Leo Patsalides founded the Amati Orchestra in 2011 with the vision of creating London’s leading amateur orchestra .Tonight marks his retirement after being at the helm of his orchestra in 29 performances of 88 works.
What better way could there be to celebrate ,what has in fact become one of the finest amateur orchestras, than with a sold out St John’s Smith Square one of the most beautiful of concert halls in the city.
Joined by Antonina Suhanova for one of the most formidable of all concertos for piano and orchestra.

A tour de force for any pianist but also a trial of fire for a professional orchestra let alone an amateur one!
I have heard Antonina before in recital when she gave an astonishing performance of Rachmaninov’s First Sonata and so I was not completely surprised tonight to hear a sumptuous and very powerful account of the 3rd Concerto.

She towered above the orchestra with sonorities and power that belied her physical stature.It was even more remarkable for how she managed to involve the orchestra in the sometimes treacherous interplay between the woodwinds and piano.Of course she played the ‘big’ cadenza because she is a big pianist like Gina Bachauer or Oxana Yablonskaya.

I remember in my student days that anyone who could play Rach 3 or Prokofiev 2 was thought of as a hero .Vladimir Ashkenazy made his London orchestra debut with both in the same programme!
A seventeen year old John Lill hit the headlines when he made his London debut with the concerto at the RCM under Sir Adrian Boult and the film ‘Shine ‘ later made a very elaborated story about it.
Oxana playing with a similar orchestra in Rome found that the distinguished but very elderly Turkish conductor got so emotionally involved in the final ecstatic few pages that caos would have reigned had she not taken over the role of pianist and conductor.
No fear of that tonight from Patsalides’ patient baton even if the outer two movements were taken at quite a lick!

Antonina Suhanova is such a fine musician that she managed to turn speed into sweep with moments of passionate intensity and heartwarming beauty.

‘New Faces’Piano Festival in Perivale Day 2

And from the archive :