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Australian pianist Coady Green and British pianist Christopher Smith both had successful concert careers in London before relocating to Australia several years ago. In Australia, they are the only pianists to have performed the six Hungarian Rhapsodies that Liszt prepared for four hands from the orchestral versions. Here, they add the two additional Rhapsodies Liszt prepared for four hands, making a complete performance of this dazzlingly virtuosic set of pieces, known for their fiendish technical demands.

Coady Green

One of Australia’s busiest concert pianists, Coady Green is acknowledged as a major talent on theinternational concert circuit, described as “a virtuoso pianist with sensitivity, intelligence and charm”, “accurate and exhilarating” (Musical Opinion, London), and with “a strong and versatile technique capable of the most delicate coloring and tonal brilliance, rising to the challenges of extreme virtuoso demands with relish” (The Advertiser, South Australia).

In 2005, Coady relocated from Melbourne to London after winning almost all the most prestigious awards that his native Australia had to offer, including first prize in the City of Sydney National Piano Competition, a Winston Churchill Fellowship Award, a British Council Award, the Trevor Prescott Memorial Award from the Masonic Foundation, a Sir Ian Potter Cultural Prize, two awards from the Australian Council for the Arts and the South Australian Arts Council, and the Ormond Exhibition from the University of Melbourne.

During his eleven years based in London, he was twice the recipient of a Geoffrey Parsons International Prize (2008, 2012), a prizewinner at the International Two Piano Grieg Competition in Norway, and a recipient of awards from Tait Memorial Trust and the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia.

He has performed in over 25 countries in the leading concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, St Martin in the Fields, Cadogan Hall, St James’s Piccadilly, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, Shanghai and Beijing Concert Halls, Salzburg Mozarteum etc.

He is active as a chamber musician, having performed extensively with pianists Leslie Howard and Christopher Smith, the BBC Singers, the Allegri, Odeion and Amici Quartets (UK and Africa), and numerous leading singers internationally.

In Australia, his ensemble with saxophonist Justin Kenealy - Duo Eclettico - is the most active performing classical saxophone and piano duo in the country. The duo is preparing two professional recording releases for 2021.

Green was the founder and director of the International Liszt Society Piano Prize (London, UK), now in its 7th successful year, and an Artistic Director of the International Open Piano Competition in its iterations within the UK and Italy. He regularly adjudicates for local and national music awards and competitions within Australia. He was the Artistic Director of the UK Liszt Society and a director of the UK Alkan Society.

Green is committed to the promotion of new Australian music, commissioning several new works from Australian composers each year, and working frequently with emerging and established Australian and international composers. He has received awards from the Australia Council from the Arts in both 2020 and 2021 for new commissions from Australian composers Jane Hammond and Linda Kouvaras.

Green was a lecturer in classical performance and staff piano teacher at Goldsmiths College, The University of London, and a piano teacher at the Royal College of Music, London. He now teaches piano and lectures on the performance staff at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, The University of Melbourne.

He frequently gives masterclasses within Europe and the USA. He is currently recording the complete piano etudes of Anton Rubinstein for British label Toccata Classics, which will contain major world-premiere recordings. He is working on the release of the complete piano and chamber music of Linda Kouvaras in five albums, also for Toccata Classics.

Christopher Smith

Christopher Wayne Smith is an award-winning concert pianist from the United Kingdom. Highly acclaimed internationally and here in Australia, Christopher has performed regularly throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, India, South Africa, and since relocating to Melbourne in 2017, here in Australia.

Highlight performances include Wigmore Hall London, Purcell Room London, St. Davids Hall Wales, and Thikse Monastary in the Himalayas. Christopher has been described as “…possesses an impressively comprehensive technique, yet over and above this major gift has to be added the less frequently encountered, but more significant, gift of musical understanding at a deep level.” (Musical Opinion, 2016). He is particularly regarded for his ability to acquire and project a vast vast repertoire in an array of intelligent recital programmes.

Christopher Wayne Smith graduated in 2014 in Piano Performance with First Class Honours from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where he won several awards, scholarships and competition prizes. He has studied with Richard McMahon, Michael Young, Leslie Howard, Murray McLachlan and Artur Pizarro; and he has prepared masterclasses with Stephen Hough, Noriko Ogawa and Alfred Brendal.

Christopher also performs regularly as a chamber musician and has an internationally regarded Piano duo with Coady Green formed in 2013. They have quickly established an international reputation for delivering high-quality recitals combining standard repertoire for their genre with little-known works.

PROGRAM

Hungarian Rhapsodies for Piano Four Hands S621

No. 1 in F minor S621/1

(after Rapsodie hongroise XIV, S244/14)

No. 4 in C sharp minor S621/4

(after Rapsodie hongroise XII, S244/12)

No. 16 Rapsodie hongroise in A minor S622ii (from S244/16ii)

No. 2 in D minor/G major S621/2

(after Rapsodie hongroise II, S244/2)

interval

No. 3 in D major S621/3

(after Rapsodie hongroise VI, S244/6)

No. 19 Rapsodie hongroise in D minor S623a

(from S244/19) ’d’apres les ”Csárdás nobles” de K. Abrányi’

No. 5 in E minor S621/15

(after Rapsodie hongroise V, S244/5) ’Héroïde-Élégiaque’

No. 6 in E flat major S621/6

(after Rapsodie hongroise IX, S244/9) ’Pester Carneval

Coady Green & Christopher Smith – Liszt Complete Hungarian Rhapsodes for Four Hands is part of On the Road Again, a Victorian Government initiative to bring live music back across the state.