Day 1 at Chethams for the second week in their silver jubilee year with Jeremy Menuhin and Mookie Lee-Menuhin showing us that two concert pianos can speak with one voice. An accumulation of whispered sounds of glowing radiance and beauty. Two musicians at the helm of two powerful instruments listening to each other and seducing rather than overwhelming with works by Menuhin, Schubert and Brahms
Jeremy I remember playing on the television with his uncle Louis Kentner and also playing with his father at the helm of Mozart Triple concerto with his aunt Yalta and brother in law Fou Ts’ong.
Now playing with his wife his own compositions made from a love for music that has always been at the heart of the Menuhin legacy.
A suite in Baroque Manner that would have done Kreisler proud and a transformation of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden that was the sweetest parting one could imagine.
‘If music be the food of love ‘ and it was this love that today with the Menuhins and immediately afterwards with Stephen Kovacevich, that enveloped us with ravishing sounds pregnant with meaning where so few words could mean so much. Even Brahms’ Haydn Variations were played with a glorious glowing beauty of nobility and ravishment
As the heavens opened and rain came tumbling down we were protected by this blissful haven of timeless beauty as pastures once more would return to their desired colour.
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasent pastures seen?
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.
A legend speaks, Stephen Kovacevich takes Chethams by storm with music making of rare beauty and sensibility . A performance of Schubert’s last Sonata that will go down in history for the poignant intimacy that drew the audience in to overhear such a wondrous tale. Three pieces by Brahms that the composer described as ‘lullabies of grief’ created the scene for Schubert’s final statement written in the year of his death at the age of 31.
Stephen now in his Indian Summer could show us the secrets hidden in this song of eternal beauty in a career that has been distilled over a lifetime of service to the great composers.
Opening with the Intermezzo in E op 116 n. 4 with it’s gasping sighs of nostalgia and longing, passing to the A major Intermezzo op 118 n.2 all radiance and light and finally the harrowing tone poem of op 118 n. 6 in E flat minor.
All recreated with glowing whispered beauty of radiance and extraordinary intimacy. And what a way to prepare our souls and ears for the song of destiny that opens the Schubert B flat. An opening, like Beethoven op 109 that has already begun in the stratosphere and just touches earth for a few moments to remind us of what wonders await those with the ears attuned to receive such intimate confessions from afar
Day 2 from exercise to exertion
Murray warming up at 8.15 to Stephen at 9.30 hotting it up with the ‘Hammerklavier’
Three couples in life as on stage for the faculty concert on the 2nd day of the second week . Belén Navarro and Juan Lago playing Schubert with refined beauty and style whereas Mayumi Lida and Colin Stone let rip with a scintillating performance of Poulenc’s tongue in cheek Sonata.
But that was nothing compared to the world première of Judith Bingham’s ‘From Whale to Worm’, a sort of modern day Carnaval of the Animals. Played with extravagant fluidity and naughty antics by Pippa Harrison and James Willshire, as they brought this extraordinary addition to the four hand repertoire vividly to life .
Philip Fowke , on this occasion the lone ranger, played three charming pieces by Stephen Hough and then stole the show with a performance of the black key study of such insinuating charm and mastery that makes one long to be a retired gentleman as he claims to be
Always a voyage of discovery with Margaret Fingerhut but this year in more ways than one. Chopin’s greatest masterpiece the ‘Barcarolle’ was prefaced by the three Mazurkas op 59 written in the same year of 1845, just three years before his untimely death at the age of 39. The final mazurka in the unusual key of F sharp minor which of course links perfectly with the Barcarolle in F sharp major. It is curious that the original manuscript is actually in G minor and Chopin obviously decided to unite these last works in one long song, culminating with the ‘Barcarolle’ op 60. It is a song from the beginning to end where percussiveness has no place and the piano has truly become a bel canto instrument speaking like the human voice that so much inspired all of Chopin and Schubert’s music. It is interesting to know that Margaret had studied this work with Vlado Perlemuter in Rue Ampère in Paris that many of us know well, where he would demonstrate what it meant to play with weight. The weight like an organist that would never leave the keys but would lean into the notes changing fingers to create the perfect legato and avoiding the vertical hitting of the keys that can remind us that the piano is a percussion instrument where hammers hit strings. It is allusion, called artistry, that can persuade us that the piano is an instrument that can appear to sing as a Bel Canto singer for those that have mastered the ‘tricks of the trade’ ( as my teacher Sidney Harrison would say). All that to say that Margaret allowed the music to unfold with sumptuous beauty from the three Mazurkas to the deep bass C sharp of the ‘Barcarolle’ that just opens up the sounds that unfold in ten minutes of radiance and beauty. An artistry that is allied also to a curiosity as not only can she illuminate well known scores with simple refined taste but she can discover works that have lain hidden for too long on the dusty shelves of the archives. One such work today was the ‘Glanes de Woronince’ which, as she says, may not be amongst Liszt’s greatest works but it deserves an occasional outing from the dusty shelves. ‘Gleanings from Woronińce,’ or Harvest at Woronińce, S. 249, is a suite of three piano pieces , written in 1847 at Woronińce, now Voronivtsi, the Ukrainian estate of Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.
Liszt had first met the Princess when he played in Kyiv on 14 February of that year. She was recently separated from her husband, and she invited Liszt to spend some time on her estate in Podolia. He stayed for 10 days, then left for a concert tour, promising to return in the autumn. He came back around 18 September, and stayed till early January 1848. It was during these three months that Liszt’s and Sayn-Wittgenstein’s relationship developed to the stage that she planned to petition the Tsar, Alexander II of Russia, for divorce, and marry Liszt. During this time, Liszt also completed much of his ‘Harmonies poétiques et religieuses’.
The three pieces of Glanes de Woronince are:
Ballade d’Ukraine, a dumka based on Ikhav Kozak za Dunaj;
Mélodies polonaises, two Polish folk songs, the second of which was previously composed by Frédéric Chopin “A Maiden’s Wish” (“Życzenie”), Op. posth. 74/1, written in 1829;
Complainte, another dumka.
They were dedicated to Princess Carolyne’s daughter, Princess Marie von Sayn-Wittgenstein.
Margaret played them with radiance and beauty giving a fascinating revisitation of works that have lain in oblivion too long. But are we sure that they were truly written by Liszt was questioned by a distinguished musician present today ? I can only quote the Liszt expert Leslie Howard : ‘The jury is still out on the question of whether the influence of the Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein upon Liszt was, as Sellars and Yeatman would put it, a ‘Good or a Bad Thing’. She was, at any rate, the dominant woman in the last forty years of Liszt’s life, and, whilst being responsible for almost all his social and domestic difficulties over that time, was also the one who won him to permanent and serious composition from the life of the travelling virtuoso who composed as best and as often as he was able. Liszt met Carolyne in Kiev in February 1847, and in the October of that year stayed with her at her estate in the Ukraine, Woronince. His Glanes de Woronince (‘Gleanings from Woronince’) is frequently described as some kind of preservation of local folk melodies which Liszt heard on this estate for the first time. Since we know that the second piece is supposedly Polish and that there is a good chance that the melodies in it were not new to Liszt, and since we know that Liszt heard the melody of the third piece sung by a blind girl busking with her grandfather in Kiev, much of this argument falls away. It seems much more likely that it was the very piano pieces which were gleaned from the stay at Woronince, in the case of the third the recollection of a public improvisation already given in Kiev, and the second piece is surely a specific homage to the Polish nationality of the princess.
The original Ukrainian song behind the first piece is a complicated tale of jealousy and revenge. Paraphrasing Roman Sawycky’s 1984 article on the song in the second volume of his Liszt biography, Alan Walker gives its title as ‘Hyrts, do not go to the party tonight’ and describes the warning of a woman who refuses to share her lover with another, and the four days entailed in her preparations to murder him with poisoned herbs, gathered on Sunday, prepared on Monday, administered on Tuesday, with the desired effect on the Wednesday. Liszt’s beautiful setting of the tune distances itself from any sense of violence or outrage—probably because he was not conversant with the text. The second piece contains two melodies, one familiar from Chopin’s song Z.yczenie—usually known as Mädchens Wünsch (‘The Maiden’s Wish’)—well known in Liszt’s piano transcription (recorded in Vol 5 of the present series), and the other present in a separate unpublished Liszt piano piece and in the Liszt Duo-Sonata for violin and piano. It simply cannot be established that Liszt first heard either of these tunes at Woronince—and it seems unlikely that the local Ukrainian peasants would be singing foreign folksongs. (Alan Walker’s claim that the early violin and piano sonata must post-date the Glanes because Liszt could not have known one of its melodies before 1847 is a bit thin.) With the variations which comprise the third piece (which is no more a dumka than the first is) it seems again that Liszt did not know the actual text of the song, which transpires to have been a composed and published work (by one Ivan Kotliarevsky (1769–1838), according to Walker) rather than a folksong. Whatever their ethnic origins, the melodies are woven into one of Liszt’s most charming and unaccountably neglected collections.’
Food for thought and reflection as are all Margaret Fingerhut’s fascinating programmes. Played with intelligent musicianship and mastery it opens a door to discussing repertoire that has long been neglected if not completely ignored.
The most enticing of these discoveries was the last piece on her programme by Widor with his ‘Kermesse carillonnante’ op 71 n. 3. The Widor Toccata of course is known to us all as one of the most popular pieces in the organ repertoire together with Bach’s Toccata and Fuge in D minor . The piano works of Widor ,though, show aspects of Widor’s art, less present in his cycle of ten Organ Symphonies, which bear the weight of his considerable intellect and erudition.
Writing for piano Widor seems able to explore other, more fanciful aspects of his nature. He was among the regulars of the Parisian salons, and judging by the bevy of nobly-titled dedicatees on his scores—a Chevalier, Marquise, Baron, Baroness, Count, Countess, Princess, and even a Queen—many of his works were clearly composed for salon consumption with suites of character pieces variously containing a nocturne, waltz, mazurka, sicilienne, rêverie, sérénade, or the like. Many of Widor’s contemporaries—pianists such as Francis Planté, Louis Diémer, and Isidor Philipp—often performed his music. Planté described Widor as “an exquisite pianist of the most limpid purity,” and his writing for piano is elegantly idiomatic.
Margaret showed us music of Lisztian showmanship with playing of quite extraordinary brilliance and technical mastery. His op 71 n 3 is one of five pieces written in 1894 when the composer was fifty years old having another 43 years to live ! It is a showpiece in the style of Saint-Saëns more than Liszt with final pages of a pianist who is dead but will not lie down such is the long drawn out ending obviously of popular appeal. Played with fearless abandon by Margaret, that like the Ukrainian repertoire she brought to us last year it is music that is worth looking at and sorting the one or two gems amongst the many baubles! https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/…/marga…/
The remarkable Peter Donohoe standing in at the last minute for an indisposed Alexander Kobrin. This will be one of two recitals by the distinguished pianist Peter Donohoe this week with his programmed closing final recital announced for this CIPPS Jubilee year on Friday.
Maintaining the Schubert and Schumann of the original recital only substituting Kreisleriana op 16 for op 17 the Fantaisie in C major.
Playing of great weight and authority with a sense of balance that gave distinctive poetic character to the six Moments Musicaux of Schubert. This was Schubert played with simplicity and poignant meaning with a poetic intensity that created six miniature tone poems of radiance and beauty. It was not the veiled beauty that we were to hear later on from Peter’s colleague Steven Osborne but this was a beauty of more immediacy and directness where the music was allowed to speak for itself with masterly musicianship and directness. The opening ‘Moderato’ with its pastoral echo effect of poetic beauty was followed by the beautiful flowing tempo of the ‘Andantino’ where Peter’s masterly shaping of the phrases was of glowing sensibility. The ‘Allegro moderato’ of the third piece was played quite simply without the beguiling Curzon lilt but with a refreshing simplicity and directness. A delicate weaving in the ‘Moderato’ that follows, showed Peter’s remarkable control of sound as the whispered undulating web of notes was played with beguiling insinuation. The fearless dynamic drive of the ‘Allegro vivace’ was tempered by the sumptuous full sounds that belonged to the overall architectural shape that Peter had given to these six ‘moments’ played as a whole sumptuous group living under the same roof. A beseeching flow to the final ‘Allegretto’ was played with disarming poignancy and searching intensity.
The Fantaisie op 17, probably one of the greatest of Schumann’s works for piano, was dedicated to Liszt as the composer’s contribution to the Beethoven monument that Liszt had undertaken to dedicate to his teacher in Bonn.
And it was a performance of Beethovenian stature where the passionate outpouring of love for Schumann’s future wife Clara was wrapped up in a Beethovenian character of dynamic drive and burning intensity. Not the irascible impatient Beethoven but the imposing monumental musical architect. It was a performance that made one rethink this work so often played with a freedom and fantasy that looses much of it’s internal strength. There may have been moments when Peter drove the music too hard but they were contrasted with lyrical passages of great architectural shape and inner intensity. Even the final magical chords of the opening Fantasia were played as one unified whole after the continual echo of Beethoven’s ‘A die Ferne Geliebte’ that Schumann quotes at the end of the movement. Schumann wrote to Clara: ‘The first movement may well be the most passionate I have ever composed – a deep lament for you.’
The second movement was played with a rhythmic drive that Peter had likened to the second movement of the Beethoven Sonata op 101. Even the ‘etwas langsamer’ had an inner intensity and there was a glorious final declamation with deep added notes that just added grandeur to this noble movement before the notorious final page, which Peter played withy fearless abandon and mastery .
The last movement entered after a long pause and is one of the most beautiful movements of all the romantic piano repertoire. Guido Agosti a disciple of Busoni ,a pupil of Liszt ,wrote in my score ‘Cl…….ra’ over the opening sighing phrase, as this is more than any other of the movements where the quote from the poet Schlegel is most apparent :”Resounding through all the notes
In the earth’s colourful dream
There sounds a faint long-drawn note
For the one who listens in secret.”
Peter had likened the melody to that used by Franz Lehar in the Merry Widow and he played it with great inner feeling of sensitivity and beauty with sentiment but never sentimental. If the burning climaxes were rather overpoweringly Beethovenian, the architectural shape was of a musician wishing to show us the whole overall shape of this remarkable work.
Peter knows most of the piano repertoire and he challenged the audience to guess who the composer was of his encore . A drink at the bar was vaunted but in vain as no-one could have guessed that it was a little Albumblatt by Wagner written as a thank you to Mathilde Wesendonk in 1861
A remarkable recital by a true thinking musician and master pianist.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/…/peter…
Another remarkable recital this time by Steven Osborne following closely on from Peter Donohoe in this quick fire series of Master recitals that marks the Silver Jubilee at Chethams Summer School this year.
Two recitals by master pianists that could be likened to the characters of Florestan and Eusebius. Peter all radiance and light and Steven all mystery and dark dreams.
Opening with the Four early Impromptus D 899 op 90 and the late Sonata in C minor D 958, having decided to add a short piece by James Mac Millan in-between to clear the air, like a sorbet between sumptuous dishes.
The first Impromptu with its piecing opening note was followed by etherial sounds of whispered beauty. This was contrasted with a passionate intensity of menace where Steven suddenly took on another character of vibrancy and disturbing drive. The second Impromptu was played with fleeting washes of sound of fluidity and pastoral calm only to be interrupted by a driving march of almost military intensity. It was this exhilarating episode that closed the Impromptu in such a dramatic way. The third Impromptu in G flat was played with a whispered radiance and a perfect sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to float on a wave of etherial sounds. The final impromptu was played with a remarkable fluidity out of which emerged a pulsating episode of passionate intensity where a tenor melody of wondrous mellifluous invention emerged.
The unworldly pure sounds of MacMillan just cleared the air before the burning intensity of the most Beethovenian of all of Schubert’s Sonatas.
Opening with a call to arms before dissolving into an undercurrent of sounds that drove the music on with extraordinary intensity. The opening menacing rhythm always present as etherial unworldly streams of sound prepared us for the return of the opening. An ‘Adagio’ of extraordinary poise with episodes of burning drive was contrasted with a Scherzo and trio of simplicity and grace. The tarantella last movement took wing with a dynamic rhythmic energy which Steven imbued with a passionate unrelenting drive of quite extraordinary intensity.
A memorable performance where words cannot describe the magnificent playing that unfolded before a knowing audience who rose to their feet as the final chords were played.
An improvised piece, similar to the MacMillan, cleared the air after such burning intensity and brought the fourth concert today to a triumphant ending before the fifth and final recital given by the indefatigable Murray Mc Lachlan with music by Euan Moseley
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/…/steve…
The fifth concert in a very long day that for Murray Mc Lachlan had begun 8.15 with an early morning warm up!
Now fully warmed up , at 10 in the evening he sat down to play the second of three recitals of the complete works of Euan Moseley which are being recorded for Divine Art.
The composer seated on stage as Murray proceeded to play his music with extraordinary clarity, precision and beauty. Bringing great character to the pieces which he played like gems that were polished with brilliance and mastery.
Day 3
Young artists recital with Nadia Dotsiak Frederick Johnston and Chiara Lordi
Nadia Dotsiak, Ukrainian pianist playing music by her compatriots : Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko 1896- 1938 composer, pianist, and educator regarded by his contemporaries as a master of lyricism and Viktor Kosenko.Myroslav Mykhailovych Skoryk 13 July 1938 – 1 June 2020 composer and teacher whose music is contemporary in style and contains stylistic traits from Ukrainian folk music traditions. He was awarded the titles People’s Artist of Ukraine and Hero of Ukraine.
Some very fine playing of authority and mastery with Two Poem Legends op 12 that were a romantic outpouring of beguiling beauty more in the style of Scriabin or Medtner than the sweet lyricism of Rachmaninov. Played with beautifully rich bass notes that gave great depth and glowing beauty to her playing. The Burlesque by Skoryk, was played with a dynamic drive and masterly control sharing a palette of sounds of radiant beauty.
Frederick Johnston had changed the order of his programme but the authority and conviction he brought to Prokofiev’s Montagues and Capulets left no doubt where his affinity lay. Bold and commanding and if he lost the line in the slower more lyrical central episode he soon regained the pulse with the heros return. The other pieces I can only assume were by York Bowen which he played with a mellifluous outpouring of glowing sounds of questioning beauty.
Chiara Lordi played Liszt’s harrowing tone poem of Hero and Leander, with the piece’s chromatic ostinati representing the sea and in Claudio Arrau’s words : “You really can perceive how the journey turns more and more difficult each time. In the fourth night he drowns. Next, the last pages are a transfiguration”. Some beautiful playing that missed the weight and drive in the more tempestuous passages but her playing of the slower parts showed a freedom and glowing purity of poetic beauty and understanding.
Some fine playing from all three and as they gain more confidence and experience of playing in public they will take more time before and after their performance to greet and thank their audience.
The eclectic Joanna MacGregor brought the ‘Songs of Bukovina’ to Manchester with Leonid Desyatnikov’s 24 Preludes of 2017. She had been introduced to these works by two of her students and was so overcome by them that she wanted to share with us her discovery.
What better place than at Chethams, surrounded by pianist great and small, to show us all 24. Of course as Piers Lane was to tell us shortly afterwards on introducing Chopin’s 24 Preludes, the composer never played more than four together in recital and all 24 were only played twenty five years after the composers death in 1876 by the Russian pianist Anna Yespova followed by complete recordings by Busoni in 1915 and Cortot in 1926.
We live in an age where quantity rather than quality is the name of the game and it is rare to hear just one piece from a collection without the entire set.
But today what better place to allow us to hear all 24 and as Joanna said, then we can make a choice and hopefully add one or two to future concert programmes.
Joanna is a very strong pianist with real muscle as she demonstrated throughout many of the preludes but even more in the encore which was a crescendo of decibel breaking proportions. But Joanna not only has the muscle but also a remarkable control of sound and with clarity, refined sense of colour, character and glowing whispered beauty she brought to these 24 morsels, revealing an artist of commanding authority and sensibility.
The sign of a great pianist who really knows how to produce sound that is not percussive but full and sonorous is demonstrated by the condition of the piano after the performance. The piano tuner in just ten minutes was able to retouch a few notes for Piers Lane whose concert was just forty minutes after Joanna’s astonishing mind boggling exhibition. Joanna like Claudio Arrau knows the real secret of using the body to produce sound naturally without force. Of course more than anything it is the ear that is the gauge of all music making allied to the sensitivity and intelligence of a great artist.
I quote Stacy Olive Jarvis
Department of Musicology, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK:
‘The Songs of Bukovina by Leonid Desyatnikov, composed in 2017 and inspired by folk tunes, continue the tradition of piano prelude cycles, which originated in the Romantic era and were actively developed thereafter. 1. Folklore Basis of the Chamber Opus Songs of Bukovina
The Songs of Bukovina by Ukrainian composer Leonid Desyatnikov, a native of Kharkiv, are inspired by Ukrainian folklore, drawn from the collection Bukovinian Folk Songs. The composer turned to Ukrainian folklore because it is close to him, as he was born and raised in Ukraine, and he emphasises that the years spent there were happy for him.
According to Desyatnikov, the songs of Bukovina are “Ukrainian music, but traces of migrations are distinctly audible in them. There are melodies with augmented seconds, clearly of Jewish origin, Romanian, Moldavian, Balkan influences, even something reminiscent of Tyrolean yodels”. The composer has a special relationship with time—in his cycle Songs of Bukovina, there is no past or future, but the chronotype is present here and now. Memory in Desyatnikov’s music is almost tangible, as if there is a trace beneath every layer.
The folklore culture of Bukovina was shaped by its historical belonging to various foreign states: the Principality of Moldavia, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, and Romania. Today, this region includes Romanian villages whose folklore undoubtedly influenced and continues to influence traditional Bukovinian customs and art. In the imagery of ritual and ceremonial actions, in decorative and applied arts, in painting and architecture, and in folk songs, the residents of Bukovina asserted their distinctiveness, high talent, and national unity with the entire Ukrainian people (Kotsur, 2020) .
Desyatnikov handles the material—Moldavian, Jewish, Ukrainian, Romanian—with care, extending its scope, creating a universal sound world where the local becomes part of the global. The music of the Bukovinian cycle combines the intonation sharpness of Western Ukrainian modes with techniques from the arsenal of contemporary compositional methods. The predominance of the minor mode is evident in the Songs of Bukovina, with very few major preludes in the cycle.
An integral part of the calendar rituals of Ukrainians and Moldovans in Bukovina was the veneration of ancestors, ritual rounds, entertainment, and songs. Holidays and rituals served as levers for satisfying spiritual and aesthetic needs, and expressing people’s beliefs and emotions. In Desyatnikov’s works, folklore retains its cognitive, ethical, and aesthetic value. Bukovina is a region where Ukrainian, Bessarabian, Hutsul, Moldovan, and Romanian cultural traditions converge; dance music (kolomyika) of Bukovina and Hungarian shepherd songs are identical. Great attention is devoted to the romantic idea of synthesis: The Songs of Bukovina are characterised by a combination of the incongruous, an organic fusion of dissimilar and diverse elements. According to the composer, the main source of inspiration was Bukovinian folklore: “Each of the 24 preludes is based on a genuine folk melody. Sometimes highly prepared, and sometimes sounding almost pure”.
The music of the final prelude of the Songs of Bukovina leaves an effect of bewilderment: it resembles open postmodernist endings that can be interpreted from different perspectives. This prelude, perhaps, is the least tonally defined in the entire cycle, the most discreet and fragmentary. It is not an answer but an endless question, in essence, the question itself, hanging in the air. This fragment is a significant ellipsis, giving freedom of choice. For this prelude, Desyatnikov chose the melody of a Bukovinian folk song called Sopilochka Yavorova.
Sopilochka is a flute that becomes a recognisable symbol not due to its external qualities but because of the function it performs in the general context of the plot (see Figure 1). The flute, while emphasising realities, reveals the true meaning of the artistic image. Musical instruments that both Ukrainians and Romanians consider traditional due to their use, not their creation, include tilinka, flute, and violin. The largest group in this area consists of wind instruments, among which the trembita occupies a special place (Cherkaskyi, 2003) . The image created by Desyatnikov in the final prelude is fragile and vulnerable: instead of a flute, he uses a swirly. This episode captivates with its poignant tragedy.’
Leonid Desyatnikov was born on October 16, 1955 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He studied composition and instrumentation at the Leningrad Conservatory in St. Petersburg.
He has written four operas, several cantatas and numerous vocal and instrumental compositions. His principal compositions include: The Children of Rosenthal (an opera in two acts; libretto, Vladimir Sorokin), commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre; Poor Liza (a chamber opera in one act; with libretto by the composer, after the novel by Nikolai Karamzin); Gift (a cantata based on the verses of Gavrila Derzhavin); The Leaden Echo (a work for voice(s) and instruments based on the poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins); and The Rite of Winter 1949 (a symphony for chorus, soloists and orchestra).
Desyatnikov has been collaborating with Gidon Kremer since 1996 as a composer (Wie der Alte Leiermann…; the chamber version of Sketches to Sunset; Russian Seasons) as well as arranging the works of Astor Piazzolla, including the tango-operita María de Buenos Aires and the tango suite Cuatro estaciones porteñas. Desyatnikov wrote the scores for the films Sunset (1990), Lost in Siberia (1991), Hammer and Sickle (1994), Moscow Nights (Katya Izmailova) (1994), Giselle’s Mania (1995), Prisoner of the Mountains (1996), All That Is Tender (1996), Moscow (2000), His Wife’s Diary (2000) and The Target (2010),[1] “Trompe-loeil” for piano four hands, Aldeburgh (2023, June), “Reflections on the Folk Song” for 19 strings and viola obbligata, Stockholm (2024, August), “Saint Petersburg, Florida”, barcarola for two pianos, Padova (2024, September).
Leonid Desyatnikov left St. Petersburg in March 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the present time, he lives in Haifa, Israel.
It is always refreshing to hear Piers Lane with his refined tone palette and simple unaffected musicianship.
Flying in from a long American tour it was with courage that Piers appeared in Manchester where the change of time and climate is always a shock to the system.
Every day this week since I arrived we have had rain that in London we have been praying for, for months .
A small change of programme allowed Piers to relax and enjoy sharing his repertoire with us that he has lived with for a lifetime. The promised work by Peter Tranchell on this occasion was substituted by the Toccata in C minor by Bach followed by the promised Chopin Preludes. Not only the 24 op 28 but also the Prelude in C sharp minor op 45.
It was with this single Prelude that Piers opened the programme with its delicate washes of modulating waves of sound played by Piers with timeless beauty and delicacy. An overall architectural line that led to the ravishingly beautiful cadenza tarred with a brush of such whispered delicacy that it seemed to dissolve into the final bars that Piers played with aristocratic poise and knowing beauty.
The Toccata in C minor BWV 911 was an alternation of fluidity of sounds of improvised freedom and poetic invention. An ‘Adagio’ played with serene poignant beauty alternating with a resonant fugato before bursting into the hypnotic knotty twine of the Toccata. An infectious ‘joie de vivre’ and sense of masterly invention gave a glowing drive to this, the most popular of Bach’s seven early Toccatas. I remember Martha Argerich playing this many years ago with the same freshness and beauty as she coupled it with the Liszt Sonata. Piers today playing with the same masterly sense of discovery coupled it with Chopin’s 24 Preludes op 28.
Fou Ts’ong used to describe the Preludes as 24 problems because each one is so different from the other with their chameleonic technical and musical challenges of a Poet of the Piano. Each prelude was a miniature tone poem that Piers conveyed with poetic beauty and technical mastery. From the simplicity of the opening flourishes of undulating sounds to the sombre menace of the second prelude where the brooding bass was only calmed by the radiant beauty of the long melodic line that rode on such troubled waters. The third flowed like water and is similar in many ways to the twenty third prelude for its pastoral freshness where here Piers helped the waters with a few useful splashes from the right hand too ! A poignant beauty to the fourth but with a heart beating a little erratically as it reached out to the gentle undulating beauty of the fifth. The sixth was rather slow but gloriously radiant played with a whispered beauty, Piers divulging secrets of poignant significance. The seventh is the shortest of all the preludes and was played by Piers with a whispered radiance of timeless sounds. The eighth is the first almost étude type prelude that Piers allowed to enter surreptitiously as waves of passionate sounds invaded the keyboard with palpitating intensity. He brought commanding authority to the ‘Largo’ with its imposing dotted rhythms given such weight. And was followed by the gossamer ‘feux follets’ of his jeu perlé played with silver lightness as it traced a musical line of capricious enticement. It contrasted too with the continuous ravishing undulating legato of the ‘vivace’ eleventh prelude. The dynamic drive of the G sharp minor prelude was clothed in velvet sounds of sumptuous rich excitement. The thirteenth is surely one of Chopin’s most beautiful bel canto melodic outpourings and it was played by Piers with hypnotic radiance and beauty, rather slowly as we could savour a sense of balance that allowed even the accompaniment to have a voice of equal significance. The fourteenth was just a wind passing over the keys before the radiant glowing beauty of the ‘Raindrop’ Prelude. Piers played it with supreme delicacy and if the beating rain became a little erratic it was because we were in Manchester and the deep bass duet between the voices needed time to breath with wonder and a little menace before the clouds pass and a ray of radiant sunshine was allowed to fill the keys with wondrous delicacy and beauty. The ‘presto con fuoco’ of the sixteenth was fearlessly played as Piers shaped the music with a poetic intensity that was not made of only notes but of undulating sounds of exhilaration and excitement. The seventeenth too entered on a whispered single breath and was allowed to flow naturally in long phrases of arched beauty. Even the deep bass A flat so often played like a gong was played by Piers with a magical whispered glow in which the melodic line was played ‘avec un sentiment de regret’ of breathless beauty. The cadenza like character of the eighteenth Prelude was with great freedom and passionate intensity before the glowing beauty of the nineteenth, one of the most difficult technically. It is where the melodic line is like an Aeolian Harp with a continuous outpouring of notes with quite large stretches for a small hand. Piers played it with glowing beauty and a sense of legato that gave no indication of the technical difficulties involved. Piers’ playing of the twentieth prelude in C minor was magic indeed and betrayed a masterly sense of control as the three alternating layers of sound became ever more distant. Piers knows that this particular Prelude was the theme of the variations by Busoni and Rachmaninov both of which are in Piers’ repertoire and is where so few notes can mean so much. The beautiful cantabile of the B flat prelude I found a little too misty but it was played with disarming poetic intensity as the octaves of the twenty second entered from the bass, overtaking the entire keyboard with masterly passionate intensity. There was magic in the air as Piers played the twenty third with a pastoral fluidity of radiance before bursting into the passionate outpouring of the twenty fourth. Playing of brilliance and sumptuous sound as he brought these twenty four ‘problems’ to a brilliant conclusion, finally resolved with the three ‘D’s ‘ deep in the bass played like a true artist with the resonance of a troubled soul .
A standing ovation for Piers in his princely illuminated jacket, turquoise this year, blue last time, of signed manufacture. And a performance of Clare de lune that was of such blinding beauty it must have been a super uneclipsed moon indeed. Whispered ravishing sounds of which only Steven Osborne and Piers seem to have the key that can draw the audience in, to overhear such wondrous confessions.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/…/piers…
Day 4 Young Artist Recital with Sammi Zhong and Harmony and Melody Zhang
Some ravishing playing from all three pianists, all students at Chethams . Playing not only of beauty but also of style and intelligence
Sammi Zhang played Liszt’s Liebestraum with refined good taste and the more notes she had to play the more fluid her playing became without loosing any of the glowing beauty or sensitivity. Passionate intensity and quite considerable mastery in the climax of Liszt but most notably in the virtuosistic central episode of Chaminade’s Automne. The opening of Chaminade’s refined salon piece was played with heart rending delicacy and beauty .
Harmony Zhang opened with the slow movement of Haydn’s F major sonata with playing of delicacy and sensitivity . The same that she brought, together with clarity and a remarkable sense of line to Ravel’s Sonatine where the Menuet was given a special round of unexpected applause .
Her sister Melody, a few year older, played with the same sensitivity but also the musical maturity that she could bring to the first two movements of Beethoven’s Sonata op 109.
Opening with a ravishing performance of Balakirev’s transcription of Glinka’s ‘The Lark’ that she played with great style and a kaleidoscope of subtle colour. Both sisters play with such natural musicality and beauty of sound but it is the world of Eusebius with Florestan just looking on and awaiting his turn to add a bit more weight and contrast to their beautiful playing
Twenty five composers for twenty five years ………….what a line up !
The Four Pieces for Piano op 119 were published in 1892 and 1893 along with three other collections of smaller piano pieces: Seven Fantasias Op. 116, Three Intermezzi Op. 117, and Six Pieces for Piano Op. 118 .The collection op 119 is the last composition for solo piano by Brahms and together with the six pieces from Op. 118 was premiered in London in January 1894.
A fascinating recital by Noriko Ogawa of the final three collections of pieces that Brahms was to compose for the piano.
Brahms had written to Clara Schumann describing the first Intermezzo from 119: ‘The little piece is exceptionally melancholic and ‘to be played very slowly’ is not an understatement. Every bar and every note must sound like a ritard[ando], as if one wanted to suck melancholy out of each and every one, lustily and with pleasure out of these very dissonances! Good Lord, this description will surely awaken your desire!’. The Intermezzi op 117 Brahms had described as ‘lullabies of my grief’.
It was the quiet intensity and concentration of Noriko Ogama that held us transfixed from the very first notes of the Intermezzo op 117 prefaced in the score by two lines from an anonymous Scottish ballad, “Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament”, translated to German by Johann Gottfried Herder:
‘Schlaf sanft mein Kind, schlaf sanft und schön!
Mich dauert’s sehr, dich weinen sehn.’
‘Baloo, my babe, lie still and sleep;
It grieves me sore to see thee weep.’
With her head down in total concentration as she brought the music to life with a scrupulous attention to Brahms’s very precise instructions. Ravishing sounds of poetic intensity as she opened op 117 with an extraordinary sense of legato and if it was rather slow, just missing the natural flow, it was because Noriko had brought a much deeper intensity to this seemingly simple E flat major intermezzo that she was to contrast later with the final Intermezzo from op 118 in E flat minor. This too was a miniature tone poem of luminosity but with washes of sound of ominous portent before its extraordinary reawakening. Two completely different worlds but both containing the intensity of these extraordinary last thoughts of a tormented soul. The Intermezzo in B flat minor op 117 was all radiance and light and it was here that Noriko allowed the music to flow with beguiling insinuation followed by the final intermezzo in C sharp minor of mysterious oriental flavour.
Op 118 opened with a passionate outpouring of sumptuous rich sounds and contrasted with the respectful beauty of the Intermezzo in A major. It was here that Noriko allowed Brahms’s unexpected passionate outburst to engulf us before the return of the sublime simplicity of the opening. The Ballade in G minor was given full orchestral sounds of sumptuous richness out which floated a beautiful mellifluous outpouring.
It was these contrasts between the deeply introspective and passionately intense that Noriko could show us with playing that was never percussive but always with sounds that she found deep within the keys with a limpet touch of horizontal flowing natural movements. A concentration that held us spellbound in a magic web of sounds that were of great beauty but above all with an architectural sense that gave great strength to such poignant sentiments. Etherial washes of sound in the Intermezzo jn F minor were contrasted with the quasi religious chorale of the Romance in F major with its magical pastoral central episode played with glowing beauty. The final intermezzo in E flat minor I have already mentioned, but it is one of the most imposing of all these Intermezzi where Brahms creates a tone poem of a harrowing tale revealed with a kaleidoscope of colour and chameleonic changes of character.
The final pieces op 119 opened with radiance and light with a purity of sound of burning inner intensity. A radiance and simplicity to the two Intermezzi in E minor and C major before the dynamic drive and passionate, sumptuously rich orchestral sounds of the final Rhapsody in E flat. It brought this cycle of thirteen miniature masterpieces to a glorious end.
It was an extraordinary recital from a master musician who searches deeply into the score with a scrupulous attention to the composers intentions with playing of mastery and poetic beauty.
An eclectic musician who as an encore treated us to another composer’s final work for piano that of Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1996.
Rain Tree Sketch II was written in 1992 in memory of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), the French composer who had a strong influence on Takemitsu. The work was composed for a concert “Hommage à Olivier Messiaen” at Les Semaines Musicales Internationales d’Orléans, France, and was premiered by Alain Neveux on 24 October 1992. The name of the work was probably inspired by a quotation from a novel by Kenzaburō Ōe about the miraculous rain tree, whose tiny leaves store up moisture and continue to let fall raindrops long after the rain has ceased. The work is also a dreamy meditation on the flow of life, and was the last piano piece by Takemitsu (his first Rain Tree Sketch was written in 1982).
Ronan O ‘Hora never ceases to amaze me with playing of impeccable style and musicianship, whilst heading the piano faculty at the Guildhall in London and sitting on many International Piano Juries . He tells me too that he has just returned from Italy where he played in a celebration of Antonio Lysy, a wonderful cellist whose life was prematurely cut short, the son of Alberto Lysy and grandson of the great Dame Iris Origo.https://youtu.be/VhXM65BaQQA?si=BgCaWiiMqpyLMroF
I heard Ronan a few years ago playing Beethoven Sonatas absolutely impeccably and he told me that he was performing the entire cycle of 32 that he had prepared in the lock down !
Today the main work on the programme was the Sonata in F minor by Brahms prefaced by the Haydn two movement sonata in C Hob XVI /48, Schoenberg’s Six Little Pieces op 19 and Wagner’s Liebestod. What was not mentioned was the encore of Schumann’s Abschied – Farewell from the suite of Waldszenen – Forest scenes op 82.
An encore that summed up all that we had experienced in his programme of sumptuous ravishing sounds and poetic intensity.
The Haydn Sonata with its opening ‘Andante con espressione’ was played with an expansive quasi improvised freedom that Ronan imbued with a refined sense of colour and extraordinary character. The music was allowed to speak with simplicity and subtlety together with an architectural shape that managed to control all the characters in a quasi operatic outpouring. There was an impish brilliance to the Rondo that although marked Presto, at times sounded a little breathless because Ronan was intent on bringing a ‘joie de vivre’ of exhilaration to this scintillating movement.
How refreshing to hear Schoenberg’s six little pieces in the concert hall where so few notes can express so much. Ronan imbued each one with extraordinary differing character and a kaleidoscope of chameleonic sounds of rare sensitivity.
Liszt’s transcription of Wagner’s Liebestod from Tristan was played not with the usual rhetoric but with a more harmonic approach allowing the music to speak for itself. The opening rather subdued and not the usual call to arms but something that drew us in to listen to the quite extraordinary harmonies. Strands of counterpoints woven together to produce a sumptuous whole that exploded with passionate intensity only to die down to a whisper that was of poignant significance. This was a performance of a master musician rather than showman and revealed a work of much more refinement than from lesser more impatient hands.
The Sonata in F minor op 5 the last of three ‘veiled symphonies’ unusually in five movements. Ronan brought a masterly architectural shape to this monumental work imbuing the first movement with aristocratic nobility and heartrending intensity. Allowing the music to speak with simplicity and poetic beauty with a symphonic sense of orchestral colouring.
Brahms prefaces the Andante with a poem by Otto Inkermann, writing under the pseudonym C.O. Sternau:
Der Abend dämmert, das Mondlicht scheint,
da sind zwei Herzen in Liebe vereint
und halten sich selig umfangen
Through evening’s shade, the pale moon gleams
While rapt in love’s ecstatic dreams
Two hearts are fondly beating.
Ronan played with glowing radiance and beauty and the coda was with whispered intensity growing in weight before exploding into a passionate outburst only to dissolve to a whisper. Claudio Arrau had described this movement as ‘the greatest love music after Tristan, and the most erotic — if you really let go, without any embarrassment.’
The Scherzo was played with fearless abandon and it was followed by the Intermezzo marked ‘Rückblick – Rembrance’ which is really an introduction to the Finale . A last movement that Nelson Goerner has said “The music is extremely difficult, but lots of the difficulties don’t get noticed. It’s not a spectacular virtuosity; the virtuosity is there but it’s not about showing off and when we reach the coda, the pianist needs to take risks. It needs to feel as if the music is nearly but not quite coming off the rails, otherwise the meaning is lost.” It was exactly the fearless abandon of Ronan that brought this Sonata vividly to life with passionate intensity and nobility that explained so perfectly Schumann’s description of a ‘veiled symphony.’
What better way to conclude such a feast of music than with Schumann on a cloud of poetic beauty.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/…/ronan…
And yet another concert by the indefatigable Murray McLachlan playing the third recital in the series of the piano works of Euan Moseley. It was nice to see the McLachlan clan out in force and a numerous public at what was the fifth concert of the day ! Some magnificent playing from Murray of crystalline clarity and beauty and quite considerable technical mastery of this capricious composers’ complicated scores.
Day 5
Tiantian Gao winner of the 2026 EPTA UK Piano Competion playing in the final concert in the Young Artists Series .
An all Chopin programme that would strike fear into any pianist but not so this twelve year student of Murray McLachlan and Christopher Elton.
Playing the Chopin Fantaisie op 49 with poetic beauty and radiance. Technical difficulties were absorbed into a musical understanding of refined musicianship with the octave passages played with disarming ease. Playing of extraordinary authority and mastery to which she will now add more weight as her sensitive fingers grow stronger and delve deeper into the keys to find even more ravishing sounds.
A performance of one of Chopin’s longest single movement works played with an authority that belied her twelve years .
The three late Mazurkas op 59 too were played with poetic fantasy and style .
But the main work on this short programme was the ‘Variations on La ci darem la mano ‘op 2 which was the work with which Chopin himself astonished Schumann on his arrival in Vienna and who exclaimed ‘Hats off a genius’
Extraordinary mastery and sense of style with quite considerable technical skill allied to an inborn musicality. Variations unfolded with ever more technical challenges that Chopin would have astonished his public with just as Tiantian Gao did today.
It is good to know that she is being guided by Murray McLachlan and Christopher Elton and that her considerable artistry will grow in stature as she too matures as an artist
A voyage of discovery for Pavel Nersessian as he took us into his magical world of fantasmagorical colours and dreams
Many distinguished artists came to thank Pavel at the end of his recital and as I exclaimed most artists have their feet on the ground but Pavel is flying high as free as the wind.
Sometimes distracted with his love to linger and admire and momentarily loosing his way but always sharing his love of radiance and beauty as he discovers and invents sounds rarely heard from this big black box of hammers and strings.
An authority with all he plays where there is no doubt of his intentions and his need to communicate and share such refined beauty. Notes just disappear as sounds resound with an extraordinary sense of balance and a kaleidoscopic sense of colour. A piano that becomes a jewel box where prismatic light shines and ignites the air with the glowing magic of feux follets.
Pavel had created a recital of songs without words of pieces that had a message to share and were tone poems of poetic significance. Beginning with Mendelssohn whose Songs without Words are a rarity in the concert hall. With Gilels and Horowitz they became bewitching songs of ravishing beauty and beguiling insinuation. Gilels would play them simply with his golden sound reminiscent of Rubinstein (who had in fact discovered a fourteen year red headed boy on one of his tours to Russia. He exclaimed that when this boy comes to the west he may as well pack his bags and leave! ) Horowitz on the other hand would imbue them with beguiling beauty of half lights and seductive insinuation .
Pavel showed us a combination of the two characters of both Florestan and Eusebius happy to inhabit Pavel’s wondrous sound world.
There is another Pavel too that shares a similar wondrous vocabulary, and I was not surprised to learn that Pavel Kolesnikov had worked with him before coming to the west. Nersessian now based in Boston and Kolesnikov in London sharing their extraordinary range of sounds with us in the west as Richter did on his first appearance in the west in the 60’s. It was not his demonic temperament and mastery that astonished so much as a sound world that we never knew existed !
Six songs without words by Mendelssohn were enough to transfer us to another planet. Played simply with refined good taste but with the brush strokes of Leonardo not Picasso .
A spinning song shorne of all its rhetorical hiccups but played with genuine charm and a question and answer, added to this continual buzz, that was quite hypnotic. Bel canto melodies played with the same inflections as a Caballé. Followed by some enticing salon works by the even more neglected Fauré. He may have been director of the Paris Conservatoire but he was also a master like Saint -Saēns of a continuation of piano pieces of charm and jeu perlé brilliance . These particular pieces were unknown to me but Pavel is such a persuasive advocate that I will delve deeper rather than stopping at the Nocturnes, Variations Symphonique and Theme and variations !
‘Gaspard de La Nuit’ has long been a vehicle for virtuosi not always aware of the clockwork precision that the composer notated in his score. Similar to the absolute precision of Debussy and of course the miracle that a totally deaf Beethoven could bequeathe to posterity with such precision . I remember Vlado Perlemuter telling me of the demo he was sent by D G of an infamous divo who had recorded this very work. Hoping for some words of praise from a disciple of the composer , Vlado had simply and without any malice asked :’qu’est-ce que c’est que ça?’
Pavel’s was in many ways a remarkable recreation where many of Ravel’s very precise indications had been interpreted in a very personal way creating quite magical effects but loosing the story line . Sounds in Scarbo that sent a chill down the spine and his rather capricious taking time before allowing the chords to vibrate brought a poetic sense of character but was a little exaggerated and maybe just a fraction far from the original score! Le Gibet was barely audible and the tolling bell completely lost in the mist that Pavel was creating and whilst the idea was of a musical genius, the actual effect did not reach us in the hall as I am sure this great thinking artist might have imagined. I have never heard Ondine played so quietly and it was a transcendental tour de force of touch and articulation ( luckily the Stoller Hall has a wonderful instrument and a master piano technician! ) These barely whispered murmurings were interrupted by washes of sound of breathtaking beauty .
Pavel like the other Pavel is a great thinking artist ready to risk and dare in his search for the true poetic meaning behind the notes .
The standing ovation he received was really so well deserved from such a discerning public of musicians and music lovers .
Two encores were Pavel’s gift to an audience that transmitted such love and admiration to a genuinely humble master craftsman.
The first was all radiance and glowing beauty and I remember that other magician of the keys, Shura Cherkassky, playing it as an encore some years ago.
The Schumann Arabesque was the second encore and was where Pavel’s poetic fantasy and palette of sounds could allow Schumann’s seemingly repetitive gem to glow and grow as a singer might have done.
A programme on wings of song indeed !
The second recital this week for Peter Donohoe, closing today, this twenty fifth Silver Jubilee season with two of Busoni’s most noble recreations of Bach on the modern day piano. And sandwiched between Busoni’s fourth sonatina and the Webern variation s op 27, Schubert’s most perfect jewel of a Sonata – the so called ‘Little’ A major .
Peter has an extraordinary appetite for discovering rarely played scores and for his encore he chose the slow movement of Chopin’s Concerto op 11 in the magical transcription by Balakirev.
Opening with the greatest work ever written for solo violin, the Chaconne from the Fourth Partita for solo violin by J.S. Bach . This is a true recreation for solo piano by Busoni and is a monumental work richly adapted for the solo piano. Peter played it with great architectural shape not dwelling on details but shaping the music with an inner strength and drive. Sometimes anticipating the dynamics as in the entry of the left hand octaves played with extraordinary assurance and brilliance but marked in the score ‘piano’ and is only the build up to the mighty cadenza marked fortissimo which was thrown off with ease, rather than being the culmination of what had come before. The ‘dolce espressivo’ that follows though was played with great beauty and indeed ‘dolente’ as Busoni marks . A ‘con fuoco animato’ was played with extraordinary brilliance as the violin figurations were imitated with shape and relentless drive. Peter bringing great excitement to the climax but allowing the speed to accelerate instead of becoming more stately and majestic . Peter’s transcendental mastery allowed him to play with such precision whilst playing with breathtaking exhilaration but it did loose some of its grandeur and nobility. Building to a climax of exhilarating excitement as the theme was played with the sumptuous rich sounds of Busoni’s marking ‘Largamente maestoso’. If the deep bass notes were not marked sforzando it was added by Peter for even more exhilaration to this most noble of climaxes .
Webern Variations op 27 was his only work for solo piano and although dedicated to Eduard Steuermann it was premiered, (after months of coaching from Webern) by Peter Stadlen on 26 October 1937. It is in three very short movements Sehr mäßig (Very moderate), Sehr schnell (Very fast), Ruhig fließend (Calmly flowing), where Peter was able to unentangle the knotty twine with directness and crystalline clarity.Moments ominous clouds would appear only to disappear in a puff of smoke.
A refreshing change of mood and cleansing of the air before Schubert‘s wonderfully mellifluous Sonata in A, D. 664. Completed in July 1819, and dedicated to 18-year-old Josephine von Koller of Steyr in Upper Austria, whom he considered to be “very pretty” and “a good pianist”. The lyrical, buoyant and in parts typically poignant nature of this sonata fits the image of a young Schubert in love, living in a summery Austrian countryside, which he also considered to be “unimaginably lovely”.
The ‘little ‘ A major sonata is straightforward, with a simple melodic opening and was the first of Schubert’s piano sonatas where the sonata form as perfected by his idol, Beethoven, does not seem to be wrestled with; rather, it is a “joyous breakthrough”, a carefree triumph over strict rules of construction. Peter played it with disarming simplicity with a scrupulous attention to Schubert’s markings where even the alternating octaves in the first movement were incorporated into a poetic vision of disarming simplicity . There was a subdued beauty to the Andante with its poignant question and answer played with grace an ease as the simple ‘joie de vivre’ of the ‘Allegro’ was allowed to bubble over with innocence and lightness.
Peter is a remarkable musician with a thirst for fresh material and his discovery of the Sonatina n 4 by Busoni made for a fascinating detour before the joyous outpouring of Bach’s St Anne Prelude and Fugue BWV 552. The Sonatina n. 4 “in diem nativitatis Christi MCMXVII” (BV 274), is an 8-minute solo piano work composed in December 1917 and dedicated to his son, Benvenuto. It features a three-part invention, a chorale, a pastorale, bell-like motifs, and a quiet, mystical ending. A fascinating work played with burning conviction before bursting into the final triumphant work by Bach Busoni.
A monumental and overpowering performance of the St Anne Prelude and Fugue that Peter played with incredible virtuosity and monumental sounds. It brought this final concert of the 25th International Piano Festival to a joyous close
The final traditional cabaret finished well after midnight with many surprises where artists could finally let their hair down and a good time was had by all
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 