Artist Profile: Enrico Maria Polimanti
The versatile Italian pianist and lecturer has published a wonderful recording of French music on the the music platform Exit Live, including works by Satie, Messiaen, Ravel and Debussy. He tells us about his background, influences and how he is surviving during the Covid pandemic.
1. What age did you start playing the piano? Does the love of music run in the family?
I started when I was eleven years old, rather late. But I do remember loving listening to my parent’s vinyl collection when I was much younger. In my family nobody plays or sings and it all started by accident; my father suggested I should try out the piano and now, after four decades, I’m still trying; at least this is how I feel.
2. When were you at the RCM? How did Yonty Solomon change your playing?
After my studies at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, I auditioned at the College and in 1994, after being awarded a Foundation Scholarship, I moved to London where I lived for three marvellous years. At the time, from a “sociological” point of view, the gap between Rome and London was enormous. To be on the tube or to make friends with people coming from every continent was not common in my home town. I immediately felt like a citizen of the world. But obviously the most important experience for me was the encounter with Yonty Solomon. A truly great musician and human being, he was a man of rare wisdom and spiritual richness. Yonty believed that piano playing is fundamentally about life, self-expression and communication. During the lessons he would encourage the students to nourish their musicianship and technique through an awareness of the collective aspects of philosophy, literature, painting, psychology or anatomy. He tried to transcend conventionally acceptable standards of piano-playing, and the nature of the piano itself, often referring to the expressive possibilities of the voice, spoken and sung, and of the other instruments. I would say Yonty Solomon made a musician out of me, until then I was just a piano student.
3. How did you choose the repertoire for this recording?
After extensively playing German and Austrian solo repertoire I felt the need to play something different. I selected French works spanning from Rameau to Messiaen. I have imagined a series of little pictures as seen through a prism which allows you to have different perspectives. The Rameau pieces didn’t really match this kind of imagery so I omitted those!
4. How do you prepare for a recital? Do you play from memory?
Preparation and practice have changed over the years, especially when I became a father for the first time. I had to reschedule my work to optimize the “loss” of time. My outlook changed. I tend to practice in the morning for three hours, preparing for the concert in advance because I don’t like to work under pressure. This has affected my ability of playing from memory. In the last decade I often perform solo repertoire with the score and I feel comfortable with that. Don’t forget, I’m ostensibly a chamber musician. I particularly enjoy Lied repertoire as I find the idea of playing poems fascinating while accompanying the myriad of inflections of the voice. One of the most compelling musical experiences for me has been the performance of the Schubert cycles.
5. The Covid pandemic has led to all concerts being cancelled. How are you surviving in these difficult times?
The Covid pandemic has kept me at home but I have only relatively suffered from social isolation. I have spent time with my family, reflecting on things, studying and preparing new projects. I have certainly missed performing but I have not felt the desire to stage online home concerts. I also teach and that side of my work has never stopped during the Covid pandemic as I have continued via the internet. I’m lucky but there are many musicians who are having a very hard time. The situation has proved that in Italy the government has neither a plan for musicians nor a real consideration for them which is outrageous and very sad.
6. Many artists are publishing historical recordings to help replace lost income. Do you have any favourite recitals recorded that you could publish?
Unfortunately I did not record many of my concerts in the past as I considered that only relevant for ‘great artists’. I wish I had done it more though! Things are so different today, technology and social media have transformed the approach to music making. I grew up following old traditions and I was kind of late to react. I’m very grateful to Exit Live for releasing my French music recital and to music manager Tiziana Tentoni for suggesting the possibility. I’ve got some old projects on minidisc which I should listen back to, although the dynamic range of that device is rather modest, so we’ll see.
7. Live music making creates such a wonderful atmosphere that all can hear in this recording. What is your next concert and will you publish on Exit Live?
My next concert is going to be on an 1805 Vennese Fortepiano and includes the piano version of Haydn’s Last Seven Words of our Saviour on the Cross. It was scheduled for Easter but due to the Covid pandemic has been postponed. I now have to decide if I keep the program, specifically connected to a particular time of the year, or substitute it with a recital where I play innovative works of the Classical era, such as Beethoven’s variations op. 34 and the Tempest sonata. The opus 34 is particularly interesting because each variation, instead of being based on a single key, is based on a different tonality. I will certainly consider using Exit Live in the future but it will depend on how the concert goes…. I’m very self-critical and I believe a recording needs to have the sparkle and a special reason for being released. I’m flattered by the proposal as Exit Live offers wonderful opportunities.
8. What is your favourite piece on this recording and why?
I think my favourite piece on this recording is Debussy’s Étude pour les Cinq Doigts. It is the first of his twelve Etudes dedicated to the memory of Chopin. In this work the composer makes use of digital virtuosity while ironically looking at the piano tradition of d’après Monsieur Czerny. It is music that often lends itself to understatement or abstraction. A music in black and white, en blanc et noir, to quote the title of a composition by Debussy of the same era, where the harmonic language and design of the lines derives from close contact with the keyboard.
https://exit.live/enrico.maria.polimanti/show/5629499534213120
