Autore: ChristopherAxworthyMusicCommentary

Ruben Micieli flown from Sicily to the hills of Rome bringing with him the bel canto of his hometown Catania where he graduated with honours from the Bellini Conservatory. Recognised in Warsaw last year by one of the most discerning critics, Jed Distler , who remarked on his strong hands wrapped in velvet gloves . What he did not mention was a heart of gold and a soul immersed in the style of bel canto opera which is in his very blood.

Ruben plays with style but also with intelligence and he is immersed in the world of Italian opera not only as a pianist but also as a conductor.

Ruben who has been seated at the piano since he was four and since that moment it has become his breath, the essence of his existence. Like a constant companion always providing what he needs . Music for Ruben is life itself and a profound expression of the soul.

What better way could there be to describe who he is and why he transmits a sense of communication that is so immediate and compelling .

I saw him coming on stage with an I pad and assumed he would need an ‘aide memoire’ for such unusual repertoire. But as he exclaimed afterwards he could not possibly play such music with the score and the I pad was only to read us the poems that preface the original works by Adolfo Fumagalli. Ruben is a sincere musician of humility and honesty with a sense of integrity towards the composers he loves so much.

When Ruben was eleven an elderly pianist named Maria Paraninfo heard about this talented boy and gave him a rare 20th century edition of the Fantaisie Brillante on Bellini’s Norma by Joseph Leybach on the condition he learnt to play her favourite piece. It was here that Ruben’s curiosity was born and twelve years later lead to his first recording ‘Paraphrases de Salon’ including this very piece and many others that Ruben has found in the archives and is bringing back to life in the concert hall and in recordings.

His programme played on an Erard of 1879 finished with the Leybach ‘Norma’ fantasy that had inspired a young boy to reach for the heights. Many original touches compared to Liszt’s famous paraphrase, and Leybach unlike Liszt includes ‘Casta Diva’ and although he does not exploit the three handed technique of Liszt or Thalberg there are many moments of technical fireworks and excitement.

It was fascinating to hear also some original pieces by Fumagalli that were not transcriptions but pieces inspired by poems that Ruben read before playing each piece. There are 24 pieces to this ‘École moderne du pianiste’ op 100 but so far only 18 have come to light. Ruben intends to make a new recording of many of Fumagalli’s most important works and today he demonstrated the reason why this composer should not be overlooked. It is a similar fate to Alkan who has been rediscovered in recent times, but Fumagalli still awaits!

Ruben presented four of the pieces from op 100 : ‘Souvenirs Mélodie’, a charming salon piece with it’s echo effect in the upper register that Ruben played with great style gradually taking wing with passionate intensity. ‘Les Troubadours.Ballade’ was a tone poem in imposing march style with a virtuosic ending of quixotic charm. ‘Près des flots.Étude maritime’, was a brooding piece full of chromaticisms with virtuosistic flourishes reminiscent in many ways of Alkan. ‘Le papillon Étude de Salon’, is a virtuoso study of continuous undulating sounds of charm and grace. They may be salon pieces but when played with the style and delicacy of Ruben, together with his jeux perlé of refined brilliance and beauty he reminds us of the style of the great pianists of the Golden Age of piano playing. An age when pianists were also magicians who could find colours that todays pianists not always are aware of in their quest for pianistic perfection and fidelity to the score.

The other works on the programme were all paraphrases from the operas of Verdi and Bellini played with brilliance and style on an Erard of 1879 which is proudly shared with us by Ing.Tammarow. Fumagalli’s ‘Traviata’ opening with delicate flourishes as embellishments filled the piano with ravishing sounds of refined brilliance, played with beguiling charm and grace of exquisite finesse. Golinelli’s ‘Traviata’ on the other hand was full of double octaves with a kaleidoscope of elaborately ornamented variations where bel canto was balanced with virtuosity in an enticing cocktail of scintillating playing. Eugenia Appiani’s ‘Rigoletto’ beginning with tragic undertones before ‘La donna è mobile’ adds charm and sparkle leading to a brilliant coda.

By great request Ruben had learnt especially for the concert Sgambati’s well known transcription from Gluck’s Orpheus and was rewarded afterwards with a special Medal by Ing Tammarow in thanks and recognition of his superb performances.

Adolfo Fumagalli (19 October 1828 – 3 May 1856) was born in Inzago, Italy, and grew up in a very musically oriented environment. He had three brothers who also became musicians and composers. He studied from 23 November 1837 to 7 September 1847 at the Milan Conservatory  under Pietro Ray for counterpoint and Angeleri for piano.Afterwards in 1848, at the age of 20, made his Milan  debut with some success. He had a series of popular concert tours throughout the major cities of Italy, France and Belgium until 1854. His greatest sensation when he began performing his compositions for left hand alone and was among the first to make piano pieces for one hand,  Although he looked rather frail, as is evident from paintings of him, he had a phenomenal technique and strong fingers that astonished everyone. In 1854 he returned to Italy, where he alternated between concert tours and composing. In 1856 he was given an Erard grand piano from the firm as an advertising promotion. later in the year on May 3, he passed away. 

Fumagalli’s output is quite extensive, though almost all of it is extremely difficult to obtain today. His works consist primarily of operatic fantasies and character pieces. One of his most difficult and virtuosic works is his Grande Fantasie sur Robert le Diable de Meyerbeer, op.106 (dedicated to Liszt) for the left hand. He also composed an arrangement of Vincenzo Bellini’s “Casta Diva” from Norma  for the left hand. Almost his entire output is for solo piano and the works which employ other instruments all seem to include the piano in some way, a feature that is similar to Chopin’s output. Although he was perhaps not a very inspired or ingenious composer, his works for left hand alone stand nonetheless as an important testament of the progress in technique and virtuosity of the period, especially of single-handed works.His works range from op 1 to op 112.

Ruben Micieli ‘ A poetic kapellmeister getting to the heart of Chopin’

Ruben Micieli triumphs with Chopin in Florence with Music al British in the Harold Acton Library

Ruben Micieli triumphs in London for the Keyboard Trust at Steinway Hall

Oxana Yablonskaya the return of La Regina, a sparkling jewel in the crown of Trapani

Dina Ivanova in Trapani A great artist with playing of fluidity and poetry of passionate intensity and glowing beauty

First prize Maruyama Nagino aged 26 from Japan.A miniscule young artist with an enormous talent ! From the very first notes she revealed a sensibility and perfect legato with the rhythmic drive of a musician who knows where she is going and gets straight to the point, like Serkin. Scrupulous attention to the composers indications and a sense of stylistic fantasy where, as in Scarlatti, decisions are left to the performer. Preferring to play Chopin’s double thirds study rather than Liszt ‘Campanella’ ( which she seduced us with at the final concert ) and Brahms Paganini Variations instead of Chopin Fourth Ballade. Chopin’s notoriously difficult study was played with a legato where her tiny hands have been moulded from birth to the shape of the keys as she was able to effortlessly extract sounds from the streams of notes with a seamless legato that I have only heard from recordings of legendendary artist from the Golden Age like Moritz Rosenthal. Brahms Paganini not only meeting all the technical challenges which passed unnoticed, as it was her sense of style and range of colour that turned a work often played as an exercise into a sumptuous outpouring of romantic ardour.

I was not looking forward to hearing the ‘Appassionata’ followed by Brahms Haendel, but from the very first notes I was riveted to the sounds that she could produce and the depth with which she had delved into these much abused scores. Beethoven where the rest after then opening trill becomes even more menacing than the notes. Waves of sounds played as Beethoven shows us in the score, not divided between the hands to make life easier.This is not play safe music and if you are not ready or aware of the challenge that Beethoven demands it is better not to enter the haven of a universal genius. The ‘Andante’ I have never heard played so quietly but where each note was of the fundamental importance of a string quartet. The dynamic drive and Beethovenian explosions of impatience in the final movement were breathtaking in their audacity and authenticity, keeping reserves of energy for the coda that Beethoven marks from Allegro non troppo to Presto with a long held final pedal too.

Brahms Haendel Variations opened with the same crystalline clarity that she brought to Scarlatti but this was built in tension and beauty by an artists who could see the architectural whole and where everything she played was with this in mind. The culmination after the glorious triumphant declamation of Haendel’s innocuous theme was followed by the burning energy and transcendental mastery of the Fugue.

In the final round she chose, obviously because of time ,to play only two of the three movements that make up Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit. ‘Ondine’ where with her refined artistry notes became streams of sound out of which emerged the beauty of the water nymph’s song. ‘Scarbo’, where Ravel intentionally penned a work of more transcendental difficulty than Balakirevs Islamey, but filled this fleetingly devilish piece with very precise indications. Maruyama, with her extraordinary mastery, followed Ravel’s indications, producing sounds that I have never heard before in this work. The ending in particular was where she brought poignant poetic meaning to this extraordinarily impish farewell . She played always with restrained brilliance and masterly control of sound. Debussy’s ‘L’Isle Joyeuse’ was full of the sultry colours of the composer’s vision of Jersey, but there was also a passionate involvement and a kaleidoscope of colours. Prokofiev 7th Sonata, the second of his War Sonatas and full of violent conflicting emotions . From the opening dynamic drive and pounding rhythms to the desolation and desperation that is always present, however distant. A beautiful outpouring of the Andante caloroso turning up the heat of quite another order, as our pianist could allow the music to erupt before dying away to the same desolate landscape as Le Gibet ,that hopefully we will hear on another occasion! The last movement was breathtaking in its fearless and relentless insistence. Playing of masterly control but always of a musician who could bring drive and meaning to notes too often played with brute force instead of poetic intensity.

At the prizewinners concert she chose to play ‘La Campanella’ and Chopin’s Polonaise ‘Héroique.’ Her crystalline clarity and masterly brilliance illuminated Liszt’s ‘Campanella’ but the Polonaise was not only heroic but with sumptuous full sounds that belied her physical stature . Here she proved yet again that on stage she is in reality a Giant.

Tied second prize Arsen Dalibaltayan, aged 23 from Croatia. Arsen’s father is a well know teacher in Zagreb and was the teacher of a young pianist, Ivan Krpan who at 20 had won the Busoni competition not by astonishing the jury but by his mature musicianship and technical command at the service of the composer. A first round that showed with short works by Scarlatti, Scriabin and Rachmaninov his quasi orchestral sense of colouring with poetic sounds of luminosity and a beauty of timeless freedom. I had already eyed his second round programme that would include Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata, prefacing it with Chopin’s most poignant late Nocturne, where he was able to show us the contrast between works written quite close to each other, but revealing a world of mature aristocratic genius as opposed to a world of turbulence and violent emotions. Allowing the Chopin to unfold with the natural beauty and simplicity of a Bruno Walter whereas Beethoven needs the strong no nonsense command of a Toscanini.To play op 106 in competition conditions is a ‘tour de force’ in itself and there were many memorable moments in a performance of passionate intensity. But the rhythmic perfection and minute detail that fills the score needed more careful attention and less accommodating compliance. It was this scrupulous attention to detail that marked Maruyama’s Beethoven and made it so riveting with the burning intensity that actually is written in the score. It was in the final round that Arsen came into his own as he entered a world of fantasy and intensity. A ‘Dante’ Sonata that was one of the finest I have ever heard, where Arsen’s scrupulous attention to the composers indications allied to an extraordinary palette of sounds was breathtaking, with it’s passionate intensity and sublime whispered beauty. Scriabin’s 7th Sonata was of such mastery that we were all left hanging on to every note that came steaming out of the piano, as Arsen played with burning conviction and a complete understanding of this strange world of mystery and colour. As I wrote to Ivan immediately after his performance ‘ Fantastic Dante and Scriabin 7th out of this world’. I am glad the jury thought so too!

Tied second prize Bohdan Terleskyy aged 20 from Ukraine. Masterly performances from this young artist, almost twice the size of Maruyama Nagino, and with a directness of sound that at times I found rather overpowering.Too full of light and energy but missing refined subtly and sense of colour. Bach Siloti that seemed too present and not with the magic sounds that Siloti has added to Bach’s simple prelude. Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ was played with mastery and brilliance. An intelligence but not always a scrupulous attention to the composers very particular pedal markings or subtle changes of mood. This was masterly playing though even if rather black and white. The choice of Liszt’s beautiful ‘Cloches de Genève’ revealed a true thinking musician. ‘Dante’ of course he played magnificently but missed the drama and contrasts that can bring this work to life and reveal the masterpiece it truly is.

It was in the final round that the true artistry of this young man was revealed to the full. ‘Jeux d’Eau’ by Ravel showed the refined subtle palette of sounds that had been missing up until now with a performance of ravishing beauty and mastery. Prokofiev’s 8th Sonata was the crowning glory of his performances with a work that is a song of deliverance bringing Prokofiev’s Trilogy to a heartrending conclusion and which Bohdan played with a maturity way beyond his twenty years. This was a world where mastery and poetic beauty combined in one of the finest performances I have ever heard.

Strangely enough the first movement of the Ginastera Sonata that he played at the Prize Winners concert revealed a different pianist from the one I had heard in the rounds. Here was a sense of shape and colour that was of overwhelming impact. Maybe it was the sense of space that this giant needed to allow his larger than life playing to resound around this vast auditorium .

Third prize Mohammed Alshaikh aged 23 from Palestine. A young man who managed to overcome all the problems of travelling from a war torn country and quite simply arrived just in time to close the first round. Some masterly playing from the first notes of a Scarlatti Sonata that he played with brilliance but above all with a musicianship that could shape the notes into the beguiling jewel like precision of a magician. Chopin’s notoriously difficult study op 10 n,2 was played with a seamless legato shaping the phrases with undulating beauty as the left hand provided a simple anchor for a study that uses the weakest fingers of the hand. Saint- Saens ‘Dance Macabre’ showed his remarkable mastery and sense of fantasy and colour, as Horowitzian additions added extraordinary embellishments of breathtaking brilliance. His playing of Chopin’s Sonata op 35 revealed a musician of intelligence and mastery. Repeating the exposition back to the ‘Doppio Movimento’ rather than the introduction, just as he had also done with Beethoven’s ‘Pathétique’. Both works that were additions to his original programme and were played with refreshing simplicity and dynamic drive. The Trio of the Funeral March in Chopin was played with understated beauty as he had done with the Beethoven Adagio. It was the mastery he showed with Ravel and Barber that was astonishing. The complete ‘Gaspard’ played with the same mastery as Maruyama Nagino with a superhuman control of sound where notes became streams of poetic outpourings. But for me Misha played with more soul and dept of emotion. It was the difference between Michelangeli or Sokolov, a duel between giants indeed. Misha’s Barber Sonata, dedicated to Horowitz who gave the first performance, is a ‘tour de force’ of emotions and scintillating virtuosity. A fugue that was played with remarkable clarity and sense of line and which he quite happily repeated at the Prize winners concert with even more assurance than in the Circus arena.

Fourth prize Edoardo Mancini aged 25 from Italy. Some very sensitive playing from a young man who has a palette of subtle sounds in his fingers and is an artist of great humility and intelligence. His performance of Chopin’s first study op 10 showed a remarkable technical preparation and his daring to play Boulez 12 Notations showed a musician who has something to say and the means to say it. An intelligent combination to mix the magical sound world of Mompou followed by Boulez and then the more earthy world of Albeniz. His Scriabin second sonata revealed a sensitive artist of musical fantasy with some playing of beautiful timeless style and colour. It was the slow movement of the Brahms F minor Sonata where he reached moments of sublime inspiration allowing the music to unfold with simplicity and a palette of colours of ravishing beauty. Scrupulous attention to the composers indications showed a musician of rare sensibility. The Brahms Sonatas, Schumann called ‘veiled symphonies’ and it was here that Edoardo lacked the weight of sound and solidity that is needed in the outer movements. There are not so many notes in the third sonata compared to Liszt or Chopin but they need to be played with a precision and rock like orchestral solidity that Edoardo lacked. The weight of a Gilels or Gelber where the fingers dig deep into the keys with limpet like adhesion rather than just remaining on the surface. Edoardo is a remarkable artist as he showed at the Prize winners concert where distance and space helped conceal this fundamental lack of technical perfection in a performance of the first movement of the Brahms Sonata that was far more assured and solid than in the circus arena!

Special Scarlatti Sonata Prize to Hou Kevin Gordon aged 37 from America. Some extraordinary playing from this unique artist who seems to have strayed into the circus arena of the concert hall when his outrageous talent demands he should be astounding the audiences at Ronnie Scott’s. A range of colour and breathtaking daring that belong more to Oscar Petersen than Glenn Gould. There is something about jazz improvisation that is a God given talent these days where it was actually the norm in Bach or Mozart’s day. Court musicians were required to improvise with a facility that was considered an absolute necessity. Robert Levin has managed to recreate this world, which illuminates his playing, as he adds ornamentation and improvised cadenzas with historic scholarship and style There are pianists, mostly from the East, who have not had access to performance practices and who take the notes of the great composers and try to find the expressive meaning behind the notes, not taking much attention of the composers instruction as to how their works should be ordered. As Karl Ulrich Schnabel exclaimed to one of his students :’ so you are a composer, taking the notes of others and making your own composition…’, in exasperation he went on to say that he did not know how to teach someone who thought more of himself than the composer!’ The student in question had been trained from birth to play the piano and it was that transcendental mastery that gave him a career which many serious musicians would consider as an entertainer rather than an interpreter! Horowitz ,who knew the scores of the composers better than almost any of his comtemporaries would flock to the jazz clubs to hear and admire Art Tatum. Kevin being brought up in Hollywood of course, is a master improviser and he brought a certain freshness to many of the works he played but his random freedom with other composers notes became rather exasperating. His complete relaxation allowed him to throw his hands onto the keys and astonish us with Kapustin’s devilish jazz etudes. His obsession with Volodos or Feinberg transcriptions belie the fact that Volodos may be the greatest pianist alive or dead, but he is also a musician, who, with humility and simplicity delves deeply in the scores of Schubert, Brahms or Schumann. Preferring to be an interpreter rather than just a juggler of notes.

Trapani a diamond shining brightly for the 3rd International Piano Competition ‘Domenico Scarlatti’ Part 1 and 2

Trapani the jewel of Sicily where dreams can become reality – The International Piano Competition – Domenico Scarlatti

Dina Ivanova demonstrating that the winner of the first Scarlatti Competition four years ago had indeed revealed an artist of rare sensibility and mastery.

The competition now in its fourth year is discovering some great artists at the start of illustrious careers. Just a few days ago Jeongro Park, winner ex equo of the second edition had opened this series with a recital that Oxana Yablonskaya had simply declared the finest recital she had ever heard. Coming from a living legend this is praise indeed.

I had arrived in Trapani too late to hear him although I had heard him play in the competition in 2024. Mikhail Kambarov, ex equo with Jeongro, is giving a series of recitals in this period too for the Keyboard Trust in Germany dedicated to it founding trustee Alfred Brendel.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/04/11/trapani-the-jewel-of-sicily-where-dreams-can-become-reality-the-international-piano-competition-domenico-scarlatti/

I had flown to Trapani especially to listen to the 87 year old legend Oxana Yablonskaya as she seduced us yet again with her great artistry after having spent days dedicated to listening to aspiring young musicians. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/04/13/oxana-yablonskaya-the-return-of-la-regina-a-sparkling-jewel-in-the-crown-of-trapani/

President of both the junior and the Scarlatti International, demonstrating in a pause from her jury duties to play herself, showing us that great artistry, like good wine, matures with the years. Madam Yablonskaya tells me that the day after the final prize winners concert on Friday she will fly to China to play Beethoven 4 with the New Zealand Philharmonic!

Age has no barriers as music is a lifelong passion that grows with experience and maturity and evidently unleashes superhuman energy.

Today we were gathered to applaud the young winner of the very first Scarlatti International that had been presided over by another remarkable octogenarian lady pianist, Marcella Crudeli. Dina Ivanova born in 1994 on Christmas Day, went on from Trapani to take first prize at the Rome International which is Marcella Crudeli’s creation and is now in its 33rd year!

Great ladies like Fanny Waterman in Leeds have been creating competitions that give a platform to extraordinary young artists at the start of important careers. Fanny quite simply bullied the great pianists of the day to come to her hometown, admonishing them as she told them that they had a duty to find the young artists who would become their heirs. Curzon, Magaloff, Fischer, Tureck Bachauer, Sandor, Nikolaeva and Yablonskaya were all bullied to give up their time as they discovered artists such as Alexeev, Perahia, Lupu, Schiff, Uchida and many more in its over half a century of existence .

Vincenzo and Giacometta Marrone D’Alberti are dedicating their lives to bringing great talent to Trapani, creating a voyage of discovery that each year is bringing lustre to the jewel in the crown of Sicily that is Trapani. Above all launching young artists at the start of their career, Vincenzo even inviting the winners of each competition to return to Sicily to play, as they in turn sit on the jury where it takes one artist to recognise another!

Dina had opened her recital, of course, with Scarlatti. Sonatas all in D minor that she played with a crystalline clarity and scintillating rhythmic drive. A sense of dance and a ‘joie de vivre’ that gave great character and an irresistible buoyancy to what in lesser hands can seem like cold exercises. Dina revealed them as miniature tone poems that are from the 550 that this genius of an originally Trapanese family, could pen whilst at the Spanish, Portuguese and English courts of the day, where he had found employment.

Dina even closed her recital after a breathtaking visit to Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker’ as seen through the eyes of Mikhail Pletnev, with a scintillating sonata ,K1, by Scarlatti where the ornaments glistened like jewels in the crown of Trapani. Playing of refined elegance with a palette of colours rivalled only by the crystal blue waters that glisten and glow as they gently lap the shores of this paradise.

The refined colours and atmospheres that Ravel could evoke in ‘Miroirs’ found in Dina the ideal interpreter. Notes just disappeared as they became streams of sound of undulating and pulsating colours as the moths of the first ‘Miroir’ glowed like will o’ the wisps flitting around the keyboard. Dina living every moment of this fantastic world that Ravel could create, with refined technical brilliance and extraordinary imagination painting in sound with glowing magic. A few long sustained notes were enough to suggest the sultry atmosphere in which these moths could flit about with impish freedom. The final note where Dina threw her arms into the air as she tried to catch one of these little devils such was her self identity with the sound world she was able to create with quite astonishing mastery.This is the true mastery of sound where Dina had a kaleidoscope of colours not only in her fingers but also in her feet, as her masterly pedalling could add sultry poignant weight creating imaginary atmospheres. There was a radiance to the sound as the saddest of birds in the second ‘Miroir’ became agitated with grieving supplication before resigning themselves to the beauty of their surrounds. Dina has such beautiful arm movements where her whole body is swimming in sounds of horizontal beauty never vertical brutality!. There was a fluidity and glowing radiance too to the ‘ocean waves’ that Ravel’s boat could float on with such ease in his third ‘Miroir’. Streams of notes that gradually grew in turbulence as Dina’s arm movements became ever more fluidly agitated. The calm after the storm was one of those magic moments that can only be discovered in live performance where time seems to stand still. Dina’s mastery could create with perfect equilibrium the gently lapping waves with the right hand as Ravel sings a hymn of thanksgiving in the left. Waves that were thrown off with leisurely nonchalance at the end as she had done with the moths in the first of these extraordinary ‘Miroirs’. There was a scintillating brilliance to the Morning Song of the Clown or The Jester’s Aubade of the fourth ‘Miroir’ ,where Dina’s spiky brilliance was filled with pulsating rhythmic energy. Bursting into a passionate song of seduction only to be overtaken by the energy that was previously generated and reaching boiling point with double glissandi and repeated notes, where Dina’s mastery was of quite breathtaking audacity. Generating such excitement that there was spontaneous applause from a public mesmerised by such sounds after the final exhilarating flourish. But Ravel has one more image to share with us, that he found in the valley of bells. It was here that after all the pyrotechnic fireworks of the Jester, Dina revealed her true mastery of sound with subtle colours where her chameleonic sense of touch and use of pedal created a glowing radiance that filled this vast hall with the magic atmosphere that only Ravel could ‘mirror’ in sound.

Dina brought a burning energy to the opening of Schumann’s ‘Carnaval Jest’ which reminded me of the overpowering energy that Richter seduced us with on his first appearances in the West in the 60’s, with op 1 and this op 26. I was reminded of this burning energy and total commitment , where Richter like Dina broke all the rules, but created new ones, with a discovery of the music that is a true recreation. A great wave of passionate sounds where even the almost Schubertian mellifluous outpourings rode on this wave of great architectural shape and meaning in what in lesser hands can seem very episodic. Even the ‘Marseillaise’ became part of this burning cauldron of emotions. Dina playing also with a clarity where the accompaniment to the melodic line was of such etherial clarity, as she has a true finger legato, which could allow the melodic line to sing but leave the accompaniment to be beautifully free and independent and not just bathed in pedal at the service of the melodic line. There was a disarming simplicity to the all too short ‘Romance’ followed by a ‘Scherzino’ of fleeting lightness, full of ‘joie de vivre’. This was a short-lived interlude as the ‘Intermezzo’ erupted with passionate intensity and sumptuous rich sounds. Dina’s mastery of balance allowed the melodic line to ride on a wave of luxuriant sounds without ever being submerged by the intensity of the passion that had overtaken the composer in these works for piano from op 1 to op 28. They had been inspired by the love for Clara, his teacher’s daughter, whom he was eventually to marry and who would be the mother of their eight children, before being committed to an asylum and an early death at the age of 46. Dina played the Finale with even more burning intensity and the final page was a cauldron of passionately intense waves of melody played with poetic brilliance and breathtaking audacity.

Pletnev has had a varied career from winning the Tchaikovsky competition and being a virtuoso pianist, to conducting his own Symphony orchestra. I remember Sandor telling me he could not understand why such a great virtuoso pianist would want to become a conductor! https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/12/12/mikhail-pletnev-in-rome-the-return-of-de-pachmann-fakefool-or-genius/

Pletnev was a great virtuoso in his youth but his sense of colour and extraordinary mastery of balance made conducting the obvious route for his prodigious talent . Early in his career he made some piano transcriptions of Tchaikovsky Ballet scores.The ‘Nutcracker’ helped him to victory in Moscow in 1978 and it is here that Pletnev’s genial pianistic mastery is at the service of Tchaikovsky’s wonderfully melodic scores, bringing them vividly to life on the piano as they are in the theatre. They are full of ‘tricks of the trade’ and require a pianist with a chameleonic kaleidoscope of sounds to be able to bring them to life. In short they need a musician who is also a magician. Dina showed us today that she has just such mastery as she brought vividly to life the various scenes from the ‘Nutcracker’. From the excitement and grandeur of the opening march to Tchaikovsky’s secret tool of the celeste that he was to surprise his audiences with as the ‘Sugar Plum Fairies’ danced with such glowing grace. There followed the scintillating ‘Tarantella’ with its hint of lyricism and sadness. Dina brought ravishing beauty to the Intermezzo with waves of sounds spread over the whole keyboard before the impish good humour of the ‘Trepak’ and the teasing brilliance of the ‘Chinese dance.’The opulence of the final ‘Andante Maestoso’ was of breathtaking sweep and passionate beauty. This transcription by Pletnev becomes an opera of art in its own right such is his complete understanding of the keyboard . Like Liszt or Thalberg the piano becomes a full orchestra and with the advent of the sustaining pedal what appears to be a three handed pianistic technique. With Pletnev one marvels at the seemingly many hands that go into its making as Dina showed us today with her breathtaking mastery.

And at the end of another masterly recital the Artistic Director and the President of the jury were ready to announce the contestants admitted to the semifinal round of the fourth Scarlatti International Piano Competition.

A Queen returns to Trapani to astonish and seduce with timeless mastery and ravishing beauty. Playing of aristocratic weight from a great artist who at 87 can still persuade us that the piano can sing with a voice of simplicity and touching humanity. Oxana Yablonskaya after a day listening to extraordinarily talented young musicians could at last sit before this black beast and allow wondrous stories to unfold from her fingers with the simplicity and mastery of an artist who has dedicated the whole of her long life to music.

She confided afterwards that the Chopin variations op 12, rarely heard in the concert hall, she had learnt when she was 10 ! Today the years just disappeared as the ten year old Oxana allowed Chopin’s music to unfold with the maturity and mastery of a living legend. Oxana like Argerich is able to make the music speak in a way that is always different. Slight infections, hesitations and an astonishing palette of sounds that can make the piano sing with a bel canto that would put even Caballé to shame. Oxana is part of an elite and unique group of octogenarian pianists who can demonstrate what it means to play with weight.

Argerich, Virsaladze, Leonskaya and Yablonskaya can seduce us as Rubinstein used to do in his Indian Summer, not with circus tricks but with the humility and lifetime mastery that can persuade us that this black box of hammers and strings can become an orchestra that is capable of roaring like a lion or seducing like a God. To watch Oxana and see the simple arch of her hands , so strong and noble like the columns of a Greek temple but at the same time so sensitive and sensibile . Je sens, je joue, je trasmet is what came vividly to mind as Oxana carved out the melodic line of Chopin’s first nocturne as Michangelo must have miraculously done with a slab of Carrara marble.

Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata not only played with scrupulous attention to the score but with crystalline clarity. The first notes where Beethoven’s contrast between mystery and mastery suddenly became clear as never before . The contrasts all through the sonata due to her mastery of the pedal was a true revelation . After the clouded recitativi suddenly Oxana produced menacing frighteningly whispered non legato chords that sent a shiver down the spine . An Adagio was grazioso but was also monumental as it disappeared with a whisper only to find that the Rondo was waiting to gently unfold before taking wing with aristocratic authority and at times music box fluidity.

A selection of Mendelssohn Songs without Words unfolded with the simplicity and magic that she had brought to Gluck’s sublime melodie from Orpheus that had opened the programme. Mendelssohn’s charm and grace like Griegs Lyric pieces are so rare to hear in concert these days where pianists like actors do not seem to have a diaphragm any more. A God given instrument that has been substituted for a microphone. Where an actor used to draw the audience in to his secret dream world rather than someone twiddling a mechanical knob off stage. The subtle art of acting has been substituted for media precision as the art of piano playing has been substituted for CD uniformity . The message that Oxana could share with us last night is a moment to cherish in a world where quantity has taken precedence over quality. After a long solo recital Oxana was glad to join us in the hall to celebrate the young musicians that she had been listening to for the past two days .

A competition that is bringing an important message to Trapani, a jewel in Sicily’s crown that Vincenzo and Giacometta Marrone D’Alberti want to share with a world starved of simplicity and beauty. Oxana now has a week of listening to artists competing for a place in the world of music that they have dedicated their their lives to. On Saturday she will fly to China where there is an explosion of culture and the average age of the public at classical concerts is a third of what it is in the west !

Oxana Yablonskaya Miracles in Trapani

Oxana Yablonskaya – Sorrento salutes the ‘Queen of the Keyboard’

Oxana Yablonskaya La Regina – The queen of the Keys

Oxana Yablonskaja ‘La Regina del Pianoforte’ concert relay from the Città di Minerbio

Herman Med Cerisha at La Mortella where the Walton’s offer a platform for young musicians in the paradise that they created together on the island of Ischia. They now survey the scene from the highest point of their estate adding their blessings to the many young musicians that are given a platform here in the Bay of Naples.

Today it was the turn of the twenty year old Italian born pianist, Herman Cerisha, who has for the past six years been guided by Florian Mitrea in the UK at the Purcell School and is now completing his studies at the Royal Academy. It was Prof Deniz Gelenbe judging the Beethoven Competition at the RAM, who had tipped me off about the remarkable talent of this young man.

Lina Tufano always ready to encourage great talents immediately invited him to play at La Mortella. It was her great friend Susana Walton who was particularly keen to encourage and help talent at a very early stage. The Walton Foundation was specifically created by Susana ,Lady Walton to honour the memory of her husband and their legacy that they had created together.

Sir William’s centenary was celebrated in 2002 in the presence of his Majesty King Charles and now this year we celebrate Susana’s centenary with a series of concerts in many parts of the world including a performance of the Walton cello concerto at the Proms. In the quarter of a century that Susana was left on her own she has been an indefatigable promoter of her adored husband and their work together, and single handed has made their estate grow into a thriving cultural centre of excellence where La Mortella is truly a jewel shining brightly on the world stage.

Their legacy is assured, as Lady Walton very mischievously added, because no one would want to evict them from an estate where the two founders were actually buried !

Herman presented his credentials before even touching the Steinway that was lain before him. A true artist is known by his programmes, just as a painter is, by his canvas, and the three masterworks that Herman presented immediately showed that here was a very serious musician who thought more of the composer than himself.

Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein’ Sonata was followed by Schubert’s magical A minor sonata before the explosion of Prokofiev’s 7th, the second of his three War Sonatas. Even the encore of Beethoven’s Bagatelle op 126 n 3, that he dedicated to Lady Walton, showed a rare eclectic musician who preferred to delve deeply into one of the last thoughts of a universal genius, rather than titivate the senses with a showpiece of sparkling brilliance.

These three master works I have heard Herman play in London and below is a detailed review of those performances . Herman is an artist, whilst understanding the structure and beauty of these works, he also tells me that he is particularly stimulated by an audience and together discover even more details and poetic moments on a wondrous voyage of discovery. As Picasso told his friend Rubinstein when the great pianist had commented that the subject of his latest canvasses was always the same. Picasso admonished him by saying that it was true, but that it was he that changed and could see the same objects in a different light every time he looked at them.

It was Delius who dismissed Beethoven as being all scales and arpeggios but what scales and arpeggios they become when seen through the eyes of a universal genius! Herman played with a dynamic rhythmic drive allowing the tension to wane for the second subject but not the overall pulse that Herman had created with such whispered vibrancy. He even discovered some very beautiful inner counterpoints that shone like jewels in a well worn landscape that he illuminated with a beguiling half light. An ‘Adagio’ played with poignant whispered intensity where the rests became of crucial importance and the change of colour on the non legato notes chasing each other across the keyboard with languid weight, were of orchestral colour. In fact all through his performance, whilst paying scrupulous attention to the composers markings there was a clarity and a masterly use of the pedals that became another section of the orchestra that he was conducting with such authority. This introduction suddenly was called to attention with a rather abrupt G that Herman knowingly dissolved onto a flowing web of sounds held in the long pedals that Beethoven had inherited from Papà Haydn, his original mentor. Wonderful rich bass chords gave great depth to the ever increasing sound of the contrasting episodes until the explosion of jewel box brilliance of the coda. Herman fearlessly playing the glissandi as Beethoven indicates where many pianists are afraid of covering the keys with blood on a keyboard with more weight than in Beethoven’s day. Serkin, always so scrupulous, would surreptitiously lick his fingers before attempting to obey his master.

Schubert was played with very careful pedalling never disturbing the gentle gasping wave of sounds that accompanied his genial mellifluous outpourings. Dynamic outbursts played with rhythmic precision and musicianly beauty but always with the architectural shape mind. Within this framework he could also add the freedom of poetic intensity passing from burning passion to sublime simplicity and radiance. The ‘Andante’ was where the rests became of crucial importance as the beauty of the melody was interrupted by whispered menace. The ‘Allegro vivace’ was played with streams of golden notes woven together with an intense rhythmic drive before bursting into strident declarations of intent. Schubert always has a surprise in store and the beauty of his melodic invention that interrupts this perpetuum mobile was even more remarkable for the beautiful finger legato that allowed Herman to play the accompaniment with unusual clarity that it became a duet between two voices of his orchestra. Herman displayed transcendental mastery with the infamous double octaves with which Schubert, in Beethovenian vein, abruptly brings to a close such poetic musings. It was here with the final four chords, each played with a different colour and poetic shape, that Herman showed us that these chords usually played with a final sigh of relief, today were played as belonging to the poetic musings of a great artist.

Prokofiev 7th Sonata was played with a kaleidoscope of colour as the first movement unfolded with violence mixed with harrowing beauty . An ‘Andante’ of opening radiance and sumptuous beauty before erupting and taking us to a land of desolation and desperation . The ‘Precipitato’ was a ‘tour de force’ of palpitating brilliance, where Prokofiev throws everything into the arena but never abandons the desperation and repeated insistence of the advancing troupes.

Beethoven’s ‘trifle’ op 126 n 3 was played with a simplicity and poetic beauty where at the end of a turbulent life Beethoven, like Mozart, could express so much with so little. Herman’s masterly use of Beethoven’s long pedals took us to a world that the composer could already envisage on the horizon, and am sure would have brought a knowing smile to Lady Walton to whom it was dedicated by Herman, in her centenary year.

Susana Walton 100 celebrations with Guy Johnston and friends

First evening:

L.V. Beethoven – Piano Sonata no.21 in C major, op.53 “Waldstein” (23 minutes)
F. Schubert – Piano Sonata in A minor D784 (19 minutes)
S. Prokofiev – Piano Sonata no.7 in B-flat major, op.83 (19 minutes)

Second evening:

L.V. Beethoven – Piano Sonata no.21 in C major, op.53 “Waldstein” (23 minutes)
F. Chopin – Scherzo no.3 in C sharp minor, op.39 (8 minutes)
F. Chopin – Ballade no.4 in F minor, op.52 (12 minutes)
S. Prokofiev – Piano Sonata no.7 in B-flat major, op.83 (19 minutes)

Herman Med Cerisha with playing of overwhelming authority and poetic beauty ‘A unique pianist who stands out for his originality and sincerity’

Herman Med Cerisha at St James’s Piccadilly ‘Masterly playing of intelligence and poetic beauty at the service of the composer’

2026 is the centenary of the birth of Lady Susana Walton, a woman of extraordinary charisma, patron, creative soul and guardian of one of the most enchanted places in the Mediterranean: the La Mortella Gardens of Forio. Born in Argentina in 1926, Susana Gil Passo met and married the English composer William Walton in 1948. Together, they chose Ischia as their refuge and home of life. Here, with the help of the famous landscape architect Russel Page, Susana started a project that would occupy her all her life: creating a wonderful garden, a source of inspiration for the composer, in which to pour out his creativity, his love for plants and his artistic sensitivity. After her husband’s death, Lady Walton devoted all her energy to the care and enhancement of La Mortella, transforming it into a place not only of extraordinary beauty, but also into a lively cultural centre with music as its beating heart. Today the William Walton and La Mortella Foundation, which she strongly wanted, continues to protect its spirit, welcoming over 90,000 visitors a year and hosting concerts, masterclasses, conferences and botanical initiatives that keep her vision alive.

Guy Johnston and Mishka Momen Rushdie conquer Bechstein Hall in the name of Beethoven

Ileana and Joan 3rd December

Mishka Rushdie Momen a timeless message of comfort and beauty

1. Sostenuto assai – Allegro ma non troppo
2. Scherzo: Molto vivace – Trio I – Trio II
3. Andante cantabile
4. Finale: Vivace

The Piano Concerto in C is a concertante work by Ralph Vaughan Williams  written in 1926 (movements 1 and 2) and 1930–31 (movement 3). During the intervening years, the composer completed Job:A Masque for Dancing and began work on his Fourth Symphony. The concerto shares some thematic characteristics with these works, as well as some of their drama and turbulence.The work was premiered on 1 February 1933 by Harriet Cohen , with the BBC Symphony Orchestra directed by Sir Adrian Boult . The Finale was edited shortly thereafter and the work was published in 1936. The concerto was not well received at first, being considered unrewarding to the soloist. Though the piece provides ample opportunity for virtuosity in all movements, Vaughan Williams treated the piano as a percussion instrument as did Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith during this period, with the texture at times impenetrably thick.

While the concerto was rated highly by some—Bartók, for one, was extremely impressed—Vaughan Williams took the advice of well-meaning friends and colleagues and reworked the piece into a Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra , adding more texture to the piano parts with the assistance of Joseph Cooper  in 1946

The concerto has three movements :

1. Toccata : Allegro moderato – Largamente – Cadenza  
2. Romanza: Lento
3. Fuga chromatica con Finale alla Tedesca

The concerto begins with driving, energetic music from the soloist set against a threatening, rising theme in the orchestra. A faster, more scherzo-like idea, shared out equally between piano and orchestra, soon contrasts against the opening music. These two blocks of music alternate, forming the basis of the entire movement. It is as though the traditional dialogue between soloist and orchestra has been supplanted by a more generalised dialogue of musical types. At the movement’s climax, a brief and thunderous piano solo is joined by the full orchestra. However, the orchestra suddenly cuts off to leave the piano musing alone in a short lyrical cadenza. This leads without a break into the slow movement

The romanza is more delicate, providing the listener with hints of Vaughan Williams’s previous studies with Maurice Ravel. Vaughan Williams here quoted the theme from the Epilogue of the third movement of Arnold Bax’s Symphony n. 3

Again without a pause from the previous music, the closing movement begins with a fugue that is linked to a waltz finale by flights of virtuosity from the piano soloist. It closes with the ensemble repeating themes from the first two movements, and then abruptly closes

William Walton’s  Cello Concerto (1957) is the third and last of the composer’s concertos for string instruments, following his Viola Concerto  (1929) and Violin Concerto (1939). It was written between February and October 1956, commissioned by and dedicated to the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, the soloist at the premiere in Boston  on 25 January 1957.

Initial responses to the work were mixed. Some reviewers thought the work old-fashioned, and others called it a masterpiece. Piatigorsky predicted that it would enter the international concert repertoire, and his recording has been followed by numerous others by soloists from four continentsWalton had been regarded as avant garde in his youth, but by 1957, when he was in his mid-fifties, he was seen as a composer in the romantic tradition, and some thought him old-fashioned by comparison with his younger English contemporary Benjamin Britten . After his only full-length opera, Troilus and Cressida (1954), Covent Garden  announced that his next major work would be a ballet score for the 1955–1956 season. The ballet, a version of Macbeth, fell through, because Margot Fonteyn, for whom it was intended, did not warm to the idea of playing Lady Macbeth. By the time an alternative subject was agreed, Walton was committed to writing a cello concerto and his ballet score never materialised.The commission for the concerto was $3,000 – a substantial sum at the time. Walton commented that as a professional composer he would write anything for anybody, but “I write much better if they pay me in dollars”.

The concerto, commissioned by the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky followed the conventional concerto form to the extent of having three contrasting movements. As with his earlier Violin Concerto, written for Jasha Heifetz , Walton worked in close collaboration with the soloist while composing the work, mostly by correspondence between the composer from his home on Ischia and the cellist, touring internationally. Piatigorsky remarked that the world in the 20th century got its cello concertos from England – those of Elgar and Delius  and then Walton.The premiere was postponed from December 1956 because Piatigorsky was ill. It took place at Symphony Hall, Boston , with the Boston Symphony Orchestra  conducted by Charles Munch . It received its first British performance within weeks, on 13 February 1957, again with Piatigorsky, this time with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Malcom Sargent at the Royal Festival Hall  The work was first recorded shortly after the premiere, with the original forces.

The concerto is in three movements, but does not follow the conventional concerto form of a brisk opening movement followed by a slow movement: like Walton’s earlier concertos for viola and violin, the Cello Concerto has a moderately paced opening movement followed by a much quicker central scherzo. The three movements are: Moderato – Allegro appassionato- Tema ed improvvisazioni (Theme and improvisations).The third improvisation is a brilliant orchestral toccata; The fourth, for unaccompanied cello, is marked “rhapsodically” (rapsodicamente), and has wide fluctuations of speed; it ends with high trills, which merge into the coda.

The coda refers back to themes from the first movement, first an upward-striving figure from its central section and then the opening melody, before the theme of the finale returns in compressed from, leading the movement towards a quiet, luminous ending, and a bottom C from the cello, but during the composition Piatigorsky hankered after a more bravura ending. Walton composed two alternative ones, but the original quiet conclusion was played at the premiere and has remained the standard version.

In 1974 the composer reconsidered the ending and wondered if Piatigorsky (and Heifetz, who shared the cellist’s view) might have been right. Walton composed a third ending and sent it to Piatigorsky, but by then the cellist was mortally ill and he never performed it.The original ending has remained the standard one.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/02/08/herman-med-cerisha-at-st-jamess-piccadilly-masterly-playing-of-intelligence-and-poetic-beauty-at-the-service-of-the-composer/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2026/01/23/nikita-burzanitsa-in-florence-a-birthday-celebration-with-the-mastery-of-a-poet-of-the-keyboard/

Shunta Morimoto bringing youthful mastery and magic to Walton’s Paradise

Igor Levit showing us that Brahms First concerto may be a duel between piano and orchestra but proving today with refined whispered playing that duels can also be won with gentle persuasion where beauty and radiance can defeat brute force and violence.

From Levits very first notes the whispered radiance of the piano entry created an overwhelming effect of surprise and astonishment. It was this that Levit, the poet of the keyboard, needed to express to contrast the overwhelming effect of the startling octave assault that Brahms shocks us with as the piano really does compete with the orchestra with nobility and dramatic chameleonic changes of gear.

An arresting first movement simply marked ‘Maestoso’ but it was of remarkable daring in its day as this was a true piano symphony, not the traditional question and answer but a unified cry of radiance and defiance. Levit is one of the finest and most knowledgeable musicians of our day as his master classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London can testify . https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/04/05/igor-levit-at-the-royal-academy-of-music/

A cross between Levin and Schiff for historical knowledge but all Levit for the simple joy and mastery that he shares with all those that come within his radius. And tonight he was just one of the remarkable musicians on stage in the Santa Cecilia Hall in Rome. Discreetly moving with the music and sharing knowing looks with the players as their music making revealed secrets that can only happen in live music making.

A slow movement where Levit’s barely audible ethereal sounds were contrasted with the sumptuous richness that Harding could entice from his magnificent players. Hardly allowing the deeply pensive notes of the Adagio to die away as Levit catapulted us into the Rondo with burning Hungarian verve with a finale that was all Brahms’s youthful exhilaration and breathtaking excitement .

And after such a revelatory performance Levit allowed Mendelssohn to console us with his Adagio non troppo op 30 n 3 from Book two of his Songs without Words . Levit drawing us in to listen to whispered secrets as he had with Brahms, but this time there were no shock tactics but the simple consolation of a poet of the keyboard.

We may be used to the noble rich sounds of Rubinstein or Arrau or the animal excitement of Serkin but Levit like Lupu in this hall in 1976 can still make us relive this remarkable work with the shock tactics of its day.

Igor Levit at the Royal Academy of Music

Levit and Volodin the ‘likely lads’strike gold with Debussy and Rachmaninov

The Amazing Mr Levit

It was good to be able to listen to Nicolas Giacomelli again having been at his graduation recital last June at the Accademia of S Cecilia, where he was completing his studies with Benedetto Lupo.

Presenting now his new CD at Roma 3 in their Young Artists Series that gives a stage to young musicians at the start of their career.

Two masterworks by Schumann op 13 and 16. The Symphonic Studies and Kreisleriana, compositions only separated by Kinderszenen op 15 and followed by the Fantasy op 17, written in a period when Schumann was training under Friedrick Wieck to become a virtuoso pianist . One masterpiece after another poured from his pen from op 1 to op 28 until he damaged his hand with a finger stretching contraption, and was from then on to dedicate himself mainly to chamber music and symphonic works.

The Symphonic Studies were dedicated to Sterndale Bennett ( the English pianist who was to become the first director of the Royal Academy in London). Kreisleriana was dedicated to Chopin, who Schumann had announced on the arrival of the teenage Polish emigré in Vienna, with ‘Hats off a Genius’.

But the main inspiration was to be the daughter of his teacher, the child prodigy, Clara Wieck . Much to her father’s consternation she was to become Schumann’s wife and mother of their eight children and the inspiration for most of his compositions before a nervous breakdown and his early death in an asylum.

Nicolas chose the first, unrevised version of the Studies, which excluded the five posthumous studies often incorporated into the main version, mainly encouraged to be included in the final edition by Brahms, after Schumann’s death, a close family friend in an intimate triangle of artistic endeavour! It includes some variants in the last variation too where the repetitive march like finale is interrupted by a melodic interlude based on the theme ‘Proud England,rejoice’ from Marschner’s Opera based on Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Ivanhoe’ and was a homage to the dedicatee William Sterndale Bennett. I noticed in Nicolas’s performance, a slight variant in the first variation too, that I had not been aware of before.

Nicolas played the opening theme rather slowly for its ‘Andante’ marking, making this ‘composition of an amateur’ vertical and ponderous rather than flowingly horizontal. It was the theme of Ernestine von Fricken’s father, whose daughter had been an ex flame of Schumann, depicted as ‘Estrella’ in his ‘Carnaval’ op 9! The variations and studies were played with great seriousness and solidity but sometimes lacked the dynamic contrasts and lighter touch that Schumann indicates in the score . There was a passionate intensity to the second variation where the melodic line was allowed to sing with vibrant rhythmic emotion. Bringing out the bass in the repeat to create more variety in a sound world that was always of passionate intensity and dynamic drive. It was in the fourth variation marked ‘scherzando’ that Nicolas remained rather earthbound rather than allowing his hands to flutter over the keys. Agosti described the seventh variation as a ‘Gothic Cathedral’ and this suited Nicolas’s monumental conception giving it a vibrant use of the pedal and a heavily marked bass anchor. The eighth variation, Schumann marks ‘Presto possibile’ and Nicolas played with transcendental mastery making easy fare of the fast moving chords but then the slower chords of the eighth, although played ‘con energy’ seemed unnecessarily ponderous. The ninth variation is a beautiful ‘bel canto’ inspired by Chopin which Nicolas played with radiance and beauty and if he played the climax with overpowering passion it was with great conviction and a variety of sounds that had been missing elsewhere. The Finale was indeed ‘Allegro Brillante’ and was a ‘tour de force’ of forward movement to the final pages of excitement and dynamic drive in a performance that was more symphonic and percussive than pianistic and melodic.

Kreisleriana began with passionate intensity taking Schumann’s marking ‘Ausserst bewegt’ rather literally, with a rather overpowering dynamic range, but Nicolas managed to keep the tempo throughout allowing the passion to die down for the beautiful lyrical central episode. The second movement, sehr innig, is the longest and is interrupted by two interludes of spiky brilliance and flowing passionate intensity before returning to the ‘very heartfelt’ opening. In Nicolas’s attempt to make the piano sing the pedal was sometime overclouded and a real finger legato with weight would have given more control and clarity. In the third movement Schumann’s marking of ‘aufgeregt’ was taken rather literally as though ‘agitated’ was always passionate and it could have benefitted from a lighter less dramatic touch, but there was beauty in the weaving melodic outpouring of the central episode. Some contemplative playing in the fourth movement played ‘langsam’ but with flowing beauty.The fifth movement Schumann marks ‘lebhaft’ but Nicolas chose to play it with much more spiky brilliance and although played with great control it missed something of it’s fleeting elegance and style. The sixth movement Nicolas suddenly allowed the piano to sing with a beautiful sense of balance of glowing radiance. The seventh Schumann simply marks ‘sehr rasch’ and Nicolas certainly gave a fearless performance of extraordinary velocity but it was more of a tornado than a west wind and could have benefitted from more shape and tonal contrasts. The last movement was played with a capricious sense of style with the long bass notes interrupting the whimsical melodic line that Nicolas played with clarity and knowing impertinence. If the two intervening episodes were played with overpowering passion it was obviously the mood that Nicolas was in today with the white teeth of this powerful Fazioli concert piano staring up at him and just encouraging him to pounce with all his youthful mastery and power.

It was in the two French encores that Nicolas could relax and give exquisite performances of colour and style of La Veneziana by Gounod and the charm and delicacy of Wély’s salon caprice ‘Etincelle’.

Benedetto Lupo ‘Il Re di Roma taming his young Lions with mastery, poetry and above all humanity’

Gounod: La Veneziana (Barcarolle) in G Minor CG 593

Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély – L’Étincelle, Op.109 (Caprice)

His playing was virtuosic, and as a performer, he was rated above eminent contemporaries including César Franck. His compositions, less substantial than those of Franck and others, have not held such a prominent place in the repertory.

Lefébure-Wely was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1850. His contemporary, César Franck became better known as a composer, but was not as highly regarded as an organist. Adolphe Adam commented, “Lefébure-Wely is the most skilful artist I know”; Camille Saint-Saëns, Lefébure-Wely’s successor at the Madeleine, observed, “Lefébure-Wely was a wonderful improviser … but he left only a few unimportant compositions for the organ.” He was the dedicatee of the “12 études pour les pieds seulement” (12 Studies for organ pedals alone) by Charles-Valentin Alkan and of the “Final en si bémol” for organ, op. 21, by Franck.

Among 200 compositions Lefébure-Wely wrote works for choir, piano, chamber ensemble, symphony orchestra and an opéra comique, Les recruteurs (1861).

‘ Carsen filled the space with visionary poetic beauty as the four main components delved deeply into their souls ……………….time stood still such was the intense atmosphere created with earth and air rather than bricks and mortar, by a director and company who could transmit such emotions with poignant immediacy………..’

A timeless production at Rome Opera of Handel’s Oratorio ‘The Triumph of Time and Disillusion’ directed by Robert Carsen. “Leave the spine and collect the rose” “Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa” from George Frideric Handel’s 1707 oratorio ‘Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno’ (The Triumph of Time and Truth) is a variation of “gather ye rosebuds,” advising the listener to leave behind the thorn (the pain, the struggle, or the fleeting, worldly pleasures that cause pain) and take the rose (the beauty, virtue, and true joy).

The aria is sung by the character Pleasure (Piacere) Anna Bonitatibus to cajole a young woman named Beauty (Bellezza) Johanna Wallroth . Pleasure argues that one should enjoy the beauty of life without dwelling on the pain or the constraints of time, urging her to seize the moment of pleasure.The overarching theme is the transience of life, with Time, Ed Lyon, and Truth, Raffaele Pe, trying to persuade Beauty to abandon false, fleeting pleasures and follow the path of virtue. Written by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj for the twenty two year old Handel on his arrival in Rome in 1707 it has been given a refreshingly new lease of life by Robert Carsen in a production that has been able to maintain faith to Cardinal Pamphilj’s parable brought to life by the beauty of Handel’s score with the Rome Opera Orchestra conducted by Gianluca Capuano.

Lighting, mirrors and many young dancers filled the space with visionary poetic beauty as the four main components delved deeply into their souls. A production where time stood still, such was the intense atmosphere created with earth and air rather than bricks and mortar, by a director and company who could transmit such emotions with poignant immediacy .

The Triumph of Time and Truth is the final name of an oratorio  by George Frideric Handel  produced in three different versions across fifty years of the composer’s career:In 1706, the young Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759) went to study with Italian musicians. Among the many personalities he met in the most prestigious salons of Rome, he became friends with Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili (1653-1730), poet and philosopher. The latter presented him with a secular oratorio libretto: Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Disillusionment). The poet’s inspiring language and the opportunity to create a lyrical work that could circumvent the papal ban on performing an opera in Rome were two inevitable reasons for Handel to compose his first oratorio. Premiered in June 1708 at the palace of the cardinal and great patron Pietro Ottoboni, the work confronts four allegories: Beauty, influenced by her friend Pleasure, is finally convinced that she cannot escape her cruel destiny, which is to grow old and then die, by the all-powerful Time and the wise Disillusionment. Often revised, up to an English version in 1757, Handel did not hesitate to re use certain airs for other of his works. This is why some consider Il Trionfo to be his first and last oratorio.

https://youtu.be/xd6QQ8LUKXk?si=mlEG5_qiX3ph-VF8

Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Disillusion), HWV 46a

Handel’s very first oratorio, composed in spring 1707, to an Italian-language libretto by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili  . Time and Disillusion are personified (thus spelled with an initial capital even in Italian). Comprising two sections, the oratorio was premiered that summer in Rome. One of its famous arias is Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa (Leave the Thorn, Take the Rose), later recast as “Lascia chi’s ping”(Leave Me to Weep) in the opera Rinaldo  and for Pena Tiranna in Amadigi di Gaula.

Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità (The Triumph of Time and Truth), HWV 46b

Revised and expanded into three sections in March 1737, the work also had its name adjusted. Handel was by that time living in England and producing seasons of English-language oratorio and Italian opera. This version premiered on March 23, received three more performances the next month, and was revived on one date in 1739.

The Triumph of Time and Truth, HWV 71

In March 1757, possibly without much involvement from the blind and aging Handel, the oratorio was further expanded and revised. The libretto was reworked into English, probably by the composer’s prolific last librettist, Thomas Morell , while John Christopher Smith Jr.probably assembled the score. Although Jephtha(1751) is considered the composer’s true last oratorio, this third version of Il trionfo comes later.Isabella Young  sang the role of Counsel (Truth) at the premiere.

Anna Bonitatibus gets to the heart of Rossini

A fascinating new programme from Noah that he wanted to try out on his neighbours in Perivale. A programme that demonstrated his musicianship and transcendental mastery of the keyboard.

C.P.E. Bach was the fifth child and second surviving son of J.S. Bach sometimes known as the Berlin or Hamburg Bach to distinguish him from his younger brother J.C. Bach known as the ‘London’ Bach . He was an influential composer working at a time of transition between his father’s Baroque style and the Classical style that followed. He was the principal representative of the ‘sensitive style’ whose keyboard music is a forerunner of the expressiveness of Romantic music , in deliberate contrast to the statuesque forms of Baroque music. It was exactly this sense of style that Noah captured from the very first notes with a scintillating opening of cascade of brilliance. Playing with a pulsating energy and glowing mastery contrasting with the beauty of the ‘Adagio’ that was played with purity and simplicity, the long melodic lines allowed to flow with and architectural shape and refined musical line. A playful Allegro with deep notes adding an anchor to the scintillating streams of notes that flowed from Noah’s hands with masterly ease.

C.P.E Bach had been an influential pedagogue writing his “Essay on the true art of playing keyboard instruments”, which influenced Haydn,Mozart and Beethoven. So it was doubly interesting to hear Mozart’s C major Sonata K 333 played immediately afterwards . Mozart could say so much with so little as this sonata demonstrates with its refined elegance and subtle delicacy. Noah played the opening ‘Allegro’ with a crystalline beauty, the ornaments glowing like jewels as Noah’s superb fingers were like springs unwinding with brilliant clarity. An ‘Andante’ of flowing beauty of refined good taste and luminosity. The ‘Allegretto’ played with a delicacy and elegance where every note had a meaning and was part of a satisfying whole. Mozart may indeed have been influenced by C.P.E. Bach but added the refined invention of genial inspiration.

Noah brought the same simplicity and glowing beauty to ‘La Folia’ theme of Rachmaninov’s ‘Corelli’ Variations dedicated to Fritz Kreisler his violinist duo partner. ‘La Folia’, was inot composed by Arcangelo Corelli, but was used by him in 1700 as the basis for 23 variations in his Sonata for violin, violone, and harpsichord in D minor, Op. 5, No. 12. Hence the dedication to Kreisler. ‘La Folia’ was popularly used as the basis for variations in Baroque music and even Liszt used the same theme in his Rhapsodie Espagnole S. 254 (1863). Rachmaninov wrote to another friend, the composer Nikolai Medtner, in 1931: “I’ve played the Variations about fifteen times, but of these fifteen performances only one was good. The others were sloppy. I can’t play my own compositions! And it’s so boring! Not once have I played these all in continuity. I was guided by the coughing of the audience. Whenever the coughing would increase, I would skip the next variation. Whenever there was no coughing, I would play them in proper order. In one concert, I don’t remember where – some small town – the coughing was so violent that I played only ten variations (out of 20). My best record was set in New York, where I played 18 variations. However, I hope that you will play all of them, and won’t ‘cough’.”

Noah played all twenty variations today with poetic beauty and scintillating brilliance.There was no coughing in Perivale and Noah could allow us to hear his first outing of this work with playing of great precision and rhythmic drive. Immediately emerging himself into the brooding character of the ‘Minuet’ third variation, before the beautifully sung fourth , with its etherial comments played with simple knowing ease by Noah. A dynamic drive to the fifth lead straight into the intricate knotty twine of the sixth and the majestic explosion of sounds, on the pedal note of D, in the seventh .The eighth was even more agitated and played with a Rachmaninovian sumptuous brilliance ending with cascades of notes sweeping across the keys. Capricious meanderings of the ‘Adagio misterioso’ and the radiant harmonies of the ninth were played with languid beauty spread over the entire keyboard. A pulsating rhythmic energy to the tenth with typical vituosistic Rachmaninovian embellishments of transcendental difficulty bringing savage rhythmic drive to the eleventh. A pulsating syncopated rhythmic energy to the twelfth before the chords of the thirteenth played with sumptuous full sounds by Noah . The improvised ‘Intermezzo’ was played with a ravishing palette of colour and masterly use of the pedal as it dissolved into ‘La Folia’ now in the major key of D flat. Noah played it with glowing simplicity as it unwound into the fifteenth with pastoral simplicity.Taking wing again with the sixteenth and swirls of notes leading into the calm of the seventeenth where the theme was floated on a gently moving bass. The last three variations were a ‘tour de force’ of dynamic drive and brilliance with Noah throwing himself into the fray with fearless abandon until arriving on the repeated bass ‘D”s as the theme was allowed to float magically on this wave of whispered beauty. A remarkable first outing for Noah of a work of transcendental difficulty where he can already steer us through such knotty twine with intelligence and poetic understanding.

Liszt’s sixth Hungarian Rhapsody has long been a warhorse for virtuosi with its infamous repeated octaves which Noah played with remarkable mastery and brilliance. Excitement and brilliance mounted to fever pitch when the octaves passed into the left hand with streams of notes shooting across the keys above. But Noah is a remarkable musician who could also bring ravishing beauty to the central episode and a rhythmic energy to the opening Hungarian dance rhythms. Creating a miniature tone poem and not just a showpiece of empty virtuosity .

Described as masterful, deeply emotional and dramatic in his pianistic style by BBC Radio, London based British-Chinese pianist Noah Zhou is the first ever British born Laureate of the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition. Generously supported through his childhood by the Eileen Rowe Musical Trust, he has since graduated with 1st Class Honours from the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded the Sir Elton John Scholarship, and where he studied with the Emeritus Head of Keyboard, Christopher Elton. During his time as a student, Zhou was awarded multiple top scholarships and grants from The Hattori Foundation, Countess of Munster Trust and the Drake Calleja Trust.

Zhou has been a top prizewinner in over 15 national and international piano competitions, and first came to media attention when he was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society of Great Britain’s Duet Prize for Best Young Instrumentalist in 2018. Since then he has frequently performed in concerts all across the world, and made his debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall in January 2025. Just prior, towards the end of 2024, Zhou was invited to give the first international premiere of a new work by the celebrated South American female composer Angel Amparo, in Ibague, the musical capital of Colombia. 

In past seasons, Zhou has collaborated with numerous orchestras, including the Phion Orchestra of the Netherlands; the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine; the Brazilian National Symphony Orchestra; the Orquestra do Algarve; the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (named after Evgeny Svetlanov); the Danube Symphony Orchestra; the Manchester Camerata; the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra; and the Malaga Symphony Orchestra, and has performed under the batons of conductors such as Antony Hermus; Douglas Bostock; Ivan Nikiforchin; Vitaliy Protasov; Roberto Tibiriçá; András Deák; Ronald Corp; Grigor Palikarov; Stephen Threlfall; and Victor Eloy Lopez Cerezo, amongst others. 

Noah Zhou at the Wigmore Hall Royal Academy of Music Series ‘Fearless music making of beauty and exhilaration’

Noah Zhou at St Mary’s A tiger on the rampage with artistry and total mastery