KEY POINTS:
IN CONCERT
Who: Nikolai Demidenko
Where and when: Auckland Museum, tonight 8pm; WEL Academy of Performing Arts, Hamilton, tomorrow 7.30pm
Nikolai Demidenko, who gives recitals in Auckland tonight and Hamilton tomorrow night, is brushing up on a Bechstein when I meet him. However, we will be hearing him on his first love, a Fazioli.
"The Fazioli is the best piano in the world," he says emphatically. "Each piano has an individual voice and they hold their tuning better than any other." For this Russian, no instrument can sustain its tone so effortlessly, yet, "it can overpower an orchestra".
Extreme dynamics are there if you want them, he says. "It's a little like the definition of a Scottish gentleman, a man who knows how to play the bagpipes but doesn't." Demidenko plays a recording of Chopin's Barcarolle, pointing out three magical bars in which the Fazioli becomes his "private harp".
Auckland and Hamilton audiences will hear Bach's Italian Concerto and two Bach arrangements by Liszt. With the Italian Concerto, he is most proud of having made "one little discovery".
"If you look at the facsimile you will see what Bach wrote and that is what I play."
Too many pianists blindly follow the examples of others. "But we don't learn by our ears, we learn from the music." He dashes to the Bechstein and plays a passage from Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, illustrating how the composer originally wrote it and how pianists misinterpret it.
"Everyone plays it wrong. What Beethoven wrote is much better written and structured."
He talks about the Liszt transcription of Bach's G minor Fantasy and Fugue which opens the concert and "is probably the most faithful arrangement he made".
After interval, Hamiltonians will have Schubert's D major Sonata D 850 which, he insists, is the perfect ballast for Bach. "This is the happiest of all Schubert's Sonatas. He is deliriously happy. There are moments of ecstasy and it ends by dissolving in the air."
Aucklanders tonight will hear Schumann's F sharp minor Sonata. "It is a mixture of everything, as in life," Demidenko says. "It's neurotic and tragic."
The most tragic thing would seem to be the way so many criticise Schumann's skill as a composer. "If you follow Schumann's tempo directions for the Finale, it's not heavy but fantastic. People tend to play it too slowly. Some also say Schumann didn't know how to end this piece. He knew very well. He enjoys playing with his ideas and going around in a circle, until he turns in the right direction and finishes in half a page. He is teasing the listener all the way."
Demidenko remembers being inspired to "practise like mad every second for two weeks" after hearing the great Maria Yudina. He speaks of the awe in which even Stalin held this radical figure, a pianist who read out forbidden poetry before her recitals.
Generosity , he concludes, is the feature of a truly great artist, listing names from Menuhin to Shostakovich. Demidenko praises the Southern Sinfonia, with whom he played Beethoven's Emperor last week - "its Bruckner Fourth had the real sound that you know from Beecham and Furtwangler, thanks to Werner Andreas Albert, and I wish it had been recorded".
Neither of Demidenko's recitals is being recorded and Auckland is already sold out.
