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A few years ago Maude Tortelier asked me if I knew what ” peso” meant

…………………I certainly do ..

.It is that undefinable quality that comes with total technical assurance combined with an innate musicality that gives to each note a weight and meaning.

And so it was tonight at Fossanova with Mariana Sirbu and Bruno Giuranna .The veteran Giuranna ,that I remember from the glorious days in Siena with Riccardo Brengola,Guido Agosti,Franco Ferrara and Salvatore Accardo ,playing here without the score – something so rare these days in Sonata duos – but gave an immediate sense of musical comunion between the music and the audience .If his right arm is not as strong as it used to be the depth and warmth of his musicianship were of someone that has lived with this wonderful music for a lifetime.

Ending with the Trio op 40 here was chamber music on a truly sublime level The majesterial violin playing of la Sirbu intertwined with the warmth of Giurannas viola and the truly beautiful sounds from Linda di Carlo on the piano.This is surely what the Pontine Festival is all about, from its creation by Menuhin and Szigeti, of a real feeling of great musicians meeting to make music.It is not for nothing that the Pontine Festival has been likened to Marlborough or Prades ….lets hope that this glorious tradition will continue for many a year to come .

Ultimo aggiornamento: 8 ore fa

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Beautiful voice in this song recital in the splendid Granary in Fossanova.I think it must be the first song recital there and certainly deserved a larger audience.

Hampered by the ever present score on a music stand the voice was never allowed the freedom to comunicate as it was with a Schwarzkopf or Berganza.Surely the whole point of a song recital is to tease,entice and play with the audience …to bring them into an intimate relationship that was not always possible with the stand between us .However a wonderful rich voice and some beautiful playing from Luisa Prayer,who also introduced the programme.Luisa from the school of Cafaro like Roberto Prosedda …real musicians that would never fail to comunicate the real essence of the music .Often reminded of Sergio Cafaro a really great musician ,who often played in my theatre in Rome.He also collected insects and gave me some of his remarkable pastel paintings.A real romantic man from another age and nice to be reminded of him via his inheritance to his pupils.An important audience for a recording that was being made.Gisella Belgeri – she too and ex studentl of Guido Agosti – now an important figure on the official government musical scene and overseeing the recording.It was she ,a dear friend, who hunted me out last november to tell me of the death of Lydia Stix Agosti ,at the age of 95.One of the most remarkable people that we have ever met and the principal reason that I came to live in Italy.All in all a very moving evening

Very interesting recital by Jacob Katsnelson for the Pontine Festival in the beautifully

restored granary of the Cistercian complex around the Abbey of Fossanova.Restored by Architect Cerocchi , recently retired president of theCampus Internazionale di Musica,and present with his wife to hear what should have been Elisso Virsaladzes annual recital .

Our adored Elisso ,at home on doctors orders ,had sent her prize assistant to take her place at the last minute .

And here was all the rigour,intellectual and musical that we have come to expect from Elisso’s much revered school of piano playing .

An interesting mixture of Bach transcriptions in the first half ….played without a break with an evident sense of form foremost in Katsnelsons mind .The usual floating romantic melody in ” sheep may safely graze” was not for this pianist and the virtuoso trascriptions by Busoni – the Organ prelude in E flat major acting as opening and ending for music restored to its rightful place – the fact that it was transcribed for piano was irrelevant in front of the form,shape and content of these masterpieces. We were,infact guided through this path in a really masterful fashion . .

Great sense of colour but not in the romantic piano sense but more the strands of colour reminiscent of the sounds of organ stops – quite a remarkable technical feat.

The second half dedicated to Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet op 75 ……and if it did not exactly have you dancing in the aisles ,the colours and overall form restored this piece to the major piano repertoire.

All Elisso’s students out in style to appreciate the great lesson that we could learn and grateful once again that Elisso even from afar had her students intellectual and musical welfare uppermost in her mind.

Masterclasses continue again today in the castle until wednesday when it will be the turn of the star students to show us how much they have been able to grasp in this real exchange of views between master and pupil .

CORSO DI JACOB KATSNELSON

And so the final day arrived ……………the Final Concert .The much awaited concert at the end of the masterclasses …….How would it be without Elisso Virsaladze?We need not have worried for all the rigour and seriousness were present in Elisso assistant Jacob Katsnelson.A bit like a train journey the Regionale/Intercity or Freccia Rossa all with the same destination in view but different times and methods for arriving.

And so it was at the beginning for Ivan Valentino,Alessandro Romagnoli and Davide Di Rienzo ,all talents in formation ,Davide Di Rienzo,in particular ,a seventeen year old local boy in Chopin’s Second Scherzo already on the way to giving an accomplished performance .Evgeny Genchev had flown in especially to meet Elisso Virsaladze but was as happy to play to Jacob Katsnelson as he was to hear him. Evgeny from the Keyboard Charitable Trust that has forged a link with the Campus Internazionale Di Musica ,as has Elisso Virsaladze over the years .A link forged on a mutual intent to help young talent reach their goal with dedication and seriousness .A transcendental performance from Evgeny Genchev of Skryabin Fantasie – every bit as powerful as Emanuel Rimoldis had been a few days earlier in the Palazzo Baronale in Fondi( this too, as is so much in this area ,part of the Caetani heritage)Sofia Vasheruk followed with a beautiful performance of the rarely heard Debussy Reverie ……beautiful to listen to and behold and led on to an equally ravishing Ravel Sonatine and the Rachmaninoff Prelude in D major .Finishing with an Etude Tableaux that showed off all her early Russian training .Liebestod by Wagner/Liszt ended the concert with Evgeny Genchev showing us all his sense of balance , colour and line that had the audience in hushed silence for minutes at the end where such an atmosphere had been created no one dared move .Evgeny had just an hour before regaled an astonished Jacob with accomplished performances of Liszt Dante Sonata and Skryabin third Sonata who did not want to tire Evgeny before the concert …. I think it was indeed Jacob that was more exhausted as we indeed saw an hour later in the concert.Some remarkable piano playing this week and let us not forget the remarkable performance that Emanuel Rimoldi gave too in Fondi of that much neglected masterpiece of Schumann – his Humoresque.Both Evgeny and Emanuel helped by the Keyboard Charitable Trust and leads to great expectation for Vitaly Pisarenko ,the last of this years trio of pianists fromThe Keyboard Charitable Trust on the 27th July for the Campus Internazionale di Musica – this time in Sabaudia