INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2009

CHETHAM'S SCHOOL OF MUSIC, MANCHESTER, UK

Members, non-members, Rachmaninoff aficionados out there, you do not know what you have missed!

Great facilities (gorgeous food too), amazing performances, insights and discussions.

What we did not have in numbers, we made up for in warmth and concentration.

Friday, September 25th

The Rachmaninoff Society's Chairman, Wouter de Voogd, welcomed members from the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, and Russia. We were very pleased that Tamara Parshina, Chair of the Russian Rachmaninoff Society, was able to join us. (We are hoping to add to our website soon a copy of a booklet she had brought with her about the activities of her organisation).

Exceptionally, the lectures and performances were opened to music students for free, and we were delighted to welcome students from Pendleton College and the Royal Northern College of Music.

Saturday September 26th

This was followed by a masterclass by our guest of honour and now Patron, the distinguished Franco-American pianist and Rachmaninoff veteran François-Joël Thiollier (pictured below, with Chetham's student Niklas Duckworth).

François-Joël Thiollier studied with Robert Casadesus as a child, and subsequently with Sascha Gorodnitzki (Josef Lhevinne’s pupil) at the Juilliard School of Music where he graduated aged 18, with top honours. Mr Thiollier went on to win eight international piano competitions, notably the Brussels Queen Elisabeth and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competitions. His enormous repertoire of some eighty concertos, his exceptional musical culture and his extraordinary pianistic command have ensured international acclaim. Back in the 1970s Mr Thiollier was among the first pianists to record a complete set of Rachmaninoff’s music. Comparing his version to those of other Rachmaninoff pioneers like the late Ruth Laredo and Michael Ponti, Bärenreiter’s compendium Pianisten Profile (2008) notes: “Thiollier’s edition is pianistically more accomplished than Laredo’s, more precise as well as better recorded than Ponti’s and therefore can be regarded as a standard even today."

In the second half, Ukrainian-born pianist Ivan Howorun, accompanied by his mother Lyubov, was coached by Mr Thiollier through Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.3. Here is a taster. A fuller version is accessible to Rachmaninoff Society members through the members-only section of this site.

After lunch, Valentina Seferinova, whom some of you will remember from her performance at the 2005 Conference in London, returned to our Conference this time in the company of her Duo Va i Vé partner Venera Bojkova to perform Rachmaninoff’s Suite opus 17 for two pianos, Shostakovich’s Concertino for two pianos, and three pieces by their compatriot Pancho Vladigerov.

Thanks to Mike Bradley for uploading these three gems onto YouTube! Here is one of them.

The other two can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-yoKHir3hw&feature=channel and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpaLaTvWRBA&feature=channel.

As an encore, Valentina and Venera played Rachmaninoff's own transcription for two pianos of the piece of music he was most famous for (and most hated) - yes, that one - his C sharp minor Prelude. It is also on YouTube, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL2t8gk4Y_c&feature=channel

Later that afternoon, David Nice gave a talk on Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, with a variety of musical illustrations which contrasted and also drew links between the two composers. Reading from a letter from Tchaikovsky to his brother Modest, David revealed that Rachmaninoff's student skills at transcription (of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty) had left the older composer singularly unimpressed! David is a monthly contributor to the BBC Music Magazine, and broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3. He is the author of a biography of Prokofiev, From Russia to the West 1891-1935, published in 2003 by Yale University Press. He divides his professional time between writing, broadcasting and lecturing (chiefly for Goldsmiths College's Russian music MMus degree course, and at the City Literary Institute, Birkbeck College and Morley College).

To crown the day, François-Joël Thiollier gave a recital at the Whiteley Concert Hall. The pieces on the programme were a rich mix of variations – by Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff, most of them are rarely played.

Performances of outstanding elegance and depth were, as member Reg Vallintine puts it, "interspersed with his engaging comments and stories about the composers whose works he played." Reg continues: "[Thiollier] teased us by saying that he was delaying playing Rachmaninoff as long as possible, but then the dynamic opening bars of the Variations on a Theme of Chopin brought a sense of magic in the air. The majesty and passion of the interpretation sent shivers down my spine. It was a moment that the Spanish call ‘duende’ – a force of demonic inspiration!

"After prolonged applause, he played Scriabin’s more relaxing Nocturne of 1892 composed for the left hand. He explained that this had been composed when Scriabin suffered from painful swellings on the back of his right had which prevented him from playing. In spite of all kinds of painful medical procedures, they remained and he felt that he would never play again. Only when the back of his hand was struck by the biggest and heaviest book that could be found did the swellings disappear and his career continued as normal!"

Sunday September 27th

After the Society's Annual General Meeting, pianist Ivan Howorun returned to stage to give a piano recital, including sonatas by Mozart and Rachmaninoff, and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 by Liszt. Ivan's programme was designed to highlight the Rachmaninoff-Horowitz relationship.

The final event of the Conference was a discussion on Rachmaninoff in re-performance. We heard various attempts to 'improve' recordings made by Rachmaninoff, including his re-mastered 78 recordings and Ampico piano roll recordings and, for the first time in Europe, we were able to compare these directly with the very latest re-making of SVR's 78rpm recordings on a Steinway Model D Concert Grand. Especially for us, Zenph Studios (USA) had provided a pre-release of these recordings, now released by Sony Classical.

It would be something of an understatement to say that the discussion, expertly moderated by member Dr John Malpass, was lively ! Member Jarl Carlender writes: "What I expected to happen happened. What was very interesting was why it happened. The pianists unanimously rejected the more ‘polished’ Zenph recordings. (...)"

"[These recordings] did not have the buzz and were much more ‘clean’ than the original recordings. However because of the nature of the editing, the pianists felt the high overtones were lost and this changed the nature of the sound very drastically."

"I think there would have been very little to talk about if we had all said ‘Ah, lovely’. Although we are all united by our love of Rachmaninoff’s music we should keep having controversial discussions of this type. For my part, I think the re-mastering was a step in the right direction. Young non-musicians are generally bothered immensely by distortion and background noise on records. Removing this at the expense of the authenticity of the piece is not altogether bad. It allows for those new to Rachmaninoff to hear him clearly in the same way they would hear a recording made today. I think respect for the original recordings would follow logically from being exposed to the Zenph. I suspect the Zenph recordings would function well on an ipod in a crowded situation, where it would be difficult to hear the original recordings.

Reflecting on the Conference, Jarl writes:

"As much as I love Rachmaninoff’s music, it was a good thing that the programme was not exclusively Rachmaninoff. As a non-member I was surprised at this. But how could It be otherwise ? Every composer owes something to those before him (or her) and gives something to those after him. The program was varied and extremely interesting. Everything from Mozart to Scriabin was included. Much of the music, I hadn’t heard before. The composer Pancho Vladigerov, played by Venera Bojkova and Valentina Seferinova was completely new to me. With old music, it seems there is always more to be found."

To which Reg Vallintine adds:

"This year’s conference ran like a dream – near perfect venues, clockwork timing, friendly organizers, more recitals than ever, and exciting insights from the distinguished speakers.
Only one things was missing – members! Due to a variety of reasons – the economic squeeze, holidays pre-booked and illness – the numbers, apart from the hard-working committee, could perhaps, be counted on the fingers of two hands. (...) The organizers deserve prizes for working so hard to produce such a spell-binding programme in the face of adversity."

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