Mozart reigns in Twickenham with Cristian Sandrin and the English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble.
Three keyboard concerti that Ben Westlake recalls being inspired as a teenager by Barenboim playing them with the ECO. All best wishes to Daniel Barenboim whose unbelievable 83rd birthday is on the 15th.
I remember a few years later Murray Perahia conducting from the keyboard with the ECO . Cristian confides that his love for music was inspired as a child in Romania by Cristian Zacharias conducting his Lausanne Orchestra from the keyboard .
My greatest memory was of Fou Ts’ong playing with Hugh McGuire’s Cremona quartet the three concerti K 313/314/315 .
It was years later that Ts’ong was to rehearse the piano quartets in Rome ready for a tour with musicians from Taiwan . I had the video camera recording every minute and Ts’ong was thrilled to know it as he was particularly inspired and he showed it to many people proud that a sixty year old could arrive at such childhood simplicity .
We were treated today to just this elusive simplicity but with technical mastery of a Mozart that can be too easy for children but far too difficult for adults .
Cristian in an inspired evening of music making allowed the crystalline beauty of Mozart to fill this beautiful wooden filled church with sounds of radiance and purity. A Seiler piano that I doubt has ever been treated to such a night out like this before!
This beautiful church on the riverside in Twickenham has the same natural resonance as the historic Holywell Music Room in Oxford where Mozart himself had performed and where these players will perform at the end of the month .
In the meantime the Kettner Concerts of which Cristian and the unstoppable Ben Westlake are the tireless artistic directors will bring the concert to their historic seat in the National Liberal Club on the 21st . Sold out of course but a trip to Oxford to hear the music of Mozart as he would have heard it would be a real treat for all music lovers. Holywell Music Room Oxford on 28th November at 19h tickets via www. kettnerconcerts.co.uk
Cristian performing without the score was able to move with the improvised freedom with which these marvels were born. Cristian is 32 just a few years younger than the genius who was destined to die at the age of only 35. He hails from the pedigree bequeathed to him by his father the distinguished Romanian pianist Sandu Sandrin to whose memory his concerts are always dedicated.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 