Programme
SCRIABIN: Poème satanique, Op. 36
SCRIABIN: Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68, “Black Mass”
LISZT: Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, S. 173 No. 3
Intermission 30 minutes
MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition
Promenade
Gnomus
Promenade
Il vecchio castello
Promenade
Tuileries (Dispute d’enfants après jeux)
Bydło
Promenade
Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks
Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle
Promenade
Limoges. Le marché (La grande nouvelle)
Catacombae (Sepulcrum romanum) – Cum mortuis in lingua mortua
The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba-Yaga)
The Great Gate of Kiev
Salome Jordania reigniting the Bechstein Hall as a star is born playing works from her debut recording of ‘Passage: A spiritual odyssey’. Works that speak of solitude, faith, spirituality and mysticism with a balance between light and darkness , exploring the two extremes of love and fear that govern our lives.
Masterly performances as she recreated her ‘credo’ into sound with a kaleidoscope of chameleonic colours and emotions and a transcendental mastery that passed unnoticed as it was a message that went straight to our hearts bypassing the brain where her music making became stronger than words.
The PR boys have been to work on her presentation photos that shows her as a temptress of diabolical enticement.
The true Salome does not exist as such, as hers is a total dedication and immersion to the composer she is serving. She is but the medium between them and us. – “Je joue, je sens, je trasmet’’
There is no room for extravagant showmanship but here is a master craftsman with humility and dedication showing us the wondrous world bequeathed to us with dots and dashes on a manuscript already risking to turn brown at the edges.
Scriabin was a cauldron of diabolical sounds waiting to erupt as the composer could envisage reaching his ‘star’. The Benediction of Liszt of refined enlightenment and Salome’s supernatural understanding of the lines of Lamartine that had inspired it.
It was a pity she did not continue this journey with the Liszt Sonata which is the key to her recording, but she chose a second half dedicated to Mussorgsky’s tribute to his painter friend Hartmann
It was a series of paintings restored to their original beauty. A refreshing look with the same eyes as the composer marvelling at his belated friend’s depiction of the shortened life that had formed him and was left on empty canvas. The imagined vision of ‘A Great Gate of Kyiv’ was where Salome allowed the bells of love and fear to resound as never before in this reborn Bechstein Hall.
After such intense emotions Chopin’s Waltz in A flat op 34 was a calming balm of refined elegance and scintillating brilliance.
An audience now on their feet to show their vociferous appreciation was awarded more jewels in an already glittering crown, with Scriabin’s early Nocturne for the left hand, a timeless mastery of whispered glowing beauty that just demonstrated the poetic soul of great artistry that had held us spell bound at this magic hour
Georgian pianist Salome Jordania has established herself as one of the leading artists of her generation, appearing as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. She has performed at prestigious festivals and concert series including Piano aux Jacobins, Les Grands Interprètes, Palazzetto Bru Zane, Yamaha Rising Stars, IKIF Rising Stars, the Grachtenfestival, L’Esprit du Piano, the Texas International Piano Festival, the Chipping Campden Music Festival, the Great Comp Music Festival and the Festival de Musique de Menton. Last season marked several important milestones in her career: she was named a winner of Forbes 30 Under 30 Georgia and made debut recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall, as well as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
As a concerto soloist, Jordania has collaborated with orchestras including the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta de Valencia, SLO Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Potsdam Philharmonic, Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi, Kharkiv Philharmonic Orchestra and Moscow Virtuosi. In 2023, she made her debut at the Berlin Philharmonie as a winner of the New York Concert Artists Worldwide Competition. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, her first CD, released by Naxos, features works by Argentine composer Martin Matalon. She has worked closely with leading composers including John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon and Gabriela Lena Frank, and has received more than thirty international awards, among them the Georges Cziffra Award and top prizes at the Étoiles du Piano International Competition and the José Iturbi International Piano Competition.
Jordania studied at The Juilliard School, Yale School of Music and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Her performances have been featured on ARTE and the Dutch television programme Podium Klassiek. Upcoming highlights include performances across the United Kingdom, her debut recital at Salle Cortot in Paris, and the release of her debut solo album on the French label La Dolce Volta on 18 September.
Salome can be heard again in London on Tuesday 13th October in Lisa Peacock’s fifth Discovery Season at Leighton House concert at 7 .
P.S. The words above about Salome’s performance seemed quite sufficient especially when edited by such an expert as Mary Orr ,recent founder of Promote our Pianists Trust. However ………….
When they first were revealed, the frescoes in the San Brizio Chapel of the majestic cathedral in Orvieto, Italy , both awed visitors and shocked them. The realistic scenes (1499-1504), portraying the end of the world and inspired by the Book of Revelation, were terrifying enough on their own. Added to that was the lifelike portrayal of dozens of nude bodies—in a church! They were vivid, dynamic and monumental in size, painted by Luca Signorelli from nearby Cortona, a respected artist who had studied with Piero della Francesca but was not considered a great one.
The Scriabin 9th Sonata was included by Horowitz in his historic return to the concert platform after 12 years absence on May 9th 1965. From that moment it became part of the standard pianistic repertoire as the 10th was to become in a later recital during Horowitz’s Indian Summer. Horowitz was described on his appearance in Paris in the 30’s as the ‘Greatest Pianist Alive or Dead’ – Rubinstein who up until then was the Parisian public’s favourite was not amused! We are reminded of the famous duel between Liszt and Thalberg with a recital match in the salon of the Princess Belgiojoso. Liszt performed his “Reminiscences de Roberts le Diable” by Meyerbeer, and Thalberg countered with his “Fantasy” Op. 33, based on Rossini’s “Moise.” This remarkable evening came to a close with the Countess Belgiojoso pronouncing : “Thalberg is the first pianist in the world — Liszt is unique”. In his press release the following day, Jules Janin interpreted the somewhat ambiguous words of the Countess in the following way: “Never was Liszt more controlled, more thoughtful, more energetic, more passionate; never has Thalberg played with greater verve and tenderness. Each of them prudently stayed within his harmonic domain, but each used every one of his resources. It was an admirable joust. The most profound silence fell over that noble arena. And finally Liszt and Thalberg were both proclaimed victors by this glittering and intelligent assembly. Thus two victors and no vanquished …” Horowitz like Liszt was not all showmanship and although not a composer like Liszt he was a deep thinking musician who would delve deeply into the archives and ponder over many neglected works. His playing of Rachmaninov’s Second Sonata put it on the map for pianists, as was his playing of many other works including Schumann’s Concerto without Orchestra – Sonata op 14 and Blumenstück op 19 or the Liszt Vallée d’ Obermann and Clementi Sonatas. His Scriabin playing though had the same nevrotic hysterical electrical impulses that Horowitz could inject into music with breathtaking effect. It was exactly this dark unfathomable world that Salome was to describe with her performance of two works by Scriabin. A world like the decadent Ravel La Valse that is a spotlight on evil unchartered murky waters.There was a fluidity and control from the first notes of the Poème satanique and hats off to Salome for choosing a work that is of such rarity . I think it is the first time I have heard it in concert and it was certainly the ideal partner for the ‘Black Mass’
The Sonatas, especially the last two , 9 and 10, can seem very fragmented on the page and it takes a great musical mind to be able to steer a clear musical line through a maze of trills and washes of sound. Salome showed us the great architectural line with remarkable clarity but allied to a palette of sounds and pedal effects that was magical as well as mystical. The eery glowing simplicity of the opening revealed a crack in the door allowing us to feel the burning cauldron where the heat was being felt more and more. Salome throwing the door open in desperation as the composer in march style reaches his star with streaks of brilliant sounds spread across the entire keyboard.Returning to the mystery of the opening with relief and exhaustion before the final whispered F deep in the bass ( similar to the final deep B of the Liszt Sonata ). Indications in the score that are like paint on canvas : ‘legendaire ,mysterieusement murmuré, avec une langueur naissante,avec une douceur de plus en plus caressante et empoisonnée.’
Passing from darkness to light with one of Liszt’s most neglected masterpieces : ‘Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude’. It closely corresponds to Lamartine’s poem in its content and form, showing the composer’s indebtedness to French Romanticism. In the key of F sharp which gives it a very warm sound as with Chopin’s Barcarolle, as this too is a great song of ravishing beauty. Salome played the opening tenderly, with a noble tenor voice with washes of undulating sounds in the right hand. A remarkable control of balance with subtle shading as the music built to a climax with aristocratic poise and she placed the great bass notes with breathtakingly daring authority. A deep meditative silence before the opening of a window to hear the simple pastoral beauty of the ‘Andante. It was transformed into the radiance of ‘più sostenuto quasi Preludio’ leading to the main theme on waves of sounds that Salome played with masterly control and refined beauty. Building to the final great climax which opened a box of jewels that were spread with whispered gossamer beauty over the entire keyboard and where the tenor voice, once again, intoned Liszt’s magical melody. Gasps of sounds were interrupted by a deep prayer of solace ‘Andante semplice espressivo’ that was reverently intoned as the Andante theme appeared on high as a distant memory, before the final chords that Salome played with the refined finesse that only comes from listening intently to the very soul that is being bared in that moment. One of the finest accounts that I have ever heard of this remarkable work with an ending played with the same whispered intensity and concentration as the visionary last bars of the B minor Sonata. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/02/11/ivan-krapan-premio-busoni-2017-presents-liszt-harmonies-poetiques-et-religieuses/
It is the third of Liszt’s ten Harmonies Poètiques et Religieuses.
Pictures at an Exhibition is based on pictures by the artist, architect, and designer Viktor Hartmann It was probably in 1868 that Mussorgsky first met Hartmann, not long after the latter’s return to Russia from abroad. Both men were devoted to the cause of an intrinsically Russian art and quickly became friends.
Hartmann’s sudden death on 4 August 1873 from an aneurysm shook Mussorgsky along with others in Russia’s art world. The loss of the artist, aged only 39, plunged the composer into deep despair. Stasov helped to organize a memorial exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in February and March 1874. Mussorgsky lent to the exhibition the two pictures Hartmann had given him, and viewed the show in person. Later in June, two-thirds of the way through composing his song cycle Sunless . Mussorgsky was inspired to compose Pictures at an Exhibition, quickly completing the score in three weeks (2–22 June 1874).In a letter to Stasov (see photo), probably written on 12 June 1874, he describes his progress:
My dear généralissime, Hartmann is boiling as Borisboiled—sounds and ideas hung in the air, I am gulping and overeating, and can barely manage to scribble them on paper. I am writing the 4th No.—the transitions are good (on the ‘promenade’). I want to work more quickly and steadily. My physiognomy can be seen in the interludes. So far I think it’s well turned …
The music depicts his tour of the exhibition, with each of the ten numbers of the suite serving as a musical illustration of an individual work by Hartmann.
Salome brought a refreshing simplicity to a score that was originally written for the piano and that was eventually orchestrated by Ravel and others. Also transcribed by Horowitz for his performances with demonic playing as powerful as any orchestra and is one of those unique performances that have been captured on disc. Salome played it as the composer had written for the piano bringing a refreshing brilliance and sense of colour to each of the paintings with the composers varying moods as he approached each canvas. ‘Gnomus’ was played with electric precision and diabolical contrasts and her fearless final flourish was enviable indeed! A whispered beauty to the ‘Old Castle’ where she played with simplicity and a continual forward movement as the castle came into view and then disappeared into the distance like Debussy’s ‘Cathédrale engloutie’. A quicksilver clarity to the children quarrelling in the ‘Tuileries’ was followed by the remarkable ‘Bydlo’ that lumbered onto the scene with awkward movements and again disappeared with barely audible sounds, where Salome seemed to be hardly touching the keys. More brilliance with the chicks hatching with some remarkable fingerfertigkeit of trills that were like well oiled springs shooting from one to the other. The extraordinary characterisation of ‘Goldenberg and Schmuyle’ was followed by the transcendental brilliance of the ‘Market Place in Limoges’ where the fleeting lightness of her playing was played with a relentless forward movement never showing sign of fatigue or hardness. ‘Catacombae” and con mortis in lingua mortua’ was pure magic before ‘Baba Yaga’ that she strangely underplayed at the beginning . A piece that can sound oppressive for its percussive insistence Salome turned into a piece of dynamic drive but with a palette of sound that could be shaped and given an architectural meaning .’The Great Gate’ was where Salome’s extraordinary sensibility of balance and overall shape showed her musical maturity with playing off sumptuous fullness but never overwhelming, except in the final declamation which was so much more powerful because saved as the culmination of all that had gone before.
The Chopin waltz op 34 n 1 I have heard Rubinstein play with inimitable style many times, but today we heard a performance from an artist who also has much to say and a beguiling musical personality that brought this work magically to life. If one had closed one’s eyes and heard her Scriabin Nocturne for the left hand I doubt one would have ever believed that it was possible to play with such a sumptuous palette of sounds and a magical sense of balance that we heard today. A timeless beauty where she allowed the music to breathe as a singer without ever loosing the golden thread that held it so miraculously together.
. Un piano sous les arbres
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 