Rattle picks his final pianist
NewsThe final event of Sir Simon Rattle’s brief tenure as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra will be Messiaen’s Turangalila.
He has picked as the piano soloist Peter Donohoe, an artist he has worked with from the dawn of his career. The ondes martenot player is Cynthia Miller.
Donohoe says: ‘This… work that has meant so much to both of us across the decades … what a way to go!’
I have two incredibly cherished Peter Donohoe recordings in my CD collection:
1) His tremendous performance of Tchaikovsky’s 2nd piano concerto, in the complete uncut version. What a performance!
2) His astonishing live recording of Busoni’s Piano Concerto, conducted by Mark Elder.
It’s a shame we don’t get to hear Peter Donohoe live here in the U.S.
In total agreement re: the Busoni…stunning live
performance!
Had the pleasure of performing Mozart 25 with Donohoe in 1989. Remarkably controlled, but one
could sense a Busoni-like muscle just under the surface.
Herr Doktor, I too have the Donohoe Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 in my collection and I totally agree with you – the most outstanding performance of the work I have ever heard!
Peter Dunno & Cynthesizer Miller
Btw, it MillAr.
And it should have been the Busoni Concerto.
I heard Donohoe play the piano part of Turangalila in 1986 or 87 in London. Tristan Murail played the ondes martinot. I can’t remember the conductor, but the memory of it stays with me—easily one of the 10 best concerts I’ve ever attended.
Peter is just great. Known him since RNCM days, and always the same.
Here’s a lovely interview done by radio presenter, Bruce Duffie, in 1998, and then which I transcribed in 2016 for Northwestern University archives as well as Bruce’s own site.
http://www.bruceduffie.com/donohoe.html
Pete Donohoe is a remarkable pianist- so not surprising considering his long musical collaboration with SR. 2 of the best performances I’ve ever heard live of the Rach 3 & Paganini Rhapsody were by PD with the Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra- a moderate ensemble- of which he raised to a higher level by the strength of his musical personality.