![]() Maybe he is worried that a solo pianist really might do just as well… or at least be perceived in that way by a majority of the audience. Johnson is extremely successful internationally as an art song pianist, yet to me these comments betray a certain nervousness. No, the implication is it can be done better by a soloist because virtuosity governs all.” Can solo virtuosi really do as well as an experienced accompanist in such a situation? Graham Johnson, interviewed in the article, was up in arms: “If a solo pianist can do my job simply by opening up the score and playing the music better than me without thinking, then why should people take the trouble to study accompanying?… I get upset about this issue because it insultingly supposes that the art to which I have given my life is something anyone who is a good pianist can do. This event promped an article in the LA Times on Sunday by David Mermelstein discussing the increasingly common practice of piano solo virtuosi performing chamber music and art song recitals. Tomorrow night the tenor Ian Bostridge will be giving a recital with the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to play so much great music with a wide variety of performers and I relished the demands it made on me in terms of flexibility, intuition, sensitivity and skill. In terms of the profession itself, I loved it beyond measure. He was astounded to discover that not only was the entire cash award given to the singer, but he was not even invited to the celebratory dinner which followed!įollowing the example of the great Hartmut Holl (of whom more later), I began to describe myself simply as a pianist, an accurate and less maligned term. ![]() ![]() On one occasion my name was not in the programme, the singer was presented with a bouquet of flowers while I stood next to her on the stage empty handed and I subsequently didn’t make the review in the local paper either! In “Am I too soft?” the renowned accompanist Roger Vignoles describes an even more outrageous occasion when he and a well-known singer gave a concert at a major international arts festival which won an award as the most outstanding concert of the festival. Despite playing repertoire of equal difficulty and having to cope with many other challenges besides, such as wayward singers and dubious pianos, there were times when my presence was barely acknowledged. I certainly identified with her perturbation, having spent many years as an accompanist, a term I grew to dislike as it only seemed to encourage a lack of regard from audience and sometimes fellow performers. However the pianist often gets little attention or appreciation, even being described as ‘at the piano’, “as if it were a piece of furniture”, as she exclaimed! As she explained, the repertoire is often as demanding for the pianist as it is for the violin, cello or voice. In a programme on BBC Radio 4 last week (sadly not archived) entitled “Am I too Soft?”, Susan Tomes, a highly successful British ensemble pianist, bemoaned the standard treatment of and attitude towards “the accompanist” in chamber music and art song recitals.
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