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When I spoke to Benjamin Grosvenor in 2012 during a brief visit to Sydney to launch his album Rhapsody in Blue<\/em>, the young British pianist\u00a0commented that although his\u00a0repertoire embraced composers from JS Bach through Chopin and Scriabin, to Saint-Sa\u00ebns, Ravel and Gershwin, the Romantics have been his first love. His favourite composer at the time was Chopin. He added “I didn\u2019t like Bach at all till I was 14. I\u2019d only heard very dry academic readings of his music, until I heard a recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier<\/em> by Samuel Feinberg, who used the piano to its full capability and really opened my mind to what Bach\u2019s music could be.”<\/p>\n With his latest album release Homages, <\/em>on the Decca label, <\/em>(483 0255)\u00a0Grosvenor has stayed close to the repertoire he loves, playing music by Bach-Busoni, Mendelssohn, Franck, Chopin and Liszt. Most of the works he has selected for this album are by Romantic era composers, based on ideas from counterpoint. In Grosvenor’s words, they are works whose composers “make something new from the old.”<\/p>\n Throwing open the gates to these perspectives is Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s Chaconne<\/em> from the Partita for solo violin BWV 1004.<\/em>\u00a0A fearsome piece which Menuhin dubbed\u00a0“the greatest structure for solo violin that exists” and which Joshua Bell described as “not just one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history. It’s a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally perfect.” The theme and variations form of Busoni’s bold and expanded arrangement is an excellent means by which Grosvenor establishes his credentials.<\/p>\n Busoni’s arrangement gives vent to just about every pianistic technique that exists and beyond. He demands that the pianist adopt the style of an organist by combining different registers of the piano and in the style of an orchestral musician, by using markings like martellato<\/em> and quasi tromboni.\u00a0<\/em>Grosvenor pays due homage to both styles with his mastery of technique and mature insight.<\/p>\n In the two selections from Mendelssohn’s Six\u00a0Preludes and Fugues opus 35<\/em> by Mendelssohn (No 1 in E minor and \u00a0No 5 in F minor). Grosvenor has chosen four intensely contrasted moods to explore. He plays the Preludes with a gentle lyricism, the E minor fugue is pensive and the F minor is dazzling.<\/p>\n Franck liberated himself from the restraints of adhering too strictly to theoretical dictates and let his heart rule his head in writing the Pr\u00e9lude, Choral et Fugue. A<\/em>s the pianist Alfred Cortot is quoted as saying in the CD liner, the Fugue, in the context of the whole work, is described as ’emanating from a psychological necessity rather than from a principle of musical composition.’\u00a0Grosvenor gives a sublime rendition of this gloriously romantic yet spiritual work.<\/p>\n Chopin’s Barcarolle\u00a0opus 60<\/em> is the perfect stylistic and thematic transition away from the metaphysical. Grosvenor’s playing is supple but delicate and in the music of Chopin, Grosvenor generously demonstrates the athleticism and subtlety of his abilities.<\/p>\n The CD ends with a triptych by Listz – the Gondoliera, Canzone<\/em> and Tarantella<\/em> from Venezia e Napoli S162 <\/em>from Suppl\u00e9ment aux Ann\u00e9es de p\u00e8lerinage II: Italie. <\/em>Grosvenor paints a sumptuous musical picture of these two exotic cities, giving\u00a0Gondoliera\u00a0<\/em>a sense of yearning for the city that Liszt never visited but idealised in his imagination, a darker Canzone<\/em> and a feverish\u00a0Tarantella<\/em>.<\/p>\n The digital release contains 6 additional tracks of Ravel’s \u00a0Le de\u00a0Tombeau de Couperin.<\/em><\/p>\n Born in 1992, Grosvenor was 6 when he started learning the piano with his mother. He\u00a0went on to study piano at London\u2019s Royal Academy of Music when he was 16, by which time he had already won\u00a0the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2004, aged 11. In 2012, Grosvenor was awarded two Gramophone Awards – the\u00a0‘Instrumental Award’ and ‘Young Artist Award’, making him Gramophone’s youngest-ever double award winner.\u00a0He also won a Classic Brit ‘Critics Choice Award’ for his Chopin\/Liszt\/Ravel CD.<\/p>\n Homages\u00a0<\/em>is a cleverly curated and brilliantly performed. It is an impressive display from a young musician who is still early in his career.<\/p>\n Shamistha de Soysa for SoundsLikeSydney\u00a9<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I spoke to Benjamin Grosvenor in 2012 during a brief visit to Sydney to launch his album Rhapsody in Blue, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"sls_format":[],"class_list":["post-21845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"acf":{"deck":"","is_featured":false,"media_type":"standard","audio_embed":"","video_url":""},"yoast_head":"\n