KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Miss Part I of the conversation? Click here to read it.

Christopher Levin You’ve recorded a number of Liszt’s compositions and I’ve read that you feel you’re especially well suited to playing his works. Your upcoming recital in Kansas City is an all-Liszt recital. How did you decide on this particular program?

Jean-Yves Thibaudet Why Liszt in 2011, of course, we all know it’s because of the bicentennial [of Liszt’s birth], which makes me very happy. I have to say that in all my life as a pianist, Liszt was always present. [...] So 2011 for me was a dream. I said, ‘Let’s do a very special Liszt project and as much Liszt as we can.’ I offered of course all the concertos, but I wanted to do a complete piano recital. There’s so many pieces that everybody plays, and I tried to get away from that, not because they’re not good pieces, just because I wanted to give some life and a chance to other pieces of Liszt that are just as great but just are not performed often. It was a program that took me months and months. I was really harassed by presenters, my agent calling me saying, “Where’s your program?! Where’s your program?!” And I said, “I’m working on it, give me a chance!” [laughing] I had tons of music! On the left of the piano, on the right of the piano, under the piano, I had mountains of literature—Liszt has so much! I had a really difficult time and then I slowly put it together and at the end now, I’m very happy. I think it’s a very balanced program, of all different aspects of Liszt—the big virtuoso, but also the poetic, the dreamy, the magical, the really deep, also the religious Liszt—it’s just a little bit of everything. […] I think Liszt is not recognized as a great composer as much as he should be. [...] There’s always a little bit of condescendence of someone who was very superficial, very virtuoso... And there might be some of that, but at the end of the day the guy was an amazing musician, an important composer that has inspired so many other composers. [...]

CL You’ve played so much of the repertoire for the piano, solo, chamber, and orchestral. What pieces or composers do you want to explore more of or add to your palette?

JYT There are millions of pieces that I haven’t played because the piano repertoire is just endless. It’s a matter of taste, a matter of timing, and I think also that certain composers, certain pieces, in certain parts of your life feel better than others. I think that it’s really important to really play something that really speaks to you. Why force yourself to learn a piece that you’re not really attracted to that you don’t really understand? It doesn’t mean it’s not a good piece. [...] Mozart, for example, much earlier in my career, I played a lot of it and I haven’t touched it for a long time. […] I’m coming [back to] it slowly. Beethoven as well; I play the concerti, but I haven’t played the sonatas in concert for a long time. So the Classical music maybe, I will come back to a little bit more. In the mean time, I’m very interested in the big Romantic piano music and I’m thinking especially of Brahms and Schumann. I’ve done some of it, but I’d like to do more. Brahms is a composer that I feel very attracted to. I’ve done it in recitals, now I need to learn the concerti. It’s been on my list of things to do for many years. [...] And I’m more and more interested, I have to say, in contemporary music [projects]. Especially pieces that are written for me. [...] I’ve done quite a bit of those recently and it’s been really successful and I feel something is really special about it. So this is something that I’m keeping in mind as well. This year, for example, in April, I’m going to give the world premiere of James MacMillan’s new piano concerto in Minnesota. I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve done one [project like that] last year in Atlanta and one the year before in England. I think it’s important. [...]

CL [Laughs] Well, you took your question actually to just where I was wanting to go next. I was going to ask you what you think of the state of piano literature in the twenty-first century? If you had the ear of the younger composers writing music for the piano, what would be your advice to them in writing for the instrument?

JYT It’s funny how I found out that a lot of composers, especially those that are not pianists themselves, are really sometimes afraid to write for the piano because they’re not sure how to deal with it or if they’re gonna do it right. [...] And I somehow can understand that. Why is Liszt such a great piano composer? Or Chopin? Or Rachmaninoff? Well, because they were great pianists. Some composers are phenomenal musicians and they write things—and I’m thinking of [the] great composers—like Schumann, for example. To me, Schumann sometimes is the most awkward piano writing. You always feel like you’re missing a finger. Like if it’s a run, you think you need six, with five you just get always twisted. There’s always something that’s uncomfortable and that never happens with Liszt and Rachmaninoff. It’s difficult, but it’s pianistic. [...] So I think that’s one of the big challenges. Other than that, I think the most important thing for a composer is just let their soul and their heart speak. I think nowadays again you finally can write the music you want to write. There was this period where you always had to write really modern [...] or you were not take seriously. Now I think there’s all kind of styles. If a composer feels like he wants to write something that is more melodic or a bit more tonal, it’s fine, too [...]

CL Off topic and to close, your love of clothing and fashion is very well known. Do you have a favorite clothing season or seasonal item? For example, are you especially fond of fall coats or summer attire?

JYT It’s funny because I personally like the Summer. I love the beach, I love the sun. I just hate the Winter, I just hate the cold and all that but I have to say that as far as clothes go. They’re beautiful in the Winter because you can put [on] more of them. There’s different layers. That’s the only thing that I could think is fun about Winter is that you can have the clothes. Other than that, believe me, I’d rather be in the Summer. [...] So yeah, I would say Fall and Spring collections would be my favorites.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet performs on the Harriman-Jewell Series January 28th at 8 pm at the Folly Theater.  Visit http://hjseries.org or call 816-415-5025 for tickets.

Photos by Decca Kasskara

By Topher Levin

Classical Editor and Contributor

Christopher (Topher) Levin is a composer, pianist, music theorist, and music blogger based in Kansas City, MO. His compositions have been performed at music festivals across the US and in Europe. He has spent two summers in Paris, France studying music at the Ecole Normale de Musique through the EAMA program. His trio for clarinet, piano, and percussion is published in the SCI Journal of Scores.

Topher holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) in music theory and (M.M.) in composition and from James Madison University in Virginia (B.M.) in composition. Primary composition teachers have included John S. Hilliard, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Claude Baker, Narcis Bonet, Michel Merlet, and João Pedro Oliveira. His piano teachers have included Patricia Brady and Karen Kushner. Topher maintains a piano studio of 22 students.

Having recently completed a Master's thesis on the beautiful complexities of Chinary Ung's trio, Spiral I, Topher turned his writing attention to the more informal blogging medium. He has taken to it quite well, sharing posts on strange and wonderful music and art found across the web with a modest but growing number of blog followers. He looks forward to writing for KCM and sharing with its readers the stories of all the amazing musicians performing in Kansas City.