Playing in the Manner of Ricardo Viñes

Håkon Magnar Skogstad

Playing in the Manner of Ricardo Viñes is an artistic research project undertaken at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) in Artistic Research. The project’s reflection work takes the form of an exposition, which includes texts, videos, annotated scores and the artistic results. In this artistic research project, Håkon Magnar Skogstad uses an extreme form of imitation to embody and recreate the historical recordings of Catalan-Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes (1875-1943) with the aim of evoking a romantic performance tradition in classical music. Ricardo Viñes was one of the leading pianists in Paris around 1900 and premiered several compositions, including a substantial part of the piano works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. In his recordings, we hear a tradition of romantic performance practice, which Skogstad claims is not heard in modern-day performances. Furthermore, Ricardo Viñes’s close relationship to the works of Debussy and his recorded performances have the potential to challenge performance practice norms in impressionistic music. By analyzing, studying and recreating the historical recordings of Ricardo Viñes, Skogstad sets out to research, experience and through this to gain an understanding of of Viñes's playing style on a fundamental level as a performing artist. The method of recreating recordings is carried out by imitating and playing alongside the originals to the point where the recreated performances can be superimposed onto the original historical recordings – achieving a sort of artistic “synchronization”. Skogstad believes that by committing to such extreme imitation, it is possible to extract unique artistic knowledge from these old recordings. In order to examine the performance practice in context, the playing style of Ricardo Viñes is compared to selected and equally thoroughly recreated recordings by contemporaneous pianists Sergei Rachmaninov, Ignacy Friedman and Jesús María Sanromá. Finally, four recordings of pieces by Claude Debussy played by Ricardo Viñes are recreated with the purpose of examining the influence of Viñes’s playing style in the music of Debussy. In the film Playing in the Manner of Ricardo Viñes, which is one of the artistic results of the research, Skogstad records five of Ricardo Viñes’s original recordings in a “historical recording environment”, approaching that which Viñes encountered in 1930. The aim of this is for Skogstad to expose himself to a similar recording environment to what Viñes experienced – including recording one-off takes without any possibility of editing. The performances are rough, imperfect and on-the-fly - played in a “high-risk” manner just like Viñes's – in contrast to the perfectionism of music production standards today. Håkon Magnar Skogstad (b.1989) is a prize-awarded diverse pianist and composer holding degrees in classical performance from Trondheim (NTNU, Department of Music), Oslo (Norwegian Academy of Music) and New York (Manhattan School of Music). He has performed in ensembles and as a soloist throughout Norway and played concerts in the U.S., Argentina, Germany, Austria and Sweden. Skogstad released three recordings with critically acclaimed ensembles in Norway, as well as his debut solo album Two Hands to Tango and Visions of Tango, featuring his original Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra with Atle Sponberg and the Trondheim Soloists. Both albums have received numerous outstanding reviews and the latter was nominated in the Norwegian Grammy Awards for best classical album.

Recreated recordings overview

The following texts are reflections based on my work of recreating a total of 11 historical recordings. This work is divided in four main phases:

A “Ricardo Viñes romantic performance style”

Isaac Albéniz, Dos Danzas Españolas / 2 Morceaux Caracteristiques, Tango in A Minor, Op. 164
Isaac Albéniz, Suite Española No. 1, Op. 47, Granada
Alexander Borodin, Petite Suite, No. 7 (b) - Scherzo an A flat major
Domenico Scarlatti, Piano Sonata in D Major, K. 29

Three contemporaneous pianists

Frédéric Chopin, Waltz in C-sharp minor Op. 64, No. 2, played by Sergei Rachmaninov
Frédéric Chopin, Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 55, No. 2, played by Ignacy Friedman
Arnold Schönberg, Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, op. 19, played by Jesús María Sanromá

Ricardo Viñes’s recordings of Debussy

Claude Debussy, Images 2e série: Poissons d’Or
Claude Debussy, Etude No. 10, Pour les sonorités opposées (fragmented recording)
Claude Debussy, Images, 1re série: Hommage à Rameau (fragmented recording)
Claude Debussy, Estampes, La Soirée dans Grenade

Extrapolated recordings

Claude Debussy, Etude No. 10, Pour les sonorités opposées
Claude Debussy, Images, 1re série: Hommage à Rameau

The first aim was to recreate four recordings by Ricardo Viñes and by doing this, to embody his romantic-influenced way of playing. Following this, I did the same with the three contemporaneous pianists Sergei Rachmaninov, Ignacy Friedman and Jesús María Sanromá, and compared my experiences from recreating Viñes’s recordings with these, looking for general similarities and differences in their approaches. Recreating the Debussy recordings of Viñes was next, and here I also examined the romantic performance practices of Viñes in the context of the “impressionistic” tradition. Finally, I used my knowledge and experiences from the recreated recordings to reconstruct the missing first thirds of the two fragmented Debussy recordings.

The following texts include videos and annotated scores (the videos are played by clicking on the image and the complete annotated scores are accessed by clicking on the cover page). Three different videos are provided per piece: a) the video where I am seen playing, but with the original recording heard in the background (in black-and-white); b) the video of my full recreated performance (in color); and c) the “cross-cut”-version which alternates between video “a” and “b”. These “cross-cut”-versions are also part of the artistic results of this research. On the two “extrapolated” recordings, I have included videos of the live performances from the final artistic presentation at Dokkhuset, Trondheim in Norway, on October 18, 2021.

The annotated scores are to be regarded as rough sketches to guide the reader through my recreated recordings. They should not be read as literal revisions or edited scores. The markings made by me in these scores are meant illustrate what I deemed to be the most important practices of the performers in the original recordings that are not marked in the original scores. As a standard in these “sketches,” thick red lines or circles signify tempo alterations (rushing/slowing); thin red lines or circles signify “dislocation”; and blue thin lines or circles signify specific notes within chords that are “dislocated” (usually the melody note). In addition to this, I have notated arpeggios not marked in the original score. Also, thin red circles may at times indicate certain areas of interest in accordance to my written text. In the case of the Scarlatti Sonata played by Viñes, and the Chopin Waltz played by Rachmaninov, the “deviations” from the original score were to such an extent that I found it more practical to transcribe entire performances to avoid over-cluttering the annotated scores. In these transcriptions, the notes that “deviate” from the original score (such as altered notes, re-arranged chords etc.) are colored red.

In all of the Viñes’s recordings, I have compared the historical recordings I recreated with modern-day as well as other historical recordings. Due to copyright issues, the examples used in this comparison can be heard on YouTube through the links provided in the footnotes, but they can also be found through other channels (digital or on physical CD/LP).

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