{"id":110751,"date":"2025-01-02T12:37:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T17:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=110751"},"modified":"2025-01-03T07:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T12:00:06","slug":"interview-pianist-christina-petrowska-quilico-talks-making-rivers-composer-frank-horvat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/01\/02\/interview-pianist-christina-petrowska-quilico-talks-making-rivers-composer-frank-horvat\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico Talks About Making More Rivers With Composer Frank Horvat (And More…)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pianist
Pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico\u2019s More Rivers, performing the composition by Frank Horvat, will be released on Navona Records on January 24. It\u2019s a kind of follow up to her seminal recording of Ann Southam\u2019s Rivers in complete in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the qualities of water that inspired both pieces and their interpretations by the acclaimed Canadian pianist. It is necessary for life, but can also be destructive; it\u2019s welcoming, but has a darker side.<\/p>\n

Petrowska Quilico commissioned the new work from Toronto composer Frank Horvat, a suite of seven pieces for solo piano.<\/p>\n

Christina Petrowska Quilico: The Interview<\/h2>\n

Christina Petrowska Quilico, C.M., OOnt, FRSC, has been recognized for her contributions to the Canadian classical music by many accolades and awards, and a career that has incorporated everything from the Romantics to brand new music.<\/p>\n

She was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 2021, and received the Ontario Arts Council’s Oskar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance in 2023. She has a catalogue of more than 60 recordings, with four JUNO nominations.<\/p>\n

We talked to her about Rivers, then and now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story of Rivers and how I met Ann is quite interesting. One of my students brought in her piece,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

That was back in 1981. Southam had not put many indications in her work overall. The music that had been passed along to Christina was marked to be performed at a slow pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played through it, and it took hours because the tempos were very slow,\u201d Quilico says. She was expecting her second child at the time, and contacted Southam to talk about the changes she wanted to make to her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fast ones I sped up,\u201d she told her. \u201cShe loved it, and that was our joke for 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recording was made, and Quilico has performed it live multiple times since then \u2014 but never quite the same way. \u201cI play it differently every time.\u201d It\u2019s the nature of the music, and also its inspiration. In 2009, Christina released the album Pond Life, with compositions written for her by Southam. \u201cI remember when I did Pond Life, we talked to all the bodies of water. When you look at a drop of rain in a pond, it transforms that energy,\u201d she adds \u201cThe pond may be smooth on the surface, but it\u2019s teeming with life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collaborations with Southam were fruitful. \u201cShe had this wonderful ability to create space around the sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quilico recalls a professor at Juilliard, when Christina was preparing Rachmaninoff\u2019s third piano concerto. The teacher talked to her about an \u201celectrical current\u201d that runs from the piece from start to finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same with Ann\u2019s music.\u201d She mentions her sharp articulations, and says she reminds herself of a quote by artist Wassily Kandinsky before playing her music. \u201cColour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings.\u201d<\/p>\n