Mese: marzo 2017

Grande Goldberg al Parco della Musica ieri sera con un Beatrice Rana in un vero stato di grazia.

Un ora e mezza in un silenzio totale in una sala gremita.

Era anche trasmesso in diretta sulla radio e registrato per futuro visione per televisione. Un tour de force per una ragazza appena compiuta 24 anni.

Strano come quasi tutti i piu grandi interpreti dei Goldberg sono donne da Tureck,Nikolaeva, Hewitt e adesso a questa illustre lista si puo aggiungere Beatrice Rana.

They say that miracles never strike twice in the same place .

Well Beatrice Rana proved them wrong last night with a miraculous performance of the Goldberg Variations in a sold out hall in Rome.

Only just 24 years old she gave as near perfect performance as I have ever heard.

For an hour and a half holding the complete attention of this vast audience.

Not only those fortunate enough to find a ticket but for all those listening live on the Rai Radio 3. Also to be televised by RAI 5 ,the cultural channel ,this was an even more remarkable performance than the one she gave just three months ago for the BBC at the Wigmore Hall.

Gone were some of the rubatos that a young pianist can be forgiven for doing in their genuine quest to find the maximum expression in this monumental work.

Already in three months that same expression is now inside the notes.

It was as though the long journey with this work,for her teacher Benedetto Lupo tells me she learnt it with him as a girl, she was inside the very bones of this masterpiece written by Bach for the insomnia of Count Kaiserling.

The Count had asked Bach to write for his pupil Johann Gottlieb Goldberg ,who lived in the Counts house,”some klavier pieces which should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights.”

Bach was never so rewarded for one of his works as for this.The Count presented him with a golden goblet filled with 100 louis-d’or.

No goblet for Beatrice last night but a ten minute ovation from an audience that had barely dared to breathe such was the concentration generated.

A performance that was without interval by this charming young musician in a flame red dress.

The return of the Aria after the Quodlibet was absolute magic with a total control of sound even in the almost inaudible whispered final breath.

Virtuosity abounded as in her extraordinary clarity and precision in the 5th Variation taken at an extraordinary pace but totally convincing because of the rock steady tempo she managed to maintain .

The 29th variation was not quite so rock steady in her quest to arrive at the ultimate explosion of the Quodlibet where Bach unites two folk- songs :”I’ve not been with you for so long,Come closer closer,closer,closer” and “Beets and spinach drove me far away.Had my mother cooked some meat,then I’d have stayed much longer”.

I remember Tureck too was not so rock steady in this variation which is understandable with the build up of tension over such a long span .

So much to admire in her intelligent and tasteful understanding of ornamentation also the rock steady pulse that she was able to maintain throughout with a remarkable sense of colour that revealed a true mastery .

A mastery that is easy to appreciate, but nevertheless remarkable for a twenty year old girl from the south of Italy,in the Tchaikowsky and Prokofiev Concertos that have been so admired in her CD with Pappano .

This is true mastery where art conceals art .

She joins that select group of women, Rosalyn Tureck, Tatyana Nikolaeva and ,Angela Hewitt who have made the Goldbergs their own.

Hats off to Benedetto Lupo who has been her guide and mentor from her early beginnings in Puglia a land blessed by the Gods indeed.

Lecce the wonderful spanish baroque city known in fact as the Florence of the south .

Interesting to note that pulling out my score of the Kirkpatrick edition a programme fell out of another memorable performance .

That of Rosalyn Tureck in 1972 when she played the Goldbergs twice in the same evening at the Festival Hall in London . First on the harpsichord and second after an hour interval,on the piano.

Interesting to note in her programme notes: The justifiable performance of Bach on the piano is conditioned by the usage of pianistic devices.This instrument,known by Bach in its early stage,has evolved through several centuries ,its style changing with each era. It is capable of many styles of sonority and technique. If played ” pianistically”,meaning 19th and early 20th century style,it is anachronistic.

However,in performing Bach on the piano I do not play the instrument in this former pianistic style.

I employ an entirely different technique and touch.

Music and instrument treated with respect and knowledgeable art,the integrity of the music should stand,retaining its clarity,its structure and its infinite significance to the human spirit.

Rosalyn who repeated the Goldbergs in my theatre in Rome in 1991 after a twenty years absence fom public performances to enable her to concentrate entirely on her studies of Bach in Oxford. Known by Harold Schonberg as the ” High Priestess of Bach” and as Artur Rubinstein quipped: “Tureck made Bach box office” .

I am sure if they were looking on tonight they would have a wry knowledgeable smile on their lips as they saw how this vast public devoured the performance of the young lady in the flame red dress.

Paolo Restani at Viterbo University today for Prof Franco Ricci’s Saturday Concert Series.

It was in 1980 when I drove the car to Naples from Circeo where I was on holiday on the chance finally of listening to the masterclass of Vincenzo Vitale at the Villa Pignatelli.

A legendary name as was that of Vincenzo Scaramuzza who transferred to South America where he founded the famous school that has produced such artists as Martha Argerich,Nelson Freire and Bruno Leonardo Gelber. All with its origins in the famous Neapolitan School of piano playing of Florestano Rossomandi Vincenzo Vitale his teachings of piano technique as that of Pierre Sancan would be discussed at length by us students. Vitale whose students included Bruno Canino , Michele Campanella,Laura de Fusco,Carlo Bruno,Francesco Nicolosi,Sandro De Palma,Franco Medori and Riccardo Muti amongst many other brilliant pianists. The fifteen year old student playing a fabulous “Feux Follets”,one of the most tortuous pieces by Liszt, was Paolo Restani who I was listening to today thirty eight years later.

Vincenzo Vitale students are immediately recognisable by the crisp clear,clean use of the fingers like perfect little hammers somewhat to the exclusion of the warm rich natural sound of the Matthay school. Of course technique is only a means to an end as the superlative musicianship of Canino is testimony.

Strangely enough Vincenzo Vitale,a former student of Alfred Cortot,only spoke of musical matters in his masterclass.Obviously preferring to talk about technical matters in the privacy of his studio

Paolo Restani presented a programme in Viterbo showing off the glorification of the Vitale school of highly professional piano playing glorified in fact in Michele Campanella’s 50 anniversary this season in the University Season. A programme based on short virtuosi studies and preludes obviously with the Viterbo public also in mind. The three largest pieces were in fact Debussy L’Isle joyeuse the Chopin A flat Polonaise and the Liszt Spanish Rhapsody. Passing through a selection of Rachmaninov Preludes op 32 and some Chopin and Liszt studies.

All played with an ease on a piano that was rather too small to accommodate such an overpowering technique. Some beautiful moments though in Chopin’s op posth Nocturne and Debussy’s suggestive “La plus que lent”.Not always following the composers markings though most notably in Chopin’s “Revolutionary “study where the dramatic difference between forte and piano was not put in evidence also some ingenious fingerings that were certainly not Chopin’s!

All presented with a conviction though and sense of communication that held his audience spell bound until the ovation at the end. A generous encore of the Liszt Rigoletto paraphrase that I had just read on a quick visit into the centre of Viterbo that the Verdi opera was presented due to Papal censorship under the different name of Triboletto in the beautiful Teatro dell’Unione, another of Italy’s beautiful theatres the opens and closes with alarming regularity.

A mad dash to the station at the end by this Lisztian figure who had so captivated the Viterbese public to catch his last train back to the Eternal city where he repeats the programme tomorrow.

Interesting concert at my local conservatory in Latina

Maurizio Bignardelli a distinguished professor for 23 years at Latina Conservatory and a curriculum full of important engagements. It is nice to think that one of those concerts was in the Ghione theatre almost thirty years ago.When a brilliant young flautist was keen on making his debut in Rome . Maria Paola Manzi a student of our much missed Lya De Barberiis. Now also a distinguished teacher in her own right. How many musicians have been formed by the remarkable Lya De Barberiis with whom I had a piano duo for many years until her death a few years ago when she was well into her 90’s An interesting programme to say the least introduced in a very informative  and professional way by one of Maurizio’s prize students,Emanuele Demartis.

Sonatas for flute and piano by two names that have passed into history as the finest piano virtuosi of their day:Robert Casadesus and Walter Gieseking

Who could have imagined that I would have to come to Latina to hear the Sonata op18 by Casadesus and the Sonatina 1937 by Gieseking

Impeccable performances from two fine musicians before an attentive audience completed with Drei Tanz Improvisationen and the famous Strauss transcription of Standchen for solo piano that gave the flautist time to prepare between the two very complex sonatas. Nice to think that the fine formation of these musicians is now allowing them to share this serious ,inquisitive musicianship in smaller venues throughout Italy via the smaller but no less important Conservatories that abound in Italy.

Latina Conservatory that thanks to their enlightened and passionate musical staff can boast a Symphony Orchestra formed by the professors,professional musicians from Rome but above all the most talented students. Designed to give much needed orchestral experience to the highly trained students who are given the opportunity to play in the magnificent Teatro D’Annunzio.

A theatre built in the Mussolini era when workers were brought down from the venetian area to drain the Pontine marshes and transform them from malerial swamps into the most arable land capable of providing food for the nearby Rome. A theatre in the rationalist architecture that has become part of Italy’s artistic heritage. Also its heritage is the political bickering in these parts that means that this much needed theatre opens and shuts with alarming regularity. It reminds me of the Don Camillo books that I used to devour as a child in West London. Politics should never enter into this world but as Roman times onwards has taught us administration of public monies can lead to all sorts of temptations and misunderstandings. The prisons are filling with administrators that not always have the idea that public purse is for the welfare of the popolulation and not their own small world. Human nature does not change even in this beautiful unknown part of Italy “baciato dal sole”. In fact the ancient Romans were the first to take note as the ancient remains that abound in these parts can testify The next concert by the Latina Respighi Conservatory Orchestra is on the 17th March under its very fine conductor, formed at the school of the legendary Franco Ferrara,Benedetto Montebello. Lets hope the political bickering will have calmed down to allow this remarkable musical activity to continue and flourish. The summer has been taken up for the past fifty years since Menuhin and Szigeti found the beautiful hillside town of Sermoneta,with the masterclasses and concerts of the Pontine Festival by some of the finest musicians from Hollinger,Kempff,Rosen,Navarra,Filippini,Giuranna,Petracchi and Canino to Virsaladze in the present period . Sermoneta with the Caetani Castle where Liszt used to come to discuss composition with the composer Roffredo Caetani .

Liszt’s piano is still in the historic world famous gardens of Ninfa at the foot of Sermoneta . Sir William Walton and his wife Susanna used to pass by regularly on the way to their home on Ischia to admire and copy these gardens justly famous world wide as the Waltons gardens at la Mortella have since become The hills around here are certainly abounding with the “Sound of Music”.

Murray Perahia in Rome tonight. A long awaited return with a recital of Bach BWV.817,Schubert D.935 Mozart and Beethoven op 111.

It was in 1972 that Murray Perahia took Leeds by storm with his poetic accounts of Schumann’s Davidsbundler ,Mendelssohn’s Sonata op.106 and Chopin’s First Piano Concerto.

I well remember the excitement as a student when he substituted in Rome that same year his mentor Rudolf Serkin in a recital of the Brahms Violin Sonatas with Pina Carmirelli in the  historic Sala dei Greci of the Conservatory. Even more engraved in my memory was his memorable accounts of the Schumann Fantasie and the Liszt Spanish Rhapsody many years later also in Rome in the Teatro Olimpico in his so called Horowitz period.

Celebrated worldwide for his rigorous musicianly accounts of the great masters this poet of the piano can shed new light on the most well known works in the piano repertoire.

So tonight it was a very welcome surprise for me to find that instead of the promised  “Hammerklavier” sonata – a magisterial account had just been heard at the Barbican in London and a new recording is imminent – we were to hear ,what for me is a new addition to his repertoire, Beethoven’s last sonata op 111.

A magisterial interpretation indeed that just missed that frenzied appassionate approach of Serkin that I remember so well from an unforgettable performance at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Maestoso indeed with the imperious opening bars which for me could have had more shape from mezzoforte leading to fortissimo although the final arrival was quite overwhelming .The short piano chords were rather lacking in weight for my taste but obviously he was thinking of wind instruments rather that strings .

Here was the same sense of sturm und drang though that I remember so well from his Hammerklavier fugue in London recently.

But here in this op.111 there was not quite yet the desperate frenzy that Serkin had been able to convey.

These are obviously early days for what will become one of the legendary interpretations of this elusive work.

The second movement played with all the orchestral colours that are necessary to give this work its strong masculine unsentimental character right from the seemingly simple Adagio molto semplice e cantabile.

The rhythmic build up was very impressive and totally convincing leading to the central outburst that can rarely have been given such an architectural sweep from the bass upwards .

The theme seeming to disintegrate before reappearing triumphantly on an inexorable wave that Perahia maintained in a very impressive unsentimental curve never lacking though in great inner passion .

Surely this is the very essence of these last utterings of Beethoven with the frustration of struggling with his deafness and seeming to totally ignore the limitations of the piano pushing it to its very limit in a revolutionary way.

The final appearance of the theme on a sustained trill, while not allowing the rhythmic impulse to lack for a second ,brought this performance to a very impressive ending.

I am sure in the series of performances that are surely planned that a true auror of sonorous magic will surround what is architecturally and musically already a very remarkable performance .

Perhaps it was a mistake to open the second half with the Rondo in A minor by Mozart.

Beautifully played ,of course ,but listening tonight it was obvious that even if op. 111 only lasts half the time of the Hammerklavier it is such a final statement that it needs to stand like a great monument in its own ground.

The first half consisted of Bach’s 6th French Suite .

Perahia has created a Bach style all his own that owes nothing to Schiff,Tureck, Gould or anyone else.

It is full of the most subtle character .Always in style and with great taste but with such a variety of colour and rhythm that it is quite extraordinary to behold .He almost convinces us that Bach must have envisaged this very instrument .

The well known Schubert Impromptus op 142 showed off all of the qualities that have made Perahia one of the rare musicians these days that one can really trust to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.

He can make such a well known score re-live, finding details that seem to have been overlooked by so many other lesser interpreters.

The wonderful shaping and colours.

The sense of charm and and passion when required.

A sense of giving new life to such well known pieces by delving into the score with the eyes of a superlative intelligent thinking musician but always with the heart of a poet.

This is what makes Perahia one of the most interesting musicians before the public today. No encores possible after Beethoven’s last utterings although the numerous public flocked to the Parco della Musica in the Roman rain to hear this great pianist in Rome at last would have gladly sat through the other 31 Beethoven Sonatas.

Lets hope S.Cecilia will have learnt its lesson and not wait another 20 years before reinviting Perahia back to the Eternal City.