ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

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

Filippo Gorini’s Sonata for 7 Cities project began in 2025. The idea was simple: he would take part in seven month-long residencies in cities around the world, combining recitals with teaching and outreach work. Each recital was designed around sonatas from the Classical and Romantic repertoires, with seven composers also commissioned to create new works.

It is almost a year since Brendel left us and even during his retirement from the concert platform his presence at the Wigmore Hall was always an endorsement of a hall where music with a capital ‘M’ can always be heard. Brendel passing on his wisdom and knowledge to many musicians who came within his radius. A school demonstrating honesty, integrity and a selfless dedication to the composers that they are serving with no thought of showmanship or self advancement.

I have been following Fillipo’s performances for some time, from the Art of Fugue filmed live in Turin to the Diabelli variations that he explained and played in London, invited by his colleague and friend,Raffaello Morales, to play at his Fidelio Café. Filippo, mentored by Brendel, is one of the few artists that you can trust and that regularly have me rushing to take another deeper look at the score. They are artists who can unlock secrets that are only revealed to those that with total dedication and mastery can unravel the mysteries left by the composers. It is a voyage of discovery together, where performance becomes recreation. This is what we experienced from Filippo Gorini today.

Schumann and Beethoven a continuous outpouring of sounds with an inner meaning to notes, that we have heard from many hands, but today played with a simplicity and humility that illuminated these scores in a way that held us in a spell of concentrated revelatory beauty. First performances in the UK of works commissioned by this young man, who is not living in the past but with eyes and ears looking to the future and bringing new discoveries into the concert hall with sounds that open our ears and allow us to listen even to well worn masterpieces with different ears. Rubinstein would often, in the middle of a Chopin recital, include mazurkas by Szymanowski that was like a sorbet in a sumptuous feast, opening our ears ready for even more delights. Rubinstein too was a great promulgator of contemporary composer friends, and his first performance of Ravel Waltzes in Spain was booed by an audience not used to such modern sounds. Without batting an eye lid the much feted pianist played the whole thing again as an encore!. Well Gorini was certainly not booed after his masterly performances of breathtaking daring and total conviction of the two works commissioned by him for his 7 City project. He did not need to play them again but luckily the Wigmore had thought of that and their superb live stream recording can be listened to as many times as desired!

Beat Furrer’s Studie IV was composed for Gorini’s residency in Hong Kong. It’s a work that makes considerable technical demands on the performer, switching between a variety of textural patterns with scarcely a break in the texture, rather like a pianistic workout routine.

Beat Furrer’s study for piano is a continuous outpouring of dissonant chattering played with a dynamic drive and inner energy with splashes of notes thrown in from above and below with quite remarkable agility. A seemingly endless repetition of sounds like a cauldron of boiling water on which streaks of colour were played like strokes on a modern canvas. The sudden contrasting silence towards the end was even more poignant as bell like sounds were heard with a glistening glow as they were isolated sounds in a sudden barren landscape. A tour de force from Gorini but even more, an arresting opening of burning intensity and poetic poignancy.

In the words of the composer :’ Its opening idea is a percussive interplay of note clusters, slowly rising from the middle of the keyboard, with stabbing interruptions from the outer extremes of the piano’s register. Fast downward-sliding figures follow, murky and low. These descending gestures expand in range, gathering strength and complexity until they resound like a vast peal of bells. There is a temporary respite of short, sharp chords, before further whirling patterns and variations on earlier material. But all this technical display falls away in an eerily sparse coda. With almost every note given its own precise dynamic marking, Studie IV concludes with anexploration of subtly differentiated tone colours.’

Stefano Gervasoni expressed trepidation in composing a Sonata for Gorini – it is the first time he has ever used a conventional formal title. Citing its modernist evolution under figures such as Boulez and Ives, he describes sonata form as ‘capable of tempering expression and forcing it into objectivity … not a single note must be wasted, no expressive value can be squandered’

A work of violent contrasts with a swirling whirlwind of sounds out of which are posted notes high in the piano register. An impressive work played with an architectural shape that moulded a very episodic work into one continuous whole.

In the words of the composer : ‘ Structured in a single movement, but covers a wide expressive terrain, something reflected in his imaginative performance directions, which include terms such as ‘disintegrating’ , ‘sliding’ and ‘whipping’. Its opening theme is a slow treble melody which fluctuates around the note of G, set against a rhythmically dislocated accompaniment. This melody recurs in several forms, but along the way the music progresses through sudden eruptions, ghostly processions, and furious torrents of notes. When the opening melody returns at the end it slowly dies away, seemingly sapped of energy before a loud chord – ‘shouted’ is the word in the score – brings matters to a close’

Rarely have I heard Schumann’s Davidsbündler played with such solidity but also such freedom and ravishing beauty. Joy and grief did indeed go hand in hand. I wonder why he split the hands at the opening and look forward to seeing eventually what he might do with op 106! But of course it is the intention behind the notes that counts and his passionate drive at the opening swept us along as it was combined with moments of refined rubato and fantasy. ‘Innig’ Schumann writes and at first seemed very slow but was beautifully shaped where delicacy and yearning went hand in hand. The third piece sprang to life with drive and capricious energy before the passionate outpouring of the ‘Ungeduldig’. A very thoughtful Eusebius, played with glowing timeless beauty, slowing down at the end ,weighed down with measured thoughts. Great clarity to the left hand in the sixth as the tension rises before the beautifully pensive ease of a seeming long improvisation. It was this continuous contrast between passion and poetic contemplation that came across in Filippo’s masterly playing, underlining the conflicting elements in Schumann’s split personality of Florestan and Eusebius. The eighth ‘Frisch’ was played with nonchalant ease as the passionate outpouring of the ninth entered the scene with its duet between the two characters.Its capricious ending where Schumann adds : ‘Florestan made an end, and his lips quivered painfully’. ‘Balladenmässig’ was played with sumptuous rich Brahmsian sounds where Filippo’s limpet like touch could extract wonderfully rich sounds. Simple contemplative beauty to the ‘Einfach’ with Filippo’s extraordinary control of sound and beauty of balance of sensuous and profound sculptured sounds of poignant beauty. ‘Mit humor’ that Filippo played with capricious playfulness, shaped beautifully as one phrase answered another with eloquence. There was a passionate intensity to ‘Wild und lustig’ with a wonderful almost imperceptible transition to the chorale like melody that Schumann floats above these sumptuous sounds and where Filippo’s mastery of the pedal allowed for clarity bathed in beauty. The fourteenth is one of Schumann’s most beautiful melodies and Filippo played it with glowing beauty and a rare sensibility where he could stretch the sound like a belcanto singer without ever breaking the overall shape and spell of such radiance. Rudely interrupted by the abrupt ‘Frisch’ before turning into a wondrous outpouring of waves of sounds spread over the entire keyboard. Filippo’s masterly control illuminated an Aeolian harp with a ravishing kaleidoscope of sounds. The chattering spirited chords of the sixteenth were played with capricious freedom as they dissolved into the magic world of wondrous beauty that Schumann could create. Here Filippo’s mastery of sound and sense of balance created the magical world of Schumann and the final slow dance was played with a touching tenderness and nostalgia relieved only by the striking of midnight so subtly suggested in the bass.

Moments of silence were a sign that the magic of Schumann had penetrated deeply into the atmosphere. An audience in one of those magic moments where people are united as one and as Schumann says “Quite superfluously Eusebius remarked as follows: but all the time great bliss spoke from his eyes.”

A monumental performance of Beethoven’s penultimate sonata played with radiance and beauty. Unfolding with waves of sound linking moments of deeply felt poignancy as Filippo played with a simplicity but also at times with an innermost turbulence. He could bring magic moments to the transitions or changes of key without ever underlining what Beethoven has written in the score. An awareness that was touched with Godliness. This was a performance where so little could mean much. Great buoyancy to the ‘Scherzo’ also played quite simply and legato with the delicate return of the ‘Scherzo’ after the masterly control of the ‘Trio’. A stillness to the ‘Adagio’ as it unfolded to an aria that was remarkably free, allowed to breathe as a singer, where fluctuations of the heart beating in the left hand were allowed more liberty to accompany rather than as an anchor. A poignant whispered entry of the fugue and an even more intense return of the aria leading to powerful chords of great inner turbulence before the whispered return of the fugue in inversion. A gradual increase in volume as Filippo allowed this joyous outpouring of passionate intensity to fill the hall with the vision of beauty that Beethoven could already envisage. A masterly performance from a thinking musician who could delve deeply into the score as indeed Brendel had shown us and whose heritage has been passed on to his disciple Filippo Gorini, as the the voyage continues!

Brahms Waltz op 39 n.15 also in A flat was played with ravishing beauty and a refined sense of style and brought to an end a recital from a pianist who is above all an interpreter who can delve deeply into the scores and share with us the discoveries that are hidden within.

Diabelli is box office at Fidelio where Genius meets Genius -Filippo Gorini and Raffaello Morales breaking barriers

Filippo Gorini The Art of Fugue

Filippo Gorini at Rome University La Sapienza

Filippo Gorini at Teatro Argentina Rome

Filippo Gorini’s musicianship has drawn acclaim in recitals in the major venues in Europe and abroad, ranging from Milan’s Teatro alla Scala to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, and Louis Vuitton Foundation Paris, as well as with orchestras such as the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchester, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the Gyeonggi Philharmonic in Seoul, the Opera Nacional de Chile, under conductors such as Daniele Gatti, Hartmut Haenchen, Junichi Hirokami. 

Filippo’s highlights from 2024-25 include his recital debut in Carnegie Hall, his one-month residency at the Vienna Konzerthaus, and concertos with the Orchestre Nationale de Lille and Nagoya Philharmonic. Next season he will have one-month residencies in Cape Town for the Stellenbosch University, in Hong Kong for Premiere Performances, and in Oregon for Portland Piano International, as well as returns in Wigmore Hall and La Scala for recitals.

His ongoing project “Sonata for 7 cities”, set to end in 2027, aims to show a new, responsible and ethical approach to concert life with monthly residencies in Vienna, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Portland, Medellín, Milan and more, centred around performances, outreach, teaching, and philanthropy. During this project he will also perform seven newly commissioned piano pieces by composers Stefano Gervasoni, Federico Gardella, Beat Furrer, Michelle Agnes Magalhaes, Yukiko Watanabe, Oscar Jockel, Ondrej Adamek. This journey will also be covered in a documentary-series by director Ruggero Romano, and by the release of seven live albums on Alpha Classics.

Filippo’s previous multi-year project “The Art of Fugue Explored” had already shown his vision and creativity to go further than just his performing abilities: with the support of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, he released the work on Alpha Classics in 2021, performed it internationally over 30 times, and published on RAI5 and online a series of filmed conversations on Bach’s music involving personalities such as Peter Sellars, Frank Gehry, Sasha Waltz, Alexander Sokurov, Alexander Polzin, Alfred Brendel, George Benjamin, and many more. A filmed live-performance is also available on Carnegie+.

Filippo has received the “Premio Abbiati”, the most prestigious musical recognition in Italy, in 2022, as well as the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2020 and First Prize at the Telekom-Beethoven Competition 2015. His three albums featuring Beethoven and Bach late works, released on Alpha Classics, have garnered critical acclaim, including a Diapason d’Or Award and 5-star reviews on The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, Le Monde.

Alongside his solo career, Filippo has performed chamber music with musicians such as Marc Bouchkov, Itamar Zorman, Andrea Cicalese, Haesue Lee, Pablo Ferrandez, Brannon Cho and Enrico Bronzi, in renowned festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, the Prussia Cove Chamber Music Seminars, as well as “Chamber Music Connects the World” in Kronberg with Steven Isserlis. He has taught masterclasses at the Liechtenstein Musikakademie, the University of British Columbia, the Royal Welsh College of Music, and the conservatories in Bergamo and Siena. He follows actively the world of contemporary composition, and has played works by composers such as Stockhausen, Kurtág, Boulez and Lachenmann as well as commissioning new pieces.

After graduating with honours from the Donizetti Conservatory in Bergamo and the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Filippo’s development was further supported by Maria Grazia Bellocchio, Pavel Gililov, Alfred Brendel and Mitsuko Uchida.

Ruben Micieli flown from Sicily to the hills of Rome bringing with him the bel canto of his hometown Catania where he graduated with honours from the Bellini Conservatory. Recognised in Warsaw last year by one of the most discerning critics, Jed Distler , who remarked on his strong hands wrapped in velvet gloves . What he did not mention was a heart of gold and a soul immersed in the style of bel canto opera which is in his very blood.

Ruben plays with style but also with intelligence and he is immersed in the world of Italian opera not only as a pianist but also as a conductor.

Ruben who has been seated at the piano since he was four and since that moment it has become his breath, the essence of his existence. Like a constant companion always providing what he needs . Music for Ruben is life itself and a profound expression of the soul.

What better way could there be to describe who he is and why he transmits a sense of communication that is so immediate and compelling .

I saw him coming on stage with an I pad and assumed he would need an ‘aide memoire’ for such unusual repertoire. But as he exclaimed afterwards he could not possibly play such music with the score and the I pad was only to read us the poems that preface the original works by Adolfo Fumagalli. Ruben is a sincere musician of humility and honesty with a sense of integrity towards the composers he loves so much.

When Ruben was eleven an elderly pianist named Maria Paraninfo heard about this talented boy and gave him a rare 20th century edition of the Fantaisie Brillante on Bellini’s Norma by Joseph Leybach on the condition he learnt to play her favourite piece. It was here that Ruben’s curiosity was born and twelve years later lead to his first recording ‘Paraphrases de Salon’ including this very piece and many others that Ruben has found in the archives and is bringing back to life in the concert hall and in recordings.

His programme played on an Erard of 1879 finished with the Leybach ‘Norma’ fantasy that had inspired a young boy to reach for the heights. Many original touches compared to Liszt’s famous paraphrase, and Leybach unlike Liszt includes ‘Casta Diva’ and although he does not exploit the three handed technique of Liszt or Thalberg there are many moments of technical fireworks and excitement.

It was fascinating to hear also some original pieces by Fumagalli that were not transcriptions but pieces inspired by poems that Ruben read before playing each piece. There are 24 pieces to this ‘École moderne du pianiste’ op 100 but so far only 18 have come to light. Ruben intends to make a new recording of many of Fumagalli’s most important works and today he demonstrated the reason why this composer should not be overlooked. It is a similar fate to Alkan who has been rediscovered in recent times, but Fumagalli still awaits!

Ruben presented four of the pieces from op 100 : ‘Souvenirs Mélodie’, a charming salon piece with it’s echo effect in the upper register that Ruben played with great style gradually taking wing with passionate intensity. ‘Les Troubadours.Ballade’ was a tone poem in imposing march style with a virtuosic ending of quixotic charm. ‘Près des flots.Étude maritime’, was a brooding piece full of chromaticisms with virtuosistic flourishes reminiscent in many ways of Alkan. ‘Le papillon Étude de Salon’, is a virtuoso study of continuous undulating sounds of charm and grace. They may be salon pieces but when played with the style and delicacy of Ruben, together with his jeux perlé of refined brilliance and beauty he reminds us of the style of the great pianists of the Golden Age of piano playing. An age when pianists were also magicians who could find colours that todays pianists not always are aware of in their quest for pianistic perfection and fidelity to the score.

The other works on the programme were all paraphrases from the operas of Verdi and Bellini played with brilliance and style on an Erard of 1879 which is proudly shared with us by Ing.Tammaro. Fumagalli’s ‘Traviata’ opening with delicate flourishes as embellishments filled the piano with ravishing sounds of refined brilliance, played with beguiling charm and grace of exquisite finesse. Golinelli’s ‘Traviata’ on the other hand was full of double octaves with a kaleidoscope of elaborately ornamented variations where bel canto was balanced with virtuosity in an enticing cocktail of scintillating playing. Eugenia Appiani’s ‘Rigoletto’ beginning with tragic undertones before ‘La donna è mobile’ adds charm and sparkle leading to a brilliant coda.

By great request Ruben had learnt especially for the concert Sgambati’s well known transcription from Gluck’s Orpheus and was rewarded afterwards with a special Medal by Ing Tammaro in thanks and recognition of his superb performances.

Adolfo Fumagalli (19 October 1828 – 3 May 1856) was born in Inzago, Italy, and grew up in a very musically oriented environment. He had three brothers who also became musicians and composers. He studied from 23 November 1837 to 7 September 1847 at the Milan Conservatory  under Pietro Ray for counterpoint and Angeleri for piano.Afterwards in 1848, at the age of 20, made his Milan  debut with some success. He had a series of popular concert tours throughout the major cities of Italy, France and Belgium until 1854. His greatest sensation when he began performing his compositions for left hand alone and was among the first to make piano pieces for one hand,  Although he looked rather frail, as is evident from paintings of him, he had a phenomenal technique and strong fingers that astonished everyone. In 1854 he returned to Italy, where he alternated between concert tours and composing. In 1856 he was given an Erard grand piano from the firm as an advertising promotion. later in the year on May 3, he passed away. 

Fumagalli’s output is quite extensive, though almost all of it is extremely difficult to obtain today. His works consist primarily of operatic fantasies and character pieces. One of his most difficult and virtuosic works is his Grande Fantasie sur Robert le Diable de Meyerbeer, op.106 (dedicated to Liszt) for the left hand. He also composed an arrangement of Vincenzo Bellini’s “Casta Diva” from Norma  for the left hand. Almost his entire output is for solo piano and the works which employ other instruments all seem to include the piano in some way, a feature that is similar to Chopin’s output. Although he was perhaps not a very inspired or ingenious composer, his works for left hand alone stand nonetheless as an important testament of the progress in technique and virtuosity of the period, especially of single-handed works.His works range from op 1 to op 112.

Ruben Micieli ‘ A poetic kapellmeister getting to the heart of Chopin’

Ruben Micieli triumphs with Chopin in Florence with Music al British in the Harold Acton Library

Ruben Micieli triumphs in London for the Keyboard Trust at Steinway Hall

Oxana Yablonskaya the return of La Regina, a sparkling jewel in the crown of Trapani

Dina Ivanova in Trapani A great artist with playing of fluidity and poetry of passionate intensity and glowing beauty

First prize Maruyama Nagino aged 26 from Japan.A miniscule young artist with an enormous talent ! From the very first notes she revealed a sensibility and perfect legato with the rhythmic drive of a musician who knows where she is going and gets straight to the point, like Serkin. Scrupulous attention to the composers indications and a sense of stylistic fantasy where, as in Scarlatti, decisions are left to the performer. Preferring to play Chopin’s double thirds study rather than Liszt ‘Campanella’ ( which she seduced us with at the final concert ) and Brahms Paganini Variations instead of Chopin Fourth Ballade. Chopin’s notoriously difficult study was played with a legato where her tiny hands have been moulded from birth to the shape of the keys as she was able to effortlessly extract sounds from the streams of notes with a seamless legato that I have only heard from recordings of legendendary artist from the Golden Age like Moritz Rosenthal. Brahms Paganini not only meeting all the technical challenges which passed unnoticed, as it was her sense of style and range of colour that turned a work often played as an exercise into a sumptuous outpouring of romantic ardour.

I was not looking forward to hearing the ‘Appassionata’ followed by Brahms Haendel, but from the very first notes I was riveted to the sounds that she could produce and the depth with which she had delved into these much abused scores. Beethoven where the rest after then opening trill becomes even more menacing than the notes. Waves of sounds played as Beethoven shows us in the score, not divided between the hands to make life easier.This is not play safe music and if you are not ready or aware of the challenge that Beethoven demands it is better not to enter the haven of a universal genius. The ‘Andante’ I have never heard played so quietly but where each note was of the fundamental importance of a string quartet. The dynamic drive and Beethovenian explosions of impatience in the final movement were breathtaking in their audacity and authenticity, keeping reserves of energy for the coda that Beethoven marks from Allegro non troppo to Presto with a long held final pedal too.

Brahms Haendel Variations opened with the same crystalline clarity that she brought to Scarlatti but this was built in tension and beauty by an artists who could see the architectural whole and where everything she played was with this in mind. The culmination after the glorious triumphant declamation of Haendel’s innocuous theme was followed by the burning energy and transcendental mastery of the Fugue.

In the final round she chose, obviously because of time ,to play only two of the three movements that make up Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit. ‘Ondine’ where with her refined artistry notes became streams of sound out of which emerged the beauty of the water nymph’s song. ‘Scarbo’, where Ravel intentionally penned a work of more transcendental difficulty than Balakirevs Islamey, but filled this fleetingly devilish piece with very precise indications. Maruyama, with her extraordinary mastery, followed Ravel’s indications, producing sounds that I have never heard before in this work. The ending in particular was where she brought poignant poetic meaning to this extraordinarily impish farewell . She played always with restrained brilliance and masterly control of sound. Debussy’s ‘L’Isle Joyeuse’ was full of the sultry colours of the composer’s vision of Jersey, but there was also a passionate involvement and a kaleidoscope of colours. Prokofiev 7th Sonata, the second of his War Sonatas and full of violent conflicting emotions . From the opening dynamic drive and pounding rhythms to the desolation and desperation that is always present, however distant. A beautiful outpouring of the Andante caloroso turning up the heat of quite another order, as our pianist could allow the music to erupt before dying away to the same desolate landscape as Le Gibet ,that hopefully we will hear on another occasion! The last movement was breathtaking in its fearless and relentless insistence. Playing of masterly control but always of a musician who could bring drive and meaning to notes too often played with brute force instead of poetic intensity.

At the prizewinners concert she chose to play ‘La Campanella’ and Chopin’s Polonaise ‘Héroique.’ Her crystalline clarity and masterly brilliance illuminated Liszt’s ‘Campanella’ but the Polonaise was not only heroic but with sumptuous full sounds that belied her physical stature . Here she proved yet again that on stage she is in reality a Giant.

Tied second prize Arsen Dalibaltayan, aged 23 from Croatia. Arsen’s father is a well know teacher in Zagreb and was the teacher of a young pianist, Ivan Krpan who at 20 had won the Busoni competition not by astonishing the jury but by his mature musicianship and technical command at the service of the composer. A first round that showed with short works by Scarlatti, Scriabin and Rachmaninov his quasi orchestral sense of colouring with poetic sounds of luminosity and a beauty of timeless freedom. I had already eyed his second round programme that would include Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata, prefacing it with Chopin’s most poignant late Nocturne, where he was able to show us the contrast between works written quite close to each other, but revealing a world of mature aristocratic genius as opposed to a world of turbulence and violent emotions. Allowing the Chopin to unfold with the natural beauty and simplicity of a Bruno Walter whereas Beethoven needs the strong no nonsense command of a Toscanini.To play op 106 in competition conditions is a ‘tour de force’ in itself and there were many memorable moments in a performance of passionate intensity. But the rhythmic perfection and minute detail that fills the score needed more careful attention and less accommodating compliance. It was this scrupulous attention to detail that marked Maruyama’s Beethoven and made it so riveting with the burning intensity that actually is written in the score. It was in the final round that Arsen came into his own as he entered a world of fantasy and intensity. A ‘Dante’ Sonata that was one of the finest I have ever heard, where Arsen’s scrupulous attention to the composers indications allied to an extraordinary palette of sounds was breathtaking, with it’s passionate intensity and sublime whispered beauty. Scriabin’s 7th Sonata was of such mastery that we were all left hanging on to every note that came steaming out of the piano, as Arsen played with burning conviction and a complete understanding of this strange world of mystery and colour. As I wrote to Ivan immediately after his performance ‘ Fantastic Dante and Scriabin 7th out of this world’. I am glad the jury thought so too!

Tied second prize Bohdan Terleskyy aged 20 from Ukraine. Masterly performances from this young artist, almost twice the size of Maruyama Nagino, and with a directness of sound that at times I found rather overpowering.Too full of light and energy but missing refined subtly and sense of colour. Bach Siloti that seemed too present and not with the magic sounds that Siloti has added to Bach’s simple prelude. Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ was played with mastery and brilliance. An intelligence but not always a scrupulous attention to the composers very particular pedal markings or subtle changes of mood. This was masterly playing though even if rather black and white. The choice of Liszt’s beautiful ‘Cloches de Genève’ revealed a true thinking musician. ‘Dante’ of course he played magnificently but missed the drama and contrasts that can bring this work to life and reveal the masterpiece it truly is.

It was in the final round that the true artistry of this young man was revealed to the full. ‘Jeux d’Eau’ by Ravel showed the refined subtle palette of sounds that had been missing up until now with a performance of ravishing beauty and mastery. Prokofiev’s 8th Sonata was the crowning glory of his performances with a work that is a song of deliverance bringing Prokofiev’s Trilogy to a heartrending conclusion and which Bohdan played with a maturity way beyond his twenty years. This was a world where mastery and poetic beauty combined in one of the finest performances I have ever heard.

Strangely enough the first movement of the Ginastera Sonata that he played at the Prize Winners concert revealed a different pianist from the one I had heard in the rounds. Here was a sense of shape and colour that was of overwhelming impact. Maybe it was the sense of space that this giant needed to allow his larger than life playing to resound around this vast auditorium .

Third prize Mohammed Alshaikh aged 23 from Palestine. A young man who managed to overcome all the problems of travelling from a war torn country and quite simply arrived just in time to close the first round. Some masterly playing from the first notes of a Scarlatti Sonata that he played with brilliance but above all with a musicianship that could shape the notes into the beguiling jewel like precision of a magician. Chopin’s notoriously difficult study op 10 n,2 was played with a seamless legato shaping the phrases with undulating beauty as the left hand provided a simple anchor for a study that uses the weakest fingers of the hand. Saint- Saens ‘Dance Macabre’ showed his remarkable mastery and sense of fantasy and colour, as Horowitzian additions added extraordinary embellishments of breathtaking brilliance. His playing of Chopin’s Sonata op 35 revealed a musician of intelligence and mastery. Repeating the exposition back to the ‘Doppio Movimento’ rather than the introduction, just as he had also done with Beethoven’s ‘Pathétique’. Both works that were additions to his original programme and were played with refreshing simplicity and dynamic drive. The Trio of the Funeral March in Chopin was played with understated beauty as he had done with the Beethoven Adagio. It was the mastery he showed with Ravel and Barber that was astonishing. The complete ‘Gaspard’ played with the same mastery as Maruyama Nagino with a superhuman control of sound where notes became streams of poetic outpourings. But for me Misha played with more soul and dept of emotion. It was the difference between Michelangeli or Sokolov, a duel between giants indeed. Misha’s Barber Sonata, dedicated to Horowitz who gave the first performance, is a ‘tour de force’ of emotions and scintillating virtuosity. A fugue that was played with remarkable clarity and sense of line and which he quite happily repeated at the Prize winners concert with even more assurance than in the Circus arena.

Fourth prize Edoardo Mancini aged 25 from Italy. Some very sensitive playing from a young man who has a palette of subtle sounds in his fingers and is an artist of great humility and intelligence. His performance of Chopin’s first study op 10 showed a remarkable technical preparation and his daring to play Boulez 12 Notations showed a musician who has something to say and the means to say it. An intelligent combination to mix the magical sound world of Mompou followed by Boulez and then the more earthy world of Albeniz. His Scriabin second sonata revealed a sensitive artist of musical fantasy with some playing of beautiful timeless style and colour. It was the slow movement of the Brahms F minor Sonata where he reached moments of sublime inspiration allowing the music to unfold with simplicity and a palette of colours of ravishing beauty. Scrupulous attention to the composers indications showed a musician of rare sensibility. The Brahms Sonatas, Schumann called ‘veiled symphonies’ and it was here that Edoardo lacked the weight of sound and solidity that is needed in the outer movements. There are not so many notes in the third sonata compared to Liszt or Chopin but they need to be played with a precision and rock like orchestral solidity that Edoardo lacked. The weight of a Gilels or Gelber where the fingers dig deep into the keys with limpet like adhesion rather than just remaining on the surface. Edoardo is a remarkable artist as he showed at the Prize winners concert where distance and space helped conceal this fundamental lack of technical perfection in a performance of the first movement of the Brahms Sonata that was far more assured and solid than in the circus arena!

Special Scarlatti Sonata Prize to Hou Kevin Gordon aged 37 from America. Some extraordinary playing from this unique artist who seems to have strayed into the circus arena of the concert hall when his outrageous talent demands he should be astounding the audiences at Ronnie Scott’s. A range of colour and breathtaking daring that belong more to Oscar Petersen than Glenn Gould. There is something about jazz improvisation that is a God given talent these days where it was actually the norm in Bach or Mozart’s day. Court musicians were required to improvise with a facility that was considered an absolute necessity. Robert Levin has managed to recreate this world, which illuminates his playing, as he adds ornamentation and improvised cadenzas with historic scholarship and style There are pianists, mostly from the East, who have not had access to performance practices and who take the notes of the great composers and try to find the expressive meaning behind the notes, not taking much attention of the composers instruction as to how their works should be ordered. As Karl Ulrich Schnabel exclaimed to one of his students :’ so you are a composer, taking the notes of others and making your own composition…’, in exasperation he went on to say that he did not know how to teach someone who thought more of himself than the composer!’ The student in question had been trained from birth to play the piano and it was that transcendental mastery that gave him a career which many serious musicians would consider as an entertainer rather than an interpreter! Horowitz ,who knew the scores of the composers better than almost any of his comtemporaries would flock to the jazz clubs to hear and admire Art Tatum. Kevin being brought up in Hollywood of course, is a master improviser and he brought a certain freshness to many of the works he played but his random freedom with other composers notes became rather exasperating. His complete relaxation allowed him to throw his hands onto the keys and astonish us with Kapustin’s devilish jazz etudes. His obsession with Volodos or Feinberg transcriptions belie the fact that Volodos may be the greatest pianist alive or dead, but he is also a musician, who, with humility and simplicity delves deeply in the scores of Schubert, Brahms or Schumann. Preferring to be an interpreter rather than just a juggler of notes.

Trapani a diamond shining brightly for the 3rd International Piano Competition ‘Domenico Scarlatti’ Part 1 and 2

Trapani the jewel of Sicily where dreams can become reality – The International Piano Competition – Domenico Scarlatti

Dina Ivanova demonstrating that the winner of the first Scarlatti Competition four years ago had indeed revealed an artist of rare sensibility and mastery.

The competition now in its fourth year is discovering some great artists at the start of illustrious careers. Just a few days ago Jeongro Park, winner ex equo of the second edition had opened this series with a recital that Oxana Yablonskaya had simply declared the finest recital she had ever heard. Coming from a living legend this is praise indeed.

I had arrived in Trapani too late to hear him although I had heard him play in the competition in 2024. Mikhail Kambarov, ex equo with Jeongro, is giving a series of recitals in this period too for the Keyboard Trust in Germany dedicated to it founding trustee Alfred Brendel.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/04/11/trapani-the-jewel-of-sicily-where-dreams-can-become-reality-the-international-piano-competition-domenico-scarlatti/

I had flown to Trapani especially to listen to the 87 year old legend Oxana Yablonskaya as she seduced us yet again with her great artistry after having spent days dedicated to listening to aspiring young musicians. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/04/13/oxana-yablonskaya-the-return-of-la-regina-a-sparkling-jewel-in-the-crown-of-trapani/

President of both the junior and the Scarlatti International, demonstrating in a pause from her jury duties to play herself, showing us that great artistry, like good wine, matures with the years. Madam Yablonskaya tells me that the day after the final prize winners concert on Friday she will fly to China to play Beethoven 4 with the New Zealand Philharmonic!

Age has no barriers as music is a lifelong passion that grows with experience and maturity and evidently unleashes superhuman energy.

Today we were gathered to applaud the young winner of the very first Scarlatti International that had been presided over by another remarkable octogenarian lady pianist, Marcella Crudeli. Dina Ivanova born in 1994 on Christmas Day, went on from Trapani to take first prize at the Rome International which is Marcella Crudeli’s creation and is now in its 33rd year!

Great ladies like Fanny Waterman in Leeds have been creating competitions that give a platform to extraordinary young artists at the start of important careers. Fanny quite simply bullied the great pianists of the day to come to her hometown, admonishing them as she told them that they had a duty to find the young artists who would become their heirs. Curzon, Magaloff, Fischer, Tureck Bachauer, Sandor, Nikolaeva and Yablonskaya were all bullied to give up their time as they discovered artists such as Alexeev, Perahia, Lupu, Schiff, Uchida and many more in its over half a century of existence .

Vincenzo and Giacometta Marrone D’Alberti are dedicating their lives to bringing great talent to Trapani, creating a voyage of discovery that each year is bringing lustre to the jewel in the crown of Sicily that is Trapani. Above all launching young artists at the start of their career, Vincenzo even inviting the winners of each competition to return to Sicily to play, as they in turn sit on the jury where it takes one artist to recognise another!

Dina had opened her recital, of course, with Scarlatti. Sonatas all in D minor that she played with a crystalline clarity and scintillating rhythmic drive. A sense of dance and a ‘joie de vivre’ that gave great character and an irresistible buoyancy to what in lesser hands can seem like cold exercises. Dina revealed them as miniature tone poems that are from the 550 that this genius of an originally Trapanese family, could pen whilst at the Spanish, Portuguese and English courts of the day, where he had found employment.

Dina even closed her recital after a breathtaking visit to Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker’ as seen through the eyes of Mikhail Pletnev, with a scintillating sonata ,K1, by Scarlatti where the ornaments glistened like jewels in the crown of Trapani. Playing of refined elegance with a palette of colours rivalled only by the crystal blue waters that glisten and glow as they gently lap the shores of this paradise.

The refined colours and atmospheres that Ravel could evoke in ‘Miroirs’ found in Dina the ideal interpreter. Notes just disappeared as they became streams of sound of undulating and pulsating colours as the moths of the first ‘Miroir’ glowed like will o’ the wisps flitting around the keyboard. Dina living every moment of this fantastic world that Ravel could create, with refined technical brilliance and extraordinary imagination painting in sound with glowing magic. A few long sustained notes were enough to suggest the sultry atmosphere in which these moths could flit about with impish freedom. The final note where Dina threw her arms into the air as she tried to catch one of these little devils such was her self identity with the sound world she was able to create with quite astonishing mastery.This is the true mastery of sound where Dina had a kaleidoscope of colours not only in her fingers but also in her feet, as her masterly pedalling could add sultry poignant weight creating imaginary atmospheres. There was a radiance to the sound as the saddest of birds in the second ‘Miroir’ became agitated with grieving supplication before resigning themselves to the beauty of their surrounds. Dina has such beautiful arm movements where her whole body is swimming in sounds of horizontal beauty never vertical brutality!. There was a fluidity and glowing radiance too to the ‘ocean waves’ that Ravel’s boat could float on with such ease in his third ‘Miroir’. Streams of notes that gradually grew in turbulence as Dina’s arm movements became ever more fluidly agitated. The calm after the storm was one of those magic moments that can only be discovered in live performance where time seems to stand still. Dina’s mastery could create with perfect equilibrium the gently lapping waves with the right hand as Ravel sings a hymn of thanksgiving in the left. Waves that were thrown off with leisurely nonchalance at the end as she had done with the moths in the first of these extraordinary ‘Miroirs’. There was a scintillating brilliance to the Morning Song of the Clown or The Jester’s Aubade of the fourth ‘Miroir’ ,where Dina’s spiky brilliance was filled with pulsating rhythmic energy. Bursting into a passionate song of seduction only to be overtaken by the energy that was previously generated and reaching boiling point with double glissandi and repeated notes, where Dina’s mastery was of quite breathtaking audacity. Generating such excitement that there was spontaneous applause from a public mesmerised by such sounds after the final exhilarating flourish. But Ravel has one more image to share with us, that he found in the valley of bells. It was here that after all the pyrotechnic fireworks of the Jester, Dina revealed her true mastery of sound with subtle colours where her chameleonic sense of touch and use of pedal created a glowing radiance that filled this vast hall with the magic atmosphere that only Ravel could ‘mirror’ in sound.

Dina brought a burning energy to the opening of Schumann’s ‘Carnaval Jest’ which reminded me of the overpowering energy that Richter seduced us with on his first appearances in the West in the 60’s, with op 1 and this op 26. I was reminded of this burning energy and total commitment , where Richter like Dina broke all the rules, but created new ones, with a discovery of the music that is a true recreation. A great wave of passionate sounds where even the almost Schubertian mellifluous outpourings rode on this wave of great architectural shape and meaning in what in lesser hands can seem very episodic. Even the ‘Marseillaise’ became part of this burning cauldron of emotions. Dina playing also with a clarity where the accompaniment to the melodic line was of such etherial clarity, as she has a true finger legato, which could allow the melodic line to sing but leave the accompaniment to be beautifully free and independent and not just bathed in pedal at the service of the melodic line. There was a disarming simplicity to the all too short ‘Romance’ followed by a ‘Scherzino’ of fleeting lightness, full of ‘joie de vivre’. This was a short-lived interlude as the ‘Intermezzo’ erupted with passionate intensity and sumptuous rich sounds. Dina’s mastery of balance allowed the melodic line to ride on a wave of luxuriant sounds without ever being submerged by the intensity of the passion that had overtaken the composer in these works for piano from op 1 to op 28. They had been inspired by the love for Clara, his teacher’s daughter, whom he was eventually to marry and who would be the mother of their eight children, before being committed to an asylum and an early death at the age of 46. Dina played the Finale with even more burning intensity and the final page was a cauldron of passionately intense waves of melody played with poetic brilliance and breathtaking audacity.

Pletnev has had a varied career from winning the Tchaikovsky competition and being a virtuoso pianist, to conducting his own Symphony orchestra. I remember Sandor telling me he could not understand why such a great virtuoso pianist would want to become a conductor! https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/12/12/mikhail-pletnev-in-rome-the-return-of-de-pachmann-fakefool-or-genius/

Pletnev was a great virtuoso in his youth but his sense of colour and extraordinary mastery of balance made conducting the obvious route for his prodigious talent . Early in his career he made some piano transcriptions of Tchaikovsky Ballet scores.The ‘Nutcracker’ helped him to victory in Moscow in 1978 and it is here that Pletnev’s genial pianistic mastery is at the service of Tchaikovsky’s wonderfully melodic scores, bringing them vividly to life on the piano as they are in the theatre. They are full of ‘tricks of the trade’ and require a pianist with a chameleonic kaleidoscope of sounds to be able to bring them to life. In short they need a musician who is also a magician. Dina showed us today that she has just such mastery as she brought vividly to life the various scenes from the ‘Nutcracker’. From the excitement and grandeur of the opening march to Tchaikovsky’s secret tool of the celeste that he was to surprise his audiences with as the ‘Sugar Plum Fairies’ danced with such glowing grace. There followed the scintillating ‘Tarantella’ with its hint of lyricism and sadness. Dina brought ravishing beauty to the Intermezzo with waves of sounds spread over the whole keyboard before the impish good humour of the ‘Trepak’ and the teasing brilliance of the ‘Chinese dance.’The opulence of the final ‘Andante Maestoso’ was of breathtaking sweep and passionate beauty. This transcription by Pletnev becomes an opera of art in its own right such is his complete understanding of the keyboard . Like Liszt or Thalberg the piano becomes a full orchestra and with the advent of the sustaining pedal what appears to be a three handed pianistic technique. With Pletnev one marvels at the seemingly many hands that go into its making as Dina showed us today with her breathtaking mastery.

And at the end of another masterly recital the Artistic Director and the President of the jury were ready to announce the contestants admitted to the semifinal round of the fourth Scarlatti International Piano Competition.

A Queen returns to Trapani to astonish and seduce with timeless mastery and ravishing beauty. Playing of aristocratic weight from a great artist who at 87 can still persuade us that the piano can sing with a voice of simplicity and touching humanity. Oxana Yablonskaya after a day listening to extraordinarily talented young musicians could at last sit before this black beast and allow wondrous stories to unfold from her fingers with the simplicity and mastery of an artist who has dedicated the whole of her long life to music.

She confided afterwards that the Chopin variations op 12, rarely heard in the concert hall, she had learnt when she was 10 ! Today the years just disappeared as the ten year old Oxana allowed Chopin’s music to unfold with the maturity and mastery of a living legend. Oxana like Argerich is able to make the music speak in a way that is always different. Slight infections, hesitations and an astonishing palette of sounds that can make the piano sing with a bel canto that would put even Caballé to shame. Oxana is part of an elite and unique group of octogenarian pianists who can demonstrate what it means to play with weight.

Argerich, Virsaladze, Leonskaya and Yablonskaya can seduce us as Rubinstein used to do in his Indian Summer, not with circus tricks but with the humility and lifetime mastery that can persuade us that this black box of hammers and strings can become an orchestra that is capable of roaring like a lion or seducing like a God. To watch Oxana and see the simple arch of her hands , so strong and noble like the columns of a Greek temple but at the same time so sensitive and sensibile . Je sens, je joue, je trasmet is what came vividly to mind as Oxana carved out the melodic line of Chopin’s first nocturne as Michangelo must have miraculously done with a slab of Carrara marble.

Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata not only played with scrupulous attention to the score but with crystalline clarity. The first notes where Beethoven’s contrast between mystery and mastery suddenly became clear as never before . The contrasts all through the sonata due to her mastery of the pedal was a true revelation . After the clouded recitativi suddenly Oxana produced menacing frighteningly whispered non legato chords that sent a shiver down the spine . An Adagio was grazioso but was also monumental as it disappeared with a whisper only to find that the Rondo was waiting to gently unfold before taking wing with aristocratic authority and at times music box fluidity.

A selection of Mendelssohn Songs without Words unfolded with the simplicity and magic that she had brought to Gluck’s sublime melodie from Orpheus that had opened the programme. Mendelssohn’s charm and grace like Griegs Lyric pieces are so rare to hear in concert these days where pianists like actors do not seem to have a diaphragm any more. A God given instrument that has been substituted for a microphone. Where an actor used to draw the audience in to his secret dream world rather than someone twiddling a mechanical knob off stage. The subtle art of acting has been substituted for media precision as the art of piano playing has been substituted for CD uniformity . The message that Oxana could share with us last night is a moment to cherish in a world where quantity has taken precedence over quality. After a long solo recital Oxana was glad to join us in the hall to celebrate the young musicians that she had been listening to for the past two days .

A competition that is bringing an important message to Trapani, a jewel in Sicily’s crown that Vincenzo and Giacometta Marrone D’Alberti want to share with a world starved of simplicity and beauty. Oxana now has a week of listening to artists competing for a place in the world of music that they have dedicated their their lives to. On Saturday she will fly to China where there is an explosion of culture and the average age of the public at classical concerts is a third of what it is in the west !

Oxana Yablonskaya Miracles in Trapani

Oxana Yablonskaya – Sorrento salutes the ‘Queen of the Keyboard’

Oxana Yablonskaya La Regina – The queen of the Keys

Oxana Yablonskaja ‘La Regina del Pianoforte’ concert relay from the Città di Minerbio

Herman Med Cerisha at La Mortella where the Walton’s offer a platform for young musicians in the paradise that they created together on the island of Ischia. They now survey the scene from the highest point of their estate adding their blessings to the many young musicians that are given a platform here in the Bay of Naples.

Today it was the turn of the twenty year old Italian born pianist, Herman Cerisha, who has for the past six years been guided by Florian Mitrea in the UK at the Purcell School and is now completing his studies at the Royal Academy. It was Prof Deniz Gelenbe judging the Beethoven Competition at the RAM, who had tipped me off about the remarkable talent of this young man.

Lina Tufano always ready to encourage great talents immediately invited him to play at La Mortella. It was her great friend Susana Walton who was particularly keen to encourage and help talent at a very early stage. The Walton Foundation was specifically created by Susana ,Lady Walton to honour the memory of her husband and their legacy that they had created together.

Sir William’s centenary was celebrated in 2002 in the presence of his Majesty King Charles and now this year we celebrate Susana’s centenary with a series of concerts in many parts of the world including a performance of the Walton cello concerto at the Proms. In the quarter of a century that Susana was left on her own she has been an indefatigable promoter of her adored husband and their work together, and single handed has made their estate grow into a thriving cultural centre of excellence where La Mortella is truly a jewel shining brightly on the world stage.

Their legacy is assured, as Lady Walton very mischievously added, because no one would want to evict them from an estate where the two founders were actually buried !

Herman presented his credentials before even touching the Steinway that was lain before him. A true artist is known by his programmes, just as a painter is, by his canvas, and the three masterworks that Herman presented immediately showed that here was a very serious musician who thought more of the composer than himself.

Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein’ Sonata was followed by Schubert’s magical A minor sonata before the explosion of Prokofiev’s 7th, the second of his three War Sonatas. Even the encore of Beethoven’s Bagatelle op 126 n 3, that he dedicated to Lady Walton, showed a rare eclectic musician who preferred to delve deeply into one of the last thoughts of a universal genius, rather than titivate the senses with a showpiece of sparkling brilliance.

These three master works I have heard Herman play in London and below is a detailed review of those performances . Herman is an artist, whilst understanding the structure and beauty of these works, he also tells me that he is particularly stimulated by an audience and together discover even more details and poetic moments on a wondrous voyage of discovery. As Picasso told his friend Rubinstein when the great pianist had commented that the subject of his latest canvasses was always the same. Picasso admonished him by saying that it was true, but that it was he that changed and could see the same objects in a different light every time he looked at them.

It was Delius who dismissed Beethoven as being all scales and arpeggios but what scales and arpeggios they become when seen through the eyes of a universal genius! Herman played with a dynamic rhythmic drive allowing the tension to wane for the second subject but not the overall pulse that Herman had created with such whispered vibrancy. He even discovered some very beautiful inner counterpoints that shone like jewels in a well worn landscape that he illuminated with a beguiling half light. An ‘Adagio’ played with poignant whispered intensity where the rests became of crucial importance and the change of colour on the non legato notes chasing each other across the keyboard with languid weight, were of orchestral colour. In fact all through his performance, whilst paying scrupulous attention to the composers markings there was a clarity and a masterly use of the pedals that became another section of the orchestra that he was conducting with such authority. This introduction suddenly was called to attention with a rather abrupt G that Herman knowingly dissolved onto a flowing web of sounds held in the long pedals that Beethoven had inherited from Papà Haydn, his original mentor. Wonderful rich bass chords gave great depth to the ever increasing sound of the contrasting episodes until the explosion of jewel box brilliance of the coda. Herman fearlessly playing the glissandi as Beethoven indicates where many pianists are afraid of covering the keys with blood on a keyboard with more weight than in Beethoven’s day. Serkin, always so scrupulous, would surreptitiously lick his fingers before attempting to obey his master.

Schubert was played with very careful pedalling never disturbing the gentle gasping wave of sounds that accompanied his genial mellifluous outpourings. Dynamic outbursts played with rhythmic precision and musicianly beauty but always with the architectural shape mind. Within this framework he could also add the freedom of poetic intensity passing from burning passion to sublime simplicity and radiance. The ‘Andante’ was where the rests became of crucial importance as the beauty of the melody was interrupted by whispered menace. The ‘Allegro vivace’ was played with streams of golden notes woven together with an intense rhythmic drive before bursting into strident declarations of intent. Schubert always has a surprise in store and the beauty of his melodic invention that interrupts this perpetuum mobile was even more remarkable for the beautiful finger legato that allowed Herman to play the accompaniment with unusual clarity that it became a duet between two voices of his orchestra. Herman displayed transcendental mastery with the infamous double octaves with which Schubert, in Beethovenian vein, abruptly brings to a close such poetic musings. It was here with the final four chords, each played with a different colour and poetic shape, that Herman showed us that these chords usually played with a final sigh of relief, today were played as belonging to the poetic musings of a great artist.

Prokofiev 7th Sonata was played with a kaleidoscope of colour as the first movement unfolded with violence mixed with harrowing beauty . An ‘Andante’ of opening radiance and sumptuous beauty before erupting and taking us to a land of desolation and desperation . The ‘Precipitato’ was a ‘tour de force’ of palpitating brilliance, where Prokofiev throws everything into the arena but never abandons the desperation and repeated insistence of the advancing troupes.

Beethoven’s ‘trifle’ op 126 n 3 was played with a simplicity and poetic beauty where at the end of a turbulent life Beethoven, like Mozart, could express so much with so little. Herman’s masterly use of Beethoven’s long pedals took us to a world that the composer could already envisage on the horizon, and am sure would have brought a knowing smile to Lady Walton to whom it was dedicated by Herman, in her centenary year.

Susana Walton 100 celebrations with Guy Johnston and friends

First evening:

L.V. Beethoven – Piano Sonata no.21 in C major, op.53 “Waldstein” (23 minutes)
F. Schubert – Piano Sonata in A minor D784 (19 minutes)
S. Prokofiev – Piano Sonata no.7 in B-flat major, op.83 (19 minutes)

Second evening:

L.V. Beethoven – Piano Sonata no.21 in C major, op.53 “Waldstein” (23 minutes)
F. Chopin – Scherzo no.3 in C sharp minor, op.39 (8 minutes)
F. Chopin – Ballade no.4 in F minor, op.52 (12 minutes)
S. Prokofiev – Piano Sonata no.7 in B-flat major, op.83 (19 minutes)

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 at St James’s Piccadilly ‘Masterly playing of intelligence and poetic beauty at the service of the composer’