Jocks want to rock, and rock stars want to be sports heroes.
This pop culture rule-of-thumb might explain why 105-pound pianist
Anne-Marie McDermott envisions herself as an athlete.
“I can definitely see myself as an athlete,”
McDermott said. “Athletes are trained in the psychological
aspect of their performance ““ how to be at their prime at the
moment they need to be. Musicians are not taught that. For me, that
was my main motivation.”
To demonstrate her athletic prowess, McDermott will perform a
three-recital, nine-sonata marathon to mark the 50th anniversary of
Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s death.
McDermott’s intense and energetic style will be tested as
she tackles her favorite composer’s entire sonata anthology
Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. in Schoenberg
Hall.
“What I’m doing in Los Angeles is a bit
superhuman,” McDermott said. “To prepare one recital
program I usually spend five to six hours a day practicing in
advance. For this three-recital series at UCLA, it requires me to
be at the piano eight hours a day. It is, physically, absolutely
exhausting because Prokofiev’s style of writing is very
muscular. In one of the sonatas you literally have to shove your
fist in the piano to make a cluster of sounds.”
The project has been 2 1/2 years in the making. During this
training period, McDermott maintained a strict regimen of memory
exercises.
“I can spend a lot of time thinking about the
repertoire,” McDermott said. “Every time I’m on
an airplane, I’m going through a repertoire in my head
because I find that’s a great mental exercise. When
you’re not at the piano and you try to go through a
repertoire in your head, that’s pretty
challenging.”
McDermott has also turned to Zen Buddhism in hopes of reaching
the perfect state of mind during a performance.
“You know how to block everything out and just be
absolutely immersed and at one with the music that I’m
playing,” McDermott said. “Before concerts, I empty out
my brain and just be very single-minded, hopefully drawing the
audience into what I’m doing so they’ll love it as much
as I do.”
According to McDermott, the Prokofiev sonata cycle is not only
physically and mentally strenuous, but also emotionally taxing and
thrilling.
“(Prokofiev) wrote these nine sonatas over a 40-year
period between like 1907 and 1947,” McDermott said.
“The music itself runs the gamut from being innocent, pure
and naive to being incredibly angry, violent, highly emotional and
volatile. There’s a tremendous range of emotion that is
incorporated into these pieces.”
According to McDermott, Prokofiev continues to be one of the
most overlooked composers of all time. She sees the recitals as a
way to help classical music fans discover a hidden gem of a
composer.
“One of Prokofiev’s piano sonatas ““ No. 7
““ is played all the time,” McDermott said. “The
other ones just don’t get played very often. There are
recordings of them, but I don’t think the recordings do them
justice. Nonetheless, I think it speaks to people … it’s
very visceral, very in-your-face. The music itself is very
powerful, and that’s what inspired me. You really have to be
inspired to do something like this because it has taken a lot of
time.”
Anne-Marie McDermott performs at Royce Hall on Friday and
Saturday and at Schoenberg on Sunday. For tickets call the Central
Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101.