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CBC
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
One-handed British pianist is carrying forward the legacy of those who came before him
Nicholas McCarthy is often described as the world's only professional one-handed concert pianist. But he wasn't the first, and he has no intention of being the last. "Each century from the 19th century tended to have this kind of one well-known concert pianist who had one hand," McCarthy told As It Happens guest host Megan Williams. "In the 21st century, I find myself being that one-handed pianist who seems to have more prominence. So I feel a lot of responsibility." On Sunday, the British pianist made his debut at The Proms, one of Britain's most prestigious classical music concert series, held annually at London's Royal Albert Hall, and broadcast on BBC. It was a dream come true for McCarthy — and one he says he couldn't have achieved without the thick skin that comes with having a lifelong disability, and a road paved by those who came before him. "I am still on a high. I'm absolutely buzzing," he said. "I would say this is really the pinnacle of my career so far." A 'full-circle moment' For his Proms debut, McCarthy regaled the audience with Maurice Ravel's bravura Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, alongside the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The deceivingly rich piece is probably the most famous left-hand-only piano composition, he says. And it only exist because it was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, an Austrian-American concert pianist who lost his right arm in the First World War. It was one of several pieces Wittgenstein commissioned from prominent composers as he sought to build his post-war career, while developing novel techniques for one-handed play. "It's really thanks to him that I'm able to have the career that I have today, because I'm able to play these wonderful big famous works," McCarthy said. Piano Concerto for the Left Hand has been performed many times in the festival's 130-year-history, usually by two-handed pianists showing off their skills with their non-dominant hand. But McCarthy is only the second one-handed pianist to perform the piece at The Proms. The last, he says, was Wittgenstein himself in 1951. "It's really a full-circle moment," McCarthy said. Humble roots and a late start McCarthy was born without a right hand, but his disability wasn't the only obstacle on his journey to becoming a professional concert pianist. While most of his industry peers spent their childhoods studying classical music and practicing for hours on end, McCarthy says he spent his youth playing outdoors with his friends and doing regular kid stuff. "We come from a very non-musical family. Just normal pop stuff on the radio, you know, normal, working-class parents," he said. But at the age of 14, McCarthy heard his friend playing a Beethoven composition at school, and his whole life changed. "I just had one of those — it sounds corny — of those kind of Oprah Winfrey moments, you know, these kind of life-changing, lightbulb moments where I was like, wow, this is what I want to do for my career. I want to be a pianist," he said. It didn't even occur to him in that moment that he couldn't do it, he says. "You remember what it was like when you're 14," he said. "Everything's so possible, you know, full of teenage invincibility." But not everyone believed in his dream the way he did. "The early part of my career, for sure, I was being told left, right and centre by very respected people in the industry that I should give up, you know, this wasn't the career for me," he said. "It used to be fuel to my fire, almost, that's what kept me going and kept me focused on what I believed and what I knew I could do, which was obviously proven last night." A vast repertoire of left-hand only music Most piano compositions weren't made with someone like McCarthy in mind, but he didn't have to start from scratch. He says there is a surprisingly vast repertoire of piano music written for the left hand alone — roughly 3,000 solo pieces, and several dozen concertos. "It's all left-handed, and not right-hand alone, which I always find quite an interesting fact," he said. Many were commissioned by Wittgenstein, while others were commissioned or composed by Count Géza Zichy, a Hungarian composer who lost his right arm in a hunting accident in the 1860s. But many more, McCarthy said, were written in the 19th century for two-handed pianists to wow audiences. "Concert pianists would perform a wonderful bravura encore at the end of their amazing recitals," he said. "As a play on irony, they used to kind of say, 'You thought I was good with two hands. Wait till you see what I can do with my weaker hand!'" Now that McCarthy is in the spotlight like Wittgenstein and Zichy before him, he makes a point of regularly commissioning new left-hand pieces to build on the rich repertoire he's benefited so greatly from.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Billy Joel's Admission to Bill Maher About Classical Music: ‘I Get Stoned From It'
Billy Joel's Admission to Bill Maher About Classical Music: 'I Get Stoned From It' originally appeared on Parade. Bill Maher took his podcast Club Random on the road to Boca Raton, Florida, where he got to sit down with the iconic musician and piano player, Billy Joel. When the 76-year-old announced a couple of months ago on his Instagram that he was diagnosed with brain disorder Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH), he canceled his upcoming concert gigs and was not able to attend the June Tribeca Festival premiere of his HBO documentary And So It Goes. But this past week, the "Vienna" singer welcomed Maher into his home and sat down by his grand piano for an interview. In a clip posted on Friday by Maher, the singer talked about the stories behind his hits "Just the Way You Are," "Uptown Girl" and "She's Always a Woman." Joel also talked about his 1977 song 'Only the Good Die Young,' where his lyrics tell the story of a young Catholic woman and her attitudes to virginity and temptation in front of a lustful young man. "I'm tipping over sacred cows all my life. I like to do that," he said as he sat by his piano. "There is a code within the music itself that has nothing to do with the words, that takes you to this place, if it's done right." This then led the "Piano Man" singer to talk about his love for classical music. "What I love about classical music is its purity. It's just music! It can take me away somewhere else, completely. I get stoned from it!" Joel admitted. "I literally get carried away listening to beautiful music." The rest of the Club Random podcast episode will be released on Monday on YouTube, Amazon Music, Spotify and iHeartRadio. Plus, the first part of Joel's documentary, And So It Goes, is out now on HBO Max. Part 2 will be released next Friday, July 25. Billy Joel's Admission to Bill Maher About Classical Music: 'I Get Stoned From It' first appeared on Parade on Jul 19, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 19, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Italy uninvites controversial pro-Putin conductor from Caserta classical concert
An Italian classical music concert has uninvited a famous Russian conductor who's known to be a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Valery Gergiev was meant to participate in A King's Summer festival (Un'Estate da Re) on 27 July that's organised by the Royal Palace of Caserta and held in the courtyard of the Vanvitellian Complex, close to Naples in southern Italy. However, his inclusion in the event had been fiercely criticised by Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died in a Russian Arctic penal colony in 2021. "This is good news. No artist who supports the current dictatorship in Russia should be welcome in Europe. It is precisely thanks to regime supporters like Gergiev that Putin tries to promote his image as a 'decent person' in the West," Navalnaya wrote on X commenting on the cancellation of the concert."The free and unquestionable choice taken by the Directorate of the Reggia di Caserta has my full and convinced support," commented Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, who had already intervened on the issue, distancing himself from the decision to invite Gergiev to the festival and siding with those who described the concert as a boost to Russian propaganda. 'While respect is due to the exceptional artistic quality of the event, the cancellation of the concert conducted by Maestro Gergiev obeys a logic of common sense and moral tension aimed at protecting the values of the free world,' the ministry's note reads. Euro Chamber vice-president Pina Picierno, among the first voices to rise against Gergiev's hosting in Italy, expressed satisfaction on X: 'We explained, we fought, we believed and we won! Thanks to all of you, Campania will not host an ambassador of Putin. For those who want to, we will see you on Sunday evening with the flags of Europe, in front of the Reggia, to celebrate the strength and beauty of democracy'. The Christian Association of Ukrainians in Italy also rejoiced. "This is a victory of common sense and human and Christian values over the Kremlin's criminal policy. It is a small victory, but it is another step towards the common victory of good over evil,' wrote association president Oles Horodetskyy. The association was ready to organise protest initiatives and had already bought tickets for the first rows of the concert to make its dissent felt by Gergiev. There has been no comment from Campania's governor Vincenzo De Luca, who had described the affair as 'disconcerting', wondering where 'the limit between freedom of expression of one's opinion and propaganda' was and emphasising his desire to confirm the concert despite international appeals. Several Nobel Prize winners had even spoken out against the Russian maestro's participation, with letters sent to European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, Italian authorities and de Luca himself. An online petition had garnered more than 16,000 signatures. Romanovsky's case in Bologna Meanwhile, media attention is rapidly shifting to a similar case involving authorities in Bologna.** The city is preparing to host the Ukrainian pianist and naturalised Italian Alexander Romanovsky as part of the CUBO summer festival,* that's financed by Unipol. Romanovsky became famous for having played for the (Russian) cameras on the rubble of the Mariupol theatre, which Moscow forces had bombed in the first weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, killing hundreds of civilians who had taken refuge journalist Marco Setaccioli has led much of the criticism demanding the cancellation of the 5 August event, citing Romanovsky's appearances on pro-government Russian channels as evidence of his 'willingness to lend himself to the Kremlin's propaganda machine.' In January 2024, La Sapienza University in Rome called off one of Romanovsky's concerts in response to anger from pro-Ukraine activists and their supporters.
New York Times
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A ‘Tosca' Shows the Boston Symphony's Conductor at His Best
Andris Nelsons may have become a fitful, inconsistent music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but every once in a while, he proves that he has still got it. Such was the lesson on Saturday night at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home in the Berkshires, as Nelsons and a starry cast delivered a concert 'Tosca' of high intensity and even higher emotion. This Tanglewood season is a solid one, with the premiere of a new John Williams piano concerto written for Emanuel Ax on the agenda next weekend, a Gabriella Ortiz-curated Festival of Contemporary Music sprawling around the grounds at the same time, and the obligatory appearances of Yo-Yo Ma, famous friend of the orchestra, to come in August. New at Tanglewood this year: tastefully installed screens next to the Shed stage that show the musicians at work, and, by some miracle, enhanced cellphone service. Still unchanged: the humidity. But 'Tosca' was always likely to be a high point of the season, and it was. Opera has often brought out the best in Nelsons in Boston, and the closer to the most commonplace parts of the repertoire the work has been, the stronger the performance from him. Wagner transfixed him as a child, and it was at the Latvian National Opera that his career began to take off in his 20s. Now 46, he rarely looks more engaged on the podium than when he is supporting a singer in full flow. And for this Puccini, Nelsons had some singers of quality to support. Bryn Terfel sang his last staged Scarpia at the Met earlier this year, but he still brings unrivaled authority and conviction to a role that has defined his career. Has the passing of time brought a more vicious edge of desperation to his portrayal, as if an older Scarpia might feel as though this is his last, appalling chance to corner his prey, causing him to act with such depravity? Either way, Terfel's snarling chief of the Roman police remains a privilege to see. So, too, the glorious Cavaradossi of the Korean baritone-turned-tenor SeokJong Baek. Here, as at the Met last fall, his extraordinarily firm, high cries of 'Vittoria!' drew instant applause, and they were far from the only point at which this colossal voice, wielded by turns with machined precision and melting sensitivity, could have earned such approval. Nelsons continues to sustain the soprano Kristine Opolais, his former wife, at a difficult moment in her career as her voice declines. Her sickly Katarina Ismailova made sense in the Boston Symphony's performances of 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' last year, and this Tosca seemed similarly conceived to wring as much as dramatically possible from the sadly limited vocal resources she now has available to her. She has always been a compelling actor; trapped, fragile and honest, the result was a moving if far from musically convincing assumption of the title character. Dan Rigazzi's sensible concert staging smartly coordinated the central trio, the keenly taken minor roles (Patrick Carfizzi, a fine Sacristan), and what appeared to be most of the choral singers in western Massachusetts (the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Vocal Program). Having Spoletta (Neal Ferreira) search the rogues at the back of the orchestra for the rebel Angelotti (Morris Robinson) was one of several small but telling directorial touches. And the Boston Symphony itself? Making the orchestra the star of the operatic show, which is what concert performances do by raising the instrumentalists out of the pit, has its difficulties; let the orchestra loose, and the singers can be inaudible, but hold it back too much, and you start to question the point. Even Nelsons, with all his sympathy for vocal artists, typically struggles to get the balance right. Still, it was more than worthwhile to hear players like these in a score like this. Take the delightful woodwind scampering as the Sacristan fussed in the first act as an example, or the acidic, metallic slice of the cellos as they hinted at Cavaradossi's torture in the second, let alone the great floods of string tone that Nelsons was rightly happy to unleash as the score took melodic wing. It was hard not to wonder, watching Nelsons at work, if this is not what he should be doing all the time: polishing the classics to an admirable sheen at one of the great opera houses of old. Eleven years into his Boston posting, his tenure remains stalled. Even a Beethoven cycle this past January was erratic, its successes unquestionable, its misfires unaccountable. His interpretive diffidence lets soloists enjoy their spotlight. Yuja Wang was magnificently stylish on Sunday with the energetic trainees of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto, a piece whose dreamy flights and angular blasts might have been written specifically for her. But the same trait too frequently robs purely symphonic works of the vitality they need. Maybe, then, there was something to be read into the planned return of Esa-Pekka Salonen to the Boston Symphony the week before 'Tosca,' or more likely not: The incomparable Finn, now freed from the disasters unfolding at the San Francisco Symphony, has conducted only four programs with this ensemble in his entire career, the most recent more than a decade ago. Infer what you will, but the story was short. Salonen withdrew for personal reasons, and Thomas Adès stepped in. Adès has enjoyed a longstanding collaboration with the Boston Symphony, recording his Piano Concerto and 'Totentanz' with it and serving as its artistic partner for three years, but it has always felt as if a bit more could be made of the relationship. Best known as a composer, Adès continues to improve as a conductor, still reveling in the hidden details of the scores he admires, but more technically able now than before both to unearth them and to put them into context. On July 13, he offered Salonen's program unchanged, giving a forceful reading of Gabriella Smith's naturalistic 'Tumblebird Contrails,' a wonderfully creative accompaniment to Pekka Kuusisto's darkly introspective solo in the Sibelius Violin Concerto, as well as a thoroughly meticulous Sibelius Fifth Symphony that treated the piece as if it were radically new. All of which led to a fugitive thought, untethered to any present reality: If Adès led an orchestra, what might he achieve?
France 24
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- France 24
King's musical sage Errollyn Wallen blazes new path
The 67-year-old became the Master of the King's Music last year, a 400-year-old post and one of the classical world's top honours that involves composing works for landmark events and advising the king on musical matters for royal occasions. "He's very musical, which everybody's really thrilled about," Wallen told AFP. "He likes listening to music and he is curious about it -- he has broad tastes, which is really wonderful," added Wallen, who premiered her "funky" new composition "Elements" at the first night of the renowned Proms music festival in London on Friday. Charles showed a lighter side in March when he shared his favourite songs from around the Commonwealth in an Apple podcast, revealing a surprising appreciation of disco, reggae and Afrobeats and including hits from such artists as Kylie Minogue and Diana Ross. In a sign of his musical conviction, Charles sought advice from Wallen -- "but in the end the king chose his own" songs, she said. "It was important for him to choose tracks that brought back personal memories to him and that's the power of music," said the pianist, violinist and singer. "Think of the people he's met, all the great musicians. It's incredible," added the self-confessed cake fanatic. Teacher inspiration Wallen was born in the former British colony of Belize in 1958, and soon showed signs of a precocious talent. "My parents said that as a baby, I didn't cry, but I was always singing." She moved to London aged two and her mother and father then relocated to New York, leaving her and her siblings, one of whom is the jazz trumpeter Byron Wallen, in the care of her aunt and uncle. "I was always making up songs for any boring chore," she recalled. Wallen credits a junior school teacher for setting her on her current path. "I was very lucky that at school, all of us nine-year-olds were taught to read and write music, but also introduced to orchestral music." However, she received little encouragement to pursue a career as a composer. "I love my family, but I think there was the idea that you wouldn't step out of the ordinary," she explained. Another early memory is of a non-music teacher telling her "you know, little girl, classical music isn't for you". "These subtle messages going in that I might be good at music, but I wouldn't belong to that world. "But I was so curious and passionate about music... I think the negative messages didn't go in deeply." 'So shocked' Indeed, taking the road less travelled only strengthed her conviction and "led me into other paths of music making which has stood me in great stead". "I was a keyboard player and I played music in the community and care homes -- it opened my eyes to how music can touch people." It was at boarding school that the classical bug really took hold, and it was later nurtured at Goldsmiths', King's College London and King's College, Cambridge. Wallen also appeared as a backing artist for the 1990s girl group "Eternal" and performed as a tap dancer, having trained as a dancer in London and New York. She had her own recording studio, and her work includes 22 operas and a range of orchestral, chamber and vocal compositions. Her arrangement of Hubert Parry's "Jerusalem" was performed at the Last Night of the Proms in 2020, and she also composed a piece for the Paralympics Opening Ceremony in 2012. But she still admitted to being "so shocked" when the palace called last July, generating headlines about her being the first black woman to assume the role. "I had to remind the palace, I'm the first black person, full stop. There's never been a person of colour in this role, since 1626." Charles I created the role to take charge of his personal band, but today it mainly entails advising and composing. "I wrote something for the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey earlier in the year... and I did say to the palace my main objective is to be a kind of music ambassador," she said, adding that "children are my priority".
