Grooving to the Key of C Minor
AH, CLASSICAL MUSIC! You imagine musicians in tuxedoes playing inside large concert halls filled with the elite of society –– dignitaries, philanthropists, the rich and famous–– dressed in tuxedoes and evening gowns, clapping like genteel and cultured citizens. Then the twenty-something Maksim Mrviça, a pianist who looks like a model straight from the magazines dressed at the cutting edge of fashion, performs on stage like a pop star with dramatic effects like video screens, lighting and laser–shows, dry ice and ballet dancers in the background to an audience, half of which is under 30 years old, grooving to the disco beats. You gasp and say: What the ––?
From playing a hundred-year-old piano at the basement of a music conservatory during the war to international renown, Maksim has definitely come along way. Born in 1975 to Croatian parents in Ŝibenik, a town on the Adriatic coast, he started his rigorous musical training when he was nine, held his first public performance at the same year, and bore witness to the horrors of the Serbo-Croatian war that erupted when he was 15. In 2003, he released his first pop/classical crossover recording entitled The Piano Player.
The first track of the recording, a rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Flight of the Bumble-bee,” opens with the sound of sea waves breaking against the shore, succeeded by pumping electronic beats, the bees then take flight with the furious sound of Maksim’s fingers hitting the ivory keys, and weaving into this luscious jungle of sound is the buzzing of the strings. After the first track, one who listens to this recording will definitely agree that this is not your grandparents’ typical classical music. The Piano Player creates a perfect synergy between the modern techno/disco beats and the timeless sound of the piano with the flourish of the orchestra resulting to a turbulence of sound that converges in a center, the eye of a musical storm.
Managed by Mel Bush, the same impresario that popularized the pop/classical crossover genre through the violin virtuoso Vanessa Mae and the string quartet Bond, Maksim shares with his predecessors the sense of experimentation and diversity of influence that characterize artist under the new musical genre. Maksim’s repertoire includes cutting-edge (re)mixes of classical pieces like Grieg’s “Piano Concerto in A minor,” Handel’s “Sarabande,” Rachmaninov’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” and Chopin’s “Revolutionary Etude in C minor” –– re-creating the timeless classics for the new generation of audience by tapping on the vast reservoir of rhythms and beats of pop and dance music.
The recording also boasts of six tracks composed by contemporary Croatian composer Tonci Huljic who also collaborated with crossover string quartet Bond. From the slow, romantic pieces that are perfect for the “Dear Monica” segment of the local radio station Love Radio (“Claudine” and “Hana’s Eyes”) to the upbeat, disco anthems perfect for clubs and parties (“Wonderland” and “Croatian Rhapsody”) to the Latin-influenced dance tracks which capitalizes on the sexy tempo of traditional drums and the Spanish Guitar (“Cubana” and the bonus track “Cubana Cubana”), The Piano Player invites listeners to sample a smorgasbord of sound, showcasing the extent of the influence of world music on Maksim.
With The Piano Player, Maksim proves that the piano is a contemporary instrument capable of far more than repeating standard classical repertoire. Maksim writes in his CD sleeve: “Coming from a classical background and now using new technology in sound and production, I have really been encouraged to explore all my musical parameters. I hope you enjoy the experience.” Indeed, many are embracing the different musical experience that Maksim has to offer, evidenced by the popularity of his album worldwide –– achieving gold status in Singapore, Malaysia, China and Croatia; platinum in Taiwan; and double platinum in Hong Kong. To borrow the imagery from his “Flight of the Bumble-bee” video, Maksim’s The Piano Player strikes the listener with the subtle grace of ballet and the knockout force of boxing.