Kissin finds a publisher
mainHenle Verlag of Munich, a company specialising in Urtext editions, has taken on the compositions of the pianist Evgeny Kissin.
First off the presses are a string quartet, four piano pieces and a cello sonata.
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But the ‘piece’ in this video is surely a joke?
In former times, pianists who happened to compose, were in fact composers who happened to play the piano: Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Saint-Saens, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Bartok. The works of composing pianists were never very interesting.
John, can you ever say anything good about a living composer, even an amateur one? I am sure Kissin would be kind enough not to comment on your piano skills if he heard you.
On another note, I remember him once mentioning that he tried to compose as a teenager. But more he learned about Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, he realized it would be impossible to write good music, so he quit trying. I am glad he changed his mind.
If you had read carefully, you would have noticed that I only criticize obvious nonsensical stuff, a small contribution to humanity. I am the first to laud something that is really good in my view. Good composers – of which there are plenty, also nowadays – are hardly ever mentioned on this site. Norman mostly selects the terrible examples, and never mentions obvious successes like those of David Matthews, Thierry Escaich, Jonathan Leshnoff, Paul Moravec, etc. Possibly because they don’t offer some sensational or amusing material.
I believe NL posts news about Kaija Saariaho with the sole purpose to annoy you 🙂
I know!
In that case, John Borstlap, long may Norman keep doing it. That is, in my view, his “small contribution to humanity”, to use your self-important and pompous phrase. Right, with your ego fully massaged, how how about you get back to writing a sonata in the pseudo-Germanic tradition that no one will ever play or want to hear. Thank you and shut up.
Irony is difficult, isn’t it?
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/irony
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/281008-irony-is-wasted-on-the-stupid
Meow!
Judging from the video example Kissin’s ‘composition’ is the sort of thing one would improvise in the Green Room after a concert. A fun idea at the time to entertain one’s friends but in the cold light of day best parked in the bin marked ‘dreck’ not in an envelope addressed to Henle Verlag.
Well, this one certainly isn’t.
Rachmaninoff was more of a pianist than composer.
Rachmaninov was mostly composer when lived in Russia. Being concert pianist in the West was more financial opportunity.
Misha Levitsky, Leopold Godovsky, John Field, Ferenz Liszt, Sigmund Thalberg, Benjamin Britten and many more good composer that were concert pianist. E.Kissin and Daniil Trifonov ‘re not in the league but can sell scores.
It’s unpretentious, skilful and rather engaging – a sort of pared-down Skalkottas.
Esfir Ross — Mischa Levitzki is a name I haven’t seen [n quite a while and did not expect to find here, thank you. He died young in the early 1940s but left a few recordings: a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody and the E-flat concerto, also several pieces of his own including the charming waltz for piano that was once quite popular. He was only about 42 when he suddenly died of a heart attack, to the dismay of his many friends and admirers.
Misha Levitski and another composer and piano virtuoso Leo Ornstein were born in Kremenchug, Ukraine. I perform ML Valse to pleasant public discovery. Kremenchug’s cradle of American piano-virtuosos
Oh come on…this is not great by any stretch of the imagination. Henle saw an opportunity to sell scores based on a name. People need to call them as they hear them. Talent only reaches so far.
Thanks, Esfir Ross, for your further information about Mischa Levitzki and composer-pianist Leo Ornstein, who lived near Minneapolis until his death probably aged 106 or so. Kremenchug is a new name for me, but now I will remember.
Another Ukraine composer-pianist I like is Sergei Bortkiewiecz, whose pieces were played and recorded by Moriz Rosenthal and the strange Ervin Nyiregyhazi, whom I knew slightly. Bortkiewiecz’s first piano concerto B-flat minor could alost be Tchaikovsky’s fourth or Rachmaninoff’s fifth! Stephen Coombs plays it marvelously on Hyperion. CD.
UYDkraine has given us many musicians including David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern, and Horowitz. Others thought of as Russian were from Vilnius, Lithuania, like Heifetz and Godowsky. Best regards.
Eshir Ross, re Ukrainian musicians, I forgot one of the best pianists, Benno Moiseiwitsch from Odessa, whose records of Schumann, Beethoven, Rachaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Delius, and Saint-Saens are valued by collectors. He was a friend of Solomon Cutner, Geerald Moore, Rachmaninoff, and Malcolm”Flash Harry” Sargent.
Odessa wasn’t Ukraine till 1956 when Nikita Khrushchov gifted Odessa and Crimea to Ukraine republic . So Serghei Prokofiev and Leonid Kogan also Ukrainen? SP teacher Reingold Glier lived in Kiev for a long time than moved to Moscow. History with geography.
It’s nearly as confusing as Poland. I should never try to post on here. Everyone knows too much. But I appreciate the Ukraine history, which I obviously didn’t know. Nikita was so generous, but Putin has taken Crimea back. Gliere also taught Khachatourian. Everybody teaches someone.