My new album «On Goldberg Variations» was released today. It is the first time I release music not written by someone else, which is somewhat scary and amazingly exciting. Written and performed together with jazz percussionist Jan Martin Gismervik, it has had a particularly long conception, with roots way back in 2015. With Jan Martins background being improvised music/contemporary jazz and mine being very classical, it was important for us to find a common starting point. This took some time, and was eventually brought to fruition in 2018 with support from #bebeethoven. It was recorded by Johann Günther in Reykjavik and published on Backlash Music with visual concepts by Ida K. Hatleskog.
Read MoreNew album: Works for Piano & Clarinet with Miguel Perez Inesta
Miguel and I released a new album yesterday on Backlash. It features music by Bernstein, Berg and Geppert, and I am more than happy with the end result.
Despite my affection for both Berg and Bernstein, it is the Geppert sonata that has come to define this recording for me. Realizing our take on the piece became an example of a kind of process I particularly enjoy, where it takes real work to understand the composers language and logic. For this process to take place, two things need to happen: First, the music must be complex enough not to be easily readable, with no clear and direct reference to what it should sound like in the end. Second, there needs to be a clear logic behind it all, a universe where all the misunderstandings make sense and find a proper context. It is hard to overstate the satisfaction of discovering, bit by bit, beauty “hidden” in a cloud of misunderstandable music.
In Geppert’s case, the feeling of finding his sound at last, was particularly joyful. His music is so much of what I like, with a highly nuanced sense of harmony, a strictly defined personal aesthetic and an uncompromising and almost conceptual commitment to proper form. But most of all his music is brave. David Geppert wrote music he himself wanted to hear, obviously enjoying every bar to the fullest. The twists and turns of taste and changing musical opinion of the last hundred years seems to bear little weight with him, and he seems less than interested in playing to the “good taste”of his time.
In my view his sonata is easily among the best works written for these instruments. It is a personal, highly original, often breathtakingly beautiful piece in which it is easy to loose oneself again and again.
Read MoreRavel concerto in Berliner Philharmonie
In January I had the pleasure to perform in the big hall of the Berliner Philharmonie for the first time. Together with the JEB Orchestra and conductor Miguel Pérez Iñesta I played Ravels Piano Concerto in G major, which was another big first for me. It is definitely a special place with lots of inescapable expectations attached to it. Interestingly, after spending the last couple of years primaraly focused on more experimental projects, this felt very much like stepping into a different genre; with all the freedom and lack of self expectation that entails. I had a great time, and will certainly remember this concert as a special one!
Read MoreLa Bohemè
Over the past few months, Mathieu van Bellen and I have performed our La Bohemè at various festivals in Germany and the Netherlands. It is a most exciting project to present and we could not have been happier with the response so far. We were especially grateful for this wonderful review in Neue Musikzeitung by Julia Kaiser:
“The Norwegian pianist Mathias Halvorsen (also the curator of the Podium Festival in Haugesund, which is one year older than the Podium Festival Esslingen and shares the same artistic approach) reveals the essence of a risky venture. Halvorsen and Dutch violinist Mathieu van Bellen perform the opera "La Bohème" as a mentally silent film production. The entire score is divided between these two instruments, without missing a single note. Regardless of the singers, who do not exist, the two musicians follow Puccini's detailed playing instructions, at the end they even reach the actual Toscanini tempi. Van Bellen sometimes seems to grow a sixth and seventh finger and Halvorsen two more hands, especially in the second act, when they let the Bohemians rejoice in the hustle and bustle of Montmartre, with its intermixing of children's choir and military band. Off to the right of the musicians, texts and stage directions are projected on a large screen, so that in the minds of the audience Rodolfo's attic room, the streets of Paris, and Mimi's deathbed come to life more vividly than on any opera stage. Pucchini's music, liberated from all its furnishings, reaches right into the unguarded regions of the listener's vulnerable heart, allowing the audience to indulge with unfettered delight in the play between virtuosity and kitsch.”
Read Morewiki-piano.net at Radialsystem and ZKM
This year I twice got the rich challenge to perform Alexander Schuberts wiki-piano.net. The piece is not actually written by him, but rather by anyone who chooses to sign up and contribute. Performing the piece can involve anything from playing, singing, speaking, (in one case) miming and dancing to, well, really anything the current editors thought of. Anyone can edit the piece at any time, so when performed the pianist chooses a time version and locks the score. This means every version of the piece is quite different. The video from the ZKM performance is available here.
La Bohéme with Mathieu van Bellen
I am very excited to present a brand new project I am currently working on with violinist Mathieu van Bellen. We are performing Puccini’s La Boheme in it´s full, unbridled glory. Starting in November, we have finally managed to boil the parts of the orchestra, the choir(s) and all the soloists down to a piece for violin and piano. Working only with the intensity of Puccini’s score and projected text, the two of us are bringing the full opera to the stage. The aim is to do this without loosing any of the drama. If we succeed or not remains to be seen, but we truly cannot wait to try this live on an audience.
The show will be premiered at PODIUM Festival Esslingen on the 8th of May.
Read MoreNew concert film of “On Goldberg Variations”
I just recieved the final cut of the film version of On Goldberg with Jan Martin Gismervik and I from Podium Esslingen last year. The film is beautifully made by Matthias Heuermann and Simon Höhle with Johann Günther doing the sound. This was a very special concert for me, as it falls quite outside the spectrum of what I normally do as a “classical” musician. However, it ended up being on of the most exciting things I have explored in a long time and I can’t wait to continue this work. The next plans for this project includes an album for Backlash and developing a Part Two, building on the ideas found here. But more on that later.
The film is available for streaming here, and I strongly recommend using headphones to get the full experience.
Read MoreMy first solo album: The Well-Prepared Piano, vol.1
After more than a year, the long and thoroughly rewarding way towards making The Well-Prepared Piano a reality, we are finally here. The album will be released everywhere on the 23rd of November, and its an understatement to say I am pretty excited. It’s been an excited time, filled with sessions, weird sounds, hours and hours of Bach and an unbelievable amount of fun. For a person like me who equally loves the worlds of new- and classical music, this project has been feast. Endless thanks to Backlash and #BeBeethoven for supporting the project, no matter how weird it must have sounded at first. Also thanks to Ingibjorg Fridriksdottir, Michael Rauter, Johann Guenther and Katya Abramkina for contributing preparations, brushing and more.
Read MoreThe Well- Prepared Piano
I am happy to introduce my latest endevour - The Well - Prepared Piano! It is a project where I perform music by J. S. Bach on many new, altered versions of the piano. These new instruments are developed together with other musicians, composers and artists and each will explore different concepts and ideas. So far I have had exciting sessions with, among others: Peaches, Ingibjörg Fridriksdòttir, Black Cracker, Laurent Chetouane and Michael Rauter. The first concert with this material will take place during the 10th PODIUM Festival Esslingen in May. A selection of instruments will also be featured on my first solo album, to be released on Backlash Music in September 2018. You can read more about the project here