Ep 369 - Eugen Cicero

Sitting Under A Tree with Aidan Jones

The modern world of classical piano seems to be split into two groups:

First there are the people who play the classics, they go through the music from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and play the same pieces over and over again in search of the "composer's intention", while attempting to also bring some aspect of their own personality to it. Each year there are dozens of recordings of the most famous pieces of the classical repertoire, and the people in this world have opinions on all of them.

Then there are the people who go in the complete opposite direction - they are sick of playing the same pieces and so they rebel in the extreme by creating music with completely outlandish instruments and sounds. It's conceptual, it's cerebral, and it might actually be nonsense? We're talking music with teapots, we're talking music determined by the roll of the dice, stuff that seems like it's more about the idea of the thing, rather than the actual thing itself.

Both groups of people have interesting ideas and I wouldn't go so far as to say that they're creating cynical work at all! I'm not trying to denigrate either of them, except to say that I think they both, to some extent, have their heads completely stuck up their own asses.

I say all of that to say - with absolute joy!! - that this week I discovered a new pianist named Eugen Cicero who seems to embody a third, completely exciting and inspired path. He plays the classical repertoire - music that was created to sound beautiful - but rather than sticking dogmatically to the text, he brings it to life with his own improvisations and modern musical ideas. I love it, and now you can too as some of his music is hidden at the end of my ramblings on this week's podcast. Enjoy!