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The second artist in a new series that the director Terry Lewis has very much at heart.

An important space where remarkable young musicians can share their music making with an appreciative audience. These young musicians dedicating their youth to art and having acquired a mastery, are in need of an audience, as it is only with public performance that their art can grow and mature.

Donglai a composer and pianist in his second year of Masters at the Guildhall perfecting his playing under the guidance of the distinguished musicians Carole Presland and Ronan O’Hora .

It was no surprise that this young musician should present a single masterwork from the final year of Schubert’s short life.

The four late Impromptus D 935 are one of the great monuments of the piano literature and are only for real musicians who can penetrate the subtle seemingly simple mellifluous outpouring of Schubert’s final thoughts.

Donglai understood the great architectural shape not only of each piece but also as a whole like a Sonata of four movements.

It is the third Impromptu that found an ideal interpreter as the variations unfolded with sounds of undulating beauty. Great drama and sumptuous full sounds were soon dispelled with the fleeting lightness of a jeux perlé where cascades of delicate sounds just flew from this young artists fingers with a delicacy and beauty that strangely had escaped him in the opening Impromptu.The first Impromptu had opened with clarity and purity of sound but with very little pedal that instead of the grandiose opening that Schubert envisaged it sounded rather more like an imperious march. It was soon dispelled as Donglai added the pedal for the beautiful second subject which is a duet between the soprano and tenor voices on a wave of undulating sounds. Some beautiful playing but it seemed as though the tenor had lost his voice as something of the deeply felt duet was lost. It was in the second Impromptu that the true magic of Schubert was felt as the simple melody was allowed to unfold with poise and delicacy.The wave of sound in the central ( trio) episode was played very beautifully and shaped like a true musician but something of the balance was lost, as in the first Impromptu, and the wonderful lieder element of Schubert of song and accompaniment was slightly sacrificed for clarity of articulation.

The final Impromptu is a wild dance that Donglai seemed to take a little too seriously but the central episode he played with a lightness and style that contrasted with his earlier lack of dance shoes.

Forty minutes that unfolded with exemplary musicianship as you would expect from the ‘Presland/ O’Hora School’ and will mature and take flight as he learns to live and share his performances so generously with his audience, with simplicity and humility, as he did today.

The title of ‘Impromptu’ was not initially Schubert’s own: it was the Viennese publisher Tobias Haslinger who labelled the first two pieces from Schubert’s first set, D899, as such when he issued them in December 1827. Haslinger may have had in mind the Impromptus of the Bohemian composer Jan Václav Voříšek which had become popular in the early 1820s. Schubert must have known Voříšek’s pieces, and he was happy enough to use the same title when he composed his second set, D935, which he offered to the Mainz firm of Schott & Co in February 1828 as ‘Four Impromptus which can appear singly or all four together’. Schott, however, declined to publish them, and they did not appear in print until more than ten years after Schubert’s death, when Anton Diabelli issued them with a dedication to Liszt. It was Schumann who confidently asserted that Schubert’s second set of Impromptus was really a sonata in disguise. ‘The first impromptu is so obviously the first movement of a sonata, so completely worked out and self-contained’, declared Schumann, ‘that there can be no doubt about it.’ It is true that the first and last of the pieces are in the same key of F minor, but neither is in sonata form.

Donglai Shi Age: 25

He studied piano under Prof. Gregory Chaverdian (2013-2016, private lessons)- Entered Marianopolis College in the Music Program (piano), under the tutorship of Prof. Kyoko Hashimoto (2016-2018)- Entered the Schulich School of Music, continuing piano with Prof. Hashimoto (2018-2022), composition with Prof. Denys Bouliane (2019-2022) and orchestral conducting with Prof. Alexis Hauser (2020-2022)- Member of the Schulich Singers as baritone (2018-2019)- Member of the McGill Symphony Orchestra (2019, 2021-2022)- Member of the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble (2020)- Graduated from the Schulich School of Music (2022) with an Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition

Studying in M Perf Advanced Keyboard Studies at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, England – BMus Piano Performance + Composition with Minor in Orchestral Conducting (Graduated in June 2022) from Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

– Currently studying piano with Prof. Carole Presland and Prof. Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School

Prizes and Awards:

– Full Scholarship from International Music Workshop and Festival (2024, 2019)- Guildhall School General Financial Awards (2023)- World Classical Music Awards S3, Silver Prize in B2 Category (Piano) (2022)- National Finalist, Steppingstones of Canadian Music Competition (2022)- Anna P Gertler Scholarship of Schulich School of Music (2021-2022)- Nominee of Developing Artist Grant of The Hnatyshyn Foundation (2021) Full Scholarship from Orford Music Academy (2020)- Student Excellence Award of Schulich School of Music (2018-2021)- 2^nd Place, CÉGEPs en concert (2018)- Gerald Wheeler Award of Marianopolis College (2018)- 1^st Place, Prix d’expression musicale of Marianopolis College (2018)- 4^th Prize, Golden Key Composition Competition, Senior Category (2017)- 3^rd Prize, Burgos International Music Competition (2015)- National Finalist, Canadian Music Competition (2014, 2015)

Significant Performances:

– Solo concert at the Northwestern Reform Synagogue, London (November 2024)- Concerts of the Guildhall Conductors’ Orchestra as conductor(May, October 2024)- J. Brahms, Horn Trio (Ivan Sutton Chamber Prize Final, May 2024)- Solo recital in Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada (April, 2023)- “La forteresse des rossignols”, “Chants d’automne”, public recitals with singer Maxence Ferland (Montreal) (May, October, November 2022)- F. Mendelssohn, Piano Trio no.2 (McGill Chamber Music Competition Final, December 2021)- F. Chopin, Piano Concerto no.1 (McGill Concerto Competition Final, October 2021)- C. Franck, Piano Quintet (McGill Chamber Music Competition Final, Montreal, December 2019)- Musical Theatre “Mama mia”, with NUVO — Musical Theatre (Montreal, November 2018)

Significant Compositions:

– Piano Sonata (2022-2023)

– Orchestral suite “The Seasons” (2021-2023)

– Fantasia (for violin and piano, 2020-2021)

– “Within the Child” (for woodwind quintet, 2020)

– Miniatures (for two pianos, 2019-2020)

https://www.raiplaysound.it/audio/2025/02/Radio3-Suite—Il-Cartellone-del-05022025-8e0a4158-485e-40a2-a1e6-9ac438bb6b60.html

Trifonov was sensational in Rome yesterday with playing like Martha Argerich. They both love music so much and it shows. I can only quote Rubinstein as always. The wonder of music is that it is not a printed picture. With a real artist like Martha and now Trifonov it is a vibrant living thing forever changing

What I heard from Trifonov playing today was so ravishingly beautiful that it is obvious that the genius we know and have always admired has found the key to Olympus which only Gods have.

TRIFONOV and that piano.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2015/05/26/trifonov-and-that-piano/

The Price of Genius- Trifonov at the Barbican London
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2019/06/11/the-price-of-genius-trifonov-at-the-barbican-london/

The Genius of Trifonov
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2017/01/22/the-genius-of-trifonov-2/

The genius of Trifonov
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2016/09/08/the-genius-of-trifonov/

https://youtu.be/gex0sOR7XZ0?feature=shared

The Piano Sonata in C sharp minor , op. posth. 80, was written by Russian composer  in 1865, his last year as a student at the st Petersburg Conservatory. In its original form was not published in Tchaikovsky’s lifetime; it was published in 1900 by P.Jurgenson, and given the posthumous opus number 80.

Tchaikovsky transposed, adapted and orchestrated the third movement of the sonata to create the scherzo of his Symphony n.1 in G minor op,13. The four movements are :

1. Allegro con fuoco 
   
2. Andante 
   
3. Allegro vivo 
   
4. Allegro vivo 
   

Much of Tchaikovsky’s music that remained in manuscript at his death was subsequently seen through the press by the Russian composer and pedagogue Sergey Taneyev (who also completed a number of unfinished works, notably the remaining two movements of the hastily issued third piano concerto—the Andante and Finale—which was published as Tchaikovsky’s Op 79). This accounts for the apparently late opus number of the C sharp minor Piano Sonata which, nonetheless, antedates his Op 1. Whilst it would not do to make exaggerated claims for this work, it is certainly better than its critics frequently allow: the bold gestures at the opening of the first movement, a transition passage which is echoed in Eugene Onegin, a typically yearning second subject, and a codetta suggestive of Romeo and Juliet all command notice.

https://youtu.be/6Qtq975mAsw?si=_wQyEdWI80EPjgOv

Tchaikovsky arr. Pletnev : The Sleeping Beauty Op. 66 (1888-89), selections arranged for solo piano

I. Introduction (Prologue) II. Danse des pages (Act I) III. La vision (Act II) IV. Andante (Act II) V. La féé d’argent (Act III) VI. Le chat (Act III) VII. Gavotte (Act II) VIII. Le canarie (Prologue) IX. Le chaperon (Act III) X. Adagio (Act III) XI. Le fin (Act III)

The PR boys have given up nd have left Trifonov’s masterly playing to speak for itself

The Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, op 26, by Samuel Barber , was commissioned for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the League of Composers by American songwriters Irving Berlin  and Richard Rodgers . Composed from 1947 to 1949, the sonata is in four movements and was first performed by Vladimir Horowitz  in December 1949 in Havana, Cuba, followed by performances in Washington D.C  and New York City in January 1950 In September 1947, the American songwriters mentioned above on the League of Composers’ recommendation, announced a commission for a piano sonata by Barber to mark the 25th anniversary of the League. Berlin and Rodgers provided funding for the commission.^[2] Barber began writing the sonata that month, completing the first movement by December 1947.

However, Barber’s progress on the sonata was interrupted by a hectic schedule that demanded his focus, including rehearsals for his ballet Medea and plans for Knoxville :Summer of 1915. Barber planned to complete his sonata during his stay at the American Academy in Rome, initially planned from February to July. The composer was wary of the academy’s crowded conditions and disgruntled atmosphere but hoped to work in isolation. However, once in Rome, he found it hard to focus, with the change of scenery and the charm of Italy’s culture and people distracting. Barber was distracted by the postwar social and political scene, engaging with intellectuals, Vatican insiders, and historical interests like an excavation near Cosa. Despite attending inspiring concerts, including programs of newly discovered Vivaldi  pieces, Barber struggled to accomplish much during his stay.

Barber returned to the United States early in the summer, sooner than planned, and finished the second movement in mid-August of 1948. Upon completing the first two movements, Barber initially planned that a slow movement would conclude the piece, and played the completed movements for Vladimir Horowitz, who later premiered the work, at Horowitz’s house. Horowitz then suggested Barber include a “very flashy last movement, but with content”; Barber added a fugue after the slow movement in response to this request.

The composer finished the sonata in June 1949, and Vladimir Horowitz began to prepare it for performance, spending five hours a day practicing it. Barber later commented that Horowitz had been playing it “with a surprising emotional rapprochement which I had not expected”. Horowitz premiered the sonata in Havana, Cuba, on December 9, 1949. This was followed by a private performance in New York at the former G.Shirmer  headquarters on January 4, 1950. Gian Carlo Menotti ,Virgil Thomson,Douglas Moore,William Schuman,Thomas Schippers,Aaron Copland,Lukas foss,Myra Hess and Samuel Chotzinoff all attended. The official United States premiere was in Washington, D.C., on January 11, 1950, at Constitution Hall ; Horowitz then publicly played the work in New York on January 23, 1950 at Carnegie Hall.  It received ubiquitous praise from music critics. By April 1950, plans were in place for Horowitz to record the sonata for a Christmas release that year; Horowitz made the recording in May, for RCA Victor. This recording remained Barber’s preferred version for at least a decade.The sonata is in four movements:

Fuga: Allegro con spirito

Allegro energico

Allegro vivace  e leggero

Adagio  mesto

Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov has made a spectacular ascent of the classical music world, as a solo artist, champion of the concerto repertoire, chamber and vocal collaborator, and composer. Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, his performances are a perpetual source of awe. “He has everything and more, … tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that,” marveled pianist Martha Argerich. With Transcendental, the Liszt collection that marked his third title as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, Trifonov won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo Album of 2018. Named Gramophone’s 2016 Artist of the Year and Musical America’s 2019 Artist of the Year, he was made a “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French government in 2021. As The Times of London notes, he is “without question the most astounding pianist of our age.”

Trifonov undertakes season-long artistic residencies with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic in 2024-25. A highlight of his Chicago residency is Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with Klaus Mäkelä, and his Czech tenure features Dvořák’s Piano Concerto with Semyon Bychkov, first at season-opening concerts in Prague and then on tour in Toronto and at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Trifonov also opens the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra’s season with Mozart’s 25th Piano Concerto under Andris Nelsons; performs Prokofiev’s Second with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen; reprises Dvořák’s concerto for a European tour with Jakub Hrůša and the Bamberg Symphony; plays Ravel’s G-major Concerto with Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Alan Gilbert; and joins Rafael Payare and the Montreal Symphony for concertos by Schumann and Beethoven on a major European tour of London, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, and Vienna. In recital, Trifonov appears twice more at Carnegie Hall, first on a solo tour that also takes in Chicago and Philadelphia, and then with violinist Leonidas Kavakos, with whom he also appears in Chicago, Boston, Kansas City, and Washington, DC. Fall 2024 brings the release of My American Story, the pianist’s new Deutsche Grammophon double album, which pairs solo pieces with concertos by Gershwin and Mason Bates. Bates’s concerto is dedicated to Trifonov and both orchestral works were captured live with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, who previously partnered with the pianist on his award-winning Destination Rachmaninov series.

Last season, Trifonov performed Brahms concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, and Toronto Symphony; Schumann’s with the New York Philharmonic; Mozart’s “Jeunehomme” at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and other U.S. venues with the Rotterdam Philharmonic; Chopin with the Orchestre de Paris; Bates’s Concerto with the Chicago Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; and Gershwin and Rachmaninov with the Philadelphia Orchestra, at home and on a European tour. In recital, he joined cellist Gautier Capuçon for dates in Europe and toured a new solo program to such musical hotspots as Vienna, Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, Venice, Milan, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, and New York, at Carnegie Hall.

In fall 2022, Trifonov headlined the season-opening galas of Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra and New York’s Carnegie Hall, where his Opening Night concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra marked the first of his four appearances at the venue in 2022-23. Other recent highlights include a multi-faceted, season-long tenure as 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic, featuring the New York premiere of his own Piano Quintet; a season-long Carnegie Hall “Perspectives” series; the world premiere performances of Bates’s Piano Concerto with ensembles including the co-commissioning Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony; playing Tchaikovsky’s First under Riccardo Muti in the historic gala finale of the Chicago Symphony’s 125th-anniversary celebrations; launching the New York Philharmonic’s 2018-19 season; headlining complete Rachmaninov concerto cycles at the New York Philharmonic’s Rachmaninov Festival and with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic; undertaking season-long residencies with the Berlin Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Radio France, and at Vienna’s Musikverein, where he appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic and gave the Austrian premiere of his own Piano Concerto; and headlining the Berlin Philharmonic’s famous New Year’s Eve concert under Sir Simon Rattle.

Since making solo recital debuts at Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Japan’s Suntory Hall, and Paris’s Salle Pleyel in 2012-13, Trifonov has given solo recitals at venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington DC; Boston’s Celebrity Series; London’s Barbican, Royal Festival, and Queen Elizabeth Halls; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw (Master Piano Series); Berlin’s Philharmonie; Munich’s Herkulessaal; Bavaria’s Schloss Elmau; Zurich’s Tonhalle; the Lucerne Piano Festival; the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels; the Théâtre des Champs Élysées and Auditorium du Louvre in Paris; Barcelona’s Palau de la Música; Tokyo’s Opera City; the Seoul Arts Center; and Melbourne’s Recital Centre.

Last season, Deutsche Grammophon released a deluxe CD & Blu-Ray edition of the pianist’s best-selling 2021 album Bach: The Art of Life. Featuring Bach’s masterpiece The Art of Fugue, as completed by Trifonov himself, the recording scored the pianist his sixth Grammy nomination, while an accompanying music video was recognized with the 2022 Opus Klassik Public Award. Trifonov also received Opus Klassik’s 2021 Instrumentalist of the Year/Piano award for Silver Age, his album of Russian solo and orchestral piano music by Scriabin, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky. Released in fall 2020, this followed 2019’s Destination Rachmaninov: Arrival, for which the pianist received a 2021 Grammy nomination. Presenting the composer’s First and Third Concertos, Arrival represents the third volume of the DG series Trifonov recorded with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Nézet-Séguin, following Destination Rachmaninov: Departure, named BBC Music’s 2019 Concerto Recording of the Year, and Rachmaninov: Variations, a 2015 Grammy nominee. DG has also issued Chopin Evocations, which pairs the composer’s works with those by the 20th-century composers he influenced, and Trifonov: The Carnegie Recital, the pianist’s first recording as an exclusive DG artist, which captured his sold-out 2013 Carnegie Hall recital debut live and secured him his first Grammy nomination.

It was during the 2010-11 season that Trifonov won medals at three of the music world’s most prestigious competitions, taking Third Prize in Warsaw’s Chopin Competition, First Prize in Tel Aviv’s Rubinstein Competition, and both First Prize and Grand Prix – an additional honor bestowed on the best overall competitor in any category – in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition. In 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Franco Abbiati Prize for Best Instrumental Soloist by Italy’s foremost music critics.

Born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, Trifonov began his musical training at the age of five, and went on to attend Moscow’s Gnessin School of Music as a student of Tatiana Zelikman, before pursuing his piano studies with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has also studied composition, and continues to write for piano, chamber ensemble, and orchestra. When he premiered his own Piano Concerto, the Cleveland Plain Dealer marveled: “Even having seen it, one cannot quite believe it. Such is the artistry of pianist-composer Daniil Trifonov.”

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A very varied recital for the sumptuous voice of Maggie Vaz Neto with the refined playing of Antonio Morabito. An eclectic programme ranging from the great operatic arias by Puccini to the voluptuous beauty of Ravel’s Habanera. Hugo Wolff’s refined tone poems were placed next to Bellini’s astonishing bel canto. A sumptuous Rimsky Korsakov and a surprisingly sumptuous Debussy was contrasted with a composer I did not know until today, with an aria from ‘A Serranda’ by Keil. A deep rich soprano voice of radiance, beauty and quite considerable power was accompanied by Antonio Morabito with nobility and restraint. A small but distinguished audience, on one of the coldest days of the year, were rewarded and warmed by a feast of music that resounded around this noble edifice with radiance and beauty.

Thanks to Steinway & Sons we were able to hear the 16 year old Ameli Sakai – Ivanova, student of the eclectic multi talented Nancy Litten, performing on a magnificent concert grand to a select audience .

Already at such a tender age she has won great recognition and given public performances of concertos by Chopin and Mozart.

A very solid preparation both technically and musically as you might expect from the student of a graduate of the Royal Academy and a fellow colleague of mine in the early 70’s.

There are some things that cannot be taught but can be allowed to flower naturally. They are the passion and natural musicianship that can ignite and inspire young musicians to great heights under the right musicianly guidance.

https://videopress.com/v/q04k7Yvp?resizeToParent=1&cover=1&autoPlay=0&controls=1&loop=0&muted=0&persistVolume=1&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&sbc&sbpc&sblc&useAverageColor=1

It is this passion that shone through her performance of Chopin’s ‘Héroique’ Polonaise that closed this short programme. A performance of passionate conviction and robust technical perfection with a maturity that belies her youthful appearance. It was though in the more lyrical passages that she allowed her natural musicianship to guide her with refined musical taste and beauty. A young pianist playing with all the joy of someone who could conquer such a pianistic hurdle but in the louder passages her exhilaration and mastery belied the fact that the Polonaise is above all a dance. There are also various degrees of ‘forte’, as there are ‘piano’, that can help her shape the louder passages with more refinement, that will come naturally with the maturity of time. The treacherous ride of the cavalry was played with superb lightweight octaves on which they could ride fearlessly onto the battlefield. Building the sound with technical mastery and listening very careful to the balance, defusing the tension with the beauty of the undulating melodic outpouring, before the exhilaration and excitement she brought to the final pages of this truly ‘héroique’ performance.

https://videopress.com/v/evyPoPDd?resizeToParent=1&cover=1&autoPlay=0&controls=1&loop=0&muted=0&persistVolume=1&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&sbc&sbpc&sblc&useAverageColor=1

Her technical preparation allowed her to give fearless performances of two of Kapustin‘s notoriously knotty Jazz Studies. She played them with a dynamic drive and extraordinary dexterity as she unraveled with clarity and mastery Kapustin’s dizzying maze of notes that were breathtaking in their audacity. .

https://videopress.com/v/46npSETK?resizeToParent=1&cover=1&autoPlay=0&controls=1&loop=0&muted=0&persistVolume=1&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&sbc&sbpc&sblc&useAverageColor=1

But it was the Chopin B flat minor Sonata that revealed her extraordinary maturity, as she could carve an architectural line in the first movement that allowed her to play the second subject with poetic poise without having to slow the tempo or loose control of her aristocratic vision. Some very beautiful pointing of harmonies in the tenor register gave great depth and beauty and it was particularly noticeable in the beauty she brought also to the ‘Trio’ of the ‘Scherzo’. A movement she had opened with fearless abandon and technical mastery shaping the notes into the dance it truly is, playing with an unrelenting forward drive. Beautifully linked without a pause to the ‘Marche Funèbre’ that she allowed to flow from her fingers with nobility and simplicity. A beautiful rich sound to the ‘Trio’ gave great strength to Chopin’s beautiful bel canto, with playing of great poignancy but no sentimentality. More care of the balance between the hands would have allowed her to give more fluidity and glowing sound adding even more magic to one of Chopin’s most miraculous creations.

https://videopress.com/v/u9vTtgU5?resizeToParent=1&cover=1&autoPlay=0&controls=1&loop=0&muted=0&persistVolume=1&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&sbc&sbpc&sblc&useAverageColor=1

The ‘wind over the graves’ of one of Chopin’s ‘wildest children’ (to quote Schumann) showed off Ameli’s quite extraordinary ‘fingerfertigkeit’ and allowed her to play with such clarity Chopin’s quite astonishingly original finale. This was a very mature and in many ways masterly account of one of the greatest works of Chopin. 

The Bach Prelude and Fugue in E flat minor Book 1 is a work new to Ameli’s repertoire and although I found the prelude rather slow it was played with weight and beauty .The Fugue showed a great musical personality as she played Bach’s ‘knotty twine’ ( to quote Delius) with extraordinary clarity and rhythmic drive.

A teenage schoolgirl with remarkable musical gifts that she will with time refine and be able to ride on a more horizontal wave of sound that will give her even more freedom to conquer the great works that will lay before her. It is wondrous voyage of discovery that awaits.

It is nice to know that another lady pianist was playing next door. Martha Argerich, too, had started her musical journey at the age of sixteen. Now at 83 that glorious voyage is continuing in the pursuit of perfection and beauty that has given so much to so many over a lifetime’s dedication to music.

Maura Romano of the Steinway flagship in Milan,in London by chance, was able to hear Ameli today and offer her a recital next season.

She, like George Soole and Wiebke Greinus in London have created an important platform for young musicians that gives these exceptionally talented artists one of the first important steps at the start of the long ladder in a career in music.

https://videopress.com/v/NPrZqv3G?resizeToParent=1&cover=1&autoPlay=0&controls=1&loop=0&muted=0&persistVolume=1&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&sbc&sbpc&sblc&useAverageColor=1

Steinway & Sons Milan ‘we could have danced all night’ Christmas is a comin’
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/13/steinway-sons-milan-we-could-have-danced-all-night-christmas-is-a-comin/

“A true poet at the piano, who can make you cry with a single note” – Janina Fialkowska

A multi competition winner including laureate of the Rubinstein International, First Prize at the Dublin and First Prize at The Utrecht Liszt which led to her sold out debut at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

CHOPIN: Nocturne Op.32 No.1 in B Major 

CHOPIN: Scherzo No.3 Op.39 in C sharp Minor 

LISZT: Transcendental Étude No. 8 S. 139 Wilde Jagd 

M.TOKUYAMA: Musica Nara 

RACHMANINOV: Lilacs Op.21 No.5 

RACHMANINOV: Piano Sonata No.2 Op.36 in B flat minor 

I. Allegro agitato 

II. Non allegro – Lento 

III. L’istesso tempo – Allegro molto 

The London debut of Yukine Kuroki in the sumptuous new Bechstein Hall. The directors of both Rubinstein and Utrecht International Piano Competitions had flown in especially to applaud their latest star.

And a star was certainly shining brightly as Janina Fialkowska’s words were brought vividly to life: ‘ A true poet at the piano who can make you cry with a single note ‘

Was it not Rubinstein at his very first competition, nearly 50 years ago, who had said the same of Janina as she played a monumental Liszt Sonata that brought tears to his eyes?

Chopin’s Nocturne op 32 n 1 in B, not one of the most often heard, was given a glowing tone of fluidity and delicacy where the bel canto was allowed to unfold with an ease that allowed the music to breathe so eloquently. Brought to a barely whispered halt as a startling cadenza appeared and was played with arresting nobility and authority. Yukine had perceived this seemingly simple nocturne as a tone poem with a story to tell of great poetic originality. It was her dedication to what the composer had written but seen through a different lense. One that could see things that only a genial poet of the piano could perceive with a palette of colours on a canvas like the greatest pointillist painters.

It was the same voyage of discovery that she brought to the third Scherzo. The words ringing in my ears of my teacher and friend Guido Agosti ( one of the jury members of the first Rubinstein competition ) as he listened in his studio in Siena to aspiring young virtuosi.

Pianists would flock to this Mecca to hear sounds that would never be forgotten. ‘All that banging’ he would admonish so many young ‘virtuosi’ as he ,one of the last students of Busoni who in turn had been a student of Liszt,knew the real secrets that were hidden within that box of hammers and strings ! The piano should be played horizontally not vertically and as Anton Rubinstein, another disciple of Liszt , exclaimed ‘ the pedals are the real soul of the piano.’ The three handed pianism of Thalberg and Liszt were the ultimate trick of supreme illusionists.

All this came to mind as Yukine opened the third scherzo with a range of colour and an architectural shape that returned this much maligned masterpiece to its original poetic inspiration. Like with so many recitals by Murray Perahia it had me rushing to the score to see where this poetic invention had come from . Because everything Yukine did is there in the score but it takes a poetic sensibility and a magician of sound to turn it into the wondrous originality that was obviously in the composers hands at the moment of creation. The gentle opening gradually leading up to the first ‘fortissimo’ and the real opening of the scherzo: ‘Presto con fuoco’. Here the tumultuous octaves were give a shape and colour and a sense of direction with a definite architectural design. Explosive sounds too, at the moments of maximum culmination of passion, but dying away to the chorale central episode where Yukine’s sense of line and colour were only commented on by the streams of filigree sounds that cascaded like water with shimmering beauty. Each return of the chorale was ever more emphatic with the intervening deep bass just allowing the notes to fly from her fingers like streams of golden sounds of etherial magic.The final return of the chorale ‘sotto voce’,Chopin writes, but could he have ever imagined the mystery and timeless beauty that Yukine could imbue from those words? There was magic in the air on this magnificent Bechstein piano as the gentle heart beat deep in the bass became ever more insistent, reaching for the tumultuous outpouring of octaves and a coda that just sprang from her well lubricated fingers. Even in this coda, that is a tour de force of transcendental piano playing, Yukine could find the real meaning that was the culmination of all that had been created before. Exhilaration and excitement were kept masterfully under control as she reached for the final three chords. An epic journey that rarely have I heard revealed with such poetic mastery.

‘Der Wilde Jagd’ unleashed a hurricane of sounds from the very first notes. A superb sense of balance and colour were complimented by an extraordinarily original musicianship.This was Liszt ,no longer the barnstorming virtuoso, but the poet of the piano, as Yukine demonstrated with playing of refined crystalline beauty. A finesse that one is not used to hearing in these transcendental studies. Each one is a miniature tone poem with a story to tell of breathtaking scope and searing beauty. Transcendental mastery of course, but within all these pianistic gymnastics there was the poetic fantasy of a genius. There was unexpected charm to the march played as if in the distance, as it led into a melodious outpouring worthy of Schubert with its sudden ray of light that seemed to appear so out of the blue. An explosion of passion and ravishing beauty that Yukine played with great intensity. The final bars were a cry from the heart of passion and unrestrained beauty. Breathtaking pianistic gymnastics too played like the supreme artist that had won her the Gold medal in Utrecht International Liszt Competition.

Musica Nara by Minako Tokuyama was like a breath of fresh air after such intense romantic outpouring. A beautifully expressive atmospheric work with a kaleidoscope of sounds of undisputed Japanese tradition. Etherial sounds of delicacy cascading like the gentlest of playful water that Liszt depicts at the Villa d’Este. This time Tokayama depicts a pastoral Japanese landscape that was soon interrupted by the dynamic animal drive of true Jazz style, where Yukine had led us into a dive of Gulda proportions. This was short lived as the gentle return to the idyllic opening landscape allowed this remarkable picture in music to disappear into the heavenly distance.

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Lilacs, Op. 21, No. 5 was a song written in 1902, and adapted into a solo piano transcription around 1913 by Rachmaninov himself who often used to play it as an encore in his recitals. It is a languid outpouring of ravishingly beautiful sounds and was played with sumptuous beauty before the explosion of the Second sonata.

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The sonata, in the revised 1931 version, was a real ‘tour de force’ of fearless transcendental playing. Cascades of notes this time like streaks of lightning, and a pulsating satanic drive were complimented with playing of the simple nostalgic beauty that imbues so much of Rachmaninov’s works. A leit motif ,like in the first sonata, that links the three movements into an architectural whole. There was total commitment as Yukine, a person bewitched and possessed, as we looked on astonished at the demonic goings on. Ravished by the sumptuous sounds of extreme filigree delicacy contrasting with passionate outpourings of breathtaking romanticism.The final declaration and triumphant radiance of the main melody was played with a Philadelphian richness of sound and quite exhilarating streams of notes of breathtaking daring.

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This is the work that Horowitz reintroduced to a new generation and from total neglect it has become the most played piece of aspiring young virtuosi in music academies around the world.(The first sonata, thanks to Kantarow, is fast taking its place!) Yukine showed us a sonata with her intelligent musicianship and sensibility, where the virtuosistic demands were always following the composers very precise indications. Her sense of architectural shape gave great strength to a work that has been much misunderstood and manhandled since the magnificence of the reincarnation that Horowitz offered to the world during his miraculous Indian Summer.

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A Jazz study by Kapustin was the exhilarating encore that Yukine offered to a very enthusiastic public.

Letting her hair down with a performance of a true jazz musician, that of an Art Tatum who even Horowitz used to go and admire in the dives of New York.Virtuosity and unashamed showmanship played with the swing and style of its time.

And tomorrow in the refined space of the Razumovsky Academy of Oleg Kogan. She will play on Fou Ts’ong’s Steinway concert grand that now sits proudly in this much loved hall.

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For her last of three recitals on this short tour for the Arthur Rubinstein I.M.C.such was the warmth created with a full hall that Yukine added yet another encore. Encouraged and emboldened by our genial host ( and constructor of this unique hall ) the cellist Oleg Kogan, Yukine ,after a moments thought, played Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’ ravishingly elaborated by Franz Liszt. A performance that showed off Yukine’s gifts of communicating love and beauty to all she does. What better way to finish these few days than playing on Fou Ts’ongs much loved piano in a hall that has been created especially for ‘hausmusik’ by the Kogan family. As Lady Annabelle Weidenfeld so rightly said a unique hall that exudes the warmth and loving care that is so often missing in our music making these days.

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Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor ,op 36 was composed  in 1913, who revised it in 1931, with the note, “The new version, revised and reduced by author.” Three years after his third concerto  was finished, Rachmaninoff moved with his family to a house in Rome that Tchaikowsky  had used. It was during this time in Rome that Rachmaninov started working on his second piano sonata. However, because both of his daughters contracted typhoid fever, he was unable to finish the composition in Rome. Instead, he moved his family on to Berlin in order to consult with doctors.

 When the girls were well enough, Rachmaninoff travelled with his family back to his Ivanovka  country estate, where he finished the second piano sonata. Its premiere took place in Kursk on 18 October 1913

The sonata is in three interrelated movements:

1. Allegro agitato
2. Non allegro—Lento
3. Allegro molto

It is unified by two Non allegro bridges between the movements. The outer movements follow sonata form.

When Rachmaninov performed the piece at its premiere in Moscow, it was well received.However, he was not satisfied with the work and felt that too much in the piece was superfluous. Thus, in 1931, he commenced work on a revision. Major cuts were made to the middle sections of the second and third movements and all three sections of the first movement, and some technically difficult passages were simplified.

A performance of the original version lasts approximately 25 minutes while a performance of the revised version lasts approximately 19 minutes.

In 1940, with the composer’s consent, Vladimir Horowitz created his own edition which combined elements of both the original and revised versions. His edition used more original material than revised throughout all three movements. A performance of the Horowitz revision lasts approximately 22 minutes.

The birth of a great artist yesterday at the POSK theatre in Ravenscourt Park,London.

A young pianist of exceptional talent where the more talented you are the more you are disturbed by the impossible task of seeking perfection.

Andrzej Wiercinski I have been listening to for some years ever since his first appearances over ten years ago in that Mecca for all aspiring young musicians. St Mary’s Perivale is where Dr Mather and his team offer a concert and recording to artists that have dedicated their youth to art and just need an audience to continue their voyage of discovery with.

I even took him to play at La Mortella – Andrzej Wiercinski at La Mortella Ischia The William Walton Foundation – Refined artistry and musical intelligence in Paradise
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/05/11/andrzej-wiercinski-at-la-mortella-ischia-the-william-walton-foundation-refined-artistry-and-musical-intelligence-in-paradise/

But today I heard a pianist who was at one with the music with performances of great personality but totally at the service of the composer.

His Kreisleriana seemed as an improvisation such was his extraordinary palette of sounds allied to a scrupulous attention to the score. A fleetingly chameleonic change of character from the passionate opening to the sublime intimate flights of fantasy. A breathtaking performance where he had us sitting on the edge of our seats in anticipation of the secrets that this Poet of the piano would reveal in what is quite the greatest interpretation I have ever heard.

It is a work in eight episodes that is not easy to shape into one unified whole. Andrzej found the key in the sumptuous bass sounds that was the common denominator that pervaded the entire work. A bass that could allow for the piano to open up its sonorities and create sounds of full richness and passionate intensity as it could allow for the most exquisite sounds of barely murmured sentiments. The opening was a hurricane of passion where the intricate weaving strands in the right hand of quite considerable virtuosity were sustained by the rich full bass and masterly use of the pedal.The central episode was allowed to ride on this sumptuous rich wave of sound without having to slow down as it grew out of what came before and was to come after.Ravishing playing of such subtle shaping and delicacy before the hurricane regained its energy with even more passionate energy. There was extraordinary beauty to the legato of the second episode with the deep bass melody just hinted at as was the melodic line in the right hand all incorporated into this one long outpouring of song. Interrupted by the first Intermezzo that was played with clockwork precision and drive and contrasted so well with the continual wave of song that was forever present.The second Intermezzo was remarkable for its sense of line, and the prominence given to the bass in the final few bars was indeed a master stroke. It was the clarity of line and sumptuous sounds bathed in pedal that made the central part of the third episode quite memorable, with one melodic strand overlapping the other in a duet of sumptuous beauty. Again it contrasted with the spiky rhythmic drive of the outer episodes.The coda ‘Noch schneller’ was breathtaking for it’s animal excitement and enormous sonorities that were never hard but always with a sense of line and overall shape. A tour de force of control of sound quite apart from the extraordinary precision and finger dexterity. There was a simplicity to the disarming ‘sehr langsam’ of the fourth episode played with poignant intensity, the tension released with the gentle song of the ‘Bewegter’. Within all the capricious rhythmic elements of the fifth episode, Andrzej managed to find the musical line that in turn was linked with the mellifluous central episode, where even here one seemed to grow so naturally out of the other. A wonderfully passionate outpouring to this central episode that was a true explosion of romantic fervour. A whispered beauty to the melodic line in the sixth episode where out of nothing there seemed to be born new life, in one of those magic moments that only the poet Schumann could envisage.The ‘sehr rash’ of the seventh was played with a brilliance and animal fervour that was overwhelming in its dynamic drive and digital perfection. Even in these transcendentally difficult passages Andrzej could steer us through a maze of notes giving them an architectural, expressive shape and meaning. Wonderful to hear the non legato chords in the coda that suddenly become legato as they come to rest on a cloud of beauty.The last episode is probably the most difficult to hold together and it was here that Andrzej showed a complete understanding of Schumann’s chameleonic change of character. There was the beautiful bass melody allowed to flow so gracefully in the first episode and the wondrous use of the pedal and the deep bass notes in the second that allowed a build up of sonority without any hardness or exaggeration. The gently rhythmic outer episodes were sustained by deep bass notes as the work finished with whispered notes deep in the bottom of the keyboard.

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The young talented teenager now on the edge of thirty has become a very great artist.

Chosen to present the newly acquired manuscript of Chopin’s Fourth Ballade for the Polish Institute in Warsaw, he changed the announced programme of the third Ballade to the fourth.

A press conference was held to present the manuscript of the Ballade in F minor, Op. 52, composed in 1842. My participation was the presentation of the national version and the version from the manuscript so as to highlight the differences. Such a wonderful experience. You can watch the entire conference at the link below.: https://www.youtube.com/live/QHk1LbWTYWE?si=ad_uKXvFSJVjxBER

But it was the opening Nocturnes op 55 and the Mazukas op 50 that immediately revealed his great artistry. A freedom that had in its midst a burning energy that carried him on a wave of sound where the music just seemed to pour out of him.

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Of course the B minor Sonata and the F minor Ballade showed his architectural understanding not only of the structure but what true Bel Canto can mean.

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Hats off to Norma Fisher, and Roger Nellist of Perivale, who have been monitoring and helping him in these past few years where his seemingly unattainable vision was so close but yet so far.

‘Je sens, je joue, je trasmet’ was used to describe Cherkassky many years ago and with Andrzej today has never been more actual

Andrzej Wiercinski in Ruislip A great artist free to conquer the world
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/06/26/andrzej-wiercinski-in-ruislip-a-great-artist-free-to-conquer-the-world/

Andrzej Wiercinski at St Mary’s Perivale Beauty and style combine with aristocratic poise and poetry
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/09/08/andrzej-wiercinski-at-st-marys-perivale-beauty-and-style-combine-with-aristocratic-poise-and-poetry/

Cox – A celebration The Wiercinski brothers amaze delight and rejoice
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/06/21/geoff-cox-a-celebration-the-wiercinski-brothers-amaze-delight-and-rejoice/

Unfortunately Bach could not make it on stage at the end of a ravishingly beautiful performance of his Goldbergs by Cristian Sandrin last night .

His presence was felt strongly, though, in this most beautiful of London Concert Halls.

These were not the monumental variations that the High Priestess of Bach would offer in a quasi religious seance. These were seen through another prism, one that had inspired three young composers,commissioned by this eclectic musician, to enhance the aspect of beauty and ravishment that Bach had been commissioned to write to inspire the dreams of an insomniac. Perchance to dream indeed !

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Nearly two hours of music as our genial host like all serious musicians played all Bach’s repeats, bar one, adding discretely with the use of an I pad the three where the ink was still wet on the page .

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Not content with a truly astonishing tour de force of memory and stamina Cristian seemed elated.

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Bach’s work seemed to have on him quite the opposite effect from its commission as he extracted the three new variations and allowed them to shine on their own with ravishing beauty around this magnificent edifice. Encore took on a new meaning just as the title the ‘New Goldberg Variations’ had promised.

A triumph and a refreshingly original performance of one of the greatest creations of all keyboard works. Lucky Milan who will get seconds on Friday for Hans Fazzari’s Serate Musicali !

Cristian Sandrin plays Goldberg Variations the start of a lifetime journey of discovery from Perivale to Bucharest
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/05/17/cristian-sandrin-plays-goldberg-variations-the-start-of-a-lifetime-journey-of-discovery/

Goldberg triumphs in Berlin dedicated to Sandu Sandrin by his son Cristian
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/11/05/goldberg-triumphs-in-berlin-dedicated-to-sandu-sandrin-by-his-son-cristian/

The opening of a much needed Young Artists Series at the new Bechstein Hall that is fast making it’s mark as an important new concert venue in London, just complimenting its next door neighbours of Wigmore Hall and Bob Boas Salon in nearby Mansfield Road. An important new venue especially for young musicians who have dedicated their youth to art and are just in need of a public to continue their voyage of discovery together.

What better choice could there have been than a young man perfecting his quite considerable skills at the Guildhall under such esteemed musicians as Charles Owen and Lucy Parham ,who we have recently applauded in this very hall.

Thomas Masciaga ,a young Italian from Ivrea whose evident love for the piano shone through everything he did.

Just two Sonatas both in B minor and both played with ravishing sound and a musicianly sense of style. I have rarely heard the Chopin scherzo from the B minor Sonata played as beautifully with a jeux perlé so exquisitely shaped.

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The mighty Rondo Finale: ‘Presto non tanto’ was so beautiful that each time the rondo returned it was played ever more radiantly and not just treated with the usual brutal force and lack of finesse of lesser artists . The cascades of notes after the imperious chords were truly like wafts of golden sunlight shining on the ever more exciting forward drive.

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The opening of the sonata was indeed Maestoso and if his love for Chopin’s glorious outpouring of Bel Canto meant that he had to sacrifice the overall architectural shape of the movement , it was the price he had to pay for having such an exquisitely sensitive heart .

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The mighty chords at the opening of the Largo were the consequence of the final notes of the scherzo and heralded a bel canto of beguiling freedom and beauty.

This was playing of a supreme stylist who could bring to life a work so often manhandled by so called virtuosi.Thomas has all the same virtuosity but it was canons covered in flowers!

The Haydn Sonata too was played with exquisite style but also with a kaleidoscope of colour with a first movement of beauty and grace and an architectural shape that suited the style of its age. A ‘Menuetto’ of beguiling delicacy and pastoral innocence with the spell broken momentarily only by the imposing ‘Trio.’ The return of the ‘Menuetto’ was gracefully embellished, as is the vogue these days, but wonder whether an artist who can make the modern piano speak with such an exquisite voice needs to add embellishments that were of an age when the magnificent voice of the Bechstein of today was not yet envisage.The ‘Presto’ was played with brilliance and grace with lubricated fingers of crystalline clarity. The ritornello here (he had ignored it in the Chopin) just added to the sumptuous enjoyment that he was providing this morning.

Hats off to the director Terry Lewis, present this morning ,to applaud this young artist in a hall he has fought for many years to bring to fruition.

Beethoven in all his glory tonight at Bechstein’s. The first and last cello sonatas, the penultimate twin of op 102 and the virtuoso show piece variations ‘See the conquering hero comes’.

After the deep contemplation of the opening ‘Adagio sostenuto’ this first sonata of Beethoven burst into an outpouring of joy with the sun shining unusually brightly for Beethoven. Even the Allegro Vivace final movement was full of playful energy and shifting colours.Youthful brilliance and exhilarating energy were the hallmarks of a performance that reminded me of that ‘Golden couple’ almost fifty years ago. A light still shining brightly with these two genial musicians.

Op 102 n.1 where the plaintive cry of the cello was answered by the simple benediction of the piano before the eruption into the imperious Allegro vivace. It was played with dynamic relentless drive and with its abrupt non nonsense Beethoven ending.The question and answer of the Adagio was followed by the unexpected changes of character in the Allegro vivace in a performance of great authority and musical integrity.

The variations that followed the interval were a series of brilliant show pieces for each instrument with each player trying to outdo the other. The eleventh variation showed the genial invention of Beethoven with the poignancy of the two instruments united in an Adagio that was to point to the final and greatest inspiration of Beethoven with his Sonata op 102 n.2.

It was here, in this final sonata, that both players were inspired to give a mesmerising performance of this great work, from its opening call to arms ( every bit as arresting as the Fifth Symphony) and the Adagio of searing beauty with a deep soulful communion of great poignancy. Played with poise and aristocratic weight, its gentle hints barely whispered of what was to come with the mighty Fugue final movement. A movement played with quite considerable mastery not only technically but above all for the music line that together they could carve out of this monumental construction. Veni Vidi Vici indeed

It is this that could well have given the title to performances tonight of dynamic drive and searing intensity.

Guy Johnston and Mishka Momen Rushdie, two players that play as one .

The piano lid fully opened and the cellist using the sound board of the piano to project sounds that rarely we hear in the concert hall united with such vibrancy and energy.

Guy Johnston and Mishka Momen Rushdie are both masters linked inexorably together to bring Beethoven’s thoughts to us ‘hot off the press.’ These were performances in this sumptuous new hall that were born of an intelligence and musical integrity of an age when there was time to dig deep into the very core of the music and extract the meaning that hides behind the seemingly innocuous black and white symbols on the page.

These were performances that in the not too distant past one would travel to Marlborough or Prades to hear and learn from.

Beethoven composed five sonatas for cello and piano, between 1796 (op. 5 nos. 1–2) and 1815 (op. 102 nos. 1–2)

In February 1796, Beethoven set out on a tour of East-Central Europe, starting with Prague and working his way to Berlin via Dresden and Leipzig. Berlin had been one of Europe’s musical centers but was, by the time Beethoven arrived that May, in dire musical straits. Johann Friedrich Reichardt, the distinguished composer who had brought the city’s musical life to distinction in the 1780s, had been relieved of his post for pro-French-Revolution sympathies. (He apparently let slip that the best kind of king was one with no head during a card-game in Hamburg, something that didn’t exactly thrill his boss, King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia.) Among the few performers of distinction who remained in the Prussian capital was the cellist Jean-Louis Duport, a favorite of the king, who was himself a fine amateur cellist. So it was only natural that Beethoven should write some music for cello and piano during his stay in Berlin. His first two Cello Sonatas, Op. 5, and the Variations on “See the conqu’ring hero comes” from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus were the results. The Judas Maccabaeus Variations date from this Berlin visit; they, too, were published by Artaria (without an opus number) in 1797. The theme – probably the best-known from Handel’s entire oratorio – was an especially felicitous choice on the part of the young Beethoven. He may not have known it, but Handel occupied a special place in Friedrich Wilhelm’s affections. The king, during his days as crown prince, had declared his musical independence from his predecessor, Friedrich the Great, by sponsoring a massive performance of Handel’s Messiah in the Berlin Cathedral. Beethoven, too, held Handel’s music in the highest esteem. The theme, with its measured tread and lofty bearing, provided the composer with the basis for an engaging set of 12 variations. The eleventh variation, an extended adagio, is the longest “slow movement” Beethoven would write for cello and piano until his final work for the pairing, the Sonata, Op. 102, No. 2.

Nikolaus Kraft (1778-1853) was the eldest son of the cellist Anton Kraft (1749-1820). In 1801 he travelled to Berlin together with his father where he received cello lessons for one year from the virtuoso cellist Jean-Louis Duport (1749-1819), who was employed there at the Prussian court of King Friedrich Wilhelm II. Nikolaus, as well as his father, was also for a time a member of the Schuppanzigh string quartet – named after its founder the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776-1830) – which gave a number of first performances of Beethoven’s string quartets.The Krafts were not the only cellists with whom Beethoven worked during his life. In spring of 1796 Beethoven visited the Prussian court in Berlin, where he also met Jean-Louis Duport, and it was there that his op. 5 cello sonatas originated. These sonatas are regarded today as the first ‘true’ sonatas for cello and piano, as the two instruments are given equal importance.Jean-Louis Duport was one of the most influential cellists of his time. In the early 19th century he published a violoncello treatise entitled: Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle et sur la conduite de l’archet (Essay on fingering the violoncello and on the conduct of the bow) (Paris, 1806). This became one of the most influential cello treatises in the history of the cello; the exercises (Études) that are included in it are still practised by cello pupils today. 

At the time of Beethoven’s visit, Jean-Louis Duport was principal cellist in the opera orchestra and, together with his brother the virtuoso cellist Jean-Pierre Duport (1741-1818), also instructed the king on the cello. Beethoven and Jean-Louis Duport performed his op. 5 cello sonatas for the king, and apparently, Beethoven also intended to dedicate the two sonatas to him. This is evident from a letter, now lost, which Duport sent to him where he wrote: ‘Duport, acknowledges the dedication to him of Beethoven’s two sonatas for piano and violoncello and expresses the wish to play them with the composer’. In the end the op. 5 cello sonatas were dedicated to the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm II.

The Sonatas for cello and piano No. 4 in C major. op.102, No. 1, and No. 5 in D major, Op. 102, No. 2, were composed simultaneously in 1815 and published, by Simrock, in 1817 and were dedicated to the Countess Marie von Erdödy, a close friend and confidante of Beethoven.

The two sonatas were written between May and December 1815. The first copy by Beethoven’s copyist Wenzel Rampl was made in late 1815 but was then subject to further alterations by Beethoven. A subsequent ‘good’ copy was supplied in February 1816 to Charles Neate for proposed, though unrealized, publication in London. Beethoven then made further small alterations prior to their eventual publication by Simrock in Bonn.

During the period 1812 to 1817 Beethoven, ailing and overcome by all sorts of difficulties, experienced a period of literal and figurative silence as his deafness became overwhelmingly profound and his productivity diminished. Following seven years after the A major op 69 the complexity of their composition and their visionary character marks (which they share with the piano sonata op 101 the start of Beethoven’s ‘third period’.

The critics of the time, were often perplexed by Beethoven’s last compositions: ‘They elicit the most unexpected and unusual reactions, not only by their form but by the use of the piano as well…We have never been able to warm up to the two sonatas; but these compositions are perhaps a necessary link in the chain of Beethoven’s works in order to lead us there where the steady hand of the maestro wanted to lead us.’

Mishka Rushdie Momen a timeless message of comfort and beauty
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/04/30/mishka-rushdie-momen-a-timeless-message-of-comfort-and-beauty/

Lunar New Year at the National Liberal Club in an evening of sumptuous delight organised every year by Yisha Xue for her Asia Circle.Curtis invited for the first five days of Snake Year.

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Dragon ,drums and many other delights to celebrate the opening of this New Year.The year of the Snake.

A culinary feast for over 100 distinguished guests but it was the twenty year old Taiwanese pianist Curtis Phill Hsu who stole the show with playing of such exquisite artistry that silenced an audience ready for revelry. We were stopped in our tracks in one of those collective moments when time stands still.

The winner of the Hastings International Piano Competition cast a spell over the festive atmosphere and illuminated our evening with the perfumed delights of Debussy but above all the timeless beauty he brought to Schubert’s G flat Impromptu.

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A sumptuous improvised paraphrase of a popular chinese film score was played with the ease and kaleidoscope of colours from a young man whose destiny is already sicured.

After the sumptuous Chinese New Year Celebrations at the NLC, Yisha together with Ian Brignall and Paul Newman, who had both travelled up especially from Hastings, having organised for the 2023 Hastings winner two extra concerts in Chelsea at the Sketch Club and finally on Sunday at the Arts Club.

Curtis Phill Hsu mastery and artistry of the 19 year old winner of Hastings International Piano 2024
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/10/01/curtis-phill-hsu-mastery-and-artistry-of-the-19-year-old-winner-of-hastings-international-piano-2024/

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This little tour had in fact commenced with a full recital in Bob Boas sumptuous salon, neighbour of the Wigmore and Bechstein Halls,and had concluded after the NLC and Sketch Club with a Sunday evening concert at Chelsea Arts Club.

I never knew of the existence of the Sketch Club even though I have visited friends on many occasions who live almost next door on Cheyne Walk overlooking the historic Physic Garden. It is a journey back in time which quite frequently happens in the ‘Circoli’ that one can still occasionally find in noble old Italian cities, but I had no idea could be found in the centre of London! Mozart of course talks about going for a ride in the countryside of Chelsea but that is almost three centuries ago.

An amazing place full of the atmosphere of Artists from past times who came together to discuss, create and smoke! Similar of course to Montmartre at the turn of the 1900’s as described by Picasso,Stravinsky,Poulenc and Rubinstein.

A noble Blüthner sits in the vast studio,with painters’ easles stained with paint stacked in the corner, because it is a club still vibrant with activity. It was here that Paul Newman had organised a second full recital for Curtis of Debussy,Beethoven,Ravel and Schubert with a surprise item by Benjamin Britten. It was here that we could rediscover the true mastery of this young musician.

Opening with three Debussy Preludes from Book 1. ‘La file aux cheveaux de Lin’ was played with aristocratic weight, freedom and ravishing beauty.’Très calme et doucement expressif ‘ could not have found more sensitive hands as they carved out this well ‘trodden’ melody without a trace of sentimentality but with a poignant significance of poetic understanding.The final bars marked ‘murmuré et en revenant peu à peu’ was where Curtis brought out the inner parts that led so naturally upwards drifting into the distance before the two crystalline split notes of farewell. There was magic in the air in a place where the bohemian Debussy would have felt completely at home.The distance bells of ‘Les collines d’Anacapri’ were answered by the gradual awakening of the joyous excitement of the Neapolitan Riviera. Curtis created a wonderful sense of improvisation with chameleonic changes of colour and character as the melody was heard in the bass ‘avec la liberté d’une chanson populaire’. A passionate outpouring of subtle innuendo of sultry insinuation, was played with all the style of a jazz player before the return to the hustle and bustle of the mediterranean and the final ecstatic cry for joy that Curtis punched out with such gleeful exuberance.

The final prelude in this ‘tris’ was the most innovative and remarkable. Debussy was quite a considerable pianist and knew the scores of past masters well ,he even edited the works of Chopin. But it was here the three handed pianism of Thalberg and Liszt that created an ongoing wave of sound on which floated the glowing melodic line. Curtis played with the same mastery that I remember from Richter on his first visits to the West. Streams of notes played with such mastery that they become merely gold and silver sounds as the sails are allowed to float so naturally around the keyboard. A tour de force especially on a piano that was most probably the original one from the 1890’s when this club was first formulated! Richter ,too, used to enjoy his encounter with unknown instruments and the challenge of delving deep to find a soul that may have been hidden from all, until its master can tame them.

I have hear Curtis play Beethoven before, both the ‘Waldstein’ and ‘Hammerklavier’ revealed an artist with the same sacred fire of a Serkin.The same intellectual intelligence of all great interpreters searching deep into the score to discover what the composer really intended.

I have reviewed the ‘Waldstein’ before as you can read here :

Curtis Phill Hsu ‘Genius bestrides St Mary’s Perivale’
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/27/curtis-phill-hsu-genius-bestrides-st-marys-perivale/

But every performance for a real thinking musician is a new voyage of discovery and it was this that came across with the dynamic rhythmic drive and inner energy that opened the ‘Waldstein’. Delius used to dismiss all other composers except himself with just a few words.Bach he would describe as ‘knotty twine’ whereas Beethoven was ‘all scales and arpeggios!’ It is this sonata and the ‘Emperor’ concerto that does in fact use scales and arpeggios in a truly genial way.

Curtis played with absolute rhythmic precision, even taking the tempo of the Allegro con brio from the tempo needed for the melodic second subject. A driving rhythmic impulse that did not turn corners in a ‘stylish’ way but realised that the abrupt changes of character were more tonal than slowing the tempo. Curtis with fingers like limpets that could play with Gilels and Gelber like precision, where every note was given its just weight and worth.The sudden changes from piano to sforzando in the development were as hair raising as they must truly have seemed in Beethoven’s day. An introduction to the last movement ( the slow movement Beethoven obviously considered too distracting for this whirlwind he had created and was later published as the Andante favori ).

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Curtis brought a weight and profound beauty to this deeply meditative outpouring with an architectural sense of line that led to the top G, that Beethoven, as if by magic, turns into the opening of the Rondo. An undulation of sounds as the composer has indicated, with very precise pedal markings, and which Curtis scrupulously interpreted. A tour de force of scales and arpeggios indeed, but what drive and architectural shape this young man, with great maturity, could lead us through a maze of breathtaking virtuosity.

‘Gaspard de la Nuit’ was written by Ravel with the intent of creating a piano piece of even more transcendental difficulty than Balakirev’s ‘Islamey’. ‘Scarbo’ is indeed one of the most difficult pieces in the piano repertoire and needs a virtuoso technique, but also a resilience that can keep the driving rhythms of the impish demon flitting around the keyboard with unrelenting skill. It also has moments of passionate outpourings that Curtis played with fiery conviction. Holding back with aristocratic authority before letting go with extraordinary vehemence.The deep bass gongs at the beginning of the mysterious central episode I have never heard played with such clarity or demonic devilry. Curtis not only was master of the notes but above all master of the character and subtle dynamic range that Ravel demands.

The opening ‘Ondine’ was played with extraordinary clarity on a piano that I doubt has ever been asked to respond to such mastery. The nymph sang out above the washes of sound and the lead up to the climax was breathtaking in its exhilarating ecstatic declamation. Wonderful control on a not easy piano as Curtis left the pedal down for the final whispered cry of the nymph before allowing her to flit off into the distance. ‘Le Gibet’ (the gallows swaying in the wind) showed the true mastery of Curtis because the truly great pianists are not those that can play louder and faster than their rivals but those that can play quieter and with total control. And nowhere more could one appreciate Curtis’s great artistry than in the much maligned G flat Impromptu of Schubert with which he closed his recital . I wonder if Curtis knew that today the 31st January was Schubert’s birthday in 1797.There was indeed magic in the air and a sense of timeless beauty as Curtis stretched the melodic line with the rarified breath control of the greatest of Bel Canto singers.

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And it was to the human voice that Curtis turned as he accompanied our host Paul Newman in a delicious rendering of Britten’s ‘Foggy Foggy Dew’.They had tried it out for fun in the afternoon with no idea of sharing it publicly, but Curtis was only too delighted to finish his recital together with such a genial host.

Ryan Wang ‘A star is born on the Wings of the Dragon’ at the National Liberal Club
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/02/10/ryan-wang-a-star-is-born-on-the-wings-of-the-dragon-at-the-national-liberal-club/

The Year of the Tiger with Love Concert Yuanfan Yang and Shirley Wu at the NLC
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/02/17/the-year-of-the-tiger-with-love-concert-yuanfan-yang-and-shirley-wu-at-the-nlc/