For our final Nicholson Lecture of the term, we were treated to a student-teacher collaboration. Izzy (Y13) and Mr Majithia gave a superb talk entitled ‘What constitutes performative difficulty in Classical and Romantic solo piano, with specific reference to Mozart and Chopin?’.
They started their talk with two live performances of works by Mozart and Chopin, before defining what they meant by ‘difficulty’. Having set the parameters for the debate, they then discussed the technical and performative difficulties regarding both composers, and touched upon the idea of historical accuracy in performance. The lecture ended with some lively questioning and debate, before reaching the conclusion that Mozart was the more difficult composer of the two to perform.
