ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

After Volodos what better than to hear young musicians guided by Benedetto Lupo as they delve deeply into the scores and make their first discoveries on what will be a lifetime search for that unreachable perfection that is the aspiration of all true interpreters. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/05/07/arcadi-volodos-in-the-eternal-city-reveals-with-mastery-the-soul-searching-of-a-unique-giant-of-our-times/

With a technical mastery they have been guided to approach the scores of others with intelligence, scholarship and humility. Talent of course is something that cannot be taught you are either born with it and it can be nurtured and helped to grow. https://youtu.be/gex0sOR7XZ0?si=th7ecNiPOyOzp0GX

It is a delicate thing that can also be killed if not watered with attention and sensibility like any growing plant. Chopin had likened the freedom or flexibility of playing like a tree with the roots firmly planted in the ground with the branches above allowed to sway in the breeze. In fact nature and music go hand in hand and to watch the beautiful natural movements of Volodos is to see a painter before his canvas with generous natural strokes applying colours to his canvas.

Horizontal strokes, rarely vertical that are only for special effects required by the composer often from the Russian school !

This is just a preamble to present the five pianists I heard today where each one had his own personality and as Rubinstein says have taken what their taste dictates, with the right guidance , and like bees have created their own honey each different from any other.

Five pianists that had one fundamental thing in common: a deep respect for the indications of the composer they are serving as interpreters not merely piano players

‘ Je sens, je joue je trasmet’ is the cry of a true interpreter and was the title of an interview with Shura Cherkassky many years ago in ‘ Le Monde de la Musique’.

Tommaso Boggian playing the G major Toccata by Bach, one of seven early works of improvised style where the performer has to make choices of ornamentation and colour bearing in mind the limited capacity of the instruments of the day but that Bach always had in mind the song and the dance.

So style, scholarship and imagination join technical mastery. It was just this that illuminated Tommaso’s playing and transformed a showpiece into a tone poem of nobility and grandeur.

Albeniz’s rarely heard fourth book of Iberia was full of sumptuous colour and ravishing sounds of naked emotions in a land of sunbaked passions. Both based on the song and the dance but one created in the formal atmosphere of the Majesty and respect of a true believer and the other born on the wings of more earthbound sentiments .

Danielle De Paola played Beethoven’s early op 10 n.3 sonata with scrupulous attention to the composers indications. The astonishing ‘Largo e mesto’ played with aristocratic authority but also imbued with beauty and colour. A flowing natural glow to the ‘Menuetto’ was followed by the subtle technical command of the elusive ‘ Rondò ‘ where the final chromatic meanderings were played with mastery as they disappeared in the depths with whispered insistence.

It was in Rachmaninov’s transcription of Bach that sumptuous sounds and burning authority suddenly ignited a door to the talent that Daniele has concealed with respect for Beethoven whose sonatas are more orchestral than pianistic. Rachmaninov is more pianistic even when respectful to the genius of Bach.

Pier Carmine Garzillo had intelligently chosen a Little sonata dedicated to Liszt to preface the monumental pinnacle of the romantic piano repertoire of Liszt’s own B minor . Garzillo played the sonata by Artance with glowing fluidity but it was his intelligent musicianship that showed us the masterpiece that the Liszt Sonata truly is. Following Liszt’s very precise indications, the opening was merely the presentation of the three motives on which the Sonata is contructed. With a control of sound saving the final explosion and true beginning of the Sonata for the fortissimo on the second page.

A performance of intelligence but also of passion and technical mastery with a palette of sounds that created an architectural whole of mature musicianship rather than flashy showmanship. I am glad to see he will be taking his final diploma in June when I can listen again to this performance that I am sure will have grown even more in stature from the hands of this real thinking musician.

Federico Manca offered an eclectic programme of Berg’s masterly op 1 Sonata , together with Prokofiev’s elusive fourth sonata. The Berg I have rarely heard played with such clarity where the line was always so clearly defined with Berg’s knotty but knowing twine ( like Medtner) where you often can not see the wood for the trees. Crystalline playing of both Berg and Prokofiev where his palette of colour illuminated his masterly musicianship as he lead us on a voyage of discovery of remarkable lucidity and intelligence.

Federico Pische I have heard before he completed his studies at the Academy with Benedetto Lupo. The transformation is remarkable and as I told him afterwards a door has been opened and revealed a world of fantasy and colour that was hidden behind a shield of technical precision.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/03/06/federico-pische-the-authority-and-integrity-of-a-young-artist/

Hats off the Benedetto who can find the key for his students that can fit each one and reveal what is behind the notes with their own authority and mastery. Federico played the Mussorgsky as written on the page adding a sense of colour and imagination to each of Hartman’s pictures that keep us on the edge of our seats. A scintillating emotional journey as we are taken around to see the pictures of a friend who was to die so suddenly and unexpectedly. Above all here was a chameleonic sense of balance where lesser hands play with a black and white technical proficiency. Here is an artist who has become a supreme colourist recreating a work that held me riveted rather than revolted as he uncovered a masterpiece that was written expressly for the piano and was not contemplated as an orchestral piece. That was to come much later let’s put the horse before the cart and allow Bydlo to go on his miraculous way.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/06/21/martha-noguera-in-rome-and-sorrento-the-authority-and-passionate-conviction-of-a-great-artist/

Garzillo, Manca and Pische will be joined by Jaeden Izik Dzurko , Gold medal winner of Leeds and Montreal for their final graduation performances at the Sala Petrassi on Wednesday 17 June at 10 and at 14 h https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/12/16/jaeden-izik-dzurko-at-the-wigmore-hall-with-mastery-and-poetic-fantasy/

Free entry and finer more committed performances than you will ever hear in many concert halls.

Arcadi Volodos searching for the beauty of recreation, preferring Schubert’s Fantasy Sonata to his last, and adding his own thoughts to Chopin’s Funeral March. Chopin’s four mad children found a place in the eternal city with the searching recital that Volodos offered to an audience held spellbound with the intimate whispered thoughts of Schubert and in delerium as the greatest pianist alive or dead seduced us with a Carmen revealed as never before .

Ravishing sounds bathed in an aura of misty beauty as a master searched for the perfect legato and allowed Roberto Valli ’s superb Steinway to sing as never before . Volodos in pensive mood last night with the thoughts and searching soul of a unique giant of our times.

I remember some years ago when I had invited both Rosalyn Tureck and Tatyana Nikolaeva to play the Goldberg Variations in the Ghione theatre at a month’s distance from each other. There is so much to be found in such masterworks that a lifetime is not enough as every artist digs deeply into the very veins of these works and finds hidden seams of gold often missed by others. I was criticised by many who could not understand why there were not more varied programmes at the Ghione !

I was flying to Rome to hear Volodos play Schubert’s last Sonata as advertised, and to add his revelations to those of Sokolov last month. Unfortunately this was not seen as a commercial proposition and on arrival found that Volodos was now playing Schubert’s Fantasy Sonata in G. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/03/31/sokolov-in-rome-the-pinnacle-of-pianistic-perfection/

By coincidence I had just heard Francesco Piemontesi play it two days before in London and disappointment changed to revelation as I was able to discovery so many marvels with this full immersion from the hands of two masters, all within days of each other https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/05/05/francesco-piemontesi-beauty-and-imagination-with-humility-and-dedication/.

Of course the etherial sounds of Schubert’s most elusive sonata found in Volodos an ideal interpreter . But there were surprises as the the drama of the development reached almost Lisztian proportions of sumptuous rich sound. Teasingly whispered streams of sound were allowed to flow from Volodos’s fingers, bathed in pedal offering other worldly sounds far off in the distance. Explosive moments of daring were diffused with whispered dance of beauty bathed in clouds created by the pedal. The ‘Andante’ was played with simplicity, and with almost Kempff like majesty the contrasting explosions of emotional turmoil. A generously rich ‘Minuet’ was followed by a ‘Trio’ allowed to unwind with disarming simplicity. The ‘Allegretto’ unfolded with a much more positive sound, contrasting with the ‘Fantasy’ of the opening. This was the homecoming as Volodos teasingly played with the whispered dancing figures that interrupt the familiar voice of recognition. A performance with so many marvels but that held us at bay, and somehow we were not given the magic key yet, to the voyage of discovery that Volodos had decided on this evening .

It was in the second half that the magic sounds and timeless beauty of Volodos’s playing came together in Chopin’s elusive Prelude in C sharp minor. But even here Volodos was searching for sonorous effects, as the cadenza was just a moving amalgam of sounds where notes were clouded in the pedal as though Volodos was trying to hide any trace of hammers hitting strings in a dream world of poetic beauty.

The chiselled beauty of the Mazurka in F minor was a reminder of Volodos’s bel canto mastery of balance and weight.The two Mazurkas in B minor and E minor were a lesson in style where the delicate effemeral composer was revealed as a full blooded artist with a longing for his homeland locked deep within his soul.

Drama and passion were how Volodos saw the B flat minor Sonata tonight . An arresting opening with added bass notes followed by a ‘doppio movemento’ washed in pedal. Dramatic fervour to the alternating chords were of Beethovenian intensity and led to the ritornello, announced by a gigantic bass pedal note. The development section has never sounded so fierce or dramatic with added octaves to the left hand motif making such a drastic contrast with the beseeching answer from afar. The bass becoming ever more important as the development took wing on clouds of misty sounds of imperious authority. The ‘Scherzo’ took wing on the reverberations of the first movement. Volodos had obviously seen this sonata as a single movement , with Chopin’s maddest children all under the same roof, as Schumann was to exclaim when listening for the first time to this masterpiece of genial originality. A ‘Trio’ perhaps too free but also bathed in pedal, with whispered asides and strange visions, rather than statements, of beauty. A monumental ‘Funeral March’ where Volodos in his attempt to create a mysterious and even imperious atmosphere really overstepped the mark of tradition and respect. Enormous bass sonorities clouded the whole of the recapitulation and created a fearful atmosphere that was more of Volodos than Chopin. The ‘ wind over the graves’ in Volodos’s hands has rarely been heard as tonight. Notes just disappeared as the pedal clouded the undulating sounds that created such a fearful windswept atmosphere . He even added extra notes at the end waiting for the moment when he could pounce on the final chords that were actually Chopin’s !

A highly original and even controversial performance that was born of an idea, more of Volodos than Chopin, from a spirit in search of the original creative spark of a genius.

Five encores from an artist where the genial spark had been ignited after an opening that had something of tiredness about it . Artists are human and have days when they are more inspired than others. The excitement and attention of the audience obviously ignited the genial spark of this giant of the keyboard revealing the secrets of Scriabin and Brahms ,as lullabies of grief and longing were expressed with the luminosity and beauty that is part of Volodos’s being. His Carmen Fantasy was a glimpse of the world that had brought Volodos to fame and was offered with remarkable generosity and pyrotechnics to an audience that had been treated to a unique voyage of discovery by one of the giants of our time.

Arcadi Volodos Poetic mastery and genius of the greatest pianist alive or dead

Arcadi Volodos whispered secrets of introspection and fantasy

Playing of luminosity and poise as you might expect from the musicians she has been privileged to work with. A musical pedigree that shone through all she played.But it was also the programme of three great composers that showed her integrity and refined musical taste before she even caressed the keys.

The Intermezzi op 117 are three of the most beautiful creations of Brahms that he himself described as ‘ three lullabies of my grief.’ The first ‘Andante moderato’ , whilst being played with great sensitivity seemed strangely too earthbound and not etherial enough due to the rather slow tempo, with playing in six instead of two.The second in B flat minor, on the other hand , was allowed to flow with refined beauty and delicacy unfolding with almost improvised fantasy. The last with its almost oriental feel to the opening motif was allowed to unwind with poignant beauty and subtle colouring transforming an intermezzo into a tone poem of ravishing beauty.

Anjulie brought a great architectural understanding to Chopin’s Fantasy In F minor, one of the longest and most important of his compositions. A continuous flow of playing of dynamic rhythmic drive and poetic intensity. There was a great clarity to her playing held tightly in reign but with just the right amount of freedom as she shaped the phrases with loving beauty. A technical mastery that passed almost unnoticed as the passionate intensity of her playing ignited the keyboard with sumptuous rich sounds.The central chorale was played with whispered beauty and poignancy before exploding into the passion and searing intensity of one of Chopin’s most beautiful outpourings.

An unusual clarity to the cadenza was played almost without pedal! Followed by vibrations of sound filling the keyboard with magic and taking us to the final imperious chords.

There was a dynamic drive to Schumann’s Carnaval Jest in a performance that was played with a classical simplicity with playing of great clarity and burning intensity. Lyrical passages were allowed to ride on this wave of sound without disturbing the continual forward movement . Even the Marseillaise was incorporated into this classical framework of poetic intelligence. A ‘Romanze’ of beauty and simplicity was followed by the impish good humour of the ‘Scherzo’.The ‘Intermezzo’ was played with passionate warmth and poetic intensity , streams of sound flowing from Anjulie’s hands with mastery and beauty. The ‘Finale’ again owed much to Anjulie classical approach which gave great strength to all she did. A great sense of freedom too as the melodic episodes were allowed to ride on this ever flowing wave of sound until the whispered intensity of a coda of exhilaration and excitement bursting into flames with the final majestic chords.

German pianist Anjulie Chen is regarded as one of the most promising young artists of her generation, praised for her “admirable musical sensitivity” and for playing of “subtlety, stylishness and warmth,” marked by “poise, elegance and expressive depth”. Highlights of her 2026 season include appearances at the Chiltern Arts Festival and the Schiermonnikoog Chamber Music Festival, alongside concerto performances with the Blaze Ensemble and the Bushey Symphony Orchestra. She also makes her Munich debut at the Irenensaal and collaborates with principal players of the Munich Radio Orchestra.

Recent achievements include representing the Royal Academy of Music at the Sheepdrove Music Competition and releasing her debut chamber album of works by Igor Stravinsky on Linn Records, in collaboration with Barbara Hannigan and the Juilliard School. She made her critically acclaimed debut at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan during the Beethoven Festival 2021, was a semi-finalist at the Birmingham International Piano Competition (2022), and won Third Prize at the Lagny-sur-Marne International Piano Competition (2019).

Especially drawn to Schubert and French repertoire, she has worked with artists including Anne Queffélec, Thomas Adès and Kirill Gerstein, and has been invited to festivals such as the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove and the ArtenetrA Festival. A dedicated chamber musician, she is a member of the CHESA Duo with violist Xin He and member of the Polymnia Piano Quartet. A two-time DAAD scholar and 2024 Help Musicians Postgraduate Award holder, Anjulie studied in Munich with Prof. Thomas Böckheler before completing her degrees with first-class honours at the Royal Academy of Music under Prof. Colin Stone. 

Francesco Piemontesi sharing with us his unique sense of recreation where beauty and imagination take the place of muscle and brawn. Where intelligence and a kaleidoscopic palette of colours are placed at the service of the composer with humility and total dedication. As Bryce Morrison confided you need to have worked so hard to arrive at such pianistic perfection .

But above all you have to listen to yourself and be passionately and blindly in love with music.

Schubert’s Fantasy Sonata was indeed a fantasy with a kaleidoscope of colours from the very first note. Like the opening of Beethoven 4th concerto the first chord of this sonata sets the scene for all that is to follow. Scrupulous attention to Schubert’s indications that in just the first page range from ‘pp’ to ‘mf’ before moving to ‘ppp’ and ‘pp’ again. An extraordinary palette of colours allowed Piemontesi to illuminate this opening with a luminosity that was to pervade everything he did. A wonderful liquid sound that was never hard, even in the passionate cry of the development. When Schubert was not singing he would burst into dance. After the whispered opening of poignant beauty, Schubert allowed octaves to wear dancing shoes as they became in Piemontesi’s hands a magical voice of elegance tinged with nostalgia. Bursting into streams of notes that were golden sounds that glistened and glowed with refined beauty. Shaped with a delicate lyricism leading so surreptitiously to a dominant voice of authority only to be diffused with gently rocking lyricism and the final whispered farewell of this opening. A development that created a shock wave as the minor key battled with the major in a contest where every note had a reverberating voice of vibrant intensity without any aggressive hardness. The final few bars of this movement were a miracle of tonal control as staccato and legato could live together in whispered harmony disappearing into the distance with poetic abandonment. Piemontesi sitting absolutely motionless hovering over the keys as we all savoured the marvels that had been shared with us. Timing the opening of the ‘Andante’ to perfection as it was played with exquisite beauty. Even the final four chords ‘pp’ and detached were timed and shaped with extraordinary poetic significance. A great change in character that contrasted with the beseeching beauty and fluidity of the answering phrases. Suddenly a left hand accompaniment played without any pedal but with a melody floated above with radiance and was a moment of breathtaking beauty and masterly control. The opening melody returning, ornamented by Schubert, and exquisitely shaped by Piemontesi. There was an aching simplicity to the coda with unbelievably whispered sounds that Schubert marks ‘ppp’ and that Piemontesi played with sublime simplicity. A resonance to the ‘Menuetto’ always with this magical luminosity that could give such shape and colour to all he did. Nothing was ever black and white but full of subtle meaning. The ‘Trio’ was barely whispered as we were to be reminded of in Liszt’s ‘Les cloches de Genève’ that closed the recital. Whispered sounds from afar suddenly taking wing with a chiselled beauty of whispered nostalgia before returning to the ‘Menuetto’ but always on the same wing of resonant song. Contrasts there certainly were but never aggressive or dare I say Beethovenian. Not to shock but to stimulate the senses. Even more miracles were to follow with the ‘Allegretto’, like the return of an old friend. Bursting into dance with whispered glowing steps with a mischievous left hand growing in intensity. Our old friend returning with a tenor voice as the music chatted with beguiling lyricism and charm before taking a turn that turned out to be a dead end. The clouds opened instead, and a glorious ray of light shone upon us with one of those miraculous moments that poured from Schubert’s mellifluous soul. There was magic in the air as radiance and breathtaking beauty poured from Piemontesi’s hands that were to take us to the whispered meanderings of ravishing beauty that lead to the final farewell of our old friend. Miracles indeed as Piemontesi held us in his hands with the final five chords that were truly the vibrations of Schubert’s soul.

A completely different sound world opened up for the second part of the recital dedicated to Liszt. The Swiss book from his years of Pilgrimage. Who better than a Swiss pianist to recreate these miniature tone poems overlooked by musicians as they are more often brutally abused by showmen. Piemontesi showed us that there may be many octaves and rhetorical cadenzas but they are really expressions of a poetic soul of genial invention. I remember the revelation on hearing Wilhelm Kempff playing Liszt with his recording of the two legends that had something of the miraculous about them. It was the same today with the nobility and aristocratic authority that opened the ‘Chapelle de Guillaume Tell’. A magic mist of sounds with echoing bells resonating, leading to a passionate climax that dissolved to desolate cries on the horizon. The sound of the ‘Lake Wallenstadt’ as the water lapped almost inaudibly as all we could hear was the water as it passed over a stone with bubbling constancy. A melodic line of childlike innocence that was floated on these gently lapping waves with simplicity and radiant beauty. A glowing beauty to the simple dance of the ‘Pastorale’ as it lead straight into the silky featherlight brilliance of ‘Au bord d’une source’. An incredible fluidity and jeu perlé that was less present than Horowitz’s bewitching account, but that had the overall atmosphere of the scintillating clarity of a Swiss alpine stream.’Orage’ of course was played with passionate drive full of octaves and rhetorical outbursts but in Piemontesi’s hands octaves disappeared, as they were vibrations of sound that led to passionate outpourings that were shaped so beautifully and with such an extraordinary sense of line. Piemontesi gave a shape and meaning to this work where his mastery and sense of balance could even make the left hand melody sing so eloquently, as streams of notes flowed over the entire keyboard.’Vallée d’Obermann’ was given an extraordinarily poetic performance. The long opening tenor melody played with poignant meaning as it is replied to by the whispered soprano melody. A blood curdling tremolando in the left hand brought us the dramatic contrasting central episode played with mastery and fearless brilliance, more operatic than orchestral, but overpowering in its impact. The vibrations of sound on which the opening melody returns was quite remarkable as the melodic line was allowed to float with ever more intensity on this wave of sounds. Bursting into a climax again where octaves were streams of notes shaped with passionate intensity leading to a final flourish and the poignant last statement with which it draws to an end. The simple luminosity of ‘Eglogue’ led to the deeply disturbing ‘Le Mal du Pays’ with strange sounds of prophetic searching. Distant sounds of bells heralded the beautiful outpouring of ‘Le cloches de Genève’ with which this suite was drawn to a poetic close.

Bach’s ‘Wachet Auf ‘ in the glorious transcription of Wilhelm Kempff was Piemontesi’s brilliant choice as an encore. Finishing with the radiant exhilaration of a true believer. A second encore was the beautifully elusive sound world of Godowsky with a movement from his Java Suite played with the same chameleonic sense of colour as the legendary master himself.

Francesco Piemontesi at the Wigmore Hall ‘Simplicity,Humility, Intelligence and Mastery combine, the just heir to Perahia’s throne’

Francesco Piemontesi at the Wigmore Hall – A poet speaks

Embraceable you !

Fearless playing of Stravinsky and Weil with Edward Gardner at the helm of the RAM wind ensemble as two beautiful young ladies were allowed to go on a rampage with masterly music making of passionate intensity

Dazzling Milda Daunoraité takes the Wigmore Hall by storm

A last minute substitution found Kyle free to play in this idyllic spot in Ruislip today.

The same programme as in Perivale last month but revisited with the ears of an artist always on a new voyage of discovery. See below for a

Kyle Hutchings at St Mary’s Perivale Radiance and beauty of a poetic soul

A beautiful sunny day and with poetry in his heart Kyle,the troubadour of the piano, brought us moments of contemplation and ravishing beauty .

A extraordinarily mature musician where his timeless wonder creates music of intense poetic significance.

Mozart’s miraculous Adagio was an outpouring of poignant weight before liberating the poetic soul that Liszt could portray of Petrarch’s sonnets .

Three of the most nostalgic of Rachmaninov’s six Moments Musicaux were played with brooding intensity and poignant longing. The final one in C major was played with nobility and grandeur, full of sumptuous sounds and the miraculous control of colours that this poet of the keyboard had shared with us today .

Kyle Hutchings in Adbaston A poetic troubadour of the piano reveals the heart of Mozart,Schubert and Franck (including a review by the distinguished musician John Hargreaves) and the Keyboard Trust Concert Tour of Ischia,Florence and Milan

Kyle Hutchings The troubadour of the piano illuminates St Mary Le Strand

Some extraordinary playing from Tom Kelly standing in at short notice for Filip Michelak who had badly damaged a finger packing his bags to fly to the UK ! As Tom told me ‘everything relearnt in a few days, hope it didn’t sound like it!’ Tom has now decided to concentrate on playing concerts, having been given precious performing opportunities by recognition in previous competitions in Hastings and Utrecht. Working now on repertoire rather than competing on the rather soul destroying International Competition circuit. As I told him competitions are for race horses not pedigree stallions like you!

An artist is known by his programmes and to look at the programmes of Claudio Arrau or Rudolf Serkin is to know immediately that these are real thinking artists that one can trust to shed new light on great works, bringing them to life with humility, integrity and intelligence. It was exactly his programme today that showed a fascinating mix of familiar and less familiar works placed together in a satisfying combination focused around Schumann’s First Sonata op 11.

The Fantasie-Impromptu was played with great style and timeless beauty. Notes that floated from his chubby fingers with limpet like certainty as they could delve deeply into the keys and find colours of fleeting beauty. The central episode was played with a deeply etched bel canto of great freedom anchored to the deep bass accompaniment of sumptuous rich sounds. Finding even more bewitching colours on the return of the opening by leaning slightly onto the thumb notes as he played with whispered beauty of passionate intensity.

The main work on the programme was the Sonata op 11 by Schumann. Showing a complete technical command but more importantly giving an architectural shape to a work that is so full of invention that it can sound rather fragmented. There was a poignant beauty to the long opening with an aristocratic sense of freedom played with poignant significance. A timeless outpouring where even the comments in the bass were given a leisurely place as it duetted with the treble, Tom’s beautifully natural arm movements like an artist painting on a canvas. The ‘Allegro vivace’ took wing with impish good humour as Schumann’s continual changes of character were incorporated into a whole of dynamic drive with a kaleidoscope of colours .The beautiful meno moss was played with radiant beauty before the vibrancy of Schumann’s genial invention took wing. The ‘Aria’ was played with glowing beauty and when the melody moved to the tenor register Tom created a magic halo of notes that caressed it with sumptuous beauty, with the Aria returning before closing with a whispered question mark.The ‘Scherzo’ erupted with rhythmic drive bursting into ‘più allegro’ where Tom was able to play the legato melody with staccato accompaniment with hurdy gurdy simplicity. He brought great authority to the ‘Finale’ with its majestic chordal outpouring interrupted by a recitativo as it moves inexorably to an ever move exhilarating end. A movement like the first that is made up of so many genial ideas but that Tom managed to combine into an overall architectural shape with masterly control and sumptuous sounds.

Radiant beauty and ravishing sounds reminded me of the magic that Gilels could bring to this Sonata with the same refined sense of balance and glowing beauty to the ‘Andante’ contrasted with the fleeting flights of virtuosity of the ‘Prestissimo’ before bursting into a climax of passionate intensity and sumptuous richness.

Medtner was a real discovery of a work I did not know. It was refreshing to hear just one short work of such beauty and brilliance especially when brought to life with the same pianism with which it was born.

Islamey has long been a show piece for pianists, notorious for its technical difficulty it even inspired Ravel to write his own ‘Scarbo’, with the intention of writing a work with even more technical challenges. Tom started with a very deliberate subdued clarity, gradually adding more and more notes with a range of colours and a sense of style that was astonishing. Not only for the technical mastery but for the colour and excitement he could bring to a work often considered only for its technical difficulty, but as Tom showed us today it is a tone poem of great allure.

I have heard Tom on many occasions but today I saw the birth of a great artist where his musical and technical mastery have combined with a perfection that marks him out in my mind as one of the finest pianists of his generation.

Thomas Kelly is a British pianist, and an alumnus of the Royal College of Music where he currently holds the Benjamin Britten Fellowship. In January 2026 Thomas won the 2nd prize at the Liszt Utrecht competition where he performed Liszt’s 2nd Piano Concerto with Stephane Deneve and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the next season, international performances will include Seoul Arts Centre, the Baerum Kulturhus in Oslo, Washington Opera House in Maysville USA, EuroLiszt Festival in Lithuania and the Fazioli Hall in Sacile, Italy. Recent debuts include a solo recital at Wigmore Hall, London and a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 at the Philharmonie Berlin, Kammermusiksaal. He has also appeared as soloist in Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie with the RCM Symphony Orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall, conducted by Jac van Steen. Domestic highlights of the coming season include an album release of virtuosic organ transcriptions with Rubicon Classics, a residency at Music on the Burnhams in Norfolk featuring a concerto performance with Christopher Warren-Green, continued collaboration with JAM on the Marsh and concerto appearances with a range of orchestras throughtout the UK.

Between 2015 and 2021 Thomas studied with Professor Andrew Ball and more recently he has worked intensively with Professors Dmitri Alexeev and Vanessa Latarche. Thomas has been amongst the top prizewinners in a wide range of international competitions including 5th prize at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition, 2nd prize at the 2022 Hastings International Piano Competition – where he also won the award for best semi-final concerto performance – and 1st prizes including the Pianale International Competition 2017, Lucca Virtuoso e Bel Canto Festival 2018, RCM Joan Chissell Schumann competition 2019, BPSE Intercollegiate Beethoven competition 2019, and the Sheepdrove Intercollegiate Piano Competition 2022. In 2024 Thomas was awarded the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother Rose Bowl upon graduation from the Royal College of Music, London. 

Thomas Kelly at the Wigmore Hall Britten Fellow astonishes with pianistic genius of another age

Thomas Kelly on Ischia – The Walton Foundation at La Mortella -‘The Devil and the Deep blue Sea’

Cristian Sandrin playing three Mozart concertos with simplicity,radiance and beauty with players from the London Mozart Players. Two of the concertos especially prepared by Cristian for string quartet in an evening in which the genius of Mozart was celebrated by master musicians with humility and integrity.

I heard FouTs’ong play the three concertos K 413 – 414 – 415 in a concert that I have never forgotten. These were three concertos that Mozart had written especially with string quartet in mind .Other composers too have written for strings alone and include Saint Saens, Busoni and Liszt. Adding wind instruments can be costly and tip the balance where a single violin or cello cannot merge so easily with a wind instrument. Cristian has prepared the A major K 488 and E flat K 482 for string quartet and as he says ‘ I uncovered unexpected connections between various themes across the concertos, during the process of re-writing the orchestral score. It made me realise that the overflow of constant new melodies and tunes from these later concertos are part of a complex web of motifs, something that I would have normally associated with Beethoven’s music. The simple act of re-writing music down enforces certain connections in the brain. In one sense it is a remarkable method to internalise the music and the orchestral score.’

Cristian playing with impeccable clarity and rhythmic drive, he has a way of touching the keys with fingers that seem to belong to the keys as they hover with horizontal expectancy swooping with poetic beauty as they etched out sounds of radiance and crystalline beauty. Trills that seem to be born above the keys as sounds are allowed to vibrate with natural fluency.
Strangely enough it was the two new recreations of K.488 and K.482 that were more memorable than K. 415 where the ensemble played with more knife edge urgency than they had in Mozart’s original, where legato phrases from the violins seemed to loose their bite and simplicity.
Mozart too easy for children but too difficult for adults, it is not always easy, even for master musicians like these LMP soloists to gauge the just equilibrium.

The vibrant dynamic drive from Sarah Butcher’s cello kept an even keel and was the anchor on which marvels were created. George White like a cat on a hot tin roof ready to pounce and follow these marvels of recreation that were being discovered.
The most satisfying and revelatory performance came after the interval with the E flat concerto K 482 . A concerto that I had never been aware of as being a continuous outpouring of mellifluous beauty as is the better known K 503 .

Cristian Sandrin Visions of Life dedicated to his father Sandu Sandrin .

Cristian Sandrin’s New Goldbergs ravish and astonish Perchance to Dream

Cristian Sandrin a message of Hope and Peace in Florence the cradle of our culture

Peacocks flying high at Leighton House yesterday as a true discovery was revealed.

Lisa Peacock courageously inviting a quartet that played with fearless mastery as Janacek’s ‘ Intimate Letters’ was allowed to seduce us in the extraordinary Pre Raphaelite oriental music room in Leighton House.

Levon Chilingerian was on the edge of his seat as his star prodigy Takanori Okamoto reached for the heights taking his colleagues with him as he himself had done with his own historic quartet that followed in the wake of the Amadeus some fifty years ago.

Mozart’s quartet K 428 in comparison was played with great style as they had learnt their lesson well giving an exemplary but strangely colourless performance .

The mysterious world of Janacek ignited their imagination and opened a palette of chameleonic colours of the same perfumed world as our surrounds. A kaleidoscope of colours as each of the four components was inspired to greater heights with searing intensity and poignant disturbing beauty. Four players united as one in a performance that almost had the peacocks blushing ,in this oasis of otherworldly beauty, just a stones throw from the reconstructed metropolis of Hammersmith and the imminent re birth of Olimpia.

A distinguished audience of connoisseurs of great music making was happy to celebrate after the concert and talk to the artists and even discuss the Kings visit to Trump towers !

Passionately involved music making not only from Takanori but also from Sophia Molina whose second violin shone like gold in so many places . Passionate intensity of Haruka Makino’ s viola together with the vibrant beauty of Freya Souter’s cello created an ensemble of refined visual beauty as well as the intense recreation of two masterworks on this voyage of discovery stimulated by such exotic surrounds.

The next Lisa Peacock’ s discoveries Magdalene Ho on 19th May

Magdalene Ho A musical genius in Paradise

Magdalene Ho ‘A star is born on the rising sun of inspired mastery’

I have heard Herman play quite a few times since being tipped off by a very distinguished musician friend about this very talented young man. I have heard most of his recent repertoire but was missing the Liszt study and Chopin Scherzo op 39. I had recently accompanied Herman to the Walton Foundation on Ischia where I had heard a very fine ‘ Waldstein’ Sonata , the Schubert A minor D 784 and Prokofiev 7th, which is reviewed in some detail below. His playing is growing in stature and authority every time I listen to him. This is a musician who enjoys playing to others as he is on a voyage of discovery in which each time an audience stimulates his imagination to search ever more deeply into the score even taking more risks as he brings the music alive with searing intensity. Opening with Liszt’s second Paganini study one was immediately struck by the beauty of his playing and the shape he gave each phrase. There was a beautifully capricious question and answer to the opening, like the Chopin Scherzo that was to follow there are two layers that are being played out simultaneously. The chorale like melody commented on by scintillating glistening arabesques. In the Liszt it is more apparent as the ornamentation passes from above to below but the musical line in-between remains constant. A beautifully shaped ending to this first episode was interrupted by the double octaves where even here Herman managed to play with shape and style, not just with muscle and speed. A kaleidoscope of sounds allowed him to shape this very energetic central episode with colour and charm so the return of the opening episode was linked up, creating a unified whole.There was a beautifully pensive coda where technical mastery was at the service of Herman’s poetic fantasy and musicianship.

Herman found the same poetic beauty in Chopin’s Third Scherzo which is so often played as separately contrasted sections and rarely shaped into the tone poem that it can become in a true artist’s hands. A wistful opening leading to the octaves that were shaped with loving care, not missing in passionate intensity but with a range of colour that gave a more horizontal shape to passages played so often with vertical power and where the line is lost. Herman allowed these octaves to dissolve naturally into the beautiful chorale that Chopin carves out with sumptuous richness, with one long line, accompanied but not interrupted , by glowing cascades of notes that illuminate this beautiful chorale. The mysterious change to the minor key Herman allowed himself more time without interrupting the long architectural line, but just enhancing the genial mastery of Chopin. Even the long preparation to the coda was given all the time necessary for it to unfold with the deep bass pedal notes sustaining the melodic line until the coda was allowed to erupt. Fearless playing where Herman gave free rein to his temperament knowing that his fingers would follow with mastery and brilliance as he brought this masterwork to an exciting conclusion.

His Brahms op 119 I have heard before but today it seemed to have gained in maturity with a timeless glowing beauty. The ‘Adagio’ of the opening Intermezzo was played with great maturity where he could shape the long lines with the freedom of an artist who has really digested the score. He brought a fleeting beauty to the ‘Andantino’ second Intermezzo with its beautiful central ‘grazioso’ that Herman played with simplicity and radiance. The third Intermezzo was played with a capricious lightness that I have only ever heard from Curzon, with the final flourish played scrupulously in time bouncing over the keys with featherlight grace. A final ‘Rhapsodie’ that was shaped with a sense of line rather than just graceless chords. A beautiful sense of legato to the central episode before the build up to the tumultuous final bars of nobility and sumptuous authority.

Prokofiev’s 7th Sonata was played with brilliance and desolation. A harrowing story that Herman played out with fearless mastery and poetic understanding. The ‘precipitato’ was a ‘tour de force’ of mastery and passionate intensity.

An encore of the slow movement of Schubert’s A minor Sonata D 784 was calming balm after such a war torn journey with Prokofiev.

Herman Med Cerisha at La Mortella A remarkable young artist who thinks more of the composer than himself

Herman Med Cerisha with playing of overwhelming authority and poetic beauty ‘A unique pianist who stands out for his originality and sincerity’

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.