More remarkable playing from this young Ucrainian pianist only 19 years old, playing with extraordinary mastery and mature musical understanding. Mozart,Debussy and Chopin were all treated to her glowing fluid playing where every phrase was imbued with rare musical meaning.A beauty of sound from fingers that like limpets could suck the meaning from each note with a kaleidoscope of ravishing sounds.A technical mastery that allowed her to dig deep into the architectural shape of each work as she could shape so fearlessly even the most challenging music.
Mozart’s Fantasia where drama and beauty combine with it’s imperious opening with a purity and luminosity of sound contrasting with the dynamic fearless drive of the Allegro. A sense of weight without hardness brought Mozart’s very precise dynamic markings vividly to life with a sense of orchestral colour where even the rests had an important part to play in a musical conversation of extraordinary beauty and startling originality. Even the contrast between legato and staccato was of orchestral proportions where the staccato was more an expressive non legato that she phrased with such sensibility.The Allegro that made such a dramatic entrance was played with remarkable solidity with the imposing bass declamations answered by the beseeching elegance of the reply. It expanded to a beautiful melodic outpouring of aristocratic good taste and style with the imposing left hand returning to take us to the cadenza played with nobility to the bottom of the keyboard where it took flight chromatically for the gentle preparation of the Andantino. Again another question and answer of operatic proportions gradually spread over the entire keyboard finishing on high before the eruption of the Più Allegro. Playing of masterly weight and rhythmic precision gradually dissolving into a series of arpeggiandi interspersed with calming chords ending in the whispered hights.The silence that followed was indeed pregnant with expectation as the imposing opening returned with ever more dramatic contrasts before the final scale that shot from the bass to the final chord on high.A remarkably mature performance of style and controlled passion.
The desolation of Debussy’s Footprints in the snow was played with an extraordinary maturity of musical line with it’s gently insistent footsteps proceeding in whispered tones of ‘piano’ and ‘pianissimo’ but which Khrystyna managed to give an architectural shape to with a kaleidoscope of colours that illuminated this trail of emptiness with extraordinary sensitivity.The clarity and character she brought to the West wind showed off her complete technical mastery and a fantasy that brought this extraordinary tone poem vividly to life.Quite extraordinary explosions of sound with some transcendental playing of astonishing precision and clarity where the insistent repeated notes created a hypnotic background to a melody ‘main en dehorn et angoissé it built to a tumultuous climax of extraordinary mastery, with the swirling whirlwind of sounds just pouring out of her fingers with amazing control and subtle colouring.The amazing crash of the waves at the end just prepared the way for the clear mist of sound out of which emerged the Sunken Cathedral . An aristocratic poise as the sunken cathedral made its emergence from the depths appearing in all it’s glory. A plain chant is heard with the tolling of bells as the gently rumbling bass prepared the scene, as the cathedral descended once more into the depths with wondrous magical sounds. Fireworks I have rarely heard played with such clarity but also a vaste range of colours which showed her total mastery of the pedals. A remarkable control of sound allowed the Marseillaise to ring out above the smoke with glowing radiance after a most extraordinary exhibition of fireworks . I have never heard the sparkle of the fireworks ,as they shot off in all directions ,played with such precision over a mist of quite extraordinary clarity all played in pianissimo! A tour de force of technical mastery which gradually lead to the swirls of notes that enveloped the atmosphere with fireworks erupting with great insistence.A scherzando played with dynamic drive dissolving into a beautifully elegant series of arabesques before the final eruptions dying away to a whisper ‘de tres loin.
Chopin’s B flat minor Sonata showed off her remarkable musicianship where the second subject was allowed to emerge so naturally with sumptuous beauty and disarming simplicity.The opening introduction was not repeated but was transformed into a menacing development of passionate outpourings. The Scherzo showed off her crystalline technical perfection as she allowed the music to unfold fearlessly and the trio to sing so eloquently. Her youthful passion almost took over in the Funeral March which she obviously felt very deeply but it might have been even more expressive if she had played it with the same simplicity that she brought to the other movements.Of course the perpetuum mobile of the wind blowing over the graves held no terror for this young lady who brought this masterpiece to a tumultuous conclusion.
Khrystyna Mykhailichenko is a young Ukrainian pianist who was born in Crimea. She began to play the piano when she was four. Within six years, she was winning international piano competitions and was performing in concerts throughout Europe and in the USA. The venues include Salle Cortot in Paris, Bozar Hall in Brussels, the Music Academies of Bruges, Antwerp, Krakow, Bremen, Gariunu concert hall in Vilnius, the University of Miami and Broward Centre for the Performing Arts, the World Bank in Washington DC, the UN residence in New York and all the National Philharmonics of Ukraine. Her repertoire includes major piano concertos by Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt and a wide variety of solo recital’s programme. At the outbreak of war in February 2022, she fled to Poland with her mother and sister before settling in the North East of the UK in June. As well as continuing to travel extensively for performances, she studied at the Junior RNCM under Graham Scott. She won a full scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music in London and has started her undergraduate course there in September 2023 under professor Joanna MacGregor. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, the Royal Academy’s principal, said: “Khrystyna Mykhailichenko is an extraordinary talent of rare maturity for her age. She came and played the Chopin Ballade No 1 to me recently and revealed what a serious artist she is, almost as if the burdens of a hard life were being channelled through her playing. This was well beyond the carefree virtuosity one hears in this piece so often. It also had real grip and originality.” https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/10/24/khrystyna-mykhailichenko-at-st-marys-mature-artistry-and-refined-musicianship-of-a-great-pianist-in-the-making/
The indomitable Marcella Crudeli will celebrate her 33rd Rome International Piano Competition tonight with the final prize winner’s concert in the beautiful Oratorio del Caravita in the centre of Rome.
The first prize winner Artem Kuznetsov will play the Tchaikowsky B flat minor concerto under the expert baton of Filippo Mancini .From the first imperious notes it was obvious that here was a pianist from the great Russian school who could play with weight and passion.
The ‘Emperor’ concerto will be shared by second prize winner Zvjezdan Vojvodic and third prize Pierpaolo Buggiani,who also got the prize for the youngest competitor and at only 18 is a talent to watch out for in the future with beauty of sound and stylish expressive playing.
Vojvodic is a twenty one year old artist who feels the music passionately but needs now to listen more carefully to the sounds he is making but his true love for the music is something to cherish, but also control.
There are many other categories and prizes to be shared tonight and with this beautiful Oratorio sold out it should create the excitement and heat that was sadly lacking this morning !
The final will be streamed live and hats off to Marcella and her team who have maintained the only International Piano Competition in the Eternal City that was home to Carlo Zecchi and Guido Agosti, two of the most important figures in the history of the piano.
Born in 2002, Misha Kaploukhii is an alumnus of the Moscow Gnessin College of Music where he studied with Mikhail Egiazaryan. He has recently completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal College of Music where he studies with Ian Jones and he has now been chosen as one of the recipients of the prestigious LSO Conservatoire Scholarships, 2024/5 which will include support and professional development along with coaching and performance opportunities.
Misha presenting the concert
He has performed in the UK, Italy and France at the venues including the Cadogan Hall, and St James’ Piccadilly as well as recitals for William Walton Foundation in Ischia and at the Perugia Music Festival.
The Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation annually awards grants to young classical pianists of all nationalities at the start of their professional careers. It has a global reach, reflecting not only Robert’s devotion to music but also his lifelong passion for travel.
A room with a view in Florence for Misha Kaploukhii filling the Harold Acton library with some astonishingly refined playing on a Bechstein of 1890.
He managed to dig deep to find the still noble soul of this vintage instrument where the multi faceted Bagatelles op 119 that Beethoven late in life could create of such miniature tone poems were brought to life with extraordinary character. Very measured but also very lyrical with the beautifully shaped second with its civilised question and answer between the hands and the charm of the third and the extraordinary lyricism of the fourth. A dynamic drive of the fifth with it’s spirited dance character followed by the quasi improvised beauty of the sixth. A handful of crazy notes in crescendoing abundance was followed by the charm of expanding arpeggios of sheer delight and the shortest piece ever that was just like a wind blowing over the keys as the last bagatelle opened with the poignant outpouring of a hymn to life.
Even the mysterious sound world of Scelsi was played with a kaleidoscope of sounds, whispered and barely audible hypnotic repeated notes building in rhythmic energy with a jumble of sounds of Bartokian contrast and explosions of atomic proportions with animal animations. Messiaen’s ‘Kiss of the baby Jesus’ filled this beautiful library with ethereal sounds of masterly control and ravishing radiant beauty reaching for the emphatic deeply felt passion of a true believer.The ending was played with incredible control of sound , the radiance of bells pealing on high as the gentle opening prayer was accompanied by a whispered trail of barely audible strands of gold. The final two chords placed with the poignant timing of a true master. It contrasted with the brooding opening of Prokofiev’s Fourth Sonata with it’s startling range of sounds of dramatic effect. An Andante too with etherial sounds of great beauty. The last movement suddenly bursting into life with a dynamic drive and exhilarating ‘joie de vivre’ after Prokofiev’s deep contemplation of the tragic death of a dear friend .
But it was Godowsky’s scintillating arabesques that he wraps around Strauss’s Die Fledermaus that showed the mastery of this twenty one year old virtuoso. A sense of style from a past era when pianists could ignite the keyboard with ravishing sounds that could seduce and excite with displays of astonishing technical mastery as they turned baubles into gems . And gems they certainly were in Misha’s hands as the audience listened with astonished delight to such an exhilarating display of ‘carefully manicured bad taste ‘. Godowsky suffered from stage fright but all those that heard him in his studio never forgot what they heard.’There is nothing like it in the world’ Hoffman declared and Arrau considered him one of ‘the greatest technicians of all time.’ Rubinstein simply stated that it would take him five hundred years to acquire a mechanism like Godowsky’s!
An encore that just underlined the eclectic musicianship of this young musician as Greensleeves resounded amid the intricate beauty of Busoni’s elaborate invention .
Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29, subtitled D’après des vieux cahiers, or After Old Notebooks, was composed in 1917 and premiered on April 17 the next year by the composer himself in Petrograd The work was dedicated to Prokofiev’s late friend Maximilian Schmidthof, whose suicide in 1913 had shocked and saddened the composer.
Allegro molto sostenuto
Andante assai
Allegro con brio,ma non leggiero
In his notes accompanying the full set of recordings of Prokofiev’s sonatas by Boris Berman David Fanning states the following:
Whether the restrained, even brooding quality of much of the Fourth Sonata relates in any direct way to Schmidthof’s death is uncertain, but it is certainly striking that the first two movements both start gloomily in the piano’s low register. Allegro molto sostenuto is the intriguing and apt marking for the first, in which a hesitant and uncertain mood prevails – the reverse of Prokofiev’s usual self-confidence. The Andante assai second movement alternates between progressively more elaborate statements of the opening theme and a nostalgic lyrical episode reminiscent of a Rachmaninov Etude-tableau; finally the two themes are heard in combination. With the rumbustious finale Prokofiev seems to be feeling himself again. But for all the gymnastics with which the main theme is varied there is less showiness in this essentially rather introvert work than in any of the other piano sonatas.
Prokofiev, as drawn by Matisse for the premiere of Chout (1921) 27 April 1891 Sontsovka Russian Empire now Ukraine 5 March 1953 (aged 61)Moscow, Soviet
The Eleven Bagatelles , Op. 119 were written between the 1790s and the early 1820s.
Page one of the manuscript from Beethoven’s Bagatelle in G minor, Op. 119 n.1 (c. 1822)
By the end of 1803, Beethoven had already sketched bagatelles Nos. 1 to 5 (along with several other short works for piano that he never published). In 1820, he first finished the last five bagatelles of Op. 119, and published them as a set of five in June 1821 for Wiener Pianoforteschule Schule by Friedrich Stark.The following year, he revised his old bagatelle sketches to construct a new collection for publication, adding a final bagatelle, No. 6, composed in late 1822.Initially Beethoven struggled to get a deal to publish any of the bagatelles Beethoven met with many people such as Peters of Leipzig and Pacini in Paris for publishing, who declined his request. Eventually Beethoven managed to have the entire set published: first by Clementi in London in 1823, Maurice Schlesinger in Paris some time around the end of 1823, and Sauer & Leidesdorf in Vienna on in April 1824. It is unclear to what degree this represents the composer’s intentions.
Some scholars have argued that the two halves of Op. 119 — Nos. 1 to 6, and Nos. 7 to 11 — are best thought of as separate collections. However, it is also possible that when Beethoven composed No. 6 in late 1822, he had already planned to send all eleven pieces to England. In that case, No. 6 would not be meant as a conclusion to the first five, but as a way to connect them with the latter five. The key relationship and thematic similarities between No. 6 and No. 7 support this hypothesis, as does the fact that in subsequent correspondence, Beethoven expressed only satisfaction with how the bagatelles were published in England after his ex-pupil Ferdinand Ries helped get the collection published.
Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi 8 January 1905 – 9 August 1988,was an Italian composer who also wrote surrealist poetry in French.
Born in the village of Pitelli near La Spezia , Scelsi spent most of his time in his mother’s old castle where he received education from a private tutor who taught him Latin, chess and fencing. Later, his family moved to Rome and his musical talents were encouraged by private lessons with Giacinto Sallustio . In Vienna, he studied with Walther Klein , a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg . He became the first exponent of dodecaphony in Italy, although he did not continue to use this system.He is best known for having composed music based around only one pitch , altered in all manners through microtonal oscillations , harmonic allusions, and changes in timbre and dynamics,as paradigmatically exemplified in his Quattro pezzi su una nota sola (“Four Pieces on a single note”, 1959).This composition remains his most famous work and one of the few performed to significant recognition during his lifetime. His musical output, which encompassed all Western classical genres except scenic music, remained largely undiscovered even within contemporary musical circles during most of his life. Today, some of his music has gained popularity in certain postmodern composition circles, with pieces like his “Anahit” and his String Quartets rising to increased prominence. The music of Scelsi was heard by millions in martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island , in which excerpts of his two works Quattro pezzi su una nota sola and Uaxuctum (3rd movement) .The suite n 11 was written in 1956 in Scelsi’s second period ( four periods are 1929/48 – 1952/59 – 1960/69 – 1970/85)
In Rome after the war, his wife left him (eventually inspiring Elegia per Ty), and he underwent a profound psychological crisis that eventually led him to the discovery of Eastern spirituality, and also to a radical transformation of his view of music. In this so-called second period , he rejected the notions of composition and authorship in favour of sheer improvisation . His improvisations were recorded on tape and later transcribed by collaborators under his guidance. They were then orchestrated and filled out by his meticulous performance instructions, or adjusted from time to time in close collaboration with the performers.Scelsi came to conceive of artistic creation as a means of communicating a higher, transcendent reality to the listener. In this view, the artist is considered a mere intermediary. For this reason, Scelsi never allowed his image to be shown in connection with his music; he preferred instead to identify himself by a line under a circle, as a symbol of Eastern provenance. Some photographs of Scelsi have emerged since his death.
Leopold Mordkhelovich Godowsky Sr. (13 February 1870 – 21 November 1938) was a Lithuanian-born American virtuoso pianist ,composer and teacher . He was one of the most highly regarded performers of his time,known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion within pianistic technique – principles later propagated by his pupils, such as Heinrich Neuhaus. He was heralded among musical giants as the “Buddha of the Piano”.Ferruccio Busoni that he and Godowsky were “the only composers to have added anything of significance to keyboard writing since Franz Liszt”
In the three great Strauss transcriptions, Godowsky elevated the art of the piano paraphrase to a higher musical and pianistic plane; however their extreme technical difficulty remains a striking feature and places them out of the reach of ordinary pianists. The legendary pianist Leopold Godowsky (1870-1937) used to wow ‘em at concerts with these transcriptions of favorite tunes by the waltz king, and, in a delightful feat of anachronistic bravura. The quartet of arrangements–based on material from “Fledermaus,” “Wine, Woman and Song,” “Artist’s Life” and the “Symphonic Metamorphosis of the Schatz-Walzer Themes from ‘Zigeunerbaron’ For Left Hand Alone”–trades in sudden plunges into the minor, thick contrapuntal textures, excessive melodic embellishments and arpeggios for days. But these paraphrases truly retain the soul of the waltz. As a study in carefully manicured bad taste, this collection has few rivals.
A page from Godowsky’s highly challenging arrangement of Chopin Op. 25, No. 1
As a composer, Godowsky has been best known for his paraphrases of piano pieces by other composers, which he enhanced with ingenious contrapuntal devices and rich chromatic harmonies. His most famous work in this genre is the 53 Studies on Chopin’s Etudes (1894–1914), in which he varies the (already challenging) original études using various methods: introducing countermelodies , transferring the technically difficult passages from the right hand to the left, transcribing an entire piece for left hand solo, or even interweaving two études, with the left hand playing one and the right hand the other.Although his transcriptions are much more well known, Godowsky also composed a number of substantial original works. He considered the Passacaglia (1927) and a collection of pieces for left hand alone (1930–31) to be his most mature creations; both, however, employ traditional approach to harmony and counterpoint. A more experimental work was the Java Suite (Phonoramas) (1925), composed after a visit to Java, under the influence of gamelan music. Godowsky was equally comfortable writing large-scale works like the Passacaglia or the five-movement Piano Sonata in E minor (1911) as he was creating collections of smaller pieces, such as the 46 Miniatures for piano four hands and the Triakontameron (1920; subtitled “30 moods and scenes in triple measure”).
Although he regularly played public concerts until 1930, Godowsky was plagued by stage fright , and particularly disliked the recording studio, like many performers of his time. On one occasion, he described the recording process thus:
‘The fear of doing a trifling wrong augmented while playing; the better one succeeded in playing the foregoing, the greater the fear became while playing. It was a dreadful ordeal, increasingly so the more sensitive the artist, I broke down in my health in London in the Spring of 1930, owing to these nerve-killing tortures. How can one think of emotion!’
Consequently, it was acknowledged that Godowsky’s best work was not in public or in the recording studio, but at home. After leaving Godowsky’s home one night, Josef Hofmann told Abram Chasins: “Never forget what you heard tonight; never lose the memory of that sound. There is nothing like it in the world. It is tragic that the world has never heard Popsy as only he can play.”Claudio Arrau ,declared Godowsky “one of the greatest technicians”, even though he considered his playing “boring” and complained that Godowsky “never played above mezzo-forte.”Artur Rubinstein simple stated that it would take him “five hundred years to get a mechanism like Godowsky’s”.
Olivier Messiaen 10 December 1908 Avignon France 27 April 1992 (aged 83)Clichy , France
The Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (“Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus”) are a suite of 20 pieces for solo piano by the French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992).It was composed from March to September of 1944 following a January commission by Maurice Toesca wishing for a reading of his twelve poems on the nativity. The abandoned plan was later reworked with a dedication to his protégée Yvonne Loriod
Regard du Père (“Contemplation of the Father”)
Regard de l’étoile (“Contemplation of the star”)
L’échange (“The exchange”)
Regard de la Vierge (“Contemplation of the Virgin”)
Regard du Fils sur le Fils (“Contemplation of the Son upon the Son”)
Par Lui tout a été fait (“Through Him everything was made”)
Regard de la Croix (“Contemplation of the Cross”)
Regard des hauteurs (“Contemplation of the heights”)
Regard du temps (“Contemplation of time”)
Regard de l’Esprit de joie (“Contemplation of the joyful Spirit”)
Première communion de la Vierge (“The Virgin’s first communion”)
La parole toute-puissante (“The all-powerful word”)
Noël (“Christmas”)
Regard des Anges (“Contemplation of the Angels”)
Le baiser de l’Enfant-Jésus (“The kiss of the Infant Jesus”)
Regard des prophètes, des bergers et des Mages (“Contemplation of the prophets, the shepherds and the Magi”)
Regard du silence (“Contemplation of silence”)
Regard de l’Onction terrible (“Contemplation of the awesome Anointing”)
Je dors, mais mon cœur veille (“I sleep, but my heart keeps watch”)
Regard de l’Eglise d’amour (“Contemplation of the Church of love”)
Messiaen uses Thèmes or leitmotifs , recurring elements that represent certain ideas. They include:
Thème de Dieu (“Theme of God”)
Thème de l’amour mystique (“Theme of Mystical Love”)
Thème de l’étoile et de la croix (“Theme of the Star and of the Cross”)
Jeremy Chan at Steinway Hall London for the Keyboard Trust where his eclectic programme of the four Bs made for a box office success: Bach,Beethoven Brahms and Barber! Bach as seen through the eyes of Rachmaninov and Beethoven particularly genial with the only Sonata that he was happy to add a title to describing a sad departure but also the glad return. Brahms with four of his most poignantly ethereal and imperious miniature tone poems and Barber with demonic knotty twine that only Horowitz could completely hope to unwind.
Elena Vorotko writes :’ I thought Jeremy was rather good last night, definitely had something to say and rather beautiful/poetic in all the right places, made a rather hoarse piano sound rather beautiful. I thought he held back the volume skillfully without lacking contrast till he got to Barber and the let loose, rather rightly. I thought there was clarity overall and great attention to articulation and textural detail. I sat in front row with Garo from the Pharos Cultural Centre in Cyprus who really liked Jeremy’s playing ‘
‘The London Steinway Hall was buzzing with anticipation! The audience for this sold out concert included celebrated musicians, concert organisers and critics, taking the temperature up a notch for the evening’s performer- Jeremy Chan.
With the first notes of the Bach/Rachmaninov transcription one could feel Jeremy’s eager involvement in the music. While keeping to traditional norms of rolling beat and articulation, he indulged his public in cleverly voiced, clear tapestry of polyphony, sprinkling new iterations of the theme with new colours. Letting us enjoy Rachmaninov’s signature harmonies here and there, Jeremy created a playful character that was both charming and fun.
The Beethoven ‘Les Adieux’ sonata, so called by the composer himself, appeared like a triptych of related, but strongly contrasting movements. The poised flow of the musical narrative allowed the audience time to be present in the music. Full of colours and characterful articulation, the first movement portrayed worrysome anticipation rather effectively! The second movement was very moving in its simple, immediate and genuine expression. Mournful intonations were contrasted with the joyful episodes not only in volume, but sound quality and balance of textures, creating a fully immersive effect for the audience. Jeremy took us on a journey of dealing with grief, which resolved by transforming into the sound of distant celestial bells. The volume of the third movement was pleasantly well judged, at least for those seated in the front row – only about 2 metres away from the piano! Jeremy opted for bright and light sonorities, never pounding as can be easily done in this exciting piece. It seemed that he kept the general dynamic range relatively narrow, saving the greatest volume for what was to come later in the programme.
If one has not noticed this before, in Brahms it became particularly clear, just how much Jeremy loves music- loves creating beautful sonorities, that merge and transform into one-another while floating in the air. Loves making those phrases speak, loves playing with those textures, loves communicating through sound and making music a vivid reality for his listeners. The B minor intermezzo was beautifully played on the piano, that could easily sound hoarse and forced in the relatively small Steinway Hall. It is a true test for the pianist to be able to tame the glorious beast of a Steinway model D when the audience is breathing down your neck. But nobody was actually breathing, everyone held their breath in anticipation of every new sound Jeremy was creating. He made his soul sing through his fingers in an intimate and direct way and took our souls along with him.
The Barber Sonata was a sparkling kaleidoscope of emotions. With the grand structure thought through and realised, every detail supported the narrative arch and gripped the audience from start to end. When I asked some audience members what they enjoyed the most, quite a lot of them said- “ Barber”! But it was not just loud and fast and impressive, it was interesting, enlightening and beautiful. I loved the attention to textures in all works played by Jeremy that evening. His intellect shone through but did not get in the way of his heart, a rare balance to find in any human, let alone a musician! Bravo, Jeremy!’
I was sorry to miss a chance to hear Jeremy’s concert again but even sorrier to miss the fun and games afterwards. The KT, thanks to the generosity of Steinway’s, encourages the public to mix and get to know some of the strains and struggles of these young musicians as they spend their youth reaching for the stars. Also a chance to try some of the designer pianos that Steinways are presenting to the world with such success.
Elena Vorotko with Wiebke Greinus artist manager of Steinway and our genial hostess
Elena Vorotko was particularly inspired by the Walt Disney piano on display in the shop window. Let’s not forget that it is thanks to Tom and Jerry who bequeathed the inspiration of Lang Lang to the millions of unsuspecting musicians that we now see emerging from China and more importantly buying pianos.It is the Lang Lang Foundation like the Keyboard Trust that so generously helps young musicians to survive and thrive on those first few steps of a ladder as long and thorny as a beanstalk!
Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832): Divertissement op. 68, no. 6 in C-Sharp minor for flute solo 2. Dick Kattenburg (1919-1944): Sonata for flute and piano op.5 3. George Hüe (1858-1948) : Fantasie pour flûte et piano
Presented in association with Tunbridge Wells International Music Competition.
Russian flutist Maria Filippova made her concerto debut with the Symphony Orchestra of Nizhni Novgorod under the baton of Renat Zhiganshin in 2008. She has since performed in numerous concert halls across Russia and Europe. Over the years, Maria has performed as a soloist with several esteemed orchestras, including the Symphony Orchestra of Moscow state Philharmonic Society, Symphony Orchestra of Czech radio, Symphony Orchestra of Nizhniy Novgorod state Philharmonic Society named after M. Rostropovitch and various Municipal chamber orchestras across Russia. As an orchestral player Maria has extensive experience playing as part of the English-leading orchestras and ensembles and had a privilege to perform in various prestigious venues such as Cadogan Hall, Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall and Royal Albert Hall. During her studies Maria became a laureate of the regional, all-Russia and international competitions more than once. In 2014, aged 14, Maria became the winner of the Nutcracker Television Competition and the Concertino-Praga Competition, where her gala performance was broadcast on Czech Radio. Since then, Maria was overall Grand Prix Laureate at the Gnessin Competition in Moscow, received a gold medal of the Delphic Games in Vladivostok and also became a finalist of the Moscow International Flute Competition, where she performed her program of the third round in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. In 2024 she became a winner of a Tunbridge Wells International Music Competition. This year Maria will be undertaking the Artist Diploma course at RCM supported by The Carne Junior Fellowship (Philip Carne) and the Neil Black award (Countess of Munster Musical Trust).
Domenica 10 novembre ore 12; Museo Pietro Canonica
Le parafrasi da concerto di Franz Liszt da Verdi
FRANZ LISZT 22 October 1811 Doborjan Kingdom of Hungary, AustrianEmpire
31 July 1886 (aged 74) Bayreuth , Kingdom of Bavaria, German EmpireMaster and pupil Giovanni Bertolazzi with Domenico Bevilacqua an ex student of Giovanni from Ravenna Conservatory now studying in Imola with Boris Petrushansky
R. Wagner – F. Liszt: Isoldes Liebestod, S. 447
Domenico Bevilacqua, pianoforte
G. Verdi – F. Liszt: Ernani. Parafrasi da concerto, S. 432; Miserere dal Trovatore, S. 433; Salve Maria! Da Jérusalem (I Lombardi), S. 431ii ; Don Carlos. Coro di festa e marcia funebre, S. 435; Aida. Danza sacra e duetto finale, S. 436; Reminiscenze di Simon Boccanegra, S. 438; Rigoletto. Parafrasi da concerto, S. 434
Giovanni Bertolazzi, pianoforte
Valerio Vicari , the genial artistic director of Roma 3 Orchestra presenting the concert
Sensational is the only word to describe Giovanni Bertolazzi playing all seven of the opera paraphrases of Verdi by Liszt Presenting his student ,Domenico Bevilacqua, opening with Liebestod which had all the colours and musicianship of his mentor But when Giovanni struck up the Ernani paraphrase there was a authority and breathtaking presence that was to hold a museum packed to the rafters mesmerised by such artistry on this sunny Sunday morning in Villa Borghese they even demanded more and Giovanni very generously offered three encores. A little waltz written for piano by Puccini ; De Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance alla Rubinstein ! And by even great insistence Valse Triste by the violinist Vecsey (Agosti was often his duo partner) in the spectacular arrangement for piano by Cziffra.
A triumph and it is thanks to Valerio Vicari who had spotted his talent a few years ago and has brought his talent to the fruition that is being applauded worldwide today.
Domenico Bevilacqua opened this all Liszt concert with a sumptuous performance of Liebestod .It is a work that Giovanni too had played a few years ago for Roma 3 in the historic Villa Torlonia. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/01/17/giovanni-bertolazzi-in-rome-liszt-is-alive-and-well-at-teatro-di-villa-torlonia/ Today Domenico showed a depth of sound from the arresting opening chords that were played with strength but never hardness.A kaleidoscope of colours allowed the twisting and turning of the counterpoints to entwine with fluidity and glowing beauty as they built to a passionate climax only to die away to a magical whisper. A superb sense of style and stretching the insinuating sounds to their maximum without ever loosing sight of the overall architectural shape.Authority and control immediately created an electric atmosphere where this young virtuoso held us in the palm of his hands as he took us on a wondrous voyage of discovery. And what a wonder this Ernani paraphrase is and strangely heard so rarely in the concert hall.Maybe because of it’s transcendental difficulty that for Giovanni was not a problem .The massive hurdles he surmounted with ease with a sense of style and balance always at the service of the music.
Liszt made a concert paraphrase of Ernani in 1847, but this remained unpublished. A second Paraphrase de concert was made in the following years and revised in 1859. The opera itself was first staged in Venice in 1844 and deals with the rivalry for the love of Elvira of the bandit Ernani and Don Carlo, King of Spain, complicated by the implacable hostility of Elvira’s uncle, Don Ruy Gomez, who conspires with Ernani against the King. When matters seem resolved, Don Ruy gives a signal, agreed with Ernani, that the latter should die, if Don Ruy demands it. The signal is given, and Ernani stabs himself. The third act is set in a cathedral vault at Aix-la-Chapelle, before the tomb of Charlemagne. Don Carlo, who is to be elected Holy Roman Emperor, overhears the conspirators, turns and addresses his illustrious predecessor in O sommo Carlo (O supreme Carlo), and extends clemency to Ernani and Elvira. It is this melody that provides the basis of Liszt’s paraphrase.
The deep bass notes intoned with ponderous seriousness in the ‘Miserere’ before the sumptuous tenor melody with subtle gentle comments on high becomes ever more dramatic and insistent .
First staged in Rome in 1853, Il trovatore has a plot of some complexity. The troubadour of the title, Manrico, is the supposed son of the gypsy Azucena, but actually the stolen child of the old Count di Luna, a rebel and declared enemy of the young Count di Luna. Both are in love with Leonora, and Manrico, in his stronghold, is preparing to marry her, when news comes of the imminent death of his supposed mother, taken by the Count and condemned to death by burning. In his attempt to save her, Manrico is taken prisoner by the Count. In the fourth act Leonora, brought to a place outside Manrico’s prison, thinks to bring him new hope. From the tower the Miserere is heard, Miserere d’un’ alma già vicina / Alla partenza che non ha ritorno! (Have mercy on a soul already near / To the parting from which there is no return). Leonora’s horrified exclamation, Quel suon, quelle preci solenni, funeste (What sound, what solemn, mournful prayers) leads to Manrico’s Ah che la morte ognora / È tarda nel venir (Ah how slow the coming of death), from the tower, his farewell to his beloved. Once again Liszt has chosen the point of highest tragedy for his 1859 paraphrase. It is followed by Leonora’s offer of herself to the Count, in return for her lover’s release, having secretly taken poison, her death, and that of Manrico, executed, but now finally revealed by Azucena to the Count as his own brother.
The ‘Salve Maria’ was Liszt’s first paraphrase of Verdi and it was played with chiselled sounds of great purity
Verdi’s opera of 1842, I Lombardi was recast in 1847 for Paris as Jérusalem. The Paris version transposes the action from Lombardy to France. The prayer, sung by Hélène, daughter of the Count of Toulouse, who has killed her lover’s father, again comes in the first act. Liszt’s version, more transcription than paraphrase, made originally in 1848, is dedicated to Madame Marie Kalergis, née Comtesse Nesselrode. The tremolo effect, originally for violins, is preserved in Liszt’s version, more particularly, perhaps, in the alternative transcription for the newly invented armonipiano, with its tremolo pedal.
Don Carlos there was immediately a dynamic rhythmic energy with extraordinary empty bass sounds that created quite an astonishing atmosphere of desolation.
Dating from 1867-68, Liszt’s treatment of the Coro di festa e marcia funebre from Don Carlos is based on the opera of that name, first seen in its original version in Paris in 1867. Drawn from Schiller’s dramatic poem, the plot centres on the Spanish Infante, son of Philip II, and his love for Elisabeth de Valois, originally his betrothed but then the wife of the King. The involvement of Don Carlos with rebels in Flanders and the interventions of Princess Eboli, who is also in love with Don Carlos, bring further complications, ending in his condemnation and final mysterious rescue into the monastery founded by his grandfather, from behind whose tomb a voice calls him. The Church has an important part to play and the Grand Finale of the third act brings a popular celebration, in front of the Cathedral of Valladolid, honouring the King. This spectacular scene is followed by a funeral march, as monks escort heretics to their deaths at the stake.
What a ravishingly beautiful paraphrase this ‘Aida’ is where Liszt has completely understood the chamber quality of an opera that is all too often thought of as only the triumphal march.The ending is one of the most beautiful things in all of Verdi’s operas and it was this that Giovanni played with ravishing sounds and an extraordinary expressiveness ending in bare whispers of breathtaking beauty.
Verdi wrote his Egyptian opera Aida for the opening of the Cairo Opera House in 1871. Aida, daughter of the King of Ethiopia but enslaved by the Egyptians, is in love with Radames, appointed captain of the Egyptian armies in their fight against the Ethiopians. Victorious in battle, Radames is promised the hand of Aida’s mistress, Amneris, daughter of the King of Egypt, as a reward for his triumph. In an assignation with Aida, whom he loves, he divulges military secrets to her, overheard by her father, a prisoner of the Egyptians. Accused of treachery, Radames is condemned to death, to the dismay of Amneris, and, immured in a tomb, he is joined by Aida, allowing the two to die together, while Amneris mourns the fate of her beloved Radames. Liszt offers a paraphrase of the Danza sacra e duetto final,published in 1879. The sacred dance, from the end of the first act, accompanies the reception by Radames of the sacred sword, the symbol of his army command. Priestesses in the temple chant their prayer to the god Phtha, Possente, possente Phtha!, followed by their dance. In the fourth act the chant of the priestesses in the temple is heard, as Radames and Aida, entombed below, bid farewell to life in O terra addio, o valle di pianti (O earth, farewell, O vale of tears, farewell), and Amneris, distraught, offers her own prayer.
Boccanegra was the last of Liszt’s paraphrases and was played with a radiant beauty even if it appeared to me to be the least successful . There were many beautiful things but Liszt seemed to lack an overall shape and form that had been so clear in the previous paraphrases.
Liszt’s Réminiscences de Boccanegra was written in 1882, a year after Verdi’s revision of his 1857 opera. It deals with events in medieval Genoa, plots against the Doge, Simone Boccanegra, and the machinations of the goldsmith Paolo Albiani. The opera ends with the death of Boccanegra, poisoned by Paolo, but the happy joining together of his daughter Amelia with Gabriele Adorno, who succeeds Boccanegra as Doge. Liszt’s reminiscences start with a reference to the 1881 Prologue, in which the election of Boccanegra as Doge is proposed. This leads to the final chorus of the second act, All’armi, o Liguri (To arms, O Ligurians), a popular rebellion against the Doge, that is to be defeated. A further reference is to the final ensemble of the third act, bringing the death of Boccanegra, but otherwise general reconciliation. Liszt ends the work with a return to the theme of the Prologue.
Rigoletto paraphrase has long been a favourite of virtuosi in the concert hall. It is easy to see why with its ravishing rubato and sense of style allied to astonishing pianistic brilliance. There was charm and elegance too and Giovanni was certainly not lacking in showmanship and scintillating virtuosity in a performance of fearless dynamism.
Liszt’s concert paraphrases, are more than mere transcriptions, offering a re-interpretation based on thematic material drawn from their source. Among the best known of his Verdi arrangements is his Rigoletto Paraphrase de concert, written in 1859. Verdi’s opera had had its first performance in Venice in 1851. The plot centres on the court jester of the title, a servant and accomplice of the Duke of Mantua in his amorous adventures. Cursed by a courtier whose daughter the Duke has dishonoured, Rigoletto suffers the loss of his own daughter, Gilda, seduced by the Duke and then abducted, for the Duke’s pleasure, by the courtiers. In the last act of the opera Rigoletto has hired an assassin, Sparafucile to murder the Duke as he dallies with Sparafucile’s sister, Maddalena. They are observed from the darkness outside by Rigoletto and his daughter, who is to die at the assassin’s hands. It is this final scene that Liszt takes as the basis of his paraphrase. The theme that dominates is the Duke’s Bella figlia d’amore (Fair daughter of love), interspersed with the light-hearted replies of Maddalena, and the exclamations of Gilda, as she sees her lover’s infidelity exposed.
Three encores from an enthusiastic over capacity audience : An original piano piece by Puccini – Piccolo valzer from 1894 ; Manuel De Falla Ritual Fire Dance ; Vecsey/Cziffra Valse Triste .The disarming simplicity of Puccini’s little waltz was immediately dispelled by the impetuosity and animal drive of De Falla Ritual Fire Dance. Hands thrown in the air ,a little less than Rubinstein, but it gave an electric shock drive to the boiling hot atmosphere that De Falla evokes.The Valse Triste I have heard Giovanni play many times in public but rarely with the same abandon and improvised freedom that he demonstrated today.Giovanni had taken us on a long journey from Liszt the virtuoso to the Liszt the visionary, demonstrating that this talented young musician has become a great artist ready to grace the great concert halls of the world for years to come.
Franz Liszt compose diverse parafrasi da concerto su opere di Giuseppe Verdi, trascrizioni virtuosistiche ed elaborate, basate su celebri melodie da opere verdiane. Questi brani rappresentano non solo una forma di omaggio da parte di Liszt a Verdi, ma anche un’opportunità per il compositore ungherese di esplorare nuove possibilità tecniche ed espressive al pianoforte. Tra le più famose troviamo le parafrasi tratte da “Rigoletto”, “Il Trovatore” e “Aida”. Liszt prende i temi più drammatici o lirici delle opere e li rielabora con una scrittura pianistica virtuosistica e ricca di colori, che esalta sia le qualità tecniche del pianista che la forza emotiva della versione originale. Le parafrasi non si limitano a una semplice trascrizione: Liszt interviene trasformando, espandendo e rielaborando i temi, creando nuove opere che stanno in equilibrio tra la fedeltà al modello e l’innovazione personale.
La morte di Isotta, scena finale del “Tristano e Isotta” di Wagner, è una delle trascrizioni più celebri di Liszt. In questa parafrasi, Liszt trasforma il celebre “Liebestod” di Isotta in un capolavoro pianistico che evoca con grande intensità il senso di estasi e di annullamento amoroso che caratterizza la scena finale dell’opera. La trascrizione riflette la profondità tragica e mistica del dramma wagneriano, mantenendo l’intensità emotiva dell’originale, ma trasponendola in una dimensione intima e pianistica.
The house of Pietro Canonica in the centre of Villa Borghese The Globe Theatre in Villa Borghese Music everywhere on this Sunday morning in Villa Borghese A sculpture by Pietro Canonica
Standing at the back the distinguished pianist Clive Britton one of the last students of Claudio Arrau in New York and one of the few like his mentor to present all seven Verdi paraphrases in concert.Arrau was a student of Martin Krause a student of Franz Liszt https://breraplus.org/en/story/clive-britton/
Patrick Matthiesen presenting Dominika Mak in his gallery in Mayfair. He had heard her practicing and was so overwhelmed he invited her to give a public recital.
Dominika Mak playing in the beautiful Matthiesen Gallery in an evening of refined elegance with playing of ethereal beauty surrounded by wonderful paintings in a room that one would be more lightly to find in a castle in the Loire than in the centre of London.
Playing of exquisite good taste and beauty allowed us to close a door for a moment on this upside down world where a power game of quantity over quality is fast arriving at an autodestruct stage of no return! Haydn B minor Sonata brought to life with sounds that rarely are heard these days from pianos that are geared up to project to the masses. As Paul Lewis exhorted a young pianist in his masterclass yesterday :’ draw the public in to you there is no need to project …….Schubert is a Genius …..trust him!’
Not Schubert for Dominika Mak but Haydn of exquisite refined beauty but also dynamic drive and passion .Chopin the third and fourth Ballades where she had a wondrous story to share with streams of golden sounds that just flowed from her elegant fingers with a simplicity and aristocratic nobility that is hidden within the soul of the Polish people.
A genial idea to link the sound world of mazurkas by Chopin and Szymanowski with the ethereal water nymph Ondine creating an atmosphere of magic and ravishing beauty. This had now created the atmosphere for Chopin’s Nocturne in D flat that floated on an ethereal wave of whispered sounds .Playing as if in a trance with an improvised beauty sharing Chopin’s deepest thoughts with us as we listened with baited breath transported to a far better world than we could ever envisage. A power game playing outside these exquisite confines, where the autodestruct button gets ever nearer in a world where greedy quantity takes precedence over refined quality.
Haydn’s B minor sonata n 47 was played as if the ink were still fresh on the page! A sense of discovery with a kaleidoscope of colours where every note had a meaning and an important place in a chain of ravishing sounds.There was a crystalline clarity of velvet beauty from an artist who listens to herself and loves the sounds that pour with such ease from her well oiled fingers.A minuet and trio of poignant beauty and extraordinary eloquence with playing of exquisite delicacy.This was not porcelain doll beauty but playing that had drive and contrast too as was shown in the Finale. A Presto of extraordinary ‘jeux perlé’ brilliance with a refined palette of sounds and breathtaking fearless energy. A performance of a work I have heard many times but today it was as though I was hearing it for the first time such was her power of communication allowing Haydn’s genial invention to speak for itself with simplicity, fantasy and mastery.I had heard Dominika just a few weeks ago at a celebration of Chopin at the POSK in London. It does not necessarily follow that because Chopin is a much loved National Hero that he is revealed only to Polish pianists.Fou Ts’ong was awarded the mazurka prize at one of the first Chopin Competitions after the war much to everyone’s suprise. As he explained the soul to be found in Chopin is the same that is in Chinese poetry – you see the soul has no boundaries! https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/10/20/posk-chopin-festival-2004-mak-dubiel-pawlak-swigut-a-feast-of-music-and-full-immersion-with-lady-rose-cholmondeley-and-prof-john-rink/ Some Polish pianists can love Chopin too much and exaggerate the deep rooted nostalgia that Chopin nurtured always for his homeland. Chopin at 18 left his homeland never to return again and became the refined aristocratic composer who spent most of his life in the privileged circles of Paris high society. Dominika is Polish but she also understands the refined aristocratic composer where sentiment is hidden deep within the notes and not just superficially on the surface.It was Artur Rubinstein ( he too an exile from an early age) who broke away from a tradition where sentiment had become sentimentality and deeply rooted nostalgia became heart on sleeve showmanship for pianists who would also talk to the public whilst they played to let them know how clever they were! Dominika’s playing that I heard at POSK revealed an artist not only of refined sensibility but a musician of aristocratic authority with playing that was flexible but always as Chopin said with roots firmly planted in the ground but with the branches free to sway in the wind. Six Preludes from his set of 24 ( Chopin never played them as a set or intended them to be played together ) immediately showed Dominika’s remarkable sense of balance, where in the 13th the melody was allowed to sing sustained by a continuous flow of harmonic beauty that was allowed to emerge at poignant moments.The 14th ,just one page, usually played like a battle cry was here the same wind over the graves of his later Funeral March Sonata where Chopin’s originality had Schumann declaring that it was more ‘like a mockery than any music’. Dominika played it like a living amalgam of sounds rising and falling with unusual poetic beauty. She brought a radiance to the ‘Raindrop’ prelude that was of great beauty but also strength with the sombre whispered left hand of the central episode creating the terrible weather in Valdemossa where Chopin had eloped with George Sand, taking refuge from the vulgar peasants and dreadful weather in the cell of a Monastery high in the hills on Majorca.The 16th is a ‘tour de force’ for any pianist but in Dominika’s hands became a frantic swirl of sounds played fearlessly and almost spotlessly! There was deep rooted nostalgia to the 17th with a timeless outpouring of melody of searing beauty.The deep A flats at the end creating a magic carpet on which the melody was heard more and more in the distance.The cadenza prelude of the 18th was played with extraordinary musicianship where the melody and accompaniment were played with unexpected and refreshing originality. The 3rd and Fourth Ballades were played as tone poems of extraordinary originality.The pastoral beauty of the third contrasting with the poignant beauty and majesty of the fourth , long considered the pinnacle of the Romantic piano repertoire together with the Liszt Sonata and the Schumann Fantasy .If the climax of both could have had more incisive bite and weight Dominika convinced us that first and foremost these were two visions of beauty where even the extraordinary technical demands made especially in the codas was only a poetic means of expression that grew out of the story that was being told.The Mazurkas op 59 I had heard from Dominika’s hands a few week ago and was overwhelmed by her understanding and recreation of miniature tone poems that Schumann described as ‘canons covered in flowers’. Today she repeated that miracle and added another that were three of the four Mazurkas written for Artur Rubinstein by his friend Szymanowski. Written in 1925 they have the same dance rhythm as Chopin but a musical language that owes more to Stravinsky with its strange intoxicating harmonies. Rubinstein used to play them as a brief window opener in his all Chopin recitals.It was this refreshing purity and clarity that added another dimension to Ravel’s water nymph,Ondine,who flutters in and out of the ravishing waves of the first of the suite ‘Gaspard de la Nuit’.It was in the climax of ‘Ondine’ that suddenly Dominika showed us her technical mastery as she threw herself with fearless abandon in a work that Ravel wanted to put virtuosi pianists to the test as Balakirev had done with his Islamey.It was after this final ‘tour de force’ that Dominika chose to play one of Chopin’s most beautiful bel canto creations.The Nocturne in D flat was played with barely whispered sounds of great daring and freedom.Her innate musicianship allowed her to steer her way through this sublime music with unusual freedom but also with an architectural vision that was totally convincing.L’aula Gaber and Mary Orr with Dominika Mak and Patrick Matthiesen.Christopher Elton always present to hear his students in public together with Tom Zalmanov and Dominika both students at the Royal Academy of Music https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/05/16/tom-zalmanov-at-steinway-hall-for-the-keyboard-trust/ Tom will be playing at the Wigmore Hall on Wednesday at 1.00pm in the RAM Piano Series which recently saw Emanuil Ivanov give an incredible performance of Rzewski .Prof Elton of course was there too ! https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/10/09/emanuil-ivanov-sensational-performance-at-the-wigmore-hall-of-rzewski-the-people-united-will-never-be-defeated-a-staggering-performance-of-total-mastery-and-musical-communication/Sir Norman Rosenthal who will be hosting his 80th birthday concert for friends in the Gallery on Friday thanks to the generosity of Patrick Matthiesen His protégé Samson Tsoy will play late Beethoven and Aksel Rykkvin with Zany Denver will perform lieder by Beethoven and Schubert including Normans Gesang of 1825 https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/07/19/review-of-samson-tsoy-the-trilogy-at-fidelio/Victor Braojos and Paul Mnatsakanov two extraordinary young artists playing regularly in London. Victor a fellow of the Guildhall and Paul in his final year as post graduate at the RCM. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/05/24/paul-mnatsakanov-graduation-recitals-at-the-royal-college-music/Victor Braojos a protégée of the indomitable Mary Orr of the Young Artists Concert Series https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/10/17/victor-braojos-at-imperial-college-the-voice-of-spain-with-loveauthority-and-passion/Superb aspiring young musicians all supporting each others recitals as did Barenboim,Du Pre,Fou Ts’ong,Andre Tchaikowsky,Nelson Freire,Martha Argerich ,Perleman, Zuckerman in the 60’s when life was slower and jet setting careers were not yet the norm.The extraordinary Christopher Elton a fellow student of Gordon Green and now in his 80’s but still with an undiminished passion for music that takes him to International Piano Juries as well as helping the students that flock to his studio at the RAM
Some extraordinary playing from this young man who I have listened to since the age of 13 when he was the youngest pianist to be accepted by the Royal College of Music in the class of Dmitri Alexeev. And I well remember his remarkable performance of great clarity of Brahms Handel variations where this young man could already hold his own with the more mature artists of the class
It is never easy for a young man to have to grow up along side such a precocious talent . His appearances in the finals of the young musician of the year from a very early age have always aroused great interest although through a strange twist of fate he has not yet been crowned. But he has certainly been noticed and it has been a joy to watch such a gifted young boy turn gradually into an artist and a young man with a personality and musical voice of his own .It is a great accolade to the remarkable Alexeev’s who like the Craxton’ s years ago take these young musicians into their inner circle and not only instruct but nurture their progress with patience and understanding.
The Bach B major prelude and Fugue book 2 was played with a clarity and beauty of sculptured sounds of great purity allowing the Prelude to contrast with the serious four part fugue that unwound in a beautiful pastoral tempo .The difference between staccato and legato contrasts adding great character to knotty twine of such nobility from the Genius of Kothen.
Chopin’s second Ballade was played with the same clarity and with a flowing tempo as the ‘Andantino’ was allowed to unfold with such natural poise and sense of style but slightly lacking in the colours that Jacky was to unleash in the later part of the programme.Jacky has an extraordinary clarity to all he does which was to make his playing of the ‘Presto con fuoco’ so exciting and refreshingly precise. His playing of the ‘Andantino’ ,though ,lacked a certain weight and warmth as though his fingers were not sucking the juice out of each note with limpet like insistence.There was a natural flow and beguiling sense of rubato as the voices duetted together gradually becoming more passionate and insistent with the ‘stretto piu mosso’ indicated by the composer. Jacky always plays with such intelligent musicianship and sense of architectural understanding and the eruption of the ‘Presto con fuoco’ lead so naturally into the dynamic drive of the ‘agitato’ coda.The deep bass melodic octaves ,though, were strangely played on the surface and not the marcato and legato of Chopin’s very precise pedal indications.The coda too was played with great passion and remarkable technical mastery but slightly missed the sumptuous grand sound that Chopin clearly marks. Even the final long pedal on the ‘forzato’ chord was ignored where the return of the ‘Andantino’ should be like a memory after a long journey, of sounds lost in a mist of mystery and peace. This was in many ways a remarkable performance but missing the sense of a story being told of wondrous beauty.
It was just this beauty that he now found and that ignited the late B major Nocturne. Here there was a beautiful sense of improvised freedom and subtle colouring.The luminosity of the sound was quite magical and of a languid beauty where his superb trills were of true bel canto shape. An exquisite coda of the controlled freedom of mature mastery.
The Sonata in Bb flat minor is one of Chopin’s greatest works of classical discipline but also of romantic freedom and invention.The last movement of such originality that it had Schumann declare the sonata as “four of Chopin’s 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 he stated that the movement “seems more like a mockery than any music”,and when Felix Mendelssohn was asked for an opinion of it, he commented, “Oh, I abhor it.” From the opening notes this sixteen year old musician showed us what a masterpiece of originality Chopin had written.Schumann had famously written about the arrival of Chopin playing his salon variations op 2 with ‘ Hats off ,Gentlemen, a genius’ . Little could he have imagined what the word genius really can mean.Often not pleasant because so unexpected! Jacky brought a dramatic note to the opening ,which he decided not to repeat, ending the much debated to be or not to be theory.This was a young musician with a vision of maturity and mastery.If he attacked the opening chords unnecessarily with a little too much vehemence from above, they immediately dissolved into a masterly ‘doppio movimento’ of whispered insistence gradually building to the beautiful second subject that was played with poignant nobel sentiment.The development grew so naturally out of the exposition and any thought of a repeat would have been only bending to convention and not for artistic invention.The opening fanfare was now transposed to the left hand with nobility and sumptuous full sounds.The coda played a little too vertically instead of the horizontal shaping that Chopin indicates with his accelerando to the final majestic chords. His playing of the ‘Scherzo’ was superb for its technical assurance and clarity and the sumptuous beauty he brought to the ‘Trio’ was of great beauty and artistry. There was a beautiful flowing tempo to the ‘Marche Funebre’ that allowed Jacky to shape this movement with nobility and gloriously rich sounds.The trio just grew out of these noble sounds as it was allowed to flow with simplicity and radiance.It gave great architectural shape to a movement that can seem repetitive in less intelligent hands and it was wonderful to see the Funeral March come into view again after such radiant beauty.This time ,though, it was played with searing intensity with an extra bass note just adding colour and mist as the March disappeared into the distance.The last movement was played with superb clarity and technical mastery but there was also the gentle throbbing that evolved in its midst and where the movement for a moment became almost sentimental instead of only the cold wind blowing over the graves.
The Granados was a tour de force of bravura and style as the teasingly virtuosistic outpouring of notes depicted so vividly the sunlight, luminosity, and vital life of Spain.
Jacky had kept the best for last and it was his breathtaking performance of ‘Mazeppa’ by Liszt that was quite overwhelming, not only for the technical mastery but for the sense of balance and style. Here this young man had shown us his remarkable clarity and technical mastery but also a kaleidoscopic sense of colour with passionate outpourings of fearless virtuosity that became the ravishing beauty of a great tenor operatic aria accompanied with sensibility of great artistry.
Jacky Zhang is 16 and lives in South London. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music as a fourth-year undergraduate. He studies Piano with Professor Dmitri Alexeev and Composition with Professor Kenneth Hesketh. He also has other interests such as songwriting, producing, and composition for screen.
An inspired and inspiring afternoon in the company of Schubert. Three pianists with a refined musical palette playing to one of the great musicians of our time Paul Lewis A former student of Joan Havill at the Guildhall , taken under the wing of Alfred Brendel as he has scaled the musical heights to reach almost the last rung ………only paradise awaits now Inspiring three superb young musicians to reach out for those heights too and I suspect are students of Ronan O’Hora whose musical pedigree is second to none.
Paul Lewis with Ronan O’Hora
With humility and mastery they enjoyed a journey of discovery together in which in every key there were an infinite variety of sounds . Cantabile but what sort of cantabile? Don’t project the sound but draw the audience in to you! What character does this piece have? Just listen to the charm of the left hand in the second impromptu op 90 or the ethereal beauty of the first moment musicaux there is no need to underline it Schubert has already thought of that ! Overwhelming display of passion and extraordinary facility in the Wanderer Fantasy that the maestro dared not interrupt but lead to an inspired exchange of views in which we were all involved and so privileged to overhear such wonderful confessions between musicians on a wondrous journey of discovery
Programme
2pm Berniya Hamie
Schubert 4 Impromptus, D899
I. Allegro molto moderato
II. Allegro
III. Andante
(IV. Allegretto)
3pm Chloé Dumoulin
Schubert 6 Moments Musicaux, D780
I. Moderato
II. Andantino
III. Allegro moderato
III. Andante
IV. Moderato
(V. Allegro vivace
VI. Allegretto )
4pm Elisabeth Tsai
Schubert Fantasie in C major, D760 ‘Wanderer Fantasy’
I. Allegro con fuoco ma non troppo
II. Adagio
III. Presto
IV. Allegro
Paul Lewis is internationally regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. His cycles of core piano works by Beethoven and Schubert have received unanimous critical and public acclaim worldwide, and consolidated his reputation as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the central European classical repertoire. His numerous awards have included the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year, two Edison awards, three Gramophone awards, the Diapason D’or de l’Annee, the Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and the South Bank Show Classical Music award. He holds honorary degrees from Liverpool, Edge Hill, and Southampton Universities, and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
He works regularly as soloist with the world’s great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, and the Royal Concertgebouw, Cleveland, Tonhalle Zurich, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Philharmonia, and Mahler Chamber Orchestras.The 2017/18 season saw the start of a two year recital series, exploring connections between the sonatas of Haydn, the late piano works of Brahms, and Beethoven’s Bagatelles and Diabelli Variations, as well as appearances with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, Orchestra Mozart di Bologna, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms series continues through the 18/19 season, alongside appearances with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and Kent Nagano, the Berlin Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony with Bernard Haitink, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Manfred Honeck, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich with Francois-Xavier Roth.Paul Lewis’s recital career takes him to venues such as London’s Royal Festival Hall, Alice Tully and Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus. He is also a frequent guest at the some of the world’s most prestigious festivals, including Tanglewood, Ravinia, Schubertiade, Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lucerne, and the BBC Proms where in 2010 he became the first person to play a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle in a single season.His multi-award winning discography for Harmonia Mundi includes the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, concertos, and the Diabelli Variations, Liszt’s B minor sonata and other late works, all of Schubert’s major piano works from the last six years of his life including the 3 song cycles with tenor Mark Padmore, solo works by Schumann and Mussorgsky, and the Brahms D minor piano concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding. Future recording plans include a multi-CD series of Haydn sonatas, Beethoven’s bagatelles, and works by Bach.Paul Lewis studied with Joan Havill at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel. He is co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.
Trills, Beethoven, and the secret of Chopin: Read quotes from Paul Lewis’ piano masterclass at SFCM ⬇San Francisco Conservatory 1: “Almost always, think of trills as part of the melody. The melody note comes first, then the trill, not too fast; you want each note in the trill somehow connected to the melody.” 2: “What Beethoven’s so good at is leading us to believe something and then doing something completely different.” 3: “This uses the whole keyboard: Give us more of a sense of that, just take a bit of time for us to feel the distance there. Because it felt normal, expected, like it was easy for you to play. Give us the feeling that this is taking some effort.”
4: “A feature of Beethoven’s music is humor, but the way he uses humor is often quite brutal.” 5: “[Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52] is, I think, the closest Chopin gets to this idea of endless melody. There’s no real end. There’s no resolution. If you come to the end of the phrase, it’s only to go on to something else.” 6: “Beethoven writes orchestral music for the piano, Schubert writes vocal music for the piano. But Chopin writes piano music for the piano, which is occasionally vocal.” 7: “The secret about Chopin is that nothing he wrote is difficult. Everything he wrote works wonderfully well if you’re just relaxed and free enough to do it. But we get in the way of that ourselves, so if you’re feeling restricted in some way then you’re only restricted by yourself.” 8: “Don’t let your fingers do too much. Don’t do too much on each individual key and don’t lean in and try too hard; just let it happen. These instruments are built to project to 2,000-plus seats.” 9: “Listen to your sound. If you think you can hear it getting a little bit tight, just take a step back from it, and don’t try so hard.” 10: “When we get into ‘pianist mode,’ we want certain things to be pronounced or heard more. But keep in mind the sort of bell-like quality we can draw from the piano; don’t listen so much in pianist mode.”
A coffee concert at 10 am due to Harry Potter showing with orchestra at 12. However Louis-Victor Bak filled the Elgar Room with an audience only too pleased to get up at dawn to hear such ravishing playing washed down with a much needed coffee and croissants.
Playing on Elton John’s Red Piano Tour Yamaha , now bequeathed to the Albert Hall for these young musicians concerts from the RCM just a stones throw away.
Royal College of Music
Elton John had been a student at the RAM and he has shown great sensibility and generosity towards fellow students who may not follow the golden path that has illuminated his showman’s career.
Bak had chosen a French programme which makes up his new CD and includes the two books of Images by Debussy and the almost unknown Sonata by Cecile Chaminade. The Images showed off Bak’s aristocratic French good taste and a kaleidoscope of refined sounds. The elegiac outpouring of ‘Homage a Rameau’ was played with an elegance as dramatic outpourings were replied by beseeching outcries of subtle ethereal fluidity. A passionate climax with streams of chords spread over the entire keyboard were played with aristocratic nobility. The dynamic drive of ‘Movements ‘ was notable for the shrouded mist of sounds on which sudden outcries float and melodic lines ,unmistakably French, are allowed to bathe in the glorious mists that were pouring from Bak’s highly cultured hands. If the ‘Reflections in the water’ had suffered from rather a languid tempo it may have been for a room that had not yet been heated by such sumptuous sounds and someone to switch the heating on at such an unusual hour !
There was now fluidity and luminosity as the second book of Images opened with a mastery of colour and atmosphere .A glorious outpouring of sounds out of which emerged a solitary melodic line of crystalline poignancy as the bells became ever more insistent . There was the etched melodic line as the noble lines of the ruined temple were bathed in magical moonlit sounds so generously effused in the pedal. I doubt the Goldfish has ever bathed in such sumptuous sound as it flitted around reaching out with a very french elegance within an atmosphere of decadence too.
Chaminade’s much neglected Sonata received a masterly performance of persuasive advocacy. In fact whereas Bak’s Debussy had been exemplary for it’s intellectual and musical understanding ,Chaminade unleashed in Bak a pianist possessed as he moved with so much more freedom allowing the outpouring of Romantic sounds to overcome any intellectual restraint. The first movement opening with a great romantic melody as this French Rachmaninov filled the piano with the sumptuous sounds of someone who was first and foremost a virtuoso pianist. In fact she was one of the first women virtuosi to follow after Clara Schumann. There was the suave elegance of the Andante of romantic effusions of powerful sentiment with long elegant lines of elegiac melody and an unashamedly rhetorical outpouring of great beauty The Allegro unleashed a movement of great virtuosity with sumptuous sounds of dynamic exuberance played with mastery and passion by this young French virtuoso.
It may have been an early start but by the end of this hour of sumptuous music making there was a queue to acquire Bak’s new CD to take back home to enjoy and digest such discoveries .
A queue from South Kensington station to the RAH had now formed for Harry Potter at noon .Little did they know what they had missed !
Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade was a French composer and pianist. In 1913, she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, a first for a female composer. Ambroise Thomas said, “This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman.” Born: 8 August 1857, Paris – 13 April 1944 (age 86 years), Monte Carlo Monaco
Cécile Chaminade had two things going against her as a composer. The first was that she was a woman in a man’s world; the second that she produced so many works (around 400) that it’s easy to be taken in by her enormous facility and she was also very long-lived – so her music had fallen out of fashion well before her death in 1944. Her only Piano Sonata was written in 1893 and like most of her larger-scale works, a comparatively early production, from the period when she had to make her mark in the sophisticated musical milieu of Paris. and is dedicated to Moritz Moszkowski who was to become her brother in law.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 