Tuesday February 16th 4.00 pm 

Ashley Fripp (piano) 

Gluck-Sgambati: Melody from Orfeo

,Wagner-Liszt: Isolde’s Liebestod S447

Strauss-Grainger: Ramble on Love from “Der Rosenkavalier”

Schubert-Liszt: Ständchen S560/4

Schubert-Liszt: Liebesbotschaft S560/10

Schubert: Sonata in A major D664

Some exquisite playing from a true musician for Valentine’s Day but also to celebrate the 98th birthday of Rina Stewart a long standing member of the remarkable St Mary’s team. A very distinguished service record at Bletchley Park the home of the World War Two code breakers.
Ashley celebrated with a concert of pure song.
Transcriptions obviously but with ten fingers that could sing as beautifully as any singer.
Has the famous transcription of Orfeo ever sounded so pure and luminous as he allowed the music to flow so naturally?
The ramble that Grainger takes with Strauss’s Rosenkavalier with its magical arabesques and then the crystal clear woodwind sounds that immediately took us into the world of love that dare not mention it’s name.
Great passion but also sumptuous sounds as the various strands that Liszt so magically weaves together in Liebestod from Tristan are part of a wave that sweeps across the keys with unbearable tension finally allowed to explode and then so gently subside.
Schubert’s Standchen and Liebesbotchaft transcribed so magically by Liszt were played with such delicacy but also a musical line that was just as eloquently shaped in Ashley’s sensitive hands without the words than the original songs.
One of Schubert’s simplest and most mellifluous of sonatas D.664 was the ideal choice for a programme that was dedicated to Valentine’s and a heartfelt tribute to song.

British pianist Ashley Fripp has performed extensively throughout Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and Australia in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. Highlights include the Carnegie Hall (New York), Musikverein (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Philharmonie Halls of Cologne, Paris, Luxembourg and Warsaw, the Bozar (Brussels), and the Royal Festival, Barbican and Wigmore Halls (London). He has won prizes at more than a dozen national and international competitions, including at the Hamamatsu (Japan), Birmingham and Leeds International Piano Competitions, the Royal Over-Seas League Competition, the Concours Européen de Piano (France) and the coveted Gold Medal from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and was chosen as a ‘Rising Star’ by the European Concert Hall Organisation. He has performed in the Chipping Campden, Edinburgh, Brighton, Bath, Buxton, City of London and St. Magnus International Festivals as well as the Oxford International Piano Festival, the Festival Pontino di Musica (Italy) and the Powsin International Piano Festival (Poland). Ashley has appeared on BBC television and radio, Euroclassical, Eurovision TV and the national radio stations of Hungary, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium and Portugal.Ashley Fripp studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Ronan O’Hora and is currently studying with Eliso Virsaladze at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole (Italy).

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/02/14/ashley-fripp-in-florence-a-walk-to-the-paradise-garden/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/ashley-fripp-a-poet-in-perivale/