Since its launch in 2017, tonebase has produced hundreds of high-quality music lessons taught by professors from top schools. At its core, the platform’s mission is to democratize access to high-quality music education, by allowing users to attend lessons by teachers from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions: Juilliard, Yale, Eastman School of Music, and more.

But can it replace in-person learning?

In this tonebase review, we’ll be taking a look at the platform’s piano lessons, additional features, pricing and user testimonials.  

Continue reading to find out more about tonebase for piano – and get a subscription discount with our exclusive code: MORDENTS

Tonebase Piano Lessons: Features and Benefits

The platform’s lesson library currently offers more than 350 lessons for piano players. 

While tonebase’s intention is to provide useful content for musicians of all skill levels, the majority of the lessons are of intermediate and advanced difficulty. For example, some of the first videos that pop up when you look at the lesson library are lessons on pieces like Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Chopin’s Ballades.

So keep in mind: If you’re looking for a place to start your journey in piano playing and music making in general, tonebase might not be the best choice for that. While there are some amazing lessons there on piano fundamentals, we wouldn’t recommend them as the actual place to start building out your technique. However, you can still use these courses to help you refine your playing.

Once you have a firm handle of the keyboard, tonebase becomes a great learning tool. People looking for virtual piano lessons for intermediate players, or some advanced piano lessons online, are sure to find quality material they can use on tonebase. You can use it to either learn new pieces from scratch, learn about pieces you already know from a different perspective, or brush up on your knowledge of music theory and history.

Tonebase’s lessons UI is extremely accessible, well thought out, and easy to use. Each lesson is presented through interactive video which combines the presenter’s tape on the left-hand side of the screen and the music score on the right. Throughout the lesson, you can adjust small details if necessary: zooming in on the score, individual parts, adding bookmarks to specific sections, or even taking notes. 

But the user-friendliness of the lessons’ interface would mean nothing without the quality of the lessons’ content. The most important value tonebase has for its users is the greatness of its teachers (the number of which is truly surprising at first look). 

The platform includes lessons by international piano masters such as Jean-Yves Thibadeut, Penelope Roskell, Leon Fleischer, Boris Berman, and Garrick Ohlsson – the only American pianist to have won First Prize at the International Chopin Competition.  

Through lessons spanning anywhere between 5 minutes and a full hour, these piano greats unlock, by way of both discussion and demonstration, secrets hiding behind the staples of classical piano repertoire. Highlights include Seymor Bernstein’s walkthrough through Schumann’s Album for the Young, Jean-Yves Thibadeut’s teachings on Debussy’s Preludes, and there is also, of course, a treasure trove of insights on the music of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Scriabin… 

With the lesson library continuously being refreshed and updated, you are also hardly ever at risk of running out of learning material.

Finally, apart from the actual lessons themselves, tonebase also offers other, complementary resources: 

• a library of scores for most (not all) of the pieces discussed in their lessons,
• lesson notes containing essential exercises, custom assignments and summaries of key information, 
• and handy workbooks you can use to improve your technique, such as tips on pedal playing, or scales and arpeggios.

In addition to this, tonebase makes an effort to build a community for its users and teachers. There are regular live workshops, monthly AMAs by special guests, and community challenges centered around cornerstones of classical repertoire, like Brahms’s waltzes or Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

This makes the platform a rich resource for piano lovers. Its greatest value, of course, are still the video lessons – but there is also plenty of quality extra content to keep users occupied.

Psst – For those who want to explore what the tonebase platform has to offer in more detail, they also have a pretty cool YouTube channel. Check out this lovely lecture by the great Seymour Bernstein on playing Beethoven:

Tonebase Piano Lessons: Pricing and Value

Tonebase’s pricing comes in 3 subscription packages: Monthly ($49.95), Yearly ($24.95), and Lifetime (one-time payment of $695). There is a 14-day free trial available.

Subscriptions can be canceled any time. However, the platform currently does not offer partial refunds on Yearly or Lifetime memberships after the 14-day free trial period.

Sign up now and get 30% off your subscription with our exclusive promo code: MORDENTS

Tonebase Piano Lessons: Reviews and Testimonials

Of course, no one expects you to just take our word for it. 

In addition to the 5-star reviews you’ll find on tonebase’s website, we’ve also compiled some testimonials from other corners of the internet:

Tonebase channel has been an amazing recent discovery. The amount of musical insight available here is astounding.

sehetw, Twitter

I’ve been a tonebase subscriber for about the past year or so. It is a fantastic platform in my opinion. They have an impressive roster of performers/educators. Some of the lessons are masterclasses and some of them are just tutorials on pieces by the performer. They regularly add new content. I particularly enjoy Garrick Ohlsson’s lessons.

benjamink, Piano World Forum

This is what a “masterclass” should be! Intimate, dynamic, and communicative. Not a “maestro” dictating to a muted student.

stylewarning, YouTube

Tonebase Piano Lessons: Review Summary

Tonebase is a robust learning platform offering great and insightful virtual piano lessons for intermediate players, as well as advanced piano lessons online. 

Its 350+ lesson library helps pianists refine their technique and improve their understanding of a certain style or composition: from Baroque to 20th century music.

If you want to expand your repertoire, pick up some new tricks when it comes to your technique, or just like hearing interesting new insights from world-class performers and professors, we definitely recommend tonebase. The platform is unparalleled in the number of experts it hosts and the quality of the lessons they provide.

Get indispensable insights from the comfort of your home – use our special discount code MORDENTS for 30% off when you subscribe to tonebase.

In her thoughtful interview with Mordents Magazine, Astanova shared her opinions on contemporary social media and the world of classical music, as well as the roots of her love for Romantic repertoire.

Mordents Magazine: Considering that many concerts are either delayed or cancelled due to the pandemic, have you started some new projects or discovered some new interests?

Lola Astanova: I’ve been spending a lot of time in the studio, recording several albums and working on my new repertoire. In a way, this “time off” has given me the opportunity to focus on making music without worrying about traveling and touring. So, I’ve stayed pretty busy and productive.

MM: What is the most interesting thing about you that we wouldn’t learn from your biography alone?

LA: I imagine there is more than just one thing. I am a very private person, some may even say reserved or shy. In a way, it’s the opposite of what I look like on stage or on social media, but I like it that way. You may even say there are two Lolas: one – the artist and performer, and the other – the actual person.

MM: You’ve mentioned in past interviews the immense influence of Vladimir Horowitz on you. Can you recall the first time you encountered the music of this great pianist?

LA: I was still a child, just starting out in music. My piano professor used to host these “listening parties” in her home, where she played the rarest and most wonderful piano recordings to her students. She had an incredible collection of vinyl recordings, and I distinctly remember hearing Horowitz’s recording of Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 for the first time. I didn’t know anything about him, but I was in awe, and he instantly became my favorite pianist.

MM: Aside from your dedication to classical repertoire, you also experiment with different styles – from electronic music over pop to your own compositions and arrangements. What draws you towards improvisation and composition?

LA: I think if you have it in you, you simply can’t not compose. Music is how I feel the world and how I express
myself. To be honest, I enjoy composing even more than performing someone else’s music, so going forward you will see me releasing more and more original works.

MM: By all accounts, you’re the classical music star for a new age. You’re forward-thinking and modern, but, still – very devoted to the music of the 19th century. When did you first discover your love for Romantic repertoire, and what inspires you in the works of Liszt, Chopin and Rachmaninoff?

LA: My love for Romantic music is also rooted in my childhood. Obviously, as any young pianist I had to play my fair share of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, and I think their music is beautiful and timeless, but I was always leaning towards the Romantic composers. Their music gave me a sense of freedom, encouraged self-expression, and even in terms of temperament, I think, the Romantic repertoire is a natural match for my personality and performing style.

MM: You’re very inventive with your choice of performance venues. Your “Ocean Etude” video particularly stands out! How was that? Do you have some interesting anecdotes from concerts or from sets?

LA: Yes, there are stories behind almost every video shoot. For example, while shooting “Love Story” in Venice, it was so freezing cold that I literally had to wear a 40 lbs. fisherman’s coat and winter boots between each take. So, while in the video I am wearing a stylish short summer dress, the condition on the set were not so glamorous. During the shoot for “Ocean Etude”, my piano got hit several times by rather large waves and was almost devoured by the ocean. So, whenever you shoot outside, you can always expect the unexpected.

MM: You’ve performed all over the world. How different are audiences from different countries? Do
you notice any particular changes in your performance reception?

LA: I find that the audiences do indeed differ from country to country. For example, in Russia the public can be reserved at first, and you have to work hard to win them over, but once you do – they adore you. In Mexico people tend to be very passionate, excited, enthusiastic and they really love music. In the United States concertgoers are typically curious, engaged and always very appreciative of the performer. So it is true – each corner of the world is unique.

MM: In recent years, classical music has been steadily moving outside its traditional venues. Back in 2016, Los Angeles Youth Orchestra, led by Gustavo Dudamel, performed in the Super Bowl, marking this event as the first time in 50 years classical music was part of this sports event. You recently had the opportunity to perform as part of the charity tennis tournament Adria Tour. What was that experience like? How do sports fans compare to your regular concert audience?

LA: I love playing the “non-traditional” venues. Playing at sporting events typically generates high energy and
adrenaline pumping more than usual, which is something that excites me while I am on stage. The audience
in Serbia was very warm, indeed. I really enjoyed performing there and hope to return with a full scale concert soon.

MM: You’re, still, one of the rare modern performers who has leveraged social media to their success. You’ve obviously recognised the importance of social media in the contemporary world – why do you think most other classical musicians still resist it?

LA: I suppose it can be daunting, because social media is a mirror of sorts, which can tells you many things about yourself. And sometimes you may not necessarily wish to hear those things, because they can be hurtful, especially if those words conflicts with your own vision of yourself and the world. I think many classical musicians still live in their imaginary bubble, and operate based on some outdated and restrictive views, which are, frankly, no longer supported by reality. They act out of fear of criticism, they worry about phantoms like competitions or newspaper reviews, which once upon a time could make or break a career, but today are largely irrelevant. In my view, any artist has the right, if not the responsibility, to be fearless, to move forward, to adapt, to change, to challenge…in a way, that is the artist’s purpose in life and one can’t fulfill it out of fear.

MM: Since the nineties, there has been a rise in the trend of classical musicians experimenting with promotional strategies people usually associate with pop music. Violinist Vanessa-Mae, for example, was one of the first more prominent virtuosos to shoot extravagant album covers and film music videos. Of course, with the rise of social media, the backlash to those who choose this path has become more visible and direct. What would be your response to those who think bold fashion choices and a more diverse, dynamic approach to how you represent yourself somehow devalue the art-form?

LA: Today’s performance is not just about the music, but also about the visuals, fashion, etc. All those elements help to create an exciting and memorable experience for the audience. Any musician, certainly, has the right to only play sounds (and some do), but to me that would be like asking a film director to only stick to black and white silent movies lest they “devalue the artform”. I think it’s total nonsense. But in the end any artist can do what he or she chooses, and the audience can choose what they want to hear and to see.

MM: Where do you see the classical music world in 100 years in terms of “seriousness”?

LA: The music will survive for as long as humans will continue to feel. But the performance formats will most
certainly change with only a tiny “conservative” classical music segment continuing to exist like a museum piece, interesting mostly for educators and a small group of enthusiasts. Even today those types of performances are not competitive and can hardly generate excitement or ticket sales even among the older crowd, not to mention teenagers. But the new classical music formats will emerge, and the boldest, brightest and most fearless performers will define it and will ensure the genre’s survival. In fact, it is already emerging, and it’s an exciting time to be a performing musician today.

MM: How do you deal with the social media following you’ve amassed over the years? And you try to communicate with your fans as much as you can, which means you devote your time reading comments. Do different opinions affect you?

LA: Being on social media can sometimes feel like a full-time job. It does take a lot of time and effort to create
new and exciting content on a weekly basis. But I enjoy most aspects of it, and communicating with fans, reading and responding to comments is fun, so I try to do that as much as possible. As for different opinions – it really doesn’t bother me, because everyone is entitled to have one. As long as I know that what I do is quality – a negative or rude comment will never ruin my day.

MM: What do you think of the label “influencer”? Do you identify with it?

LA: I think of myself as a musician first and foremost. Still, I do recognize the fact that because of a large number of people that watch me, I have the ability to influence opinions and tastes. But I don’t necessarily like the term “influencer”, because over the past few years it’s gotten greatly diluted and devalued.
Nowadays any person with a few thousand followers on social media calls him or herself “influencer”, but
the truth is – very few people actually have an authentic and engaged social media audience. Many cannot create an engaging content, so they resort to buying fake followers, fake likes, etc. For some those stats create a real dependency and become like breathing, but I was never obsessed with numbers. My audience has grown organically over time, and I feel great knowing that every single person that follows me is there because they really are interested in what I do and we have a connection. Otherwise, I would simply consider it a waste of time.

MM: Your Instagram profile can be enjoyed not only as a selection of various classical music interpretations, but also as a digital fashion runway of sorts. What has been your favourite outfit you’ve worn for a concert performance so far?

LA: I have many favorites, but the one that stands out in my mind is my ‘Muse’ video outfit with huge custommade angel wings. Two wonderful theatre costume designers have worked for nearly a week to create those feather by feather and they turned out amazing. Another one was the Dolce & Gabbana dress made with Swarovski crystals, which I wore in my ‘La Campanella’ video. It was specially selected by maestro Dolce for this video and I thought it worked wonderfully.

MM: The audience has gotten to know you in spectacular, impactful stage fashion – at home you’re a little bit more relaxed, but in your casual videos you’re still wearing pumps and skinny jeans. What’s your style like off-stage and off-camera?

LA: I usually stick with one of two extremes: either the full-on glam look with high heels, perfect hair and makeup or the most basic, casual, no-effort-whatsoever look… (laughs). No makeup, my favorite comfy lounge clothes, and a braid. Usually, there is no in between for me.

Lighting round

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He was talking about the fairly forgotten French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan – of whose music Viner is now, arguably, the most-known champion of, but certainly not the only one. In recent years, pianists in search of something to refresh their repertoire have been stumbling upon, with great excitement, to Alkan’s etudes, sonatas and the excruciatingly demanding Piano concerto. And Viner was at the forefront of this movement; alongside his three-album project with the label Piano Classics, the young pianist was joined by Japanese prodigy Yui Morishita in the quest to bring Alkan’s work to public attention; a select few others (Margit Haider-Dechant, Yury Favorin, Giovanni Bellucci, Paul Wee) also started discretely inserting the composer’s pieces into their concert programmes and album tracklists. 

(Jack Gibbons from BBC 3 places the Alkan revival all the way back in the 60s, when figures such as Raymond Lewenthal and Ronald Smith put out recordings of his work. Still, there’s no denying that from the mid-10s onwards a new generation seems to be taking an interest in the composer’s music – a second Alkan renaissance?) 

Viner’s thought on the relative obscurity of Alkan rings true – there’s plenty of reason to believe musicians of the latter half of the 19^th century had scarcely an idea of who the composer was, except maybe hearing his name in passing conversation and stumbling onto it in the odd concert programme.

Even back in his lifetime, Alkan was the pianist’s pianist. There are few precious details that remain known from a life that was mostly shrouded in mystery – even his cause of death remains a point of dispute amongst scholars. The existing records tell of a remarkably talented musician, whose virtuosity was of great renown throughout select, expert, circles, and, very briefly, known to the French public. Records show that both Liszt and Rubinstein made a point of paying the relative recluse visits whenever they were in Paris; Feruccio Busoni ranked him alongside Chopin and – again – Liszt as one of the greatest piano masters of the 19^th century. 

Two centuries later, however, the renown has most certainly waned. While Liszt, Chopin, and Klara Schumann have remained, if not household names, then firmly embedded in every music student’s brain, the enigmatic Alkan became such a niche point of interest he is almost contra-canonical.

There are several reasons as to why. 

I

Much of Alkan’s work reveals a composer who lived before his time. Hardly interested in light, salon music, or a career of a concert virtuoso, rife with theatrics and complete with a demanding schedule, Alkan lived a secluded life. His temperament, friends and acquaintances testified, was shy, somewhat nervous and sensitive. (Hugh MacDonald describes it, in no kind terms, as “a mixture perhaps of extreme fastidiousness, hypochondria, persecution mania and diabolism”.) Unsuited for the stage (and devoid of that opportunity for promoting his works), or the mingle-heavy private entertainment scene of the Parisian salons (another good venue for self-promotion), and rejected from a Conservatoire position he was deeply interested in, at the age of 40 the composer withdrew from the public completely. He remained secluded for two decades, during which he not only dedicated himself to religious studies – translating the Bible from Hebrew to French – but also wrote some of his finest compositions. 

II

Owing much to reason #1 – the composer’s music is twenty different shades of difficult.  Aa a piano virtuoso whose craft critics called a “sensation” and an “explosion”, left to his own devices, Alkan wrote mostly for himself, and therefore his own skill level, making much of his music hardly accessible to younger students. As for the audience, the enigma of Alkan manifests differently; even in the most spectacular displays of technical brilliance it often requires, the composer’s music remains looking within.

Of course, Alkan’s works reflect a common 19^th century field of interest – in both overcoming the physical limitations of the player and expanding the expressive opportunities of the piano, which was at the time still an incredibly exciting instrument in the process of modification. (By 1860, through joint effort of performers and engineers, the instrument expanded its register from the five octaves of Mozart’s day to a full seven!) 

Still, Alkan seems intensely dedicated to push both of these ideas further than many of his contemporaries. The technical challenges of his pieces often came at the expense of melody, explaining why much of his work alienates the listener – especially one of the 19^th century ear. An early work of his, written in his twenties, sets into motion the drive that fueled much of the composer’s writing later on in life: the piano étude Le chemin de fer, credited as the first piece of music to represent the sounds of the steam engine. 

Alkan’s interest in machine-like precision of the player and eliciting mechanical sounds by musical means, in fact, has its parallels in works of two composers who came much later: Maurice Ravel and Arthur Honegger. As the first composer who took musical inspiration from the world of technology, Alkan set into work some creative ideas which would only fully take fruition at the very beginning of the 20^th century, at the dawn of the Second Industrial Revolution, and a sudden, immense interest in the sounds of urbanity, as seen in the works of Italian Futurists and the French avant-garde.

See here the differences and similarities of Honegger’s famous Pacific 231 and Alkan’s Le chemin de fer:

The composer’s piano miniatures, accessible to the intermediate musician and set to exploration of a single mood or musical idea, on the other hand, inspired another 20^th century great – Debussy.

III

There is a third reason for Alkan’s dismissal from the repertoire, one that still remains, like much of his life and work, subject to discussion. 

The composer’s Jewish heritage coloured, scholars insist, much of his music. Wikipedia marks him, even, as the first composer to have ever introduced Jewish hymnody into Westernized art music, with his collection of preludes published in 1847. Knowing a bit, as we do, of another Frenchmen from Alkan’s time, Fromental Halévy and his masterwork La Juive (premiered in 1835 at Opera National de Paris), we’re inclined to disagree – but the point still stands. At times of growing anti-Semitic sentiments in France (the Dreyfus affair being the crown-jewel of the zeitgeist, but certainly not an isolated event), Alkan’s religious upbringing, his fluency in Hebrew and the devotion he showed to the exploration of his heritage throughout his life (with more than 70 volumes in Hebrew or relating to Judaism documented as part of his personal library after his death), certainly introduced a few additional hitches in his career, which was, as we have explained before, challenging enough as it was.

It certainly can be argued that Alkan’s intention of incorporating Jewish melos into art music represents more of a studied, intimate labour of love than Halevy’s work, which was subject to a number of operatic conventions and almost had to fulfill a reasonable expectation of musical exoticism in representations of its protagonists. In Alkan’s op. 31, a set of 25 preludes (drawing on the pianist tradition that started with Bach), a trio of pieces (prelude 4-6) represents the diverse ways of transforming the sonority of Jewish hymn into profound piano miniatures. Prelude no. 6, Ancienne mélodie de la synagogue, is the most famous piece of this set, and it’s easy to see why: the signifying coloraturas of Hebrew chant are deftly interwoven into the melody, enriched by the accompanying voices that balance between foreign modes and the familiar minor scale, into a smooth, gentle piano prayer. 

There is no real conclusion to this article, as there is yet no conclusion to the question of whether or not Alkan will ever again enjoy the prestige he did at the height of his popularity as a young Parisian virtuoso. His music stands distinctive to other pianist-slash-composers of his time; it is, at the same time, evocative, sensuous, thrilling and exhausting. 

The average piano enthusiast will probably be deterred from exploring Alkan’s work by the existing mythos that surrounds it, as being demanding to the point of improbability. Jack Gibbons made an attempt to dispel this belief, but the overview of the composer’s detailed scores, filled with chromatic passages, wide-set arpeggios, fast tempi and precise rhythmical demands, still represents a fright. Faced with this density of expression, Robert Schumann himself once disapprovingly described one of Alkan’s early pieces as “nothing is to be found but black on black”.

Viner’s new recordings, like all the others before him, are an attempt to uncover the inherent musicality underneath the semiquaver hieroglyphs; attending to his albums, a new understanding of Alkan’s character might – or might not – slowly dawn on the listener. 

It is up to you to at least give him a fighting chance.

Mordents Magazine: Hello Eva, how are you? How are you spending your time during the pandemic?

Eva Gevorgyan: I am fine, thank you! In such hard times, when many concerts were cancelled, I am learning new repertoire, concentrating on school and watching films.

MM: Any hobbies or new talents recently discovered?

EG: I have started learning German language recently and passed the A1 exam just last week. I go to a fitness club close to my home – and I also like reading books. 

MM: Where would you like to travel first when this pandemic is over? And why?

EG: Many concerts and events were cancelled due to the pandemic, but not all. I was invited to play at Palermo Festival at the end of January, where the quarantine in Italy will be over. I do hope it will happen! Italy is one of the countries I adore – amazing food, wonderful architecture and great history. But I was happy that I had a chance to travel during the pandemics – in July I had a concert in Mariinsky Theatre with Valery Gergiev in Saint Petersburg, in October I was in Switzerland, in Martigny – there was Jeune Chopin Piano Competition.

MM: So, how do you balance music with other obligations?

EG: It’s quite hard – I am in grade 10, so I would like to have 36 hours [in a day], not 24. Also, I think it’s important to do sports, I try to find time for that too.

MM: Do concert pianists get to choose their call? Most famous pianists usually start at a very early age, long before they can actually make decisions for themselves. What do you think about that? 

EG: My story is totally different. My mom is a musician, violist, and she didn’t want me to become a musician. From a very early age, I started asking her to buy me a small violin, because I also wanted to play like her. When I was 3 years old, my mom presented me with a violin, but I didn’t like the sound (I guess it was untuned or I just couldn’t play) and took the violin apart. After that, I started playing piano – I couldn’t break it at least! So I insisted on learning music. I think that it’s good to start at an early age – I can’t remember myself without music, it seems as if it was a part of me from my birth.

MM: What would you change about the classical music industry?

EG: I would like to change the opinion that classical music is just for a small number of people. I would like to popularize classical music, to explain to people who are not musicians that classical music is not so hard to understand, and to encourage more people to come to our concerts.

MM: And how would you grow a classical music audience? 

EG: It would be nice to add classical music lessons to primary schools, to create an Instagram or Telegram channel about it, to create several classical music channels. When I was at the Verbier festival, there were amazing concerts even for the youngest – for example, we played The Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens and during our live performance there were children’s animated illustrations, drawings, so they were involved in the performance.

MM: What trends in classical music do you like/dislike?

EG: I dislike when the artist likes himself in music more than the music itself. It’s a very fine line to walk – to express your own individuality, but also to play what the composer wants to express.

MM: While on the subject of composers, which are your favorite and least favorite? 

EG: My favourite composers are Chopin, Scriabin, Liszt – I love the romanticism of Chopin, the sensitivity of Scriabin, the brightness and tragedy of Liszt. I feel very comfortable playing their music. Actually I like all composers, but my least favourite is maybe Saint-Saens, though I like several of his pieces.

MM: How do you choose your repertoire?

EG: Usually I listen to a piece and understand that I want to play it. Sometimes my Professor offers me something. For example, she suggested I should play Hindemith Suite 1922, while I have never listened to it before.

MM: What pieces are you afraid to put into your repertoire? And why?

EG: I can’t say I am afraid to put something in the repertoire. I wish to play all Preludes and Fugues by Bach, but I understand that in that case, I would need to play only them for some period of time because it’s a huge amount of work. Some other pieces, I don’t think I’m ready for yet, like Brahms’ Concerto no. 1. I think I need to grow up a bit more for that one!

MM: Do you sometimes play pieces that you don’t like?

EG: Yes, it happens sometimes. But what is interesting – after some time, pieces I didn’t like first, become pieces I love. I discover the sense and the soul in them. 

Usually, though, I change my repertoire very quickly and don’t have time to get tired of the piece. But when I am tired due to frequent performances or practice, I try to imagine myself as one of the audience members, who came to the concert and is listening to this piece for the first time. Then I find something new and fresh.

MM: What are some of the achievements you’re most proud of?

EG: There are several: performances in Mariinsky Theatre with Valery Gergiev, ICMA Discovery Award, playing in front of Martha Argerich in a jury and getting the first prize at Jeune Chopin piano competition, and being a laureate of Cliburn and Cleveland junior piano competition.

MM: How do you prepare mentally for Chopin Competition?

EG: Now I don’t play Chopin too much. For me Chopin Competition is not an ordinary competition, it’s a feast of Chopin, celebration, and joy from the unique atmosphere in Warsaw, magic, which I have been waiting for for so long. I am nervous, just a little bit because the program is very big and there are some pieces I have never played. Anyhow, I have a positive attitude and expect amazing emotions, which will be with me for my whole life.

MM: You are one of the youngest contestants. Do you feel any pressure? 

Actually, I already got used to playing in competitions, so I feel no pressure, but anticipation. For me, it’s important to convey my musical ideas, not just play notes.

MM: You were photographed for the November issue of Tatler magazine last year, and had the fun opportunity to step into the shoes of a model. Do you think that unique fashion is important for a classical musician? 

EG: I think yes if you are a personality you will have your unique fashion, your image at any case. For me, it’s important to go from what you have inside, not just to create external artificially. 

MM: If you were not limited by dress code – what would you wear for your performance?

EG: I appreciate comfort, so I would wear pajamas and slippers!

Lightning round

What are your guilty pleasures?

I adore eating lots of nice food.

If not a musician, what else would you love to be?

A ballerina!

Choose a karaoke song you’d sing:

Maybe something from Billie Eilish.

What music do your friends ask you to play for them?

All my friends are musicians, so usually they ask me something like: “Let’s play a double piano concerto by Poulenc?” 

Musical icons and influences?

Mikhail Pletnev, Evgeny Kissin, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Martha Argerich, Emil Gilels, Denis Matsuev…

What period is a perfect match for you in terms of both music and fashion? 

Middle of the 19th century.

Prelude or Fugue?

Fugue.

Major or Minor?

Major.

Chopin Op. 10 or Chopin Op. 25?

Op. 10. 

MM: Thank you for your time, Eva, and good luck on the 18th Chopin Piano Competition!

EG: Thank you so much for your amazing, unique questions!

An expert woodworker

By all acounts, Scriabin was a precocious kid with an ear for music. Before turning nine, he had already been composing, writing poetry and had a sweet little hobby – carving miniature pianos from wood for fun and also making them great gifts for the house guests.

Murder he wrote

Still as a boy, Scriabin extended his creative output to dramatic works as well. His penchant for tragedy soon became apparent, as one anecdote from his childhood claims – most of the characters in his dramas would’ve been killed off by the third act. According to the memories of his aunt Lyubov Aleksandrovna, he once exclaimed after a particulary gruesome dramatic turn of his own making: „Auntie, I’ve no characters left to go on with.”

The droshky danger

A history of pianism is a history of perfectionism and inadvertent self-harm that occurs in the quest to achieve it. The story of Scriabin injuring his right hand by over-practicing is well-known, but there’s one more reason as to why his piano works frequently include a particularly challenging left-hand part. During the composer’s student years, in one very unlucky incident on the Kouznetz Bridge in Moscow, he was knocked down by a taxi carriage – breaking his right collarbone. During his convalescence, Scriabin practiced the piano with just his left hand; in later years this experience partially inspired his Prelude and Nocturne op. 9 for left hand.

Diaghilev vs. Scriabin

As a great Russian artist cruising through Europe at the dawn of the 20th century, it was pretty much inevitable Scriabin would at some point cross paths with Serge(i) Diaghilev, the end-all-be-all of impresarios of his day. It was the first Saison Russe in Paris and Scriabin was set to collab with the Diaghilev troupe. A short outburst during the premiere of his Second symphony soon ended the professional partnership, though – with a banal confrontation over late concert tickets taking a nasty turn and ending with Scriabin screaming in Diaghilev’s face: “You allow yourself to talk this way to me! You forget art. We are artists. We create it, and you, you merely fidget and strut about its edges selling it. Without us who would want even to know you? You would be less than… than nothing on earth!”

Yuri Engel, the chief chronicler of this tale (and Scriabin’s biographer, just sayin’), claims Diaghilev’s response was to humbly lower his head and accept the insult with a substantially submissive response – knowing all that we do on Diaghilev, this seems sus. The fact that after that incident Scriabin and Diaghilev never collaborated again, points to a (most likely) different end to this anecdote. 

Supporter of the Great War?

In a letter published in the Moscow journal Mouzika, Scriabin expressed his views on the conflict, stating  that it was felt almost as a necessity. „…at certain times the masses urgently need to be shaken up, in order to purify the human organisation and fit it for the reception of more delicate vibrations than those to which it has hitherto responded.“ He further adds: „These upheavals (cataclysms, catastrophes, wars, revolutions, etc.), in shaking the souls of men, open them to the reception of the idea hidden behind the outward happenings.“ 

Scriabin’s take on the whole bloody mess feels like a very new-age, crystal-clutching, indica-scented kind of opinion. Considering the composer didn’t live to witness the full effects of the Great War, his silver-lining school of thought, which, to be fair, pondered mostly on the role of the ~artiste~*~ and the ~intellectuel~*~ in times of turmoil can almost be understood and subsequently dismissed in all its naivety. And yet… we can’t help but notice how some of its fragments echo the notoriously conflict-hungry proclamations of Italian Futurists.

Music as taking flight

Scriabin’s connection to Futurism doesn’t just stop there. Apart from revolutionary moves he made inspired by his synesthesia (chiefly Prometheus and clavier à lumières), another frontier of sound he took active interest in was the integration of machine sonorities into the traditional orchestra.

Riding the tide of Marinetti and co, and on the other side of the ocean, Edgard Varèse, Scriabin was, in fact, amongst the first to experiment with including  a mechanical object – an airplane propeller – into an orchestral piece, as described in his plans for another work inspired by Greek mythology: symphonic picture Icarus. 

Another very interesting detail has to be mentioned here: the notion of flight in music was one of Scriabin’s central preoccupations in his mature period. Transcribing this unique motion into music as a series of upward motifs, it was described alternately as vzlyot, or polyot or porïv in Russian. Intrinsically linked with a sense of yearning, desire and ecstasy, the leitmotif of soaring can be found in many of the later Scriabin’s scores.