A thing of beauty is a joy forever sprang to mind as the sounds of Mozart and Schubert engulfed us as we were surrounded by beautiful paintings.
Music at the Matthiesen Gallery organised by the Matthiesen Foundation and the indomitable Mary Orr with many thanks to the Imogen Cooper Music Trust for the loan of their magnificent piano.A sparkling jewel in a crown and an honour to have Imogen Cooper at the concert too to support two young artists who had met at the Royal Academy and teamed up as a duo under her guidance at the ICMT masterclasses held annually in France.
How could one ever forget the supreme artistry of two remarkable women pianists Imogen Cooper and Ann Queffélec who had met in Leeds at the beginning of their illustrious careers as soloists and as kindred spirits became duo partners bringing music and joy to so many.
Nice to be able to appreciate a new generation whose musical values and intelligent musicianship are added to a natural God given talent.
The beauty and simplicity they brought to the Andante and Variations in G K501 immediately showed us that we were in the hands of very fine musicians.A fluidity and beauty that Wouter brought to the disarming simplicity of the theme as accompanied by the delicacy of Ignas’s playing.The hardest thing for a piano duo is that four hands should sound as two.It means a supreme sense of balance is essential to avoid any conflict with the musical line that should be so clearly defined.It was exactly this that was so apparent today that these two young artists were actually listening to each other in their wish to create a single unified whole.
Two pianists played as one – there could be no greater compliment and I wonder if indeed Mozart experienced the same with his sister for whom he wrote a number of important works for four hands.
Very little pedal meant that there was great clarity but with their well oiled fingers there was a fluidity created by fingers not feet.Wouter occasionally touched the pedal to add colour especially in the ‘minor’ fourth variation.The beauty and clarity that Wouter brought to the first variation was shadowed by the fleeting lightness of Ignas in the second.The same lightness and obvious enjoyment they brought to the third .Their mastery was even more evident in the clarity and brilliance they both brought to the scintillating fifth variation.A beautifully poignant and graceful return of the theme just underlined the genius of Mozart where so few notes could mean so much.
The Sonata in C major K521 was played with a rhythmic energy from the first engaging opening fanfare.But it soon dissolved into elegance and nobility.Ignas’s agile fingers replied to Wouter’s purity of sound that was crisp and clear and very sensitively and discreetly ornamented.The dramatic question and answer between the two players was played with a sudden injection of youthful energy.The Andante was played with a purity of sound that was of a simple flowing natural beauty.There was great beauty to the opening of the Allegro but swiftly turned into the impetuosity and rhythmic energy of this final movement with great agility from Wouter and sensitivity from Ignas in the bass.
Two very fine performances that as they play more together will find the freedom and flexibility of the voice with its natural breathing and shaping which was after all the early seeds of ‘bel canto’ and indeed the supreme Genius of Mozart.
Ignas Maknickas and Wouter Valvekens are two young musicians at the start of their careers.Like their mentor they will obviously fly high and ensure that the values of musical integrity and honesty go hand and hand with dedication and above all love for music -‘If music be the food of love,play on!’ And it will,thanks to Mary Orr,who as she says two charitable organisations linking up are a guiding force for the new generation of artists seeking an audience to share their wonderful gifts with.
Beautiful musicianly performances of Mozart and Schubert were crowned with a glorious performance of Dvorak’s most Brahmsian of Slavonic Dances op 72 n.2.
Here the heavens opened as these two young artists revealed their very soul to us with such freedom and artistry and were not intimidated by the great masterpieces they had shared so beautifully but respectfully with us.
To savour and enjoy them with respect but not too much!
No such problem today with Wouter and Ignas in total harmony and as Schubert himself was to write in the his next Rondo D 608 ‘Notre amitié est invariable.’
The Fantasia in F minor by Franz Schubert, D.940 (Op. posth. 103) is one of Schubert’s most important works .He composed it in 1828, the last year of his life dedicating it to his former pupil Caroline Esterházy
Schubert began writing the Fantasia in January 1828 in Vienna.The work was completed in March of that year, and first performed in May. Schubert’s friend Eduard von Bauernfeld recorded in his diary on May 9 that a memorable duet was played, by Schubert and Franz Lachner.The work was dedicated to Caroline Esterházy, with whom Schubert was in (unrequited) love.
Schubert died in November 1828. After his death, his friends and family undertook to have a number of his works published. This work is one of those pieces; it was published by Anton Diabelli in March 1829. In four continuous movements Allegro molto moderato
Largo
Scherzo. Allegro vivace
Finale. Allegro molto moderato
The basic idea of a fantasia with four connected movements also appears in Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy and represents a stylistic bridge between the traditional sonata form and the essentially free form tone poem and it was beautifully played with a flexibility and freedom.There was also nobility and rhythmic precision in the Largo and an energetic Scherzo but a ‘Trio’ that was far too serious and more ‘joie de vivre’ and flexibility would have lightened the tension and dynamic drive.The fugue was played with great authority and extraordinary technical command but never loosing sight of the overall musical line.The disarming return of the opening fantasia was one of those master strokes of the Genius of Schubert giving such shape to one of the most beautiful of all Fantasias
Mozart and Schubert had the same youthful soul as these two valiant artists whose sensitive fingers had been entrusted with such treasures today .
Ignas Maknickas – finds a home in an artistic oasis between the Gherkin and the Shard
Wouter Valvekens is a Belgian concert pianist. He has been invited to perform on different occasions in Belgium, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom, for solo recitals and with orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Mechelen, the Euregio Youth Orchestra and the St. John’s Chamber Orchestra in Maidenhead. Apart from his solo career, Wouter Valvekens is also a very active chamber musician. He is a founding member of the ‘Trio Aries’, which won the prestigious Supernova Chamber Music Competition 2020. The ensemble had its debut in the Henri Le Boeuf-Hall of BOZAR Brussels. He is also a founding member of the ‘Werther Piano Quartet’, which is supported by the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund. The ensemble gave its debut in the Konzerthaus Dortmund in 2018, to critical acclaim.
During his studies, Wouter Valvekens has been actively participating in numerous national and international competitions. In 2014 he was awarded the first prize at the Belfius Classics competition. He was a finalist at the International VriendenCultuurPrijs Theaters Tilburg and he was awarded the second prize in the International André Charlier piano competition in 2015. In 2016, he won the 1st prize and the prize of the audience in the international VriendenCultuurPrijs piano competition in Tilburg, the Netherlands, and the 3rd prize in the César Franck International Piano Competition. Wouter won the first prize, and two special prizes at the International Paços Premium Competition in Paços de Brandão, Portugal.
Wouter Valvekens received his first piano lessons at age 6 at the Conservatory of Mechelen, where he was studying with Rita Degraeuwe from 2004 to 2014. From 2014 to 2018, Wouter studied with Polina Leschenko at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. In 2017, he obtained the degree of Bachelor in Music magna cum laude. From 2018 to 2020 he studied with Ian Fountain at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he obtained his Postgraduate degree in 2020. His studies at the Academy were generously supported by the Winifred Christie Trust Award, a scholarship award from Inspiratum vzw and a Senior Award from the Hattori Foundation.He has worked with András Schiff, Imogen Cooper, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Richard Goode, Klaus Hellwig, Frank Braley amongst others in various masterclasses. Wouter Valvekens is also supported by the SWUK Flanders Foundation to follow masterclasses worldwide.
July 2021 Ignas Maknickas received “The Queen’s Award for Excellence” as the highest-scoring graduate of the Royal Academy of Music. In June 2023 Ignas became the winner of Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions. He has taken First Prize at the XIX Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition for Youth in Szafarnia, First Prize at the XX Piano Competition “Young Virtuoso” in Zagreb, Third Prize at the Aarhus Piano Competition and, in 2021, was the semi-finalist of the Vendome Prize.Ignas has appeared with the Aarhus Symphony, Alicante Philharmonic, Dartington Festival Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony, Lithuanian State Symphony, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players and Royal Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra.2023-24 highlights include Mozart K. 467 with London Mozart Players in London, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with Bloomington Symphony Orchestra in Indiana and solo recital at the Wigmore Hall in London.Born in California in 1998, Ignas was raised in Lithuania. In 2017, graduating from the National M.K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius, he was honoured by the President of Lithuania, H.E. Dalia Grybauskaitė. With his sister and three brothers the talented Maknickas Family Ensemble has represented Lithuania on National Television and at State Occasions.Ignas completed his Bachelor of Music at the Royal Academy of Music on full scholarship under Professor Joanna MacGregor. In September 2021 he commenced the Master of Arts Programme with Professor MacGregor, also on full scholarship. He is a Leverhulme Arts Scholar, a recipient of the ABRSM Scholarship Award, the Imogen Cooper Music Trust Scholarship, Munster Trust Mark James Award, Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation Award, Tillett Trust and Colin Keer Trust Award and Hattori Foundation Award. He is an Artist of the Munster Trust Recital Scheme.He has attended masterclasses with Dmitri Bashkirov, Dame Imogen Cooper, Christopher Elton, Stephen Hough, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Marios Papadopoulos, Menahem Pressler, Geoffrey Simon, Tamás Ungár, Arie Vardi and Ilana Vered. As a soloist he has appeared at the Steinway Hall in London, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Charlottenborg Festival Hall in Copenhagen, Ed Landreth Hall in Fort Worth, Lithuanian National Philharmonic in Vilnius and Kinross House in Scotland.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 
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