PETA STEWART
Gorgeous melodies, the showmanship of the piece, the big chords … these are just some of the reasons that pianist Spencer Myer is excited about performing the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra on Thursday, 14 June 2018.
“I fell in love with it when I was 12 or so, and although I was too young to know anything about nationalism I could feel Grieg’s love for his country, Norway. It was so apparent,” he says. He is also pleased that he will perform this piece a second and third time on this tour, with the Johannesburg Philharmonic on June 20 and 21, and give master classes and a recital at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre on 1 and 2 June 2018.
Myer has also had a love affair with South Africa since 2004 when he won the UNISA International Piano Competition. “I knew nothing about the country or the competition when I received an invitation in the post, so I thought, why not. From the moment I arrived in Pretoria I was embraced … I felt so welcomed, so loved and appreciated and even if I say it myself the audience was in my court because winning a competition with Beethoven Pianco Concerto no 4 is really unusual – audiences love the big showpieces but in this case they rewarded artistry and musicianship. My prize included a national tour the following year, and since then I have been to South Africa five more times, this tour being the seventh.”
Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre
One of the connections he made was with Leon Hartshorne, later head of the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre and on every visit he played there, even after Hartshorne’s untimely death a few years ago.
Myer came to music the traditional way – his father, although an electrical engineer, had an undergraduate degree in classical guitar, and there was always classical music in the home.
“We would go to the Cleveland Orchestra together to sit in the front row, but it wasn’t until I was about 12 that I realized that the pianist I had been listening to was doing this as a job, a career! I talked loosely about being a doctor or a lawyer, but my parents sat me down and said that since I was all consumed by music that I should consider a career as musician. They bought a new piano and that changed my life – I began to see music as a pleasure even though I had asked for – and got – piano lessons at the age of six and my life became focussed. I became nuts about classical music. I developed tunnel vision and pop music, which I still like, took a back seat!”
Bernstein’s ‘Age of Anxiety’
Today Myer’s career takes him mainly all over North America, and he teaches in Boston, a three-hour weekly commute from his home in New York.
“I try not to teach via Skype”, he says. “How can you teach sounds like that?”
He is in the middle of a round of playing Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety to mark the 100th anniversary of the composer, and is looking forward to performing again with Victor Yampolsky.
“We played together 12 years ago in Cape Town. I had heard so much about him and it was a thrill to meet him. He is such a character and also a sensitive accompanist. I performed with him at the Rhode Island Symphony a couple of months ago and will return to his Peninsula Creek Festival later this year, the third collaboration in six months!”
When he is not teaching or performing or practising, he is writing emails to keep in touch with friends, cooking, going to the theatre on Broadway or the Metropolitan Opera … and to gym, something he never thought he would enjoy!
Who: Spencer Myer, pianist
What: Cape Town Philharmonic’s Autumn Symphony Season
Where: Artscape Opera House, Cape Town
When: 14 June 2018 at 8pm
Info, book: http://bit.ly/spencermyer
Web: www.cpo.org.za
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