Autore: ChristopherAxworthyMusicCommentary

The Master Speaks….Howard in Belgravia

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Leslie Howard in Belgravia

CHRISTOPHER AXWORTHY·VENERDÌ 5 MAGGIO 2017

Leslie Howard at St Peter`s Eaton Square London
It has been over forty years since the first time I heard Leslie Howard in the Palace of Count Chigi in Siena during the summer masterclasses of Guido Agosti.
Classes where generations of talented young musicians would flock to a place where musical integrity and a profound respect for the composers wishes was paramount.
The classes of Guido Agosti and Franco Ferrara.
I doubt there are few really great musicians of our generation that have not at some stage been influenced by these two quiet giants of music.
Quiet because both very rarely if ever still performed in public and their holy shrine the only place to hear and study at length with them was here at the Chigiana for three months each summer.
Ferrara struck down by a form of epilepsy that would only allow him to conduct if a doctor was present as in his recordings in the recording studio can testify with Mario Lanza or the Mahler 5 for Visconti’s magical film Death in Venice.
Agosti whose mentor had been Busoni had long dedicated himself almost totally to imparting his unrivelled musical knowledge to his own studio where the entire music world flocked every year to hear the most exemplary playing that somehow the Maestro could not produce in the impersonal concert halls.
Both had lain the stones for some incredible musical careers. Abbado,Mehta,Barenboim are just three of the many,none of whom have ever forgotten the musical experience received in Siena in their formative years.
As a young student I had heard of this marvel and determined to get there to see and experience it for myself.
And so in my first year at the Royal Academy fellow piano student ,Peter Bithell and I sneaked off to Siena to have a taste of this enticing elixir.
Little did we know that someone had spilled the beans at the RAM and we found to our amazement and surprise that instead of being told off we had in fact been given a helping hand in the form of Tobias Matthay Fellowships to allow us to spend the entire summer undisturbed by financial considerations.
There was a very popular athletic looking young Australian with blond hair and blue eyes that Agosti’s fabulously beautiful wife ,Lydia Stix,took under her wing immediately as the Maestro had found that this young man could also do no wrong at the piano .
Here was a student who was on the same wave length as the Maestro.
Someone totally prepared technically but also with a profound knowledge and respect for the scores he was interpreting.
I still remember (as it was a very unusual occurrence) Agosti complimenting this amazing young pianist on his superb mature understanding in an extraordinary performance of Beethoven op 101 Sonata.
This young man has gone on since in the intervening forty years to dedicate himself to a profound study and understanding of many neglected scores and in particular went on to take London by storm in a series of ten historic recitals at the Wigmore Hall of all the major (not necessarily well known) works of Liszt.
Recording on 99 CD’ s the entire output of Liszt for solo piano and piano and orchestra missing only one work that unexpectedly appeared at Sothebys for auction and then promptly disappeared into private hands.
An enormous enterprise that has earned him a place in the Guinness book of records!
Never forgetting his formative years he too has  dedicated himself to sharing his musical principles and has a following of remarkable young disciples whose careers he follows with great interest always ready to help with advice or even offering joint concerts.
Founder of the Keyboard Trust established with these very principles in mind by Noretta Conci-Leech and her husband John Leech .
Infact two of these disciples Mark Viner (at only 26 President of the Alkan Society and winner of the first Alkan Competition in Athens ) and Iyad I. Sughayer (one of the Middle East’s most promising young artists) were present today fresh from their triumphs in recent appearances for the Trust in the USA,Cyprus and Manchester.
I am talking,of course, of Leslie Howard who was appearing in London for the final concert in the tenth anniverdary season of The Eaton Square Concerts at St Peters.
As we have come to expect from this very distinguished musician a programme of some neglected masterpieces intermingled with an established classic.
Mozart Sonata in A Major K.331 ,Grieg Sonata op 7 Liszt Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel’s .Almira ( the set piece for the Utrech International Liszt Competition of which Leslie is President of the Jury as he is also President of the Liszt Society in London).Rachmaninov’s much negelected First Sonata op 28.
A beautiful porticoed church in the heart of Belgravia in Eaton Square.
A church full of light and perhaps even more importantly a full house with a very attentive and appreciative audience.
A magnificent Fazioli concert grand on a specially constructed podium in the centre of this magnificent building.
Magnificent looking but also sounding as this church has a remarkably fine acoustic .
The first thing that was immediately apparent was the beauty of the sound produced by Leslie in the opening Mozart Sonata .
A great sense of style but allied to a great sense of character showing off not only the serious but also the most humorous sides of Mozart’s genius.
Some of the opening variations played with an unusual sensitivity immediately taking one by surprise in a work so often played in a rather dry accademic way.
The acciaccaturas played with such a captivating sense of humour it was refershing how such a well known work could come to life in the hands of someone who had the ability and command to make the music really speak in an almost operatic way.
The recurring motif in the Menuetto a revelation in its whispered entrance interrupting the proceedings.
The Rondo alla Turca played with all the the infectious insistence that makes nonesense of those that rattle it off as if a virtuoso show piece instead of part of a remarkable whole.
A passionate reading of Grieg’s much neglected Sonata in E minor .
Glenn Gould,another great original thinking musician, was a great advocate of this Sonata but apart from Cherkassky I do not think I have heard it before in recital.
Full of subtle colours and sumptuous sounds and a forward movement and sense of architecture the belied the usual fragmentary nature of compositions of this underrated composer.
Following on before the interval with a rarity indeed in Liszt’s Sarabande and Chaconne S.181 .
A transcription for solo piano written in 1879 for Liszt’s piano student Walter Bache to play at the Handel Festival in England
A magnificent work full of subtle virtuosity and a gradual build up in the Chaconne that is as impressive as those of Bach or Handel himself.
Strangely neglected and recently set as the obligatory piece for the Utrech International Piano Competition .
Thanks to performances as those of Leslie Howard tonight it will surely take its rightful place in the piano repertoire.
A virtuoso performance indeed but always with a sound that seemed to unite all the fragments into a unified whole . No mean task but in the hands of a real musician it can take on a shape and power as it did today.
A beautiful sense of balance in the Sarabande from a pianist that did not seem to move a muscle .
Completely still , concentrating and listening in a masterly way to the sounds that he was commanding from the orchestra he had in his hands.
Rachmaninov’s much neglected First Sonata in Leslie Howard’s hands tonight was totally absorbing in a way that I have rarely heard before.
Always finding the sonata rather long winded almost Medtner like in it lack of melodic invention compared to the more popular works of Rachmaninov.
Here tonight Leslie Howard showed how wrong I had been.
Here was a masterpiece full of such colour and musical invention from the menacing recurring bass figuration to the throbbingly passionate melody in the beautiful middle register of the piano.
Combined with the most exquisite cantabile sounds never forcing the sound but by such a subtle sense of balance allowing the melody to sing out so naturally.
All this again in a sound that seemed almost to be similar to what we used to describe as the Philadelphia,Cleveland or Berlin sound.
There was an overall sound created that seemed to create a whole that gave great architectural meaning and shape to this misunderstood work.
Great feats of virtuosity were thrown off,en passant,part of the fabric but certainly only part and not the raison d’etre as is so often the case in Rachmaninov.
A totally satisfying performance that was greeted by a well earned standing ovation.
Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G sharp minor was just the right encore chosen by Leslie to thank this very attentive audience.
The heart rending deep bass notes resembllng much of the profound Russian feelings found in the sonata and the ending played in a very subtle and totally convincing way as too rarely heard these days .
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Upclose- The Next Generation

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Upclose- The Next Generation
Manchester Cathedral with soloists of the Camerata with Iyad Sughayer :
Haydn The Seven Last Words and Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time
And so we come to the end of this experiment of a three concert collaboration between the Manchester Camerata and the Keyboard Charitable Trust.
Initiated last november with Alexander Ullman in February Emanuel Rimoldi and now in May the Jordanian Palestinian Iyad Sughayer.
All three remarkable young pianists from the Keyboard Trust “stable” chosen to play with the soloists of the Manchester Camerata in a series under the name of Upclose~The Next Generation.
An idea of that extraordinary man of the arts in Manchester chairman of the Camerata,Geoffrey Shindler.
The idea to give the opportunity to some of the finest young pianists of their generation a chance to expand their horizon and musical experience and enter the world of chamber music with some of the finest players in the country from the Camerata.In specially thought out programs in three of Manchester’s seemingly endless venues for the arts.
The newly refurbished and prize winning Whitworth Art Gallery;Home a brand new Arts Centre recently opened on the site of the old leather factory and tonight Manchester`s beautiful cathedral reborn after the terror and destruction that was wrought on this noble industrial city in the second world war.
Geoffrey Shindler’s “baby” has been conceived and received so well by the artists and public alike that plans are already under discussion for a new exciting season next year.
The young artists from the Keyboard Trust have already been selected and cannot wait to be part of such an extraordinary adventure with the players of the Camerata in some of the magnificent seemingly never ending venues for the arts that Manchester abounds.
Whether new or renovated spaces, a day does not seem to pass in which the enlightened city fathers together with private enterprise have put Manchester once again on the world map.
Originally an example of the great industrial revolution and now an example of how the arts in its many forms can be encouraged to flourish and nourish these nobly generous warm hearted “northerners” at the very soul of this green and hardy island .
The program of this last concert especially chosen to reflect this special venue so close to the hearts of so many of these extraordinarily resilient people.
Two pieces inspired by ecclesiastical texts in a place to reflect,be inspired and to escape for some invaluable moments from the pressures of life.
In fact it was the total silence and almost palpable concentration that surprised everyone,even the astonished audience in a remarkable performance of Messiaen`s moving masterpiece Quartet for the End of time. The work that was chosen to close this extraordinary concert .
It was as though we could sense a period of horror that we had both experienced but through a never wavering faith had come out of triumphant.
Was that not the very inspiration and message for perhaps the greatest of them all J.S.Bach?
The work written by Messiaen as a prisoner of war in a Nazi internment camp and first performed for 400 prisoners and guards in the camp outside in the pouring rain
Inspired by a passage from The Book of Revelation it is made up of eight movements for four virtuosi instrumentalist in an extremely complicated juxtaposition of four,three,two and even one soloist at a time depicting the sort of profound emotions where only music can arrive.
In fact the deep concentration and palpable atmosphere created was evidence enough that music can enter where words are just not enough.
Adi Brett`s enormously expressive violin playing on her wonderful sounding Guardagnini violin of 1752 (kindly on loan to the orchestra by Jonathan Moulds ,one of the UK`s most inspirational philanthropists) found an extraordinarily sensitive partner in the cello playing of Hannah Roberts remarkably seeming to play without looking at the score such was her total absorption in the music.
As was the extraordinarily expressive clarinet playing of Fiona Cross.
All this held tightly together by an ever vigilant Iyad Sughayer on his first revelatory visit to this extraordinary sound world of a true believer .
Amazingly pieced together in only two concentrated rehearsal days it says much for the enormous professional and musical skills of all concerned.
In fact it was Iyad who was moved to write for the first time of the moving experience on his first professional encounter with Messiaen.
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Thus,of course,via the generosity of these players from the Camerata happy to share their talent ,experience and skills with a younger inexperienced colleague.
Generous yes,but also aware that there is always an on going dialogue between true musicians and the youthful innocence of this young jordanian palestinian virtuoso pianist injected his own enthusiasm and respectful reverence in a joint offering that was so freshly in evidence today.
The sublime final violin utterings gently accompanied by the piano with which this work movingly ends.The extraordinary intensity as the violin soars into infinity at the end brought aching minutes of silence such was the atmosphere created.
The movement for solo clarinet played with remarkably subtle virtuosity where every note seemed to express the inexpressible.
Hannah Robert’s moving duo with the pianist in which not once did she look at the score. Eye and heart contact is what she was seeking and found with Iyad in this sacred of all places.
Great feats of real virtuosity in the more violently rhythmic movements made one realise what being professional really can mean.
A great lesson imparted to these aspiring young musicians from the Keyboard Trust and hats off to Geoffrey Shindler and his innovative team that has truly made Manchester`s Camerata as described by The Times ” Britain`s most adventurous orchestra”.
Haydn`s Seven Last Words was written in 1786 ,commissioned by a cleric at the church of Santa Cueva in Cadiz for the season of Easter and is based on the last words of Christ: Forgiveness,Salvation,Relationship,Abandonment,Distress, Triumph and Reunion.
Here played in a juxtaposition divided between solo piano and string quartet.
Our players were joined by Rakhi Singh violin and Ulrich Eichenauer in exemplary quartet playing in which individually expressive voices were welded into one completely absorbing musical conversation.
Their dynamic range was quite extraordinary and was matched by some exquisitely refined piano playing from whom I learn was a local boy done good.
For Iyad had been sent to Manchester by his parents at the age of fourteen to Chethams Music school .A school which aims to give gifted children a complete education but where musical needs are understood and nurtured from a very early age.
Along the lines of the Purcell and Menuhin Schools that are so essential for giving the necessary early grounding should these obviously gifted young children wish to pursue their early talent later in life.
Lucky Iyad who has been under the guidance of the ever vigilant Murray McLachlan who has been and still is a guiding light for young musicians.
Strange coincidence that his own mentors were Norma Fisher and Peter Katin.
Norma as a child guided by Sidney Harrison as I too was in my home town and his of Chiswick.
He was the first to give piano lessons on television- to Peter Croser- in the days when one used to have to look into this newly arrived box where programs were shown in black and white for a few hours each evening . His next door neighbour was Eamon Andrews the famous television presenter of This is your Life.
One of the only places that one could hear Peter Katin at the end of what had been a remarkable career was in my theatre in Rome where he would come to play and give masterclasses every year well in to his late seventies when he was long forgotten by his once adoring public from the stable of Madam Tillett- in fact part of that very select group of Moura Lympany,Shura Cherkassky and Rosalyn Tureck.
Iyad now perfecting his studies in London with Martino Tirimo at Trinity Laban is regarded as one of the Middle East`s most promising young artists.
Strange juxtaposition of movements divided between the piano and string quartet~never the twain should meet one could say.
A pity but thankful for such beautiful stylish playing even though not entirely convincing me that this was what Haydn intended.
Such playing that mesmerised the audience and one very enthusiastic member was in rapt discussion with Geoffrey Schindler in the interval both endorsing the sublime beauty of what we had just beheld and the extraordinary playing from all concerned.
A well earned glass of beer at the old pub conveniently placed next to the Cathedral and so to the early slumbers that befalls this gloriously active city ready for who knows what treats in store tomorrow.
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A Rose for Martin Bartlett

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A Rose for Martin Bartlettt

CHRISTOPHER AXWORTHY·LUNEDÌ 1 MAGGIO 2017

Martin James Bartlett at the Chopin Society in Westminster Cathedral Hall London today.
Winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year 2014 at the age of 17 and now at the tender age of 20 beginning to make a name for himself throughout the country.
He is infact one of a very select group of remarkable young British musicians who are demonstrating to the world how important the early training of our young musicians is.
Often criticised for their great musicality but lack of that solid early essential technical preparation from childhood that the Eastern countries could offer.
Thanks to institutions such as the Purcell and Menuhin schools that offer a complete education to gifted young children this is no longer the case .
The BBC ,RAM and RCM early training schemes play an important part too.
Such is being proven on the International Circuit with pianists still in their 20’s or even younger taking the world by storm .
Benjamin Grosvenor also a BBC Young Musician of the Year at the age of 12 now at 23 is an established star of the International concert world .
And now we have two very fine young musicians – for that is what they are above all – but also refined virtuosi of their instrument- both selected for two of the major International Piano Competitions .
They will be competing in the next few days with the finest young talents the world has to offer.
I am referring to Julian Trevelyan who at the tender age of 16 took everyone by surprise by winning top prize at the Margherite Long Competition in Paris and now at 18 is competing probably today in the prestigious Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv.
Martin James Bartlett has been selected from hundreds auditioned worldwide to compete in the Van Cliburn Competition in Texas at the end of the month.
Martin already well known via his television Prom performances having studied at the RCM and Purcell School is now perfecting his studies under the guidance of Vanessa Latarche ,that remarkable head of keyboard studies at the RCM who has brought the finest talents to London to teach and study.
She too I well remember as a little girl the star pupil of Eileen Rowe in Ealing who single handed dedicated her life to training and promoting talented young children.
A house full of pianos and lessons from morning to evening and a chance for us to earn some money for our own advanced studies helping out this remarkable lady who after her death left a bequest to the Eileen Rowe Trust to continue her dedicated work from afar.
There must be something about the air in Ealing the home for so many years of Dmitri Alexeev and Murray Perahia – both of whom winners of the Leeds International Piano Competition where musicianship allied to virtuoso technique have always been the trade mark of that other remarkable lady and founder Dame Fanny Waterman ( also a student of the RCM under Cyril Smith).
How proud Eileen Rowe would have been to have heard Martin yesterday for he epitomises all the qualities that she and Vanessa Latarche consider paramount.
That is: a musicianship that knows how to look at the original indications of the composer and turn them into sounds with an infallible technique of ten wonderful musicians in their two hands .
A magnificent Symphony Orchestra at their command indeed!
And so we all flocked yesterday to listen to Martin thanks to the generosity of Lady Rose Cholmondeley and her wonderful team headed by  Gillian Margaret Newman .
Here we are able on Sunday afternoons to hear some of these remarkable young musicians together with established artists such as Peter Donohoe and Janina Fialkowska in an almost family atmosphere of yore.
Immediately establishing his credentials with two Scarlatti Sonatas in which the characterisation and total immersion in this very special sound world were quite mesmerising .
Crystal clear ornaments too showed off his early training .
But there was more than this .
There was a genuine talent to make the music speak something that can be encouraged by early training but cannot be taught .
It is a God given gift probably with an extra sensitive ear to all sounds heard from birth.
These were full blooded performances played with passion and colour but above all with a good taste that was aware of the period and the instruments that these 500 miniature masterpieces were written for.
Horowitz was the first in our time to combine these two worlds and show us how with good taste and style these pieces could and should be played on the modern piano with all the advantages of an instrument that Scarlatti could not have known.
The Beethoven Sonata op 31 n.3 popularly known as the Hunt had us afterwards reaching for the score such were the surprises that Martin had in store through his thorough musicianly reading of Beethoven’s own indications.(The last two chords of the first movement played piano instead of the more usual forte ).
The only other musician who can reveal new light on such well known scores is Murray Perahia who spends hours pouring over original editions to get as close to the composers intentions as possible.
The Scherzo .Allegretto vivace was a little too fast to allow it to be played with all the tongue in cheek character that Beethoven could also be capable of in this period.
The sheer beauty of the Menuetto showed off all the perfect balance between the hands and allowed this new Steinway to sing as it rarely is allowed to.
The charming grazioso was just that and made one realise just why Saint Saens had taken that motif for his variations for two pianos.
Presto con fuoco ending  was very clearly played with sparing use of the pedal that allowed the Hunt to continue to its inexorable end undisturbed by any unwanted clouds .
The Liszt Sonetto del Petrarca was played with real passion and sense of style that only a young man with a great romantic heart could offer.
Sumptuous sounds from the piano and some really ravishing playing.
The same ravishing,teasing almost scintillating sounds that he found later in the little waltz op.64.n.2 by Chopin where his perfect sense of balance allowed this well known piece to be played with a charm and grace that is of a real born Chopin player.
Bach’s great C minor Toccata could have been more insistent with its main theme more marcato alla Tureck but it was a very fine performance played with great style and forward propulsion and was the perfect opening piece after the interval for what was to follow.
Jacket now thrown to the wind as Martin launched ,and that is the word,into Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata .
One of the three so called War Sonatas numbers 6,7 and 8.
And war it was with the real energy and zeal that only a young man could have found on discovering this extraordinary sound world .
Enormous sounds from the bass and cascades of notes from the treble played with great verve and a rhythmic energy that was quite infectious for this seemingly rather staid audience of the Chopin Society.
Beautifully shaped slow movement where the great melody was allowed to sing and make such a contrast between the two outer movements .
The Precipitato last movement was just that .
Played at full throttle the insistent left hand rhythm never for a moment allowed to wane  Infact as the movement moves inexorably to its final enormous crescendo it was quite a tour de force even for this young virtuoso to keep the momentum right to the end .
No wonder he had thrown off his jacket and caution to the wind as he was prepared to fight to the end ……..and he certainly did as the spontaneous standing ovation could testify.
A single encore after much persuasion from an audience totally overcome by this extraordinary exhibition .
Schubert G flat Impromptu op 90 n.3 played with such refined rubato and sense of balance where the sublime melodic line was allowed to soar and sing as it only can in the hands of a real musician.
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Pappano and Wang in Rome

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Wang and Pappano in Rome
Che festa al Parco della Musica oggi con Yuja Wang and Antonio Pappano at S.Cecilia tonight at the start of their European tour finishing in London on the 11th May.
A full house at the Sala Santa Cecilia for the concert with two superstars in a programme that included the ever popular Tchaikowsky First Piano Concerto.
A concert that signals the start of a tour the orchestra will take in eight other European Cities finishing at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
Having heard Yuja Wang in London recently in recital I was happy to be able to hear her again in the concerto that shot her to stardom in 2007 when she stood in at the last minute for an indisposed Martha Argerich in Boston.
In London I had been very perplexed by the recital she gave recently .Some exquisite playing but barely audible in the hall.
Tonight that was certainly not the case .
This miniscule young lady in the flaming pink dress produced such enormous sounds one wondered how it was possible.
Octaves of such enormous power reminiscent of the sounds that Arrau used to produce . Sounds of such power but never any hardness .
Her projection of the more lyrical passages was still very much for herself but played with such a convincing musical personality that it was totally integrated into a whole overpowering musical line.
Playing from the original score that my young musician friends Evgeny Genchev and Alexander Ullman have recently been excited to show me in the new edition that has recently appeared.
This explains,of course ,the famous opening chords played arpeggiando.Taking away all the hard rather battling chords that we are used to and instead the piano accompanying the magnificent sounds that Pappano draws from his orchestra .
An orchestra where every player feels he has an important part to play as in real chamber music.Where each player is listening so intently to the other led by a most extraordinarily aware leader Roberto González.
So many beautiful things from Yuja Wang but she too was always listening intently to her partners and integrating her sound to create a whole homogeneous sound.
An almost whispered slow movement in which the beautiful opening flute solo of Andre Oliva was then played even more tenderly on the piano in a real musical conversation. Just as the clarinet solo of Alessandro Carbonare in the first movement had been matched and accompanied so perfectly by the pianist.
Of course this did not mean that at the crucial moments there were not the most torrential sounds and rhythmic energy that took even Pappano by surprise .
The great orchestral climax in the last movement led to the most amazingly robust octaves from the pianist and created an electric tension before the final glorious release where everyone was allowed to play out with all the passion that Tchaikowsky’s rich melodic palate inspires.
At this point our Yuja produced such electric sparks that even the orchestra were swept along to the most scintillating final few bars in a feat of amazing virtuosity that surely can only have been matched in the days of Horowitz
A standing ovation was most generously shared by the soloist with the entire orchestra and its magnificent conductor and first violin .
She obviously felt part of a group of musicians just there to enjoy playing together .
The audience were stamping their feet in the hope of encouraging an encore from this twenty nine year old waif of a super virtuoso .
She was just happy to go off arm in arm with our extraordinary knight in shining armour happy at having been able to make music with these remarkable musicians.
I now understand how lonely she must have felt in London on the enormous Royal Festival Hall stage just her and a piano for company .
She has so much in common with that other fantastic super virtuoso Martha Argerich via whom she shot to stardom.
Argerich who prefers to play in company rather than travelling and playing alone .
Introducing the concert and preparing his audience for the twelve minutes of a first performance by the Swiss composer Richard Dubugnon student late in life of the Paris Conservatoire and my Alma Mater the RAM in London .
In his affectionate address to his family ,for that is what his audience in Rome have become ,he said how surprised he was to see such a full hall with a contemporary opening work.
Could it by any chance be for the Tchaikowsky that was to follow?
He need not have worried because this Caprice Romain op 72 n.3 was a quite remarkable work full of extraordinary colours including the bells that were to appear later in Respighi.
A rhythmic energy and a real tour de force for the orchestra .
Conducted with amazing technical precision and real participation from his players one could almost say that this was the highlight of this remarkable concert.
Pity that this work will not be heard in London where it would have been greatly appreciated
 I suppose an overture by Rossini is more of a draw for the box office but I just hope that at least they may decide to play this relatively short work as an encore as it deserves to be heard often on the world stage.
The total infectious dedication and technical expertise of Pappano were reminiscent of the young Colin Davis and the LSO in the works of another much neglected composer Roberto Gerhard.
The Respighi Symphonic poems :The fountains of Rome and the Pines of Rome were played without a break in one glorious whole.
All the places from the fountain of Valle Giulia to the Trevi fountains together with the Pines of Villa Borghese and on the Gianicolo instantly recognisable to me who has had the fortune to spend most of my life in the company of these glorious places in this Eternal City.
Wonderful colours and sumptuous sounds in the careful loving hands of these bringers of all the atmospheres and amazing different lights of these suggestive places.
The build up in the Appian Pines from a whispered insistent bolero type rhythm leading to the most overwhelming climax brought this extraordinary concert to a tumultuous close .
I already have my ticket for London and cannot wait to hear it all over again.
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Valcuha and Bozhanov in Rome

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Valcuha and Bozhanov in Rome
CHRISTOPHER AXWORTHY·VENERDÌ 21 APRILE 2017

Juraj Valcuha and Evgeni Bozhanov Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Beethoven Canto Elegiaco e Concerto n.3 Bartok Concerto per orchestra
Interesting concert at St Cecilia a prelude,one might say, to next week with two hardly known musicians.
Juraj Valcuha principal director of the Orchestra and Chorus at San Carlo in Naples and Evgeni Bozhanov much discussed young bulgarian pianist.
Both obviously two rising stars .
Next week’s concert on the other hand will be  with two super stars :Yuja Wang and Sir Anthony Pappano in Tchaikowsky First piano concerto.
A concert that will be repeated at the Royal Festival Hall in London on the 11th May. Even if Yuja Wang cannot be heard who cares when Pappano is at the helm .
Having just recorded so magnificently this concerto and Prokofiev 2 with another rising star Beatrice Rana .
A recording that quite rightly has has won every major international prize. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/…/…
Very interesting progamme with the rarely if ever heard Canto Elegiaco op 118 by Beethoven for chorus and orchestra .
Very big forces for this hardly whispered ten minute work. Here the conductor immediately established his credentials as a very sensitive intelligent musician .
Beautiful to see how he molded the phrases with his bare hands and how the orchestra and chorus were so ready  and willing to respond .
I was interested to hear the pianist Evgeni Bozhanov who has been the subject of some discussion since his appearance at the Van Cliburn and Chopin Competitions .
In fact something of the same cause celebre at the Chopin Competition that launched Pogorelich’s career, years earlier, so spectacularly when Martha Argerich resigned in protest.
In this competition in 2010 he was awarded 4th prize amongst much discussion having taken 2nd at Van Cliburn a few months earlier .
Outright winner though of the Casagrande competition in 2008.He is  obviouslya pianist with the same background as a Pogorelich or Trpcescki .
Master pianists but rather controversial musicians .
Infact it was clear from the encore that was offered that this was a pianist of the old school of the so called Golden Era of piano playing Lhevine,Rosenthal,Friedman,Hoffman etc.
In our day it could be liken to some of the things that Magaloff or Fiorentino were sometimes capable of charming us with .( Strangely enough Buchbinder the other day astounded his audience  too after four Beethoven Sonatas with the most ravishing performance of a Strauss transcription as in the good old days)
The four/two waltz op 42 by Chopin was rattled of with all the jeux perle of the old school together with some extremely beautiful moments of delicious cantable almost song like in its super sensibility.
Some added bass notes of course that opened up the possible sounds in the top register of the piano as in the good old days in the great old opera houses .
Since those times of course we have had the reaction of Rubinstein and Schnabel. Rubinstein the great showman but also the great musician who was able to give nobility and intelligence back to a school of piano playing that could titivate and excite the senses much as the great singing divas of the day.
Sometimes at the expense of what the composer had actually asked for though .
Schnabel of course just stated that usually the first part of pianists programmes are the most boring whereas the difference with his was that the second half was boring too!
And so it was interesting to listen to this suprising choice of Beethoven third piano concerto.
It is a concerto that requires a very solid sense of touch where every note should sing as if an orchestra in its own right .
Many of the piano melodies are taken up in fact by the orchestra and vice versa in an interplay that makes these concertos of Beethoven such masterpieces.
Of course a concerto for piano and orchestra not orchestra with piano (as in the cello or violin sonatas).
It is just this interplay that is so important and gives a forward architectural propulsion to the music.
On the whole Evgeni Bozhanov molded in well with the sensitive conducting of Juraj Valcuha but there were occasions in the first movement in particular when his almost throwing away of the semiquavers- jeux perle- allowed the rhythmic energy to sag instead of propelling the music forward with the energy so typical of Beethoven in this period.
The cadenza in particular suffered from this lack of orchestration where the great cascades of notes were rather thrown off instead of leading into what followed.
The frenzied stamping dance rhythym was again played rather frivolously and the speed of the entry of the theme in octaves was enviably ridiculous.
Not always infallible though as there were some remarkable scrappy passage playing no doubt due to the pressure of a debut in Rome with such a prestigious orchestra.
Some very beautiful things in the slow movement and the last movement played with all the joie de vivre that Beethoven has written in the score.
All in all I must say it was a rather boring performance where the continual forward impulse of the music was interrupted too many times by some remarkably beautiful legato playing and conducting but it needed a tighter reign to allow us all to be swept up in the great architectural shape of this great work .
The Concerto for Orchestra by Bartok in which even the orchestra at the end joined in the applause for this very musical conductor.
Now with a baton in his hand to direct this very complicated work.
I felt though that it somehow missed the forward sweep in the conductors effort to shape every small section loosing the driving force of the work as a whole .
A not very full hall this time due to the continual holidays in this period but I am sure that Pappano on his home ground will find his usual justly admiring public waiting for him next week .
I of course will be in the front row in Rome and in London.
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Performance – To be or not to be?

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A Consideration :To be or not to be

Caught on a Wang ,you might say, I have been interested to clarify certain thoughts on performers,performances and their public .

Geoff Cox ,a chemist by profession and music lover who is ever present and helpful in publicising events that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Jessie Harrington is the other one of these amazingly dedicated people of whom there are certainly not many.

Two at the last count

Hats off to them and long may their enthusiasm endure.

I had heard Yuja Wang only on the much discussed video from Carnegie Hall in which she plays the Hammerklavier sonata in an evening that was very special indeed.

Much discussed her disabille’ that had no relevance whatsoever to her extraordinarily prodigious playing .

To hear a Hammerklavier of such drive and intelligence from a young chinese lady together with some other remarkable performances showed a phenomenally prodigeous pianist that I was longing to hear live.

So I was very pleased that she had announced that very Hammerklavier at the Royal Festival Hall last week .
She decided to change the programme and all that has been discussed and has no relevance to what I actually ( over) heard.( enclosed below my views).

That this has become a cause celebre I do not think is worth contemplating on this occasion.

We often used to have the” for and against” at Kissin and Pogorelich’s early recitals.

That they are controversial musicians is true but that they are masters of their instrument is also true.

Most young pianists if you ask them who is the pianist they most admire would reply Grigory Sokolov .

So two years ago I was happy to be able to hear him in Rome playing Schumann’s Humoresque.
It was such a brutal performance where true balance was substituted for a brutal fight between the melodic line and the accompaniment. No winners possible here .

Never did I think I would witness such an attentive public to such a brutal exhibition .
I looked around amazed and astonished never more so than at the standing ovation that he received at the end.

I returned a year later to hear a most phenomenal Hammerklavier that had me cheering to the rafters.

The same thing happened years ago with Lazar Berman .
Known in the trade as “Lazar Beam” for his razor sharp brutal- I plays mainly by force- technique.
I walked out after the third of the Transcendental Studies by Liszt at the Festival Hall.
The sound was quite literally overpowering and unbearable.
But years later in my theatre in Rome he gave the most magical performances of Chopins Polonaises .
Here was the true artist, pupil of the legendary Goldenweiser

Lang Lang played a most memorable Rachmaninoff 3rd concerto at his Prom debut .
But last year in Rome he played the four ballades by Chopin where he went into fifth gear at each of the four codas .
The fourth particularly horrible as the five quiet chords before the coda ended fortissimo with a bang at the bottom register of the piano.
Lang Lang played with slick professionism to 3000 people whereas Behozod Abduraimov the day before had played the same Ballades magnificently to 30 people .

There is a difference obviously between entertainers and great interpreters which is not necessarily and very rarely the same .

I was brought up in a non musical family but the inspiration to play the piano came from seeing Liberace,Winifred Attwell and Russ Conway on the Television.
In the same way that Lang Lang relying on his prodigious gifts as an entertainer has reached a doting public of millions .
Giovanni Alleevi and Andrea Bocelli have also reached millions .
Some of whom,inspired by them, have been tempted to attend a classical music concert .People who would have never have even thought that classical music could be for them .
There is a great stigma that classical music is only for people of a certain education and upbringing but when this barrier is proved false by the classical entertainers these are in fact the people that might flock to our concerts in the future and become as passionate as Geoff and Jessie today.

Yuja Wang prodigiously gifted of course falls into the category of entertainer on this occasion.
And she certainly did that .

When Vlado Perlemuter,disciple of Ravel ,was asked by Deutsche Grammophon for some words to put on the cover of Pogorelich’s new Ravel recording he simply replied “quesque c‘est que ca!”
That Pogorelich was one of the great pianists of our time was never in discussion but that his musicianship was in discussion led to Martha Argerich walking out of the Chopin Competition in which Pogorelich was voted out by a jury that considered that musical interpretation came as important as the means to express it.

Another great discussion could be of well established musicians performing solo recitals and concertos later in life with the score .
That most recordings in the studio are recorded with the score on the stand is standard practise.

The fact is that the piano recital as we know it today was established by Franz Liszt .
The greatest showman the world has ever known .
The Mick Jagger of the piano !
Here is the very fact that show business also comes into play .
Anyone who has been to a Rubinstein recital would realise this .
It is what can create a very special rapport between public and performer where anything is possible .
A bit like the man on a tight rope

I have been to three such performances recently where even the artists performing were amazed,bewildered and astonished by what they had been inspired to produce.

It is a two way thing between public and performer and the reason we flock to their concerts.
Mariam Batshiavili in Liszt , Murray Perahia,’s Emperor and the Andsnes/Hamelin Rite of Spring all this month in London.

I sometimes wonder why the established arists feel they have to perform in public with the score when they could be so much happier in the recording studio.

Sometimes the artists having to deal with all the usual day to day things can switch on their automatic pilot and we can get a streamlined performance that does not satisfy the discerning listener or the great artist.
The only people kept happy are the agents and organisers .

Dicussions are opened on these occasions “ for and against”.

But with a really great performance such is the overwhelming atmosphere created there is absolutely no discussion necessary.
In fact a magic has been created which is the very reason we still flock to concerts.

Gilels used to liken live and recorded performances to the difference between fresh and canned food….and he certainly knew being one of the most exciting performers I have ever heard.
At this point a great artist like Arrau who felt he could not give his best would have no hesitation to cancel or Horowitz’s case retire for twelve years from the concert platform.I suppose it might be cosidered artistic integrity but also fear of not doing justice to their reputation.You are only as good as your last performance Rubinstein would often exclaim.

Curzon and Richter chose to perform with the score towards the end of their glorious careers and although they were a shadow of their former selves it was probably better than nothing .
Myra Hess towards the end of her career used to play Brahms 2 with the score and still get lost.
Alfred Cortot was asked by his wife and pupils to stop playing in public when this great artist’s performances were no longer easy for him.

The truth is to play in public is one the loneliest ,most exposed tricks of the trade and every performer deserves our utmost admiration for going through such an ordeal…………..Perlemuter used to say it was like going to the guillotine wheras Jaqueline Du Pre used to bounce with joy at the thought of joining her adoring public .

The public after all can choose who they wish to hear ………

I know who I will always choose but I fully appreciate the taste of others can be different from mine .
The spice of life so they say.
It is important that we go to the trouble of reaching the hall and for our wallet where it is so easy these days just to stay at home and switch or click on.

Yuja Wang in London
Yuja Wang at the Festival Hall CHRISTOPHER AXWORTHY·MARTEDÌ 11 APRILE 2017 Yuja Wang at the Festival Hall tonight must count as one of the most irritating and frustrating performances I have ever h…
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Christopher Axworthy
Christopher Axworthy I know the feeling ……..do you!

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Rudolf Buchbinder in Rome

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Buchbinder in Rome
Rudolf Buchbinder in Rome
I remember attending Buchbinder’s Royal Festival Hall recital and concerto debut when he was only 16.
Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini I remember well although only just a teenager at the time.
I also remember the Schubert Impromptus op.90 that were on the programme today in Rome in the magnificent Renzo Piano Complex of the Parco della Musica.
Performing in the medium sized hall named after Giuseppe Sinopoli it was sold out for his long awaited recital of Beethoven and Schubert.
I was very happy to be able to listen to him again fifty years on.
Now celebrating his 70th birthday.
Very rare appearances with orchestras both in London and Rome and strangely never a recital until now.
Last summer a Beethoven Sonata Cycle at the Edinburgh Festival and Brahms 2 at the RFH a few weeks ago are strangely the only appearances of this seasoned performer with a career spanning over five decades.
I can happily say that his performances were the very opposite of Yuja Wang yesterday at the RFH .
His sense of projection was paramount but it is very interesting to analize the differences between them.
Beginning with the Sonata op 13 “Pathetique” it was immediately apparent the authority of the performer . Some really impressive things at the opening with the great declamation and the quiet pleading reply.
A real sense of orchestra but also a telling personality with small unperceivable inflections that really made the music talk.
But the moment we got to the con brio we were treated to a rather brutal matter of fact rhythmic playing along the lines of the famous Vitale school of playing where precision takes precedence over sound and shape.
His rather brutal prodded bass questions were replied by the same brutal reply from the treble. In fact throughout the recital we were aware of the good traditional teutonic almost orchestral cantabile from the school of Backhaus or Richter Haaser.
Of course neither were as matter of fact as Buchbinder today but the approach was very similar .
Long almost orchestral lines with a severe.teutonic no nonsense approach that was at odds with the extremely expressive and subtly personal playing of the quieter sections.
In the opening Impromptu op 90 by Schubert the theme was played with such a subtle telling rubato contrasting with the staccato chords that followed but the moment the volume augmented we were again in this rather brutal matter of fact world
The second Impromptu where the jeux perle can sound so magical in say Murray Perahias hands here sounded rather prosaic and almost mechanical.
In trying not to sentimentalise the glorious melodic invention of the G flat Impromptu it sounded strangely robust and missed the sheer beauty of Schubert’s sublime inspiration. The last impromptu was also too serious and the lightness and almost capricious character was substituted for a seriousness that was out of place.
Some beautiful things in the little G major Sonata op 14.n.2 . by Beethoven but the buoyant playfulness was somehow missing in the final movement.
The Appassionata given a very musicianly reading but the good traditional cantabile did not allow enough room for the contrasts that are so much a part of this revolutionary work.. The coda in the last movement for example is quite clearly marked by the composer with sforzandi and pianos but here was played with an ever generous mezzo forte throughout. The slow movement on the other hand was a real cortege of orchestral proportions that cut out all the usual sentiment so out of place here . The last movement although generating a certain excitement lacked in tonal contrast .
An encore of the last movement of the Sonata op 31.n.2 only went to confirm the teutonic seriousness of this fine artist . Little did we expect what he would treat his imploring audience to next .
Right at the end we got a display of such subtle romantic virtuosity that one could only wonder why had he not used the same fabulous resources to illuminate his overserious classical repertoire.
A transcription of Strauss – his own I suspect- with all the phenomenal feats of pianistic virtuosity that we associate with the likes of Rosenthal and Lhevine.
Not only that but a subtle use of rubato and colour that left us wondering why some of this arsenal that he had at his finger tips had he not used in his musicianly performances played in the good old traditional style but rather too standardly predictable .
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Yuja Wang in London

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Yuja Wang at the Festival Hall
CHRISTOPHER AXWORTHY·MARTEDÌ 11 APRILE 2017

Yuja Wang at the Festival Hall tonight must count as one of the most irritating and frustrating performances I have ever heard.
Having booked some time ago to hear her performance of Beethoven`s Hammerklavier sonata that I had been so impressed with on the video recording some years ago from Carnegie Hall.
Somewhat disappointed that it had been substituted for Chopin 24 Preludes.
However that was just the beginning of the extraordinary experience of Yuja Wang live.
Entering the hall was now a notice that the Schubert Drei Klavierstucke had disappeared and the programme would consist of only two works : Chopin 24 Preludes interval and Brahms Handel variations.
A sold out hall waited patiently for our diva who after about ten minutes slinked on to the stage in a clinging long grey evening gown and proceeded to play the twenty four preludes.
At least that what I assumed she was doing as it was practically inaudible not only at the back of the hall but friends told me even at the front.
Once ones ears became accustomed one could appreciate a streamlined musicality with of course some beautiful things.
The faster Preludes rattled off at breakneck speed and the faster they were the louder the volume.
No real sense of architectural shaping of this delicate much loved masterpiece.
We got instead a series of episodes sometimes even exquisite but for the most part with no real projection at all.
A very long interval and even longer wait for our diva before she arrived looking a million dollars, as they say, in a long sparkly green creation.
And continued her procession of little episodes but this time with Brahms monumental work .
A work of almost orchestral proportions that is a continual evolution of the innocent little Handel melody leading inevitably to the triumphant grandiose explosion of the theme in all its glory.
This in turn leads inevitably to an out pouring of energy that has been generated in a continual rhythmic and tonal crescendo.
This energy is only relieved in the massive fugue that brings this great work to its glorious and inevitable conclusion.
Instead we got a series of sometimes pretty sounds reduced to music box proportions and some other variations rattled off so fast that no real characterisation was attempted or even possible.
The most alarming thing was the lack of any real rhythmic pulse and the way she teased and reduced to episodic even the fugue was ridiculous and unforgivable.
I left as fast as I could and noticed on the screen in the foyer that she had sat down to play an encore.
The steward try as he could turning the volume up to 100% nothing could be heard.
Not surprised I quipped we have just sat through an entire concert like that.
Amazed now to see that she is to play Tchaikovsky 1 with Pappano in Rome soon and Brahms 2 at the Barbican in June.
Or she was ill this evening and just did not feel like playing or she was playing the diva and like the actors sometimes do at school performances saving themselves and their voices for more important occasions.
Or she is a fine pianist just being exploited by the publicity machine.
I should be very interested to hear what comes across with a Brahms or Tchaikovsky concerto but imagine she will just change the programme with the same nonchalance that she has demonstrated this evening .
I think I have heard her now (at least I think I have) once too often.
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Julian Trevelyan at St Mary’s

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Julian Trevelyan at St Mary’s
CHRISTOPHER AXWORTHY·MARTEDÌ 11 APRILE 2017
Julian Trevelyan at St.Mary`s Perivale
The exquisite encores of Noctuelles by Ravel and Chopin’s Aeolian Harp study op 25 n.1 summed up the extraordinary piano playing of this modest young man who took the music world by storm two years ago at the age of 16 by running off with the top prize at the Long Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris.
Now only 18 and playing quite regularly in public whilst studying at the Ecole Normale and also studying.for a degree in Geology with the Open University.
Such is the talent of this young man that is imbued with the spirit of the real Renaissance man.
And such is the wisdom of Doctor Hugh Mather to have established a season on Tuesday afternoons in which the finest young pianists in the land can not only be heard by his large and discerning public but they can also listen to themselves , via the professional video recording of these concerts, on their long and ever more difficult ascent to sharing their remarkable interpretative skills on the world stage.
The complete understanding of this first of Ravel`s Miroirs showed the absolute clarity and clockwork precision that the composer demands added to a complete and subtle sense of colour.
Wonderful use of the sustaining pedal gave his nimble fingers the possibility to fleet around the keyboard like the night moths that Ravel intended.
The Chopin study seemingly one of the easiest to play. But in order to have the sonority of an Aeolian Harp and allow the melody to soar above it requires a transcendental technique and subtlety of balance that Charles Halle so aptly described on hearing Chopin himself playing this piece on his last ill fated visit to our Isles.
Julian would have gladly played all of Ravels Miroirs as I am sure he would have played all Chopin`s Studies too for this sort of talent has no limit or restrictions .
It is a joy for him to share his music with us.
And doubly a joy for Dr Mather and his by now devoted followers of which I count myself privileged to have found this musical oasis in this ever more barren time.
However this came at the end of a very difficult programme that included Schumann`s Humoreske op 20,Shostakovich`s youthful first sonata op.12 and Chopin`s late scherzo op.54
The Chopin Scherzo played with just the right sonority that seemed to give an aura to this not always easy Yamaha in which his superb sense of balance could allow the beautiful middle section to sing as only a seasoned Chopin player could do.
Some very fleet passage work quite rightly passed unnoticed as the mood was set from the very outset.
Another of this young mans talents is also acting which was obvious from his very clear and intelligent introduction to todays programme.
The Shostakovich sonata written at about the same age as our performer today sounded very much like Prokofiev`s 3rd Sonata but very soon dissolved into Shostakovich`s typical march like mood.
Some amazingly percussive sounds sometimes even resorting to first the left fist and then the right .Such was the musicianship and his acute ear it never forced the piano sound but only reinforced the rhythmic urgency with quite astonishing technical skill.
The middle section dissolving into the most magical sound world where the remarkable use of the pedals together with a very sensitive sound palate showed us just what a remarkably neglected work this is.
In the notoriously elusive Humoresque by Schumann I felt he had not quite judged the piano or sized up the audience.
Beautiful cantabile of the touchingly simple opening but I felt it was a little too slow to allow the very subtle shaping that Schumann`s world demands.
Einfach,yes ,as simple as you like but there are so many different inflections of what are in reality songs without words.
If the cantabile passages were too slow and the faster ones too fast it was not to say that here there was not some remarkable playing .
It was to say that the romantic sweep and rich sonority of Julian`s Chopin later in the programme did not make clear in Schumann  the overall architectural shape .
Julian had after all warned us in his introduction about this seemingly free formed work
 By opus 20 Schumann had gone through most of his major works for solo piano:Carnaval op.9 ,Kreisleriana op.16,Fantasie op.17 and Symphonic Studies op 13 to name just a few of the continuous outpouring of masterpieces from Schumann`s pen.
After the concerto op 54 we get to the later works where Schumann’s vision is ever more clouded by his fight with Florestan and Eusebius.
But in op. 20 Schumann`s romantic ardour is in full flight and I felt that Julian wanted to show us the more classical later side rather than the truly romantic ardour that he saved for the Chopin in the second half of this remarkable recital.
He is also studying with a 92 year old disciple of Floria Musicescu ,Dinu Lipatti and Radu Lupu`s teacher and he would do well to listen to Radu Lupu`s remarkable performance of this notoriously elusive masterpiece.
Richter and Horowitz too.
There is in fact a remarkable video on you tube of the inspirational masterclass of Andras Schiff at the RCM with another of Dr Mathers pianists Hin-Yat Tsang who by coincidence has this week won a top prize in Barcellona.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdqiQ9VQxrE
Q.E.D
Hats off to Ealing and to Hugh Mather and Vanessa Latarche  ( head of piano studies at the RCM) star pupil of the much missed Eileen Rowe of Ealing  and  also Dmitri Alexeev long time  resident in Ealing and Hin Yats  former teacher  at the RCM.
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Dinara Klinton at St Mary’s

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Dinara Klinton at St Mary’s
Dinara Klinton at St Mary`s Perivale
The opening of the Beethoven Sonata op 101 summed up just what is so special about Dinara Klinton. The absolute perfect legato combined to a perfect tonal control allowed this sonata to enter like the slow arrival from afar of a distant friend .
Again I must say that this legato is born from a childhood training that through hours of disciplined training her fingers have developed a strength and flexibility that seem to cling to the keys like limpets very much in the same way that an organist must in order to maintain a legato where the sustaining pedal does not exist .
The dotted rhythms in the second movement were played with an incisive sense of inevitability and the rock steady momentum was very assured indeed.
Again most notable the supreme legato in the adagio but even more remarkable was the fugue subject played so quietly but with the treacherous trills so perfectly performed that it almost defied belief.
Obviously this is the backbone in her repertoire and showed a real musical understanding of the dual character that is so much part of Beethoven passing from his middle period to the barbaric sublimity of his final works.
This sonata op 101 is similar in the pastoral almost improvisatory searching mood of op.109 the first of the last great trilogy of sonatas for piano and it was just this that she captured so well.
Not being a great advocate of Medtner I was happy to hear for the first time his Sonata Romantica op 53 n.1 .
It only confirmed what I had already surmised in many of his other works.
Although the technical mastery of colour and the understanding of the capabilities of the piano are very similar to that of Scriabin and Rachmaninov for me he seems to lack their melodic inspiration which makes their works so much more memorable for me.
Rachmaninov without the tunes I like to quip when asked who is Medtner as I often am . Horowitz was a great admirer of Medtner but very rarely brought his works onto the concert platform.
Dinara through having to prepare some of his works for a festival in Moscow organised by her former teacher Dina Parakhina is beginning to appreciate this very particular sound world.
Certainly her transcendental performance full of the most astonishing technical feats of colour and agility must have required some quite considerable preparation.
A rather jaunty last movement in a style reminiscent of the dotted rhythms that Schumann could be so fond of was played with a real command of the keyboard .
On the other hand her encore of the Pas de Deux from Pletnev’s transcription of the Tchaikowsky Nutcracker Suite showed just what a difference a good tune could make in great traditional Russian hands.
Wonderful sense of balance from Dinara where the melodic line was allowed to soar above all the whirlwind of sounds that were created over the whole range of the keyboard in a transcendental display of piano playing .
Maybe not a fair comparison but I am sure that if you asked any of the delighted audience to sing the sumptuous melody they had just heard there would be no difficulty at all I just doubt that they could so the same for the twenty four minute work that preceded it!
Hats off to Dinara for preparing such a difficult work whilst she tells me she is changing houses!
The Bach- Busoni great organ Prelude and Fugue in D which opened this packed out Sunday afternoon concert whilst played with all the colour and shaping that is always a hallmark of this very fine musician I found it lacked that obsessive frenzy of a true believer such as Emil Gilels. In her attempt to show all the varied strands perfectly shaped and stylishly played it lacked that rugged hypnotic rhythmic energy that was later also the hallmark of that other great believer Messiaen.
The Chopin Funeral March Sonata that closed the first half of this most enjoyable recital on the hottest day of the year was given the stylish performance of a true Chopin player. The first movement although tightly held together there was just enough freedom to allow the music to breathe in a natural way. The incisive rhythm of the the scherzo was played with great authority and led to a moving account of the great Funeral March.
Such a wind that passed over the grave in the last movement brought a shiver to the audience, rapt in attention of this much admired Chopin player.
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