Autore: ChristopherAxworthyMusicCommentary

Maria Garzon at the Spanish Academy in Rome.

Many years ago Carla Bazzini,the agent of Paul Tortelier and Gyorgy Sandor spoke to me about a remarkable new recording of the original piano version of the Enigma Variations by Elgar together with his Concert Allegro and some other smaller pieces.

It was recorded by the young spanish pianist Maria Garzon.

Just recently I was reading an article in All about Piano

and was again reminded of this name.

She had taken part apparently in the surprise 60th birthday concert for Noretta Conci-Leech to consolidate all her work in helping young musicians at the start of their careers.

Seven grand pianos on the stage of a notable City Institution with Leslie Howard and Andrew Wilde at the helm with other well known musicians and students of Norettas including Maria Garzon.

This had been the official recognition of the Keyboard Charitable Trust organised as a surprise birthday gift from her husband John Leech.

So I was doubly surprised and delighted when I was rung up by a Maria Garzon who having got my number from her ex teacher and now great friendNoretta Conci-Leech , wondered if I could help her with a concert she had been invited to give at the Spanish Academy in Rome?

She had been invited to give a recital as a homage to her friend and composer colleague Alejandro Yague who had passed away last year.

A former Prix de Rome and thus resident at the Academy in 1976-78.

A composer and student of Goffredo Petrassi and assistant to Stockhausen both of whom I knew well from their performances in the theatre just a stones throw from the Spanish Academy.

On the programme of all Spanish music was the difficult Fandango by Soler which she was playing with the score and she needed someone she could trust to turn pages for her.

Although the authenticity of this piece is somewhat in doubt it is generally considered to be one of the major keyboard works of Padre Antonio Soler.

The concert opened with two keyboard sonatas in G major and F sharp major and closed with the Fandango.

Introduced by the pianist it included Halley by Yague dedicated to her as well as works by Albeniz,Granados and her friend Joaquin Rodrigo.

An informal concert for friends of the Academy.After a very warm appreciation of not only fine playing but her very informative introduction we were treated to two encores of the De Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance and a charming little piece that had been one of her first pieces learnt as a child. It was not only a great pleasure to meet Maria Garzon but also to be able to be invited to her Music Society in West Hampstead delighted in her turn to help the next generation to be heard as Noretta had done for her all those years ago.

And what a wonder this Spanish Academy is .

Situated in the Gianicolo ,just by the famous Fontanone the overlooks the whole of Rome.

The American Academy in the Medici Palace is just next door and boasts Liszt’s piano.

But here in S.Pietro in Montorio where the Academy is based in the famous Tempietto of Bramante and what a wonder it is.

Focus Baudelaire at Teatro Argentina with Roberto Prosseda and Nicola Muschitiello

The Teatro Argentina where all the greatest musical events used to take place.

Rossini had the first performance of the Barber of Seville here and the Accademia di S.Cecilia had all their important concerts with conductors like Toscanini and Furtwangler here after Mussolini had pulled down the famous Augusteo in 1936 https://www.romafelix.it/laugusteo-un-grande-organo-e-la-s…/

Not much music has been heard here since the move of S.Cecilia to the bigger Via della Conciliazione and now of course to its wonderful new Renzo Piano Complex at the Parco della Musica.

So it was good to see a Steinway “D” from the studio of Alfonsi on stage having only a few hours earlier followed Sofocles’ Antigone for the Teatro di Rome,whose home it is these days, with the insuperable veteran actressIsadora Duncan Francesca Benedetti.

The Filarmonica Romana directed by Matteo D’Amico have had the good idea to bring back music into this hallowed theatre with a programme of concerts with artists such as Sol Gabetta,Khatia Buniatishvili and Maxim Vengerov .

Tonight it was the second in a series of five concerts of poetry and music under the title of Focus Baudelaire.

A reading of the original 1857 edition of I Fiori del Male “Le fleurs du mal” in the new italian translation of the renowned poet Nicola Muschitiello.

A born poet of the “voice of truth” as described by Italo Calvino .

“A unique personality the last of the real bohemians on the Italian literary scene” .

It was Nicola Muschitiello who recited the poetry of Baudelaire in this theatre following in the shadow of the greatest Italian actors who have all trodden these sacred boards.

The music chosen was that which Baudelaire himself might have heard in 1857.

Five recital programmes dedicated to the music of Beethoven,Chopin ,Liszt and Wagner in the magnificent hands of Roberto Prosseda .

A finely tuned instrument by that magician of the keyboard Mauro Buccitti gave Roberto every opportunity to fill this hallowed hall with music by Liszt.

Nuages gris that strangely disturbing piece where Liszt was already looking into the future .

The beautiful Lento placido that is the third consolation in D flat was followed by two works from the Annees de Pelerinage :Il penseroso and Vallee d’Obermann.

These two pieces from the period that Liszt eloped to Switzerland with the Countess D’Agoult,the mother of his three children .

He was exiled from Paris Salons where he had been the undisputed star up until the scandal of eloping with a married woman.

Thalberg filled that role until the famous duel between them organised by the Princess Belgioioso who diplomatically declared that Thalberg was the greatest pianist in the world but Liszt was unique.

Liszt was,by the way, also one of her lovers together with Heine and others .

Harmonies du soir that Baudelaire actually refers too was a fitting end to some very fine expressive playing.

Roberto Prosseda was raised in the school of real musicians Cafaro/Martinelli just a stones throw from the Ghione theatre where he gave numerous recitals during his student days.

I remember the many recitals before going to play with great success in International Competitions when he was already studying at the famous International Piano Academy in Como with William Grant Nabore.

Fou Ts’ong was always delighted when Roberto could take part in the many masterclasses that were so much part of the Ghione Theatre in his formative days.

Born in Latina he had been raised and very much influenced by the Campus Musicale di Latina of Riccardo Cerocchi .

Since the time of Menuhin and Szigeti there have been summer masterclasses in Sermoneta by some of the most renowned musicians of our day.

Fabrizio von Arx,the violinist and Roberto were very much creatures of the Campus and their first duo recital was of course at the Ghione Theatre .

As was Cafaro’s surprise birthday concert with Roberto and Francesco Libetta Profilo Falso in one of Cafaro’s very amusing compositions for piano duo.

It was nice to see in the Feltrinelli book shop opposite the theatre the new CD’s of his Mozart Sonata series together with a DVD at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza of the Studies for Pedal piano by Alkan.

Regularly on the radio and very much in the forefront of the musical scene with not only CD’s but many books on piano technique and music appreciation to his name.

A real ” romantic man” multifaceted musician of extraordinary capacity.

A piano duo with his wife Alessandra Ammara whom he met in Como and now with many children to their name I just wish we could have heard a more equal distribution of piano and poetry than we were treated to tonight.

In this theatre of almost perfect acoustic the microphone really has no place .

The greatest actors have regaled us with their voice formed by a perfect diaphram that could allow them to say “I love you” arriving with the same intensity to the first row as it would to the last.

A poetry recital by Giorgio Albertazzi just a few years ago springs to mind.

The art of the real actor who does not hide himself behind a microphone is unfortunately being lost in this mechanical age in which we live.

I was shown around La Fenice Theatre in Venice just before the great fire that gutted it.

I was told that the Venetians had filled the earth under the orchestral pit with one and a half meters of glass because they knew that this would reflect the sound into the Royal box in the wonderful horseshoe shape of the Italian Opera Houses.

Today of course we have acoustically assisted sound which means microphones and we are thus reliant on artificial sound and the personal taste of someone to decide what we should hear!

Unfortunately this very learned literary professor had no place on the stage with a radio microphone and his overlong whisperings did not allow us to appreciate fully his very considerable literary skills.

A more equal distribution of music and poetry might have sent us all home much more fulfilled with an evening dedicated to the remarkable poetry of Baudelaire and even more of the genial premonitions of Liszt .

Ronan O`Hora at the Wigmore Hall

The Wigmore Hall was completely sold out for the recital by Ronan O’Hora whom I have known and admired for quite some time as The Head of Keyboard Studies at the Guildhall .

Ex students Sasha Grynyuk ,Thibault Charrin and others were lucky to find standing room in a hall that I have rarely seen so full.

I remember introducing myself at Richard Goodes masterclass as a fellow student of Vlado Perlemuter.

Ronan was also a former full time student of Ryszard Bakst at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Mihai Ritivoiu was playing the Polonaise Fantasie by Chopin and was later to join the Keyboard Trust playing in their special presentation concerts at the Reform Club and Romanian Centre and has now embarked on an important career.

I heard him recently with orchestra at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest

I knew and much admired Ronan O’Hora’s administrative and organisational skills at the Guildhall and I was often to be found at Masterclasses of some of the greatest musicians invited by him to share their skills and experience with the students. Murray Perahia,Richard Goode,Aquiles delle Vigne are just a few that I have heard recently.

This,however, was the first time that I was able to hear him live in concert in a programme of Brahms,Beethoven and Schubert.

I was not over enthusiastic to hear the Waldstein and Wanderer Fantasy as they are two rather overplayed works but by the juxtaposition of the two Brahms Intermezzi op 118 n.2 and n.6 one could see that this was a real musicians concert.

Seeing so many well known musicians in the audience I began to realise that we were perhaps in for something special.

It was obviously not just the coffee or sherry that had brought people out on a very wintery Sunday morning!

I was not disappointed and as I said backstage afterwards what a joy to hear these masterworks played in a masterly way at last.

A beautifully played Intermezzo in A op 118.n.2 opened the programme which by coincidence was the same piece that had closed the recital of Jeremy Denk the evening before at the Guildhalls’ Milton Court .

Here it was played with such sumptuous sound ,a full string quartet not just melody and accompaniment . It had a richness and at the same time an intimacy that is very hard to create from the first note in a major London recital with Joan Havill and Bryce Morrison in the audience too!.

Infact Mr Denk had played it as an encore.preferring to start his recital with Prokofiev.

Then came the really big surprise of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata.

Anyone who can create the same surprise that must have greeted Beethoven when the ink was still wet on the paper is a rare artist indeed.

The almost animal like energy of the pianissimo opening and the sudden outbursts without for a moment allowing the energy or tempo to sag were even for today’s audiences quite startling .

The energetic build up to the recapitulation was overwhelming as was the clarity and sense of line in the left hand before the coda.

The Introduction that replaced the original slow movement – later to appear separately as the Andante Favori- was just that.

A preparation for the magical opening of the Rondo.

All of Beethoven’s many indications not just played but really digested and interpreted and it gave such significance to the long held pedal notes that allow the bell like motif of the rondo to appear like magic.

Yes there was magic indeed .

How many fine pianists follow to the letter Beethoven’s revolutionary pedal markings but not many actually understand and try to recreate the effect that the composer intended.

The great virtuosistic outbursts were quite as startling in that they were not just notes but a swirling tempest of sound.

So often this work and the Wanderer are given to students to build up their technique as they are both full of scales and arpeggios and very often sound like it too!

Not today though and that was the real discovery that everything was in the context of the whole with all the details of Beethoven’s wishes meticulously noted and miraculously interpreted .

A sense of line and driving inner energy that kept this very discerning audience very much on their toes.

A cheeky bass note added in the last movement brought a wry smile on the face of Joan Havill one of the very finest trainers today of musician pianists – Paul Lewis and many others have a lot to thank her for.

There was obviously a reason that he added it as some people do in other works of Beethoven where the original instrument would not allow for certain patterns to be repeated in different keys.

It is a delicate question as is the of question of ornamentation in Mozart’s Keyboard works.

The main thing is that one is not aware of these interpretative problems from an artist if they can totally convince us and hold our attention.

The famous glissandi would have had all the pianists watching out but they were so much incorporated into the general interpretation they passed completely unnoticed.

For the record he did not split them between the hands but played them as Beethoven had intended on his much lighter pianos (Serkin used to surreptitiously lick his fingers before attempting them on our modern day pianos ).

The Prestissimo coda was played almost like the music box it is and the long pedals that Beethoven asks for wonderfully realised and lead to a most exhilarating end to a memorable musical journey.

The desolation of the Intermezzo in E flat minor has rarely been so poignant with the filigree ornamentation so delicately encompassing Brahms’ innermost feelings.

The Schubert Wanderer Fantasy was as fine as the Waldstein.

The richness of the sound and architectural cocoon in which Schuberts’ imagination was allowed to express itself, as only the greatest of all lieder composers can, gave a great sense of direction and energy to the whole.

The final Fugato eruption coming as a natural relief from all that had come before.

The beautiful “Wanderer” and the variants played like a true lieder singer would have sung them.

Every note simply played but poignant with meaning.

Abschied from Schumann’s Waldszenen was a magical way to thank his audience that had battled the elements to enjoy an hour of magic in this hallowed hall.

Coffee and Sherry were offered afterwards but many of the audience preferred to go backstage to hug the artist that had held us so spellbound on this cold Sunday morning.

Adrian Brendle at Steinway Hall for the Keyboard Charitable Trust.

Some very fine playing of Beethoven op 57 “Appassionata” Sonata in F minor and the complete Rachmaninoff Preludes op 32.

Showing off all his superb technical and intellectual skills.

Very taut rhythms in the Beethoven and nice to see that the complicated arpeggios in the first movement were played with one hand as Beethoven wrote it and as Arrau insisted it should be played.

The second subject rhythm could have been even more marked as the motif of the sonata is based exactly on that insistent rhythm in all its forms .

The Andante played con moto as Beethoven indicates.

A real cortege as Agosti used to describe it .

Some unusual pointing of the left hand in the second variation but played with such authority it was totally convincing .

Never sentimental as is so often the case but with noble sentiment.

The astonishing link to the last movement was just that!

The Allegro maybe not quite non troppo as Beethoven indicates but played with an enviable precision and authority.

It would have allowed even more of a surprise with the coda Presto and the off beat “sfp” syncopation.

There was no question of not playing the repeat with this thinking musician and it lead inexorably to a Presto of quite extraordinary rhythmic power.

Beethoven’s pedal marks were scrupulously noted and in a more resonant hall would have been even more startling.

But it was the piece especially written for him that brought out all the fantasy and colour that had been difficult to find in such a small hall.

Fou Ts’ong always used to say that it was easier to be intimate in a very big rather than a small one .

A very interesting piece dedicated to him and having its UK premiere:”Invocation,Intermezzo” by Elias Corrinth.

The composer an old school friend was also present.

The Rachmaninoff complete Preludes op 32 had a colossal performance of great brilliance and subtlety.

From the opening in C major to the monumental last Prelude in D flat major.

The wonderful “return” as Moisewitch described n 10 in B minor and the mellifluous B major could have had more tenderness and nostalgia but the last study was breathtaking in its monumental power and authority.

I was not at all surprised to see Ian Fountain in the audience as he is Adrian Brendle’s teacher at the Royal Academy .

He is the only British pianist to have won the Rubinstein Competition in Israel and glad to share his knowledge with such a talented young colleague.

The last of the Gesange der Fruhe op 133 as a rarely played encore.One of the last pieces that Schumann wrote and that my old teacher Guido Agosti loved so much

The Fantasie of Louis Lortie

Two pianos on the stage of the Wigmore Hall and a note in the programme to explain why.

I remember a while back him playing a monumental performance of the Brahms F minor Sonata and pointing to the name on the side of the piano to demonstrate what a wonder the Bosendorfer was.

In Rome the same Brahms this time on Steinway. You can see his reasoning here .

So tonight we were treated to the magical Schubert Fantasie Sonata on the Bosendorfer and the equally imposing Chopin Fantasie on a Fazioli.

Both superb performances from this real thinking musician .

Rather a delusion hearing him play all the 27 Chopin Studies in Rome recently and thinking that this is the realm of the young virtuosi.

Although each study was played magnificently I could not help thinking all the way through of what we were missing from this remarkable musician in terms of intelligence and architecture.

The real all too rare realm of the Gods.

Could there be a more magical opening than the Schubert G major Sonata?

Here there was just that magic where every note spoke in a musical journey that filled the entire first half of the concert at the Wigmore Hall.

The Bosendorfer gave just that ring to the treble because of the resonance from the bass so much part of this piano.A ring that allowed an almost complete legato that allowed the long lines of Schubert to be just as expressive as the human voice in his lieder.

The spell only slightly broken in the few moment when Lortie allowed himself a little too much muscle for this great elusive song.

There are passages that could almost be Beethoven but they are still pure Schubert and you have to be a very sensitive trapeze artist to venture into the realms of the Gods without breaking the spell.

So many memorable things from the magical opening to the almost teasing Allegretto final.

The final few bars almost Mendelssohnian in their lightweight fantasy played to absolute perfection .

And the final nostalgic few bars allowing its whispered farewell to float into the absolute silence of an audience mesmerized by this extraordinary performance .

Only Mitsuko Uchida recently in the Festival Hall could captivate an audience for the almost forty minutes of concentration needed.

The second half dedicated to Chopin on the equally magnificent Fazioli piano that was patiently waiting in the wings.

He is recording the entire works on Chandos.

Interesting recordings in that the Ballades and the Impromptus are alternated with the Nocturnes and not just lumped together as is usually the case.

A real thinking musician who wants to share his musical journey with us.

And so it was tonight the Fantasie op 49 and the Polonaise in F sharp minor op 44 alternating with mazukas not only by Chopin but also by Thomas Ades.

Like his great predecessor Artur Rubinstein who in the middle of an all Chopin recital would play four Mazurkas by his friend Karol Szymanowski.

Almost like having a lemon sorbet in the middle of a sumptuous feast .Opening ones ears even more attentively to the marvels that were on display.

Some amazing sounds from the Ades Mazurka op 27.n.2 .

Almost like Ligeti in its spider like escapade over the entire range of the keyboard.

Some wonderfully luminous sounds from this very fine instrument too.

The actual Chopin Mazukas were a little too explosive for my taste and I would have appreciated a little less richness in the louder sections.

A very strange staccato opening of the Fantasie made me want to rush and look at the score.

Otherwise it was a very powerful poetic performance almost taking a wrong turning which would have taken us back to the beginning and an expert change of gear brought us to the magical final bars.

The second Mazurka by Ades op 27.n.1 did sound a little like a nightmare dream where everything bar the kitchen sink was thrown very expertly at us.

The Polonaise in F sharp minor I felt could have had a more sonorous sound to the octaves that abound and maybe the Bosendorfer might have been better.However the elusive mazuka like middle section was made to speak as rarely it can in lesser hands.

A single encore of one of the 27 studies I had heard in Rome recently. An absolutely magical performance of the “Aeolian Harp” so aptly described by Charles Halle when Chopin himself played it in England and was here brought to life again in the hands of this great musician.

The Doctors cure

Jayson Gillham and The Doctors`Orchestra in aid of Freedom from Torture

Superbly lyrical performance of Brahms D minor Concerto and astonishing Bach Busoni Choral Prelude :”Rejoice,beloved Christians”(Nun freut euch BWV.734a) as an encore for an audience dedicated to the Freedom from Torture cause so eloquently and movingly presented by Sherine Krause.

Stephen Brearley a consultant surgeon at Whipps Cross University Hospital and The Royal London Hospital who in partnership with the late Dr Michael Lasserson created the European Doctors Orchestra in 2004.

Dr Brearley in his youth was a member with Simon Rattle of the Merseyside Youth Orchestra.

Simon came to the Royal Academy and was in Gordon Greens class.

Dr Brearley went on to study medicine in Cambridge.

Gordon was always complaining about this very gifted boy that did not practice the piano and was always in a corner conducting some student groups.

There is obviously something about the air in Liverpool as in Cambridge Stephen Brearley was doing the same thing.

Simon has become a world famous conductor and Dr Brearley a very distinguished surgeon but their love for music is the same.

This was obvious from the results that we heard last night with the “Doctors’ Orchestra” conducted by Stephen Brearley .

Always in control sometimes even reduced to visibly counting up to six in the difficult first movement of the Brahms Concerto.

I am not sure if all the orchestral members are doctors .

I suspect the whole orchestra would have rushed to the aid of any audience member taken ill!

I wonder how many musicians could do the same and play as well as they did last night!

A very moving address about the aims and results in the more than thirty years that The Freedom from Torture movement has been helping survivors of torture to recover from the pain and humiliation they have endured.

Supporting them as they rebuild their lives in the UK

Who better then than Doctors to support and help this noble cause with their music played with a passion and quite some professional skill that only non professional players possess in great quantity.

And who better indeed than Jayson Gillham so affectionately and aptly described by the founder of the Keyboard Charitable Trust, Noretta Conci-Leech ,as “Sunny” Jayson.

Winner of the Montreal International Music Competition in 2014 and much admired by Janina Fialkowska a jury member and protege’ herself of Artur Rubinstein when she was a top prize winner in his first competition in Israel.

Fast building a reputation for not only his technical command but also for his musicianship and radiant performances .

He graduated from the Royal Academy in London under that distinguished pedagogue and former student also of Gordon Green: Christopher Elton.

Small world indeed!

Below is a link to  a recent recital he gave in London .

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