International Piano

International Piano offers a rich mix of inspiration and guidance to pianists and piano fans around the world, from dedicated amateurs and students to professional pianists, teachers and aficionados. Celebrating the piano in all its forms, including the fortepiano and digital keyboards, each edition of our magazine is packed with interviews, features, news and reviews showcasing the top artists of today and yesteryear.

A polarising pianist of our time

International Piano

International Piano meets Danny Driver

The Gurwitz set for 2024 competition

Colette Maze dies aged 109

A Hamamatsu showcase

Levit records Mendelssohn

LETTERS • Write to International Piano, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB, email international.piano@markallengroup.com or tweet @IP_mag. Star letters will receive a free CD from Hyperion’s best-selling Romantic Piano Concertos series

A question of music criticism • Bryce Morrison investigates the nature of music criticism, its reach and its limitations, and the varied responses from those who question or assert its validity

Historical Perspectives • Mark Ainley offers an overview of the recorded legacy of one of the greatest of all 20th‑century pianists, Josef Hofmann, and suggests some essential listening

The Ill-Tempered Clavier • Charivari is excited by the prospect of a new way of presenting piano recitals with the opening of a new concert hall in London

Unfurling of the scroll • Behzod Abduraimov’s latest album presents a programme where East meets West, combining Ravel and Prokofiev with music from his native Uzbekistan. Michelle Assay meets him

GRAMOPHONE PRESENTS… MY CLASSICAL MUSIC

A towering Texan • This month’s Polarising Pianist is an American whose victory at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the height of the Cold War made front-page news. Bryce Morrison considers the meteoric rise, premature fall and overall legacy of Van Cliburn

Polish reflections • In London to collect his seventh Gramophone Award, Krystian Zimerman gives a rare interview to Jessica Duchen, and talks about recording Szymanowski, the challenges of touring and the need for good diplomacy

Fleeting impressions • Llŷr Williams introduces his new album of early piano masterworks by Robert Schumann

Haydn’s D major Piano Concerto • David Threasher introduces the most popular of Haydn’s keyboard concertos, Hob XVIII:11, which was composed around the same time as the Op 33 string quartets and whose melodiousness and high spirits have attracted pianists and other keyboard players ever since

RETURNING TO THE PIANO • A technical refresher course for recommencing piano enthusiasts, created for International Piano by Murray McLachlan

Discover more online at International-Piano.com • Visit our new website for more news, interviews, features and reviews

Valse gracile

Valse gracile, Op 49 No 3

Shedding light on the familiar and the unfamiliar • As the second volume of his survey of Beethoven’s complete variations is issued, Cédric Tiberghien talks to Peter J Rabinowitz about programming and recording this music and complementing it with other repertoire

Critics’ choice

ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Celebrating the piano’s music and musicians

Live Reviews

NEXT ISSUE SPRING 2024

Music as transformation • Ingrid Fliter talks about recordings that evoke special memories, with music that transports her to another dimension