Peter Hill
Peter Hill is a scholar and pianist working mainly in the contemporary and twentieth-century repertoires. He studied at Oxford and at the RCM, where his teachers included Cyril Smith and Nadia Boulanger. He was awarded first prize at Darmstadt (1974) for his performances of Cage and Stockhausen, and his complete recording of Messiaen´s solo piano works, made with the composer´s help and encouragement, has been described as `one of the most important recording projects of recent years´ (New York Times). Other recordings include CDs of Beethoven (the Diabelli Variations), Stravinsky, and the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern). Peter´s books include The Messiaen Companion (Faber and Faber) and Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Cambridge University Press). In 2001 he and his colleague Nigel Simeone were granted permission to carry out research in the private Messiaen archive. Their biography Messiaen (Yale University Press) was published in 2005 and is currently being translated for publication in France (Fayard) and Germany (Schott). A further joint-authored book (Olivier Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques, published in 2007) includes a detailed investigation of the composer´s musical sketches. Peter joined the staff at Sheffield in 1976. He is co-director with Peter Cropper of the MA in Music Performance, and teaches undergraduate courses on Messiaen, Mozart, Baroque counterpoint, and Performance.
Film
Music for Two Pianists
Peter Hill discusses the repertoire for piano duo and for two pianos with particular reference to works by Schubert, Rachmaninov and Messiaen.
Filmmaker: Robert Golden
