Jean Rondeau the Prince of the Harpsichord.
An artisan arriving on stage with sleeves rolled up ready to caress and lovingly coax sounds from the beautiful antique box before him.
Cherishing every moment he shares with the delicate instrument just as a master violin maker lovingly shapes the wood that with great artistry and mastery he brings to life.Transforming it into a breathing,living instrument of another age.
There were filigree embellishments that were like delicately carved Chinese ornaments of refined intertwined golden thread.

But there was also a sense of line and architectural shape that kept us on the edge of our seats for the eighty minutes of continuous music that poured with such simplicity from his hands.
A body in continuous motion like on a great wave following the currents of sound that were flowing with such power and inevitability from this beautiful instrument.A body and instrument that become one is a rarity indeed.

I am not competent to go into the details of harpsichord technique or the specialist scholarship that is needed to bring this music to life in an authentic way.
But by God I do know when a musical genius is at work.
Schumann exclaimed on hearing the young Chopin what could very well apply to Jean Rondeau tonight :’Hats off ,Gentlemen,a genius !‘

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2017/06/14/goldberg-alla-rondeau/

Inna Faliks in London to play for the first time in the JE3 Arts centre.
Telling her story of growing up in Odessa under the Soviet regime and even playing on the red piano in the room allocated to her family.
A three room appartment allocated to seven people!
Immigration was the word used in 1988 when the family prepared to flee to a freer life in the USA.
Now head of piano at UCLA in Los Angeles she came to London to share her story with us.

Eloquent as a poet but above all an eloquence in music that is so immediate and simple as every note touched places that other musicians can rarely reach.

A first half opening with Shchedrin’s athletic Basso Ostinato.Like a tiger being let out of cage as Inna ravaged this magnificent Yamaha piano with devilish glee .A ‘coup du theatre’ indeed after which we needed the calm aristocratic sounds of Bach’s knotty twine.
Jan Freidlin’s Ballade in Black and White was composed for Inna who gave it’s premiere in 2011 in Carnegie Hall.It was played with a clarity and total conviction that was enthralling.
After Bach it was Mozart to calm the air now with a performance of his D minor Fantasy of great simplicity and beauty.
The ‘Maiden’s Wish’ was played with wondrous jeux perlé in the style of the pianists of another age,that of pure gold.Scintillating exuberance and aristocratic style made one wonder why this little gem has been so rarely heard in the concert hall since the grandiloquence of Arrau.

Following with the most famous of showpieces :’ La Campanella’.Paganini and Liszt in cahoots to beguile and seduce with seemingly impossible pianistic gymnastics.
Inna played it with amazing clarity and insinuating charm with a kaleidoscope of colours that made this old war horse shine as new.
Streams of gold and silver sounds were thrown off with an ease and precision that were breathtaking in their audacity.
The mighty Polonaise Fantasie,from which this moving tale takes its name,was played with aristocratic style and ravishing beauty.
There was an architectural shape of such intelligence that restored this work to the Olympian heights of beauty and originality penned at the end of Chopin’s all too short life.It gave great meaning to a work that can sometimes,in lesser hands,appear simply fragmented and structurally weak.
Inna showed us the revolutionary originality of the form that is free but in a highly original frame where Chopin’s genius shines through every bar.
Inna had realised this as she saw in this masterpiece a road plan of her own extraordinary life.

The most moving part was to come,both in words and in music,as Inna described the reappearance of Mischa Shpigelmacher in her life.
Out of the blue an old schoolboy friend suddenly appears at her concerts. A spark is felt as she decides to turn down a sumptuous after concert supper and to flee to Paris with Mr Shpigelmacher becoming fast best friends and an obvious kindred spirit for life.
Now happily married with two teenage children Mr and Mrs Shpigelmacher are still best friends and enjoying together this moving celebration of love in London.

What better music could there be than Beethoven’s op 126 Bagatelles.
Ravishing beauty and quixotic changes of character they were played with the true mastery of someone who listens to the sounds she is creating.
A purity of sound with a fluidity where bar lines seemed not to exist .Even Beethoven’s precise pedal makings in the third were translated into the magical disintegration of the melodic line.A magic disappearing trick interpreted as Beethoven obviously intended.
It contrasted with the ferocious fourth that in turn dissolves into a bagpipe drone on which a fragmented melodic line is allowed to float as if suspended in air.
The purity of the melodic line in the fifth was a lesson in how to let the composers words speak for themselves without any personal intervention from the mere performer.
‘Je sens,je joue,je trasmets’.
The tornado that is unleashed in the sixth broke the spell but created another even more mysterious cloud of sounds where mere words have no place.
Like in the last great trilogy of Sonatas,in particular op 111,the fragments of melody were floated on a bass pedal note like puffs of smoke that Beethoven could see with the vision of the paradise that awaits.
With subtle intelligence and scholarship she could turn these baubles into gems.
Penned in the last moments of Beethoven’s life when he could find the serenity that had eluded him all his life.

Inna imbued them with the same love that she communicated so movingly in this personal story.One that has become even more poignant for the events that are unfolding with disturbing intensity in her homeland where her soul still abides.
Dedicating the performance to her family:her parents,Irene and Simon Faliks who were brave enough to leave the USSR when they did.
Her husband and best friend,then and now,Misha Shpigelmacher.Her two children,Nathaniel and Frida,as well as to anyone who has ever left a place in search of a better life.
If music be the food of love,play on!

What a story!
Simple great music pouring from a sensitive soul as she communicates the remarkable adventure that is her life.
Fragments pieced together on a constant bass undercurrent which is love itself.
No greater story could there be than this extraordinary ‘Love of life’.

No surprise that I had first heard and met Inna here in the city of dreams :https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/09/26/cremona-the-city-of-dreams-a-global-network-where-dreams-become-reality/

Great pyrotechnics from the twenty year old Alexander Doronin and astonishingly mature musicianship.
A recital at Steinway Hall for the Keyboard Trust in the presence of his teacher Dmitri Alexeev -the second time this week that I have seen the Alexeev’s following the career of super talented young musicians in their care . https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/03/06/victor-maslov-at-leighton-house-masterly-playing-of-intelligence-and-poetic-vision/
Together with star pianist Vitaly Pisarenko they were there to follow these early steps in what surely will be an important career.
The clarity and chiselled precision suited perfectly the neoclassicism of Stravinsky (1924 not the earlier youthful effort as mistakenly on the programme ) or the diabolical streams of notes that Ligeti like a spider’s web would trace with such glee over the entire keyboard.
It was the same precision and intelligent musicianship that he brought to the two early works by Brahms.A clarity that missed Brahms’s sumptuous orchestral sonorities but gave it a refreshingly youthful rhythmic impetus of great conviction .
It was however in the Berg Sonata that he found the magical sonorities that brought the ingenious knotty twine of this early masterpiece vividly to life.A superb performance that just showed what glories await his full maturity on graduation amazingly still two years off.

A short conversation with Leslie Howard discovering news of his early studies at the Gnessin school in Moscow for super talented children.And now perfecting his already extraordinary professional talent with a Master as in the class of Dmitri Alexeev at the RCM.
His artistry will bloom under the guidance of the ever generous Alexeev’s as Sasha’s magnificent youthful Ferrari will turn into a magical carriage full of a kaleidoscope of gold and silver gems.
Meeting the artist afterwards with all the guests is a highlight of these very special occasions.

Together with the ever generous Wiebke Greinus and her colleagues at Steinways.And ,of course,with the genial Leslie Howard passing from Aida to Grainger at the touch of a hat -(Mario’s!) showing us the sumptuous colours that are hidden in the magnificent instruments on display.

A glass of wine in hand and good relaxed conversation together with the star of the evening,Alexander Doronin.The cockles of our hearts were truly warmed on one of the coldest nights of the year.

Sunday 12 March 2.00 pm – 6.00 pm  

8 superb pianists play their debut recitals at St Mary’s Perivale
organized by St Mary’s Perivale and Christopher Axworthy

Day two of this mini festival ‘New Faces’ saw another four pianists on the threshold of important careers.

2.0 pm Andrea Molteni

Andrea Molteni had flown in from Como and demonstrated his remarkable artistry with playing of a purity and clarity that illuminated all that he played.

A refreshing intelligence that gave new life to Chopin’s Fantasy where the indications of the composer were scrupulously observed without any adhesion to the so called ‘tradition’.From the very first note marked staccato in the score but when have we ever been aware of it?It gave such strength to the contrast of the beseeching legato answering phrases .There was a sense of improvisation too but always with a direction and ultimate goal in view.A freedom but within a certain framework.A miracle of beauty at the end with the tumultuous build up to the final Adagio sostenuto but then with his scrupulous attention to the silences that Chopin demands there followed the pianissimo yearning phrases before the final glistening stream.The rest that followed was so pregnant with meaning that the two majestic final chords came as a blessed relief.

The early Brahms Scherzo op 4 ,rarely heard in the concert hall,was played with an incisive rhythmic drive and an orchestral sense of colour.A performance of great breadth and nobility with the final ‘ben marcato’and ‘piu mosso’octaves of searing depth and sonority.Only to be dismissed in such an abrupt manner as indicated by Brahms in his quasi orchestral score.It is easy to see how the Sonata op 5 evolved after this work op 4.

The Beethoven Sonata op 110 was played with simplicity and beauty where again his attention to the indications of the composer were translated into sounds that had an overpowering force .We were swept along by this driving energy from the first to the last notes .The beauty of the left hand swirling accompaniment in the first movement I have rarely heard Beethoven’s precise indications so clearly played.The Scherzo was ‘Allegro molto’ but not so much so that it interrupted the continuous pastoral flow of one of Beethoven’s most perfect creations.Surely this and the fourth concerto must be among the most celestial creations of this tormented soul.Beethoven’s own long held pedal at the end of the scherzo was where the first chord of the Adagio was so rightly placed and created a magic atmosphere for all that followed .It was a magic that Andrea maintained to the final religiously fervent outpouring of passion and exultation.It should be noted too that Andrea did not split the final cascade of notes between the hands that would have only under minded the explosion on the final A flat chord.

Andrea,as fresh as a daisy at the end,managed much to Dr Mather’s surprise to slip in an encore .Cheekily saying that K.20 was his favourite Scarlatti Sonata and was included in the CD on sale at the door.A quite remarkable unstoppable talent that under the guidance of William Grant Naboré is growing in weight and importance under our very eyes! https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/09/26/william-grant-nabore-thoughts-and-afterthoughts-of-a-great-teacher/

An exciting young Italian piano talent, Andrea Molteni is developing his international profile with regular appearances in the USA, Italy, UK, Europe, Russia, China and Singapore. His latest album, Scarlatti Sonatas (that was released in January 2022), has already got important reviews from critics such as Jean-Charles Hoffele and has been broadcasted in the German radio MDR Kultur.The album “Petrassi and Dallapiccola Complete Piano Works” (May 2021) received reviews on significant music magazines (magazine Musica, December 2021; Opus Klassiek, May 2021) and it has been broadcasted in Radio Classica and in the French Radio France Musique. Winner of numerous International Competitions, Mr. Molteni enjoys the artistic guidance of William Grant Naboré under the auspices of the prestigious International Lake Como Piano Academy. In 2020, he was awarded a master’s degree Magna cum Laude in Advanced Performance Studies by the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/03/24/andrea-molteni-at-steinway-hall/.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/04/29/astonished-and-enriched-by-andrea-moltenis-hammerklavierin-viterbo/

3.0 pm Maxim Kinasov 

Maxim Kinasov came on stage and threw himself into the keyboard with the same animal like ferocity that I have not seen since Richter.Infact it reminded me so much of Richter to see this young man so enveloped in the sounds that he was producing.Pulling,punching caressing the most wondrous rich sounds out of the piano.An Intermezzo dedicated to Brahms by Slonimsky opened his programme of dedications – to Brahms,Paganini,Bach and finally to the oppression of World War Two with Prokofiev’s 7th Sonata ,one of the Trilogy of War Sonatas.

Nicolas Slonimsky, born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy, was a Russian-born American conductor, author, pianist, composer and lexicographer.Born: 27 April 1894, Saint Petersburg Died: 25 December 1995, Los Angeles California.A film ‘A touch of genius’ was made for his 100th birthday https://youtube.com/watch?v=0LYSd05BbOg&feature=share.It was fascinating to read about a composer I had not heard before.I was intrigued to find out more after the overwhelming performance today.

Max writes that I got the wrong Slonimsky,Nicolas instead of Sergei and i am glad too be corrected and to learn even more about this remarkable family https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Slonimsky

Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky 12 August 1932 – 9 February 2020) was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist and musicologistHe was the son of the Soviet writer Mikhail Slonimsky and nephew of the Russian-American composer Nicolas Slonimsky.Slonimsky died in Saint Petersburg on 9 February 2020 after a long illness.He composed more than a hundred pieces: 5 operas, 2 ballets, 34 symphonies and works in all genres of chamber, vocal, choral, theatre and cinema music, including Pesn’ Volnitsy (The Songs of Freedom, based on Russian folk songs, 1962), A Voice from the Chorus, a cantata set to poems by Alexander Blok. Concerto-Buffo, Piano Concerto (Jewish Rhapsody), Cello Concerto, 24 preludes and fugues, etc.

From the very first notes Maxim’s fingers were like limpets on the keys .His whole body was engaged in the music that was being reproduced in a voyage of discovery that was quite hypnotic and mesmerising.An outpouring lament of sumptuous sounds .A deep yearning as the variations unfolded ,a kaleidoscope of colour with trills gleaming like jewels .There was an animal like urgency of cascades of notes ending in a silence of such aching poignancy.Like an animal let loose on the keys with that same hypnotic ferocity of Richter and the same total mastery.A ferocious passion that swept all before it.

From the opening theme of Paganini it was obvious that we were in for an exhilarating performance of Brahms’s notoriously difficult variations.The beautifully shaped theme led to variations of such differing character all played with a continuous driving forward movement .Even the beautiful second ‘poco animato’ was on a great wave carrying all with it on its long voyage.There was charm too in the eighth variation that contrasted with the overpowering force of the ninth and tenth.There was ravishing beauty in the poco Andante before the tumultuous whirlwind of the final Presto.What grandeur at the end!I doubt this piano has ever sounded so ‘grand’ as in the velvet gloved hands of this giant of a pianist.

The Bach/Siloti Prelude in B minor was played with a simplicity and a magical sense of colour but there was also a certain solidity to the sound that gave it an austere reverent importance.

The Prokofiev Sonata unleashed the same unconventional ferocity that I remember from its dedicatee Sviatoslav Richter when he played it in London in 1971.I was a student in my final years at the Royal Academy and i remember being overwhelmed by a force of nature that broke all the conventional rules that had been imbued in me in that noble institution.I remember my wife thinking she had made a mistake in an acting exam and being told by a great Italian artist:’But there are no rules just convince me.’And my God Richter certainly did that as Maxim did today too.From the very first call to arms of ferocity and clarity.Through the sumptuous beauty of the Andante with it’s swirling visions of desolation in a hoped for paradise.The final brutality of the Precipitato with a driving intensity that swept Maxim on to impossible heights where the rhythms kept him afloat and notes became superfluous.The hysterical excitement of the final breathtaking pages were greeted by cheers from an audience hypnotised by a truly great artist.Headed for the heights this tormented soul finds home only at the keyboard like Richter or Beethoven even!

Chapeau Maestro I am proud to be able to say that I heard you at the beginning of your illustrious career

Maxim Kinasov is the First Prize Winner of more than 10 prestigious international piano competitions around the world, including UK ‘s 2022 Birmingham International Piano Competition and 2022 Windsor International Piano Competition, and 2019 Cantù International Piano and Orchestra Competition and 2014 Chopin Roma International Piano Competition in Italy . He also won Second Prizes in prestigious 2019 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition ( UK ) and 2015 Gian Battista Viotti International Piano Competition ( Italy ). In 2017, he graduated with distinction from Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in the class of Sergei Dorensky and moved to the UK to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. In 2018, Maxim won the RNCM Gold Medal and played in the Gold Medal Winners concert at Wigmore Hall in March 2019. Also, he was selected as a Kirckman Concert Society Artist for 2019-20 and played his full-length solo debut at Wigmore Hall in October 2019. He completed his International Artist Diploma degree in 2021 at the RNCM in the class of Ashley Wass . Maxim performed internationally with the most prestigious orchestras in the UK and abroad, such as the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, RNCM Symphony Orchestra , Orchestra of the Teatro Carlo Felice , St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra and the European Union Chamber Orchestra .

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/09/29/maxim-kinasov-the-supreme-story-teller-steinway-hall-kct-new-artist-recital/

4.10 pm Antonina Suhanova

What an afternoon this was turning out to be as Antonina Suhanova stepped onto the platform.A slim young woman who would play Mozart and Rachmaninov.An exemplary Mozart played with joy and exhilaration.A beautiful velvet sound in a work that she shaped with intelligence and crystalline beauty.

But then she attacked Rachmaninov’s First Sonata with a menace and passion.A spine tingling outpouring of desperation with a cauldron of romantic sounds of burning intensity.How this young lady produced such overpowering sounds and an overall sheen is a mystery.At last there was an architectural line that gave direction to a work that I have often dismissed as overlong and over elaborate.There was a ravishing beauty of desolation to the ‘Lento’ and an energetic ride on a continuous wave of sounds in the Allegro molto.This was a truly great performance and it totally convinced me of what a masterpiece it is.Only Kantarow recently has come anywhere near the towering performance that we heard today.An unforgettable performance that literally brought tears to my eyes being totally overwhelmed by the emotional power that music can exert on some very rare occasions from the hands of a master magician,

Pianist Antonina Suhanova has performed on international stages since 2000, in venues like the Steinway Hall in New York, the Wiener Saal in Salzburg, the Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Hall in London. From 2012 to 2018 she acquired First Class Bachelor of Music, Master of Performance and Artist Diploma degrees, all with distinction, under the tutelage of the British pianist Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. During her studies, Antonina participated in numerous masterclasses of such world-renowned pianists as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Idil Biret, Steven Osborne, Matti Raekallio, Richard Goode, Robert Levin and Yefim Bronfman. Antonina has appeared as a soloist with the “ Moscow Virtuosi ” Chamber Orchestra, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the City of Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and other collectives, collaborating with such distinguished conductors as Andris Nelsons and Vladimir Spivakov. She has performed at renowned festivals in the United Kingdom, USA, Brazil, China, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Russia. Antonina is a recipient of the Hattori Foundation Senior Award, Help Musicians UK awards, the Drake Calleja Trust award, the William Brown prize in the Scottish International Piano Competition (2017) and a nominee for the International German Piano Award 2018. In 2018, her solo debut at the Wigmore Hall was broadcasted live on BBC Radio 3. In 2020 as the Musicians ‘ Company prize winner Antonina made her solo debut at the Southbank Centre, Purcell Room. In 2022 she became grant holder of Oleg Prokofiev Trust and was invited to perform at the Rio Piano Festival in Brazil. Since September 2022 Antonina joined the faculty of the Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Antonina ‘ s artistic schedule in 2023 includes appearances with the Surrey Mozart Players, the Epsom Symphony Orchestra, as well as solo and chamber music recitals across the UK. 

 

5.10 pm Danilo Mascetti

There was a rhythmic freshness to this most ‘Pastoral’ of Beethoven Sonatas.A clarity and innocent purity to the sound and a scrupulous attention to detail that brought this work vividly to life.A scherzo played with the same drive and joy that was so much part of Rubinstein’s characterful playing of this sonata.Incidentally it was the one he chose for his very last performance at the Wigmore Hall in 1976.The deliciously nonchalant ending of the Scherzo was followed by the beautiful cantabile of the Minuet.The Trio in particular was played with a subtle sense of colour and beguiling character that made one understand why Saint Saens had used it as the theme for his variations for two pianos.The Presto con fuoco was a little too fast even for Danilo but he gave it such character and sense of exhilaration that any minor mishaps passed unnoticed with the ‘joie de vivre’that was being transmitted.

Danilo’s superb intelligence and musicianship totally convinced me that it was right to extract only the Allegretto second piece from the Drei Klavierstucke.It stands so well on it’s own with the simple beauty of the opening melody with the ornament perfectly incorporated like a singer into the overall phrasing.The contrasting episodes played with menacing intensity that made the return to the opening melody so touchingly poignant.

It was such a good idea after all the notes we had heard this afternoon to finish with a piece of moving simplicity.Hauntingly beautiful as the pungent clashing harmonies describe the emotional impact of a true believer.There were magical embellishments that shone like stars in the night sky as the kiss of the baby Jesus invokes such intensity and reverence.It was played with great beauty by Danilo in a meditative performance of masterly control and technical assurance.it should be mentioned that Danilo was fresh from the International Piano Academy Lake Como where he had been working with William Naboré and Dag Achatz.

Danilo Mascetti is an Italian pianist known for his intense performances and original programming, combining traditional repertoire with less known piano works. Equally at home with classical piano and fortepiano, since his debut with Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra in the prestigious Sala Verdi, Milan, Danilo performs regularly all over Europe with orchestras such as Thessaloniki State Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphonic State Orchestra of Craiova. From 2014 he performs in China and Japan, debuts in London at Steinway Hall, in New York at Merkin Hall, Wallenstein Palace in Prague, Rome, Russia, South Africa and Morocco, with orchestras such as the West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra Hradec Králové, the Nova Amadeus orchestra, the NYCA Symphony Orchestra. Highlights from the last seasons include concerts in Turkey at the Bodrum Gu ¨ mu ¨ s ¸ lu ¨ k Mu ¨ zik Festivali; in Cambridge, with Brahms Concerto n. 1 with Peter Britton, conductor, at the West Road Concert Hall; performances of newly written piano concertos by E. Karlidag and E. Sener with the Talent Unlimited Orchestra. During the summer he presents a tour with the new programme “Contemplations” in the UK, and the premiere of three new harpsichord works at Castello Sforzesco in Milano. Exciting performances for the beginning of 2023 include harpsichord performances for Ton Koopman, a Double Mozart Concerto in Den Haag with historical orchestra, and Brahms Quintet op. 34 on historical instruments. Danilo is originally from Lake Como and is currently based in The Hague (NL) and Brno (CZ)

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/12/17/talented-unlimited-a-christmas-treat-to-relish/

Saturday 11 March 2.00 pm – 6.00 pm  

‘New Faces’ Piano Festival – Day 1

8 superb pianists play their debut recitals at St Mary’s Perivale
organized by St Mary’s Perivale and Christopher Axworthy

https://youtube.com/live/F0doBi0kG2Y?feature=share

https://youtube.com/live/qs4v_4f97Nw?feature=share

Eight star pianists in a unique showcase festival at the Piano Mecca of London …..all streamed live on you tube or Vimeo ……they just need an audience of discerning listeners – the rest they will do themselves with their extraordinary artistry and with a little technical help from the magnificent team led by Hugh Mather.

Day one saw four pianists two of whom are new to me but none have ever played at St Mary’s before.Four very interesting recitals with completely different programmes with remarkably no overlapping of works.The interesting thing was the fact that although it is the same piano they are playing they all got completely different sounds from it.Of course all four pianists have a technical mastery earned by years of hard work and discipline under expert guidance.But there are many different sounds in each key and it is personal taste that decides what sound to draw out of each key.A taste acquired by listening to many performances of music of all types and choosing a path from listening to performances that one does not agree with as well as those that are cherished .A musical character is formed and in the practice studio hours are spent trying to piece together a jigsaw puzzle that is an accumulation of personal taste.Rubinstein likened it to the bees pollinating flowers that they choose ,every bee chooses differently and so each pot of honey is different from another.A simple analogy from a pianist who at the end of his long life had found the sublime simplicity that had the world at his feet.

2.0 pm Henry Cash

Henry Cash I have not heard before but his teacher Colin Stone has played many times in Perivale.It was obvious from his musicianly performances that he is receiving advice from a master.Henry is a true musician armed with a very solid technique that seems to know no difficulties .He chose Rachmaninov’s favourite prelude to open his concert.I remember Benno Moiseiwitch playing it to his friend Rachmaninov who was surprised when Benno said it reminded him of ‘the return’.Rachmaninov was taken aback as that is exactly what inspired the piece.Henry played it with great poise and a remarkable clarity,simplicity and great assurance.His musicianship is of great architectural lines and his body movements are like a continual wave from which sounds are discovered with naturalness and ease.There are no half lights or insinuating textures but a direct simple message without any rhetoric or showmanship that could interrupt this continual flow of sounds.

The Brahms Sonata in five movements is a very difficult work to hold together as the intimate details and contrasts can detract from the continual flowing undercurrent that takes us on a forty minute journey .I have rarely heard this sonata played with such assurance both technical and musical as today in the hands of this twenty three year old artist.Because an artist he certainly is and there were many ravishingly beautiful things in his performance as there was also passion,drama and a technical mastery that allowed him to play fearlessly the treacherous octave leaps that Brahms demands.The coda to the last movement was played with a clarity and a speed that I have rarely heard in the concert hall.The scherzo too was played with exhilarating daring and a relentless forward movement.It contrasted with the sublime beauty of the Andante and the intensity of the Intermezzo

Henry Cash is 23 and from Huddersfield. He began his musical training at Chetham’s School of Music, age 13, before receiving a scholarship in 2017 to study with Rustem Hayroudinoff at the Royal Academy of Music. After graduating with a first class degree from the Royal Academy he received a scholarship to study with Colin Stone at the Royal Northern College of Music. He has given numerous concerts in the UK and abroad including solo recitals in venues such as the Bridgewater Hall, the Stoller Hall and St James’s Piccadilly. He performed Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 1 in 2015 (age 16), accompanied by the Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra and again with the Bristol Classical Players in 2018. Henry won second prize at the 2021 James Mottram International Piano Competition performing the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the final round. He is grateful for the generous support he recieves from the Drake-Calleja Trust, the Pendle Young Musicians’ Bursary and the Oglesby Charitable Trust. 

3.0 pm José Navarro Silberstein

The Davidsbundler saw another side of this remarkable musician.He had put aside his native love of life for the more serious German side to his character.The dances were played with superb intelligence and remarkable control even if it sometimes missed the fleeting dance element of elegance and grace of Eusebius.Florestan was very much magnificently in charge and even the opening Lebhaft was played with a more military band than a court orchestra opening the ball.There was not much humour to the party like atmosphere of the third dance but there was ravishing beauty and superb sense of balance with the ‘innig’ that precedes it.This is the true voice of Eusebius- Schumann’s soul speaking.Florestan could have fun too as he showed us so eloquently and with superb technical control in the sixth ‘Sehr rasch’.Frisch and lebhaft were German style and not part of they party atmosphere until we got to ‘mit humour ‘which was thrown of with ease and grace and daring technical skill.Banana skins abound,in this little dance ,for lesser mortals but theres was no fear of slipping for José.It was in the thirteenth dance that the two sides of Schumann’s personality were united in a performance that was both ‘wild und lustig’ but also touchingly solemn and serious.The most beautiful of all is the fourteenth ‘zart und singend’ and it was here that we could appreciate the true artistry of this young Bolivian pianist.A perfect sense of balance that allowed one of Schumann’s most beautiful melodies to sing so simply and naturally.How Schumann with so little could say so much is a wonder of the world.Liebeslied and the end of Liederkreis are touching examples of Schumann’s inheritance from Schubert.Followed by a rather German style ‘Frisch’ and ‘mit gutem humor’ that brought us back into the real world too soon.The magical 8th of book 2 – the final dance where José was back in wonderland with a distant look back at the magical evening that had been spent together .A masterly control of sound and colour as we were left suspended in air on the final chord.Schumann had more to say with his last nostalgic waltz where José put his scholarship behind him as he allowed his heart to sing with the deeply felt sould of a true artist.

Who better to play Villa Lobos’s ‘Brazilian Cycle’ than José Navarro.Latin blood was flowing with hypnotic results as he played the four pieces W.374 with scintillating excitement and throbbing passion.Hysterics too in the ‘Feast of the Hinterlands’ with a joyous toccata full of bright sunlight and high spirits.There was the haunting beauty of the ‘Native Planting Song’ with it’s seductively beautiful tenor melody accompanied by golden arabesques.They were exquisite with an etherial lightness,a jeux perlé par excellence,from a pianist with a mastery of colour and style.There were almost hysterical interruptions of startling virtuosity but always returning to the ever more beautiful native melody.The ‘Dance of the White Indian’ with it’s menacing bass rumble and ever more insistent excitement was played with astonishing energy and virtuosity.

The young Bolivian pianist has performed in different countries in venues and festivals in Europe, South America and USA. Halls include Teatro Municipal “Alberto Saavedra Pérez” in his hometown La Paz to the Musikverein in Vienna. He is a Talent Unlimited Artist in London. As a soloist, he has performed with the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, Georgian Philarmonic Orchestra, La Paz Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Jóvenes Musicos Bolivianos, Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de Santa Cruz de la Sierra among others. He is a prize winner at the Anton Rubinstein Piano Competition in Düsseldorf, Tbilisi International Piano Competition in Georgia, International Competition Young Academy Award in Rome, Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition in Chile among many others. He was a finalist at the Eppan Piano Academy and at the 63r d Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. In Bolivia he gave masterclasses in La Paz Conservatory, Sucre Conservatory Santa Cruz Fine Arts College and Laredo School in Cochabamba. He served as a jury member in national music competitions. He was mentored by Paul Badura Skoda. He studied with Balasz Szokolay at the Franz Liszt University in Weimar and with Claudio Martínez Mehner at the University of Music and Dance in Cologne. At the moment he is at the Artist Diploma programme at the Royal College of Music in London under the guidance of Norma Fisher and Ian Jones.He holds scholarships from Royal College of Music, Herrmann Foundaiton Liechtenstein- Bolivia, Theo and Petra Lieven Foundation of Hamburg, Clavarte Foundation in Bern and Elfrun Gabriel Foundation for Young Pianists.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/24/jose-andres-navarro-at-st-jamess-piccadilly/

4.10 pm Misha Kaploukii

A Mozart of crystalline clarity with ornaments that sprang from Misha’s fingers like well oiled springs.There was a driving rhythmic energy but also subtle contrasts in dynamics played with elegance and style.An Andantino that had a purity of sound with its chiselled beauty and poise and a Rondo of such innocent good humour and driving energy.Exemplary Mozart exclaimed Dr Mather,but it was more than that as it was played like a true artist who listens to himself and shapes the music with loving care and intelligence .

The piano was immediately engulfed in sumptuous sounds with Schumann’s eighth novelette.The longest and most complex ,it could well have been the first movement of a Sonata or Fantasy with its continual changes of character and mood.There was a driving passion but also a clarity due to Misha’s sparing use of the pedals that allowed all the strands of Schumann’s ingenious counterpoints to be heard so clearly.Playful capricious contrasts alternated with passionate outbursts of swirling romantic fervour played with remarkable technical mastery.There was also the touching etherial beauty where Misha played with such refined sounds.Schumann shows us a whole world in this last of his op 21 novelettes.Richter used to play it (together with the fourth in D ) with the same driving rhythms and breathtaking passion that swept all before it .Misha too showed us what a masterpiece it can be in the hands of a true artist.

The piano was engulfed in romantic sounds as Brahms’s poignant arpeggios spread over the keyboard with driving passion and poignancy.A technical command that incorporated the playful capricious contrasts before being enveloped in the washes of even more passionate cascades of notes.There was a beautiful simplicity to Brahms’s seemingly innocent B minor Capriccio with its quixotic changes 4643 5z and sty4t4eafescjle.

There was an extraordinary technical control in the Bartok studies with amazing sounds spread with remarkable virtuosity over the entire keyboard in the second.There was also the toccata like gymnastics of the third study with its majestic outpouring and surprise ending .

Mompou was played with a capriciousness and ravishing beauty.There were sumptuous rich sounds of beguiling melodic insinuation.Tinged with nostalgia as it was played with great artistry.One could do no better than to quote Joan Chissell when she said ‘Baubles were turned into Gems.’

Pianist and flautist Misha Kaploukhii was born in 2002 and is an alumnus of the Moscow Gnessin College of Music, where he studied in the piano class of Mikhail Egiazarian. Misha is currently studying at the Royal College of Music; he is an RCM and ABRSM award holder generously supported by Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation and Talent Unlimited charity studying for a Bachelor of Music with Professor Ian Jones. He also gained inspiration from lessons and masterclasses with musicians such as Claudio Martínez Mehner, Dmitri Bashkirov, Jerome Lowenthal and Konstantin Lifschitz. Misha already has experience of performing with orchestras internationally including his recent debut in Cadogan Hall with the Rachmaninoff 1st Piano Concerto, his overall repertoire includes a wide range of solo and chamber music. Recently, Misha has won prizes in the RCM concerto competition (playing Liszt’s 2nd Piano Concerto) and in the International Ettlingen Piano Competition.”

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/28/misha-kaploukii-plays-liszt-at-the-rcm-a-sea-symphony-concert-youth-and-music-a-joy-to-behold/

5.10 pm Yura Zaiki 

Debussy’s Images Book 1 were played with great poise and elegance.Reflets dans l’eau was allowed to hover above the keys and Hommage a Rameau was played with aristocratic style. Mouvement was a continuous outpouring of whispered sounds with tumultuous outbursts played with technical bravura of notes spread with ease over the entire keyboard.

The Liszt Sonata was played with blazing passion and technical bravura.There were moments in the andante of great beauty.This is one of the great works of the Romantic repertoire and is dedicated to Schumann.When the score arrived at the Schumann household Clara declared that it was a blazing noise and she certainly would never play it in public.Hans von Bulow gave the first performance and it takes a true musician to followed Liszt’s very precise road map for a work of such blazing originality.The opening pages are marked piano,mezzo forte leading to the fortissimo outburst and the true start of Liszt’s adventure on the second page.The three opening themes are the leit motif that are transformed in a highly original way creating a revolutionary new art form that was to be such an influence on Liszt’s son in law .Richard Wagner took it to sublime heights in the Ring Cycle.Yura played it with great conviction and the public were totally won over but a more careful study of the score would reveal a work of searing originality and fundamental importance and not just a showpiece for brilliant virtuosi.

Yura Zaiki is a Japanese pianist based in London. She studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Professors Aaron Shorr, Fali Pavri, and Jonathan Plowright, where she completed her bachelor and masters degree. Her studies have been supported by the ABRSM scholarship, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland trust scholarship. She graduated top of her class and was awarded the Performance Prize for Keyboard.Previously, she joined the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of op let Music, where she won First prize in the Iris Dyer Piano Competition. Her awards in competitions include First prize in the Evangelia Tjiarri International Competition, Second prize in the Elena Richter International Competition, First prize in the Chiba Piano Competition, plain First prize in the North London Piano Festival, Fifth prize in the Petrof Piano Competition. She also received the Craxton Memorial Trust Award.She has performed in venues such as the Piano Festival at FAZIOLI Hall in Italy, and the BBC interval concert at Glasgow City Halls. She was also invited to perform by the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania & Japan at Goldsmiths University of London, at the Institut français d’Écosse in Edinburgh, and the Larnaca Municipal Theater in Cyprus. She is an animal lover and a founder of The Cerasus, where she organises a series of charity concerts in Tokyo, London, and Glasgow, for animals in need. She also had the privilege of playing in Masterclasses with great pianists including Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Richard Goode, Robert Levin, Steven Osborne and Frank Wibaut. (250)

What fun we had …..and what music ……..,and another day still to enjoy

The second concert in this eleventh edition inspired by Liszt’s Erard piano lovingly restored by Ing .Tammaro.He also had the genial idea of bringing this antique instrument to life with an annual series of concerts which also give a platform to young master musicians.And it all started with the Liszt bicentennial celebrations in 2011 originally in the Villa D’Este but now transferred to another of the hills around Rome in Velletri.
In the beautifully restored monastery that is now a thriving arts centre this Erard piano has found the ideal home for an instrument that was destined for intimate gatherings and certainly not the vast concert halls of today.

Today it was an all Wagner concert alla Liszt by the young Albanian born pianist Filippo Tenisci from the class of Maurizio Baglini. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/06/24/che-festa-the-joy-of-musicmaurizio-baglini-project-at-roma-3/
Maurizio Baglini and Roberto Prosseda are two prodigiously eclectic promoters of music and young musicians in Italy.
I am proud to say that they were both spotted and helped in their formative years by the Keyboard Trust which has now taken Filippo under their wing too.

Leslie Howard the noted Liszt expert is one of the artistic directors of the KT and will play later in this season on the 14th May with his young Sienese protégée Ludovico Troncanetti.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/06/11/leslie-howard-and-ludovico-troncanetti-at-st-marys-a-wondrous-voyage-of-discovery/

The world is very small when one encounters master musicians dedicated to a voyage of discovery into the world of the great composers bringing their discoveries to life with dedicated scholarship,passion and instrumental mastery.
And so it was today with this young musician who I had heard recently playing so beautifully a Mozart concerto with the University Roma Tre Orchestra.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/02/09/roma-3-orchestra-the-mozart-project/
I was not expecting to find such dedicated mastery and serious scholarship in an eclectic repertoire of Wagner as from the hands of his father in law Liszt.
I have only heard the Tannhauser Overture before as it was the ‘cavallo di battaglia’ of the great ‘virtuosi’of the past .
There exists a famous video recording of Moiseiwitch playing it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=XKDYla5C5cA&feature=share
I also remember Shura Cherkassky playing it for us in Rome in one of his many recitals there in his glorious Indian summer.
It is a real paraphrase and as Ing.Tammaro rightly explained is the only piece on the programme today that is not just a pure transcription.
It is a work in which virtuosistic gymnastics abound but above all requires a superb sense of balance and colour to restore its orchestral glory to two hands and two feet in front of a box of strings and hammers !

Here and in the ingenious ‘Spinnerlied’or the ‘Entrata degli ospiti nel Warburg’ Filippo showed his technical mastery of the keyboard with sparkling jeux perlé,brilliant arabesques and powerful octaves.There was real beauty as he intoned the ‘Coro dei Pellegrini’ with its atmospheric ending that was later to be transformed in the Overture paraphrase with the transcendental gymnastics of a master illusionist.There was ravishing beauty that opened the ‘O du mein holder Abendstern’ with its tenor melody and lapping arabesques before its apparition on high bathed in a luminous mist of pedal.This was just the introduction to the full sumptuous tenor melody in all its moving glory.It was played with great delicacy surrounded by arabesques gradually building to a truly ecstatic climax.It showed Filippo’s very stylish mastery without ever loosing the aristocratic sentiment pregnant with meaning and never descending into empty sentimentalism.

A sudden injection of life with ‘Entrata degli ospiti nel Wartburg’ with the troups insistently marching in the left hand leading to a triumphant finale of great virtuosity and showmanship.The Ballade unfolded with great drama and was a true tone poem in Filippo’s inspired and convincing hands It followed the busy weaving of the famous ‘Spinnerlied’ already mentioned.

It is interesting to note that with Lohengrin Wagner left his youthful world of Tannhauser and Rienzi and was heading for the genial heights that changed the world of opera forever.The first performance in Weimar of Lohengrin was with Liszt on the podium who wrote to Wagner: ‘The wonderful score of Lohengrin moved me deeply.Your opera is simply sublime’.And so it was with the’Corteo nuziale di Elsa alla Cattedrale’ that the long drawn out melodic line was played with absolute serenity as Filippo unfolded it’s simple melodic line in this most literal of transcriptions.The ‘Dream of Elsa’ from Lohengrin was played with the tenor line ,sumptuous and simple over a shimmering accompaniment of great sensibility .

It was Filippo’s remarkable musicianship and scholarship that shone through all he did.Nowhere more than in the brief encore that he offered after a transcendental performance of the Tannhauser Overture.I look forward to the imminent publication of his new Wagner/Liszt CD.
Filippo took this opportunity of publically thanking Ing.Tammaro for the untiring help he gives to young musicians.Giving them a much needed platform to be able to share their music with a discerning public in his seasons of such scholarship and meaningful importance .

He announced he would like to play a piece written for the piano by Wagner himself.
Written in 1853 but revised and authenticated only a year before his 70th and last birthday in 1883.
Just one page of disarming simplicity that after all the notes we had heard today it was a fitting testimony to one of the greatest composers of all time.
It was played by Filippo with simple disarming beauty – a sublime benediction before which I am sure Liszt would have gone on his knees too !To quote Wagner from his letters:’An excitement almost painful comes over me with the arrival of the promised Erard Grand……..On it’s arrival I was extremely moved …….you know for how long I had hoped to own one……Here it is finally the magnificent piano with a voice of gold.’

As Ing Tammaro pointed out it was just such a piano that sat so nobly on the stage today.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/24/michelle-candotti-a-lioness-let-loose-in-velletri-ignites-liszts-piano/

Here is an article about the first concert in this eleventh season : https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/24/michelle-candotti-a-lioness-let-loose-in-velletri-ignites-liszts-piano/

The finale concert in Lisa Peacock’s series of ‘discoveries’ in the splendour of the newly restored Leighton House.Five concerts with five future stars in Lord Leighton’s sumptuous music room.
Pianists who have come to London to perfect their already quite considerable talent.Today it was Victor Maslov who closed the season with a full hall that included his mentor Dmitri Alexeev and his wife Tatyana Sarkissova.
Three of the five pianists chosen to take part in this new series were mentored by Dmitri Alexeev at the Royal College of Music and it was the master himself who had given a memorable concert here too just a few weeks ago.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/06/dmitri-alexeev-the-supreme-mastery-and-anguish-off-a-tormented-soul/

Victor Maslov graduated in 2021 covered in prestigious prizes and gaining his Masters of Performance with distinction as well as a Bachelor of Music First Class degree.
He is fast making a name for himself on the world stage and only a few days ago gave a memorable recital at the Pharos Arts Centre in Cyprus organised in partnership with the Keyboard Trust.
Just an hour of music but from the very first notes it was obvious that we were in the company of a master.
Whether in the poetic vision of Rachmaninov delving deep into the Russian soul or the disarming simplicity of Janacek’s hauntingly nostalgic folk melodies or the amazing fireworks of Stravinsky’s Firebird ,Victor held us in his spell with masterly playing of intelligence and poetic vision.
It was the disarming beauty of his encore ,the G sharp minor Rachmaninov Prelude that summed up his artistry where in just two pages he could show us a world of nostalgic yearning and brooding unrest with a kaleidoscopic range of colour but above all an aristocratic sound of ravishing beauty and purity.

The Études-Tableaux (“study pictures”), Op. 33, is the first of two sets of piano études composed by Rachmaninoff .They were intended tudto be “picture pieces”, essentially “musical evocations of external s visual stimuli”. But Rachmaninoff did not disclose what inspired each one, stating: “I do not believe in the artist that discloses too much of his images. Let [the listener] paint for themselves what it most suggests.”However, he willingly shared sources for a few of these études with the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi when Respighi orchestrated them in 1930.Rachmaninoff composed the Op. 33 Études-Tableaux at his Ivanovka estate in Tambov,Russia between August and September 1911, the year after completing his second set of preludes ,Op. 32. While the Op. 33 Études-Tableaux share some stylistic points with the preludes, they are actually not very similar. Rachmaninoff concentrates on establishing well-defined moods and developing musical themes in the preludes. Rachmaninoff biographer Max Harrison calls the Études-Tableaux “studies in [musical] composition”; while they explore a variety of themes, they “investigate the transformation of rather specific climates of feeling via piano textures and sonorities. They are thus less predictable than the preludes and compositionally mark an advance” in technique.Rachmaninoff initially wrote nine pieces for Op. 33 but published only six in 1914. One étude, in A minor, was subsequently revised and used in the op 39 set ; the other two appeared posthumously and are now usually played with the other six. Performing these eight études together could be considered to run against the composer’s intent, as the six originally published are unified through “melodic-cellular connections” ^.Differing from the simplicity of the first four études, Nos. 5–8 are more virtuosic in their approach to keyboard writing, calling for unconventional hand positions, wide leaps for the fingers and considerable technical strength from the performer. Also, “the individual mood and passionate character of each piece” pose musical problems that preclude performance by those lacking strong physical technique.The study Grave in C minor n.3 was re-used in the Largo of Rachmaninov’s Fourth concerto which was completed in 1926.

On an Overgrown Path is a cycle of fifteen piano pieces written by Leos Janacek and organized into two volumes.Janáček composed all his most important works for solo piano between 1900 and 1912.He probably began preparing his first series of Moravian folk melodies in 1900.At this time, the cycle had only six pieces, intended for harmonium : Our evenings, A blown-away leaf, The Frýdek Madonna, Good night!, The barn owl has not flown away! and a Piu mosso published after Janáček’s death.These melodies provided the basis for the first volume of On an Overgrown Path. Three of these compositions were first published in 1901 with the fifth volume of harmonium pieces, Slavic melodies, under the title On an overgrown path – three short compositions.By 1908 the cycle had grown to nine pieces, and was by then intended for piano instead of harmonium. The definitive version of the first book was published in 1911.On 30 September 1911, Janáček published the first piece of the second series in the Lidove noviny newspapers. The new series was created, in its entirety, around 1911.The complete second book was printed by the Hudební matice in 1942. The première of the work took place on 6 January 1905 at the “Besední dům” Hall in Brno.

The Nostalgia and Pain of Memory: Janáček’s On an Overgrown PathThe nationalism that hit the 19th century and carried through to the 20th century had a profound effect on music. Music that had been ignored for its folk-like character, or its non-urban nature, became the basis for new works that not only celebrated the folk sources but also the country itself.In Czech music history, three composers defined the nation: Smetena (1824-1884), =Dvorak (1841-1904), and Janacek (1854-1928). Janáček took inspiration from Moravian and other Slavic folk music to create his works, supported by his own research into the folklore and music of his country. Achieving international fame in his 60s with his opera Jenůfa, Janáček joined Smetana and Dvořák in symbolising Czech music.

A piano cycle created starting around 1900, On an Overgrown Path, had a complicated birth. Seven pieces were originally written for harmonium, and five were published as Slavonic Melodies in 1901 and 1902. The remaining two pieces were set aside. In 1908, Janáček revised the work and wrote 3 more pieces, and made the 8 pieces into a cycle for piano. Two more pieces were added in 1911. That formed series I. Series II, which started with two new pieces, grew with the addition of the two pieces that had been set aside in 1902, forming nos. 1, 2, 3, 5 of Series II. No. 4 is just an ink sketch with some pencil revisions. Series II was published in 1942 after Janáček’s death and the 5 pieces do not have characteristic titles but only tempo indications.The title for the work, On an Overgrown Path, had been settled by 1901, but the titles of the individual movements changed before the publication of Series I in 1911. For example, No. 2, started out as ‘A Declaration of Love,’ was then changed to ‘A Love Song’ and finally became a much more mysterious title of ‘A Blown-Away Leaf’.Janáček described the work as having a double trajectory of ‘distant reminiscences’ of his childhood and reflection on the death of his 20-year-old daughter Olga in 1903.The first five parts of the cycle refer to his childhood: No. 1. Our Evenings, for evenings by the fireside; No. 3. Come with us!, for children’s games; and no. 4. The Madonna of Frydek, for a religious procession near his home village.As we get into the second part, emotion, rather than memory, has a place: no. 6. Words fail!, No. 8. Unutterable Anguish, and No. 9. In Tears.No. 7, Good Night!, was a metaphor for Olga’s death, while the last movement, No. 10. The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away!, refers to the owl’s status as a foreteller of doom.Janáček’s change in the work from childhood memories to the tragedies of the grownup parent make this a unique statement of the human condition.

Stravinsky’s score for The Firebird was written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes dance company, which premiered the work in Paris in 1910. Based on ancient Russian folk tales, it tells the story of the young Prince Ivan’s quest to find a legendary magic bird with fiery multi-coloured plumage. In the course of his adventures, he falls in love with a beautiful princess but has to fight off the evil sorcerer Katschei to eventually marry her. The suite presents the culminating scenes of the ballet in a piano transcription by the Italian pianist and pedagogue Guido Agosti (1901-1989), who studied with Ferruccio Busoni.

The Danse infernale depicts the brutal swarming and capture of Prince Ivan by Katschei’s monstrous underlings until Prince Ivan uses the magic feather given to him by the Firebird to cast a spell on his captors, making them dance until they drop from exhaustion. The Berceuse is a lullaby depicting the eerie scene of the slumbering assailants, leading to the Finale, a wedding celebration for Prince Ivan and his princess bride.Agosti’s piano transcription, completed in 1928, is a daunting technical challenge for the pianist. Most of the piano writing is laid out on on three staves in order to cover the multi-octave range of the keyboard that the pianist must patrol. The piano comes into its own in this transcription as a percussion instrument, to be played with the wild abandon with which a betrayed lover throws her ex-partner’s possessions off the balcony onto the street below.Judging from the shocking 7-octave-wide chord crash that opens the Dance infernale, Agosti captures well the bruising pace of the action, with off-beat rhythmic jabs standing out from a succession of punchy left-hand ostinati constantly nipping at the heels of the melody line. The accelerating pace as the sorcerer’s ghouls are made to dance ever more frantically is a major aerobic test for the pianist.

Relief comes in the Berceuse, which presents its own pianistic challenges, mainly those of finely sifting the overtones of vast chord structures surrounding the lonely tune singing out from the middle of the keyboard.The wedding celebration depicted in the Finale presents Stravinsky’s trademark habit of cycling hypnotically round the pitches enclosed within the interval of a perfect 5th. Just such a melody, swaddled in hushed tremolos, opens this final movement. It is a major challenge for the pianist to imitate the shimmering timbre of the orchestra’s brightest instruments as this theme is given its apotheosis to end the suite in a blaze of sonority that extends across the entire range of the keyboard.

Guido Agosti (11 August 1901 – 2 June 1989) was an Italian pianist and renowned for his yearly summer course in Siena frequented by all the major musicians of the age.It was on the express wish of Alfredo Casella that Agosti took over his class which he did for the next thirty years.Sounds heard in his studio have never been forgotten.

Agosti was born in Forli 1901. He studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni Bruno Mugellini and Filippo Ivaldiand earning his diploma at age 13. He studied counterpoint under Benvenuti and literature at Bologna University. He commenced his professional career as a pianist in 1921. Although he never entirely abandoned concert-giving, nerves made it difficult for him to appear on stage,and he concentrated on teaching. He taught piano at the Venice Conservatoire and at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome.In 1947 he was appointed Professor of piano at the Accademia Chigiana Siena .He also taught at Weimar and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

His notable students include Maria Tipo,Yonty Solomon Lelsie Howard,Hamish Milne,Martin Jones,Ian Munro,Dag Achat,Raymond Lewenthal,Ursula Oppens,Kun- Woo Paik,Peter Bithell.He made very few recordings; there is a recording of op 110 from the Ghione theatre in Rome together with his recording on his 80th birthday concert in Siena of Debussy preludes .

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/05/30/victor-maslov-at-st-marys-the-return-of-a-great-artist/

La Micat in Vertice è anche una stagione per i giovani, aperta all’esordio dei nuovi talenti chigiani, proiettati verso il futuro. Allievo chigiano di Lilya Zilberstein, Gabriele Strata è uno dei più interessanti pianisti della nuova generazione internazionale. Un programma imperdibile, dedicato ai capolavori di Händel, Adès e Chopin.

VENERDÌ 3 MARZO ORE 21

Gabriele Strata the poet of the piano.
After all the intricacies of the Handel G minor suite ,the austere atmospheric musings of Ades or the passionate outpouring of Chopin’s monumental Four Ballades it was in the very final encore with the magic of the nightingale still in the air,the Maiden nowhere to be seen,that a moment of sublime inspiration by Schumann had revealed what we had already realised during his programme today .A single simple page,Liebeslied originally for four hands but here played with just two,but hands of poetic gold as Gabriele kept this enraptured audience breathless and mesmerised by his supreme poetic playing.

I have had the opportunity to listen to Gabriele over the past few years.A student formed by two friends of the Ghione Theatre in Rome where they both performed in their formative years Riccardo Zadra and most notably Roberto Prosseda .https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/01/13/roberto-prosseda-pays-tribute-to-the-genius-of-chopin-and-the-inspirational-figure-of-fou-tsong/. By coincidence also with Boris Berman at Yale University who had given many memorable recitals at the Ghione too.I first heard Gabriele playing the Schumann concerto with the Roma 3 University Orchestra.A fine very solid performance but one which showed the superb technical training he was receiving at Yale.A performance that was a work in progress by a remarkably talented student who was at a crossroads of choosing his path,whether it be precision and technical perfection or poetry and inspiration,or indeed both.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/07/15/summer-harmonies-at-teatro-palladium-for-roma-tre-orchestra/

I heard him again last year in London at the Barbican as a top prize winner at the Guildhall where he is studying with Ronan O’Hora (who had studied like me with Vlado Perlemuter the protégée of the greatest poet of the piano Alfred Cortot).Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini does not show off the finesse of interpretative skills but is more an intricate ensemble work that requires agility and skill.Gabriele imbued it though with great meaning and there were moments of beauty mingled with his already quite remarkable technical mastery.Not surprisingly Gabriele is also perfecting his studies in Rome at the Accademia di S. Cecilia with that wonderful friend and trainer of all young artists Benedetto Lupo .Today I was overwhelmed by this young student who has come through a professional training process where youthful talent can be transformed into professional proficiency without damaging the essential heart and soul of the young performer and above all maintaining that still youthful love and passion for music.Hats off to Ronan O’Hora ,head of Keyboard studies at the Guildhall,who has obviously restored and shared with Gabriele his own superb musicianship and poetic artistry.

Ronan is a remarkable musician and is about to embark on a cycle of the 32 Beethoven Sonatas this Easter in a series presided over by Paul Lewis.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/10/07/ronan-ohora-at-razumovsky-academy-simple-grand-beethoven/

I was glad to see that the artistic director of the Chigiana,Nicola Sani,is intent on inviting not only illustrious artists of long standing ,but also young musicians from the next generation,to play in the prestigious ‘Micat in Vertice’ Concert Season.A season that had been the idea of Count Chigi when he would personally invite Artur Rubinstein,Horowitz,Cortot,Segovia etc to play in his home in Siena !Gabriele had been particularly noted in the class of Lilya Zilberstein in 2020 and was invited now to play in a concert in the 100th Anniversary Season.Just a month ago Angela Hewitt shared the same stage of the beautiful Teatro dei Rozzi :https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/02/angela-hewitt-the-100th-anniversary-season-of-the-accademia-chigiana-in-siena-bach-shining-brightly-with-intelligenceravishing-beauty-and-wit/ .

I had visited the course of Lilya Zilberstein the year after Gabriele and had admired enormously her generosity in helping talented young musicians.It followed in the tradition inaugurated by Count Chigi of inviting Casella,Cortot,Ferrara and above all for generations of pianists,Guido Agosti.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/08/14/zilberstein-in-siena/.

A very interesting programme from Gabriele included a rarely heard suite by Handel and rather daringly finishing the first half with a work based on John Dowland’s song “Darknesse Visibile” as visualised in modern idiom by the poetic Thomas Ades.

Scintillating ornaments abounded in the Ouverture by Handel.They were played with crisp precision that like Sokolov were indeed enviable on a modern day Steinway.Although admiring the spring like unravelling of this knotty twine I could not help thinking that a few less ornaments would have given more clarity to Handel’s architectural conception.After all,this is a modern day instrument that can sustain notes in a way that the harpsichord could not do and where necessarily there was a need of ornamental help.But it was nevertheless remarkable playing even though a window of fresh air was opened when the Largo was interrupted by the simple clarity and energy of the Presto.The Andante was played so delicately and was beautifully shaped with the deliciously subtle addition of ornamentation in the ritornello and the perpetuum mobile of the Allegro was played with enviable clarity and rhythmic energy.Then the gates of Gabriele’s simple poetic vision opened to show it’s face with a sublimely expressive Sarabande where peace and beauty spoke so eloquently in Gabriele’s sensitive hands.This ravishing atmosphere was interrupted as the Gigue cast its hypnotically energetic spell before the grandiose opening of the final Passacaglia.An ending of great authority where there was an exhilarating build up of tension and where now Gabriele allowed himself the full potential of this modern instrument,but with great taste ,to exult the glory of Handel’s invention that had been limited to the instruments of his age.

A completely different world was opened up as the full potential of this magnificent modern Steinway was transformed by Ades ,with considerable help from Gabriele,into a magic world of wondrously atmospheric vibrating sounds.It was leading to a whispered account of Dowland’s song as heard far away in Ades’s land of dreams.A remarkable control of the piano with a kaleidoscope of sounds where Gabriele shared with the rapt attention of his audience the trance and poetic vision he was transmitting via the extraordinary world of this contemporary poet of sound.It was an unusual way to end the first half of a recital but then great artists are never predictable but are always totally convincing in all they do.’Je sens,je joue ,je trasmets’ so simple but oh so rare !

The four Chopin Ballades I had heard only the day before in Florence from Ivan Krpan in a series with the Keyboard Trust in partnership with the British Institute.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/03/01/ivan-krpan-busoni-2017-in-florence-mastery-and-simplicity-at-the-service-of-music/A fascinating performance full of poetic artistry and mystery that complimented so well today with a similar poetic vision of Gabriele but who played with a luminosity and monumentality that illuminated another side of these masterpieces.Eight Ballades in twenty four hours must be a record but from the hands of two such wonderful young artists it was an uplifting and inspiring experience indeed.Something of the atmosphere of Ades was still lingering in the hall as Gabriele entered the world of Chopin with an opening of the G minor Ballade played with great delicacy .It showed his superb musicianship as an interpreter of Chopin’s very precise indications that over the years the ‘tradition’ has somewhat distorted!There was a delicacy to the second theme but there was also a depth of sound from the bass and a subtle doubling of the tenor voice.Gabriele’s Ballades were etched in chiselled monumental sounds that gave great aristocratic space to the passionate outpourings that gradually erupt out of the most poetic musings.The notorious codas to the four ballades held no terror for Gabriele as he too like Ivan had incorporated them into the very fabric of creation.After the tumultuous outburst of aristocratic nobility and brilliance of the first ballade there followed the extreme whispered delicacy of the second.There were dramatic contrasts too with the Presto con fuoco played with a sense of excitement and fire but kept always scrupulously under control.The third ballade with its seemingly improvised opening where the ravishing beauty of the arabesques that followed just exulted the sumptuous subtlety of the tenor voice .The melodic lines were gently unfolded in this the most pastoral of the Ballades.There was an aristocratic timelessness to the build up to the final exultant outburst.It was complimented by the extreme beauty of the opening of the fourth Ballade where here too there was an improvised freedom but always of great taste combining a sense of fantasy and discovery to Gabriele’s superb musicianship.The gradual build up to the tumultuous climax and exhilarating coda brought a just ovation from an audience that had applauded already each Ballade as each one was so monumentally unfolded by this true poet of the keyboard.

There was magic in the air with the whispered secrets that Gabriele shared with us of the ‘Maiden and the Nightingale’ from Granados’ Goyescas.Sumptuous sounds of pulsating beauty and a web of golden delicacy spun with the same beauty that reminded me of the magic that Rubinstein could spin at the end of his recitals all too many years ago.The minutes of aching silence after the sublime beauty of his final encore by Schumann spoke more eloquently than my poor words could ever do.It was Mitsuko Uchida who said,after her recital in Perugia a few years ago.that it is the memory of an experience that remains long after recording and photographs have been consumed worldwide and long been forgotten.We have a story to tell and a memory of a thing of beauty that will remain a joy forever.Thank you Gabriele!

Georg Friedrich Händel da Otto grandi suite per clavicembalo, Suite n. 7 in sol min. HWV 432

Suite No 7 in G minor owes its character to its key, which Charpentier had called ‘sévère et magnifique’ and which was shortly to become Mozart’s key of tragedy and consequence. But this suite is to a degree equivocal because although it starts with a pompous and circumstantial French overture, with a slow introduction complete with double dots where the succeeding quick fugal section is not the conventional triple-rhythmed round-dance, but is in common time.After this highly theatrical overture, an Andante and Allegro (really a French allemande and Italian corrente) are discreet, consistently in two parts, one for each hand, with canonic imitations. The sarabande, more harmonic in texture, is heart-easingly lyrical, flowering into additional ornamentation in the repeats. The conventionally Italianate gigue is unpretentious, but Handel adds as finale a massive passacaille: a set of variations over a chord sequence, beginning in diatonic homophony but increasingly chromaticized into diminished sevenths.Significantly, this piece is not in the triple rhythm typical of processional passacaglias (and of chaconnes and sarabandes) but is rather in a common time relating back to the fugato section of the overture.

Ouverture – Andante – Allegro – Sarabande – Gigue – Passacaille:Chaconne

Thomas Adès Darknesse Visible

This piece is an explosion of John Dowland’s lute song ‘In Darknesse Let Mee Dwell’ (1610). No notes have been added; indeed, some have been removed. Patterns latent in the original have been isolated and regrouped, with the aim of illuminating the song from within, as if during the course of a performance.The first performance of Darkness Visible was given by the composer at the Recital Hall, Franz Liszt’s house, Budapest, in October 1992.

‘A haunting meditation in which the presence of John Dowland is clearest where the music seems least like him: a magical illusion as well as a moving homage.’Gramophone

In darknesse let mee dwell,
the ground shall sorrow be,
The roofe Dispaire to barre
all cheerful light from mee,
The wals of marble blacke
that moistned still shall weepe,
My musicke hellish jarring sounds
to banish friendly sleepe.
Thus wedded to my woes,
and bedded to my Tombe,
O let me living die
till death doe come.

Dowland ends the song with a restatement of the opening line.

Thomas Adès

Fryderyk Chopin Ballade n. 1 in sol min. op. 23
Ballade n. 2 in fa magg. op. 38
Ballade n. 3 in la bem. magg. op. 47
Ballade n. 4 in fa min. op. 52

The term ballade was used by Chopin in the sense of a balletic interlude or dance-piece, equivalent to the old Italian ballata, but the term may also have connotations of the medieval heroic ballad, a narrative minstrel-song, often of a fantastical character. There are dramatic and dance-like elements in Chopin’s use of the genre, and he may be said to be a pioneer of the ballade as an abstract musical form. The four ballades are said to have been inspired by a friend of Chopin’s, poet Adam Mickiewicz.The exact inspiration for each individual ballade, however, is unclear and disputed.Though the ballades do not conform exactly to sonata form the “ballade form” created by Chopin for his four ballades is a variant of sonata form with specific discrepancies, such as the mirror reprise (presenting the two expositional themes in reverse order during the recapitulation The ballades have directly influenced composers such as Liszt and Brahms who, after Chopin, wrote ballades of their own.Besides sharing the title, the four ballades are entities distinct from each other. Each one differs entirely from the others, and they have but one thing in common – their romantic working out and the nobility of their motifs.

The Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23, was completed in 1835 in Paris.In 1836, Schumann wrote: “I have a new Ballade by Chopin. It seems to me to be the work closest to his genius (though not the most brilliant). I even told him that it is my favourite of all of all his works. After a long, reflective pause he told me emphatically: ‘I am glad, because I too like it the best, it is my dearest work.’”

The Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38, was composed from 1836 to 1839 in Nohant and on the Spanish island of Mallorca .Schumann who had dedicated his Kreiseleriana op.16 to Chopin, received the dedication of this ballade in return.Schumann found it a less ingenious work than the first.It was supposedly inspired by Mickiewicz’s poem :Świtezianka, the lake of Willis,

The Ballade No. 3 in A♭ major, Op. 47, was composed in 1841 in Nohant .It was first mentioned by Chopin in a letter to Julian Fontana on 18 October 1841 and was likely composed in the summer of 1841 in, Nohant where he had also finished the Nocturnes op 48 and the Fantasie in F minor.It is dedicated to his pupil Pauline de Noailles (1823–1844).

The Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52, was composed in 1842 in Paris and Nohant and revised in 1843.It is considered one of Chopin’s masterpieces, and one of the masterpieces of 19th-century piano music.According to John Ogdon it is “the most exalted, intense and sublimely powerful of all Chopin’s compositions… It is unbelievable that it lasts only twelve minutes, for it contains the experience of a lifetime.” It is dedicated to Baroness Rothschild ,wife of Nathaniel de Rothschild,who had invited Chopin to play in her Parisian residence , where she introduced him to the aristocracy and nobility.In the preface to his edition of Chopin’s ballades, Alfred Cortot claims that the inspiration for this ballade is Mickiewicz’s poem The Three Budrys, which tells of three brothers sent away by their father to seek treasures, and the story of their return with three Polish brides.

Hailed as “a brilliant talent with extraordinary sensitivity and superb technique”, Gabriele Strata (1999) has established himself as one of the leading Italian pianists of his generation. In 2018 Gabriele won First Prize at the XXXV Premio Venezia, the most prestigious Italian piano competition where he was awarded the Plaque of the President of the Italian Republic and the Medal of the Italian Senate. The Italian government previously recognized his artistic achievements in 2016 when he was awarded the Medal of the Italian Parliament. Gabriele regularly performs in Italy, Europe and the US. His 2021-2022 includes debut concerto appearances in the Berlin Philharmonie with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra; in Barbican Centre (London) with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen (China) with the Young Musician European Orchestra, and in Venice with the Orchestra del Teatro la Fenice. He has given recitals in prominent concert halls including Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Philharmonic Hall in Bratislava and Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, as well as venues in Brussels, Florence, Rotterdam, Portland (OR), Verona, Bologna, Treviso, Padova. An avid chamber musician, he has played at Wigmore Hall and Milton Court Concert Hall in London, and has premiered chamber music works by Academy Award nominee Thomas Newman and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kate Soper. Gabriele received his Master of Music (M.M) degree from Yale University in 2019 at age 19, and a Master of Musical Arts (M.M.A) degree at Yale University in 2020 under the guidance of Professor Boris Berman. At Yale, he was awarded for two consecutive years the Charles R. Miller and the Elizabeth Parisot Prize as “most outstanding pianist in the School of Music”. He is currently pursing two Artist Diploma degrees, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 2017, he graduated summa cum laude from the Conservatory of Music in Vicenza, Italy.

Harold Acton Library of the British Institute 2nd March at 18:30

At the age of twenty, Ivan Krpan won the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition 2017, one of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions. Since then he has been in demand for concerts in venues throughout Europe and Asia and has released  several recordings

Franz Schubert: Sonata in C major, D 840 (Reliquie)

Frédéric Chopin: Four Ballades.

Sensational success as Ivan went British in Florence today.
The winner of Busoni in 2017 just proves that a jury with musical principles held high can choose a young artist of talent that matures into the great artist that we had before us today.The transcendental control of sound in Schubert’s ‘Reliquie Sonata’ was quite extraordinary.A Sonata that even Schubert had realised that after a first movement of such heavenly length to continue further would not be possible in this world.It was written three years before his untimely death and was paired with the large scale A minor Sonata.It preceded the last great trilogy of Sonatas that Schubert miraculously penned knowing that his time on this earth was coming to an end .There was real weight and authority from the very first notes with a rich orchestral tone palette never hard but rich and full.It contrasted so well with the magical second subject that was played with such delicacy over a gently murmuring bass.This was a true ‘tour de force’of technical control of sound on a not easy piano.The fluidity of the melodic line with it ravishing heartrending outpouring of mellifluous poetic murmurings was something to marvel at indeed.There were extraordinary contrasts that he brought to this monumental first movement.It was played with an aristocratic architectural sense of line that made one realise that even Schubert could not have continued.Lasting over twenty minutes it contrasted with the relatively short Andante that was simple and playful where again Ivan found simple beauty in Schubert’s unending outpouring of melodic invention.

The Chopin Ballades were so freshly minted that they left us breathless with anticipation from music that we have lived with for a lifetime.
A musicianship that looked at the score with the uncontaminated eyes of a virgin but with the mastery of someone who listens to what he is creating with an innocence that made Chopin’s miraculous creations spring to life as though freshly minted.

There was the utmost delicacy at the opening of the first Ballade where even the opening Largo introduction was merely a way of arriving to the simple outpouring of melody.The moderato was played with subtle balance allowing the melodic line to sing so delicately above the chordal accompaniment.An opening I have heard innumerable times but rarely have I heard it played with such disarming simplicity .It was this inevitability that each episode was merely a link in a chain united by a sound where the more demonstrative virtuosistic passages grew so naturally as a climax of what had come before. The beautiful ‘meno mosso’ second subject just floated on the waves of sound that had been created in the previous bars.The great romantic climaxes were played without any rhetoric but with fervent youthful conviction.The presto con fuoco was played with transcendental control but it was above all the music that we followed and not the astonishing technical mastery that Ivan was to demonstrate in all four codas of the Ballades.

The four Ballades were played without a break as a whole and so it was that the gentle lilting second Ballade grew so naturally our of the majestic final chords of the first.Interrupted by the tempestuous ‘Presto con fuoco’ but subsiding so naturally to the questioning return of the ‘Andantino’.His remarkably intelligent musicianship gave such a clear line and direction to Chopin’s contrapuntal ‘knotty twine’ that I have never heard so clearly defined as this before.Another coda with passionate flashes of sumptuous sounds before the final climactic flourish out of which Ivan with simplicity and ravishing beauty brought this remarkable work to a poignant close.The beautiful third Ballade was just one long outpouring of song .Magical washes of colour just embellished the musical line without ever interrupting the continual flow.Even the gradual build up to the final glorious outpouring were just layers of ever more exciting washes of sound bringing this most luminous of Ballades to an exciting conclusion.The fourth Ballade I have rarely heard the theme played with such luminosity and sensitivity and without indulging in unnatural rubati or personal interjections.Even the first variation was just a wash of sound that gradually built to the first passionate climax.The return of the introduction was played exactly as Perlemuter had written in my score – the poetic words of his teacher Alfred Cortot :’avec un sentiment de regret’.The slight pressure on the thumb notes created a magic aura that I have only ever heard once before from a young french pianist Jean Rodolphe Kars who after being noted in the first Leeds piano competition became a Trappist Monk!

I am not suggesting for a moment that our Ivan ,who is destined for an illustrious career in music,should follow suit!The elaborate embellishing of the theme in the final variation was played with a precision and forward movement that is of the very few and the build up to the final great climax was indeed a monumental end for these four Ballades.The pianissimi chords just before the tumultuous final coda were played with a luminosity and sense of line that made the final great interruption even more unexpected.

A Chopin Mazurka was played as an encore by great demand from a public that had been astonished ,moved and excited by this young poet of the piano.

The first of three Busoni winners in the Harold Acton Library that injects these musty books with the very life that had so inspired them .

Franz Schubert Piano Sonata in C major,840, nicknamed “Reliquie” upon its first publication in 1861 in the mistaken belief that it had been Schubert’s last work,was written in April 1825,whilst the composer was also working on the A minor D.845 in tandem. Schubert abandoned the C major sonata and only the first two movements were fully completed, with the trio section of the third movement also written in full. The minuet section of the third movement is incomplete and contains unusual harmonic changes, which suggests it was there Schubert had become disillusioned and abandoned the movement and later the sonata. The final fourth movement is also incomplete, ending abruptly after 272 measures.The fragments of the sonata survived in Schubert’s manuscripts, and later the work was collected and published in its incomplete form in 1861.

The term ballade was used by Chopin in the sense of a balletic interlude or dance-piece, equivalent to the old Italian ballata, but the term may also have connotations of the medieval heroic ballad, a narrative minstrel-song, often of a fantastical character. There are dramatic and dance-like elements in Chopin’s use of the genre, and he may be said to be a pioneer of the ballade as an abstract musical form. The four ballades are said to have been inspired by a friend of Chopin’s, poet Adam Mickiewicz.The exact inspiration for each individual ballade, however, is unclear and disputed.Though the ballades do not conform exactly to sonata form the “ballade form” created by Chopin for his four ballades is a variant of sonata form with specific discrepancies, such as the mirror reprise (presenting the two expositional themes in reverse order during the recapitulation The ballades have directly influenced composers such as Liszt and Brahms who, after Chopin, wrote ballades of their own.Besides sharing the title, the four ballades are entities distinct from each other. Each one differs entirely from the others, and they have but one thing in common – their romantic working out and the nobility of their motifs.

The Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23, was completed in 1835 in Paris.In 1836, Schumann wrote: “I have a new Ballade by Chopin. It seems to me to be the work closest to his genius (though not the most brilliant). I even told him that it is my favourite of all of all his works. After a long, reflective pause he told me emphatically: ‘I am glad, because I too like it the best, it is my dearest work.'”

The Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38, was composed from 1836 to 1839 in Nohant and on the Spanish island of Mallorca .Schumann who had dedicated his Kreiseleriana op.16 to Chopin, received the dedication of this ballade in return.Schumann found it a less ingenious work than the first.It was supposedly inspired by Mickiewicz’s poem :Świtezianka, the lake of Willis,

The Ballade No. 3 in A♭ major, Op. 47, was composed in 1841 in Nohant .It was first mentioned by Chopin in a letter to Julian Fontana on 18 October 1841 and was likely composed in the summer of 1841 in, Nohant where he had also finished the Nocturnes op 48 and the Fantasie in F minor.It is dedicated to his pupil Pauline de Noailles (1823–1844).

The Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52, was composed in 1842 in Paris and Nohant and revised in 1843.It is considered one of Chopin’s masterpieces, and one of the masterpieces of 19th-century piano music.According to John Ogdon it is “the most exalted, intense and sublimely powerful of all Chopin’s compositions… It is unbelievable that it lasts only twelve minutes, for it contains the experience of a lifetime.” It is dedicated to Baroness Rothschild ,wife of Nathaniel de Rothschild,who had invited Chopin to play in her Parisian residence , where she introduced him to the aristocracy and nobility.

In the preface to his edition of Chopin’s ballades, Alfred Cortot claims that the inspiration for this ballade is Mickiewicz’s poem The Three Budrys, which tells of three brothers sent away by their father to seek treasures, and the story of their return with three Polish brides.

Ivan Krpan was born in Zagreb in 1997 into a musical family and began studying the piano at the age of six at the Blagoje Bersa Music School in Zagreb, under the tutelage of Renata Strojin Richter.
He studied piano with Ruben Dalibaltayan at the Music Academy in Zagreb where he obtained his master’s degree in 2019. In 2021 he started postgraduate study Konzertexamen at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in the class of prof. Claudio Martinez Mehner. He has won several first prizes in national and international piano competitions; prize wins of note include first prizes at the 12th Piano Competition “Les Rencontres Internationales des Jeunes Pianistes” Grez Doiceau in Belgium in 2014, the International Piano Competition Young Virtuosi in Zagreb in 2014, the International Piano Competition for Young Musicians in Enschede (Netherlands) and the Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists. He achieved 2nd prize in the International Danube Piano Competition in Ulm in 2014 and same year he won a special prize awarded by the Dean of the Zagreb Music Academy and the 4th prize at the 1st International Zhuhai Mozart Competition in Zhuhai, China. He also won the annual Ivo Vuljević prize awarded by the Jeunesses Musicales Croatia for the best young musician in Croatia in 2015. In 2016 he won the 3rd prize at the 10th Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition for Young Pianists and the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra has granted him the Young Musician of the Year Award.
At the age of twenty, Ivan Krpan has won the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition 2017, one of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions. 2018/2019 season saw him performing in important Italian cities as Venice, Rome, Milano, Turin, in major music centers as London, Vienna and Hong Kong as well as a tour in South Korea in collaboration with the World Culture Networks Foundation and Steinway & Sons. He also had an important tour in Germany (Munich, Hamburg, Leipzig, Dusseldorf, Dresden, Hanover), and an extensive tour in Japan.
For the first time the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition Foundation has produced a studio album, which it has made available exclusively on IDAGIO, a leading streaming service for classical music. In May 2018 Mr. Krpan took to the Emil Berliner Studios in Berlin to record Chopin’s 24 Préludes and Schumann’s Fantasie op. 17 and Arabeske op. 18.

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