Mese: giugno 2023

Thursday 29 June 3.00 pm 

A beautiful programme played with simplicity,sensitivity and intelligence.It was the hallmark of Simone Tavoni’s programme that he had dedicated to the memory of Radu Lupu a few months ago at Leighton House.It was in 1969 that Radu Lupu had shown us the beauty of Schubert when played with simplicity and a kaleidoscopic range of sounds that we had never heard the like of before.It was the same dedicated musicianship that was to be revealed again in Leeds three years later when Murray Perahia astounded a jury of celebrated pianists with a miraculous performance of the Sonata op 106 by Mendelssohn.These two great musicians fast became friends and their recording of Schubert F minor Fantasy is one of the wonders of our age.Simone had chosen a programme that was a continuous outpouring of song which was so much part of Radu Lupu’s ever more intimate musicianship.

What better work to choose than the ‘little’A major Sonata by Schubert ( Lupu in Leeds had chosen the ‘little’A minor Sonata in the first round).One of the shortest of Schubert’s Sonatas with a lyricism from the first to the last note where the ‘sturm und drang’ of the age had been translated into a pastoral outpouring of simple beauty.There was timeless lyricism to the opening in Simone’s performance and although he did not have the sound palette of Lupu (that was more of Richter than of Solomon) there was a beautiful fluidity and simple intelligent musicianship to all he did.Even the strident question and answer of octaves was incorporated into an architectural line that made such sense and never disturbed the musical flow for a show of empty virtuosity.The Andante was profoundly expressive but with a luminosity of sound that allowed the music to speak with such disarming simplicity.The Allegretto had great rhythmic energy and a ‘joie de vivre’ that was indeed exhilarating.A performance where the music was allowed to speak for itself played with a technical command of art that conceals art.

Simone is right when he says that Mendelssohn is unjustly neglected in concert programmes.I remember Perahia’s mentor Rudolf Serkin playing Mendelssohn’s Preludes and Fugues in a programme that included Reger and late Beethoven.The ‘Songs without Words’ where Mendelssohn’s seeming endless melodic outpourings are every bit as astonishing as Schuberts.A different period of course where ‘heart on sleeve ‘ sentiments were more easily expressed but if played with an aristocratic sense of style allowing the music to unfold naturally can reveal gems of ravishing beauty and astonishing musical invention.It was just this beauty that Simone was able to share with us today with his choice of five contrasting ‘Songs’.The first with its long outpouring and the beauty of the melodic line.And how magically he added the chiming bell in the distance over the continuing melodic line.The contrast of staccato and legato in the second although not as teasing as in the hands of Horowitz or Davis was played with exemplary charm and grace.The third one revealed a magical unfolding of the melodic line of fragmented mellifluous invention.The unashamedly sentimental outpouring of the fourth was played with aristocratic simplicity allowing the music to unfold so naturally with a supremely stylish ending.The last one,as Simone had told us,was written in London,and was a Brahmsian outpouring of fervent longing and touching nostalgia.

The Albeniz too was beautifully lyrical with the Barcarolle with its unmistakably Spanish idiom.The doubling of the melodic line in the lyrical middle episode was played with great sweep and contrasted with the magical atmosphere of the final arabesques.Almeria flowed so eloquently with its pungent expressive harmonies leading to the bass melodic line and strumming of guitars.A misty atmosphere of excitement disappearing to a distant memory of chiselled beauty.

Brahms was played with passion and dynamic drive but also with intelligence and a sense of orchestral colour.There was excitement and grandeur and also deep brooding of mounting passion and drive.I have heard Simone play these two Rhapsodies on other occasions but today he played with great authority and an involvement that was totally convincing.A beautiful programme played with beauty,simplicity and authority but above all with intelligence and great artistry.The encore of a Sonata by Clementi was played with a playful charm and beguiling sense of ease that was an ideal way to close such an enjoyable recital.

Simone Tavoni at Livorno Classica flying high with poetic reasoning and with Dinosaurs overhead

Simone Alessandro Tavoni has given recitals internationally across Europe and U.S in venue such the Purcell room, Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, St Martin in the FieldsSt.John’s Smith Square, Steinway Hall, St.Mary Perivale in London , Liszt Museum in Budapest, Palau de la MusicaCatalana in Barcelona, the Aarhus concert hall, The Tallin Philarmonia ( Estonia ) and the Florence Conservatory hall. In 2019, Simone has been selected as a Parklane Group Artist, as Keyboard Charitable Trust Artist and received the Luciano and Giancarla Berti full-ride scholarship to attend the Aspen Music Festival and School studying with renowned professor Fabio Bidini. Graduated at Royal College of Music with professor Andrew Ball, and Simone has recently attained an Artist Diploma at Trinity Laban Conservatoire with professors Deniz Gelenbe and Peter Tuite. He began his musical education in Italy with professor Marco Podesta’ and pursue his studies at the Liszt Academy of Budapest with Dr.Kecskes Balazs and in Germany at the Hochschule fur Musik un Darstellende of Stuttgart with Dr,Peter Nagy. In 2016 was selected for the BBC pathway scheme and he is a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He is generously assisted by HSH Dr.Donatus Prince of Hohenzollern.

Simone Tavoni in Viterbo a recital of poetic sensitivity and intelligence

Simone Tavoni triumphs on the Italian tour for the Keyboard Trust – part 1 Florence – part 2 Venice and Padua

Simone Tavoni a Poet speaks at the 1901Arts Club

‘Several people assured me that under my hands the keys become singing voices, which, if it is true, pleases me very much, because I cannot abide the accursed hacking which is a characteristic even of first-class pianists, as it pleases neither the ear nor the spirit.‘ Franz Schubert

The Sonata in A major, D664 was in all likelihood the work which Schubert’s civil-servant friend Albert Stadler remembered many years later as having been written in the summer of 1819 for Josefa von Koller, the daughter of a wealthy iron merchant, during the composer’s first visit to the town of Steyr, in Upper Austria, in the company of the famous baritone Johann Michael Vogl. ‘Yesterday … a very violent thunderstorm broke out in Steyr, killing a young girl and injuring two men in the arm’, Schubert told his brother Ferdinand at the time. ‘In the house where I’m staying there are eight girls, almost all pretty. You can see we’re kept busy. The daughter of Herr v. Koller, at whose house I and Vogl eat every day, is very pretty, plays the piano well, and is going to sing several of my songs.’The Little” A major sonata is so called to distinguish it from the 1828 penultimate sonata in the same key and is the shortest among Schubert’s complete sonatas.The manuscript, completed in July 1819, was dedicated to Josephine von Koller of Steyr in Upper Austria, whom he considered to be “very pretty” and “a good pianist”. The lyrical, buoyant, in spots typically poignant nature of this sonata fits the image of a young Schubert in love, living in a summery Austrian countryside, which he also considered to be “unimaginably lovely”

The Rhapsodies, Op. 79 were written in 1879 during Brahms’summer stay in Portschach when he had reached the maturity of his career. They were inscribed to his friend, the musician and composer Elisabeth von Herzogenberg.At the suggestion of the dedicatee, Brahms reluctantly renamed the sophisticated compositions from “Klavierstücke” (piano pieces) to “rhapsodies”Brahms’ “Rhapsodies” op. 79 written more than a quarter-century after his three piano sonatas are among his most frequently played works. He had a hard time finding a suitable title for them, vacillating between “Piano Piece”, “Capriccio” (No. 1) and ”Caprices”. His hand was forced by the dedicatee Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, who welcomed the pieces with the salutation “Ye (to me) nameless ones in the nebulous garb of rhapsodies”.

The eight volumes of Songs Without Words, each consisting of six songs were written at various points throughout Mendelssohn’s life between 1829 and 1845 and were published separately. The piano became increasingly popular in Europe during the early nineteenth century, when it became a standard item in many middle-class households.Many of the ‘songs’ are within the grasp of pianists of various abilities and this undoubtedly contributed to their popularity. The title Song Without Words seems to have been Felix Mendelssohn’s own invention. In 1828 his sister ,Fanny wrote in a letter “My birthday was celebrated very nicely … Felix has given me a ‘song without words’ for my album (he has lately written several beautiful ones).”

Mallorca ‘Barcarola’, Op 202, was written in London in 1890. Albeniz’s performances were very well received in Britain where in 1890 he did an extensive concert tour there. The barcarolle is usually associated with the soothing stroke of the Venetian gondoliers, or the rocking motion of lullabies; however, the barcarola of Albéniz’s Mallorca refers to a style of lament, particular to the island of Mallorca, which is sung by one grieving the loss of a fiancé who has died.Although Albéniz did not write a single piece for the guitar, a great number of his works, originally composed for the piano, were taken up and transcribed by guitarists almost immediately after they were written, and they have remained an important part of the classical guitar repertoire ever since.It has been played and recorded by guitarists such as Julian Bream and John Williams and many others. John Williams said “I like to play Mallorca, a piece depicting a mysterious, beautiful island with a Moorish influence.”

Almería (G major), relating to the Andalusian seaport of Almeria is loosely based on tarantas a flamenco form characteristic of the region of Almeria.From Iberia and written between 1905 and 1909 a suite of four books of three pieces each.

It is Albéniz’s best-known work and considered his masterpiece. It was highly praised by Debussy and Messiaen who said: “Iberia is the wonder for the piano; it is perhaps on the highest place among the more brilliant pieces for the king of instruments”.It is considered one of the most challenging works for the piano: “There is really nothing in Isaac Albeniz’s Iberia that a good three-handed pianist could not master, given unlimited years of practice and permission to play at half tempo. But there are few pianists thus endowed.”

The twelve pieces were first performed by the French pianist Blanche Selva but each book was premiered in a different place and on a different date. Three of the performances were in Paris book 1/111/IV Book 11 of which Almeria is the second was premiered in a small town in the south of France Saint Jean de Luz the birthplace of Ravel

Marie Blanche Selva (Catalan Blanca Selva i Henry, 29 January 1884 – 3 December 1942) was active as a translator and transcriber. But her main work is a monumental 7-volumes work on piano technique:L’Enseignement musical de la Technique du Piano, Paris from 1916 to 1925 a radically new approach to piano playing. Her predilection for big arm gestures and her detailed descriptions of the most unusual types of attack, combined with the constant attention to the resulting tone-colour,make her book a unique contribution to the history of the piano and its literature.She was the only French pianist of her time to specialise in Czech music where she was consequently very popular .She continued to tour and work as a concert pianist in Europe and by the age of 20 she had performed all of Bach’s keyboard works in 17 recitals.Between 1906 and 1909 she premiered all four books of Albeniz’s piano suite Iberia. https://youtube.com/watch?v=IdlM-nK8ppM&feature=share

Pollini in London: STORY OF A MIRACLE! By a young Italian pianist graduate of the RCM London – Antonio Morabito

The day before yesterday I witnessed what I would define, in no uncertain terms, a miracle.Indeed, a series of miracles in an evening that is unbelievable!

Pianists please read this post.

I start from the beginning.Maurizio Pollini, renowned Italian pianist, one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century gave a recital at the Festival Hall at the Southbank in London.Obviously, with my dear friend Riccardo, we go very excited to listen to what promises to be a concert we will never forget.It was,but not for the reasons you would expect…

Silence in the hall, of the kind that is generally felt in sacred places before mass begins, lights off and stage lit with the piano in all its majesty in the centre. Everyone looking at the little door on stage left. Here it is! It’s really him, it’s not a YouTube frame, he really exists!Pollini enters a hall,packed to the rafters,staggering, bent over, almost in a hurry, he manages to reach the piano to lean on and stop himself falling over.He finally arrives, leans on the piano and bows gratefully for the unending applause that usually awaits a great artist at the end of the concert.There’s no doubt, the audience knows who they are looking at and pays homage to him.We join in the tribute, grateful, excited and proud to be Italian like him.

The programme is interesting, Schumann and Chopin.Riccardo, also a pianist, and I already imagine the refined artistry that awaits us too.The applause is still going on but Pollini is impatient, he doesn’t even adjust the bench, he doesn’t take those usual seconds of concentration that you would expect, he doesn’t let the applause end and immediately starts playing. Everyone stops clapping instantly.The concert has begun!We are once again immersed in the religious silence of before with the only difference that this time we are all hypnotized by his hands and by what they will be able to do.

The first piece is the famous Arabesque Op. 18.We are looking for the refinements, the enjoyment that comes from the interpretation of an artist of his caliber,but the Arabesque is nervous, with not too much emotional involvement, of a sound that appears shallow and hurried in the “cantabile”and too forced in the ” forte”(Pollini uses his whole body for the “sforzandi”).His tenseness is palpable, you can feel it even from the back row of the hall.It’s a lesson for me. A confirmation, if any were needed, that in a concert hall a connection is created between artist and audience that is really difficult to explain rationally.

Pure magic.The piece ends. It wasn’t what we expected but, as you know, the start of a concert is terrible for anyone, can you imagine for a 81 year old man? And then how can we ever dare to criticise Pollini!?We just join the thunderous applause of a crowd that couldn’t wait to continue its initial homage to the master and we give him the due recognition that he deserves,regardless.The second piece is the Fantasy op 17.We can not wait!Surely after the initial emotion he will demonstrate his his mastery.

What will happen, however, is unimaginable.Pollini sits down, hastily, and this time too he doesn’t let the applause end and starts playing again.But the piece that he plays is not Schumann’s Fantasy ,after a few notes we look at each other with Riccardo puzzled and I ask him: “wasn’t there the Fantasy now?”.Double-checking the program to see if I remember correctly. No mistake, he’s playing another piece. But what?After a very short time I understand that Pollini is improvising. Rapid arpeggios and harmonic sequences that occasionally recall passages from the Fantasy but nothing that has to do with a real piece nor with the Fantasy.The atmosphere is surreal.My heart is pounding, I empathize with him, I can’t believe it’s really happening.The great Pollini forgot the beginning of Schumann’s Fantasy.The confirmation comes when he stops playing and in a great state of confusion brings his hands to his head as if to say: “what’s wrong with me?”. For a moment I think of everything: “Is he feeling ill?A dizziness? Maybe something more serious?”The audience is astonished, petrified.He resumes playing, more arpeggios and miscellaneous improvisations, loud, angrily, using his whole body to play, almost angry with the piano.The same piano that crowned him for decades as one of the greatest pianists of recent times has now become the enemy which is forcing him to perform under these conditions.He stops playing, concluding with a cadenza in C major, pretending he’s played a piece that really exists.He stands up.The audience applauds shocked, worried, incredulous. It’s not the same applause as previously This is different.Pollini leaves the stage with the same speed with which he had entered.I’m in a cold sweat, my heart is pounding . I feel like it’s me on stage. And if I were there, what would I do? I don’t want to think about it.Endless minutes go by in which I sincerely think that a staff member will soon come out to say that the master, due to illness, is unable to continue. But no one comes on stage. Time passes and a general murmur accompanies anxious moments.

But here is the first miracle.The little door opens. It’s not the hall staff. It’s the Master!Pollini returns to the stage and the audience goes crazy with joy and emotion. They flood him once again with incredible affection! (By the way, the London crowd is not renowned for its warmth,more for its composure). But this Friday night is the night of miracles and anything can happen.Pollini returns to the stage with a book, he doesn’t have the hall staff bring it to him. He carries it himself. It’s his book that weighs like a rock this time. He will play with the book in front of him.Right after him a member of staff enters carrying the piano stand to put on the piano.The stand is placed on the piano while the audience does not stop encouraging Pollini by applauding like never before and shouting “bravo” loudly. The maestro always appears nervous and at the same time sorry but always grateful to the audience and in fact he takes a shy bow and without waiting for the staff member to leave the stage, he starts playing again before the applause ends.This time it is the beginning of Schumann’s Fantasy. Unmistakable!But there is something wrong, the book is there but where is the page turner and his chair? How is it possible that there isn’t one?Maybe he just needs to have the book in front of him for the beginning but he won’t use it?Unfortunately this is not the case as incredibly he turns the pages by himself by interrupting the piece or removing some notes!It’s absurd! How is it possible that he is doing this? Why didn’t he call a page turner?There is general embarrassment in the air and the first movement continues with many uncertainties, memory lapses, improvised or repeated parts. His hand is shaking and he can’t turn the pages.I am literally dead.I can not believe my eyes. It is a mixture of sadness and emotion.Pollini ends the first movement somehow.

And here is where the second mysterious miracle happens.Pollini stands up, tired, weary, angry, incredulous and extremely sad.The entire audience bursts into thunderous applause, the maestro almost in tears is forced to bow down and gestures with his hands as if to say “I’m sorry, forgive me”.And here the public does something unthinkable: they all stand up, stalls, stage,anyone, even the hall staff, in an ovation that I have personally never seen in my life!At that moment it was the piano world, and not only,present in London that embraced the sacrosanct fragility of a man who is a giant, but still a man and, with that embrace, they were reminding him of it.Pollini leaves the scene but the public doesn’t stop cheering him on. They praises the great man but also the great pianist that he is.It won’t be a performance to compromise a stratospheric career!

The Milanese pianist returns with a page turner and the concert continues.The Fantasy ends which is affected by the initial event but which in any case is completed with dignity.Same thing will be for the second part of the concert with Chopin. He will play everything, with the score in front of him, certainly not at the full level of his undisputed piano skills, always nervous, but without major problems, allowing us to glimpse the expressiveness of his touch, the brilliance and agility of some passages which, although not always impeccable, leave the listener with the idea that he is in any case in front of an exceptional pianist, witness of the piano history of an entire century.

What happens after the last note of the concert belongs to history.The audience applaude non-stop, all on their feet, an exhausted pianist, clearly embarrassed by applause he probably thinks he doesn’t deserve. Bent over on himself, leaning on what was his Olympus and at the same time his suffering, he bows grateful and is moved.It is truly a moving scene.He will be forced out 4 times, the audience shouts for an encore. It’s probably not the right day to continue playing but the public hopes for it, in vain, convinced that at any moment Pollini can erase what has gone wrong with a few notes played divinely as only he can.

No encore, the concert is over but his lesson will remain eternal for me.What this pianist did is miraculous. The strength and courage of a man who could have escaped at any moment but didn’t. He remained on stage and demonstrated to everyone that being an artist is above all a moral duty towards Art, towards oneself and towards the public.The man who won, among others, the Warsaw Chopin Competition, the most important piano competition on the planet, shows his fragility and his art remains indelible in the hearts of all those who recognized it and paid homage to him, no matter what happened. As it should be.I would have liked to hug that elderly man on stage who could have been my grandfather.I would have liked to say to him: “Maestro, don’t worry, you remain a giant of Music, an immense artist and today you have given us more than other millions of flawless pianists could ever convey”.

I tried to wait for him in vain, together with hundreds of people of all nationalities, at the artists’ exit but he preferred to leave through a secondary exit. Like the true artists do. No autographs, no selfies. I guess he thought: “I’m not worthy, not this time.” But I really wanted to answer him: “Yes Master, you will always be worthy.Especially this time.” Antonio Morabito

Thank you Antonio for translating your beautiful poetic account it is so moving but not everyone can understand the poetic nature of your Italian …………….London salutes a giant and it makes me proud to be a Londoner.
I remember Radu Lupu’s last performance in London greeted with criticism by the press .I was so incensed that I wrote an appreciation for what this giant had given us for over half a century.I was actually thanked for doing it ……..proving that those than can ,do, those that can’t criticise.
And shows that great artists are also human beings ……in the beginning is our end …..no escape for anyone but it is what goes on during that period and with what selfless generosity one gives of oneself,even when physical problems raise their head ,that marks out the men from the boys.
Hats off to a Genius

https://www.radioclassique.fr/classique/encore-affaibli-limmense-pianiste-maurizio-pollini-retrouve-la-scene-sous-les-ovations-du-public/

And from Dr Moritz von Bredow :
I presume Pollini’s London recital was an exception. I’ve just read the review from Vienna of June 16. It is heavenly, especially the fantasy by Schumann. Perhaps Pollini was tired or dehydrated. One should not put too much emphasis on that recital. This can, of course happen to anybody. And another absolutely ravishing review of his recital in Vienna, absolutely fantastic. Don’t worry about the London night, I’m sure he will surprise us again in the future with beauty of sound, technique, expression and experience.

https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/kultur/klassik/2192582-Maurizio-Pollini-Gondelfahrt-auf-dem-Fabbrini.html

https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000174984/altmeister-maurizio-pollini-gastierte-im-wiener-musikverein

Maurizio Pollini – Twilight of a God – Rome pays homage to a monument

Pollini a Londra: STORIA DI UN MIRACOLO! Un racconto da un pianista italiano a Londra Antonio Morabito

Avantieri ho assistito a quello che io definirei, senza mezzi termini, un miracolo.
Anzi, una serie di miracoli in una serata che ha dell’incredibile!

Pianisti, per favore, leggete questo post.

Parto dall’inizio.
Maurizio Pollini, notissimo pianista italiano, uno dei più grandi pianisti dei Novecento ha tenuto un recital alla Festival Hall del Southbank di Londra.
Ovviamente, col mio caro amico Riccardo, andiamo eccitatissimi ad ascoltare quello che si preannuncia essere un concerto che mai dimenticaremo.
Così è stato, ma non per i motivi che vi aspettereste…

Silenzio in sala, di quelli che generalmente si avvertono nei luoghi sacri prima che inizi il culto, luci spente e palco illuminato con al centro il Pianoforte in tutta la sua maestà. Tutti a guardare la porticina a sinistra del palco. Eccolo lì! È veramente lui, non è un fotogramma di YouTube, esiste davvero!
Pollini entra, in una sala gremita fino agli ultimi posti, barcollante, curvo, quasi di fretta va a raggiunge il pianoforte per appoggiarsi e scongiurare il pericolo caduta. Finalmente arriva, si appoggia al pianoforte e si inchina riconoscente per un applauso infinito che sembra essere quello di fine concerto.
Non c’è dubbio, il pubblico sa chi ha di fronte e gli rende omaggio.
Noi ci uniamo all’omaggio, grati, eccitati e orgogliosi di essere italiani come lui.
Il programma è interessante, Schumann e Chopin.
Io e Riccardo, anch’egli pianista, già pregustiamo le raffinatezze che non vediamo l’ora di sentire.
L’applauso è ancora in corso ma Pollini è impaziente, non si aggiusta neanche la panca, non si prende quei soliti secondi di concentrazione che ci si aspetterebbe, non lascia terminare l’applauso e comincia immediatamente a suonare. Tutti smettono di applaudire all’istante.
Il concerto è iniziato!
Siamo di nuovo immersi nel silenzio religioso di prima con l’unica differenza che stavolta siamo tutti ipnotizzati dalle sue mani e da ciò che saranno in grado di fare.
Il primo pezzo è il celebre arabesque Op. 18.
Siamo alla ricerca delle raffinatezze, del godimento che si trae dall’interpretazione di un artista del suo calibro ma l’arabesque si rivela nervoso, con non troppo coinvolgimento emotivo, di un suono che appare poco profondo e frettoloso nei cantabili e troppo spinto nei “forti” (Pollini si aiuta col corpo per gli “sforzandi”).
La sua tensione è palpabile, la si avverte anche dall’ultima fila della sala. È una lezione per me. Una conferma, qualora ce ne fosse bisogno, che in una sala da concerto si crea un collegamento tra artista e pubblico che è veramente difficile da spiegare razionalmente. Magia pura.
Il brano termina. Non era quello che ci aspettavamo ma, si sa, l’inizio di un concerto è terribile per tutti, figuriamoci per un uomo di 81 anni! E poi come possiamo mai azzardarci a dire qualcosa a Pollini!?
Non ci resta che unirci allo scrosciante applauso di una folla che non vedeva l’ora di continuare l’applauso iniziale e inondiamo il maestro del dovuto riconoscimento che merita a prescindere.
Il secondo pezzo è la fantasia Op.17.
Non vediamo l’ora!
Sicuramente dopo l’emozione iniziale darà sfoggio di tutta la sua maestria.
Quello che succederà, invece, è inimmaginabile.
Pollini si risiede, frettolosamente, e anche stavolta non lascia finire l’applauso e ricomincia a suonare.
Ma il pezzo che suona non è la fantasia di Schumann, dopo poche note ci guardiamo con Riccardo perplessi e io gli chiedo: “non c’era la fantasia adesso?”.
Ricontrollo il programma per vedere se ricordo male. Nessun errore, sta suonando un altro pezzo. Ma cosa?
Dopo pochissimo capisco che Pollini sta improvvisando. Dei rapidi arpeggi e concatenazioni armoniche che ricordano di tanto in tanto dei passaggi della fantasia ma nulla che abbia a fare con un vero e proprio pezzo né tantomeno con la Fantasia.
Il clima è surreale.
Mi batte forte il cuore, mi immedesimo in lui, non posso crederci, sta succedendo davvero.
Il grande Pollini ha dimenticato l’inizio della Fantasia di Schumann.
La conferma arriva quando smette di suonare e in grande stato confusionale avvicina le mani alla testa come a dire: “che mi succede?”. Per un attimo penso di tutto: “si sta sentendo male? Un giramento di testa? Magari qualcosa di più grave?”
Il pubblico è attonito, impietrito.
Riprende a suonare, altri arpeggi e improvvisazioni varie, forti, con rabbia, usa tutto il corpo per suonare, quasi arrabbiato col pianoforte, lo stesso pianoforte che lo ha incoronato per decenni come uno dei pianisti più grandiosi degli ultimi tempi è ora diventato il nemico che lo sta costringendo ad esibirsi in queste condizioni.
Smette di suonare, concludendo con una cadenza in do maggiore, fingendo di aver suonato un pezzo che esiste davvero.
Si alza.
Il pubblico applaude scosso, preoccupato, incredulo. Non è l’applauso di prima. Questo è diverso.
Pollini lascia il palco con la stessa velocità con cui era entrato.
Io sudo freddo, il cuore mi batte a tremila. Mi sento come se fossi io sul palco. E se fossi io lì, cosa farei? Non ci voglio pensare.
Passano interminabili minuti in cui io sinceramente penso che a breve uscirà un membro dello staff a dire che il maestro, a causa di un malessere, non è in grado di proseguire. Ma nessuno arriva sul palco. Il tempo passa e un bisbiglío generale accompagna momenti interminabili.
Ma ecco qui il primo miracolo.
La porticina si apre. Non è nessuno dello staff. È il Maestro!
Pollini rientra sul palco e il pubblico impazzisce di gioia e commozione. Lo inonda ancora una volta di un affetto che ha dell’incredibile! (Tra l’altro il pubblico londinese non è rinomato per il suo calore, ma per la sua compostezza). Ma questo venerdì sera è la sera dei miracoli e tutto può succedere.
Pollini rientra sul palco con un libro, non se lo fa portare dello staff. Lo porta lui stesso. È il suo libro che stavolta pesa come un macigno. Suonerà con la carta davanti.
Subito dopo di lui un membro dello staff sta portando il leggio da mettere sul pianoforte.
Il leggio viene sistemato sul pianoforte dallo staff mentre il pubblico non smette di incoraggiarlo applaudendo come non mai e gridando “bravo” a gran voce. Il maestro appare sempre nervoso e allo stesso tempo dispiaciuto ma sempre riconoscente al pubblico e difatti fa un timido inchino e senza aspettare che lo staff esca dal palco, ricomincia a suonare, anche stavolta prima che l’applauso termini.
Stavolta è l’inizio della Fantasia di Schumann. Inconfondibile!
Ma c’è qualcosa che non va, il libro c’è ma dov’è il girapagine? Com’è possibile non ci sia?
Magari avrà bisogno solo di avere il libro davanti per l’inizio ma non lo userà?
Purtroppo non è così, incredibilmente si gira le pagine da solo interrompendo il pezzo o rimuovendo qualche nota!
È assurdo! Com’è possibile che stia facendo questo? Perché non ha chiamato un girapagine?
Nell’aria c’è un imbarazzo generale e il primo movimento prosegue con tante incertezze, vuoti di memoria, parti improvvisate o ripetute. La sua mano è tremante e non riesce a girare le pagine.
Io sono letteralmente morto.
Non credo ai miei occhi. È un misto di tristezza e commozione.
Pollini finisce il primo movimento in qualche modo.
Ed ecco qui che accade il secondo miracolo che mette i brividi.
Pollini si alza, stanco, affaticato, arrabbiato, incredulo ed estremamente triste.
Il pubblico intero scoppia in un fragorosissimo applauso, il maestro quasi in lacrime è costretto ad inchinarsi e con le mani gesticola quasi a dire “mi dispiace, perdonatemi”.
Ed ecco che il pubblico fa qualcosa di impensabile: si alza tutto in piedi, platea , palchetti, chiunque, pure lo staff, in un’ovazione che personalmente non ho mai visto in vita mia!
In quel momento era il mondo pianistico, e non solo, presente a Londra che abbracciava la sacrosanta fragilità di uomo che è un gigante, ma pur sempre un uomo e, con quell’abbraccio glielo stava ricordando.
Pollini esce di scena ma il pubblico non smette di osannarlo. Si osanna il grande uomo ma anche il grandissimo pianista che è.
Non sarà mica un’esibizione a compromettere una carriera stratosferica!
Il pianista milanese ritorna con un gira pagine e il concerto continua.
Finisce la fantasia che risente dell’accaduto iniziale ma che comunque viene portata a termine dignitosamente.
Stessa cosa sarà per la seconda parte del concerto con Chopin. Suonerà tutto, con la carta davanti, non al pieno delle sue indiscusse doti pianistiche sicuramente, sempre nervoso, ma senza grossi problemi, lasciando intravedere l’espressività del suo tocco, la brillantezza e l’agilità di alcuni passaggi che, pur non sempre impeccabili, lasciano all’ascoltatore l’idea che è comunque davanti ad un pianista eccezionale, testimone della storia pianistica di un secolo intero.
Quello che succede dopo l’ultima nota del concerto appartiene alla storia.
Il pubblico applaude senza sosta, tutto in piedi, un pianista esausto, chiaramente imbarazzato per applausi che probabilmente pensa di non meritare. Ricurvo su se stesso, appoggiato a quello che è stato il suo olimpo ed insieme la sua sofferenza, si inchina grato e commosso.
È veramente una scena commovente.
Sarà costretto ad uscire ben 4 volte, il pubblico grida a gran voce il bis. Non è probabilmente la giornata giusta per continuare a suonare ma il pubblico ci spera, invano, convinto che da un momento all’altro Pollini possa cancellare ciò che non è andato con poche note suonate divinamente come solo lui sa fare.
Niente bis, il concerto è finito ma la sua lezione rimarrà per me eterna.

Quello che ha fatto questo pianista ha del miracoloso. La forza e il coraggio di un uomo che poteva scappare in qualsiasi momento e invece non lo ha fatto. È rimasto sul palco e ha dimostrato a tutti che essere artista è prima di tutto un dovere morale verso l’Arte, verso se stessi e verso il pubblico.
L’uomo che ha vinto, tra gli altri, il Concorso Chopin di Varsavia, la competizione pianistica più importante del pianeta, si è messo a nudo in tutta la sua fragilità e la sua arte rimane indelebile nel cuore di tutti coloro che l’hanno riconosciuta e gli hanno reso omaggio indipendentemente da tutto. Come è giusto che sia.
Lo avrei voluto abbracciare quell’uomo anziano sul palco che poteva essere mio nonno, gli avrei voluto dire: “Maestro, non si preoccupi, lei rimane un gigante della Musica, un artista immenso e oggi ci ha trasmesso più di quello che altri milioni di pianisti impeccabili non avrebbero mai potuto trasmettere”.
Ho provato ad aspettarlo invano, insieme ad un centinaio di persone di ogni nazionalità, all’uscita degli artisti ma lui ha preferito uscire da un’uscita secondaria. Come fanno i grandi. Niente autografi, niente selfie. Immagino avrà pensato: “non ne sono degno, non questa volta”. Ma io gli avrei voluto tanto rispondere: “Si Maestro, lei ne sarà sempre degno.
Soprattutto questa volta”.

Antonio Morabito

Tuesday 27 June 3.00 pm 

What a privilege indeed to have such a wonderful artist play at St Mary’s.The world does not know what it is missing but rather selfishly we will keep that to ourselves! A magnificent Schumann where each of the eight pictures were painted with a kaleidoscopic sense of colour and the same aristocratic poise that I remember from Artur Rubinstein.

From the very first notes of ‘Des Abends’ there was an exquisite sense of balance and aristocratic control.But there was more than that because there was a sense of communication that is so rare to find these days.Time seemed to stand still such was the poignant beauty that was pouring from her fingers.A melodic line etched in gold on a cushion of pure velvet.
The sumptuous sounds in ‘Aufschwung’ where passion and control came together with a rhythmic drive and sounds of beguiling beauty.’Soaring’ indeed with a romantic sweep and a wonderful bass voice leading the way in the central episode.Her scrupulous attention to the composers indications had me searching the score for the wonderful staccatos before the brooding build up to the majesterial return of the opening passionate outpouring.
Her exquisite sense of balance had me indeed wondering ‘why’ this wonderful artist is not to be found more often on the world stage .I had heard her recently in the Royal Festival Hall and it was exactly her masterly control of sound that allowed her to project the softest of whispers with a radiance to the far reaches of that notorious cavern,as only Rubinstein or Arrau could do.
‘Warum’ indeed ………with its voices touchingly intertwined as they communed with each other so tenderly.A gentle comment from the bass adding a sensuousness to such disarming simplicity.
‘Grillen’ was played with such humour that she cheekily decided to add an unwarranted but much appreciated repeat.
There was a sweep to the ghostly murmurings of ‘In der Nacht’with strands of melody emerging with crystalline clarity above.The ‘Etwas Langsamer’ seemed actually to get faster rather than slower.Such was her artistry that the haunting melody that floats on top reminded me of a similar magic moment in the Fantasie op 17 that was to follow in a sequence of masterpieces that seemed to pour continuously from Schumann’s pen from op 1 to op 26.
Visions of such beauty that it is hardly surprising that his duel personality of Eusebius and Florestan in the end fought it out in his head with him ending up in an asylum !
A wonderfully capricious ‘Fabel’with its question and answer eloquently expressed exactly as Rubinstein used to enchant us with.Her masterly control was always present as the final chords were so beautifully placed each one slightly different from the other.
A masterly ‘Traumes Wirren’ as you would expect from a pianist known in the business as Mrs Feux Follets.
A masterclass in the RCM with Emanuel Ax some years ago when Professor Dinara was still a student and had just played two of Liszt’s Transcendental studies:’Paysage’and ‘Chasse Neige’.The next student down to play the ‘Hammerklavier’ after her,unsurprisingly,could not be found!So the Maestro asked Dinara to play something else while the search was on.
I held my breath and hoped she would play ‘Feux Follets.’She did,and Emanuel Ax burst out laughing at the end as he could not believe that anyone could play it with such ease and beauty.He had been the winner of the first Rubinstein Competition and certainly could never have played it like that!
Dinara is not a machine but a sensitive artist and ‘Traumes Wirren’ as ‘Feux Follets’ was played as a miniature tone poem not a cold blooded study!There was here in Schumann a flexibility of pulse and a ravishing sense of colour.Aristocratic grandeur signalled the ‘Ende vom Lied’ and if the ‘Etwas lebhafter’ was of the same colour it was because the shape and colour she brought to this central episode was part of an overall architectural measure that was totally convincing.The rapt concentration she brought to the coda where suddenly time stands still as the melody returns as if in a dream .The gradual disintegration in a magic ending of sublime poetic inspiration.It was as if Eusebius had been at work again like he had been in the last desolate dance of the Davidsbundler op 6.

There was a wonderful sense of colour in the opening of the Ravel ‘Sonatine’ with the left hand doubling the melody giving great depth and haunting beauty to this fleetingly etherial opening.Fluidity and purity of the melodic line takes over with a feeling of resignation and nostalgia leading to the hauntingly beautiful ending with an almost unbelievable control of the magical sonorities .There was delicacy and a formal stately beauty to the ‘Menuet ‘ with a luminosity of sound of great simplicity.A beguiling tenor melody that crept in surreptitiously towards the end with ornaments that were played with the same delicacy that she was to show us in the Chopin nocturne that was still to come after the jazz and swing of Gershwin.A great wave of sounds engulfed the keyboard in the ‘Animé.’There were mysterious ghostly apparitions of melody duetting over a mist of sound.Simplicity,beauty and masterly control gave this innocent Sonatine the life of a jewel shining brightly in a sound world unmistakeable aristocratic and French.

Gershwin was sleezy and dreamy,jazzy and improvised.Astonishing technical brilliance and mastery with the sumptuous sleepy final melody played with consummate artistry.Guitar like interruptions of animal excitement and magnificence just showed why Nadia Boulanger had refused to teach such an original talent for fear of contaminating this original mix of improvised and organised brilliance.
Chopin’s Nocturne in D flat op 27 n.2 was just the magic touch that Rubinstein would have added to a wonderfully satisfying programme.A magic mist of sound on which floated a bel canto of ravishing beauty.A timeless rubato with embellishments that just flowed so effortlessly from her masterly fingers with gossamer lightness.The whispered acciaccaturas at the end were of such delicacy that time stood still as it had all those years ago for Artur Rubinstein.
Dinara I continue to say is one of the great pianists of our time who has as yet to be discovered by a world submerged by mediocre piano players who are not great artists.Unfortunately we live in a speedy age where artists are getting fewer and fewer as our high speed world is too ready to accept quantity rather than quality.

Schumann Fantasiestücke, op 12, is a set of eight pieces written in 1837The title was inspired by the 1814–15 collection of novellas,essays, treatises, letters, and writings about music, Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier (which also included the complete Kreisleriana, another source of inspiration for Schumann) by one of his favourite authors, E.T.A.Hoffmann.He dedicated the pieces to Fräulein Anna Robena Laidlaw, an accomplished 18-year-old Scottish pianist with whom Schumann had become good friends.

Schumann composed the pieces with the characters Florestan and Eusebius in mind, representing the duality of his personality. Eusebius depicts the dreamer in Schumann while Florestan represents his passionate side. These two characters parlay with one another throughout the collection, ending self-reflectively with Eusebius in “Ende vom Lied”.

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 who was a contributor to that publication. 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.Calvocoressi recounted how he supposedly encouraged Ravel to write the piece in response to a competition posted in the Paris Weekly Critical Review.It seems to have been written between 1903 and 1905 as mentioned in an article in the Review published on 3rd March 1903 .The original manuscript that Ravel submitted had the text ‘par Verla’ written and struck out, replaced with ‘par Maurice Ravel’. Ravel submitted the piece under a pseudonym and chose an anagram of his name.

Rhapsody in Blue was written in 1924 for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical with jazz influenced effects. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman , the work premiered in a concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music” on February 12, 1924, in Aeolian Hall ,New York City.Whiteman’s band performed the rhapsody with Gershwin playing the piano.Whiteman’s arranger Ferde Grofé orchestrated the rhapsody several times including the 1924 original.

With only five weeks remaining until the premiere, Gershwin hurriedly set about composing the work.He later claimed that, while on a train journey to Boston ,the thematic seeds for Rhapsody in Blue began to germinate in his mind.

‘It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer…. I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise. And there I suddenly heard—and even saw on paper—the complete construction of the rhapsody, from beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind and tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance.^’

After sharing the top prize at the 2006 Busoni Piano Competition age 18, Dinara took up a busy international concert schedule, appearing at many festivals including the “Progetto Martha Argerich” in Lugano, the Aldeburgh Proms and “La Roque d’Antheron”. She has performed at many of the world’s major concert venues, including the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Berliner Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, New York 92Y, Cleveland Severance Hall. Her concerto engagements include The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and others. Dinara combines her performing career with piano professor positions at the Royal College of Music and the Yehudi Menuhin School. As a recording artist, she has received widespread critical acclaim. Her album of Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante, released by the German label GENUIN classics, resulted in dazzling reviews and was selected by BBC Music Magazine as Recording of the Month. Her other albums include the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas released by Piano Classics.Dinara’s music education started in the age of five in her native Kharkiv, Ukraine. She graduated with highest honours at the Moscow State Conservatory P.I. Tchaikovsky under Eliso Virsaladze and went on to complete her Master’s degree at the Royal College of Music under Dina Parakhina.

Dinara Klinton-EunsleyPark-Ella Rundle mastery and artistry for Tchaikowsky at the Royal Festival Hall

Dinara Klinton at the Wigmore Hall RCM Benjamin Britten Fellow Recital

Dinara Klinton in Perivale and Washington ‘Dance,Song,Tales,Flowers and Romance’

Elena Vorotko co artistic director of the KT writes:

‘Passion and power in Gabrielė Sutkutė’s New Artist Recital at the Steinway Hall. Her complete technical freedom, acute musical intuition and impeccable sense of style made her performance an exhilarating experience for the audience.

First on the programme was Haydn’s Fantasia in C major, the main theme of which is a folk song ‘the farmer’s wife had lost her cat’, as was eloquently explained by Gabrielė in her introduction.This was masterfully played with an impish sense of humour, stylishly articulated and with great rhythmic drive.
A strong contrast was achieved at the start of Bartok’s suite ‘Out of doors’. Gabrielė created vivid sonic pictures full of longing and powerful outbursts

In Scriabin’s 2nd Piano Sonata Gabrielė found yet another, totally different soundscape. A warmer and more velvety sound created mesmerising moments of delicate lyricism.The powerful and unpredictable second movement was brilliantly executed, with great ease and yet total involvement in the musical narrative.
Rachmaninov’s 3 Etudes Tableaux revealed yet another, distinctive sonic palette with rich sonorities with a multitude of colours and effects. Seemless phrases and heart-wrenching lyricism contrasted with uncompromising virtuosity and brilliant polyphonic layering of textures. If that was not enough, Gabrielė finished her recital with Ravel’s ‘Oiseaux Tristes’ and ‘La Valse’. Here she created much more transparent, ‘glassy’ sonorities, so well suited for French repertoire. With a perfect sense of musical timing she achieved a moving rendition of the saddest of birds. La Valse showed off her total command of the instrument in this fiendish and highly complex virtuosic arrangement of a large scale orchestral work. The audience were transfixed by the beauty of sonorities Gabrielė created as well as the fantastic power of her musical conviction. A standing ovation followed as exhilarated listeners applauded this young star’s triumph.’ Elena Vorotko

Gabrielé Sutkuté plays Grieg with the YMSO under James Blair at Cadogan Hall

Gabriele Sutkuté at St Marys Refined musicianship and artistry

Tuesday 20 June 3.00 pm 

From the very first notes of Scarlatti it was clear that we were in for a very special afternoon of sumptuous playing from the Golden age of piano playing .The age when not only was there an ease of playing but there was a fantasy and imagination that with a palette of a seemingly infinite range of sounds that could ravish beguile,charm and astonish .

The idea was put into words by Tobias Matthay who would describe the way that in every note there was an infinite gradation of sounds that with a very sensitive touch could be as expressive as the human voice.I remember my first visit as a schoolboy to Sidney Harrison who sat at his wonderful inlaid Steinway and played the theme of Schumann’s Symphonic Studies.It was then that I knew music was to be the most important thing in my life.Lessons with him would be a revelation as he would search out songs where he could show me how to make the music speak in the same way as the human voice.We would spend hours finding the right inflection and shape to Traumerei of Schumann’s Kinderszenen.Of course there was also the technical preparation of Geoffrey Tankard’s books and Bach Preludes and Fugues,and much else besides but the seed was set.He would take me down the road to hear Frank Holland’s piano rolls in the Brentford Piano Museum of which he was honorary president .I could not believe the superhuman sounds of Godowsky,Rosenthal.Lhevine or the scintillating charm of Levitski.Later I was to be bowled over by Cortot’s Ballades on old recordings on loan from the local library.Followed by Horowitz’s return to the Carnegie Hall with his Schumann Fantasy of unbelievable colour and unashamed passion.Etincelles of scintillating charm and phenomenal technical wizardry.And later a mind blowing Stars and Stripes where the cheeky little piccolo would appear miraculously amidst his full orchestral sounds.Later the discovery of Rubinstein in concert where the beauty of his sound had us queuing up at six in the morning to be sure of getting in to his annual return visits.

All this to say that I was reminded of this world listening again to Thomas Kelly today.Someone who is steeped in a style of what I thought a bygone age.A fluidity and technical mastery that made sense of the word ‘jeux perlé’.A pianist who listens to himself and in love with the sound of the piano as he shapes and delves deep in to the keys and draws more secrets out of them than others who do not even know they exist.I have heard Thomas many times since five years ago when he surprised everyone with his prize winning Carnaval for the Schumann Prize at the RCM.I have followed his progress since then and seen a supremely gifted young student become and artists of great stature.Of course the seeds were set by his friend and mentor the late Andrew Ball.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/14/a-celebration-of-the-life-of-andrew-ball-the-thinker-pianist-at-the-r-c-m-london/. Now his artistry has been transformed into a complete mastery thanks to the help and encouragement from the Alexeevs and their past prodigies now distinguished teachers and performers in their own right.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/11/13/dmitri-alexeev-mastery-and-communication-beyond-all-boundaries/Above all thanks should go to the Head of Keyboard Vanessa Latarche who had taken over the reigns of this post from Andrew Ball fifteen years ago and who has had the not easy task of helping this young ‘Ogdon’ to come to terms with a world outside music !

The very first notes of the four scarlatti Sonatas that’s he had chosen showed off a unique voice and sense of colour with shading of such subtle artistry.A ‘joie di vivre’ that illuminated K 13 in G and ‘La Chasse’ played with such an original new voice.

Ravel’s’ Jeux d’eau with a subtle flexibility and an aristocratic sense of style with ravishing colours and seemingly endless layers of sound.The overhead cameras at St Mary’s allowed us to observe the beautiful circular movements of Thomas’s chubby fingers.Like someone swimming in an imaginary bath of sound.The natural movements of the hand and arms are something that are to marvel at with Volodos.Thomas is still not completely liberated with his body movements as is the ‘Master’ but it is only a question of time until his whole body will unite in this unique union with the keyboard.Infact the piano seemed to glow with a golden radiance at the end of the Ravel as Thomas gradually allowed his body to shadow and be enveloped by the sounds he was producing.

There was a beguiling charm to the Paganini study in E flat and awe inspiring octaves played with nonchalant ease and charm.There was extraordinary clarity in the central episode of octaves but it was the beguiling charm of the opening that revealed the art that conceals art.It is something that cannot be taught and it is inspired by a sensitivity at the moment of creation almost teasing and playing with his audience like a cat and mouse.The A minor study was played with great fantasy and grandeur as the variations gradually unfolded to the final triumphant flourishes.Here we were treated to the Grandest of Grand Pianos.

Instinctively the world of Busoni was linked to the world of Liszt as without a break the waves of the Gondeliera grew out of the final mysterious bars of All’Italia.The strange world of Busoni takes a remarkable musician to make sense of the washes of sound that had been inspired by Liszt’s prophetic late experiments in a search for a new sound world.It was Kiril Gernstein who recently opened up this world for us and showed us the very clear link between Liszt and Busoni and who like Thomas today could see a line that guides us through the clouds of mist and mystery which surrounds a line that is apparent only to the very finest of musicians.Thomas today revealed a work of sumptuous sounds of fantasy and grandiloquence.The amazingly atmospheric final few sounds were so rightly linked up to the Liszt that followed without the slightest break.

There was ravishing beauty to the Gondoliers song with a fluidity and ease that led so naturally into the plaintive cry of the ‘Canzone’ that followed.Thomas chose not to follow Liszt’s very precise pedal marking that links the ‘Canzone’ to the’Tarantella’ but all must surely be forgiven when the breathtaking virtuosity and sublime beauty that he brought to this ‘cavallo di battaglia’ of so many virtuosi of the past was quite unique.La Campanella offered as an encore was played with a subtlety and refined tone palette together with a scintillating technical mastery that reminded me of the piano role of Lhevine that had so inspired my undying love of the piano.

Thomas Kelly was born in 1998. He passed Grade 8 with Distinction in 2006 and performed Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 in Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre two years later. After moving to Cheshire, he regularly played in festivals, winning prizes including in the Birmingham Festival, 3rd prize in Young Pianist of The North 2012, and 1st prize in the 2014 Warrington Competition for Young Musicians. Since 2015, Thomas has studied with Andrew Ball, initially at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and now at Royal College of Music, where he is a third-year undergraduate. Thomas has won first prizes including Pianale International Piano Competition 2017, Kharkiv Assemblies 2018, Lucca Virtuoso e Bel Canto festival 2018, RCM Joan Chissell Schumann competition 2019, Kendall Taylor Beethoven Competition 2019 and BPSE Intercollegiate Beethoven Competition 2019. He has also performed in venues including the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Holy Trinity Sloane Square, St James’ Piccadilly, Oxford Town Hall, St Mary’s Perivale, St Paul’s Bedford, Poole Lighthouse Arts Centre, Stoller Hall, Paris Conservatoire, the StreingreaberHaus in Bayreuth, the Teatro del Sale in Florence, in Vilnius and Palanga. Thomas’ studies at RCM are generously supported by Pat Kendall-Taylor, Ms Daunt and Ms Stevenson and C. Bechstein pianos. He won 5th prize at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition, and was the first British pianist to reach the finals of this prestigious competition for 18 years. He has been given the ‘Young Talent (piano)’ award for 2022 by the Critics’ Circle.

A celebration of the life of Andrew Ball -‘The thinker pianist’ at the R.C.M London

Thomas Kelly …..’Reaching for the stars!’ – a voyage of discovery at Leighton House

Thomas Kelly takes Florence by storm Music al British

Thomas Kelly at St Mary’s Masterly playing from the Golden Age

Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 27in E minor, Op. 90
Frédéric Chopin – Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52
Alberto Ginastera – Suite de Danzas Criollas
Alexander Scriabin – Sonata No. 5, Op. 53 

Presented in association with the Royal College of Music

I have heard José play many times – it was unavoidable as he was living for six months in my house!I thought I had heard all his recent repertoire so it came as a complete surprise to see the programme that he presented under the auspices of the Royal College of Music.I had heard recently his final concert at the Royal College where he has been working for the past year with Norma Fisher and even heard some of his programmes for competitions and concerts he had been preparing throughout this past year.

Jose Navarro Silberstein – masterly performances of red hot intensity

José had been discovered in Bolivia by one of the Keyboard Trust Trustees – Dr Moritz von Bredow – who was with a choir on a tour from Germany at the time .He was so impressed when he heard the very young José that he invited him to give some concerts in Germany.From there he went on to study for seven years in Cologne with the renowned pianist and pedagogue Claudio Martinez Mehner.This past year he was invited to study at the RCM and to complete his studies in London with Norma Fisher.

Norma and I had the same piano ‘daddy’ Sidney Harrison when we were schoolchildren.Norma was later taken under the wing by Gina Bachauer who took her to her own teacher Ilona Kabos.Norma fast made a name and important career for herself until she was struck down by a cruel muscular disease that curtailed her playing career.

Norma Fisher at Steinway Hall The BBC recordings -On wings of song- the story continues

She is one of the finest musicians I know with impeccable good taste and like Chopin ( or even Shenker – call it what you will!) she believes that the root of music should be firmly planted in the ground and it is only then that the music above is free to move and take flight.A freedom within a certain framework that does not disturb the essential river like undercurrent.It was exactly this that was so apparent in José’s masterly performances today.The same solidity that was so much part of the playing of Gilels (or Solomon ) who was one of Norma’s favorite colleagues.It was the solidity that I remember hearing from Norma when Sidney Harrison took me back stage and proudly presented me as the Liszt Scholar at the Royal Academy to his former star student who was giving a recital at the Wigmore Hall.I have never forgotten the solidity of her Brahms Handel Variations or the beauty combined with strength of Chopin’s Berceuse.

The performance of the Fourth Ballade today had a solidity and beauty that had something of the monumental about it.Gone were the whispered asides and distortions that this work so often suffers in the name of tradition.In it’s place was a driving energy like a great wave the enveloped us as we experienced a journey where we were ravished,seduced,astonished and finally overwhelmed by a torrential passionate outpouring of seemless ease.But it all took place under the same roof in a unique sound world where all these wonders belonged with such unflinching certainty and beauty.Aristocratic might be a name for it,and that was certainly how one could have described Arthur Rubinstein’s inimitable performances during his glorious Indian Summer.But words are superfluous in trying to describe a monument of such originality and searing beauty as this Pinnacle of the Romantic piano repertoire.

The concert had opened with Beethoven’s ‘little’ Sonata op 90.The most Schubertian of Beethoven’s Sonatas with a second movement that is a continuous outpouring of mellifluous simplicity.The first movement had an inner intensity from the very first chords.A forward movement that did not exclude beauty and delicacy though.Scrupulous attention to detail had me searching the score for things that I had not been aware of.The sudden pauses and change of dynamics gave such authority and weight to this seemingly innocent two movement work that was the be the prelude to Beethoven’s final visionary works for piano.Masterpieces where Beethoven’s tumultuous existence was at last to find celestial peace.No ritardando at the end of this first movement but beautifully curtailed leaving a question mark that was to find a reply in the beautiful fluidity of the second movement.’I found this a little too fast at the beginning for Beethoven’s ‘nicht zu geschwind ‘ marking to exclude any forcing of phrasing or external interference.It linked up though with the question and answer of the following episode superbly characterised without any exaggeration.Leading,like in Schubert, to a seemingly endless stream of melodic invention and in José masterly hands I realised what a masterpiece of art that conceals art this work really is.Beethoven writing so precisely his indications and followed by José not with cold precision but with full blooded understanding of the duel character of this universal genius.The last five bars marked ‘accelerando -crescendo -piano -a tempo -pianissimo’ and José almost made it but it was not as convincing as the end of the first movement had been.It is more charming than capricious and it was the only blemish in a performance that was a jewel shining so brightly nurtured with loving sensibility and intelligence.

The Ginastera was given a performance of brilliance and with a kaleidoscope of sounds and a total command of a world that is after all José’s birthright.Ravishing,piecing delicacy of the ‘Adagietto pianissimo’was followed by the dynamic animal rhythms of the ‘Allegro rustico’.The delightfully flowing ‘Allegretto cantabile’ with its seductively beautiful tenor voice.The radiance of the doubling of the melodic line bathed in a mist of pedal was indeed ‘Calmo e poetico’ and was thanks to his wonderfully sensitive sense of balance.José took us by the scruff of the neck with his animal like attack in the last ‘Scherzando’ where it was astonishing to see with what speed and precision his hands and arms were wading in an imaginary fluid stream as these unexpectedly savage sounds filled the hallowed air of this most beautiful edifice.It was a good preparation for Scriabin’s demonic fifth sonata.

A feast both diabolical and sensual but played with a sense of architectural shape that was breathtaking in its mastery of the complexity involved.The three great notes ringing out throughout the cauldron of red hot sounds like blazing laser beams of Scriabin’s meteor and that finally unite as the ‘star’ shining in a final explosion of ecstatic excitement.I have heard José practicing it in my house but I never imagined that he would master its complexities with such overwhelming authority and take such breathtaking risks that had us on the edge of our seats.It brought the audience spontaneously to their feet at the end with the final release of tension as he shot from one end of the piano to the other.A star indeed in every sense!

Beethoven’s previous piano sonata, popularly known as Les Adieux ,was composed almost five years before Op. 90. Beethoven’s autograph survives and is dated August 16 but it was published almost a year later, in June 1815, by S. A. Steiner, after Beethoven made a few corrections.Beethoven’s letter to Prince Moritz von Lichnowsky, sent in September 1814, explains the dedication:

‘I had a delightful walk yesterday with a friend in the Brühl, and in the course of our friendly chat you were particularly mentioned, and lo! and behold! on my return I found your kind letter. I see you are resolved to continue to load me with benefits. As I am unwilling you should suppose that a step I have already taken is prompted by your recent favors, or by any motive of the sort, I must tell you that a sonata of mine is about to appear, dedicated to you. I wished to give you a surprise, as this dedication has been long designed for you, but your letter of yesterday induces me to name the fact. I required no new motive thus publicly to testify my sense of your friendship and kindness.^’

Beethoven’s friend and biographer Anton Schindler reported that the sonata’s two movements were to be titled Kampf zwischen Kopf und Herz (“A Contest Between Head and Heart”) and Conversation mit der Geliebten (“Conversation with the Beloved”), respectively, and that the sonata as a whole referred to Moritz’s romance with a woman he was thinking of marrying.Schindler’s explanation first appeared in his 1842 book Beethoven in Paris and has been repeated in several other books. Later studies showed that the story was almost certainly invented by Schindler, at least in part, and that he went so far as to forge an entry in one of Beethoven’s conversation books to validate the anecdoteMost of Beethoven’s piano sonatas are in three or four movements, but this one has only two. Both are provided with performance instructions in German. A few of Beethoven’s works of this period carried similar instructions in place of the traditional Italian tempo markings:

Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck (“With liveliness and with feeling and expression throughout”)

Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen (“Not too swiftly and conveyed in a singing manner”)

The Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 was completed in 1842 in Paris and is considered not only one of Chopin’s masterpieces, but one of the masterpieces of 19th-century piano music.john Ogdon described it as “ 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.”

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.

Alfred Cortot claims that the inspiration for this ballade is Adam 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.

• Suite de Danzas Criollas op 15 (1946) Alberto Ginastera
• I. Adagietto pianissimo
• II. Allegro rustico
• III. Allegretto cantabile
• IV. Calmo e poetico
• V. Scherzando: Coda

Scriabin’s Sonata No 5, Op 53, was written as an offshoot of the orchestral ‘Poem of Ecstasy’ in 1907; its composition took only three to four days. Scriabin provided a text, a few lines from the poem written for the orchestral work:

I call you to life, mysterious forces!
Drowned in the obscure depths
of the creative spirit, timid
Embryos of life, to you I bring audacity!

—a vivid description of the release of material from the unconscious mind necessary for the creation of such a complex and innovative work in such a short space of time. Like the Fourth, the Fifth Sonata belongs to the middle period of Scriabin’s music where harmony relates directly and clearly to the tonal system, but many features point already to the final phase.

Scriabin decided to go to live in Lausanne with his pregnant wife Tatyana,since he found the place to be cheaper, quieter, and healthier, and only 7 hours away from Paris. On 8 December 1907 Tatyana wrote to a friend:

‘We go out a little, having caught up on our sleep. We begin to look normal again. Sasha even has begun to compose – 5th Sonata!!! I cannot believe my ears. It is incredible! That sonata pours from him like a fountain. Everything you have heard up to now is as nothing. You cannot even tell it is a sonata. Nothing compares to it. He has played it through several times, and all he has to do is to write it down …^’

In late December, Scriabin wrote to Morozova about the imminent completion of his new work:

‘The Poem of Ecstasy took much of my strength and taxed my patience. … Today I have almost finished my 5th Sonata. It is a big poem for piano and I deem it the best composition I have ever written. I do not know by what miracle I accomplished it …’

Sunday 25 June 3.00 pm 

Wonderful tribute to a dear friend of so many aspiring young artists.
The two Wiercinski ‘boys’ coming together to play a Dvorak Slavonic dance together with such ‘joie de vivre’ and astonishing finesse.
This was after masterly performances of Beethoven,Bach and Chopin.
Andrzej Wierciński who I had heard recently in Ischia play the same pieces but today there was even more magic in the air.

A Bach that had such authority from the seemless clarity and nobility of the Prelude to the beauty of the Fugue.Shaping the awkward fugue subject with a fantasy and sense of colour without ever disturbing the french overture but illuminating it with sublime beauty.

The Chopin Mazukas too were played with an overpowering authority and ravishing beauty as well as a freedom and sense of dance that are of the manner born.

Beethoven’s penultimate sonata was given a memorable performance in which all of Andrzej great artistry was given a freedom within the confines of what Beethoven so minutely describes in the score .The passionate outburst of the final pages was of overpowering conviction of a man who had indeed a vision of Paradise.

Kyzysztof complimenting his brother with longer spindly fingers capable of creating startling clarity.A musicality that had him searching for hidden colours which was immediately evident in the beauty of Chopin’s B major nocturne op 62 n.1 .There was a luminosity and fluidity of sound to which he added a freedom as he dug deep into the core of the harmonies to seek out its inner secrets.

The Second Ballade was played with a beautiful simplicity and flowing melodic line.There was such delicacy too due to his very sensitive sense of balance.His big hands made easy work of the tempestuous interruptions but always shaped them with the musicianship that obviously runs in their remarkable family.Again seeking out some secret inner colours but never forsaking the overall architectural shape.On the wave of the final great flourish was a heartrending final uttering that only the genius of Chopin could have penned and was beautifully played with a quiet mysterious whisper.

Beethoven’s early Sonata op 26 ,with its third movement Funeral March was beautifully and very clearly played .The mellifluous theme was followed by variations of great character.The almost too pompous second with its alternating hands was followed by the deep brooding of the third.Only to be interrupted by the scherzando bagatelle of the fourth followed by the beautiful pastoral fluidity of the fifth.
There was a contrastingly rhythmic Scherzo with the beautifully shaped trio with its inner voicing.The Funeral March was played with quiet intensity and superb rhythmic control.The final Allegro Rondo was bubbling over with ‘joie de vivre ‘ with a rhythmic energy and bite leading to the surprise ending.

Chopin’s Scherzo in B flat minor was played with astonishing technical freedom with clarity and driving energy .Even in the beautiful cantabile there was a forward movement with some very subtle shaping of great beauty and poignancy.There was freedom to the contrasting central episode with its insinuating mazurka like outpourings.Here again were some beautiful colours from the voicing of the thumb which gave great depth to the melodic line.But it was the astonishing technical brilliance and passion that he brought to Chopin’s scintillating outpouring of notes that was breathtaking and the final pages were played with overwhelming excitement and exhilarating virtuosity.

The Dvorak Slavonic Dance played together as an encore was a wonderful treat to see these two young brothers united with such accomplishment and obvious enjoyment and to see Dr Mather struggling to turn the pages of the two separate scores simultaneously.
Geoff would have loved it and it was a wonderful tribute to a great friend of so many talented young musicians.And above all a close and loyal friend to all of us Friends of St.Mary’s who will dearly miss him.

Andrzej Wiercinski was born in Warsaw in 1995 and graduated with distinction from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice (2014-2019) and in 2020 received a postgraduate diploma from the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. From September 2023 he will be pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Royal College of Music in London, with Professor Norma Fisher. Andrzej has won 1 st Prize in numerous piano competitions, including: Saint-Priest International Piano Competition (2019); First International Music Competition in Vienna (2019); Masters Neapolitan Piano Competition (Naples, 2018); International Chopin Competition “Golden Ring” in Slovenia (2014); International Chopin Competition in Budapest (2014); and the Polish National Chopin Competition (2015). He was a semi-finalist in the 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2021), He is the recipient of several international Scholarships.In recent years he has given recitals in most European countries as well as in Canada, Indonesia and Japan. This year he performed Chopin’s F-minor Piano Concerto in Darmstadt with the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck Orchestra and in 2022 Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto in the Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall with the Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra. Andrzej released his first CD in 2015, playing solo piano works by Scarlatti, Schumann and Chopin. 

Krzysztof Wiercinski was born in 2003 in Warsaw. He began his musical education at the age of 7 and now studies at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, also benefiting from masterclasses with several eminent artists and pedagogues. Entering his first piano competition at the age of 8, Krzysztof has won many prestigious awards at national and international competitions since. His First Prizes include at: the First International Chopin Competition in Turzno (with special award of a concert at Carnegie Hall, 2019); the 19th Juliusz Zarebski International Music Competition in Warsaw (2019); the Fifth International Chopin Competition in Rzeszów (2019); the International Music Competition in Moscow (2020); the 6th International Online Piano Competition in Trzciana (2020); the International Piano Competition Maurycy Moszkowski in Kielce (2021, with special prize for the best performance of a concerto); and at the International Music Competition “ISCART” in Lugano, Switzerland (2021). He has performed concerts in numerous cities throughout Poland (including at the National Philharmonic and the Royal Castle in Warsaw and at Chopin’s birthplace at Zelazowa Wola) as well as in Switzerland, Estonia, Lithuania and Austria. In March 2022, he gave 21 Chopin recitals in 7 days at the Polish pavilion at EXPO 2020 in Dubai, being also the youngest of the Polish pianists to play there. His recital at St Mary’s Perivale is his UK debut. 

This concert is dedicated to the memory of GEOFF COX (1941 – 2023) who promoted the careers of many of our finest pianists and was an enthusiastic attender of recitals at St Mary’s Perivale and many other venues. He was dedicated to promoting the careers and welfare of young musicians, and he will be sadly missed by his many friends. We send our deepest condolences to his family.

Anna Tsybuleva writes “Thank you for sending this to me! He was such a good man!! I still can’t believe he is not here’. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/10/11/anna-tsybuleva-mastery-at-st-marys-2/

Andrzej Wiercinski at La Mortella Ischia The William Walton Foundation – Refined artistry and musical intelligence in Paradise

Krzysztof Wiercinski in Warsaw the remarkable Wiercinski brothers.

With the “pure poetry” of his playing (Seen and Heard International), pianist Derek Wang is drawing increasing acclaim from audiences and critics alike in wide-ranging appearances as soloist, collaborator, and communicator. A musically eloquent proponent of the original works and virtuosic transcriptions of Franz Liszt, Derek was awarded second prize at the 12th International Liszt Competition (Liszt Utrecht) in the Netherlands in 2022, which followed on the heels of first prize at the inaugural New York Liszt Competition in 2021. Deeply experienced in contemporary music, Derek held a three-summer-long fellowship position as pianist of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival under conductors Donald Crockett and Timothy Weiss, performing a total of over fifty works of the 20th and 21st centuries. Derek holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he received a Kovner Fellowship and the Joseph W. Polisi Prize for exemplifying the school’s values of the artist as citizen. He continues studies at the Yale School of Music as an Artist Diploma candidate. His principal teachers have included Stephen Hough, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Matti Raekallio, and Boris Slutsky. For more information and the latest concert schedule, please visit www.derek-wang.com.

Chopin completed the Piano Sonata n.2 in B flat minor op 35 while living in George Sand’s manor in Nohant some 250 km (160 mi) south of Paris ,a year before it was published in 1840. The first of the composer’s three mature sonatas (the others being the Piano Sonata n.3 in B minor op 58 and the Sonata for Piano and Cello op 65).In a letter on 8 August 1839, addressed to Fontana, Chopin wrote:I am writing here a Sonata in B flat minor which will contain my March which you already know. There is an Allegro, then a Scherzo in E flat minor, the March and a short Finale about three pages of my manuscript-paper. The left hand and the right hand gossip in unison after the March. … When the sonata was published in 1840 in the usual three cities of Paris,Leipzig and London,Paris ,the London and Paris editions indicated the repeat of the exposition as starting at the very beginning of the movement (at the Grave section). However, the Leipzig edition designed the repeat as beginning at the Doppio movimento section. Although the critical edition published by Breitkopf &Hartel (that was edited, among others, by Franz Liszt, Carl Reinecke , and Johannes Brahms)indicate the repeat similarly to the London and Paris first editions, almost all 20th-century editions are similar to the Leipzig edition in this regard. Charles Rosen argues that the repeat of the exposition in the manner perpetrated by the Leipzig edition is a serious error, saying it is “musically impossible” as it interrupts the D♭ major cadence (which ends the exposition) with the B♭ minor accompanimental figure.However, Leikin advocates for excluding the Grave from the repeat of the exposition, citing in part that Karol Mikuli’s 1880 complete edition of Chopin contained a repeat sign after the Grave in the first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 2. Mikuli was a student of Chopin from 1844 to 1848 and also observed lessons Chopin gave to other students – including those where this sonata was taught – and took extensive notes.

Written in 1921, three years before Fauré s death, the tragic despair of the Thirteenth Nocturne shares its depth of feeling with few other works in the piano repertoire. Certainly nothing like this was written by Debussy or Ravel, and only in the last pages of Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart or Bach can parallels be found to its austere heartbreak. The work can be regarded as autobiographical. For the last few years of his life the composer suffered from a distressing hearing defect which caused him to hear distortion in the higher frequencies of the sound spectrum. Knowing this, the chains of suspensions which open this last Nocturne take on an added significance. The piece as a whole is filled with a feeling of regret and farewell,with a vehement and angry middle section rising to a climax of the greatest fury where the unmistakable note of despair which this reveals is all the more affecting. It ends on a note of utter resignation, the music of a man on the threshold of death.The essence of Fauré is in this Nocturne ,and not until one has entered its tragic world can one truly be said to understand him.

Beethoven conceived of the plan for his final three piano sonatas (Op 109,110 and 111) 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.

Totentanz (Dance of the Dead): Paraphrase on the ‘Dies irae’, S126 for pianoforte and orchestra is notable for being based on the Gregorian hymn Dies irae as well as for its many stylistic innovations. The piece was completed and published in 1849, and later revised twice (1853-9 and early 1880s. All these versions were also prepared for two pianos). In the late 1860s, Liszt published a version for pianoforte solo, S525. Some of the titles of Liszt’s pieces, such as Totentanz, Funérailles, La lugubre gondola and Pensée des morts show the composer’s obsession with mortality, as well as his profound Christian faith, these things being apparent from Liszt as a teenager right up until his last days – more than 50 years later.

In the last movement of the Symphonie fantastique by Berlioz the medieval (Gregorian) Dies Irae is quoted in a shockingly modernistic manner. In 1830 Liszt attended the first performance of the symphony and was struck by its powerful originality. Liszt’s Totentanz presents a series of variations on the Dies irae – a theme that his will have known since 1830 at the latest from Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. As an early biographer noted, “Every variation discloses some new character―the earnest man, the flighty youth, the scornful doubter, the prayerful monk, the daring soldier, the tender maiden, the playful child.” A second theme, beginning at variation 6 – taken from the Prose des morts in the Catholic breviary – is itself varied before the first theme returns at the end of the work.

Mozart’s last unfinished masterpiece, the Requiem, exercised the minds of many nineteenth-century composers, and Liszt confines himself to very clean accounts of the last two portions of the Sequenz: the powerful Confutatis, and the Lacrimosa, of which the textual evidence is that Mozart sketched only the first eight bars and Süssmayr completed it after Mozart’s death. (However, if Süssmayr did write the rest of it makes the question of what he, Mozart and others actually sang around Mozart’s death-bed when, as the biographers tell us, the Lacrimosa was sung.)

ROME CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL- Superb music making returns to Teatro Argentina

The Embassy of Brazil in London
in partnership with the Keyboard Trust
A concert celebrating the. Brazilian composer Radamés Gnattali

Radamés Gnattali is one of Brazil’s most active and celebrated composers of the 20th century. A virtuoso pianist, skilled violinist, with a gigantic compositional output: five symphonies, more than thirty concertos for soloists and orchestra (including five for piano and four for violin) and a large repertoire of chamber and solo instrumental music.
Considered one of the most influential names of Brazilian popular music in the 20th century, his fame as a prolific arranger has led him to write more than 1000 arrangements for radio, TV and concert orchestras. An inspiration for young musicians as well as a key personality in the revival of choro music in the late 1970s, he toured the world with his jazz sextet.
The evening’s performances by British pianist Tyler Hay and Canadian saxophonist David Zucchi will provide an overview of Gnattali’s music: ranging from the three Vaidosa waltzes – a highlight of Brazilian popular music – to one of his piano sonatas (written for the concert stage), as well as one of the pieces of the Brasiliana series where both the classical and popular merge in a very personal way.

Radamés Gnatalli (1906-1988)

Vaidosa No. 1
Vaidosa No. 2
Vaidosa No. 3
Brasiliana No. 4 for Heitor Alimonda
Rio de Janeiro, 1949

I – Prenda minha (moda gaúcha)
II – Samba-canção (Rio de Janeiro)
III – Desafio (Nordeste)
IV – Marcha de Rancho (Rio)

Sonata No. 2 for piano (Rio, 1963)

Brasiliana No. 7 for tenor saxophone & piano
Variações sobre um tema de viola
Samba-canção

TYLER HAY was born in 1994. In 2007 he gained a place at the Purcell School, where he studied with Tessa Nicholson. He has also studied with Graham Scott and Frank Wibaut at the Royal Northern College of Music, and with Niel Immelman and Gordon Fergus-Thompson at the Royal College of Music. Tyler has performed Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 2 at Wigmore Hall, Scriabin’s Sonata No. 5 at the Purcell Room and Ravel’s Concerto for Left Hand at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. In 2016, he won First Prize in the keyboard section of the Royal Overseas League Competition in addition to winning the RNCM’s Gold Medal competition. That year he also won First Prize in the Liszt Society Competition. In 2021 Tyler was a finalist in the Leeds International Piano Competition and, in 2022, he won First Prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition. His recordings of works by Liszt, John Ogdon and Kalkbrenner are available on Piano Classics and Tyler’s latest album of virtuoso piano music by Simon Proctor is now available on Navona Records.

DAVID ZUCCHI is a graduate of the Royal College of Music’s Master’s and Artist Diploma programmes, where he was an Edward and Helen Hague Scholar. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Huddersfield, supported by the Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund’s Belle Shenkman Award, and he has also attended the Université Européenne de Saxophone in Gap (France). David enjoys a varied career as a performer of classical, contemporary, experimental, and improvised music, collaborating regularly across the UK, Europe, and Canada. Recent appearances as a soloist and chamber musician include Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Cadogan Hall, London Contemporary Music Festival, Sounds Like This! Festival (UK), Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Vale de Cambra Music Festival (Portugal), and the Glenn Gould Studio (Canada). He appears on recordings from NMC, Another Timbre, Birmingham Record Company, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Radamés Gnattali was born in Porto Alegre (the capital of Rio Grande do Sul ,the southernmost state of Brazil) on 27 January 1906. His parents were both musicians who had emigrated from Italy at the end of the 19th century.His mother, Adélia Fossati, was a pianist and music teacher.His father, Alessandro Gnattali, had been a carpenter in Italy, but after arriving in Brazil applied his passion for music to creating a new career for himself as a successful bassoonist and conductor (as a union leader with strong anarchist sympathies he also went on to organize a strike of the musicians’ union in 1921).The couple had five children, three of whom, including Radamés, were named after characters from Verdi operas (the others being Aida and Ernani)

He began to play the piano with his mother at the age of 6, and went on to learn the violin with his cousin Olga Fossati.When he was 9 he received an award from the Italian consul for conducting a children’s orchestra in arrangements of his own.In the following years, he also learned the guitar and cavaquinho and started playing these instruments in a successful group called Os Exagerados, as well as at silent films and dances.In 1920, at the age of 14, he entered the School of Fine Arts at the University of Rio grande do Sul where he studied with the musicologist and piano teacher Guilherme Fontainha (a student of Vianna da Motta )eventually winning a gold medal for piano playing in 1924He then moved to Rio de Janeiro where he gave a series of successful piano recitals, while also studying at the National Music Institute.His lifelong association with Ernesto Nazareth ,the renowned composer of Brazilian national music dates from this period.Back in Porto Alegre due to lack of money, Gnattali founded the Quarteto Henrique Oswald in which he played first as a pianist and then as a violinist.

A 1929 performance as soloist in Tchaikovsky’s B flat piano concerto played with the orchestra of the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, was praised in the press but did not lead to a long-term career as a concert pianist.Instead, Gnattali began a career in Rio as a successful conductor and arranger of popular music—activities which tended to divert his attention from other genres.Financial needs led him to work for radio stations and record companies as a pianist, conductor and arranger of popular music.His background music for radio serials and his clever arrangements of the tunes and dances of the day made him a successful figure.

In parallel, he pursued a career as a self-taught composer of classical music. While beginning to compose music influenced by Brazilian folk materials, he continued to dream of becoming a major concert artist. The chance of winning a post as piano professor at the National Music Institute in Rio de Janeiro, with the support of the newly installed President of Brazil, Getulio Vargas (following the Revolution of 1930), who received the musician in person, disappointingly came to nothing (though Gnattali later commented that the encounter with Vargas changed his life).

When a national radio station, Radio National ,was inaugurated in 1936, Gnattali immediately became involved.He remained an influential figure in the institution for 30 years, conducting and providing sophisticated arrangements of popular music.He gradually developed the radio’s house band, building it up to become a full orchestra ^.

He died in Rio de Janeiro on 3 February 1988.

Gnattali’s musical career straddled popular and classical genres and their traditions. His arrangements of sambas pieces, involving strings, woodwind and brass (rather than the traditional accompaniments with two guitars, cavaquinho,accordion,tambourin and flute) exposed him to lifelong critical attacks from Brazilian musical traditionalists who resented the “jazzing up” of the genre.Conversely, some of his serious concert pieces (música de concerto) attracted the opposite criticism of inappropriately introducing instruments such as the mandolin,marimba,accordion, mouth organ and electric guitar into the concert hall.In doing this, he was inspired by his friends from the world of popular music, including Jacob do Bandolim (literally, “Mandolin Jacob”), Edu da Gaita(“Harmonica Edu”) and Chiquinho do Acordeom (“Accordion Chiquinho”), for each of whom he composed dedicated concert pieces.

By the 1930s he was composing concert music in a Neo – Romantic style also incorporating jazz and traditional Brazilian strains. Over the decades, the emphasis Gnattali placed on these components shifted towards jazz in the early 1950s and back towards the Brazilian popular styles by the start of the 1960s. He composed several major guitar scores, including three solo concertos and three duo concertos. Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim included the song “Meu Amigo Radamés” as a tribute to Radamés in his final album, Antonio Brasileiro (1994).

Keyboard Charitable Trust for Young Professional Performers
Patron: Sir Antonio Pappano

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/05/31/brazilian-embassy-the-tree-of-life-with-pablo-rossi-a-man-for-all-seasons/

Tyler Hay and the Mitsu Trio at the Brazilian Embassy.Fun and games for the joint Anniversary Celebrations with the Keyboard Trust

Rome Chamber Music Festival in the historic Teatro Argentina in the centre of Rome.
Derek Wang and friends with Shostakovich’s amazingly evocative Quintet in G minor op 57 and Andrea Lucchesini in Schubert’s Trout Quintet with the quite hypnotic Amy Schwartz Moretti and Erica Piccotti.