After Beethoven’s Own Heart ‘The piano schools of the past generations started to lose [their grasp on] what music was all about. It’s about feeling. It’s about magic. It’s about making the public dream. All the rest is not important.’
Considered as one of the ‘best Beethoven soloists of our time,’ maestro Christian Leotta brings his expertise to Philippine shores.
Ican imagine what it’s like to be at the home of Italian maestro Christian Leotta. The sound of Ludwig van
Beethoven’s romantic sonata or the classic symphonies of Franz Schubert would ethereally fill his house with every stroke of his fingers on his grand piano. The virtuoso pianist says that he practices every day as a form of mental and physical exercise.
“Well, the first thing you should do is practice, second is practice, third is practice,” he says after being asked how he reached that level of mastery in his craft. He is known to “hypnotize” audiences with his performances.
Maestro Christian held a one night concert at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) last Tuesday, his Philippine debut. The performance titled “An Evening With Christian Leotta: From Bach to the Romantic Piano of Schubert, Rossini and Beethoven,” was presented by the Embassy of Italy in Manila, the Philippine Italian Association, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
A piano virtuoso since he was young, Christian started playing the piano at age seven. At 11, he already knew how to play every classical piece, and at 14, he performed in his first international concert in Japan. At age 22, he was hailed as the youngest pianist since Daniel Barenboim to perform and record all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas.
But it takes more than practice to become a great pianist, the 34-year- old mu- sician says. “Of course you must be lucky, too, and study with good teachers who know how to perform the music the right way and style.”
He studied at the Milan Conservatory under Mario Patuzzi and was a former pupil of acclaimed pianist Karl Ulrich
Schnabel. He then studied at the Theo Lieven International Piano Foundation and at the Tureck Bach Research Foundation in Oxford, England with
Rosalyn Tureck. “Schnabel was the best student of Theodor Leschetizky, who was, in turn,
the best student of Carl Czerny, who was the best student of Beethoven himself. So when I was with him, he shared with me tremendous tradition, knowledge coming directly from Beethoven. It’s actually the only direct line that exists,” he says.
Classical music is not easy. Christian says that all compositions by the Masters are difficult to perform. That is why one needs to train a lot, even virtuosos like him.
“This music requires, in each second, the highest level of concentration, passion, and knowledge. This gives me the highest pleasure. That’s why I perform. One hundred percent of my recitals are by master composers,” he says. “These classical composers, all of them are difficult. I wouldn’t say Schubert is bet- ter than Beethoven or he is better than
Mozart. They are all very, very, difficult. They have the same language that they share very well.”
“After the ‘70s, everything started to change. Everything became focused on perfection. What’s perfection? Everything became more mechanical. The piano schools of the past generations started to lose [their grasp on] what music was all about. It’s about feeling. It’s about magic. It’s about making the public dream. All the rest is not important,” he explains.
It saddens him that younger pianists forget about these aspects and that very few now play the classical music of Beethoven, Mozart, or Schubert. “These are the most difficult, the most profound compositions, and they require all knowledge of the performer and their styles, otherwise, there is no point in performing.”
There is even less appreciation of classical music. While most young music lovers prefer the upbeat, auto-tuned popular music, Christian says the only solution is to expose them to more classical sounds, whether at malls or restaurants.
“They are intimidated because classical music is not heard anymore,” he points out. “Where do you listen to classical music? They should start playing at all shops, all restaurants, all train stations, all television channels, and let’s see what happens. If we do that, maybe in two years time, people will fall in love again with classical music.”