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Such a busy week in the sweltering heat of Rome that only now can I listen to the recital streamed live from Perivale.

I had asked Umberto and Hugh Mather if they could leave it on line for a few days to give me a chance to catch up.

Whilst Umberto was playing in London his teacher from the Accademia di S.Cecilia in Rome,Benedetto Lupo, was holding his recital diploma final recitals.

Umberto did this last year whilst he was also studying for a Doctorate in Busoni at the Royal Academy in London.

I had heard Umberto play for the University in Rome a programme dedicated to Italian piano music.Some of which we heard today in Perivale https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/umberto-jacopo-laureti-at-rome-3-university/10156402485297309/

Some great piano playing from the final diploma concerts of the class of Benedetto Lupo for the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Nice to see Andrea Padova as one of the judges.

Some very fine playing from 20 year old Francesco Granata His beautifully relaxed arms and agile fingers brought the two Scarlatti sonatas to life with some magical phrasing and dynamics.

Strange fingering in the B minor but what enjoyment he was transmitting.

Schumann Carnaval and above all Mussorgsky “Pictures” showed of his beautifully wide ranging sound palette.

Always beautiful sounds due to his completely natural technical mastery.

As he matures he will allow the music to speak more naturally and simply and not feel he has to “do things”as Brendel would say.

Matteo Londero at 30 has a more mature musicianship.

Some very solid playing with some really sumptuous colours in Prokofiev 2nd Sonata.
Some beautiful things in the Schumann 8th Novelette but I would have not have stopped after each section but tried to join as one .

Not having the same flexibility as Granata but some very refined serious musicianship.He also brought great weight to his “Waldstein” sonata.

Axel Trolese had both the flexibility of Granata and the solid musicianship of Londero.
He also had that sense of fantasy that allowed him to whisper and roar when needed.

Just what was needed for the beautiful opening of Beethoven`s op 27 n.1 …..the poor relation of the so called “Moonlight”‘.
Here it was treated as the great work it was in the hands of Arrau or Cherkassky.

Beautifully played the three pieces that make up Albeniz Iberia.

A great sense of balance and delicacy allied to a rhythmic precision which is so essential in these evocative tone poems.

I have heard his Chopin B minor Sonata a month ago in Benedetto’s class concert and Axel rose to the occasion today and was awarded the highest honours.

Speaking to Costanza Principe afterwards I told her about Axels Chopin and how I hoped he might slow it down a bit.

“Lucky him who can play so well” was her just reply.

The set pieces by Fabio Vacchi played with the score showed off the digital and fantasy of each pianist.

Crisp and clean from Granata,more.cerebral and deep from Londero and full of colour and fantasy from Axel.

Three full recitals from very fine pianists endowed with the musical values that Benedetto Lupo has so generously shared in their time together at the Accademia in Rome.

Interesting to note how the PR boys deal with Genius.

A programme full of Vogue model type fotos but in reality it was the same distracted genius of yore.

It cannot be easy to live with genius which is consuming you alive.

Such is Trifonov as he has been I imagine from his very early youth.

I remember meeting Trifonov at his 21st birthday party after he had just played Rachmaninov 1st Piano concerto at the Festival Hall on the same Fazioli piano that he used today.

The problem was that whilst at the rehearsal everything sounded well, with the notorious acoustic of the RFH the sound did not seem to reach into the crevaces of which there are many.

The audience were kept waiting whilst urgent discussions were in progress.

The concert of course was a great success but the audience at home got a better picture from listening on the radio than a lot of us got in the hall.

A beautiful private party afterwards where we were seated around a table of some 30 people.

Trifonov was very silent, quietly enjoying the party that his wonderful benefactress had arranged for him .

I was seated next to a man who was preparing a video about this young man long before he became world famous.

I seemed to recognise his voice although we had not been introduced.

It turned out to be Christopher Nupen who had made all those wonderful films years before about Ashkenazy,Barenboim,Jaqueline Dupre and many others in that truly golden era in London.

Our hostess announced that Danil had to leave early as he had to catch an early flight to his next destination.

I left at the same time together with Christopher and I just casually asked Danil what he thought of the piano.

Talk about a red rag to the bull.

He kept us in the street for two hours talking passionately about the piano and the music in a stream of breathless words with the passion of a man possessed.

He had been quietly waiting for an opportunity to talk about his passion,his life blood- Music.

I remember our hostess telling us off for keeping his taxi waiting and stopping him from getting an early night!

Christopher had written to our hostess to ask who I was “who was that man with a ‘shock ‘ of white hair “.

He was most amused when I quoted his words to him in an E mail correspondence later!

All this to say that it was the same Danil who appeared before us last night.

Crumpled suit ,towseled hair,tie skew- whiff – but his passion for music still intact.

He looked tired.

Consumed no doubt by his own passionate total dedication to music.

And it was the music that he shared with us last night.

Breathless,disordered,desperate,passionate.Genius does not always come lightly .

There is always the element of hit and miss in a constant voyage of discovery- of possibility.

Richter too had this superhuman self consuming talent that was ignited the moment he reached the keyboard.

He threw himself at the piano just as Trifonov did tonight.

Fou Ts’ong is the only other person I have met who was totally consumed and dedicated to music in this way.

He mused with himself in an almost private conversation in which it was the music not he that counted.

It is not always pleasant and can sometimes seem out of control and disorderly.

But as Gilels used to say about recording in comparison to live performance that it is the difference between canned or fresh food.

A programme that could have been played without a break such was his communion with the instrument once
he had arrived at its feet.

The Andante Favori led without a break into the Sonata op 31 n.3 .

It was a Beethoven both beautiful and bewitched.

It was a continual voyage of discovery which of course missed the very backbone of the work.

But what did it matter these were new eyes and ears searching desperately for the substance that was within.

It was not easy to accept – was Richter’s Appassionata?

But you could not take your eyes off it ‘s remarkable meanderings.

Bunte Blatter op 99 by Schumann were down as a selection but tonight he chose to play all twelve pieces .This too leading without a break into the Presto Passionato op 22.

It is interesting to note, and I am sure it is not just by chance, that the two rejected movements were included in tonight’s programme Andante Favori was to be the slow movement of the Waldstein Sonata as the Presto Passionatao was to be the final of the G minor Sonata.

Nothing is down to chance with a musician with such a searching mind.

The Bunte Blatter were both extremely beautiful and extremely dispersive.

The search was on and I must say on this occasion I did not think he had found the link that could bind these “Coloured Leaves” together.

Some wonderful subtle colouring and some gigantic plunges into an ocean of sound but some meandering without a strict sense of pulse and direction.

Talk about technical perfection or colour or sound is superfluous.This was a man who had thrown himself into the ocean and was swimming his way to survival.

Sink or swim indeed.

A first half that lasted almost 90 minutes !

He was not at all exhausted but we certainly were.

But then we are not superhuman.

After the interval came a remarkable performance of Prokofiev’s 8th Sonata.

It was as though the other works had been leading up to this performance.

I would have preferred a more sumptuous sound especially at the seductive opening. Gilels gave the first performance so I could just imagine that creamy rich sound.

More bite ,more edge ,more backbone .

But who am I to say.

This was a man creating the work afresh on the spot.

A work that Sviatoslav Richter described as a tree heavy with fruit.

Such sensous sounds and subtle colours not because he was seraching for them but because the music was speaking directly to him and he transmitting them to us.

Je joue,je ecoute je trasmet indeed.

The Vocalise was the single encore offered to an audience on their feet shouting for more.

He looked tired now and probably had not even realised himself the marathon that he had run this evening.

A unique artist.

Not always pleasant to listen to.

But someone who brings a breath of fresh air into what is fast becoming a rather artificial world of perfectly reproduced performances.

Like the piano in Steinways that you press a button and you can have any number of great pianists playing in your living room.

Press it again and it will repeat exactly the same.

With Trifonov that could never be.

After his superb recital for the City Music Foundation last month at St Bartholemew the Great in Smithfields https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/presenting-the-impeccable-maestro-valuntonis/10156459912307309/

Just a month later we were able to hear him in another of the great churches in the centre of London that dedicate themselves also to classical music :St Andrew Holborn.

Playing the great warhorse that Nikolai Rubinstein had declared worthless and unplayable.

Tchaikowsky deeply offended refused to change a note.

It was Hans von Bulow to whom Tchaikowsky dedicated the score and who gave the first performance in Boston in 1875 of a work that he described :” The ideas are so original,so noble,so powerful.The details so interesting;though there are many of them ,they do not impair the clearness and unity of the work .The form is mature,ripe,and distinguished in style.”

Bulow sent what is thought to be the first cable ever dispatched from Boston to Moscow telling Tchaikowsky of the concerto’s undisputed triumph with the Boston public.

The superb programme notes had me wanting to know more about this concerto that I have heard all my life.

From the very first performance with Jerome Rose at the Albert Hall on their Tchaikowsky nights to Rokas Valuntonis and Alice Sarah Ott’s performances this week.

Via such notable performances by Byron Janis,Artur Rubinstein,Beatrice Rana,Shura Cherkassky,Van Cliburn,Martha Argerich,Peter Katin,Yuja Wang but above all Clifford Curzon………………

The first performance of the original version took place on October 25, 1875, in Boston, conducted by Benjamin Johnson Lang and with Bülow as soloist. Bülow had initially engaged a different conductor, but they quarrelled, and Lang was brought in on short notice.

According to Alan Walker, the concerto was so popular that Bülow was obliged to repeat the Finale, a fact that Tchaikovsky found astonishing. Although the premiere was a success with the audience, the critics were not so impressed.

One wrote that the concerto was “hardly destined ..to become classical”.

George Whitefield Chadwick, who was in the audience, recalled in a memoir years later: “They had not rehearsed much and the trombones got in wrong in the ‘tutti’ in the middle of the first movement, whereupon Bülow sang out in a perfectly audible voice, The brass may go to hell“.(sic)

However, the work fared much better at its performance in New York City on November 22, under Leopold Damrosch.Benjamin Johnson Lang appeared as soloist in a complete performance of the concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on February 20, 1885, under Wilhelm Gericke. Lang previously performed the first movement with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in March 1883, conducted by Georg Henschel, in a concert in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

The Russian premiere took place on November 1/13, 1875 in Saint Petersburg, with the Russian pianist Gustav Kross and the Czech conductor Eduard Nápravník. In Tchaikovsky’s estimation, Kross reduced the work to “an atrocious cacophony”.

The Moscow premiere took place on November 21/December 3, 1875, with Sergei Taneyev as soloist.

The conductor was none other than Nikolai Rubinstein, the same man who had comprehensively criticised the work less than a year earlier.

Rubinstein had come to see its merits, and he played the solo part many times throughout Europe. He even insisted that Tchaikovsky entrust the premiere of his Second Piano Concerto to him, and the composer would have done so had Rubinstein not died.

At that time, Tchaikovsky considered rededicating the work to Taneyev, who had performed it splendidly, but ultimately the dedication went to Bülow.

Tchaikovsky published the work in its original form, but in 1876 he happily accepted advice on improving the piano writing from German pianist Edward Dannreuther, who had given the London premiere of the work, and from Russian pianist Alexander Siloti several years later.

The solid chords played by the soloist at the opening of the concerto may in fact have been Siloti’s idea, as they appear in the first (1875) edition as rolled chords, somewhat extended by the addition of one or sometimes two notes which made them more inconvenient to play but without significantly altering the sound of the passage.

Various other slight simplifications were also incorporated into the published 1879 version. Further small revisions were undertaken for a new edition published in 1890.

The American pianist Malcolm Frager unearthed and performed the original version of the concerto and in 2015, Kirill Gerstein made the world premiere recording of the 1879 version. It received an ECHO Klassik award in the Concerto Recording of the Year category. Based on Tchaikovsky’s own conducting score from his last public concert, the new critical Urtext edition was published in 2015 by the Tchaikovsky Museum in Klin, tying in with Tchaikovsky’s 175th anniversary and marking 140 years since the concerto’s world premiere in Boston in 1875.

For the recording, Kirill Gerstein was granted special pre-publication access to the new Urtext edition.

Yuja Wang recently played this version too and Julian Trevelyan is playing this early version this same evening in St Albans

.

Rokas chose to play the established 1890 version with this newly formed orchestra created in December 2012 by Dario Peluso and Celia Talbot.

Infact it is thanks to Celia Talbot that we were give an exemplary programme free of the usual empty PR tactics.

Both financial sector professionals they share a passion for the performing arts.

L ondon E uphonia O rchestra

– LEO is made up of a dedicated group of people from varied backgrounds:from full time musicians to students,doctors,lawyers,policemen,charity workers,bankers,teachers,scientists and journalists ,all with musical talent and passion in common.

Dario as Rokas Valuntonis both receive guidance from Professor Peter Bithell who was present with Linn Rothstein to admire and encourage this new formation.

A very fine performance for Rokas Valuntonis on his first outing with this old warhorse.

Some beautiful things not least the wonderful sense of balance that allows the melodic line to shine through no matter what!

There were one of two moments where Rokas’s “liquidity of sound and devillish performance skill” managed to shine through thick and thin from one or two moments where the brass and woodwind were also at their virgin state with Tchaikowsky’s complex scoring.

There was no doubt about which edition was being used as the great chords rang out above some very radiant and expressive string playing.

Some truly superb playing especially in the cadenza where the bell like appearance of the melodic line was wonderfully realised.

The octaves of course were dispatched not only as a great virtuoso but also given a shape a direction that only a mature artist of stature could perceive.

The slow movement after some initial confusion from the orchestra was lit by the the magical sounds from the piano.

If the “devillish” playing of the prestissimo section caught the orchestra slightly off balance it was a small price to pay for the sheer beauty of shape and sound that they all brought to this moment of peace and simplicity.

The Russian dance derived from a Ukranian melody in the last movement was played with great rhythmic energy leading to the majestic sweep and passionate outpouring for which this concerto has become the symbol of the great romantic concerto repertoire .

A Polish pianist and conductor, Michał Karol Szymanowski was born in 1988 into a musical family. He graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, where he studied piano with Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń and symphonic-operatic conducting under Zygmunt Rychert.

He honed his skills with Eldar Nebolsin at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. At present works as an assistant lecturer at his alma mater. He has won top awards in a number of national and international piano competitions, including Chopin Competition in Darmstadt, Germany (2017), MozARTè Competition in Aachen, Germany (2016), Chopin Competition in Daegu, Korea (2015), Zarębski Competition in Warsaw (2012), Yamaha Competition in Katowice (2011), Paderewski Competition in Bydgoszcz, (2010), Horowitz Competition in Kiev (2007). In 2015 he was the highest placed quarter-finalist in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.
Michał has performed in many concerts across Europe and throughout the world, including the Palace of Nations in Geneva, the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican (a concert for Pope Benedict XVI), at Warsaw’s Belvedere Palace for Polish President, numerous philharmonic halls as well as major festivals in Poland and abroad, among them Oficina de Música de Curitiba, Festival Chopiniana in Buenos Aires, Festival Europeo de Solistas in Caracas, Festival Pianistico di Roma, the Long Lake Festival in Lugano, and the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw, where he brilliantly performed piano concertos by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Józef Wieniawski and Sigmunt Stojowski. He has performed under such eminent conductors as Alfredo Rugeles, Medardo Caisabanda, Juri Gilbo, Jacek Kaspszyk, Antoni Wit, Grzegorz Nowak and Marek Pijarowski with, among others, the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, the Symphonic Orchestra of the National Theatre in Brasilia, Daegu Symphony Orchestra, Russian Chamber Philharmonic St. Petersburg and all major polish orchestras.

Apart from solo repertoire, Michał also frequently performs chamber music. He has released two solo albums for CD Accord (Naxos), featuring compositions by Fryderyk Chopin, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Karol Szymanowski and Józef Wieniawski. The recordings were critically acclaimed. One reviewer wrote: “this is heartfelt music-making of the type one associates with such luminaries as Uchida, Schiff and Brendel”.

As Michał Szymanowski rather cheekily explained, Paderewski first and Chopin second to ensure there would not be a mass exodus in the interval!

He or Dr Hugh Mather need not have worried because the music was so beautifully and intelligently played it was a superb introduction to the genius that is Chopin.

We did however get more Paderewski by great demand, as an encore :The Melody op 16.

One could say that the Paderewski was a curtain raiser that demonstrated the difference between a genius and a good craftsman.

Chopin ,though, had not been like Paderewski the Prime Minister of Poland or a pianist idol in America as Liszt had been in Europe a century before.

I think most pianists would have had a go at the Menuet in G probably in a shortened simpler version from the one that Michał Szymanowski opened his programme with this evening.

It immediately showed off the intelligent musicianship allied to a command of the keyboard that would be the envy of many.

Many of us will have struggled with the Menuet in G as children , but how many I wonder know the other five pieces that make up op 14 by Paderewski.

The last of these the Crakovienne Fantastique was given a crystal clear performance of hypnotic almost Gopak style dance rhythm.

The Nocturne op 16 n.4 was a completely different style from that of Chopin or Field.

In fact it owed more to Grieg or Tchaikowsky .

Full of nostalgia and charming atmosphere.The ending in Michal’s hands was quite magical.

The Legend op 16 n.1 was far removed from the Ballades of Chopin that had so inspired Liszt and Brahms.

A pleasing salon piece especially with Michal’s superb sense of balance made for a piece of great effect rather than Chopin’s inspired masterpieces of the poems of Mickiewicz.

The Mazurka op 9 where the typical dance was so apparent but far removed from the profound yearning for his homeland that made the 58 mazurkas of Chopin amongst his greatest works.

The Polonaise op 9 n.6 was superbly played with just the right amount of bravura and jeux perle of the great pianists of the past like Lhevine,Rosenthal Godowsky or Paderewski.

Michal’s thesis for his doctorate was indeed on Paderewski and it was very refreshing to be able to hear some of the works of a figure who is usually only thought of as a leggendary  virtuoso of the past and who in turn became the first Prime Minister of Poland.

What is in fact very interesting is to see the intelligent musicianly performances of this young polish pianist.Never falling into the trap of sentimentality or crowd pleasing nuances.

It was Rubinstein who was one of the first pianists to react to the rather free almost improvisatory performances of Chopin.

The salon composer, as he was in the hands of many of the great pianists of the so called Chopin tradition.

De Pachmann in particular but also Paderewski,Hoffman and many others.

Rubinstein brought Chopin back to the world of the great composers like Bach,Beethoven,Brahms etc .

Playing with a virility where there had been feminine delicacy.

With nobility where there had been flashy virtuosity.

But above all true sentiment were there had been sentimentality.

Today in fact it was refreshing to hear this modern school of playing in the hands of Michal Szymanowski interpreting the very works of Paderewski that had largely been to please his vast public on his concert tours.

Michal possesses that strong noble cantabile that was of his great compatriots such as Malcuzinski,Niedsielski or Stefan Askenase .Added to a great sense of style and intelligent musicianship he is a great advocate for his compatriots music.

The proof was in the applause that greeted him after his first half totally dedicated to Paderewski.

The second half was dedicated to the genius that is Chopin.

The nocturne op 55 n.1 (Cherkassky’s favourite nocturne) although beautifully played did not have the fluidity that we had so appreciated in that of Paderewski.

The ending of the Nocturne immediately leading into the magical notes of the Second Ballade where with his great sense of measure and style it immediately became evident the difference between the two Polish Composers.

The four Mazukas op 59 seemed to ignite in our pianist tonight a sense of colour and fantasy that turned what in Paderewski’s hands were baubles ,in Chopin’s were true gems.

The Polonaise in F sharp minor op 44 was given a masterly performance and the same sense that Rubinstein brought to the middle section was apparent here today.

I think this might be the case where these rhythms can only be fully understood by fellow compatriots.

The most beautiful performance of the evening was still to come in the encore offered by insistent demand.A public totally won over by this pianist now on his fourth visit to this Mecca of great young pianists.

Michal at the end asked who they thought the encore was by: Paderewski or Chopin?

They got it right thanks to this truly illuminating recital tonight.