Mese: giugno 2020

Tuesday 30 June 4.00 pm

Streamed ‘live’ concert in an empty church

Jonathan Ferrucci (piano)

Bach: Toccata in G minor BWV 915
Bach: French suite no 5 in G BWV 816

1.                                                       Allemande Courante Sarabande Gavotte Bourrée Loure Gigue

Schumann: Fantasy in C Major Op 17

•   Durchaus fantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen; Im Legenden-Ton – Mäßig. Durchaus energisch – Langsam getragen.                                                                                    Durchweg leise zu halten.

Italian-Australian pianist Jonathan Ferrucci has given concerts throughout Europe, Australia, the US and Japan. In London he has performed in Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall. As winner of the Jaques Samuel Competition in 2016, his Wigmore recital was professionally recorded and he was invited to play at Fazioli Concert Hall in Italy. In 2018 he made his debut at Carnegie Weill Hall as part of the “Guildhall Artists in New York” project and was a winner at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig. In 2019 he was a Rising Star for Portland Piano International and gave a masterclass and recitals throughout Oregon.Jonathan studied at the Conservatory of Music in Florence with Giovanni Carmassi, then in London with Joan Havill at the Guildhall, where he completed a masters degree, Artist Diploma, and Artist Fellowship. His studies have been supported by the Leverhulme Trust, Jessie Wakefield Award, Guildhall School Trust and Tait Memorial Trust. Jonathan’s artistic development has been profoundly influenced by Aldo Ciccolini and Robert Levin, and by his ongoing studies with Angela Hewitt, as well as masterclasses with Murray Perahia, Richard Goode, Peter Frankl and Christian Zacharias.As co-founder of Made in Music, a non-profit, he organized two festivals bringing together musicians from eight countries. He believes that music is a universal language that can unite people from different cultures and backgrounds. Alongside his time at the piano, Jonathan practises Ashtanga yoga and considers it an integral part of his work, and essential in his life.Illustrated below for Yoga day :

                                                                     

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/jonathan-ferrucci-in-rome/10156810268607309/

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/jonathan-ferrucci-at-the-sala-dei-giganti-in-padua-a-giant-amongst-giants/10156258023597309/

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/guildhall-school-chamber-music-festival-2019/10156612187182309/

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/miracles-at-the-guildhall-ming-xie-and-jonathan-ferrucci/10155795520292309/

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/jaques-samuel-prize-winners-concert-in-memoriam-peter-uppard/10154588389607309/

                                                                         

As you can see and read I have heard Jonathan on many occasions and always marvel at his Bach playing of such  clarity combined with a delicacy and above all for his teasing very personal use of ornamentation.

From the very opening flourishes of the Toccata in G minor here was someone with something  important to say .There were such colours and meaning in every note but at the same time played with absolute clarity .From the  nobility  of the opening  changing  to deeply contemplative and yet again to a playfully understated dance.All this within a span of a few minutes.A stillness in the  moving central section before bursting into the rhythmic impetus of the toccata and the final virtuosistic  flourishes  before plunging to the final  bass  notes.

                                                                             

The beautifully simple pastoral opening  of the Allemande  of the 5th French suite was immediately followed by the infectious dance rhythm of the Courante.The Sarabande was played with a sublime simplicity and wonderful sense of balance that was even more poignant in the ritornello.The charmingly hesitant opening of the Gavotte  gradually took sail and led to a scintillating Bourée like a ray of sunshine with the ornaments glistening like jewels in its busy percourse.The Loure was played with a melancholic yearning of great meaning.The Gigue was full of such gaiety with an amazing clarity in which every strand was so clearly heard and the ornamentation in the ritornello just added to the sense of enjoyment  with some wonderful changes of colour that were really quite breathtaking.

                                                                               

He immediately plunged into the world of Schumann with the passionate outpourings of this work dedicated to Liszt and written as a contribution to the appeal to erect a monument to Beethoven in Bonn.The monument was eventually completed, due mainly to the efforts of Liszt, who paid 2,666 thaler, the largest single contribution. It was unveiled in grand style in 1845, the attendees including Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and many other dignitaries and composers, but not Schumann, who was already ill.

The first movement though was written  as a lament on being separated from his future wife Clara.It is  full of passionate longing and at the same time heartrending delicacy.The problem is to wield these two elements together  with an underlying rhythmic energy that is like an undercurrent that is always present although now passionate and now subdued. Jonathan produced some wonderfully full sounds and literally rose to the occasion with passionate involvement never loosing his control and sense of architectural shape as they dissolved into the most beautifully shaped quieter,contemplative  sections.

In his search for exquisite colours he sometimes lost this sense of forward movement that combines these Floristan and Eusebius characters into one complete lament.The ending with the quote from Beethoven: ‘to the distant beloved’ was touchingly played with such beautiful colours.

The second movement was played in a very measured way where Schumann’s sometimes irritating dotted rhythms were in Jonathan’s hand turned into the most beautifully shaped melodic episodes.The middle section in particular was played with a rich sonority and  beguiling sense of colour.The trecherous coda was played with great shape and amazing control and brought this movement to a tumultous ending before the magical opening of the final slow movement.Here Jonathan’s artistry and commitment were united with his musicianly sense of control for a truly moving performance.The rhythm even in the greatest of climaxes  was perfectly controlled and  shaped and the final ecstatic few bars were allowed full reign before the calming  final chords brought this extraordinary masterpiece to a very moving conclusion-

Jonathan Ferrucci can be heard again  with the Schumann op 17 and Bach 5th French Suite   together with the Bartok Sonata in a special live stream from Perivale to Washington on the 12th July at 19h .It is a joint collaboration between the Washington Arts Club directed by Burnett Thompson ,the Keyboard Charitable Trust and St Mary’s Perivale.

Sunday 28 June 4.00 pm

Streamed ‘live’ concert in an empty church

Julian Jacobson (piano)

Bach-Jacobson: Sarabande from 6th Cello Suite
Granados:  The Maiden and the Nightingale (Goyescas no 4)
Chopin    Sonata no 2 in B flat minor Op 35 “Funeral March”
Rachmaninov: Prelude in G flat Op 23 no 10

One of Britain’s most creative and distinctive pianists, Julian Jacobson is acclaimed for the vitality, colour and insight he brings to his enormous repertoire ranging across all styles and periods. He was born in Peebles, Scotland and studied in London from the age of seven with Lamar Crowson (piano) and Arthur Benjamin (composition), and had published four songs by the age of nine. From 1959 to 1968 he studied at the Royal College of Music where his principal teachers were John Barstow and Humphrey Searle. On graduating with the Sarah Mundlak Piano Prize in 1968 he took up a scholarship to read Music at Queen’s College, Oxford. After further studies with Louis Kentner he made his London debut at the Purcell Room in 1974, follwed by his Wigmore Hall debut as both solo recitalist and chamber musician. During the 1980s he established himself as a fine duo and ensemble pianist, partnering many leading instrumentalists including Nigel Kennedy, Steven Isserlis, Moray Welsh, Colin Carr, Alexander Baillie and Philippa Davies.
His appointment in 1992 as Head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama led to an increasing concentration on solo work. In 1994 he embarked on his first cycle of the complete 32 Beethoven sonatas; he has now presented the cycle eight times, the last two in a single day (apparently being only the second pianist to attempt this). His many festival appearances as soloist and chamber musician include Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Bath, Brighton, Cheltenham, Dartington, Glasgow, Huddersfield, Norwich and Prussia Cove on tour. He has appeared in more than forty countries on five continents. An ongoing commitment to contemporary music has led to many commissions and premieres. In 1987 he gave the critically acclaimed UK premiere of Ligeti’s now famous Etudes Book One; a subsequent recording for BBC Radio 3 was highly praised by the composer.Julian Jacobson is currently a professor of piano and chamber music at the Royal College of Music. He was Artistic Director of the Paxos International Festival, Greece, from 1988 to 2004, is Artistic Director of “Rencontres Musicales à Eygalières”, and teaches regularly at Cadenza Summer School at the Purcell School, North London. He has given masterclasses in Germany, Paris, Budapest (Franz Liszt Academy), Spain, Sweden, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, the Middle East, and on many occasions in Dartington.

An extra recital added to the Tuesday and Thursday series of  concerts live streamed from St Mary’s in Perivale.It was to give a platform to a distinguished musician who was only too pleased to be invited to play live after so many months of cancelled or postponed concerts.Julian Jacobson is one of the very few musicians who can play all 32 Sonatas of Beethoven on the same day in a true marathon performance.And that is only a small part of his repertoire and activity as a musician.He was consultant together with Leslie Howard and Paul Badura Skoda for the Barenreiter edition of the Beethoven Sonatas in the new and most complete edition  to date edited by Jonathan del Mar.

One just has to look at his curriculum to marvel at all the  activities that he is able to undertake.It  was indeed fascinating to hear his very learned introductions to the works he presented and then to hear them so clearly presented by a musician who was intent on showing us the great musical line of the works.There were moments in the Chopin Sonata op 35 where one would have liked a little more detail but it was interesting to see how he played the repeat in the first movement.There have long been discussions about this repeat! Should it include the introduction  or be repeated only to the doppio movimento some bars later?Well of course Julian being the  learned musician he is realises that the introduction is exactly the main ingredient  of the development section that follows with the great bass intervals.As he told us the Funeral March was written two years before the rest of this ‘dark,strong and tragic sonata ‘.He also quoted Charles Rosen as saying these were not four independent movements just pieced together but they have no independent life of their own.A performance of great lines in which the lightness and agility of the second was slightly laboured but the final movement of continuous triplets was played with great agility.A mysterious movement at times even atonal that no one has quite understood how it evolved as it is quite unique in its originality.

Julian’s own transcription of the 6th cello suite opened the concert.He had heard  the suites as a student at Oxford  University when Rohan de Sarem played them over two evenings.Piers Lane had invited Julian to play in his series of transcriptions at the National Gallery some years ago and what better excuse than to transcribe the Sarabande from the 6th suite. Written for a five string instrument and the hardest to play Julian decided that he too would make it more difficult for himself by playing the Bach original in the left hand before adding his own harmonies and embellishments to the repeat of Bach’s original .A fascinating transcription played with great style and colour.

A very interesting introduction to Goyescas by Granados  of which he played one of the six pieces: ‘The Maiden and the Nightingale.’Julien had listened to an historic recording of Granados playing it and had noticed that there was a note that was not in any of the published scores.He found the same difference looking at the opera of Goyescas, a one act opera based on this piano suite of 1911 and  first performed in 1916 at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York .The opera was based on themes from the famous piano suite of 1911, which he orchestrated and augmented to form a three-scene work. The libretto had to be fitted to existing melodies, the reverse of the usual way of writing an opera. Though the opera is rarely performed, the piano suite forms part of the standard piano repertoire.The success of the Met premiere of Goyescas led indirectly to Granados’s death. He was invited by President  Woodrow Wilson to perform a piano recital at the White House causing him to postpone his return to Spain. Granados and his wife lost their lives on March 24, 1916 when their ship, the French steamer Sussex, was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the English Channel.

Rubinstein too played as the composers recording.His was the first performance that I had heard in public.Rubinstein being a friend of Granados obviously followed the composers own indications that has sadly not been the case in the editions that were subsequently published.A beautifully modulated performance of great strength and charm.

The Prelude in G flat op 23  by Rachmaninov was  as Julian said the ideal calming piece to play after the Chopin Sonata and it was infact a most delicately and beautiful shaped performance .

Dr Hugh Mather was proud to say that Julian will be one of the 32 pianists that will perform the Beethoven Soanatas over two days -October 3rd and 4th in St Mary’s celebration of Beethoven 250.If any of the pianists should be indisposed I am sure that Julian at a drop of a hat could fill in!Hats off to an extraordinarily versatile musician .

An amazing evening again in the company of the genial,mercurial and unique Martha Argerich.In the historic Laeiszhalle she chose to play a solo performance of Chopin B minor Sonata inbetween two violin and piano sonatas by Beethoven and Franck.Here is the review from Bachtrack that I found on line today and gladly add to the photos that I took whilst watching the streaming live .

It seemed like the right moment to add some pieces of mine of her performances over the past few years in Rome and London just to add to the legend that is Martha Argerich.

Mercurial Martha: Argerich springs a surprise in recital with Renaud Capuçon in Hamburg

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/the-sublime-simplicity-of-angela-hewitt/10157048438647309/

 For the Glory of God to refresh our spirits

Angela Hewitt’s most moving recital at the Wigmore Hall.

Visibly moved as we all were as she allowed her own transcription of “All men must die ” BWV 643 to fill this hallowed hall with the hope and joy that she has been sharing with us for the past 35 years.

                                           

In the month when Angela Hewitt would have performed the final concert of the multi-season Bach Odyssey, she presented a special live broadcast programme including her own arrangement of a 1714 chorale.

PROGRAMME  Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Toccata in C minor BWV911; Sinfonia No. 5 in E flat BWV791; English Suite No. 6 in D minor BWV811 I. Prelude; Capriccio in B flat major (Capriccio on the Departure of his Most Beloved Brother) BWV992 III. Adagiosissimo: Ist ein allgemeines Lamento der Freunde; Fantasia and Fugue in C minor BWV906 I. Fantasia; French Suite No. 5 in G BWV816 III. Sarabande; Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor BWV903 ;Alle Menschen müssen sterben BWV643 (arr. Angela Hewitt)

                                                                                         

There are times when words are just not enough and music takes over as the complete silence and stillness at the end of Angela Hewitt’s recital demonstrated today.

Capturing in the few final lines a contemplative faith,joy and musical perfection.

As Schumann exclaimed to Mendelssohn when he listened to a Bach chorale …….’a melody laced with garlands of gold evoking the thought that if life were deprived of all trust and faith this chorale would restore it to me’

                                                                                         

A recital in place of the final Art of Fugue that would have brought her 12 recital Bach Odyssey to an end and the highest award that the hall could humbly offer to an artist.

As John Gilhooley in his citation declared: ‘Angela in  35 years of performances at the Wigmore Hall has shown a timeless curiosity,technical flair and an overriding sense of artistic integrity.’

A recital that demonstrated the art of Angela Hewitt from the opening grandiose introduction of the C minor Toccata to the magic stillness of the Adagio.The supreme delicacy of the Toccata theme in the left hand answered so eloquently by the right and its return where the mischievous counterpoints were played with a delicacy that allowed this knotty twine to glisten like jewels in the sun.

The sinfonia was a miracle of purity of line with a staccato accompaniment that demonstrated her mastery and technical prowess.

                                                                                         

The grandiose opening of the D minor English suite with the multicoloured strands that she went on to extract with such obvious delight and joy.The expressive yearning one could almost hear in the way she played the right hand downward phrases in the Capriccio for a dearly departed brother.

The Fantasia in C minor was just the shimmering almost Scarlatti precision  that was needed before the sublime beauty of the Sarabande from the 5th French suite.

The grandiose flourishes of the Chromatic Fantasy soon died away as she drew us in to her world of Bach where every strand made such sense and was imbued with such character.

                                                                                         

The final Chorale created even over the air that magical moment when you can almost feel the listeners sharing an experience together that can only happen in that moment.

It was Mitsuko Uchida who told me once after a concert in Perugia that  it is the memory of such an occasion  that is to be cherished – no photo or recording will ever capture that magic moment again.

Tuesday 23 June 4.00 pm

Streamed ‘live’ concert in an empty church

Patrick Hemmerlé (piano)

Bach: Toccata in D BWV 912
Mendelssohn/Hemmerlé: Scherzo from the Midsummer Night’s Dream
Schumann: Toccata Op 7
Chopin: Ballade no 4 in F minor Op 52
Liszt: Transcendental étude no 10 in F minor
Fauré: Nocturne no 6 in D flat Op 63
Severac: Les Baigneuses au Soleil
Debussy: L’Isle Joyeuse.

Acclaimed for the originality of his concert programmes and the depth of his interpretations, Patrick Hemmerlé is a French pianist living in England. He can often be heard performing such works as the 24 Chopin Etudes, the 48 Bach Prelude and Fugues, or    lesser-known composers. Recent engagements have taken him to New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Prague, as well as many festivals and music society in England.Patrick has published 3 CDs, which have been well received by the international press. His latest recording project, to be issued in 2020 is a pairing of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and Fischer’s Ariadne Musica.  He is in demand as a lecturer. He has given talks for the Cambridge University, as well as a cycle of concert-lectures on French music, presenting composers little known to the general public,. This led to the recordings of the piano music of Jean Roger-Ducasse and Maurice Emmanuel. Patrick is laureate of the international competition of Valencia, Toledo, Epinal, Grossetto, and more recently the CFRPM, in Paris, where his interpretation of Villa-Lobos’s Rudepoema, raised a great deal of interest.  He was trained in Paris at the Conservatoire (CNR), under the tuition of Billy Eidi.

                                           
They say miracles do not strike twice but listening to Leonora Armellini from Pordenone yesterday and today to Patrick in Perivale I would not have believed such sounds possible on a Yamaha piano!

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/23/leonora-armellinis-glorious-chopin-piano-city-pordenone/

I was told off by the Yamaha dealer in Milan for saying that yesterday.I told him that I prefer the great German pianos of Steinway or Bosendorfer but a great artist can sometimes convince us that the Yamaha is just as good.
The difference is that even a beginner on a German piano can convince whereas he cannot on Yamaha.
I remember Richter playing exclusively Yamaha in the latter part of his career.I heard a Schubert recital in the RFH in London with four sonatas.
I was sitting not in my usual choir seats used to being as near to the piano as possible. I was in the gallery stalls escorting my future wife for the first time in London and to the RFH where we could feel the full atmosphere and see the hall but I could not see what piano he was playing.
I was astounded when I went to the stage afterwards and saw that it was a Yamaha.
The same thing happened with Mariam Batsashvili at her Wigmore Hall debut.Such wondrously delicate sounds I assumed it was the usual hall Steinway and I could not believe as I went to greet her in the green room that it could have been a Yamaha.https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/a-star-is-born-mariam-batsashvili-at-the-wigmore-hall/10154367837552309/

You see miracles can happen and today in Perivale it certainly did!

                                                   
Not only wondrous colours and magical sounds but a programme where each piece led into the next in a succession that was astonishing.He had after all told us in his brief introduction that the programme would be eclectic and coherant and was designed to be played without a break.
The one place where they did not quite fit  so perfectly together he added an arpeggio link ,like the old virtuosi of the past.It managed to join the frenzy of the F minor study by Liszt so naturally to the pure magic of Fauré’s D flat nocturne.
A little piece by Severac suddenly became the world of Debussy’s L’Isle joyeuse.
And joyous it was as after a series of fleeting  melodic glimpses the clouds parted and the work erupted with the overwhelming passion that I have only once heard from another pianist.
That pianist was Annie Fischer and it has remained with me for over 30 years as I am sure the recital today will too.

The Toccata in D by Bach rarely have I heard played with such sense of character .The song and the dance indeed but also much more besides .A sense of nobility and architectural shape with some very delicate ornamentation and adding some stops here and there where it gave great depth to the sound.Not the barnstorming transcriptions of Busoni that are wonderful in their own right but here was a musician who knew so well the organ and the harpsichord stops that the piano lacks.There was a great contrast too between non legato and a cantabile played seemingly and miraculously without smudging the sounds with the pedal that would have been totally out of character. The recitativo and almost orchestral comments were captivating.The part playing in the Adagio was of astonishing clarity with such  a flexible rubato that came so near but never overstepped the boundary of good taste and style.There was a truly magical transition passage with added bass stops making a great question and answer seemingly  between two keyboards and then the joyous overflow of the toccata played with an infectious rhythmic drive.What an opening……what a personality!

His own arrangement of Mendelssohn’s Scherzo from a Midsummer Night’s Dream had more colour than Rachmaninov’s famous transcription.This was more Mendelssohnian with such a fleeting will’ the wisp filigree it was indeed a dream of  Midsummer just past.

It led straight into the grandiose opening of Schumann’s Toccata op 7.Almost the same world as  Mendelssohn when placed side by side like this.With its fleeting virtuosity and beguiling bursts of cantabile.Of course Schumann’s harmonies and modulations turn this toccata into the masterpiece  that it undoubtedly is.A showpiece for a master technician but above all for a musician.Impish good humour mixed with almost pastoral colours.The fugato was a miracle of clarity whilst in crescendo  and the climax was played with a magnificent richness of sound and passionate involvement.The most remarkable thing of course was his perfect legato throughout which is the real test of this work.Certainly one of the finest performances that I have heard in years.

Dying away as Schumann asks to almost a whisper and Patrick’s hand all ready for the magical opening notes of the Fourth Ballade by Chopin.Here there was above all a luminosity of sound as the theme shone out with bell like clarity and simplicity.I thought the arpeggiated left hand chords though were a little exagerrated and throughout the Ballade became a little mannered.Like the good old Chopin tradition  of yore!But even so it was a remarkable performance for many other reasons .The superb return of the main theme and the magical build up to the climax  and the adding of a bass octave to the great final arpeggio swirls of passion as great pianist often do in public performances at this point.Perlemuter showed me once that Cortot arranged his left hand so that the first bass note of the arpeggio he would play with the thumb to get extra power.It is easier and more effective to add an octave though as Patrick did today!The five final  defusing chords were beautifully shaped and the coda entered as a swirl of musical sounds rather than the usual rumbustuous showpiece that seems to be attached as an afterthought by Chopin.It was certainly no afterthought here in the hands of this superb musician as it led so naturally into the gradual passionate build up in Liszt’s F min transcendental study that followed on  almost without a break.A magnificent melodic climax before the demonic build up to the ritornello swept us up in a breathtaking display of romantic pianism.But even in the quieter more lyrical passages there was a sense of colour even within the same hand.Between the thumb and the little finger just as Cherkassky would do as he searched for the elusive secrets hidden within the seemingly  percussive chords and octaves.The animal excitement generated at the ending was indeed breathtaking even over the air!

This is where an arpeggio link was necessary to transport us into the magical world of Fauré with his most famous nocture- that in D flat.Perlemuter lived in the same house as Fauré and would try out the nocturnes whilst the ink was still wet on the manuscript.It was the only time he wanted me to tell the public  before he played some of the nocturnes in my series in Rome.He bequeathed to me  his score of the nocturnes with his precious legato fingerings and it is one of my most treasured possessions!Patrick played it exactly as Perlemuter insisted it should be played.Not sentimentally but with great noble sounds also of great delicacy but with a crystalline clarity and sense of legato.How much more  moving it is to hear it played in this almost masculine  authoritative way.The undulating final chords I had never realised until today how unbelievably beautiful they are .

It was the first time that I have heard the Severac  and it was played with great charm and character with washes of colour through his superb use of the sustaining pedal.It was the same world of Debussy and the L’Isle Joyeuse with its fleeting melodic line appearing and disappearing in a maze of fantastic sounds.A wondrous sense of colour that produced jewel after jewel of sounds glistening and gleaming in the wonderful liquid atmosphere that he had created as if by magic.

Annie Fischer springs to mind …no greater compliment is possible!

 

                                       

Happy 75th birtday to Dr Hugh Mather with his wife of 48 years  Dr Felicity who together with his team of volonteers have turned St Mary’s into one of the most exciting show places for amazing young talent to perform and be streamed worldwide.

 

Tuesday 16 June 4.00 pm

Streamed ‘live’ concert in an empty church

Mishka Rushdie Momen (piano)

Schumann: Impromptus on a theme by Clara Wieck Op 5
Mozart: Rondo in A minor K511
Scarlatti: Sonata in F minor K519
Schubert: Fantasie in C major D 760 ‘Wanderer’

Mishka Rushdie Momen studied with Joan Havill and Imogen Cooper at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has also studied with Richard Goode and Sir Andras Schiff, who presented her in recitals in Zurich Tonhalle, New York’s 92Y, Antwerp deSingel, and several cities in Germany and Italy for his “Building Bridges” Series. A committed chamber musician whose partners have included Steven Isserlis, Midori, and members of the Endellion, Belcea, and Artemis String Quartets, she played in the Marlboro, Krzyzowa and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festivals and regularly participates in Open Chamber Music at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, Cornwall. She has given solo recitals at the Barbican Hall, the Bridgewater Hall, St. John’s, Smith Square and major venues across the UK, as well as abroad in New York City, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and India. Recent and future concerts include performances at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria, and include world premieres of commissions by Nico Muhly and Vijay Iyer. Her debut solo recording, “Variations”, a recital disc of works by Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Nico Muhly and Vijay Iyer, was released on the Somm label in October 2019. She is currently studying at the Kronberg Academy as part of the Sir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Pianists. This study is funded by the Henle Foundation.

“Sublime  sounds  of ravishing beauty and delicacy”  as Dr Mather so eloquently expressed his appreciation of the recital by Mishka live streamed from an empty church in the beautiful setting of Ealing Golf Course.He and the tecnician were the only ones in the church to listen live like that other courageous venue the Wigmore Hall -which has opened it virtual doors to live music making too.There may only be two people in the hall but they are in company of  a vast audience worldwide of people in need of live music and a message from the heart to the heart as only music can provide.Words are not enough and it is music for those willing to appreciate it  that fills those cracks that have in these strange times been getting wider and wider.This is a new way of sharing music and both Wigmore Hall and Perivale have managed to perfect a system that so many musicians have been searching for from their homes in these past three month.

It was Imogen Cooper who played the day before her pupil Mishka at the Wigmore Hall.It was she after a very moving return to the Wigmore stage (where she had celebrated her 70th birthday last november with the last three sonatas of Schubert) had said that people needed the  message that Schubert and Janacek could offer and which joined  two such different composers together in the quest to send a message from the Heart to the Heart.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/imogen-cooper-heart-to-heart-at-the-wigmore-hall/

Mishka too had played with the cellist Steven Isserlis the week before at the Wigmore Hall where she was every bit an equal partner to this very distinguished cellist.A cellist who has much in common with that other very distinguished musician Sir Simon Rattle.Not only their very Beethovenian hair style but more importantly that burning desire to enter into the very spirit of the composer with a fire and energy that is mesmerising. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/08/steven-isserlis-and-mishka-momen-rushdie-live-at-the-wigmore-hall/.Simon was in our class with Gordon Green  at the Royal Academy who would often exclaim how talented Simon was but oh how he wished he would practice the piano more!Simon had a burning desire to conduct and hours spent at the keyboard searching for that elusive perfection was not for him.

Mishka on the other hand has dedicated  her youth to searching for that perfection that allows the composers wishes to be turned into sound.Like her mentors Imogen Cooper and Andras Schiff she concentrates on what we know as the three B’s:Bach ,Beethoven ,Brahms which of course is a world that includes Schubert, Schumann and others.

The percussive  Russian school, so much in vogue these days ,is not for them.Artur Rubinstein used to have great discussions with his friend Mr Stravinsky trying to convince him that the piano was not just a percussion instrument but that in the right hands it could sing as well as any bird on the tree!Rubinstein comissioned a piece by Stravinsky and was appalled when he received his Ragtime music that he refused to play.Petroushka,though, was dedicated to him and he played it with the composers approval very much in his own unique way!

The Impromptus on a theme of Clara Wieck by Schumann opened the recital.From the first solo left hand notes one was aware of Mishka’s superb musicianship in the way she shaped this beautifully expressive opening.The scherzo type impromptus were played with fleeting lightness and Schumann’s somewhat tiresome dotted rhythms where shaped so beautifully and delicately as maybe Clara herself may have done.There were some sumptuous sounds in a work that already shows the seeds of his Symphonic Variations op 13.If it missed something of the passion and forward drive of Floristan  it was a small price to pay for such a beautiful Eusebian opening.

Beauty too in Mozart’s great masterpiece that is the Rondo in A minor.It was played with a simplicity and attention to detail that was quite exquisite.If Floristan was not allowed his full share of the stage it was because Mishka did not want to stir these magical waters with any other characters that might appear in Mozart’s miniature opera scene that he so clearly depicts.

It was in the Scarlatti Sonata that suddenly ignited the stage .A brilliant refined and subtle almost Mendelssohnian Sonata played with an infectious energy and lightness that was quite ravishing.

Could it be that she had put her scores away and  felt ready now to throw herself into the fray.

Many artists have said how difficult it is to play to an empty hall knowing that there are cameras watching your every move .Both Paul Lewis and Imogen Cooper at the Wigmore Hall had used an I pad as an ‘aide memoire.’ So hats of to Mishka who threw caution to the wind as she plunged into Scarlatti and Schubert with the vigour and impetus that had been missing up until now.This is what live music is all about .The fact that anything could happen.Not only slight  blemishes which are of no importance when on the other side of the rainbow miracles begin to appear as much a surprise for the artist as for the audience.

Re- creation indeed that we have so much need of in these strange times.In Stephen Hough’s opening recital at the Wigmore Hall I had spoken exactly of this  reawakening of the senses.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/4406/.

She gave an exemplary performance of the Schubert Fantasie in C D.760.A work given to advanced students together with the 32 Variations of Beethoven and Brahms Handel Variations that have so many technical challenges but always with musical values of shape and colour to the fore .Not the stale exercises given to students in early days to train their fingers very often at the expense of their ears.Rubinstein used to practice them eating chocolates and reading novels.But once aquired at an early age one has fingers of steel but wrists of rubber and an orchestra of ten wonderful players that will do exactly what the heart and mind require.

And this was the wonderful orchestra that Mishka used with such refined intelligent musicianship.The Allegro con fuoco was restrained as Schubert asks in order to make the final explosion of the Allegro even more overwhelming.If she did not quite have the burning rhythmic impetus that she had found with Steven Isserlis she rose to all the quite considerable hurdles with great assurance .She shaped the most energetic passages with the same beautiful lyricism that she brought to the many sublime passages in the first movement in particular.The Adagio Wanderer theme was played so exquisitely and kept moving in 2 not 4 as the composer so clearly indicated. There was great passion and  delicacy and the final tremolandos were quite magical before the rude interruption of the Presto.She threw herself into the great flourishes  of this movement that created even more contrast with the beautiful lyrical central section.It led to the excitement of the final Fugato of the Allegro where her ease and naturalness as  she threw off the most technical challenges brought yet another of her superb recitals at St Mary’s  to a tumultuous end.

No encore ..their time was up …but it will live on in the memory, as Mitsuko Uchida says it should.It can also be heard though on the web site of St Mary’s Perivale together with an archive of over 400 performances from the past ten years.