Exhilaration and excitement at St Mary’s today with a breath of red hot air blown in from the Eternal City where a burning cauldron of naked passion was about to be unleashed on a usually rather staid Dr Mather and his faithful followers. After a long and complex programme finishing with Stravinsky’s Petrushka , Dr Mather half jokingly asked them what they did for an encore! Little did he realise that he had shown a red rag to the bulls as they streamed up and down the keyboard with a breathtaking account of the infernal dance of the Firebird.
Radiant clarity and a superb sense of balance allowed these two experienced pianists to play as one. Not democratically swopping positions but each knowing his rightful place where it was the architectural line and stylistic beauty that had decided for them. Adriano never overpowering his partner but building up the sonorities from the bass allowing his right hand to occasionally trespass into his partners territory but basically filling the harmonic sandwich with the ravishing flavours of a cordon bleu cook. Francesco on the other hand played with a chiselled purity and infallible precision also allowing his partner to share in the musical line that they had defined so clearly as one.
The eight fragments of Paolo Catenaccio’s Dream were eight sides of the same dice each one just the time to throw and savour the lucky draw.
Brahms were waltzes of ravishing beauty and a kaleidoscope of sentiments with Brahms’s Viennese ‘heart on sleeve’ proving achingly sincere .
The colours and chameleonic changes of character were reminiscent of this duos ‘Rite of Spring’ from last season. A Stravinsky of remarkable clarity and Boulezian precision but also of an extraordinary self identification with this exotic world of Diaghilev and his Russian Dancers that were to take Europe by storm in the early twentieth century. My old teacher Guido Agosti had made a piano reduction of three pieces from the Firebird Suite, in 1928, which is a brilliant tour de force only for fearless virtuosi .This version for piano duet , which I imagine is original for ballet rehearsals, was even more overwhelming as we watched incredulously Adriano trespassing, with Francesco passively knowing there was nothing to do but join in the battle! It is 35 degrees in Rome from where I was able to watch this superb live stream but I got the impression it was much hotter in Perivale this afternoon !
Francesco Bravi and Adriano Leonardo Scapicchi formed their duo in 2019. In 2020 they performed Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at Teatro Palladium in Rome. The success following their concert, described by Christopher Axworthy as “a formidable knotty twine of great precision and rhythmic pulse”, brought them to be invited to several international music festivals and venues. In 2023 they were awarded the Outstanding Musicians Prize and a special mention for their interpretation of Debussy at the International Music Competition Ibla Grand Prize. As winners of the competition, in 2024 they took part in a tour in the USA, performing in Virginia, Arkansas, Texas, and New York, including the Weill Recital Hall of the Carnegie Hall. In 2024 they have played at the Pauline Chapel of the Quirinal Palace, live streamed by RAI Radio 3, at St. Mary’s Perivale in London, MusiQuart festival in Valencia (Spain), IUC-La Sapienza, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, and I Tramonti di Tinia, where they played Bartók’s Sonata for two pianos and percussions. In 2025 they have been invited to perform concerts in Austria, Hungary, South Korea, United Kingdom, and Italy, including the 102° edition of Micat in Vertice in Siena, where they have played Brahms’s Liebeslieder-Walzer with choir. Keen on promoting new repertoire, they often programme works by contemporary authors, such as Salvatore Sciarrino, Fazil Say, Fabio Massimo Capogrosso, and Paolo Catenaccio, who wrote Visions from a Dream for the duo. For the Chigiana International Festival 2025 they will also take part to the world premiere of Matteo D’Amico’s Hérodiade. They attend the Chamber Music Course at the International School of Music Avos Project in Rome, the Advanced Course at the Academy of the Società dei Concerti di Parma, and the Piano Course at the Accademia Musicale
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 