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Programme Callum McLachlan:

Schumann – Arabesque op 18
Rachmaninov– Etude Tableaux op 39 N. 3 in F# Minor
Chopin – Barcarolle op 60
Shostakovich – Prelude and Fugue in D Minor op 87 N.24

Programme Juanjo Blázquez:

-Gounod/Blázquez Duo de Marguerite and Faust
-Schubert/Liszt Gretchem am Spinnrade, Erlkönig
-Dukas/Staub l’apprenti sorcier
Presented by Talent unlimited.

What a feast of music in one of London’s most secluded churches just a stone’s throw from Piccadilly Circus.All those that had taken the time off to sit and marvel at two young artists united under the banner of Canan Maxton who with her ‘Talent Unlimited’ is the unstoppable promoter of young musicians,left enriched and enlightened ,as they returned to the bustle of the world outside.

From the very first notes of the Schumann Arabesque it was obvious we were in the presence of a young artist of a rare sensibility with something very important to say.The kaleidoscope of sounds and ravishing colours from Callum McLachlan allowed this little gem to shine and gleam as it rarely does in lesser hands.A very subtle flexibility allowed the music to speak with a voice where every note had a significance while showing us the overall shape of this miniature tone poem.

It was the same subtle beauty that Juanjo bought to the duet from Gounod’s Faust.Such subtle colour and ravishing sense of balance brought this transciption vividly to life .But it was the Liszt transcriptions of Schubert’s Gretchen and the mighty Erlkonig that was breathtaking in its refined beauty and passionate outpouring of sumptuous sounds.No matter how many notes were spread over the keyboard Juanjo’s sense of colour and shape never allowed the music to become hard or ungrateful.It was instead the sumptuous sounds of a truly ‘Grand’ piano in the sensitive hands of a refined artist.
It was the same sensitivity that Callum had brought to Chopin’s great outpouring of song with his Barcarolle op 60.From the gentle opening with a melodic line played with such beautiful legato,the continuous gentle lapping of the left hand following so attentively but never overpowering.A fluidity of sound with a luminosity that in the beautiful central episode reached truly sublime heights .It led to the climax of passion and glory only to die to a whisper before the final four chords that mirrored the opening chord that had opened the gate to Chopin’s wondrous lagoon.
The technical wizardry and sense of character that Juanjo brought to Dukas ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ was breathtaking in it’s total conviction and technical mastery.All at the service of a story that held us mesmerised by this young magician.
It was the same magic that Callum had brought to the Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in D minor.A monumental work that from the whispered opening could be transformed into a climax of such grandeur and pyrotechnical authority,it made one realise what a genius Shostakovich truly was.
Often saturated by complete performances it was refreshing to hear this monumental work given the space it truly deserves on its own.
Two artists of great stature still only in their twenties both having dedicated their youth to their art.Something that is never mentioned in the mass media that only spreads the word of evil and ugliness in the world .But there is another much better world of beauty and dedication for all those with the ears to hear it.

Callum McLachlan was finalist of The 18th International Robert Schumann Competition Zwickau and Semi-Finalist of the XX Santander International Piano Competition Paloma O’ Shea, Callum Mclachlan, 23, has been described as ‘A born Schumann player’ with a ‘magical sense of colour and extraordinary technical prowess’ (July 2019, London recital). Born into a family of musicians, he first started piano lessons with his father at the age of 7, and entered Chetham’s School of Music at age 11, where he studied with Russian pianist and pedagogue Dina Parakhina. He was awarded the highest diploma from Trinity College – the FTCL, in his final year. He studied under Professor Claudius Tanski for Bachelors at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.He is now studying for Masters with Professor Claudio Martinez Mehner in Cologne Hochschule fur Musik and Prof. Jacques Rouvier in the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.He has performed at many of the most important concert venues throughout the UK, Europe, and USA, including Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Wien Konzerthaus, Pereda Hall Santander, London’s Steinway Hall and Manchester’s Bridgewater and Stoller Hall. Recently he performed with the renowned ensemble Casals Quartet. .In 2021, he was a Hattori Foundation 2021 Senior Finalist and receives generous support. He has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, works of Benjamin Britten in Steinway Hall London, Liszt’s 2nd Piano Concerto with Paul Mann and CSO at RNCM Concert Hall, which he recently repeated at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton in March 2020 and Mozart Sonatas for Piano and Violin at The Bridgewater HallHe has also had much success in competitions throughout the UK, winning 1st prize in the Welsh International Piano Competition (U19), The Scottish International Youth prize, as well as reaching the national finals of the EPTA piano competition.Most recently, he made a recording of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata at the Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg, in collaboration with G. Henle Verlag for Beethoven 250. He made his New York recital debut in 2019, performing works of Brahms and Percy Grainger, an eclectic recital programme he performed at the newly opened Stoller Hall in Manchester, to critical acclaim. In his first year of studies at the Mozarteum, he was personally invited by Pascal Nemirowski to perform in the Young Artist Series in the RBC Birmingham Piano Festival

Juanjo Blazquez was born in Lorca (Spain) in 1998, he began his piano studies at the “Narciso Yepes” Professional Conservatory of Lorca in 2006. He received his first lessons from professor Estrella Romero Jiménez and later from Antonio Agustín González Hidalgo and Helena Ayala Gea. He has performed concerts in Spain and UK, and the ALTI Hall in Kyoto. Juanjo recently performed as a soloist Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano Concerto at Madrid’s National Auditorium with the María Rodrigo Symphony OrchestraHe has received masterclasses from teachers such as Lilya Zilberstein, Anna Malikova, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Stephen Hugh, Claudio Martínez-Mehner, Ashley Wass and Nino Kereselidze among others.Juanjo has won prizes in national and international competitions such as the “Ciudad de Albacete”, the “Entre Cuerdas y Metales”, the “Almudena Cano” and “ClaMo” International competition. He is also recipient of the “FW Wright Piano Scholarship” endowed by the RNCM , and he was chosen to represent Spain in the “Kyoto International music students festival” in 2019, receiving outstanding reviews.He completed his piano studies at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid in 2020, under the guidance of Ana Guijarro, having previously studied with Pilar Bilbao Iturburu. He continued his Master’s studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Graham Scott and Kathryn Stott.

Leslie Howard, who has chosen a typically diverse all-Liszt programme for his 75th birthday concert at Wigmore Hall, is known universally as a specialist in the music of this most prolific and influential of composers and has devoted much time to performing, recording, teaching and writing on his works. Howard has also shared his extraordinary understanding of Liszt in numerous masterclasses around the world where his erudition and ease enable him to convey the very essence of Liszt’s style.

Masterly playing for Leslie Howard’s 75th birthday concert.
Of course a Liszt recital of works many of us have never heard on the concert stage before.
His series of Liszt recitals in this very hall have passed into history as have his complete recordings on 100 cd’s of the entire pianistic repertoire of the Genius that is Liszt.
Seated at the piano hardly moving a muscle he miraculously ignited the piano with an extraordinary range of sounds and colours.It was the same lesson that had allowed Rubinstein to ravish and seduce audiences right up to his last concert in this very hall at the age of 90.
Art that conceals art that had so inspired the young blue eyed ,blond haired Australian who had made the pilgrimage to Siena to study in the class of Guido Agosti.

Agosti who had been a disciple of Busoni in turn a disciple of Liszt was no showman and playing in public was a great suffering for this real gentleman of the piano.
His true artistry could only be best expressed in the intimate atmosphere of his studio that became his home every summer in Siena for thirty years .
There were sounds heard in that studio that have never been forgotten by generations of pianist many of whom at the beginning of illustrious careers.
Agosti and his wonderfully extrovert wife Lydia a real Floristan and Eusebius couple,immediately realised the extraordinary intellect and serious intent of this young virtuoso as they took Leslie very much under their wing.
It was obviously from Agosti that the seed of absolute musical integrity and reverence for the composer’s wishes was born.Also a musical curiosity of rare intelligence and humility.
Lydia had never realised also what refreshing fun music could be with this extrovert young Australian.
A musical purity in which the pianist is a medium between the composer and his audience.
Je sens,je joue,je trasmets.
Music for Agosti was the bible!
Of course there is great scholarship and the understanding of structure and architectural shape of a great musical mind .A scholarship that has Leslie searching the archives for the original manuscripts to get as close as possible to the seed that gives birth to the music.
Agosti and Leslie Howard,two great minds at the service of the composer.

Leslie has happily an international concert itinerary which has seen him performing throughout the world for more than half a century.Unlike Agosti he relishes his ability to communicate with a public and his generosity towards serious young musicians is well known by all those that flock to his home to discuss and discover the secrets in the scores of which Leslie is a living encyclopaedia of knowledge and acquired wisdom. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/02/16/leslie-howard-masterclass-at-the-r-c-m-scholarship-and-mastery-shared/.

A talking encyclopaedia indeed that can bring all the most obscure and absurdly ignored scores vividly to life ……at the touch of a hat!
Like Rubinstein Leslie is also a ‘Bon viveur’and well known also for his discerning taste in fine wines.
Tonight on his 75th birthday even though in momentarily difficult circumstances he pulled another rabbit out of the hat.
A scintillating display of virtuosity,scholarship and the joy of communication that held a full house astonished and astounded by many works that they had never heard before.

Infact some works were only recently discovered in the archives.’Der Todesengel’ was dicovered by Minkyu Kim, a disciple of Leslie,and a distinguished pianist and scholar in his own right, who found it in Georgetown University -Leon Robbin Collection.
Above all Leslie like Rubinstein shared his ‘joie de vivre’ and generosity with his admirers who are happy to know that Leslie still has another quarter of a century before him of stimulating discoveries.
He may not have had the strength to offer a much requested encore,but it certainly did not stop him from unwinding with his many friends and disciples in the improvised Green room just a stones’ throw from the scene of his triumphant birthday concert.

Noretta Conci and her husband John Leech,both well into their nineties were the first to congratulate their musical ‘son’ who they have nurtured and mentored for more than half a century.
Noretta,a disciple of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli ,who had also as a child studied with Agosti,was astounded that there was not a single wrong note musically or technically in Leslie’s heroic appearance tonight.

John founded the Keyboard Trust together with Leslie,thirty three years ago ,as a sixtieth birthday present for his beloved Noretta.
He will be 98 on Friday and made the pilgrimage tonight especially to be with his musical ‘baby’ on his mere seventy fifth birthday.

Edward Morton Jack of the Liszt Society, writes in tribute: ‘Among Leslie Howard’s many distinctions is his having been invited, aged only 39, to be president of the Liszt Society upon the death in 1987 of Louis Kentner. Howard has remained president of the Society ever since, working tirelessly to promote an understanding of the music and life of Liszt’. Tonight’s concert is no exception.

• Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
  • Ballade No. 1 (‘Le chant du croisé’) S170
  • Ballade No. 2 S171
  • 4 Valses oubliées S215
  • Petite valse (‘Nachspiel zu den drei vergessenen Walzer’) S695e
  • Variationen über das Motiv von Bach S180
  • Hungarian Rhapsody No. 16 in A minor S244
  • Hungarian Rhapsody No. 17 in D minor S244
  • Hungarian Rhapsody No. 18 in F sharp minor S244
  • Hungarian Rhapsody No. 19 in D minor S244

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/liszt-was-a-genius-so-why-are-we-so-snobbish-about-him/

Liszt is alive and well and today in Perivale

Leslie Howard and Ludovico Troncanetti at St Mary’s A wondrous voyage of discovery

A fascinating survey of music with a Spanish flavour from this most eclectic of young musicians.Axel was born in the Castelli Romani in Genzano and brought up in Aprilia on the plains below.His musical wings have taken him far and wide to study with Maurizio Baglini and Denis Pascal.I first heard him in the final concert of Benedetto Lupo’s class at the Academy of S.Cecilia.Recently it was Louis Lortie who spoke so highly of this young musician and even acted as recording engineer for his two piano recording with Luigi Carrocia of Liszt ‘s mighty Dante Symphony.

I have recently listened to his CD of the first two books of Iberia and was very curious to hear today the third book.Interludes of three of Mompou’s very suggestive songs and dances ,as Axel explained,gave us the introvert side to the Spanish character as opposed to the scintillating glitter and animal passion of Albeniz,Ravel and De Falla.It was refreshing to hear with what intelligence and integrity Axel brought to these little pieces that are now being re-evaluated by musicians of great standing.Both Stephen Hough and Arcadi Volodos have recently made CD’s of the works of this much neglected composer.It is a far cry from Agosti’s class in Siena in the late sixties when a very fine Canadian student Jack Krichaf after playing Chopin’s B minor Sonata and the Goldberg Variations appeared with some pieces by Mompou.Agosti took the music from the stand and put it in the waste paper bin saying:’Now play me some music!!!!’.Axel may have turned baubles into gems but they stood their own today against the other undisputed masterpieces on the programme.

Albeniz was played with scintillating colours and spectacular technical prowess where no matter how many notes were scattered around the keyboard the musical line came shining through.Ravel too was played with ravishing colours and refined good taste.De Falla of course was like a wild animal let loose on the keys with amazing glissandi up and down the keyboard like jets of light being shot at an uncontrolled crowd.Chopin’s Nocturne op 62 n. 1,played as an encore,came as a relief with Axel’s refined tone palette and intelligence giving such strength to the Genius of Chopin.

De Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance was a must as a parting shot.I have never heard it played with such electric passion and rhythmic energy.Even the middle section where Rubinstein would throw his hands up and down to great effect Axel turned it into a murmuring boiling cauldron out of which exploded a savage musical cry.You could almost hear the raucous gipsy voice intoning her seductive song.

An exhilarating recital from a musician returned to his origins thanks to Marylene Mouquet’s association dedicated to her teacher Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and to the Keyboard Trust of London who had invited this young star back to his roots to astonish and amaze.

Iberia is a suite for piano composed between 1905 and 1909 by Isaac Albeniz. It is composed of four books of three pieces each.

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

• Axel played Book 3 :El Albaicin a district of Granada El Polo (F minor) after the flamenco Polo Lavapiés another district of Madrid.

Cançons i danses – Songs and Dances by Frederic Mompou each originally published singly under the Spanish title Canción y Danza is the title of a collection of 15 pieces by Federico Mompou and were written between 1918 and 1972. All were written for the piano except No. 13 for guitar and No. 15 for organ

Each piece consists of an introductory slow Cançó, followed by a more animated Dansa in a related key but not necessarily in the same time signature. They are mostly based on existing Catalan folk tunes, although some of them are original works.

N.1 Song :Quasi moderato; F-sharp major; based on La hija de Crimson (La Filla del Carmesi) and dance :Allegro non troppo; F-sharp minor – F-sharp major; based on Dansa de Castelltercol (or Castelltersol) written without a key signature .

N.7 Song :Lento; A major; 6/8; based on Muntanyes regalades) Dance:A major; 3/4; based on L’Hereu Riera ;

N.3 SongModéré; based on El Noi de la Mare Dance:Sardana-temps de marche; 6/8; original, salvaged from an unfinished string quartet dedicated to Frank Marshall and contains no bar lines.It is interesting to note that Alicia de Larrocha became director of the Frank Marshall Academy named after her illustrious teacher.

Rapsodie espagnole is an orchestral rhapsody written by Maurice Ravel and composed between 1907 and 1908, the Rapsodie is one of Ravel’s first major works for orchestra. It was first performed in Paris in 1908 and quickly entered the international repertoire. The piece draws on the composer’s Spanish heritage and is one of several of his works set in or reflecting Spain.Axel played the transcription by Lucien Garban.

Lucien Garban (1877–1959) was a French composer, music arranger and editor who wrote transcriptions still performed in the modern repertoire. Garban studied under Gabriel Fauré at the Conservatoire de Paris and served as musical director of the publishing house Durand until 1959.Around 1900, Garban along with Ravel and a number of young artists, poets, critics, and musicians joined together in an informal group; they came to be known as Les Apaches (“The Hooligans”), a name coined by Ricardo Vines to represent their status as “artistic outcasts”.

Prélude à la nuit movement is marked très modéré and the whole movement is quiet, never rising above mezzo forte . Malaguena is the shortest of the four movements, and is marked assez vif and refers to a flamenco dance from the southern Spanish province of Malaga where Ravel’s music here is more a romantic evocation of place and mood. Habanera is beguiling and subtle in its expression of a thoroughly Spanish character and spirit. Feria is the longest of the four movements, and is the first point in the score at which Ravel allows “the élan that has so far been deliberately stifled” to break out. The boisterous carnival atmosphere has undertones of nostalgia, but exuberance triumphs and the work ends in a joyful burst of orchestral colour.

Fantasía bética, or Andalusian Fantasy, was written in 1919 by Manuel de Falla evoking the old Roman province of Baetisin in southern Spain, today’s Andalusia. It was commissioned by Artur Rubinstein who planned to perform it in Barcelona that year but did not learn it in time and so wound up giving the premiere in New York on 20 February 1920; as it turned out, he would play it only a few times before dropping it from his repertory without recording it.Arthur Rubinstein, years later,explained to the composer that he found it too long … It was Falla’s last major piano work and the only one that belongs to the virtuoso tradition in which Falla the pianist had been trained. As Ronald Crichton has written: ‘Guitar figurations transformed into pianistic terms abound … other passages evoke the harpsichord, Scarlatti as it were, rewritten by Bartók.’ Beyond that are the smoky, heavily ornamented lines of flamenco singers and the tightly controlled gestures of Andalusian dancing, the whole work adding up to a marvellously varied and vigorous portrait of Spain. From the structural point of view, one can only admire what Falla called ‘internal rhythm’, which he explained as ‘the harmony in the deepest sense of the word born of the dynamic equilibrium between the sections’.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/05/29/axel-trolese-illuminates-liszts-erard-with-supreme-artistry-and-passion-in-velletris-convento-del-carmine/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/03/24/axel-trolese-in-london/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/01/11/axel-troleses-refined-musicianship-for-roma-3-university-streamed-live-from-teatro-palladium-in-rome/

Après une lecture du Dante – Fantasia quasi Sonata
da Années de pèlérinage. Deuxième Année. Italie, S.161 (1849).
Sonetto di Dante “Tanto gentile e tanto onesta” (da H. v. Bülow), S.479 (1874)
Totentanz. Parafrasi sul Dies Irae, S.525 (1865) Preludio su “Weinen, klagen, sorgen, zagen” (da J. S.Bach), S.179 (1859)
Recueillement. Vincenzo Bellini in memoriam, S.204 (1877)
Rapsodia ungherese n. 2, S.244 (1847)Lento a capriccio (do minore)

Liszt is alive and well in his beloved Eternal City and at the President’s Palace .
With the young virtuoso ,top prize winner of the Liszt / Budapest competition , Giovanni Bertolazzi astonished us this morning in a live Sunday morning broadcast where not even the unexpected intrusion of a brass band could distract him from the nobility and poetic insights he brought to the Genius of Liszt.

Considered by many to be the finest young pianist of his generation he showed us why, with an hour of astonishing playing of great showmanship but above all with a kaleidoscope of ravishing sounds of deep poetic content all from the hands of an artist of great stature.Liszt is indeed alive and well and I like to think he too was looking on today to a worthy disciple
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/12/04/giovanni-bertolazzi-the-mastery-and-authority-of-liszt/

Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata (French for After a Reading of Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata; also known as the Dante Sonata) was completed in 1849. It was first published in 1856 as part of the second volume of the Anne de Pélerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) and was inspired by the reading of Victor Hugo’s poem “Après un lecture du Dante” (1836).It was originally a small piece entitled Fragment after Dante, consisting of two thematically related movements,which Liszt composed in the late 1830s.He gave the first public performance in Vienna in November 1839.When he settled in Weimar in 1849, he revised the work along with others in the volume, and gave it its present title derived from Victor Hugo’s own work of the same name.

Von Bülow’s song Tanto gentile e tanto onesta never entered the repertoire, Liszt’s enthusiasm for it notwithstanding. The piano transcription S.479 is simple and straightforward, and the original song a worthy setting of Dante Alighieri. (‘My lady is so gentle and modest when she greets others that every tongue trembles and is still, and eyes do not dare to look upon her.’) .Written on the first anniversary of Beatrice’s death (therefore in 1291, according to the chronology established by Dante himself) this sonnet with two different beginnings above all describes the poet’s pain in the memory of his woman now seated in the splendor of the heavens, also through the personification Cavalantiana of the sighs that come out of the author’s chest and speak autonomously. In the prose, the anecdote that allegedly gave rise to the composition of the sonnet is interesting, i.e. Dante’s meeting with unspecified important characters while he is intent on drawing “an angel above certain tablets” (perhaps evidence of an artistic practice also evoked in other parts of Dante’s work).

Totentanz (English: Dance of the Dead): Paraphrase on Dies irae, S .126 for solo piano and orchestra is notable for being based on the Gregorian plainchant melody Dies irae as well as for stylistic innovations. It was first planned in 1838, completed and published in 1849, and revised in 1853 and 1859.Some of the titles of Liszt’s pieces, such as Totentanz,Funérailles,la lugubre gondola and Pensée des morts show the composer’s fascination with death.In the young Liszt we can already observe manifestations of his obsession with death, with religion, and with heaven and hell.Liszt frequented Parisian “hospitals, gambling casinos and asylums” in the early 1830s, and he even went down into prison dungeons in order to see those condemned to die.Liszt also wrote versions for two pianos (S.652) and solo piano (S.525) In the last movement of the Symphonie fantastique by Berlioz the medieval (Gregorian) Dies Irae is quoted in a shockingly modernistic manner. In 1830 Liszt attended the first performance of the symphony and was struck by its powerful originality. Liszt’s Totentanz (Dance of Death), a set of variations also paraphrases the Dies Irae plainsong.An an early biographer notes, “Every variation discloses some new character—the earnest man, the flighty youth, the scornful doubter, the prayerful monk, the daring soldier, the tender maiden, the playful child.”

The Prelude Weinen,Klagen,Sorgen,Zagen ‘Praludium nach Johann Sebastian Bach S 179 of 1859 is a dignified and restrained piece with just one dramatic outburst, all within the framework of a passacaglia which unfolds 25 variations on the motif

Recueillement (‘Recollection’) S 204 was a gift to the Italian composer Lauro Rossi .It weaves arpeggios around a rising scale before settling into very simple, chordal writing.Written in memoriam to Vincenzo Bellini of who Liszt had made famous paraphrases of his Norma,La Sonnambula and I Puritani (Hexameron).Played with simplicity and sensitivity before the final salute from Liszt the greatest showman the piano has ever known .

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, S.244 is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies and is by far the most famous of the set.Franz Liszt was strongly influenced by the music heard in his youth, particularly Hungarian folk music, with its unique gypsy scale,rhythmic spontaneity and direct, seductive expression. These elements would eventually play a significant role in Liszt’s compositions.Composed in 1847 and dedicated to Count Laszlo Teleki it was first published as a piano solo in 1851 .Offering an outstanding contrast to the serious and dramatic lassan.the following friska holds enormous appeal for audiences, with its simple alternating tonic and dominant harmonization, its energetic, toe-tapping rhythms, and breathtaking “pianistics”.Most unusual in this composition is the composer’s invitation for the performer to perform a cadenza .Sergei Rachmaninov wrote a famous cadenza for his interpretation and Liszt himself wrote several cadenzas for the piece, but they were rarely performed.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/02/15/giovanni-bertolazzi-in-london/

Giovanni Bertolazzi
Insignito nel 2021 del 2° Premio e di 5 premi speciali al prestigioso Concorso Pianistico Internazionale “Franz Liszt” di Budapest, Giovanni Bertolazzi è nato a Verona nel 1998 e ha iniziato a studiare pianoforte da bambino. Diplomato prima al Conservatorio “Benedetto Marcello” di Venezia con Massimo Somenzi, quindi all’Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali “Vincenzo Bellini” di Catania con Epifanio Comis, ha frequentato le masterclasses di Lily Dorfman, Joaquín Achúcarro, Matti Raekallio, Violetta Egorova, Boris Berezovsky, Stephen Kovacevich e Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Ha vinto più di 40 premi in concorsi pianistici internazionali, tra cui il 1° Premio al Concorso Pianistico “Siegfried Weishaupt” di Ochsenhausen (2017), il 1° Premio al Concorso Pianistico Internazionale “Sigismund Thalberg” di Napoli (2018) e il 4° Premio al Concorso Pianistico Internazionale “Ferruccio Busoni” di Bolzano (2019). Nel giugno 2019 a Milano ha ricevuto il “Premio Alkan per il virtuosismo pianistico”. Dal 2020 è sostenuto artisticamente dall’Associazione Culturale “Musica con le Ali” e nel 2022 è stato premiato con il “Tabor Foundation Award”, riconoscimento assegnatogli dalla Verbier Festival Academy in occasione del Verbier Festival (Svizzera).
Si è esibito fra l’altro al Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, a Palazzo Pitti a Firenze, al Teatro Politeama Garibaldi di Palermo, al Teatro Bellini di Catania, presso la Sala Verdi del Conservatorio di Milano, a Budapest alla “Franz Liszt” Academy of Music e al Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum, alla Landesmusikakademie di Ochsenhausen, al Kadrioru Kunstimuuseum di Tallinn e alla Steinway Hall a Londra. È stato ospite inoltre delle Serate Musicali di Milano, degli. Amici della Musica di Padova, del Bologna Festival, degli Amici della Musica di Firenze, del Verbier Festival e del Cziffra Festival di Budapest. Nei suoi concerti con orchestra ha collaborato, fra gli altri, con direttori come Gergely Vajda, Maurizio Dini Ciacci, Epifanio Comis, Daniel Smith. Ai Concerti di Radio3 al Quirinale ha debuttato in recital nell’ottobre del 2020.
Di recente ha pubblicato un album dedicato a Liszt e premiato dalla critica internazionale nel quale suona un pianoforte Borgato Grand Prix 333, strumento di fabbricazione italiana che detiene anche il record della maggior lunghezza (3,33 m.) per uno strumento gran coda da concerto.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/02/15/giovanni-bertolazzi-in-london/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/07/15/two-young-giants-cross-swords-in-verbier-giovanni-bertolazzi-and-nikita-lukinov/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/01/17/giovanni-bertolazzi-in-rome-liszt-is-alive-and-well-at-teatro-di-villa-torlonia/

Reading Nicolò Giuliano’s curriculum is like turning the clock back with so many names from the past that have crossed my path.Andrea Fasano who sent me the link to his programme of a recording of a recital that Giuliano made in the Ravenna Festival in July 2021.Andrea was a young aspiring giornalist who used to frequent many of the musical events at the Ghione Theatre in the Golden era of the 80’s and 90’s.He asked me to listen to this remarkable young man with whom he is collaborating on many interesting musical projects.A young man from Forli who is running a concert series in the name of Guido Agosti.

Leslie Howard who is now mentoring Nicolò Giuliano was Agosti’s favourite student in those years in Siena when the world would flock to hear this legendary musician,a student of Busoni,in his studio at the Chigiana Academy.Sounds were heard in that studio that have never been forgotten by all those that frequented his summer course that he held there for over thirty years.Agosti was born in Forlì and is buried there.On his grave is inscribed simply GUIDO AGOSTI MUSICIAN .The same simplicity and integrity that he dedicated to the great composers he served so faithfully in his long life.

Agosti and his wife Lydia Stix Agosti became family friends and they would come every weekend to our home on the seashore in Sabaudia.Lydia and my wife would spend the day on the beach and leave the Maestro to play duets all day long with me!Beethoven quartets,Brahms Symphony’s and Hungarian Dances.We would preparare an after dinner concert for our wives after their day on the beach!

Lydia even managed to persuade Guido to give a recital in our newly opened theatre.The recording we made of his performance of Beethoven op 110 and 111 is one of the only recordings of this great but very private musician.

Reading on in Giuliano’s curriculum I see he is now studying in Imola with Andrea Gallo.One of the finest musicians I know.I am proud to say he performed several times in his formative years for the Keyboard Trust of which Leslie Howard,Elena Vorotko and I are the artistic directors.He is now second in command at the famous pianistic mecca in Imola.Here is a conversation with him in which he talks about his extraordinary approach to piano playing:https://youtu.be/1TTxiaFESH0

All this to say I was curious to hear how this young man plays!!!!

A superb performance of Schumann’s Kreisleriana which reminded me in so many ways of Bruno Leonardo Gelber.The limpet like hand that dug deep into the notes with absolute legato and could extract a unique velvet sound just as I heard today.Gelber too had a great personality that was evident today in Giuliano’s performance.It was a performance that had so many individual things that it had me delving into the score to see what I had missed for so many years.Always with impeccable good taste but a pianist who has something very personal to say.

Kreisleriana, Op.16, is a composition in eight movements that Schumann claimed to have written in only four days in April 1838 and a revised version appeared in 1850. The work was dedicated to Frederic Chopin but when a copy was sent to him he commented favourably only on the design of the title page.It is a very dramatic work and is viewed by some critics as one of Schumann’s finest compositions.In 1839, soon after publishing it, Schumann called it in a letter “my favourite work,” remarking that “The title conveys nothing to any but Germans. Kreisler is one of E.T.A Hoffmann’s creations, an eccentric, wild, and witty conductor.”In a letter to his wife Clara ,Schumann reveals that she has figured largely in the composition of Kreisleriana:”I’m overflowing with music and beautiful melodies now – imagine, since my last letter I’ve finished another whole notebook of new pieces. I intend to call it Kreisleriana. You and one of your ideas play the main role in it, and I want to dedicate it to you – yes, to you and nobody else – and then you will smile so sweetly when you discover yourself in it.^”

Our concert halls are flooded with young pianists with superb technical training usually from the Eastern countries but have no respect for the very precise indications of the composer.Are pianists merely showmen using the composer’s notes as a means to show off their superb technical proficiency?I remember Charles Rosen telling a remarkably trained pianist in a masterclass that he plays like a whore.Karl Ulrich Schnabel told another that he was obviously a composer as he took the notes of great composers to suit himself! Perlemuter too was sent a rough copy of a famous young pianist playing Ravel Valses Nobles and Gaspard .The record company were looking for a quote from a legendary pianist who had studied the works of Ravel with the composer.’Qu’est -ce que c’est che ca’ was Perlemuters innocently ingenuous remark.

All this to say that there is a very fine line for a true interpreter like riding a high wire where if you have the courage to mount it you risk falling either way.It is this risk which made Gilels exclaim that the difference between recorded music and live was like that between fresh food and canned!Giuliano took risks but as a true musician he always had the larger architectural shape in sight.Sometimes his highlighting of inner counterpoints could really illuminate passages but it could also disturb.The only place it disturbed me was in the last movement where Schumann’s own syncopated bass is quite enough over a gently lilting right hand,so any inner counterpoints in the right hand I found disturbing.A very small point but one of the thousands of choices a true interpreter has to make but always starting from the indications left by the composer.Other slight highlighting of an inner voice here and there I found absolutely enlightened,as I used to indeed with Gelber,Moiseiwitch or even Cherkassky.

The opening movement was played immediately with controlled passion with Giuliano’s limpet like fingers extracting velvet rich sonorities from the piano.Maintaining the same tempo for the central episode but completely changing the colour as he allowed the beauty of the melodic line to be suggested over this flowing contour.It was here that subtle tenor counterpoints here and there shone like the jewels of a prism as the light passed over them.There was a beautiful legato to the second where Giuliano had made a definite choice of phrasing which allowed the melodic line to shine above and below this gently moving frame.I loved what he did but sometimes felt the gently flowing accompaniment could have been played even more simply so as not to disturb the ravishing beauty of the melodic line that he had created.The Intermezzo 1 was played with passion and rhythmic control and the Intermezzo 11 had a romantic sweep .It was ,though, the transition to the return of the opening that was remarkable for its sense of line.Giuliano even highlighted inner counterpoints that just clarified his complete understanding of a musical line that in lesser hands can sound like a bit of a ramble!

There was great rhythmic impulse to the third movement and a romantic sweep to the central episode where the soprano and tenor voices comune together so intimately.The fourth movement was played with a luminosity of sound and simplicity as everything was given the time needed to express such deep thoughts,but never losing sight of the overall shape.The gentle lilt to the central episode was even more beautiful for the inner colours that this young artist could so subtly suggest.In particular there was the sumptuous beauty of the cadence before the magical return of the opening theme.The fifth movement was played with a lightweight capricious rhythmic elan but every so often bursting into song like a glimpse of the sun between the clouds.After the passionate central outburst Giuliano added a silence not indicated by Schumann.Could it have been an oversight as it sounded so convincing to me before the return of the opening?Personality and good taste go hand in hand for a true interpreter as do intelligence and musicianship!Ravishing beauty of the sixth where this time the inner tenor notes in the ‘Etwas bewegter’ were indicated by Schumann himself and led to a whispered ending that was pure magic.The seventh is ‘Sehr Rasch’ but how fast is very fast? It is a question for the true interpreter to decide a speed in which the contour of the music can be clearly defined and not overlooked for virtuosistic showmanship!Giuliano chose just the right tempo that allowed the passionate outpouring to be clearly defined and it even gave him time to juggle with the notes between the hands in a very exposed spot well known to all pianists! The sudden interruption of chords ‘Etwas Langsamer’ was played as Schumann implores ,but Giuliano also kept the same colour as before and I have never heard it played with such intelligence as it is merely the coda or a slowed down version of what had come before.I have already mentioned the counterpoints and bass syncopation of the last movement played with such clarity of musical thought and digital precision.

There was also great sweep and passion to the intervening episodes that interrupt this lazy ride into the depths of the piano.A remarkable performance that I recommend all to enjoy in this link :

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OHo1zDeknZU&feature=share

Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata (French for After a Reading of Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata; also known as the Dante Sonata) was completed in 1849. It was first published in 1856 as part of the second volume of the Anne de Pélerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) and was inspired by the reading of Victor Hugo’s poem “Après un lecture du Dante” (1836).It was originally a small piece entitled Fragment after Dante, consisting of two thematically related movements,which Liszt composed in the late 1830s.He gave the first public performance in Vienna in November 1839.When he settled in Weimar in 1849, he revised the work along with others in the volume, and gave it its present title derived from Victor Hugo’s own work of the same name.

Intelligence,virtuosity,showmanship but above all respect for the genius of Liszt all went hand in hand in this remarkable performance that can be enjoyed from this radio performance together with two Rachmaninov Moments Musicaux op 16 an encore and a short interview.This is the link:

Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia è protagonista del Concerto di Pasqua 2023 su IMD RADIO/IMD PLAY con la riproposta di un suo bellissimo recital del 2021 che lui stesso presenta e ricorda attraverso una breve intervista a corredo dell’ascolto integrale e senza pause della registrazione che a breve sarà disponibile anche come album discografico. In questa intervista il giovane pianista forlivese anticipa pure alcuni suoi prossimi impegni ed incisioni dedicate alla riscoperta del repertorio strumentale italiano. Questo, intanto, il programma della trasmissione odierna. Robert Schumann: Kreisleriana, op. 16 – Franz Liszt: Dante Sonata – Sergeij Rachmaninoff: Dai 6 “Momenti Musicali” Op. 16; nn. 3 & 4- Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia, pianoforte – Chiesa di S. Massimiliano Kolbe, Lido Adriano (RA), 29 luglio 2021 (per la rassegna “Diapason, percorsi aonori”, I Edizione).

Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia was born in Emilia-Romagna: born in 1999, he began studying the piano at the age of 8.
Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia boasts over 30 prizes in national and international competitions and more than 50 recitals as a soloist in important institutions and concert halls.
His career starts from 2018 performing with the “Circle Symphony Orchestra” of Padua playing Beethoven concert n.3 Op.37 for piano and orchestra.
In2019 he graduated in piano at the Rimini Conservatory with 110 cum laude.
In 2020 he received recognition at the “Sergio Fiorentino piano competition” which led to a concert in Helsinki for the University piano circle supported by Eero Tarasti.
In 2021 he made his debut at the “Kaunas Piano Festival” obtaining a scholarship to perform at the “M.K. Čiurlionis” from Kaunas. Also in the same year he won the special prize at the Kings Peak International Music Competition obtaining a masterclass with maestro Anthony Tam and the first prize at the Map international Music Competition, which will subsequently give him prize concerts in the USA.
In 2022 he undertook an intense concert activity making his debut not only with the Orchestra of the Conservatory “B.Maderna di Cesena” at the Teatro Verdi in Cesena with 1053 by J.S.Bach, at the Sala “Marco Biagi” in Bologna, at the Circolo Culturale “G. Fantoni” in La Spezia and at the “Music Hall” of the University of musical semiotics in Helsinki, under the invitation of the famous maestro Eero Tarasti.
Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia currently attends the piano academy of Imola “Incontri col Maestro” under the guidance of maestro Andrè Gallo and the European piano academy “High musical education” under the guidance of maestro Giuseppe Devastato.
He is artistic director of the “Guido Agosti” concert series as well as president of the “Forlì Cultura” association.
In 2023 he will perform in various European cities such as Rome, Rovereto, Lecco, Umeå, León and Berlin.

“ Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia è un musicista sensibile, dedito e intelligente, il cui pianismo elegante, eloquente e nobile lo colloca tra i migliori giovani artisti del nostro tempo.”
Leslie Howard
Inizia all’età lo studio del pianoforte sotto la guida del maestro Giancarlo Peroni.
Nel 2020 consegue il diploma di Triennio accademico con il massimo dei voti e la lode, nel 2022 consegue il diploma accademico di secondo livello con il massimo dei voti e lode presso il Conservatorio “B.Maderna” di Cesena.
Nel 2021 studia per un anno all’Accademia di Pinerolo con i maestri Pietro De Maria, Enrico Stellini e Andrea Lucchesini.
Nicoló Giuliano Tuccia attualmente studia all’Accademia “Incontri col maestro” di Imola sotto la guida del Maestro André Gallo e all’Accademia Europea “Alta Formazione” di Napoli con Giuseppe Devastato.
Durante la sua carriera musicale, Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia si perfeziona con vari maestri e tiene masterclass nazionali ed internazionali.
I maestri con cui ha avuto il piacere di perfezionarsi sono: Mauro Minguzzi, Alessandra Ammara, Manila Santini, Giovanni Valentini, Luigi Tanganelli, Riccardo Risaliti, Emanuel Krasovsky, Sergio Tiempo, Inna Faiks, Massimiliano Ferrati, Roberto Cappello, Edith Fischer, Siavush Gadjev, Antonio Pompa – Baldi, Pablo Galdo, Andrea Lucchesini, Giuseppe Albanese, Avedis Kouyoumdijan, Hortense Cartier Bressan, Anthony Tam, Jesus Maria Gomez, Elvin Rodriguez , Francesc Vidal, Andrè Gallo e Giuseppe Devastato.
Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia è stato vincitore di premi nazionali e internazionali, piazzandosi sempre ai primi posti.
I concorsi dove si è distinto positivamente sono: “Premio Alberghini” di Castel Maggiore, 1° premio assoluto, “Premio Zangarelli” 1° premio, “Città del Borgo dell’angelo” Concorso 1° premio assoluto, “maria labia prize” 1° premio, “ Map international piano competition“1° premio“concorso pianistico Ugo Amendola 1° premio, Città di San Donà di Piave 2o premio, “Kings Peak International music Competition” 2° premio, vincitore unico premio speciale della sua categoria”, Città di Riccione “2° premio”, Città di Magliano Sabina “2° premio”, “Premio Humberto Quagliata “2° premio”, menzione d’onore al Concorso pianistico online “Sergio Fiorentino” etc
Quest’anno ha vinto la borsa di studio “Rotary Club” di Cesena, vincendo un concerto che lo ha visto protagonista al conservatorio “B.Maderna” di Cesena.
Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia ha suonato in rinomate sale da concerto sia come solista che in formazioni cameristiche quali: “Teatro Galli” di Rimini, “Teatro B. D’antona” di Castel Maggiore, “Teatro Alighieri” di Ravenna, “Teatro degli Atti ” di Rimini, “Foyer Respighi” del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, “Sala Corelli” del Teatro Alighieri di Ravenna, “Sala della Prefettura” di Forlì, “Teatro Talia” di Gualdo Tadino, “Circolo degli Ufficiali” di Bologna, “Palazzo Raffaello” di Urbino, Sala “Marco Biagi “di Bologna, Circolo Culturale G.Fantoni della Spezia, Sala “L.Dalla Piccola” di Cesena, “M.K Ciurlionis Museo Nazionale “ di Kaunas, Auditorium “Martin Codax” di Vigo, Aula Magna della Università di Helnsiki, Auditorium della musica di Telki in Ungheria, “Teatro Don Bosco” di Gualdo Tadino etc.

Sono vari festival a cui Nicoló ha preso parte. Tra i tanti ricordiamo: “Misano Piano Festival”, “Ravenna Festival” “Festival della Romagna”, “Festival delle note tra i calanchi” di Bagnoregio “Clivis Umbria” “Kaunas Piano Festival” in Lituania , “Swing Music Fest” in Ungheria, “ Conoscere la musica “ di Bologna, “ Eila’s Piano Circle” di Helsinki , “Pomeriggi Musicali al Fantoni “ di La Spezia , “le Salon de la musique “ etc.
Ha suonato come solista il K414 di W.A.Mozart presso l’istituto musicale Masini, il 3° Concerto di L.V.Beethoven con la “Circus Simphony Orchestra” di Padova, il K413 di W.A.Mozart con l’Orchestra da Camera del Conservatorio di Cesena nella sala del l’Eliseo di Cesena, con i “Musici Malatestiani”, il Concerto BWV1053 di J.S. Bach, al Teatro A.Galli di Rimini, musiche di Antimo D’Agostino con l’Orchestra “Rimini Classica” e con l’Orchestra Giovanile di Faenza il k413 di W.A.Mozart.
Ha avuto il piacere di collaborare con i direttori Stefano Pecci, Raffaele Valentini, Parvi Shejazi, Antonio Raspanti e Jacopo Rivani.
Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia ha pubblicato CD per Movimento Classical, Aulicus Classica eDoppio Movimento music Label.

Thursday 13 April 3.00 pm 

Playing of crystalline clarity and precision allied to an intelligence and real musical understanding.It allowed her to shape everything she did with such architectural authority of great strength thanks to her considerable technical prowess and the ravishing sounds she could mould from the piano with such sensitivity.

London based, South Korean pianist MinJung Baek is returning to give a recital at St.Mary’s Perivale in London. Since her talent was immediately recognised when she entered her first competition at the age of five, she went on to win more than fifty prizes in Korean national competitions and at international competitions including the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Competition; Skokie Valley in USA; the Giuliano Pecar, Liszt, Pietro Argento and Rachmaninoff piano competitions in Italy. Since her first public recital appearance at the age of eight and at age ten the orchestral debut with the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, her sensitive touch, expressive playing, and strong charisma have led her to perform at prestigious halls including Carnegie Hall, Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall and extensively throughout in 5 Continents. 

MinJung has been invited to play as a soloist with numerous orchestras and her performances and interviews have been broadcast on KBS, Rai, Rai Radio 3, ITV, PBS and WQXR. Recent highlights include invitations as a faculty at the East/West International Piano Festival in Shenzhen, China, one of the most prestigious international piano festivals – the International Keyboard Institute&Festival in New York City and the Haus Marteau in Germany and a jury at national and international competitions, releasing her four CDs <Rachmaninoff>, <Beethoven vo.1>, <Scarlatti> and <Beethoven vol.2> under the Onclassical, Italian label, all albums immediately embarked as a “Popular Release” on including Spotify, Highresaudio and AppleMusic and the critically acclaimed CDs have been presented on RaiRadio3 and RadioClassica. In this season of 2023, new albums will be continuously released and she is looking forward to meeting her lovely audiences in recitals at such prestigious concert halls including the Carnegie Hall in NYC and the Concergebouw in Amsterdam.

Tuesday 11 April 3.00 pm 

Playing of remarkable clarity and intelligence from Dominic Doutney.It is the same playing that I remember from Peter Katin in the days when he together with Moura Lympany were the pride of Madam Tillett who in that period was known as the Empress of Europe.For the greater part of the twentieth century, Ibbs and Tillett’s concert agency was to the British music industry what Marks and Spencer is to the world of the department store. The roll-call of famous musicians on its books was unmatched, and included also such international stars as Clara Butt, Fritz Kreisler, Pablo Casals, Sergei Rachmaninov, Andr Segovia, Kathleen Ferrier, Myra Hess, Jacqueline du Pre Clifford Curzon and Vladimir Ashkenazy, to name but a handful. From 1906, the success of the company was due to the dedication of its founders, Robert Leigh Ibbs and John Tillett. After their deaths, the agency was run by the latter’s wife, Emmie, who, dubbed the ‘Duchess of Wigmore Street’, became one of the most formidable yet respected women in British music.

Peter Katin after the downfall of Ibbs and Tillett was unjustly forgotten especially after his return from Canada where he had moved to be part of a prestigious piano faculty.His performance of the Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto at the Promenade Concerts was considered by many to have been the finest of the day.His Chopin recitals in the Festival Hall were regularly sold out.Although Moura Lympany was the first to record all the Rachmaninov Preludes it was Peter Katin that soon followed suit.His playing of the Preludes as with his Chopin or Mendelssohn was like that of a superb precision clockmaker.Within the notes that were played with impeccable good taste and control there was deep feeling for all that could appreciate it.There was none of the flamboyance of the Russian School that was yet only on the distant horizon.Kept at bay by the ‘Cold War’ that prevailed until Victor Hochauser managed to persuade the authorities in Russia to allow some of their stars to play in the west.Richter,Gilels Oistrakh and Rostropovich changed our conception of Russian music with its flamboyance and animal like mastery.It was the same change with the Baroque movement that appeared on the scene and completely changed the style of performance.Authenticity was the key word much to the dismay of artists who until up until then had been quite happy to play in a musicianly way rather than turning the clock back.

It was just this mastery of Peter Katin that I was reminded of today listening to Dominic’s masterly performances.An intelligence and musicianship but allied to a superb technical control and faultless precision.There was none of the visible flamboyance that we have come to associate with Rachmaninov these days but there was just as much passion and expression within the notes themselves.Dominic has the same very large hands of Katin who used to play for us in Rome regularly during his Indian Summer.

A wonderfully incisive sound without any hardness or digging right down to the bottom of the keys as we had heard from Lazar Berman or Alexander Toradze.Dominic’s was simple musicianship where the music was allowed to unfold with naturalness and beauty.

The Four Pieces for Piano Op. 119, were composed by in 1893 .The collection is the last composition for solo piano by Brahms. Together with the six pieces op 118 ,Op. 119 was premiered in London in January 1894.

In a letter from May 1893 to Clara Schumann ,Brahms wrote: I am tempted to copy out a small piano piece for you, because I would like to know how you agree with it. It is teeming with dissonances! These may [well] be correct and [can] be explained—but maybe they won’t please your palate, and now I wished, they would be less correct, but more appetizing and agreeable to your taste. The little piece is exceptionally melancholic and ‘to be played very slowly’ is not an understatement. Every bar and every note must sound like a ritard[ando], as if one wanted to suck melancholy out of each and every one, lustily and with pleasure out of these very dissonances! Good Lord, this description will [surely] awaken your desire!

Clara Schumann was enthusiastic and asked him to send the remaining pieces of his new work.

Thirteen Preludes op 32 were composed in 1910.It complements his earlier Prelude in C sharp minor op 3 n.2 and 10 Preludes op 23 to complete the full set of 24 preludes in all 24 major and minor keys.

Prelude in B minor, Op. 32, No. 10, was written in 1910 along with the other twelve pieces. Rachmaninoff was inspired by Arnold Bocklin’s painting “ Die Heimkehr”- “The Homecoming” or “The Return”Rachmaninoff also stated to pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch that this was his personal favourite among his preludes. This is the second work of Rachmaninoff’s to be inspired by one of Böcklin’s paintings; the other being Isle of the Dead

Dominic Doutney is a graduate of the Royal College of Music, where he was the Fishmongers’ Company Beckwith scholar, and studied with Professors Ian Jones, Dmitri Alexeev and Sofya Gulyak. At his graduation he was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal, given to two students annually for outstanding musical contribution to the Royal College.In 2022 Dominic was awarded 1st prizes at the 25th Mauro Paolo Monopoli International Competition in Barletta, Italy, and Semana Internacional de Piano de O´bidos in Portugal. In 2021 he was awarded 3rd prize at the Jaén International Piano Competition in Spain in April 2021, 1st prize in the Norah Sande Award, and 3rd prize in the Clamo International Competition in Murcia, Spain. Dominic is also the 2020 winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Award for Keyboard. In the summer of 2021 Dominic attended the Oxford Piano Festival on the personal invitation of Sir Andras Schiff, having played in a highly publicised masterclass with him at the RCM in the previous May. Dominic has also spent summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Banff Centre. Concerto appearances include Brahms 1st concerto with both the Málaga Philharmonic and the Leipziger-symphonieorchester in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Mendelssohn-Saal; Schumann’s Piano Concerto in St John’s Smith Square with the Young Musician’s Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven’s 3 rd with the Soundiff Orchestra in the Teatro Curci, Barletta; Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments with Martyn Brabbins and the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra; and Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Dorset Chamber Orchestra.

Dominic Doutney’s intelligence and clarity at St Mary’s

Another tribute to Piero Rattalino from Valerio Vicari for the recent loss to the musical world of such a distinguished figure.Maestro Rattalino had also been very much associated with Roma Tre Orchestra from it ‘s founding almost twenty years ago.It was refreshing to hear of the encounter between Pietro Fresa and Maestro Rattalino,two years ago,on the occasion of Pietro’s performance of Mozart’s last piano concerto with the Roma Tre Orchestra.A mine of information he was only too happy to share his knowledge with this young pianist as he had done with generations of pianists many of whom now have gone on to illustrious careers.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/10/30/mozart-triumphs-at-torlonia-with-jonathan-ferrucci-pietro-fresa-sieva-borzak/

I had not realised though that this signalled an unexpected change of programme.To the Brahms monumental variations were now added Mozart’s deliciously refreshing variations on “Ah vous dirai-je,Maman” and Beethovens monumental Waldstein Sonata op 53 .These two masterworks were in substitute for Liszt’s rhetorical tone poem “Vallée d’Obermann” and Scriabin’s hysterical reaching for the stars with his 10th and last Sonata.

Fair exchange is no robbery and a programme of three great masterworks was only to be applauded especially when played with the maturity and mastery as today.Pietro told me afterwards that this was the programme that he had prepared for a tour of Spain in the next few days and he preferred to share this monumental programme with his Roma 3 audience,especially when his previous appearance had been Mozart’s last great piano concerto that had been so appreciated by Maestro Rattalino.

Twelve Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman”, K.265 was composed when Mozart was around 25 years old (1781 or 1782). It consists of twelve variations on the French folk song “Ah!vous dirai-je,maman”.The French melody first appeared in 1761, and has been used for many children’s songs, such as “Twinkle ,Twinkle,Little Star” or “Baa,Baa,Black Sheep^” For a time, it was thought that these variations were composed in 1778, while Mozart stayed in Paris from April to September in that year, the assumption being that the melody of a French song could only have been picked up by Mozart while residing in France. For this presumed composition date, the composition was renumbered from K. 265 to K. 300.Later analysis of Mozart’s manuscript indicated 1781/1782 as the probable composition date.They were first published in Vienna in 1785.

Piano Sonata No. 21 , Op. 53 in C major known as the Eroica symphony for piano.It is considered to be one of Beethoven’s greatest piano sonatas. Completed in 1804, it has a scope that surpasses Beethoven’s previous sonatas, and notably is one of his most technically challenging compositions. It is a key work early in his ‘Heroic’ decade (1803-1812) and set the stage for piano compositions in the grand manner both in Beethoven’s later work and all future composers. The Waldstein receives its name from Beethoven’s dedication to Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein of Vienna, a patron as well as a close personal friend of his. This sonata is also known as ‘L’Aurora’ (The Dawn) in Italian, for the sonority of the opening chords, which are said to conjure an image of daybreak.It is in two movements :Allegro con brio and an Adagio molto which is an introduction to the Rondo Allegretto moderato.The original second movement Beethoven chose to publish separately as his ‘Andante Favori’ and substitute it for a much shorter introduction to the final Rondo.

It was this movement that stood out more than all the pyrotechnical gymnastics of the outer movements for Pietro’s complete understanding of the orchestral colour and intensity in this single,intense, page.It was a sign of his maturity as an interpreter where ‘rinforzando’ was given such a noble sound as it disappeared into the distance passing from one instrument to another.This after the stillness of the pianissimo opening full of the precise indications by Beethoven that were scrupulously understood and transformed into sounds.At the same time giving an architectural shape that dissolved into oblivion with the single shining star of G that was to be brought to life with the undulating harmonies of the Rondo.Of course it was a sign of the genius of Beethoven who could contemplate this link between two transcendentally busy outer movements.

A first movement played with a rhythmic energy and authority where the startling contrasts in dynamics were slightly exaggerated especially in the development where the long held arpeggiated harmonies were sometimes give a shock start from the bass.But the overall impression was of a performance of great authority and architectural understanding where his ability to keep a constant tempo despite the demonic drive that Beethoven demands was exhilarating and kept us on the edge of our seats.The technically exhilarating episodes of the Rondo were played with authority and drive and his slight hesitation before the return of the luminous rondo was a master stroke that I have rarely heard from other interpreters.I liked his insistence on the bass harmonies in the coda that gave great weight to the arpeggiando changing harmonic pattern of the right hand.His ability to play the glissandi on a modern piano with such ease was nothing short of remarkable.Serkin used to lick his fingers before attempting them – others like Kissin play them with some very deft scales.A remarkable performance that showed the maturity that this young man has now acquired.

An encore of Schubert’s beautiful Impromptu op 142 n.2 rounded off this unexpectedly important programme.Played with luminous beauty and simplicity he could even have taken more time over the mellifluous meanderings of the central episode where he had found some magical counterpoints that were worth savouring even more.

The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, was written by Brahms in 1861 and consists of a set of twenty-five variations and a concluding fugue, all based on a theme from Handel’s Harpsichord Suite n.1 in B flat HWV 434. Tovey ranked it among “the half-dozen greatest sets of variations ever written”.Written in September 1861 after Brahms, aged 28, abandoned the work he had been doing as director of the Hamburg women’s choir (Frauenchor) and moved out of his family’s cramped and shabby apartments in Hamburg to his own apartment in the quiet suburb of Hamm, initiating a highly productive period that produced “a series of early masterworks”.Written in a single stretch in September 1861,it is dedicated to a “beloved friend”, Clara Schumann widow of Robert Schumann.It was presented to her on her 42nd birthday, September 13. At about the same time, his interest in, and mastery of, the piano also shows in his writing two important piano quartets, in G minor and A major. Barely two months later, in November 1861, he produced his second set of Schumann Variations, Op. 23, for piano four hands.One aspect of his approach to variation writing is made explicit in a number of letters. “In a theme for a set of variations, it is almost only the bass that has any meaning for me. But this is sacred to me, it is the firm foundation on which I then build my stories. What I do with a melody is only playing around … If I vary only the melody, then I cannot easily be more than clever or graceful, or, indeed, if full of feeling, deepen a pretty thought. On the given bass, I invent something actually new, I discover new melodies in it, I create.” The role of the bass is critical.Brahms played them at a meeting with Wagner who commented:’One sees what still may be done in the old forms when someone comes along who knows how to use them”.^’Clara writes in her diary :’On Dec 7th I gave another soirée, at which I played Johannes’ Handel Variations. I was in agonies of nervousness, but I played them well all the same, and they were much applauded. Johannes, however, hurt me very much by his indifference. He declared that he could no longer bear to hear the variations, it was altogether too dreadful for him to listen to anything of his own and to have to sit by and do nothing. Although I can well understand this feeling, I cannot help finding it hard when one has devoted all one’s powers to a work, and the composer himself has not a kind word for it.^’

Pietro played the theme with scintillating ornaments that sprang from his fingers like springs and gave such luminous clarity to the theme that was to be so nobly enhanced by Brahms in the triumphant 25th variation.There was never a moment in Pietro’s authoritative performance that seemed anything other than inevitable.The transcendental difficulties and complex musical ideas just poured from his sensitive hands as he gave an architectural shape to the twenty five variations culminating in a final fugal climax of overwhelming power and authority.There was rhythmic energy and clarity and ‘joie de vivre’ to the first variation contrasting with the fluidity and legatissimo of the second with some very interestingly pointed counterpoints.There was a gentle lilt to the third and great sonorities to the octaves of the fourth.Gentle flowing lyricism of the fifth leading to the legatissimo octaves of mysterious atmosphere and the answer of the sixth bringing great rhythmic impetus leading to the fanfare of the seventh.There was a gradual build up with a sudden rhythmic impetus to the eighth and admirable control of the whispered sonorities of the octaves answering one another in the ninth.But why so violent a contrast between the sforzando and sudden piano that was rather exaggerated and overwhelming too soon?There was a sudden change of character with the quixotic flight from the top to the bottom of the keyboard in the tenth contrasting with the beautifully lyrical eleventh.The languid left hand melodic line in the twelfth was very slow and unusually beautiful followed by the noble sonorities of pompous regal sonorities of the thirteenth.Tovey sees a grouping in Variations 14–18, which he describes as “arising one out of the other in a wonderful decrescendo of tone and crescendo of Romantic beauty”.The nineteenth is slow, relaxing variation, with its lilting rhythm and 12/8 time,written in the dance style of a Baroque French siciliana from the school of Couperin (Brahms had edited Couperin’s music ).It uses chords almost exclusively in the root position, perhaps as another reminiscence of “antique” music. In a technique often used by Brahms, the melodic line is hidden in an inner part and was played with a clarity and simplicity before the final build up to the twenty fifth triumphant fanfare and the mighty fugue.In fact there was great character to each of the variations played with an underlying rhythmic impetus which as Brahms clearly describes comes from the solidity of the bass allowing freedom for all that rides on it.There was much beauty in the music box twenty second variation leading to the spikey staccato build up ever more energetic until the final explosion of the theme in all its glory.The fugue was played with amazing clarity and a build up of tolling bells and frenzied movement that demonstrated his truly transcendental technical prowess.An overpowering performance of one of the masterworks for the piano all too often used as a tool for aspiring young pianists struggling with the technical difficulties and not always realising the enormous musical invention that the 28 year old Brahms demonstrated at the same time as writing his poorly received first piano concerto

Pietro è stato ammesso, a soli undici anni, alla prestigiosa Accademia Pianistica Internazionale “Incontri col Maestro” di Imola, ove ha studiato con la concertista cinese Jin Ju, ed è attualmente allievo del celebre Maestro russo Boris Petrushansky. Dopo il Conservatorio, ha iniziato gli studi presso il Royal College of Music di Londra per merito di una importante borsa di studio, e qui, frequentando i corsi dei Maestri Dmitri Alexeev e Sofya Gulyak, si è laureato con il massimo dei voti nel settembre 2020.Pietro inoltre si è perfezionato con docenti quali Enrico Pace, Boris Berman, Vovka Ashkenazy, Leonid Margarius, Vanessa Latarche, Andreas Frölich, Stefano Fiuzzi e Roberto Cappello partecipando regolarmente alle loro Masterclass. A dodici anni, ha tenuto la sua prima esibizione con l’orchestra inaugurando, con il concerto Hob. XVIII/11 in re maggiore di Haydn, l’anno accademico del Conservatorio presso l’Auditorium Manzoni di Bologna.

Da allora ha iniziato una intensa attività concertistica sia come solista che in formazioni di musica da camera che l’ha portato ad esibirsi in numerose rassegne sia in Italia che all’estero, fino a condividere il palco con artisti del calibro del violoncellista Mario Brunello. Tra le rassegne di cui è stato protagonista: i concerti per Roma Tre Orchestra nell’Aula Magna dell’Università Roma Tre, al Teatro Palladium e a Palazzo Braschi, la prestigiosa stagione di Musica Insieme presso l’Auditorium Manzoni a Bologna, Bologna Festival, Genus Bononiae, Musica in Fiore presso la Sala Farnese del Comune, San Giacomo Festival presso la omonima basilica, I Concerti del Teatro Comunale, del Teatro Guardassoni, del Cenobio di S. Vittore, dell’Università di Lettere, la rassegna del Circolo Ufficiali, la stagione Talenti in Musica di Modena, la Società Letteraria di Verona, il Festival Talent Music Mater Courses di Brescia nonché i concerti del Teatro Sancarlino di Brescia.
Si è aggiudicato il primo premio assoluto in più di trenta concorsi di esecuzione pianistica. Di particolare rilievo è stata la vittoria del primo premio al Concorso Internazionale “Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition” di Vienna, che gli ha dato occasione di esibirsi presso la rinomata Metallener Saal della Musikverein (Vienna).

Étienne Pivert de Sénancour’s novel Oberman ( with one n) was not well received at its publication in 1804. So forcefully, however, did it resonate with the emerging æsthetic preoccupations of the age that three decades later it was a ‘must-read’ in Parisian literary circles, its eponymous central character virtually a watchword for the Romantic sensibility in art. Set in a picturesque valley in Switzerland, it tells the story of a young man enthralled, but at the same time overwhelmed and confused, by his encounters with Nature and the feelings of longing that they engender in him. Helpless to relieve this eternal yearning, he settles on a life of utter simplicity in an attempt to escape the inner struggle and torment of his emotional life.Liszt’s own travels through Switzerland in the late 1830s inspired his Vallée d’Obermann (with two n’s), first published in 1842 and later included,in a revised version, in the first of his piano suites entitled Années de Pèlerinage I (Suisse) published in 1855. Overtly literary in conception, Liszt’s Vallée d’Obermann pays tribute to its famous forbear in a type of musical construction that sees its principal theme, a descending scale figure, suffer harmonic and chromatic transformations that parallel the emotional turmoil experienced by Sénancour’s sensitive young hero. This descending scale figure, announced in the left hand as the work opens, permeates every page of the score.’What do I wish? What am I? What shall I ask of nature? I feel; I exist only to waste myself in unconquerable longings…Inexpressible sensibility, the charm and the torment of our futile years; vast consciousness of a nature that is everywhere incomprehensible and overwhelming; universal passion, indifference, the higher wisdom, abandonment to pleasure— I have felt and experienced them all’

The Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70, was written in 1913. It was his final work in this form. The piece is highly chromatic and tonally ambiguous like Scriabin’s other late works.It is characterized by frequent trills and tremolos and is sometimes called his “Insect Sonata”, referring to his words:

“My Tenth Sonata is a sonata of insects. Insects are born from the sun […] they are the kisses of the sun.”

The atmosphere of the introductory pages of the Tenth Sonata is veiled and distant, like an impressionist reflection, but much more intensely elevated and spiritual. Trills soon sweep into every corner of the music, and in the last pages they are transformed into a glorious reverberation, as if shimmering with pulses of glowing light and taking on lives of their own. Such life and light/sound corroborations are typical of the composer’s own imaginative world.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/12/04/pietro-fresa-in-london-refined-seduction-and-intelligence-at-brompton-oratory/

In questa originale formula musicale Scipione Sangiovanni ha condensato il proprio intero percorso formativo, che spazia dalla musica rinascimentale al pop. Il principio fondamentale di questo concerto consiste nel creare suite accostando brani appartenenti a mondi sonori apparentemente inconciliabili. Un principio che in altri campi artistici, per esempio quello del design e dell’architettura, è stato già ampiamente sperimentato ed è, anzi, diventato la regola.

Scipione Sangiovanni for Roma 3 last night opening with a ravishing performance of Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor op posth dedicated to Piero Rattalino,vice president of Roma Tre Orchestra and one of only two pianofiles in the world.A renowned musicologists with a catalogue of tomes that would be the envy of even JSB.He will be dearly missed but his Heritage is inestimable.
Scipione went on to astonish and amaze us with a programme that demonstrated not only his chameleonic sense of style but above all his trascendental mastery and passionate participation.
As he himself said the message in music is universal and there are no barriers when one wants to create atmospheres to express one’s emotions and uncontaminated sense of discovery with a kaleidoscope of ravishing sounds.
Well he certainly did that with a simplicity and mastery that held us enthralled from Frescobaldi to Piazzola ………’Someday over the rainbow’ has the same sense of hope and aspiration as Bach’s ‘Ich ruf’zu dir,Herr Jesu Christ ‘? Hard to believe until tonight!
A master and a man for all seasons

Le barriere del tempo svaniscono, i canoni estetici si sublimano, mostrando che la musica è una sola nonostante possa aver generato molti figli. L’antico ed il moderno, il barocco ed il jazz, il classico ed il rock si sfiorano senza mai fondersi formando nuove alchimie sonore. Il risultato è una catena musicale nella quale gli opposti si attraggono, dialogano tra loro, si scontrano ed infine combaciano.

I had first heard Scipione in Monza where I had been invited to be part of an illustrious jury at the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition.I do not usually do that sort of thing as the Circus element in music is not my idea of what music should represent.Every performance should be enjoyed for what it is and not compared to others.Comparative music performance is not for me,but I realise that there are opportunities in the Competition field that may out- way my view of independence and uncontamination.

My dear friend Constance Channon Douglass was indisposed and asked me if I would take her place.Of course how could I let her down and what an honour to be on a jury with Bruno Canino,Stefano Fiuzzi and Marcel Baudet.

With the generous fee I was able to buy a most beautiful bedspread which still adorns my bed and reawakens memories of a beautiful occasion.

A young pianist Julian Brocal had played a wonderful Schumann Carnaval and has since been taken under the wing of Marie Jose Pires and is flying high.I had thanked her for all that she is doing for young musicians and she simply replied that it was not what she did for them but it was what they did for her!The simplicity and humility of a great artist shared with her colleague Martha Argerich – ‘birds of a feather ‘indeed!https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/03/03/julien-brocal-at-the-wigmore-hall-on-wings-of-song/

Scipione had been admitted to the final where he played Liszt 2nd Piano Concerto that I personally did not admire as much as an Emperor concerto from Mengyang Yang Pan. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/09/16/mengyang-pan-at-st-marys-beauty-and-control-passionate-intensity-and-intelligence/

But then Scipione played an encore and the heavens opened and there was no doubt that this was a quite considerable artist and of course he won the coveted first prize.It reminded me of a story that Sidney Harrison,my piano daddy,would tell of Alfred Cortot playing the Emperor concerto at the Gold Medal Ceremony of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London.A performance that was not one of the Masters best!But then he played an encore and the heavens opened and there was no doubt that Gold Medal first given to Beethoven was in the right hands with Alfred Cortot.

I had not heard Scipione since as he lives in Lecce ,the Florence of the South.Like his distinguished colleague Francesco Libetta why should they want to leave paradise to struggle and suffer in an alien city when their art and heart can grow untainted in the city of their birth.

Seeing him tonight as he affectionately greeted his young daughter who had patiently been following his concert ,in between playing with her crayons,I realised what a wise man that young winner of the competition had become.Listening to him I realised even more what a great artist and human being he has become.

A beautiful programme for Holy Week at Roma 3 where their series ‘Young Artists Piano Solo’ continues unabated with the energy and dedication of the President Roberto Pujia and his ex student,Artistic Director,Valerio Vicari.

With their many young helpers it is a series that gives an invaluable showplace for young musicians at the start of their career.After years of study dedicating their youth to art as they take the big step from Gradus ad Parnassum.An unreachable Parnassum but real artists can get nearer only by playing in public and learning from listening to themselves.It was Artur Rubinstein who told the contestants at the first competition in his name in Tel Aviv,fifty years ago ,that true artists should be like bees.To cultivate one’s own taste by listening to as much music as possible and by living the life of a true artist that can appreciate beauty.

A life where quality rather than quantity is what counts.Likened to the bees that cultivate their pollen from the flowers that they are attracted to and which makes every honey different from another.The Rubinstein Competition is now in its 50th year but the message of Rubinstein in more actual today in this fast moving world than it has ever been.I remember Ruggiero Ricci telling me that in his opinion performances these days were so uniform in their perception because there is no time to stop and stare!In order to cross the Atlantic it would take days on an Ocean liner when there was time to stop,think,digest and look around and maybe even question many things.Today as Ricci told me he could be playing the Tchaikowsky concerto today in New York and tomorrow the Sibelius in Tokyo!

It was fascinating to see this young artist today and to appreciate a programme that we rarely see even in the most important concert halls. Six short works by Rachmaninov for the 150th anniversary celebrations of a composer who is only now getting the recognition that he has long been denied by so called ‘serious’ musicians.The last work penned by Schumann and Beethoven’s most mellifluous Sonata op 110.In between a rarely heard toccata by Bach and Scriabin’s luminous Fourth Sonata.

A true artist is known by his programmes and this was already a superb visiting card for this young musician from Brescia.It was also fascinating to learn that he is receiving advice from Alexander Romanovsky which was so evident from his ‘straight finger’ technique.Fingers pointing with sensibility and control to notes whose sound they can hear in their ears before they touch the keys.As opposed to a certain Russian school of playing mainly by force on pianos that fortunately are built like tanks but unfortunately cannot bite back! https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/04/13/romanovsky-a-miracle-in-the-eternal-city-the-reincarnation-of-richter-and-rachmaninov/