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Maria João Pires and Her Piano Spirit

2025.05.05
Maria João Pires and Her Piano Spirit

by Wales

At 12:12 on the afternoon of November 22, 2022, tickets went on sale for the solo concert Maria João Pires Piano Recital in Taiwan, this being Pires' Taiwan debut. 

The ticketing system did not crash, tickets did not sell out in seconds, and the world kept turning as usual. That is, sales were not at all what they had been expected to be.

People were still worried about Covid-19. Also, even though Pires is a highly acclaimed performer, Taiwanese people had only ever heard her in albums, never live. So when sales began, the number of people standing on the sidelines was far greater than the number of those who bought tickets. 

But her performance in Taipei was a stunning hit. She brought the audience to their knees with her unparalleled confidence and elegance. Her spirit-like music ignited a bonfire that warmed and illuminated the audience’s hearts.

The next day, two posts of questions to Pires and her down-to-earth answers were posted on Facebook.

An elderly national treasure of Portugal, she was quite humble, smiling delightfully while holding a bottle of Kaixi oolong tea. 

When people with her told her that her audiences had come with the sense of being on a pilgrimage, she was quite surprised and said something that has made people long to see her again ever since: "We are sharing music in a space; it just so happens that I'm the one on stage. I'm no great master; I’m just Maria, everyone's grandma!"

The rest is history. The Kaohsiung concert sold out in a flash, and the Internet was full of talk about her. Her geniality and the gentleness of her playing make her that loving grandma who embraces you and tells you everything will be fine when you most need it. 

Even though she is hailed a master pianist, she lives quite a normal life, hence pictures of her at a self-service laundromat in Tokyo, eating noodles with chopsticks in South Korea, and working in her vegetable garden at home. These heartwarming moments show that she is approachable and align well with her extremely practical view of aesthetics: music is likely to lack spirit when played by someone who is unfeeling about life.

At age 55, she founded the Belgais Center for Arts to take in and provide instruction for children affected by poverty or war. Her charm is by no means limited to her tempered, gentle, solid performance capacity; it also includes her precious sincerity and desire to make the world a better place through music.

Her extraordinary life is one of the most touching stories in recent music history. In 2024, she won the 35th Praemium Imperiale alongside film director Ang LEE, which is quite an honor because the recipients must not only be outstanding in their field but also exhibit a spirit of humanitarian compassion.

During an interview, she once said, "Talent can cause people to marvel, but it can't move them. What touches people and moves them to tears is other things in the performance." How fortunate we are to have her come again so we can hear those "other things." Something especially noteworthy this time is that she, conductor Kent Nagano, and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra will play Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 together. Seeing this dream team perform is a rare opportunity, so come and offer your wholehearted support for this amazing "grandma" of ours!

 

  Program  

7/18(Fri)19:30

►Kent NAGANO & Maria João PIRES & Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

 

 

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