Fluidity and freedom, intelligence and beauty are words that come to mind as I listened to a great pianist showing us a wondrous world of his own
Aidan Mikdad looked bewildered and dazed as the magic spell he had unknowingly created was broken by the ovation he received at the National Liberal Club last night for Mary Orr’s inaugural ‘Promote Our Pianists’ concert series. I missed his ‘Waldstein’ Sonata that he confided was his first performance of this work that Delius was to describe as all scales and arpeggios. Aidan spontaneously modest as he came down the sumptuous staircase on his way to the green room and saw me just arriving in time for his Chopin . Mary Orr knew I had been invited by the LSO to the spotlight on Seong- Jin Cho
co artistic director of the ‘Kettner’, Cristian SandrinThe other half of the artistic directlion of the ‘Kettner’ , Ben Westlake , welcoming Mary into the fold
Mary had written to me in her own inimitable way and on arriving our beloved Mary handed me a glass of red wine and the best seat in the house! What a lady!
Having listened enthralled to Aidan’s Chopin I was doubly sorry to have missed his Beethoven.The original programme for the second half had gone through some deeply rooted changes and instead of the Prelude op 45 and Scherzo op 39 leading into the Sonata in B minor , Aidan after long suffering decided that the great B minor sonata would be better accompanied by two of Chopin’s most mellifluous outpourings of Bel Canto : The Aeolian Harp of op 25 n. 1 and the equally magical Berceuse op 57. The reasoning for this became evident as the sound of the first notes of the étude was the same sound that resounded through the Berceuse and B minor Sonata creating a sumptuous world of refined elegance and passionate intensity.
Leaning back as his long slender fingers created the magic sounds that Sir Charles Hallé had described on hearing Chopin himself play in Manchester.This was on his last ill fated tour enticed by an aristocratic lady friend and fervent admirer, Jane Sterling just as Chopin had been persuaded by another equally demanding George Sand, to spend an ill fated winter on Majorca. The description of Hallé perfectly describes the playing of Aidan as the melodic line rose and fell and was shaped with beguiling freedom sustained by the undulating sounds of changing harmonies. Undulating harmonies played with simplicity but also a poetic intensity where this étude became a tone poem of extraordinary power and beauty. We are so used to hearing these studies played one after the other that to hear just one elevated to such heights and with an overwhelming freedom and personality was overpowering and caught our attention immediately, paving the way for the magical glowing simplicity of the ‘Berceuse’. A theme and variations with a constant lullaby undercurrent, played with the glowing radiance of Bel Canto, this time without the luxuriant harmonies that he had bestowed on it with his Aeolian Harp. Maybe Aidan played it a little fast as the more intricate filigree work lost something of its expansive freedom, but the golden sounds and strong personality were compelling as the scene was now set for the B minor Sonata.
Aidan opened the Sonata with a commanding authority and a scrupulous attention to Chopin’s very precise indications, to which he added fantasy and dramatic drive with everything so beautifully and naturally phrased. A sumptuous golden sound as the second subject was played with a flowing poignant beauty of aristocratic nobility. Straight into the development with passionate intensity and the return of the second subject intoned with even more depth of sound and extraordinary radiance. The ‘Scherzo’ was phrased with the shape of a thinking musician, not just a web of sparkling jeux perlé but something of far greater significance. The ‘Trio’ unfolded like an improvised voyage of discovery as the weaving, glowing counterpoints spoke in a way that is rare indeed and lead imperceptibly to the return of the ‘Scherzo’. Even the noble opening chords of the ‘Largo’ were given a subtle sense of direction and significance as the luminosity of the melodic line held us spellbound for the eloquence and sensitivity of Aidan’s playing. Streams of notes poured from Aidan’s hands with a sumptuous bass keeping an anchor and giving great strength to the glowingly elusive musical line. This was music shaped by a great musical personality with passionate radiance and a remarkable line of great architectural strength.The Finale: ‘Presto non tanto’ opened with octaves over the entire keyboard, given a sense of direction and colour out of which was born the Rondò theme that was to become ever more intense on each return.There was a continuous, fearless drive of poetic mastery where even the many scintillating cascades of notes were shaped and phrased with subtle meaning as the music built to the final explosion and a coda that was played with breathtaking brilliance and the sumptuous sounds of a truly ‘Grand’ piano.
The Prelude op 45 that had originally been intended as the first work in this Chopin second half was now the encore that Aidan offered to a very enthusiastic audience. The long flowing lines of slowly changing harmonies were allowed to unfold with glowing beauty and an improvised freedom of extraordinary beauty. The delicacy of the cadenza at the end was where Chopin creates sounds of even faster changing harmonies of whispered beauty as this late Prelude uttered its last glowing wish. Aidan was not expecting a second encore but such was our insistence that he sat at the piano again and played a Waltz by Scriabin op 38 with a kaleidoscope of colour and beguiling insinuation that filled the air with even more rarified magic from a master musician.
Miracles at the Barbican in these days with the whispered glowing power of music from Seong-Jin Cho together with the passionate refined musicianship of Gianandrea Noseda.
The wonderful players of the LSO encouraged to play with the same freedom and inner intensity as Cho. Has the horn call that heralds the coda of the ‘Allegro Vivace’ ever sounded more like a mountain call? Resounding throughout the hall with an improvised freedom before being gently brought to heel as Cho played with crystalline clarity and delicacy Chopin’s beguiling web of intricate weaving sounds. Nosseda encouraging the players to join in the fun with the waltz like lilt and ‘joie de vivre’ that we sometimes experience in Schumann, but what a wonder to hear Chopin restored to it’s Polish roots with such beguiling insinuation and refinement.
This was after the fearless opening ‘Maestoso’ where Chopin’s oft criticised orchestral writing was given a new lease of life. Sumptuous rich sounds all congregating around the ravishing poetic beauty that was pouring from Cho’s hands. Sounds at times like streams of gold just illuminating the aristocratic elegance of this movement whilst both were capable of passionate abandon and glorious exhilaration.
There were moments of timeless beauty as Cho allowed the Bel Canto embellishments to unwind with the sublime sounds of a Monserrat Caballé as we all waited with baited breath for the orchestra to continue its miraculous journey together.
A Larghetto of such perfection, as one of Chopin’s most beautiful melodic creations was played with an exquisite palette of sounds, Nosseda just waiting to encourage his players to listen and caress such wonders together that were filling the hall.
This was beauty not for beauty’s sake but of a great musician who could see and shape these sounds and give them an architectural shape and rhythmic anchor that never slipped into sentimentality but was of the same simple beauty as a Michelangelo sculpture.
A monumental simplicity in which so little could mean so much.
I hope that his encore of the valse de l’adieu does not signify that the spotlight on such an artist will ever fade.
The saga continues …..after a most poetic Chopin Second Concerto with the LSO at the Barbican last night, Seong-Jin Cho shows us once again the whispered power of music.
The magical sounds of Donghoon Shin with only four of the players from last night sharing the intimate stage of St Luke’s. A performance where notes shone like jewels in the dark as Cho played the part of Stevenson’s shadow :”For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India- rubber ball , And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.
It was the same chameleonic presence of Cho with the four principal string players in Brahms G minor Quartet. He was able to amalgamate the sound of the piano so it became part of the strings with no thought of hammers striking strings.A sound that miraculously just filled the stage, the hall and hopefully microphones with sumptuous sounds. David Cohen, who I had noticed yesterday in Stravinsky, playing with such joy as he looked us in the eye to make sure we were enjoying it just as much as he. This was chamber music to cherish as this group of players could unite as one stimulating each other to delve ever deeper into the sublime secrets hidden within the all too inadequate black and white indications on the page.
The third time to hear Seong-Jin Cho within twenty four hours thanks to the LSO Spotlight falling on a true star.
The Barbican and surrounds taken by siege with Korean fans ,the sort of enthusiasm we only experience in the west with football. The dial has moved from west to east as the wonderful Korean training and love of music is showing the west the way to Parnassus .
The last concert was with a friend and colleague Sunwook Kim , a few years older than Cho , who had taken the Leeds by siege in 2006 being the youngest, at 18, to win the Gold medal. Both from the remarkable class of Daejin Kim at Korea National University of the Arts . His music making took him to London’s RAM to perfect his conducting skills.
It was exactly this sense of architectural shape that gave such strength to Mozart’s F major Sonata K 497.
A work long neglected by amateur pianists where Mozart at the height of his powers could structure such a complex work for Franziska von Jacquin who was obviously far from being an amateur pianist. Kim at the helm and Cho a super anchor they revealed the genius of Mozart with poetic weight and an extraordinary palette of sounds. These two friends and master musicians could dialogue together with a great sense of balance as they listened to the overall whole and recreated a work that I have rarely heard before at home or on stage!
After such magnificence they refreshed the air, with Cho now at the helm, seducing us with the charm and cheek of six of Wolfgang Rihm’s satirical Viennese Waltzes. A beguiling insinuating sense of colour and at times even sleazy night club charm that was of such enticing style we could have happily danced the night away to Valentine’s Day.
We were secretly hoping we might get another one or two as an encore after the Schubert .
However after such a monumental performance of the F minor Fantasy, Cho wisely shut the piano lid as we silently left this beautiful hall heading off in the rain perchance to dream of the wonders we had experienced from these two refined master musicians.
If they tried a little too hard to exult the beauty of Schubert with the whispered ethereal palette of pointillist sounds that only they seem to possess, it was because they love it as obviously Schubert did .
Schubert who in his last year could open the gate to the paradise that was waiting at only 31.
Schubert marks very clearly piano and pianissimo which became tainted with the same exquisite brush and moments of breathtaking beauty strangely lost their sublime shock . This was such a monumental performance ,though, that it was a small price to pay for such charm and drive of the Scherzo. Rarely played with such perfection where colour and rhythmic drive could live together with such transcendental mastery.
Unforgettable were the ghostly trills spread over the piano in the Largo sending a shiver of Scriabinesque vibrations of etherial wonderment.
Masterly playing of the fugato leading to searing excitement of exhilaration and passionate involvement and then suddenly silence. Desolate and distressing .
They say silence is golden and this certainly was, as Kim waiting what seemed like a eternity before barely caressing the keys as Cho intoned the magical melody that he imbued with even more tenderness and nostalgia .The death rattle of the final chords and the simple gasp to end , left us with silence in one of those magic moments where the entire audience were united with the players in what might even be described as ‘religious’ .
There was certainly magic in the air and a spotlight that had fallen on an all too often forgotten paradise.
Proving that MUSIC is most certainly the food of love and the cure for all the evils that are inflicting such suffering and pain on so many in these ‘modern’ times!
Jessica Duchen always guarantee of something magical that may happen Dame Kathryn Mc Dowell ,Managing director of the LSO shining a light brightly in these bleak time
Sunwook Kim was born in Seol, South Korea on 22 April 1988. He began studying the piano at the age of three. He gave his debut recital aged ten and this was followed by his concerto debut two years later. He won the Leeds International Piano Competition aged just 18, becoming the competition’s youngest winner for 40 years, as well as its first Asian winner. Kim’s performance of Brahms Piano Concerto in D minor with The Hallé and Sir Mark Elder in the competition’s final won unanimous praise from the press, and led to concerto engagements with UK’s finest orchestras as well as various recitals around Europe.
At the time of the competition, Kim was a student at the Korea National University of Arts under Daejin Kim . He had also previously won the IX Ettlingen Competition and the XVIII Concours Clara Haskil. He was awarded the Artist of the Year prizes from the Daewon Cultural Foundation (2005) and Kumho Asiana Group (2007).
He has received MA degree for conducting from Royal Academy of Music in 2013.
In the 2023/24 season, Sunwook will make his debut with Atlanta Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Gävle Symfoniorkester as well as his conducting debuts with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Budapest), Georges Enescu Philharmonic and Filharmonia Śląska (Poland). Sunwook will also return to conduct the Seoul Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony and as soloist with BBC Philharmonic. In September 2023, Sunwook Kim was announced as the next Music Director of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra for an initial term until December 2025, leading the orchestra in a minimum of ten performances per year, starting with Gyeonggi Arts Center’s New Year’s concert in January 2024.ecital highlights to date include regular appearances at the Wigmore Hall, London’s International Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Stockholm Konserthuset, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, La Roque d’Antheron International Piano Festival in France, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Centree, Symphony Hall Osaka, Brussels Klara Festival, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele.
Sunwook Kim’s debut recital disc was released on the Accentus label in October 2015, featuring Beethoven’s Waldstein and Hammerklaviersonatas, this was followed by a recording of Franck’s Prelude, choral et fugue paired with Brahms Sonata No.3. He has released further recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas: Sonata No.8 (Pathétique), No.14 (Moonlight) and No. 23 (Appassionata) as well as Sonatas Nos. 30-32. His most recent chamber music release features the Violin Sonatas of Beethoven in collaboration with Clara-Jumi Kang. His discography also includes multiple concerto recordings; on Accentus Music with the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Myung-Whun Chung featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 and Six Piano Pieces (2020) in addition to recordings on Deutsche Grammophon with the Seoul Philharmonic conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, a CD featuring Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto (2014) and a CD featuring Beethoven’s Concerto No.5 (2013).
photo credit Christoph Köstlin
Seong- Jin Cho was born in Seol, South Korea, the only child of non-musical parents; his father was an engineer. At six years old, he began studying both the piano and the violin Though he appeared to have more natural facility on the latter, he developed a stronger liking for the piano, and gave his first public piano recital at age eleven. After being identified through a musical prodigy development program at the Seoul Arts Centre , he began studying under Sook-Ryeon Park at Sunchon National University and Soo-Jung Shin at Seol National University
He attended the Yewon School, a private middle school for art education, during which he won First Prize at both the Moscow International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists (2008) and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (2009). Cho then attended Seol Arts High Shoolfor two years, during which he placed third at the 2011 International Tchaikowsky Competition and began performing regularly with Myung-whun Chung and the Seol Philharmonic Orchestra .
Cho moved to Paris in 2012 to study at the Conservatoire de Paris with Michel Béroff . While there, Cho placed third at the 2014 Arthur Rubinstein International Master Competition and first prize at the 2015 International Chopin Competition , becoming the first Korean to receive that distinction.
In the 2025/26 season, Seong-Jin Cho is the London Symphony Orchestra’s Artist Portrait. The position sees him work with the orchestra on multiple projects across the season, with concerto performances including the world premiere of a new Piano Concerto by Donghoon Shin, written especially for him. The position also features touring performances across Europe, as well as chamber music concerts and in recital at LSO St Luke’s. Elsewhere, he notably returns to Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck with performances in Pittsburgh and Carnegie Hall, to Boston Symphony Orchestra with Andris Nelsons, and to Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. Cho embarks on several international tours, including his notable return to Czech Philharmonic with Semyon Bychkov in Taiwan and Japan, and Münchner Philharmoniker with Lahav Shani in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. He also performs with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Andris Nelsons throughout Europe in Autumn 2025.
Chappell Gold Medal and much more besides with a sumptuous display of superb piano playing but above all of music making of the highest order
Awaiting the results from a distinguished jury but they are all winners today as the world awaits these wonderfully trained musicians
Lucy Parham. Colin Lawson. Katya Apekisheva
Chappell Medal to Ruka Ogihara for an astonishing Sonata by Miyashi .Some very musicianly performances of Bach and Beethoven as you might expect from a student of Dany Driver. It was the Sonata by Miyoshi, however, that unlocked her classical restraint and respect as she was freed by the extraordinary demands of Akira Miyoshi’s 1958 Sonata. Extraordinary mastery of the keyboard as her arms became suddenly like rubber allowing her to create a kaleidoscope of colours with a dynamic natural freedom that was breathtaking in it’s audacity.
Hopkinson Gold Medal and Cyril Smith Prize to Zvjezdan Vojvodic for his mastery and supreme artistry. Opening with the extraordinary demands of Hamelin’s ‘Pavane Variée’ played with the same astonishing natural mastery as its composer. His Haydn ‘Presto’ sounded more like an impressive perpetuum mobile rather than with the charm and colour he brought to the ‘Andante con expressione’ first movement of the C major Sonata Hob XVI /48. It was his complete self identification with Liszt, that he brought to the ‘St Francis preaching to the birds’ and the Dante Sonata, that showed off his great temperament and supreme artistry where authority and showmanship combined to masterly effect.
Jiaxin with her teacher Prof .Ilya Kondratiev
Hopkinson Silver Medal and Peter Wallfisch Prize together with best undergraduate performance to Jiaxin Li for her hair raising Kapustin Etude that was anything but ‘Pastoral’ and her musicianly playing of Les Adieux. Her Kapustin Etude immediately showed her remarkable crystal clear clarity and refined rhythmic energy with a dizzying stream of notes .Beethoven showed off her superb classical training, that combined with her precision and respectful musicianship brought Les Adieux vividly to life. It was in Scriabin and Liszt that she could combine her technical mastery with musicianship in performances where she could carve out an architectural line of delicacy and power allied to a refined poetic fantasy.
I would have awarded some special recognition to Leo Little despite an unfortunate lapse in Scriabin 5 as he was about to pass the winners post. As this ‘outsider’ astonished us with a fearless performance of Carl Vine’s Piano Sonata n 1. Some astonishing performances of undemonstrative mastery of a pianist with a natural feeling for sound and colour. A passionate intensity and concentration that he brought not only to Vine but with the washes of sound and colours of self identification and total commitment that he brought to Debussy and Auerbach. An overwhelming performance of Scriabin’s fifth Sonata where he lost the thread towards the end, which cost him the recognition he deserved , but in spite of that he bravely brought the sonata to its demonic conclusion.
Of course there was the remarkable Schumann op 14 from Rebekah Yinuo Tan. The ‘Concerto without orchestra’ was played with dynamic drive and searing intensity. A scrupulous attention to the composers intricate indications as she gave a fearless performance of fervent commitment. Ravishing kaleidoscope of sounds in Debussy’s Images Bk 2 and remarkable clarity and mastery of the composers vivid Firework display played with virtuosity and poetic imagery.
An equally stylish Carnaval from Radu-Gabriel Stoica. A musical personality who is not afraid of having something personal to say. Pierrot and Eusebius may have been too loquacious for some tastes but it added to a performance of great commitment and style. Beethoven op 110 had been given an impeccable performance where intelligence and mature musicianship combined with a pianist who looked as though he belonged to the keyboard such was his involvement in listening to himself.
This is the third time I have heard Khrystyna since she was forced to flee her homeland and find refuge in the UK. It was Dr Mather who was one of the first to come to her rescue as she found a way of continuing her artistic journey in a new country. Like Chopin who fled his homeland, the heritage it had left him was always present in everything he did whether in Vienna ,Paris ,Nohant or even Majorca. Khrystyna too has inherited a musical training that has given her a phenomenal technical command of the keyboard but also a love for the sound of the piano. Her ‘fingerfertigkeit’ was given to her as her hands were growing as a child and they were obviously formed with a flexibility and natural beauty that can only be acquired from this early age. Whatever she plays there is always a wonderful fluidity and beauty of sound. Never hard or ungrateful sounds of tension but music that flows from her fingers as it did for Alicia De Larrocha ,Argerich and Pires too. Khrystyna is also blessed with a temperament that can excite as it can seduce.
Today she chose two monuments of the piano repertoire . The Busoni ‘Chaconne’ is very much where Busoni has recreated on the piano the masterpiece that Bach had penned for solo violin. Brahms’s transcription is nearer to the original being played with the left hand just as it would have been on the violin. Busoni has created a concert piece and it is a master work but more Busoni than Bach. Busoni’s wife was often introduced to people as Mrs Bach Busoni such was the identification of Busoni with Bach in a period when Bach’s music was hardly known. The ‘Chaconne’ is a monumental work that needs a continuous undercurrent within it’s framework. As Chopin was to say : ‘a tree with firmly planted roots but branches free to move as nature commands’. Khrystyna found the excitement and exhilaration of this work but her breakneck speed and insistence even she found hard to maintain. Amazing lightweight left hand octaves and a driving insistence like the man on the high wire- will he make it or not? The opening tempo was much too slow and as Khrystyna delved into the notes finding great beauty we had lost from the very beginning the anchor on which the whole work depends. Khrystyna is a very fine musician and all she did was shaped with great artistry and loving care but one felt that there were the fast passages and the slow ones, both exaggerated in tempo, that they did not belong to the one whole. Her sumptuous sound and extraordinary technical mastery taken with more aristocratic nobility would allow this great work to speak for itself as one of the greatest works ever written for a solo instrument.
Khrystyna is now studying at my old Alma Mater, the Royal Academy, with Joanna McGregor ,head of the keyboard having been bequeathed it by Christopher Elton and the school of great musicianship of Gordon Green ( who was both Christopher and my teacher ) and I am sure with guidance she will come to understand the structure of the Chaconne, as she in fact demonstrated with the Brahms Sonata that followed.
The Brahms F minor Sonata is a monumental work and a real trial of musicianship and resilience . Five movements for what was described by Schumann as a ‘veiled symphony’. Khrystyna played it with the same fearless drive that she had brought to the Chaconne but here it was allied to an architectural understanding that could construct a great Gothic Cathedral of monumental proportions. The fearless rhythmic drive and enviable precision of the treacherous octave leaps was allied to the beauty and simplicity that she brought to the lyrical passages. There were slight fluctuations of tempo but within the framework of the whole sonata . There was a beauty of balance in the ‘quasi ‘cello’ outpouring that Brahms marks with such indications as ‘pianissimo’ and ‘sostenuto’ before the dramatic outburst of the opening fanfare. A grandiose ending to the first movement was contrasted with the glowing luminosity of the ‘Andante espressivo’ and I doubt the ‘Poco più lento Äusserst leise un zart’ has ever been played with such touching radiance and beauty. Maybe only by Curzon ! The central passionate outpouring gave Khrystyna a chance to pour her heart out with passionate intensity and poignant meaning.The ‘Andante molto coda ‘ was played with whispered beauty and aristocratic authority as it built imperceptibly to the fortissimo climax of liberation and exhilarance.
The ‘Scherzo’ just flew from her hands but with measured control and with considerable technical command. Even the ‘Trio’ she managed to maintain a similar tempo that made the surprise return to the ‘Scherzo’ even more effective. The ‘Intermezzo’,introduction to the last movement, was played with radiance until the menacing left hand throbbing of a desolate heart was intoned with extraordinary mastery and anguish.The ‘Finale’ that can sound so fragmented in lesser hands was played with such rhythmic finesse that the pieces fitted together in a jigsaw puzzle of genial invention. It was in the coda that Khystyna lapsed into sixth gear again and lost the grandeur and timeless magnificence of the climax of this monumental work. It was an amazing ‘tour de force’ where after the ‘più mosso’ she could even play faster the ‘Presto’ with extraordinary fingerfertigkeit, but it was where her technical prowess took over from what was truly in the heart and soul of a great pianist in the making .
Khrystyna Mykhailichenko is a Ukrainian pianist, born in Simferopol (Crimea), whose exceptional talent was evident from early childhood. She began piano lessons at the age of four and made her orchestral debut at just eight years old in Sevastopol. By the age of ten, she was already an international prizewinner, having won several European piano competitions, and was performing across Europe and the United States. Since then, Khrystyna has established herself as a distinctive artist with over forty concerto appearances and an extensive recital career. She has performed at prestigious venues such as Salle Cortot in Paris, Bozar Hall in Brussels, the Music Academies of Bruges, Antwerp, Krakow, and Bremen, Gariunu Concert Hall in Vilnius, the University of Miami, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, the World Bank in Washington D.C., the UN Residence in New York, and all National Philharmonics of Ukraine. Her festival appearances include the International Summer Music Academy in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz (Ukraine), the Art Dialogue Festival (Switzerland), LvivMozArt Festival (Ukraine), Musica Mundi Festival (Belgium), the Young Artists Festival in Bayreuth (Germany), and the Frost Chopin Festival (USA). Following the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, Khrystyna moved to the United Kingdom, where she studied at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music with Professor Graham Scott. In 2023, she was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree with Professor Joanna MacGregor. Since coming to the UK, she has given over 40 performances, including solo recitals, chamber concerts, and concerto performances. A highlight was her debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, performing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F. Critics have praised her playing for its virtuosity, poetic intensity, and interpretative maturity, drawing comparisons to some of the greatest pianists of the past.
Jonathan Ferrucci playing three English Suites at Raffaello Morales’s Fidelio. A ‘tour de force’ of mastery and mystery as he unravelled suites 3,4 and 6 in a dense spiral of knotty twine played with dynamic energy and at times searing intensity. Beginning with the familiar chords of the G minor Prelude and finishing with the obscure density of the D minor gigue it was hardly surprising that it was in the Sarabandes that Jonathan’s deep understanding of Bach was tinged with the profound aristocratic intensity of universal commitment that touch us so deeply.
The G minor suite opened with clarity and rhythmic drive followed by the long lines of mellifluous outpouring of the Allemande and Courante . The grandiose Sarabande with its poignant noble sentiments with the magical ritornello just whispered with streams of golden sounds spread over the keys. Charm and crystalline clarity of the ‘Gavotte I’ was followed by the disarming simplicity of reflection of the ‘Gavotte II’ and the insistent drive of the Gigue. I have heard this particular suite many times and above all I will never forget Wilhelm Kempff playing with the same simplicity as Jonathan. Both in life seemingly so small in stature in Jonathan’s case, and frail in Kempff’s but at the keyboard personalities of gigantic authority.
The Fourth suite is a rarity in the concert hall and it was played with a pastoral Allemande and a Sarabande of exquisite beauty. Ending with a truly monumental Gigue.
The final Suite in D minor from the very first imperious notes was Bach making a great statement and as Jonathan had said he even signed his name at the end of the score. After the monumental opening there was a disarming simplicity and a Sarabande of poise and eloquence. The Gavotte II even played at a higher register with a music box sound of glistening beauty. This was before the dynamic drive and overwhelming outpouring of notes like a Dam opening and the flood gates opened for this one last monumental struggle. A friend of mine on hearing Jonathan play asked me how big he was as this was a movement played with such burning muscular intensity and mastery that Jonathan suddenly became a Giant ready to climb Everest for the Glory of Bach .
The imminent release of his recording of the English Suites will stand side by side with his Toccatas that has been receiving rave reviews from the few discerning music critics that still inhabit the barren landscape of ‘Classical’ music.
The sumptuous Green Room of Fidelio Raffaello Morales ,pianist,conductor ,writer and Cordon Bleu chef .Creator of Fidelio an oasis for people that care about quality rather than quantity
J.S. Bach 21 March 1685 Eisenach 28 July 1750 (aged 6) Leipzig
The English Suites, BWV 806-811 are a set of six suites written for harpsichord or clavichord and generally thought to be the earliest of his 19 suites for keyboard (discounting several less well-known earlier suites), the others being the six French suites (BWV 812–817), the six Partitas (BWV 825-830) and the Overture in the French style (BWV 831). They probably date from around 1713 or 1714 until 1720
These six suites for keyboard are thought to be the earliest set that Bach composed aside from several miscellaneous suites written when he was much younger. Bach’s English Suites display less affinity with Baroque English keyboard style than do the French Suites to French Baroque keyboard style. It has also been suggested that the name is a tribute to Charles Dieupart , whose fame was greatest in England, and on whose Six Suittes de clavessin Bach’s English Suites were in part based.
Surface characteristics of the English Suites strongly resemble those of Bach’s French Suites and Partitas, particularly in the sequential dance-movement structural organization and treatment of ornamentation. These suites also resemble the Baroque French keyboard suite typified by the generation of composers including Jean-Henri d’Anglebert , and the dance-suite tradition of French lutenists that preceded it.
In the English Suites especially, Bach’s affinity with French lute music is demonstrated by his inclusion of a prelude for each suite, departing from an earlier tradition of German derivations of French suite (those of Johann- Jakob Froberger and Georg Boehm are examples), which saw a relatively strict progression of the dance movements (Allemande,Courante,Sarabande and Gigue ) and which did not typically feature a Prelude. Unlike the unmeasured preludes of French lute or keyboard style, however, Bach’s preludes in the English Suites are composed in strict meter.
Richard Zhang at St Pancras Euston with playing of rare sensibility and intelligence . Chopin Mazukas played with a glowing beauty and subtle palette of colour where these ‘canons covered in flowers’ immediately revealed Richard’s power to combine intellect and soul. A crystalline clarity and beauty to the first and a delicacy to the second where trills were mere vibrations of glowing beauty with a wide palette of sounds etched out with rare sensibility. The third had a rhythmic drive but still with a luminosity and refined beauty of sound. Even the central episode of bagpipes were merely delicately placed left hand chords. The last Mazurka had a beguiling melodic line played with great freedom and a disarming beauty full of nostalgia and innermost intensity.
Liszt’s ‘Harmonies du soir’ was where Richard could carve out a tone poem of extraordinary power and beauty . From the whispered opening through glowing mellifluous outpourings that gradually built to a searing intensity of emotions. Richard’s mastery and control ignited the piano with sumptuous richness before returning to the whispered secrets of the opening which had now been revealed to us with poetic mastery.
Liszt’s ‘Harmonies du Soir’ the penultimate and one of the most poetic of his twelve transcendental studies. There was a whispered opening as this great tone poem was about to be revealed with poetic vibrancy. A tonal palette of extraordinary sensitivity that drew us in to Richard as he created a glowing radiance with a masterly use of the pedals. The whispered ‘pianississimo’ that Liszt indicates was a wash of sounds on which the delicately placed chords could grow imperceptibly in intensity. Bursting into an ‘appassionato’ outpouring but never with harsh or ungrateful sounds but a sumptuous fullness. Allowing the melodic line to shine with ‘intimo sentimento’ , subtle wisps of chords magically sustaining this ‘recitativo’ which was to lead to a triumphal climax of vibrancy and quite considerable technical mastery. Always with the melodic line glowing with passionate intensity no matter the hurdles that Liszt puts in it’s way in what is a transcendental study covered in velvet. Dying away to a mere whisper as Richard shaped the arpeggios like aeolian harps ascending into the heavenly beauty of serenity after such passionate turbulence. A remarkable recreation of this glistening jewel hidden amongst all the thorns of transcendental pianism that Liszt actually simplified before the final publication!
Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ received a remarkable, newly minted, performance where Beethoven’s precise indications were scrupulously interpreted with mastery and sensitivity.
A dynamic rhythmic drive from the first to the last notes where Richard could delve deeply into the score and reveal a sonata that was of a revolutionary genius but has been tainted by tradition for too long .
Richard brought a freshness as he shone light on the score which he brought to life with mastery and the relentless struggle with which this masterpiece was penned. Playing of power and beauty with real Beethovenian energy coming from the bass and driving the music forward without any noticeable fluctuations of tempo. Richard was able to shape the music with a kaleidoscope of colour without allowing the pace to slacken. Silences were menacing too as they became such an important voice especially after the opening menacing trills. A beautifully sung second subject of great nobility as a pianissimo scale played so perfectly that the explosion on its arrival over four bars was quite overwhelming. The opening motif passing from the bass to the top of the piano with a clarity and dynamic drive that was of burning intensity. After the cadenza of notes spread over the entire keyboard, that Richard played as a musician not as a pianist, following Beethoven’s own indication of the struggle he intended. The long held pedal after the exciting coda was judged to absolute perfection leading us so naturally into the opening of the ‘Andante con moto’ as the composer obviously intended.
An ‘Andante’ that was truly ‘con moto’ as the cortège moved forward with the sublime unwinding of streams of glistening notes only to be interrupted by the extraordinarily shocking intrusion of the last movement .
An ‘Allegro’ that was also ‘non troppo’ as the relentless forward movement carried a momentum that was not of speed but of searing inner intensity. The explosion of the coda now marked ‘Presto’ was all the more breathtaking for its audacity and fearless brilliance. I wonder why Richard did not leave the pedal on in the final nine bars as Beethoven indicates, and can only surmise that the excitement and exhilaration at the end of such a performance required a cleaner more crystalline brilliance in this acoustic.
Biographies:
Richard Zhang was born in Jiashan, China in 2005 and showed a great interest in music at a very early age. He began playing the piano when he was six, studying with William Zhou. In October 2015 he met the harpsichord maker Ferguson Hoey at the China Music Exhibition, and tried a harpsichord for the first time. Immediately realising his exceptional talent, Mr. Hoey arranged for him to come to the UK and audition at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Here he continued his piano studies with Marcel Baudet.
Richard has given various solo performances in China and Europe, taking part in a number of concerts in the Menuhin Hall and other venues since joining the school. In December 2017 he was the soloist for a performance of Finzi’s Eclogue with the school’s Junior Orchestra, a mature performance much praised for its meditative qualities. In February 2018 he performed Liszt Transcendental Studies in Amsterdam to considerable acclaim.
His love of chamber music came to the fore in the Menuhin School’s Summer Festival 2018, when he performed Schumann’s Piano Quintet with other pupils. In March 2019 he progressed to the finals of the Aarhus International Piano Competition in Denmark and in June performed with other students at London’s Wigmore Hall. In the Summer Festival he joined string players at the school in a dazzling performance of the Dvorak Piano Quintet. Then in October he partnered Alina Ibragimova in the Violin Sonata by Debussy at Zamira Menuhin Benthall’s 80th Birthday Concert in the Menuhin Hall. In 2021 Richard was awarded Distinction in the Tunbridge Wells International Music Competition.
Richard has taken part in master classes with many distinguished teachers including Cristina Ortiz, Angela Hewitt, Klaus Hellwig and Jacques Rouvier. His musical interests and repertoire are wide-ranging, from early C17th keyboard masters up to contemporary composers. He also composes and has been a contributor to the “250 Piano Pieces for Beethoven” international composition project.
He has been awarded a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and in addition to this generous bursary, he has been selected by the Keyboard Trust to receive the 2024 Dr. Weir Legacy Award to help support his further studies.
He will also be joining Talent Unlimited since his study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Canan Maxton of Talent Unlimited with Fergus Hoey
Presented in association with Talent Unlimited.
And below discussions about Richard’s playing by people who are following and helping Richard in his pursuit for Parnassus . Fergus Hoey, Canan Maxton, Lord David Cholmondeley ,Barry Wordsworth and Christopher Axworthy of the Keyboard Trust Weir Foundation.
Mariam Batsashvili and Martin James Bartlett from the very first notes of Bach one could see that this was a dream team.
Sublime music making and a continuous stream of radiance and glowing beauty as they conversed together recreating before our very eyes works that we thought we knew intimately.
A sense of balance that already in ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ was of such refined sounds as they played as one with a remarkable palette of colours and an architectural understanding that gave such strength to all they did. Kurtag has said that ‘Bach never stops praying’ and his transcription of ‘Gottes Zeit’ that opened the programme just demonstrated that. Martin’s beautifully reverent bass chords were the poignant background for Mariam’s etherial outpouring of ‘twenty of the most heartrending bars in all Bach’s music.’
Martin looking at Mariam with a twinkle in his eye as they inspired each other to delve ever deeper into the music of Bach, Schubert and Mozart. Even a problem with the pedal was soon sorted by the two gentlemen on stage (Martin and the page turner) whilst Mariam ordered her score.
Mariam at the top for Bach and Martin at the top for Schubert and after such democratic beauty they each had their own instrument for Mozart.
Wondrous sounds in Schubert’s F minor fantasy from the very delicate chords that just seemed to be a vibration of sounds from Mariam’s hands, on which Martin could float one of Schubert’s most magical creations. A ‘Largo’ played with an aristocratic rhythmic intent before bursting into song with glowing delicacy and refined phrasing from Martin’s hands. A ‘Scherzo’ rather on the fast side, but this duos wondrous palette of colour and shading shaped the music with the sense of dance that was to contrast with the serious forward surge of the Fugato finale. Voices that were allowed to emerge from the mass of notes that Schubert adds to his last movement as the tension built with masterly control and sense of exhilaration. The beseeching return of the opening melody came as soothing balm after such seriously knotty twine.The final chords played by Martin were of such aristocratic poignancy that the final whispered ending came as a truly blessed relief after such searing emotions.
Mozart just poured from their hands with elegance, grace and dynamic rhythmic drive. Martin looking at Mariam with joyous glee as the music just flowed so naturally from their hands in a musical conversation between two master musicians. The ‘Andante’ just glowed as it flowed from Mariam’s magical hands with Martin following her every move with cat like attention. The ‘Allegro molto’ was played with a nonchalant whispered ease by Mariam, until Martin joined in the fun adding scintillating playing where sparks were flying from one piano to the other. Mariam calming such effervescence with the return of the rondo theme unscathed by such frivolity.
Wherever they sat the music was of the same sublime beauty because here were two musicians, maybe even magicians, who were listening to each other and with chameleonic mastery able to create an amalgam of sounds that is rare indeed for two such renowned soloists .
Mariam taking the bottom for Debussy but piano one for Tailleferre and Ravel, bequeathing her place to Martin for Lutoslawski.
Debussy taken at quite a pace but with such refined phrasing of delicacy and buoyancy. ‘En bateau ‘ just flowed with wistful radiance as Mariam’s magical glowing sounds were matched by Martin’s lapping accompaniment. A ‘Cortège’ played with whispered brilliance contrasted with the wistful comments that announced the elegance of the ‘Menuet’. They both let their hair down with Debussy’s ‘Ballet’ where they played with brilliance and excitement.
Amazing pyrotechnics from two extraordinary musicians who could bring such colour and exhilarating excitement to this showpiece written for Lutoslawski and Andrzej Panufnik to play in cafés in order to survive, having escaped from a German prison of war camp in Poland.It was indeed played with fearless mastery by Mariam and Martin. An extraordinary technical brilliance but with a sense of line and architectural shape, even at breakneck speed, that was truly overwhelming.
Calm after such a storm and torrent of notes with the ‘Berceuse’ from Fauré’s Dolly Suite. Mariam at the top with beauty and seamless delicacy restored by two pianists who could play with the whispered beauty of glowing radiance that had held a full Wigmore Hall enchanted and enthralled, happy to be present at the birth of such a distinguished duo.
We certainly look forward to a return match from this remarkably well matched team!
I was told by Deniz Gelenbe about a remarkable young pianist she had heard recently in the Beethoven competition that she was judging at the Royal Academy. A name new to us and I was glad to hear him for myself just a month ago thanks to Canan Maxton and her Talent unlimited . I had spoken to Herman on that occasion with great enthusiasm and I was struck by his disarming humility and genuine surprise at my comments. We have been in touch since that first encounter and on Thursday he sent me a message saying he had been asked, by the indomitable Canan Maxton, if he could substitute an indisposed pianist the next day. I was in Italy at that time but have since had a chance to listen to the concert that was streamed from St James’s Piccadilly. A chance to hear him play Beethoven at last and to confirm all that I had heard about him from Prof.Deniz Gelenbe.
There is a young master on the horizon in London and it is just a question of time before the light that he exudes will shine even brighter not only in London but wherever his rays may be allowed to fall.
The ‘Waldstein’ Sonata together with the ‘Appassionata’ and the ‘Emperor’ Concerto are all from Beethoven’s ‘middle ‘ period when the composer, who was a master pianist, could create works of a technical difficulty that could contain the genius of his irascible temperament. Delius described Beethoven disparagingly as all scales and arpeggios, describing Bach, in the same breath, as knotty twine!
Herman chose the ‘Waldstein’ to open his programme and apart from the remarkable technical perfection at only twenty four hours notice, there was playing of intelligence with a driving rhythmic energy to which Herman added his youthful passion and feeling for poetic beauty. A scrupulous attention to Beethoven’s indications where even the pedal markings were incorporated with mastery on this modern day instrument. Beethoven looking back to his mentor, Haydn, who could also create special effects with long sustained pedals as in his Sonata Hob XVI 50. An effect that Herman maintained with a masterly use of the pedals and touch in the Rondo last movement, creating the pure magic of genial invention that is often over simplified with the excuse that the pianos of today are completely different from those of Beethoven’s time. Herman had understood the intention of the composer and searched for the effect with poetic mastery. In fact all through this recital Herman’s scrupulous attention to the composers wishes whether Beethoven or Chopin were interpreted with technical perfection and poetic understanding. ‘Je sens, je joue, je transmet’, has never been more clearly expressed . Herman brought a masterly control to the opening ‘Allegro con brio’ where he was careful to choose a tempo that could accommodate the second subject without changing tempo. In fact Herman maintained an undercurrent of rhythmic tension which gave him great freedom within the limits that the composer imposes, with a sensitivity to sound of extraordinary maturity and poignancy. A kaleidoscope of colours that can shape each phrase so beautifully even adding some very delicate colours to Beethoven’s counterpoints without ever interrupting the overall architectural shape or flow. Never has Beethoven’s decision to abandon his original slow movement ( later publishing it as a separate piece with the title ‘Andante favori’) seemed so right as today. An introduction to the Rondo that was played with whispered searing intensity with an extraordinary palette of sounds of refined beauty. The voicing of the counterpoints I have never heard played so clearly, as one dovetailed into the other after a deep intonation of the tenor melody ‘rinforzando’. Written indications that in a poet’s hands become precious messages from the composer to the interpreter. A glowing top ‘G’ suddenly becomes the first note of the Rondo as it is reborn on a magic pedal effect with whispered simplicity and wonderment. A mirage of sounds out of which emerges a crystalline clarity as the contrasting episodes become ever more exhilarating and full of virtuosistic excitement. No splitting of the hands for Herman as Beethoven asks for whispered octave glissandi in the coda that on the modern day piano with it’s heavier touch are often played as scales. Serkin used to surreptitiously lick his fingers before attempting them. Kissin slows down the tempo and plays them with two hands. Herman has such a natural mastery dedicated to the composers wishes that the glissandi just flowed from his hands as did everything he played.
A remarkable performance and Hats off to Herman’s genial mentor Florian Mitrea for pointing him in the direction of a true interpreter of the composer wishes.
The Chopin Nocturnes op 62 are works written towards the end of the composers thirty-nine years, and are poignant tone poems of ravishing beauty and noble sentiment. Herman chose the first in B major bringing to it a wondrous sense of balance where the melodic line was allowed to emerge out of a complex harmonic accompaniment. It was played with a disarming simplicity and glowing beauty where the bass became the anchor on which such noble sentiments could be celebrated. Etherial embellishments were thrown off with jeux perlé ease but also unclouded and as clear as the bel canto of Monserrat Caballé.The central episode in E flat was played with even more simplicity where the deep chiming bass again gave great strength to the noble melodic line unfolding above.The whispered ‘pianissimo’ meanderings were allowed the free reign of a true poet of the piano. Herman had taken us on a journey of heartrending aristocratic beauty where Chopin’s poetic genius was allowed to glisten and glow with simplicity and deep understanding.
The Fourth Ballade is one of the pinnacles of the romantic pianistic repertoire and Herman played it without the rhetoric of traditional distortions, but with a disarming simplicity where the music was allowed to unfold so naturally. Deep bass notes were the anchor on which the theme could float and they became in turn whispered octaves of etherial beauty as the music moved towards the first variation. Played with an unusually rich harmonic background that built in richness with the addition of octaves that were but streams of luxuriant sounds. A flowing stream of golden notes took us to the second subject. Again not just melody and accompaniment but a rich quartet texture that was the very life blood of the beautiful melodic line that emerged. The return of the opening introduction was where Perlemuter had written Cortot’s poetic indication in my score: ‘avec un sentiment de regret’. Followed by a cadenza of gossamer lightness, strangely distorted(?!) and which lead to the build up of the sumptuous climax of this work of pure genius by a composer who was the genial poet of the piano. Usually thundered out Herman allowed the music to unfold with simplicity and mastery where every indication of the composer was incorporated into a communal poetic understanding.
The sun magically shone onto the keyboard at this very moment of enlightenment. Even the sforzando at the beginning of the coda was played only by the bass and not the usual thumb of the right hand and lead to an outpouring a phenomenal playing where poetry and technical mastery were combined to the glory of the genius of Chopin.
This is pianist to watch as he matures and becomes one of the great interpreters of the future.
Herman Med Cerisha, a 20-year-old pianist from Putignano, Italy, began studying piano at age 6. At 8, he was accepted into the top piano class at the George Enescu National College of Music in Bucharest after achieving full marks in the entrance exam. There, he trained under Elisa Barzescu, receiving a strong foundation rooted in the Eastern European musical tradition. In 2020, Herman won a scholarship to study at The Purcell School and, in 2021, was named Bechstein Scholar Student of the Year. In 2024 he received multiple offers from leading UK conservatories and accepted a full scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music under Professor Florian Mitrea. Herman has claimed over 40 international competition titles, including distinctions in the Chopin Junior Competition, Berman Competition, and Orbetello Competition. His 2019 win at the Pianisti i Ri competition in Kosovo led to a solo performance with the Philharmonic of Priština, where he performed Grieg’s piano concerto. He has participated in masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Boris Petrushansky, Dmitri Alexeev, and Noriko Ogawa. He has also worked with Leonid Margarius and Franco Scala at the Imola Piano Academy. He has performed in prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall playing Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto, the Romanian Athenaeum, and Moscow’s Svetlanov Concert Hall. Between 2018 and 2022, he collaborated annually with the Arad Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania as a soloist. In 2025, Herman became a Talent Unlimited Artist, where they kindly support his musical journey.
Astonishing playing from this beautiful ‘Mélisande’ of the piano with her complete abandon to her senses that was hypnotic and quite overwhelming.
A master pianist and very fine musician who could spontaneously recreate all she played with such searing intensity that I could swear that her waist length hair seemed to reach her toes by the end of a phenomenal recital.
A Liszt ‘Dante’ Sonata that I have never heard with such passion and ravishing delicacy as she depicted Liszt’s vision of Heaven and Hell with vibrant intensity and a palette of sounds and emotions that was astonishing .
If Franck’s ‘Prélude, Chorale and Fugue’ was given an unusual improvisatory freedom she managed to give an architectural shape to it as she had with Liszt. A pianist who has a vision that brings vividly to life all she does with a technical mastery that passes unnoticed, such is the beauty of sound and prismatic sense of colour that she spontaneously creates.The César Franck was very intense and free with continual fluctuations of tempo as her temperament took wing. A kaleidoscopic palette of colour that were washes of sound. Adding a bass note to the transition to the chorale, giving more depth and beauty to all that she was carving out of the keys with the sensibility of a pointillist painter. A very dramatic entry of the fugue that was then allowed to flow very freely and rather quickly with some rather excessive rubati and clouding of the pedal, as her passionate involvement came to the boil with almost uncontrolled passion. A remarkable performance of Gould like freedom of someone who had a personal vision of a work that is usually heard with the restraint of a more respectful believer
But the real highlight of an extraordinary recital was Rachmaninov’s 8 Études Tableaux op 33, where she turned each study into a miniature tone poem of glowing radiance with fearless abandon, as she allowed her poetic vision to command her fingers and shape each miniature study, transforming them into a Pandora’s box of gleaming jewels. A remarkable fantasy and mastery with chameleonic changes of character and colour. A ravishing sumptuous outpouring of melody in the second that gradually increased in intensity leading to the third, that was of mystery and menace. There was a subtle shading to the sounds as the music spoke with immediacy and even tenderness. A melodic line chiselled over a sumptuous accompaniment created by deep chiming bass notes. A capricious playful opening to the fourth that was played with great character building to a climax of passionate frenzy where Eva’s sense of balance never lost sight of the story line of this master story teller. Streams of notes to the fifth played with true wizardry of astonishing freedom, like a spring suddenly liberated. An aristocratic nobility to the sixth in E flat before the magical radiance and glowing beauty of the seventh. The final Grave in C sharp minor was a true cauldron of a Scriabinesque nightmarish vision and prepared us for Liszt and Dante, after a brief pause, for us all to catch our breath after such an overwhelming performance.
A programme played without an interval left us all astonished exhilarated and not a little exhausted by the intense atmosphere that had invaded this beautiful hall .
Even Liszt ‘s depiction of Raphael’s ‘Sposalizio’ was brought to a climax with burning conviction where the composer’s poetic reaction to such purity was overturned by an accompaniment of transcendental octaves that almost tipped the balance between war and peace! It was Eva’s innate sense of balance throughout the recital, though, that even here she never lost sight of the overall line which was always revealed with sumptuous beauty. Living every moment of the ‘Dante ‘Sonata with an evil glint in her eye as she declared her intent at the opening. The sudden vision of heaven was indeed heavenly and of whispered glowing beauty. Inner counterpoints glowing as Eva allowed them to appear like jewels sparkling in the depths. Liszt’s vision gradually growing in intensity and desperation with playing of transcendental mastery of a performance that was the most convincing that I have ever witnessed in the concert hall.
But this was just a foretaste of what was to come with three encores, one more astonishing than the other.
Liszt’s ‘Campanella’ played with a pianistic perfection and the finesse of the pianists of the Golden age of piano playing when pianist were magicians of sound and not merely jugglers of the notes.
Our Mélisande then seduced us with an Armenian cabaret song: Babajanian ‘s ‘Sayat Novu’, played with beguiling insinuating rubato and such subtle whispers that we could happily have danced with her all night .
But ‘our’ Eva soon brought us back to earth with a hair raising account of Bizet’s ‘Habañera’ alla Volodos . A case where the disciple has overtaken her master, as streams of notes were ‘merely’ gold and silver sounds that she spread over the keyboard with the ease and perfection of the legendary pianists of the past age of Lhevine Godowsky and Rosenthal . Horowitzian streaks of lightening ,there were too, igniting this cauldron of notes as we listened with disbelief to such an overwhelming display of mastery.
Beautiful Trento awaited us and calmed the air after the wonderful torrid atmosphere that this young master had created at the Filarmonica this evening.
Pianista russa-armena, Eva Gevorgyan è una delle voci più promettenti della scena musicale internazionale. La sua tecnica impeccabile e la straordinaria sensibilità musicale le hanno valso numerosi premi, tra cui il Primo Premio al Concorso Robert Schumann di Düsseldorf. A soli 21 anni, ha già calcato i palcoscenici più prestigiosi, come la Royal Albert Hall di Londra e la Mariinsky Concert Hall di San Pietroburgo, collaborando con orchestre di fama mondiale. Tra le sue numerose vittorie, spicca la sua performance al Concorso Chopin di Varsavia, tra le finaliste più giovani di sempre. Eva è una vera e propria ambasciatrice della musica classica, portando la sua arte in luoghi e occasioni sempre nuove, dalle grandi sale da concerto alle corsie di ospedali fino alle scuole, dove la musica diventa un ponte di comunicazione e speranza. Con una personalità magnetica e un’espressività fuori dal comune, Eva è riuscita a conquistare anche il pubblico più giovane, che trova nelle sue interpretazioni una passione autentica e travolgente.
Eva Gevorgyan (born 15 April 2004) is a Russian-Armenian pianist and composer renowned for her exceptional talent and numerous accolades in international competitions, including first prize at the 2018 Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists and second prize at the 2019 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Juniors. Born in Moscow, she has performed as a soloist with prestigious orchestras such as the Mariinsky Orchestra,Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Warsaw Philharmonic, and released her debut album featuring works by Chopin and Scriabin in 2022 on the Melodiya label. As a Yamaha Young Artist, Gevorgyan has garnered recognition for her precise articulation and sonorous touch, drawing comparisons to Russian piano luminaries like Emil Gilels and Bella Davidovich Gevorgyan began her musical studies in Moscow and has since trained with distinguished pedagogues, including Natalia Trull at the Central Music School of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, from which she graduated in 2022, and Stanislav Ioudenitch at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. Her early exposure came through competitions and appearances, such as her debut at the Royal Albert Hall. By age 15, she had already secured prizes in over 40 international piano and composition contests across countries including the United States,Germany,Italy and Spain , establishing her as one of the leading young virtuosos of her generation. Among her most notable achievements is her participation in the 2021 International Chopin Competition where she reached the finals and received a special prize, as well as the 2023 Prix du Bern in Switzerland and the 2019 Discovery Award from the International Classical Music Awards.Gevorgyan has appeared at renowned festivals like Verbier, La Roque d’Anthéron, and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr—where she received a scholarship from Evgeny Kissin in 2020. Recent engagements include her 2024 recital debut at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with upcoming debuts such as with the Brussels Philharmonic in 2025; in 2025, she also performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and made her debut at Berlin’s Konzerthaus.
Interview With Eva Gevorgyan- an Inspiring Young Pianist
by Fanny Po Sim Head November 7th, 2023
Eva Gevorgyan, a young and exceptionally talented pianist, has taken the music world by storm with her remarkable achievements. At the tender age of 19, she won the 2018 Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists and the second prize winner of the 2019 Van Cliburn Young Artist Competition. Her passion for music and dedication to her craft have been the driving force behind her success. In this interview, Eva shares her journey and insights on what it takes to succeed as a pianist. Get ready to be captivated by her story.
When did you start playing the piano? How did you discover your love of piano?
I started playing piano at the age of 5. My mother studied viola at Moscow State Conservatory, and there was always music playing throughout my childhood. I visited concerts from the age of 2.5 and could listen to the whole Mozart symphony. At the age of 3, I asked my mother to present me a violin, but I couldn’t get the sound I like, so I took it apart very promptly. And after this, my mother said – now only piano, it will be quite difficult to break. It’s a funny story, but from an early age, I was captured by music. So I started my piano lessons, and when I was 7, I entered Central Music School, where I studied for 11 years.
Does practicing the piano take up most of your day?
Yes, it does! Playing piano inspires me, and this is what I really love. Also, I study chamber music, collaborative piano, piano accompaniment, music literature, and theory, so most of my day I spend with piano. It’s an amazing feeling when you can share your love for music with the audience.
Do you enjoy playing solo or chamber more?
I enjoy both – actually, I like music itself and feel great when I play solo or chamber or with orchestras. I have a wonderful trio team at Reina Sofia School of Music – we will play a chamber music concert consisting of trios by Haydn,Dvorák and Shostakovich at the end of January.
You are only 19 years old, but you have been traveling the world doing performances and competitions. What is your goal? If you don’t mind sharing.
Rachmaninov said: “Music must be loved. Music should come straight from the heart and talk only to the heart”. My goal is to reach everyone’s heart with my music, no one should stay indifferent. I believe that art is the best and the most natural way to unite people.Is there any specific repertoire that you want to learn?
It was my dream to learn and perform all concertos by Rachmaninoff this season. Until now I played concertos no 1, 2 and 4 and Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini (yesterday was the first time I performed Concerto No. 4 at the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico), next month I will play Concerto No. 3 with Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra in Canada, and in April I will play all of them in two evenings.
I would like to learn Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and all of Beethoven’s concertos. Also, I would love to play pieces written by Armenian composers.
Would you like to share some of your upcoming performances or CD releases with us?
In November, I will fly to Canada to play at the Bach Festival in Montreal – I am preparing a special program for this festival with Bach pieces in the first part. Afterward, I am going to Oshawa to play Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 with the Ontario Philharmonic and Maestro Marco Parisotto. In December, I will perform at Palermo Festival in Italy, then will perform Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No.1 with Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Gabriel Feltz, and at the end of December, I will perform Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3 with young and talented conductor Maximilian Haberstock in Germany at Gewandhaus.
What do you like to do when you are not playing the piano?
When I have free time I meet with my friends, sometimes we go to the cinema or to the pool. I adore traveling, discovering new interesting places on our earth, and trying new unusual food. I love playing with my dog, my tiny chihuahua Busya. Also, I like playing table tennis.
Sergei Rachmaninov in 1921. 1 April 1873. Semyonovo, Starava Russa, Russian Empire. 28 March 1943 Beverly Hills California
The Études-Tableaux (“study pictures”), Op. 33, is the first of two sets of piano études composed by Sergei Rachmaninov (the other being his opus 39 ). They were intended to be “picture pieces”, essentially “musical evocations of external visual stimuli”. But Rachmaninoff did not disclose what inspired each one, stating: “I do not believe in the artist that discloses too much of his images. Let [the listener] paint for themselves what it most suggests.”However, he willingly shared sources for a few of these études with the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi when Respighi orchestrated them in 1930 Rachmaninov composed his Opus 33 Études-Tableaux between August and September of 1911, the year after he completed his Opus 32 Preludes, and while the Opus 33 shares some stylistic points with the Preludes, the pieces are very unlike them. Rachmaninoff composed his Opus 33 at his country estate, Ivanovka, a place whose rural setting offered the peace and tranquillity necessary to stimulate his creativity.
8 studies:
Grave (C♯ minor)
Allegro non troppo (F minor)
Allegro (C major)
Grave (C minor)
Moderato (D minor)
Non Allegro—Presto (E♭ minor)
Allegro con fuoco (E♭ major)
Moderato (G minor)
César Franck, photographed by Pierre Petit César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (French pronunciation: 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French composer, pianist,organist and music teacher born in present-day Belgium. He was born in Liege (which at the time of his birth was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands). He gave his first concerts there in 1834 and studied privately in Paris from 1835, where his teachers included Anton Reicha .After a brief return to Belgium, and a disastrous reception of an early oratorio Ruth, he moved to Paris, where he married and embarked on a career as teacher and organist. He gained a reputation as a formidable musical improviser, and travelled widely within France to demonstrate new instruments built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll
Prélude, Choral et Fugue, FWV 21 was written in 1884 by César Franck with his distinctive use of cyclic form.Franck had huge hands ,wide like the span of emotions he conveys,capable of spanning the interval of a 12th on the keyboard.This allowed him unusual flexibility in voice-leading between internal parts in fugal composition, and in the wide chords and stretches featured in much of his keyboard music.Of the famous Violin Sonata’s writing it has been said: “Franck, blissfully apt to forget that not every musician’s hands were as enormous as his own, littered the piano part (the last movement in particular) with major-tenth chords… most pianistic mortals ever since have been obliged to spread them in order to play them at all.”The key to his music may be found in his personality. His friends record that he was “a man of utmost humility, simplicity, reverence and industry.” Louis Vierne a pupil and later organist titulaire of Notre-Dame, wrote in his memoirs that Franck showed a “constant concern for the dignity of his art, for the nobility of his mission, and for the fervent sincerity of his sermon in sound… Joyous or melancholy, solemn or mystic, powerful or ethereal: Franck was all those at Sainte-Clotilde.”In his search to master new organ-playing techniques he was both challenged and stimulated by his third and last change in organ posts. On 22 January 1858, he became organist and maître de chapelle at the newly consecrated Sainte Clotilde (from 1896 the Basilique-Sainte-Clotilde), where he remained until his death. Eleven months later, the parish installed a new three-manual Cavaillé-Coll instrument,whereupon he was made titulaire.The impact of this organ on Franck’s performance and composition cannot be overestimated; together with his early pianistic experience it shaped his music-making for the remainder of his life.
Franck’s original plan, according to his pupil Vincent d’Indy, was to write a plain Prelude and Fugue ,the decision to include a central section, separate from, yet linking, the Prelude and Fugue, came later (again according to d’Indy).However this central section became the emotional core of the work, its ‘motto’ theme used as a symbol of redemption and as a unifying principle at the climax of the Fugue.
Saint-Saëns made his tart observation about the piece that the ‘chorale is not a chorale and the fugue is not a fugue’ (in his pamphlet ‘Les Idées de M. Vincent d’Indy’).Alfred Cortot described the Fugue in the context of the whole work as ‘emanating from a psychological necessity rather than from a principle of musical composition’ (La musique française de piano; PUF, 1930). It is as if a ‘fugue’, as a symbol of intellectual rigour, was the only way Franck could find a voice to express fully the hesitant, truncated sobs of the Prelude and the anguished, syncopated lament of the Chorale. Not that the Fugue solves the problem—this is the function of the ‘motto’ theme; but the rules of counterpoint have given the speaker a format in which the unspeakable can be spoken.
There are two motivic ideas on which the whole work is based: one, a falling, appoggiatura motif used in all three sections and generally chromatic in tonality ; the other a criss-crossing motif in fourths (the ‘motto’ theme, which appears first in the Chorale section and then again as a balm at the point where the Fugue reaches its emotional crisis. The first motivic idea is clearly related to the Bach Cantata ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’, and also to the ‘Crucifixus’ from the B minor Mass; the other idea appears as the ‘bell motif’ in Wagner’s Parsifal.
Marie Blanche Selva (Catalan Blanca Selva i Henry, 29 January 1884 – 3 December 1942) was a French pianist, music educator, writer and composer of Spanish origin.Blanche Selva was the only French pianist of her time to specialise in Czech music, and she was consequently very popular in Czechoslovakia. She continued to tour and work as a concert pianist in Europe By the age of 20 she had performed all of J.S. Bach’s keyboard works in 17 recitals.Between 1906 and 1909 she premiered all four books of Albéniz’s Iberia .In January 1925 Selva moved to Barcelona from Paris where she founded her own music school and performed in a duo with violinist Joan Massià. In 1930 she developed a paralysis that ended her performing career, but she continued teaching, writing and composing.Blanche Selva was active as a translator and transcriber. But her main work is a monumental 7-volumes work on piano technique:L’Enseignement musical de la Technique du Piano, Paris from 1916 to 1925 This book propose a radically new approach to piano playing. Her predilection for big arm gestures and her detailed descriptions of the most unusual types of attack, combined with the constant attention to the resulting tone-colour, make his book a unique contribution to the history of the piano and its literature.
The Marriage of the Virgin, also known as Lo Sposalizio, by Raphael Completed in 1504 for the church of San Francesco ,Città di Castello , the painting depicts a marriage ceremony between Mary and Joseph J. It changed hands several times before settling in 1806 at the Pinacoteca di Brera .The painting which inspired Liszt whose work was published in 1858The Dante Sonata was originally a small piece entitled Fragment after Dante, consisting of two thematically related movements , which Liszt composed in the late 1830s. He gave the first public performance in Vienna in November 1839. When he settled in Weimar in 1849, he revised the work along with others in the volume, and gave it its present title derived from Victor Hugo’s own work of the same name. It was published in 1858 .The highly programmatic themes depict the souls of Hell wailing in anguish.
Années de pèlerinage S.160.S 161 S 162 S 163 is a set of three suites . Much of it (the first suite in particular) derives from an earlier work, Album d’un voyageur, his first major published piano cycle, which was composed between 1835 and 1838 and published in 1842. Années de pèlerinage is widely considered as the masterwork and summation of Liszt’s musical style. While the first two offerings are often considered music of a young man, the third volume is notable as an example of his later stylel. Composed well after the first two volumes, it displays less virtuosity and more harmonic experimentation.
“Deuxième année: Italie” (“Second Year: Italy”), S.161, was composed between 1837 and 1849 and published in 1858 by Schott. Nos. 4 to 6 are revisions of Tre sonetti del Petrarca (Three sonnets of Petrarch ), which was composed around 1839–1846 and published in 1846.
Sposalizio (Marriage of the Virgin ) a painting by Raphael
Il penseroso (The Thinker), a statue by Michelangelo
Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa (Note: this song “Vado ben spesso cangiando loco” was in fact written by Giovanni Bononcini
Sonetto 47 del Petrarca
Sonetto 104 del Petrarca
Sonetto 123 del Petrarca
Après une lecture du Dante :Fantasia quasi Sonata
The title Années de pèlerinage refers to Goethe’s famous novel of self-realization, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship , and especially its sequel Journeyman Years (whose original title Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre meant Years of Wandering or Years of Pilgrimage, the latter being used for its first French translation). Liszt clearly places these compositions in line with the Romantic literature of his time, prefacing most pieces with a literary passage from writers such as Schiller,Byron or Senancour, and, in an introduction to the entire work, writing:
Having recently travelled to many new countries, through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry; having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights did not pass before my eyes as pointless images but stirred deep emotions in my soul, and that between us a vague but immediate relationship had established itself, an undefined but real rapport, an inexplicable but undeniable communication, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions
An appreciation by Elena Vorotoko , co Artistic director of the Keyboard Trust
Steinway Hall in London opened its doors and piano lid for the Keyboard Trust New Artist recital once again. It was a newly fledged model D, plastic films still protecting the pedals, its grandeur ready to be discovered. Discovered it was, by a 20-year-old Sean Godden, 3rd year student at the Royal Northern College of Music studying with Graham Scott. The opening chords of Handel’s 5th Suite transported the audience into a large cathedral, filled with glorious lines, whispering and grand columns of harmony in the improvisatory Prelude. Creating a rich ambience with his pedalling, Sean flowed smoothly through the conversations between the voices in the Allemande, timing the pace with flexibility and poise. The sharply articulated Courante was full of surprises, creating a boisterous contrast. The famous ‘Harmonious Blacksmith’ followed as the final movement of the Suite. Best known as a separately performed piece that is rumoured to have been inspired by a blacksmith’s hammer striking the anvil with a repeated note – B, as was witnessed by Handel who had sheltered in a smithy from rain. Whatever the origin, this famous piece does not fail to excite with its progressively faster notes, starting with crotchets and quavers, then semi-quavers, then triplets and semi-demi-quavers. Sean took a brisk tempo at the start and did not budge when it came to the pages blackened with notes – it was an exciting rendition! A little less pedal and more finger articulation to accentuate the start of each note, a little like the harpsichord, would add extra fire to the otherwise stellar performance.
Elena Vorotko in conversation with Sean Godden
Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata followed .Sean only 20 years old chose to pair the two masterpieces because Beethoven admired Handel deeply and thought him to be the greatest composer, even above J.S. Bach. The grand canvas of the Sonata invited large strokes from the pianist and, paired with the vibrant powers of the piano, this performance will resonate in our minds and hearts for a while still. Solid in his grasp of the material, Sean was clearly constructing a narrative, something he is interested in discovering in movies, as he mentioned later in the interview. Moments of serenity and beauty were swept away with youthful enthusiasm. Sean admitted to have been rather inspired by the instrument and its capabilities and made the most of this opportunity to play one of the top pianos at this famous venue. The fireworks of the dramatically contrasting Scherzo gave way to the grey skies of the Adagio Sostenuto with a rare ray of sunshine interrupting the gloomy chordal texture. The middle section of the movement revealed the most sincere, yet emotional, rendition from Sean, singing the theme from his heart which soared with desperate sorrow. The last movement with its challenging fugue revealed Sean’s grasp of the structure and role of every note. Wildly contrasting in both tempo changes and dynamics, this movement had a spine-chilling drive to the very end, impressively articulated and performed with full commitment, though seemingly rather at ease. A very impressive young man, whose passion for sharing his stories through music will take him far.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 