KEY POINTS:
Perhaps some met Michael Houstoun for the first time on TV One's Artsville last year, as he relaxed at home discussing the finer points of interpretation and powerhoused through John Psathas' View from Olympus with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
For others, the pianist seems always to have been
a part of our musical lives. We thrilled to his various international successes starting with the Van Cliburn Competition in 1973 and cherish memories of his historic Beethoven tour in 1994.
This week finds Houstoun on three concert stages in the space of six days and I catch up him just before a morning practice session.
Tonight's Prokofiev First Concerto with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra is "a really difficult piece", he tells me. "Thank God it's only 18 minutes long!"
This work by a 20-year-old composer is "like a wild young man absolutely determined to make everyone sit up and take notice of him. It's full of the most extraordinary effects ... and they all work."
But it is not unrelentingly frantic, Houstoun assures me. "The slow movement, which I wish was twice as long, is romantic in a really beautiful way. Even if the cadenza that comes after it is an absolute riot. There's nothing like it; short, but all over the piano."
The name of Rachmaninov comes up and Houstoun feels that Prokofiev makes Rachmaninov look positively cautious from a pianistic point of view.
"Rachmaninov is difficult but very accommodating," he decides. "Prokofiev is much more hysterical and unleashed. He throws you to both ends of the piano, all over the place, constantly crossing your hands, glissandi ... the works!"
Houstoun pauses for a moment and admits this is "very much a young man's piece. It would fit someone in their 20s or early 30s like a glove.
"As you get older you have to get smarter, as any sports coach will tell you. In my mid-50s, I have to use a certain type of wisdom and either rediscover that youthful energy or find a very clever way to reproduce it.
"You just have to follow recipes a bit more carefully and closely and maybe that's not a bad thing."
After tonight's orchestral appearance there is a Tauranga recital with Patricia Wright as well as an Auckland concert with cellist Ashley Brown.
Wright and Houstoun's programme has already toured the country with great success and "trusting the singer and loving the music make for a very potent performing experience", the pianist tells me.
Wednesday's venture with Ashley Brown came about when Brown called backstage after Houstoun's February recital with Raphael Wallfisch.
Learning the Brahms F major Sonata with the English cellist had been a major undertaking and "Ashley asked me if I wanted to have another go at it - if so, he'd be happy to play it".
Coupled with Beethoven's A major Sonata, it should make a memorable concert in the University Music Theatre next week.
"For a while there, everything seemed to be a gala spectacular with three tenors in soccer stadiums and opera productions getting bigger and bigger," Houstoun reflects wistfully.
"I wondered whether people might come back to smaller events, looking for a deeper satisfaction than just being part of a crowd and having their minds blown. Recitals offer a more intense experience; the music is full of magic with really deep, intimate statements. There's very little there to knock you between the eyes. It's more about worming its way into your spirit."