LETTERS
Write to International Piano, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, email international.piano@markallengroup.com or tweet @IP_mag. Star letters will receive a free CD from Hyperion’s best-selling Romantic Piano Concertos series
SPONSORED BY HYPERION RECORDS
WAR OF WORDS Thank you for your coverage of Wilhelm Backhaus by Benjamin Ivry in Issue 66. This was timely given Decca’s long overdue release of Backhaus’ complete recordings, but I was puzzled by the article’s intent: was it an examination of Backhaus’ pianism, a moral judgement of his life, or a study of how someone’s values influence their musicianship?
Readers would do well to refer to Nalen Anthoni’s article on Backhaus, ‘Variations on an Enigma’, from the Summer 1997 edition of International Classical Record Collector. Anthoni suggests that although Backhaus never spoke about his wartime experience, it doubtless impacted his playing: ‘Characteristically
Backhaus appears never to have disclosed the privations he endured. But many of his postwar recordings speak of a distressed mind.’
Mr Ivry suggests that Backhaus placed ‘career advancement, and nationalist feelings, above humanity’, yet failed to mention that Backhaus was twice imprisoned in a labour camp because he refused to accompany Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic on a tour of occupied Europe. Phan Ming Yen, Singapore
REVOLUTIONARY STUDIES I was intrigued by the article about Piano Portals in Issue 65 and want to respond to the author’s ‘playful
Keyboard pedagogue Carl Czerny challenge’. Superficially, it reads like a good idea. However, it does not stand up to close scrutiny. It is long on management speak and very short on detail.
Taking the list of 10 key points, No 9 states: ‘The relatively few who thrive on technical exercises have instinctively cultivated an impervious, harmonious whole-body coordination.’ The author then says, ‘Others who are prescribed them thrive because they ignore advice and do not play them.’ Where is the evidence for this statement? If exercises were not useful then piano teachers would not use them. When working on a technical piece, by say Wieck or Czerny, my piano teacher wants me to make it musical. Moreover, studies by other composers have been always treated as pieces of music. The rest of the list can be similarly analysed. Some, such as No 2, make obvious points that would be covered by any good teacher, while No 4 suggests that fingering is not important! There is nothing wrong with someone coming up with a new methodology, but this is not the revolution it heralds. Derrick Baughan, via email
P T C
5 1 8 6
7 5 6
Musical Reflections on the Slavonic Soul
Musical Reflections on the
Sl Nelly at the sele Ma cycle Med brea while Slavo la y e e az e dt at s on
Slavonic Reflections, recorded by Nelly Akopian-Tamarina in recital at the Wigmore Hall, is a highly personal selection of piano music containing Mazurkas by Chopin and Janáček’s cycle In the Mists, as well as encores by Medtner and Liadov. The programme breathes a melancholic air of sadness, while simultaneously showing an equally Slavonic passion for dance and nature.
NEW ALBUM!
Discover here:
sma smarturl.it/SlavonicReflections www.pentatonemusic.com
6 January/February 2021 International Piano
Distributed in the UK by www.international-piano.com
