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Russian-Canadian pianist Viviana Sofronitsky
gave a wonderful musical show last week in Latvia,
performing great piano works from four masters,
using four different instruments uniquely
associated with each composer.
The series of concerts in the tour were organized by
Inna Davidova, Latvia’s chief musical impresario.
The first concert by Ms.Sofronitsky from the series
of fortepiano shows which Viviana Sofronitsky gives
in Latvia is just finished.
She plays wonderfully, and clearly loves her work.
She was playing today on 4 pianos from different time.
Normally very reserved public is totally excited about performance,
they even run on stage and crowded the instruments eager
to see them closer and examine how they function inside.
Viviana, we congratulate you on a great debut in Latvia,
would you tell us please:Do you expect such a heated response from
a very refined and restrained public?
First of all, I did not notice that the public were restrained,
albeit a very sophisticated audience, indeed!
In fact, I'm used to enthusiastic responses
because my pianos go right into people’s hearts.
As for me I want to show people what I find the most beautiful
and dear to my heart and share it with other people
What was the first moment when the angel
touched you by his wings:when you first came up with this idea,
or when you realized that you, yourself are really fascinated
by sounds of different pianos-historical instruments?
I studied at Moscow Conservatory, which is a very good school of modern piano,
but my heart is attracted to the old music,
so I moved to America to study the harpsichord.
It was a long story and a long passage to where you see me now:
these are different pianos, different among themselves,
coming to me not all at once but one after the other.
The earliest pianos are Stein and Walter
Stein is probably the first which was reproduced following the correct data–
the reason that in order to have the get correct information,
you need to take piano apart and you can do it only
during restoration which is rare.
The result is that without this knowledge,there are many so called “steins’
which have the soundboard 4 mm instead of 2mm–
you can imagine how violin would sound if someone
would make its resonating body double thickness–
they not sounding well and not touching the heart.
There was more luck with information about Walter.
It was later that Paul built a Graf and when it first sounded
I discovered for myself what is Schubert.
you are a lucky person-you've found for yourself
an ideal match of how different music pieces should sound,
and what musical instruments can bring it into being;
you also have a collection,
you have great luck that you can diversify your palette...
There was time when I was only interested in old music
and very modern avant garde music.
Later from old music the interest moved to small pianos
and after to Pleyel and Chopin.
Now Paul is making a copy of favorite Liszt’s piano,
which is instrument for main repertoire
so the circle is getting connected.
Many things are returning to their normal circles;
we arrive to the sources from which we started,
as a result of technical progress,
looking for, say, ‘to improve the good’,
we were, in fact, losing a sense of the sound ideal.
I don’t think the reason was ‘to improve the good’.
There were many reasons to explain why we have now
only one kind of piano in all concert halls,
among these unfortunately also financial.
I am sure that many people here
wish they would love to have all 4 pianos at home.
It takes many working hours to make a piano like this,
so they are not cheap… on the other hand,
if you buy a piano, you will have it for many generations.
We hope that after 200 years,
there will be still a need
for a variety of piano music, from Bach to Chopin,
on their different instruments.
Let romantic music sound on of romantic pianos
and classical on classical fortepianos, as we heard today.
The main thing is that that music should sound,
and, as was correctly said by Viviana,
that this music shall resonate in our hearts.