The young Italian pianist and composer Claudia Aiello presented to a London audience her ‘journey through three centuries of piano music . Six composers ranging from Bach to Ravel played in St Marylebone Church opposite the Royal Academy of Music . Claudia already a Professor at the Conservatory of Trento in Italy was ready to introduce each composer with learned introductions and her own personal appreciations.
Two Preludes and Fugues by Bach in G minor Bk 1 n 16 and in E flat from Bk 2 n 7.
Her Bach playing was the highlight of the concert as she allowed the music to flow, imbuing the mellifluous outpouring of the preludes with poetic beauty adding great character without disturbing the beautiful flowing radiance of Bach’s genial pen. The knotty twine of the fugues were played with nobility and clarity. The G minor was where the subject was always underlined with a great architectural shape in mind and the E flat played with great weight and dignitas.
I think for reasons of time Claudia could only present the first movement of Beethoven’s penultimate Sonata op 110 . It was here that Claudia’s temperament betrayed her as there was too sharp a contrast between the opening that she played with beautiful lyricism and the development where the intensity of the left hand broke the overall spell of a movement that is more pastoral that dramatic.
It was her temperament that betrayed her in Chopin too, where her rather exaggerated rubato did not allow her to trace the overall architectural shape as she moved in beautiful small phrases rather than showing us the full picture . The posthumous first study was beautifully played but she lost the overall pulse as her emotional commitment took over.
It was in Liszt’s Liebestraum that she found the right balance between her head and her heart as she gave a passionately balanced performance of ravishing beauty
Two nocturnes by Thalberg followed, where in the first op 51 bis, the accompaniment rather overpowered the melodic line. Op 21 n 1 on the other hand was played with radiance and restrained beauty and was a courageous choice from a composer more known for his three handed opera paraphrases than for exquisite salon pieces .
Finishing with the fourth of Ravel’s Miroirs : ‘Alborada de gracioso’ which is a show piece for pianists with the high jinx of the morning song of the jester of spiky brilliance contrasting with sultry pulsating insistence. Some remarkable double glissandi from Claudia and scintillating repeated notes but this was more a performance of beauty and charm than sarcasm and daring.
It was nice to meet Claudia’s mother and teacher at the Conservatory in Catania named after Bellini their illustrious son. A colleague of Epifanio Comis and it was nice to know that she was on the commission that gave top honours to graduating students Giovanni Bertolazzi and Alberto Ferro now flying high on the world concert circuit. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/02/20/giovanni-bertolazzi-at-the-pharos-arts-foundation-cyprus-power-and-poetry-combine-with-mastery/ https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/01/10/alberto-ferro-a-master-speaks-in-tolentino/
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 