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Thursday 16 February 3.00 pm

An eclectic programme from a musician who can make even the most unfamiliar music speak with a voice of such subtlety and dynamism that one is compelled to listen.
A musician with a range of colours that very few can match.A technical assurance allied to a total commitment that is mesmerising.
Such were the ingredients today and it is is this compelling sense of communication that is rare indeed.A musician who not only listens to himself but is totally convinced about the sounds that he is creating.
An artist ready to honour the great concert halls of the world as he is indeed starting to do.
There was a kaleidoscope of colour that he found in the Ukrainian Karabyts preludes.The deeply felt melodic outpouring with the magic bell like sounds that he was able to produce in the first of the five that he chose from the set of twenty four was a technical tour de force .
There was a deep questioning with the continuous motion of the bass in the second and the deeply contemplative chorale line of the third with the expansive mellifluous melodic outpouring of the last.
It was the same intimate world as Mendelssohn because everything he played was like a voice with a different word on every note or phrase- Songs without words indeed.But sometimes music speaks louder than words and like in the postlude of Schubert’s songs can arrive in places where words are just not enough .
Of course the world of Mendelssohn is much more accessible to our more conventional ears but it is the same sound world.
The gentle weaving bass of the first song without words or the ravishing beauty of the ‘Venetian song ‘ of the second.The gentle staccato accompaniment in the third on which flows a melodic line full of Victorian sentiment.But never for a moment was it sentimental but always played with aristocratic poise and a subtle sense of rubato .The ‘Bees wedding ‘ is rarely played in concert these days.The last time I heard it was from Rubinstein as an encore and today it was played with the same timeless ease and character that I remember.Pedro also found some enchanting will’ o the wisp inflections that brought a smile to my face.
Great artists are a continual surprise even in the most familiar of pieces!
The Lieberman ‘Gargoyles’ in four movements was played with amazing clarity and phenomenal dexterity.In Pedro’s hands it was not empty virtuosity but full of meaning and driving force.There was ravishing beauty too of the beautiful mellifluous singing line over the almost inaudible chordal accompaniment in the second movement.The purity of the melodic line of the third had something of the same character as some of Rachmaninov’s mellifluous preludes with the gently flowing accompaniment to a melodic line of such purity.The perpetual motion of the last movement and the ever increasing dynamic drive and excitement was a tour de force of masterly control and viruosity.
The other Ukrainian composer this time of the nineteenth century was Bortkiewicz and Pedro played one of his highly romantic studies op 15.
A continuous outpouring of romantic sounds of sumptuous yearning beauty played with rich voluptuous sound contrasted with moments of supreme delicacy.
The Ginastera Sonata I have written about his remarkable performance before in the attachment that follows.But enough to say that it is a truly convinced and convincing performance of savage rhythms and driving energy.Even the whispered second movement is a tour de force of intricate playing of such clarity at such a quiet level .The slow movement was played with truly heartfelt sentiment with the beauty of the way he just stroked the keys that matched the beauty of the sounds he was able to produce.
Of course the last movement was an avalanche of dynamic energy and spectacular virtuosity.
A Prelude by Scriabin played as an encore produced sounds of a luminosity and liquidity that this young musician just pulled out of his magic box.
A box that all too few know the combination of and which is a secret shared only by the greatest of artists.

Born in 1997, Pedro López Salas is a Spanish pianist who is currently studying the Master of Performance Degree with Prof Norma Fisher at the Royal College of Music in London, awarded with full scholarship and the title of “Steinway Scholar” and the “Leverhulme Honorary Arts Scholarships”. He is a “Keyboard Trust” artist, as well as a “Talent Unlimited” artist, both from the UK. He has been awarded with more than 40 prizes at International and National piano competitions, among them, the Second Prize at the “International Paderewski Piano Competition” of Bydgoszcz (Poland), as well as four special prizes, including the best semifinal recital. The First Prizes at the Malta International Piano Competition; “Composers of Spain” CIPCE International Piano Competition (Las Rozas, Madrid); “Joan Chisell” Schumann Prize of the RCM (London); “Ce´sar Franck” International Piano Competition (Bruxelles), Second Prize and four special Prizes at the Ferrol International Piano Competition, etc. He has also received crucial inspiration from internationally renowned masters such as Dmitri Baskirov, Dmitri Alexeev, Alexander Kobrin, Pavel Nerssesian, Pascal Nemirovsky, Pavel Gililov, Marianna Aivazova, Mariana Gurkova and Ludmil Angelov.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/11/04/pedro-lopez-salas-the-style-and-authority-of-a-great-artist-the-keyboard-trust-in-florence-goes-british/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/03/18/pedro-lopez-salas-at-st-jamess-seduced-by-the-weight-and-style-of-a-great-artist/

A standing ovation for Adam Heron at end of the first of a new lunchtime series in Haslemere .Organised by Stephen Dennison of Cranleigh Arts in partnership with the Keyboard Trust .A sure fire success with a full house,marvellous publicity and the superb Shegaru Kwai brought in from Cranleigh for this mini series.

All gathered together to relish the consummate artistry of a great communicator whether by words or music.Adam a graduate of the Royal Academy where he was in the class of the renowned trainer of superb young musicians,Christopher Elton.

He also holds a masters degree from Cambridge University so his enlightened introductions of such warmth and intelligence prepared the audience for his sumptuous musical performances.
From the charm of early Elgar to the sturm und drang of Brahms Rhapsodies.He even included four short pieces of his own written last year of beguiling emotions and immediate appeal.
There was sublime aristocratic poise to the three beautiful Brahms Intermezzi op 117 before the driving rhythms and romantic fervour of Chopin’s first Scherzo op 20.

A standing ovation from an audience who Adam held spellbound in the beautiful surroundings of St Christopher’s Church in Haslemere.

Tomorrow the rising star of Thomas Kelly will create his own unique magic of piano showpieces from the Golden era of piano playing of which he is like Benjamin Grosvenor fast becoming a recognised master.

And the final of this tris of lunchtime concerts on Friday will be with Milda Daunoraite a young Lithuanian pianist from the class of that other great trainer of young pianists Tessa Nicholson.
She will enlighten us intellectually with Bach and Beethoven before the romantic effusions of Scriabin’s early Fantasy sonata and astounding us with a Stravinsky Petroushka that will above all invigorate us with her refreshing intelligence and sheer exuberant joy.

A sensational recital by Thomas Kelly in the new lunchtime series in Haslemere organised by Stephen Dennison in partnership with the Keyboard Trust.
I first heard Tom when he swept the board at the Joan Chisell Schumann competition prize at the RCM.
At the time he was continuing his studies with the late Andrew Ball and is now completing them with Dmitri Alexeev.
He had a sound of his own of radiance and fluidity.Bass notes that seemed to resonate only for him with a rich sonorous sound of a truly ‘Grand’ piano.
He was so different from the other contestants and I immediately marked him out as someone with the God given gift of actually listening to the sounds he was making.

He has since gone from strength to strength and although his long term mentor is no longer with us he has bequeathed to Tom a research of pianistic colour and a jeux perlé brilliance of another age .
The Golden age of playing when subtlety,refined elegance and effortless virtuosity were combined with an individual sound created by artists who were influenced by all the beauty that surrounds them.
Tom like Benjamin Grosvenor was born of a different age and they are two of the most exciting realities for future music making.
The rebirth of a past era when piano virtuosi could seduce and hypnotise an audience not with barnstorming brilliance but with their kaleidoscope of sounds and a superhuman sensitivity and control that could create seemless streams of pianissimo notes of jewel like precision and colour.They could also make the piano roar but always with a sumptuous rich sound of a truly ‘grand’ piano.They were masters of understatement so that when they came to the architectural climax of a work it was truly breathtaking.

They were great musicians many of whom were also composers .Chopin and Liszt created the sounds on the piano that they had heard in the opera house with sumptuous bel canto embellishments that drew their audience in to them not bombard them with sounds.It is too often the case today with the modern day piano that can withstand sledgehammer tactics!
Piano playing should be like swimming not like brick building.The prime example of this today is Arcadi Volodos who sets the example where the beauty of his bodily movements depict the magic sounds that he is producing.A sculptor of sound.
Today in Haslemere Tom revealed that he has grown in stature and weight with a sense of discipline that was sometimes lacking.
Today ,above all,he revealed himself to be the great artist that was such a promise only five years ago.

A supreme stylist and great artist that is so needed in the rather barren uniform life that surrounds us.
A society where all too often it is quantity not quality that counts………Tom is showing us a magic world where a thing of beauty is a joy forever.
He at least is in love with the piano and is not afraid to share it with an audience.It is this that came across so clearly today.
Have the birds ever sounded so beautiful as they conversed so eloquently with a freedom and fantasy that belied the formality of Rameau’s time?
A luminosity of sound as Chopin’s haunting Andante spianato spread it’s wings with ravishing beauty and cascades of ornaments that just glistened like jewels sparkling as radiance shone upon them.
A Grande polonaise so often a barn storming contrast to the spianato was here played with an elegance and beguiling rubato that was stretched to the limit with a chiaroscuro insinuation of tantalising beauty.Breathtaking jeux perlé was played with an elastic ease of another age.

Excitement and virtuosity there was too with a piece that Chopin had seduced the Parisian salons of the day with,on his exile from his homeland that he was destined never to see again.
Busoni’s scintillating and visionary fantasy on Bizet’s Carmen was the first work that Tom had worked on with Andrew Ball.
After the lightweight gust of wind that opens this remarkable Sonatina a melody of sumptuous beauty was revealed as Tom’s truly magical sense of balance allowed the sumptuous velvet Philadelphian beauty of one of Bizet’s most memorable melodies to sing out with delicate embellishments glowing like jewels in the crown.Hair raising excitement of a habanera that had entered with sensual charm before turning into a whirlwind of decorative ornamentation.The rumbustuous entry of the brass band fanfares brought exhilaration and excitement.

Suddenly clouds of dust with a miriade of delicate cascades of notes brought us to the desolate finale of visionary beauty.
Even the final chords played staccato on a long held note where Tom’s transcendental control of sound showed that he like Busoni was an absolute master of creating an atmosphere of orchestral dimensions.
The works of Busoni are of atmospheres created with a mastery of the pedals that just demonstrates that the pedals are truly the soul of the piano as Anton Rubinstein had declared.
It was Kyril Gernstein who revealed so clearly ,at his extraordinary recital recently of Liszt and Busoni at the Wignore Hall,this misunderstood world where the visionary late works of Liszt are taken and developed by his disciple Busoni.
A strange world of atmospheres where nothing is written in stone but everything is suggested in sand.

What ravishing beauty he brought to Respighi’s nocturne a forgotten masterpiece of mellifluous golden sounds on which rose a melody chiselled with a purity and luminosity that was truly memorable .
What to say of Liszt’s revisitation of Lucrezia Borgia.
Tom had said before the concert that he could not understand why it was not more often heard in the concert hall.The only answer is because there are very few ,if any pianists,endowed with such transcendental virtuosity but above all a sense of style and showmanship.
It was what made of Liszt an idol of his time.
It will allow all those astonished,amazed and seduced today by this display of breathtaking recreation to say that they were there too when Thomas Kelly was at the start of his career.

Milda Daunoraite was the last to play in this mini series of three lunchtime concerts in Haslemere.
It was born of a collaboration between Stephen Dennison of HHH concerts and the Keyboard Trust.
After Adam Heron and Thomas Kelly it was the young Lithuanian pianist,student of Tessa Nicholson ,who was to play the final concert.
An alarm call the evening before to say that Milda was in bed with flu and did not think she would have the strength to play an encore after the exertions of Petrouchka.
But would she be well enough to play the recital?

We need not have worried because from the very first notes of the Bach Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue she had risen to the challenge and plunged straight in with her usual youthful ‘joie de vivre’despite an occasional stifled cough.
Milda is a pianist of very strong character but above all a musician who has that rare gift of being able to make the music speak.
From the very first notes there was a conversation with the first whirlwind phrase answered by the next with very subtle inflections of colour and phrasing.
A conversation that opened a whole fascinating world and that held our attention as we were swept up in a continual wave of rhythmic energy.
A fugue that was barely audible such was the extreme delicacy of the opening statement which she built up in a continual crescendo until the final triumphant cadenza.

Her great musicality brought the opening of Beethoven’s Les Adieux Sonata vividly to life with a sensitivity to sound that gave such character to this very moving opening statement.
Bursting into the dynamic energy and a rhythmic fervour of the Allegro that follows she played with remarkable technical control and character. There was ravishing beauty in the Andante espressivo where the magical atmosphere she created at the end made the ‘vivacissimamente’outburst of the last movement even more startling.
Milda confessed that this was her first public performance of the Scriabin Fantasy Sonata as she threw herself fearlessly into it with sumptuous ravishing sounds and dynamic rhythmic energy.The barely whispered opening was transformed into a sumptuous melodic outpouring with cascades of notes embroidering Scriabin’s youthful romantic effusions.The last movement unleashed a true whirlwind of notes on which appeared the pulsating melody reaching passionate heights that just swept all before it.

Petrouchka is one of the great show pieces for piano.
It was dedicated to Stravinsky’s friend Artur Rubinstein and was a substitute for the Piano Rag music that his friend had commissioned but had not been happy with and refused to play in public.
There were far too many notes in the Petrouchka transcription for Rubinstein so he played his own arrangement agreed by the composer.
These days most pianists can conquer the multitude of notes quite easily but to bring the work back to life as Rubinstein did is only for the most gifted musicians.Those that unselfishly transmit the composers intentions rather than using the piece as a vehicle to show off their virtuosity and resiliance.
Milda immediately played the Danse Russe at a speed that the dancers of Stravinsky’s ballet suite could dance to without incurring injury.
There was great virtuosity too but also a sense of driving movement based on the dance.

A total identification with Chez Petrouchka as with devastating conviction she plunged into the depths of the piano only to create a heaven and hell situation that was mesmerising as it led to the joyous outpouring of ‘La Semaine grasse.’
A relentless driving rhythm of excitement out of which emerged the melodic line with the tension ever mounting until the final explosion that Milda played with fearless vehemence.

A standing ovation and cheers from an audience that she had held in her spell from the first to the last note.A valiant soldier who had braved her sick bed to bring such vibrant music making to today’s audience.But then Milda is already a great professional and refreshingly intelligent musician.Her playing is growing in authority and weight as her intensive studies continue with her severe task master ,Tessa Nicholson the teacher of artists of the stature of Alim Baesembayev,Mark Viner,Tyler Hay and many others.
Headed for the heights with a ‘joie de vivre’ which is refreshing and inspiring.
Haslemere can boast too to be one of the steps in a future important career thanks to the Keyboard Trust.
Milda very sweetly confided that the KT had given her so many concert opportunities how could she ever repay them!
Milda is augmenting he studies by working behind the scenes at the Wigmore Hall before she too will take them by storm on that hallowed stage.

What a way to say farewell ……..one of the great musicians of our time bows out while still at the top of his game.

Two Cristians together in the green room learning the name of a tantalisingly familiar encore that Zacharias played ,sneakily joined at the umbelical to a Scarlatti Sonata.
He obviously hoped that two for the price of one would quel the ovation that the Wiggies reserve only for their very favourite musicians.

He was also Perlemuter’s favourite because apart from being a superlative musician he had like his mentor shyed away from the PR boys preferring to concentrate solely on what the composer,not the butler,saw!

He is also a very nice man who is always pleased to meet people after the concert with a simplicity and a genuine memory of past meetings.
Well Zacharias did not get off so easily and did the backward and forward charade until he gave his adoring public another encore in waltz time!Debussy’s ‘La plus che lente’ joined the elusive ‘Homage a Piaf’ by Poulenc – the fifteenth of his improvisations!
The cat is out of the bag!

It was only with impish good humour and a wicked twinkle in his eye that we were able to extract the information from him.
He is Cristian Sandrin’s childhood idol from when as a boy his father ,the renowned pianist Sandu Sandrin,took his son to hear him play in Bucharest.

Zacharias remembers Perlemuter and Joan and the scarf that Joan gave me when she was 104 for MY birthday.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2017/12/19/in-praise-of-joan-2/

He loved hearing about the message from the Queen on her 100th birthday and the thank you note she sent in her beautiful convent learnt calligraphy.He loved hearing too about her surprise when she did not receive any more on her 101/104 birthdays!
My accompanying Perlemuter from this very room to the stage door for the last time.Every time was like going to the guillotine for Vlado,even in his 90th year.
He pushed me aside as he did not want anyone to see the stick that gave him the confidence to still travel the world with his beloved Joan.
There was always a smile of affectionate recognition on Vlado’s face when remembering Cristian but then Cristian is such a nice man and a simple great musician how could you ever forget him!
Like Perlemuter,Cristian is one of the world’s best kept secrets how can we ever let him go!

This may be the coldest church in the kingdom but with Ashley Fripp at the Keyboard the air was quickly filled with the beautiful sounds where the fact that the oil had run out was a total irrelevance.

Strange that the same thing had happened a few weeks ago for Murray McLachlan’s concert too !
Three Preludes and fugues immediately showed his pedigree as a favourite student of Eliso Virsaladze.
An impressive architectural shape but with clarity and very subtle pointing that added a nobility and grandeur in these august surroundings.
As Ashley pointed out in his very informed introductions the works by Bach were written in the same period as the construction of this noble edifice.

I have often passed this beautiful church that sits in the middle of the Strand but have never ventured inside until today.
Someone has had the genial idea to eliminate the traffic that surrounded this church on all sides and it now sits nobly in a pedestrian precinct and is an oasis of tranquility and peace.
Chopin carried the Bach ‘48 with him as his musical bible so it was fitting that after Bach should come two masterpieces by Chopin.

The Barcarolle op 60 which is an outpouring of song that in Chopin’s hands reaches the sublime heights that had Perlemuter (one of the greatest interpreters of Chopin),exclaim that this was surely paradise!
Ashley played it with an aristocratic nobility which gave it a superb architectural shape leading so inevitably to the fervant passion of the penultimate page.The final page was full of reams of golden sounds (much admired by Ravel) that led to a streak of gently more pressing notes gliding so gracefully from the top to the bottom of the keyboard as it drew to its ever noble conclusion.

The B minor sonata written just before the Barcarolle is a full scale work in four movements that Ashley miraculously wove together into one inevitable whole.
The nobility of the opening was followed by the fleeting jeux perlé of the Scherzo linked by imperiously majestic chords to the heart of the sonata which is the Largo.The rondo finale was a continuous crescendo of excitement and sound as Ashley judged with superlative control the mounting tension to the final breathtaking explosion of scintillating notes that shot from one end of the keyboard to the other with astonishing technical prowess.
But how could one forget the freedom and nobility he gave to the beautiful second subject in the first movement.So often played with sickly sentimentality and slower tempo ………and it is Chopin who gets it in the neck for not being able to construct larger forms!
It needs the artistry of a great musician who with sensibility can construct Chopin’s masterly form without sentimental distortions of the so called Chopin tradition.

The return of the second subject too is marked forte and is a glorious exultation rather than a sad remembrance ( the same sort of traditional distortion that hits the first movement of Schumann’s Fantasie).
The Largo too was played with an elasticity and weight that allowed Chopin’s glorious creation to unfold so naturally.The long meandering central episode with it’s cantabile left hand counterpoint was a glorious outpouring of golden sounds.The whispered return of the theme ‘avec un sentiment de regret’ was played by Ashley with transcendental control and ravishing beauty which was not easy in the polar temperature that surrounded this magnificent new Steinway.

No encores (like Arrau who was not a circus act but a servant at the service of music.Merely a medium between the notes on the page and the sounds that the composer intended).But there was a glass of wine to warm the cockles of his heart that was already beating fast after such a feast of music.
But unfortunately the physical extremities were fast turning blue !

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/09/21/ashley-fripp-at-st-marys-poetry-and-intelligence-of-a-great-musician/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/02/14/ashley-fripp-in-florence-a-walk-to-the-paradise-garden/

Great celebrations at the beautiful Romanian Cultural Embassy with a pre launch presentation of Cristian Sandrin’s new CD that includes the remarkable first Sonata by Enescu.

A National hero celebrated every year,in Bucharest and throughout the whole of Romania with a festival and international competition in his name.
Cristian gave a superb performance of this two movement work with its bleak second movement after the brilliance of the first.

With Enescu looking on from the mantelpiece we were treated to a performance of great rhythmic energy and a subtle kaleidoscope of sounds.A performance of weight and authority of a masterpiece that deserves to be heard more often in the concert hall.
The concert had begun with two Petrarc sonnets by Liszt that were played with ravishing sounds and passionate conviction.

It was a concert without a printed programme and so after the interval we were astonished when Cristian announced that he would now play Beethoven’s Sonata in E op 109 and Chopin Sonata in B minor op 58!
Reminiscent of Andras Schiff who prefers not to be tied down years in advanced to a specific programme but knows the public will trust him to play only the greatest of works.He had appeared on the Wigmore Stage recently and after the interval had announced quite casually that he would now play Beethoven’s monumental ‘Hammerklavier’Sonata!
Wilhelm Kempf would regularly arrive at the recording studio and simply ask ‘what would you like me to play today?’
Cristian like Schiff is a superb musician who is mentored by that great musician Imogen Cooper.Everything he plays is imbued with intelligence and beauty. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/05/17/cristian-sandrin-plays-goldberg-variations-the-start-of-a-lifetime-journey-of-discovery/

An architectural shape which creates a great arch of noble importance where the details are not of prime importance as much as a structure that is constructed like a great cathedral on rock.
A lesson of musical integrity and serious intent that was bequeathed to him by his recently deceased father the renowned pianist Sandu Sandrin.
The school of Enescu of an age of complete musicians at the service of the music .
And what music was heard tonight!

Beethoven’s last thoughts on the sonata opened in a magic cloud of insinuating beauty only to be interrupted by Beethovenian outbursts of majestic nobility.Driving rhythms of the second movement with its relentless energy left Beethoven free to express his inner soul with the sublime theme and variations that followed.
Beethoven’s ever more present celestial trills created streams of sound on which floated on high the theme before laying to rest weary and barely able to whisper the final heart rending return of the magical opening.

A masterly performance and bodes well for Cristian’s performance of the Beethoven Trilogy in the LSO Barbican at St Luke’s on the 26th April.An unmissable opportunity to hear Beethoven’s last thoughts from a musician whose integrity and musical intelligence are impeccable. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/02/25/cristian-sandrin-a-message-of-hope-and-peace-in-florence-the-cradle-of-our-culture/

Chopin’s B minor Sonata completed this marathon recital.Notable was the ravishing masculine nobility that he gave to the second subject of the first movement and the mounting excitement he brought to the final rondo.
Playing of nobility and architectural weight that lent to Chopin a strength and shape that made one aware of what a revolutionary genius he truly was!

Pavle Krstic flew in from Salzburg invited by the Keyboard Trust to play at Steinway Hall in London.

Three sonatas on the programme by Beethoven,Chopin and an early Sonata by Stravinsky that the composer had hoped had been destroyed by the regime when he left his homeland in 1914.
Two great works,one by Beethoven with his ‘quasi una fantasia’companion to the renowned ‘Moonlight’Sonata and Chopin’s B flat minor ‘Funeral March’Sonata.
Strange no Mozart,considering that Pavle for the past ten years has been resident in Salzburg where he has been in the class of Pavel Gililov.
Only a Sonata that the composer Stravinsky was horrified to see had survived the revolution!

As Pavle explained ,in his very informed and enjoyable conversation with Elena Vorotko,he chose this early unknown Stravinsky because after the success of his Chopin CD recorded last year in Verona he had been persuaded to record the complete piano works of a composer who much to his friend Rubinstein’s consternation thought of the piano as a percussive instrument!

Rubinstein had commissioned his great friend Stravinsky to write a piano piece for him.’Piano rag music’ duly arrived on his doorstep but it was such an ungrateful piece that he refused to play in public so Stravinsky dedicated his Petrouchka suite to him that was so technically challenging Rubinstein asked permission to make his own arrangements.
Such a free arrangement that Rubinstein kept it only for the concert hall and not encapsulated on record.
A pirate recording has survived though from his historic ten Carnegie Hall recitals the proceeds of which he gave to ten charities to thank America for befriending and supporting him during his long career.
Rubinstein would have loved this early sonata that when Pavle was rehearsing I thought was some Godowsky type show piece that he intended to astonish us with after the three sonatas on the official programme .

An astonishing funabulistic show piece with a melodic effusion Hollywood style.
What a shock to learn that it was the Stravinsky sonata!
It certainly was not the one I was expecting that I had been forced to learn as a student to play to Nadia Boulanger.A later work of Stravinsky’s rather impersonal barren stile of neo classicism ?!
This youthful work Pavle played with astonishing clarity and bravura that with some judicious cuts could grace the concert hall as a virtuoso encore piece.
It was interesting after hearing his very musicianly account of the Chopin Sonata to learn that he was using the new recommended Ekier edition where the question of the first movement repeat was swiftly resolved.
Not only was it his brilliant playing but also his very eloquent explanation that made a very persuasive case for an edition that my generation still find rather clinical and hard to accept compared to the old Paderewski Edition which is now by the Chopin National Edition to be considered obsolete!

An exemplary account of Beethoven’s Sonata op 27 n.1 demonstrated his musical pedigree and technical mastery on a magnificent Steinway D piano that could happily grace any of the great concert halls of the world.
Halls of much bigger dimension than the relatively small space available for recitals at Steinways .A magnificent instrument for which we can only be immensely grateful to Steinways allowing young artists of the calibre of Pavle an important platform in central London.Sound though needs space to travel to be able to find that kaleidoscope of colours and chiaroscuro that the Steinway for generations has allowed the greatest artists to share with the world.
We are left to imagine what other wonders Pavle could have discovered but as Fou Ts’ong so wisely said it is much easier to be intimate in a large space than in a small one.

Pavle after great insistence from a full hall astonished us even further with a breathtaking account of Rachmaninov’s fourth of the Moments Musicaux.

Musicianship,virtuosity and sumptuous sound combined to give a performance of exhilaration and brilliance.

The only thing to do after a performance like that was to share a cup of champagne with the artist in the beautiful new space that Steinways have created here in the centre of London.

Only London recital for the 2022-23 season

Dmitri Alexeev showed us what we have been missing for too long in London A demonstration of supreme artistry with playing of authority and weight.
Such artistry that in the Mozart C minor Sonata every note was played with seeming simplicity with only the slightest of inflections but that gave such meaning and poignancy to every note.There was great drama too but it was all within a certain architectural framework with a sense of direction that left no doubt that we were in the hands of a master who has lived with this music for a lifetime.

It was the same authority that he brought to Schumann with a memorable account of Waldszenen where every one of the nine pieces was painted with extraordinary characterisation with a sound that created a complete world of ravishing beauty.The first Novelette too was an explosion of sumptuous and even sensuous sounds driven with a passion and beauty that swept all before it.

The ravishingly sumptuous sound he brought to the beautiful opening of Prokofiev’s 8th Sonata created a barren landscape out of which was to erupt explosions of frenzy and breathtaking dynamism.It took us by surprise as Prokofiev had intended with the last of his trilogy of War Sonatas.
War is a cruel and ugly beast but there are also moments of peace that become even more poignant in the midst of a full battle.And a full battle was waged tonight with Alexeev’s total immersion with all his transcendental piano playing exposed with brutality,dynamism and driving rhythmic energy.Even the Andante sognando was a dream of almost nightmare proportions before the driving insistence of the final battle.Looking back for a moment to the desolate beauty of the first movement it just made the final cries for help even more terrifying.

A remarkable performance that kept the full house riveted to their seats even Lilian Hochhauser a great friend of Emil Gilels who gave the first performance in the early 40’s was cheering as we all were as we were left breathless with the terror and excitement that war can produce and be reproduced from the descriptive soul and hands of a master.

Visions fugitives op 22 was the only way to break the spell after a performance of that stature.
These jewels that Prokofiev had also penned were the ideal antidote for his later nightmare visions.
The first was played with an unusual freedom as though Alexeev was freeing himself of the tight reigns that he had set himself before.The impish second (n.10) even brought a smile to lips when played with the charm and control of sound of a pianist of another age.
One of the Albumblatter op 126 that Schumann had produced towards the end of his life, n.16 Schlummerlied was the simple charm of his second encore before bursting into the unbridled passion of the Intermezzo from Schumann’s Carnaval Jest from Vienna op 26

And jesting indeed he now was as,he was persuaded to play a fourth encore with the charming staccato song without words by Mendelssohn op 67 n.2 on which floats a beguiling melody of Victorian charm.

An ever more insistent audience brought us the Spanish dance n.5 by Granados.It was played with insinuating charm and beguiling rhythmic agitation.
Was it just a coincidence that Granados too went down in a torpedoed boat during the First World War?
An unforgettable evening in beautiful Leighton House a true oasis of artistic endeavour between the wars and recently restored to it’s original splendour.

It is thanks to Lisa Peacock that once again this music room resounds to the sounds of great artists as it had done in the past.
A sumptuous feathered nest to revive any soul.

MOZART: Sonata C minor KV457

The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor K. 457, was composed and completed in 1784, with the official date of completion recorded as 14 October 1784 in Mozart’s own catalogue of works.It was published in December 1785 together with the Fantasy in C minor K.475 as opus 11 by the publishing firm Artaria,Mozart’s main Viennese publisher.The title page bore a dedication to Theresia von Trattner (1758–1793), who was one of Mozart’s pupils in Vienna. Her husband, Thomas von Trattner (1717–1798), was an important publisher as well as Mozart’s landlord in 1784. Eventually, the Trattners would become godparents to four of Mozart’s children.It was composed during the approximately 10-year period of Mozart’s life as a freelance artist in Vienna after he removed himself from the patronage of the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1781. It is one of the earliest of only six sonatas composed during the Vienna years, and was probably written either as a teaching tool or for personal use.Sonatas during this time were generally written for the domestic sphere– as opposed to a symphony or concerto,they were designed to convey ideas in a small, intimate setting.The sonata is in three movements Molto allegro,Adagio ,Allegro assai.The Sonata is only one of two sonatas Mozart wrote in a minor key, the other being the Sonata in A minor K.310 which was written six years earlier, around the time of the death of Mozart’s mother .Mozart was extremely deliberate in choosing tonalities for his compositions; therefore, his choice of C minor for this sonata implies that this piece was perhaps a very personal work.

SCHUMANN : Waldszenen Op.82

Forest Scenes , op.82, is a cycle of nine character pieces ,composed in 1848 and 1849. The sequence of the pieces reveals the striving for a largely symmetrical architecture of the cycle. The first piece ( Entrance ) corresponds to the last ( Farewell ), the second ( Hunters in wait ) to the penultimate ( Hunting song ). The third piece ( Lonely Flowers ) is also thematically related to the third piece ( Vogel als Prophet ): flowers and birds are both representatives of living nature. Finally, the disreputable place , as an eerie place, corresponds in contrast to the homely inn . All of these pieces center around the fifth piece ( Friendly Landscape ) as an axis of symmetry.The main key of B flat major determines the beginning, middle and end of the cycle. The Lonely Flowers also use B flat major, whereas the thematically relevant bird as a prophet (probably because of its more mysterious character) is in the relative key of G minor. It is also worth noting that the two uncanny pieces ( Hunters on the Lauer and Verrufene Stelle ) are in D minor, while their positive counterparts ( Jagdlied and Herberge ) are both in E flat major.

SCHUMANN: Novelette Op.21 No.1

The Novelletten, op 21, is a set of eight pieces written by Schumann in 1838 and is dedicated to Adolf von Henselt.February 1838 was a period of great struggle for Schumann who originally intended the eight pieces to be performed together as a group, though they are often performed separately.

After seeing his beloved Clara again at a concert in August 1837 , Schumann, despite the difficulty of their relationship, felt more relieved and went through a serene period during which he composed some more relaxed and happy works, among which the Novellettes .The origin of the title has been a field of discussion by critics, but the reality is very simple and has been explained by the composer himself: «How happy I have been in recent days… In these last three weeks I have written a frightening amount of music, of jokes, of family scenes with parents, a wedding: in short, as you can see, all the most desirable things. I called the whole thing Novelletten because your name is Clara like Novello’s and because Wiecketten unfortunately didn’t sound as good!» Schumann in the letter refers to the singer Clara A.Novello whose name was the same as his girlfriend.The Novellettes reflect the happiest and most peaceful period the composer went through while composing them; this serenity is clearly represented by the keys of the eight pieces which are all written in a major key, with the prevalence of D major; it was a period in which, as he himself said, he wrote easily, as had happened few other times; moreover, the presence of the inspiring figure of Clara is evident in the momentum and lyricism that dominate the composition. The collection, even if it includes only eight pieces, is of considerable size and is the most extensive among the piano works of the musician, so much so that no real connection can be found in the structure; the individual pieces therefore remain autonomous, showing in this a weakness of the composition, as if there were already a sort of weariness of the musician towards the piano.Despite everything, the Novellettes contain some of Schumann’s most inspired and happy pages.The first Novelletta , nearly five minutes long, opens incisively with the grand-looking main theme. Then enters the second melody, sweet and dreamy which suggests melancholy sensations and which returns several times alternating with the more marked initial section.

Entry-Hunters lying in wait-Lonely flowers-Disreputable place-Friendly landscape,hostel,Bird as a prophet,Hunting song,Farewell.

Interval

PROKOFIEV: Sonata No.8 Op.84

Piano Sonata No. 8 in B♭ major, op.84 is the third and longest of the three ‘war sonatas ‘.He completed it in 1944 and dedicated it to his partner Mira Mendelson ,who later became his second wife.The sonata was first performed on 30 December 1944, in Moscow by Emil Gilels

The sonata has three movements.

1. Andante dolce — Allegro moderato (in B♭ major)
2. Andante sognando (in D♭ major)
3. Vivace (in B♭ major)

Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev is one of the world’s most highly regarded artists.  His critically acclaimed recitals on the world’s leading concert stages and concerto appearances with the most prestigious orchestras have secured his position as one of “the most remarkable pianists of the day” (Daily Telegraph).

He has performed in all the major concert halls around the world and with all leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia, Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the five London orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic and Munich Bavarian Radio Orchestra. He has worked with conductors including Ashkenazy, Boulez, Dorati, Giulini, Jansons, Muti, Pappano, Rozhdestvensky, Salonen, Svetlanov, Temirkanov, Tilson Thomas and Klaus Tennstedt. Alexeev has been a juror for many of the world’s most prestigious international piano competitions including Leeds, Chopin (Warsaw), Van Cliburn, Santander, Beethoven (Vienna) and Tchaikovsky (Moscow)Alexeev has made many fine recordings for EMI, BMG, Virgin Classics, Hyperion and Russian labels. Following his Virgin Classics recording of the complete Rachmaninov Preludes, which won the Edison Award in the Netherlands, BBC Music Magazine described him as “a pianist at once aristocratic, grand and confessionally poetic. This is an inspiring disc.” His recording of the complete Chopin Mazurkas was released in 2014. A recording that Gramophone Magazine referred to as “one of the best recordings of the Chopin Mazurkas that have appeared in the past three-quarters of a century – one of the best alongside those of Rubinstein and Yakov Flier.” His recordings of the complete Scriabin works for piano solo were released by Brilliant Classics in 2022. Alexeev’s two piano transcriptions of works by Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Gershwin, as well as his transcriptions of Brahms’ Ballade for Viola and Piano were recently published.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/11/13/dmitri-alexeev-mastery-and-communication-beyond-all-boundaries/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/08/11/dmitri-alexeev-in-poland-a-master-speaks-the-supreme-stylist/

It was Rubinstein who quipped that Tureck makes Bach box office and I think we can say judging from the full house at Teatro Palladium that Valerio Vicari makes Mozart box office too .Valerio Vicari,the artistic director of the Roma Tre Orchestra and concert season at the University where he too was a student under Prof.Robert Pujia.Together with the help of the University they have created over the past twenty years a reality that is proving to be unique in Italy.A season for Young Artists on the threshold of starting a career in music giving concerts even during the pandemic thanks to streaming from their Teatro Palladium.Valerio is also Professor of Latin and corrected my Italian title to the more perfect Latin …….hats off indeed and many thanks for all that he is doing .

Now the solo concerts are held in the splendid surroundings ,just a stones throw from the theatre ,in the Convitto Vittorio Locchi.

The theatre is now mainly the seat for the orchestral concerts that Valerio has battled to create over the last sixteen or more years giving valuable orchestral experience to young talented musicians freshly minted from the many State run Conservatories that abound in Italy.No one thinks about what do these superbly trained young musicians do once their studies are completed.Well Valerio has found a solution for these young musicians who are ever grateful for a serious platform in which to gain invaluable concert experience.This activity after twenty long years has now been recognised by the Government authorities.An activity,that despite all the difficulties,the mission of Roma 3 has never wavered and now with this financial backing can take the message of music and youthful hope into many places in Italy far from the Eternal city.

A reality too that includes themed concerts in the historic Teatro Torlonia where the young musicians share the platform with distinguished critics and musicologists giving a unique insight into the music to be played https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/10/30/mozart-triumphs-at-torlonia-with-jonathan-ferrucci-pietro-fresa-sieva-borzak/

Mozart does you good as the full house and final ovation can confirm with Roma 3 Orchestra at Teatro Palladium.

An orchestra that is now being heard not only in Rome but in tournées throughout Italy .An impressive amalgamated sound in Mozart’s early G minor Symphony under Vakhtang Gabidzashvili.An orchestra that knew how to sensitively support the two solists who had stood in at short notice for an indisposed violinist/ pianist.

The leader of the orchestra Leonardo Spinedi valiantly stepping in with a very authoritative performance of the 3rd violin concerto.Playing with grace and charm and imbuing this much loved concerto with great style.

Ruben Micieli learnt the Jeunehomme in just a few days and like ‘the young man’ he filled it with sparkling clarity and purity of sound .But it was Mozart goes to town that stole the show as Ruben gave a breathtaking account of Fazil Say’s virtuoso show piece,a fantasmagoric Mozart encore that brought the house down .

Valerio Vicari has also sought out partnerships with other important realities that are dedicated to promoting young musicians at the start of their career .One of these is the Keyboard Charitable Trust in London who are promoting several concerts each year together.Giovanni Bertolazzi and Jonathan Ferrucci have given several important concerts in Villa Torlonia. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/02/27/a-lion-in-villa-torlonia-luca-lione-at-teatro-di-villa-torlonia/Luca Leone went from Torlonia to London and back again this year for the inauguration of the new university venue https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/11/13/luca-lione-the-great-communicator-for-roma-3-young-artist-series/. This year Simone Tavoni will be playing on the 9th February at the Convitto Vittorio Locchi and Ruben Micieli will be playing for the Keyboard Trust in London on the 19th April.

Angela’s Bach is a human Bach not a monument to be worshipped from afar but a musical genius who also had human feelings that he expressed within the formal boundaries of music of his time.He also had seventeen children so he must surely have had a sense of humour!Angela’s Bach is based on the song and the dance but above all on the human voice.It is this that kept the audience enthralled with eight Preludes and Fugues from Book two of the Well Tempered Clavier played alternately at times with a rhythmic drive and others a beseeching melodic line of great beauty.Has the D minor prelude ever seen such a seemless stream of notes with unexpected colours appearing like jewels suddenly gleaming brightly.The opening D major had something of the nobility that she brought later to the opening of the Overture BWV 831.There was a pastoral beauty to the Prelude in E flat contrasting with the simple joy of the Fugue and there was delicate expression to the end of the D sharp Fugue too.The poignant simple beauty of the E major contrasting with the nobility and grandeur of the four part fugue.The busy weaving of the E minor Prelude and Fugue you could begin to see what Delius meant when he dismissed Bach as ‘knotty twine!’He obviously had not heard Angela’s wonderful sense of colour and shape and a way of highlighting without exaggeration.She would just shine a mini spotlight on the entry of the fugue but with a kaleidoscope of different colours.The F major prelude was allowed to flow so naturally before the joyous eruption of the three part fugue.Her Bach has great architectural shape but within that Gothic cathedral there were so many hidden shapes and different characters that made what looked like a dry exercise on paper become a vibrant exhilarating and moving experience.I was reminded of the great actress Sybil Thorndyke who was also a very fine pianist who was the first to show me the refined beauty of the final F minor Prelude that could almost have been written one hundred years later.It was contrasted though with the rumbustuous outcry of the Fugue like a popular ditty ( was not the quodlibet the last of the Goldberg variations based on two popular songs of the day?It just shows that Bach may have been a genius but he was also a person of his times.The Quodlibet combines :’I have so long been away from you,come closer,come closer’ and ‘Cabbage and turnips have driven me away,had my mother cooked meat,I’d have opted to stay!’).It was this Fugue that going backstage in the interval of one of her many concerts in Florence we ended up singing Ebenezer Prout’s famous words to the Bach Fugues.I pretended to remember but she knew them all and was dancing around the room reciting them showing what fun Bach can be too!A lifetime companion indeed !Lucky Angela!And lucky us who can share her ‘joie de vivre’ in her ever generous tournées world wide. P.S. The only other time I remember being so overwhelmed by Preludes and Fugues in the concert hall was a rare recital by Friedrich Gulda in the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London .Appearing on stage as though ready for the gym with tennis shoes and baseball hat looking the audience in the eye as he played A recital of Bach and Debussy where his performance of the Prelude in A flat BXV 886 has haunted me ever since. Angela in Siena chose a perfect sequence of n. 5 to n. 12 from Book two which worked so perfectly as a whole that it could have well been a suite by Bach on its own.Gulda like Gould was a genius and like all genii was extremely unconventional not to say eccentric by our ‘more normal’standards.And it was indeed Angela Hewitt who had won the one and only Glenn Gould International Bach Competition and had been promoted by the Canadian Embassy in concerts including the Ghione Theatre and Teatro Olimpico in Rome in 1985.It was on that occasion that I met her father and mother.Her father ,Godfrey,was a very distinguished organist for 50 years at Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa and mother Marion a distinguished piano teacher https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjm2ovmh4H9AhWZSPEDHd5fDrkQFnoECCIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fangelahewitt.com%2Fpress%2Farticles%2Fangela-hewitt-plays-for-her-mom%2F&usg=AOvVaw35i8C2WYW_wlYw-2kLeygB

Gulda years later in the ‘90’s announced a Mozart recital in the Ghione Theatre in Rome.A Bosendorfer was duly delivered for the concert.But Gulda appeared on stage in a wig and declared himself to be Mozart as a dancer began her sensuous performance to Gulda who pretended to play on an electric keyboard.The audience waited patiently for the promised Mozart recital but with pop music blaring away at full force began to leave in droves.About eleven thirty after Gulda had consumed a bottle and a half of Gin I enquired when he thought the performance would finish as the hall was by now empty.’I will finish when I am ready’ was the reply ……when he was sure the hall was empty he sat at the piano and he played so wonderfully that I just wish the audience could have waited a little longer.After the performance he went to the Alexanderplatz Jazz Club where he stayed until the early hours.In the meantime he had announced to the press his death because he wanted to see what the obituaries would say about him !When he did actually die a few years later there was not a squeak about him in the press!Crying Wolf I believe it is called!But the Bach I have heard from him and now Angela I will never forget.

Johann Sebastian Bach da “Il Clavicembalo ben Temperato”, Libro II
Preludio e Fuga n. 5 in re magg. BWV 874
Preludio e Fuga n. 6 in re min. BWV 875
Preludio e Fuga n. 7 in mi bem. magg. BWV 876
Preludio e Fuga n. 8 in re diesis min. BWV 877
Preludio e Fuga n. 9 in mi magg. BWV 878
Preludio e Fuga n. 10 in mi min. BWV 879
Preludio e Fuga n. 11 in fa magg. BWV 880
Preludio e Fuga n. 12 in fa min. BWV 881  

Johann Sebastian Bach Ouverture in stile francese in si min. BWV 831
1. Ouverture
2. Courante
3. Gavotte I
4. Gavotte II (re maggiore)
5. Passepied I
6. Passepied II
7. Sarabande
8. Bourrée I
9. Bourrée II
10. Gigue
11. Echo

A monumental performance of the Bach Overture in the French Style was again a complete revelation just as the Preludes and Fugues had been in the first part of this extraordinary recital.A work I have rarely heard in the concert hall but the declamative nobility of the opening immediately made one aware that this was a work of great weight and importance.An Overture that lasts almost half the length of the whole work with the noble opening returning after the interruptions of a four part fugue played with pulsating rhythmic energy.A Courante gently flowing with florid ornamentation that just added to the radiance after the grandeur and nobility of the opening.A Gavotte n.1 of grace and charm and a slightly more serious Gavotte n.2 with Angela’s obvious joy at the return to the Gavotte n.I full of her infectiously spontaneous ‘joie de vivre’.The refined courtly dance of the Passepied n.1 in 3/8 contrasted with the more melodic Passepied n.2,a formal trio like contrast before the return of the Passepied n.1.A deeply meditative Sarabande that was played with an aristocratic florid beauty.The two Bourées with their civilised rhythmic dance and beguiling outpouring of popular melodic effusions of a period of formal civilised culture.Even the Gigue had a gracious 6/8 lilt of courtly elegance before the fun and games of the Echo.A regal stately opening that gave way to an exhilarating rhythmic drive where Bach’s continual stopping and starting was of startling good humour and brought this monumental work to the conclusion that only the genius of Bach could have envisaged.A masterly performance that had me searching out the score to delve even more deeply into a work I had overlooked for too long.Thank you dear Angela also for that !

The Overture in the French style,BWV 831, original title Ouvertüre nach Französischer Art, also known as the French Overture and published as the second half of the Clavier- Ubung 11 in 1735 (paired with the Italian Concerto ) and is a suite in B minor for a two-manual harpsichord.An earlier version of this work exists, in the key of C minor (BWV 831a); the work was transposed into B minor to complete the cycle of tonalities in Parts One and Two of the Clavier-Übung.^[The keys of the six Partitas (B♭ major, C minor, A minor, D major, G major, E minor) of Clavier-Übung I form a sequence of intervals going up and then down by increasing amounts: a second up (B♭ to C), a third down (C to A), a fourth up (A to D), a fifth down (D to G), and finally a sixth up (G to E).The key sequence continues into Clavier-Übung II (1735) with two larger works: the Italian Concerto, a seventh down (E to F), and the French Overture, an augmented fourth up (F to B♮). Thus this sequence of customary tonalities for 18th-century keyboard compositions is complete, extending from the first letter of his name (Bach’s “home” key, B♭, in German is B) to the last letter of his name (B♮ in German is H).The term overture refers to the fact that this suite starts with an overture movement, and was a common generic name for French suites (his orchestral suites were similarly named). This “overture” movement replaces the allemande found in Bach’s other keyboard suites. Also, there are optional dance movements both before and after the Sarabande .In Bach’s work optional movements usually occur only after the sarabande. All three of the optional dance movements are presented in pairs, with the first one repeated after the second, but without the internal repeats. Also unusual for Bach is the inclusion of an extra movement after the Gigue.This is an “echo”, a piece meant to exploit the terraced loud and soft dynamics of the two-manual harpsichord. Other movements also have dynamic indications (piano and forte)which are not often found in keyboard suites of the Baroque period, and indicate here the use of the two keyboards of the harpsichord. With eleven movements, the French Overture is the longest keyboard suite ever composed by Bach.

Angela Hewitt for the glory of Bach.The pinnacle of pianistic perfection

Angela Hewitt at the Wigmore Hall a moment to cherish in difficult times

Angela Hewitt at the RCM a light of radiance and simplicity

Angela Hewitt casts her spell over Rome

Tuesday 31 January 3.00 pm 

I have heard Tyler play many times over the past few years and it is good to see how he has matured into an artist of great stature.A technical assurance allied to a musical intelligence and curiosity that allows him to delve deep into the piano archives finding many unjustly neglected scores.The marvel is that Tyler together with Mark Viner and Thomas Kelly are a hope for future music making and are able to bring their discoveries vividly to life in recording and on the concert platform Three artists ,each very different,all with a superb technical training giving their playing such weight and assurance.Not always an easy thing as much of the music was written for composer – virtuosi and make great demands on the pianist.All three received their early training at the Purcell School for gifted young musicians and all three went to the Royal College of Music to perfect the base that they had been given as gifted youths.Both Tyler and Mark Viner studied with that superb trainer of young musicians Tessa Nicholson (both later perfecting their studies with Niel Immelman ).Another of her students from Purcell and later continuing with her at the RAM,Alim Beisembayev ,recently won the Gold Medal at the Leeds.Thomas Kelly studied with the late Alan Ball at the Purcell School and later at the RCM .The intense beauty Tyler brought to the Field nocturnes was matched by the dynamic virtuosity required from Clementi (his infamous Gradus ad Parnassum gives some idea of what is expected).The Liszt Venezia e Napoli showed off his superb sense of style as well as dynamic showmanship.

John Field (26 July 1782 – 23 January 1837), was an Irish pianist, composer, and teacher.He was born in Dublin into a musical family, and received his early education there, in particular with the Italian composer Tommaso Giordani .The Fields soon moved to London, where Field studied with Muzio Clementi .Under his tutelage, Field quickly became a famous and sought-after concert pianist. Together, master and pupil visited Paris,Vienna and St Petersburg.Ambiguity surrounds Field’s decision to remain in the former Russian capital, but it is likely that Field acted as a sales representative for the Clementi Pianos.

Field became well-known for his post-London style, probably developed in Moscow around 1807. The characteristic texture is that of a chromatically decorated melody over a sonorous left hand supported by sensitive pedalling. Field also had an affinity for ostinato patterns and pedal points, rather unusual for the prevailing styles of the day. Entirely representative of these traits are Field’s 18 nocturnes and associated pieces such as Andante inedit, H 64. These works were some of the most influential music of the early Romantic period and do not adhere to a strict formal scheme but create a mood without text or programme.They were admired by Chopin who subsequently made the piano nocturne famous, and Liszt who published an edition of the nocturnes based on rare Russian sources that incorporated late revisions by Field.

None have quite attained to these vague eolian harmonies, these half-formed sighs floating through the air, softly lamenting and dissolved in delicious melancholy. Nobody has even attempted this peculiar style, and especially none of those who heard Field play himself, or rather who heard him dream his music in moments when he entirely abandoned himself to his inspiration.– Franz Liszt’s preface to his edition of Field’s nocturnes, 1859.

Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi (23 January 1752 – 10 March 1832) was an Italian composer,pianist,pedagogue,conductor ,music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer, who was mostly active in England.Encouraged to study music by his father, he was sponsored as a young composer by Sir Peter Beckford who took him to England to advance his studies. Later, he toured Europe numerous times from his long-standing base in London.Clementi moved with his wife Emma (née Gisborne) and his family to the outskirts of Lichfield ,Staffordshire and rented ‘Lincroft House’ on the Earl of Lichfield`s Estate from 1828 until late 1831. He then moved to Evesham where he died on 10 March 1832, after a short illness, aged eighty. On 29 March 1832, he was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.Accompanying his body were three of his students: Johann Baptist Cramer, John Field and Ignaz Moscheles. He had five children, a son Carl by his wife Caroline (née Lehmann) who died soon after his birth and the others, Vincent, Caecilia, Caroline, and John Muzio with his second wife Emma.

Didone Abbandonata – Piano Sonata in G, Op. 50, No.3 is the final sonata composed by Muzio Clementi in 1821. It was titled after Metastasio’s often-set opera libretto where Clementi seeks to tell the tragic story of Virgil’s heroine instrumentally. It is the only example of such a programmatic piece in the composer’s oeuvre.One of the most eminent pianists of his time – who even engaged in a contest with Mozart and did not lose – Muzio Clementi created fundamental pedagogical works for piano and altogether 63 sonatas for piano solo. Didone abbandonata dates from his last compositional opus for solo piano sonatas written in 1821. The topic of Dido, who was abandoned by Aeneas and expressed her grief through mourning, despair and, ultimately, raving madness, was extremely popular and subjected to countless arrangements since the 17th century in operas, single “scena” and many instrumental works. The performance instructions for the sonata are as numerous as they are uncommon, and symbolize Dido’s hyper-expressiveness.

The only other time I have heard this work was by the distinguished Italian pianist ,Sandro de Palma,who has a similar curiosity to Tyler of searching out neglected works as they delve ever deeper into musical archives https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2017/11/19/sandro-de-palma-in-viterbo-a-didone-never-abandoned/

Venezia e Napoli where each of the three piece is based on what was familiar material in the streets of Italy at the time of their conception.

Gondoliera is described by Liszt in the score as La biondina in gondoletta—Canzone di Cavaliere Peruchini (Beethoven’s setting of it, WoO157/12, for voice and piano trio just describes it as a Venetian folk-song, and Peruchini remains elusive) and he treats it in a much gentler way than in the earlier version with a particularly fine verse with tremolo accompaniment; the tremolo guides a very dark musing upon Rossini’s Canzone del Gondoliere—‘Nessùn maggior dolore’ (Otello) which itself recalls Dante’s Inferno and the Tarantella—incorporating themes by Guillaume Louis Cottrau (1797–1847)—emerges from the depths, much more subtle than in its previous, primary-coloured garb, but ultimately triumphantly boisterous.

Tyler Hay was born in 1994 and gained a place to study at the Purcell School in 2007 where he studied under Tessa Nicholson. He studied with Graham Scott and Frank Wibaut at the RNCM and with Niel Immelman and Gordon Fergus-Thompson at the RCM. Tyler has performed Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Sonata at Wigmore Hall, Scriabin’s 5th So nata at the Purcell Room and Ravel’s Concerto for Left Hand Alone at the Queen Elizabeth Hall . In 2016, Tyler won first prize in the keyboard section of the Royal Overseas League Competition and as well as winning the RNCM’s Gold medal competition, also won first prize in the Liszt Society Competiti on. He competed in the final stages of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021 and won 1st prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition in November, 2022. CDs of Liszt, John Ogdon and Kalkbrenner are available on Piano Classics and Tyler’s latest album of virtuoso piano music by Simon Proctor is now available on Navona Records

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/11/30/tyler-hay-and-the-mitsu-trio-at-the-brazilian-embassy-fun-and-games-for-the-joint-anniversary-celebrations-with-the-keyboard-trust/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/03/30/making-hay-whilst-the-sun-shines-tyler-hay-plays-kalkbrenner/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/10/06/tyler-hay-at-st-marys/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2019/06/22/tyler-hay-pays-homage-to-a-genius/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2019/06/13/tyler-hay-at-hatchlands-for-the-cobbe-collection/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2017/06/21/tyler-hay-in-perivale/