Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is having quite a year. Following her departure from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 2022, she has spent subsequent seasons travelling the world as a guest conductor working with an impressive array of leading orchestras. Monday night’s concert saw her return to the Concertgebouw, this time with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Polish pianist Rafał Blechacz for a programme of Chopin and Dvořák, with a splattering of Weinberg for good measure.
The programme
© Clare Varney
Chopin’s Piano Concertos : A Deep Dive
Polish pianist, Rafał Blechacz, won the Chopin Competition in 2005 and made his debut in the Concertgebouw the following year with Chopin’s First Piano Concerto. He returned again in 2009 to perform and record both Chopin’s concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2017.
Blechacz specialises in playing Chopin’s music and as part of his research, has read Chopin’s letters, written when living in Paris. Chopin believed the secret to performance was using the left hand to keep up the tempo.
Watch a documentary about Chopin’s Piano Concertos and a new orchestration, available to watch on Medici TV.
Daniil Trifonov and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra perform Chopin’s Piano Concertos using new orchestrations made by conductor and composer, Mikhail Pletnev who “had a bitter feeling with regard to the orchestration,” so decided to orchestrate them himself so he could enjoy the music. Instead of long sustained orchestral notes, he introduced a dialogue. The MCO musicians remark that the orchestral part was both streamlined and enriched. Listen and decide for yourself.
Fun fact
Chopin’s hand was shaped slightly differently to most in that his fourth and fifth fingers were the same length as the third allowing him a certain advantage in more challenging passages! Wow!
Learn more about the pianos at the Concertgebouw
A fascinating interview with piano tuner Michel Brandjes who looks after the pianos at the Concertgebouw.
The technology of the piano fascinates him immensely. To give an example: how come every pianist sounds different on the same Steinway? Brandjes now thinks he knows the answer. ‘The Steinway is like a sudoku. When everything falls into place, I have solved the puzzle. And by that I mean that I have adjusted the mechanism in such a way that the pianist’s touch comes into its own optimally. The differences are minimal. You can press a key ten millimeters at most. Ten millimeters in which the pianist can distinguish himself from another.’
Concertgebouw.nl
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This concert was reviewed in the Concertgebouw on Monday 20th Jan 2025
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