Mese: gennaio 2024

Aleksandr Skryabin (1872-1915)

Piano Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor Op. 19 ‘Sonata Fantasy’
(1892-7)
I. Andante • II. Presto

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Kreisleriana Op. 16 (1838)
Äusserst bewegt • Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch •
Sehr aufgeregt • Sehr langsam • Sehr lebhaft •
Sehr langsam • Sehr rasch • Schnell und spielend

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)

Scherzo No. 1 in B minor Op. 20 (c.1833)
Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor Op. 31 (1837)
Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor Op. 39 (1839)
Scherzo No. 4 in E Op. 54 (1842-3)

Boris Giltburg at the Wigmore Hall with a first half of all fantasies :Scriabin Second (Fantasy) Sonata and Schumann’s Kreisleriana.Some beautifully sensitive playing of the first movement of Scriabin with ravishing colours and a sense of balance that allowed the melodic line always to be revealed wrapped as it was in sumptuous golden streams of sound.The second movement was played with dynamic drive and throbbing passion with a kaleidoscope of sounds that allowed for a dynamic range of searing passion mixed with subtle delicacy . Playing with an I pad heroically in view he gave an exemplary performance of one of Scriabin’s most loved Sonatas.
I had heard recently a recording from the Wigmore Hall of Boris Giltburg giving a magnificent performance of Chopin’s 24 Preludes.Although he had the I pad as an aide memoire he never seemed to need it as the 24 problems,as Fou Ts’ong used to call them ,were 24 jewels in a sumptuous crown of nobility,elegance and grandeur.
So it was with great expectancy that I awaited a similar performance of Chopin’s Four Scherzi preceded by Schumann’s eight fantasies that make up Kreisleriana.

Not helped by a rather metallic sounding Fazioli piano Kreisleriana sounded rushed and rather erratic with exaggerated contrasts not only of sound but also tempo.There were of course many beautiful moments such as the central episode of the first fantasy or the beautiful simplicity of the first part of the fourth ( where surely ‘bewegter ’ means moving not actually slower?)The third sound strangely disjointed and although the central episode was played with great beauty it seemed strangely divorced from its surroundings.The fifth whilst being rhythmically very clear seemed to lack any real substance to the sound in the more lyrical passages that follow.The sixth was so whispered as to be almost inexistant before the rather unhinged attack of the seventh that like the first had seemed strangely out of control.The central episode was played by the left hand alone and revealed an absolute technical mastery that made its surroundings even more incomprehensible.Surely the final chords are part of what precedes them and is just a way of slowing down the tension?The eighth was the most successful where the absolute clarity of the right hand was beautifully judged contrasting with the long bass held notes.The first contrasting episode though was strangely sotto voce whereas the second was anything but sotto voce and made one wonder whether Floristan had suddenly woken from a deep sleep with a start.

Unfortunately the Chopin Scherzi fared no better with hurried frantic passage work in the first that although played with great drive and accuracy seemed strangely out of control.The beautiful Polish carol of the central episode was almost inaudible as more attention was shown to the top notes of the accompaniment than to the beautiful melody in the tenor or alto register.The second was played with great rhythmic energy and contrast but the central episode so divorced from its surrounding as to make any architectural sense of this well known masterpiece impossible.A very exciting ending and as at the end of the first had Giltburg happy to interrupt the continuity of this quartet of Scherzi with applause.The opening of the third I have never heard played so well but then the octaves that followed were like guns going off and totally divorced from the magnificent introduction that had preceded them.The chorale was played so sotto voce that even for Giltburg made it difficult to control the cascades of notes that illuminate this glorious almost religious outpouring.The fourth scherzo in a way suited Giltburg with its fleeting silf like changes of character but again the glorious cantabile of the central episode was barely whispered and the octaves at the end were more worthy of Tchaikowsky than poor old Chopin!
An almost inaudible and mannered performance of Clare de lune was cheered to the rafters by the ever generous Wigmore Hall audience and I was just sorry to have eavesdropped on an occasion that was so very different from the one I had been expecting.Chopin plus it was billed as from an illustrious artist in residence which was obviously not the case tonight.

Boris Giltburg an avalanche of Diabolic suggestions take the Wigmore by storm

Kreisleriana, op 16, is a in eight movements and subtitled Phantasien für das Pianoforte. Schumann claimed to have written it in only four days in April 1838^[and a revised version appeared in 1850.It is dedicated to Chopin , but when a copy was sent to the Polish composer, “he commented favorably only on the design of the title page”.

1. Äußerst bewegt (Extremely animated),
2. Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (Very inwardly and not too quickly). This movement in ABACA form, with its lyrical main , includes two contrasting intermezzi.In his 1850 edition, Schumann extended the first reprise of the theme by twenty measures in order to repeat it in full.
3. Sehr aufgeregt (Very agitated),
4. Sehr langsam (Very slowly), B♭ major/G minor
5. Sehr lebhaft (Very lively), G minor
6. Sehr langsam (Very slowly), B♭ major
7. Sehr rasch (Very fast),
8. Schnell und spielend (Fast and playful), G minor. Schumann used material from this movement in the fourth movement of his first symphony

Kreisleriana is a very dramatic work and is viewed by some critics as one of Schumann’s finest compositions.In 1839, soon after publishing it, Schumann called it in a letter “my favourite work,” remarking that “The title conveys nothing to any but Germans. Kreisler is one of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s creations, an eccentric, wild, and witty conductor.”

Like the kaleidoscopic Kreisler, each movement has multiple contrasting sections, resembling the imaginary musician’s manic depression , and recalling Schumann’s own “Florestan” and “Eusebius,” the two characters Schumann used to indicate his own contrasting impulsive and dreamy sides.

In a letter to his wife Clara , Schumann reveals that she has figured largely in the composition of Kreisleriana:

‘I’m overflowing with music and beautiful melodies now – imagine, since my last letter I’ve finished another whole notebook of new pieces. I intend to call it Kreisleriana. You and one of your ideas play the main role in it, and I want to dedicate it to you – yes, to you and nobody else – and then you will smile so sweetly when you discover yourself in it.^’

Chopin’s four scherzos were composed between 1833 and 1843. They are often linked to his four ballades , composed in roughly the same period; these works are examples of large scale autonomous musical pieces, composed within the classical framework, but surpassing previous expressive and technical limitations. Unlike the classical model, the musical form adopted by Chopin is not characterised by humour or elements of surprise, but by highly charged “gestures of despair and demonic energy”.Schumann wrote of the first scherzo : “How is ‘gravity’ to clothe itself if ‘jest’ goes about in dark veils?”Starting in the early 1830s, after his departure from Poland, Chopin’s musical style changed significantly, entering a mature period with compositions of exceptional single-movement pieces on a monumental scale, stamped with his unmistakable signature. There were ten of these extended works—the four ballades, the four scherzos and the two fantaisies (op 49 and 61) This musical transformation was preceded by Chopin’s new attitude to life: after adulation in Warsaw, he felt disillusioned by lukewarm audiences in Vienna; then his prospects as a pianist-composer seemed less inviting; and lastly nostalgia and the recent 1830 Polish uprising drew him back spiritually to Poland. The musical form “scherzo” comes from the Italian word ‘joke’. In its classical form, it is usually part of a multi-movement work, in triple time with a lively tempo and light-hearted mood. Beethoven’s scherzos perfectly exemplify this type of movement, with characteristic sforzandi off the beat, clearly articulated rhythms and rising or falling patterns.Chopin’s four scherzos enter into a different and grander realm. They are all marked presto or presto con fuoco and “expand immeasurably both the scale of the genre and its expressive range”. In these piano pieces, particular the first three, any initial feeling of levity or jocularity is replaced by “an almost demonic power and energy”.

Each of the four scherzos starts with abrupt or fragmentary motifs, which create a sense of tension or unease. The opening gestures of Scherzo No. 1 involve texture, dynamics and range: strident chords are followed by rapid will-o-the-wisp passagework, rising with crescendos—motifs that recur during the movement. In Scherzo No. 2, the initial fragmentary sotto voce rumblings are followed by a dramatic forceful response, all of which are repeated. The gesture that begins Scherzo No. 3 is similar to that of Scherzo No. 2, but less pronounced. The beginning of Scherzo No. 4 alternates two contrasting textures and harmonies—first subdued chords and then faster arched figures that rise and fall with the dynamics. In summary, Chopin established the one-movement scherzos as a genre in which the piece grew out of the opening fragmentary gestures, heard at the outset in the initial short and contrasting musical ideas.

Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-sharp minor, (op. 19, also titled Sonata-Fantasy) took five years for him to write. It was finally published in 1898, at the urging of his publisher. ‘You’ve had that piece long enough! Send it to me right away.’ Skryabin’s publisher and friend, Mitrofan Belyayev, was referring Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor Op. 19, a work that,despite its modest length, was almost six years in the
making. ‘It has been revised seven times’, the
composer remarked, before finally submitting it to
Belyayev in 1898.

In 1894 he had agreed to pay Scriabin to compose for his publishing company (he published works by notable composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov- Korsakov and Glazunov). In August 1897, Scriabin married the pianist Vera Ivanovna Isakovich, and then toured in Russia and abroad, culminating in a successful 1898 concert in Paris. That year he became a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory and began to establish his reputation as a composer. During this period he composed his cycle of etudes , Op. 8, several sets of preludes , his first three piano sonatas, and his only piano concerto , among other works, mostly for piano.

For five years, Scriabin was based in Moscow, during which time his old teacher Safonov conducted the first two of Scriabin’s symphonies.

P.S.

Christopher, your review of the Giltburg recital was one of the most honest and accurate that I have ever read. Last evening, I began to worry that my hearing was defective, but your review this morning has encouraged me to believe that I am retaining my faculties. I was tempted to leave at the interval after the divine Schumann was so badly mangled.

David Carhart thank you dear friend he is only the second person that I have allowed my feelings to take over but I had heard his Chopin Preludes on the Wigmore Website and thought that after the awful mangled Schumann he would give us some insights …but alas this was not the case and the encore summed up his musicianship that is on a par with Babayan …..the only other person I have allowed myself to describe what horrors were being enacted on such a hallowed stage …….I was incensed of the ignorance of taste of a public who could give him an ovation after such a feast ….it gave me indigestion and I hurried home as fast as I could thanking God that I had heard Alim the other day with hard work and humility transmitting the composers wishes to us …I just hope he survives the sharks that are out to cash in on artists who are ready to sacrifice their artistic integrity pushed by the machinery that can offer them concerts ………..quantity rather than quality …..the pressure and temptation is great.But of course I remember Brendel playing K271 and with that saying farewell to the concert platform before his powers diminished ………….what is this I pad thing that is so readily accepted in solo concerts …….even concertos now and no one remarks on it ………….

Alim Beisembayev piano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor Op. 57 ‘Appassionata’ (1804-5)
I. Allegro assai • II. Andante con moto •
III. Allegro ma non troppo – Presto

Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat Op. 110 (1821-2)
I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo •
II. Allegro molto • III. Adagio ma non troppo – Fuga.
Allegro ma non troppo

Interval
Aleksandr Skryabin (1872-1915)

4 Preludes Op. 22 (1897)
Prelude in G sharp minor • Prelude in C sharp minor •
Prelude in B • Prelude in B minor

Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Prelude in B minor Op. 32 No. 10 (1910)
Etude-tableau in D Op. 39 No. 9 (1916-7)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Gaspard de la nuit (1908)
I. Ondine • II. Le gibet • III. Scarbo

Alim Beisembayev in a major London recital at the Wigmore Hall .
A programme that already showed the credentials of great artistic integrity.
When these days do young musicians play two Beethoven Sonatas as an opener to an important London recital?
Only a fool or a great artist would dare open with the ‘Appassionata’ followed by Beethoven’s antidote to a turbulent life with the mellifluous, sublime outpouring of his penultimate sonata op 110.

Alim is certainly no fool and is quite simply one of the finest musicians I have heard since Serkin.A rhythmic precision and attention to the minutest details in the score of Boulezian clarity. Silences that were truly golden and were the anchors that we could hold on to inbetween the marvels that were being recreated before our very eyes .
An ‘Appassionata’ of startling contrasts that had us on the edge of our seats as if newly minted. The opening of op 110 after the extraordinarily relentless onslaught of the Presto ending of the ‘Appassionata’ was of such sublime beauty as Alim waited until he could feel we were all with him before gently caressing notes that like the fourth Concerto are of celestial genius.
There was magic in the air indeed and a great artist treating us with humility and mastery to performances the like of which has been missing too long from the concert hall .
We are getting too used to artists appearing before the public with the I pad in a desperate attempt to keep up with the speed with which concert artists are obliged to be entreated by people who are more interested in quantity than quality.
But it is the tension that is missing as was so evident today as this young man played with simplicity and humility what the composer had actually written .He had digested the score but more than that because it was the very meaning behind the notes that was both enthralling and enlightening . There were no nice conveniently turned corners to this young man’s Beethoven but the sinuous tempestuous impatience that we know was the man Beethoven.
A live performance should be like the man on the high wire holding us in his hands with electrifying suspence as was the wont of a Serkin or a Brendel.The surprise element ,the voyage of discovery that can unite strangers gathered to share in such experience is what we were treated to today.

As Gilels used to declare the difference between live music and recorded is that between fresh or canned food .I will never forget Serkin at the end of the ‘Hammerklavier’ in London holding onto the last chord as though his life depended on it,shaken as we all were after a tumultuous and even tortuous voyage of discovery together.Or Arrau at the end of the Beethoven Trilogy so overwhelmed as we all were he could never have had a quick cup of tea and repeated such a miracle to appease the crowds who demanded a return fight!

What a lesson we were treated to tonight by this young man who was trained in British Institutions that have nurtured his great natural talent and imbued him with a technical mastery that allows him to delve deep into the very heart of the creative genius of the composers he is serving .Je sens,je joue je trasmets has never found a greater advocate……..

What a superb start to the second half of the concert with a very short survey of Russian music with ravishing beauty of nobility,sensuality and nostalgia.Four preludes op 22 by Scriabin that with Alim’s chameleonic sense of colour and mood was a multicoloured feast of fluidity and luminosity.The sumptuous hidden passion of the first was followed by a mere page of sublime simplicity and the capricious play with sounds of the third.They lead so naturally to the Romantic effusions of the last in B minor and behold a miracle that this was transformed as if by magic into the ‘Return’ by Rachmaninov in the same key.The Prelude in B minor with its improvised searching character was a favourite of the composer and his great friend Moiseiwitch who had delved deep into this miniature tone poem and found the same poetic meaning as the composer intended.The gentle opening lead to an overpowering climax that was so gradual and well balanced that we were not aware of how overwhelming it would be .Immediately there was a desolate nostalgic calm like a light being turned off . Such was Alim’s mastery of sound he could lead us where he wanted to as he had a story to tell with his sensitive fingers and kaleidoscopic sense of colour.Of course the final word was from Rachmaninov with the extraordinary sumptuous outpouring of the Etude – tableau op 39 n. 9 .Even here though there was a story to tell as the dynamic opening energy subsided and there was the contrasting episode of crystal like clarity where all the strands of counterpoint could be heard chattering amongst themselves as the excitement grew to fever pitch and the final gloriously sumptuous outpouring of grandeur and nobility allied to an almost animal pitch of excitement.

Gaspard de la nuit was the closing work of the recital and it held no terror for Alim .His only concern was to transmit Ravel’s extraordinary recreation of the poems by Bertrand even though Ravel had set out to test the technical prowess of pianists by writing a piece of equal if not more difficulty that Balakirev ‘s notorious Islamey.Technical considerations just disappeared as we were taken into a magic world of sounds with the delicacy and fluidity of Ondine.There were ‘puffs’ of colour that appeared as if by alchemy when least expected.An extraordinary sense of line that no matter how complex the texture Ondine shone through as she darted from one end of the keyboard to the other with silf like precision.After the tumultuous climax Ondine was left on her own barely a whisper bathed in pedal .In Alim’s hands ,like his long pedals that Beethoven demands,suddenly made sense and added some quite extraordinary colours to an instrument that is after all a box of hammers and strings.How can one possibly persuade us that it can sing as beautifully as the human voice ?By artistry,technical mastery but above all a supreme sense of balance .Alim is not only a courageous high flyer but a supreme illusionist as were the pianists in the so called Golden Age of piano playing .Was it not Matthay who said that in each note on the piano there are a hundred different gradations of sound depending on how the keys are touched.

Seeing Stephen Kovacevich in the audience applauding his younger colleague I am reminded of his great mentor Myra Hess – the star student of Uncle Tobbs at the Royal Academy.The desolate sounds of Le Gibet were of such insistence and the bass notes gave the needed anchor on which the gallows could swing with such frightening isolation.Scarbo entered in this desolate atmosphere with a remarkable clarity.The deep bass notes I have never heard so clearly defined as the vibrating chords – like in Beethoven’s aria of op 110 – unbelievably were like blowing on the keys such was their extraordinary unpercussivness.I remember Agosti pushing my fingers nearer the keys never to hit but caress and pull sounds that are hidden deep within the black and white keys of this great black beast.Perlemuter too changing fingers many times on one note like an organist to feel the weight within the keys as you slid from one to the other never letting go.

Here again it was the silences that were so overwhelming in their impact not only of the silence but what came immediately afterwards.In the central episode I have never been aware of the fact that this is Ondine again raising her head before being dragged into the infernal furness of the triumphant Scarbo.Extraordinary technical mastery and passionate involvement from Alim who like the great masters of the past would show and guide us to the one and only climax in a piece and it was this that gave such architectural authority to his performances.Rubinstein of course was the prime example who even in his late 80’s would suddenly inject a work with electric energy sometimes even rising from the seat to do so.

The tricks of the trade my old teacher Sidney Harrison used to call them.But what trade ?That of master musicians who are totally dedicated to their art.That is what I was reminded of today as Alim was cheered to the rafters by the discerning Wigmore Hall public and persuaded to play two encores that were indeed the cherry on a sumptuous cake.

Chopin Prelude op 28 n.17 .The deep A flat in the bass created a sound where the melodic line could appear as an apparition from afar a ‘Cathédrale engloutie’ indeed .And finally a ‘Chasse Neige’ by Liszt that made one realise what a true genius Liszt was when his works are played with the intelligence and fantasy that we heard today.Every bit as frightening as Scarbo as the whispered chromatic scales built to a terrifying climax – never hard or ungrateful but the sumptuous and ravishingly beauty of a truly ‘Grand’ piano.

Alim Beisembayev – The poetic vision of a great artist

Gaspard de la nuit (subtitled Trois poèmes pour piano d’après Aloysius Bertrand), M.55 was written in 1908. It has three movements , each based on a poem or fantaisie from the collection Gaspard de la Nuit – Fantasies à la manière de Rembrandt e de Callot completed in 1836 by Aloysius Bertrand . The work was premiered in Paris, on January 9, 1909, by Ricardo Vines.

The piece is famous for its difficulty, partly because Ravel intended the Scarbo movement to be more difficult than Balakirev’s Islamey . Because of its technical challenges and profound musical structure, Scarbo is considered one of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the standard repertoire.

The name “Gaspard ” is derived from its original Persian form, denoting “the man in charge of the royal treasures”: “Gaspard of the Night” or the treasurer of the night thus creates allusions to someone in charge of all that is jewel-like, dark, mysterious, perhaps even morose.

Of the work, Ravel himself said: “Gaspard has been a devil in coming, but that is only logical since it was he who is the author of the poems. My ambition is to say with notes what a poet expresses with words.”

Aloysius Bertrand , author of Gaspard de la Nuit (1842), introduces his collection by attributing them to a mysterious old man met in a park in Dijon , who lent him the book. When he goes in search of M. Gaspard to return the volume, he asks, “ ’Tell me where M. Gaspard de la Nuit may be found.’ ‘He is in hell, provided that he isn’t somewhere else’, comes the reply. ‘Ah! I am beginning to understand! What! Gaspard de la Nuit must be…?’ the poet continues. ‘Ah! Yes… the devil!’ his informant responds. ‘Thank you, mon brave!… If Gaspard de la Nuit is in hell, may he roast there. I shall publish his book.’ ”

Beethoven’s A flat major Sonata, Op 110, was his penultimate sonata, written in 1821, 

The outward gentleness of the opening movement belies its tautness of form, and the contrast with the brief second, a scherzo marked Allegro molto – capricious, gruffly humorous, even violent – is extreme. Beethoven subversively sneaks in references to two street songs popular at the time: Unsa Kätz häd Katzln ghabt (‘Our cat has had kittens’) and Ich bin lüderlich, du bist lüderlich (‘I’m dissolute, you’re dissolute’)! 

Facsimile of last movement p.43 

But it’s in the finale that the weight of the sonata lies, and it begins with a declamatory, recitative-like passage that starts in the minor, moving to an emotionally pained aria-like section.Beethoven introduces a quietly authoritative fugue, based on a theme reminiscent of the one that opened the sonata. Its progress interrupted by the aria once more, its line now disjunct and almost sobbing for breath. The way in which the composer moves into the major via a sequence of G major chords is a passage of pure radiance, that Edwin Fischer described as ‘like a reawakening heartbeat’. This leads to a second appearance of the fugue in inversion culminating in a magnificently triumphant conclusion.

In the summer of 1819, Adolf Martin Schlesinger from the Schlesinger firm of music publishers based in Berlin sent his son Maurice to meet Beethoven to form business relations with the composer.The two met in Modling,where Maurice left a favourable impression on the composer.After some negotiation by letter, the elder Schlesinger offered to purchase three piano sonatas for 90 ducats in April 1820, though Beethoven had originally asked for 120 ducats. In May 1820, Beethoven agreed, and he undertook to deliver the sonatas within three months. These three sonatas are the ones now known as Op. 109,110, and 111 the last of Beethoven’s piano 

Beethoven’s own markings with the ‘bebung‘ or vibrated notes in the Adagio of op.110

The composer was prevented from completing the promised sonatas on schedule by several factors, including his work on the Missa solemnis (Op. 123),rheumatic attacks in the winter of 1820, and a bout of jaundice in the summer of 1821.Op. 110 “did not begin to take shape” until the latter half of 1821.Although Op. 109 was published by Schlesinger in November 1821, correspondence shows that Op. 110 was still not ready by the middle of December 1821. The sonata’s completed autograph score bears the date 25 December 1821, but Beethoven continued to revise the last movement and did not finish until early 1822.The copyist’s score was presumably delivered to Schlesinger around this time, since Beethoven received a payment of 30 ducats for the sonata in January 1822.

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, op 57 , known as the Appassionata, was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick. The first edition was published in February 1807 in Vienna

The ‘Appassionata’ was not named during the composer’s lifetime, but was so labelled in 1838 by the publisher of a four-hand arrangement of the work. Instead, Beethoven’s autograph manuscript of the sonata has “La Passionata” written on the cover, in Beethoven’s hand.

Alim Beisembayev won First Prize at The Leeds International Piano Competition in September 2021, performing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Manze. He also took home the medici.tv Audience Prize and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society Prize for contemporary performance, with The Guardian praising him as a “worthy winner” with a “real musical personality”.Announced as a BBC New Generation Artist 2023-25, in summer 2023 Alim made his Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms debut performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and recorded for BBC Television.Further highlights in the 2023/24 season include debuts with the BBC Symphony (Jonathan Bloxham), BBC Philharmonic (Joshua Weilerstein), Bournemouth Symphony (Tom Fetherstonhaugh) and Enescu Philharmonic as well as returning to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Domingo Hindoyan) to perform the World Premiere of a new piano concerto by Eleanor Alberga.Recent concerto highlights include with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (Pablo Rus Broseta), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Case Scaglione), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Clemens Schuldt), Oxford Philharmonic, SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart (Yi-Chen Lin), RCM Symphony Orchestra (Sir Antonio Pappano), National Symphony Orchestra of India, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov” and Fort-Worth Symphony.As a recitalist, Alim has made notable debuts at the BBC Proms at Truro, the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Oxford Piano Festival, Wigmore Hall, Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris) and Cliburn Concerts in addition to a tour of Europe in association with the Steinway Prizewinner Concerts Network, and Korea, with the World Culture Network. Upcoming recitals include his debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Birmingham Town Hall and return visits to the Seoul Arts Centre and Wigmore Hall among others.In December 2022, Warner Classics released Alim’s debut album: Liszt Transcendental Études, featuring all twelve of the composer’s etudes which was met with critical acclaim.Born in Kazakhstan in 1998, Alim’s early studies were at the Purcell School where he won several awards, including First Prize at the Junior Cliburn International Competition. Alim was taught by Tessa Nicholson at school and continued his studies with her at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2023, Alim completed his Masters’ and Artist Diploma in Performance at the Royal College of Music where he studied with Professor Vanessa Latarche. He is generously supported by numerous scholarships such as the Imogen Cooper Music Trust, ABRSM, the Countess of Munster, Hattori Foundation, the Drake Calleja Fund trusts, and belongs to the Talent Unlimited charity scheme.

A homage to one of Forli’s most illustrious citizen’s ,Guido Agosti,with a series of recitals organised by a fellow citizen and pianist Giuliano Tuccia.

I could not imagine a better way to celebrate one of the greatest musicians of his age than with the concert I heard last night by Serena Valluzzi.
A eclectic programme of Debussy,De Severac and Albeniz that created a magic atmosphere of foreign lands joined by a poetic link of subtle ravishing sounds.It was though the musicianship of Serena that allowed her to delve deep into the heart of these atmospheric works and get to the very core of the creation with the respect and musicianship that were the fundamental principles of Guido Agosti.
Serena I had noted at the Busoni Competition and had been impressed by the simplicity and beauty of her playing of ‘Gaspard de la Nuit’.It was later that Louis Lortie,who had been the chairman of the jury,who confided how impressed he too had been by her extraordinary musicianship and sensitivity to sound.She was infact awarded a top prize in Bolzano.

‘Gaspard’ has long been a war horse for virtuosi to show off their wares at the expense of the poetic content that Ravel had depicted.
Agosti in Siena in exasperation would exhort the pianists who flocked to his studio every year from all over the globe not to play too loudly and to follow exactly what the composer had written.
The rock on which an interpretation is founded are the indications left by the composer in the score.It is only when that is understood and mastered that a performer can add his own colours and personality like a painter to his canvas.

Agosti was a great admirer of Debussy and he chose the Preludes book 2 as the programme he gave at the Chigiana in Siena for his 80th birthday.It is one of the few recordings of this great pianist whose humility and dedication to music made public performances a torment for him.

The world would flock to his studio in Siena for thirty years where he was in total command and at ease and it was there that we would hear sounds we would never forget.
A legend was truly born.
And it is this legend that the young pianist Giuliano Tuccia wants his fellow citizens to remember and recognise.

What better way than with Serena ,a complete musician,playing Debussy’s magical ‘Estampes’.The subtle sounds of ‘Pagodes’,the beguiling insinuating ‘Soirées dans Grenade’ and the delicate patter of ‘Jardins sous la Pluie’ was turned into a magic land of subtle sounds and ravishing technical mastery.

A very interesting choice was of a fascinating work by Deodat De Severac :Cerdana ,Cinq etudes pittoresques.What a kaleidoscope of colours and sensitive virtuosity she showed us with a transcendental control of sound that was indeed the principle hallmark of Agosti.
I remember hearing Richter for the first time in London and being astonished at how quietly he could play and with what control between pianissimo and mezzo forte .Of course there were the passionate animal like explosion too but it was here that I began to truly understand Agosti when he would exhort the pianists with ‘troppo forte ….no…..no….piano …piano ‘ as he would push the students hand nearer to the keys so they could feel the sound in their fingertips rather than falling from on high like a sledge hammer.

Serena told me afterwards that it has been Aldo Ciccolini who had discovered the music of De Severac and had recorded the entire piano works too.It is good to see another great musician like Serena continuing this campaign for music that is inexplicably rarely heard in the concert hall.
The beguiling constant pitter patter of El Albaicin by Albeniz was exactly the right work to finish this short homage to the genius of Agosti.
I have heard him teach and explain this work many times and can hear him now as he intoned the music with his passionate hypnotic humming as he demonstrated and ignited the passion in the students before him.And how he would suddenly inflame the piano with passionate abandon as Serena did today too with flames of the same searing intensity.

Another miniature by De Severac was the enchanting encore that Serena offered today and will have me rushing back home to find out more of this greatly neglected composer.

Giuliano writes :’Non posso fare altro che dire grazie a Daniele Ceraolo per la bellissima performance di ieri sera. Un recital focalizzato su Beethoven e Debussy con una padronanza e ricchezza di suono ineguagliabili. Pubblico molto attento alle atmosfere sonore create all’interno della Fabbrica delle Candele. Felice di confermare Daniele per il prossimo anno!’

The third recital in this festival dedicated to Guido Agosti was given by the Russian pianist Roman Salyutov.A pianist who received his early training at the St Petersburg Conservatory where he graduated in 2008 .He continued his studies in Cologne at the Hochschule where he obtained his Masters in 2010 and in 2011 a doctorate from Paderborn University with his thesis on the pianistic works of Cesar Franck.

Since then he has pursued a career not only as solo pianist and chamber musician but also as conductor of various orchestras that he has founded.
In 2018 he was decorated with a distinction for his cultural activities from the city of Bergisch Gladbach where since 2013 he has been principal conductor of the Symphony Orchestra in that city near Cologne.He has also founded the first German – Israeli Orchestra -the Yachad Chamber Orchestra that performs not only in Germany but also in Israel,Lithuania,Poland and France.As a musicologist and pianist he also is regularly invited to give masterclasses.An eclectic musician who on this occasion had driven from Zurich to take part in this new festival in Forlì organised by fellow pianist Giuliano Tuccia.

A programme that demonstrated to the full his extraordinary qualities as virtuoso and musician.

The concert opened with the poignant virtuosity of Liszt’s variations on Bach’s ‘Weinen,Klagen,Sorgen,Zagen’.A work written by Liszt in a very difficult time of his life with the death of his two children.It is an outpouring of grandiose moments of great exuberance contrasting with moments of intimate reflection and beauty .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. 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.

Roman gave a truly virtuoso performance with his long relaxed arms hovering above the keys like eagles swooping in on their prey.A totally committed performance of great technical command and of course being also a noted conductor he could see the whole architectural shape of this heart rending masterpiece by Liszt.His technical mastery and facility together with a great sense of style was to bring the concert later to an exciting conclusion with the 12th Hungarian Rhapsody that Liszt had penned for himself to play when he and Paganini were the considered to be the greatest showmen on earth.Roman in almost improvisatory mood could shift from the seductive zigane melodies to the wild traditional dance to the complete brass band .There were moments in which he created the delicate atmosphere of seduction with searing melodies of sumptuous colours and with his chameleonic sense of style could switch to the breathtaking rhythmic excitement that had the refined ladies of the salons of the day reduced to screaming wild animals trying to get a snatch of this Devil’s hair perchance to dream of their idol.

It was after such a scintillating ending to a long concert that Roman played as an encore Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor op posth and the heavens opened to show us a world of refined elegance and bel canto playing of quite exquisite beauty.Roman had laid aside his indefatigable technical resources to show the pure simple beauty that were also in his long delicate fingers.

The main work in this excellently presented programme was the last of Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas: op 111.Part of the final trilogy of Sonatas that had followed Beethoven’s career from the first Sonatas op 2 dedicated to his teacher Haydn through the tumultuous ‘Appassionata’ op 57 and ‘Hammerklavier’ op 106 to the sublime climax after a tumultuous and difficult life .This final trilogy op 109,op.110 and op 111 were written when Beethoven was completely deaf and he could only hear the music in his inner ear .The marvel of such genius is that he could still write down in the score such minute indications of his intentions for posterity.Roman played the opening ‘Maestoso’ with grandeur and intelligence playing the mighty opening leaps with one hand and throwing down the gauntlet that was to allow him to risk and push to the limits Beethoven’s Allegro con brio .Music boiling at 100 degrees (as Perlemuter described it to me) with only momentary gasps coming up for air with simple ravishing moments of peace.Roman threw himself into the fray with heroic abandon maybe just a little too fast for comfort but it had us sitting on the edge of our seats as he brought this first movement to a close without ever conceding the tempo .The Sonata in C minor ending in C major the key for the celestial heights that Beethoven was to reveal in his final ‘Arietta’ and variations.’Adagio molto,semplice e cantabile’ was played with beauty and simplicity the variations allowed to flow so naturally .There was a continuous hidden undercurrent that was to take us to the tumultuous third variation before the fragmented disintegration of the Arietta only to return triumphantly before ascending into celestial heights .Celestial heights where trills were mere vibrations on which Beethoven could float the beautiful arietta having arrived at a vision of sublime beauty that only Beethoven could foresee.Roman managed to see the entire movement as one and showed us with his superb musicianship the architectural shape of this revolutionary sonata.

Roman took Chopin at his word with a Polonaise that was made of pure fantasy.Deeply felt,there were moments of great beauty and passionate abandon but the title Polonaise – Fantasie had signified for Roman a freedom and liberty with the score that slightly dissected a revolutionary new form into a series of beautiful episodes rather than a complete whole. Many of Chopin’s indications were played in the ‘traditional’ way of a different era.

It was to the Etudes- Tableaux that Roman came into his own with his superb technical command and ravishing sense of colour.They were six miniature tone poems with the call to arms of the E flat op 33 followed by the glorious simplicity of the G minor op 33.The A minor op 39 was bathed in pedal with it’s beautiful nostalgic melody leading to an overpowering climax of passion and excitement.There was something of monumental grandeur to the final C sharp minor Etude – Tableaux op 33 that was breathtaking with it’s tumultuous orchestral sounds.

Tonight our host plays a duo recital with the violinist Emiliano Gennari that I am sorry to miss.But Giuliano will make his solo recital debut at Steinway Hall in London on the 7th February for the Keyboard Trust that I will certainly not miss.I will shake the hand of a talented young musician who has been the first to have the courage and skill to organise concerts in their home town of Forlì dedicated to Guido Agosti one of the greatest and most influential musicians of his age .

Giuliano Tuccia writes : ‘Bravissimo Emiliano Gennari, è riuscito a distinguersi in un recital per pianoforte e violino con grande entusiasmo. La Rassegna Guido Agosti si conclude in bellezza, con musiche di W.A.Mozart e L.V.Beethoven. Ringrazio amici, parenti e le poche persone che hanno preso parte a questa splendida rassegna di altissimo livello. Ringrazio anche Christopher Axworthy, che ho avuto modo di conoscere dal vivo ed ospitare a casa mia. Abbiamo fatto visita a Guido Agosti al cimitero monumentale di Forlì ed è stato veramente toccante; un evento che non dimenticherò mai. Ringrazio il mio consiglio direttivo formato da Chiara Bolognesi e Arcangelo Pinto. Ringrazio Marco Viroli perché forse è stato l’unico ad appoggiare questa iniziativa, e senza il quale, questo non sarebbe potuto accadere. Non vedo l’ora di organizzare la seconda edizione ad aprile/maggio 2024. Grazie!! A presto.’

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.

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.

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 .

He first studied in Toulouse, then later moved to Paris to study under Vincent d’Indy and Albéric Magnard at the Scuola Cantorum , an alternative to the training offered by the Paris Conservatoire . There he took organ lessons from Alexandre Guilmant and worked as an assistant to Isaac Albéniz. He returned to the southern part of France, where he spent much of the rest of his rather short life. His native south was a region that attracted a number of his contemporaries—artists and poets he had met in Paris.His opera Héliogabale was produced at Bézier in 1910.Séverac is noted for his vocal and choral music, which includes settings of verse in Occitan (the historic language of Languedoc) and Catalan (the historic language of Roussillon)as well as French poems by Verlaine and Baudelaire .His compositions for solo piano have also won critical acclaim, and many of them were titled as pictorial evocations and published in the collections Chant de la terre, En Languedoc, and En vacances.

A popular example of his work is The Old Musical Box (“Où l’on entend une vieille boîte à musique”, from En vacances). His masterpiece, however, is the piano suite Cerdaña (written 1904–1911), filled with the local color of Languedoc.His motet Tantum ergo is also still in current use in church settings.

Selected compositions

Operas

• Les Antibels (1907, lost) based on a novel by Émile Pouvillon
• Le Cœur du moulin, poème lyrique in two acts (1908)
• Héliogabale, tragédie lyrique in three acts (1910)
• Le Roi Pinard, opérette (1919)

Works for Piano

• Le Chant de la terre (1900)
• En Languedoc (1904)
• Le Soldat de plombe (1904), for piano duet
• Baigneuses au soleil (1908)
• Cerdaña. 5 Études pittoresques (1904–1911)
• En vacances. Petites pièces romantiques (1912)
• Sous les lauriers roses (1919)
• Où l’on entend une vieille boîte à musique (An Old Music Box)

Chamber music

• Barcarolle (1898), flute and piano
• Élégie héroique (1918), violin/cello and piano/organ
• Trois Recuerdos & Cortège nuptial catalan (1919), string quintet and brass
• Minyoneta (1919), violin and piano
• Souvenirs de Céret (1919), violin and piano

Choral music

• Sant Félix (1900)
• Mignonne allons voir si la rose (1901)
• La Cité (1909)
• Sorèze et Lacordaire (1911)
• Sainte Jeanne de Lorraine (1913)

Songs

• numerous art songs, including À l’aube dans la montagne (1906) and Flors d’Occitania

Aldo Ciccolini plays Cerdana :https://youtube.com/watch?v=O2QvORxyGvk&feature=shared

Guido Agosti

Sonya Pigot may have given a concert of miniatures, in that each work was barely five minutes long ,but she was able to take us to a magic world of dreams.
She showed us a multifaceted world with her exquisite playing,kaleidoscopic palette of colour ,chameleonic sense of character and theatricality, as she lived every moment of her recreation ……..perchance to dream as the poetic ‘Bard’ admonishes.

Bach that was played with aristocratic authority and clarity.A monumental opening gesture followed by a clarity that brought Bach’s knotty twine vividly to life with remarkable shape and vitality.
The magic languishing atmosphere of hidden emotions in Granados ‘s op 11 n.5 was played with eruptions of subdued passion as she painted a world that was to be so cruelly denied us by a torpedo off the same coast where Debussy had spied his his Joyous Island.

The Vine Bagatelles were landscapes of desolate beauty,spiky brilliance but above sumptuous subtle colours from a supreme stylist.Five contrasting worlds played with a mastery and understanding through her extraordinary sensitivity and theatrical self identification.Above all a superb use of the pedal that just underlined Anton Rubinstein’s dictum that this was where the real soul of the piano was laying in wait to be awoken with a kiss only by true poets with the key.

What she missed in the great virtuosistic sweep to one of Rachmaninov’s most passionate opening statements she made up for with her superb musicianship and self identification with a romantic world of searing passions and secret whispers.

Debussy’s depiction of Jersey as seen from Eastbourne was evidently with the same fantasmagoric eye as the composer.A cauldron of sounds waiting to erupt with ravishing melodic outpourings and savage dance rhythms just riding on waves that were leading to the final passionate outpouring and helter skelter finish.I remember Annie Fischer playing this as an encore in Rome with such naked passion as in this final outpouring she allowed the thumb in the left hand to pulsate with fiery passion that was X certificate indeed.

Sonya played it with the same animal passion and drive and her final theatrical flourishes just ignited a rather staid audience into awarding her an ovation and even a bunch of red roses from an ardent admirer.

No encores were possible after such an exhilarating and exciting journey into a wonderland of magic atmospheres and ravishing beauty.

In London, Sonya has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Steinway Hall, the Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room) and in concert halls throughout Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong, Romania and Australia. She now studies with Professor Norma Fisher and is a holder of the Nosward Charity Award scholarship while studying a Masters of Performance at the Royal College of Music. As well as having performed for members of the British Royal Family, Sonya has won many prizes in international music competitions across Australia and Europe; most notably the first prize in the Grand Prize Virtuoso International music competition, Gold Medal in the Berliner International Music competition, first prize in the Hephzibah Menuhin Memorial Award piano competition and first prize in the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Rising Star competition.

Sonya has had concert engagements with orchestras since she was 15, most notably the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2 with conductor Richard Gill AO. She has been a finalist in the 3mbs Young Performer’s Award which was broadcast on 3mbsFM, Australia and a semi-finalist in the Pianale International music competition, Stockport International music competition and in the ROSL music competition. Sonya has participated in many International music festivals, such as the London Masterclasses, the AMALFI Coast Music Festival and the Virtuoso and Bel Canto music festival. She has worked with distinguished Professors including Boris Berman, John Perry, Jerome Lowenthal, Dimitri Alexeev, Ewa Pablocka, Ian Jones, Pavel Gililov, Grigory Gruzman, Ashley Wass and Gordon Fergus-Thompson.Alongside her piano performance, Sonya has recorded at the Abbey Road Studios as a violinist in the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra and has had concerto engagements with orchestras, recitals and competition success as a solo violinist.