The soloist in the Schoenberg concerto is … 14 years old
OrchestrasWe reported yesterday that Simon Rattle did his best to put the Bavarian state youth orchestra at its ease for this weekend’s concerts.
We were unaware that the soloist in the terrifying piano concerto by Arnold Schoenberg was a Georgian boy of 14 years old.
His name is Tsotne Zedginidze, from Tbilisi, and he has been mentored by the Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili, for whom he has composed a violin-piano sonata. Rattle first heard Tsotne when he was 9.
It is worth a read of his extraordinary biography here: https://www.verbierfestival.com/en/musician/zedginidze-tstotne/
Brilliance is one thing, but a childhood is only once in a lifetime. People like Rattle & Barenboim should be aware of this, as they lost theirs, too. The BRILLIANCE will still be there after he has done a few childish things. Meanwhile, he is becoming a performing “monkey” for other people’s glory. As he has lost his childhood, old age he can not lose. There is no mention of a general education as there is no mention of a educationof life & living. I have known these people & never have I envied their gifts, but for a lifetime I have PITIED their loss of their childhood. When you are old, it is so comforting to sit back & think of the variety you had as a child. Some die so very young & others have no childhood memories to sit back a dream about. Nothing but applause is very lonely friend.
I agree. I’m not saying he is not an incredible talent, he definitely is, but he is performing for other people’s glory. Lisa Batiashvili posing with him in every photo as if she had played the concert herself… if you support him as much as you say you do then let him be the Artist, let him be the center of attention, for God’s sake!
This, from the biography linked by Mr Sears:
“At six years old, Tsotne Zedginidze began composing and discovered 20th and 21st-century music. He continued his study of opera by playing voice scores of various operas on the piano, including Berg’s Lulu, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle.”
I doubt he was pressured into any of this activity! And Mozart was able to indulge in childish things (into his adulthood…) despite the real pressures his father exerted on him.
Lots of people have terrible childhoods without learning to play the piano.
Rattle didn’t “lose” his childhood. No-one pressured him to perform in his teens: he played in the local youth orchestra and organised amateur concerts on his own initiative. He set his own pace, among friends in his own community.
This young soloist is a curious case, certainly. but not a comparable one. The culture of piano teaching is unhealthy in all sorts of ways.
Gayle Browne: A really stupid, uninformed comment, typical of “average” people who recognise only mediocrity. Rattle and Barenboim didn’t “lose” their childhood; they were deloght by music and certainly not forced into any of it. Childhood may also be a fantastic adventure of constant learning and progress; it’s not neccessary to play football or mess around with all the other kids (altho i believe Rattle & Barenboim didn’t miss out there either!). There have been hi-profile cases of “lost childhood” (F-R Dûchable springs to mind….ugh), but those are relatively rare in comparison with the majority of children who love to play and listen to music. Why something as natural as music-making is seen as a chore and/or “elitist” is a mystery for me. Whatever are these “childish things” you so wish him to do? And why should music-making at a hi level impede these?
what a horrible concerto
Depends on your point of view. I love it!
I would prefer to say “I don’t understand or enjoy it, but if others do, I respect that.
@Jan Kaznowski: Schoenberg wrote it for other people, not you.
What a silly comment…There´s always the horribly banal,dreadful,mawkish, tacky Khatchaturian for you.
It was one of William Kapell’s calling cards, that’s good enough for me.
Well, at the time when it was new, the Khatchaturian piano concerto had a brief popularity – as did all things Soviet at that time. Even Rubinstein played it a few times. But it “got old” quickly – with all it’s cheezy effects and repetitions of 3rd rate material. It deserves to be banned from the concert hall. At least the Schoenberg merits study as an academic exercise – if not a performance.
Kapell was a genius.Nevertheless, i can´t listen to this crap piece.Also not on the Larrocha recording, and i adore Larrocha.
Yes, it is a bit chocolate-box. But, just as with Schoenberg people have a right to enjoy ‘chocolate’.
De Larrocha told me it was Fistoulari who asked her to learn the Khatchaturian – way back when it was a new piece, but I believe she dropped it after playing it with the Boston symphony in 1971. I asked her if she liked it, and she only said “the 2nd movement always moves me”.
It’s an academic exercise, a compositional experiment. As a “concerto” – it fails miserably.
It´s music for grown ups(though ,in this case, it is played remarkably by a teen).as my mom would say.
Poor kid.
“12 year old plays 12 tone concerto!”
What a beautiful talent!
Too old..
It is very strange to name Lisa Batiashvili and say nothing about his Grandmother/Teacher Nino Mamradze. Also, he is a grand nephew of a wonderful pianist Eliso Virsaladze. G-d kisse this boy.