By HRJ
American pianist Anne-Marie McDermott will perform the soloist part of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 during the seventh program of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería's 2023 Summer Season under the baton of Carlos Miguel Prieto (August 12 and 13 at the Nezahualcóyotl Concert Hall).
On the occasion of these concerts, which also include the Overture from the opera The Abduction from the Seraglio and Brahms' Symphony No. 2, we present this profile of one of today's most renowned pianists, whose virtuosity stands out for the expressive delicacy of her sound.
Who is Anne-Marie McDermott?
American pianist Anne-Marie McDermott studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Dalmo Carra, Constance Keene and John Browning.
He has performed as soloist with major orchestras in the United States (New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Houston Symphony and Buffalo Symphony) and his recitals include performances at venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall and Schubert Club.
From his discography - comprising 11 albums - stand out the piano sonatas of Sergei Prokofiev (Bridge, 2009), two volumes with the piano sonatas of Joseph Haydn (Bridge, 2014 and 2018) and the complete works for piano and orchestra by George Gershwin with the Dallas Symphony under the direction of Justin Brown (Bridge, 2008).
Together with violinist Ida Kavafian, violist Steven Tenenbom and cellist Peter Wiley he forms the quartet Opus One.
She is artistic director of the Vail Valley (Colorado), Ocean Reef Chamber Music (Florida) and Avila Chamber Music Celebration (Curacao) festivals.
What is Anne-Marie McDermott's acting style?
Anne-Marie McDermott's interpretative style stands out for the delicacy of her sound. When faced with passages created for the piano, McDermott chooses to prioritize expressiveness over other possibilities of embellishment, such as speed. Therefore, hers is an expressive virtuosity.
What work will Anne-Marie McDermott perform with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería?
Anne-Marie McDermott will perform the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). A work about which Juan Arturo Brennan has written:
"In addition to the much that has been said and written about Ludwig van Beethoven as a composer, many testimonies have come down to us from his contemporaries about his peculiar profile as a virtuoso pianist. This facet of Beethoven's career was of fundamental importance, since his own activity as a pianist gave rise to a significant part of his production as a composer, in which five concertos with orchestra, 32 sonatas for solo piano and a significant number of chamber works with piano stand out. Just as Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) became famous as a great improviser at the organ, Beethoven had a reputation not only as a great performer, but also as an exuberant improviser at the piano. Of his talents and eccentricities in piano improvisation there is a very interesting testimony, written by the Bohemian composer Václav Jan Tomášek (1774-1850):
Beethoven's astonishing interpretation, so extraordinary for the bold developments of his improvisation, moved me in a strange way. I felt so deeply humbled to the core of my being that I did not play the piano again for several days. I heard Beethoven again in his second concerto. This time I followed his playing in a calmer spirit. I certainly admired his strong and brilliant technique, but the frequent and bold leaps from one motif to another did not escape me. These, on the contrary, suppress the organic unity and gradual development of ideas. Oddity and unevenness seem to be for him a principle of composition.
Certainly, what to Tomášek seemed rare and uneven, to us is a display of classical balance, especially in the piano works that Beethoven composed before he peeked over the frontiers of Romanticism. Among these works is his First Piano Concerto, written in 1798. Previously, Beethoven had composed another concerto for that transitional instrument that was the fortepiano, and whose orchestral part is lost. In December 1800 Beethoven wrote a letter to Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754-1812), an Austrian composer who was also an important music publisher, having taken charge of the publication of works by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and Beethoven himself, among others. In this letter, addressed to Hoffmeister in Leipzig, the composer offered him some of his works for publication, among them a concerto for piano and orchestra which, according to Beethoven himself, was not among the best of his production, because the composer reserved his best works for himself. In the same letter, Beethoven informed Hoffmeister that he had another piano concerto, which was to be published by the publisher Mollo. As a result, in 1801 Mollo published what we know today as Beethoven's First Piano Concerto, and Hoffmeister published another concerto, which we know today as the second in the series and which bears the number Opus 19. The fact is that this Second Concerto was composed by Beethoven before the one we know as the First Concerto, and that the inverted chronology is due to the order in which both scores were published. It is the same case, for example, as the two piano concertos by Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849).
Once again, it is necessary to refer to Tomášek, who in his autobiography wrote that in 1798 that giant among pianists, Beethoven, had appeared in Prague, and that in an audition in the Konviktsaal filled with an excited audience, he had played his Piano Concerto Op. 15. 15. As with other early works by Beethoven, this piano concerto still has something of the Mozartian spirit, although it already foreshadows the typically Beethovenian traits that were to solidify from the third of his piano concertos onwards. The story goes that Beethoven composed three different cadenzas for the first movement, which reaffirms the fact that this concerto still belongs to a stage in which the composer was experimenting with some variants of his piano language. Finally, it should be noted that Beethoven's piano concertos were always a very propitious training ground for the composer. Always written for Beethoven's own use in his performances as a pianist, each of these concertos was performed by the composer over and over again, until he had almost exhausted its possibilities before an audience. Only then would Beethoven decide to tackle the composition of the next piano concerto. Hence, especially in the case of the last three concertos, such great musical progress is evident from one concerto to the next. This is undoubtedly one of the many advantages Beethoven had in being a remarkable pianist and certainly ahead of his time, as Tomášek's brief text quoted above demonstrates.
Beethoven dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 1 to Princess Anna Louise Barbara Odescalchi, also known as Countess Von Keglevics and, to her inner circle, as Babette. To this pupil and friend of his, Beethoven also dedicated his Piano Sonata Op. 7 and the Six Variations for Piano Op. 34".
What can I hear from Anne-Marie McDermott?
Anne-Marie McDermott has become a regular soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería. We recommend you listen to her her participation as soloist in Mozart's Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 during the sixth program of the 2019 Summer Season..
