A fascinating journey about two musical giants Arnold Schoenberg and William Byrd and their disciples .
90 minutes of music woven together with mastery and artistry by Karim Said
“Born Communicator” The Independent Karim Said is known for pushing the boundaries of artistic expression as an award-winning pianist, conductor, and composer. From an early age, his talent and dedication have propelled him to the forefront of the classical music scene. His first major concerto performances were in 2009 at London’s Barbican Centre with the English Chamber Orchestra under the baton of the late Sir Colin Davis, and at the Royal Albert Hall, (BBC Proms) with Daniel Barenboim. Karim’s musical journey began at the young age of five, when he discovered his love for the piano and classical music. Ever since, he had a distinctive ability to communicate and connect with audiences through music; a “born communicator” as described by the Independent. Karim has performed on some of the world’s most renowned stages, captivating audiences both as a solo pianist and chamber musician. This was made possible largely through his association with Daniel Barenboim, who first heard Karim perform at the age of ten, saying: ‘what you cannot learn, he already knows.’ Highlights include appearances at such festivals and venues as the UK’s Aldeburgh Festival, Philharmonie in Berlin, Philharmonie de Paris, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and the Musashino Concert Hall in Tokyo. His love for Schoenberg’s music led him to perform the composer’s complete published solo works at London’s Southbank Centre, as part of “The Rest Is Noise” festival. Karim’s dedication to his craft also extends to his native Middle East, where he regularly performs in Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. One of Karim’s distinguishing strengths lies in his ability to draw connections between different eras of Western classical music. His talent and interests extend to modern and renaissance music, as evidenced by his critically acclaimed ‘exceptionally thoughtful’ (The Guardian) album, “Legacy,” which draws connections between the works of William Byrd and Albert Schoenberg. Karim’s first album release was “Echoes from an Empire” – 2015 , and his latest release in 2024, consisted of music by Mozart, Schoenberg, Webern and Beethoven. Driven by his fascination with the sound of the orchestra and the creative process, Karim ventured into conducting and composing at an early age, embracing a comprehensive artistic path. He was the subject of the BBC4/Allegro Films documentary ‘Karim’s Journey’, which followed his progress as a developing artist at the Purcell School of Music in the UK, where he was awarded a full scholarship. Amidst the challenges posed by the global pandemic, Karim seized the opportunity to give back to his native community, and established the Amman Chamber Orchestra as its founding principal conductor and accepted the post of director of music at the new Amman Institute of Performing Arts in Jordan, both initiatives of the Bank al Etihad Foundation. As Director of Music at the foundation, Karim focuses his efforts on establishing a regional hub for musical education and world-class performances that embrace both Western and Middle Eastern classical music in an increasingly thriving environment in Jordan. Karim has been an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (London) since 2017. For a list of past performances (highlights) and awards, please download the file below.
In the beautiful music room in this oasis of civilised culture that is Leighton House, Karim told a fascinating story in music.
Drinks on the lawn afterwards were just part of the treat that the Peacocks had to offer a distinguished audience for this final concert this season of Lisa Peacocks Discovery series
Karim Said with Tatiana Sarkissova Lisa Peacock presenting the last of her present series
Bulgarian pianist Emanuil Ivanov attracted international attention at the age of 21 after receiving the first prize at the 2019 Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy. This achievement was followed by concert engagements in some of the world’s most prestigious halls, including Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Herkulessaal in Munich. For his Advanced Diploma Recital, he offers a performance of Charles Ives’ second Piano Sonata.
Michelle Choi
Each of the movements in this work represent figures associated with transcendentalism and the village of Concord, Massachusetts: Emerson, Hawthorne, Bronson and Louisa May Alcott, Thoreau.Emanuil Ivanov with more sensational playing this time of Ives Concord Sonata.
Winner of the Busoni competition some years ago and in many ways a Busonian figure he has gone on to give astonishing performances of the monumental piano concerto and his recording of the Rzewski variations ,that took the Wigmore Hall by storm earlier this season, has been recorded by the Royal Academy for release in December.
I cannot wait for him to record this ‘Concord’ after his monumental performance this morning
Not only a master pianist but a composer too. His Theme and variations written as a present for his fiancée had led to wedding bells and a successful internship at the Royal Academy.
Emanuil is a complete musician and one of the most humble people you could ever meet
Some material in the Concord Sonata dates back as far as 1904, but Ives did not begin substantial work on it until around 1909 and largely completed the sonata by 1915. The Concord Sonata was first published in 1920 with a second, revised, edition appearing in 1947. It is this version which is usually performed today. In 2012, a reprint of the original, uncorrected 1920 edition was published, including Essays before a Sonata and with an added introductory essay by the New England Conservatory’s Stephen Drury.
Charles Ives and a movement from his Concord Sonata
Ives recalled performing parts of the (then incomplete) sonata as early as 1912.However, the earliest known public performances of the sonata following its publication date back to October 1920, when author Henry Bellamann who had been writing and lecturing about new music, persuaded a pianist named Lenore Purcell to tackle the work. According to Henry and Sidney Cowell , “she gave performances of it, usually one movement at a time, in conjunction with Bellamann’s lectures, across the southern states from New Orleans to Spartanburg, South Carolina.”
During the late 1920s, a number of pianists including Katherine Heyman , Clifton Furness, E.Robert Schmitz, Oscar Ziegler, Anton Rovinsky, and Arthur Hardcastle performed various movements of the sonata. In the spring of 1927, John Kirkpatrick saw the score of the sonata on Heyman’s piano in her Paris studio and was intrigued.He borrowed Heyman’s copy and soon contacted Ives to request his own copy, which he promptly received. Kirkpatrick began learning and performing individual movements of the piece and engaged in regular correspondence with Ives, and in 1934, he decided to learn the entire piece. Kirkpatrick met Ives in person for the first time in 1937,and by 1938, Kirkpatrick was playing the entire sonata, performing it for the first time at a private concert in Stamford ,Connecticut (In a letter to Ives dated June 22, 1938, Kirkpatrick wrote: “Last night, in our little series here, we got to the American impressionists, and I trotted out the whole Concord Sonata — not yet from memory — but it was nice to feel its unity.”)
On November 28 of that year, Kirkpatrick performed the sonata in its entirety at a public concert in Cos Cob.Connecticut and on January 20, 1939, he gave the sonata its New York premiere at Toen Hall in New York City. Among those present was Elliott Carter , who reviewed the piece in the March–April 1939 edition of the journal Modern Music. The Cowells wrote that the premiere generated “a riot of enthusiasm,”and stated that “the audience responded so warmly that one movement had to be repeated, and on 24 February, at a second Town Hall program that was devoted entirely to Ives, Mr. Kirkpatrick repeated the whole Sonata by popular request.”Kirkpatrick proceeded to play the sonata in major cities around the United States.
The sonata’s four movements represent figures associated with transcendentalism . In the introduction to his Essays Before a Sonata[(published immediately before the Concord Sonata, and serving as what Henry and Sidney Cowell called “an elaborate kind of program note (124 pages long)”), Ives said the work was his “impression of the spirit of transcendentalism that is associated in the minds of many with Concord Massachusetts of over a half century ago. This is undertaken in impressionistic pictures of Emerson and Thoreau, a sketch of the Alcotts, and a scherzo supposed to reflect a lighter quality which is often found in the fantastic side of Hawthorne.”
The four movements are:
“Emerson” (after Ralph Waldo Emerson )
“Hawthorne” (after Nathaniel Hawthorne)
“The Alcotts” (after Bronson Alcott and Louisa May Alcott )
“Thoreau” (after Henry David Thoreau)
The piece demonstrates Ives’ experimental tendencies: much of it is written without barlines , the harmonies are advanced, and in the second movement, there are cluster chords created by depressing the piano’s keys with a 14+3⁄4-inch (37 cm) piece of wood, as well as clusters marked “Better played by using the palm of the hand or the clenched fist.” The piece also amply demonstrates Ives’ fondness for musical quotation : the opening bars of Beethoven’s Symphony No 5 are quoted in each movement. James B. Sinclair’s catalogue of Ives’s works also notes less obvious quotations of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata as well as quotations from Debussy and Wagner. Unusually for a piano sonata , there are optional parts for other instruments: near the end of the first movement there is an optional part for viola , and in the last movement a flute f (an instrument which Thoreau played) briefly appears.
In a conversation with Ives, Elliott Carter wrote :
[Carter] asked why the notation of the Concord Sonata was so vague, why every time he played it, he did something different, sometimes changing the harmonies, the dynamic scheme, the degree of dissonance, the pace… He said that he intended to give only a general indication to the pianist, who should, in his turn, recreate the work for himself… This improvisational attitude toward music… affects all of Ives’s more mature works… In his compositions, the notation of a work is only the basis for further improvisation, and the notation itself… is a kind of snapshot of the way he played it at a certain period in his life.[16]
Tom C. Owens, the editor of Selected Correspondence of Charles Ives, noted that, for Ives, the sonata was “elusive and ephemeral”, and wrote:
Although he was very much interested in producing a sound and error-free edition that would best represent his understanding of the piece, he was reluctant ever to say that any one version had achieved that goal. Ives’s performance of the work reflected an ideal that could exist only within his mind. And this ideal form changed with time and context as a landscape changes with the position of the sun and the time of year or as one’s interpretation of an essay changes with one’s mood and experience.
Regarding the “Emerson” movement, Ives wrote: “I find that I do not play or feel like playing this music even now in the same way each time… Some of the passages now played have not been written out, and I do not know as I ever shall write them out as it may take away the daily pleasure of playing this music and seeing it grow and feeling that it is not finished and the hope that it never will be – I may always have the pleasure of not finishing it.” In a letter to John Kirkpatrick , Harmony Ives wrote the following on behalf of her husband: “it depends sometimes, on the time of day it is played heard — at sunrise that wide chord — and at sunset maybe with an overtone, towards a star. He has felt that some music, like a landscape, though fundamentally the same, may have changing colors during a cosmic horizon, and as you know the oak tree in May doesn’t always play the same tune way that it plays (shouts out) in October.”
Essays Before a Sonata, written by Ives and published in 1920 to explain the sonata to listeners
Commenting on the sections without barlines, Henry and Sidney Cowell wrote:
This is a prose concept of rhythm; it is also related to the idea that different stresses may be given by different performers, all of them right… [U]sually one feels that Ives hopes to induce the performer not to be too bound by any one way of organizing strong and weak beats, playing the passages now one way, now another. Ives’s whole approach to his complex rhythms should be understood as an attempt to persuade players away from the strait-jacket of regular beats, with which complete exactness is impossible anyhow, and to induce them to play with rubato in the involved places, with a freedom that creates the impression of a sidewalk crowded with individuals who move forward with a variety of rhythmic tensions and muscular stresses that make constant slight changes of pace. In fact, Ives has often expressed regret at having to write out a piece at all, since its rhythms will then be hopelessly crystallized.
John Kirkpatrick compared aspects of Ives’s sonata, particularly “Emerson”, to Ives’s own prose writing, noting “the way his sentences spin out and are a little bit reluctant to close. They qualify the thoughts and even counterqualify them. The ideas tumble in on one another, and they make a kind of magnificent soaring ascent.” The “prose” sections of music described by the Cowells caused difficulties for Kirkpatrick, who stated that he didn’t have “the kind of musical intelligence that could swim around in this kind of prose rhythm with no bar lines at all. I had to explain to myself very clearly just where all the main first beats were… so that I could act freely in respect to them.”Nevertheless, Kirkpatrick maintained a certain degree of interpretational flexibility and openness in relation to Ives’s music, specifically with regard to Ives’s numerous revisions, stating “In playing it I use some of the old and some of the new in varying degrees. Practically every time I take it up again, I see some of these choices in different lights, and everything changes slightly.”
As Royal College of Music 2023/24 Benjamin Britten Piano Fellow, Thomas Kelly is no stranger to London’s stages, having performed the dazzling piano cadenzas in the RCM’s packed performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla at the Royal Festival Hall last summer.
For this programme, Thomas Kelly performed a solo recital of three extraordinary works, two of them arranged by Busoni – famed for his fiendishly challenging and richly textured transcriptions. Based on Lutheran chorales, Brahms’ 11 Chorale Preludes were the last composition he ever completed. The tenth is a piece of brooding profundity, reflecting Brahms’ grief for the recent loss of his friend, Clara Schumann – who was also the dedicatee of Robert Schumann’s heartfelt First Piano Sonata, while Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue encompasses grandeur and devout meditation.
Johannes Brahms 1833-1897 Chorale Prelude ‘Herzlich tut mich verlangen’ Op. 122 No. 10 (arranged by Ferruccio Busoni)
Robert Schumann 1810-1856 Piano Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor Op. 11
Frank Liszt 1811-1886 Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale ‘Ad nos,ad salutarem undam’ S 259 ( arranged by Ferruccio Busoni)
My second concert this morning was the Britten Fellow Thomas Kelly at the Wigmore Hall .
Hot footing it from my old Alma Mater and Ivanov’s monumental performance of the Concord Sonata I find myself transported to another world, that of the Golden Age of piano playing.
Strangely enough they are the two sides of Busoni, who was the continuation of the prophetic genius of Liszt, who besides being the greatest showman the world has ever known was a prophetic genius who could forge the path into the future .
‘Unconventional’, Emanuil described Ives, but isn’t that just the ingredient where genius is born?
Busoni was a monumental figure whose transcriptions became recreations and his own works looked so far into the future that there are very few that dare to tread that path ,even today.
One such pianist was John Ogdon who like all true geniuses are consumed far faster than ordinary mortals .
Ogdon coming under the influence of Gordon Green who was a disciple of Egon Petri who was a disciple of Busoni, would exhort his many illustrious students to discover the world of Busoni. Stephen Hough on the other hand chose the road of the virtuoso Busoni and the celebration of the piano of the nineteenth century, when after adding a ‘soul’ to the piano it became a complete orchestra.
Pianists became magicians that could turn a wooden box of hammers and strings into a magic box where dreams could come true.
Genius is a hard word to define ( how insufficient words can be when it becomes apparent that music speaks louder than words).
Ogdon was certainly a phenomenon, a genius ,as he was born with a mind and fingers that knew no limits and could embrace the monumental works of Busoni and many of the most complex works in the piano repertoire,as only the master himself could have done .
Thomas Kelly I had heard five years ago at the Joan Chissell Schumann competition at the Royal College and I was immediately bowled over by the sound he made and the fact that he seemed made to sit at the piano. He and his mentor Andrew Ball walking out of the hall together after a monumental performance of Schumann’s Carnaval passed through my mind as I listened mesmerised by a piano genius today .
Genius is not easy to live with as the Alexeev’s and Vanessa Latarche well know. Vanessa had taken over the post of Head of Keyboard from an already ailing Andrew Ball and in a certain sense inherited his pride and joy, Thomas Kelly.
There was magic in the air as Tom opened with the murmured benediction of Brahms /Busoni, where the chorale emerged from the sumptuous sounds of reverence that were wafting into the rarified air that was emanating from Toms magic fingers .
Schumann grew out of these sounds as Brahms bequeathed his halo to Schumann . One of Schumann’s most beautiful melodies was intoned by Tom as he literally recreated the whole sonata before our incredulous eyes . There was a feeling that we were on a voyage of discovery together, with Tom at the helm taking us to places we never knew existed . And if he sometimes submerged the journey in a haze of mist, it was a mist of the golden beauty of Tom’s fantasy world .
It was to Liszt that the true soul of Tom found it ‘s goal. A monumental performance of a work rarely heard in the concert hall, I imagine because of its technical and musical complexity.
No encores were possible after such a monumental performance greeted by an ovation by an select public of musicians and connoisseurs of great piano playing
Rob Hilberink Tatiana Sarkissova
The encore we actually heard on Radio 3 this morning with a scintillating rondo by Weber from Tom’s ‘In Tune’ appearance last night.
The Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”, S.259, is a piece of organ music composed by Franz Liszt in the winter of 1850 when he was in Weimar.The chorale on which the Fantasy and Fugue is based was from Act I of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera Le prophète. The work is dedicated to Meyerbeer, and it was given its premiere on October 29, 1852. The revised version was premiered in the Merseburg Cathedral on September 26, 1855, with Alexander Winterberger performing. The whole work was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1852, and the fugue was additionally published as the 4th piece of Liszt’s operatic fantasy “Illustrations du Prophète” (S.414). A piano duet version by Liszt appeared during the same time (S.624).The piece consists of three sections:
Fantasy: opens with the “Ad nos” theme and then turns quiet and contemplative. The theme returns and eventually a climax is reached. A second climactic passage follows, after which this section ends.
Adagio: serves as a development section, beginning quietly, the theme moving to major keys now from the minor keys of the preceding section. The piece brightens a bit in the latter half of this section.
Fugue: serves as the finale, but also, within the sonata-form, as the recapitulation and coda. Elements from the previous sections appear again. The piece ends with a triumphant coda, on full organ.
A typical performance lasts nearly half an hour, although performances of the composition by Liszt and by Winterberger lasted, according to contemporary reports, an average of forty-five minutes.
Ferruccio Busoni prepared a piano arrangement which was published in 1897 by Breitkopf & Härtel. Alan Walker , Liszt’s biographer, said that it “represents one of the pinnacles of twentieth-century virtuosity.”Liszt at least once performed his own piano transcription, of which Walter Bache, his student, made an account in 1862. Liszt never seems to have notated such a version.
La Leonskaja, the last of the four great dames of the piano, sharing the platform with a young musician in a display of humility, generosity and above all the enjoyment of making music together.
And what music!
Seven of Brahms Hungarian dances played with a young prodigy from the Liszt Academy in Budapest and the Royal Academy in London.
Madame Leonskaja taking back seat from where she could control and direct the refined musicianship of her youthful partner.
It is this humility and generosity that marks out the truly great artists.
Martha Argerich and Maria João Pires help young musicians too by sharing their platform with them .
I remember thanking La Pires when she played the Mozart double concerto in Oxford with Julian Brocal, a young musician who I had noted at the Monza Competition. ‘But it is not what I do for them, it is what they give to me.!’ I know that Madame Leonskaja played in the south of France, too, in a series of concerts dedicated to teacher and pupil . On that occasion she shared the piano with Evelyne Berezovsky .
Youthful energy, enthusiasm and technical mastery are part of the baggage of youth. Artistry, dedication and hard work are part of the baggage of the mature, truly great artists of our day.
Nikolaeva ,Virsaladze ,Yablonskaya and Leonskaja, four great ladies and master musicians and who are ( or were, as alas Nikolaeva died on stage in San Francisco some years ago ) blessed with an early discipline which is that of the true kapellmeister, where music has been planted from an early age into their very being. A technical mastery where the fingers have been moulded into the keys as they have grown, with a limpet- like rubbery flexibility that can dig deep into the keys without any hardness. A musicianship that can allow them to transpose or improvise as Mozart, Bach or Beethoven would have been expected to do.
I remember Kempff walking into the recording studio asking which pieces from his vast classical repertoire would they like him to play. Ilona Kabos told her students that your repertoire is what you can produce flawlessly at a moments notice, as her husband Louis Kentner would often demonstrate.
So Leonskaja is in the back seat, but I have never heard of backseat driving like this !
Britten tried with Richter but just got his feet trodden on. Leonskaja, who was also a duo partner of Richter, was listening carefully to her gifted young colleague never overpowering but sustaining his music making. Adding an occasional injection of energy and a depth of sound where, as all great musicians know, music is created with roots firmly planted in the ground.
Thinking upwards from the bass but always playing horizontally.
What a lesson!
Some extraordinary counterpoints underlined with refined exhilaration and some final chords with that unmistakable rich full sound in the bass that we were to hear in the solo Schubert that was to follow in the second half of the programme.
The D minor dance played with a great sense of freedom with Leonskaja directing from the bass with the unmistakable sound that only she seems to find, and a real injection of power at the end.The F minor was unusually slow and luxuriant with a very flexible beat.There was a teasing rubato in the D flat dance and a hesitancy to the A major contrasting with the sumptuous outpouring of the one in A minor. There was a yearning intensity of the D minor and finishing with the languid opening of the F sharp minor that was transformed into a joyous dance. There were dynamic left hand interruptions from Leonskaja and the ravishing charm they brought to the central episode. Mihály dashed into the hall after his performance to listen to the oracle speak.
Leonskaja’s playing of Schubert is a marvel of simple musicianship allowing the music to unfold naturally without any personal interruptions. But every so often she would take Schubert into the world of Beethoven with passionate outbursts of almost orchestral proportions. Taking us by surprise even with the opening octave of the first impromptu that after the shock, she allowed the vibrations to die down as a plaintive voice could be heard in the distance emerging with purity and simplicity. An extraordinary jeux perlé and delicate brilliance in the second ,leading to the central episode that was more restrained that usually heard, being melodic rather than militaristic.There was a chiselled beauty of aristocratic poise to the G flat impromptu played with the same weight that I remember hearing in this hall from Perlemuter and Tagliaferro many years ago. It is the weight of inevitability and simplicity that there could be no other way in that moment. The delicacy of the fourth impromptu was more of a dance than the usual digital delight of well oiled fingers. Greeted with sincere thanksgiving by a full hall Madame Leonskaja returned with a book in her hand and beckoned her young partner to join her in celebrating in music their success and joy at making music together.
Winner of the Liszt-Bartók Prize at the 15th Concours Géza Anda 2021 Mihály Berecz was born in Budapest in 1997 and began to learn the violin at the age of six. Later, in parallel with his work in various orchestras, he began to devote himself to the piano with Edit Major and Erzsébet Belák.
He obtained his First Class Honours Bachelor of Music degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Christopher Elton, however. Winner of the Debut Berlin International Concerto Competition, Mihály performed for the first time at the Berlin “Philharmonie” in June 2017.
Previous awards include the Golden Prize of the 2nd Manhattan International Music Competition and the Harriet Cohen Bach Prize of the Royal Academy of Music. At the 2013 Young Euro Classic Festival he performed Liszt’s “Hungarian Fantasy” at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Also in 2013, and upon the invitation of Zoltán Kocsis, he made his debut at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Budapest.
At the Liszt Academy, where he frequently performs, he recently played Mozart’s “Jenamy” concerto under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev. Mihály’s interest in historical interpretation has led to performances of fortepiano concertos with renowned orchestras playing on period instruments, such as the Orfeo Orchestra. Between 2020 and 2022, as part of a scholarship from the Hungarian Academy of Arts, he performed Béla Bartók’s complete solo works of in eight concerts at the Hungarian Radio’s Marble Hall.
Mihály Berecz has won first place at the 2023 Kissingen Piano Olympics (Kissinger Klavier Olymp).
Elisabeth Leonskaja (born 23 November 1945) is a Georgia-born naturalized Austrian pianist. She made an international career after she won the Enesco International Piano Competition in Bucharest in 1964, and has lived in Vienna since 1978.
Leonskaja was born on 23 November 1945 to a family of Jewish and Polish origin living in Tbilisi then the capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
When Leonskaja was six and a half, her parents were able to buy her first upright piano. At 7, she passed the entrance exam of one of Tbilisi’s sixty music schools. At 11, she gave her orchestral debut with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in C major, at 13 her first solo recital. At 14, she began an intense four-year period of study in secondary school with a new piano teacher from Kyiv. In 1964, Elisabeth Leonskaja won the Enesco International Piano Competition in Bucharest. The judges included the composer and conductor Aram Khachaturian and the pianist Arthur Rubinstein.
In 1964, Leonskaja began studies in the Moscow Conservatory. During her conservatory years she won prizes in the Long-Thibaud- Crespin Competition in Paris and the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels.
Leonskaja left the Soviet Union in 1978 and has since then resided in Vienna. A notable recording of hers is of Edvard Grieg’s arrangement for two pianos of Mozart’s piano sonatas K.545 and K.533/494, accompanied by Sviatoslav Richter , with whom she built a close friendship and collaboration. She recorded many years for Teldec, now for German label MDG, and presently for several different labels including Warner, who have also re-released a number of recordings. She also gives many masterclasses.
Leonskaja with the Finnish cellist Arto Noras and the Russian violinist Oleg Kagan in 1967
Leonskaja was married for a short time to the violinist Oleg Kagan.
‘Giants of Nineteenth Century Pianism’ presented by Tyler Hay in Muzz Shah’s sumptuous Grand Passion Pianos salon. An oasis of civilised culture where all around there is the confusion of Saturday night fever in central London .
Here on Alfred Cortot’s newly restored Pleyel piano Tyler Hay kept us spellbound with transcendental performances of some of the most spectacularly difficult piano works ever written. From Czerny variations ,two nocturnes by Field, three Henselt Études a Tarantella by Thalberg and even a Symphony by Alkan, there was no stopping Tyler. An extraordinary ray of lightning immediately ignited this noble instrument ,that had once belonged to Alfred Cortot the poet of the piano. https://youtu.be/rNUNNNNj_Qw?feature=shared
A stroke of lightning from Czerny , played with extraordinary ease and ‘fingerfertigkeit’. But a sense of style as the variations became ever more astonishing, with feats of piano playing that made even Tyler wonder how he dared open a programme with such transcendental wizardry. Czerny, the teacher of Liszt and pupil of Beethoven was a prolific composer of over 15000 works for the piano!
There was a chiselled beauty to two of John Field’s eighteen nocturnes. It was his genre that had inspired Chopin who also wrote 18 nocturnes but more of miniature tone poems of Bel Canto rather than the simple moonlit pieces of the Russianised Irish pianist.
I have often marvelled as a student at Rachmaninov playing of ‘Si oiseaux j’etais ‘ on piano rolls in the Piano Museum in Brentford and often wondered what other works there might be by Henselt .https://youtu.be/_5hCX-Eik8M?feature=shared
Well Tyler showed us another two today, all played with the beautiful fluidity that we hear more often in Mendelssohn’s much technically simpler ‘Songs without Words’. Tyler showed us that there are still so many works that have lain on dusty shelves in the archives that can illuminate a historic moment in the piano’s evolution. With the addition of the sustaining pedal described by Anton Rubinstein, a pupil of Liszt, as the ‘soul’ of the piano, leading to the consequent Liszt and Thalberg so called three handed piano technique.Tyler with his charmingly assured manner on stage and in life, reveals the soul and depth of his poetic understanding the moment he touches the keyboard. It was this poetic beauty that he brought not only to the Field Nocturnes but also these three studies by Henselt. They are salon pieces but in a masters hands such baubles can be turned into gems. Alkan’s Symphony for Piano is certainly not a salon piece but an extraordinarily masterly work that thanks to Raymond Lewenthal and Rodney Smith was rediscovered fifty years ago. Alkan’s works are not for the fearless or the living room parlour, they are works that need massive technical and physical resources. Mark Viner like Tyler Hay is an ex student of Tessa Nicholson at the Purcell School. It was they that needed to acquire a piano technique that could do justice to the enormous amount of works that had been gathering dust in the archives since the nineteenth century. It was Tyler who encouraged Mark to embark on a journey to record all of Alkan’s works and to date I believe he has made ten CD’s all rapturously received by the critics.
The Symphony which makes up just four of his twelve studies in all the minor keys, was played by Tyler with searing passion and a kaleidoscope of colour .The pulsating opening .like Beethoven’s Eroica, so noble but so unsettling. The extraordinary mastery of touch needed to play the second movement with its legato melody and staccato accompaniment .The last movement Raymond Lewenthal described as ‘a gallop though hell ‘ and it certainly left even Tyler exhausted, as our young hero certainly never plays safe, but throws himself fearlessly and with spotless precision into all that he plays.
After almost ninety minutes of pyrotechnics he saved the best for last with the monumental variations of Liszt on the chorale from Bach’s cantata : ‘Weinen, Sagen, Sorgen, Zagen. ‘
A performance of emotional and physical endurance with Tyler visibly moved at the thought of Liszt fleeing the funeral of his beloved daughter,Blandine, after playing this very chorale .
A tour de force of technical mastery but there was much more than just empty note spinning. The sacking of Thalberg’s tomb in Naples a few years ago had Tyler searching the archives for original works by the most famous pianist of his day – the Lang Lang of the nineteenth century. Obviously grave robbers had done their homework thinking of the riches that might have accompanied this pianistic genius on his journey to heaven! One of the pieces Tyler found was the Tarantella op 65.You can read all about the duel between Liszt and his only real rival Thalberg in Tyler’s very interesting programme notes. And here was an original composition of beguiling exhilaration played with dynamic drive and charm with the nonchalant ease that makes this music still so enticing. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/01/04/a-la-recherche-de-thalberg/
Liszt looking over Tyler’s shoulder Liszt’s hand left casually lying on the table in Muzz’s eclectic pianistic paradise
Everything Tyler did or said was imbued with the poetic passion of a true disciple of the great period of the birth of the modern day piano. Grand Piano Passions was indeed the place to be
Anyone interested in the Golden Age of piano playing should not miss the Musical Museum in Brentford founded by Frank Holland. My piano ‘Daddy’, Sidney Harrison was president and responsible for getting the BBC to record many of the legendary pianists immortalised on piano rolls that Frank used to keep in his damp garage. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2018/04/02/the-piano-museum-of-frank-holland/
“A Piano has to have personality, It has to have colour” Described by the Financial Times as a “person of note”, Muzz Shah leads Grand Passion Pianos with an uncompromising dedication to quality and innovation. It was Muzz that determined that Steinway and Pleyel are perfect counterparts and together offer compelling alternatives for almost every pianist looking for a top-quality instrument. As a modern polymath, Muzz is a qualified lawyer and worked for many years in the City of London whilst researching piano construction methodologies, the physics of piano sound generation and the history and innovations of the houses of Steinway and Pleyel. He has written for International Piano magazine and Pianist magazines on the topics of piano technology and the remarkable history of the Maison Pleyel. His work at Grand Passion Pianos has been profiled by the Financial Times, Country Life, Whispers and the Mayfair Times. Newmam Street ,an oasis of peace from the hubbub just around the corner in Oxford Streetthen role of honour for artists who have performed here since its opening in 2022the delectable Canan Maxton long time supporter of Tyler with her Talent Unlimited organisation a candid camera shot by Canan Maxton of Christopher Axworthy co artistic director of the Keyboard Trust also long time supporter of our genial Tyler
not to be missed in the enchanting 1901 Arts Club – selling fast – Tyler writing an enticingly amusing narrative to accompany his scintillating and poetically enhanced performances
Having started the week shocked and embarrassed we finished the week in astonished amazement.
Bryce Morrison and I were transported into seventh heaven tonight where all is forgiven and forgotten.
From the hands of Francesco Piemontesi we were transported into a magic world of intelligence ,beauty and seduction .With the humility of a complete musician he recreated each of the three master works on his programme .
Already looking at the programme we could appreciate ,as with Arrau, the serious intent that would unfold.
A Liszt Sonata restored to the pinnacle that it deserves and since Brendel has never received.
Schubert as I imagine Edwin Fischer must have recreated it.
Perahia is sadly in retirement but Francesco Piemontesi is the just heir to his throne.
Simplicity,Humility ,Intelligence and Mastery combine in Francesco Piemontesi to recreate the master works for generations to come.
Unlike Arrau, after the Liszt Sonata that stood so proudly on its own in his programme, he was persuaded to play again.
‘Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme’ rang out with the imperious authority of a fervent believer.The final glorious ending filling this hall with the Glory To God on High! https://youtu.be/GzSLGfkhCIQ?feature=shared
But to Liszt was given the last sounds with the gentle murmuring of lapping water on the shores of Lake Wallenstadt.
I am sure Liszt would have approved and that after such a wondrous journey we should be reminded of the beauty that surrounds us for those with eyes that can stop and stare with a soul that can take count of such simple marvels.
From the very first notes of the ‘Grazer Fantasie’ we were taken to a land of pure magic. The way that Francesco caressed the keys before actually allowing them to squeeze sounds of etherial beauty out of this great black box of hammers and strings. It reminded me of Rosalyn Tureck finding the piano lid opened she would look dismissively at the public as she proceeded to dust the keys, making sure every speck had been eliminated that could interfere with with her ultra sensitive sense of touch. Of course Matthay wrote reams about that, and the fact that in every key there are an infinite amount of sounds that can be found, for those that have the ears of a true recreative artist and the mastery and dedication to be able to seek them out! The opening left hand arpeggios like the F minor four hand Fantasie was a hardly audible whisper, that already in this artists hands had a golden radiance to it, ready to receive the magic that was to descend from on high. There were so many ‘echt’ Schubert things in this work and even a hint of Weber ,that makes you wonder whether it might have been created by artificial intelligence. However it is an extremely beautiful piece especially when played with the golden gloves of a real artist as it was today.There was Swiss grace ,charm and irresistible subtlety. Ravishing beauty with a kaleidoscopic sense of colour from a man who can make the piano sing, cry and really speak with a voice of poignant beauty and meaning. A revelation that was to be continued with the undisputed masterpieces of Schubert’s final year on this earth.
The final Impromptus D 935, where the first and third are really tone poems in their own right but when added to two and four take on the form of a Sonata , as some have suggested, to add to his final trilogy.The first entered a perfectly balanced world where forte was just a more emphatic sound in a place of horizontal beauty. Etherial beauty of the pulsating sounds on which a touching musical conversation was so poignantly played out between the bass and the treble. All through this recital whether Schubert or Liszt there was a perfect sense of legato, that which Kempff and Lupo found the secret key to, in their Indian Summer. Francesco is an early starter and his sense of legato and infinite gradations of tone are what held us captivated in a conversation of extraordinary subtle communication. Suddenly a deep bass note would be allowed to shine for a second to illuminate all that stood above it. It was the final question and answer of the coda that was of beseeching beauty where one could feel four hundred people united as we waited with bated breath for his final gasp.
There was a glowing fluidity to the second played with a searing passion rising to the fore. The theme and variations of the third were played with a grace and charm as the variations were thrown off with teasing nonchalance.The deeply sonorous minor variation with it’s clouded bass of overpowering emotional impact was answered by the rocking lullaby with the tenor voice answered by the soprano and after a scintillating jeux perlé we were lead to the gentle final prayer of thanksgiving.
The final Impromptu took off at a quite gentle pace of luminosity and dynamic drive. But there were passionate outbursts with fearless glissandi played with the help of the left hand to give even more bite and impact to such a passionate outcry.The final cascade from the top to the bottom of the keyboard arrived with an almighty crash with an added octave that was quite breathtaking as it was unexpected.
The Liszt Sonata was give the space it deserves and was consigned to its rightful place at the Pinnacle of the pianistic repertoire. Clara Schumann may have thought it a dreadful noise and all too often I have thought so too, as I listen to performances used to show off pianistic muscles and heart on sleeve emotions. Liszt destroyed his original ending in a blaze of glory and bombastic showmanship because Liszt in Weimar was no longer the touring virtuoso but a prophetic genius who with Schubert could forge a path into the future. The final pages of the Liszt Sonata are the most remarkable in all piano literature and Francesco played them with searing intensity and prophetic character allowing the three components of this remarkable work to come to rest, united with three barely whispered chords. It was terrifying to see Francesco hardly touch the keys, as these were not just three chords, but three different vibrating sounds. Leaning over to the bottom of the keyboard, Francesco barely touched the final B with his right hand and stayed stationary and curled over the keys for quite some minutes as we contemplated the miracle that we had all been witness to. Francesco usually so controlled and with his Swiss precision and cleanliness has tonight allowed himself to let go and join the ranks of the finest virtuosi of our time. He had played Liszt 2 Piano Concerto in Rome recently and I remember hearing him at the Proms many years ago, when very few knew who he was, playing not only a Mozart concert rondò but also Strauss’s mighty Burlesque. The two characters have now been united and in both the Schubert and Liszt were breathtaking moments added with architectural understanding at crucial moments to the overall shape of his interpretations. The opening of the Sonata I found rather fast and impetuous after the opening exposition of the three germs that are the nuts and bolts of the whole sonata ,and consequently the left hand demonic rhythm was not as precise as I remember hearing from Curzon. I remember Agosti too, playing the Liszt sonata in his studio in Siena where the whole world flocked to hear a second generation student of Liszt intone this sonata ,and much else,in radiantly whispered tones that like Francesco today would suddenly erupt with breathtaking potency.Octaves where he leant on the inner note to give more depth to the sound.The beauty of the ‘Margherita’ melodic outpouring was of sublime beauty as Francesco’s superb sense of balance allowed the melody to ring out accompanied, but never interrupted by washes of sound.The build up to the slow movement was an unforgettable experience in Francesco’s hands as he came to rest before allowing the central episode to expand into a movement of devastating emotional intensity of seamless legato and passionate outpouring. In the faster passages Francesco would often build up the tension and then let it go so it could start all over again. Other times he just let himself go and the emotional impact was overwhelming. A remarkable performance that I hope might one day be recorded in live performance where the stop and start of studio recording could kill this quite extraordinary artistic voyage of discovery
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (‘Awake, calls the voice to us’),[1]BWV 140, also known as Sleepers Awake, by J.S. Bach is regarded as one of his most mature and popular sacred cantatas. He composed the chorale cantata in Leipzig for the 27th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 25 November 1731. https://youtu.be/GzSLGfkhCIQ?feature=shared
Franz Schubert 31 January 1797 Vienna. 19 November 1828 (aged 31) Vienna
Schubert’s rarely-performed ‘Grazer’ fantasy in C, laid the foundations for the Wanderer and the later Fantasie in F minor for piano four-hands, D940. The provenance of this work is disputed (a copy whose title page was written by Schubert’s friend Joseph Huttenbrenner was discovered in the 1960s in the Graz estate of Rudolph von Weis-Ostborn). In May 1968, a manuscript of a Fantasie signed by Josef Hüttenbrenner was found in the attic of 14 Parkstrasse in Knittelfeld, Austria. The two-story stucco house belonged to the great-nephew of Hüttenbrenner who was a friend, supporter and copyist of Schubert’s. Walter Durr, from the Schubert Center of the University of Tubingen, suggests that Schubert himself composed the work after he studied the manuscript in Graz (which is how this fantasy came to be known as the “Grazer”). While no irrefutable authentication can be made of this work (which is not autograph), there are certainly Schubertian characteristics throughout.
Moderato con espressione; Alla polacca; più moto; Moderato con espressione; Tempo I.
It is thought to have been composed around 1818 and as no autograph exists, its authenticity is still in doubt. It was given its premiere by Lili Kraus shortly after it was discovered, and subsequently recorded by her (Odyssey, 1970) https://youtu.be/65uRn8fLWlQ
Nice to see Rustem Hayroudinoff back on the concert platform and playing as wonderfully as ever.Playing on Fou Ts’ong’s Concert Grand that now stands so proudly in the Razumovsky Academy that was built and run by the Kogan family with such warmth and generosity .
Oleg Kogan the renowned cellist pieced together the bricks and mortar of this chamber music hall of about one hundred seats and it is this love and dedication to real music making that envelopes you as you enter.
Rustem and he were at the Moscow Conservatory together over forty years ago and are now both distinguished professors, Rustem at the Royal Academy, and Oleg until recently at the Guildhall.
So what better place could there be to celebrate the release of Rustem’s new CD : ‘ Bach &Sons ‘ , that marks his miraculous recovery from a cruel disease that had struck so silently and unexpectedly a few years ago
The sons of J.S Bach continued an already remarkable musical dynasty well into the classical age and exerted a powerful influence over composers such as Mozart and Beethoven. Their illustrious father just lived to see the earliest fortepianos and professed to be unimpressed by the new instrument. C.P.E. wrote a concerto for harpsichord and fortepiano, ushering in a new age, and saying goodbye to the baroque era. C.P.E. was the most original composer of the sons (Beethoven admired him and recommended to Karl Czerny’s father that his son study ‘Emmanuel Bach’s textbook on the true manner of performing upon the pianoforte’, and, in 1810 asked his publisher to send him all C.P.E.’s works). Whilst W.F. was probably the most naturally gifted of the sons, he appears reluctant to let go of the baroque period in his music. J.C.F. was a true keyboard virtuoso, though much of his keyboard music is undemanding. J.C., known as The London Bach, was a friend and of, and big influence upon Mozart. Rustem Hayroudinoff’s passion for this music is evident in his beautifully curated album, containing some real gems and much that may be new to listeners.
The two parts of the programme showed two completely different pianists with a Schumannesque change of character. The first part was played with the monumental clarity and intelligence of its time that in the second half were translated into the naked passions and seduction also of its time.
The work by ‘Papa’ Bach was followed by two from the musician’s siblings from his vast family of seventeen children.
Bach was indeed prolific, in life as in music, because his life was music and his universal genius is still being unravelled almost three hundred years on.
The genius of Chopin too had created a new art form with the discovery of a piano with a ‘soul’. The pedals allowed Chopin to create new sounds and ways of making them that were from then on part of a world of less monumental music making but that of musicians who could turn the sedate ladies of the Parisian salons into a screaming mob trying to take a souvenir home of the artists who could ignite passions they were never aware of before.
Paganini and Liszt were considered the devils in disguise whereas Chopin’s was a more refined subtle seduction of the senses. Tchaikowsky’s turbulent emotional life was taken up by Rachmaninov who although he looked as though he had just swallowed a knife, according to my old teacher Vlado Perlemuter, his music making showed that appearances can be deceptive!
It was these two worlds the Rustem,with transcendental mastery, and with extraordinary musical intelligence ,showed us today.
His chameleonic change of character belied the charmingly reticent introductions to the programme that was unfolding from his ten magnificent fingers. They became a Köthen Baroque Orchestra on one hand, and the sumptuous Philadelphia on the other.
His wife and two children looking on with loving disbelief as this miracle unfolded in public once more.
There was a dynamic rhythmic energy to the opening of the J.S Bach English Suite that was to show Rustem’s vision of the monumental Bach that he envisaged. It was played with extraordinary clarity with the pedals only used very sparingly and to signify the change of register. Ornaments added just to add a different colour to the architectural shape of Bach’s mathematical genius. A knotty twine that in Rustem’s masterly hands was not at all knotty as the counterpoints were voices on their own that added up to a magnificent whole.
There are at least two schools of thought for the interpretation of Bach on a modern day piano and it was a privilege to invite the two High Priestesses of their day to play the Goldberg Variations for my concert season in Rome. I was much criticised for not having more adventurous programming but to those that could understand there was the monumental Bach of Rosalyn Tureck that was like a rock that was looked up to in awe. And there was the song and the dance of the people of Tatyana Nikolaeva. Added to that, elsewhere, there was Glenn Gould who added his genius in a very individual virtuosistic way.Other pianists like Louis Lortie steer clear of Bach on the modern piano and Andras Schiff prefers to play on the pianos nearer their period.
Rustem chose absolute clarity and rhythmically driven performances that did not preclude the mellifluous beauty he gave to the ‘Allemande’ with very discreet ornaments that embellished without adding any personal emotions.The ‘Courante’ just sprang from his well oiled fingers before the majesty and poignant significance that he brought to the ‘Sarabande’, where he reconciled nobility and delicacy. A crystalline clarity to the first ‘Minuet’ contrasted with the whispered echo effect of the second, with his beguiling ornaments of exquisite charm, before the innocent return of the first Minuet. The ‘Gigue’ was played with chiselled perfection and if it would have been hard to dance to it was in style with Rustem’s magisterial vision that he shared with us.
The Sonata by C.P.E. Bach took me by surprise and was indeed a crazy conflict between Florestan and Eusebius. Extraordinary control that allowed Rustem one moment to play with transcendental velocity and the next with heartrending cantabile. It was as though the fast episodes were merely accompanying a chorale (similar to Chopin’s Third Scherzo op 39). Rustem managed to convey the architectural shape with these quick fire exchanges of extraordinary originality. He brought a restrained and dignified outpouring to the ‘Poco Andante’ with beautifully entwined counterpoints, and a quite extraordinary ‘fingerfertigkeit’ to the antics of the ‘Allegro assai ‘
The Sonata by J.C. Bach was much more mellifluous and Rustem allowed it to flow with clarity and chiselled beauty before the dynamic rhythmic drive of the ‘Presto’ Finale.
After the interval we heard another pianist, that of the great Russian School of breathtaking virtuosity with a kaleidoscope of colour and emotions. This was indeed masterly playing with the beguiling whispered beauty of Rachmaninov’s ‘Lullaby’ played with glistening beauty and the improvised freedom or recreation. Three Etudes -Tableaux were, of course, crowned by the extraordinary nostalgia and majesty of the E flat minor op 39 n. 5, played with passion and ravishing beauty . A sense of balance of orchestral dimensions where the melodic line just rose so radiantly above a surge of emotional power. Adding the E flat prelude op 23 to the C minor was a master stroke as the E flat is one of the most ravishingly romantic of all the preludes with a stream of whispered sounds on which Rachmaninov allows himself to wallow with heartrending emotional impact. The great C minor was by contrast a hurricane of sounds on which the melodic line emerged like an Eagle surveying all that was swirling under foot.
Luckily Ian Jones deputy Head of Keyboard at the RCM reminded Rustem that he still had to play Chopin to complete the programme!
Chopin op 22 that he played with ravishing beauty and scintillating jeux perlé .Also the showmanship of the aristocratic good taste that the teenage Chopin would have demonstrated in the the Parisian Salons that he took by storm. Performances that had Liszt and Schumann at his feet in respect of the Genius that was in their midst. ‘Hats off ,Gentlemen, a Genius !’ wrote Schumann in his journal of the day.
A encore of the ‘Polka of WR’ by Rachmaninov was played with the charm and style of another age and reminded me of the times that Cherkassky would end his recitals with this very piece played with the same tantalising charm that Rustem offered as a thank you to us today .
The distinguished film director Tony Palmer http://www.tonypalmer.orgDorian Leljak Irina Walters Ian Jones
In the Summer 2021 The Razumovsky Trust purchased a marvellous Steinway D Concert Grand Piano for the Razumovsky Academy.
The Trustees are very grateful to the many Friends of the Razumovsky Trust who contributed generously to our Steinway D Piano Fund.This fabulous instrument belonged for many years to the legendary Chinese pianist Fou Ts’ong and his wife Patsy Toh. The distinguished French pianist François-Frédéric Guy said Fou had been his “mentor and a musical father”. “His Debussy, Chopin and Mozart remain legendary.”The renowned Chinese pianist Lang Lang described Fou Ts’ong as “a truly great pianist, and our spiritual beacon”. “Master Fou was a great artist…His understanding of music was unique.”We are immensely grateful to Nigel Polmear who introduced us to this instrument. Nigel suggested we invite Ulrich Gerhartz to advise on the best ways to preserve its beautiful qualities whilst at the same time ensuring that it is ready to serve Razumovsky Academy as a hardworking stage piano.
Ulrich Gerhartz, following initial examination of the instrument, suggested a comprehensive programme of servicing, both at Steinway Hall London’s workshop, and on-site at the Razumovsky Academy. Following completion of works by Ulrich, the rehearsals and recordings have resumed. “Ulrich’s work on the instrument was magical.” (Oleg Kogan).Our Chairman Sir Bernard Rix came to the Razumovsky Academy to meet Ulrich Gerhartz during the works. Our dear friend Julius Drake, who came to rehearse here with singers Alice Coote and Ian Bostridge, commented on the piano: “Absolutely marvellous!
1748 portrait of Bach, showing him holding a copy of the six-part canon BWV 1076 21 March 1685 Eisenach 28 July 1750 (aged 65) Leipzig
The English Suites, BWV 806–811, are a set of six suites by Johann Sebastian Bach for harpsichord (or clavichord) and generally thought to be the earliest of his 19 suites for keyboard (discounting several less well-known earlier suites), the others being the six French Suites (BWV 812–817), the six Partitas (BWV 825-830) and the Overture in the French style (BWV 831). They probably date from around 1713 or 1714 until 1720.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788),also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was the fifth child and second surviving son of J.S. Bach and Maria Barbara Bach
The Sonata in F sharp minor H37 (Wq52/4) by C.P.E Bach dates from 1744. The most remarkable movement is the opening Allegro, built on a contrast between fantasia and lyric passages. In comparison to this unusual opening movement, the following Poco andante, in D major, is a study in restrained elegance. The finale is again in binary form featuring dotted rhythms and occasional sudden rests setting off dramatic harmonic progressions. Allegro – Poco Andante – Allegro assai
Johann Christian Bach (5 September 1735 – 1 January 1782) the youngest son of J.S. Bach and Anna Magdalena Bach He received his early musical training from his father, and later from his half-brother, C.P.E.Bach in Berlin. After his time in Berlin he made his way to Italy to study with famous Padre Martini in Bologna. While in Italy, J.C. Bach was appointed as an organist at the Milan Cathedral . In 1762 he became a composer to the King’s Theatre in London where he wrote a number of successful Italian operas and became known as “The English Bach”. He is responsible for the development of the sinfonia concertante form. He became one of the most influential figures of the classical period, influencing compositional styles of prolific musicians like Haydn and Mozart.
The genius of Johann Sebastian Bach often overshadows the achievements of his four prodigiously talented sons, all of whom played a crucial role in further advancing music’s development during the 18th century. Johann Christian, the youngest, was indeed among the most pivotal composers of his day, his move to Italy in 1755 precipitating a noticeable change in style that, known as the galant, looked forward to the soon-to-emerge Classical period.
J.C. Bach was the first to champion the fortepiano in concert, and by the time he came to write his Six Sonatas Op.17, the instrument was well on its way to dominance. Following on from the Six Sonatas Op.5 , the works reveal the composer’s multifaceted skills, displaying the widest possible range of compositional manners and characters –One of J.C. Bach’s many admirers was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and it is highly likely that these works were among those played to the young prodigy when he visited London in the 1760s, where the German composer was then living. They comprise a set truly befitting of a composer who would later became music master to the English royal family, revealing how, in the realm of keyboard virtuosity, J.C. Bach was every bit his father’s son. Given J.C. Bach’s influence on Mozart, it should come as little surprise that the sonatas of Op.17 are almost stylistically interchangeable with those of the Salzburg genius.Sonata in A op.17 n.5 Allegro – Presto
A knight in shining armour sailed through Perivale today with authority and poetic mastery. Whatever Nikita does it is imbued with burning conviction and communication. Veni, vidi, vici Bravo Nikita. Some remarkable playing in a varied programme from Bach to Babadjanian.
Bach’s C sharp minor Prelude with its five part fugue of such imposing majesty. A gently flowing Prelude that was played with poignant meaning and aristocratic poise.From the profound depths of the piano the five part fugue unfolded with mathematical precision combined with deep spiritual meaning as the voices were played with utmost clarity. The final clashing harmonies at the end that like Messiaen two centuries later were to signify the unbearable suffering of a fervent believer.
Two of Tchaikowsky’s seasons were played with languid beauty and fleeting flights of emotional intensity.There was a melancholic yearning to the melodic line of June of tender nostalgia leading to an imposing outpouring of joyous liberation that Nikita played with ravishing colour and style.
Mussorgsky has long been a favourite of our young prince of the keyboard and he gave a dynamic drive of total conviction to ‘A night on a bare mountain’ .A transcendental command of the keyboard with searing blasts of sound high on the keyboard that were the blasts of wind whilst the deep bass melody was allowed to dominate the landscape.Passion and frenzy were played with remarkable control and a sense of line no matter the technical difficulty.There was beauty too after the storm, with streams of notes accompanying the melodic line of thanksgiving after such a monstrous night.
Two pieces by Debussy, both depicting water. ‘Ondine’ the water nymph was played with glowing beauty gradually growing in pace until she was revealed in all her beauty only to disappear in a wash of luxuriant sounds. A miniature tone poem played with poetic fantasy and beauty but also with a sense of architectural line that gave such strength to Debussy’s characterisation. Less virtuosistic than Ravel’s Ondine but just as evocative and fleetingly beautiful. ‘Reflets dans l’eau’ was played with great delicacy with Debussy’s etherial clouds of sound spread over the entire keyboard as the melodic line appeared from its midst. A transcendental control of the pedal allowed Nikita to play with such clarity without loosing the glowing fluidity of one of Debussy’s most evocative creations.
Nikita’s charming introductions were indeed very enticing and his presentation of Babadjanian had me intrigued. Armenian born in 1920 completing his studies in Moscow, the six pictures were vividly played with very busy and engaging drive. A kaleidoscope of sounds and moods but mainly of rhythmic toccata type precision played with extraordinary conviction and masterly control.There was a beautiful slow picture with a melodic line of chiselled beauty and a tumultuous final toccata.
An encore of Mussorgsky’s unhatched chicks from Pictures was played with mastery and style and brought this quite exceptional recital to a brilliant conclusion .
Nikita Lukinov is known for his “extraordinary breadth and freedom of imagination” (Gramophone), praised as an “Exceptional talent” (The Scotsman), and named the “Rising Star” by the BBC Music Magazine, Nikita Lukinov stands out as one of the most exciting pianists based in Scotland. In his impressive international presence, he performed as a soloist in prestigious venues across the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France, Poland, Croatia, Germany and Russia. Most notable appearances include renowned venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Usher Hall, Southbank Centre, Palau de la Musica, Fazioli Hall, Verbier Festival and Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow. Additionally, both his live and studio performances have been broadcast by BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 3 and Scala Radio. Highlights of the 2024/25 season include recitals at the Bechstein Hall in London, Perth Concert Hall, Armourers’ Hall in London, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Inverness Town Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields in London and St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.
A disciple of the Russian Piano School Nikita Lukinov started his musical education with Svetlana Semenkova, an alumna of Dmitry Bashkirov, at the age of six in Voronezh, Russia. Nikita’s first significant success was a Grand Prix at the 2010 International Shostakovich Piano Competition for Youth in Moscow. This led to a debut with a symphonic orchestra at the age of 11. Other achievements include 1st place in the Inter-Russian piano competition for young pianists, Finalist in an International television competition for young musicians “Nutcracker”, 1st place in the Inter-Russian Concerto competition, where he performed a Chopin piano Concerto 1 op.11 with the Voronezh Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 14.
In 2013 Nikita won a full scholarship to continue his education at The Purcell School, a specialist music school in London, with Prof. Tatiana Sarkissova, an alumna of Dmitry Bashkirov. In 2017 Nikita was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Prof. Petras Geniušas, an alumnus of V. Gornostaeva. In 2021 Nikita was awarded a First-Class with Honours Bachelor of Music Degree and a full scholarship from ABRSM to pursue a Master of Music degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Since October 2022 Nikita has also started teaching at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, being the youngest senior teaching staff in all of the UK’s Royal Schools of Music at that moment. In June 2023 Nikita was awarded The Governors Recital Prize for the most outstanding end-of-year performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, culminating in the completion of his Master’s Degree. The same month Nikita’s debut CD was released with the KNS Classical label. Nikita was awarded his Artist Diploma degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in September 2024.
January 22, 1921 Yerevan,Armenian SSR Soviet Union November 11, 1983 (aged 62) Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union
Babajanian wrote in various musical genres, including many popular songs in collaboration with leading poets such as Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Robert Rozhdesdtvensky. Much of his music is rooted in Armenian folk music and folklore, which he generally uses in the virtuosic style of Rachmaninov and Khachaturian. His later works were influenced by Prokofiev and Bartók. Praised by Dmitri Shostakovich as a “brilliant piano teacher”, Babajanian was also a noted pianist and often performed his own works in concerts.
The Lloyd Webber’s take the National Liberal Club by storm with Bach!
Thanks to Yisha Xue and the Asia Circle who invited Jiaxin to perform solo Bach suites introduced by her husband Julian with brother Andrew looking and listening to the genius of J.S.Bach .
A family of musicians starting with their father, director of the London College of Music and Julian a renowned cellist and ex director of the Birmingham Conservatoire. Andrew Baron Lloyd Webber is one of the most successful writers of musicals with numerous shows playing every day of the year in theatres all over the world.
It was Julian who, with a twinkle in his eye, told us how a teenage café cellist in 1889 had stumbled upon a crumpled copy of six suites for solo cello by Bach in a book shop in his native Barcellona .
He took them home to master them and would often try them out on customers in the café in Barcellona. Word soon spread that this was no ordinary café performer and the music he played was of divine invention. Pablo Casals created the technique to play works that had lain dormant for 200 years. A story told with the same theatrical know how as his brother, reaching over the footlights with intelligence and charm .
It was left to Jiaxin to put Julian’s words into music and she proved that it is certainly true that music reaches places where words are not enough.
Two suites in G and C held the audience spellbound with these masterworks on a single instrument, that in Jiaxin’s hands became a whole orchestra .
This was not monumental Bach but the work of a composer who could bring the song and the dance to the people with the mathematical invention of a universal genius. An extraordinary range of colour and a rhythmic drive of flowing beauty. A wave of sounds played with a tension that held us spellbound as she unravelled Bach’s knotty twine with transcendental mastery, that passed unnoticed, as we were only aware of an outpouring of sumptuous sounds, with the architectural shape of a mighty Gothic cathedral.
It was the same range of sounds that she brought to a movement of a suite by Malcom Arnold played as an encore. Leaving her bow aside she she played with a pizzicato of whispered jeux perlé sounds, where we the audience were drawn in to a fantasy world of extraordinary subtlety.
The fame of Lloyd Webber filled this Lloyd George Music Room but it was Bach who won the day with many drawn by the fame of the composer of Phantom of the Opera found themselves falling in love with the solo cello of Bach .
Hats off to Yisha and the Asia Circle for enticing an audience to savour not the delights of the palette but those of the soul.
PROGRAMME: Bach Prelude in E-flat major BWV 552 Čiurlionis Fugue in C minor ‘Kyrie eleison’ Vl 19 Surzyński Capriccio in F sharp minor Op. 36 Mendelssohn (arr. Schmeding) Prelude and Fugue in E minor
Bach Prelude in E-flat major BWV 552 Čiurlionis Fugue in C minor ‘Kyrie eleison’ Vl 19 Surzyński Capriccio in F sharp minor Op. 36 Mendelssohn (arr. Schmeding) Prelude and Fugue in E minor
PIOTR MAZIARZ studied at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow under Prof. Semeniuk-Podraza. During his studies, he participated in numerous organ competitions taking First Prizes in Russia and Italy. In 2021 he began his organ studies in Frosinone, Italy, and during his time there began researching the work of Marco Enrico Bossi. In 2023, he received a scholarship from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and The Nicholas Danby Trust, and began his MMus studies under the guidance of Daniel Moult and Nicholas Wearne. He has already given concerts in Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Russia and the UK.
For his Temple debut, Piotr devised a stimulating programme where all four composers – Bach, Ciurlionis, Surzynski and Mendelssohn – were influenced by the musical hothouse that is Leipzig. The link between Mendelssohn and Bach is well known, and Felix later founded the Conservatoire
where the two East European composers received their specialist training,
Piotr showed the breadth of his experience by opening his recital with the famous St Anne Prelude BWV 552, one of the pinnacles of organ art by J S Bach. It was written in 1735 and published four years later in the Clavierubung III. This is the third of four repertoire publications by Bach and the only one dedicated to the organ.
Title page of Clavierubung III The Prelude in Eb BWV 552 is the longest prelude in Bach’s output and displays the command of international style required of German composers by the well-travelled nobility. First came the formal dotted style of the French overture where Piotr displayed well controlled rhythmic precision. He communicated the Italian dance style – an elegant Gavotte – with appropriately light, playful registration. For the German style, Bach chose to write a double fugue and despite references to the other styles, developed this writing to a rousing climax.
Piotr has accumulated wide international experience through his studies in Poland, Italy and now the UK, and his choice of a bright, north European timbre using the reed potential of the Temple instrument was entirely convincing. His keen ear was able to create just the right Baroque sound that might be heard on one of the magnificent historic instruments such as the St Bavokerk, Haarlem, pictured below:
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St Bavokerk, Haarlem
Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1875 – 1911) is the leading artist of Lithuania where there is a centre dedicated to him. His influence is also found in a similar centre in Chicago, and there have been major exhibitions including one at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London in 2022. He was equally gifted as a musician and painter and possessed the remarkable faculty of synesthesia, where musical pitches and keys are associated with colour. Despite a short life of 35 years, he left 400 musical works and 300 paintings.
Ciurlionis National Art Museum, Lithuania
The Fugue in C minor Kyrie Eleison is a transcription of a choral piece which sets the Greek text from the Mass. It has a sinous, introspective quality for which Piotr searched a richly mixed palette of dark hues, imbued with Romantic unease. This was achieved through a well sustained legato and impeccable linear clarity.
Mieczyslaw Surzynski (1866-1924) is not a familiar name here but deserves to be better known as his is a truly international style. In his own country, Poland, he is honoured as the leading concert organist of his day who also held conducting posts, church positions in Russia and (now) Ukraine, and became Professor of organ and counterpoint at the Institute of Music in Warsaw.
Capriccio is one of 7 Romantic pieces published in the collection Improvisations Op 36 in 1910. Like Ciurlionis, Surzynski furthered his education at the Leipzig Conservatoire and in Capriccio, Mendelssohn fairy music meets 2-bar Polish folk melody. We hear it initially in its delightfully airborne form which is then repeated in organo pleno. A number of varied repeats follow featuring triplets and imitation before the semiquavers dance off joyfully. What a brilliant choice, Piotr! After the athleticism of Bach and brooding Ciurlionis, this was perfectly placed. It also gave many opportunities to show the symphonic capability of the Temple instrument, making imaginative use of the woodwind reed stops. Dynamics and rubato were also finely judged so that Piotr revealed inner secrets one at a time and saved the best for last. Super!
Mieczyslaw Surzynski
The first three composers in this recital owe much to the fourth, Felix Mendelssohn. His influence extends beyond his own works to being responsible for the rediscovery of J S Bach after a century of obscurity, and to the founding of the Leipzig Conservatoire in 1843. It subsequently became the leading centre of musical studies in Europe and where Ciurlionis and Surzynski both furthered their talents later in the century.
Leipzig Conservatoire The Prelude and Fugue in E minor were paired later, the Fugue dating from 1827 and the Prelude from 1841. The Prelude is vintage Mendelssohn. It was written orginally for the piano and transcribed by a previous Visiting Professor at Birmingham, Martin Schmeding, based at the Leipzig Conservatoire. Piotr was fortunate to work on this piece with him. It is suited to the organ in that Felix wrote in a 3-hand technique with the melody in the middle register. However, its tonal wash relies on the use of the piano’s sustaining pedal and this is not available to the organist. Another issue is that what the organist hears at the console is not necessarily what is received below and there were issues of balance and blend on this occasion.
The Fugue stands among Mendelssohn’s most dramatic writing. It coincided with the performance of Mendelssohn’s only opera in 1827 and anticipates the elemental fury of Fingal‘s Cave, written two years later. The contrapuntal brilliance owes much to Bach: Felix’s early studies were so grounded in the earlier composer that by the age of 14, he could play all 48 Preludes and Fugues from memory. There is also a family connection that is not widely known: Felix’s great aunt, Sara Levy, studied the harpsichord with J S Bach’s son, Wilhem Friedemann, and she owned a copy of St Matthew Passion, which she gave to him. Felix became deeply engaged with the score and this
led to the historic recreation in 1829 which fired his interest in Bach’s works and is the reason we can enjoy today‘s Prelude and Fugue.
Excitement is built into the first two notes of the fugue’s subject, its jagged dissonance cutting through the complex texture at every re-entry and driving the movement forward relentlessly. There are powerful musical tools: the descending dotted rhythms, the toccata-like episodes, the piling up of dissonance. As the drama builds, awe descends as the genius of an 18-year-old invokes a leonine roar from the King of Instruments. There was power, clarity and assurance here combined with the unique joy of being able to converse with the gods. Piotr took the audience with him and they showed their appreciation in heartfelt applause.
The Keyboard Trust offers two major London recitals a year to its rising stars, here at Temple and also at Westminster Abbey. These venues are appropriate because student is no longer the correct description: performers such as Piotr are already adult artists who are enabled to develop through guidance at the highest level at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and other music colleges. As RBC Daniel Moult says: We have become a destination of choice for some of the most gifted organists in the UK and internationally. At last our reputation will be matched by our resources and will enable us to educate and inspire in a way previously unimaginable.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Please understand that life is not easy for today’s young and gifted and think what you might do to support them at this critical stage. Meanwhile, thank you Temple, thank you Keyboard Trust and most of all, thank you, Piotr!
ANGELA RANSLEY is Director of the Harmony School of Pianoforte, writer on musical subjects and organist. She has collaborated with the Keyboard Trust since 2010.
Piotr Maziarz studied the organ at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow under Prof. Mirosław Semeniuk-Podraza. During his studies, he participated in numerous organ competitions taking First Prizes in international organ competitions in Russia (“Vox Polonica Petropolitana” 2019) and in Italy (“Don Vincenzo Vitti” 2021). In 2021, he began his organ studies in Italy under Prof. Juan Paradell-Sole and Prof. Antonella Tigretti in Frosinone. During his time there he began researching the work of Marco Enrico Bossi, following in his footsteps by playing the instruments the composer performed on and analysing manuscripts. At the end of his Master’s studies in Kraków, he wrote a thesis entitled “Marco Enrico Bossi – in search of romantic patterns”, touching in depth on the problems of registering and interpreting his works.
In 2022, he secured an Erasmus+ internship at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire to study the works of Byrd, Purcell, Elgar and Howells. In 2023, he received a scholarship from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and The Nicolas Danby Trust and began his MMus studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under Daniel Moult and Nicholas Wearne. Piotr has been invited to the most important organ festivals in Poland. He has given concerts in Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom.
Sir Geoffrey Nice Daniel Moult Thomas Allery took up the position of Director of Music at Temple Church in September 2023, having been Assistant Director since 2019. In addition to his duties at the church, he is in demand as a harpsichordist, organist and director. As a Harpsichordist, Thomas is active as a soloist and continuo player, frequently performing with several groups. He is a founding member of the award-winning Ensemble Hesperi, a group known for their inventive programming and for their pioneering approach to 18th century Scottish Baroque repertoire. Having initially studied music at Oxford University, and then at the Royal College of Music, Thomas was later awarded a scholarship to complete his studies as a harpsichordist on the Artist Diploma programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with James Johnstone and Carole Cerasi. His teachers have included Stephen Farr, William Whitehead, Margaret Phillips and Terence Charlston. In 2016, he was supported by the Eric Thompson Trust to study with Erwin Wiersinga at the Martinikirk in Groningen, and in 2019 he was a Britten Pears young artist, performing a programme of Bach cantatas as a continuo player with Phillipe Herreweghe. Thomas has held posts at Worcester and Magdalen Colleges in Oxford, and at St Marylebone Parish Church. Thomas is organist of the church of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, where he plays for ceremonies for several of the City of London’s ancient Livery companies. His repertoire interests on this instrument are eclectic, and he has recently made a film, available on You Tube, featuring unjustly forgotten 18th-century composers of City churches.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/06/02/the-gift-of-music-the-keyboard-trust-at-30/. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/25/point-and-counterpoint-2024-a-personal-view-by-christopher-axworthy/
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 