Piano Master Course

10/03/2016

More of Julian's thoughts before the 2013 Beethoven Marathon. - which you may find interesting -
"Under two weeks to go and the days are passing with frightening alacrity. At what point in time does one become a hermit? (I once read that Schnabel used to disappear totally for about three weeks when he had the ʻHammerklavierʼ on). Today I went to the memorial concert for the wonderful Richard Rodney Bennett which I wouldnʼt have missed for anything, then on to the Royal College for an eveningʼs teaching. However next week I will
wind down most normal activities and try to concentrate the digits and the old grey matter. Iʼm starting to think of the day itself, what Iʼll eat and drink, if Iʼll try and take a couple of 20-minute sleeps, if Iʼm going to have a physiotherapist at hand! I will have an ordinary backed chair at hand as well as the piano stool in case my back starts playing up (I donʼt have back problems as a rule but 12 hours is an awful long time to be sitting there –
perhaps I should do the odd sonata standing up, like Jerry Lee Lewis). In 2003 friends brought a lot of cakes, sandwiches, soup, salads, chocolate, and I almost overdid it, sagging horribly around 7 pm. Perhaps I should read up about marathon runnersʼ nutrition. Better watch what I drink too, the artistsʼ loos arenʼt that close at St Martinʼs!
Got to sonata no.26 in my preparation today, the one known as “Les Adieux”, and hit a bit of a stumbling block: it wasnʼt as solid in my fingers and memory as I expected and I had to do some quite basic work to get it back again. Maybe thatʼs because itʼs never been one of my favourites (Iʼve occasionally got into trouble over this): I canʼt help feeling that after the wonderful slow introduction Beethoven began to lose interest in it. Thereʼs also a note in the last movement that has been “corrected” by Barry Cooper in the new Associated Board edition: Iʼm convinced heʼs right but it isnʼt easy unlearning a note youʼve been playing since 1970 (for the curious, itʼs bar 20 right hand – second quaver is A flat in both the sources but all the editors change it C which is what Iʼve always played)".

10/03/2016

If you would like to put this flyer up, please message us and I can send a pdf, thanks!

10/03/2016

Julian with the legendary violinist Ivry Gitlis.....

18/02/2016

Some of Julian's thoughts before the October 2013 Beethoven Marathon -
"So – am on my second complete trawl through the sonatas, revising every one, every note really, finding details I had never taken in properly or had not previously seen the point of.
Cross-checking editions and re-analysing textual inconsistencies. Itʼs endlessly fascinating and I donʼt think so much about the marathon aspect, more of trying to know what Iʼm doing in every movement and at every moment. This, I find, is the best way of getting the memory secure – though itʼs not as simple as that: a lot depends on when I learnt any given sonata (at 12, 18, 25 or 47 which is when I did my first cycle, cramming in pieces like op.90 which I had never played before and hardly knew). Then, in many ways the early sonatas are the hardest to retain in the memory (apparently Barenboim finds this too so Iʼm in fast company), probably because Beethoven hasnʼt yet achieved his consummate mastery of structure and organic detail. I canʼt be the only pianist to find the demisemiquavers of the Adagio of op.2 no 3 agonisingly laborious for the memory. One of the sonatas I wish Iʼd learnt as a teenager!"

13/02/2016

Beethoven's Appassionata Piano Sonata Op.57.
Part of Julian's Beethoven Marathon - all 32 Piano Sonatas played in one day. St Martin in the Fields Trafalgar Square, October 2013.

Beethoven's Appassionata Piano Sonata Op.57. Julian Jacobson: Piano. Part of Julian's Beethoven Marathon - all 32 Piano Sonatas played in one day. St Martin ...

04/02/2016

The course timetable and more can be found here http://www.beethoveninaltaussee.com/

Altaussee and its neighbouring towns of Grundlsee and Bad Aussee have been the summer retreat of poets, musicians, novelist and artists since the nineteenth century. Little known outside of Austria, Altaussee is a small village in the Austrian province of Styria on the shores of Lake Altaussee benea…

03/02/2016

The distinguished pianist Julian Jacobson will lead an extended course of eighteen days duration devoted entirely to the piano sonatas of Beethoven from August 4th to August 22nd. All information can be found at http://www.beethoveninaltaussee.com/