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| Julian Chan |
The Royal Academy of Music’s Bicentenary Collection on Linn Data gives industry-level recording expertise and the possibility to launch their music to college students and since 2020, over 20 digital recordings have been launched as a part of this sequence. This month for the most recent within the sequence, pianist Julian Chan marks the centenary of the completion and publication of Leopold Godowsky’s Java Suite with the discharge of his recording of the whole work.
Born in Malaysia, Julian studied at Wells Cathedral College earlier than taking his place on the Royal Academy of Music (RAM). In 2024–25, Julian was recipient of the Aud Jebsen Fellowship on the RAM, the place he beforehand studied with Ian Fountain and Michael Dussek. Julian has been awarded prizes at competitions in Nanyang and Singapore, in addition to receiving the Royal Over-Seas League Collaborative Piano Award. He made his solo debut at Wigmore Corridor in June 2024 performing Godowsky’s Java Suite.
Born in what was then Russia however is now Lithuania to Jewish dad and mom, Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and instructor, who grew to become an American citizen in 1891. An essential pedagogue, his pupils included the pianist Heinrich Neuhaus. Godowsky devoted his time to instructing and giving live performance excursions. A lot of the Twenties was spent touring all over the world; other than live performance appearances in Europe and the US, Godowsky additionally gave intensive excursions of South America and East Asia.
It was on account of spending time in Java and experiencing gamelan music that Godowsky got here to write down his Java Suite. The suite consists of twelve actions, divided into 4 elements, and isn’t generally carried out full. The primary full recording of the work solely dates from 2020.
The piece could be very near Julian’s coronary heart; he found it when he was starting his research on the RAM and in the course of the holidays he explored a variety of music on YouTube. The work’s mix of East and West was near Julian’s life expertise, rising up in Malaysia and the UK. He sees the piece as being formed by Godowsky’s travels and totally different experiences. Julian factors out that everybody experiences life in another way; you can’t separate Godowsky from his travels and experiences overseas.
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| Leopold Godowsky |
Godowsky spent weeks in Java, taking within the sights, sounds and the meals, and Julian factors out that not many composers did that. The eminent pianist carried out no fewer than twenty recitals on the island of Java, then a part of the Dutch East Indies. Many composers, like Debussy, first skilled gamelan on account of the Paris Exhibition. Godowsky’s travels in Java convey a brand new perspective to his Java Suite, and he described it as being impressed by the “marvellous surroundings and
picturesque inhabitants; big volcanoes, energetic and extinct; majestic
ruins and imposing monuments” of this island which so fascinated him.
Above all, it was the “native music of the Javanese, within the coronary heart of
Java, at Djokja and Solo that made essentially the most profound impression”.
I used to be curious as to why the work is just not higher recognized. Julian admitted that he thinks about that always, and other people ask him the identical query after his performances of the work. One purpose is maybe that the work is difficult to carry out, in any case Godowsky was one of many giants of the piano. In latest a long time, the piece has grow to be higher recognized and in addition individuals have larger expertise of various cultures, together with the gamelan. Julian is happy to have the ability to contribute to its renaissance and releasing his album to rejoice the work’s centenary.
The primary work of Godowsky’s that Julian performed was his Passacaglia. It is a big piece, some 20 minutes lengthy, written in 1927 and based mostly on the theme from the opening bars of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. Julian finds it an unimaginable piece, and he describes it as a set of variations with a jazzy cadenza ending in a colossal fugue. Musically, he sees similarities with the Java Suite, although the Passacaglia lacks the Japanese influences. There’s a video on YouTube of Julian enjoying the Passacaglia on the Nanyang Worldwide Music Competitors in Singapore in 2019.
Many individuals, nevertheless, know Godowsky for his Research on Chopin’s Études, that are much more difficult, together with ones only for the left hand. And Julian feedback that they’re a good way of accelerating your left-hand dexterity, although he’s much less sure about programming them and has not achieved so but.
Parallel to his piano profession, Julian additionally composes, although in the intervening time he does so ‘when he has time’. He’s presently engaged on a set of piano items, partly as a result of he will get requested at recitals why he doesn’t play a few of his personal music. However it’s a query of discovering each the time and the inspiration. Nonetheless, he does really feel that composing offers perspective on his piano enjoying, suggesting how the brains of different composers work. And while as a composer you is likely to be anticipated to be extra trustworthy to the rating, what he finds is that it offers him a deeper understanding of the method. When he composes, he’s not positive of all the things, there’s room for exploration and additional growth. Items can develop a lot. And when listening to recordings of composers performing their very own music, the result’s typically extra in regards to the thought quite than explicit markings, and he feels this provides you larger perception.
As a pianist, Julian has been formed by his lecturers, of which there are such a lot of. His most up-to-date on the RAM was Ian Fountain, who Julian describes as having a singular model, being very delight and good at conveying what he supposed. Julian labored a bit with Stephen Hough, who’s a performer he admires, and at a masterclass performed Hough’s personal Sonata Trinitas. Marc-André Hamelin can be one other composer-pianist that Julian admires, and he feels that he follows on this custom, although the concept of a composer-pianist is just not so sturdy these days.
Arising, he has a tour of Germany enjoying Berg, Schumann, Schubert and Beethoven, then in 2026 he has concerto performances, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 [in Northampton] and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 [in Worthing]. Neither work essentially well-known, however each large items that he’s trying ahead to enjoying.
Leopold Godowsky: Java Suite – Julian Chan – LINN Data. Preview the album.
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