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‘Divine Fire’, created by actress Susan Porrett, with music performed by pianist Viv McLean, is a biographical journey in words and music through the lives of Fryderyk Chopin and authoress George Sand, focusing on the period of their first encounter in Paris up to Chopin’s final days. Theirs was a tumultuous love story, stormy and passionate, which continues to fascinate and enthrall today. The story-telling and readings are interspersed with performances of some of Chopin’s best-loved works for piano, including Nocturnes, Ballades, Polonaises, and the iconic Fantasie-Impromptu Op 66.

pianist Viv McLean & actress Susan Porrett

I asked Susan Porrett to explain what makes the story of Chopin and Sand so compelling for her, and how ‘Divine Fire’ came to be created:

What interests and excites you about the story of Chopin and Sand?

The lives of the two lovers were so full and rich in incident – my challenge was to distil the essence of their complex relationship into ‘Divine Fire’.

I found the writing of it very absorbing, and most of all I enjoyed reading George Sand’s lively and interesting letters to a variety of friends and selecting passages from her beautiful descriptions of Majorca.

What makes the relationship and correspondence between Chopin and George Sand so fascinating?

From its tender and romantic beginning to its unhappy ending, their nine-year relationship grips the imagination. Sadly, for Chopin, the nature of George Sand’s love for him gradually changed whilst his did not; they grew apart and their affair ended in bitterness and recrimination. After Chopin’s death, almost all of George’s letters to him were given back to her and she destroyed them; one or two of his to her survived – the last one he wrote to her is included in ‘Divine Fire’.

What is it like working with Viv McLean?

Working with Viv McLean is a joy and a privilege. The first concert we did together was ‘Touches of Sweet Harmony’ – a tribute to Shakespeare in words and music. Apart from his great talent, he is so modest and sympathetic.  It was, in fact, the wonderful feeling that Viv brings to his playing of Chopin that inspired me to devise ‘Divine Fire’.

‘Divine Fire’ will be performed at St Mary’s Perivale on Sunday 13th October before touring the north of England. Full details here

My review of ‘Divine Fire’ at Bridport Arts Centre

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

My father, who is a cellist and studied with Rostropovich. He wanted me and my sister to become musicians and pianists in particular – he always loved piano even more than cello, and declared: “I want my children to play the “Royal” instrument (in Russian grand piano is “Royal”)

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

Without any doubt, the representatives of the old Russian piano school: Rachmaninoff, Horowitz, Sofronitsky. It is very different from the “Soviet” school – it’s very vocal in its nature and its main characteristics are a deep, singing tone, exquisite phrasing, huge range of colour and the sense of perspective – well differentiated layers of sound. When the true masters like Rachmaninoff or Horowitz played, they operated not only on the level of volume, but also in space: the sounds can be placed near and far away, as in a good painting.

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

Overcoming the lack of imagination, snobbery, commercialism and often incompetence of the gate-keepers in classical music industry. It is very narrow-minded, and I am convinced that if any other business were run like this, it would go bankrupt within months.

What are the particular challenges/excitements of working with an orchestra/ensemble?

The excitement is obviously making chamber music with the richest instrument of them all; the challenge is seeing eye to eye with a conductor and at times having to deal with certain dictatorial trends on his part. Also, having to come to terms with the idea that your concerto is not really what matters most to a conductor in that programme and will inevitably be under-rehearsed.

Which recordings are you most proud of?

I am only proud of some parts of my recordings. On a whole, I understand very well the film director Federico Fellini, who never watched his films once they were edited and released. When I listen, I am always painfully aware of what could have been done better. At times, the recording conditions are not at all conducive to creative music-making. The economic considerations prevail over the musical ones.

Do you have a favourite concert venue?

Not really – those are probably the ones I haven’t performed in yet.

Who are your favourite musicians?

There are many, but they are mostly in the past – not because there aren’t any talented artists out there right now, but because I enjoy hearing something that is lost nowadays, something unique. Here are just some of them: Feodor Chaliapin, Kathleen Ferrier, Maria Callas, Sergey Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Ignaz Friedman, Gregor Piatigorsky, Glenn Gould; jazz musicians Ella Fitzgerald, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Stephan Grapelli, Django Reinhardt, Michel Petrucciani, Michael Brecker, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Dave Weckl; crooners Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, Charles Aznavour; not so many among rock musicians, but most certainly Beatles and Led Zeppelin; in fusion: bassist Jaco Pastorius; in pop music: Bee Gees, Earth Wind & Fire, George Benson, Michael Jackson, Sting, Jamiroquai, etc.

I don’t love absolutely everything these artists ever did without reservation, but they all achieved something truly unique and great in their field. And I don’t mention here the great composers, of course (apart from Rachmaninoff who is mentioned as a great pianist), as those are in a totally different league altogether.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

When I played Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Concerto for my dad’s 80th birthday – I knew I made at least one person really happy.

What is your favourite music to play?

Whatever I am working on at the moment – if it hadn’t excited me, I wouldn’t have picked it up in the first place. To listen to? See above re Favourite Musicians

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

That music is a language and so it’s not enough just to be able to speak it – you have to use it to say something that matters. Otherwise, it is similar to a verbal incontinence.

What are you working on at the moment?

JS Bach’s English Suite No. 3, Partita No. 2 and French Overture, Liszt’s Petrarca Sonnet No. 123, Mephisto Waltz and some Etudes, Rachmaninoff’s 1st Sonata and Patrick Jonathan’s Preludes dedicated to me.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Being in a happy, loving relationship; staying healthy; having enough time to live a balanced life, i.e. not only working non-stop, but also taking time to see a bigger picture, going out, travelling, reading, seeing friends, etc; keeping in good shape physically; and being able to earn my living doing what I love doing best – playing the piano.

Rustem Hayroudinoff performs at St John’s Smith Square, London on Saturday 13th April in a programme including works by Bach, Liszt and Rachmaninoff. Further details here

Described by London’s Classic FM Magazine as a “sensationally gifted” musician of “stunning artistry”, Rustem Hayroudinoff graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Lev Naumov, and received his postgraduate degree (DipRAM) at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Christopher Elton.

On hearing his performance, Lazar Berman praised him as “a serious artist and master, whose emergence in today’s atmosphere of pseudo-artistic and shallow music-making is specially valuable and welcome”.

His performances have been broadcast on most major classical radio stations around the world and he has appeared in the documentary “The Unknown Shostakovich” alongside Vladimir Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev and Maxim Shostakovich.

Full biography here

www.hayroudinoff.co.uk

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(photo credit: Julien Faugère)

Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska has Polish blood in her veins (her father is Polish), and she was described by her pianistic idol, Arthur Rubinstein, as “a natural born Chopin interpreter”. This assertion was more than confirmed by a carefully executed and beautifully nuanced lunchtime concert of music by Fryderyk Chopin at London’s Wigmore Hall. Read my full review here

Janina Fialkowska has won “Best Instrumen​tal CD Award” in the 2013 BBC Music Magazine Awards for her ‘Chopin Recital’

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Pianist Janina Fialkowska wins “Best Instrumen​tal CD Award” in the 2013 BBC Music Magazine Awards for Chopin Recital 2 disc

Pianist Janina Fialkowska, who was left temporarily paralysed in her arm, has won the “Best Instrumental CD of 2012” award in the 2013 BBC Music Magazine Awards for her critically-acclaimed disc “Chopin Recital 2”, released on the ATMA Classique label. Arthur Rubinstein described Fialkowska as “a born Chopin interpreter” and Gramophone Magazine concluded that “she has done her one time mentor, Arthur Rubinstein proud.” The prestigious award comes 10 years after a cancerous tumour left Fialkowska paralysed in her left arm for two years.

BBC Music Magazine commented:

“How does she do it? By some mysterious alchemy, Fialkowska only has to perform a note of Chopin and instantly it’s inimitable, indelible.”

Following groundbreaking treatment on her arm in 2003, the highly-respected pianist Janina Fialkowska has determinedly rebuilt her career as a leading international concert pianist. Now 10 years after successful treatment, Canadian-Polish Fialkowska has firmly re-established herself as one of the foremost Chopin interpreters in the world.

The award comes after a remarkably successful year for Fialkowska which included her being awarded the ‘2012 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award’ for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in Classical Music at a ceremony in May. The award is Canada’s most prestigious honour in the performing arts, equivalent to the ‘Kennedy Center Awards’ in the United States.

Fialkowska’s “Chopin Recital 2” CD is the second recording of her critically acclaimed Chopin Recital series given in May 2012. The disc includes Chopin’s Ballade No. 2. Scherzo No. 2 and a selection of Nocturnes, Mazurkas, and Waltzes including Le Grande Valse Brillante. Fialkowska is firmly established as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Chopin and Liszt and has released five celebrated CDs in three years.

Her most recent recording features Mozart’s Piano Concertos No. 13 & 14 (K. 415 & 449) in arrangement for piano quintet, which was released on 29 January 2013 to exceptional reviews. The Financial Times commented “Fialkowska’s crystalline, unsentimentalised treatment of Mozart’s piano writing lends the music a spontaneous fluency that is invigorating.”

Fialkowska’s award follows an all-Chopin lunchtime recital in the Wigmore Hall which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3’s Lunchtime Concert Series (click the link below to listen again). On Thursday 11th April, Fialkowska performs a programme of Chopin Grieg and Schubert at the Sage, Gateshead in aid of the British Red Cross.

[Source: Nicky Thomas Media Consultancy]

My review of Janina Fialkowska’s recent Wigmore Hall lunchtime concert

Read my Meet the Artist interview with Janina Fialkowska