The music of Oswald in the Brazilian Embassy last night .What a discovery when played with such scintillating virtuosity and ‘joie de vivre’ by Tyler Hay and the Mitsu Trio.
200+ 30 has proven once again to be a winning combination with the Brazilian Embassy and the Keyboard Trust anniversary celebrations in perfect harmony.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/10/06/brazil-200-celebrations-with-the-keyboard-charitable-trust-on-wings-of-song/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/03/29/brazil-200-and-keyboard-trust-30-a-collaboration-born-on-wings-of-brazilian-song/

In this concert, The Mitsu Trio remembered and celebrated Oswald’s legacy, with a selection of his most distinguished pieces, including Il neige, which gave Oswald his spectacular victory in the Composition Contest promoted in 1902 by Le Figaro in Paris, where the Brazilian composer beat more than 600 other competitors.

Henrique Oswald (1852-1931) was recognised as the most accomplished Brazilian composer before Heitor Villa-Lobos. He wrote in almost every genre and was the leading pioneer of chamber music in Brazil.Trained in Europe, being especially influenced by French, German and Italian traditions, he spent several years in Florence, where he taught at the Musical Institute and met Liszt and Brahms. Back in Brazil in the early 1900s, he directed the newly founded National Institute of Music, tutoring and inspiring a generation of pianists and composers, being one of the most influential figures in Brazilian musical life in the first decades of the 20^th century.

Henrique Oswald
Elegia (for cello and piano)
Feuilles d’Album Op.20 No. 4 – Désir Ardent (Allegro con fuoco)
Six Morceaux Op.4 No.5 – Barcarolle
Il Neige
Album Op.33 No.3 – Pierrot
Album Op.36 No. 2 – Pierrot se meurt
Polonaise Op.34 No.1
Piano Trio Op.9

The Mitsu Trio was formed in 2020 and, for this concert, comprises British pianist Tyler Hay, Japanese cellist Akito Goto and Russian-born British violinist Aleem Kandour, virtuoso rising talents who met at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and continued their studies in major UK conservatoires. Between them they have performed as chamber musicians and soloists in distinguished venues across the UK including Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

TYLER HAY has been awarded prizes in many competitions, including First Prizes in the keyboard section of the Royal Overseas League and the Liszt Society Competition and just last week First Prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition.He has released CDs of Liszt’s piano music, John Ogdon’s unpublished works and Kalkbrenner’s Etudes Op.143, available on the Piano Classics label and have all received critical acclaim. As well as having given concerts in Spain, Italy, Germany, Cyprus and South Africa, Tyler continues to perform regularly in the UK as both a soloist and chamber musician.

AKITO GOTO has appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the London Mozart Players, Windsor and Maidenhead Symphony Orchestra and Orpington Symphony Orchestra. He has given solo and chamber performances in major concert halls around the world including the Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo and  and Wigmore Hall in London. He has won numerous prizes and awards, including First Prize in the Japan Player’s Contest, and he was also the youngest winner of the Izuminomori Cello Contest. Akito recently received a generous scholarship from the Raphael Sommer Music Scholarship Trust.

ALEEM KANDOUR has performed at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and Buckingham Palace. As an orchestral musician, Aleem performs regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and the Bath Festival Orchestra. He has been awarded several prizes including First Prize in the Mozart Junior Competition. In 2019, he became a violin tutor at Prince’s Gardens Preparatory School in London. In 2021, Aleem was selected to become one of the Ambassadors for the Benedetti Foundation.

Oswald was born in Rio de Janeiro.His father was a Swiss-German immigrant and his mother from Italy. The family name was changed from “Oschwald” due to concerns of discrimination. In 1854 the Oswald family moved to São Paulo. His mother taught music privately to aristocrats and by age twelve he had his first recital. In São Paulo, he also studied with Gabriel Guiraudon. His “farewell recital” occurred at age 16, after this he went to study in Europe spending several years in Florence.In 1902 he won a piano composition competition sponsored by Le Figaro with a piece Il neige!..(“It’s snowing!”).He then left his family in Europe (they moved to Brazil much later) and from 1903 to 1906 directed the Instituto National de musica in Rio de Janeiro. He also served as Brazilian consul in both The Hague and Genoa.He died in 1931, just several days after his birthday festivities.

Oswald’s best-known compositions today are numerous small pieces for piano (usually arranged by him into small collections). However, he was a prolific composer of chamber music: his list includes a violin sonata, 2 cello sonatas (op 21 and 44),3 piano trios, 2 piano quartets (op 5 and op 26 )a piano quintet op 18,4 string quartets (op 16,17,39,46) and a string octet. For orchestra he wrote a suite, a sinfonietta and a symphony. There are also two concertos by him, one for piano, another for violin. Concerning vocal music, he composed three operas (La Croce d’oro,Il Neo and le Fate ) ,a mass and a requiem. By the time of his death, his major works remained unpublished, a fact that contributed much to the his neglect for half a century.His work fell into disfavour after the “Semana de Arte Moderna” manifesto, but has experienced something of a revival recently. In late 1970s Brazilian musician José Eduardo Martins began his struggle to revive Oswald’s output. In the last 30 years he published some of his compositions and recorded many of his major works along with piano miniaturesAmong his recordings is Oswald’s Piano Concerto in an originally arranged chamber version (piano with string quintet). Another Oswald pioneer is pianist Eduardo Montero,whose thesis was dedicated to the composer.

Thursday 1 December 3.00 pm

A superb recital from a great artist.
From the first note to the last his supreme natural artistry kept us on the edge of our seats as he guided us through a world of colour,style,passion and intelligence with a technical and musicianly assurance.It made this quite simply one of the finest recitals that I have ever heard from the many masterly recitals in the mecca of pianists that is St Mary’s.In fact a Master of Masters and it just confirmed my opinion from the last times I heard him .

Scarlatti’s F minor sonata where the delicacy and luminosity of his sound created a musical line that was mesmerising.It transformed a bauble into a masterly gem of great weight and unusual importance.Repeating each episode with very subtle ornamentation that just added intensity to the poignancy of this seemingly simple sonata.

Mozart’s much loved but too often badly played F major Sonata was reborn in Andrzej’s sensitive hands.From the first note it was played with a rhythmic energy and an operatic sense of character with a charm and grace allowing the music to unfold so naturally.A clarity and precision but above all a luminosity and radiance that allowed the music to speak with a directness and simplicity that made Schnabel’s famous dictum so apparently true.
A child like simplicity that can be so difficult to attain as we are contaminated by life.There was beauty to the Adagio where his natural flowing movements and caressing of the keys made for refined music making where every note and every phrase was to be cherished.
Pure opera was the last movement as it burst onto the scene with irresistible fervour where one could envisage the different characters taking the stage one after the other.Of course the genius of Mozart had a secret or two up his sleeve and the surprise quiet ending was thrown off with breathtaking nonchalance.A sense of style that allowed clarity and precision but also colour and shape that brought Mozart vividly to life with an invigorating freshness and ‘joie de vivre’.

Kreisleriana burst onto the scene with driving energy and passionate involvement.
Precision too with some trecherous leaps that were negotiated as a musician not a technician!The central episode was beautifully mellifluous but still part of an architectural whole that made the return of the first episode so inevitable.
The subtle colouring and legato of the second movement was a technical feat that is rarely encountered in what is one of the most difficult movements to play convincingly and above all to allow the music to speak with the same inflection as the human voice.An octave that is made of two separate voices as today is rarely heard which can make this movement seem overlong and rather ponderous in lesser hands.
There was great rhythmic energy in the first episode and a passionate sweep to the second.
The fleeting beauty of the central episode of the third movement was ravishingly beautiful and contrasted so well with the rhythmic impulse of the opening.The passionate outpouring of the coda was breathtaking in its wild abandon.
The fourth ,a prayer of hope,was played with aristocratic weight,a feeling that every note had an infinite number of gradations as the beauty of his hand movements were testimony enough of the kaleidocopic range of sound that was in his fingertips.
The quixotic fifth was played with lightness and drive before the gentle musings of the sixth.There was a quite magical transition and ravishing beauty to the final bars with tenor colourings like jewels sparkling deep in the soul.
The seventh usually an excuse for virtuosity and speed was here played with clarity but without any heaviness.Of course the central episode was played with fearless technical prowess which passed unobserved as his musicianship was concerned with architectural shape and style rather than showmanship.The staccato chords came as a surprise until he gradually added colour and weight that made the contrast so movingly poignant.
There was a lightness in the eighth where the staccato right hand made the long legato of the left so disturbingly right.There was a startling contrast with the long legato sweep of the first episode and the passionate outpouring of the second as the lightness returned with ever more present legato long held notes before the end with the light notes just dancing their way into the depths of the keyboard.
An extraordinary performance of a work that is so difficult to hold together as one and give at the same time an architectural shape to so many differing multicoloured episodes.
In so many of Schumann’s works his split personality of Floristan and Eusebius are only the components of a whole.

The opening of Chopin’s Andante Spianato was like a great painter with a brush about to delicately add colour to his canvas.There was ravishing beauty with the same sense of balance that I have only ever heard from Brailowsky or Stefan Askenase.A fluidity and clarity with ornaments played with jewel like precision and sparkling beauty.There was a delicacy and beauty to the mazurka episode that entered as a whisper rather than the more usual brass band!
But of course here is an artist of great sensitivity and astonishingly refined technical preparation.The Polonaise just sprang from his fingers after the short orchestral introduction.There was brilliance and a freshness as the music unwound with jeux perlé ease and shape.His wonderful well oiled fingers gave an ease and fluidity to all that he did and he knew too when to be a showman in a work that Chopin would have astonished and seduced the noble ladies with in the fashionable Paris salons.
I have heard some wonderful Chopin from artist such as Ashkenazy,Barenboim or Fou Ts’ong so I do not think because Andrzej is Polish he automatically understands the composer better than others.
Fou Ts’ong likened the sentiment in Chopin’s music to the same sentiment in Chinese poetry.You see the soul is universal and knows no barriers!
Chopin spent most of his life in Paris where his refined sensibility and artistry could find it’s ideal milieu to grow and mature.Of course there was deep inside him the nostalgia for his childhood and Polish roots.
But Chopin’s is such refined music it takes a great artist to have all the complex facets to make the music live with aristocratic sentiment and musical intelligence.Andrezj has these components and happens to be Polish che ‘non guasta’ – which does no harm!Rubinstein was the prime example before him of course. And who like Chopin spent his formative years in Paris a long way from his homeland.

Andrzej Wierciński is a semi finalist of the XVIII International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2021. Over the last decade Andrzej has earned an impressive string of awards at prestigious Polish and international piano competitions – most notably winning 1st Prizes at: the International F. Chopin Competition “Golden Ring” in Slovenia (2014), the International F. Chopin Competition in Budapest (2014), the International Neapolitan Masters Competition in Naples (2018), the First ViennaInternational Music Competition (2019), the International Piano Competition in Saint-Priest in France (2019) and the 46th Polish F. Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Those prizes have included many concert engagements abroad, golden medals and cooperation with recording labels in Europe and the Far East, as well as gaining for Andrzej an expanded following of listeners to his music. For example, during the visit to Japan in 2015 of the President of Poland (H. E. Bronisław Komorowski), Andrzej played a Chopin recital in Tokyo in the presence of Princess Masako Owada. In 2015 the KAWAI company invited him to play in Asia whilst in 2019 Andrzej performed a special recital for the Cobbe Collection Trust of historic instruments at Hatchlands Park in the UK, then playing on the 1845 Erard used by Thalberg. He has played concerts in most European countries – including several in the UK – as well as in Canada, Japan and Indonesia. He has performed at significant venues throughout Holland – Het Concertgebouw, and in Slovak Philharmonic and in Warsaw at the Łazienki Królewskie (Chopin’s statue). Andrzej has also collaborated with the best orchestras in the country, such as the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In developing his music career Andrzej has taken part in international master courses conducted by eminent pedagogues such as Michel Beroff, Dmitri Alexeev, Akiko Ebi, Andrzej Jasiński, Lee Kum-Sing, Anna Malikova, Dang Thai Son. He has also benefited from invaluable advice and encouragement from Daniil Trifonov. Andrzej Wierciński holds Artistic Scholarships from the Sinfonia Varsovia Foundation, the Krystian Zimerman Scholarship and the YAMAHA Foundation. In 2016 he released his first CD (of works by Chopin, Schumann and Scarlatti).

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/05/26/andrzej-wiercinski-at-st-marys-the-making-of-a-great-artist/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/08/16/andrzej-wiercinski-in-poland-from-the-ridiculous-to-the-sublime/

Tuesday 29 November 3.00 pm

Some superb playing from Noah Zhou of great musicianship and astonishing technical prowess.
An encore of Chasse Neige where virtuosity and poetry are combined in a tone poem of delicacy and passion.It was here that all we had heard before was summed up in this the last of Liszt’s Transcendental Studies.Musicianship,control,passion and fantasy all played with natural fluid movements of ease and grace.

An encore after an astonishing performance of Liszt’s Norma Fantasy where the funabulistics that Liszt requires were played with sumptuous sound and astonishing ease.The drama he brought to the opening fanfare with the drum roll opened the door for one of the greatest of Liszt’s paraphrases.It was full of conflicting emotions and ravishing beauty.The final combination of the two main melodies was played at astonishing speed and with such radiance after cascades of notes had swept across they keyboard with the melodic line amazingly appearing in the middle of these streams of golden sounds.

Liszt undertook the challenge of diluting Bellini’s opera Norma into a 15 minute solo piano work in 1841. The work easily equals the dramatic impact of the original opera through Liszt’s dynamic and highly virtuosic writing. No less than seven arias dominate Liszt’s transcription of Norma which are threaded together to create a nearly continuous stream of music.It is probably for dramatic reasons that Liszt ignored the famous aria ‘Casta Diva’ (which Thalberg used as the basis for his fantasy) a triumph of understanding of Bellini’s masterpiece.The title role of Norma is often said to be one of the hardest roles for a soprano to sing, and this adds to the drama and intensity of the music. “Norma, a priestess facing battle against the Romans, secretly falls in love with a Roman commander, and together they have two illegitimate children. When he falls for another woman, she reveals the children to her people and accepts the penalty of death. The closing scenes and much of the concert fantasy reveal Norma begging her father to take care of the children and her lover admitting he was wrong.”

His musicianship had been evident from the opening notes of the Clementi sonata that he played with elegance and style with streams of notes that flowed so mellifluously from his well oiled fingers.The Presto too was played with great delicacy and rhythmic drive.

Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi (23 January 1752 – 10 March 1832) was an Italian composer,pianist,teacher and conductor ,music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer, who was mostly active in England.Encouraged to study music by his father, he was sponsored as a young composer by Sir Peter Beckford who took him to England to advance his studies. Later, he toured Europe numerous times from his long-standing base in London. It was on one of these occasions, in 1781, that he engaged in a piano competition with Mozart.On 12 January 1782, Mozart reported to his father: “Clementi plays well, as far as execution with the right-hand goes. His greatest strength lies in his passages in 3rds. Apart from that, he has not a Kreutzer’s worth of taste or feeling – in short, he is a mere mechanic.” In a subsequent letter, he wrote: “Clementi is a charlatan, like all Italians. He marks a piece presto but plays only allegro.”Clementi’s impressions of Mozart, by contrast, were enthusiastic saying of Mozart: “Until then I had never heard anyone play with such spirit and grace. I was particularly overwhelmed by an adagio and by several of his extempore variations for which the Emperor had chosen the theme, and which we were to devise alternately.”In 1810, Clementi stopped performing in order to devote his time to composition and to piano making. On 24 January 1813, together with a group of prominent professional musicians in England, he founded the “Philharmonic Society of London”.Meanwhile, his piano business had flourished, affording him an increasingly elegant lifestyle. As an inventor and skilled mechanic, he made important improvements in the construction of the piano, some of which have become standard.In 1826 he completed his collection of keyboard studies, Gradus ad Parnassum, and set off for Paris with the intention of publishing the third volume of the work simultaneously in Paris, London, and Leipzig returning to London in the autumn of 1827.He moved with his wife Emma (née Gisborne) and his family to the outskirts of Lichfield,and rented ‘Lincroft House’ on the Earl of Lichfield`s Estate from Lady Day 1828 until late 1831. He then moved to Evesham where he died on 10 March 1832, after a short illness, aged eighty. On 29 March 1832, he was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.Accompanying his body were three of his students: Johann Baptist Cramer, John Field and Ignaz Moscheles. He had five children, a son Carl by his wife Caroline (née Lehmann) who died soon after his birth and the others, Vincent, Caecilia, Caroline, and John Muzio with his wife Emma.

The Beethoven Sonata op 22 was played with an understanding of the architectural shape and style.Already there was from the first notes the differing character of the fleeting opening rhythmic comments answered by the beautifully shaped melodic line .There was a driving rhythmic insistence in the development dissolving into the opening melodic line now in the bass where there was a constant flow of notes played with a superb sense of balance .
The Adagio con molto espressione was played with aristocratic weight full of poignancy.It was this movement that a critic had said of Richter’s magical performance that it was inexistent but that was certainly not the case today.A beautiful cantabile on a throbbing bass making the sudden pianissimo of the central section so astonishing.There was elegance in the Menuetto and a fluidity of the trio that was in perfect harmony without any exaggeration.The gentle pastoral rondo was allowed to unfold so naturally contrasting with the drama of the central episode before the gentle fluidity of the final pages that flowed so easily from the hands of a true artist.

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in B flat major op 22 was composed in 1800, and published two years later. Beethoven regarded it as the best of his early sonatas, though some of its companions in the cycle have been at least as popular with the public.Sir Donald Tovey called this work the crowning achievement and culmination of Beethoven’s early “grand” piano sonatas. (The “grand” modifier was applied by Beethoven to sonatas with four movements instead of three.) Subsequent sonatas find Beethoven experimenting more with form and concept.

Born in London, British-Chinese pianist Noah Zhou has since established himself as one of the leading talents of his generation. He began learning piano at age 5 with Tra Nguyen before moving on to study with Hilary Coates. Currently, he holds the full fees Margaret Kitchin Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music where he studies with the Emeritus Head of Keyboard, Christopher Elton. He is also generously supported by the Eileen Rowe Musical Trust, a fund headed by Vanessa Latarche, Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music. In 2018, Noah was awarded the prestigious Duet Prize for Best Young Instrumentalist by the Royal Philharmonic Society of Great Britain, before going on to be awarded the top prize at the first edition of Coach House Pianos’ UK National School Piano Competition a year later. He was awarded the Third prize and Bronze medal in Kiev at the 2019 International Horowitz Piano Competition (edition XII), where he was also awarded the Jury’s Special Prize for the best interpretation of a solo Ukrainian Work. Following this, he was invited to perform live on the Ukrainian Radio Channel ‘Aristocrat’, and his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 2 was featured on national Ukrainian Television. Later that same year he was also named as one of six finalists in the Manchester International Concerto Competition (edition VI). Noah frequently performs in concerts, and has appeared at many venues all over Europe, including London’s St John’s Smith Square, Southbank Royal Festival Hall, BBC Hoddinott Hall and Steinway Hall (UK), Kiev’s Philharmonia Hall (Ukraine), Gothenburg’s Operan and Konserthuset (Sweden), Budapest’s Danube Palace (Hungary) and Bayreuth’s Steingraeber Kammermusik-Saal (Germany). He was worked with many orchestras, including the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, the Danube Symphony Orchestra and the Manchester Camerata, and similarly has performed under the batons of conductors such as Vitaliy Protasov, András Deák, Ronald Corp and Stephen Threlfall. As a growing talent, Noah has also participated in the masterclasses of many eminent figures of the musical world, including Leonel Morales, Andreas Weber, Pavel Gililov, Barbara Szczepanska, Pascal Devoyon, Craig Sheppard, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Imogen Cooper and Andreas Froehlich, to name a few.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/01/04/noah-zhou-at-st-marys/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/07/01/hao-zi-yoh-the-luminosity-and-delicacy-of-a-great-artist-at-cranleigh-arts/

I can do no more that repeat my impressions just a month ago in the mecca of pianists in Perivale.A message of simplicity and beauty from the magic hands of this young pianist .

Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 15 in F major K. 533/494 (finished 3 January 1788)is in three movements :Allegro – Andante – Rondo: Allegretto.The Rondo was originally a stand-alone piece composed by Mozart in 1786 (Rondo No. 2, K. 494 ).In 1788, Mozart wrote the first two movements of K. 533 and incorporated a revised version of K. 494 as the finale, having lengthened it in order to provide a more substantial counterpart to the other two movements.There was clarity and a disarming simplicity to Hao Zi’s playing with crystal clear articulation and a rhythmic drive that was spellbinding from the first notes.Great elegance in the beautifully shaped Andante was played with an aristocratic sense of style.There was drama too but always within the confines of the overall shape of the movement that unlike Beethoven was just a passing cloud until returning to the serenity of the opening melodic line.The cascading arpeggios replying one to the other at the end were played with a refined delicacy that was absolutely ravishing.The purity of sound and child like simplicity gave such charm to her playing of the rondo.The ever more vivacious ornamentation just added to the rhythmic impetus with her sparkling jewel box full of kaleidoscopic colours.A coda deep in the bass in such reflective mood as the rondo theme just dissolved before our eyes with the magic that Hao Zi had recreated.

The Masques op. 34 by Szymanowski was written from 1915 to 1916.In 1914, the composer took refuge in his home village in Ukraine and remained there until the Russian Revolution. He had returned from a long stay in Europe, Sicily and North Africa, where he drew his inspiration for these years’ works. Here his style approached the Impressionism of Debussy.The Masques were written in a different chronological order than that of their publication, with Scheherazade initially completing the cycle. Tantris is a corruption of Tristan, taken from the myth of Tristan and Iseult and retold in a piece by Ernst Hardt where Tristan masquerades as a jester to meet his sweetheart.A fascinating glimpse of this still elusive composer.There were the capricious sounds of the jester alternating with passionate outpourings and a spectacular final flourish.of transcendental difficulty.Hao Zi seemed to delight in bringing such character to this very evocative piece.

Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-sharp minor op.19, also titled Sonata-Fantasy) took five years for him to write. “The first section represents the quiet of a southern night on the seashore; the development is the dark agitation of the deep, deep sea. The E major middle section shows caressing moonlight coming up after the first darkness of night. The second movement represents the vast expanse of ocean in stormy agitation.”There was sumptuous beauty of the opening statement with gentle meanderings of ravishing sounds and delicacy.A melodic line embroidered in Hao Zi’s hands with streams of gold and silver.The second movement with its cascades of notes was played with such ease as they slowly shape themselves into a sumptuous melody of romantic sweep.A tumultuous climax was allowed to die away to a mere whisper before the final triumphant chord.Bringing this extraordinary recital to an exciting conclusion.

Malaysian pianist Hao Zi Yoh was born in 1995 and began her music studies at the age of 3. By the age of 12, she already performed at Carnegie Hall as a gold medallist of the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition. Most recently, Hao Zi is selected as participant in the Preliminary Round of Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw 2021. In Malaysia, Hao Zi studied under Chong Lim Ng, who showed her the path into the classical music world. She explored composing and her composition “Bustling City and Peaceful Suburb” was selected to represent Malaysia at the Yamaha APJOC concert 2007. At the age of 14, she moved to Germany to study with Prof. Elza Kolodin at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. It was then she won top prizes in many international competitions including EPTA Belgium, Enschede, RNCM James Mottram (Manchester, 2012) and Concurso internacional de piano Rotary Club Palma Ramon LLull, Mallorca (Spain 2013). This led her to performing as soloist in festivals around Europe, USA, China, Japan and Malaysia. Besides, she also performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Nova Amadeus and Baleares Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, she came under the tutelage of Prof. Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music, London, generously supported by Lynn Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, Countess of Munster and Craxton Memorial Trust. She received 3rdPrize at Roma International Piano Competition, the Phillip Crawshaw Memorial Prize for an Outstanding Musician from Overseas at the Royal Overseas League Competition. She was also recipient of prestigious Martin Musical Scholarship Trust Philharmonia Piano Fellowships on the Emerging Artists Programme 2017/18. During her studies, she explored her relationship with music and her interest in creating sound colours: her MMus Project 2016 involved collaborating with percussionist Daniel Gonzalez to create a version of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit for Piano and Percussion. In her interpretation of “A Distant Voice of the Rainforest” by Chong Lim Ng, she included improvised extended piano techniques as well as improvised singing to draw the audience into the soundworld of a rainforest. Apart from this, Hao Zi also participated in creative outreach projects led by the Open Academy for children and elderly with Dementia, where she performed in Music for Moment Concerts at the Wigmore Hall. She collaborated with author-illustrator David Litchfield and improvised to his storytelling of award-winning book “The Bear and the Piano”. Hao Zi remains in close contact with the music scene in Malaysia. She has given talks, performances and masterclasses to the students of University of Malaya, Bentley Music and Persatuan Chopin in hope to share her experiences and help the younger generation. During the Covid-19 lockdown, Hao Zi held online livestream and fundraiser for St. Nicholas’ Home for the Blind, Penang, Malaysia. A Young Steinway Artist, Hao Zi is currently based in London and has performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Southbank Royal Festival Hall, Salle Cortot, Steinway Hall London, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (Malaysia) and Teatro Quirino (Italy). She is further developing her performing career being part of the Keyboard Trust London, Talent Unlimited. Hao Zi is also a piano tutor at King’s College London and gives masterclasses at Imperial College London. Currently she is studying with Martino Tirimo, after being awarded full scholarship to pursue an Artist Diploma at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, generously supported by the Bagri Foundation and Gladys Bratton Scholarship .She will tour Italy with the Keyboard Trust with concerts in Venice,Padua,Vicenza and Florence in January 2023

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/24/hao-zi-yoh-at-st-marys-the-simplicity-and-ravishing-beauty-of-a-great-artist/

Saturday 26 November 12 noon – 6 pm

The Liszt Society Annual Day and Competition

Some superb playing from this young ‘local lad ‘.His temperament and artistry were evident from the very first notes of Schubert’s Impromptu in E flat.The streams of notes that flowed from his fingers with such ease were shaped with infinite care and with a fluidity and washes of colour that contrasted with the second episode with its driving forward movement and dramatic ending.The beautiful G flat impromptu was played with a sumptuous sense of balance that gave the melodic line great poignancy as it rode on an accompaniment of such fluidity.It was the same ease and shape that he gave to the shimmering streams of notes in the fourth impromptu.A middle episode played with passion and temperament with the deep bass notes allowed to appear and sustain with great effect.

There was beauty too in Schubert’s Standchen with the shadowing of the melodic line in Liszt’s beautiful transcription played with ravishing sound and utmost delicacy.There was much busy weaving in Liszt’s Bagatelle sans tonalità with a technical control and architectural shape that made one wonder why this work is not more often heard in the concert hall.

It led without a break into the ‘Dante’Sonata that was given a performance that was remarkable for the sense of character he gave to each of the episodes.From the dramatic imperious opening to the hauntingly beautiful central episode.He gave the work a dynamic sweep with an extraordinary technical control that conquered all Liszt’s demonic passages with such ease.A vision of the whole work that gave weight and importance to the architectural shape and drama that was being enacted.Performances of superb technical control but above all of artistry and musical intelligence allied to a temperament that was totally convinced as it was convincing .

Connor Heraghty was awarded a place to study piano performance at the Purcell School of Music sponsored by scholarships from the government’s Music and Dance Scheme and the Mackintosh Foundation. He went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he completed the BMus (Hons), MMus and MPerf postgraduate degrees followed by the Artist Diploma (2019-21).Concerts have included recitals at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Venice, in London at the Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the Fields, St James’s Church Piccadilly, Milton Court Barbican, Drapers’ Hall and Buckingham Palace in the presence of Prince Charles. During his studies at the Guildhall Connor studied with Senior Professor of Piano, Joan Havill and he has also enjoyed participation in masterclasses given by such artists as Sa Chen, Peter Frankl and Stephen Hough.His studies all through have been supported by scholarships from the Guildhall Trust, Leverhulme Arts Trust, Countess of Munster and the Alec Beecheno Bursary Award. During 2021/22 Connor is the Guildhall Artist Fellowship holder of the keyboard department and is sponsored by Talent Unlimited

Shuri Masuda (Japan)
Danse macabre (Saint-Saëns) S.555
Rapsodie espagnole S.254

Thanh Nhat Vu (Vietnam)
Études d’exécution transcendante No.12 “Chasse-neige” S.139
Ballade No.2 in B minor S.171

Miriam Gómez-Morán (Spain)
Un sospiro S.144/3
Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude S.173/3

William Bracken (UK)
Sonetto del Petrarca 104 (from Années de pèlerinage II: Italie, S.161)
Sonetto del Petrarca 123 (from Années de pèlerinage II: Italie, S.161)
La lugubre gondola II S.200
Sposalizio (from Années de pèlerinage II: Italie, S. 161)

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/11/27/minkyu-kim-mastery-exults-to-the-glory-of-liszt/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2019/12/01/liszt-comes-to-perivale/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/04/18/minkyu-kim-a-pianistic-and-musical-genius-at-st-marys/

Miracles do happen even in Wimbledon especially when Louis Lortie is invited to ravish,seduce and astonish with his aristocratic authority and sensitivity.
Chopin Preludes of real weight where every one of these 24 ‘problems’ as Fou Ts’ong was won’t to say ,was given the time and shape to be moulded into gems in a crown of glorious poetic beauty.

Schumann having famously announced the arrival of Chopin with ‘Hats off ,gentlemen ,a genius’ when he heard Chopin’s op 2 ‘La ci darem la mano ‘ variations ,strangely exclaimed of the Preludes : “they are sketches, beginnings of études, or, so to speak, ruins, individual eagle pinions, all disorder and wild confusions.” Liszt’s opinion, however, was more positive: “Chopin’s Preludes are compositions of an order entirely apart… they are poetic preludes, analogous to those of a great contemporary poet, who cradles the soul in golden dreams…” Chopin wrote them between 1835 and 1839, partly at Valldemossa in Mallorca ,where he spent a disastrous winter of 1838–39 having fled Paris with George Sand and her children to escape the damp.Chopin himself never played more than four of the preludes at any single public performance.Nor was this the practice for 25 years after his death.Nowadays it is more usual to hear the complete set than singly and Alfred Cortot in 1926 was one of the first to record them all.

Each prelude in Louis Lortie’s hands was a miniature tone poem of such poignancy and weight that this much loved worked still could take us by surprise.The grandeur and overwhelming climax to the ninth really did take me by the scruff of the neck!Largo ,legatissimo ,forte ,molto tenuto but then fortissimo to piano and yet again fortissimo at the end.Chopin’s indications are very clear but rarely followed with real poetic intent with a feeling that there is a narrative and a real story to be told.That was after the disarming simplicity of the fourth in E minor starting with barely a whisper but then gradually the melodic line more chiselled with the beating pulpitations of the left hand with jewels every so often allowed to gleam with prismatic importance.The silence too before the last three chords where Louis put his hands in his lap until with aristocratic dignity he placed them on the keyboard and allowed them to make the final poignant statement of farewell. The third too with the fleeting lightness of a gently flowing breeze on which sailed quixotically the melodic line which even drew a smile on Louis face as he too was enjoying this voyage of discovery.A voyage that he told me he had not made for fourteen years .It was this sense of discovery and recreation that was so enrapturing for all those present.There was the gentle weaving of vibrating sounds in the fifth building in intensity until finally disposed of with two impatient chords.There was red hot passion in the eighth played with burning intensity and superb control.The almost flippant jeux perlé of the tenth where the cascading notes just interrupted a sombre bass chorale.There was beautiful fluidity in the eleventh where his richness of texture gave such depth to the simple melodic contour.The twelfth played with rhythmic intensity and excitement only burning itself out with two very final fortissimo chords.I have never heard the fourteenth played with such character and red hot temperament like water boiling over at a hundred degrees ending quietly and surprisingly abruptly as though he had just had enough of that mini drama!The ravishing sound and sumptuous rubato in the middle section of the gloriously mellifluous thirteenth was quite magical as was the opening of the fifteenth ‘Raindrop’ prelude.

Always in Louis’ hands the richness of texture created by balance and subtle use of the pedal made the gradual appearance of the menacing central section so inevitable as it moved to dissonant clashing chords of heartrending anguish.The brilliance of the B flat minor Presto con fuoco was quite breathtaking not only for it’s control but for the washes of colour and shape he gave the endless stream of notes above the insistent left hand which was not allowed to falter for a moment until the all too final chords where in desperation he threw his arms in the air with wild abandon!The seventeenth was bathed in pedal that gave it a richness of texture where the final deep bass pedal notes allowed the melodic line to float on this wave of sound.The cadenza type prelude of number eighteen was played ‘piano’ as Chopin asks but rarely gets!In Louis hands it built in a gradual more agitated crescendo towards the tumultuous split chords and a leap from on high to the insistent bass notes hammered out with anger before complete silence of desolation and the final tumultuous fortississimo chords ………what a statement that was today!It was strange though that the nobility of the C minor twentieth prelude came in three layers each an echo of the other until the final chord that Louis hammered home with rather too much vehemence,especially considering that Chopin had indicated it to be played piano.But Louis is a human being of great temperament which on the spur of the moment can sometimes overwhelm even him!The octave prelude,number twenty two, where the melodic line was firmly planted in the bass with passionate drive and intensity before the disarmingly mellifluous penultimate prelude – jeux d’eau indeed.The final Allegro appassionato needed no prompting for our magnificent guide.Streams of notes like rockets shooting off in all directions with the throbbing insistence of the bass and the chiselled intensity of right hand octaves before the final last three bass notes.Should they be three hammered home or one note made to vibrate three times depends on the temperamenti of the artist.Here we were in no doubt that we were in the hands of a master whose every move we had to follow .A pied piper who is above all a poet with a unique story to tell-cradling the soul in golden dreams.

The subtle colours and quixotic changes of character that he brought to Scriabin’s op 11 opened a whole new sound world as Scriabin commenced his long journey in a quest to reach the stars.The 24 Preludes, Op. 11 were composed between 1888–96,being also one of Scriabin’s first published works with M.P. Belief in 1897,in Leipzig, together with his 12 Études, Op. 8 (1894–95).They were modelled after Chopin’s and they also cover the 24 major and minor keys following the same key sequence: C major, A minor, G major, E minor, D major, B minor and so on, alternating major keys with their relative minors, and following the ascending circle of fifths.Louis created a sound world out of which grew these sometimes fleetingly personal musings.A cocoon of velvet on which lay these ravishing little gems.There was also great passion in the fourteenth and hints of Chopin in the misterioso sixteenth.Great virtuosity in the Allegro agitato of number eighteen with its dynamic left hand octaves and the passionate outpouring of the twenty fourth.From the first to the last a ‘halo’ of sound was created of velvet richness that gave such architectural shape to such fragments of delicate thoughts and disturbing dreams.

What better way to celebrate Cesar Franck’s 200th anniversary than with his Prelude Chorale and Fugue when it is played with such weight and authority.A prelude bathed in mysterious colours with clouds of pedal and a chorale that was allowed to shine on high above magisterial spread chords.The bold entry of the fugue and its climax on which the sublime opening theme in this cyclic work floated into the air of St John’s ,as it must have done in St Clotilde in Paris , creating a magic that was to lead to the triumphant and nobly emphatic exultation of a true believer.

Prélude, Choral et Fugue, FWV 21 was written in 1884 by César Franck with his distinctive use of cyclic form.Franck had huge hands ,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 pianistic mortals ever since have been obliged 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.

A standing ovation was treated to Chopin’s ‘Tristesse’ study op 10 n 3 ( having played all 24 Etudes in Paris last week )……’How sweet is your heart……,’what a question to ask after a masterly recital by one of the greatest pianists before the public today and also one of the nicest most considerate of people we at the Kew Academy are privileged to know.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/01/09/beethoven-la-chapelle-offers-an-ode-to-joy/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2016/11/05/louis-lortie-in-rome/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2018/02/28/the-fantasie-of-louis-lortie/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2018/02/06/the-funambulism-of-louis-lortie-in-rome/

‘Truly Bach is the Alpha of pianoforte composition and Liszt the Omega’.— Busoni, 1900

https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/live-streams/kirill-gerstein-busoni-and-liszt

• Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924). Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

For so many reasons the recital by Kirill Gerstein was a remarkable event.Firstly because the performances he gave were sensational for their musical authority and technical mastery.Even the seemingly obscure works by Busoni were brought to life by someone who had entered so fully into this mysterious sound world that was described by Gernstein with a quote from 1901 :’A musical sun that set at Liszt’s death and shines again through Busoni.‘It was on this very stage known then as Bechstein Hall that was inaugurated by Busoni and Ysaye on 31st May 1901.

It was fascinating to hear Gerstein talk about Busoni as he took us on a journey from his Elégie n.1 ‘ after the turning’ where Busoni had finally freed himself from the romanticism of his early piano concerto and was reaching out to find a new musical voice.It was the voice that Liszt hints at in his late works and is a voice made of mists and colours ,music without key signatures or bar lines.Again quoting Busoni:’Music is born free and to win back it’s freedom is it’s destiny.

And so it was with the Second Sonatina of 1912 ‘senza tonalità’ where all boundaries are removed.

The mists of sound of the Berceuse – 7th Elégie which Mahler had included in the orchestral version in his last concert.Mysterious sounds out of which emerge a melodic line ,similar in many ways to the searching sound world of late Scriabin.I have not heard it played in recital since Serkin included it with the Toccata in London in the 70’s (together with works by Reger in a programme including the Schumann Carnaval and Beethoven op 111).

The sixth sonatina that followed is known as the Carmen fantasy as it was Busoni’s recreation of the opera he had seen in Paris in 1920.The ending he even marks Andante visionario which of course it is.Like Liszt’s transcriptions or paraphrases this was someone who had understood the very core of the work and was able to transmit it’s inner message more clearly and in Liszt’s case sometime improve on it by changing the order of appearance.Thomas Ades was present in the audience and a close friend from whom Gerstein had recently commissioned a piano concerto (with funds from the prestigious Gilmore Trust).He describes Busoni’s music as a ‘suitcase with a false bottom’.The last piano work that Busoni wrote was the Toccata where he prefaces it with a quote of Frescobaldi:’Not without difficulty will we come to the end” Busoni had exchanged Frescobaldi’s ‘effort’for ‘difficulty’.Busoni’s last appearance at the now renamed Wigmore Hall was in 1922 when he was already suffering from a kidney disease no doubt due to his love of Champagne – he died two year later.Greatly disturbed by the First World War exclaiming :’The uninterrupted arch of our life has been interrupted!”These were only the fascinating introductions to the works that Gernstein played with such overwhelming mastery.Playing of such extraordinary sounds where notes did not seem to exist as we moved from one shimmering atmospheric planet to another.There were moments of breathtaking virtuosity as in the opening of the Carmen Fantasy taken at a breakneck speed but with such character and clarity – bright sunlight – before the amorous and ominous clouds overtook.

The toccata too was played with extraordinary authority and technical command.But it was the overall understanding of a sound world that was so remarkable and a sense of balance that could make the musical landscape of Busoni so clear.Indeed the world that Liszt so prophetically had pointed to at the end of his life suddenly came alive with sense and reason and just underlined the opening quote between the sun setting with Liszt and rising again with Busoni.A fascinating journey of pure music where the fact that we were listening to one of the great pianists of our time was secondary to his overwhelming musical authority.I think that could also be the way of describing Busoni himself!

What seemed so remarkable and indeed visionary in the first half of the concert opened the door for Liszt’s transcendental studies.They were played with the same sense of colour and architectural shape that the feat of being able to play so many notes paled into insignificance before the musical message that was being transmitted.I remember listening to Lazar Berman play the studies in one of his first concerts in the Festival Hall in London.There was such overwhelming sound that I quickly left the hall after the third one as my ears could just not take so much continuous sound.A school of playing where every note is played right to the bottom of the key ….and beyond ………exemplified by master virtuosi such Alexander Toradze and Denis Matsueev.A school that turns the piano back into a percussion instrument whereas Liszt and Busoni had pointed us into the direction of multicoloured sounds.A world where notes were transformed into shapes and atmospheres.A magic world where a box full of hammers and strings could be turned into a kaleidoscope of sounds and emotions.Was it not Thalberg who when he played was accused of having made a pact with the devil as it seemed he had three hands,such was the illusion he was able to create by the subtle use of the pedal,balance and technical control.It was Anton Rubinstein who had said that the pedal is the ‘soul’ of the piano We seem these day to have lost what was known as the ‘Matthay touch’,where every note could have at least one hundred different gradations.I remember Rosalyn Tureck who if the lid of the piano was not left shut before a concert she would spend time brushing off the minutest particles of dust that could impede her from weighing up each key.It was this that made Kirill Gernstein’s performance today so remarkable.

We were treated to twelve miniature tone poems where Paysage became just as significant as Der Wilde Jagd because the passionate involvement and sense of line was the same .

The ravishing beauty of Ricordanza – ‘a bunch of faded love letters tied with a pink ribbon’ to quote Busoni and the incredible fleeting impression of ‘Will o’ the wisp’ Feux Follets .One of the most technically challenging of all piano pieces was played with such a haze of sounds that blew across the keyboard with a left hand that was like a jewels sparkling in the night air.

Has Vision ever sounded as noble or ‘visionary’ with such sumptuous sounds?The whole opening page played by the left hand alone before the streams of sounds where even two hands did not seem enough!

The octaves in Eroica after the quixotic opening were like vibrations of sound and we were certainly not aware that they were the notoriously difficult octaves that we all wait for.

Mazeppa too was played with astonishing energy but also a sense of balance where everything was so clear as the excitement grew to breathtaking proportions.The central episode,sumptuous tenor melody with streams of golden sounds cascading around it.Has the Fminor study ever sounded more passionately abandoned or beautifully phrased with a coda of terrifying brilliance? Harmonies du soir was played like Paysage with ravishing sounds and passionate involvement.The final left hand arpeggios so reminiscent of Busoni’s own Berceuse with just a mist of sound on which floated the melodic line.

Chasse Neige ,considered by many to be the finest of the set ,was played with an extraordinary sense of balance and forward movement building up to a breathtaking climax before dying away with swirls of sound.It died away to end this extraordinary performance with a simple bare chord.

Minutes of aching silence at the end as the audience tried to come to terms with what they had experienced and Kirill Gernstein had a moment of recovery.

The only encore possible after that could be by Bach-Busoni!It was in fact the chorale prelude ‘Nun freut euch ,Lieben Christen gemein’ played at incredible speed but with such clarity,the melodic line miraculously emerging above the joyous outpouring of brilliance.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/03/04/kirill-gernstein-at-the-wigmore-hall/

His programme includes a work by the Russian composer Alexander Vustin, who died of Covid complications in 2020 at the age of 76. Unusual, too, are Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures – an extended cycle of 13 pictures all with a descriptive title, composed in 1889. His younger compatriot Janáček wrote his sole piano sonata in response to the death of a young carpenter killed while demonstrating for a Czech university in Brno.

Aleksandr Vustin (1943-2020). Lamento

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928). Piano Sonata 1. X. 1905 (‘From the Street’)

Valentin Silvestrov (b.1937). Bagatelle Op. 1 No. 3

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat Op. 110

INTERVAL

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904). Poetic Tone Pictures Op. 85

Leif Ove Andsnes on an all too rare visit to the concert platform these days reminded us of his absolute mastery and impeccable musicianship.

We hardly dared breathe as the first part of the concert unfolded in one long line from the whispered insistent left hand lament of Aleksandr Vustin .Creating the same magic as Bartok in his ‘Night Music’ with an atmospheric haze on which arose the chiselled purity of Messianic inspired bird calls.Leading so naturally into the beautifully mellifluous outpourings of Janacek’s Sonata of 1905.
An undercurrent of menace ever present and surfacing with dramatic outbursts of foreboding.The beauty of the lament of death was with luminous sounds of great intensity ending in a mere whisper out of which grew the simplicity of Silvestrov’s innocuous little Bagatelle.
Of course this was leading to the climax of this first great arch with a performance of Beethoven’s supremely mellifluous op 110.His extraordinary mastery and masculine beauty together with a sublime sense of balance where Beethoven’s indications were revealed with scrupulous naturalness and became as if heard for the first time.
The Allegro molto was played with driving energy and the end of the treacherous trio just drifted into oblivion as the Allegro was allowed to return.The silences too between the movements were pregnant with suspense as he placed the opening notes of the Adagio with heart rending perfection.

There was an underlying menace that he brought out too in the counterpoints under the sublime arioso with the whispered return of the inverted fugue that gradually arose out of the depths to the febrile joy on high.A final flourish of such force that needed some extra Beethovenian weaving between hands to produce the sumptuous richness of sublimation desired,
Not since the early appearances of Pollini have we heard such musicianly perfection.
Mastery and perfection brought the little known 13 Poetic Tone Pictures op 85 by Dvorak vividly to life.
What a wonderful collection of pieces,each one a miniature tone poem played with such imagination and colour.
Cascades of notes just flowed from his fingers like gold dust in Night Journey and what scintillating old style virtuosity in Joking.He brought contemplation and atmosphere to the Old Castle and the flowing melodic line of the Spring Song ended with deliciously subtle charm.
The frenzy of the Peasant’s Balllad was followed by a Reverie that flowed like a Mendelssohn Song without Words with an accompaniment of supreme delicacy.
Furiant indeed were the double octaves before the music box of the Goblins.The languid melodic line of the Serenade was greeted by the whispered energy of Bacchanalia.Tittle-tattle was indeed just that with such vivid story telling and there was bleak nobility in the Hero’s grave.And finally cascades of sumptuous notes accompanied the melodic line at the holy mountain.

What a discovery with an hour of music where time stood still as he held the audience in the palm of his hand with a voyage of discovery of works I have never heard in the concert hall before.
I know that the Dvorak Piano Concerto is a notoriously difficult work that Richter with Kleiber recorded many years ago.Rudolf Firkusny made a point of delving into the works of Czech composers and he too recorded the Dvorak Concerto with George Szell even before Richter.
But never could I have expected a discovery as today.
I had looked at Pletnev’s programme this year in Perugia of Brahms Intermezzi alternating with the Dvorak op.85 and thought it to be one of the eccentricities of a pianist who is infamously unpredictable.
But listening today to these 13 beautiful pieces I certainly hope they will be included in the future programmes of other pianists not only the sometimes genial Pletnev
An encore of a savage dance by a Russian composer whose name I did not catch built up to an enormous climax of sumptuous sounds and brought the audience to their feet.

Interesting to note that he has a specially made stick to hold the piano lid up higher than usual which obviously gives more resonance to the sound.In fact it was his mastery of tone production that was so noticeable today

Tuesday 22 November 3.00 pm 

Some very refined playing of great musicianship.A scintillating Haydn with ornaments that sparked and shone with such purity and freshness.An Allegro that was played with exemplary clarity and some subtle changes of register with a purity of sound and well oiled fingers.Lacking legato and shape that was obviously what Haydn had to accept on the instruments of the day but on the piano and with Gabriele’s temperament perhaps she could have allowed herself a little more pedal to add a greater sense of shape and beauty within the phrase.The Menuet was played with a touching simplicity and purity of finger legato which contrasted with the drama of the trio which again could have been helped by a touch of pedal.However it made the reappearance and the simplicity of the Menuet even more poignant.The presto was a tour de force of clarity and rhythmic energy to the last mighty statement in octaves and the two tongue in cheek final chords.An extraordinary finger technique allied to a musicianship and sense of historic style where she could discreetly added a touch of pedal to give more colour especially to the repeated notes in the Presto.Whilst rhythmically exhilarating they lacked a sense of direction due to their similarity and a more horizontal and less verticale approach would have allowed her more flexibility.However a remarkable performance where she preferred to look backwards to the harpsichord rather that forwards to the piano forte that was just on the horizon in the 1770’s.

Her beautiful lyricism in Prokofiev’s early fourth sonata was overshadowed by it’s ominous clouds and deep brooding bursting into the Poulencian joie de vivre of the finale.There were spine chilling ornaments in the opening meanderings of the Allegro molto sostenuto.Here she allowed herself full reign of the pedal and it gave a sense of colour and ease that allowed the music to unfold so naturally to the final decisive chords.There were deep bass chimes at the opening of the Andante assai that Prokofiev marks serioso before opening up to vibrating chords on which the melodic line floats so magically.She brought ravishing beauty to the tranquillo e dolce episode before the absolute dead wooden chords and a momentary respite.It contrasted so well with the return of the vibrating chords of the opening and the magic bell like sounds in the poco meno mosso before the end.The last movement just shot from her superb fingers with such ease as Prokofiev at last writes con brio in this up to now rather sombre sound world.Her playing was exhilarating and exciting with an astonishing technical ease that allowed the quixotic character of this movement to spring so easily from her fingers.

There was ravishing beauty in the Franck/Bauer with its haunting opening melody that pervades the whole work.It was played with a luminosity of sound bathed in pedal that with her very sensitive sense of balance allowed the melodic line to emerge unimpeded but sustained by rich bass harmonies.A subtle flexibility gave a moving but aristocratic shape of great sentiment but no sentimentality.Great flourishes of magical arpeggios announced the fugue that was played with simplicity and luminosity as it gradually grew in intensity.Some wondrous changes of colour building to an overwhelming climax out of which floated the opening theme on high on a cloud of quivering sonorities – a very similar moment of pure magic as in his Prelude,Chorale and Fugue written for the piano.A superb performance full of atmospheric colours and ravishing sounds.

Ravel showed off her kaleidoscopic sense of colour and considerable technical prowess.But there was also great control and sense of line and a natural musicality that turned even the astonishing glissandi into part of an architectural whole that kept us spellbound throughout her recital.Performances that showed her masterly control of sound and fearless virtuosity all with sterling musicianship and impeccable good taste.

Lithuanian pianist Gabriele Sutkute has already established herself as a musician of strong temperament and “excellent precision and musicality” (Rasa Murauskaite from 7 days of Art ). She has given many concerts and performed in numerous festivals throughout Europe and appeared in famous halls such as the Wigmore Hall, the Steinway Hall UK, the Musikhuset Aarhus, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building and Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall. In addition to being a soloist, Gabriele frequently performs with chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras. In 2018, she had a trio performance alongside distinguished cellist Adrian Brendel in the RAM Summer Piano Festival and was also invited to play with the renowned Kaunas String Quartet in Lithuania. In 2020, she performed Rachmaninov’s 2 nd Piano Concerto with the Grammy-nominated Kaunas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Markus Huber, and in 2019, performed this concerto with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Modestas Pitrenas, at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic. Gabriele is a winner of nineteen international piano competitions where she also received numerous special awards. In 2022, she was awarded 2 nd Prize and the Audience Prize at the Birmingham International Piano Competition. For her musical achievements she received Lithuanian Republic Presidents’ certificates of appreciation six times. The pianist is also an artist at Talent Unlimited and is the recipient of the prestigious Mills Williams Junior Fellowship 2022/23 and the Jacob Barnes Award 2021. Gabriele has had masterclasses with professors and pianists such as S. Kovacevich, I. Levit, I. Cooper, S. Osborne, O. Kern and many more acclaimed musicians . From 2016-22, she has been studying with Professor Christopher Elton and received her Bachelor of Music Degree (First Class Honours) and Master of Arts Degree with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. For the outstanding performance in her Postgraduate Final Recital, she also received a Postgraduate Diploma (DipRAM). Gabriele was awarded a full scholarship for the Artist Diploma course at the Royal College of Music and began her studies there with Professor Vanessa Latarche and Professor Sofya Gulyak in September.

Salut d’Amour, what better way to lift our spirits in the Elgar room .Tit for tat you might say : Elgar for Elgar ,as Jack thanked his teacher Dina Parakhina for teaching him not only the piano but about art and life .
Joined by his wife for an encore in a touching performance of a work that filled Elgar’s coffers much as Farewell to Stromness had done a century later for Maxwell Davis .

It was the encore of his recital that had been the exultation of the Fugue with fine performances of Bach,Mendelssohn and Franck.

Jack ,a late starter at 21,is certainly catching up for lost time helped of course by his masterly teacher.
He too with his own young students in the hall who had come to applaud their teacher and who he asked to count how many fugue subjects they could spot .He even prefaced his recital programme with Bach’s deceptively simple C major Prelude that his young students had struggled with in their lessons

Asking us to Google Mendelssohn and Queen Victoria so we could appreciate the historic value of where and what we were enjoying today .
What fun we had together with some masterly music making .
A truly enjoyable morning for the entire family .

• JS Bach French Suite no 4 in Eb major BWV815
  (1685-1750) i Allemande ii Courante iii Sarabande iv Gavotte v Air vi Menuet vii Gigue
• Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in E minor op 35 no 1
  (1809-1847)The Melodious Mendelssohn: Tea with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
• Franck Prélude, Chorale et Fugue
  (1822-1890) i Prelude
  ii Chorale iii Fugue

Jack’s Bach was of a clarity and precision with almost no pedal relying on his limpet like fingers for a touch from legato to non legato ,notes inégales and staccato.Whilst allowing admirable rhythmic impetus and buoyancy it did rob the music of its colour and shape.Bach’s music is based on the song and the dance and whilst of course needing absolute clarity it also needs the same contours and inflection as the human voice.Jack gave us a Bach of remarkably clear lines and architectural shape like a monument to admire rather than be moved by.There was much to admire though.The absolute clarity of the Allemande and the rhythmic buoyancy of the Courante.His superb finger legato in the Sarabande or the beautifully phrased Gavotte.The natural flow of the Aria and the infectious rhythmic insistence of the Gigue .

The French Suites, BWV 812–817, were written by Bach for the clavier (harpsichord or clavichord )between the years of 1722 and 1725.Although Suites Nos. 1 to 4 are typically dated to 1722, it is possible that the first was written somewhat earlier.The suites were later given the name ‘French’ Likewise, the ‘English’ that was popularised by Bach’s biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel , who wrote in his 1802 biography of Bach, “One usually calls them French Suites because they are written in the French manner.”This claim, however, is inaccurate: like Bach’s other suites, they follow a largely Italian convention.There is no surviving definitive manuscript of these suites, and ornamentation varies both in type and in degree across manuscripts.

Taking his jacket off after the Bach it was as though he had removed a straight jacket .Suddenly he moved with a horizontal freedom that gave such fluidity to his playing.Bathed in pedal,Mendelssohn’s brilliant prelude flowed from his fingers with ease.A sense of balance that allowed the sumptuous melody to ride on these waves of sound with passionate commitment.Beautifully shaped and with a technical prowess that carried the music ‘on wings of song’.There was clarity in the fugue but now he brought a colour and architectural shape that had been missing in his performance of Bach.Knotty twine,as Delius described Bach’s counterpoint but there is beauty too and it just took Jack to remove his jacket to relish the sounds that were now pouring from his sensitive fingers.

Mendelssohn took the opportunity to experiment with the so-called ‘three-hand effect’, in which he embedded a melody in the middle register of the piano and framed it with arpeggiandi above and a bass line below. The effect was that three, instead of two, hands were playing, a virtuosic trompe l’œil made fashionable in the 1830s by Sigismond Thalberg, and then widely imitated by other virtuosi, including Liszt. In contrast, the fugue, built upon an angular subject launched by the dramatic leap of a falling seventh, impresses as another example of Mendelssohn’s Bachian pursuits, so that, taken together, the prelude and fugue juxtapose the new with the old.

Cesar Franck’s Prelude ,Chorale and Fugue closed the programme .In his introduction Jack spoke of this masterpiece as spiritual and profound being of darkness and light,pain and hope.He gave a very fine performance showing great musicianship as he allowed the music to unwind so naturally.If the opening seemed rather earthbound he gradually found the atmosphere and colour that was to illuminate his whole performance.The chorale emerged from the prelude with ravishing sounds and a florid sweep that opened up the full sonority of the piano with overwhelming effect.A technical assurance that allowed the music to move forward with authority,negotiating the notorious leaps with true technical mastery.A sense of improvisation gave a respite before the bald statement of the fugue subject.A fugue of grandeur and nobility with a relentless forward movement.The reappearance of the opening theme on a cloud of etherial sounds was in great contrast to the tumultuous build up to the glorious final exultation played with masterly authority and control.

I cannot do more than quote Stephen Hough’s fascinatingly learned words: “Franck’s original plan, according to his pupil Vincent d’Indy, was to write a plain Prelude and Fugue, the venerable form made immortal by Bach and neglected since Mendelssohn, a visibly serious alternative to the plethora of virtuoso pieces which were so popular at the time. After almost forty years writing mainly organ music and works inspired by sacred texts, the example of Bach was an affirmation that secular music could still retain a spiritual identity in an abstract form. In fact it is significant that the further Franck moved away from specifically sacred music (his liturgical works are particularly lifeless) the clearer and more pure his spiritual vision seemed to become.The decision to include a central section, separate from, yet linking, the Prelude and Fugue, came later (again according to d’Indy). Perhaps Bach was the influence with the poignant slow interludes of his Clavier Toccatas to say nothing of the very word ‘chorale’ which was eventually used. In the event, however, this central section became the emotional core of the work, its ‘motto’ theme used as a symbol of redemption and as a unifying principle at the climax of the Fugue.When Saint-Saëns made his tart observation about the piece that the ‘chorale is not a chorale and the fugue is not a fugue’ (in his pamphlet ‘Les Idées de M. Vincent d’Indy’), he was completely missing the point. The forms here have become symbolic, the apotheosis of their academic counterparts; and, furthermore, Alfred Cortot described the Fugue in the context of the whole work as ‘emanating from a psychological necessity rather than from a principle of musical composition’ (La musique française de piano; PUF, 1930). It is as if a ‘fugue’, as a symbol of intellectual rigour, was the only way Franck could find a voice to express fully the hesitant, truncated sobs of the Prelude and the anguished, syncopated lament of the Chorale. Not that the Fugue solves the problem—this is the function of the ‘motto’ theme; but the rules of counterpoint have given the speaker a format in which the unspeakable can be spoken.There are two motivic ideas on which the whole work is based: one, a falling, appoggiatura motif used in all three sections and generally chromatic in tonality ;the other a criss-crossing motif in fourths which appears first in the Chorale section and then again as a balm at the point where the Fugue reaches its emotional crisis. The first motivic idea is clearly related to the Bach Cantata ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’, and also to the ‘Crucifixus’ from the B minor Mass; the other idea appears as the ‘bell motif’ in Wagner’s Parsifal.”

Jack Tyndale-Biscoe’s unorthodox musical background spans three continents, two instruments and encompasses performances from Bach to Britten.He holds diplomas and degrees from the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Sydney, Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-I) and the Royal College of Music, with additional studies undertaken at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany.He has performed in concert venues and halls across Europe, the United States and Australia, with recent live performances at Steinway Hall UK, Jacqueline du Pré Hall at Oxford University, St. James Piccadilly, The International Albéniz Festival in Barcelona, The International Mendelssohn Festival-Akademie Leipzig, Fairfield Halls, St. Paul’s (Covent Garden), Westminster Music Library Hall, and featured in live performances of Albéniz’s Iberia Book One on WUSF Radio 89.7 FM, Classical Radio.Other achievements include winning first prize at the Croydon Performing Arts Competition, and first prize for the Concerto Competition with the Symphony Orchestra (BYU-I). During the 2022-2023 season, Jack will be recording with KNS Classical and presenting a unique programme at concert venues across London and Europe, entitled The Divine Spark of Bach.As an official Talent Unlimited UK and DEBUT Classical Artist, Jack is grateful for the support of both organisations in their promotion of London-based artists.

Situated directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music (RCM) is a world-leading music conservatoire with a prestigious history, contemporary outlook and inspiring location. The RCMtrains gifted musicians from all over the world for international careers as performers, conductors, composers and other significant leadership roles within the arts. With around 1,000 students from more than 60 countries studying at junior, undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral level, the RCM is a community of talented and open-minded musicians where creativity, innovation, collaboration and diversity are prized.

The first public performance ever given by RCM musicians was in the Elgar Room. On Wednesday 2 July 1884, in the West Theatre (as it was called then), “Mr. Barton”, a piano student, performed Chopin’s Ballade in A flat to open a programme that also included operatic arias by Mozart, Handel and Gluck, and also chamber works by Schumann and Haydn. We’re delighted to be still here over 130 years later!