Accomplished musician Gothoni returns to L.A.

Published: Friday, October 28, 1994

By John Mangum

Not many classical musicians can say they've received $500,000 for their talents.

Pianist Ralf Gothoni can. His extraordinary playing earned him the generous Gilmore Award, which helped expose Gothoni to a wider audience.

Probably one of the most eccentric competitions in the music world, the Gilmore selects a winner based on their performance in three concerts. The players, though, have no idea when they are under scrutiny.

Gothoni sounds pleased about how the prize continues to effect his career. "There are a lot more concerts in the United States," says the pianist. "I am happy about some orchestral concerts that have also come about."

He makes his first Los Angeles appearance in 25 years in a solo recital this Sunday at Schoenberg Hall. Gothoni's activities include not only recitals, but also performances as an accompanist for singers and in chamber music ensembles.

"There are great chamber music pieces," says Gothoni. "The most important composers' productions are in chamber music. It's a center point to write music."

He cites the importance of chamber music in the output of German romantic composer Johannes Brahms as an example. "Brahms wrote only four symphonies but so, so many chamber pieces."

Gothoni sees the "lied," or German art song, misinterpreted as being for the singer alone. As an active accompanist, Gothoni stresses the importance of the piano's role in these art songs.

"Lied is nowadays in a very bad situation. It is understood as a recital of the singer," says Gothoni.

"Lied is also chamber music." The importance of the piano's part in this chamber music seems self-evident for Gothoni. For him, the fact that pianists composed the art songs proves the importance of the piano's role.

One of his most recent recording projects celebrates one of these pianist composers. Gothoni recorded the Piano Concerto by Paavo Berglund, whom he rates as "one of the greatest piano players of this century."

Gothoni himself also composes. "For me (composition) means a way to try and come closer to a whole musicianship." He plans to compose a piano concerto of his own in the near future.

For this composer, "whole musicianship" includes his activities as a conductor. "I mostly conduct from the keyboard," says Gothoni. "A pianist should be a total musician."

Gothoni's appearance at Schoenberg Hall on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. focuses on his solo playing. Viennese composer Franz Schubert's B flat major Sonata, piano virtuoso and heartbreaker, Franz Liszt's Sonata in B minor and Domenico Zipoli's Aria form the program.

Many listeners characterize Schubert's music as essentially sunny and richly melodic. Gothoni prefers to see Schubert's work in the context of the composer's suffering. Schubert, who contracted syphilis in his twenties, lived under the shadow of impending death for the remaining years of his short life.

"We know so much about Schubert's life these days how tragic it was. His music changed from light to dark," says Gothoni. "There is so much dark in his pieces."

"He is the only composer who uses the tragical major so often. For example, this B flat major is not a happy major. It's behind a curtain of tears," says Gothoni. "When Schubert modulates through minor to major, the major is always pianissimo. Schubert is smiling behind the tears."

While Gothoni stresses the importance of musical elements in describing Schubert's sonata, he emphasizes the connections between a literary source and Liszt's B minor Sonata. He points out that Goethe's "Faust," the tale of a man who sells his soul to the Devil to possess infinite wisdom only to be saved by the pure love of a woman named Gretchen, provides Liszt's work with a feasible program.

"It has a lot of background in the play by Goethe," says Gothoni. "I can find in the theme Faust and Gretchen."

Gothoni uses the aria by Zipoli, who at the time of its composition was well advanced in years, to preface Liszt's sonata. "I made a transcription of this small aria to make it more romantic music. The small piece is like an old man's melancholy character and after this I start the Liszt."

The piece comes wedged between two giants of the romantic piano repertory in a recital which promises to show off the titanic powers of one of today's most interesting artists.

CONCERT: Ralf Gothoni, piano. Playing Schubert, Zipoli and Liszt at Schoenberg Hall Sunday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. TIX: $25, $9. For more info, call (310) 825-2101.