Four renowned pianists you should know

Four renowned pianists you should know

It was about time!

Female pianists are now much more appreciated for their virtuous performances.

In this article, you’ll meet some of the current most outstanding ones.

 

 

It is difficult to rank the best pianists in the world, as there are so many of them out there. You probably came across many lists of virtuous pianists to discover that, in most cases, those catalogues were filled with men. Does that mean there are no talented women making music? Absolutely not. By now, we all know this situation is mostly related to a dismissive culture towards women, rather than a lack of expertise, musicality or hard work.

Fortunately, nowadays, female pianists are recognized for their virtuous performances, in contrast to the past when they were often not being looked up to as much as male performers. This is slowly changing since the 18th century and is happening in every social aspect, with women gaining acknowledgement, rights and power positions, not just because of how they look but because of what they think, say and do.

All things considered, there is still a lot of work to do till there’s no more separation between “female pianists“ and just “pianists”. A key aspect for getting there is to recognize and value the work and talents of many great female musicians. That is what this article is all about: getting to know more about some of the newest and promising women behind the piano.

 

Kathia Buniatishvili

Credits: Frank Schwichtenberg, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

First of all, Khatia Buniatishvili, one of today’s most prominent modern classical pianists, is constantly featured on television, in internet videos, in magazine covers, and on every imaginable social media channel. Started learning piano at the age of three with the help of her mother.

At the age of six, Khatia gave her first public concert performing Isaac Berkovich’s Piano Concerto Op. 44 with Tsibili Chamber Orchestra.

In 2008, Khatia received the 3rd Prize and Audience Award at the renowned Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Teacher Competition in TelAviv, which has led her rise rapidly to fame. The character and power of the young pianist’s performance hardly went unnoticed, and that same year she was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York and a year later at the Festival de la Roquette’Anthéron in southern France. Although Khatia did not win first prize, her career got off to a good start.

Two years after her achievement, Khatia successfully signed with Sony Classical as an exclusive artist. She debuted in 2011, releasing her first album with Sony, which consists of recordings of the works of Franz Liszt, a Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist known for his spectacular piano performances. The same characteristics can also be found in the style of Khatia: Everything is allowed on the piano, be it posture, gestures or emotion.

Khatia is also known as a regular performer to the Verbier Festival, playing Liszt’s Sonata in B minor in the festival incarnation in 2011. In 2012, she released her second album dedicated to the music of Chopin, a choice that displayed her love towards the Romantic Period. Emotion seems to be the guiding and motivating force for Khatia. Her decisions are made out of joy and empathy, both musically and personally. Khatia’s most recent album revolved around Sergei Rachmaninov’s music and recorded his piano concertos in 2017.

Besides her pianistic qualities, her body is usually a subject of debate, something that continues to happen among famous female pianists. Her dresses in particular, and especially the plunging necklines, have often sparked controversy, and because of it, the media has given her nicknames like “Pop Star of the Classical Music World“.

 

Alice Sara Ott

 

Continuing to the second pianist; It is not very frequent to have a pianist perform a programme from Classical Period music. None other than the rising star German-Japanese Alice Sara Ott, who chooses to perform it for her highly anticipated recital in New York. It all started thirty years ago when Alice was just three years old. Her parents took her to a piano recital because they could not find a babysitter to look for her. So she went to the concert and was so captivated and mesmerized by the power of the piano playing that could keep the audience silent and just listen to the music for hours.

Even Though she could not remember what pieces were played that night, young Alice was very much convinced to learn the same “language” to communicate with people from the stage. With that enthusiasm in mind, she has now become one of the most in-demand pianists. Gifted with impressive technical mastery and deep musical sensibilities, Alice Sara Ott is one of the most captivating artists of her generation. The poetic pianism of the German-Japanese musician, praised by critics for her sophistication and intensity, has led to favourable comparisons with great performers of the past.

In 2008, Alice signed an exclusive deal with the well known Deutsche Grammophon Label and became the Steinway Artist in 2010. She has a fascinating habit where she works on a Rubik’s cube before performances, and she can solve it in less than a minute. Near the end of 2018, Alice was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and has begun treatments. We are all wishing her to recover soon and waiting for her next concert season as planned.

 

Olga Scheps

 

There is also the German Pianist Olga Scheps, known for her crystal-clear romantics who is able to deliver an emotional and tearful performance to audiences at concerts. Scheps plays a lot of music by Russian composers, especially Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and many more in her active repertoire. She also loves playing Romantic repertoire. This music greatly influences and contributes to her musical identity. She started playing music at the age of four, learning under both her parents. Her father is a piano professor at a university and her mother is a piano teacher who teaches young students and adults.

She began performing with friends and family from a young age, and when she was a teenager, her parents took her to two junior piano competitions in Germany, which she won. After the competitions, she was invited to perform professionally and continuously. At the age of 15, she made her debut with a German orchestra in Düsseldorf, with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto. Scheps has an exclusive contract for Sony Classical since 2009. She is one of the pianists who does not frequently join competitions. However, her debut album, the first of ten so far, won an ECHO Klassik award naming Newcomer of the Year in 2010.

 

Yuja Wang

 

Then, we have a Chinese piano prodigy, Yuja Wang. She comes from a musical family: Her father plays percussion and her mother is a dancer. It all started when she began her musical journey at the age of six and won a lot of prizes from piano competitions. Expeditious progress led to a place in Beijing Conservatory and to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

At the age of 19, Yuja Wang was nominated for the Gilmore Young Artist Award, an award that was given to pianists 23 years old and younger. The breaking point in her pianist journey happened in March 2007 when she had to fill in for Martha Argerich in concerts held in Boston with Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ever since that day, her fame has been rising ceaselessly internationally, performing with a large number of orchestras. Her programme has been dominantly Russian repertoire. She was claimed to have the talent to play very fast without making mistakes, even people gave her a nickname as the “flying fingers”.

As a chamber musician, Yuja Wang has established partnerships with several prominent artists, notably Leonidas Kavakos, with whom she toured and recorded all of Brahms’ violin sonatas. With cellist Gautier Capuçon, she will tour North America with seven concerts next spring, including the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and Carnegie Hall. “As a pianist, there are endless possibilities to discover and you never know where it will take you,” she said. “We have to be inspired, motivated and just be alive. There are ideas and inspirations that we can capture” The inspiration and view of Yuja Wang’s performance were shown in the Deutsche Grammophon label discography. Since she signed the exclusive deal with them in 2009, she has recorded several iconic albums.

Wang is also known as a “fashionista”, for having an incredible sense of style on stage, which has also been the subject of criticism and some “controversy” among the specialized media. This debate around what she “should” and shouldn’t wear has also garnered her quite a fan base.

Regardless of her successful performances and as a colourful detail, she believes in one superstition: not to run through the whole programme right before the concert. Yuja states that if she played it beautifully once, then her performance in the concert will not be good. Is there anyone else who believes in that too?

 

 

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