Bobby Chen at the Chopin Society UK was the third of four concerts that I was thrilled to attend after flying in from the Steinway young artist piano competition in Milan .
Steinway & Sons Young Musicians Competition Final Milan and Portrait’s Earth Hour with Elena Chiavegato
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/03/23/steinway-sons-young-musicians-competition-final-milan-and-portraits-earth-hour-with-elena-chiavegato/
The rain in Milan is very similar to that of London there are no boundaries as with the ‘soul’.
And it was this soul that our dear friend and colleague of many a years revealed to us having been invited by Lady Rose Cholmondeley and Gillian Newman to perform in a series of recitals dedicated to renowned pianists living in London but that rarely are given the opportunity to play in the city they live in !
Bobby Chen a renowned supporter of young musicians who even holds a ‘Summer school’ ( late December!!) in the Menuhin School for aspiring young musicians from his homeland .Bobby has long been linked with Yehudi Menuhin with whom he performed Beethoven Triple Concerto during the Indian Summer of one of the greatest musicians of our time.
A spring season that has included Rose McLachlan ( of the MacLachlan clan who are gradually all performing for Lady Rose ) and recently a pianist I have admired in recording but never heard live : Danny Driver with the Midas Touch of a great artist at the Chopin Society UK
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/…/danny…/
The next concert will be the 2005 winner of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw on the 27th April with Rafal Blechacz.It will signal the opening concert of the Chopin Society Year of Polish Pianists in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute ( see below).
All this to say what a revelation the concert by Bobby was today.
A musicianship that is so rare these days and where the music is allowed to speak with simplicity and Matthayan beauty. With humility and intelligence delving deeply to find the meaning behind the notes. No circus tricks or showmanship but a servant – je sens , je joue , je transmets applies, and it is only the Menuhin school that gives a complete musical education to talented young students allowing them to become true kapellmeisters.
Schubert’s Four Impromptus op 90 D 899 opened the programme with beauty of phrasing,delicacy and refined musicianship.The opening mighty tone poem was revealed with infinite gradations of sound from each key allowing the music to speak in a musical conversation of rare mutual anticipation ( to quote Menuhin ). It was Matthay who wrote ‘tomes’ about the sounds that could be found in every key through a refined sensibility of touch,exemplified by his two legendary Dames : Myra Hess and Moura Lympany.
Bobby listening so attentively to the sounds and the architectural shape that he was sculpting from his well oiled fingers. Arms outstretched and listening with such concentration, always looking upwards and never down just as he was always playing horizontally and never vertically!
It is nice to be reminded that this box of hammers and strings can be made to sing as well as any singer and sometimes even better because therein lies a whole orchestra too. The second impromptu was noticeable for Bobby’s orchestral conception of the central episode and coda, embraced by a silver lined jeux perlé that was so beautifully shaped that Bobby almost forgot to keep it rhythmically in order!
The famous G flat outpouring of Schubert’s Bel Canto was played with a whispered luminosity, and a yearning to the phrasing that was particularly touching. Never forgetting the overall architectural shape and the flow like a refreshing mountain stream of luxuriant beauty. The fourth with its scintillating opening and the central episode, insinuating and passionate, but a refined passion of its age that was so moving. There were in all four impromptus a great sense of measure within a sound world of refined perfectly balanced elegance.
The Haydn Sonata in C was a lesson in the simplicity and sense of character that Bobby transmitted. A crystalline clarity and a completely different sound world from Schubert with the refined charm and grace of another age. Delicacy and brilliance went hand in hand in a masterly performance where I have rarely been aware of Haydn’s mischievous sense of humour. The long pedal that Haydn asks for in the first movement ,was played with whispered music box sounds of a composer who was a revolutionary genius just as his pupil Beethoven was to be proven,as he took over the reigns from his master. An ‘Adagio’ that unfolded with glowing luminosity and an etched poignancy of timeless beauty of a great operatic statement of weight and depth. Contrasting with the impish questioning humour of the ‘Allegro molto’ that just exploded from Bobby’s well oiled fingers with a ‘joie de vivre’ of operatic high jinx!
Bobby’s performance of Liszt’s ‘Ricordanza’ will long remain with me out of all of the wondrous performances I had heard over the past twenty four hours in London and in Milan.
A mastery not only of the technical difficulty of the mass of notes that Liszt writes for his ninth transcendental study, but for the quality of the sound and the overall vision of ravishing beauty that he could convey. Washes of sound on which such subtle tenor melodies could be shaped just as well as the greatest of singers who did not though have to give a hoot about the orchestra. Bobby was the singer and the orchestra in an extraordinary poetic control of balance and refined kaleidoscopic range of colour. It reminded me of the legendary recording of Egon Petri, a prize student of Busoni, who was in turn of Liszt .
The master speaks and Bobby revealed his true mastery of style and control at the service of this ravishing tone poem which was like looking at a faded love letter with nostalgia and not a little regret.
Quite memorable !
After the interval Bobby played seven fantasies based on ‘Turning the Tide’ that was introduced by the composer Stephanie Cant. Seven very short bagatelles of luminosity and whispered beauty – ‘visions fugitives’ indeed, each one lasting barely a minute but describing in music Waves,Birds,Calm,Machines and an agitated Machine dance of vibrations high on the keyboard. Followed by the grandiose ‘celebration’ and delicate tiptoe to ‘reflections’ of radiance and delicacy. Played with the dedicated conviction of a true noble musician turning these baubles, written by a dear esteemed colleague, into glowing gems.
Seven Chopin Mazurkas followed and once again demonstrated the poetic beauty of Bobby’s playing .Bringing such poignant character to the three late Mazurkas op 59 and brilliance and scintillating beauty to the four early op 17. The final A minor mazurka from op 17 was played with the whispered beauty of someone sharing intimate emotions where words are just not enough and only music can reveal that elusive thing called ‘anima’.
A glorious outpouring of ever more luxuriant radiance brought a halo hovering over this magnificent Steinway as ‘Ave Maria’ resounded with heartfelt emotion and extraordinary technical finesse.
Ravel’s ‘Pavane’ of refined beauty was offered as an encore to this very warm and appreciative audience that gathers around Lady Rose and Gillian.The can still offer an intimate atmosphere able to appreciate forgotten masters in a metropolis where all too often it is quantity and not quality that prevails, and that can leave us feeling abandoned and isolated in what is the capital of music in the world .
What better way to thank Lady Rose than the whole audience united with genuine warmth and affection to wish her a Happy Birthday in song both in English and some even in Polish !
Viva Europa – Viva La Musica that does not have ridiculous barriers by International Piano Magazine as: “…an armour-clad player of complete technique, a thinking musician, a natural Romantic.”, Bobby Chen was a pupil of Ruth Nye MBE and Hamish Milne at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal Academy of Music, and burst on the scene in playing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in a British tour with Lord Yehudi Menuhin and the Warsaw Sinfonia, and a recital at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the South Bank Prokofiev Festival.
Since then, he has performed as concerto soloist with many orchestras and given recitals all over the world.
Highlights in 2024 included the world premiere performance with Douglas Finch of ‘Songs of the Chenfinch’ for two pianos composed by Arnold Griller, a solo recital towards the Humanitarian Relief Fund of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem through the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a solo recital towards the ‘Jubilee 175 Fundraising Campaign’ of Farm Street Church, a 2-piano performance with Simone Tavoni and four singers of the complete Symphony No,9 by Beethoven at the Reform Club in support of The David Nott Foundation as well as a duo recital with violist Sarah-Jane Bradley at the Old Divinity School St John’s College Cambridge.
Our piano, a fine 2015 Hamburg Steinway Model B Grand, chosen for us by Ulrich Gerhartz, Steinway’s Head of Artist & Concert Services, is maintained by Steinways and tuned by them immediately before each performance.
- Schubert – Four Impromptus D.899 Op.90
- Haydn – Sonata in C major Hob XVI:50
- Liszt – Transcendental Étude No. 9 in A major, “Ricordanza”
- Stephanie Cant – Seven Fantasies based on Turning the Tide
- Chopin—Three Mazurkas Op.59
- Chopin—Four Mazurkas Op.17
- Schubert-Liszt— Ave Maria S.558 No.12
Rafał Blechacz
Sunday 27 April at 4.30 pm
The programme:
Schubert – 4 Impromptus, Op.90 D899
Beethoven – Sonata No.14 in C# minor, Op.27 No.2 “Moonlight”
Chopin – Barcarolle in F#, Op.60
Chopin – 3 Mazurkas, Op.50
Chopin – Ballade in Ab, Op.47
Chopin – Scherzo in C# minor, Op.39
TICKETS are £20 or £10 for students with ID
Booking through wegottickets.com via this link: wegottickets.com/event/654848/ or search “Blechacz”
There will be a Champagne Reception after the concert for a limited number of people. Reception tickets are sold on the door for £20 (cash or cheque only).
The concert will be supported by the Polish Cultural Institute.
Polish pianist Rafał Blechacz’s artistry is recognised as rare by any measure – his many plaudits include being dubbed “a musician in service to the music, searching its depths, exploring its meaning and probing its possibilities” (Washington Post) – and arises from his total command of the keyboard and ability to unlock his instrument’s full expressive range. Those qualities have supported his artistic and professional development in the years since he took first prize at the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition. He stands today among the world’s finest pianists, in high demand for the honesty and vision he brings to performances of everything from Bach and Beethoven to Chopin and Szymanowski.
The eloquence and intensity of Blechacz’s Chopin Competition performances, delivered within months of his twentieth birthday, were rewarded not only with the winner’s medal but also with a clean sweep of the event’s four special prizes and the Audience Award. He signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in May 2006, following Krystian Zimerman to become the second Polish pianist to join the yellow label’s international roster of artists. The new relationship was launched in October 2007 with Blechacz’s debut solo album, a coupling of Chopin’s completePreludes and theTwoNocturnes op. 62. His second release – a recital of piano sonatas by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven – was issued in 2008, after which he returned to Chopin, recording the two piano concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Jerzy Semkow for an album released in 2009 to herald the upcoming bicentenary of Chopin’s birth.
2012 saw the release of an album of solo works by Debussy and Szymanowski. This was followed in 2013 by another acclaimed Chopin recording, this one featuring the composer’s mature Polonaises. Blechacz’s sixth DG album, released in 2017, was devoted to works by Bach, the Partitas Nos.1 & 3 andItalian Concerto among them. He then joined forces with Korean violinist Bomsori Kim to record a selection of works by Fauré, Debussy, Szymanowski and Chopin. Released in 2019, this was his debut chamber music album for DG
Devoted entirely to Chopin, Blechacz’s latest release presents his insightful interpretations of the Second and Third Piano Sonatas, Nocturne Op. 48 No. 2 and Barcarolle Op. 60. “I’ve had many experiences with this programme, playing it all over the world, in different concert halls and on different pianos,” says the artist. “I really wanted to share the beauty of these compositions with the audience.”Chopin was released, digitally, on CD and on vinyl (2 LPs) in March 2023.
Rafał Blechacz was born in the small town of Nakło nad Notecią in northern Poland in June 1985. He showed early signs of musical talent and began piano lessons at the age of five. Having first enrolled at the Arthur Rubinstein State Music School in Bydgoszcz, he progressed to study at the city’s Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music, graduating in May 2007 from Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń’s piano class. Blechacz’s outstanding technical and artistic attributes secured a sequence of competition successes, beginning in 2002 with second prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Competition for Young Pianists in Bydgoszcz, continuing the following year with joint first prize at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, and culminating in outright victory at the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, where he became the first Polish musician to receive the top prize since Krystian Zimerman thirty years earlier.
He went on to win the 2010 Premio Internazionale Accademia Chigiana, awarded annually by the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena to an outstanding pianist or violinist. In 2014 Blechacz received the Gilmore Artist Award, a prestigious prize conferred every four years in recognition of “extraordinary piano artistry”. In addition to formal prizes and awards, he has also garnered ringing endorsements from senior colleagues, with Martha Argerich, winner of the Chopin Competition in 1965, describing him as “a very honest, extraordinary and sensitive artist” and the Irish pianist and pedagogue John O’Conor as “one of the greatest artists I have ever heard in my life”.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 