Some beautiful refined playing of great intelligence and simple artistry from Dominika who had come to the rescue at the last minute of an indisposed clarinettist due to play in Hugh Mather’s Young Artists Series in Perivale.

I had not heard her before but when I saw she was studying with Christopher Elton I knew I should not miss her recital. Christopher and I had been part of a group of pianists (that included Stephen Hough,Peter Donohue ,Christian Blackshaw,Peter Uppard,Tessa Uys,Ann Shasby,Philip Fowke,Peter Bithell ……etc ) that was mentored by Gordon Green in the 60’s and 70’s.

Christopher recently celebrated his 80th birthday and has for many years taken over the golden mantle that our much loved Gordon shared so generously with such kindness and humanity at the Royal Academy ( as well as in Manchester and Liverpool) .There has remained a bond between all those touched by his genius and Christopher is one of the only musicians that finds time to come to his students recitals as he knows how important this human and professional bond is in a young musicians formative years

Sherri Lun at Steinway Hall for the Keyboard Trust Mastery,passion and intelligence of twenty year old pianist.

It was in the encore of a single Scarlatti Sonata K.87 in B minor that all Dominika’s superb qualities were demonstrated in a radiant prism of simple sounds .The same contrapuntal simplicity that she had brought to Chopin or the same clarity and subtle shading of Couperin and even the poignantly poetic beauty that had made her Polish Mazurkas so touchingly nostalgic . All this in just a couple of pages because it takes just two notes to reveal a true artist! She seemed to do nothing but said everything and was not that the secret of Rubinstein the Prince of all pianists? The Mazurkas by Szymanowski were dedicated to his friend Artur Rubinstein .I remember an all Chopin programme for the Polish Air force at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon where like a sorbet halfway through a sumptuous meal Rubinstein played these four Mazurkas ( only three of the four today) that just opened our ears as we strained to understand this subtle new language that carried the same message as Poland’s national hero.I was a schoolboy and I will never forget Rubinstein striking up the Polish and British National Anthems as we all stood out of respect for the values that our two nations had stood for so valiantly, side by side .

A programme that was dance inspired and began with Couperin ‘Les Tours….’ .Of crystalline clarity with a subtle dynamic range as she played with a style of delicacy and grace.The Passacaglia in B minor was immediately more serious with much denser harmonies but with ornaments that spun from her fingers within a finely spun web of poignant significance as an underlying rhythmic energy carried us forward with intensity and dynamic drive.

There was a pungent beauty to the Szymanowski Mazurkas that owed more to Messiaen than Bellini and which she played with a beautiful cantabile of aristocratic nobility.There was a rhythmic drive to the second with its sumptuous outpouring of Nationalistic joy.The etherial opening of the third reminded me of early Stravinsky but always with the underlying mazurka rhythm in the distance.I can see why she only played three of the four because this last one ended on a note of pure magic.

The three mazurkas by Chopin were written just four years before his untimely death and are a vision of nostalgic beauty,A bel canto that Dominika played with a beguiling rhythmic understanding and counterpoints that she untangled with searing intensity and beauty.The second Mazurka flowed so beautifully with disarming simplicity as the unmistakable voice of Chopin was allowed to express itself with unadorned beauty.There was a wonderful sense of balance as the melodic line was passed from one voice to another until a golden web of sounds brought us to a magical ending.The last was the robust Nationalistic dance that had remained in Chopin’s heart from when he left his homeland as a teenager setting out to seduce the Parisian Salons of the day.this heart was eventually restored to his homeland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin

The Chopin B minor Sonata was played with great clarity but the opening was played with simple musicianship not the more usual declaration of intent of showmanship.It was indeed her aristocratic good taste and musicianship that allowed her to maintain the same tempo that gave the second subject such nobility and significance.Ravishingly beautiful but more powerful for not being heart on sleeve sentimentality.Even the final chords of the first movement were played as if this were just the beginning of a wondrous voyage.Scintllating jeux perlé of the Scherzo with a glowing luminosity of will o’ the wisp agitation and with a beautifully flowing central Trio of nobility and actually part of an architectural whole that made such sense when the scherzo returned.Nobility of the perfectly timed entry of the Largo as the bel canto that follows was of subtle simple refined beauty.I have rarely heard the central ‘sostenuto’ played with such a sense of line and flowing beauty as the changing harmonies were illuminated by strands of melody.A magisterial opening to the presto non tanto was played with just the understated sense of importance that allowed the agitato to immediately emerge so naturally.Showers of golden sounds just rained over the keys as the rondo theme became ever more imperious and passionate.Enflamed in a coda a mastery and exhilaration which brought this superb performance to a brilliant end

Dominika Mak is a Polish classical pianist, currently undertaking the Master of Arts course at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Christopher Elton (Professor Emeritus). While completing her BA and MPhil in Music at Trinity College, Cambridge, Dominika became the Artistic Director of a Trinity College Music Society, a choral soprano in Trinity College Choir, Cambridge under Stephen Layton OBE, a Chopin scholar, an avid accompanist, and a solo pianist. In the past, Dominika has benefited from tuition from professors Pascal Nemirovski at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and Graham Caskie at Chethams’ School of Music.

During her time as an undergraduate, Dominika became a laureate of various competitions, such as the National EPTA Competition, the Edith Leigh Prize, the Arthur Bliss Lieder Scheme with baritone Florian Störtz, the IAS award in Cambridge etc. The ‘liquidity’ of Dominika’s performances of Chopin’s works has been described as ‘perfection.’ Recent performances include Chopin’s Concerto op. 21 in F minor, his Preludes op. 28 etc. Dominika has given performances at St John’s Smith Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields, West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge and other venues. Dominika has benefitted from masterclasses from Yevgeny Subdin, Katya Apekisheva, Stephen Hough, Joseph Middleton and others.