Axel Trolese in London for a live stream performance for the Keyboard Trust.A young musician mentored by Benedetto Lupo and Louis Lortie is certainly worth hearing and he certainly did not disappoint today.
Four of the most complex works for the piano,either for reasons of breaking with tradition or coping with transcendental demands, that saw this young artist fearlessly and sometimes even recklessly in total command.
A Chopin first ballade played with beauty and simplicity and if it could have had a little more time to breathe it was surely the same youthful passionate outpouring with which the young Polish emigre would have stolen the hearts of the noble ladies in the Parisian salons.
Shorn of all traditional rhetoric it was a refreshing example of how Chopin’s own aristocratic passion can still speak so eloquently without any external intrusion from lesser hands.
As Barbirolli said of the youthful Jaqueline Du Pre;’if you don’t play with that sort of passion in your youth what do you pare off in old age?’
With Jaqueline we were sadly but to catch an all too short glimpse but with Axel this is obviously just the beginning of a long and fulfilling career.
Fete Dieux a Seville is part of an on going project to record all of Albeniz Iberia (the first CD has already received high critical acclaim).
This Spanish repertoire showed off his ravishing sense of colour and balance that allowed the melodic line to shine out clearly above all the transcendental hurdles that Albeniz places in its path.
Scriabin’s deeply troubled third sonata was played with remarkable technical command and attention to detail whilst never sacrificing the overall ominous architectural shape.
Gaspard de la Nuit where Ravel deliberately tried to out do the technical high jinx of Balakirev’s Islamey with his depiction of the goblin Scarbo.
It was exactly the extraordinary characterisation he gave to this movement in particular,that I have never heard played with such attention to the meticulous dynamic indications of the composer without any lack of clarity or rhythmic drive.
Ondine too have I rarely if ever heard in such fluid untroubled waters and if Le Gibet slightly lacked the same tension it certainly created the atmosphere of a gallows.
Granada by Albeniz was Axel’s way of thanking the audience present for this live stream recording.
The talk with Leslie Howard ,one of the three artistic directors and founder member of the Keyboard Trust now celebrating its thirty years,will be available shortly together with the recital on the Keyboard Trust website.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 
Una risposta a "Axel Trolese in London"