Autore: ChristopherAxworthyMusicCommentary

A beautiful performance of Chopin’s 24 Preludes op 28 in which the beauty of sound and real sense of balance allowed her musiciansghip to shine through what Fou Ts’Ong used to call 24 problems.

I heard her two years ago in Rome in the International Competition of Marcella Crudeli where she reached the final .

It was only her inexperience of concerto playing that gave her third prize instead of first.

Having heard also some very musicianly performances in St James Piccadilly it came as no surprise to be totally absorbed today by her performance of one of Chopin’s most complex works.

Each Prelude beautifully shaped from the calm of the opening that although marked agitato unfolds on its own if allowed to.

The second Lento could have been even more sombre although played with a beautiful sense of balance.

The famous fourth prelude in E minor was played with a grace and shape and very telling phrasing.

The E major n.9 could have been even more simply played as the left hand accompaniment seemed too important and unsteady for the supreme simplicity of the melodic line .

Some slight strain in the more strenuous Preludes as in number 13 in F sharp due to her small hands was beautifully concealed by her real understanding and musicianship.

The raindrop prelude was played with a beautiful lyrical legato and the tempestuous middle section never allowed to overwhelm the calm and beauty of this remarkable prelude.

The B flat minor got spontaneous applause from an audience totally overwhelmed by this sudden explosion of virtuosity from someone so delicate looking Not quite as tempestuous as Martha Argerich but in the context of her interpretation it had no lesser effect.

If the E flat minor showed some sign of strain due to the enormous leaps that Chopin demands in a melodic line almost Alkan like in difficulty the C minor was played with all the nobility that it demands.

The great bells in the left hand in n.17 in A flat could have been even more telling to allow the Debussy like apparition from afar to be even more apparent.

A beautiful cantabile in the B flat major n.21 where the melodic line was allowed to sing almost at the cost of ignoring the extraordinary harmonies in the left.

The great octave Prelude and the final Allegro appassionato were played with great fire and command and the little F major in between was played with a touching sense of colour .

A very fine performance that was played and shaped with great beauty and delicacy in fact as she appears in life.

Sincere compliments from Bryce Morrison the renowned expert on pianos and pianists who complimented her on a highly enjoyable and successful performance.

Beauty ,delicacy and the intelligence from the school of Gordon Green via his renowned disciple Christopher Elton.

Now the search for the elusive simplicity and nobilty that were very much of Rubinstein .

An unforgettable musical evening for Goethe’s birthday (28th August 1749)…………

A Pocket Winter Journey with Georg Klimbacher and Graham Johnson ………Goethe settings by Franz Schubert with Anna Huntley and Georg Klimbacher all expertly guided by Graham Johnson…………..Of course the singing under Graham’s guide was sublime

The magnificent oboe Juliana Koch from the LSO with Linn Rothstein playing together so beautifully the Three Romances op 94 by Schumann who sneaked in too to say Happy Birthday .

The proposed Arpeggione cried off in the morning so hats off to Julia for showing us how beautiful the oboe can sound in a real artists hands….could it have been her bare feet

that allowed her to feel the vibrations that I am sure Schubert would have envied Linn having prepared an equally beautiful supper for her lucky guests. Guest of honour ,or course, was Anita Lasker Wallfisch at 93 one of the last survivors of Auschwitz and a renowned cellist as is her son Raphael.

At 93 she drove herself home doing a three point turn obviously uplifted by Goethe’s magnificent birthday party

THE HILLS OF ROME ARE RESOUNDING TO THE SOUND OF MUSIC

One of Italy’s best kept secrets is to be found in the mediaeval town of Sermoneta, just 50 kilometres from Rome.

Whilst the coastal towns Sabaudia, S. Felice Circeo, Terracina, Sperlonga have long been attracting crowds to their wonderful beaches, Sermoneta has been quietly attracting the greatest musicians of our time to the fairy tale Caetani Castle.

Here, in fact, is to be found one of the most important festivals of classical music.

On a level only with Festivals like Tanglewood, Marlboro, Dartington or Salzburg.

Once, whilst Count Chigi was still alive, only the Accademia Chigiana in Siena could boast a line up of the greatest artists of the day: Cortot, Casals, Ferrara, Agosti, Casella, Milstein, Gulli, Giulini, ready not only to play, but also to pass on their experience in master classes to talented young musicians.

Since 1963 the Caetani family, like Count Chigi before in Siena, have been inviting musicians of the calibre of Menuhin, Szigeti, Magaloff, Kempff, Navarra, Ciccolini, Sandor Vegh, to their Castle just south of Rome, and it is this year that we celebrate the 54th anniversary.

Lelia Caetani, the last living member of the family, who died in 1977, had created a Foundation to perpetuate the name of her composer father Roffredo Caetani.

Franz Liszt, godfather to Roffredo, attended his baptism in 1871 and in fact Liszt’s piano is still to be found in Ninfa, the wonderful gardens created by Lelia, surrounding Sermoneta.

These are the gardens that the great composer Sir William Walton and his wife Susanna so admired and often visited, before opening their own famous gardens of La Mortella on Ischia.

In fact there is so much history linked to this town, but there is also a wonderful future ahead too, if we look at how the musical activities have progressed since the death of Lelia Caetani and Hubert Howard, her husband, descendant of the noble English family of that name.

Riccardo Cerocchi, architect, has since the 70’s carried forward, in an elightened way, the initial start of the Caetani’s, creating the Campus Musicale with the great composer Goffredo Petrassi, president for many years until his death. Bruno Canino, Franco Petracchi, Bruno Giuranna, Rocco Filippini and some of the finest Italian musicians were on the advisory board, ready to ensure the integrity and continuing importance of the concerts, master classes and conferences.

Riccardo Cerocchi after a long illness passed away this winter but not before passing the reigns to his daughter Elisa Cerocchi .

Despite all the difficulties in the art and education world Elisa is carrying on her fathers great wish to inspire,create and promote great young talent with his same determination.

The autobiography of Riccardo Cerocchi “L’Ottuagenario Innamorato” was presented to the public just a few months before his death.

From these pages we are able to see what a pioneer he was in his determination to bring music and culture to his God blessed homeland.

Playing at his funeral in Latina was a great friend Santi Interdonato who had played such an important part in music in Latina .He too passed away this year and so it was  Fabrizio von Arx ,a real son of the Campus, visibly moved ,dedicated his recital to them both.

His encore Liebeslied by Kreisler though he dedicated to Elisa Cerocchi,Tiziana Cherubini and all their loyal helpers for keeping Architect Cerocchi’s dream alive in this Paradise on earth.

Tiziana remembers very well a very young boy with his parents coming to study with Corrado Romano in Sermoneta .

One of the superb violinists including also Alberto Lysy,Yehudi Menuhin,Joseph Szigeti,Sandor Vegh to name but a few of the artists that have passed into history.

Fabrizio had played some years ago in Rome in the Ghione Theatre that shared the same spirit of Sermoneta of promoting and helping young talent.

Present of course were the Cerocchi’s to witness two of their star prodigies Fabrizio von Arx with Roberto Prosseda playing professionally together for the first time.

Both now have very important careers that takes them away from Sermoneta.

It was especially moving to be able to hear Fabrizio in this first year without the presence of the founder father.

Playing on a magnificent Stradivari “Il Madrileno” of 1720 he was playing in duo with a very fine Irish pianist ,winner in 1999 of the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition

Finghin an ex student of John O’Conor who had been protegee of the great pianist Wilhelm Kempff, who used to frequent Sermoneta in the early Menuhin years.

John O’Conor not only director of the Dublin International Piano Competition but also very much involved with the Kempff Foundation in Positano.

Finghin too has his own New Ross Piano festival, is curator of the annual Dublin Song Series and artistic director of Music for Galway since 2013.

A very busy life on the International concert circuit like Fabrizio von Arx.

We were indeed very lucky that they could take time off to breathe with us the magic air in this very special place

It was very refreshing to see the real enjoyment they comunicated in a programme that included some solo works as well as two important works for violin and piano.

The solo works for violin were played with a rhythmic energy and sound that defied the extreme humidity that left the scores dripping as were the artists too.

A handkerchief and clothes pegs were an indispensable help for some remarkable playing.

The Preludio from the Partita n.3 was played with such drive and precision.Fabrizio almost dancing as he used his whole body much like I remember Sandor Vegh many years ago.

The violin and body become one in a true artist and it was this that was so overwhelming .

The magnificent creamy rich sound from the Stradivari too.

Fabrizio had described the innovation and far sightedness of Stradivari in augmenting slightly the size of the baroque violin to anticipate the needs of music of  the future from composers such as Brahms,Beethoven,Tchaikowsky etc.

The 24th Caprice by Paganini was played with transcendental virtuosity.

It came as a great surprise when after the concert Fabrizio confided that Paganini cannot be played in such humidity!

Perhaps it was Finghins handkerchief loaned so mischievously to Fabrizio to wipe down his violin every so often that made us completely unaware of the struggle that was being so splendidly won.

The four Pieces that make up Brahms op 119 showed just what a fine musician Finghin is. It is not easy to interpret all the detail that Brahms marks in the score and to allow the music to breathe and live so naturally.

The Adagio of the first Intermezzo was realised with a stillness and sense of balance but always with a sense of shape and line disolving into nothing in what must be one of Brahms’ most intimate confessions.

The second Intermezzo was beautifully judged and he made the transformation from poco agitato to the grazioso middle section sound so natural and inevitable .

The final Rhapsodie was played as a true musician who can bring a sense of nobility and grandeur to a piece that can so often sound so thick and heavy handed.

Horizontal not vertical indeed with some wonderful details somewhat reminiscent of Chopin’s 3rd scherzo in the choral and shimmering comments and with a lilting charm in the middle section’s grazioso .

The coda was made ever more exciting for the sudden fortepiano and minimum of pedal before the final rhythmic built up.

In the two works played together there was all the complicity and enjoyment of two musicians sharing in a conversation.

The Suite Italienne by Stravinsky.

Made up of six pieces I believe each one to fit on the side of a 78rpm record.

In the scherzino a slight mishap with the page due to a wind that had suddenly blown down on us had Fabrizio reading over the shoulder of his partner Never missing for a second the conversation that they were sharing with a public thrilled and mesmerised by these two such talented “lads”.

A truly monumental,performance of the Cesar Franck Sonata ended the evening .

The excitement and passionate involvement was combined with moments of calm and ravishing beauty.

The understatement of the opening was immediately contrasted with the most passionate outpourings.

And the virtuosity in the second movement generated an electricity to  an audience following every second with baited breath.

Noticeable was the total involvement both of pianist and violinist that seemed to be riding a wave together.

The beautifully simple question and answer of the last movement led to the final passionate outburst where Finghin allowed himself full reign with the sumptuous sounds of the “Madrilena” shining aloft so potently.Two stars shining brightly tonight indeed.

Three Romanian dances by Bartok was an encore by public demand.

Now totally warmed up and more than ready to give a savage and devil may care performance that had the audience on the edge of their seats.

The second encore as I have said was a love song by Kreisler dedicated by them both to the warmth and welcome they had received from Elisa’s magnificent team.

Of course everyone that crosses the draw bridge in these parts is a true musician and it is this humility that was noticeable tonight.

Alfonso Alberti,the pianist who had given a splendid recital the night before ,ready to turn pages for his colleagues who had been applauding him the night before.

After the discovery two years of this natural “cathedral” of trees in Ninfa ,Alfonso Alberti had devised a programme around the theme of Ruins .

In the previous two years it had been based on nature and birds and this year the title given was that of the very first piece in his programme from Debussy’s Images “Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut.”

A special programme devised and introduced so eloquently by this pianist whose real passion is for contemporary music.

It should be remembered that an important part of the Campus has always been its seminaries and concerts of contemporary music that preceeds the festival.

Including visionary works by Liszt of the four Valse oubliee.It was his remarkable performance of works by Stefano Bulfon and Harrison Birtwistle that stand out.

A sense of line and colour and a self indentification with this sound world that I had immediately noticed a few years ago when he was asked to stand in at 24 hours notice and produced a programme entirely from memory of the most complicated scores of Messiaen .

The concert this year which included the title of the moon was by coincidence (?)on the very evening when a total eclipse was announced.

A single encore of a visionary piece by Alkan, a contemporary of Liszt and Chopin.

This long and complicated programme came to an end but the enthusiasm radiated by this remarkable eclectic musician had completely won over a very numerous audience.

The marvels of this enchanted cathedral were just as astonishing as the red moon that followed us on our way home through the beautiful Italian countryside

Great to be back in this very fine concert venue in the courtyard of the Town Hall in Sabaudia.

A great success here of Vitaly Pisarenko three years ago and a cry for more concerts after the discovery by the Pontine Festival of this secluded courtyard in the centre of the Sabaudia .

A seaside town that Mussolini had built in the Pontine Marshes.

This model town was in the style of the Rationalist Architecture of the time,often associated with fascism, as Mussolini brought the workers from the Venetian area of Italy to drain what were malerial swamps and transform this unfortunate area into the most fertile land ready to produce fresh produce for nearby Rome

They say that out of bad comes good but no one expected the miracle that was about to be revealed by pure chance in Hamburg.

Mariam Batsashvili had had to withdraw from her two performances of the Goldberg Variations for the Keyboard Charitable Trust in Hamburg.

This magnificent young Georgian pianist,a BBC new generation artists ,who just a week ago recorded the Mozart A major Piano Concerto K.488 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and had told me how grateful she was for the chance to play the Goldberg Variations in public for the first time.

She was also very excited about receiving an invitation via the KCT to play in a special wedding celebration on Lorin Maazel’s estate in Castleton in Virginia just a few days before.

Little did anyone suspect that the long trans atlantic return journey would create such physical problems that without a period of complete rest she could not even attempt to play for the 75 minutes or so that the Goldberg demand.

Just three days before the performances the near impossible search was on for a KCT artist who could play them at such short notice.

Luckily our founding fathers remembered a remarkable performance that Stefano Greco had given in 2003 in the Steinway Factory in Hamburg.

It was one of the first concerts ever to be given there and is remembered to this day not only for the fine performance but also that all the various sound boards and piano frames scattered around the walls started to vibrate in sympathy with the performance

It created an aura and atmosphere that those present have never forgotten.

Would he be free and consider to come as an “Emeritus” KCT to fill the breach?

”Give me half an hour” was the reply to a message sent at 7 am .

In fact he had not played them for three years.

The coincidence was that the last time he played them was at the commemoration for Lorin Maazel,who had passed away and left a wish that the Goldberg Variations should be played at his memorial concert on his estate in Castleton Virginia!

I had heard Stefano play in Rome to a sold out hall for S.Cecilia.

A magnificent performance of the Art of Fugue very learnedly introduced by him too.

I had also heard him in a live broadcast on the radio from the President’s Palace il Quirinale in Rome and had commented on how crisp and clean the ornaments were and that it was obviously a Fazioli piano.

Only Sokolov could play them like that on a Steinway.

I was right but Stefano commented that he could also play them as well on a Steinway!(They all do!!!)

Another great coincidence was that suddenly on the social media a picture appeared of Rosalyn Tureck who had played the Goldberg Variations at the Ghione Theatre in Rome after a 20 year break from the concert platform to study in depth the works of Bach in Oxford.

She had become a great friend and ever grateful that from that Goldberg in 1990 started a marvellous Indian Summer in Italy where she proved yet again that she was still the “ High Priestess of Bach”(Harold Schonberg).

She even created a Rosalyn Tureck Oxford Bach Institute of which I was honoured to be a trustee.

My old upstairs neighbour too, Simon Watterton, had just given the day before this sad news a very fine performance at St Mary’s Perivale.

He had not played them since winning the Chapel Gold Medal at the RCM 15 years ago and had decided to add them again to his repertoire.

It seemed as if the Ghost of Goldberg was indeed following me all week!

Stefano agreed to play the two concerts but not having played them for three years he might need to have the score on his I Pad as an aide memoire just in case.

The two concerts were in Steinway Hall in Hamburg and in the house of one of our founder trustees Dr Moritz von Bredow.

A real renaissance man who was singing this week in two performances of the Creation in Berlin as well as organising all the KCT tours and concerts in Germany.

Organising tours of a  lecture recital with Florian Heinesch called the “Unplayed Recital”.

It is the programme that one of Arrau’s favourite pupils would have played had he not been assassinated by the Nazis for being overheard speaking badly about the regime.

Moritz has also written learned tomes about the great pianist Grete Sultan who passed away in 2005 aged 99.

He has almost 200 patients as well!

He too had been present 15 years earlier when Stefano had played in Hamburg and was overjoyed when he agreed to make this unexpected return.

We had read his learned programme notes for the CD and knew that Bach was in his DNA.

John Leech suggested that he probably slept with the scores of Bach under his pillow!

I missed the Steinway performance but made it in time to share the Goldberg experience with the 50 guests invited to the HausKonzert in Dr von Bredows house in a street lined with beautiful lime trees .

Rosalyn Tureck was also a very severe task master and would regularly practice 8 hours a day with a metronome as she believed that at the core of Bach was rhythm.

She warmed up with Liszt La Campanella and I told her that no one would believe me if I told them her little secret!

She was also super sensitive to touch and would regularly smile if she saw the piano lid open when she came on the platform and would brush off tiny particles of dust that may have accumulated that could interfere with her caressing of the keys.

“…an attitude of utmost humility,the readiness to submerge one’s own theoretical and aesthetic convictions to make room for the will that is the origin of the masterpieces of Bach themselves” I quote from the sleeve notes of Stefano’s CD and it could have been the very same words of Madam Tureck.

Fascinating to listen to the same passion/obsession from Stefano that I well remember from Madam Tureck.

She had tried as Stefano today to explain to me the mathematical mind of Bach’s genius:

” All the variations that have numbers which are multiples of 3 are canons born of the division of their number by the number 3.Variation 18 will thus be a canon at the sixth(18/3=6),the variation 21 a canon at the seventh (21/3= 7) .

The exception being the 30th final variation that instead of being a canon at the tenth is the Quod libet – That which pleases.

A free variation in which Bach combines two popular tunes “Cabbage and beets have driven me away” and “ I’ve been so long away from you”,arranging them in a solid four part setting over what is the clearest statement of the fundamental bass-line in the entire work.”

The aria ,”so long away” returns immediately after on a magical cloud of G (Andre Tchaikowsky was absolutely memorable here)….It is one of the most moving moments in all music where this little aria changes from being a greeting to a farewell after almost 75 minutes of uninterrupted music.

It was rumoured that it was to be played by Johann Gottlieb Goldberg for the insomniac Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk who had commissioned it.

Fascinating too to read just as Rosalyn had tried to explain the way Bach uses the number 14 – the number obtained by adding the sequence of the letters of his last name (B+A+C+H = 2+ 1 +3+8 = 14).

The number 14 recurs regularly in Bach’s works almost as if he wanted to sign his masterpiece once again in secret:

1) Aria+14+1 variation 2) 1+14 variations+ Aria.

Very stimulating to talk to Stefano too about his use of the pedal which is often a difficult point for the purists on the modern day piano.

It was interesting to know that it is Lupu and Kempff who are absolute models for Stefano in their search for the most complete finger legato.

One in which the piano becomes by some magical alchemy a singing instrument and the unreliance on the pedal leads to a very great sense of weight and inner strength to the actual notes produced.

Over use of the pedal would be totally out of place.Over-loading a music designed to remain light,in the highest sense of the word.

(As Stefano light heartedly points out ,it would be like applying cosmetics to a statue of Michelangelo!)

What he tries to do is to bring out all the tiny details written by Bach – often Bach gave no indication at all of instrumental destination.

As he says “ I have sought to play the piano as if I were endowed with two manuals and at times also a pedal-board,to obtain differing levels of sound,with the voices mutually interweaving themselves.Very often I have used the repeats to bring out first one voice and then another,or to execute the same voice a first time stripped of embellishments,and therefore a purer rendering,and the second time ,enriching it with mordents,trills or passing notes to convey a greater gaiety.”

Bach was a great Latinist and quoting Quintillian “docti rationem componendo intelligunt,etiam indocti voluptas….” ..the learned understand the principles of artistic composition,yet the ignorant receive only pleasure!

And so it was that we were all gathered to listen to this monument in absolute silence on a very fine Bechstein piano that sits proudly in the music room in Dr Von Bredows house.

The I pad was placed on the piano as so many great artists do these days as an aide memoire so as not to interrupt the music for any personal frailties that can disturb a live performances of such masterpieces.

Strangely enough he did use the piano pedals very slightly for the Loure from the 5th French suite that was offered as an encore to a very insistent audience who after 75 minutes wanted even more!

It added a different dimension after the rigour and relentless rhythmic drive that had held us all so spellbound for over 75 minutes.

It was indeed like opening a window to let in the wonderful smells of the limes that surrounded this beautiful room.

Of course Stefano had told me that it was one of the 8(sic) French Suites as there were two early ones that Bach had discarded that Stefano always adds to his complete programmes!

A continual voyage of discovery as was his performance from the very first to the last note 75 or even 80 minutes later – Who was counting!

What a sense of colour he was able to find on his journey from the supreme delicacy of the final repeat of the aria to the enormously imposing trills of the Fughetta Variation n.10 and 14.

The heartrending lament of the 15th variation Andante that brings the first half to a close that seems to disappear into the infinite before the explosion of the opening French Overture that signals the second half.

Very telling the repeat of the 16th played almost sotto voce that took me completely by surprise as did so many other things in this remarkable performance.

There were one or two mishaps that had absolutely no importance when the architectural and rhythmic elements were of prime importance always.

I remember Tureck in Florence stopping for a second in the 23rd variation and immediately allowing her intellect to take over and continuing without any personal agitation as she and we knew that there were bigger things at stake than just note picking.

The wonderful lilt he gave to the 19th was contrasted with the great virtuosity of the 20th.

It led to the most beautiful for me of all the variations: the slow awakening (dare I say it: like the Rite of Spring) like the sun slowly rising of the 22nd variation – the dawn that takes us into unknown territory.

It carries us to the very heart of the work with the final variations as Beethoven was to do in his last Sonata op 111.

The Adagio of n.25 was indeed very moving the repeats finding each time new meaning to what we thought was already so profound.

The trill variation of 28 was played with all the rigour and rhythmic impulse that had been the hallmark of this performance.

The 29th bursting over with pyrotechnic playing always kept in strict control and led so inevitably to the almost joyous Quodlibet that dissolved onto a desolate G ready for the angels to remind us of the aria that had opened this monumental work.

Interesting to note in Rosalyn Tureck’s performance that the second note of the aria was played so deliberately quieter than the first it gave an imposing poise to such an innocent aria.

It was the only personal touch that she permitted herself to add as like Stefano today they are only interested in transmitting with great humility and intelligence the word of “God”.

Tureck too had come to Rome to play for the umpteenth time and to continue with her now annual tour that always included Florence.

She was well into her 80’s and not well and cancelled the performances rather than risk not being at her sharpest.

She heard however that the head of Deutsche Grammophon was going to be present in Florence so not to be beaten she not only played but discarded the little cards that she kept inside the piano.

She performed the Goldberg for a last time and was invited to make her last recording for Deutsche Grammophon .

We kept her locked away in the International Piano Academy in Como and Bill Nabore and I made sure that she was fully recovered to leave this last great document to posterity.

Of course other great performances all have a slightly different approach.

Angela Hewitt (who will performing them for her 60th Birthday celebrations at the Wigmore Hall on the 26th July) similar to Tatyana Nikolaeva in their belief that the song and the dance elements take precedence over any stale intellectual approach.

Both of whom have given magnificent performances in Rome too.

Barenboim ,when his then new CD was issued,announced to the horror of Tureck that he considered them to be orchestral!

The most important element in any performance is humility and integrity the two ingredients that we were reminded of in Hamburg the other evening.

Magic was indeed in the air and the minutes of total silence that greeted the final note when no one dared even breath was a sign that the miracle of Goldberg had woven its trick so unexpectedly in Hamburg.

A beautiful final touch in the programme in thanking Stefano for standing in at such short notice but also a wish for Mariam Batsashvili to make a full recovery and to be able to share with us her Goldberg and Hammerklavier that she is including in her new programmes.