ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

A fascinating new programme from Noah that he wanted to try out on his neighbours in Perivale. A programme that demonstrated his musicianship and transcendental mastery of the keyboard.

C.P.E. Bach was the fifth child and second surviving son of J.S. Bach sometimes known as the Berlin or Hamburg Bach to distinguish him from his younger brother J.C. Bach known as the ‘London’ Bach . He was an influential composer working at a time of transition between his father’s Baroque style and the Classical style that followed. He was the principal representative of the ‘sensitive style’ whose keyboard music is a forerunner of the expressiveness of Romantic music , in deliberate contrast to the statuesque forms of Baroque music. It was exactly this sense of style that Noah captured from the very first notes with a scintillating opening of cascade of brilliance. Playing with a pulsating energy and glowing mastery contrasting with the beauty of the ‘Adagio’ that was played with purity and simplicity, the long melodic lines allowed to flow with and architectural shape and refined musical line. A playful Allegro with deep notes adding an anchor to the scintillating streams of notes that flowed from Noah’s hands with masterly ease.

C.P.E Bach had been an influential pedagogue writing his “Essay on the true art of playing keyboard instruments”, which influenced Haydn,Mozart and Beethoven. So it was doubly interesting to hear Mozart’s C major Sonata K 333 played immediately afterwards . Mozart could say so much with so little as this sonata demonstrates with its refined elegance and subtle delicacy. Noah played the opening ‘Allegro’ with a crystalline beauty, the ornaments glowing like jewels as Noah’s superb fingers were like springs unwinding with brilliant clarity. An ‘Andante’ of flowing beauty of refined good taste and luminosity. The ‘Allegretto’ played with a delicacy and elegance where every note had a meaning and was part of a satisfying whole. Mozart may indeed have been influenced by C.P.E. Bach but added the refined invention of genial inspiration.

Noah brought the same simplicity and glowing beauty to ‘La Folia’ theme of Rachmaninov’s ‘Corelli’ Variations dedicated to Fritz Kreisler his violinist duo partner. ‘La Folia’, was inot composed by Arcangelo Corelli, but was used by him in 1700 as the basis for 23 variations in his Sonata for violin, violone, and harpsichord in D minor, Op. 5, No. 12. Hence the dedication to Kreisler. ‘La Folia’ was popularly used as the basis for variations in Baroque music and even Liszt used the same theme in his Rhapsodie Espagnole S. 254 (1863). Rachmaninov wrote to another friend, the composer Nikolai Medtner, in 1931: “I’ve played the Variations about fifteen times, but of these fifteen performances only one was good. The others were sloppy. I can’t play my own compositions! And it’s so boring! Not once have I played these all in continuity. I was guided by the coughing of the audience. Whenever the coughing would increase, I would skip the next variation. Whenever there was no coughing, I would play them in proper order. In one concert, I don’t remember where – some small town – the coughing was so violent that I played only ten variations (out of 20). My best record was set in New York, where I played 18 variations. However, I hope that you will play all of them, and won’t ‘cough’.”

Noah played all twenty variations today with poetic beauty and scintillating brilliance.There was no coughing in Perivale and Noah could allow us to hear his first outing of this work with playing of great precision and rhythmic drive. Immediately emerging himself into the brooding character of the ‘Minuet’ third variation, before the beautifully sung fourth , with its etherial comments played with simple knowing ease by Noah. A dynamic drive to the fifth lead straight into the intricate knotty twine of the sixth and the majestic explosion of sounds, on the pedal note of D, in the seventh .The eighth was even more agitated and played with a Rachmaninovian sumptuous brilliance ending with cascades of notes sweeping across the keys. Capricious meanderings of the ‘Adagio misterioso’ and the radiant harmonies of the ninth were played with languid beauty spread over the entire keyboard. A pulsating rhythmic energy to the tenth with typical vituosistic Rachmaninovian embellishments of transcendental difficulty bringing savage rhythmic drive to the eleventh. A pulsating syncopated rhythmic energy to the twelfth before the chords of the thirteenth played with sumptuous full sounds by Noah . The improvised ‘Intermezzo’ was played with a ravishing palette of colour and masterly use of the pedal as it dissolved into ‘La Folia’ now in the major key of D flat. Noah played it with glowing simplicity as it unwound into the fifteenth with pastoral simplicity.Taking wing again with the sixteenth and swirls of notes leading into the calm of the seventeenth where the theme was floated on a gently moving bass. The last three variations were a ‘tour de force’ of dynamic drive and brilliance with Noah throwing himself into the fray with fearless abandon until arriving on the repeated bass ‘D”s as the theme was allowed to float magically on this wave of whispered beauty. A remarkable first outing for Noah of a work of transcendental difficulty where he can already steer us through such knotty twine with intelligence and poetic understanding.

Liszt’s sixth Hungarian Rhapsody has long been a warhorse for virtuosi with its infamous repeated octaves which Noah played with remarkable mastery and brilliance. Excitement and brilliance mounted to fever pitch when the octaves passed into the left hand with streams of notes shooting across the keys above. But Noah is a remarkable musician who could also bring ravishing beauty to the central episode and a rhythmic energy to the opening Hungarian dance rhythms. Creating a miniature tone poem and not just a showpiece of empty virtuosity .

Described as masterful, deeply emotional and dramatic in his pianistic style by BBC Radio, London based British-Chinese pianist Noah Zhou is the first ever British born Laureate of the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition. Generously supported through his childhood by the Eileen Rowe Musical Trust, he has since graduated with 1st Class Honours from the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded the Sir Elton John Scholarship, and where he studied with the Emeritus Head of Keyboard, Christopher Elton. During his time as a student, Zhou was awarded multiple top scholarships and grants from The Hattori Foundation, Countess of Munster Trust and the Drake Calleja Trust.

Zhou has been a top prizewinner in over 15 national and international piano competitions, and first came to media attention when he was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society of Great Britain’s Duet Prize for Best Young Instrumentalist in 2018. Since then he has frequently performed in concerts all across the world, and made his debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall in January 2025. Just prior, towards the end of 2024, Zhou was invited to give the first international premiere of a new work by the celebrated South American female composer Angel Amparo, in Ibague, the musical capital of Colombia. 

In past seasons, Zhou has collaborated with numerous orchestras, including the Phion Orchestra of the Netherlands; the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine; the Brazilian National Symphony Orchestra; the Orquestra do Algarve; the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (named after Evgeny Svetlanov); the Danube Symphony Orchestra; the Manchester Camerata; the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra; and the Malaga Symphony Orchestra, and has performed under the batons of conductors such as Antony Hermus; Douglas Bostock; Ivan Nikiforchin; Vitaliy Protasov; Roberto Tibiriçá; András Deák; Ronald Corp; Grigor Palikarov; Stephen Threlfall; and Victor Eloy Lopez Cerezo, amongst others. 

Noah Zhou at the Wigmore Hall Royal Academy of Music Series ‘Fearless music making of beauty and exhilaration’

Noah Zhou at St Mary’s A tiger on the rampage with artistry and total mastery

Haydn’s very grandiose Sonata in E flat has long been the one favoured by great virtuosi such as Horowitz or Richter and it was good to see a musician like Inna opening her programme with such a noble work. She imbued it with measure and musicianship, from the opening imposing declaration to the haunting playful fairy horns that Papà Haydn could depict with such subtle genial use of the sustaining pedal. The piano was in evolution and Haydn took advantage of the many new features to add special effects in his later sonatas. The Sonata n. 50 for example has a music box effect where Haydn specifically asks for long held pedal effects. Inna has a palette of colours in her very sensitive fingers that she used with knowing good taste and musicianship. Everything she played had a luminosity and sound of timeless brilliance. From the arresting opening to the magical horn calls and the seamless stream of notes that flowed so naturally from her hands. An ‘Allegro moderato’ which she played with control and simplicity allowing the music to unfold with great fluidity. There was a simplicity to the ‘Adagio’ that she played with refined delicacy and embellishments that were thrown off with knowing ease as she played with authority and beauty, where rests became as important as the actual notes in creating a musical line of poignant significance. The ‘Presto’ Finale was thrown off with masterly ease as the questioning opening was allowed to take wing with a ‘joie de vivre’ of irresistible exhilaration and impish good humour.

Chopin’s Fourth Ballade is the Pinnacle of the romantic piano repertoire and it is a poetic unfolding of a theme and variations from an innovative genius. Inna played it ,from the first notes, with a beautiful flowing tempo allowing the opening introduction to sing with aeolian harp radiance. The theme was played with luminosity and simplicity, the deep bass notes adding a reassuring anchor to the variations as they unfolded with ever more passionate intensity. There was a natural crescendo to the work which never drew attention to itself but was a vibrating natural forward movement leading to the final embellishments that Inna allowed to blossom with jewel like beauty. Building to the climax with remarkable control and musicianly understanding and final chords played with sumptuously fulfilling exhilaration. A silence that was as potent as the passionate climax and five whispered chords before the transcendental antics of the coda where even here, Inna could steer her way though this maze of notes with masterly control and architectural understanding.

This was a performance like with the scherzo, that restored the original inspiration of a composer of innovative genius, who could create such masterpieces of extraordinary poetic originality.

Inna brought great clarity to these three tone poems that make up Debussy’s Images Book 1. Her limpet like touch could extract a kaleidoscope of sounds within the keys without ever having to alter the rhythmic drive of the music that Debussy could describe with the precision of a composer who had also edited all the works of Chopin. Inna gave a flowing sense of architectural shape of great emotional strength with cascades of notes on which she floated the melodic line with masterly clarity. A very poignant ending of delicacy and glowing radiance with the final cadence depicted by Debussy with knowing mastery as we could almost see the fish disappearing into the depths with this final limped splash. ‘Hommage a Rameau’ was played with aristocratic nobility as she phrased in large spans depicting the monumentality of this extraordinary piece. A dawn awakening of whispered beauty gradually built in intensity until dying away to an ending which was floated on a cloud of dreamlike mystery. Driving rhythms to ‘Movement’ played always with a glowing beauty of inner intensity never frenzied brutality. A melodic lined etched on these glowing sounds of luminosity was shaped with masterly control as it spread over the entire keyboard only to disappear into the distance as the vibrating sounds continued.

Some aristocratic playing of glowing beauty and radiance from a pianist who could restore this much abused work to its rightful place as a masterly work of great orginality. A musician more concerned with interpreting the composers very precise indications than using his work as a showpiece for empty virtuosity. Inna is a master pianist, as she was able to demonstrate with a jeux perlé brilliance in the central episode. After the opening of drama and the radiant beauty of her glowing bel canto she was able to play with great simplicity the chorale like central episode imbuing it with poignant meaning as discreetly, and with refined good taste, she underlined inner counterpoints giving great depth to the sound. Building in intensity and brilliance but always under the control of a musician who can show us the overall architectural line. There was exhilaration and excitement too in the final pages but always listening to the sounds she was producing and shaping the music with masterly control .

Some extraordinary playing from Mayumi Sakamoto showing once again her pianistic class, with performances of radiance and beauty, but also of intelligence and authority. She had played Grieg once before in Perivale and shown her complete understanding of the style and poetic meaning of Grieg’s Norwegian roots. Playing of great freedom creating an atmosphere of pastoral beauty with the radiant purity of sounds of glowing beauty. Rarely have the bird songs been allowed to ring out with such glistening freedom. There was a noble beauty to ‘Ase’s Death’ full of rich sounds played always with natural flowing movements. Her beautiful dress of Japanese fabric just adding to the vision of beauty that she was depicting in sound. ‘Anitra’s Dance’ was played with beguiling rubato with its teasing ending before the ‘Mountain King’ was heard deep in the bass. She brought great character to the opening melody deep in the bass that she gradually allowed to grow in intensity with masterly control and scintillating excitement.

I have rarely heard Schumann’s ‘Widmung’ played with such poetic beauty. There was an expressive shape to her playing never loosing sight of the architectural line but filling it with delicacy and a sumptuous palette of sounds. A momentary prayer was played with simplicity and radiance as passion and rhythmic drive gradually spread over the entire keyboard with an outpouring of poetic mastery.

There was a very bold opening to the Bach Chaconne with playing of glowing nobility and it was here that she showed her masterly musicianship, maintaining a rhythmic drive through all the contrasting episodes of sumptuous rich sounds contrasted with crystalline brilliance. An extraordinary range of sounds and colours but never loosing sight of the architectural line of one of the greatest works ever written for the violin. Busoni has added a more orchestral sound than could be obtained on the solo violin creating a masterpiece for the piano, where Bach and Busoni go hand in hand with masterly construction and creation. Mayumi brought her extraordinary mastery to this work with astonishing brilliance as from the deeply expressive chorale and the whispered sounds of the solo violin she could build up the sound with masterly control without ever allowing the sound to harden. The ending was played with excitement and exhilaration as she brought a glowing nobility to this masterwork.

It was in Tchaikowsky that she brought all her orchestral colours to play with astonishing brilliance and if the transcriptions of Liszt and Thalberg were described as for three handed pianists this was indeed for four or five. Not content with Pletnev’s genial transcription she added things of her own to these four pieces that she had chosen from Tchaikovsky’s Ballet. She brought a languid beauty and a rhythmic drive to the middle two movements and the final was played with astonishing embellishments that seemed to streak across the keys with extraordinary technical mastery.

I have never seen the audience in Perivale so enthusiastic as they had been witness to playing of rare intelligence and beauty. Little could they have imagined that Mayumi would offer two encores of showpieces for the piano that were ,as Dr Mather said, only for super fearless virtuosi such as Arcadi Volodos or Yuja Wang.

Liszt’s ‘La Campanella’ was played with a glowing brilliance and a sense of style of the pianists of the Golden Age of piano playing. Jeux perlé seamless runs were contrasted with passion and dynamic drive but always under the perfect control of a master.

Mozart’s Turkish March, in the diabolical elaborations of Arcadi Volodos, was played with old style virtuosity and Horowitzian wizardry that was truly breathtaking.

It brought this remarkable recital of mastery and poetic beauty to a scintillating end introducing us once again to this charming master pianist of intelligence and class.

Born in Japan, Mayumi Sakamoto made her orchestral debut with her hometown orchestra at the age of eleven. At eighteen, she became a semi-finalist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. She graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, receiving the Douseikai Prize and the Yomiuri Prize in 2006. From 2005, she studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover in Germany as a scholarship student of the Rohm Music Foundation. She obtained the K.A. degree (Diploma in Artistic Training in Music) in 2007 and completed the Soloist Diploma Course with the Orchestra Prize in 2013. She was later invited to give master classes at the same institution and worked as an instructor of chamber music as well as an assistant to Professor Einar Steen-Nøkleberg. 

She won First Prize at the International Music Competition in Cologne in 2011, also receiving the Prize of the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln and the Special Prize from the Music Students. She also won First Prize and the Prix d’Oslo at the International Edvard Grieg Piano Competition in Norway, and the Highest Prize and Best Performance Prize for a work by Scarlatti at the Pausilypon International Piano Competition in Italy. She has received prizes at numerous international competitions, including the Top of the World International Piano Competition, the Andorra International Piano Competition, the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, and the Scottish International Piano Competition, and was a diploma recipient at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. 

Deeply committed to education, she served as a lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts from 2016 to 2021. She is currently a lecturer at Kyoto City University of Arts and a visiting researcher at the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University. She has recorded Mozart’s piano concertos with the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln and Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra. She has performed widely in Europe, the United States, and Japan, and her performances are praised for their bold yet delicate expression and rich tonal colours. 

Mayumi Sakamoto at St Mary’s ‘A superb pianist of great intelligence and class’

The St Matthew Passion BWV 244  is a  sacred oratorio  written in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto  by Picander . It sets the 26th  and 27th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew (in the Luther Bible) to music, with interspersed chorales and arias . It is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of Baroque sacred music . The original Latin title Passio Domini nostri J.C. secundum Evangelistam Matthæum translates to “The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ  according to the Evangelist Matthew

The St Matthew Passion is the second of two Passion settings by Bach  that have survived in their entirety, the first being the St John Passion first performed in 1724.

Little is known with certainty about the creation process of the St Matthew Passion. The available information derives from extant early manuscripts, contemporary publications of the libretto, and circumstantial data, for instance in documents archived by the Town Council of Leipzig.

First version (BWV 244.1, previously 244b)

In Leipzig  it was not allowed to paraphrase the words of the Gospel in a Passion presentation on Good Friday A setting of the then-popular Brockes Passion libretto, largely consisting of such paraphrasing, could not be done without replacing the paraphrases by actual Gospel text. That was the option chosen by Bach for his 1724 St John Passion. In 1725 Christian Friedrich Henrici, a Leipzig poet who used Picander  as his pen name, had published Erbauliche Gedanken auf den Grünen Donnerstag und Charfreytag (“Edifying Thoughts on Maundy Thursday  and Good Friday”), containing free verse suitable for a Passion presentation in addition to the Gospel text. Bach seems to have stimulated the poet to write more of such verse in order to come to a full-fledged libretto for a Passion presentation combined with the Passion text chapters 26 and 27 in the Gospel of St Matthew.

Since 1975, it has usually been assumed that Bach’s St Matthew Passion was first performed on Good Friday 11 April 1727, although its first performance may have been as late as Good Friday 1729, as older sources assert.The performance took place in the St,Thomas Church  (Thomaskirche) in Leipzig. Bach had been Thomaskantor (i.e., Cantor, and responsible for the music in the church) since 1723. In this version the Passion was written for two choruses and orchestras. Choir I consists of a soprano in ripieno voice, a soprano solo, an alto solo, a tenor solo, SATB chorus, two traversost, two oboes, two oboes d’amoreo, two oboes da cacciatore , lute, strings (two violin  sections, violas and cellos), and continuo (at least organ). Choir II consists of SATB voices, violin I, violin II, viola, viola da gamba cello, two traversos, two oboes (d’amore) and possibly continuo.

At the time only men sang in church: high pitch vocal parts were usually performed by treble choristers. In 1730, Bach informed the Leipzig Town Council as to what he saw as the number of singers that should be available for the churches under his responsibility, including those for the St. Thomas Church: a choir of twelve singers, plus eight singers that would serve both St. Thomas and the Peterskirche. The request was only partially granted by the Town Council, so possibly at least some of the Passion presentations in St. Thomas were with fewer than twenty singers, even for the large scale works, like the St Matthew Passion, that were written for double choir.

In Bach’s time, St. Thomas Church had two organ lofts: the large organ loft that was used throughout the year for musicians performing in Sunday services, vespers, etc., and the small organ loft, situated at the opposite side of the former, that was used additionally in the grand services for Christmas and Easter. The St Matthew Passion was composed as to perform a single work from both organ lofts at the same time: Chorus and orchestra I would occupy the large organ loft, and Chorus and orchestra II performed from the small organ loft. The size of the organ lofts limited the number of performers for each Choir. Large choruses, in addition to the instrumentists indicated for Choir I and II, would have been impossible, so also here there is an indication that each part (including those of strings and singers) would have a limited number of performers, where, for the choruses, the numbers indicated by Bach in his 1730 request would appear to be (more than?) a maximum of what could be fitted in the organ lofts.

The St Matthew Passion was not heard in more or less its entirety outside Leipzig until 1829, when the twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn performed a version in Berlin, with the Berlin Singakademie, to great acclaim. Though most remained the same, Mendelssohn did edit parts of the passion to satisfy the taste of the time. Due to the changes in addition with other circumstances the reception was a success. Mendelssohn’s revival brought the music of Bach, particularly the large-scale works, to public and scholarly attention (although the St John Passion had been rehearsed by the Singakademie in 1822).

Sterndale Bennett 1845 edition of the Passion was to be the first of many (as Adolph Bernhard Marxand Adolf Martin Schlesinger’sone in 1830), the latest being by Neil Jenkins (1997) and Nicholas Fisher and John Russell (2008). Appreciation, performance and study of Bach’s composition have persisted into the present era.

In 1824, Felix Mendelssohn’s maternal grandmother Bella Salomon had given him a copy of the score of the Passion. Carl Friedrich Zelter had been head of the Sing-Akademie since 1800. He had been hired to teach music theory to both Felix Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny. Zelter had a supply of J. S. Bach scores and was an admirer of Bach’s music but he was reluctant to undertake public performances.

When Felix Mendelssohn was preparing his revival performance of the Passion in 1829 in Berlin (the first performance outside Leipzig), he cut out “ten arias (about a third of them), seven choruses (about half), [but] only a few of the chorales,” which “emphasized the drama of the Passion story … at the expense of the reflective and Italianate solo singing.”

In 1827, Felix and a few friends began weekly sessions to rehearse the Passion.One of the group was Eduard Devrient, a baritone and since 1820 one of the principal singers at the Berlin Royal Opera.^[ Around December 1828 – January 1829 Devrient persuaded Felix that the two of them should approach Zelter to get the Sing-Akademie to support their project. Devrient was especially enthusiastic, hoping to sing the part of Jesus as he eventually did. Zelter was reluctant but eventually gave his approval; that of the Singakademie board followed.

Once the fuller group of singers and the orchestra were brought in, Devrient recalled, participants were amazed at “the abundance of melodies, the rich expression of emotion, the passion, the singular style of declamation, and the force of the dramatic action.”The 20-year-old Felix himself conducted the rehearsals and first two performances by the Singakademie.

Their first performance was effectively publicized in six consecutive issues of the Berliner Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, founded and edited by Adolf Bernhard Marx. It took place on 11 March 1829 and was sold out quickly. There was a second performance on 21 March, also sold out. In a third, on 18 April, Zelter conducted, and soon there were performances in Frankfurt (where a previously projected performance of the Passion had been upstaged by those in Berlin) and in Breslau and Stettin.

William Sterndale Bennett became a founder of the Bach Society  of London in 1849 with the intention of introducing Bach’s works to the English public. Helen Johnston (a student at Queen’s College ,London ) translated the libretto of the Passion, and Bennett conducted the first English performance at the Hanover Square Rooms London on 6 April 1854 (the same year that it appeared in print by the Old Bach Society (Alte Bach-Gesellschaft). The soloists included Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby.

In the early 1820s, the director of the Berlin Singakademie, Carl Zelter, got hold of a copy of Bach’s  St Matthew Passion and rehearsed some of the choral movements in private. By great good fortune, two of his singers were Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn . In April 1829, despite strong opposition from some quarters, the twenty-year-old Mendelssohn, with the help of Zelter and his friend the actor Eduard Devrient, mounted the work’s first modern performance, albeit in an abbreviated form, given to mark what was then thought to be the centenary of its first performance. This Easter-time Berlin presentation was a stunning success and was followed by others. These led directly to a complete reassessment and revival of interest in all of Bach’s music for, baffling as it seems nowadays, Johann Sebastian Bach had fallen into near obscurity since his death nearly 80 years earlier.

There had already been a long history of Passion music – that is musical settings telling the story of the final, short period in the life of Jesus. (‘Passion’ is derived from the Latin verb ‘patior’ meaning ‘to suffer’ or ‘endure’, from which we also get ‘patience’ and ‘patient’.) Every year for Good Friday Vespers, a Passion would be performed in one of Leipzig’s two principal (Lutheran) churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas. These performances would mark the high point of the church’s year.

Features two orchestras and two choruses

We know Bach wrote an earlier setting when he was the ducal concertmeister in Weimar (1714-1717) though this has not survived. In 1725, two years after he took up his appointment of cantor at St. Thomas’s, he wrote the Passion According To St. John. What followed two years later was an altogether grander, more magnificent setting. For instance, whereas the St John Passion had a mere continuo accompaniment (harpsichord or organ), its successor had an orchestra with Christ’s words accompanied by strings (an effect that has been compared to a halo around the Saviour’s head). And not just one orchestra – but two. In Bach’s time, St Thomas’s had two organ lofts – the larger of the two accommodating the musicians for Sunday services throughout the year, the smaller loft used for the additional numbers needed for the music at Christmas and Easter. Bach wrote his Passion to use both these performance spaces. Thus, the score is laid out for Chorus 1 and Orchestra 1, Chorus 2 and Orchestra 2.

Bach did not act as his own librettist for the St Matthew Passion. The story was arranged by Christian Friedrich Henrici, a postal official in the city who wrote verses using the pseudonym of Picander. A local Lutheran preacher, Salomon Deyling, supervised the writing of the text, using the 26th and 27th chapters of St Matthew’s Gospel (in his manuscript, Bach underlined the words of the Scripture with red ink). The speeches of various characters – Commentator (soprano), Evangelist (tenor), Christ (bass), Peter (bass), Judas (bass), and so forth – are represented by various solo singers.

In addition to the Bible story and Picander’s texts for the recitatives, arias, and other sections, Bach interspersed the work with his own harmonizations of old chorale melodies and texts. These would have been well-known to the congregation of St Thomas’s, the oldest dating back to the early 16th century. The best known of these, often referred to as the Passion Chorale, is ‘O Haupt Voll Blut Und Wunden’, usually sung in English to the words ‘O Sacred Head Sore Wounded’. It’s a melody originally written by one Hans Leo Hassler (1562-1612). Bach uses it no less than five times in the course of the St Matthew Passion, each time presenting it in a new way, with different words, keys, and harmonizations (he also used it – twice – in the Christmas Oratorio and in several cantatas)

It is a theatrical concept, a drama

Thus, the whole work is structured as a repeated pattern of Biblical narrative, comment, and prayer. It is a theatrical concept, a drama. It is even written in two Parts (or two ‘Acts’) with an interval (indeed, for the work’s first performance a sermon was preached between the two Parts) – and that is one reason why its first performance in Leipzig met with decidedly mixed reactions. This was an unorthodox way of presenting religious history and not the kind of thing that the more devout members of the congregation / audience felt was appropriate for a church, the feeling being that the work was too ‘operatic’.

Highlights to look out for are the alto aria ‘Buss Und Reu’ (‘Penance And Remorse’), one for soprano, ‘Blute Nur, Du Liebes Herz! (‘Bleed Now, Loving Heart!’); the sublime alto aria with violin obligato ‘Erbame, Dich’ (‘Have Mercy’), a second soprano aria ‘Aus Liebe Will Mein Heiland Sterben’ (‘Out Of Love My Saviour Is Willing To Die’); the blood-curdling moment when the mob calls for Barrabas to be freed and Christ to be crucified; and the final number in the Passion, the double chorus ‘Wir Setzen Uns Mit Tränen Nieder’ (usually translated as ‘In Tears Of Grief’).

Until 1975, it was held that the first performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion was on Good Friday 1729. Scholars now agree that an early version was first heard two years earlier, a second version in 1729, a further revised version in 1736 and a final one – the one we hear today – in 1742.

One of his most complex and profound creations of Western music

It is almost miraculous that the complete renaissance of Bach’s music which took place after 1829 was due to the performance of a work that had been quite forgotten yet is regarded today as one of his most complex and profound creations of Western music. It is also, as Mendelssohn himself noted wryly, somewhat ironic that “it took an actor and the son of Jew to revive the greatest Christian music for the world!”

Some ravishing playing again from Salome of intelligence and poetic beauty. One of Liszt’s greatest works restored to its rightful place in the hands of a pianist who pays scrupulous attention to the composers indications but also can imbue them with the poignant beauty of a true believer. ‘Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude’ is the third of Liszt’s ten Harmonies poétiques et religieuses S.173, a cycle of piano pieces written in 1847 at Woronińce the Polish-Ukrainian country estate of Liszt’s  mistress  Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, and were published in 1853.They are inspired by the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine ( as was Liszt’s Symphonic Poem Les Préludes ) and together with the Two Légendes ( written 10 years later) are works of a fervent believer but also of a master craftsman.There is none of the superfluous showmanship of the greatest pianist the world has ever known, but there is the poetic searching soul of a musical genius in works that are all too often neglected. They are works of a composer happy still to delve into the sound world of his time and to use the evolving piano to the full, as his colleague and rival Thalberg was to do, much to Liszt’s irritation.

There was the famous duel in the Parisian Salon of the Princess Belgiojoso on 31st March 1837, between these two giants of their day, in which the Princess very diplomatically declared Thalberg a great pianists, but Liszt unique.

Liszt however was never content to just accept convention and in later life was to look to a future sound world that was indeed prophetic.It might well have been the sound world of Scriabin, another genial composer searching for his ‘star’ via a multicoloured world of remarkable originality.

Salome allowed the tenor melody to emerge accompanied by bird like flutterings of radiance in the right hand that she played with remarkable fluidity considering their difficulty. Building to a climax of sumptuous full sounds of passionate intensity. Leading to a pastoral awakening of refreshing simplicity gradually building with a burning intensity bursting into a cascade of notes spread over the keyboard with jeux perlé mastery.The melody returning to the tenor register with bird like beauty leaving a final ‘bénédiction’ of poignant beauty that Salome played with rare sensibility.

There was a glowing luminosity and purity to the sound as Scriabin’s poetic and prophetic fantasy world was played with a kaleidoscope of colour.The brooding insistence of Scriabin’s diabolical insinuations gradually encompassing the entire keyboard with a transcendental display of masterly playing. A passionate declaration of intent as this ‘Black Mass’ cauldron of sounds reached boiling point, with a masterly display of dynamism and also of a musician who could steer us through such murky waters with crystalline clarity. Salome managed to find the architectural line and sense of direction of fragments pieced together piece by piece before returning to the bleak opening landscape and whispered ending of troubled uncertainty.

Pictures is so often given performances forgetting that it was written for the piano in mind, where a sense of balance and range of sounds is fundamental in disguising the fact that the piano is a percussion instrument. In the right hands and with a sensitive sense of balance and touch it can be made to sing and talk as expressively as the human voice. It was this that came across in Salome’s beautiful performance, where her musicianship and innate musicality allowed her to find colours and sounds of unusual expressiveness, never resorting to brute force but searching for colour. Nowhere was this more evident than in ‘Baba Yaga’ ,the penultimate picture, that was played with dynamic drive but with quite restrained volume which allowed for more contrasting sounds, and where volume was substituted for intensity and sense of line. She had started her visit to the Victor Hartman Exhibition, that had inspired Mussorgsky to write in only three weeks this work dedicated to his friend who had died prematurely, with a promenade of simplicity imbued with a certain nobility. Leading into the diabolical antics of the ‘Gnome’ that she immediately played with rhythmic bite and great character, alternated with languid yearning and ending with a ‘Gnome’ that became almost too hot to handle as it exploded into a flash of brilliantly played notes. A lazy stroll to the next picture of the ‘Old Castle’ where Salome was able to create a nostalgic atmosphere with a beautiful duet between the hands as it disappeared into the mist. A rumbustious promenade, moving on now to the next picture of children squabbling in the ‘Tuileries’, played with impish spirit and lightweight vitality. The lumbering ‘Bydlo’ appeared on the scene with great resonance, beautifully contrasted with the central episode before it lumbered its way into the distance and it was here that Salome’s control of sound produced some quite masterly effects. An etherial walk to the glowing brilliance of the ‘Chicks’ with playing of rhythmic vitality, the clucking trills thrown off with fearless brilliance and beautifully shaped. ‘Goldberg’ entered with his austere authority played with great clarity as was the simple reply of Schmyle. ‘Goldberg’ now in the bass with a beautifully shaped melodic line before the subdued interruption of the simple Promenade. Salome brought a scintillating brilliance to ‘Limoges Market’ with playing of masterly virtuosity bringing an unusual clarity to the driving climax that was so rudely interrupted by the noble vision of the ‘Catacombs’. These were played without any exaggeration but with simple resonance and beautifully conceived reverence. ‘Baba Yaga’ burst onto the scene without the usual brute force but with a musical intensity that was even more compelling. It was the same with the vision of the ‘Great Gate of Kiev’, where Salome’s sense of balance and palette of sounds combined with her great musicality to astonish and amaze us with the colours and glowing brilliance with which Mussorgsky could describe such a noble edifice.

A remarkable performance not for its brute force but for her masterly playing of control and musicianship that could bring character and style to a well worn showpiece so often brutalised in lesser hands.

Georgian pianist Salome Jordania has rapidly emerged as one of the most compelling pianists of her generation, celebrated for her technical command, poetic imagination, and profound musical insight. In 2025, she was named one of Georgia’s Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Arts and Style category. She has performed as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Israel, the Netherlands, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. Her festival appearances include Piano aux Jacobins, Les Grands Interpretes, L’Esprit du Piano, Piano en Valois, Festival de Musique de Menton, Palazzetto BruZane, Batumi International Piano Festival, Texas International Piano Festival, Tel-Hai Festival, GijonPiano Festival, Yamaha Rising Stars in Tokyo, and the IKIF Rising Stars Series in New York. 

Salome has won over 30 international prizes, including top honors at the Jose Iturbi Competition, Etoiles du Piano, Georges Cziffra Award (Vienna), Chopin National Competition (Georgia), Norma Fischer Prize (USA), Yamaha Prize (France), Goldene Taste (Frankfurt), and Silver Medal at theIKIF Competition (New York). She was the sole winner of the New York Concert Artists Competition, which led to her acclaimed debut recital at Berlin Philharmonie in 2023. 

She has performed with leading orchestras including the Georgian Philharmonic, Orquesta de Valencia, Moscow Virtuosi, SLO Symphony, Orchestre de Picardie, Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi, Armenian National Philharmonic, and Potsdam Philharmonic. An active chamber musician, Salome is a member of the Amsterdam-based trio The Graces, whichhas performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Grachten Festival, and Settimane MusicaliInternazionali in Italy. In 2025, she made her Wigmore Hall duo debut, launching a UK tour. 

Salome studied at Juilliard (B.M.), Yale (M.M., Charles S. Miller & Yale Alumni Prizes), and Guildhall (Artist Diploma, supported by the Steinway & Sons Scholarship). Her highly anticipated debut soloalbum with La Dolce Volta, centered on Liszt’s Sonata, is scheduled for release in 2026. 

Salome Jordania A supreme stylist of passionate intensity and intelligence

Keyboard at Eight ‘Stars shining brightly at Milton Court ‘ Rose Mclachlan ,Jeremy Chan and Salome Jordania

I have heard Sokolov play many times in Rome, much to the envy of those in the UK where he no longer feels the need to set foot. Rules and regulations have made many artists’ lives a burocratic nightmare, where even Trifonov was forced to cancel many engagements recently. No worries for those in Rome where Prof Bruno Cagli, the much missed artistic director of so many important institutions in Italy, had stipulated a lifelong friendship between Sokolov and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. Even if Prof Cagli is no longer with us his influence is still to be felt in Rome where he was artistic director of L’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Teatro dell’Opera and the Filarmonica Romana and in Pesaro, where he founded the Rossini Festival too.

Sokolov appeared in semi darkness to play a programme that was made up of three master works of Beethoven and Schubert. The programme,like Arrau’s programmes, were a statement in themselves of the serious intent of a Master. Sokolov unlike Arrau though, after this sumptuous feast would adjourn to the drawing room for more lightweight conversation of intimate reflections. And so it was that at almost eleven o’clock with an artist who even he towards the end of a monumental performance of Schubert’s last sonata was beginning to show signs of fatigue, such had been the intense concentration. Returning to the platform two or three times with his inimitable penguin like stance of aristocratic bearing, greeted by an audience that also needed time to recover from the trance that had been created, waiting for the moment when the atmosphere was ready for more music.

And what music! Starting this ritual after dinner contemplation together in good company, with a Chopin Mazurka op 50 n. 3 in C sharp minor that was in many ways the highlight of the concert. Schumann had describe the 59 miniature tone poems as ‘canons covered in flowers’ . They were written by a poet of the keyboard, exiled from roots that had been ingrained in his soul from birth, and it was this that came through so meaningfully in Sokolov’s performance tonight.Of course there was the ravishing sound of velvet beauty but also a full orchestral sound of sumptuous richness that was never hard or ungrateful but rich and meaningful. The coda of the mazurka was one of those moments that will remain with me for long to come. As Mitsuko Uchida says it is a memory that becomes ever more beautiful with time, not a printed postcard that turns brown at the edges and fades. The same sumptuous richness filled this vast space with the sounds of Brahms’s Rhapsody in B minor op 79 n. 2, with its even more marked final ritardando, where Sokolov underlined the composer’s very precise notation with ever more poignant breathless meaning. There were sublime etherial sounds in the ‘Intermezzo’ that is the 3rd Ballade op 10 . After the disjointed veiled symphonic sounds ( similar to his op. 4 Scherzo) ,Brahms takes us to a place that was his own secret world of solace and isolation and that Sokolov whispered with sounds that reached even the paradisical heights of this vast auditorium, with searing intensity. Two more Mazurkas followed with an audience about to turn into pumpkins before long, but that refused to leave the hall. Sokolov dusting the keys with the refined beauty of Chopin’s op 68 n. 2 in A minor showing as Volodos is won’t to do, that the movements of the body are like an artist before his canvas and the strokes of the keys are the shape of the very sounds that he is creating.

I think one might quote the Princess Belgiojoso who after the duel between Liszt and Thalberg in her Parisian Salon on the 31st March 1837 (N.B.) declared Thalberg a great pianist but Liszt unique. I think one could make the same comparison today between these two remarkable artists declaring that Arcadi Volodos is a great pianist ( who will also play Schubert D 960 in Rome on the 5th May ) but Sokolov is unique!

The art of creation is all one, as Chopin described music to his aristocratic students, it is like trees with roots firmly planted in the ground but the branches free to move with natural Godgiven freedom. A refined grandiose Mazurka in D flat op 30 n. 3 was played with a beguiling rubato of aristocratic timelessness. And finally the intimate confessions of glistening ambiguity of Scriabin’s Prelude in E minor op 11 n. 4. With the clock about to chime midnight we may have only just made it in time to our carriages before they turned into pumpkins!

The actual programme had begun with Beethoven. The Sonata op 7 one of three of the early sonatas where the composer breaks away from Papà Haydn’s influence and the slow movements in particular become imposing statements of profundity.The Sonatas op 2 n. 3 ,op 7 and op 10 n. 3 pave the way for the genial invention of Beethoven throughout his thirty two Sonatas that are like a barometer of the turbulent life of a genius. This was followed by the last work that Beethoven wrote for the piano which are the Bagatelles op 126, that like the Chopin Mazurka’s are concentrated thoughts and emotions condensed into just a few bars. Sokolov today though was under the influence of Schubert and whatever he touched was an outpouring of song of ravishing beauty with the expansive flexibility of a singer. The Sonata was more of Haydn than is usual with many great pianists who have championed this work from Glenn Gould to Michelangeli. They have given more edge to the sound and made more of the dramatic contrasts as they had been influenced by the future whereas Sokolov was influenced by the past. The first movement opened with a sedate almost pastoral ‘Allegro molto e con brio’ where, of course, there were contrasts as Sokolov followed Beethoven’s indications with scrupulous attention to detail.It was, though, a performance that belonged more to the 1700’s than the 1800’s and it produced some wonderful playing of surprising beauty. The remarkable ‘Largo,con gran espressione’ had sumptuous rich chords of string quartet quality where every strand had a meaning of its own and where Sokolov gave great depth to the sound. The reply at the top of the piano sounded like a bird commenting from on high and was a remarkable moment that took me totally by surprise. The Allegro (Scherzo) too was played with pastoral beauty as the (Trio) was like a diabolical wind suddenly entering this peaceful landscape. Real Schubertian beauty to the Rondò where the undulating beauty of the final bars could almost have been Schumann rather than Beethoven. It was a remarkable, unexpected performance, where Sokolov was able to recreate this early work with the originality that people of the day must have discovered. A public and perhaps even composer that still had no idea to what heights of innovative genius the turbulent life of a genius would lead to. We that know, are often influenced in performance and impose on the music things that are still to come. Sokolov with genial intuition of a master interpreter could enter a world that is rare to experience, especially when using the modern day instruments that Beethoven could only envisage in the later part off his life when he could no longer produce the sounds that he could hear in his head.

The Six Bagatelles op 126 are miniature tone poems that Sokolov played with simplicity and profound understanding. From the ‘Andante con moto’ of whispered glowing beauty to the irascible ‘Allegro’ always tempered by beauty rather than brutality. The beautiful ‘Andante Cantabile’ was allowed to unfold so simply and even the usually tempestuous ‘Presto’ was more beautifully played than I can remember, with the etherial melodic line floating on the bagpipe sounds in the bass. The simple unfolding of the ‘Quasi Allegretto’ was interrupted by the tempestuous outburst of the last Bagatelle. Dissolving into the fragmented searching of the Beethoven in his last piano sonata, where gradually the pieces come together on a miraculous wash of sounds. Even the final outburst was tempered by Sokolov’s wish today to make everything sing.

And it was Schubert’s B flat Sonata that was the glorious monument that Sokolov revealed to us today. An outpouring of beauty, similar to Volodos, but Sokolov has something within the notes that is beauty tempered by visionary intuition of an interpretative genius. I missed sometimes the hard edge of Brendel or Serkin or the aristocratic beauty of Rubinstein.It had something of the beauty of Uchida or Zimerman but Sokolov seemed to have much more freedom and intuitive sentiments ,with the raising of an eyebrow or a knowing nod and other slight inflections that allowed the music speak with a voice that I have never noticed before ( as Brendel said to Simon Rattle preparing to play together – here I do things!). They are changes of colour ,inflections, chords that have a fullness of sonority, in fact a kaleidoscope of colour and chameleonic character at the service of the composer. Those remarkable bars of the ritornello of the first movement will haunt me for long to come as will the extraordinary freedom he gave the melodic line in the last movement. The simple radiance of the ‘Scherzo’ that was indeed ‘vivace con delicatezza’ and the ‘Trio’ with its unnerving left hand accents that were played without any enfasis or ulterior meaning.

In short it was a voyage of discovery that revealed today the true Universal genius of Schubert ready to meet his maker on equal terms.

Grigory Sokolov A Genius in contemplative mood in Rome

Sokolov casts his spell over the Eternal City

Sokolov in Todi……..”…..the greatest pianist alive or dead?”

The Sublime Perfection of Sokolov

‘Fearless music making of an artist who listens to herself and recreates the music with poetic sensibility and passionate commitment……….. the Barbara Streisand of the piano …………… a showgirl with a heart of gold and a dedicated artist of rare communication’.

Described by The New Yorker as “adventurous and passionate,” Ukrainian pianist Inna Faliks is distinguished by her communicative artistry and her refined exploration of tone colour.

Opening her recital in the the Fazioli Concert Hall, with Beethoven’s Fantasy in G minor op. 77 followed by Schumann’s Fantasy op.17.

Beethoven’s Fantasy is a true improvisation, as impatient scales interrupt the simple beauty of his melodic invention with quicksilver changes of character before bursting into passages of fearless daring and impish syncopations that Inna played with remarkable clarity and dynamic drive. The melodic episodes were played with great beauty and a sense of balance, where Beethoven’s Alberti bass became waves of harmonies on which the simple melodic outpouring could float with disarming ease. Her masterly use of the pedal allowed for a clarity but also a glowing radiance to the sound, bringing a sheen of colour to the massive number of notes that she played with masterly ease. An extraordinary work that is rarely heard in the concert hall, written at the same time as the Choral Fantasy and in Inna’s hands one begins to wonder why it is not more often heard. She played it with an innate understanding for its improvised character as she was able to change from irascible virtuosity to simple radiance in an instant, via passages of dynamic drive and technical flamboyance.

It was the same sheen of sound, as described by Schumann, quoting from Schlegel : “Resounding through all the notes, In the earth’s colourful dream, There sounds a faint long-drawn note, For the one who listens in secret.” It is the note of G that sounds throughout the entire first movement where Schumann even quotes, in the coda, from Beethoven’s  ‘An die ferne Geliebte’ (to the distant beloved): Accept then these songs beloved, which I sang for you alone. Both the Schlegel and the Beethoven quotations were for Schumann written with Clara in mind, his future wife and the future mother of their 8 children : ‘The first movement may well be the most passionate I have ever composed – a deep lament for you.’ Inna played the opening with glowing sounds on which she floated the melodic line with passion and radiant beauty. A continual flow of sounds given an architectural line, both noble and visionary, with playing of great fluidity. Inna plays with very high wrists and spindly fingers that can etch out sounds of glowing beauty. With her superb sense of balance the movement became one long song in which single notes or technical hurdles became a long poetic outpouring of passionate intensity.  The second movement was full of symphonic sounds with Schumann’s dotted rhythmic phrases shaped with loving beauty, helped always by the sumptuous richness of the bass. A continual forward movement that brought us to the central melodic episode bursting into a featherlight, capricious interlude that Inna played with a kaleidoscopic delicacy as it lead back to the opening march and the infamous leaps of the coda. Throwing caution to the wind, as Inna was more concerned with the musical shape and passionate intensity than note picking accuracy. These were moving harmonies spread over the entire keyboard with transcendental difficulties for the pianist, which Inna continued to imbue with the sumptuous rich sounds of this magnificent sounding piano. The last movement was allowed to unfold with languid beauty building to a climax that was more of passionate intensity than triumphant enfasis. The final climax unfolding into a coda where the melodic line was played with disarming beauty as it passed from the treble to the bass with timeless radiance, building in improvised intensity only to end in a whisper of poetic beauty.

The Symphonic Studies opened the second half of the recital with the same rich sounds that she had closed the first. A piano of sumptuous richness and a pianist who knew how to shape the notes with taste and style. The theme of the variations was given an extraordinary sense of character as this was the rock which was to carry us through a series of variations and studies until the final twelfth study. Placing the five posthumous studies strategically with poetic understanding, as they were fitted into an architectural shape of imposing beauty and brilliance. There was a grandiose nobility to the Andante second variation and a butterfly lightness to the third study, where the melodic line in the tenor register was allowed to emerge with fleetingly ‘will o’ the wisp’ beauty. It was here that she inserted the first two posthumous studies of vibrant intensity. The fourth study /variation 3 was played with spiky brilliance leading into the fifth study/variation 4 of lightweight elegance. It was here that the third posthumous study was inserted with its ponderous beauty of poignant weight. Variation 5 was played with dynamic drive, the melodic line emerging in the tenor register with alternating hands of simple brilliance. The Gothic cathedral (Agosti’s description) of the seventh variation was played with nobility and searing intensity, and it was after this that Inna inserted the fourth posthumous study of delicacy and glowing languid beauty. She brought Mendelssohnian brilliance to the ‘Presto possibile’ eighth variation, contrasting with the ninth, a bel canto of glowing beauty, where Inna floated the melodic line on a wash of changing harmonies. It was at this point that she introduced the most beautiful of the posthumous studies with playing of magical radiance. The Final variation was played with driving rhythmic energy and fearless abandon of exhilaration and excitement.

Inna’s Schumann has a velvet richness to it, where the mellifluous beauty of Schumann seems to appear under a cloud of architectural understanding that adds aristocratic monumentality and poetic meaning to these masterpieces of the Romantic piano repertoire.

Tchaikovsky’s delicate ‘Barcarolle’ was played with simple beauty allowing the music to unfold with a palette of colours that gave a nostalgic voice to Tchaikowsky’s poetic depiction of June.

I have heard Inna play Liszt’s ‘La Campanella’ before but today not only was it of a crystalline clarity and dazzling transcendental command, but it was imbued with the same poetic beauty that she had brought to all that she played in this recital.

This was fearless music making of an artist who listens to herself and recreates the music with poetic sensibility and passionate commitment.

I once described her as the Barbara Streisand of the piano and this recital just goes to show how right I was. A showgirl with a heart of gold and a dedicated artist of rare communication.

Inna Faliks grandiose Brahms of aristocratic intelligence and passion

Inna Falik’s Love of Life – The extraordinary story of a great artist told with mastery,intelligence and beauty

A remarkable reappearance at the Parco della Musica of Alessandro Taverna. He brought all the lightness and crystalline clarity of his beloved Venice to illuminate Prokofiev’s third concerto. A performance of refined musicianship with Eliot Gardiner at the helm, that was a true chamber music performance of extraordinary clarity with moments of ravishing beauty and savage abandonment.

Always with the architectural line in mind with an orchestra that was happy to be part of such intimate music making.

I was at Taverna’s Wigmore Hall debut promoted by the Keyboard Trust and his mentor Noretta Conci some years ago. A first half of Bach and Mendelssohn but a second of the breathtaking virtuosity of crystalline clarity and mastery that I was reminded of today, when Alessandro was given centre stage by orchestra and conductor to play an encore: Max Reger: Fugue from his Telemann Variations, where his mastery and breathtaking virtuosity brought him a well earned ovation.

Francesca Dego and Alessandro Taverna ignite the Wigmore Hall

Taverna rules the waves in Rome with The Benjamin Britten Piano Concerto

Alessandro Taverna at the Filarmonica

Bruce Liu in Florence with playing of refined brilliance and poetic beauty . A programme that is the stuff that dreams are made of. Bruce was sharing his dream with us as he drew the audience into his world, rather than projecting it out to ours.

The extraordinary whispered ‘moto perpetuo’ was anything but the ‘fanfare’ of Ligeti’s title. A fairytale played with velvet gloves on a quite extraordinary jeux perlé of astonishing whispered clarity. Leading without a break into Beethoven’s ‘Moonlit ‘ sonata . A whispered undulation of notes on which a melodic line emerged in a movement that never rose above mezzo forte. But for those that listened carefully Bruce shared a multitude of emotions with slight inflections or rhythmic interruptions of subtlety, as everything was understated and never underlined. Even the melody in the bass as the movement draws to a close was simply revealed in golden hues . Very similar to the end of the Fantaisie Impromptu that Bruce played as an encore.

An ‘Allegretto’ all grace and lightness adding more weight to the thumb notes on the repeats like jewels sparkling from deep within. A trio with very dark bass notes delayed to give it even more of a demonic character, before this cloud passed and grace and lightness were allowed to reign once again.

A ‘Presto agitato’ of volcanic energy as seen from afar, with a crystalline clarity and even elegance, rather than the more usual invasive intrusion into this ‘moonlit’ landscape.

Many of the works that Bruce shared with us today pivoted around the calm and purity of the key of C. Thus after a Beethoven in C sharp minor, the first of Chopin’s two nocturnes op 27 in the same key.

It is one of Chopin’s most mysterious, but also most disturbing of Nocturnes. A real tone poem in just a few pages, with its delicate and poetical opening which Bruce played with a refined aristocratic rubato. A gradual turbulence that Bruce did not allow to disturb this magic ‘engloutie’ landscape, but was dispatched in an instant with an octave cadenza of declarative insistence, dissolving almost immediately, into Bruce’s magic world once again. It was in this world that the D flat nocturne was overheard with the glistening beauty of one of Chopin’s most perfect belcanto melodies. Bruce shaped it with exquisite finesse and refined phrasing allowing the music to speak with a voice of sublime beauty. Cascades of notes were like jewels overspilling from an outpouring of passionate intensity, before retreating to a coda of intimacy and timeless beauty. One could almost hear the audience gasp as Bruce, a true poet of the keyboard, shared such whispered intimacy with us.

A spell that was immediately dispelled as Ravel’s ‘Jesters song at sunrise’ was recounted with crystalline clarity and astonishing spiky brilliance, as the lovers separated at dawn with passionate, palpitating intensity. Ravel combines the flavour of Andalusian folk music with Lisztian pianistic acrobatics, such as double glissandi and extremely fast repeated notes. They may look simple on the page, but making sure each semiquaver note triplet is heard is the mark of a true virtuoso (and the sign of a well-functioning piano action). The four bar fragment marked “Plus lent” is jarring in its palpitating simplicity after such spiky agitation. Ravel alternates the slow and dreamy fragments with sections that grow more and more agitated until the original mood returns. Equally capricious is the close with its dissonant harmonies and with Ravel’s rich palette of sounds. It was here that Bruce could let us savour his extraordinary pianistic mastery, as the Jester’s mask slipped, to reveal the passion and fire that Bruce had kept hidden for too long.

After the interval Bruce chose Debussy’s Rêverie to bring us back into the world that he had chosen to share with the public in this magic city that is the ‘museum of the world.’ A work that Debussy wrote when he was 28 for a magazine run by his friend, and although he did not think much of it , a critic of the day described it as ‘a very pleasant sounding piece with a somewhat simple but certain melodic charm’. Debussy himself was more self critical, when fifteen years later he was to say :’ Vous avez tort de faire paraître la “Rêverie”… C’était une chose sans importance faite très vite pour rendre service à Hartmann ; en deux mots : c’est mauvais ‘. Bruce played it with shimmering beauty, streams of golden sounds of flowing simplicity which suited the mood of the recital where Debussy ‘s Rêverie and Mompou’s ‘Au Clair de la lune’ were to be the framework surrounding one of Beethoven’s most dynamic Sonatas.

The ‘Waldstein’ Sonata fits Delius’s description of Beethoven as being ‘all scales and arpeggios’. It is a ‘tour de force ‘ for any pianist and is really in two dynamically driven movements, the second being a ‘Rondò’ prefaced by an Adagio molto introduction. The slow movement that Beethoven had intended was published as the ‘Andante favori’, a separate work that could stand on its own and had no place in the framework of his op. 53 Sonata. Suddenly Bruce was awoken from his poetic dream world as he imbued the opening with quicksilver energy. Careful not to disturb the architectural shape of this ‘Allegro con brio’ where the second subject was allowed to flow on this wave of energy that had been unleashed. Bruce playing with the electric stimulus of a Rudolf Serkin, but there was always a glowing sheen to all he did, only rarely allowing himself to play with the vehemence of the irascible and impatient composer. The ‘Adagio molto’ was again part of Bruce’s dream world with an exquisite palette of sounds, that although not orchestral were the ideal preparation for the music box opening of the Rondò. The alternating episodes of ever more dynamic drive and Beethovenian energy in this movement, was unleashed with masterly playing of driving intensity, suddenly uncorked by a coda at breakneck speed but of music box perfection. Bruce rising to the challenge with intensity rather than volume, as the octave glissandi he was able to play without licking his fingers as Serkin used to do, but allowing them to glide over the keys with masterly ease. The final few bars was where Bruce let his passion and dynamism take over from his poetical dream world, as his masterly virtuosity was shamelessly revealed.

There was a subtle beauty to Mompou’s magic sound world of ‘Au Clair de la lune’ that was rudely interrupted by Liszt’s declamation of Spanish Intent. The ‘Rhapsodie espagnole’ has long been a show piece for virtuosi of the Golden Age of the piano, Busoni even transcribed it for piano and string orchestra. Bruce played it with astonishing mastery of extraordinary jeux perlé playing with the exquisite finesse of a Levine or Levitski. There was also lurking in the wings, the breathtaking virtuosity of Horowitzian wizardry that brought this magical recital to an end.

Ever generous Bruce ,who admitted backstage that he was a bit tired, having had to battle to come to terms with a theatre of rather dry acoustic for the piano. It was a battle that he had won though, as the audience could testify, not wanting to not let this Poet of the Keyboard escape just yet.

Siloti’s magical Prelude in B minor was a wonderful oasis of peace after the circus like acrobatics of Liszt. Bach’s wondrous melody appearing in the midst of perfectly placed washes of sound made the audience want to enjoy this world just one more time. Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu was an ideal choice, where Bruce’s undulating jeux perlé was imbued with passionate radiance. A central belcanto of refined beauty and good taste and the gentle re entry of Chopin’s seamless strands of golden sounds brought this memorable concert to a fittingly poetic conclusion.

‘I have a dream’, one that Bruce so generously shared with us today.

Bruce Liu at the Wigmore Hall London A supreme stylist creating a new Golden Age of piano playing of mastery and refined good taste

Bruce Liu takes the Proms by storm Streamlined artistry of a modern day giant

Bruce Liu takes London by storm

An 80th birthday tribute to Luca Lombardi at the Goethe Institute with the illustrious beginning of Roberto Prosseda’s journey of exploration into Piano Italiano

The project opens Piano Italiano , directed by Roberto Prosseda, conceived in 2025 to represent the excellence of Italian piano throughout the country, and is a collective tribute to one of the most significant figures of contemporary music.

The concert featured Roberto Prosseda, performing some piano compositions by Luca Lombardi, flanked by two young emerging pianists Matteo Carnuccio and Filippo Tenisci, entrusted with the premieres of numerous musical tributes written especially for the occasion by composers from different countries: Samuel Adler, Francesco Antonioni, Tzvi Avni, Josef Bardanashvili, Matteo D’Amico, Giordano De Nisi, Fabrizio De Rossi Re, Peter Michael Hamel, Marcello Panni, Yuval Shaked, Stefano Taglietti, Roberta Vacca.

The concert was introduced by Sandro Cappelletto and Matthias Theodor Vogt.

The programme alternated important piano works by Lombardi, including Wiederkehr, Mendelssohn im jüdischen Museum Berlin , with a series of pieces composed as a tribute to the Maestro by contemporary international composers.These new compositions – for piano with two, three or four hands – constitute a mosaic of styles and poetics that testify to the vast network of artistic relationships built up by Maestro Lombardi during his long career.

At the end of the concert, on March 27 and 28 there was a conference : “Quo vadis, commitment? Trends and ideas of music from the 60s to today” – A symposium in honour of Luca Lombardi’s eightieth birthday. This is a project realised in collaboration with the German Historical Institute of Rome, the Seminary of Musicology of the University of Heidelberg, “La Sapienza” University of Rome and the Goethe-Institut of Rome.The concert on March 27 also was the official opening of the “Piano Italiano” 2026 festival, organised by the Mendelssohn Association, under the artistic direction of Roberto Prosseda.

This is the second edition of this Festival , dedicated to Italian piano music with a total of 20 concerts, which are distributed in different Italian cities and regions throughout 2026.

“I am really happy to announce the second edition of Piano Italiano” – comments Roberto Prosseda – “on the occasion of a very special event: on March 27 we celebrate one of the greatest living composers, Luca Lombardi, to whom I am also bound by a deep friendship for more than twenty years, and which will be celebrated with a real musical party: 12 composers have written new piano pieces in his honour, and we hear them in their first performances, alongside Luca Lombardi’s main piano works. This is the spirit of “Piano Italiano”: promoting quality Italian piano music, with particular attention to the most authentic and less commercial artistic voices, and at the same time giving space to new generations of pianists and composers, as also happens in this concert, thanks to the presence of the young talents Filippo Tenisci and Matteo Carnuccio”.

The Italian Piano season will continue with concerts at the Casa delle Culture e della Musica in Velletri, in Asolo at the Auditorium San Gottardo, then Rovigo, Turin, Florence and other Italian cities. Among the pianists who will perform this year, always in programmes focused on the Italian piano repertoire, will be Maurizio Baglini, Bruno Canino, Alberto Chines, Emanuele Delucchi, Massimiliano Génot, Benedetto Lupo, Alessandro Marangoni, Ruben Micieli, Marco Scolastra.

 www.pianoitaliano.it 

Roberto Prosseda a Phoenix hovers over Roma 3

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