Hans Pålsson, piano, plays in Dublin and Monasterevin
Swedish pianist, Hans Palsson, has thrilled audiences many times at the Hopkins International Summer School.
Desmond Egan, poet and Artistic Director of The Gerard Manley Hopkins International Summer School pays tribute to Hans Pålsson
Quite recently, Swedish pianist, Hans Pålsson, was invited to play for the King andQueen of Sweden; in February, Hans Pålsson comes to Ireland to play for us - but
who, you may well ask, is Hans Pålsson? Who is Hans Pålsson ?
He is one of the great pianists, that's who - and when I say this, I mean someone who can change your life. He certainly did mine. It happened in Malmo, Sweden (his native country). I was there to read my humble poetry along with others including Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz. Before and after the words, Hans Palsson played. Did I say 'played'? No: he became the music, so complete was his performance and I - who have heard some wonderful pianists including Rubinstein, Horowitz, Eugene Istomin, our own Miceál O'Rourke (read about Miceál O'Rourke at Hopkins 18th)
and others - had never, ever, heard playing like this.
Hans Pålsson played as if there were something at stake, as if his life depended on it; as if, in a way, something of the human depended on it - which of course it does where real art (as opposed to the phoney variety we are mostly offered) is concerned.
It was a Schubert Impromptu, the third, and Hans Pålsson went deep into it, into its sense of human life. His technique, splendid though it was and is, was not the focus at all; nor the act of playing: here was someone who was trying, with a kind of desperation, to open a door into existence, to 'snatch out of time the passionate transitory' in Patrick Kavanagh's phrase. A precious, even a sacred event and I felt privileged to share it. Finished, he took a minute or more to come back to us out of where he had been.
I was stunned. This was one of the great moments of my life, an affirmation of what genuine music and real art can do to nourish our thirsty soul. As most of the audience went up to Milosz to shake his hand and get his autograph, I crossed over to Hans Palsson.
But who is Hans Pålsson? Hans Pålsson is a Swedish Pianist The greatest Swedish pianist, no doubt - but who ever heard of a Swedish pianist? Ah: or of a Swedish tenor - until Jussi Bjorling came along; or of a Swedish soprano, until we heard Birgit Nilsson singing Sibelius ...
Though the rest of the world, dominated by English and American musicians, slowly catches up, Hans Pålsson is already a legend in the Baltic countries. A television series featuring his commentaries and playing became such a hit in Sweden that it was followed up by two further series - and the publication of four accompanying CDs. Over 25 other Pålsson CDs have appeared so far - including one featuring compositions dedicated to him by a number of leading composers. Palsson is no mere virtuoso, no stone breaker from Lund.
His interest in poetry and literature, in painting and philosophy add a rich complexity to the range of reference which he brings to the keyboard - and led to his writing a book of reflections, Music, which became a bestseller.
A composer too, as one might guess from his understanding of the music he plays; although a compelling interpreter of Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and Brahms, he regularly plays music of the avant garde, including that of his friend, Daniel Bortz; and has released a CD of music by contemporary Swedish composers.
But, who is Hans But who is Hans Pålsson? Hans Pålsson, a modern sensibility To his playing of the classics he brings this modern sensibility. It is like reading a great translation: a re-discovery excitingly contemporary. No moth-balling here; no willingness to wallow in the past. His playing always has about it something of the tension of our time and a sense that the music is profoundly relevant to us today. It reminds us, as another fine pianist, Mitsuko Uchida, remarked in an interview, that once the pianist begins to play, he/she is improvising.
To free himself of purely technical preoccupations, he will practise up to 6 hours on the morning of a concert so that he can then concentrate on the essence during his performance, and lend to it a flavour of his own personality.
Hans Pålsson plays two concerts in Ireland as part of the out-reach of The Gerard Manley Hopkins International Summer School (now in its 17th year) - one in The National Concert Hall and the other, in The Baronial Hall, Moore Abbey, Monasterevin, a highlight of the Gerard Manley Hopkins International Summer School.
On Tuesday February 17th 2004 in The National Concert Hall at 8 pm Hans Palsson will perform a most exacting programme of four Beethoven sonatas, including the popular Pathetique. Mr John O'Donoghue, Minister for the Arts, will introduce the evening. A second Concert, including Mozart and Schubert, will take place in The Riverbank Theatre, Newbridge, on Thursday 19th at 8. Don't miss hearing 'one of the world's great pianists... a genius' as he has been hailed. He will change the way you think and feel:
let me wait again
be taken by that
slow heartbeat of chords
until everything coheres
and sound is flooded turns radiant
(from For Hans Pålsson by Desmond Egan)
