Jeonghwan Kim , winner of the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition, making his debut at the Wigmore Hall with extraordinary finesse and mastery, more alla Godowsky than Rachmaninov .
Expecting Schumann op 8, Chopin op 58 and Valses Nobles which would have shown us a different side from the exquisite whispered sounds of clockwork precision of Ravel ‘Le Tombeau’ .The barely audible Chopin Berceuse was exquisite but Chopin’s filigree bel canto was thrown off with a lightweight beauty that was completely at odds with the gentle lapping rhythm where Chopin, as in his Barcarolle, sets the scene. Roots firmly embedded in the ground but here with Kim’s beautiful branches left to flounder on their own.
Mozart Minuet in D K 355 where Kim accentuated the pungent dissonances that seemed to reappear in Stravinsky’s Rag, that followed after Mozart’s Little Gigue K 574. Even the little gigue was played at Stravinskian tempos that denied the charm and grace of its age but allowed Kim to point us to the future, which was obviously his intellectual scope.
Stravinsky’s Piano Rag Music was commissioned by his friend Rubinstein who refused to play it in public!
Kim gave a superb performance where his clarity and kaleidoscope of sounds brought to life, with infinite charm and even grace, a piece that Rubinstein declared too ungrateful to inflict on his audiences. Stravinsky made amends by dedicating his own piano transcription of Petrushka to him, a few years later, allowing him to make a simplified version of a work of quite transcendental difficulty, for public performances, knowing full well that it would have kept the ‘Prince of Pianists’ locked in the practice studio for far too long!
After this Kim played Bartok’s 1923 Dance Suite full of ravishing sounds and dynamic contrasts. A rhythmic drive that was never overpowering in volume but more of a compelling inner rhythmic energy. A quite unique, masterly performance of a work that indeed needs the mastery of Kim to bring it into the concert hall.
Ravel’s ‘Tombeau’ was exactly the measure of Kim’s remarkable mastery, with the clockwork precision with which Ravel depicts and remembers friends who gave up their youthful lives in the conflict of the First World War. A conflict that was agreed in the comfort of Parliament by aristocratic politicians who never put foot in the trenches! Ravel was an ambulance driver and saw the tragic and useless end of so many of his generation. Absolute clarity and precision where all Kim’s great gifts came together for the beauty of Ravel’s recreation of baroque perfection. Streams of notes that rose and fell with infinite subtlety and beguiling atmosphere. An exquisite tonal palette to the ‘Fugue’ out of which the ‘Forlane’ sprang to life with a distant vision of paradise in its midst, and with the grace and charm of its magical ending. The ‘Rigaudon’ was played with a playful sense of colour and rhythmic energy with a central episode of haunting beauty, where the left hand’s detached notes accompanied the luminous glowing melody in the right. A ‘Minuet’ of beauty, radiance and delicacy flowing simply with exquisite unnoticeable rubato. Of course the ‘Toccata’ was played with absolute perfection where sudden rays of light would illuminate the most exquisite outpouring of melody (so similar to Mozart or Schubert with their sudden genial melodic invention ) Coming almost to a halt before the breathtaking final bars of quite extraordinary mastery, brilliance and above all of musical imagination.
Kim, a very serious musician and master pianist, announced that he does not play encores, but that he would improvise on notes given to him by us, the audience. Four notes shouted with glee, by audience members, that Kim proceeded to elaborate into a waltz with all the finesse and grace of a Levitski or Rosenthal. An extraordinary thinking musician and master pianist.
His virtuosity is astounding, his accuracy in the most complex passages breathtaking…
[…] brought tears to my eyes”
-Piers Lane
Born in Seoul in 2000, Jeonghwan Kim first began playing the piano at the age of six. In the following years, his numerous first prizes in national competitions led to his admittance to the “Seoul Arts Center Academy for Young Talented Musicians” at just nine years old. Since moving to Berlin in 2011, he has continued to earn extensive recognition in prestigious national and international piano competitions. At the 2017 International Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar, he received the third prize along with two special prizes.
In 2019, he was awarded the 1st prize at the Aarhus International Piano Competition in Denmark, prompting immediate Invitations to perform with the Aarhus and Odense Symphony Orchestras. He has since given concerts in major halls in Berlin, Weimar, Hamburg, and Aarhus, among others.
In 2022, he was awarded three prizes: in January, he won the 1st prize at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy competition in Berlin. Five months later, in June, he won the fourth prize and the audience prize at the Sendai International Piano Competition.
In July 2023 he won the 1st prize along with two special prizes for his performance for the Bartok’s second piano concerto and the Best Overall Concerto Prize at the renowned Sydney International Piano Competition.
Since 2017, Jeonghwan has been studying at the University of Music Hanns Eisler in the class of Prof. Konrad Maria Engel. His former professors include So Yong Choi, Leda Kim, and Thomas Just. He has also participated in masterclasses with Jakob Leuschner, Bob Versteegh, and Robert Levin. Other crucial influences on his artistic development include Stephan Imorde, Konstantin Heidrich, Antje Weithaas and Jonathan Aner.
A very varied programme for the annual recital of a Keyboard Trust Artist, Giuliano Tuccia. A native of Forlì where he has created his own concert series celebrating the cities most famous citizen, the legendary pianist Guido Agosti.
Giuliano has music in his blood and looks like a born pianist at the keyboard with fingers that are like limpets that cling to the keys sucking the life blood from each one without ever producing a hard or percussive sound.
The early Clementi sonata he played with brilliance and clarity bringing a subtle beauty to the ‘Menuetto’ where the melodic line was allowed to sing with simplicity and ease.The sumptuous tenor voice answered by an ever more poignant melodic outpouring. A ‘Prestissimo’ of meanderings of brilliance. This early sonata was played with the grace and charm of its age and just needed that clockwork precision of which Michelangeli was such a master.
Four Nocturnes by Chopin were played with a freedom and beautiful Bel Canto from a different age.The Golden Age of playing of Lhevine,Rosenthal ,Godowsky, who were real magicians, who with a subtle use of balance and the pedals and sometimes unsynchronised hands, could give the effect that the piano could sing as mellifluously as any singer. It is an allusion because the piano is simply a box of hammers and strings but with subtle artistry it can appear to produce the same legato as the human voice. Giuliano obviously loves the piano and it was this same love that allowed him to make the piano sing with subtle heartfelt rubatos and a kaleidoscope of sounds. But it was Chopin who used to explain to his students that rubato could be likened to a tree with its roots so firmly planted in the ground that the branches were free to move and sway freely in the wind.
The first of Chopin’s twenty one nocturnes ,op 9 n. 1, was played with great beauty and the central episode with subtle whispered sounds, but the left hand was rather too agitated and did not quite created the base of simplicity that Chopin described to his students. Whilst being very beautiful with a ravishing cantabile sound it could have been played with more simplicity and the left hand allowed to unfold more naturally.The famous nocturne in E flat op 9 n. 2, that followed was of beguiling beauty and luminosity. A freedom sometimes at the limit of good taste but was played with such genuine and touching sentiment that we could overlook Giuliano’s youthful love for something so beautiful. There was a beautiful sense of balance in the C sharp minor Nocturne op posth where Giuliano allowed the music to sing with simplicity and subtle beauty. Chopin’s cross rhythms were played with aristocratic weight and the ending was of haunting beauty. The C minor Nocturne op posth was again played with old style rubato that rather held up the natural flow of this deeply bitter sweet outpouring of nostalgia. Hats off to Giuliano for presenting just nocturnes in his recital to show us what miniature masterpieces they really are, usually only played with other of Chopin’s works and rarely allowed to stand on their own as Chopin’s homage to the magic world inspired by Bellini.
It was in Liszt’s Second Ballade that all Giuliano’s gifts came together. It was played with great fantasy and a freedom with a real sense of the drama that was being enacted.There was the luminosity and almost prayer like comments of the Angels contrasting with the sumptuous tenor melody that is then transformed in so many different transcendental ways. Giuliano’s youthful passion transforming Liszt’s notes into a vivid tone poem of great emotional impact.
This was followed by Debussy’s hauntingly beautiful ‘footsteps in the snow.’ Whispered sounds of great fluidity and now the simplicity that his romantic soul had denied him before. There was also a burning intensity behind the seemingly sparse sounds that Giuliano was playing with extreme delicacy. The last work on the programme was ‘Le Collines d’Anacapri’ that brought us all the radiance and joyous Neapolitan confusion, with playing of subtle colours and dynamic drive, and the final brilliant notes played with chiselled ice cold perfection.
An encore of Rachmaninov’s torrent of romantic sounds with the Moment Musicaux op 16 n. 4. Giuliano threw himself fearlessly into the fray as Rachmaninov’s romantic soul was laid bare with red hot passion and considerable technical prowess.
Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia è considerato da Leslie Howard uno dei musicisti più sensibili e interessanti della sua generazione. Nato nel 1999, comincia giovanissimo lo studio del pianoforte sotto la guida del Maestro Giancarlo Peroni. Si laurea brillantemente al Conservatorio “B. Maderna” di Cesena nel 2022 risultando vincitore di una borsa studio offerta dal Rotary Club. Attualmente frequenta l’Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col maestro” di Imola, sotto la guida dei maestri André Gallo, Alessandro Taverna e Igor Roma e il Master di secondo livello al Conservatorio “Francesco Venezze” di Rovigo con i maestri Federico Nicoletta e Roberto Prosseda. Ha inoltre perfezionato i suoi studi in summer festival e masterclass, seminari e convegni con maestri di chiara fama internazionale quali: Edith, Fischer, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Riccardo Risaliti e Sergio Tiempo. Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia vanta oltre 50 premi in importanti concorsi pianistici nazionali ed internazionali quali “Concorso pianistico internazionale Sergio Fiorentino” (Menzione d’Onore), “Concorso pianistico Elevato” (Menzione d’onore), “Concorso pianistico internazionale di Vigo” (Semifinalista), Map concorso musicale internazionale a Los Angeles (primo premio), “Kings Peak International Music Competition” (secondo premio e premio speciale), concorso musicale internazionale di Londra (menzione speciale), Nota Music (duo cameristico) premio finalista e molti altri. Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia ha suonato in sale prestigiose in tutta Europa e in Italia. Tra i più importanti ricordiamo il “Teatro Galli” di Rimini”, il, il “Teatro Alighieri” di Ravenna, il “Teatro Atti” di Rimini, il “Foyer Respighi” del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, la Sala Corelli del “Teatro Alighieri di Ravenna”, “L’Oratorio San Rocco” di Bologna, il “Teatro Masini di Faenza, la “Sala della Prefettura” di Forlì, il “Teatro Talia” di Gualdo Tadino, il “Cinema Teatro Don Bosco” di Perugia, il “Circolo Ufficiali” di Bologna, il “Palazzo Raffaello” di Urbino, la “Villa Carcano” di Lecco, il “Convitto Vittorio Locchi” di Roma, la “Main concert Hall” del Conservatorio di Musica di Porto, l’Auditorium “Martin Codax” di Vigo, la “Salon Bank” di Vienna, la “Remonstrantse Kerk” di Alkmaar, la “St. Marie Perivale Church” di Londra, la “Main Concert Hall” dell’ Università di Semiotica Musicale di Helsinki, la “Main Concert Hall” della Galleria d’Arte del M.K. ciurlionis di Kaunas, la “Sala Concerti” dell’Auditorium Telki, la “Sala Eutherpe” di León, la “Cattedrale di Sant’Agata” della Badia di Catania, l’Auditorium” di Villa Rina di Padova”, la “Steinway Hall” di Londra, la “Casa della Musica” di Trieste, “Museo di Casa Martelli” di Firenze, il Teatro Fabbrica delle Candele di Forlì, Casa Menotti di Spoleto ,la “Beethoven Chamber Music Hall” di Bonn, La Grossersaal Scholss di Bergisch Gladbach, Colonia, la Gartensaal Schloss di Wolfsburg e la Concert Hall dell’IIC di Berlino, la Stanza della Musica a Roma per Rai Radio 3 e la Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola a Genova. Sono diversi i festival a cui Nicolò ha preso parte. Tra i tanti ricordiamo Festival “Conoscere la Musica” a Bologna, “Misano Piano Festival” a Misano Adriatico, “Ravenna Festival”, Festival di ErConcerti “Le soirees Musicaux” in Emilia-Romagna, Festival “Le Note Tra i Calanchi” a Bagnoregio, Festival “Clivis Umbria”, “Kaunas Piano Festival” in Lituania, “Altalena Music Fest” in Ungheria, Festival della “Società Musicale” a Helsinki, Finlandia, Festival “HIMF in Olanda, Festival “Roma Tre orchestra”, Festival autunnale della Chiesa di St. ’Perivale “ per il Keyboard Trust di Londra, il Festival della “Salon de la musique”, il “Festival Bellini” di Catania, il Larius International Piano Fest di Lecco, il Festival del “Concorso Pianistico Elevato” a Bonn, Vienna e Oporto, il festival degli “Amici della musica di Casa Martelli” per l’associazione il Suono Giovane di Firenze, festival dell’Associazione Mozart Italia sede di Trieste festival dell’ Associazione Mozart Italia sede di Lecce, “Scriabin Concert Series” di Grosseto e per gli “Amici del Teatro Carlo Felice e del Conservatorio Niccolò Paganini di Genova”. Nicolò Giuliano ha suonato con l’Orchestra da Camera del Conservatorio Bruno Maderna di Cesena, “Circle Simphony Orchestra” di Padova, l’Orchestra Sinfonica “Rimini Classica”
Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi (23 January 1752 – 10 March 1832) was an Italian-British,composer , virtuoso pianist , pedagogue, conductor , music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer, who was mostly active in England. Encouraged to study music by his father, he was sponsored as a young composer by Sir Peter Beckford who took him to England to advance his studies. Later, he toured Europe numerous times from his long-standing base in London. It was on one of these occasions, in 1781, that he engaged in a piano competition with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As a composer of classical piano sonatas, Clementi was among the first to create keyboard works expressly for the capabilities of the piano. He has been called “Father of the Piano” Of Clementi’s playing in his youth, Moscheles wrote that it was “marked by a most beautiful legato, a supple touch in lively passages, and a most unfailing technique.” Mozart may be said to have closed the old—and Clementi to have founded the newer—school of technique on the piano. Clementi composed almost 110 piano sonatas. Some of the earlier and easier ones were later classified as sonatinasafter the success of his Sonatinas Op. 36.
Muzio Clementi was born four years before Mozart and outlived Beethoven by five. Thus this Italian pianist and composer helped fashion the entire Classical era in music. However, his pedagogical tour de force, the “Gradus ad parnassum”, has tended to negatively influence the esteem he enjoyed as an artist. His predilection for the finer points of part-writing and contrapuntal art blend here with a formal and dignified classicism. “Decisive and manly,” “most profound sentiment and delicacy,” and “imaginative humour” – thus does Beethoven’s contemporary Carl Czerny accurately describe the three movements of this expressive sonata. No autograph manuscript has survived and the first edition of the three sonatas op. 10, published in Vienna in 1798, forms the sole basis for the Urtext edition
Liszt in 1858 22 October 1811,Doborján,Hungary 31 July 1886 (aged 74) Bayreuth,Bavaria
The Ballade No. 2 in B minor, S. 171, was written in 1853.
Claudio Arrau , who studied under Liszt’s disciple Martin Krause, maintained that the Ballade was based on the Greek myth of Hero and Leander, with the chromatic ostinati representing the sea: “You really can perceive how the journey turns more and more difficult each time. In the fourth night he drowns. Next, the last pages are a transfiguration”.
The ballade is based largely on two themes: a broad opening melody underpinned by menacing chromatic rumbles in the lower register of the keyboard, and a luminous ensuing chordal meditation. These themes are repeated a half-step lower; then march-like triplet-rhythms unleash a flood of virtuosity. Eventually, Liszt transforms the opening melody into a rocking major-key cantabile and reiterates this with ever-more grandiose exultation. The luminous chords provide a contemplative close.Liszt wrote his two Ballades in 1845–49 and 1853 during a time of personal turmoil. The successful virtuoso increasingly saw himself as a composer who strove after formal clarity, as shown by the B minor sonata that was also composed in 1853. When Liszt began work on the first Ballade, he had just separated from his mistress of many years, Marie Comtesse d’Agoult. He called the first sketches for the work Dernières Illusions. A better-known work is the second Ballade in B minor, with whose ending he struggled (the two fortissimo endings in Liszt’s autograph have been published for the first time in the appendix to the Henle edition). It has been linked with the story of Hero and Leander, but it is more generally accepted to have been inspired by Gottfried Bürger’s ballad Lenore. Sacheverell Sitwell found in the work ‘great happenings on an epic scale, barbarian invasions, cities in flames—tragedies of public, rather than private, import’. Composed in the spring of 1853, shortly after the completion of the Sonata, the Second Ballade is a continuation of Liszt’s thoughts in the key of B minor, and similarly explores subtle methods of thematic transformation to achieve a range of evocative moods, bonded by their motivic coherence.
Martina Frezzotti on her way to Carnegie Hall stopped off to give a try out recital at the Reform Club at midday, donating all the proceeds to the Special Steinway Piano Fundraiser that will pay off the sumptuous Concert Grand that she played today.
Martina loves the piano and everything she does is made of this love .
More Guiomar Novaes than Yuja Wang but a wonderful stylist playing with aristocratic control.
Michael Corby introducing the concert and thanking Martina
Flying in just a few hours before the recital with a programme that would scare most pianists even in these days of the Lims,Chens and Trifonovs.
All Chopin with his Four Ballades, the Studies op 25 and as if that was not enough the Second Scherzo!
Martina is fearless in the face of technical challenges because they simply do not exist for her as she sees and feels only music. Even her small hands does not impede her in any way as she plays ,feels and transmits the message behind the notes with extraordinary beauty and a ravishing sense of balance.To hear the tender whispered beauty of the first two Ballades one could wonder how she would approach the final trilogy of op 25 or the animal excitement of the coda of the Scherzo. After the ravishing beauty of the slow seventh study and the magic of the double thirds study that was a tone poem of shade and light instead of clocking up a record for speed . There was a famous student of Vincenzo Vitali who would ask his companions at what number they were on with the metronome with Feux Follets ! Well, Martina was like a Lion on the Keys and the final three studies were breathtaking for their sumptuous full sound allied to a dynamic fearless drive.
The ending of the Scherzo I have only heard that sound allied to such excitement from Rubinstein.
Let us not forget that Martina was one of the last students of Lazar Berman. Known as Laser Beam when he first appeared in the west! I remember trying to get out of the Festival Hall in London during his performance of all the Transcendental Studies of Liszt with a bombardment of sounds that offended my sensibility. How could a student of Goldenweiser, the teacher of Tatyana Nikolaeva, play with such disregard for sounds above mezzo forte? It was later ,though ,just when Martina was studying with him in Italy that he gave a recital in Rome that was supposed to be in the Park at the end of our road.The organiser,Teresa Azzaro, had asked me in case of rain if they could bring the artists to our theatre indoors. Well it rained on Berman and he came to the theatre, pale as a ghost, looking as though he was on his way out. He played all the Chopin Polonaises with a beauty of sound and aristocratic sense of style, the exact opposite of the young lion who had come to astonish us in the west thirty years or more previously. It was what I heard that day of Berman in old age that was exactly what he had obviously transmitted to Martina and probably many others in the Piano School in Imola.
The First Ballade one of the most molested of all Chopin’s works where the composers so called intentions are the complete opposite of what he wrote on the page. It is called the ‘Chopin tradition’ and it took Rubinstein followed by Pollini to get us back to what Chopin actually bequeathed to posterity. Martina showed us today the subtle beauty and sense of line allowing everything to sing, even the most florid and technically taxing passages. Always playing with a simplicity and the beauty of the true art of Bel Canto that was to influence and inspire Chopin.The Second Ballade too was delicate and with control and restrained beauty where even the sudden passionate outbursts belonged to the same family, with a sense of line and architectural shape without any abrupt shifts of gear.The Third Ballade the most pastoral of all four and with a grace and charm in which hides a stormy soul trying to get out. Even the acciaccaturas were made to sing with the beauty that she gave to her vision of this box of jewels. ‘Fiortiori’ like streams of gold just dusting the keys with a timeless beauty that gradually was to build to the glorious opening up of the heartstrings with simple unadorned majestic beauty. Her velvet gloves were very much in evidence, too, in the opening of the Fourth Ballade played with restraint and subtle sounds. If she missed the undercurrent that flows beneath the surface she had a vision of a work of searing beauty that was to find its culmination with the passionate outpouring of chords and the reply of the five barely whispered ones before the coda, that is usually played as a transcendental study. Martina played it with mastery and a sense of legato that made this, the culmination of all that had gone before. She had a vision of the Four Ballades as one whole, with sounds that did not shock or excite but seduced and ravished and that created a vision of beauty that is rare indeed!
The first study op 25 was played with the beauty of Bel Canto and as Sir Charles Hallée was to note in his diary on hearing Chopin play in Manchester, an Aeolian Harp was heard on which floated the melodic line.The second study too was played with strands of velvet beauty as they rose and fell with beguiling and teasing insinuation.This was the study that Rubinstein in his 90th year was to astonish us with in the last concert of his long career at the Wigmore Hall. He could not see to negotiate the leaps in ‘his’ Second Scherzo, but his heart and fingers were still of a young man. Afterwards in the Green Room Rubinstein declared that he may be almost blind but not so blind as to know when a beautiful lady is standing next to him! Lauren Bacall was enchanted as many before her had been hypnotised by the irresistible charm of the ‘Prince of the Keyboard’. The way that Martina shaped and played the studies reminded me so much of a record of Guiomar Novaes that I had found by chance when I was a student and have never forgotten for its velvet beauty and magisterial artistry.The fifth study was played as a tone poem where the beautifully lyrical central episode seemed to grow out of the outer more rhythmic sounds.The study in sixths too just grew out of the beautiful nocturne study that is the seventh and the ‘Butterfly’ study hovered over the keys with lightness and charm.The final tongue in cheek flick leading straight into the monumental octave study. A study memorable more for the delicacy and beauty of the central episode than the powerful sounds that Martina unleashed on an unsuspecting public.The ‘Winter Wind’ was a whirlwind of sounds of transcendental control and shape as the last so called ‘Ocean’ study was a breathtaking torrent of glorious sounds.
It is at this point that most pianists would have finished the programme with these two major works of transcendental difficulty. But Martina chose to add the Second Scherzo that Rubinstein too would end many of his recitals with. A range of emotions and a kaleidoscope of colour were played with ravishing beauty but it was the animal intensity that she gave to the last few pages that was truly breathtaking in its audacity and brilliance. New York does not know what is waiting for it and I just wish I could be there to hear it all over again.
The London debut of the award-winning Italian trio featured Schumann’s stormy first piano trio and Fanny Mendelssohn’s, rarely heard, only work for the ensemble.
The Trio Hérmes was selected by the Fondazione Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena to be part in the Giovani Talenti Musicali Italiani nel Mondo project, an initiative established in collaboration with Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale and CIDIM – Comitato Nazionale Italiano Musica. Also within the Chigiana Musical Academy, the Trio received the Giovanna Maniezzo Award 2024, granted to them for their outstanding artistic qualities, promotion, and initiative within the contemporary musical scene.The ensemble has received the prestigious recognition of “Ensemble of the Year 2023” instituted by Le Dimore del Quartetto, being selected from over 92 ensembles from the best chamber music academies in Europe, and awarded for their rapid and consistent artistic and professional rise, thus receiving a scholarship and engagements at significant seasons and festivals.
The superb Hermes Trio were making their London debut in the refined atmosphere of Fidelio.
Having heard them last in the vast space of the President’s Palace in Rome, with a concert recorded live for the radio, it was refreshing to see these three young ladies in a more intimate space where their searing passion and musicianship could be savoured to the full.
Marianna PulsoniGinevra Bassetti
The only trio by Fanny Mendelssohn, the sister of Queen Victorias’ favourite composer ,Felix, was played with superb ensemble and dynamic conviction showing that both the Mendelssohn’s were tarred with the genius of their epoque. A passionate outpouring of searing intensity with the cello answered by the violin and consoled by the piano.Washes of notes from the piano where Fanny was obviously a master pianist like her brother and where then technical demands were superbly played by Marianna Pulsoni.The mellifluous Andante espressivo did not quite have the same memorable beauty as from her brothers pen. Leading into the ”Lied’ , that was a real ‘song without words’ with the beauty and eloquence of its time. Bitter sweet beauty, played with superb ensemble as the instruments were allowed to commune so eloquently together.A solo piano cadenza opened the ‘Allegretto moderato’ gradually joined by the sumptuous sounds of the cello and violin in a romantic outpouring of passion and drive.
Paired with the Trio by Schumann in the same key of D minor that was played with the superb ensemble and technical mastery bringing this luxurious hors d’oeuvres to a sumptuous end. A first movement of romantic sweep and searing mellifluous intensity was followed by the excitement and exhilaration of the ‘Lebhaft’.It was played with superb ensemble and an hypnotic rhythmic drive. A beautiful solo for piano and violin opened the ‘Langsam’ with long languid lines where the cello and violin entwined their soulful playing with ravishing intensity.The dynamic drive and total conviction of the ‘Mit Feuer’ brought this well known masterpiece to an exciting end with our three young ladies playing with ever more passion and drive.
Just one short morsel added by great demand as an encore :‘Sguardi’ by Domenico Turi, as the air filled with the perfume of the cordon bleu menu that followed .
The sumptuous green room at Fidelio
Programme:
F. Mendelssohn Hensel Piano Trio in D minor Op. 11 R. Schumann Piano Trio in D minor No. 1 Op. 63
The debut of this superb prizewinning trio in London was in the warm atmosphere of Fidelio. Created by the conductor Raffaello Morales where his love of music is evident in every corner of this refined space opposite the Italian church in the centre of London. Here are a few articles that I have written recently about this new important space in London for intimate music making :
Schumann in 1839. 8 June 1810 Zwickau,Saxony. 29 July 1856 (aged 46) Bonn
The Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor op 63, by Robert Schumann was written in 1847. It has four movements :
Mit Energie und Leidenschaft
Lebhaft, doch nicht zu rasch
Langsam, mit inniger Empfindung
Mit Feuer
The first piano trio (first of three works with this title plus the Fantasiestücke Op. 88 for the same forces) is in an intensely romantic style, and is the most celebrated of Schumann’s trios in the modern repertoire. The opening movement begins with a surging theme that is heard in counterpoint initially between the piano’s bass and the violin; the scherzo’s driving dotted rhythm shares its smoothly ascending contour with the flowing trio section. The third movement features a duet between violin and cello, and moves without pause to the heroic tonic-major finale.
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel 14 November 1805 – 14 May 1847
The Piano Trio in D minor op 11 by Fanny Mendelssohn was conceived between 1846 and 1847 as a birthday present for her sister, and posthumously published in 1850, three years after the composer’s death.
The trio is in four movements:
Allegro molto vivace
Andante espressivo
Lied: Allegretto
Allegretto moderato
In 1847, an anonymous critic in the Neue Berliner Musik Zeitung found in the trio “…broad, sweeping foundations that build themselves up through stormy waves into a marvelous edifice. In this respect the first movement is a masterpiece, and the trio most highly original.” Fanny Mendelssohn shared many of the same advantages of education and travel as her younger brother Felix, and was every bit as obviously talented and precocious a musician as he. But while some highly gifted women did forge public careers as performers, composing – or rather, publishing compositions – was almost exclusively a male domain at the time. Felix’s own attitude seems characteristic: “From my knowledge of Fanny,” he wrote in 1837,“I would say that she has neither inclination nor vocation for authorship. She is too much all that a woman ought to be for this. She regulates her house, and neither thinks of the public nor of the music world, nor even of music at all, until her first duties are fulfilled. Publishing would only disturb her in these, and I cannot say that I approve of it.”
Nonetheless, brother and sister consulted each other regularly about their music, and Felix allowed several of Fanny’s songs to be published under his name (an open secret). Fanny’s husband, the painter Wilhelm Hensel, was even more supportive and Fanny eventually took over the long-running Sunday musicales at the Mendelssohn home in Berlin, where her works were often performed. (Over 460 works survive, mostly songs and solo piano works.)
That was the scene for the premiere of her last major work, the Piano Trio in D minor, written for her younger sister Rebecka’s birthday in 1847 amid great political unrest and food riots. Fanny died a month later after suffering a stroke while rehearsing Felix’ oratorio Die erste Walpurgisnacht for a musicale; Felix followed her six months later from the same cause, which had also claimed both of their parents and their grandfather Moses Mendelssohn.
Some extraordinary playing at St Mary’s with a programme of two of the most perfect masterpieces from the piano repertoire.They were played one after the other in an effusion of beauty that was truly miraculous. I have heard Ariel many times during his period of study in London at the Royal Academy with Hamish Milne and Ian Fountain, and have always been impressed by his scrupulous musicianship and selfless dedication to the composers he is serving. On many occasions though I have found this intensity and seriousness compelling but also overpowering.
I have heard him play Schubert on numerous occasions,solo and in piano duet, and have found his playing always masterly but often rather Beethovenian. Beethoven was more driven by the orchestra whereas Schubert by the song which on occasion did come across.
Today Ariel with this Fantasy Sonata was touched by the Gods and driven by the mellifluous outpouring of song that in Schubert was seemingly endless.
The Schubert G major Sonata opened with Ariel caressing the keys producing etherial sounds of radiance and beauty.There was a wondrous sense of balance within the chords that allowed the melody to sing as never before. Barely touching the keys and after the delicate intricacy of dance that Schubert magically conjures out of the opening heartfelt palpitations, Ariel threw his hands in the air allowing them to return to the keys only to create even more beauty. This time sustained by a gently underlined bass and allowing us to indulge once again in the magic that had filled the air at the opening. Suddenly the minor key and an intense passionate commitment from chords of questioning insistence, where they had been of passive acceptance. Finding paradise again as these demanding chords were allowed to cool down almost to a stand still as the miraculous vision of beauty was once more on the horizon.There is no rallentando in the score but Ariel’s poetic imagination knew instinctively what was in Schubert’s soul at this point. Everything Ariel played in this sonata sang as rarely before, as he even approached the coda on tip toe hardly daring to disturb such a heavenly place.
The ‘Andante’ was played with aristocratic beauty even if the opening up beat seemed a little too important. He allowed the music to flow with simplicity and beauty, but there was also great intensity, not of orchestral colour but of the song that was in his heart today. Some beautiful tenor counterpoints gently underlined in the chordal transitions made the etherial balance of the melodic line even more ravishingly beautiful.
The ‘Menuetto’ opened with Beethovenian vehemence but was here calmed with a beseeching reply and became part of its Forestan and Eusebius character. The ‘Trio’ was of restrained and whispered beauty with a glowing sound of delicacy and desolation.The ‘Allegretto’ was of true pastoral elegance where Ariel seemed to be enjoying the teasing eloquence of Schubert’s mischievous meanderings. Suddenly they were interrupted by one of those melodies that Schubert ,like Mozart, can illuminate a work, out of thin air, with genial magic and wondrous beauty. There was a slight hesitation that Ariel brought each time to the reappearance of the rondo theme, that was like a call to attention in anticipation of what would come next .The final few bars were of pastoral beauty and peace as this miracle was brought to an end with chords that were but reverberations of sound. A performance where the piano was allowed to sing its heart out, almost without bar lines, such was the mastery of Ariel today.
The Chopin B minor Sonata would seem an impossible task after such a monumental performance of Schubert. In Ariel’s hands all is possible as the opening Allegro Maestoso rang out with imperious authority. Ariel gave a sense of architectural shape to a movement that can often seem fragmented, but the slight freedom he gave himself in the Schubert was here in Chopin rather misplaced. Why add a rallentando before the sostenuto of the second subject or slightly delay the last chords of the opening phrases or draw out the embellishment a fraction too long? These are just minute details in what was without doubt a masterly performance where the scrupulous attention to detail and Chopin’s very precise phrasing and dynamic markings were a refreshing reminder of a work that has been so manhandled by so many so called Chopin specialists! Ariel played like the great musician he is, and if he turned corners occasionally with style it was the style of someone who loves the music deeply. Playing the repeat in the first movement ,as he did in the Schubert, as would a Serkin ,Arrau or other great thinking musicians. In Ariel’s hands it all made such musical sense and made the passionate outpouring of the development even more gripping. Chopin in Ariel’s hands today sang with a timelessness and the recapitulation was played with even more beauty with the second subject played as Chopin implies, with more intensity the second time around ( there is no diminuendo as in the exposition ).
The ‘Scherzo’ was played with a melodic jeux perlé and not just thrown off with easy brilliance. It linked so perfectly with the ‘Trio’ which had a shape and sense of direction with an energy of its own, before the return of the mellifluous ‘Scherzo’.The Imperious opening chords of the Largo were played almost without a break and Chopin even marks a crescendo and no rallentando on the last chords before it is allowed to melt into the ravishing cantabile and the gentle lapping of the barcarolle that accompanies Chopin’s simple bel canto.The ‘sostenuto’ was played with poignant meaning with gentle undulations shaped with masterly understanding and there was magic in the air as the last arpeggiated chord heralded the return of the theme with an even more pronounced rocking accompaniment. There was the beauty and clarity of the left hand in the coda, like a cello gently meandering towards the final farewell which was of two chords placed with the timing of a true master.The Finale :’Presto non tanto’ was given an aristocratic performance of extraordinary control as each time the ‘Rondo’ theme returned there was a slight pause as Ariel dug deeper and deeper sometimes even adding an extra bass note.The final time using Chopin’s own pointed fingering to give even more animal exhilaration and excitement. Igniting the atmosphere until the final explosions of technical bravura and even adding final octaves to give more emphasis to the burning energy generated in this masterly performance.
Born in Jerusalem in 1997, Ariel studied with Lea Agmon and Yuval Cohen. Based in London, he recently completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Hamish Milne and Ian Fountain. He has received extensive tuition from eminent artists such as Robert Levin, Murray Perahia, Imogen Cooper, Leif Ove Andsnes, Steven Osborne, and the late Leon Fleisher and Ivan Moravec. Awards include 1st Prize at the 2018 Grand Prix Animato Competition in Paris and 1st Prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition, as well as a finalist award at the Rubinstein Competition.In March 2023, Ariel Lanyi was honoured to receive the Prix Serdang, a Swiss prize awarded by the distinguished Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. The prize is endowed with CHF 50,000 and is not a competition, but a recognition of a young pianist’s achievements and an investment in their future. Prior to this Ariel won 3rd Prize at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition. In the same year he was a prize winner in the inaugural Young Classical Artists Trust (London) and Concert Artists Guild (New York) International Auditions. Highlights this season include a recording with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under the auspices of the Orpheum Stifftung as part of their Next Generation Mozart Soloist series. Further afield Ariel takes part in the Bendigo Chamber Music Festival in Australia, gives concerts in the USA, and undertakes a tour of Colombia. In 2023 he was nominated as a Rising Star Artist by Classic FM. Over the last year Ariel returned to Wigmore Hall (as soloist and chamber musician), the Miami International Piano Festival, and Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. He undertook a tour of Argentina and gave recitals in the Homburg MeisterKonzert series in Germany, the Menton Festival in France, Perth Concert Hall (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), and across the UK including the Brighton and Bath Festivals. In 2021 Linn Records released his recording of music by Schubert to critical acclaim.
Franz Schubert 1875 portrait, after an 1825 original 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828 (aged 31). Vienna
The Piano Sonata in G major D. 894, op. 78 by Franz Schubert was completed in October 1826 The work is sometimes called the “Fantasie”, a title which the publisher Tobias Haslinger, rather than Schubert, gave to the first movement of the work. It was the last of Schubert’s sonatas published during his lifetime, and was later described by Robert Schumann as the “most perfect in form and conception” of any of Schubert’s sonatas.
The sonata is in four movements
Molto moderato e cantabile
Andante with two trios.
Menuetto :Allegro moderato – Trio
Allegretto
The original concept for the second movement was quite different from the version known today. Evidence of this can be seen in the score that Schubert sent to his publisher.
The original manuscript, which has survived and is currently digitized in the archive of the British Library, reveals that after completing the minuet, Schubert decided to rewrite the second movement. He tore out the original version from the manuscript and replaced it with the version we know today. The first and last pages of the original movement remain, containing the end of the first movement and the beginning of the third movement, respectively.
This peculiar aspect of the manuscript offers valuable insight into how the second movement might have originally sounded. The preserved fragment reveals a theme that is rhythmically characteristic of Schubert’s music, though it was ultimately replaced by a more dynamic orchestral episode in the final version. This change allowed for a greater contrast between the first two themes, which was crucial for the movement’s structure and overall impact.
Daguerreotype, c. 1849. Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin 1 March 1810,Zelazowa Wola,Poland. – 17 October 1849 (aged 39)Paris
The Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor op 58, was completed in 1844 and published in 1845, dedicated to Countess Élise de Perthuis.
Nice to see Terry Lewis in the hall he has fought hard to bring to life, enjoying an aspiring young musician in the refined space that is the new Bechstein Hall.
Just a stones throw from the old one that after our victory (!!), in the first World War, was confiscated and rechristened Wigmore.There is also Bob Boas’s sumptuous salon nearby,where regular concerts for a select audience have become very much part of the musical scene .
After the initial pre Christmas lull it is good to see this new hall gladly being accepted by an eclectic public, adding a much needed space to the near capacity audiences of the other two nearby venues.
Many artists that are denied a space in the world’s capital of music are now included in this sumptuous new space. It is also opening its doors to the superb young musicians who have dedicated their youth to art and just crave an adequate space where to perform in this wondrous city. An added bonus is,of course, the sumptuous cuisine offered before or after each hour long performance.
It takes time and selfless commitment to overcome the hurdles of the first few years. Infact my wife and I were much criticised because as most theatres were closing down we were opening up!
Ileana Ghione died on stage acting the part of Hecuba in 2005, but after many years of maintaining high standards, in 2001 was knighted by the President of Italy .’We have become a Dame’, I told my English friends. Rosalyn Tureck who became our dearest friend after her triumphant come back to the concert stage in 1990, praised and admonished us, saying whilst recognition was a great satisfaction it is the work and our mission that counts (the RAM my old Alma mater did give me a special award in recognition of our work promoting music and musicians in Rome, and it came by post to the theatre! )
So it was very warming to see our host greeting the public as we were told over the air by Sir Edward Fox to hold onto our seats for take off!
And take off it was with the Polonaise -Fantasie, one of Chopin’s most revolutionary late masterpieces, where in the last year of his life he could marry his beloved polish Polonaise with the fantasy of a true poetic innovator of the keyboard. Fillip played it simply and with one gentle movement of the arm as the opening imperious chords reverberated over the entire keyboard. Sensibility and a kaleidoscope of colours illuminated his playing as the Polonaise rhythm could gradually be seen advancing from afar.There were also pauses for serene poetic reflection as he regained his breath for ever more aristocratic musings, mixed with passionate outpourings of technical mastery. Sometimes, though, he could let go more, and allow the music to pour from his fingers simply, like the streams of liquid gold that Chopin carves out of thin air, throwing off notes that like the opening are but reverberations of sound. A beautifully sung ‘poco più lento’ was allowed to expand with sumptuous beauty before the gradual build up to the passionate climax of exultation and nobility. Leaving the music exhausted and spent as it barely made it through the final whispered bars, drawing to an abrupt close with a final dying gasp.
The Schumann Humoresque has only in recent years, thanks to Richter and Horowitz, become as popular as Carnaval or Kreisleriana. It is a very elusive work full of fantasy and sudden quixotic changes of mood that Phillip understood completely.
Opening with a beautifully expansive luminosity, surely one of Schumann’s most beautiful ‘songs without words?’ Leading into a fleetingly wistful passage of driving rhythmic energy with abrupt changes of mood and tempo, before going full circle to the ever more ravishing beauty of the opening: ‘Wie in Anfang’.
‘Hastig and ‘innere Stimme’ ( as described below) followed without a break, where Fillip could have allowed the slowly opening melodic line more timeless weight and simplicity, but the passionate outburst that followed was played with dynamic drive and fearless conviction.
A sedate chordal declaration was interrupted by the sudden changes of harmony that streaked across this march like interlude and brought it to rest on a series of celestial chords, that Fillip played with extraordinary poetic sensibility. A glimpse of the heaven that had taken Schubert ten years previously, and would take Schumann before his fiftieth year. A gloriously lazy ‘Einfach und Zart’ expanded with style and character where Phillip could have indulged even more to enjoy the sumptuous rich sounds of refined lyricism. The eruption of an Intermezzo of knotty twine was held firmly under control and the treacherous octaves were heroically thrown into the fray. The quixotic changes of mood of the ‘Innig’ were played with impish good humour contrasting with rich expansive beauty. The ‘sehr lebhaft’ was a passionate outburst of sumptuous sounds spread over the entire keyboard with mastery and architectural shape. The red hot passion of the climax giving way to a coda of demonic meanderings. ‘Mit einigem Pomp’ is one of those extraordinary passages in Schumann that like the three handed pianist can create two different characters and link them together. Fillip played it with great sensibility but it is the balance here that is so important. It is enough to say that Sokolov did not seem to understand this passage at all, whereas Fillip did, but could have experimented with the pedals more to create this rather special effect.This is a passage that only Richter or Kempff could truly reveal.The final ‘Zum Beschluss’ was played beautifully and expansively with great freedom and fantasy, with the gradual cooling down of the chromatic counterpoints before the eruption of the final triumphant Allegro.
The Bartók Sonata was played with a remarkable musicality, where the percussive outbursts and rugged edges were answered by the traditional dance motifs of Transylvania.
There was a hypnotic insistence to the ‘sostenuto’ as luminous sounds echoed around the magic atmosphere of this hall, with desolation and searing intensity.There followed the driving insistence of the Allegro molto that was played with great urgency but also giving an architectural shape to the final dramatic outbursts.
An encore for a very insistent audience was rewarded a romance by the Czech composer Josef Suk : Spring Song op.22a iii.V očekáváni ( Awaiting ), played with great conviction and warmth.
Schumann in 1839. 8 June 1810 Zwickau – 29 July 1856 (aged 46) Bonn Bonn, Rhine Province, Prussia
“All week I’ve been sitting at the piano and composing and writing and laughing and crying, all at the same time,” wrote Schumann to his beloved Clara Wieck from Vienna in March 1839. “You will find this beautifully illustrated in my Opus 20, the great Humoreske.”
Schumann needed some happy diversion in his life at that particular time: he was very unhappy being separated from Clara but somehow she wasn’t able to heed Robert’s plea for her to come to Vienna to join him. Further, his reason for being in Vienna was to be able to establish in the Austrian capital his journal, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik,which he had founded in Leipzig in 1833. But the city fathers said a resounding “No.” So, what to do other than compose a new keyboard masterwork. In fact, Schumann in 1839 was close to the end of the line of works for the keyboard. His creative life had centered virtually exclusively on music for the piano, the instrument on which he envisioned becoming a virtuoso. This dream, however, was shattered when he injured his hands with a machine he used to strengthen his fingers.. But after his marriage to Clara in 1840 he turned to songs and then symphonies and chamber music.
The conflicting emotions Schumann felt while composing his Humoreske are reflected in the music’s contrasting moods. In a letter of 15 March 1839 to his Belgian follower Simonin de Sire, Schumann provided a hint as to the meaning of the work’s title when he pointed out that the word ‘humoreske’ couldn’t adequately be translated into French. ‘It is a pity’, said Schumann, ‘that there are no good and apt words in the French language for such deeply ingrained characteristics and concepts as Gemütlichkeit, and for humour, which is the happy fusion of the gemütlich and the witty. But it is this that binds the whole character of the two nations together.’ Adding that ‘The human heart sometimes seems strange, and pain and joy are intermingled in wild variegation.’in fact Schumann described humour in music as “a way of looking on the emotions with ironic detachment.”
The score features a third line, an ‘inner stimme’ which is not to be played, merely implied, in the accentuations of the two given accompaniment parts. Generally it seems that this move is either taken to be a part of the gradual diminishment of the voice in Schumann’s work (related to his mental illness) or perhaps a tribute to Clara and one of her works. The Humoreske was composed in 1839, and a few years previously the pianist Sigismond Thalberg together with Liszt was considered the most famous pianist in Europeand the impact of Thalberg’s playing largely depended on his ‘three-handed technique’. On the newly established pianos with sustaining pedals the melody could be played by the thumbs in the middle register of the keyboard with ornate arpeggiated figuration in bass and treble, creating the illusion that three hands are required.Could Schumann have been influenced by, or even been referring to this ‘three-handed technique’?
Béla Viktor János Bartók in 1927 25 March 1881 Nagyszentmiklós Hungary – 26 September 1945 (aged 64) New York facsimile of the Bartók Sonata 1926
The Bartók’s Piano Sonata, BB 88, Sz. 80, was composed in June 1926 a year that is known to musicologists as Bartók’s “piano year”, when he underwent a creative shift in part from Beethovenian intensity to a more Bachian craftsmanship.It is tonal but highly dissonant and has no key signature , using the piano in a percussive fashion with erratic time signatures . Underneath clusters of repeated notes, the melody is folklike and each movement has a classical structure overall, in character with Bartók’s frequent use of classical forms as vehicles for his most advanced thinking. Dedicated to Ditta Pásztory- Bartók, his second wife, he wrote it with an Imperial Bösendorfer in mind, which has extra keys in the bass (97 keys in total). The second movement calls for these keys to be used (to play G sharp and F).
Daguerreotype, c. 1849. Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin 1 March 1810 Żelazowa Wola Poland 17 October 1849 (aged 39) Paris
The Polonaise-Fantaisie op. 61, was dedicated to Mme A. Veyret, written and published in 1846.
Although slow to gain favour with musicians, due to its harmonic complexity and intricate form. One of the first critics and a renowned expert on Chopin ,Arthur Hedley, writing in 1947 said that it “works on the hearer’s imagination with a power of suggestion equaled only by the F minor Fantasy or the Fourth Ballade”.It has been suggested that the Polonaise-Fantaisie represents a change in Chopin’s style from ‘late’ to ‘last’ and that the formal ambiguities of the piece (particularly the unconventional and musically misleading transitions into and out of the lyrical inner section) are the most significant defining qualities of this ‘last style’, which only includes this and one other piece—the F minor Mazurka op 68 n. 4, Chopin’s last composition
Misha Kaploukhii with the Apollo Sinfonia play Brahms Second Piano Concerto with a little ‘wisp’ of a scherzo. After performances of Rachmaninov 1 at 18, Liszt 2 at 19 and Rachmaninov 3 at 20.
Misha has taken the plunge with the biggest challenge that any pianist can face with Brahms’s ‘little’ piano concerto, with a little ‘wisp’ of a scherzo, as he described it to Clara Schumann on completion of one of the longest and most complex concertos certainly of its’s time.
Since the appearance of the Brahms Second concerto there have been concertos with many more notes by Busoni, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, but the complexity of the mixture of chamber music ensemble together with the noble grandeur of Brahms 2 is only for the greatest interpreters of our age. Arrau, of course, was the example to us all of the weight and poetic intelligence, plus playing the notes exactly as Brahms had indicated in the score. No mean feat as every pianist asks how do you manage to scramble through certain passages that are played more with a wave of the arm than note picking precision as indeed one can perceive from the photos of Brahms at the piano?
I remember in the sixties when anyone who could even attempt Rach 3 or Prok 2 was considered a hero. This was of course before the Russian invasion of virtuosi who were allowed to come to the west.
I remember the arrival of Ashkenazy with two presentation recitals of all the Chopin Studies and the Beethoven Sonatas op 31. Astonishing enough for the mastery and beauty of sound. But what really created a furor amongst so called pianists was his orchestral debut with both Rachmaninov and Prokofiev in the same programme !
I remember all the articles in the press about a young pianist of the RCM who came from a poor east end of London family, not only playing Rach 3 at 18 but playing the largest of the two cadenzas that the composer had written .
‘Greater than Ogdon’ cried the Evening Standard. John Lill went on to take first prize in Moscow as Ogdon had done (tying with Ashkenazy). He won first prize not with the obligatory Tchaikowsky, but with the Second Concerto of Brahms.
It is a concerto that many great pianists have attempted, but then left, as the combination of chamber music and hidden virtuosity did not convince. Finding the first concerto, with the piano against the orchestra, far more congenial than a concerto with a piano that is very much part of the orchestra. Memorable performances that I have heard were by Rubinstein, Arrau, Ashkenazy and above all Geza Anda. Arrau had the weight that could emerge with a sound larger that the greatest of orchestras, as it could dissolve into a chamber ensemble of poetic intelligence. Rubinstein, the grandest and noblest was ‘The Prince of Pianists’ to quote Joan Chissell. I remember the performance he gave in the Brighton Festival with Barenboim conducting together for the first time. There had been a luncheon party before this afternoon performance in the Brighton Dome. Well, even Barenboim looked down at his mentor and idol as he struck any notes he could find in the opening cadenza! The long orchestral tutti gave the master time to recover and from then on it was the magnificent performance that the world had appreciated for decades. Ashkenazy, I remember for the poetic perfection and of course it was this that gave the game away when Joyce Hatto stuck her name on his CD!
I remember,too, Ashkenazy conducted by Klemperer in what must be the slowest performance on record. Geza Anda, looking like a prim English gentleman, gave unforgettable performances of luminosity and poetry with Sir Adrian Boult ( the same conductor as for John Lill at the RCM) although his recording is with Karajan. Of course, for all those present at the Festival Hall, it was Gilels who gave the most beautiful account of poetic and aristocratic nobility. He preceded it with the one movement Tchaikowsky 3rd concerto. At the rehearsal this had lead to quite considerable tension between the conductor and pianist. It was during the Cold War and Boult, very much of the English Institution, got very irritated when Gilels was not happy with the opening horn solo of the Tchaikowsky. ‘Would you please explain what you mean Mr Gilels’ and then they never uttered another word throughout the whole rehearsal. How could one forget Serkin opening the refurbished RFH with the two Brahms Concert, and with his impatient excitement entering too early with the grandest of declarations of the second subject. Probably the most poetically beautiful and noble was Curzon with the Concertgebouw at the Proms. I was standing next to him as he sweated blood over his loving performance, playing without the score that brought an animal excitement to his playing in those days. I remember my mentor Sidney Harrison, who had heard it on the radio, exclaiming wondrous appreciation of such a great performance. Strangely the recording of Horowitz and Toscanini is rather crisp,clean and technically perfect, but it was not the Brahms of his Rach 3!
All this preamble to say what a remarkable performance Misha Kaploukhii gave today. Still in his early twenties he played with a mastery and musicality that bodes well for his 3rd performance that will be on the 19th February in Cadogan Hall.
He needs now to sweat blood and tears over every note, (something that the mastery of Volodos did not allow him to do ) .
Remarkable mastery of the ‘wisp ‘of a Scherzo lead into the sumptuous simple beauty of the Andante
Youthful energy and romantic sweep with an orchestra made up of very fine colleagues at the RCM. Of course a performance that could now be played slower and given time to breathe and expand as Brahms’s sumptuous sound envelope us in a reassuring cocoon of passionate abandon.
Beautiful playing from the cellist, James Dew,of simplicity and beauty answered by the ravishing beauty and measure of the piano .This is the heart of the concerto, and it was the most successful movement in a performance that will expand and glow with the maturity of performances to come.
Nok Him Chan was the fine conductor holding his ensemble together with expert ease, but sometimes choosing tempi that were a fraction too fast for this most difficult of all concertos. I was sorry to miss the Schoenberg, but judging from the ovation he received it was a just partner to the succulent opulence of the Brahms B flat.
Johannes Brahms 7 May 1833,Hamburg – 3 April 1897 (aged 63)Vienna
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat op 83 was written 22 years after his first concert. Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near Vienna. It took him three years to work on this concerto, and he wrote to Clara Schumann: “I want to tell you that I have written a very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo!” It is dedicated to his teacher, Eduard Marxsen and the public première was in Budapest on 9 November 1881, with Brahms as soloist and the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. It was an immediate success and he proceeded to perform the piece in many cities across Europe.The concerto is in four movements:
Allegro non troppo
Allegro appassionato
Andante
Allegretto grazioso—Un poco più presto
The additional movement of a Scherzo second movement results in a concerto considerably longer than most other concertos written up to that time, with typical performances lasting around 50 minutes. Upon its completion, Brahms sent its score to his friend, the surgeon and violinist Theordor Billroth, to whom Brahms had dedicated his first two string quartets, describing the work as “some little piano pieces.” Brahms even described the stormy scherzo as a “little wisp of a scherzo.”
Misha with Mike Oldham – the greatest page turner the world has ever known!
Jonathan Ferrucci with a CD launch in the refined space of Raffaello Morales’s Fidelio café.Two Italians bringing culture and elegance to a city where quantity is fast taking over from quality.
Raffaello, a trained musician, who has had the courage and vision to open a space where his love and passion for music are even expressed in the wallpaper that adorn the bathrooms, made of the scores of Beethoven and Schumann- the Hammerklavier no less!
A green room that I would gladly move into tomorrow, such is it’s haremesque warmth and restrained opulence.
Raffaello Morales not content with just this space opposite the Italian church in the centre of London, has created his own orchestra that plays in the beautiful church of St Luke’s in Holborn and regularly invites superb solists to join in the ‘fun’
One such artist is the distinguished Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, who also resides in Italy, and wanted to add a third ‘B’ to her worldwide fame with the other two! Her Brahms First Concerto with Raffaello at the helm was indeed a special occasion for all concerned.
Angela is also the mentor of Jonathan and their deep love of Bach and the refined beauty and nobility of the Italian renaissance has cemented a friendship of mutual respect for their art. I have heard many of Jonathan’s concerts since he moved to London to perfect his studies at the Guildhall with Joan Havill, and his passion and refined good taste have always astonished me.
A love for music that was ignited by Giovanni Carmassi whose book ‘A pianist prepares’ is the bible for all aspiring pianists and musicians, only on a par only with ‘The Art of Piano Playing’ by Heinrich Neuhaus. Luckily Jonathan’s psychologist father realised the value,in human terms, of such an inspirational influence on young musicians, that he and his Australian wife have translated it into English. In in my opinion it should be obligatory reading for all serious artists.
It opens with a quote from Celibadache :
“Art is beautiful….Nevertheless I soon distanced myself from this idea.
Without seeking the beautiful, no one could create a work of art. But beauty is not the goal: it is only the bait.
What is truth? You cannot define it rationally, but you can experience it personally’
The final words in the CD booklet that accompanies the Toccatas Jonathan exclaims: ‘Ashtanga Yoga is an integral part of my work as a musician and with music, essential in life.’ Only a Florentine could express that, where the beauty of the bodily movements and the beauty that surrounds Tuscany and indeed the whole of Italy, are reflected in the beauty of movement that can recreate such masterworks at the keyboard. Like a painter or sculptor creating things of beauty that will be a joy forever. Beauty that recreates beauty!
Rostropovich simply exclaimed that Italy is the ‘museum of the world’.
It is enough to admire the cover of this CD to know of the mine of gold that must be hidden within.
I have heard Jonathan many times over the past years and have expressed my feelings in the few poor words that could describe such beauty.
Magdalene Ho, a star shining brightly in the Rising Stars concerts of Warren Mailley Smith’s series at St Mary Le Strand. At only twenty she is already winner of the Clara Haskil and German Artists’ Awards, not to forget the Chappell Gold Medal at the RCM, where she is still in the class of Dmitri Alexeev.
At every appearance she shines more intensely. Never looking at her hands, but listening to every sound and nuance they are carving out. Creating a magic carpet of sounds, never knowing what wonders are to be discovered on a hypnotic voyage together.
Inspired and inspiring as the warm generous acoustics of this beautiful jewel of St Mary’s, and with Warren’s own Steinway, allowing the music to unfold in a miraculous way. Bar lines disappeared as the music like a choir of celestial angels enveloped us with a reassuring warmth, guided by a masterly interpretative intelligence of simplicity and humility. An artist who thinks more of the music and her role as medium than any self ingratiation. A small insignificance in life but a giant when touching the hallowed notes of the composers of whom she is but a faithful servant.
An eclectic programme of Gibbons, Adès and Schubert played almost without a break such was the magic she could create from the very first notes. An audience that included a member of the Adès family; Gibbons and Schubert were obviously listening from afar too, in wonderment of the golden sounds that poured from this tender young waifs miraculous hands !
Performing today, for me and Patsy Fou ( the widow of Fou Ts’ong and her childhood mentor) despite illness, flying off to Switzerland and Holland tomorrow for a series of concerts that includes the Saint – Saens Egyptian Concerto and much else besides.
Gibbons that unfolded on a gentle wave of sounds, but with the grandeur and civilised nobility of a past age. A beautiful subtle movement to the Galliard with its whispered strands of knotty twine.
Three mazurkas by Adès opened our ears in a refreshing way, like a sorbet in a sumptuous meal. Rubinstein, too, would often include the four mazurkas op 50 by his friend Szymanowski, in an all Chopin recital, which would be like a breath of fresh air in a sumptuous feast of masterworks by a fellow countryman. Luminous sounds filled the air of almost jazz improvisation in which the insinuating teasing mazurka rhythm was lurking, ready to emerge within this kaleidoscope of sounds. A magical music box of delicacy and gentle murmurings of great atmosphere.
Nothing, though, could have prepared us for the miracle that was yet to unfold. ‘Fantasy Sonata’, Schubert writes on the score and it was this fantasy and voyage of discovery that created a spell that will long linger in this magnificent Wren edifice. The opening like palpitations of a heart that was to cease beating within a short amount of time. Could Schubert have known that at 31 he would no longer be on this earth? I think the answer, of course, is in the music for all those that have the ears and the sensibility to understand some things where words are just not enough. Beethoven’s final trilogy, too, points in the same celestial direction.
What an inspiration Fou Ts’ong was in trying to explain the fact that the soul has no frontiers, and with his searing enthusiasm could inspire so many young musicians and whose message has shaped their lives. The ‘Andante’ was played with gentle mellifluous sounds of refined beauty, with a coda that was of breathtaking etherial wonderment. A dynamic drive to the ‘Menuetto’ with its eloquence and elegance miraculously intact. A haunting pastoral beauty of the barely whispered trio. And finally the questioning beauty of the ‘Allegretto’, where the delicacy and subtle colouring of Magdalene’s playing was nothing short of miraculous. The opening of a ray of sunshine as Schubert’s glorious outpouring of song (like in Mozart’s C major Concerto K. 503 with an unstoppable outpouring of melodious beauty at every corner) was where Magdalene allowed the music to pour like water over a brook, gently and beautifully with simple inevitability.The ending usually played so heavy handedly was exactly like this bubbling pastoral heavenly paradise that Schubert could describe so wonderfully in sounds.
Of course the opening of the G major sonata is impossibly difficult to sustain on the modern piano which thinks more vertically than horizontally. Richter,even at his legendary snail’s pace, could miraculously sustain these palpitations without hardness but with subtle meaning. The miracle of Richter was not how fast or loud he could play, as we all imagined when Gilels told us to wait until we hear who comes to the west after him. It was how slow and quietly he could sustain what is fundamentally a percussion instrument. Fou Ts’ong too would play the opening over and over again, and if he loved the music so much that he could sometime suffocate it, was not asphyxiation for love not a small price to pay for such inspirational dedication?
When I heard Mitsuko Uchida play it in the RFH, I was informed that she was repeating the programme in Perugia and I just had to go to meet the person who could play so miraculously. I remember her reply to us in the green room after this commemoration for Paolo Buitoni. A concert should remain in the memory like a wondrous dream that gets more and more beautiful with the passing of time. Not like a printed photograph that with time fades at the edges.
Today Magdalene ,for me, came of age as she joined the ranks of the greatest interpreters and at only 20 will fill so many people’s lives with the joy and wonder of the great masters that pass through her hands.
Warren Mailley- Smith’s amazing activity with his City Music Promotions, filling these beautiful churches in London, Manchester and Edinburgh with celestial sounds. He himself playing the Archduke Trio just an hour after Magdalene had ignited the atmosphere for him in St Mary’s tonight.
Whilst just next door the Lion King is still packing them in at the Lyceum Theatre,one of the most antique theatres in London.Little could they have imagined what real Lioness was roaring in St Mary’s tonight
The Piano Sonata in G major D. 894, op. 78 by Franz Schubert completed in October 1826 The work is sometimes called the “Fantasie”, a title which the publisher Tobias Haslinger, rather than Schubert, gave to the first movement of the work. It was the last of Schubert’s sonatas published during his lifetime, and was later described by Robert Schumann as the “most perfect in form and conception” of any of Schubert’s sonatas.
The sonata is in four movements
Molto moderato e cantabile
Andante with two trios.
Menuetto :Allegro moderato – Trio
Allegretto
The original concept for the second movement was quite different from the version known today. Evidence of this can be seen in the score that Schubert sent to his publisher.
The original manuscript, which has survived and is currently digitized in the archive of the British Library, reveals that after completing the minuet, Schubert decided to rewrite the second movement. He tore out the original version from the manuscript and replaced it with the version we know today. The first and last pages of the original movement remain, containing the end of the first movement and the beginning of the third movement, respectively.
This peculiar aspect of the manuscript offers valuable insight into how the second movement might have originally sounded. The preserved fragment reveals a theme that is rhythmically characteristic of Schubert’s music, though it was ultimately replaced by a more dynamic orchestral episode in the final version. This change allowed for a greater contrast between the first two themes, which was crucial for the movement’s structure and overall impact.
OXM312480 Orlando Gibbons (oil on panel) by English School; 13.2×10 cm; Faculty of Music Collection, Oxford University; (add.info.: Orlando Gibbons (1582-1625), English composer and keyboard player; leading composer of vocal, keyboard and ensemble music in early C17th;); English, out of copyright
Orlando Gibbons (bapt. 25 December 1583 – 5 June 1625) was an English composer, virginalist and organist who was one of the last masters of the English Madrigal School. By the 1610s he was the leading composer and organist in England, with a career cut short by his sudden death in 1625. As a result, Gibbons’s oeuvre was not as large as that of his contemporaries, like the elder William Byrd, but his compositional versatility led to him having written significant works in virtually every form of his day. He is often seen as a transitional figure from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods.
Throughout his professional career, Gibbons had increasingly good relations with many important people of the English court. King James I and Prince Charles were supportive patrons and others such as Sir Christopher Hatton, even became close friends. Along with Byrd and John Bull, Gibbons was the youngest contributor to the first printed collection of English keyboard music, Parthenia, and published other compositions in his lifetime, notably the First Set of Madrigals and Motets which includes the best known English madrigal: The Silver Swan. Other important compositions include This Is the Record of John, the 8-part full anthem O Clap Your Hands Together and 2 settings of Evensong. The most important position achieved by Gibbons was his appointment in 1623 as the organist at Westminster Abbey which he held for 2 years until his death on the June 5th, 1625.
the first printed collection of music for keyboard in England. ‘Virginals ‘was a generic word at the time that covered all plucked keyboard instruments – the harpsichord,muselaar and virginals, but most of the pieces are also suited for the clavichord and chamber organ. Though the date is uncertain, it was probably published around 1612. The 21 pieces included are ascribed to William Byrd,John Bull and Orlando Gibbons, in three sections. The title Parthenia comes from the Greek parthenos meaning “maiden” or “virgin.” The music is written for the Virginals, the etymology of which is unknown, but may either refer to the young girls who are often shown playing it, or from the Latin virga, which means “stick” or “wand”, possibly referring to part of the mechanism that plucks a string in the harpsichord family of instruments. The “Maydenhead” refers to the maiden voyage or, in this case, the first printing of Parthenia. The dedication to the first edition opens with the phrase: The virgin PARTHENIA (whilst yet I may) I offer up to your virgin Highnesses.
He contributed six pieces to the first printed collection of keyboard music in England, Parthenia (to which he was by far the youngest of the three contributors), published in about 1611. Gibbons’s surviving keyboard output comprises some 45 pieces. The polyphonic fantasia and dance forms are the best represented genres. Gibbons’s writing exhibits a command of three- and four-part counterpoint. Most of the fantasias are complex, multi-sectional pieces, treating multiple subjects imitatively. Gibbons’s approach to melody, in both his fantasias and his dances, features extensive development of simple musical ideas, as for example in Pavane in D minor and Lord Salisbury’s Pavan and Galliard.
Glenn Gould championed Gibbons’s music, comparing Gibbons to Beethoven and Webern:
…despite the requisite quota of scales and shakes in such half-hearted virtuoso vehicles as the Salisbury Galliard, one is never quite able to counter the impression of music of supreme beauty that lacks its ideal means of reproduction. Like Beethoven in his last quartets, or Webern at almost any time, Gibbons is an artist of such intractable commitment that, in the keyboard field, at least, his works work better in one’s memory, or on paper, than they ever can through the intercession of a sounding-board.
Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès CB (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007),In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010). He was born in London to art historian Dawn Adès and poet Timothy Adès. His surname is of Syrian Jewish origin. Adès is gay and identified his sexuality closely with the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in his youth.
In a biographical headline, Thomas Adès is described as ‘composer, pianist, conductor.’ Although he made his earliest success as a pianist, winning second prize in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1989 (at age 18), he considers composing his primary musical strength. “When you come to see me play the piano,” he has said, “you’re seeing a composer who is a pianist.”
As composer his success has been impressive. The orchestral work Asyla won the Grawemeyer Award for Composition in 2000, making Adès the youngest composer to have won this prize. His operas, orchestral works, chamber music, concertos, and piano music are performed frequently all over the world and have been recorded. He has done an “On Location” residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall and next season will be the subject of a festival, “Aspects of Adès.” For a musician not yet 40, his achievements have been extraordinary.
The Three Mazurkas were premiered by Emanuel Ax in February 2009 at Carnegie Hall, one of the co-commissioners of the pieces along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Barbican Centre (London), and Het Concertgebouw NV.
After Chopin, composers were understandably satisfied to give that master the final word on the mazurka. Yet Thomas Adès, with his keen interest in early music, has sought to make a contemporary statement on this distinctly historical Polish dance form. The likeness of his Mazurkas to the Chopin model is seen primarily in the matters of rhythm: the three-quarter time signature is most often used, although the time changes in the second mazurka are a stylistic departure; the direction for rubato (the Chopinesque characteristic rhythmic freedom), and the use of the drone, or consecutive-repeated bass that is typical of folk music.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 