Mese: Maggio 2022

Tuesday 10 May 3.00 pm

Playing of great authority and musicianship in a programme dedicated to his new CD ‘Shreds of light’ .Victor Braojos illuminated all that he played.From the reflective heartfelt melody of the sun rising in Granados Maiden and the Nightingale through the traces of lightness in Brahms’s mournful Intermezzi .The link with the UK premier of Marc Migò’s Epitaph that took us to a performance of radiance and burning intensity of Liszt’s monumental Sonata in B minor.The simplicity and beauty of the Epilogue from Granados’ Romantic scenes brought us full circle as we were embraced by the luminosity of this young man’s dedication and light to give us hope after the pandemic.

Goyescas op 11, subtitled Los majos enamorados (The Gallants in Love), is a suite of seven pieces written in 1911 by Spanish composer Enrique Granados and was inspired by the work of Goya .The fourth piece in the series (Quejas, ó la maja y el ruiseñor—The Maiden and the Nightingale) is the best known piece and resembles a nocturne but is filled with intricate figuration, inner voices and, near the end, glittering bird-like trills and quicksilver arpeggios.It was played with sumptuous sound and luminosity with a sensual atmosphere that contrasted so well with the clarity of the nightingale figurations that disappeared in a flourish at the end before the final gentle chord that was placed with such loving care.

The Three Intermezzi for piano, Op. 117 were described by the critic Eduard Hanslick as “monologues”… pieces of a “thoroughly personal and subjective character” striking a “pensive, graceful, dreamy, resigned, and elegiac note.” They were composed in 1892.The first intermezzo, in E♭ major, is prefaced in the score by two lines from an old Scottish ballad, Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament: ‘Balow, my babe, lie still and sleep!It grieves me sore to see thee weep.’It was played with great beauty and shape and a delicacy as the gently shaded accompanying chords were spread over the entire keyboard.The second intermezzo in B flat minor was played with great weight where the musical line was allowed to unravel so simply on a wave of mellifluous sounds.The unison legato chords of the third were played with great freedom and sweep as waves of sumptuous sounds flowed with such exquisite shading in the central section.

Epitafi by the Catalan composer Marc Migò is the link that Victor found that takes us from the mournful nuances of Brahms to the intensity and emotional demanding Liszt Sonata .As Victor says :‘……..without a shadow of doubt this is probably one of the most striking piano pieces I have ever played ……..from the initial static naiveté of a children’s song through more fiery moods to reach a final state of inner piece which does not exclude pain,acceptance and resilience.’It was given a totally convincing performance of both luminosity and rhythmic energy with the composer listening from New York to the UK debut of his work from the hands of such a devout performer.

Marc Migò receiving a Deutsche Grammophon CD collection from his grandfather for his 16th birthday, Marc Migó (1993, Barcelona) became unexpectedly and passionately drawn to its contents. This discovery led him to seek out guidance from pianist Liliana Sainz and composer Xavier Boliart. Three years later, he enrolled at ESMUC (Superior Music School of Catalonia). In 2017, thanks to a scholarship issued by Fundación SGAE, Marc moved to New York in order to continue his musical studies. He pursued his Masters at The Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2018 Orchestral Composition Prize. In 2019 he received The Pablo Casals Festival Award for his Cello Sonata “Cerdanyenca”, a Morton Gould young composers award by ASCAP and the New Juilliard annual commissioning competition award. He also has been a fellow at the 2020 Minnesota Orchestra Composer’s Institute and a winner of the George Enescu Prize 2020, among other international recognitions. Marc Migó is currently a C.V. Starr fellow at Juilliard, where he is earning a DMA in composition under the mentorship of John Corigliano. He has received commissions from leading institutions, ensembles and performers, such as UrbanArias, the Dutch National Opera, Liceu Opera House, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, l’Associació Joan Manén, Fundación Pro Arte Córdoba, and duo Isas-Kwiek, among others.

The Liszt Sonata was dedicated to Schumann in return for Schumann’s dedication of his Fantasie op 17 (published 1839) to Liszt.A copy of the work arrived at Schumann’s house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium.His wife Clara did not perform the Sonata as according to scholar Alan Walker she found it “merely a blind noise”.It was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854 and first performed on January 27, 1857 in Berlin by Hans von Bulow .It was attacked by the critic Eduard Hanslick who said “anyone who has heard it and finds it beautiful is beyond help”.Brahms reputedly fell asleep when Liszt performed the work in 1853.However, the Sonata drew enthusiasm from Wagner following a private performance of the piece by Karl Klindworth on April 5, 1855.Otto Gumprecht of the German newspaper Nationalzeitung referred to it as “an invitation to hissing and stomping”.It took a long time for the Sonata to become accepted into the concert repertoire, because of its technical difficulty and negative initial reception due to its status as “new” music. However by the early stages of the twentieth century, the piece had become established as a pinnacle of the romantic repertoire.

As Victor was right to point out the first page includes the entire ingredients of the sonata where their transformation forms the framework of a new form that was later to be taken up by Wagner and many others.Victor played with remarkable intelligence and sense of architectural shape.Carefully noting Liszt’s very precise dynamic markings of piano,mezzo forte and forte so often overlooked by pianists ready to vent their passion and virtuosity on a work that contains much more than just that.

Victor’s musicianship was allied to a technical control and kaleidoscopic sense of colour.There were moments of great passion too from this fiery young Spaniard but always with such care of balance that allowed the musical line to be shaped so clearly and not submerged by technical hi jinx as a vehicle to show off lesser pianists ‘virtuosity’ .The ‘quasi adagio’ was played with great sensitivity but allowed to flow so simply as it led to a great passionate outpouring that was played with such architectural understanding.The fugato too was so clearly played as it gradually built up ‘ più crescendo’ and ‘ energico’ leading to the recapitulation and the final tumultuous octaves played with extraordinary command and sumptuous sound.The final remarkable bars were played with a sense of atmosphere as the final three chords disappeared into the distance – even here Liszt marks diminuendo so rarely noted but in Victor’s hands gave such meaning to what Hugh Mather described as a ‘towering’ performance.

Usually praised for his highly poetical, intense and original performances, Víctor Braojos studied his BMus (Hons) at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (Barcelona), supported by a scholarship by the Anna Riera Foundation. He later moved to London, where he pursued his Master in Piano Performance (Distinction and Concert Recital Diploma) and Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, working with Martin Roscoe and thanks to an Excellence Scholarship Award given by this institution. Over these years, he has completed his musical formation working with world-acclaimed performers such as Imogen Cooper DBE, Stephen Hough CBE, Robert Levin or Stephen Kovacevich, being chosen at the same time to join the roster of artists supported by renowned institutions, such as the Imogen Cooper Music Trust, Talent Unlimited and the Keyboard Charitable Trust.
He has won several prizes and awards in National and International Piano Competitions, such as the 1st Prize in the Catalunya Piano Competition (youngest winner in the 50 years of history of this competition), the 1st Prize in the Barcelona Piano Competition, the 1st Prize in the Girona Musical Competition or the 2nd Prize at the prestigious “El Primer Palau Music Competition”.
Along his career he has performed in several venues across Spain, the UK, Italy, France or Russia, among which we could remark concerts at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Palau Maricel de Sitges, the National Auditorium of Barcelona or the London Steinway Hall. Over the season 2021-22 he will make his début recitals at the Ribble Valley International Piano Week, Granollers Auditorium or 30, Pavilion Road Hall, a part from releasing his new CD, named Shreds of light.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/11/04/victor-braojas-at-wesleys-chapel-the-passion-and-delicacy-of-a-poet/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2021/02/03/victor-braojos-at-steinway-hall-new-artists-series-for-the-keyboard-trust/

A small but illustrious audience for Lisa Peacock’s series of lunchtime piano recitals in memory of Lady Solti.
Lorenzo Adamo was the pianist entrusted to play in the Solti Studio on the Maestro’s magnificent concert grand.The score of the St John Passion open as the Maestro had left it and his presence could certainly still be felt.

From the class of Norma Fisher and now in his final year of Masters with Alexander Romanovsky.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/04/13/romanovsky-a-miracle-in-the-eternal-city-the-reincarnation-of-richter-and-rachmaninov/
Lorenzo kept us enthralled with a Waldstein Sonata of such rhythmic tension and extraordinary technical command.I have seen the final octaves played with two hands – Serkin used to lick his fingers before playing glissando but Lorenzo remarkably played them as octaves with one hand!It makes me wonder how he would manage with the first piano concerto!But there was so much to admire in a performance where Beethovens precise indications had been scrupulously observed and incorporated into an interpretation of intelligence and architectural shape.Delius dismissed Beethoven as scales and arpeggios (Bach he described as knotty twine!).It is true that there are unrelenting technical challenges in the first and last movements that are not for the fearless.Lorenzo brought also great dynamic control and dramatic contrasts without altering the continuous rhythmic impetus that is the real key to this sonata.There were ravishing sounds in the Adagio molto that Beethoven calls simply an introduction to the final rondo. The original slow movement -Andante favori – he decided to keep as a separate work.The pedalling in the final rondo was played with an intelligence and understanding that brought a sense of luminosity to the beautiful theme that after many tumultuous interruptions of transcendental difficulty returns on a stream of wondrous sounds before the final excitement that conclude this key Sonata.After this there was the Appassionata as a new world opened up to Beethoven that miraculously he was able to share with posterity because it was a world that only he could hear in his head being by now totally deaf.

The Scriabin fourth Sonata was of a luminosity as it reached for the ‘star’ with passionate intensity and transcendental piano playing of quite athletic agility.This was Gilels’ Sonata with his sumptuous rich sound but Lorenzo too entered the same sound world of a beauty of velvet richness and luminosity added to a transcendental control and passionate intensity that was quite breathtaking in its sweep and drive.
The same qualities of dynamic rhythmic energy that made Solti one of the most revered and feared of conductors after Toscanini.

I almost forgot to mention the two encores offered to a very enthusiastic audience.Chopin’s Study op 10.n.8 and Kapustin’s study :Intermezzo op 40 n 7 played with the same relish and mastery that his teacher,Romanovsky had offered in Rome.Much more generous though with eight encores.Lisa Peacock our amiable hostess was looking at the time and no doubt thinking that a lunchtime concert might well last until teatime if she did not pull the plug after such a scintillating performance of Kapustin’s rumbustuous Intermezzo study.

A transcendental performance of Prokofiev’s extraordinarily evocative and overpowering eighth Sonata that even took the breath away from Mrs Hochhauser who remembers only too well the first performances in the west by Gilels and Richter.

Lorenzo Adamo is a pianist from Milan, Italy. He is twenty two years old and and since the age of four he has been passionate about music.His first teacher was Katya Genghini who taught him the basics of the piano and helped him achieve the first results, such as – among others – winning the first prize in the “Musica in luce” Competition in 2009 (with concert at the Teatro dal Verme of Milan), the second prize in the “American Protegé” in 2011 (with concert at the Carnegie Hall of New York) and the first absolute prize in the “Oleggio” Competition in 2012. Recognising his constantly growing passion and devotion to the instrument, in 2013 she encouraged him to apply to the Conservatory “G. Verdi” of Milan, where he got accepted in the class of Professor Silvia Rumi.

Five years later, in February 2019, Lorenzo graduated with first class honors, with a dissertation on Franz Schubert and his Piano Sonatas. He has always been particularly interested in receiving a culturally diverse and internationally comprehensive training: in 2018, he and his Trio were selected to represent Italy at the Kyoto International Music Festival in Japan. In 2019, after winning the first prize both in the “Riviera della Versilia” Competition and the first prize in the “Premio Rancati” Competition, he was determined to continue his studies in the multicultural and world-leading Royal College of Music in London. Lorenzo got accepted to study on the Master of Performance course with Professor Norma Fisher in September 2019.

Last year, he also started studying privately with Maestro Alexander Romanovsky, who will now be his Professor at the RCM together with Professor Fisher. In 2020, participating in live and online competitions in different countries, he won the first prize in the “International Krainev Competition”, the semi-finalist prize in the “Virtualoso Competition for young artists”, the second prize in the “W.A. Mozart Competition of Lugano” and the third prize in the “Rising Stars Online Competition of Berlin”.In October 2021, Lorenzo was selected to be the accompanist of the “Stauffer Center for Strings” in Cremona. Since then, he has worked with renowned musicians, such as: Volkhard Steude, Olga Volkova, Julian Rachlin, Sarah McElravy, Avi Avital and Vesko Eschkenazy.Presently, Lorenzo is one of the artists supported by the charity “Talent Unlimited”, that offers financial support and concert opportunities to talented musicians who need help in developing their careers.

The Solti Studio – Wednesday Lunchtime Recital Series -Spring 2022 In Memory of Lady Solti.https://cso.org/experience/article/3528/remembering-lady-solti

Wednesday 27 April at 1pm 

Thomas Kelly, piano

Schubert Sonata D.959 in A Major  

Medtner Fairytale Op.20 No.2 “Campanella” 

Medtner Canzona Mattinata Op.39 No.4  

Medtner Sonata Tragica Op.39 No.5  

Thomas Kelly has won prizes in a number of competitions in Europe and the UK, including Leeds in 2021. Since the pandemic restrictions in 2020, Thomas’ artistic activities include participating in all 3 seasons of the “Echo Chamber” an online concert series curated by Noah Max, and releasing 3 singles under the Ulysses Arts label on digital platforms. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/04/18/thomas-kelly-takes-florence-by-storm-music-al-british/

Wednesday 4 May at 1pm 

Lorenzo Adamo, piano 

Beethoven Sonata No.21 op.53 “Waldstein” 
Scriabin Sonata No.4 op.30 
Prokofiev Sonata No.8 op.84  

Lorenzo Adamo was born in Italy in February 2000. He recently graduated from the Royal College of Music gaining a Master of Performance with Distinction, where he studied with Professors Norma Fisher and Alexander Romanovsky.  Lorenzo has won numerous competitions. Since 2019, he has been supported by the charity Talent Unlimited. 

 

Wednesday 11 May at 1pm 

JunLin Wu, piano 

Chopin Polonaise Fantasy op.61 

Chopin Mazurka op.30 

Chopin Sonata no.2 op.35 

Scriabin Reverie op.49 

Stravinsky arr. Agosti Firebird Suite 

JunLin is a winner of several international piano competitions, including Rome and Shanghai. As winner of the Jaques Samuel Pianos Intercollegiate Piano Competition, he made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2018. Currently he is studying at the Royal College of Music with Professor Dmitri Alexeev. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/04/02/jun-lin-wu-upstages-elton-john-in-the-shadow-of-elgar/

 

Wednesday 18 May at 1pm 

Giordano Buondonno, piano 

Brahms 4 Ballades Op 10 

Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit 

Scriabin Sonata-Fantasy Op. 19 No. 2 

At the age of 19, Italian-born Giordano Buondonno won 1st first prize at the Clara Schumann Competition and 1st prize in the PianoLink Concerto Competition in Milan. He is currently studying for an Artist Diploma under the guidance of Sergio De Simone and Deniz Gelenbe at Trinity Laban.

Wednesday 25 May at 1pm 

Jacky Zhang, piano 

Bach Goldberg Variations 

Liszt Don Juan  

13 year old pianist and composer Jacky Zhang is prize winner of many international competitions, including London Open, Classic Piano Dubai, Vladimir Krainev in Moscow and EPTA Composition Competition. His interests also   include conducting as well as historical performance. Currently he is studying piano with Prof. Dmitri Alexeev and Jianing Kong, and composition with Prof.Kenneth Hesketh  

Wednesday 8 June at 1pm 

Rustem Hayroudinoff, piano 

WF Bach Fantasia in D minor, F19 

JC Bach Sonata in A major op.17 no. 5 

JCF Bach Sonata in E major 

  CPE Bach Sonata in F sharp minor WQ 52/4 

JCF Bach Sonata in E major 

Chopin Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante op. 22 

Described by Classic FM Magazine as a “sensationally gifted” musician of “stunning artistry”, Rustem Hayroudinoff has performed to critical acclaim worldwide.  The disc of the Rachmaninov Études-Tableaux was hailed as a ‘benchmark recording’ and became BBC Music’s Instrumental Choice of the Month, as well as being nominated for the Best Instrumental CD of the Year award. It was also selected as the finest existing version of these pieces by BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’.  

 

Wednesday 15 June at 1pm 

Emmanuel Bach, violin/Artur Haftmann, piano 

Beethoven Sonata No.7 in C minor, Op.30 No.2 

Ysaÿe Solo Sonata No.6 in E, Op.27 No.6  (Manuel Quiroga) 

Paganini Caprice No.24 

Chopin Nocturne in F sharp Major Op. 15, No. 2 

Chopin Ballade in A flat Major Op. 47 

Tchaikovsky Valse-Scherzo, Op.34 

Emmanuel has been awarded many prizes in international competitions He has performed in London’s major concert halls as well as across the UK and widely in Europe.  His recent third CD ‘Lennox in Paris’ was described by Pizzicato magazine as ‘an intense journey through time’. 

Polish pianist, Artur Haftmann has received numerous awards in international competitions, including 1st prize in the International Music Competition “Musicaclassica” in Moscow. Currently, upcoming concerts include a Grand Tour in China. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/12/15/artur-haftman-at-st-marys-for-the-glory-of-chopin/

Wednesday 22 June at 1pm 

Alexander Boyd, piano 

Scarlatti 4 Sonatas  

K208 A major N.61; K209 A major N.62;  

K87 B minor N.5; K262 B major N.82 

Soler Fandango R146 D minor 

Chopin Impromptu N.2 Op.36 and N.3 Op.51  

Ballade N.3 Op.47 and Ballade N.4 Op.52 

Barcarolle Op.60  

Alexander Boyd gave his first concert at the age of 11 and has since then performed at many of the world’s leading concert halls. He has been appreciated by audiences for the sensitivity and integrity of his interpretations.  He has also made numerous critically acclaimed recordings. 

Wednesday 29 June at 1pm 

Victor Maslov, piano 

Rachmaninoff 6 Etudes-Tableaux op.33 

Medtner Sonata-Reminiscenza op.38 

Godowsky 3 pieces from “Java Suite”: I. 

 Gamelan, X. In the Kraton, XII. A court pageant in Solo 

Russian pianist Victor Maslov has enjoyed success in international competitions, including the Rachmaninoff Competition in Moscow and the Classic Piano Competition in Dubai. He has performed throughout the UK, in Europe, Russia and at Carnegie Hall. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2021/06/05/victor-maslov-the-virtuous-virtuoso-virtually-at-st-jamess-piccadilly-4th-june-2021/

Bach’s great five part fugue was played with the profound weight of a true believer.After a gloriously flowing prelude of luminous sounds the great bass notes of the fugue subject were intoned with poignant meaning with playing of such clarity and architectural shape.Bach’s thoughts expressing a world of meaning with a mathematical precision of such genius and humanity.Arriving at a startling dissonance where the fugue seems to unravel as it finds such peace and its final resting place.It was the great understanding that Ariel brought to this masterpiece that was remarkable for his maturity .

It was to be the hallmark of the entire recital where every note was pregnant with meaning.Even Schumann’s rarely heard Allegro op 8 seemed to have a ravishing shape of burning intensity.Played with a romantic fervour and technical brilliance but with a sense of line and poetic meaning that I have always missed from lesser performers.

It was originally intended to be the opening movement for a never-completed sonata and was Schumann’s first major attempt at mastering a more expansive form showing the integration of virtuosic material into sonata form. In addition to the many colourful enharmonic modulations throughout the developmental sections, one notable feature of the piece is the transformation from the dark, B minor opening, to the beautiful B major ending.Nearly the entire first decade of Schumann’s output as a composer was dominated exclusively by the piano which he approached from a performer’s standpoint, often composing virtuosic works that demanded superb skills from the performer.The Allegro opens with a powerful cadenza serving as an introduction to the succeeding sonata form with a conclusion of brilliant arpeggios and energetic dotted rhythms.Alternating moments of beauty with feux follet streams of golden sounds of romantic beauty.Ariel played like a man possessed as he threw off the considerable technical challenges with consummate ease and showed us the true architectural line whilst pointing out the many passages of sublime beauty and passionate intensity.

It was the Kinderscenen,though,that was remarkable for its poetic simplicity with a reading of such immediacy and absolute authority.
It was of an originality where all the rhetoric of tradition had been shorn away and the bare bones were exposed as Schumann had intended.Scenes of childhood as seen through the innocent eyes of youth .A timeless reading that left us all breathless at the end with minutes of aching silence after the poet,Schumann,had spoken.It just demonstrated the spell that this exquisitely sensitive young man had cast today.’Of ForeignLands and People’ was played at a more flowing tempo than usual as it made the melodic line so clear and simple ,flowing like the introduction it is A curtain raiser that made one curious as to what was to be revealed next!

Ariel’s beautiful hand movements should be mentioned too as he seemed to paddle in serene waters that were to take us on a magical journey of discovery.’A strange Story’ opening with seemingly rather clipped rhythms but contrasted so well with the mellifluous legato bursts of melody that alternate and that were played with such a delicate sense of line.’Hare and Hounds’ was played with fleeting lightness and sense of ‘joie de vivre’ with a jeux perlé that seemed to pour so naturally from his fingers.’A Pleading Child’ was played with haunting beauty and sense of ravishing shape.There was great sweep to the melodic line with subtle counterpoints in a duet between the voices that was indeed ‘Quite Happy’.It led to ‘An important event’ that had such shape as it came into focus only to disappear as quickly as it had passed us by.Played with sumptuous rich sound but never moving away from the magic cloud of sound on which these miniature gems belong.

‘Dreaming’ was played with ravishing sound and a sense of balance where it’s many mellifluous strands were revealed with such natural beauty.It led to ‘By the Fireside’ where Schumann’s final impatience brings us back to the child’s world of simplicity.He rode ‘The Knight of the Hobby-horse’ with remarkable rhythmic energy and forward propulsion – a wake up call when things seemed to be getting almost too serious!Only momentarily as the beautifully poised melodic line of ‘Rather serious’ took us to the quixotic ‘Frightening’.It was the startling changes of character that Ariel brought to this remarkable piece that contrasted so well with the sublime beauty of his playing in the penultimate :’ The Child Falling Asleep’.The gentle clashing harmonies were played with poignant beauty as Ariel’s fingers seemed to be pointing us to the jewels that were sparkling so radiantly and the magic land that was to take us to the utter simplicity of ‘The Poet speaks’.Here the slow chorale was played with enviable control and a cadenza of such radiance that the final few utterances held us breathless with anticipation.The silences spoke even louder than the magical sounds .Ariel afterwards spoke of his admiration for Alfred Cortot performances of this and the Cesar Franck that was to follow.What could I say :Cortot is Cortot and you are you but a poet is always a poet!

What a surprise to hear Franck’s rather pompous Prelude Aria and Finale played with great authority and total conviction.Whereas the Prelude Chorale and Fugue that we heard two days ago from Jonathan Ferrucci was an exultation of a humble believer. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/05/02/jonathan-ferrucci-the-essence-of-music-with-aristocratic-intelligence-and-passion-at-st-marys/. The Prelude ,Aria and Finale is a declaration of faith where there is only God on high and not the God who was sent to redeem us.High church rather than the church of the people.Nevertheless a truly remarkable performance played with astonishing technical assurance and an impeccable sense of style but we were more astonished by the nobility and reverence than seduced by any subtle humble persuasion.There was a beautiful sense of balance from the very first notes and the great beauty of the entry of the tenor voice leading to such passionate almost Elgarian vehemence.It was played with overpowering conviction that the gentle prayer of the ‘poco ritenuto’ came as a relief as it built up with great agility to the triumphant March like transformation of the opening theme.The plain chant of the Aria was played with a luminosity of sound and serenity that Ariel conveyed with moving conviction.The sublime ending ‘dolce ma cantabile’seemed to be pointing on high until the rude interruption of the menacing bass rumbling of the finale.Here the triumphant transformation of the Prelude was exhilarating with streams of golden sounds that cascaded around the noble counterpoints that this master craftsman had depicted.There was a sublime change of key as the melody floated dolcissimo on streams of sound with some ravishing playing that almost reached the glorious heights of Franck’s other great masterpiece for the piano.It led to the gradual exultation of the main theme on glorious left hand octaves played with such nobility and grandeur in the greatest of the church chorale tradition but ,of course,alla Busoni or Liszt.The surprise was the gradual whispered finale reaching and almost attaining the heights that it had aspired to.A remarkable performance where the intelligence and musicianship of Ariel almost convinced me that this was undeniably a wrongfully neglected masterpiece.

In 2021, Ariel won third prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, and was a prize winner in the inaugural Young Classical Artists Trust (London) and Concert Artists Guild (New York) International Auditions. Over the last year Ariel has made his debut at Wigmore Hall and participated in the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, alongside renowned artists such as Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss. His recording of music by Schubert for Linn Records was released, and he gave live concerts (for release online) for the Vancouver Recital Society in Canada and the Banco de la República in Colombia. As soloist he performed Brahms Concerto No.2 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Concerto No.2 at the Royal Academy of Music. This season Ariel returns to give performances in the Miami Piano Festival and at Wigmore Hall, as well as recitals in Rome and across the UK, and performances with orchestras in Israel and in the US, playing concerti by Mozart and Brahms.Ariel has performed widely in Europe, previous highlights including recitals at the deSingel Arts Centre in Antwerp (stepping in for Till Fellner), Salle Cortot in Paris and a performance of Mozart’s Concerto, K.491 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Conductors whom he has in the past collaborated with include Yi-An Xu, Peter Whelan, Andrew Manze, and Trevor Pinnock. He regularly appears in concerts broadcast live on Israeli radio and television and on Radio France. Born in Jerusalem in 1997, in 2021 Ariel completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Ian Fountain, having studied with the late Hamish Milne. Prior to this, he studied at the High School and Conservatory of the Jerusalem Academy of Music, first with Lea Agmon, later with Yuval Cohen. Whilst there, he also studied violin and composition.An avid chamber musician, Ariel has collaborated with leading members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, as well as with eminent musicians such as Maria João Pires, Marina Piccinini, Charles Neidich, and Torleif Thedéen. Festival appearances include the Hvide Sande (Denmark), Ravello (Italy), Ausseer Festsommer (Austria), Bosa Antica (Sardinia) and Israel Festivals.Ariel has received extensive tuition from eminent artists such as Robert Levin, Murray Perahia, Imogen Cooper, Leif Ove Andsnes, Steven Osborne, and the late Leon Fleisher and Ivan Moravec. Awards include 1st Prize at the 2018 Grand Prix Animato Competition in Paris and 1st Prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition, as well as a finalist award at the Rubinstein Competition. Ariel is a Countess of Munster Recital Scheme Artist

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2021/10/14/ariel-lanyi-imogen-cooper-music-trust-the-trials-and-tribulations-of-a-great-artist/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/the-aristocratic-brahms-of-ariel-lanyi/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/razumovsky-academy-flying-high-with-the-birth-of-the-lanyi-lovell-jones-prodanova-trio/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2021/06/01/ariel-lanyi-flying-high-at-st-marys/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017ds9. Please listen you will not regret it

A monumental performance by Ariel Lanyi of Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’op 106 from Perth Concert Hall.Ravishing sounds combined with vigorous attack and dynamic contrasts.Caught up in the spell he cast with the Adagio Sostenuto I was not expecting the transcendental difficulties of the fugue to be played with such clarity but unexpectedly such beauty.You see Mr Delius knotty twine can be as embracing as a Bernini statue.

I remember Richter not happy with his performance in the Festival Hall sitting down and playing it again as an encore.

Annie Fischer has gone down in legend playing the fugue as an encore after giving a magnificent Beethoven recital standing in at a moments notice for an indisposed Louis Kentner.

André Tchaikowsky was memorable too and his discussions about the order of the movements was as stimulating and provocative as Hans Keller and an integral part of this great thinking musician.

Serkin too was unforgettable not only for the sublime sounds in the Adagio but for the energy and frenzy that seemed to keep him in a trance.He was still shaking,as we all were,on the earth shattering last chord.Lightning does not strike twice….but when it does it certainly leaves its mark!

Listening to Ariel today in the heat of the Mediterranean sun I just realised what a privilege it is to know that this great legacy is being perpetuated with such seriousness and humility by this young virtuoso.A younger generation who too often think that quantity rather than quality counts as they plough through the myriad of notes in yet another Rachmaninov 3 or Prokofiev 2

Probably the same amount of notes but Mr Beethoven puts them in a different order!

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/…/ariel…/

Tuesday 3 May 3.00 pm

Nice to be back in the Mecca for pianists in West London.
Especially when Jonathan Ferrucci plays Bach.It was the much missed Peter Uppard who had told me about his wondrous Bach at the Jacques Samuel’s piano competition six years ago.

Under the guidance of Angela Hewitt it has matured and he has become an ever more inspired interpreter of the genius of Bach.
Three toccatas ‘a playground of ideas’ to use Jonathan’s own words were played with a hypnotic rhythmic intensity and sense of improvisatory freedom that was quite remarkable.
Every note was given a just meaning of such burning intensity that the all to brief Adagio in B minor by Mozart became a startling contrast where so little could mean so much.
The bare opening notes where Tristan or even Schoenberg sprang to mind.

And a Prélude,Chorale and Fugue by Franck that was played with such red hot intensity and overwhelming commitment that even here it could have been Messiaen with the extreme exultation of a true believer.
Every note of the recital was so pregnant with meaning that the mutual concentration and sense of discovery created a tension that made my journey to Perivale an absolute imperative despite the superb streaming facilities that Dr Mather and his team offer with Roger Nellist at the helm today

The Toccatas for Keyboard, BWV 910–916, are seven pieces for clavier and although the pieces were not originally organized into a collection by Bach himself (as were most of his other keyboard works ) the pieces share many similarities, and are frequently grouped and performed together under a collective title.The toccatas represent Bach’s earliest keyboard compositions known under a collective title.The earliest sources of the BWV 910, 911 and 916 toccatas appear in an important collection of keyboard and organ manuscripts of various composers compiled by Johann Christoph Bach between 1707 and 1713. An early version of the BWV 912 (known as the BWV 912a) also exists in another collection compiled by Johann Christoph Bach known as the “Möller manuscript”, from around 1703 to 1707.This indicates that most of these works originated no later than Bach’s early Weimar years, though the early northern-German style indicates possible Arnstadt origin.

• Toccata in C-minor, BWV 911 (Toccata) Adagio (Fuga) Adagio(Fuga) Adagio / Presto
• Toccata in G-minor, BWV 915(Toccata)Adagio Allegro Adagio Fuga
• Toccata in D-major, BWV 912 Presto Allegro Adagio (no tempo indication) Con Discrezione Fuga

The three that Jonathan chose started with the glorious exultation of the C minor Toccata with the final Presto played in a very deliberate unrelenting way.I have never forgotten Martha Argerich opening her recital in Florence followed by the Liszt Sonata with the same unrelenting forward movement and almost chiselled non legato phrasing just as Jonathan today.The G minor Toccata was crystal clear with a continuous question and answer sometimes of great vehemence but full of ‘joie de vivre’.The fanfare opening of the D major Toccata and an unusually virile Adagio and recitativi led to the hypnotic toccata and the scintillating final acrobatics played with absolute clarity and rhythmic drive by Jonathan. The final flourishing chord seemed to come as a complete surprise as Jonathan tried to apply the break on such an exhilarating journey.Thirty minutes of music played in a masterly way with a clarity and an overall architectural shape that was remarkable and made an important opening statement from the very first notes.

The Adagio in minor K 540 Mozart entered it into his Verzeichnis aller meiner Werke (Catalogue of all my Works) on 19 March 1788 just three years before his death in 1791 at the age of 35.It is only 57 bars long plus repeats and the key of B minor is very rare in Mozart’s compositions; it is used in only one other instrumental work, the slow movement from the Flute Quartet n.1 in D major K.285 and as Jonathan said in his introduction that after the radiance of the Bach we were now submersed into a world of ‘sturm und drang’.Drama and tears indeed as the Adagio is a startlingly original work where so few notes could mean so much.Jonathan played them with ravishing tone and impeccable timeless phrasing where the four times repeated three chord call to arms just opened the door for ever more poignant thoughts .Even the question and answer between the bass and the treble was played with such aristocratic sense of style and added an operatic touch to the whispered confessions of meaningful simplicity that makes one wonder whether Mozart had some premonition of his fate just a few years on.

Prélude, Choral et Fugue, FWV 21 was written in 1884 by César Franck with his distinctive use of cyclic form.Franck had huge hands (evinced by the famous photo of him at the Ste-Clotilde organ), wide like the span of emotions he conveys,capable of spanning the interval of a 12th on the keyboard.This allowed him unusual flexibility in voice-leading between internal parts in fugal composition, and in the wide chords and stretches featured in much of his keyboard music Of the famous Violin Sonata’s writing it has been said: “Franck, blissfully apt to forget that not every musician’s hands were as enormous as his own, littered the piano part (the last movement in particular) with major-tenth chords… most mere pianistic mortals ever since have been obligated to spread them in order to play them at all.”

The key to his music may be found in his personality. His friends record that he was “a man of utmost humility, simplicity, reverence and industry.” Louis Vierne a pupil and later organist titulaire of Notre-Dame, wrote in his memoirs that Franck showed a “constant concern for the dignity of his art, for the nobility of his mission, and for the fervent sincerity of his sermon in sound… Joyous or melancholy, solemn or mystic, powerful or ethereal: Franck was all those at Sainte-Clotilde.”In his search to master new organ-playing techniques he was both challenged and stimulated by his third and last change in organ posts. On 22 January 1858, he became organist and maître de chapelle at the newly consecrated Sainte Clotilde (from 1896 the Basilique-Sainte-Clotilde), where he remained until his death. Eleven months later, the parish installed a new three-manual Cavaillé-Coll instrument,whereupon he was made titulaire.The impact of this organ on Franck’s performance and composition cannot be overestimated; together with his early pianistic experience it shaped his music-making for the remainder of his life.

There is a radiance to the Prélude ,Chorale and Fugue that although in B minor I found very little of the promised despair or human suffering in Jonathan’s passionately committed performance.The etherial opening was like a ray of sunlight after the Mozart .The passionate freedom of the following passages marked ‘ a capriccio’,and later the voicing,was of a clarity and poignancy where Franck’s organ texture on the piano was given the same shape and colour that Jonathan had brought to the contrapuntal strands in Bach.The added bass note giving a subtle gentle stop before the rather pompous opening of the chorale which contrasted so well with the feather like arpeggiando chords that followed.Gradually growing with more sumptuous sound as Jonathan gave great prominence to the bass on which the chorale could float so magically.The improvised opening of the fugue was played with astonishing technical brilliance and excitement before the utter simplicity of the fugue subject.Building up with ever more intensity and virtuosity with Jonathan’s final airborne flourish before the passionate intensity that Franck marks ‘come una cadenza’.There was a sublime radiance to the sound as Jonathan allowed the opening motif to float so magically on the wondrous fluid sounds that Franck creates out of his searching cadenza.There was some transcendental playing of great virtuosity in the build up to the final climax until the explosion of joy in the mellifluous coda.The final added bass note B just gave the perfect sense of grandeur to a quite remarkable performance.

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. è 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.

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