OXFORD PHILHARMONIC
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Oxford Philomusica: Angela Hewitt piano masterclass,
Holywell Music Room, Oxford, 13 March 2015
Oxford
Philomusica has since 2002 been the University of Oxford’s Orchestra in
Residence. Each year it presents a wide-ranging Residency Programme, covering offering
training, tuition and performing opportunities for students as well a season of
concerts by the leading musicians of the day who also deliver lectures and
masterclasses.
A high point of the 2014/15 Residency Programme was a visit from the pianist Angela Hewitt, whose long-awaited recording of JS Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge must have been for most music lovers the CD set of the year. The day after a Mozart Piano Concerto in the Sheldonian which I did not attend, she gave a masterclass with three young pianists. This I did attend, under the mistaken impression that I would gain further insights into the interpretation of Bach on the piano after having studied Hewitt’s CD set of lectures on all aspects of this subject.
Of the three pianists, two were studying for Master's degrees at the University of Oxford. The third was a Russian already embarked on an international career, winner in 2008, aged twenty-one, of the Utrecht Franz Liszt Piano competition
Hamish Dustagheer played Liszt’s arrangement of Bach’s organ Fantasia and Fugue in G minor.Although a foremost interpreter of both composers, Hewitt made clear that she was out of sympathy with such transcriptions. Her criticisms were mainly reduced to comments on the pianist’s posture. Then came Carson Becke who played Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie in A flat another long work leaving little time for didactic interchange. Both these performances raised questions about for whom the pianist was playing. Ideally an interpreter studies the composer's work and figures out how best to transmit the composer's intentions to an audience, with or without the intervention of their own additions. In the masterclass format, there is the additional presence of the tutor as a focus of the player's attentions. Nevertheless, the tutor should take account of whether the performer is communicating to the audience.
Vitaly Pisarenko was a different matter. His fingers gliding effortlessly over the complexities of three of Ravel’s Miroirs. had real engagement with the listeners. Here Hewitt’s advice was heeded, leading to increased expressiveness of phrasing in III. Une barque sur l’océan.
This was a disappointing masterclass for all involved. Whoever was to blame, the choices of students and of works were ill-matched to the quality of instruction on offer and with insufficient time for each student. To the audience the ideal masterclass is where there is immediate rapport between tutor and student and it can hear a positive response to the tutor's guidance.
The next piano masterclass will be held in the Sheldonian on Sunday 7 June, will be directed by Vladimir Ashkenazy. It is to be hoped lessons will have been learned.
25 March 2015
A high point of the 2014/15 Residency Programme was a visit from the pianist Angela Hewitt, whose long-awaited recording of JS Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge must have been for most music lovers the CD set of the year. The day after a Mozart Piano Concerto in the Sheldonian which I did not attend, she gave a masterclass with three young pianists. This I did attend, under the mistaken impression that I would gain further insights into the interpretation of Bach on the piano after having studied Hewitt’s CD set of lectures on all aspects of this subject.
Of the three pianists, two were studying for Master's degrees at the University of Oxford. The third was a Russian already embarked on an international career, winner in 2008, aged twenty-one, of the Utrecht Franz Liszt Piano competition
Hamish Dustagheer played Liszt’s arrangement of Bach’s organ Fantasia and Fugue in G minor.Although a foremost interpreter of both composers, Hewitt made clear that she was out of sympathy with such transcriptions. Her criticisms were mainly reduced to comments on the pianist’s posture. Then came Carson Becke who played Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie in A flat another long work leaving little time for didactic interchange. Both these performances raised questions about for whom the pianist was playing. Ideally an interpreter studies the composer's work and figures out how best to transmit the composer's intentions to an audience, with or without the intervention of their own additions. In the masterclass format, there is the additional presence of the tutor as a focus of the player's attentions. Nevertheless, the tutor should take account of whether the performer is communicating to the audience.
Vitaly Pisarenko was a different matter. His fingers gliding effortlessly over the complexities of three of Ravel’s Miroirs. had real engagement with the listeners. Here Hewitt’s advice was heeded, leading to increased expressiveness of phrasing in III. Une barque sur l’océan.
This was a disappointing masterclass for all involved. Whoever was to blame, the choices of students and of works were ill-matched to the quality of instruction on offer and with insufficient time for each student. To the audience the ideal masterclass is where there is immediate rapport between tutor and student and it can hear a positive response to the tutor's guidance.
The next piano masterclass will be held in the Sheldonian on Sunday 7 June, will be directed by Vladimir Ashkenazy. It is to be hoped lessons will have been learned.
25 March 2015