Nov 27th 2020

World Premiere: ‘Faust’ rendered for piano and the spoken word

by Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson is a music critic with particular interest in piano. 

Johnson worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Moscow, Paris and London over his journalism career. He covered European technology for Business Week for five years, and served nine years as chief editor of International Management magazine and was chief editor of the French technology weekly 01 Informatique. He also spent four years as Moscow correspondent of The Associated Press. He is the author of five books.

Michael Johnson is based in Bordeaux. Besides English and French he is also fluent in Russian.

You can order Michael Johnson's most recent book, a bilingual book, French and English, with drawings by Johnson:

“Portraitures and caricatures:  Conductors, Pianist, Composers”

 here.

 

One of the most durable tales in Western civilization – the legend of Faust – is brilliantly rendered in a piano adaptation, performed this week by the multi-talented Australian musician of German/Slovenian parentage, Ashley Hribar.

A new recording of the music, now available digitally, will appear as a CD in the New Year. Hribar calls his recording, “Faust: A Mortal’s Tale”.  It is a personal musical reflection on the Faust story, loosely based on the 1926 silent film by Wilhelm Friedrich Murnau.

The piano he chose for the recording was the Australian Big Belura by Stuart & Sons, a 108-key extended keyboard instrument that Hribar exploits to the maximum with nine additional deep bass keys and 11 more treble keys. The striking cover illustration for the CD is Hribar’s imaginative artwork. He can also claim to be a performer, composer, arranger and improviser.

Piano largeHribar premiered the work Thursday night (Nov.26) in a live-stream of his “Faust Melodrama”, himself at the piano and narrating in German. Most of the works were from his CD “”Faust: a Mortal’s Tale” along with two arrangements of songs by Radiohead “Present Tense” and “Paranoid Android”.

Of the 14 songs in the program, he arranged six of them and built his score to correspond to chapters and themes in the modern version of the tale. The outcome is a highly satisfying marriage of music and literature, beautifully played live by Hribar. Only a musician of Hribar’s caliber could connect and update the ideas in this production and personally perform it.

He dramatizes the Faust legend step by step and constructs the film in these musical terms:

Rachmaninov’s Prelude Op. 32 No. 12 represents Faust’s musings over his life accomplishments.

Georgy Catoire’s rarely heard Quatre Morceaux Op. 12 conjures up Faust’s journey into the unknown.

The Liszt Mephisto Waltz depicts the demon Mephistophelese offering Faust knowledge and earthly pleasures in exchange for his soul.

Granados’s Oriental and the De Falla Ritual Fire Dance represent the Spanish princess.

Rachmaninov returns with Etude on Dies Irae to illustrate Faust’s death.

Led Zepplin’s Stairways accompanies Faust to heaven.

Hribar’s arrangements bring uncharted piano sounds to the ear, exploiting the “color, sonority and depth” when performed on the 108-key instrument. He adapted the pieces to fit the standard 88 keys, and, he says, “This process has deepened my understanding of each work.”  For the Thursday performance, he played a Steinway Boston model. The Big Belura has not yet been exported to Europe.

I asked him whether an English language version might be coming. “Absolutely!” he said.  “I have done an English version but in a more improvised manner. Now I look forward to working on a refined Faustian Melodrama in English.”

The recording is available on a variety of platforms, including: Spotify, Youtube, Youtube Music, iTunes, Amazon music Deezer, Facebook Instagram, Soundcloud, Tidal, Google Play Music, Claro-Musica, emusic, Napster, Nuuday, Anghami, Gracenote, Kanjian, Pandora, Melon, iHeart Radio, 7Digital, JioSaavan, Bugs!, Awa, YG, Netease, Tencent, TikTok, and Kuack Media.

For an interview with Hribar and related commentary on the Big Belura piano, go to:

No, it’s not ‘crazy’ to want 20 more keys on your piano

 

Mortals

 

 

 

 

This article is brought to you by the author who owns the copyright to the text.

Should you want to support the author’s creative work you can use the PayPal “Donate” button below.

Your donation is a transaction between you and the author. The proceeds go directly to the author’s PayPal account in full less PayPal’s commission.

Facts & Arts neither receives information about you, nor of your donation, nor does Facts & Arts receive a commission.

Facts & Arts does not pay the author, nor takes paid by the author, for the posting of the author's material on Facts & Arts. Facts & Arts finances its operations by selling advertising space.
 

 

Browse articles by author

More Music Reviews

Ursula Oppens: the pianist who proves that 80 can be the new 60
by Michael Johnson
Oct 7th 2024
EXTRACT: "Oppens stands apart from today’s keyboard virtuosos by her four decades of discovering and commissioning new works. These contributions to the repertory ensure her a permanent place in pantheon of modern music. But she is also recognized as a powerful performer who tackles the thorniest of new pieces. As she said in our interview, she remembers hearing the difficult works of Julian Hemphill for the first time and thinking 'This is for me!'  Composers who have been commissioned by her or who have written works for her include such leading lights as Frederic Rzewski, William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, Peter Lieberson, Conlon Nancarrow, Tobias Picker, Christian Wolff  and Charles Wuorinen.”
The Conservative party, 1832-2024: an obituary
by Mark Garnett
Jul 5th 2024
EXTRACTS: "The Conservative Party, which was finally pronounced dead from multiple unnatural causes on July 5 2024, was born in 1832." ---- " Strange as it might now appear, the party was once very popular and respected, even by its opponents. Educated at Eton and Oxford, it established a reputation for governing competence which allowed it to bounce back from serious setbacks, notably the landslide Labour victory of 1945." ---- "The end of the cold war debunked the notion that the Conservatives had restored Britain’s former global status. Unwilling to acknowledge their country’s subservience to the United States, the party’s dominant nationalist faction could now only rage against reality by identifying the European Union, and post-war immigration, as the twin culprits for the depletion of British political influence and cultural uniformity." ---- "The Conservative party has presented a sorry spectacle to sympathetic observers in its undignified post-Brexit dying days. It became prone to hallucinations, first believing that Boris Johnson could be a successful prime minister then replacing him with Liz Truss."
Rare recital : A standing ovation for pianist Maria Joao Pires
by Michael Johnson
Jun 17th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Isn’t piano study a big problem in the USA, with all the electronic games and distractions from music lessons? ---- Answer: The problem is also in Europe. We have lost a lot of quality, in terms of knowledge behind the music. The schools do not make the transmission from the composers to us. We owe that to the composers. And it’s very sad because now we focus on goals and competition, and competition does not go well with art.
French pianist Hervé Sellin likes the fusion of black and white jazz
by Michael Johnson
Jun 9th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Isn’t it true, as the musicologist Kyle Gann says, that one cannot judge immediately what’s good or bad in contemporary music? We must wait 20 years. Answer: Yes, look at Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”. It caused a scandal. It was booed and rejected by everyone. Now it’s standard in the concert hall. In jazz, I think it’s not 20 years, but more like 50 years before we know what has worked or not. One has to step back and reflect on whether we have brought something new."
Secrets from today’s brutal piano world By Michael Johnson and Frances Wilson
by Michael Johnson and Frances Wilson
Mar 9th 2024
EXTRACT: "In a way, every experience you have, every book you read, every movie you watch, every place you visit, every encounter you have, every moment you spend with friends or family, they leave a mark on you and direct you indirectly and therefore leave their mark on your playing.", says Boris Giltburg in Michael Johnson's and Frances Wilson's new book 'Lifting the Lid: Interviews with Concert Pianists', now available on Amazon.
Olga Jegunova interview: ‘Letting music do its magic’
by Michael Johnson
Feb 27th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Some pianophiles say the CD could be useful for meditation, therapy or even healing. ---- Answer: Indeed, that is the kind of feedback I am getting. But this music doesn’t belong to me any more, therefore I cannot label it with any purpose. It has taken on a life of its own. I can’t say how it affects the life of other people. Will it be therapeutic or will it have another effect? Time will tell."
Elisabeth Leonskaya: ‘I do not play to be loved. It’s about the music!’
by Michael Johnson
Dec 4th 2023
EXTRACT: "Seated in a quiet corner of a Bordeaux hotel last week, we had an interview – more a casual chat – about her life, her Soviet Russian origins, her career, her future."
An evening with the witty, grumpy Andràs Schiff
by Michael Johnson
Nov 27th 2023
EXTRACT: "Schiff creates an atmosphere that we 'seniors' remember from the old days. No clowning, no bouncing on the bench, no outlandish clothing. He dresses in a black smock, black trousers, black shoes, topped off with a mane of pure white hair. His manners, his grateful bowing, are très Old Europe. ---- Schiff keeps control of his two hours onstage. He believes that dignity goes with the great music on the program and he scarcely moves as he plays."
The Sargent is back
by Michael Johnson
Nov 19th 2023
EXTRACT: "  Boston-based guitarist, band leader and composer Phil Sargent is not about churning out endless CDs. In fact his ten-year recording gap, just ended, had his fans wondering where he was. But in New York and Boston, he tells me, he has never stopped working with other groups while composing and actively teaching young and mature talent. Although not always visible, he seems to be a confirmed workaholic, even practicing five hours a day. Yes, virtuosos also need to practice. ---- And now he is back. His new CD, 'Sons'....."
How music heals us, even when it’s sad – by a neuroscientist leading a new study of musical therapy
by Leigh Riby
Nov 19th 2023
EXTRACT: "There is a renewed fascination with the memory-stimulating and healing powers of music. This resurgence can primarily be attributed to recent breakthroughs in neuroscientific research, which have substantiated music’s therapeutic properties such as emotional regulation and brain re-engagement. This has led to a growing integration of music therapy with conventional mental health treatments."
Piano prodigies: A marvel to behold but still a mystery
by Michael Johnson
Sep 28th 2023
EXTRACT: "British psychotherapist, Michael Lawson, who has worked with several prodigies and former prodigies, calculates there may be as many as 200,000 piano prodigies active in the world today. “In a sense, they are not that rare,” he says in our interview below. Lawson is author of International Acclaim: The Steinfeld Legacy a new novel of the great pianists of the 19th and early 20th centuries in which the prodigy phenomenon is described in some detail."
Past Lives: inyeon is a Korean philosophy of how relationships form over many lifetimes
by Sarah A. Son
Sep 17th 2023
EXTRACT: "Like so many stories about relationships told over an extended time, Past Lives uncovers the twists and turns, the “what ifs” and the manifold choices that lead to two people wondering whether they were meant to be together."
Review – Nico Muhly’s “Dark Sisters”
by James Bash
Sep 12th 2023
EXTRACT: " OrpheusPDX, a new company founded by Christopher Mattaliano in Portland, Oregon, concluded its second season with a brilliant and thought-provoking production of Nico Muhly’s “Dark Sisters,” at Lincoln Hall (August 24), exploring and exposing relationships in a polygamous sect and the courage of one sister-wife to leave it. With Stephen Karam’s libretto inspired by memoirs of women who have left the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) and the 2008 raid of the YFZ Ranch by the FBI, “Dark Sisters” was delivered with spot-on directing by Kristine McIntyre and riveting performances by an exceptional cast."
Putting the orchestra on stage is the pits in Seattle Opera’s production of Das Rheingold
by James Bash
Aug 30th 2023
EXTRACT: "Wagner’s operas are well known to be budget busters, and lack of funds is probably one of the main reasons that Seattle Opera has not mounted the Ring Cycle in since 2013. After Speight Jenkins retired from his post as General Director in 2014, the company delivered The Flying Dutchman (2016) and Tristan und Isolde (2022), the latter under its current General Director, Christina Scheppelmann. Now starting its 60th season, Seattle Opera celebrated with Das Rheingold, but that can be seen as a bittersweet moment since Scheppelmann is moving on to take over La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels at the end of the 2023-2024 season."
Saint-Saens: Everyone’s favorite ‘lightweight’
by Micael Johnson
Jul 6th 2023
EXTRACT: " More than a hundred recordings have been made of his suite of 14 light pieces he called “The Carnival of the Animals”, and a range of his other works remain in the standard repertoire."
Asian Invasion: The talent tsunami from the East –  threat or stimulus?
by Michael Johnson
Jun 18th 2023
EXTRACT: "Conservatories and university music departments are filling up with fee-paying Asians as their parents pressure them to succeed in the West. Piano competitions around the world, now numbering about 800, are open to this new wave of Asian players. They are winning top prizes and they are building careers in Europe and the U.S.  Too often, according to some teachers, young Americans prefer computer games, the latest movies, rock bands, sports, or other less-demanding activities. The Asians are happy to fill the vacuum."
The Jazz World Was Waiting for this Trio
by Michael Johnson
May 30th 2023
EXTRACT: "Three of Europe’s longtime leaders in contemporary jazz, now in their senior years, have just launched a CD of twelve  pieces that shows what a lifetime of sharing ideas in music can really produce." “New Stories” (Frémeaux et Associés) by the French trio of pianist and composer Hervé Sellin, bassist Jean-Paul Celea and drummer Daniel Humair is remarkable for improvisations so synchronized that the listener can feel the music come together from three angles in real time. The tracks were mostly composed or improvised by Sellin."
Margherita Torretta discovers Galuppi’s keyboard works
by Michael Johnson
Mar 28th 2023
EXTRACT: "The young ex-dancer from Italy first burst upon the piano scene three years ago with 20 of her hand-picked Scarlatti sonatas. Now comes her second CD (Academy Classical Music) even more original and powerful, performing six of Baldassare Galuppi’s 18th century sonatas. Margherita Torretta‘s early training as a dancer gives her playing a swaying, graceful air while she maintains Alberti bass for control of the rhythm, momentum and especially continuity. Her ornamentation is boosted with some of her own improvisations, producing a fresher feel. It’s a magic combination."
Mme. Jardon breathes new life into Russian Miaskovsky
by Michael Johnson
Mar 24th 2023
EXTRACT: "Driven by a sense of mission and determination over several years, French pianist Lydia Jardon has completed a rare cycle of nine piano sonatas by Nikolai Miaskovsky. Her new CD  of numbers 6, 7 and 8 completes the task and offers a particularly rich sample of Russian experience in the worst of times. Miaskovsky may be only vaguely remembered today but he was a leader in the Soviet music world until the end of World War II. He left a wide range of engaging sonatas that have been brought back to life by Mme. Jardon on her own label AR Ré-Sé (AR 2022-1)."
The sonic ‘earthquake’  of the new Spirio piano
by Michael Johnson
Mar 16th 2023
EXTRACTS: "The most ambitious application yet of Steinway’s new digital piano, Spirio r, delivers stunning levels of sound and color in the new CD release of The Richter Scale, an hour-long keyboard drama written by well-known German composer and pianist Boris Bergmann." ----- "For the first time, the Spirio has been configured on a Steinway D grand to enable four-hand pieces to be played by two hands. The secondo score is first recorded in playback mode then combined with the live primo part. Liu is the live player who has to coordinate and fuse the two."---- "I took Bergmann’s advice and listened to the full composition from start to finish to best feel the gathering emotional turbulence. I was gripped by the melodies, harmonies, rhythms and percussive explosions along the way."