ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

Anastasia Barabanova I had heard play in Trapani a few years ago and have heard her since play in London . A student of Ilya Kondratiev an emeritus Keyboard Trust artist and now distinguished Professor at the RCM .

It has alway astonished me that such a big talent could be hidden in such a small frame. Today coming to the end of her studies she has grown even more in stature as she gave masterly performances of all she played .

One of Mendelssohn’s all too rarely heard Preludes and Fugues was allowed to flow from her fingers with a fluidity not only of sound but with natural arm movements just like swimming in sound . A sense of balance to the Prelude that allowed the melodic line to inhabit a sumptuous wave of romantic fervour. Not melody and accompaniment but something that only a true musician could understand. A beautiful finger legato to the fugue was like a breath of fresh air as her sensitivity to sound allowed each note to have a voice of its own . Building in intensity with passion and dynamic drive before the beautiful resolution on high of a chorale allowed to sing with a detached accompaniment of whispered beauty.

Beethoven opened with the same refined beauty of fluidity and delicacy. It is one of Beethoven’s most pastoral outpourings that she allowed to blossom with a chameleonic tone palette . Extraordinary sensitivity and sense of balance allowed the music to flow with a beautiful interweaving of voices. By contrast a fullness to the chords of the Lebhaft ‘Scherzo’ was followed by a kaleidoscope of colour. Always following Beethoven’s very precise indications with scrupulous respect and that were incorporated and shaped in her overall vision. The ‘Langsam’ was played with a range of sounds and the natural beauty of a true musician who could allow one of Beethoven’s most poignant outpourings to grow with great meaning and poetic shape . The last movement erupted with a rhythmic drive and burning intensity, not the usual demonstrative technical proficiency, but this is a technique that does not draw attention to itself . It is a mastery of sound where her prolific proficiency is at the service of music .Her extraordinary range of dynamics produced a continuous movement of pulsating notes on which Beethoven floats his sometimes impish sense of humour. Bursting into flourishes too, that Anastasia played with great vigour in a performance where everything she played sang with a voice of glowing beauty and musical persuasion .

The work by G Connesson was new to me but with her technical mastery and musical persuasion she turned a bauble into a gem of clarity, technical mastery but above all of shape and colour .

Ravel’s ‘Le Tombeau’ are a series of pieces dedicated to friends of the composer who were killed in the first world war . Ravel as an ambulance driver in the field saw many horrors that strangely in these pieces are given a serenity and radiant glow as he obviously contemplates the very meaning of life. The ‘Prelude’ was played with washes of undulating sounds of subtle refined beauty. There was a purity and simplicity to the lone voice of the ‘Fugue’ with its pastoral feel of newly born freshness. The ‘Rigaudon’ was a controlled explosion of dynamic drive but with a ‘Trio’ of pointed beauty with quite extraordinarily eloquent phrasing written in the score, but rarely observed . A beautifully flowing ‘Menuet’ with left hand counterpoints adding a depth and sense of flowing beauty . The beautifully played final vibrating chord was indeed a technical feat where mastery was concealed with poetic significance . The ‘Toccata’ was played with a subtle whispered clarity of masterly control bursting into moments of glowing mellifluous beauty of ravishing radiance . All the time the pulsating of the toccata increased in intensity until bursting into breathtaking glorious effusions of triumph. Playing of such passionate intensity after a journey of refined mastery that any little slips were due to her driving passion and overwhelming conviction where true technical mastery was at the service of the music.

This is another rare pianist ( I am thinking of Firoze Madon yesterday )who listens to the music and thinks more of the composer than herself. She is but a humble servant endowed with a real technical mastery that can do justice to the music bequeathed to us by the composer.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/06/04/firoze-madon-an-artist-who-thinks-more-of-the-music-than-himself-graduation-recital-at-the-royal-college-of-music/

Anastasia Barabanova at St James’s Piccadilly ‘Music making of purity and masterly simplicity’

Trapani a diamond shining brightly for the 3rd International Piano Competition ‘Domenico Scarlatti’ Part 1 and 2

An eclectic programme from this young dedicated artist. Beginning with Bach and ending with Aznavour and taking in works from his Armenian background as well as Spanish,Argentinian and Finnish composers. Playing of intelligent musicianship allied to a sense of style and colour that could bring to life this multi faceted programme.

Even joined by a colleague violinist Polina Sharafyan for his own arrangement of folk songs for violin and guitar. His Bach was also tinged with his own very strong personality and given the teasingly enticing name of ‘Sebastia’ . It is a well known Prelude by J.S. Bach given a personal view by a musician who is also a great communicator and eclectic entertainer.

Rondeña was written in 1962 and was the only Spanish piece in his programme. Written by a composer and guitarist whose last concert was in Italy in 1979 aged 80. Here was all the traditional use of the guitar, from the land where it was really reborn, with playing of dynamic drive ,searing rhythmic intensity and strumming of the sound board . This was to give way to Arie’s own Mediterrations where I could hear influences of French chansonnier and much else in a piece of enticing and embraceable charm. A fascinating study by Sibelius transcribed in such a subtle way alla Tárrega seemed made for the subtle delicate intricacy of Arie’s agile fingers

We were to experience more French charm with the final piece in his programme that was a song by Charles Aznavour in Arie’s own arrangement. ‘Viens pleurer au creux de mon epaule’ which found a very sensitive interpreter with an insinuating outpouring of sentiment and charm. Of course Tango was never far away and Piazzolla’s Four Season of Buenos Aires and Azarashvili’s Sentimental Tango were grouped together in a sumptuous feast or red hot traditional Tango rhythms.

The surprise of this short recital was the appearance of the violinist Polina Sharafyan for duo arrangements of Traditional Armenian Miniatures. An almost improvised freedom as these two players intoned the traditional Armenian folk melodies with passionate intensity and extraordinary freedom .

Couple things to know about me: you might say I share many of my hobbies with a pensioner! I love reading, taking walks, cooking, and also very much into table tennis which I like to think I’m good at. I adore the simple pleasures in life, and enjoy being as much as I enjoy doing. The reason why I do what I do is simply because sharing my music is the best way I’ve found for me to be of service to others. I don’t particularly wish on playing in the biggest halls with the greatest musicians and orchestras; I focus on sharing my music with as many people as possible, and if that means playing in large venues alongside great artists, sounds great!

The most complicated question you can ask me is where I’m from. That’s because I’m ethnically Armenian although I was born and raised in Lebanon, so there is simply no right answer. It all started in the capital city of Beirut in a densely populated Armenian town called Bourj Hammoud; that’s also where I bought my first guitar and had my first ever guitar lesson at the local Parsegh Ganatchian Music School at the age of six. Time there went by very quickly, and before I knew it I was graduating in 2019 as the first ever guitarist to complete the 10-year programme in nearly two decades. During my teenage years, I used to perform quite a lot both as a solo artist and a chamber musician across Lebanon, which included a wide variety of classical repertoire, as well as an exploration of Armenian as well as Eastern folk music.

I then went on to pursue my higher eduction in Armenia, and was even enrolled at the Yerevan State Conservatory for a short period of time, having lessons with Hakob Jaghatspanyan for a little shy of a year. There, I had a wider access and to and really fell in love with the music of Komitas, who is considered the father of Armenian folk music. I naturally took a deeper interest in the world of Armenian folklore and the vast artistic wealth it had to offer.

With a strong desire to immerse myself into the music industry, I wanted to travel abroad to study. With the pandemic at its peak and the utter collapse of the Lebanese economy, this didn’t seem like a feasible decision. After long months of intense emails in search of support to fund my studies, I finally gathered enough funds with the help of the honorary Houston Family Scholarship from the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London, two weeks before the start of term in September 2020.

Having recently completed my undergraduate studies, I have now dived even deeper into everything performance-related as I pursue my Masters of Music in Performance at the Royal College of Music. Supporting my studies are the RCM Houston Family Scholarship, Ouzounian Trust, the Julian Bream Trust, the Kathleen Trust, and the St Marylebone Educational Trust. I have the joy of meeting with and learning from Gary Ryan and Christopher Stell on a weekly basis. Since moving to London, I’ve had the immense pleasure of working with the stars of the industry: among them are are Sergio Assad, Antigoni Goni, Gabriel Bianco, Judicael Perroy, Sean Shibe, Dušan Bogdanovic, Carlos Bonell, Mark Eden, Laura Snowden, Steve Goss, and Xuefei Yang.

Recent notable performances include the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Kew Gardens, Kings Place, Royal Albert Hall, and Wigmore Hall.

With a busy concert schedule for the 2024/25 season, I’m currently preparing for concerts in collaboration with the Tillett Trust. I was fortunate enough to be selected for the highly prestigious Tillett Debut Scheme 2024, which allows a two-year collaboration and a wide range of performances; it gives me great joy to say this makes me the fifth guitarist to ever be awarded since the scheme emerged in 1995. With this comes great responsibility to be a good ambassador of the instrument, but more importantly the great honour of sharing my music with lots of new audiences. Debut for the Tillett Trust scheduled for November 2025 at Kings Place.

At 18, he performed at his first concert at the Teatro Arriaga  of Bilbao.

He later moved to Barcelona where he worked as a concert musician. There, he befriended Miguel Llobet and Andrés Segovia. In 1920, he played for the first time in Madrid. A year later, he toured South America, giving 90 concerts. On 20 May 1920, he was awarded a Golden Medal by the University of Buenos Aires , where he became friends with composer Antonio José Martinez Palacios, who dedicated some guitar compositions to Sainz de la Maza.

He toured Europe, giving concerts in France in 1926, in Germany in 1927 and Great Britain  in 1928. Five years later, he toured South America for the second time, with concerts in Uraguay,Argentina and Brazil.Sainz de la Maza performed for the last time at the Church of San Nicola di Bari in Italy, on 9 July 1979, aged 82. He died in Madrid two years later.

Hugh Mather said it all really at the end of a recital where once again this young Russian,Scottish based pianist proved himself to be a Prince of Pianists : ‘ A staggering performance of a largely Russian programme this dramatically thundery afternoon by Nikita Lukinov. An exceptional pianist, phenomenal technique, such a noble style of playing. An unforgettable recital of breathtaking proportions, well worth rewatching on our website. And such interesting, entertaining and eloquent introductions to each of his 7 pieces too.’

Beginning the recital with three pieces from Pletnev’s masterly transcriptions from Tchaikowsky Ballets , that had brought him victory in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1978 at the age of 21. The two opening pieces from Sleeping Beauty were played with a kaleidoscope of characterisation. From the impish delight and pianistic hi-jinx of ‘The Dance of the Pages’ to the ravishing beauty of the ‘Adagio’. Freedom and sumptuous beauty united as this young man could transform the piano into an orchestra of grandeur and create the exhilarating atmosphere of the theatre where Tchaikovsky is the undisputed master.The impish tip-toe of the ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’ from the ‘Nutcracker’ with the piccolo high in the piano that Nikita played with ice cool clockwork precision to ravishing effect. Nikita is not only a communicator in music but he has a charm and intelligence to inform with words precious information about the composers and the works he was about to play. Red socks and matching red handkerchief just add to an artist who can charm and seduce his audience like a dashing Russian Prince on horseback.

Stanchinsky is surely one of the few composers that have never been heard in Perivale or anywhere else, but Nikita had delved deeply into the archive and found a composer of ‘darkness, simplicity and honesty’ who was to take his life at only 26. A quite considerable amount of music remains and much more probably in the Russian archives, but Nikita had found three Songs without Words obviously of Mendelssohnian inspiration. The first was a hymn like piece of sombre meditation with Nikita’s beautiful sense of balance that could allow the tenor and soprano melody to duet with sumptuous beauty. The second was a ‘Barcarolle’ of radiance and beauty with its gently moving undulations accompanying its mellifluous partner. The third was a long outpouring of nostalgia and rhapsodic beauty. As Dr Mather said he would love to hear more of this enigmatic composer ……..and there is still much to discover.

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrhcuK0WSFqZwIAzGFXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Ny/RV=2/RE=1781780149/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fAlexei_Stanchinsky/RK=2/RS=83t.Ld.ArDKTsfDLhvyDeD3bn_A-

I have heard Nikita play the Scriabin Fantasy before but his enticing introduction allowed me to listen in a different light being reminded of his Mysterium theory and of creation being a means to resist the world we live in. These early works show the pianistic influence of Chopin and even Liszt as the Fantasy is a sumptuous outpouring of passionate intensity dissolving into moments of melting bel canto beauty. Notes spread over the entire keyboard with a control of the pedal that allows for a clarity of line no matter the amount of notes pouring from Nikita’s hands with such voluptuous virtuosity.

A gentle lullaby by Lyadov that Nikita confesses to be enamoured of, even if only momentarily! He demonstrated it with playing of great delicacy and glistening beauty with its beautifully atmospheric ending.

Mussorgsky I have heard Nikita play solo and on two pianos but his total conviction of frenzy and brilliance are so overwhelming that each time is a scintillating discovery of a work that Nikita told us is still in evolution, searching within the original score that the composer was destined never to hear performed.

Some beautiful playing of poetic beauty and fluidity with embellishments thrown off with audacious ease as the Sonetto was allowed to unfold with simplicity and mastery.

Liszt’s Transcendental study was played with breathtaking daring and masterly control as this was fearless playing of a daring young man not afraid to risk all, flying ever higher with nobility and grandeur.

After so many notes it was the choice of a real artist to treat us to the calming balm of Bach’s C sharp minor Prelude from Book One of the 48. Simplicity, respect and artistry combined to calm the atmosphere and allow us to contemplate the wonders that had befallen us and the rain that awaited a very full audience outside this beautiful redundant church that rings with the sound of music.

Nikita Lukinov is a Scotland-based concert pianist praised for his “extraordinary breadth and freedom of imagination” (Gramophone), described as a “ true master of storytelling through music” (The Pianist), and named a “ Rising Star” by BBC Music Magazine. He has performed as a soloist across the UK, Europe, Asia, and Russia, appearing at leading venues including Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre in London; Usher Hall in Edinburgh; Palau de la Música in Barcelona; Guangzhou and Shanghai Opera Houses; and the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow. His performances have been regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Scotland, and Scala Radio. 

A recent milestone was his 2024/25 Scotland tour, comprising over 40 performances from the Borders to Orkney. Alongside major concert venues, the project included extensive outreach work in socially disadvantaged communities and special education settings, reflecting Nikita’s commitment to widening access to high-quality live music. In 2025, Nikita was awarded 3rd Prize at the Málaga International Piano Competition and undertook a major tour of China, combining recitals with masterclasses at institutions including Beijing University and leading concert halls in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Guangzhou. 

Born in Russia, he studied at The Purcell School and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on full scholarships, completing Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Artist Diploma degrees. He has been a senior piano lecturer at RCS since 2021 and is among the youngest senior faculty members across the UK conservatoire sector. Nikita’s debut album   Kaleidoscope   (KNS Classical, 2023) features works by Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, and Prokofiev. He is also active in developing innovative performance formats, including chamber concerto arrangements and cross-genre collaborations. 

Julian Jacobson and Nikita Lukinov spend A Night on a Bald Mountain amongst ‘Reformed’ Wolves and Flowers

Nikita Lukinov at St James’s ‘Invitation to dance with the Prince of Pianists’

Nikita Lukinov conquers the Bechstein Hall with masterly music making

Nikita Lukinov’s triumphant tour for the Keyboard Trust of Italy in Venice,Padua,Abano Terme ,Vicenza

Nikita Lukinov at the National Liberal Club ‘A supreme stylist astonishes and seduces’

Two young giants cross swords in Verbier Giovanni Bertolazzi and Nikita Lukinov

Alexei Vladimirovich Stanchinsky 21 March 1888 – 25 September (OS) / 6 October 1914

From a young age Stanchinsky was a gifted musician, composing and performing his first works at the age of six years. At the age of 16, he continued to develop his skills by taking lessons from music educators such as Josef Lhévine and Konstantin Eiges for piano and Nikolai Zhilyayev and Alexander Gretchaninovf or counterpoint, harmony, and composition. At the age of 19, Stanchinsky entered the Moscow Conservatory to continue his musical studies with Taneyev and Igumnov to assist his musical growth.^] Stanchinsky had always shown great promise as a musician even at a young age, but was often viewed as “unstable” and a victim of his own nerves. This became very prominent when his father died in 1910, as Alexei became quite delusional and suffered from this state for many years.After a brief hiatus from music, Stanchinsky returned to his roots by gathering folk tunes for a personal collection and eventually returned to the conservatory life-style by studying with his colleagues again. However, his life would never again be what it was. In October 1914, he was found dead next to a stream near Logachyovo after wandering the countryside. His death is still a mystery, as details were never revealed about his last days.

A performance of refined piano playing from a pianist who listens to himself with poetic intensity and an extraordinary palette of colour. A pianist who plays by persuasion rather than percussion with an extraordinary sensitivity to sound where passion and poetry were not shouted from the roof tops. He drew us in to a world of sounds that could allow the music to speak with an inner voice of rare beauty and poignant significance .

A ‘Bagatelle’ by Silvestrov was enough to create an atmosphere of someone who loves the piano and the beauty that can lie within this black box of hammers and strings.

The scene was set for the Brahms Rhapsodies op 79 that were played with remarkable clarity and sumptuous beauty . Combining a sense of freedom with an exhilarating freshness ,that does not deny power and passion, but always with a sense of balance that never substituted the beauty of sound for more orchestral thickness. The central episode of the first was played with a whispered radiance. A coda played in a poetic haze where his mastery of pedal could create a magic atmosphere without sacrificing the architectural clarity of visionary poetic effusions . The second rhapsody was a continuation of this world that he had created of ethereal beauty and mystery. A scrupulous attention to the composers very precise instructions meant that the final bars where Brahms’s very precise notation was incorporated into a performance of refined poetic intensity.

Chopin’s Mazurkas op 30 were played with an extraordinary sensitivity that reminded me of Jan Smeterlin, a disciple of Godowsky, who would show us every year in the Royal Festival Hall that music is made of a palette of sounds like a painter with his colours. Firoze covered these ‘canons’ with radiant blooms of natural fluidity and subtlety. It was Fou Ts’ong who surprised and shocked the world when he was awarded the Mazurka prize in one of the first editions of the Warsaw Chopin competition. How could a Chinese pianist understand the Mazurka better than the Poles? Ts’ong simply replied that the soul knows no frontiers and the same sentiments in Chopin are those found in Chinese poetry. The early studies of Firoze were with the wife of Fou Ts’ong and it was here that his early pedigree shone through these performances that have been nurtured by his present mentors of Dmitri Alexeev and Vitaly Pisarenko. Refined sensitivity with a fluidity and natural flexibility that cannot be taught. Dance too, played with aristocratic artistry, bass notes adding an anchor at crucial moments of its evolution. A final note of such golden beauty was the ending of the third Mazurka in D flat illuminating the piano with glowing radiance as it led the way to the extraordinary fourth in C sharp minor, that is a miniature tone poem of genial invention. It was interesting to note how Firoze played the trills from above allowing the fingers to vibrate freely just as the sounds that he produced .

Debussy’s ‘La plus que lente’ was played with the sleezy insinuating beauty in what seemed differing layers of sound that lead so naturally to the two early poems of Scriabin. The first played with an improvised freedom and wistful suavity that we are used to hearing from Horowitz . If he missed the demonic drive of the second he did bring a sumptuous richness finding a remarkable solution for the composers indications of con eleganza e con fiducia!

‘La leggierezza’ found in Firoze and ideal interpreter as anyone who has heard Leopold Godowsky would immediately realise. A technical perfection of jeu perlé that never draws attention to itself but creates a breathtaking magic of undulating sounds and scintillating embellishments of jewel like beauty, together with moments of romantic effusions of passionate intensity .

Three Preludes by Debussy demonstrated the remarkable kaleidoscope of sounds that this young man has in his fingers…….. and feet! A mastery of pedal that also never draws attention to itself but becomes an accomplice to his poetic fantasy . ‘Brouillards’ with its whispered layers of sounds contrasted with the simple beauty of ‘Bruyères’ , and his self identification with ‘Général Levine’ was a call to attention for a young man with poetry in his soul. Some very strident militaristic sounds but always covered in velvet, as I doubt this young man could ever admit that the piano is, according to Stravinsky, a percussion instrument .

Even the Prokofiev Study op 2 n 4 so often played with brutality and showmanship was here played with poetry and a remarkable technical mastery at the service not of himself but the composer of whom he is but a humble servant .

This programme can be heard live streamed from St Mary’s Perivale on Tuesday 9th at 2

Music at  ST MARY’S   Perivale

Tuesday 9 June 2 pm   Firoze Madon (piano) Haydn: Sonata in B minor Hob.XVI:32 (9′) Allegro / Menuet / FinaleSilvestrov: Bagatelle Op 1 no 3 (4′) Chopin: Four Mazurkas Op 30 (9′) 1 in C minor / 2 in B minor / 3 in D flat / 4 in C sharp minorBrahms: Two Rhapsodies Op 79 (15′)  no 1 in B minor no 2 in G minor Scriabin: Deux Poèmes Op 32 (4′)  no 1 in F sharp major  no 2 in D majorLiszt: ‘La leggierezza’ S144 no 2 (5′)Debussy – La plus que lente, L.121 (4′) Debussy: Preludes Book II, No. 1,5,6 (8′) Brouillards Bruyères Général Lavine – excentricProkofiev: Etude Op 2 no 4 (2′) Come along to St Mary’s Perivale  or watch LIVE on YouTube or Facebook or watch the recording on YouTube

Firoze is an award-winning British concert pianist, performing solo recitals, concerti and chamber music across the UK and Europe. He has appeared at prestigious venues including Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Southbank Centre, Saffron Hall and Philharmonie de Paris.

Firoze has received numerous prizes, most recently winning First Prize at the Globe International Piano Competition 2026 in the Netherlands and First Prize at the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloist Competition 2025. He also took Second Prize at the César Franck International Piano Competition in Belgium and gained notable recognition at both the Clara Haskil and Piano Campus International Piano Competitions. Firoze first came to national attention as a Keyboard Category Finalist in BBC Young Musician 2022, with his performance broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3.

Firoze has also enjoyed success as a song pianist, having been awarded the Pianist’s Prize at the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards and the Alasdair Graham Pianist’s Prize in the RCM Lieder Competition in 2024. The following year, Firoze collaborated with British mezzo-soprano Angelina Dorlin-Barlow on Moments of Freedom by Joanna Borrett, released on streaming platforms and broadcast on radio. He was also invited to be a Waverley Young Artist at the Ryedale Festival.

Firoze’s early musical development was at the Purcell School, where he studied piano with Patsy Toh and took lessons in violin and composition. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music in London, under the tutelage of Professors Dmitri Alexeev and Vitaly Pisarenko and is generously supported by the Kendall Taylor Scholarship. 

As Rubinstein says ‘you cannot teach talent ‘ although you can nurture it and allow it to grow which has happened in these past few years under the careful guidance of Dmitri Alexeev.

https://youtu.be/gex0sOR7XZ0?si=eUD5Zpet_fdB2j3v

Since I heard Magdalene play Schumann’s 8th Novelette on this very stage I immediately wrote to Patsy Toh, her original mentor, in a state of disbelief that no-one seemed to realise what a talent had landed in our midst . In Jed Distler’s words she is the real thing as he said awarding her the Chappell Gold Medal a few years later. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/02/17/hats-off-the-chappell-gold-medal-has-uncovered-a-genius/

I was not surprised when Patsy rang me during the night just six months after that first encounter to say Magdalene had won the Clara Haskil International Competition, known for its eclectic choice based on talent and musicianship not muscle and showmanship.

Opening with Bach’s 6th Partita with a grandeur that was immediately an arresting statement of intent . Followed by a mellifluous outpouring both profound and poignant as the music was allowed to undulate with a natural freedom almost without pedal, as her control of legato and sound was in her fingers and soul . A Courante that was gracious with ethereal washes of sound as the architectural shape was as natural to her as breathing. A rhythmic drive to Bach’s ragged edged Gigue with voices that appeared like those of voices in the B minor mass just appearing without any unnatural pointing but arising out of the overall cloud of a Universal Genius. I remember Shura Cherkassky playing it to me in his hotel suite in Florence and listening to Magdalene today brought back a poignant memory of the total dedication and simplicity of a great artist.

A little Impromptu by Clara Wieck that in Magdalene’s hands had all the charm and grace of Chaminade. Sumptuous sounds of radiance and beauty with a jeu perlé of the fluidity of pianism of a past age. Fauré’s 11th Nocturne op 104 emerged out of the Impromptu with secret whispered sounds of glorious beauty in a unique harmonic language played with the extraordinary subtlety of a world of past things remembered.

A surprise was the appearance of a clarinettist colleague,Anna Lepki, to play together Brahms Sonata n 2 in a duo where her palpable enjoyment of sharing the stage for such music making reminded me of another illustrious lady pianist now in her Indian Summer. Magdalene twisted and contorted her face as she tried to match the sounds of the clarinet. It was the same joy at making music together that had so enthralled the distinguished cellist Daniel Müller-Schott at St John’s just a month ago.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/04/24/daniel-muller-schott-and-magdalene-ho-with-mindful-music-making-of-prophetic-beauty/

I was happy to pluck a rose from Magdalene’s graduation bouquet and be able to offer it to her clarinettist colleague,Anna Lepki, as an appreciation for such fine music making together

Magdalene Ho at Leighton House A humble servant enlightening all she plays with genial mastery

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

Nocturne No. 11 in F♯ minor, Op. 104/1 (1913) Gabriel Fauré

The eleventh nocturne was written in memory of Noémi Lalo; her widower, Pierre Lalo was a music critic and a friend and supporter of Fauré.^] Morrison suggests that its funereal effect of tolling bells may also reflect the composer’s own state of anguish, with deafness encroaching. The melodic line is simple and restrained, and except for a passionate section near the end is generally quiet and elegiac.

This may not have been the Parisian salon of the Princess Belgiojoso but the duel between Yunchan Lim and Alexandre Kantorow at the Wigmore Hall in the last 24 hours must have been similar to that between Liszt and Thalberg.

A duel that could well have been between Tureck and Nikolaeva or Sokolov and Volodos. A battle of giants indeed! I had listened to Sokolov playing the Schubert B flat Sonata in Rome and noticed that a few months later in the same hall Volodos would also be playing the same Schubert masterpiece. I returned on purpose to witness these two master interpretations only to find that Volodos had been persuaded to change programme to the Schubert Fantasy Sonata. I was told by his agent who is also Sokolov’s that a hall could not have two great pianists playing the same work in the same season in the same hall! We live in an age where quantity so often counts more than quality. But as Boris Berman once said ‘If they don’t want to come ,you can’t stop ‘em !’ The classical music audience is on a fast decline in Europe as it is on an even speedier increase in China !

The atmosphere ignited by Kantorow last night was rekindled in the second half of Lim’s lunchtime recital this morning https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/05/29/alexandre-kantorow-wigmore-125-reveals-the-real-thing-recreation-next-to-godliness/

Schubert D major Sonata was played with dynamic drive with many beautiful things that must be unique for a young man still only in his early twenties. But this was playing from above not within and more of the ‘sturm und drang’ of C minor than the pastoral D major!

It was the Scriabin Fantasy Sonata that was a recreation from within.
During the Schubert I was thinking what fine playing this was. With Scriabin I was not thinking anything but there was an animal response as he hit the solar plexus with such overwhelming playing that I too became party of this recreation.I had written some notes but put them aside to be engulfed by this wave of genial invention. Words could never do justice to what we witnessed. As I mentioned to some people outside the hall ready to criticise his Schubert ………but genius is not always pleasant but it is always overwhelming and should always be respected and accepted as a very personal deeply committed statement.

A piano that I doubt was the ‘Old lady’ ? which is usually reserved for retired gentlemen with more pedigree than muscle ! Whichever piano it may have been, has it ever been loved as much as by these two young artists with their burning desire to delve deep into the composers being and become part of a voyage of discovery of burning intensity?

A change of programme unknown to me as I trusted the Anniversary printed programme.From the enticing fantasy world of Chopin, Schubert and Schumann we were treated to Schubert and Scriabin with admittedly the so called Fantasy Sonata of Scriabin 2 ! I was tempted to hand in my hard fought expensive ticket but thank God I was not so foolish!

Three Scriabin Sonatas played as one with the culminating ‘star’ of the final 4th like an atomic explosion of devastating effect.

Kantorow had seduced us with Liebestod last night and it was now Lim’s turn with the Rachmaninov Vocalise .

The normally rather formal ‘Wiggies’ were like the refined ladies of the Parisian Salons, reduced to a ‘hysterical mob’ just craving for more.

As the Princess very diplomatically announced on 31st March 1837 :’ Thalberg is a great pianist but Liszt is unique ‘ .

I leave it to others to interprete that, as they may.

I am just looking forward to the next 125 years in this hallowed hall that thanks to Artur Rubinstein was saved from the hands of developers.

https://youtu.be/gex0sOR7XZ0?si=9mrtf2ocZ0znbtvx

As Rubinstein famously said you are born with talent you cannot teach it, as these two young Lions of the keyboard demonstrated.

Sabina Suciu from the class of Dmitri Alexeev and Vitaly Pisarenko playing at the Royal College of Music for her end of year performance.

Having damaged her hand a few days before there was some doubt whether she would be able to perform today. Lady pianists are in may ways more courageous than their counterparts as she was to to demonstrate today!

Just three works by Granados ,Schumann and Prokofiev showed her fearless mastery and musicianship. Performing in the RCM attic, The Parry Room ,with its wooden floor and sloping ceiling giving all the appearance of being on a ship. The only thing missing ,of course, was a little breeze !

Playing on a piano of Italian rather than German pedigree, as her mentor pointed out the subtlety of her ‘p’s’ was not always possible, Fazioli being renowned for its clarity and brilliance rather than warmth and resilience.

However Sabina rose to the challenge with a very musicianly performance of dances by Granados. Apparently dances by Spanish or French composers are part of the curriculum and it was interesting for me to hear a work that was completely knew to me until today.

But it was the Schumann Sonata op 22 where Sabina could show us her passionate intensity and technical mastery allied to a musicianship that could carve out the architectural line of a work that in lesser hands can seem very fragmented. The ‘Andantino getragen ‘ based on Schumann’s song ‘In the Autumn’ was played with sentiment but never sentimentality. The ‘Scherzo’ fearlessly played as Schumann’s marking of ‘Sehr rash und markiert’ could not have been a more accurate description of her heroic playing, especially knowing that she was recovering from a sprained hand!

At Clara Schumann’s request, the original finale, marked ‘Presto passionato’ was replaced with a less difficult movement in 1838. Clara considered it “not too incomprehensible,” though she admitted that she would “play it if necessary, but the masses, the public, and even the connoisseurs for whom one is really writing, don’t understand it.”

Sabina played the alternative Rondo which is most usually played today and the one published in Schumann’s lifetime. The original ‘Presto passionato’ was in fact only published in 1981.

However this final movement is still marked ‘Prestissimo Quasi cadenza’ and Sabina played it with a control that did not deny technical brilliance and passionate intensity. One should always remember that Robert was a student of Clara’s father and was forced to stop playing the piano when he injured his hand on a mechanical contraption made to force the fingers to do what nature never intended for them.

The final work in this short recital was Prokofiev’s Toccata. A work that another young lady pianist made famous , and although Sabina does not have yet the range of colour of Martha Argerich she does have a remarkable technical preparation and control allied to a temperament of burning intensity.

It was nice to see a full house of fellow students many of whom I hope to listen to in the near future but three in particular I know well.

Alexander Doronin and Tin Lam Ng take Regent Hall unexpectedly by storm

Maria Linares Artist Diploma Final Recital ‘A technical mastery of poetic imagination at the service of the composer’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exulte would be more correct but less Shakespearian!

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

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

https://open.substack.com/pub/jessicaduchen/p/a-kalamazoo-flow-with-flights?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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

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

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

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

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

Alexandre Kantorow bestrides the Wigmore Hall like a Colossus.

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

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

Alexandre Kantorow takes the Philharmonie de Paris by storm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Giordano Buondonno crystalline clarity and mastery at St Marys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Presented in association with Talent Unlimited