Truly masterly playing from Ashley Fripp who I have heard over the years give many recitals both in the UK and in Italy where he came to perfect his studies with Eliso Virsaladze. I remember her telling me about this very good English young man she had in her class in Sermoneta, near to my country home, where she would give masterclasses every year. I later heard him in Florence where he was one of the first to give a recital in the Harold Acton Library of the British Institute. It is thanks to that happy encounter that the Keyboard Trust now give a series of recitals there every year, allowing aspiring young pianists a chance to pay in the city that is acknowledged to be the ‘Museum of the World’. All this to say that Ashley has matured and his playing is of such seeming simplicity, full of profound poetic meaning of overwhelming authority and remarkable musicianship. Two works on the programme with only three years between their composition by Schubert and Beethoven.Two much loved works very often heard in the concert hall but rarely heard played as we heard it today from Ashley’s masterly hands. It was not only his playing that was inspired but his introductions shed such light and insight on these masterpieces and the composers that had penned them. I did not know that the Beethoven Scherzo was based on two popular songs or that he quotes in the last movement from Bach St John’s passion from the moment of Christ dying on the cross. It was this research to discover the true meaning behind the notes and the significance for their creators that came across in interpretations with profound insights and aristocratic authority.

Schubert impromptus that were both measured but also full of poetic meaning with the desolate opening of the C minor and its sudden rays shining a golden light on moments of sublime beauty. The beautifully mellifluous stream of sounds of the E flat impromptu where everything sang with disarming simplicity and beauty. Refined and restrained until the finally few bars of searing excitement with an exhilarating downward scale as an astonishing release of tension.The beautiful sense of balance in the G flat impromptu where the melodic line was played with aristocratic poise of nobility and tenderness.The fourth impromptu like water flowing with cascades of gentle notes taking us to the melodic line that was shaped with architectural understand. There was great control to the central episode played with nobility and refined passion with sudden rays of light lighting up this golden prism of sound of sublime beauty.

Beethoven’s penultimate sonata with Ashley’s introduction about Beethoven’s belief in humanity and how this was demonstrated, made his reading ever more enticing and full of significance. A beautifully sung first movement with flowing sounds of insight and poignant meaning. A ‘scherzo’ that seemed to grow out of the final two chords of the first movement such was the overall architectural shape and meaning that Ashley was able to convey. Of course technical difficulties just did not exist as it was the musical meaning that was uppermost in Ashley’s interpretations. But nevertheless the trio I have never heard played with such limpet like authority and assurance.There was great poise to the ‘Adagio’ where Beethoven’s own pedal enriched and enlightened this improvisatory transition to the etherial ‘Aria’. Beethoven finds a magical mixture of formal fugue and bel canto with a deep pulsating heartbeat that accompanies the ‘Aria’ and takes us to the final exhilaration and passionate acceptance of his faith in mankind.

An extraordinary performance of great significance and mesmerising authority similar to Serkin’s unforgettable performance in the Festival Hall many years ago.

Again Ashely’s spoken eloquence and informative intelligence enlightened his choice of encore by Liszt (who was the first to play Beethoven’s op 110 in public) with one of his transcriptions of Schubert’s song’s. ‘Aufenthalt‘ (Resting Place) derives from a Rellstab poem and is from the posthumous song cycle ‘Schwanengesang’. A bitter and resigned song about rejected love – “Surging river, roaring forest, immovable rock, my resting place.” It was played with sumptuous sound and hypnotic beauty with a kaleidoscope of colours that only the genius of Liszt and Schubert combined could ever have envisaged.

British pianist Ashley Fripp has performed extensively as recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and Australia in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. Highlights include the Carnegie Hall (New York), Musikverein (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Philharmonie halls of Cologne, Paris, Luxembourg and Warsaw, the Bozar (Brussels), the Royal Festival, Barbican and Wigmore Halls (London), the Laeiszhalle (Hamburg), Palace of Arts (Budapest), the Megaron (Athens), Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Gulbenkian Auditorium (Lisbon) and the Konserthus (Stockholm). 

He has won prizes at more than a dozen national and international competitions, including at the Hamamatsu (Japan), Birmingham and Leeds International Piano Competitions, the Royal Over-Seas League Competition, the Concours Européen de Piano (France) and the coveted Gold Medal from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Ashley was awarded the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ highest award, The Prince’s Prize, and was chosen as a ‘Rising Star’ by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO). He has also performed in the Chipping Campden, Edinburgh, Brighton, Bath, Buxton, City of London, and St. Magnus International Festivals as well as the Oxford International Piano Festival, the Festival Pontino di Musica (Italy) and the Powsin International Piano Festival (Poland). Ashley also gave an open-air Chopin recital beside the world-famous Chopin monument in Warsaw’s Royal Lazienki Park to an audience of 2,500 people. 

Ashley Fripp studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Ronan O’Hora and with Eliso Virsaladze at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole (Italy). In 2021 he was awarded a doctorate for his research into the piano music of British composer Thomas Adès. Future engagements include his debut at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (Germany) and a commercial film production of Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 with accompanying concert tours in Germany and the Czech Republic with the Prague International Youth Orchestra. 

Ashley Fripp at St Marys ‘The authority and impeccable musicianship of a great artist’

Ashley writes :