An opening concert for 2024 with a young maths and statistics undergraduate from Harvard University ready to give exemplary performances of major works from the piano repertoire. St Mary’s never fails to surprise,delight and astonish as they offer a platform to a category that is never mentioned in the mass media. Young musicians ready to dedicate their youth to the pursuit of sharing beauty and the discovery of a better world after years of single minded dedication. Harvey Lin was just such a case as he demonstrated with superbly crafted music making of intelligence and love.
A Bach Italian concerto that was played with aristocratic authority as his sparkling non legato touch illuminated the Allegro with a rhythmic drive and delicately contrasted passages that passed from the tutti to the solo – as in his introduction where he had so eloquently described it from one manual to another.There was a languid beauty to the Andante – quasi religious as he said – with the sudden stillness of the coda that was indeed of another world.Even the presto finale was of a grandeur and joie de vivre that was played with exhilaration and exultation.
The Chopin B flat minor Sonata was also played with intelligence and beauty where even the return to the introduction – much debated by some – made such sense in his hands.An occasional added bass note just gave depth to the sound which was full but never hard and the beautiful second subject was played with real weight digging deep into the keys to extract the beauty that lay within.The opening treacherous left hand was just a wash of sound on which the wafts of melody were floated and that with the majestic opening would be transformed into a development section of nobility and grandeur. The Scherzo was played with great authority and simplicity with the trio that could have been played with less searching for hidden counterpoints but with the same direct simplicity.There was a relentless sense of pulse in the Funeral March and a trio that this time was played with simple beautiful eloquence.The ‘wind blowing over the graves’ in the last movement was played with transcendental control and a sense of line that also gave it great shape as it weaved it’s way to the final majestic chords.
Mozart’s last Sonata was played with eloquence,clarity and charm.I would not have tried to vary the repeated passages but would have let them speak with the same eloquence with which Harvey’s superb natural musicianship had imbued all that he touched.I think he may have been just obediently following advice from lesser mortals! There was a chiselled beauty to the Adagio where the echo effect he strived for in my opinion was not part of the musical conversation that in his sensitive hands could be so eloquent.The Allegretto was delicately graceful and brilliantly played ,full of sparkling wit.
The Kapustin Jazz Etude was played with astonishing brilliance and drive.A superb lesson of a perpetuum mobile in jazz style played with technical brilliance and style.
The Liebermann Gargoyles I have only heard once before and it is a collection of four contrasting pieces of great effect.There was the dynamic drive in continual movement of the first.The luminosity and atmospheric slowly moving melodic line of the second followed by wondrous aeolian harp like sounds of the third on which was floated a melody of radiance and beauty.But it was the final savagely driven toccata that Harvey played with superb technical control and conviction that brought this opening concert of 2024 to a scintillating end.
Harvey Lin is a pianist based in London and a second-year undergraduate at Harvard University studying maths and statistics. Making his concerto debut aged 12, he is a two-time finalist of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition, and a prize-winner at the Enschede (2022), Euregio (2022), and Neapolitan Masters (2020) International Piano Competitions. He was also the winner of the Windsor and Maidenhead Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition (2018) and a semi-finalist in the ‘Nutcracker’ International Competition, Russia (2015), which was broadcast on the ‘Russia-Kultura’ channel on Russian national TV.
Harvey has collaborated with the East Netherlands, Reading, and Harvard-Radcliffe Symphony Orchestras and has performed at the Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room), Steinway Hall (London), St John’s College (Cambridge), Queen’s College (Oxford), and the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. Harvey has also participated in Music@Menlo, Oxford Piano Festival, and Northern Chords Festival, and was selected as a Tabor Piano Ambassador for the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021. This summer, he was awarded a fellowship to Aspen Music Festival, where he studied with Professor Arie Vardi and Professor Hung-Kuan Chen, of the Hochschule für Musik Hannover and the Juilliard School respectively. His principal mentor is Boris Petrushansky of the Imola Music Academy, Italy.
Lowell Liebermann born February 22, 1961, in New York City
At the age of sixteen, Liebermann performed at Carnegie Hall playing his Piano Sonata, op. 1. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music with David Diamond and Vincent Persichetti earning bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. The English composer-pianist Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabjialso expressed interest in Liebermann’s early work, having critiqued the young composer’s Piano Sonata in a private exchange between the two; Liebermann’s Concerto for Piano, op. 12 would be dedicated to Sorabji.His most recorded works are his Sonata for Flute and Piano (1987), Gargoyles for piano (1989), and his Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (1992). Liebermann resides in New York City. He presently serves on the composition faculty at Mannes College The New School for Music and is the director of the Mannes American Composers Ensemble.
Gargoyles, Op. 29, a four-movement suite for solo piano written in 1989.
The suite was commissioned by the Tcherepnin Society for the pianist Eric Himy , who played its world premiere that October 14 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City.
The score exemplifies Liebermann’s modernist style, in which tonal harmony and expressive gestures grounded in tradition coexist with avant-garde procedures. The piece has become one of Liebermann’s most popular efforts, receiving more than ten recordings.
Many cathedral gargoyles portray grotesque faces with great humor, and Liebermann intends precisely that in his pieces, which have the mordant wit of Prokofiev’s “bad boy” style in their ancestry. The brief opening movement commences with an arresting three-note “signal” and move forward with perpetual motion rhythms , the narrative studded with shock-effects. The following Adagio semplice, by contrast, is deeply introverted, presenting melancholy melodizing over patterns based on two alternating chords. Later, a still slower melody unfolds against repetitions of a single note. Crystalline sonorities mark the third Gargoyle which floats a songful theme over luminous liquid swirls, and ultimately develops into a duet. Mordancy and menace return in the finale, which is dominated by demonic galloping rhythms, as textures grow steadily more dense and virtuoso gestures steadily more flamboyant.
Nikolai Kapustin Born Николай Гиршевич Капустин Nikolai Girshevich Kapustin 22 November 1937 Horlivka,Ukraine Died 2 July 2020 (aged 82) Moscow
Although born in the Ukraine when he was age four, with his father fighting in World War II, his mother and grandmother moved with him and his sister to the Kyrgyz city of Tokmak.He composed his first piano sonata at age 13.From age 14, Kapustin studied piano with Avrelian Rubakh ( a pupil of Felix Blumenfeld , who also taught Simon Barere and Horowitz ). Beginning in 1954, he discovered jazz , an interest which his teacher supported.Kapustin studied from 1956 with Alexander Goldenweiser at the Moscow Conservatory , graduating ,playing amongst other things Prokofiev’s 2nd Concerto in 1961.During the 1950’s , Kapustin acquired a reputation as a jazz pianist, arranger and composer. He had his own quintet, which performed at an “upscale restaurant” monthly.Kapustin regarded himself though as a composer rather than a jazz musician: “I was never a jazz musician. I never tried to be a real jazz pianist, but I had to do it because of the composing. I’m not interested in improvisation – and what is a jazz musician without improvisation? All my improvisations are written, of course, and they became much better; it improved them.”
Among his works are 20 piano sonatas , six piano concertos other instrumental concertos, sets of piano variations ,etudes and concert studies.
In 2023 Rai Cultura and Rai5 produce for the In Scena series a documentary dedicated to one of the most eclectic characters of Italian entertainment who made the history of theater and television such as Elio Pandolfi. Written and produced by Rai journalist Rita Rocca, the special dedicated to Pandolfi collects for the first time and in an almost anthological way, the historical repertoire of Rai’s audiovideo archives, from the 1950s to the 2000s. Films coming not only from the Rai archives but also from the private archive of the artist who has always loved filming the salient moments of his career and life with a Super8. And here the memories of a now vanished Rome reappear on the screen, the family, the dearest loved ones, the first short films written and self-produced, the companions the Silvio D’Amico Academy, the love and friendship towards Bice Valori, in a kaleidoscope of memories that fascinates and moves. The documentary is enriched with beautiful stage photos, backstage photos and private shots kindly provided by the artist’s family who, for the first time, opened the doors of their home and her personal archive to the author. Pandolfi tells his story in the first person with a light, ironic, enthralling narration that has always characterized his character since the very popular duets alongside Antonella Steni on Rai television in the Sixties. Elio Pandolfi loved entertainment in all its forms: mime, dancer, theater actor, television and radio comedian, operetta singer and film dubber. Seventy years of career during which he met all the artists of his era, worked with everyone, experienced firsthand unforgettable moments of Italian entertainment: from magazines to variety shows, from radio to television, from cinema to operetta. In the documentary the artist recounts his life and his very long career, alongside the memories of artists and friends who were close to him. The author Rita Rocca reconstructs an unpublished artistic and private cross-section of Elio Pandolfi thanks to the testimonies of great artists including: Rita Pavone, Peppe Barra, Leopoldo Mastelloni, Anna Mazzamauro and Arturo Brachetti. And so, alongside the memories and affection of friends, unreleased films are shown in a series that tell of the first shows with Vanda Osiris, the Sundays on the beach of Ostia with Pampanini, the village festivals and the memories of the director Luchino Visconti who most he enhanced it on stage
Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin George Xiaoyuan Fu piano
A duo recital in the true sense of the word with a musical conversation between equals. A Mozart Sonata of refined elegance and operatic energy.The opening Largo was played with coquettish simplicity before bursting into an Allegro of scintillating playful energy. There was great delicacy from the piano in the Andante as the violin played with ever more intensity.The elegance and mellifluous sounds were mirrored in a performance where they played as one.It was a tribute to the pianist’s musicianship and technical prowess that with the piano lid fully open there was never a moment when the sound of this great black beast could have overpowered the beauty,musical line and sweetness of tone of Tamsin’s Stradivarius.
The revelation of the evening though was the UK premiere of ‘Swan Song’ by Serkin’s grandson David Ludwig.The charm and persuasion of George Fu are such as to persuade Tamsin to include a long contemporary work in an important London concert.David Ludwig had been George’s composition teacher at Curtis and obviously it was he who had persuaded her of the importance of the work.A work of startling technical and musical complexity with cruel demands on both players who managed to play with a clarity and sense of architectural shape that revealed a work of great effect and beauty.The magic luminosity from the piano at the opening allowed the violin to soar above such gossamer sounds with long drawn out musical lines.There were dramatic contrasts with the piano creating clouds of sound even with a little help from inside its own body.An elaborate cadenza for solo violin lead to the appearance from afar of the Schubert Fantasy that had been the composers inspiration.Tamsin rose magnificently to the gauntlet that George had lain before her and with superb control and revelatory imagination placed an important work in the midst of the other two recognised masterpieces in her recital.
Beethoven’s ‘Bridgetower’ Sonata …better known by it’s final dedicatee’s name ‘Kreutzer’ filled the second half of the concert with magnificence of grandeur and dynamic rhythmic energy .There were moments of sublime beauty but these were but the calm before the storm.An aristocratic control over this cauldron of boiling energy as they played with perfect ensemble each artist listening to the other creating an architectural whole united as they both were for the glory of the music that had been entrusted to them.There was a simple beauty to the Andante and variations that was allowed to flow so naturally giving them the freedom to shape and mould each variation with a flexibility of pulse and beguiling sense of style.The delicacy of the first variation with the violin just commenting of the marvels that were being revealed from the piano.Followed by the delicately shaped ‘leggermente’ filigree jeux perlé from the violin.The almost too pompous minor variation was contrasted with the luminous fluidity of the major IV variation.There was finally a glimpse of the sublime beauty that had been hinted at as they were united in the magical final bars that gradually finished with whispered intent at the extremes of both instruments.Suddenly the call to arms and the chase was on as the Finale ,Presto burst upon the scene with dynamic driving energy.This was a performance of technical and musical mastery from both players and gave a monumental finish to an evening of remarkable music making of humility ,intelligence and mastery.
Tamsin with Stephen Kovacevich after the concert
‘Après une rève ‘ was offered as an encore and as Tamsin said :’a much needed balm after such dynamism‘.It was played with ravishing sounds of quiet intensity where Mr Stradivarius was allowed the wings to soar into places where only music can reach.George at the piano with fearless backing that gave great depth and spiritual meaning to the wings with which Tamsin had now been bestowed.
Stephen with George two extraordinary Americans in London
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
The Wigmore in Christmas mood
Violin Sonata in B flat K454 (1784) I. Largo – Allegro I I. Andante III. Allegretto
David Ludwig (b.1974)
Swan Song (2013) UK première
Interval
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Op. 47 ‘Kreutzer’ (1802-3) I. Adagio sostenuto – Presto I I. Andante con variazioni III. Finale. Presto
Violin Sonata No. 32 in B flat K .454 was composed in Vienna on April 21, 1784. It was published by Christoph Torricella in a group of three sonatas (together with the piano sonatas K.284 and K.333 )
The sonata was written for a violin virtuoso Regina Strinasacchi of Mantua to be performed by them together at a concert in the Karntnerthor Theatre in Vienna on April 29, 1784.
‘We now have here the famous Strinasacchi from Mantua,’ Mozart wrote to his father on 24 April 1784, ‘a very good violinist. She has a great deal of taste and feeling in her playing. I am this moment composing a sonata which we are going to play together on Thursday at her concert in the theatre.’
Although Mozart had the piano part securely in his head, he did not give himself enough time to write it out, and thus it was performed with a sheet of blank music paper in front of him in order to fool the audience. According to a story told by his widow Constanze Mozart , the Emperor Joseph II saw the empty sheet music through his opera glasses and sent for the composer with his manuscript, at which time Mozart had to confess the truth, although that is likely to have amazed the monarch rather than cause his irritation.
David Serkin Ludwig (born 1974, Bucks County,Pennsylvania ) is an American composer, teacher, and Dean of Music at The Juilliard School . His uncle was pianist Peter Serkin , his grandfather was the pianist Rudolf Serkin , and his great-grandfather was the violinist Adolf Busch .He holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the US and abroad. His choral work, The New Colossus, was performed at the 2013 presidential inauguration of Barack Obama .
Of this piece, dating from 2013, he has written as follows: ‘Swan Song is one of three pieces of mine that draw directly from the materials of a past musical work, in this case Schubert’s Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C major, D. 934. I felt like I was writing a play with many characters who are having separate conversations about the same piece of music. ‘The work models Schubert in weaving in and out of a chain of related passages that linked together form a fantasy, playing for a little over 15 minutes. The opening passage appears several times throughout the piece, each time a little different (but always sparkling!), as if transformed by all of the music preceding it. In between are fast passages with quick exchanges between violinist and pianist, music in the extremes of volume and register, and many little games and conversations with Schubert. ‘There are many characters, with their exits and their entrances, each making a statement and then stepping back for the next to take centre stage. At one point, Schubert himself makes a brief appearance, but he is a phantom who emerges into the light and returns to the background as quickly as he appeared. Finally, after increasingly fast music that seems to plough headlong into a brusque ending, hope appears, rising toward a resolution of the quiet questions asked in the first twinkling sonorities of the piece.’
The sonata was originally dedicated to the violinist George Bridgetower m (1778–1860) as “Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer [Bridgetower], gran pazzo e compositore mulattico” (Mulatto Sonata composed for the mulatto Brischdauer, great madman mulatto composer). Shortly after completion the work was premiered by Bridgetower and Beethoven on 24 May 1803 at the Augarten Theatre at a concert that started at the unusually early hour of 8:00 am. Bridgetower sight-read the sonata; he had never seen the work before, and there had been no time for any rehearsal.
After the premiere performance, Beethoven and Bridgetower fell out: while the two were drinking, Bridgetower apparently insulted the morals of a woman whom Beethoven cherished. Enraged, Beethoven removed the dedication of the piece, dedicating it instead to Rodolphe Kreutzer , who was considered the finest violinist of the day.
After its successful premiere in 1803, the work was published in 1805 as Beethoven’s Op. 47, with its re-dedication to Rudolphe kreitzer , which gave the composition its nickname. Kreutzer never performed the work, considering it “outrageously unintelligible”. He did not particularly care for any of Beethoven’s music, and they only ever met once, briefly.
George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was born on 11 October 1778, in Biala Podlaska Poland,where his father worked for Prince H.W.Raziwill. He was baptised Hieronimo Hyppolito de Augusto on 11 October 1778. His father, John Frederick Bridgetower (né Joannis Friderici de Augusto Æthypois), was probably a West Indian (possibly from Barbados ), although he also claimed to be an African prince, as stated in George’s baptismal record. From 1779 John Frederick was a servant of the Hungarian Prince Esterhazy , the patron of Joseph Haydn . George’s mother, Maria Anna Ursula Schmidt, was from Swabia , now in Germany , described as a “Polish lady of quality”,[from the “noble Polish House of Schmidt”.She was later possibly a domestic worker in the household of Sophie von Thurn und Taxis, who married Prince Raziwill in 1775. George moved to London at an early age and was performing as a violin soloist at the Drury Lane Theatre by the age of 10. He exhibited considerable talent while still a child and gave successful violin concerts in Paris,London,Bath and Bristol in 1789. In 1791, the British Prince Regent , the future King George IV ,took an interest in him and oversaw his musical education.
Their biographies are included in these previous articles .Tamsin plays the ex Laurand Feneves Strad
Legions of violinists and musicians worldwide have studied with or have crossed paths with the legendary Hungarian-Israeli-Canadian violin pedagogue Lorand Fenyves (1918-2004).He taught at the University of Toronto as well as during summers at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Orford Arts Centre in Canada. Although Mr. Fenyves never published any books (he revealed to me that he didn’t have interest in writing or publishing), he did leave behind several recordings documenting his interpretive intelligence, as related to various works of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, in addition to his concertmaster work with Orchestre de la Suisse romande under Ernest Ansermet (among them, Rimsky Korsavakov’s Scheherezade). At his 80th birthday concert, Mr. Fenyves performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and that night, was awarded Hungary’s Cross of the Order of Merit. Marking his 80th birthday, on February 20, 1998, the Globe and Mail dubbed Mr. Fenyves as “one of the greatest violin teachers in the world” . At his memorial concert held in Toronto in 2004, musicians flew in from around the world to honour him and his contribution to Classical music. In 2012, the documentary film, Orchestra of Exiles, featured Mr. Fenyves’ story detailing his participation in Bronislaw Huberman’s orchestra of Jewish musicians, which later became the Israel Philharmonic. Despite the accolades, Mr. Fenyves, a man of utmost integrity, never allowed ego to pollute his art nor stand in the way of the growth of his many students worldwide. For this, Mr. Fenyves cultivated many loving disciples on multiple continents.
Evelyne Beresovsky after the success of her concert last year, having stood in for her colleague and childhood friend Alexander Ullman ,was invited back to given a special concert dedicated to Rachmaninov and Stravinsky .Not only playing solo works but also two chamber music works with two superb musicians from the Roma 3 Orchestra .
Daniele Sabatini ,the Roman violinist ,winner of many prestigious prizes together with his duo partner the pianist Simone Rugani .
Martina Biondi is one of the finest Italian cellists of her generation who lives and works in Berlin .
We know and have heard on many occasions the solo playing of Evelyne Beresovsky and today she was to shine in works by Rachmaninov and the ‘Firebird’ by Stravinsky in the famous transcription by Agosti (1928)
The surprise was her total commitment to chamber music and how she could blend in and shape the music with her colleagues .The gently throbbing chords of the violin and cello at the opening of the early Rachmaninov ‘Elegiac’ Trio was the stage set for the Eagle that was to swoop onto the scene with chiselled sounds of nostalgic beauty from the hands of Evelyne .Cascades of notes too that were like streams of gold creating sounds that accompanied the passionate outpourings from the two string players.
Playing in unison or solo Evelyne was always there listening and supporting with rich romantic sounds that never overpowered her fellow companions united in the turbulent youthful outpouring of romantic effusions.Deeply moving was the desolate atmosphere created at the end by the ‘cello and violin with the piano recalling what had passed with such poignant beauty and nostalgia.
Martina and Evelyne returned to play together Stravinsky’s ‘Suite Italienne’where the beauty of Piatigorsky’s arrangement was played by Martina with ravishing playing of restrained passion.Evelyne too played not only with spiky rhythmic spirit but also with extraordinary ease and perfect ensemble.After only a day to work together it was a ‘tour de force ‘ of musicianship from two artists who were listening with chameleonic care to each other.
Valerio Vicari,artistic director of Roma Tre Orchestra
Of course this is the intent of Valerio Vicari,artistic director of Roma Tre Orchestra.To allow his superb players not only to play in the orchestra together but also to play in chamber ensembles where the same participation will continue into the larger orchestra ensemble.This had been amply demonstrated to us in Rome by Sir Antony Pappano when he took over command of the renowned S.Cecilia Orchestra .Creating chamber music ensembles with the very fine components of the orchestra ,playing the piano with them too,creating an orchestra that listens to itself.Sir Antony now bequeathes to Rome one of the great orchestra of the world after almost twenty years at their helm.
Evelyne brought ravishing sounds and a superb sense of style to the Preludes and Etudes – Tableaux that she had chosen to play. Some things cannot be taught and are part of the genes of pianists like Evelyne or dare I say Martha Argerich.A freedom where everything they play is fresh and newly minted as though discovered in that very moment .Both are well known for their human qualities where life,friendships and caring human relationships take precedence over hours spent locked away at the keyboard .It is a God given gift that Evelyne like her famous colleague has been endowed with from early training.Endowed with a technique that encourages a kaleidoscopic sense of colour from fingers of steel but wrists of rubber ( as Agosti used to say) ,A sense of touch that was encouraged and nurtured from a very early age added of course to a natural talent that is of the blessed few.
The Andante Cantabile of op 23 n.4 was played with the freedom of Belcanto as the balance between her hands was so delicate and sensitive . A beguiling seductive rubato to op 23 n.6 in E flat with its insinuating subtle colouring was followed by the dynamic drive to the G minor op 23 n.5. Alla Marcia indeed it was with overpowering sonorities never hard or ungrateful but the full sounds of Philadelphia proportions.Op 23 n.8 was a whirlwind of moving harmonies as the spider web of gossamer notes spun from Evelyne’s ever flexible fingers.
It was to the second set of Preludes that Evelyne chose the ravishing beauty of n. 5 in G major to close this selection .It was played with a fluidity and luminosity the same that I remember from the hands of Dame Moura Lympany who had played it for us in Rome at the end of a long and illustrious career before the Russians were allowed to travel to the west and astonish us even more.
Two Etude – Tableaux ignited the piano with the call to arms of truly orchestral proportions of op 33 n.6 in E flat .Allegro con fuoco indeed it was today and was a preparation for the fireworks that were to come with Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird’.This was followed by the most Romantic of all these miniature tone poems op 39 n. 5 in E flat minor with it’s sumptuous melodic outpouring and tumultuous climax only to withdraw into the desolate intimacy that was Rachmaninov’s heritage.
There was some confusion over the programme that announced ‘Love’s Sorrow’ which is more often referred to as ‘Liebesleid’ by Kreisler in the arrangement of his friend and duo partner Rachmaninov.There is the famous story of the Kreisler/Rachmaninov duo playing in Carnegie Hall.Kreisler momentarily lost his place and whispered to his partner:’Where are we?’…..‘Carnegie Hall’ growled Rachmaninov without battling an eyelid!
Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen (Old Viennese Melodies ) is a set of three short pieces for violin and piano composed by Austrian-American violinist Fritz Kreisler . The three pieces are titled Liebesfreud (Love’s Joy), Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow), and Schön Rosmarin (Lovely Rosemary).Liebesfreud and Liebesleid, were the subject of virtuoso transcriptions for solo piano by Kreisler’s friend Rachmaninov in 1931 who also recorded them.Here is the master Kreisler himself playing with the same charm as we heard today from Evelyne Beresovsky (https://youtube.com/watch?v=AqQ2_2qd-5Y&feature=shared)
An astonishing opening to Agosti’s ‘Firebird’ transcription had us sitting on the edge of our seats before the gentle sounds bathed in pedal of the Berceuse.The appearance of the Firebird is always a magic moment whether in the original orchestral version or from the magical hands of Evelyne in Agosti’s quite remarkable transcription for solo piano.Solo piano it might be but like the feats of Liszt and Thalberg they defy one to believe that only two hands and two feet could multiply as if by magic.It is of course the pedal and a sense of illusion that can be created by those with the technique and imagination to turn a box of hammers and strings into a full orchestra.Evelyne demonstrated today that she is just such a magician at the keyboard.
Two encores for an enthusiastic audience who wanted even more music.With Evelyne’s disarming humility and charm she announced she would play again the beautiful prelude op 32 n.5 and this was followed by Grieg’s Butterfly that she allowed to hover above the keyboard with the jeux perle charm and style of pianists of another age.
Evie having a quick cigarette with Flavio Mariana of Roma 3 after the concert Evie insisted that the man with the red scarf should be present too.Noblesse oblige.On the door Alessandro Guaitolini,violoncellista solista nonché segretario artistico and Flavio Muriana coordinatore multimediale
Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor was written on January 18–21, 1892 in Moscow, when the composer was 18 years old. The work was first performed on January 30 of the same year with the composer at the piano, David Kreyn at the violin and Anatoliy Brandukov at the cello.[1] It waited until 1947 for the first edition to appear, and the trio has no designated opus number. Rachmaninoff wrote a second Elegiac piano trio in 1893 after the death of Tchaikovsky. This work is cast in only one movement, in contrast to most piano trios, which have three or four. This movement is in the classical form of a sonata,[2] but the exposition is built on twelve episodes that are symmetrically represented in the recapitulation. The elegiac theme is presented in the first part Lento lugubre by the piano. In the following parts, the elegy is presented by the cello and violin, while the spirit is constantly evolving (più vivo – con anima – appassionato – tempo rubato – risoluto). The theme is ultimately recast as a funeral march.
Despite his youth, Rachmaninoff shows in the virtuoso piano part his ability to cover a wide spectrum of sound colors. This trio has a distinctive connection to Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A minor, both in the unusual, expanded first movement, and in the funeral march as a conclusion.
The suggestion often heard – that the first trio is an early elegy for Tchaikovsky – is doubtful: in 1892 the elder composer was in good health, and there was no premonition of the sudden illness that would kill him nearly two years later. Rather, the key to the connection with Tchaikovsky of this first trio is its repetitive opening theme, a four-note rising motif, that dominates the 15-minute work. Played backwards in the same rhythm it is exactly the opening descending motif of Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto (written 1874-75), and the allusion would have been apparent to listeners and teachers at the university, as would the closing funeral march imitative of Tchaikovsky’s elegy to Nikolai Rubinstein. Rachmaninoff wrote this first trio while still a student and may well have intended it as an homage to his elder friend and mentor. The second trio, written two years later, was the true “elegiac” work mourning Tchaikovsky’s death.
Stravinsky’s score for The Firebird was written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes dance company, which premiered the work in Paris in 1910. Based on ancient Russian folk tales, it tells the story of the young Prince Ivan’s quest to find a legendary magic bird with fiery multi-coloured plumage. In the course of his adventures, he falls in love with a beautiful princess but has to fight off the evil sorcerer Katschei to eventually marry her. The suite presents the culminating scenes of the ballet in a piano transcription by the Italian pianist and pedagogue Guido Agosti (1901-1989), who studied with Ferruccio Busoni.
The Danse infernale depicts the brutal swarming and capture of Prince Ivan by Katschei’s monstrous underlings until Prince Ivan uses the magic feather given to him by the Firebird to cast a spell on his captors, making them dance until they drop from exhaustion. The Berceuse is a lullaby depicting the eerie scene of the slumbering assailants, leading to the Finale, a wedding celebration for Prince Ivan and his princess bride.Agosti’s piano transcription, completed in 1928, is a daunting technical challenge for the pianist. Most of the piano writing is laid out on on three staves in order to cover the multi-octave range of the keyboard that the pianist must patrol. The piano comes into its own in this transcription as a percussion instrument, to be played with the wild abandon with which a betrayed lover throws her ex-partner’s possessions off the balcony onto the street below.Judging from the shocking 7-octave-wide chord crash that opens the Dance infernale, Agosti captures well the bruising pace of the action, with off-beat rhythmic jabs standing out from a succession of punchy left-hand ostinati constantly nipping at the heels of the melody line. The accelerating pace as the sorcerer’s ghouls are made to dance ever more frantically is a major aerobic test for the pianist.
Relief comes in the Berceuse, which presents its own pianistic challenges, mainly those of finely sifting the overtones of vast chord structures surrounding the lonely tune singing out from the middle of the keyboard.The wedding celebration depicted in the Finale presents Stravinsky’s trademark habit of cycling hypnotically round the pitches enclosed within the interval of a perfect 5th. Just such a melody, swaddled in hushed tremolos, opens this final movement. It is a major challenge for the pianist to imitate the shimmering timbre of the orchestra’s brightest instruments as this theme is given its apotheosis to end the suite in a blaze of sonority that extends across the entire range of the keyboard.
Igor Stravinsky
The Suite italienne is one of several spin-offs from Pulcinella, the “ballet with song” that Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) composed for the Ballets Russes impresario Serge Diaghilev in 1920. “Composed” in this case being a somewhat misleading verb, as Diaghilev had found tunes he wanted to use by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736), which he gave to Stravinsky to arrange. (Massine also based his choreography on 18th-century Neapolitan steps.) This borrowing was controversial at the time, as was the “neo-Classical” direction Stravinsky’s music suddenly took, spiking the Baroque harmonies with dissonances, goosing the regular meters, and generally creating witty, ironic musical mayhem.
The brio and charm of the music was undeniable, however, and Stravinsky capitalized on it with various arrangements, including several suites of excerpts from the ballet’s 18 numbers for violin and/or cello and piano. Neither Stravinsky nor Diaghilev were aware at the time that Pergolesi was a popular name that 18th-century publishers slapped on just about any piece by a lesser-known contemporary that needed a sales boost. Of this Suite, only the Serenata and Menuetto are based on actual Pergolesi melodies. The Introduzione, Tarantella, Scherzino, and Finale are based on music by Domenico Gallo, and the Gavotta con due variazioni came originally from Carlo Monza.
Pulcinella is a 21-section ballet by Stravinsky with arias for soprano, tenor and bass vocal soloists, and two sung trios. It is based on the 18th-century play Quatre Polichinelles semblables, or Four similar Pulcinellas, revolving around a characters from the commedia dell’arte . The work premiered at the Paris Opera on 15 May 1920 under the baton of Ernest Ansermet . The central dancer, Leonid Massine, created both the libretto and the choreography, while Picasso designed the costumes and sets. The ballet was commissioned by Diaghilev , impresario of the Ballets Russes. A complete performance takes 35–40 minutes. Stravinsky revised the score in 1965 .
Ernest Ansermet wrote to Stravinsky in 1919 about the project. The composer initially did not like the idea of music by Pergolesi, but once he studied the scores, which Diaghilev had found in libraries in Naples and London , he changed his mind. Stravinsky adapted the older music to a more modern style by borrowing specific themes and textures, but interjecting his modern rhythms, cadences, and harmonies.
Pulcinella marked the beginning of Stravinsky’s second phase as a composer, his neoclassical period. He wrote:
‘Pulcinella was my discovery of the past, the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible. It was a backward look, of course—the first of many love affairs in that direction—but it was a look in the mirror, too.’
Suite italienne
Stravinsky based the following works on the ballet:
1925: Suite d’après des thèmes, fragments et morceaux de Giambattista Pergolesi, for violin and piano (in collaboration with Paul Kochanski).
1932/33: Suite italienne, for cello and piano (in collaboration with Gregor Piatigorsky ).
1933: Suite italienne, for violin and piano (in collaboration with Samuel Dushkin ).
Violinist Jasha Heifetz and Piatigorsky later made an arrangement for violin and cello, which they also called Suite italienne.
Guido Agosti (11 August 1901 – 2 June 1989) was an Italian pianist and renowned for his yearly summer course in Siena frequented by all the major musicians of the age.It was on the express wish of Alfredo Casella that Agosti took over his class which he did for the next thirty years.Sounds heard in his studio have never been forgotten.
Guido Agosti being thanked by Ileana Ghione after a memorable concert and masterclasses in the theatre my wife and I had created together in Rome.
Agosti was born in Forli 1901. He studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni Bruno Mugellini and Filippo Ivaldiand earning his diploma at age 13. He studied counterpoint under Benvenuti and literature at Bologna University. He commenced his professional career as a pianist in 1921. Although he never entirely abandoned concert-giving, nerves made it difficult for him to appear on stage,and he concentrated on teaching. He taught piano at the Venice Conservatoire and at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome.In 1947 he was appointed Professor of piano at the Accademia Chigiana Siena .He also taught at Weimar and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
In the Ghione Theatre in the early 80’s with Ileana Ghione,’Connie’Channon Douglass Marinsanti ,Lydia Agosti ,Cesare Marinsanti,Guido Agosti.A closely knit family .
His notable students include Maria Tipo,Yonty Solomon Leslie Howard,Hamish Milne,Martin Jones,Ian Munro,Dag Achat,Raymond Lewenthal,Ursula Oppens,Kun- Woo Paik,Peter Bithell.He made very few recordings; there is a recording of op 110 from the Ghione theatre in Rome together with his recording on his 80th birthday concert in Siena of Debussy preludes .
La scuola musicale russa tra Ottocento e Novecento rappresenta una fase cruciale nell’evoluzione del pensiero occidentale. In questo arco di tempo, la Russia, che in precedenza era stata in gran parte isolata dalle principali correnti musicali europee, iniziò a emergere come una potenza culturale significativa.Il cambiamento iniziò con Michail Glinka, spesso considerato il padre della musica classica russa. Glinka aprì la strada ad un nuovo stile musicale che attingeva profondamente dalla ricca tradizione folcloristica e dalle melodie popolari russe. Il suo approccio non era semplicemente quello di utilizzare melodie popolari, ma piuttosto di integrarle in una struttura classica sofisticata, creando così un ponte tra l’eredità culturale russa e le forme musicali occidentali.
Seguendo le orme di Glinka, il cosiddetto “Gruppo dei Cinque”, composto da Mily Balakirev, Aleksandr Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky e Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov, portò avanti questa visione. Si trattava di artisti determinati a produrre una musica che fosse distintamente russa, non solo nella melodia, ma anche nell’armonia, nel ritmo e nella struttura. Nel corso del Novecento, compositori come Sergej Rachmaninoff e Igor Stravinskij continuarono a sviluppare questo stile. Rachmaninoff, con la sua profonda sensibilità e la sua abilità al pianoforte, portò la tradizione romantica russa fino agli inizi del XX secolo.
Stravinskij, d’altra parte, fu un innovatore, spingendo in avanti i confini stessi della musica con opere come “La Sagra della Primavera”, che provocarono sia scandalo che ammirazione per la loro audacia ritmica e armonica.
Il programma della serata si apre con una selezione di Preludi di Sergei Rachmaninov, alcune delle pagine più famose del compositore russo. I brani proposti spaziano da composizioni romantiche e appassionate a brani più drammatici e tormentati.
A seguire, il Trio élégiaque n. 1, in sol minore, di Rachmaninov, opera composta nel 1892. Il brano è un’opera intensa e drammatica, che potrebbe essere stata ispirata dalla morte di una persona cara.Nella seconda parte, il concerto propone la Suite Italienne, per violoncello e pianoforte, di Igor Stravinsky. Il brano è una sintesi del balletto “Pulcinella”, composto nel 1920 ed ispirato alla musica popolare italiana del XVII e XVIII secolo.
Da sottolineare, infine, il prestigio degli artisti coinvolti: Daniele Sabatini è un violinista romano, già vincitore di numerosi premi nel repertorio cameristico insieme al pianista Simone Rugani; Evelyne Berezovsky è una pianista russa che vive a Londra, già ospite di Roma Tre Orchestra, che partecipa grazie al generoso contributo del Keyboard Charitable Trust; Martina Biondi è una delle migliori violoncelliste italiane della nuova generazione, attualmente residente a Berlino.
A thank you from The Danish Academy before closing up shop.
What greater tribute could a son make to his mother on what wouid have been her 100th birthday . A city ready to salute such an important figure of the great Neapolitan piano school and to have her anniversary celebrated by the opening of a new era for this great school that goes back to Clementi and forward to Martha Argerich via Denza ,Thalberg,Rossomandi,Cesi,Vitali,Scaramuzza and Anna Maria Pennella
The glorious family tree of the Neapolitan School of Piano by Massimo Fargnoli who had invited la Pennella to play in 2014 in a special event that was to be the last time she played in public – at the age of 91.It was illustrated tonight,due to the absence through a family illness of Fargnoli ,by Paologiovanni Maione with Emanuela Grimaccia,Eloisa Intini,Carla Di Lena
After tributes from illustrious colleagues it was the music of one of her former stellar students that demonstrated that music can reach us where words are not enough
Opening with Liszt’s great tone poem of Hero and Leander , that is the Second Ballade,with it’s chromatic ostinati representing the sea.Arrau,second generation of Liszt writes “You really can perceive how the journey turns more and more difficult each time. In the fourth night he drowns. Next, the last pages are a transfiguration”. And in today’s performance I have rarely heard it played so clearly or with such colour.Chiselled sounds of purity over a chromatic murmuring base.A pointed finger technique that like Michelangeli was penetrating and luminous.A wonderful sense of colour and a feeling for the inner harmonies in a truly magic wonderland of sounds. Cascades of notes generating an overwhelming excitement and exhilaration whilst never losing sight of the overall orchestral line with its jewel like precision but with a prism of chameleonic colours. I have heard many wonderful performances of this work from Arrau,Horowitz,Kentner and many others but none that touched me as this remarkable pianist I heard today.There was an overall shape that contained all the emotions and atmosphere and even a sense of showmanship in moments of a culmination of exhilaration.This is a great musician listening like Horowitz with arms open wide as he embraced and pointed to the jewel like sounds as a conductor might do with a great orchestra.
Antonio Pompa-Baldi had flown in from America where he now resides to give a recital that included the very first piece that he had studied with his adored piano ‘mother ’ : Rachmaninov ‘Corelli variations’.A performance that in the city of San Gennaro had something of the miraculous about it and was certainly the finest performance I have ever heard !
Like his ‘piano mother’ he obviously chose a contemporary work as the centrepiece of his Homage to Anna Maria Pennella.The CD of the Sonata and 25 pictorial Preludes by Roberto Piana played by Antonio Pompa-Baldi, recently received an enthusiastic review from the prestigious American Record Guide (Stephen Wright): “Hats off, gentlemen: a genius. The piano music of Robert Piana (b. 1971) puts me in mind of Ola Gjeilo and Keith larrett-but couched in more ambitious and expansive structuresand late Debussy, plus York Bowen after he absorbed the influence of Rachmaninoff and Debussy. This is sublime and memorable music”. Pianist and composer, Roberto Piana was born in Sassari, on the Italian island of Sardinia, in 1971. He perfected his studies with numerous famous pianists, but owes his training to Isabella Lo Porto, with whom he graduated in piano studies with top marks, at the Music Conservatory of Sassari where he now teaches and is based : http://www.robertopiana.com. Aldo Ciccolini,that great pianist of the Neapolitan school wrote of Piana’s own playing :’«I liked his way of playing very much, there is colour, imagination, an overwhelming sensitivity, determination… the instrumental performance is of enviable clarity». It could be exactly the way to describe what we heard today.This was a remarkable work played with a clarity and character that were mesmerising and it is obviously a work that will become with time a stable part of the piano repertoire. There were scintillating vibrations of ‘Scarbo’ proportions of ‘Cerbero’.The bell like distant chimes with its beautiful tenor melodic line of ‘Fortuna’.The plaintive cry of ‘Messo Celeste’and the deep tenor voice of ‘Epicuro’.Or the high pitched sounds of chiselled notes of ‘Arpie’ with a syncopated melody in its midst of tantalising and mesmerising clockwork precision with a final chord like broken glass. Enticing ‘Penelope’ with its ravishingly beautiful harmonies with swirling mists of sounds spread over the whole keyboard from which a deep tenor melody emerges with a brooding constant wave of sounds.’Lucifero’with great bass vibrations of fluidity that were never hard but extraordinarily liquid. This was an extraordinary performance of a master work.
At the end of sensational performances of a pianist I did not know but who is in my opinion without doubt one of the greatest pianists I have heard since Michelangeli and dare I say Horowitz too. He played two of the Brahms Paganini variations that his teacher had particularly loved. This was after a performance of Liszt’s Second Ballade that I have never heard played with such clarity and passion.A breathtaking performance followed ‘Sguardi sulla Divina Commedia’ ,written only two years ago by his colleague Roberto Piana and following in his teacher’s footsteps of promoting the music of their contemporaries. A straight finger technique (as Agosti always said :’ fingers of steel but a wrist of rubber’ ) .What Agosti did not say was also a heart of gold and a soul that can reach all the multicoloured stars that are hidden in this black box of hammers and strings. The colours that this pianist managed to discover in a Shegeru Kwai that he was able by his total mastery to turn a good solid bauble of a piano into a golden box of gems .
Rachmaninov’s ’Corelli Variations’ op 42 his last work for solo piano was quite simply the finest performance I have ever heard. A purity of chiselled beauty.A clarity where every strand was clear and part of a sumptuous whole.Each variation was imbued with a character that I have never heard before.After the tumultuous final build up with driving rhythmic energy and virtuoso octaves with an increasingly sumptuous and rich sound only vibrations were left dying away and from the distance a nostalgic heartrending final apparition of ‘La Folia’. A truly memorable performance that if I had my score with me I would have like to describe each marvel in more detail.
But it was the final encore ‘Le Chemin de l’amour ’ that said it all and had her son the distinguished pianist Orazio Maione on his feet together with the entire audience to salute not only Antonio Pompa- Baldi but his ‘piano mother’ Anna Maria Pennella who by the same miracle as San Gennaro was with us today in her city seething with activity just a few days before Christmas.
The distinguished pianist and professor ,Orazio Maione the son of Anna Maria Pennella
Born in Portici ,Naples in 1923 Anna Maria Pennella dedicated her life to music in her city that she loved and today returned that same love. As she said to her students : ‘Music is the best medicine for living well and having a long life’.
A long queue to salute Orazio after the concert A vast entourage that moved into the green room before being invited to leave by a Conservatory that had run out of time .
Something that is amply demonstrated by her CD of Brahms Sonata op 5 recorded live in 2010 at the age of 87 when she was awarded ‘ Una vita per la musica’…………
Carla Di Lena with Marco Scolastra https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/10/24/marco-scolastra-at-the-goethe-institute-a-voyage-of-discovery-from-clementi-to-rossini/ Marco who had played the Brahms First Concerto op 15 four hands with Orazio Maione and his mother having heard a try through announced that she could now bless their duo.The Sala Muti full for the conversation that preceded the concert in the main hall Eloisa Intini spoke with emotional warmth of a person who had been a dominant force for her.Anna Maria Pennella shared her enormous energy with each student individually.With artistic intuition like a poet who can see the whole picture as opposed to the writer who can only see the words.A personality that wanted to share and transmit her great musical obsession with all that came into range.Emanuela Grimaccia spoke so eloquently about the important role that Anna Maria played in the long Neapolitan Piano Tree.Although not a student of Anna Maria she had come very much under her influence.Carla Di Lena spoke of the great musician she had known and it was she that shared this beautiful article by her star student with us.It was printed in the Musical Magazine of the Conservatory of L’Aquila in 2017 the year of her death.The genial generosity of the Director of San Pietro a Majella,Gaetano Panariello with a warm welcome for this 100th Anniversary Homage
And so to the real Homage in music opening with a work by Debussy that Orazio’s mother had fallen in love with in her last years :Images oubliees n. 1 Lent (melancolique et deux) .Played by a student of her son : Giuliano Grella .
The young pianist (I biennio) Giuliano Grella played these whispered secrets with ravishing colours and refined passion .There was a delicacy with a kaleidoscope of colours but an architectural line that made one wonder why these pieces are rarely heard. I remember Fou Ts’ong often delving into these early works of Debussy as well as playing the last great work and absolute masterpiece that are the Etudes.
Claude Debussy composed Images, a three-piece cycle for piano, in 1894. The cycle was only eventually published in its entirety in 1977, entitled Image (oubliées). The reason for adding the words “forgotten” was to prevent it from being confused with his other two popular Images cycles, published in 1905 and 1907 .Maurice Ravel orchestrated the Sarabande in 1923, and Zoltán Kocsis created an orchestral transcription of the other two pieces. The first, “melancholic and sweet” is followed by the Sarabande, which Debussy instructed to be performed “[…] with dignified and slow elegance, not unlike an old portrait, a memory from the Louvre, etc. […]” The vigorous and humorous third piece is based on the first line of the French nursery song “Nous n’irons plus au bois”. Images (oubliées) No. I. Lent (Mélancolique et doux) No. II. Sarabande (Ravel’s orchestration) No. III. Quelques aspects
Carla di Lena writes :Domani sarò presente all’omaggio che il Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella di Napoli renderà ad Anna Maria Pennella, scomparsa alcuni anni fa, quest’anno ne avrebbe compiuti 100. Su questa personalità straordinaria – da ascoltare le sue interpretazioni disponibili su YouTube – che ha formato schiere di pianisti e di attuali docenti di conservatorio, nonchè mamma di un bravissimo pianista e docente come Orazio Maione, avevamo pubblicato un articolo qualche anno fa ( n. 49/2017 ) nella rivista Musica+ del Conservatorio dell’Aquila. Lo ripropongo qui perchè è una bella testimonianza del suo allievo Antonio Pompa-Baldi, che domani suonerà per ricordarla. Tra le immagini, nell’articolo, è stato inserito per intero un estratto del “Corriere del Popolo” del 1948 relativo al Concorso Pianistico di Genova, concorso nel quale Annamaria Pennella vinse il secondo premio, il primo era stato assegnato a Sergio Fiorentino. E proprio domani 22 dicembre Fiorentino avrebbe compiuto 96 anni. Una bella coincidenza, che vede idealmente unite due figure importanti per la storia del pianoforte in Italia. Per la lettura in pdf questo il link (pp.21-24) https://www.consaq.it/files_repos/pubblicazioni/riviste/musica/2664/49lugsett17Musicapiu.pdf
Let there be fun,games ,glorious music and sumptuous food …….if music be the food of love …..play on in this festive season in Milan …….thanks to Steinway and all their wonderful sons and daughters
The Steinway team
Oh what a wonderful party ………….with the two winners of the Steinway Young musicians contest …………..13 and 14 years old ….what talent …listen below ………….after the music strictly limited to 20 minutes the fun and games truly began in Maura Romano style.We could have danced all night ……and nearly did except midnight was in view and I am not keen on pumpkins.
Alessandro Livi,sales consultant for Maura Romano ,country manager Flagship store and institutions.
Patrizia Amane Di Lena 13 year old student in Milan of Silvia Rumi winner with Mattias Glavinic of the Steinway Young Artists Contest ……. A superb Fantasy Sonata by Scriabin that at 14 is a technical challenge and at 21 a musical one ….but this young lady had it all in her fingers ,brain and heart.
A remarkable performance of youthful innocence and passion with an enviable command of the keyboard.The various strands of melody in the first movement that she magically pieced together and the driving rhythmic energy that she brought to the second movement I have rarely heard played so musically and with such simple innocent passion.
The enthusiasm of Maura knows no bounds in her quest to help young musicians reach their goal.
Playing on the magnificent Steinway D that sits so regally in this wonderful Flagship captained by Maura Romano……. Calm seas and treacherous voyage are no danger here in the centre of Milan next door to the musical temple that is La Scala. Maura is a wonderful sailor who knows how to calm the waters and encourage all those great talents that sail with her to their land of dreams.
It was a memorable recital as was the performance by fourteen year old Mattias Glavinic today.Maura had rationed these two young artists to ten minutes each but I would have gladly listened to them for much longer – but Christmas Cheer needs time to digest and enjoy too!
Music provided for all tastes with a superb jazz trio
Mattias played a quite remarkable ‘La Leggerezza’ concert study by Liszt. The subtle rubato and insinuating beguiling sounds that uncurled from his delicate agile fingers reminded me of Godowsky’s famous recording :
Maura and her team presenting the two winners of the Steinway Junior Competition
Some things cannot be taught and this beauty of sound and flexibility of pulse is acquired unconsciously in infancy and once given the technical know how expresses itself in what we heard tonight. Obviously he has a good teacher who does not obstruct his great natural talent but just helps it grow. He also played Chopin’s Third Ballade – the most pastoral of the four remarkable tone poems that Chopin created for the piano. It was a musicianly performance that showed a great command of the keyboard but also of Chopin’s very precise pedal indications that are so fundamental for the shaping of phrases and maintaining the lilting pulse of this sunniest of Ballades. A remarkable performance for the control of his youthful love and passion for music and if I had to criticise him at the end it was only to point out the fact that the visual beauty of movement should depict the same beauty and shape of the notes on the page. Volodos is the prime example these days, as to watch him paint the ravishing sounds he makes is like admiring a painting by Leonardo Da Vinci or a sculpture of Michelangelo.
Pianists often facilitate these movements by pianistic trickery as Mattias did today in the last great scale that plunges into the depths of the piano before the final glorious four chords.The shape of that scale should be the shape physically of the arm movement …it is a question of mind over matter …………I pointed it out to Mattias because for such a potentially great talent it is food for thought to think and ponder over and be aware of. A dimension that only the greatest of talents can understand and digest. Mattias is just such a talent !
Giovanni Bertolazzi e gli Amici della Musica di Padova desiderano dedicare il concerto di questa sera alla memoria di Zoltán Kocsis, nel ricordo sempre vivo dei suoi concerti padovani “Si dovrebbe tendere all’eterno, non a ciò che finisce.” Z. Kocsis (1952 – 2016) ‘One should think of the infinite ,not just that which finishes ‘
Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) Sonata in fa maggiore Hob. XVI:23
Allegro moderato Adagio Finale (Presto)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) Sonata in mi bemolle maggiore op. 7
Allegro molto e con brio Largo, con gran espressione Allegro Rondo (Poco allegretto e grazioso)
Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886) “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” (Preludio da Joh. Seb. Bach) S. 179
Totentanz, Parafrasi sul “Dies irae” S. 525
Igor Stravinskij (1882 – 1971) da L’oiseau de feu (trascr. Guido Agosti) Danse infernale Berceuse Finale
It was almost four years ago that Giovanni played in the Sala dei Giganti in a sunday morning series dedicated to young competition winners .Giovanni,I had already heard in Bolzano and had immediately realised that here was potentially a remarkable musician and passionately dedicated pianist.I wrote about that first concert in Padua giving it the title ‘A Giant amongst the Giants’
Giovanni has now grown into a very mature young man with a quarter of a century behind him as his playing is growing steadily in stature.He has been taken under the wing of the Keyboard Trust and has already played in London on two occasions.On the first occasion he took advantage of the generosity of Leslie Howard ,the leading Liszt expert of the day and Artistic director of the KT ,to discuss repertoire and consult scores with a true expert.Leslie had been a esteemed student of Guido Agosti who had studied with Busoni who in turn had been a student of Liszt.On the same occasion he played the Liszt Sonata to Peter Frankl at his home and they spent many hours discussing it together.Giovanni on his second visit to London last June took the National Liberal Club by storm as he gave the first in a series of six concerts for young musicians in a hall which had seen Rachmaninov and Moiseiwitch before the war.Last autumn he toured America and astounded all that heard him including the New York critic Jed Distler one of the most informed critics of our day. I like to think that Giovanni and I have become friends since that fateful day in Bolzano when I by chance bumped into him with his father and was able to congratulate him on the superb performances he had given in the ‘Busoni’.
It is this artistry that has flowered into a towering presence where he is merely the medium between the composers and his audience.I have heard most of the works in today’s programme but such was his way of recreating the music that I was bowled over by so many things that I had not noticed before.One of the most remarkable things about Giovanni’s playing is his kaleidoscopic sense of colour and with just the right amount of showmanship that allows him to reenact the music before our astonished eyes.Remarkable ,no nonsense contrasts in the Trio of the Scherzo but it had also been noticeable from the very first notes of this early sonata.A sonata where the genius of Beethoven suddenly comes to the fore as he takes the form bequeathed to him by his teacher Haydn and transforms it with his irascible genius into the sonatas that were to be the thermometer for a life span in 32 steps.
I have written about Giovanni’s performance quite recently in London but suddenly in Giovanni’s hands one becomes aware of what a great work this early sonata is.It is ,of course ,the Largo that is so poignant and already points to the things that are to come in the last great trilogy.Giovanni on a piano that at first seemed rather muffled, here in this great slow movement he discovered its secrets and he created a full string quartet sound where even the rests took on a searing significance as each gasp became more and more intense.A mastery of touch that allowed a non legato bass but with a legatissimo melodic line of such subtle tenderness.Slightly leaning on the inner notes of the chords in the octaves it gave a real string quartet feel as one could suddenly be aware of what ravishing beauty the young Beethoven was capable of .The opening of the Scherzo- Allegro was like opening a window to let fresh air in after such intensity.It was in the Trio with its rolling harmonies with injections of electric shocks that must have been truly astonishing in Beethoven’s time and it was this same surprise and stupor that this musician ,the same age as Beethoven when he penned such marvels,was able to show us today.A rondo that was all elegance and delicacy and on each appearance still more insinuatingly presented.But this was rudely interrupted by an episode of overwhelming power and rhythmic energy.The most noticeable thing was the clarity that Giovanni brought to the music with never hard or ungrateful sounds but always rich and full of a string quartet or orchestral texture.This was not just a great virtuoso but a musician of stature dedicated to recreating the music and surprising even himself as the music was allowed to unravel so naturally from his extraordinarily sensitive ten players.
I am reminded of Kantarow who is one of the blessed few that lives every note and like Giovanni makes the music speak in a musical conversation that keeps us enthralled from the first to the last.A story that has to be told ….and what a story!It was the same immediacy that he had brought to Haydn’s sonata in F that opened this well balanced programme.An Allegro moderato that was all brilliance and charm .From these very first notes the subtle legato of the right hand with the gentle non legato of the left was a transcendental tour de force of touch that I have not heard played with this Matthay type simplicity for too long .The ravishing beauty of the Adagio had me thinking that this surely is the birth of ‘bel canto’.A sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to glow and shine with golden beauty and ornaments that unwound with the ease and grace of a great singer.Haydn marks the Finale Presto but surely not so fast as to loose the sense of fun and games that the composer is treating us too.Giovanni’s kaleidoscopic palette of colour allowed him nevertheless to shape this movement with subtle shading but surely Giovanni you can let your hair down now and have more fun after the burning intensity you had shown us in the sublime Adagio?
Filippo Juvarra artistic director with on the right Luigi Borgato
Giovanni’s Liszt playing is well known as his CD’s can already testify.CD’s that were produced by Borgato the makers of superb instruments and infact the preferred piano of Radu Lupu whenever he played in the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza.
Giovanni’s father carefully following his son as he reaches for the heights in a very competitive field
Hopefully this marriage between Borgato pianos and a star pianist will bring lustre to both in the name of art.Mr Borgato was present tonight together with Giovanni’s father and both were visibly bowled over as were we all by what we were about to be treated to after the interval.
The auditorium C.Pollini in Padua
It was Liszt that he and Kevin Chen had surprised the world with at the International Competition in Budapest.Both top prize winners Chen a genial figure who at fourteen ,a prodigious genius who went on to astonish the juries of Geneva at 16 and Rubinstein at 18.Like Lim or Trifonov it is an early presumptuous genius that may or may not mature well.Giovanni has been carefully delving into the scores and studying intensely helped by many great musicians like Jean Eflem Bavouzet and Peter Frankl in particular.It is this time that has been so important to allow the music to mature within this already superbly trained musician.Here mention should be made of the five years vigorous training that Giovanni received in Catania from Epifanio Comis .We live in an age when time to stop and think becomes ever more precious .An age of instant comunication, fast travel and where quantity seems to be more important that quality.
All this to say that I was overwhelmed by Giovanni’s performances of Liszt and Agosti ( Agosti my own teacher and great friend who I will celebrate tomorrow in Forlì where he was born and is buried .A student of Busoni who was in turn a student of Liszt.Liszt who had been taught by Czerny,a student of Beethoven who in turn had been a student of Haydn – small world !).
Liszt’s “Weinen,Klagen,Sorgen,Zagen ‘ I have never been aware of what a remarkably beautiful work it is until today.It was played with a simplicity as the opening desolate notes were whispered into our ears only to be transformed into a work of a true believer with genial resources in his hands and heart.Totentanz too ,usually a work of scintillating virtuosity here was transformed into a satisfying whole where each variation whilst given its own character was part of a much larger architectural design.Astonishing technical fireworks abound,of course ,but like with Arrau never forgetting the extraordinary musical invention of a master work.
Breathtaking virtuosity with double notes I have never heard before played with such colour and ease.Glissandi that shot across the keyboard like streaks of lightening but linked always to an overall musical line.But it was Agosti’s ‘Firebird’ where all of Giovanni’s technical brilliance and kaleidoscopic sense of colour produced an unforgettable performance that is for me undoubtedly the greatest I have ever heard.There have been some remarkable performances from two stars such as Kantarow and Rana recently but what Giovanni produced today I could only imagine coming from the hands of Agosti himself.All those that flocked to Agosti’s studio in the summer months at the Chigiana in Siena have never forgotten the sounds that came from this rather reserved musical genius.
Guido Agosti a rare recording that I made in 1983 in the Ghione Theatre in Rome
The opening was indeed a ‘Danse Infernale’ as Giovanni suddenly let rip with amazing technical command, authority and above all a rhythmic drive that was exhilarating and exciting.The hushed tones of the Berceuse were bathed in pedal and whispered with a glowing fluidity in a magic sound world that kept us all mesmerised .It is always a magic moment when the clouds open and the ‘Firebird’ is revealed but today the ravishing beauty that Giovanni was able to create still is with me as I write these few poor lines to try to understand myself and share with others such a wondrous musical experience.The gradual build up to the final tumultuous wave of sounds was truly masterly .
I thought of the young pianist I had heard all those years ago in Bolzano and the long difficult path he has had to pursue since.A trial of fire indeed for a young man who dedicates his life to his art but what joy he finds as he comes out of the jungle to become one of the most exciting performers before the public today.
An encore was introduced very eloquently considering the tour de force that Giovanni had been through .The ‘Valse Triste’ in a transcription by Cziffra of the violinist Vecsey.A violinist almost forgotten these days but as Giovanni had told us he had played for the Amici della Musica di Padova in 1928 .What he did not tell us was that Agosti had written his transcription of the ‘Firebird’in that same year!A vintage year indeed!Also I was just told en passant that Guido Agosti was the pianist!
Gian Luca Sfriso who I hold the archives
I have written about Giovanni’s performance before so let’s just enjoy it together now.
Here is a link to a recent performance Giovanni gave in Milan for the Serate Musicali :
Franz von Vecsey was a Hungarian violinist and composer, who became a well-known virtuoso in Europe through the early 20th century. Born: March 23, 1893, Budapest ,Hungary Died: April 5, 1935, Rome his Full name: Ferenc Vecsey
GIOVANNI BERTOLAZZI Giovanni Bertolazzi è il vincitore del 2° Premio e di 5 premi speciali al Concorso Pianistico Internazionale “Franz Liszt” di Budapest (2021). Nato a Verona nel 1998, si è avvicinato al pianoforte da bambino, crescendo in una famiglia particolarmente interessata alla cultura, all’arte ed alla musica. Dopo aver conseguito il diploma accademico di I livello in Pianoforte con 110 e lode presso il Conservatorio “B. Marcello” di Venezia con Massimo Somenzi, decide di seguire gli insegnamenti della scuola pianistica di Epifanio Comis presso l’Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali “V. Bellini” di Catania, dove ha conseguito il diploma accademico di II livello con 110, lode e menzione speciale. Durante i suoi studi, ha frequentato diverse masterclass di pianoforte tenute da illu- stri pianisti e pedagoghi come Lily Dorfman, Joaquín Achúcarro, Matti Raekallio, Violetta Egorova, Boris Berezovsky, Stephen Kovacevich e Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Ha vinto più di 40 premi in concorsi pianistici internazionali, tra cui il 1° Premio al Concorso Pianistico “Siegfried Weishaupt” di Ochsenhausen (2017), il 1° Premio al Concorso Pianistico Internazionale “Sigismund Thalberg” di Napoli (2018) e il 4° Premio al Concorso Pianistico Internazionale “Ferruccio Busoni” di Bolzano (2019). Nel giugno 2019 a Milano ha ricevuto il “Premio Alkan per il virtuosismo pianisti- co”. Da gennaio 2020, Giovanni è sostenuto artisticamente dalla Associazione Culturale “Musica con le Ali”. Nel luglio 2022 è stato premiato con il “Tabor Foundation Award”, riconoscimento assegnatogli dalla Verbier Festival Academy in occasione del Verbier Festival (Svizzera). Si è esibito in importanti sedi tra cui Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Palazzo Pitti di Firenze, Teatro Politeama Garibaldi di Palermo, Teatro Bellini di Catania, Palazzo del Quirinale a Roma, Sala Verdi del Conservatorio di Milano, “F. Liszt” Academy of Music di Budapest, Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum a Budapest, Landesmusikakademie di Ochsenhausen, Kadrioru Kunstimuuseum di Tallinn, Steinway Hall a Londra. Inoltre è stato ospite di prestigiose organizzazioni musica- li come Serate Musicali di Milano, Amici della Musica di Padova, Bologna Festival, Amici della Musica di Firenze, Verbier Festival, Cziffra Festival di Budapest nel- l’ambito del quale è stato anche invitato a registrare un programma dedicato a Beethoven e Liszt per Bartók Rádió.
Portrait of Haydn by Thomas Hardy (1791) March 31, 1732, Rohrau,Austria – May 31, 1809, Vienna ,Austria He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led him to be called “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”.
Haydn’s six Piano Sonatas Hob. XVI:21-26 were published in 1774 with a dedication to Prince Nicholas Esterházy I. The Sonata in F major Hob. XVI:23 is undoubtedly the most popular of them. The playful opening movement with its two contrasting themes, the wonderfully melancholic Adagio in f minor and the lively Presto finale make this work a prime example of the classical sonata,
Painting of Ludwig Van Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler made in the year 1820
Sonata no. 4 in E flat major, opus 7: Beethoven himself named this pianoforte sonata Grande Sonate because it was published by itself in 1797 – unusual for the time. It remains his second-longest sonata, behind the Hammerklavier Sonata op 106. Beethoven’s pupil (and Liszt’s teacher) Carl Czerny wrote: “The epithet appassionata would fit much better to the Sonata in E flat op. 7, which he wrote in a very impassioned mood”. It may be that the reason behind such passionate music was the composer’s attraction for his dedicatee, the then 16-year-old pupil Anna Luise Barbara Countess von Keglevich, and it is possible be that her father had commissioned Beethoven to write the work for her.
Franz Liszt 22 October 1811 Doborjan ,Hungary 31 July 1886 (aged 74) Bayreuth,Germany
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing),BWV 12, is a church cantata composed by J.S.Bach in Weimar for Jubilate ,the third Sunday after Easter with the first performance on 22 April 1714 in the Schlosskirche, the court chapel in Weimar. Variations on “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen,” S. 180 is one of Franz Liszt’s most significant works. Written after Liszt joined the Third Order of Saint Francis and during a time of deep personal tragedy, it reflects both Liszt’s religious journey and his coping with suffering and shows daring explorations of chromaticism that pushed the limits of tonality. It was arranged for organ one year after the piano version was composed and became one of his best-known compositions for organ.The work dates from 1862 and was motivated by the death of Liszt’s elder daughter, Blandine and is dedicated to Anton Rubinstein.This massive set of variations was written by Franz Liszt when two of his three children had died within three years of each other; he had resigned his position of Kapellmeister to the court of Weimar due to continued opposition to his music, and finally his long sought marriage to Princess Caroline Wittgenstein had been thwarted by political intrigue.Giovanni played the heartrending prelude S.179 which precedes the massive set of variations S.180.
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.
The Dance of Death (Totentanz) from Liber Chronicarum [Nuremberg Chronicle], 1493, attr. to Michael Wolgemut
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.
Liszt’s hand
Igor Stravinsky 17 June 188. Saint Petersburg, Russia – 6 April 1971 (aged 88) New York City, US
Stravinsky’s score for The Firebird was written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes dance company, which premiered the work in Paris in 1910. Based on ancient Russian folk tales, it tells the story of the young Prince Ivan’s quest to find a legendary magic bird with fiery multi-coloured plumage. In the course of his adventures, he falls in love with a beautiful princess but has to fight off the evil sorcerer Katschei to eventually marry her. The suite presents the culminating scenes of the ballet in a piano transcription by the Italian pianist and pedagogue Guido Agosti (1901-1989), who studied with Ferruccio Busoni.
The Danse infernale depicts the brutal swarming and capture of Prince Ivan by Katschei’s monstrous underlings until Prince Ivan uses the magic feather given to him by the Firebird to cast a spell on his captors, making them dance until they drop from exhaustion. The Berceuse is a lullaby depicting the eerie scene of the slumbering assailants, leading to the Finale, a wedding celebration for Prince Ivan and his princess bride.Agosti’s piano transcription, completed in 1928, is a daunting technical challenge for the pianist. Most of the piano writing is laid out on on three staves in order to cover the multi-octave range of the keyboard that the pianist must patrol. The piano comes into its own in this transcription as a percussion instrument, to be played with the wild abandon with which a betrayed lover throws her ex-partner’s possessions off the balcony onto the street below.Judging from the shocking 7-octave-wide chord crash that opens the Dance infernale, Agosti captures well the bruising pace of the action, with off-beat rhythmic jabs standing out from a succession of punchy left-hand ostinati constantly nipping at the heels of the melody line. The accelerating pace as the sorcerer’s ghouls are made to dance ever more frantically is a major aerobic test for the pianist.
Relief comes in the Berceuse, which presents its own pianistic challenges, mainly those of finely sifting the overtones of vast chord structures surrounding the lonely tune singing out from the middle of the keyboard.The wedding celebration depicted in the Finale presents Stravinsky’s trademark habit of cycling hypnotically round the pitches enclosed within the interval of a perfect 5th. Just such a melody, swaddled in hushed tremolos, opens this final movement. It is a major challenge for the pianist to imitate the shimmering timbre of the orchestra’s brightest instruments as this theme is given its apotheosis to end the suite in a blaze of sonority that extends across the entire range of the keyboard.
Guido Agosti (11 August 1901 – 2 June 1989) was an Italian pianist and renowned for his yearly summer course in Siena frequented by all the major musicians of the age.It was on the express wish of Alfredo Casella that Agosti took over his class which he did for the next thirty years.Sounds heard in his studio have never been forgotten.
Guido Agosti being thanked by Ileana Ghione after a memorable concert and masterclasses in the theatre my wife and I had created together in Rome.
Agosti was born in Forli 1901. He studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni Bruno Mugellini and Filippo Ivaldiand earning his diploma at age 13. He studied counterpoint under Benvenuti and literature at Bologna University. He commenced his professional career as a pianist in 1921. Although he never entirely abandoned concert-giving, nerves made it difficult for him to appear on stage,and he concentrated on teaching. He taught piano at the Venice Conservatoire and at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome.In 1947 he was appointed Professor of piano at the Accademia Chigiana Siena .He also taught at Weimar and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
In the Ghione Theatre in the early 80’s with Ileana Ghione,’Connie’Channon Douglass Marinsanti ,Lydia Agosti ,Cesare Marinsanti,Guido Agosti.A closely knit family .
His notable students include Maria Tipo,Yonty Solomon Leslie Howard,Hamish Milne,Martin Jones,Ian Munro,Dag Achat,Raymond Lewenthal,Ursula Oppens,Kun- Woo Paik,Peter Bithell.He made very few recordings; there is a recording of op 110 from the Ghione theatre in Rome together with his recording on his 80th birthday concert in Siena of Debussy preludes .
A celebration by a young Forliese pianist that is dedicated to Guido Agosti in the town where he was born and is buried
An admirer,Giselle Pascal,looking at a pianist’s hands.She had heard Cziffra play Totentanz in Paris
Giovanni Bertolazzi con Caterina Isaia Museo Teatrale alla Scala di Milano
Complimenti a Caterina Isaia e Giovanni Bertolazzi che questa sera al Museo Teatrale Alla Scala di Milano, come ieri al Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, hanno emozionato il pubblico in una Sala Esedra sold out! Il Salotto Musicale, realizzato in collaborazione con il Museo Teatrale alla Scala, torna a settembre…grazie a tutti e al prossimo appuntamento con l grande musica dei migliori giovani talenti italiani!
Caterina Isaia and Giovanni Bertolazzi at the Teatro La Fenice Sala Esedra Venice La Scala La Fenice
Zoltán Kocsis, pianist and conductor, born 30 May 1952; died 6 November 2016
Zoltán Kocsis one of three great pianist from the same generation that include Deso Ranki and Andras Schiff .Zoltan Kocis made a great contribution to the culture of his native Hungary as conductor, teacher, composer, record producer and critic.He had a burning desire to pass on the insights and experience of previous generations.
Zoltán Kocsis, died aged 64 following a long illness, was a member of a distinguished troika of Hungarian pianists – with Dezsö Ránki and András Schiff – who emanated from the late 1960s class of Pál Kadosa at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Schiff, although the youngest of the trio, was the first to embark on an international career, while Kocsis, like Ránki, remained closer to Hungary ,engaging fruitfully with his compatriots, provocatively and often courageously towards officialdom. Kocsis’s contribution to the culture of his native country was all the more valuable in that he was not only a pianist and conductor, but also a teacher, arranger, musicologist, composer, record producer and critic.
Underpinning that versatility was a sense of mission: a burning desire to pass on the insights and experience of previous generations. To that end he would proselytise on behalf of, for example, Rachmaninov’s or Bartók’s performances of their own works, even when this approach ran counter to orthodoxy. Thus his interpretations of Bartok (he recorded the complete piano works, both solo and with orchestra , to high acclaim) exemplified his conviction that. The ‘barbarism’ traditionally projected in the ubiquitous motor rhythms was too extreme, too mechanical. Kocsis preferred a more flexible and sensitive approach, as had been demonstrated, he maintained, by Bartók himself.
Rubato was indeed a prominent feature of all Kocsis’s playing, whether in his ravishing account of Grieg’s Erotik, in the subtle inflections of Debussy’s Clair de Lune, evoking the preternatural stillness of a moonlit night, or in the transcendental figuration of Liszt’s Les Jeux d’Eau à la Villa d’Este .The other predominant characteristic of his performances was the pellucid tone, consistently sensuous even in passages of heightened emotion and enhanced by the singing quality he unfailingly brought to melodic lines.
As a conductor, Kocsis achieved prominence as co-founder with Iván Fischer of the Budapest Festival Orchestra in 1983. Remaining as an artistic director until 1997, he helped establish the orchestra as one of the leading world ensembles, with appearances at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Musikverein, BBC Proms and Salzburg and Lucerne festivals. In 1997 he became music director of the Hungarian national Philharmonic Orchestra , nailing his colours to the mast with a performance of Schoenberg’s massive Gurrelieder in his first season. Inventive programming and contemporary repertoire remained features of his orchestral and solo piano programmes: among the composers who wrote works for him was György Kurtág, another of his teachers at the Liszt academy.
Born in Budapest, son of Mária (nee Mátyás) and Ottó Kocsis, Zoltán began his piano studies at the age of five and continued them at the Béla Bartók Conservatory, where he also learned composition. Moving on to the Liszt Academy in 1968, he was still a student when he won the Hungarian Radio Beethoven Competition in 1970. The following year he toured the US, and in 1972 appeared in London and at the Salzburg and Holland festivals. Rapidly establishing a career as an international pianist, he also achieved celebrity status in Hungary, as conductor and teacher as well as pianist. His academic pursuits continued to inform his activities on all fronts: meticulous in his study of texts and sources, he brought a scholarly, inquiring mind to the art of performance. He was appointed to teach at the Liszt academy in 1976.
Dividing his time between playing and conducting, he appeared with leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw, as well as the Hungarian National Philharmonic. He also toured extensively in Europe,America and the Far East.
With his cherubic features, shock of wavy hair and penetrating, often idiosyncratic, readings, he had a charismatic stage presence, and was especially renowned for his exceptional pianistic talents, on account of a series of prizewinning recordings. In addition to the complete Bartók series, he made some acclaimed recordings of Debussy, Rachmaninov, Liszt and Dohnányi. Drawing on his talents as composer and arranger, he made his own version of Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, concluding with imaginatively virtuosic figuration.
His transcription of the prelude to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde , which at the climax spills on to multiple staves, deployed virtuosity to project the heights of passion. It is possible to feel that his account of the Liebestod from the same work (this time using Liszt’s version) emphasised passion at the cost of Isolde’s transfiguration; a similar criticism may be levelled at his forceful rather than enraptured Prelude to Lohengrin. Elsewhere, however, his undoubted virtuosity was harnessed to a sensitivity and poetic imagination that made his artistry compelling.
In 1986 he married the pianist Adrienne Hauser . After their divorce, in 1997 he married the pianist Erika Tóth. She survives him, as do their son, Krisztian, also a pianist, and daughter, Viktoria, and his son, Mark, and daughter, Rita, from his first marriage.
I concerti di Zoltán Kocsis per gli Amici della Musica di Padova
28 aprile 1983 B. Bartók: C. Debussy: R. Wagner: For children (I fascicolo) Arabesque n. 1 – Tarantelle Styrienne (Danse) – Pour le piano Berceuse hé roique – Images (oublié es) Parsifal: Scena delle fanciulle-fiore e Finale (trascr. Z. Kocsis)
19 novembre 1992 L.v. Beethoven: B. Bartók: F. Chopin: F. Chopin: F. Liszt: Sonata op. 2 n. 1 Sette Bagatelle op. 6: QuattroMazurche(op.7n.2,op.17n.4,op.24n.1,op.67n.2) Polonaise-Fantaisie op. 61 Da Anné es de pè lerinage, Troisiè me Anné e, Italie: IV: Les jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este – VI: Sunt lacrymae rerum Csárdás macabre
27 gennaio 1998 C. Debussy: W.A. Mozart: B. Bartók: Douze Préludes Libro II Fantasia in do min K 475 Dieci Pezzi da Mikrokosmos Sonata 1926
This was the beginning of a very exciting and successful year in which we had a series of concerts in Hazlemere for Stephen Dennison with: Adam Heron ,Thomas Kelly and Milda Daunoraite
The ever generous Stephen had also invited two of our star pianists to perform in his series at the Cranleigh Arts Centre : Victor Maslov and Damir Durmanovic together with our illustrious Artistic Director Leslie Howard who had celebrated his 75th birthday at the Wigmore Hall whilst fighting health problems that have thankfully been resolved.
Leslie Howard at the end of his superbly heroic 75th birthday concert at the Wigmore Hall
An important new series at the National Liberal Club was made possible with the generosity of the Robert Turnbull Trust administered by Rupert Christiansen .The first concert was with Giovanni Bertolazzi on the 5th June – the first of six recitals in the sumptuous surrounds of the Liberal Club thanks also to Yisha Xue’s Asia Circle.
Giovanni Bertolazzi trying the piano with the piano tuner present
The National Liberal Club Arseni Mun winner of the Busoni 2023
A series of concerts at the Harold Acton Library in Florence included the winners of the Busoni Competition who are awarded by the Trust a career e development prize including a London concert – this year’s winner,Arseni Mun,will play at Steinway Hall on the 26th June
In the meantime Ivan Krpan,Emanuil Ivanov,Chloe Jiyeong Mun and Jaehong Park played in this KT Festival in Florence which was concluded with Minkyu Kim and will include Steinway Hall in Milan thanks to our dearest friend Maura Romano.
Concerts in Cyprus for the Pharos Arts Centre with Victor Maslov and a triumph for Damir Durmanovic with star violinist Guido Sant’Anna ……..Ivan Krpan will close the year with a concert on the 14th December.
Thanks to the generosity of Dr Hugh Mather and his remarkable team at St Mary’s. Perivale we had a true marathon with ten pianists playing in two days :
This was intended to give a platform to the artists that we had selected to audition for us augmenting the six dates that Steinway Hall very generously give us every year
It was a wonderful surprise to learn that one of our latest recipients of the Weir Trust, of which we are execeteurs ,won the Gold Medal at the coveted Clara Haskil International Piano Competition .Magdalene Ho ,19,will be playing for us in February in Florence and Milan .
Two summer concerts at St Martin in the Fields,thanks to Richard Thomas,with a church full to the rafters for two popular concerts by two of our most charismatic pianists.
Tyler Hay also astonished us all with his mastery of an unknown Brazilian Composer whose works he had learnt especially to play in our collaboration with the Brazilian Embassy in the beautiful ex Cunard Hall in Trafalgar Square
Elena Vorotko presenting the charismatic Tyler Hay at the Sala Brazil ex Cunard
There were concerts at the Erin Arts Centre on the Isle of Man with George Todica and Minkyu Kim playing and introducing their programmes to very enthusiastic audiences
St Jude’s Prom is an annual engagement and this year Victor Maslov took them by storm.
Tomoki Sakata was chosen to play at the Michelangeli Festival in Cles the town where Noretta has a family home as did Michelangeli.
A harpsichord recital in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Dominika Maszczynska
There were tours of Germany with Can Arisoy and Milda Daunoraite organised by Dr Moritz von Bredow
Two concerts thanks to Simone Tavoni at the Festival ‘Sous les Arbres’ in France Lunel – Viel with Ilaria Cavalleri and Thomas Kelly
Simone had played in Viterbo and Roma 3 University and also a concert in the Natural History Museum in Livorno .
And so to our last concerts in Cyprus at Pharos Arts Centre with Ivan Krpan and Rome with Evelyne Berezovsky at Roma 3 .Two stars shining brightly to close the year for us .
Evelyne Beresovsky
Nikita Lukinov will open the new year with our Italian tour of Venice/Padua/Abano and Vicenza – starting on the 13 January in Venice and closing in Vicenza on the 16th .
The new Steinway Flagship in Milan
This is just a personal view and there are many concerts that time and space could not accomodate and I hope to expand on this reduced chronicle in the New Year.
Another beautiful tribute from a mother to her daughter in Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati. The distinguished French pianist Marylene Mouquet dedicates a special Christmas concert to her daughter Patrizia every year after her tragic death in a road accident exactly nineteen years ago on this day the 10th December.
This year a chamber music concert with works for violin and piano by Mozart and Brahms .A trio by Mendelssohn with viola instead of cello and lieder by Dvorak and Brahms (with piano and cello).
David Greiner baritone with Marina Cesarale piano
David Greiner was the splendid baritone of great presence and very clear diction.He was helped in the Canti Biblici op 99 by the very sensitive playing of Marina Cesarale.
With Jingbo Wang cello obligato
For the Brahms op 91 Jingbo Wang added the beauty of his cello to the lusicious beauty of the voice.
Alina Maria Taslavan ,violin Luigi di Domenicantonio ,pianoforte
This lead so naturally into the last of Brahms violin Sonatas n.3 in Dminor op 108 where Alina Maria Taslavan and Luigi Di Domenicantonio found their voice together in a passionate and moving account of this sonata.Playing with the lid full open of the Steinway – that I know very well from my concerts here with the much missed Lya De Barberiis.-he managed to create an almost orchestral sound without ever overpowering the ravishing beauty of Alina’s sumptuous playing.They had opened with the Sonata K.377 where the balance was very much weighed in the favour of the piano and rather overpowered the refine subtle tones that Alina brought to their duo.
With Matteo Mizera ,viola
A very interesting trio by Mendelssohn with a viola in place of the usual cello for a piano trio.This obviously early work was played with great style with all three musician blending into one magnificent whole.Problems of balance with the piano vanished as these three young players allowed the music to pour from their souls ,united with vitality ,passion and technical brilliance.
Marylene Mouquet with the artists for her Associazione Musicale ‘Ricordando A.B.Michelangeli ‘
A moment of beauty and reflection from six fine artists whilst the world outside waits to celebrate Christmas.
Frascati Cathedral Frascati in Festive mood.Great presence of David Greiner in Dvorak and Brahms Marylene presenting the artists The splendid duo Taslavan – Di Domenicantonio
Sunday April 28th the return of 19 year old piano genius Shunta Morimoto.
The Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is a multifunctional complex built to replace the old Teatro Comunale and was designed by architect Paolo Desideri .It is the main venue of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino , and hosts various types of musical and cultural events.It is located near the Parco delle Cascine and the Firenze Porta al Prato station and is equipped with a hall with 1890 seats, intended for the opera theatre, an auditorium, named after the maestro Zubin Mehta , with 1200 seats, for symphony concerts and concert music. room, and an outdoor auditorium with 2000 seats work was undertaken from 2009-2021and opened on December 21, 2011
We came to hear Beethoven with Lupo and Gatti but it was Brahms that stole our hearts. After a performance of Beethoven’s first piano concerto of dynamic brilliance and refined beauty Benedetto by great insistence was enticed into playing an encore. It was as though the heavens had opened as he caressed the keys with an aristocratic sense of style and a kaleidoscopic range of sounds in the Brahms Intermezzo in A op 118 n.2.
The whispered opening almost unnoticeably grew in sound and weight to a sumptuously rich climax.The duet between voices in the central episode was of orchestral proportions as they wove together with a golden glow of warmth that seemed to entice us in to the sublime world that was evolving from Benedetto’s hands.The gradual disintegration of the ending was played with barely audible sounds that seemed to shimmer and gleam with poignant poetry in this visionary landscape. A Beethoven where Benedetto had defined the opening with a driving rhythmic insistence that contrasted so well with the whispered legato of the central episode. The Largo was played with such intimacy but at the same time the notes were projected into the upper reaches of the Zubin Mehta hall. Daniele Gatti too was a sensitive partner who was able to create such an initimate atmosphere from the superb young players he had before him.
The rondo just shot from Benedetto’s hands where his artistry in knowing how to shape and sculpture the sounds brought this movement so vividly to life. Mention should also be made of the delicacy of his playing in the ‘little’ cadenza of the first movement but even more beautiful were the final notes from the piano that he allowed to glisten as they flowed like jewels from his fingers before the final explosion from the orchestra brought to a conclusion a remarkably refined performance of what was infact Beethoven’s second Concerto!
The sumptuous foyer of the new Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino The Sala Zubin Mehta The new hall near to the old Teatro Comunale that I knew so well from my student days and that has now been demolished to make way for the new
Considered by international critics as one of the most interesting and complete talents of his generation, Benedetto Lupo made his debut at thirteen years of age with Beethoven’s First Concerto; he immediately earned distinctions in numerous international competitions, including the Cortot and the Ciudad de Jaén competitions in Europe, and the Robert Casadesus, Gina Bachauer, and Van Cliburn competitions in the United States. In 1992, as his intense performance activity brought him to the Americas, Japan, and Europe, he won the Terence Judd Award in London.
Benedetto Lupo has played on numerous occasions at New York’s Lincoln Center, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Tanglewood Festival, the Lanaudière Festival, the Oxford Festival, the International Festival in Istanbul, the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, and at Copenhagen’s Tivoli Festival. He has been guest of the leading Italian theatres –Teatro alla Scala in Milan, San Carlo in Naples, La Fenice in Venice, the Teatro Comunale theatres of Bologna and Florence, Turin’s Teatro Regio, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, and Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari – and of the major national concert institutions, including the Orchestra dell’Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Verdi in Milan, I Pomeriggi Musicali, the Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Unione Musicale in Turin, La Società del Quartetto in Milan, the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Amici della Musica in Florence, Festival Pianistico Internazionale in Bergamo and Brescia, and the “Micat in Vertice” season of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana.
Of the world-famous orchestras he has played with, in North and South America, mention may be made of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the New World Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, Les Violons du Roy, and the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira; in Europe, he has performed with the London Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchester in Leipzig, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Hallé Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, the Orquesta Nacional de España, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Slovak Philharmonic, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, and the Bruckner Orchester Linz. The conductors he has worked with most frequently include Yves Abel, John Axelrod, Piero Bellugi, Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Fabio Biondi, Daniele Callegari, Christoph Campestrini, Aldo Ceccato, Nicholas Collon, Yoram David, Vladimir Delman, Gabriel Feltz, Gabriele Ferro, Ed Gardner, Andrew Grams, Giancarlo Guerrero, Lü Jia, Vladimir Jurowski, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Pavel Kogan, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, Marko Letonja, Alain Lombard, Nicholas McGegan, Fabio Mechetti, Juanjo Mena, Kent Nagano, Daniel Oren, George Pehlivanian, Zoltan Pesko, Michel Plasson, Josep Pons, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Lawrence Renes, Corrado Rovaris, Joseph Silverstein, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Michael Stern, Gregory Vajda, Alexander Vedernikov, Antoni Wit, Hugh Wolff, Kazuki Yamada, and Xian Zhang.
In addition to his recordings for numerous radio and television broadcasters in Europe and the United States, Lupo has recorded for TELDEC, BMG, VAI, NUOVA ERA, and the complete works for piano and orchestra by Schumann for ARTS. In 2005, a new recording of Nino Rota’s Concerto Soirée was released for Harmonia Mundi, winning no fewer than five international prizes, including the “Diapason d’Or.”
A pianist with an enormous repertoire, Benedetto Lupo can also boast a major chamber and teaching career; he holds master classes at major international institutions and is often invited to the juries of prestigious international piano competitions. Since the 2013/2014 academic year, he has been professor of piano in the master courses at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where, in December 2015 he was named “Active Academician.”
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 