Autore: ChristopherAxworthyMusicCommentary

Nice to be back at St Mary’s Perivale on this wintery day and to be greeted so warmly by our host Dr Hugh Mather the “Deus ex machina” of this veritable mecca of major pianistic talent .

A great pleasure to hear Bobby Chen a well known figure on the musical scene in London but that I have never had the chance to hear until now.

A notable curriculum in which in particular his appearances with Lord Menuhin in Beethoven’s Triple Concert immediately takes the eye.

Having studied at the Menuhin School he exemplifies the very reason that Menuhin wanted to start a school where very talented young musicians could from childhood receive a normal school education alongside a very specialist musical one as befits these precociously gifted children often misunderstood and trained too late to be able to compete with the children from Eastern Countries.

Completing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music he has gone on to play with many major orchestras under renowned conductors.

He has represented his home country of Malaysia for their 50th Anniversary as a nation in 2007 performing the world premiere of a newly written piano concerto at the Royal Festival Hall.

In 2010 he founded his own Overseas Malaysian Winter Academy based at the Menuhin School.

With four solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall and a duo recital with Leslie Howard it was indeed with great interest that I was at last able to appreciate his great musical pedigree at close hand

His musical credentials were evident from the first notes of the Haydn Sonata in C Hob XV1:50.

Here was a piano sound reminiscent of Myra Hess and Moura Lympany rather than the usual barnstormingly proficient performances we are so often subjected to these days .

He has that rare gift of being able to make the music speak and his variants of tone colour were almost as multifaceted as the human voice. The magical music box effect was beautifully realised as was the impish good humour in the Allegro finale .

It made one wonder why these masterpieces are not played more often .Haydn,Mozart and Beethoven what amazing genius and true understanding of the instrument.

Of course it takes a great musician to be able to interpret these works to allow them to speak naturally instead of taking off like a box of fireworks.

Paul Lewis is playing two recitals of Haydn Sonatas and Beethoven Bagatelles in the Royal Festival Hall something that would have been unthinkable, especially for a British pianist, a few years back.

The Liszt Sonetto del Petrarca 104 was beautifully shaped the intricate embellishments incorporated into the long melodic lines as if a great Bel canto aria.

The Busoni arrangement of Bach’s moving “Ich ruf zu dir Herr Jesu Christ” played with a stillness and such subtle tone colours even the final chord placed with just that perfection of a real musician that is listening intently to himself .

In fact in all these pieces I found myself wishing that there could have been a bit more Florestan to his ultra sensitive Eusebius.

Surely within the notes of Bach’s sublime Cantata there is also an underlying passion of a true believer and not just a devout follower.

The great Bach- Busoni Chaconne followed.

It is every bit Busoni as it is Bach .

To think that a piece for solo violin could be transcribed so perfectly as to be almost reinvented .

And it was just that reinvention that was so obvious in Bobby Chen’s performance .

None of the usual barnstorming presentation of the theme but played with an unusual quiet calm that lead quite naturally into the left hand staccato octaves played quarter bow as the Chaconne lead us to its obvious conclusions. Some beautiful contrasts with sumptuous tone from the middle register of the piano and a general sense of shape a direction that lead into the almost organ like writing before the triumphant return of the opening theme.

The great bass notes deep down in the piano played as a real musician who is aware that these notes are only to enrich the noble sounds and not like guns being fired as is too often the case.

Sometimes rhythmically not always impeccable it was a small price to pay for such musicianly playing.

The Liszt second Ballade in B minor charmingly introduced by this “gentle ” man was played with great command.

Right from the swirling left hand on which the theme emerges as if on some great wash of waves to the sublime first appearance of the second subject there was always a musical sheen and never just empty virtuosity.

Astoundingly musical octaves and an appearance at last of Florestan in the great heroic outpourings of Liszt’s magical metamorphosis that conjures up an almost operatic melody from its first innocent appearance.

An encore of Schumann’s Widmung in Liszt’s beautiful transcription brought this recital to a magical end.

Aleksandar Pavlović at the Royal Albert Hall

Nice to be back in the Elgar Room again where the Royal College of Music have been giving concerts since 1884!

Mr Barton played the Chopin third Ballade in that very first concert and it was indeed Chopin that struck gold today too.

Students or I should say young artists from the Royal College now have the opportunity to play to a sold out audience on Sunday mornings in what is billed as “Classical Coffee Morning “.

A full house today where obviously many had come for the coffee and cakes on offer in these very august settings together with an hour of music.

Little were they expecting to hear such impressive performances  such as we were treated to today.

I doubt anyone would have dared lift their cup whilst they were listening to the young Serbian graduate from the class of that very distinguished trainer of real musicians Norma Fisher

And it was indeed in the middle section of the Chopin Polonaise Fantasie that his aristocratic and mature understanding became truly enthralling.

Having seen Aleksandar recently in an archive film shown before the Rome International Piano Competition now in its 25th year .

A young boy of 12, winner of the Junior Section of this relatively unknown competition which Marcella Crudeli with her intrepid resilience and enthusiasm matched only by that of Carola Grindea combined with EPTA to give the stage not only to mature artists but also to those youngsters with major talent as we have seen today.

Having heard Aleksandar Pavlović in this very hall two years ago I was immediately struck by his great musicality and sensitivity but also felt it missed the architectural solidity and control that a mature artist must acquire.

Hats off to Norma Fisher for giving him the time to study under her expert guidance and mature into the artist that was before us today .

Norma Fisher herself ,as our mutual “piano daddy”Sidney Harrison had done for her as a school girl, has allowed the freedom for the talent to develop naturally but with great patience to point the direction and convince (not always easy with such talent) him to listen to himself and acquire his own musical taste and personality.

It is no coincidence that at the Chopin Society later this afternoon another of Sidney Harrisons students Ian Hobson is playing.

We were teenagers together studying in Chiswick ,as Norma before us, with the first man to give piano lessons on the television at a time when one looked into that brown box in the corner of a few privileged homes .

Ian Hobson from a talented youth from Coventry ,thanks to that same very careful training, has since gone on to win the Leeds International Piano Competition and create an important career in America as Professor,Pianist and Conductor.

Many of the public told me afterwards today of how they had noted my concentration on Pavolvic’s performances and I explained that it was so involving that I and I am sure many others present had found a cup of cold coffee untouched at the end of his astounding performance of the Scriabin Fantasie that finished this all too short programme.

Twice in this Elgar room but next time for a sure we will be applauding in the 6000 seat hall next door known as the Town Hall of London.

The Royal Albert Hall that thankfully no bomb or demolition squad has had in its sights. What better memorial could a loving wife leave her adored husband.

United forever in this unique space .

Not an easy task to present yourself at 11 am impeccably dressed in a dinner jacket and to sit down in front of a full hall and be confronted with a bright red Yamaha grand piano.

The piano donated to the Elgar Room by Markson Pianos was in fact used by Elton John on his Big Red Piano Tour.

Starting also with one of Beethoven’s most allusive openings to be played ” with innermost sensibility” .

Hats off to this young artist ,still only 24, that he could create the atmosphere immediately.

The hands caressing the keys and allowing the melody to evolve almost as a great lieder singer might have done.

Some exquisite phrasing and very delicate use of the sustaining pedal gave a very liquid un percussive sound to this great song like opening.

Hinted at in the previous little sonata op 90 but now fully born in the first of the last five great sonatas where Beethoven could only imagine the celestial sounds he had in his head.

The Schumanesque type march that followed was played with great rhythmic control only very rarely did Pavlovic’s youthful temperament disturb the unyielding flow that Beethoven demands.

“Slow and longingly” Beethoven asks for in the third movement and this young artist certainly treated us to that today with such a beautifully modulated melodic line leading to the last movement played with great deliberation as Beethoven asks and here Pavlovic’s great temperament finally caught fire.

Great control in this very difficult movement with the typical Beethovenian outbursts played with such full rich orchestral sound.

This in turn lead to an extraordinary performance of Chopin’s Polonaise Fantasie.

So often played with more Fantasie than Polonaise and as the opening great expanse of sounds unravelled out of the majestic opening chords I thought we were in for another of those interpretations from the so called Chopin specialist.

Those that specialise in playing with great feeling but rarely in time.

However in this late work of Chopin one was aware of a very serious musical mind much like that of a Perahia or Zimerman where there can be flexibility and passion combined with great control and sense of architectural shape.

Yes the roots in the ground and the branches free to move naturally in the wind as Chopin would describe his so called rubato to his aristocratic but rather poor lady students that he was forced to teach to survive.

Unfortunately the tradition from these second rate amateur pianists has been passed down as the authentic Chopin.

Nothing could be further from the truth as Artur Rubinstein and many after him have since shown us.

The build up to the final outburst was very well judged and kept excitingly under control.

Never have I heard the Scriabin Fantasie played with such a clear sense of line and direction.

A very passionately felt performance in which control, musicianship and sense of balance gave a commanding vision to this often fragmented piece that comes between the 3rd and 4th sonatas.

In a single movement it is a challenge for the performer to bring all the various strands and contrasting episodes together making the final passionate explosion so inevitably right.

It brought this short hour long programme to a sumptuous romantic finish .

Despite insistent applause no encore was possible after such a trascendental exhibition of such mastery.

Camerata in Love

Stoller Hall Manchester

Rebecca Bottone,Ilya Kondratiev,Caroline Pether,Hannah Roberts. …..and an unexpected visit from Callum Mclachlan.

Now in its second year the inspired and inspiring collaboration between the Keyboard Charitable Trust and the Manchester Camerata opened its second year last night in the magnificent new Stoller Hall that is a great and much needed addition to Chethams Music School.

This remarkable school that like the Purcell and Menuhin schools further south have been responsible for the early training of so many talented young children .

A training sadly lacking for so many years in England that allowed too often in the past, an unfair advantage from young early trained musicians from the Eastern countries. This is now no longer the case and it is no coincidence that there has been an explosion of english trained talent on the International Music scene in the past few years.

One of three orchestras in this enlightened (literally) city.

The Camerata is the only one to maintain the cities name according to Geoffrey Shindler,their honorary chairman who was so proud to inform me.

The Halle created by Sir John Barbirolli whose statue stands outside the relatively new Bridgewater Hall that it shares with the BBC Philharmonic.

Manchester an industrial city that had been treated so cruelly in the second world war and even recently suffered a devastating bomb attack from terrorists right in its very heart only a stones throw from the Cathedral and Chethams.

The brave and resilient Mancunians with that noble working spirit of the north have come back stronger and more determined than ever.

A city full of new concert halls,theatres,art galleries and astonishing commercial centres incorporating the old with the new.

Last year the Keyboard Trust collaborated with the Manchester Camerata in three different venues with three young stars from the KCT stable . The Whitworth award winning Art gallery with Alexander Ullman the only British pianist ever to have won both Liszt International Competitions in Budapest and Utrecht

Home a cultural centre that has grown out of the old leather foundry with Emanuel Rimoldi,winner of Tromso Top of the World International Competition .

Manchester Cathedral,devastated in the war and brought back to life as a symbol of this brave City with Iyad I. Sughayer,recent winner of the Trinity Laban Gold Medal. It was an inspired choice of programme with Haydn`s Last Words on the Cross and Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time. Geoffrey Shindler and many in the vast audience were deeply moved and had tears in their eyes.

 https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/upclose-the-next-generation/

It cemented a relationship that was the brain child of Geoffrey Shindler passionately believing in “The Next Generation “and sponsoring it from his own pocket too.

But then the hardy folk from the “North” have never been afraid to bare their souls with actions rather than words.

And so the new season with Ilya Kondratiev , Chapell Gold Medal Winner at the Royal College of Music and a top prize winner too in the Budapest Liszt Competition,joined two of the magnificent players from the Camerata to form a piano trio in a concert dedicated to Valentine`s day under the charming title “Camerata in Love” .

The idea of bassoonist and now enlightened Head of Artistic Development and Programming,James Thomas.

At the head of a young team of passionate music promoters in the name of the Camerata under their chief in command Bob Riley.

All with that warmth and intelligent common sense that is so much part of these extraordinary “down to earth” folk.

A programme made up of Romances for violin.and piano with Caroline Pether`s superb violin and the renowned cellist Hannah Roberts.

A Salut d`Amour ,of course,could not be missing and neither could Il Bacio sung by the daughter of Bonaventura Bottone the renowned coloratura soprano Rebecca Bottone.

All this only a prelude to the” sturm und drang” of Brahm`s passionate youthful masterwork the Trio in B major op.8.

The beauty of the sound of Caroline Pethers violin filled the hall with all her subtle and intelligent artistry that she had already revealed in the final rehearsals that afternoon.

The Beethoven Romance n.2 in F op.50,too rarely heard these days and given a suitably warm and loving performance as was befitting an evening dedicated to love and lovers.

A full orchestra provided by Ilya Kondratiev on a Steinway D on full stick.

Never overpowering the violin this fine musician was listening always attentively as the refined and sensitive driver of this Ferrari of all instruments.

Hannah Roberts followed with the Romance in A major by Faure .

A refined and passionate performance playing without the score that gave full reign to her complete participation .

I remember Perlemuter asking me to tell the public in Rome before he played some nocturnes by Faure of how the director of the Paris Conservatoire would pass the music down to him in the house they shared with the ink still wet to try out on their piano.

His music shows just that intimate love of Hausmusik that was so much part of all the performances this evening.

Little could we have expected the bomb shell that a little blond haired lady was about to treat us too.

Rebecca Bottone,figlia d`arte of the renowned Bonaventura Bottone and Jennifer Hakin treated us to three show stoppers indeed.

Vilja from Lehar’s Merry Widow sung with a subtle charm reciprocated by our young russian pianist in a duo of give and take that kept the Valentine audience spellbound.

“O mio babbino caro”from Gianni Schicchi did its trick as it had done in the many memorable performances I heard in my student days of Caballe.

Just as beautiful and sustained and quite as moving as I remember those performances.Backed by some beautiful sounds from the piano.

They launched into Arditi`s Il Bacio with all the energy and transcendental technique of the greatest coloratura sopranos for whom it was written.

An amazing performance in which Ilya and Rebecca tried to out do each other in funabular trickery.

An amazing high C showed just who won!

A standing ovation and time for an interval in what was really just the Hors d’oeuvre to our Valentine treat.

I well remember Michael Aspinall the well known – infamous one might almost say-“Gentleman Soprano” who performed it regularly in Rome with the Adelina Patti embellishments .

Sutherland and Caballe used to come and cheer his performances and recognised his absolute authority in the repertoire of the Golden Age of singing.

Having started as a joke at the British Council in Rome dressed as “Britannia” and impersonating to the letter Dame Clara Butt’s inimitable performances he found he could earn  enough money from his performances worldwide to help with his musicological studies in the archives of S.Carlo in Naples and elsewhere.

He appeared a few years ago dressed as Britannia at his old Grammar School in Manchester much to the amazement and amusement of his fellow old boys.

Now in his 80th year he is a much sought after singing teacher in Naples with many illustrious students of his singing in the Opera houses around the world.

Elgar’s sublime Salut d’Amour op 12 opened the second half in a trio version arranged by Hannah’s composer husband.

Elgars hymn to love with some intricate counterpoints with some suggestion of the violin and cello concertos.

 Elgar’s song to love so beautifully played by all three as the melody passed from one to another in a real amorous tete a tete .The intellectual refinement of the counterpoint was a little bit lost as the violin and cello soared into the perfect acoustic of this beautiful hall.

The main work on the programme was still to come with Brahms passionate and youthful early Trio in B major op 8 .

Played with red hot passion in an exciting and stimulating performance with three players who had only played together for a the past three days .

The beautiful opening on the piano echoed hauntingly by the cello ,passionate and refined.

When the violin enters in unison with the cello and the melody soared with such intensity one could see the almost aching agony on the faces of these dedicated artists.

The Scherzo played with real rhythmic energy the piano answered so perfectly by the cello.

The Trio section sang in stark relief to the impish energy either side.

Some wonderful jeux perle playing from the piano gave an exquisite sheen to this movement.

The serenity of the slow movement was almost as a relief from the intensity of the outer movements .Choral like in its religious calm.

Hannah’s cello slipped in almost unnoticed on the last chord and lead to a tumultuous final movement full of the typical dance like energy that was to mark so many of Brahms’ final movements .The cascading final notes of the piano echoed by the passionate chords from the cello and piano brought an ovation from an audience overwhelmed by a really exhilarating performance.

Manchester the city where music abounds and in the Summer months becomes a mecca for the greatest musicans from around the globe.

The Chethams Summer Piano Festival devised by Murray McLachlan bring the greatest talents in a breathtakingly unique programme which last year included Peter Frankl,Dmitri Alexeev,Craig Shepherd,Leslie Howard ,Carlo Grante,Leon McCawley,Norika Ogawa,Dina Parakhina,Norma Fisher and many many more besides All the Beethoven Concertos played by a selection of these great artists.

Murray McLachlan an ex student of Norma Fisher at the Royal Northern College of Music where she has now transferred her London Masterclasses celebrating it’s 30th year and bringing even more illustrious music to this remarkable city.

Murray McLachlan with his family of musicians too and we were delighted to be able to listen to his very talented eighteen year old son Callum play so beautifully Chopin op 35 and Beethoven op 7 in a pause between rehearsal and concert.

The Hills certainly are full of the Sound of Music which by coincidence is playing at the Palace Theatre and only goes to mirror a fraction of the exciting things that are happening in this remarkable city.

Enlightened indeed ….it is positively gleaming

Louis Lortie in Rome …The Complete Chopin Studies

Not many pianists can approach all the Chopin studies in one sitting and so it was with some trepidation that I entered that hallowed S.Cecilia Hall and saw just a piano on its own.

Admittedly a Steinway D of Fabbrini so I knew we were in good hands.

Having heard Louis Lortie recently too in Saint- Saens fourth piano concerto in Turin and last year  in two truly monumental performances of Brahms F minor Sonata in London and Rome

I was sure we were in for a memorable occasion.

I well remember my wonder on discovering as a boy the recording of Alfred Cortot.

All the studies plus the Preludes op 28.

It had passed into history his public performances of this programme.

Each little tone poem full of glittering jewels and subtle poetry.

Vladimir Ashkenazy in my youth gave memorably poetic performances of the studies op 10 and 25 together with the Beethoven Sonatas op 31 in two recitals at the Festival Hall and was his visiting card in London together with Rachmaninoff Concerto n.3 and Prokofiev n.2.

We tend to forget what a poet he was at the keyboard now he is more often seen with a baton in his golden hands.

Stefan Askenase too gave a memorable performance of the complete studies as did Fou Ts’ong in London and for us on my request in Rome.

I will never forget Jan Smeterlin in op.10 n.2.One of the most transcendentally difficult studies in chromatic notes played with a beguiling charm and some unexpected but beautiful pointing of inner parts as befitted a disciple of Leopold Godowsky.

Godowsky ,the pianists pianist ,made notorious arrangements of all the studies sometimes combining two together,but always maintaining and sometimes augmenting their poetic content.

Artur Rubinstein stuck to those few where he felt he had something to say.”You have to love what you play” he is famously quoted as saying  and op 25 n.5 in E minor was truly memorable as was the excitement he generated at the end of op.10 n.4 in C sharp minor. We were all astonished when in his final recital at the Wigmore Hall he played so beautifully op 25 n.2 that we had never heard him play before.

He could not see out of the corners of his eyes and so abandoned his 2nd Scherzo a lifetime warhorse that alas he could not longer tame .

The study lies beautifully in the middle register of the piano and there was certainly nothing wrong with his magical fingers even in his 90’s

Richter ,of course,arrived late in life with his Yamaha piano and little light on the score and proceeded to astonish us with his choice of some of the most difficult studies.

Strange that Piero Rattalino in his learned programme notes “Chopin entre deux ages” had forgotten to mention what is generally recognised as the finest modern account of the studies on record.

That of Murray Perahia.

I doubt he would play them complete in concert but has preferred to play a few at a time nurturing them with all his masterly musicianship,control and delicacy.

Shura Cherkassky’s 1955 account so lauded by Rattalino but strangely disowned by Shura when he heard it had reappeared on the paper stall in Italy.

Like Arrau whose masterly account of op 25 he was not at all happy with.

These are indeed the pinnacle of the pianistic repertoire and each of these master pianists have had different peaks in view.

Today listening to Louis Lortie playing with astonishing precision and startling speed, whilst I could understand his wish to present the studies as an architectural whole I felt it was at the expense of the poetic content of each individual study.

Some of the studies in particular from op 10 whilst marvelling at the performance no real characterisation or sense of colour was possible.

Even the beautiful study in E major op 10 n.3 played with an admirable cantabile was somehow never allowed to flow simply and the accompaniment sounded strangely agitated.

Nothing to do with the tempo which has always been in discussion since Chopin changed Vivace ma non troppo to Lento ma non troppo.

This is to do with simplicity and getting away from the Chopin tradition which is the opposite of Chopin’s distinct wish for the roots to be always firmly planted whilst allowing the branches to sway naturally.This was surprisingly also in evidence in the Nocturne offered as an encore

The dramatic contrasts in the “Revolutionary”study were strangely missing too.

However there were many memorable things such as the sweep and passionate shaping of the final study op.25 n.12.

The beautiful simplicity of the sublime central section of op.25 n.5 in E minor.

The lack of sentimentality and sense of forward drive of the beautiful op 10 n.6.

Surely the melody is in the left hand in the double third study op 25 n.6 in G sharp minor.Not evident here although the treacherous double thirds were thrown off with admirable ease.

I well remember Perlemuters memorable performance of this one in particular when he played the op.25 set at his debut in Italy at the age of 81!

Agosti was unforgettable in his studio in Siena pointing out with such passion the left hand melody in the scintillating op.10 n.8 in F major .

It was just this that was missing in spite of an astonishingly accurate jeux perle in the right hand .

Some beautiful sounds in the Trois Nouvelles Etudes although the middle one -legato/staccato – was a rather too rumbustious bed fellow for these three most poetic studies written for the Methode des Methodes of Fetis and Moscheles.

After such a tour de force Louis Lortie still had the strength to offer an encore. Chopin’s most magical nocturne in D flat played with a haunting sense of colour that held the audience at last mesmerised by the true poet that is Louis Lortie.

Maybe it is time to leave these complete performances of studies, whether Liszt ,Chopin .Rachmaninov, as a visiting card for the latest “whizz kids” who have the energy and time to prove their laurels.

If they are photogenic the record industry will have a field day in marketing them!

Artists of the stature of Louis Lortie need no better proof of their mastery than the magisterial performances of the great master works such as Brahms F minor Sonata which are but of a chosen few.

Sunday Music with the Amici della Musica of Padua Carlotta Dalia guitar

Wonderful to know that Filippo Juvarra after his dedication to the piano for so many years is opening up the Amici della Musica di Padova to the much neglected world of the guitar.

After the opening concerts of the season dedicated to the piano we were now treated to another of the eight musicians featured in this series of Sunday morning concerts that gives a much needed platform to young competition winners

The wonderfully resonant acoustic of the historic Sala Dei Giganti are just perfect for these plucked instruments and I am much looking forward to hearing that dynamic young harpsichordist, Jean Rondeau, playing the Goldberg’s in this wonderful setting later in the season here too.

It was obviously no coincidence that today the eighteen year old guitarist Carlotta Dalia from Grosseto should present a programme of composers ranging from 1685 to 1872- Scarlatti,Sor and Regondi.

Finishing only with a final flurry into the 20th century with Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Hollywood style indeed for Castelnuovo -Tedesco born in Florence in 1895 emigrated to Hollywood in 1939 and wrote music for over 200 films for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

He did though also find time to write concertos for his neighbours Heifetz and Piatigorsky as well as being a prolific composer for the guitar.

Nice to read that Carlotta is now studying with Frederic Zigante one of the many very fine guitarist who played in the Ghione Theatre in Rome.

Many now famous names were given a platform in Rome in seasons that still unbelievably neglect the guitar .

We had in Rome such artists as Oscar Ghiglia, Manuel Barrueco,Duo Assad,John Williams,David Russell ,Julian Bream,Yamashita,Andrea Vetoretti …..the list of great artists is endless and I just hope that here in Padua at least they might start to find a platform as they have in a little private theatre in Rome.

Frederic Zigante introduced to me in Rome by Griselda Ponce de Leon who organised for us memorable concerts and masterclasses with Zigante and Russell before being struck down by a banal minor operation where she never recovered from the anethestic.

How could I forget Zigante’s moving recital in her memory.

She will not be forgotten.

Some beautifully musical playing from Carlotta today that will grow in stature as her fingers mature and obtain that weight that is so essential, especially in the fast moving figures that alternate with touchingly expressive cantabile.

The guitar has a way of being even more expressive than the piano and  could that have been the reason of the myth that has grown around Schubert and Berloz writing with a guitar by their side?

Carlotta Dalia already at her tender age winner of First Prizes in the Giulio Rospigliosi and Uppsala Competitions last year showed all her professionality as we battled with a persistent cougher throughout the first half of the programme.

Thankfully we were able to listen without this interruption after an irate Filippo Juvarra asked the offending young lady to control or leave.

Some beautiful shading in the three Scarlatti Sonatas and a great sense of line in the Gran Solo op 14 by Fernando Sor.

Some very pleasing variations by Giulio Regondi a composer much appreciated by Sor when his father brought him as a child prodigy to Paris.

The Fantasia op 46 “Souvenir d’Amitie'” by Sor is dedicated to him.

His picture looks remarkably like David Russell with whom I was at the Royal Academy in London and who regularly came to the Ghione theatre in Rome for concerts and masterclasses.

Regondi abandoned by his father in 1831 fled to London and probably as a reaction took to the concertina!

The Castelnuovo- Tedesco of course showed off the remarkable credentials of this young player to the full.

Greeted by a peal of bells as she went into overtime she offered a single encore to an insistent and by now silenced audience! I look forward to hearing this young artist in the great music that abounds for this delicate instrument.

Even if she can turn baubles into gems it is sometimes nice in a programme to have a real genuine gem too.

A wonderful pork sandwich and glass of Merlot in the beautiful square was a sad farewell to Padua sharing the tables with the pigeons and our persistent cougher who seemed to have been miraculously cured by the sublime sounds from Carlotta Dalia‘s guitar.#

Arrivederci,as they say in these parts, a presto!

The young British born virtuoso on tour in Italy for the Keyboard Charitable Trust .

Only half way through a tour that started in Viterbo last Saturday and has taken in Rome,Vicenza,Venice,Padua and will finish in Abano Terme on Monday.

He has already registered a remarkable success with all CD’s sold in the first concerts in Rome in the Ghione Theatre.

Reopening its doors once again to great music after its amazing record of historic performances from artists such as:Perlemuter,Agosti,Fischer,Cherkassky,Tureck,Sandor,Lympany,

De Larocha,Mannino,Foldes,Frankl,Kovacevich,Pletnev,Pogorelich,FouTs-ong,Alexeev,Katin Fialkowska, Hewitt,Howard and many young talents now making a name for themselves such as Prosedda,Cabassi,Baldocci,Ullman,Romanovsky,Gillham,Pisarenko,Rossi etc .

It is not just a coincidence that he has this month received rave reviews for his new recording of Alkan’s studies in the major keys .

Five stars in the Guardian with Gramophone and Sunday Times following suit.

I well remember over 50 years ago the excitement generated by the arrival of Raymond Lewenthal in London with queues around the Wigmore Hall after word had got around about his extraordinary performances of Liszt and Alkan.

It was just the same excitement that had ignited a teenage student at the Purcell school when an enlightened William Fong had given the exceptionally talented young pianists in his care the project of each one preparing a study from Chopin op 25 and Alkan op 35.

Mark a late starter when at the relatively late age if 11 he fell madly in love with the piano.

Self taught but already at the age of 12 he was accepted to the Purcell school for exceptionally talented children.

One of the three schools :Menuhin,Purcell and Chethams that specifically had been created on the lines of what had long been the norm in the eastern countries and USA.

Lucky from the age of 12 to 17 to be under the expert guidance of Tessa Nicholson who gave him the basis of the technique that is now astounding the public and critics alike. Another six years perfecting these early skills from Niel Immelman,star student in my day of that great English virtuoso Cyril Smith, sadly too often forgotten inspite of Guilgud’s wonderful portrayal in “Shine”.

Mark Viner was winner of the first international Alkan Zimmerman Competition in Athens in 2012 whilst still perfecting his studies at the Royal College of Music where he obtained his Masters in 2013 with the highest votes ever recorded.

Since then he has already  been voted President of the Alkan Society in the UK and recently also to the chairmanship of the Liszt society of which Leslie Howard is President

With highly praised recordings of Liszt,Thalberg and Alkan already to his name he is now being helped by the Keyboard Charitable with tours in the USA and Italy all leading up to the Prizewinners debut recital at the Wigmore Hall in London on 2nd March.

Immersed in this period when the piano was just evolving and taking the world by storm in the fashionable salons in Paris and many Royal Courts throughout Europe including that of Queen Victoria in London.

There is the famous story of Liszt, feted like a pop star , playing to the Tsar Nicolas 1st in 1840 .

Arriving late and talking, Liszt stopped playing and sat motionless with his head bowed.

The Tsar enquired why the music had stopped.

To which Liszt replied coolly: “Music herself should be silent when Nicholas speaks”.

These stories abound in this Romantic period and many a legend has grown up since. One such legend has persisted and it is that of the mysterious figure of Charles-Valentin Alkan.

A recluse who in his rare performances in public both Chopin and Liszt would be present to hear what Liszt considered the most perfect technique -apart from his own of course.

Music so difficult that it was for a long time considered unplayable.

Legend has it that he died from the Talmud falling on him.

Thalberg too a virtuoso and rival of Liszt .

Stories of the famous duel between these two giants of the keyboard in the Salon of the Princess Belgiojoso in the spring of 1837.

People standing on their seats in the hope of discovering the secrets of Thalberg’s seemingly impossible performances that sounded like many more than two hands at one keyboard .

“Old Arpeggio”Sigismond Thalberg with the incomparable “Il penseroso “Franz Liszt . The Princess declaring at the end that Thalberg is the first pianist in the world but Liszt is unique!

Thalberg played, of course, at the court of Queen Victoria too and amassed a vast fortune before retiring to Naples where he founded the famous Neapolitan School of Piano Playing still very much present amongst the great pianists playing today ……….Martha Argerich for example direct from the Neapolitan school in Buenos Aires of Vincenzo Scaramuzza.

Liszt erected a statue to Thalberg which still stands in one of the main squares of Naples.

His tomb recently desecrated by some enlightened grave robbers who had obviously done their homework.

A direct descendant of his the Donna Ferrara Pignatelli di Strongoli was present at Mark’s Rome concert and was enormously enthusiastic as were the entire audience lucky to be present.

Not always the greatest music as with any composer but as Mark says he could make the piano sound sumptuous and the gorgeous sonorities could easily seduce the senses even today.

Like the great Bel Canto operas that need the unique artistry of a Callas or Sutherland to make them re live.

Today there are only a few who are passionate advocates of this music and Mark certainly joins the ranks of people like Raymond Lewenthal,Ronald Smith and Mark Andre Hamelin.

Starting his recitals with the Benediction et Serment- deux motifs de Benvenuto Cellini de Berloz S.396.

We were immediately aware of the wide range of sounds that were conjured out of the instrument .From the barely whispered opening motif to the enormous sonorities of the climax.

Always with a great sense of balance giving an almost orchestral effect to this rather sombre rarely performed work.

The three pieces by Alkan that make up his op 15 “Souvenirs – trois morceaux dans le genre pathetique ” showed off all the originality and breathtaking virtuosity of these little tone poems.

The heartrending opening almost Bellinian melody of “Aime -moi” that was to be hinted at at the end of the last piece “Morte” almost like the disintegration or nostalgic look over the shoulder at the end of Schubert’s great A major sonata .

It made one aware of the importance of playing the three pieces as a whole .

The extraordinarily delicate virtuosity in Alkan’s almost impossibly difficult depiction of the wind.”Le vent” the second piece of the Souvenirs where even here the sheer beauty of the left hand melodic line just barely hinted at was a true feat of virtuosity .

Not the passionate arpeggios of Thalberg or Liszt but a much more subtle virtuosity of a mind that is listening intently to every sound and has the capability to control each sound whether the left hand be in impossible tenths or the breathtaking velocity of the chromatic scales in the right hand.

The great Dies Irae of the last piece played or rather hinted at to the accompaniment of gong like sounds from deep in the heart of the instrument.

A critic in Vicenza asked me why this suite is not more often played until I showed her the score with a million fingerings written in the score by Mark with the same precision of a brain surgeon !

Quod erat demonstrandum!

The Fantasie sur des themes de l’opera Moise de G Rossini op 33 by Thalberg opened the second half of this fascinating journey into a past magical world.

A short but very learned introduction given by this expert was of a great help in understanding this almost unexplored world of the birth of the modern piano as we know it today.

Two of the the themes used were not by Rossini at all but in the “style of”, according to Mark who not only plays these pieces but goes into very detailed research of every aspect of the music in the archives and is fast becoming a world authority.

But when the famous theme does appear with such delicate and intricate embellishments played with an almost irresistible ,teasing sense of rubato with the same astonishing clarity of a great bel canto singer .

The build up of this seemingly innocent theme was quite exhilarating as it was surely meant to be in Thalberg’s own astonishing performances .

Sometimes reminiscent of course of the embellishments and the same technique that his rival Liszt uses in his surely undisputed masterpiece that is the “Reminiscences de Norma.”

Some truly amazing risks taken and handsomely won by this young man who is fast becoming the reincarnation of his great forebears.

A standing ovation and a rush to buy the three remarkable CD’s to take home and prolong the exultation that was generated live in the recital hall.

More than a mention should be made of his exemplary Chopin Nocturnes op 48 .

Played with a simple but very flexible aristocratic sense of rubato.

The great build up in the C minor nocturne played by a master architect who knows how the building is constructed.

A very telling almost nonchalant jeux perle in the central section of the F sharp minor nocturne suddenly made sense of this rather elusive partner.

A single encore only in Rome so far from a more than insistent public many of whom professional pianists and illustrious colleagues .

Luckily announced by the pianist himself and was by that other shadowy figure from the past Cecile Chaminade: “Meditation” op 76 n.6 and one of the pieces that will figure on a new CD of the works of this little known pianist composer and another for this more than inquisitive young virtuoso to champion.

Chiyan Wong at St Martin in the Fields for the Concordia Foundation.

Bach:Goldberg Variations BWV 988 (after the Busoni edition)

What a treat today in this “Wonderful Town” to quote Simon Rattle .

A real thinking musician presenting one of the greatest works ever written for the keyboard.

To a packed out audience in St Martin in the Fields that had taken a break from the frantic pre-Christmas rush to spend an hour in the presence of that sublime master: J.S.Bach.

Chiyan is one of those totally dedicated musicians that whatever he plays is convincing and so it was only with a little trepidation that I ventured today to hear him present the Busoni edition of this masterwork.

Gone is the era of the rather inflated transcriptions of Busoni and the like .

We live in an era of historic instruments and research into the original scores and origins of these works.

But it was after all Mendelssohn who discovered and revealed to the world the masterpieces of J.S. Bach still hidden away in the archives ,and Busoni who brought the great organ works into the concert hall.

Many of these great works can be played in any combination and I have heard the Goldberg variations in various string groups and of course from many of the great musicians both past and present, all totally different one from the other .

I remember in 1991 inviting Rosalyn Tureck to return to the concert stage after years spent away from her doting public in order to study in depth the composer of which Harold Schonberg,the great american musicologist and critic, described as the ” High Priestess of Bach.”

I invited only a month later Tatyana Nikolaeva to play the same work and was greatly criticised for not having more interesting programmes!

They were both totally different but very great performances.

Nikolaeva more human and warm.

Tureck like a rock of superhuman intellect and total dedication to what she knew were the composers wishes.

The performance I most remember was for the magical appearance of the aria after the quodlibet and was by Andre Tchaikowsky.

Leaving the pedal on the final G of the last variation and then allowing the aria to float on it as if like a magical apparition was truly an unforgettable moment .

This much missed artist ,who died so young, leaving his skull with all his impish intelligent humour to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in Hamlet.

It was too fragile to be used and I am sure Andre would have much enjoyed this strange ironic twist of fate.

Recently of course we have had the beautifully musical performances of Angela Hewitt where the song and the dance are the principal motivation.

As with the latest great performance from the young Beatrice Rana, a BBC young generation artist who has already recorded Tchaikowsky 1 and Prokofiev 2 with Pappano.

Chiyan Wong is one of the new generation of artists trained from a very early age in England and that are now taking the music world by storm.

England always criticised for not providing the same sort of training in childhood as in the countries of the East or in America.

Thanks to Chethams,Purcell and Menuhin Schools this has now all changed .

Chiyan studied from the age of 12 at Chethams and then at the Royal Northern College of Music under Norma Fisher .

Still only in his 20’s he has a curriculum that includes many prestigious prizes :Hattori Foundation,Jaques Samuel, Horowitz competition in the Ukraine and the Premio Liszt in Parma.

After recent performances of Prokofiev 2 in Singapore and Liszt in Hong Kong he was dashing back after his performance today to the Hong Kong Philharmonic to play the Liszt Fantasy for the New Year Festivities

Total command and clarity were the impressive hallmark of this very interesting performance.

Busoni edition yes but played with the intelligence and sensibility of a young man of today.

Chiyan Wong confided that he was always daunted by the thought of performing this monumental work and asked me if I would turn pages for him. “Why the music Chiyan you are a big lad now!”

I regretted saying it ,but back came the reply that he did not need it after all.

Exactly as Rosalyn Tureck had done in Florence all those years ago.

About to cancel the performance (she well into her 80’s ) we told her that the head of Deutsche Grammophon had especially flown in to hear her .

She not only played but discarded the cards she kept as a pro memoria in the piano .

She too even after a long career had been daunted by the idea of performing this monumental work.

Chiyan appeared without the score and proceeded to hold his audience in his hands for a totally convincing and in many ways masterly account of this very discreetly tainted Busoni edition.

Luckily Chiyan too had decided that Busoni’s triumphant reappearance of the Aria after the Quodlibet was really no longer in style with our present day thinking and respectful knowledge of Bach’s thoughts and so Chiyan had in the Busoni tradition composed a modified equally original version of the Aria in style with both Bach and Busoni!

Hats off to this thinking musician to have found his own solution ,respectful to both Bach and Busoni.

The opening Aria played with just that right amount of personal rubato that allowed the music to breathe and live so touchingly but with dignity never falling into sentimentality.

Infact it was in the slower more lyrical variations that Chiyan really excelled with so many really beautiful things where the part playing right from the second variation was so telling and expressive.

His insistence on non legato almost staccato whilst admirable did mean that the sense of line and admirable rhythmic impetus was slightly colourless.

I can understand his reasoning for contrasting the lyrical with the almost etude type writing but feel that a little more weight would have allowed more real shaping on this very fine Steinway at St Martins.

The 19th variation that Busoni marks Allegretto piacevole was played slower with a very telling light staccato that lead into more serious Busoni territory.

The 20th variation played with pedal that made it sound most unexpectedly like a music box especially for the first of the variations that leads to the build up and the explosion of the 29th .

But in Busoni’s hands he had obviously seen the 22nd variation “alla breve” as a crucial point of arrival played with all the Busoni fanfares ablaze.

The 23rd variation almost descending into a Lisztian study gave way to a simple heart rending version of the Adagio, one of the most profound of Bach’s keyboard works, left to speak for itself in the genial hands of Busoni .

The contrast was tellingly found with his insistent non legato in the following variations but for my taste rather too staccato.

The transposition by Busoni into the higher part of the piano register in the trill variation that is n.28 left me a bit perplexed as to how Busoni could have perceived this almost Paganinian interlude before the magnificent explosion of the 29th.

Here Busoni’s rendition added great grandeur to the penultimate variation that can sometimes be a little helter skelter even in very illustrious hands.

Here he put the hand break on to great effect.

Of course the Quodlibet that is the 30th variation lead in Busoni’s hands to the triumphant reappearance of the Aria .

But as mentioned before Chiyan Wong had as a modern day musician understood that the Quodlibet was the point of arrival and that the gentle touching appearance of the Aria should appear as a dream and should not disturb the now slumbering insomniac count for whom they were composed.

Moments of total silence in which one could have heard a pin drop after the final chord of Chiyan’s Aria was the greatest compliment that one could have paid to the monumental performance offered by this extraordinary thinking musician.

Having touched the very hearts of a public that just sought refuge from the confusion of Christmas in Trafalgar Square today

Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang at the Wigmore Hall in London tonight .

Last night in the S.Cecilia Hall in Rome……………and tomorrow?!

They looked tired but they certainly did not sound it .

Yuja in the slinkiest of dresses .

Grey lame’ split up the side and completely backless.

None of which was relevant to the control and wondrous sounds that she found on the piano .

Lid wide open she never overpowered the totally assured sounds of Kavakos’s “Willemotte”Stradivarius of 1734.

Inspired but the magnificent sounds from the piano he matched and complimented them with a range of power and subtle colours that lead to some really memorable performances of the four great works on the programme.

A monumental performance of Schubert’s great but sometimes very allusive Fantasy D.934 in which an architectural sense of line was matched by a clarity and sense of colour that brought this work to life as very rarely it can be in lesser hands.

Some very subtle colours in the Debussy Sonata with that very aristocratic French sound that was never allowed to descend into sentimentality.

Bartok’s Sonata .1 of 1921, written for Jelly d’Aranyi (who gave the first performance with the composer),was given a truly transcendental performance that had the audience on their feet cheering these two great artists to the rafters .

A single encore by Szmanowski ,the Myth n.1 “La fontaine d’Arethuse” played  with all the subtle colours that only these two great artists could conjure up together in a truly magical evening