THE ELEV ENTH
Saturday 28 February to Saturday 7 March 2015
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Contents 1 Introduction 3 Welcome 4 The Jury 6 Competition timetable 8 2015 International contestants 11 Accompanists
Saturday 28 Feb
Sunday 1 March
Monday 2 March
Stage 1
Stage 1
Stage 1
Tuesday 3 March
Main Auditorium Main Auditorium Main Auditorium
12 Concerti programme notes 21 Jerwood on Sea 22 Calendar of events 23 2016 and All That 24 Last year’s winners
& Management Committee
25 Support us Wednesday Thursday 4 March 5 March Stage 2
Morning 10am
AFTERNOON 2–5.15pm
AFTERNOON 1.15pm
EVENING 6–7pm
AFTERNOON 2–4.45pm Jury deliberation and results
EVENING 6–7.30pm
EVENING 6pm Jury deliberation and results
A full Stage 1 Timetable can be found on pages 6 & 7
Stage 3
Semi-Final Recitals 5–6.30pm Interval 7–8.30pm Jury deliberation and results
Saturday 7 March Stage 4
Main Auditorium Main Auditorium
Morning Morning Morning 10am –12.45pm 10am –12.45pm 10am –12.45pm
AFTERNOON 2–5.15pm
Friday 6 March
Main Auditorium
Masterclass 6pm With members of the Jury at Fairlight Hall
FINAL
5.50 for 6pm With the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra Jury deliberation and results
Tickets: Times and dates are correct at time of publication but may vary. Please look at our website for any changes leading up to or during the competition.
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Please call 01424 462288 or visit www.whiterocktheatre.org.uk Stage 1 & 2 Concerto performances: Individual session: £5/£4 concessions Day ticket: £12 Stage 3 (Semi-Final Recitals): £10 / £8 for HIPCC and HMF members Masterclass at the Recital Room, Fairlight Hall: £20 incl. wine and canapés Piano Concerto Final: Tickets £10–£25 Programme design: wordsmithdesign.co.uk
Introduction Professor Frank Wibaut, Artistic Director
“This year, all contestants have to prepare two concertos and a recital, making the competition a little tougher than in previous years.”
A very warm welcome to the 2015 Competition and to the start of its second decade.
Patrons whose support is starting to make a meaningful difference to funding for the competition.
This year the live stages start with Stage 1, and I have made a new Stage 2: a compulsory Mozart or Beethoven concerto. This means all contestants have to prepare two concertos and a recital this year, making the competition a little tougher than in previous years.
All our volunteers play a vital role in a myriad of tasks for this annual competition, and if anyone would like to join this brilliant team, please ask any one of us in the Theatre or contact us at the HIPCC desk or website.
From all the recordings we received, 37 pianists aged 17 to 30 from 30 nations were selected to come to Hastings and compete for the coveted prizes and performance opportunities. The three finalists will once again play with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at the Final. I continue to build on our UK and European engagement programme for our Prizewinners. Also, for them to take part in next year’s outreach programme in schools in East Sussex and beyond. Many people help to make this competition possible. I must especially thank our major sponsor, the Kowitz Family Foundation, as well as Yamaha which has provided us with even more instruments this year (please note that all these instruments are for sale). I must also thank the White Rock Hotel for so generously providing two rehearsal studios and, along with Summerfield House, for donating the accommodation for the six semi-finalists through to the close of the competition. This year we are especially fortunate to have been loaned two courtesy cars by Wilmoths to assist with transport for contestants and Jury. This makes a big difference to us so, thank you Wilmoths! I must thank everyone who supports and helps us and especially our rapidly growing number of Friends and
In the future I would really like all contestants to attend the competition from the start and to have the opportunity of donated home stays, as is the tradition of many other major competitions. Young musicians often have little money and donated accommodation could really increase their chance of entering the competition. This is a great way to help the competition and have the company of brilliant young musicians. If anyone would like to help, please talk to one of our volunteers or email us at info@hastingsconcertocompetion.co.uk Lastly, I would like to thank our eminent Jury from many countries – all are highly respected international performers and teachers and it is a privilege to welcome them to Hastings. I wish all the contestants good luck, and much enjoyment to all of you during the 2015 competition.
Professor Frank Wibaut ARCM, Hon RAM Artistic Director, Chairman of the Jury and Chairman of the Management Committee Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition
w w w .H a s t i n g s C o n c e r t o C o m p e t i t i o n . c o . u k
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Message from our President Chairman’s welcome Petula Clarke cbe
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s chairman of the 108th annual Hastings Musical Festival, I am very happy to welcome you once more to the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition now in its 11th year. I should like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful team of volunteers throughout the Festival who help to make the competition run smoothly, efficiently and happily, also our members and patrons whose support is of the utmost importance to us, and all our loyal sponsors. The reason for the wonderful progress of our revived Concerto Competition over the last ten years is two-fold, namely the generosity of David and Sarah Kowitz, of the Kowitz Family Foundation ever since they first became involved in the Competition in 2010, and the vision and leadership of our Artistic Director, Frank Wibaut. Without these good friends the growth of the original Festival Concerto Class into a major international competition might well have remained a dream. As it is we proudly look forward to the continuing development and success of this wonderful event as we look towards 2016, the 950th anniversary of that most famous of all Hastings events! Molly Townson Chairman, Hastings Musical Festival and Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition
So here it is! That magical musical time in Hastings is with us once again! As I write this, I’m in the middle of an extended tour of France, and it’s not clear if I can get over to the UK for the Hastings Musical Festival. I think you all know how much this event means to me. There is something very unique about the atmosphere during these three intense weeks – and I truly love it ! However, if I can’t be with you, I will be sending musical good wishes from wherever I am! For now, I thank Molly for all her hard work, and hope this year’s Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition is a huge well-deserved success. Love.
Petula x Petula Clark, CBE President, Hastings Musical Festival
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Jury profiles
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Frank Wibaut
Artistic Director and Chairman of the Jury Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition
Frank Wibaut is an international soloist and chamber musician who has performed, recorded and broadcast in major concert halls in over 30 countries. His performed repertoire of 70 concerti have been with all the leading British orchestras – London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham, Hallé, Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC
Olivier Gardon
Bernd Goetzke
Alexander Müllenbach
Age 10, Olivier Gardon gave his first concerto performance playing Bach’s Concerto in D minor in the Opéra de Nice. Previously the young prodigy had been noticed by Hungarian pianist Lily Krause who encouraged him into a career in music. He was trained at the Conservatoire de Nice and the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris. His teachers have included Mme AudibertLambert, Pierre Sacon, Jean Hubeau, Jean Fassina, Géza Anda, Lili Krause and Gyögy Sebök. Olivier gained numerous awards in competitions including: Marguerite Long, Queen Elizabeth, the Viotti, Monza, Senigallia and Casella. Recognition also came from Fondations de la Vocation and Alex de Vries. Olivier teaches at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris and is the Artistic Director of the Académie internationale d’été de Nice. He gives Masterclasses in the Mozarteum Summer Academy, Salzburg and in Japan, Seoul, United States, Villecroze, Courchevel and Leipzig. He has been a featured artist at many festivals around the world.
One of Germany’s leading teachers and musicians. He studied with Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling in Hanover University of Music and Drama aged 13. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli regarded him as his last pupil. He was a prizewinner in international competitions in Paris, Milan, Epinal, Athens and Brussels. He is a professor at the Hanover University of Music and Drama and was appointed as a lecturer at the age of 25. He founded the Institute for Gifted Children, affiliated to the university – the first of its kind in Germany, and was Director between 2000 and 2012. From 2013 Bernd Goetzke taught the Beethoven course at the Wilhelm Kempff Academy in Positano, where he studied under Wilhelm Kempff and Claudio Arrau. He is head of the internationally acclaimed Concert Soloist Programme in Hanover. His students regularly gain international awards and many establish successful performing careers. He holds master classes internationally and regularly serves on Juries of international competitions. He recently translated 450 letters of Debussy into German.
Alexander Müllenbach studied at the ‘Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique’ in Paris and at Mozarteum in Salzburg (piano, chamber music, composition). He has written more than 100 works including an opera; 13 orchestra pieces, chamber, vocal and solo music. Numerous performances at international festivals (Salzburg Festival, MIDEM Cannes, Barbican Center Series etc.) His work has been performed by prominent soloists, orchestras and ensembles, including: Boris Pergamenschikow, Marjana Lipovsek, Heinrich Schiff, Hagen Quartet, Salzburg Camerata, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Soloists, Parnassus Ensemble London. He teaches composition (Mozarteum Salzburg, Luxemburg Conservatory) and has been a jury member in many international competitions. Numerous concerts throughout the world as solo and chamber music pianist and accompanist. Founder and chairman of the Luxembourg New Music Society (1983–94). From 2000–07: President of the Luxembourg National Music Council. 2002–13:Director of the International Summer Academy Mozarteum Salzburg. 2007–13: Artistic Director of Echternach Festival.
solo and chamber music repertoire and has played with many of the world’s most famous musicians. His recording labels include: EMI, Hyperion, Chandos, Regis, Bongiovanni (Italy), HNH (USA), Hugo (Hong Kong) and Polydor. Formerly Professor of Piano and Head of Postgraduate Performance Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he is now a Senior Piano Tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music and is a regular Professor at the Mozarteum Summer Academy, Salzburg. This year he will join the faculties of Nice Summer Academy
and will be a visiting Professor in several other countries. In September he will judge a major National competition in Japan and is often invited on international juries. He became Artistic Director and Jury Chairman of the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition in 2012. Frank Wibaut is sought after throughout the world for his teaching, Masterclasses and Chamber Coaching. The Royal Academy of Music have awarded him their highest honour, an Hon RAM, for his outstanding service to Music.
Robert Palmer
Dina Yoffe
Brian Wright
Robert Palmer’s career spans three continents, with solo, orchestral and chamber music appearances throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Following his critically-acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut in 1979, Palmer embarked upon a performing career that brought his artistry to many of the major concert halls of the United States and abroad, including several performances in both Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall in New York, the Grand Theatre in Shanghai, ChiangKai Chek Concert Hall in Taipei, and the Seoul Arts Center in Korea. Robert Palmer enjoys a highly successful teaching career. His students, prize-winners in national and international competitions, hail from throughout the world. Palmer has appeared at many summer music festivals and he has served on the jury of numerous international/national piano competitions. Palmer’s many awards include prizes in the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition and the United States Information Agency National Piano Competition. He is the MauzyPorter Distinguished Professor of Piano at Ball State University, United States.
Top prize-winner at the R. Schumann International Piano Competition in Germany and Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. Artistic director of Festival and Master Classes ‘Musical Summer’ in Malaga. Originally from Riga, Dina Yoffe graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music in Moscow, under the tutelage of Professor Vera Gornostayeva. High points in her international career: concerts with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Neville Marriner, Valery Gergiev, Dmitri Kitayenko and James De Pries, with the Israel Philharmonic, the Japanese Radio Orchestra NHK and the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra. She has also played with many world renowned musicians, such as G. Kremer, Y. Bashmet, V. Tretiakov, M.Brunello and has made numerous recordings. She gives master classes in Europe, USA and Japan including the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg. Jury member of international competitions – Chopin (Warsaw), Cleveland (USA), Horowitz (Kiev), Liszt (Weimar), MariaCanails (Barcelona), Hamamatsu (Japan) etc. She is currently Professor at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg. Her students are winners of national/ international competitions.
Brian Wright studied conducting as a Gulbenkian scholar in London and Munich and with George Hurst, Jascha Horenstein and Rudolf Kempe. He won major prizes in competitions with the London Symphony Orchestra and at La Scala, Milan. He was Assistant to André Previn and the LSO and spent ten years as Associate Conductor with the BBC, conducting concerts and broadcasts with all of its orchestras. He won acclaim for performances at the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and for a television production of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, now on DVD. Brian has conducted all the major UK orchestras, toured in Europe with the BBCSO, in Europe and China with the RPO, and has been a guest conductor in nearly twenty countries. He has recorded for EMI, Decca, Teldec, Crystal and Regis Tro. Brian enjoys a close relationship with the RPO and regularly conducts in their London International Series.
JURY PROFILES
orchestras and with many other orchestras around the world. He has now played Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto more than 500 times. His first prizes include the London Chopin Competition aged 17 and in 1968, the Hastings Concerto Competition, the Royal Overseas League and BBC Piano Competitions. These events started his busy international career. His teachers included: John Barstow, Cyril Smith and Gordon Green, with help from Ilona Kabos, Bela Siki and Nadia Boulanger. He has a very wide
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Competition Stages Stage 1 Feb 28 Feb–Mon 2 March, 10am–7.30pm One Concerto from the 2015 list. Contestants give a 25 minute performance including breaks. They may select which parts of the concerto to play but must include part of every movement and any main Cadenza. The Jury reserves the right to request any part of the concerto. This stage is on two pianos.
Stage 2 Wed 4 March, 10am–8pm One concerto from the list of four, for a complete performance. If Competitors select a Mozart or Beethoven concerto in Stage 1 they must not play the same composer in Stage 2. This stage is on two pianos.
Stage 3: Semi-final
Stage 1 Timetable Saturday 28 February MORning: 10am–12.45pm 1 HyunJeong Hwang
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 in El major, Op.73 2 Yui Yoshioka
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18 3 Mihai Ritivoiu
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26 15 minute break 4 John Fisher
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B l minor, Op.23 5 Narae Lee
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30
Thu 5 March, 5–8.30pm Solo recitals. 25 minutes each of own choice music
Stage 4: Final
Afternoon: 2–5.15pm 6 Florian Mitrea
Sat 7 March, 5.50 for 6pm
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26
Three complete concerti with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
7 Scipione Sangiovanni
Liszt: Piano Concerto No.2 in A major, S.125 8 Ilya Kondratiev
Awards
15 minute break
Supported by The Kowitz Family Foundation and Frank Wibaut
9 Mishka Rushdie Momen
First Prize: £10,000 plus engagements: - A concerto performance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Other engagements - The Hastings International Piano Concerto Trophy (in memory of Sir Philip Ledger CBE)
11 Jenna Sung
Second Prize: £3000 plus engagement
12 Ilja Domnins
Third Prize: £2000 plus engagement Special Donated Prize: £1000 for an outstanding British Competitor in the Semi-Final or Final (awarded at the discretion of the Jury). Donated by Alistair and Arran Keith Audience Prize: £500 Semi-Finalists: £200 each
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Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B l minor, Op.23
Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11 10 Alexander Panfilov
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30 Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B l minor, Op.23
Evening: 6–7pm Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21 13 Ryan Drucker
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B l minor, Op.23
Monday 2 March
MORning: 10am–12.45pm
MORning: 10am–12.45pm
14 Xinqiu Cloris Huang
28 Daniel Hart
15 Kuan Ting Lin
29 James Guan
Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11 Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30
Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in El major, s.124 Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30
16 Jason Bae
30 Jihyé Lee
15 minute break
15 minute break
17 A-Jin Sohn
31 Hanqing Chang
18 Edoardo Carpenedo
32 Yura Zaiki
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B l minor, Op.23
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op.26 Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in El major, s.124
Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B l minor, Op.23 Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16
Afternoon: 2–5.15pm
Afternoon: 2–4.45pm
19 Garam Cho
33 Tyler Hay
20 Quang Hong Luu
34 Grigoris Ioannou
21 Sophia Dee
35 Marios Panteliadis
15 minute break
15 minute break
22 Alexej Outekhin
36 Yoon-Jee Kim
23 Daniël van der Hoeven
37 Rabiga Dyussembayeva
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B l minor, Op.23
Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.26 Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18 Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26 24 Aleksei Demchenko
Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11
C O M P E T I T I O N timetable
Sunday 1 March
Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.22 Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30 Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op.15
Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op.15 Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26
Jury deliberation and announcement of results
Evening: 6–7.30pm 25 Matias Ferreyra
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B l minor, Op.23 26 Syuzanna Kaszo
Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.22 27 Anton Rosputko
Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16
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2 0 1 5 international C O N T E S T A N T S
2015 National & International Contestants Concerto & Recital Choices Contestants must select one concerto from the 2015 list. They must also Select one from the Stage 2 list of Mozart and Beethoven concerti and must present a 25 minute own choice Recital, with at least two or more works from different composers and periods.
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Yui Yoshioka, 23 Japan
Stage 1: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat major, Op.73 Stage 2: W.A.Mozart: Piano Concerto in B flat major, K.456 Semi-final: S.Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata Op.36 No.2 C.Debussy: Preludes Bk1 No.10
Stage 1: S.Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18 Stage 2: W.A.Mozart: Piano Concerto in D major, K.451 Semi-final: J.Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Paganini Op.35 Bk 2 S.Rachmaninov: Moments Musicaux Op.16 No.1, No.4 C.Debussy: Prelude Bk2 No.5 “Bruyeres”
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John Fisher, 30 Australia
Narae Lee, 24 South Korea
Stage 1: S.Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: F. Chopin: PolonaiseFantaisie in A flat major, Op. 61 M.Ravel: Scarbo from Gaspard de la nuit
Stage 1: P.I.Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: F.J.Haydn: Sonata in B minor, Hob XVI:32 F.Chopin: Etude in C sharp minor, Op.25 No.7 J.Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op.35 Bk 2
Stage 1: S.Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: L.v.Beethoven: Sonata No.26 in E flat major, “Les Adieux”, Op.81a F.Chopin: Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52
SCIPIONE SANGIOVANNI, 27 Italy Stage 1: F.Liszt: Piano Concerto No.2 in A major, S.125 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: G.F.Handel: Suite, in D minor No.4 HWV 437 J.S.Bach/F.Busoni: Chaconne
8 Ilya Kondratiev, 26 Russia Stage 1: P.I.Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: D.Scarlatti: Sonatas F minor K466, D minor K141 R.Schumann: Sonata No.2 in G minor, Op.22
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HyunJeong Hwang, 25 South Korea
Mihai Ritivoiu, 25 Romania
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9 MISHKA Rushdie Momen, 23 United kingdom Stage 1: F.Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: F.Schubert: Sonata in C minor, D. 958 (1st mvt. Allegro) F.Chopin: Nocturne in B major, Op. 62 No.1 L.Janacek: Sonata I.X.1905 (1st mvt. “The Presentiment”) M.Ravel: Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin
6 Florian Mitrea, 25 Romania Stage 1: S.Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: L.v.Beethoven: Sonata in C major, Op.53 “Waldstein” (1st mvt. Allegro con brio) S. Prokofiev: Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op.82 (3rd mvt. Tempo di valzer lentissimo, 4th mvt. Vivace)
10 Alexander Panfilov, 25 Russia Stage 1: S.Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: L.v.Beethoven Fantasia, Op.77 F.Chopin Ballade No.2 in F major, Op 38 S. Rachmaninov: EtudesTableaux, Op.39 No.5-6
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Jenna Sung, 29 South Korea
Ilja Domnins, 17 Latvia
Ryan Drucker, 22 Belgium
Stage 1: P.I.Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: P.I.Tchaikovsky: Dumka Op.59 F.Chopin: Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor, Op.39 M.Ravel: Scarbo from Gaspard de la nuit
Stage 1: Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21 Stage 2: W.A. Mozart: Piano Concerto in D major, K.451 Semi-final: W.A.Mozart: Romance in A flat major, K.Anh.205 F.Chopin: Preludes Op.28 No.1–12 S.Prokofiev: Sonata No.3 in A minor, Op.28
Stage 1: P.I.Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: F.Chopin: Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52 B.Bartok: Sonata (1926), BB 88
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Kuan Ting Lin, 23 Taiwan
Jason Bae, 23 New Zealand
A-Jin Sohn, 20 South Korea
Stage 1: S.Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: D.Scarlatti: Piano Sonata in D minor, K141 F.Schubert: Impromptu in F minor Op.142 No.4 F.Liszt: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca, S.161 No.5 F.Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.6
Stage 1: P.I.Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.26 in E flat major, Op.81a B.Britten/R.Stevenson: Fantasy on Peter Grimes
Stage 1: Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26 Stage 2: Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: M.Ravel: Valses Noble et Sentimentales C. Saint-Saens/F.Liszt/ V.Horowitz Danse Macabre Op.40
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14 XINQIU CLORIS HUANG, 25 China Stage 1: F.Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: M.Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales F.Liszt: Rigoletto Paraphrase
2 0 1 5 international C O N T E S T A N T S
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18 Edoardo Carpenedo, 24 Italy Stage 1: F.Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat major, S.124 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: F. Liszt: “Funérailles” from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses III, S.173 B.Bartok: “Musettes”, “The Night’s Music”, “The Chase” from Out of Doors, Sz.81, BB 89
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Garam Cho, 29 South Korea
Quang Hong Luu, 24 Vietnam
Sophia Dee, 21 United Kingdom
Alexej Outekhin, 28 Germany
Stage 1: P.I.Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: J.P.Rameau: Nouvelles Suites de Pieces de Clavecin “L’Egyptienne” “La Poule” S.Rachmaninov: Theme on Corelli Variation
Stage 1: J.Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op.15 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: W.A.Mozart: Fantasy in D minor K397 F.Liszt: Apres une lecture de Dante, Fantasia quasi Sonata
Stage 1: F.Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: D.Scarlatti: Piano Sonata in G major, K455 F.Chopin: Barcarolle Op.60 C.Debussy: Étude 11 pour les arpèges composés F.Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.10
Stage 1: S.Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: F.Chopin: Mazurkas Op.67 No.1–4 F.Rzewski: “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues” from “North American Ballads” (1979) F.Liszt: Paraphrase de concert sur Rigoletto S.434
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2 0 1 5 international C O N T E S T A N T S
23 Daniël van der Hoeven, 30 Netherlands
Aleksei Demchenko, 25 Russia
Stage 1: S.Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: J.S.Bach: Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 874, WTK II S. Prokofiev: Sarcasms Op.17 F.Chopin: Etude in A minor, Op.25 No.11
Stage 1: F.Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: L.v. Beethoven: Sonata in F minor, Op.2 No.1 F. Chopin: Etude Op.10 No.2 F. Liszt: Grandes etudes de Paganini No.4 S.Rachmaninov: Prelude Op.23 No.2
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Matias Ferreyra, 27 Uruguay
Syuzanna Kaszo, 27 Hungary
Stage 1: P.I.Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: F.J.Haydn: Sonata in E flat major Hob. XVI: 28 F. Liszt: 2 Légendes, S157 No.1 “St François d’Assise: la prédication aux oiseaux”, No.2 “St François de Paule: marchant sur les flots”
Stage 1: C.Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.22 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: J.S.Bach: Prelude and Fugue BWV 878 in E Major WTK II F.Chopin: Nocturne Op.27 No.2 in D flat Major F.Chopin: Scherzo No.2 in B flat Minor, Op.31
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Anton Rosputko, 21 Latvia
Daniel Hart, 20 Spain
James Guan, 24 Australia
Jihyé Lee, 28 South Korea
Stage 1: E.Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: W. A. Mozart: Sonata in F major, K280 F. Chopin Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52
Stage 1: F.Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat major, S.124 Stage 2: Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: F. Chopin: Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52 M. Ravel: La Valse
Stage 1: S.Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30 Stage 2: W.A.Mozart: Piano Concerto in D major, K.451 Semi-final: F.Liszt: Ballade No. 2 in B minor, S171 S.Taneyev: Prelude and Fugue Op.29
Stage 1: F.Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: D. Scarlatti: Sonatas K466 F minor, K96 F. Chopin: Nocturne in C minor, Op.48 No.1 F. Chopin: Ballade No.1 in G minor, Op.23
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HANQING CHANG, 27 China
Yura Zaiki, 17 Japan
Stage 1: P.I.Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: J.Brahms: Op.116 No.1–3, No.6 and No.7 F.Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No.1
Stage 1: E.Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16 Stage 2: W.A.Mozart: Piano Concerto in D major, K.451 Semi-final: F.Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.8 M.Ravel: Scarbo from Gaspard de la nuit J.S.Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor, BWV849
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Tyler Hay, 20 United Kingdom
Grigoris Ioannou, 20 Greece
Stage 1: C.Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.22 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: F.Liszt: Polonaise No 2 in E major F.Chopin: Nocturne in F major Op.15 No.1 O.Messiaen: L’esprit de Joie (from Vingt Regards)
Stage 1: S.Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30 Stage 2: Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: F. Chopin: Etude in C sharp minor, Op.10 No.4 F. Chopin: Etude in G flat major, Op.10 No.5 S. Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor, Op.36 (1931 version)
MARIOS PANTELIADIS, 26 Greece Stage 1: J.Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op.15 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: F. Poulenc: 3 pieces pour Piano (Pastorale, Hymne and Toccata) F. Liszt: Legend No.2 “St François de Paule: marchant sur les flots” C. Vine: Toccatissimo
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Yoon-Jee Kim, 30 South Korea Stage 1: J.Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op.15 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37 Semi-final: D.Scarlatti: Sonata in E minor, K394 F.Chopin: Nocturne in C minor, Op.48 No.1 M.d.Falla: Fantasia Baetica
Rabiga Dyussembayeva, 27 Kazakhstan Stage 1: S.Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26 Stage 2: L.v.Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15 Semi-final: D. Scarlatti: Sonata in G minor, K310 W.A.Mozart: Sonata in B flat major, K333 (1st mvt.) S. Prokofiev: Sarcasms, Op.17
© John Cole
2 0 1 5 international C O N T E S T A N T S
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HIPCC Accompanists
Alan Brown
Tadashi Imai
Francis Rayner
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Concerti programme notes: Stage One Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Piano Concerto No.4 in G major, Op.58
Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat major, Op.73 (Emperor)
Allegro moderato Andante con moto Rondo. Vivace Composed between 1800 and 1809, Beethoven’s last three piano concerti effectively define the scope of his second period. The fourth was begun in 1805 and finished the following year, and first performed in March 1807 in a concert which also included the premières of the fourth symphony and the Coriolan overture. Hindsight allows us to recognise these years as among the most prolific in Beethoven’s career, marked by a preoccupation with the expansion of traditional forms. In the concerti this as much about integrating the soloistic with the symphonic as with pushing at the tonal boundaries of the music. Beethoven’s decision to open the concerto with the solo piano is a radical move, but less so than the immediate journey into far flung keys initiated by the orchestra’s response, since this creates an immediate tension which the expanded discourse of the movement then has to resolve. The wind section drop out of the Andante, whose dialogue Liszt likened to Orpheus taming the furies. The abruptness of the string writing is gradually mollified by the poetic retorts of the piano, and the movement ends in mid-air only to lead straight into the final Rondo where trumpets and timpani, silent so far, are added to the orchestra. Beethoven’s little tonal joke here is to begin in the wrong key, but this too is a move calculated to create tension. The tonal journey here allows in the development for one of the concerto’s most beautiful passages. The music moves to E flat, and out of the tutti comes a newly lyrical version of the main theme played by divided violas. It is transformed one more time, when after the cadenza it appears in canon between piano and woodwind, before the whole movement builds towards an affirmative climax.
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Allegro Adagio un poco moto Rondo. Allegro If Beethoven’s middle period works are essentially about expanding inherited structures, then the concerto was an ideal medium in which to do this since, at least in the traditional layout of the first movement, it presupposed working within a larger and more complex framework. It also followed that, if the first movement was to grow in stature, then the subsequent ones must also grow in proportion. The title “Emperor concerto”, although it doesn’t stem from the composer and is apparently restricted to the English-speaking world, is thus not as fatuous as it might seems. Beethoven began work on the E flat concerto in the later months of 1808 and completed it the following year. Superficially the “Emperor” appears to be quite a different work from its predecessor, being more brilliant and extrovert where the G major concerto is inward-looking. The two pieces actually have a good deal in common. Once again Beethoven allows his soloist to be heard at the start of the concerto, but this time with a much greater presence. The bravura of Beethoven’s cadenza-like opening allows the cadenza proper – which duly appears where one would expect to find it – to be less showy than might be anticipated. The real novelty here is that the orchestra actually contributes to a section traditionally given over to – and indeed improvised by – the soloist. The Adagio un poco moto, like the slow movement of the G major concerto, is an introspective movement, which uses a reduced orchestra and, again like that of its predecessor, leads without a break in to the finale. The transition, in which the pedal B drops a semitone to become the dominant of E flat, is as magical as it is simple.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op.15
Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11
Maestoso Adagio Rondo – Allegro non troppo
Allegro maestoso Romance. Larghetto Rondo. Vivace
Goodness knows how much music Brahms destroyed as unsatisfactory before the appearance of the mighty piano sonatas which constitute his first published works. “Veiled symphonies” Schumann had called them, alluding as much to their size as to the expectations he had of his protégé. Brahms wrote no more solo sonatas, but in 1854 he composed three movements of a sonata for two pianos. Even then he felt that his ideas were too big for the chosen medium, and he began to orchestrate the first movement with the intention of turning the whole work into a symphony. But the perfectionist in him was still not satisfied and he channelled his efforts into rethinking the material as a piano concerto. With a good deal of advice from Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim this reached its final form in 1858. Brahms discarded his original slow movement, reusing it later in the Deutsches Requiem, and wrote instead an Adagio headed Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. This probably alludes to Schumann, whose death had occurred two years before, and also to the mass which Brahms is known to have sketched around this time. The D minor concerto was eventually published in 1861. It is a huge work, longer in three movements than the second concerto is in four. The first movement alone plays for nearly twenty five minutes. Nowhere is the music’s symphonic origin more apparent than in this powerful Maestoso. This is a young man’s music, seething with the struggles and passions which were to recede further beneath the surface as Brahms grew in maturity. The slow movement, like the first, is in six-four time; a bold risk to take, but one which Brahms justifies as a kind of fuller exploration of those moments of a more introspective nature which had appeared in the preceding movement. Its dynamic character returns in the Rondo which , like the Maestoso, displays a natural tendency towards B flat major, finding its fullest expression in a central episode which Schumann himself would have been proud to have written.
Any criticism which has been levelled at Chopin’s two piano concerti has to be viewed in the light of broader circumstances. So, while it is true that Chopin was no Berlioz in matters of orchestration, his decision after completing them to concentrate on the solo repertoire does presuppose an awareness of his strengths and weaknesses. And any carping about structural failings must take into account that these remain remarkably confident works for a composer who had not yet reached his twentieth birthday. On a more positive note, both of them show that, even at this early stage, Chopin was not only a formidable pianist but that the formative influences on his piano writing had already been absorbed into a coherently individual style. Both concerti were written in 1829–30. The E minor was actually the second but was published before the F minor. Comparing either with what we might assume to have been familiar models is misleading and serves only to reveal our tendency to see history as a series of linear events. For, while it is true that the concerti of Mozart or Beethoven provide some of the finest examples of the genre in the generation before Chopin, it is more than likely that at this stage in his career he knew little or nothing of either. The early Romantic era in which he lived and which shaped his outlook as a pianist-composer was an age which prized virtuosity. Its heroes were men like Hummel, Moscheles or Kalkbrenner (to whom the E minor concerto is dedicated), who had promoted a new breed of concerto in which structural subtlety ceded to technical display. This helps explain why Chopin’s first movement looks on paper to acknowledge Classical precedent but in reality uses its structural outline as no more than a series of staging posts providing a context for the piano writing. To accuse Chopin of failing to integrate his material more closely is to make the mistake of assuming he intends to. The Romance follows the pattern laid down in the F minor concerto in being a reverie for the piano in which the orchestra’s rôle is minimal. For his finale Chopin once more turns to an inherited structural type – a rondo – as a peg on which to hang a series of brilliant display passages for the soloist.
STAGE ONE CONCERTI PROGRAMME NOTES
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
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Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849)
Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16
Maestoso Larghetto Allegro vivace
Allegro molto moderato Adagio Allegro molto moderato e marcato
As has been hinted at elsewhere, the F minor concerto was completed first but published second, a situation analogous with Beethoven’s first two piano concerti. However, it is unlikely that at this stage in his career Chopin had encountered any of that composer’s concerti. The more obvious influences are those of the first generation of Romantic composervirtuosi, such as Hummel or Moscheles. It is instructive, for instance, to compare Chopin’s opening movement with what might be expected of a similar movement by Beethoven or, for that matter, Mozart. The lengthy opening tutti is still in place, albeit with a second subject (with echoes of Weber) already in the relative major. But from there on piano and orchestra, although they share common material, lead fairly separate existences. The latter, instead of playing its part in the musical argument, merely becomes a passive accompanist to the pianistic bravura. There is no cadenza, but then none is necessary. Similarly, in the Larghetto, once the brief introduction is over, Chopin launches into what is effectively a solo nocturne with minimal interference from the orchestra. And in the finale the piano carries on with its energetic Chopin waltz-rondo largely oblivious to what the orchestra is doing. Chopin was, after all, simply following current fashion, which is this case conveniently justified his decision to concentrate on what he was best at.
“I should like to play only my own compositions” Grieg wrote concerning his first visit to England in 1879 “and of these I prefer apart from the piano concerto, my solo pieces, chamber music and… songs.” There speaks a man eager not to be seen as a one-work composer. Yet Grieg did have a high opinion of the concerto and had been profoundly disappointed to have it returned from his publisher in 1870 as unworthy of publication. He had composed it in Søllerød, Denmark, in the summer of 1868, a period of personal happiness and genuine creative progress. Its dedicatee, Edmund Neupert, gave the first performance in Copenhagen the following year, but it was not until 1872 that the concerto was printed. In the meantime Grieg had made certain revisions to the text. By his own admission Grieg was never happiest in large scale genres and the concerto is an exception rather than a rule. There is a grain of truth in the idea that it succeeds by concentrating on the simple statement of ideas rather than attempting any complex development of them, but Grieg was able to turn to familiar models and take from them what he needed without compromising his own individual voice. Schumann’s concerto springs to mind, not just in the choice of key, but in the bold piano statement at the start of the first movement and the eschewing of the traditional classical first movement form in favour of what is effectively a sonata for piano and orchestra. But the harmonic piquancy is as often as not Grieg’s own, as in the main theme of the Adagio, where the piano writing more than once invokes the shade of Chopin. Grieg the nationalist surfaces in the finale, which alludes to two Norwegian folk dances, the halling and the springdans. The movement is a rondo, whose central episode is worked up into the grandiose Romantic peroration of the closing pages.
© John Cole
Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat major, s.124
Piano Concerto No.2, in A major, s.125
Allegro maestoso Quasi Adagio – Allegretto vivace – Allegro animato Allegro marziale animato
Adagio sostenuto assai – Allegro agitato assai – Allegro moderato – Allegro deciso – L’istesso tempo – Marciale un poco meno allegro – Allegro animato
The first of Liszt’s two piano concerti is typical of many of his works in having reached its final form only after a long process of gestation and revision. Sketches for it go back as far as 1830. Liszt carried out the bulk of the work on both concerti during the 1840s, subjecting the first in particular to a whole chain of revisions before he gave its first performance in Weimar in 1855, conducted by Hector Berlioz. It is logical to assume that any concerto Liszt might have written in 1830 would have been a bravura work, showcasing his talents as a formidable pianist rather than as a composer. But by the 1850s the roles were largely reversed. Liszt was no longer the youthful darling of the salons so much as the composer who was soon to produce original but purely orchestral works like the Faust symphony or the majority of the symphonic poems. This helps us to appreciate why the archetypal Romantic pianist should not have written the archetypal Romantic piano concerto. True, pianistic brilliance is far from absent, but the greater interest lies in the way that Liszt adapts the traditional three-movement form to accommodate the technique of thematic metamorphosis with which he was experimenting elsewhere. None of the movements here is self-contained. Almost all the material in the first is derived from the opening motif, the main contrast being provided by an arpeggio theme which is itself subjected to various modifications. This brief, tonally unstable movement acts really as an extended prelude to the second, which is part slow movement, part scherzo and part development of what has gone before. The final movement provides yet another development of existing ideas in which the concerto, in principal keys of E flat and B major battling for supremacy, with E flat finally being established in a long recapitulationcum-coda. The whole concerto is thus one in which the traditional idea of statement and development has been stretched to cover, not one movement, but three which are heard as a unity sharing common material. If we seek a precedent for this outside Liszt’s music we have to look back to a work like Schubert’s Wanderer fantasy of 1822, which is known to have fascinated Liszt and which, two years after completing this concerto, he transcribed for piano and orchestra.
LISZT NEVER MADE IT EASY for those seeking an accurate chronology of his music, and the two piano concerti are among many pieces subject to substantial reworking. Liszt conducted the first performance of the second concerto in Weimar in 1857, with his pupil Hans von Bronsart as soloist, but sketches date back to 1839. The intervening period witnessed significant changes in his career. In 1839 he stood at the threshold of his heyday as a concert virtuoso, but by the mid-1850s that period was effectively over. This concerto is thus in essence the work of a comparatively young man, more confident as a pianist than as a composer, but refined through experience. Liszt’s concerti did not reach their definitive form until 1849. How much work had been done them in the intervening years is debatable, but the spirit of Chopin and the early Romantic virtuoso tradition hangs heavily over both of them, the second in particular. Without it, for example, the whole of Liszt’s opening Adagio sostenuto assai could not have been conceived. Liszt goes much further than his models by eschewing completely the accepted notion of a concerto in three distinct movements. Nor is that layout implicit in the single-movement concept of the second concerto, beginning as it does with a slow ‘movement’ and proceeding via a series of interlinked sections. Liszt’s opening Adagio is deliberately open-ended, its latter half introducing material to be taken up in the next. This is thus part development of previously heard motives, part exposition of ideas to which the Allegro deciso provides a heavily qualified recapitulation. By this stage it becomes apparent that Liszt intends to draw on the same technique of thematic metamorphosis evident in, for instance, the B minor piano sonata. So it comes as no surprise that the next large-scale subdivision of the music should also further develop pre-existing ideas. And, although the actual music of the opening Adagio never reappears verbatim, its melodic shapes lie behind the concluding Marciale section, even though it is as far removed from it in spirit as one could imagine.
CONCERTI PROGRAMME NOTES
Franz Liszt (1811–1886)
STAGE ONE
Franz Liszt (1811–1886)
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Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26 Andante – Allegro Tema con Variazioni Allegro ma non troppo Prokofiev’s third concerto belongs to the period 1918–22, when he left Russia with the intention of forging a career as a pianist and composer in the USA. Lack of immediate success occasioned a move to Paris in April 1920. Thus much of the third piano concerto was composed in France. Prokofiev turned to sketches he had made as a student in 1911, and others from 1916 and ’17, incorporating them into the first two movements. The finale was partially reworked from a discarded string quartet of 1918. The whole concerto was completed in 1921. The concerto survives its heterogeneous origins very well, but remains work given to extreme contrasts. There is nothing, for instance, in the calm of the Andante which opens the first movement to prepare for the spikiness of the ensuing Allegro. Prokofiev treats this as a fairly orthodox sonata structure, with a grotesque little march for a second subject. For the development he returns to the Andante introduction, allowing its lyricism to shine through for an all too brief period before the leadback to the recapitulation interrupts it. The central Tema con variazioni cannot in any real sense be called a slow movement. The Andante tempo of the theme is maintained for the first variation, but then the pace quickens to an Allegro and we are plunged back into the world of the first movement. One of the most curious variations here is the fourth, marked Andante meditativo, which sounds like Chopin on acid. With the finale we are back with Prokofiev the youthfully provocative. The whole affair starts with a theme which seems to want to be treated as a fugue subject but has to wait for some time before its aspirations are momentarily fulfilled when the theme returns. In the meantime it has met its match in a rapid display of ascending and descending scales which becomes the movement’s main secondary idea. As in the first movement, the middle section here offers a measure of relaxation, but at greater length and introducing a new idea which is developed along with the scalic figure. This allows the closing section to devote itself largely to a recapitulation of the principal theme in what is really an extended and brilliant coda.
Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18
Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30
Moderato Adagio sostenuto Allegro scherzando
Allegro ma non tanto Intermezzo. Allegro Finale. Alla breve
Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto will always conjure up images of Celia Johnson being terribly, terribly noble and dutiful and Trevor Howard being dashingly caddish. In choosing this music to accompany the doomed, unconsummated affair of Laura and Alec in Brief Encounter director David Lean was acknowledging not merely its popularity but its reputation as the archetypal romantic piano concerto, chock full of rhetoric which a flourishing film industry had not been slow to imitate. The concerto which mirrors the imaginary moral crisis of Brief Encounter was born out of a genuine crisis in its composer’s own career. Rachmaninov had earned a certain amount of success with his first piano concerto of 1890–91, not least because it was given to the world by a composer still in his teens blessed with a phenomenal technique as a pianist. It was the failure of his first symphony which precipitated his breakdown and he produced nothing other than abortive sketches over the next three years. When the worst was passed and Rachmaninov regained the confidence to essay greater things, it bore fruit in a handful of works in which, sensibly, his own instrument played a major role, among them the second piano concerto. It was begun in 1900 and completed in 1901, six years before Rachmaninov was to complete the work which set the seal on his artistic regeneration, the second symphony. The two works have a fair amount in common. Both are conceived on a grand scale, both have intensely lyrical slow movements ushered in by extended clarinet solos, and neither shies away from the heart-on-sleeve emotional pull of the big tune which Lean was to exploit to the full. In truth, the concerto could well be said to be conceived symphonically since, in keeping with numerous mid to late concerti of the Romantic period, it eschews the structural tradition familiar from the classical concerto of, for instance, Mozart or Beethoven. Part of the enduring popularity of concerti like this one is that in them two traditions meet head on: the concept of the concerto as a heroic struggle between soloist and orchestra, and the overarching one of the Romantic symphonic tradition as a progress towards a triumphant and equally heroic climax – big tunes, big emotions…and that railway station.
Although it has never quite managed to oust its predecessor from its prime position in the popularity stakes, Rachmaninov’s third piano concerto has never had to suffer the scandalous neglect with which the fourth has been treated. It followed the second concerto after a period of eight years, in the summer and early autumn of 1909, a near contemporary of two other major works: the Second Symphony and the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead. The composer himself gave the first performance the following November as part of his first American tour. The third concerto is only superficially similar to the second. It is the more ambitious work of the two and consequently the longer, and the score contains a number of optional cuts which Rachmaninov is known to have made himself. It moreover attempts a conscious motivic unity between all three movements in a way that looks forward to the fourth concerto while obviously not yet achieving the conciseness which is one of that work’s hallmarks. Right at the outset Rachmaninov defines the scale upon which he intends to work by presenting an idea which is in no hurry to finish and which holds no clue as to the difficulties to come. Rachmaninov’s tune has an almost Franckian economy in the way it persistently clings to the same handful of notes, making its interest as much a rhythmic as a melodic one. This is important, since subsequent references to this idea will sometimes evoke its rhythmic shape. This is exactly what Rachmaninov does in the passage which follows the orchestral restatement of the tune and which leads to the second group. Here a short fanfare-like motif in the orchestra is transformed by the piano into another long-drawn melody. The eventual recapitulation is quite brief, since much of its function has been usurped by the development and the cadenza – which also involves the orchestra.
CONCERTI PROGRAMME NOTES
Sergey Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
STAGE ONE
Sergey Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
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Camille Saint-Saëns (1811–1886)
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.22
Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23
Andante sostenuto Allegro scherzando Presto
Andante non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito Andantino semplice – Allegro vivace assai – Tempo primo Allegro con fuoco
Here’s an arresting thought: Saint-Saëns was born only eight years after the death of Beethoven and outlived his compatriot Debussy by three years. When he first appeared in public as a gifted ten year old pianist, Chopin was the talk of Parisian society; when he died the city was beginning to fête a newcomer called Igor Stravinsky. Where a composer has enjoyed such a lengthy and fecund career we might well note how their style matures and develops over the years. With Saint-Saëns, however, we are presented with a composer who, having found his own stylistic milieu at an early stage, was content to stay there. Saint-Saëns’ tendency increasingly to be sidelined by progressive younger generations left him, towards the end of his life, a largely forgotten, conservative figure. Yet he continued to compose, completing several works in the year of his death. Saint-Saëns wrote five piano concertos in all, a reflection to some extent of his own skill as a pianist. The second is comparatively early. It was completed in 1868 (which make it an exact contemporary of Grieg’s concerto) and first performed the same year. That he should have been attracted to ‘Germanic’ genres like the concerto and symphony at a time when French composers were increasingly disregarding them is typical of Saint-Saëns’ determination not to be constrained by a narrow musical Chauvinism. The product of a composer who never shied away from eclecticism, the concerto testifies to influences as disparate as Bach and Liszt. The layout of the concerto reveals its composer who, for all his conservatism, was still prepared to experiment. There are three movements, but they don’t follow the accepted fast-slow-fast pattern. The nearest the concerto comes to a real slow movement is the opening Andante sostenuto, part cadenza, part recreation of a Bach toccata in terms of 19th century pianism, and part hommage to Lisztian rhetoric. It is followed by what are effectively two scherzos, the second of which is an energetic tarantella in which the orchestra – not for the first time in this piece – can only offer brief comments on the pianist’s fireworks.
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Apart from the overture Romeo and Juliet, this is the earliest of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral works to enjoy a guaranteed place in the repertoire. When it was composed in 1874 he had already completed the first two symphonies, but neither has established for itself the sure-fire popularity of the concerto… or at least the big tune with which it starts. Looking beyond the opening it becomes immediately apparent that the big, surging melody for strings accompanied by bold piano chords is – to the despair of theorists but the delight of lovers of big, surging melodies – nothing more than an introductory gesture on the grandest scale. It is a daring experiment, which Tchaikovsky was to repeat with greater subtlety in his violin concerto. This may have contributed to Nicholas Rubinstein’s vitriolic attack on the piano concerto after Tchaikovsky had played it to him. The composer had hoped that Rubinstein would give the first performance. He accepted only on condition that Tchaikovsky subject the work to wholesale revision. Tchaikovsky held his ground – as did Rubinstein, although in time he retracted his criticism and did play the concerto. The eventual creator of the work was Hans von Bulow, its eventual dedicatee, who premièred it in Boston in 1875. Any other grounds for complaint on Rubinstein’s part were probably little more than a reflection of his own conservatism. Tchaikovsky’s first movement, when it gets going in earnest, dispenses with the Classical precedent of an opening orchestral tutti, but then by 1874 such a procedure was more the rule than the exception. Here and in the third movement Tchaikovsky typically creates sonata form structures where contrast of character between ideas is at least as important as tension between key centres. Tchaikovsky is more radical in the Andantino semplice, which combines the functions of both slow movement and scherzo in one. There is more than a touch of Rachmaninov in the way the finale introduces a broad second subject which is eventually apotheosised in the recapitulation. But we shouldn’t overlook the fact the concerto came into being at a time when Tchaikovsky was tentatively exploring Russian folk music in works like the second symphony and second quartet. Here the first subjects of both outer movements are based on Ukrainian folk songs.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Piano Concerto No.1 in C major, Op.15
Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37
Allegro con brio Largo Rondo. Allegro scherzando
Allegro con brio Largo Rondo. Allegro
This is not Beethoven’s first piano concerto. A youthful concerto in E flat, dating from 1784, survives in short score, and what we call the second concerto, Op.19, was actually written before the present work but published slightly later. So the C major is chronologically the third concerto. Beethoven began to sketch it in 1795–96, and it was completed, and first performed, in 1798. If we take into consideration the fragmentary Romance for flute, bassoon, piano and orchestra of 1786, the much more important fragment of the first movement of a violin concerto written around 1790–92 and the lost oboe concerto supposedly completed in 1793, the Beethoven of the “first” piano concerto emerges as anything but a stranger to the medium. He handles it here with a confidence born of experience. This is a bigger work than the B flat concerto, a fact reflected in the scoring, which now includes clarinets, trumpets and timpani, and in the scale of its movements – particularly the first. It is tempting to identify Mozart’s concerti as an obvious model for the young Beethoven, although that observation should come with the caveat that at this stage only a handful of these works were even moderately well known. Nevertheless, it is the Mozartian archetype which lies behind Beethoven’s opening movement, albeit with the occasional hint that Beethoven wants to push its tonal scheme to new limits. This expanded tonality defines the scale which will determine the whole movement. It is the Mozartian precedent, not denied but taken a logical step further. The piano writing in this and the last movement, which is a sonata rondo, is another step in the direction of the nineteenth century concerto, moving towards the kind of explicitly virtuoso figuration that had been hinted at, for instance, in Mozart’s Coronation concerto (K.537) and developed more fully in the works of composers such as Hummel or Weber. In the same way the cantabile style of the central Largo, in A flat major, is a link between that of some of Mozart’s slow movements and the bel cantoinspired writing of Chopin’s generation.
The autograph manuscript of the C minor piano concerto is dated 1800, but sketches for it exist from three years earlier, making it closer to the two earlier concerti than one might imagine. What particularly interests Beethoven here is balancing the contributions of both soloist and orchestra to the symphonic argument. The long orchestral exposition which opens the first movement at one point threatens to upset this balance by challenging the Classical precedent whereby this part of the movement stays within the tonic key. Beethoven allows the music to modulate to the relative major for his second subject as if he were writing a symphony. Moreover, this second subject is a self-contained melody, contrasting with the pithy arpeggio motif which constitutes the movement’s opening theme. The first of these ideas has the greater potential for development, and Beethoven isolates the dominant-tonic tag in contains and subjects it to fairly exhaustive treatment. He also takes the same risk as Mozart in his own C minor concerto by allowing the piano to carry on playing after the cadenza – contemporary audiences were quite liable to applaud at this point and hear nothing of the closing ritornello. They would probably clap too at the end of the movement, in which case they would miss the effect of the piano’s starting the Largo with a chord of E major, remote from the C minor it had just left. Beethoven enhances the change of atmosphere by eliminating from his slow movement all the wind instruments except flutes, bassoons and horns. The piano writing here frequently takes on an almost Chopinesque floridness, not least in the central section, where it rhapsodies with the flute and bassoon. The jolt back to C minor for the final rondo is equally sudden, although Beethoven eventually softens the movement’s anger in a C major coda.
STAGE TWO CONCERTI PROGRAMME NOTES
Concerti programme notes: Stage Two
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Piano Concerto in D major, K.451
Piano Concerto in B flat major, K.456
Allegro assai Andante Allegro molto
Allegro vivace Andante un poco sostenuto Allegro vivace
The concerti K.499, K.450 and K.451 mark a watershed in Mozart’s essays in the genre, yet as a link between the smaller-scale chamber concerti K.413–415 and the masterly series inaugurated by K.453 their significance is easily overlooked and they remain among the least known of his mature examples. Nevertheless, their importance was not lost on Mozart, who chose them as the first three entries in the catalogue of works he began in February 1784. He entered K.451 on 22 March. The chamber-like approach of the earlier Viennese concerti has now given way to a bolder, orchestrally conceived one which, if it does not yet display the lavish wind writing of the later concerti, nevertheless proclaims them as public-facing, not least in the case of this D major work which calls for the trumpets and timpani appropriate to the key. Mozart, writing to his father, acknowledged that this concerto and its predecessor both posed technical challenges “to make you sweat”. K.451 is certainly more extrovert than K.450, but less subtle than K.449, evincing perhaps some of the slightly impersonal brilliance noticeable in other D major works by Mozart, not least the later ‘Coronation’ concerto K.537. The first movement begins with a dotted motif which Mozart used elsewhere in his concerti. It is not so much this as the little rising figure which follows it which worms its way into several subsequent ideas, like the pregnant woodwind idea leading into the second group or the sudden harmonic twist at the end of the exposition which provides a springboard of much of the development. “There are no Adagios in these concerti, only Andantes” remarked Mozart to his sister. That in K.451 gives preference to exquisite surface detail rather than complexity in what is a simple rondo, although Mozart is subtle enough to confound the ear for some time into thinking the movement is intended as a sonatarondo. The finale, however, really is a sonata-rondo, but otherwise not a movement to trouble the listener with undue cleverness – which is not to deny the consistently high level of Mozart’s craftsmanship.
Composed in September 1784, K.456 was long thought to have been written for the blind pianist Maria Theresa Paradis, although recent scholarship has shed doubt on this. Mozart played it himself in a concert in February 1785, two days after he had completed the D minor concerto, K.466. For 19th century audiences that work reigned supreme, while the earlier Viennese concerti were largely forgotten well into the early 20th century, with the K.456 faring particularly badly. This is strange given our predecessors’ determination to value in Mozart what it could seize upon a prefiguring the Romantic aesthetic. The G minor variations which constitute the second movement of this concerto should have been sufficient to attract further attention; with its generous woodwind writing it bears comparison with the best of Mozart’s writing in that key, not least in his operas. The vocal parallel is apt, for in the opening movement the indebtedness to the extended aria patterns exemplified in Mozart’s early operas is now fully established, dictating not just the structure but the coloratura writing for the piano. This is always most elaborate towards the end of the solo exposition, thereby unifying melodic and harmonic tension. The solo exposition here has not one new theme as we might expect from Mozart, but two; an extravagant gesture, as neither figure in the development. There is another favourite Mozart device in the last movement, which opens with the piano stating a rondo theme, proceeds to a lengthy tutti and leaves the piano to re-enter with something different. But the real surprise comes in the development, when the orchestra changes to 2/4 time while the soloist stays in 6/8. Mozart had done a similar thing in the finale of his oboe quartet K.370, but the daring here is compounded by the music reaching the extremely remote key of B minor – again, melodic tension reinforcing harmonic tension with a vengeance.
Programme notes © Geoff Thomason 2014
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erwood Gallery nestles between the iconic net huts in Hastings Old Town and a working fishing beach: a stunning location. The gallery is part of the cultural vibrancy of the area, which gains momentum with the ongoing development of wonderful cultural initiatives in the town including the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition. The Gallery celebrates its third birthday in March and our aim is to continue to bring British artists of international renown to Hastings. We also house the growing Jerwood Collection of Modern British Art. The collection is rehung regularly and has some excellent examples of work by British artists including two of our greatest 20th century exponents, Sir Stanley Spencer and Walter Sickert. This year we will mount 11 different sea-themed exhibitions including an LS Lowry show and exhibits by Quentin Blake and the iconic Young British Artist (YBA) Rachel Howard. Our current exhibition, Chantal Joffe: Beside the Seaside runs through until 12 April. It shows the haunting and beautiful paintings of an extraordinary contemporary artist who has worked extensively in Hastings, and the exhibit captures radiantly the town and its people in full Technicolor. Jerwood Gallery was built with funds from a private charitable foundation and is a not-forprofit gallery which receives no public funding for running costs. We are very dependent on the contribution of visitors and Supporters and our Members enjoy free access to the gallery
throughout the year. For our third birthday we will be launching a new Friends group which will offer greater opportunities for experiencing art, with special behind the scenes access as well as invitations to related arts events. So do check our website for the latest information on this exciting new programme. We are also very proud of our active volunteer team and if you are interested in 20th and 21st century art, want to meet like-minded people, gain some valuable work experience, or make a difference in your local community, please get in touch at info@jerwoodgallery.org, or contact the Gallery on 01424 425809. We look forward to seeing you often at the gallery in 2015 as this promises to be an even busier year for British art in Hastings.
Left: © Peter Jones, Right: © Alex Bland
Jerwood on Sea
Liz Gilmore, Director Jerwood Gallery
Chantal Joffe, Vita by the Sea, 2014 © the artist. Courtesy Victoria Miro, London
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Calendar of events 2015–16 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition 2015–16 Season Sat 28 Feb –Mon 2 March, 10am–7.30pm Stage 1 performances Wed 4 March, 10–8pm Stage 2 performances Thu 5 March, 5–8.30pm Semi-final Friday 6 March, 6pm Masterclass with members of the Jury
Recital Room, Fairlight Hall
Sat 7 March, 6pm Final
Three complete chosen concerti with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
Tuesday 12 May 2012 Winner Eugenio Catone
Fairfield Halls, Croydon fairfield.co.uk
Thursday 4 June 2015 Competition Winner performs the Emperor Concerto with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex dlwp.com
Tuesday 16 June 2015 Winner
Fairfield Halls, Croydon fairfield.co.uk
Sunday 5 July Summer Picnic Recital with HIPCC prizewinner Fairlight Hall, East Sussex
Saturday 25 July HIPCC Prizewinner at Alfriston Summer Music Festival Alfriston, East Sussex alfristonsummermusic.co.uk
Wed 16 September HIPCC Prizewinner at Rye Arts Festival ryeartsfestival.co.uk
Wed 28 October 2014 Winner Taek Gi Lee to Play with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Fairfield Halls, Croydon fairfield.co.uk
Saturday 23 January 2016 Winter Winners’ Recital with HIPCC Prizewinner Fairlight Hall, East Sussex
Saturday 31 October Autumn Winners’ Recital with HIPCC Prizewinner
Fairlight Hall, East Sussex
Wednesday 24 February to Saturday 6 March 2016 Competition White Rock Theatre, Hastings
Cultural events in East Sussex and Kent 2015 Saturday 14 March Vinehall Music Society International Concert Series London Handel players
1–10 May Hastings Jack-in-the-Green
hastingsjack.co.uk
Ticehurst wardsbrookconcerts.org.uk
vinehallschool.com
2–25 May Brighton Festival
21 May–30 August Glyndebourne Festival
Saturday 11 April Hastings Philharmonic Choir Carl Orff – Carmina Burana
St Mary in the Castle hastingsphilchoir.org.uk Saturday 9 May Vinehall Music Society International Concert Series Heath Quartet, Michael Collins (Clarinet)
vinehallschool.com
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brightonfestival.org 15–25 May Charleston Festival
charleston.org.uk Saturday 6 June Vinehall Music Society International Concert Series Louis Lortie (Piano)
vinehallschool.com 25–28 June Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival
peasmarshfestival.co.uk
10 May, 14 and 27 June Wardsbrook Festival
glyndebourne.com Sunday 5 July The Last Night of the Bexhill Proms
De La Warr Theatre, Bexhill dlwp.com 15–17 May Sacconi Chamber Music Festival
sacconi.com/festival 19–28 June Stour Music: Festival of Music in East Kent
stourmusic.org.uk
July Alfriston Summer Music Festival
alfristonsummermusic.co.uk 27–31 August Rye Jazz Festival
ryejazz.com 25–26 September Hastings International Composers Festival
composersfestival.com 11–27 September Rye Arts Festival
ryeartsfestival.co.uk 23 October–8 November Brighton Early Music Festival
bremf.org.uk
2016 and All That Taking creative inspiration from the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings
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n 14 October 1066 the path of English and European history was irrevocably changed. Two cultures collided – Anglo Saxon and Norman – with a legacy that echoes through our ethos, language and constitution to the present day. In 2016, to mark the 950th anniversary of the most famous date in English history, Hastings Borough Council is supporting a festival of contemporary arts – taking a once in a generation opportunity to explore the theme of what the Battle of Hastings means to us today. Interesting things happen when cultures collide, new energy is released, and this new contemporary arts festival will be characterised and stimulated by creative collaborations. Such collaborations may be between artists from different cultures and countries; between artists who practise different disciplines; between artists of different abilities; or between artists and local residents, young and old. Above all we are interested in contemporary responses to the history and legacy of 1066 as seen through the eyes of some of the best contemporary artists; and we hope to include all art forms in the festival as well as large-scale outdoor works. It will take a lot of collaborations to make something really special and there is already a huge enthusiasm locally and nationally to participate.
The festival will take place in September and October 2016 and there will be activities and events running throughout the year during the build up to the festival itself. The festival will be based in Hastings complemented by events nationally and throughout 1066 Country. We are also working with French artists and organisations in Normandy and hope for some interesting joint creativity across the Channel. With many commemorative celebrations planned by regional organisations and historic venues, 2016 will offer an irresistible choice of experiences for locals and visitors alike. Hastings and 1066 Country already offer a fantastic calendar of annual cultural and social events. We hope that by presenting an exciting and world-class celebration of this historic anniversary we can raise the profile of our town and historic county even further afield, as well as encourage even greater participation and enjoyment of our rich local arts scene. Keep an eye on www.visit1066country.com for all the latest news, and for more information contact me, Polly Gifford, Strategic Cultural Development Specialist, at Hastings Borough Council, Email: pgifford@hastings.gov.uk
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Š John Cole
2014 Prize Winners
The White Rock Hotel is proud to support the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition
Left: Third Prize winner, Marcin Koziak, 24, Poland Centre: First Prize & Audience Prize, Taek Gi Lee, 17, South Korea Right: Second Prize, Yekwon Sunwoo, 25, South Korea
Stop Press:
Distinguished director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas, The Browning Version, Time Code) has been commissioned to make a film about the competition and will be working with a film crew for ten days at the White Rock Theatre and locations in and around Hastings. He will also set up a dedicated You Tube Channel for daily streaming of the competition stages and other related events. An accomplished jazz musician and composer himself, he is keen to explore the issues surrounding the lives of young concert pianists working to establish a career, and what can be done to encourage younger audiences to experience classical music. Follow our Facebook page or visit our website for more updates. Management Committee
Frank Wibaut (Chairman) Molly Townson Sarah Kowitz Lucinda Sheppard Dr Richard Wray DL Artistic Director and Chairman of the Jury:
Frank Wibaut COMPETITION ADMINISTRATION
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Administrator: Hannah Deeble Artistic Assistant and Friends and Patrons Coordinator: Miwako Hosono Volunteers Coordinator: Mo Heard Press Officer: Julian Norridge Education and Outreach Officers: Lesley Turnbull & Susan Wealthdale Honorary Treasurer: Brenda Bailey
DIAMOND PATRONS Jonathan and Tricia Gray David and Sarah Kowitz Prof. Frank Wibaut and Miwako Hosono Dr. Richard and Julia Wray PLATINUM PATRONS Nicholas Wilde GOLD PATRONS Linda Bass Andrew Blackman and Richard Smith Peter Dengate Michael Foster Law Kendra McConnell and Morgan Giampaolo Patricia and Richard Millett Jane and David Pennock Dr. Christine Pickard and Gordon Trewinnard Jane and Neil Tritton SILVER PATRONS John and Yvonne Everitt Lorraine Griffin Elizabeth and Alfredo Gutiérrez-Andrés Prof. Michael Hunter Alistair and Arran Keith Richard John Last Malcolm W Lock Caron and Edward Maddison James Pembroke Richard and Monica Percy Machiel and Corrien Salomons Janet Smallman Kevin Smith Alexander Stiller MEMBERS Judith and David Appleyard Jean Bryant Marigold Chamberlin Rosemary and Geoffrey Craggs Patricia Creffield Jill and Glen Davies Richard and Cynthia Feast Nicholas Dent and Stephanie Gaunt Margit and William Gentles Betty Greenish Lorna Knowles Ashley Luke and Scott Meek Michael Moor Justin and Kate Nahum Sue Schlesinger John and Rosemary Searle Liz and Tony Skelton Julian D Stowell Molly Townson and Ken Johnson Wilfred and Moira Pickard Linda and John Westcott Joan Willson
Become a Member or Patron of the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition and you can help us ensure this world-class event will continue for the future benefit of young classical pianists, as well as helping us bring concerto music to new audiences. Benefits will include priority booking for the Competition Events, exclusive Friends recitals and receptions, acknowledgement on our website and in the Competition Programme. Please complete the application card inserted into this programme, see our website for details or contact us. Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition Care of: The Hastings Musical Festival office: White Rock Theatre, Hastings TN34 1JX www
.HastingsConcertoCompetition.co.uk © John Cole
Friends of Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition
Sponsor a Piano Key Why not help support the competition by sponsoring our life-size piano keyboard? You can have your name displayed at all related events for the forthcoming year for £100 a key as well as on our website. Email: info@HastingsConcertoCompetition.co.uk www.HastingsConcertoCompetition.co.uk
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