The Southend piano prodigy taking the world by storm
Benjamin Grosvenor, 25, may just be the best young pianist in the world, says Ivan Hewett, who meets an astonishing talent
If you were asked who is the most exciting young pianist around right now, you’d probably opt for Yuja Wang or the flamboyant, showstopping talent of Lang Lang. Both are from China. Or you might argue for Daniil Trifonov, who is from Russia. But there’s a new contender in town who is not only equal to these three greats but possibly even better. And guess what? He’s British.
The career of 25-year-old Benjamin Grosvenor, who comes from Southend, has been an almost vertical ascent in a few short years, an unbroken series of competition wins and ecstatically received debuts in concert halls all round the world. He won the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year at the age of only 11, and seven years later performed at the First Night of the BBC Proms. In the same year, he became the youngest ever musician to be signed to Decca Classics and the first British pianist in 60 years. Now he’s constantly on the road, en route from one high-profile venue and orchestra to the next.
It’s the life most pianists only reach in their 40s, if ever, and rarely by pianists from these shores. “A pianist to make you sigh with joy,” exclaimed the critic of The New York Times. “Perhaps the most remarkable young pianist of our time,” said Bryce Morrison, the veteran music critic.
What makes Grosvenor even more remarkable is his modest beginnings. His earliest concerts were in local church halls and a local fish and chip shop. When he was young, he didn’t attend a prodigious music academy but went to his local grammar school. Furthermore, his most formative musical experiences came from within the family household where, as a child, he shared a room with his brother (he is one of six boys). “My mother is a music teacher, and she taught me at home,” says Grosvenor. “I suppose I was always quite disciplined.”
That discipline is audible: Grosvenor has a perfectly honed technique. He’s unfazed by the most tumultuous passages in Ravel or Liszt. He has an exquisitely layered touch that recalls a bygone era. There’s an aristocratic ease about him that seems all the more miraculous given that Grovesnor has none of the aristocratic languor affected by some young pianists one could name.
He’s just won yet another award, the first ever Ackman Classical Piano Prize, donated by two long-time supporters of the New York Philharmonic. As a result of that, Grosvenor performs a series of concerts this week in New York with the orchestra, but this doesn’t worry him. When he performed with this notoriously tough orchestra four years ago, he received rave reviews.
So what’s his secret? Grosvenor admits there is no mystery, he’s simply hugely focused. “I had other interests when I was young but over time my focus became more and more the piano. From the age of 11 I was always busy preparing for concerts, so that gave me a focus.” But surely there were periods when he rebelled?
Even the most serious pianists like Murray Perahia and Stephen Hough recall idling away large parts of their teenage years, before realising that they really had to get down to it. Grosvenor thinks for a moment before saying, simply: “No, I never rebelled. I was always happy to be at the piano.”
Does he practise long hours or does he just soak things up like a sponge? “Well, I think there are faster learners out there. I do an average of six hours or so a day, not more unless I’m preparing for something really huge. The law of diminishing returns sets in if you practise more than that.”
It was his grandfather who first introduced him to the world of concert piano. “We would listen to great pianists at places like the Festival Hall, and he introduced me to a recording of the Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti, which I still love,” says Grosvenor. “He actually wanted to be a concert pianist himself.” Grosvenor speaks with palpable fondness whenever he discusses his family – he is the youngest of the brothers, all of whom played musical instruments. “They all gave it up before I became serious about the piano.”
He even gained a place at the world-famous Yehudi Menuhin School for gifted children at the age of nine but left after two days because he missed his siblings. He speaks with special affection of one in particular,
Grosvenor comes from modest beginnings. One of his earliest concerts was in a fish and chip shop
Jonathan, who has Down’s syndrome. “He loves pop music and listens to it an awful lot. That and writing are his two passions.” Does he come to your concerts? “He did. During my teens he would travel with my mother. He still comes now and again, but it’s not really his thing. He says there’s not enough bass!”
Was Grosvenor ever a pop music listener himself? “Well, thanks to my brother I heard a lot. It was quite a noisy household, with me playing the piano on one side, and him with his pop music on the other, and I suppose some unhappy neighbours on either side.”
Does he have time for a private life? “Oh yes. I’m actually meeting my girlfriend and some friends tonight for sushi.” Is she a musician too? He won’t say. “I like company,” he continues, “but I’m not the life and soul of the party. When I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music I lived at home in Southend, which I now think was a mistake, as I didn’t make a very wide circle of friends. But you have to spend a lot of time on your own as a student of the piano… that’s why I love playing with other musicians more than giving recitals.”
Grosvenor is reluctant to come across as sounding too opinionated. In the past he has passionately attacked cuts to music teaching in secondary schools. I ask him whether he’s a political animal. “Of course!” he says. Why of course? “Well, in the sense that everyone has a duty to vote.”
I remark that many musicians describe themselves as “apolitical”.
“Well that’s a way of avoiding the question in interviews like this,” he laughs. “I am Left-leaning, I suppose, but I don’t think the world wants to know about my political beliefs. If I do say something more, people will decide I’m one of those musicians who can be relied on for a quote about political matters, and I don’t want to be one of them.”
Grosvenor may be only 25, but he already has a shrewd idea of how the world works. That, combined with his amazing talent, will surely make his career a long as well as starry one.
Benjamin Grosvenor appears with the New York Philharmonic from April 4-10 (nyphil.org) and at the Southbank Centre on April 26 (southbankcentre.co.uk)