Pianist Maxim Lando: Music belongs to the whole world
KATEŘINA PINCOVÁ ,09/19/2023 7:08 AM
A 20-year-old American pianist, a student at New York’s Juilliard School, but at the same time playing the world’s most famous concert halls: this is Maxim Lando. He came to world attention with his performance at the opening gala concert of the Carnegie Hall season alongside Lang Lang in 2017, and experienced a meteoric rise in his career last year, thanks to his victory in the International Franz Liszt Competition in New York. This year is again marked by the ICMA award for the CD “Into Madness”, which he recorded together with violinist Tassile Probst. We will hear him twice in the Czech Republic this season: in March, he will appear in Prague as a soloist in David Cheský’s third piano concerto together with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, but already at the end of September of the current calendar year, the audience of the Lednice-Valtice Music Festival will be able to hear him.TOPICS:LEDNICE-VALTICE MUSIC FESTIVALMAXIM LANDOMICHELLE STERNSEZTASSILO PROBST
At the end of September, the audience of South Moravia will welcome you. At the first of two concerts, you will perform together with violinist Michelle Stern. Have you ever performed together?
Yes! Michelle and I have been friends practically since childhood. We first met at a course run by the Juilliard School (Juilliard Pre-College) when I was eleven and Michelle was ten. But we only started playing together a few years later thanks to a regional festival. Since then, we work together often and very happily!
In addition to the traditional works of the musical canon, we will also hear from you lesser-known or contemporary works. How would you describe your relationship with contemporary music?
If you had asked me a few years ago, I would probably have said that I prefer to play older music. But since then, my field of vision has expanded considerably, and the contemporary music that I have had the opportunity to play more recently has excited me. I always need to find something in songs to latch on to – whether it’s a beautiful melody or a catchy rhythmic element – and then it doesn’t matter when the song was written. For example, this year I premiered a piano work by the well-known American composer Lowell Liebermann, and it has exactly all the elements I like: fantastic melodies, energetic rhythms, drama, virtuosity, amazing harmonies and, last but not least, simply beauty.
You also recently recorded Joseph Achron, who is not a contemporary composer, but certainly not one of the most well-known…
Yes. I’ve always loved discovering works that don’t usually appear on concert programs. In New York, I often perform for a chamber concert series that specializes in presenting neglected repertoire. I’ve discovered great music because of it! You could spend a lifetime exploring this plethora of amazing music and still not discover it all. As for Achron: I recorded his unreleased and forgotten sonata with the German violinist and my good friend Tassilo Probst, and we consider it a masterpiece. But it is wonderfully complex!
From what you’re saying, it sounds to me that perhaps chamber music is closer to you than performing with an orchestra?
I’m not quite saying that, both have their merits. Playing chamber music is an intimate experience where you explore music with only one or a few musical colleagues. But playing with an orchestra… Nothing beats the feeling of playing Prokofiev 2, Rachmaninov 3, or Brahms, Chopin, together with a bunch of other musicians… You know what I mean! In an ideal world, however, this solo performance is also a kind of supreme form of collaboration and thus also a kind of chamber game.
What do you mean?
I don’t mean chamber music in the traditional sense of the word, but in the sense of leading a musical dialogue. In the case of a (for example) piano concerto, it is actually the interaction of the orchestra as one huge instrument with the soloist. But there are also moments of intimate conversations between the soloist and selected orchestra players – with clarinet, oboe, flute, cello… If the soloist, conductor and orchestra players bond like this, it conjures up an extraordinary experience on stage.
But this only belongs in an “ideal world” as you say?
We have to take into account all the practicalities that come into play with the orchestra, especially the rehearsal time limits given by the budget. Sometimes I hear that there isn’t enough time in rehearsal for a really meaningful collaboration between the soloist and the orchestra, but it’s actually the same with chamber music, unless you’re performing as part of an established ensemble. But I actually like this combination of experimentation and spontaneity. That’s the only way every concert becomes a completely unique moment “here and now.”
The second concert at the festival is dedicated to Ukrainian composers. Do you often play Ukrainian music in these war times?
I played several concerts, the purpose of which was to raise resistance against the war, with repertoire such as Chopin’s Second Piano Sonata with Marche funèbre, Prokofiev’s “War” Sonata or Skoryk’s Melodie in my own arrangement . I also love the works of the Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin and often include them in the concert program. But as far as the dramaturgy of my concerts is concerned, I do not avoid Russian music either. I am very close to this music and the war did not change that. I see it as music having incredible power and belonging to the whole world.
Of course! And you will travel this “whole world” (if I exaggerate) next season. But for now you are still studying. How is it possible to combine a professional career at a high level with school?
It’s not always easy, and the last two years have been a mixture of pleasant excitement and stress. But now in the fall I intend to take a semester off from the Juilliard School to fully devote myself to some planned projects and performances. In the spring I will be back at school with a great effort to balance studies and career. My philosophy has always been that you learn and grow the most through performance – you just have to get on with things. At the same time, what I have the opportunity to learn at Juilliard is incredibly valuable to me. Fortunately, I have full support there.
Fingers crossed and we look forward to seeing you on September 29, 2023 at the Lednice-Valtice Festival!
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