{"id":1494,"date":"2023-04-04T13:20:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T12:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/?p=1494"},"modified":"2023-04-04T13:20:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T12:20:44","slug":"chris-hopkins-on-kashperovas-piano-concerto-in-a-minor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/?p=1494","title":{"rendered":"Chris Hopkins on Kashperova\u2019s Piano Concerto in A minor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

7th<\/sup> March 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equally at home on the concert stage as in the pit, conductor and pianist Chris Hopkins is engaged on a wide range of projects across many disciplines. He is a frequent face at English National Opera, this season conducting the company\u2019s first ever production of The Yeomen of the Guard <\/em>to great critical acclaim. Recently he conducted the new Olivier Award-nominated production of HMS Pinafore<\/em> following from previous acclaimed performances of La Boheme, The Mikado,<\/em> Iolanthe<\/em>, The<\/em> Magic<\/em> Flute,<\/em> and others. He recently made his debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in works by Kashperova, Liszt and Franck and next season makes debuts with various other companies, including conducting a new production of Werther at Grange Park Opera with Tony Award-winning director John Doyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is principal conductor of English Sinfonia and has worked at the Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne Opera, with Grange Park Opera, Opera de Paris, on record with English Chamber Orchestra, on other projects with Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Crash Ensemble, London Mozart Players, Birdgang Ltd, and appeared at many festivals including Aldeburgh, Presteigne, Cubitt Sessions, New Paths, and Latitude. His work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4, BBC 1, 2 and 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A long-term advocate for British music, Chris was the first postgraduate from the Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth (CHOMBEC) before continuing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Leverhulme and Elton John scholarships. He has premiered works by composers including Colin Matthews, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, David Matthews, Rob Keeley, Thomas Hyde, Detlev Glanert, Gilad Hochman and the Pet Shop Boys. He continues into a twelfth season as Musical Director of Orchestra of the City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a pianist, Chris has played for audiences around the world, working with orchestras in a range of concertos, including Brahms, Mozart, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven (complete), Shostakovich and Gershwin; this season he tackles Mozart 15, 19, 22, 23 and 24, Rachmaninoff 2, Beethoven 4 and Shostakovich 2. He is also a writer for Pretty Decent Music and recently released his first album of piano miniatures: Impressions I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris was honoured in 2013 to be made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What an incredible discovery by Dr Graham Griffiths!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazing. One of many, many composers that I\u2019m sure are lurking in libraries waiting to be rediscovered. Kashperova is something really special in terms of the piano pedagogy, and her music is wonderful. It\u2019s an absolute travesty that it\u2019s been hidden for so long. Thank God for people like Graham Griffiths who discovered it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hear you recorded the Piano Concerto last April (2022).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s right, with Alexandra Dariescu and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graham told me that the original conductor wasn\u2019t able to make it over from Vienna.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s right. It was a fortuitous story, as I\u2019d worked with Alexandra earlier in the year. I run a brilliant amateur orchestra called Orchestra of the City, and she wanted to have a gentle, lower stress concert than her usual international obligations. We programmed the Cesar Franck Symphonic Variations, and did it in concert. She had this Kashperova concerto coming up and as the parts had not been used since 1901, I agreed to a kind of scratch rehearsal with my orchestra, so she could go through it before she recorded it with the BBC Symphony. The orchestra loved playing it, and it was great for Alexandra because she had had nothing to go on in terms of actually hearing how the music goes (other than from her own imagination, looking at the score). It was wonderful to think this music had been undiscovered for over a hundred years and now, for the first time, these notes were being heard again \u2013 it was magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we conduct new commissions we have never heard the piece before, but of course we are usually able to speak with the composer. Is it very different to prepare when you\u2019re uncovering a piece that is newly discovered like this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kind of, but if I\u2019m learning a piece I try not to get to bogged down in what other people have done anyway. I like to have a good idea of the biographical details where they\u2019re appropriate, and where it sits in history, but I try to let the music speak on its own terms. In that sense working on this piece was great<\/em> because you haven\u2019t got any hang-ups from hearing previous recordings, or too many historical and stylistic questions. It was totally fresh, and you can look at it without any preconceptions. It\u2019s just all in the score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had the brilliant resource of Dr Griffiths, who is as close to this music as anyone in the world, so it was great to get his thoughts and insights into her style. But essentially there\u2019s a wonderful freshness when approaching a piece like this for the first time, and just discovering what\u2019s there. I\u2019m sure there are more levels to discover had we had more time \u2013 things change in every performance, the more times you play it the more you\u2019ll find. It\u2019s very exciting to just pull back the duvet and see what\u2019s there, it\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re an extremely accomplished pianist yourself, working as a soloist as well as a conductor. I\u2019ve heard mixed reviews about working with the same kind of instrumentalist as you in a concerto setting. Does it make it easier or more stressful?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can imagine if there was a piece you\u2019ve played a hundred times as a soloist and then suddenly the shoe was on the other foot as the conductor, there could be all sorts of egos at play. But I like to think it made it easier, and the piece was unknown and so fresh that I didn\u2019t have very strong opinions about how it should be performed. I was very happy to be led by Alex, she\u2019s just such a brilliant musician and pianist, and I felt we worked well together. We discussed things, talked about options, and made suggestions to each other \u2013 it was very much a two-way street. I don\u2019t think there were any difficulties, it was very easy, open and honest. I have total respect for her playing \u2013 it\u2019s just incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graham said you had a real affinity with the piece.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, what\u2019s not to love? It\u2019s got great tunes, an amazing piano part and interesting orchestral writing. It\u2019s a great concerto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s absolutely beautiful. There are a lot<\/em> of notes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need a very, very strong technique. In the existing literature the subject of her left hand parts kept coming up \u2013 they\u2019re very challenging. Does any of that influence how you work with the pianist?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of those problems are for the pianist to work out. It\u2019s certainly true that the left hand is strikingly difficult. Kashperova was obviously an unbelievable pianist \u2013 she graduated top of Rubinstein\u2019s class. There were four pianists in that class at the conservatoire and she was the best of them. They had these big, open three-hour long lessons where they\u2019d have an audience and people would pack the hall \u2013 I can\u2019t imagine how terrifying that must have been!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read that Kashperova played Beethoven\u2019s Opus 90 in one of Rubinstein\u2019s classes \u2013 she had struggled with the tenths in the left hand. Rubinstein had taken her to task about her left hand in public, and that obviously stuck.[1]<\/a> I wonder whether Rubinstein\u2019s focus on the left hand had an influence on the way she wrote, certainly in this piano concerto. It\u2019s not just hard in terms of notes (and there are a lot<\/em> of notes!) \u2013 the gestures are also hard, and quite often they feel like they go in the wrong direction. Often, when we play Chopin or Brahms etc., we play gestures that move from the bass and go quickly up and back down. That\u2019s a very natural movement, we\u2019re all accustomed to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But quite often Kashperova goes the other way \u2013 you get these arpeggio runs downwards and then a big leap at the bottom. It\u2019s terrifying writing \u2013 we\u2019re used to that in the right hand to an extent (in music like Liszt), but to have that in the left hand as well is a huge challenge. It\u2019s certainly a feature of her writing that this left hand workout is always there. These figurations are hard (for example, the first movement solo passage starting at bar 112 p.14) \u2013 a lot of people would have just written them the other way round and it would have been much easier. That simple change, turning the music on its head, makes life a lot more difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there any particularly difficult sections from that point of view?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the first and third movements are both really hard. The third has a lot of big leaps \u2013 things like octave runs with thirds underneath (see bars 253-258 p.79-80). It\u2019s just relentless. You get 7 bars at the beginning of the first movement and then the piano starts. Apart from one other 12-bar tutti in the middle (bars 207-218 p.26-27) that\u2019s the only real break. The solo part just keeps going. It\u2019s not always jumping around, there are lots of lyrical moments, and she also uses the piano as accompaniment as well, letting the orchestra take the tune. But in terms of the stamina, concentration required, volume of notes and bars you\u2019re in, it\u2019s pretty relentless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the use of the sustain pedal? Stravinsky said, \u2018<\/strong>Mlle Kashperova\u2019s only idiosyncrasy as a teacher was in forbidding me all use of the pedals. I had to sustain with my fingers, like an organist\u2019 (Griffiths 2023: 13).<\/strong> I imagine that could be Rubinstein\u2019s influence. How does that apply in this piece?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a good question \u2013 there are certainly lots of passages where the harmony is changing all the time. The beginning of the third movement is mainly in octaves (bars 5-14 p.55-6) \u2013 you can imagine not wanting to muddy that with pedal, tempting as it would be. But then there are lyrical parts in the middle where you\u2019d want a little bit just to keep the bass supporting the melody where the harmonic changes aren\u2019t so sudden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds like the pedal would be used more sparingly than in other piano music of that era.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comparison to Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff, I would certainly think so. It\u2019s more judicious use, I would say. It\u2019s hard to tell without having anything to go on in terms of her own style of playing. You have to use your own judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first movement has this very striking big, low brass beginning. It\u2019s really heavy and kind of grungy. Then there\u2019s the big florid opening for the piano (bar 8 p.1). You might think this is going to be a big weighty, dark sounding piece, but actually it very quickly opens up and it\u2019s full of light. It\u2019s very delicate in the way that it\u2019s orchestrated \u2013 quite often with single woodwind, minimal strings underneath and melodies prancing around. It\u2019s not heavy handed at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You just mentioned style.<\/strong> As you said, we know almost nothing about Kashperova\u2019s performances \u2013 obviously there are no recordings and hardly any performance history.[2]<\/strong><\/a> So how on earth do you develop a \u2018Kashperova style\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a very good question! Again, I just focus on what\u2019s in the score. For example, the way she writes for the winds is very transparent and considered. Where she places the different colours is done with care and lucidity. I think that informs us to an extent, you don\u2019t want big weighty, laden sounds \u2013 it has a kind of lightness to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s obvious, in a sense, in this first movement because after that really weighty beginning with the trombones, it opens into this lightness in the piano and delicate winds (from fig. A p.3). It gives you a whole different feeling. For me it\u2019s always got to have line \u2013 you can see this in the score, and that\u2019s the case with Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky and that whole era. She worked with Leopold Auer and Rostropovich\u2019s father\u2019s teacher, cellist Aleksandr Verzhbilovich, so there\u2019s some hint of that lineage going down through to Rostropovich. We get a lot of that style of playing in this piece \u2013 very lyrical and beautifully legato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see. I asked because Graham wrote, <\/strong>\u2018far from harbouring a cavalier attitude to tempo, it was one of Rubinstein\u2019s main concerns, together with style. If his pupils\u2019 performance became too indulgent with either, he would rein them in with the caution: \u2018Le trop c\u2019est l\u2019ennemie du bien\u2019 (Griffiths 2023:59).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Kashperova looked up to him so much, I wondered whether those same concerns would have been inherited\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no metronome marks in this piece, just musical terms. Did you follow your own instincts, or Alexandra\u2019s?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, more Alexandra\u2019s as a starting point. Gesturally, there were certainly demands that, to some extent, dictated the envelope in which we were working. Some of these passages basically have a speed limit. Kashperova played the premiere herself, so maybe there was no need to put in hundreds of metronome marks or be super-detailed about it. From Allegro maestoso<\/em> you get the feeling of what she wanted. Then the soloist can take off how they want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also have to decide what speaks best. Often passages actually sound faster if they\u2019re played slightly slower. For example, the end of the third movement of Rachmaninoff\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 2 [demonstrates on the piano][3]<\/a> \u2013 can be a gabble at that speed. If you just take 10% off the speed \u2013 by virtue of being able to hear more detail it actually sounds busier and more virtuosic. Similarly with this Kashperova piece, there\u2019s so much detail in some of the more virtuosic, florid passages that just going at the maximum speed isn\u2019t going to give you the biggest thrill ride. I always think that fingers can move faster than our ears \u2013 the speed limit is not necessarily what will make it bubble the most effervescently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of thought goes into the basic tempo, but more often than not the piano sets it. That opening is like a fantasy. In a way, it doesn\u2019t really matter what speed the orchestra goes at because soloist sets the tempo when they start. The pianist sets the speed for the Allegro<\/em> (fig. A) when the tempo picks up and set the speed when it slows down again. In a sense, the piano is always in control of the tempo of an upcoming section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding the light and shade in that first movement is key because it turns on a dime. In the blink of an eye it goes from something incredibly light (there\u2019s a Chopin-like lightness to it), into something much more weighty with double octaves all over the place and tons of big chords. It\u2019s hard to have enough mental preparation to be able to change direction and just switch between those two moods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there any particularly challenging aspects of the work for the conductor?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transitions are definitely hard. Thankfully, although I only had a very short time with Alex, we had played the piece through on two pianos to get used to how those transitions could work. The minute it becomes technically demanding, a battle, or she starts to feel that she has to lead and tell the orchestra through her playing what the tempo is, it adds another level of stress that isn\u2019t useful. It\u2019s much better if we can be on the same wavelength, and those transitions can just happen immediately and are always supportive of what the soloist is doing. That\u2019s quite hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I talked a lot with Graham about tempo at the beginning of the second movement. It\u2019s marked Andante<\/em> but then Graham said to me that the fundamental tempo is actually Adagio<\/em>. It\u2019s a very sparse opening (p.42) \u2013 just pizzicato in the strings and a little bit of wind on top \u2013 it\u2019s very static. There\u2019s no real melody for a good half a minute, and when there is one it evaporates so quickly. It\u2019s the longest section of orchestral music without the piano in the whole piece (26 bars), so we had the discussion (and this is ongoing) about whether we go for absolute stasis, almost like a hypnotic meditation and accept that we\u2019re not trying to get anywhere quickly, or more Andante<\/em>, and try and give it more direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end we found we preferred the stasis, especially after the monumental first movement. It\u2019s like a wonderful sorbet \u2013 just to have a minute of real calm and allow the purity of the instruments and quality of the wind playing to speak. I think it\u2019s wonderful that in the middle of two quite bombastic movements we have the poise that she gives at the beginning. We had to try not to drive it. That\u2019s the kind of thing you really don\u2019t know until you try it. This was the luxury of being able to try it out with my own orchestra before conducting it with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the pianist comes in [plays bar 27].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s such a beautiful moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a beautiful introduction. Having lulled you into that hypnotic state, she just hits you with this [plays from bar 46]. It\u2019s just the most beautiful melody that goes on and on, and it\u2019s got the descending left hand characteristic that we were talking about earlier. That whole section is absolutely stunning, even more so in the context of the whole piece \u2013 you\u2019re given a moment to relax after the first movement. It\u2019s like we\u2019re in this kind of fantasy opening \u2013 it\u2019s filigree and twinkly at the top. Then suddenly it\u2019s like coming into a clearing in the middle of a woodland and there\u2019s this beautiful simplicity. There\u2019s a long melody, with beautiful harmony. It took my breath away the first time I heard it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strings start to come in very gently, cellos first (bar 70) with this countermelody. There are little quirks, oddly two bassoons (bar 71) that give it an unusual colour. Over the scope of a good five minutes, the music just grows and grows and grows. It\u2019s a real mastery of a second movement on a small and<\/em> large scale. On Classic FM you hear the Grieg or Rachmaninoff 2nd<\/sup> movements all the time. You could put this on, and it would be an immediate hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think so. It\u2019s not an acquired taste at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, not at all. It\u2019s all there \u2013 it\u2019s perfectly proportioned, with a beautiful melody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had two days with the BBC \u2013 it was basically rehearse, record. It\u2019s not like we got a week to know the piece and each other \u2013 from day one we were thinking about getting this on record, it was a quick turnaround. It was definitely a challenge! The orchestra were amazing \u00ad\u2013 they just read and played everything brilliantly, it\u2019s incredible. As long as I\u2019m clear they\u2019ll follow immediately, so in that sense time wasn\u2019t an issue. For me, it was a case of understanding every inflection and nuance of Alex\u2019s playing, and making sure she was being supported by the orchestra. On a basic level that\u2019s about tempo and transitions, and on a higher level it\u2019s about gestures and shapes. Are we coming away from this? Or are we heading toward this? When it\u2019s passing round the orchestra what\u2019s our overall shape, and where\u2019s it heading? Where are the interesting moments?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So balance wasn\u2019t an issue?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, the balance was fine because it\u2019s beautifully written. There is a big climax in the third movement (from p.81) when the orchestra have the massive tune \u2013 it\u2019s a culmination of a very delicate section of chamber music. The piano\u2019s rattling away with a million notes and arpeggios and it\u2019s a lovely moment \u2013 it feels like it\u2019s subsumed in the orchestra. It\u2019s as close to a balance issue as you get \u2013 it\u2019s not quite an orchestral piano, but it\u2019s absorbed into the whole. It\u2019s orchestra led at that moment, it\u2019s glorious when that happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all of the filigree music and anything that\u2019s of pianistic interest, the writing is so delicately done that there were very few balance questions. If anything, it was more about encouraging the winds in particular to play soloistically as well. They didn\u2019t take much convincing, but there can be a tendency in a concerto situation to support the soloist with orchestral playing. What you really want in this piece (and it\u2019s most obvious in the string solos, but there are also many wind solos) is for it to feel like chamber music on a big scale \u2013 there\u2019s an interaction between the individual players and the pianist. It’s actually soloistic playing, Kashperova played lots of chamber music herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last movement starts jauntily, it\u2019s not quite a dance but it\u2019s close. But then it feels like there\u2019s a beautiful secondary theme (p.56 bar 18) which is much more lyrical. It\u2019s starts with just piano (p.59 bar 39), then piano and solo cello (p.60 bar 43), and then a solo violin is added (p.61 bar 66). It\u2019s quite striking in the context of the piece to suddenly have solo strings for a few beautiful moments. It\u2019s clearly a nod to her piano trio that she had in St. Petersburg, with Leopold Auer on violin and Aleksandr Verzhbilovich on cello \u2013 in a gracious way, I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The orchestration in the big climax (from bar 261 p.81) that we were just talking about is interesting. We\u2019ve got full brass, horns playing held chords, and a bit of countermelody in the trumpets. The bass is obviously heard in the celli, double basses and bassoons and the violas, second violins and first violins, clarinets, oboes, and flutes are all playing the melody. This is an incredibly virtuosic piano concerto with a ridiculously demanding part \u2013 the quality of orchestration isn\u2019t something you would naturally go to as a talking point. But this is fascinating: despite everyone playing fortissimo<\/em> and cantabile<\/em> with a massive tune, she\u2019s left space in the texture. By virtue of having this tune in triple octaves, it\u2019s fairly sparse in terms of the harmony in the middle. That\u2019s when the piano is playing [plays piano part p. 81]. There\u2019s still space in the sound for that pianistic gesture to come through. It seems to me very considered that it\u2019s not just a big climax \u2013 the orchestra has the melody and bass line and the rest is filled out by this incredibly virtuosic piano writing. You might not hear every note but it\u2019s a third part of the texture in a very lucid way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely \u2013 the piano can hold it\u2019s own with the orchestra.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra\u2019s brilliant \u2013 she\u2019s so open, and a brilliant chamber musician. It\u2019s an interaction \u2013 that\u2019s not always the case. There are lots of soloists who will play brilliantly, but there\u2019s always a dialogue with Alexandra, so it\u2019s much more of a conversation, not just in terms of words, but also musical ideas. As long as you\u2019re listening to each other, you\u2019re in a wonderful kind of constant flux of musical conversation. From my perspective as a conductor, that\u2019s the best. Of course, everyone in the orchestra is always listening to the soloist\u2019s every nuance. But if you can work with a soloist that\u2019s also really open-eared about what you and the orchestra are doing, and it works both ways, it makes for a much more satisfying experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think all orchestral music should be treated like chamber music, in that every musician should feel an ownership of it, in the same way that you would feel an ownership of the viola part in a string quartet. That\u2019s the most exciting kind of orchestral music making. There\u2019s something about the set up of a concerto that can lend itself to losing that aspect, especially if you don\u2019t have that much time. The soloist has been practising the piece six hours a day for a year, so when they\u2019re welcomed to the orchestra, it\u2019s not always a two-way dialogue. When it is, it\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I imagine that interaction is especially important when it\u2019s a piece that\u2019s never been heard before.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely, it\u2019s so individual. When you have brilliant musicians like those in the BBC Symphony, they will play gestures and phrases that haven\u2019t been heard for over a hundred years in a way that\u2019s so beautiful and you hadn\u2019t really considered. So I\u2019ll think, \u2018well, that\u2019s fantastic, we\u2019ll take that!\u2019 and vice versa: sometimes I\u2019ll make a suggestion and that makes it more satisfying for them. It\u2019s very much a conversation, especially with a piece that\u2019s never been heard. It\u2019s like a wonderful Christmas present!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, listening to the piece felt like opening a treasure chest! I can only imagine how Graham must have felt <\/strong>going to the archives and libraries in St Petersburg and Moscow<\/strong> <\/em>and discovering all of this music.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, something that\u2019s just been languishing there. I try and keep the repertoire interesting with my orchestra and not just stick to the well-trodden paths. We\u2019re just about to do delve into Louise Farrenc\u2019s Symphony No. 3, and we also played Myaskosvky\u2019s Symphony No. 27, which are both wonderful. As far as I can tell the Myaskovsky has only been played once in this country. One of the best things about lockdown for me was to really dig in to Ruth Gipps\u2019 music, and slightly stubbornly because there was a piece I\u2019d heard about that I wanted to find. I just couldn\u2019t find it anywhere, but after a while I\u2019d worked out where her catalogue was. Suddenly I came across five symphonies, piano music, concertos, string orchestra pieces etc. \u2013 some of which has been recorded fairly recently. I looked for the piece that I really wanted to find, and there it was! Incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feeling when you start playing a piece that only exists in manuscript, when you\u2019ve never heard it and really don\u2019t know what to expect, is incredible. You have this immediate link to someone you\u2019ve never met, from a different time. Somehow they\u2019re speaking to you through what they\u2019ve written down on the manuscript paper. It\u2019s absolutely thrilling. I can\u2019t imagine what it was like for Graham to find that huge symphony, this concerto and all the rest of Kashperova\u2019s music. It must have been amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most disappointing thing about it as that there isn\u2019t more of her symphonic writing. The symphony is so good, and the orchestral writing in this concerto is too. I just wish there was more of it, because it\u2019s composed with craft, thought, lyricism and punch when it needs it. It has all sorts of colours in it. I want more, basically! (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know, what a woman! But I\u2019m also sad that we\u2019re only hearing her music now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her own memoirs, Kashperova wrote: \u2018<\/strong>she [Sofia Alexdrovna Malozyomova] began to persuade Anton Grigorievich to take me on, and several other professors joined in. Anton Grigorievich said, \u2018I will accept her, but she will join Solovyov\u2019s composition class, as it is not acceptable to have two specialities\u2019 (cited Griffiths 2023:49).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That paragraph made me wonder if her conservatoire studies made a difference to how she was seen, both at the time and later into her career (i.e. a pianist, first and foremost, rather than as a composer).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I imagine part of it is just the practicalities of life. You\u2019re going to get more work more readily as a pianist, like concerts and tours to Berlin and London (especially as a stratospherically incredible pianist like it sounds like she was). I think she would sometimes programme some of her own music, but fundamentally I suppose that has to happen off the back of other people\u2019s work. Even Rachmaninoff was known primarily as a touring pianist. Beethoven did the same, they all did \u2013 it\u2019s just the fundamental of making a living. Kashperova did a lot of teaching too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope this piece catches on and finds its place in the piano repertoire. It\u2019s such a gem.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope so. I will certainly programme it at any opportunity possible. Thanks to Graham and Boosey, we\u2019ve got great parts \u2013 it\u2019s all there. As long as the parts are accessible for people and it\u2019s not prohibitively expensive to put on, then it should be heard more. If you think of the canon of piano concertos that get played, it\u2019s pretty small. Sometimes you see programmes advertising Tchaikovsky\u2019s second<\/em> concerto as a kind of leftfield choice (laughs). Is that the best they can do to diversify the canon? We\u2019ve got this stonking concerto here which has got far more in it than a lot of the concertos that are churned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also eminently programmable. It uses the standard forces, there\u2019s nothing wild there (as long as someone is capable the formidable task of playing the solo part). There are hundreds of orchestras that could programme this in a concert and it would be hugely successful. It could fit in just as easily as the piano concertos we hear played nine times out of ten \u2013 Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Grieg\u2026 This would be a nice alternative. Once you get a piece going I think it starts to take hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, it has been lovely to come back to this piece again. I conducted it in April last year, so it\u2019s easy to kind of let it disappear into the past to some extent (although I\u2019m still thinking about how we can programme it). It was nice to get back into the score again and reflect on it all, as it happened very quickly in the space of a week. In the heat of it, you\u2019ve got to really get inside it, be passionate about the music and convey that to the orchestra. Now I\u2019ve come back to it a few months later, it\u2019s still there \u2013 I still love it. I think it\u2019s beautifully put together, and should be played all over the world. Sometimes you need that passing of time to reflect on how you really feel about a piece. Now I\u2019m not as deeply immersed in it, it\u2019s nice to hear it with fresher ears. I still think it\u2019s such a satisfying piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just amazing. Thank you so much Chris for fitting me in, this has been brilliant.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah, it\u2019s a pleasure. I could talk about it all day \u2013 it\u2019s lovely! Thanks, Hannah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography\/Recommended audio-visual resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffiths, G. Leokadiya Kashperova: Biography, \u2018Memoirs\u2019, and \u2018Recollections of Anton Rubinstein\u2019<\/em> (Cambridge University Press 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leokadiya Kashperova: 1872-1940 <\/em>BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week released 16th<\/sup> December 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/p0dn2qqb<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kashperova, L. (1900) Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 2 for piano and orchestra (Boosey and Hawkes) Edited by Graham Griffiths<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Search of Kashperova: Symphony Memories<\/em> (Episode 1) https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6WQ_BswMUC4<\/a> (accessed 3rd<\/sup> March 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Search of Kashperova: Rubinstein\u2019s Pupil<\/em> (Episode 2) https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z6H_3VRrp6w<\/a> (accessed 3rd<\/sup> March 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Search of Kashperova: Cello Sonatas<\/em> (Episode 3) https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GAmeGL8NkRc (accessed 3rd<\/sup> March 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Search of Kashperova: Stravinsky\u2019s Teacher<\/em> (Episode 4) https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g2GgHGnPeS8<\/a>  (accessed 4th<\/sup> March 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Search of Kashperova: Russian Voices<\/em> (Episode 5) https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-o0bHyFCBe8<\/a> (accessed 4th<\/sup> March 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> \u2018Beethoven\u2019s Sonata [no. 27] opus 90 was less successful: I couldn\u2019t capture the drama of the first movement, and the only way that I could manage the left-hand tenths was to play them as arpeggios. He got angry and said, \u201cYou are only pretending to have small hands.\u201d I found this offensive and hurtful\u2019 (cited Griffiths 2023:49).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Since the interview I have been alerted to this piano roll recording made in Feb. 1910, found by Dr Graham Griffiths at the Brentford Musical Museum  https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ePaWef3WYdQ<\/a> (accessed 24th<\/sup> March)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> See fig. 28 https:\/\/s9.imslp.org\/files\/imglnks\/usimg\/2\/25\/IMSLP00297-Rachmaninoff_-_Piano_Concerto_No.2_-_Mov.III.pdf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7th March 2023 Equally at home on the concert stage as in the pit, conductor and pianist Chris Hopkins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-public","pmpro-has-access","clearfix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/ChrisHopkins_Headshots_ENO_301115_201-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8YX8Q-o6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notesfromthepodium.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}