Being a Concert Pianist imagine...


Being a Concert Pianist

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This is Benjamin Grosvenor, playing at the first night of the Proms

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just a few weeks ago.

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At 19, he's the youngest ever soloist to perform at the first night of the Proms,

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and his virtuosity has dazzled both the audience and the critics.

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RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE

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Six years ago, Imagine discovered this musical prodigy in the making.

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This is an 11-year-old Benjamin Grosvenor on his way to winning the piano section

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at the Young Musician Of The Year competition in 2004.

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I'm absolutely bowled over by him.

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It was fabulous really.

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Completely natural feeling for colour and gesture, extraordinary.

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I really felt like I was witnessing some historic moment.

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Benjamin's very clear about his future.

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In about 10 years time or 20 years time, I'd like to be a concert pianist.

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It's what I want to do in life.

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But what does it mean to be a concert pianist today and what is Benjamin letting himself in for?

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The idea of having to walk on stage and play the piano

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in a packed concert hall is one of those universal fantasies, or is it nightmares?

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Unfortunately, I can only play the piano in my dreams.

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Yet, I'm still magnetically drawn to the instrument.

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I can never resist sitting down at a piano and touching the keys.

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Unlike the violin, it is at least easy to get a sound from.

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But at the same time, there's something so improbable about serious piano-playing.

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The speed, the technique, the memory.

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Great piano players appear to be endowed with mystical qualities.

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What's more, the swaying, crouching, tormented figure hammering

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and caressing the ivories is still one of those archetypal romantic images.

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It's not hard to understand why a young boy like Benjamin Grosvenor

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might want to be a concert pianist. Who wouldn't?

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Great!

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Concert piano playing really began in the 1830s when the composer,

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Franz Liszt, first introduced the notion of the solo piano concert.

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Piano recitals rapidly became a widespread and highly popular form of musical entertainment.

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Liszt and his friend, Frederic Chopin, were the first

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in a long line of great pianists who became the cultural heroes and pin-ups of their time.

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They were followed by such piano giants as Ignacy Paderewski,

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whose fame as a pianist led him to become Prime Minister in his native Poland.

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The Virtuoso pianist and composer, Sergei Rachmaninov and Artur Rubinstein,

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who in his 70-year-long career, became the ultimate international superstar.

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The tradition of heroic pianists continued

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throughout the twentieth century, with iconic figures like Horowitz...

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Richter...

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..and Glenn Gould.

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In today's fiendishly competitive music world, the star pianist still retains an elite status.

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'I went to see the leading British composer, George Benjamin, who both writes and performs at the piano,

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'to talk about Benjamin Grosvenor's chances of success.'

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When a young pianist like Benjamin Grosvenor, for instance, here he is, he's at the beginning of this.

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It's a hugely competitive area.

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What is it that's going to make a concert pianist for today stand out

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in this very competitive environment?

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It's very difficult because there are thousands wanting to be concert pianists.

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Obviously, natural virtuosity, the ability to learn and to conquer the instrument.

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All the obvious things.

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Depth of interpretation, understanding,

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the ability to listen to oneself, to hear the piano while playing it.

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Also, charisma for the audience, having that quality that forces

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the listener to empathise with you while you're playing and to force the public to listen.

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Essentially, if you want to master it, you have to start young.

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I think so, on the whole, there's always exceptions.

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Usually, people do start pretty young - six, seven, eight.

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To conquer music...

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People can be extraordinarily brilliant at music at an early age.

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More than anything else, mathematics is the equivalent.

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One must be born with talent. That is the most important thing.

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You must be born with talent and then you can only develop it when there's nothing to learn.

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You can't learn talent.

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There's no question, becoming a concert pianist is an olympian task

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and it certainly helps to start young.

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Not all but most of today's top pianists began playing at an extremely early age.

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Piano for me is like my childhood friend.

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My parents bought a piano, an upright piano for me

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when I was one year and eight months,

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almost two years old.

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My mother tells me I started to play the piano when I was three.

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I was just a kid who played the piano.

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I guess nature decided for me from the beginning.

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I started to play the piano at aged two,

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or to be precise, when I was two years and two months old -

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as soon as I was tall enough to reach the keyboard.

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Do you have a first memory of the piano?

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When you first heard a piano?

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No!

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I don't think I was a Mozart

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and went up to the piano and started playing when I was about three.

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I started when I was about six and a half.

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I think then I wasn't really

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very determined and confident.

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I didn't want to practise a lot.

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I suppose a bit more like Beethoven,

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he tried to avoid music lessons when he was younger.

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Over the years, I got used to it and it grew on me.

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There has to be a moment when you think to yourself,

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-I want to do this.

-I remember a couple of years ago,

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playing on the stage at the local cricket pavilion, the concert hall,

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a charity ball or something.

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When I came off, I said to my mum, I really want to be a concert pianist.

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I had so much fun being on that stage and playing to the people.

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So there's definitely a performer in you,

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someone who likes the appreciation of the audience?

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Likes that scary moment when you get up on stage? Is it scary?

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No. It's fun, I suppose.

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When you receive the audience's applause it's...

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..I suppose it gives you self-confidence.

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There's no doubt that Ben has the necessary enthusiasm as well as a huge dose of natural talent,

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but he also needs to be immensely dedicated.

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He practises for up to eight hours a day, six days a week.

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On Sundays, he travels up to London with his mother

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for lessons with Christopher Elton, head of the piano department at the Royal Academy Of Music.

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There are different types of prodigy.

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In a way, I don't like using the word.

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There are those who're incredibly well developed physically.

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They can tear around the piano in a very gymnastic way.

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There are also people who are prodigious in,

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just somehow, and who knows where from, having a deep understanding,

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sensitivity and even spirituality.

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For me, this is the more interesting one

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and I would have to say that Benjamin is stronger on that front than the purely pianistic front for his age.

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He's capable of giving a performance which is very moving,

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which has enormous integrity to it, which is natural.

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He finds his own voice in many ways, but he also works very hard

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at the physical side of things, as has to be done, in order to be able

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to deliver and to communicate what it is he wants to say.

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Change, change...

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Good.

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Hold on...

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That was fine, the pedalling there.

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The first time, there was almost none which is a fantastic way to practise it.

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There's no point evading the fact that playing the piano is physical to a large extent.

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It's easier to train physically when you're young, to develop muscles

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which are supple, to develop strength when you're young.

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If a pianist hasn't got the basic technique really sorted out by the time they're 15 or 16, they may

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advance and get very good, but there are always going to be some hang-ups,

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feelings of insecurity, fillings that they aren't naturally developed enough.

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How does this all fit into your school routine? I take it you still have to go to school.

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I have quite a lot of time off school.

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I have 16 free periods a week off.

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It's quite a lot of time.

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With school, I don't really get the amount of practice I want to get done.

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I'd like to practice eight hours a day, but I can't do that because of school.

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What do you do in your time off or don't you get any?

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Most of the time, I'm practising.

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You get enough satisfaction without worrying about all the things you're missing.

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I don't really see what I am missing,

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because it's not like... I do do other things.

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I'm not always on the piano.

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Most of the time, I'm on the piano but I do do other things.

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For the moment, Ben is carrying on at his local grammar school

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with just a weekly visit to London for a lesson.

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But for how much longer?

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Most teenage wannabe pianists will sooner or later head off

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for full-time piano education at one of the music hothouses.

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The Juilliard School in New York attracts piano students from all over the world.

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They come here often at huge personal and financial cost to study.

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Unsurprisingly, there are no slackers at the Juilliard.

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Juilliard provides incomparable atmosphere for budding artists.

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You have to be incredibly strong and confident in a certain way

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to be able to survive the pressures of the school.

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It can ruin a person.

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It's notorious for being a competitive place because everyone plays at such a high level.

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There are 25 students in this college class.

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All of whom come in here

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with the wish to fulfil a dream,

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a dream that they've had since childhood,

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of being able to make music and share it with an audience.

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I would say that almost all of them want to be concert pianists.

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Many of them come in here having no idea what their potential is.

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Some come with inflated views of what they can do,

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some come with very little confidence.

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They all want to find out, find out how far they can take it, and that's what they're here for.

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The one common thread here is their love of music, which becomes almost their religion.

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I was five and half and I started winning competitions after competitions.

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Finally, my piano teacher said

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"There's no more room for her to grow artistically here.

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"I feel like I've taught everything I know.

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"You should take her to America where there are more opportunities and more...

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"I guess, just a wider horizon for music."

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My mother took me here when I was... I think I just turned 11.

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She was always a very successful businesswoman in China.

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We had a very well established life and were comfortable.

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When we came here, all of a sudden, we were starting from the beginning.

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Given the incredible opportunity to do it and to have my parents go against all odds

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to make that possible for me, has only fuelled this drive that I've always had to be successful at this.

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I love playing and I love performing.

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Yeah, I basically just work!

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Because of the enormous pressures, students need to be actively discouraged from overplaying.

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An optimum number of hours for practising for a concert pianist is between four and five.

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Six is a maximum and beyond that, the law of diminishing returns starts setting in.

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The muscles are worn, they're depleted of blood

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and fluid supplies and they're much more likely to become injured.

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At some point, it becomes apparent which students have the potential to make the transition into artists.

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I know that a student has the making of an artist when you give them an idea and they fly with it.

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They don't just...

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simply reproduce what you tell them.

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They take the idea and take it a step further

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and that step opens the door for them.

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Teachers in general can teach them what to do at this spot, what to do at that spot.

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Once you get that down in your system,

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you have to go into a practice room

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and think about it all over again from the first note to the last.

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I'm quite surprised when we have masterclasses

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and somebody else is playing the same piece that I worked on.

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We have the same teacher but it sounds totally different and I don't understand how that can be.

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That's when the personality thing kicks in.

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The scene today is such that the percentages of the people who are actually going to make it is low.

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They know realistically that their chances

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of making it are slim statistically, but they want the chance to try so that there are no regrets later on.

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They give it their best shot and some are lucky, some are not.

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In my last 20 to 30 years of listening to young pianists, I remember only

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maybe a couple or three whom I say, I think you can make a big career.

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So every year, hundreds of brilliant piano students get to the end of a training for which they've literally

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given up the whole of their life so far, only to discover there's still a long way to go.

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If they're serious about being a pianist on the concert stage,

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they'll need to continue studying, maybe with one of the great masters.

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I had a few very fine pupils.

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I have a passion for it.

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-I love it.

-What do you try to communicate?

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What is it that you want to teach, to instil into them?

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I not so much communicate, I try to discover who they are for them.

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I think that one has relied too much, too long on methods for everyone,

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and that's very wrong in art.

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The great master, the great professor, the one who discovers possibilities and impossibilities

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in his pupil. I have good results with it, I must say.

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You have to develop something powerful, authentic and original to say about the music that you play.

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That means a profundity of soul and an insight into the music.

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That's something you can't tell if it's going to come.

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It can come along later than you expect or not at all.

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Just absolutely brilliant, pianistic, virtuosity is in the end uninteresting

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and won't feed a whole life.

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The Portuguese pianist, Maria Joao Pires, is one of the great figures on the world concert platform

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and an inspirational teacher, who gives masterclasses to a select group of exceptional students.

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Now, what is the meaning of this?

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What means this?

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What do you feel?

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I feel like it's not a clear image, like a ghost

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that is passing by, that you can never really see what it really is.

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But after, you have felt this...

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Then you cannot play, ba ba ba ba...

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because it doesn't fit. Feel with your body, don't feel it here,

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don't hear what I am saying, I am not talking to you.

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I don't exist. You are...

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You are...feeling now something.

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I'm just helping you to feel something.

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Feel it with all your being.

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(Go, go, go, go!)

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Why is it staccato?

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Who says? You?

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You're feeling that it is staccato?

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Really? Promise me?

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My feeling of...

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My brain says...

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My sense of style says I have to play everything staccato.

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-Also not good.

-No!

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We encounter most people trying to read literally what the score says.

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The score says a lot of things,

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but we're looking for that thing that is beyond the notes, the bars,

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the crescendo, the innuendo there.

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It is a safe haven for teachers.

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Most teachers rely on a literal reading, very accurate,

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exact reading of what's written. Then you hear this music

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played this way and it's that - it doesn't express anything.

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It is very literal reading of the score.

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As Mahler used to say, the print of the score

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has everything you need to know about the music except the essential.

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Time.

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What is the difference between my way of playing and yours?

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It is just one thing

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and one little thing.

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I think it's something to do

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with giving space

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to certain notes.

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The space is given by time. No time,

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all the world is mine.

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I have the space, I don't have to do.

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I just feel.

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Time.

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The paradox of being a pianist is that much of your life is spent in almost monastic isolation,

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in the relentless soul-searching business of practising alone at the keyboard.

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But eventually, you have to emerge in front of a large crowd of people

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and perform for an hour or even two on a stage.

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There's no doubt that part of our fascination with the pianist,

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lies in witnessing something very private being revealed in public.

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The business of people playing music, for others listening to music,

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in the ceremony of a concert hall is incredibly important.

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Not only is it some form of social gathering and it's a ritual, but people love to be played to.

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People who play music yearn to play for others, so there's an osmosis

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between performer and audience, which is the heart of music.

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The recordings are fantastic things, incredibly useful, a wonderful gift to a musical civilisation,

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but the truth is the danger of the concert, the risk of the theatre of a concert where so much

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can go wrong and so much can go mysteriously right.

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Where in the best moments, a magic performer playing a great piece can hypnotise hundreds,

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if not thousands of people and take them to another world and move them very deeply.

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A young pianist who's recently joined the upper echelons

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of the piano world, is the 22-year-old Chinese virtuoso, Lang Lang.

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'Five minutes, please. Five minutes, thank you.'

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Lang Lang now performs an exhausting schedule of concerts right around the world.

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Tomorrow, he's playing in Berlin, but tonight, it's Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

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Talking about performance day which is a great subject to talk.

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It is a little bit hard because now I have 100 concerts a year.

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And so basically three days, one concert, plus the travelling.

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It's very different between the performances.

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Before the concert, I rehearse a little bit and normally I like to eat some chocolate or fruit.

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Also I just like to stand up, not playing piano, but just thinking about this music

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and then start...not conducting,

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because I really don't know how to conduct,

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but something...

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Look out to the moon and start touching the air.

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Sometimes I start thinking about images, or thinking about

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a good vacation, lying on a beach or in a mountain.

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Basically thinking about nature.

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Sometimes I even play with closed eyes and it's very helpful.

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Very helpful.

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'All soloists, this is your call to the stage, please. Thank you.'

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Perhaps I don't think I need to be nervous.

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Even when you're nervous, it can start to help you.

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Please go, I don't want to be late!

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Maybe the first time I performed, you're quite nervous when you walk the stage.

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Then you see the audience, the piano, the light in the concert hall, it is very warm.

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For me, that's the reason I love to perform.

0:29:390:29:43

When I was five, I gave the first recital.

0:29:550:29:58

In the beginning, I was nervous because I didn't know what the stage was like.

0:29:580:30:04

The stage lights are there, it's very beautiful.

0:30:040:30:08

Basically it is big yellow shining lights

0:30:080:30:12

and then you don't feel any cold, or any nervousness.

0:30:120:30:17

It feels like home sweet home.

0:30:170:30:20

This piece, it's the Beethoven Piano Concerto Number Four.

0:31:030:31:07

It's quite a religious piece.

0:31:070:31:09

It is very mysterious and the second movement is like a mystery.

0:31:090:31:16

It's like how to solve mystery.

0:31:160:31:19

It is like, kind of a pre-movement.

0:31:190:31:23

Then I think the most sad thing is the end of the piece.

0:31:420:31:47

This note...

0:31:470:31:49

It is dead inside.

0:31:570:32:00

I do find it easy to play, but I certainly find to play the piano

0:34:260:34:29

is such an enjoyable thing to do in life.

0:34:290:34:32

Sometimes I'm tired, but after I play a few notes...

0:34:320:34:38

Those don't count, but I play something!

0:34:380:34:43

Then I'm like... It's like I get out from a vacation for 10 days.

0:34:430:34:49

It is that kind of freshness.

0:34:490:34:52

APPLAUSE

0:35:200:35:23

Are you cultivating a personality for your concert performances?

0:35:390:35:44

I don't want to play concerts.

0:35:440:35:46

I don't like to dress up.

0:35:460:35:48

I don't imagine myself going on with tails and flapping out of the seat!

0:35:480:35:55

I play in a BHS shirt!

0:35:550:35:58

Totally casual I suppose.

0:36:000:36:02

I tried all my life to find the best way of feeling well-disposed for a concert.

0:36:020:36:09

I spend the day eating a big steak at luncheon, I lie down to rest.

0:36:090:36:15

I read a book,

0:36:150:36:18

I go for a short walk, I had slept 10 hours that night.

0:36:180:36:22

Everything that a little good boy should do, yes?

0:36:220:36:26

In the evening, I come out and suddenly, something drops in me.

0:36:260:36:31

There is no inspiration,

0:36:310:36:33

not a real wish to play.

0:36:330:36:36

On other days, I arrive half dead from a trip. I hadn't slept,

0:36:360:36:41

it was very inconvenient, they didn't give me any good things to eat.

0:36:410:36:46

I'm nervous, very restless,

0:36:460:36:50

I feel weak, I imagine some pains in my arm, a headache.

0:36:500:36:56

I come out to the audience and all those things drop from me

0:36:560:37:02

and I'm the highest of spirits.

0:37:020:37:04

Jo MacGregor, one of Britain's most innovative and popular classical

0:37:070:37:11

musicians, is playing one of the keyboard masterpieces,

0:37:110:37:15

Bach's Goldberg Variations, at London's Wigmore Hall.

0:37:150:37:19

I've waited a long time to play this piece. I've had the score of it for 20 years.

0:38:220:38:30

I didn't think I was anywhere near ready to play this.

0:38:300:38:34

Obviously, I've known the two Glenn Gould recordings since I was young.

0:38:340:38:38

I have lots of recordings of people playing it.

0:38:380:38:42

I just waited until I thought the time was right for me to start playing.

0:38:420:38:46

I always think of these pieces as you make these friendships.

0:38:570:39:01

You take them into your life, if nothing too bad goes wrong with the piece first time round,

0:39:010:39:06

you go, OK, you're part of my life and come back to them.

0:39:060:39:08

Your relationship with them gets deeper and deeper.

0:39:080:39:12

There's an element of...

0:39:120:39:14

a spiritual connection that you have with these pieces.

0:39:140:39:19

When you practise the piano for hours every day, for months and years,

0:39:220:39:27

which is what you're doing, even when travelling,

0:39:270:39:30

there are certain parts of you that become very focused.

0:39:300:39:34

You learn to deal with solitude, learn to...

0:39:340:39:38

direct your time on your own. You become very self-sufficient.

0:39:380:39:42

You also begin to have a strong fantasy life.

0:39:420:39:46

You have a strong creative landscape.

0:39:460:39:49

You become somebody who reacts strongly to pieces

0:39:490:39:55

and you extract things from them that can only come because you've spent hundreds of hours on these pieces.

0:39:550:40:01

That's what the audience sees on stage.

0:40:010:40:04

You have to be not mad while you're doing it too.

0:40:290:40:32

You have to keep things in proportion.

0:40:320:40:35

You feel very cut off

0:40:350:40:37

sometimes when you're playing and become so...

0:40:370:40:42

self-critical,

0:40:420:40:43

so hard on yourself if things don't go well.

0:40:430:40:48

That can be hard.

0:40:480:40:49

I've always thought that pianists, like boxers, should have trainers in the corner.

0:40:560:41:01

You go back to them after each piece and they go, "You're doing really well!"

0:41:010:41:05

You don't have that, as a pianist, you're on your own.

0:41:050:41:09

You do it for yourself and have to be very strong.

0:41:090:41:13

It's interesting to me how you...

0:42:090:42:12

you think to yourself, "I want to be a pianist.

0:42:120:42:14

"Lots of people have played this, lots of people I've admired."

0:42:140:42:18

How do you make it your own, the pieces? Is that easy to do?

0:42:180:42:21

Well, the Chopin Ballade, I've got about...ten recordings of it.

0:42:210:42:28

I listen to all of them.

0:42:280:42:31

From them, I get my own interpretation of it.

0:42:310:42:35

What do you think it is that you want to bring to those pieces when you listen?

0:42:350:42:39

What is it that you have to offer do you think?

0:42:390:42:42

-It's got to sound natural.

-What do you mean by natural?

0:42:420:42:45

If it doesn't sound convincing, you can do anything, but if it sounds convincing it will sound all right.

0:42:450:42:52

So I suppose you think of your interpretation and keep practising it.

0:42:520:42:58

Make the piece your own.

0:42:580:43:00

There's one bit...

0:43:000:43:03

Rubinstein goes like that.

0:43:080:43:10

I prefer it to go...

0:43:100:43:12

So, we all do it differently I suppose.

0:43:210:43:25

Rachmaninov's second piano concerto is one of the most popular

0:43:510:43:55

and frequently performed pieces in the repertoire.

0:43:550:43:57

The challenge for every pianist is to somehow forge a fresh interpretation.

0:43:570:44:03

Top British pianist, Stephen Hough, received widespread acclaim for his recent Rachmaninov recording -

0:44:120:44:19

an interpretation in the spirit of the composer's own playing.

0:44:190:44:23

Today he's rehearsing the work with conductor Richard Hickox and the National Orchestra Of Wales.

0:44:230:44:28

Rachmaninov's second is perhaps the most popular piano concerto

0:44:300:44:34

because it's just a most beautiful piece of music.

0:44:340:44:38

It's filled with gorgeous tunes and everyone loves a great melody.

0:44:380:44:43

The piece is fascinating for all sorts of reasons, partly because of its popularity.

0:44:430:44:47

Something that, 100 years after it was written, is still the most popular concerto.

0:44:470:44:52

It has to be doing something right.

0:44:520:44:54

It's a very well-constructed piece.

0:44:540:44:57

I don't think there are any bars in it that you feel could be cut.

0:44:570:45:00

It's very exciting. It's a wonderful piece to sit in an audience and listen to.

0:45:000:45:06

We know that Rachmaninov was a nervous performer.

0:45:060:45:09

We're told that sometimes he had to be pushed onto the platform.

0:45:090:45:12

He was terrified of playing in public.

0:45:120:45:15

I have a personal feeling about the piece.

0:45:150:45:18

It's perfect for the nervous pianist because it begins with some chords to warm up, to feel the instrument.

0:45:180:45:25

You're sitting down at the piano and thinking, what's this like?

0:45:250:45:29

You're playing these chords to feel the instrument.

0:45:310:45:34

Then you reach the big one.

0:45:340:45:36

From that moment, you can't hear the piano for another two minutes.

0:45:460:45:50

He's playing lots of notes, warming his fingers, but he's given this luscious theme to the orchestra.

0:45:500:45:55

They're covering him, perhaps deliberately,

0:45:550:45:58

because you always are nervous - am I warmed up enough?

0:45:580:46:01

Here you try the piano out, play for two minutes without anyone

0:46:100:46:14

hearing whether you're playing any wrong notes.

0:46:140:46:17

Then you have a glorious melody to prove what a marvellous lyrical gift you have.

0:46:170:46:22

Whenever I learn a new piece for the first time, I've got to want to play it.

0:46:430:46:49

That is the first stage. If you want to play a piece because you love it

0:46:490:46:53

and feel you have something to say about it, it's a good start.

0:46:530:46:57

It's not the sort of inspiration when you're sitting in a field, looking at the sky thinking

0:46:590:47:05

artistic thoughts. It's graft. It's sitting on a piano stool with a piano there, a pencil and a score,

0:47:050:47:12

cutting through the thicket of this music and finding your way to the heart of what the music is about.

0:47:120:47:18

This is hard work.

0:47:180:47:20

For me, to avoid listening to too many other recordings or performances is essential.

0:47:420:47:47

To know the tradition and the tradition of Rachmaninov,

0:47:470:47:52

of the composer's own style of playing and the pianist that he liked,

0:47:520:47:56

but once you have that language, you have to speak your own words with it.

0:47:560:48:01

I hope that having something original to say makes it worth going to the other side of the world

0:48:100:48:16

and stepping out onto the stage and wanting to share what I feel about piece with the audience.

0:48:160:48:23

I think this burning quality, this compulsion to play, it should be there in every human being.

0:48:330:48:39

In order to live a full life, you have to burn about something.

0:48:390:48:45

Let's not pretend that this is a nicely air-conditioned room.

0:48:500:48:55

This is a furnace at times and so it should be.

0:48:550:48:57

You're dealing with things which are at the heart of what it means to live a meaningful life.

0:48:570:49:02

Fantastic. Thank you, Stephen. Bravo!

0:49:340:49:38

Stephen Hough is one of Benjamin Grosvenor's two favourite pianists, the other is Yevgeny Kissin.

0:49:380:49:45

I admire Kissin's phenomenal technique.

0:49:480:49:50

It's amazing really.

0:49:500:49:53

It's to be in awe of.

0:49:530:49:54

I like the sound he creates.

0:49:540:49:58

He can play extremely fast and can get round notes octaves down the piano.

0:49:580:50:04

He's extremely confident on the stage.

0:50:060:50:09

He is known to have nerves of steel!

0:50:090:50:11

Kissin started the piano earlier than I did.

0:50:120:50:15

I know that he was always doing technical exercises like thirds and tenths.

0:50:150:50:20

I'm always preparing pieces and I don't get time to do the technical exercises.

0:50:200:50:24

He did the two Chopin piano concerto's when he was 12.

0:50:240:50:27

I'm going to do that next autumn.

0:50:270:50:31

I'm trying to follow in his footsteps.

0:50:310:50:33

I'm a bit behind him.

0:50:330:50:36

Russian prodigy, Yevgeny Kissin, exploded onto the world stage

0:50:440:50:48

in the 1990s, astounding audiences with the physical virtuosity of his playing.

0:50:480:50:54

He was the first ever solo artist to perform an entire prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

0:50:540:51:00

For young players like Benjamin Grosvenor, Kissin is undoubtedly the pianist pin-up of the moment.

0:51:000:51:06

I've been very lucky because from since when I was a child, I was in very good hands.

0:51:060:51:12

My teachers as well as those of my parents.

0:51:140:51:17

Looking back, I realised that...

0:51:190:51:22

..they brought me up in the right way.

0:51:260:51:31

I became famous quite early.

0:51:310:51:35

And...

0:51:350:51:38

they realised how a child should be brought up in such circumstances.

0:51:380:51:45

They kept criticising me all the time,

0:51:460:51:50

and looking back I realised that was the right thing to do.

0:51:500:51:54

However, I also know that by nature,

0:51:540:51:58

I have never been ambitious, let alone vain.

0:51:580:52:03

So...

0:52:050:52:07

As far as I can remember, I never really cared

0:52:070:52:13

when other people used to speak about me and my playing

0:52:130:52:19

in some lofty terms.

0:52:190:52:21

As I say, what I cared about most was music itself, music as such.

0:52:230:52:29

Usually, the number...

0:52:310:52:34

..of my concerts remains below 50 per year.

0:52:350:52:41

The paradox is that I love playing in public.

0:52:430:52:48

On the other hand,

0:52:480:52:50

each concert...is an event for me.

0:52:500:52:54

I could also say that each concert is a stress for me.

0:52:540:52:59

Kissin is notorious for his total dedication and note-perfect performances.

0:53:010:53:06

This afternoon, he's rehearsing hard in an empty Royal Festival Hall for the evening's recital.

0:53:060:53:12

I give a lot.

0:53:400:53:42

I give everything I have at that particular moment during my concerts.

0:53:420:53:48

So, I need some time

0:53:480:53:51

to sort of refill myself.

0:53:510:53:55

I often have problems falling asleep afterwards. Why?

0:54:010:54:06

Do I keep hearing the music I played a few hours earlier in my ears?

0:54:060:54:14

No, not necessarily.

0:54:140:54:16

Do I keep thinking about it? No.

0:54:160:54:20

During my concerts, my adrenalin boils

0:54:230:54:28

to such a high temperature that it takes a while for it to cool down.

0:54:280:54:34

Also, after my concerts...

0:54:350:54:39

..when I put on my trousers, I realise each time that I've lost weight.

0:54:410:54:48

Sometimes, I'm being asked if I ever want to escape from music

0:54:580:55:05

and my answer is no.

0:55:050:55:08

I simply wouldn't find it possible.

0:55:080:55:13

Even if I don't touch the piano for several weeks in a row, that doesn't mean that I'm escaping from music.

0:55:130:55:20

Music is always in me

0:55:200:55:24

and will always remain there.

0:55:240:55:26

This is the way I am.

0:55:260:55:28

Why do we try to communicate something?

0:56:100:56:14

Why do people still come and want to be communicated, want to receive a message?

0:56:140:56:19

That is the main question.

0:56:190:56:22

Art is not just entertainment.

0:56:220:56:25

I never thought that from my childhood.

0:56:250:56:28

Art is something terribly essential, terribly important.

0:56:280:56:31

It communicates something eternal.

0:56:310:56:35

When it doesn't, then it's entertainment.

0:56:350:56:38

When I make music,

0:56:380:56:41

it is so heavenly.

0:56:410:56:43

I am in love with music.

0:56:430:56:46

Actually, when I play, I make love.

0:56:460:56:50

It is the same thing.

0:56:500:56:52

If there's one thing that unites all of these pianists, it must be their absolute and obsessive commitment.

0:57:000:57:08

The great technical challenge of the piano, is that basically

0:57:110:57:15

it's a machine, you press a key and it makes a sound.

0:57:150:57:20

What pianists do, is dedicate their waking life,

0:57:200:57:24

practically their whole being, into battling with this machine, to make that sound their own.

0:57:240:57:30

It's a subtle and yet superhuman struggle

0:57:300:57:34

and it's this struggle that can make the performance of great pianists feel so close to musical perfection.

0:57:340:57:40

Benjamin, of course, will never need to find out how to be a great pianist.

0:57:420:57:47

He'll either be one or he won't.

0:57:470:57:50

You can see more of Benjamin Grosvenor's Proms performance

0:58:060:58:09

when he returns to the Royal Albert Hall

0:58:090:58:12

and is joined by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

0:58:120:58:15

That's on BBC2 on 13th August.

0:58:150:58:18

E-mail [email protected]

0:58:180:58:23

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