Andras Schiff to play Glyndebourne
mainFrom the innovative and eclectic Brighton Festival:
Brighton Festival’s classical music programme has just been announced with tickets on sale now, with many free and low cost events to encourage participation. This year’s Festival promises to be diverse and international with a varied repertoire of classical music.
Highlights include Sir Andras Schiff, one of the great musical thinkers of our time, the Brighton debut of Ensemble Correspondances, who bring the music of the court of Louis XIII to Glynebourne, Chineke!, Europe’s only Black and Minority Ethnicity orchestra, and the British Paraorchestra, who return to Brighton Dome with a show inspired by theoretical physics.
Sir András Schiff (Hungary)
Sun 12 May, 3pm Glyndebourne £10, £22.50, £27.50, £32.50
Bach’s Partitas are among the most demanding keyboard pieces devised by Johann Sebastian Bach, and multi-award winning pianist and conductor Sir András Schiff is simply one of the most sublime performers in the world today. Considered one of the great musical thinkers of our time he now focuses on performing the music of Beethoven, Bach, Schubert and Schumann. In recent years Schiff’s Bach recitals have become an annual feature of the BBC Proms. He says ‘Together for those two or three hours, we can somehow change the world in to a better place.’
Boring pianism
Schiff may be boring indeed with the Romantics but not with Bach. His recording of the partitas for ECM is an outstanding achievement.
I was waiting for somebody to say this first. I went to Schiff’s Wigmore Hall recital last Fall. I love Schubert sonatas, but he just killed them with his dreadful playing. He included all the repeats, so the first part of the recital lasted over an hour. I just couldn’t understand all the enthusiasm and clapping from the audience, I felt as if I were listening to a different pianist. The repaired 1820s Viennese piano which he uses for Schubert recitals is another story – this is a fine instrument for playing at home, but nobody in his right mind would use it for a public performance (you could hear hammers hitting the strings, etc.). Schiff’s success and cult following are inexplicable to me (he had two Wigmore Hall recitals with the same program in a single week, both completely sold out) – what I heard was a dry and dreadfully boring pianist.
Absolutely agree. I’ve seen him in recital 3 times over the years and the last in Wiener Konzerthaus he played 4 encores and the audience left in increasing droves as they had public transport to catch. It was embarrassing.
I don’t like his playing. Catch the MediciTV performance of him from last year with Verbier Festival Orchestra and Beethoven Concerto #1. Missed notes and forgotten passages in the first movement – the complete catastrophe and I stopped listening. Actually, it was sad – accompanied as it was with that beatific smile.
I absolutely agree. You are one of the few to have said this.
I tried to view (on YT) the BACH BOOK II of the P&F….of a proms concert….
Help!!!Dry and boring.
“He says ‘Together for those two or three hours, we can somehow change the world in to a better place.’ ”
I’ve never understood this. (Were Furtwängler and his musicians trying to do this too?) Instead of freighting music with the job of moral betterment why not just try for beauty and passion.
Yes, agree. In no way, shape or form was the music we love written to make the world a better place or make better people of us. Or “to make a difference”.
He’s turned into a pompous git in his old age. Reminds me of another infuriating conductor.
Just saw Schiff last week in Napa.
Thank you, Mr. Schiff. I see you every year you come to the Bay Area. You are the best! All your concerts were true memorable experiences.
oh well… never browse comment sections, the voice of illiterate populism. here’s one of the people who understands more than they, and what people say is “boring” rather than learn about the depth and beauty of discipline (creating so much more tension and clarity than fake emotionality and pedalling). I guess not everyone feels Bach after all, especially given the common anachronistic expectations. Schiff certainly will teach you a lot, if you prepare and know how to listen. I wish I was in the UK for these Partitas… *snif*
I heard these Partitas on his new piano, with my family. We were all captivated by the sound and the interpretations. the technique . . . fabulous.