SEASON 1Episode 8: Impromptus & Improvisation
Released December 16, 2024
Garrick Ohlsson and Ben Laude explore Chopin’s ingenious Impromptus, with special guests from the world of improvisation.
Featuring
John Rink
Musicologist & Chopin Scholar
Jury, 2020 & 2025 International Chopin Competition
John Rink is Professor of Music in the Cambridge Faculty of Music, and Fellow in Music at St John's College. He studied at Princeton University, King's College London, and the University of Cambridge, where his doctoral research was on the evolution of tonal structure in Chopin's early music and its relation to improvisation. He specialises in the fields of performance studies, nineteenth-century music (especially Chopin), theory and analysis, and digital musicology, and has published six books with Cambridge University Press. Rink is Editor-in-Chief of The Complete Chopin – A New Critical Edition, and directs two other research projects: Chopin's First Editions Online (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council) and Online Chopin Variorum Edition (funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation).
Gabriela Montero
3rd Prize, 1995 International Chopin Competition
Gabriela Montero’s visionary interpretations and unique compositional gifts have garnered her critical acclaim and a devoted following on the world stage. The New York Times remarked that “Montero’s playing had everything: crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power…soulful lyricism…unsentimental expressivity.” Celebrated for her exceptional musicality and ability to improvise, Montero has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras to date, including: the New York, Royal Liverpool, Rotterdam, Dresden, Oslo, Vienna Radio, and Netherlands Radio philharmonic orchestras. A graduate and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London, Montero is also a frequent recitalist and chamber musician. She made her formal debut as a composer with Ex Patria, a tone poem designed to illustrate and protest Venezuela’s descent into lawlessness, corruption, and violence. The piece was premiered in 2011 by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Noam Sivan on Historical Recital Improvisation
Pianist and composer Noam Sivan is a leading improvisation pioneer in the music world. He improvises entire recitals, including fugues, four-movement sonatas, and numerous classical and contemporary genres. His solo album Ambiro’s Journey, the first ever piano improvisation studio album featuring more than 70 minutes of continuous music recorded in a single unedited take, has been described as “a new marker in the evolution of improvisation.” Over 50 of his compositions have been performed in Europe, North America, and Asia, including operas, scores for ballet, vocal music, orchestral and chamber works, and evening-long multimedia shows. Currently he is Professor of Piano Improvisation at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart.
Critic’s Corner
Jed Distler on Great Recordings of
Chopin’s Impromptus
Jed Distler is a composer, pianist, music writer, and arts presenter based in New York. He is the official Gramophone blogger for the International Chopin Competition.