A dream programme for the Bechstein Young Artists series this morning.
Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring and Sheep May Safely Graze were the opening to Schumann’s most inspired ‘Davidsbündlertanze’.
Played by the recent winner of the Chappell Gold Medal at the RCM and just last week a top prize winner at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig
Mariamna Sherling seems to have been kissed by the Gods with beauty and talent in abundance.
Under the starlit sky at the New Bechstein Hall she opened with Bach’s chorale in the much loved transcription by Myra Hess of Jesu Joy of mans Desiring and she even added some further details that brought it even closer to Bach’s original. But it was the Petri transcription of ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ that showed off her true artistry with the noble poignancy of Bach’s simple melodic outpouring that she allowed to sing with flowing beauty ornamented by Petri’s discrete ethereal accompaniments. It is not quite as magical as Grainger’s ‘Ramble’ but both were influenced by Busoni,their mentor, in different ways. Petri is more sombre and respectful and it was this noble beauty that Mariamna showed us today.
Thanking Terry Lewis and the Bechstein Hall for giving her an opportunity to play three of the most cherished works in her repertoire.
Schumann opened with gasps of wonderment as Florestan and Eusebius competed with beguiling emotions. It was Eusebius who shone brightly with the second dance of whispered beauty of intimate secrets. Florestan springing onto the scene as Schumann indicates ‘mit Humor’ that Mariamna played with a capricious style of great drive and insinuating rubato disappearing fleetingly into the distance. She brought an unusually delicate opening to the fourth ‘ungedulig’ gradually becoming ever more passionate with sumptuous beauty of golden sounds. Freedom and poignant beauty brought Eusebius with a chiselled melodic line.
In fact every one of these dances was imbued not only with technical perfection but with a sense of style and very strong personal commitment. Mariamna gave Eusebius a ravishingly beautiful voice just as she gave Florestan a robust personal capriciousness.
Nowhere more was her technical mastery evident than in the sixth dance played ‘sehr rasch’ but with a clarity and scrupulous attention to Schumann’s very awkward phrasing.The coda was thrown off with a romantic abandon to the final tumultuous D where Eusebius was waiting with gentle beauty of hesitant expectancy. The question and answer of the eighth was played with disarming simplicity and a very strong personal identification.
Momentarily Florestan seemed to have taken over with the ninth of a playful dance duetting with itself with relish, and just disappearing to two final quiet chords played with insolent nonchalance, very similar to Carnaval’s Pantalon et Colombine, written shortly after this work. There were robust Brahmsian sounds to the tenth with a sumptuous richness of romantic fervour. Beseeching simplicity of Eusebius in the eleventh where slightly underlining the shadowing of the melody gave great depth to a sound of luxuriant beauty .The twelfth just flittered in gleefully capricious with playing of extraordinary dexterity. What wonders there were when Florestan and Eusebius combined in the thirteenth with the rich chorale beauty constantly moving forward to a coda of lightness and charm ‘immer schneller und schneller’ paving the way for one of Schumann’s most beautiful melodies .The fourteenth dance was played with ravishing beauty, the counterpoints just shimmering like gems from within .The fifteenth started in such a spiky decisive way before succumbing to a glorious outpouring of changing harmonies played with fervent conviction and passionate abandon. The playful sense of character of the sixteenth was played with extraordinary control as it dissolved into one of Schumann’s most heavenly inspirations.The seventeenth entering on a mist of sound where etherial recollections of the past waltzes are floated and which Mariamna played with a poetic mastery that could allow her to fearlessly take flight to the tumultuous climax that disappeared just as fast as it had arrived. The final waltz was played with hesitant beguiling nostalgia as we joined in the slumbers of Florestan and Eusebius in a land of dreams of wondrous beauty.
Mariamna played the entire recital with fervent conviction and a great musical personality whilst scrupulously following the composers very precise indications.
An encore of one of Beethoven’s most rumbustious bagatelles op 33 n. 7 was played with gleeful dynamic drive and exhilaration.
The New Bechstein Hall after its initial launching is now accessible to all with a Sunday morning Young Artists Series at only five pounds, with as much coffee as you need at 10.30am!
Thomas Masciaga opened the Bechstein Young Artists Series with canons covered in flowers
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/02/02/thomas-masciaga-opens-the-bechstein-young-artists-series-with-canons-covered-in-flowers/
Evening concerts starting from 18 pounds and a sumptuous restaurant that is also opening for luncheon.
A beautiful new hall that is just complimenting the magnificence of the Wigmore Hall and the sumptuous salon of Bob Boas.Providing a much need space for the enormous amount of talent that London,the undisputed capital of classical music,must surely try to accommodate
Here are some of the recent performances :
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/02/vedran-janjanin-at-bechstein-hall-playing-of-scintillating-sumptuous-beauty/ of a remarkable artist’
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 