WIENER CHOPIN-BLÄTTER
Journal of the International Chopin Society in Vienna, summer 2007
„The poetry of dance in sound – and rarities rediscovered“
This would be a fitting description of „La Valse“,
the latest CD to be released by the Austrian pianist Susanna Artzt.
Maurice Ravel's great piano composition La Valse (Poème
chorégraphique pour piano seul) opens this hour of music in three-four
time and provides further evidence of her great pianistic accomplishment
when it comes to structure and subtlety of sound. Judiciously she concludes
the recording with the Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn and the Menuet antique
which display how masterly both composer and pianist are in early music
and counterpoint.
Frédéric Chopin's Three Waltzes op.64 Nos.1-3 (the „Minute
Waltz“ in D flat major with its fascinating perpetuum mobile, as
well as the C sharp minor and A flat major Waltzes) are uplifting throughout
– the sounds close at hand but issuing from „another world“.
Of the 14 pieces on this CD eight are world premiere recordings!
The Waltz Impromptus op.9 Nos.1 and 2 by Franz Schreker (1878-1934) are delicately articulated pieces of positive-sounding melancholy which turns in on itself or bewitches the listener with strikingly enchanting melodies.
From Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844), the youngest child of the great Wolfgang Amadeus, we have the Six Polonaises mélancoliques op.17. His teachers Joseph Haydn, Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri and Georg Albrechtsberger ensured that, at the age of seventeen, he was artistically equipped to leave Vienna for Poland (Lviv) where he made a career as a composer, house tutor and the founder and director of a choir for almost 30 years. The very interesting and fine-sounding six Polonaises could be briefly characterised, perhaps, as follows: „A song of melancholy“, „Faint echoes of Chopin“, „Euphonious determination“, „If it must be, then so be it!“, „Explanation as to why melancholy“, „Search for help growing more urgent“.
The pianist has earned our gratitude, not only for her first-class musicianship, but also for her discovery of rarities.
Helmut Batliner
(Gramola Nr.98809)
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Review in Austrian Music Magazine -
„ÖSTERREICHISCHE MUSIKZEITSCHRIFT“
January 2007
A high standard of instrumental playing and interpretational
ethos: it is not hard to sound the praises for pianist Susanna Artzt,
who has now somewhat daringly released a collection of waltzes for the
increasingly active label Gramola. It offers well-known works by Chopin
and Ravel side by side with charming, now largely neglected polonaises
by Franz Xaver Mozart and waltz impromptus by Schreker that are also seldom
performed: an Austrian pianist who knows what she wants and who possesses
the ability required to lend form and sound to what it is she wants.
Peter Cossé
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PIANO NEWS, November/December 2006
An extraordinary talent
Three years ago Susanna Artzt’s debut CD was voted
CD of the months January/February 2003 by PIANO NEWS. In the current edition
(November/December 2006) you can read a cover-story interview with Susanna
Artzt about her career, her new CD and much more.
Here are two excerpts from the interview:
Susanna Artzt had already come to our notice when she
brought out her first CD. This CD, containing works by Claude Debussy,
Lili Boulanger and Alexander Scriabin was immediately named CD of the
double month in the 1-2003 edition. The editors were particularly impressed
by her highly nuanced phrasing and extraordinary richness of tone. When
she was a guest at the Bechstein Centrum in Cologne in September last
year, we took the opportunity of speaking to her about her career so far
and how she sees things.
Susanna Artzt has plenty to do: she has already made a name for herself
in Austria and feels she is “breaking through”. But she remains
realistic: “I see what I do as a calling, a blessing. This difficult
path has brought me incredibly far.“ Susanna Artzt also plays a great
deal of chamber music, and prepares a number of different programmes each
season. After our meeting and conversation there is no doubt in our minds:
this pianist will make her way; there is more and more that she will be
able to accomplish. This is because Susanna Artzt is a thoughtful, serious
musician for whom playing is a joy. And you can hear that.
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SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG OF 13 FEBRUARY 2006
United in success
Susanna Artzt played the seldom concerto in g-minor op. 22 by Saint-Saens. The daughter of an Indian and (former) student of Paul Badura-Skoda intensified the pathetic g-minor mood of the first movement and impressed strongly with the virtuoso bravura in the dance-like Presto-Finale.
Klaus P.Richter
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„Your intense playing brought the audience four times to trampling, something that can be heardly ever heard in the Prinzregenten Theater or in Munich, for that reason. I have never seen such an euphoria. You were magnificent.“
Mrs. Brigitte Gedon, Organizer of the event
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REWIEV FROM THE JAPANESE MAGAZINE „CHOPIN“
October 2005
Among all these highlights one artist stood out, the young Indian-Croat pianist Susanna Artzt, who is now living near Vienna. Already in an earlier recital, one was fascinated by her performance of the f-minor Ballade of Chopin, with its finest details mapped out, in which, with remarkable control she articulated to the full, without for a second breaking the curve of the phrase, contrasting this with equally convincing, brilliant, passionate, cascading figures. Susanna Artzt’s interpretation made for the attentive listener something quite new out of this familiar work.
Next day, Susanna Artzt tackled the heights of the piano repertoire with the fiendishly difficult – and therefore rarely to be heard live - „La Valse“ of Maurice Ravel. In a certain sense this work presents a logical development of the valses of Chopin, who produced magnificent compositions in this dance form, whilst always maintaining a critical relationship with J. Strauss pêre. Ravel was also aware - and not only after his first visit to Vienna in 1920 – of a considerable gap between Viennese men and Viennese music. In a masterly manner, partly ironic, partly even in caricature, Ravel contrives to interweave these strands and Susanna Artzt was able to bring them out. In her hands, the piano was transformed into a whole orchestra full of the most glittering and varied colours, whereby the „conductor“ contrived to combine emotional depths, the presentation of dramatic development, and clear formal structures.
Sumie Ishibashi
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DER YBBSTALER OF 25 AUGUST 2005
Arts Section
Susanna Artzt, an Austrian pianist with experience in
the international field, made a good impression with the c # minor Nocturne
as a self-effacing and sensitive interpreter, who enchanted with magical
pianissimo and legato. On the other hand, where Ravel asks for power and
impact in his “La Valse”, she demonstrated her great powers
of interpretation, showing an undeniable affinity with the picturesque
soundworld of this daring Frenchman.
It was astonishing, how this first class pianist teased out the highly
complicated and cunning harmonies in this apotheosis of the waltz, how
she lost herself wholly in these swooping and scintillating sounds. The
audience was highly appreciative.
Hubert Bauernhauser
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INTERNATIONAL CHOPIN SOCIETY MAGAZINE, Vienna
Autumn 2005
Noted as an extraordinary sensitive pianist, the Austrian Susanna Artzt again fascinated us with her „Ballad op.52, No 4, in f-minor“, where the delicacy we expected, was set off by impressive drama and her excellent technique, all of which brought tumultuous applause.
Helmut Batliner
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WAZ RECKLINGHAUSEN OF 23 MAY 2005
Performance of the Mozart concerto K 503 in C major
Star in the sky of piano playing: The young pianist Susanna
Artzt stood out brilliantly at a „classical meeting“.
The artist, who lives near Vienna, performed Mozart’s piano concerto
nr. 25 in C-major, KV 503 brilliantly and stylistically correct, and in
a wonderful balance with the orchestra. Highly sensitive in the slow passages,
the pianist presented a convincing finale with a radiant richness of tone
and a soulful lightness.
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RECKLINGHÄUSER ZEITUNG OF 24 MAY 2005
„Classic meeting“ with an enchanting Mozart
„[…] Now we could hear this enchanting work
played by Susanna Artzt and numerous listeners enjoyed her performance,
which was distinguished by sensitive clearness and powerful virtuosity.
The soloist played her part full of tension by using finest dynamic and
rhythmic evaluation and well thought-out agogic.
Thus this concert, which is regarded as Mozart’s most difficult work
for the piano, turned out to an extraordinarily high musical pleasure.“
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WAZ GELSENKIRCHEN OF 24 MAY 2005
Mozart takes music into unearthly fields
The pianist Susanna Artzt stood out brilliantly with a touch, which seemed to be light as a feather and effortless even at the most difficult arpeggios and scales. This music seemed to hover far above earthly fields, Susanna Artzt’s fantasy bestowed it depth and brilliance.
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BUERSCHE ZEITUNG OF 24 MAY 2005
Matthäuskirche: Philharmonic Orchestra made music with the pianist Susanna Artzt
The pianist Susanna Artzt, daughter of Indian-Croatian parents, who lives in Vienna, played the piano concerto with due clarity, sophisticated culture of touch and definite structure.
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RHEIN-NECKAR-ZEITUNG OF 12 APRIL 2005
heidelberger
frühling 2005
Music Festival
„Prometheus Unbound“
(about the Trio E flat – major by L.van Beethoven )
That is how Beethoven might have imagined his music being
performed: dynamic, expressive, passionate, uncompromising. At the same
time, however, highly differenciated, qualified, and concentrated. Music
freed from tradition and conventions.
The three young musicians Susanna Artzt (piano), Carolin Widmann (violin),
and Claudius Popp (Violoncello), not only fulfilled their promises, but
also excelled themselves […].
Here they successfully unbound Prometheus.
The artists on stage were rewarded by long, continuous and enthusiastic
applause.
Eckehard J.Häberle
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PIANONEWS 01-2003
CD chosen as „CD of the months“ Jan/Feb
Original Text
and English Translation
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DIE PRESSE OF 12 April 2002, Vienna
ENCHANTING PIANO PEARLS
Susanna Artzt, pianist, enchanted in the Brahmssaal of the Vienna’s
Musikverein
The pianist Susanna Artzt captivated her audience with Debussy, Scriabin, and Ravel. To make a journey for one evening, without moving: to immerse into Asiatic foreign parts of sound, then to sway in the rhythm of Spanish dances, and suddenly to hear the rain, as it splashes down in a garden in France. These are the locations evoked by the young pianist with her sophisticated, subtly differentiating interpretation of Debussy`s piano cycle „Estampes“.
In the emotional restraint, in the sustained piano, the curbings of a roaming thought are shown... Extremely passionate then Maurice Ravel`s „La Valse“. Susanna Artzt had worked out exquisitely the often abruptly changing impressions in the works of Debussy, now we had the breaks of the waltz melody, crystallizing from an initial, soft tremolo. Tonal steps, dynamic jumps give the impression of flashlights from other worlds, other dimensions. They anticipate the drama which gradually plunges forward in a more and more tormenting way, „the fantastic and also fatal whirl of a waltz night“ as Ravel commented himself.
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OBERÖSTERREICHISCHE NACHRICHTEN
BRILLIANT TECHNIQUE SERVING A WIDE PALETTE OF MUSICAL STYLES
„[...] Susanna Artzt played Etudes by Claude Debussy, shaping them with fine suppleness, allowing the individual character of each to emerge. Then came a worthwhile diversion onto the conservative „modern“ repertoire, works by Alban Berg and György Ligeti, followed by Etudes by Frederic Chopin. Susanna Artzt seems to have a special affinity for this composers music. With technical perfection she took the extremely difficult „Revolutionary Etude“ at a breathtaking tempo. This was the work of a young pianist who will certainly soon make her mark on the classical music scene!“
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YOUNG TALENTS PROMPT UNUSUAL CONSIDERATIONS: PROBLEMS WITH THE MASTERS
Being a wunderkind can often be an unpleasant life-long task for an artist or scholar. It is not uncommon that creative powers during youthful years are regarded sceptically: „This young person or child is dealing with things well beyond his/her years. With this way of life, the boy or the girl may well advance to the status of a „young, rising star“, but later their lives will become empty, if their dreams don´t come true.“
But all these are merely half-truths! We all know many examples from music history of great artists who were already showing their wondering skills in their very young age. Again and again in this context we find Mozart´s father reporting to his wife in letters of the constant new accomplishments of their son Wolfgang Amadeus (fortunately, these reports have been saved in archives). He writes, for instance, of how Wolfgang, during their many travels, was learning Italian and other European music, and that „just EN PASSANT“, that is to say, without making any effort whatsoever - or, as Plato puts it in a wise saying (in which of course he is referring to the greatest talents), „When we learn something, it´s as if we were remembering it“.
[...] I pondered these things a few days ago while I was sitting in the Croatian Music Society Hall („Hrvatski glazbeni zavod“) and listening to the concert given by the young pianist Susanna ARTZT. At the age of eighteen - when in best case one begins his or her studies - she played her Diploma Recital, i.e. the requirements to fulfil the „Master“ level, which corresponds to the highest level for piano soloists which one can reach, as graduate student at the Zagreb Music Academy, the highest music-education institution in this country. I had to admit to myself that ... I had completely forgotten that I was actually attending a performance by a student who is completing her studies! I was surprised and swept away! ... We´ll always be swept by such talent!
Mladen Raukar
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RHEINISCHE POST, GERMANY
„Where many pianists can’t resist the temptation to demonstrate their virtuosity, Susanna Artzt concentrates on underlining the sensibility of the pieces, and turning their inner lives to the outside. There was cheering already after the first part of the concert, but the great highlight was still to come. Susanna Artzt had chosen Schubert’s sonata c-minor D958 as the final piece. She played it like coming from one single impulse, profoundly, without artificial showing off of temperament.“
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