This is the twenty-eighth interview in my series and my guest is Italian concert pianist Federico Colli. Federico won the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2012. I chatted to him at Jaques Samuel Pianos in London.

Find out more about Federico, here.

Here’s the transcript for those who prefer to read the interview:

MELANIE SPANSWICK: Italian concert pianist, Federico Colli is the most recent winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2012 and he also won the Salzburg Mozart Competition in 2011, so he’s now in demand all over the world and I’m delighted that he’s taken the time today to join me here at Jaques Samuel Pianos in London for a Classical Conversation. Welcome.

FEDERICO COLLI: Pleasure.

MS: Lovely to be here today.

FC: My pleasure.

MS: I’m going to start by asking you all about your musical education, how old you were when you started to play, what was the catalyst and whether you come from a musical family?

FC: You know, I always say that I am, I am the black sheep of my family because my father is a doctor, a pathologist and my mummy is a biologist and at the moment she’s teaching in high school, maths and science. I have a sister now who’s 20, so she’s littler than me and she started to take part in university and she’s studying chemistry. So, nothing about art.

MS: Not musical at all?

FC: No, nothing about art. So I don’t know why.

FC: Just for fun my daddy used to play guitar just for music, just for fun. And my mum, adored – she’s in love with opera. You know, Verdi, Bellini, typical Italian opera, you know. And my grandpa also, he started to play piano when he was young. Unfortunately with the Second World War he needed to stop because other things were more important contrary to playing the piano. I don’t why but maybe if I have to think in my family, the other side, this is rational, the rationality of culture and situations of “doctor” and “mother,” we could find a little love with art, you know my grandpa and my daddy.

FC: So but I started to play the piano just for a joke you know. I was allowed to sit down, you know.

MS: You were quite small?

FC: Yea, three-, four-years-old. The piano was really bigger than me. But just for joke you know. I was in love to sit down in front of the keyboard and play and discover myself and the music and the keyboards. The opposite to play football or to play with games, video games, I was in love to stay in front of the piano. Just for joke you know. My parents told me, “Why not? Just try it. You know. Try to do something you like.”

MS: So which teacher then do you think was crucial in your development?

FC: I started with very, a very strong Italian lady. She was very powerful for very little children. And I studied with her until eight. You know in this way with colour notes. I printed them into the scores. A lot of games you know. After eight something changed in my life because I started to follow the lesson of Sergio Marengoni. He’s very important in Italy and he was a formal professor in Milan Conservatory and I studied with him private lessons until 16 when I did my diploma in Milan. So the formal student career finished with a diploma in Italy because we don’t have nothing after. It’s not like another country of the world where after Bachelor you can do a Masters and after Master you can find a conservatoire exam. In Italy, it’s not like this. I don’t know now because now I’m quite away from this world because I just finished my practice, my starting time. But after the age of 16 I formally finished my formal study, you know what I mean. I am very grateful to Sergio Marengoni because with him I understood a lot of the, what is necessary to…what is the base to play piano.

MS: Yes. I was going to ask you, how did you develop your technique?

FC: Yea. And I am very different because a lot of the personality and the technique I have on the piano, Sergio Marangoni gave to me. This is crucial, you know.

MS: Yes and what did you do? Did you practice studies? Or how did you develop it? What did you focus on?

FC: We studied a lot of Bach and classical repertoire and Mozart, [and] Beethoven. And in those years, I started to think of Mozart, would be, could be one of my favourite composers. And also a little of Romantic period. Focus on Schumann, Chopin – we studied a lot of Chopin. Pieces that are necessary for a young pianist to study. Pieces that are very necessary. And we did a lot of technique together.  

FC: We practised a lot of Hanon, Czerny Etude and Cramer Etude. So it was crucial. I mean I stayed a lot of time in front of keyboard to study, to improve my fingers. This is bad kitchen job, but it’s necessary. And after 16, I followed the lesson of Konstantin Bogino. And I always say that after 16, I started to follow the lesson of Russian teachers – Konstantin Bogino, Boris Petrushansky, and after Leeds, Pavel Gililov, so the Russian side of my life. I always say that my character is a little Italian, a little Russian. And with Bogino, I understood that he’s a pianist of Tchaikovsky Trio. He’s teaching a lot. He’s a wonderful, really wonderful teacher and his father was a legend about teaching in Russia. His father wrote a lot of books about how to play piano. And with Bogino, I understood, really the job of a concert pianist. That it is necessary to spend your life in front of the piano.

And the best time to play in the day is from 2.00am until midnight. So all the time is good for play piano. And the piece of music we are going to play is not outside of us, but they have to became part of our life, part of our destiny. And this situation, I started to take part in competitions and I wanted to improve myself and to see what is this world, you know, this crazy world of competition. And 16 was a life changing experience. And another life changing experience in my life was when I met Boris Petrushansky when I was 20. And fortunately Bogino and Petrushanksy are in a very good relationship. They studied together in the Central School of Moscow. You know, this big Russian situation. Petrushansky, I’d like to say that it is impossible for him to teach how to play the piano because you have to arrive at Petrushansky that you are already able.

MS: Ah yes, sure.

FC: And if he wants he is able to give to you one idea. “This is my idea, this is my personal view of the piece. Why not, you could choose, this goes together.” But, just an idea. Just an idea of music. Not the way to play this idea on the piano. Just idea. And this philosophical situation in my life was extremely important. After this, a young man is able to play piano, it seems of culture and philosophical expression is important to grow up more and more.

MS: You won the Leeds. What impact has this had on your career?

FC: It was maybe the most important point in my life. You know, immediately, a lot of popularity and immediately maybe everybody knows about you and the most important thing that I feel now is the responsibility that I have around my neck, you know. Because it’s not easy to win a big competition. Immediately when you are on the top of the mountain, it’s difficult to reach the top of the mountain, even it’s difficult to stay at the top of the mountain. But when you could see the world from up there, you cannot compare yourself with the other pianists but you have to compare yourself with the legend of the piano.

FC: And Dame Fanny Waterman told me just after the final of the Leeds competition, “Be careful. You have a lot of celebrity. Now your “enemies” are not your young colleagues but it is always Michelangeli and Richter”. A little bit impressive, but I always try to do my best. In this way I am looking to put myself and my soul in the music. This greater possibility that I have.

MS: Which composers do you really love to play?

FC: Mozart for sure. But in general all the classic repertory. I mean Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn. I discovered Schubert when I was younger. I was worried about Schubert because I consider Schubert and Brahms the most difficult composers in all the history you know. But in general when you find, not altruistic music over there you can find the most difficult music.

MS:  I was going to ask you. You chose to play Beethoven, Emperor Concerto in the final (of the Leeds Competition). Why did you select that?

FC: You know the fact of the competition is that you have to arrive at the final with a piece that is very sure and that you’ve played a lot before. The Emperor Concerto, so I was very sure on the stage and it was easy for me to believe my interpretation and I know it was very relaxing and comfortable to play with Halle and Sir Mark Elder. Fabulous musician. It was only pleasure, no stress, not at all. Only pleasure. You can find a lot from music, inside Beethoven. Even in a Rachmaninov concerto, or Prokofiev concerto. But in Beethoven you are like, naked you know, naked. If your soul is not so pure, this music is broken off, so it fell down immediately.  

FC: So in this meaning I chose the Emperor and I’m trying to focus myself in that kind of music, very deep, very philosophical with a lot of meaning inside. And I discovered Schubert for example and I played a lot, D. 142 from the last cycle of impromptus from Schubert and I tried to find my own things on this piece. And that I say to you that I am middle Italian, mid Russian – I am in love with Russia actually, with all the 20^th century music – Russian, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and so on. By the way, I cannot forget that I am a young pianist and young pianists have to play some crucial piece of repertory…. like a very big concerto, Rachmaninov No. 3, Prokofiev Second, Beethoven Sonata Op. 111 and a big cycle of romantic pieces like Schumann’s First Sonata, Schumann’s Carnaval, the big sonatas of Chopin. So it’s important. It’s necessary. Because I am in the moment that I have to explain and to show all my personality from all the sides of the personality from the deep joy to altruistic situations. Everything, everything. I could prefer Mozart and classical music. But at the moment it’s better that I show a lot.

MS: Do you have a particular practice regime?

FC: All the day.

MS: Oh just all day?

FC: Yes. All the day, it’s good to improve yourself in front of keyboard. I am very lucky because I am living in Brescia, in the north of Italy and my parents have, my grandparents actually, have a very big home near Garda Lake and over there I put my big piano and I am completely alone. I could practice all day, all night, Christmas Eve, Easter and then finish to practice and work in the middle of the wood, forest and near the lake and think about music that is always important you know. And spend a lot of time in front of the keyboard because it is necessary because I am at the early stage of my career so my fingers, you know, they [get] stronger and stronger.

But it is always necessary to improve your mind. So, go out from your study from your apartment and walk in the middle of nature and think about music and think about this very important meaning of life. Now, for example I’m practising Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor and the beginning, the introduction for the sonata is not difficult, not at first reading, but how many meaning you could find into this music. It is necessary only to think about what Schumann wanted to say with this piece of music and why he put an introduction before the Allegro and you have to try to find your answer to this very big question. And when you find and you believe in your answer, everything is easier. To do this, it is necessary to think and I am very happy to have this opportunity to improve myself.

MS: Tell us about your exciting, forthcoming projects. I know you’re playing in London fairly soon.

FC: Really, it will be a very big debut, Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank Centre and such.

MS: And what date is that?

FC: The 22^nd of April for the International Piano Series. I chose a typical programme. Everything about sonatas. I started with Mozart Sonata G major K. 283 and then move to the Beethoven Appassionata Sonata for ____ and then Schumann Sonata No. 1, so that you could find the development of sonata from the classical sonata, Beethoven sonata and Schumann – the construction of the form of sonata and all the continuities. The most important is the continuity, not the form. It will be a very big appointment, a very big engagement. Just the day before yesterday I was in Paris in and I will be in Bologna, Italy for a very big festival in Teatro Manzoni in Bologna and I will play the same recital programme as in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. And then I will be in Serbia with Rachmaninov No. 3, with the National Orchestra of Serbia. I will play for my first time in October in Kiev, Brahms’ First Concerto and then I decided because I was worried, because Brahms’ is very big music and it’s necessary to have a lot of energy and so I’m really looking forward.

MS: What does playing the piano mean to you?

FC: Life. What is…Life. Pianissimo, fortissimo, crescendi, dimuendi. These are life. In one crescendo you could find your destiny. The meaning, why, this composer put forte here and not piano. Why, you know. This is our life, this is our destiny. This is not a situation outside of our soul. This is our soul.

MS: Thank you so much for joining me today.

FC: Pleasure. My pleasure.