Von Daniel Wagner

Wer war Joseph Marx? Komponist, Pianist, Musikgelehrter, potenzieller Präsidentschaftskandidat und Rezensent der “Wiener Zeitung”. Es bräuchte viele Definitionen zur Darstellung dieser Integrationsfigur der österreichischen usikgeschichte. Nüchtern betrachtet, muss man ihn anders beschreiben: Marx, der beinahe Vergessene. Damit es nicht so weit kommt, gründete eine Truppe engagierter Musikliebhaber 2006 die Joseph-Marx-Gesellschaft. Einige erfolgreiche CD-Projekte später fand nun der erste konzertante Gesellschaftsabend in Wien statt. Der britische Pianist Jonathan Powell, Verfechter vergangener Größen, präsentierte im alten Rathaus einen Strauß Marx’scher Klavierstücke, umgeben von Zeitgenossen wie Marx-Freund Franz Schmidt und Schreker-Schüler Felix Petyrek. Beherzt kämpfte sich Powell durch den tonalen, weit mehr als spätromantischen Dschungel aus lyrischen “Schmetterlingsgeschichten”, brillanten “Arabesken” oder modern-jazzigen “Albumblättern”. Mit Johannes Maria Staud und einer Richard-Strauss-Bearbeitung gelang zwar ein wenig harmonisches Finale. Doch es bleibt die Freude auf die Veröffentlichung der Marx’schen Zuckerln.

Wiener Zeitung, Dienstag, 29. Jänner 2008

Here is a review from my concert in Vienna (28 January):

British pianist Jonathan Powell shines with late Romantic piano music
Vienna – it needed an English pianist to come to teach the Austrians a lesson in their own recent music history. Jonathan Powell is known for his recordings of rare piano music. He discovered, for example, the piano music of Sorabji (1892–1988), a British pianist of Parsi origin, whose four-hour-long work Opus Clavicembalisticum is almost forgotten today. Since Sorabji was an ardent admirer of Joseph Marx (1882–1964) and Richard Strauss, the programme played by Powell in the Baroque Hall of the Altes Rathaus consisted primarily of works by these three composers.

Emotions
Of particular interest were the piano works by Joseph Marx, which remain partly unpublished and were re-discovered by Powell. Marx’s rich late-Romanticism is still impressive. The great formal freedom and harmonies streaked with colours mark the swelling and waning of his emotions in pieces with lyrical titles such as Albumblatt (Album Leaf), Von alter Sehnsucht (About an Old Longing), Nachtstück (Nocturne) or Herbstlegende (Autumn Legend). And this music is especially impressive when its emotional qualities were realised with so much empathy and great technical bravura by Jonathan Powell. These qualities were also in evidence in the Romance by Franz Schmidt, Ernst Ludwig Uray’s Melodisch-harmonischer Studie and Felix Petyrek’s Variations and Fugue.

A Hothouse of Sensations
And it was with astonishment one realised that Powell’s bravura could even be increased in the Schlußszene of Richard Strauss’ Salome, reworked into a pianistic bonfire by Sorabji. And with respect one noticed that Johannes Maria Staud, with whom Powell has established artistic contact, could also thrive in this steam bath of emotions with his Peras: Musik für Klavier, with its subtle becoming and decaying of single tones.

Peter Vujica, Der Standard (Vienna), 31 January 2008 (Peter Vujica is a respected writer and composer, and actually studied with Joseph Marx). I am indebted to Gijs van der Meijden and Vasilios Tsokis for their great help in providing this translation.

A review of my concert in London (25 January) can be found here - it also mentions the rumours that Kissin was present.

In Moscow (3 February) I played in a small private hall situated in the Palace where the Jurgenson publishing house worked in the pre-Revolutionary era. The concert took place in a room in a part of the building where the Jurgenson family lived, and where Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin (all of whose music was published by Jurgenson). I believe the Jurgenson family bought back this part of the building and established a music society there, and so I met many of the current members of the family. Also in the audience were composer Igor Rekhin, opera director Neil McGowan (both of whom helped organise the event), pianist Victor Bunin (one of Feinberg’s last pupils), conductor Vladislav Bulakhov, composer, writer and professor of the Moscow Conservatoire Fyodor Sofronov, and photographer Sveta Grekova, among others. It was also a delight to meet and work with mezzo-soprano Ksenia Vyaznikova who took part in the concert - we performed Grusha the Gypsy, an explosive excerpt from a recent opera by Rodion Shchedrin.

I have just made available a concert recording of my own Sonata VI; it can be found on the Recordings page. I played this piece in London on November 1st last year. A score will soon be available from the Bmic.

My concert in London (Bauer & Hieber) is now on the 25th January, due to the recital on the 24th in Durham. Many thanks for your understanding. Tickets will be on sale on the door for the London concert which starts at 6.30pm.

I have recently returned from the south of France where I recorded Granados’ Goyescas, and several of the so-called piezas goyescas, many of which are unrecorded to my knowledge.

The two concerts I give next week in St Petersburg are now taking place in a DIFFERENT VENUE! The new venue for concerts on the 27th and 28th is as follows:

Muzey Isaaka Brodskogo (Joseph Brodsky Museum)
Ploshchad’ iskusstv 3 (Arts Square, 3)

Both start at 7pm, and form part of the St Petersburg Festival of British Music.

A report of this festival can be found here.

The details of my concerts in Moscow on the 30th November and 1 Dec (at two of the city’s music schools) remain as advertised. Please take a look at the Concerts page for more information.

I will be playing in London again next month.

On 1 November I will give three mini-concerts in the bmic’s Cutting Edge series. The evening starts at 7pm and will feature works by Ives, Scriabin, Debussy, Busoni and Grainger, alongside two piano concertos by Michael Finnissy (nos.5 and 6, joined in the former by Sarah Leonard, Rowland Sutherland, Chris Redgate and Dave Price), and newer pieces by Andrew Toovey, John White, Paul Newland, Morgan Hayes and myself. For the last part of the evening, I will be joined by Jorgen Hald Nielsen for some two-piano pieces. Tickets can be obtained in advance by emailing concerts@bmic.co.uk, and are also on sale on the door.

On 14 November I will play at the Great Hall, Kings College (London). The programme will contain Schubert’s Sonata in G D894, Chopin’s Barcarolle, and Gabriel Erkoreka’s Dos zortzikos that I played this summer in France. This concert is free entry, but donations are welcome.

Here are two reviews of my most recent concert, at the Schloss vor Husum.

Klavierfarben und Raritäten-Glueck

Heute vibriert, spricht und leuchtet der Fluegel! Bei Jonathan Powell, so staunt mein netter Nebenmann, hört man oft nur den Ton selbst, nicht den Anschlag. In Charles Ives’ Celestial Railroad glimmen oder explodieren aus Klangmassiven heraus Choral und Marsch. Aus Väinö Raitios Colour Poems op.22 und Sibelius’ Skizzen op.114 zaubert Powell intensive Farben. Mit fabelhaften Fingern erzählt er in Skrjabins 8. Sonate zielbewusst und flexibel die tragische Geschichte vom Aufstieg und Zerfall musikalischer Gedanken. Auch Kaikhosru Sorabjis mit Unspielbarem gespickte Klavieruebertragung der Salome-Schlussszene kann Powell zum Gluehen zwingen.

Today the piano resounded, glittered and spoke! My kind neighbour at the concert remarked with astonishment that when Jonathan Powell plays, one often hears only the tone and not the attack. In Charles Ives’ Celestial Railroad the explosion of sound masses coalesces into a chorale and march. And in Väinö Raitio’s Colour Poems op.22 and Sibelius’ Sketches op.114 Powell brought out intense colors. In Scriabin’s 8th Sonata his marvellous technique delineated with determination and flexibly the tragic trajectory of ascent and decay of musical thoughts. Also Kaikhosru Sorabji’s seemingly unplayable piano transcription of the the Salome Schlussszene was brought into glowing colour by Powell.

Michael Struck, Kieler Nachrichten, 24 August 2007

Krähenchor und Entengeschnatter mit Noblesse

Grandios der Auftritt des Briten Jonathan Powell - kraftvoller Anschlag, blendende Technik und gestalterischer Uebersicht mit Blick in impressionistische Klangwelten finnischer Provenienz. Mit Kompositionen von Skrjabin, Goldenweiser und Blumefeld den Goldenen Zeitalter russischen Virtuosentums erwies er treffliche Reverenz, um bei der Strauss’schen Salome einen orgiastischen Piano-Rausch in der Lesart des Exznetrikers Sorabji zu entfesseln. Atemberaubend!

The appearance of the British pianist Jonathan Powell was noteworthy for his careful blending of dazzling technique with an informative insight into the impressionistic sound worlds of Finnish provenance. With compositions of Scriabin, Goldenweiser and Blumenfeld he demonstrated sensitive reverence to the golden age of Russian virtuosity, and he provoked orgiastic intoxication with Strauss’ Salome in the piano arrangement by the eccentric Sorabji. Breathtaking!

Detlef Bielefeld, Flenburger Tageblatt/Husumer Nachrichten/Schleswiger Nachrichten u.a., 24 August 2007

Copies of my edition of Sorabji’s transcription of the closing scene from Richard Strauss’ Salome are now available for sale from the Sorabji Archive, that can be contacted by writing to sorabji-archive@lineone.net.

My most recent CD has now left the factory. It is the last in the current batch of Sorabji recordings that began in 2002 with the Passeggiata veneziana/Villa Tasca release. It contains three works: Un nido di scatole, Djami and St Bertrand de Comminges. I hope it will be available soon via Records International, the usual internet sources and some shops.

My next concert takes place next Friday at St John’s, Smith Square in central London. The programme includes music by Ives, Albeniz, Alkan, Scriabin, John White, Alistair Hinton, and the first performance of Sorabji’s transcription of the closing scene of Strauss’ Salome.