E05 part 2: Interview with Benjamin Frith

Continuation of the interview with Benjamin Frith, British classical pianist with strong links to the Leeds International Piano Competition- having been a competitor at ‘The Leeds’ twice, and a student with Dame Fanny Waterman since an early age.
He won several big awards early in his career, and his recordings are highly regarded- five of his discs are represented in the Gramophone Best CD Guide and his disc of Schumann’s Davidsbundlertänze was chosen as the top recommendation on the Radio 3 “Building a Library” programme.

Show Notes

Ben discusses his favourite recordings from his career [0:35]
Memorising vs. reading music [3:20]
Chatting about a great performance I saw of Ben playing Rachmaninov Trio No. 2 as part of the Gould Piano Trio
Composers writing for their own hands and idiosyncrasies [10:30]
The merits of Chopin [11:20]
The importance of listening when playing the piano, and more elements of Fanny Waterman’s teaching [14:50]
Ben as a teacher (and me as a bad student!) [21:40]
Ben’s involvement with Chetham’s Summer School for Pianists, and we discuss common amateur pitfalls and mistakes [29:20]
Ben’s musical influences and the importance of listening to good recordings [33:30]
The psychology of performing and the importance of sleep [36:00]