News

 I am hugely looking forward to tutoring for the first time with the violinist Hilary Sturt on a new course Sonatas with piano at Benslow Music. We are performing a recital of duo Sonatas together at the start of the course on the 24th February.

I am giving a special course at Benslow to mark the Satie centenary in March and there will be a celebratory piano recital there on the 29th.

In April I am honoured to act again as a judge on the Sarah Leonard Song Writing Competition, the AESS Competition she instituted, now renamed in honour of Sarah and her contribution to contemporary music.

I will lead a course in piano and wind chamber music at Jackdaws in July. 

A concert in Long Melford on August 6th will continue my investigations into playing the music of the French Baroque on the modern piano, this time work by François Couperin.

 

 

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Click below for info about recent projects

 Recent projects and recitals  

13/3/2020 St James Piccadilly with cellist Ben Tarlton. Works by Dvorak and Franck

24-26/2/2020 French piano music course at Benslow Music

27/1/2020 St Peter’s Notting Hill with violinist Hana Mizuta Spencer. Strauss Sonata

19/1/2020 St John’s Waterloo with soprano Sarah Leonard. In commendation of music by Robert Hanson. Concert to celebrate the life and music of Robert Hanson

18/1/2020 St George’s Beckenham. Works by Rameau, Couperin, Mozart, Liszt and Ravel

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming events  

15-17/21 French Piano Music course : Benslow Music

8/5/21 ‘Wetlands’ Piano Recital, Stoke Newington Festival including Messiaen’s Petites esquisses d’oiseaux

9/5/21 Recital with Sarah Leonard including Judith Weir’s The Art of Touching the Keyboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Rameau The Complete Keyboard Music  

 

Toccata Classics TOCC0052 (BBC Music Magazine  5 stars,  MusicWeb International  CD of the month)

Volume 3 contains the magnificent Nouvelles Suites. There are also some rarities on the disc. These include the fleeting Les petits marteaux, now thought to be by Rameau, and the 5th Concert from the Pieces de clavecin en concerts. The Concert includes one of Rameau’s most beautiful pieces La Cupis. A transcription of a giga from the Acte de ballet Pigmalion gets its first recording. It was found in manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale by the distinguished Rameau expert Graham Sadler  who has again written the liner notes for this volume.

Some reviews of Volume 3:

Scott Noriega in Fanfare:

‘After playing this disc over and over again this month, I’ll be sure to run – not walk! –  to my nearest shop to obtain the two releases I’ve missed out on thus far… the pianist’s sense of exploration, his wide tonal palette, and his rhythmic freedom can all be heard to good advantage, along with his intimate and scholarly knowledge of these works … Gutman proves a guide of the first order … there is hardly a movement in the entire recital that will not charm and delight the most judgmental of listeners’

BBC Music Magazine Michael Church

‘Gutman’s responsive touch brings out the dance rhythms underlying many of the pieces … When virtuosity is required … he delivers it effortlessly, and he does rustic charm in spades.’

 

Toccata Classics TOCC0051

Volume 2 was released in October 2012. The CD contains the astonishing Les Cyclopes, one of the very few of his pieces to have been taken up by pianists. There are also many rarities and new discoveries on the disc. These include 24 numbers from the opéra-ballet Les Indes Galantes, in their original 1735/6 keyboard versions, and my solo version of the 4th Concert from the Pieces de clavecin en concerts. The Concert finishes with Rameau’s self-portrait La Rameau. A transcription of an eloquent gavotte from the tragédie-lyrique Dardanus gets its first recording. The distinguished Rameau expert Graham Sadler  has again written the liner notes for this volume.

A review of Volume 2:

Brian Wilson in MusicWeb International:

‘Stephen Gutman … shares with a very small number of pianists the ability to make modern piano performances of the music of this period sound as enjoyable to me as those on the harpsichord; in effect, I forget which instrument is being employed. That small group includes Angela Hewitt, who has recorded [Rameau] for Hyperion (CDA67597) and in Bach Glenn Gould … and Murray Perahia … Roll on the third and final volume.’ 

 

Volume 1 TOCC0050:

Some of the reviews of Volume 1:

Fanfare Barry Brenesal

 ‘Gutman has the technical resources to play this music … There is none of the sense of speed for virtuosity’s sake … Gutman’s album is a welcome addition to the field, as much for his distinct point of view as for the promise of so much Rameau.  

 

BBC Music Magazine Nicholas Anderson

Gutman’s playing is engaging for its ornamental delicacy and communicative lyricism … I look forward to the remaining volumes

 

Gramophone Lindsay Kemp

The Pieces en concerts transfer joyously to the piano, at least in the no-nonsense performance they get from Gutman … performances well worth investigating

 

read the complete series of reviews here