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An Interview with...
Freddy Kempf
Freddy Kempf is one of
today’s most successful young artists performing to sell-out
audiences all over the world. He has built a unique reputation both as an explosive and physical
performer not afraid to take
risks as well as serious, sensitive and profoundly musical artist.
Born in London
in 1977, Freddy Kempf began piano lessons at the age of four. He came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year
Competition following a
memorable performance of Rachmaninov’s Paganini Variations. It was his award of third prize in the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow that
rapidly established his international career. For him not to have won first prize provoked protests from the audience and
an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him ‘the hero of the competition’. His unprecedented popularity with Russian audiences since then
has been reflected in many sold-out concerts and numerous television broadcasts.
Many international débuts followed including engagements at the Munich Gasteig, the Alter Oper in
Frankfurt,
Berlin’s Philharmonie
and Konzerthaus, New York’s
92nd Street ‘Y’, Chicago’s Grant Park Festival, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus,
Salzburg’s Mozarteum and the Concertgebouw amongst others.
Freddy Kempf has worked with the world’s leading orchestras
and acclaimed conductors such as the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis
and Kurt Sanderling,
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti and Matthias Bamert, La Scala Philharmonic
Orchestra and Riccardo
Chailly, St. Petersburg Philharmonic
Orchestra and Yuri Termirkanov, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
and Yan Pascal Tortelier, Philadelphia
Orchestra and Wolfgang
Sawallisch,
European Union Youth Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy, Prague Philharmonia and Jiří
Bělohlávek and
the Sao Paolo
State Symphony Orchestra and
Carlos Kalmar.
Recent and forthcoming highlights include engagements with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
Philharmonia Orchestra, City
of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra,
European Union Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonia, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra,
Prague Philharmonia,
Staatstheater Stuttgart,
Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta,
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
A committed recitalist, Freddy Kempf has
built up dedicated audiences world-wide appearing at major venues around the UK and Europe. Current highlights include return visits
to the Moscow Grand Conservatory, St. Petersburg Philharmonia,
Conservatorio G. Verdi Milano and in October 2009 Freddy Kempf will
perform a UK recital
tour with a programme featuring
Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
Freddy Kempf records exclusively for BIS Records, for whom he
has recorded recital discs of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov
and Schumann.
How did you first make the move into music and what attracted you to the Piano?
The first memory I have of music as such was
an old record player. My parents said that I was always so interested in TVs/stereos/radios that eventually aged 2 or 3 they
cut the legs off an old record player and let me have it. I remember constantly playing the soundtrack to Disney's The Jungle
Book.
The
first memory of the piano was most probably either in The Jungle Book itself or just hearing it on the radio. I was just fascinated
by the sound.
Having said all of the above it is still pretty
much coincidence - as the real reason I liked the record player was simply that it was more hi-tech than say my teddy bears.
Finally aged 4 my parents took me to a toy shop to choose a Christmas present. Again
fate dragged me towards an electric organ/keyboard but again the reasoning behind it was not as one might think. I simply
saw that out of everything in the entire shop the keyboard was the MOST expensive item. Little did I know that as a result
I wouldn't actually get any other presents, so as a result I was forced to play with my little keyboard. By New Year I was
convinced I'd mastered the thing already and proudly showed my mother the last piece in the instruction-booklet - and she
to my dismay then showed me that the keyboard could also be played with BOTH hands. That was the point where I started nagging
my parents for a piano teacher.
Who has
been the major inspiration in your musical career?
This is a tough question. I've had so many
different inspirations from so many different sources. I think the only way I can really answer this by saying that my most
vivid inspirations came from actual performances - i.e. where I was in the audience. One that I will never forget for whatever
reason was when I was at the Marlboro festival in the USA.
I heard Isodore Cohen (former member of the Beaux-Arts Trio) playing Brahms’ C major Piano Trio. I was so touched and
moved and it really inspired me to search and improve further until I could do the same.
What do you think of
Fairfield as a performance space?
I love this hall. I think acoustically it
still is one of the finest in the UK.
But with me the relationship goes further. I still can remember trying to walk on the grass near the front - trying to balance
on the wall too. I was born in Croydon and we were living not so far away - in Lloyd Park. I think I first ever played here
aged 8 or 9 with a semi-professional orchestra. I remember playing at least once a year with that orchestra as well as my
first recital here, a lunch time, aged 10 or 11! I always feel like I'm coming home or back to my roots when I come here.
What can we expect from the forthcoming Beethoven concert in the Great Piano Concertos series?
I think Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’
Concerto really is a landmark piano concerto. I mention elsewhere why I love Beethoven - he is such a huge influence on all
music following him: e.g. from his ‘Pastoral’ Symphony, the way all film composers reflect a storm scene. Not
least is how he affected how everyone following him treated the piano concerto-medium.
The concerto-medium before the ‘Emperor’
was very specific - the piano was seen as an agile and decorative instrument - it would be playing fast scales and the orchestra
would pretty much disappear to allow the piano to be heard. By the time Beethoven wrote the Emperor the piano had grown in
size and power - and for the first time Beethoven decides to integrate the piano into the orchestra - in other words the piano
didn't need the spotlight any more as it was strong enough on its own to rise out of the orchestra by itself.
This is
the first piece where, rather than the pianist's agility, the composer tries to show emotion, romanticism and passion with
the music. The piano exudes moods and emotions rather than just impressing with virtuosity. Because of this the orchestra
part can be far more substantial and now we have two completely equal entities exchanging musical ideas - which created the
mould that has been used by composers in almost every case ever since.
Do you have a favourite piece of music to perform?
This is also such a tough question to answer
- as the answer is constantly changing. Unfortunately it is simply human nature to change one's view to a repeating experience.
At first there's great anticipation, and then the excitement transforms more and more into enjoyment - and in some cases things
might deteriorate eventually.
Right now the piece which fascinates me the most to perform
is Bach's Goldberg Variations. I have to say it is simply the most incredible, breath-taking and moving experience imaginable
to play this in front of an audience. The part that makes all my hairs stand on end is the point where the theme, after almost
75 minutes of turmoil, finally returns.
Do you have any particular
venue you aspire to one day perform in?
It's almost sad to say this but my honest
answer is not really anymore. I remember a big aspiration for a long time was the Royal Albert Hall - but now I've played
quite a few times there. Maybe then a good aspiration would be to be allowed to perform a solo-recital in the Royal Albert
Hall - although am not entirely sure if that would work in terms of a single solo piano sounding good on its own!
Who
are your favourite composers?
My favourite composer overall is still, and
for a long time already, Beethoven. I love the breadth and scope of everything he offers. He writes so wonderfully for all
mediums - for piano, for orchestra, for string-quartet etc. etc. I love the power and sensitivity of the emotions his music
triggers and also feel that he is by far one of the most influential artistic figures of all time.
If I have to single out a composer simply for keyboard or
piano music then I might still lean towards either Schumann or Bach.
Have you
ever composed any music of your own?
I did in fact study composition for a good part of my youth.
I studied very thoroughly and continued it right through the Royal Academy of Music. BUT by my very late teens I realised
that I had no real talent for composing and also, most importantly, lacked any patience whatsoever and decided to retire any
further aspirations.
If you were to take up learning another instrument tomorrow, what would it be?
This a little tricky to answer as I have in
fact studied many instruments during my life. Alongside piano I started learning the violin, the flute and the guitar. Admittedly
the only instrument I really studied properly was the violin in the sense that I have actually learned (although not performed)
the violin concerti by Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Paganini 1st, Bruch 1st, Brahms to name a few. I, however, am the
first person to admit that I'm a terrible violinist!
Throughout school I was terrible at actually
doing any sort of piano practice and spent most of my time practising snooker, but if I couldn't creep out of the music building
then was trying out any instrument that was lying around. So I have a very basic ability on instruments like the flute, the
piccolo, the oboe, the clarinet, the horn, the trumpet, the cornet, the trombone, the tuba and quite a few percussion instruments.
I suppose
if I could choose any instrument whatsoever to suddenly become a master of overnight then it would only be one thing - the
voice.
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