Autore: ChristopherAxworthyMusicCommentary

The Nobility of Elisso’Virsaladze in Latina for the Pontine Festival

A new venue for Elisso’s much awaited annual recital for the Pontine Festival where for some years now her students have flocked to the castle in Sermoneta for one of the few mastercourses she holds in Europe.

The courtyard of the town hall in Latina sold out for the promised recital of Schumann and Chopin.

Enhanced too by the presence of Architect Cerocchi and his wife Maria Teresa the “founding fathers ” of this magnificent festival held every year in the shadow of Caetani Castle in Sermoneta .

The story of its origins told in the Architects biography “L’Ottuagenario Innamorato”.

A multi faceted love story for music,art and above all his beloved home town of Latina and its magnificent surrounds.

Lelia Caetani was the last in line of the Caetani family.

Roffredo being her father and Lord Hubert Howard her husband and first president of the Foundation in her fathers memory having expressed their wish to open their house to art and culture.

Maria Teresa told me of the forty years passed at the Menuhin Festival at Gstadt and of asking Alberto Lysy assistant of Menuhin and very fine Argentinian violinist in his own right to take part in the first festival in 1963.

Alberto Lysy married to Benedetta Origo the daughter of the extraordinary Dame Iris Origo whose book “The War in Val D’Orcia” recently republished,tells her remarkable story of courage and resilience during the occupation of Italy during the second world war.

Antonio Lysy the son of Alberto and Benedetta was a young school boy in Rome when I was asked by his teacher Marika Razza of the Righi School if this remarkable young cellist could give a recital in my theatre.

He was indeed remarkable and we played many times in Rome together even for Prince Charles and Diana in a special honeymoon concert at Villa Volkonsky,the British Ambassadors magnificent residence in Rome.

Tonino after his studies at the Royal Academy in London has gone on to magnificent things in the musical world like his father .

Based mainly in the USA he has also like our Ottuagenario Innamorato never forgotten his roots.

Every year he returns for a magnificent chamber music festival in and around the Origo Family Estate “La Foccia” in Val D’Orcia under the name Musica In Terra di Siena.

The first time for Elisso’ in this new venue.

We normally all struggle up the many cobbled steets to the magic courtyard of the Castle in Sermoneta or to the granary in Fossanova restored under the direction of Architect Cerocchi into one of the most magnificent concert halls.

On this occasion it was a privilege indeed to be able to have the Cerocchi’s with us again (both remarkably in their 90’s ) and for me to be able to hear at first hand the story that had led to one of the world’s finest pianists playing here tonight in what were once malerial swamps and one of the most backward areas in Italy.

A very interesting juxtaposition of works by Schumann and Chopin.

Elisso’s rather forbidding appearance belies the romantic heart of refined gold that beats within in all that she does.

Her love of animals gives only a small clue to the the sensibility of this lady who has dedicated her life to helping her young aspiring colleagues to understand the dedication and discipline needed to interpret the masterworks that are set before them.

In fact wonderful to see all her disciples in the back row intent on listening to this extraordinarily humane master’s own interpretations after a week of intense work together that culminated in the students own concert only two days before.

After her eight hours or so of Masterclasses each day she would lock herself away with a keyboard in her hotel to prepare for her own performances.

A great lesson indeed.

And what music!

A magnificent Steinway “D” with Mauro Buccitti as always on hand to reorder the piano in this rather humid atmosphere.

Opening with the Schumann Arabesque op 18 and the Novelette op 21 n. 8 one was immediately aware of the passionate nobility of the music making.

Never descending into sentimentality but with all the heartfelt passionate outpourings of the young Schumann.

Some wonderful sounds always given the space and time to reach the furthest corner of this courtyard.

An aristocratic sense of sound that Richter himself had noted so admiringly in Rubinstein.

This made even more impact when in the coda” Zum Schluss” of the Arabesque op 18 there is a magical transition reminiscent of course of the coda of that magnifcent song cycle Liedekreis op 24 which was to follow on immediately after.

The half light of the Minore 1 “Etwas Langsamer” was most telling with the acciacaturas thrown off with the ease and meaning of a great lieder singer.

The rhythmic interruption of the Minore 11 always kept in style with the recurring melodic theme “leicht und zart” in its ever varied reappearances in this musicians magically expressive hands.

All through these works we were aware of ” the song without words” element such was the projection of sound that was so immediate and simply direct.

Des Abends from the Fantasiestucke op 12 played with the same disarming simplicity of the Chopin Nocturne in D flat op 27 n.2 that was to follow after the interval.

Drawing us in to overhear the most intimate confessions after the seemingly simple cantabile that had projected the two composers melodies so nobly to her very attentive audience and had made any superfluous noises from a town on holiday so irrelevant.

Magic indeed in the air and the passionate outpouring of the longest of the eight novelletes that make up op 21,was indeed overpowering for it being so unexpected.

The Trio 1 “noch lebhafter” with a playful charm that made Schumann’s dotted rhythms so full of shape and ease led to the Trio 11 played indeed” Hell and lustig”which allowed a great contrast with the beautifully shaped “fortsetzung” – “simple and singing” as Schumann indicates.

A final section of great passion and technical brilliance brought this work ,once a favourite of Sviatoslav Richter,to a exhilarating end that had the audience absolutely under her spell.

A spell indeed that was maintained for the Fantasiestucke op 12.

The sheer magic of Des Abends was matched by the exhilarating impetus of Aufschwung where rarely the melodic line has been so clearly defined.

This of course due to a very careful use of the sustaining pedal which was very telling in the scintillating performance of Traumes Wirren that was to follow.

Warum? Indeed showed a beautiful sense of balance with a wonderful sense of line that bewitched us as we were drawn into the various strands that magically appeared in every part of the keyboard.

This of course just showed what a wonderful sense of colour and control this master musician has over her instrument.

Winner at an early age of the Schumann Competition in Zwickau and noted by her peers as one of the major talents of her generation.

It is hardly surprising that after a distinguished career spanning many decades she has the same mastery that we used to admire so much in the first appearances in the west of Sviatoslav Richter.

In fact as a child I well remember the enormous impact on me of one of the first Richter recitals broadcast live from the Festival Hall of the works of Schumann and Chopin . The same impact I am sure of all those privileged to be present this evening.

The second half after a careful re order of the piano ordered by the ever watchful Mrs Cerocchi from the hands of her very loyal and ever grateful disciple Mauro Buccitti .

A Chopin that Elisso’ wanted to share with us in one long breath .

Starting with two Nocturnes op 27 .

The ever mysterious almost Debussian opening of the C sharp minor Nocturne touchingly disolving into its D flat sister of Bellinian bel canto.

The passionate outpouring of a young Chopin in the Revolutionary Study where the rage of a Polish exile a long way from his country in a time of need brought forth this outburst that ends his early studies op 10.

Studies that had brought him such fame from his peers Liszt,Thalberg and Alkan in the salons of Paris where he had come to seek his fortune as an artist in exile.

Played this evening with all the impetus of someone who had entered fully into the extraordinary world of this genius of the piano.

The Nocturnes op 48 together with the Berceuse op 57 and the Barcarolle op 60 showed us all the aristocratic distillation of a genius yearning for his homeland .

The 3rd Scherzo op 39 played with an overpowering virtuosity combined with a rare sense of line in the long chorals interrupted by such refined filigree comments of real magic.

A coda of transcendental pianism brought the audience to its feet and was awarded by our visibly moved and exhausted master with two encores.

Widmung the beautiful song by Schumann trascribed so magnificently for the piano by Liszt .

Played with a simplicity and wonderful sense of line with such sumptuous sounds that somehow linked the sound world of these great Romantic virtuosi to the magic atmosphere that no doubt Liszt himself had found in Ninfa with the Caetani’s over a century ago.

The rarely played ” Maidens Wish” by Chopin transcribed by Liszt played with all the teasing easy virtuosity of a past era .

In fact neither of us were surprised that none of her students knew of these magical transcriptions of the songs of Chopin that Arrau ,Rachmaninov and Rosenthal had beguiled us with in the so called Golden Romantic Era of piano playing .

An era of real Gold that our Elisso’ had reminded us of in the long wonderful journey she had taken us on this evening .

Hats off Elisso’ is back in town

The highight of the Pontine Festival has always been in its students that have flocked to the magical town of Sermoneta since the very first festival in the 60’s founded by Szigeti and Menuhin.

Some of the very finest musicians have been present including Alberto Lysy,Sandor Veghi,Corrado Romano,Walter Trampler,Arrigo Pellicia,Bruno Giuranna,Gaspar Cassado,Andre Navarra ,Rocco Filippini,Nikita Magaloff,Bruno Canino,Aldo Ciccolini,Vincenzo Vitale,Charles Rosen,Wilhelm Kempff,Andras Schiff,Bruno Mezzena,Sergio Cafaro with Honorary President Goffredo Petrassi.

Under the eagle eye of Architect Riccardo Cerocchi as president since the 1970’s maintaining the musical values of one of the most important summer music academies in the world.

Now passing to Honorary President and leaving the President’s chair to his daughter Elisa Cerocchi .

Having recently published his remarkable story of bringing culture to these parts that were for decades malerial swamps.

It was Mussolini that brought the workers down from the Venetian regions to drain the swamps and turn this unhospitable area into the most fertile land capable of producing all the fruit and vegetables for Rome.

The Noble Caetani family have long owned vast areas of this land and the castle at Sermoneta was often the home for Franz Liszt who would visit Roffredo Caetani a composer in his own right.

The piano in the famous Gardens of Ninfa at the foot of Sermoneta belonged to Liszt himself .

So an area steeped in poverty and history that Riccardo Cerocchi recounts in his biography “L’Ottuagenario Innamorato”.

The tradition of maintaining the highest musical values now falls to his daughter and judging from last nights performances she has risen magnificently to the challenge.

Of course a Summer School is only as good as its Maestri personified in  Elisso Virsaladze,since her first invitation from Roberto Prosseda (a product of Sermoneta too and fast making a name for himself on the International Circuit as an expert in Mendelssohn amongst many other remarkable activities).

It is quite some years the Madam Virsaladze has been the draw for the finest young talents to these hills to continue their studies with not only one of the worlds great pianists,much admired by Sviatoslav Richter, but also more importantly for Sermoneta a teacher of vast experience,culture and humanity .

Madam Virsaladze leaving the floor today to her students in what were the stables of the castle and are now a thankfully cool space with a very fine acoustic.

A Steinway cured with loving care by Mauro Buccitti ,that very fine technician who is also on the faculty with a course on tuning.

Two hours of very fine playing that one would only hope to find in the most renowned International Piano Competitions where many of these young musicians will be appearing I am sure.

Ryutaro Susuki with Schumann Etudes Symphoniques op 13.

None of the extra variations fitted in or the variants that have appeared recently from earlier editions.

Here was the work played as Schumann no doubt intended it . Played with a rigour and rhythmic propulsion together with an extraordinary sound palate.

Never effects for their own sake but a sense of line and direction that gave an architectural shape to this masterpiece epitomised in the penultimate variation that Agosti likened to a Gothic Cathedral.

Here it was just that but with some very refined tone colouring that made it sound so naturally right.

A remarkable technical control too in some of the most trecherous variations.

A great sense of musicianship that in fact was a hallmark of all the students today.

With op 13 it was hardly surprising as Elisso’ Virsaladze was winner many years ago of the Schumann competition and whose playing of that composer was held up as an example by Sviatoslav Richter considered as the greatest Schumann player of his time.

A very dynamic totally secure performance of Prokofieff’s one movement 3rd Sonata from Daria Parkhomenko . A rhythmic control that was electric even in the most quiet almost murmured passages.

Marina Vasilyeva in the first three of the Klavierstucke op 118 by Brahms showed us just what an orchestra she had in her hands.

Obviously very early training has given her an orchestra of ten wonderful players in her two hands. The sumptuous sounds that she was able to produce without any forcing was really very impressive as was her complete musical command of these very well known and too often played( badly) masterpieces .

Written by Brahms late in life almost as a distillation of all that was surplus and giving us back a music that was at once so direct,simple and for that moving.

Of course what course could there be without Liszt and two transcriptions were the order of the day with Davide Di Rienzo‘s finely shaped Rigoletto Paraphrase and The Tannhauser Overture that Marco Clavora’Braulin ended the concert with and brought the house down in a never ending succession of diabolic piano playing .

A totally convinced and convincing performance of Copland’s Theme and Variations played by Yukiko Sekino whose sister has been attending these summer course inbetween her own notable activities with Peter Frankl at Yale and now herself teaching at the University of North Carollna .

Leaving the platform this year to her equally remarkable sister.

Philipp Richardsen too a frequent visitor to Sermoneta in a break from his considerable activities in Korea gave some lovely performances of Liszt Liebestraum and the charming Etude op 35 n.2 by Cecile Chaminade .

I have not heard either piece since Cherkassky’s inimitable performances .(Cherkassky a regular visitor to these parts too although he complained that Sabaudia in the summer was not hot enough for him!)

Hats off to Philipp and the Sekino sisters that take time in their holiday period to come and regenerate their musical curiosity with one of the worlds most exhilarating musical personalities.

Minjae Kim gave a remarkable performance of Rachmaninoff’s Momenti musicali n.1 and 4 .

Number 4 a tour de force for any pianist but in this young mans hands it really was a lesson in control and technical prowess. The first Moment musical needed a much more sumptuous piano to do it full justice .

Yoshio Hamano on the other hand found some extraordinary sounds in Scriabin’s revolutionary White Mass Sonata n.10.

A fragmentary work not easy to hold together ,was here given a sense of line and direction that made such musical sense to what was in its day a quite revolutionary sound world.

Elisso’ called to the stage by her doting young disciples decided as always to leave the stage to them .

Her work was done to the satisfaction of all concerned.

A remarkable lesson of humility and total dedication above all to the music but importantly to each individual musician that had come seeking help and advice and each one leaving this magic moment  playing better than when they came.

Unfortunately this is not the norm and is quite extraordinarily moving to see in action.

It reminds me of a saying in one of those old church yards in the English countryside:

A life’s work nobly done .

Q.E.D.

Thank you Elisso’,Elisa Cerocchi, the ever present soldier in commandTiziana Cherubini and all at the castle of Sermoneta that have given so much to so many over the past century or so.

Wonderful to be back in my old Alma Mater in the Dukes Hall where 45 years earlier almost to the day I was awarded the Mc Farren Gold Medal .

A wonderful lifetime in Rome promoting young musicians and the not so young masters sadly neglected in Italy.

As well as producing plays .

My wife was knighted by President Ciampi for her extraordinary work.

The only woman actress to build and run her own theatre for over thirty years .

” We have been made a Dame” she would proudly say

Something for which I too was awarded quite unexpectedly an ARAM.

Someone had obviously spilled the beans in England as out of the blue a big envelope arrived by post in the theatre next to St Peters Square that I built and ran for over thirty years with my wife the renowned actress Ileana Ghione.

Our great friend Rosalyn Tureck reminded us that whilst it is nice to receive recognition from people who seem to be oblivious to the Art world .

It is the work that counts and our mission in life.

That is the true fulfillment and satisfaction!

Here I was this evening to listen to the down to earth words of wisdom from Stephen Hough ,a student of my old teacher Gordon Green .

The pianist that Cherkassky ,who played over ten recitals for us in Rome,esteemed more than any other of the younger generation.

And now has been rightly hailed worldwide as one of the great pianist of his generation.

A bit like a doctors surgery with some remarkably talented young pianists bringing their problems to Dr Hough for a remedy.

Ten minutes a visit and an excellent way to really help in a very constructive way.

Lovely affectionate foto shoot brought to a conclusion the end of year studies for these very talented young artists about to go out into the world to seek their fortune as I had all those years ago.

Good luck and best wishes to them all:

Arisa Onoda,Antoine Preat,Weng Soon Tee,HyunJeong Hwang,Linhan Sung,Francesca Orlando,Anna Szalucka,Ke Ma

Tyler Hay at St Mary`s Perivale

Very impressive performances of great assurance by Tyler Hay.

Only 23 he plays and talks with such authority he reminds me a great deal of the young Leslie Howard whose intellectual and pianistic abilities amazed Guido Agosti and many others from an early age .

Tyler another of the amazing talents from the school of Tessa Nicholson at the Purcell School.

Completing his studies with Frank Wibaut,student himself of Cyril Smith and the winner of the first BBC Piano Competition many years ago and now a distinguished teacher at the Royal Northern School of Music .

Winner of the esteemed Gold Medal at the RNCM as well as the Royal Overseas League and the Liszt Society Competitions.

A great intellect searching out always new scores to bring before the public.

On many occasions the most impossibly difficult scores of the great composer virtuosi of the past such as Liszt and his rival Thalberg.

In this he is very similar to that other fine pianist with a searching mind and world expert on Alkan and Thalberg Mark Viner (also from the school of Tessa Nicholson and another student of Cyril Smith Neil Immelman at the RCM)

Small world!

Tyler had found in the archive at the RNCM five boxes of the scores of that great pianist composer John Ogdon and had asked his widow for permission to perform them.

He will infact next week be recording some of them in Amsterdam ,in the presence of Ogdon’s widow the renowned pianist Brenda Lucas , for release on CD.

Today he chose to give us a sample of Ogdon’s Variations and Fugue.

One of the most difficult scores he has ever tackled of a pianist who came to the fore when he took the world by storm as joint winner with Vladimir Askenazy of the Tchaikowsky Competition in the 60’s.

An amazing career as a virtuoso performer playing also some of the most impossible scores of Busoni and his contemporary composer friends.

Such a genius was consumed by mental health problems and died whilst only in his early 50’s.

It has taken a young 23 year old with the capacity and intellectual curiosity of an Ogdon to present these unpublished scores to the public at last.

The Variations and Fugue an enormously complex piece requiring the most super human feats of pianism .

A work of great effect that held the audience in awe for the twenty minute duration

A wish to hear it a second time was not possible on this occasion so I much looking forward to the CD to get to know these neglected scores of one of the giants of our time and a student of my old piano teacher the much missed Gordon Green .

The programme started with a very rarely performed Tarantelle op 65 by Thalberg

( The great virtuoso rival of Liszt who amassed such a fortune and retired to Naples where recently his tomb was scandalously desecrated ) .

A short show piece of quite simple stucture played with all the virtuosity that it was required to show off .

The other works on the programme by Franz Liszt .

The rarely heard march like Ballade n.1 given a very rhythmic performance slightly lacking in the scintillating colours that are needed to bring this rather mundane march to life.

The famous Mephisto Waltz was given a very assured reading .

No histrionics or rhetoric this was a fine musicians reading maybe lacking in the demonic energy that Tyler had obviously reserved for the Ogdon that preceeded this group and left him and us rather drained.

The Liszt Variations on Bach’s Weinen,Klagen,Sorgen,Zagen .

A monumental piece written in memory of Liszt’s two children Daniel and Blandine that had tragically died.

Full of extraordinary colour with a great sense of the architectural line .

The choral a moving contrast for its stillness and austerity to the virtuoso outer sections.

A song with out words in F sharp minor showed off this fine pianists refined sense of balance and innate musicality .

Chloe Mun Gold medal winner of Geneva and Busoni International Piano competitions at St Mary`s Perivale in the remarkable series of great young pianists of Dr Hugh Mather

It was last October that I heard Chloe Mun play at Rome University as part of her prize for winning the Gold Medal at the 2015 Busoni Competition in Bolzano.(https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/…/…)

Part of that prize was also a concert in London for the Keyboard Charitable Trust whose founders Noretta Conci-Leech and John Leech have long been associated with the Busoni Competition listening to all the competitors and offering encouragement and help to many great talents that do not necessarily have all the requisites to carry off a Gold Medal but with the right sort of help that the Trust can offer can gain the necessary experience and time to allow their talent to mature and grow.

Romanovsky,Lifits,Leone,Cao,Rimoldi are only a few of the many that have been helped in this way and have since made their way successfully in what can be a very precarious career .

Only recently Rodolfo Leone and Bolai Cao noted in the Busoni Competition have won first and third prizes in the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna.

Jiyeong Mun – known to the musical world as Chloe Mun had all the requisites at the age of only 19 to carry home the Gold Medals of the Geneva and Busoni International Piano Competitions .

A feat only once repeated and that was by a 16 year old girl by the name of Martha Argerich!

Chloe is not the typical child prodigy for she came from a very disadvantaged family in South Korea .

Both parents are disabled and receive only a state subsidy and she began studying the piano at her own initiative.

Despite her family’s economic hardships she soon decided that she wanted to take her piano career seriously,refusing to be discouraged.

Because she did not have a piano at home she practised either at school or in a neighbourhood church. She even discontinued traditional schooling in order to spend more time at the piano and subsequently graduated on her own well ahead of her peers.

It was in 2009 at the age of 14 that she won First prize at the Art Dream Competition organized by the Korean Business Council,which allows people in the lower echelons of society access to higher artistic education.

It was on this occasion that she met Daejin Kim.

Winner of the Cleveland Casadesus International Competition in 1985 .

Since 1994 he has moved back to Korea with his family and teaches at the Korean National University.

He has been on the jury of many prestigious competitions and his students have gone on to win many international competitions.

Sunwook Kim winner of the Haskil ( 2005 ) and Leeds International Competitions (2006)and now Chloe Mun winner of the Geneva (2014 ) and Busoni ( 2015).

Since that fateful day in 2009 Daejin Kim has been her teacher and mentor and she is currently studying with him at The Korean National University.

Thanks to the enormous generosity and knowledgeable enthusiasm of Hugh Mather not only was Chloe invited to play at Steinway Hall for the KCT – not to be missed on Wednesday 21st June at 19h – but our remarkable Dr Mather ,having heard her remarkable performances on you tube, immediately offered her another engagement in his prestigious piano recital series in Perivale.

Even changing his holiday plans and offering hospitality to this still only 21 year old young lady in order to make her 7000  mile trip from Korea even more worthwhile.

We say in Italy it is the facts that count and time and time again Dr Mather has proven himself to be a real benefactor of these remarkable talents that are emerging as never before.

He was not disappointed as no one was of those who were present in the charming little wooden church in the middle of Ealing Golf Course on what must be the hottest day of the year.

I congratulated Dr Mather on his new piano .

New he exclaimed but it is the same one that everyone plays on but in her hands it became a real magic box .

A box full of the most wondrous dreams because that is what we were treated to from the first to the last note .

I had heard her in October and noted her pianistic and musical perfection but felt it lacked an experience of life . Of a story to tell …her story that would only come with experience of life.

But now less that a year later here was all the same perfection but allied to a sense of wonder and beauty without any rhetoric or histrionics that I would say it was one of the most sublime recitals that I have heard in recent years because so unexpected.

A sense of balance that allowed the piano to sing without any forcing.

A sheen and sumptuous quality to the sound that one would only think possible on the very finest German pianos.

This ladies and gentlemen was a much used Yamaha.

I am reminded of Richter who had no preference for a piano for he wanted to dive down deep into the instrument to discover its hidden secrets and then seduce and engulf the instrument holding us in a trance as only great artists can do.

It takes total dedication and as we can see from Chloe’s difficult past it is through this total determination together with expert guidance at the right time that has brought her to the pinnacle of pianistic perfection.

Her opening Galuppi Sonata T.27 in C major had the same crystaline purity that Michelangeli revealed to us in this very sonata.

It takes great control of balance to allow the melody to sing in such a pure way seemingly without pedal because so subtle.

So few notes but so pregnant with meaning.

Truly art that conceals art.

This little three movement Sonata became a jewel in her hands.

Ornaments so unobtrusively executed that one was not aware of the transcendental difficulty of allowing them to be part of the overall musical line.

What a wonder these sonatas and those of Scarlatti can be on the piano when played in such a simple refined artistocratic manner .

Amazing control of sound in the Images Book one by Debussy.

The washes of sound in Reflets dans l’eau were quite miraculous in their unobtrusiveness just as they are or at least should be in Ravels Ondine .

This is water cascading never overpowering as so often is heard in this piece.

The stillness she brought to the ending was quite magical and on this piano a major miracle.

Hommage a Rameau I have heard many times from Rubinstein and it has always remained with me for the subtle colouring and aristocratic very french sound that could be so telling here as in Poulenc .

Full of pathos and robustness but never romantic or sentimental .

The wondrous coda and complete change of colour – as though on another planet .

One of those magical moments that are so rare .

Where you feel the interpreter is in awe of the sounds that are being conjured out of this box of tricks.

All this I was reminded of in the performance by Chloe today – total magic.

Head down in total concentration .

The transcendental pianism in the Mouvements was only to be marvelled at.

Where the clarity of the continuous mouvements was so quiet that the melodic line was allowed to speak as very rarely it is heard.

Starting from nothing and disappearing to nothing a real feat that only a great musical mind with a wonderful ear could have achieved.

If this was remarkable little did we expect to be transported into the world of dreams in the second half.

For that is what is was .

” The Poet Speaks ” so apt a title for the last piece in Schumann’s Scenes of Childhood . The dual personalities of Florestan and Eusebius through whom the poet Schumann could speak.

But Schumann’s music needs a special sound it is neither Beethoven,Schubert or Chopin.

It is a quite unique sound world that Guimar Novaes and Clara Haskil understood so well

There has to be a special sheen to the sound that can be both sumptuous and voluptuous as it can be rhythmic and passionate .

But it is above all lyrical and it was this aspect that Chloe understood so well .

From the opening notes of the Arabeske op 18 that can sound so mundane and ordinary. The same theme repeated endelessly inbetween contrasting episodes.

Here today we were treated to an Arabeske that seemed to come out of thin air with the contrasting episodes so enveloped in the overall line that each appearance of the theme was transformed and seemingly ever more beautiful.

Disolving into a coda of such magic that it can only be likened to Schumann’s own Liedekreis.

What to say of the Schumann Fantasie.

An outpouring of love for Clara.

Dedicated to Franz Liszt who famously sight read the fantasie infront of the composer. Liszt dedicated his B minor Sonata in return.

Both are pinnacles of the Romatic era.

Having heard a near perfect performance from Chloe in Rome but one in which I had been strangely untouched by her pianistic and musical perfection.

I was not expecting the overwhelming musical experience that she offered today.

Here was all the passion that had been missing but allied to such inteliigence that allowed her to control the sound with such architectural prudence that when the great climax at the end of the middle section Im Legenden-Ton emerged it was the same overwhelming experience that I remember from Clifford Curzon that true master of the great Romantic tradition.

The dotted rhythms that can be so irritating in the second movement were played today with such a sense of line and a quite unique sound that allowed the music to sing in a single breath.

All leading to the last statement of the march- Massig indeed- and an overwhelming coda played as a real musician but with a truly virtuoso technique .

Bringing the second movement to a tumultuous ending.

Such was the concentration of the audience that where there would normally be unwanted applause here there was total silence .

A silence pregnant with meaning that after an almost unbearable few moments the magical Langsam getragen entered as if by magic .

A magic kaleidoscope of colours but always with that sheen ( so reminiscent of Novaes) that carried us along in the dream- her dream- Schumann’s dream .

Leading to the sublime almost unbearable beauty of the final two pages.

Gradually unfolding to the  climax and gentle dropping off to the final chords that were played with and ever more magical diminuendo.

It made one realise what a love Schumann had for Clara in Chloe’s hands today.

Triana from Iberia by Albeniz played with all the sunshine and charm that this piece can contain in the right hands.

Never just note spinning but bands of colours that she seemed to conjure out of thin air .

What could she play after such a feast as that .

Widmung the song by Schumann transcribed by Liszt .

One of the finest I have ever heard because it was a song with all the passion and heartfelt confessions allied to such a sumptuous subtle sound that this truly was the highlight for me of a remarkable recital.

At a foto shoot after the tea and cakes that are so much part of this English institution Chloe sat down and played Traumerei – dreaming by Schumann to satisfy the fotographers ….we left in tears .

Thank you Chloe and dear Hugh for allowing us to experience such wonders.

Hats off to the International Piano Competitions too.

Busoni in particular for being able to choose such a complete artist from all the wonderful musicians that were on parade.

I am the first to be sceptical but also the first to be convinced and seduced.

Hurry to Steinway Hall at 19h on Wednesday to hear the same recital repeated.

Free entrance until capacity is reached.

A glass of two of wine with the artist and the remarkable founders of the Keyboard Charitable Trust that has done so much to bring just such talent to the fore.

Some thoughts on the remarkable Mr Levit.

Having heard such good reports about Igor Levit from musicians whose opinions I trust completely I was very keen to be able to hear this young pianist for myself.

His Beethoven Sonata series in the Wigmore hall where musical integrity and real musicianship are paramount requirements for a very discerning audience was sold out .

A hall where artists of the quality of Andras Schiff,Angela Hewitt,Graham Johnson,Stephen Isserlis,Paul Lewis reign may give an indication of the unique values that are upheld in this hallowed hall by the democratic Mr Gilhooly.

A hall that has gone from strength to strength ,never compromising its fundamental principles ,since that famous series in 1976 devised by William Lyne to try to stop this much loved hall from being knocked down and redeveloped.

I well remember Artur Rubinstein after beseeching the audience at his last appearance in public not to allow them to pull the hall down where he had started and finished his career.

Now almost blind he opened the doors to his adoring public to say a last farewell. He may have been blind but not too blind to notice the beautiful Lauren Bacall that had come backstage to embrace her hero.

Mr Levit obviously very much the flavour of the month and having heard recently varied reports of his “Emperor” with the LSO I was very pleased to see that the BBC were transmitting live his final recital of the last three Beethoven Sonatas.

Armed with a radio ,wine and the Henle Urtext I awaited in the leafy glades of Kew on a wonderful balmy night for the first magical strains of op.109.

Having much experience of the PR boys promotion of the most remarkably talented musicians but often at variants with my own musical values.

Was it not Igor Pogorelich,one of the greatest young pianists the world has known ,who had the jury of the Chopin Competition fighting amongst themselves .

Martha Argerich walked out in protest that such a pianist could be eliminated from an International Competition where this contestant could undoubtedly play better than any of the distinguished jury members.

Should a competition be judged on musical integrity or on phenomenal pianistic capability?

Are competitions a fair judge of true artistry.

None of the Wigmore Hall stars has run off with a Gold Medal from International competitions yet they are applauded worldwide.

This created a scandal that infact launched Pogorelich onto the world stage where the public could decide for themselves depending on their values also helped by his film star good looks that had a great appeal for a less discerning public.

Lang lang too has an appeal for a vast public and although he is not always able to maintain his musical principles he has brought music to the masses .

These are in fact entertainers and not necessarily to be confused with great interpreters whose sole aim is to transmit the composers wishes.

Occasionally we are treated to an artist that can combine both.

In my day and for many others of my generation this was epitomised in Artur Rubinstein.

Having heard recently much admired and lauded pianists such as Bozhanov and Trpceski.

Amazing as they are we beg to differ on musical matters.

Was it not Deutsche Grammophon who sent to Perlemuter for some words of praise for the launch of the extraordinary recording of Pogorelich playing some major works of Ravel with whom Perlemuter had studied.

“Quesque c’est que ca” exclaimed Perlemuter who had spent a lifetime studying and worrying over interpretative details in the scores.

I need not have worried for here from Levit was extraordinarily accomplished playing. Scrupulous attention to the composers indications and a super human sense of colour and a musicianship that had one referring to the score to check details that were truly there in works that one has heard many times before.

Hardly a false note in the entire 75 minutes of this pinnacle of the pianistic repertoire.

A wonderful way to spend a summer evening and I put the fact that there did not seem to be much magic or atmosphere down to the fact that the radio produces canned not fresh food as Gilels was fond of saying.

However a much esteemed friend and indeed a world authority on all there is to know of pianists alive or dead said the following wise and measured words that confirmed my feeling of why was I so moved by Perahia`s op 111 the other night when here there was not just the last sonata on it’s own but the last three but I remained astonished but totally unmoved.

“Struggle” was the word that put meaning back into an uneasy feeling where words failed me.

“Look Chris “,he said “I sat through the second performance at ten , a repeat of the 7.30 performance that had been added due to great public demand.

I was amazed and astonished by the remarkable technical and musical command .

I kept thinking of how amazing it was to play these three works so perfectly for the second time in the same evening.

A quick cup of tea between performances and he could play them all over again.

But Chris I remember in the 70`s the monumental performance of Claudio Arrau where together we had scaled the heights of this musical pinnacle.

We came out totally exhausted and satisfied that we had been through a draining,unforgettable musical experience together.

Never for a second was there time to think of the remarkable musical and technical prowess of this master.

Mr Levit on the other hand could have repeated them all night long.

“Water off a remarkable duck`s back indeed”.

How do you teach struggle?

What is soul?

It is the domain of the truly great to look on in amazement at what they are moulding in their hands.

Only time and experience of life will tell.

We are indeed in the hands of the Gods.

In the meantime play on Mr Levit I too shall be there to follow your remarkable career

The Goldberg Variations of Jean Rondeau at the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands.

Jean Rondeau gave his last performance this week of the Goldberg variations for the Keyboard Charitable Trust beautifully organised by Dr Elena Vorotko co artistic director and originator of the Historic Keyboard section.

Last night in Handel House in central London and today at Hatchlands the National Trust Stately Home where the Cobbe collection is permanently on display.

All the instruments in working order and are regularly played as they were in their day by Mozart,Bach,Chopin,Liszt,Bizet,Beethoven etc.

An amazing collection on display with Alec Cobbe on hand to play each one with loving care for a collection that he has assembled over fifty years.

Today Jean Rondeau played the Goldberg on a double manual English instrument of 1787.

To a full hall of discerning listeners he held everyone of them in his extraordinary hands for exactly the hour requested.

Several minutes of total silence greeted the final magical apparition of the Aria.

A silence created by the total concentration that this young “lion of the keyboard” demands from the first to the last note in the extraordinary journey he takes us on where the rhythmic pulse never wavers for a second but allows such subtle colouring.

A sense of rubato of such aristocratic authority of a quite amazing maturity for a young man who is still only twently six.

He was obviously born to play the harpsichord and it was from the age of six when he first heard one on the radio that he was allowed to take his first lessons studying with Blandine Verlet for over ten years.

Studies in basso continuo,organ,piano,jazz ,improvisation ,composition and conducting followed to create this complete musician who is striding the world today.

The youngest performer ever at 21 to take first prize in the Bruges International Harpsichord Competition his career has since blossomed throughout Europe,North and South America and Asia.

Such is the mastery of this young man that the performance today was totally different from that of the other day in a private performance that he gave for a few lucky connoisseurs.

They were regaled by a short improvisation to prepare the atmosphere for the magical apparition of Bach’s extraordinary Aria and were then treated at the end to two contrasting versions of the Quodlibet finale where Bach combines two popular tunes to bring these variations to their triumphant conclusion tongue in cheek before repeating with such simplicity the magical opening Aria.

The beautiful 25th variation played with a simplicity leading to the almost animal excitement of extraordinary virtuosity in the variations that lead up to the final outpouring that is the final 29th variation ,here played with an almost improvisatory freedom .

The Quodlibet that tonight he chose to play or at least the atmosphere he chose to give it was of an almost romantic pastoral that led with even more pathos to the simple monocrome statement that he chose to give of the extraordinary final statement of the repeat of the opening aria .

Wonderfully clear rhythmic statement of the first variation which set the pace for this astonishing masterpiece commissioned from Bach by Count Goldberg for his insomnia needy of some nocturnal entertainment .

Unusually pastoral type 8th variation gave just the right respite from the crystal clear 7th Tempo di Giga or the taught almost militaristic trills of the 10th.

Extreme command of the 14th variation of really transcendental difficulty (especially on an English harpsichord as Jean pointed out afterwards) created just the contrast with the poignantly beautiful 13th.

The great French Overture of the 16th played with such majesty opening up the perfect pathway for the ascent to the incredible excitement generated up to the final explosion in the 29th.

The sheer innocence of the Alla breve that gives only a slight hint of what is to follow lit up to perfection like a beacon pointing the way .

A truly fascinating journey from this artist who only started to prepare them for performance six months ago.

I well remember Rosalyn Tureck playing them in London in 1972 the first half of the concert a complete performance on the harpsichord and the second on the piano .

Bach knew the piano she stated quite clearly in the programme and indeed repeated by Alec Cobbe today.

She repeated them on my insistence in my theatre in Rome after an absence of almost thirty years from the concert platform choosing to withdraw from the concert platform in order to dedicate herself to a more complete study of Bach in Oxford.

That monumental performance lasted one hour and twenty minutes – quite rightly she was dubbed the High Priestess of Bach by Harold Shoenberg and Rubinstein quipped that Tureck made Bach box office.

She was at the height of her powers and created the Tureck Bach Institute in Oxford of which I was honoured to be a Trustee .

A symposium held each year with scientists ,mathemeticians and musicians all dedicated to the understanding of the mutifaceted genius that was Bach.

We have been waiting a long time for a High Priest for the new generation and there is no doubt in my mind that we now have one in our midst.

Simply extraordinary .

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17th International Pharos Chamber Music Festival. Vitaly Pisarenko at the Shoe Factory Nicosia

“Electrifying” were Yvonne Georgiadou‘s words ,the Artistic director, as an elated Garo Keheyan Founder and President repeated on Vitalys second visit to this remarkable cultural centre.

A real oasis with a sold out recital in the presence of the former President of Cyprus and many important personalities including the British High Commissioner all applauding this extraordinary recital at the opening of the festival that includes such artists as Kholodenko,Babayan and Sudbin

A long and difficult programme followed in complete silence by a sold out hall mesmerised by the great transcendental artistry of this modest young man:

Schubert Drei Klavierstucke D.946

Schumann Fantasiestucke op 12

Liszt two Ballades S 170 and 171

and two Hungarian Rhapsodies n.10 and 13 the least respectable side of Liszt as Charles Rosen very aptly described them.

The very complex Schubert so difficult to play convincingly such is the mutitude of ideas and seemless melodic outpouring .

Great concentration is required where every note is so pregnant with meaning that he who manages this high wire act without falling off can treat the listener to an unforgettable experience.

It requires a great range of colours from what can often be in the wrong hands a monochrome experience.

Vitaly held the audience in his hands from the very first whispered energetic recurring motif transformed into the most sublime episodes from the pen of one of the greatest poets of the piano.

Even greater poetry than the lieder where it is always the music that has the last word where even the greatest poets cannot quite reach with words alone.

The second Klavierstucke played with a disarming simplicity and sensual sense of colour. One could almost sense the perfume created in this rarified air transformed in the third piece into a frenzied excitement played with the passionate involvement of someone who is a true master.

The sheer beauty of sound in Des Abends that opens Schumanns Fantasiestucke showed what a master of balance this pianist is .

The delicately heart rending shaping of the melodic line only possible if the accompaniment is played at a seemingly impossible pianissimo but with a bass that sustains and opens up the magical sounds that are there for the real poet.

Rubinstein often used to hold us in his magic hands just as we were treated to tonight.

In der Nacht and Traumes Wirren played with such command that allowed the audience to be swept along on this mutifaceted journey .

The coda of the last piece,Ende vom Lied, played after an almost unbearable silence which allowed the disintigration of the melodic line to dissappear as it had appeared as if from afar almost thirty minutes earlier.

What a journey greeted with great enthusiasm by the former President of Cyprus .

A man of great culture who likened this recital to a Sokolov or Trifonov and was anxious to find out about Vitalys CD ‘s to add to his collection.

He was very surprised to learn that there are as yet no CD’s of this remarkably modest young pianist top prize winner at Utrecht and Leeds.

Fast making a name for himself amongst his colleagues and connoisseurs of real artistry.

Hats off to the Keyboard Charitable Trust and to the remarkable Garo and Yvonne at the cultural centre that is the Shoe Factory for recognising such talent before the world becomes his oyster.

The second half dedicated to Liszt.

Not the usual barnstorming that we are too often subjected to but the intelligent man’s Liszt of an Arrau or Agosti.

The rarely if ever heard first ballade under the title of “Le chant du croise'” with a set of variations on the crusader’s song with such pianistic feats thrown of with such ease and charm .

The second Ballade a real tone poem in which the chromatic scales of the left hand built up to a tremendous crescendo but by a subtle sense of real musicianship was never allowed to overshadow the main line that was maintained throughout the most technically difficult passages that abound.

The disarming understatement of the main theme that seemed almost as though it was being overheard was then treated to the most diabolic transformations of really quite breathtaking proportions such was the transcendental virtuosity put to the service of this great story that Liszt recounts in this remarkable piece.

Disappearing as it had begun this performance alone could be singled out as the highpoint in what was a remarkable recital.

Only in the studio of Guido Agosti at the Chigiana in Siena have I heard such a Liszt of such subtle intelligent musicianship allied to a complete technical command that did not allow for any rhetorical showmanship but interpreted what Liszt had actually written and intended.

His edition ,after all, of Beethoven Sonatas as his transcriptions of the Symphonies shows exactly his care and attention to the composers wishes that are all too rarely applied by other barnstorming pianists to his own works.

The two Hungarian Rhapsodies amongst the least known were thrown of with all the charm and ease that the showman Liszt used to woo his doting audiences with and that made him the pop star idol that he was to despise in later life when he chose to show the world the profetically innovative composer that he was with his genius seeing far into the direction music would take in the future.

The glissandi in the 10th Rhapsody played with an ease and charm as the enormous but never harsh sonorities in the left hand of the 13th were overpowering and led to a standing ovation from this very discerning audience.

A single encore of the little Melodie by Rachmaninov full of nostalgia and such delicate sumptuous sonorities it was the ideal way to close nearly two hours of remarkable musicianship from a master craftsman .

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