I have heard Diana many times over the past year as she prepared for the Chopin Competition, having been selected from hundreds of applicants to play in Warsaw. Her performances of Chopin were much admired and noticed worldwide, but today she chose a more classical repertoire with Bach and Beethoven accompanied by a contemporary work and a rare concert piece by Granados. It is rare these days to hear just one Prelude and Fugue in concert and it was refreshing to hear her play the G minor Book 1 with beauty and luminosity. Her natural musicianship allowing the music to unfold with clarity and the poignant weight of refined and respectful authority. What wonders these Preludes and Fugues are when played as Diana did today with the contrast of the fugue springing to life with rhythmic energy outlining it’s well defined architectural shape.
Beethoven’s Sonata op 2 n. 3 is the first of the Sonatas that show how the pupil can learn from his mentor and allow a seed to grow and find a new and adventurous course. In this sonata there are still the four movements of the model Sonata form but they are transformed into something much larger and bolder. The slow movement of this op 2 n. 3 and op 7 and op 10 n. 3 point in the direction that Haydn might well have followed but that his pupil was able to do with his genius of rebellious originality. Diana played the opening with delicacy and crystal clarity where the very exposed double thirds were played with grace and charm. Her awareness of the harmonic progressions gave great strength and depth to her playing. Beethoven’s ferocious outbursts tempered with the mellifluous beauty of his melodic line but always with the harmonic undercurrent moving the music inexorably forward. The ‘Adagio’ was where the rests became so poignant as a bridge between whispered gasps of a mature beauty way beyond Beethoven’s twenty-five years of age. A depth and profundity that mark out his genius already and which Diana played with aristocratic nobility and restraint. Deep bass notes were played with a depth of full rich sound, never hard or ungrateful, but a continuation of the ravishing beauty that she allowed to unfold with refreshing simplicity. She brought a remarkable lightness and clarity to the ‘Scherzo’ with washes of sound in the Trio played with masterly musicianship and technical ease. The ‘Allegro assai’ was where Diana combined mastery and style with lightness and shape. A palette of sounds where difficulties were thrown off with ease as she delved deeply into the musical content giving a ‘joie de vivre’ that Papà Haydn would certainly have approved of.
The Sonata n. 3 by Šimon-Čarli Botica was given a courageous performance by Diana especially as the composer was actually present in the church. She brought the same luminosity and clarity to the score as she had for the two B’s. It was refreshing to hear a new work played with such obvious authority and she even gave a brief spoken introduction to a work of ‘Flashes and Glimpses’ that may still have been wet on the page. It was like a refreshing ‘sorbet’ changing the classical atmosphere of the main course before the appetising and succulent sweet.
And what a joy it was to listen to the Granados : ‘Allegro de Concierto’ that is a rare delight in the concert hall, just as is Chopin’s ‘Allegro de concert’.Is it just a coincidence that they share the same opus number I wonder ? Diana enjoying every minute of her seemingly improvised freedom. A work of unashamed virtuosity with a sumptuous sense of style with its almost Hollywoodian outpouring of luscious melodic effusions. I have heard this work on a few rare occasions but I never remember it as being so effective as today, where Diana’s sense of balance and innate musicianship allowed her to shape even this showpiece with intelligence, beauty and style.
Passionate about classical music from her earliest age, it is on stage that Diana Cooper attains artistic fulfilment.
Winner of numerous awards including 1st Prize at the Brest Chopin Competition, 1st Prize at the Halina Czerny-Stefanská International Competition in Poznan (Poland), 1st Prize at the Concurso Internacional de Piano de Vigo (Spain), and laureate of the Fondation de la Banque Populaire, Diana Cooper has been invited to perform in various venues and festivals in France and abroad, including the Nohant Chopin Festival, the Festival Chopin à Paris, the Salle Cortot, the Polish Embassy in Paris, the Ysaye Festival in Belgium, the Palacio de Congresos in Huesca, Spain, the Hrvatski dom Split in Croatia, the Kielce Filharmonia in Poland…
In 2023, she was selected to take part in the project Un été en France avec Gautier Capuçon, for which she perfomed as a soloist and in chamber music.
She was invited in 2018 to take part in the radio program Générations Jeunes Interprètes on France Musique and, in 2023, performed as a trio in the television programme Fauteuils d’orchestre, broadcast on France 5.
Her activity has been enriched by solo appearances with the Orchestre Symphonique du Sud Ouest in Chopin’s 1st Concerto, the Orchestre Appassionatoin Mozart’s 20th concerto, and the Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire de Paris in Schumann’s concerto, performed in 2023 at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
Born in France, she began studying piano at the Tarbes Conservatoire with Jean-Paul Cristille, gave her first solo recital at 9 and performed at 14 with orchestra Mozart’s Concerto n°21 in France and Spain. She was unanimously admitted at the age of 16 to the Paris Conservatoire to study with Jean-François Heisser and Marie-Josèphe Jude and graduated with a master’s degree five years later. She continued her studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique where she was taught by the renowned professor Rena Schereshevskaya for three years. In 2022, she was selected to join the new season of the Académie Musicale Philippe Jaroussky, and perfected her skills there with Cédric Thiberghien. In parralel, she was admitted the same year to the Paris Conservatoire in an Artist Diploma course. She is currently studying at the Royal College of Music in London where she has been admitted to pursue a second Artist Diploma course, in Norma Fisher’s class. She is a laureate of the Kathleen Trust and has recently joined the Talent Unlimited charity offering concerts in London for young talented musicians.
Following her pre-selection in 2021 for the prestigious Chopin Competition in Warsaw, she was invited the following summers by Philippe Giusiano to take part in masterclasses in Katowice as well as concerts at the Chopin Manor in Duszniki, organized by the Chopin Foundation.
Diana has recently recorded her first CD, featuring works by Haydn, Chopin and Ravel, after winning in 2022 the 1st Prize in the Concours d’aide aux Jeunes Artistes organized by the Festival du Vexin.
Presented in association with Talent Unlimited.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 