Mese: febbraio 2023

Josef Mossali lo scorso anno nell’Aula Magna della Scuola di Lettere, Filosofia e Lingue dell’Università Roma Tre, in uno scatto di Diana Montini

Josef Mossali for the Young Artists Piano Solo series gave an astonishing recital beginning with the Schumann Fantasy the first note surprisingly played with the right hand deep in the bass .The recital finishing with a dance from Pletnev’s ingenious reworking of Tchaikowsky’s Nutcracker.Including two preludes by Rachmaninov played with the insinuating rubato of op 23 n 6 and the mellifluous fluidity of op 23 n.8.But it was the Debussy late studies that suddenly liberated the true interpreter in Josef as he brought the quixotic changes in the arpeggio study vividly to life identifying totally with the quick fire changes of mood interspersed with ravishing washes of sound .The octave study was a tour de force not only because of his extraordinary technical control but because of the character he gave to this remarkable work.
It was the same technical ease and sense of character that he gave to Masques before the passionate outpourings of L’isle joyeuse.
Played with passionate conviction and technical prowess for a piece inspired in Eastbourne by the island of Jersey!
Josef had given a remarkably mature account of the first movement of the Fantasy .Giving it a true architectural shape with its dramatic contrasts of passionate outbursts and serene longing.In the other two movements he was a little too involved and lost the simplicity that had been such a hallmark of the opening.
The March was played with enviable control and drive but he gave too much of himself too soon so the final explosion did not come as an inevitable conclusion but rather just another repeat.Some ravishing sounds in the last movement that is a great outpouring of song for his beloved Clara .But his youthful passion did not allow him to sit back and wallow in the sublime beauty of the melodic line and he lost his head or in this case sense of balance as the accompaniment became too involved in this intimate discourse.
Starting with Schumann and ending with a Couperin encore we could appreciate the remarkable qualities of this young artist still being guided by Massimiliano Motterle in Bergamo and Boris Petrushansky in Imola

The Fantasie in C, op.17, was written in 1836. It was revised prior to publication in 1839, when it was dedicated to Franz Liszt .It is generally described as one of Schumann’s greatest works for solo piano and is one of the central works of the early Romantic period.The piece has its origin in early 1836, when Schumann composed a piece entitled Ruines expressing his distress at being parted from his beloved Clara Wieck (later to become his wife). This later became the first movement of the Fantasy.Later that year, he wrote two more movements to create a work intended as a contribution to the appeal by Liszt for funds to erect a monument to Beethoven in his birthplace, Bonn.Schumann offered the work to the publisher Kirstner, suggesting that 100 presentation copies could be sold to raise money for the monument. Other contributions to the Beethoven monument fund included Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses.It was dedicated to Franz Liszt who replied in a letter dated June 5, 1839: “The Fantaisie dedicated to me is a work of the highest kind – and I am really proud of the honour you have done me in dedicating to me so grand a composition. I mean, therefore, to work at it and penetrate it through and through, so as to make the utmost possible effect with it.”Liszt returned the honour by dedicating his own Sonata in B minor to Schumann in 1853. Clara Schumann did not start to perform the Fantasie in her concerts until 1866, ten years after the composer died.The original title of Schumann’s work was “Obolen auf Beethovens Monument: Ruinen, Trophaen, Palmen, Grosse Sonate f.d. Piano f. Für Beethovens Denkmal”. Kirstner refused, and Schumann tried offering the piece to Haslinger in January 1837. When Haslinger also refused, he offered it to Btreitkopf & Hartel in May 1837. The movements’ subtitles (Ruins, Trophies, Palms) became Ruins, Triumphal Arch, and Constellation, and were then removed altogether before Breitkopf & Härtel eventually issued the Fantasie in May.

Schumann prefaced the work with a quote from Friedrich Schlegel:Durch alle Töne tönetIm bunten ErdentraumEin leiser Ton gezogenFür den, der heimlich lauschet.(“Resounding through all the notesIn the earth’s colorful dreamThere sounds a faint long-drawn noteFor the one who listens in secret.”)The musical quotation of a phrase from Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte in the coda of the first movement was not acknowledged by Schumann, and apparently was not spotted until 1910.The text of the passage quoted is: Accept then these songs beloved, which I sang for you alone]. Schumann wrote to Clara: The first movement may well be the most passionate I have ever composed – a deep lament for you. They still had many tribulations to suffer before they finally married four years later.

Achille) Claude Debussy22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Masques, L. 105, was composed in July 1904,and premiered on 18 February 1905 by Ricardo Vines at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Its sombre character reflects Debussy’s difficult separation from Lilly Texier, his first wife. The title refers to the commedia dell’arte although Debussy confided to Marguerite Long that the piece was “not Italian comedy, but an expression of the tragedy of existence” – (“ce n’est pas la comédie italienne, mais l’expression tragique de l’existence.”)In the early summer of 1903 Debussy considered writing a series of three piano pieces; the first was to be entitled L’isle joyeuse , the second to be Masques and the third was to be a piece based on a sarabande rhythm ; , due to the slow rhythm in ternary time, this last piece could have been what would later become D’un cashier d’esquisses which was also published separately in 1904. The pianist Ricardo Vines wrote in his diary that the composer had made him listen in June 1903 to what was supposed to be the first version of the piece entitled L’isle joyeuse .

It seems that the piece was inspired by Debussy from a 1717 painting by Antoine Watteau .The happy island was also very probably that of Jersey , where the musician spent important moments with his new partner Emma Bardac in the summer of 1904; it was during this period that Debussy revised and prepared for printing L’isle joyeuse . The work was published on the following 10 October by the publisher Durand, to whom the musician had sold it, together with Masques, for the sum of one thousand francs

Études L.136 are a set of 12 piano études composed in 1915. Debussy described them as “a warning to pianists not to take up the musical profession unless they have remarkable hands”.They are broadly considered to be his late masterpieces.

Nato nel 2001, inizia lo studio del pianoforte con il M° Massimiliano Motterle e si forma con il M° Marco Giovanetti al Conservatorio “G. Donizetti” di Bergamo, dove, dopo aver terminato il Triennio Accademico, sta attualmente frequentando il Biennio Ordinamentale sotto la guida del M° M. Motterle. Inoltre prosegue gli studi all’Accademia di Imola con il M° Boris Petrushansky. Ha vinto il Primo premio in diversi concorsi tra cui il 27° concorso “J.S. Bach” di Sestri Levante; il “XX International Music Competition” di Cortemilia; il XII concorso “Città di Riccione”; il 19°concorso “Città di Giussano”; il concorso “D. Scarlatti” di Carpenedolo; il 10° concorso “Città di Piove di Sacco”; il 17° Concorso “Marco Bramanti” di Forte dei Marmi; il 1° concorso “Lombardia è musica” tra i conservatori lombardi, istituito dal Consiglio Regionale della Lombardia; la XVa edizione del Premio Nazionale delle Arti. Ha suonato per la Società dei concerti di Milano nella Sala Verdi del Conservatorio di Milano, per la Società del Quartetto di Milano, per gli Amici della musica di Firenze, per l’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia presso l’Auditorium Parco della Musica, per la Camerata Ducale di Vercelli, per l’associazione GIA a Brescia, per il Teatro Coccia di Novara, per Rai Radio 3 e per Rai 1, per il Festival Pianistico Internazionale di Brescia e Bergamo, debuttando al Teatro Donizetti nel 2022. Ha suonato sotto la direzione del M° Pier Carlo Orizio, del M° Fabrizio Maria Carminati, collaborando con diverse orchestre tra le quali la Filarmonica del Festival Pianistico Internazionale di Brescia e Bergamo, l’Orchestra dei Virtuosi Italiani e l’Orchestra del Conservatorio G. Donizetti di Bergamo.

Thursday 23 February 3.00 pm

There was magic in the air with Viv McLean in contemplative mood.
Two Scarlatti Sonatas in D minor were played very slowly and contemplatively with ravishing colours and sensitive phrasing that made them shine like the gems we sometimes take too much for granted.
It was Fou Ts’ong who fell in love with Scarlatti and played some of them so slowly too with ravishing beauty always in style with none of this Tausig business but scrupulous authenticity.
We forget with the fingerfertigkeit jeux perlé high jinx that are so often paraded before us that the genius of Scarlatti lay in his fantasy and mellifluous outpouring of melodic invention.
The human voice -the most expressive instrument of all – and of course like Bach ,Scarlatti’s inspiration is based on the song and the dance with a clarity and simplicity that with the arrival of the pedal was to add more soul of smoke and mystery.
The very things that Viv McLean was to reveal so beautifully with the arrival of Gershwin with its insinuating colours and ravishing heartfelt outpourings of hollywoodian sounds .
The beguiling horn call of the E major sonata was worthy of a part in ‘A Midsummer nights dream’ where the elves and fairies make light and fun of any pomposity.

And it was this in Viv McLean’s playing that was so refreshing with its simplicity which did not exclude real delicacy and feeling but encapsulated within the notes themselves and never externally added.
His Mozart too was beautifully fresh and simple with a clarity and purity of sound but I found him a little inhibited by his meaningful adherence to a non legato style.
Instead of the live operatic characters that abound in all of Mozart’s works there were porcelain doll like characters that seemed artificial and not the full blooded stage actors of Mozart’s real life theatrical personalities.
It was played with a purity of sound of clarity and elegance but somehow it did not penetrate the heart as Scarlatti had.The Andante was expansive and expressive with some very delicate changes of colour.The Allegretto was played with great dynamic contrasts and brilliance but just missed the elegance of a past epoque.

Then the curtain rose and the party began.We were treated to the nightclub elegance of the ‘30’s with an insinuating performance of subtle intensity and ravishing colours .Viv McLean had opened his heart strings creating a magic atmosphere of smokey intimacy before letting rip Hollywood style with the full big band of Rhapsody in Blue.
This was the real thing as we were transported back to an age of elegance and easy showmanship and an original light that illuminated Broadway for decades.’The man I love’ was the insinuating opening number.

It was the original talent that when Gershwin asked to study with the greatest guru of her age,Nadia Boulanger,she turned him away as she did not want to ruin such an original voice.
Viv McLean ignited his large audience as the house favourite charmed,astonished and excited them with a scintillating display of refined virtuosity.A truly dazzling ,fizzing you might say,performance of Rhapsody in Blue with the sumptuous orchestral sounds of the big band with amazing solo spots of such clarity and brilliance.As Hugh rightly said there are very few pianists who can play Scarlatti and Mozart with such beauty and intelligence and then switch to the improvisational style of Hollywood.A wonderful sense of balance allowed him to play the Gershwin with full sounds that were never hard but bathed on a glorious carpet of sumptuous rich velvet sonorities.His performance of ‘Summertime’ offered as an encore was beguiling with it’s subtle sense of colour and a fluidity of recreation that was quite simply sublime.

Since winning First Prize at the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona, British pianist Viv McLean has performed in all the major venues in the UK, as well as throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and the USA. He has performed concertos with orchestras such as the RPO, Philharmonia Orchestra, LPO, English Chamber Orchestra, Halle, BBC Concert Orchestra & the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of such conductors as Daniel Harding, Wayne Marshall, Christopher Warren-Green, Owain Arwell Hughes, Carl Davis, Rebecca Miller and Marvin Hamlisch. Viv has collaborated with groups such as the Leopold String Trio, Ensemble 360, the Ysaye Quartet, the Sacconi String Quartet, members of the Elias, Allegri, Carducci and Tippett Quartets, and artists such as Natalie Clein, Daniel Hope, Lawrence Power, David Le Page, Adrian Brendel and Mary Bevan. Viv has appeared at many festivals including the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the Festival des Saintes in France, Vinterfestspill i Bergstaden in Norway and the Cheltenham International Festival in the UK. He has recorded for Sony, Naxos, Nimbus, Stone Records, RPO Records and ICSM Records. Viv has also recorded regularly for BBC Radio 3 as well as for radio in Germany, France, Australia, Norway and Poland.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/08/28/viv-mclean-at-st-annes-kew-a-lesson-in-classical-authority-and-sensual-colour/

Tuesday 28 February 3.00 pm 

Masterly playing from Thomas Kelly not only for his unique sense of colour and style but for his musicianship that guided us through everything he played with an architectural shape and aristocratic sense of style that marks him out as one of the most exciting young musicians of his generation .
He and Benjamin Grosvenor are magicians of the keyboard as the great pianists were in the golden age of piano playing.The era of Rachmaninov,Lhevine,Rosenthal Godowsky or Moiseiwitch and in our day Stephen Hough.A piano that is no longer a percussion instrument but a kaleidoscope of magical sounds that are created by the greatest of illusionists.Subtle use of the pedals and above all a sense of touch that can find infinite gradations in every note.The famous Matthay touch but also the pedal of Anton Rubinstein that he described as the soul of the piano.
A magnificent recital that was a lesson in musicianship and phenomenal technical control.The sounds he brought to Respighi’s Notturno played as an encore were the stuff that dreams are made of.

Beethoven’s Bagatelles Op. 126 were published late in his career, in the year 1825 and dedicated to his brother Nikolaus Johann ( 1776–1848).Beethoven wrote to his publisher, Schott Music that the Opus 126 Bagatelles “are probably the best I’ve written”.In prefatory remarks to his edition of the works, Otto von Irmer notes that Beethoven intended the six bagatelles be played in order as a single work, at least insofar as this can be inferred from a marginal annotation Beethoven made in the manuscript: “Ciclus von Kleinigkeiten” (cycle of little pieces).Another reason to regard the work as a unity rather than a collection: starting with the second Bagatelle, the keys of the pieces fall in a regular succession of descending major thirds a pattern used in Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’Symphony and the String Quartet op 127

The first edition in 1837 carried an annotation that the tune was “the composition of an amateur”: this referred to the origin of the theme, which had been sent to Schumann by Baron von Fricken, guardian of Ernestine von Fricken, the Estrella of his Carnaval op. 9. The baron, an amateur musician, had used the melody in a Theme with Variations for flute. Schumann had been engaged to Ernestine in 1834, only to break abruptly with her the year after. An autobiographical element is thus interwoven in the genesis of the Études symphoniques (as in that of many other works of Schumann’s).Of the sixteen variations Schumann composed on Fricken’s theme, only eleven were published by him. (An early version, completed between 1834 and January 1835, contained twelve movements). The final, twelfth, published étude was a variation on the theme from the Romance Du stolzes England freue dich (Proud England, rejoice!), from Heinrich Marschner’s opera Der Templer und die Judin based on Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (as a tribute to Schumann’s English friend, William Sterndale Bennett to whom it is dedicated )The earlier Fricken theme occasionally appears briefly during this étude. The work was first published in 1837 as XII Études Symphoniques. Only nine of the twelve études were specifically designated as variations. The entire work was dedicated to Schumann’s English friend, the pianist and composer, and Bennett played the piece frequently in England to great acclaim, but Schumann thought it was unsuitable for public performance and advised his wife Clara not to play it.The highly virtuosic demands of the piano writing are frequently aimed not merely at effect but at clarification of the polyphonic complexity and at delving more deeply into keyboard experimentation. The Etudes are considered to be one of the most difficult works for piano by Schumann (together with his Fantasy in C and Toccata) and in Romantic literature as a whole.

Thomas Kelly was born in 1998. He passed Grade 8 with Distinction in 2006 and performed Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 in Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre two years later. After moving to Cheshire, he regularly played in festivals, winning prizes including in the Birmingham Festival, 3rd prize in Young Pianist of The North 2012, and 1st prize in the 2014 Warrington Competition for Young Musicians. Since 2015, Thomas has studied with Andrew Ball, initially at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and now at Royal College of Music, where he is a third-year undergraduate. Thomas has won first prizes including Pianale International Piano Competition 2017, Kharkiv Assemblies 2018, Lucca Virtuoso e Bel Canto festival 2018, RCM Joan Chissell Schumann competition 2019, Kendall Taylor Beethoven Competition 2019 and BPSE Intercollegiate Beethoven Competition 2019. He has also performed in venues including the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Holy Trinity Sloane Square, St James’ Piccadilly, Oxford Town Hall, St Mary’s Perivale, St Paul’s Bedford, Poole Lighthouse Arts Centre, Stoller Hall, Paris Conservatoire, the StreingreaberHaus in Bayreuth, the Teatro del Sale in Florence, in Vilnius and Palanga. Thomas’ studies at RCM are generously supported by Pat Kendall-Taylor, Ms Daunt and Ms Stevenson and C. Bechstein pianos. He recently won 5th prize at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition, and was the first British pianist to reach the finals of this prestigious competition for 18 years

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/14/a-celebration-of-the-life-of-andrew-ball-the-thinker-pianist-at-the-r-c-m-london/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/12/hhh-concerts-and-the-keyboard-trust-a-winning-combination-of-youthful-dedication-to-art/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/01/08/thomas-kelly-reaching-for-the-stars-a-voyage-of-discovery-at-leighton-house/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/14/thomas-kelly-plays-beethoven-4-at-the-rcm-cat-and-mouse-with-sakari-oramo/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/04/18/thomas-kelly-takes-florence-by-storm-music-al-british/

Gala Chistiakova e Diego Benocci  

 

Duo Degas in Viterbo as winners of the International Rome competition founded by Marcella Crudeli.
The indomitable Marcella at 82 had given a moving duo recital in Rome with her young protégée Emanuele Savron three times her younger.
All 21 Hungarian dances by Brahms and two repeated made for 24 https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/23/ballando-con-le-stelle-marcella-crudeli-ed-emanuele-savron-could-have-danced-all-nightfor-roma-3-orchestra-concert-season/

It was Gala Chistiakova and her partner on stage and in life Diego Benocci who chose two of the better known dances as an encore today.
It followed an extraordinary performance of Liszt’s 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody where Gala’s refined tones were complemented by Diego’s dynamic theatricality in a performance of scintillatingly stylish playing that seduced and excited all the senses.

From the opening work on the recital for Tuscia University season with the very first notes of Mozart’s much loved D major Sonata we were treated to a refined performance of elegance and rhythmic energy.Gala’s pure golden sounds in the Andante were matched by Diego’s sensitive accompaniment.
A sense of balance where they played as one such was the overall architectural shape so clearly moulded together.

There were moments of ravishing beauty as Grieg’s beautiful lyrical pieces unwound with such ease and natural charm.Solvejg’s song was allowed to pour from their sensitive fingers with a warmth that enveloped us all.Their encores of two Hungarian Dances by Brahms just underlined their elegance and style which had been the hallmark of such an enjoyable recital.

Il duo pianistico a 4 mani Gala Chistiakova e Diego Benocci si è formato nel 2014, quando i due pianisti si perfezionavano presso l’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale di Imola. 

Diego Benocci è nato a Grosseto, ha iniziato gli studi musicali presso l’Istituto Musicale della sua città con il M° Giuliano Schiano. Si è diplomato presso il Conservatorio “G. Frescobaldi” di Ferrara e ha concluso il corso di laurea presso il Conservatorio di Stato “L. Cherubini” di Firenze nella classe della Prof.ssa Maria Teresa Carunchio e l’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale “Incontri col Maestro” di Imola sotto la guida del M° Enrico Pace e del M° Igor Roma. Tiene regolarmente concerti in tutta Europa e in Asia come solista, musicista da camera e suona con orchestre in importanti festival. 

Gala Chistiakova è nata a Mosca in una famiglia di musicisti. Ha iniziato i suoi studi di pianoforte a 3 anni con sua madre Liubov Chistiakova. Dal 1993 al 2005 ha studiato alla Scuola Centrale del Conservatorio di Mosca intitolato a Pëtr Il’ič Čajkovskij con i professori Helena Khoven e Anatoly Ryabov. Nel 2014 Gala ha terminato il Conservatorio di Mosca e un corso post-laurea in una classe del professor Mikhail Voskresensky. Nel 2011 ha iniziato i suoi studi presso l’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale “Incontri col Maestro” (classe del Prof. Boris BorisPetrušanskij) in Italia. 

Vincitrice di oltre 30 concorsi internazionali, vive oggi con il marito Diego Benocci a Grosseto dove dirigono insieme il Festival Musicale Internazionale “Recondite Armonie” e il Progetto di Scambio Culturale “Giovani Musicisti del Mondo”. Nel 2022 sono stati nominati codirettori artistici e docenti del festival IMOC a Grosseto. Il duo ha un vasto repertorio e ha tenuto concerti in Russia, Italia, Francia, Portogallo, Germania, Regno Unito, per numerose stagioni musicali internazionali riscuotendo ovunque grande successo di pubblico e di critica. Nel 2021 in duo hanno vinto la borsa di studio all’Accademia Chigiana nella classe della prof.ssa Lilya Zilberstein. Hanno collaborato come duo con orchestre sinfoniche e da Camera e recentemente si sono esibiti al Conservatorio Čajkovskij di Mosca, alla Weston Recital Hall di Oxford, al Festival International de Musique de Chambre Est Ouest in Belgio, al Madeira Piano Festin Portogallo e in un concerto straordinario per G. Armani a Londra.

Il loro primo CD con musiche di Čajkovskij è stato pubblicato nel 2021 dall’etichetta italiana OnClassical e le loro registrazioni sono state trasmesse in più occasioni su Rai Radio 3. Di recente il duo è risultato vincitore del primo premio assoluto e del premio “Marche Musica” al XXXI Concorso Pianistico Internazionale “Roma”

In their festival in Grosseto ‘Recondite Armonie ‘ many young talents are generously given a platform https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/08/05/elia-cecino-in-grosseto-the-birth-of-an-artist/

Extraordinary opening concert in Velletri ’Suono di Liszt a Villa D’Este ‘ with Michelle Candotti and the Orchestra of CDM conducted by Federico Biscione.

The eleventh series of concerts all centred around a very special piano.An Erard of 1879 similar to the one that Liszt would have played in the Villa D’Este.

Infact a series of concerts initiated 11 years ago in 2011 for the bicentenary of the birth of Franz Liszt .
The series has now found a permanent home in the ex Convento del Carmine in Velletri.

Today a happy combination with an orchestra from the youthful formation in Tivoli directed by Federico Biscione joining Michelle Candotti in a performance of Chopin’s Concerto in E minor op 11.

An aristocratic performance of great weight and authority from this young pianist from the school of Dmitri Alexeev and Carlo Palese.
Living every moment of the concerto with intensity and extraordinary sensitivity she created a rapport immediately with her young companions .The cello in particular I had never been aware of this intimate relationship until today.
The sublime simplicity of the larghetto was something to cherish as was her intelligence in keeping the rhythm until the final bar a master stroke from a masterly musician.A rondo full of character and ‘joie de vivre’ with a command of the keyboard that was breathtaking .It was the real weight of her playing that was astonishing as she delved deep into the keys of a piano that had become her friend in the days she had been the guest of Ing.Tammaro and wife Celeste.Whose birthday was celebrated after today’s performance

It was a Chopin of great temperament and also sublime delicacy.Whether dramatic or lyrical.Poetic or passionate it was all played with aristocratic good taste and style.It was the weight that gives every note a meaning like the human voice.Digging deep into the notes extracting the velvet sounds that are the true voice of a piano destined for private salons for a select group of aristocrats and not the concert hall of today for a public of thousands.In this beautifully restored Casa della cultura e della Musica this piano was allowed to sing under Michelle’s very sensitive hands and the string orchestra of only eleven elements.It was the ideal group that just exulted the exquisite sounds in a performance of chamber music proportions that surely must have been how Chopin had intended it.

Michelle and Federico Biscione were both aware of this and it gave them a freedom to shape and mould the magic streams of notes with ravishing results.I have never heard the Romanza played with such shimmering beauty or the belcanto of Chopin’s melodic outpouring so beautifully sustained.Playing of great passion too as her hands and whole body streamed up and down the keyboard with glittering displays of notes accompanying the orchestra and driving them on with Michelle’s same infectious sacred flame.A group of musicians created and trained with patience and remarkable musicianship by Federico Biscione who I had so admired last Christmas in Frascati.An orchestra giving these young musicians a passion and professional training and above all a love for music .They are from the CDM school based in Tivoli directed with dedication by Antonella Zampaglioni and Giancarlo Gregori

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/12/19/christmas-comes-to-frascati-the-gift-of-music-illuminates-the-city/

Getting to know this 1879 Erard which has been so lovingly restored by Giancarlo Tamarro and given pride of place in his home when it is not being used for public performances.A series of concerts run by the indomitable Tamarro gives a platform to so many talented young musicians for a series based on the original instrument of Villa D’Este.A series inaugurated to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Liszt’s birth.The original instrument which had been given to Liszt by the Casa Ducci in Florence had been completely lost until in 1991 when it was discovered in a Convent in Rome.It was completely restored and found a temporary home in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and is now in Vienna.Filippo Guglielmi who was a composition student of Liszt and visited him frequently on Liszt’s last visits to the Villa D’Este left this testimony :”one day in the music room Liszt awaited a brilliant young student who he thought very highly of ,Moritz Rosenthal.He was accompanied by his father of israelite Hungarian extraction and his eyes lit up when he saw the magnificent Erard that had been given to Liszt by Casa Ducci in florence”

After her astonishing performance of Chopin Michelle let rip with performances of the Liszt ‘Ernani’ paraphrase and the ‘Dante Sonata’.They were even more astonishing than her Chopin for her total self identification with the theatrical world that Liszt depicts so vividly in music.
She threw herself into this world with terrifying abandon but always with a total command and understanding of the story that Liszt depicts so vividly.
Sumptuous sounds and ravishing beauty went hand in hand with scintillating virtuosity and awesome octaves that could make this 1879 Erard roar as it surely has never done before.
A true lioness of the keyboard that with her sublime inspiration kept us all spellbound and on the edge of our seats with performances that will long be remembered.

A grandiose opening to the ‘Ernani’ paraphrase dissolved into magical flourishes as the heroic declamation of the theme in octaves took centre stage.There was sumptuous sound too as the tenor melody was accompanied by arabesques over the entire keyboard .Both Liszt and Thalberg were accused of having three hands such was the magic effect they could create and which Michelle today played with supreme mastery and passionate participation.There were scintillating birdlike cadenza’s of great delicacy but above all there was a grandiloquence and aristocratic control allied to an astonishing technical command that seemed to know no limit.Michelle had created on this Erard a past world where the greatest composer pianists were above all magicians who could create the illusion of a full orchestra from a box of strings and hammers.But it was above all the pedals that as Liszt’s illustrious student Anton Rubinstein said are ‘the soul of the piano.’Today Michelle revealed her soul as she uncovered the secrets that have been hidden away for too long in this antique instrument.

Michelle’s performance of the ‘Dante’ Sonata where she immediately set the scene from the very first opening flourishes played with total conviction with a reenactment of the scene that was about to unfold.There was a demonic look in her eyes as she attacked the piano with fearless conviction and towering virtuosity.There was radiant beauty and the serene benediction of the central episode played with whispered delicacy and luminosity as the delicate web of sounds unfolded to ignite the piano with Recitativi of overpowering conviction.The final treacherous leaps passed unnoticed such was her musical involvement where technical difficulty just was not an option.But above all it was the silences that were even more menacing than the streams of notes that poured from her infallible fingers.These were fingers at the service of a heart that could beat with overpowering conviction and communication.

Unbelievably this seeming waif of a young lady could still offer Chopin’s Octave Study op 25 n.10 as an encore.Played with astonishing power and dynamism but also with the central episode unfolded so naturally with real legato as it was an integral part of an overall architectural whole.A musician at the service of music that she enacted with towering virtuosity and dynamism.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/04/18/michelle-candotti-ravishes-and-seduces-the-piano-for-rome-tre-young-artists-piano-solo-spring-series-in-aula-magna/

Marcella Crudeli a force of nature who could quite happily have gone on playing all night.
Twenty one Hungarian dances rapidly, by public insistence,became twenty four!
Her young student Emanuele Savron,whom she shares with Leonid Margarius, looked exhausted as Marcella at least three times his anagrafical age looked ever more radiant.

Performances of great style and with Marcella’s infectious energy and ‘joie de vivre’ igniting the same fire and passionate involvement in her young companion joining in the obvious fun and enjoyment she was transmitting to us all.
But there was more than just that.From the passion and colours in the Isteni Czardas to the fun Marcella was already having with the syncopations of the Emma Csardas and the deliciously capricious Tolnai kakadalmas.The passionate outpouring from Emanuele in the Kalocsay-Emlek with the shimmering echo from Marcella before springing vividly into life again.The great elan and energy that Marcella injected into the Bártfai-Emlek was followed by the smalzy insinuations of Rozas Bogor bursting into continuous accentuated interjections of dynamic force and energy.There was the beguiling melody played with sumptuous rubato of the Volkslied and the great melodic fluidity of the Luisa Czardas.There was the deeply felt lament of nostalgia of the Poco andante n. 11 and the beautiful tenor melody from Emanuele’s hands in the Allegretto grazioso.The languid melodic line of the Andantino n.17 and to end with,the dynamic energy of the Vivace n.21.

Around the world of sentiments in only 21 days with these golden gems of Johannes Brahms.With the four hands of two artists that listen to each other with a sensitivity and sense of balance that they truly played as one!No greater compliment is possible for a duo pianistico on one piano where a sense of balance and use of the pedals is absolutely fundamental in creating a single whole satisfying performance!

Great artistry and an unerring sense of style with Marcella at the helm and Emanuele listening carefully as he regulated the balance between them to perfection.

Taking over the reigns from Marcella in a give and take that kept their audience enraptured by the rapport created together.
Different generations but united as one in their musical voyage of discovery together.

The Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms WoO1are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on Hungarian themes, completed in 1879.They vary from about a minute to five minutes in length.Brahms originally wrote the version for piano four hands (piano duet: two players using one piano) and later arranged the first ten dances for solo piano.In 1850 Brahms met the Hungarian violinist Ede Reményi and accompanied him in a number of recitals over the next few years. This was his introduction to “gypsy-style” music such as the csardas which was later to prove the foundation of his most lucrative and popular compositions, the two sets of Hungarian Dances (published 1869 and 1880).

Only numbers 11, 14 and 16 are entirely original compositions.The better-known Hungarian Dances include Nos. 1 and 5, the latter of which was based on the csardas “Bártfai emlék” (Memories of Bártfa) by Hungarian composer Bela Kéler,which Brahms mistakenly thought was a traditional folksong.A footnote on the Ludwig-Masters edition of a modern orchestration of Hungarian Dance No.1 states: “The material for this dance is believed to have come from the Divine Csárdás (ca. 1850) of Hungarian composer and conductor Miska Borzó.”

Giovedì 23 febbraio ore 20 Accademia Danimarca
La Musica è una cosa meravigliosa: Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms: Ventuno Danze ungheresi per pianoforte a quattro mani WoO 1
Marcella Crudeli – Emanuele Savron, pianoforte.

In questo appuntamento la celebre pianista Marcella Crudeli si presenta al nostro pubblico come interprete affiancata da uno dei suoi più talentuosi giovani allievi, Emanuele Savron.

Entrambi gli artisti della serata sono precedentemente apparsi in più occasioni nelle nostre programmazioni: Marcella Crudeli è l’anima del Concorso Chopin Roma ed Emanuele Savron è partecipante alla Young Artist Piano Solo Series tra i più apprezzati (finalista nell’edizione 2021-2022).

‘E’ stato un grande successo ieri sera il concerto all’Auditorium dell’Accademia di Danimarca a Roma per conto della Roma Tre Orchestra.
I protagonisti della serata sono stati Marcella Crudeli con il suo giovane e talentuoso allievo Emanuele Savron. Il programma era difficile ma nello stesso tempo accattivante per le musiche eseguite: l’integrale delle 21 Danze Ungheresi di J. Brahms a quattro mani.
L’esecuzione ha riscosso tantissimo successo con ovazioni e richieste di bis alla fine del concerto. L’interpretazione era focalizzata sulla dinamicità, sulla timbrica, e soprattutto sull’entusiasmo dei pianisti che hanno coinvolto tutti i presenti.
Sono intervenuti tanti amici, personalità anche del mondo dello spettacolo, che hanno tributato agli interpreti vivo apprezzamento per la validità dell’esecuzione e la gioia che hanno trasmesso al pubblico soprattutto in un momento così difficile per la cultura.’Marcella Crudeli

‘Questa foto rimarrà nella storia.
Marcella Crudeli, allieva di Alfred Cortot, dopo 2000 concerti in 80 paesi decide all’età di 82 anni di formare un duo con me.
Sono orgoglioso di questo e mi sento fortunato.
Grazie Maestro! ‘ Emanuele Savron

https://youtu.be/iXH7X1NepDQ

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2019/01/11/alberto-portugheis-the-renaissance-man/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/06/26/martha-argerich-a-legend-speaks-hamburg-25th-june-2020/

What a surprise but then with Alberto life is always such a voyage of discovery.A true Renaissance man of many parts.In the kitchen or at the piano or sending messages to the leaders of the world to stop creating wars to fill their own pockets!Eight years ago Alberto invited me to be part of his 75th birthday celebrations with his schoolchild friend Martha Argerich.A Wigmore Hall packed to the rafters for an unforgettable occasion.Now eight years on I receive an invitation to Chopin’s 213th birthday celebrations!A concert including some of the major works of Chopin but also a chance to enjoy an after concert dinner of Polish Cuisine.Alberto apart from being the pianist that we know and have loved for a lifetime he is also a ‘cordon bleu ‘ chef having shared in the running of a restaurant with his lifetime friend Martha Argerich.The restaurant was called ‘Rhapsody’ at the end of Alberto’s road at the crossroads of Holland Park,West Kensington and ……………Shepherds Bush!I remember Shura Cherkassky telling me all about it.Shura had asked me when we first met if we had any mutual acquaintances in common.Alberto was one of them.Shura was not convinced and thought I was just making polite conversation until I pulled out of my pocket a card that had recently been given to me by a pianist who had played too in our season in Rome.ALBERTO PORTUGHEIS chef ……….the ice was broken and Shura and I became great friends for the next ten years!

Now an invitation to POSK Polish centre in Hammersmith.Opposite Latimer Upper School where Walter Legge and my brother had been students.

Sidney Harrison,my first teacher and a father figure for me,Norma Fisher and many others had also been to school at Latimer Upper.He was a television personality and lived in a big river fronted house in Chiswick.His next door neighbour was Eamon Andrews of ‘Crackerjack’ and ‘This is your Life’fame!It was Sidney together with Ingrid Bergman that were invited to open this Polish Centre in the late sixties when I was still a schoolboy,having been taken under the wing of the Sidney’s .I had never been inside ,though,until I received this invitation from Alberto.A magnificent theatre,Polish restaurant,library and a real oasis that had been staring me in the face for the past fifty years until I received Alberto’s invitation.

And at 82 the indomitable ever generous Alberto had prepared a programme that could well have been fit for a Prince – that of Artur Rubinstein whose much awaited yearly visits to London in June were always an eagerly awaited feast.Joan Chissell a critic who was also a poet could illustrate and illuminate a performance in two well chosen words.’Mr Rubinstein,the Prince of Pianists,turned baubles into gems’ described the exquisite performance of his friend Villa Lobos’s ‘O Prol do Bebe’ suite.It was interesting to note that Alberto had chosen to include the much debated repeat in the first movement of the B flat minor Sonata.I had asked him about it and enquired which edition he uses.He told me he had recently added the Ekier National edition to his library and when asked about the hotly debated repeat simply said it depends how I have played before and what I want to do after!Martha Argerich replied similarly to Temirkanov when he asked her what she did in a certain passage…..’you choose’ ,she replied with an innocent smile!

Well today Alberto was obviously in pensive mood because he included the ‘Ekier’edition repeat of the first introductory bars .Instead of playing them Maestoso he played them piano and misterioso as Gadjiev had done in the Chopin competition a year ago.Then it makes musical sense and of course how could it be otherwise with such master musicians at the helm.I have often been astonished at Alberto’s total fidelity to the composers wishes when I have brought some students to his house for dinner and discussions around music.Like Menahem Pressler he can point out details in the score that can in the heat of youthful performance be overlooked or at least not sufficiently understood.Giovanni Bertolazzi a recent top prize winner in Budapest was invited to Alberto’s home to play his prize winning performance of Liszt before tasting Alberto’s sumptuous cuisine and he was surprised to be stopped after just one page of the Liszt B minor Sonata!https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/12/04/giovanni-bertolazzi-the-mastery-and-authority-of-liszt/

Nicola Losito,Gabriele Sutkute (recent winner of the Chappell Gold Medal)and Can Arisoy have all benefitted from Alberto’s discerning musicianship and the luckiest his cooking too – ‘che non guasta’ as they say!

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/11/21/gabriele-sutkute-at-st-marys-refined-musicianship-and-artistry/

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

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/25/nicola-losito-takes-piano-city-pordenone-by-storm/

Today’s Chopin celebration was a recital where Alberto’s love and passion for works he has lived with for a lifetime shone through all he did.There was a weight and timeless quality where every note was pregnant with meaning.Nothing was thrown away,even the quixotic runs in Chopin’s much loved waltz in C sharp minor op 64 played as an encore.It followed a military invasion from the symbolic Héroique Polonaise in which Chopin’s troups were kept under the strict surveillance of Alberto’s lifetime experience of dealing with military coups!The Mazurkas op 24 were indeed ‘canons covered in flowers’ and were played with great personal involvement and fervent conviction.These little gems would certainly benefit from Joan Chissell’s poetic turns of phrase.A fourth Ballade that together with the Liszt Sonata and Schumann Fantasie are the pinnacles of the Romantic piano repertoire.Can it just be coincidence that they are all dedicated to each other?It takes one to appreciate one we used to say as children!

Is it not the innocence of children that inspired Schnabel to describe the performance of Mozart as too difficult for adults but too easy for children!Let us not forget too the monumental opening performance in Alberto’s recital of the Fantasie op 49.A lifetime’s experience guided his hands that despite his 82 years never wavered in front of Chopin’s driving rhythms or leaping octave declamations.Two Nocturnes op 15 including the much loved F sharp major and the ‘sturm und drang’ of its sister in F major were played with such overpowering conviction .An ovation for Chopin or Alberto or both!A lesson in humility and love that they both share so generously with the world.Love after all is eternal and long may it stay that way!

It was nice to see Deniz Gelenbe in the Green room afterwards to greet her colleague and friend after her triumphant concert a few days earlier for the Chopin Society in London. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/20/the-arman-trio-at-the-chopin-society-sublime-music-making-of-weight-and-intimacy-to-ravish-the-soul/

An unexpected admirer from Wales where Alberto gave many educational recitals with the late Gwyneth George.Clutching a photo of an even more youthful looking Alberto than today and wanting to thank him for inspiring her and her school friends to love and cherish music which has guided them through life ever since.

Alberto refreshed and stimulated by his outing with Chopin was ready to taste the Polish Cuisine on offer with friends and admirers.I was sorry to leave but an early flight back home to Rome awaited,to applaud a colleague of Alberto’s from the same class of ‘41.A concert of the 21 Hungarian dances by Brahms for four hands with her young protégée ,Emanuele Savron,of sixty years younger!https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/01/21/marcella-crudeli-reigns-in-viterbo-a-lifetime-at-the-service-of-music/

Marcella Crudeli is like Alberto very much involved with the organisation of EPTA – the European Piano Teachers Association founded by the indomitable Carola Grindea.Sidney Harrison was the first President ……..small world !Links.chains,circles and music makes the world go around.And if music be the food of love …….please please play on …………..and turn up the volume

Tuesday 21 February 3.00 pm 

Masterly performances of a fervent believer.
B minor obviously has a great significance for a true believer.
The most profound work of all time is surely the Bach Mass in B minor a true declamation of faith.
And so it was today that Patrick Hemmerlé chose a programme where every work was in B minor even the final encore with the Prelude in B minor by Bach/Siloti.
The Bach Prelude and Fugue in B minor Book 1 with it’s prophetic twelve tone yearning fugue subject after the religious procession of the prelude.The deep insistent yearning also of the appoggiaturas in Cesar Franck with its final declaration of glory and exultation.
The Liszt Sonata restored to its greatness by a true musician where the opening themes on the first page were leading to the fervent explosion on the second.Such aristocratic grandeur of timeless wonder in the passionate climaxes with the remarkable left hand marcato that led us into the Andante sostenuto and so to the heart of the sonata that is the Adagio.
It was all played with such inevitable logic, links in a chain and of course it is this that links too the Franck with the Liszt.
Not only the transformation of themes within a formula but the passion not of ‘gigoloistic’ virtuosity but of deep profound sentiment.
Remarkable performances that I knew from Patrick would never be less than musicianly but today there was an overwhelming authority and conviction that should be an example to all those that dare open the first page of this pinnacle of the romantic piano repertoire.

Acclaimed for the originality of his concert programmes and the depth of his interpretations, Patrick Hemmerlé is a French pianist living in England. He can often be heard performing such works as the 24 Chopin Etudes, the 48 Bach Prelude and Fugues, or lesser-known composers. Recent engagements have taken him to New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Prague, as well as many festivals and music society in England. Patrick has published 3 CDs, which have been well received by the international press. His latest recording project, to be issued in 2020 is a pairing of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and Fischer’s Ariadne Musica. He is in demand as a lecturer. He has given talks for the Cambridge University, as well as a cycle of concert-lectures on French music, presenting composers little known to the general public,. This led to the recordings of the piano music of Jean Roger-Ducasse and Maurice Emmanuel. Patrick is laureate of the international competition of Valencia, Toledo, Epinal, Grossetto, and more recently the CFRPM, in Paris, where his interpretation of Villa-Lobos’s Rudepoema, raised a great deal of interest. He was trained in Paris at the Conservatoire (CNR), under the tuition of Billy Eidi.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/01/17/patrick-hemmerle-ravishes-and-seduces-the-senses-at-st-marys/

What a refreshing change to hear three musicians sharing their music together creating an intimate atmosphere where the music was allowed to speak so naturally and without any showmanship or rhetoric.It was Maude Tortelier who asked me one day if I knew what she meant when she spoke of ‘weight’.It is leaning into the very heart of a note like a limpet clutching a rock and it is in that weight that music can grow with an infinite variety of sounds without fear of explosive percussiveness.On the cello of course Paul Tortelier and above all his master Pablo Casals would dig deep into the note with the weight of the bow on the strings and the left hand never leaving the string – like an organist who has to find a way of never allowing the air to escape between the mechanically produced notes.Today we were privileged to have a violinist and cellist who have just such weight and could delve deep into the notes with a mastery that would allow their playing to follow their ears.Musicians listening so attentively to each other in a real musical conversation.Not a shouting match but as Menuhin described it:’mutual anticipation!’ (not quite in that context which was referring to English gentlemanly habits as opposed to Latin ‘mutual provocation’ but it applies the same).The wonderful ‘cello of Dorel Fodoreanu and the feeling we could trust his great musicianship to combine so unselfishly with the velvet beauty of the violin of Constantin Bogdanas of the ‘old’ school of Sandor Vegh or indeed Enescu himself! Two musicians who have been playing together for a lifetime with the magical link in the chain being Deniz Arman Gelenbe.The ravishing beauty of her playing and the sensitivity of her ears is a rare marvel indeed.To see the ‘arch’ of her small hand moving horizontally over the keys reminded me of Alicia de Larrocha who like Deniz was incapable of making harsh ungrateful sounds.Loud,passionate sounds of course but never percussive.Streams of sound that just seemed to pour from her fingers were like washes of colour that were enveloped into the sumptuous string sounds of her companions of forty years.Such glowing fluidity and beauty in the Beethoven Trio was followed by the nebulous washes of sound in late Fauré.A trio where the composer like Busoni was leaving his earlier mellifluous sounds for a secret world of nebulous atmospheres that no longer had sharp well defined edges.And the gaiety and light they brought to Dvorak’Dumky’ as they let their hair down and shared their delight in teasingly traditional nationalistic melodies.The most moving and finely spun performance,though,was kept to the very end with a short piece by Piazzola full of insinuating suggestive sounds and ravishing colours.

An afternoon of being allowed to share in intimate performances of ‘Hausmusik’ ( I wonder if google has ever heard of that!) where we,the audience,were drawn in to the music which we listened to in a hushed silence that belied the actual numbers that were privileged to be present.

Six years ago I wrote about Deniz’s concert in her ‘All about Mozart series’ at St John’s Smith Square https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2017/05/08/all-about-mozart-deniz-arman-gelenbe-and-friends-at-st-johns-smith-square/

An evening of Piano Quartets by Mozart and Fauré was indeed an evening to cherish .
A lesson of music shared with joy and dedication by four musicians whose enjoyment of playing together was evident from the freshness and spirit of spontaneous recreation they brought to the Mozart G minor and Fauré C minor Quartets.

Moving together with mellifluous sounds as they rode together on a great wave of musical discovery.

A pianist who hardly glanced at the score as it was so much part of his being.
Embellishing Mozart’s score as the composer himself would have done waiting for his colleagues to out do his spontaneous invention.

The string trio of course were more at home in Fauré where they played with much less respect as they allowed their natural musicality unrestrained freedom.
A sumptuous performance of a fluidity and passion that swept all before it .

The pianist though had also unlocked the secret of Mozart as he dabbled so intelligently in the historic performance practices of the day.
His string companions,though,were too respectful of the written notes rather than the hidden meaning behind them.

A fascinating evening of rare music making by Akiko Ono,Ana Dunne Sequi,Nina Kiva and Damir Durmanovic.
And all around this beautiful oasis of St Mary’s Twickenham the bistros and pubs in the charming Church Street intent on letting their hair down in these final few days of Carnaval .

A concert that had been pieced together in four days due to the indisposition of the original pianist.
But as Akiko said they had spent together two days full of fun,laughter and hard work.The result of their party together were two performances among friends sharing their superb music making with an audience who had decided that food for the soul was the way to celebrate this last weekend before spending forty days in the desert!

Mardi Gras refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is known as Shrove Tuesday.Day before Ash Wednesday 47 days before Easter Celebration period before fasting season of Lent Mardi Gras—also known as Shrove Tuesday—is Tuesday, February 21, 2023! From its origins as a spring fertility rite to the masked balls of medieval Italy to today’s Carnival festivities.