ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

Playing of luminosity and poise as you might expect from the musicians she has been privileged to work with. A musical pedigree that shone through all she played.But it was also the programme of three great composers that showed her integrity and refined musical taste before she even caressed the keys.

The Intermezzi op 117 are three of the most beautiful creations of Brahms that he himself described as ‘ three lullabies of my grief.’ The first ‘Andante moderato’ , whilst being played with great sensitivity seemed strangely too earthbound and not etherial enough due to the rather slow tempo, with playing in six instead of two.The second in B flat minor, on the other hand , was allowed to flow with refined beauty and delicacy unfolding with almost improvised fantasy. The last with its almost oriental feel to the opening motif was allowed to unwind with poignant beauty and subtle colouring transforming an intermezzo into a tone poem of ravishing beauty.

Anjulie brought a great architectural understanding to Chopin’s Fantasy In F minor, one of the longest and most important of his compositions. A continuous flow of playing of dynamic rhythmic drive and poetic intensity. There was a great clarity to her playing held tightly in reign but with just the right amount of freedom as she shaped the phrases with loving beauty. A technical mastery that passed almost unnoticed as the passionate intensity of her playing ignited the keyboard with sumptuous rich sounds.The central chorale was played with whispered beauty and poignancy before exploding into the passion and searing intensity of one of Chopin’s most beautiful outpourings.

An unusual clarity to the cadenza was played almost without pedal! Followed by vibrations of sound filling the keyboard with magic and taking us to the final imperious chords.

There was a dynamic drive to Schumann’s Carnaval Jest in a performance that was played with a classical simplicity with playing of great clarity and burning intensity. Lyrical passages were allowed to ride on this wave of sound without disturbing the continual forward movement . Even the Marseillaise was incorporated into this classical framework of poetic intelligence. A ‘Romanze’ of beauty and simplicity was followed by the impish good humour of the ‘Scherzo’.The ‘Intermezzo’ was played with passionate warmth and poetic intensity , streams of sound flowing from Anjulie’s hands with mastery and beauty. The ‘Finale’ again owed much to Anjulie classical approach which gave great strength to all she did. A great sense of freedom too as the melodic episodes were allowed to ride on this ever flowing wave of sound until the whispered intensity of a coda of exhilaration and excitement bursting into flames with the final majestic chords.

German pianist Anjulie Chen is regarded as one of the most promising young artists of her generation, praised for her “admirable musical sensitivity” and for playing of “subtlety, stylishness and warmth,” marked by “poise, elegance and expressive depth”. Highlights of her 2026 season include appearances at the Chiltern Arts Festival and the Schiermonnikoog Chamber Music Festival, alongside concerto performances with the Blaze Ensemble and the Bushey Symphony Orchestra. She also makes her Munich debut at the Irenensaal and collaborates with principal players of the Munich Radio Orchestra.

Recent achievements include representing the Royal Academy of Music at the Sheepdrove Music Competition and releasing her debut chamber album of works by Igor Stravinsky on Linn Records, in collaboration with Barbara Hannigan and the Juilliard School. She made her critically acclaimed debut at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan during the Beethoven Festival 2021, was a semi-finalist at the Birmingham International Piano Competition (2022), and won Third Prize at the Lagny-sur-Marne International Piano Competition (2019).

Especially drawn to Schubert and French repertoire, she has worked with artists including Anne Queffélec, Thomas Adès and Kirill Gerstein, and has been invited to festivals such as the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove and the ArtenetrA Festival. A dedicated chamber musician, she is a member of the CHESA Duo with violist Xin He and member of the Polymnia Piano Quartet. A two-time DAAD scholar and 2024 Help Musicians Postgraduate Award holder, Anjulie studied in Munich with Prof. Thomas Böckheler before completing her degrees with first-class honours at the Royal Academy of Music under Prof. Colin Stone. 

Francesco Piemontesi sharing with us his unique sense of recreation where beauty and imagination take the place of muscle and brawn. Where intelligence and a kaleidoscopic palette of colours are placed at the service of the composer with humility and total dedication. As Bryce Morrison confided you need to have worked so hard to arrive at such pianistic perfection .

But above all you have to listen to yourself and be passionately and blindly in love with music.

Schubert’s Fantasy Sonata was indeed a fantasy with a kaleidoscope of colours from the very first note. Like the opening of Beethoven 4th concerto the first chord of this sonata sets the scene for all that is to follow. Scrupulous attention to Schubert’s indications that in just the first page range from ‘pp’ to ‘mf’ before moving to ‘ppp’ and ‘pp’ again. An extraordinary palette of colours allowed Piemontesi to illuminate this opening with a luminosity that was to pervade everything he did. A wonderful liquid sound that was never hard, even in the passionate cry of the development. When Schubert was not singing he would burst into dance. After the whispered opening of poignant beauty, Schubert allowed octaves to wear dancing shoes as they became in Piemontesi’s hands a magical voice of elegance tinged with nostalgia. Bursting into streams of notes that were golden sounds that glistened and glowed with refined beauty. Shaped with a delicate lyricism leading so surreptitiously to a dominant voice of authority only to be diffused with gently rocking lyricism and the final whispered farewell of this opening. A development that created a shock wave as the minor key battled with the major in a contest where every note had a reverberating voice of vibrant intensity without any aggressive hardness. The final few bars of this movement were a miracle of tonal control as staccato and legato could live together in whispered harmony disappearing into the distance with poetic abandonment. Piemontesi sitting absolutely motionless hovering over the keys as we all savoured the marvels that had been shared with us. Timing the opening of the ‘Andante’ to perfection as it was played with exquisite beauty. Even the final four chords ‘pp’ and detached were timed and shaped with extraordinary poetic significance. A great change in character that contrasted with the beseeching beauty and fluidity of the answering phrases. Suddenly a left hand accompaniment played without any pedal but with a melody floated above with radiance and was a moment of breathtaking beauty and masterly control. The opening melody returning, ornamented by Schubert, and exquisitely shaped by Piemontesi. There was an aching simplicity to the coda with unbelievably whispered sounds that Schubert marks ‘ppp’ and that Piemontesi played with sublime simplicity. A resonance to the ‘Menuetto’ always with this magical luminosity that could give such shape and colour to all he did. Nothing was ever black and white but full of subtle meaning. The ‘Trio’ was barely whispered as we were to be reminded of in Liszt’s ‘Les cloches de Genève’ that closed the recital. Whispered sounds from afar suddenly taking wing with a chiselled beauty of whispered nostalgia before returning to the ‘Menuetto’ but always on the same wing of resonant song. Contrasts there certainly were but never aggressive or dare I say Beethovenian. Not to shock but to stimulate the senses. Even more miracles were to follow with the ‘Allegretto’, like the return of an old friend. Bursting into dance with whispered glowing steps with a mischievous left hand growing in intensity. Our old friend returning with a tenor voice as the music chatted with beguiling lyricism and charm before taking a turn that turned out to be a dead end. The clouds opened instead, and a glorious ray of light shone upon us with one of those miraculous moments that poured from Schubert’s mellifluous soul. There was magic in the air as radiance and breathtaking beauty poured from Piemontesi’s hands that were to take us to the whispered meanderings of ravishing beauty that lead to the final farewell of our old friend. Miracles indeed as Piemontesi held us in his hands with the final five chords that were truly the vibrations of Schubert’s soul.

A completely different sound world opened up for the second part of the recital dedicated to Liszt. The Swiss book from his years of Pilgrimage. Who better than a Swiss pianist to recreate these miniature tone poems overlooked by musicians as they are more often brutally abused by showmen. Piemontesi showed us that there may be many octaves and rhetorical cadenzas but they are really expressions of a poetic soul of genial invention. I remember the revelation on hearing Wilhelm Kempff playing Liszt with his recording of the two legends that had something of the miraculous about them. It was the same today with the nobility and aristocratic authority that opened the ‘Chapelle de Guillaume Tell’. A magic mist of sounds with echoing bells resonating, leading to a passionate climax that dissolved to desolate cries on the horizon. The sound of the ‘Lake Wallenstadt’ as the water lapped almost inaudibly as all we could hear was the water as it passed over a stone with bubbling constancy. A melodic line of childlike innocence that was floated on these gently lapping waves with simplicity and radiant beauty. A glowing beauty to the simple dance of the ‘Pastorale’ as it lead straight into the silky featherlight brilliance of ‘Au bord d’une source’. An incredible fluidity and jeu perlé that was less present than Horowitz’s bewitching account, but that had the overall atmosphere of the scintillating clarity of a Swiss alpine stream.’Orage’ of course was played with passionate drive full of octaves and rhetorical outbursts but in Piemontesi’s hands octaves disappeared, as they were vibrations of sound that led to passionate outpourings that were shaped so beautifully and with such an extraordinary sense of line. Piemontesi gave a shape and meaning to this work where his mastery and sense of balance could even make the left hand melody sing so eloquently, as streams of notes flowed over the entire keyboard.’Vallée d’Obermann’ was given an extraordinarily poetic performance. The long opening tenor melody played with poignant meaning as it is replied to by the whispered soprano melody. A blood curdling tremolando in the left hand brought us the dramatic contrasting central episode played with mastery and fearless brilliance, more operatic than orchestral, but overpowering in its impact. The vibrations of sound on which the opening melody returns was quite remarkable as the melodic line was allowed to float with ever more intensity on this wave of sounds. Bursting into a climax again where octaves were streams of notes shaped with passionate intensity leading to a final flourish and the poignant last statement with which it draws to an end. The simple luminosity of ‘Eglogue’ led to the deeply disturbing ‘Le Mal du Pays’ with strange sounds of prophetic searching. Distant sounds of bells heralded the beautiful outpouring of ‘Le cloches de Genève’ with which this suite was drawn to a poetic close.

Bach’s ‘Wachet Auf ‘ in the glorious transcription of Wilhelm Kempff was Piemontesi’s brilliant choice as an encore. Finishing with the radiant exhilaration of a true believer. A second encore was the beautifully elusive sound world of Godowsky with a movement from his Java Suite played with the same chameleonic sense of colour as the legendary master himself.

Francesco Piemontesi at the Wigmore Hall ‘Simplicity,Humility, Intelligence and Mastery combine, the just heir to Perahia’s throne’

Francesco Piemontesi at the Wigmore Hall – A poet speaks

Embraceable you !

Fearless playing of Stravinsky and Weil with Edward Gardner at the helm of the RAM wind ensemble as two beautiful young ladies were allowed to go on a rampage with masterly music making of passionate intensity

Dazzling Milda Daunoraité takes the Wigmore Hall by storm

A last minute substitution found Kyle free to play in this idyllic spot in Ruislip today.

The same programme as in Perivale last month but revisited with the ears of an artist always on a new voyage of discovery. See below for a

Kyle Hutchings at St Mary’s Perivale Radiance and beauty of a poetic soul

A beautiful sunny day and with poetry in his heart Kyle,the troubadour of the piano, brought us moments of contemplation and ravishing beauty .

A extraordinarily mature musician where his timeless wonder creates music of intense poetic significance.

Mozart’s miraculous Adagio was an outpouring of poignant weight before liberating the poetic soul that Liszt could portray of Petrarch’s sonnets .

Three of the most nostalgic of Rachmaninov’s six Moments Musicaux were played with brooding intensity and poignant longing. The final one in C major was played with nobility and grandeur, full of sumptuous sounds and the miraculous control of colours that this poet of the keyboard had shared with us today .

Kyle Hutchings in Adbaston A poetic troubadour of the piano reveals the heart of Mozart,Schubert and Franck (including a review by the distinguished musician John Hargreaves) and the Keyboard Trust Concert Tour of Ischia,Florence and Milan

Kyle Hutchings The troubadour of the piano illuminates St Mary Le Strand

Some extraordinary playing from Tom Kelly standing in at short notice for Filip Michelak who had badly damaged a finger packing his bags to fly to the UK ! As Tom told me ‘everything relearnt in a few days, hope it didn’t sound like it!’ Tom has now decided to concentrate on playing concerts, having been given precious performing opportunities by recognition in previous competitions in Hastings and Utrecht. Working now on repertoire rather than competing on the rather soul destroying International Competition circuit. As I told him competitions are for race horses not pedigree stallions like you!

An artist is known by his programmes and to look at the programmes of Claudio Arrau or Rudolf Serkin is to know immediately that these are real thinking artists that one can trust to shed new light on great works, bringing them to life with humility, integrity and intelligence. It was exactly his programme today that showed a fascinating mix of familiar and less familiar works placed together in a satisfying combination focused around Schumann’s First Sonata op 11.

The Fantasie-Impromptu was played with great style and timeless beauty. Notes that floated from his chubby fingers with limpet like certainty as they could delve deeply into the keys and find colours of fleeting beauty. The central episode was played with a deeply etched bel canto of great freedom anchored to the deep bass accompaniment of sumptuous rich sounds. Finding even more bewitching colours on the return of the opening by leaning slightly onto the thumb notes as he played with whispered beauty of passionate intensity.

The main work on the programme was the Sonata op 11 by Schumann. Showing a complete technical command but more importantly giving an architectural shape to a work that is so full of invention that it can sound rather fragmented. There was a poignant beauty to the long opening with an aristocratic sense of freedom played with poignant significance. A timeless outpouring where even the comments in the bass were given a leisurely place as it duetted with the treble, Tom’s beautifully natural arm movements like an artist painting on a canvas. The ‘Allegro vivace’ took wing with impish good humour as Schumann’s continual changes of character were incorporated into a whole of dynamic drive with a kaleidoscope of colours .The beautiful meno moss was played with radiant beauty before the vibrancy of Schumann’s genial invention took wing. The ‘Aria’ was played with glowing beauty and when the melody moved to the tenor register Tom created a magic halo of notes that caressed it with sumptuous beauty, with the Aria returning before closing with a whispered question mark.The ‘Scherzo’ erupted with rhythmic drive bursting into ‘più allegro’ where Tom was able to play the legato melody with staccato accompaniment with hurdy gurdy simplicity. He brought great authority to the ‘Finale’ with its majestic chordal outpouring interrupted by a recitativo as it moves inexorably to an ever move exhilarating end. A movement like the first that is made up of so many genial ideas but that Tom managed to combine into an overall architectural shape with masterly control and sumptuous sounds.

Radiant beauty and ravishing sounds reminded me of the magic that Gilels could bring to this Sonata with the same refined sense of balance and glowing beauty to the ‘Andante’ contrasted with the fleeting flights of virtuosity of the ‘Prestissimo’ before bursting into a climax of passionate intensity and sumptuous richness.

Medtner was a real discovery of a work I did not know. It was refreshing to hear just one short work of such beauty and brilliance especially when brought to life with the same pianism with which it was born.

Islamey has long been a show piece for pianists, notorious for its technical difficulty it even inspired Ravel to write his own ‘Scarbo’, with the intention of writing a work with even more technical challenges. Tom started with a very deliberate subdued clarity, gradually adding more and more notes with a range of colours and a sense of style that was astonishing. Not only for the technical mastery but for the colour and excitement he could bring to a work often considered only for its technical difficulty, but as Tom showed us today it is a tone poem of great allure.

I have heard Tom on many occasions but today I saw the birth of a great artist where his musical and technical mastery have combined with a perfection that marks him out in my mind as one of the finest pianists of his generation.

Thomas Kelly is a British pianist, and an alumnus of the Royal College of Music where he currently holds the Benjamin Britten Fellowship. In January 2026 Thomas won the 2nd prize at the Liszt Utrecht competition where he performed Liszt’s 2nd Piano Concerto with Stephane Deneve and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the next season, international performances will include Seoul Arts Centre, the Baerum Kulturhus in Oslo, Washington Opera House in Maysville USA, EuroLiszt Festival in Lithuania and the Fazioli Hall in Sacile, Italy. Recent debuts include a solo recital at Wigmore Hall, London and a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 at the Philharmonie Berlin, Kammermusiksaal. He has also appeared as soloist in Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie with the RCM Symphony Orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall, conducted by Jac van Steen. Domestic highlights of the coming season include an album release of virtuosic organ transcriptions with Rubicon Classics, a residency at Music on the Burnhams in Norfolk featuring a concerto performance with Christopher Warren-Green, continued collaboration with JAM on the Marsh and concerto appearances with a range of orchestras throughtout the UK.

Between 2015 and 2021 Thomas studied with Professor Andrew Ball and more recently he has worked intensively with Professors Dmitri Alexeev and Vanessa Latarche. Thomas has been amongst the top prizewinners in a wide range of international competitions including 5th prize at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition, 2nd prize at the 2022 Hastings International Piano Competition – where he also won the award for best semi-final concerto performance – and 1st prizes including the Pianale International Competition 2017, Lucca Virtuoso e Bel Canto Festival 2018, RCM Joan Chissell Schumann competition 2019, BPSE Intercollegiate Beethoven competition 2019, and the Sheepdrove Intercollegiate Piano Competition 2022. In 2024 Thomas was awarded the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother Rose Bowl upon graduation from the Royal College of Music, London. 

Thomas Kelly at the Wigmore Hall Britten Fellow astonishes with pianistic genius of another age

Thomas Kelly on Ischia – The Walton Foundation at La Mortella -‘The Devil and the Deep blue Sea’

Cristian Sandrin playing three Mozart concertos with simplicity,radiance and beauty with players from the London Mozart Players. Two of the concertos especially prepared by Cristian for string quartet in an evening in which the genius of Mozart was celebrated by master musicians with humility and integrity.

I heard FouTs’ong play the three concertos K 413 – 414 – 415 in a concert that I have never forgotten. These were three concertos that Mozart had written especially with string quartet in mind .Other composers too have written for strings alone and include Saint Saens, Busoni and Liszt. Adding wind instruments can be costly and tip the balance where a single violin or cello cannot merge so easily with a wind instrument. Cristian has prepared the A major K 488 and E flat K 482 for string quartet and as he says ‘ I uncovered unexpected connections between various themes across the concertos, during the process of re-writing the orchestral score. It made me realise that the overflow of constant new melodies and tunes from these later concertos are part of a complex web of motifs, something that I would have normally associated with Beethoven’s music. The simple act of re-writing music down enforces certain connections in the brain. In one sense it is a remarkable method to internalise the music and the orchestral score.’

Cristian playing with impeccable clarity and rhythmic drive, he has a way of touching the keys with fingers that seem to belong to the keys as they hover with horizontal expectancy swooping with poetic beauty as they etched out sounds of radiance and crystalline beauty. Trills that seem to be born above the keys as sounds are allowed to vibrate with natural fluency.
Strangely enough it was the two new recreations of K.488 and K.482 that were more memorable than K. 415 where the ensemble played with more knife edge urgency than they had in Mozart’s original, where legato phrases from the violins seemed to loose their bite and simplicity.
Mozart too easy for children but too difficult for adults, it is not always easy, even for master musicians like these LMP soloists to gauge the just equilibrium.

The vibrant dynamic drive from Sarah Butcher’s cello kept an even keel and was the anchor on which marvels were created. George White like a cat on a hot tin roof ready to pounce and follow these marvels of recreation that were being discovered.
The most satisfying and revelatory performance came after the interval with the E flat concerto K 482 . A concerto that I had never been aware of as being a continuous outpouring of mellifluous beauty as is the better known K 503 .

Cristian Sandrin Visions of Life dedicated to his father Sandu Sandrin .

Cristian Sandrin’s New Goldbergs ravish and astonish Perchance to Dream

Cristian Sandrin a message of Hope and Peace in Florence the cradle of our culture

Peacocks flying high at Leighton House yesterday as a true discovery was revealed.

Lisa Peacock courageously inviting a quartet that played with fearless mastery as Janacek’s ‘ Intimate Letters’ was allowed to seduce us in the extraordinary Pre Raphaelite oriental music room in Leighton House.

Levon Chilingerian was on the edge of his seat as his star prodigy Takanori Okamoto reached for the heights taking his colleagues with him as he himself had done with his own historic quartet that followed in the wake of the Amadeus some fifty years ago.

Mozart’s quartet K 428 in comparison was played with great style as they had learnt their lesson well giving an exemplary but strangely colourless performance .

The mysterious world of Janacek ignited their imagination and opened a palette of chameleonic colours of the same perfumed world as our surrounds. A kaleidoscope of colours as each of the four components was inspired to greater heights with searing intensity and poignant disturbing beauty. Four players united as one in a performance that almost had the peacocks blushing ,in this oasis of otherworldly beauty, just a stones throw from the reconstructed metropolis of Hammersmith and the imminent re birth of Olimpia.

A distinguished audience of connoisseurs of great music making was happy to celebrate after the concert and talk to the artists and even discuss the Kings visit to Trump towers !

Passionately involved music making not only from Takanori but also from Sophia Molina whose second violin shone like gold in so many places . Passionate intensity of Haruka Makino’ s viola together with the vibrant beauty of Freya Souter’s cello created an ensemble of refined visual beauty as well as the intense recreation of two masterworks on this voyage of discovery stimulated by such exotic surrounds.

The next Lisa Peacock’ s discoveries Magdalene Ho on 19th May

Magdalene Ho A musical genius in Paradise

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

I have heard Herman play quite a few times since being tipped off by a very distinguished musician friend about this very talented young man. I have heard most of his recent repertoire but was missing the Liszt study and Chopin Scherzo op 39. I had recently accompanied Herman to the Walton Foundation on Ischia where I had heard a very fine ‘ Waldstein’ Sonata , the Schubert A minor D 784 and Prokofiev 7th, which is reviewed in some detail below. His playing is growing in stature and authority every time I listen to him. This is a musician who enjoys playing to others as he is on a voyage of discovery in which each time an audience stimulates his imagination to search ever more deeply into the score even taking more risks as he brings the music alive with searing intensity. Opening with Liszt’s second Paganini study one was immediately struck by the beauty of his playing and the shape he gave each phrase. There was a beautifully capricious question and answer to the opening, like the Chopin Scherzo that was to follow there are two layers that are being played out simultaneously. The chorale like melody commented on by scintillating glistening arabesques. In the Liszt it is more apparent as the ornamentation passes from above to below but the musical line in-between remains constant. A beautifully shaped ending to this first episode was interrupted by the double octaves where even here Herman managed to play with shape and style, not just with muscle and speed. A kaleidoscope of sounds allowed him to shape this very energetic central episode with colour and charm so the return of the opening episode was linked up, creating a unified whole.There was a beautifully pensive coda where technical mastery was at the service of Herman’s poetic fantasy and musicianship.

Herman found the same poetic beauty in Chopin’s Third Scherzo which is so often played as separately contrasted sections and rarely shaped into the tone poem that it can become in a true artist’s hands. A wistful opening leading to the octaves that were shaped with loving care, not missing in passionate intensity but with a range of colour that gave a more horizontal shape to passages played so often with vertical power and where the line is lost. Herman allowed these octaves to dissolve naturally into the beautiful chorale that Chopin carves out with sumptuous richness, with one long line, accompanied but not interrupted , by glowing cascades of notes that illuminate this beautiful chorale. The mysterious change to the minor key Herman allowed himself more time without interrupting the long architectural line, but just enhancing the genial mastery of Chopin. Even the long preparation to the coda was given all the time necessary for it to unfold with the deep bass pedal notes sustaining the melodic line until the coda was allowed to erupt. Fearless playing where Herman gave free rein to his temperament knowing that his fingers would follow with mastery and brilliance as he brought this masterwork to an exciting conclusion.

His Brahms op 119 I have heard before but today it seemed to have gained in maturity with a timeless glowing beauty. The ‘Adagio’ of the opening Intermezzo was played with great maturity where he could shape the long lines with the freedom of an artist who has really digested the score. He brought a fleeting beauty to the ‘Andantino’ second Intermezzo with its beautiful central ‘grazioso’ that Herman played with simplicity and radiance. The third Intermezzo was played with a capricious lightness that I have only ever heard from Curzon, with the final flourish played scrupulously in time bouncing over the keys with featherlight grace. A final ‘Rhapsodie’ that was shaped with a sense of line rather than just graceless chords. A beautiful sense of legato to the central episode before the build up to the tumultuous final bars of nobility and sumptuous authority.

Prokofiev’s 7th Sonata was played with brilliance and desolation. A harrowing story that Herman played out with fearless mastery and poetic understanding. The ‘precipitato’ was a ‘tour de force’ of mastery and passionate intensity.

An encore of the slow movement of Schubert’s A minor Sonata D 784 was calming balm after such a war torn journey with Prokofiev.

Herman Med Cerisha at La Mortella A remarkable young artist who thinks more of the composer than himself

Herman Med Cerisha with playing of overwhelming authority and poetic beauty ‘A unique pianist who stands out for his originality and sincerity’

Herman Med Cerisha, a 20-year-old pianist from Putignano, Italy, began studying piano at age 6. At 8, he was accepted into the top piano class at the George Enescu National College of Music in Bucharest after achieving full marks in the entrance exam. There, he trained under Elisa Barzescu, receiving a strong foundation rooted in the Eastern European musical tradition.

In 2020, Herman won a scholarship to study at The Purcell School and, in 2021, was named Bechstein Scholar Student of the Year. In 2024 he received multiple offers from leading UK conservatories and accepted a full scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music under Professor Florian Mitrea.

Herman has claimed over 40 international competition titles, including distinctions in the Chopin Junior Competition, Berman Competition, and Orbetello Competition. His 2019 win at the Pianisti i Ri competition in Kosovo led to a solo performance with the Philharmonic of Priština, where he performed Grieg’s piano concerto.

He has participated in masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Boris Petrushansky, Dmitri Alexeev, and Noriko Ogawa. He has also worked with Leonid Margarius and Franco Scala at the Imola Piano Academy.

He has performed in prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall playing Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto, the Romanian Athenaeum, and Moscow’s Svetlanov Concert Hall. Between 2018 and 2022, he collaborated annually with the Arad Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania as a soloist. In 2025, Herman became a Talent Unlimited Artist, where they kindly support his musical journey.

Magdalena Filipczak and Sam Armstrong brought something different to the Chopin Society with many of Chopin’s works played on the violin.

The bel canto of Chopin was born with the human voice but is also ideally suited to string instruments as we heard today. It was only Chopin’s genial mastery that could make a percussion instrument sing as never before.

Playing a 1753 Guadagnini, Magdalena played two Nocturnes op 9 n 2 and op posth and even the First Balladeer 23, with simplicity and radiant beauty . Magdalena is also a trained singer and sang Chopin’s ‘The Wish’, as she also sang the song by Schubert that he quotes in his Fantasia D 934 with which she concluded this most unusual but attractive programme.

Handsomely accompanied by the pianist Sam Armstrong who was very much an equal partner playing with extraordinary sensitivity and fervent participation. Not only noticeable by his stamping feet in the Chopin Mazurka tinged with unmistakeable Kreislerian colours, but also by the extraordinary beauty of the Schubert Fantasia. Like a cat on a hot tin roof, he was ready to follow every move of the exquisite playing of his partner, with vibrant mastery. Even in the little miniatures that Martino Tirimo pointed out were encore pieces designed to show off the beauty and virtuosity of the great violinist of the nineteenth century like Ysaye, Sarasate , Kreisler, Milstein ,Heifetz, Elman or Ricci .

Ruggiero Ricci for many years would play in my series in Rome, the great works of Bach or Paganini for solo violin, but I remember he would also play Chopin Nocturnes of which he recorded a complete collection. Ricci and Haendel were child prodigies in the same period playing on precious instruments like the 1753 Guadagnini that Magdalena played today. and that she even held it in her hands whilst she sang songs by Chopin and Schubert, as it seemed to radiate the magic that she shared with us.

The concert had begun with Chopin’s best known Nocturne, that in E flat, in the arrangement by Pablo de Sarasate. It was immediately apparent that here was a duo that listened to each other and were able to create music with a refreshing spontaneity and beguiling freedom. As Magdalena allowed Chopin’s bel canto to soar into the atmosphere, Sam was ready to catch it and follow its every move with delicacy and glowing beauty. In fact the piano lid was always open as here was a duo that listened to each other and there was never a moment when one might have thought the piano could overpower the violin. They were making music together and listening to the overall line sustained from below with sumptuous beauty. Chopin writes a cadenza at the end of the Nocturne and Sarasate elaborates on that with remarkable daring but with exquisite good taste. Chopin Mazuka op 33 n. 2 was next, arranged by Kreisler, where the piano accompaniment seemed suspiciously tinged with Rachmaninov ( who was Kreisler’s duo partner on many occasions). There is the famous occasion of Rachmaninov playing with Kreisler in the Carnegie Hall. Kreisler got completely lost and whispered to his giant partner :’ where are we?’, ‘in the Carnegie Hall was the instant reply!’ Rachmaninov may have looked as though he had just swallowed a knife but his humour was indeed knife edged. Our duo played with buoyancy and freedom with Sam almost jumping out of the seat as he lived the polish dance with feet stamping on the pedals. Magdalena with her regal presence was swaying to the music too as they brought this traditional dance vividly to life.

There are 17 songs that Chopin wrote, six of which Liszt famously arranged for solo piano, as he had also done with refined good taste many of Schubert’s lieder. The ‘Maiden’s Wish’, in that form, was championed by Arrau and Rosenthal, but it was refreshing to hear Magdalena sing the original in Polish whilst of course clutching her precious Guadagnini that had been loaned to her by Beare’s International Violin Society.

The Lullaby and Waltz from Britten’s Suite op 6 was a surprise item and made for a refreshing interval between the intricate warm tones of Chopin and Schubert. Britten’s early youthful invention was played with scintillating bravura from both artists. Rubinstein often, in an all Chopin recital, would play after the interval the four Mazurkas op 50 dedicated to him by his friend Karol Szymanowski, that would be like a refreshing sorbet in the middle of a sumptuous feast. This early work was not well received in its day even though considered by Paul Hamburger to show the other Britten: the brilliant miniaturist, the sparkling technician, the writer of French and middle-European pastiches which are as loving as they are witty. The Waltz movement shows how the different traits of the Viennese and French waltz can be intertwined in one movement. The movement is a delight when both try to get a word in at the same time, the Viennese waltz on the violin, the French waltz in the piano.Moreover, he particularly praised the Lullaby describing it as ‘ the best piece of this Suite.’

What was of great interest was to see how Ysaÿe had transcribed Chopin’s much abused First Ballade op 23 for violin and piano. Magdalena said it was a recent discovery and apart from the opening introduction, that I found a bit forced, from the opening theme onwards it fared very well. In fact the coda usually an excuse for pianistic fireworks, was played with restrained phrasing where pyrotechnics were turned into poetic exhilaration. Many of Chopin’s beautiful bel canto melodies were played with refined good taste where Magdalena’s aristocratic bearing could allow the poetic outpourings of Chopin to be played with even more inner intensity than is usually heard on the piano.The jeu perlé passages fared less well on the violin but Sam’s dedicated musicianship made up for a loss in power in certain filigree passages. It was a fascinating way to end the first half of this intriguing concert full of refined playing and courageous discoveries.

After the interval was a masterwork by Schubert with his Fantasia in C D. 934. Even here our artists brought a new light to bear as it was prefaced by the song that Schubert quotes ( like in his Wanderer Fantasy also in C major ). A work in seven sections of which the third is a theme and variations based on the song ‘Sei mir gegrüsst’. Magdalena invited the audience to sing the final line of the refrain ‘Let me kiss you’ which comes at the end of every verse by Rückert. So Magdalena received six kisses, after the last of which she placed the violin under her chin as she floated Schubert’s magical melody on the shimmering whispered sounds of the piano. And the Fantasia was born. A work that Nikolai Lugansky considers  the most difficult music ever written for the piano,more difficult than all of Rachmaninov’s concertos put together. A performance of radiance and beauty where the song was floated in thin air before being revealed in the third movement and finally taking wing with the exhilarating march of the final Presto. Playing from both artists of breathtaking beauty and dynamic drive together with the glowing radiance that permeates the whole of this extraordinary work.

Two encores by great request, a Melodie by Paderewski arranged by Barcewicz and the Nocturne op posth by Chopin played with the refined good taste and exquisite sounds of both players united as one.

More superb playing from ElisabethTsai where her musicianship allied to mastery and temperament brought two masterworks by Mozart and Schubert vividly to life. Simplicity and poignant poetic intensity were the hallmarks of performances of rare beauty and intelligence. Scrupulous attention to the composers intentions were just the starting point for playing of rare intensity.

Mozart began with great authority from the very first notes that were tinged with poignant sadness. There was clarity and rhythmic energy as her great temperament set the work aflame with a musical ‘fingerfertigkeit’ of burning poetic intensity, with fingers like limpets extracting the life blood from each key. The ‘Andante cantabile’ was a long belcanto of radiance and simplicity with refined expressive ornaments and slightly weighted notes that were pregnant with meaning. Her whispered repeat of the exposition was even more poignantly meaningful for a work that Mozart had penned on hearing of the death of his mother. A deeply felt central episode with its question and answer of moving intensity lead to a momentary storm cloud that soon cleared to leave the beautifully pointed return of the opening . She brought fleeting brilliance to the ‘Presto’ last movement that she played with urgency and burning intensity, The change to the major key was played with simplicity allowing Mozart’s genial invention to speak for itself. A dynamic drive to the last two chords brought this vibrant masterly performance to an exhilarating close.

The whispered opening of Schubert’s ‘Fantasy’ Sonata was played with glowing beauty and an extraordinary control of sound where the composers very specific range of sounds were shaped with architectural understanding. Not always noting the difference between ‘pp’ and ‘ppp’ ,which Schubert intends as another colour or instrument in his magic orchestra, she did however manage to show us the great architectural line with great sensitivity and remarkable rhythmic fidelity. After the magical opening chords bursting into dance with refined elegance and beauty of exquisite shape, and like the superb musician she is, she was not afraid to respect the repeat of the exposition which she played with even more poignant beauty. A startling development with full orchestral sounds of richness but never hardness, from hands that knew how to dig deeply into the keys with extraordinary horizontal sensitivity. An almost imperceptible crescendo lead to a rare ‘fff’ marking for Schubert which was of heartrenching intensity. Even the octaves playfully conversing between the hands were played with a clarity of radiance rather than hardness. In fact everything she played was imbued with mellifluous beauty, whether of disarming innocence or burning intensity. The return of the opening was even more beautiful having shared with us a tormented journey, returning to paradise with glowing simplicity. There was poignant beauty to the ‘Andante’ with its question and answer beautifully played before an intense short-lived outburst, as Schubert’s unstoppable mellifluous outpouring lead to the return of the opening, this time ornamented by the composer with exquisite beauty. She brought a great sense of dance to the ‘Menuetto’ with an exquisite ‘Trio’ played with beautifully shaped ornaments of whispered beauty , and it was a real oasis between Schuberts irrepressible dance of the Menuetto. The ‘Allegretto’ last movement was allowed to flow beautifully with pastoral simplicity of charm and grace. Bringing a glowing beauty to Schubert’s busy meanderings as the opening melody was heard in the tenor register before bursting into the song that is always in Schubert’s heart. Like a ray of sunlight illuminating our souls with the unexpected radiance and beauty of genial invention. An extraordinary performance where time stood still as Elisabeth could allow the final thoughts of Schubert to reach deeply into our souls with simplicity and masterly beauty.

As Dr Mather said he was sorry that Elisabeth had lost her voice, but lucky that it had obviously passed into her fingers that could recount such wonders, where music can speak louder than any words

Pianist Elisabeth Tsai is establishing herself as an emerging interpreter of the Classical repertoire. Though she garnered top awards in local and international competitions in adolescence and performed throughout the United States, including at Carnegie Hall and From the Top’s radio show, her recent endeavours have been largely repertoire-based, with recitals programming the last three Beethoven sonatas and the last four Brahms opuses for solo piano. She was recently awarded the first prize ex aequo at the 2024 Brahms Piano Competition Detmold and also won the 2025 Guildhall Beethoven Prize and the 2025 PianoTexas Concerto Competition. 

Elisabeth is currently studying with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama after having studied with Boris Berman and Boris Slutsky at the Yale School of Music. Her recent seasons include solo and concerto performances around the US, Germany, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, and Japan. An active chamber musician, she was a Fellow at the 2024 Norfolk/Yale Chamber Music Festival and was invited to the Smithsonian Chamber Society in 2023 to perform Beethoven piano trios on historical instruments. Elisabeth has been privileged to play to artists such as Peter Serkin, Richard Goode, Robert Levin, Imogen Cooper, Paul Lewis, and Till Fellner and is currently working towards learning and performing the thirty-two Beethoven piano sonatas.

Elisabeth Tsai at St Mary’s ‘Poetic mastery of a great artist’