It’s not every day that Jed Distler is inspired by such piano playing as he was at the reborn Bechstein Hall yesterday for Evelyne Berezovsky’s recital
Riding high on wings of song as Jed said ‘ an emotional generosity playing dangerously and always in the present’. Quite simply the best young pianist he has heard since arriving in London almost a month ago .
With Evie’s mentor Leonskaya playing next door in the ‘old’ Bechstein Hall a programme of Mozart, Shostakovich and Schubert, here was our Evie persuaded by Jed to play as an encore his arrangement of Art Tatum’s ‘Tea for Two’ which he exclaimed, much to Evie’s delight and astonishment , that she plays even faster than Tatum! But not before a scintillating dose of Rachmaninov and Debussy all wrapped up in ‘X’ certificate Ravel. La Valse ‘ The most decadent I have ever heard and I loved e very minute of it ‘ exclaimed Jed and some remarkable new works by Tatiana Svetlova that he just adored as Evie brought them to life with exquisite commanding authority. Evie cast a magic spell over us all as her almost improvised freedom and mastery reminded me of another great ‘natural’ Martha Argerich. Earl Wild’s ‘The man I love ‘ was Evie’s parting shot looking us straight in the eyes alla Gulda ( whose only pupil was Argerich ).
Love at first sight directed at each one of us …….irresistible you !
Rachmaninov opened the concert with ‘Lilacs’ and ‘Daisies’ covered in insinuating rubato of another age .Wisps of sound that were miraculously made of streams of gold and silver. Four preludes followed,opening with the most beguiling op 23 n. 4 and n. 6. The fourth in D major was played with robust sound and a sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to shine through all the accompaniment that Evelyne imbued with luxuriant sumptuous sound. Not the usual whispered sound world of Richter but her own overpowering emotionally seductive Philadelphian world of golden velvet. The E flat prelude followed with an emotional drive that was to be mirrored only in La Valse that was still on the horizon. The G major op 32 n. 5 had a liquid fluidity of fragile beauty suddenly caught in a breeze as free as the wind that was blowing by now in these parts , before the insinuating chattering of the ending. Op 23 n. 8 was a mellifluous outpouring just unfolding with notes that were but moving sounds of shifting harmonies of heartrending nostalgia.
Jed with fellow jazz pianist and composer Beatrice Nicholas
What better way to finish this Rachmaninov opener than with the transcriptions of Rachmaninov’s violin partner Fritz Kreisler. Beguiling charm and insinuating beauty thrown off in such style and with consummate ease and an extraordinary sense of improvised freedom – Love was in the air indeed. Interrupted only by the imperious opening of Liebesfreud dissolving into intricate teasing jeux perlé. What beauty Evie brought to the central outburst of melody before setting off again adding her own improvised cut at the end. Jed told me Rachmaninov had made some cuts in his second historic recording where this rather overlong transcription had to fit on one side of a 78 rpm disc.
Alexei Grynuk adding a helping hand with Tatiana Svetlova’ s beautiful music still wet on the page
A youthful romantic outpouring of Debussy that Jed found a little too similar to the sound world of Rachmaninov, but this was Evie’s warm generous heart sharing her love for music with us . As Barbirolli famously said of a rather over efusive Jaqueline Du Pré ‘If you don’t play with passion when you are young ,what do you pare off in old age?’ Luckily Jaqueline had Barenboim at her side who could help channel her temperament. The old age she was destined never to know but maturity she certainly reached before the age of 28 when her career was so cruelly curtailed. ‘L’Isle Joyeuse’ of course suited Evie’s mood with the improvised freedom of nobility and passion, virtuosity and subtlety combining to exhilarating effect. I must take a closer look at Jersey when I am next in Eastbourne !
Jed in discussion with Evie’s mother in the interval
Two works by Tatiana Svetlova were a real revelation for Jed and myself. I could hear distant references to the Bach Chaconne in a traditional but original sound world of great beauty. Evie playing with the same total conviction of someone who truly loves this music. https://youtu.be/gex0sOR7XZ0?si=rE3RdFq5ANeynE_O
It was Rubinstein who said you should only play music that you truly love and that speaks to you . He went on to say that you must be born with talent, you cannot teach it ! Evie is a living example of that!
This went through my mind as I listened to Evie in the same way I listen to Martha or Maria João .With a sense of discovery where anything could happen and is the very reason why live music making is so essential in this A.I. world that sits gloating in the distance.
Ravel ‘Valses’ just poured from Evie’s hand and heart . ‘Nobles’ played with a freedom that would have had Perlemuter turning in his grave but that Evie played with such originality and a freedom that she saw from the very first Modéré played with heroic nobility. The same she was to find in the 7th and after the bubbling fun of the 6th leading eventually to the whispered magic of the ‘Epilogue’. It was here that Evie imbued the air with magic. Ravel remembering ,’avec un sentiment de regret’ a story that never ends but just drifts into oblivion. It was in this atmosphere that the bubbling cauldron of red-hot passion was allowed to explode with breathtaking decadence. This was a world in which Evie entered with fearless abandon of double glissandi and much else, filling this magnificent Bechstein with sounds it has never known before. The sumptuous night club atmosphere of this very intimate hall just added to the overwhelming emotions that were being banded about before our very eyes.
No escape for Jed ……….
I had told Jed that Evie was playing ‘Tea for Two’ in the original programme that had been modified. But Jed wanted his tea and certainly only for two! Evie thought for a second before throwing herself into a teatime where cups were being thrown about with masterly indifference.
What a night …..it took a whole chicken and lashes of wine to calm us down after that and allow us to sleep …….perchance to dream !
Described by the French press as a pianist with “a huge temperament, dazzling technique and a heart to match”, Evelyne Berezovsky is one of the most sought-after young musicians of today. She has performed concertos with the Tokyo Mozart Players under Xavier Roth, Musica Viva under Alexander Rudin, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under Andris Poga, Thailand Symphony Orchestra and North Czech Philharmonic under Gudni Emilsson, Hulencourt Soloists Chamber Orchestra under Giuseppe Montesano and Ben Ellin and the Enschede Symphony Orchestra under Jaap wan Zweden amongst others.
Presenting a unique pianistic style, she has been invited to perform at major venues such as the Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre (London), Moscow Philharmonic Hall, Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) and festivals like La Roque D’antheron (France), Les folles journées du Japon (Japan), Fêtes d’Olympia (France), Lorin Maazel’s Festival (UK) as well as being a regular guest at Pianos Folies de Touquet (France).
Born in Moscow in 1991 Evelyne started playing the piano at the age of 5 and appeared with an orchestra for the first time at the age of 11 playing Mozart’s Concerto K415. She has studied with the renowned professors Hamish Milne (London), Elisso Virssaladze (Italy), Rena Shereshevskaya (Paris) and recently has been working with Maria João Pires in Portugal. Evelyne is a Grand Prix winner at the Goergy Cziffra International Competition (2019) in Paris, France.
Programme
RACHMANINOV: Lilacs, Op. 21 No. 5
RACHMANINOV: Daisies, Op. 38 No. 3
RACHMANINOV: Selection of Preludes
RACHMANINOV: Liebesleid in A minor
RACHMANINOV: Liebesfreud in E-flat major
DEBUSSY: Valse Romantique
DEBUSSY: L’isle joyeuse, L.106
Intermission 30 minutes
TATIANA SVETLOVA: “Sonnet No. 5 on the theme of Bach’s Chaconne”
TATIANA SVETLOVA: “Gold Leaf of Gustav Klimt ”
RAVEL: Valse nobles et sentimentales
RAVEL: La Valse
ART TATUM/ JED DISTLER : Tea for Two
(transcription)
EARL WILD: Virtuoso Etudes based on Gershwin’s songs:
Monk at Minton’s Playhouse , New York, 1947 Thelonious Monk Jr. October 10, 1917 Rocky Mount North Carolina,U.S February 17, 1982 (aged 64) Englewood ,New Jersey,U.S.
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including ‘Round Midnight ‘,’Blue Monk’,’Straight,No Chaser’,’Ruby,My Dear’,’In Walked Bud’, and ‘Well .You Needn’t’. Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington Monk’s compositions and improvisations feature dissonances and angular melodic twists, often using flat ninths, flat fifths, unexpected chromatic notes together, low bass notes and stride, and fast whole tones , runs, combining a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. Monk’s distinct look included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He also had an idiosyncratic habit during performances: while other musicians continued playing, Monk would stop, stand up, and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. Monk is one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time (the others being Louis Armstrong ,Dave Brubeck,Duke Ellington and Wynton Marsalis.
Monk once said, “The piano ain’t got no wrong notes.”[ According to Bebop: The Music and Its Players author Thomas Owens: Monk’s usual piano touch was harsh and percussive, even in ballads. He often attacked the keyboard anew for each note, rather than striving for any semblance of legato. Often seemingly unintentional seconds embellish his melodic lines, giving the effect of someone playing while wearing work gloves. … He hit the keys with fingers held flat rather than in a natural curve, and held his free fingers high above the keys. … Sometimes he hit a single key with more than one finger, and divided single-line melodies between the two hands. In contrast with this unorthodox approach to playing, he could play runs and arpeggios with great speed and accuracy. He also had good finger independence, allowing him to play a melodic line and a trill simultaneously in his right hand. According to jazz pianist, educator and broadcaster Billy Taylor , “Monk could really play like Tatum. He really had all the technique and he could really play like Art.” Monk’s style was not universally appreciated: for example, the poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin described him as “the elephant on the keyboard”.Steve Lacy ,jazz saxophonist, said ‘Monk’s music has profound humanity, disciplined economy, balanced virility, dramatic nobility, and innocently exuberant wit.’ Monk had a particular proclivity for the key of B flat. All of his many blues compositions, including “Blue Monk”, “Misterioso”, “Blues Five Spot”, and “Functional”, were composed in B flat; in addition, his signature theme, “Thelonious”, largely consists of an incessantly repeated B-flat tone.photo credit Dinara Klinton https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/03/20/christopher-axworthy-dip-ram-aram/
Jacky Zhang at Leighton House and Chopin fever is upon us.
Just this week four other competitors for the circus arena next month in Warsaw .
Andrzej Wierciński, Diana Cooper, Pedro Salas and Ryan Wang all playing superbly as they prepare for the gladiatorial contest.
A fight between giants, but who is already the winner is us the public with young musicians being pushed to superhuman flights where Chopin’s glorious music is being rediscovered,as these young musicians delve deeply into well worn scores and ignite them with their youthful mastery and innocence.
The biggest surprise for me was in the evening under the eagle eye of the ‘Peacocks’ that abound in these parts , with five superb performances of Chopin from the seventeen year old Jacky Zhang .
Could it have been the presence of his mentors, the Alexeev’s ( just returned from a recital in Chopin’s house that was such a marvel that as I listened on Maidenhead Station I was so inspired that I missed my train connection ! The Alexeevs have a lot to answer for ! )
Jacky with his mentor and teacher for the past years Dmitri Alexeev
Here today there was a young man who I had heard play the Goldberg at 14 , Diabelli at 15 and a gladiatorial BBC contest with Etonian, Ryan Wang both playing Rachmaninov’s second concerto televised live )
Jack in the box indeed as our Jacky having given a good Chopin recital in Perivale just ten days ago now produced performances of other works of Chopin that were blessed by the Gods.
A transformation that from the very first notes of the B minor Scherzo held me mesmerised as I had been with his mentor on Maidenhead station just three days ago.
Power and technical mastery went hand in hand in a passionate outpouring of poetic drive. Simple beauty of the Christmas song that Chopin incorporates in his inimitable way, playing with whispered confessions of the deep nostalgia for his homeland that is born into the very fabric of the refined Parisian suit that the impeccable Chopin chose to wear.
An explosion of playing as Jacky let rip with exhilaration and brilliance and a breathtaking coda where he had no need to add the double octaves of lesser showmen !
Four early Mazurkas where Jacky brought his youthful mastery to bear with beguiling beauty and subtle colouring . A luminosity and teasing sense of rhythmic flexibility bursting into a dance of nostalgia and captivating beauty . The B minor played as a true tone poem with a sense of haunting nostalgia leading to such a refined final farewell .
No wonder Schumann described these jewels as ‘canons covered in flowers ‘.
But if these are the canons how are we to describe the Polonaises? Full of brilliance, contrasting with Chopin’s inimitable bel canto just waiting to take over from the dynamic drive and breathtaking exuberance. The very first of Chopin’s published Polonaises was probably written at the age that Jacky is now. It was this self identification with Chopin’s world that was so captivating,with the bursts of ravishing bel canto of great improvised freedom and beauty . Jacky has an enormous palette of sounds as he could pass from whispered asides to great sumptuous outbursts.
The mystery he brought to the E flat minor Polonaise showed the Genius of Chopin who could take this traditional form and imbue it with poetic poignancy and significance . It was remarkable too how Jacky played this mysterious element without pedal revealing a stark skeleton deep in Chopin’s heart uncovering wonderful mysteries igniting the imagination of this young artist .
Chopin’s Second Ballade was played with remarkable contrasts as this young man could pass from poetic lilting beauty to the dynamic chiselled precision of virtuosistic mastery .Throwing himself into the coda with controlled mastery but with uncontrolled passion where we could all feel with him the burning intensity of the final flourish. But even with burnt fingers finding solace in gently looking back without anger or rancour .
Having heard in the afternoon a great performance of the B minor Sonata I was not expecting to be swept off my feet by Jacky’s B flat minor Sonata in the evening .
Eric Lu , another in this gladiatorial contest, played both together in the same programme in the great theatre in Warsaw as part of their Chopin and Europe Festival . Not being streamed I was unable to comment but I feel that although it may not be too much for a fine musician, it may certainly be too much for the public. I remember a very fine pianist having to give two performances of the final concert in his Beethoven Series, such was the public demand . A monumental Trilogy that would be impossible for an Arrau or Serkin to repeat. As a renowned critic confided, not only were they totally spent after such an experience but the audience was too , and an immediate repeat after a quick cup of tea would have been unthinkable !
Jacky like Wierciński gave these two masterworks the space they need at the end of a programme, because after this , silence is needed in order to be able to digest such genial mastery.
Both Jacky and Wierciński chose to play the same encore of the Waltz op 18
Coincidence? Or are they truly so immersed in Chopin’s world that it was not their decision but decided by that mysterious aura that can sometimes pervade the altar that the hallowed concert hall can become?
Jacky gave a masterly performance of the B flat minor sonata ( neither artist risking pointless discussions about first movement repeats)
Jacky opening with explosive authority as the incessant pulsating of the ‘doppio movimento’ brought us to the aristocratic nobility of the development ( something of the same unsettling menace of the E flat minor Polonaise revealed here too ) And if he slightly overplayed the final few bars it was because he is a young man passionately committed, and as Barbirolli said of Jaqueline Dupré : ” If you don’t play with passion at that age what do you pare off later?”
A scherzo played with fearless mastery and a sweeping beauty to the central episode played with great lines of architectural authority usually associated with the vintage of a Perlemuter or Tagliaferro.
Dmitri Alexeev deep in conversation with Jed Distler ………’Do you want me to be polite or would you like my real opinion?’ Discussions between serious dedicated musicians.
A Funeral March played with simple mastery and unbending rhythmic precision imbued with intense significance . Jed Distler, the renowned NY critic and competition commentator , whispered his admiration to me as the music was allowed to unfold with unusual controlled musicianship .
‘The wind over the graves’ may be as Cortot described the last movement of ‘ Chopin’s craziest children’ but Jacky played it with subtle colouring and a shape that made the final monumental cadence so inevitably right.
Lisa Peacock selfless presenter of young Discoveries Canan Maxton another heroic figure presenting young musicians in her Talent Unlimited Series
A party afterwards hosted by the most beautiful of Peacocks in the sumptuous surrounds of a reborn Leighton House just waiting for more of Lisa’s youthful discoveries .
It is great to be able to hear Andrzej just a month before he will compete in the Chopin Olympics in Warsaw. I have heard him play many times over the past few years and have heard all of these pieces from his hands too. It was just last summer that I heard an Andrzej reborn as all the anxiety of having to prove himself on the competition circuit had left him and a new maturity had allowed his unique talent to flower and flourish as the joy of recreation had overcome any idea of having to prove himself.
I have heard all of these works over the years from Andrzej, from the ecstatic outpouring of the Nocturne op 55 to the mellow imposing beauty of the Polonaise Fantaisie op 61 with Andrzej’s wonderful way of painting the sounds at the beginning like an artist before his canvas, where sounds and visual beauty live in close harmony. The radiance and luminosity of the Mazurkas op 59 and the imposing energy of the Scherzo in B flat minor with the poignant beauty of the central episode that gradually bursts into scintillating brilliance .Exceptionally today there was a short interval before Andrzej played the B minor Sonata . When Andrzej returned he was like a man possessed. One of the miracles of live performance is as Gilels said, like fresh food as opposed to the processed food of recordings . An audience can stimulate a real artist into embarking on a voyage of discovery where even he is taken to places he had never imagined before . Today was just such a case with the opening of the Sonata played with searing authority and dynamic drive . An architectural shape and a timelessness where even the second subject was sung with strength and delicacy. A development episode that was of imposing aristocratic authority . A scherzo of such perfect legato that was like streams of undulating sounds reaching a central episode that was played with deeply felt poignancy . The imposing introduction to the slow movement was even linked to the final chords of the scherzo as the ravishing bel canto was allowed to breathe with delicacy and ravishing beauty, but also a sense of direction and shape that was quite extraordinary . A final movement played with authority and breathtaking mastery as it built with aristocratic control to the final explosion of scintillating brilliance .Even the encore of the waltz in E flat was played with the charm and ‘joie de vivre’ of a pianist from another age . The Golden Age to which Andrzej on this showing today is a true heir.
Andrzej Wiercinski was born in Warsaw in 1995 and graduated with Distinction from Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and in 2020 received a post graduate diploma in piano at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg under the supervision of Professor Pavel Gililov. In June 2024 he graduated from the Royal College of Music in London where he studied with Professor Norma Fisher for the Artist Diploma. In earlier years he was a recipient of the Krystian Zimerman, Yamaha Foundation Scholarships and the F. Wybranczyk Artistic Scholarship of the Sinfonia Varsovia Foundation. He has collaborated with KAWAI and Japan Arts, which invited him to Asia on several tours. Andrzej has won first prize in numerous national and international piano competitions including at the Saint-Priest International Competition in France (2019), First International Music Competition in Vienna (2019), Masters’ Neapolitan Piano Competition (Naples 2018), International Chopin Competition “Golden Ring” in Slovenia (2014), International Chopin Competition in Budapest (2014), and the Polish International Chopin Competition (2015). He has also been a significant prize winner at other prestigious piano competitions, such as the American Ignacy Jan Paderewski International Piano Competition (Los Angeles 2022); Hong Kong International Piano Competition (2019); International Piano Competition in Tbilisi (2017); International Competition “Halina Czerny-Stefanska” in Memoriam (Poznan 2014). Andrzej was a semi-finalist in the International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw (2021).
In recent years Andrzej has given recitals in most European countries as well as in Brazil, Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, and the USA. In January 2022 he performed in Dubai, where he gave 23 Chopin piano recitals during the EXPO. In 2015 Andrzej accompanied the President of Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski, on his visit to Japan and performed a Chopin recital in Tokyo in the presence of Princess Masako Owada.
In the United Kingdom Andrzej has played in Hatchlands Park in the Cobbe Collection Series of piano recitals on historic pianos, for the Chopin Society on the UK and at the Polish Cultural Centre (POSK), as well as in many live streamed recitals at St. Mary’s Perivale.
Andrzej has performed piano concertos with several major orchestras. They include Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto in the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw with the Sinfonia Iuventus in 2022, and Chopin’s F minor Piano Concerto in Darmstadt with the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck Orchestra in 2023.In 2016 the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute released Andrzej’s first CD of solo works by Chopin, Schumann, and Scarlatti. In 2025 he will be recording a further solo CD.
https://www.youtube.com/live/N2XkdoA_M8E?si=5eRYxNw0eeKROYc0Sunday Chopin Recitals in Żelazowa Wola are a series of open-air concerts held at the Birthplace of Fryderyk Chopin from May to September. They continue the long-term tradition initiated by Professor Zbigniew Drzewiecki, an eminent Polish pianist and teacher, in 1954. The recitals are an extraordinary opportunity to listen to performances by outstanding Polish and foreign pianists, professors of world renown, and winners of the International Chopin Competitions. September 14 2025 Dmitri Alexeev Programme: Fryderyk Chopin Nocturnes in F-sharp minor, Op. 48, No. 2 in E major, Op. 62, No. 2 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 1 Impromptu no. 3 in G-flat major, Op. 51 Trois Nouvelles Études, Dbop. 36 No. 1 in F minor No. 2 in A-flat major No. 3 in D-flat major Ferenc Liszt Polish Songs, S. 480 (based on Polish Songs, Op. 74 by F. Chopin) A Maiden’s Wish My Darling The Bridegroom’s Return
Watching Dmitri Alexeev playing in Chopin’s birthplace of Źelazowa Wola it is interesting to reflect on the lost art of Bel Canto. In these days leading up to the Chopin Competition in Warsaw next month, there is a line up of many of the finest young players trying out their programmes and refining their playing ready to go into the arena and fight it out like the gladiators in the Colosseum in Roman times. We bystanders are able to take advantage of this feast of music created by a young emigré who was forced to leave his homeland at the same age as many of these competitors. Chopin was to die at the age of 39,though, and was destined never to see his homeland again but his genius was able to create a new art form for a piano that now had a ‘soul’. It was Chopin with his innovative genius that could create an enormous number of masterpieces that just seemed to pour from his pen with such ease. It is significant that the last work from his pen was a Mazurka showing his deep Polish inheritance that was to fill everything he touched. Chopin was able to bring the art of Bel canto to the piano as no one before or since has been able to do with the same aristocratic beauty.
It is an art that can only be created by listening and creating a balance between the hands that can allow the melody to sing as Chopin himself described to his aristocratic lady pupils in Paris. His music is like a tree firmly planted in the ground but with branches free to move as nature would take them. Watching Alexeev and Argerich there is a very noticeable arch to their hand that is able to delve deeply into each key with a weight that can extract the sound without any hardness.Fingers like limpets that seem to be sucked into each key and as Agosti used to say with fingers of steel but with a wrist of rubber.
Both Alexeev and Argerich in their Indian summers have reached twice the age of Chopin and have discovered the secret of the true art of Bel Canto. A programme today of short pieces by Chopin, never rising above mezzo forte, but Alexeev extracting more meaning from every note than all the enormous forces together of the Berlin Philharmonic with Bruckner! Every note had a life of its own as like a singer there were inflections of poignant meaning that made the music talk – a true song without words. But music can speak louder than words because it is a language that is universal and goes straight from the heart to the heart. I remember Fou Ts’ong telling me of the surprise in Warsaw when he won the much coveted Mazurka prize in one of the first editions of the Chopin competition after the war.A Chinese pianist !! https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/01/13/roberto-prosseda-pays-tribute-to-the-genius-of-chopin-and-the-inspirational-figure-of-fou-tsong/
As he explained the ‘soul’ knows no frontiers or confines and the sentiment in Chinese poetry is the same that is found in the works of Chopin. Ts’ong’s father was an expert in Chinese literature and paid dearly for his intellect in Mao’s Cultural Revolution.
Alexeev chose a very special programme today ( luckily leaving out the Polonaise Fantaisie which must be the most played piece of Chopin these day ). We were able to be deeply touched by three of Chopin’s most beautiful Nocturnes .
The three posthumous studies that show the art of playing with the juxtaposition of rhythm and touch not speed and force. Chopin wrote these three extra studies, after his 24 op 10 and 25, for a proposed treatise on piano technique by Fétis that Chopin bequeathed to Alkan, a pianist he admired above all others, to finish for him.
Alexeev even included the most beautiful of the four Impromptus – an outpouring of bel canto of aristocratic insinuating beauty.
And I am sure it was not by coincidence that he included Chopin songs in the masterly arrangement of Liszt .Not Liszt the showman but Liszt the innovative poet who could extract the subtle beauty from these much neglected songs and bring them back to the piano which was were the soul of Chopin had always lain.
Playing of great authority and mastery at St Brides today. Brahms that filled this beautiful church with sumptuous orchestral sounds as Jiali threw herself into this challenging opening movement of the Second Sonata with fearless abandon . A nobility of Lisztian bravura dissolving into intimate deeply felt poignant beauty before exploding again with breathtaking authority and dynamic drive . It was a pity to be robbed of the other movements but with limited time Jiali wanted to treat us also to the extraordinary sound world of Dutilleux and Stravinsky.
Playing both with a kaleidoscope of sounds and masterly authority with the contrasting episodes of ‘Le jeu des contraires’ played with extraordinary conviction as the chameleonic changes of character were truly enacted with breathtaking mastery.A dynamic drive and technical mastery with its complex sound structure of reverberations of subtle beauty.
Agosti’s ‘Firebird’ sanctioned by the composer ,Stravinsky, in 1928 has long been a war horse of the greatest virtuosi .
Jiali not only conquered the extraordinary technical problems that abound but she imbued it with a range of colours that was truly seductive with a remarkable luminosity created by shadowing of the melodic line with remarkable sensitivity.
The entry of the ‘Firebird’ was indeed magical as it gradually built up to the breathtaking climax that was of searing exhilaration and excitement. Chaminade’s charming ‘Autrefois’ I have not heard since Cherkassky’s inimitable performances .
Jiali played it with the beguiling charm of a world when pianists would play Scarlatti sonatas dressed up by Tausig as a ‘ Pastorale and Capriccio.’ The beauty of the outer frame work was contrasted with the ‘fingerfertigkeit’ of the central episode and it made a refreshing contrasting interlude to the masterworks that it accompanied.
I look forward to hearing the whole Brahms Sonata on the 19th at Regents Hall in Oxford Street .
Brahms in instalments is a very exciting prospect when it is from the hands of a masterly musician
St Bride’s Church is a Church of England in Fleet Street dedicated to Saint Bridget perhaps as early as the 6th century, the building’s most recent incarnation was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672, though Wren’s original building was largely gutted by fire during the London Blitz in 1940 and then reconstructed in a neo-baroque style in the 1950s. Due to its location in Fleet Street, it has a long association with journalists and newspapers. The church is a distinctive sight on London’s skyline and is clearly visible from a number of locations. Since 2012, St Bride’s celebrates usually on the first or second Thursday of November, the “Journalists’ Commemorative Service”. With its steeple standing 226 feet (69m) tall, it is the second highest of all Wren’s church spires, with only St Paul’s itself having a higher pinnacle.The famous Black Friar at the bridge where Calvi – Gods banker – came to a sticky endDutilleux in 2004. Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux 22 January 1916 Angers Maine et Loire 22 May 2013 (aged 97)Paris He was a French composer of late 20th century classical music . Among the leading French composers of his time, his work was rooted in the Impressionistic style of Debussy and Ravel but in an idiosyncratic, individual style. Among his best known works are his early Flute Sonatina and Piano Sonata ; concertos for cello Tout un Monde lointain (“A whole distant world”) and violin L’arbre des songesv(“The tree of dreams”); a string quartet known as Ainsi la Nuit (“Thus the night”); and two symphonies: N. 1 ( 1951) and N 2 Le Double (1959)
Henri Dutilleux (1916–2013) was among the leading French composers of his time. His output was particularly small and he disowned many of the compositions he wrote before his Piano Sonata (1948).
Tous les chemins… mènent à Rome [All roads lead to Rome] (1947)
Bergerie (1947)
Piano Sonata (1947–48):
Allegro con moto
Lied
III Choral et variations
Petit air à dormir debout [Little nonsensical air] (1981)
Blackbird (1950)
Résonances (1965)
Figures de résonances (1970) for two pianos
Trois Préludes (1973–1988):
D’ombre et de silence [In shadow and silence] (1973)
Sur un même accord [On one chord] (1977)
Le jeu des contraires [The game of opposites] (1988)
Brahms in 1889. Hamburg 7 May 1833. Vienna 3 April 1897 (aged 63)
The Piano Sonata No. 2 in F sharp minor op 2, was written in 1852 in Hamburg, Germany, and it was published the year after.Despite being his second published work, it was actually composed before his Sonata n. 1 in C major , but was published later because Brahms recognized the importance of an inaugural publication and felt that the C major sonata was of higher quality. It was sent along with his first sonata to Breitkopf und Härtel with a letter of recommendation from Robert Schumann . Schumann had already praised Brahms enthusiastically, and the sonata shows signs of an effort to impress, with its technical demands and highly dramatic nature. It was dedicated to Clara Schumann .
The sonata is in four movements :
Allegro non troppo, ma energico
Andante con espressione
Scherzo: Allegro – Poco più moderato
Finale: Sostenuto – Allegro non troppo e rubato – Molto sostenuto
Portrait of Cécile Chaminade. 8 August 1857. Paris, France 13 April 1944 (aged 86)Monte Carlo
Chaminade experimented in composition as a young child, composing pieces for her cats, dogs and dolls. In 1869, she performed some of her music for Georges Bizet , who was impressed with her talents. In 1878, Chaminade gave a salon performance under the auspices of her professor, Le Couppey, consisting entirely of her compositions. This performance marked the beginning of her emergence as a composer and became the archetype for the concerts she gave for the rest of her career in which she only performed her own works.
Op. 87 Six Pièces Humoristiques (Enoch) 1897
Réveil. Sous Bois. Inquiétude. Autrefois. Consolation. Norvégienne.
Cécile Chaminade’s (1857-1944) ‘Autrefois’ is the fourth piece in the composer’s collection, 6 Pièces humoristiques Op.87 (Six humorous pieces). Translated as ‘in the past’ or ‘formerly’, ‘Autrefois’ is nostalgic and bittersweet in character. Composed in 1897, the compisition begins with a gentle, ornamented theme, marked by subtle shifts in harmony. This music is then contrasted with a middle section comprised of cascading figures and rich chromatic textures, before the piece then returns to the tranquillity of its opening musical idea. Appoggiaturas (short notes that ‘decorate’ the melody), dynamic contrasts, and chromatic voice-leading – within the work’s formal structure – make this a piece rich with expressive and interpretive potential, typifying Chaminade’s talents with deeply characterful and pianistic writing.
Three numbers from the end of Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird create a convincing sequence on their own. The raucous ‘Infernal dance’ is set in the kingdom of the evil Kashchei, a frantic melée full of wild leaps and syncopations. The monsters that populate the kingdom are forced by the Firebird’s spell to dance until they drop dead. The Firebird, triumphant, dances a lullaby (‘Berceuse’), which serves as her touching farewell to Prince Ivan whom she has aided in his struggles with Kashchei. In the glorious ‘Finale’, Prince Ivan and his consort establish their reign over the now liberated kingdom, in the kind of celebratory chorus we might expect at the close of an operatic epic, but there is a Stravinskian twist: there are seven beats to the bar. The Italian pianist Guido Agosti made this virtuosic transcription in 1928 (eighteen years after the ballet’s premiere), and dedicated the work to the memory of his teacher, Ferruccio Busoni—the latter was one of the great masters of transcription, well known for his imposing piano versions of Bach’s organ works. Agosti learned much from his teacher, but had to apply his skills to the very different music of Stravinsky, in passages that rapidly traverse the whole length of the keyboard, recreating much of the excitement of the original in pianistic terms.
one of his rare public performances in our theatre in Rome recorded and now available on CD and DVD Guido Agosti with my wife Ileana Ghione
Some very fine playing from a pianist I have heard many times over the past years during his studies with Dmitri Alexeev at the R.C.M. A young man trained superbly from a very early age yet seemed to have lost his way in a period when every young person has to find his own direction and the path that he wants to follow. I had heard from my colleague Elena Vorotoko who was on the jury of the Sheepdrove competition in Newbury recently that Nikita had won first prize, as he had evidently now found the direction and reignited a passion for music that has always been deep inside him. Today I heard a young man with something to say and a means to say it with burning intensity and conviction. It was so refreshing to see how the physical movements related so beautifully with the sounds he was making – like a painter in front of his canvas . This was a programme that needs a master pianist to do it justice, with Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit written especially as a test for pianists. Followed by Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata – the second of his trilogy of war sonatas – and where the last movement is a ‘Precipitato’ of relentless dynamic drive. In between was one of Liszt’s Paganini Studies , a true test for any pianist.
Of course with Bach nothing can be hidden and Nikita had nothing to fear as the clarity and precision of his playing was matched by his intellectual and musical understanding. Immediately we were struck by the beauty in the way he approaches the keys with playing of great clarity and a kaleidoscope of sounds . The absolute precision of the fugue was played with very little pedal but with a rhythmic drive of burning intensity. Nikita gave an architectural shape to the various episodes of this youthful Toccata that is bubbling over with ideas and abrupt contrasts as Bach delights in spontaneity and a sense of improvised invention.
Poor Ondine at the beginning was submerged in water but as Nikita entered into this magic world she appeared with a glowing beauty as the water was allowed to shimmer with sparkling brilliance all around her . A breathtaking climax was played with controlled passion and extraordinary mastery with glissandi that seemed so easy, even gliding over the black keys with his left hand fist. There were ravishing waves as Ondine disappeared into the distance under Nikitas sensitive hands. Le Gibet was played with chiselled beauty and purity with a tempo where the relentless tolling of the bell created the atmosphere of the desolate gallows swinging in the distance. Nikita played with a remarkable control of tempo and colouring as the demon Scarbo shot out of the dark. This movement was written by Ravel to out do the difficulty of Balakirev’s Islamey. It is notoriously difficult to maintain the tempo and burning intensity but at the same time play with clarity and a kaleidoscope of colours .Nikita gave a remarkable performance of burning intensity and dynamic drive.
It was the same mastery he brought to Paganini, but here there was not only extraordinary technical brilliance but also a charm and grace that can turn a study into a miniature tone poem.
It was ,though, Prokofiev that truly ignited Nikita’s imagination with a performance of striking contrasts and a kaleidoscope of colour and driving brilliance . The first movement was certainly ‘Inquieto’ with the jagged rhythms and pounding chords contrasting with the beauty of the Andantino. A slow movement that was indeed ‘Caloroso ‘with playing of great beauty and almost improvised freedom with its brooding repetitive menacing murmurs before the consoling beauty of the return of the main melody. The ‘Precipitato’ just shot from Nikita’s fingers with astonishing control .Never allowing the tension to sag and with ‘marcato’ injections of horror thrown in on a terrifying journey that explodes in the final bars and which Nikita played with fearless abandon .
Born into a family of musicians in Donetsk, Ukraine, pianist Nikita Burzanitsa began his musical training at the age of seven with Prof. Nataliya Chesnokova. He studied at the Special Music School for Gifted Children in Donetsk, where his talent quickly drew national attention through multiple first prizes in prestigious competitions, including the Horowitz Debut, Artobolevsky, and Per aspera ad astra.
In 2015, he received a full scholarship to Wells Cathedral School in the UK and subsequently continued his studies at the Royal College of Music in London. There, he completed his Bachelor of Music, Master of Performance, and Artist Diploma, studying under John Byrne and later Dmitri Alexeev. His studies were generously supported by awards and scholarships from the ABRSM, Piano Charitable Trust, Talent Unlimited, and the Drake Calleja Trust.
Nikita has performed extensively throughout Europe, including solo recitals and concerto appearances in the UK, France, Italy, Poland, Belgium, and Kazakhstan. He has played with leading orchestras under conductors such as Nikolay Dyadura, Vladimir Sirenko, and Natalia Ponomarchuk. He is a laureate of numerous competitions, including the BPSE Intercollegiate Piano Competition, the Jazeps Vitols International Piano Competition (Latvia),the Vienna Virtuoso Competition, and in 2025 the Sheepdrove Competition in Newbury
Misha Kaploukhii at St James’s Piccadilly with the stylistic beauty and refined brilliance of Clementi and the supreme fantasy world of Schumann’s magical Davidsbündler .
The crowning glory must go to Liszt’s monumental Norma Fantasy played with fearless abandon and breathtaking beauty. The wonderful thing about actually being in this beautiful church is for the acoustic where usually notey briliiance is transformed into streams of wonderful sounds . Here was a whole orchestra for Liszt’s operatic fantasy and a refined tonal palette for Clementi. Heartrending beauty for the initimate dream world of Eusebius and the impish good humour of Florestan.
I doubt that Schumann’s midnight chimes have even been struck so poignantly ‘ as quite superfluously Eusebius remarked as follows: but all the time great bliss spoke from his eyes.”
Opening with Clementi he made us all fall in love instantly with this much neglected composer, so often used as torture for aspiring young pianists. Clementi was not only a superb technician with playing and constructing pianos, but he was also a master composer as Misha revealed today. Misha unraveled the secrets behind the notes with an ‘Allegro’ that was truly ‘con espressione.’ From the first notes, lovingly shaped with a refined tonal palette that could reveal a sense of longing and nostalgia within the very sounds that resounded around this most beautiful of churches. Subtle phrasing of great delicacy and poignant beauty. It was the same beauty that he brought to the haunting ‘Lento e patetico’ with a cantabile of weight where the searing intensity of the melodic line was shared with the extraordinary web of accompaniment. An expressiveness that was of sublime simplicity and that from Misha’s sensitive hands could speak with rare beauty and intensity. There was a scintillating brilliance to the ‘Presto’ ,but even here he brought an extraordinary shape and colour to the Mendelssohnian streams of notes. There were ornaments that sprang from his well oiled fingers like springs glistening in this perpetuum mobile of silvery sounds. A beguiling ‘joie de vivre’ of infectious rhythmic elan but always of such rich fantasy and expressive intensity.
Clementi wrote over 100 Sonatas and if this is an example ,as Misha showed us today, please play on and on !
Davidsbündler is one of Schumann’s most beautiful creations and found in Misha an ideal interpreter, creating a sound world that I have rarely experienced in the concert hall. This was a memorable experience where beauty and brilliance were always balanced with poetic intensity and ravishing sounds. A technical mastery that one was not aware of, such was the musical meaning he gave to even the most treacherous passages. The opening was played with a clarity that showed his mastery of the pedal and allowed him to find a beguiling insinuating opening where joy and sorrow are truly mingled. Tenderness and expressiveness mixed with impish good humour and passion. All played with a subtle freedom that sounded almost like an improvisation, as the music must have been when it was still wet on the page. All this was revealed in the first six of these eighteen tone poems. Technical mastery too as the cross rhythms of the sixth passed unnoticed as they just added to the poetic intensity. The seventh was a true reawakening as it slowly took wing with the intensity of the poetic weight that Misha infused into these simple notes. Fleeting lightness , ‘Frisch ‘ indeed, as it burst into a passionate discourse as: ‘Florestan’s lips quivered painfully ‘. There was Brahmsian grandeur too, as the ‘ballade’ of number ten filled every corner of the church with sumptuous full sounds to be experienced again in ‘Wild und lustig’ ,magically dissolving into a chorale of subtle Philadelphian orchestral richness. One of Schumann’s most beautiful creations is the fourteenth and Misha played it with a wonderful sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to pass so simply from one voice to another with even the accompaniment allowed to weave its magic spell. Answered by imperious interruptions and searing romantic intensity before the fidgety meanderings of chattering voices that are interrupted by a magical change of key over a single F sharp. ‘As if from a distance’ we were treated to a vision of loveliness that with this misty acoustic and Misha poetic imagination held us spell bound as we were surrounded by such beauty. Coming to an end only to be reawakened from B minor suddenly to find ourselves in a whispered C major and a ‘Valse de l’adieu’ with twelve chimes in the bass as this dream dissolves ‘as such bliss could be seen in Eusebius’s eyes.’
Such poetic utterances and a performance that I have rarely heard played with such beauty and understanding as today. Something to truly cherish and as Mitsuko Uchida says will grow ever more beautiful in one’s mind as time passes and one relives such a magic moment.
Liszt’s mighty Norma Fantasy opened with dramatic gestures as Misha had now entered the world of Grand Opera,with its rhetorical outpouring of heart rending beauty and breathtaking virtuosity. Liszt could condense this opera into just fifteen minutes and show us every detail of the opera, even correcting the order in which Bellini had written the arias. Misha brought the breathing of a Callas to the great operatic arias that unfolded with such mastery from Misha’s hands. Octaves that were played with the ease that most would play single notes. But these were not just octaves they were waves of sound that took us into realms of the three handed mastery that Liszt and Thalberg could reveal on a piano that now had a ‘soul’ .What wonders there were as Misha struck the timpani with such beguiling insinuation. ‘Arpeggiandi con grandezza’ I have never heard played with such ease as the melodic line was embellished by the devil himself. Breathtaking is the only way one could describe the ‘Presto con Furia’ with a technical mastery that was phenomenal .A relentless drive that I have only heard once before in the concert hall and that was from Gilels in the Spanish Rhapsody. The thrill of live performance is the thrill of the circus entertainer as we sit on the edge of our seats enthralled as we wonder whether he will fall off the high wire or get to the other side triumphantly in one piece !
A quite memorable recital from a pianist who the world awaits with baited breath.
He has recently completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal College of Music and is an ABRSM award holder generously supported by the Eileen Rowe Trust, Talent Unlimited Charity, The Keyboard Charitable Trust and The Robert Turnbull Foundation. He was a Drake Calleja Trust scholar, 2023/4 and is now studying for a Master of Performance with Professor Ian Jones.
Misha is thrilled to be chosen as one of the recipients of the prestigious LSO Conservatoire Scholarships, 2024/5 which will include support and professional development along with coaching and performance opportunities. His recent prizes include RCM Concerto Competition, International Ettlingen Piano Competition, Hopkinson Gold Medal at the Chappell Medal Competition and the 1st and Audience prizes at the 2024 Sheepdrove Piano Competition.
Misha has gained inspiration from lessons and masterclasses with musicians such as Claudio Martínez Mehner, Dmitri Bashkirov, Jerome Lowenthal, Dinara Klinton, Konstantin Lifschitz, Dame Imogen Cooper. He was a participant at the Oxford Piano Festival in 2024, where he was coached by Stephen Kovacevich, Barry Douglas and Kathryn Stott.
His performances with orchestras in UK include debuts in Cadogan Hall playing Rachmaninov’s 1st Concerto with YMSO and James Blair, Liszt’s 2nd Concerto with RCM Symphony orchestra with Adrian Partington and very recently, Rachmaninov’s 4th Concerto performed with the Albion Orchestra.
He has performed in the UK, Italy and France at the venues including St Mary’s Perivale, Razumovsky Recital Hall, Leighton House, Sala dei Notari and Giardini La Mortella with a wide range of solo and chamber repertoire. In 2023 Misha was invited to play Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances arranged for solo piano at the prestigious Budleigh Literary Festival as a part of Fiona Maddocks conversation about her book “Rachmaninoff in Exile”. He gave recitals for William Walton Foundation in Ischia and recently was invited to play Young Master recital and a chamber recital with the soloists of Umbria Ensemble at the Perugia Music Festival.
Misha’s engagements have included solo recitals in Razumovsky Recital Hall, St Mary Le Strand, 1901 Arts Club, British Institute in Florence and Steinway Hall in Milan. He has performed Chopin F minor Concerto in the National Liberal Club and Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto in Cadogan Hall with James Blair.
1794 portrait. 23 January 1752 Rome – 10 March 1832 Evesham , Worcestershire, England
Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi (23 January 1752 – 10 March 1832) was an Italian and British composer,virtuopso 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 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”. Clementi composed almost 110 piano sonatas . Some of the earlier and easier ones were later classified as sonatinas after the success of his Sonatinas Op. 36.
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.
The F sharp minor Sonata—usually identified as Op 26 No 2 but in fact published originally by Dale of London as the fifth of ‘Six Sonatas for the Piano Forte; dedicated to Mrs Meyrick … Opera 25’ (entered Stationers’ Hall, 8 June 1790)—is an example of what Shedlock in 1895 defined as that class of Clementi work where ‘his heart and soul were engaged’ to the full. The tenor of its first movement is a mixture of dolce expression, capricious fingerwork, off-beat sforzando accents, teasing articulation (the slurs and dots tell in an orchestral way), and tonal surprise The middle slow movement is in B minor, a poignantly felt song, potently textured and voiced, dramatic in its contrasts of soft and loud, of minorial pathos and sweet maggiore release, of dark diminished-seventh tension, of poetically meaningful ornamentation. The 3/8 Presto finale is an imaginatively inventive cameo of Scarlattian brilliance and Mendelssohnian fleetness, of glittering thirds and equally elfin and stormy octaves. Historically, such music is Classical. Temperamentally, it is Romantic.
Franz Liszt 22 October 1811 Doborján, Austrian Empire. 31 July 1886 (aged 74)Bayreuth
During the 1800s opera had a lot of appeal to audiences. From big dramatic storylines to emotional arias, opera was in its prime during this century. Although opera was perceived to have a glamorous aura, it was actually quite inaccessible for a large part of the public due to price and cultural differences. Therefore it is not surprising that many pianists sought to gain more audiences by composing, arranging and performing their own operatic fantasies.
Franz Liszt’s career gained proper traction after he started performing his bravura transcriptions. These were ideal outlets for pianists to show off their virtuosity and prowess over the instrument. On the other hand, they were also ideal for audiences as they were able to access those iconic operatic melodies, just in a slightly smaller and diluted format.Liszt undertook the challenge of diluting Bellini’s opera Norma into a 15 minute solo piano work in 1841. The work easily equals the dramatic impact of the original opera through Liszt’s dynamic and highly virtuosic writing. No less than seven arias dominate Liszt’s transcription of Norma which are threaded together to create a nearly continuous stream of music.
The title role of Norma is often said to be one of the hardest roles for a soprano to sing, and this adds to the drama and intensity of the music. A brief summary of the opera :
“Norma, a priestess facing battle against the Romans, secretly falls in love with a Roman commander, and together they have two illegitimate children. When he falls for another woman, she reveals the children to her people and accepts the penalty of death. The closing scenes and much of the concert fantasy reveal Norma begging her father to take care of the children and her lover admitting he was wrong.”The complex music represents the tragedy woven into this story, which is perhaps why Liszt made the effort to transfer the challenges of this score into a piano fantasy. With cascading arpeggios, massive interval changes and dynamic changes at every turn, Réminiscenes is a true test of technical ability. The score is saturated with huge chordal movement, fast-paced cadenza sequences and a raffle of different tempo markings.
As the Liszt expert Leslie Howard states : ‘The Norma Fantasy stands next to that on Don Giovanni for its ability to capture the essence of the operatic drama in a new structure. It is probably for dramatic reasons that Liszt ignored the famous aria ‘Casta Diva’ (which Thalberg used as the basis for his fantasy) but instead chose no fewer than seven other themes for his gloriously elaborate work—a triumph of understanding not just of Bellini’s masterpiece, but of practically all the sound possibilities of the piano in Romantic literature.’
Robert Schumann, c. 1839 Born 8 June 1810 Zwickau ,Saxony Died 29 July 1856 (aged 46) Bonn
Robert Schumann’s early piano works were substantially influenced by his relationship with Clara Wieck . On September 5, 1839, Schumann wrote to his former professor: “She was practically my sole motivation for writing the Davidsbündlertänze, the Concerto, the Sonata and the Novelettes .” They are an expression of his passionate love, anxieties, longings, visions, dreams and fantasies.
First page the autograph of “Davidsbündlertänze”, Op. 6.
The theme of the Davidsbündlertänze is based on a mazurka by Clara Wieck. The intimate character pieces are his most personal work. In 1838, Schumann told Clara that the Dances contained “many wedding thoughts” and that “the story is an entire Polterabend (German wedding eve party, during which old crockery is smashed to bring good luck)”.
The pieces are not true dances , but characteristic pieces, musical dialogues about contemporary music between Schumann’s characters Florestan and Eusebius. These respectively represent the impetuous and the lyrical, poetic sides of Schumann’s nature. Each piece is ascribed to one or both of them. Their names follow the first piece and the appropriate initial or initials follow each of the others except the sixteenth (which leads directly into the seventeenth, the ascription for which applies to both) and the ninth and eighteenth, which are respectively preceded by the following remarks: “Here Florestan made an end, and his lips quivered painfully”, and “Quite superfluously Eusebius remarked as follows: but all the time great bliss spoke from his eyes.” In the second edition of the work, Schumann removed these ascriptions and remarks and the Tänze from the title, as well as making various alterations, including the addition of some repeats. The first edition is generally favored, though some readings from the second are often used. The suite ends with the striking of twelve low Cs to signify the coming of midnight. The first edition is preceded by the following epigraph:
Alter Spruch In all und jeder Zeit Verknüpft sich Lust und Leid: Bleibt fromm in Lust und seid Dem Leid mit Mut bereit
Old saying In each and every age joy and sorrow are mingled: Remain pious in joy, and be ready for sorrow with courage.
There are 18 sequences :
Lebhaft: Lively (Vivace), G major, Florestan and Eusebius;
Innig: Intimately (Con intimo sentimento), B minor, Eusebius;
Etwas hahnbüchen: Somewhat clumsily (Un poco impetuoso) (1st edition), Mit Humor: With humor (Con umore) (2nd edition), G major, Florestan (hahnbüchen, now usually hanenbüchen or hagebüchen, is an untranslatable colloquialism roughly meaning “coarse” or “clumsy”. Ernest Hutchinson translated it as “cockeyed” in his book The Literature of the Piano.);
Ungeduldig: Impatiently (Con impazienza), B minor, Florestan;
Einfach: Simply (Semplice), D major, Eusebius;
Sehr rasch und in sich hinein: Very quickly and inwardly (Molto vivo, con intimo fervore) (1st edition), Sehr rasch: Very quickly (Molto vivo) (2nd edition), D minor, Florestan;
Nicht schnell mit äußerst starker Empfindung: Not fast, with very great feeling (Non presto profondamente espressivo) (1st edition), Nicht schnell: Not fast (Non presto) (2nd edition), G minor, Eusebius;
Frisch: Freshly (Con freschezza), C minor, Florestan;
No tempo indication (metronome mark of ♩ = 126) (1st edition), Lebhaft: Lively (Vivace) (2nd edition), C major, Florestan;
Balladenmäßig sehr rasch: Balladically very fast (Alla ballata molto vivo) (1st edition), (“Sehr” and “Molto” capitalized in 2nd edition), D minor (ends major), Florestan;
Einfach: Simply (Semplice), B minor–D major, Eusebius;
Mit Humor: With humor (Con umore), B minor–E minor and major, Florestan;
Wild und lustig: Wildly and merrily (Selvaggio e gaio), B minor and major, Florestan and Eusebius;
Zart und singend: Tenderly and singing (Dolce e cantando), E♭ major, Eusebius;
Frisch: Freshly (Con freschezza), B♭ major – Etwas bewegter: With agitation (poco piu mosso), E♭ major with a return to the opening section (with the option to go round the piece once more), Florestan and Eusebius;
Mit gutem Humor: With good humor (Con buon umore) (in 2nd edition, “Con umore”), G major – Etwas langsamer: A little slower (Un poco più lento), B minor; leading without a break into
Wie aus der Ferne: As if from afar (Come da lontano), B major and minor (including a full reprise of No. 2), Florestan and Eusebius; and finally,
Nicht schnell: Not fast (Non presto), C major, Eusebius.
Thomas Luke is not only a pianist but also an accomplished composer, and what shines through all his work is the absolute clarity of his intelligent musicianship. I first heard him eighteen months ago in the final round of the Chappell Gold Medal at the RCM which was being judged by the ever eclectic Jed Distler. We had both noticed the clarity of his playing as I had when he played the Saint Saens second concerto in Lang Lang’s masterclass a year earlier. Young winner of the BBC Competition he has now acquired an authority from working over these past two years with Alim Beisembayev and Vanessa Latarche. We now see a young man who knows what he wants to say and has the means to express it, not only in music but also in words.
His two pieces that were on today’s programme are part of a new CD of his own composition to be imminently released. His words revealed a very deep emotional understanding and poetic reasoning as was mirrored by his striking multi coloured shirt! His two short piano works were followed by a third as a much requested encore. They revealed a music language of mellifluous beauty and ingenious pianistic understanding as the clarity of his playing showed also the direct emotional message that his music carries,with playing of glowing beauty. A sense of balance but above all a chiselled mellifluous beauty of his own voice speaking with such conviction and authority.
To Beethoven he not only brought a clarity but also a rhythmic intensity that was like a wave entering with simple flowing sounds interrupted by Beethoven’s demanding personality and irascible temperament. But in this and it’s twin op 110 Beethoven had found a pastoral landscape of etherial beauty as his temperament was gradually calmed and reassured as he saw the light that awaited him at the end of a long and turbulent tunnel. A light that he resolved in many ways with his expansion of the variation form. In fact his last major work was the Diabelli variations but anticipated by the final movement of these two final sonatas op 109 and 111. Op 110 was more of a joyous acceptance whereas the theme and variations of its twins op 109 and op 111 was of poignant emotional meaning ending in a whisper of deep feeling . Thomas allowed the music to pour from his crystalline fingers with a fluidity as the first movement was like a stream entering and exiting with the simple beauty of a pastoral landscape. The brusque ‘Prestissimo’ was played with burning intensity and brilliance and was remarkable for his absolute fidelity to the score. Dynamic contrasts but above all an architectural understanding that gave such strength to this irascible contrasting movement. It was, though, the ‘Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo’ that allowed Thomas’s playing to glow with poignant meaning. The theme played with simple string quartet texture where each strand was a voice of expressive beauty as the first variation was played with simplicity and intensity. He allowed the ‘leggiermente’ to speak for itself with a gentle forward movement of whispered beauty. The ‘Allegro vivace’ sprang from his well oiled fingers with masterly control and rhythmic drive dissolving so naturally into the mellifluous weavings of the fourth variation. ‘Piacevole’ Beethoven writes and it was this simple beauty that Thomas was able to convey with such clarity and musical intelligence. The fifth and sixth variations were played with a mastery and sense of balance from the ‘Allegro ma non troppo’ of almost military order to the disarming beauty and gradual disintegration and rebirth of the opening theme .’Cantabile’ is all Beethoven writes for this wondrous final variation and it was exactly this that Thomas realised. Trills that were merely vibrations as the theme is envisaged on high before magically returning to earth for the ending of this wondrous story, as it had begun. Thomas played with a purity and scrupulous understanding of Beethoven’s surprisingly meticulous indications exactly following in his mentor, Alim Beisembayev’s masterly footsteps.
The three Brahms Intermezzi were played with exquisite beauty from the gentle lyricism of the E flat through the beguiling ravishing beauty of the B flat minor to the haunting mystery of the C sharp minor. These are works that reveal their deep meaning only to the greatest of musicians who can bring a clarity to the musical line whilst being immersed in sounds of extraordinary colour and subtlety.
Scriabin’s fifth Sonata shot from Thomas’s hands with unexpected vigour and explosive drive. Contrasting with the glowing simplicity of Scriabin’s magical sound world as Thomas built up the tension with masterly control and breathtaking brilliance. Reaching the star, which shone with brilliance and overwhelming passion as it was swept away as it had begun on an impatient glissando of sounds across the entire keyboard (which often reminds me of Beethoven’s impatience in op 106 Scherzo.)
Thomas Luke came to national attention after winning the keyboard category of BBC Young Musician 2020. Driven by a desire for discovery and authentic human connection, he moves freely between traditional concert repertoire, his own compositions, and expansive multi-piano arrangements. His performances have featured on national radio and television, and have taken him to stages worldwide, including London’s Wigmore Hall, Leipzig’s Weißes Haus, the Xiamen International Conference Centre Concert Hall and the Van Cliburn Concert Hall in Fort Worth.
Hailed as a “trailblazer” by Steinway & Sons, Thomas made history by performing the inaugural Steinway SpirioCast between two UK institutions. He was recently awarded the Prix Monti at the 2025 Piano Campus International Competition and has been recognised by the Vienna International Music Competition for his “outstanding talent, a remarkable musicality and a very accomplished technique.” In June 2024, he was selected as one of just 24 Young Artists globally to attend the PianoTexas International Festival, and has participated in lessons and masterclasses with Lang Lang, Arie Vardi and Stephen Kovacevich.
In 2024, he launched Many Pianos – a series of bold, layered arrangements for four or more pianos, blending digital and acoustic elements. His first video, a cover of Jacob Collier’s “Little Blue”, was recognised by Collier himself and has since reached thousands of listeners online. Thomas’ next major release, an album of original music, is due in early 2026.
Born on the Isle of Wight, Thomas’ musical spark was lit in the room under his grandparents’ stairs, playing keyboard games on the organ with his grandfather. He began piano lessons with Judith Harvey aged four, continuing studies with Eleanor Hodgkinson at the Junior Royal Academy of Music. He now studies with Vanessa Latarche at the Royal College of Music as the Margaret Mount Scholar.
The National Liberal Club taken by siege with Jed Distler and Cristian Sandrin as they recount the harrowing tale of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony.
A Symphony on its first performance in 1942 playing to a population starved and encircled by Hitler. A story of defiance and courage and a performance in the Grand Philharmonic Hall also broadcast live to the whole of the USSR , via Radio Leningrad, that was met by applause and tears of joy.
Two remarkable musicians on one piano mesmerised a packed hall with their mastery and total conviction of a story that must never be forgotten. Playing as one for 75 minutes ,delving deep and finding subtle hidden secrets in the score in this original version for four hands, secrets that are not always apparent with the potency of a full symphony orchestra .
Tessa Uys ,whose very distinguished partnership with Ben Shoeman I have reviewed many times, walked all the way from Camden, due to the ‘Tube ‘ strike, to listen to her colleagues play this monumental work
Symphony No. 7 in C major, op. 60, nicknamed the Leningrad Symphony, was begun in Leningrad, completed in the city of Samara (then known as Kuybyshev) in December 1941, and premiered in that city on March 5, 1942. At first dedicated to Lenin , it was eventually submitted in honour of the besieged city of Leningrad , where it was first played under dire circumstances on August 9, 1942, nearly a year into the siege by German forces.
The performance was broadcast by loudspeaker throughout the city and to the German forces in a show of resilience and defiance. The Leningrad soon became popular in both the Soviet Union and the West as a symbol of resistance to fascism and totalitarianism, thanks in part to the composer’s microfilming of the score in Samara and its clandestine delivery, via Tehran and Cairo, to New York , where Toscanini conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a broadcast performance on July 19,1942, and Time magazine placed Shostakovich on its cover. That popularity faded somewhat after 1945, but the work is still regarded as a major musical testament to the 27 million Soviet people who lost their lives in World War II , and it is often played at Leningrad Cemetery, where half a million victims of the 900-day Siege of Leningrad are buried. Shostakovich at first gave the four movements titles”War”, “Reminiscence”, “Home Expanses”, and “Victory”—but he soon withdrew these and left the movements with their tempo markings alone.
Shostakovich said : “I think slowly but I write fast.” In practice this meant that Shostakovich usually had a work completed in his head before he began writing it down. Soviet music critic Lev Lebedinsky, a friend of the composer’s for years, confirmed after the dawn of glasnost under Mikhail Gorbachev that Shostakovich had conceived the Seventh Symphony before Hitler invaded Russia:
The famous theme in the first movement Shostakovich had first as the Stalin theme (which close friends of the composer knew). Right after the war started, the composer called it the anti-Hitler theme. Later Shostakovich referred to that “German” theme as the “theme of evil,” which was absolutely true, since the theme was just as much anti-Hitler as it was anti-Stalin, even though the world music community fixed on only the first of the two definitions.
Another important witness was the daughter-in-law of Maxim Litvinov , the man who served as Soviet foreign minister before the war, then was dismissed by Stalin. She heard Shostakovich play the Seventh Symphony on the piano in a private home during the war. The guests later discussed the music:
And then Shostakovich said meditatively: of course, it’s about fascism, but music, real music is never literally tied to a theme. Fascism is not simply National Socialism, and this is music about terror, slavery, and oppression of the spirit. Later, when Shostakovich got used to me and came to trust me, he said openly that the Seventh (and the Fifth as well) was not only about fascism but about our country and generally about all tyranny and totalitarianism.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 