ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

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.

Magdalena Filipczak and Sam Armstrong brought something different to the Chopin Society with many of Chopin’s works played on the violin.

The bel canto of Chopin was born with the human voice but is also ideally suited to string instruments as we heard today. It was only Chopin’s genial mastery that could make a percussion instrument sing as never before.

Playing not a 1753 Guadagnini, Magdalena played two Nocturnes op 9 n 2 and op posth and even the First Balladeer 23, with simplicity and radiant beauty . Magdalena is also a trained singer and sang Chopin’s ‘The Wish’, as she also sang the song by Schubert that he quotes in his Fantasia D 934 with which she concluded this most unusual but attractive programme.

Handsomely accompanied by the pianist Sam Armstrong who was very much an equal partner playing with extraordinary sensitivity and fervent participation. Not only noticeable by his stamping feet in the Chopin Mazurka tinged with unmistakeable Kreislerian colours, but also by the extraordinary beauty of the Schubert Fantasia. Like a cat on a hot tin roof, he was ready to follow every move of the exquisite playing of his partner, with vibrant mastery. Even in the little miniatures that Martino Tirimo pointed out were encore pieces designed to show off the beauty and virtuosity of the great violinist of the nineteenth century like Ysaye, Sarasate , Kreisler, Milstein ,Heifetz, Elman or Ricci .

Ruggiero Ricci for many years would play in my series in Rome, the great works of Bach or Paganini for solo violin, but I remember he would also play Chopin Nocturnes of which he recorded a complete collection. Ricci and Haendel were child prodigies in the same period playing on precious instruments like the 1753 Guadagnini that Magdalena played today. and that she even held it in her hands whilst she sang songs by Chopin and Schubert, as it seemed to radiate the magic that she shared with us.

The concert had begun with Chopin’s best known Nocturne, that in E flat, in the arrangement by Pablo de Sarasate. It was immediately apparent that here was a duo that listened to each other and were able to create music with a refreshing spontaneity and beguiling freedom. As Magdalena allowed Chopin’s bel canto to soar into the atmosphere, Sam was ready to catch it and follow its every move with delicacy and glowing beauty. In fact the piano lid was always open as here was a duo that listened to each other and there was never a moment when one might have thought the piano could overpower the violin. They were making music together and listening to the overall line sustained from below with sumptuous beauty. Chopin writes a cadenza at the end of the Nocturne and Sarasate elaborates on that with remarkable daring but with exquisite good taste. Chopin Mazuka op 33 n. 2 was next, arranged by Kreisler, where the piano accompaniment seemed suspiciously tinged with Rachmaninov ( who was Kreisler’s duo partner on many occasions). There is the famous occasion of Rachmaninov playing with Kreisler in the Carnegie Hall. Kreisler got completely lost and whispered to his giant partner :’ where are we?’, ‘in the Carnegie Hall was the instant reply!’ Rachmaninov may have looked as though he had just swallowed a knife but his humour was indeed knife edged. Our duo played with buoyancy and freedom with Sam almost jumping out of the seat as he lived the polish dance with feet stamping on the pedals. Magdalena with her regal presence was swaying to the music too as they brought this traditional dance vividly to life.

There are 17 songs that Chopin wrote, six of which Liszt famously arranged for solo piano, as he had also done with refined good taste many of Schubert’s lieder. The ‘Maiden’s Wish’, in that form, was championed by Arrau and Rosenthal, but it was refreshing to hear Magdalena sing the original in Polish whilst of course clutching her precious Guadagnini that had been loaned to her by Beare’s International Violin Society.

The Lullaby and Waltz from Britten’s Suite op 6 was a surprise item and made for a refreshing interval between the intricate warm tones of Chopin and Schubert. Britten’s early youthful invention was played with scintillating bravura from both artists. Rubinstein often, in an all Chopin recital, would play after the interval the four Mazurkas op 50 dedicated to him by his friend Karol Szymanowski, that would be like a refreshing sorbet in the middle of a sumptuous feast. This early work was not well received in its day even though considered by Paul Hamburger to show the other Britten: the brilliant miniaturist, the sparkling technician, the writer of French and middle-European pastiches which are as loving as they are witty. The Waltz movement shows how the different traits of the Viennese and French waltz can be intertwined in one movement. The movement is a delight when both try to get a word in at the same time, the Viennese waltz on the violin, the French waltz in the piano.Moreover, he particularly praised the Lullaby describing it as ‘ the best piece of this Suite.’

What was of great interest was to see how Ysaÿe had transcribed Chopin’s much abused First Ballade op 23 for violin and piano. Magdalena said it was a recent discovery and apart from the opening introduction, that I found a bit forced, from the opening theme onwards it fared very well. In fact the coda usually an excuse for pianistic fireworks, was played with restrained phrasing where pyrotechnics were turned into poetic exhilaration. Many of Chopin’s beautiful bel canto melodies were played with refined good taste where Magdalena’s aristocratic bearing could allow the poetic outpourings of Chopin to be played with even more inner intensity than is usually heard on the piano.The jeu perlé passages fared less well on the violin but Sam’s dedicated musicianship made up for a loss in power in certain filigree passages. It was a fascinating way to end the first half of this intriguing concert full of refined playing and courageous discoveries.

After the interval was a masterwork by Schubert with his Fantasia in C D. 934. Even here our artists brought a new light to bear as it was prefaced by the song that Schubert quotes ( like in his Wanderer Fantasy also in C major ). A work in seven sections of which the third is a theme and variations based on the song ‘Sei mir gegrüsst’. Magdalena invited the audience to sing the final line of the refrain ‘Let me kiss you’ which comes at the end of every verse by Rückert. So Magdalena received six kisses, after the last of which she placed the violin under her chin as she floated Schubert’s magical melody on the shimmering whispered sounds of the piano. And the Fantasia was born. A work that Nikolai Lugansky considers  the most difficult music ever written for the piano,more difficult than all of Rachmaninov’s concertos put together. A performance of radiance and beauty where the song was floated in thin air before being revealed in the third movement and finally taking wing with the exhilarating march of the final Presto. Playing from both artists of breathtaking beauty and dynamic drive together with the glowing radiance that permeates the whole of this extraordinary work.

Two encores by great request, a Melodie by Paderewski arranged by Barcewicz and the Nocturne op posth by Chopin played with the refined good taste and exquisite sounds of both players united as one.

More superb playing from ElisabethTsai where her musicianship allied to mastery and temperament brought two masterworks by Mozart and Schubert vividly to life. Simplicity and poignant poetic intensity were the hallmarks of performances of rare beauty and intelligence. Scrupulous attention to the composers intentions were just the starting point for playing of rare intensity.

Mozart began with great authority from the very first notes that were tinged with poignant sadness. There was clarity and rhythmic energy as her great temperament set the work aflame with a musical ‘fingerfertigkeit’ of burning poetic intensity, with fingers like limpets extracting the life blood from each key. The ‘Andante cantabile’ was a long belcanto of radiance and simplicity with refined expressive ornaments and slightly weighted notes that were pregnant with meaning. Her whispered repeat of the exposition was even more poignantly meaningful for a work that Mozart had penned on hearing of the death of his mother. A deeply felt central episode with its question and answer of moving intensity lead to a momentary storm cloud that soon cleared to leave the beautifully pointed return of the opening . She brought fleeting brilliance to the ‘Presto’ last movement that she played with urgency and burning intensity, The change to the major key was played with simplicity allowing Mozart’s genial invention to speak for itself. A dynamic drive to the last two chords brought this vibrant masterly performance to an exhilarating close.

The whispered opening of Schubert’s ‘Fantasy’ Sonata was played with glowing beauty and an extraordinary control of sound where the composers very specific range of sounds were shaped with architectural understanding. Not always noting the difference between ‘pp’ and ‘ppp’ ,which Schubert intends as another colour or instrument in his magic orchestra, she did however manage to show us the great architectural line with great sensitivity and remarkable rhythmic fidelity. After the magical opening chords bursting into dance with refined elegance and beauty of exquisite shape, and like the superb musician she is, she was not afraid to respect the repeat of the exposition which she played with even more poignant beauty. A startling development with full orchestral sounds of richness but never hardness, from hands that knew how to dig deeply into the keys with extraordinary horizontal sensitivity. An almost imperceptible crescendo lead to a rare ‘fff’ marking for Schubert which was of heartrenching intensity. Even the octaves playfully conversing between the hands were played with a clarity of radiance rather than hardness. In fact everything she played was imbued with mellifluous beauty, whether of disarming innocence or burning intensity. The return of the opening was even more beautiful having shared with us a tormented journey, returning to paradise with glowing simplicity. There was poignant beauty to the ‘Andante’ with its question and answer beautifully played before an intense short-lived outburst, as Schubert’s unstoppable mellifluous outpouring lead to the return of the opening, this time ornamented by the composer with exquisite beauty. She brought a great sense of dance to the ‘Menuetto’ with an exquisite ‘Trio’ played with beautifully shaped ornaments of whispered beauty , and it was a real oasis between Schuberts irrepressible dance of the Menuetto. The ‘Allegretto’ last movement was allowed to flow beautifully with pastoral simplicity of charm and grace. Bringing a glowing beauty to Schubert’s busy meanderings as the opening melody was heard in the tenor register before bursting into the song that is always in Schubert’s heart. Like a ray of sunlight illuminating our souls with the unexpected radiance and beauty of genial invention. An extraordinary performance where time stood still as Elisabeth could allow the final thoughts of Schubert to reach deeply into our souls with simplicity and masterly beauty.

As Dr Mather said he was sorry that Elisabeth had lost her voice, but lucky that it had obviously passed into her fingers that could recount such wonders, where music can speak louder than any words

Pianist Elisabeth Tsai is establishing herself as an emerging interpreter of the Classical repertoire. Though she garnered top awards in local and international competitions in adolescence and performed throughout the United States, including at Carnegie Hall and From the Top’s radio show, her recent endeavours have been largely repertoire-based, with recitals programming the last three Beethoven sonatas and the last four Brahms opuses for solo piano. She was recently awarded the first prize ex aequo at the 2024 Brahms Piano Competition Detmold and also won the 2025 Guildhall Beethoven Prize and the 2025 PianoTexas Concerto Competition. 

Elisabeth is currently studying with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama after having studied with Boris Berman and Boris Slutsky at the Yale School of Music. Her recent seasons include solo and concerto performances around the US, Germany, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, and Japan. An active chamber musician, she was a Fellow at the 2024 Norfolk/Yale Chamber Music Festival and was invited to the Smithsonian Chamber Society in 2023 to perform Beethoven piano trios on historical instruments. Elisabeth has been privileged to play to artists such as Peter Serkin, Richard Goode, Robert Levin, Imogen Cooper, Paul Lewis, and Till Fellner and is currently working towards learning and performing the thirty-two Beethoven piano sonatas.

Elisabeth Tsai at St Mary’s ‘Poetic mastery of a great artist’

In memoriam Alfred Brendel

Bechstein Centres in

Cologne, Düsseldorf and Hamburg

open their doors and magnificent concert grand pianos

for three exceptionally beautiful piano recitals with

Magdalene Ho

In 2023, at the age of just 19, Magdalene Ho, a pianist born in the

USA and trained in her native Malaysia and in the UK (including with

Patsy Toh, a student of Myra Hess and Alfred Cortot and widow of Fou

Ts’ong!), won the legendary Clara Haskil Competition in Vevey,

Switzerland. Since then, this young pianist has undergone a quiet but

steady musical development, which has repeatedly confirmed her

exceptional position among the many, many young pianists of her

generation.

In September 2025, Magdalene Ho came to Germany at the invitation

of the Keyboard Charitable Trust for three piano recitals to pay tribute

to the great pianist Alfred Brendel, who had served on the board of the

Keyboard Charitable Trust until his death in June of that year. This

series of three piano recitals, which, incidentally, were given

exclusively on Bechstein grand pianos in three Bechstein Centres, was

the first of a total of three tributes to Alfred Brendel, which will

continue in January and April 2026 resp.

Alfred Brendel, a student of the legendary Edwin Fischer, among

others, was one of the great pianists of the 20th century, an important

music writer and essayist, and a member of the board of the

international piano foundation The Keyboard Charitable Trust from its

founding in 1991 until his death. Throughout his life, Alfred Brendel was

committed to absolute fidelity to the works he performed and

despised any mannerisms on stage or at the piano. On these three

evenings, The Keyboard Charitbale Trust commemorated its long-

standing trustee and friend with great gratitude and admiration. The

beautiful programme selected by Magdalene Ho was one that was

entirely in keeping with the spirit of the great master.

All three evenings of this first series of memorial concerts for Alfred

Brendel took place, delightfully, at three Bechstein Centres in

Cologne, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. The C. Bechstein piano factory

(founded in Berlin in 1853, the same year as the Blüthner piano

company in Germany and Steinway & Sons in the USA) has been

attracting increasing attention in recent years, mainly due to the

outstanding quality of its extremely melodious, beautiful-sounding

instruments. It is no coincidence that, after more than 50 years, a

Bechstein grand piano was once again played at the legendary Chopin

Competition in Warsaw in 2025, and that the Beethovenhalle in Bonn

was reopened in the same year after more than ten years of renovation

with two Bechstein grand pianos. Among others, Alfred Brendel’s

student and protégé Kit Armstrong performed on a Bechstein grand

piano for the occasion. The Keyboard Charitable Trust is grateful that

its cooperation with its partner C. Bechstein is expanding and

becoming increasingly established.

Magdalene Ho is an introverted, quiet young lady, but a concert

pianist with a deep core of enormous musical strength and pianistic

perfection. She was able to demonstrate this to overwhelmed

audiences on all three evenings. A year ago, she already celebrated a

great success for The Keyboard Charitable Trust in the sold-outLaeiszhalle

chamber music hall in Hamburg as part of the Tea Time

Classics series.

For her recitals in honour of Alfred Brendel, she had selected only

works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, a rather rare

programme choice these days, as quite many young pianists often tend

to choose large, romantic works, which they actually play in

competitions, in order to focus attention on their own skills, virtuosity

and drama. Not so Magdalene Ho: she places the skill of the

composers, their greatness and immortality, at the centre of musical

attention.

The Bechstein evenings in Cologne and Hamburg were sold out. The

still young series in Düsseldorf had many empty seats, but this did not

detract from the intensity of the music. Magdalene Ho had chosen

three works: The Sonata No. 12, A flat major, Op. 26 (1800/1801) and

the six Bagatelles, Op. 126 (1824) by Ludwig van Beethoven,

followed after the interval by the grand, rarely played Sonata G major,

D 894 (1826), by Franz Schubert.

Beethoven’s Sonata No. 12 in A flat major, Op. 26, was played with

indescribable tonal quality from the very beginning, thanks in no

small part to the exquisitely intoned and tuned Bechstein grand piano

with its wide range of registers and rich overtones. Magdalene Ho

began the sonata in a thoughtful manner, but never lingered; on the

contrary, she always moved forward. Her expression is never kitschy,

and she counterbalances her thoughtful nature with a perfect

understanding of Beethoven’s intentions, combined with absolute

control through her overwhelming, far-reaching and highly developed

pianistic skills. Her great sense of rhythm also serves her well, as does her

wonderful, colourful sonority, which was particularly evident in

the scherzo of the second movement. The funeral march was solemn,

but never weak, with many rays of light. One had the impression that

Beethoven, when composing this movement (the sonata was written in

1801), could already foresee his later life, especially since he was

already feeling the first signs of his deafness at that time. The Allegro

of the fourth movement was full of grace, full of inner light, with

great, immense control of the rhythm, never standing still.

Beethoven wrote the Six Bagatelles, Op. 126, 24 years later, when he

had already been completely deaf for five years. That alone is

unimaginable. The opening of the 1st bagatelle was blessed and

heartfelt, its cantabile character reminiscent of the first movement of

the sonata played earlier. Magdalene Ho presented the 2nd bagatelle

with a strong, majestic beginning, with singing beauty in her

magnificent hands. This bagatelle contains many surprises, and

Magdalene Ho’s curiosity seemed to express her search for the

meaning of each element of this bagatelle. The 3rd bagatelle was like

an elegy, almost as if approaching heaven’s gate, magical piano

playing! Each of these little works of art became an individual

performance, yet they were all connected to form a great whole. The

4th bagatelle, Presto, began like a rock “n” roll piece, a powerful

dance, almost trance-like spheres that were hard to imagine. But then

Magdalene Ho played the 5th bagatelle: pure beauty, beauty turned

into music, seemed to flow endlessly from Magdalene Ho’s hands,

everything unimaginable seemed to pour out of this Bechstein grand

piano. An energy that seemed to express Beethoven’s feelings

about most personal matters. Perhaps this bagatelle suited Magdalene

Ho best in its poetic and personal depth; it was a gracious,

unpretentious performance of the rarest kind. Then, at the end, a wildoutburst in

the 6th bagatelle: magnificent cascades of sound, followed

by a quiet stroll through musical worlds, as if a long journey had

finally come to an end, but not only Andante amabile, but also Con

Moto! Beethoven kept moving forward, he went his own way, no

matter what happened. Magdalene Ho was able to show this very, very

convincingly. Magnificent.

After the interval, Magdalene Ho treated us to her interpretation of the

great late Sonata No. 18 in G major, D 894, composed by the young

Franz Schubert in 1826, two years before his early death at the age of

31. This sonata is rarely played, and it is understandable why. It is not

only the difficult technical challenge, but above all the profound

philosophical questions that enable only a few pianists to play this

sonata at the level heard this evening.

Magdalene Ho opened the 1st movement like a prayer, it was a

cautious glimpse into eternity, from which a distant dream seemed to

develop in the modulation that followed. A short waltz sequence

sounded like a reminiscence of Schubert’s earlier works. Despite the

cantabile, rather introspective character, Magdalene Ho was able to

maintain the tension of this work throughout with her superb control.

It was such an idiomatic interpretation of Schubert that every return of

the waltz was a pure delight. In the second part of this movement, the

architectural features built up into a cathedral with catacombs, in

which the waltz suddenly resounded again. Another great strength of

the pianist Magdalene Ho became clear here: in addition to her

magnificent tonal qualities, she always manages to clearly carve out

inner voices and lines. Schubert’s life was painful, and the dance of

life is also full of pain. But then: waltzes and waltzes and waltzes! It

was deeply moving.In the 2nd movement, Andante, another prayer sounded,

no, more like

a chorale, perhaps sung during a lonely walk. Magdalene Ho’s piano

playing remained incredibly intimate in this situation, full of

melancholy felt with her own heart. The simplicity of her

interpretation was what was truly great. At the end, the dark visions in

Magdalene Ho’s truly visionary piano playing – Schubert’s realisation

that his imminent departure would be inevitable. Like echoes from

afar, like a last thought returning once more, Magdalene Ho brought

out every figure in this movement. It is her highest art, the highest

clarity of sound, and another aspect stood out in particular: Magdalene

Ho never exaggerates. She never displays mannerisms for her own

sake. Furthermore, her pedal technique, something that is hardly ever

mentioned in reviews. Magdalene Ho likes to use the pedal sparingly

and with the utmost taste, and she showed us all that pedal technique

is by no means less important than the playing of the hands.

The minuet of the 3rd movement began powerfully, in fact it was

another waltz, as in the first movement. Truly Mephistophelean,

sombre, with rays of light full of grace, but only in a few places.

Again and again the gloom returned, the relentless pulse of inevitable

fate always resounding, but always accompanied by the hope of

redemption. The trio brought almost celestial sounds, as if the angels

were already preparing a cheerful welcome for Franz Schubert: Come

here, it is good here! Then a hesitation: should I go? Must I go? Must

it be? Ah, yes! One last painful moment, but then the clear decision.

In the 4th and final movement of this great sonata, the Rondo

Allegretto, pure joy resounds, a dance in which we all feel bliss and

peace. All this is thanks to Magdalene Ho, who in this movement,with her great

sense of rhythm and sensitivity, almost invites us all to

a contredance: joy upon joy! Once again, a brief hesitation, but

ultimately what remains is endless beauty in endless dancing, and we

all dance the rondo. Thank you, Franz Schubert, thank you, Alfred

Brendel, thank you, C. Bechstein, thank you, Magdalene Ho, who, at

the end, in the final modulation, with insanely beautiful glissandi,

once again briefly allows the relentless to rise before a great, calming

silence ends this evening. Finally, as an encore, the fifth Bagatelle

once again. Standing ovations.

I can and need say nothing more about Magdalene Ho. I do not need

to recommend her. When Magdalene Ho plays, as a critic once wrote

about the great pianist Grete Sultan, she recommends herself.

Moritz von Bredow, Hamburg/Germany

Spring has sprung and it was a joy to be able to listen to Diana Cooper with playing of elegance, eloquence and mastery as she gave her debut recital for the Keyboard Trust.

A wide ranging programme from Beethoven to Granados taking in Mendelssohn and Chopin.

It was in Warsaw that her extraordinary talent was recognised as the live stream from the Chopin Competition was listened to by a vast public worldwide.

Diana opened with Beethoven’s first really important sonata, when genius takes his teachers legacy by the scruff of the neck and transforms it into a wonder of thunder and joy. Diana playing with dynamic drive but also glittering radiance where the unusually crystalline intricacy of Beethoven is contrasted with bursts of virtuosity and fire. It was however the Adagio where Diana combined aristocratic authority and whispered poetic beauty creating the same effect that this movement of genial originality would have had in Beethoven’s day.

Thunder and joy were contrasted with the Flashes and Glimpses, a contemporary sonata by a Croatian colleague Šimun-Čarli Botica . And what flashes there were with virtuoso flourishes spread over the keys with remarkable ‘fingerfertigkeit’, as they contrasted with glimpses of pedalled radiance . A tour de force of playing and memory, impeccable with great conviction.

It was the same mastery that she brought to Mendelssohn’s scintillating ‘Variations Sérieuses’ where the beauty of her playing was matched with breathtaking fearless virtuosity. Notes that were streams of sound, playing with whispered jeu perlé alternating with grandiloquent excitement. The poetic mastery that she also demonstrated with the Granados ‘Allegro de concierto’ that closed the programme.

Just two works by Chopin were enough to show us why she was so admired in Warsaw. A scrupulous attention to what Chopin wrote in the score, shorn of tradition, allowing Chopin’s genius to speak for itself. The first scherzo, so often used as a showpiece for mindless virtuosi, was given by Diana such burning intensity that the Christmas Carol, Chopin quotes in the central episode, became a moment of inspiration that Diana played with disarming simplicity and whispered beauty .

The Waltz op 42 that she played as an encore was a lesson in the style and insinuating beauty that she had shared with us all evening .

An artist who listens to herself and can turn a tank into a aeolian harp, with the magnificent Steinway Concert grand in such a small space transformed into a vibrant poetic vehicle by someone who at last knows how to drive ( to quote Graham Johnson )

At the reception afterwards Tony Palmer, the distinguished film director, was demanding that an important agent should sign her up immediately.

A distinguished impresario did in fact offer her immediately after the concert an engagement in the South of France . The artistic directors,too, of the Keyboard Trust, invited her to close their Florentine season playing their annual gala recital on the 15th May in the Harold Acton Library. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/05/17/pavle-kristic-keyboard-trust-and-robert-turnbull-piano-foundation-italian-tour-refined-artistry-and-mastery/

Diana ‘s instant carisma and sense of communication has an intoxicating effect on her audiences as we experienced last night .

Diana Cooper brings Elegance,Beauty and Style to St Pancras Euston

Diana Cooper ‘Miracles at Bechstein Hall’

Diana Cooper shows us ‘The strength and nobility of the refined genius of Chopin’

With Kids in Mind, Daniel Müller-Schott and Magdalene Ho dedicated an entire day to a charity that aims to offer hope and healing for disadvantaged children and young people who have escaped domestic violence.

Joining forces with Anne-Sophie Mutter’s Foundation , Daniel one of its first scholarship holders uniting us all in the shared belief in music as a powerful force for connection and humanity .

This first collaboration of a masterclass and concert opening the doors to the international classical community to champion an essential cause uniting artistic excellence with social responsibility.

Masterly music making was tinged with the harrowing testimony from someone whose life and that of her children had been saved from misery by the charity. Children born into lives of deprivation, misery and even abuse are offered specialist therapeutic services and much more besides as they grow stronger and ready to join the community on an equal level.

A masterclass all morning in which Daniel and Magdalene had coached three master students in works by Beethoven, Strauss and Schumann. It is in this intimate situation where words can combine with music, opening doors to a passionate commitment where only music can reach places where words are not enough.

Daniel is a very distinguished cellist with a career that was launched in 1992 when he was only 15 winning first prize in the Tchaikovsky competition for young musicians in Moscow. Magdalene I first heard when she was eighteen and the Royal College of Music suddenly realised they had a star in their midst . At 19 she won the Clara Haskil Competition and now at 21 her humility and genial mastery is being shared with musicians and public worldwide.

Daniel has taken her under his wing and together they are flying high with selfless dedication to music that is their life blood .

With great humility and selfless dedication they offered the day to those whose only fault was to be born into a desperate situation. Realising how fortunate they are, not only to be born with music in their veins, but to have had the opportunity to allow this passion to grow and flower into what we heard today.

Daniel opening the concert with Bach where cleanliness is indeed next to godliness . Bach’s long lines and architectural mastery turning the song and the dance into a journey of a lifetime. Daniel played with aristocratic authority and nobility as the wonderful deep tones of his Goffriller cello of 1727 were allowed to reverberate around the beauty of what is surely one of the most imposing concert halls in London.

Joining with Magdalene for a deeply poetic and contemplative ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata where their mutual anticipation drew us in, to their most intimate music making . Spontaneous music making where the musical intentions of Schubert had been digested and become their own as they recreated a work with ravishing beauty and beguiling innuendo .

Daniel had generously left the stage to Magdalene where her humility and mastery allowed Schubert’s sublime mellifluous outpouring, helped by Liszt, to ride on a wave of glowing fluidity, where notes became streams of sounds of ravishing beauty and considerable mastery.

After a harrowing tale from a wife and mother, who with courage and honesty had been saved by the Charity, and even more importantly her children saved from a desperate future .

Schumann was soothing balm as Daniel and Magdalene allowed his three Fantasiestücke to pour from their souls with passionate poetic intensity .

Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise was written by a genial pianistic genius and opens with treacherous flourishes that Magdalene threw off with masterly ease. Paving the way for Daniel’s belcanto leading into the Polonaise of sumptuous exhilaration and excitement .

A standing ovation not only for their music making but what it signifies for so many suffering children waiting in the wings .

Daniel, ever generous, played Saint-Saens ‘The Swan’, floating on the magic waves of sounds that flowed from Magdalene’s hands .

Music making that reached the heart of all those present and will pave the way for hope and healing for many more Kids in Mind.

Amazing to see a radiant smile on Magdalene’s face obviously very happy with their dedicated music making

Chopin reigns at the National Liberal Club and St Mary’s Perivale The triumph of Misha Kaploukhii and Magdalene Ho

Magdalene Ho A musical genius in Paradise

Misha Kaploukhii and Magdalene Ho at Perivale ‘Friendship and mastery go hand in hand: ‘Notre amitié est invariable’

Opening and closing his programme with Bach, with the Chaconne in the famous transcription of Busoni and Liszt’s Variations on Bach’s Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen. In between Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich and Mendelssohn. A fascinating programme always under the shadow of Bach closing with an encore of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations that Milosz had played on his last visit to St Mary’s.

Milosz is not only a very fine pianist but above all a musician of intelligence and scholarship. The Chaconne is as much Busoni as it is Bach and the recreation of Bach’s original solo violin work  for solo piano has involved Busoni using all his pianistic mastery to enlarge one of Bach’s greatest creations. 

Brahms had also made a transcription but for the left hand alone, that in some ways gave us a more faithful rendering of Bach’s original. Milosz played with weight and authority keeping a very steady pulse throughout as he shaped the architectural outline with masterly understanding. There was technical brilliance as Busoni uses all the devices of the modern piano, but there was also poignant beauty and moments of great contemplation. 

Many of Busoni’s transcription for piano can seem overweighted in these times of authenticity and historic performance practices, but even if outmoded the great choral works by Bach are still glorious when sung with the fervent conviction of mass choirs in the vast arena of the Royal Albert Hall. Of course the  bigger the forces the bigger the orchestra too as the musical line must match one with the other, but if handled with care and musicianship Bach’s Genius can survive even this. It is the same reasoning with the Chaconne where  Busoni creates a new work for solo piano that cannot be considered a transcription but more a recreation. It was just such recreation that Milosz was able to demonstrate with a technical mastery that allowed him to shape the music with musicianship and intelligence where the genius of Bach could be enjoyed but not destroyed on an instrument that Bach could not have known. I am sure that if Bach had known the modern piano he would have used all its  qualities, much as Busoni was able to do for him!

Shostakovich had been so inspired by Tatyana Nikolaeva’s playing of Bach when he  was on the jury of the Leipzig Bach Competition that he set out to write for her 24 Preludes and Fugues of which two, Milosz played today.The two he chose blended into each other with flowing beauty with op 87 n.4 in E minor of delicacy and brooding insistence contrasted with op 87 n. 7 in A with its continuous flowing sounds played with radiance and beauty.

In between Shostakovich and Mendelssohn, Milosz had thoughtfully added Egon Petri’s transcription of Bach’s ‘Sheep may safely graze’. Similar to Myra Hess’s ‘Jesu Joy of man’s desiring ‘, it manages to combine the sublime beauty of Bach genial invention whilst using all the magic that the piano can reveal in the hands of great virtuosi who are also respectful musicians. Milosz played it with simple radiance allowing Bach’s beautiful melody to shine through the bewitching accompaniment in a duet that was played with exquisite good taste and poignant beauty.Percy Grainger had made a transcription of ‘Sheep’ too that he called a Ramble and it is more ‘fantasioso’ and is often played in public too. Milosz chose this much more sedate and aristocratic transcription by one of Busoni’s favourite pupils.

Shostakovich had something of the beauty of Mendelssohn’s own Prelude and Fugue op 35 n.5, works unjustly neglected these days since Serkin and Perahia brought them back into the concert hall .The Prelude is a romantic outpouring of sounds beautifully shaped with great style using the piano as only Mendelssohn knew how, with simplicity and sumptuous beauty, Mendelssohn’s Fugue on the other hand was a knotty twine of great agitation and clarity a continual movement with a very energetic ending. Much more Bachian than Shostakovich Mendelssohn was responsible for bringing to light many of Bach’s masterpieces that had lain in the archives since his death.

The final work on this programme was Liszt monumental epitaph for his daughter Blandine who died in 1862. He extended his original Prelude written three years earlier into a monumental work of poignant beauty and monumental shape. A series of variations that Milosz played with great authority and burning intensity all based on the text of the chorus : ‘Tears ,complaints, care, fear, anguish, and stress are the bitter bread of Christians’. When Liszt’s daughter Blandine died in 1862 he expanded the prelude into an extended elegy, a set of 30 variations using the sinking chromatic line much as Bach would have in a passacaglia, a Baroque form of continuous variation. A wayward recitative ushers in the chorale tune from the final movement of the cantata, ‘Was Gott tut, das ist wohl getan’ (What God Does Is Done Well). So, like the cantata, Liszt’s variations reverse the sighing sorrow of their beginning, ending with hopeful affirmation. Milosz played it with poignant conviction and authority bringing this celebration of Bach to a brilliant close.

Choosing to giver the last word to Bach he added as an encore the Aria from Goldberg Variations with refined playing of simplicity and beauty.It was a fitting way to conclude this homage to a Universal Genius by giving him the last word.

Milosz Sroczynski is a Polish pianist based in Zurich. After his early training in his hometown of Poznan, he continued his studies in Hanover, Geneva with Cédric Pescia, Zurich with Konstantin Scherbakov and Christoph Berner, and in London, where, as a scholarship holder, he earned the highest musical qualification, the Artist Diploma, at the Royal College of Music under the guidance of the legendary British pianist and esteemed pedagogue Prof. Norma Fisher. He also received valuable artistic inspiration from distinguished artists such as Tamara Stefanovich, Janina Fialkowska, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. 

His successful debut performance at the Davos Festival 2024 with the Goldberg Variations led to a re-invitation for the following season. In 2025, he made his debut at the Tonhalle Zurich with a chamber music program and recorded his debut album of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which was released by Genuin Classics in February 2026. He performed regularly across Europe.

Milosz Sroczynski at St Marys The High Priest of Bach A momentous journey for the glorification of the spirit of a Universal Genius

In February 1847, Franz Liszt met Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein while giving concerts in Kyiv. Already separated from the husband to whom she had been married when only 17, von Sayn-Wittgenstein fell in love with the pianist, who was also at a personal crossroads. Weary from almost a decade of constant touring, Liszt completed some further engagements and then abandoned the public concert stage as a pianist, staying with von Sayn-Wittgenstein on her Ukrainian estate from the fall of 1847 until January 1848, when the couple left for Weimar.

Years before, the Grand Duke Carl Alexander had offered Liszt the post of Kapellmeister-in-Extraordinary, an appealingly grandiose music directorship that Liszt’s relentless touring precluded accepting. Now Liszt wanted to devote himself more to composition. Weimar offered him an orchestra and an opera house, and a kindred spirit in the Grand Duke, with whom Liszt hoped to create an “Athens of the North.” This dream went unfulfilled, but Liszt wrote some of his finest music during the 13 years he spent in Weimar.

In Weimar Liszt found himself particularly close to the spirit of J.S. Bach, who had lived and worked in the city more than a century before as an employee of Duke Wilhelm Ernst, a direct ancestor of Carl Alexander. Many of Bach’s organ works were published for the first time in 1844, and among the earliest works that Liszt completed in Weimar were transcriptions for piano of six of Bach’s Preludes and Fugues for organ. The work that Milosz plays today was composed for solo piano in 1862 (S.180), based on a basso continuo theme from the Sinfonia (1st movement) of the Jubilate cantata Weinen ,Klagen ,Sorgen,Zagen BWV 12