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Guest post by Michael Johnson

It’s funny how some random experiences can teach us important lessons in life. On an Air France flight across the Atlantic recently, I clapped on a new set of Bose wireless headphones and within minutes a stewardess was squeezing my shoulder. I looked up and saw her mouth flapping – but she made no sound. All I could hear was Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 that I was playing through my headphones. It took me a few seconds to regain my composure.  No, I didn’t need any more café, I told her. Back to the music, I was  experiencing the true meaning of “active listening”.

The sharp trebles and thunderous basses of quality headphones create a private world of pure music. Was I listening? Of course. One can hardly avoid listening to the Arkady Volodos performance of this brilliant concerto.

Best of all, on headphones nobody yells at me, ”Turn it down, for God’s sake!”

And yet ironically, the advent of listening through high-tech recording systems has in some ways been harmful, not helpful, to the modern world of serious music. We have removed much of  music from the intimacy of live salon style performances and created the sterile experience of playing a CD or downloading tracks from the Internet. Just 60 or 70 years ago it was only the live performance that brought audiences to the music and the player. Everybody got involved, everybody listened. Now that is largely gone, as concert venues sell us the super-stars such as Volodos, Yevgeny Kissin, Yuja Wang,  and possibly Khatia Buniatishvili. The second tier players attract mainly aging retirees, some of them asleep by the end of the first movement.

“We seem to have mastered the art of hearing without listening.” Christy Thomas, Yale Center for Teaching and Learning. “Active learning is a frequent topic of discussion in pedagogical circles today, but the notion of active listening is rarely addressed—if at all.”

But now, waking up and learning to listen may turn out to be the saving grace of the classical tradition. The salon style in various forms can help, and it seems to be in vogue again. Both solo and ensemble players are happy to play in private homes with only 50 or so seats.

Natasha Cherny, New York-based artist manager and producer, tells me her salons in past years “were infinitely more satisfying from every perspective”. Her recital-goers were encouraged to mingle before and after the program “always including protracted conversations with the artist”. And former Juilliard professor David Dubal, pianist, pedagogue and accomplished painter, has been running his series of ‘Piano Evenings’ in New York for 30 years. His aim is to bring “the glories of the piano repertoire, in an intimate setting, dedicated to the art of listening”. He calls it “a site for collective learning through the exchange between teacher and student, performer and listener”.

Indeed, recorded music, no matter how perfect, misses the point. “We kind of caused the problem,” admits Andrew Scheps, an American recording engineer, by making it too easy to hear the notes while missing the intimate experience that players, especially solo pianists, want and need.

Pianists in this overcrowded field find that much of their recorded music ends up in background. An Italian pianist friend tells me the world of recordings has never been such a waste. “There are too many CDs. We can never get noticed.” Too often, a fine piano talent merely exists for his or her  background noise. In Bordeaux, for example, the main underground car park offers Chopin Nocturnes murmuring along with  honking horns and shouts from angry French drivers, hardly a perfect venue. The artist remains mercifully anonymous. Worse, nobody is listening to Chopin.

A comprehensive treatment of regaining that connection is explored in the book Music: The Art of Listening by Jean Ferris, a former music history and appreciation professor at Arizona State University.  “Listening to classical music is itself an art,” she writes,  “and good listening is an active, creative experience.”

The personal experience is further investigated in a recent documentary of a similar name, “The Art of Listening”, available free on YouTube:

There are perhaps two kinds of pianist, those that just hammer the clavier louder and faster and those like Volodos who listen intently to themselves as they brush the keyboard with their fingertips. In this recording, Volodos playing Rachmaninoff was all ears, and so was I:

Working as a critic, I am pleased to find more and more  attention to listening skills, a mini-movement on an international scale. Indeed, learning to listen is perhaps the best hope for rescuing classical music from the dustbin of history. Statistics are at an all-time low, ranking rock and hip-hop, rap, electronic dance music (EDM), country and jazz comfortably ahead. Classical occupies only about 4 percent of this world.  Could it be true that there is nowhere to go but up?

Many others in the realm of classical music have joined the movement. Julian Blackmore, a British composer and sound designer, takes a professional interest in absorbing and processing music in the brain. He calls it “active listening” and says it leads to a far deeper understanding and appreciation of complex compositions.

Being prepared makes all the difference. “As woo-woo as this sounds, it’s a unique and priceless kind of satisfaction that money can’t buy,” he adds.

The online ‘Piano Encyclopedia’ promises that as you immerse yourself, “an ordinary auditory experience becomes  a profound connection – a kind of bond. Each note played has purpose and intention. By being fully engaging with the music, it speaks to your very soul.”

Learning to listen can provide this profound satisfaction, for example, in impressionist music. Creating color rather than line might seem elusive but through “active listening” this rich artistry can be appreciated.

Help is increasingly available. A wide choice of advice, courses and instructional videos from experts flood the internet  today. My favorite for beginners is a talk about how to take in what you are hearing: “How to Listen to Classical Music: Sonata Form”, accessible through this link:

And French musicologist Jean-Jacques Griot has marketed his “Ecoute Classique” (Listen to Classical) Zoom sessions effectively to internet users throughout the francophone world. He tells me he now has some 3,500 paying customers eager to follow his lessons for learning.  He does not try to make it easy. “”It takes time because learning classical music is a progressive process of assimilation,” he writes in his book Ecoute la musique classique – it can be learned”.

The late philosopher Rudolf Steiner wrote that music is the only art form that flows from the spiritual world, not from the material world as in architecture, painting, ballet, sculpture. If you step back and listen a great player such as Volodos, Yevgeny Kissin or the late Glenn Gould, you might agree with Steiner that music plays to your inner sense of well-being, as he wrote in his essays, compiled and published as The Inner Nature of Music: The Experience of Tone.

To take listening to classical music seriously is to find solace, reduce stress in your life and even improve your memory. Personally and for all these reasons, my life is filled with classical music, live and recorded. The sad opposite is also true: the latest fad fades away in seconds. When you listen to Rachmaninoff in the hands of Volodos you carry it in your head forever.

Michael Johnson is a music critic and writer with a particular interest in piano. He has worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Moscow, Paris and London over his journalism career. He covered European technology for Business Week for five years, and served nine years as chief editor of International Management magazine and was chief editor of the French technology weekly 01 Informatique. He also spent four years as Moscow correspondent of The Associated Press. He has been a regular contributor to International Piano magazine, and is the author of five books. Michael Johnson is based in Bordeaux, France. Besides English and French he is also fluent in Russian. He is co-editor with Frances Wilson of Lifting the Lid: Interviews with Concert Pianists.

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Guest post by Doug Thomas

There is more to being a musician than simply creating and/or performing music.

Musicians are here to educate too. They are the professionals, the experts — and they should share their knowledge and wisdom with the rest of the world. It is a duty for them. The listeners in fact do not know as much they think they do, and musicians are here to help guide them towards what is true. Musicians should promote quality and help the listeners distinguish their taste. In the cultural world, the musicians’ role is of utter importance, as musicians are also educators. 

In fact, musicians are on a constant mission. They are indeed, all in their own ways, educators, whether they do it consciously through teaching, or unconsciously by the mere act of composing and performing their music. Each work, each performance is an opportunity to educate the listeners. To promote new sounds and ideas.
Musicians spend a lifetime understanding the language of music, the history of music and deciding what the future of music is. They are the direction-takers and decision-makers, and they should remain as such. For music is to grow and develop, to uncover new territories, to surprise and discover the unknown.  And somehow resist the human nature of wishing for comfort and repetition; even in art. 

Therefore, musicians should not create what the listeners want; this is a mistake that is done too often. Musicians must not bend to the wishes of their listeners. They must not accept familiarity and repetition of ideas. Musicians should carefully decide what material to create; what message and information, as well as emotion, to bring to the listeners. Their role is of utmost importance. They are the drivers of music progress. They are the bringers of novelty.

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

To learn, listening is not enough. One has to practice and devote. And sacrifice. And it is in the sacrifice that musicians do — the sacrifice of time, energy and attention — that they automatically become leaders and influencers. It is this sacrifice which places the true musicians in front of their audience. Music takes devotion. And if the price is high, the reward is immense. 

Today the concept of musicians as educators is more important than ever as they often forget that they are first and foremost artists — rather than perhaps industry actors. Their role is to create, perpetuate, educate and through this improve the cultural world. Their role is to guide and lead. 

Doug Thomas is a Franco-British artist based in London.

His main medium of expression is music; since founding NOOX — or North of Oxford St., his own production studio — in 2015, Doug has composed, performed, recorded and produced multiple projects, both featuring his own music and other artists’ too. Additionally, he has worked with multiple independent labels and collaborated with artists from other disciplines. 

An aspiring polymath, Doug also ventures in the world of visual arts, through photography and various sketching works. He also designs his own project’s artworks and images. Finally, Doug writes articles, reviews and often interviews his musical peers.

Doug is a lover of food and drink, and this often appears in his universe too.

“Music allows me to express ideas and feelings in a unique way. Each piece I compose is an attempt in finding balance between intellect and beauty, within the limits of my own language and experience. More than a language, music is a way to engage with the above.”

doug-thomas-home

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The penultimate weekend in March saw me in London for two exceptional concerts in particularly lovely settings. The experience was enhanced by the company of friends and a delicious meal with a wonderful view across Smithfield (former meat market, now the new site for the Museum of London) to St Paul’s cathedral.

A Season to Sing is a reimagining of Vivaldi’s evergreen The Four Seasons for mixed voices by British composer, vocalist and music director Joanna Forbes L’Estrange. A co-commissioning project between the composer, The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) and over 50 choirs around the world, A Season to Sing was written to mark the 300th anniversary this year of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

The London ‘launch concert’ took place on Saturday 22nd March at historic St Bartholomew-the-Great, a beautiful ancient church in the City of London. Luminosa Music, an exceptional amateur choir (who impressed with their pitch-perfect timing and exquisite, colourful sound) performed the music, the first half comprising choral pieces by Joanna, her husband Alexander L’Estrange, and works by Monteverdi and Thomas Morley, all with a seasonal theme. This set the scene nicely for the second half and A Season to Sing.

The Four Seasons is a perenially popular work, and this is is not the first time it has been ‘reimagined, Max Richter’s Recomposed, being the most famous example. But A Season to Sing is the first time this music has been reimagined for voices. As Joanna says in the concert programme notes, ‘...re-imagining in no way diminishes our respect for the original compositions. On the contrary it offers a new perspective….’ – this latter point being the most striking and magical thing about A Season to Sing.

Think you know The Four Seasons? Think again! Here, the orchestral version is transformed into a colourful extravaganza of sound which makes full use of the human voice (and other parts of the body) to bring Vivaldi’s seasons vividly to life – from whistled birdsong in Spring to “body percussion” to evoke the storm, a bagpipe’s drone and even some Swingle-style wordless ‘scat’ (Joanna was music director of The Swingle Singers for seven years, and the middle movement is dedicated to the group’s founder, Ward Swingle). New details from the original orchestration are revealed by the choir, such as interior lines and textures, and the entire piece feels as fresh as a spring shower. It’s full of affection too, and wit and warmth. It’s a wonderful tribute to this much-loved music.

The Four Seasons is the first piece of classical music I remember listening to as a child. I have very vivid memories of dancing around the room to the 3rd movement of Autumn

Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, composer

A Season to Sing is being performed around the world by the choirs who took part in the commissioning project (find details of all performances here). The score will be published by the Royal School of Church Music on 1st June (pre-order here).

Sunday afternoon and another concert at a lovely venue, this time the 1901 Arts Club, London’s most stylish and convivial small venue. This was a special concert to celebrate the 340th birthday of J S Bach and to launch American pianist Eleonor Bindman’s new album ABSOLUTE – her own transcriptions for piano of Bach’s Lute Suites BWV 996-998.

A lifelong love of J S Bach has led Eleonor Bindman to produce a number of important transcriptions for solo piano and piano duo of his music for other instruments, including the evergreen Cello Suites and the Brandenberg Concertos. In this latest addition to her catalogue, Eleonor has turned her attention to works originally composed for the lautenwerk or lautenwerck (lute-harpsichord), one of Bach’s favourite instruments, similar to the harpsichord, but with gut (or nylon today) rather than metal strings.

The small size of the music salon at the 1901 Arts Club lends itself to “haus konzert” style performances (such as Bach might have known) and the ambiance at this concert was warm and friendly.

Like Joanna’s reimagining of The Four Seasons, Eleonor sees transcriptions as a vehicle to “revive interest in original compositions”, shine a new light on the original work and “increase their popularity”. And just as in A Season to Sing, new details of dynamics, texture, counterpoint and more are revealed in this transcription for solo piano.

But for me the most satisfying aspect of Eleonor’s concert was her ability to bring so much colour and nuance to the music. Her range of sound was impressive, but never too much nor too little. Perfectly balanced to suit the small size of the venue, she brought both intimacy and grandeur (we can thank Bach for that!) to the music. I don’t think I have ever heard the Steinway at the 1901 played better!

The following day I met Eleonor for a most enjoyable, leisurely lunch, replete with much ‘piano chat’ and conversations about food.

ABSOLUTE is out now on the Orchid Classics label and on all major streaming platforms.

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Last week I went up to Hertford, the attractive county town of Hertfordshire, to attend an inaugural concert and reception, ahead of this year’s Hertfordshire Festival of Music (HFoM) which runs from 7 to 14 June.

I have been involved in the Festival since its founding by conductor Tom Hammond (who tragically died in 2021) and composer James Francis Brown, initially in an ad hoc way by sharing details of the festival here and on my social networks, and since 2020 as the Festival’s publicist.

Now in its ninth year, the festival has grown from a weekend to a full week of concerts and related events/activities. The ethos and aims of the festival have remained largely the same – presenting world class classical music and musicians in the heart of Hertfordshire alongside education and outreach projects within the local community – and each year sees a different Principal Artist (Emma Johnson, Ben Goldscheider, Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough to name a few) and Featured Living Composer (e.g. Judith Weir, CBE, David Matthews), as well as musicians who live and/or come from Hertfordshire (flautist Emma Halnan, pianist Florian Mitrea). The concert programmes are varied and imaginative, and the range of artists is impressive. Previous performers/ensembles have included ZRI, the Rosetti Ensemble, pianists Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen, violinists Litsa Tunnah, Mathilde Milwidsky and Chloe Hanslip, cellist Guy Johnson, and guitarist Jack Hancher.

Potential audiences (and reviewers) who live in London are often reluctant to journey too far out of the metropolis to experience live music (it was via an online discussion about this issue that I first met Tom Hammond, back in 2015), yet the ease with which one can travel to Hertfordshire was quite evident when, after having lunch with my father near Kings Cross, I took the Circle Line a few stops to Moorgate and thence a train to Hertford North station (Hertford has 2 railway stations; trains from Hertford East go to Liverpool Street). The journey was less than an hour, comfortable and pleasant, and my hotel was an easy 10-minute stroll from the station to the attractive historic centre of town. Hertford is also easily accessible by road, again less than an hour’s drive from London.

HFoM concerts take place in the town’s two main churches, St Andrew’s and All Saints, both of which are within walking distance of the town centre. Other events take place at the Hertford Quaker Meeting House (the oldest meeting house built by Friends that has remained in unbroken use since 1670), and other local venues.

If you were to make a mini break or weekend visit to Hertford, or even just a day trip, you’ll find the town has a good range of independent shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs. Ahead of the evening event, I enjoyed a stroll around the town in unexpectedly mild sunshine.

This year’s festival runs from 7 to 14 June. I can’t reveal the full programme yet but I can tell you that this year’s Festival theme, ‘Shadows to Light: Musical Journeys in Conflicts and Peace’, which celebrates the universal language of music through times of adversity and peace, and touches on the 80th anniversary of VE Day alongside contemporary global conflicts. From young musicians to established international artists, jazz music, the Hertford Community Concert Band, and even a special Festival Church Service, this year’s Festival offers something for everyone and features over 30 events across music and outreach activities, of which 50% are free, with concessions applied to ticketed events.

You can enjoy early access to Festival news by signing up to the HFoM newsletter or by following the festival on social media.

Hertfordshire Festival of Music website

Hertfordshire Festival of Music is built on the involvement, support and encouragement of Hertford and the county’s communities who help build a thriving and rich Festival for the communities HFoM wishes to serve.

The Hertford hart
Artistic Director/pianist James Francis Brown & volist Sarah-Jane Bradley