There was magic in the air as Manzù’s imposing sculptures suddenly came to life with the sound of music .
Thanks to the Domus Danae festival, Alfredo Conte, an aspiring young multi celebrated pianist, could fill this ex studio of Manzù with works by Bach, Schumann, Scriabin and Rota.
Beginning and ending with a fantasy as the world of Manzù, now transformed into a museum, was filled with noble sounds that much suited the genial sculptures that fill this vast space in Ardea, just thirty kilometres south of the eternal city .
Alfredo had flown in especially from London where he is perfecting his studies at the Guildhall with Ronan o’Hora. On the 13th March he will give his final recital at the S. Cecilia Conservatory in Rome where he had completed his studies with the late Prof.ssa Maura Pansini https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/11/08/professor-maura-pansini-r-i-p-renowned-advocate-of-the-neapolitan-school-of-piano-playing/
His final recital in her absence is being mentored by Prof. Pesce, who was present today to hear their young prodigy give his first performance of Scriabin’s Fantasy Sonata. A performance full of ‘viola’ coloured sounds, which was the colour that the composer had chosen for G sharp minor from his palette of colours that each key inspired in his own fantasmagorical sound world .
A work much inspired by the music of Chopin whose 216th birthday it would have been today.
A programme that had begun with the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue by Bach, that Alfredo played with the improvised Fantasy realised by Busoni. Alfredo played with aristocratic authority, as like the statues that surrounded us, there was an inner strength to the disarming simplicity of the architectural line. This was Busoni not the composer of transcriptions of the great organ works or the Chaconne for solo violin for which Bach/Busoni signifies almost shared responsibility. This was Busoni who with great respect for the genius of Bach could realise the improvised chordal progressions that Bach would have expected from the kappellmeisters of his day. An elaboration that Guido Agosti, whose total respect for the composers wishes was much respected and revered, also admired this edition as being a faithful realisation of Bach’s figured bass. Alfredo played it with fluidity and clarity as the shifting harmonies were interrupted by imposing recitativi before the simple lone voice of the Fugue emerged. Bach’s knotty twine was allowed to unwind with a dynamic drive as the voices entered one by one leading to the final imposing climax and simple majestic ending.
The eighteen scenes that make up Schumann’s ‘Davidsbündlertänze’ were played with great strength, as Alfredo showed us the architectural line of this early pre-nuptual work op 6 .It was to lead to a continuous outpouring of masterpieces as Schumann found the marital bliss with Clara Wieck that had been denied them by her father, who did not want his child prodigy daughter to be distracted. She bore her husband,Robert, eight children but also became the first woman virtuoso of her age. Her husband who was also a pupil of her father, Friedrich Wieck, had to abandon a performing career having damaged his fingers trying to strengthen them with a mechanical aid! They were a formidable team until Robert’s duel artistic personality of Florestan and Eusebius was to lead to an asylum and death at only 46 , having tried to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine . Alfredo played this difficult work with great understanding and considerable technical mastery but more of Florestan than Eusebius. A more horizontal approach would have allowed the slower episodes to be inbued with more fluidity and natural freedom. However his architectural understanding of a work made up of eighteen fragments showed his intelligence and musicianship as he managed to unite them into one unified whole, from the capricious, fleetingly elusive opening, to the striking of midnight as the final dance turns into a dream. The fourteenth dance is one of the most beautiful melodic outpourings that Schumann, the poet, was to write and pointed to the Lieder that he was to pen immediately after he found marital bliss. Alfredo played it with a glowing radiance and poetic understanding allowing an oasis of Eusebian beauty to beguile us in-between the impish antics and passionate outbursts of Florestan.
The Scriabin Fantasy Sonata is a new addition to Alfredo’s repertoire, and it was here that he caressed the keys and found a fluidity and kaleidoscope of colours that had eluded him in Schumann. A beautiful opening played with great sensitivity where a web of glistening sounds was born, as the melodic line was allowed to shine in its midst with radiance and glowing beauty. A dynamic drive to the second movement was played with passionate intensity as it burst into a flame of melodic outpouring of unashamed romantic ardour which Alfredo played with masterly control and exhilarating brilliance.
An ovation from an audience that filled every corner of this magnificent space allowed Alfredo a moment of peace and calm to share with us a final delicate Prelude by Nino Rota
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 