Beethoven: Piano Sonata in C Op 53 ‘Waldstein’ Allegro / Adagio / Rondo
Chopin: Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante Op 22
Some superb playing from the winner of this years much sought after Royal Overseas League Competition. It was last October that after listening to 32 pianists playing in the Beethoven Festival at St Mary’s.I was asked which of all the fine performances of the complete sonatas remained in my memory.It was without doubt this Waldstein Sonata that we heard today. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/10/03/beethoven-is-alive-and-well-and-in-perivale/
There was absolute authority with rhythmic drive and clarity allied to a technical command of extraordinary perfection.It was just these qualities that were present today but there was something even deeper about his playing especially in the introduction to the last movement. Suddenly after the rhythmic drive and exhilaration of the Allegro con brio there was a stillness and contemplation with a completely different tone palette.As he had said in his very enjoyable presentation that after the bright sunlight there was something dark and brooding about the Adagio molto introduction before the sun appeared through the clouds with the Rondo that grows out of it.The original slow movement,Beethoven substituted for this introduction and his first thoughts were published as his Andante Favori.The Rondo was played with scrupulous attention to the composers very precise instructions.The beautiful haze out of which emerges the Rondo theme was exactly as Beethoven had asked and contrasted with the ever more technical hurdles of the intervening episodes.A transcendental technical command that allowed a contrasting clarity with the Rondo theme in a crescendo of rhythmic excitement – Delius’s words come to mind as he dismissed Bach as knotty twine and Beethoven all scales and arpeggios!But in a real musicians hands these scales and arpeggios can lead to an ever increasing rhythmic excitement spilling out into a coda of the invention of a genius.An almost music box beginning leading via glissando scales ( played with the same effect as glissando by George but with an unnoticeable agility of a real magician).It was this real musicianship of George that shone through all he did.Not just doing what the composer writes on the page but turning his sterile markings into the intention behind them.George too is a real showman knowing when to allow himself a real flourish of final exhilaration.
The Enescu was new to me and I remember the interesting discussion I had with George about Enescu during the pandemic when he gave a recital at St Mary’s in collaboration with the Keyboard Charitable Trust. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/11/11/george-todica-at-st-marys-duality-and-transformation/ George is a remarkable musician as you would expect from the school of Norma Fisher but he also has such charm and intelligence that he is able to talk about music in such a fascinating way. The pandemic had thwarted his marriage plans a few times but had not stopped him and his future wife from giving lockdown concerts on their balcony for all their neighbours.Neighbours who had showered their wonderfully talented young friends with wedding presents as I see from the ring on George’s finger that third time was lucky. Enescu is something of a hero in Romania – violinist teacher of Menuhin, composer and pianist is rarely heard in the concert hall except occasionally his Rhapsodies on popular tunes that George told us Enescu did not consider them as representing his true more serious compositions. There is an Enescu Piano Competition and Festival that slowly is trying to bring his music to the fore.George too always tries to include a work of his fellow Romanian in his programmes. Today he included two movements from Enescu’s early second Suite which he played very persuasively.There was absolute clarity and control of sound as he gave such a robust performance of Enescu’s joyously grandiose melodic invention.There was great delicacy too in the Pavane with embellishments of ravishing beauty.A kaleidoscope of harp like sounds with a music box full of sparkling jewels.
It was the same beauty that he brought to Chopin’s Andante Spianato thanks to a very careful balance between the hands.There was such a refined sense of rubato that allowed the embellishments the same flexibility of a bel canto singer without loosing the overall architectural shape and musical flow.The polonaise too was played with infectious rhythmic elan and moments of transcendental command but there was always the nostalgia and Chopin’s aristocratic style that came to the fore. I was hoping we might get the promised Ravel Pavane as an encore but time was obviously up and that will have to wait for another occasion
Romanian concert pianist George Todica completed an Artist Diploma degree from the Royal College of Music in 2019 studying with Norma Fisher, and a Masters of Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2017, studying with Norman Beedie and Jonathan Plowright. George had his Wigmore Hall debut in October 2018 as a Tillett Trust Young Artist, and his more recent competition success include first prizes at the Royal Over-Seas League Keyboard Prize, in 2022 Norah Sande Award in England, ‘Stefano Marizza’ Piano Competition in Italy, the Moray Piano Competition in Scotland, the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in Wales, 2 nd prize at the International Piano Campus Competition in France, and 3 rd Prize at the International Piano Competition Istanbul. His international performances include prestigious halls such as the Trento Philharmonic Hall, the Mozarteum Concert Hall, the Dôme de Pontoise in France, Wigmore Hall, St. Martin-in-the-field, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, Theatre by the Lake, Theatre Clwyd, Buxton Festival and King’s Lynn Festival. A keen chamber musician, George is regularly performing with soprano Charlotte Hoather, with whom he has recorded 4 CD albums, and as part of the Chloe Piano Trio with violinist Maria G îlicel and cellist Jobine Siekman. The Trio has been awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Henderson Chamber Ensemble Award in 2021 and have been selected as Kirckman Trust Young Artists’ for the 22/23 season. Projects for 2022 include the release of a CD album with music by women composers, in collaboration with the Abbey Road Institute, as well the launching of a concert series in South East London that highlights women in music and arts.
Programme Sofiia Matviienko: Homo Ludens, a piece by the Ukrainian composer Volodymir Runchak, Evening concert, St James’s Church, Sussex Gardens, Paddington W2 3UD –
Jessie Harrington congratulating the artists at the end of the concert
Refined Beethoven Scintillating Prokofiev and atmospheric Ukrainian composer Runchak was on the menu with artists from Canan Maxton’s Talented Unlimited team at St James’s in Lancaster Gate.
The delicacy and kaleidoscopic colour that Víctor Braojos brought to Granados’s Maiden and the Nightingale set the atmosphere that was to remain for the entire concert.His performance of Beethoven’s last piano sonata had authority and weight and the magic of the trills at the end of this great last journey that Beethoven makes had been ignited by the delicacy of Granados’s enchanted nightingale. Here though in Beethoven they had a different significance as the Arietta traversed a lifetime journey before reaching the paradise that awaits. A profound sense of stillness and beauty were revealed by this young Catalan pianist whose new recording ‘Shreds of life’ have ignited in him the maturity and authority of a true artist.
The stage was set for Nikita Lukinov with a completely different palette of colours as he embellished Tchaikowsky’s richly embroidered Scherzo Fantasie with scintillating streams of notes that poured so effortlessly from his hands. The charm and grace that he brought to Scriabin’s Valse op 38 was of another age with such subtle colours that ignited this salon concert waltz as the great pianists of the Golden Age must have done. The luminosity of sound with the Allegro inquieto of Prokofiev’s 7th Sonata was refreshingly unexpected and was just the start of a long journey of remarkable colours that this young Russian extracted from the piano inbetween bursts of unrelenting rhythmic energy.Sumptuous rich sounds in the Andante Caloroso were contrasted with the absolute clarity of the precipitato that Nikita brought to red hot boiling point with transcendental virtuosity.
It seemed a strange choice to close a concert of such major masterpieces for the piano with solo flute. The surprise of the evening was the ravishing performance by Sofia Matviienko of Homo Ludens by a fellow Ukrainian. Some remarkable colours in which she not only blew into the flute but she also caressed it and even sang into it as this single instrument became a world of atmospheric sounds and indeed the cherry on the cake of a remarkable concert
The audience at St James’sNikita Lukinov with his teacher Tatiana SarkissovaVíctor Braojos with Can Arisoy both artists of Talent UnlimitedJessie Harrington with the distinguished pianist Angela Brownridge and friendCanan Maxton selfless promoter of young talent via her Talent Unlimited
I have rarely seen the Wigmore Hall so full as for the charismatic teacher of Trifonov,Sergei Babayan .The announced first book of the ‘48 had been changed to a mixed programme with Bach Busoni as near as we got to the original. Followed by a selection of Schubert songs transcribed by Liszt (one of which he left out,Aufenthalt- surely the most beautifully haunting ) and 3 Etudes tableau instead of the two advertised and a Moment musical by Rachmaninov.
Some serious work was needed from the piano tuner in the interval which gave some indication of the power and physical onslaught the piano had endured.
His playing is of the old Russian school of massive sonorities that are never hard due to the complete relaxation of his arms . I remember just the same overwhelming sonorities in the Festival Hall with Lazar Berman ( known by some as Laser Beam) playing the 12 transcendental studies by Liszt -I had a hard job to get out after the third one ,due to my student choir seat,but I just could not take these offensively overwhelming sounds. Babayan even jerked his arms down with all his force into the keyboard to produce ever more overpowering sounds. The massive amount of pedal did allow some ravishing sounds in the quieter passages but with some rather too personal rubati that in the Bach could be best described as grotesque. The Schubert songs a favourite warhorse of Russian pianists produced a mixture or ravishing almost improvised playing that one felt it a pity he could not keep more control as the temperature rose. I was hoping for better things in Rachmaninov but his search for massive overwhelming sonorities with such enormous amounts of pedal meant that the clarity and beauty of Rachmaninov was lost in a general rather vague haze.
I was interested to hear Liszt’s B minor Ballade but it was so wayward with such violent sudden accents and notes thrown off with astonishing bravura more of a general impression than a measured interpretation. I had hoped to leave discreetly before Kreisleriana but as no one had realised the Ballade was over he immediately ‘attacked’ the Schumann with such strange accents and wayward rhythms that was to be the key to his whole interpretation . There were many ravishing things in the second piece but without any real sense of logic or line that after a while became just sounds without form or direction and were ultimately just boring . I managed to leave before the contemporary final piece and listen from outside whilst I wrote this chronicle. An ovation with cat calls and shouts rarely heard in this hall brought forth the Aria from the Goldberg variations.
A good rest which I think the piano deserved. It seemed very beautiful from behind the doors .Measured ,simple with subtle ornamentation and it was a wonderful cleansing of the air that had been too full of passionate sonorities and improvisations.Obviously even Babayan craved for the simple beauty that he gave us at the end – he had been hammering away at the piano hours before the public was let in the hall – somewhat reminiscent of a recent experience in Rome with Pogorelich. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/the-return-of-the-rebel-pogorelich-is-back-in-town/. It had me thinking what a pity he had changed the original programme where his fantasy and colours might have fitted into Bach’s mathematical structure and illuminated the knotty twine in a revelatory way. Unfortunately this was not to be and has left me feeling perplexed and not a little offended by his performances today.
Anyone who reads my personal chronicles often complain that I only write positive things and I often say that if I don’t like a performance I do not feel it necessary to share my opinion with others .Playing in public is never easy and I take my hat off to all those that dare tread the boards and if an interpretation does not convince who am I to criticise? Today I feel so offended not only by what I heard but also the reaction of an audience who have known the excellence of artists like Andras Schiff,Angela Hewitt ,Paul Lewis,Igor Levit,Martha Argerich or Steven Isserlis to mention just a few of the eminent musicians who play in this hallowed hall.
Could it be that the ever diminishing public for classical music is happy to be entertained rather than moved? Babayan is an artist in residence at the Wigmore Hall which is certainly food for thought.
I am sure that in his teaching his fantasy and preoccupation with the message behind the notes might be illuminating for someone with an already classical training. It is a school of thought that other eminent teachers from the Russian school impart to their talented students.I was told just the other day that there is no such thing as style but it is the emotional content that counts more than the frame it is in! An interesting point of view but in the end surely the composers very precise indications should be the starting point for any interpretation -just look at Liszt’s own very faithful edition of the Beethoven Sonatas or Debussy’s Chopin.
Anything less than respect for the composers written wishes is a free improvisation which may have moments of illuminating certain passages but without a frame or sense of architectural shape it ultimately become boring.The underlying rhythmic current is continually disturbed by not seeing the wood for the trees. A true artist with integrity,honesty and much suffering should be able to show us both. The artist who does that more than any other in my day is Murray Perahia who alas has been away from the concert stage for too long for health reasons. For his mentor Rufolf Serkin the score was the absolute bible,as it was for mine Guido Agosti (a disciple of Busoni who was a disciple of Liszt). Perahia was ready to be illuminated by his other mentor Vladimir Horowitz who on his appearance in Paris like Liszt before him was considered by many to be the greatest pianist alive or dead! Tonight at the Wigmore Hall I left ‘Bewitched.bothered and bewildered ‘
Paul Lewis’s extraordinary musicianship shone through every note of the much loved Pathétique that opened his celebratory recital. The weight and meaning he brought to such a well worn piece was a revelation of simplicity and sensitivity.There was also a control of sound and transcendental command of the keyboard much to do with his masterly use of the pedals. The arresting opening was like a call to arms with the beseeching reply that immediately created a rhythmic tension that was the undercurrent of all he did. An ‘Adagio Cantabile’ that was allowed to flow so simply with a sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to sing so naturally. The rondo was played with a delicious twinkle in his eye and with such subtle shading.
The five Mendelssohn songs without words were linked to the six Sibelius Bagatelles and were a continuous stream of ravishing sounds played with a sense of style and charm that brought each of these charming pieces to life . The title ‘songs without words’ was an anomaly as they did speak in Paul Lewis’s hands so eloquently. We have not heard Mendelssohn in the concert hall for too long.I well remember the same musicianship and beauty that Paul Lewis brought to them today as Serkin and Perahia had done too many years ago. Have the opening chords of Chopin’s Polonaise Fantasie ever sounded so beautiful? A fantasy or dream world that Chopin shares with us with the Polonaise a voice in the distant past. There was such an aristocratic sense of rubato that brought to Chopin’s ever more Bellinian inspired melodic line with heart rending simplicity of rare beauty. The accumulation of trills in lesser hands,usually hammered home, here were played with the same fantasy that had pervaded the entire performance of this late masterpiece. The triumphant polonaise was the consequence of the exciting transcendental build up that Paul Lewis had kept up his sleeve. But now all hell was let loose with sumptuous full sounds and driving rhythmic excitement.But even here Chopin returns to the fantasy in the final few bars where the tension is relaxed and the final chord is the consequence of the fantasy world that Chopin has revealed to us in his final years.
Paul may have exclaimed at the end of his extraordinary ‘Appassionata’Sonata,’I’m still only forty nine ………until tomorrow.’ That is already ten more years on this earth than Chopin was to enjoy……if that is the word for a weak and ailing composer who had born a lifelong nostalgia for the land he had left as a teenager. It is well known that Paul Lewis left behind him the world of the virtuoso to emerse himself in the Viennese classics under the guidance of Alfred Brendel. It was indeed Brendel ‘s performance that sprang to mind as I listened to Paul Lewis today. Of course Brendel could be more brittle edged than Paul could ever be.Paul’s poetic soul shone through everything he did but the drive and architectural shape he brought to the Appassionata was the same. The precision and scrupulous attention to Beethoven’s very precise markings whether it be the rhythmic urgency and precision of the opening fanfares or the long held pedals that Beethoven scatters in the score of the Allegro assai . An ‘Andante con moto ‘ with the quality of string quartet where every strand had a meaning and only added to the full sound of a cortège. Little could we have expected the assault that he brought to the exciting coda of the last movement -well,Beethoven does mark it Presto and he does ask for the pedal to be left on for the final massive accumulation of sounds. This I have not heard with such animal excitement since that performance of Paul’s mentor in the QEH too many years ago.
A spontaneous standing ovation brought what must be the highlight of this memorable concert.A ‘re-enactment’ of a piece that Paul tells us he learnt when he was 12. The ‘Gollywogs Cake Walk’ was played with the same irresistible charm and character that Horowitz was to bring to ‘The snow is dancing’ years ago on his return to the stage in 1968. Here the Gollywog was given full reign,letting his hair down and having a ball. The sumptuous melody that interrupts the cake walk was commented on with such tongue in cheek replies.Paul even looking at the public and rolling his eyes as he brought this delightful bijou vividly to life. What a way to end your first half century and I look forward to what delights he has in store for us in his second!
Programme : Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No 8 in C minor, Pathétique Grave – Allegro di molto e con brio. Adagio cantabile. Rondo: Allegro
Felix Mendelssohn
No 1 in E major from Songs without words, Op 19 No 3 in G minor from Songs without words, Op 53 No 2 in E-flat major from Songs without words, Op 53 No 2 in A minor from Songs without words, Op 19 No 3 in E major from Songs without words, Op 30
Jean Sibelius Six Bagatelles. Humoreske I. Lied. Kleiner Walzer. Humoristischer Marsch. Impromptu. Humoreske II
Frédéric Chopin Polonaise-fantaisie op 61
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No 23 in F minor, Appassionata Allegro assai. Andante con moto. Allegro ma non troppo – Presto
Paul Lewis is one of today’s foremost interpreters of the Central European piano repertoire, his performances and recordings of Beethoven and Schubert receiving universal critical acclaim. He was awarded a CBE for his services to music in 2016, and the sincerity and depth of his musical approach have won him fans around the world. This global popularity is reflected in the world-class orchestras with whom he works and the international concert halls and festivals where he performs.Born in Liverpool in 1972, Paul studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Joan Havill before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel. He quickly became a favourite with London’s concert audience in particular, and has performed at the Wigmore Hall over 100 times, as well as making regular appearances at the Barbican, Southbank Centre and the BBC Proms, where he was the first pianist to perform all 5 Beethoven piano concerti in a single season in 2010.His award-winning and extensive discography for Harmonia Mundi ranges from Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Weber through to Schumann, Liszt, Mussorgsky and Brahms. He has also recorded Schubert ‘s 3 lieder cycles with Mark Padmore.In addition to his busy concert career Paul and his wife Bjørg are co-Artistic Directors of the Midsummer Music festival in Buckinghamshire. He makes his debut solo recital at the Barbican Centre tonight in celebration of his 50th birthday.
John Leech in his 97th year and founder of the Keyboard Trust with Noretta Conci proudly tells me that Paul Lewis was the first artist selected by Noretta to benefit from the Trust.Celebrating it’s 30th anniversary with the publication of ‘The Gift of Music ’.A book about the activity of the trust that John had up for his wife on her sixtieth birthday.A retirement gift!! I met John on his 60th birthday when they accompanied Leslie Howard to play in my concert series in Rome 37 years ago!………I have been involved with the trust and young musicians ever since ………..such is their power of persuasion!
Giordano Buondonno playing on Michelangeli’s own Fabbrini Steinway concert grand
There was magic in the air at the Solti Studio today with a young Italian pianist Giordano Buondonno surely a name to remember after today’s masterly performances. A student of Deniz Arman Gelenbe that was immediately apparent from the refined musicality of his performance of the Brahms Ballades op 10.
A work that in Michelangeli’s hands could touch the sublime as it did today with moments of searing intensity and sublime beauty as this young man allowed himself to be seduced by Michelangeli’s own piano that sits so proudly still in Sir George Solti’s studio in Elsworthy Road St Johns Wood.
A pianist who listens to himself is a rarity indeed but when one enters their magic world it reveals a land of magic colours and passionate emotions. The intensity which this young man brought to the final pages of the last Ballade were of unbearable emotions with the clashing harmonies that reminded me of the scorching intensity of the supreme believer Messiaen.There was delicacy in the first Ballade and an outpouring of song in the second with great clarity in the contrasting middle episode.A startling rhythmic urgency in the third but with an architectural sense of line – the glowing prayer of the middle episode was pure magic with the delicately embroidered comments played with such refined delicacy. Kantarow recently touched the same heights in an empty Philharmonie de Paris during the pandemic.Heights that I remember from the atmosphere that Michelangeli could create in the vast space of the Festival Hall.Fou Ts’ong would often say that it is easier to be intimate in a large space rather than a small one!
The distinguished audience for the Wednesday Lunchtime Recital Series in memory of Lady Solti
There too on a Fabbrini piano with Fabbrini who would travel with him to make sure that the piano would respond to the Maestros demanding needs. Michelangeli was Godfather to Fabbrini’s children and it was to Fabbrini that I turned to choose a piano for my concert season in Rome. Today’s young pianist chose also Ravel’s Gaspard de La Nuit,another of Michelangeli’s cavalli di battaglia.Could it be that the Maestro’s soul was hidden deep in the piano just waiting for an artist of Giordano’s calibre to ignite and excite once again this black box of hammers and strings.
Another remarkable performance;from the glowing fluidity of Ondine where the water was allowed to flow so naturally from his magic hands as it built to an overwhelming climax and where even the final pedal indication with Ravel’s precise indications were scrupulously interpreted – yes not just played as written but played as intended by the composer! The desolate insistence of Le Gibet with austere chiselled sounds etched with such desolation and with the relentless insistence of the distant tolling bell – a true tour de force of transcendental control with his pointed fingers as the plaintive isolated melody cried out loud in anguish .It was followed by a performance of one of the most technically challenging works for the piano:that of the devilish goblin Scarbo.Such a kaleidoscope of colours and emotions that one was not aware of the technical mastery of this young man. Sandwiched between these two glorious works was Scriabin’s Fantasy Sonata which was a continuous outpouring of streams of gold and silver.The final great passionate outpouring which Scriabin was eventually to call the star was played with an aristocratic passion of searing intensity.A star shining brightly indeed!Ravishing golden sounds in this sumptuous early world of Scriabin were allowed to pour from his fingers with subtle beauty.It was this piercing beauty of sound with refined shading that was so seductive and overwhelmingly convincing.The transcendental sweep he gave to the second movement with swirls of notes of romantic sounds and an outpouring of passion in the climax dying away to a whispered ending of ravishing beauty. The Etude tableaux op 39 n 3 was played as the picture book that Rachmaninov intended with ravishing colours and transcendental playing of sumptuous sounds.
They had told me in Rome that Giordano was a culturist which made me a bit worried looking at the programme and knowing that this concert grand was in a small music room .
What they did not tell me was that here was a sensitive artist of aristocratic good taste and intelligence who actually listens to himself sharing his passion and love which could reach the sublime heights that this piano has rarely known.
the distinguished critic Bryce Morrison with Yisha Xue of the National Liberal Club
This remarkable young musician is about to return to his native Romania where he has been invited to play them on the 9th June in a live broadcast performance in Bucharest.
The absolute clarity and simplicity of his performance is becoming ever more authoritative with some very subtle ornamentation that just add even more character to these extraordinary variations. Bringing a smile to our face with the impish good humour of the 7th or captivated by the fleeting non legato of the 14th.A sudden tear in the sublime contemplation of the 15th with it sighing leaning duplets and the imperious 16th French overture call to arms at the mid way point of a journey that from here on is one big crescendo of emotion and technical intricacy to the mighty organ stops of the 29th . ‘I’ve not been with you for so long.Come closer,closer,closer.Beets and spinach drove me far away.Had my mother cooked meat,then I’d have stayed much longer’ These are the words from the two folk songs that Bach combines in his final variation the 30th ‘Quodlibet’ Who says Bach had no sense of humour or emotion .
Born to a family of musicians from Bucharest, Romania, Cristian Sandrin made his solo debut at prestigious Romanian Atheneum Hall at the age of 13. After graduating the “Dinu Lipatti” Art College in Bucharest, Cristian moved to London where he studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Having graduated with First Class Honours in 2016, he is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree at the same institution. He is currently a receiver of the Piano Fellowship of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Martin Musical Scholarship Fund 2017/2018, benefiting also from a scholarship of the Imogen Cooper Music Trust. Cristian Sandrin won numerous prizes and awards at international and national competitions. A Second Prize Winner of the Windsor International Piano Competition (2018) and Third Prize Winner of the Sheepdrove Intercollegiate Piano Competition (2018). He had his solo debut recital at the Wigmore Hall in London in September 2017. In Romania, Cristian Sandrin is a regular guest artist of the Filarmonica “Mihail Jora” Bacau, the Sibiu Sibiu Philharmonic, Ramnicu-Valcea National Philharmonic and Bucharest Symphony Orchestra. Other international engagements include performances at “La Fenice” Theatre in Venice, Theatre de la Montjoie, Salla Manuel de Falla in Madrid, Palazzo Ricci in Montepulciano, the Romanian Atheneum in Bucharest, and “Bulgaria Philharmonic Hall” in Sophia.
Cristian after his fifth outing with Bach Goldberg
Unfortunately the Youtube version of this superb recital is now unavailable because of an absurd ‘copyright infringement’ ! Very tiresome and completely barmy. It is still available on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/710837101 . Apologies – the vagaries of the internet. A terrific performance this afternoonRosalyn Tureck with Ileana Ghione at home in Circeo
The historic return in Rome to the concert platform of Rosalyn Tureck
Bach: Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor BWV 903
Bach: French suite no 2 in C minor BWV 813 Allemande / Courante / Sarabande / Minuet / Aria / Gigue
Beethoven: Piano Sonata in E flat major Op 81a ‘ Les Adieux’ Adagio-Allegro / Andante / Vivacissimamente
Bartok: Piano Sonata Allegro / Sostenuto / Allegro
How refreshing to hear a recital from a young musician with classical repertoire played with such simplicity and clarity and a transcendental technique that allows the music to speak so naturally and with such intelligent musicianship. Such was the recital of Milda Daunoraitė at St Mary’s today ……..a rose is always a rose so Dr Hugh Mather is forgiven for misspelling her name as she is one of the 150 young musicians that he presents in his series year after year. Milda played with such freshness and joie de vivre that it was a joy to listen to her on what must be the hottest day of the year. And hot it certainly was with her demonic performance of the Bartok Sonata with it’s pungent driving rhythms and a kaleidoscopic range of sounds that gave such architectural shape to the outer movements.The austere slow movement was played with a luminosity of sound and a clear sense of line but always with the same clean and clear sound that is so much part of the Hungarian sound world of Foldes or Anda. A chromatic fantasy that was indeed a great fantasy of beauty and authority with some magic colouring as the arpeggios were allowed to unravel so naturally and there was such deep meaning given to the recitativi.A fugue that was played with a clarity and rhythmic energy as it built up to the grandiose final statement. Her Beethoven op 81a ‘Les Adieux’ was played with such joy and energy.The opening Adagio played with weight and meaning and an Andante of ravishing colour and fluidity that was rudely interrupted by her scintillating Vivacissimamente. Her choice too of the second French suite was a refreshing change from the better known fifth.It was played with infectious rhythmic energy and the ornaments of the final Gigue were worthy of the greatest intricacies of Rameau.There was also great beauty in the Aria played with a superb sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to sing with such simple beauty.
Milda Daunoraité was born in Lithuania and began her piano studies at the age of six. She moved to London 4 years ago and studied piano performance at the Purcell School and is now continuing her studies with Tessa Nicholson at the Royal Academy of Music under a full fees scholarship. She has been supported by ‘SOS Talents foundation – Michel Sogny’ since she was 9 and as a result, Milda began performing extensively throughout Europe for many eminent music societies, festivals and key events. Milda has performed at venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Musikhuset Aarhus in Denmark, United Nations headquarters in Geneva. Every year, she has an opportunity to appear in a Christmas concert held in the ‘Dassault’ hotel in the Champs Elysées in Paris. A few of those concerts were broadcast by Mezzo & TV5 Monde. Milda has performed at the EMMA World Summit of Nobel Prize Peace Laureates in Warsaw and also had an opportunity to play the 4th V. Bacevicius concerto for Piano and Orchestra in Lithuanian National Philharmonic with Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra as a result of having EMCY publish her profile on their website.She is a prize winner of numerous national and international competitions, such as the 1st Prize in the international V. Krainev Piano Competition in Kharkov, Ukraine; the ‘jury‘ prize in the PIANALE International Academy & Competition and the Purcell School solo and concerto competition which led her to perform at the Wigmore Hall and the Ravel piano concerto in G at the QEH, Southbank.
Some sublime playing where Oleg’s ‘cello resonated with such depth and weight with the wooden floor made with his own hands allowing a deep mellow sound of great beauty.Francois-Frédéric’s passionate response from Ts’ong’s piano with it’s deep luscious bass and brilliant upper register.It brought Fauré’s Elégie to a tumultuous climax and the barely whispered confessions in it’s wake were of deeply felt emotion.I much look forward to a repeat of their Beethoven op 102.n.2 that I had missed at their Wigmore Hall recital some time ago.
Fauré Élégie for cello and piano (with Oleg Kogan – cello)
Debussy with Chopin were very much the world that Ts’ong inhabited.It is interesting to note that Debussy edited the complete works of Chopin.I remember in his many masterclasses in Rome where Ts’ong likened the similarity between the same soul that inhabited Cinese poetry and their music.Francois-Frédéric brought great clarity to these four Préludes that he had chosen from the works of Debussy that he had studied with Ts’ong at the Piano Academy in Como and also at Ts’ong’s house in Aberdeen Road in London.Brouillards slightly missed the mystery as he obviously was still reminding himself of the piano that he used to study on at his mentor’s house.La Puerta Del Vino found him completely at home with it’s rhythmic drive and it’s frenzied Habanera dance.La terrasse was played with great atmosphere and clarity building to a remarkable climax that was to die away to a mere whisper of gently chiselled sounds.Feux d’artefice was played with extraordinary control and transcendental command.A kaleidoscope of colours starting with a mere whisper and building to enthralling pyrotechnics as the excitement rose but dying to a mere murmur as the Marseillaise is heard in the distance
Debussy 4 Préludes from Book 2 Brouillards-La Puerta del Vino-La terrasse des audiences du Clair de lune-Feux d’artefice
Chopin Polonaise Fantaisie op.61
Chopin of course was the world that Ts’ong understood so well and had surprised everyone at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw when a young Chinese pianist ran off with the coveted ‘Mazurka’ award that was thought to belong to the natives of Poland!Thus began a life long love affair with Chopin that Ts’ong imparted with such inspiration to the many young musicians he mentored in his long life.Francois-Frédéric was one of the original students at the Como Academy and was greatly inspired by Ts’ong as we could appreciate tonight from the opening of the Polonaise Fantasie – one of Chopin’s greatest works that was written late in life and is more Fantasie than Polonaise.The opening is a great wave of sounds that expand over the entire keyboard from the opening declamatory chords.They were played exactly as I remember Ts’ong playing them with one long beautiful horizontal movement like the opening of a great wave of sound.There was great beauty but never of a sentimental nature but of the aristocratic poetic soul that Ts’ong understood so well.It was the same with the great B minor sonata played with architectural shape with the second subject so often played as a nocturne but in Francois-Frédéric’s hands it was played with such forward movement that moments of great delicacy were even more breathtakingly beautiful.
The appearance of the second subject in the recapitulation was played as a passionate outpouring of all that had gone before.The second movement was played with jeux perlé brilliance and an interesting swop over of hands that I forgot to ask if that was Ts’ong’s fingering of a rather tricky passage.Leading of course straight into the mighty opening chords of the Largo where he brought great strength and shape to this most beautiful of movements.The finale was a tour de force of brilliance and resilience with the return of the rondo theme ever more passionate until the final explosion and transcendental excitement of the final pages.The original manuscript 2nd subject of the recapitulation
Chopin Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op.58 Allegro Maestoso – Scherzo:Molto vivace-Largo-Finale:Presto non tanto
Oleg Kogan seated at the much loved piano
The stars were shining brightly for Fou Ts’ong at the Razumovsky Academy. A recital on Ts’ongs beautiful Steinway D piano by Francois-Frédéric Guy.
A piano that now sits proudly in Oleg Kogan’s much loved Academy that he built with his own hands.Every brick and stone not to mention the abundance of wood was put in place by Oleg.
The Razumovsky Academy audience
It was the same love and passion that he gave to the Fauré Elégie that they wanted to dedicate to all those suffering from the senseless rape of the Ukraine by a self centred despot .
What a marvel to hear the Chopin nocturne op posth at the end of a memorable recital played with such simplicity and beauty -Ts’ong was truly with us tonight. I well remember the many times that Ts’ong would end his recitals in Rome with his favourite nocturne,he even wrote in my score the various differences from the original markings of Chopin.
Wonderful to hear Francois Frédéric talk about the concerts in Le Roque d’Antheron in 2003 of Ts’ong and his great friend Radu Lupu and to hear that the public was reduced to tears by the sublime beauty of their playing. Dedicating the concert to his great friend Nicholas Angelich who had passed away at only 51,on the same day as Radu Lupu,and who had been best man at his wedding .
What a joy at the end to see Dinara Klinton united with her mother who had managed to flee from the senseless persecution of all Ukrainians in Russia.
Anne-Marie and Francois-Frédéric Guy with Patsy Fou
Lovely to see Patsy Fou with us and her husband’s piano brought to life with such love and was again sharing with us the soul that Ts’ong had bequeathed to it.
François-Frédéric Guy is widely regarded first and foremost as an outstanding interpreter of the German Romantics and their forebears. His unrivalled ability to create musical structure in sound is especially evident in his interpretations of Beethoven, which bring to life his profound and ongoing dialogue with the composer.The pianist has a special affinity for the music of Bartók, Brahms, Liszt, and Prokofiev, as well as a strong commitment to contemporary music. He has close ties to composers including Ivan Fedele, Marc Monnet, Gérard Pesson, Bruno Mantovani, and Hugues Dufourt. François-Frédéric Guy has also given the premiere of works such as Mantovani’s Double Concerto (2012), which he performed with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2013 he gave the South Korean premiere of Tristan Murail’s Le Désenchantement du monde with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Based on this fruitful collaboration, he will premiere another new piano concerto by Tristan Murail with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo in June 2021.
The Guy’s in discussion with Patsy Toh-Fou
In the current season, François-Frédéric Guy will continue his dialogue with the music of Beethoven while also giving appearances in the dual role of soloist and conductor. His acclaimed performances of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, already performed in Tokyo, Washington, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Monte Carlo, Norwich, Metz, and Buenos Aires, will take him this season to Seoul.Conducting from the piano, François-Frédéric Guy works frequently with the Sinfonia Varsovia. From 2017 to 2020, he was artist of residence with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris with a special focus on the Beethoven repertoire. In the dual role of soloist and conductor, François-Frédéric Guy is also regularly performing works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Brahms, as well as, most recently, the world premiere of the piano concerto Écoumène by Aurélien Dumont, which was composed especially for him. His orchestral partners further include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liege, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife or the National Orchestra of Pays de la Loire.As a Beethoven specialist François-Frédéric Guy will also continue to focus on chamber music and solo works of the great composer: at the end of the summer, Radio France presented the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas from the Maison de la Radio Paris in live streams, where young French pianists performed their interpretations in eight recitals under the auspices of Guy. At the Festival International de Piano de La Roque d’Anthéron he also performed in the prominent cycle alongside colleagues such as Nicholas Angelich and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. After interpreting the complete violin sonata cycle with his long-time duo partner Tedi Papavrami at the start of the season at the Piano à Lyon concert series, the two musicians will perform the complete Beethoven trios together with Xavier Phillips on the cello in the Arsenal de Metz.The pianist has been a guest of orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich. He has collaborated with world-famous conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kazushi Ono, Marc Albrecht, Philippe Jordan, Daniel Harding, Neeme Järvi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustavo Gimeno, Michael Sanderling, and Kent Nagano. In recital he has performed at the major concert halls in cities such as London, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Paris, Vienna, and Washington, and at festivals including the Chopin Festival in Warsaw, Beethovenfest Bonn, Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, and the Cheltenham Festival.At the heart of his discography is the complete recording of Beethoven’s sonatas, released in 2013 on the Zig-Zag Territoires label, which had already released his highly acclaimed Liszt album, Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. The complete recording of Beethoven’s piano concertos with the Sinfonia Varsovia under François-Frédéric Guy’s direction was released to mark the start of the ‘Beethoven Year’ 2020. Together with his chamber music partners Xavier Phillips and Tedi Papavrami, he also released highly acclaimed recordings of Beethoven’s cello and violin sonatas, and in 2017 presented his new Brahms album with the three piano sonatas.
Tatyana Sarkissova-Dmitri Alexeev-Gyorgy Pauk -Annie and Peter Frankl
Wonderful occasion for the launch of Norma Fisher’s 3rd CD from her historic BBC recordings ………it was also her birthday so truly a double celebration.Being described as her oldest friend was a surprise and delight as we remembered our piano daddy Sidney Harrison where in his home in Hartington Road our passion for music was born. On Wings of Song indeed -fifty years have passed and still flying high.
Our hosts at Steinways Craig Terry Managing director and Maura Romano
Steinways our wonderfully generous hosts are being more than repaid for their passion and true love of music with a sold out on the door whilst they await the piano makers to replenish their wonderful new showroom.
Rainer Hersch and wife with Norma
Last but not least the extraordinary Rainer Hersch who when I told you of his wonderful Victor Borge show in a little theatre in the West End you immediately exclaimed :’But he is one of mine’!
Peter and Annie Frankl with Norma Fisher
Mother to all the great artists that you have nurtured and promoted over your many years of enforced retirement from the concert stage.It is born of the same passion deep in us from our own childhood lessons from Sidney Harrison.
Nelly Miricioiu
Of course the Happy Birthday chorus was led by the incredibly simpatico Sir John Tomlinson and the wonderful Nelly Miricioiu who tells me her final concert in a long and illustrious career will be at the Wigmore Hall on the 28th June for her 70th Birthday celebration.
Dr Hugh Mather
Nice to see the guardian of great talent Dr Hugh Mather celebrating his first award from the critic’s circle for the same passion and dedication turned into practical help in the Mecca that he has created at St Mary’s ………he certainly gets our vote for the House of Lords!
Norma Fisher thanking her guests
Selfless dedication and passion combined with warmth,integrity and honesty.All words that have almost disappeared from our daily lives you make them relive for us all.
Distinguished guests watching the specially prepared video of Norma Fisher’s life and career
Tomoyuki Sawado ,PhD – CEO /Producer Sonettò Classics Ltd
Norma Fisher on her early success as a concert pianist, and how a rare neurological condition changed everything
Michelle Assay Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Piano prodigy turned influential teacher Norma Fisher’s performing prowess is once more being recognised thanks to the series of historic BBC recordings
‘Is this really the same Norma Fisher as the famous teacher?’ asked David Fanning (my husband) when I told him that I was about to review a disc of her historic recordings.
For many years she has been known as the great mentor behind a generation of up-and-coming pianists. Now it turns out there was a great pianist behind the mentor.
Before Tomoyuki Sawado, the CEO of Sonetto Classics, approached her, Fisher herself had apparently all but forgotten about that ‘other life’.
One of her students, Chiyan Wong, brought him to a student concert at Fisher’s residence. ‘I adore your playing. I would love to record you,’ Sawado told her.
Astonished, Fisher replied: ‘Oh my God, I don’t play any more. I only teach.’
He insisted that he was ready to be as patient as needed and if necessary to record only one movement a year.
A sleepless night followed for Fisher; and when she consulted family members, her son suggested that her historic BBC recordings be resurrected.
Thus began the ‘Norma Fisher at the BBC’ series, whose first two volumes appeared to unanimous acclaim; the third has just been released.
Norma Fisher at the BBC, Vol 3
Fisher’s 80th birthday having been eclipsed by lockdown, it’s high time to celebrate her and her years of music- and musician-making.
I ask her whether there is any difference in her mind between Fisher the performer and Fisher the teacher.
‘I am one and the same,’ she says. ‘When I am teaching, it is as if I am working with myself. Every suggestion is exactly what I’d do myself.’
She holds up her hands and adds, ‘Of course, I am five foot eight and have huge hands. In that respect I always have to consider that my students may not have that facility, so I have to become the teacher and rethink the whole thing as they would; I have to become them.’
As a pianist with small hands and regularly belittled for that by my teachers in Kyiv, I point out how fortunate her pupils are.
She thinks back to her own teacher, the formidable Ilona Kabos: ‘She was like a sparrow. When I first started studying with her, she would sit at the piano and look up at me towering above her, and say: “Darling, you’re five times my size, but I make five times your sound.”’
‘I always give everything away; I want to share everything. My whole life is about sharing’
Kabos features regularly in our conversation, as does Fisher’s musical ‘mother’, the Greek pianist Gina Bachauer. ‘Both Ilona and Gina were incredibly generous.’
This is a quality she herself emanates: ‘I always give everything away; I want to share everything. My whole life is about sharing.’
Norma Fisher was born in London in 1940 to a Polish-Russian family who had escaped to the UK from the pogroms.
Her love of music came from her mother, and it was she who supported her musical education.
‘My father was musically illiterate. And I actually think he grew to resent the fact that once I started playing and she realised there was a talent, my mother gave her soul to me; he was sidelined, and I think he suffered a lot.’
Even as a child, Fisher would enjoy others’ success and talent, somewhat to her mother’s chagrin.
‘My gift for piano meant the world to her and nobody compared to me … It was strange to me, because I loved complimenting people and it excited me to see others doing well. But my mother would shut me up, telling me, “Don’t you dare tell me about anyone else who plays the piano!”’
Having exhausted the local teachers, the 11-year-old Fisher went to Sidney Harrison at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
When Harrison compared her to Bachauer, Fisher encouraged her mother to take her to hear the pianist in London and to meet her afterwards.
Norma Fisher, her love of music came from her mother
This was an encounter that would shape the rest of Fisher’s musical formative years, most importantly because it led to the arrangement for her to study with the equally legendary Kabos.
‘I had incredible facility but didn’t have an understanding of sound until I met Ilona.’ But it came at a cost. When she first went to Kabos, the Hungarian asked if she was ‘psychologically fit’ to study with her.
‘I was 14 and didn’t have a clue what she was referring to. I simply answered that I wasn’t afraid of working.’
Soon she discovered what she had let herself in for: ‘When I first went for lessons, there was silence outside. I pushed the door open and there was this huge guy sitting at the piano, weeping.’
All subsequent lessons would start with young Fisher walking in on a tearful previous pupil. Then came her turn.
‘I remember exactly where and when she first made me cry.’ It was at a lesson the night before the final round of a piano competition at Wigmore Hall, for which Fisher was playing Brahms’s F minor Sonata.
‘It came to the Scherzo, which I was not happy about anyway. When I finished playing it, I hung my head … She got up out of her chair, put her head near mine and almost spat in my face, “That was horrible, my darling.”’
‘Kabos gave me so much. She taught me how to think about music. I had a sort of animal instinct. I just knew what to do. But that “ knowing what to do” needed training’
Fisher remembers crying bitterly on the way home. The next day she won the competition.
Today she forgives Kabos, ‘because on the other hand she gave me so much. She taught me how to think about music and even to become aware that music was involved. I had a sort of animal instinct. I just knew what to do. But that “knowing what to do” needed training … It was about how to understand what the piano was doing for you and how you could converse with it. And that knocked me sideways for a good couple of years. I went into a terrible depression because I didn’t know how to put one note after the next. And then once I understood what she was getting at, we were able to work on style and to understand what was on the written page. Then it became an absolute joy. Her demands were terrifying. But it was also a constant joy of endless discovery.’
Along the way, Kabos facilitated the next significant encounter: ‘Annie Fischer was doing her debut in London with the Brahms B flat Concerto.’
Fisher was still a teenager but knew the piece well. ‘Ilona told me: “Annie needs your help, darling! You go and play second piano and if anything doesn’t feel right, you tell her.” Can you imagine that? And that is how I met Annie and totally fell in love with her.’
The journey with Kabos lasted 14 years. Kabos left for the States around the same time that Fisher was about to marry Barry Saipe.
‘Ilona would say: “Don’t worry, my darling. You try it [marriage] for six months.”’ Norma and Barry are still happily married.
‘He was a clarinettist and very talented. He would have continued if circumstances had been otherwise. But he had to look after his mother and two sisters … He has a musical understanding bar none. I always said I would never marry a musician, but in his case his critical ability is amazing. It’s been a good partnership, and a huge sacrifice on his part.
‘Those were heady days,’ recalls Fisher with a laugh. ‘Shura Cherkassky was a really good friend. He was such a character. Sérgio Varella-Cid had phenomenal talent but was completely crazy. He destroyed himself and his career, because he was unreliable.’
Norma Fisher has suffered pain, but in her early life she was ‘so lucky – everything fell into place’ (photo: Ronald Julian)
Fisher remembers seeing the young Portuguese pianist learning Chopin’s Fantasy during the interval of the recital for which the piece was programmed. (He would ultimately disappear without a trace in Brazil, widely assumed to have been shot by gangsters.)
‘There were so many friends. They were top young pianists in the world and we all studied with Ilona.’ Many of them (including Fisher, from 1961) also lived together, in a mansion in Finchley, north London, which was bought by Kabos’s close friend Charles Napper for those of her students who didn’t have an appropriate place to live and work.
‘Every room had a Steinway. We had a housemaid. And we played for each other.’
Napper appears in another of Fisher’s friendship stories. She met the Polish-born pianist and composer André Tchaikowsky after a concert at Wigmore Hall in 1962.
‘I ended the recital with Liszt’s “Mazeppa” and then played Schumann’s Toccata as an encore. After the concert, André came backstage to see me and he was literally shaking. He said to me: “I am still trembling; how could you play ‘Mazeppa’ and then immediately Schumann?” I will never forget that. And we became friends and remained friends until the day he died.’
During his final days the ailing composer sent Fisher a letter. By this stage (1982) she had reduced the number of her performances owing to family commitments.
‘It was the sweetest letter. In it he said how much he adored my playing and that we must find a way to get me back on to the stage.’
Following Tchaikowsky’s death, one of the first concerts Fisher gave included the first public performance of his Inventions (composed early 1960s), a series of musical portraits of his friends.
‘It was as if he was there to tell me, “I told you I will get you back to the stage.”’ But there was more to that concert.
‘André had a very difficult character; he was separated from his mother as a child, and that left a mark on him. Throughout his life he had problems connecting to people.’
Napper was the dedicatee of one of the Inventions (No 5a), and following ‘a terrible fall-out’ with him, Tchaikowsky removed that piece from the collection and replaced it with another (No 5b), dedicated to the pianist Patrick Crommelynck.
‘But I was in the possession of that invention [5a] and fell in love with it; apart from that, I knew Charles Napper well.’ So Fisher included the Napper invention in her premiere.
‘That night, when I was playing it at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, I absolutely expected to be hit by a thunderbolt from André with fury for my going against his wishes.’ The complete set is included in the second volume of her BBC recordings.
It was around the age of 17 that Fisher auditioned for the BBC. She was accepted immediately and soon she was also performing on the Continent.
Although she no longer needed to compete, she nevertheless won joint second prize at the Busoni competition in 1961, and in 1963 she shared with Vladimir Ashkenazy the Harriet Cohen International Music Award piano prize.
Our talk turns to her other BBC repertoire. Having been moved to tears by her Scriabin, I ask her about her approach.
‘It was totally intuitive. I didn’t have to think. I could just look at a piece of music, put my hands on the piano and know what to do. In fact, Scriabin was asked of me. I had never played any Scriabin. It was his anniversary and they asked me if I could put a programme together.’
The repertoire closest to her heart, she admits, is that of the German Romantics – Brahms and Schumann in particular.
‘I put my hands on the piano for Brahms and Schumann, and it all comes naturally’
‘Do you know what our original name was? Führer! A year ago, a cousin discovered that the roots of the Fisher family go back to Germany and this awful name.’
However, Fisher believes that her genetic stock accounts for her special musical affinity: ‘I put my hands on the piano for Brahms and Schumann, and it all comes naturally.’
The BBC, however, promoted her as a Lisztian. The second volume of the BBC recordings includes some jaw-dropping Liszt performances.
I ask if she was ever put off by empty virtuosity. ‘Nothing is empty. Even when I think about Liszt.’
She continues: ‘I’m a little bit like that with people. You hear people saying bad things about somebody. I don’t think in my life I’ve been capable of doing that, because I can always see the good in everybody. It’s the same in music; even if it’s something that appears to be trite or unworthy, I always manage to find something that makes me appreciate it.’
I ask her what Fisher the teacher would think of Fisher the performer, specifically in the third volume of her BBC recordings, which includes music by both her favourite composers: Schumann’s Papillons and Brahms’s Op 116 Fantasies.
‘I have to say, I loved the Schumann. It actually makes me cry when I listen to it. The only thing is that I could have waited a little bit longer between some of them; some need a little more pause for thought.’
The juxtaposition of Papillons with Brahms only further highlights the fragility and delicacy of these miniatures: ‘The Brahms is so extreme,’ she says. ‘I played it a lot and I adored doing so.’
She pauses, and adds: ‘I love the recording, but parts of the capriccios for me are a little too headstrong. I would have said somehow that too much body is involved – because you can be as emotional and headstrong while also being physically focused.’
And then there is the Chopin selection, which I find unusually moving, dramatic and poignant, as if coming from a place of pain and struggle.
Fisher admits that Chopin was never a natural language for her. But the pieces on the disc also happen to be part of her last BBC recital, in 1992, when her focal dystonia had already manifested itself and was giving her pain.
‘When I listen to this recording I know exactly at which moments my hand was not feeling right and I was concerned. I can hear it.’
The gradual onset of the condition had a disturbing psychological and emotional impact.
‘I thought I was going mad. It’s like someone tells you to get up and walk, and your legs won’t move … I was running from doctor to doctor. I discussed it with all my pianist friends, and nobody had a clue. It was years into it when I discovered what it was. But it had got worse.’
Then in a back copy (1988) of the American magazine Piano Quarterly she came across an article by the neurologist Frank Wilson entitled ‘Teaching Hands, Treating Hands’.
‘For the first time someone was describing my condition.’ She met up with the author, who had also worked with Leon Fleisher, another sufferer.
Later it became apparent that she was also suffering from laryngeal dystonia.
‘This taught me a lot about dystonia. I can be talking in full flow, but suddenly the vocal cords go into spasm, and you can never know when that will happen. With the hands it was the same. It would take a stronger person than I am to go on stage because you’d never know when it was going to set in.’
It was this unpredictability that eventually convinced her to step away from the stage and from public performance.
Norma Fisher, ‘agony aunt for pianists’: it is now possible to hear her performing on record (photo: Tomoyuki Sawado)
She began this process during the 1990s, performing for the last time at the Barbican, London, in June 1999.
‘The final appearance with Brahms Two (of all works!) was because the conductor, David Josefowitz, was a good friend and begged me to play this concerto with him. I simply have memories of fear – not knowing if my hand would “behave” – utterly terrifying!’
Having already enjoyed teaching, she found it natural to transfer to it.
‘If young pianists came to my agent with problems, they would be sent my way. I was a sort of agony aunt for pianists.’
One of her former students, Murray McLachlan, asked her to offer occasional masterclasses at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester.
The Royal Northern College of Music would soon approach her too (and she currently teaches at the Royal College of Music, London).
By this time she had been regularly visiting Kyiv to offer masterclasses, especially at the Horowitz summer school, ‘So when the opportunity opened at the RNCM, a steady stream of students started to arrive there from Kyiv and Moscow.’
Does she have a teaching method?
‘Well, everybody is different and this is what I love about the job.’
‘I pick up vibes scarily fast. I had healer friends who always accused me of being in the wrong profession. But I feel my teaching is also a case of healing’
Referring back to Kabos, she says: ‘I work similarly to her, but over the years I am adding things that have been helpful for me. On the question of style, I think of her all the time.’
And then there is Fisher’s spirituality, a feature that has brought us close ever since I first contacted her.
‘I pick up vibes scarily fast. I had healer friends who always accused me of being in the wrong profession. But I feel my teaching is also a case of healing.’
And then as if she has picked up on my own vibes, she adds: ‘For the first quarter of my life I was so lucky, I was spoon-fed. Everything fell into place … Every door was open, and I just sailed through. And then when that first door closed it was a shock of the first order. It took a long time [to heal] because I had been so spoilt.’
I admire her positive outlook but ask if she has ever cast herself as victim.
‘It hurt terribly at times, but I never said it’s unfair, because I believe that in life everything happens for a reason and I think we are here to learn from that happening. I went to hell and back with this problem, but I wouldn’t have had it otherwise. It taught me so much; I learnt so much from it. And I feel that actually I can do more with it by helping others than if I was just playing the piano and satisfying myself.’
It was nice to hear JunLin again in the same programme I had heard on Elton John’s Red Piano in the Elgar Room of the Royal Albert Hall.Here is a more detailed report on almost the same programme as today:
Here on the sumptuous Fabbrini Steinway in Sir George Solti’s private studio I could appreciate even more the extraordinary colours and excitement that Agosti’s 1928 transcription could communicate from the hands of this young virtuoso who seems to know no difficulties.An extraordinary sense of balance allowed him to ravish and astonish just as much as the original full orchestral score.
The sheer animal excitement from the very first notes played without a break after the Scriabin Reverie were like an animal about to pounce.It was,though,the sumptuous beauty of the magical appearance of the Firebird that took our breath away as it gradually built up to its tumultuous conclusion.It brought back great memories of the weekends spent with Agosti playing Beethoven late quartets and Brahms Symphonies together four hands whilst our wives spent the day enjoying the beach!
Guido Agosti on his left his wife Lydia Stix Agosti and on the right my wife Ileana Ghione
Agosti was a very reserved person until you sat him at the piano and as all those that frequented his studio in Siena can testify there were sounds heard in that room in the Chigiana that would never be forgotten.Sounds that he miraculously found in this remarkable transcription.
Listening again to JunLin I could marvel at his intelligence and refined artistry in Chopin that never reached the heights though that he found in the Stravinsky.In the Firebird he was a savage hunter where his whole appearance and approach to the keyboard was of a fearless warrior.In Chopin it was as though he was in awe of this refined aristocratic poetry .In Stravinsky he played horizontally as though spreading the sounds over the keyboard whereas with Chopin he played vertically looking on from above rather that creating from within.
It was remarkable playing nevertheless but I could not understand why the sound world of Stravinsky and Chopin should have appeared so different on the same piano.A much requested encore was rewarded with a delicious rendering of Cordoba by Albeniz with sumptuous subtle sounds of beguiling freedom.
Dmitri Alexeev admiring Solti’s score of the St John Passion
JunLin with Mrs Alexeev – Tatyana SarkissovaThe remarkable Studio of Sir George SoltiCristian Sandrin in discussion with Dmitri Alexeev with Petar Dimov and Damir Durmanovic in the background – some of the many pianist present to admire the artistry of JunLinJunLin rushing back to the Wigmore Hall where he was in the middle of a chamber music competition – this recital was his lunch break!The St John Passion open as Sir George Solti had left it in his studio.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 