Lucy Parham is acknowledged as one of Britain’s finest pianists. And Harrogate is in for a very special treat as she brings her latest show, Nocturne: the Romantic Life of Frederic Chopin straight from her sell out appearance at the prestigious Wigmore Hall…
Lucy Parham
It’s been said that if you can’t play the piano, Chopin is the best possible reason to start. Chopin is one of the richest musical imaginations the world has ever known. This year, celebrating the bicentenary of his birth, acclaimed pianists have queued up to sing his praises; just listen to classical pianist Emanuel Ax in the Guardian: “His connection with the piano is so complete, it feels almost as if the instrument was created to allow his music to come into the world.”
Pianist Lucy Parham has attracted critical acclaim for her unique delivery of classical music – her shows features some of Britain’s most prestigious actors reading the letters and journals of great composers with her performance. Nocturne, The Romantic Life of Frederic Chopin is the third event in this unique Parham genre. Previous shows include Beloved Clara, mapping the story of passion, music and tragedy between Robert Schumann, Clara and Brahms. Odyssey of Love followed – a journey into the heart of Franz Liszt, and now, in the 200th year since his birth, Chopin.
Sam West
And sharing a stage with the likes of Rufus Sewell and Greg Wise, Lucy Parham has certainly put the romance into the life of Chopin. Greg Wise? He’s gorgeous! “Lots of people offered to turn my pages!!” Lucy laughed. “Greg Wise especially prompted a lot of calls from female friends asking to sit in the front row. He’s lovely…and he read brilliantly.”
What inspired her to mix actors with music, rather than say a straight concert or play?
“I always talked to the audience before I played a piece,” Lucy explained. “I was playing Schumann and reading the letters really touched and moved me. And people said it made a big difference before they heard the music, and I found myself reading more and more, and I thought I’d love to hear them read properly by a professional actor’s voice. I didn’t know any actors at that time, so it was a learning curve. But I always loved theatre – it’s my way of switching off.”
She had seen Malcolm Sinclair in an Aykbourn play, House/Garden and had read in his biography that he loved music. “I was such a big fan of his – so I wrote to him as a groupie really and he replied…one thing led to another.”
From Sinclair, the pedigree of actor Parham attracts is astounding. “A lot of actors will like this kind of recital, usually in a play they’re one of eight or so,” Lucy explained. “And of course there are lots of actors who love music. Once you have a good number of high profile actors others become more interested – it’s a certification of being okay. Asking Juliet Stevenson saying that Harriet Walter has done it gives it a certain kind of gravitas. But they seem to enjoy doing it and I love working with them…it’s very exciting having these beautiful actors’ voices on the same stage, I get such a buzz out of it. Harriet and Juliet are both amazing, how lucky am I? I’d have never of met them otherwise. A solo pianist’s life is quite solitary so it’s really nice to socialise with other people.”
Harriet Walter
She must have some great dinner parties? “Actually I did have a great one recently!” Lucy said, “with Martin Jarvis [one of Britain’s most versatile actors], Gemma Jones [who plays Bridget Jones’ mother], Phyllida Law [Emma Thompson’s mother], Petroc Trelawny [Radio 3 presenter of Music Matters], and Richard Sisson [of the cabaret act, Kit and the Widow]. It was weird, surreal having everyone there, but I’ve never laughed so much in my life! Most of my time is spent just practising, doing house work, more practising, teaching,” Lucy added.
Chopin is, Lucy says, probably the most popular of the three composers she’s profiled. The musician’s life has inspired contrasting responses – Schumann described the textures in his B flat minor Sonata (the Funeral March) as “cannon concealed amid blossoms”. To some he was an effete romantic, un-showy and ill at ease with the world. But in his home country Poland, he is considered a national hero; his heart is buried in a pillar of the Holy Cross church in Warsaw. For Poland, Chopin is far from withdrawn, sentimental or consumptive, but ‘a lion of the keyboard’. Writing in the Guardian Tim Service puts this down to his enigmatic music being a ‘tapestry of poetic paradoxes’ embodying everything from ‘revolution to raindrops’.
Does Lucy enjoy the research behind the concerts? “I do enjoy it because I like using my brain in a different, creative way being immersed in books and letters. And I like thinking about how the music goes with the words – I like the marriage of the two. It’s a long but fulfilling process. And it’s ever changing, after the first performance of Chopin some edges get polished and the actors have an input too – they have ideas and over time some things change, it doesn’t stay static.”
It seems tragedy and genius is a prevailing theme for these great composers, do they go hand in hand? “Yes they do, and it’s a very good point and one seems to follow the other. None of these composers, possibly except from Mendelssohn, led a charmed life. Schumann suffered dreadfully with illness and Chopin was ill most of his life.”
Did she uncover anything that changed her mind or opinion of the man?
“I didn’t change my mind for the better. I had quite a benevolent attitude towards Chopin the man because his music is so extraordinary, but the more I got to know him, the less I liked him. Chopin was not particularly a nice character as a man. And you think how can someone like that make such heavenly music? If you were ill all the time you’re not going to be at your best but he was very pernickety, quite pedantic, fussy, and anti-Semitic: not a very generous spirit. Schumann was the opposite, he was very generous, he wanted to help other composers and he adored Clara. I never get the sense Chopin adored George Sand.”
Why did she focus on his romantic life? “If you ask people what they knew about Chopin, if they know anything it will be the affair with George Sand – the affair in Majorca – and that he wrote the Funeral March. She was an immense part of his life, it would be impossible not to feature her.”
Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, best known by her pseudonym George Sand, was a French novelist who is regarded as the first French female novelist to gain a major reputation.
“In a sense her letters and her journals are so beautifully written, it’s almost worth having a one woman show without Chopin,” Lucy adds. “I hope through the show one gets a sense that he was quite fussy and fastidious, cantankerous and difficult. But everything is forgiven because writing music like that you can forgive anything.”
Sands and Chopin were polar opposites. “He liked everything just so with his hot chocolate before bed, she was bohemian, free spirited and wrote till 2am and got up at noon, their lives never really fused. But it must have worked creatively, she completely recognised his genius, and nurtured his genius.”
What is it about Chopin’s music and life that speaks to Lucy? “I think there’s probably no one that can write piano like Chopin for a start,” Lucy said. “He’s one of the few composers when you hear his music you instantly know its Chopin. His output in such a short life is extraordinary. If I had to pick two composers to take to a desert island it would be Chopin and Schumann.”
Lucy has a long relationship with Harrogate, the Festival and the Royal Hall: “Harrogate is particularly special to me. I first came to the Festival 15 or 20 years ago. And more recently for the opening of the Royal Hall – I was very involved in that, seeing the Hall rebuilt. So I feel like it’s a second home for me. Lilian did an amazing thing, rebuilding the Hall.” Lilian Mina was the Royal Hall Restoration Trust Chairman who lost her fight against cancer in 2008, dying just five days before the Royal Hall was due to be reopened. “Although not officially, it’s in her memory I’m coming, it’s an honour. She’ll always be in my mind every time I come to Harrogate. I do feel particularly attached to the place and to the Royal Hall.”
Nocturne: The Romantic Life of Chopin by Lucy Parham featuring Sam West and Harriet Walter is at the Royal Hall on Thursday 29 July at 8pm. Tickets from £15 to £57 for boxes (under 25s: £5). Ticket hotline: 0845 130 8840 or book online at www.harrogate-festival.org.uk
