On the eve of her International Piano Competition the indefatigable Marcella Crudeli in her 80th year still has time to present the young musicians from her masterclasses in a programme of piano concertos. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2021/07/31/sorrento-crowns-marcella-crudeli-a-lifetime-in-music/

Here is Yuanfan Yang winner of the last International Piano Competition who will play in Rome next Thursday at the press conference for the competition to be held next month.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2021/09/06/yuanfan-yang-in-paradise/

Streamed live from Viterbo thanks to the equally indomitable Prof Franco Ricci a concert that I will listen to live tomorrow in the Eternal City.

Mozart concertos K 414 and 415 played with impeccable taste and rhythmic flair.
A Mendelssohn G minor concerto that made you marvel with what simplicity and facility Mendelssohn could spin so many notes with scintillating jeux perlé and heart on sleeve sentiment.To finish with Beethoven’s C minor concerto played with a great sense of architectural form and formidable contrasts.
Each of the five teenage solists gave an encore of studies Chopin op 25 n.1 -7-12 and op 10 n 5 and Debussy Pour Les arpèges composée
An orchestra only too happy to encourage and follow these budding young virtuosi under the complacent Daniele Cadiz striving to get the very best out of his musicians .
A feast of music and a joy to watch with what seriousness and passion these young musicians are dedicating their youth .And so to the Chiesa Valdese in the centre of Rome for the final festive occasion at the end of Marcella Crudeli’s annual series of Masterclasses for talented young pianists.After each performance helping and encouraging these young musicians – work,work work as they dedicate more of their youth to music.

Sixteen year old Francesco Pambianco from Arezzo played the first movement of Mozart K 414 and was able to transmit the wonder of Mozart with great rhythmic precision and simple musicality.His encore of Chopin study op 25 n.1 was beautifully played but would have benefitted from the same simplicity that he had brought to Mozart.

Emanuele Nazzareno Piovesan is fifteen and from Gallarate – Milan and played the first movement of Mozart K415. Schnabel famously remarked that Mozart was to easy for children but too difficult for adults and it was the simplicity and purity of a teenager that he brought to this early concerto that was so refreshing .His encore of op 25 n.7 a study in balance and cantabile is marked Lento.Some beautiful things but a little too slow at the opening to allow the melody to sing unimpeded by the accompaniment but as it got more agitated he rose to the occasion magnificently as he began to listen to the beautiful sounds he was producing.

Alessandro Rolli is nineteen from Trieste and played the first two movements of Mendelssohn G minor.He is more an artist than an artisan .The slow movement was beautifully played and the interplay between soloist and orchestral very well managed.The Allegro was played ‘con fuoco’ but could have been played with more rhythmic precision to contrast with his beautiful Andante.And it was his poetic Debussy Arpeggio study that ignited his real flair for keyboard imagination and colour.

Emanuele Savron a veteran at twenty two and is also from Trieste.Beethoven 3rd concerto with playing of real beauty in the slow movement but slightly lacking in detail and rhythmic precision in the opening Allegro .His encore of Chopin’s last study op 25 was full of youthful passion and driving force even if the left hand sometimes trailed behind his impetuous right.

Michele Apollonio is seventeen and from Campobasso and gave a very clean and rhythmic reading of the last movement of Beethoven’s 3rd Concerto.His encore of the ‘Black key study’ op 10 n.5 showed real flair and technical accomplishment even if the final octaves were more suited to Tchaikowsky than Chopin at the end.