Julian Hellaby “The Topic of Piano Performance”

2019 December 10, Tuesday, 13:00

LMTA Building 1: Juozas Karosas Hall (Gedimino Ave. 42, Vilnius) 

JULIAN HELLABY (piano), LECTURE-CONCERT “THE TOPIC OF PIANO PERFORMANCE” 

Leonard Ratner’s book Classic Music: Expression, Form and Style (1980) pioneered the notion of topics as “subject for musical discourse” and with the appearance of topics, a particular theory of musical meaning was able to gain traction. Thus later writers such as Raymond Monelle (2000, 2006) took this theory down a semiotic path, expanding Ratner’s 18th-century focus to include the Romantic era. In this he has been accompanied by Kofi Agawu (2009) and Janice Dickensheets (2012). Monelle also briefly touched on topics in 20th- and 21st-century music and there has been a small body of writing on the subject of 20th-century composers’ topical use by, amongst others, Walter Frisch (2008) and Johanna Frymoyer (2017).

Nevertheless, the focal period of most topic theory remains the 18th century and, significantly, the very substantial Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory (2014) hardly explores any repertoires outside those of the Classical period, and topic-related performance is only considered in passing – there are just three chapters, largely concerned with the interpretation of Mozart’s music. It is therefore the aim of this talk further to extend the study of topicality by assessing how performance can interact and engage with its perceived presence in a range of styles and periods.

For the pianist, an appreciation of topicality has the capacity to affect interpretative decisions, especially if the topic is not named in a work’s title (e.g. ‘Minuet in G’) but is discovered within the setting of a parent work such as a sonata or a ballade. For example, the identification of a waltz topic in a Chopin Ballade or a hunt topic in a Classical sonata movement provides interpretative insights which can be projected in performance.

The Topic of Piano Performance thus explores the interface between topic and interpretation and features performances by the presenter of music by C. P. E. Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Balakirev and John Ireland. It concludes with a consideration of how topical awareness fits in to a wider view of interpretation and discusses possible performance models.

Julian Hellaby (PhD) studied piano with the distinguished British pianist Denis Matthews and later at London’s Royal Academy of Music. He has performed as solo pianist, concerto soloist and chamber musician in continental Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South Africa and throughout the UK, including recitals in the Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room and the Curch of St Martin-in-the-Fields. He has taught academic music at Coventry University and London College of Music, and also has extensive experience of piano teaching at all levels, including masterclasses for ABRSM, EPTA and other organisations. He has released several CDs as solo and collaborative pianist. Julian Hellaby is the author of two monographs on the art of music performance, Reading Musical Interpretation (Ashgate, 2009) and The Mid-Twentieth-Century Concert Pianist: An English Experience (Routledge, 2018).