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Something quite different! Our local community band members in Juneau Alaska joined the local Taku Winds group this weekend to play a concert of all indigenous composers for Native American Heritage Month. Heavy on percussion, I played marimba, vibraphone and bells (no piano though) and we had a local professional percussionists and even a World premier of a song written by a local composer. Pieces included “Raven”, “Wolf song”, a “Gathering of Eagles”, by Robert Buckley and Sinfonia India (a wicked piece mixing 5/4, 2/4, 7/8, 3/8, 6/8, 2/2, etc). Check them out on YouTube.
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At the end of a bicycling tour in France, I returned via Paris and was lucky enough to get great seats to see Martha Argerich and the Rotterdam Philharmonic perform at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the famous theater where Stravinsky's Rite of Spring premiere caused a ruckus back in 1913.
She is a spry 83 years old, and played the Bartok Piano Concerto No. 3 with the same clarity and dynamism as on recordings she made of this piece decades ago.
I first heard her in Carnegie Hall back in the late 1970's, and she has been one of my favorite pianists ever since. Don't miss an opportunity to see her live if you get a chance.
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I attended a local community performance by three local pianists, organized by our local nonprofit that runs 50 or more free classical concerts a year. The theme of this concert was “water music”.
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For me, it was Greg Niemczuk in Vienna September last year. He was playing Chopin only. It was special, not only I have seen my online piano teacher the first time in real, but before each piece he was saying something about the piece and Chopin. That was great.
He will play in September 2025 in Leipzig Gewandhaus. So I will be there. LG Kerstin-
Kerstin Greg is a delight! (He's one of my buddies on DuoLingo, LOL).
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Last night at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, I heard Daniil Trifonov play Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Opus 16 by Prokofiev, with Esa Pekka Salonen. I had read that most pianists avoid this piece like the plague because it is so technically challenging, but Trifonov made it look like child's play. What a stunning performance. Virtuosity was evident throughout, but never at the expense of the music. Quite a triumph!!!
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On Sunday (03/16/25) I managed the feat of seeing Marc-André Hamelin. I traveled from the interior of northern Brazil to São Paulo solely to see this piano titan. On that occasion he played Haydn (Sonata in D major Hob XVI: 37), Beethoven (Sonata in C major, Op. 2, No. 3), Medtner (Improvisation Op. 31, No. 1 and Forgotten Melodies I, Op. 38: III. Danza festiva), Rachmaninoff (Etude-Tableau Op. 39, No. 5 and Sonata No. 2, Op. 36) and as an encore, Radamés Gnatalli (Vaidosa). A memorable recital.
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Yuja Wang and Vikingur Olaffson - two piano program at Carnegie Hall/NYC. Berio, Schubert, Cage, Nancarrow, Adams, Part, Rachmaninoff. Every NYC pianist I know seemed to be there!
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...and then last night, at Carnegie, Nobuyyuki Tsujii....as many know, he's 36, blind since birth, swept the international competition scene when younger, has a thriving worldwide career playing everything with everyone. The astounding miracle is that he learns repertoire largely by ear. He blazed through a technically flawless (literally) program - Beethoven's Waldstein, Liszt's En Reve and Mephisto Waltz #1; Chopin's two Nocturnes Opus 27 and the Sonata #3 in B minor. Several encores including Liszt's La Campanella. I'm still in shock...have been attending piano recitals my whole long life, including many many in Carnegie Hall. This was some of the greatest playing I have ever heard. He revealed inner meaning I'd never contemplated in many of these familiar compositions. His command turned technically frightening moments and passages into thrill rides without resorting to exaggeration. His insights about the architecture and flow of these pieces, and his sense of theatricality, were continually astounding. This was playing that rivaled legendary performances by Horowitz and Argerich. The audience went absolutely crazy...Carnegie needs a new roof now because he blew the old one off last night. Catch him if you can!
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JGILLSON Thank you for sharing this amazing experience with us! I really wanted to attend but the concert was sold out by the time it was on my radar. He is scheduled to perform the Liszt transcription of Beethoven's "An die ferne Geliebte" in November, which I'm hoping to relearn (better this time!). If you'd like to attend that concert together once tickets are available, I'd love to go with you and hear your thoughts!
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Judy Kuan Sounds great!
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JGILLSON I am SO jealous, Jim!
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Hi, being in Valencia (Spain). I wanted to share yesterday morning experience. A Spanish pianist Josep Colom played a beautiful repertoire . Some Spanish music at its best. I specially enjoyed Manuel de Falla Andaluza but there were other amazing pieces such as Antonio Soler Sonata 108 del Gallo and his composition on that particular piece was great too Josep Colom Variantes y desvaríos sobre la Sonata del Gallo. Being the 150 anniversary of Ravel's birth he also played his famous sonatina and Alborada del Gracioso, and some Mozart sonata. The idea emerged from the Valencia town hall to bring classical music to the different neighbourhoods in the city and he started a series of classical concerts in the spring season. I wanted to share with you all.
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Saw Yunchan Lim play the Goldberg Variations at Carnegie Hall last month. Otherworldly.
I last heard them played by Igor Levit in 2015 at a rather eccentric art installation in the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan. Audience members were handed noise-canceling headphones when entering and were encouraged to leave them on until a particular light signal, at the instant the program began. PAA is a huge space - acoustically interesting but the pianist was invisible. Subtle treatment of lighting ensued throughout the performance. An odd experience, but well-performed.
With Lim there were no gimmicks - just the stage of Carnegie, Really insightful playing, technically brilliant. Played all repeats. Occasionally switched registrations for repeats of certain variations - a practice I'd experienced before in a brilliant 1990s recording by Vladimir Feltsman, who contended in liner notes that this was a convention during the Baroque era...
After the evening of Lim's performance I dug out my ancient vinyl copy of Glenn Gould's famous rendition, Faultless technically but distractingly eccentric (could never get past his humming). Although not as eccentric as his preposterous, downright disrespectful recording of Chopin Sonata #3 (if you can imagine that even exists - it does)!
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JGILLSON No way there's a Gould recording of one of the Chopin Sonatas. I can't even...
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Yunchan Lim at the Kennedy Center (two days after Carnegie Hall). You could tell he was relieved to have the recorded performance behind him. He was relaxed and really let loose. Just a tsunami of beauty, wit, elegance, energy. Encore was a Chopin Waltz.
