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(photo credit: Gareth Barton)
(photo credit: Gareth Barton)

Violinist Fenella Humphreys and pianist Nicola Eimer celebrate the 150th anniversaries of Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen in a concert combining works for violin and piano by these two composers, together with new works by contemporary composers.

Alongside works by Sibelius and Nielsen, the duo will premiere a new set of five pieces composed on the footprint of Sibelius’s Five Pieces op.81 by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Alasdair Nicolson, Matthew Taylor, David Knotts and Anthony Powers.

Programme

Jean Sibelius: 4 Pieces for violin & piano, Op.115
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: New work for PUR 4 Feb 2015 after Sibelius’ 5 Pieces for violin & piano, Op.81
Alasdair Nicholson: New work for PUR 4 Feb 2015 after Sibelius’ 5 Pieces for violin & piano, Op.81
David Knotts: New work for PUR 4 Feb 2015 after Sibelius’ 5 Pieces for violin & piano, Op.81knotts da
Matthew Taylor: New work for PUR 4 Feb 2015 after Sibelius’ 5 Pieces for violin & piano, Op.81
Anthony Powers: New work for PUR 4 Feb 2015 after Sibelius’ 5 Pieces for violin & piano, Op.81
Jean Sibelius: Sonatina in E for violin & piano, Op.80
Interval
Carl Nielsen: Violin Sonata No.2 in G, Op.35

The concert takes place on 4th February 2015 at the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre. Further information and tickets here

‘Fenella Humphreys responds to its elegiac reflection and technical display at top flight level’ (Orchestral Choice CD, 5* BBC Music Magazine)

‘Nicola Eimer is an outstanding artist’ (The Strad Magazine)

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Last weekend I gave a concert in a church in Chiswick. The audience was small, but they listened attentively and seemed genuinely engaged by the music. All except one person (someone who is connected to me through marriage – but not, I hasten to add, my husband!) , who talked throughout the entire performance. This was extremely discourteous, not only to me but also to the other members of the audience. Luckily, it didn’t put me off my playing, but I was aware of the talking during the quieter passages of my programme.

Extraneous noise at concerts – coughing, unwrapping sweets, rustling programmes, whistling hearing aids, talking – is the bane of the performer, and the concert-goer. In her latest book Sleeping in Temples, pianist and writer Susan Tomes devotes a whole chapter to the subject of coughing and audience noise in general (she wittily calls the chapter ‘Bullfrogs’) and the blogosphere was alive with exclamations and hand-wringing not long ago when violinist Kyung Wah Chung berated the parents of a young child who coughed during her recent concert at London’s Southbank Centre.

The popularity of smartphones has added another irritant to concerts – people taking photographs, filming and texting during the performance: a couple of years ago, I watched most of the second half of a concert by Yuja Wang through the video app of someone’s iPhone. The illuminated screen can be disturbing to other concert-goers, and if you are texting or browsing the internet during a performance, it suggests you are not concentrating fully on the music, which is just plain discourteous to the musicians who have spent hours upon unpaid hours in rehearsal to bring this wonderful music to you.

A curious dichotomy exists in the world of live classical music concerts. Tradition and concert etiquette dictate that we sit in hushed reverence during the performance, stifle coughing and generally attempt to be extremely quiet. This enables us to concentrate on the music and avoids unnecessary distractions for the performers. Yet, as John Cage proved in his work 4’33”, in a concert hall there is no such thing as “absolute silence” – for people are living, breathing, moving….. For performers, the sound of the audience can be extremely helpful, and most of us who perform actively enjoy the sound of the audience listening and engaging with the music (I also really like that “collective sigh” that seems to come at the end of a fine performance, before the applause, almost like a giant cat uncurling and stretching). It undoubtedly adds to the excitement of a live performance and reminds us that the music we play is intended to be shared with others. I love being at, or giving a concert where one has a strong sense of the the audience listening very carefully, that sense of combined concentration.

Of course, people can’t help coughing (go to a concert in London in the winter, and there is often a veritable cacophony of raucous coughing and nose-blowing), or moving in their seats, or turning the pages of the programme, but whispering and talking, tapping away or filming on a smartphone, or fidgeting is just plain rude in my opinion.

Returning to the badly behaved talker at my concert, my page-turner, who also noticed it, told me afterwards that when not concentrating on the music, she fixed the person in question with a basilisk stare.

Audiences behaving badly

Susan Tomes on the subject of coughing

Coughing and the Art of Concert Etiquette

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AndrewEales

What is your first memory of the piano?

I was seven years old. My older sister was taking lessons. I had double-pneumonia, and was recovering in bed. I remember hearing her playing and wishing I could learn too.

Who or what inspired you to start teaching?

A friend of mine was a classroom music teacher. He asked me to give lessons to one of his sixth form students, who had self-taught up to about grade six, but with major flaws in his playing. I was working for EMI Classics and commuting to London – which I hated. So I gave the student an evening lesson, and fairly instantly knew that I had found my vocation.

Who were your most memorable/significant teachers?

I was lucky to have several outstanding teachers. My first teacher was quite scary, and had a reputation for shouting at students, but having made a decision that I wanted to grow up to be a great musician I was happy to take my chances with her. In fact she was always tender and encouraging with me, although she did periodically wander off to another part of the house to shout at her husband! When I told her I liked Grieg, she said that when I grew up I would prefer Sibelius. When I said I had enjoyed hearing Bizet’s ‘Carmen’, she announced that in a few years time I would like Wagner. I think she recognised that I was musically inquisitive and deliberately goaded me, but she knew exactly what she was doing and before long my musical taste grew in many new directions. When I was eleven I won a music scholarship to boarding school, and as a parting gift she gave me a copy of ‘The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book’, an unusual present for sure. That seed lay dormant for many years, but remains one of my favourite possessions in terms of sentimental value.

Many years later I was studying for my music degree at Birmingham University. David Ponsford was assigned to teach me the harpsichord, and he had a very profound influence on me. Of all my teachers he is the one I feel most indebted to, and following on from those lessons I chose to specialise and study the Early Music course at the RCM, where I learnt with Robert Woolley.

My final piano teacher was Joseph Weingarten, the Hungarian concert pianist. He had studied with Dohnanyi at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest before coming to the UK in 1934. There was a clear sense that he was connected to this incredible heritage, that his teaching was authoritative, and yet he was so supportive and gently encouraging. He had a perfect balance there, which I can only attempt to emulate!

Who or what are the most important influences on your teaching?

The biggest influence is actually my love for the music itself, and all it communicates. And by that I include music from a wide range of traditions, not just classical. When I hear great music I am just inspired, and want to share it with others, so that informs my teaching from one day to the next. For me, music is an incredible journey of discovery – and my students are also on their own journey, so it’s a privilege to share that and play a part.

My wife Louise works in child and adolescent psychiatry, and it would be remiss of me to ignore the huge influence this also has on my teaching ethos. Her insight into the issues that affect the lives and mental wellbeing of children and families in contemporary society inevitably has a massive impact on my own approach to people.

Most memorable/significant teaching experiences?

Working for the local authority Music Service in schools in the 1990s was formative and very significant, forcing me to think carefully about my understanding of music education. Although a pianist, most of my work at that time was teaching electronic keyboards in a group context. The ensemble programme that I created took me down a very exciting creative route that I wouldn’t otherwise have experienced, and led to a lot of opportunities both here in the UK and in the USA.

What are the most exciting/challenging aspects of teaching adults?

Adults have more understanding of the journey they are on as musicians, and they know what music they like and what they don’t like. So that is a different type of challenge to teaching a child, who might be more open to new experiences. Because my teaching is driven by my own love for music, it’s important that the student’s interests and tastes coincide to some extent with mine. But often I have found that a student’s enthusiasm for a composer or style has fed back into my own interest, and that’s a real joy too – another discovery that feeds my enthusiasm as a teacher.

What do you expect from your students?

Respect. If a person doesn’t respect me – both as a musician and as a human being – then I can’t teach them.

What do you consider to be the most important concepts to impart to beginning students, and to advanced students?

There are the three essentials that underpin all playing: literacy, musicianship and technique. They need to be developed in tandem, and it’s the same whether a player is a beginner or more advanced. And again, the most important thing of all is to develop a proper LOVE for the music. We must be careful not to trivialise music or pretend it has to always be “fun”, but it must never be dull either.

The big enemy (as always!) is tension. I believe that the way to overcome that is to use physical movement away from the piano, and I have developed specific exercises based on Qigong forms and theory, which are proving very effective. Once a player is more relaxed, their musicality and creativity finds better freedom to be expressed.

What are your views on exams, festivals and competitions?

Exams can be great if used as a celebration of achievement, provided we don’t let them dictate the way we teach, or neglect creativity. Most of my students take selected ABRSM Grades, with positive experiences and fantastic results. I use ABRSM because I like the professionalism of their service, the positivism and consistency of the examiners, and the superb published resources.

My students do not compete in festivals. Growing up, I won virtually every competition I ever took part in, but I didn’t enjoy a single one of them. In fact they turned performing into something I dreaded, although I didn’t upset my teachers by admitting that to them at the time!

These days of course we have a much better understanding of the direct link between the public criticism of players and their performance anxiety. The welfare of our students is more important than upholding any tradition, however well intended, and as music teachers we can have a powerful role in remoulding and recasting our performance culture for the better.

What are your thoughts on the link between performance and teaching?

While we are all individuals with different strengths, I believe it is really important for performers to also teach, and for teachers to also perform.

I also believe that all musicians should try to compose and/or improvise. I see creating, performing and teaching as the three key areas of musical activity.

How do you approach the issue of performance anxiety/tension?

Performance anxiety primarily feeds off three things: the fear of failure, of looking silly, and of being compared critically with others. So we have to cut off this toxic food supply. Firstly, we minimise the fear of failure by ensuring students are well prepared, realistically confident, and focussed on enjoying the music they play. Secondly, we can ease their fear of looking silly by diminishing the formality and ritual associated with classical performance. And thirdly we can move away from the practice of having an adjudicator publicly evaluating and comparing performers, and in so doing establish a more positive context for both public performance and private, constructive feedback.

So long as we remember that music is an art form, not a competitive sport, performers and audience alike can all come away from concerts feeling entertained and enriched. Having performed in popular music settings as well as classical, I know the positive feelings that a good concert should engender, but sometimes it appears to me as if the classical world is deliberately trying to eschew enjoyment!

Once we have this basic understanding that performing music should be a celebration, we can start to look at how we approach a performance in terms of our preparation, how to deal with natural nerves and the effects of adrenalin in our system, breathing and stretching exercises, mental control, diet, and so on. This is again an area where I personally believe that Qigong can offer a genuine breakthrough.

ANDREW EALES is a pianist, teacher and educational consultant based in Milton Keynes UK.

His ‘Keyquest’ tuition books for electronic keyboard have sold many thousands of copies in the UK and overseas, and he has contributed to several other publications as composer and author.

To find out more please visit www.keyquestmusic.com

Andrew is also the founder of the online community The Piano Cloud, which brings together creative pianists from around the world. www.thepianocloud.com

Andrew’s next publication, ‘Piano Qigong’, is planned for Spring 2015.

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Zsolt Bognár, pianist

Zsolt Bognár, pianist

Who or what inspired you to take up the piano, and make it your career? 

I was somewhat tricked into playing piano: when I was a child I wanted to play the organ immediately after hearing it. I was told I needed to start on piano, and quickly forgot about the organ as I had a very charismatic first piano teacher. I was 12 when I realized that I wanted music to be my life: I heard a Beethoven recital by Alfred Brendel that was so inspiring in its range, and I had no idea a concert could impart such experiences. It was also that year that I heard for the first time the music of Robert Schumann, whose impassioned flights of imagination made me almost delirious.

Who or what were the most important influences on your playing? 

Aside from the many friends and family members who provided crucial support and encouragement, there were my two main teachers: the first was Roger Shields, who among other things showed me much about life with his refined sensibilities. The second is Sergei Babayan, with whom I studied for many years. His insistence on musical and human integrity is without fail, as is his ability to impart warmth, modesty, and a spirit of curiosity into all aspects of life.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Musicians trying to find their paths can be flooded with such doubts and anxieties. One must be self-critical to a point for growth, but this must be balanced with humour and perspective. Fortunately, one can find solidarity in the letters of almost all musicians and composers: few were ever completely self-satisfied.

Which performances/recordings are you most proud of?  

I worked tremendously hard on the Schubert and Liszt CD (on the Con Brio Recordings label) which I recorded with the legendary producer Philipp Nedel in Berlin. It was one of the most intense periods in my life, and I tried to put everything into my work in my days there. Outside the recording studio, a blizzard was raging, and when working into the dark hours of the night, the music of Schubert carried new meaning. Nedel’s calm and sustained input somehow inspired me to want to reach ever higher with these pieces.

Listen to the excerpts from the CD here:

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in? 

I prefer very old venues – to imagine those artists I admired all my life, playing in the same setting once upon a time always ignites me.

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to? 

The composer whose magic never fails to resonate with me is Schubert.

Who are your favourite musicians

First is Carlos Kleiber – his balance of lightness against depth is as much of a marvel as it is to watch him at work. Of living artists, I heard many great examples: the singer Cecilia Bartoli’s nuanced exuberance always inspired me, as did the pianism and musicianship of Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman, and my own teacher Sergei Babayan, who is one of the greatest artists I have ever witnessed in person. Of collaborative musicians, the most astounding for me is the pianist Julius Drake.

What is your most memorable concert experience? 

Of my own concert experiences, it depends on what perspective. A recent smaller concert in Indianapolis, for example, was an occasion in which I felt I finally reached total inner freedom all the way through an entire recital. Of bigger concerts, I will remember the audiences at my debut in Suntory Hall in Tokyo in 2009, and especially the audience at my Berlin debut at the Konzerthaus in 2012. After the second piece, a rarely-heard work by Liszt (the “Scherzo and March”), the audience gave a standing ovation during the middle of the recital; even after repeated curtain calls and rhythmic unison clapping, I was hardly allowed to start my next selection. It felt incredible, as an acknowledgment of a piece I strongly believed in. Furthermore, in the audience were some of my closest friends, to whom I could play directly.

Of concerts I attended, I will remember the recent experience of being on stage to turn pages for Sergei Babayan and Martha Argerich in a two-piano concert in Lugano – the energy was beyond belief.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians? 

I notice that most of my concert opportunities, even the bigger ones, come from my friends, or because of them – a feeling confirmed by more established musicians. The very successful pianist and teacher, Paul Schenly, told me “careers are about friendships.” One can aspire to many projects, and they must be fulfilled with the help of many. Without these friendships, the experience would be far less rich anyway.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? 

For me it is connected with at least two things: the music that elevates and heals, and secondly with the friendships and human connections that give life and art a reason to be.

Praised by the German press for his sold-out 2012 Berlin Debut at the Young Euro Classic Festival at the Konzerthaus in Gendarmenmarkt that was “intellectually shaped, powerful, and of crystalline precision”, Zsolt Bognár’s performances in North America, Europe, and Asia have been praised as “overwhelmingly visceral…a phenomenal sound world realized through maximum palette” (Leeuwarder Courant, Holland).  

With recent debut performances in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Munich, Brussels, Vienna, and in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Mr. Bognár releases his first CD album of works of Schubert and Liszt in 2013, recorded in Berlin with the legendary producer Philipp Nedel. Recipient of the 2007 Arthur Loesser Prize and having studied with Sergei Babayan for over ten years, Mr. Bognár is frequently invited to perform chamber music with members of the Cleveland Orchestra in live NPR broadcasts.  

Winner of numerous international piano competitions in North America and in Europe, he is the host of a documentary film series of interviews with musicians from around the world, presented by Elyria Pictures in New York. His musical collaborations and diverse projects were the recipient of an International Festival Society Grant in 2013 to spend a week with Martha Argerich, and have included international speaking engagements, publications, and residencies in performance series and universities. Mr. Bognár especially noted for his insights in the works of Beethoven, Schubert, and Russian repertoire. For more details, please visit www.zsolt-bognar.com. 

Interview date: August 2013