Autore: ChristopherAxworthyMusicCommentary

I first heard Emanuil in the 2018/2019 Busoni Competition where he was awarded the Gold Medal https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2019/09/07/viva-busoni-the-final-parts-1-2-3-with-interlude/

His playing was remarkable for its clarity and agility rather than its depth and weight – infact I described his Brahms ‘Handel Variations’ as a short back and sides Brahms! And he won the competition playing Saint Saens rather than Beethoven . His early training and ferocious discipline as a child in Bulgaria had given him a technical preparation that can only be acquired whilst the hand is being formed. His intelligence and musicianship of good taste was always present which is not always the case with wonderfully trained pianists from the East. It was a few years later that I heard him again in Capua ,the city of the bells, near to Naples and it was here that I was bowled over by his Beethoven op 31 n. 2 which was one of the finest from every point of view.

Emanuil Ivanov in Capua the bells of their 100 churches tolling brightly -ignited by his mastery and dedication

I invited him to join the Keyboard Trust and in his first Steinway Hall audition concert he played the Liszt Norma Fantasy that was overwhelming for it’s intelligence ,musicianship, passionate conviction but above all sumptuous sound and a remarkable clarity.

Emanuil Ivanov at Steinway Hall for the Keyboard Trust

We invited him to play in Florence in our series of Busoni Winners Concerts and I was a bit perplexed because he wanted to play his own Theme and variations.I need not have worried because it was a work of such overwhelming ingenuity of virtuosity and beguiling innuendo that Oscar Peterson or Art Tatum sprang to mind. The variations were an engagement present for his girl friend and it suffices to say that they are now happily married and giving concerts together .

Emanuil Ivanov premio Busoni 2019 Al British in the Harold Acton Library A room with a view of ravishing beauty and seduction

I am delighted to know that he now has my old Alma Mater behind him and he has been awarded the first Sulaminta Aronovsky Fellowship. She was a formidable lady and friend and I only realised how remarkable she was on reading her obituary!

Now seven years on I heard Emanuil play in a Royal Academy sponsored recital at the Wigmore Hall where he performed the marathon variations by Rzewski

Emanuil Ivanov sensational performance at the Wigmore Hall of Rzewski ‘ The People United will never be defeated ’ A staggering performance of total mastery and musical communication – a happening as never before!

To say it was sensational would be too little. I knew Ursula Oppens, we were in Siena together with the great pedagogue ,Agosti, the summer she won the Busoni Competition. Later in her illustrious career championing contemporary composers, she had commissioned these variations that she has recorded twice. I am sure when Emanuil’s new RAM recording is released she will be the first to bow to his total self identification and mastery of one of the most complex works ever written for the piano.

After such a preamble what we heard today was the arrival of a great artist on the crest of the wave of a very satisfying life in music . As Andras Schiff said the other day in an interview https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14QRssWnTqz/?mibextid=wwXIfr.Concentrate on the love of music …..it is not a business or a career ……..it is a privilege ! Emanuil is a complete musician of which playing the piano is but part of the diamond. Being a composer he is able to delve deep into the scores of others and realise that an interpreter is at the service of the composer . Je sens,je joue ,je transmet was the title of an interview in Le Monde de la Musique ( that alas no longer exists) . Transmit but what ? Some would say the intentions behind the notes and they would not be wrong. But the intentions especially with Debussy ( who had edited all the works of Chopin) are of such minute detail, that like with the deaf Beethoven, one can only marvel at the genius that could write such a detailed blueprint of what they intended at the moment of creation.

It was this that was so remarkable with Emanuil’s interpretation of nine Preludes. A sense of balance that no matter how complicated the line there was always clarity and above all a control of sound that was of extraordinary sensibility. The opening of ‘Les sons’ where pianissimo abounds together with so many hairpin indications and some notes that are legato and others slightly detached. All this was turned miraculously into sounds creating atmospheres and in Puck,Lavine and Pickwick an extraordinary sense of characterisation. The startling difference between marqué and pianissimo staccato in Feux d’Artifice or glissandi in diminuendo did not take anything away from the extraordinary excitement of fireworks or the glowing beauty of the apparition in the distance of la Marseillaise. I remember Fou Ts’ong pondering over these details in Debussy and his being shocked that so called Debussy players completely overlooked them.

It was the same with Emanuil’s discovery of Alkan . This is the territory of Mark Viner ,another favourite of Dr Mather, and Mark is already on his tenth CD to include all the works of this mysterious composer, next door neighbour of Chopin. Chopin esteemed him so highly that he bequeathed his unfinished treatise for Fétis on piano playing to him to finish. Emanuil I had heard play this ‘Symphony’ by Alkan a few months ago and was glad to be able to hear it again today. The brooding Eroica like opening motif in a Mendelssohnian outpouring of notes but of greater depth and originality. The extraordinary Funeral March with the tenor legato melody accompanied by staccato chords played with great mastery and sense of control. A Minuet that was like the ‘Witches sabbath’ , but all this was nothing compared to the ‘tour de force’ of quite incredible mastery of the Finale. Emanuil like Mark Viner showing us a composer that for too long has been a shadowy figure in history books.

An encore by great demand was gladly offered by Emanuil. A ‘little’ piece by Medtner called ‘Spring’. A note spinning work with streams of jeux perlé notes played with the mastery of a Moiseiwitsch, where the melodic line was allowed to glow amongst these streams of gold and silver strands of featherlight notes.

Emanuil Ivanov attracted international attention after receiving the First prize at the 2019 Ferruccio Busoni 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 Herculessaal in Munich. He was born in 1998 in the town of Pazardzhik, Bulgaria. From an early age he demonstrated a keen interest and love for music. He regards the presence of symphonic music, especially that of Gustav Mahler, as tremendously influential in his musical upbringing during his childhood. He started piano lessons with Galina Daskalova in his hometown around the age of seven. Ivanov later studied with the renowned Bulgarian pianist Atanas Kurtev from 2013 to 2018. In 2024 he graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, having studied there on a full scholarship under the tutelage of Pascal Nemirovski and Anthony Hewitt. In 2025 he completed the Advanced Diploma course at London’s Royal Academy of Music as a recipient of the prestigious Bicentenary scholarship, under the supervision of Joanna MacGregor and Christopher Elton. Following this, he has been named as the first Sulamita Aronovsky Piano Fellow at RAM. 

In February 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ivanov performed a solo recital in Milan’s famous Teatro alla Scala. The concert was live-streamed online and is a major highlight in the artist’s career.

Emanuil Ivanov at La Scala to the Glory of God and beyond

In 2022, he received the honorary Silver medal of the Musicians’ Company, London and later in the same year became a recipient of the prestigious Carnwath Piano Scholarship. He has given critically acclaimed performances and tours in Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, South Africa, the US, the United Kingdom and Poland and has played with leading orchestras in South Africa, the UK, Bulgaria and Italy. Ivanov’s performances have been featured on BBC Radio 3, Italy’s Rai Radio 3 and Japan’s NHK Radio. In 2024, Emanuil also made his debuts on the stages of Wigmore Hall and Konzerthaus Dortmund, and in January 2025, his album of Scarlatti sonatas for the renowned Naxos label was released. In 2025, he also made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall. He has continually shown affinity towards some of the more rarely performed works in the repertoire and in 2024 performed Busoni’s mammoth piano concerto, following this with performances of the complete cycle of Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich in 2025. Apart from playing the piano, he also displays great interest in composition and has composed regularly since childhood. 

Emanuil Ivanov and John Wilson at the RAM The return of the Golden Era of Music Making

Emanuil Ivanov ignites Leighton House with transcendental artistry

Charles-Valentin Alkan 30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888 was a French composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Chopin  and Liszt, among the leading pianists in Paris, a city in which he spent virtually his entire life.

The Symphony for Solo Piano op 39 4-7,is a large-scale romantic work for piano composed by Charles – Valentin Alkan and published in 1857.

Although it is generally performed as a self-contained work, it comprises études Nos. 4–7 from the Douze études dans tour les tons mineurs (Twelve Studies in All the Minor Keys), Op. 39, each title containing the word Symphonie . The four movements are titled Allegro moderato, Marche funèbre,Menuet and Finale ( described by Raymond Lewenthal as a ride in hell). Much like the Concerto for Solo Piano  (Nos. 8–10), the Symphony is written so as to evoke the broad palette of timbres and harmonic textures available to an orchestra. It does not contain the excesses of the Concerto or the Grande Sonate (Op. 33). But, rather like the Sonatine Op. 61, it proves that Alkan was also capable of writing perfectly balanced and almost ‘Classical’ works.”Unlike a standard classical symphony, each movement is in a different key, rising in progressive tonality by a perfect fourth.

Debussy wrote “We must agree that the beauty of a work of art will always remain a mystery […] we can never be absolutely sure ‘how it’s made.’ We must at all costs preserve this magic which is peculiar to music and to which music, by its nature, is of all the arts the most receptive.”

Préludes are 24 pieces for solo piano , divided into two books of 12 preludes each.Each book was written in a matter of months, at an unusually fast pace for Debussy. Book I was written between December 1909 and February 1910, and Book II in 1911 and 1912.In the original editions, Debussy had the titles placed at the end of each work,allowing performers to experience each prelude without being influenced by its titles beforehand.

Two of the titles were set in quotation marks  by Debussy because they are, in fact, quotations: «Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir» is from Charles Baudelaire’s poem Harmonie du soir (“Evening Harmony”), from his volume Les Fleurs du mal. «Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses» is from J.M. Barrie’s book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens , which Debussy’s daughter had received as a gift.

At least one title is poetically vague: The exact meaning of Voiles, the first book’s second prelude, is impossible to ascertain; in French, voiles can mean either “veils” or “sails”.On 3 May 1911, pianist Jane Mortier premiered the first book of preludes at the Salle Pleyel  in Paris.German-English pianist Walter Morse Rummel , a student of Leopold Godowsky, premiered the second book in 1913 in London.

Debussy and other pianists who gave early performances of the preludes (including Ricardo Viñes) played them in groups of three or four, which remains a popular approach today. This allows performers to choose preludes with which they have the strongest affinity, or those to which their particular gifts are most suited.

Elia Cecina giving an all or nothing performance of Brahms where his youthful energy and passion could sometimes lead him astray but where his sense of communication and musical understanding were remarkable. A performance that I have rarely heard with such youthful intensity and of sumptuous beauty. A rather slow tempo from the excellent young conductor and an orchestra well amalgamated but I could not help feeling that the burning intensity that Solti brought to the orchestra was substituted for a more pastoral approach. As Elia’s mighty octaves resounded with a true call to arms , the orchestra suddenly changed their tune and was ignited and united in a performance of dynamic drive and great beauty.

It was in the Adagio that the artistry and musical pedigree, inherited from his studies with Eliso Virsaldze and Boris Berman, shone through with playing of great weight and a wondrous legato. Brahms’ most intimate confessions were played with remarkable poise and great projection on a Fazioli piano that lacked nothing compared to the Bechstein or Bosendorfer of Brahms’ day.

I remember Andras Schiff playing the two Brahms Concertos on a historic Bechstein piano in London in a hall of over two thousand people. Conducting from the keyboard because as he impishly said :”It is sometimes nice to play without the policeman”. Modern day pianos are built to be heard in great halls but can sometimes loose the warmth and intimate nature of the historic instruments which are out of place in the vast concert halls of today. Elia managed to keep the warmth thanks to his architectural sense of line and palette of subtle colours.

There was a great sweep to the last movement where the pianist and orchestra were now attuned to each other having listened so attentively to the wondrous sounds this young man had described in the Adagio. Elia playing with aristocratic poise as one of Brahms’ most noble of chorale melodies ignited the atmosphere and where the orchestra united with him in a quite memorable performance .

As Elia wrote to me afterwards “Yesterday I gave all my soul but probably it does not matter ” It certainly does matter a world starved of true artistry and dedicated musicianship awaits.In the real world there is no such thing as comparative performance, unfortunately competitions are a necessary evil that allows the world to enjoy such wondrous performances.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14TJ8SJQfmv. https://youtu.be/fUJ_UvKpIDY?si=8F7JMHKRMUUPdq0m

Piano Competitions a consideration

All the fun of the circus.The Busoni Competition

Elia Cecino at the Quirinale in Rome – Realms of Gold in the President’s Palace

Elia Cecino – A star is born

Elia Cecino in Rome – on his great voyage of discovery

Elia Cecino – in Grosseto -The birth of an artist

Elia Cecino in London for the Keyboard Trust

Sebastian-Benedict Flore, born in Rome, began his piano studies at the age of five. Having completed his Bachelor’s degree with first-class honours at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Katya Apekisheva, he has recently entered the studio of Nora Doallo at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano for his postgraduate studies. He has won various prizes, including the first prize at last year’s edition of the Liszt Society’s International Piano Competition. In demand as a solo and chamber musician, he has also performed in some of London’s most prestigious venues, including Milton Court, the Barbican Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall.

A very impressive recital by Sebastian – Benedict Flore of ten works of Liszt rarely if ever heard in the concert hall. The only one I knew was En rêve because my old piano teacher Gordon Green had picked it up from his teacher Egon Petri, a pupil of Busoni, together with a love for Busoni, in particular his monster piano concerto and his masterpiece Doktor Faust. Sebastian showed us this visionary world of Liszt that was looking to the future and after his death was to be taken up by his pupil Busoni. A strange world that Sebastian depicted with a kaleidoscopic palette of sounds, giving such character to what can seem just a series of sounds moving always towards atonality. The remarkable thing was that this young man had memorised all these works, which in itself was a feat of memory and shows a dedication to this strange world of uncharted territory. Sebastian,like his mentor Leslie Howard, hardly moving as he was listening carefully to the sounds he was producing and that any excess of movement would have interfered with this intense concentration. Hats of to the Liszt Society for awarding their top prize last year to such a dedicated Lisztian.

3.15 pm The Liszt Society International Piano Competition Final 2025 Maria Saakian (b.2002 Russia)

Concert Étude S144 no 2 “La leggierezza” (4′)

Années de pèlerinage – Deuxième Année – Italie, S161:
No. 7: Après une lecture de Dante: fantasia quasi Sonata (16′) 

Maria Saakian has performed with a wide range of orchestras and as a soloist in Germany, Armenia, Italy, Spain, and other countries across Europe. She is a prize-winner of several competitions, including the 2nd prize at the Arno Babajanyan International Competition (2019), the International Competition   “Solo with Orchestra”   (2020), and the 1st prize at the International Festival of Music and Arts   Le Ciel de Paris , France (2022. Born in 2002, Maria grew up in Moscow, Russia, and began playing the piano at the age of five with Professor Karina Ayvazova. Soon after, she started taking part in various concerts and festivals. In 2016, she entered the Gnessin Moscow Special Music School (College) in the class of Professor Elena Plyashkevich. Upon graduation in 2021, she continued her studies at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music under Professor Yury Bogdanov. In December 2021, Maria received a full scholarship to study with Florian Mitrea at the Royal Academy of Music in London. 

2. Edward Lloyd (b 2001, United Kingdom) 

Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S173:
No. 4: Pensée des morts (16′)

No. 2: Ave Maria (7′) 

Edward Lloyd made his concerto debut with the Oxford Festival Orchestra in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in 2022. Subsequent performances have brought him to the Bridgewater Hall, Steinway Hall London, Stoller Hall, and most recently the Liszt Academy in Budapest.  His competition achievements include prizes in the Christopher Duke International Piano Competition, Vienna International Competition and the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Competition. He studied at Chetham’s School of Music and is currently at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Prof. Graham Scott, where he is supported by the The LHR Charitable Foundation. He has been fortunate to work with such distinguished artists as Stephen Hough, Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Murray Mclachlan and Krzysztof Jablonski. He is an artist in the Davison Young Musicians Foundation. Since 2024, Edward has been an awards advocate for the DYMF. Currently in 2025, Edward has been selected as a Drake Calleja Trust Scholar and is supported by the Craxton Memorial Trust.  

3. Donglai Shi (b 1999, China) 

Années de pèlerinage – Deuxième Année – Italie, S161:
No. 6: Sonetto 123 del Petrarca ‘I vidi in terra’ (6′) 

Variationen über das Motiv von J. S. Bach: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen , S180 (16′

Donglai Shi holds a Bachelor of Music from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University (Class of 2022), with a double major in piano performance and composition and a minor in orchestral conducting. He has also completed the 2-year Artist Master’s program in Advanced Keyboard Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Class of 2025) under the guidance of Prof. Carole Presland and Prof. Ronan O’Hora, with partial scholarship. He is now an Artist Diploma student in the same institution with the same teachers. He received partial scholarship from the McGill University throughout his studies. He was finalist in the McGill Concerto Competition (October 2021), performing the 1 st  Piano Concerto by Chopin. He was among the 30 national finalists in the Steppingstone edition of the 2022 Canadian Music Competition. Strongly interested in chamber music, he reached the final of the McGill Chamber Music Competition twice, in 2019 and 2021, and the final of the Ivan Sutton chamber prize in 2024.After moving to London, he is giving recitals across the city, including a debut performance in the newly opened Bechstein Hall this past February.

4. Max Walsh (b 2007, United Kingdom) 

La lugubre gondola, S220/1 (4′) 

Années de pèlerinage – Troisième Année – Italie, S161:
No. 4: Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este (8′) 

Polonaise No. 1 in C minor, S223/1 Polonaise mélancolique  (11′)

Max Walsh studies piano at the Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with Jan Loeffler, Head of Keyboard. He is in his final year of Sixth Form, where he studies music, philosophy and Spanish, and is currently applying to study piano and composition at Conservatoire next year. He has performed at The Reform Club, London in a masterclass with Boris Giltburg, at the RBC ‘Faure and his World’ Concert Series and at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. He has also worked with musicians such as Joanna MacGregor and Julian Lloyd Webber. This year he was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ at The New Talent Festival and Bromsgrove Young Musicians’ Platform. Recently, he was awarded a London Music Fund Senior Scholarship and has been invited to perform a New Artist Recital at Steinway Hall by The Keyboard Charitable Trust. 

5. Minsung Park (b 2003, South Korea) 

Années de pèlerinage – Deuxième Année – Italie, S161:
No. 5: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca ‘Pace non trovo’ (7′) 

No. 7: Après une lecture de Dante: fantasia quasi Sonata (16′) 

Minsung Park was born in 2003 in South Korea, and started piano lessons age 7 after moving to Vietnam, studying with Trang Trinh. He commenced studies at Chetham’s School of Music in 2019, under Murray McLachlan, and subsequently studied with him at the Royal Northern College of Music, graduating with 1 st class honours. He is now working towards the Master of Music degree under Graham Scott. He has a wealth of performance experience with numerous recitals in England, as well as Vietnam, Poland, Italy and France. He has participated in masterclasses with Sir Stephen Hough, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Philippe Cassard, Christopher Elton, Yury Shadrin, Simon Callaghan and Kathryn Stott. In 2024, he made a remarkable concerto debut with St. John’s Festival Orchestra on performing Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto. Minsung has participated in various international piano competitions around the world. He was a Finalist in 2023 Watford International Piano Competition and won the 1st Prize in the 5th Spezzaferri International Music Prize in Verona, Italy. In 2024 he won the 2nd prize in LOML International Piano Competition (Category B), and in May 2025, he won the 3rd prize in RNCM Mark Ray Piano Recital Competition. 

6. Tianran Zhou (b 1997, China) 

Douze Études d’exécution transcendante, S139:
No. 11: Harmonies du soir (10′) 

12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S558:
No. 8: Gretchen am Spinnrade (4′) 

Fantasie und Fuge über das Thema B A C H, S529ii (12′)
Tianran Zhou is a Chinese pianist who was born in 1997 and began her Bachelor of Music studies at the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in 2017 with a substantial scholarship. In 2021, she was admitted to pursue her Master’s at the MSM. In 2024, she accepted a full scholarship, fellowship, and teaching assistantship at the University of Northern Colorado. She has given solo recitals in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other places. During her studies, she performed at Carnegie Hall, participated in the 2019 MSM Winter Chamber Music Festival, and was featured in contemporary piano showcases in 2021 and 2022. In August 2025, during the Classical-D International Piano Music Festival (CIPMF) – founded by Chinese pianist Hao Yao and directed by the maestro Leslie Howard – s he held a Liszt Recital at St Marylebone Parish Church. She has won numerous competition awards, including 1st Prize at the 2016 Hamamatsu International Junior Piano Competition (China Regional), the 2016 Asian Chopin International Piano Competition (Amateur Category), and the 2017 Steinway National Piano Competition (Eastern China Division).

Dr Hugh Mather was happy to announce for Melvyn Cooper : The Liszt Society Senior Intercollegiate Piano Competition on the 26th April 2026 at Markson Recital Hall City Lit 1-10 Keeley St WC2. Hugh was also proud to announce the next Liszt Society Day in Perivale in November 2026.

This is my own private Birds Eye view :

‘A fascinating afternoon with some superb piano playing from six carefully chosen finalists. The Competition jurors were Leslie Howard , Mark Viner (who will be playing at St Mary’s on the 18th December at 7.30 A specially prepared Christmas Recital ), Melvyn Cooper and Stefano Severini ( past winner of this very prize) and after a very long wait they announced their verdict.

It took longer than usual because there were obviously serious discussions about what criteria should be used between potential and the concrete. Highly commended were Minsung Park and Tianran Zhou both with exemplary studies behind them and a string of competition successes. Today was not their day and Minsung Park did not manage to capture that sparkle and brilliance with the Dante Sonata that Maria Saakian had shown us at the opening. Tianran Zhou had all the temperament that Minsung missed but her small hand and obvious jet lag, from the long journey she had made especially from the USA, did not show her at her best. Maria Saakian quite rightly shared second place with Edward Lloyd, who with his big hands and even bigger intellect chose two similarly very contemplative works by Liszt that did not show off his brilliance and showmanship but only his considerable intellectual rather than pianistic qualities. Douglai Shi is a formed artist with a range of sounds and a natural way of moving around the keyboard that had astonished me at his graduation recital at the Guildhall last summer. But he is a formed artist and at twenty six he has enjoyed superb training from two of the finest institutions in the world. Max Walsh is a sixth former who I had heard play in Giltberg’s Masterclass a few months ago. A youthful burning passion for music and a young man born to play the piano. He and the piano fit so naturally in a way that cannot be taught and at only 18 his potential is enormous and may know no bounds. He may not have given such perfectly refined performances but by ‘God he’s got it’ ! A difficult choice for the jury, that explains why our tea got so cold, but well worth the wait to know that the Liszt Society can nurture such natural talent.

Sebastian-Benedict Flore Rising Star Series City Productions in Association with the Keyboard Trust

Graduation Recitals Rose McLachlan and Donglai Shi ‘Two artists painting in colour :Pointillism and Abstract expressionism – perfume for the senses’

Max Walsh with Boris Giltberg in the masterclass at the Reform Club for the Beethoven Society

George Fu at St Martin in the Fields with Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Played with simplicity and mastery, bowing before this great monument as he brought each variation vividly to life.

Written to relieve the tedium of the sleepless nights of Count von Kayserling who had commissioned Bach to write a work for the court harpsichordist Johann Goldberg to play to him . Hence the name for these monumental variations that are considered to be by many the finest variations ever written . Music to listen to by candlelight, which might have been even more evocative, but in the masterly hands of George Fu the music speaks with a directness and simplicity that transcends any terrestrial platforms.

This was only George’s second performance and he refrained from the modern day habit of adding ornaments, allowing Bach’s music to speak on a sustaining instrument with just the minimum that the composer indicates in the score. Of course George is a composer and music is a living breathing thing not just notes to be produced in a historical replica. The tenth variation so simple on the page until George pulled out the stops, or adding bass octaves on the piano, which gave great importance to what is even in Rosalyn Tureck’s hands a simple ‘Fughetta’. Slightly anticipating the French Overture of the sixteenth that signals the half way mark, and even here going into the higher register of the keyboard (a different manual on the harpsichord ) and is the beginning of the magisterial ascent to the 29th Variation . This leads inevitably, in Hollywoodian style, to the monumental Quodlibet or musical joke where Bach combines two folk songs ‘I have not been with you for so long ‘ and ‘Cabbages and turnips have driven me away’ .

The joke is on us because this is one of the greatest moments in all music when the Aria floats in on the reverberating final ‘G’ , like a whispered apparition after a voyage of a lifetime.

A journey that had started with the dynamic drive and unrelenting forward movement of the first variation contrasting with the simple clarity of the second and the subdued meandering beauty of the third. George using the pedals throughout his performance but not to blur the edges or create unnecessary atmospheres but merely to clarify the knotty twine as Bach’s counterpoints need no help from external devices. A bold and determined fourth ( eliminating the repeat for time requirements of this concert ) as streams of notes played of the fifth ( also not repeated ) with fluidity and startling clarity.

Straight into the weary counterpoints of the sixth and the wistful dance of the seventh that was played with whispered pristine clarity.Tip-toeing delicacy to the weaving web of knotty twine of the eighth leading to the beautiful contemplative ninth with is poignant bass counterpoints subtly underlined.The tenth I have never heard given such importance as in George’s noble hands today, with a call to arms of bold contours adding bass reinforcement using sometimes both hands! This ,of course, contrasted with the streams of single notes chasing each other around the keyboard, only to be united in a final delicate flourish.The ‘Canone alla Quarta’ was played with the simplicity of a string orchestra opening the way for the purity and simple radiance where the melodic line was allowed to flow with Bach’s bel canto just as florid as Bellini’s. The second part was played with a poignant whispered beauty which made the energetic explosion of the fourteenth even more startling. A variation of dynamic drive spread over the whole keyboard with brilliance and sparkling mastery. The ‘Canone alla Quinta’ with its weighty appoggiaturas was deeply meditative but also played with unusual rhythmic drive as it reached into the infinite with the questioning final three notes.

Answered by the majestic entry of the French Overture, with the crystalline clarity of the ornaments, as it took flight even transposing an octave higher register in the ritornello.The knotty twine of the seventeenth was played with admirable precision as the first vision of the ending came into sight with the eighteenth, like a seed being planted in our minds, as we could begin to see the end in sight far in the distance. Now the gentle lilting beauty of the nineteenth ( played without repeat) as George struck up a dizzying conundrum of repeated notes.The ‘Canone alla Settima’ ( n. 21) was a deeply meditative outpouring .With the twenty-second we begin to feel the end is nigh even though the cascades of notes of the twenty-third and the gentle lyrical beauty of the twenty-fourth could hardly have prepared us for the profound aristocratic beauty of the twenty-fifth. George played these ravishing whispered confessions with glowing sounds that were never blurred but exuded a radiance of heartrending significance.

From twenty six to twenty nine all hell let loose, with streams of notes and a forward drive where even the trill like device ( that Beethoven was to copy in his Sonata op 109) had a clarity and drive that lead to the mighty added octave opening of the twenty- ninth. A brilliant outpouring of exhilaration and exuberance that found and outlet only with the opening up of the ‘chorus line’ of the Quodlibet. George allowing himself now full reign for the glorious affirmation to resound around this magnificent edifice with unrestrained glory.

The magical return of the Aria made us aware of the long journey we had travelled together.

It was the moment when the Universal Genius of Bach enriches the life of mankind forever more.

George had prepared us for this moment and struck the first whispered note of the Aria at the same moment as our hearts, that were now beating together.

An ovation for a monumental performance was greeted by a moment of frivolity where George could let his hair down with the impish antics of Papá Haydn adding some of his own hi jinx too ! ( Last movement of the sonata in C ‘ English ‘ Hob XVI/50).

George Xiaoyuan Fu at the Wigmore Hall with feats of musical trickery and mastery

George Fu his joy and exhilaration saves the day and uplifts our spirits

George Fu live stream for the Keyboard Trust from St Mary’s Perivale to Washington Arts Club

🔶 Magnificent pianist George Fu, who gave a powerful yet poignant performance of Messiaen’s monumental 𝑽𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒕 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒓 𝒍’𝑬𝒏𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝑱𝒆́𝒔𝒖𝒔, captured by the lens of Mellifluous Photography by P.I

The concert, which was organized in collaboration with The Keyboard Charitable Trust, took place on 9 October, at The Shoe Factory By Pharos Arts Foundation
as part of the 15th INTERNATIONAL PHAROS CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL

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🔷 The exquisite pianist George X Fu, who gave a dynamic but also heartwarming interpretation to the monuments Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus of the Messian, as he was stunned by the lens of her Mellifluous Photography by P.I
The concert, which was organised in collaboration with The Keyboard Charitable Trust London, took place on October 9, 2024, at The Shoe Factory By Pharos Arts Foundation as part of the 15th International Contemporary Music Festival 15th INTERNATIONAL PHAROS CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL

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George Xiaoyuan Fu

Barbican on fire with Seong Chin Cho and the LSO under Maxime Pascal with the world premiere of Donghoon Shin’s Piano Concerto commissioned by the LSO Together with world premieres of two works commissioned by the Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Composers Scheme by Omri Kochavi and Sasha Scott.

Two ten minute works of great effect but it was the thirty minute piano concerto that stole the show . A work influenced by the duel personalities of Schumann, a composer who Shin confesses to an undying love of his piano works .

In fact the opening flourishes of the concerto are reminiscent of the A minor concerto op 54 . Eric Morcombe’s famous reply to Andre Previn could be applied here except the notes are in the same order but just different, to put it mildly ! Direct quotes from the Schumann Fantasy appeared during the quieter passages of a concerto that Cho must have spent months mastering . Atmospheric opening sounds were transformed into a virtuoso cadenza obviously based on Prokofiev’s second and as Cho had shown us in this hall quite recently,were played with overwhelming daring and masterly control.

Cho visibly exhausted left the stage and was brought back by his friend Shin to share in the ovation that awaited all concerned .

An ovation as rarely seen in this hall especially for contemporary composers but above all directed at Cho who very wisely shut the piano lid to show that enough was enough and it was time to put the piano to bed.

A superb performance of the work that Boulez wrote as a memorial to Bruno Maderna filled the second half . It demonstrated the absolute mastery of the LSO players as there was a pitched battle between ten groups called to arms by the striking of gongs of varying intensity . Every strand of music, the masterly conductor Maxime Pascal told us, was a prayer dedicated to Boulez’s friend and colleague Bruno Moderna .

Seong-Jin Cho Ravelathon Pianistic perfection of transcendental radiance and ravishing beauty

I have heard Tyler many times over the past few years and his simplicity and mastery have never astounded me more than today. Complaining of a sleepless night and arriving more in beach attire than for a concert streamed worldwide, he proceeded to play with an architectural understanding and immediate sense of communication that was astonishing. A technical mastery gained from the class of Tessa Nicholson as his colleague Mark Viner can readily confirm. He presented works from the Russian school, with playing of ravishing sensibility and astonishing technical mastery. He had also commented on his attire which allowed me to chip in too, but with playing like this it really is of no importance. Yuja Wang playing the ‘Hammerklavier’ in nightclub attire with stiletto heels is one of the greatest live performances that one could wish to hear !

I had heard Tyler play the Rubinstein Sonata a month ago at the National Liberal Club, but today listening to the live stream there was a sense of line and communication that I had not noticed before. The opening movement an outpouring of melodic invention written by a teenage composer with heroic virtuosity and a pulsating energy. A beautiful tenor second subject surrounded by glistening sounds before bursting into song with youthful romantic fervour. It is easy to see where Tchaikowsky and Rachmaninov inherited their wonderful melodic invention from. A hymn like chordal Andante with playing of nostalgic sentiment of extraordinary sensitivity and with a rare tasteful sense of style of great poise never descending into sentimentality. The ‘Moderato’ March like movement with a contrapuntal twist to it’s insistent forward movement of Military style, with ornaments that clicked with twinkling brilliance of the traditional Russian dance like the last movement of Tchaikovsky’s B flat minor concerto . The last movement was a call to arms of brilliance and demanding insistence, played with dynamic drive and quite considerable technical authority. A fiendishly spindly fugato of finger twisting ingenuity lead to the triumphant ending with glorious mellifluous outpouring that we are more used to hearing from Tchaikowsky as it is obviously in the pre revolution Russian blood.

After Rubinstein, Tyler played three short pieces op 51 by his pupil Tchaikovsky. ‘Natha -valse’ was a brilliant and scintillating dance played with great dexterity and sense of style . The Andante was a tipical Tchaikowskian outpouring tinged with the unmistakable Russian dialect of sadness and nostalgia.The ‘Valse sentimentale’, with which Tyler ended this group of three from six pieces op 52 , was also tinged with beguiling flexibility and extraordinary sensibility.

It is always a surprise that Tyler not only possesses an extraordinary technical and musicianly mastery but that his imposing presence also hides his heart of gold. The Rachmaninov Second Sonata since the performances on the apparition of Horowitz in his Indian Summer, has become a classic of the concert hall and of conservatory students. The Second has now been ousted by the First ,since Kantarow showed us the golden trail that lesser mortals seemed to have lost. Tyler has an extraordinary musicianship that can devour greatly neglected works and bring them to life with the ability to see the overall shape and he is able, with his superb technical mastery, to show us the wood rather than just individual trees. It was this that struck me as the opening flourish of Rachmaninov sped into bass rumourings of great turbulence that would be transformed into mellifluous beauty. He brought a languid beauty of penetrating fluidity where the musical line was never obscured by sentimentality. Even in the most ravishingly beautiful outpourings as in the slow movement there was always a forward movement full of kaleidoscopic sounds. The Moderato con fuoco could be likened to a flower opening from the whispered murmurings of the opening gradually becoming more and more intense until the flower opening to reveal a gloriously Hollywoodian climax before the breathtaking final flourishes.

As Tyler said he is no chronometer and his programmes regularly overrun . A concert he gave a year or so ago of Czerny Studies famously finished at teatime ! But Tyler’s concerts are always such an enjoyable and exhilarating experience and even though running over time he did not need much persuading to play his grandfather’s own transcription of ‘Stardust’.

What can one say after a concert like that, except when is the next?

Known for his virtuosic programmes and witty audience interactions, Tyler Hay first showed a prodigious talent for the piano when he won the Dennis Loveland award in Kent for his performance of Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz no 1 at the age of 11. He gained a place to study at the Purcell School in 2007 where he studied under Tessa Nicholson. He has since studied with pianists such as Frank Wibaut, Gordon Fergus-Thompson and Steven Osborne. Tyler has performed programmes at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and the Purcell Room and has played Ravel’s Concerto for Left Hand Alone at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto no 2 at Symphony Hall with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, Tyler won first prize in the keyboard section of the Royal Overseas League Competition and as well as winning the RNCM’s Gold medal competition, also won first prize in the Liszt Society International Competition. Tyler won 1st prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition in November, 2022. CDs of Liszt, John Ogdon, Kalkbrenner and Field are available on Brilliant Classics and an album of virtuoso piano music by contemporary British composer Simon Proctor is also available on Navona Records.

Tyler Hay ‘Vaudeville Virtuoso’ Wit,Wonder and Wizardry at the National Liberal Club

Tyler Hay at St Mary’s Perivale ‘The Perfect Pianist comes of age ‘

Tyler Hay reaching for the stars.’From candlelight to starlight’.A masterly display of artistry and showmanship at St Martin in the Fields

Tyler Hay and David Zucchi celebrate the work of Radamés Gnattali at the Sala Brasil

A second concert in London in the same month for a young musician who has had the courage to start a concert series in his home town of Forlì dedicated to one of the most important figures in music of the last century . Guido Agosti was born and is buried in Forlì , a disciple of Busoni, the world would flock to his class in Siena every summer to be inspired and reminded of the musical values of an interpreter who is but the humble servant of the composer.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/…/homag…/

Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia in his second recital in London at St James’s Sussex Gardens began with the Sonata op 10 n 2 by Clementi . A two movement work and one of the 110 sonatas that this ‘Londoner‘ bequeathed to the world. Streams of notes of charm and beauty shaped with the ease of a master craftsman and virtuoso keyboard player. Nicolò not only played the notes with an ease and scintillating simplicity but he also imbued them with colour and beauty with above all an understanding of the overall architectural shape.

The first of Chopin’s nocturnes op 9 n.1 and 2 were played with a ravishing sense of balance where Chopin’s bel canto was shaped with poetic fantasy and beguiling freedom. In fact these five nocturnes reverberated around this noble edifice with a simple glowing beauty and subtle sense of colour . The nocturne op 37 n 1 was interrupted only by a central episode of a chorale of poignant beauty played with aristocratic poise and simplicity.The final posthumous nocturne in C minor was played with a nostalgic beauty and I was reminded that I had used it for our centennial production in Rome of Ibsen’s ‘A Dolls House’ in 1979. It has just that sense of innocent nostalgia that Nicoló captured so beautifully today.

Serenity was soon rudely interrupted by Liszt’s tragic tone poem of Hero and Leander.

The second Ballade in B minor began with the menacing waves of turbulence out of which emerges from the depths a soulful outpouring of dramatic intensity. Passionate cries were contrasted with desolate isolation as Nicoló recounted this harrowing tale with breathtaking daring as cascades of notes filled this church only to be silenced by the soulful beauty of longing and nostalgia.

A journey that Nicoló could allow to unfold with remarkable unity as breathtaking virtuosity was contrasted with decadent beauty.

Two Preludes by Debussy took us from the desolation of lonesome footsteps in the snow to the joyous Neapolitan festivities with the radiant hussle and bustle which is so much part of Capri, the jewel that shines so brilliantly in the bay of Naples .

Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia -A star in ascent in the shadow of Guido Agosti

Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia in Viterbo ‘A romantic soul laid bare with beauty and style’

Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia ‘sensibility and mastery ignite the Harold Acton Library’ including a long distance review.

Diamonds are forever at Steinways – Giuliano Tuccia for the Keyboard Trust

Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia ‘A true musician with something important to say’ from the city of the legendary Guido Agosti

The Kettner Concerts are going full sail in this period, as we approach Christmas. Mozart piano concertos with Cristian Sandrin and the ECO ensemble in three separate venues https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/11/15/mozart-reigns-in-cristian-sandrins-hands-from-twickenham-and-beyond/

Today a pre lunch recital by Giordano Buondonno followed by the Kettner Lunch with a talk by Peter Whyte about their founder Peter Boizot.

And just a few weeks ago the pianistic genius of Shunta Morimoto. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/11/01/shunta-morimoto-at-the-national-liberal-club-a-musical-genius-comes-of-age/

Giordano Buondonno is a young Ligurian born pianist who obviously had been much influenced by Michelangeli in his youth, as indeed in Italy he was revered as a God. Although his studies have brought him for the past five years or so to London, studying first at Trinity Laban with Sergio De Simone, Deniz Gelenbe and Martino Tirimo, and finishing his Masters at the Guildhall with Ronan O’Hora, Charles Owen and Noriko Ogawa. Illustrious names in the world of music,but the admiration for Michelangeli was born before he came to London, and although receiving expert advice from his mentors, that very particular sound world has remained as his goal.

Giordano’s flat fingers hitting the keys with bell like sounds of crystal clarity as well as caressing the keys when a more hazy sound was required. His brilliant technical command is also allied to a musicianship of impeccable pedigree and intelligence but his insistence on crystalline clarity can lead to a lack of warmth and orchestral colouring.

Giordano chose a programme that showed off his mastery, as six of Rachmaninov’s Études Tableaux resounded around this hall.

It is where Rachmaninov had given his last concert in Europe in 1939 before fleeing to the USA where he was to die in Beverley Hills in 1943. My old teacher Vlado Perlemuter used to love telling how Rachmaninov would come on stage looking as if he had just swallowed a knife, but the sounds he could make at the keyboard were the most sumptuous and rich that he had ever heard. Appearances can be deceptive indeed.

The étude n. 3 was played with languid nobility and etherial beauty, on a continuous wave of sumptuous timeless sounds.There was a chiselled beauty to étude n. 2 shining over a hovering accompaniment always ready to take flight. A purity of sound like drops of crystal with sounds of eery isolation. Étude n. 7 was of a languid beauty overtaken by a brooding bass of piercing clarity and a surge of sounds over the entire keyboard as the opening melodic outpouring returns ‘avec un sentiment de regret’ of ever more poignant nostalgia for the composer’s homeland. Étude n. 4 was in continual agitation with a beguiling insistance of stop and start brilliance and dynamic rhythmic drive. Étude n. 6 is the shortest and is a call to arms of noble resistence. The final étude n. 8 was a cauldron of Scriabinesque flames played with brilliance and mastery and that brought this series of ‘Tableaux’ to a scintillating end.

Debussy was a speciality of Michelangeli so it was hardly surprising to see it on the menu today! Michelangeli’s Debussy was admired by many, but also criticised by musicians that thought it too free and cold with more of a research of timbre than interpreting Debussy’s very precise instructions.

Giordano Buondonno showed us that the search for timbre could also be related to a scrupulous attention to the score with two pieces from Images Bk 1, adding the bells that were to shine so beautifully from Bk 2 .

‘Hommage a Rameau’ was played with a lazy grace of respectful nobility and he brought great contrast to the sumptuous hazy opening before the piercing clarity of the melodic line shining like a star with crystalline clarity exploding into a nobility of the brilliance of Michelangeli rather than sumptuous richness of Rubinstein. ‘Cloches a travers les feuilles’ were bells of piercing clarity shining through leaves that were washes of sound. It ended up with Giordano creating a magical atmosphere of whispered haziness. ‘Reflets dans l’eau’ was played with crystalline clarity were Giordano’s spindly fingers created waves of sound on which the melodic line could shine with piercing penetration. Remarkable playing of mastery and intelligent musicianship but, as with Michelangeli, can often be too much in the present and it is like looking at the Sistine chapel restored by the Japanese. Although one can admire the hidden details, for me it looses something of its atmosphere and mystery.

The wife of Busoni was often introduced to people as Mrs Bach- Busoni such was her husband’s fame for bringing the great organ works of Bach into the concert hall. The greatest of these transcriptions, or as Ben Westlake so rightly said, recreations, is the Chaconne, the greatest work ever written for solo violin. After which came the works for Organ in C major, D major and D minor. Busoni was an eclectic thinking musician and a great pianist, the direct descendent of Franz Liszt , but he could not help also adding too many personal things to Bach’s keyboard works that are master works in their own right.

The D minor Toccata and Fugue , like the Widor Toccata, is one of the best known works for organ. As soon as Giordano struck up the opening notes there was a knowing glance of recognition that shot around this magnificent David Lloyd George Room. There was a nobility and masterly control to Giordano’s playing with an architectural understanding that could guide us through the recitativi before the whispered magical entry of the fugue. It was here that Giordano’s superb clarity and precision unraveled Bach’s knotty twine and took us on the wondrous journey that only the master of Köln was capable of offering to the Glory of God on High.

Giordano Buondonno at the Guildhall ‘drops of crystal illuminate Milton Court’

Giordano Buondonno at the Solti Studio- Masterly performances of searing intensity

Listening to Magdalene Ho and Misha Kaploukhii playing four hands on one piano I am reminded of Rubinstein’s words ‘You cannot teach talent ………you are born with talent and you can only develop it ….you cannot learn talent.’

https://youtu.be/gex0sOR7XZ0?si=dRiFM4hftD-yCk6-

How right he was as I remember the first time I heard Magdalene competing for the Joan Chissell Schumann Prize at the Royal College. I was so overwhelmed by her playing of the 8th Novelette that whilst she was playing I wrote to her former teacher Patsy Toh ( Mrs Fou Tsong ), mesmerised by her sense of communication and self identification with the music. Fou Ts’ong was blessed with the same gift and his inspirational teaching has,like Guido Agosti, never been forgotten. Misha ,too, as a fresher his teacher Ian Jones, invited me to hear him play Rachmaninov First Concerto at Cadogan Hall. His mastery and self assurance were the seeds that four years on have given birth to one of the few pianists I could say would be capable of a modern day career. Misha has befriended Magdalene at the RCM where a reciprocal brother /sister relationship has been a two way inspiration for them both. Misha is now playing with more weight and searching musicianship whereas Magdalene has learnt that music can be a joy and inspiration when shared.

Just a few months ago Jed Distler , the renowned New York critic, composer and pianist, was staying in my house prior to the Chopin Competition which he was reporting on for Gramophone. I invited Magdalene and Misha over as Jed had been on the panel that had awarded Magdalene the Chappell Gold Medal ,and he too had been overwhelmed by her talent just as I had been a year earlier. He also awarded Misha , at the same time, the Hopkinson Smith Gold Medal .

Magdalene always a little shy at the dinner table suddenly sprang to life when Jed asked if anyone would play Shostakovich 9th, four hands with him. Thus began a musical evening of joy and brilliance.

Now we were all together around the piano – the chicken had been shared and we could get down to sharing music. It was on this occasion that Magdalene and Misha played together reading for the first time from the score the very Schubert that we heard today.

Each performance we heard today was like a great wave on which we were all carried along together. A dynamic drive and sense of communication, together with a feeling that we the audience were part of the act of discovery and creation too. A sense of informed improvisation where the notes spoke louder than words . The most extraordinary thing is that it never crossed my mind that this was four hands on one piano, such was the sense of unity with an instinctive sense of balance of mutual anticipation that created a real musical conversation.

Brahms of aristocratic nobility and Elgarian richness. There were cascades of beautiful arpeggios from Misha’s sensitive but authoritative hands as Magdalene delved deep into the soul of Brahms from below. A sumptuous outpouring of rhapsodic mellifluous playing of passionate intensity. Sounds of menace from Magdalene below with a deep pulsating bass with the improvised freedom of Misha with a melodic line lost in infinity. There was too a joyous outpouring of grandeur of glorious sumptuousness . The return of the ‘Angels’ at the end created a magic that reached even me on the other end of the line!

As Misha said, the Busoni deserves to be better known and they certainly gave a persuasive performance. From Magdalene’s bass folk melody elaborated together with busy exuberance. Capricious playfulness contrasted with long mellifluous outpourings with final bars in both of exhilarating excitement of festive frivolities.

Three of Brahms Chorale Preludes were played with an intense outpouring of weaving counterpoints as there was purity and nobility always with a glorious radiance of sound and unerring sense of balance of a united emotional commitment.

The Schubert burst onto the scene with dynamic drive but also with meticulous phrasing and sense of line. There were moments when Schubert’s divine inspiration drove these two players to heights that even they had not expected. As a knowing smile or a raised eyebrow were outwards signs that they too were listening with such sensitivity to every nuance or ravishing sound that Schubert could so miraculously compose in the last year of this short life.

The Rondo in A was played with a sense of enjoyment and ‘joie de vivre’ as they even shared a giggle or two.together over a momentarily dormant page turner. Daring to outdo each other with refined nuances of subtle beauty with a spontaneity where every note was unexpected but warmly welcomed as Magdalene reached to the top of the keyboard with a whispered vibration of a perfectly placed farewell .

We have heard some wonderful duo performances over the past few weeks including Dr Mather standing in for Viv Mclean’s indisposed partner. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/11/11/zala-and-val-kravos-take-st-marys-perivale-by-storm-with-mastery-and-inspiration/

And who could forget the Kravos brother and sister team playing their entire duo programme without the score.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/04/02/bravi-scapicchi-at-st-marys-a-piano-duo-playing-with-one-mind-and-one-heart-with-ravishing-colourrefined-brilliance-and-savagery/

Or the Italian team of Bravi and Scapicchi or the mature mastery of Tessa Uys and Ben Shoeman. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/09/02/tessa-uys-and-ben-shoeman-dreaming-of-elgar-in-the-pastoral-landscape-of-beethoven/

But today there was something rather special in the air with performances of a simplicity and mastery that as Rubinstein rightly said cannot be taught. It was a privilege to feel part of this sublime music making.

Misha Kaploukhii was born in 2002 and is an alumnus of the Moscow Gnessin College of Music. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music and is an RCM and ABRSM award holder generously supported by the Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation and Talent Unlimited studying for a Master of Performance Diploma with Prof. Ian Jones. Misha has gained inspiration from lessons and masterclasses with musicians such as Claudio Martínez Mehner, Dmitri Bashkirov, Jerome Lowenthal and Konstantin Lifschitz. He has performed with orchestras around the world including his recent debut in Cadogan Hall performing Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto. His repertoire includes a wide range of solo and chamber music. Recent prizes include the RCM Concerto Competition, won in 2022 and 2025, the Hopkinson Gold Medal at the Chappell Medal Piano Competition, both the First and Audience Prizes in the UK Sheepdrove Piano Competition and Grand Prix at the Sicily International Piano Competition.

Misha Kaploukhii mastery and clarity in Walton’s paradise where dreams become reality – updated to include the Sheepdrove Competition and graduation recital

Malaysian pianist Magdalene Ho was born in 2003 and started learning the piano at the age of four. In 2013, she began studying in the UK with Patsy Toh, at the Purcell School. In 2015, she received the ABRSM Sheila Mossman Prize and Silver Award. As part of a prize won at the PIANALE piano festival in Fulda, Germany, she released an album of Bach and Messiaen works in 2019. She was a finalist at the Düsseldorf Schumann Competition 2023 and was awarded the Joan Chissell Schumann Prize for Piano at the Royal College of Music a few months later. In September 2023, she won the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey along with receiving the Audience Prize, Young Critics’ Prize and Children’s Corner Prize. She has been studying with Dmitri Alexeev at the Royal College of Music since September 2022, where shee. is a Dasha Shenkman Scholar supported by the Gordon Calway Stone Scholarship, and by the Weir Award via the Keyboard Charitable Trust. She recently won the Chappell Gold Medal at the RCM. In 2025/26, she made her debut at the Tonhalle Zurich and with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra.

Magdalene Ho A musical genius in Paradise

The Allegro in A minor, D947 and the Rondo in A major, D951 were written in May and June 1828 respectively, and may well have been intended to form a two-movement sonata along the lines of Beethoven’s E minor Sonata Op 90. The A major Rondo was published in December 1828, less than a month after Schubert died.Schubert ‘s – Rondò in D major . D 608 has the title “Notre amitié est invariable” that could well apply to this rondò and indeed the young musicians who played today. Schubert left a large legacy of music for piano four-hands, extending as it does to some sixty works. Largely little known today, most were composed for domestic use at the ‘Schubertiads’ hosted by the composer’s Viennese friends.The  passionate Allegro in A minor, written a month after the Fantasy in F minor , and sometimes known by its posthumous title ‘Lebensstürme’ gives a clear picture of Schubert’s inner life: of a man who wrote ‘Every night when I go to bed, I hope that I may never wake again, and every morning renews my grief.’ The Allegro in A Minor, Op. 144, demonstrates his mastery at writing for one piano, four hands. This large and passionate work was composed in 1828, the year of Schubert’s death. It is written in sonata-allegro form and may have been intended as the first movement of a sonata. It was first published by Anton Diabelli in 1840 with the title Lebensstürme: Characterischeres Allegro (Life’s Storms: Characteristic Allegro). The Allegro makes extensive use of chromaticism, Neapolitan sixth chords, and contrasts of moods.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF ROBERT SCHUMANN FOR FOUR-HANDS, OP. 23

Published 1863.  Dedicated to Miss Julie Schumann.

Theme. Leise und innig. Variation 1. L’istesso Tempo. Andante molto moderato. Variation 2 Variation 3 Variation 4 Variation 5. Poco più animato. Variation 6. Allegro non troppo. Variation 7. Con moto. L’istesso tempo. Variation 8. Poco più vivo. Variation 9. Variation 10. Molto moderato, alla marcia

Johannes Brahms twice chose a theme by his friend and mentor Robert Schumann as the basis for piano variations. While the Variations op. 9 were composed for piano solo, as an exception he wrote Opus 23 for a four-hand scoring. Its tender, chorale-like theme is particularly touching and was carefully chosen by Brahms: It was among Robert Schumann’s last musical thoughts, which the composer, already tormented by severe delusions, believed he heard from the voices of angels. The Variations, composed in 1861, end with a kind of funeral march and can be understood as a wistful farewell to his deceased friend.It is a misconception that Brahms wrote a great deal of original material for piano duet.  He certainly produced skillful arrangements of his orchestral and chamber works for four hands on either one or two pianos, and the Hungarian Dances (by far his most familiar works without an opus number) are ever popular.  But these variations are not only his first publication as an original work for piano duet, but also his only work with opus number that exists only in that form.  The op. 39 Waltzes have two solo versions in addition to the duet version, and the versions of the Liebeslieder Waltzes (op 52 and op.65) for piano duet alone are rightly subordinate to the original with voices.  .  Like the earlier op.9 Schumann variation set for piano solo, this composition has deeply personal associations, not least the theme Brahms chose.  Known as Schumann’s “last musical thought,” the composer sketched it in February 1854, saying that the E-flat melody was dictated to him by angels and apparently not realizing that it closely resembled the slow movement of his recently composed Violin Concerto.  He began to write piano variations on the theme, right before his fateful jump into the Rhine on February 27.  He finished the fifth of those variations the day after his rescue.  The variations themselves remained unknown until they were published in 1939 (they have become known as the Geistervariationen or “Ghost Variations”).  Clara Schumann considered the theme itself holy.  When Brahms decided to write variations on it in 1861, Clara asked him not to reveal when the theme was composed given the stigma associated with her husband’s final years.  Brahms himself finally published the original piano theme in 1893, but without Schumann’s five variations.  Brahms’s own duet variations make the most of the four-hand medium.  Each variation is highly distinct, and by the second, the melody of the theme is already abandoned.  Thus, its return in the short coda is highly satisfying.  He does stick closely to the structure and harmony throughout, including the repeated second part.  He is also more adventurous with keys than in the contemporary (and much larger) Handel Variations  for solo piano.  Three of them are in three different minor keys (the “parallel,” the “mediant,” and the “relative” minor).  Variation 5 is in the remote B major.  He changes the 2/4 meter to 9/8 in Variation 5, 6/8 in Variation 7, and 4/4 for the last two.  The set is a sort of celebration of and formal farewell to Schumann.  Despite the funereal tone of Variation 4 and the more noble threnody of the last variation, there is never a sense of pure melancholy.  The lower part, the secondo, comes into its own starting with Variation 2 and is truly exploited in the two “funereal” variations.  There is much octave doubling between the hands of each part, but even this is not overdone.  The dedication to the Schumann daughter Julie is interesting.  She was 18 years old at the time, and it is possible Brahms had already taken a romantic interest in her.  This grew over the next several years, but Brahms never declared himself, and Julie married an Italian count in 1869.  While his infatuation was probably never more than that, her marriage contributed to a general sense of personal gloominess about his relationships and other things, which he channeled into the “Alto” Rhapsody,op.53 .  Childbearing was taxing on the sickly and delicate Julie, and she died in 1872, earlier than any of her six siblings that survived childhood.

Eleven Chorale Preludes, Op. 122, is a collection of works for organ , written in 1896, at the end of the composer’s life, immediately after the death of his beloved friend, Clara Schumann, published posthumously in 1902. They are based on verses of nine Lutheran chorales , two of them set twice, and are relatively short, compact miniatures. They were the last compositions Brahms ever wrote, composed around the time that he became aware of the cancer that would ultimately prove fatal; thus the final piece is, appropriately enough, a second setting of “O Welt, ich muß dich lassen. Six of them were transcribed for piano 4/5 8-11 by Busoni in 1902 arranges for four hands by Eusebius Mandyczewski

‘Finnländische Volksweisen’ [Finnish Folksongs] Op.27 for piano duet. Andante molto espressivo – allegretto moderato – presto 2. Andantino – tranquillo – vivace – presto

Ferrucio Busoni – pianist, composer, arranger, educator, philosopher – was born in 1866 and died a hundred years ago in 1924, making this an anniversary year. These pieces date from the late 1880s, when the composer had a post teaching the piano in Finnland. The folksongs themselves – there are six of them, three in each movement – and the manner in which Busoni employs them is far from simple: among the devices used are reharmonisations and other forms of variation, motivic and canonic reworkings, unusual textures and dramatic transitions. The idea, then, is to create a kind of tone poem in two movements and Busoni achieves an almost symphonic character in his realisation. Bartok and Kodaly (Vaughan-Williams in England) are generally considered to be pioneers in the use of folk materials in art music but Busoni is ahead of the curve here, even if this composition owes something to the potpourri tradition .