PrettyInScarlett

Another unusual direction with the lunchtime concerts series at University of Leeds, after austraLYSIS, however this time piano-based.  Nightports is based on a simple but unbreakable rule of restriction: only sounds produced by the featured musician can be used. Nothing else. But these sounds can be transformed, distorted, translated, reworked, processed and reprocessed, stretched, cut, ordered and reordered without limitation. Nightports is about amplifying the characteristics of the featured musician and the sounds they make. Today's concert was the live performance of this album.  The four musicians performed on three (prepared) pianos and electronics. The whole effect was very much contemporary piano to ambient electronics, reminiscent of Hauschka, Nils Frahm, plus Ólafur Arnalds in the more introspective sections. There were breaks for applause but the event felt very much like one journey through different sounds and emotions. The prepared piano aspect of t...

Somehow I missed the information for Hausckha 's Leeds concert until a few weeks ago... hurriedly planned but a great end to a holiday week. I first came across Hauschka in the German language magazine PIANONews and from there discovered his album with violinist Hilary Hahn, Silfra . Prepared piano is an intriguing concept - Hauschka's website has a good explanation - so it was really something to see it done live. At the Howard Assembly Room , Hauschka came on after his two support artists. introduced himself and a bit about the evening, then proceeded to perform for 50 minutes solid. Just the stamina was impressive - but also the ebb and flow of the pieces. A camera mounted onto the end of the piano meant the audience could see the prepared elements - where they were, how they moved and when Hauschka changed or removed them. At the end of the 50 minutes they were all on the floor by the piano stool. The soundscape was really quite different to Silfra - in some ways similar ...

A piano acquaintance alerted me to the sixth Young Pianist of the North competition which finished on Saturday. Unable to get to any of the competition rounds, I did make the masterclass in Newcastle on Saturday 30th November featuring pianists from the main category with teaching from Pascal Nemirovski , Bernd Gretzke and Françoise Thinat .   Each teacher in turn provided feedback to the young competitors, who played repertoire including sonata movements by Beethoven and Mozart, interspersed with some Chopin. It was interesting to see how the young pianists operated under pressure - those who could successful deconstruct and reinterpret based on teacher suggestions, and those who couldn't!   I didn't purchase a programme so sadly don't have detailed notes of the pieces performed. The standout performer - one to watch, indeed - for me was 17 year old Elizaveta Klyuchereva, who had Pascal Nemirovski in beaming smiles!   The broad themes from comments and sugg...