An all-night Pianothon at Birmingham Town Hall is set to keep every true pianophile awake into the wee hours and beyond on Friday 3 March. Crazy idea? Perhaps - but my goodness, the Birmingham Conservatoire's piano movers and shakes have lined up some wonderful stuff to enjoy. And isn't there's something extraordinarily romantic about being out with your pals at 3am, listening to Messiaen and late Beethoven together?
I asked Birmingham Conservatoire's head of keyboard, John Thwaites, how it came about, and our old friend Anthony Hewitt, aka "The Olympianist" (he once cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats, giving a recital every night), who is on the faculty, what made him decide to cycle from London overnight, performing Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit on arrival around dawn...
JD: Why a Pianothon at all?
 |
| John Thwaites |
John Thwaites: For the first time - and because we are
currently under demolition! - the Keyboard Department was gifted a Town Hall Showcase
by Birmingham Conservatoire. I gave serious consideration to an All Day event, but finally concluded that this
was fairly standard fare. Wouldn't it be much more sexy to pull off an
All-Nighter? I
thought a little: kids like "sleepovers" and staying up as late
as possible -- so this is a Sleepover with Music, where no-one insists it's time for
bed, and we head off for a Champagne Breakfast next morning.
Anthony Hewitt: It’s inspired by the all-night Jazz concerts at Town Hall in the
50s and 60s. John Thwaites is a great enthusiast and has put on many
festivals at the Conservatoire focusing around composers or themes. This is in
the same vein, but certainly unique and daring. We hope some the celebrity names appearing before mid-night will be a
draw for audiences who like their beauty sleep, and that the hard-core
pianophiles will stay the distance. There may be some ‘early birds’ too in the
wee hours. As for the students, they are being tempted with a dazzling array of
repertoire and unmissable performers, plus of course an all-night bar (musical bars as
well as refreshment!). I’m going to make it compulsory attendance for my class!
 |
| Peter Donohoe plays Messiaen in the middle of the night |
JT: And we now have another mystery
guest: a jazz piano phenomenon who is inspired by the gig, and has offered his
services for the Champagne Breafast... and people are buying in!
JD: Who's going to turn up for it?
JT: We are inviting students of EPTA
members, of specialist and other schools -- there will be a youthful element to
all this, including hundreds of the Conservatoire's own students.
Also important: people can come to the
first two hours! They will already have a great concert -- and we'll see
when they can tear themselves away... Balcony Tickets are £1 for everyone and
anyone -- no-one is prohibited by cost -- it's all part of a gift to Birmingham and
the wider world, a Piano Gift.
JD: What's in it?
JT: Ingredients? Nocturnes!! The complete ones by Chopin -- I've heard Gergely Bogányi play Nocturnes in the middle
of the night on my summer course, Cadenza International Summer Music Course. I
remember sitting there and thinking "It doesn't get any better than this.
This is completely satisfying, and one wants for nothing"....so this is
then more of the same... Also nocturnes by Fauré and Debussy.
 |
| Simon Callow recites Enoch Arden |
It's sort of a Piano Education in a single night! There's the last three Beethoven sonatas, to be played by a mystery guest -- and great also to
have the last great Schubert B flat, played by a student (Domonkos Csabay). And if it's very difficult to accommodate as many students as I would
like to, then, counter-intuitively, it's wonderful to give one this enormous
Sonata...another Schumann F Sharp Minor Sonata (on a Wilhelm Wieck Piano from
the 1850's), another of the "De Profundis"...
We'll have Melodramas, two of them at the mid-way
point of 12 hours of piano. It'll be nice to hear a human voice..especially as one is Simon
Callow, in Strauss's Enoch Arden -- I'm playing Piano for this and the rehearsal
was great! But then into Speaker Pianist, and the Birmingham premiere of
the Rzewski De Profundis...
Stars in their chosen firmament? Peter Donohoe is playing Messiaen and Mark Bebbington is playing Ireland - one of the greatest British solo piano works, Sarnia.
 |
| Anthony Hewitt: piano cycles |
JD: Tony, you're cycling up from London and playing Gaspard on arrival. Why on earth...?
AH: It really came about because of a casual conversation with John
Thwaites in the pub. Worryingly, no alcohol had been consumed...
For an all-night concert and night-ride, Gaspard has obvious
connotations with images of the night, which are so masterfully conjured up by
both Ravel and Bertrand’s evocative poems. It’s particularly relevant in 'Scarbo', (I hope on Friday the moon will be ‘glittering like a silver shield…'),
and where the goblin vanishes and reappears, once seen no longer seen. I love
the word ‘pirouetting’, although hope we cyclists will be doing none of that! The use of imagery is such an important part of playing (and teaching),
and particularly in a lot of music of this era. If we can get out of our comfort zones and look at, or
visualise, things which we’ve never seen, then the effect on our imaginations
can only stimulate the musical experience.
As part of my training I’ve
been out cycling at night alone through narrow lanes lined with lonely trees
(very spooky) and wondered what lurked beyond. I am fairly certain I’ve seen a
Scarbo or two in the Surrey Hills!
JD: Is this a pilot for more events in the future?
JT: For me, everything goes into Friday March 3rd, and that's it for this lifetime!
But I do want to launch some ongoing campaigns and opportunities... a Petition "Every School deserves a Real Piano" and a community piano school at the Conservatoire, "Birmingham Piano Academy".
More about the programme from John Thwaites:
The Greatest Show on Earth: something shocking in its audacity, youthful in its exuberance. In its totality I believe it offers the best night of piano playing anywhere on the planet this year.
 |
Anna Scott plays Brahms
as he might have heard it |
Piano-playing means Chopin, All-Nighters need Nocturnes. The Complete Chopin Nocturnes are played in three groups, B flat minor opening proceedings, by Gergely Bogányi, one of the most exceptional pianists of our times. Gergely won the 1996 Franz Liszt Competition in Budapest. In 2002 he was awarded the Cross of Merit of the White Rose of Finland by the President of the Finnish Republic, and in 2004 he received the highest artistic award of Hungary, the Kossuth Prize. Rubinstein used to say that when he played Chopin he felt as though he spoke directly to people’s hearts—no-one today does that better than Gergely Bogányi.
On 1st March 1977 Peter Donohoe gave the British Premiere of Messiaen’s “La Fauvette des Jardins”, having studied it first with the composer and his wife in their apartment in Montmartre. The panoramic “day in the life” of a garden warbler seemed fitting for this event, and Peter is joined by his wife Elaine, who he met for the first time at that first performance.
 |
| Margaret Fingerhut joins the starry line-up |
I confidently expect that we’ll all be knocked sideways as our Mystery Guest walks on stage to play Beethoven’s last three Sonatas. My inspiration was the moment that Ali lit the Olympic Flame in Atlanta.
The inspiration for an All-Nighter comes from the Swinging Sixties, when Birmingham Town Hall regularly hosted All-Night Jazz Festival gigs, pictures of which still adorn the lower bar. Richard Hawley of THSH has been keeping that flame alive ever since, and we include Kapustin by way of tribute.
Our Prize-winning students are showcased throughout, presenting some of the greatest masterpieces for the instrument. Domonkos Csabay, who won the 2016 Amy Brant International Piano Competition, plays Schubert’s last great Sonata in B flat D960. Lauren Zhang, a Birmingham Juniors student who won the 2016 Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists, plays a Transcendental Study by Lyapunov, and Róza Bene, who was joint winner of the 2016 Anthony Lewis Memorial Competition plays Couperin.
In the early hours we add poetry to the mix. We are delighted to welcome Simon Callow in a recitation of the Victorian Melodrama “Enoch Arden”by Tennyson/Strauss. This is followed by the Birmingham Premiere of Rzewski’s “De Profundis” (after Oscar Wilde) for speaking pianist.
 |
| Alistair McGowan performs Satie & Grieg |
Birmingham is increasingly a centre for Historically Informed Performance Practice. In this context Dr. Anna Scott will be performing late Brahms as Brahms himself might have heard Adelina de Lara or Ilona Eibenschütz playing to him. It's more than a little thought-provoking, so prepare to be scandalised, and to further enjoy the playing of Gyorgy Hodozso, a Weingarten Scholar in Birmingham and Dr. Scott's latest prodigy.
An evening of international ambition, but hosted in Central England. A privilege, then, to hear Mark Bebbington play "Sarnia" by John Ireland, the British composer who has left the single greatest body of solo piano music (not to mention the Concerto and Chamber Music piano parts).
Finally we welcome Alistair McGowan, to play Satie and Grieg, and to introduce his good friend, “Olympianist” Anthony Hewitt, who will cycle through the night from his London home to play Ravel’s masterpiece of nocturnal virtuoso pianism “Gaspard de la Nuit”. After that, only the magnificent organ of the Town Hall can provide a fitting close: Messiaen’s “Dieu Parmi Nous”...
John Thwaites
Head of the Department of Keyboard Studies
Birmingham Conservatoire
