ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

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 give 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 that 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 extraordinarily 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

Mariamna Sherling making her debut recital for the Keyboard Trust last night with a programme played with fearless brilliance and burning authority.

From Bach to Liszt whatever she played it was imbued with crystalline clarity and the remarkable musicianship that has been bequeathed to her by Vanessa Latarche as she perfects her studies here in London at the Royal College . A technical mastery that she earned at the Gnessin School and Moscow Conservatory that allows her temperament to imbue all she does with great authority.

Before the recital Sir Geoffrey Nice chairman of the Keyboard Trust talking about the legacy that John and Noretta have left us

The KT created by John Leech for his wife Noretta Conci will continue to help aspiring young musicians well into the future. Noretta who joined John just a month ago at the age of 95 must both be looking on happily tonight as this beautiful young artist joins in the celebration of two extraordinary people whose dream has come true.

Bach’s First Partita opened the recital with playing of etched beauty and aristocratic authority . An ‘Allemande’ that was of grace and charm anchored by a bass that added weight and strength. A beautifully fluid ‘Corrente’ was followed by the ‘Sarabande’ etched in golden tones of poignant potency . To the timeless charm of the Menuet she discreetly added ornaments that just gave an extra sheen to the simplicity and beauty before the exhilaration and brilliance of the Giga.

Beethoven’s 32 variations in C minor are rarely heard in concert these days and was played with remarkable authority as the variations took wing with burning drive and with moments of whispered beauty that were a momentary oasis from the endless outpouring of a work that Beethoven was not happy with and was published only after his death. With memories of Emil Gilels and Annie Fischer in mind it was refreshing to hear this work played with such youthful passion and total commitment. What can seem a series of technical exercises were transformed into a work of burning Beethovenian intensity of genial invention .

Two Chopin Scherzi were played with remarkable authority . Gone was the freedom of the so called Chopin tradition and here was a young artist who could look at the scores afresh and follow the composers very precise instructions rather than the indulgence of pianists of a past age . Rubinstein was the first to show us the true strength of Chopin and his genial mastery of form, and it is a tradition that was continued by Pollini. Rubinstein was on the jury of the Competition in Warsaw when 18 year old Pollini was awarded the Gold medal with Rubinstein’s famous remark that he plays better than any of us on the jury.It launched a 60 year career of a pianist and close friend of John and Noretta. It is playing of great strength not denying beauty especially the bel canto but exulting more the genius of the composer than themselves . Mariamna played with fearless brilliance and passionate intensity not allowing indulgent rhetoric to diminish the genial construction of a pianistic innovator. Breathtaking passages of excitement and exhilaration were contrasted with subtle refined beauty nowhere more than in the central outpouring of the fourth scherzo .

Choosing to finish her recital with the 12th Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt that had long been a warhorse of great pianists from the Golden age of piano playing. I remember Frederick Jackson of the Royal Academy telling me how as a student they would cheer Rubinstein at the end of his recitals such was the rhythmic excitement he could solicit.

Mariamna like Rubinstein could find so much radiance and beauty in this rhapsody where the beguiling and teasingly beautiful Hungarian folk songs were allowed to wallow with knowing indulgence and seduction before the final ‘tour de force’ of the coda of burning intensity and remarkable funambulistic showmanship .

Elena Vorotko, an artistic director of the KT, was almost lost for words after such breathtaking performances . Not for long, though, as she did manage to have a very interesting public conversation with Mariamna revealing an artist of great sensibility and intelligence where her music making had simply preceded her spoken words .

Mariamna can be heard at the Royal College of Music on the 7th of June at 4 o’clock as she presents her Graduation recital to an audience where public is welcomed free of charge

Mariamna Sherling at Bechstein Hall Kissed by the Gods with beauty and poetic artistry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Magdalene Ho A musical genius in Paradise

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

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

The hills of Rome resounding to music this morning.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mendelssohn: Variations sérieuses Op. 54

Granados: Allegro de concierto Op. 46

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

Chopin: Polonaise-Fantaisie Op. 61 

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

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

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

Diana Cooper ‘Miracles at Bechstein Hall’

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

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

Programme:

Part I :

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

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

Frank Bridge – Lament – performed by Nikita Demidenko 

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

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

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

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

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

Part II :

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

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

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

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

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

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

List of performers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

War or Peace – The Help Ukraine concert

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

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

Nikita Lukinov plays breathtaking charity recital for Ukraine in Berlin.

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