Modern pianists: list of the best pianists of our time, works. Ten Characteristics of Excellent Piano Playing Abroad Highlights Talent in Russia

The transition period to new times is due to the urgent need of society for art that reflects friendly communication and freedom from falsehood. The need for household art is increasing. On the one hand, the democratization of art revived musical life. But against the backdrop of this revival, the phenomenon of transitional culture is clearly expressed - the acceptance of pop culture as a unique phenomenon, and the unique works of classics being accepted as stereotype art. The educational function of music and its highly artistic purpose were replaced by an entertainment function and an orientation towards the tastes of the listener. The Philharmonic system has also completely lost the need for educational activities. The focus on box office and profit, which are proportional to success among the sometimes undeveloped listener, gives rise to the development of the tastes of the population in the wrong direction. The media, which have an educational function, completely alienate us from the traditions of academic music. It is becoming less and less common to find television programs promoting historical portraits of composers, announcements of performances, or simply the broadcast of a film-opera. Performances of the best pianists are broadcast on some channels from 1.00-3.00 am. What audience are these broadcasts intended for? Of the 47 analogue television channels, 1 is dedicated to promoting culture to the masses. The avant-garde reflection of reality is very far from the ideological content of the academic repertoire, and the artistic height of the classical repertoire sets too high a bar for modern everyday life. In this regard, there is a very large gap in the understanding of art, in the trends of its development and meaning. Mira Evtich said best about the situation in modern performance: “Excellent pianists play all over the world very quickly and very loudly, they are all titled and deserved, but they have no personal charisma, no original personal quality.” Also noteworthy are the words of M. Pletnev: “I haven’t heard representatives of the old Russian school for a long time. I hear a school that can be called “post-Russian” or “post-Soviet”. It arose from the need to obtain first places in various competitions. Athletic game. I'm not a fan of this game. But to get it, you need to take it with just such a game. I see that people who play more meaningfully get nothing. Careers are made by those who play loudly and quickly...” The time of sports and competition led to the emergence of performers similar to each other. The professional level of the performer does not go beyond correct and clean playing. Performers are increasingly less likely to invest their interpretive “I” into their performance. The path of a pianist to the concert stage lies through competitive competition. Only sports-oriented pianists win. Because of this, artistic culture is following the path of spiritual decline. Statistics show a drop in the occupancy of concert halls. Professionally oriented artists in Russia generally do not have the financial opportunity to attend concert performances. They are increasingly turning to recordings, Radio Orpheus or the Internet. Issues of performance and interpretation gradually remain in the 20th century. The concept of “virtuoso” changes its noble meaning of “a musician, a master of his craft, stunning the hall.” Increasingly, a master of technique is called a virtuoso, distinguished by brilliant fluency and ease of execution of difficult passages, octaves and other technically difficult places.

Piano performance itself has ceased to have a sole educational and educational function, and is no longer a reflection of the spiritual mood of the people. The piano ceases to be the central instrument, and the Klaviraband is replaced by prefabricated concerts or recordings. Sound recording, which appeared at the end of the 19th century, on the one hand gave a massive impetus to the development of piano art, supplanted the genre of home music playing, limiting the listener to the low quality of transmission of piano works. At the beginning of the 21st century, the piano is being replaced by electronic small-sized synthesizers, and the public is attending solo piano concerts less and less, preferring bright symphony concerts or festivals, where one can hear a large amount of diverse music in different performances in one evening. Is it possible that in the future the grand piano will become a museum exhibit and piano performance will disappear completely?

To preserve the performing arts and revive it is necessary to work closely with bold, large-scale ideas and the desire to implement them. Original, original thinking determines the movement and new ways of developing art. You need to educate your audience and force them to rise above their artistic level. In educating students, it is important to instill the skill of cognition and independent expansion of their horizons. Contemporary performance is represented by many pianists. We most often learn their names after the Tchaikovsky competition. This competition brought fame to such pianists as

Van Cliburn, Vladimir Ashkenazi, Eliso Virsaladze, Vladimir Krainev, Mikhail Pletnev, Grigory Sokolov, Boris Berezovsky, Denis Matsuev and many others. International competitions and festivals contribute to the globalization of piano art. Piano schools gradually cease to have the same identified features as in the 20th century. Asian pianists come to study in Russia, Russians go to train and advance to the West, and then return to give concerts in Russia. The style of contemporary performance reflects the philosophy of pluralism. The multiplicity of interpretations, performing directions, and construction of programs today are equivalent and acceptable. On the one hand, this provides a way for tasteless and illiterate amateurs, but at the same time it is a chance for professionals to preserve the performing arts and look for new ways of development. This path was seen by Glen Gould in the 20th century. Experimenting with recording sometimes even opposite interpretations on the same day (for example, Beethoven's Sonata op.57 "Appasionata"), he proves his reform about the correctness of any interpretation, provided it is justified and convincing. Modern trends in piano art can be defined as expressive And fine art. Thus, in piano works, performers of the “expressive direction” express the composer’s idea through the prism of their spiritual world, their relationship to the work, searching for it in the historical and philosophical panorama. And pianists of the “fine direction” show us the idea of ​​the work, its meaning in the context of their personal professional capabilities, drawing an image with sounds. Contemporary performance can usually be characterized by pianists whose creative principles have already been established, and the future consists of young pianists who are still on the verge of great achievements.

Grigory Sokolov, Mikhail Pletnev, Boris Berezovsky, Evgeny Kissin, Ivo Pogorelich, Marta Agrerich, Alfred Brendel, Eliso Virsaladze are pianists whose names are at the top of our time. Their performing principles have already developed during their creative careers and basically they continue the best traditions of pianism that developed in the 20th century. The instructions of the best teachers and live performances of pianists such as S. Richter, E. Gilels, Vl. Horowitz, Ar. Rubinstein are still fresh in their memory. Our century provides us with an amazing opportunity to also listen to their sound recordings. We can evaluate their technical capabilities, compare interpretations, and trace the evolution of the performers’ creativity at any time convenient for us. But we will never have access to that magical world of creation, that sacred aura of colorful sound, that power of influence on the listener, that message of energy that can once and for all shape the performer’s worldview, cultivate his taste and direct his creativity in a direction that will maintain the artistic standard at height. Alas. Forecasts of these figures for piano performance are not always comforting, but through their activities they are trying to preserve and convey what has been collected grain by grain throughout the history of piano performance. Holding festivals, inviting world stars of piano art, affordable prices when purchasing concert tickets, grants to support young talents - these are the first steps towards stopping the irreversible process of disappearance of piano performance. We are given hope for the future by young talents, the search for which is continuous. One of the pianists who recently conquered the whole world is Daniil Trifonov. A brilliant young pianist with an established musical position. His musical talent is combined with a fiery heart and attitude towards music. “First of all, music must enter my heart, only then do I start working on a piece.” - says Daniel. His performing style can be considered a worthy continuation of the Russian piano school. His desire, which can be heard in any interpretation, is to get closer to the composer’s idea, correlating it with the era and time. For example, the First Piano Concerto of P.I. Tchaikovsky's performance is full of breath and very melodic. And the performance of the concerto for F. Chopin No. 1 is in the best traditions of the first winners of the Chopin Competition - L. Oborin and J. Zack. filled with male sentimentality and sincerity. Captures the hearts of listeners from the first sound - Alexander Lubyantsev. The pianist, who has also passed a large number of competitions, amazes with his interpretations. Despite not always positive reviews of his performance, we can say that he is on the right path - not to copy existing interpretations, but to push the boundaries in search of his own individual style and in constructing new readings of works. For him, works are an inexhaustible source for search, and his motto is “he who walks will master the road.” His performance cannot leave anyone indifferent. There are no empty spaces on Lubyantsev's keyboards. Interpretation is the second life of music and such a great performer to it will definitely breathe new life into the performing arts. Concerts leave an unforgettable impression

Miroslava Kultysheva. The performing style of this pianist is very romantic, touching, and delicate, just like the image of the pianist himself. The lack of bright expressiveness and a touch of sadness gives his performance an ethereal quality and does not impose his opinion and interpretation on the listener. There is room for the listener's imagination and imagination. This leaves some understatement, which leaves the impression that the pianist will “open up” and “show” something else. But it's such an exotic, fancy style. His performances of works by M. Ravel “Reflections” or “Gaspard at Night” are especially successful. The performance of S. Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 2 is filled with sincerity, and its sound fills the entire hall with the aura of a sacred performance. His repertoire includes less classical works. The pianist speaks about this in one of his interviews:

“Viennese classics caused me significant difficulties precisely because of their greater organization and classicism, when compared with the music of romanticism. Since childhood, I have gravitated towards the romantic repertoire, playing a lot of romantic music. I can’t judge how I played, but in any case, my inner inclination and need manifested itself in this choice.” His approach to the work, the search for the author’s intention, the study of the musical theoretical base, and teaching influence the performing evolution. His perfect execution acquires depth and philosophy. Perhaps in the future this trait will be reflected in the repertoire of this pianist, and we will hear in his performance wonderful interpretations of classical examples of academic music. The above pianists, as well as Nikita Mdoyants, Vadim Kholodenko, Andrey Gugnin, Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, are our future. These are pianists with a bright personality and their own vision of the performing arts. Many of these pianists represent the “composing virtuoso” type of performer so popular in the second half of the 19th century. The versatility of their talent expands their reading of works and adds a creative dimension to their activities. For encores they perform their own compositions, compose their own cadenzas for concerts, write reviews of the performances of their colleagues, promote rarely performed repertoire, and perform academic music on a par with modern music. The method of expanding musical specialization with the restoration of performing traditions and an objective awareness of modernity gives hope that the art of pianism is, as in the time of A. Rubinstein, at dawn and it has another century and a half of brilliant history before the next renewal.

“You played so vividly”

Ivan Bessonov became the winner of the Eurovision International Competition for Young Musicians. Ivan received a ticket to the capital of Scotland on the Blue Bird project.

Ivan Bessonov was born in St. Petersburg. At the age of six he began studying piano. And in 10 years he became the winner of the Grand Prix of the International Youth Competition named after F. Chopin, received prizes from the championships “Young Talents of Russia”, Astana Piano Passion and the competition named after A. G. Rubinstein “Miniature in Russian Music”. The virtuoso became a laureate of the international Grand Piano Competition in Moscow and the “Young Talents” award from the St. Petersburg government.

Pianist Denis Matsuev told 360 that he first learned about Bessonov at the Blue Bird competition. The boy captivated him with his freedom, interpretation and talent.

Over the course of the year, he made a big leap both in his repertoire and in his playing. After winning Eurovision, Ivan does not relax; this morning he went to study. There is no time to relax. I will be waiting for him in Irkutsk at my festival

Denis Matsuevvirtuoso pianist.

It was Matsuev who advised sending the boy to Eurovision. Denis Leonidovich admitted that he watched Ivan’s performance and was proud of him.

At the competition, Bessonov received a standing ovation: the entire hall and the orchestra applauded him. Immediately after the performance, he was praised by the chief director of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard. "Fantastic! Simply amazing! You played so vividly!” - he exclaimed.

When the winner was announced, Ivan did not believe it. On the way to the stage, he asked several times whether the award was intended for him.

The pianist told “360” that he did not expect to win. I prepared as always: I focused on music, tried to gather myself inside - this is the main thing.

“Literally in a week I’m going to Matsuev’s festival “Stars on Baikal”, I will perform with the orchestra. Immediately after I go to Vladivostok, then I have several serious performances. There are platforms, there is a place for self-improvement. This is the first time I’ve heard about a cash prize, to be honest, so I don’t know how I’ll manage it. Performing with an orchestra is something, the conductor, it’s all great,” Bessonov shared his impressions.

According to the young musician, his loved ones always demand more from him. He himself believes that there should always be a “chair with nails.”

The incentive sometimes disappears from me, my parents return it to me. I didn’t feel any competition, I treat everyone very well, all these people are musicians. I don't see myself as a competitor at all. It's like we've been communicating since kindergarten

Ivan Bessonov pianist.

Foreign countries highlight talents in Russia

Pianist Nikolai Lugansky shared with “360” his impressions of the young performer. “I'm incredibly happy. His teacher is my very close friend and creative partner Vladimir Rudenko. I heard him, but very little. This is a very talented person. Now I can’t say that there are many such talents, but there are definitely a few people. My feeling is that there is no less talent among pianists,” said Lugansky.

Pianist Ivan Rudin knows Bessonov as a scholarship recipient of the Spivakov Foundation. According to the maestro, the boy is very gifted. “Now the main thing is that after success in this competition, he confirms it with work. Success does not come without difficulty, even for very gifted children,” Rudin told 360.

According to the musician, there are many talented children in Russia. “Unfortunately, our specificity is such that we pay attention to interesting people only when they are noticed somewhere far away, abroad. This is another reminder: let's pay attention to Russian children. We must believe that we can do a lot and that this is exactly the case,” Rudin urged.

Denis Matsuev said that Bessonov is only at the beginning of his creative career.

“This is one of the first steps onto the big stage. There is a lot of talent in Russia now. Our competitions prove that there is a large team of young talented musicians. 12- and 15-year-old children are already ready to glorify our school. We have unique talents coming from small towns that we must help,” concluded the virtuoso pianist.

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Every classical music lover can name his favorite.

A solo performance by Alfred Brendel has been announced for June 30 at the Mariinsky Theater concert hall. The pianist for this concert could not be found on the official website. But there is a date for the upcoming Moscow concert, which will take place on November 14. However, Gergiev is distinguished by his ability to solve insoluble problems.

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Martha Argerich will spend this June, as usual, in the Swiss city of Lugano, where her own music festival will take place. Programs and participants change, but one thing remains unchanged: every evening Argerich herself participates in the performance of one of the works. In July, Argerich also performs in Europe: in Cyprus, Germany and Switzerland.

Marc-Andre Hamelin performed in Moscow as recently as March of this year as part of the same subscription as Maurizio Pollini. Hamelin is touring Europe in June. His schedule includes solo concerts in Copenhagen and Bonn and a festival appearance in Norway.

In June, Evgeny Kissin tours Switzerland, Austria and Germany with the Kremerata Baltica orchestra, playing Mozart's 20th and 27th concertos. The next tour is scheduled for October: Kissin will accompany Dmitry Hvorostovsky in Frankfurt, Munich, Paris and London.

Arkady Volodos began June with a performance in Paris; in the summer he can be heard in Salzburg, Rheingau, Bad Kissingen and Oslo, as well as in the small Polish town of Duszniki at the traditional Chopin festival.

In 1999, Pogorelich stopped performing. They say that the reason for this was the obstruction that the pianist was subjected to in Philadelphia and London by disgruntled listeners. According to another version, the cause of the musician’s depression was the death of his wife. Pogorelich recently returned to the concert stage, but performs little.

The last position on the list is the most difficult to fill. After all, there are still so many excellent pianists left: Polish-born Christian Zimmerman, American Murray Perahia, Japanese Mitsuko Ushida, Korean Kun Woo Peck or Chinese Lang Lang. Vladimir Ashkenazy and Daniel Barenboim continue their careers. Any music lover will name his favorite. So let one place in the top ten remain vacant.

Technologies, developments" www.methodkabinet.rf

Iovenko Yulia Evgenievna, piano teacher MAOUK DOD Children's music school of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Territory

Myprojectdeals with problems of interpretation of piano music.

In it I will touch a little the topic of the history of piano performing art, and also touch on the issue of trends in modern performance pianism, I will talk about some pianists of our time who, in my opinion, are the best interpreters of this or that composer.

Music occupies a special place among the arts due to its specificity. Objectively existing in the form of musical notation, music needs the act of reconstruction by the performer, its artistic interpretation. In the very nature of music there is a dialectical unity of musical composition and performance.

Musical performance is always contemporary creativity, the creativity of a given era, even when the work itself is separated from it by a large period of time.

Depending on the era of development of piano music, pianists developed a certain style of performance, a certain manner of playing.

Keyboard period is a prehistory for piano performance. At this time, the type of practicing musician, the “playing composer”, takes shape. The basis of performing skills is creative improvisation. The virtuosity of such a musician came down not so much to technical perfection, but to the ability to “speak” to the audience using the instrument.

A new important stage in musical performance is dawning by the end of the 18th century with the promotion of a new solo instrument - the hammer piano. The increasing complexity of musical content has necessitated the need for precise musical notation, as well as the recording of special performance instructions.

Piano performance acquires emotional richness and dynamism.

By the end of the 18th century, a new form of music-making appeared - a public, paid concert. There is a division of labor between composer and performer.

Early 19th century A new type of musician is being formed - the “composing virtuoso”. New spatial and acoustic conditions (large concert halls) demanded greater sound power from performers. In order to enhance the psychological impact, elements of entertainment are introduced. The “play” of the face and hands becomes a means of spatial “sculpting” of the musical image. The audience is influenced by the virtuosic scope of the game, the bold flight of fantasy, and the colorful range of emotional shades.

And finally by mid-19th century and a musician-interpreter is being formed, an interpreter of someone else’s composer’s work. For the interpreter, the exclusively subjective nature of the performance gives way to interpretation, which sets before him objective artistic tasks - the disclosure, interpretation and transmission of the figurative structure of the musical work and the intention of its author.

Almost everything 19th century characterized by a powerful flourishing of piano performance. The performance becomes a second creation, where the interpreter finds himself on an equal footing with the composer. The main figure in the performing sphere is the wandering virtuoso in all his varieties - from piano “acrobats” to propaganda performers. The work of Chopin, Liszt, and the Rubinstein brothers is dominated by the idea of ​​the unity of artistic and technical principles; on the other hand, Kalkbrenner and Laugier set the main goal of educating a virtuoso student. The style of many masters of the 19th century was filled with such artistic willfulness that we would consider it completely tasteless and unacceptable.

XX century can safely be called the century of great pianists: there are so many in one period of time, it seems that there have never been them before. Paderewski, Hoffmann, Rachmaninov, Schnabel - at the beginning of the century, Richter, Gilels, Kempff - in the second half. The list can be expanded endlessly...

At the turn of XX-X I centuries The variety of interpretations is so great that it is sometimes not at all easy to understand them. Our time is a diversity of performing styles.

Modern art of playing the piano. What it is? What happens in it, what dies and what is born?

In general, the trend in piano performance art today, unlike, say, what it was even 50 years ago, is the priority of details over the general concept. It is in different interpretations of micro-details that modern performers want to find their individuality.

There is also the existence of an unspoken rule of execution: “there is no homophony. The entire piano texture is always completely polyphonic, and even stereophonic. A fundamental principle is connected with this: each finger is a separate and living and specific instrument, responsible for the duration and quality of sound” (quote from a lecture - lesson by Mikhail Arkadyev).

When Elisey Mysin sits down at the piano and music begins to flow from under his fingers, it’s hard to believe that he is five years old. He can’t yet reach the piano pedals with his feet, and the height of the chair has to be increased for him with the help of a pillow. However, talent and hard work have already helped the Stavropol prodigy to win the high praise of professionals and the love of the public from different parts of the country.

After Elisey performed the first part of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto in F minor for piano and orchestra on one of the Russian TV channels, the famous virtuoso Denis Matsuev played his original piece “Tornado” with the boy four hands and invited the little musician to the foundation’s summer creative school "New names" in Suzdal. And the spectators who voted for him secured the pianist a ticket to the finals of the all-Russian competition for young talents “Blue Bird”.

In the hall of children's music school No. 1 in Stavropol, where Elisha Mysin studies in the preparatory department, there is a large banner with his photograph. Here the blond boy has long been nicknamed little Mozart. And for good reason - like the great Austrian composer, he began to get involved in music at the age of three, following his older sister.

According to Elisey’s mother Olga Mysina, she noticed her son’s abilities even before his birth. When daughter Lisa, who is graduating from music school this year, played the piano, the baby in her stomach actively reacted to etudes and sonatas, and in completely different ways.

And after Elisha began to reach the keys, he began to try to play himself and constantly asked his sister: Liz, do you do this? And, what’s most interesting, he was able to repeat the melody,” says Olga. - In general, he is always absorbed in music. Yesterday, for example, we were flying on a plane from Moscow, and he was humming something all the way. And in the hotel, seeing an old piano standing there for decoration, he immediately sat down to play. As a result, he gathered almost all the guests around him, who gave him a real standing ovation.

On New Year's Eve, Elisha wrote another play and called it very symbolically - "Mandarin"

The boy was not even three years old when his parents sent their son to the aesthetic development group of a music school. At the age of 3.5, the head of the piano department, Lyudmila Tikhomirova, began studying with him. The fact that good would come out of it was immediately noticeable, the teacher claims:

Elisha has good hands - flexible, soft and wide, as well as extraordinary hearing. Students play, for example, “In the Cave of the Mountain King” by Grieg, he listens, comes up and picks it up with one finger. He is also very hardworking and persistent, picking up instantly and then carefully working on every sound. And when something doesn’t work out, he gets very upset and angry. Not at me, like many, for setting such difficult tasks, but at myself.

It was these qualities that helped the little pianist, in just three weeks, with a break for a trip to another competition, learn and broadcast the first movement of Bach’s concerto, which is taught in high school music school.

Initially we planned to perform Tchaikovsky, but after the casting they called us and said that we needed a different repertoire. Until recently, I thought that we wouldn’t make it in time, but Elisha behaved like a real adult musician - until he managed to do everything right, it was impossible to drag him away from the piano,” the teacher admits.

Now the young virtuoso is also emerging as a composer. Following "Tornado", on New Year's Eve he wrote another play and called it very symbolically - "Tangerine".

Music lives in Elisha’s soul,” notes Lyudmila Danilovna. “And my task as a mentor is to help him continue to develop.” No star diseases! Yes, we are far ahead of the program, but you can’t jump over the accumulation of a base - you need to strengthen your hands, develop both technique and repertoire.

In life, the little pianist is modest and even shy. His falling popularity and constant requests to take selfies confuse him greatly. But when the boy sits down at the instrument and begins to finger the keys, he literally transforms before our eyes, becomes confident and free like a real artist. For him there are no spectators or judges, there is only music around.

When asked about his favorite composer, Elisha answers without hesitation:

The boy's plans are to learn to play the violin and organ. And my main dream is to have my own piano and perform with an orchestra at my own concert.

Despite the fact that piano lessons occupy most of the life of the Stavropol prodigy, he still manages to play football and chess, ride a bicycle and scooter in the yard, and assemble construction sets.

Many people write to me and say that Elisha probably did not have a normal childhood, but this is not so, Olga Mysina says about the sore point. - We just let the child do what he likes. And they went to Moscow for the competition only so that professionals would notice his talent and, perhaps, help him grow into a good pianist. But even if he chooses another profession in the future, music will definitely help him become a cultured, harmonious and sincere person. And this is the main thing for us.

Meanwhile

The all-Russian children's talent competition "Blue Bird", created by the VGTRK team, turned out to be so popular that the channel decided to extend it for a second season. Along with the jury, television viewers throughout Russia vote for the participants in the competition. “Blue Bird is the atmosphere of a real festival, the atmosphere of a real family. In my schedule, which includes 245 concerts for the next season, I will definitely come here and participate in this amazing project, because I know that the flow of applications is huge from all over the country and from absolutely different regions, this inspires me very much,” says Denis Matsuev, a Russian virtuoso pianist. Last season he was the host, and this season he became a member of the jury. “We are going to try a lot of things that we have never done before on television anywhere. This all expands the idea of ​​the Blue Bird competition - to inspire our viewers to look for talents in themselves, around themselves, among their friends, acquaintances, among their children,” - says Daria Zlatopolskaya, host of the All-Russian Blue Bird competition.