WAAPA Postgraduate Research Showcase, October 2023

The Australian pianist and writer Anna Goldsworthy, in her best-selling memoir Piano Lessons, remembers her grandfather one day explaining the credentials of her new piano teacher, the wise and benevolent Mrs Sivan: “Mrs Sivan is from Russia,” he explained, “She’s on the Liszt list.” “What’s the list list?” asked the nine-year old Goldsworthy. “The Liszt list. Liszt taught the teacher of her teacher’s teacher.” “Who’s Liszt?"

The great pianist Arthur Friedheim studied with Liszt, who studied with Czerny, who studied with Beethoven. So does this mean that Friedheim played like Beethoven?

This week, as a little taster of my PhD research, I'll be speaking about the Liszt tradition of piano performance in relation to Beethoven's famous "Moonlight" Sonata, before performing the piece myself on WAAPA's original 1884 Blüthner piano.