For pianist Robert Silverman, it’s all Chopin, all the time
The popularity of Fryderyk Chopin knows no bounds. To quote McMaster University professor emeritus Alan Walker, whose 736-page tome on Chopin drops on Oct. 16, one day before the 169th anniversary of the composer’s death, “At any given moment, somewhere in the world someone is playing Chopin.”
And in the moments between 2 and 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 29, that somewhere will be the Hamilton Conservatory, and that someone performing an all-Chopin recital will be the acclaimed pianist-pedagogue, Robert Silverman.
For the Montreal-born, Vancouver-based Silverman, who turns 80 on May 25, studying and performing Chopin at this stage of his career is not so much a matter of coming full circle as it is of reacquainting himself with works played in his earlier years.
“Over the past 15 years or so, I seem to have spent a lot of time relearning and recording the works of a particular composer: Beethoven sonatas (twice), Mozart, Brahms (yet again) and, most recently, Chopin, whom I’d played a lot of when I was younger, but not much for the past quarter-century,” wrote Silverman in an email to The Spectator. “However, he has occupied many of my waking thoughts for the past three years. My approach to music-making and piano-playing has changed quite a lot over time, but none of these changes applied to my performance of Chopin’s music.”
A couple of years ago, Silverman recorded “Chopin’s Last Waltz,” a 50-minute, seven-title, all-Chopin effort that was released on vinyl and for DSD download by Ray Kimber’s Utahbased IsoMike.
In an interview with stereophile.com, which chose “Chopin’s Last Waltz” as its February 2018 recording of the month, Silverman shared some thoughts on the iconic, Polishborn pianist-composer.
“So many people think of Chopin as a tunesmith, but he was as serious and as talented a composer as anybody, with a sense of counterpoint that’s different than Bach, but better than anyone since Bach — and I include Beethoven in that, frankly. And he was an original thinker. He had a language that really was his own, and it probably did develop out of the way he played the piano. In some of the great pieces, like the Ballade no. 4 op. 52 or the Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat op. 61, he really did invent a different way of composing fairly largescale pieces.”
The “Polonaise-Fantaisie” op. 61, which Silverman recorded for release this fall along with Chopin’s four scherzos, will open the second half of his HCA bill. It will be followed by the “Trois Valses”
op. 64, the most famous of which is no. 1 whose nickname “Minute Waltz” refers to its tinyness rather than its duration. The op. 64 set of three waltzes is the last work Chopin saw published in his lifetime. The second half will end with the aforementioned “Ballade no. 4” op. 52.
Silverman will open with the “Prelude in C Sharp Minor” op. 45 and continue with the “Sonata no. 2” op. 35, which ranks among the greatest piano works of the 19th century thanks, in part, to its famous Marche funèbre third movement. The first half is to conclude with the “Ballade no. 1” op. 23.
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Thursday, April 26, at 8 p.m. in The Spice Factory, 121 Hughson St. N., Cem Zafir’s Zula Presents showcases Montreal’s Mercury and Hamilton’s Eschaton. Suggested: $10-$15, or pay what you can.
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Saturday, April 28 at 7 p.m. in The Church of St. John the Evangelist, 320 Charlton Ave. W., the New Hamilton Opera Company takes its first step in growing an opera company for the city by presenting mezzo Jean Stilwell and Hamilton soprano Loralee McGuirl in arias and duets with
collaborative pianist Robert Horvath. Musical guests: flutist Máté Szigeti, and the Cricket Chamber Orchestra. Tickets: $35, student $25, under 12 free.
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Saturday at 7 p.m. in St. Anthony of Padua Church, 165 Prospect St. N., the Hamilton Italo-Canadian Band performs opera tunes and marches. Free-will offering.
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Sunday, April 29, at 3 p.m. in MacNeill Baptist, 1145 Main St. W., Laurel Forshaw and the Strata Vocal Ensemble pay musical tribute to the sun, moon, and stars with a concert entitled “Strata’s Sphere” (ba-dum ching!). The bill includes Robert Ingari’s “Soleils couchants,” Steve Zegree’s arrangement of “Moon River,” Randall Thompson’s “Choose Something Like a Star” and more — though alas, no “Eight Miles High” (ba-dum ching!) by The Byrds. Clap long enough, and the encore is Kirby Shaw’s take on George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun.” Tickets: $20, under 35 $10.