Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski releases a disc of Schubert, Bach and Liszt  on April 8, recorded live at the Wigmore Hall in London on March 18, 2012. He writes about recording the album below:

When, on June 27, 2001, I walked off the stage after my Wigmore Hall debut, deeply touched and inspired by the amazingly warm reception of the audience at the full house that night, I could not have imagined that slightly over a decade later, I would be given the honour of recording a CD for the Wigmore Hall's own recording label. 
A live recording, psychologically speaking, can be a journey through thorns. But, on the other hand, if you are strong enough and are able to cope with the added ‘responsibility’ alongside the usual sea of emotions, live performance recordings can be pure magic.


Wigmore Hall has a special place in my heart and fully deserves its reputation as one of the most beloved halls among Londoners. I am grateful to this intimate hall for the love and warmth I have received there throughout the past 11 years - mostly from the stage, but also as a member of the audience.

It is really wonderful when one has a chance to refresh memories, especially if they are good. Some of the pieces on this CD bring me back to my late childhood and early teenage years. When one grows up in surroundings dominated by folk music (I also played the accordion), one feels naturally ‘at home’ in pieces with dancelike qualities. I am primarily speaking here of the Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 which I first heard when I was very young and which immediately captured my attention. It was a Tom and Jerry cartoon that introduced the work to me, and I therefore call it 'The Tom and Jerry Rhapsody’.

Because of his personality and spirit, (I like to call Liszt – ‘person who loved life and wanted to breathe freely’), I certainly liked to explore Liszt’s other pieces including the Petrarch Sonnets and the Fountains of the Villa d'Este. Although many people think of Liszt as a showman pianist/composer, I really think the opposite. The details, which he left us in the scores, act as directions either for infusing the music with poetry, or for describing the human personality, or for describing nature itself. That is why his arrangement of Bach's Prelude and Fugue, BWV543 is truly majestic. It allows the listeners to experience Bach as an organ composer in his original light, only at the piano. The continuous, boiling energy, especially throughout the Fugue, is indescribable and Liszt makes it as authentic as one could imagine.

I have always loved Schubert because of his honesty. I never had a chance to play much of his music and that is why I decided to re-explore. The Wanderer Fantasy was the starting point since I studied this when I was 14. The work is important on so many levels – emotional, pianistic and analytical - and was an inspiration for some of the Liszt’s later works; the piece encompasses so many different moods, generated from a single motif and is simply astonishing. No wonder the pianist is soaked after its performance.

The dances that I experienced as a child certainly helped me in Schubert's German Dances. It is said that the core of the composer is encapsulated in small musical structures. Like Chopin in his Mazurkas, Schubert shows his diverse world in these dances. From melancholy, love and sadness, to humour and happiness. Emotions that every human experiences and strives to attain.