Vienna Beethoven & Bösendorfer
Last May I returned to Vienna as a jury member of the Beethoven International Piano Competition. This competition has 50 years of heritage, taking place in the very city where Beethoven made his home and lived out his dramatic life. The University of Music & Performing Arts Vienna has hosted it since its founding. And this competition has an official partner piano that was established in Vienna just a year after Beethoven’s death; the Bösendorfer. The founder established what became known as the Viennese sound, and the company has remained loyal to that legacy ever since. When I recorded the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, I chose the Bösendorfer with the same reason – the Viennese finesse of its sound and its close tie to Beethoven. For multiple reasons, this jury invitation was deeply meaningful to me.
Unlike the Beethoven International Competition in Bonn, the Vienna competition requires candidates to perform Beethoven-only programs for each round; middle-period sonatas and Bagatelles/Variations for the first live round, and both early and late sonatas in the second live round – a great challenge as his early works and late works inhabit two different worlds.
As an experiment, the competition decided not to eliminate anyone after the first round, but to select the final three candidates after the first two rounds. All participants performed nearly two hours music each. I questioned whether this new procedure would affect the final selection, and I believe it did – in a rather positive sense. One German, one Austrian, and one American pianist advanced to the final.
The final round took place in the historic Goldener Saal of the Musikverein with the Wiener Symphoniker. This magnificent hall is shoebox-shaped, and the entire stage functions like a soundboard, creating a fantastic sound that reaches the very last row. It’s almost magical.
However, it was only the American pianist, Derek Hartman, who could fill the hall with clear, beautiful cantilena and complete musical conviction. The orchestra was sensitive and extremely supportive of the other two—Jonas Stark and Martin Nörbauer, who had proved themselves to be authentic Beethoven players in the previous rounds but it was no help. It seemed the hall had certain secrets, perhaps in the relation with the piano.
Derek Hartman offered another surprise with his own cadenza to the Fourth Concerto. He played an extremely long cadenza infused with jazz and an American flavor. It was entertaining, though rather incongruous for Beethoven. Still, this unpretentious voice felt true to the pianist and very refreshing to me. It reminded me of the young Beethoven, who appeared outlandish and divided Viennese music society. The jury’s opinions were divided, but the entire audience was enthralled. Whatever one’s taste, it was indisputable that Hartman’s Fourth Concerto was the evening’s best performance.
Hartman won first prize and with it received the Bösendorfer grand, generously donated by the company. The Bösendorfer team was thrilled to ship their piano to America for the first time in the competition’s history!
The riddle of the Goldener Saal stayed with me even after the competition. Recently when I corresponded with Derek Hartman, I asked whether the Bösendorfer from Vienna had adjusted well in his house. Suddenly I recalled what my piano technician during my eight years of recording in Berlin, used to tell me; the piano chooses its owner. Then it occurred to me that the decisive factor in the final result of the Vienna Beethoven Competition might have been nothing but the piano itself – the Bösendorfer. Having recorded over eight years on a Bösendorfer, I know well that this instrument responds only to a certain approach. It loves to sing, produces a big sound with free arm weight, but chokes when struck otherwise. In that sense, I came to believe that the piano chose the winner, and very rightfully so.
That Bösendorfer found its home in Tennessee.
