WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:26.519 Thank you. That was Sinding's Russell of Spring 00:00:26.519 --> 00:00:29.399 and it was performed by Sir Stephen Hough on 00:00:29.399 --> 00:00:32.640 his new album, Piano Postcards, on the Hyperion 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:35.579 Records label. I'm Erica Worth and welcome to 00:00:35.579 --> 00:00:38.679 this Pianist Podcast episode. I'll be speaking 00:00:38.679 --> 00:00:41.200 to Stephen about his choice of repertoire for 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:45.159 the album and much more. Stephen, it's great 00:00:45.159 --> 00:00:48.140 to have you on the podcast today. Thank you, 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:50.439 Erica. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:52.939 so much. Firstly, we're here to talk about your 00:00:52.939 --> 00:00:55.299 new album, Piano Postcards, which I don't think 00:00:55.299 --> 00:00:58.719 is actually out yet till early July. If you could 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:01.320 tell us a bit about it and the tracks that are 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:03.460 coming out now and then and the whole vision 00:01:03.460 --> 00:01:06.819 behind the album. Well, I've always, you know, 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:09.359 the earliest records that I owned as a little 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:12.939 boy were records of little individual pieces. 00:01:13.140 --> 00:01:15.140 The very first record was called Clive Lithgow 00:01:15.140 --> 00:01:18.760 Plays. And in fact, it had a number of tracks 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:22.159 on that I've recorded myself subsequently. The 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:24.260 most important record I ever owned as a child 00:01:24.260 --> 00:01:27.459 was one called Keyboard Giants of the Past with 00:01:27.459 --> 00:01:30.739 Rachmaninoff and Courtauld and Paderewski and 00:01:30.739 --> 00:01:33.319 all of these great artists that have been my 00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:37.379 most important inspiration. the years so very 00:01:37.379 --> 00:01:39.900 early in my recording career i guess in the mid 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:43.760 80s i made a record called piano album and then 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:46.079 i did piano album two and that became a double 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:49.120 disc and then i did the new piano album and then 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:51.680 the english piano spanish and the french and 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:55.459 the mozart album and then a dream album well 00:01:55.459 --> 00:01:58.879 this is really the last in a long line of these 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:01.319 things i must have recorded hundreds of these 00:02:01.319 --> 00:02:04.200 little tracks And, you know, the great pianists 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:06.599 from the turn of the 19th, 20th century up to 00:02:06.599 --> 00:02:09.659 the Second World War always had these interesting 00:02:09.659 --> 00:02:12.280 encore pieces in their repertoire. And they were 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:14.240 often written by themselves. I mean, at that 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:16.360 very height, someone like Rachmaninoff, but also 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:19.960 Godofsky and then later Earl Wilde and so on. 00:02:20.539 --> 00:02:23.460 And I've always had a fascination for these pieces 00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:27.460 that reveal something of the character of the 00:02:27.460 --> 00:02:30.620 pianist who is playing and who wrote them. And 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:32.879 so I thought, well, let's do another one. And 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:36.099 we got a bit tired of the album tag. So it's 00:02:36.099 --> 00:02:38.400 actually someone at Hyperion came up with this 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:41.620 idea of picture postcards because there are pieces 00:02:41.620 --> 00:02:44.240 from all over the world on this record. And it's 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:46.979 a kind of a cute idea that I'm, you know, in 00:02:46.979 --> 00:02:50.159 Taiwan and I send a postcard home and it's the 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:53.500 famous Taiwanese song Pining for the Spring Breeze 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:56.139 arranged in the style of Rachmaninoff. I actually 00:02:56.139 --> 00:02:59.400 did this as an encore after Rachmaninoff's fourth. 00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:02.629 I mean, it sounds amazing. That track is incredible. 00:03:02.629 --> 00:03:04.349 Well, it starts like the G major prelude and 00:03:04.349 --> 00:03:05.909 everyone thinks that's what's going to happen. 00:03:05.990 --> 00:03:08.210 And then suddenly the tune doesn't come in, but 00:03:08.210 --> 00:03:12.210 you hear this, the pentatonic tune of the Taiwanese 00:03:12.210 --> 00:03:16.469 song. So, yeah, it's really, it's the world of 00:03:16.469 --> 00:03:20.449 the encore, really. That's interesting. I mean, 00:03:20.469 --> 00:03:22.509 there's such a wonderful range. My goodness, 00:03:22.590 --> 00:03:25.430 it's about how many tracks? 26 tracks in total. 00:03:26.060 --> 00:03:29.039 um you know from your standard Rachmaninoff to 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:33.800 and oh McDowell to a Wild Rose and then some 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:35.919 composers I'd never heard of such as Matthew 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:40.860 Wilder and Malcolm Williamson oh beautiful pieces 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:44.479 by there oh thank you well Malcolm Williamson 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:48.800 was one of those on that very first LP and when 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:50.960 I say you know it means a lot to me because we 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:53.680 had literally no classical music in the house 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:58.120 at all And so when I started piano lessons, at 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.460 my insistence, my parents said, no, we're not 00:04:00.460 --> 00:04:03.099 buying you a piano. Eventually they bought the 00:04:03.099 --> 00:04:04.960 cheapest one they could find, which was five 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:07.300 pounds from an antique shop in Stockton Heath, 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:10.580 Cheshire. And I started lessons. This was the 00:04:10.580 --> 00:04:12.719 first record they bought. And on this record 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:15.560 was so many pieces that I had subsequently learned. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:19.180 So I can pinpoint a moment. Most people have 00:04:19.180 --> 00:04:22.259 music around them and parents are playing things 00:04:22.259 --> 00:04:25.860 and the radio has Radio 3. Classic FM. But I 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:29.779 really know the exact moment when I first got 00:04:29.779 --> 00:04:33.839 to know about music. And this Williamson was 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:35.699 on there. So I knew this piece before I knew 00:04:35.699 --> 00:04:40.060 anything by Mozart, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Brahms. 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:43.100 All these, I knew these names were, I didn't 00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:45.160 know them at all, but I knew Malcolm Williamson. 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:48.220 So there we are. That is incredible. Really, 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:50.420 that's incredible. And then you've got your arrangements 00:04:50.420 --> 00:04:54.420 from Mary Poppins, which are so divine. Well, 00:04:54.459 --> 00:04:56.300 these were, of course, a Lang Lang commission. 00:04:56.899 --> 00:05:00.839 Lang Lang did this album for DG during the pandemic, 00:05:01.079 --> 00:05:06.240 his Disney album. And he was in touch and wanted 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:08.860 Disney arrangements. And so I actually, in the 00:05:08.860 --> 00:05:12.000 end, did 12 for him. And six of them are on this 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.579 record because there are the three pieces from 00:05:14.579 --> 00:05:18.399 Mary Poppins. And then there's also Do You Want 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:22.949 to Build a Snowman from Frozen. uh there is the 00:05:22.949 --> 00:05:25.769 reflection from mulan and then remember me from 00:05:25.769 --> 00:05:28.970 coco now those last three i'd never heard these 00:05:28.970 --> 00:05:32.769 before i knew that about the show frozen but 00:05:32.769 --> 00:05:35.250 then when someone suggested well what about remember 00:05:35.250 --> 00:05:37.949 me i said oh what's that so i went to youtube 00:05:37.949 --> 00:05:41.009 and i saw that there was like 700 million views 00:05:41.009 --> 00:05:43.110 of this i thought well obviously i've been left 00:05:43.110 --> 00:05:46.930 out of this And then, of course, it's a beautiful, 00:05:47.089 --> 00:05:51.149 lovely, sentimental tune. And I did that arrangement. 00:05:51.709 --> 00:05:53.870 Some of them were very specific. They wanted, 00:05:54.009 --> 00:05:57.129 first of all, always classical. I think, in fact, 00:05:57.209 --> 00:05:59.569 Lang Lang had heard my arrangements of Richard 00:05:59.569 --> 00:06:02.750 Rogers that I did decades ago. And he liked this 00:06:02.750 --> 00:06:05.550 idea of having arrangements done in a classical 00:06:05.550 --> 00:06:09.870 style. Yes. And I tried, well, Chim Chim Cherie 00:06:09.870 --> 00:06:13.209 is really in the style of Rachmaninoff. and um 00:06:13.209 --> 00:06:17.129 you know also i think the uh the reflection from 00:06:17.129 --> 00:06:19.790 mulan has that kind of there's some wc there's 00:06:19.790 --> 00:06:22.589 some rachmaninoff in there so i wanted to do 00:06:22.589 --> 00:06:24.810 that and actually with the remember me they wanted 00:06:24.810 --> 00:06:28.769 a very straightforward simple version so it really 00:06:28.769 --> 00:06:32.610 is what's on the tin i have a little counter 00:06:32.610 --> 00:06:35.750 melody that I wrote above the melody for verse 00:06:35.750 --> 00:06:38.490 two and then there's one harmonic shift which 00:06:38.490 --> 00:06:41.689 is a little nod to Richard Strauss sort of shifting 00:06:41.689 --> 00:06:45.449 by a semitone into an inharmonically weird place 00:06:45.449 --> 00:06:48.930 I just allowed myself that little fingerprint 00:06:48.930 --> 00:06:51.930 on there but basically it's a simple arrangement 00:06:51.930 --> 00:06:55.269 of a very beautiful song amazing amazing and 00:06:55.269 --> 00:06:59.139 yet and then there are also obviously Many an 00:06:59.139 --> 00:07:01.180 encore, but, you know, many of your favourite 00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:04.680 encores like that Sibelius Etude in A minor, 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:09.139 which is just wonderful. And something that was 00:07:09.139 --> 00:07:12.240 new to me was the, wait a minute, the Passepied 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.879 by Delibes. Aha, well, that was on the LP Keyboard 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:17.639 Giants of the Past that my parents bought for 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:21.439 me, played by Gabriela Lovic, exquisitely played. 00:07:21.540 --> 00:07:25.620 And I've loved that piece always. uh so yeah 00:07:25.620 --> 00:07:28.800 i i recorded that and also on that um lp was 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:33.040 the libis light um of rahman of course very famous 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:36.079 a lot of people played that um it's one of my 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:39.079 favorite tracks of piano playing ever his performance 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:42.660 on that record of that piece to me i don't think 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:45.000 anyone's ever played the piano more extraordinary 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.720 than that three minutes that he recorded in i 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:51.379 think 1923 um you know here we are 100 years 00:07:51.379 --> 00:07:54.379 later and it still hasn't been bettered No, oh 00:07:54.379 --> 00:07:56.500 no, you're absolutely right. I mean, back to 00:07:56.500 --> 00:07:58.139 the Delibes, I was thinking of putting that in 00:07:58.139 --> 00:08:01.500 Pianist magazine. Is that a challenging piece? 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:05.620 I looked at the score very, very quickly. No, 00:08:05.620 --> 00:08:08.500 it's very, well, everything is impossibly difficult, 00:08:08.620 --> 00:08:11.360 isn't it, Eric, as you know, but if we're being 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:13.579 honest between ourselves and not for the audience 00:08:13.579 --> 00:08:15.920 listening, no, it's not a very difficult piece. 00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:18.699 In fact, I don't even know the original. It's 00:08:18.699 --> 00:08:21.000 from one of the ballets, I think. It is, but 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.480 I think it's his arrangement, isn't it? Yeah, 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.250 I think so. And it's very straightforward and 00:08:26.250 --> 00:08:30.449 very beautiful. And his last verse takes it in 00:08:30.449 --> 00:08:34.009 an interesting harmonic direction, which I like 00:08:34.009 --> 00:08:37.690 those little sort of twists. Exactly. Oh, OK. 00:08:37.769 --> 00:08:39.570 I might feature that in the magazine quite soon. 00:08:39.629 --> 00:08:41.549 I love the fact that you've got quite a bit of 00:08:41.549 --> 00:08:44.759 Chaminade on there. wonderful chaminade she was 00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:48.639 also very much part her autumn was on this lp 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.159 of clive lithgow it was right there from the 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:54.720 beginning and then my piano teacher heather slade 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:58.879 lipkin her mother um played piano as well and 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:01.500 she i can only ever remember her playing chaminade 00:09:01.500 --> 00:09:03.700 she would play all these pieces of chaminade 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:06.100 so again i knew these before i knew a lot of 00:09:06.100 --> 00:09:09.409 things and she played the takata You know, I 00:09:09.409 --> 00:09:12.110 can even at these now, we're talking, it's not 00:09:12.110 --> 00:09:15.710 far, it's 50 something years ago. And I can still 00:09:15.710 --> 00:09:18.990 see the way her hands lifted up from the keys 00:09:18.990 --> 00:09:20.889 when she played those staccatos. You know, certain 00:09:20.889 --> 00:09:23.230 things when you're a child are indelible. They 00:09:23.230 --> 00:09:26.669 just stick. And it's Auntie Joan playing the 00:09:26.669 --> 00:09:29.590 Chaminade staccato. Isn't that remarkable? But 00:09:29.590 --> 00:09:32.149 Chaminade wasn't even that well known back then, 00:09:32.250 --> 00:09:36.210 was she? Well, she was in our household. She's 00:09:36.210 --> 00:09:39.200 always been part of my... And I played Autumn 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:41.559 when I was like eight years old. And I've played 00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:44.879 it a lot since last season. I was opening my 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:48.080 recital program with it. And it's a gorgeous 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:52.019 tune. I mean, she writes with fantastic finesse 00:09:52.019 --> 00:09:55.480 and such a sense of the keyboard and what works 00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:58.740 well. It sounds harder than it is usually, which 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:01.600 is always a nice thing. But she was, yeah, she 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:04.460 was an absolute expert in writing for the instrument. 00:10:05.259 --> 00:10:07.460 Amazing. And another one that you most probably 00:10:07.460 --> 00:10:09.159 learned when you were quite young because it's 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:11.860 so well known is Sinding's Russell of Spring. 00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:15.179 I didn't actually. I sort of vamped through it. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:18.000 I never learned it. I never played it in a concert 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:21.200 until a few years ago. And I was just thinking 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.539 of doing it again. I've always liked it very 00:10:23.539 --> 00:10:26.860 much as a piece. It was in everyone's piano bench, 00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:30.340 wasn't it? If you had an aunt or a grandmother 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:32.700 or something who played the piano, Sinding was 00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:37.840 there. So, yeah, I learned it just a few years 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:40.240 ago. Oh, it's so wonderful. Well, I mean, this 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:43.419 album. I mean, when you say you started learning 00:10:43.419 --> 00:10:46.240 at the age of eight, Autumn, that's incredible. 00:10:46.580 --> 00:10:49.980 I mean, you must have been quite a pianist at 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:53.539 the age of eight then. I had a quick start. You 00:10:53.539 --> 00:10:56.419 know, once I started learning, I was absorbing 00:10:56.419 --> 00:10:59.659 it very, very quickly. I had these years in my 00:10:59.659 --> 00:11:01.899 teens, early teens, particularly when I lost 00:11:01.899 --> 00:11:04.080 interest in the piano and was not working very 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:07.080 hard. And I'd sort of written about a lot of 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:09.960 this in my memoir enough in case anyone wants 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:13.039 to find out. more but um i'm just looking at 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:16.120 the list myself here now nature boy which is 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:19.419 a song from nat king cole of course that i've 00:11:19.419 --> 00:11:22.000 always loved that was an idea of igor levitt 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:25.460 we were talking during the pandemic and we spoke 00:11:25.460 --> 00:11:29.039 about various things and he said wow i'd i'd 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:32.500 kill for an arrangement of nature boys so i don't 00:11:32.500 --> 00:11:35.720 know whether he has killed yet anyway this is 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:38.899 this will be the first recording and i wanted 00:11:38.899 --> 00:11:42.080 to take this also in a slightly different direction 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:46.019 because already the harmonies are quite um chromatic 00:11:46.019 --> 00:11:49.659 really it's it's a very unusual pop song it seems 00:11:49.659 --> 00:11:52.360 a lot more than a pop song in a way so i've taken 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:54.539 some of the implications of those harmonies and 00:11:54.539 --> 00:11:56.919 take them a little further down the same road 00:11:56.919 --> 00:11:59.899 goodness that's amazing and have you have you 00:11:59.899 --> 00:12:03.620 played it or shown igor levitt the score Well, 00:12:03.740 --> 00:12:06.000 he's got a copy of the score. I will send him 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:10.120 a track when it's out and he can hear it there, 00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:17.240 yes. So it's embargoed. Almost, I mean. Oh, that's 00:12:17.240 --> 00:12:19.559 fantastic. And I mean, all these countries and 00:12:19.559 --> 00:12:21.620 all these composers and the name of the album 00:12:21.620 --> 00:12:24.200 being Piano Postcards. And that's all, it's to 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:27.080 do with you travelling around the world, all 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:31.960 four continents. And it wasn't. 100 % on my mind 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:33.940 when I was assembling the record, but it's just 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:36.519 when the record came together and we looked at 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:38.100 it and thought, what are we going to call this? 00:12:38.259 --> 00:12:41.740 It just seemed to be this almost like a travelogue. 00:12:42.360 --> 00:12:46.279 Okay. I mean, and you yourself, you travel so 00:12:46.279 --> 00:12:48.519 much. When we touched base last week, you said 00:12:48.519 --> 00:12:52.480 you'd had an utterly insane week. Tell us about 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:57.059 your week last week. Well, it was insane. months 00:12:57.059 --> 00:12:59.820 ago when it was planned because I was playing 00:12:59.820 --> 00:13:03.000 Rachmaninoff third this week, Rachmaninoff first 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:06.700 next week and the Emperor and a recital program 00:13:06.700 --> 00:13:09.519 all within about two weeks and then my management 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:12.440 said that Yefim Bronfman had cancelled in Berlin 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:14.080 and they wondered if I could go and play Brahms 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:17.639 too. Well that is a piece that I've played since 00:13:17.639 --> 00:13:19.759 I was quite young and so it's one of those pieces 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:22.940 that that comes back quicker than most. And I 00:13:22.940 --> 00:13:24.419 thought, well, I haven't played a concerto in 00:13:24.419 --> 00:13:26.600 Berlin for a few years. Okay, why not? Let's 00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:31.559 do it. So I played on the Tuesday, the Rachmaninoff 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:34.659 Third, and then flew on Wednesday to rehearse. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:37.100 And we rehearsed Wednesday and Thursday. Friday 00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:39.419 morning, we had a sort of run through. Then Friday 00:13:39.419 --> 00:13:42.399 lunchtime, I flew back to London because I'd 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:45.730 agreed to do the Barnsbury Book Festival. and 00:13:45.730 --> 00:13:47.789 it's quite a small thing it's their first year 00:13:47.789 --> 00:13:49.690 but they were going to do an interview with me 00:13:49.690 --> 00:13:53.789 about my memoir and um and it looked like i could 00:13:53.789 --> 00:13:56.470 do this so i came back i did that and then i 00:13:56.470 --> 00:13:58.909 went right back to gatwick spent the night in 00:13:58.909 --> 00:14:01.490 a hotel at gatwick that same day and then took 00:14:01.490 --> 00:14:04.029 the seven o 'clock easy jet to berlin the next 00:14:04.029 --> 00:14:06.529 morning having had about four hours sleep i'm 00:14:06.529 --> 00:14:08.129 pretty much straight into the dress rehearsal 00:14:08.129 --> 00:14:13.500 fortunately i i do sleep quite well so I had 00:14:13.500 --> 00:14:17.240 a very light lunch of some not very richly dressed 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:21.879 fish and I got into bed and I slept for a couple 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:24.899 of hours. got up again had a nice hot shower 00:14:24.899 --> 00:14:26.860 and then went over and played Brahms too and 00:14:26.860 --> 00:14:30.419 then I'm back yesterday and now I have Rachmaninoff 00:14:30.419 --> 00:14:35.299 1 coming up tomorrow so that's in Scotland the 00:14:35.299 --> 00:14:37.500 Royal Scottish National Orchestra with John Wilson 00:14:37.500 --> 00:14:40.559 lovely so I don't tell them that I had all this 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:42.120 going on because they might be worried that I 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:44.639 wasn't concentrating enough on repertoire for 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:47.740 them but you know It's not always as crazy as 00:14:47.740 --> 00:14:49.419 that, but this week has been. And then I'm back 00:14:49.419 --> 00:14:52.299 to Berlin actually a week today to do this recital 00:14:52.299 --> 00:14:55.639 there that was also planned a while ago. But 00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:58.440 all this big repertoire, especially the concertos, 00:14:58.460 --> 00:15:01.039 how do you find the time to practice for the 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:04.299 next concert? Or it's so much in your fingers 00:15:04.299 --> 00:15:06.779 that you don't need to do that much? Well, I 00:15:06.779 --> 00:15:11.710 do find that... If I'm playing Brahms II, I might 00:15:11.710 --> 00:15:14.490 be warming up with Rachmaninoff III, let me put 00:15:14.490 --> 00:15:17.789 it like that, because I don't like, actually, 00:15:17.850 --> 00:15:19.909 to play the piece I'm about to play on stage 00:15:19.909 --> 00:15:23.059 too much. but in the dressing room because i 00:15:23.059 --> 00:15:25.600 it's partly superstition i sort of feel that 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:28.639 it may get stale or i feel that i might find 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:32.460 some area that i goes wrong in in the in the 00:15:32.460 --> 00:15:34.100 practice room and then i think oh my goodness 00:15:34.100 --> 00:15:36.340 it's going to go wrong again so i like to get 00:15:36.340 --> 00:15:39.580 rid of all that sort of neurosis and just it's 00:15:39.580 --> 00:15:41.299 really a matter of getting the fingers working 00:15:41.299 --> 00:15:44.059 yeah i wouldn't want to practice something like 00:15:44.059 --> 00:15:46.580 recommend enough you know just minutes before 00:15:46.580 --> 00:15:49.460 going to play mozart let's say partly because 00:15:49.460 --> 00:15:52.899 the whole spirit and psychology is completely 00:15:52.899 --> 00:15:55.600 different. And also because the way you use your 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:58.019 arm and fingers is completely different. So actually 00:15:58.019 --> 00:16:00.299 warming up for Mozart with Rachmaninoff is not 00:16:00.299 --> 00:16:02.139 really going to make you very warmed up for Mozart. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:05.799 The other way can work. So I have practiced Mozart 00:16:05.799 --> 00:16:10.039 backstage before playing Rachmaninoff. I don't 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:12.360 know why that's the case, but I just found it 00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:16.299 was easier to... to lift up to that to the more 00:16:16.299 --> 00:16:18.840 muscular form than it is to come down from the 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:23.779 heavy form to the left yeah but you know these 00:16:23.779 --> 00:16:26.220 concertos become our friends and we we travel 00:16:26.220 --> 00:16:28.600 with them all the time and you know i've been 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:31.220 playing for decades now and many concertos of 00:16:31.220 --> 00:16:33.620 course become part of your repertoire so you're 00:16:33.620 --> 00:16:36.799 playing them sometimes every season I think Brahms' 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:39.419 First has been a piece I've played pretty much 00:16:39.419 --> 00:16:42.100 every season. Certainly one of the Rachmaninoffs, 00:16:42.100 --> 00:16:45.120 the Paganini Rhapsody, I've played a tremendous 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:49.679 amount. And so, yeah, you know, it's what I say 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:53.179 to young people who, you know, thinking of careers, 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:56.360 it's the concertos that matter. Although when 00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:58.340 you're studying at college, you're learning all 00:16:58.340 --> 00:17:01.039 the solo repertoire, the reality of it, when 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:02.980 you get out there, it's going to be probably 00:17:02.980 --> 00:17:08.740 70 % concertos. 30 % recitals and it's what I 00:17:08.740 --> 00:17:11.859 did this past week the stepping in for somebody 00:17:11.859 --> 00:17:13.960 who's ill now this was just a bit of a luxury 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:16.519 for me but at the beginning of a career that 00:17:16.519 --> 00:17:20.109 is the way that many people get started We've 00:17:20.109 --> 00:17:22.170 mentioned Lang Lang. It's exactly what happened 00:17:22.170 --> 00:17:25.829 to him. Someone cancelled in Chicago, in Ravinia, 00:17:25.849 --> 00:17:28.950 for Tchaikovsky I. He got a phone call. He went 00:17:28.950 --> 00:17:30.990 out. He played. It was a huge success. And he's 00:17:30.990 --> 00:17:33.349 never looked back since. I mean, he did not go 00:17:33.349 --> 00:17:36.369 the competition route. And that happens for many 00:17:36.369 --> 00:17:38.470 people. It happened for me at the Hollywood Bowl, 00:17:38.549 --> 00:17:42.940 actually. home in Manchester. It was Paganini 00:17:42.940 --> 00:17:45.400 Rhapsody. I think it was Pog... Was it Pogarelic? 00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:48.660 Maybe not. It was somebody who cancelled. Could 00:17:48.660 --> 00:17:50.900 I go out? And I think I had to leave the next 00:17:50.900 --> 00:17:54.180 day. And it was Charles Groves, interestingly. 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:57.529 And I'd never played... Well, I played... a couple 00:17:57.529 --> 00:18:00.170 of concerts in America. But so I flew to Los 00:18:00.170 --> 00:18:02.869 Angeles, absolutely, you know, the jet lag, one 00:18:02.869 --> 00:18:06.990 rehearsal, Hollywood Bowl. But it went well and 00:18:06.990 --> 00:18:09.250 they asked me back and the manager of the orchestra 00:18:09.250 --> 00:18:12.930 there was very, had a lot of connections all 00:18:12.930 --> 00:18:14.950 over the country and he spoke to people and they 00:18:14.950 --> 00:18:17.450 spoke to people. And so really, you know, I'm 00:18:17.450 --> 00:18:20.730 going to America next week to Atlanta and Cincinnati 00:18:20.730 --> 00:18:25.210 and it all really comes from that moment of stepping 00:18:25.210 --> 00:18:29.039 in. at the Hollywood Bowl and the sort of snowball 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:32.279 that happened of the career along the way. But 00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:34.759 it would have been no good to say, well, I don't 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:37.400 play the Ragini Rhapsody, but I do play, I've 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:39.680 got a wonderful recital program with the Wollstein 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:41.859 and the, you know, Chopin, Ballard. Well, no, 00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:45.039 it has to be that concerto. Oh, my goodness. 00:18:45.630 --> 00:18:48.509 same thing happened in in chicago downtown with 00:18:48.509 --> 00:18:51.210 the orchestra a few years later someone cancelled 00:18:51.210 --> 00:18:54.130 for bartok 3 can you do it i happened to be i'd 00:18:54.130 --> 00:18:56.589 learned it very thoroughly or it was all fingered 00:18:56.589 --> 00:18:58.089 in my school that's something else i've spoken 00:18:58.089 --> 00:19:00.309 about right in your fingerings because it takes 00:19:00.309 --> 00:19:02.410 you half the amount of time to get the piece 00:19:02.410 --> 00:19:05.910 back from nothing because you start already it's 00:19:05.910 --> 00:19:10.079 like cooking in a restaurant. If you've got something 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:13.519 half ready, you can do that dish. If you're going 00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:15.960 to do a pie and you've not even got the pastry 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:18.359 rolled out, you won't be able to do it in the 00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:20.599 restaurant because it will take 40 minutes and 00:19:20.599 --> 00:19:23.359 the guests will have left without paying the 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.759 bill. That is so interesting, Stephen. I like 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:27.819 the way you brought up fingering because I think 00:19:27.819 --> 00:19:30.940 the hardest thing or the most frightening thing 00:19:30.940 --> 00:19:34.359 to do is to change your fingering at the last 00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:38.400 minute. Yes, and it can be very annoying if you 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:40.880 suddenly find a great fingering that you'd not 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:43.140 realised before. Well, it sort of happened in 00:19:43.140 --> 00:19:45.160 the Brahms this week. There was a fingering that 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:48.359 I'd not thought of before and I did change it. 00:19:48.500 --> 00:19:51.779 And actually it worked better on this occasion. 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:54.759 But I believe passionately in fingering because 00:19:54.759 --> 00:19:58.599 I think when you learn a piece, deciding the 00:19:58.599 --> 00:20:00.259 fingering you're going to do is part of that 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:05.130 learning process. It's actually... just to play 00:20:05.130 --> 00:20:07.390 it and sight read it until it kind of feels okay 00:20:07.390 --> 00:20:09.349 and then it's ready to go on stage. No, I think 00:20:09.349 --> 00:20:12.950 you begin, for me anyway, by this. And I love 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:15.410 it. I love this sense of what are the possibilities? 00:20:15.809 --> 00:20:17.990 You know, we have 10 fingers. What are the possibilities? 00:20:18.470 --> 00:20:21.410 How can we make it, well, either easier to play, 00:20:21.509 --> 00:20:24.970 clearer to play, more musically right? There 00:20:24.970 --> 00:20:26.750 are some fingerings which are more awkward, but 00:20:26.750 --> 00:20:28.950 actually which give you the musical message. 00:20:29.890 --> 00:20:32.490 And there are certain moments, there's one moment 00:20:32.490 --> 00:20:35.549 in the Chopin ballade, the fourth ballade, it 00:20:35.549 --> 00:20:38.789 just means altering one finger, and the passage 00:20:38.789 --> 00:20:42.150 which often goes wrong, never goes wrong. So 00:20:42.150 --> 00:20:46.769 it's one finger. And I really, I love that sort 00:20:46.769 --> 00:20:48.670 of thing, and I think this is what students... 00:20:48.890 --> 00:20:51.470 should be encouraged to do and write it in because 00:20:51.470 --> 00:20:53.710 believe me 24 years after you've played a piece 00:20:53.710 --> 00:20:55.789 you come back to you will not remember the fingerings 00:20:55.789 --> 00:20:58.329 you did whereas if they're written in you step 00:20:58.329 --> 00:21:01.009 right back into the seat and you can get going 00:21:01.009 --> 00:21:06.230 that is great advice there wow i'd love to know 00:21:06.230 --> 00:21:11.809 what that fingering is well next time we meet 00:21:11.809 --> 00:21:14.809 oh so it sounds like you really really like to 00:21:14.809 --> 00:21:19.589 travel oh i hate traveling erica no i do actually 00:21:19.589 --> 00:21:24.369 i i don't like the physical act of you know i 00:21:24.369 --> 00:21:27.029 spent my teenage years again this book i wrote 00:21:27.029 --> 00:21:29.910 about it in my bedroom you know listening to 00:21:29.910 --> 00:21:32.069 pop records and burning joysticks and doing yoga 00:21:32.069 --> 00:21:36.170 on the floor without any clothes on i sort of 00:21:36.170 --> 00:21:38.509 feel like that was the high point of my life 00:21:38.509 --> 00:21:41.930 and i often think back to those that bedroom 00:21:41.930 --> 00:21:48.119 painted purple in the 1970s and i sort of I'm 00:21:48.119 --> 00:21:50.619 very shy, you see, really. So in a way, this 00:21:50.619 --> 00:21:53.980 life is, I've learned how to overcome it. And 00:21:53.980 --> 00:21:56.019 I've learned how to fake it when I can't overcome 00:21:56.019 --> 00:22:00.039 it. But I'm a very private person in a way. And 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:03.599 so going out onto the stage, I love sharing this 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:07.859 music with people. But I don't love the sort 00:22:07.859 --> 00:22:10.559 of vulnerability always that comes from that. 00:22:11.259 --> 00:22:13.900 I mean, you are putting yourself, well, first 00:22:13.900 --> 00:22:15.799 of all, you're putting your emotions out for 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:18.859 everyone to manhandle, you know, if that's the 00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:24.339 word. And also, you know, you're sort of putting 00:22:24.339 --> 00:22:27.259 yourself in a position of being tested, aren't 00:22:27.259 --> 00:22:30.559 you? Because the virtuoso repertoire, it's a 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:34.619 bit like being a high wire act. And so it's both, 00:22:34.779 --> 00:22:37.019 it's the emotional vulnerability and the technical 00:22:37.019 --> 00:22:40.289 vulnerability. And there are times when I rather 00:22:40.289 --> 00:22:43.329 wish I were at home watching a box set, you know. 00:22:44.369 --> 00:22:48.589 Of course, don't we all? But maybe then you prefer 00:22:48.589 --> 00:22:54.089 the recording studio. No, I hate that too. Well, 00:22:54.250 --> 00:22:56.589 recording is wonderful when it's going well. 00:22:57.309 --> 00:23:00.150 So on the day when you're in the studio and you're 00:23:00.150 --> 00:23:02.849 feeling like you're playing at your best and 00:23:02.849 --> 00:23:04.930 you're getting takes down and you think, well, 00:23:04.950 --> 00:23:07.589 I can't do better than that. That is a wonderful 00:23:07.589 --> 00:23:09.730 feeling because you know it's being preserved. 00:23:10.289 --> 00:23:14.069 It's like sort of, you know, your legacy in some 00:23:14.069 --> 00:23:17.579 sort of way. but my goodness that's you know 00:23:17.579 --> 00:23:20.140 one out of a hundred takes it feels like that 00:23:20.140 --> 00:23:23.259 and you just sometimes hardly know how to play 00:23:23.259 --> 00:23:25.819 a c major scale because you become neurotic you 00:23:25.819 --> 00:23:29.460 start focusing on the wrong things you start 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:32.079 obsessing about details you go back to listen 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:34.799 to a take and you think it went badly so you're 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:37.619 expecting it to be bad and you hear the bad things 00:23:37.619 --> 00:23:39.960 you hear what you don't do but what you might 00:23:39.960 --> 00:23:43.490 have done and so Again, that's another technique. 00:23:43.549 --> 00:23:46.970 You have to learn to let go and realize that 00:23:46.970 --> 00:23:49.410 even a terrible take, you can do another one, 00:23:49.490 --> 00:23:52.529 at least in solo recordings. There's time and 00:23:52.529 --> 00:23:55.190 you need a producer who has the right psychology. 00:23:55.569 --> 00:23:59.170 It's very important. You want a producer who 00:23:59.170 --> 00:24:03.349 is encouraging but isn't full of BS. You don't 00:24:03.349 --> 00:24:06.069 want to play your worst and go in and she says, 00:24:06.170 --> 00:24:09.650 oh, that was incredible. When you know it was 00:24:09.650 --> 00:24:13.579 rubbish. yeah but you also don't want someone 00:24:13.579 --> 00:24:16.299 to say well that was rubbish because you know 00:24:16.299 --> 00:24:19.799 it and you don't want to be reminded of it so 00:24:19.799 --> 00:24:24.000 it's it's it's a balance really um but i i'm 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:26.579 glad that i've you know i've done over 70 albums 00:24:26.579 --> 00:24:28.839 now over the years and i'm i'm glad i've done 00:24:28.839 --> 00:24:31.299 them i would feel that if i hadn't done those 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:33.740 everything would have slipped through my fingers 00:24:33.740 --> 00:24:35.519 a bit like sand you know and i wouldn't have 00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:37.559 anything to show for it whereas i do at least 00:24:37.559 --> 00:24:40.640 have those and you know that they'll outlive 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:43.759 me if in in some form or other i imagine it's 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:47.220 amazing i mean when did you start out with hyperion 00:24:47.220 --> 00:24:50.279 i mean that would have been in the early 90s 00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:54.039 and i had this contract with virgin and i did 00:24:54.039 --> 00:24:57.099 oh what i don't know about 10 albums for virgin 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:01.000 and then they were bought by EMI and I wasn't 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:04.480 part of the new regime's plan so I basically 00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:07.119 had nothing to no recordings and actually at 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:11.059 that time since the late 80s early 90s it was 00:25:11.059 --> 00:25:13.160 really essential to make recordings it's not 00:25:13.470 --> 00:25:15.289 in the same way now because we've got youtube 00:25:15.289 --> 00:25:17.849 and we've got other ways to get to people we 00:25:17.849 --> 00:25:20.970 can release our own albums on spotify and you 00:25:20.970 --> 00:25:22.869 know with the right promotion they can have more 00:25:22.869 --> 00:25:26.170 clicks than on a major label yeah but then you 00:25:26.170 --> 00:25:31.430 needed cds in the shops so i mike spring had 00:25:31.430 --> 00:25:34.130 always been in touch asking about whether i'd 00:25:34.130 --> 00:25:35.829 like to do something for hyperion at the point 00:25:35.829 --> 00:25:38.769 i was doing the stuff for for virgin that wasn't 00:25:38.769 --> 00:25:42.059 really possible So I went to see him and he said, 00:25:42.140 --> 00:25:43.940 well, we'd love you to do something in our Romantic 00:25:43.940 --> 00:25:45.880 Concerto series. Is there anything that comes 00:25:45.880 --> 00:25:49.359 to mind? So I have a very close friend in Chicago 00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:51.359 who knows everything about piano literature. 00:25:51.500 --> 00:25:54.440 It's incredible. And I said, when I'm there next, 00:25:54.579 --> 00:25:57.259 which was in a couple of months, let's go through 00:25:57.259 --> 00:25:59.900 some scores and see what's around. So he went 00:25:59.900 --> 00:26:02.319 to the Chicago Public Library and we had an absolutely 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:05.359 huge pile of different piano concertos. And we 00:26:05.359 --> 00:26:07.779 went to Steinway's downtown and I think it's 00:26:07.779 --> 00:26:11.119 called Beautiful Sound, the shop. And we piled 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:12.980 these scores on one side of the piano. We went 00:26:12.980 --> 00:26:16.119 through them. One, two, three. And I was getting 00:26:16.119 --> 00:26:18.200 a little dispirited because we were down to the 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:22.299 sort of R's. And I wasn't finding anything that 00:26:22.299 --> 00:26:26.660 I really loved. And then we had the Sauer Concerto, 00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:29.500 the first Sauer Concerto. And I thought, gosh, 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:32.579 this is really beautiful. Very elegant, gorgeous 00:26:32.579 --> 00:26:36.220 tunes, beautiful slow movement. So that's a possibility. 00:26:36.460 --> 00:26:39.079 So I put that on a different pile. And then the 00:26:39.079 --> 00:26:41.599 next one was Scharwenker number four. Or I think 00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:44.819 actually he put all four Scharwenkers, but number 00:26:44.819 --> 00:26:46.960 four. And I thought, well, this is really a great 00:26:46.960 --> 00:26:49.039 piece. Why has this never been recorded? Neither 00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:50.859 of them had ever been commercially recorded. 00:26:51.900 --> 00:26:54.920 so i mentioned this to mike spring and he actually 00:26:54.920 --> 00:26:56.859 said well yes i know about the zower he said 00:26:56.859 --> 00:26:59.839 we'd really like zower one and two on the same 00:26:59.839 --> 00:27:02.799 album i said no i don't like the second as much 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:06.720 as the first so i persuaded him and so we did 00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:08.819 that and then you know that won the gramophone 00:27:08.819 --> 00:27:12.420 awards so that was a lovely way to begin with 00:27:12.420 --> 00:27:15.519 hyperion then the second uh release was york 00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:18.190 bowen Oh, yes. And that was the solo record. 00:27:18.349 --> 00:27:21.430 Ted Perry, very resistant. No, I don't want any 00:27:21.430 --> 00:27:24.130 more piano music. We've got too much piano music. 00:27:24.329 --> 00:27:25.829 And so I said, oh, but York Bowen, you know, 00:27:25.849 --> 00:27:28.390 he's a very wonderful English composer. Very 00:27:28.390 --> 00:27:31.410 little had been recorded at that point. Most 00:27:31.410 --> 00:27:33.589 of it wasn't even published or was out of print. 00:27:34.109 --> 00:27:36.789 So I persuaded him and then that did well. And 00:27:36.789 --> 00:27:39.630 then so it sort of gathered steam from there 00:27:39.630 --> 00:27:42.509 and, you know, to this day. And here I am still 00:27:42.509 --> 00:27:45.559 recording for Hyperion 30 years later. I mean, 00:27:45.579 --> 00:27:49.220 it's amazing. Long may it continue. And now your 00:27:49.220 --> 00:27:51.740 own compositions. Obviously, that's a very big 00:27:51.740 --> 00:27:55.359 part of your musical life as well. You've written 00:27:55.359 --> 00:27:59.579 numerous piano sonatas and I believe a brand 00:27:59.579 --> 00:28:02.660 new second movement for Beethoven's Piano Concerto 00:28:02.660 --> 00:28:06.359 No. 3? Well, that was a commission by Omer Meyer 00:28:06.359 --> 00:28:10.000 -Welber for the orchestra in Hamburg, the Opera 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:12.829 Orchestra. And he was commissioning composers 00:28:12.829 --> 00:28:15.089 in his first season there to write alternate 00:28:15.089 --> 00:28:18.670 movements for various famous works. So the Brook 00:28:18.670 --> 00:28:22.269 Violin Concerto got a new first movement. Tchaikovsky 00:28:22.269 --> 00:28:25.210 Symphony got a new second movement or something. 00:28:25.529 --> 00:28:27.890 And he asked me would I like to be part of this. 00:28:28.029 --> 00:28:30.150 And so I thought it was a very interesting idea. 00:28:30.289 --> 00:28:32.670 What he wanted to do was to create a sense... 00:28:32.910 --> 00:28:35.410 with works that are very well known of the unexpected, 00:28:35.769 --> 00:28:38.250 much as you would have had when you first heard 00:28:38.250 --> 00:28:41.210 the piece back in Vienna in 1800 or whenever 00:28:41.210 --> 00:28:47.170 the concerto was first played. So I thought, 00:28:47.289 --> 00:28:49.029 okay, and I was thinking what would work. And 00:28:49.029 --> 00:28:50.910 I didn't want to do a romantic concerto. I don't 00:28:50.910 --> 00:28:52.529 think you could do a second movement for the 00:28:52.529 --> 00:28:54.849 Grieg or something. But I thought, well, Beethoven, 00:28:55.049 --> 00:28:58.089 it's almost like writing a long cadenza, really. 00:28:58.700 --> 00:29:01.000 And so that's what I did. I wrote this second 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:04.500 movement based on material from the concerto, 00:29:04.500 --> 00:29:07.819 but reimagined in my own musical language. So 00:29:07.819 --> 00:29:10.339 in fact, I played it in Birmingham a month or 00:29:10.339 --> 00:29:13.039 so ago, and I'm going to be playing it in Prague 00:29:13.039 --> 00:29:15.819 in a couple of months. They actually requested 00:29:15.819 --> 00:29:19.940 it, having heard about it. So yeah, I... Has 00:29:19.940 --> 00:29:21.900 it been recorded? Obviously not been recorded. 00:29:22.140 --> 00:29:24.420 I think it's online, actually. I think the performance 00:29:24.420 --> 00:29:29.349 from Hamburg is online. So, yeah, maybe on their 00:29:29.349 --> 00:29:33.930 website. Fantastic. But yeah, actually writing 00:29:33.930 --> 00:29:38.109 is now becoming very central. And in fact, future 00:29:38.109 --> 00:29:41.170 recordings, we're going to release an album of 00:29:41.170 --> 00:29:45.769 my four piano sonatas. Great. And also my piano 00:29:45.769 --> 00:29:48.190 quintet, which is going to be recorded this summer. 00:29:48.230 --> 00:29:51.430 That will go on another album. That was done 00:29:51.430 --> 00:29:55.140 for Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. And 00:29:55.140 --> 00:29:59.200 I'm writing a requiem at the moment, but with 00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:04.119 the Brahms text, not the Latin church text. And 00:30:04.119 --> 00:30:07.599 that really came about just, I was interested 00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:11.180 in the psychology of Brahms, sort of an agnostic 00:30:11.180 --> 00:30:15.299 Lutheran writing this piece for his mother and 00:30:15.299 --> 00:30:18.380 putting together these biblical texts, mainly 00:30:18.380 --> 00:30:20.200 from the Jewish scriptures, you know, from the 00:30:20.200 --> 00:30:24.670 Psalms and so on. What do you pull together when 00:30:24.670 --> 00:30:27.369 you don't really believe, but you want something 00:30:27.369 --> 00:30:31.109 that's consoling? And so I find those texts very 00:30:31.109 --> 00:30:34.190 beautiful of Brahms and very interesting. It's 00:30:34.190 --> 00:30:36.049 more a requiem for the living. It's a requiem 00:30:36.049 --> 00:30:38.990 for the bereaved, for those who find it hard 00:30:38.990 --> 00:30:43.089 to think of death and losing people and so on. 00:30:43.130 --> 00:30:45.609 So I'm working on that. I'm using the same... 00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:48.579 instrumentation that Brahms used in the same 00:30:48.579 --> 00:30:50.900 number of, and exactly the same text, but in 00:30:50.900 --> 00:30:54.519 English, not in German. Okay. There's a, I mean, 00:30:54.519 --> 00:30:56.839 you know, quite poignant and sad that, and I 00:30:56.839 --> 00:31:00.160 mean, another concerto that sounds quite poignant 00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:04.240 and monumental is the World of Yesterday concerto. 00:31:04.299 --> 00:31:09.519 Yeah. I mean, that's named after Zweig's monumental 00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:14.329 memoir. Yeah. Wow. Oh, there's a long history 00:31:14.329 --> 00:31:17.049 to this. So much at the time that I saw you buying 00:31:17.049 --> 00:31:20.789 fruit and veg during the pandemic, I got an email 00:31:20.789 --> 00:31:24.950 from a film director in Los Angeles that Leonard 00:31:24.950 --> 00:31:27.750 Slatkin had suggested my name as someone to write 00:31:27.750 --> 00:31:30.559 him a film score. because he was making a movie 00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:32.680 about a concert pianist writing a piano concerto 00:31:32.680 --> 00:31:35.059 and he wanted someone to write a piano concerto 00:31:35.059 --> 00:31:37.319 for this movie. So I got to work on this and 00:31:37.319 --> 00:31:42.000 it was all Vienna in the early 1930s and also 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:45.299 the mountains and this crazy baroness brought 00:31:45.299 --> 00:31:48.559 this American composer in to write a piano concerto 00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:51.319 based on the sketches her sister had left before 00:31:51.319 --> 00:31:54.380 her death. And then it all goes wrong because 00:31:54.380 --> 00:31:58.170 the woman becomes... psychopathic and she doesn't 00:31:58.170 --> 00:31:59.869 like anything that he's writing and locks him 00:31:59.869 --> 00:32:01.710 away until he writes something that she likes 00:32:01.710 --> 00:32:04.009 anyway the movie never happened in the end but 00:32:04.009 --> 00:32:08.289 i i'd started a lot of sketches for it and i 00:32:08.289 --> 00:32:10.650 phoned up my manager a year later when everything 00:32:10.650 --> 00:32:12.990 had fallen through and i just said well do you 00:32:12.990 --> 00:32:15.509 think i i think i've got a concert piece here 00:32:15.509 --> 00:32:17.819 i could just you know work with these sketches 00:32:17.819 --> 00:32:20.079 and make a piece you know do you think there'd 00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:22.660 be any interest and so they put out some feelers 00:32:22.660 --> 00:32:25.019 and actually the same day we had a commitment 00:32:25.019 --> 00:32:27.200 from utah symphony for the world premiere they 00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:29.779 just said absolutely we want this and then the 00:32:29.779 --> 00:32:31.980 harley orchestra were interested and then hyperion 00:32:31.980 --> 00:32:35.380 said definitely let's let's do it so the whole 00:32:35.380 --> 00:32:36.680 thing came together and it's actually i think 00:32:36.680 --> 00:32:38.700 about seven orchestras now have done it and i'm 00:32:38.700 --> 00:32:42.339 doing it soon in poland and then it will go next 00:32:42.339 --> 00:32:46.500 year to düsseldorf and to berlin um So, yeah, 00:32:46.579 --> 00:32:49.079 it's sort of taken off a little bit. And it's 00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:51.640 great fun because, you know, I'm sort of travelling, 00:32:51.720 --> 00:32:54.799 playing my piano concerto in the way that pianist 00:32:54.799 --> 00:32:57.759 composers always did. You know, that's what people 00:32:57.759 --> 00:32:59.940 wrote piano concertos for themselves to play. 00:33:00.039 --> 00:33:02.119 That's what the form, how the form happened. 00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:05.180 My goodness, it sounds so interesting. You said 00:33:05.180 --> 00:33:07.880 Hyperion was interested, is interested. Is it 00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:10.420 coming out on Hyperion? It's there. You can hear 00:33:10.420 --> 00:33:13.859 it, Erica. It's on Hyperion. The CD's out, the 00:33:13.859 --> 00:33:16.579 LP's out, and it's all over Spotify if you want 00:33:16.579 --> 00:33:20.880 to hear it there. Whoops. No, it's OK. Whoops. 00:33:21.160 --> 00:33:23.359 OK, I'll go and listen to it straight afterwards. 00:33:23.619 --> 00:33:25.599 I mean, I was going to ask you about what inspires 00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:28.640 you, but it seems there's so many things, you 00:33:28.640 --> 00:33:32.460 know, in your mind and you get so much inspiration 00:33:32.460 --> 00:33:35.160 from all over the place. So it's easy for you 00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:36.920 to come up with ideas for your compositions. 00:33:37.380 --> 00:33:42.799 Oh, inspiration is money. No, no, no, I'm kidding. 00:33:43.200 --> 00:33:47.619 No, I think. Well, I think that the initial inspiration, 00:33:47.619 --> 00:33:50.220 at least for the last couple of decades, has 00:33:50.220 --> 00:33:52.160 been a commission, really, has been someone saying, 00:33:52.220 --> 00:33:56.099 could you write me a piece for this or, you know, 00:33:56.119 --> 00:33:59.740 this length or whatever? And so that's a wonderful 00:33:59.740 --> 00:34:03.380 way to start. Because here we are with blank 00:34:03.380 --> 00:34:05.380 manuscript paper. Where do you begin? What do 00:34:05.380 --> 00:34:07.180 you write it for? But if someone says as they 00:34:07.180 --> 00:34:10.179 did, which really got me started 20 years ago, 00:34:10.340 --> 00:34:13.440 the Berlin Phil wind quintet, the piccolo player 00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:16.739 said, I want a trio for piccolo, contrabassoon 00:34:16.739 --> 00:34:20.519 and piano. And so I thought, fantastic. So I 00:34:20.519 --> 00:34:22.460 started writing it the same day because I was 00:34:22.460 --> 00:34:24.699 very inspired, first of all, by their confidence 00:34:24.699 --> 00:34:27.519 in asking me to write this piece, but also by 00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:30.889 the idea of... the smallest, highest instrument 00:34:30.889 --> 00:34:32.949 and the biggest, lowest instrument playing together 00:34:32.949 --> 00:34:35.510 with the piano in the middle. So that's also 00:34:35.510 --> 00:34:38.610 been recorded, but that's on bis. It's called 00:34:38.610 --> 00:34:44.070 Was mit der Trennung geschieht. Okay. But I think 00:34:44.070 --> 00:34:46.510 it's a double thing. It's the macro and the micro. 00:34:46.789 --> 00:34:49.670 I think I like to get a sense of the whole shape 00:34:49.670 --> 00:34:53.530 of the piece. Because for me, in music that I 00:34:53.530 --> 00:34:55.590 play, as well as music that I write, the architecture 00:34:55.590 --> 00:35:01.440 is a central part. It has to feel the right shape. 00:35:01.960 --> 00:35:05.519 And so I need to get that sense. And then the 00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:08.619 micro part is finding some material that I can 00:35:08.619 --> 00:35:12.300 work with. In this piano concerto, I had a theme 00:35:12.300 --> 00:35:14.079 for the baroness and a theme for the young American 00:35:14.079 --> 00:35:16.960 composer. And out of the entire piece, those 00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:20.159 two themes are built. Everything is from those. 00:35:21.420 --> 00:35:24.519 I like that. I like to write. This is one of 00:35:24.519 --> 00:35:27.340 the reasons I love Brahms so much. I love the 00:35:27.340 --> 00:35:30.519 way he uses material in such an ingenious way, 00:35:30.579 --> 00:35:33.280 how everything is derived from a small cell. 00:35:33.460 --> 00:35:37.139 Or Sibelius is someone else. I find that kind 00:35:37.139 --> 00:35:42.480 of intellectual backbone to things. I don't just 00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:44.559 want to sit down and write tunes. I want something 00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:49.059 that really knits together in a tight way. Interesting. 00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:52.500 I mean, you are a Renaissance man. You really 00:35:52.500 --> 00:35:55.239 are. I mean, the writing, the composing, the 00:35:55.239 --> 00:35:59.420 painting. I'm thinking, do you dance? I mean, 00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:01.460 are there other things that we don't know about? 00:36:02.480 --> 00:36:05.280 Is that an invitation? Do you play the piccolo? 00:36:06.340 --> 00:36:09.300 I did play the flute for a short while, but I 00:36:09.300 --> 00:36:12.420 was not, no. No, and I don't paint. In fact, 00:36:12.460 --> 00:36:14.599 I haven't painted for years now. It's just a 00:36:14.599 --> 00:36:23.360 bit of a hobby. I enjoy taking poetic ideas on 00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:26.380 journeys and I see the poetic in everything that 00:36:26.380 --> 00:36:28.260 I do, really, whether it's writing music, writing 00:36:28.260 --> 00:36:31.840 words, or playing the piano. It's the sense of 00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:36.139 going beyond the everyday, of words that mean 00:36:36.139 --> 00:36:39.239 something in a very mundane way, being able to 00:36:39.239 --> 00:36:41.440 reach the skies, to have a spiritual meaning. 00:36:41.840 --> 00:36:47.219 And the same is true of notes. Interesting. If 00:36:47.219 --> 00:36:49.900 we rewind time a bit, because I'd love listeners 00:36:49.900 --> 00:36:53.739 to hear about your studies at the Julliard back 00:36:53.739 --> 00:36:58.039 in the, I guess it was the 70s? 80s. 80s, sorry. 00:36:58.500 --> 00:37:03.619 Sorry. That's okay. In the 80s, wow. I gather 00:37:03.619 --> 00:37:06.000 you had a rather difficult, if famous, teacher, 00:37:06.179 --> 00:37:09.559 piano teacher. Yes, dear Adele Marcus. Well, 00:37:09.699 --> 00:37:14.639 she was legendary, of course. I never left my 00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:17.599 lessons in tears although many did but she was 00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:21.219 always rather wonderful to me I think she was 00:37:21.219 --> 00:37:23.960 first of all she liked men teaching men more 00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:29.139 than teaching women and secondly she liked English 00:37:29.139 --> 00:37:33.389 men in fact i remember her saying that one of 00:37:33.389 --> 00:37:35.510 the you know the pianist that she admired most 00:37:35.510 --> 00:37:37.590 was solomon and i found that interesting because 00:37:37.590 --> 00:37:40.510 he's not really her style her style was very 00:37:40.510 --> 00:37:44.070 hard on sleeve russian um you know she was from 00:37:44.070 --> 00:37:46.449 she was the assistant to joseph levine and and 00:37:46.449 --> 00:37:49.070 and so on but she did also study with schnabel 00:37:49.070 --> 00:37:54.230 and i think she did have that um uh austro -germanic 00:37:54.230 --> 00:37:58.349 um background to her as well yeah um but she 00:37:58.349 --> 00:38:00.210 was complicated again there's a there's a whole 00:38:00.210 --> 00:38:03.190 chapter on her in my in my memoir um with some 00:38:03.190 --> 00:38:06.170 of the anecdotes um i couldn't have stayed any 00:38:06.170 --> 00:38:07.949 longer with her than i did i was there for a 00:38:07.949 --> 00:38:11.510 year it would have destroyed me only a year with 00:38:11.510 --> 00:38:16.909 adele marcus yeah um well it's there's a lot 00:38:16.909 --> 00:38:20.610 to say really but i think By the time I studied 00:38:20.610 --> 00:38:23.090 with her, she was quite old and very forgetful 00:38:23.090 --> 00:38:28.730 and quite irrational at times. I won the number 00:38:28.730 --> 00:38:32.809 competition when I was 21, just as I began my 00:38:32.809 --> 00:38:36.550 second year with her. And I had to get away. 00:38:36.690 --> 00:38:39.369 It's hard enough to start a career. There are 00:38:39.369 --> 00:38:42.639 so many pressures. But, you know, I had an Alice 00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:46.159 Tully Hall debut to prepare for. We put together 00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:48.380 a program. And honestly, every other day she 00:38:48.380 --> 00:38:50.480 was phoning, suggesting different pieces. And, 00:38:50.539 --> 00:38:53.139 oh, you can't. No, Chopin's never been your thing, 00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:56.820 dear. Don't play any Chopin. And, you know, you 00:38:56.820 --> 00:38:59.139 just start building up these neuroses which just 00:38:59.139 --> 00:39:02.639 kill you. So I simply had to walk away and just 00:39:02.639 --> 00:39:04.619 do my own thing. And really, I've been doing 00:39:04.619 --> 00:39:08.099 my own thing ever since. And she made me very 00:39:08.099 --> 00:39:12.440 scared of playing for people. Because, and I'm 00:39:12.440 --> 00:39:14.820 very conscious of this in my own teaching, how 00:39:14.820 --> 00:39:19.440 one word can undermine someone's confidence in 00:39:19.440 --> 00:39:21.940 a way that destroys them. I mean, it can seem 00:39:21.940 --> 00:39:25.619 like nothing. So I'm very, very cautious. And 00:39:25.619 --> 00:39:28.559 it comes also, my main teacher, Gordon Green, 00:39:28.760 --> 00:39:32.199 all of the, you know, he never wanted to impose 00:39:32.199 --> 00:39:37.789 his view. He wanted to open up your ideas. And 00:39:37.789 --> 00:39:40.309 he said to me a phrase I love. He said, you know, 00:39:40.329 --> 00:39:42.449 I'm actually not interested in how you're playing 00:39:42.449 --> 00:39:44.650 now. He said, it's how you're going to play in 00:39:44.650 --> 00:39:48.690 10 years that interests me. So it was all about 00:39:48.690 --> 00:39:51.070 the longevity of this, the longevity of a career, 00:39:51.210 --> 00:39:54.750 the way that you develop in an organic way. Of 00:39:54.750 --> 00:39:57.809 course, a lot of this hits against the idea of 00:39:57.809 --> 00:40:01.250 competitions because people do enter. college 00:40:01.250 --> 00:40:03.789 now at 18 and the only thing on their mind is 00:40:03.789 --> 00:40:06.329 winning a competition it's not how can i be a 00:40:06.329 --> 00:40:08.349 better musician how can i play more how can i 00:40:08.349 --> 00:40:10.170 get my repertoire it's winning a competition 00:40:10.170 --> 00:40:13.309 and of course that was the opposite of gordon 00:40:13.309 --> 00:40:15.670 i mean if you come in to him as i well i did 00:40:15.670 --> 00:40:17.090 i suppose i said do you think i should enter 00:40:17.090 --> 00:40:20.650 some competition now well let's talk in eight 00:40:20.650 --> 00:40:25.210 years you know but there is a wisdom behind it 00:40:25.210 --> 00:40:27.429 not that it applies to everyone and of course 00:40:27.429 --> 00:40:30.590 there are huge exceptions not least the one competition 00:40:30.590 --> 00:40:34.269 jury i was on where yun chan lim won at 18 but 00:40:34.269 --> 00:40:36.889 one would have to say that he is the exception 00:40:36.889 --> 00:40:41.250 um there aren't many 18 year olds with his well 00:40:41.250 --> 00:40:44.210 first of all with his repertoire apart from with 00:40:44.210 --> 00:40:48.489 his personality and ability to be himself and 00:40:48.489 --> 00:40:52.969 to be an extraordinary unique artist Yeah, I 00:40:52.969 --> 00:40:55.010 mean, because they're so young. And I mean, Yunchan 00:40:55.010 --> 00:40:58.510 is an exception. But, you know, if you win a 00:40:58.510 --> 00:41:00.369 competition, you've got to have everything there. 00:41:00.469 --> 00:41:03.070 The repertoire, the, you know, especially the 00:41:03.070 --> 00:41:04.909 repertoire, as you said, all those concertos 00:41:04.909 --> 00:41:07.730 got to be ready with all your concertos. It is 00:41:07.730 --> 00:41:11.610 something to say, you know, it's like if someone 00:41:11.610 --> 00:41:13.869 invites you to make a recording from a competition, 00:41:14.050 --> 00:41:17.840 do you really have? can you really record the 00:41:17.840 --> 00:41:20.239 Chopin Barcarolle in a way that makes it worth 00:41:20.239 --> 00:41:22.860 putting alongside 500 other recordings? What 00:41:22.860 --> 00:41:25.440 do you have to say about it that's actually different 00:41:25.440 --> 00:41:28.760 from what everyone else has said? And I don't 00:41:28.760 --> 00:41:31.000 mean just going in and saying, well, no one has 00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:34.400 taken time there, so maybe if I take time there, 00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:36.739 it'll make it different. Not self -consciously 00:41:36.739 --> 00:41:39.400 making it different, but living with a piece 00:41:39.400 --> 00:41:43.590 that it grows into being part of you. And that, 00:41:43.610 --> 00:41:47.949 like farming, can't be rushed, you know. Things 00:41:47.949 --> 00:41:52.090 have to happen in their own time. And so I do. 00:41:53.150 --> 00:41:55.690 encourage young people as much as they can to 00:41:55.690 --> 00:41:58.170 try and feel free and free to make mistakes. 00:41:58.510 --> 00:41:59.969 You see, I think it's terribly important to make 00:41:59.969 --> 00:42:02.710 mistakes. Beethoven wrote his Ninth Symphony 00:42:02.710 --> 00:42:05.929 and he got it wrong many, many times before the 00:42:05.929 --> 00:42:10.230 final sketches got it right. So this is about 00:42:10.230 --> 00:42:12.150 development. And this is actually one of the 00:42:12.150 --> 00:42:15.409 areas where AI, of course, is completely hopeless. 00:42:15.809 --> 00:42:19.679 AI never deliberately gets it wrong. Or, you 00:42:19.679 --> 00:42:22.820 know, the idea of AI is to get it right as quickly 00:42:22.820 --> 00:42:25.139 as possible and as right as possible. But that's 00:42:25.139 --> 00:42:28.079 not true with the arts. You actually need to 00:42:28.079 --> 00:42:30.980 develop by making mistakes because it's a sort 00:42:30.980 --> 00:42:34.239 of process. It's like a pruning. You don't want 00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:37.300 a bush to be perfect and then never to change. 00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:39.940 You want to be constantly shaping that bush, 00:42:40.079 --> 00:42:42.940 clipping off the stray. I'm talking like I'm 00:42:42.940 --> 00:42:45.099 a gardener. I'm looking out right now at my garden 00:42:45.099 --> 00:42:47.480 that's a complete mess. But you know what I mean? 00:42:47.579 --> 00:42:51.860 It's that sense. that we grow as human beings 00:42:51.860 --> 00:42:55.400 physically and art is the same. It grows, it 00:42:55.400 --> 00:42:58.940 changes. Yes, we have different periods as well. 00:42:59.079 --> 00:43:01.320 I mean, look at some of the artists, visual. 00:43:01.980 --> 00:43:04.679 Gosh, Stephen, lots to think about here. I'm 00:43:04.679 --> 00:43:06.860 sure you're an amazing piano teacher. I mean, 00:43:06.900 --> 00:43:09.280 I can just, it's just so much there. I enjoy 00:43:09.280 --> 00:43:13.440 doing it. You teach at Juilliard? I have one 00:43:13.440 --> 00:43:17.389 student at a time there. Oh, fantastic. Lucky 00:43:17.389 --> 00:43:20.329 student. Well, I hope so. It's interesting, you 00:43:20.329 --> 00:43:23.110 know, the student who won the Hastings competition, 00:43:23.550 --> 00:43:27.530 Ryan Zhu, was a student of mine there. And I 00:43:27.530 --> 00:43:29.889 just heard I was down there because they all 00:43:29.889 --> 00:43:33.510 had to play my piece. And he sounded so wonderful. 00:43:33.789 --> 00:43:36.849 And in fact, he's improved so much since he left 00:43:36.849 --> 00:43:40.630 me. And I thought, well, maybe the sign of a 00:43:40.630 --> 00:43:44.469 good teacher is that you don't cling on, that 00:43:44.469 --> 00:43:47.750 you're happy for someone. All I want is for my 00:43:47.750 --> 00:43:49.690 students to sound better. Now, whether that comes 00:43:49.690 --> 00:43:53.190 from things I say, things I don't say, things 00:43:53.190 --> 00:43:56.349 that I say that they think about years later, 00:43:56.469 --> 00:43:59.570 or whenever it is, I think you need that kind 00:43:59.570 --> 00:44:03.110 of generous spirit in order to be the right sort 00:44:03.110 --> 00:44:06.880 of teacher. all that matters a teacher's career 00:44:06.880 --> 00:44:08.980 doesn't matter all that matters is that the student 00:44:08.980 --> 00:44:12.159 who's getting that those lessons improves and 00:44:12.159 --> 00:44:14.860 not just improves but but their own personality 00:44:14.860 --> 00:44:18.760 is brought out i i don't want someone not the 00:44:18.760 --> 00:44:21.619 personality of the teacher absolutely i don't 00:44:21.619 --> 00:44:23.960 want someone to be a carbon copy of me and i 00:44:23.960 --> 00:44:26.099 think this is one of the problems with a teacher 00:44:26.099 --> 00:44:30.179 like adele marcus is that the way they taught 00:44:30.179 --> 00:44:34.539 was they stripped everything away and refashioned 00:44:34.539 --> 00:44:38.460 you in their image. That was the way. And that 00:44:38.460 --> 00:44:41.519 was never what I was taught with Gordon Green. 00:44:41.800 --> 00:44:44.719 All his students sounded different. And I really 00:44:44.719 --> 00:44:48.619 treasure that from that time. Gosh, okay, Stephen, 00:44:48.739 --> 00:44:51.559 listen, we've got like 10 minutes maximum left, 00:44:51.599 --> 00:44:55.280 maybe five. I'm looking at the clock here before 00:44:55.280 --> 00:44:57.599 we get cut off. So I'm going to finish with some 00:44:57.599 --> 00:44:59.480 really lighthearted questions that I'd like you 00:44:59.480 --> 00:45:02.150 to answer off the cuff. be interesting to hear 00:45:02.150 --> 00:45:06.530 what how you reply um first one if you could 00:45:06.530 --> 00:45:09.030 play only one composer from now on who would 00:45:09.030 --> 00:45:12.329 it be i think it would have to be chopin actually 00:45:12.329 --> 00:45:17.130 because no one wrote more beautifully for the 00:45:17.130 --> 00:45:21.469 piano and i find his music more and more gorgeous 00:45:21.469 --> 00:45:23.809 as i get older and i'm more and more touched 00:45:23.809 --> 00:45:28.809 by its emotional restraint and yet also its emotional 00:45:28.809 --> 00:45:32.480 revelation and the sheer craftsmanship of it. 00:45:32.599 --> 00:45:36.239 You know, he writes just gorgeously for the instrument. 00:45:36.380 --> 00:45:40.099 So that's my choice. Oh, fantastic. OK, next. 00:45:40.280 --> 00:45:43.219 One pianist, dead or alive, you'd travel long 00:45:43.219 --> 00:45:47.780 and far to hear. Well, my favourite pianist is 00:45:47.780 --> 00:45:51.059 Courtauld. So that would certainly be true. But 00:45:51.059 --> 00:45:54.840 the fact that I can hear so many of his recordings, 00:45:54.960 --> 00:45:59.920 let's choose someone like, well, Liszt. Wouldn't 00:45:59.920 --> 00:46:03.780 it be great to go and listen to Liszt? Of course. 00:46:04.260 --> 00:46:08.699 Very good answer. One person, dead or alive, 00:46:08.840 --> 00:46:15.900 you'd love to play for? Ooh. Maybe Rachmaninoff. 00:46:16.059 --> 00:46:19.940 I mean, of course it would be terrifying. But 00:46:19.940 --> 00:46:23.000 I would, yeah. I mean, I love his playing and 00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:26.170 his music so much. So, yeah, maybe him. i thought 00:46:26.170 --> 00:46:29.630 Rachmaninoff would feature in your answers somewhere 00:46:29.630 --> 00:46:33.550 um do you might be a silly question this do you 00:46:33.550 --> 00:46:36.550 have any technical struggles well not that i'm 00:46:36.550 --> 00:46:41.489 going to talk to you about well you know in a 00:46:41.489 --> 00:46:46.190 sense every we're athletes so every day is a 00:46:46.190 --> 00:46:48.650 starting from scratch you know every sprinter 00:46:48.650 --> 00:46:52.710 wakes up in the morning with stiff legs and has 00:46:52.710 --> 00:46:55.969 to to warm up and i think the same is true of 00:46:55.969 --> 00:46:57.969 us and certainly every dancer you know dancers 00:46:57.969 --> 00:46:59.429 talk about getting out of bed in the morning 00:46:59.429 --> 00:47:02.309 crippled until they've gone to the bar and worked 00:47:02.309 --> 00:47:06.070 so i would say that you know everything's difficult 00:47:06.070 --> 00:47:08.550 to do well and everything's difficult to do under 00:47:08.550 --> 00:47:10.929 the pressure of 2 000 people sitting in the hall 00:47:10.929 --> 00:47:15.929 watching you so that's a partial answer absolutely 00:47:15.929 --> 00:47:20.230 no very wise What would be your advice to an 00:47:20.230 --> 00:47:24.809 amateur pianist about how to improve? I think 00:47:24.809 --> 00:47:30.570 practice slowly. Practice without pedal. Don't 00:47:30.570 --> 00:47:33.429 be afraid to use the metronome. Write in fingerings. 00:47:33.469 --> 00:47:36.090 These are all things that I've spoken about before 00:47:36.090 --> 00:47:39.809 and written about. But yeah, and I forget them 00:47:39.809 --> 00:47:42.050 myself. And then I came back to Rachmaninoff 00:47:42.050 --> 00:47:45.190 3rd just recently again, having not played it 00:47:45.190 --> 00:47:48.739 for a while. I thought, you know, I used to practice 00:47:48.739 --> 00:47:52.860 this very, very slowly. Like Joseph Levine had 00:47:52.860 --> 00:47:56.099 the four metronome marks, you know, from, let's 00:47:56.099 --> 00:47:59.199 say that the performing tempo is 100, you go 00:47:59.199 --> 00:48:02.980 80, 60, 40, and then up to the work like that. 00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:06.900 And it works. You know, Rachmaninoff used to 00:48:06.900 --> 00:48:10.780 practice obsessively slowly. Apparently he used 00:48:10.780 --> 00:48:12.820 to practice an hour of technical exercises and 00:48:12.820 --> 00:48:16.119 scales every day. But he sounds better than anyone 00:48:16.119 --> 00:48:18.019 else, so maybe there's something in that. Well, 00:48:18.179 --> 00:48:20.340 I wouldn't recommend that for an amateur pianist, 00:48:20.360 --> 00:48:22.519 for sure, because you want to enjoy it. Amateur 00:48:22.519 --> 00:48:26.440 does mean to love, so one should always enjoy 00:48:26.440 --> 00:48:30.539 it. Fantastic. Last question. One composer you're 00:48:30.539 --> 00:48:34.300 not quite ready to tackle? Oh, Bach. I've never 00:48:34.300 --> 00:48:37.650 played any Bach professionally. Well, I did one 00:48:37.650 --> 00:48:40.170 the first season I played. I played the G Major 00:48:40.170 --> 00:48:43.989 Toccata because I'd been playing it in my exams 00:48:43.989 --> 00:48:47.909 before. But no, I played Bach, Busoni and Bach, 00:48:47.989 --> 00:48:52.690 Corteaux and, you know, but not Bach, Bach. Why 00:48:52.690 --> 00:48:55.550 might that be? I don't feel I know what to do 00:48:55.550 --> 00:48:59.929 with it. And I don't love it enough to work with 00:48:59.929 --> 00:49:04.769 it. It's my blind spot, really. He's so holy 00:49:04.769 --> 00:49:07.730 and spiritual. Well, that's the problem. I'm 00:49:07.730 --> 00:49:12.710 not. But I tell you, Erica, what I do love is 00:49:12.710 --> 00:49:15.389 Wanda Landowska playing Bach on the harpsichord. 00:49:15.730 --> 00:49:19.110 Now that can, when I hear her chromatic fantasy 00:49:19.110 --> 00:49:25.380 and fugue, to me, that's Bach. I love that. and 00:49:25.380 --> 00:49:28.699 then in orchestral Bach I love hearing Mengelberg 00:49:28.699 --> 00:49:31.639 you know this sort of completely wrong according 00:49:31.639 --> 00:49:34.320 to all of the you know our modern understanding 00:49:34.320 --> 00:49:37.219 but making Bach chorales sound like a Bruckner 00:49:37.219 --> 00:49:40.199 slow movement but I do enjoy that oh beautiful 00:49:40.199 --> 00:49:43.659 so romantic so romantic but i i've discovered 00:49:43.659 --> 00:49:46.699 london i just think she's incredible because 00:49:46.699 --> 00:49:48.579 of course everything has to happen with the rhythm 00:49:48.579 --> 00:49:50.460 and the inflection nothing can happen on the 00:49:50.460 --> 00:49:53.780 harpsichord with with tone and i think maybe 00:49:53.780 --> 00:49:56.159 it's because a lot of bach playing is just too 00:49:56.159 --> 00:50:02.599 pretty it's too precious every phrase you know 00:50:02.599 --> 00:50:05.000 shape to the end and then another one began and 00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:07.579 shaped to the end and i just i don't like it 00:50:07.579 --> 00:50:11.789 it just it doesn't Whereas the harpsichord speaks 00:50:11.789 --> 00:50:14.369 to me. Actually, also Trevor Pinnock, I heard 00:50:14.369 --> 00:50:16.309 his Goldberg variations. I thought, gosh, this 00:50:16.309 --> 00:50:18.329 is the first time I've really loved this piece, 00:50:18.489 --> 00:50:22.710 hearing it on the harpsichord. Oh, Stephen, that's 00:50:22.710 --> 00:50:25.409 so interesting. Also, actually, Schiff playing 00:50:25.409 --> 00:50:29.050 on the clavichord was a bit of a... He made an 00:50:29.050 --> 00:50:32.190 album playing Bach on the clavichord, which is 00:50:32.190 --> 00:50:33.949 a bit of a revelation. It's beautiful. What a 00:50:33.949 --> 00:50:38.300 gorgeous sound. Amazing. Yeah. Oh, well, I mean, 00:50:38.300 --> 00:50:41.579 what a great conversation we've had today. Thanks. 00:50:41.760 --> 00:50:44.739 It's been such fun. We could have spent much 00:50:44.739 --> 00:50:47.800 longer. But, oh, Stephen, thank you so much for 00:50:47.800 --> 00:50:51.789 joining me. My pleasure. Well, see you. Around 00:50:51.789 --> 00:50:54.929 London. See you around London at the next fruit 00:50:54.929 --> 00:50:58.550 shop or something. Or at a recycle. Aren't you 00:50:58.550 --> 00:51:01.670 at the Wigmore Hall quite soon? I am in May. 00:51:01.969 --> 00:51:04.909 Is it May 9? It's sort of middle of May sometime. 00:51:05.090 --> 00:51:07.230 Yes, yes. Oh, I will look forward to hearing 00:51:07.230 --> 00:51:10.449 you there. Anyway, we have to sign off. We do, 00:51:10.590 --> 00:51:12.849 yes. Thank you so much for joining us today. 00:51:13.090 --> 00:51:55.050 My pleasure. Thank you, Stephen. That was Rachmaninoff's 00:51:55.050 --> 00:51:57.670 arrangement of Kreisler's Liebeslied and it was 00:51:57.670 --> 00:52:00.789 performed by Stephen Hough. Pianist podcasts 00:52:00.789 --> 00:52:03.170 are free and a really good way to support what 00:52:03.170 --> 00:52:06.369 we do is by subscribing to Pianist. 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