Also, for those who missed it, you can now watch the October concert on Vimeo (Bach Partita no. 2, and Polglase Five Pieces).
Category: Featured recordings (me)
32 Ticky Things After Ligeti
Sorry, this has been up on the channel for a few weeks now. I should have updated this site sooner, for the thousands of fans following here. No pianos in this one, more of an experimental soundscape created with the Python programming language and Csound. Enjoy!
About time we had some Bach on this channel
I somewhat overdosed on Bach between 2010 and 2013, so I took a bit of a break. Now it’s time to revisit this world.
Schoenberg: old wine in new bottles
Sorry, I uploaded this a few weeks ago but didn’t get around to mentioning it here. Enjoy!
Four studies by Szymanowski
I don’t know if anyone ever reads this stuff (no one has commented, except for a bizarre collection of hairdressing-related spam caught in the filter), but I’ve started so I may as well continue.
Here’s some more piano music.
Creating the electric distortion harpsichord
When Beethoven first published his sonata opus 27 number 1, the title page said (in Italian) “Sonata, almost a fantasia, for harpsichord or pianoforte”. The received wisdom is that it was always supposed to be a piano piece, and the harpsichord bit was just marketing to sell a few more copies. But I think it could have been a different story if the Electric Distortion Harpsichord had been around in Beethoven’s lifetime!
Every pianist should spend some time playing harpsichords. At first, it’s frustrating. On the piano, you’re used to two main tools for expression: dynamics (loud and soft) and sustain pedal. The harpsichord has neither. Playing the harpsichord expressively is a much more subtle affair. The instrument has a fantastically precise attack to each note, so that small variations in articulation and timing become far more meaningful. Good harpsichord performances have a wonderful intimacy to them — but in a large modern concert hall, they don’t have the same impact as a grand piano.
What if you could have the best of both worlds, combining the grace and precision of the harpsichord with the dynamic range and power of the piano? Now I know there will be some purists out there telling me I’ve actually got the worst of both worlds here. But I’m not relying on album sales for a living, so let’s have some fun creating a new instrument.
Continue reading “Creating the electric distortion harpsichord”Suite Bergamasque by Debussy
Here’s what I did on the Easter weekend. Well, not just the Easter weekend. There may have been a little bit of practice during the previous year or two.
K by Dylan Crismani
In this piece I’ve crossed a line: you’re no longer hearing sounds that are possible on an acoustic piano. It starts off sounding normal enough, but a couple of minutes in you’ll notice something interesting.
Brahms. Very serious. Or … ?
Here are three calm, reflective pieces (with some turbulence under the surface, because life is never perfect).
Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby and the art of piano transcription.
I first discovered this piece late last century, when soprano Natalia Bezrodnova invited me to accompany a recital of Russian songs. A decade later, I was delighted to find out that Rachmaninoff had transcribed it for piano solo. Rachmaninoff’s most famous transcriptions are the ones of Bach and Kreisler’s violin pieces, and of course The Flight of the Bumblebee, but I’m surprised that this one isn’t played more often.