ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

With Kantorow everything he plays seems like a discovery . Works we have known and loved suddenly are seen in a different light as the penetrating innocence of his extraordinary mastery can make one question even Beethoven

The final work on the programme was indeed the final sonata of Beethoven and it was a vision that threw into question interpretations from many of the most important interpreters of all time.

A vision that was at times so immediate and overpowering where even Kantorow allowed himself to indulge in discoveries, sacrificing the rock like orchestral flow. But adding a sense of fantasy and freedom that was at the limit of our understanding .

Kantorow risked all as Beethoven was to do in these last works.

The Sonatas are not pianistic as such but more orchestral and require a very firm pulse if the structure is not to crack at the seams. But it is the energy and the genial invention of Beethoven that Kantorow brought to the fore even risking all, for a vision of genial enlightenment .

This was an interpretation of a young man armed with an incredible palette of sounds and a seemingly unlimited technical mastery who was on a voyage discovering of burning intensity and poetic, even prophetic fantasy.

The opening work, too, that Liszt had written on hearing of the death of his daughter Blandine,was a cry of grief , anguish and even anger before realising that this was God’s will and anger turns into rejoicing .

Kantorow’s was a harrowing journey of breathtaking daring, risking all as he entered into the world of Liszt with the same phenomenal gifts of a prophetic genius who had a whole orchestra in his fingers and toes ( let us not forget the sustaining pedal that could allow Liszt and Thalberg to revolutionise the piano as it had been known up to then ).

Kantorow produced sounds from this piano that I have never heard before in this hall or elsewhere. Volumes of sound that struck terror into an audience not used to such unbridled virtuosity . But there were never any brittle or brutal sounds because Kantorow had come to praise not to bury the composers.

Exulte would be more correct but less Shakespearian!

This was an artist who is above all a painter in sound and a young man desperately in love with the piano . A sense of balance of a magician who could conjure with the sounds and convince us that this box of hammers and strings could produce such magical sounds . A musicianship that could steer us through the maze of notes of Medtner’s first sonata as he had done on his last visit with Rachmaninov’s first . Medtner must be in the Guinness book of records for the amount of notes per bar. But which of these notes is the main course and which are just the filling, that is,until today, the unanswered question. This is the genius or should I say the genial inquisitiveness of this young man who explained on social media the route he was taking with this sonata and the importance of the journey.

‘Kalamazoo Flow’ a Gilmore commission was played with the same astonishing mastery and vision as all that Kantorow offered to share . How he found the time to master such a work with a career where the world has woken up to a light that has appeared on the horizon brighter than any other.

A comet shooting from one continent to another as the young man with a burning desire to communicate presents the MUSIC not himself with such dedicated mastery.

Chopin’s Prelude in C sharp minor was recreated before our astonished eyes as the ravishing beauty and subtle freedom could have been Chopin himself on a voyage of discovery.

I doubted that anything so beautiful has ever been heard in this hall .

That is until Kantorow intoned Wagner’s Liebestod . Counterpoints that appeared like jewels glistening unexpectedly with a beauty of ravishment as the tension built with breathtaking audacity. Always intuitively judging the intensity with a control of sound and the subtle sense of balance of a great conductor who can show us the way with simplicity and passionate involvement .

A recital that will long remain in the memory until the next visit from this daring young man on the flying trapeze .

Alexandre Kantorow bestrides the Wigmore Hall like a Colossus.

‘Miracles at the Wigmore Hall’. Matthias Goerne and Alexandre Kantorow entwined with poetic perfection

Daniel Lozakovich Alexandre Kantorow ‘Burning intensity and passionate mastery ignite then Wigmore Hall as never before’

Alexandre Kantorow takes the Philharmonie de Paris by storm

Alexandre Kantorów in Rome plays Brahms 2 on the road to Utopia,Teodor Currentzis style

Kantorow in Verbier – Nobility,passion and poetry unite in Brahms 2 with Lahav Shani

Alexandre Kantarow ignites and delights Naples at San Carlo with his great artistry

The return of the young Tuscan pianist to the National Liberal Club

Giordano Buondonno from the coast of La Spezia I have heard many times over the past few years whilst he was perfecting his playing at Trinity Laban and the Guildhall . It was Deniz Gelenbe , head of piano at Trinity, who first invited me to the Solti Studio in London to hear Giordano. I remember vividly his performance of the Four Brahms Ballades and as I learnt afterwards he was performing on Michelangeli’s Fabbrini Steinway.

It was a quite remarkable performance that I was reminded of today as Giordano opened his lunchtime concert playing on a recently acquired Steinway Concert Grand. It replaced the one that Rachmaninov had played on before fleeing to America in 1939 where he would die in Hollywood in 1943. There is something about the richness of the Steinway ‘D’ that enhances the sumptuous orchestral beauty of Brahms’s Ballades . It is a work that Michelangeli made very much his own and his performance on one of his rare visits to London is still talked about in revered tones. Giordano has that same crystalline touch as Michelangeli and his performance today revealed a clarity allied to a sumptuous warmth that allowed the music to speak with heart-rending simplicity. A ravishing mellifluous outpouring to the second Ballade with its remarkable sense of orchestral sounds. The third is full of angular sounds contrasting with its companions especially the last one which is of a throbbing intensity and ethereal beauty that Giordano played with aristocratic refined beauty.

This is what I had written of his performance in the Solti Studio :

‘ A pianist who listens to himself is a rarity indeed but when one enters their magic world it reveals a land of magic colours and passionate emotions.

The intensity which this young man brought to the final pages of the last Ballade were of unbearable emotions with the clashing harmonies that reminded me of the scorching intensity of the supreme believer Messiaen.There was delicacy in the first Ballade and an outpouring of song in the second with great clarity in the contrasting middle episode.A startling rhythmic urgency in the third but with an architectural sense of line – the glowing prayer of the middle episode was pure magic with the delicately embroidered comments played with such refined delicacy.

Kantarow recently touched the same heights in an empty Philharmonie de Paris during the pandemic.Heights that I remember from the atmosphere that Michelangeli could create in the vast space of the Festival Hall.Fou Ts’ong would often say that it is easier to be intimate in a large space rather than a small one! ‘

The second work in today’s programme was Mussorgsky’s monumental ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’

I had heard Giordano play this in the Milton Court Hall as his graduation recital at the Guildhall . Giordano is a ‘big’ pianist and although this work was originally conceived and written especially for the piano it has been taken over by many conductors as being a show piece for orchestras .

Giordano’s was truly an orchestral interpretation where statements were always grandiose and monumental . Moments of reflection, not of intimacy, but of contrast in a performance of grandeur . Nowhere more than in the final ‘Baba Yagá’ leading into the mythical ‘Great Gate of Kiev’. Even ‘The Old Castle’, whilst played with great atmosphere there was always the pulsating heart beating within its depths. Children quarrelling not discretely but as noisily as the Chicks hatching.

This is what I wrote just a year ago :’ An imperious opening to Mussorgsky’s monumental Pictures at an Exhibition was played with a one finger technique that gave a glowing brilliance to this call to attention. He was to use the same technique again with astonishing accomplishment in the diabolical goings on of ‘Baba Yaga’.( A technique that is very noticeable with Romanovsky, another Italian trained pianist, and can lead to a greater clarity if used with knowing sensibility ). Startling characterisation of ‘Gnomus’ was followed by the etherial beauty of the ‘Old Castle’ disappearing into oblivion with whispered beauty. The teasing insistence of children in the ‘Tuileries’ was played with remarkable clarity with its improvised interruptions .’Bydlo’s’ unusually discreet appearance was built into an overpowering climax of lumbering insistence and the ‘unhatched chicks’ that followed were played with a remarkable coaxing of the keys with a continual opening and shutting movement that suited the delicate clucking of the chicks. Imperious nobility of ‘Goldenberg’ was played with steely brilliance replied by Schmuÿle’s whimpering with playing of glowing fluidity. ‘Limoges’ was a tour de force of dynamic fingerfertigkeit, from Giordano’s crystalline streamlined technique ,halted only but the imperiously frightening vision of the ‘Catacombs’. Massive sounds resounded of great resonance but never brittle or hard edged as they dissolved into the whispered glow of a vision of what lay within. The final two pictures were played with remarkable dynamic drive and masterly control of sound with the vision of the Great Gate revealed with astonishing nobility. A kaleidoscope of sounds and colours illuminated this Great symbolic vision, ever more actual in these days of misguided conflic! Played with fervent conviction and remarkable mastery it brought this recital to an extraordinarily brilliant conclusion.’

A great success was crowned with a stunning performance of Kapustin’s Jazz Etude. An audience that had forgotten all thoughts of refreshments . This was refreshment indeed ‘If music be the good of love …..play on ‘ . An audience was now totally seduced by Giordano and ready for his masterly final encore of Debussy Mouvements from Images book 1 .

Giordano Buondonno at the Solti Studio- Masterly performances of searing intensity

Giordano Buondonno crystalline clarity and mastery at St Marys

Giordano Buondonno at the Guildhall ‘drops of crystal illuminate Milton Court’

Giordano Buondonno at the National Liberal Club Masterly playing of crystalline clarity

Giordano Buondonno at Roma 3 ‘Drops of crystal ‘ of musical intelligence and ravishing beauty

Simo Sisevic Graduation recital at the Royal Academy of Music, London

A fascinating recital of Shostakovich, Mokranjak and Bartòk presented with poetic words whose significance was made even more evident in the music that this young Montenegrin pianist presented today

‘ Shostakovich grieves privately in a world at war, Mokranjac confides in a world that was not always listening and Bartòk collides with a world that pushed back hard . Three composers, three languages , three nations but with shared understanding that what we carry inside us is just as real, just as urgent as anything that happens in the world outside ‘.

Some very assured, committed playing and if ever a falling third could have such poignant meaning it was in the deep ominous bass and tenor registers and following echos throughout this remarkable work. Simo’s superb sense of balance just added to the tumultuous decadence of despair and perseverance as he carved out an architectural line of great clarity and potency.

A second movement that is a true ‘Valse de l’adieu’ with grief ridden rhythmic bass palpitations on which the melodic line was floated with a glowing luminosity of hope. An extraordinary palette of colours as the crystalline clarity was accommodated by a whispered growling bass with an extraordinary control of balance and use of the pedal. Playing of subtle intensity contrasted with the plaintive cry of the naked insistence of the theme as the variations of the last movement unfolded with growing intensity. the tempo increasing with burning insistence. After pointed declamations of ragged interjections a heart is left beating with poignant significance and Messiaenic, grating dissonances of heart rending intensity, despair mixed with hope .

Simo made me realise today what a masterpiece this work is and how lucky we were years ago in London to hear Gilels in a half empty Festival Hall as Schubert and Shostakovich were not considered box office! Gilels had come unstuck in the knotty twine of the last movement as Simo had very professionally covered a very understandable momentary lapse.

As Simo says if Shostakovich shows us grief held under pressure , Mokranjac opens a door and simply lets us in.

‘ Intimacies’ are eight short pieces of a composer that Simo considers the most distinguished Serbian composer of his generation (1923-1984) and is relatively unknown outside his home country. He says the composers’s creative act is one of intense confrontation with tradition , context and one’s own inner drama.

Remarkable playing of luminosity and glowing beauty . Whispered confessions suddenly awoken with startling violence and grief ridden constancy .Chiselled declamations fearlessly played and allowed to freely reverberate . Whispered chorale passages and the beauty of Simo’s horizontal movements creating a sheen of golden beauty growing forever in intensity.

Bartók’s Sonata was like a breath of fresh air in comparison, as the unambiguous clarity and rhythmic drive were fearlessly played with barbaric insistence. As Simo says it is percussive, propulsive , full of brutal punctuations that feels like the pressure of the outside world hammering against something internal. Masterly playing of breathtaking daring as the chattering folk music was but a bickering intrusion to such a brutally callous world.

A slow movement of isolation and etched sounds played with searing authority and burning intensity as Simo says, a devastating stillness ,a single pitch,a single chord ,repeated in a kind of ritual – grief or prayer?

A final movement of dynamic drive and relentless insistence until interrupted like the sudden drop of a bomb. Bartòk had even added notes on the piano in the second movement that Bösendorfer added to their pianos (97 to the Imperial piano, 11 more than the standard 88) to placate the genius of Bartòk who was to die in relative misery far from his homeland .

A remarkable and unexpected journey from a poet of the piano. A musician with a technique at the service of his searching musicianship .

The indomitable Canan Maxton’s Talent Unlimited comes to the rescue with Sisevic and Zheleznov at St Mary’s

Simo Šiševic is a distinguished Montenegrin pianist a Master degree student at the Royal Academy of Music in the class of the renowned `Tatiana Sarkissova.
Šišević graduated from `the Royal College of Music with First Class Honours where he studied with Gordon Fergus-Thompson and John Byrne. Furthermore, he currently studies with Boris Berman at the Accademia del Riddoto here he undertakes his master’s degree. During his undergraduate studies he studied the harpsichord with Jane Chapman and fortepiano with Geoffrey Govier.
His recent concerts with Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra and the Festival Orchestra of KotorArt with whom he performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto have had great reviews and standing ovations.
Šišević performs extensively in the UK and Europe.He gave recitals at festivals such as KotorArt, Grad Teatar Budva, Barski Ljetopis, Dani muzike Herceg Novi, Skopsko leto, and halls such as Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Europe House, Duke’s Hall, St James’s Church Piccadilly, St Mary’s Perivale Church, St Mary Abbots Church, University Women’s Club, English-Speaking Union, Austrian Cultural Forum, Museum of Macedonian Struggle, KIC Budo Tomovic. In 2016, Šišević represented his country and its musical heritage in the “Monténégro au coeur de l’Europe” concert at the Festival ‘Weekend de Clavier Contemporain’ at the Frédéric Chopin Conservatoire in Paris. At the age of 17, he had his debut with an orchestra when he played Mozart’s D-major concerto.
Šišević’s competition successes include: Third Prize at the Carles and Sofia Piano Competition in Spain (2021), Second Prize at the Orbetello Piano Competition in Orbetello, Italy (2021), First Prize in the Pieter Gaci Competition in Shkoder, Albania. (2017), First Prize at the International Piano Competition in Tivat, Montenegro (2016), Special Prize at the Windsor Piano Competition (2015), Absolute Prize in the Academy Award Competition in Rome (2013).
In 2019 he formed a trio with Luka Perazić and Kosta Popović that gave lots of concerts so far. During the same year he took part in the “Made in New York” festival and played alongside Randy Brecker, Bobby Sanabria, and Edsel Gomez. On numerous occasions, he has collaborated with a famous soprano Tamara Radjenovic.
The famous Milos Karadaglic Foundation selected Šišević as their scholar for the 2024/25 season and award him with a scholarship.
Šišević has been generously supported by the Salomon Family, The Kathleen Trust, The Zetland Foundation, Talent Unlimited, Petrovic-Njegos foundation, The Henry Wood Trust, St Marylebone Educational Foundation, PAM Montenegro, Ministry of Culture of Montenegro, Municipality of City of Bar and Capital City of Podgorica, Global Ports Holding. He was awarded a scholarship by Montenegrin Ministry of Education and Culture.
Since 2021, he is a Global Talent Visa holder, a visa endowed by the Arts Council England for exceptional achievements and contribution to arts.
Humanitarian work and volunteering is an important part of his life, as he has taken part in multiple actions by the UNICEF, Save the Children, Njegos Foundation, the Lifeline and the Royal Family of Yugoslavia in raising funds for orphanages, hospital equipment and the less fortunate.
Simo Šišević was born in Montenegro. Received first piano lesson at the “Njegos” school in Bar with Mr Maja Basarab. He is a graduate of the Art School of Music and Ballet in Podgorica, where he studied with the famous Anka Asanović. Later he was one of the last students of Vladimir Bochkaryov.
Important masterclasses that shaped his artistry were with Dmitry Alexeev, Norma Fisher, Mikhail Voskresensky, Ian Jones, Andrew Zolinsky, Vanessa Latarche.

Presented in association with Talent Unlimited

To say silence is golden in the territories of oblivion that Dominika Mak created today is to underestimate the power of music in a true artists hands

Morton Feldman’s ‘Six Intermissions’ were the mainstay of her recital in Dukes Hall marking the culmination of her Professional Diploma course at the Royal Academy. Silence that was so many different things depending on how it is approached and how it is left . With Dominika’s quite extraordinary palette of sounds each silence left us in a different place. An atmosphere at 10am that I have rarely witnessed as we the audience were left stranded, astonished, disturbed but above all never indifferent and active rather than passive receivers of sound .

She had begun with Dutilleux’s Trois Préludes that were of fluidity and luminosity as she created ‘Shadows and Silence’ of whispered secrets. It was truly touch and go with ‘On the same chord’ in which the silences were an integral part of this extraordinary world of chattering insistence and quite an extraordinary kaleidoscope of sounds. Energetic explosions as the ‘ Game of opposites’ was played out with reverberations and violent declarations.

Dominika had created a special atmosphere that even she closed her I pad and tip toed off the stage so as not to disturb the world of sound that she had created.

Returning without the I pad to play Ravel’s ‘ Le Tombeau de Couperin’ which are the six movements dedicated to friends who had fallen in the First World War.

Our ears were now so finely tuned that the subtlety and ravishing beauty of Dominika’s masterly playing swept over us as I personally listened to what was a recreation of a work that until today has never convinced me .

Vlado Perlemuter was my teacher but became more of a friend as this disciple of Ravel made his Italian debut at the age of 81. I accompanied him all over Italy until he was 90 and was with him when he made his last concert appearance at the Wigmore Hall aged 91. His last public appearance was at the Victoria Hall in Geneva , a few months later, where he had made his concert debut 70 years earlier!

All this to say that listening to Dominika today I heard one of the finest performance I have ever experienced . Her scrupulous attention to the composer’s intentions and her subtle palette of sounds was allied to the crystalline clarity of a perfectly manufactured Swiss clock . There was nothing mechanical about her playing, but there was on the other hand something quite magical.

From the whispered meanderings of velvety sounds to the purity of the ‘Fugue’ that follows . A ‘Forlane’ bathed in pedal with a knowing lilt of refreshing beauty and a will o’ the wisp glow to sounds of great delicacy . A dynamic drive to the ‘Rigaudon’ played with brilliance and quixotic fantasy with the Trio played with a crystalline French bel canto .Magic was in the air with a quasi religious intensity filling the rarified atmosphere. A mellifluous ‘Menuet ‘ clad in velvet where the Trio was a quasi religious chant whispered so magically as the ‘Menuet’ floated above before disintegrating and ending in pieces . The final ‘Toccata’ had more of Mendelssohn than Prokofiev as Dominika played with poetic brilliance rather than brute force. Bursting into almost unstoppable Schubertian mellifluous invention Dominika built up the tension with masterly playing of burning intensity and quite overwhelming mastery.

Dominika Mak plays Schumann with the Kensington Chamber Orchestra

Dominika Mak at the Matthiesen Gallery – Young Artists Concert Series ‘Dreaming of Utopia with playing of refined finesse’

Dominka Mak ‘If music be the food of love…..please play on ‘

POSK Chopin Festival 2024 Mak – Dubiel-Pawlak- Swigut A feast of music and full immersion with Lady Rose Cholmondeley and Prof John Rink

María Linares playing an eclectic programme of Brahms, Rameau and Debussy for the final recital of her Artist diploma at the Royal College of Music.

Being mentored whilst a Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellow by Norma Fischer and Danny Driver, she opened her final recital with the 6 pieces that make up Brahms op 118. Anchored in the bass the opening intermezzo was one long outpouring of sumptuous sounds played with a sweep and the beauty of interwoven counterpoints of refined musicianship. If the second intermezzo was rather slow it was imbued with poignant beauty and a palette of colour as it gradually took flight in the central episode with gently persuasive chords. Regaining its wings as Brahms miraculously adds more voices until dissolving to a mere whispered radiance. There was a gentle lilt to the ‘Allegro energico Ballade’ that was played as a true fantasy with orchestral colouring in which the melodic line was always present .Moving to the major key where the magical colours that Maria found just added to the flowing beauty of this etherial interlude. A pianist with a kaleidoscopic palette of colours added to a musicianship that can always follow the architectural line with bass notes that are the very anchor on which these ‘lullabies of grief ‘ are allowed to blossom . Maria brought a shimmering beauty to the ‘Allegretto un poco agitato’ of the 4th Intermezzo with its beautiful languid central episode. Passion and anguish were mixed with sumptuous full sounds only to be dissolved back into the dream they had come from. A poignant nobility to the ‘Romanze’ where the central ‘allegretto grazioso’ was floated on magic sounds of gossamer beauty.The final Intermezzo in E flat minor is a true tone poem of mystery and desolation and was played with extraordinary sensitivity as she built the tension to a great climax of poetic significance and burning intensity until like all these miniature masterpieces it dissolved into the dream world from where it had been conceived .

Rameau was played with a crystalline clarity that did not deny a subtle palette of colour and was a perfect way to add a refreshing contrast on this journey of poetic fantasy.

Debussy’s two books of ‘Images’ were played with great sensitivity but also great solidity, where the architectural shape of each piece was etched with colours that ranged from the glowing brilliance of ‘Reflets dans l’eau’ to the fleeting precision of ‘Poissons d’or.’ Whatever she played there was a rhythmic drive and sense of line allied to a fantasy world of colour and subtle refined beauty. ‘Hommage a Rameau’ was played very slowly but shaped so poetically and with such nobility that it contrasted with the web of continuous sounds of ‘Mouvements’ .Her technical mastery allowed her to maintain the tempo and the architectural line throughout as she played with a natural fluidity and beauty of movement that allow the music to flow always with horizontal fluidity. There was whispered magic in the air as sounds of glowing radiance filled the piano for ‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’ and it was the same beauty of subtle sounds that she imbued the desolate Temple with, as it was seen in the moonlight, lit with delicacy and refined beauty. The fleetingly wistful ‘Poisson d’or’ was a lesson in style as she could bring this impish image to life with the same poetic imagination as perceived by the composer. Performances of poetic beauty and mastery of picture postcards covered in flowers.

Hers is a technical mastery that does not draw attention to itself but is at the service of her imagination as she delves deeply into the scores with intelligence and masterly musicianship.

Constant & Kit Lambert Junior Fellow

Maria Linares, piano

23-year-old Spanish pianist María Linares has performed in consolidated Festivals and venues including CBSO Centre, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Steinway Hall in London and London Festival in the UK; II Iturbi Prize Festival, and Serenates Festival in Spain; Rossini Theatre in Gioia del Colle in Italy; and Vaduz Town Hall in Liechtenstein, among others.

At the age of 12, she performed her first solo piano recital, later followed by playing as a soloist with orchestras such as the Valencian Orchestra, Youth Orchestra of Generalitat Valenciana, Youth Orchestra of Leon and Orchestra of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, in venues such as the Palau de Les Arts, Teatro Principal and Palau de la Música in Valencia, Palau Altea in Alicante, Palau de Congressos in Castellon and the Ciudad de León Auditorium, with conductors Manuel Hernández Silva, Roberto Forés, and Daniel Gil de Tejada.

In addition to being named Music Ambassador for Spain by the Lang Lang Music Foundation, she is being supported by the Munster Trust, Craxton Memorial Trust, The Musicians’ Company, and in 2023 she was given the ‘Myra Hess’ award by Help Musicians UK. Furthermore, she has been the main prize-winner in the most distinguished competitions in her home country, part of them being VIPA 2022, Ciutat de Carlet 2022, XXVI Ruperto Chapí, XXXIV Marisa Montiel or XXVII Jacinto Guerrero. In the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, she has also received the First Prize in competitions such as the Dennis Matthews, Renna Kellaway, and Beryl Chempin Beethoven Competition.

Meanwhile, she has been selected to participate in several Masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Paul Badura-Skoda, Kirill Gerstein, Cyprien Katsaris, Michel Beroff and Claudio Martínez-Mehner. In addition to this, she has received scholarships from Liechtenstein Intensive Weeks, Chetham’s International Piano Summer School and WSL Masterclasses.

Maria is currently coursing an Artist Diploma in the Royal College of Music under a full scholarship while being a Constant Kit and Lambert Junior Fellow, studying with Professors Norma Fischer and Danny Driver. Prior to this, she finished her bachelor’s and master’s Degrees with Distinction at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under full scholarships with Professor Pascal Nemirovski.

Regarding future projects, she is set to release a CD with the label Naxos, performing a set of pieces by the composer Anton Urspruch in January 2026. 

The Constant & Kit Lambert Junior Fellow receives an award that makes a substantial contribution to their course fees and living costs. Holders of this award are considered members of the team of junior fellows and will be expected to participate fully in RCM life.

The Constant & Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship is held for one year and is only available to students on the Artist Diploma (ArtDip) in performance programme. This fellowship offers a bespoke, tailored programme of performance and artistic development opportunities to help launch the most talented instrumental students as soloists and chamber musicians. All fellows are expected to develop musical and communication skills by undertaking further intensive study, working with students internally and doing all they can to raise the profile of the RCM externally. They play a full and active part in the musical life of the RCM as well as functioning as RCM ambassadors. They have full use of the RCM Library with its wealth of material and work in close contact with the Creative Careers Centre, the RCM’s centre for professional skills and publicity services.

A ‘pop’ concert on the riverside in Twickenham just a stone’s throw from Eel Pie Island . In beautiful St Mary’s church whose refined wooden interior guarantees a perfect acoustic for Rising Stars

A genial collaboration with Cristian Sandrin and the Kettner Concert society brings Jaren Ziegler and Kasparas Mikuzis to this cool oasis on one of the hottest days of the year.

Kasparas Mikužis at La Mortella creating magic sounds in Walton’s paradise on Ischia

Kasparas I had accompanied to the Walton Foundation on Ischia in a happy collaboration with the Keyboard Trust that has been helping this exceptionally talented young Lithuanian pianist.

Kasparas Mikuzis at the Wigmore Hall Masterly playing of fluidity and ravishing beauty

Jaren I had heard two years ago playing the Walton viola concerto at St John’s Smith Square . Playing of such mastery I was surprised to learn that he still had to enter the Royal Academy of Music! I met Jaren backstage at Kasparas’s RAM Wigmore debut and suggested they play together, certain that sparks would surely fly.

Albion Orchestra at St John’s Smith Square Miracles in Berlin and Wonders in London

So I was happy to see that my prediction was right and sparks were certainly flying in St Mary’s as a cat and mouse game of superb music making was enacted .

Brahms first sonata originally written for the clarinet and which the composer thought ‘clumsy and unsatisfying’ on the viola, only agreeing in order to placate Simrock his publisher. It has long been considered one of the most important works in the viola repertoire and the passion and poetic mastery we heard from these two young musicians today just proved Brahms wrong. It was however the Hindemith Sonata n 4 that was astonishing that this one movement work could have such a powerful impact as it spanned so many different emotions. A duo that played as one with an emotional and cerebral intent that was quite overwhelming .

Of course I remembered Jaren telling me of his love for the music of Walton and it was no coincidence that Hindemith had given the first performance of Walton’s concerto when Lionel Tertis the dedicatee turned it down!

Letting their hair down with De Falla’s seven Spanish Folksongs that they played with such fire and sultry beauty that we came away clicking our heels and stamping our feet .

Ready for the ice cold Champagne with Mary looking on at her ‘boys’ with pride and tender warmth knowing she has provided a stepping stone of a Gradus ad Parnassum

Comparative performances are really not for me . A performance stands of falls for what it can communicate in the moment it is born. There are so many wonderfully trained pianists, more than there have ever been, that in order to offer a helping hand it is necessary to go through an elimination process. It is like being in the circus arena where the daring young man on the flying trapeze gets the jackpot.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2016/05/16/piano-competitions-a-consideration/The International Competition Circuit may give a list of precious opportunities to the top prize winner but it also gives a platform to so many young artists who can be seen worldwide via the live streaming. There are artists who do not have the necessary experience but do in fact have enormous talent, and like good wine just need time to mature. Eric Lu and Kevin Chen have both won many top prizes in prestigious competitions and the final duel at the Chopin Competition was always going to be between the Leeds winner and the Rubinstein winner. The scale tipped in Eric’s favour on this occasion but there were many memorable performances from artists that in that very moment did not have the ingredients that experience in the Circus arena can bring. I am thinking of Jacky Zhang who I had heard a week before he went to Warsaw and I really thought it was a bit premature but that it would be a stepping stone and first experience of the world that awaits outside his student refuge . My God when he stepped onto the platform in Warsaw I and many others were completely bowled over by such masterly performances that I would have given him the Gold medal, as I am sure Chopin himself would have. A career though is made up of so many factors which in the following round he demostrated his inexperience to cope with an International jet setting career. Diana Cooper, Ruben Micieli and Gabriele Strata were denied a place in the final even though they had given some truly memorable performances. I did not intentionally follow the competition, as comparative performance is not for me, but I did hear voices raised over the exclusion of David Khrikhuli from the final. Since that exclusion he has been offered many engagements one of which was today on the doorstep of Chopin’s birthplace and his career is surely secured even though the jackpot had been denied him and it might take longer to gain the place that his talent truly deserves.

Today I listened for the first time to this young pianist who had become a topic for discussion and the gossip that abounds in all competitive fields. Today I heard a great artist with playing of mastery and a poetic understanding where a scrupulous attention to Chopin’s indications was filled with the unique personality of a great artist. Playing on Chopin’s doorstep filling the rarified air with aristocratic sounds of ravishing beauty and good taste. The refined good taste that Chopin had acquired having left his homeland with a heavy heart, but a heart that is always present in his music and that after his untimely death at only 39 was returned to where it had always belonged.

Today’s concert may have been short but it showed a pianist who had completely mastered Chopin’s unique originality. A genius who had created with the advent of the sustaining pedal a completely new sound world where the piano could become an orchestra. Bach’s ’48 were always on Chopin’s piano and were the anchor on which Chopin’s genius could flourish and grow.

Opening with Chopin’s mightly F sharp minor Polonaise that precedes only in number his Polonaise Héroique. A dramatic drive of passion mixed with lyricism always with artistocratic authority. Resolving the central episode with remarkable musicianship as the polonaise lived with the subtlety of a ‘canon covered in flowers.’

The G flat Impromptu surely one of Chopin’s most refined outpourings of French elegance. Sentiment without sentimentality where the beautiful tenor melody unwound with a beguiling sense of freedom and refined elegance.

The waltz in A flat op 42 with its teasing rhythmic syncopation and the brilliant outpouring of jeu perlé. Playing of weight as he delved deep into the keys with poetic curiosity. An exhilarating ending of grandeur and showmanship ending with the question mark of a genius.

The Mazurka in A minor op 39 n. 1 was played with quite extraordinary sensitivity and a kaleidoscopic palette of colour with its magical whispered ending.

The B flat Scherzo was played with great fantasy and remarkable artistry and a technical mastery always at the service of the music. A beauty to the central episode that gradually grew in intensity and brilliance but was always part of an architectural whole. Such was the vision of a musician that this well worn warhorse could appear as newly minted with a dynamic drive of burning intensity and a bel canto of glowing radiance.

A beautiful simple flourish to the opening of one of Chopin’s most poignant creations. The Nocturne in B op 62 , full of chromatic counterpoints but always with a bel canto of subtle radiance and beauty. Trills that were merely vibrations of sound and streams of notes that were explosions of poetic meaning.

There was.a clarity and beauty to the quixotic elegance of the Fourth Scherzo. A subtle brilliance of jeu perlé and a sense of architectural shape played with a dynamic drive only relieved by the exquisite beauty of the central episode. Played with a bel canto of glowing radiance before taking flight again to the grandiose final page of exhilaration and excitement.

An unexpected encore was really the highlight of an exceptional recital .

The last movement of the B minor Sonata is a ‘tour de force’ technically for any pianist, but when it is played by a superb musician it becomes a quite extraordinary build up of tension bursting only on the last page with the triumphant declamation in the left hand, with the right hand involved in a intricate web of notes. Such was the mastery of this artist that he even gave a knowing smile as he drew this ‘tour de force’ to a breathtaking conclusion .

Anelise Gamulescu graduation recital at the Royal Academy of Music was a discovery for the mastery she brought to three Rumanian composers with playing of a fluidity and authority that was a true revelation

Hats off to her professor Florian Mitrea for sharing such a discovery with us on graduation day.

Mozart Sonata in A minor written on hearing of the death of his mother and is full of masterly invention of poignant poetry and whispered anxiety that Anelise played with luminosity and fluidity.

Missing the weight within the notes that need to marry simplicity with maturity . It was in Mozart’s masterpiece of the A minor rondo that her musicianship and poignant understanding came together in work of searing intensity that she played with masterly understanding .

It was after the interval that Anelise revealed her true colour with performances of breathtaking mastery as the notes seemed to belong to her very being and flowed through her with astonishing ease .

Dressed in a beautiful Rumanian costume she certainly did her country proud as I am sure she will continue to do once passed through the doors of this illustrious institution that has known how to nurture her natural gifts and allow them to grow and mature with such mastery. Florian I have long admired as a pianist and hats off now as a genial mentor of great talent.

Florian Mitrea – born free at St Mary’s

Bridget Yee graduation recital at the Royal Academy London

An eclectic programme played with intelligence, musicianship and mastery .

It takes some doing for Christopher Elton to be astonished by a Liszt sonata shorne of its bombastic prepotence and restoring this much maligned work to the pinnacle of the Romantic repertoire where it truly belongs. Musicianship in place of muscle indeed .

This charming young lady certainly had the resources to astonish and take us by storm but she chose to reserve those moments for the climax of a poetic outpouring of genial invention . Nowhere more was this evident than after the notorious final octave blast and atomic explosion, the final page was revealed as one of the most prophetic in all music . Bridget exulted the genius of Liszt not just the greatest showman that he and Paganini were, but a musical genius looking to the future. As she progresses into her final year she will acquire more weight as her musicianship will allow her to delve even more deeply into the keys and unlock the secrets that lay within as she starts her lifelong journey into a world of sounds that are more potent than words

A remarkable first half was played without a break as Wagner’s Liebestod was allowed to unravel not with rhetoric but with ravishing streams of golden strands woven into one of the most remarkable works in all music .

Allowing this extraordinary work to open a Pandora’s box of jewels where Barber’s excursions n 1 and 3 could live happily with Haydn’s astonishing Fantasy world . Closing with the world première of Laila Arafah’s quite remarkable ‘shadow undulations of a bellflower.’ A young composer present in the audience and in the programme notes that she had provided for a pianist who played by heart and with a heart of dedicated mastery

Bridget Yee at Steinway’s for the Keyboard Trust ‘Effervescence of youth with a heart of gold’

Bridget Yee at St James’s Sussex Gardens ‘Intellect and keyboard command of breathtaking audacity’

An eclectic programme from Paul Lewis last night who after dancing with Piaf was immediately plunged into the depths of despair of Mozart’s most dramatic piano Sonata, one of only two in the minor key .

Opening with radiance and light where Mozart transforms the key of C major into the refined simplicity and genial outpouring of a Genius .

Playing of simplicity and mastery from a pianist who as a young man was playing a virtuoso repertoire. Persuaded by his mentor Alfred Brendel to leave that to others, as a lifetime is not enough to delve deeply into the Viennese Classics without any diversions into the virtuoso school.

Paul Lewis’s playing allows the notes to speak for themselves without any superficial glitter of self indulgence but delving deeply into the genial notes and searching for the meaning behind and within them.

Of course with the personality of an artist of intelligence and good taste and with a technical mastery that allows him to be on equal terms with the composer.

I was intrigued to see Poulenc ‘s 15 improvisations on the programme that I had heard about from a memorable performance he gave for the Keyboard Trust at Steinways 33 years ago.

A revisitation from an artist who since those early days has been for many years much admired on the world stage .

Bringing a wonderful sense of colour and style to these ‘trifles’ of French elegance and impish good humour . If he did not have quite the twinkle in his eye of the composer himself or the sophisticated French elegance of Rubinstein but he brought his own classical restraint and beauty to works each dedicated to friends of the composer.

He was able to turn these charming baubles into gems. In between he give us Debussy’s birds-eye view of Jersey with a magical performance of the ‘Joyous Island ‘ as seen from a deckchair in Eastbourne ! Poulenc would have relished that !

A fascinating programme not least for the resonant sound of a piano, unusually sitting on the extreme right of the platform leaving the pianist centre stage which I am sure was the last of this dedicated pianists thoughts .

This is a pianist who thinks more of the composer than himself but with a personality that as Rubinstein said was inherited from the bees , leaving the birds to fly high on wings of song

And song there was with the Allegretto quasi Andantino of Schubert ‘s Sonata in Aminor K537 . Encore is not the word for an artist of such self effacing dedication but it was the performance we had been waiting for.

Masterly subtle playing and a glowing beauty to the song that was to fill Schubert’s heart as it was revisited in the penultimate sonata of his trilogy of farewell to the world at only 31

Dix improvisations (from French, Ten Improvisations), FP 63, is the first set of improvisations by  Francis Poulenc . Written for solo piano, it was finished in 1934.

Poulenc did not set out to compose the ten improvisations as a set from the start. He lamented in a letter to Marie-Blanche de Polignac that, due to a lack of commissions, he would be compelled to compose piano pieces to satisfy his publishers: “I understand that one must create for the love of art, yet there are times when one must think as much about coal as about a pork chop.”^[1] The first six improvisations were composed between November and December 1932 at Noizay, merely one month after writing the letter, and were initially published together as a set of six improvisation by Rouart, Lerolle & Cie in 1933. The seventh improvisation was written in November 1933, whereas the remaining three improvisations were completed in 1934. Rouart & Lerolle published these remaining four improvisations in 1934 as stand-alone, separate items. The whole set of ten improvisations was eventually republished by Salabert in 1990. The set was also republished in Les quinze improvisations, a compilation published in 1960 that also included Deux improvisations, FP 113 (1941), Deux improvisations, FP 170 (1958), and Improvisation No. 15 en ut mineur, FP 176 (1959). The compilation was issued to coincide with the publication of the final improvisation in 1960.

Since many of these little pieces were not initially expected to be published one way or another, each of the Dix improvisations is assigned a distinct dedicatee. Improvisation No. 1 is dedicated to Madame Long de Marliave, followed by dedications to Louis Duffey (No. 2), Brigitte Manceaux(No. 3), Claude Popelin (No. 4), Georges Auric (No. 5), Jacques Février  (No. 6), the Comtesse A.J.de Noailles (No. 7), Nora Auric (No. 8), Thérèse Dorny  (No. 9), and Jacques Lerolle (No. 10). The improvisations never received a formal premiere, though “seven” of them were performed at the sixth La Sérénade concert in on February 4, 1933, several months before the seventh improvisation was formally completed. He continued to tour around Europe and North Africa from 1933 to 1935 and performed these pieces relatively frequently.

Poulenc was particularly fond of these works,and he recorded four of them, Nos. 2, 5, 9, and 10, for Columbia Records on November 20, 1934, in Paris.

1. à Madame Long de Marliave
2. à Louis Duffey
3. à Brigitte Manceaux
4. à Claude Popelin
5. à Georges Auric
6. à Jacques Février
7. à la Comtesse A. J. de Noailles
8. à Nora Georges Auric
9. à Thérèse Dorny
10. à Jacques Lerolle
11. à Claude Betaincourt
12. à Edwige Feuillere
13. à Madame Auguste Lambiotte
14. à Henri Hell

XV^ème Improvisation en ut mineur, “Hommage à Édith Piaf”. Très vite (C minor)

1. Improvisation in B minor. Presto ritmico
2. Improvisation in A-flat major. Assez animé
3. Improvisation in B minor. Presto très sec
4. Improvisation in A-flar major. Presto con fuoco
5. Improvisation in A minor. Modéré mais sans lenteur
6. Improvisation in B-flat major. A toute vitesse
7. Improvisation in C major. Modéré sans lenteur
8. Improvisation in A minor. Presto (très sec et ironique)
9. Improvisation in D major. Presto possibile (très sec et très net)
10. Improvisation in F major. Éloge des gammes. Modéré, sans traîner

Paul Lewis at the Guildhall on a wondrous voyage of discovery to find the heart and soul of Schubert

Paul Lewis at 50 …….celebration of a Poet and Musician

Paul Lewis crowns Beethoven 250 at the Wigmore Hall

The sublime fantasy of Paul Lewis live at the Wigmore Hall