer. In 1966 she awarded the “900 Musicale Europeo” prize, in Naples (Italy).

Madalena Soveral has given concerts since 1990, both solo and with orchestra, as well as various forms of chamber music festivals of Naples, Santiago de Compostela, Sceaux, Festival de Montpellier-Radio France, Mantova (Italy), The UNESCO Twentieth Century Music Festival (Paris), Música Nova (Brasil), The 1st Lisbon Festival of Contemporary Musics (Lisbonne, T.N.S.C.), as well as at the Academia de Santa Cecília (Roma), The Theatre du Rond-Point, Auditorium des Halles and The Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro.
During her career, Madalena Soveral has focussed on a 20th century repertoire working with a variety of composers and performers. Of special importance in this field is her work with the composer Giacinto Scelsi and with the “Les Percussions de Strasbourg” group, as well as her collaboration with the pianist Jean-Louis Haguenauer and the percussionists Christian Hamouy and Georges Van Gucht.
Madalena Soveral has performed the world premiere of numerous pieces, including those written especially for her : Estudos de Sonoridades (Filipe Pires), Interrogations (Miguel Graça Moura), Dominos (Sharon Kanach), In Tempore, for piano and electronic (João Pedro Oliveira), and Episode, for two pianos and two percussions (Francis Bayer).

Today, Madalena Soveral works as a Professor (and Coordinator) at the Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo do Porto. Besides that she is working on a research project on 20th Century Portuguese Piano Music, at the University of Paris 8. Étude Analytique des Litanies du feu et de la mer d’Emmanuel Nunes, carried out between 1997-99, constitued the first part of that work. In 2005 she completed the Doctorat in Music with the teses Quatre compositeurs, Quatre oeuvres: la musique portugaise pour piano des années 90, about the piano’s compositions from António Pinho Vargas, Filipe Pires, João Pedro Oliveira, and João Rafael.
In 2006 Madalena Soveral joined the research Center CESEM (Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical) of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

The artist has issued several CDs, among which is particularly reboant a CD with the complete Schönberg's piano-solo works:

http://www.madalenasoveral.com/