Mese: aprile 2022

Petar Dimov playing in this new venue today two masterworks of the keyboard literature.
Played with unusual intelligence and musical integrity that brought refreshing new life to a well worn friend like the Italian Concerto.
It was interesting to see a gleaming new grand piano mounted on a stage like plinth in this Methodist Church in the centre of Acton in west London.Looking at the name of the piano I was surprised to see a name unknown to me……I have known many makes of piano even including a Barenboim but the name Pinkham was new to me.The very informed church master of music ,Jane Schopf,suggested I look on google for information about this piano made in Cornwall – something I was glad to do as you will see below.
But it is Petar Dimov’s playing that was so interesting.

A Bach with such subtle ornamentation that gave character to the outer movements bringing them vividly to life with a real sense of joie de vivre in the Presto and of the grandeur of concerto in the Allegro moderato.The Andante by contrast was of a disarming simplicity allowing Bach’s beautiful aria to sing with such purity over the continual bass heart beat.The hushed re entry of the solo voice where a mere murmur drew the audience in to marvel at the simplicity of Bach’s genius where so few notes could mean so much.
The beauty of the piano sound too was remarkable for its purity and penetration where the kaleidoscope of sounds in the Brahms was remarkable for its warmth and clarity.

Of course Petar’s masterly musicianship had much to do with that but was helped rather than hindered by an instrument that responds so readily.
There was a sense of orchestral colour as the majestic opening chords of the Brahms F minor Sonata rang out only to be answered by the gentle palpitations of the horn and cello’s or the grandiose chorale with the non legato bass comments.
Such grandeur that was to dissolve into liquid sounds of ravishing beauty before the grandiose development episode that gave way to palpitations in which a dialogue emerges between bass and tenor registers.
The Andante was of luminosity and a constant flow of beauty gradually leading to the magic of the ‘poco più lento’ where the tone that Petar was able to share was of a whispered confession of such delicacy.
Gradually increasing in intensity until the explosion of passion that Brahms himself marks ‘con passione e molto espressivo’.The consequent gradual disintegration was enhanced by the care that Petar took over the rests in the final gentle pulsating left hand before the coda that Brahms marks ‘Andante molto espressivo pianississimo’.This is surely one of the marvels of all piano literature that Petar played with the same absolute simplicity and beauty that all those that heard Rubinstein or Curzon have never forgotten.

A scherzo that flew out of his fingers but with such attention to detail where the great bass melodic line was commented on by gently cascading streams of notes in the treble with a clarity and care of phrasing that was rare indeed.The trio too was played with the full rich sound of a string orchestra where all the voices had an importance that created a sumptuous whole.
There was a stark mystical atmosphere to the Intermezzo introduction to the last movement that was played with an improvisatory quality that was both tender and terrifying with its thunderous bass notes relentlessly insistent.Leading to the final gasps played miraculously without any ritardando or pedal.The finale was played at a deliberate pace where the syncopated chords acted as break like interruptions before the final abandonment and mellifluous outpouring of melody.The rich and glowing sound of the chorale was of a beauty worthy of the Philadelphia orchestra as it gradually built up to the frenzy of the coda on which floats the melodic line in a sort of whirl of almost Irish merriment!
Finally the frenzy giving way to a passsionate climax in an explosion of grandiose full orchestral sounds of sumptuous beauty.
An encore of one of Petar’s own compositions just went to demonstrate the complete musician that he is.

It was refreshing too to see his musician friends present to admire and salute their colleague on one of his all too rare public performances .

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/10/27/petar-dimov-at-st-marys-a-musician-speaks/

Clive Pinkham’s love and passion for the piano started from a very young age. The enthusiasm for the instrument gave him a lifetime of dedication striving for perfection. He used to do ten hours a day piano practice and found it frustrating having to play on poor pianos. From this a burning desire was born to make a piano that would respond accurately to what he asked of it. His aim was to create a piano that was affordable to all. A piano that would respond accurately to what he was asking from it, and a piano that would produce an effortless long rich sweet singing tone.
Clive Pinkham gave his first piano recital at the age of eight and went on to win the prestigious August Holmes scholarship to the London College of Music. He has given recitals at the Purcell Room of the Royal Festival Hall, at the Wigmore Hall and has appeared on American and British television.
“My philosophy is a total commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. For me it is important for my pianos to be of the very best as it is my name that is on the front of each piano, and I know myself first hand how much pleasure can be given by a piano that is a dream to play.”
Telephone: +44 (0) 845 0703833 / +44 (0) 1579 370423
clive.pinkham@pinkhampianos.com

Jun Lin Wu may have complained of an early start today but Elton John’s piano certainly had no complaints.
In the hands of this young Chinese pianist it was seduced ravished and conquered as rarely it can ever have imagined in its most wildest history.
A world of such sublime beauty and demonic energy combined with such an aristocratic sense of style and irresistible sense of rubato.
Bar lines did not exist as there was a sense of recreation with sounds that seemed so refreshingly spontaneous with a technical mastery that knew no limits.

A very spacious opening to Chopin’s late masterpiece op 61 Polonaise Fantasie that was exactly that.An opening of such spaciousness and subtle colour with a gradual build up to the sumptuous passionate final climax.
The gentle opening arpeggios of Chopin were immediately answered by the savage animal attack of Scriabin’s opening of his 5th Sonata.Instantly dissolving into a magic world of mystery and kaleidoscopic colours.A luminosity of sound that gently penetrated the multicoloured world it inhabited and was played with a clarity and quite remarkable sense of balance.
Interspersed with demonic bursts of energy as it led so unrelentingly to the final glorious star of Scriabin’s unique magic world .
It is one of the marvels of the world how the Chinese soul mirrors that of Chopin.
It is the same heart that throbs with nostalgia and an irrepressible sense of rhythm that is inborn.It was infact Fou Ts’ong who astonished the public in the Warsaw competition all those years ago playing the mazurkas as we had only thought possible from Chopins compatriots.
Such sense of aristocratic charm and heartfelt nostalgia interspersed with infectious rhythmic elan that sounded so sincere and natural. Something so in born that it cannot be taught or added as it comes from within.This fresh faced looking young man certainly has a soul of a quite extraordinary poetic depth.

Agosti’s famous Firebird was unleashed on an unexpecting public with a demonic energy that was quite breathtaking.
This has long been one of the most challenging of all transcriptions even out doing Stravinsky’s own Petrouschka that the composer dedicated to his friend Artur Rubinstein to try to appease the Ragtime that Rubinstein had commissioned from his friend but refused to play as Stravinsky was intent on demonstrating that the piano could not sing but was purely percussive.
This transcription written in 1928 by Agosti who was to live until the ‘80’s and where every summer the musical world would frequent his studio in Siena where sounds never to be forgotten were to be cherished.

Agosti had abandoned the concert stage very early to dedicated himself with religious zealousness to the masterworks that his teacher Busoni had shared with him in his youth.
After such a frantic attack of the Firebird the sun suddenly appeared in a magical cloud of sounds that led to the final triumph of the Firebird.
Jun Lin Wu had no need to ask if his audience would like more.
Cordoba by Albeniz was his thank you farewell of sultry sounds and rhythms played as to the manner born in a masterly performance that I expect his mentor Dmitri Alexeev had imparted to him.
The same mastery that Alexeev one of the greatest pianist of our day generously shares with a select few at the Royal College of Music just a few steps away from the Albert Hall

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/jun-lin-wu-a-star-is-born/