A great start to Stephen Dennison’s new season in Haslemere with three stars from the Keyboard Trust roster : Damir Durmanovic ,Gabrielé Sutkuté and Víctor Braojos
But the real star of the first concert was the brand new Shigeru Kawai piano chosen by the emeritus KT artist Sasha Grynyuk.It will be a valuable asset for all the many music lovers in Haslemere.

Angela Hewitt has agreed to give a special benefit concert next season with a much awaited performance of the Goldberg Variations.

Angela Hewitt for the glory of Bach.The pinnacle of pianistic perfection

This new series was inaugurated by Damir with one of the greatest works of the Romantic era : Schumann’s Fantasie op 17 dedicated to Liszt and it was Schumann’s contribution to Liszt’s fundraising to build a monument to his teacher : Beethoven .

And it is Beethoven’s monumental Sonata op 111 from the hands of Victor Braojos that closed this three day feast of music .

Here is Victor at St Mary’s Perivale

: https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/01/09/victor-braojos-at-st-marys-the-intelligence-and-aristocratic-authority-of-a-true-musician/

Thursday Gabrielé Sutkuté ,winner of the RCM Chappell Gold medal last year , repeated the memorable concert she gave only the day before at St Mary’s Perivale :

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/02/20/gabriele-sutkute-at-st-marys-crystalline-sounds-of-refined-intelligence-of-a-great-artist/

Damir on the opening concert with the golden tones of this Shigeru Kawai it was indeed as Schumann had written to his beloved Clara :’. the most passionate thing I have ever composed – a deep lament for you.’

In Damir’s hands it was an outpouring of song where even the second movement was shaped not just rhythmically but poetically and the last movement was a continuous stream of subtle sounds.The ravishing beauty of the ending where Damir’s supremely stylish playing was able to produce sounds that were indeed made of pure magic.

The rather overlong Bach that opened the concert was played with the musicianship of someone who had been inspired at an early age by the mastery of Robert Levin and Marcel Baudet at the Menuhin School.A knowledge of ornamentation and improvisation together with an impeccably clear ‘diction’.

It was though a difficult choice for the numerous children who had been brought by their enlightened teachers to listen to a piano recital probably for the first time.
It was more the scintillating virtuosity of Clementi that caught their full attention in a performance of brilliance and character.The spell was now set and these eleven year old schoolchildren sat listening in wonder to sounds they probably never knew existed.A thing of beauty is a joy forever and with their lives still ahead of them lets hope that the joy of music may inspire one or two of them to ask for more!
Damir too had fallen in love with this beautiful instrument and it was hard to stop his rehearsal when it was time to open the doors to the large amount of public that had turned out on this very wet day to listen to great music played by great young musicians.

The subtle sounds that Damir drew from this new piano were indeed as Schumann had indicated :’Resounding through all the notes;
In the earth’s colourful dream ;There sounds a faint long-drawn note;
For the one who listens in secret.’
Sounds that ranged from the passionate opening of the first movement with it’s sweeping intensity and the quote from Beethoven’s ‘To the distant beloved’ : ‘Accept then these songs beloved, which I sang for you alone’.

This is what I wrote last year in the first of this annual series :
Https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/02/12/hhh-concerts-and-the-keyboard-trust-a-winning-combination-of-youthful-dedication-to-art/