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London’s Keyboard Trust and the Arts Club of Washington Present
3pm New York/D.C., 8pm London –livestreamed from St. Mary’s Perivale, London with grateful thanks to Hugh Mather and colleagues.

https://youtu.be/Itq5M61AhqY

“An astonishing achievement…a wonderful instinct…her response to the Byronic sweep of Liszt’s imagination enthrals at every point…Klinton can find a complete world in a single quiet chord.” — BBC Music Magazine

Taneyev: Prelude and Fugue in G sharp minor Op 29

Lyadov: Prelude in B minor Op 11

Glinka/Balakirev: The Lark

Medtner: 4 Fairytales Op 54

Rachmaninov: Daisies Op 38 no 3
Lilac Op 21 no 5
Elegy Op 3 no1

Stravinsky/Agosti: The Firebird suite

An amazing journey indeed for Dinara Klinton as she took us on a nostalgic journey to her homeland.Some sumptuous sounds and a feeling of aching nostalgia as she looked back to the stories told by Taneyev,Lyadov,Glinka,Medtner,Rachmaninov and Stravinsky.As with all journeys ,especially in this last year,it was not without the unexpected.Streamed live from London to Washington there was a general breakdown of the internet in west London that meant the journey was delayed by a few hours.Thanks to the expert recording facilities at St Mary’s in Perivale,Dr Mather,Roger Nellist and their team had an unexpected change of horses but the carriage arrived safely at its destination.Not aware of these technical problems of streaming Dinara just allowed her heart to stream and stretch out to her audience worldwide with yearning nostalgia.Playing of such ravishing beauty and astonishing technical command that was quite breathtaking as she invited us on to her magic carpet to visit a world much better than the one we had left behind for this all too short journey.

The Prelude and Fugue by Taneyev that opened the programme showed off all the remarkable qualities of Dinara’s artistry.The beautifully expressive Prelude with a magical melodic line over a brooding bass.According to Dinara,in her charming introductory presentation,it is based on a Russian folk melody like the Lyadov that was to follow.Keeping her introduction short, she spiritedly suggested that her playing was much better than her talking,at least she hoped so!There was indeed a clarity to her playing of almost string quartet quality where you could follow so clearly the different layers of sound as they in turn created such sumptuous harmonies.The featherlight scale at the end of the prelude was thrown off with quite ravishing ease.She attacked the fugue with a rhythmic energy and drive that reminded me much of the world of Shostakovich that was still only on the horizon.Quite exhilarating virtuosity and a scintillating ending thrown off with the consummate ease of a true virtuoso.

Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915) was not only a virtuoso pianist but also an outstanding composer of his day.He became known as one of the best performers of his generation and brought some of the greatest piano works to Russian audiences, giving the Russian première of Brahms’ Piano Concerto in D minor. Before that, he gave the Moscow première of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, which the head of the Moscow Conservatory, Nikolai Rubinstein, had declared ‘unplayable.’He entered the Conservatory at age 9, graduating at age 15, having studied composition with Tchaikovsky and piano with Nikolai Rubinstein. After conquering Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, the composer asked him to give the Russian première’s of his Piano Concerto No. 2 and his Piano Trio in A minor and after Tchaikovsky’s death, he also gave the première of his Piano Concerto No. 3.Following Tchaikovsky’s departure from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878, Taneyev started to teach there, remaining until 1905. His students included Scriabin ,Rachmaninov,Glière and Medtner.The 1905 Revolution caused Taneyev to leave the Conservatory and resume his concert and composing career more intensely. His Prelude and Fugue in G sharp minor, Op. 29, was the only piano work that he gave an opus number. Written in 1910, the work combines his own long-standing research into early music and, at the same time, is a combination of chromaticism and polyphony that would have been unknown to Bach. The work was written in memory of his nurse, Pelageya Vasil’yevna Chizhova, who had been with the composer his entire life. He put his emotions into the melancholic Prelude and then contrasted it with a fiery Fugue. This work was one of the inspirations for Dmitri Shostakovich’s prelude and fugue compositions

The Lyadov Prelude is a hauntingly beautiful piece played with a sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to shine with a rubato that gave so much shape and meaning to this deeply nostalgic Russian melody.Bringing this short jewel to a sparkling atmospheric ending was the ideal preparation for the better known Lark by Glinka in the famous re visitation of Balakirev.Anatoly Lyadov taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1878, his pupils included Prokofiev and Myaskovsky.Consistent with his character, he was a variable but at times brilliant instructor.Lyadov’s critical comments were always precise, clear, understandable, constructive, and brief…. Stravinsky remarked that Lyadov was as strict with himself as he was with his pupils, writing with great precision and demanding fine attention to detail. Prokofiev recalled that even the most innocent musical innovations drove the conservative Lyadov crazy. “Shoving his hands in his pockets and rocking in his soft woollen shoes without heels, he would say, ‘I don’t understand why you are studying with me. Go to Richard Strauss . Go to Debussy .’ This was said in a tone that meant ‘Go to the devil!'”

The Lark by Glinka in Balakirev’s arrangement opened with an expressive recitativo commented on with arabesques of shimmering sounds before the sumptuous beauty of this haunting melody by Glinka .Some ravishing cadenzas by Balakirev just added to the magic that was being created especially when the melody returns ornamented with ever more elaborate decoration.The poco meno mosso after a scintillating pianissimo cadenza leads us to the utter simplicity of the melody punctuated by trills and ornaments creating the enchanting atmosphere of Glinka’s beautiful sad melody, The Lark which is the tenth piece from his collection of twelve songs called Farewell to St. Petersburg. Dinara showed us her wonderful sense of colour and style of an era when piano playing was also seduction of the senses long before the percussive element of the piano was to be so prominently promoted by Stravinsky and friends!

I remember being enchanted by this piece when as a schoolboy I first heard it on a piano roll played by Richard Buhlig,a pianist of the great Romantic era of piano playing.These piano rolls had been collecting dust for years before Frank Holland discovered them together with the player pianos which he lovingly restored and eventual put on display at his Piano Museum in Brentford.The BBC got wind of these marvels ,via Sidney Harrison,that included piano playing of an era that had long been forgotten with the unbelievably subtle playing of leggendary virtuosi of the past like Rosenthal,Lhevine,Levitski,Godowsky and Rachmaninov.They were broadcast late at night on the BBC third programme and were programmes that were to ignite the imagination of young aspiring musicians who were later to carry the torch for a virtuosity that was to do more with subtle sound that with speed!

4 Fairy Tales by Medtner . N.1 The birds’ tale was played with such clarity as the bird hopped from branch to branch so vividly depicted in Dinara’s performance that had many similarities to Schumann’s Prophet Bird .N.2 A rhythmic scherzo as the melodic line changed hands in a playful duet full of energy and with a melodic build up only to be interrupted by the scherzo again.N.3 A. Strangely meandering organ grinder – a brooding work leading to the beggar,with a beseechingly beautiful melodic line and a very effective ending of upward disappearing scale movement.

Nikolai Karlovich Medtner 24 December 1879] – 13 November 1951 after a period of comparative obscurity in the twenty-five years immediately after his death, he is now becoming recognized as one of the most significant Russian composers for the piano.A younger contemporary of Rachmaninov and Scriabin he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano. His works include fourteen piano sonatas , three violin sonatas , three piano concerti , a piano quintet, two works for two pianos, many shorter piano pieces, a few shorter works for violin and piano, and 108 songs including two substantial works for vocalise n. His 38 Skazki(generally known as “Fairy Tales” in English but more correctly translated as “Tales”) for piano solo contain some of his most original music.At the outbreak of the Second World War, Medtner’s income from German publishers disappeared, and during this hardship ill-health became an increasing problem. His devoted pupil Edna Iles gave him shelter in Warwickshire where he completed his Third Piano Concerto , first performed in 1944.He died at his home at Golders Green,London in 1951 and is buried alongside his brother Emil in Hendon Cemetery.

Beautiful luminous sounds in Daisy and Lilacs played with ravishing beauty and delicacy.The Elegy was achingly beautiful with a melody full of expressive longing and melancholy played with an aristocratic nobility.There was a magical central section with a tenor melody accompanied by delicate arabesques leading to a passionate outpouring of sumptuous sounds.

The piano transcription of three movements from The Firebird by Stravinsky was written by Guido Agosti in 1928 and dedicated to the memory of his teacher Busoni.A fascinating work that immediately demonstrated the astonishing brilliance and rhythmic energy of Dinara in the Danse Infernale.There was a sudden burst of melody amidst the cascades of notes with clouds of sounds played with a ravishing sense of colour.There was a magnificent sense of balance and legato playing as the sun suddenly appeared in the finale with a radiance that was breathtaking as it gradually began to shine brighter and brighter.A tour de force of transcendental piano playing but also of musical intelligence and understanding.

Guido Agosti (11 August 1901 – 2 June 1989) was an Italian pianist and piano teacher.He was born in Forlì in 1901 and studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni,Bruno Mugellini, and Filippo Ivaldi,graduating at the age 13. He studied counterpoint under Benvenuti and literature at Bologna University starting his professional career as a pianist in 1921. Although he never entirely abandoned concert-giving, nerves made it difficult for him to appear on stage,and he concentrated on teaching. He taught piano at the Venice Conservatoire and at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome . In 1947 he was appointed Professor of piano at the Accademia Chigiana Siena on the express wish of Alfredo Casella .He also taught at Weimar and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

After sharing the top prize at the 2006 Busoni Piano Competition age 18, Dinara took up a busy international concert schedule, appearing at many festivals including the “Progetto Martha Argerich” in Lugano, the Cheltenham Music Festival, the Aldeburgh Proms and “La Roque d’Antheron”. She has performed at many of the world’s major concert venues, including the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Berliner Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, New York 92Y, Cleveland Severance Hall, Tokyo Sumida Triphony Hall, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. In concerto engagements, Klinton has worked with The Philharmonia, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Svetlanov State Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Dinara combines her concert activities with her role as Assistant Piano Professor at the Royal College of Music in London. As a recording artist, Dinara has received widespread critical acclaim for her interpretations. Among many dazzling reviews, her album Liszt: Études d’exécution transcendante, S. 139, released by the German label GENUIN classics, was selected by BBC Music Magazine as Recording of the Month. Dinara’s debut album Music of Chopin and Liszt was made at the age of 16 with an American label DELOS. Her third CD is a part of renowned recording series Chopin. Complete Works on contemporary instruments, released by The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Poland. This year’s release with PianoClassic is featuring Prokofiev Complete Sonatas. Dinara’s music education started in the age of five in her native Kharkiv, Ukraine. She graduated with highest honours from Moscow Central Music School, where she studied with Valery Piassetski, and the Moscow State P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she worked with Eliso Virsaladze. Dinara completed her Master’s degree at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Dina Parakhina and became the inaugural recipient of highly prestigious RCM Benjamin Britten fellowship during her Artist Diploma course.. After that, Dinara attended masterclasses at the Lake Como Piano Academy and worked with Boris Petrushansky in Imola Piano Academy.

Dinara Klinton has been selected by London’s Keyboard Trust for their artist development programme The Keyboard Trust celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2021-22, and supports the most gifted young pianists on stages in London, New York, Mexico, Berlin, Rome, Washington, DC, and other music capitals. The Trust has presented more than 250 international pianists, historic-keyboard players, and organists in nearly 1000 concerts worldwide. With such notable musicians as Evgeny Kissin, Alfred Brendel, and the late Claudio Abbado among its trustees, this formula has proved its worth. www.keyboardtrust.org

The concert was introduced by the distinguished Russian pianist Elena Vorotko,co artistic director of the KCT.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/dinara-klinton-at-st-marys-2/

Thursday 3 June 4.00 pm 

Clementi: Sonata in F sharp minor Op 25 no 5 Piùtosto allegro con espressione-Lento e patetico-Presto

Chopin: 24 Preludes Op 28

Here’s a link to the HD version https://youtu.be/Ao-4d3wKlEI Enjoy !

Masterly playing from Alim Beisembayev.
Chopin 24 Preludes that Fou Ts’ong exclaimed were 24 problems were played today in an unforgettable performance that I have only heard the like from Sokolov.
Listening attentively to the sounds he was producing with a total mastery that was quite overwhelming.From the opening improvisatory prelude where even from the outstart his musicianly anchor in the bass allowed such freedom for the waves of sound that he was producing above.The ‘raindrop’ prelude was a true tone poem in his magical hands.The diabolical B flat minor prelude that follows was played with unbelievable control and passionate involvement.The radiance of the A flat Prelude was like the sun coming out after the passing storm.The gentle penultimate prelude was like water gushing peacefully over a stream- au bord d’une source indeed-but who would have expected a final Allegro appassionata of such overwhelming intensity.The final three great gongs of D resonating as only a great pianist could know how.
Clementi’s F sharp minor sonata was played with a luminosity of sound from the very first notes.The almost Bachian slow movement was played with an aristocratic intensity that was deeply moving and just contrasted with the mellifluous Mendelssohnian outpouring of notes that spun from Alim’s hands with an ease and joie de vivre that was pure joy to behold.

The F sharp minor Sonata is the fifth of ‘Six Sonatas for the Piano Forte; dedicated to Mrs Meyrick … Opera 25’ (entered Stationers’ Hall, 8 June 1790)—is a work where ‘his heart and soul were engaged’ to the full.Classical it maybe but is temperamentally Romantic as Horowitz has shown us in his 1989 landmark recordings of five sonatas whilst in temporary retirement from the concert stage .Clementi was born in Rome in 1752 but in 1766 an English nobleman Sir Peter Beckford was so impressed by the young Clementi’s musical talent that he negotiated with his father to take him to his estate, Stepleton House in Dorset .Beckford agreed to provide quarterly payments to sponsor the boy’s musical education until he reached the age of 21. In return, he was expected to provide musical entertainment.After which he moved to London where audiences were impressed with his playing, thus beginning one of the outstandingly successful concert pianist careers of the period.Touring Europe it was on 12 January 1782 that Mozart reported to his father: “Clementi plays well, as far as execution with the right-hand goes. His greatest strength lies in his passages in 3rds. Apart from that, he has not a kreuzer’s worth of taste or feeling – in short, he is a mere mechanic.” In a subsequent letter, he wrote: “Clementi is a charlatan, like all Italians. He marks a piece presto but plays only allegro.”However Mozart used the opening motif of Clementi’s B-flat major sonata (Op. 24, No. 2) in his overture for The Magic Flute!From 1783 he settled in London as pianist ,conductor and teacher.One of his pupils was John Field who was to be such an influence on Chopin.He entered the publishing business and the manufacturing of pianos,a flourishing business that afforded him an increasingly elegant lifestyle. As an inventor and skilled mechanic, he made important improvements in the construction of the piano, some of which have become standard in instruments to this day.In 1826 he completed his collection of keyboard studies, Gradus ad Parnassum and set off for Paris with the intention of publishing the third volume of the work simultaneously in Paris, London, and Leipzig.He founded the Philharmonic Society in London and eventually retired with his English wife and family to Evesham where he died in 1832 at the age of 80.

There was a luminosity of sound from the very first notes in Alim’s performance with such tender question and answer in the development.Very expressive – as Clementi asks:’piùtosto allegro con espressione’-but played with such style and real understanding.The very delicate ending was a mere indication of the remarkable Lento e Patetico in B minor that was to follow.This almost Bachian lament was played with a sense of colour and inner feeling that was deeply moving .The Presto that followed owes much to Scarlatti and above all Mendelssohn with its brilliance and glittering thirds that sparkled like jewels under jeux perlé playing of such radiance and shape.

Chopin wrote the 24 Preludes between 1835 and 1839, partly at Valldemossa ,where he spent the winter of 1838–39 having fled with George Sand and her children to escape the damp Paris weather.In Majorca, Chopin had a copy of Bach’s 48 and as in each of Bach’s two sets of preludes and fugues Chopin’s Op. 28 set comprises a complete cycle of the major and minor keys, albeit with a different ordering.Each of the 24 Preludes is a little tone poem but together they have an architectural form that had Fou Ts’ong exclaiming that they are 24 problems.Not only for the pure technical difficulty of many of them but for the musicianship needed to make one unified whole of what is undoubtedly the first of the masterpieces that Chopin was to pen in his brief and tormented life.I remember how difficult Vlado Perlemuter found the very first prelude that must sound like a free improvisation but at the same time have an overall architectural shape.Liszt’s transcendental studies start with a similar flourish but the difference with Chopin is that Liszt makes a flamboyant opening gesture whereas with Chopin ,right from the first notes,there is a poetic and passionate drive that takes us into the dark brooding left hand of the second prelude.Perlemuter was to record them for Nimbus and he sat down to try out the piano before recording the next day.He did not know that the microphone was on and was relieved the next day to know that it was this improvised performance that was the one he chose in the final recording!Alim found just this sense of improvisation where the deep bass notes acted as roots firmly planted in the ground that allowed the branches above to sway so naturally in the wind – this is exactly Chopin’s own description of tempo ‘rubato’.A superb sense of balance in the second prelude between the brooding bass and the pleading melodic line.There was such beauty in the final cadential phrase played with such mature sensitive musicianship- what one might call ‘aristocratic’.Often a term used to describe the interpretations of Artur Rubinstein.A feeling that there is all the time to savour the subtle harmonic colours without ever loosing sight of the overall shape and inner propulsion of the music.The fleeting swirls of the left hand in the third were a wistful accompaniment to the wonderfully simple melodic line.A featherlight ending disappearing into the infinite with just two radiant chords to finish.Aristocratic is the only word to describe the beauty of the melodic line in the E minor prelude.Just one page so pregnant with meaning brought to a sumptuous climax before dying to a whisper .The final pianissimo chords were again of quite sublime beauty and I was very impressed that someone so young could bring such meaning to a seemingly simple cadence.The mellifluous meanderings of the fifth had something of the same shape and colour that he had hinted at in the Clementi sonata.It was nice to be reminded of Agosti’s fingerings in my score to find a true left hand legato in the Lento assai that followed.In Alim’s hands the melodic line was deeply felt thanks to his superb sense of balance and architectural shaping.The gently pulsating heartbeats throughout gradually drew their last breath as they vanished into the distance with Chopin’s own indication of pedal and pianissimo so intelligently and movingly interpreted.The little Andantino was lovingly shaped before the passionate outpourings of the eighth prelude.There was a wonderful sense of shape to the melodic line with the flourishing harmonies like quick silver hovering above.The change from A to A sharp in the coda was one of those magical moments that can only happen in public performance as it did so magically today.The Largo was played with sumptuous full sound,the problem with the dotted rhythm resolved convincingly even though to my ears it came as a surprise at the beginning!The jeux perlé so beautifully spun in the tenth was a mere accompaniment to the chordal melodic line as Alim’s intelligence made absolutely clear.The vivace that follows was an outpouring of wondrous sounds achingly short but to be augmented with the same mellifluous sounds as the nineteenth later.This was just a preparation for the astonishing virtuosity of the G sharp minor gallop thrown off with a sense of shape and passionate excitement that only a true master could provide.There was magic in the air with the thirteenth played with a flexibility that was ravishing.The più lento central section was sublime in its stillness and the bell like notes in the coda were pure magic.I have never heard the final cadence played so naturally or beautifully as Alim did today before the rush of wind that blows us into the disarming simplicity of the so called ‘Raindrop’ prelude.Such subtle shaping and colour just added to the somber crescendo in the central episode played so naturally and with the same gradual build up that reminded me of the famous interpretation of Sokolov .The transition of the return of the ‘Raindrop’ melody with its subtle pungent harmonies was heartbreakingly beautiful and the gradual disappearance to the final pianissimo chord made the call to arms of the B flat minor prelude all the more startling.I was at Perlemuter’s masterclass at the Academy in London when during the era of strikes under the Heath government the lights suddenly failed while the old maestro was demonstrating this prelude.It has passed into legend that Perlemuter carried on to the end of this fiendishly difficult prelude giving a note perfect performance oblivious that it was in total darkness!Well we live in different times and strikes are all too rare but the technical perfection and absolute authority that Alim brought to this prelude was quite astonishing with or without lights!The sun suddenly appeared with the A flat prelude played with loving care and beauty.The final A flat gong notes at the end played with the same magic as Ravel’s magic garden a century later.There was operatic drama in the eighteenth played with almost Lisztian aplomb before the technically transcendental difficulty of the beautiful mellifluous nineteenth.Difficulties just did not seem to exist for Alim such was his total mastery and musicianship that carried us from the first to the last of this wonderful work .The C minor prelude used by Busoni and Rachmaninov later as the theme for their variations was played with a full rich sound where one could admire the string quartet texture of the chords arriving so wondrously to the whispered pianissimo and gradual shape of the final cadence.There was a wonderful sense of legato to the Cantabile twenty first prelude before the passionate outpouring of left hand octaves of the twenty second.The radiance of the water splashing so simply in the twenty third was just the calm before the storm.Fearlessly plunging into the final D minor prelude with a sense of excitement and forward propulsion that was breathtaking.Even managing the glissandi type scales arriving so punctually at their destination without having to to alter the driving left hand rhythm.The final three great D’s were played with a fullness of sound that was of terrifying vibrant resonance.

Alim Beisembayev was born in Kazakhstan in 1998 and started playing the piano at the age of 5. He moved to study at the Central Music School in Moscow in September 2008. After two years in Moscow, Alim moved to study at the Purcell School for Young Musicians where he was taught by Tessa Nicholson. Adding to his performing experience, Alim wins several prizes during his time at the Purcell School including the Junior Cliburn International Competition in the US. In February 2016, Alim performed at the Royal Festival Hall with the Purcell School Symphony Orchestra. In September 2016, Alim continued his studies with Tessa Nicholson at the Royal Academy of Music where he was generously supported by a full scholarship. Alim has played many solo and chamber music concerts un the UK, Spain, Kazakhstan, USA, Barbados and Italy. He also won the Jaques Samuel Intercollegiate Competition which led to his Wigmore Hall recital debut in 2018.In September 2020, Alim pursued his post-graduate studies at the Royal College of Music in London under the guidance of Vanessa Latarche and Dmitri Alexeev. He is supported by a generous ABRSM scholarship and an award from the Countess of Munster Trust.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/02/the-bells-of-st-marys-are-ringing-to-the-sounds-of-alim-beisembayev/

Tuesday 1 June 4.00 pm 

Mozart: Rondo in D K 485

Debussy: Images Book 2
1. “Cloches à travers les feuilles” (Bells through the leaves)
2. “Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut” (And the moon descends on the temple that was)
3. “Poissons d’or” (Golden fishes)

Scriabin: Sonata no.3 in F sharp minor Op 23

Albéniz: Iberia Book 3
El Albaicín / El Polo / Lavapiés

Some ravishing playing from Ariel who I have always admired in Schubert and Brahms but today the list will get even longer.A Mozart of such simplicity and purity followed by Debussy’s magical second book of Images.Ravishing and haunting as he sought out the sounds that most other pianists do not know exist.His Scriabin I have long admired for its great architectural sweep where the passionate outpourings are gradually brought to a sumptuous conclusion with a musicianship and sense of line that is rare indeed.I have spoken about it before (see below 2/11/20) His Albeniz is new to me and his infectious rhythmic energy and sumptuous palette of colour had me clicking my heels and shouting olé as he brought each of the three postcards to a loving conclusion.

Here is some information about the works he played and two reviews that I wrote just before the pandemic struck so unexpectedly.A truly memorable performance of Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto that Ariel has just recently played in the final of the Rubinstein Competition with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra where he was awarded the best Israeli performance prize.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/the-aristocratic-brahms-of-ariel-lanyi/

The Rondo K 485 was written around the same time as the Piano Concertos in A major (K. 488) and C minor (K. 491). In the course of the work, a theme from the third movement of the Piano Quartet in G minor (K. 478) is taken up and further developed. In spite of its considerable length and its musical depth the work was apparently not published during the composer’s lifetime. The dedication, “Pour Mad:selle Charlotte de W…” (the rest is indecipherable) is an enigma. No matter which lady Mozart had in mind, this rondo is today one of his best loved and most played piano works.

Debussy’s second book of Images was composed in 1907.With respect to the first series of Images, Debussy wrote to his publisher, Jacques Durand : “Without false pride, I feel that these three pieces hold together well, and that they will find their place in the literature of the piano … to the left of Schumann, or to the right of Chopin… “Cloches à travers les feuilles” was inspired by the bells in the church steeple in the village of Rahon in Jura France and was the hometown of Louis Laloy, a close friend of Debussy and also his first biographer.”Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut” (And the moon descends on the temple that was) was dedicated to Laloy and evokes images of East Asia suggested by Laloy, an expert in Chinese culture.The piece is evocative of Indonesian gamelan music, which famously influenced Debussy.”Poissons d’or” may have been inspired by an image of a golden fish in Chinese lacquer artwork or embroidery , or on a Japanese print. Other sources suggest it may have been inspired by actual goldfish swimming in a bowl.

Scriabin had been married to a young pianist, Vera Ivanovna Isaakovich, in August 1897. Having given the first performance of his Piano Concerto in Odessa, Scriabin and his wife went to Paris where he started to work on the new sonata .Scriabin is said to have called the finished work “Gothic”, evoking the impression of a ruined castle.Some years later however, he devised a different programme for this sonata entitled “States of the Soul”:First movement, Drammàtico:The soul, free and wild, thrown into the whirlpool of suffering and strife.Second movement, Allegretto:Apparent momentary and illusory respite; tired from suffering the soul wants to forget, wants to sing and flourish, in spite of everything. But the light rhythm, the fragrant harmonies are just a cover through which gleams the restless and languishing soul.Third movement, Andante:A sea of feelings, tender and sorrowful: love, sorrow, vague desires, inexplicable thoughts, illusions of a delicate dream.Finale, Presto con fuoco:From the depth of being rises the fearsome voice of creative man whose victorious song resounds triumphantly. But too weak yet to reach the acme he plunges, temporarily defeated, into the abyss of non-being.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/02/11/ariel-lanyi-the-return-of-a-star-the-sublime-schubert-of-a-master-musician/

Iberia is a suite composed between 1905 and 1909 .It is made up of four books of three pieces each.It is Albéniz’s best-known work and considered his masterpiece. It was highly praised by Debussy and Messiaen , who said: “Iberia is the wonder for the piano; it is perhaps on the highest place among the more brilliant pieces for the king of instruments”. Stylistically, this suite falls squarely in the school of Impressionism,especially in its musical evocations of Spain.Considered one of the most challenging works for the piano: “There is really nothing in Isaac Albeniz’s Iberia that a good three-handed pianist could not master, given unlimited years of practice and permission to play at half tempo. But there are few pianists thus endowed.”

Ariel Lanyi, born in 1997, began piano lessons with Lea Agmon just before his fifth birthday and made his orchestral debut at the age of 7. Since then, he has given numerous recitals in cities such as London, Paris (including Hôtel des Invalides and Radio France), Rome, Prague, Brussels, and regularly in concerts broadcast live on Israeli radio and television. He has appeared as a soloist with a variety of orchestras in the United Kingdom and Israel, including the Israel Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and has participated in festivals such as the Israel Festival, Ausseer Festsommer, Bosa Antica Festival, Miami Piano Festival, the Ravello Festival, and the Young Prague Festival. As a chamber musician, he has appeared with members (including leading members) of the Prague Philharmonia, the Czech Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Israel Philharmonic, among others. In 2020, Ariel will appear in the Marlboro Festival. Ariel was awarded first prize at the 2017 Dudley International Piano Competition following a performance of Mozart’s Concerto in C minor, K. 491 in the final round, and in 2018, he was awarded the first prize in the Grand Prix Animato in Paris.In 2012, Ariel released Romantic Profiles on LYTE records, a recital album featuring Schumann’s Carnival Scenes from Vienna, Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue on the theme B-A-C-H, Brahms’ Fantasies Op. 116, and Janacek’s Piano Sonata I.X.1905. Future projects include a recording for Linn Records. Ariel studied at the High School and Conservatory of the Jerusalem Academy of Music, in the piano class of Yuval Cohen. He also studied violin and composition, and was concertmaster of the High School and Conservatory Orchestra. He has also received extensive tuition from eminent artists such as Leon Fleisher, Robert Levin, Murray Perahia, Imogen Cooper, Leif Ove Andsnes, Steven Osborne, and the late Ivan Moravec. Currently, he studies as a full scholarship student at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne and Ian Fountain. Ariel is a recipient of the Munster Trust Mark James Star Award and the Senior Award of the Hattori Foundation.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/ariel-lanyi-at-st-marys/10155940468672309/

Tuesday May 25th 4.00 pm 

Schubert: Hungarian Melody in B minor D 817

Brahms: Intermezzo in E Op 116 no 4

Liszt: Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth S 534

Kalinnikov: Elegie in B flat minor

Blumenfeld: 5 Preludes from Op 17 :
Nos 19, 20, 21, 22, 5

Grieg: Ballade in G minor Op 24

https://youtu.be/bNELff8-uuE. Here is the high definition recording of the concert

“Astonished.ravished and amazed by Damir Durmanovic’s artistry at St Mary’s.His intelligence too combining the key relationships of the works he had chosen for his unusually stimulating programme was nothing short of genius.
An unknown Liszt of ravishing beauty and Preludes by Blumenfeld where you began to understand the influence on the youthful Horowitz – who actually never played any of his teachers works in public!……….A very exciting new star shining brightly at St Mary’s……….here he is at St James’s during the lockdown.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/damir-durmanovic-at-st-jamess-a-poet-speaks/“

It was last September during a partial lockdown that I was one of the few to venture out to St James’s Piccadilly for a lunchtime concert by a young pianist I had not heard before .I was bowled over by his interpretations of Schubert especially the ‘big’A major Sonata op posth.(his interpretation I believe is now available on CD ).Knowing his teacher Dmitri Alexeev and his masterly instinctive playing I could feel the influence but it was allied to his own very individual personal character.What can sometimes unfavourably be described as Schubert’s eternal length could have gone on forever as far as I was concerned, such was his musicianship and ability to make the music speak.Maybe Eternal could be substituted by Sublime !So I was very pleased when he applied to the Keyboard Charitable Trust and I was able to hear him again in completely different repertoire.This will be streamed live for the Keyboard Trust on 16th June at 7 pm In the conversation I had with him which is included in the live stream ,I was astounded by his profound musicianship and in particular his reference to historic performance practices and the relationship of keys in preparing programmes,his attitude to the musical profession and much else besides .All this had been stimulated by his time at Menuhin school and coming into contact with musicians such as Robert Levin and Marcel Baudet.It just proves how right Menuhin was to create a school where this sort of musical stimulation could be nurtured at an early formative age.I had spoken Dr Mather at St Mary’s about this remarkable young man and no time was lost in engaging him to substitute a pianist that for Covid quarantine reasons was not able to fulfil his engagement in his prestigious young pianists series .I was apprehensive about listening again especially as the programme Damir now produced was extremely eclectic and made me worry about the glowing words that I had shared in private with Dr Hugh Mather.I was not able to listen live either as I had a concert in Villa Torlonia in Rome with public,followed by a live stream of the final of the Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians Competition in Brussels,both with artists promoted by the Keyboard Trust.However at the crack of dawn I could not resist taking a look at the high definition stream of Damir’s concert and was relieved and excited by performances that were beyond all expectations.An exciting new talent who plays the programmes he believes in and refuses to enter the competition circus.This sort of genial talent is never easy to live with as there can be no compromise in what one passionately believes in.As Hugh says ‘he is a one-off -unique in fact.Wonderful control of sound but with programmes slightly lost on a general audience.’It is interesting to note that Damir would normally improvise between each piece with what were called in the ‘old days’ preludes.The key relationship between pieces was usually dominant to tonic.In today’s programme,as it was being streamed and the start and finish of each piece might not have been so evident,he chose to add the link only to the two that do not adhere to the key relationship which is Liszt to Kalinnikov.

The Schubert immediately showed a great sense of style and a beguiling sense of dance, tantalising in its charm with a rare sense of rubato Adding subtle ornamentation that gave great lift to these dances that can fall so flat in lesser hands.

This haunting Intermezzo from op 116 had a sense of poignant feeling of nostalgia and longing played with a sumptuous sense of colour .A ray of sunlight shone for a second before the return of the deep lament of almost unbearable inner feeling .It was all so vividly depicted in playing where every note spoke so eloquently.

Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth was quite a discovery with its opening flourishes full of such musical meaning before the melody of ravishing beauty and purity.Arabesques that were like quicksilver hovering and ornamenting the melodic line and only adding to the intensity of such a beautiful neglected work.Leslie Howard tells me it was a set piece for the Liszt competition in Utrecht but am unable to trace its origins which makes me even more intrigued by the originality of Damir’s programme .I quote Liszt expert Leslie Howard :”Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth was something of an obsession with Liszt. Started around 1841 and continuing until the last years of his life, he seems to have made three versions of the song to Lichnowsky’s poem about the cloisters on the island in the Rhine, an Élegie with a different text over the same music, four versions of it for solo piano, the second of these with an alternative reading effectively making version number five, just one version for piano duet, and versions for violin or cello and piano.This piano version is the last, and the simple song has become a nostalgic reflection upon happier times when Liszt in old age,dwelt on one of the happiest periods of his life when he and the Countess d’Agoult holidayed on the island of Nonnenwerth with their children Blandine, Cosima and Daniel in the summers of 1841–43—some of the few occasions when that extraordinary family was united.”

Vasily Kalinnikov 1866-1901 In 1892 Tchaikowsky recommended him for the position of main conductor of the Maly Theatre and later that same year to the Moscow Italian Theater. However, due to his worsening tuberculosis he had to resign from his theater appointments and move to the warmer southern clime of the Crimea He lived at Yalta for the rest of his life, and it was there that he wrote the main part of his music, including his two symphonies and the incidental music for Tolstoy’s Tsar Boris

The Elegie was written in 1894 just seven years before his early death at the age of 35.There was in fact a beseeching cry to the piece so hauntingly played with Damir’s wondrous touch that seems to have no limit to his multi coloured palette of sounds that he can extract from the piano with such fluidity and naturalness.The gently lilting dance episode had much to do with Schubert like the opening work in this fascinatingly varied recital.It was interesting to hear Damir’s preluding or improvisation from the Liszt to the Elegie being the two works in the programme that did not adhere to the tonic to dominant key relationship between the other works on the programme.Damir would normally improvise or prelude from one work to another but for clarity on this on line recital he thought it would be clearer with such unusual repertoire to have a break between pieces.

Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld 1863 -1931) was a composer,conductor and pianist .He conducted the Russian premiere of Wagner’s Tristan at the Marinsky Theatre.He was born in the Ukraine and studied at St Petersburg Conservatory.From 1918 to 1922 he was director of the Mykolayiv Lysenko Music-drama school in Kiev where Horowitz was one of his pupils. From 1922 until his death he taught at the Moscow Conservatory where amongst his pupils were Simon Barere and Maria Yudina.As a pianist, he played many of the compositions of his Russian contemporaries. His own compositions, which showed the influence of Chopin and Tchaikowsky include a symphony, numerous pieces for solo piano, an Allegro de Concert for piano and orchestra, and lieder.It is interesting to note that he was the uncle of the great pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus,teacher if Richter and many others ,and first cousin, once removed of Karol Szymanowski (Felix and Karol’s father, Stanislaw Szymanowski, were cousins).

A fascinating discovery of wonderful pieces by Blumenfeld almost totally neglected by pianists these days ,even Horowitz never programmed them.It has taken Damir to show us the wondrous colours and transcendental intricacy that are indeed influenced by Liszt,Chopin and Scriabin,but,as we were shown today,they have a ravishing voice of their own.There was haunting beauty in the first prelude where one could hear shades of Liszt’s Liebestod in the far distance.Such startling virtuosity in the second with seemless streams of gold that one can see immediately the roots of the phenomenon Horowitz.Sumptuous beauty of the tenor melody in the third with ravishingly beautiful accompaniments.Wondrous sounds with a palette of colours that most pianists these days do not know exist.This is someone who has totally understood the sense of balance and colour that can lie in this box of strings and hammers.Matthay,the renowned teacher of Myra Hess and Moura Lympany amongst many others, used to find a range of sounds on a single note from one to ten.Pianists these days seem only aware of a limited range of a maximum one to five !There was a ravishing melodic line despite the unnoticed technical difficulties in the fourth and a suave sense of rubato in the passionate melodic outpouring of the fifth. I understand that Damir is about to record the 24 preludes op 17 which will be a start to add some of Blumenfeld’s large output on CD which up until now has been almost completely ignored even by his pupil Horowitz!

Ballade in the Form of fourteen Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song in G minor Op. 24, is a large-scale work for piano and is in the form of theme and variations, the theme being the Norwegian folk song Mountain Song. Rarely played in concert these days it was one of the works played by Percy Grainger at his 1901 London debut at Steinway Hall, four years before he met Grieg, who was to become Grainger’s greatest champion.

A gentle opening full of delicacy that was to return at the close of this long journey of fourteen variations.There were some scintillating sounds of almost improvised freedom .Dance rhythms played with an irresistible sense of character and agility.The final triumphant melody was played with a great sense of line and much agility which again Damir put at the service of the music.The gentle poetic end was a fitting end to a superb recital by a ‘Master pianist’ to use Dr Mather’s own words.

As an internationally sought-after performer, Damir Durmanovic has performed in venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, Champs Hill Studios, YPF Festival Amsterdam, Wimbledon Music Festival, Renia Sofia Audotorium Madrid, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Derby Multifaith Center, Flusserei Flums, ‘Ballenlager’ Vaduz. He has won prizes in numerous international competitions including The Beethoven Intercollegiate Junior Competition in London, Adilia Alieva International Piano Competition in Geneva and Isidor Bajic International Piano Competition in Novi Sad. He has performed in masterclasses with Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Dmitri Bashkirov, Pascal Devoyon, Jacques Rouvier, Robert Levin, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Tatyana Sarkisova, and chamber ensembles such as the Emerson Quartet. Damir is also a scholar at the ‘Musikakademie Liechtestein’ and regularly participates in the courses organised by the academy. Damir began his studies at age of eight in his home country, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Maja Azabagic before continuing his studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he studied with professor Marcel Baudet. He is an ABRSM scholar and is kindly supported by the Talent Unlimited Scheme. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music in London with professor Dmitri Alexeev.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/damir-durmanovic-at-st-jamess-a-poet-speaks/

Programme:

Bach: Italian Concerto in F BWV 971 —— Andante -Presto

Bach: French Suite No.5 in G BWV 816 Allemande-Courante-Sarabande-Gavotte-Bourée-Louvre-Gigue

Feinberg-Tchaikovsky: Scherzo from Symphony No.6

Interval

Myaskovsky: Sonata No.2 in f-sharp minor, Op.13

Liszt: Sonata in B minor, S.178

What better way to start a recital than with Bach and two of his best known and much loved works.The Italian Concerto and the Fifth French suite.They were played with a clarity and subtle sense of dynamics but also with a clarity and sense of line that was remarkable.You could almost envisage the soloist and tutti in the first movement of the Italian concert where his non legato touch was very telling.It contrasted so well with the long melodic lines of the Andante and the sheer exuberance of the Presto.In fact it was this song and dance element that was so evident in the beautiful Fifth French suite.Expressive but always in style with a sense of rhythmic propulsion that was quiet exhilarating.

It is some years ago that we used to be visited in Rome, for my Euromusica series,by the Russian pianist Vladimir Leyetchkiss,a student of Neuhaus .It was he who introduced me to the numerous piano transcriptions including this by Feinberg and many others, including his own of The Rite of Spring.Nikolaeva even gave me her own transcription of the Bach D minor Toccata and fugue .It was obviously a tradition of transcriptions that needed the phenomenal technical ease of the Russian school where sound,colour and virtuosity seem to flow with such ease from their early trained fingers!Horowitz /Mussorgsky or Rachmaninov/Mendelssohn are well known to us in the west but many others are not .Hats off to Luke for playing this famous but rarely heard transcription with a clarity and rhythmic impetus of such exemplary virtuosity.The more he plays it in public he will find more colour and flexibility,but his intelligence and superb technical ability allowed him to give a scintillating if rather overlong performance.Maybe some judicious pruning might make it an ideal encore?Certainly coming after two exemplary performances of masterpieces by Bach it was difficult to enter into the mood of a Tchaikowsky transcription!

Samuil Yevgenyevich Feinberg also Samuel was born 26 May 1890 in Odessa,like many other great pianists,and died in Moscow on 22 October 1962.He was the first pianist to perform the complete The Well-Tempered Clavier in concert in the USSR.He also composed three piano concertos, a dozen piano sonatas as well as fantasias and other works for the instrument.Tatyana Nikolaeva,a fellow student of Goldenweiser,said that each of his sonatas was a “poem of life”.Feinberg has been called “A musical heir to Scriabin”who heard the young pianist play his fourth Sonata and praised it highly. He was a life-long bachelor. He lived with his brother Leonid, who was a poet and painter. He died in 1962, aged 72.

It was indeed refreshing to hear a work rarely performed in concert, as Luke had said in his conversation with Stephen Dennison.Maybe not the pinnacle of the piano repertoire,that was to follow,but nevertheless one that has many points of interest and was indeed fascinating to hear alongside an undisputed masterpiece such as Liszt’s B minor Sonata.It was obvious that both works were composed by virtuosi and it was the exclamatory opening that caught our attention in what Luke described as his lockdown recital.All works,apart from Bach that he had prepared in the long months without public concerts.This sonata is very intricate,full of Prokofiev and Shostakovich influences.A continuous outpouring of great technical difficulty dissolving to sultry melodic contemplation.Even the Dies Irae was quoted over a mumbling brooding bass and later with a scintillating accompaniment of delicate arabesques.Was it not Liszt that was inspired by the Dies Irae in his Totentanz or Rachmaninov in his Paganini Rhapsody,both the greatest virtuosi of their age.In this Sonata there was also a fugato finale (as in the Liszt Sonata) that was beautifully articulated with great clarity before ending with the Dies Irae deep in the bass.A fascinating journey that Luke had reserved for us and played with the same intelligence and sense of architectural shape that was to distinguish his performance of Liszt that followed.

Among the finest of Miaskovsky’s compositions is the pessimistic yet powerful Sonata No. 2 in F Sharp Minor, composed in 1912 and revised in 1948. Like the third and fourth sonatas it bares the composer’s inner turbulence, and its structure displays impressive formal control. The slow but forceful introduction’s rich chords establish a harmonic ambience closely related to Scriabin’s sound-world. An air of anxiety enters with the first subject. appropriately marked “Allegro affanato”, and finds relief in the contrasting beauty of the second theme. Completing the exposition is a third idea, the “Dies Irae”,which along with fragments of the first and second subjects, plays an important role in the development section, where Miaskovsky shows an impressive mastery of contrapuntal and variation techniques. After a straightforward reprise there follows an insistent, ever-accelerating fugue, based on the first subject and the “Dies Irae”. The marking “Allegro disperato” eloquently describes the concluding

Nikolai Yakovlevich Miaskovsky was born on 20 April 1881 in Novogeorgiyevsk near Warsaw and discovered while still young that the symphony was the form in which he could best express himself. His work has been called a lifelong meditation on sonata form, perhaps arising from the need to create unity out of diversity and resolution out of conflict.He wrote twenty-seven symphonies, thirteen string quartets and nine published piano sonatas.He was a musician of unshakable integrity, an introvert who attempted all his life to reconcile his inner being with his outer circumstances.He was the most respected teacher of composition in the Soviet Union (he held this position from 1921 until the end of his life) and was known as “the musical conscience of Moscow”. With an honorary Doctor of Arts, People’s Artist (1946) and recipient of two Stalin Prizes, he was one of seven composers named in the infamous Decree on Music issued in 1948 by the central Committee of the Communist Party, denounced with Shostakovich, ‘ Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shebalin, Popov and Muradeli for “formalist perversions” and “anti-democratic tendencies…alien to the Soviet people and their artistic tastes”.Already gravely ill and predisposed to reticence, Miaskovsky did not make a public confession of his “errors” but responded with his twenty-seventh symphony, a work of autumnal beauty that makes few concessions to socialist realism. Thoroughly embittered, he died in Moscow on 8 August 1950. Not long afterwards the symphony was premiered and declared the correct model for Soviet symphonism.

The Liszt Sonata in B minor was dedicated to Robert Schumann in return for Schumann’s dedication of his Fantasie op 17 to Liszt (it was Schumann’s contribution to Liszt’s effort to erect a statue to Beethoven in Bonn).A copy of the work arrived at Schumann’s house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium. Schumann’s wife Clara,an accomplished concert pianist and composer in her own right, did not perform the Sonata as she found it “merely a blind noise”.It was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854 and first performed on January 27, 1857 in Berlin by Hans von Bulow.It was attacked by the distinguished critic Hanslik who said “anyone who has heard it and finds it beautiful is beyond help”.Brahms reputedly fell asleep when Liszt performed the work in 1853.It was also criticized by the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein but drew enthusiasm from Wagner following a private performance of the piece by Karl Klindworth on April 5, 1855.Otto Gumprecht of the German newspaper Nationalzeitung referred to it as “an invitation to hissing and stomping”.It took a long time for the Sonata to become commonplace in concert repertoire, because of its technical difficulty and negative initial reception due to its status as “new” music. It is generally regarded now together with the Schumann Fantasie and Chopin Fourth Ballade to be one of the pinnacles of the Romantic repertoire

I remember André Tchaikowsky persuading his colleague Radu Lupu to spend more time at the keyboard rather than at the chess board and to learn what is one of the most musically complex works in the piano repertoire.( Radu also learnt a one off performance of André’s own concerto such was their esteem for each other).Richter played it in London and was not happy with his performance and refused to greet people in the green room afterwards.It is a work that requires a sense of orchestral colour but also of architectural shape.Being in one long movement it can so easily turn into a series of episodes some more rhetorical than others.Wagner had noted what a visionary Liszt was as he saw quite clearly a form in which themes were transformed and given new guises as the music unfolded with a programme rather than a set formula .That is why the Liszt sonata reveals not only the technical skill,colour and poetry but above the musical intelligence of an interpreter able to follow this transformation of themes with a sense of architectural shape that gives us an overall satisfying form.So it was remarkable to hear such intelligence in Luke’s performance playing with such commanding authority but also such tenderness and colour.Missing only the grand sweep and sense of abandon that can only come from playing it in public many times.Today was his first public performance and it showed a rare sensibility and intelligence – he now needs to dare and push himself to the limit as he shares that sense of magic that can only be created between performer and listener.A very evocative opening full of menace led to the great drama of the opening statements.Immediately we were made aware of the silences between these three great opening statements.Followed by a brilliance like rays of light leading to the tempestuous opening of the sonata.Gradually building up to the great octave statement dissolving so magically to the first passionate Grandioso.There was ravishing beauty in his sense of balance that allowed the ‘second subject’ to sing so beautifully ‘cantando espressivo’and there was a jeux perlé sensitivity in the arabesques that accompanied and led to the beautiful embellishments that suddenly explode into passionate outbursts of great virtuosity.After the massive rhetorical chords there was great stillness to the Andante sostenuto and quasi Adagio.I remember Richter playing this so slowly,as only he could,but I felt that Luke could have allowed himself more freedom and more sense of fantasy to contrast with the outer episodes that he played with such control and power.The end of this episode where the opening theme returns was played with aristocratic simplicity that made the eruption of the Allegro energico fugato even more surprising.It was refreshing to note in everything that Luke did that there seemed such a sparing use of the sustaining pedal that allowed for a clarity of line and detail that is often submerged and smudged.Of course the treacherous octaves at the end were played with such passionate conviction and musicianship that led so naturally to the final great climax.The gradual dissolving and the meditative ending just made one relieved that Liszt had abandoned his original thoughts of a triumphant March to the end much as Busoni had inflicted on poor Bach in the Goldberg Variations!

Originally from Wrexham in North Wales, Luke Jones started playing the piano at the age of 5 and made his debut recital at Oriel Wrecsam aged 10. Since then, he has performed in venues throughout Britain and across the globe. He has won prizes in competitions around Europe notably 2nd Prize and Mompou Prize at the prestigious Maria Canals International Piano Competition, 1st Prize at the Bromsgrove International Musicians Competition, 1st Prize in “Aci Bertoncelj” International Piano Competition, Slovenia and 1st Prize in “Section A” Chopin-Roma International Piano Competition, Italy. Luke was also awarded the RNCM Gold Medal, the college’s highest award for Performance. Furthermore, he has had broadcasts of his performances on BBC Wales Radio, S4C Television, Radio Vaticana and Telepace in Italy.He has performed with orchestras such as BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Manchester Camerata, Orchestra of the Swan and Jove Orquestra Nacional de Catalunya.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2019/10/17/luke-jones-reaching-for-the-stars/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2018/09/08/luke-jones-at-st-barnabas-perivale/

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/luke-jones-at-the-rncm-manchester/10155778052077309/

This concert is kindly supported by The Keyboard Charitable Trust. www.keyboardtrust.org The Keyboard Charitable Trust’s mission is to help young keyboard players reduce the element of chance in building a professional musical career. The Trust identifies the most talented young performers (aged 18-30) and assists their development by offering them opportunities to perform throughout the world.

Thursday May 20 4.0 pm

Chopin: Prelude in C sharp minor Op 45

Chopin: 3 Mazurkas Op 50

Chopin: Barcarolle Op 60

Chopin: 24 Preludes Op 28

Now I know that miracles do exist.
In the shadow of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome to hear such wondrous sounds from a young Chinese pianist was quite overwhelming.
Was it because it is his birthday treat or my homecoming after seven months away or is it that the Chinese and Polish souls seem to beat with the same intensity.
Fou Ts’ong ,much to everyone’s surprise won the mazurka prize at one of the very first Chopin competitions in Warsaw.The very competition that Bocheng has been selected to participate in this year.
It was in fact Ts’ong on one of his annual visits to Rome for concerts and Masterclasses who likened the works of Chopin to Chinese poetry.The soul,you see ,like COVID,knows no frontiers.

From the very first notes today one could sense there was magic in the air.
The solitary prelude in C sharp minor op 45 was played with a languid cantabile of crystal clarity on a flow of arpeggiandi of great sensitivity.A rare feeling for the style of nostalgia,aristocratic nobility with flexibility and freedom allied to great architectural shape.
He has a way of caressing the keys allowing him to produce so naturally such rich fluid sounds.
The beauty of his movements is mirrored in the sounds he produces.Delving deep into the keys like a great sculptor shaping a block of magnificent Carrara marble.A true artist is one where every facet of his being reflects his artistry.This is what we were made blissfully aware of today by Bocheng on his birthday.

Mazurkas that Schumann described as ‘canons covered in flowers’ must surely be directed to the marvel that is the last of the set of three that Bocheng played today.
A hauntingly beautiful Mazurka with the echo between the voices exploding into sumptuously rich dance rhythms.The ecstasy of the ending that simply dissolves with sublime aching nostalgia before the final beating of the drums.A real tone poem where so few words can mean so much.

The Barcarolle op 60 is surely Chopin’s most perfect work with an endless stream of song from the first to the last note.It was played with a constant flowing forward movement that sometimes Bocheng’s instinctive rubato was excessive where Chopin’s words are enough and it’s supreme simplicity and purity owe much to Mozart.
There were some magical modulations though and passionate outbursts played with sumptuous rich sounds.The cascades of notes before the final build up to the climax were played with just the ravishing beauty that had Perlemuter simply write in my score ‘paradise’.
Bocheng’s youthful passion came into it’s own at the end with a breathtaking climax with such natural care of sound and balance – to the manner born indeed.The gradual disintegration of this magical world was beautifully realised as a whole world dissolves to the final cascades of notes and the final passage that Ravel admired so much with such a subtle left hand melodic line.It was this work that Janina Fialkowska,playing at a concert dedicated to my late wife,whispered in my ear as she came off stage :‘that was Ileana’.

The 24 Preludes op 28 that FouTs’ong described as 24 problems were no such thing for Bocheng.He gave a wondrous performance of seamless sounds from the softly whispered opening flourish to the dazzling virtuosity of the sixteenth and the passionate declarations of operatic proportions of the eighteenth.The ferocious savagery of the twelfth was answered by the sublime tone poem of the so called ‘Raindrop’ Prelude .The great C minor twentieth prelude was played with a nobility of sound and an almost mystical calm that made one realise why this prelude had been used by composers as a basis for variations.There was youthful passion in the eighth after the absolute simplicity of the elegant waltz of the seventh that was to be used for the ballet Les Sylphides.Have just two notes ever had such poignant meaning as in the fourth and there was such haunting beauty in the seventeenth.
The performance was a kaleidoscope of aristocratic good taste ,brilliance,ravishing beauty and passion.
But is was above all the sublime poetry that this young Chinese pianist was able to convey that will remain with me for a long time.
Happy Birthday dear Bocheng!

I agree ! I was very moved at various points in Bocheng Wang’s recital. Some wonderful poetic playing . He is an exceptional pianist. Here is the HD link for everyone to enjoy https://youtu.be/7FbtvSrflNM. Dr Hugh Mather

Concert pianist Bocheng Wang is a scholar of the Elton John Award, Drake Calleja Trust and YAMAHA Foundation of Europe. He is also an artist of the Keyboard Charitable Trust and Talent Unlimited Foundation. Born in Lanzhou, China. Bocheng Wang first began his career by performing a celebratory concert in honour of HM The Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday, where he made a debut performing Mozart’s Concerto in D minor No.20 with the London Mozart Players in June 2016 (cond. Dominic Ellis-Peckham). In the same year, he also played the Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concerto with the Dulwich Symphony Orchestra (cond. Leigh O’Hara), and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3 with the Purcell Symphony Orchestra (cond. Robin O’Neil). In January 2020, Bocheng collaborated with the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra by performing the Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3 (cond. John Wilson).

Throughout his career so far, Bocheng has performed in many venues such as the Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, St.Martins-in-the-field and FAZIOLI Hall. He is a prizewinner in many prestigious international piano competitions, including Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarships Competition(First Prize), Croydon Concerto Competition(First Prize), Liszt International Society Piano Competition(Second prize), The “Young Pianist of the North” International Piano Competition(Third Prize), UK Open International Piano Competition(Fifth Prize) and Semifinalist at the Santander International Piano Competition. He also appeared in many international festivals such as Konzertarbeitswochen Goslar(Germany), PianoTexas(USA), Ferrara,(Italy) Oxford and Dartington(UK), as well as having many masterclasses worldwide with maestros such as Professor Dmitri Bashkirov, Arie Vardi, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Dmitri Alexeev, Pascal Rogé and Pascal Devoyon. ?Most recently, Bocheng has graduated from his Bachelor Degree with First Class Honours under professor Christopher Elton and he is currently studying his Master Degree under Professor Ian Fountain at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Bocheng has also been awarded LRAM(Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music) and he is the Founder and Artistic Director at the Pianoland Academy. Bocheng’s upcoming engagements are including performing at the Southbank Centre in London, as well as one of the participants at the prestigious XVIII Chopin International Piano Competition in 2021.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/07/07/bocheng-wangs-magnificent-rachmaninov-at-st-marys/

Tuesday May 18 4.0 pm 

Edward Leung (piano)  

Rameau: ‘Les Tendres Plaintes’ from Suite in D

Couperin: ‘Les Barricades Mystérieuses’ from Second livre de pièces de clavecin

Pachulski: Polonaise in E flat Op 5

Chopin: Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat Op 61

Granados: ‘El Amor y la muerte: Balade’ from Goyescas Op 11

Scriabin: Five Preludes Op 16

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody no 2 in C sharp minor S 244

Edward in pensive mood today with playing of sumptuous beauty and introspection.
A lament by Rameau of great delicacy with crystal clear ornaments and Couperin of unusually moving intensity.Such deep nostalgia and beautiful luminous sounds for Granados’s sultry depiction of Love and Death.Scriabin too ,five miniature preludes op 16 of whispered meditative sounds of ravishing beauty.

But it was in the little Polonaise by Pachulski, the little known contemporary of Chopin who chose the Russian rather than the Parisian escape from his homeland ,that suddenly ignited the hidden passion and sumptuous pianism of Edward.Played with a rhythmic energy and real involvement together with such rich sounds.

It was this change of character from Eusebius to Florestan that gave such shape to Chopin’s last Polonaise op 61 that he himself described as more of a fantasy than Polonaise.The opening chords were made to vibrate as they spread across the entire keyboard and he brought a beautiful cantabile to the long architectural line that brings us to the final tumultuous Polonaise ending.Here finally Edward let Florestan take over bringing this fantasy to a tumultuous ending with playing of great authority.

It was the same transcendental control and intelligence that he brought to Liszt’s most famous Hungarian Rhapsody .From the opening fanfare through the delicious traditional Hungarian dances played with a beguiling sense of delicacy and colour before the explosion of the entire orchestra in which Edward’s infallible technical command brought us to a triumphant ending.
A recital of great delicacy and passion from a pianist who puts himself at the service of music with an intelligence and technical command that is rare indeed.

Lauded as one of ’16 Incredibly Impressive Students at Princeton University’ by Business Insider , American pianist Edward Leung has performed in concert halls across North America, Europe, and Asia. Highlights of the current season include concerto performances with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra of the Swan; debuts at the Wigmore Hall and Laieszhalle in Hamburg; recitals in London, Winchester, Wiltshire, Ulverston, and Wye Valley, and a debut commercial recording with violinist Usha Kapoor for Resonus Classics. A 2019 – 2020 Live Music Now artist, he has swept all the major prizes at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, including the Piano Prize, Donohoe Gold Medal, Andrew Downes Performance Prize, Delia Hall Accompaniment Prize, Herbert Lumby Prize, and Sheila and Colina Hodge Memorial Prize. After receiving a Master of Music from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, he continues his studies in the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma programme with Pascal Nemirovski. He is gratefully supported by the Keyboard Charitable Trust.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/in-praise-of-liszt-annual-day-and-international-piano-competition-of-the-liszt-s/10155251368972309/

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/beethoven-piano-concerto-competition/10156102750557309/?fref=mentions

Tuesday May 11th 4.00 pm 

Ronan Magill (piano) 

Scarlatti: Sonata in E major K162

Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C# Major BWV 848

Beethoven: Sonata in E Op 109

Chopin: Mazurka in A minor Op 17 no 4

Liszt: ‘Vallée d’Obermann’
from Années de Pèlerinage: Suisse

What an afternoon ……..always surprises at St Mary’s and this afternoon to hear such masterly playing and hear such eloquence from a pianist …musician three times the age of the usual performers who only an extravagant past has kept him from our shores.
Now returned with playing of rare musicianship helped by a true finger legato ,so rare these days ,that allowed a rare depth of sound and profundity on Dr Mather’s fine Yamaha piano.In Dr Mather’s own words he made the piano sound like a piano of the great German tradition.

The contrasts he immediately brought to the opening Scarlatti Sonata where subtle shading ,delicacy and exhilaration all lived together in a basket of jewels that glistened and shone in his magnificent hands.

Even Bach’s C sharp major prelude was played with a jeux perlé touch that contrasted so well with the militaristic fugue.

It is in late Beethoven that men are sorted from the boys.And as Ronan himself said in his very informative introduction that having learnt the sonata when he was 19 ,at 67 he is still making new discoveries in it.
It was just this freshness of discovery that came over with such a powerful personality.From the mellifluous opening with it’s astonishing interruptions to the superb energy and quite considerable technical command of the second movement.It was in the last movement though that he managed to bring such depth of meaning with such clarity and richness of sound .The first variation already sang with a voice of such penetrating clarity without ever hardening the sound by a careful sense of balance and mature musicianship that can understand Beethoven’s true meaning .The non legato second variation that delicately dissolves into melody leading to the transcendental eruption of the third with playing of such enviable technical assurance.There was a gradual entry into the miraculous final variation where the melodic line rose above the cloud on which Beethoven places it before dissolving and returning ,full circle ,to the opening theme.This time played with even more intensity until the final chord was allowed so poignantly to add its final farewell.
As Dr Mather rightly said it was a truly profound Beethoven of a simplicity that comes from maturity and true technical mastery.

Not only was there great playing but the same profound simplicity he brought to his introductions of Chopin and Liszt.A Mazurka of ‘hope and despair’where his slight hesitation in the return of the opening theme was quite breathtaking.

His command of Liszt’s ‘introspective emotions’ in the Vallée d’Obermann was indeed overwhelming.The beauty and drama he brought to this great tone poem showed his transcendental command of the keyboard .From the opening profound rhetoric to the beseeching choir of angels through the great personality of the middle recitativo.Finally he threw all caution to the wind as he allowed the music to build in tension without any regard for the quite considerable technical difficulty.We were swept along on a great wave of passionate outpouring where Liszt’s treacherous octaves in both hands were never allowed to waver as the tempo seemed to get even more agitated.The final great rhetorical statement was played with all the dramatic emphasis of an operatic performance.
Hats off to Dr Mather and above all to Ronan Magill for a memorable afternoon .

The pianist and composer RONAN MAGILL (born Sheffield 1954) was, as a nine year old, chosen to be one of the founder pupils of the Yehudi Menuhin School. Later after a period at Ampleforth College, and on the advice of Benjamin Britten, he went to the Royal College of Music working with David Parkhouse and later John Barstow, and winning all the major prizes for piano and composition. After his Wigmore and South Bank debuts (Brahms 2 nd Concerto) in 1974, and again on Britten’s advice, he moved to Paris to study with Yvonne Lefebure at the Conservatoire, and then remained in Paris for a number of years, performing regularly both in concert and on TV and radio, and also receiving advice from Pierre Sancan, and Nikita Magaloff and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Switzerland. In 1985 Magill won ist Prize in the 1 st “Milosz Magin” International Competition for Polish Music, followed by a European tour, and then after returning to the UK , he won the 3rd British Contemporary Piano Competition which a UK tour and concerts on BBC Radio 3. In recent years Magill has been performing in the UK, USA (Rachmaninoff 3 rd Concerto) and most recently in Japan where he has been living since 2013 performing in many cities.

https://fb.watch/5nLnwFrPZm/

Julian Brocal’s musical garden was surely blessed tonight .Simplicity and humility a sound that projects what she has inside – a true box of jewels that glistened and glowed in a continual stream of ravishing sounds .Sublime.Claire de lune played in a series of gasps ,one more beautiful than the other as though she could not believe the magical creation in her hands.It led of course to the sublime ecstasy of the central episode before dissolving to a whisper ending with a perfect stream of gold.Chopin’s first nocturne op 9 was played with the same aristocratic beauty that was Rubinstein’s.There was sublime rubato in the well known op 9 n.2 and n.3 was even more beautiful than in Lhevine’s hands.Op 27 n.1 was played very slowly building up to a passionate climax before the coda full of heartbreaking nostalgia .The famous D flat nocturne was played too like the sublime tone poem it can be in the hands of a great artist.The Valse de l’adieu was thrown off with just the jeux perlé that she had brought to the nocturne op 9 n.3 allowing the bel canto embellishments to flow from her fingers like streams of gold and silver as she delved ever more deeply into the true meaning hidden in these miniature masterpieces.The mazurkas were described by Schumann as canons covered in flowers but surely today in these pieces too it was never more evident than in Maria’s hands ,the poignant deep meaning that Chopin miraculously could conjure out of this box of hammers and strings.His heart may have been taken back to his homeland but it is to France that his aristocratic bearing could allow him to describe so eloquently the nostalgia for his birthplace.The Debussy Arabesque n.2 was played as an encore with the same delicacy that she brought to the Suite Bergamasque.Such colours and sumptuous sounds of ravishing beauty that had bewitched all those that Julian had enticed into his magic garden.
https://youtu.be/x1Md7QbPPo4
Debussy Suite Bergamasque ,Arabesque n.2 ; Chopin 3 Nocturnes op 9 ,2 Nocturnes op 27 ,Nocturne op 72 n.1, Valse de l’adieu op 69 n.1

Jardin Musical Misha & Lily Maisky in Julien Brocal’s wonderful garden

Julien Brocal at the Wigmore Hall on Wings of Song

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/vive-la-france-brocal-and-bavouzet-in-london/10156288749692309/

Not to be missed Roby Lakatos ,considered by many the greatest gypsy violinist of today ,closing this wonderful series on the 27th June

Tuesday May 4th 4.00 pm 

Prokofiev of such beauty never since Rubinstein’s magical Visions Fugitives have I ever put those two words together until listening to this young man’s Cinderella suite today.
Six pieces one more beautiful and characterful than the other and far from ending with a bang there was the same magic that had ended Rachmaninov’s Corelli variations minutes before.Or the same beautiful pastoral ending to Beethoven’s most Schubertian outpouring of his sonata op 90.All from a young man as he himself declared:’ I have always studied with Russian teachers at the Purcell School with Alexeev’s wife Tatyana Sarkissova and now in Glasgow with Petras Geniusas.’
.Sing a song of sixpence indeed as he has learnt how to extract the magic from this box of strings and hammers and shape them with his own sensibility into sumptuous music.A secret that is kept locked away in a box and the key evidently only given to a special few of which Nikita is most definitely the only one I have heard for a long long time.

A memorable recital – one of the best in recent weeks. Very impressive. Here is the HD version – enjoy https://youtu.be/S6nL1gObIRQ

Beethoven: Sonata in E minor Op 90 con vivacità ma sempre con sentimento ed espressione -Non tanto mosso e molto cantabile

There was an architectural shape and sense of direction from the very first notes of Beethoven’s most mellifluous outpouring with his Sonata op 90.Opening the door to Beethoven’s final thoughts as his survey of 32 sonatas comes to a close.One of the simplest of Sonatas in just two movements to be followed by one of the most complex:op 101 or the longest :op 106 ‘Hammerklavier’ before entering the realms of glory with the final trilogy where the song of life has taken over from his conflict and strife.There was immediately a great sense of character but with an almost orchestral fullness to the sound even with the continual contrasts of very strong and rhythmic dissolving to the absolute essential outline.Of course Beethoven’s precise indications were scrupulously incorporated into a carefully orchestrated architectural line.Even in the development section there were taught rhythms and beautifully shaped lines.The melodic nature of the semi quavers was never allowed to interrupt this continual rhythmic undercurrent as it gradually disintegrates taking us back to the recapitulation so naturally.The coda was played with such masculine delicacy as it led into one of Beethoven’s most simple melodies.This almost Schubertian outpouring was played with a rhythmic buoyancy that together with Nikita’s superb sense of balance allowed one episode to grow so naturally out of another as the melody returns in a continual flow of mellifluous sounds.There was a magical duet between left and right hand before the sublime pastoral conclusion …..like water in a brook with a feeling that this was only a momentary interruption in a continual natural flow.

Rachmaninov:Variations on a theme of Corelli Op 42 Andante Theme -20 variations – Andante Coda

Variations on a Theme of Corelli op 42 by Rachmaninov was written in 1931 at his holiday home in Switzerland and was his last work for piano solo.The theme known as La Folia was used by Corelli in his Sonata op 5 n.12 but it was a theme popularly used as the basis for variations in baroque music.Liszt used it too in his Spanish Rhapsody .Rachmaninov dedicated the work to his friend and duo partner Fritz Kreisler,one of the greatest violinists of all time and with whom he famously asked where he was when he lost his way in the score during a recital.’In Carnegie Hall’,came the dour reply from Rachmaninov.My old teacher ,Vlado Perlemuter ,used to tell me that Rachmaninov appeared in public looking as though he had just swallowed a knife ,but the romantic sounds he could conjure from the piano with his two huge hands was quite unique.

Rachmaninov wrote to composer friend Nikolai Medtner, on 21 December 1931:’I’ve played the Variations about fifteen times, but of these fifteen performances only one was good. The others were sloppy. I can’t play my own compositions! And it’s so boring! Not once have I played these all in continuity. I was guided by the coughing of the audience. Whenever the coughing would increase, I would skip the next variation. Whenever there was no coughing, I would play them in proper order. In one concert, I don’t remember where – some small town – the coughing was so violent that I played only ten variations (out of 20). My best record was set in New York, where I played 18 variations. However, I hope that you will play all of them, and won’t “cough”.’Rachmaninov recorded many of his own works, but this piece wasn’t one of them.

I heard them for the first time in Siena when I remember Agosti interrupting his masterclass to be able to watch on television the first man to set foot on the moon.I remember him being astonished by this achievement as a student friend- we had skived off from the RAM together -played him these variations.Agosti not known for his generosity was overcome by the performance and that occasion of over 50 years ago has remained with me every time I hear them.Today there was an absolute purity of sound in the theme which was played with such disarming simplicity contrasting with the sumptuous sounds of the first variation with its beautiful haunting syncopations and counterpoints.There was a stillness to the second where the inner legato melodic line was commented on with great technical control by the staccato outer line leading to the capricious interruption of the Tempo di Menuetto.Hauntingly delicate comments on the solemn melodic line played by his delicate orchestra before the rhythmic energy of the fifth and sixth.The bass pedal note marked ‘laissez vibrer’ was exactly that and so rarely observed that I had to look carefully at my score.But here in Nikita we have a real interpreter who delves deeply into the scores of all that he plays.He plays with great fantasy and colour but always having scrupulously understood the composers intentions.An Adagio misterioso was played with all the impish dry humour typical of Rachmaninov and followed by a continual flow of harmonious sounds before the almost clockwork precision and clarity of the tenth variation.The ending just thrown off with ease before plunging into the hammered rhythms of the next variation but never allowing the sound to harden only enrichen it’s character.Molto marcato Rachmaninov writes for this sparse almost Prokofiev like variation before the driving rhythms leading up to the central cadenza.Even here the accents in the left hand were carefully pointed and gave such shape to what so often sounds like an empty gallop.A cadenza of wondrous colours and true magic that dissolves amidst cascading sounds leading us to the theme in the warmth of the major key .There was some glorious legato playing of ravishing beauty with Rachmaninov’s ever present shadow of nostalgia before the almost re-tuning of the sixteenth variation and the theme that comes riding in gently on horseback in the seventeenth.There was much power in the eighteenth and a gust of wind in the nineteenth as we came to the last variation of double octaves played with transcendental skill allowing even here a great sense of colour and shape.The long vibrating note of D left a cloud of sound on which floats one of Rachmaninov’s most haunting melodies before the utmost simplicity of the transformed theme …….’folia’indeed as the two final chords were barely whispered and certainly not struck at the end of this extraordinary performance

Prokofiev: 6 pieces from Cinderella Op 102

1. Waltz: Cinderella and the Prince (Вальс: Золушка и принц)
2. Cinderella’s Variation (Вариация Золушка)
3. Quarrel (Ссора)
4. Waltz: Cinderella Goes to the Ball (Вальс: отъезд Золушки на бал)
5. Pas de Chale (Па-де-шаль)
6. Amoroso

This collection of six transcriptions was the last of the three sets for piano that Prokofiev extracted from Cinderella, the other two being ten pieces (Op. 97) and three pieces (Op. 95). He wrote the ballet from 1940-44, during which time he also worked on these transcriptions, as well as other music, including parts of his opera War and Peace, the whole of his orchestral suite, The Year 1941, and the String Quartet No. 2. Along with his Ten Pieces from Romeo & Juliet, Op. 75, this collection represents the composer’s best piano transcriptions. Prokofiev arranged them in 1944 and published them the same year.

This is only the second time I have heard this suite complete although I think Richter played some of them as encores in the many memorable recitals he used to give in London in the 60’s and 70’s.I heard the complete set in Italy with a Russian protégée of Eliso Virsaladze. A fine performance but one that I could take or leave.So I was not over enthusiastic about hearing it again today.But as Joan Chissell famously said in a review of a concert by Rubinstein,the Prince of pianists : ‘Mr Rubinstein turned baubles into gems’.I have no wish to infer that Prokofiev’s Cinderella are baubles but I do mean in the wider sense that the music today was made to talk and tell a story.In Nikita’s hands it was a wondrous story indeed full of colour,imagination and a sense of line.Someone who has the ‘gift of the gab’ and that can keep you enthralled with the story he has to tell.Tomorrow I will add the score to my library but for now just recommend that you listen to this exemplary performance of a Prokofiev that can be made to SING! In the meantime I just copy these notes that may be of interest:

This collection of six pieces from Cinderella is without doubt the most substantial of the three sets. It contains not only some of the ballet’s most memorable themes but also its darker and more profound music. Many have viewed the work as a light piece, almost on the direct and generally simple level of Peter and the Wolf. Its music, however, goes far deeper in its often-thorny expressive language and complex conflicts than any of his children’s works. For example, the third piece, The Quarrel, taken from Nos. 2, Pas-du-châle) and 4, The Father, in the ballet, contrasts playful mischief at the outset with a dissonant buildup in the middle section that could well depict a bloody sword fight, rather than the nagging Cinderella’s father suffers from his second wife and her daughters. The opening piece in the set, Waltz (Cinderella and the Prince), portraying the Grand Waltz (No. 30 in the ballet), is sinister and suggests strife and anything but romance between Cinderella and the Prince. The second piece, Cinderella’s Variation, is one of the lighter items, yet even it portends anxiety in its closing moments. Taken from Cinderella’s Dance (No. 32), it is a fairly literal transcription of the music, as is generally the case here. Prokofiev rarely enlarged upon or substantially altered music he transcribed, though he often shifted sections around and rearranged their order. The fourth piece is the famous Waltz, No. 37 in the ballet, that occurs just before Midnight. It is sinister and ominous, quite effective on the piano too, but Prokofiev had to tack on an ending to it since this section in the ballet leads right into Midnight. The next piece, Pas-du-châle, is taken from music in the first act dance of the same name (No. 2) and from Duet of the Sisters with the Oranges. The mood is humorous at the outset, then turns mocking. It fits well on the piano, the color and sarcasm conveyed splendidly, with the music not landing softly on its dissonances. The final piece here is Amoroso, comprised of Cinderella’s theme, which occurs in No. 1, Introduction (and elsewhere in the ballet), a portion from No. 3 Cinderella, and from the closing number, Amoroso. This is probably the best of the six pieces, not only because it combines music from throughout the ballet, but because it captures Cinderella’s sadness and adversity at the outset, her inner beauty and love for the Prince in the latter half and her happily-ever-after triumph at the close. It is a musical depiction of her character’s growth. Prokofiev here does make a few minor changes in accommodating the music from the ballet’s Amoroso close, but the differences sound greater than they actually are, partly because of the piano’s non-sustaining sonority.

Nikita Lukinov was born in Russia in 1998. In 2005 Nikita started studying at Voronezh Central Music School with Svetlana Semenkova, an alumna of Dmitry Bashkirov. Nikita’s first success was a Grand-Prix at the 2010 International Shostakovich Piano Competition for Youth (Moscow). Nikita’s debut with a symphonic orchestra was at the age of 11. Other achievements include 1st place in the Inter-Russian piano competition for young pianists, Finalist of an International television competition for young musicians “Nutcracker”, 1st place in the Inter-Russian Concerto competition, where he performed a Chopin piano Concerto No1 op.11 with on orchestra at the age of 14. Nikita’s most recent awards include 1st place in the Inter-Russian Competition “Music Talents of Russia” (Russia, 2020), 2nd place at the Franz Liszt Center International Piano Competition (Spain, 2021).
After studying in Russia, Nikita won a full scholarship to continue his studies in London at Purcell School for Young Musicians, the oldest and one of the most prestigious specialist music school in the UK. His musicianship was cultivated by Professor Tatiana Sarkissova, a Dmitry Bashkirov’s alumna. While studying at the Purcell School Nikita had his Kings Place and Wigmore Hall debuts, he also won The Purcell School Concerto Competition. He performed Prokofiev Concerto 1 op.10 and Mozart Concerto 15 K.450 with the Purcell School Orchestra at the age of 15. Since September 2017, Nikita continues his education at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on a full scholarship with Professor Petras Geniušas. Nikita has been fortunate to gain numerous concert opportunities at prestigious venues across the UK and outside, such as St. Martin in the Fields, Wigmore Hall (London), Kings Place (London), Fazioli Hall (Italy), Vaduz Rathaussaal (Liechtenstein), The Small Hall of Moscow Conservatory, St. Petersburg Music House. He is the recipient of a personal scholarship from Voronezh’s State Government “For Outstanding Cultural Achievements”, “Russian Children’s Foundation” and an international charity foundation “New Names”, personal scholarship from the National Artist of Russia V. Ovchinnikov, scholarship from the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein, where he participated in the Intensive Music Weeks and activities offered by the Academy in 2020. In 2020 Nikita was appointed as “Emissary of the Muses of San Antonio, Texas”. Nikita is one of the musicians at the Talent Unlimited scheme (London). 2021 highlights should include participation at the “Verbier Music Festival”, “Art of the Piano” Festival in the USA and a debut recital at the Steinway Hall in London.