International Piano - Summer 2024

The Summer issue of International Piano is graced by the British pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen, who has recorded an album of keyboard music written in the shadow of the Reformation, by John Bull, William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons. She talks to Jessica Duchen about the appeal of this Elizabethan music and playing it on a modern piano.

In other features this month, Mark Ainley celebrates the playing of Benno Moiseiwitsch, one of the greats of 20th-century pianism, while Kenneth Hamilton discusses the original context of a little-played opera fantasy by Liszt, on Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable. In his series on great Russian pianists from the Soviet era, Farhan Malik introduces the life and work of Grigory Ginzburg. The Dutch pianist Daan Vandewalle introduces his new recording of Sorabji’s Opus clavicembalisticum and discusses the unique aesthetic of this gargantuan work and its specific challenges. In this issue’s Repertoire Guide Ateş Orga offers a magisterial survey of the recorded history of Liszt’s Venezia e Napoli, the sun-drenched appendix to the second volume of Années de pèlerinage, and recommends his favourite versions.

As always, that’s not all. Murray McLachlan continues his series of articles exploring different facets of piano technique, aimed at pianists of all levels, with a practical guide to playing trills in their varying contexts. Bryce Morrison’s latest ‘Polarising Pianist’ – one whose playing divides opinion – alights on the provocative pianism of Alexis Weissenberg.

Our reviews coverage continues to grow, and this issue introduces a new regular round-up from Nigel Simeone, which enhances our extensive coverage of new recordings by among others Yuja Wang, Yunchan Lim, Nelson Goerner, Piers Lane and Paul Wee.

We also have live reviews from New York and London. Finally, this issue’s ‘Music of my Life’ features Markus Becker, who introduces recordings that are of special personal significance.