The four books of Iberia by Albeniz are considered his masterpiece and Rondeña that Hao Zi played today is from the second book .A famous New York critic writing about Alicia de Larrocha’s performance simply said : “There is really nothing in Isaac Albeniz’s Iberia that a good three-handed pianist could not master, given unlimited years of practice and permission to play at half tempo. But there are few pianists thus endowed.” Hao Zi has no need for three hands because she has a sense of style and colour allied to excitement and passion that brought this beautiful piece vividly to life.A technical command that allowed the music to flow so naturally with a subtle sense of rubato and beguiling sense of character.The beautiful ending suddenly capriciously springing to life with a typical Spanish click of the heels and stamp of the feet.
I have heard her play the Scriabin early Fantasy Sonata many times but today she played with an authority and sense of colour that can only come from a long association with a work that is loved and deeply felt.There was from the very first notes a sumptuous sense of colour and a beguiling rubato of insinuating delicacy.A melodic line in the tenor register of rich beauty as it was embellished by beautiful sounds that just glowed with wonderfully subtle colours as it gradually built to a climax .The opening gentle chords suddenly became imperious and noble only to dissolve into a world of ravishingly beautiful waves of sound.The second movement was breathtaking with its dynamic rhythmic drive bursting into melodic life with passionate ecstasy.A technical command and fluidity of sound and movement that allowed the music to weave its way with simplicity and brilliance.
The Corelli Variations by Rachmaninov I have not heard her play before as she had decided to change her programme a year ago due to some muscular problems.She now tells me that these problems have been resolved simply by ensuring that her hands are kept warm before playing.These Rachmaninov variations are based on a popular traditional melody called La Follia (a madness) incorrectly attributed to Corelli .It was written in 1931 in Rachmaninov’s country home in Switzerland and was dedicated to his friend, the violinist Fritz Kreisler. Rachmaninov wrote to the composer Nikolai Medtner , on 21 December 1931: ‘I’ve played the Variations about fifteen times, but of these fifteen performances only one was good. The others were sloppy. I can’t play my own compositions! And it’s so boring! Not once have I played these all in continuity. I was guided by the coughing of the audience. Whenever the coughing would increase, I would skip the next variation. Whenever there was no coughing, I would play them in proper order. In one concert, I don’t remember where – some small town – the coughing was so violent that I played only ten variations (out of 20). My best record was set in New York, where I played 18 variations. However, I hope that you will play all of them, and won’t “cough”.
The theme was played by Hao Zi with delicacy gently coming to life with the first variations.The delicate legato and staccato of the second was answered by the almost too serious third and fourth only to contrast with the dynamic rhythmic energy of the fifth and sixth .An outpouring of continuous movement over the long held pedal note of D was brought to a conclusion with thunderous cascades of notes .A beautifully inquisitive Adagio misterioso was played with exquisite delicacy as it expanded with a sumptuous build up of delicate arabesques only to explode into three variation of dynamic rhythmic energy and technical finesse.The agitato before the half way cadenza that leads from minor to major was played with unusual grace.What poignant beauty Hao Zi brought to the major key of D flat with the exquisite luminosity of the fifteenth variation leading to a tumultuous build up to the twentieth variation of triumphant octaves spread over the entire keyboard.Over the long held pedal note of D suddenly the clouds cleared and the beautifully expansive coda was revealed with real artistry as Hao Zi allowed the music to unfold with beautiful enticing counterpoints before the final beautifully placed two chords in the home key.
Alborada del gracioso I have heard Hao Zi play many times and it always astonishes me her superb technical control and how she manages to play the double glissandi with such sumptuous ease and mastery.She even manages to convey the hot boiling passion that is concealed in the recitativi.
I very much look forward to her major London debut for the prestigious Kirckman Concert Society at Kings Place on the first of July.
Hao Zi Yoh is a Malaysian pianist based in London. She is a top prize winner in many international piano competitions including Rome International Piano Competition. She has performed around Europe, USA, China, Japan and Malaysia both as a soloist and chamber musician, in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Southbank Royal Festival Hall, Salle Cortot,Steinway Hall London, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas and Teatro Quirino. She also performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Nova Amadeus and Baleares Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, she has given concert tour in Northern Italy organised by the Keyboard Charitable Trust, and has been selected as an Artist for the Kirckman Concert Society 2023/24. Hao Zi also participated in creative outreach projects led by the Open Academy for children and elderly with Dementia, where she performed in Music for Moment Concerts at the Wigmore Hall. She collaborated with author-illustrator David Litchfield and improvised to his award-winning book “The Bear and the Piano”. Hao Zi remains in close contact with the music scene in Malaysia. She has given talks, performances and masterclasses to the students of University of Malaya, Bentley Music and Persatuan Chopin in hope to share her experiences and help the younger generation. Hao Zi continues to develop her performing career in addition to tutoring at King’s College, London. Apart from giving masterclasses, Hao Zi also organised livestreams and charity fundraisers during the London-lockdown 2021.Currently she is studying with Martino Tirimo, after being awarded full scholarship to pursue an Artist Diploma at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, generously supported by the Bagri Foundation, Gladys Bratton and TCL Scholarship. Her previous teachers include Elza Kolodin at Music University of Freiburg, Germany and later at Royal Academy of Music under Christopher Elton.
Some things just cannot be taught .When music becomes your life blood and you live every moment with joyous abandon ……just such a girl Yuri Yasui has been blessed by the Gods and the very distinguished jury had no doubt in awarding her the special Grand Prize for a scintillating performance of Rondo a la Mazur op 5
Yuri Yaqui with Artur Haftman and Jenny Lee looking closely on
A wonderfully trained student of Dinara Klinton Deva Mira Sperandio was awarded the audience prize for a very professional performance of the Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise op 22.
Dinara Klinton writes :Cannot be more proud to be called their teacher… Deva Mira Sperandio , student of The Yehudi Menuhin School, has just won the 1st prize in the highest category, as well as the Audience prize of the London International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists. Here with one of the highly esteemed jury members, Piotr Paleczny.
I have been privileged this week to assist at performances by two other musical geniuses that makes one wonder where does this total dedication to music come from …………….it is very rare but when you are in their presence it is immediately instinctively apparent .
No words or comments are necessary as they fill the air with their mystical genius.A timelessness where the only thing that matters is their hypnotic music making.
It may well be that some children at a very early age are attracted by the sounds that appeal to their senses and this starts a process of recreation- the birth of genius? Each child absorbs unconsciously what surrounds them long before they can actually express themselves in words or actions.I remember Yuanfan Yang’s parents with their young son who was at a friends sixth birthday party and one of the other parents asked for the name of their child’s piano teacher because he had played so wonderfully on the piano that he found at his friends birthday party. ‘ But he does not play the piano….we do not have a piano at home!’ exclaimed his mother .
This is one of the many mysteries of life !A musical paradise indeed !
The contestants selected for the final round
Listening to this junior piano competition everyone played well – they were all well trained and dressed in their ‘Sunday best’ but then suddenly one of them shines brighter than all the others.
Artur Haftman with Taige Wang and Christopher Axworthy
I also remember Vanessa Latarche as the prize pupil of Miss Rowe in Ealing who has now grown up and promotes young musicians in such a caring and professional way via the RCM and the Lang Lang foundation not to mention the Hastings International and much else besides.
She quite rightly praised all the competitors for their performances knowing what courage is needed to play in the ‘Circus arena’ of competitions ……….a necessary evil which can give the much needed experience to young musicians who may decide when they grow up to take the very arduous path towards a career in music.
It was Artur Rubinstein at his first competition in Tel Aviv who told the contestants that they should be like the bees creating their own unique honey from the choice of flowers that attracted them.Musicians listening to music good,bad and indifferent and making their own choice of what pleases them and thus creating a thing called taste! Taste and style,imagination and intelligence are just some of the ingredients that can help and even sometimes contaminate great natural talent.
Teachers have a great responsibility to nurture and encourage natural talent and not to destroy it with general rules and regulations because each child has very specific needs that must be helped and nurtured with infinite care.
I saw Vitaly Pisarenko and Dinara Klinton in the audience to encourage the young musicians in their care.Both had themselves been child prodigies at the Gnessin school in Moscow where now we in the UK have the Menuhin and Purcell schools which can nurture and encourage great natural talent from a very early age – is it ever early enough though! Vitaly and Dinara are both now great pianists with International careers but they still find time to help these young musicians progress through their youthful journey of ‘Gradus ad Parnassum’ knowing from their own experience what hurdles may lay ahead.
Playing of simplicity and chiselled beauty from Matthew Mc Lachlan one of the three young siblings of Murray McLachlan .A family of remarkable musicians who have all performed many times at St Mary’s.Matthew had surprised even himself when only in his second year at the Royal College of Music in London he was awarded the coveted Chappell Gold Medal for an extraordinarily beautiful performance of Scriabin’s elusive twenty four preludes op 11.Today it was in particular his beautifully lyrical and committed performance of Prokofiev’s somewhat neglected fifth sonata that captured his imagination .A performance of such simplicity as Prokofiev in lyrical mood could show us that there is a side to his compositions that is not always hard driven with canons being fired.The beautiful second movement in particular showed off Matthews control as he allowed the melodic line to shine above a relentless pizzicato left hand .A refined kaleidoscope of sounds that Prokofiev had revealed so poetically in his Visions Fugitives .It had followed performances of Bach where there was a pastoral calm as the voices were allowed to converse with each other creating a knotty twine of tranquility and peace.He had chosen too the two movement Sonata by Beethoven ‘A Thérèse ‘ where the gentle lyricism of the first beautiful phrases opened onto a fluidity and playfulness of beguiling charm and character.The hauntingly beautiful Etude Tableau by Rachmaninov was shaped with rubato and ease just as the beautiful little piece by Alicia de Larrocha was played with simple mellifluous style.Mompou’s beautifully atmospheric Cancion was an ideal partner for such delectable flowing sounds full of radiance and colour.The Butterfly Dream by Petar Dimov was indeed the ideal introduction ,as Matthew had explained ,for the beautiful lyricism of the opening of the Prokofiev Sonata .This was a pianist in poetically lyrical vein today with playing beauty and radiance.
Chetham’s School of Music alumnus Matthew McLachlan was awarded the C. Bechstein scholarship to continue his studies at the Royal College of Music with professor Dina Parakhina. Recipient of numerous awards, Matthew has performed as concerto soloist and recitalist in Poland, Serbia, Italy, Spain, Germany, France and throughout the UK. In July of 2021 Matthew was awarded 1st prize in the Royal College of Music Chappell Medal piano competition and the Esther Fisher prize for best undergraduate performance. Last year, Matthew was a finalist in the Isidor Bajic International Piano Competition and awarded 1st prize in the Bromsgrove International Musicians Competition
It was clear from the very first notes of this early Mozart Sonata that we were in the hands of a real artist.A refined tone palette of clarity and style with ornaments that sparkled like jewels with delicate precision.But this was no clock work precision because every note spoke so eloquently with a subtle sense of rubato that was both enticing and ravishingly beautiful.Rests and pauses that were as eloquent as the notes that came before and after in a musical conversation that brought this sonata vividly to life .An exquisite Andante cantabile with a kaleidoscopic range of sounds like the human voice where the ending was pure whispered magic.The brilliance of the Allegretto was tempered with elegance and style where everything was given the just time to breathe with delicate and delectable ornaments that just added to the civilised dance of its age.
And style there certainly was in Kreisler’s Liebesleid in the beguiling transcription by Rachmaninov.We just held our breath as Pedro placed the notes with daring timelessness.It was as though he was improvising such was the spontaneity of invention as we followed hypnotically his every move.Scales and ornaments that were like streams of gold and silver just adding a glow to the delectable old style Viennese waltz that Kreisler had invented with such charm and grace.It was the same charm and grace as Kreisler’s golden toned violin but with the unmistakeable harmonies of his friend Rachmaninov.Two great artists but there is a saying that there are never two without three and the third was sharing with us tonight his refined artistry and bringing us again the magic of this old world bonbon.
We were immediately taken into a different world with the dynamic drive of De Fallas’s Fantasia Bética.The savage excitement of Andalusia with it’s constant changing of character.Glissandi and swirls of notes gave way to an almost inaudible murmuring of atmospheric sounds.Pointing his finger to a note that shone like a jewel in the mists of sound.A note that then became an anguished cry as Pedro knew how to illuminate the piano with ravishing vehemence.The final notes placed deep in the piano with an downturned left hand thumb pummelling with savagery a note that was to be joined by the right hand in a stand up fight as Pedro brought this fantasy to its ultimate exciting close.
Peace was restored with the charm of Soler’s G minor Sonata that like with Mozart,Pedro played with elegance and style with an exquisite range of colours.Even the scintillating brilliance of it’s twin in D major was shaped with the beauty that only a true musician could find in seemless scales and arpeggios.
Yisha Xue of the Asia Circle at the National Liberal Club welcoming Leslie Howard co artistic director of the Keyboard Trust
It was in Chopin’s Sonata op 35 that Pedro showed us what real artistry can mean. It transformed Chopin’s well worn masterpiece into a living thing as though the ink was still wet on the page.Such was his musicianship and sensitivity that the monumental opening was quite overwhelming as the opening chords immediately became a whispered living wave on which Chopin places his gasping fragmented melody that will be transformed with menace and grandeur in the development.This was a performance of aristocratic musicianship where there was a rubato that was so imperceptible and with such refined good taste that even the second subject was allowed to breath and speak so naturally.I was missing the weight of a Rubinstein or Perlemuter but Pedro’s ravishingly beautiful playing allowed the counterpoints to be an integral part of this beautiful melody in a way that was totally new to be and so convincing.Like many great pianists Pedro ignored the much debated repeat and entered the mysteriously menacing world of the development.Chopin’s genius allowing the opening Grave to combine with the doppio movimento in an outpouring of aristocratic grandiloquence .In Pedro’s hands it was breathtaking for its passionate sweep but above all for the sumptuous beauty and fullness without any hardness that he coaxed out of this magnificent Steinway concert grand.I have never heard the ending of this movement played with such passionate control. Chopin marks accelerando on the final bars but Pedro realised that this was more an inner intensity than a helter skelter race to the finish! The scherzo that follows was played with fantasy and again scales that became washes of sound played with enviable precision.It was Rosalyn Tureck who once said that she did not play wrong notes- meaning that every note has a significance and is an essential link in a chain.A sentence where every word has it just weight and meaning – an artist who paints a picture in sound.In Pedro’s hands today I heard the Trio as if for the first time such was the wondrous artistry of counterpoints that were whispered with magical golden clarity and with an improvised freedom.In lesser hands this would have broken the overall architectural shape but Pedro managed to hold us in his spell as I have rarely heard before.The final two drops in the ocean at the end were followed by a silence that held us all with baited breath as he took his time before playing the relentless left hand march with unusual pointed colour.The Funeral March was allowed to float on these constant and unflinching steps.A trio that was whispered and drew us in to eavesdrop on such intimacy.An extraordinary control of sound where every note was a perfect gem and even the hint of passion before the end just made the entry of the Funeral march even more poignant than before.A last movement that was indeed like a wind blowing over the graves .But within this perpetuum mobile of washes of sounds there was a heartbeat that was revealed through the mist with devastating effect and searing intensity as the wind howled all around before the final triumphant flame that brings this masterpiece to it’s conclusion.
After such a monumental performance our young Spanish prince offered us a scintillating performance of Lecuona’s Malagueña where his style ,colour and even showmanship all came together in an exhilarating outpouring of this famous Cuban showpiece.
Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 10 K.330 / 300h, is one of the three works in the cycle of sonatas K.330-331 – 332. The sonata was composed in 1783 when Mozart was 27 years old and was published, with the other two sonatas by Artaria in 1784. There are three movements :
Allegro moderato
Andante cantabile in F major
Allegretto
It was probably written in 1783, either in Vienna, or during the course of Mozart’s first visit home to Salzburg, bringing with him a wife of whom his fatherstrongly disapproved. It is clearly one of the sonatas mentioned by the composer in a letter to his father written in June 1784, identified with K. 330, K. 331 and K. 332, and now sent for publication to Artaria, but already known to his sister.Mozart repeatedly mentioned piano sonatas in his correspondence of the years 1778–1783, but he most likely never alluded to the three Sonatas K. 330 – 332. It is not until June 1784 that we find an unequivocal mention of these three works. It is Mozart’s communication to his father that he had “given Artaria, to engrave, the three sonatas for clavier only, which I once sent to my sister, the first in C, the second in A, and the third in f.” The printing progressed quickly, and on 25 August of that year the WIENER ZEITUNG advertised the pieces with the words: “The following new publications can be purchased from the art dealers Artaria Comp. …: “Three clavier sonatas, Opus 6, by Herr Kapellmeister Mozart, 2 fl. 30 kr.” The three sonatas are indeed designated as “Op. VI” in the title of the first edition. As occurs frequently in prints by Artaria, this edition contains a considerable amount of inaccuracies and errors in all three sonatas; nevertheless, it remains an important source as it features a number of dynamic markings that are not found in the surviving autograph but which had most likely been added by Mozart in the lost engraver’s master.
Sergei Rachmaninov and Fritz Kreisler
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).
The legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler and Sergei Rachmaninov performed frequently together. On one occasion, as the story goes, Kreisler had a memory slip during a performance. Fumbling around the fingerboard and attempting to improvise his way out of the predicament, he inched his way towards the piano, whispering helplessly, “Where are we?” Rachmaninov answered, “In Carnegie Hall.”
As a tribute to their friendship, Rachmaninov created piano arrangements of three of Kreisler’s violin miniatures, including Liebesleid (“Love’s Sorrow”), and Liebesfreud (“Love’s Joy”). Kreisler’s original compositions are charming slices of pre-war Vienna. In Rachmaninov’s hands they become thrilling new music…variations on the original themes, infused with Rachmaninov’s distinct sound and spirit.
It is not known when the pieces are written, but they were published in 1905, deliberately misattributed to Joseph LannerKreisler often played these pieces as encores at his concerts, though the pieces are usually performed separately. In 1911, he published solo piano arrangements of the pieces as Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen and they have since appeared in numerous settings for other instruments, or orchestrated.
Two of the pieces, Liebesfreud and Liebesleid, were the subject of virtuoso transcriptions for solo piano by Kreisler’s friend Sergei Rachmaninov (1931),who also recorded these transcriptions.
Someone said to Rachmaninov that this transcription seemed difficult. Rachmaninoff replied, “Difficult! It is impossible!”
Fantasía bética, or Andalusian Fantasy, was written by in 1919 evoking the old Roman province of Baetis in southern Spain, today’s Andalusia. It was commissioned by Artur Rubinstein ,who planned to perform it in Barcelona that year but did not learn it in time and so wound up giving the premiere in New York on 20 February 1920; as it turned out, he would play it only a few times before dropping it from his repertory without recording it and years later he explained to the composer that he found it too long … It was Falla’s last major piano work and the only one that belongs to the virtuoso tradition in which Falla the pianist had been trained. ‘Guitar figurations transformed into pianistic terms abound … other passages evoke the harpsichord, Scarlatti as it were, rewritten by Bartók.’ Beyond that are the smoky, heavily ornamented lines of flamenco singers and the tightly controlled gestures of Andalusian dancing, the whole work adding up to a marvellously varied and vigorous portrait of Spain. From the structural point of view Falla’s ‘internal rhythm’, which he explained as ‘the harmony in the deepest sense of the word born of the dynamic equilibrium between the sections’. Any attempt to shorten the work would have blunted its impact.
The abstract, large-scale work is a celebration of Andalusian culture and history, but not an historical evocation. Its influences draw from Falla’s knowledge and experience of the the flamenco culture that evolved in Andalusia.
Provinicia Baetica was the old Roman name for Andalusia and so a translation of the title might be “Andalusian Fantasy.” Although the materials used are original with Falla, they strongly evoke the folk music of southern Spain: the strident, sombre cante jondo sung in oriental-sounding scales, chords derived from guitar tunings, and a harsh percussive quality reminiscent of castanets and heel stamping.
The tonal originality of the Baetica is a result of Gypsy, ‘Middle Eastern’, Sephardic, Indian and subtle French influences woven into the harmonic language.
Manuel de Falla was born in 1876 into a reasonably affluent family in Cádiz, where music was confined to annual performances of Haydn’s The Seven Last Words, occasional visits by grand opera companies, and folk songs—not as museum pieces, but as living elements of Spanish life. By 1896 the family fortunes had diminished and they moved to Madrid, where Falla entered the conservatoire and began to compose zarzuelas, the Spanish form of operetta. But his eyes were set on Paris and in 1907 he began a seven-year stay, making friends with Debussy, Ravel and Dukas. He had already begun the Cuatro piezas españolas in Madrid, but they were brought out in 1909 by the Parisian publisher Durand on the recommendation of the three above-named composers. Despite the obvious debt to Albéniz, also in Paris at the time and the dedicatee of the pieces, Falla’s mixture of harmonic invention and elegant counterpoint is unfailingly captivating, banishing any hint of the boredom that might otherwise accrue from the insistent Spanish dance rhythms. His tunes too recall Spanish folk music with its repeated notes and small intervals, but his textures are in general more economical than those of Albéniz.
The opera La vida breve was written in 1904–5 but not performed until 1913. It includes two Spanish dances which have subsequently achieved a life of their own. The first, which opens the second act, was published in a variety of settings, including transcriptions for piano solo and four-hand duet by the composer, and with the music from the end of the scene as Interludio y Danza for orchestra. It was also arranged by Fritz Kreisler for solo violin and piano (as Danza española) in 1926.
Antonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos, usually known as Padre Antonio Soler, known in Catalan as Antoni Soler i Ramos baptized 3 December 1729 – died 20 December 1783 He is best known for his many mostly one-movement keyboard Sonatas although he composed more than 500 sacred choral musical pieces in his native Spain. Today, though, it is his 200-or-so keyboard sonatas that are arousing the curiosity of performers . In 1761 Soler wrote a music-theory treatise in which he sketched out methods of quickly modulating to remote keys; these techniques are also found in his keyboard sonatas with the subtlety and speed of modulation between keys, and a brilliant lightness occasionally darkened by moments of pathos.Padre Soler’s most celebrated works,the keyboard sonatas, are comparable to those composed by Domenico Scarlatti (with whom he may have studied) but are more varied in form than those of Scarlatti, with some pieces in three or four movements; Scarlatti’s pieces are in one (mostly) or two movements. Soler’s sonatas were cataloged in the early twentieth century by Fr. Samuel Rubio and so all have ‘R’ numbers assigned.His appointment in 1757 as maestro di capilla and organist at the Escorial, the royal palace established by Philip II of Spain, allowed Antonio Soler to mix with fellow court musicians, among whom was Domenico Scarlatti, whose influence was to remain profound. Soler wrote some 200 sonatas, his greatest compositional memorial, most for the young prince, Don Gabriel.
Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin 1 March 1810 Zelazowa Wola, Poland
17 October 1849 (aged 39). Paris, France
Some time after writing the Marche funèbre,(1837) Chopin composed the other movements of the Sonata op 35 ,completing the entire sonata by 1839. In a letter on 8 August 1839, addressed to Fontana, Chopin wrote:
I am writing here a Sonata in B flat minor which will contain my March which you already know. There is an Allegro, then a Scherzo in E flat minor, the March and a short Finale about three pages of my manuscript-paper. The left hand and the right hand gossip in unison after the March. … My father has written to say that my old sonata [in C minor, Op. 4] has been published by Haslinger and that the German critics praise it. Including the ones in your hands I now have six manuscripts. I’ll see the publishers damned before they get them for nothing.
Haslinger’s unauthorised dissemination of Chopin’s early C minor sonata (he had gone as far as engraving the work and allowing it to circulate, against the composer’s wishes) may have increased the pressure Chopin had to publish a piano sonata, which may explain why Chopin added the other movements to the Marche funèbre to produce a sonata.It was finished in the summer of 1839 in Nohant in France and published in May 1840 in London,Leipzig and Paris.
The sonata comprises four movements:
Grave – Doppio movimento
Scherzo
Marche funèbre: Lento
Finale: Presto
The first major criticism, by Schumann , appeared in 1841. He described the sonata as “four of [his] maddest children under the same roof” and found the title “Sonata” capricious and slightly presumptuous.He also remarked that the Marche funèbre “has something repulsive” about it, and that “an adagio in its place, perhaps in D-flat, would have had a far more beautiful effect”.In addition, the finale caused a stir among Schumann and other musicians. Schumann said that the movement “seems more like a mockery than any [sort of] music”,and when Felix Mendelssohn was asked for an opinion of it, he commented, “Oh, I abhor it”. Franz Liszt, a friend of Chopin’s, remarked that the Marche funèbre is “of such penetrating sweetness that we can scarcely deem it of this earth”.It was Anton Rubinstein who said that the fourth movement is the “wind howling around the gravestones”.When the sonata was published in 1840 the London and Paris editions indicated the repeat of the exposition as starting at the very beginning of the movement (at the Grave section). However, the Leipzig edition designed the repeat as beginning at the Doppio movimento section. Although the critical edition published by Breitkopf & Hartel (that was edited, among others, by Franz Liszt, Carl Reinecke , and Johannes Brahms ) indicate the repeat similarly to the London and Paris first editions, almost all 20th-century editions are similar to the Leipzig edition in this regard with the repeat to the Doppio movimento ,Charles Rosen argues that the repeat of the exposition in the manner perpetrated by the Leipzig edition is a serious error, saying it is “musically impossible” as it interrupts the D♭ major cadence (which ends the exposition) with the B♭ minor accompanimental figure.Karol Mikuli’s 1880 complete edition of Chopin contained a repeat sign after the Grave in the first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 2. Mikuli was a student of Chopin from 1844 to 1848 and also observed lessons Chopin gave to other students – including those where this sonata was taught – and took extensive notes.Many great artists including Barenboim,Horowitz,Rachmaninoff,Rubinstein,Ohlssohn,Kissin and Pedro tonight exclude the repetition altogether!
Malagueña” is a song by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona. It was originally the sixth movement of Lecuona’s Suite Andalucía (1933), to which he added lyrics in Spanish. In general terms, malagueña’s are flamenco dance styles from Málaga, in the southeast of Spain.The melody that forms the basis of “Malagueña” was not of Lecuona’s invention. It can be heard in 19th-century American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s solo piano composition Souvenirs d’Andalousie Based on Gottschalk’s international renown, it is reasonable to assume Lecuona heard it and either wittingly or unwittingly co-opted it in composing his most famous piece.
Sensational and breathtaking .It took Shunta Morimoto just twenty minutes to cast a spell in Hastings that will long be remembered . There may have been an enthralling performance from this years obvious winner Curtis Phill Hsu
Curtis Phili Hsu
but the excitement that Shunta Morimoto generated with the imperious opening of Schubert’s C minor Sonata will go down in history.Shivers were sent down our spine as the web of barely audible chromatic scales were punctuated by the ominous menace of what was to burst forth like a volcanic eruption .The ravishing fullness of the slow movement where Shunta was never afraid to show us what passion and turbulence there was in Schubert’s almost spent soul . If only we could have had the other two movements I am sure the tarantella finale would have wound even the rather staid Hastings pensioners into delerium as Richter did in that other seaside town of Brighton many years ago.
But it was Scriabin’s obsessive Vers La Famme that ignited the piano with almost obscene obsessive decadence .This 19 year old master showed us how two notes could mean so much over a cauldron of swirling mists ominously reaching boiling point .An unbearable tension was created that almost managed to ignite the proceedings in Hastings and certainly anyone listening from afar would have been cheering this young artist as the world is starting to do already.
We’re delighted to announce that the overall winner of the 17th Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition is Curtis Phill Hsu. He won the coveted Sophia Guo First Prize with a scintillating performance of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor Op.23, convincing the international jury, chaired by Professor Vanessa Latarche, that he was the fitting overall winner of the competition.
First Prize to Curtis-Phill Hsu The Sophia Guo Award: £15,000, donated by Dayu & Ling Guo, plus The Hastings Fellowship, an artist development and professional coaching package supported by Arts Council England that gives opportunities to start and sustain professional careers in the creative industries. Professional engagements including concerts in Hastings and London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Second Prize (£7,000) to Harmony Zhu
Third Prize (£3,000) to Chengyao Zhou
Fourth Prize (£1,500) to Derek Wang
Fifth Prize (£1,000) to Hyelim Kim
The Sussex Prize (£2,500) to Curtis Phill Hsu Awarded for the best performance in the semi-finals
The Orchestra Prize (£500)to Harmony Zhu Awarded by members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Hastings Prize (£500)to Chengyao Zhou Awarded for the best performance of the new commission by Lera Auerbach
The Festival d’Auvers-sur-Oise Prize to Harmony Zhu and Curtis Phill Hsu An engagement at the 2025 Festival, awarded by Juror Pascal Escande to the finalist/s of his choice
What a family! Absolutely bowled over by the superb musicianship and subtle artistry of Matthew McLachlan having been ravished,seduced and astonished by his family in the past. Matthew who is a guest in my house in Kew I often hear practicing but more often see jogging,boxing or training at the gym.I had no idea until hearing his public performance today of the heart that beats inside that seemingly simple exterior.A Beethoven played with a loving fluidity and sparkling cantabile that it is easy to imagine that the Countess Thérèse must have been his distant beloved.But such playful high jinks too in the Allegro vivace played with a true ‘joie de vivre.’ Chopin’s Fantasy played with a nobility and sensibility that is rare.Sound that is both full and at times heartbreakingly sensitive.But it was the Scriabin Preludes that showed off his Kaleidoscopic sense of colour with ravishing sounds that ranged from the fullest passionate outpourings to the almost inaudibly whispered.Reams of mellifluous notes that seemed like streams of gold and silver poured effortlessly from his fingers but with a strong personality that kept him on the high wire without ever fearing to fall . The final passionate outpouring in D minor was enough as he closed the piano lid and made a charmingly modest thank you speech to Hugh Mather and Roger Nellist for all they do to give a platform to young artists like himself and his family.A deeply felt dedication to Donald Page -one of the best men he knew – just showed what sensitivity beats inside that ‘lad’ from Manchester. So now they are five – the youngest by the way,the sixth,is a professional footballer but his father tells me when not saving goals even he plays a mean prelude and fugue.Bewitched ,bothered and bewildered.I am indeed amazed
The Piano Sonata No. 24 in F sharp, Op. 78, nicknamed “à Thérèse” because it was written for his pupil Countess Thérèse von Brunswick who,with her sister Josephine was his pupil.According to her diary Beethoven had stronger feelings than just for her intellect and sisterly tenderness .For sometime it has been thought that the famous letters from Beethoven to his ‘distant beloved’ were indeed to her.Composed in 1809 and consisting of two movements:According to Czerny,Beethoven himself singled out this sonata and the ‘Appassionata’as favourites together later with the ‘Hammerklavier’Wagner found it ‘profoundly personal’ but D’Indy said :’What sort of artist or man could admit that the only work dedicated to the Countess of Brunswick is the insipid Sonata in F sharp,the same recipient of the passionate letters that all the world has read’
There was a beautiful naturally flowing tempo from the very first notes..A great sense of contrasts as his fluidity of sound was allied to a scrupulous attention to Beethoven’s intentions.There was a real ‘joie de vivre’ in the Allegro vivace as he playfully swept up and down the keyboard with jeux perlé,dynamic contrasts and Beethoven’s own pedalling giving such a brilliant sparkle to the innocence of this bagatelle.
The Chopin F minor Fantasy had such beauty of sound with the opening legato and staccato and tempo di marcia united to carry us forward on a magical journey indeed.It was played with great nobility and passion and the beautiful Lento sostenuto was filled with subtle colour and flexibility.A very subtle addition of a bass d flat on the justly triumphant final return of the main theme just gave more depth to the sound .It was his aristocratic holding back of the bass notes in the passionate build ups that was so thrilling.The long held pedal in the final Adagio sostenuto like in Ravel’s Ondine created a magic out of which wove a wave of sounds that took us to the final imperious chords.
Scriabin’s 24 preludes were modelled on Chopin’s 24 Preludes op 28: They also covered all 24 major and minor keys and follow the same key sequence: C major, A minor, G major, E minor, D major, B minor and so on, alternating major keys with their relative minors, and following the ascending circle of fifths .They were composed in the course of eight years between 1888–96,being also one of Scriabin’s first published works in 1897,in Leipzig, together with his 12 Études, Op. 8 (1894–95).It is considered an outstanding set among Scriabin’s early works.Here are one or two personal thoughts as the preludes unwove.
No.1 in C major – Immediately entering into the special world of Scriabin with fluidity and passion.
No. 2 in A minor – Allegretto -Beautifully nostalgic and wistful,played with beguiling luminous sounds of purity and clarity
No. 3 in G major – Vivo -Flowing streams of notes like Chopin’s 8th prelude.
No.4 in E minor – Lento -Beautiful left hand melodic line played with very subtle rubato and nobility of sound.
No. 5 in D major – Andante cantabile- Languid melodic line played with subtle flexibility and shape with some magic bell like sounds at the end.
No. 6 in B minor – Allegro -Passionate Chopinesque octaves in an outpouring of romantic sounds played with a great sense of grandeur.
No. 7 in A major – Allegro assai-wistful melodic line on a stream of beautifully shaped fluid sounds.A wonderfully controlled passionate climax.
No. 8 in F♯ minor – Allegro agitato-A meandering melodic melody over a rumbling bass disappearing to a mere whisper.
No.9 in E major– Andantino-An almost improvised melodic line shaped so sensitively
N0.10 in C sharp minor– Andante-Great beauty of the tenor melody with a magical accompaniment and ravishingly deep bass note to end.
No. 11 in B major – Allegro assai -Such freedom allied to a sense of direction
No. 12 in G♯ minor – Andante -Luminous sounds of great delicacy.
No. 13 in G♭ major – Lento -beautiful melodic line with the left hand counterpoint just underlining the sentiment of the right.
No. 14 in E♭ minor – Presto-Agitated passionate outpouring in constant movement.
No. 15 in D♭ major – Lento – A beautiful left hand solo played with sensitivity until the right hand enters with such clarity and radiance
No. 16 in B♭ minor – Misterioso -as Matthew had said there is a similarity with Chopin’s Funeral March rhythm disguised in Scriabin’s clothes building to a sumptuous climax before melting to nothing.
No. 17 in A♭ major – Allegretto-Scriabin’s melodic invention seems quite endless.
No. 18 in F minor – Allegro agitato-A passionate outpouring to the final chord
No. 19 in E♭ major – Affettuoso- Beautiful mellifluous outpouring of sumptuous sounds
No. 20 in C minor – Appassionato-A melodic line in octaves with an ever more passionate outpouring of subtle colouring to it’s magical ending.
No. 21 in B♭ major – Andante-Capricious meanderings with such flexibility and beauty.
No. 22 in G minor – Lento -Deeply melancholic.
No. 23 in F major – Vivo- The same liquid flow as Chopin’s penultimate prelude with the ending just thrown off.
No. 24 in D minor – Presto-The final passionate outpouring of repeated chords played with fluidity and passion .It brought this multi coloured performance to a tumultuous end.The only thing to do after a performance like that is to shut the piano and pray that when it is reopened some of today’s magic might still be in the air !
Matthew McLachlan was born in 2000 and started piano lessons with his father in 2008. At 11 years of age he passed grade 8 and entered Wells Cathedral School as a specialist musician, studying with John Byrne. After two years in Somerset he entered Chetham’s in Manchester where he studied piano with Dina Parakhina and Cello with Gill Thoday. After gaining the ATCL and LTCL recital diplomas with distinction in 2014 and 2015, Matthew was awarded the FTCL in 2016. This followed on from winning third prize in the senior division of the first Scottish International Youth Prize Competition, held at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in July 2016. In 2014 Matthew’s performance of Ravel’s G Major Piano Concerto was commended in the Chetham’s Concerto competition and in the same year he was a prizewinner at the 2014 Mazovia Chopin Festival in Poland. As a result of his performance in Mazovia, he was selected to perform a 60-minute solo recital at the 2015 World Piano Teachers’ Conference (WPTC) in Novi Sad, Serbia. In 2016 Matthew gave many recitals and was a finalist in the Chetham’s Beethoven Piano Competition for the second year running. In March 2017 he was awarded first prize in the Chetham’s Senior Bach competition. In August 2017 he performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in the Paderewski Festival in Poland. In Autumn 2017 he had a tour of concert performances featuring Brahms’ Sonata no. 1 in C major. Before leaving Chetham’s, Matthew won the school’s Bosendorfer competition, playing Stravinsky’s ‘Three movements from Petrushka’. In 2018 he performed Mozart’s 13th concerto in Trieste, Haddington and Rhyl as well as Tchaikovsky’s first and Beethoven’s fourth concerto in Buxton with the orchestra of the High Peak. In the winter of 2018, the Knights of The Round Table awarded Matthew with a full scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London, where he now studies. Although 2020 saw many concerts cancelled, Matthew gave online performances and has recently been taken under the wing of Talent Unlimited, thanks to Canan Maxton.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 