Mese: Maggio 2023

Pablo Rossi and friends with The Tree of Life at the Brazilian Embassy in the beautiful ex Cunard Hall in Trafalgar Square .
A full house for the world premiere of ‘Abaporu’ Concertante for piano and strings by Joao Guilherme Ripper.Works by Villa Lobos and ending with Schubert’s ‘almighty’ Wanderer Fantasy !
Superb performances and nice to see our little ‘Pablo’ coming of age from the feet upwards as he takes his place so honourably on the world stage.

Works by Villa Lobos and Schubert completed the programme which is a reflection on the relation between nature and music.’Abaporu’ written for Pablo Rossi and commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a work full of aristocratic nobility in which the piano has the voice of authority aided and abetted by the string quintet.

A group of superb young musicians assembled by Can Arisoy who after only a few hours rehearsal had conquered it’s complex musical language ready to give the ‘world premiere’ with it dedicatee at the helm.The authority and aristocratic nobility Pablo gave to this work was a reminder of Rubinstein’s magnetism and personality.

It was Rubinstein who on his triumphant South American tours in the 1920’s encountered Villa Lobos whose works he became a lifelong advocate .In 1923 he bought him to Paris to play to the musical elite that was in Paris between the wars.A group of musicians was assembled in Rubinstein’s hotel to ravish and seduce the musical world with the highly original sounds of far off Brazil.

Today Pablo was content to play just one of the pieces that Rubinstein was sure to have played.’Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras’- Memories of Brazilian Forests was one of the branches that Pablo offered with his playing of insinuating persuasive charm.A sense of balance that allowed the melodic lines to intertwine in a such and enticingly amorous way.

A much later work ‘Forest of the Amazon’ is a song cycle taken from his Symphonic Poem and was sung so eloquently by the mezzo soprano Marina Melaranci.Her beautiful voice soared into the rarified air and was a refreshing breath of fresh air after the dynamic urgency and declamations of ‘Abaporu’.The voice and piano in perfect harmony as they revealed the subtle beauty and charm of these four evocative songs.Even more memorable was the encore that Marina was invited to offer on behalf of all the musicians that had taken part.Her voice ravished and seduced as Bachianas Brasileiras n. 5 by Villa Lobos was allowed to float into the highly charged air and bring such bewitchingly subtle emotions after the breathtaking virtuosity of Schubert’s monumental -‘ almighty’ Wanderer Fantasy.

Wonderful to see ‘our’ little Pablo who had been chosen at 16 to play for Noretta and John Leech in Steinway Hall in London when he became part of the family of the Keyboard Trust.Advised and nurtured by them,this highly talented young teenager was taken under the wing of the great pianist and teacher Eliso Virsaladze who in seven years of intensive study turned a talented young pianist into an artist ready to grace the world stage.It was a joy to see this now established artist sitting low at the keyboard with his hands like eagles ready to pounce on its pray.His long fingers and noticeable arch of the hand extracting ravishing sounds with such sensitivity and intelligence from a black box of hammers and strings.

A musicality that like Rubinstein goes beyond the note picking impotent accuracy that is so prevalent in our day of instant perfection.A musicality that goes to the very soul of the music and can communicate with spontaneity and personality the very meaning behind the music’s creation.’Je joue,je sens,je transmets’ is the title of an article written some years about Shura Cherkassky.Shura who would often be astonished by the efficiency of young musicians who he would be glad to listen to in concert but who so often he would gently remark ….’but I don’t think they listen to themselves!’Not only listen but also feel – many pianists before the public …too many ……do not really love the piano ……and quite often seem to hate it as they assault the great concert pianos that are built these days to withstand even a tank!All this to say that Pablo is from the ‘old school’ and it was refreshing to watch him throw his hands onto the keys with a ‘jeux perlé’,that was like brushing dust off the keys,in the variations on Schubert’s Wanderer which is the second movement of the fantasy.Nobility and fearless abandon brought this masterpiece vividly to life.’Almighty’ obviously translated from Brazilian in the publicity but described well a work that was to so profoundly influence Liszt.Schubert’s creation of a new form with the transformation of themes was a work that was to influence composers long after Schubert’s all too short existence on this earth.Schubert had been lent to us for only 31 years but his influence on the world was not only his poetic vision and seemingly endless outpouring of melodic invention but also his sense of architectural shape and structure.It was to influence Liszt and his son in law Richard Wagner in creating revolutionary new art forms.

The transcriptions by Liszt of two songs by Schubert were indeed recreations by a magician of the piano.Liszt could make the piano speak more eloquently than the human voice with his total mastery of the ‘modern’ piano.The pedal being the very soul,with fingers that could delve deep into the keys and extract sounds of eloquence and meaning.Pablo did just that with the first song from Schubert’s last great ‘Swan Song’ cycle .’Love’s message’ was played with heartrending beauty and a refined sense of balance that made this ‘Boston’ sound as though nurtured in Berlin or Hamburg.’Erlkonig’ burst onto the scene with demonic insistence and the story that Pablo told with just ten fingers and two (almost respectably clad ) feet was terrifying as this tone poem was unraveled with all the pianistic magic that only great artists can provide.

FOREST OF THE AMAZON is a symphonic poem based on texts of Dora Vasconcellos. It had started out as music for a film of W. H. Hudson’s Green Mansions (with Anthony Perkins, and Audrey Hepburn as the bird-woman Rima), but with typical high-handedness the film producers had jettisoned most of the score in favour of another by Bronislau Kaper. Not surprisingly, Villa-Lobos was furious and decided to re-use and recast his music, transferring sections and adding a brief overture and four new songs to Portuguese texts. The work became an extended symphonic poem, or rather, a multi-section rhapsody, which breathes a pantheistic doctrine of Nature, universal love and extinction. It tells the story of Rima the bird-girl and such narrative afforded the composer an opportunity to indulge in many different creative selves. In the complete cycle there are distinct episodes with melodies as simple and lovely as any of his previous works, as well as passages of tempestuous excitement or angular metric irregularity. We have Villa-Lobos the primitivist, the descriptivist, the folklorist, the romanticist and the Stravinskyan modernist. Later on,there was an short version made from only the solo voice parts, that become a much performed cycle for voice and piano.

Schubert/Liszt 2 songs (Liebesbotschaft and Erlkonig). Liebesbotschaft (Message of love, the singer invites a stream to convey a message to his beloved.) is the first lied from Schwanengesang a collection of songs written at the end of his life and published posthumously. –

Franz Liszt explained what moved him to his intense preoccupation with Franz Schubert’s lieder between the years of 1833 and 1845 during his 1838 visit in Vienna: “I heard in the salons, with vivid pleasure and sentimentality bringing tears to my eyes, an artistic friend, the Baron von Schönstein, present Schubert’s lieder. The French translation renders only a very incomplete sense of how this mostly-very-lovely poetry connects to the music of Schubert, the most poetic musician ever to live. The German language is so admirable in the area of sentimentality, perhaps only a German is capable of comprehending the naiveté and fantastic aspects of so many of these compositions, their capricious appeal, their melancholy letting-go.”

Love’s message

Murmuring brook, so silver and bright,do you hasten, so lively and swift, to my beloved? Ah, sweet brook, be my messenger.Bring her greetings from her distant lover.All the flowers, tended in her garden,which she wears so charmingly on her breast, and her roses with their crimson glow:refresh them, brooklet, with your cooling waters.When on your banks she inclines her head lost in dreams, thinking of me,comfort my sweetheart with a kindly glance, for her beloved will return soon.When the sun sinks in a red flush,lull my sweetheart to sleep.With soft murmurings bring her sweet repose, and whisper dreams of love.

“Erlkönig“, op 1 D 328, was composed in 1815,which sets Goethe’s poem.The singer takes the role of four characters — the narrator, a father, his small son, and the titular “Erlking”, a supernatural creature who pursues the boy — each of whom exhibit different tcharacteristics. A technically challenging piece for both performers and accompanists, “Erlkönig” has been popular and acclaimed since its premiere in 1821, and has been described as one of the “commanding compositions of the century”.

Who rides, so late, through night and wind?
It is a father with his child.
He has the boy well in his arm
He holds him safely, he keeps him warm. “My son, why do you hide your face in fear?”
“Father, do you not see the Erlking?
The Erlking with crown and tail?”
“My son, it is a streak of fog.” You dear child, come, go with me!
Very lovely games I’ll play with you;
Some colorful flowers are on the beach,
My mother has some golden robes.” My father, my father, and do you not hear
What Erlking quietly promises me?”
“Be calm, stay calm, my child;
The wind is rustling through dry leaves.”

“Do you, fine boy, want to go with me?
My daughters shall wait on you finely;
My daughters lead the nightly dance,
And rock and dance and sing you to sleep,
They rock and dance and sing you to sleep.” “My father, my father, and don’t you see there
Erlking’s daughters in the gloomy place?”
“My son, my son, I see it clearly:
There shimmer the old willows so grey.” I love you, your beautiful form excites me;
And if you’re not willing, then I will use force.”
“My father, my father, he’s touching me now!
Erlking has done me harm!” It horrifies the father, he swiftly rides on,
He holds the groaning child in his arms,
Reaches the farm with great difficulty;
In his arms, the child was dead.

The Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 ( D.760), popularly known as the Wanderer Fantasy, is a four-movement fantasy for solo piano composed by Schubert in 1822 when only 25 in a life that was tragically cut short by the age of 31.It is widely considered his most technically demanding composition for the piano and Schubert himself said “the devil may play it,” in reference to his own inability to do so properly.The whole work is based on one single basic motif from which all themes are developed. This motif is distilled from the theme of the second movement, which is a sequence of variations on a melody taken from the lied “Der Wanderer”, which Schubert wrote in 1816. It is from this that the work’s popular name is derived.The four movements are played without a break. After the first movement Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo in C major and the second movement Adagio (which begins in C-sharp minor and ends in E major), follow a scherzo presto in A-flat major and the technically transcendental finale, which starts in fugato returning to the key of C major and becomes more and more virtuosic as it moves toward its thunderous conclusion.Liszt was fascinated by the Wanderer Fantasy, transcribing it for piano and orchestra (S.366) and two pianos (S.653). He additionally edited the original score and added some various interpretations in ossia and made a complete rearrangement of the final movement (S.565a).I remember a recent lesson I had listened to of Elisso Virsaladze in which I was struck by the vehemence of the Wanderer Fantasy and the ragged corners that we are more used to in a Beethoven almost twice Schubert’s age .It made me wonder about the maturity of the 25 year old Schubert and could he have had a premonition that his life was to be curtailed only six years later.We are used to the mellifluous Schubert of rounded corners and seemless streams of melodic invention.But surely in the final three sonatas written in the last months of his life the A major and C minor start with a call to arms and only in the last B flat sonata do we arrive at the peace and tranquility that Beethoven was to find too in his last sonata.But the deep rumblings in the bass in Schubert’s last sonata give food for thought that his life was not all sweetness and light.I remember Richter’s long tribulation in the recording studio to put on record as near definitive version as possible of the Wanderer Fantasy with the help of the pianist and musicologist Paul Badura Skoda.

It was exactly like a tornado with which Pablo presented the opening flourishes of this remarkable work .It was played with the authority and breathless urgency that Richter and now Trifonov had unleashed on an unsuspecting public.This was a full symphony orchestra not a chamber orchestra but one that was capable of moments of excitement and urgency but also moments of lyricism and delicacy.The contrasts that Pablo found kept us on the edge of our seats as the underlying rhythmic current flowed from the source to the mouth of this great stream of sounds.Not a Schubert for the weak hearted but a Schubert of a man that had known great tenderness but also great suffering.There was a technical prowess that seemed to have no limitations as his body movements followed the great streams of sound that poured out of this little Boston with the same dynamic energy and richness as the greatest of concert grands.

The natural movements that followed the contours of the music allowed him to seek out sounds without any ungrateful hardness even in the most challenging passages that abound in a work that the composer himself said : ‘May the devil play it ‘.The fullness of rich sound in the solemn Adagio – The Wanderer – was remarkable for its sonority.I even found it a little too important a statement but was then led by Pablo to the magic of the variations where streams of golden sounds just poured like water over the keys leading to a climax worthy of the mightiest of Beethoven only to disappear in a series of vibrations all so similarly found in late Beethoven.The scherzo ,presto,was played with a clarity and sense of dance that created just the contrast and lyrical interlude before the tumultuous final explosion in preparation for the Allegro fugato.He embarked on the Allegro with an urgency almost in two instead of four.But we need not have worried as Pablo is also a great virtuoso as he fearlessly led us to the tumultuous conclusion with no sign of collision or mishap.A remarkably exciting conclusion to a superb performance.

Pablo Rossi takes London by storm

A lioness let loose at the Wigmore Hall ………ravishing,demonic,seductive and hypnotic …..Noah your mother is truly a star
The Piaf of the piano is in our midst.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001m58b

A short lunchtime programme for the BBC at the Wigmore Hall.It was quality rather than quantity that was so evident from the very first notes of this recital.Still under thirty having played her first recital on this stage six years ago.The indomitable Lisa Peacock had managed her London debut immediately after her success at the Utrecht Liszt competition.Leslie Howard who was chairman of the jury in Utrecht was present and a handful of important people for a lunchtime recital in this very Hall.

• Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
  • Ballade No. 1 in G minor Op. 23
• Franz Liszt (1811-1886
  • Années de pèlerinage, deuxième année, Italie S161
    • Après une lecture du Dante
• Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
  • Impromptu in F minor D935 No. 1
• Franz Liszt
  • Hungarian Rhapsody No. 14 in F minor S244

A star is born …Mariam Batsashvili

She quickly became a BBC young artist and played many memorable recitals including several for the Keyboard Trust in Germany with a specific invitation to play on a very special occasion in Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival in Virginia.Playing as today on a Yamaha piano that she turned into a Pandora’s box with a kaleidoscope of sounds that were breathtaking for their refined beauty and ravishing sense of balance.But there was also a demonic soul inside,ready to erupt and astonish with overwhelming sumptuous sounds that were so surprising coming from the hands of such a ‘minute’young lady.Piaf springs to mind.It was the sound of a truly ‘Grand’ piano in masterly hands that is very rare to hear these days with modern pianos that can resist even the most bombastic attacks from super trained virtuosi!The piano is fundamentally a percussive instrument but in the hands of someone who really loves the piano it can be persuaded to give the illusion that it can sing and dance better than any orchestra.In the hands of a true artist it has infinite possibilities of expression and is the crowned King of instruments.Joan Chissell anointed Rubinstein ‘the Prince of Pianists’ and all those that flocked to his concerts in the 70’s during his Indian Summer have never forgotten the sounds and with what seeming simplicity he held his audience in a spell that was unique.Rubinstein loved the piano but there are many before the public who seem to hate it – to quote Shura Cherkassky.’I don’t think they listen to themselves’ Shura often used to say listening to very assured performances from young aspiring pianists.Mariam not only loves the piano but she also listens to herself and having recently experienced motherhood she is even more sensitive to all around her.Living every note and acting the part as she is so involved in a musical conversation.Reliving these precious moments of sharing her act of discovery with us on the other side of the third wall,to use theatrical language.

Chopin’s First Ballade was an epic journey from the very first notes with her superb sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to sing so naturally.It led to the first climax with such an evident joy of discovery on her face.But it was an onward journey as her ‘jeux perlé’ just took over with a ravishing sense of shape and colour.All leading to the one great climax just before the coda that was of epic proportions and gave such an overall architectural shape to this magisterial tone poem.An unrelenting drive to the coda was breathtaking as it was unforgiving in it’s transcendental authority .The final flourishing scales ending in a silence that was so pregnant with meaning that the gently calming chords came as a relief before the tumultuous cascades of octaves and final magisterial chords.

The ballade dates to sketches Chopin made in 1831, during his eight-month stay in Vienna.It was completed in 1835 after his move to Paris, where he dedicated it to Baron Nathaniel von Stockhausen, the Hanoverian ambassador to France.

In 1836, Robert 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 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 Dante Sonata was originally a small piece entitled Fragment after Dante, consisting of two thematically related movements which Liszt composed in the late 1830s.He gave the first public performance in Vienna in November 1839.When he settled in Weimar in 1849, he revised the work along with others in the volume, and gave it its present title derived from Victor Hugo’s own work of the same name.It was published in 1858 as part of Années de pèlerinage

The Dante Sonata too received a performance of Hollywoodian technicolour as she followed with intelligence and real understanding the very precise indications that Liszt had marked in the score.After the grandiose opening octaves played with a subtle diminuendo followed by notes that were just a terrifying gust of wind,barely audible,but that sent a shiver down the spine.Cascades of octaves given such a meaningful musical shape contrasted with rays of light that shone like jewels.The overwhelming climax that burst into one of the most technically treacherous moments in an outpouring of romantic effusion that held no terror for Mariam.There were no thoughts for her other than a musical language that had to be fearlessly shared and experienced.

Schubert Impromptus are a series of eight pieces for solo piano composed in 1827. They were published in two sets of four each: the first two pieces in the first set were published in the composer’s lifetime as Op. 90; the second set was published posthumously as Op. 142 in 1839 (with a dedication added by the publisher to Franz Liszt ).The third and fourth pieces in the first set were published in 1857 (although the third piece was printed by the publisher in G major, instead of G♭ as Schubert had written it, and remained available only in this key for many years). The two sets are now catalogued as D. 899 and D. 935 respectively. They are considered to be among the most important examples of this popular early 19th-century genre.

There was aristocratic beauty to Schubert’s First Impromptu from his last set.A musical shape from the very opening with the downward shaping of the dotted introduction .It led to the velvet fluidity of the tenor melodic line with the right hand just shadowing and adding magical embellishments of scintillating delicacy.How to describe the sublime beauty and stillness she brought to the question and answer of the the central episode?One could see so clearly on her face her reaction to the sounds she was producing in a conversation of heartrending beauty.

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 14, S.244/14 in F minor ,is the fourteenth Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt and the Hungarian Fantasy written in 1852, is an arrangement of the rhapsody for piano and orchestra.This rhapsody is composed of several distinct melodies. Some of them are Hungarian folk songs, such as Magosan repul a daru. Others are of uncertain origin; they may have been written by Liszt himself.

It was fascinating to be brought down to earth with Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasy.I had not realised that this 14th Hungarian Rhapsody had been orchestrated and known as the Hungarian Fantasy.It used to be played quite frequently by pianist such as Cziffra or Cherkassky in orchestral concerts.(Richter and Arrau too I believe).Playing with the score hidden in the piano to avoid the obvious confusion between the solo and orchestral versions that can be so confusing for a performing artist.(The same confusion can arise with Liszt’s orchestral version of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy).She gave a scintillating performance where even the repeated notes bubbled over with infectious ‘joie de vivre’ and refined virtuosity of another age.The nobility and grandeur she brought to Liszt’s grandiose score were just as overwhelming as the Berlin Philharmonic and brought this magic hour almost to an end.

An encore of Liszt’s fourth Paganini study where Liszt outdid even Paganini with his formidably simple transcription of the violin with a single strand and only a few additions to keep the pianist even busier!It was a superb display of scintillating piano playing from the so called Golden Era.Mariam not only played the notes with driving rhythmic energy but she imbued them with a subtle charm and beguiling style that brought a smile even to her face as her hands seemed to fly across the keys with a hypnotic rhythmic ease.

A journey of discovery with Angela Hewitt in which even the little D minor fantasy by Mozart was revealed as if for the first time.
She was living every note astonished by the audacious genius of Mozart as his improvised fantasy was played with the same invention from which it was born with its continuous outpouring of startling ideas.
A programme of four major sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven.
D major in the first half and C minor in the second.
Starting the recital after the opening improvised Fantasy with Mozart’s last Sonata played with the same sense of fantasy and discovery that she brought to everything she did .
The poignancy of the Largo and mesto of Beethoven’s D major sonata had gone someway to prepare us for the end of this enthralling journey.
Mozart’s most Beethovenian of Sonatas was our preparation for Beethoven’s own last statement at the end of his own journey as chronicled in 32 gigantic passes.
It was the end too of Angela’s journey that was so poignant,as the aching minutes of silence were witness,after Beethoven’s final visionary chord of C major was barely whispered in our ear.
It was one of those rare moments when people unknown to each other are united in a wave of unified emotion.
Gradually Angela’s hands were freed from the keys that had seemed to possess her as she appeared visibly moved before a public who could only relieve the tension with cheers and a standing ovation

Viennese classics are close to the heart of a pianist whose programme includes the final sonatas for the instrument by both Mozart and Beethoven. Her Beethoven series on disc has been widely praised: BBC Music Magazine described her CD including Op. 10 No. 3 as ‘every bit as intellectually lucid, technically secure and focussed, as her Bach.’

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Fantasia in D minor K397 (c.1782-7)
Piano Sonata in D K576 (1789)
I. Allegro • II. Adagio • III. Allegretto

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Op. 10 No. 3 (1797-8) I. Presto • II. Largo e mesto
III. Menuetto. Allegro • IV. Rondo. Allegro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in C minor K457 (1784)
I. Molto allegro • II. Adagio • III. Allegro assai

Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor Op. 111 (1821-2)
I. Maestoso – Allegro con brio ed appassionato II. Arietta. Adagio molto semplice cantabile

Angela Hewitt – The 100th Anniversary season of the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.Bach shining brightly with intelligence,ravishing beauty ……and wit.

Thursday 25 May 3.00 pm 

 

Playing of real beauty and originality that was born from her natural musicianship.Even Chopin’s Funeral March played so slowly,but so beautifully and nobly that it could have gone on forever.A thing of beauty is a joy forever and the artistry and beauty of all she did will long remain in my memory.There was the same sense of style as Gelber to her Beethoven,where any sharp edges were smoothed over without in any way taking away from it’s dynamic energy.The final note with it’s impossible crescendo was smoothed over to make musical sense without taking away anything from the intrinsic meaning of the composer.Technically impeccable because every note had a meaning in a chain that was part of an architectural whole.’Words without thought no more to heaven go’ Nadia Boulanger would quote from Shakespeare to insensitive students and it was this heavenly message with Zala that came across so directly because of her musicality of such eloquence.A gift from heaven indeed!A timeless beauty to the slow movement that was played with great character.Throughout her performance too the bass had played such an important part as the anchor on which she was free to sail freely with sensitivity and intelligence.

Very interesting to discover the sound world of Francoise Choveaux and to hear Zala’s performance with it’s ‘Le Gibet’ continuous tolling bell around which a universe is described with vivid imagination and a startling kaleidoscope of colours.The words of a famous comedian come to mind as he plays what he described as the Grieg Piano Concerto – the conductor aghast at such noise asks him what is he doing.’ I am playing the notes of Grieg but not necessarily in the same order ‘. https://youtube.com/watch?v=uMPEUcVyJsc&feature=share. Just to say that Zala played notes maybe in a different order and style from what we are accustomed to,but the way she made it speak was the same language ,that of music,that had been a hallmark of a remarkable recital.

Francoise Choveaux was trained in the Lille Conservatory of Music CRD, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Musique de Paris, the Institute Peabody of Baltimore and in Juilliard School of New York. She performed in prestigious festivals in France, in Europe, in Asia, in the United States and in Brazil.

Françoise Choveaux takes up with a musical tradition anchored in the 19th Century. She is a composer but also a pianist. As of today, she has already written more than 280 opus for all instruments and all formations, from solos to symphony orchestras. And her works are performed in Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Belgium, Baltic States), in Asia and in America.Numerous live recordings and in studio were made of her music, among which the integral works of her quartets recorded by the famous Vilnius Strings Quartet.As pianist, she stood out as an privileged interpreter of French music: the international and specialized press approved by a large majority her recordings (10 Repertoire, 5 Diapasons) of the complete works for Darius Milhaud’s piano in world premiere.

Some Chopin playing of real beauty and style.Four Mazurkas op 30 plus another Mazurka as an encore were played with flexibility and a beguiling sense of style.It was here that her true artistry shone brightly There was such subtlety and ravishing colours allied to a sense of dance and fantasy that made each one of these gems a miniature tone poem where Chopin could say so much with so little.

A very dramatic start to the B flat minor Sonata with a sforzando at the end of the introduction that was a call to arms.She has such a forceful character that convinces because it is part of a musical conversation of such directness and simplicity.The repeat back to the ‘doppio movimento’ showed her assertive character as she was certainly not repeating the introduction that is hotly debated these days.A simple direct and logical musicianship in which debates or discussions have no meaning for her.The Scherzo sounded a little stilted to me as the accent on the final note of the bar,although written by Chopin,was rather exaggerated and disturbed the natural flow of the music.Her technical command ,though,was never in doubt here or in the perpetuum mobile of the ‘wind over the graves’.The central episode of the Scherzo and the Funeral March were played with ravishingly hypnotic beauty.The ‘Più lento flowed so naturally and was shaped with the same natural beauty that she had brought to the Mazurkas – to the manner born indeed.The Funeral March was played more Adagio than Lento ,a subtle difference,but it was totally convincing as was the masterly control of the ultra slow trio.Her searching for a melodic line in the Presto was laid before us without apology and like all she did was totally convincing.

Born in Slovenia in July 2002, Zala was initiated into music from the age of three in Brussels and received her first piano lessons at five in Luxembourg. At six, she entered the Conservatory of the City of Luxembourg , where she has obtained all available diplomas in piano performance and several diplomas in music theory. From 2012 to 2018, she studied in parallel at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (Belgium) with Maria João Pires and Louis Lortie. She is currently in her last year of the BA (Hons) programme at the Royal College of Music , studying with Norma Fisher. Every year from 2009 to 2014, she won several national and international competitions in Luxembourg and France and in 2016 in the USA, where she was invited to play at Carnegie Hall. Since then, she has been focusing on concert performances. 

Since the age of six, she has been performing regularly and has already played in eighteen countries, including China and the USA. She has participated in festivals in a dozen European countries. She also plays with orchestras, chamber music and piano duet with her younger brother Val . In 2018, she was nominated for the prize ‘Export Artist of the Year’ in Luxembourg. In 2017, at fourteen, she recorded in Germany her debut solo album, well received by the critics and the media in seven European countries.

Zala Kravos at St Mary’s The simplicity and intelligence of a true artist

Lovre Marusic and Lucas Krupinski together at Steinway Hall in London.

Lovre is a top prize winner at the 2021 Cleveland Competition who with his long spindly fingers etched out sounds of crystalline beauty in Mozart’s Sonata in C K 330.A fluidity and luminosity with a kaleidoscope of hidden sounds that brought the apparent simplicity of Mozart’s score vividly to life.Played with great taste but with the originality of a stylist with the inflections and breathing of a singer.Bowed low over the keyboard of this wonderful Steinway D that George Soole had made available to these two remarkable artists in the beautifully refurbished Concert Room.

Beauty and the beast for this wonderful Steinway Concert Grand.A piano that was made to adorn any of the great cavernous concert halls seating thousands,not a room of less than a hundred.It takes a real musician and great mastery to be able to project but not overwhelm a small intimate audience seated at such close proximity.It was a mark of Lovre’s musicianship that he could project the sounds with great purity and fluidity without ever overwhelming his audience seated practically at his elbow.Fou Ts’ong told me once that it was easier to create an intimate atmosphere in a big space than in a small one.Lovre,like Ts’ong loves the music of Mozart so much that it’s simplicity and naturalness are sometimes overwhelmed by a an external element that can interfere with music that Schnabel declared was too easy for children but too difficult for adults.It was a beautiful performance with moments of the real illuminated originality of a stylist.Always played with impeccable good taste and above all genuine humility,love and respect for this little masterpiece.Wonderful fingers where ornaments just sprang from his fingers and glistened like jewels never upsetting the overall music line.There were just a few occasions where his slowing down to point out the sublime beauty bequeathed to us by Mozart disturbed the natural flow that is the very motor force behind his genius.The Andante cantabile was played with simplicity and his fluid natural sounds were transformed into sublime utterings over the heart beating palpitations in the bass – the genius of Mozart revealed with a sensitivity where the coda was shaped to absolute heartrending perfection.The Allegretto missed the courtly charm that I have always associated with it but Lovre obviously saw it in another more brilliant and scintillating light.His well oiled fingers shaping Mozart’s passages with sparkle and wit rather than charm and grace.Lovre also played Schumann’s Arabesque where his fantasy and sensitivity allowed this early gem to glisten and shine as the Rondo melody returned each time more beautifully that the last.Transformed into a commentator after each of the contrasting episodes that interrupt it’s sublime meanderings.The purity and fluidity of his sounds were allowed to vibrate around this room with extraordinary poetic vibrancy as he recreated the coda much as pianists at the end of Liederkreis are entrusted to enter a world where words are not enough.

Lucas Krupinski who swept the board at the 7th San Marino competition took over the reigns from his colleague and duo partner with a performance of Ravel’s Sonatine and Chopin’s Second Scherzo.

Could it have been the same piano as Lucas just seemed to blow on the keys to produce such delicacy and whispered fluidity.Beautiful half lights which invited us to strain to follow him into a magic world of colour and perfumed fragrance.An aquatic sense of forward motion with its continual stream of ever more fluid sounds of ravishing beauty.A pandora’s box opening up that we could perceive within this Ondinesque landscape.Amazing to think that Ravel wrote the first movement of the Sonatine for a competition sponsored by the Weekly Critical Review magazine after being encouraged by a close friend.The competition requirement was the composition of the first movement of a piano sonatina no longer than 75 bars,with the prize being 100 francs. Ravel submitted the piece under a pseudonym and chose an anagram of his name :’par Verla’.There was beauty too in the simple grace and charm of the ‘Menuet’ with the sublime radiance of it’s noble ending.The ‘Animé’ was bathed in pedal as strands of melody are floated on this wave of sounds reaching an exhilarating driven climax.

Chopin,of course ,was Lucas’s birthright and he rose to the challenge with a scintillating performance of the Second Scherzo.Clarity and brilliance went hand in hand with beauty and poetry.Played always with aristocratic good taste but with the flexibility that Chopin likened to the wind in the branches of a tree but with the roots firmly placed in the ground.’Con anima’ Chopin writes in the beautifully mellifluous second subject and it certainly was that in Lucas’s hands with the same subtle beauty that he brought to the central episode.There was clarity and beauty to his ‘jeux perlé’ where streams of notes just flowed so naturally out of the musical line almost unnoticed.On it’s second appearance Chopin brings it to it’s ultimate heroic conclusion.Lucas brought dynamic rhythmic energy and excitement but never forcing the sounds that filled but never overwhelmed this intimate venue.A coda of scintillating transcendental excitement reminded me of Rubinstein’s last performance in 1976 just a stone’s throw from here.The veteran performer had generously offered to give his final public performance to save the Wigmore hall from threatened demolition.He had to stop his performance of this very Scherzo that he had so often regailed audiences with in his eighty year career.The gigantic leaps that Lucas played with such ease today were not in range of Rubinstein’s failing eyesight.Little did Rubinstein imagine that his noble gesture would lead to the rebirth of the Wigmore Hall and that next door fifty years later Bechstein would construct another one on the doorstep of the hall that was confiscated after their defeat in the First World War!

Two supremely gifted musicians and colleagues now joined forces for four hands on one piano.Four feet too that with modern technology made a third party unnecessary as each one of our valiant pianist appeared with his I Pad and personal set of pedals.
I see that the evening was promoted by the Oleg Prokofiev Trust and so it was obvious that a member of the family should be represented.Gabriel Prokofiev was born on 6 January 1975 to an English mother and a Russian father, the artist Oleg Prokofiev,and is the grandson of the composer Sergei Prokofiev. He studied composition at the University of Birmingham and the University of York and became a producer of Dance, Electro, Hip-hop and Grime music and has emerged as a significant voice in new approaches to classical music at the beginning of the 21st century. His Transhuman Etudes for Piano, 4 hands was commissioned by New Muse Piano Duo and the first performance was given by New Muse Piano Duo (Paola Savvidou & Jonathan Kuuskoski) on April 22, 2016, in the Whitmore Recital Hall, University of Missouri, USA.A work full of continuous motion a real perpetuum mobile of simplicity and clarity.It would have been good to hear it again in order to get to grips with it’s knotty twine and engaging musical vocabulary.Again I am reminded of Rubinstein playing in Spain ,Ravel’s Valses Nobles e sentimentale ,when the ink was still wet on the page .Rubinstein was so angry at it’s hostile reception that’s at the end of the concert he played it as an encore!

A short interesting work played with the same impeccable artistry and musicianship that they brought to Debussy’s Petite Suite .The suite, was composed from 1886 to 1889, and first performed on 2 February 1889 by Debussy and pianist-publisher Jacques Durand at a salon in Paris.It may have been written due to a request (possibly from Durand) for a piece that would be accessible to skilled amateurs, as its simplicity is in stark contrast with the modernist works that Debussy was writing at the time.It is exactly this simplicity and ‘joie de vivre’ that these two colleagues obviously relished after the much more serious menu on today’s programme.Sailing across the keys in an enjoyable boat ride together with its simple flowing mellifluous melody and capricious contrasting central episode.Cortège,though,could have been more leisurely shaped and relished with more rounded phrases and ‘joie de vivre’.The Menuet,on the other hand , was beautifully etched with it’s charming pastoral atmosphere beautifully captured with great style and a perfect harmony between two players who were obviously enjoying it as much as we were.The final Ballet was like a breeze flowing over the keys with it’s very ‘French’ mix of elegance and brilliance.
Brahms’s most famous waltz,known so well to all those that have ever shared a keyboard with a friend,was played with beauty,grace and the artistry that they had both shared so generously with us on this all too short concert of Hausmusik.

Lukasz Krupinski Poetry and Drama The Sphere of Sacrum in Warsaw

Tuesday 23 May 3.00 pm 

A ravishing kaleidoscope of sounds and as Dr Mather said of the 500 pianists that have played on this piano none has been able to achieve the range of sounds that we heard today from a pianist that has a mastery of the piano that I have only ever heard from Volodos.The young Volodos who I heard in Rome many years ago and thought that this was the greatest pianist alive or dead.A programme with a range of sounds and a series of encores that evoked the Golden era of piano playing of the likes of Rachmaninov,Godowsky,Rosenthal and indeed Horowitz.Volodos has since refined his playing excluding the exhibitionism of a showman of breathtaking transcriptions and is dedicated to great original works for the keyboard.He leaves his transcriptions to be played by younger virtuosi who have still to win their laurels.His playing may not be as exciting as in his youth but the refined beauty of sound and above all how he produces the sound is one of the wonders of our age.The hand movements of Volodos are just as beautiful as Nureyev or Fonteyn’s movements were on stage.The actual shape of his hands is the same shape as the music he can conjure out of the piano.Today with this rather mysterious young man flown in especially from Hong Kong I was reminded of the young Volodos .Not of the much missed lollipops but because of the drive and passion of the young Volodos allied to his kaleidoscope of sounds.

I had heard KJ in Cremona Music Festival where he not only played magnificently on a Petrof piano but also explained his choice of Rachmaninov Preludes and how they were related to each other.He was in Cremona with his mentor Julia Mustonen with whom he was working in Sweden.Aristo Sham from the same Ingesund Piano Centre I had heard in the next room playing wonderfully on a Fazioli piano.But it was KJ that astonished me for his originality and almost demonic appearance at the keyboard. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/09/30/the-rebirth-of-a-global-network-in-cremona-if-music-be-the-food-of-love-please-please-play-on/. He invited me to hear his Artist’s Diploma recital a few days later in London.Just the adjudicators and a few friends at ten in the morning to listen to one of the most remarkable performances of the Hammerklavier that I have ever heard. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/09/29/kajeng-wong-a-master-at-milton-court/. Today in Perivale for the second time we were treated to ‘Oriental Slavic Soul ‘ recital to compliment his previous ‘God,Pray,Love’ recital https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/11/04/kajeng-wong-at-st-marys-mastery-and-mystery-of-a-great-artist/

 

Praised for his originality and exceptional musicianship, KaJeng Wong was the winner at the Alaska International Piano E-Competition 2018, and was recently awarded Third Prize at the Maria Canals International Piano Competition 2019. Previously, KaJeng achieved success at Los Angeles IPC and Young Concert Artist Audition in New York. He received a commendation by the Hong Kong government and has been selected to represent Hong Kong at multiple international platforms, performing at Esplanade in Singapore, Shanghai Concert Hall, Palau de la Musica Catalana and participated in festivals such as PianoTexas, Verbier Festival and Hong Kong Arts Festival. The featured documentary about his growth, “KJ: Music & Life”, was awarded Best Documentary at the Golden Horse Awards. Besides his activities as a performer, he is involved in collaborative projects involving modern dance and theatres. Recently serving as Artist-in-residence at Zuni Icosahedron, they forged an ongoing relationship experimenting various productions crossing classical music. He also writes prolifically about music and was featured at the Pianist Magazine. Lately he hosted several TV/online programs promoting music in Asia. In the past 4 years, he has also curated the annual Music Lab Festival. After studies with Nancy Loo and Gabriel Kwok in Hong Kong, KaJeng further his training under Prof. Emile Naoumoff at the Indiana University. He is currently pursuing Artistic Diploma at Guildhall School of Music & Drama under Prof. Ronan O’Hora, and with Prof. Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist at the Ingesund School of Music.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/04/26/cristian-sandrin-visions-of-life-dedicated-to-his-father-sandu-sandrin/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/12/cristian-sandrin-at-the-romanian-cultural-institute-mastery-and-musicianship-combine-in-a-celebration-of-enescu/

Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt, forerunners of the Romantic generation of composers nurtured a very intimate connection with the Italian lands, their people and music: Chopin’s fascination of the bel canto and the operas of Bellini, Liszt’s travels through the country and the creation of Années des Pélérinage. Conversely, we discover a later generation of Italian composers, Sgambati and Martucci, whose music is highly influenced by the works of Chopin and Liszt.

F. Liszt – Two Petrarch Sonnets from Années des Pélérinage: Italie

G. Sgambati: Notturno op. 31

G. Martucci: Notturno op. 70 no. 1

F. Chopin: Ballade no. 3 in A flat major op. 47

F. Chopin: Ballade no. 4 in F minor op. 52

-interval-

F. Chopin: Piano Sonata in B minor op. 58

A voyage to Italy with Cristian Sandrin was full of the radiance and beauty that we associate with the ‘Museum of the World‘ to quote Rostropovich.
He brought an atmosphere of nobility and timeless beauty to a programme that included Liszt but also two rarely heard Italian composers Sgambati and Martucci.It was Chopin,though,who had never set foot in Italy although a great admirer of Belcanto ,that brought out the aristocratic nobility and refined good taste of Cristian that Chopin himself had revealed on his first appearances in the Salons of the aristocracy in Paris.
Chopin’s roots were always with the simple native folk of Poland that was his birthright,but his world was with the refined elegance and perfumed sensibility that was very much of pre revolution Paris.
Années de Pélerinage were not for him and in fact his unfortunate encounters and meanderings with well meaning but assertive and insensitive lady admirers left him shocked and aghast and hastened his delicate consumtive frame to renounce his worldly existence. His first appearances had been greeted by Schumann with ‘Hats off a genius’ and there was no rivalry with Liszt who bowed to the poetic genius of this young Pole.

Liszt was happy to spar with lesser mortals that tried to encroach on his throne.The famous duel between Thalberg and Liszt is well documented as they fought it out in the salon of Princess Belgioso.Thalberg might be a great virtuoso but Liszt was always unique!

It was a similar duel that was to face Rubinstein when his position in Paris was compromised by the arrival of the young Horowitz.He was greeted by Rubinstein’s friends and the Parisian critics as ‘the greatest pianist alive or dead!’
Liszt,of course relished the adventures as one of the greatest showmen the world has ever known and his years of travelling around Italy and Switzerland with noble lady friends are well documented.
It was with two of Liszt’s Petrarch Sonnets n.104 and 123 that Cristian opened the journey he had promised us in his first season of concerts for the Kettner Concert Society.

He and Hannah Elizabeth Teoh have taken over the reins of this illustrious music society,guest of the NLC for over forty years,and have brought to it their youthful enthusiasm and artistry together with an enthusiastic following of music lovers.

In the hallowed splendour of the National Liberal Club on their superb Steinway D concert grand Cristian proceeded to ravish and seduce us with refined sounds of timeless beauty.He brought such subtle phrasing and a sense of architectural shape to these tone poems where Liszt had put aside his phenomenal virtuosity and had instead revealed the very soul hidden in Petrarch’s sonnets with refined good taste and sumptuous poetry.Cristian understood this as he enticed us into this intimate sound world with subtle colouring and an overall sense of shape that even the most passionate outpourings were a consequence of poetic meaning and significance and never just scintillating displays for effect.I have heard Cristian many times but today even from these very first notes he revealed a maturity and poetic understanding where the music seemingly is allowed to speak for itself.There was time taken without any thought of paying it back!As Chopin himself described to his aristocratic pupils ,tempo should be flexible like the wind in the trees but with roots that are always firmly planted in the ground.Many young musicians feel that have to ‘do’ things to the music rather than allow the expression to come from within the note not superficially placed on top!Cristian has always been a good musician inherited from his distinguished pianist father Sandu Sandrin and later from his superb training at the Royal Academy in London.He is now benefitting from the guidance and mentorship of that great English musician Imogen Cooper.It was his colleague and mentor that he invited to play a few months ago when this great beast was illuminated with superb performances of two of Beethoven’s last Sonatas.Beauty and the beast were united as they ignited their audience as he did today in his opening season for the Kettner Concert Society.

A beautiful Nocturne by Sgambati revealed a subtle sense of colour from a composer remembered only for his famous transcriptions of Gluck’s Orfeo.Cristian with his refined palette of subtle sounds revealed a work of great beauty and simplicity from a composer who had something important to say.There is a vast amount of music in the musty archives in Italy to be explored and revealed to a public with a thirst for new music from this Golden period of the piano-virtuosi of the past.Mark Viner and Tyler Hay are tireless promoters of this forgotten age and I am glad to see Cristian seeking out long forgotten gems to bring before his audiences gently adding but not overloading his profound study of recognised masterworks.

Martucci is a very highly esteemed composer for piano teachers in Italy and I remember being very impressed by a Fantasia in G minor op 51 (1880) when I gave classes to Italian piano students in Martina Franca many years ago.A Mendelssohnian type of writing of great effect but in the end lacking genial melodic invention.An exhilarating facility of great effect and music enjoyed by the young pianists at their first moments of being able to master the piano.The Nocturne in G flat op 70 n. 1 is a later work from 1891 and was very interesting to hear but was not as ravishingly beautiful as Sgambati and was for my taste,on first hearing,a little too verbose.These were interesting stops of a voyage that Cristian had chosen to share with us today.It was however the two Ballades and the B minor Sonata by Chopin where Cristian revealed to us his mastery ,creating a spell over an audience immediately overwhelmed by the beauty and authority of his performances.Perhaps it was because this concert signalled the end of an exhausting work load that Cristian had undertaken in the past days with a duo concert in Stockholm only the day before .Today at last he was able to take more time and allow the music to unfold leisurely as though he too was discovering and enjoying the beauty that was pouring so naturally from his hands.

There was also passion and drive when called for as with the coda of the Fourth Ballade or the Finale of the B minor Sonata but with a control and sense of line.Like Rubinstein ,in his later years,who could illuminate a wondrous musical journey with such simplicity but where injections of energy were like electric shocks that left us ,like today,overwhelmed because so unexpected.

There was a pastoral beauty to the third Ballade where the fluidity of his playing was so natural and with such sophisticated calm that Cristian’s poetic programme notes actually described in words what he could was depicting with such mastery in music.’The opening theme blooming like a flower from a single E flat revealing the emotional essence and the sensuality of what follows’.’could it be the mortal man uttering an invocation,calling out the water spirit?’’One can detect streams of water in this music with ripples produced by falling pebbles…..the music leads to triumphal waves seeping up and down the keyboard that is perhaps after the feelings of persistent uncertainty,a jubilant representation of reciprocated love’.These words remind me of Alfred Cortot and I remember Vlado Perlemuter writing Cortot’s words in my score of the Fourth Ballade ,at the recapitulation of the introduction,’Avec un sentiment de regret’.A poet can say so much with so little ( I remember Arnold Wesker writing to me after my wife had died on stage -‘They never forget you’ – it meant so much with so little) https://youtube.com/watch?v=rNUNNNNj_Qw&feature=share

The Fourth Ballade is one of the pinnacles of the Romantic piano repertoire.Together with the Liszt Sonata and the Schumann Fantasie they are the pianistic equivalent of the Bach B minor Mass or Beethoven’s Missa solemnis – Michelangelo’s David or Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa .Works that make one marvel at what man is really capable of !!In Cristian’s own words :’all the transformations of the themes reveal in their climax the architectural mastery of the medieval cathedral builder and their solitary yet singular towering spires’.Supposedly inspired by Mickiewicz’s poem the Three Budrys I find it hard to believe in a work where music speaks much more powerfully than words.The music just flowed from Cristians fingers helped by the beauty of the piano in a chain of notes that were entwined in a poetic outpouring of ravishing sounds.Even the notorious coda we were not aware of the transcendental difficulties as there was a musical line that was so engaging and poignantly eloquent played with a driving intensity and passion that was breathtaking as it was unexpected.

The B minor Sonata was indeed ‘maestoso’ and I was glad that he decided to do the repeat that gave such architectural shape to the first movement.The final glorious outpouring of the second subject was played as Chopin clearly marks,but is so often ignored,instead of a sickly nocturne a noble outpouring of aristocratic sentiment.There was some beautiful shading to the jeux perlé Scherzo which evolved so naturally from the contrasting nobility of the central mellifluous episode.

The final exciting chords of the Scherzo leading straight into the declamatory chords that herald the Largo as Chopin had so clearly indicated .It made the appearance of the long Belcanto melody so much more poignant as it floated on a barcarolle of a gently modulated moving accompaniment.The end of the Largo too was linked to the Finale with the opening octave flourishes entering so gradually into the ever more hypnotically exciting Rondo.

An exhilarating evening of real discovery for both the audience and this young poet not only on the keyboard but also in life.The life of an artist is not easy but it is certainly rewarding as were were all aware of today on Cristian’s shared journey

Chopin Four Ballades were composed between 1831 and 1842. 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.John Ogdon said of the fourth Ballade that 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.^’ 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.It is commonly considered one of Chopin’s masterpieces, and one of the masterpieces of 19th-century piano music.

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.

Saddest of occasions with Murray McLachlan’s wonderful programme we could only imagine,like Beethoven, in our private ear.Family,friends and colleagues all congregating at the Chopin Society yesterday afternoon to celebrate this extraordinarily generous musician .
On the menu Haydn 52,Mozart D K 576 and Beethoven op 111 Sonatas washed down with Chopin’s Four ballades.An encore of Chopin’s E flat nocturne transposed into D flat and imposed on the left hand alone ……..D flat was the scale that Chopin would give his pupils for the natural position of the hand on the keys.Only an eclectic musician like Murray could be so discerning on this occasion.
All postponed until January because an elderly member of the Chopin Society had passed away minutes before being able to savour such delights which he is now doing with the angels.
The hall was closed while necessary arrangements were made by the authorities who had arrived immediately in great numbers but alas there was nothing they could do.
We mortals could only console ourselves with a stiff drink and delectable Italian food for Murray’s emaciated former star students .
Bobby Chen a great friend and colleague also present and who by coincidence is giving a recital next week with Albert Portugheis entitled Four Hands One Heart !

Very moved to see Lady Rose personally greeting her guests with this very unexpected news ……and very sorry to hear the distress of her young assistant in whose arms the 95 year old member of their society had passed away.
‘In the beginning is our end ‘ ……..says T.S.Eliot …..It is,though,what happens on the journey in between that defines who we are.

This week too in Rome we celebrated Fausto Zadra who passed away in my theatre when the emotion of Chopin’s D flat nocturne was too much for his soul.The Angels enticed by such celestial sounds invited him to join them.

Four years later my wife was also struck down as she intoned the terrible words of Hecuba ….’An eye for an eye.A tooth for a tooth when will it ever end!……….’ She believed it so fervently and was called with a celestial fanfare of trumpets to take her place in a better world.

‘Murray McLachlan is a pianist with a virtuoso technique and a sure sense of line. His timing and phrasing are impeccable, and his tone-full but unforced in the powerful passages, gentle and restrained in the more lyrical- is a perpetual delight’ (BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE)Since making his professional debut in 1986 at the age of 21 under the baton of Sir Alexander Gibson, Murray McLachlan has consistently received outstanding critical acclaim. Educated at Chetham’s School of Music and Cambridge University, his mentors included Ronald Stevenson, David Hartigan, Ryszard Bakst, Peter Katin and Norma Fisher. His recording career began in 1988 and immediately attracted international attention. Recordings of contemporary music have won numerous accolades, including full star ratings, as well as ‘rosette’ and ‘key recording’ status in the Penguin Guide to CDs, and ‘Disc of the month’ and ‘Record of the month ‘in ‘Music on the Web’ and ‘The Herald’. McLachlan’s discography now includes over forty commercial recordings, including the complete sonatas of Myaskovsky and Prokofiev, the six concertos of Alexander Tcherepnin, the 24 Preludes and Fugues of Rodion Shchedrin, Ronald Stevenson’s ‘Passacaglia on DSCH’ the major works of Kabalevsky, Khatchaturian and the complete solo piano music of Erik Chisholm. His most recent releases feature British Music: In 2020 he recorded for Naxos the complete piano music of Edward Gregson and in 2019 for SOMM he the Ruth Gipps Piano Concerto with the RLPO. Both issues have received international critical acclaim and been broadcast several times on BBC Radio Three. McLachlan’s repertoire includes over 40 concertos and 25 recital programmes. He has performed the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle seven times, as well as the complete piano music of Brahms. He has given first performances of works by many composers, including Martin Butler, Ronald Stevenson, Charles Camilleri, Michael Parkin and even Beethoven! He has appeared as soloist with most of the leading UK orchestras. His recognition has been far-reaching, bringing invitations to perform on all five continents. At the same time, he continues to give numerous concerts and master classes in the UK.McLachlan teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music and at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester where he has been Head of Keyboard since 1997. He is the founder of the Manchester International Concerto competition for young pianists as well as the Founder/Artistic Director of the world famous Chetham’s International Summer school and festival for Pianists, Europe’s largest summer school devoted exclusively to the piano. As a teacher McLachlan continues to be very busy and in demand. Many of his students have won prizes in competitions and continued with their own successful careers as performers.Murray McLachlan is past editor of the two EPTA (European Piano Teachers’ Association) magazines ‘Piano Journal’ and ‘Piano Professional’. Having been chair of EPTA since 2007, in 2021 he was made Vice President. In 2013 the University of Dundee awarded him an honorary doctorate for outstanding services to music. As well as performing and teaching, he is well known internationally for his numerous articles on Piano technique and repertoire. This includes extended columns which have appeared in ‘International Piano’ ‘Pianist’ and ‘Piano’ Magazines. His three books on piano playing ‘Foundations of technique’, ‘Piano Technique in Practice’ and ‘The Psychology of Piano Technique’ have been widely distributed and are published by Faber Music.

Murray McLachlan combines a multifaceted career as pianist, recording artist, writer, lecturer, and music educator. With a repertoire of 25 recital programmes and 40 concertos he has performed to critical acclaim on all five continents and has a discography of over 40 releases. He has written three critically acclaimed books on piano technique (Faber Music) and his quarterly column for International Piano Magazine has been running for over twenty years.

He is Founder/Artistic Director of the world famous Chetham’s International Summer school and festival for Pianists, Europe’s largest summer school devoted exclusively to the piano.

• Haydn – Sonata in E flat Hob. XVI/52, L. 62
• Mozart – Sonata in D major K576
• Beethoven – Sonata in C minor op. 111
• Chopin – 4 Ballades:
• No. 1 in G minor Op. 23
• No. 2 in F major/A minor Op. 38
• No. 3 in A flat Op. 47
• No. 4 in F minor Op. 52

Beethoven conceived of the plan for his final three piano sonatas Op 109,110 and 111b during the summer of 1820, while he worked on his Missa solemnis . Although the work was only seriously outlined by 1819, the famous first theme of the allegro ed appassionato was found in a draft book dating from 1801 to 1802, contemporary to his second Symphony Moreover, the study of these draft books implies that Beethoven initially had plans for a sonata in three movements, quite different from that which we know: it is only thereafter that the initial theme of the first movement became that of the String Quartet n.13 and that what should have been used as the theme with the adagio—a slow melody in A flat – was abandoned. Only the motif planned for the third movement, the famous theme mentioned above, was preserved to become that of the first movement.The Arietta, too, offers a considerable amount of research on its themes; the drafts found for this movement seem to indicate that as the second movement took form, Beethoven gave up the idea of a third movement, the sonata finally appearing to him as ideal.It has ben described as ‘a work of unmatched drama and transcendence … the triumph of order over chaos, of optimism over anguish .Alfred Brendel spoke of the second movement ‘what is to be expressed here is distilled experience and perhaps nowhere else in piano literature does mystical experience feel so immediately close at hand^’.

Chopin Four Ballades were composed between 1831 and 1842. 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.John Ogdon said of the fourth Ballade that 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.^’ 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.It is commonly considered one of Chopin’s masterpieces, and one of the masterpieces of 19th-century piano music.

The Piano Sonata in E-flat major, Hob.XVI/52, L. 62, was written in 1794 and is the last of Haydn’s piano sonatas, and is widely considered his greatest.

Haydn wrote the work for Therese Jansen, an outstanding pianist who lived in London at the time of Haydn’s visits there in the 1790s. Haydn served as a witness at her wedding to Gaetano Bartolozzi on 16 May 1795.Haydn also dedicated three demanding piano trios Hob.XV:27–29 nand another two piano sonatas H. XVI:50 and 51 to Jansen.

With regard to the sonata, Jansen was evidently the dedicatee of the autograph (hand-written) score but not the first published version. On the title page of the autograph Haydn wrote in Italian, “Sonata composta per la Celebre Signora Teresa de Janson … di me giuseppe Haydn mpriLond. 794,” which means “Sonata composed for the celebrated Miss Theresa Jansen … by myself Joseph Haydn in my own hand, London 1794.”

The Piano Sonata No. 18 in D major K 576, was composed as part of a set of six for Princess Frederica Louise of Prussia in 1789. It is often nicknamed “The Hunt” or “The Trumpet Sonata”, for the hornlike opening.

Tuesday 16 May 3.00 pm 

Schnabel famously said that Mozart was too easy for children but too difficult for adults.It was this that passed through my thoughts as I listened to this extraordinary young artist where everything seemed so natural and simple.Playing of clarity,radiance and intelligence bringing the scores to life with an inner fire and conviction that I have not experienced since Serkin.A technical mastery and control that is so complete that it never draws attention to itself .Placed at the service of the composer with integrity and honesty.Last year we were astonished by Daniel’s virtuoso performance of Schumann’s notoriously difficult Toccata op 7.It was placed in between the seemingly innocent Beethoven Sonata op 54 which is in practice one of the most notoriously difficult and it’s twin the ‘Appassionata’ op 57.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/06/23/daniel-lebhardt-the-prince-of-piano-descends-on-st-marys/

Today we were treated to three classical Masterworks by Bach,Mozart and Beethoven where the authority,simplicity and even the sound reminded me of Yefim Bronfman one of the great musicians of our time.It is refreshing too to see a young pianist leaving the much overplayed Russian school and concentrating more on the classical repertoire where it is more quality than quantity that counts.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/07/20/daniel-lebhardt-the-simple-grandeur-of-j-s-bach-at-st-marys/

The Hungarian school of playing inspired by Liszt has in fact produced some of the finest musicians before the public as Daniel made us aware of too today.Perfecting his studies with Pascal Nemirovski in London and Birmingham I remember in a Beethoven Sonata Marathon on this very piano there were many pianists taking part from the remarkable class of Nemirovski.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/01/15/happy-birthday-pascal-nemirovski-the-persuasive-charm-and-instruction-of-a-true-artist/.

A school where the start of an interpretation is with scrupulous attention to the composers wishes as written in the score.Of course style and personality are what make the stale notes on a page come to life.Every pianist sees the notes through his own kaleidoscope formed by a very personal vision of good taste and reasoning from the world that surrounds him.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/12/29/daniel-lebhardt-emperor-for-the-night/

Although each of the Partitas was published separately under the name Clavier – Ubung (Keyboard Practice), they were subsequently collected into a single volume in 1731 with the same name, which Bach himself chose to label his Opus 1.Unlike the earlier sets of suites, Bach originally intended to publish seven Partitas, advertising in the spring of 1730 upon the publication of the fifth Partita that the promised collected volume would contain two more such pieces. The plan was then revised to include a total of eight works: six Partitas in Part I (1731) and two larger works in Part II (1735), the Italian Concerto BWV 971, and the Overture in the French style BWV 831 which is an eleven-movement partita, the largest such keyboard work Bach ever composed, and may in fact be the elusive “seventh partita” mentioned in 1730. The Overture in the French style was originally written in C minor, but was transposed a half step down for publication to complete Bach’s ingenious tonal scheme.

The Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major K.332 was published in 1784 along with the Sonata n.10 in C major K.330 and n.11 K. 331.Mozart wrote these sonatas either while visiting Munich in 1781, or during his first two years in Vienna.Some believe, however that Mozart wrote this and the other sonatas during a summer 1783 visit to Salzburg made for the purpose of introducing his wife, Constanze to his father, Leopold .All three sonatas were published in Vienna in 1784 as Mozart’s Op. 6

Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major Op. 53, known as the Waldstein, is one of the three most notable sonatas of Beethoven’s middle period ,the other two being the Appassionata op 57 ,and Les Adieux op 81a.Completed in summer 1804 and surpassing Beethoven’s previous piano sonatas in its scope, the Waldstein is a key early work of Beethoven’s “Heroic” decade (1803–1812).The sonata’s name derives from Beethoven’s dedication to his close friend and patron Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel con Waldstein, member of Bohemian noble Waldstein family.It is also known as L’Aurora (The Dawn) in Italian, for the sonority of the opening chords of the third movement, thought to conjure an image of daybreak.

In 2014 Daniel Lebhardt won 1st Prize at the Young Concert Artists International auditions in Paris and New York. A year later he was invited to record music by Bartók for Decca and in 2016 won the “Geoffrey Tozer Most Promising Pianist” prize at the Sydney International Competition. In 2018 he has been signed for commercial management by Askonas Holt. March 2020 saw Daniel make his debut with The Hallé, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 – a work he has also performed at the Barbican, London and Symphony Hall, Birmingham. The last two concert seasons have also witnessed recital debuts in Dublin and Kiev, and at the Lucerne International, Tallinn International and Miami International Piano festivals. He has received reinvitations to Wigmore Hall, London, the Auditorium du Louvre, Paris and Merkin Concert Hall in New York (‘He brought narrative sweep and youthful abandon to [Liszt’s B minor Sonata], along with power, poetry and formidable technique’ – The New York Times). Other recent highlights include a return to Paris for a recital at L’Église Saint-Germain-des-Près, as part of the festival ‘Un week-end à l’Est’; an appearance as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 21 at the Royal Festival Hall, London; and tours in China, South America and the USA. ?Born in Hungary, Daniel studied at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest with István Gulyás and Gyöngyi Keveházi, then with Pascal Nemirovski at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He was a prizewinner at the Young Classical Artists Trust auditions in 2015 and currently lives in Birmingham.