A fascinating programme for the very interesting season of Prof. Franco Ricci at the Tuscia University. Playing without the score Walter Fischetti held his audience enthralled as he introduced this eclectic programme of Italian operatic composers in their unusual guise as composers for the piano. Producing also sumptuous sounds always of great beauty from the hands of this distinguished Professor of Aquila Conservatory. From the ravishing beauty of Galuppi through the dance like piece of Cimarosa and the pure opera of Donizetti.There was the simple beauty of Mascagni ‘s Cavalleria arranged for piano solo by the composer.Grea\t humour too in the charming pieces that Rossini wrote in his early retirement from the opera scene. Walter included too a Ukrainian Folk tune and dedicated to all those suffering in the Ukraine
Walter Fischetti, nato a Genova, ha studiato con Remo Remoli e si è diplomato al Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi” di Torino con il massimo dei voti, lode e menzione d’onore. Si è perfezionato con Renzo Silvestri, Carlo Zecchi ed Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.Come solista, ha suonato in Italia, Svizzera, Spagna, Canada, Stati Uniti d’America e Giappone. Ha registrato per la RAI – Radio Televisione Italiana, per la Radio Vaticana, per Tokyo Suntory Hall e per K-Calgary TV. Ha inciso per Saam, MTB e per FAZIOLI (nella prestigiosa Fazioli Concert Hall).Attivo nella musica da camera, in organico al Max Bruch Trio ha inciso un LP per Titania ed è stato premiato al Concorso Internazionale di Stresa. Professore emerito di Pianoforte Principale presso il Conservatorio “A. Casella” dell’Aquila, è titolare di Perfezionamento pianistico all’AIDM di Roma. Ha tenuto numerose masterclass in Italia (Amatrice, Bolzano, Cava de’ Tirreni, Piediluco, Terni) e all’estero (Burgos, Gerusalemme, Hiroshima, Tokyo). È fondatore e docente del CORSO NAZIONALE DI DIDATTICA PIANISTICA (Corso riconosciuto dal Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca) presso la Scuola Donna Olimpia di Roma. Ha pubblicato musiche pianistiche per OSI-Orff Schulwerke Italiano, e diversi articoli per Musica+ e per Auditorium.Di lui il noto critico Erasmo Valente ha scritto tra l’altro: “Qual è la novità di questo solista? La indicheremmo in quel modo di suonare asciutto, chiuso in una esclusiva convinzione, nel cui ambito la musica trova un massimo di espansione, di respiro, di intensità vitale. Una meraviglia.”
Chopin is alive and well when played like this by Bruce Xiaoyu Liu ,winner of the Chopin International Piano Competition. A concert live from Warsaw for Chopin’s 212th birthday and dedicated to victims of the war in Ukraine. A sense of style from another age as he allowed the music to stream from his crystalline fingers with the charm and ease of a De Pachmann but the intelligence and scholarship of a Pollini.
He managed to stay on the high wire as he completely seduced us from the first notes of the impressionistic nocturne in C sharp minor leading into the charm and the delicious jeux perle of the early Rondo op 5.
A majestically whispered B flat minor Sonata so intelligently repeating only from the doppio movimento despite modern scholarly reports. A scintillating scherzo and deeply felt Funeral March disappearing in a gust of wind where Chopin’s genial invention was quite enough from this young star without any additions from lesser mortals. Two Ballades n 2 and 3 that like Zimerman before him were reborn in his beautifully supple hands.
To watch his hands mould the notes was in itself an experience of beauty as he shaped the sounds with such artistry. Three eccossaises were played with the same infectious rhythmic verve of a young Magaloff (who was one of the very few that would include them in his programmes together with the rondos).He plunged into their rustic simplicity with all the vitality of these Scottish cameos.
Dedicating the little waltz in A minor to all the children suffering in conflict as he said it was the first piece by Chopin that he had played at the age of ten.The simplicity and flexibility of a bel canto singer just summed up the supreme artistry of this young artist. He and Alexandre Kantarow are two that I would travel a long way to hear as they give hope for a future world where love and beauty without conflict is our aspired Eutopia. Gilels used to compare live performance to recorded as fresh food or tinned but the streaming from Fryderyk Concert Hall Warsaw last night or the Philharmonie de Paris last winter transcended that .Such was the magic of these two young artists that they could bewitch and seduce even long distance via the superb streaming that has come of age during the pandemic.
How could I forget the magic of the Andante spianato or the scintillating grandeur and subtle virtuosity of the Polonaise where there was no doubt of the meaning of ‘grande’ with a work that Chopin himself would have conquered the noble salons with on his arrival in Paris. I had never forgotten the very first time I heard this work and how I was bewitched as a child by a recording of Valentin Giorgiou’s playing of Chopin. It was Alexander Brailowsky though that I first heard in a live performance followed shortly after by Jan Smeterlin.But the performance of this young artist today relived this golden memory that has haunted me since my childhood. https://youtu.be/UnF-wbvRG68
Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu Recital of the Chopin Competition winner On 1 March, on Fryderyk Chopin’s 212th birthday at 7:00 p.m. CET in the National Philharmonic Concert is dedicated to victims of the war in Ukraine. Programme: Fryderyk Chopin: Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1 Rondo à la Mazur in F major, Op. 5 Ballade in F major, Op. 38 Ballade in A flat major, Op. 47 Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 35 Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante in E flat major, Op. 22
Mozart: Sonata in F K332 Allegro / Adagio / Allegro
Liszt: ‘Funérailles’ S173
Schubert/Liszt : Three song transcriptions Gretchen am Spinnrade Auf dem Wasser zu singen Die Erlkönig
Lili Boulanger: Prélude Lili Boulanger: Trois morceaux
Debussy: L’Isle Joyeuse
An intriguingly interesting programme played by Elisabeth Pion at St Mary’s this afternoon. The clarity and technical assurance of her well oiled playing allied to a natural musicality allowed her to traverse a vast span in time from Mozart through the virtually unknown de Montgeroult ,Schubert,Liszt and to the final jewel of the recital that was the French music which maybe is hardly surprising for a French Canadian. Four miniatures by Lili Boulanger that owe much to Chabrier and Debussy and a final sumptuous performance of Debussy’s L’Isle joyeuse.
Two studies from a composer born just a few years after Mozart’s birth Helene de Montgeroult’s mellifluous outpouring of Mendelssohnian grace and charm that seem to lie so well under the hand.From a collection of studies for the piano that Elisabeth shaped with such beauty and subtle colouring while the accompaniment wove it’s continuous magic web undisturbed.The second study so similar to the typical scherzo type song without words that I wonder whether she was influenced by Mendelssohn or vice versa.They showed an understanding of the keyboard and a natural simplistic technical command that was of great effect.
Mozart’s Sonata in F K.332 was played with a refreshing clarity and the ornaments that she added in the repeat just allowed her to breathe and shape with more ease having chosen rather fast tempi for the outer movements.A very espressive Adagio that could have been even simpler where the discreet ornamentation was all that was needed to allow Mozart’s sublime music to speak for itself.
There was great drama in Liszt’s tone poem Funerailles that was played with great assurance and passion.The 7th of Liszt’s 12 Harmonies poétiques et religieuses ,an elegy written in October 1849 in response to the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 by the Habsburgs.There was disarming beauty too in the ‘lagrimoso’and the treacherous left hand octaves of the military chase were played with great technical command and control.
The three Schubert songs in the masterly transcription by Liszt were played with crystalline clarity.Gretchen’s spinning wheel not faulting for a moment as it built to a tumultuous climax to disappear to a mere whisper.And the water was allowed to flow with such delicacy in Auf dem Wasser zu singen. But it was the control and real sense of drama in Die Erlkonig that took our breath away.
Lili Boulanger,the younger sister of Nadia Boulanger the great French pedagogue ,who died so tragically young in her twenties but left many compositions that her sister promoted with such dedication and genuine admiration. These particular little pieces owe much to Debussy and the last piece has all the grace of Chabrier and was played with great charm and conviction by Elisabeth Pion.
The clarity and passion together with her sense of atmosphere and drama brought Debussy’s sumptuous joyous island vividly to life bringing to an end a very interesting varied recital played with great artistry and technical command.
A curious and innovative artist, pianist Élisabeth Pion, born in 1996 in Quebec, Canada, is internationally active as a soloist, chamber musician, and artistic collaborator. Based in London, UK, Élisabeth is currently finishing the Artist Diploma program with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she is a full scholarship holder since 2018. She has previously worked in Canada with Francine Lacroix, Suzanne Goyette and André Laplante. Élisabeth was selected by Dame Imogen Cooper to take part in the Imogen Cooper Music Trust for 2021. In 2019, she was chosen to work with Christian Blackshaw during the Hellensmusic Festival . She has also played in masterclasses for, notably, Till Fellner, Stephen Hough, Boris Berman, Bernd Goetske, Claudio Martinez Mehner, Richard Goode, Paul Lewis and Robert Levin. Élisabeth has been successful in many competitions: she has notably won the 1st prize of the Thousand Islands International Piano Competition, the Prix Banque Nationale of the Prix d’Europe, the 1st prize of the Shean Piano Competition, the Silver Medal of the Musician’s Company of London and the Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize . Élisabeth was named in the CBC Palmares 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30 , and was also selected as one of the 15 Rising Stars of 2018 from the magazine La Scena Musicale. She made her BBC Radio 3 broadcast debut in 2019 in the BBC Total Immersion day celebrating Nadia and Lili Boulanger. In July 2021, she made her Wigmore Hall solo recital debut. Her upcoming performances include her debut with the Victoria Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Laval and the Orchestre classique de Montréal. She has previously been invited as a soloist with the Ensemble Sinfonia de Montréal, the Orchestre symphonique du Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, the Ensemble Volte, the Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil and Arion Orchestre Baroque. Élisabeth is scheduled to make her debut in China in the near future. Élisabeth places great value on approaching music from a holistic perspective. Her deep interests in literature, writing and Tai Chi nurture her musical practice. She has had considerable experience of interdisciplinary collaboration with artists from different backgrounds: in 2015, with the Sanchez Brothers, photographers, for a project titled The Lesson ; in 2016, with visual artist Patrick Bernatchez, as part of the exhibition Goldberg Experienced at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; in 2018, with Le Théâtre Indépendant, as musical director of the Quartett Solo production (Heiner Müller). She is also the Co-Director of the Festival Unisson in Canada, which centres on creating an immersive experience between a single listener and a musician. She is grateful for the support of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation, The Musicians’ Company Carnwath Scholarship, Help Musicians UK, the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada and Talent Unlimited UK.
A recital by Ivan Donchev tonight in the Cancelleria in Rome. Chopin and Scriabin showed his stylish elegance and strong personality that carved a clear line of ravishing sounds as he braved the high wire between tradition and scholarship just as his mentor Aldo Ciccolini had shown us for so many years.
Nowhere was it more evident than in the Chopin minute waltz thrown off with such elegant ease even the slight hesitation at the end of the first phrase was worthy of Ciccolini or even Rubinstein in its twin op 64 n 2. Ivan allowed himself such freedom at the end that Ciccolini would have approved of but Rubinstein might have lifted an eye brow as it tended more to the old tradition of De Pachmann than the scrupulous adherence to the score.
The nocturne in D flat op 27 was played with such beauty and aristocratic control that one could forgive his rather slow tempo.Such was his sense of balance that there was a radiance to the melodic line that was played with disarming simplicity with great sentiment but never sentimental.It was a vision of beauty rather than Chopin’s miniature tone poem that is every bit as expressive as the Ballades but in a much shorter space. In the nocturnes Chopin manages to say so much in such a short span as he does in the mazurkas.I did not entirely share his view of this nocturne but the magic spell he cast was of a great artist convinced as he was convincing.
The Cancelleria between Piazza Navona and Campo dei Fiori in the heart of Rome
Opening with the third scherzo Ivan immediately demonstrated his supremity as a stylist.A performance of such power and ravishing beauty but also an awareness of the overall architectural shape that I have rarely heard in the concert hall.The great chorale melody was illuminated by the streams of golden sounds that descended from on high where so often in lesser hands the delicate filigree accompaniment interrupt rather than illuminate the overall musical line.An overpoweringly convincing performance.There was room for freedom and playing of such poignancy too but never disturbing the overall architectural line of such aristocratic nobility.
I was not so convinced by the first movement of the B flat minor sonata that I found rather too dramatic and tempestuous.Surely the doppio movimento is the same whispered wind that pervades the extraordinary last movement as it pervades the whole of this masterpiece.His much less dramatic return to the opening flourish seemed more in tune with the atmosphere than his rather overstated majestic beginning.It is hinted at in the lightness of the scherzo too that I found rather too serious in Ivan’s hands.Of course the lyrical second subject of the first movement or the central episode of the scherzo was played with great beauty and a freedom of aristocratic good taste.There were some rather strange counterpoints in the Funeral March and even more so at the end of the last movement but played with such conviction that made it easily acceptable as Ivan’s personal musicianly vision.The trio of the Funeral March was played with unusually robust tone that I found very convincing in the way it created a whole rather than fragmented picture of this desolate scene.The hands ‘conversing together’ in the last movement as they create a perpetuum mobile of sounds that in Chopin’s time must have seemed quite revolutionary.Ivan tried to find some melodic line too but was a little too explicit for a movement of whispered suggested sounds of quite extraordinary genius.
Of course Scriabin found the ideal interpreter in Ivan.Ravishing sounds and a kaleidoscopic sense of colour allied to technical prowess and passionate involvement . Three studies played with sumptuous sounds and astonishing technical command.The extraordinary difficulties just disappeared as we were led through this world of wondrous sounds where the musical line was always so clear amidst the enormous technical difficulties that we were never openly made aware of. Scriabin’s Fantasie was played with demonic streams of golden sounds as we reached the sumptuous ecstasy of the ‘star’ shining with such passion and beauty in Ivan’s masterly hands.
The beauty and stillness of the Prelude in B minor by Bach- Siloti was a moving tribute that Ivan wanted to share with us in this particularly disturbing moment that we are sharing with a world frustrated by its impotence in the face of such prepotence!
The Great Gate of KievThe Cancelleria in the centre of Rome Ivan Donchev after the concert
Evie seduces Rome with a programme of scintillating Mozart,the shimmering demonic ecstasy of Scriabin and the frenzied indecent ravishment of Ravel’s La Valse. But it was the simple beauty of Grieg that charmed and seduced as only a great artist could do. The Arietta played with disarming simplicity and a Butterfly of a fleeting jeux perle of another age.
All this to help her great friend Alex Ullman who at the last minute could not be in Rome and so sent Evie to ravish and seduce us with love indeed!
Valerio Vicari with Evie
Thanks to Valerio Vicari and Roma 3 for enticing such extraordinary artists to the Eternal City where they truly belong.
After concert festivities Da Michele Pizzeria with Valerio and EvieWilliam Grant Naboré director of the International Piano Academy Lake Como – President Martha Argerich at the Danish Academy last night
Whilst Evelyne Beresovsky was seducing us in Rome https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/evelyne-berezovsky-seduction-in-rome/. Cristian Sandrin was holding the fort in Florence with his superb Beethoven Trilogy.His playing was recently compared to Lipatti and Haskill as Florence would have discovered in the Harold Acton Library yesterday thanks to Simon Gammell and his Music at the British series.
All this thanks to Noretta Conci-Leech whose 91st birthday was celebrated this week and who thanks together with her beloved husband John Leech have created a worldwide circuit of friends and colleagues offering concerts to these amazing young talents who have dedicated their youth to art ( whatever next!!)and just crave an audience to share their joy of music with.
Noretta Conci at home in London with her sister on a surprise visit for her 91st birthday
Rome and Florence were certainly blessed last night. ‘Biaciato dal sole’ one might say whilst bombs were flying elsewhere. A message of Hope and Peace launched by a Russian and Romanian on Italian soil promoted by the Keyboard Charitable Trust of London. Music has no barriers as the beautiful messages sent to me during the concert in Florence prove.
The composer/ piano technician in Florence so moved by the message hidden in the music for all those that have the ‘anima’ to feel it sent me these beautiful words.
Florence speaking to the world last night as Ghandi said ‘an eye for an eye if it does not stop we will have a world full of blind people ‘
‘La musica metafisica di Beethoven in queste sonate, è l’amore intenso che ama la musica ed i musicisti,stando insieme a loro per la vita artistica ed intima. Come una fedele compagna, ama con pazienza fino alla sublimazione del sentimento. È giovane nella gioventù, matura nella maturità, anziana nella stagione delle foglie, che un soave vento toglie dai rami dei nostri alberi guerrieri. Ho ascoltato in meditazione la prova del giovane Cristian che ora è in concerto. Il suo animo svela il sentimento di Beethoven. La melode 109,110,111,è nella vis interpretativa di Cristian e sta volando verso chi ascolta.
The beautiful Harold Acton Library
Sentire questa musica di sentimento e preghiera divina, accarezza il cuore e lo protegge dalla paura, dallo sgomento e dal profondo dolore per la maledetta guerra cominciata. Intesa l’arietta che apre un canto corale e melodico con sviluppo di armonie struggenti che nascono una nella vita dell’altra….una perpetua narrazione si muove in una potente rapsodia che tutto cambia nella speranza di ritornare in se stessa’ Michele Padovano Impossible to translate such poetry from a Florentine in the city that is the cradle of our culture.
I can only add the last words my wife uttered on stage struck down by an aneurism whilst playing Hecuba in her own theatre next to S.Peters Square.How prophetic they are!
Fascinating programme in Viterbo for the series of Prof Franco Carlo Ricci .
The distinguished pianist Alessandro De Luca with an eclectic programme of music from the first half of the 20th century .Twelve Preludes by the almost unknown Vittorio Rieti ( a vast volume written by Prof Ricci outlines his extraordinary life – his works were often commissioned and played by the duo Gold and Fitzdale) through Poulenc Five improvisations and Humoresque and Stravinsky Tango,Circus Polka and the Piano rag music (commissioned by Artur Rubinstein who then refused to play it as he refused to accept Stravinsky’s insistence that the piano was only a percussion instrument.Later though Stravinsky dedicated to him the piano version of Petrushka).
Gershwin’s own arrangements of two of his most popular songs: ‘The Man I love’ and ‘I got rhythm’ brought this extraordinarily interesting programme to a scintillating conclusion. No score or I pad to be seen from a master pianist who has obviously lived with and loved these very rarely heard works for a lifetime.
Vittorio Rieti (January 28, 1898 – February 19, 1994) was born in Alexandria in Egypt but moved to Milan to study economics. He subsequently studied in Rome under Respighi and Casella, and lived there until 1940.In 1925, he temporarily moved to Paris and composed music for Balanchine’s ballet for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes : Barabau.He emigrated to the United States in 1940, becoming a naturalized American citizen on the 1st of June 1944. He taught at the Peabody Conservatory 1948–49), Chicago Musical College (1950–54), Queens College, New York (1958–60), and New York College ofMusic (1960–64). He died in New York on 19 February 1994.
An evening of music and poetry to celebrate not only the last day of the New Year Festivities but also the Lantern Festival and above all Valentine’s Day.What better way to begin than with two very fine pianists opening the evening with Elgar’s Salut d’Amour particularly suited to the noble surroundings of the National Liberal Club –
Salut d’Amour open on the NLC ‘s magnificent Steinway concert grand
Shirley Wu went on to play Liszt’s famous Liebestraum and the Sonata in D minor K 213 by Scarlatti known as ‘The Lover’.Beautifully played and presented by this young Canadian pianist about to travel back to Canada taking with her a Master degree from the Royal College of Music.
Shirley Wu
A beautifully atmospheric work ‘Dui Hua’ by An -Lun Huang was played with a wonderful sense of style and colour and her charming introduction to this evening dedicated to love was very touching.
Yuanfan Yang
Yuanfan Yang played the opening movement of Mozart Sonata in C K 330 with remarkable clarity and superb sense of style.The four preludes op 28 by Chopin were played with the same beauty and technical mastery that was so memorable recently from a performance he gave on his Italian tour on Ischia. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2021/09/06/yuanfan-yang-in-paradise/.
Yuanfan asking for any suggestions for his improvisations
Of course Yuanfan then astounded everyone with his improvisations.Asking the audience for a melody they would like him to elaborate on and to also tell him what style they would like him to play in! ‘The man I love’ was heard to come from the back in the style of Beethoven.Followed by a rather eclectic request of ‘Air on a G string’ in the style of John Rutter.But it was ‘Three blind mice’ combined with ‘Danny Boy’ in the style of Strauss and Tchaikowsky that brought the house down and an ovation for this remarkably talented young man.
Seated at the piano again with Shirley Wu they played together a beautiful rendition of Jasmine Flower/Mo Li Hua arranged by Xiaoping Luo that for us from the west is the tune that Puccini uses in his opera Turandot.Yuanfan Yang was then asked to improvise on Jasmine Flower and play it in a rousing ending that included Swan Lake by Tchaikowsky too!
A beautiful poem about love read by Marianna Cherry
Two beautiful love poems too read by friends of our indomitable hostess Yisha Xue added a magic touch to a memorable evening.
James Brown
What more beautiful words could there be than these.Beautifully read by James Brown the distinguished friend of Yisha Xue:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.’ from I wandered lonely as a cloud ‘ by William Wordsworth
‘
Shirley Wu – Yisha Xue – Yuanfan Yang Friends of Yisha Xue celebrating the Year of the Tiger
Very distinguished audience for Leslie Howard’s stimulating Masterclass at the RCM. Many students of Ilya Kondratiev present and making copious notes with their ‘Apple’pencils.
Vitaly Pisarenko,Sasha Grynyuk,Ilya Kondratiev and Leslie Howard himself all happy to see their ninety year old ‘piano mummy ‘ listening carefully to everything that was said and played.
Noretta Conci-Leech founder of the Keyboard Charitable Trust of which Leslie is one of the founding trustees and artistic director,she has a lot to answer for!
Noretta Conci-Leech with Sasha Grynyuk
Leslie beguiling his predominantly Chinese audience with his down to earth way of expressing his extraordinary scholarship and mastery of the piano.To hear him describe Glinka’s magical ‘The lark’ as a tree with tinsel but a tree with solid roots was so refreshingly simple and surely recalls Chopin’s own description of that elusive much abused word ‘rubato’. Anton Rubinstein described the pedal as the soul of the piano as Leslie knows well having made a premiere recording of his four sonatas adding even more neglected masterpieces to the catalogue together of course with his 100 cd set of the works of Liszt. And it was the pedal and scrupulous attention to the original intentions of the composer that was the valuable message we were reminded of today.
Phoebe Liu played a scintillating Liszt Tarantella -no mean feat at 10 am!
And Antonio Morabito played six studies op 25 by Chopin with the others tucked up his sleeve for another occasion.As Leslie said you need courage to play this pivotal work in front of your colleagues.Rising to the occasion this young man with a degree in philosophy showed just what it means to dedicate yourself not only to art.
Maestro Winnicki played The Lark by Glinka and Rachmaninov’s rousing Etude Tableau op 39 n 9. And rousing it was too on this very bright Fazioli in one of the nicest halls in London with our wonderful hostess Vanessa Latarche.
Ever vigilant as she brings students worldwide to the Royal College to be filled with the scholarly musicianship and technical expertise of which we had a glowing example this morning
Some very musicianly playing from this young French pianist that I was able to listen to thanks again to the very fine streaming from St James’s Piccadilly.Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in F sharp book 1 was played with such flowing mellifluous sounds of an almost pastoral nature.Delicate ornamentation just added to the beauty and overall shape.The same atmosphere carried over into the three part fugue that was played with a clarity but also a sense of continuous flowing movement where even the entry of the voices did not disturb the gentle nature of this beautiful fugue.
It was the same atmosphere that he brought to the Sonata op 90 by Beethoven but of course interrupted by Beethoven’s rumbustuous character in the first movement.Great contrasts and scrupulous attention to detail but even here there was a sense of of overall architectural shape and forward movement.This the most Schubertian of Beethoven’s sonatas where the last movement is a continuous outpouring of melodic invention that Louis- Victor Bak played with great sensitivity never allowing the rhythmic pulse to vary. The melodic line always allowed to breathe though in such a refreshing natural way.I am not sure I would have changed the tempo just before the final return of the main theme but it led to a coda of disarming simplicity and beauty.
Thierry Escaich is a composer organist and improviser born in 1965 and is a unique figure in contemporary music and one of the most important French composers of his generation. The three elements of Escaich’s artistry are inseparable, allowing him to express himself as a performer, creator and collaborator in a wide range of settings.Jeux de doubles was written in 2001 and is a virtuoso piece in various episodes from the magical sounds and long held pedals of the opening to the ostinato bass over which toccata like chords are played with great virtuosity over the entire keyboard leading to ever more exciting and exacting figurations.It was a piece that showed off all the extraordinary facets of this young pianists technical and musical mastery.
The three pieces that make up Debussy’s first book of Images were played with a kaleidoscopic sense of colour but also great romantic fervour in Reflets dans l’eau dissolving into a mere murmur of such magical sounds.Hommage à Rameau was played in an almost improvised way such was the freedom and magic that he managed to convey in this most aristocratic of the six images.Movements was played with startling changes of colour in which the continual forward movement was never interrupted but sumptuous colours appeared like magic out of the mist that he had created with great technical skill of precision and delicacy.The ending was just allowed to diminish to a mere distant cloud but never for one moment disturbing the continual urgency and all embracing mist that he had created.
Liszt’s transcendental study in F minor was played with great sensitivity and passion.One of the most subtle of the 12 Transcendental studies for its gentle opening working itself up into passionate outbursts of romantic fervour.A coda of such excitement too was played with great technical assurance and like all the works he played a musical intelligence and sensitivity allied to a technical command that brought everything he played vividly to life.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 