ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

Last night was the return to Leighton House of Magdalene Ho bringing her same extraordinary passion that comes from within the very notes themselves. Playing now with even more authority, as she has gained in experience and acceptance from a music world hungry for humility, intelligence and mastery. This is music making that comes from deep within and reminds me of Serkin. No seeking to find colour of outward tinsel or searching for beautiful sounds as these are the sounds that come from an artist who thinks more of the composer than herself. As Serkin said to Richard Goode on listening to the young Perahia : ‘ you told me he was good but you did not tell me HOW good!’

With her musical family gathered around the peacocks that abound in these parts last night, Patsy Fou and the Alexeev’ s were joined by some of the finest young talents at the RCM to listen and learn from an artist who has been blessed by the Gods.

Beginning her recital with a rarity that is one of the four fugues op 72 that Schumann writing to Mendelssohn described: “Even for me it is a strange and wonderful fact that almost every motif which forms within me bears the characteristics for multiple contrapuntal combinations”. 1845 was the year in which Schumann discovered his passion for composing fugues – a passion which he shared with his wife Clara. In joint creative sessions, Schumann composed his works for the pedal piano and his four piano fugues op. 72, which he wanted to be seen as “Character pieces but with a stricter form”, while Clara wrote her “Six Preludes and Fugues”. Even true connoisseurs of Schumann discover a new side to the composer in these works. Magdalene brought a simplicity of fluidity and a certain sense of improvisation as the fugue was shaped with great beauty. Schumann’s knotty twine immediately stamped with the voice of a composer who might be limiting his fantasy but not his poetic voice as Magdalene allowed this short work to unfold with such disarming innocence.

Leading straight into Beethoven’s early sonata op 10 n. 3. It is one of the first sonatas where Beethoven had expanded the ‘slow’ movement into an epitaph of grief and searching. The opening Presto was played with remarkable clarity and a dynamic drive of burning intensity. Even the beautiful second subject was not allowed a moment’s rest as it was incorporated into the continual forward movement. Magdalene’s clarity and precision were always with scrupulous attention to the composer’s very precise instructions. A development section that was a dizzying tour de force as notes were spread over the entire keyboard in an unrelenting chase, finally and dramatically coming to a halt before the innocent return of the opening moving towards a coda of brilliance and exultation. Magdalene waiting until she had collected her strength to embrace the ‘Largo e mesto’ that is a declamation of masterly invention. Pondering over every note with poignant fervour and almost convincing us that to play the movement in six instead of two was the only way forward! Some memorable moments not least the chorale with the melodic line doubled at the octave as it burst into a passionate cry out of which golden strands of reverberations were released . Deeply concentrated playing of tender authority as the opening Largo returned. Wonderful swirling sounds that accompanied the deep almost operatic beauty of the bass before the coda. But it was here in the coda that the slow tempo seemed rather exaggerated. The sighing syncopations that Beethoven writes lost something of its sense of line as the beat seemed to be missing in a too free recitative of deep significance. But Magdalene is a great artist and whatever she does is mesmerising because so convincing. As a famous stage director said to my wife when she apologised for not follow completely his instructions, ‘there is no such thing as right and wrong – just convince me!’ The famous slow tempi of Richter were convincing because they were of a musical genius who had pondered and suffered before uttering a single sound. Magdalene has this same inner integrity and it is a God given gift that can only be guided by people who truly understand but it cannot be taught. As Rubinstein was to exclaim ,’ You have to be born with talent ,you cannot teach it.’

https://youtu.be/gex0sOR7XZ0?si=798bjpruQBl2-e6t

An equally slow ‘Menuetto’ was where Magdalene seemed to be looking for something deeper than just a flowing mellifluous melodic line of simple innocence. It was in the Trio, though, that one could understand Magdalene wanting to underline the contrast, as she brought and infectious ‘joie de vivre’ bubbling over with wit and exhilaration as one voice replied playfully to the other. The same teasing brilliance to the ‘Rondo’ where the question and answer sprang to life with masterly brilliance and a remarkable technical control of Beethoven’s really quite scintillating jeu perlé. A dynamic drive and Beethoven’s absolute seriousness even when out to play with such ebullience and irresistible dynamism.

A refreshing interlude from Beethoven and Schumann was with Unsuk Chin’s Étude ‘Scherzo ad Libitum’ . Remarkable playful virtuosity of stopping and starting with inquisitive questioning. A continuous perpetuum mobile on which appeared skeletons rattling over the keys. As with all Magdalene’s performances it was totally convincing and just refreshed the atmosphere ready for Schumann’s magnificent Humoresque op op 21.

A work for long overlooked until both Horowitz and Richter showed the world what it had been missing for too long! Nowhere more are the duel personalities of the composer more in evidence than here. Eusebius living side by side with Florestan in an outpouring of breathtaking beauty and passionate intensity. Nobility and grandeur living side by side with poetic beauty and ravishment. An opening of beauty as Magdalene allowed the melody to unfold with beguiling simplicity before bursting into life ‘sehr rasch und leicht’.Playing of burning quixotic intensity before the return of the opening as if seen from afar. Turning into a wistful episode that Schumann writes on three staves showing us a musical line that is to erupt into scintillating brilliance and dynamic drive. A beautiful sense of nostalgia to the dance of ‘ Einfach und zart’ that follows, leading to an ‘Intermezzo’ with its notoriously busy double octaves. In Magdalene’s knowing hands we were not aware of the transcendental difficulties as it was the music that flowed without interruption just fading into the distance as the final episode is heard with rhapsodic beauty. An extraordinary outpouring of passionate intensity and virtuosistic brilliance leading to a final imperious march where Schumann miraculously incorporates a distant melody from within. A beautifully rhapsodic coda was played with an almost improvised freedom before the final call to arms of the ending. A remarkable performance not only for the technical mastery but for the architectural shape she could bring to a work that can seem so episodic.

A simple encore from a musician who hides behind the music and is such a humble servant that the idea to ingratiate herself is totally alien to her credo. However having said that she astonished us all with a most overwhelming performance of Saint- Saens’s old warhorse of ‘Étude en form de Valse.’ Of course with the historic performance of Cortot in our hearts Magdalene took us by storm with an equally breathtaking performance of mastery and beguiling charm.It brought us back to the salons of the Golden Age of piano playing when pianists at the end of a recital would let their hair down and seduce their audience with pianistic acrobatics and jewel like mastery . https://youtu.be/QJot3tfsUBM?si=ve4Iz7k_qer4RvR4

Magdalene already belongs to an elite class of pianists who listen to what they are playing and it is as if she is recreating the works as the composer would have imagined with the ink still wet on the page.

Hats off dear Magdalene ‘ je sens, je joue , je trasmet has never been so actual as in your hands today.

Magdalene Ho in Germany In memoriam Alfred Brendel a report by Moritz von Bredow

Daniel Müller-Schott and Magdalene Ho with mindful music making of prophetic beauty

Magdalene Ho A musical genius in Paradise

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

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

The hills of Rome resounding to music this morning.

Mozart D minor Piano concerto and Beethoven D major Violin concerto with Holst and Vivaldi enticing partners of youthful music making of mastery and passionate intensity.

Filippo Tenisci playing an 1879 Erard and Sebastian Zagame on a superb violin on loan from a Milanese Foundation . An orchestra created and directed by Federico Biscione opened with a work by Holst which exulted the beauty of the string playing which was to be a worthy partner to the two very fine soloists in a morning of superb music making in Velletri on the hills overlooking Rome.

Some very fine playing from an orchestra created by mostly young musicians prepared by Giovanna Lattanzi for the Centro Diffusione Musica di Tivoli. Maestro Federico Biscione conducting this orchestra of fine musicians in a performance of Holst’s Brook Green Suite. A fascinating discovery that I did not know and I often pass by Brook Green on my way to the centre of London. Gustav Holst used to teach at St Paul’s School just across the road.

It was in Mozart that they really came into their own with Filippo Tenisci at the helm in the concerto in D minor. The mellow sound of this 1879 Erard blended in so well, even in moments of dynamic rhythmic drive, where orchestra and piano were involved in creating a unified performance of great beauty. Filippo letting rip, but with poetry rather than just virtuosity, choosing the cadenzas by Beethoven to exult the drama and intensity of one of Mozart’s most dynamic concertos. A radiant beauty to the piano where in the Romance it was accompanied by the orchestra with beguiling simplicity. An Allegro assai played with dynamic drive and radiant beauty. An encore of a Liszt transcription exulted even more the subdued radiance and refined brilliance of the preferred piano of Liszt.

A short interval to remove the piano and leave more space for the violin soloist and orchestra. Some remarkable playing from this young virtuoso violinist who after performances of Beethoven and Vivaldi was to astonish us with the 24th Caprice by Paganini. Vivaldi that had shown his remarkable musicianship as he blended in with the string orchestra and in Beethoven where as soloist he played with a mature musicianship of aristocratic beauty.

A morning in the presence of great music played with youthful passion and intensity.

Filippo Tenisci in Viterbo with masterly playing on a wondrous voyage of discovery

Wagner & Liszt embark in Deal with Filippo Tenisci at the helm.

Michelle Candotti a Lioness let loose in Velletri ignites Liszt’s piano

Christmas comes to Frascati The gift of music illuminates the city.

Rome embraces the birth of great pianist and a star shining brightly at the historic Cometa theatre in the heart of Rome

Aristo Sham took the Eternal City by storm with the same jewel like perfection as Michelangeli who inaugurated this theatre in the late fifties .

The pinnacle of pianistic and musical perfection and having gained in authority since being awarded the Gold Medal in Fort Worth is now a worthy successor to Sokolov.

Aristo Sham the Van Cliburn gold medal winner closing the season in the newly reborn Teatro Cometa in the centre of the Eternal City. A wonderful Fabbrini Steinway and the shadow of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli who had inaugurated this jewel in the fifties.

Aristo choosing to open with two works particularly associated with the legendary Italian master.

The Bach Chaconne in the Busoni reworking, that while maintaining the masterly construction of one of the longest works for solo violin it incorporates all the colour and volume of the grandest of pianos. Aristo immediately showing his masterly musicianship allied to a quite extraordinary sense of balance and a kaleidoscope of colours.

Nobility and technical mastery go hand in hand as Aristo could construct the same journey that Bach had envisaged for solo violin. An opening with a nobility and control, a beauty of sound similar to that which I remember from Michelangeli on listening to his famous recording when I was a student. There was a sense of balance where he never had to force the sound but the musical line was revealed rather than being projected. There was a natural beauty to the sound exulted of course by the superb Fabbrini piano. Let us not forget that Michelangeli was the Godfather to Angelo Fabbrini’s children.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/12/martha-argerich-the-queen-of-the-keyboard-salutes-angelo-fabbrini-the-prince-of-the-piano/

A wonderful sumptuous sound from the deep bass notes that were the anchor on which Aristo could sow a web of wondrous sounds. An aristocratic sense of timelessness allowed Bach’s genial invention to be revealed in layers. The magic of the solo violin on one string was contrasted with the organ like sonorities that Bach could envisage on a single instrument and that Busoni could transmit to the newly evolved concert grand piano. Busoni has recreated the work of Bach with respect and attention to the architectural mastery that Bach could convey on one instrument. While Brahms is more of a transcription Busoni is certainly a recreation. It was this sense of recreation that Aristo could convey with astonishing mastery and maturity.

I have long admired Aristo from when he was at Harrow school to when I heard him in the Fazioli studio in Cremona playing Chopin with remarkable intelligence and superb musicianship. But today after perfecting his studies with Robert McDonald at the Juilliard School, he is ready to take the world by storm with artistry and supreme mastery.

Nowhere more was this obvious than in ‘Gaspard de la Nuit’ by Ravel. A work that Michelangeli made very much his own and which I heard from the master’s hands in the Sala Nervi many years ago when Michelangeli refused to play in Italy but would accept to play for the Red Cross in the Vatican City. I had queued up many times for tickets for Michelangeli in London, as I did for Rubinstein,Gilels or Richter, to no avail because he always cancelled the concerts due to adverse weather conditions that might affect his piano. He relied on Angelo Fabbrini to fine tune the piano as Michelangeli would do with his racing cars, technical perfection was a must if his artistry was to be allowed full reign.

Today Aristo had a wonderful instrument that could allow his artistry to seduce and astonish all those present. The wonderful wooden floor of this newly reborn stage helped project the sound into the hall where previously it tended to get absorbed by too many embellishments, so I am told. There was a liquidity and fluidity to the wondrous sounds that could evoke the water that Ravel’s magical nymph could dart in and out of. A sense of balance allowed this water maiden to sing with a voice rarely heard from lesser hands. Technical demands were absorbed into a poetic outpouring of wondrous sounds. A perfect stillness to the glissandi played with closed fist mastery on the white keys and amazingly only his fingers on the black keys. A tumultuous climax that grew so naturally out of the sounds he was creating ,where Ravel’s technical demands were absorbed into a fluidity of sumptuous beauty. A scrupulous attention to the composers markings meant that the long held pedal in which the water nymph was left breathless and stranded was where Aristo played with extraordinary sensitivity before she plunged back into the water and wafted away on waves of golden sounds. I have rarely heard ‘Le gibet’ played so quietly but with a luminosity and control of sound that was remarkable. A glowing radiance to the solo voice allowed to resonate so magically in this desolate atmosphere that Ravel could create with such sultry intensity. ‘Scarbo’ had been written by the composer trying to out do Balakirev’s Islamey for technical difficulty, and he certainly succeeded. The demonic vibrations of sound at the beginning were played with one finger with astonishingly relaxed wrists and this was only the opening for a series of demonic passages played with breathtaking audacity as the devilish imp dashed from one end of the keyboard to the other. Slowing down the tempo gradually for the central episode that was full of astonishing whispered sounds of diabolical screeching and growling of radiance and mystery. Taking wing as Aristo allowed himself to play with even more passionate intensity. But it was the burning poetic meaning and beauty of the coda that will remain in my memory as one of the most evocative moments of this remarkable recital.

It was the sumptuous bass sounds in Brahms that made one think more of Bösendorfer than Steinway. This was because Aristo’s Brahms was born in the bass and the sumptuous beauty and radiance were anchored with loving care and monumental orchestral attention to colour and detail. A series of Capriccios and Intermezzi chosen to complement each other and create a flowing introduction to the monumental First Sonata. In fact it was the final of these six short tone poems that was full of variety and a ravishing outpouring of sounds out of which erupted the first of Brahms’ s ‘Veiled Symphonies’ , opening with dramatic insistence and dynamic drive.

The Capriccio op 76 n. 1 was played with a flowing radiance of sumptuous rich sounds contrasting with the beguiling capriccio op 76 n. 2 full of charm and subtle beauty. The capriccio op 116 n. 3 was a passionate outpouring leading to the subtle charm of the Intermezzo op 119 n. 3 with its coquettish flights of fancy and brilliant ending thrown off with jeu perlé glee. The intermezzo op 118 n.2 was played with ravishing beauty with sounds of subtle nostalgia gently allowed to melt into a central outpouring taking wing with wonderful mellow sounds. The final Capriccio op 76 n 8 was that which took us straight into the Sonata op 1 ,with which Aristo closed his recital.

A selection of miniature masterpieces so often heard as complete collections but as Aristo showed us today, a careful selection from each of the collections can create a more satisfying whole, as Clifford Curzon used to do. We live in an era of complete collections and urtext reality but these little pieces by Brahms vary from ‘lullabies of grief’ and ravishing seduction, to cries of joy and exultation. Aristo showed his sensitive musicianship and intelligence in playing just a very careful chosen selection. The First Sonata op 1 is the first of three early sonatas op 1 ,op 2 and op 5 that Schumann described as ‘veiled synphonies’ . They are indeed monumental works and very much written with the orchestra in mind. Aristo opened with imperious authority and the aristocratic monumentality that was so much part of Arrau with its rock like solidity and timeless beauty. After such an arresting opening Aristo could change colour completely as the second subject was of breathtaking beauty before taking wing again. There was an extraordinary sense of desolation to the Andante followed by the Scherzo of presumptuous dynamism that dissolved into a Trio of gossamer beauty .The Finale was played burning energy and drive as it moved forward with exhilaration and excitement.

A ovation from an audience who had been kept in a spell by this extraordinary musician who played with simplicity but with a poetic intensity that illuminated all he did.

Schumann’s ‘Traumerei’ was calming balm indeed after the passionate outpouring of Brahms. ‘Embraceable you’ was the final encore of Gershwin in Earl Wild’s evocative transcription. Played with sounds that wafter around this beautiful theatre as Gershwin’s famous melody was allowed to sing with the radiance and beauty of a great artist of refined good taste.

Hats off to Massimo Spada, the artistic director of this first concert season at the Cometa, who has been able to bring such remarkable artists to the Eternal City. A preconcert introduction by Gaia Vazzoler was a precious addition to a remarkable concert experience

A blazing comet lands in Rome Massimo Spada and friends reignite the Cometa ‘Salotto di Roma’

Aristo Sham at Duszniki ‘A musical mastery that knows no boundaries.’

Miracles in Rome as the Nicola Bulgari Foundation brings Schubert to the Cometa

A room with a rainy view today as Diana Cooper made her debut in Florence.

I had heard the same programme just three days ago but like all true artists the same works sounded newly minted and full of even more subtle colours and meaning . It was Rubinstein who asked his friend Picasso if he was not tired of painting the same bottle and fruit day after day. Only to be admonished by the great painter who exclaimed they may be the same objects but every day it is he who changes and sees them differently!

Scarlatti sonatas that on this mellow sounding Bechstein of 1890 seemed to have more shadows with an extraordinary clarity of voices and seeming change of registers. Voices chasing each other with enticing glee. An almost military attack in the final sonata that dissolved into a mercurial web of bewitching sounds.

Even more subtle colouring and refined shaping of Mendelssohn’s gasping theme to his variations. Music poured from her hands with the same insistence as the rain outside, but in her hands it was allowed to speak with a very individual voice. Scintillating brilliance was alternated with a magic stillness of mellifluous beauty. Diana was taking us on a joyous ride ‘ on wings of song’

Granados was full of half lights and subtle colouring with the scintillating brilliance and passionate ardour of the sun blessed landscape of Spain . Granados was a great virtuoso pianist and it is a pity that his career was cut short by a German Torpedo in the English Channel leaving relatively few works for piano

Diana’s Chopin playing is well known thanks to her recognition in Warsaw recently. Full of aristocratic beauty and architectural understanding. Chopin’s native roots were always to be tainted by refined French elegance and it is exactly this that makes Diana’s playing of this innovative genius so overwhelming. We may have heard these works many times from many hands but it is the re creativity of her playing that reveals even more secrets as she delves deeply into the scores with humility, simplicity and mastery. Chopin the supreme poet of the keyboard encompassing beauty, passion and turbulence. An intoxicating mix from a genial, innovative composer that in Diana’s hands can still seduce, shock and astonish. An encore of Chopin’s Waltz op 42 summed up the mastery of style and jeu perlé brilliance that she had shared with us all evening in this room with a view.

Diana happy to play Chopin’s D flat Nocturne after a sumptuous post concert feast that miraculously appeared where just a few minutes earlier she had been playing. Miracles created by Simon and Jennifer Gammell who have transformed the Harold Acton Library of the British Institute in a thriving cultural centre of excellence.

Guests of the British Institute truly singing in the rain as they awaited their carriages before the chimes of midnight. Taxis like pumpkins here in the Museum of the World are a rarity

Below is a review and recording of the same concert that Diana gave three days ago prior to her Florence debut

Diana Cooper in Perivale ‘A great artist flying high on wings of song with refined artistry and aristocratic musicianship’

Scarlatti: Sonatas K9 in D minor, K96 in D major, K141 in D minor

Mendelssohn: Variations sérieuses Op. 54

Granados: Allegro de concierto Op. 46

Chopin: Mazurkas Op. 59. 
Chopin: Barcarolle Op. 60

Chopin: Polonaise-Fantaisie Op. 61 

Diana Cooper is an award-winning pianist, with first prizes at major international competitions including the Samson François Competition (2025) and the Vigo International Piano Competition (2022). She was also selected for the 19th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (2025).
She has performed at leading venues and festivals across Europe, including Salle Cortot in Paris and Kings Place in London, and her performances have been featured on France Musique, France 5, and the BBC. Her debut album, released in 2023, is dedicated to Haydn, Chopin, and Ravel.

Here is a video of Diana playing Granados: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4x5qlYHwSk

Diana Cooper at Steinway & Sons for the Keyboard Trust ‘Playing of elegance, eloquence and mastery’

Diana Cooper ‘Miracles at Bechstein Hall’

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

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

Programme:

Part I :

Franz Schubert – Three Military Marches (with Three Military Interludes by Mikhail Shilyaev) – performed by Mikhail Shilyaev and Sasha Grynyuk.

Schubert’s Three Military Marches for four hands (piano) combined with Three Military Interludes by Mikhail Shilyaev explore the “military” character of Schubert’s entertaining music by mixing it with Mikhail’s musical reflections on wartime.

Frank Bridge – Lament – performed by Nikita Demidenko 

Lament was written in response to the sinking of the liner RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat on 7 May 1915. The disaster claimed 1,197 civilian lives, including 94 children. Bridge dedicated the work to Catherine Crompton, a child who perished in the tragedy together with her entire family.

Edward Tait – Ashes Beneath the Ice – performed by Edward Tait and Ivanna Oliinyk 

Ashes Beneath the Ice is an abstract meditation on stillness in the aftermath of war, where the violence has passed but its presence is maintained beneath ice. It is scored for cello and piano, unfolding sparsely and in a very restrained way.

Gustav Holst – Four Songs for Voice and Violin – performed by Eve Kim and Yuri Zhislin 

Four Songs for Voice and Violin was written in 1916, shortly before Gustav Holst left England to work with the British YMCA’s music programme for troops stationed in the eastern Mediterranean, where he organised and directed musical activities for soldiers. Setting devotional texts by the seventeenth-century poet George Herbert, the work creates a moment of quiet contemplation and spiritual calm amid the turmoil of wartime Europe.

Part II :

Dmitri Shostakovich – Piano Sonata No.2, Allegretto – performed by Petr Limonov 

Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 61 was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1943 during World War II. At that time the composer was living in evacuation in Kuybyshev, having been relocated from Leningrad during the siege of the city. The sonata was written shortly after the death of his teacher, the pianist Leonid Nikolayev, and is dedicated to his memory.

Igor Vdovin – Sonata for Piano and Violin – performed by Irina Marchuk and Mikhail Shilyaev 

The piece for violin and piano unfolds a sonic panorama of war — from the fragile human voice to the overwhelming, almost impersonal noise of destruction. Through the contrast between sharp dissonance and rare moments of lyricism, it conveys the scale of a catastrophe in which individual tragedy dissolves into collective chaos.

Alexey Kurbatov – Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 5 – performed by Dina Parakhina and Yuri Torchinsky 

Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 5 was composed by Alexey Kurbatov in September 2022 and was the composer’s first work written after leaving Russia in March of the same year. This influenced the musical imagery of the piece, making it especially symbolic that the premiere took place in The Hague at a concert marking the anniversary of the start of the war.

List of performers:

Mikhail Shilyaev, piano — Piano Professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. He has performed with Musikkollegium Winterthur, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra. 

Sasha Grynyuk, piano — Artistic Director of the Elgar International Music Festival in Alassio, Italy. Has performed with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, and the Kyiv Philharmonic Orchestra.

Yuri Zhislin, violin — Professor of violin and viola at the Royal College of Music. He has performed with the Oxford Philharmonic, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Lithuanian State Symphony and the Santiago de Chile Symphony. 

Eve Yuin Kim, voice — Royal College of Music student. She has appeared as a soloist at festivals in Valencia and Perugia, and in Korea has performed under conductor Hun-Joung Lim. She has also performed in recital at the Westminster Parliament hosted by the British Korean Society.

Ivanna Oliinyk, cello — Royal Academy of Music student. She became a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in 2023 with which she performed in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. The same year she participated in the Royal Concertgebouw Young Orchestra programme.

Nikita Demidenko, piano — Royal College of Music student, London Symphony Orchestra scholar. He received the Grand Prix and the “Most Promising Pianist” award at the Golden Piano Talents, London, First Prizes at the Orbetello Piano Competition and the Anatolia International Music Competition in Budapest. 

Petr Limonov, piano — Winner of the Nikolai Rubinstein Piano Competition. He has performed at the La Roque d’Anthéron Festival, Belgais Center for Arts, Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Cadogan Hall, Salle Cortot, Kolarac Hall, Romanian Athenaeum, Lerici Music Festival, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and has given a solo recital in the Duke’s Hall for His Majesty King Charles III.

Edward Tait, composer and piano — Royal Academy of Music student. He won the NCEM Young Composer Award in 2026. His music has been performed across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States, at venues including the Royal Festival Hall, St John’s Smith Square, and Westminster Abbey.

Dina Parakhina, piano — Piano Professor at the Royal College of Music. Her engagements have included appearances with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the Proms, performances with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, the Worthing Symphony Orchestra, and a solo recital at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Yuri Torchinsky, violin — Violin professor at the Royal Northern College of Music. He has worked with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Georg Solti, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. Yuri joined the BBC Philharmonic as Leader in 1996.

War or Peace – The Help Ukraine concert

Margaret Fingerhut a piano portrait of UKRAINE Beauty,mastery and solidarity played with searing commitment and glowing beauty

Sasha Grynyuk at Cranleigh Arts for Ukraine. https://www.withukraine.org/

Nikita Lukinov plays breathtaking charity recital for Ukraine in Berlin.

Gen Ukrainian Christmas Gala Concert ‘Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme’

Prior to her Florentine debut on Friday it was good to be reminded of the artistry of this young artist. I have heard her play many times over the past few years since she was first noticed by the esteemed New York based critic Jed Distler,at the Royal College of Music, as he was judging a final duel amongst giants.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/02/17/hats-off-the-chappell-gold-medal-has-uncovered-a-genius/

She was just coming to the end of her studies with Norma Fisher and is now making a mark in the concert world for her refined artistry and aristocratic musicianship. All qualities bequeathed to her at the RCM by Norma Fisher, having acquired a technical training from Rena Shereshevskaya in Paris , who like Ilona Kabos (Norma Fishers teacher ) was renowned for her very demanding no nonsense approach to training brilliant young pianists. Piano playing is, as Curzon would famously declare, 90% hard work and 10% a God given talent that can be nurtured but not taught.

https://youtu.be/gex0sOR7XZ0?si=6EMztK8dm-iRES_p

Diana made a great mark in the concert world with her performances at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. There were three young artists who although not selected by the jury to proceed to the final fight out, were noticed by a world hungry for artistry, not just industry. All three received a great boost to their careers via live streaming, as Dr Mather in Perivale is well aware of. It is a way of reaching out to a world hungry for music but rarely given a chance by a mass media that is more interested in quantity rather than quality.

Winner takes all is not the case here as we heard today from Diana who has a very special quality which is called artistry. Nowhere more than in her performances of Chopin where her aristocratic control and musicianship were allied to delving deep into the scores to find the very soul of Chopin. A soul that is not all delicacy and beauty as a certain Chopin tradition would have us believe, but at times heroic and exciting, profound and overwhelming. It is no coincidence that Schumann was to call the Mazurkas ‘canons covered in flowers’.

Three Scarlatti Sonatas immediately showed off the characteristics of an artist who can turn baubles into gems. Scarlatti wrote over five hundred sonatas which are an amazing array of miniature tone poems each different from the other with a range of fantasy and brilliance of masterly invention. The intelligence of Diana finding in the key of D, three contrasting pieces that made a coherent whole and a scintillating opening to her recitals this week in Perivale and Florence. An opening of glowing beauty of refined simplicity contrasted with the brilliant energy of the major key, all radiance and sparkling brilliance. Finishing with the repeated notes of Argerich intensity and scintillating mastery.

Mendelssohn Variations that grow out of the opening theme that Diana played with poetic beauty and aristocratic poise. A kaleidoscope of colour and brilliance as the variations became ever more agitated . There were moments of deep contemplation too played with subtle beauty and intense sentiment but never sentimental.There was always an architectural sense of direction and shape to all she did. An ending of exhilaration and excitement with notes that flowed from her fingers with a natural fluidity that was much more than just a jeu perlé but more like a jeux d’eau of flowing intensity. The final three chords were the calm after the storm, a balm played with refined beauty and sumptuous full sound. It was ,after all, only storm in a Victorian teacup!

Granados was all brilliance and style with showers of notes to announce a beautiful melodic outpouring played with beguiling insinuation and teasing brilliance. A command of the keyboard as she played with authority and freedom with natural movements of horizontal beauty, swimming in a sea of sounds. Waters that were just waiting to claim the composer and his wife as a German torpedo struck the boat in the English Channel on the 24th March 1916 as he was travelling back from America where his opera ‘Goyescas’ had been greeted with such acclaim by the President of the United States. Sparkling brilliance of daring playing of romantic effusions demonstrated what other glories the world might have been denied by useless combat! President Trump please note.

The world of Chopin has found in Diana an ideal interpreter where the beauty of sound is allied to an intelligence and fearless sense of style. Three Mazurkas op 59 were played with radiance and subtle colouring. N. 1 with a rhapsodic central episode followed by the beautiful sense of dance of n. 2 and the nobility and passion of n. 3 , where the Polish dance is full of nostalgia and the energy of refined brilliance of Chopin’s homeland that he was destined never to see again, having fled just a month before the 1830 uprising. Transferring his innocent soul to Paris where he was to enjoy the refined elegance of the Parisian salons. His final wish being that his heart should be buried in his homeland after his early death at only 39 years of age. A wish which is celebrated every year on his birthday in Poland, that has become the shrine and celebration of his genius.

The Barcarolle is one of Chopin’s last works , a great song and a highly original form of beauty and freedom. It was here that Diana could demonstrate her complete mastery with a continual flowing movement of passion and mellifluous beauty. Simplicity and radiance combined with style and mastery, an intoxicating mix for one of Chopin’s greatest creations.

The Polonaise – Fantaisie is the work that immediately follows the Barcarolle and is where Chopin could marry the two forms into one architectural whole. Opening with imposing authority with a perfect tempo that allowed the chords to be shaped into one whole of reverberating sounds until the announcement of the Polonaise and the marriage of the two forms living together in a wonder world of emotional turbulence and bewitching fantasy. Beautifully shaped passages like a singer with natural inflections and momentary breath taking hesitations. Leading to the central outpouring of mellifluous beauty before the gradual reappearance of a magical re- call to arms and the emotionally driven final exhilaration and excitement that Diana played with the fearless abandon of a great artist.

An encore of Chopin’s teasingly brilliant Waltz op 42 was played to the manner born. Some things cannot be taught but are recreations of an artist blessed by the Gods.

Winner of numerous awards, including 1st Prize at the Samson François International Piano Competition (France – 2025), 1st Prize at the Halina Czerny-Stefanska International Piano Competition in Poznan (Poland – 2022), 1st Prize at the Concurso Internacional de Piano de Vigo (Spain – 2022), and 1st Prize at the Brest Chopin Competition (France – 2017), Diana Cooper was selected to participate in the 19th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in October 2025, chosen from 84 pianists out of 642 applicants. She was invited to perform solo on the Générations Jeunes Interprètes program on France Musique, as well as with violinist Yevgeny Kutik on the BBC Radio 3 program In Tune. Additionally, she performed as part of a trio on the television program Fauteuils d’orchestre, filmed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and broadcast on France 5 in 2024. That same year, she was selected to participate in a masterclass with Yuja Wang, which was filmed and produced by the BBC for the series Arts in Motion. 

Her performances have been further enriched by solo appearances with several orchestras, including the Orchestre Appassionato, conducted by Mathieu Herzog, in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 at the Seine Musicale in Paris; the Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire de Paris, led by Félix Benati, in Schumann’s Piano Concerto at the Cité de la Musique – Philharmonie de Paris; and the Grammy Award-winning Orkiestra Symfoniczna Filharmonii Kaliskiej, conducted by Maciej Kotarba, in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at Kalisz’s Philharmonic Hall in Poland. Diana has recently recorded her first CD, featuring works by Haydn, Chopin and Ravel, after winning 1st Prize in the Concours d’aide aux Jeunes Artistes organised by the Festival du Vexin. 

Born in Tarbes to a Franco-Spanish mother and a British father, Diana began her piano studies with Jean-Paul Cristille. She pursued her musical education with Jean-François Heisser, Marie-Josèphe Jude, Rena Shereshevskaya, Pascal Amoyel, Norma Fisher, and Philippe Giusiano. A graduate of both the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP) and the Royal College of Music in London with a second Artist Diploma, Diana also studied at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris and the Académie Musicale Philippe Jaroussky where she honed her skills under the guidance of Cédric Tiberghien. Diana is an Artist awardee of the Fondation de la Banque Populaire and the Fondation Safran in France, as well as the Kirckman Concert Society in the UK.

Diana Cooper ‘Miracles at Bechstein Hall’

Nikita Burzanitsa
pianoforte

programme:

Sabato 9 maggio – ore 17:00
J. Brahms: Paganini Variations op. 35 – 1° libro
L. van Beethoven: Sonata n. 32 in do min. op.111
F. Liszt: Mephisto Waltz n.1 S514

Domenica 10 maggio – ore 17:00
J. Brahms: Paganini Variations op. 35 – 1° libro
M. Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit
I. Stravinsky: 3 movements from Petrushka

Nikita Burzanitsa with fearless playing of intelligence and style. Three master works by Brahms, Beethoven and Liszt that for his second recital at the Walton Foundation on Ischia wiould be followed by Ravel and Stravinsky . Any one of these works would strike fear and trepidation into the hearts of any pianist. Thanks to Lina Tufano, Nikita was invited to bring these five masterworks into the studio of Sir William Walton, created by the indomitable Lady Susana Walton whose 100th anniversary we are celebrating this year.

Collaborations with the major institutions of Europe allow the finest young musicians to perform in this paradise that the Waltons bequeathed to future generations in order nurture and encourage young musicians taking their first steps in a life dedicated to music .

Today a collaboration between the Keyboard Trust and the Robert Turnbull Foundation has brought a young Ucrainian student of Dimitri Alexeev to this jewel lying in the bay of Naples.

Brahms Paganini book 1 was the opening work for an almost capacity audience who had chosen beauty and seduction to sun worship and boredom.

They were not disappointed as the impeccably appointed gardens greeted them, and was the ideal ‘hors d’oevre’ for the sumptuous feast of music that awaited them from the hands of this young man.

He was able to sculpture and mould the music with the same natural simplicity with which the flora and fauna burst from this rocky garden with such grateful glee .

Brahms, and Beethoven’s final sonata are timeless masterpieces and were ideal companions at the teatime concerts that Lady Walton used to proudly present herself. No tea, as such, but inviting the audience to join her afterwards to try the famous aperitif made of Mirto, that is actually where the name Mortella was born. A plant that grows in abundance on the island as readily as magnificent music making.

Nikita playing Brahms with the solidity of a Katchen, but also with the youthful mastery of a young virtuoso about to ripen into a mature artist. Nobility, glowing brilliance and poetic beauty are just a few of the words that spring to mind as Brahms’s genial invention took established forms and transformed them into an architectural shape of startling originality.

Beethoven too had been intrigued by the traditional forms of variation and fugue as inherited from Bach via his mentor Haydn.

It was the variations of Beethoven’s ‘Arietta’ almost his last words at the keyboard, to be followed only by the mighty ‘Diabelli Variations’ op 120 before preferring to close with the mere six trifles of op 126 .

Trifles they might be but also more commercially viable for the publishers that tormented Beethoven all his life.

They, like the ‘Arietta’ we heard played with seemingly simple mastery today, are where so few notes can mean so much. After the ‘Sturm und Drang’ of the ‘Allegro con brio ed Appassionato’ that Nikita played with the same nobility and authority as the Brahms, Nikita could reveal Beethoven’s vision of the paradise that he could already see in the not too distant future .

Performances of natural authority and solidity, but it was in Liszt’s demonic ‘Mephisto’ that this young man could reveal the youthful passion and brilliance that was in his soul. Like the young lion Liszt, who could astonish and seduce the refined ladies of the Parisian salons, turning well bred aristocrats into screaming animals grabbing at souvenirs to take back to their formal abodes.

The audiences are much more restrained these days but after Nikita’s seductively elusive performance of Liszt’s second Paganini study he did get a standing ovation as they could catch a glimpse of a young virtuoso about to burst into bloom like everything in this Paradise of natural untainted beauty.https://youtu.be/5kHxIKN2RUg?si=vLNstaiR1nA0UNUH

Nikita celebrating after the first concert, at signora Anna’s ‘La Rondinella’

Today ‘Gaspard’ and ‘Petrushka’ were added to Brahms in a rather rainy garden that exudes the same passion for life that Susana was to exult in this Paradise of recreation. A hall rarely seen so full with a queue outside the concert hall and at the end of an exciting and exhilarating Petrushka, a standing ovation. Brahms played with more fluidity and freedom than yesterday from an artist who had breathed the magic air at La Mortella and was inspired to recreate something of the beauty of his surrounds. ‘Ondine’ just flitted around the keyboard with the same fluidity and glowing radiance as the fountain that adorns these magic gardens. A fluidity of sounds of ravishing colours on which the water nymph could ride with poetic ease. A climax of burning intensity and considerable technical mastery was soon defused as the little nymph slipped away almost unnoticed with whispered tones of delicacy and poignant nostalgia. ‘Le Gibet’ was allowed to swing with terrifying insistence as a desolate atmosphere was etched with a chameleonic sense of colour where the tolling bell was allowed to sound with extraordinary constancy. The devilish antics of ‘Scarbo’ were depicted by Ravel with diabolical technical feats of virtuosity in a movement where Ravel expressly trIed to technically out do Balakirev’s notorious Islamey. Exhilaration and excitement went hand in hand with otherworldly sounds of mystery and devilish insistence. A ‘ tour de force ‘ of piano playing that Nikita kept concealed within a framework of poetic fantasy and startling effects.

The three movements from Petrushka are new to Nikita’s repertoire and he brought a freshness and fantasy that is usually hidden behind a piece often used as a technical showpiece. Nikita brought a sense of dance to the opening ‘Danse russe’ where we could almost imagine the dancers on stage rather than it just being a showpiece for virtuosi pianists. ‘Chez Pétrouchka’ I have rarely heard such a characterful performance with a startling sense of colour and swift shifts in mood. ‘La semaine grasse’ was a ‘tour de force’ of dynamic drive and with a sense of balance that could make the piano seem like a whole orchestra rather than a battle ground for aspiring showmen.

The concerts today were dedicated to Lady Walton as a tribute to a great lady on the 100th anniversary of her birth.

Nikita Burzanitsa in Florence A birthday celebration with the mastery of a poet of the keyboard

The back of beyond -Bright future for the class of Dmitri Alexeev -Jacky Zhang-Alexander Doronin-Nikita Burzanitsa-Thomas Kelly -JunLin Wu

Surprise from our next door table Chez Anna – a sketch made during the recital by very enthusiastic art historians on holiday. Very interesting article about Rothko exhibition in Florence https://open.substack.com/pub/petertomaslang/p/in-1959-rothko-walked-into-michelangelos?r=5l1rj&utm_medium=ios

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 born with it and it can only be nurtured and helped to grow. https://youtu.be/gex0sOR7XZ0?si=th7ecNiPOyOzp0GX

It is a delicate thing that can also be killed if not cared for 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 had 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 led 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 to 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 were 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. 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, so let’s put the horse before the cart and allow Bydlo to go on his miraculous lumbering 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.

Benedetto Lupo’s final Diploma recitals for the Accademia di S.Cecilia in Rome

Benedetto Lupo ‘Il Re di Roma taming his young Lions with mastery, poetry and above all humanity’

Lupo/Gatti in Florence Lift up your hearts

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 discover 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 movimento’ 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’ began 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 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.