“I was so proud that he came from my country.” “My fellow countryman, Ivo Pogorelic, was the biggest pianist in the world when I was growing up and is a great inspiration,” says Mrvica, whose other musical idols include Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Ashkenazy. In this way, he honours his gifts, and his classical idols. But in concert, he always makes sure he plays something from his classical repertoire, straight. Mrvica says he loves to experiment, and crossover gives him the opportunity to do just that. But I still play some Coldplay, John Legend’s All Of Me and the Game of Thrones main titles music.” “It’s just straight piano and orchestra,” he says. Or this year’s New Silk Road, which Mrvica describes as being “less produced” and more “classical”. Or 2015’s Croatian Rhapsody, the title track of which is one of Mrvica’s biggest hits. Then there’s 2012’s The Movies (Universal), featuring arrangements of classic soundtracks from movies like Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Godfather, Amelie and Rocky. Its track list includes hair-raising (or should that be eyebrow-raising?) arrangements such as Jeff Wayne’s take on Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.Ĭamera Icon Classical piano maestro Maksim Mrvica says being a crossover star allows him to experiment. Mrvica’s first major release was 2003’s The Piano Player, for EMI. “It was the only thing I wanted to do and although at first my parents didn’t know what to do with that, they understood how important it was to me and became very supportive,” he said. It soon became obvious to Mrvica’s mother especially that he wasn’t going to let go of his dream. I was the one pushing my mum, begging her to enrol me in music classes. “And my friend had a small piano, which I fell in love with. “I first heard the piano on TV,” he says. Yet in contrast to the “Tiger Mums” who get their kids onto the keyboards from age four, Mrvica had to plead with his parents, neither of whom had a musical background, to let him play the piano. Camera Icon Maksim Mrvica trained at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and the Alexander Skryabin Conservatoire in Paris. “You have a phenomenon where classical stars have greater fame than the pop stars,” Mrvica says. There are reportedly at least 40 million children learning to play the instrument in China alone. That’s not surprising, given the popularity of the piano in those countries. Mrvica is especially popular in Asia, with massive followings in China, Japan and South Korea. But the classical music will remain constant.” “If you see me in 10 years, the crossover (repertoire) will continue to go in all sorts of directions. This is a reasonable taste of Maksim's music for those who are curious about it but not willing to commit to an entire album.“I’m a classical musician in my heart and soul and that will never go away,” the bestselling crossover pianist says ahead of his first Australian tour. The two Croatian-Cuban tracks are intriguing, however the latter is something like a remix of the former, with altered rhythms and calls of "Cubana!" interspersed - but it's not every remix that has a live soloist participating in the recasting of the music. An odd choice for a sampler is the inclusion of two related pieces, Cubana (track 2) and Cubana Cubana (track 3) that doesn't help audiences get a feel for the range of Maksim's music, which includes crossover versions of a range of classical compositions, as well as originals. These are well-known Maksim pieces, all (except for the Rimsky-Korsakov) composed by the pianist's manager Tonci Huljic. The success of the mixture as compared with other similar releases is due to Maksim's chops his piano can stand up to the big backing and produces a grandiose but not unsubtle effect. Maksim, whose surname is Mrvica, backs classical piano with strings and electronic beats.
The original album was the breakthrough for this Croation pianist, who works with some of the same production team responsible for the music of the British crossover ensemble Bond. This Japanese release offers three excerpts from Maksim's 2003 release The Piano Player the tracklist indicates a fourth selection, The Flight of the Bumble-Bee (from the same release), but it is a video track unplayable on CD players.
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