ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

Alim Beisembayev at the Wigmore Hall with a programme of just three great works that announced his credentials even before he played a note.

Like Arrau a programme of works that have been pondered even suffered over before being shared .

And so this young man appeared and from the very first notes of Schubert’s Moments musicaux there was a concentration that was not just his but ours too. We became complice on a voyage of discovery where these miniature tone poems were recreated with almost improvised freedom with a palette of colours of whispered radiance and beauty.

Chopin’s F minor Fantasy given its rightful place as one of the greatest works of Chopin and after the interval a single work, the pinnacle of the Romantic piano repertoire .

The Liszt Sonata in B minor allowed to stand on its own with a monumental performance of mature musicianship allied to youthful technical mastery but above all an architectural shape of this genial masterpiece.

Four encores from this young ever generous musician: two by Scarlatti and two by Chopin. It was the Mazurka op 30 n 4 in C sharp minor by Chopin that summed up in just a few bars the supreme artistry of Alim that had seduced us all evening, with performances of breathtaking beauty and poetic invention.

It is fascinating to follow the career of Alim from the very first occasion in the Purcell School through many other concerts before and after his just recognition at the Leeds International Piano Competition. One thing has always shone out and that is his choice of master works where with humility and intelligence he has delved deeply into the scores and shared his discoveries with us with simplicity and mastery.

Beethoven op 10 n.3 ,Appassionata,op 110 and op 111. Chopin Preludes op 28 , Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit and Prokofiev 7 are just some of the interpretations that spring to mind. Of course mention should also be made of the Ligeti studies where Alim’s technical and intellectual mastery created astonishing webs of notes .

Today the spotlight was on the Liszt B minor Sonata which filled the second Half of his programme. The first half was to be dedicated to Schubert but quite wisely he decided to substitute the Wanderer Fantasy for Chopin’s much neglected Fantaisie in F minor. The Chopin so often played with other works of Chopin but rarely given the space it really deserves as one of the composers most remarkably original works and one of his longest single works too.

The concert, though, had begun with the six Moments Musicaux by Schubert. Another great pianist springs to mind Emil Gilels who I will never forget playing a recital also of just three works: Schubert Moments and little A minor Sonata and after the interval the Shostakovich Second Sonata. Not box office as the half empty hall showed but one of the most beautiful memories that has stayed with me for the past half a century.

Alim gave the same seemingly improvised freedom to the ‘Moments’ that I so remember from Gilels. Every note had a meaning and colour with Alim’s extraordinary concentration never demonstratively showing us what was in his poetic soul as that was revealed only to those that have the ears and the same concentration to follow the wondrous story that he is sharing. There was a radiance and beauty in the first with the return of the opening like seeing a friend after a long voyage from a magical journey through gasping accompaniments to mysteriously vibrant chords played with timeless beauty and aristocratic style. The second was played with a deep inner sadness of poignant beauty with even a dramatic cry played with extraordinary potency dissolving into playing of exquisite rarified beauty on a cloud of E flat that chimed with beguiling insistence. The third Moment, so memorable in the hands of Curzon, and where Alim today found the same teasing sense of dance of exquisite delicacy and buoyancy. ‘Perdendosi’ Schubert writes at the end that like a dream is probably continuing in the far distance unable to stop such incessant charm and grace. There was a whispered entry to what looks like knotty twine on the page in the fourth , but that Alim played with a fantasy of chameleonic harmonies that had a perpetuum mobile drive with a kaleidoscopic palette of colour and delicacy as a sudden ray of sunlight ignites with radiance the central ländler before continuing on it’s meandering journey . A genial coda where the two worlds are joined with whispered uncertainty played with poetic mastery by Alim . A driving buoyancy to the F minor Moment with an extraordinary echo effect of masterly control as this frenzied dance seemed to fall apart only to be put together again like Humpty Dumpty. Purity and simplicity of one of the most beautiful of Schubert’s creations followed with the sixth and final Moment , and was where Alim’s palette of sounds and wondrous sense of balance could make the piano sing as never before. There was a velvet whispered richness to the Trio contrasting with the return of the opening creating an atmosphere in the hall where we were united in aching moments of silence that were indeed golden.

Chopin’s Fantaisie op 49 is one of Chopin’s most loved works but it is rarely given the pedestal that it truly deserves. Alim restored it to its rightful place with a performance of scrupulous attention to Chopin’s markings and in particular his pedalling. Not allowing himself to be swayed by tradition but looking deeply into the score and revealing the noble strength that is in the notes themselves, without any need to add any idiosyncratic niceties that have been handed down through a so-called Chopin tradition. There is a strength and aristocratic beauty to this work that Alim exulted with masterly musicianship and fearless technical aplomb. From the very first notes marked staccato but also slurred with a long pedal at the end of the phrase that links these questioning phrases to their beautiful delicate answer. Staccato yes but what instrument is playing staccato? Maybe a cello with some vibrato ,Alim thought so too, but in such whispered tones that there was an ambiguity of great beauty. He brought a calming pastoral calm to the march like theme coming to rest on pianissimo chords with the opening heart beat motif throbbing gently in its midst. A quasi improvised passage of great freedom led to a fortissimo scale that announced the passionate intensity of agitation with a soaring melodic outpouring. The bass always acting as an anchor adding great strength to Alim’s playing as he fearlessly allowed the music to stream through his very being. Three pianissimo octaves of G flat brought calm and serenity to the central ‘Lento sostenuto’ chorale in B major. Alim managing the sudden interruption with mastery as the Fantaise is re -ignited with ever more intensity, as Chopin makes clear in the score. Coming to a momentary halt with a sudden unexpected ‘Adagio sostenuto’ which Alim played with timeless wonder, where the rests between the gasping delicate phrases were filled with poignant meaning . It led to a beautiful wave of sounds where Chopin asks for a single pedal over nine bars that Alim incorporated into a poetic fantasy world, only to be interrupted by the two final magisterial chords.

Listening to Alim I am reminded of the playing of Lipatti who could play with the same intelligence and simple beauty, works we have known for a lifetime that are suddenly reborn on wings of poetic mastery.

The Liszt Sonata was for me the main work on the programme today and it was given a place of it’s own as the only work in the second half. A monumental performance from a thinking musician who could give an architectural shape to a work that is really one long arch starting and finishing with the same whispered motif. Transformed in three continuous movements into moments of extreme delicacy, searing passion and fearless abandon. The whispered opening, like Alim’s ‘Appassionata’ was where the rests became as important as the notes, before bursting into flames of passionate declamations. This is just the opening where Liszt introduces us to the three main themes that he will transform into a work of extraordinary originality. If I felt many of Alim’s tempi in the more tempestuous moments rather too fast, it is obviously because Liszt does mark them in two not four. Alim fearlessly playing octaves with passionate outpourings of mastery and sumptuous rich sounds. There were menacing sounds too ,as with his ‘Appassionata’, where Liszt’s devilish rhythmic pulsating motif leads into the beautiful outpouring of ravishing beauty of the ‘Margherita’ theme. After breathtaking pyrotechnics of brilliance and scintillating streams of notes we came to sudden declamatory chords that Alim played with great power, again it was the rests that became of such importance. Alim is a master of balance and colour and it was this that he brought to the subtle beauty of the ‘Andante sostenuto’ and the passionate outpouring whose ultimate climax is the real centre of this mighty work. The ‘fugato’ that follows I really found too fast, but marvelled at the control and resilience that Alim could achieve and it did pave the way for the great bass entry which was every bit as powerful as I remember from Gilels’s magisterial performance many years ago. Alim is a thinking musician and there are no half measures once decided that this tempo in two was the way forward and what Liszt had intended. I think as he lives with this work longer he will find more nobility in these faster passages , maybe even as his youthful mastery makes way for a weightier way forward, like Arrau who was after all a direct descendent of Liszt via Martin Krause. There was a stillness and mastery of control that Alim brought to the final pages where Liszt had struggled with this ending crossing out his original blast and distilling these final two pages that are amongst the most remarkable in all music. A masterly performance of a thinking musican who can add another notable interpretation to the list of great works that he is revealing to his numerous and very appreciative audiences.

After the concentration and intensity of three masterly performances, Alim could now relax and calm the air with four encores played with beauty, charm and wit. Chopin’s Aeolian Harp study op 25 n. 1 was played with a melodic line that glowed on a bed of changing harmonies as it was shaped with heart warming beauty. A Mazurka op 30 n. 4 that I have never heard played with such simplicity and ravishing beauty. Two Sonatas by Scarlatti, the first a melodic outpouring of intense contrapuntal weaving played with glowing simplicity. The second with a wit and charm of scintillating perfection where the tension of intense concentration had been relieved and we were ready to leave uplifted by such mastery.

Alim Beisembayev ‘the birth of a great artist of masterly authority and musical integrity’

Alim Beisembayev – The poetic vision of a great artist

Alim Beisembayev at the Wigmore Hall bewitched and enriched by the man on the high wire

Opening this recital with Beethoven’s most Pastoral of his last sonatas full of fantasy and ‘joie de vivre’. Coming after the Schubertian op 90 but before the cataclysmic ‘Hammerklavier’ this a breath of fresh air as Beethoven comes to terms with his deafness and taking the piano to task for its limitations, looking upwards to the glimpse of paradise that awaits.

The extraordinary thing of his Genius is that he could write down exactly the sounds he had in his ears with a precision far more than in his earlier sonatas which he would often play himself. I have noticed with the Lithuanian school of playing that there is a fluidity and purity to the sound they make, similar in many ways to the Hungarian school. Most probably not a school at all but growing up in a homeland where they pick up certain sounds which comes across in their playing and that is enviable for its relaxed fluidity and naturalness.

The opening of op 101 was played with beautiful glowing sounds of luminosity and pastoral beauty. Long languid lines allowed to unwind with commanding authority combined with great sensitivity always with aristocratic good taste of simplicity and sincerity. The ‘Vivace’ had a knife edge precision to its rhythmic impulsiveness and was also give an architectural shape with its continuous question and answer that Kasparas played with masterly control. Beethoven’s long held pedal was beautiful incorporated into this seemingly tight framework and was the same music box effect of Papà Haydn’s sonata n. 50,an effect that was to be used in Beethoven’s last works for piano op 126. Beethoven living in his own world with a sense of fantasy between the percussive abrasive piano and the seemingly perfect legato that the pedal could now offer. Kasparas managed to combine the rhythmic impulse of Beethoven with the poetic fantasy that was always hidden deep within the composer’s inner soul. Even the ‘Trio’ was played with the fluidity of Beethoven at his most pastoral, but not one to linger or wonder, always very direct emotions on a wave of inner energy. Kasparas caressed the keys with beautiful natural movements never hitting the keys but always feeling the weight he had in his sensitive fingers .He brought sombre respectful beauty to the ‘Adagio’ that he played with poignant significance as he dug deeply into the keys with emotional weight finding great nobility and a refined beauty of marble like solidity. There was an etherial question and answer between the hands where a magical cadenza ignited the beauty of the opening phrases that miraculously reappeared in this wondrous landscape. Of course with Beethoven this is short lived as his impatience is manifested with short sharp chords before the bucolic bubbling energy of the last movement. This is not the tempestuous knotty twine of the ‘Hammerklavier’ but a pastoral vision of a bubbling brook that Kasparas played with poetic mastery as he allowed the music to speak in a relaxed conversation of exhilarating brilliance. Again Beethoven puts a stop to such frivolity with two fortissimo chords out of which evolves a fugato of truly knotty twine with unresolved trills that are incisive ornaments that Kasparas played with remarkable authority only occasionally missing a step on a slippery rock but never letting the tension wane . This is Beethoven in bucolic mood and where Kasparas gave great character to his tongue in cheek fugato of one hand chasing the other, until the composer’s patience runs out as he slams the door shut with three very final bars.

A completely different world was opened up by Kasparas with Ravel’s evocative ‘Miroirs.’ Kasparas’s glowing fluidity of fleeting sounds were full of a prismatic sense of colour glowing with wondrous jeux perlé brilliance as the moths fluttered over the keys with lightweight precision. A languid melody opens to reveal a desolate landscape of infinite space with the moths trying to invade this humid atmosphere with a battle between the sensual and an invasion of fleetingly impish goings on. The moths flying off into the distance with masterly ease as Kasparas barely brushed the keys and then with one stroke, the genius of Ravel who could reinstall such atmosphere with just one simple chord , of course played with poetic understanding by the performer.

It was beautiful to see the caressing movement of Kasparas’s fingers as the lone song of the bird sang out with glowing resonant purity. Kasparas once again creating this lonesome atmosphere with poetic imagination and masterly use of the pedals. Streams of notes but always the song of the bird with piercing penetration of desolation and ravishment.

Beautiful fluidity again to depict the ocean in which a tenor melody is heard in its midst amongst the sound of the waves. The atmosphere created by Ravel with an insistent melodic accompaniment of quite complicated rhythmic precision that pushes the sounds forward. Gradually a storm is brewing and Kasparas with extraordinary technical brilliance could portray this scene with excitement and mastery as notes covered the entire keyboard. Playing of scintillating brilliance and poetic fantasy in which the pedal could add a sumptuous range of colours.Suddenly the storm passes and the waves are calmed as they are played with relentless whispered precision by the right hand, the left intoning a hymn of thanksgiving as calm is restored and this masterly tone poem finishes with wistful washes of sound.

A complete contrast with the spiky brilliance and clarity of precision in ‘Alborada.’ Enticing dance rhythms end explosions of passionate cries as the music builds in excitement with washes of sound and vibrations that are in fact transcendentally difficult repeated notes and double glissandi that only the most flexible of hands can manage. They were played with seemingly poetic ease as Kasparas always delved deep into the music rather than seeing only the superficial tinsel . There was a great outcry of passionate intensity played with sumptuous eroticism but always with the menacing undercurrent of frenzy that brought us to the brilliant ending of the burning Spanish temperament.

Glowing bells were heard as the magic atmosphere of this valley is revealed with a kaleidoscope of colours enriched by poetic fantasy and masterly use of the pedals. A melodic line of disarming delicacy and simplicity with bells tolling, adding pure magic to this beautiful creation played with ravishing beauty by this young Lithuanian poet of the keyboard .

I must confess that I have known of the existence of the Java Suite for some time but have never had the opportunity of hearing it until today. Of course it is the complete opposite of the refined genius of the piano who so entranced me when I heard a historic piano role of his at the Brentford Piano Museum. A performance of Liszt’s ‘La leggerezza’ that I had never heard sounds like that from the piano of such whispered perfection. I hunted out his 53 studies based on Chopin where he combines the two G flat studies together ,one in the right hand and the other in the left ,at the same time!! I found them eventually in the archive of London University Library but they have now been published and are readily available for all those fearless enough to try to play them! Cherkassky played the study for the left hand alone of Godowsky’s magical transcription of op 10 n. 6 where the simple melodic outline is embellished with a web of magical sounds played with featherlight jeux perlé of another age.

So it was a surprise to research a little about this suite and Godowsky and it became apparent why Kasparas had chosen to play it, because Godowsky was of Lithuanian origin too! Debussy had been much influenced by Oriental sounds and the Gamelan in particular when Indonesia came to the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Godowsky, on the other hand, went to Indonesia to see for himself.

‘Gamelan’ a work of oriental sounds of great luminosity and much use of the pedals adding extraordinary colour but not the refinement that I was expecting of Godowsky the greatest pianist the world has ever known . Kasparas gave a dynamic drive and burning conviction to this piece with a kaleidoscope of magic sounds.The ‘Puppet Shadow Plays’ was a simple melodic line that flowed with simplicity and meandering insistence. The ‘Great Day’ was celebrated with rousing brilliance with a joyous outpouring of insistent bell like sounds .Indian dance rhythms abound reaching a passionate climax of brilliance and technical mastery.

Kasparas Mikužis is a Lithuanian-born pianist based in London. Named as one of Classic FM’s ‘Rising Stars’ for 2025, he has taken the stages of various highly respected venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Lithuanian National Philharmonic. In May 2025, Kasparas was one of the winners of the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) international auditions. Highlights include recitals at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, UK, the Krzysztof Penderecki Centre in Luslawice, Poland and his debut at Wigmore Hall in London. Kasparas has also performed at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva on multiple occasions. Other notable appearances include performances the season-opening concert of the Kharkiv Philharmonic Hall with the Kharkiv Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under conductor Yuri Yanko. He also performed as a solo artist at the Eudon Choi show during London Fashion Week 2023. 

In 2023, he made his debut with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra at the Lithuanian Philharmonic in Vilnius. Later that year, he was invited to perform for the Lithuanian and Polish presidents on Lithuanian Statehood Day at the Presidential Palace. In recognition of his representation of Lithuania on the international stage, Kasparas was honoured with a letter of gratitude from the President of the Republic of Lithuania. The 25/26 season sees Kasparas perform Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra, as well as working on a new CD with the Royal Academy of Music. He will collaborate with fellow YCAT artist Nathan Amaral for a series of concerts in early 2026, as well as performing solo recitals across the UK and at the Norsjø Chamber Music Festival in Norway. 

Kasparas completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Diana Ketler, and his postgraduate studies under Professor Christopher Elton. Since 2023, he has also worked closely with Gabriela Montero through ‘O’ Academy. 

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

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

Hollywood comes to the Royal Academy Lun,Wu,Daunoraite and Mikužis stars shining brightly.

Leopold Mordkhelovich Godowsky Sr. 13 February 1870 – 21 November 1938) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and teacher born in what is now Lithuania  to Jewish parents, who became an American  citizen in 1891. He was one of the most highly regarded performers of his time, and was heralded among musical giants as the “Buddha of the Piano”. Ferruccio Busoni claimed that he and Godowsky were “the only composers to have added anything of significance to keyboard writing since Franz Liszt “.As a composer, he is best known for his  Java Suite,Triakontameron,Passacaglia  and Walzermasken, alongside his transcriptions of works by other composers; the best-known of these works are the 53 Studies on Chopin’s Études (1894–1914).

The Java Suite (originally published as Phonoramas. Tonal journeys for the pianoforte) is a suite  for solo piano by Leopold Godowsky composed between 1924 and 1925. It consists of twelve movements and is influenced by the gamelan  music of Java ,Indonesia extensively utilizing pentatonic harmonies throughout.

Godowsky remarked in the work’s preface:

“Having travelled extensively in many lands, some near and familiar, others remote and strange, it occurred to me that a musical portrayal of some of the interesting things I had been privileged to see, a tonal description of the impressions and emotions they had awakened, would interest those who are attracted by adventure and picturesqueness and inspired by their poetic reactions.

Who is not at heart a globe-trotter? Are we not all fascinated by distant countries and strange people? And so the thought gradually matured in me to recreate my roaming experiences. This cycle of musical travelogues-tonal journeys-which i have name collectively “Phonoramas”, begins with a series of twelve descriptive scenes in java.”

The suite consists of twelve movements, divided into four parts. Godowsky composed the work under the influence of gamelan music after a visit to java  

Although the Java suite is published as a whole, it wasn’t meant to be performed in its entirety. The suite is divided into four equal parts, each containing three pieces whose tonal schemes correlate, creating a unified whole. Furthermore, each book is structured in the same manner: each book starts with a character piece, followed by a slow movement and ending with a brilliant showstopper.

The first book starts in A minor. The second piece too, continues in A minor, though it ends on an E major-chord, creating an imperfect cadence which resolves into the third and final piece.

Godowsky added detailed descriptions of each of the scenes, elaborately describing what each of them is inspired by. 

Part One

1. Gamelan (A minor )

Native music, played by the Javanese on their indigenous instruments, is called Gamelan. The Javanese ensemble is a kind of exotic orchestra, con- sisting mainly of diversely shaped and constructed percussive instruments of metal, wood and bamboo, comprising various kinds and sizes of bells, chimes, gongs, sounding boards, bowls, pans, drums. (some barrel-like), tom – toms, native xylophones, sonorous alang-alang (zephyr-like, aeolian harp- like) and other unique music implements. The only stringed instrument I could discern was the ancient, guitar-shaped reéaé, which is held by the leader in a position similar to that of the lute.

Both rulers of the two Sultanates of central Java: the Sushunan of Solo and the Sultan of Djokja, and the two independent princes, Manku Negoro of Solo  and Paku Alam of Djokja have the best, largest and most complete native orchestras (Gumelan). They own old instruments of inestimable value, the enchanting sonority of which is attributable to the mellowing process of time.

The sonority of the Gamelan is so weird, spectral, fantastic and bewitching, the native music so elusive, vague, shimmering and singular, that on listening to this new world of sound I lost my sense of reality, imagining myself in a realm of enchantment. Nothing seen or experienced in Java conveyed so strongly the mysterious and strange character of the island and its inhabitants.

The Gamelan produces most ethereal pianissimos, particularly entrancing when heard from a distance. It is like a perfume of sound, like a musical breeze. Usually the music, beginning very softly and languidly, becomes faster and louder as the movement progresses, rising, at last, to a barbaric climax.

In this, the first of the descriptive scenes, I have endeavored to recreate a Gamelan sonority~ a typically Javanese atmosphere. Except for the one chromatic variation(pages 9-10),which is intentionally Occidental,the movement is almost exclusively diatonic and decidedly Oriental (Far Eastern).

2. Wayang – Purwa , Puppet Shadow Plays (A minor)

‘This ancient, characteristically Javanese quasi -histrionic entertainment, produced on festive occasions, is very popular in Java. It symbolises to the Javanese their past historical greatness; their hopes, aspirations and national solidarity. To the subdued accompaniment of the Gamelan, the Dalang, manager, actor, musician, singer, reciter and improvisator, all in one,-recites classic Hindu epics, or modernized and localized versions of them, or other mythical or historical tales and East Indian legends, while grotesque, flat leather puppets throw shadows on a white screen to interpret and illustrate the reciter’s stories. These puppets the Dalang manipulates by means of bamboo rods. Wayang-Purwa is somewhat of a combination of Punch and Judy and Chinese shadows.^[1]

3. Hari Besaar, The Great Day (A minor → C major)

The Kermess – the Country Fair – is here.

From plantations and hamlets natives flock to the town that is the center of the bright, joyous celebrations, naive, harmless amusements. They throw themselves. eagerly into the whirl ‘of festivities, enjoying the excitement and animation.

Actors, musicians, dancers and fakirs contribute to the pleasures of the people and to the picturesqueness of the scene.

The Great Day – Hari Besaar! 

Miroirs is a five-movement suite for solo piano  written by Ravel  between 1904 and 1905. First performed by Ricardo Viñes in 1906, Miroirs contains five movements, each dedicated to a fellow member of the French avant-garde artist group Les Apaches.

Around 1900, Maurice Ravel joined a group of innovative young artists, poets, critics, and musicians referred to as Les Apaches or “hooligans”, a term coined by Ricardo Viñes to refer to his band of “artistic outcasts”. To pay tribute to his fellow artists, Ravel began composing Miroirs in 1904 and finished it the following year. It was first published by Eugène Demets in 1906. The third and fourth movements were subsequently orchestrated by Ravel, while the fifth was orchestrated by Percy Grainger among others.

“Noctuelles” (“Night Moths”). D♭ major. Dedicated to Léon-Paul Farque,  french poet and essayist

“Oiseaux tristes” (“Sad Birds”). E♭ minor. Dedicated to Ricardo Viñes 

“Une barque sur l’océan” (“A Boat on the Ocean”). F♯ minor.Dedicated to  Paul Sordes,painter and set designer

“Alborada del gracioso” (Spanish: “The Jester’s Aubade / Morning Song of the Jester”). D minor — D major. Dedicated to Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, critic and musicologist .

“La vallée des cloches” (“The Valley of Bells”). C♯ minor. Dedicated to Maurice Delage ,composer and pianist

The Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major,op 101, by Beethoven  was composed in 1816 and published in 1817 and dedicated to the pianist Baroness Dorothea Ertmann,née Graumen , it is considered the first of the composer’s late piano sonatasl and marks the beginning of what is generally regarded as Beethoven’s final period, where the forms are more complex, ideas more wide-ranging, textures more polyphonic, and the treatment of the themes and motifs even more sophisticated than before. Op. 101 well exemplified this new style, and Beethoven exploits the newly expanded keyboard compass of the day.

As with the previous sonata, it is unclear why Beethoven wrote Op. 101. The earliest known sketches are on leaves that once formed the parts of the Scheide Sketchbook of 1815–16. It shows the first movement already well developed and notated as an extended draft in score, and there are also a few preliminary ideas for the final Allegro. Beethoven himself described this sonata, composed in the town of Baden , just south of Vienna , during the summer of 1816, as “a series of impressions and reveries.” The more intimate nature of the late sonatas probably has some connection with his deafness, which by this stage was almost total, isolating him from society so completely that his only means of communicating with friends and visitors was via notebooks.It is the only one of his 32 sonatas that Beethoven ever saw played publicly; this was in 1816, and the performer was a bank official and musical dilettante.

The sonata is in four movements :

Etwas lebhaft, und mit der innigsten Empfindung(Somewhat lively, and with innermost sensibility). Allegretto, ma non troppo

Lebhaft, marschmäßig (Lively, march-like). Vivace alla marcia

Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll (Slow and longingly). Adagio, ma non troppo, con affetto

Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr, und mit Entschlossenheit (Swiftly, but not overly, and with determination). Allegro

Pedro Salas igniting the atmosphere in London today with the brilliant sunlight of his native Spain

Following a monumental performance of Mussorgsky pictures and an even more astonishing Sonata by Schulhoff, it almost made us forget the exquisite refinement of Papà Haydn’s graceful Sonata n. 12 with which this dashing young Spanish virtuoso began his recital at St Stephen Walbrook today. There was no doubt of his fiery Latin temperament as Malagueña flooded this noble edifice with sounds of shameless passionate intensity, played as an encore after his monumental Great Gate of Kiev was still resounding around this beautiful church in the round.

I have heard Pedro play many times over the past few years as he completed his studies at the Royal College of Music in London. Perfecting his skills now with Stanislaw Ioudenitch at the Reina Sofia Academy in Madrid, he is fast making a name for himself on the competition circuit as he builds up his concert career.

In London today for some concerts in preparation for the Artur Rubinstein Competition where he is one of the few selected to play in Tel Aviv from a vast list of applicants. It was a short programme but showed off Pedro’s mastery and refined musicianship.

Haydn’s little Sonata Hob XVI:12 in A, began the concert with great delicacy and refined elegance.Ornaments that glistened like jewels with the perfection of highly wound springs as he shaped one of Haydn’s least known sonatas with a ravishing palette of colours making one wonder why it is not heard more often in the concert hall. He brought a flowing radiance and elegance to the ‘Menuetto’ but it was the whispered music box delicacy of the ‘Trio’ that showed his quite extraordinary sensitivity. There was a dynamic drive to the Finale bringing such character and ebullience to this single page of genial invention.

The Sonata n. 1 by Erwin Schulhoff was written in 1924 by a composer encouraged in his youth by Dvorák and going on to study with Debussy and Reger. He died in a Nazi Prison Camp in 1942 and was an Austro-Czech composer and pianist, one of the figures in the generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime and whose works have been rarely noted or performed beyond Czechoslovakia until the 1980s. He was born in Prague into a German family of Ashkenazi Jewish  ancestry.

A fascinating work played with dynamic drive and commanding authority by Pedro. In three movements with an opening of corrosive rush hour drive but ending with single repeated notes which Pedro played with poignant significance as the movement lay exhausted and spent. The second movement ‘Molto tranquillo’ with a long meandering melodic line of luminosity and a sense of wonderment looking for a way forward in such a bleak landscape. The last movement ‘Allegro moderate grotesco ‘ was played with a kaleidoscope of colour but with a sense of line as it gradually sprang to life. ‘Grotesque’ indeed, with the driving rhythmic impulse of a march of wonderment of pulsating insistence. It was played with great commitment and technical mastery bringing searing intensity and an architectural shape to a work that I hope to hear more often in the concert hall .

Hats off to Pedro for having the courage to add two such rarely heard works to his repertoire. The last work in the programme, on the other hand, is often heard in the concert hall, but Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is rarely played with the masterly musicianship that Pedro showed today. I have heard Pedro play this work a few years ago and it has grown in stature and assurance and indeed held us spell bound as he delved deeply into the score with poetic sensitivity as well as astonishing technical mastery. A very solid opening to the Promenade as ‘Gnomus’ entered the scene with a chameleonic sense of character and very effective left hand tremolandos that I have not been aware of before. Now followed a quasi religious ‘Promenade’ with bells already chiming on the horizon,Pedro highlighting counterpoints rarely noticed before. A beautiful whispered ‘Old Castle’ was played with natural flowing ease with a truly poetic ending leading into a now rather strident ‘Promenade’ pace as Mussorgsky moves from one picture to another. The children playing in the ‘Tuileries’ was teasingly brilliant with its lilting relentless forward movement. A heavingly rumbustious ‘Bydlo’ was greeted by an etherial ‘Promenade’ of delicacy and resonance. The ‘Ballet of Unhatched Chicks’ produced some masterly playing of lightweight chattering and interesting bass counterpoints that Pedro underlined whilst the trills and thrills above created an incessant hustle and bustle. ‘Goldenberg’ strode onto the scene with imposing authority of brazen command only to be answered by the beseeching murmuring of ‘Schmyle.’ Pedro brought great authority to the imposing bass reply, the deep voice of ‘Goldenberg’ resonating around the church with commanding authority. This contrasted with the great activity of the ‘Market place at Limoges’ where Pedro played with breathless brilliance and dynamic relentless drive. Only to be thwarted by the vision of the ‘Catacombs’ that Pedro allowed to reverberate with great audacity as he listened to the sounds rising from the keyboard into the rarified air. Resolving so magically as Pedro produced sounds of magical golden beauty. This time it was ‘Baba Yaga’ that entered with intimidation and pounding authority. Sumptuous full sounds ,never hard, as even in the most challenging passages Pedro was listening to each note and giving them the just weight as members of an imaginary orchestra that he had in his ten fingers. He brought great drama to the central episode with its constant vibration of sounds on which the melodic line is carved out with a vibrantly whispered bass and sudden lightening strokes above. Arriving now at the vision of the ‘Great Gate of Kiev’ which Pedro played with nobility and grandeur. A sense of balance as he built up the tension with the chiming bells spread over the whole keyboard before a headlong plunge into the depths as the Great Gate arose in all its glory. A remarkable performance of a thinking musician who could delve so deeply into this well known score and still find so many new things that could bring it to life with vibrant mastery.

I would not have imagined an encore could have been contemplated but then I had not counted on Pedro’s hot blooded Spanish temperament. Letting his hair down as ‘Malagueña’ raised its head with scintillating playing of brazen showmanship and passionate intensity. Some masterly intricate playing of the knotty twine of counterpoints that teasingly accompanied the well known melody before bursting into flames of unabashed operatic bravura.

Impeccable living Mozart as Queen Bodicea drives her flaming chariot to meet Grieg.Salas,Swigut,Pastuszka and the (Oh!)Orkiestra take Warsaw by storm

Pedro López Salas Chopin recreated with poetic beauty and romantic fire

Pedro Lopez Salas at the Royal College of Music – A poet of aristocratic refinement

Pedro Lopez Salas in Paradise .A standing ovation at La Mortella – The Walton Foundation

Pedro Lopez Salas -The style and authority of a great artist -The Keyboard Trust in Florence goes British

The year of the horse celebrated in style at the National Liberal Club with distinguished guests invited by Yisha Xue to celebrate in words and music over a sumptuous Chinese dinner .

Bobby Dean MP spoke about being firmly in the saddle, building a Liberal Economy.

Zhengyu Sim from the Guildhall played a Mozart Sonata K330 ,exquisitely ornamented as fitted an occasion that began with the Lion Dance Troup from Imperial College .

So many guests wanted to attend on this 9th year of celebrations organised by Yisha’s Asia Circle, that the piano had to sit in the corner, where strangely enough I have never heard it sound so beautiful. Especially at the end when Zhengyu improvised a ravishingly beautiful Chinese song and there was magic in the air.

A memorable evening and a stallion that will long be revered and remembered.

Curtis Phill Hsu A snake of genial proportions at the NLC and sublime artistry revealed at the Sketch Club

Ryan Wang ‘A star is born on the Wings of the Dragon’ at the National Liberal Club

Beethoven – Sonata Op.111 (25 mins)

Brahms – Paganini Variations Book 1 (14 mins) 

Interval

Ravel – Gaspard de la nuit (25 mins)

Liszt – Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (13 mins)

1. Maestoso – Allegro con brio ed appassionato
2. Arietta: Adagio molto semplice e cantabile

The Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor op 111 is the last of Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas which span almost his entire compositional life . The work was written between 1821 and 1822. is dedicated to his friend, pupil, and patron, Archduke Rudolf.

‘A work of unmatched drama and transcendence … the triumph of order over chaos, of optimism over anguish.’ with a struggle that permeates the first movement as physically challenging pianists performing this work; even in the opening of the sonata, for instance, there is a downward leap of a seventh in the left hand – Beethoven is making his pianists physically struggle to reach the notes.  Alfred Brendel commented of the second movement that what is to be expressed here is distilled experience” and “perhaps nowhere else in piano literature does mystical experience feel so immediately close at hand.Beethoven conceived of the plan for his final three piano sonatas (op 109,110 and op 111) during the summer of 1820, while he worked on his Missa solemnis Although the work was only seriously outlined by 1819, the famous first theme  of the allegro ed appassionato was found in a draft book dating from 1801 to 1802, contemporary to his Second Symphony Moreover, the study of these draft books implies that Beethoven initially had plans for a sonata in three movements, quite different from that which we know: it is only thereafter that the initial theme of the first movement became that of the String Quartet n. 13 , and that what should have been used as the theme with the adagio—a slow melody in A flat —was abandoned. Only the motif planned for the third movement, the famous theme mentioned above, was preserved to become that of the first movement. The Arietta, too, offers a considerable amount of research on its themes; the drafts found for this movement seem to indicate that as the second movement took form, Beethoven gave up the idea of a third movement, the sonata finally appearing to him as ideal.

Variations on a Theme of Paganini,op. 35, was composed in 1863 and based on the Caprice n. 24 in A minor by Paganini ( The same one used by Rachmaninov, Liszt and Lutoslawski ) The work consists of two books. Each book opens with the theme, Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A minor, followed by fourteen variations. The final variation in each section is virtuosic and climactic.

Brahms intended the work to be more than simply a set of theme and variations ; each variation also has the characteristic of a study . He published it as Studies for Pianoforte: Variations on a Theme of Paganini and dedicated to the piano virtuoso Carl Tausig It is well known for its harmonic depth and extreme physical difficulty with particular emphasis of the technical challenges lie on hand independence, with the left hand often mirroring the right hand throughout the piece or having its own set of obstacles.

It has been described as “a legend in the piano literature,fiendish, and one of the most subtly difficult works in the literature.” Clara Schumann Clara Schumann called it Hexenvariationen(Witch’s Variations) because of its difficulty.The critic James Huneker wrote :

‘Brahms and Paganini! Was ever so strange a couple in harness? Caliban and Ariel,Jove and Puck. The stolid German, the vibratile Italian! Yet fantasy wins, even if brewed in a homely Teutonic kettle … These diabolical variations, the last word in the technical literature of the piano, are also vast spiritual problems. To play them requires fingers of steel, a heart of burning lava and the courage of a lion ‘

The first of the two books is the Theme and fourteen variations .

Gaspard de la nuit (subtitled Trois poèmes pour piano d’après Aloysius Bertrand), M. 55 is a suite of three piano  pieces by Maurice Ravel written in 1908. Each of the three movements is based on a poem or fantaisie from the collection Gaspard de la Nuit – Fantasies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot completed in 1836 by Aloysius Bertrand. The work was premiered in Paris, on January 9, 1909, by Ricardo Viñes but dedicated to pianists Harold Bauer , Jean Marnold and Rudolph Ganz.

The piece is famous for its difficulty, partly because Ravel intended the Scarbo movement to be more difficult than Balakirev’s Islamey. Because of its technical challenges and profound musical structure, Scarbo is considered one of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the standard repertoire.

Ondine an oneiric tale of the water nymph Undine singing to seduce the observer into visiting her kingdom deep at the bottom of a lake. It is reminiscent of Ravel’s early piano piece, the Jeux d’eau (1901), with the sounds of water falling and flowing, woven with cascades. The work is in sonata form “by stealth”

. . . . . . . . I thought I heard
A faint harmony that enchants my sleep.
And close to me radiates an identical murmur
Of songs interrupted by a sad and tender voice.
     Ch. Brugnot – The Two Spirits

Le Gibet represents the observer with a view of the desert, where the lone corpse of a hanged man on a gibbet  stands out against the horizon, reddened by the setting sun. Meanwhile, a bell tolls from inside the walls of a far-off city, creating the deathly atmosphere that surrounds the observer.

‘What do I see stirring around that gibbet?’
– Faust.

Scarbo depicts the night time mischief of a small fiend or goblin , making pirouettes flitting in and out of the darkness, disappearing and suddenly reappearing. Its uneven flight, hitting and scratching against the walls and bed curtains, casting a growing shadow in the moonlight creates a nightmarish scene for the observer lying in his bed.As Ravel said : ‘I wanted to make a caricature of romanticism. Perhaps it got the better of me.’

‘He looked under the bed, in the chimney,
in the cupboard; – nobody. He could not
understand how he got in, or how he escaped.’
     Hoffmann. – Nocturnal Tales

The Mephisto Waltzes (German: Mephisto-Walzer) are four waltzes  composed by Franz Liszt  from 1859 to 1862, from 1880 to 1881, and in 1883 and 1885. Nos. 1 and 2 were composed for orchestra, and later arranged for piano, piano duet and two pianos, whereas nos. 3 and 4 were written for piano only. Of the four, the first is the most popular.The first Mephisto Waltz is a typical example of programme music taking for its program an episode from Nikolaus Lenau’s 1836 verse drama Faust (not from Goethe’s Faust. The following program note, which Liszt took from Lenau, appears in the printed score:

There is a wedding feast in progress in the village inn, with music, dancing, carousing. Mephistopheles  and Faust pass by, and Mephistopheles induces Faust to enter and take part in the festivities. Mephistopheles snatches the fiddle from the hands of a lethargic fiddler and draws from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating strains. The amorous Faust whirls about with a full-blooded village beauty in a wild dance; they waltz in mad, abandon out of the room, into the open, away into the woods. The sounds of the fiddle grow softer and softer, and the nightingale warbles his love-laden song.

Liszt dedicated the piece to Karl Tausig his favourite pupil

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

Misha Kaploukhii plays Rachmaninov 2nd Concerto with the Salomon Orchestra conducted by Michal Oren

This was no ‘Brief Encounter ‘ as his encore of Stephen Hough’s arrangement of Moscow Nights could testify. Taking the inspiration of Van Cliburn for the encore that he played at his triumphant victory in Moscow in 1958.https://youtu.be/vkxSgmoqpTs?si=uuM8r4uRJlI6UlUZ

His playing has the same style and virtuosity of Cliburn. A year younger than when he triumphed in Moscow, Misha can already boast a large repertoire of many of the greatest concertos in the piano repertoire. …………..tonight was the third Rachmaninov Concerto under his belt. And what a belt it was!

Refined Romanticism of good taste and ravishing beauty added to fearless virtuosity that seemed to have an audacity that was without shame but with poetic beauty and passionate intensity .

Misha Kaploukhii mastery and clarity in Walton’s paradise where dreams become reality – updated to include the Sheepdrove Competition and graduation recital

Misha Kaploukhii plays Brahms 2 igniting with Martyn Brabbins the RCM Philharmonic

Misha Kaploukhii plays Rachmaninov Beauty and youthfulness triumph

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

Misha Kaploukhii plays Liszt at the RCM A Sea Symphony Concert…..Youth and music a joy to ‘behold’!

Rachmaninov’s  Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor op 18 was  composed  between June 1900 and April 1901. The piece established his fame as a concerto composer and is one of his most enduringly popular pieces.

After the disastrous 1897 premiere of his First Symphony , Rachmaninoff suffered a psychological breakdown and depression that prevented composition for three years. In 1899, he was supposed to perform the Second Piano Concerto in London, which he had not composed yet, and instead made a successful conducting debut. The success led to an invitation to return next year with his First Piano Concerto ; however, he promised to reappear with a newer and better one. After an unsuccessful meeting with Leo Tolstoy meant to revoke his writer’s block , relatives decided to introduce Rachmaninoff to the neurologist Nikolai Dahl, whom he visited daily from January to April 1900. Rachmaninoff dedicated the concerto to Dahl for successfully treating him by restoring his health and confidence in composition.

From the summer to the autumn of 1900, he worked on the second and third movements of the concerto, with the first movement causing him difficulties. Both movements of the unfinished concerto were first performed with him as soloist and his cousin Alexander Siloti iconducting on 15 December  The first movement was finished in 1901, and the complete work had an astoundingly successful premiere on 9 November, again with the same duo. Gutheil published it the concerto the same year.

Brief Encounter tells the story of two married strangers living in pre-World War II England, whose chance meeting at a railway station leads to a brief yet intense emotional affair disrupting their otherwise conventional lives.Many critics, historians, and scholars consider Brief Encounter as one of the greatest films of all time  .

Excerpts from  Rachmaninmov’s Second Concerto  recur throughout the film, performed by the National Symphony Orchestra under Muir Mathieson , with Eileen Joyce as the pianist. 

photo credit Davide Sagliocca https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/03/20/christopher-axworthy-dip-ram-aram/

Fluidity and freedom, intelligence and beauty are words that come to mind as I listened to a great pianist showing us a wondrous world of his own

Aidan Mikdad looked bewildered and dazed as the magic spell he had unknowingly created was broken by the ovation he received at the National Liberal Club last night for Mary Orr’s inaugural ‘Promote Our Pianists’ concert series. I missed his ‘Waldstein’ Sonata that he confided was his first performance of this work that Delius was to describe as all scales and arpeggios. Aidan spontaneously modest as he came down the sumptuous staircase on his way to the green room and saw me just arriving in time for his Chopin . Mary Orr knew I had been invited by the LSO to the spotlight on Seong- Jin Cho

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/02/14/lso-shines-a-spotlight-on-seong-jin-cho-the-wondrous-sound-world-of-the-poet-of-the-keyboard/

Mary had written to me in her own inimitable way and on arriving our beloved Mary handed me a glass of red wine and the best seat in the house! What a lady!

Having listened enthralled to Aidan’s Chopin I was doubly sorry to have missed his Beethoven.The original programme for the second half had gone through some deeply rooted changes and instead of the Prelude op 45 and Scherzo op 39 leading into the Sonata in B minor , Aidan after long suffering decided that the great B minor sonata would be better accompanied by two of Chopin’s most mellifluous outpourings of Bel Canto : The Aeolian Harp of op 25 n. 1 and the equally magical Berceuse op 57. The reasoning for this became evident as the sound of the first notes of the étude was the same sound that resounded through the Berceuse and B minor Sonata creating a sumptuous world of refined elegance and passionate intensity.

Leaning back as his long slender fingers created the magic sounds that Sir Charles Hallé had described on hearing Chopin himself play in Manchester.This was on his last ill fated tour enticed by an aristocratic lady friend and fervent admirer, Jane Sterling just as Chopin had been persuaded by another equally demanding George Sand, to spend an ill fated winter on Majorca. The description of Hallé perfectly describes the playing of Aidan as the melodic line rose and fell and was shaped with beguiling freedom sustained by the undulating sounds of changing harmonies. Undulating harmonies played with simplicity but also a poetic intensity where this étude became a tone poem of extraordinary power and beauty. We are so used to hearing these studies played one after the other that to hear just one elevated to such heights and with an overwhelming freedom and personality was overpowering and caught our attention immediately, paving the way for the magical glowing simplicity of the ‘Berceuse’. A theme and variations with a constant lullaby undercurrent, played with the glowing radiance of Bel Canto, this time without the luxuriant harmonies that he had bestowed on it with his Aeolian Harp. Maybe Aidan played it a little fast as the more intricate filigree work lost something of its expansive freedom, but the golden sounds and strong personality were compelling as the scene was now set for the B minor Sonata.

Aidan opened the Sonata with a commanding authority and a scrupulous attention to Chopin’s very precise indications, to which he added fantasy and dramatic drive with everything so beautifully and naturally phrased. A sumptuous golden sound as the second subject was played with a flowing poignant beauty of aristocratic nobility. Straight into the development with passionate intensity and the return of the second subject intoned with even more depth of sound and extraordinary radiance. The ‘Scherzo’ was phrased with the shape of a thinking musician, not just a web of sparkling jeux perlé but something of far greater significance. The ‘Trio’ unfolded like an improvised voyage of discovery as the weaving, glowing counterpoints spoke in a way that is rare indeed and lead imperceptibly to the return of the ‘Scherzo’. Even the noble opening chords of the ‘Largo’ were given a subtle sense of direction and significance as the luminosity of the melodic line held us spellbound for the eloquence and sensitivity of Aidan’s playing. Streams of notes poured from Aidan’s hands with a sumptuous bass keeping an anchor and giving great strength to the glowingly elusive musical line. This was music shaped by a great musical personality with passionate radiance and a remarkable line of great architectural strength.The Finale: ‘Presto non tanto’ opened with octaves over the entire keyboard, given a sense of direction and colour out of which was born the Rondò theme that was to become ever more intense on each return.There was a continuous, fearless drive of poetic mastery where even the many scintillating cascades of notes were shaped and phrased with subtle meaning as the music built to the final explosion and a coda that was played with breathtaking brilliance and the sumptuous sounds of a truly ‘Grand’ piano.

The Prelude op 45 that had originally been intended as the first work in this Chopin second half was now the encore that Aidan offered to a very enthusiastic audience. The long flowing lines of slowly changing harmonies were allowed to unfold with glowing beauty and an improvised freedom of extraordinary beauty. The delicacy of the cadenza at the end was where Chopin creates sounds of even faster changing harmonies of whispered beauty as this late Prelude uttered its last glowing wish. Aidan was not expecting a second encore but such was our insistence that he sat at the piano again and played a Waltz by Scriabin op 38 with a kaleidoscope of colour and beguiling insinuation that filled the air with even more rarified magic from a master musician.

https://youtu.be/FpOnHiZYbaU?si=VwgSYgm_WGh5cI6z

Aidan Mikdad at the Wigmore Hall astonishes and ravishes with Scriabin of mystery,passion and colour as he reaches for the stars.

Nothing like a Dame!Aidan Mikdad ignites the Imogen Cooper Music Trust – part 1 and 2

Miracles at the Barbican in these days with the whispered glowing power of music from Seong-Jin Cho together with the passionate refined musicianship of Gianandrea Noseda.

The wonderful players of the LSO encouraged to play with the same freedom and inner intensity as Cho. Has the horn call that heralds the coda of the ‘Allegro Vivace’ ever sounded more like a mountain call? Resounding throughout the hall with an improvised freedom before being gently brought to heel as Cho played with crystalline clarity and delicacy Chopin’s beguiling web of intricate weaving sounds. Nosseda encouraging the players to join in the fun with the waltz like lilt and ‘joie de vivre’ that we sometimes experience in Schumann, but what a wonder to hear Chopin restored to it’s Polish roots with such beguiling insinuation and refinement.

This was after the fearless opening ‘Maestoso’ where Chopin’s oft criticised orchestral writing was given a new lease of life. Sumptuous rich sounds all congregating around the ravishing poetic beauty that was pouring from Cho’s hands. Sounds at times like streams of gold just illuminating the aristocratic elegance of this movement whilst both were capable of passionate abandon and glorious exhilaration.

There were moments of timeless beauty as Cho allowed the Bel Canto embellishments to unwind with the sublime sounds of a Monserrat Caballé as we all waited with baited breath for the orchestra to continue its miraculous journey together.

A Larghetto of such perfection, as one of Chopin’s most beautiful melodic creations was played with an exquisite palette of sounds, Nosseda just waiting to encourage his players to listen and caress such wonders together that were filling the hall.

This was beauty not for beauty’s sake but of a great musician who could see and shape these sounds and give them an architectural shape and rhythmic anchor that never slipped into sentimentality but was of the same simple beauty as a Michelangelo sculpture.

A monumental simplicity in which so little could mean so much.

I hope that his encore of the valse de l’adieu does not signify that the spotlight on such an artist will ever fade.

The saga continues …..after a most poetic Chopin Second Concerto with the LSO at the Barbican last night, Seong-Jin Cho shows us once again the whispered power of music.

The magical sounds of Donghoon Shin with only four of the players from last night sharing the intimate stage of St Luke’s. A performance where notes shone like jewels in the dark as Cho played the part of Stevenson’s shadow :”For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India- rubber ball , And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.

It was the same chameleonic presence of Cho with the four principal string players in Brahms G minor Quartet. He was able to amalgamate the sound of the piano so it became part of the strings with no thought of hammers striking strings.A sound that miraculously just filled the stage, the hall and hopefully microphones with sumptuous sounds. David Cohen, who I had noticed yesterday in Stravinsky, playing with such joy as he looked us in the eye to make sure we were enjoying it just as much as he. This was chamber music to cherish as this group of players could unite as one stimulating each other to delve ever deeper into the sublime secrets hidden within the all too inadequate black and white indications on the page.

The third time to hear Seong-Jin Cho within twenty four hours thanks to the LSO Spotlight falling on a true star.

The Barbican and surrounds taken by siege with Korean fans ,the sort of enthusiasm we only experience in the west with football. The dial has moved from west to east as the wonderful Korean training and love of music is showing the west the way to Parnassus .

Having heard his Chopin 2 which has gained in timeless strength since I last heard it at the Proms. This morning chamber music where the piano became part of a musical line that these fabulous players could create together with obvious passionate joy at being part of the recreation of such sublime outpourings. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2018/08/21/chopin-galore-bryce-morrison-and-seong-jin-cho-on-sunday-in-london/

The last concert was with a friend and colleague Sunwook Kim , a few years older than Cho , who had taken the Leeds by siege in 2006 being the youngest, at 18, to win the Gold medal. Both from the remarkable class of Daejin Kim at Korea National University of the Arts . His music making took him to London’s RAM to perfect his conducting skills.

It was exactly this sense of architectural shape that gave such strength to Mozart’s F major Sonata K 497.

A work long neglected by amateur pianists where Mozart at the height of his powers could structure such a complex work for Franziska von Jacquin who was obviously far from being an amateur pianist. Kim at the helm and Cho a super anchor they revealed the genius of Mozart with poetic weight and an extraordinary palette of sounds. These two friends and master musicians could dialogue together with a great sense of balance as they listened to the overall whole and recreated a work that I have rarely heard before at home or on stage!

After such magnificence they refreshed the air, with Cho now at the helm, seducing us with the charm and cheek of six of Wolfgang Rihm’s satirical Viennese Waltzes. A beguiling insinuating sense of colour and at times even sleazy night club charm that was of such enticing style we could have happily danced the night away to Valentine’s Day.

We were secretly hoping we might get another one or two as an encore after the Schubert .

However after such a monumental performance of the F minor Fantasy, Cho wisely shut the piano lid as we silently left this beautiful hall heading off in the rain perchance to dream of the wonders we had experienced from these two refined master musicians.

If they tried a little too hard to exult the beauty of Schubert with the whispered ethereal palette of pointillist sounds that only they seem to possess, it was because they love it as obviously Schubert did .

Schubert who in his last year could open the gate to the paradise that was waiting at only 31.

Schubert marks very clearly piano and pianissimo which became tainted with the same exquisite brush and moments of breathtaking beauty strangely lost their sublime shock . This was such a monumental performance ,though, that it was a small price to pay for such charm and drive of the Scherzo. Rarely played with such perfection where colour and rhythmic drive could live together with such transcendental mastery.

Unforgettable were the ghostly trills spread over the piano in the Largo sending a shiver of Scriabinesque vibrations of etherial wonderment.

Masterly playing of the fugato leading to searing excitement of exhilaration and passionate involvement and then suddenly silence. Desolate and distressing .

They say silence is golden and this certainly was, as Kim waiting what seemed like a eternity before barely caressing the keys as Cho intoned the magical melody that he imbued with even more tenderness and nostalgia .The death rattle of the final chords and the simple gasp to end , left us with silence in one of those magic moments where the entire audience were united with the players in what might even be described as ‘religious’ .

There was certainly magic in the air and a spotlight that had fallen on an all too often forgotten paradise.

Proving that MUSIC is most certainly the food of love and the cure for all the evils that are inflicting such suffering and pain on so many in these ‘modern’ times!

Seong-Jin Cho in Rome -The refined finesse of a poet of the keyboard

Seong-Jin Cho Ravelathon Pianistic perfection of transcendental radiance and ravishing beauty

Sunwook Kim was born in Seol, South Korea on 22 April 1988. He began studying the piano  at the age of three. He gave his debut recital aged ten and this was followed by his concerto debut two years later. He won the Leeds International Piano Competition  aged just 18, becoming the competition’s youngest winner for 40 years, as well as its first Asian winner. Kim’s performance of Brahms Piano Concerto in D minor with The Hallé and Sir Mark Elder  in the competition’s final won unanimous praise from the press, and led to concerto engagements with UK’s finest orchestras as well as various recitals around Europe.

At the time of the competition, Kim was a student at the Korea National University of Arts under Daejin Kim . He had also previously won the IX Ettlingen Competition and the XVIII Concours Clara Haskil. He was awarded the Artist of the Year prizes from the Daewon Cultural Foundation (2005) and Kumho Asiana Group (2007).

He has received MA degree for conducting from Royal Academy of Music  in 2013.

In the 2023/24 season, Sunwook will make his debut with Atlanta Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Gävle Symfoniorkester as well as his conducting debuts with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Budapest), Georges Enescu Philharmonic and Filharmonia Śląska (Poland). Sunwook will also return to conduct the Seoul Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony and as soloist with BBC Philharmonic. In September 2023, Sunwook Kim was announced as the next Music Director of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra for an initial term until December 2025, leading the orchestra in a minimum of ten performances per year, starting with Gyeonggi Arts Center’s New Year’s concert in January 2024.ecital highlights to date include regular appearances at the Wigmore Hall, London’s International Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Stockholm Konserthuset, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, La Roque d’Antheron International Piano Festival in France, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Centree, Symphony Hall Osaka, Brussels Klara Festival, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele.

Sunwook Kim’s debut recital disc was released on the Accentus label in October 2015, featuring Beethoven’s Waldstein and Hammerklaviersonatas, this was followed by a recording of Franck’s Prelude, choral et fugue paired with Brahms Sonata No.3. He has released further recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas: Sonata No.8 (Pathétique), No.14 (Moonlight) and No. 23 (Appassionata) as well as Sonatas Nos. 30-32. His most recent chamber music release features the Violin Sonatas of Beethoven in collaboration with Clara-Jumi Kang. His discography also includes multiple concerto recordings; on Accentus Music with the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Myung-Whun Chung featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 and Six Piano Pieces (2020) in addition to recordings on Deutsche Grammophon with the Seoul Philharmonic conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, a CD featuring Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto (2014) and a CD featuring Beethoven’s Concerto No.5 (2013).

Seong- Jin Cho was born in Seol, South Korea, the only child of non-musical parents; his father was an engineer. At six years old, he began studying both the piano and the violin Though he appeared to have more natural facility on the latter, he developed a stronger liking for the piano, and gave his first public piano recital at age eleven. After being identified through a musical prodigy development program at the Seoul Arts Centre , he began studying under Sook-Ryeon Park at Sunchon National University  and Soo-Jung Shin at Seol National University

He attended the Yewon School, a private middle school for art education, during which he won First Prize at both the Moscow International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists (2008) and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (2009). Cho then attended Seol Arts High Shool for two years, during which he placed third at the 2011 International Tchaikowsky Competition  and began performing regularly with Myung-whun Chung  and the Seol Philharmonic Orchestra .

Cho moved to Paris in 2012 to study at the Conservatoire de Paris  with Michel Béroff . While there, Cho placed third at the 2014 Arthur Rubinstein International Master Competition and first prize at the 2015 International Chopin Competition , becoming the first Korean to receive that distinction.

In the 2025/26 season, Seong-Jin Cho is the London Symphony Orchestra’s Artist Portrait. The position sees him work with the orchestra on multiple projects across the season, with concerto performances including the world premiere of a new Piano Concerto by Donghoon Shin, written especially for him. The position also features touring performances across Europe, as well as chamber music concerts and in recital at LSO St Luke’s. Elsewhere, he notably returns to Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck with performances in Pittsburgh and Carnegie Hall, to Boston Symphony Orchestra with Andris Nelsons, and to Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. Cho embarks on several international tours, including his notable return to Czech Philharmonic with Semyon Bychkov in Taiwan and Japan, and Münchner Philharmoniker with Lahav Shani in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. He also performs with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Andris Nelsons throughout Europe in Autumn 2025.

Chappell Gold Medal and much more besides with a sumptuous display of superb piano playing but above all of music making of the highest order

Awaiting the results from a distinguished jury but they are all winners today as the world awaits these wonderfully trained musicians

Chappell Medal to Ruka Ogihara for an astonishing Sonata by Miyashi .Some very musicianly performances of Bach and Beethoven as you might expect from a student of Dany Driver. It was the Sonata by Miyoshi, however, that unlocked her classical restraint and respect as she was freed by the extraordinary demands of Akira Miyoshi’s 1958 Sonata. Extraordinary mastery of the keyboard as her arms became suddenly like rubber allowing her to create a kaleidoscope of colours with a dynamic natural freedom that was breathtaking in it’s audacity.

Hopkinson Gold Medal and Cyril Smith Prize to Zvjezdan Vojvodic for his mastery and supreme artistry. Opening with the extraordinary demands of Hamelin’s ‘Pavane Variée’ played with the same astonishing natural mastery as its composer. His Haydn ‘Presto’ sounded more like an impressive perpetuum mobile rather than with the charm and colour he brought to the ‘Andante con expressione’ first movement of the C major Sonata Hob XVI /48. It was his complete self identification with Liszt, that he brought to the ‘St Francis preaching to the birds’ and the Dante Sonata, that showed off his great temperament and supreme artistry where authority and showmanship combined to masterly effect.

Hopkinson Silver Medal and Peter Wallfisch Prize together with best undergraduate performance to Jiaxin Li for her hair raising Kapustin Etude that was anything but ‘Pastoral’ and her musicianly playing of Les Adieux. Her Kapustin Etude immediately showed her remarkable crystal clear clarity and refined rhythmic energy with a dizzying stream of notes .Beethoven showed off her superb classical training, that combined with her precision and respectful musicianship brought Les Adieux vividly to life. It was in Scriabin and Liszt that she could combine her technical mastery with musicianship in performances where she could carve out an architectural line of delicacy and power allied to a refined poetic fantasy.

I would have awarded some special recognition to Leo Little despite an unfortunate lapse in Scriabin 5 as he was about to pass the winners post. As this ‘outsider’ astonished us with a fearless performance of Carl Vine’s Piano Sonata n 1. Some astonishing performances of undemonstrative mastery of a pianist with a natural feeling for sound and colour. A passionate intensity and concentration that he brought not only to Vine but with the washes of sound and colours of self identification and total commitment that he brought to Debussy and Auerbach. An overwhelming performance of Scriabin’s fifth Sonata where he lost the thread towards the end, which cost him the recognition he deserved , but in spite of that he bravely brought the sonata to its demonic conclusion.

Of course there was the remarkable Schumann op 14 from Rebekah Yinuo Tan. The ‘Concerto without orchestra’ was played with dynamic drive and searing intensity. A scrupulous attention to the composers intricate indications as she gave a fearless performance of fervent commitment. Ravishing kaleidoscope of sounds in Debussy’s Images Bk 2 and remarkable clarity and mastery of the composers vivid Firework display played with virtuosity and poetic imagery.

An equally stylish Carnaval from Radu-Gabriel Stoica. A musical personality who is not afraid of having something personal to say. Pierrot and Eusebius may have been too loquacious for some tastes but it added to a performance of great commitment and style. Beethoven op 110 had been given an impeccable performance where intelligence and mature musicianship combined with a pianist who looked as though he belonged to the keyboard such was his involvement in listening to himself.

Hats off …The Chappell Gold Medal has uncovered a genius

This is the third time I have heard Khrystyna since she was forced to flee her homeland and find refuge in the UK. It was Dr Mather who was one of the first to come to her rescue as she found a way of continuing her artistic journey in a new country. Like Chopin who fled his homeland, the heritage it had left him was always present in everything he did whether in Vienna ,Paris ,Nohant or even Majorca. Khrystyna too has inherited a musical training that has given her a phenomenal technical command of the keyboard but also a love for the sound of the piano. Her ‘fingerfertigkeit’ was given to her as her hands were growing as a child and they were obviously formed with a flexibility and natural beauty that can only be acquired from this early age. Whatever she plays there is always a wonderful fluidity and beauty of sound. Never hard or ungrateful sounds of tension but music that flows from her fingers as it did for Alicia De Larrocha ,Argerich and Pires too. Khrystyna is also blessed with a temperament that can excite as it can seduce.

Today she chose two monuments of the piano repertoire . The Busoni ‘Chaconne’ is very much where Busoni has recreated on the piano the masterpiece that Bach had penned for solo violin. Brahms’s transcription is nearer to the original being played with the left hand just as it would have been on the violin. Busoni has created a concert piece and it is a master work but more Busoni than Bach. Busoni’s wife was often introduced to people as Mrs Bach Busoni such was the identification of Busoni with Bach in a period when Bach’s music was hardly known. The ‘Chaconne’ is a monumental work that needs a continuous undercurrent within it’s framework. As Chopin was to say : ‘a tree with firmly planted roots but branches free to move as nature commands’. Khrystyna found the excitement and exhilaration of this work but her breakneck speed and insistence even she found hard to maintain. Amazing lightweight left hand octaves and a driving insistence like the man on the high wire- will he make it or not? The opening tempo was much too slow and as Khrystyna delved into the notes finding great beauty we had lost from the very beginning the anchor on which the whole work depends. Khrystyna is a very fine musician and all she did was shaped with great artistry and loving care but one felt that there were the fast passages and the slow ones, both exaggerated in tempo, that they did not belong to the one whole. Her sumptuous sound and extraordinary technical mastery taken with more aristocratic nobility would allow this great work to speak for itself as one of the greatest works ever written for a solo instrument.

Khrystyna is now studying at my old Alma Mater, the Royal Academy, with Joanna McGregor ,head of the keyboard having been bequeathed it by Christopher Elton and the school of great musicianship of Gordon Green ( who was both Christopher and my teacher ) and I am sure with guidance she will come to understand the structure of the Chaconne, as she in fact demonstrated with the Brahms Sonata that followed.

The Brahms F minor Sonata is a monumental work and a real trial of musicianship and resilience . Five movements for what was described by Schumann as a ‘veiled symphony’. Khrystyna played it with the same fearless drive that she had brought to the Chaconne but here it was allied to an architectural understanding that could construct a great Gothic Cathedral of monumental proportions. The fearless rhythmic drive and enviable precision of the treacherous octave leaps was allied to the beauty and simplicity that she brought to the lyrical passages. There were slight fluctuations of tempo but within the framework of the whole sonata . There was a beauty of balance in the ‘quasi ‘cello’ outpouring that Brahms marks with such indications as ‘pianissimo’ and ‘sostenuto’ before the dramatic outburst of the opening fanfare. A grandiose ending to the first movement was contrasted with the glowing luminosity of the ‘Andante espressivo’ and I doubt the ‘Poco più lento Äusserst leise un zart’ has ever been played with such touching radiance and beauty. Maybe only by Curzon ! The central passionate outpouring gave Khrystyna a chance to pour her heart out with passionate intensity and poignant meaning.The ‘Andante molto coda ‘ was played with whispered beauty and aristocratic authority as it built imperceptibly to the fortissimo climax of liberation and exhilarance.

The ‘Scherzo’ just flew from her hands but with measured control and with considerable technical command. Even the ‘Trio’ she managed to maintain a similar tempo that made the surprise return to the ‘Scherzo’ even more effective. The ‘Intermezzo’,introduction to the last movement, was played with radiance until the menacing left hand throbbing of a desolate heart was intoned with extraordinary mastery and anguish.The ‘Finale’ that can sound so fragmented in lesser hands was played with such rhythmic finesse that the pieces fitted together in a jigsaw puzzle of genial invention. It was in the coda that Khystyna lapsed into sixth gear again and lost the grandeur and timeless magnificence of the climax of this monumental work. It was an amazing ‘tour de force’ where after the ‘più mosso’ she could even play faster the ‘Presto’ with extraordinary fingerfertigkeit, but it was where her technical prowess took over from what was truly in the heart and soul of a great pianist in the making .

Khrystyna Mykhailichenko at St Mary’s Perivale ‘Mastery and maturity of great artistry’

Khrystyna Mykhailichenko at St Mary’s Mature artistry and refined musicianship of a great pianist in the making.