Meet Danny Driver

Danny Driver is one of the UK’s most respected pianists. He’ll perform Ligeti’s Piano Studies (Etudes) on 10 March at Fitzwilliam College Auditorium. We asked him about his early musical encounters and what to expect from his concert, among other things.

What music do you remember hearing as a small child? 

I had wonderful children’s songs on LP!  I also fell in love with Chopin’s Waltzes (as performed by Dinu Lipatti in the 1950s) and Schumann’s Kinderszenen and Kreisleriana (Martha Argerich).  

Was your family a big musical influence on you?

My parents enjoyed opera and musicals; my father played the violin as a boy and had a strong love of chamber music.  My grandfather loved Beethoven and I still have his record collection.

Do you remember realising it was going to be piano for you? Did you try any other instruments?

I certainly did try other instruments – but the piano was the first and remained ‘the one’

What did you enjoy most about studying in Cambridge?

I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge (shock!).  But of course I was actively studying the piano, taking lessons back in London, and participating vigorously in university musical life.  I had friends in the music faculty but also many outside it, some who took music very seriously too.  I was very grateful to be around people with such broad ranges of interest.

How do you feel when you play Ligeti’s Etudes?

Exhilarated, challenged, invigorated, a little stressed – all at once – and in awe of the music and the pianistic possibilities this composer unlocked.

Each of the études is like an object to be contemplated – perhaps like a sculpture one can walk around and view from different angles

What are some key moments the audience should listen out for in your Ligeti programme?

Each of the études is like an object to be contemplated – perhaps like a sculpture one can walk around and view from different angles, or a finely wrought architectural structure.  Each piece has its own ‘rules’, if you like, a world unto itself, and often the endings aren’t really endings at all – the music is left ‘open’, as are our thoughts and our emotional responses.  There are very clear features in each – for example the ostinato that runs through the entirety of Fanfares without stopping; the chaotic process by which the rhythm in Disorder spirally falls out of synchrony between the two hands and unravels into a whirlwind and eventual collapse; the way Ligeti’s ‘lament’ motif is superimposed in four voices moving at different speeds in Autumn in Warsaw; the kaleidoscopic jazzy sevenths and ninths of Arc-en-ciel….

What do you listen to when you’re cooking dinner?

Rarely music – more often words.

What non-musical talents do you have?

You should ask my wife – she has a very long list, which it would be immodest of me to repeat!  But the highlights of those just recounted to me include cooking, gardening, pedal bin fixing (don’t ask…), languages, and some sports (at the moment cycling and golf)