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In 1960, the Chair of the International Chopin Competition, legendary Artur Rubinstein said of Pollini, "that boy plays better than any of us Jurors". Pollini was the youngest at the time, age 18 to win the competition.
It was no mean feat too, Pollini beat piano greats Vladimir Ashkenazy and Mituko Uchida to secondary prizes, which is why The Guardian UK newspaper stated 'Pollini has few pianistic peers in the world today.'
Let's relive the competition by viewing some rare footage of Pollini at the International Chopin Piano Competition Performing Chopin Prelude d minor op.28 no 24
What's Pollini achieved since winning the Chopin Piano Competition in 1960? Wikipedia highlights some of his accolades and triumphs since:
His first recordings for Deutsche Grammophon in 1971 included Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka and Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata and is still considered a landmark of twentieth century piano discography. Since then he has been one of Deutsche Grammophon's leading pianists. His recording of Chopin's Etudes, Opp. 10 & 25, also under Deutsche Grammophon, won Pollini international acclaim.
So it's great Pollini wasn't typecast into only performing works by Chopin, let's now hear Pollini perform Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto (2nd Movement) with Conductor Abbado in Rome, 1967.
Pollini is also an exponent of modern composer Schönberg, especially his Opus 11 and Opus 19 works, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph he says:
"they are among the works of genius composed in the first half of the 20th century. I like them enormously. I have always liked them. They have remained permanently in my repertoire, and I would like people to appreciate them."
I was reading a news bulletin in the August-September edition of Pianist magazine that
Danill Trifonov won two major prestigious international piano competitions back to back within weeks of each other! So I was very curious to hear his playing and learn more about this Wunderkind.
Born in 1991 Russian Daniill Trifonov, has won prizes and competitions most of his performing life and studied at the Moscow Gnesin School of Music (school for gifted musicians - much like the UK's Yehudi Menuhin school). There he studied under top teachers, one Tatiana Zelikman, who herself studied under Theodore Gutman, student of Heinrich Neuhaus. Neuhaus was the author of 'the art of piano playing' and also taught Radu Lupu and Richter.
Tchaikovsky Competition Jurist Martha Argerich was impressed with Danill's pianism:
“Last night I listened to him again on YouTube – he has everything and more. What he does with his hands is technically incredible. It’s also his touch – he has tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that.”
-Martha Argerich; Financial Times, July 8, 2011
So what does the 2011 winner of the Artur Rubinstein Competition and the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition sound like? Let's first hear the demonic element!
2011 Tchaikovsky XIV competition Performance - Gala Prize winner's concert [excerpt] Trifinov performing One of the jury members this year was Vladimir Ashkenazy! (a previous winner himself)
Trifonov performed Liszt's La Campanella as an Encore at the Tchaikovsky Competition. Here's a performance from 2008.
Now for some tenderness, Danill performs Chopin's Piano Concerto #1 at the finals of the Artur Rubinstein Competition, Israel 2011
Marizio Pollini
This 2009 Marizio Pollini tv interview for RTHK - Hong Kong, sets the scene of a great pianist: in 1960 Pollini won first prize as the youngest participant, age 18, in the International Chopin Piano Competition - Warsaw. Despite this accolade, he doesn't consider himself a specialist on Chopin and is equally acclaimed for his performances of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. Praised for his performances of Chopin and Beethoven because of his fidelity to the text; and absence of sentimentality.
Pollini toured Hong Kong during hte time of the interview with his very own familiar 9' concert grand piano and tuner to be sure that you have the best instrumental conditions for the concert. Generally, Pollini performs about 40 concerts a year.
Pollini on Chopin - has liked Chopin's works since his youth and his repertoire does extend to other composersas well. Because of the outcome of the competition, therefore, he does devote "a lot of his time and love" to the composer's repertoire. He describes Chopin's music as magic and mysterious with an extremely seductive surface. Pollini contends Chopin's works go deeper thatn being a romantic sentimental composer; he is in fact, difficult to understand - and you need to love him otherwise you won't be able to play him perfectly. When he compares his earlier recordings of Chopin, he says he now plays Chopin now more in a free way (perhaps because there's less pressure now as an established artist?).
Champion of Modern music
Audiences prefer more well known pre 20th Century classical composers as modern music is not so well known.. Pollini is an exponent of performing modern music - 20th century music is not well known; a pity to Pollini as it's full of genius.
Introduction Krystian Zimmermann won the Chopin International Competition in 1975, one of the youngest winners of all time - he was in his teens. In general, he very few public recitals and interviews, which makes this BBC interview given in 2008 particularly valuable. The interview was conducted in Basel, Switzerland by Tom Stoppard for BBC Radio 3's Music Matter's programme.
Part 1. - Inside knowledge
Krystian Zimmerman describes how he acquired such an inside knowledge of the piano. Before his career as a concert pianist, he earned extra money as a piano technician wiring strings. During the communist regime in Poland, spare parts, such as those for a Steinway piano were very expensive, and thus he had to improvise and create spare parts. His developed knowledge of the workings of the piano, its acoustics, and the physics of piano manufacture, and the effect these have on its sound characteristics no doubt influence his recording process. He likens the piano to a human being - knows when the instrument is sick and how to fix it. In fact, he has 6 different pianos - which he uses to play different composers works on (i.e. Ravel, Brahms, etc). And he spends a fortune on transporting his own piano for his recitals, in fact,his custom made piano was seized by customs at JFK airport and destroyed as it was deemed a security threat containing a glue which is used in terrorist bombs.
What Beethoven could really hear! If Beethoven couldn't hear particular frequencies, in his 9th symphony why, did he compose using such high notes? Krystian says it's by listening through bone transfer:
vibrations were picked up through wooden sticks that Beethoven would lean against the soundboard and bite against them; with this bone transmision he was hearing different things. [There are even audio bone headphones that are inspired by Beethoven's hearing apparatus.]
Recording vs live Storytelling
Like many great artists and composers, Krystian is a perfectionist and not happy with his own recordings (particularly solo), approves them under stress of the recording company, etc. He believes if you allow a record to be released, you should be convinced that this is a unique artistic output which no one else has done before and that it is enriching for the market, [and above all,] it should be convincing.
At the time of the interview in 2008, his last solo recording was 1990. He dislikes the digital recording process as the sound quality is too perfect, it so clearly transmits the sounds that you don't hear the music anymore. What does he mean? There's a general hum [of the audience ] you have in the concert hall that you can't recreate in a recording. Subsequently, he
prefers his live piano concerto recordings because of the live audience, as there's an ambience (sound); (which is) not a dead perfect silence in a studio.
He states music is not sound [alone just in a recording], [it is] organised emotions in time,[a] story you tell using sound.
Part 2 To listen to the big picture, get driving
Krystian records every concert he plays. It's a great feedback mechanism to listen to yourself to find out
what you did, if you'd do it differently for the next performance. He prefers to listen to music in the car; particularly generally to the flow of the music. In fact, he drives around the house (likes to do it late at night and when there's less traffic) so that the the conscious brain is occupied with driving and the road whereas then music goes right where it needs to go. The car noise covers the (musical) details so he can actually hear the bigger picture or the story.
Continual Pianistic development: On analysis and music as artistic recreation
Krystian is inspiring because he still has a love and curiousity for music, and rediscovers links and influences amongst compositions and composers in many ways. For enjoyment, he listens and plays a lot of pieces he will never play in a concert. He analyses these pieces further and in an example would understand the influences of Rossini's influence on French music on Alkan and Satie.
Concert artistry - audience collaboration
The concert according to Zimmerman is an interpretation is made together with the audience. He has
precise ideas of what he wants to do, with 3 sets of fingering a piece which he varies according to the
acoustics, and the power he uses in various concert halls. The final thing or product of which art is made in the concert hall.
Part 3 - Globalisation Stifens musical creativity!
Globalisation of interpretation = Standardisation lessens creativity and originality
Beethoven, Opus 110, scared of this piece due to the expectations of the previous recordings in the listening psyche, and has a tremendous respect of this piece. Globalisation means everything sounds the same as (the speed of transfer of culture promotes a homogenity) and he sites the difference before mass communications in the French school; or even amongst Russian composers from Scriabin, Rachmaninov.
Part 4: The art of "no technique"
"You have fingers you put them on a keyboard - there is no technique" he once told a student. By this he means there is no technique because you play by giving meaning to every note. Each musical note is like a word in a phrase, which must make sense. Krystian Zimmermann names several influences which include his personal collaborations with pianists Arrau, Richter, Rubinstein.
Let's Bow Out of this blog with a performance from Maestro Zimmerman. With over 2 million hits
on youtube - here's Chopin's Ballade #1 performed in 1987 and directed by Emmy award
winning Humphrey Burton, CBE.
