The pianist tells Giles Woodforde about his version of a Wagnerian epic

Whisper it quietly in case his many fans are listening, but some people hate Wagner. The very thought of sitting through the many, many hours of his Ring cycle of operas is their idea of hell. But help is at hand. Pianist William Howard recently asked composer David Matthews if he could reduce the entire cycle to just one minute of piano music. In the end, David’s version, The Shorter Ring, ran to just over a minute each for the four operas, but William tells me he’s delighted with the piece.

“It’s the perfect Wagner for people who don’t love Wagner. I’ve recorded it just this last week, so it will come out on CD later in the year.”

Along with the Schubert Ensemble of London, William Howard will be the featured artist in this year’s Iffley Music Society Weekend Festival. Although it is not billed, he promises to play The Shorter Ring alongside another David Matthews work, Four Portraits, which he commissioned to mark two birthdays — the composer’s 70th and his own 60th last year. “I asked him to write an extended single movement work, and I actually got absolutely nothing of the kind!” William laughs. “But I am totally happy about that — I feel that, with compos-ers, once they’ve got an idea in their head, that’s going to be the best idea.”

There was another surprise too. One of the four people musically portrayed turned out to be William himself. “I was very daunted when David told me that I was to be one of the portraits,” William recalls. “But actually he’s written a kind of Chopin-esque waltz. It’s rather beautiful, and I really like it: he was very nice about my Chopin playing, and it reflects that side of me. Perhaps he prefers that to other aspects of my character!”

A whole range of other composers — Janácek, Beethoven, Schubert and Dvorák amongst them — will feature across the Iffley weekend, with William playing solo, and with his long-term associates, the Schubert Ensemble.

“I’ve had the enormous good fortune to be with this same group for 31 years, playing with people I respect and like. We were formed in 1983, and three out of the five of us have been working together for the whole of that time. We haven’t had any change in the group for 19 years, and we’ve had enormous fun going round the world together.”

Those experiences, William adds, very much started here in Oxford.

“I studied classics at New College, but during that time I found myself giving a lot of concerts. So I thought I’d give piano playing a try after leaving univer-sity — it was only during my last year at Oxford that I got down to some serious study, to see if I could make a go of it. I really wasn’t sure if it would be possible to sustain a career, but I’ve been very lucky in the different things I’ve done.

“My first ever solo recital was in the Holywell Music Room, and hardly a year has gone by since when I haven’t played there. I’m playing in Oxford quite a lot this year — I’ve got a further concert at the Jacqueline du Pré in May, and the Ensemble is coming to the Oxford Lieder Festival in October. The Iffley weekend will be particularly nice, because it’ll be a chance to hang around, and not just drop in and rush away again.”

Iffley Music Society Weekend Festival
Iffley Church Hall and Jacqueline du Pré Music Building
March 14-16
For full details, visit www.iffleymusicsociety.org.uk