JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us what you want the public to know about your recent completed project or the one you are actively working on. What is it, why is it, and how was/is it done?
HANNA SHYBAYEVA: My recent project is a combination of two of my great passions: Beethoven and chamber music. 2020 is coming and we all want to contribute somehow to the birthday year of one of the most amazing composers who ever lived. Since I never would have the ambition to bring out yet another complete piano sonatas or piano concerto box as we know it, I thought to combine my love for Beethoven’s music with another project I am busy with already for many years, namely – performing piano concertos and symphonies in a chamber music arrangements/settings. There are many existing, since the ‘salon concert’ fashion was very popular back in time.
So that’s how the first CD in the series of ‘Beethoven complete piano concertos arrangement for piano and string quintet by Vinzenz Lachner recently came to life on Naxos label (released November 8, 2019). On this first CD we recorded piano concertos no. 3&4, and the next CD will include piano concerto no.1 and the 2d symphony arranged for piano trio by Beethoven himself. The third CD will feature piano concertos no. 2 & 5 – recorded in the beautiful Riverside Studios in Cologne with the Utrecht String Quartet and Luis Cabrera on the double bass.
JS: What kind of audience will this project interest? What new audience are you also seeking? Why to both questions?
HS: I think it’s meant for a very broad audience. Some might like it because it’s the same music they know very well, but in a different setting and they will find something fresh and new for themselves. Others might listen to it only to confirm to themselves that it’s really nothing compared to the orchestral version. Maybe I also want to encourage the public and other musicians to not be afraid of these arrangements, as I know so many of us are, and give them a chance to be played and be listened to and do it with the open mind and ear. I know from experience that it is a very rewarding process in the end and people come to me afterwards saying how they didn’t expect to enjoy it, but they did a lot after they left out the expectations and only listened to the music.
JS: In what ways was/is this project easy to do and in what ways was/is it difficult to realize? How long did it take and why that long?
HS: A CD production is always difficult to realize, looking for money, organizing a recording venue etc., and it’s not easy. In this case, I am grateful and happy to have worked with people who all did their best to make this process as smooth as possible.
As for the creative part of it, it was a lot of fun to rehearse these concertos with the quintet – it has so much a chamber music feel to it! Also, not having a conductor in between yourself and the other musicians gives the whole process a very special flavour, we are all musicians and conductors at the same time.
It didn’t take us too long to rehearse the pieces and the recording was done in two days, so all together it wasn’t so long. The whole project though will take some time, and now I am preparing the 2d CD, aiming for release in autumn 2020. The 3d CD will most probably arrive in 2021.
JS: How are you planning to promote, market, and sell this project to the public or how is it being sold?
HS: Naxos is taking care of the promotion and marketing for this project. I am, of course, also promoting it through my website and social media. As far as I know it’s already doing quite well on Spotify.
JS: Please give us a brief autobiography, some stuff about yourself, that is relevant to this project.
HS: I am originally from Belarus and live in the Netherlands since 1999, where I also finished my studies and right now have the big part of my performances and activities. Six years ago, I also started teaching at the Rubinstein Academy in Düsseldorf (Germany), so I very much share my time between the two countries. I am also active in other genres of music, especially contemporary music, but also jazz, improvisation, world music.
I love chamber music and try to play a lot of it; for me it’s the best way to make music in general.
JS: What’s next in your creative life?
HS: Next to preparing the 2d CD in this project, I am playing several different new programs in the coming months and also preparing a program for the 2d CD of my other project ‘Tangos for Yvar’ which includes contemporary tango pieces written between 1983-1991 and commissioned by an American pianist Yvar Mikhashoff. You can read about it here:
https://www.hannashybayeva.com/recordings/TANGOS-FOR-YVAR-p139614406