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Just five minutes from Waterloo Station is the splendid 1901 Arts Club, an elegant venue that seeks to recreate the “salon culture” of 19th-century Europe. The building, a former schoolmaster’s house built in 1901, retains its late Victorian exterior, while inside the richly-decorated rooms suggest a private home. There is a comfortable upstairs sitting room and bar, and an intimate recital area downstairs, with a medium-sized Steinway piano set against a backdrop of gold swags and tails. The staff are welcoming and friendly, and the whole ambience is that of a private concert in your own home. It made for a very unique experience of the first book of J S Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, performed by Japanese pianist Kimiko Ishizaka.

Ms Ishizaka is on a mission to bring Bach to the people and to make his wonderful music accessible to everyone. Her Open Goldberg Variations, a crowd-funded (via Kickstarter), non-profit project that created a high-quality recording, typeset score and iPad app all free to download, is a fine example of her democratic approach.

Bach composed his Well-Tempered Clavier “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study”, in effect the forty-eight Preludes and Fugues are technical studies or Etudes, and were probably never intended to be performed as concert pieces. But in the years since their publication, the “48” as they are also called, have come to be regarded as some of the finest writing for keyboard. The works offer great variety of styles, structure, textures, colours, and moods, all of which Ms Ishizaka demonstrated in her performance.

In a concert lasting nearly two hours (with an interval), we experienced a committed and intense performance in which Ms Ishizaka highlighted the shifting moods and soundscapes of Bach’s writing. A serene opening Prelude in C Major (the most famous of the entire 48) launched us on a journey of discovery through dances and chorales (D minor and B-flat minor Preludes), joy and yearning (C-sharp major and F minor Preludes), sunshine and sadness (D major and C-sharp minor Preludes), seriousness and serenity (E mjaor and C minor Preludes). Ms Ishizaka eschewed the pedal throughout, though not through any wish to present a historically authentic performance. Rather, she did not need it: her superior legato technique created some exquisite cantabile playing, especially in the slow movements, while sprightly passagework and lively tempi gave the suggestion of the harpsichord in the rapid movements. Her sense of counterpoint was well-defined in the Fugues, with clear lines and distinct voices.

Ms Ishizaka is not afraid of robust fortes, perhaps sometimes too robust for the size of the venue, but overall her dynamic range was varied and colourful. There was judicious use of rubato in the Preludes, and some rather fine highlighting of dissonances and unusual harmonies, showing the forward pull of Bach’s musicial vision. Although a rather long evening of music, it was a fine lesson in Bach’s compositional thought, presented in an elegant and powerful performance.

Kimiko Ishizaka’s Meet the Artist interview

Open Goldberg Variations project

1901 Arts Club

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Clare Hammond (image credit Julie Kim)

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

I was given piano lessons for my sixth birthday. My mother had always wanted to learn but had never had the chance so she was keen that I had the opportunity. I enjoyed the lessons, but didn’t consider making a career of music until I was 8 and was taken to an orchestral concert at the Royal Centre in Nottingham. I can’t remember which orchestra I heard now, unfortunately, but I was absolutely swept away by the music and decided then and there that I wanted to be a pianist. Of course, I had no idea then what this would entail, but the seed had been sown!

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

I think it’s important as a musician to be open to all sorts of influences so I couldn’t really point to any dominant strains in my playing. I try to listen to as many live performances and recordings as possible, and also to take what I can from observing theatre, dance and even sport. I enjoy teaching and learn a great deal both from explaining things in novel ways to my students and from the phrases they use to articulate their problems or thoughts to me.

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

I spend a great deal of time working by myself and have found, as a result, that the greatest challenge of my career is to maintain perspective. It’s very easy to be thrown off course temporarily by minor setbacks and I sometimes feel that there is so much to achieve, in such a short space of time, that it can be extremely daunting.

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

I adore working with orchestras and ensembles as it’s such a pleasure to be able to react to somebody else’s sound. You are forced to collaborate in real time, which is both risky and incredibly exciting. It’s easier to track the emotional and psychological development of a work when you’re not solely responsible for it, or at least it’s less exhausting to sustain!

Which recordings are you most proud of?

I’m most proud of my debut album, ‘Piano Polyptych’, which is a collection of contemporary piano music by British composers. It was quite a strain to learn all the repertoire in time for the recording, especially as much of it is extremely complex, but I have had so many opportunities as a result of the project. It was a particular pleasure to collaborate with the composers. It’s a completely different experience when you’re working on music by living composers as they can tell you exactly what kind of sound they’re aiming for. It brings an element of dialogue into what can otherwise be a very solitary pursuit.

Do you have a favourite concert venue?

I’ve performed in a number of venues with wonderful acoustics, but my principal concern when playing in concert is the quality of the piano. Recently, the best that I’ve encountered was at St George’s Hall in Bristol. Their newer Steinway is extremely responsive and has a very pure, glowing tone, supported admirably by the acoustic of the hall itself.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Personally or musically? In either case, I’m not sure I can answer this question. I know so many wonderful musicians who have so much to offer that to place them in any kind of order would be impossible!

What is your most memorable concert experience?

My most memorable experience of performing was not for an official concert per se but at my parents-in-law’s house. My father-in-law is a vicar and I gave a recital for a music society near to his parish a few months ago. Several of his parishioners were keen to hear me but couldn’t make it to the recital so we arranged a coffee concert the following morning. I performed on an upright piano in their front room, surrounded by about 12 people many of whom had never been to a classical music concert before. I’m not sure if it was due to the intimacy of the venue, or the fact that I knew many of these people personally, but I felt that my playing was at its most communicative. I now try to recreate that, with varying levels of success, in larger halls!

What is your favourite music to play? To listen to?

Again, I can’t give a specific answer to this question. Different works or styles of music are suitable for different occasions and express wildly varying emotions. In fact, one of things I love about being a pianist is the breadth of the repertoire. However hard you work, you can never learn everything that has been written for the piano so there are always new horizons to strive towards.

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

I’ve found that the most important skill in teaching is to be able to tailor what you’re trying to explain to the particular skills and aptitudes of the student. Of course, there is a broad ‘syllabus’ of concepts that you need to communicate to students depending on the level that they’re currently at, but you also need to draw out what is individual and unique about them as a person. When I was studying with Ronan O’Hora, at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, I had the impression that he never taught two students in the same way. First, you have to understand the student as a personality, and then you can start teaching them music.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve been working on Piani, Latebre by Piers Hellawell, whose Das Leonora Notenbuch and Basho I recorded as part of ‘Piano Polyptych’. Piani, Latebre was commissioned by the pianist William Howard who premiered it at the Spitalfields Festival in 2010. I performed it as part of my inaugural recital as Artist-in-Residence at Queen’s University Belfast on 11th October 2012. My programme also included two pieces, Portrait and Spring Fantasy, by the Northern-Irish composer, Hamilton Harty, which have only recently been discovered. It’s quite exciting to give a world premiere of pieces which were written nearly 80 years ago!

What is your present state of mind?

Calm, on the whole, and drowsy. I’ve just eaten an enormous meal and the resulting haze of contentedness is impeding my ability to think clearly…

Acclaimed by The Daily Telegraph as a pianist of “amazing power and panache”, Clare Hammond has performed across Europe, Russia and Canada and has appeared recently at the Wigmore and Barbican Halls in London and the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. Her Purcell Room debut for the Park Lane Group concert series was praised by The Guardian for its “crisp precision and unflashy intelligence”.

A passionate advocate of twentieth and twenty-first century music, Clare combines a formidable technique and virtuosic flair onstage with stylistic integrity and attention to detail. Since her debut with orchestra at the age of eleven, she has acquired a concerto repertoire of over 20 works which she has performed at major venues across the UK and on the continent. Solo engagements have included recitals in concert series and festivals across Britain, in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Russia.

Clare Hammond’s full biography

Recordings, film clips and an interview at www.clarehammond.com/recordings.html

Forthcoming concerts:

Monday 24 June, City of London Festival

Saxton – Chacony for left hand alone; Bach-Brahms – Chaconne in D minor, transcribed for left hand; Harty – Portrait, Spring Fantasy; Sibelius – Five Pieces for Piano, Op. 75 “The Trees”; Saxton – Hortus Musicae (world premiere)

Tickets and further information here

Further information at www.clarehammond.com/concerts.html

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How we behave at classical music concerts, as performers and audience members, has been in the news again lately, following a recent speech by Max Hole, CEO of Universal Music, in which he called on orchestras and conductors to “loosen up”  and shed their elitist image in order to attract more people to concerts.

Those of us who go to concerts regularly are perhaps a little puzzled by Mr Hole’s comments which do not chime with our concert experiences (popular programmes, sold out concerts, enthusiastic and committed audiences). Music journalist, blogger and novellist Jessica Duchen has written a sensible blog post in response to Mr Hole’s comments, summing up succinctly what most of us “regulars” feel about classical concerts.

And now, as if this wasn’t enough, Andreas Wagener, a professor from the university of Hannover, has published a learned paper on the “economics of concert etiquette” in which he examines the extent of coughing in concert halls and what is behind the phenomenon.

When I first heard about this via Radio 4’s Today programme, I roared with laughter – because a 32 page document on this subject does suggest an academic who’s got too much time on his hands. But to show willing, I downloaded the text and read a bit of it with my breakfast. I was listening to Radio 3 by this time and Professor Wagener’s paper was causing quite a stir on the ariwaves, with listeners suggesting – via all forms of social media available to them – reasons as to why people cough at concerts. In his paper, the learned Prof suggests that it is deliberate and subversive, a form of civil disobedience. Eh?

Coughing at concerts can be irritating: I was at a Beethoven recital at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last spring, given by the French pianist François-Fréderic Guy. The coughing started fairly early on in the proceedings and reached a crescendo during the iconic opening movement of the Op 27/2, so much so that the pianist actually turned and stared at the audience for a moment, clearly disturbed by the cacophony of coughing. But I have to say this is the first time I’ve ever seen a performer react to coughing (the pianist Alfred Brendel once warned his audience: “Either you stop coughing or I stop playing!”).

A professional pianist colleague of mine told me he likes to hear the noise of the audience, a reminder that the event is “live” – and there are plenty of other noises that can be far more distracting: phones going off (turn it OFF, not to ‘silent’, FFS!), someone trying (and failing) to extract cough sweets (oh the irony!) from a foil blister pack, the woman who emptied the entire contents of her handbag on the floor at the Wigmore (and then picked everything up and replaced it), the man who fossicked around in a selection of very crunchy plastic bags during an encore, hearing aids whistling (common at the Wigmore). Not to mention the hummers….. Some years ago I attended a rather special recital at the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands in Surrey, at which the pianist performed music by Chopin on a Pleyel piano, thought to have been owned by Chopin himself. Throughout the recital, the man to my right hummed, loudly and lustily, but at no point was he ever in tune with the music!

I don’t know why people cough at concerts. It is probable more noticeable in the concert hall than elsewhere because we are all sitting in concentrated silence. The atmosphere in concert halls can be dry and/or hot, which can provoke a coughing fit. A friend of mine gets so anxious about not coughing in a concert that she inevitably coughs, and I think anxiety is a common cause of coughing at concerts. Another friend, and regular concert companion, has special “concert sweets” which she passes around before the performance begins. Sucking a sweet is often enough of a distraction to prevent the dread tickle in the throat, and many concert venues sell boiled sweets in the foyer. One tip from a regular, though – don’t come to a concert if you have a cold, chest infection, sore throat. It can be miserable trying to blow your nose/stifle a coughing fit during a concert: if you’re ill, you should probably stay at home and listen to the concert on Radio 3.

A well-prepared performer should not be overly troubled by coughing and other “living” noises from the audience. When we prepare for performance, we train ourselves to concentrate, to be “in the zone”, and this ability to shut oneself off from extraneous noise is a key part of practice and performance (Glenn Gould famously practiced while his mother vacuumed around him, or with the radio playing).

I suspect that one of the most common reasons why fellow-audience members get annoyed by coughers is that they are listening for tiny changes and variations from their favourite recording, a peril of listening to music in the age of high-quality recordings. I will be examining this subject in more detail in a separate article.

So, let’s try not to get too worked up about coughing, or what the conductor wears, or whether the female soloist’s dress was on or off the shoulder (if you’re focusing too much on her outfit, you’re probably not listening to what she’s playing!). If you’ve got a bad cold/cough, it’s probably best to stay at home; if not, come out and enjoy the fantastic classical music that is on offer, every night of the year, all around the world.

More “faff” about concert etiquette here

And more good advice on concert going here

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Recently, I had the very great pleasure of interviewing GéNIA, Russian pianist and teacher, and creator of innovative piano technique, Piano-Yoga®. We met at London’s prestigious Steinway Hall to talk about many aspects of piano teaching and performing, and, in a departure from the usual format of the At the Piano….. interviews, our conversation was filmed.

The videos will be published in six short instalments. In the first, we discuss GéNIA’s musical heritage, her first piano, the influence of her great-grand uncle Vladimir Horowitz, significant teachers and other influences that affected GéNIA’s musical development.

For more information on Piano-Yoga® please visit

www.piano-yoga.com

More At the Piano…… interviews