The Orford Music festival offers us a big surprise on Friday by offering us the first concert in Quebec of the German pianist Schaghajegh Nosrati. Protected, then assistant, of András Schiff, she has already made a name for herself in the interpretation of Bach’s music. She will replace Martin Helmchen for the most unexpected evening of our musical summer.
It was to be one of the great piano recitals of the summer. Fans awaited the return, on July 22 and 23, in Orford, of Martin Helmchen. Alas, the German pianist has canceled his presence in North America this summer. The alternative solution found by Wonny Song, general and artistic director of Orford Music, dispels all regret and gives rise to great expectations. Chosen to launch the concert series “ Rising Stars from Gilmore Hall, London, in September 2021, invited to do the same in November 2022 for the four “ Distinctive Debuts Carnegie Hall annuals, Schaghajegh Nosrati, born in Bochum, Germany, 33 years ago, has already caught the attention of the To have to during the pandemic with his record of Six parts of Bach. He was selected in November 2021 among the best devoted to this composer.
It was Bach, moreover, who made Mme Nosrati, winner of the Leipzig Bach Competition in 2014.
a mentor
She was 25 when she entered the Leipzig Bach Competition. “It wasn’t my first competition, but what bothered me about competitions, in general, was the immutable menu: a brief work by Bach, a study by Chopin, a sonata. I was thirsty for larger works, more meaningful music. At the Bach Competition in Leipzig, you could prepare a large program without any real constraints. Basically, I had nothing to lose: anyway, I was learning this music, and whatever happened in the competition, I would feel victorious thanks to the freedom felt during the preparation”, says the pianist interviewed by The duty.
Then the best happened. Not only Schaghajegh Nosrati won the 1er prize, but the president of the competition, the eminent musicologist and pianist Robert Levin, worked in favor of the winner. “Robert Levin wrote to Mr. Schiff, asking him to audition me. I played in front of him, and that’s how our collaboration began. »
And this collaboration is out of the ordinary. There are, of course, many quotes from the great pianist extolling the merits of Schaghajegh Nosrati (“It is very rare that young musicians know so well Bach’s music as Schaghajegh Nosrati. She understands and plays this great music with astonishing clarity, purity and maturity”, he said, among other things), but, above all, a deep relationship of musical esteem has been established over the years.
“When I met him, Mr. Schiff had created a series of concerts for young pianists. When I played for him, he immediately invited me for the subsequent season. I then took lessons with him. Then he asked me if I wanted to do concerts, the Concertos for two pianos Bach, with his orchestra, the Capella Andrea Barca, on tour in 2018. It was obviously a great experience. Then he started teaching in Berlin, at the Barenboim-Said Academy. It was just before the end of my studies in Hannover. Mr. Schiff asked me if I wanted to study another year with him in Berlin. »
At the end of this year, Schaghajegh Nosrati obtained a ” Artist Diploma and an unexpected proposal, since her mentor asked her to become his assistant at the Academy. “It’s a huge responsibility because he only comes once a month. My role is to prepare students for the various courses with him. This is how we work together, while continuing to play concertos by Bach in concert, but also scores by Schumann or the Liebeslieder-Walzer of Brahms. »
Since childhood
As his mentor rightly observed, it is very rare for young musicians to know Bach’s music so well. “I started the piano at four years old, but thanks to my parents, I had learned to listen to and appreciate music, and in particular that of Bach, before. Bach is therefore like a musical mother tongue. The artist’s first piano teacher also encouraged his young pupil to practice Bach. “We increased the level of difficulty little by little. »
My repertoire has always been broad and balanced between known and unknown works. I play contemporary music, I want to have a wide range while deepening
Bach’s interpretation, of which I want to record the complete
Did she have fun, even so young? “Yes, I’ve always had an attraction for music constructed according to logical principles. There was the initial attraction. Then I felt the emotional content. Of course, as a teenager, I had my Chopin phase, but I went back to Bach. In fact, you never get tired of it, neither working on it nor playing it, because you always discover something in it, a facet, a path, whereas even for very great composers, there always comes a time when I I have to take a break to recharge my batteries, recharge the batteries. »
Schaghajegh Nosrati sees Bach as a mixture of logic and emotions. Does she perceive how the balance between the two has evolved? “When I was young, all this was not concrete, but more intuitive. As we evolve, we study, we analyze, we understand. Everything depends, in fact, on the degree of interiorization and assimilation of the works. The more they are digested, the freer we are. If you don’t need to think about structural issues, you can live in the moment. »
The pianist says that, seen from the outside, the variations in the interpretation will appear as details, but that in her eyes, small details have big meanings. “That’s why I have a lot of trouble listening to my recordings. When a record comes out, I’m already emotionally somewhere else. Spacing in time, on the other hand, makes things easier, and the surprise is often rather happy. »
For meme Nosrati, to deepen the works, it is also to make more musical associations, not only in Bach, but with other composers. “It’s a life’s work which is then reflected in the development of sound. Pianists are often obsessed with the idea of producing a big sound, but many of them are unaware that sound is not defined by loudness. Loudness is a small part of what defines fullness of sound. The “good sound” comes from understanding. Now, from understanding comes a meaning, and from this meaning comes a depth of sound. Obviously, my sound is far from complete. It is the work of a lifetime. But that’s what I acquired through contact with András Schiff: the depth of his sound emanates from the depth of his musical science. »
Alkan in New York
Schaghajegh Nosrati certainly runs the risk of being cataloged as a pianist specializing exclusively in Bach. “My repertoire has always been broad and balanced between known and unknown works. I play contemporary music, I want to have a wide range while deepening the interpretation of Bach, of which I want to record the integral. »
The young German agrees that her discographic career is “strange”, since it started with the most complex, The art of running away. “But nothing prevents you from recording a work twice,” she points out. For the Carnegie Hall program, she consulted her mentor. “I spoke with Mr. Schiff. He had heard me at the Lucerne festival playing Alkan and, even if it is not his repertoire at all, he found it very good, rare and representative of another facet of my playing.
The Orford concert will not be his first in Canada. Schaghajegh Nosrati once performed at the Vancouver Recital Society in the Goldberg Variations in March 2018. “I was invited back, but the concert was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19. This will be my second time in Canada, and my first in Quebec. »
The management of Orford Musique wanted some Bach — it will be the 2e partita — and Brahms, a composer whose pianist has chosen theOpus 116. Between the two, she will play the Sonata in E flat major, Hob. XVI: 52 by Haydn. A precious meeting.