Mese: ottobre 2023

Elisabeth Brauss at the Wigmore Hall with Schubert,Ravel and Schumann with playing of intelligence and artistry.Superb technical mastery allowed her to delve fearlessly into the depths of three master works and extract their very essence with an innocent ‘joie de vivre’ that brought everything she played vividly to life.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Piano Sonata in A D664 (?1819)
I. Allegro moderato • II. Andante • III. Allegro

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)Le tombeau de Couperin (1914-7)
I. Prélude • II. Fugue • III. Forlane •
IV. Rigaudon • V. Menuet • VI. Toccata

Interval

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)Carnaval Op. 9 (1834-5)
Préambule • Pierrot • Arlequin • Valse noble •
Eusebius • Florestan • Coquette • Réplique • Papillons • Lettres dansantes • Chiarina • Chopin • Estrella • Reconnaissance • Pantalon et Colombine •
Valse allemande • Paganini • Aveu • Promenade • Pause • Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins

The pianist Elisabeth Brauß has been praised by Gramophone Magazine for “the maturity and sophistication of her thoughtful interpretations” which “would be the pride of any pianist twice her age”. Born in Hannover in 1995, Elisabeth is quickly establishing herself as one of the most exciting and versatile musicians of her generation.

As a former member of the BBC New Generation Artist Scheme, Elisabeth continues to appear regularly with solo, chamber and concerto engagements across the UK. In 2021 she made her debut at the BBC Proms, performing Mozart Piano Concerto No.23 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. In a new partnership between this scheme and the Hallé Orchestra, she was awarded the Terence Judd-Hallé Award, given to a NGA graduate considered to be on the cusp of a major international career. 

This season, Elisabeth returns to Staatsorchester Stuttgart and makes debuts with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, London Chamber Orchestra and Staatstheater Meiningen. She will also tour Germany with Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra and trumpeter Simon Höfele, and will tour Australia with her recital partner, the violinist Noa Wildschut. A renowned chamber musician, Elisabeth will have a three-day residency at Belfast Arts Festival comprising of a solo recital and chamber collaborations. She appears regularly at Wigmore Hall and this season also appears in recital at St George’s Bristol, St John’s International Piano Series Oxford and Royal Welsh College of Music.

Further recent highlights include Finnish Radio Symphony, The Hallé, BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony and Ulster Orchestras, in addition to dates with Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg in her native Germany. During the 2022/23 season, Elisabeth was Artist in Residence at Edesche Concertzaal, performing both solo and chamber concerts. Elisabeth also collaborates with the composer Max Richter, and has appeared in his Reflektor Festival at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. 

In May 2017, Elisabeth’s debut CD featuring works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Chopin and Denhoff, was released by OehmsClassics. It received critical acclaim and was named ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone Magazine. Since then, she has gone on to release three more albums, collaborating with Valentino Worlitzsch, Simon Höfele, and the Beethoven Orchester Bonn featuring compositions by Max Richter to commemorate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary. Elisabeth’s most recent recording of the Bacewicz Double Concerto with Finnish Radio Symphony, Nicholas Collon & Peter Jablonski was awarded 5* and Concerto of the Month by BBC Music Magazine. 

In addition to winning first prize at the International Steinway Competition in Hamburg, and the International Grotrian Steinweg Piano Competition in Braunschweig, Elisabeth was awarded the Prätorius Musikpreis Lower Saxony Prize in 2012. Further accolades include the main and audience awards at the TONALi Grand Prix in Hamburg (2013) and first prize at the Kissinger KlavierOlymp (October 2016).

Le Tombeau de Couperin (The Grave of Couperin) was composed between 1914 and 1917. The piece is in six movements, based on those of a traditional Baroque suite. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a friend of the composer (or in one case, two brothers) who had died fighting in world War 1.Ravel also produced an orchestral version of the work in 1919, although this omitted two of the original movements.

Written after the death of Ravel’s mother in 1917 and of friends in the First World War, Le Tombeau de Couperin is a light-hearted, and sometimes reflective work rather than a sombre one which Ravel explained in response to criticism saying: “The dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence.”

The first performance of the original piano version was given on 11 April 1919 by Marguerite Long , in the Salle Gaveau in Paris . Long was the widow of Joseph de Marliave, to whom the last movement of the piece, the Toccata, is dedicated.

Prelude in memory of First Lieutenant Jacques Charlot (transcriber of Ma mère l’oye for piano solo)

Fugue in memory of Second Lieutenant Jean Crupp

Forlane. in memory of First Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc (a Basque painter from Saint-Jean-de-Luz)

Rigaudon in memory of Pierre and Pascal Gaudin (two brothers and childhood friends of Ravel, killed by the same shell in November 1914)

Menuet in memory of Jean Dreyfus (at whose home Ravel recuperated after he was demobilized)

Toccata. in memory of Captain Joseph de Marliave (musicologist and husband of Marguerite Long)

Carnaval. Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes Robert Schumann

Carnaval had its origin in a set of variations on a Sehnsuchtswalzer by Franz Schubert , whose music Schumann had discovered only in 1827. The catalyst for writing the variations may have been a work for piano and orchestra by Schumann’s close friend Ludwig Schuncke,a set of variations on the same Schubert theme. Schumann felt that Schuncke’s heroic treatment was an inappropriate reflection of the tender nature of the Schubert piece, so he set out to approach his variations in a more intimate way, working on them in 1833 and 1834.

Schumann’s work was never completed, however, and Schuncke died in December 1834, but he did re-use the opening 24 measures for the opening of Carnaval.

The 21 pieces are connected by a recurring motif . The four notes are encoded puzzles, and Schumann predicted that “deciphering my masked ball will be a real game for you.”

Both Schumann and his wife Clara considered his solo piano works too difficult for the general public. ( Chopin is reported to have said that Carnaval was not music at all.Chopin did not warm to Schumann on the two occasions they met briefly and had a generally low opinion of his music.) Consequently, the works for solo piano were rarely performed in public during Schumann’s lifetime, although Liszt performed selections from Carnaval in Leipzig in March 1840, omitting certain movements with Schumann’s consent. Six months after Schumann’s death, Liszt later wrote that Carnaval was a work “that will assume its natural place in the public eye alongside Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which in my opinion it even surpasses in melodic invention and conciseness”.

Sphinxs consists of three sections, each consisting of one bar on a single staff in bass (F) clef, with no key, tempo, or dynamic indications. The notes are written as breves . The pitches given are the notes E♭C B A (SCHA) and A♭C B (AsCH) and A E♭C B (ASCH). Many pianists and editors, including Clara Schumann, advocate for omitting the Sphinxs in performance.

These are musical cryptograms , as follows:

• A, E♭, C, B – German: A–Es–C–H (the Es is pronounced as a word for the letter S)
• A♭, C, B – German: As–C–H
• E♭, C, B, A – German: as Es–C–H–A

The first two spell the German name for the town of Asch (now As in the Czech Republic), in which Schumann’s then fiancée, Ernestine von Fricken, was born.The sequence of letters also appears in the German word Fasching, meaning carnival. In addition, Asch is German for “Ash”, as in Ash Wednesday , the first day of Lent. Lastly, it encodes a version of the composer’s name, Robert Alexander Schumann. The third series, S–C–H–A, encodes the composer’s name again with the musical letters appearing in Schumann, in their correct order.

The Piano Sonata in A major D.664, op posth 120 was written in the summer of 1819.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”.

Piers Lane the Nightingale of the piano ravishes and delights the Chopin Society in London.
Has the piano ever sounded so exquisite as in the poetic hands of this great musician?A sense of balance that could make us believe that this black box of hammers and strings could sing as eloquently as that bird in Berkeley Square!
Sporting a pure silk jacket one of only ten – the other nine,he tells me with tongue in cheek,Elton John got – his refined musicianship and superb technical finesse defied this rather outlandish garb (note matching socks ) that he had brought back from Sydney (where he is chairman of the International Piano Competition) to astonish and amaze us as his playing certainly did today.

A fascinating programme introduced,by this much loved pianist,with intelligence and charm.Rachmaninov for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations of the composers birth but with an eclectic twist of a discerning musician who could dare include the rarely played Chopin Variations .Chopin of course made up the whole of the second half.But another intriguing choice of many of the works of Chopin that had been arranged for the Ballet ‘Chopiniana’ by Glazunov and not just a pot pourri of well know pieces.Adding his own touch at the end with a performance of the D flat nocturne where he reached the heights that I have only heard from Rubinstein with a timeless performance that touched something of the sublime.

Piers Lane AO, who lives in London, is one of Australia’s most renowned and engaging performers. 

Always in demand worldwide as soloist and collaborative artist, highlights include a performance of Busoni’s mighty piano concerto at Carnegie Hall, premieres of Carl Vine’s second piano concerto and double piano concerto (with Kathryn Stott) Implacable Gifts, both written for him, and annual solo recitals at Wigmore Hall. His 2023 engagements include appearances in Dubai, New Zealand, Portugal, the UK, the USA and throughout Australia.

In July he chaired the jury of the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition and has recently adjudicated the Horovitz Kyiv-Geneva Piano Competition, the Michael Hill Violin Competition in New Zealand and the Clara Haskel International Piano Competition in Vevey. He has been Artistic Director of the Sydney International Piano Competition since 2015 and is responsible for recent initiatives like the 2021 Online Piano Competition, the Piano Lovers’ amateur competition and Composing the Future.

Rachmaninoff:

• Prelude in C# minor Op. 3 No. 2
• Preludes Op. 23: Nos. 1 in F# minor;
• 4 in D major; 6 in Eb major and 10 in Gb major.
• Variations on a theme of Chopin Op. 22

Chopin:

• Polonaise in A Op.40 No.1
• Nocturne in F Op.15 No. 1
• Mazurka in C# minor Op. 50 No.3
• Waltz in Gb Op. 70 No.1
• Nocturne in Ab Op. 32 No. 2
• Mazurka in D Op. 33 No.2
• Tarantelle
• Mazurka in C Op.67 No.3
• Prelude in A Op. 28 No. 7
• Waltz in C# minor Op. 64 No.2
• Valse Brillante in Eb Op.18

Dame Patricia Routledge and Piers Lane integrity and humility ravish and enrich

Piers Lane a nightingale ravishes us at the Wigmore Hall – A Christmas treat from a true poet of the piano.

Variations on a Theme of Chopin op.22, is a group of 22 variations on Chopin’s Prelude in C minor op 28 n.20 composed in 1902–03. In the first edition, it is noted that 3 of the variations and the final Presto section can be omitted if the performer wishes.

Ten Preludes, op 23, was composed in 1901 and 1903. Together with the Prelude in C sharp minor op 3/2 and the 13 Preludes op 32 this set is part of a full suite of 24 preludes in all the major and minor keys.Rachmaninoff completed Prelude No. 5 in 1901. The remaining preludes were completed after Rachmaninoff’s marriage to his cousin Natalia Satina: Nos. 1, 4, and 10 premiered in Moscow on February 10, 1903, and the remaining seven were completed soon thereafter.The years 1900–1903 were difficult for Rachmaninoff and his motivation for writing the Preludes was predominantly financial.He composed the works in the Hotel America, financially dependent on his cousin Alexander Siloti , to whom the Preludes are dedicated.Of the comparative popularity of his Ten Preludes and his early Prelude op.3 n.2 ,a favourite of audiences, Rachmaninoff remarked: “…I think the Preludes of Op. 23 are far better music than my first Prelude, but the public has shown no disposition to share in my belief….”The composer never played all of the Preludes in one sitting, instead performing selections of them, consisting of preludes from both his Op. 23 and Op. 32 sets which were of contrasting character

Original production

Chopiniana, staged by Fokine, had a different musical composition. Also, Chopiniana was originally a compilation of dramatic or character dances set to Chopin’s piano music. The Glazunov suite upon which this original version was based had only four Chopin pieces; Fokine wanted to use a waltz as an addition to the suite and was able to get Glazunov to orchestrate this to create his ballet, also called Chopiniana.

1. Polonaise in A major op 40.n.1
2. Nocturne in F major op.15 n.1
3. Mazurka in C sharp minor op.50 n.3
4. Waltz in C sharp minor op 64 n.2as added by Michel Fokine
5. Tarantella in A flat major op 43

The newly orchestrated waltz would be Fokine’s inspiration to re-choreograph the ballet into its nearly-final form, selecting different Chopin pieces to go with it and getting these orchestrated by the Maryinsky répétiteur Maurice Keller.

Ballets Russes production

When Fokine’s ballet premiered in Paris as part of Diaghilev’s “Saison Russe” in 1909, Diaghilev commissioned re-orchestrations of all the dances, except for the Glazunov-orchestrated Waltz, by Anatoly Lyadov,Sergei Taneyev,Nikolai Tcherepnin and Igor Stravinsky .This version, now titled Les Sylphides, was first staged at the Theatre du Châtelet on 2 June 1909.

A beautiful programme for Riccardo Natale who was substituting at the last minute another indisposed pianist.The Handel Suites are a rarity in the concert hall but both Richter and Gavrilov included them in their repertoire and have even made recordings together but they are always considered unjustly in the shadow of Johann Sebastian Bach .So it was refreshing to hear the second suite open the programme and played with great clarity and rhythmic energy with very discreet contrasts in dynamics. I was only able to listen to the last two movements due to a technical problem with the streaming but they showed Riccardo’s superb musicianship and understanding allied to a technical skill which certainly demonstrated that Handel was quite a virtuoso too in his early years.

The first Sonata op 109 of Beethoven’s last trilogy of 32 Sonatas was played with great understanding and temperament.It was sometimes this temperament and freedom that did not allow for the simplicity that is the very essence of this last oasis of Beethoven when he had come to terms with a turbulent and difficult life.Riccardo’s playing was always with a very solid beautiful sound but sometimes his temperament in the first movement took over from his head which disturbed the continual undercurrent that flows through these sonatas.The Prestissimo was played with real Beethovenian fire and technical assurance and was the bridge that was to lead to one of Beethoven’s most beautiful melodic outpourings.Here in the last movement Riccardo played with simplicity and beauty allowing the music to unfold so naturally.I would have actually played the ornaments in the first variation on the beat but that was a mere detail when his understanding of this movement was so complete.The Allegro vivace third variation was played at a furious pace with great technical assurance but the fourth was a little too fast for Beethoven’s indication to be played a little slower than the theme.It rather gave the game away for the fifth variation where the non legato long notes sounded rather out of place lacking the contrast with the knotty twine that follows .But it was in the last variation that all came together with a superb performance allowing Beethoven’s trills to resonate like mere vibrations on which the theme magically evolves.Dissolving so beautifully into the final simple beauty of the theme where Beethoven had at last found the peace that had long been denied him.

The Chopin Mazukas were played with great style and contrast but wonder if the phrases should be less disjointed and a more overall architectural shape should prevail.It was however in the great F sharp Minor Polonaise the Riccardo showed his true colours with a performance that was heroic,noble and passionate.The long Mazurka central episode was superbly interpreted with beauty and simplicity allowing the long lines to shape into an architectural whole.A very fine performance that showed the technical and poetic mastery of this young musician a student of Delvayan who is himself such an individual musician of great fantasy.

The fourteenth dance from Schumann’s Davidsbundler op 6 was played as an encore with ravishing sound but not allowing the utter simplicity of Schumann’s genius to speak for itself without any personal effusions.

GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL (1685–1759)

Suite No. 2 in F major HWV 427

from 8 Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin, 1720

1. Adagio

2. Allegro

3. Adagio

4. Allegro [Fugue] Handel was known as a superb keyboard player, and these dance suites exploit the expressive and technical resources of his instrument with no less mastery than that of his Leipzig counterpart, and with a joie de vivre that makes listening a constant diversion and delight. Suite No 2 in F major is closer to an Italian slow–quick–slow–quick sonata than to a French suite proper. F major was traditionally a pastoral, ‘down-to-earth’ key, but Handel’s first movement, far from being a quasi-improvised keyboard exercise, is a civilized and highly ornamented quasi-operatic aria, while the bustling allegro which follows is a vigorously Italianate two-part invention, more urban than rustic in harmonic solidity and neatness of texture. The next movement, in the relative, D minor, has the pulse of a sarabande, but it is also an operatic aria in miniature, ending with a written-out, quasi-vocal cadenza. This leads back to the tonic F major and into a powerful fugue, initially in three parts but introducing a fourth after chromatic intensification.

The Sonata op 109 is dedicated to Maximiliane Brentano, the daughter of Beethoven’s long-standing friend Antonie Brentano for whom Beethoven had already composed the short Piano Trio in B flat Wo039 in 1812.There is an April entry in Beethoven’s conversation book describing a “small new piece” that is, according to William Meredith, identical to the first movement of Op. 109. In fact, the outline of the movement makes the idea of a Bagatelle interrupted by fantasia-like interludes seem very plausible.Beethoven’s secretary Franz Oliva then allegedly suggested the idea of using this “small piece” as the beginning of the sonata that Schlesinger wanted.The date of the first performance is unknown. The first pianists to undertake bringing Beethoven’s last sonatas, including Op. 109, to public attention were Franz Liszt,who regularly included them in his programs between 1830 and 1840,and Hans von Bulow, who even included several of the late sonatas in one evening.

The three movements of this sonata are:

1. Vivace ma non troppo — Adagio espressivo
2. Prestissimo.
3. Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung. Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo.
   

The mazurka is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple meter , usually at a lively tempo, with character defined mostly by the prominent mazur’s “strong accents ,unsystematically placed on the second or third beat “.The mazurka, alongside the polka dance, became popular at the ballrooms and salons of Europe in the 19th century, particularly through the notable works by Frederic Chopin .The mazurka (in Polish mazur, the same word as the mazur ) and mazurek (rural dance based on the mazur) are often confused in Western literature as the same musical form.Over the years 1825–1849, Chopin wrote at least 59 Mazurkas for piano .Chopin started composing his mazurkas in 1825, and continued composing them until 1849, the year of his death. The number of mazurkas composed in each year varies, but he was steadily writing them throughout this time period.In 1852, three years after Chopin’s death, Liszt published a piece about Chopin’s mazurkas, saying that Chopin had been directly influenced by Polish national music to compose his mazurkas. Liszt also provided descriptions of specific dance scenes, which were not completely accurate, but were “a way to raise the status of these works [mazurkas].”However, in 1921, Bela Bartok published an essay in which he said that Chopin “had not known authentic Polish folk music.” He suggested that Chopin instead had been influenced by national, and not folk music.The soprano and composer Pauline Viardot was a close friend of Chopin and his lover George Sand , and she made a number of arrangements of his mazurkas as songs, with his full agreement. He gave Viardot expert advice on these arrangements, as well as on her piano playing and her other vocal compositions.The Polonaise op 44 is often considered the first of three “grand polonaises”, (the other two being the Polonaise ‘Heroic’ op 53,and the Polonaise- Fantasie op.61) in which Chopin largely abandoned the old formula derived directly from dance practice. The time had come for polonaises subjected to free fantasy, for more heroic dance poems.In fact, Chopin was known to have said to the publisher, ‘I have a manuscript for your disposal. It is a kind of fantasy in polonaise form. But I call it a Polonaise’.

Riccardo Natale intraprende lo studio del pianoforte all’età di 4 anni e si diploma sotto la guida di Marino Mercurio nel 2012 presso il Conservatorio “Nicola Sala” di Benevento con lode e menzione speciale. Sin da giovanissimo si è affermato in concorsi nazionali e internazionali tra cui: “Rassegna Spoltore musica”, concorso nazionale “Hyperion”, concorso nazionale “Antonello da Caserta”, concorso internazionale “Luigi Denza”, concorso internazionale “Note in Armonia”. Recentemente è risultato finalista al concorso internazionale “Arcangelo Speranza” di Taranto.

Ha frequentato le masterclass tenute da Marino Mercurio, Boris Petrushansky, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Roberto Plano, Filippo Gamba, Ferenc Rados, Aleksandar Madzar, Benedetto Lupo, Enrico Pace, Alessandro Deljavan, Giuseppe Andaloro e da Lilya Zilberstein presso l’Accademia Chigiana di Siena.

Come vincitore del Progetto IMC, nel 2013 esordisce come solista con l’Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese presso il Teatro Ridotto dell’Aquila eseguendo il Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra n. 3 di Beethoven.

Si dedica anche alla musica da camera e si esibisce sia come solista che in formazioni cameristiche in tutta Italia. Si è esibito, tra l’altro, per il “Maggio dei Monumenti” di Napoli, presso l’Università “Sapienza” di Roma, presso lo showroom Fazioli di Milano, per “Polincontri classica” presso il Politecnico di Torino, a Portogruaro per il Festival internazionale di musica, per il Monferrato Classic Festival, a Spoleto per musica in casa Menotti, ad Alassio per l’Associazione Pantheon, presso la Sala Chopin di Napoli per l’Associazione Napolinova. Nel 2015 si è inoltre esibito presso il teatro Sanzio di Urbino accompagnato dall’orchestra “I cameristi del Montefeltro” ed eseguendo il Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra K. 467 di Mozart.

Ha frequentato i corsi di Direzione d’Orchestra e di Composizione presso il Conservatorio “San Pietro a Majella di Napoli” e il corso di alto perfezionamento pianistico presso l’Accademia musicale Varesina sotto la guida del M° Roberto Plano. Nel 2017 ha ottenuto una borsa di studio dall’Associazione “De Sono” di Torino e ha terminato il Master in music performance presso la Hochschule für Musik di Basilea sotto la guida del M° Filippo Gamba. Ha studiato sotto la guida del M° Enrico Pace presso l’Accademia di musica di Pinerolo.

Dal 2017 ha frequentato il corso di Pianoforte tenuto dal M° Benedetto Lupo all’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia dove si è diplomato nel 2020, contestualmente ha frequentato il Master di Musica da Camera con il M° Andrea Lucchesini. Da qui si è formato il Trio Wieck, insieme alla violinista Fjorela Asqeri e alla violoncellista Silvia Gira, con il quale si è esibito per l’Accademia Filarmonica Romana e il festival di musica camera “Classiche Forme”.

Recentemente ha inciso il disco “Poiesis” in collaborazione col violinista Rocco Roggia con musiche di autori napoletani quali Martucci, D’Ambrosio, Curci e De Felice. 

Attualmente prosegue i suoi studi sotto la guida del M° Alessandro Deljavan.

Concerto inaugurale XIX Stagione Concertistica Università della Tuscia dedicated to the genius of Mozart

Video courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon

https://fb.watch/nXsxmEoAWW/

Refined sounds of rarified elegance and luminosity.Whispers that drew the audience into his magic chameleonic world with a kaleidoscope of sounds.
The marvel is that like Richter before him his range and control of sound between pianissimo and mezzo forte is of a quite extraordinary finesse.A sense of character and architectural shape that when needed was in his fingertips too.Forte became an astonishing revelation as it was also within his palette of sounds but used only when his superb musicianship had need of such a pivotal point.

The sonata in E minor by Haydn crept in as it also disappeared on high at the end of the first movement but it was the rounded golden sounds of the Adagio that became the heart beat of this wonderful gem.A finale that was played with such tantalising charm and exquisite finesse with refined sounds of elegance and incredible scintillating shared secrets.
Such a refined tonal palette and aristocratic control were exactly the world in which the magic of Ravel could reveal its clockwork precision and evocative perfumed sounds.
A genial link to the magic of Ravel’s Miroirs was the subtle elegance of his Menuet on the name of Haydn.Followed by Miroirs where the title exactly described his performance.The fleeting insistence of moths,the sultry lament of the birds.The exquisite calm before the sweeping waves of the storm.The sweltering hi jinx of Alborada with its glittering glissandi of opulent streams of sound.But it was the absolute calm of the bells in the distance that was ultimately so moving in this young man’s poetic hands.
It was the same link that he was to find between Mozart’s B minor Adagio and Liszt’s Three Petrarch Sonnets.They were in turn the link to the burning intensity of the Dante Sonata in which demonic technical mastery was suddenly exposed with devastating effect.A final chord that needed both hands to pummel the red hot intensity into the bottom of this magnificent Fabbrini Steinway.

The boyish good looks of this youthful musician never seemed to become ruffled or disturbed by the wonders that were pouring from his fingers.No crowd pleasing showmanship or unnecessary moving around because the magic that he was creating came from within a soul of exquisite sensibility and intelligence.
The Liszt Consolation in D flat was played as an encore for an audience who had sat in awed silence throughout the recital not even daring to clap between pieces.

An audience that erupted with pent up emotion at the end of the Dante Sonata and little could they have imagined such a miracle as his recreation of Liszt’s exquisite little tone poem as we were consoled in D flat.

The annual festival of Cinema was everywhere to be seen as we entered the Sala Santa Cecilia but little could the glittered presence outside have imagined what gold lay within.

Tuesday 24 October 2.00 pm

A Chopin recital

A fascinating programme composed with key relationships in mind as we were in the company of a real thinking musician with playing of aristocratic weight.Sentiment without sentimentality.The simplicity of Art that conceals Art as Dr Hugh Mather very rightly said at the end of this extraordinary recital A great pianist playing the great works of Chopin that seemed freshly minted as his limpet type fingers delved deep into every note to extract the beauty that is hidden within.Music making of such sensibility and nobility that reminded me of Gilels or Arrau .They were able to delve deep into every key without ever creating a harsh sound as they never hit the keys but seemed to squeeze the sound out of them like a sponge.The climax of the recital was a performance of the Barcarolle that I have never heard played with such beauty as this last great song poured from Chopin’s pen with a mellifluous simplicity that was a distillation of all that had gone before.

A Polish pianist and conductor, Michal Szymanowski graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz and studied further at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. He now works as an assistant lecturer at his alma mater. He has won top awards in a number of national and international music competitions, including Moniuszko International Competition of Polish Music in Rzeszow (2021), Darmstadt International Chopin Piano Competition (2017), MozARTe International Piano Competition Aachen (2016), and Asia-Pacific International Chopin Competition in Daegu (2015) etc. In 2015 he was the highest placed quarter-finalist in the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Michal has performed in many concerts across Europe and throughout the world, including the Palace of Nations in Geneva, the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican (a concert for Pope Benedict XVI),as well as major festivals in Poland and abroad. He has released two solo albums for CD Accord (Naxos), featuring compositions by Fryderyk Chopin, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Karol Szymanowski and Józef Wieniawski. The recordings were critically acclaimed. One reviewer wrote: “this is heartfelt music-making of the type one associates with such luminaries as Uchida, Schiff and Brendel”.

Michal Szymanowski at St Mary’s To be or not to be?

From Nigel Rogers at the London School of Economics where Michal gave another recital :

“We’ve just had Michal Szymanowski at the lunchtime concerts I put on at LSE. Thank you so much for the recommendation, he really has something. The Barcarolle and the op.59 Mazurkas and the A flat waltz were really exquisite, he’s a very refined poetic player spurning virtuosic show. Has a wonderful sense of line and colour. We’ll definitely have him again.”

An eclectic Sienese pianist bringing intellectual curiosity and mastery to Roma 3.
Ludovico Troncanetti playing to the manner born rarities of Saint -Saens ,Halevy/Liszt and Rubinstein.
Totally dedicated to discoveries from the vast piano repertoire often overlooked by less curious musicians.
It is hardly surprising to learn that he has been under the wing of Leslie Howard ,that master of eclectic musicians, since his teens.

The Saint-Saens ‘Souvenir d’Italie’ was written when the master was visiting Florence and Siena in 1887.It is based on popular Italian songs and is a salon piece of great effect especially when played with the beauty and shape with which Ludovico endowed it.Cascades of embellishments thrown off with an ease and sense of style but one remained a little perplexed that the recital should start with an encore!
It was immediately apparent why as he struck up the imposing opening of Liszt’s early paraphrase of Halevy’s ‘La Juive’.Two much more substantial works where the pill was sugared with the genial Saint-Saens.This Liszt paraphrase is a remarkable work for the amount of notes that Ludovico consumed with ease but one could not be totally involved or convinced as one is with Liszt’s later masterly paraphrases of Norma and Don Giovanni.However it was courageous to present such an unknown paraphrase and to prepare it in such a convincing professional way.
The Fourth Sonata of Rubinstein left me even more perplexed as I could not seem to find a musical line to follow for the enormous amount of notes involved and tempestuous virtuosity that seemed to get in the way of real musical thought.I cannot see yet the wood for the trees like I found with Rachmaninov’s First Sonata.That also seemed to lack form until I heard revelatory accounts by Kantarow and Kelly where the form had been hidden in a leit motiv that pervades the whole Sonata.Even Rachmaninov had sought help with the form of his first sonata.I had found the same with Thomas Kelly’s remarkable performance of the Reubke Sonata for piano – a much admired student of Liszt who died at only 24 leaving only two Sonatas – one very well known for organ and the other completely neglected for piano.It is the second or third time I have tried to get to grips with this work that by many is considered Rubinstein’s masterpiece and I will try again until I am able to break the code.For now I can’t help thinking of Clara Schumann’s words :”I was furious, for he no longer plays. Either there is a perfectly wild noise or else a whisper with the soft pedal down. And a would-be cultured audience puts up with a performance like that!” But she also called the masterpiece that is Liszt’s Sonata (dedicated to her husband) a cacophonous noise when presented with it at home,her husband was already in an asylum.
Vieuxtemps,violinist and composer,on the other hand said:”His power over the piano is something undreamt of; he transports you into another world; all that is mechanical in the instrument is forgotten”.It was Anton Rubinstein who said that the pedal was the ‘soul’ of the piano.Ludovico certainly played with remarkable authority and mastery where there was not a moment’s doubt of his total belief in all that he was doing.A master on a crusade – Hats off !

Roma 3 Waltzing with Ludovico Troncanetti

Leslie Howard and Ludovico Troncanetti at St Mary’s A wondrous voyage of discovery

“Rubinstein’s features and short, irrepressible hair remind me of Beethoven.” Liszt referred to Rubinstein as “Van II.” This resemblance was also felt to be in Rubinstein’s keyboard playing. Under his hands, it was said, the piano erupted volcanically. Audience members wrote of going home limp after one of his recitals, knowing they had witnessed a force of nature.

Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory.

As a pianist, Rubinstein ranks among the great 19th-century keyboard virtuosos. He became most famous for his series of historical recitals, seven enormous, consecutive concerts covering the history of piano music. Rubinstein played this series throughout Russia and Eastern Europe and in the United States when he toured there.

Although best remembered as a pianist and educator (most notably as the composition teacher of Tchaikovsky), Rubinstein was also a prolific composer; he wrote 20 operas , the best known of which is the Demon. He composed many other works, including five piano concertos, six symphonies and many solo piano works along with a substantial output of works for chamber ensemble.

LESLIE HOWARD WRITES :In the more than a quarter of a century which separates the third from the fourth of the Rubinstein sonatas (the fourth appeared in 1880) lie only two of his major works for piano—the Fantasy, Opus 77, and the Theme and Variations, Opus 88, both of which are larger than any of the earlier sonatas and show a very different weight of thought from the dozens of character pieces which otherwise fill the Rubinstein piano œuvre. The fourth sonata turns out to be in this grand mould, on a much broader scale than the others, and is almost leisurely in its expansiveness.

Once described as the French Mendelssohn, Camille Saint-Saëns was talented and precocious as a child, with interests by no means confined to music. He made an early impression as a pianist. Following established French tradition, he was for nearly 20 years organist at the Madeleine in Paris and taught briefly at the École Niedermeyer, where he befriended his pupil Gabriel Fauré. He was a co-founder of the important Société Nationale de Musique with the patriotic aim of promoting contemporary French music in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-01, in which he had served in the Garde Nationale de la Seine. Prolific and versatile as a composer, he contributed to most genres of music, but by the time of his death in 1921 his popularity in France had diminished considerably, as fashions in music had changed.

LESLEY HOWARD WRITES :’As he did so often in the early fantasies, Liszt composed his piano work within the year of the first performance of Halévy’s most celebrated work La juive. Using motifs from Acts 3 and 5, Liszt produced a work of much originality; the shape of the opening Molto allegro feroce is entirely his, even if the thematic fragments are Halévy’s, and it is not until the recognizable martial chorus (Marziale molto animato, from bar 131) that he uses a whole theme. The succeeding Boléro is only loosely based on Halévy, but is the theme for two variations. The Finale (Presto agitato assai) begins as if it were a third variation but gives way to frenetically foreshortened recollections of the march and the introductory material. The ferocious opening foreshadows the ‘infernal’ music of Liszt’s Weimar period, but also shows immediate kinship with the Valse infernale from Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable, with which the La juive fantasy was reissued—along with the Huguenots fantasy and the Don Giovanni fantasy—in about 1842.’

Ludovico Troncanetti, senese, si diploma al Conservatorio di Milano, dove studia anche Composizione con il M°Gianni Possio. Segue corsi di perfezionamento con i M° Pier Narciso Masi, Andrea Lucchesini ed Henri Sigfridsson. Nel 2009 l’incontro a Londra con il M°Leslie Howard, pianista di fama mondiale noto anche peressere l’unico ad avere inciso l’integrale dell’opera pianistica d Franz Liszt in più 100 CD, con cui si forma e successivamente creerà, nel 2016, un duo stabile (2 pianoforti e 4 mani). Collabora anche con il pianista portoghese Artur Pizarro.Come solista ha suonato in varie importanti realtà concertistiche sia in Italia (Società del Quartetto Milano, Orchestra Sinfonia Città di Milano, Amici della Musica Trapani e Mazara del Vallo, Camerata Musicale Sulmonese, Società Filarmonica Messina, Roma Tre Orchestra, Palermo Classica, Monteverdi Tuscany, Pienza International Music Festival etc) che soprattutto all’estero (Germania, Spagna, Inghilterra, Bulgaria,Portogallo, Russia, Uzbekistan, India, UAE etc) ed ha suonato con prestigiose orchestre tra cui la St Petersburg Northern Sinfonia, Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Gyumri State Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan.Il suo ampio repertorio spazia da J. S. Bach ai grandi compositori dei primi del ‘900 con particolare focus sul periodo romantico. In autunno 2019 esce sulla rivista AMADEUS il suo primo disco per l’etichetta Movimento Classical sulle 4 Sonate per pianoforte di Anton Rubinstein, compositore e pianista russo dell’800 per cui si adopera nel revival musicale pianistico anche con il M°Howard; sempre dello stesso compositore ad agosto 2023 pubblica il secondo disco, per la rivista SUONARE, con le ciclopiche Tema e Variazioni opus 88

Ludovico Tronconetti at Roma Tre

The refined musicianship and solid artistic pedigree of Krystyna was immediately apparent from this 18 year old pianist’s opening with the four last Impromptus by Franz Schubert.Much longer and more complex than the earlier four that make up op 90,they are a challenge that only great musicians can attempt.Those who can allow the simplicity and mellifluous outpouring of Schubert in his final years to speak for itself without any superficial or superfluous intervention from the interpreter.That is not to say that within the notes there is not a lifetime experience of colour and inflections that as with speech allow the message of the musical conversation to be transmitted directly to the listener.

Annie Fischer and Rudolf Serkin are two whose performances are indelibly imprinted on my memory .The four Impromptus played together last as long as any of Schubert’s later Sonatas and seem as though they may have been written with that architectural shape in mind.It was just this mature musicianship allied to a technical mastery of beauty and infallible security that made her fingers seem like limpets that were sucking the life out of every key.A beauty of rich sound but also a sense of balance that allowed the musical line to ring out with a purity and simplicity that was of authoritative tenderness.It was the same sense of line and style that she gave to the beautifully evocative work by Amy Beach.

Liszt’s Spanish Rhapsody I have not heard played with such authority and sterling intelligent musicianship since Gilels’ monumental performance in London in the ‘70’s.She gave a remarkable performance where all of Liszt’s quite considerable demands were turned into poetry and music with a sense of style and artistry that was of a mature artist.Lacking only that driving rhythm of Gilels and passionate aristocratic bearing that made him appear like Arrau as though he was born to be seated in front of this box of ivory keys just as Liszt obviously was.That is a very exciting development that her musicianship will take as her personality develops and her experience of life widens.But this was quite extraordinary playing from someone who has just come of age.

Khrystyna Mykhailichenko is an 18 year old Ukrainian pianist who was born in Crimea. She began to play the piano when she was only four and her parents quickly realised that their little child was extraordinarily gifted. Within six years, she was winning international piano competitions and was performing in concerts throughout Europe and in the USA. The venues include Salle Cortot in Paris, Bozar Hall in Brussels, the Music Academies of Bruges, Antwerp, Krakow, Bremen, Gariunu concert hall in Vilnius, the University of Miami and Broward Centre for the Performing Arts, the World Bank in Washington DC, the UN residence in New York and all the National Philharmonics of Ukraine. In 2014, when the Russians occupied Crimea, Khrystyna moved to the capital of Ukraine – Kyiv. In March 2016, Khrystyna met the international concert pianist Professor Alexei Grynyuk who became her teacher and mentor. He said “Khrystyna’s gift is stronger and more powerful than anyone I have ever been able to work with before. This is a performer of the highest level.” At the outbreak of war in February 2022, she fled to Poland with her mother and sister before settling in Corbridge in June. As well as continuing to travel extensively for performances, she studied at the Junior RNCM under Graham Scott. She won a full scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music in London and has started her undergraduate course there in September 2023.she now lives in Ealing.

The second set was also like the first composed in 1827 but published posthumously as Op. 142 in 1839 (with a dedication added by the publisher to Franz Liszt )

The first Impromptu in F minor follows the form of a sonata exposition The second Impromptu in A-flat major is written in the standard minuet form. The third Impromptu in B-flat major is a theme with variations. Finally, the fourth Impromptu in F minor is highly virtuosic and the most technically demanding of the set. Due to their structural and thematic links, some envisioned the four Impromptus as parts of a multi-movement sonata, a conjecture which is subject of debate among musicologists and scholars.

Rhapsodie espagnole (Spanish Rhapsody), S.254 R.90, was written in 1858 and is very suggestive of traditional Spanish music,that was inspired by Liszt’s tour in Spain and Portugal in 1845.The Spanish Rhapsody has become one of Liszt’s best-known compositions, although it took some while to establish itself in the repertoire. Liszt told Lina Ramann that he had written the piece in recollection of his Spanish tour whilst in Rome in about 1863.

The work was published in 1867—subtitled Folies d’Espagne et Jota aragonesa.Rhapsodie espagnole, folies d’espagne et Jota aragonesa (Spanish Rhapsody, Spanish leaves and Jota Aragonesa), S. 254, was based on his earlier Grosse Konzertfantasie über spanische Weisen, S. 253. It was composed in 1858 and published in 1867 in Leipzig by C.F.W. Siegel, dedicated to Eugénie, Empress of France (1826–1920).

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867 – December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music .Her “Gaelic” Symphony , premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. She was one of the first American composers to succeed without the benefit of European training, and one of the most respected and acclaimed American composers of her era. As a pianist, she was acclaimed for concerts she gave featuring her own music in the United States and in Germany.

Il pianista Marco Scolastra illustra così il programma che ha scelto di eseguire:

“Inizio questo recital con alcune pagine danzanti e spiritose di Muzio Clementi, “padre” del pianoforte moderno. Di Mozart ho scelto due Fantasie, pagine intense, a tratti drammatiche. Di Beethoven una delicata Sonata giovanile e il celeberrimo “foglio d’album” Für Elise. In chiusura una selezione dei Peccati di vecchiaia di Rossini, la sua ultima e geniale produzione. Con sfacciata libertà qui convivono gioco, irriverenza, divertissement totale.” Marco Scolastra

PROGRAMMA

Muzio Clementi
Tre Valzer dall’op. 38

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Fantasia in re minore KV 397
Fantasia in do minore KV 475

Ludwig Van Beethoven
Sonata in do maggiore WoO 51
1. Allegro
2. Adagio

Für Elise WoO 59

Gioachino Rossini
Quattro pezzi da Péchés de vieillesse:
1. Barcarolle
2. Une caresse à ma femme
3. Memento homo
4. Assez de memento: dansons

An illustrious audience at the Goethe Institute in the IUC Concert Season for the genial Marco Scolastra
Remembering his teacher Aldo Ciccolini and the discovery of the fourteen volumes of the Péchés de Vieillesse that Rossini penned in his retirement from the Opera Stage that had brought him fame and a considerable fortune.
Remembering too Maria Tipo who had done so much to promote the 110 Sonatas by Clementi of which it is rare to hear any in the concert hall.
Marco’s concert set out to show us what we are missing with a programme starting and finishing with Clementi and including five pieces by Rossini.

A voyage of discovery indeed as he played a little known Sonata in two movements by the 21 year old Beethoven.
Two Fantasies by Mozart in D and C minor completed this short panorama.
Playing from the score with the chiselled precision of serious musicianship.It was in Beethoven’s Fur Elise and Rossini’s ‘Caresse a ma femme ‘ that Marco allowed us to see that he also had a soul and could allow himself to delve into these intimate portraits of ladies obviously close to the composers.

Tied to the score he could not quite find the charm and colour or the evident freedom and joie de vivre of the composers but instead played with the clarity and rhythmic drive that is so much part of the great Neapolitan school of piano playing

Ha compiuto gli studi musicali presso il Conservatorio di Perugia diplomandosi con il massimo dei voti e la lode con il M° Franco Fabiani. Ha studiato successivamente con Aldo Ciccolini e Ennio Pastorino e ha frequentato corsi di perfezionamento con Lya De Barberiis, Paul Badura-Skoda e – all’Accademia Chigiana – con Joaquin Achúcarro e Katia Labèque.

Ha suonato per importanti istituzioni musicali: Teatro Valli di Reggio Emilia; Sagra Musicale Umbra; Teatro Lirico di Cagliari; Accademia Filarmonica Romana, IUC, Teatro Eliseo, Oratorio del Gonfalone, Auditorium Parco della Musica e Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Teatro Regio di Parma; Auditorium dell’Orchestra “G. Verdi” di Milano; Teatro Comunale di Bologna; Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto; Ravello Festival; Teatro La Fenice di Venezia; “I concerti del Quirinale” in diretta RAI Radio3; Teatro di San Carlo e Associazione “A. Scarlatti” di Napoli; Associazione “B. Barattelli” di L’Aquila; Musei Vaticani; Teatro Massimo di Palermo; Serate Musicali di Milano; “Museo Rossini” di Pesaro; Conservatorio “P. I. Čajkovskij” di Mosca; Tonhalle di Zurigo; Konzerthaus di Berna; Istituto “F. Chopin” di Varsavia; Orchestre National du Capitole di Tolosa; Festival van Vlaanderen in Belgio; Parlamento Europeo a Bruxelles; Musikverein di Vienna.

Come solista ha suonato sotto la guida di molti importanti direttori d’orchestra: Yuri Bashmet (I Solisti di Mosca); Andrew Constantine (Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie); Romano Gandolfi (Orchestra Sinfonica “G. Verdi” di Milano); Howard Griffits (Orchestra da Camera di Zurigo); Richard Hickox; Claudio Scimone (I Solisti Veneti); Lior Shambadal (Berliner Symphoniker); Luigi Piovano (Roma Tre Orchestra); Giedrė Šlekytė (Wiener Concert-Verein).
Per molti anni ha suonato in duo con il pianista Sebastiano Brusco. Ha collaborato con grandi artisti quali Vadim Brodski, Renato Bruson, Alessandro Carbonare, Max René Cosotti, Roberto Fabbriciani, Cinzia Forte, Fejes Quartet, Corrado Giuffredi, Sumi Jo, Raina Kabaivanska, Daniela Mazzucato, Quartetto d’Archi del Teatro di San Carlo, Quartetto Kodály, Desirée Rancatore, Charlie Siem. Intensa la collaborazione con il drammaturgo Sandro Cappelletto del quale ha partecipato più volte al programma Inventare il tempo in onda su RAI5.
È in scena con illustri attori: Sonia Bergamasco, Arnoldo Foà, Elio Pandolfi, Ugo Pagliai, Lucia Poli, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Pamela Villoresi.

Da sempre appassionato della musica del Novecento e dei nostri giorni, ha eseguito molti lavori in prima esecuzione assoluta o in prima italiana, alcuni dei quali a lui dedicati: Concerto per due pianoforti e percussioni di Darius Milhaud (2004); Concerto della demenza di Vieri Tosatti (Spoleto Festival 2005); Dance Variations per due pianoforti e orchestra di Morton Gould (2005); Verdi contro Wagner di Matteo D’Amico (2013); Tirol Concerto di Philipp Glass (2017); Aria da concertodi Silvia Colasanti (2019); Quattro canti popolari ciociari di Marcello Panni (2020); Il tempo non esiste di Lucio Gregoretti (2023).

Registrazioni:

• Colours and Virtuosity of the 20th Century in Italy – Phoenix Classics (2000)
• Wagner Lieder – Brilliant Classics (2013)
• The Song of a Life: Tosti Romances – Brilliant Classics (2015-2020)
• Ritratti e impressioni. Per un pianoforte francescano – CMSF (2018)
• Bach: Concerti per 2, 3, 4 pianoforti e archi, DECCA (2019)
• Poulenc: La voix humaine & Histoire de Babar – Brilliant Classics (2019)
• Britten: Folk Songs (con Mark Milhofer) – Brilliant Classics (2021)
• Venite a intender (con Mirco Palazzi) – Urania Records (2022)
• Enrico Caruso. His Songs (con Mark Milhofer) – Urania Records (2023)
• Inventare il tempo; Enigma Savinio – Rai 5

Marco Scolastra – A portrait of Chopin in words and music ‘Canons covered in flowers’

Louis-Victor Bak at St James’s Piccadilly

Haydn  Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Hob XVI:46
Debussy  Images Book 1, L. 110
Debussy  Images Book 2, L. 111
Chaminade  Sonata Op. 21 in C minor
Steinway Hall
44 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2DB

Wednesday 18 October 2023 at 6.30pm

Born in France, Louis-Victor Bak is a solo and chamber music pianist. He began piano lessons at the age of fourteen, following seven years of flute studies. In 2017, he moved to Berlin to study with Laurent Boullet; and in 2019, he came to London to study at the Royal College of Music with Edna Stern. In 2023, he graduated from the RCM and is currently studying for a Master of Performance with Edna Stern and Vanessa Latarche, as an Ilona Eibenschutz Award Holder.

Louis-Victor has recently performed as a soloist at St James’s Piccadilly, St James’s Paddington and at the Amaryllis Fleming Hall at the RCM. He has also performed at St Bride’s, St John’s Waterloo, St Paul’s Bedford, the Russia Culture House of London, the Routh Hall Bromsgrove and in France (Salle Witkowski, Palais St Jean, Musée des Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon, Salle Debussy), Sardinia and Switzerland. He was invited to perform in the Second Prokofiev Festival in London and in the Festival Musique et Or in 2021.

In 2021, he won First Prize at the North International Music Competition, Third Prize at the Windsor International Piano Competition, Second Prize at the Franz Liszt Centre International Piano Competition, Second  Prize at the International Music Competition Opus 2021 and the special Prize ‘Debut in Transylvania Recital Award’ at the Youth of Music International Competition. In 2022, he was also selected to take part in the prestigious Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona.

Louis-Victor was a 2022 recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Julius Isserlis Scholarship.

Dear Edna Stern,

It was nice to meet you today in the Royal College of Music together with William Naboré and to listen again to your very fine student before you go to perform together in the Mosaic festival in Cap Ferrat.(Edna ,now a Professor at the RCM had studied with William Naboré at the International Piano Academy Lake Como https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/10/03/william-grant-nabore-bestrides-the-rcm-like-a-colossus/)
‘Louis-Victor’s Chaminade was like the sun suddenly coming out .Images sounded so woolly and tired and indifferent like an old love . He almost started to move in Chaminade as the new love of his life ignited his playing.
He needs to play chamber music and like Peter Frankl a cat looking in all directions ready to pounce
Movements should be like on a knife edge not like on a cosy velvet cushion.Relets needed more icy sounds to contrast with the beauty that was too evident throughout infact submerged with beauty .Homage needed that aristocratic Rubinstein French sound before opening the gate to paradise at the end.
Chaminade left me exhilarated and excited instead of bored and indifferent
Why not Images Book 2 and get a quick divorce from Book 1

You know indifference and boredom can kill even the greatest of loves’(Note Leslie Howard’s comment below of Book 2 n.2!)

Dear Christopher, I will pass on to Edna ; but thank you for coming and for your kind words ! This was truly inspirational for me, and I am sure this will help me to give these Debussy’s a fresh eye – I am looking forward to experimenting new things and give back all the magic in this music

‘I know you’ll be able to listen online, but just want to report that Louis-Victor Bak did us proud at SH last night..A really lovely programme with a stylishly authentic account of Haydn’s 31st Sonata (perfect ornaments!), marvellously characterised Debussy Images (Et la lune descend was deeply moving) and a cracking account of the neglected but fascinating sonata by Chaminade.He is a first-rate musician!’Leslie Howard

THE FRENCH CONNECTION review by Angela Ransley

The Keyboard Trust was delighted to welcome French pianist LOUIS-VICTOR BAK to Steinway Hall on Wednesday 18 October 2023 where we heard an imaginative programme, followed by a conversation with Artistic Director Leslie Howard in which he outlined his musical journey and hopes for the future. He is no stranger to London audiences, having been an undergraduate at the Royal College of Music where he is now completing his Masters Degree in Piano Performance under Edna Stern and Vanessa Latarche. In addition to London recitals, for example at St James Piccadilly, he has performed in France, Switzerland and Sardinia. He has also won prizes in a number of international competitions.

The recital began with the Sonata in Ab Hob XVI/46 by Joseph Haydn. It has a late entry in the catalogue because it was not published until 1786, although being written about twenty years earlier. The vitality and musical invention here speak of a particular point in Haydn’s long life, when he could at last assume control as Director of Music at the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt. This post involved isolation from his fellow musicians and Haydn himself remarked: ‚I was forced to become original‘ Expect the unexpected in sudden turns of harmony, densely woven lines, little figures that tickle the ear, and of course the long toccata-like passages unique to Haydn’s keyboard writing. Is it possible that the diversity found in a single movement has led these sonatas to become less popular than those of Mozart? How to hold all these ideas together? Louis-Victor seems to have found the answer by listening intently to the inner narrative and then giving each passage its time and place.The first movement alternates highly-decorated melodies that reflect in sound the intricate stucco of the palace with nimble finger work. Each were played with meticulous accuracy and the passages always sparkled. The middle movement is an oasis of calm in the remote key of Db – daring for its time.The final Presto gallops home in a whirl of semiquavers performed by Louis-Victor with unerring pulse and precision.

We were fortunate to hear all six of Debussy’s extraordinary Images, the first three being written in 1905 and the last three over the next two years. What a wealth of imagination, colour, textures and sonority when they are all heard together! Three of Debussy’s major preoccupations are in evidence: the beauty of the natural world (Reflets dans l’eau, Cloches parmi les feuilles); the past and its timeless quality (Hommage a Rameau, La lune descend sur the temple qui fut); exuberant vitality (Mouvement, Poissons d’Or). In Reflets and Cloches Debussy shares with us nature’s moments of pure magic: reflections in water and the moon shining on an ancient temple.

‚There is nothing more musical than a sunset. He who feels what he sees will find no more beautiful example of development in all that book which, alas,musicians read but too little – the book of Nature.‘ (Claude Debussy)

 

Louis-Victor showed his native understanding of Debussy here by bringing specifically French qualities to his interpretation: intelligent control and fastidious attention to detail in these gentle, reflective scenes.

Debussy wrote, first performed and recorded many of his solo piano works in his fifties and they are the fruit of his mature style and global interests, which, although still employing key signatures, venture far beyond tonality with whole-tone scales and passages with no tonal focus at all. In his book The Art of French Piano Music, Dr Roy Howat proposes that it was Debussy’s deep engagement with the gamelan music of the Far East that changed for ever his approach to writing for the piano. In his Cloches and La lune, the layering of the gamelan orchestra and piano equivalents of the high gongs are clearly heard.

In Mouvement and Poissons d’Or, we hear Debussy the virtuoso pianist. He is known to have said: ‚the century of airplanes has a right to its own music‘: the driven toccata that is Mouvement suggest to me the arrival of the machine that shattered the peace of so many at the turn of the century.Poissons d’Or are likely to be the fish found near Asian temples connected to the symbol of the dragon, not goldfish. (French for goldfish is ‚Poisson rouge‘, not ‚Poissons d‘Or’). Debussy’s pianism was held in the highest regard by his contemporaries: simple, unaffected, rhythmically precise. A number of recordings of Debussy performing his own music are available – see link below. Louis-Victor performed these different character pieces with full knowledge of their tradition with many revelatory moments.

Louis-Victor closed his recital with a French rarity: the Sonata in C minor by Cecile Chaminade (1857 -1944). Cecile was prevented by her father from attending the Paris Conservatoire but studied privately with its teachers instead. Her compositions began early and with time she emerged as pianist and composer, only performing her own works. Her career developed beyond France in the UK and North America and her published music had financial success. Her English contemporary, Ethel Smyth one remarked: ‚I fear that when I die, my music will die with me’. This is exactly what happened. Cecile was totally ignored in the second half of the 20th century and it is thanks to champions such as Louis-Victor that her music is now being revived.

 

‚I am essentially of the Romantic School, as all of my work shows‘ Chaminade wrote. All the hallmarks of that School are present in this sonata: C minor, the key of passionate outpouring favoured by Beethoven and Chopin, dazzling octaves, certain tonality, the ability to build and deliver exciting climaxes. What Cecile  adds is her own individual voice: the unexpected fugal exposition in the first movement, the wonderful use of a short rhythmic motif to structure the second movement and the ability to unleash elemental fury in the left hand of the final Allegrowhich may well have led Ambroise Thomas to  say ‚This is not a woman who composes but a composer who happens to be a woman‘. With over 6000 neglected  composers ‚who happen to be women‘ now listed, it is time for Cecile Chaminade to be granted her proper place by posterity.

 

All of Louis-Victor’s musical and technical strengths – the intellectual insight, sensitivity, colour –  were required and employed to deliver both the poetic and the passionate sides of this demanding sonata and its rousing climax drew impressive applause from an impressed audience.

It is a feature of the Steinway Hall evenings that, following the recital, the  soloist is heard in conversation with one of the Artistic Directors, on this occasion Dr Leslie Howard. Louis-Victorshared with us how he studied the flute for seven years before taking up the piano seriously at the late age of 14. When asked about his future, he revealed that his heart lies in the French tradition and he wishes to bring lesser known French composers including Chaminade to public knowledge. We wish him joy and every success in this venture and look forward eagerly to the delight of fresh pianistic treasures.

References:

The Art of French Piano Music Roy Howat (Yale University Press, 2009)

Debussy Plays His Own Music:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNW5TIrhZRwmReY1Xhvs4gtsboEeg0TYM

ANGELA RANSLEY, Director of the Harmony School of Pianoforte, is an advanced piano teacher and writer and works closely with the Keyboard Trust.

A very special day in Florence for the final concert of the Montecatini International Piano competition with 7 very fine pianists playing to an International jury including Sofya Gulyak and many other illustrious colleagues from the world of music.

All assembled around the indomitable Aisa Ijiri.But the real star of the occasion was the wonderful 200th piano of Angelo Fabbrini.
Maestro Fabbrini has long been the indispensable friend to most of the greatest pianists of our time.This piano was specially made to celebrate a very special marriage between Steinway and Fabbrini.Signed by many of the pianists that have been fathifully served by a technician who is above all a magician.

And so it was with the very first pianist of the day Alessio Ciprietti that the sumptuous sounds of this instrument wrapped themselves so warmly around us like the sumptuous decor of what is the oldest theatre in Florence.Built in 1648 and has reopened in 2016 after a 20 year restoration project to bring it back to its original splendour.

The director of the theatre had told us that in 1707 an opera of the young Handel ‘Vincer se stesso è la maggior vittoria’ received its first performance in this theatre that is just a stones throw from Florence Cathedral.

A young Chinese Canadian Ryan Wang at only 16 played like a real artist with a disarming simplicity and beauty and won first prize.

Anisa Dazhaeva at the ripe old age of 20 came a close second untangling the knotty twine of Rachmaninov’s first sonata with real mastery.

As if this was not enough the indefatigable Aisa had organised as director of the Montecatini Competition a short concert to give a platform for three Young Talents of the Junior Montecatini Competition :Anju Nogiwa,Jelena Niksic and Dusan Dakic.