Claudia Chan - Thoughts About the Piano (Royaumont Live) (2021)

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Claudia Chan - Thoughts About the Piano (Royaumont Live) (2021)

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This programme is truly a reflection of my three years as artist-in-residence at Royaumont and my artistic personality of the last years. Working with young composers is a passion for me – to study a completely new score, to discover the intentions of the composer through discussions, experimentation and sometimes just through being in their company, is something that is very important to me as the foundation of my work as a performer. The pieces that Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh and Matthew Chamberlain wrote for me are great examples of this work, and although very different, they both speak to different parts of being a pianist. Annie’s piece tests the physical limits of the pianist (the span of the hands and of the arms on the instrument) and also explores the connection between the "contemporary" and "classical" piano, contrasting passages involving playing directly on the strings with more conventional passages playing on the keys involving slightly exaggerated, romantic pianistic gestures. Matthew’s piece uses minimal sound and harmonic material to create an atmosphere that changes in an almost imperceptible way, but carries the tension of the pianist trying to find a way through the mist to get to the emotional core of the music, which only appears in short bursts and again is submerged almost immediately. Maël Bailly’s Or not Prepared is a more playful take on the virtuosic pianist, bringing out the amazing ability of the piano to both be extremely brilliant and agile for such a large, imposing instrument, but also to sustain a second level of tension (for example the G that holds the entire first movement together or the cluster at the heart of the second movement). Iannis Xenakis’ Evryali was a main point of my study at the Mediatheque Mahler in Paris, using the Claude Helffer Fonds. Helffer’s recordings, notes, and lectures on the piece and on the music of Xenakis gave me much insight into my own interpretation. Elliott Carter’s late piano work and Philippe Leroux’s AMA are more classic examples of piano virtuosity that challenge not only the fingers, but also the dexterity of the mind to manage the polyphony and rapidly changing textures.