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Future Classic Women Awards – Katya Lebedeva, Professor Of Piano

Future Classic Womens Awards·36:00·27 Nov 2023·

Episode Summary

Join host Stefania Passamonte as she welcomes renowned pianist and Trinity Laban Conservatoire professor Katya Lebedeva to the 6th edition of Future Classic Women Awards. Katya shares her remarkable journey from arriving in London in 1993 as a Soviet-trained musician to becoming a British citizen, describing the magical pull she felt toward the city as a hub of artistic opportunity and innovation. She reflects on her early breakthrough performing at the South Bank Centre’s Fresh platform and discusses her friendship with the new Lord Mayor of London, Michael Mainelli, and their shared vision for revitalizing classical music in the city.

The conversation delves into the evolving landscape of classical music, exploring innovative concert concepts that blend traditional performances with visual art, theater, poetry, and immersive experiences. Katya discusses the Café Concert movement of 19th-century France as inspiration for making classical music more accessible and democratic, and shares her fascination with the recent Yuja Wang multimedia concert. She explains how visual projections can deepen the listening experience by quieting the analytical mind and allowing audiences to absorb music in a pure, intuitive way, while emphasizing that music must always remain the primary focus.

The episode features a beautiful performance of Rachmaninoff’s Moments Musicaux No. 4, which Katya has previously performed alongside projections of dramatic mountain waterfalls. She concludes by announcing her upcoming concert on December 5th at the intimate Marylebone Theatre, where she will explore “Musical Pilgrims in Victorian London” as the third installment of her innovative concert series at the venue.

Main Topics

  • Katya Lebedeva's journey to London in 1993 and her discovery of the city as an artistic home despite her Soviet classical training background
  • The revival of Café Concert concepts and other multimedia concert experiences as a way to make classical music more accessible and democratic
  • The impact of visual projections and multimedia elements on the listening experience, allowing audiences to absorb music in a more intuitive way rather than analytical
  • Katya's collaboration with the Lord Mayor of London to create new concert series concepts featuring encounters with music in diverse, mixed-media settings
  • The distinction between traditional concert experiences and innovative multimedia performances, with both having value in the modern classical music landscape
  • Katya's upcoming December 5th concert at Marylebone Theatre featuring 'Musical Pilgrims in Victorian London' with talks introducing each piece
  • How composers like Rachmaninoff and Chopin continue to resonate with modern interpretations and contemporary audiences with living, evolving art

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Full TranscriptHello and welcome to the 6th edition of Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Stati...
Hello and welcome to the 6th edition of Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station, the program where we search for the most amazing new female artists on the classical panorama. Today on Future Classic Women Awards, we have a fantastic pianist, a very special guest called Katya Lebedeva. Hello, Katya! Hello, it is lovely to be on your program. Thanks for asking me. Absolutely, Katya, you are a fantastic pianist, you are a professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, and you have an amazing concert coming up. Tell us a little bit about you. So, you know, what was the first time you came to the UK? You're now a British citizen. And how is it to live in London? Well, I came to UK in 1993, which is a long time ago. And of course, London was quite a different city at the time. But I remember myself going out in the streets and thinking, oh my God, this is home. And which is kind of unusual because if you think about it, you know, I'm a very fine, I'd like to think, product of the Soviet background, and which is culture which is so different to the Western, sort of Western culture. And yet, when I came to London, there was that sort of a wonderful smell in the air of opportunities, of trying different things, adventure, possibilities. London was really looking into new artists, was looking into new ideas for music. And I was very lucky. I sent my recording to the South Bank Centre team, who at the time was looking for a new artist to appear on a younger platform at the South Bank Centre called Fresh. And they invited me to give a recital, and it was my debut concert. And I was— it was just overwhelming, really, to be on the stage that had so many amazing artists before me and be part of this new initiative launched by the South Bank. So this, this was my, my luck, and I kind of— I think I felt it on my second day. There was something going to happen here. Well, this is a very special place. We have in common the friendship with the new Lord Mayor of London, who is American, italo-American. And as well, I heard this fantastic speech when he was elected in saying how he has been in this country for 40 years, but he feels London like his home. And that's exactly the same feeling I felt when I arrived and the feeling that you felt as well. It's quite a magical city. What do you think? Absolutely. I mean, you're quite right to mention our new Lord Mayor of the City of London, Michael Mainelli, who is an extraordinary person. And he— we've actually met before. He was Sheriff of London and we discussed kind of musical life, you know, decades on. And we were saying, you know, where is the musical scene moving now and what can we do to make it exciting. And in fact, we were discussing with Michael this kind of starting a new concert series or new concept which will make music, classical music more accessible and different because I think classical world is changing. And one, one of the wonderful things about London always been that it's been at the forefront of changes. Yes. And I know there is, you know, a lot of people talk about, you know, kind of the cuts in the arts sector and the difficulties and the kind of getting the sector getting smaller. But on the other hand, I always think London had this opportunity to reinvent itself. And Michael and I were talking about this, introducing this kind of idea of encounters with music somewhere where people can mix with artists, somewhere where different kinds of art can be brought onto the stage. And Michael said to me, how do you see this? And I said, well, like a Greek agora, you know, in the ancient Greece, you know, where artists of all disciplines were getting together and bringing something new and creating something together. So this kind of idea of— I then I found it in France in the sort of in the early 19th century, they started this kind of café Café Concert idea. And then I said, what about that? It was kind of very democratic art, which was— which brought different artists together and introduced concerts for everyone, which, I mean, until that time it used to be pretty kind of elite. But then they travelled to intimate places and did all kinds of interesting productions, and then that spread, that movement spread around the countries, including UK. So I thought maybe it's a time for revival. Of this. Yeah, well, just recently there was this incredible concert by Yu Ya Wang performing at the live exhibition of Stephen Ockney. And I was reading a review about this new concept of concert. It was supposed to be super secret and the music reviewer says, I'm sorry, I cannot not say because I think this is going to be the future of classical concerts. Now, I don't think we're gonna cancel going to Royal Albert Hall or Festival Hall or Barbican and just see a beautiful solo piano concerto or, you know, concerto with the orchestra, symphonic, etc. But there will be space at the same level in these fantastic stages, I believe, in a different way of of experiencing classical music. Well, it's interesting you brought up this concert with Yuja Wang. In fact, I was there. Ah, yes. Because I— when I saw this concert and I thought, wow, this is exactly what I've been doing for the last sort of 5— more than that, actually, years. And I thought, but I've never been member of the audience and I don't know how it was on the receiving end. And I found, I mean, apart from the fact that she's an amazing artist and there's much to admire about her playing, but the whole combination of projections of paintings and projection of her, herself actually playing as well was, was fascinating because for the first time in my life, I sat somewhere where I was immersed in what I was trying to do. It's one thing to be on stage and doing it, another thing being in the, in the audience. Yes, what is on the receiving end. And, um, I— one of the things that really struck me was, um, when you— because there is a lot to, to sort of take in, there's music and there's also a visual, which is of course it's one of their strongest senses. But when the projections were cleverly done, because one of the things about projection, you've got to be very careful of not to overwhelm, because music always has to be first and always has to be, you know, telling the story. And the prime thing has to be music. But when you see something visual accompanying that, what happens is that your brain— I'm sure there is a— there must be a psychological explanation of this, but your brain has to focus on, has to concentrate on something. So what you end up doing is you're listening to music in a kind of, in a different sense, because you probably know this, but when musicians go to concerts, we listen and we analyze and we think about not just the music itself, but the artistry and the technicalities and, you know, these things. But when you have a painting projected on such a big scale or a picture and you actually stop thinking, you just absorb and you listen to music in a very pure way. I was quite overwhelmed with that. I thought, wow, this is amazing. Yeah. But you're very right. You said rightly so, you absorb the music. Now there is, in the other end, the fact that sometimes music needs to be experienced personally, with your own imagination, with your own visual aspect, if you have any. I had a friend who was doing sensory concerts with smells. So with perfume, he would have perfume being aired in the concert room, different depending on the pieces that he was performing. I did something with theater as well, with poetry. So I was working with this theater director and film director, and he had a concept, and he gave me some wonderful love poems, and he asked me to choose the music that would go with that. And sometimes, you know, the choice is so straightforward, and it went straight to the Nocturne of Chopin that I never played before, and I didn't even know all of them. But when I read the music and I listened to those poems, somehow the poems were like written for those nocturnes. It was very strange how this combination came along. So there is the beauty of experimenting, but sometimes if it's a painting, it needs to be I guess something that is done together with the painter, where the painter is— particularly when it's an abstract painting, for example, where he wants to convey a certain mood. Also, if you, if you think about it, sometimes we might be looking at the painting, uh, I don't know, even if it's a figurative one, where the painter has the meaning of being a certain feeling and the spectator might be feeling something else because to their personal life that specific image remind them of a different type of state of mind. So what do you think about these? I think you're absolutely right. I think it's what we're looking for is another dimension. It doesn't have to replace any kind of classical way to just go to the concert and sit at the concert of a an artist played, playing for an hour and a half without any, any stimulus. But, um, I think music is, is a living art. I mean, even those Chopin nocturnes, I mean, if you listen to interpreters of the past and now, they're all changing, you know. So, you know, why can't we have another take, another view of this? You know, we can look at this music and hear this music with modern ears, you know, with living in a society that is changing and listening to this music in a different way. Very true. Well, the first, the first piece we're gonna listen to today is Rachmaninoff, the Moments Musicaux No. 4. Um, that's, you know, it's a French title, uh, and it really reminds you of the, the first Moments Musicaux were composed by Schubert, and, uh, Rachmaninoff is bringing back us back to that salon concept that is a bit like the French one you were talking about. Um, what does this Momo Musico, uh, um, brings to you in terms of vision when you play it? Well, actually, I have done a concert with this. It was part of this, and we have shot, um, waterfalls in, in the, in the mountains. A very, um, violent, dramatic streams of water just taking it with it. So I think it was actually shown with that. So it's very close to my heart because of that as well. Well, let's listen then. Rachmaninoff, the Momo Musico No. 4, performed by our guest of Future Classical Women Awards, Katya Lepeteva. And this was Rachmaninoff Momon Musico No. 4 performed by our special guest of Future Classical Women Awards. Katia Lepeteva. Katia, this was absolutely fantastic. It's one of my favourite moments musicaux. And yes, when I play this piece, everything comes to my mind. It's just incredible how it just transports you to a different place as well. There is this very personal feeling that comes when you're playing any piece that brings the mood to the audience that is listening to you. Now, you were talking about these incredible concerts where you were showing pictures together with music, a bit like before what has been out now in the news from Yuuya Wang. But you have another fantastic concert coming up. Would you like to tell us about this? Yes, I have a concert on the 5th of December, on a Tuesday, 5th of December at 7:30 at the Marylebone Theatre. Beautiful Marylebone Theatre. Yeah. Yes, it's a very Art Nouveau style of architecture. It's a very small, intimate space with a great acoustic and a wonderful piano. And this is my third concert at the Marylebone Theatre. Yes, and this one, every one of them had a different theme. So the first one was with a performance artist where we have created some scenes from Debussy preludes in the French style. It was all dedicated to Paris, Je t'adore, kind of French theme. And the second one was with silent movies. And this third one will be musical pilgrims in Victorian London. So this one will be talking about Victorian history of London, and I will be kind of the hostess of the concert, if you like. I will deliver a little talk before each piece and introduce it. This theme came to mind sort of following an invitation by the theater to perform the concert on the theater stage. At the moment they have a theater play called A Sherlock's Carol, and they will leave the setting of the stage for the concert. So I will be— Ah, wonderful. Yes, I will be effectively playing on the Victorian streets. Oh my gosh, it's going to be fantastic. Yeah. Yes. And I thought, well, you know, it's like in the— if you think about Charles Dickens and Sherlock together. So I thought, I have to talk my audience through this and bring a sort of element of theatre into the concert. And another very interesting thing is because I thought I have to bring in the violinist with me because it's a Sherlock, and of course Sherlock Holmes was well known for violin playing. So I thought I'll bring the violinist because also, but very interestingly, in Victorian times is the kind of towards the end of Victorian reign, It was the first time that women were seen to be playing violin because until then it was not something to be done. Because, because the violin apparently is an instrument that Victorians thought resembled the female body. So have a female playing on another female body instrument was really frowned upon. Wow, I had no idea about this. I think it was just a Victorian, I guess, because I think there were women violinists before. In other countries, no? It was, yes, but in Victorian, it was really thought of as indecent playing, you know, indecent behavior. It was almost like, I don't know, smoking cigar or visiting men's clubs. It was really not something to be done. That's very funny. I'm sure the most indecent would have been the cello. That would be just impossible, isn't it? Yes, yes. So I thought about this and I thought, wow, this is quite something. But of course, Victoria being married to Prince Albert, you know, it changed a lot of things because Prince Albert was quite a very important figure in Victorian England and particularly important figure for classical musicians. Because during that time, the whole, the rest of Europe were basically in turmoil and there were revolutions happening everywhere. Revolts. And of course, in times like that, you know, music suffers, you know, musicians move. So they all moved to London, even people like Tchaikovsky. Actually, he found fame in Europe, in the UK. Oh, wow. Yes, it was— he was as famous in the UK as he was in back home in Russia. And in no other countries. That is very interesting, you know, because I saw your beautiful lecture on the Soviet school and the fact on how musicians, you know, the schools were very separate until very recently, if you like. And you would know about this incredible Soviet classical school only when the artist were allowed to, to leave the country and perform abroad with money not going back. So I mean, it's, it's, it's quite interesting. You know, I realized as well in Italy we have a big passion for the Soviet performers. Some of my dear friends as well, fantastic virtuoso musicians like you. And then there is other countries where these musicians are not known. So although we live still in such a international, intercultural, internet society, still the markets are very separate. Oh, absolutely, yes. I mean, this is one thing that I really enjoyed about London because, as you know, it was very traditional and conservative upbringing that I had. And I think part of me, or maybe my sort of inner being, was always of a rebel. So being a rebel in London, I think it's appropriate. Well, also in Soviet Union we have wonderful stories of rebels and some of the most beautiful romans, if you like, novels, the most famous writers. I'm such a big fan of Bulgakov, for example, Tolstoyevsky. So it is very much into the blood anyway. Oh yes, oh yes, especially in the times of, you know, before the perestroika when it was all about sort of spirit of stagnation. I remember this was my very first kind of experimental concert with the dancers that we did. I performed with the Rambert Dance Company, and it was for International Herald Tribune Festival in London. And they said, you know, what would you like to do? And one of the things we, we did, it was the period of stagnation when seemingly nothing was happening, and yet there was a lot of brewing out inside, you know, of very interesting music that was coming out and, and be heard. So I think it was, yeah, Soviet was a good school, I think, in many ways. And I think, you know, when there's a lot to be said about state supporting arts as well. Yes, exactly. You know, it's on one hand, of course, it's, you know, it doesn't mean it necessarily allows for experimental ideas. But, um, I still remember, you know, when you had to prepare for a concert or you had a competition to prepare for, you— there, there were such amazing facilities for artists to withdraw into— wow— from the world, you know, um, kind of live in the forest in the, in the hut and with a grand piano in it and, and just be completely cut off from the rest of the world and just It was something special. You know, this is something actually we don't get in London. As you know, it's a crazy city in many ways. Yes. What I noticed about London, talking about that, is the fact that when I arrived to London from Italy, I was, I felt like I was in a tornado. I had concerts lunchtime, early evening, evening, in all the theatres, in all the major churches. And they were all fantastic, and I wanted to go to all of them. And then, you know, it was like being drunk all the time of this impossible, beautiful first-class talent and culture. But then becomes too much because when you are a performer yourself, you need to withdraw, isn't it? To concentrate on yourself so that you can create something new, something original that is not— so it's, we say, it's a sword with the double side. Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, this idea of withdrawing, this is kind of also what helps me to, you know, when I work with other artists, like I had a collaboration with the flamenco artist, and I remember kind of walking into that world of Spanish music with a flamenco artist who is basically essentially a percussion instrument added to your piano music. It was, at least it had some, provided some real variety and drew me into that other world and allowed me to have that space in which to create something different. Well, we're going to listen to both of them. So I now don't know which one shall we listen to first, Prokofiev or Defyah? Well, I think, why don't we just listen to Defyah? I think we need, in this gloomy weather, we need Uplifting music. Yes, well, then let's listen to Mayo de Faya, the dance ritual del fuego, the fire ritual dance with Álvaro Cañedo, who is the flamenco dancer that our guest Katia Lipeteva was just mentioning. And you will listen to him performing the flamenco. So the percussion on the audio track, on the soundtrack, will be of his eels. Absolutely fantastic. Manuel de Falla is one of my favorite, um, Spanish composers. Fantastic. With the Danza Ritual del Fuego. Performed by our guest of Future Classical Women Awards, pianist Katia Libedeva, and with the heels from the flamenco dance of fantastic dancer Álvaro Garrido. Absolutely glorious. You know, I had this opportunity to study the Spanish composers in Spain with a student of a student of Albéniz. So the specialists from music in Compostela. And I performed many competitions and masterclasses in Spain where I realized that to learn about the nationalistic music, you need to go to the country itself or work with people from there because they will give you details that are outside the notation itself. And I found the same when I went to study in Paris at the École Normale with Jacques Lagarde. About French composers, Debussy, Ravel, that until that moment I couldn't really play the French way. I was always told, you know, it's too romantic or too Italian, if you like. Did you get that when you were performing for the first time Manuel de Falla or Granados, for example? Oh yes, for sure. I think you have, again, the upbringing, uh, of everyone comes to play because, um, uh, Soviet Union was in many ways a very closed, uh, society. And, uh, we didn't really have access to, um, many aspects of Western civilization and Western traditions of playing certain music. And I remember coming to London and for the first time listening to people here play music by, say, Beethoven or Bach, or particularly Viennese composers, I thought, my goodness, it's very different. Now I can tell. I can tell the Russian way of playing. Oh yeah, I like that too. The Viennese way of playing Beethoven is also different from the German school, you know, Viennese and German, they are separate. Each of them believe they know better, but Mozart is the same, if you like. Absolutely, yes. And so, so that was quite interesting. And then I, you know, I had to almost kind of go back to studying again, really looking at these people through the eyes of, you know, of kind of the Western society and how it will look. And the same with, with Spanish music, you know, when we worked with Alvaro, I, you know, he through his own means and through his medium, he brought so much different aspect. But what I loved about it is that kind of feeling of free improvisation. Actually, you can do so much with that music. And that came through also with combining it with dance. And, you know, talking about sort of other medium in the music, I think it's, um, that it gives a freedom to an artist and, um, to express yourself in different ways. And the same with, like you mentioned, the Prokofiev, you know, with, uh, we did with poetry. And we, uh, it was the poetry of, um, a British artist, um, Martin Fierrell. He's, um, a very big figure in a kind of the public artist, and he does a lot of, um, uh, projections on the most important buildings in, in in London, like there was the anniversary of St. Paul's. Yes, I remember. It was him actually, he did that. And projections into National Gallery and House of Parliament and Royal Opera House. He kind of visited all the main sites and he's a very kind of activist for social changes and so on. And in his early days he wrote a little booklet of postcards which were very touching, and it was all about human relationships and the honesty and the brave, um, kind of openness and, um, desire to engage, uh, with, uh, other human beings independently on of where they come from and independently of what their standing is. And it was just on such a humane level that I thought, well, actually, we need that now. We need to stop separating each other into little boxes and marginalizing each other, but actually thinking of humans. Where are— where's the— let's talk about humanity. So this is— I mean, people say that all art can be political or is political. And I guess, you know, by bringing poetry to music by Prokofiev, combining it with, with a British speaker, with a British writer, talking about humanity. I think it's a— I really like this idea. Me too. Well, I do believe, you know, politics, sometimes we look at that on the television, we think about it when we have to go to vote, but the truth is politics is around everyday life. It influences everyday life. It influences the prices when we go and buy eggs at the supermarket, if you like, or the transport, the train, anything. And it influences, so it's so important. And for as much as sometimes politicians, you know, are shot at, you know, you blame them all for what's happening. I do believe they're all there to trying to do the best, no matter which side. And they have such a huge responsibility. And these is reflected, as you said, into the music, into the arts. That is the other aspect, the other spectrum, side of the spectrum, for making every single life, every single person to realize what's needed. Absolutely, absolutely. Yes, I think we are very connected to that. And as artists, we see the We are at the receiving end. We're also projecting. We're like the mirror for people to look into and see themselves and hopefully see the goodness that they have. Well, let's listen to Prokofiev, the Five Melodies, Opus 35, Number 3, performed by our wonderful guest Katya Lebedeva with violinist Ochan Otsan uluchan. You agree not to be friends, laughing, keen-edged. You agree not to begin in that slow, defaulting way, but to set out from the start expecting more than is reasonable of one another. You make a pact to be unreasonably open, engaged, truthful, direct, concerned, demanding, committed. By the audacity of your expectations, you change once and for all what is reasonable to expect. You expect the world in 8 weeks and get it, and discover your never intended friendship to be an ironic fact, uncomplicated, mutual, plain and simple affection, deep Deeply felt. It is "Woz" by Prokofiev, Five Melodies, Opus 35, number 3, with violinist Ocean Ulucan and our our guest pianist Katya Lebedeva. Katya, this interview is going so fast, so quickly. We're already in the last session of the episode of Future Classical Women Awards, and normally this is the more personal one. So I'm gonna ask you some of our fun questions. First of all, what was the most challenging place you ever stage, city, location, piano, I don't know, your choice. Oh, there are so many different ways. I guess they're all challenging, isn't it? When we go on stage, we never know what's going to happen. But yeah. Yes. Well, I will say one. I think one was very special to me as well because it was a premiere. That I did of Schnittke Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra in, in Cairo, at the Cairo Opera House. Okay. And it was challenging in many ways. First of all, it was a very difficult music for the audience that were not used to listening to something like this. It was challenging for the orchestra there that never performed something like that. And, um, and, um, but on the other hand, I had friends there who I studied with in, um, in Kiev Conservatory in Ukraine, and they were placed at that, at that moment in time in Cairo Opera House. It was a really very moving union with these people. And so when I played it, it was such mixed feelings of, you know, being part of something again, something very much bigger than I am and much bigger than the occasion. Yes, yes. It was a very special, special day. And if you have to say like a stage where you feel at home when you perform, a place where you performed more than once, or where you really feel like— sometimes, you know, you get this feeling like if you're playing for your friends, even though you don't know the people in the audience, but there is that sense. I think it would be either Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre, because I played there many times. And it's not— I like intimate places, you know, places where you actually get to to almost feel the breath of your audience. I like being engaged in that way. And also the Marleybone Theatre, where this concert on the 5th of December is going to take place. I think it feels very intimate, and I get to meet people afterwards, which makes it altogether much more special. Well, I will definitely try to come on the 5th. It sounds such a fantastic program. And then the stage, you know, I love stage. I've always been jealous of opera singers, or, you know, that they get to— yeah, because the, the stage designers, they, they are incredible. They really can create a city, a Victorian street, out of nothing. And it's just, it's art in itself, isn't it? It's really beautiful. Oh, absolutely. Yes, it's inspiring, very inspiring. Yes. And if you have to tell us about a funny episode that happened going on stage, like, or something embarrassing. We had some of our guests, they were telling us stories like forgetting the glasses and not seeing the steps and falling on stage, or forgetting the shoes and having to perform, you know, with no shoes. Although these artists, they do that on purpose. So I don't know. Well, there are so many, again, you know, with in every— Yes, in every artist's life, But I remember I like playing in the various music societies that existed for many years. And it's like little clubs that England has, so many of them around the country. And some of them are tiny little places, but with audience who is so faithful and so appreciative. And so I love playing in those places. And I remember once it was Epping Music Society. And I went to play there, and the organizer apologized so much, said, you know, the space is so small and so on. And I had— I arrived there and they had a very old Blüthner grand, which was, I think, really old instrument. And it was exactly an octave shorter than one of the pieces that I played. Oh no. Wow. Oh no. So I remember myself having discovered it at the rehearsal, and then I had quite a lot of fun trying to transpose the whole piece. Seriously? Wow, that's amazing. Into the key that could manage to be played, all of it. Gosh, that's phenomenal. Yeah, because people don't realize, but the piano, it wasn't ever always, you know, of this size with all these 88 keys on it. I remember when I was a student at Royal Academy, I was stewarding for the Museum of the Historical Pianos, and I was showcasing a Chopin piano and Mendelssohn piano. And, you know, the technology at the time was evolving. You had the piano with the marble inside instead of the metal. But at the same time, yes, they had shorter, shorter keyboards. So I was playing, I remember, like Chopin, the waltz in C-sharp minor that end up with the double, with the top notes, with the top notes, and that top note wasn't there, just short by one note. And often the composer, they were composing these pieces ending on these top notes on purpose to showcase the fact that they had a more modern piano, the new notes that were available to be used. And then people forget that before today, pianists had to adapt like you did. They had to adapt depending on whatever piano they were finding. So if they had a shorter piano, they may have had to change program altogether. Exactly. So you see, our life is one of adventure. Wonderful. Well, um, I can't wait to come and see your fantastic concert at the Marylebone Theatre. So it's called the— can you tell us again the title? Uh, yes, it's called Musical Pilgrims of Victorian London, and there are tickets available on Eventbrite. If you just, um, type Musical Pilgrims in Victorian London, you will see how to find tickets for that. Fantastic. And the last piece we're going to listen to today is the Rachmaninoff Prelude in E-flat major, apostrophe, 3, number 6. And this was Rachmaninoff, the Prelude in E-flat Major, Opus 23, No. 6, performed by our wonderful guest pianist Katya Katy, what a better way, you know, to finish our beautiful interview with this fantastic piece. It's such an uplifting piece. Absolutely. I just think it's so Rachmaninoff, and it is a year of Rachmaninoff celebrations as well. So I think it's a wonderful way to finish, and I think it's really the spirit of You know, every Russian. Every Russian, every Soviet, every— but to be honest, everyone in the world. There is little you can do about it. You know, every year there is a chart of the most favorite classical piece, and above everyone is always Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninoff. He was a man of two worlds. He composed the beautiful Second Piano Concerto when he was in America. And still he had this Soviet heart that was completely, you know, that's what he was. And, but he becomes a person that then the music appeals everyone in the world, no matter where you come from. Oh, exactly. It's also a dream always, but very, very humane. It's all about humanity at the end of it. Absolutely. Well, Um, a big thanks to our guest pianist Katya Lebedeva for the great chat and the beautiful music played today. You've been listening to Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station, live every day at 10 AM and 10 PM London time. If you have any questions that you would like to ask to our guest or nomination for our Future Classic Women Awards, please email presenters@womensradiostation.com. Or tweet us @WomensRadioSTN. And if you would like to listen to it again or catch up on our previous programs, you can head to my presented page, Stefania Passamonte Future Classic Women Awards, on womensradiostation.com. Thank you, Katja. Thank you very much, Stefania. It was a pleasure. Our pleasure. And thank you all for listening.
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