The Piano: UK TV programme

keff · 2024-05-18T08:50:00+00:00

A second series of "The Piano" has started on UK television and invites amateur pianists to play street pianos which have been located in railway stations. I...

keff

This video was taken from the broadcast on Sunday 26May24 and contains a very emotional story.

keff

MRC

I watched a couple of minutes: enough! The 10 year old is indeed very good, but the music is constantly interrupted by the comments of the two presenters. This is not how to educate an audience.

thepianoplayer416

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Reaction from the professional pianist Matthew Cawood what he thinks about the show.
He's saying that the show presented the backstory of an individual as more important than their piano playing.

Anyway, there was another story at St. Pancras station a few months ago totally unrelated to the show but nonetheless interesting. It involved the professional pianist Brandon Kavanagh at the station recording his own playing for YouTube with some Chinese tourists in the background. Not going to get into details of the news story.

As always, there are great performers out there waiting to be discovered. Hearing them perform on a public piano is always a treat. The last public piano I came across was at the corner of a shopping mall. It's an old piano painted over with nice patterns and labelled as "Play Me..."

keff

thepianoplayer416 In the case of this show the backstory is very important, perhaps more so than the music. The backstory illustrates the power of music and piano playing to peoples' wellbeing, an aspect probably well understood by members of PT. Many of the people on the show have been able to use music and piano playing to overcome life's problems and I find that quite moving.

PS The video by Matthew Cawood is about series 1 and to my mind the production company learned from their experience and made something better for series 2 currently on TV.

Pallas

keff Many of the people on the show have been able to use music and piano playing to overcome life's problems and I find that quite moving.

Me too. And also, I'm doing that myself - making my mental health better with piano.

thepianoplayer416

There are people who play from the score. Many learners follow sheet music. Like a young man playing a technical Haydn piece with precise execution of the notes. Others play from the heart. They hear sound as having emotions than just a collection of notes in a specific order to give an arrangement. The pieces they play don’t come from a script written by other people like Mozart, Haydn or Beethoven. The music is very intimate and has a personal touch. Some can turn a well-known piece like a Chopin Nocturne into something original even when the theme (main melody) is familiar.

ShiroKuro

thepianoplayer416 There are people who play from the score. ...[cut]... Others play from the heart.

The only thing I want to say here is that, IMO, playing from a score does not preclude playing from the heart. And playing an original piece, improvising or otherwise playing without a score does not necessarily mean that one is playing the heart.

Pallas

ShiroKuro I agree with that. When I saw Scriabin's Prometheus performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the pianist played from the score, but I didn't know that until the end of the performance. I was enthralled by his passionate playing.

SouthPark

ShiroKuro The only thing I want to say here is that, IMO, playing from a score does not preclude playing from the heart.

Absolutely. Some people love the music from the score so much that that will play from the heart or where ever it generates from ... eg. the brain/mind. And even if they're not fully into it ... they can certainly still play something ... from the 'heart' ... from inside. A connection. A relation.

And of course there are people that do play from score and play 'by ear' ... depending on conditions etc.

Sophia

Completely off topic and please realize that I'm in a very silly mood. This is how I imagine how a discussion on this forum would go: titled

Playing from memory vs score

Thread:

It depends on what the player wants to do.

/Thread

Now imagine such a topic on another forum... oh the controversy 😁🤣😬

Sorry, I'll run now 🤪🤫

Nightowl

I watched the final tonight, it was very enjoyable and every player brought something different to the audience. I've no idea how they decided who won the accolade of player of the evening, but if I heard correctly they said that each player would receive a new piano! 🙂 Some of the final seven have already been booked to play in other music events/concerts, so the programme is helping them to further their careers. Also, money raised from ticket sales was used to buy new pianos for more railway stations. Great result all around.

keff

Nightowl I need to watch the programme again but I think all the finalists received a new Boston upright. Finalists of series 1 also received new pianos. I am wondering if there will be another episode which shows more of the performances.

ShiroKuro

Ooh I want to see the finale!

I’m interested that the piano given was was a Boston, given that the show was in the UK. Maybe Boston/S&S is doing a big push to get more business there?

keff

ShiroKuro I will watch out for excerpts of the final appearing on YT and can post them in this thread. In series 1 Essex uprights were awarded to the finalists but this year I thought I glimpsed the word Boston. I hope to watch the programme again tonight whilst clearing up after dinner.

keff

ShiroKuro Ooh I want to see the finale

Final Concert. Performance no.2

keff

Correction: After watching again I now believe I was wrong with Boston and they were Essex, just like series 1.

Nightowl

@keff, I was curious and googled Boston and Essex pianos - it seems they are both upright pianos, designed and sold by Steinway. According to the Steinway UK site the Essex piano range has various models which are priced at £8,000 to £10,000. Nice gift for any budding pianist. They look beautiful and have solid wood cases (which is not always the case nowadays, with many pianos being cased in MDF, probably sturdy enough but not as beautiful as real wood).

ShiroKuro

I have never played an Essex upright, but when it comes to the grands, I prefer Boston to Essex.... Which doesn't detract from how great it would be to receive an Essex upright for free!

keff

The video below shows one of the finalists being coached by Lang Lang in preparation for the final concert. His foster parents also talk about how he started with piano.

keff

Final concert. Performance no.1

ShiroKuro

keff Thanks for posting these, Keff! I started with the last one, Brad's. I like it but it sounds like it should be a much longer composition, I wonder if he was coached to shorten it?