ben has letter published in UK times Letters to the Editor July 15, 2005
Counter-point
From Benjamin Grosvenor Sir, The article about me (T2, “A boy with grown-up fingers”, July 8) seemed to suggest that I was under terrible pressure.
I actually enjoy practising the piano and I love to perform in concerts.
I never practise for more than two hours without a break and there are plenty of boys at my school who spend as long playing computer games as I spend practising. By the way, I had a really nice birthday meal with all my family, and I don’t actually like pizza.
BENJAMIN GROSVENOR
Westcliff-on-Sea, Essexhere's the times article : A boy with grown-up fingers
By Amanda Holloway
TODAY is Benjamin Grosvenor’s 13th birthday — “the day after Mahler, and the day before Carl Orff,” he tells me. But unlike most 13-year-olds, Benjamin won’t be taking his friends for pizza and a movie after school. His biggest treat will be to watch The Simpsons before doing another five hours of piano practice. Benjamin is about to be the youngest soloist to appear at the Barbican, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 13 this month. Last year he was the youngest finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, giving an astonishingly mature and sensitive performance of Ravel’s Concerto in G with hands that couldn’t even stretch an octave. The image of this tiny figure, perched on the edge of the piano stool, will stick in the mind for many years.
Fifteen months on, his hands can reach a ninth, and he’s lost the chubby cheeks that caused critics to call him “plump”. He’s tucking in to a plate of posh fish and chips at the Barbican restaurant, a reward for a tedious afternoon’s filming for the local TV news, and reassuring his mother that he answered all their questions politely. “I said what I normally say — that I’m very lucky to play in such a prestigious hall. Except ‘prestigious’ didn’t come out very well!” An unfortunate word to choose when, like Benjamin, you have trouble pronouncing your esses.
Benjamin is still at Westcliff High School for Boys, in Southend, Essex, though he’s allowed a lot of free periods to practise. That and being small for his age leaves him open to bullying, but he doesn’t complain. He’s a bright boy — he’s already taken several GCSEs — but he has no intention of staying on for A-levels or music college. He wants to be a concert pianist. Now.
There’s fierce debate in the music world about whether someone this young should be making such high-profile appearances. Other Young Musician finalists have chosen to hone their skills at a conservatoire before embarking on a performing career. This is the route recommended by Rosemary Pickering at the Young Concert Artists’ Trust, a non-profit agency hired by the BBC to advise and represent Young Musician finalists. The violinist Jennifer Pike was 12 when she won in 2002. She has combined studying for GCSEs with a modest number of concert dates. Pickering says the slow-burn approach has suited the quiet, academic Pike family.
At the other extreme, Nicola Benedetti, the Scottish violinist who won the BBC Young Musician competition over Benjamin in 2004, left school to concentrate on her career before she was 16.
The Grosvenors declined the trust’s offer of representation. They wanted an agent who would get dates for Benjamin, not just manage the ones that came in. Pickering says bluntly: “He was an 11-year-old circus performer. There was no point in cosseting him until he was 19.” Benjamin’s first agent, Terry Harrison, was anxious not to exploit his prodigy. But the Grosvenor family were equally anxious for Benjamin to get as much experience as possible.
His mother, Rebecca, a piano teacher with a flair for marketing, says: “If Benjamin gets known at 12, like Aled Jones, people will go and see him. There are lots of 18-year-olds who want to be pianists, but people might go to Benjamin’s concert because they remember him.” So when Harrison said she was an “over-ambitious parent” the Grosvenors signed with another agent, Hazard Chase. Now Benjamin is playing at the Albert Hall in October and makes his Carnegie Hall debut in February.
Is there anything wrong with pushing a talented 13-year-old who loves performing? Robert Rountree, from Hazard Chase, doesn’t see why the Barbican concert should put Benjamin under stress. “It’s good to do a few high-profile things so it’s not a shock further down the line,” he says. “He’s got so much further to go — we hope!” Benjamin says he’s never felt nervous, although he has had the odd memory lapse. I wonder if the critics are inclined to go easy on him because of his age? “I don’t think so,” he says. “When I toured with the Scottish Ensemble I got good reviews wherever we played.” “And three curtain-calls,” his mother reminds him.
For some young musicians, instant fame has disadvantages. The international oboeist Nicholas Daniel found himself isolated after winning the BBC Young Musician competition because “friends and contemporaries either kept their distance, or came forward too much”. The pianist Anna Markland played more than 60 concerts in the year after winning. She suffered stressrelated physical problems and then gave up the piano to sing.
What will happen to Benjamin Grosvenor? He’s an exceptional player, but is he really in the same mould as his hero, Evgeny Kissin, or Daniel Barenboim — both pianists who started as child prodigies and matured into legendary performers? Time will tell. “We’re not looking too far into the future,” says the pragmatic Mrs Grosvenor. “In another year Benjamin may decide he doesn’t want to do it any more.” In which case for his 14th birthday he can demand the things he’s been denied up to now, such as football, fencing and pizza parties.
Benjamin Grosvenor plays with the Academy of St- Martin-in-the-Fields at the Barbican on July 17 (020-7638 8891) (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
|