Anyone who has heard Simon Trpceski in Rachmaninov will know of the special qualities of humanity, freshness and insight, not to mention technical command, that the young Macedonian master brings to the music. Now, having just turned 30, the time seems ripe for him to commit his profoundly thought interpretations to disc. And so, following four incomparable recital CDs for EMI, Trpceski is now embarking on a major project with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko to record all of Rachmaninov’s works for piano and orchestra on the Avie label. The project begins with a coupling of the Second and Third Piano Concertos. "I have been in touch with Rachmaninov’s music since I was very little," Trpceski says. "One of my first pieces was the C sharp minor Prelude and the ‘Polichinelle’ (Op 3 No 4). I learned the Second Concerto when I was 15 years old, and the Third came a little bit later when I was 17-and-a-half. But I guess after playing them around the world--the Third, I think, more than the Second--it’s a different phase in my life."
Trpceski is well aware of his responsibility in recording such a well-known corpus of music, but his affinity runs deep. "There must be something about the Slavic soul," he says. "The fullness of the sound creates a feeling that goes through every particle of my body. Then there are the different dimensions to Rachmaninov’s music--the melancholy, the nostalgia, the very subtle moments, the passion. There is incredible strength in his music as well." Our conversation touches on the undeniable technical challenges of both concertos, but Trpceski characteristically keeps coming back to the question of interpretation.
"As with everything one plays," he says, "especially such a popular composer as Rachmaninov, the interpretation has a lot to do with taste. Although his music represents late Romanticism from one point of view, the harmonic language comes even into the 21st century if we look particularly at his later pieces."
"I do believe that this is something one has to be careful of--not to exaggerate things too much, but to try to be as true as possible to the music.
If one can put aside the technical difficulties--which of course take an effort to be resolved--one can give them a role within the context of the music itself, and I think that that is an easier way of conquering the mountain."
"Rachmaninov was a composer who could summon a whole kaleidoscope of color from the piano alone, but in the concertos the orchestra is by no means a mere background support. "He is one of the best orchestrators in terms of writing for piano and orchestra," Trpceski says. "It’s amazing how he can combine all the possible orchestral colors with the piano. It just seems he made the perfect choice of which instrument to use in connection with the character of the theme, and so on. In that respect I was very happy to have Vasily Petrenko as conductor, because he also comes from that wonderful Russian tradition. He could take from the orchestra a sophisticated range of sound, because he has built the quality of the RLPO to a very, very high level. And then there is the wonderful contribution of John Fraser, who is such an experienced producer in judging the sound, color and balance."
All of which chimed in with Trpceski’s heartfelt response to the sincerity of Rachmaninov’s music. "Obviously," he says, "a man who could write these concertos, and who was such an amazing pianist as well, was an extremely special human being."
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by Geoffrey Norris
