Mese: marzo 2019

An extraordinary debut recital by this 21 year old winner of the Jaques Samuel Intercollegiate Piano Competition .

I was at the final of the competition last November when this young man amongst some very fine contestants took us all by storm with a sensational account of Rachmaninov’s Sonata in B flat minor.

We saw each other again when he was in the audience for the extraordinary recital at the Chopin Society of his present teacher Dmitri Alexeev at the RCM in London.

I remember Craig Sheppard telling me about this remarkable young man when still in his teens he won the International Piano Competition in Seattle.

He has much in common with his mentor with his total involvement when he is seated at the piano and great sense of balance and colour.

A technique that like Alexeev knows no boundaries and is at the service of their search for the true musical meaning of the works that they transmit so fervently to us.

An notable achievement is how Dr Hugh Mather described Julian Trevelyan’s Diabelli Variations today.

Miracles do not happen every day but I am certain that today we were all hypnotised by this extraordinary first outing of Beethoven’s final thoughts for the piano.

It will now grow even more in stature until Julian has the courage to abandon the written score and enter even more fully into Beethoven`s universe with the same frenzy and total dedication of Rudolf Serkin in his unforgettable performances of op.106 and 120 in the RFH in the early 70’s.Alfred Brendel too was unforgettable.

A performance marked by the great rhythmic energy from the first to the last note of a fifty minute span in which all the range of emotions were exposed in one of Beethoven’s last works for piano.

Later in op 126 the same emotions were filtered and distilled as he had indicated already in these 33 variations on the simple little waltz by Anton Diabelli.

The 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120, was written between 1819 and 1823 and is considered to be one of the greatest sets of variations for keyboard along with Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

Donald Tovey called it “the greatest set of variations ever written”.

Alfred Brendel has described it as “the greatest of all piano works”.

It also comprises, in the words of Hans von Bülow, “a microcosm of Beethoven’s art”.

In Beethoven: The Last Decade 1817–1827, Martin Cooper writes, “The variety of treatment is almost without parallel, so that the work represents a book of advanced studies in Beethoven’s manner of expression and his use of the keyboard, as well as a monumental work in its own right”

( It is interesting to note that his daughter Imogen has just recorded the Diabelli on Chandos CHAN 2005 to great critical acclaim)

Arnold Schoenberg writes that the Diabelli Variations “in respect of its harmony, deserves to be called the most adventurous work by Beethoven”.

Beethoven’s approach to the theme is to take some of its smallest elements – the opening turn, the descending fourth and fifth, the repeated notes – and build upon them pieces of great imagination, power and subtlety.

Alfred Brendel wrote, “The theme has ceased to reign over its unruly offspring. Rather, the variations decide what the theme may have to offer them. Instead of being confirmed, adorned and glorified, it is improved, parodied, ridiculed, disclaimed, transfigured, mourned, stamped out and finally uplifted”

And so undaunted this young musician,Julian Trevelyan, approached for the first time in public this masterpiece trusting in Dr Mather’s discerning audience to find the right ears for the beginning of his great voyage of discovery.

It shows the great intellectual searching mind of this young pianist who has already taken the musical world by storm at the age of only 16 when he was the top prize winner in the Marguerite Long (Thibaud-Crespin) International Piano Competition in Paris.

Now at 19 and studying at Oxford he chooses to play this monumental work instead of the more usual fare of Liszt,Chopin,Rachmaninov that we are used to hearing from the young lions that roar at us from every angle of the planet.

Andras Schiff played both the Diabelli and Goldberg in his 60th birthday recital a few years ago.

It is a pure coincidence that this week in London he gave a revelatory account of the two Brahms concerti on a Bluthner of 1860,the same one that he uses for his most recent recording of the Diabelli variations.

A performance at once marked from the outset by a rhythmic drive that took us unrelentingly through the fifty minutes in which Beethoven spans all the human emotions via this disarmingly simple little waltz.

Great contrasts at once apparent between the maestoso Alla Marcia of the first variation and the lightweight scamperings of the second.All played with the minimum of pedal that allowed for great clarity of detail.Subtle shadings being made by his very sensitive touch.

The striking beauty of the following variations to the chorus of great trills in every part of the piano.Great contrast of dynamics with great foreward impetus in the 7th and the clarity and beautiful legato “dolce e teneramente” of the 8th.We were not spared Beethoven’s snarling acciacaturas and the technical precision of the 10th was breathtaking.

The delicate beseeching of the melodic line spread over the whole range of the keyboard was followed by some very telling finger legato which allowed the bass to become even more menacing.

The great Beethovenian contrasts were superbly realised in the following variation leading to the first of the most intense statements of number 14 which was played with great depth of feeling.

It is a profound statement that finds a parallel only in Bach’s great set of Variations dedicated to Goldberg.

A slight release of tension in the scherzando’s playful sense of rhythm before the great outburst and forward movement of the 16th and 17th. A great sense of mystery in the 18th before the superbly cascading notes of the 19th.The 20th so reminiscent of Beethovens last Sonata op 111 with his deepest anguished lament ending in paradise and superbly judged by Trevelyan.

The spell rudely awakened as always by Beethoven with the trills once again appearing all over the keyboard.

Beethoven at his most playful immediately followed by great feats of virtuosity with impertinant interruptions .Contrasting with the peace and pastoral feel of the fughetta.The bubbling left hand played all so clearly and leggiermente on which the chords were allowed to bounce so playfully.The beautiful liquid sounds “piacevole” leading to great feats of virtuosity and the angular chords played with an obtuse sense of bewilderment.

Gradually leading into the very heart of this work from variation 29.

I had admired so much Andre Tchaikowsky here in the way the very specifically marked rests were allowed to give a passionate almost gasping feel to this long sustained melodic line.

The most profound 31st variation so similar to the slow movement of the Hammerklavier in it’s almost Bellinian embellishments led to the frenzied outburts of the ferocious Fugato.

It was here that the animal like frenzy of Serkin will never be forgotten by all those that could feel the electricity generated by this simple professorial looking man.

It is impossible to abandon oneself to the animal like instincts and frustrations that Beethoven demands reading from the score.

The disarming innocense and eventual disintigration of Diabelli’s little melody in the final variation was superbly realised by Julian Trevelyan

I look forward to hearing Julian Trevelyan again in this work that will grow in stature and evolve as he too will as he learns to live with it.

The birth of the great artist he is revealing himself to be via living with these masterworks and sharing them with a world that awaits.

Two recitals by Bobby Chen on the 9th and 23rd March in Farm Street Church Mayfair.

It was great news to see that the superb recital by Bobby Chen of the 9th March was repeated on the 23rd with yet another programme .With short Lenten Reflections in both that just added to the beauty of what we were about to hear.

I have never seen a church so well kept and it is an absolute oasis of peace especially on Saturday the 23rd that was dedicated to the big BrExit !

A programme that included a Bach- Busoni transcription but also the famous transcription of Myra Hess “ Jesu Joy of man’s desiring.”

Liszt of course was present again with the great B minor Ballade.

But it was the opening work that took us by surprise with such a fresh and intelligently simple vision of the Beethoven Pathetique Sonata.

Simplicity is the hardest state to reach in Art especially in an area where all too many people have “trampled” before.

From the arresting opening where the rests play such an important part there was the freedom with which he descended to a completely new orchestral colour ,so rudely interrupted by Beethoven only to continue unperturbed on it’s journey.

There was all this and it was only the beginning of the moving story that Bobby was to recount.

A crystal clear Allegro molto in which the ornaments were so crisply played in answer to the questioning bass.In a true musicians hands even the most well known of pieces can be brought to life and made to speak anew.

The slow movement was allowed to sing thanks to his great sense of balance and the fact that it flowed in two even though Adagio.

The clarity and differentiation between the voices was remarkable and there was just enough give and take to make us feel that he was accompanying a singer and not just playing rather lazily a piano sonata.The Rondo showed off all his great attention to detail without loosing sight of the rhythmic energy that fills Beethoven’s early works.

A beautiful liquid sound was the hallmark of Myra Hess’s famous Bach transcription.Never forcing the tone but allowing this sublime melody to emerge so naturally.

Busoni’s sombre transcription of Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland BWV 659 was played with the true devotion of a believer.

In fact this is Bobby Chen’s church where he comes to worship every week.He is in good company as the founders of the Keyboard Charitable Trust have chosen this oasis too as their weekly shrine.

The Ballade in B minor by Liszt closed this short teatime concert and brought some sumptuous sounds from the piano with great feats of virtuosity.But always that of a musician totally in control as he recounted the great story of Hero and Leander that Liszt penned so magnificently in this miniature tone poem.

From the almost La Valse like rumble of the beginning with the beautiful liquidity of the alternating quiet episodes.The sublime melody in the middle register of the piano and the rumbustuous scales and chordal declamations were all perfectly judged and only made one wonder why this work is not more frequently heard in the concert hall.

Some superb playing on the 9th March from Bobby Chen in this wonderful church in the heart of Mayfair.Church of the Immaculate Conception known simply as Farm Street Church.

Surrounded by beautiful gardens, with the Connaught Hotel on its doorstep.And today a Maclaren casually parked outside

Inside a sumptuous feast of music for tea.

The two legends by Liszt so clearly played with a real sense of line and total commitment.You could almost see the birds of St Francis of Assisi and the total belief of St Francis of Paola traversing the waves.

It reminded me of Robert Levin in his residency at the Guildhall this week explaining that to play what the composer actually wrote really is the best option!

I have rarely heard these very beautiful pieces in the concert hall but a magical recording of Wilhelm Kempff has always remained in my heart.

A very fine new Yamaha allowed him to play the Petrarca sonnet 104 with such clarity and little pedal that allowed this most beautiful of sonnets to resound so impressively in this sumptuous haven that is Farm Street Church.

Busoni’s transcription of the organ prelude “Ich ruf’ zu dir,Herr Jesu Christ” was a wonderfully moving transition into the more bombastic world of the Bach Chaconne.

I have heard Bobby play this before in Perivale and it is a very musicianly reading.

Starting piano and finishing fortissimo but with the great organ bass notes that Agosti,a disciple of Busoni,was aghast at the bomb like treatment they are usually treated to by great “virtuosi”.

Here Agosti would have cheered the superb musicianship of Bobby.

He might not have been persuaded though by his romantic fluctuations in tempo as this was for him a true rock on which all music was constructed.

Infact he likened the penultimate of Schumann’s Etudes Symphoniques to a Gothic Cathedral.

But Agosti was not a true believer as Bobby obviously is.

For Agosti music was his God.

For Bobby music and God go together as they were today. Prefaced with short Lenten reflections that only added to the music that could continue where words are just not enough. The next tea-time concert is on Saturday 23rd March at 4.40.I for one will not miss it.

“Birds of a Feather” with two highly talented pianists from the school of Tessa Nicholson all gathered together today at St James`s under the affectionate eagle eye of Canan Maxton for Talent Unlimited.

” A thing of beauty is a joy for ever” and so it was today with four beautiful women in search of beauty.

At St James’s Piccadilly this true oasis of peace and beauty with the struggle and turmoil of the great city on its doorstep.

The two performers Teresa Escalera Calderón and Melina Karagianni both included a major work of Chopin in their shared recital.

But there were also two very important ladies in the audience who were also responsible for the wonderful music that we were treated to.

Tessa Nicholson the renowned pianist and teacher who was following her two students and enjoying the fruits of their labour together.

Canan Maxton,the indefatigable promoter of young musicians via her Talent Unlimited.

Immediately in the Scarlatti Sonatas Teresa showed her great temperament and sense of rhythmic drive that was to be such a hallmark in her performances.

Her beautiful sense of phrasing and cantabile in the sonata K.213 was even more apparent in the Chopin nocturne op.9 n.3.Here in Chopin was a beautiful flexibility, a true rubato always with the bass firmly rooted that gave great sonority to the cantabile melodic line above.

It was only disturbed as in the mazuka by a rather too literal staccato that broke this wonderful arch that she had created.

The Scherzo n.3 was given a very fine performance. The opening octaves played with great assurance and technical command.A slightly slower tempo might have given her more chance in this resonant church to allow her amazing technical ability more space to breathe with more nobility.

The chorale and cascading comments were superb even more so for maintaing the same tempo that allowed her to shape the melodic line with such finesse.

The deep bass notes were beautifully judged and gave a sumptuous sound to the notes that evolved from them. The final appearance of the chorale in the minor was pure magic and the coda showed off all her remarkable command of the keyboard and extraordinary temperament.

Melina Karagianni a student from an early age with Tessa Nicholson.First at the Purcell School and now continuing her studies with her for a B mus degree at the Royal Academy.

Immediately apparent was the same authority that Teresa too had shown from the very first notes. Here in the Mozart Fantasia in C minor K.396 the beauty and naturalness of her movements in the opening flourish was mirrored by the beauty of sound that she produced.

Great authority and wonderful contrasts in sound were the hallmark of this very fine performance.

The sublime Mazuka op 63. n.2 by Chopin was played with a sumptuous sound helped too by the deep bass note that she so delicately added .A wonderful sense of rubato allied to a sense of colour that after the final notes no one dared move in the hall such was the spell cast.

It was fitting too that applause did not break the spell for one of Chopin’s greatest works,the Fantasie op 49 that was to close her recital.

A beautiful very assured performance notable for the beauty of sound.

A great sense of weight in the bass allowed the piano to sing without any hardness in a passionately committed performance.

The tumultuous finale was only slightly marred by slightly clipped phrasing but it led with such impetus to the end that was allowed to dissolve to a mere murmur.The finale magical strands of melody so movingly isolated before the liquid almost ravelian arpeggios transported us to the final two chords played with such weight and nobility.

Hats off indeed to these two fine beautiful young artists surrounded by admirers at the end of a magical lunchtime experience.

Nice to see both Tessa and Canan letting their hair down too and enjoying in the success and enjoyment of such serious musicians who are now only in need of an audience such as Talent Unlimited provided at St James’s today.

Another very fine pianist presented to the world via the streaming that is now in place in Dr Mather`s St Mary`s in Perivale.

Winner of the 7th International Piano Competition in San Marino in 2016 and finalist in the 2017 Busoni Competition in Bolzano.

He graduated from the Frederic Chopin University of Warsaw and from 2016/18 he was a student of Arie Vardi in Hannover University.

He is now at the RCM in London studying for his Artist`s Diploma with Dmitri Alexeev.

Finishing this hour long recital with a sumptuous performance of La Valse by Ravel, full of the lanquid colours of this sultry waltz.Some astonishing feats of virtuosity all played with the element of the waltz in its evolution from a mere murmur to an explosion of kaleidoscopic sounds combined with the most funabulistic pianistic acrobatics.

This was undoubtedly the highlight of the recital which had started with a very beguiling opening to the Bach Prelude andFugue in C sharp BWV 872 .His long arms stretched out as though floating on water gave a very alluring opening that then became rather less interesting , played as the fine musician he is but with that opening promise of fantasy forsaken for a respectfulness that is too often the norm.

Marc-Andre Hamelin at the Wigmore Hall.

An amazing coincidence to find the two major advocates of Alkan playing in London on the same day.

Mark Viner in Perivale and Hamelin at the Wigmore.

Even more of a coincidence was that both had programmed the Schumann Fantasy.

Mark had infact substituted his Schumann with the much rarer Fantasy of Thalberg on themes from Lucrezia Borgia.

Hamelin is from the amazing Canadian school of pianists born on the wave of that other eclectic and reclusive figure of genius that was Glenn Gould.

I remember my old “piano daddy” Sidney Harrison telling me, after adjudicating festivals in Canada, about this young boy whose teacher had told him had spent hours just playing the first chord of Beethoven 4.

And subsequently in later years Glenn Gould even on the hottest day of the year would be clad in a thick overcoat and gloves.

Something that was later copied by pianists thinking that this is what made a genius!

Well Oscar Peterson was a piano genius in the style of Art Tatum that even Horowitz used to admire for his astounding natural gifts.

Louis Lortie,Janina Fialkowska,Angela Hewitt ,John Kimura Parker are all astounding the public worldwide with their natural musicianship.

But the most enigmatic of them all is Marc-Andre Hamelin for his searching mind and extraordinary technique like the past giants of the Golden Age of piano playing.

His only serious rival being Arcadi Volodos but who does not have the same seaching mind or the wish to delve deep into the archives to discover music that has been inexplicably neglected.

Hamlin and Mark Vinerare indeed the only serious advocates today for Alkan and his times.

Although Hamelin on this occasion presented a more conventional programme it was certainly played with a refreshingly intelligent and enquiring mind that shed much new light on works from the more standard repertoire.

A great clarity of intent made one aware of the Floristan and Eusebius elements in the Schumann Fantasy.A passionate performance.

Indeed an outpouring of love for his Clara (who has had quite an outing here in London this week.Her piano concerto with Mariam Batsashvili on the BBC and a full immersion day at the RCM).

The quote from “An die Ferne Geliebte” was quite exquisitely played and the arpeggio at the end thrown off without the usual long drawn out traditional way of ending this desperate declaration of love.

Always a great sense of architecture and line of which details are details and can be exquisite but never at the expense of the overall sense of shape of the work.

The second movement played with a real sense of almost symphonic texture that turned what can seem rather tiresome dotted rhythms into a relentless driving force that leads to the infamous final leaps before dissolving into one of the most beautiful of all Schumann’s creations.

Slightly misjudging the “Massig” and gradual crescendo of the main theme in the second movement he found the only solution possible was to add great bass notes on its final appearance.His sense of architecture had demanded a solution that corrected his initial too passionate temperament!

The sumptuous shading and delicacy in the last movement held us spellbound and the final appearance of the theme was allowed to rise to a climax so naturally before dying away to a whisper on the final three chords.This was made even more effective by his almost drawing to a halt on the theme before the reawakening of the coda.

A remarkably fine performance from a master musician.

It just had me wishing for a more generously warm cantabile sound such has remained with me all these years of Rubinstein’s memorable account on the very first occasion that I heard him in the Festival Hall in the 60`s

Starting the recital with the rarely heard Cipressi op 17 of Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

A work written in 1920 long before he fled the fascist persecution and found a refuge in Hollywood alongside Korngold,Waxman,Schoenberg .

Heifetz introduced him to MGM studios and he became a prolific composer of film scores.He also taught at Los Angeles Conservatory and could boast the late Andre Previn as one of his students.

This early piece was full of impressionist colours and showed off Hamelins vast palete of colours.Some exquisite sounds but always with the utmost clarity and rhythmic precision.

Letting his hair down after the interval with 6 song arrangements of Charles Trenet songs. They were thrown off with an infectuous nonchalance and ease with a kaleidoscope of sounds appearing from every angle.

Weissenberg was a great Bulgarian virtuoso a favourite of Karajan.

His recording of Petroushka is listened to in awe by his peers.

I heard one of his last recitals when we all travelled out to Croydon with Maria Curcio to hear his Bach Fourth Partita,Schumann Fantasie and Chopin B minor sonata.

He was already having difficulty and showed signs of fatigue at the end of the Chopin.

I will never forget though the beauty of his encore Lilacs by Rachmaninov , whom he much resembled.

Hamelin had heard his “Mr Nobody” and spent a month transcribing these unpublished arrangements from Weissenberg’s own recording.

It is worth quoting Hamelin`s own words in order to understand the uncontaminated curiosity of this extraordinary artist:

“Anyone who is familiar with Trenet`s songs in their original form is bound to be delightfully surprised by what Weissenberg has done with them.Unusual touches abound:in “Coin de rue”,an evocation of the narrator’s childhood,the listener is treated to the sounds of a barrel organ.The `oom-pah` rhythm of “Boum!”becomes a foxtrot;”Vous oubliez votre cheval” acquires elements of the Charleston;the opening of “En Avril a Paris” evokes a carousel,while the leisurely-paced “Menilmontant” is transformed into a headlong moto perpetuo.”

All this before entering into the refined world of Faure.The beautiful stillness of the Nocturne n.6 was played with unusual freedom and great sense of direction and it was eactly the link that was needed between the Paris of the early 20th century and that of the aristocratic Paris of the 19th century.

Chopin in Paris, the exile from his homeland of Poland that was in his blood but denied him since his youth.

Two works from the last years ended this fascinating recital.

The Polonaise -Fantasie op.61 and the Fourth Scherzo op.54.

The opening of the Polonaise in which the long string of notes after the arresting.chords seemed to grow out of them like a long reverberation.The long middle section was played with an unusual sense of direction and the big double trill was played so clearly but totally in the context of the long lines that were held together in such a masterly fashion. The middle section of the Scherzo was played without a hint of sentimentality and the long lines were allowed to ring out as Chopin had obviously intended.The final outburst was played with great grandeur and brought this recital to its official close.

The Schubert Moment Musicaux in A flat and Schumann`s Prophet bird from Waldscenen were played with exquisite delicacy only broken by Hamelin’s own piece commisioned by the Van Cliburn Competition to put young aspiring virtuosi through their paces.

Extraodinary feats of virtuosity abounded all played with that ease of a great master.

Maurizio Pollini at the Festival Hall in London All on their feet at the end to salute a great master.

He may not get around the piano with quite the energy and amazing technical command of yore,but I for one,and I was obviously not alone last night, was able to experience his almost symphonic approach to Chopin.

Only with the Berceuse were we made aware of the bel canto in Chopin but in the Nocturnes we were immediately more in the world of Schubert and the solid harmonic structure on which these masterpieces are founded.

Amazing and startling similarity ,that I have never been aware of before today, between the Nocturne op 62 n.2 and the Polonaise in F sharp minor that was programmed side by side.

I do not think this was just a casual choice.

This great master who has lived with these scores for a lifetime was even now 60 or so years on more involved with his probing mind to delve into the hidden meaning of the structure of these works.

In the same way he has delved into the most modern works of Nono,Boulez or Stockhausen in a worldwide career that was launched at 18 with his winning of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw and the accolades that he received from the greatest of all Chopin players Artur Rubinstein.

The Debussy Preludes Book 1 ‘ like Book 2 last year were in a completely different sound world but still with the harmonic structure upper most in his mind.

Even the Feux D’Artifice,offered as an encore, was shrouded in a clouded sound where the line became so much part of the atmosphere.

Chopin’s First Ballade of course a most generous second encore brought the entire audience to their feet to salute this great master that despite obvious physical difficulties still has so much to share with us.

Long may it last!