Posted by Maxim Lando, on Oct 22, 2023

Original: https://operaslovakia.sk/klavirista-maxim-lando-moj-life-hack-je-jednoducho-zazit-zivot/

Interview in Opera Slovakia: A magazine about opera, classical music and ballet

Pianist Maxim Lando: My “life-hack” is simply to experience life!

Maxim lives to the max. The vital and artistic power of the young pianist from the USA resonates with every touch of his hand and musical instrument. He is satisfied when he transfers it to his audience, and it becomes part of the whole concert puzzle. This will also happen at the end of September at two concerts of the Lednice-Valtice Music Festival in South Moravia.

At the age of fifteen, the young American pianist Maxim Lando played at New York’s Carnegie Hall at the Opening Night Gala alongside Lang Lang and Chick Corea, accompanied by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The following year, thanks to his success in the 2018 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, he performed recitals in front of packed halls at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington. Subsequently, he won the Gilmore Young Artist Award and the Vendome Grand Prize and won the Juilliard Concerto Competition and the New York Franz Liszt Piano Competition.

All this opened the door for him to the world’s leading halls (National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, Symphony Hall in Shenzhen, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris) alongside important American and European bodies (Mariinsky Theater, Israel Philharmonics, Zürcher Kammerorchester). . He has also participated in important world festivals such as Kissinger Sommer in Germany, Ravinia Festival, Cayman Arts Festival and a number of concerts in America and elsewhere.

In addition to his solo career, he works as a chamber musician and collaborates with Daniel Hope, Lynn Harrell, Julian Rachlin, the Danish String Quartet and others. Last year, the CD “Into Madness” was released, which he recorded with the German violinist Tassil Probst, and which won the ICMA (International Capital Market Association) award for the best chamber album of the year. Lando is a graduate of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation and now studies under Hung-Kuan Chen at the Juilliard School.

At the end of September, you are coming to the Lednice-Valtice Music Festival, is this your first concert trip to the Czech Republic?

I am going to the Lednice-Valtice area and South Moravia for the first time, but I have already visited the Czech Republic. At the beginning of this summer, I recorded two works with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague. It was Concert no. 2 for piano by the American composer David Chesky and one of my own works. Unfortunately, I had to limit myself only to work and I did not have the time and opportunity to get to know the Czech Republic or the surrounding countries more closely. So I am excited about this autumn trip to the south of Moravia. Central Europe and I are probably close to each other, I am going to come here again in March 2024.

As part of the Lednice-Valtice Music Festival, you will play two challenging concerts. At the first of them at the Pohansko mansion, you will perform, among other things, the Sonata for violin and piano by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček. What attracted you to his work? Or did you know Janáček more deeply earlier?

I consider Janáček’s solo piano works to be very unusual and “spookily beautiful”. In my opinion, he has quite a complex style and musical language. I always imagined it was a reflection of his native land. Later it occurred to me that a trip to the LVHF might be the perfect opportunity to explore his Sonata for violin and piano in depth.

In addition to Janáček, you will also play the melodies of Arthur Foote, a native of Massachusetts. Both authors are almost of the same generation, but geographically and culturally they are separated by half a world. Which features of their works indicate that they created in the same period and which confirm that the place where we live influences and inspires us?

Both composers are united by high expressiveness, but at the same time they are very different. I can’t talk about how the environment influenced them, but I can say that Janáček has a unique tone and harmonic language that can still sound modern today, especially with the violin and piano sonatas. Arthur Foote’s music is beautifully quirky, but has a more romantic style. He came from Boston and was one of the first American composers to receive his musical education exclusively in the United States.

You indicated the difference between the two composers you mention. How do you approach them as a performer?

My goal is always to approach music from my own perspective. Of course, historical contexts and traditions are important, and if I know something specific about the context in which the music was or is composed (for example, as a reaction to war, or to a broken heart, or for a joyful occasion…), then of course this will influence my performance.

However, I usually approach music the way I hear it and naturally react to it. That seems to me to be the most honest and interesting way for a performer to become part of the big musical equation.

The Lednice-Valtice music festival is unique in terms of locations and halls in which concerts are held. We will see and hear you at the Pohansko manor and in the riding stables of the Lednice castle. Are you thinking about the space you will play in?

I can’t wait to see such unseen and very special sights for me. They look amazing in the photos! The moment I feel their acoustics and the energy of the environment, the sound of the instrument will be unique, I am sure of that. The interplay of these clues affects me as a performer and is reflected in the performance itself. The amazing sound arrangement is a joy to play, and it will affect how you feel as a musician.

The visual beauty of the place is inspiring and stimulates your imagination, which will also be the case with the Pohansko and Lednice castles! Large venues with packed audiences tend to be exciting, smaller venues stand out for their intimacy. In the end, however, nothing beats the essential, that is, always having the feeling that I am in contact with the listener. When people feel that they are part of the concert, I am satisfied.

This also means a great expenditure of emotions and energy. How do you keep in shape? Do you have any special exercises or special “piano life hacks”?

My only musical “life-hack” is to take each day as it comes and just experience life! When it comes to fitness and taking care of it, I can’t say that I do anything special. Whenever I have free time, I play ping pong, I love this game.

Is there anything you would like to mention in the interview that might be of interest to readers?

I am very happy to be performing at Pohansko Manor with Michelle Stern, a great violinist and friend. Michelle and I have been playing together since childhood, and our journey through the musical world now continues with a visit and concerts in a special corner of the Czech Republic.

I believe it will be interesting for Opera Slovakia readers and concertgoers that I have well-known compositions by the American composer Lowell Liebermann in the program. I will also perform the second dance from his Three Dances from Frankenstein, a new work that the composer wrote last year for me as a result of a commission from the Gilmore Piano Festival. The world premiere of the concert was in the summer of 2023 at the Gower Festival in Wales. In September 2023, it will be performed for the first time in the Czech Republic, at the Lednice-Valtice Music Festival.

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