Mese: gennaio 2019

This morning in Padua….what a way to start the day on Mozart`s birthday.

A young Italo/Australian pianist makes his Padua debut in the Sunday morning series dedicated to talented young musicians.

Jonathan Ferrucci , a young Florentine who had completed his studies recently with Joan Havill at the Guildhall in London.He had been heard by Noretta Conci-Leech and her husband John Leech in the Wigmore Hall and on their recommendation had applied to The Keyboard Charitable Trust who today presented him to the Amici della Musica in Padua.

The Amici della Musica hold concerts in the Pollini Conservatory Hall and in the historic Sala dei Giganti where I brought Vlado Perlemuter and Annie Fischer in the ‘80’s.

Filippo Juvarra is still at the helm of the Amici della Musica di Padova after 50 years of inviting the finest musicians to his adored Padua.

In fact Christian Zacharias had just played a few days before in his annual recital and one of his rare appearances these days as a solo pianist.

He was a student of Perlemuter who thought the world of him.

But for three seasons now the Amici della Musica have also dedicated a special sunday morning series to talented young Italian musicians.

Filippo asks me every year who we have on the roster of the The Keyboard Charitable Trust (of which I am a trustee and artistic director together with Leslie Howard and Dr Elena Vorotko) that he could include.

He chooses one from our list of Italian pianists.

Emanuel Rimoldi and André Gallo have had great success in the past two seasons.

Giganti is exactly the right word for what we heard today in a hall where all the greatest pianists have left their indelible shadow.

Richter loved to prepare his programmes here before recording them in nearby Mantua.

Today it was the turn of a young man of slight build who gave one of the finest performances I have ever heard in public of the 24 Preludes op 28 by Chopin,or in Fou Ts’ongs words the 24 problems!

Preceded by the Bach 4th Partita so full of colour and imagination one just wished he could have taken more time on his miraculous voyage for us mortals to savour all the refined nuances and his supremely intelligent musicianship,as one would expect from a student of Joan Havill who can boast also Paul Lewis from her unique studio at the Guildhall in London.

I had heard Jonathan Ferrucci a few times at the Guildhall in a masterclass with Murray Perahia and at his Wigmore debut as winner of the Jaques Samuel Intercollegiate Competition.

I had missed him at the actual competition as he was the first to perform at 10 am and I was late!

But a great friend and much missed colleague Peter Uppard told me I had missed a superb performance and the actual final winner.

But recently I had heard part of his Artists Diploma public recital and had been bowled over by his performance of the C sharp minor five part fugue Bk 1 by Bach. https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/miracles-at-the-guildhall-ming-xie-and-jonathan-ferrucci/10155795520292309/

Joan Havill was pleasantly surprised by my enthusiasm as was Martin Roscoe and Ronan O’Hora who were adjudicating.

He was of course awarded his Artists Diploma and tells me that now he has a special fellowship to come to the Guildhall whenever his calendar will permit.

He recently took part in Richard Goode’s masterclass playing the 4th Partita that we were to hear in Padua.

It was interesting to learn from his psychotherapist, philosopher father that he was born in Florence and had studied for ten years with a remarkable teacher Giovanni Carmassi before coming to London to complete his studies with Joan Havill .

I remember when I too was studying in Italy with Agosti and spending much time with another remarkable but almost unknown Florentine musician :Giorgio Sacchetti.

World fame is not for the true Florentine and I can quite understand after living in Florence that the outside world is of little importance compared to what this city has to offer true artists both past and present.

Hardly suprising that Andras Schiff and Zubin Mehta have made their homes here for years!

Sting is often seen on visits from his nearby estate.

Jonathan’s father ,having just arrived from Australia for this recital , made a present of the book “A pianist prepares” which after the performances in Padua I was very keen to read.(Jonathan’s father is  Torinese living in Florence and his mother Vivien Reid is Australian both of whom have been fundamental in preparing this book “Conversations with Giovanni Carmassi”)

Just opening the first pages was enough to see where the extraordinary talent of this young man was born and nurtured

“Don’t waste notes “immediately sprang into view and it was this that was so evident in the recital today.”Passion for music is a nasty illness”……….”Each note counts because the tiniest part of a musical piece holds a gem. “

A true bible for real musicians.

Jonathan Ferrucci is now being helped by some of the finest musicians of our day and regularly plays to Angela Hewitt and Richard Goode having first been drawn into the fray by the indomitable Joan Havill.

“You will have to eat a lot of steaks “ said Joan on hearing that he wanted to prepare Brahms 2.He has since been coached on it by Richard Goode in New York who generously gave of his time to someone so talented.

Jonathan tells me he does yoga six times a week and travels with his special rug.

Also it is evident from the way that he uses his whole body that he has the same energy of tension in relaxation that kept Rubinstein and Perlemuter on the stage until their 90’s.

His father tells me he has no alternative plan for his life …it is this all or nothing passion that kept the audience riveted to their seats for much more than the expected hour of music.

In fact the chimes of the great bells in Padua started to peal as he threw himself into the 16th Prelude in B flat minor.No one in the hall was aware of any distraction other than the music that was unfolding before us in this magnificent hall of Giants.

It reminds me of Perlemuter giving a masterclass at the RAM in the Heath period of strikes (novita!).I had just played op 111 and he was demonstrating to a rather over careful student this very prelude.

Whilst playing the lights went out but this great pianist already in his late 70’s carried on in darkness to the end.It has gone down in history and his companion Joan Booth loved to remind me of this unforgettable occasion.

It seems above all irrelevant but also irreverent to talk about the performances that we heard today.

As Carmassi says………”The bewitching power of music may be partly lost in an age when works of art can be technically reproduced ….but though it may be useful and instructive to listen to a recording,it will be a pale copy.It is the difference between a living person and his photograph”

It was refreshing to see a pianist so much part of the music he was playing.

Almost sculpting in the supple body movements that followed so naturally the shape of the music that was unfolding.

Even standing to give more impetus and energy and the final three notes of Chopin’s last Prelude were hurled at us like stones into the fray.

The first notes of the Bach Partita immediately commanded our attention and the rhythmic impetus was set with a beautiful change of register or tone colour in the 9/8 section that follows.

The Allemande was shaped so beautifully and the heartrending ornaments that Bach himself notates reminded me of a phrase of Cortot that Perlemuter wrote in my score of the 4th Ballade of Chopin all those years ago:” avec un sentiment de regret”.

Such was his identification with this sound world there were “no wasted notes here”.

In fact he has that God given gift to make each note speak as I have experienced only in the same measure with Menahem Pressler and Graham Johnson recently.

The Courante I found a shade too fast even though written in 3/2 .It lacked that insistant pulse that Rosalyn Tureck was a true master of.

Jonathan tells me that Richard Goode suggested an even faster tempo than todays.Maybe in a less resonant hall he is right but the pulse must always be unrelenting.(The many times that Rosalyn came to Rome I always had to provide a metronome for her to keep her enormous temperament under control!)

Angela Hewitt an Richard Goode I know think of the song and the dance element in Bach but anyone who had heard Tureck would realise why Harold Shonberg called her the High Priestess of Bach and why Rubinstein quipped that Tureck made Bach box office!

The wonderful thing with truly great compositions is that there is room for so many possibilities -no photographs here- to quote Carmassi.

Rosalyn put Bach on a pedestal and Angela and Richard brought him down to earth.

A very nice contrast was found with a perfect tempo for the Aria played in true spirit “giocoso”.

Beautiful tone and great sense of balance in the Sarabande that follows.

A crystal clear Menuet that led straight into the Gigue.

Played with great rhythmic impetus but again for this hall I found it a little too fast.

Wonderfully played of course, it’s transcendental difficulties completely mastered – for me it just needed a little more weight to end such an imposing work.

The Chopin Preludes op 28 was one of the finest most convincing performances that I have heard in the concert hall.

From the flexibility of the opening to digging deep into the bass of the second and the washes of sound in the third Prelude over which the melodic line could ride so undisturbed.

A series of tone poems but each with the great overall shape in mind.

The aristocratic sounds from the bass in the well known fourth and the fifth that seemed to slip in almost unnoticed.

Great sense of balance in the Lento assai of number six where the balance between the left hand melodic line and the almost yearning right was absolutely perfect.

The little Andantino that follows could have been played more simply before the superb outburst of the Molto agitato that is the eighth.

This and the twelfth in G sharp minor showed a total command of the keyboard that allowed him to plunge the very depths of these trascendentally difficult preludes.

The tenth and eleventh were thrown off with all the ease of someone who knew that this was a light contrast between Chopin’s most passionate outpourings.

The thirteenth in F sharp I found the left hand a little too unsettled to allow the melodic line to be shaped undisturbed.Similar to the C sharp minor nocturne op 27 this I am sure is what Chopin meant when he said rubato was like a tree with well planted roots but branches that could sway in the wind

The fourteenth like the end of the B flat minor sonata was like a rush of wind before the sublime “raindrop” Prelude.

Beautiful cantabile and wonderful shape to the embellishments .The question and answer in the central section was quite overpowering .Not quite as much as Sokolov but much more integrated into Jonathan’s vision of the complete work.

The Presto con fuoco was thrown off as a true virtuoso.

With the bells of Padua chiming nothing could stop this young man having entered so completely into this magic world and taking us with him.

The great bass notes in the A flat Prelude that follows was played like Debussy creating a most telling haze from which we could hear the melody from afar.Not the usual sforzando that lesser artists are apt to offer.

Showing some signs of the fatigue that he was beginning to feel having given such extraordinarily involved performances at eleven in the morning.

The great drama of number eighteen awakened his spirit with the end in sight.

Not before plunging into the twentieth in C minor the first chord taken almost standing to get deeper into the very soul of the notes that disappeared so magically to a whisper.

The great drama of the octaves in the molto agitato after the delicate cantabile of the twenty first.

The liquid trickle of water leading into the most tumultuous final Prelude .Hurling himself into this final fray.Hurling the final three great notes at the piano like rocks to the wind.

A quite remarkable performance that showed off not only his transcendental technique which we were not even made aware of such was his poetic and musical involvement.And above all a musical intelligence that had us following every note in hushed silence.

Scriabin’s little prelude op 9 for the left hand alone was his way of thanking us for the total concentration that we had all shared with him.

Waiting for il Maestro of Maestros

A true master…….a line stretched and shaped as only a true master who dares to mount the tightrope can do.

A Haydn where every note spoke so eloquently.

But I was not prepared for a Schubert played with such true understanding and masterly control of line and colour.

He risked everything to transport us into the sublime world of the true Schubert of the lieder with a voice that was every bit as eloquent and moving as Fischer Dieskau.

Lucky people of Padua and what better way to share the terrible memory of this day in 1944.Five years before Petrushansky was born.

Greeted by an equally ecstatic Federico Colli and Leonora Armellini both distinguished disciples of this true Master as I ran with heavy heart for the train Just sorry that the last train out of Padua for Rome is at 20.10 and robbed me of the Prokofiev War Sonata n.6 which I heard him passing over just before the concert.

A standing ovation I am told by Lorella Armellini (the driving force behind so much music in Padua, with her husband ,director of the Conservatory and their daughter Leonora Armellini ,a true star amongst young pianists) with three encores including La Campanella and one of Tchaikowsky’s Stagioni

Better than nothing but I shall be first in the queue for any future performances.

He and Virsaladze are all that remains of the wonderful world that Neuhaus created.

Petrushansky was the last pupil of Neuhaus and although Virsladze did not study with him she was highly admired by his greatest disciple Sviatoslav Richter.

Could there be a better recommendation than that.

“Ilya is a gem….No matter how many years go by I will always remember his performance .He is a natural beast..” Yvonne Georgiadou Artistic director of the Pharos Arts Foundation in Cyprus.

The start of the Keyboard Charitable Trust 2019 annual tour of Italy.

The tour started in Venice at the Goethe Institute for the three concerts that make up part of AGIMUS Padova organised for many a year by Elia Modenese and his wife Elisabetta Gesuato.Concerts that include Palazzo Albrizzi in Venice,Palazzo Zacco-Armeni in Padua and the Sala dei Specchi of the Ritz Hotel in Abano Terme.

Moving on to the magnificent Teatro Comunale di Vicenza for the Incontro con la tastiera organised by Mariantonietta Righetto Squeglia and her daughter Raffaella.

It then moved on to Rome for a concert in the beautiful 300 year old Oratorio dell ‘Angelo Custode ,just a stones’ throw from the Trevi Fountains .

A benefit concert for the hospitals in Benin and the Ivory Coast opened by the missionary cardiologist Dr Vicenzo Mallamaci “Ti porto in Africa”-Onlus.

A very fine new Yamaha piano donated for the occasion by Alfonsi who I have known for the past 40 years …his daughter,who was present, now runs the well known business for her 92 year old father.

A live radio broadcast the next day for Radio 3 Suite directed by Stefano Roffi who wrote after the broadcast:”Many ,many thanks to you and Ilya.A great performance ,a chance for me to do a good job and do something good for the sake of music”

A final concert in Viterbo for the season of the Tuscia University directed by Prof. Franco Carlo Ricci in the Auditorium di S.Maria Gradi .

A programme dedicated to two of the greatest figures of the Romantic period both of whom were fundamental in establishing the solo piano as the supreme medium in the concert hall.Advancing the technical demands of the player with music that combined both poetry and virtuosity and advanced the possibility of the piano to express the utmost varieties of atmosphere and feelings via a wooden box of hammers and strings.To which, in Anton Rubinstein’s own words,the pedals became the very soul of the piano.

It was this world that Ilya Kondratiev shared with us on his Italian tour.

Starting his programme quite unusually but to great effect with the Polonaise “Heroique” op 53 by Chopin.It opened a first half of all Chopin continuing with the early four mazukas op 24 and the First and Third Scherzi.

The second half was dedicated to a single work of Liszt the 2nd Book of his Years of Pilgrimage.A year spent in Italy with Marie D’Agoult with whom the young romantic virtuoso had eloped fleeing Paris and scandal to be with the eventual mother of his two children.They were joined by Georges Sand who became the great love of Frederic Chopin.

“Following the tragic death of her daughter Louise, Marie d’Agoult found herself pregnant with Franz Liszt’s child. Since she was still married to Charles d’Agoult, it was impossible to stay in Paris. She wrote her husband in May 1835, telling him that their marriage was over. “When fate has joined two people as different as we are in mind and temperament, the constant effort and sacrifices made on both sides only serve to deepen the abyss between. I ask for your forgiveness on Luise’s grave. Your name will never leave my lips except when uttered with the respect and esteem which your character deserves. As for me, I ask only for your silence in the face of the world which is going to overwhelm me with insults.”

In order to avoid the scandal, which was hardly possible, the lovers made secret arrangements to elope to Switzerland. Parisian society was dumbfounded that a very prominent and beautiful Comtesse should leave her husband for a traveling pianist, and in the public eye the whole affair was branded a flagrant case of abduction.”

In 1836, George Sand arrived with her traveling companion Major Adolphe Pictet, and the couples toured Switzerland on mules. When they arrived in Chamonix, Liszt filled in the hotel registry as such: “Place of birth-Parnassus; Profession-Musician/Philosopher; Coming from-Doubt; Journeying towards-Truth.” Sand in turn wrote: Occupation-Loafer, Date of Passport-Eternity; Issued by-Public Opinion. Sand had always had amorous intentions towards Franz, and apparently towards Marie as well. All we know for sure is that Sand described themselves as “galley-slaves of love who don’t know the value of any chain.” Shortly thereafter, Liszt performed in Paris, and the friendship/affair between Marie and George rapidly turned to hate.”

Ilya Kondratiev’s tour programme consisted of Chopin :Polonaise op 53,4 Mazurkas op 24,Scherzo n.3 op 39 and n.1 op 20. – Deuxieme annee de pelerinage :Sposalizio,Il penseroso,Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa,Sonetti del Petrarca 47,104,123 and Apres une lecture de Dante – Fantasia quasi Sonata.

A strange choice to start with the Chopin A flat Polonaise but in Ilya’s hands it worked perfectly as an opening piece for his all Chopin first half.

It was played with the same simplicity that Rubinstein used to bring to this much played work that in the wrong hands can become a bed of rhetoric and bad taste.

Here there was a complete adherance to the composers indications with a sense of rhythm and line that left no room for the usual empty showmanship that this work can suffer from .

The left hand octaves were played like wind passing over the plain with just a slight crescendo that gave it such a telling shape and the right hand melodic line shaped with a true legato that did not have to do battle with the left hand as is so often the case.

The beautiful final melodic section before the coda reminded me of the Polonaise Fantasie where Chopin almost brings the music to a sublime halt with such subtle telling rubato before reigniting the forces and bringing the work to an ever more exciting conclusion.

The four early mazukas were played with a very telling rubato and sense of colour that was quite mesmerising.I begin to understand that the mazurka cannot be taught but has to be in your blood as it obviously was with Chopin with his nostalgic yearning for his homeland.

The clarity and sheer virtuosity that Ilya brought to the Scherzi has been mentioned in the review from Vicenza and it was also remarked on with great admiration by the director of the Rai 3 Programme.

The third scherzo was not only played with great rhythmic impetus but the filigree comments to the great chorale like melody were quite ravishing and even more so for maintaining the same tempo which gave a great sense of line to the interruptions or rather comments of the melodic line that Chopin is asking for.

Such delicacy and precision were indeed like jewels gleeming in Ilya’s hands.

I have never heard the first Scherzo played with such precision but also with such harmonic shape and the beautiful Polish folk song in the central section was most beautifully shaped with a sumptuously rich sound which was especially beautiful on the Bosendorfer in Vicenza.

The coda was indeed exciting and the weight,precision and shaping was of a true virtuoso but above all musician.

It brought the first half of the programme to a truly exhilarating end.

It was refreshing to hear the 2nd Book of Annee de Pelerinage complete.

The Dante Sonata is a regular visitor to concert programmes as is the Sonetto del Petrarca 104 but the other pieces are quite rare additions to programmes.

“Sposalizio” , inspired by the painting in Milan of Raffaello Sanzio ,is a very fine work on a par with Liszt’s better known “Benediction de Dieu dans la Solitude.”

In Ilya’s hands it was played with a very delicate and ravishing sense of colour leading to an overwhelming climax of transcendental difficulty with double octaves in the left hand as an accompaniment to the melodic line in the right.

An extraordinary performance with the delicate shimmering ending closing so beautifully this perfect gem of the miniature tone poem that it so obviously is.

It had Stefano Roffi of the Rai searching for more information on his computer.

“The penseroso” was played with all  the weight and seriousness that it demands .”The Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa” was played with the same wit that we normally associate with Percy Grainger.

A very strict rhythmic pulse kept the work joyfully alive to the last note.

The three Sonetti di Petrarca were played with an exquisite range of colour that sustained and allowed the melodic line to be shaped so expressively.A wonderful sense of balance between the hands and embelishments that were incorporated into the melodic line as only a true musician knows how.

This led into a magnificent performance of the Dante Sonata.

It was refreshing to note that with each performance it grew in stature until the final performance in Viterbo was quite overwhelming.

A wonderful theatricality just as Liszt himself might have performed it.

A great sense of drama and of course quite extraordinary technical control.

The Andante” quasi improvisato dolcissimo con intimo sentimento” was just that and the audience had to almost strain to overhear the secret confessions that Liszt confides.

The end of this passage after the recitativo where the keyboard seems to suddenly come alive, always in pianissimo, was pure magic with sounds in the middle register of the piano with the shimmering awakening of the right hand that I have never heard played so beautifully.

This combined with pyrotechnic feats of piano playing brought a standing ovation from a public totally captivated by this extraordinary work in the hands of a true artist.

Ilya maintained this magic with the etherial web of Gretchen Am Spinnrade in a quite extraordinary performance with the same the subtelty of the pianists of the past  “Golden Era” of piano playing.

This transcription by Liszt of Schubert was Ilya’s way of thanking his public on this tour where he seminated such sparkling jewels from his magic carpet that swept him from Venice to Rome in the space of only one week.

Superb review from Vicenza in english translation

The young russian pianist opened the 2019 season of “Incontro sulla tastiera” Kondratiev technically perfect in Chopin but more convincing when playing Liszt The musician reveals great technical ease with his pyrotecnic showmanship. Eva Purell VICENZA Sometimes a detail can make all the difference.Like the two red socks of Soviet effect that were worn with graceful ease by a virtuoso of the keyboard who had demonstrated not only a tendency for theatricality but also remarkable interpretative insights. On the other hand the concert for the “Incontro sulla Tastiera”that opened the new season of 2019 was organised in partnership with “The Keyboard Charitable Trust of London”,an established preparation on the International music scene that is recognised as one of the finest.Founded and directed by the pianist Noretta Conci, formerly Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli’s assistant,and her husband John Leech.The Trust has as its main aim to help greatly talented young pianists by giving them important platforms and opportunities world wide. Thanks to this partnership in Vicenza with the “Incontro” presided over by Enrico Hullweck and directed by Mariantonietta Righetto Squeglia we have been able to appreciate many highly talented pianists. This year on Tuesday evening in the “Ridotto” of the Teatro Comunale it was the turn of the 31 year old Russian pianist Ilya Kondratiev.The biography of this young “dandyish” pianist showed his predilection ,which was well demonstrated, for Franz Liszt, the inventor of the piano as we know it today. The recital of Kondratiev opened with the Chopin Polonaise known as the “Heroique”,that for many is “THE” polonaise of Chopin as if he had not written any others.It is a work that suffers from its own popularity,that in every interpretation it can seem to be a rather overplayed showpiece and the Russian pianist did not shy away from the technical demands either. It is probably the Mazukas,more than the Polonaises ,in Chopin that express his love and longing for his homeland and are his most authentic testimony. The Russian in the first half of his programme dedicated to Chopin the four Mazukas op 24 amongst the least dense of the complete set.Adding to this hommage the Scherzo n.1 op 20 in B minor and n.3 op 39 in C sharp minor showing off all his technical baggage,in parts with a crystal clear clarity almost like in Scarlatti His touch was both refined and varied helped by the warm sound of a dear old friend that is Bosendorfer of which the listeners ears are not as accustomed as they are to the full and brilliant sound of a Steinway.A particular choice that was made by the interpreter which showed remarkable originality. From the expressive confessions of Chopin in the first part,Kondratiev passes to the virtuosistic showmanship and the full ,rhythmic sounds of Liszt.”Years of Pilgrimage Book 2” with his impressions after his travels in Italy.And with this interpretation our Russian is really convincing showing off his technical ease with a kaleidoscopic palate of sounds and loving contrasts especially in the Petrarc Sonnets . A brilliant performance greeted by an ovation from the numerous public present. As a thank you for a beautiful concert dedicated by the Incontro to the memory of the business woman Fernanda Muraro Detto,Ilya offered the Liszt transcription of a Lied by Schubert”Gretchen am Spinnrade.”

It was only a few months ago that Janina made her miraculous come back to the concert stage in London and here she is back again to open the Master Series in Kings Place.

Having repeated a few days earlier her performance of the Paderewski Piano Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic this time in Poland.

A performance we had heard at the Barbican last November when it was also broadcast live on the BBC.

Peter Frankl had been present at the Barbican and exclaimed in a simple late night E mail after the concert : “Wonderful playing by Janina. Such a natural musician, a real artist! Good night.”

Menahem Pressler had heard it on the radio from Bloomington in Indiana.

A very full St James’s Piccadilly today for the annual birthday concert of that true polyhedric renaissance man that is Alberto Portugheis.

Alberto has dedicated his life to searching for peace and filling our lives with beauty instead of war.

He has written books on lasting world peace and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.

”The Game of War”,”A Path to Peace” and” $$$$$$$In their hearts” give us some idea of the passionate campaign that this man is still waging at the age of 77.

In fact Alberto dedicates much time and energy to campaigning for lasting World Peace through the organisation that he presides,HUFUD(Humanity United for Universal Demilitarisation ) of which the Honorary President is his lifelong friend Martha Argerich.

Who would not remember their 75th Birthday that they celebrated together in a concert at the Wigmore Hall?

Alberto is also a master chef and was well known for his radio programmes of musical menus.

He even opened a restaurant with Martha Argerich in West Kensington called “Rhapsody” that many famous musicians used to appreciate including their great friend Shura Cherkassky.

But above all Alberto Portugheis is an acclaimed musician since winning the first prize at the Geneva Concours de Virtuosite.

With many distinguished recordings to his name of amongst others: Chopin 4 Ballades,Ginastera Complete Piano Works,Khachaturian Piano Concerto with the LSO together with the complete works for piano .

His latest CD is dedicated to the Complete Works of the Spanish Composer Elena Romero.

And so it was today that Alberto shared with us a lifetimes’ love of Schumann with “His Favourite Schumann” which included Papillons op 2,Toccata op 7 and Carnival Jest of Vienna op 26.

Played with the passion of someone who has lived with and loved this music for a lifetime.

This was “old syle “ playing in which the overall line and musical message was of paramount importance.

Any smudged details or imperfections were a small price to pay for the love and passion that shone through today in the hands of this truly Renaissance Man.

Happy Birthday dear Alberto we owe you a lot .

It was nice to hear Hao Zi Yoh again at St Martin in the Fields in the centre of London.

I have heard and admired her playing many times in Italy and in London as you can see from my previous thoughts above.

She was born in in Malaysia in 1995 and after her early successful studies there moved to Germany to study in Freiburg and completed her studies at the Royal Academy in London with Christopher Elton.

A very full audience with many distinguished guests including the founders of The Keyboard Charitable Trust:Noretta Conci-Leech and her husband John Leech.