Rachmaninoff 150 with Nelson Goerner and Rach 3

Nelson Goerner was born in San Pedro, Argentina in 1969. After studying in Argentina with Jorge Garrubba, Juan Carlos Arabian and Carmen Scalcione, he was awarded First Prize in the Franz Liszt Competition in Buenos Aires in 1986. This led to a scholarship to work with Maria Tipo at the Geneva Conservatoire, and in 1990 he won the First Prize at the Geneva Competition. Since that moment, he has carved out a remarkable career behind the keyboard, as a solo performer, as a performer in duos with legendary artists such as Martha Argerich (with whom he shares great friendship and great musicianship), and as a member in competition juries and advisory boards.

He is best known for his interpretations of Chopin — he enjoys a long association with the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, where he is a member of the artistic advisory committee. His recordings on historical instruments as part of the Chopin Institute's ‘Real Chopin' series have won Diapason d'Or prizes.

There’s a perfect match between Nelson Goerner’s virtuoso and Romantic side and the music of Rachmaninoff. He played Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto (for the first time in public!) in 1990, at the final stage of the Geneva Competition! Bold choice if you ask me.

As part of this year’s Rachmaninoff celebrations, he performed the complete Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto cycle and other Rachmaninoff works at Teatro Colón and Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires.

On the 19th and 20th of October, his Rachmaninoff tour-de-force made a stop in Bucharest as well, where he joined the George Enescu Philharmonic and conductor Christian Badea in a performance of the grand and daunting Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30. The complex score allowed all of Goerner’s qualities to come across beautifully. In the hands of a thoughtful interpreter like him, timeless works can be heard and felt anew. A meaningful tribute from one great pianist to another.

Nelson Goerner’s humbleness can only be surpassed by his virtuosity and immense career. An honor and a pleasure to have interviewed him before his electrifying performance at the Romanian Athenaeum. He took me through his Rachmaninoff 150 concert series and revealed the works that have shaped his strong connection to the Russian pianist and composer.

It’s great to have you back at the Romanian Athenaeum, Mr. Goerner! You’re about to play Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3, one of the most technically challenging concertos in the classical repertoire. Joseph Hofmann, to whom the work was dedicated, never dared to play it in public. Let’s talk about the score. What’s so scary about it? How would you describe it?

Well, the score is, indeed, technically demanding. As a pianist, when you look at it, it seems that every possible pianistic difficulty is in there. But, the great thing about it is that is such a marvelous work of art, it is so strong, so beautiful, so poetic, so noble, that the pianist should make one forget about the difficulty. Otherwise, it means that he had not overcome it. The difficulty is something that has to be transcended, has to be overcome, so that the beauty of the piece can emerge. Otherwise, you are just listening to a difficult piece and nobody wants that. It’s such a wonderful concerto, among the most beautiful that have ever been written so one should be conscious of the music, not of the difficulty!

You’ve been celebrating Rachmaninoff throughout the year. Which performance are you most proud of? Which particular Rachmaninoff work do you think you play best?

I was very lucky to have the occasion to play all four concerti and also the Paganini Rhapsody last month in my home country, in Argentina. The Rachmaninoff Festival was done in the course of a very intense weeks of work with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires and Serbian Maestro Srba Dinić and I’m really happy that I could make this project happen. I have played the complete cycle before with Maestro Fabio Luisi in Leipzig in 2003 I think, but… a number of years obviously have passed, in the meantime I haven’t played the first and the fourth concerti at all, so I had to work on them entirely! It really was a phenomenal work and a very rewarding one!

Russian soul in music. Philosophical and psychological pieces (like Rachmaninoff’s third concerto) need to undergo a long-term thought process. What is your approach when studying Russians — Rachmaninoff in particular?

To be honest, there is something that is sometimes misunderstood in Rachmaninoff’s music and this is due to the fact that we have been listening to many, to my opinion, superficial interpretations, interpretations that only care about pleasing the public, because one knows that the audiences love Rachmaninoff and it is for good reason they do, of course. But we are not always aware of the great composer, in every sense, in the sense of structure, in the sense of depth of meaning that he really was. How every concerto is built on, in the sense that if you play, for example, with elasticity, which is of course something that you should have when playing music, every rubato is already written in the score. And if you follow the score, you simply cannot go wrong! It gives you such a good base for your interpretation, a base from which your fantasy can really blossom. The score already gives you the ground for interpretation, but then is your artistic potential who does the rest, it is your vision, your blood. But one should be aware, I think, and one is not always so aware that his music is very noble, it has a big line, you know… these beautiful melodies unfold and follow one to the other and nothing should be done for effect. I think my model has been the recordings of the composer himself because he plays in this way.

Rachmaninoff in duo with Martha Argerich. You share with her a superior command of technique and sheer musicianship that is rare among piano duos. Tell us more about your collaboration with Martha Argerich.

I love to play and work with Martha because we understand each other very well in what we really want in music. However different we can be, there is a wonderful, how should I say… complementary thing between us when we are playing together, I can feel it. I guess this makes the reaction of public very warm, they can feel it too. It’s that something that cannot be worked on, it’s a special communication that is rare and precious.

I imagine that relationships with composers change over time, I wonder how your relationship with Rachmaninoff has evolved since your early beginnings? What was your first experience with the music of Rachmaninoff?

I think the piece that I learned first was his Second Sonata, then I learned some of the Études-Tableaux, while I was already working on the Third Concerto! Actually, the third was the first Rachmaninoff concerto I’ve learned, and that was very good because…

You began with the most difficult!

Well, I think you have to start with this piece when you are young, so that you really have more time to evolve with it. Playing it from one concert to the other, it grows, you know. One is too scared if one starts late. You have to live with it.

You are praised for your interpretations of Chopin’s music and you said that you have most affinity with Romantic composers. Rachmaninoff and his music are still up for discussion — he found himself at the culmination of the Romantic period and the dawn of the 20th century. Is Rachmaninoff really Romantic? How would you describe his musical language and style?

He might be the last Romantic, indeed. But the great thing is that he’s not an epigone, you know… he’s not someone who imitates, he’s not saying again what has already been said. He uses and feels the Romantic language, because that’s his nature, in a very personal way. In a completely original way, a piece by Rachmaninoff doesn’t sound like anything else. Of course, sometimes you find influences, but the good thing is that he makes them his own. That’s why he’s so powerful. Already from the Prelude in C-sharp minor you can tell that he is in a class of his own.

Rachmaninoff was also a leading piano virtuoso of his time. We tend to talk about him mainly as a composer. How can you describe his piano playing?

He was maybe the greatest (laughs)! If there is such thing…

What about Liszt?

We have no recording of Liszt playing, so… probably there’s no such thing as “the greatest”, because it’s not a tournament… but if I have to choose one, it would be him, yes. Fortunately, I’m not obliged to do so, because there are many pianists that I love, but he’s indeed one of my top favorites.

The large hands philosophy. Rachmaninoff had very large hands, it is said that he could span a 12th. How can other pianists get around Rachmaninoff’s writing? What are the most common fears when playing Rachmaninoff? Physical versus emotional demands — technique versus interpretation.

The thing is that the physical and emotional aspects should be integrated. One is working of course on technique, but you’re working on technique for a superior aim, for a musical ideal, and so in that sense you are more than just a pair of hands, because you are not doing a slave work, you know, you are not forcing… and one should never force the sound. When you listen to Rachmaninoff’s recordings, he can do the most difficult things… and also with Horowitz for example, without a hint of effort. It sounds effortlessly, so we are conscious of the music, as I was saying at the beginning of our conversation. Of course, I don’t have the span of Rachmaninoff, but what is more important than the actual span is the elasticity of the hand in order to play his music well.

Rachmaninoff considered his Second Piano Concerto his best written composition. What’s your favorite Rachmaninoff composition and why?

For me, it’s the third. Perhaps it’s the most complete… but I also love No. 4. For me, No. 4 is still to be discovered by the audience. It’s played very seldom and it’s not the usual Rachmaninoff, he’s incorporated here new elements in his writing, in his idiom to create something that is really powerful. For me, the Fourth Concerto is still a jewel that needs to be brought to life.

Tell us some best Rachmaninoff recordings. Do you have a favorite Rachmaninoff interpreter?

Yes! I remember I was very impressed in my young days with Ashkenazy playing the Third Concerto, that was beautiful. Of course, with the Second Concerto and the Rhapsody, there are recordings by Benno Moiseiwitsch which are absolutely wonderful, I think his Rhapsody… you cannot do it better! Is really phenomenal. There is also a wonderful live recording of the Second Concerto by Walter Gieseking with Mengelberg conducting. There are quite a few!

Tell us what place Rachmaninoff holds for you in the Russian pantheon. You don’t play Prokofiev that much, do you?

Not that much, although I play his second and third piano concerti and some of the sonatas, I definitely play much more Rachmaninoff. He’s closer to me. When it comes to repertoire, there’s a matter of affinity and that’s something unavoidable.

If you could sit down and have dinner with Rachmaninoff, what would you ask him? (I made him laugh with this one)

Plenty of things! I think I would simply love to play for him, for him to guide me, to see if I am on the right path… many, many things. I would love to see him at the keyboard playing himself. It’s such a pity we don’t have film recordings with him.

I recently came across an old interview of Krystian Zimerman, who said that music is organising emotions in time. We rarely speak about music, we speak about our reaction to it. What do you think music is?

I don’t know. Music is so much bigger than ourselves… It would be an endless task to try to describe it. You can underline some aspects of music, but never music as a whole. So, music is there not to be talked about, but to be played and to be listened to.