This content was created by The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. This content was uploaded by The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. This is a YouTube trailer titled "Official Trailer ✅: Season 3 Episode 20, David Hackbridge Johnson - Composer & Multi Instrumentalist" (published June 20, 2023). The excerpt is a promo/interview segment for The Piano Pod: SPEAKER B (David Hackbridge-Johnson) describes his collaboration with pianist Lowell Lieberman, recounting writing and dedicating a nocturne and discussing his creative/improvisational process; SPEAKER A provides episode logistics and promotion (premiere time, platforms, and subscription prompt mentioning The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song).
For this episode, I interviewed Mr. David Hackbridge-Johnson, one of the prolific British composers of our time, whose piano works were recorded by Mr. Lowell Lieberman, whom I got to interview last season.
I got a friendship request from Lowell, and I thought, wow, because I'd heard of him because he's a major American composer, and I knew he was a fine pianist as well. He did write to me, and he mentioned that during lockdown he was playing the piano a lot. And he'd already produced an album, a double album actually, of some of his favourite rather demonic pieces, including things like Liszt's Totentanz. And he said he was planning another album which would include another bunch of favourite pieces. He asked me whether I would like to write a piece. I wrote a piece that very evening and I sent it to him by the following morning and said, look, I want to dedicate this to you. I concocted a nocturne for him which was based on a very weird dream I'd had about this peculiar devil-like creature sitting on a rock playing an instrument with very strange tunings. And I thought, okay, I'm going to write this. And I sent it to him the next day. He seemed to like it. And he then at that point, he decided, you know what, I'm going to do an album entirely of your music, David. So I think probably within 6 months of us having any kind of official communication, he had an album out and it Steinway had agreed to issue it. But it was the fact that the way he played the pieces just so impressed me. For me as a composer, he got right inside the style, right inside the marrow of the music to produce these very, very intense, intimate performances, which I was absolutely thrilled by. If you're thinking in terms of improvising, which of course I do all the time, it's one of the things that— Music to me can often hover into the strange. It might start out perfectly straightforwardly and simply, but it can then change. And I think it's the process of change that fascinates me. How you get from— to— how you get from A to B, where you've got an emotional trajectory that's taking you away from an idealized form of expression. It's just one of those strange things that you— the music comes out, you think you know what you're doing, but sometimes it's, it's a bit strange, the creative process. Sometimes you're not thinking, You're listening. Normally it's the listening that dictates the process. Often the music is already there, it's kind of up there somewhere, so I can see it and hear it, an object, and all I have to do is bring it down and write it out.
To hear the entire conversation with Mr. David Hockridge-Johnson, one of the most prolific British composers of our time, please join the chat during the premiere of this special episode tonight, Tuesday, June 20th, 8 PM Eastern on The Piano Pod's YouTube channel. The audio podcast will be split into 2 parts, and Part 1 will be dropped on your favorite podcasting platform tonight at 8 PM. Don't forget to subscribe or follow The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song with Yukimi Song. All the links are in the description. See you tonight!
