Domenica 4 dicembre in tournée a Rieti, per Reate Festival
Lunedì 5 dicembre ore 20.30 Teatro Palladium
Una Rapsodia Ungherese
B. Bartok: Divertimento per archi BB 118, SZ 113
F. Liszt: Malédiction, per pianoforte e orchestra d’archi, S 121
F. Liszt: Rapsodia spagnola, versione per pianoforte e orchestra d’archi a cura di V. Petukhov
Giovanni Bertolazzi, pianoforte
Roma Tre Orchestra
Luca Ballabio, direttore

La musica ungherese è sinonimo di ritmo, brio, color gitano, allegria. Non si può, inoltre, parlare di Ungheria in musica omettendo la figura di Franz Liszt, autentico aedo di questa terra. Proponiamo dunque un programma che ci porta in giro per questo Paese, dai colori di un brano giovanile di Liszt come Malédiction, ai ritmi compositi di Bela Bartok e del suo Divertimento.
Con noi Giovanni Bertolazzi, interprete raffinato di Liszt, recente secondo classificato nel prestigioso concorso di Budapest che proprio a questo autore è intitolato e per la prima volta sul podio di Roma Tre Orchestra il giovane direttore d’orchestra Luca Ballabio.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/01/17/giovanni-bertolazzi-in-rome-liszt-is-alive-and-well-at-teatro-di-villa-torlonia/
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/07/15/two-young-giants-cross-swords-in-verbier-giovanni-bertolazzi-and-nikita-lukinov/

A concert with a very Hungarian air to it as Giovanni Bertolazzi winner of top prize at the Liszt Budapest International Piano Competition showed us once again that he is undoubtedly one of the most gifted artists of his generation .

It was when Giovanni was at the helm that we felt the undercurrent of rhythmic drive and passionate involvement.Not only of Liszt the showman but also of Liszt the innovator.The Malédiction is a very early work where Liszt is feeling his way with orchestration at the expense of melodious lyricism.One can hear so many passages and orchestrations that are then used in his second piano concerto.But it is a work really of great difficulty for the orchestra as it is for the piano .Giovanni drove the work forward with astonishing technical ease and musical understanding .There was an undercurrent to his playing that was present even in the few most ravishing lyrical episodes.The drama of the opening with solo piano was like a call to arms but his astonishing technical prowess and authority was always at the service of a musical line and sense of colour.Although a rather hollow work compared to the masterpieces that were to come from Liszt’s pen just a few years later,the rhythmic force and dynamic drive that he gave to the score almost succeeded in us wanting to hear it again before putting it away on the shelf where it really belongs.

Liszt began experimenting writing for piano and orchestra and one of his earliest compositions for this combination was what is now called Malédiction, written for piano and string orchestra or string sextet. Malédiction means ‘curse’ , this word was written over the first part of the work in the manuscript by Liszt. There is no other title on it. It was given this title by musicologists who found the piece in 1915. It is an experimental piece, as Liszt was learning how to orchestrate and write a concerto for piano and orchestra, not an easy thing to do especially with the pianos of the day.It shows an expanded idea of harmony, especially in the first part, the part marked Malédiction. Some of the chords in this section are quite striking in their dissonance, especially when we know the piece was written in 1833-1834. Liszt was in his early 20’s, fresh from meeting Berlioz and attending the premiere of Symphonie Fantastique in 1830. As a composer, Liszt was in the avant-garde of the era almost immediately.

Malédiction is in one movement, and originally may have had a programme to go with it. A tone poem for piano and orchestra essentially, that changes moods and shifts tempos throughout. It begins in a minor key and ends in a major key and has a lot going on in between. It is a glimpse into the creative mind of the young Franz Liszt.We do not know if Liszt ever heard his Concerto for Piano and Strings—the so-called Malédiction—even in rehearsal.This powerful single-movement piece is among Liszt’s earliest efforts at finding a way forward for the sonata principle where its outlines conform to the general pattern of exposition,development and recapitulation, There is a similarity of the opening motif (it is just this motif which Liszt labels ‘Malédiction’),with the later Orage from the first of the Années de pèlerinage .The strings first accompany this menacing first theme with quiet trills, and next build a sinuous chromatic line around it. The opening motif generates the livelier transition material, the last much calmer section Liszt writes: ‘Pleurs, angoisse’ (‘Tears, anguish’). The tonality has ranged quite widely from the initial E minor by this stage, but a recitative introduced by piano and cello brings us to the second theme proper, in the traditional relative major, and to material which Liszt would recall in the late Valse oubliée No 3 of 1883. The recitative is fully incorporated into this theme before the livelier tempo Vivo is reached,which Liszt marks ‘Raillerie’—and a full close in G major is reached. The development immediately moves to E flat, concentrating upon the first theme and leading to a cadential recitativo where the introduction is recalled. When the orchestra reappears we are at the recapitulation, but the order of events is somewhat altered. The earlier transition material is first, followed by the opening motif from piano and orchestra. The first theme now appears in E major, and the tempo increases. The cello motif is now incorporated into the first thematic group before a further increase in tempo brings the second subject material, transformed into the coda, with just a brief recall of the first theme in the last four bars.

Rhapsodie espagnole (Spanish Rhapsody), S.254, R.90, was composed by Liszt in 1858. The work is very suggestive of traditional Spanish music, and was inspired by Liszt’s tour in Spain and Portugal for six months from October 1844, and it was certainly on this trip that he became acquainted at first hand with some of the melodies he was to incorporate into various piano pieces.Liszt never visited this part of the world again but maintained contacts through his music and his Iberian students for the rest of his life.Liszt told Lina Ramann that he had written the piece in recollection of his Spanish tour whilst in Rome in about 1863. The work was published in 1867—subtitled Folies d’Espagne et Jota aragonesa.After the opening flourishes variations on La folia form a passacaglia in C sharp minor. The last variation slips gently into D major for the delicate presentation of the jota, mostly in the upper register of the piano.

Ferruccio Busoni arranged the piece for piano and orchestra in 1894

Mikhail Petukhov played his version for piano and string orchestra in Rome at the Ghione Theatre on 13th November 1989,with the Orchestra da Camera della Lituania conducted by Saulius Sondeckis

The well known Spanish Rhapsody was full of melodic invention and fantasy.I remember hearing Gilels playing the original solo version in London with a unrelenting rhythmic drive that had us sitting on the edge of our seats.Giovanni has the same drive and almost brought this reduction for string orchestra by Petukhov to life with ravishing colours and an irresistible sense of style.But Petukhov like Busoni allows too much importance to the orchestra at key moments of high tension and instead of driving the music forward it tended to sag.Certainly no fault of the orchestra or piano.It was Busoni’s transcription for full orchestra that was the first to appear.Petukhov played his version for string orchestra in Rome in the ‘80’s in a programme that included the Saint Saens Wedding Cake Caprice and ending with an encore of Liszt’s unashamedly virtuoso transcription of the overture of the Barber of Seville !

Giovanni tonight gave us an encore of the Ritual Fire Dance.A slightly less flamboyant version than that of Rubinstein but nevertheless breathtaking.The range of sound and colour together with his passionate involvement brought these two works by Liszt vividly to life and showed off the artistry and seriousness of this young musician .There was no I Pad to be seen as here was an artist who was convinced of the value of these works and prepared them with great seriousness very nearly managing to convince us too.

The concert had started with Bartok’s very complex Divertimento for Strings written at the outbreak of the Second World War.There were the pungent rhythms and folk melodies of the Allegro non troppo followed by the atmospheric Adagio with its whispered sounds evoking emptiness and spaciousness.There was a dynamic rhythmic drive to the Allegro assai full of complex Hungarian folk rhythms and even a pizzicato episode that took us to the excitement of the ending.

Expertly conducted by Luca Ballabio and some very fine solo playing from the first violin of Leonardo Spinedi and the cello of Angelo Santisi.Luca took a lyrical approach to the score missing the burning drive that Solti could bring to this work which can give it more of an overall architectural shape and direction.The Roma Tre Orchestra ever growing in stature as it reaches its twentieth anniversary.An orchestra created by Valerio Vicari,Artistic director and Roberto Pujia ,President to give professional experience to exceptionally talented young musicians at they start of their career .

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

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/02/22/giovanni-bertolazzi-a-giant-amongst-the-giants/

Nice to see Michael Aspinall back in via di Grotta Pinta where in the Teatro De Satiri all the great singers that he imitated came to see themselves mirrored in his inimitable performances.
A great musicologist immersed in the world of song and delving deep into the archives still rich with material from the eighteenth and nineteenth century Golden Age of Song.Let’s not forget that it was Aspinall who provided Monserrat Caballé with her cadenza embellishments with which she ravished the operatic world following on from the Belcanto of Callas and Sutherland.

Is Belcanto Dead ? What is Bel Canto ?These were on the table,turning back the clock,as we entered this magical old curiosity shop that is the Oratorio Orsini.

No sign of the Teatro de Satiri in this same square where Benny Margiotta filled this historic family owned theatre with delights that were sure to tittivate all the senses.
Arnaldo had the restaurant next door where artists performing in Rome would congregate after their performances relaxing with their artistic colleagues as they delighted in Arnaldo’s speciality of cream of chestnut pudding!

I remember bringing eighteen year old Vadim Repin and Margaret Price there after their performances just down the road at the Ghione Theatre. Dino Villatico,the distinguished music critic of La Repubblica lived above the restaurant.

It was the Ghione Theatre that Aspinall chose for his last public performance as the ‘Gentleman Soprano’ in 2010 – his seventieth year.
Now 13 years on,time has stood still for him as he is still flying high on Wings of Song !Well he did say he would come out of retirement if the money was right!

Here,this weekend, he came up from the Naples that has adopted him with open arms ,on the invitation of one of his former singing students and will be giving a masterclass too on the 4th .
Today there was a fascinating and very amusing talk from three passionate advocates of Belcanto.

Michael Aspinall “Cantare bene é facile”

Francesco Izzo “Belcanto dopo il belcanto:il caso Verdi”

Stefano Vizioli “Suonare il palcoscenico”Esperienza di un regista con donne e prime donne

QUIET AUTHORITY AT  TEMPLE CHURCH

                                                     

                                                             Elli-Mae  McGlone

IN ITS ROLE AS PROMOTER OF EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG TALENT, THE KEYBOARD TRUST HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE REGULAR WEDNESDAY LUNCHTIME ORGAN RECITALS AT THE TEMPLE CHURCH FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS. THE LATEST YOUNG ARTIST, BILLED AS ‘A RISING STAR OF THE ORGAN WORLD’, IS ELLI-MAE McGLONE. STILL A STUDENT AT THE ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATOIRE, ELLI-MAE HAS  HELD THE POST OF ORGAN SCHOLAR AT BURY ST EDMUNDS CATHEDRAL AND IS ALREADY A MUTLIPLE PRIZEWINNER.

30 MINUTES DOES NOT SEEM LONG IN WHICH TO MAKE ONE’S MARK,  BUT ELLI-MAE PROVED THAT IT CAN BE TRANSFORMATIVE, OFFERING TWO MAJOR  WORKS: PRAELUDIUM IN C BY BUXTEHUDE AND THE CHORALE AND VARIATIONS FROM MENDELSSOHN’S  6TH  SONATA, INTERSPERSED BY SHORTER ROMANTIC PIECES BY BRAHMS AND FRANCK AND A 20TH CENTURY BARNSTORMER BY LANGLAIS TO FINISH.

BUXTEHUDE IS BEST KNOWN AS THE CELEBRATED ORGANIST THE 20-YEAR-OLD JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH TRUDGED 250 MILES TO HEAR IN LUBECK IN NORTH GERMANY. MUCH OF HIS ORGAN REPERTOIRE IS NOW LOST, BUT THE  WORKS THAT REMAIN JUSTIFY HIS REPUTATION AS THE GREATEST ORGANIST AND COMPOSER OF THE LATE 17TH CENTURY. THE 19 REMAINING PRELUDES DEMONSTRATE IN THEIR VARIETY THE VOGUE FOR STYLUS FANTASTICUS INCORPORATING A VARIETY OF COMPOSITIONAL TECHNIQUES INCLUDING IMPROVISATION AND FUGUE. PRAELUDIUM IN C  IS IN THREE SECTIONS: PRELUDE,  FUGUE AND CHACONNE. THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE OF THIS STYLE WAS FORMAL FREEDOM AS DESCRIBED IN A CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT:

 

 

          ‘Players should not play strictly according to the score, but imitate the                    singer more. Now swift, now hesitating, now in one voice, now in many                  voices, now for a while behind the behind the beat, but not without the           intent to please, to overtake and to astonish’.

WE ARE NOT TO BE SURPRISED, THEN, BY THE DRAMATIC PEDAL SOLO THAT OPENS THE WORK, EXTENDED  FUGAL PASSAGES, VIRTUOSIC SEMIQUAVER FLOURISHES AND  A DANCE-LIKE CHACONNE TO FINISH! WHILE OBSERVING THE NORMS OF BAROQUE REGISTRATION, ELLI-MAE USED THE FULL RANGE OF THE 4-MANUAL ORGAN TO HEIGHTEN THE UNEXPECTED: CLARITY OF VOICE-LEADING IN THE FUGATO AND  BRIGHTER STOPS  INCLUDING TROMBA AND CLARION IN THE MORE IMPROVISATORY, VIRTUOSO SECTIONS.

Buxtehude manuscript in organ tablature, an early form of notation also used by JS Bach

BRAHMS CHORALE PRELUDE HERZLICH TUT MICH ERFREUEN MADE A SKILFUL LINK BETWEEN THE BUXTEHUDE AND THE MENDELSOHN CHORALE AND VARIATIONS, DESPITE BEING A LATE BRAHMS WORK OF 1896. IT IS WRITTEN IN TRADITIONAL CANTUS FIRMUS STYLE WHERE THE CHORALE MELODY SINGS SLOWLY ABOVE .COMPLEX FLOWING LINES. THE GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN, BASED ON A SECULAR SONG ABOUT THE RETURN OF SPRING, IS HEARD JUST ONCE. ELLI-MAE GAVE TO THE MELODY JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF RUBATO TO EMPHASISE ITS BEAUTIFULLY SHAPED LINES AND FINELY JUDGED, RESTRAINED REGISTRATION LENT THE ACCOMPANIMENT JUST THE RIGHT  ELEGIAC, BRAHMSIAN SOUND.

 

Mendelssohn with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at the organ

 

          ‘His execution of Bach’s music is transcendently great, his extempore

           playing is very diversified – the soft movements full of tenderness and

           expression, exquisitely beautiful and impassioned. In his loud preludes

           there are an endless variety of new ideas  and the pedal passages so

           novel and independent  as to take his auditor quite by surprise.’

MENDELSSOHN’S  ORGAN PLAYING WAS JUST AS LEGENDARY IN HIS NATIVE GERMANY AS IN ENGLAND, WHICH HE CALLED HIS SECOND HOME. THE CHORALE AND VARIATIONS CONSTITUTE THE FIRST MOVEMENT OF SONATA NO 6 IN D MINOR COMMISIONED BY THE ENGLISH PUBLISHER COVENTRY IN 1845. THEY WERE ORGINALLY CONCEIVED AS ORGAN VOLUNTARIES AND THEN WERE COMBINED INTO SONATAS –  NO 3 WAS WRITTEN FOR MENDELSSOHN’S SISTER’S WEDDING. HE WAS INVITED TO PERFORM THEM AT THE 1846 BIRMINGHAM FESTIVAL BUT THE STATE OF ENGLISH ORGANS  LAGGED BEHIND THOSE IN MAINLAND EUROPE, AND MENDELSSOHN WOULDN’T RISK IT:

‘The last time I passed through Birmingham the touch of the organ appeared to me so heavy that I could not venture to perform upon it in public. If however it is materially improved I shall be happy to play one of my sonatas; but I should not wish this to be announced before I had tried the organ myself’.

MENDELSSOHN CHOSE THE LUTHERAN CHORALE ‘VATER UNSER IN NIMMELREICH’ (OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN) ON WHICH TO BASE A SHORT SET OF VARIATIONS WHERE THE TUNE IS STATED IN FULL IN ALL REGISTERS AND ONLY IN THE FINAL, THRILLING TOCCATA IS IT SHARED AFTER APPEARING DRAMATICALLY IN THE PEDALS. DESPITE THIS SIMILAR CONSTRUCTION, EACH VARIATION HAS ITS OWN  CHARACTER, HIGHLIGHTED BY ELLI-MAE IN THE CHOICE OF REED STOPS FOR THE CHORALE AND WELL-BALANCED REGISTRATION FOR THE  FLOW OF COUNTERPOINT.

THE EARLY PART OF THE RECITAL FEATURED MUSIC FROM THE GERMAN LUTHERAN TRADITION FROM BUXTEHUDE TO BRAHMS, TAKING  CHORALES FFROM THE LATE RENAISSANCE AS THEIR INSPIRATION. THE SECOND PART MOVED TO CATHOLIC FRANCE IN THE MUSIC OF CESAR FRANCK AND JEAN LANGLAIS.  WE ENTERED NEXT THE PERFUMED WORLD OF FRENCH ROMANTIC MUSIC  DOMINATED BY THE MIGHTY ORGANS OF ARISTIDE CAVAILLE-COLL. CESAR FRANCK DEMONSTRATED THESE ORGANS THROUGHOUT FRANCE FOR HIM AND PLAYED HIS OWN IN THE BASILICA OF ST-CLOTHILDE IN PARIS. CANTABILE IS TAKEN FROM TROIS PIECES POUR ORGUE  WRITTEN IN 1878. THE DATE IS SIGNIFICANT AS AROUND THIS TIME FRANZ LISZT PRODUCED HIS BAGATELLE SANS TONALITE.  WHILE ROOTED IN  CLASSICAL TONALITY AND THE  RELIGIOSE SWEETNESS FASHIONABLE AT THE TIME  – FAURE’S IN PARADISUM  FROM THE REQUIEM  BEING A PRIME EXAMPLE – , THE HAUNTING MELODY AND UNEXPECTED HARMONC PROGRESSIONS HINT OF CHANGE TO COME.  ELLI-MAE SEEMED MOST AT HOME IN THIS MUSIC, USING A FINELY DISTINGUISHED PALETTE TO CAPTURE THE MOOD OF MELANCHOLY NOSTALGIA.

The Cavaille-Coll organ at the Basilica of St Clothilde, Paris

TE DEUM  FROM HYMNES ACTION DE GRACES  BY JEAN LANGLAIS BROUGHT THE RECITAL TO A FITTING CLIMAX. DESPITE BEING BLIND FROM THE AGE OF  TWO DUE TO GLAUCOMA, LANGLAIS LED A SUCCESSFUL LIFE AS  CONCERT ARTIST, PROFESSOR AT THE PARIS CONSERVATOIRE, PROLIFIC COMPOSER AND SUCCESSOR TO FRANCK AT ST CLOTHILDE. HE DESCRIBED HIMSELF AS ‘BRETON, FOI CATHOLIQUE’ AND THESE TWO  ELEMENTS FUEL THE HEART OF HIS MUSIC.

IN  TE DEUM HE REACHED BACK FURTHER THAN ANY OF THE OTHER COMPOSERS REPRESENTED TO EARLY PLAINCHANT AND PRESENTS IT AS A CATHOLIC RESPONSORIAL PSALM. THE CHANT, WHICH WOULD NORMALLY BE SUNG BY A CANTOR, IS HEARD SOLO IN THE PEDALS WITH THE RESPONSE IN THE UPPER REGISTERS. AND WHAT A RESPONSE! THE TEXT OF THE 4TH CENTURY LATIN HYMN OF PRAISE INCLUDE THESE LINES:

              ‘To Thee all Angels cry aloud, Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty                  of  Thy Glory’

THE CRIES ARE MOUNTING CHORDS OF ANGULAR DISSONANCE, CERTAINLY LOUD ENOUGH TO BE HEARD IN HEAVEN.  ELLI-MAE USED THE FULL POWERS OF THE BRIGHT BRASS STOPS –  TROMBA, TRUMPET, CLARION – TO  ANIMATE THE DRAMA.

                                                                  Jean Langlais

FOR HER DEBUT RECITAL, ELLIE-MAE CHOSE  A LARGELY REFLECTIVE PROGRAMME WITH ONLY THE MENDELSSOHN TOCCATA  AND THE LANGLAIS GIVING THE ORGAN  ITS FULL POWERS. SHE PLAYED THE  MELODIC LINES WITH CLARITY AND OFTEN  A LINGERING AFFECTION AND DEMONSTRATED A KEEN EAR IN HER SUBTLE TONAL LAYERING. ALL CREDIT TO HER INSPIRATIONAL TEACHERS AT BRIMGINGHAM, DANIEL MOULT AND NICHOLAS WIERNE, FOR DEVELOPING SUCH INTUITIVE ARTISTRY AND ENABLING US TO HEAR A RECITAL OF QUIET AUTHORITY.

                                                       Temple Church, London

ANGELA RANSLEY IS DIRECTOR OF THE HARMONY SCHOOL OF PIANOFORTE AND ALSO WORKS AS A FREE-LANCE ORGANIST.

Magic again at the Ghione Theatre in Rome with the return of Alistair Wroe and Raffaello Moretti in an evening dedicated to poetic movements and music.
The ultra sensitive sounds of the piano in music from Scarlatti to De Falla with the poetic movements of dance.

Appearing on the wings of song as Alistair appeared out of the mist vibrating to the music as he delved deep into the very soul of creation.
The aria from the Goldberg Variations was exquisitely played by Raffaello and was brought movingly to life by the subtle movements of Alistair.

Scarlatti sonatas of delicacy and luminosity were but scintillating jewels made to glow ever more radiantly by poetic movements of subtle grace.

Exotic sounds and drumming of feet in De Falla’s Fantasia Baetica with its clashing pungent harmonies astonishingly illuminated even more with the entry of Alistair in the final few moments.

Satie’s barely whispered Gnosiennes were merely washes of colour and shape where atmospheres and sounds were combined in moments of pure magic.

The first twelve of Chopin’s preludes op 28 were played with ravishing sounds with Alistair making his appearance only in the fourth where one of Chopin’s most beautiful melodic inventions was shaped by them both with great intensity and ravishing beauty.It was the same beauty in a little Chopin Mazurka that they shared as an encore with an enthusiastic audience demanding more after the final sublime gasps of the Bach Aria of his monumental Goldberg Variations.

A concert of music and movement recalling the golden age of the 1920’s when music and movement could still speak louder than words.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/04/11/alistair-wroe-raffaello-moretti-in-concert-at-teatro-ghione-rome-illumination-and-exhilaration-of-a-new-art-form/

Alistair Wroe: Originario del Worcestershire, Alistair Wroe ha iniziato la sua formazione di ballerino presso il Center for Advanced Training di Birmingham e la Worcestershire Youth Dance Company. Ha completato un-BA (Hons) in Danza Contemporanea al Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Durante la sua laurea ha lavorato con diversi coreografi tra cui Gary Lambert, Struan Leslie e Marie Gabrielle- Rotie. Inoltre, Alistair ha lavorato a stretto contatto con Alison Curtis- Jones e la Dott.ssa Valerie Preston-Dunlop, in particolare su nuove realizzazioni delle opere di Rudolf Laban Nacht e Green Clowns. Ha quindi continuato la sua formazione presso la London Contemporary Dance School, dove ha conseguito il suo Master of Arts, seguito da un tour internazionale come membro di EDge. Alistair ha avuto l’opportunità di lavorare con Philippe Blanchard, Alexander Whitley, Dazed Magazine per Craig Green, Tom Rosenthal, Tom Roden e Joseph Toong, rivelandosi come uno degli artisti più̀ talentuosi ed interessanti della nuova generazione di ballerini britannici, per carisma, presenza scenica, tecnica, eclettismo e profondità̀ di interpretazione.Si è esibito a livello internazionale in Svizzera, Malesia, Norvegia e Italia. Attualmente continua ad esplorare ulteriormente il suo ruolo di interprete ed é inoltre interessato ad acquisire una profonda comprensione della pratica coreografica.

Raffaello Moretti: Diplomatosi a 18 anni con il massimo dei voti e la lode, Raffaele Moretti é stato allievo prima a Parigi di Aldo Ciccolini e Marie- Françoise Bucquet, ed in seguito di Alicia de Larrocha (Master triennale presso l’Academia Marshall- Barcellona) e Tatiana Sarkissova (Master biennale presso la Royal Academy of Music – Londra).Ha inoltre studiato per quattro anni presso la International Piano Foundation- Lake Como, presediuta da Martha Argerich, seguendo le lezioni di William Grant Naboré, Leon Fleisher, Claude Franck, Menahem Pressler, Charles Rosen, Dmitri Bashkirov, Fou Ts’ong ed Andreas Staier. Ha quindi lavorato intensivamente con Galina Eugiazarova, a Madrid. Masterclasses press il Mozarteum di Salisburgo (Andrzej Jasinski), la Foundation Yamaha di Parigi (Elisso Virsaladze) e lo Schwelzig Holstein Musik Festival di Lubecca (Bruno Leonardo Gelber). Laureato della Fondazione Cima in Toscana, ha inoltre vinto il Primo Premio assoluto presso diversi Concorsi Internazionali (tra cui Moncalieri e Mondovì). Concerti in Italia, Francia, Spagna, Germania, Inghilterra, USA, Messico ed Argentina. Ha inoltre collaborato per diversi anni con il Quintetto de I Solisti Aquilani. Laureato in Filosofia con il massimo dei voti presso la Università Statale di Milano, dove ha discusso con Carlo Sini una tesi su Nietzsche, ha seguito altresì le lezioni di Jacques Derrida presso l’HESS di Parigi. Sta completando un PhD su Alfred Cortot presso il King’s College di Londra con Daniel Leech- Wilkinson.

Looking forward to their next performance in Rome on 1st December with the Goldberg Variations.
Nice to see Alistair and Raffaello in one of the most beautiful concert venues in London.
I have admired their recent performances in the equally beautiful Ghione Theatre in Rome.
Raffaello is a masterly pianist who has created a new formula of dance movements that add such atmosphere to the beauty of his playing.

Alistair Wroe and Raffaello Moretti in Concert
Alistair Wroe
DANCE
Raffaello Moretti
PIANO
C. Debussy
Preludes, Book One
Terry Riley
The Heaven Ladder, Book 5 (Etude from the Old Country)
J. S. Bach
Fantasia and Fugue in A minor, BWV 904
M. Mussorgsky
Pictures at an Exhibition
In their second Autumn Concert at St John’s Smith Square, Alistair Wroe and Raffaello Moretti will explore an eclectic and exciting program that returns to Johann Sebastian Bach and then goes to the Preludes of Claude Debussy and the Pictures of Modest Mussorgsky, with a foray into the minimalistic repertoire of Terry Riley, for an evening of dance and music to remember.

ALISTAIR WROE
Originally from Worcestershire, Alistair completed his BA (Hons) Degree in Contemporary Dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and went on to join EDge at London Contemporary Dance School where he worked with choreographers including Alexander Whitley and Philippe Blanchard. After completing a Master’s degree at London Contemporary Dance School, Alistair has had the opportunity to perform and present work at venues including Halle am Berghain (Berlin), Trauma Bar und Kino (Berlin), Szene (Salzburg), The Place Theatre (London), KLPAC (Kuala Lumpur) and Venue Cymru (Llandudno). As a dance artist he has worked with Möbius Dance, Matan Zamir, Gal Naor, Jack Philp Dance, Alexandra Green, Craig Green for Dazed Magazine, The Irrepressibles and Tom Rosenthal, amongst others. Alistair is one of the top emerging artists of his generation, distinguished by his technical skills, eclecticism and magnetism on stage.

RAFFAELLO MORETTI
Having graduated in Piano Performance in Milan at the age of 18, Raffaello then studied in Paris with Aldo Ciccolini and Marie-Françoise Bucquet; in Barcelona with Alicia de Larrocha and finally in London with Tatiana Sarkissova, acquiring a Master’s degree from the Royal Academy of Music. Meanwhile, he studied at the International Piano Academy Lake Como – directed by Martha Argerich- and worked intensively with Galina Eguaziarova, in Madrid. He has a broad international performance experience in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, USA, Mexico and Argentina. Raffaello also graduated in Philosophy with top marks at the University of Milan and followed the lessons of Jacques Derrida at the EHESS in Paris. Recently, he has completed a PhD from King’s College in London with Daniel Leech-Wilkinson.

The music of Oswald in the Brazilian Embassy last night .What a discovery when played with such scintillating virtuosity and ‘joie de vivre’ by Tyler Hay and the Mitsu Trio.
200+ 30 has proven once again to be a winning combination with the Brazilian Embassy and the Keyboard Trust anniversary celebrations in perfect harmony.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/10/06/brazil-200-celebrations-with-the-keyboard-charitable-trust-on-wings-of-song/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/03/29/brazil-200-and-keyboard-trust-30-a-collaboration-born-on-wings-of-brazilian-song/

In this concert, The Mitsu Trio remembered and celebrated Oswald’s legacy, with a selection of his most distinguished pieces, including Il neige, which gave Oswald his spectacular victory in the Composition Contest promoted in 1902 by Le Figaro in Paris, where the Brazilian composer beat more than 600 other competitors.

Henrique Oswald (1852-1931) was recognised as the most accomplished Brazilian composer before Heitor Villa-Lobos. He wrote in almost every genre and was the leading pioneer of chamber music in Brazil.Trained in Europe, being especially influenced by French, German and Italian traditions, he spent several years in Florence, where he taught at the Musical Institute and met Liszt and Brahms. Back in Brazil in the early 1900s, he directed the newly founded National Institute of Music, tutoring and inspiring a generation of pianists and composers, being one of the most influential figures in Brazilian musical life in the first decades of the 20^th century.

Henrique Oswald
Elegia (for cello and piano)
Feuilles d’Album Op.20 No. 4 – Désir Ardent (Allegro con fuoco)
Six Morceaux Op.4 No.5 – Barcarolle
Il Neige
Album Op.33 No.3 – Pierrot
Album Op.36 No. 2 – Pierrot se meurt
Polonaise Op.34 No.1
Piano Trio Op.9

The Mitsu Trio was formed in 2020 and, for this concert, comprises British pianist Tyler Hay, Japanese cellist Akito Goto and Russian-born British violinist Aleem Kandour, virtuoso rising talents who met at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and continued their studies in major UK conservatoires. Between them they have performed as chamber musicians and soloists in distinguished venues across the UK including Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

TYLER HAY has been awarded prizes in many competitions, including First Prizes in the keyboard section of the Royal Overseas League and the Liszt Society Competition and just last week First Prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition.He has released CDs of Liszt’s piano music, John Ogdon’s unpublished works and Kalkbrenner’s Etudes Op.143, available on the Piano Classics label and have all received critical acclaim. As well as having given concerts in Spain, Italy, Germany, Cyprus and South Africa, Tyler continues to perform regularly in the UK as both a soloist and chamber musician.

AKITO GOTO has appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the London Mozart Players, Windsor and Maidenhead Symphony Orchestra and Orpington Symphony Orchestra. He has given solo and chamber performances in major concert halls around the world including the Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo and  and Wigmore Hall in London. He has won numerous prizes and awards, including First Prize in the Japan Player’s Contest, and he was also the youngest winner of the Izuminomori Cello Contest. Akito recently received a generous scholarship from the Raphael Sommer Music Scholarship Trust.

ALEEM KANDOUR has performed at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and Buckingham Palace. As an orchestral musician, Aleem performs regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and the Bath Festival Orchestra. He has been awarded several prizes including First Prize in the Mozart Junior Competition. In 2019, he became a violin tutor at Prince’s Gardens Preparatory School in London. In 2021, Aleem was selected to become one of the Ambassadors for the Benedetti Foundation.

Oswald was born in Rio de Janeiro.His father was a Swiss-German immigrant and his mother from Italy. The family name was changed from “Oschwald” due to concerns of discrimination. In 1854 the Oswald family moved to São Paulo. His mother taught music privately to aristocrats and by age twelve he had his first recital. In São Paulo, he also studied with Gabriel Guiraudon. His “farewell recital” occurred at age 16, after this he went to study in Europe spending several years in Florence.In 1902 he won a piano composition competition sponsored by Le Figaro with a piece Il neige!..(“It’s snowing!”).He then left his family in Europe (they moved to Brazil much later) and from 1903 to 1906 directed the Instituto National de musica in Rio de Janeiro. He also served as Brazilian consul in both The Hague and Genoa.He died in 1931, just several days after his birthday festivities.

Oswald’s best-known compositions today are numerous small pieces for piano (usually arranged by him into small collections). However, he was a prolific composer of chamber music: his list includes a violin sonata, 2 cello sonatas (op 21 and 44),3 piano trios, 2 piano quartets (op 5 and op 26 )a piano quintet op 18,4 string quartets (op 16,17,39,46) and a string octet. For orchestra he wrote a suite, a sinfonietta and a symphony. There are also two concertos by him, one for piano, another for violin. Concerning vocal music, he composed three operas (La Croce d’oro,Il Neo and le Fate ) ,a mass and a requiem. By the time of his death, his major works remained unpublished, a fact that contributed much to the his neglect for half a century.His work fell into disfavour after the “Semana de Arte Moderna” manifesto, but has experienced something of a revival recently. In late 1970s Brazilian musician José Eduardo Martins began his struggle to revive Oswald’s output. In the last 30 years he published some of his compositions and recorded many of his major works along with piano miniaturesAmong his recordings is Oswald’s Piano Concerto in an originally arranged chamber version (piano with string quintet). Another Oswald pioneer is pianist Eduardo Montero,whose thesis was dedicated to the composer.

Thursday 1 December 3.00 pm

A superb recital from a great artist.
From the first note to the last his supreme natural artistry kept us on the edge of our seats as he guided us through a world of colour,style,passion and intelligence with a technical and musicianly assurance.It made this quite simply one of the finest recitals that I have ever heard from the many masterly recitals in the mecca of pianists that is St Mary’s.In fact a Master of Masters and it just confirmed my opinion from the last times I heard him .

Scarlatti’s F minor sonata where the delicacy and luminosity of his sound created a musical line that was mesmerising.It transformed a bauble into a masterly gem of great weight and unusual importance.Repeating each episode with very subtle ornamentation that just added intensity to the poignancy of this seemingly simple sonata.

Mozart’s much loved but too often badly played F major Sonata was reborn in Andrzej’s sensitive hands.From the first note it was played with a rhythmic energy and an operatic sense of character with a charm and grace allowing the music to unfold so naturally.A clarity and precision but above all a luminosity and radiance that allowed the music to speak with a directness and simplicity that made Schnabel’s famous dictum so apparently true.
A child like simplicity that can be so difficult to attain as we are contaminated by life.There was beauty to the Adagio where his natural flowing movements and caressing of the keys made for refined music making where every note and every phrase was to be cherished.
Pure opera was the last movement as it burst onto the scene with irresistible fervour where one could envisage the different characters taking the stage one after the other.Of course the genius of Mozart had a secret or two up his sleeve and the surprise quiet ending was thrown off with breathtaking nonchalance.A sense of style that allowed clarity and precision but also colour and shape that brought Mozart vividly to life with an invigorating freshness and ‘joie de vivre’.

Kreisleriana burst onto the scene with driving energy and passionate involvement.
Precision too with some trecherous leaps that were negotiated as a musician not a technician!The central episode was beautifully mellifluous but still part of an architectural whole that made the return of the first episode so inevitable.
The subtle colouring and legato of the second movement was a technical feat that is rarely encountered in what is one of the most difficult movements to play convincingly and above all to allow the music to speak with the same inflection as the human voice.An octave that is made of two separate voices as today is rarely heard which can make this movement seem overlong and rather ponderous in lesser hands.
There was great rhythmic energy in the first episode and a passionate sweep to the second.
The fleeting beauty of the central episode of the third movement was ravishingly beautiful and contrasted so well with the rhythmic impulse of the opening.The passionate outpouring of the coda was breathtaking in its wild abandon.
The fourth ,a prayer of hope,was played with aristocratic weight,a feeling that every note had an infinite number of gradations as the beauty of his hand movements were testimony enough of the kaleidocopic range of sound that was in his fingertips.
The quixotic fifth was played with lightness and drive before the gentle musings of the sixth.There was a quite magical transition and ravishing beauty to the final bars with tenor colourings like jewels sparkling deep in the soul.
The seventh usually an excuse for virtuosity and speed was here played with clarity but without any heaviness.Of course the central episode was played with fearless technical prowess which passed unobserved as his musicianship was concerned with architectural shape and style rather than showmanship.The staccato chords came as a surprise until he gradually added colour and weight that made the contrast so movingly poignant.
There was a lightness in the eighth where the staccato right hand made the long legato of the left so disturbingly right.There was a startling contrast with the long legato sweep of the first episode and the passionate outpouring of the second as the lightness returned with ever more present legato long held notes before the end with the light notes just dancing their way into the depths of the keyboard.
An extraordinary performance of a work that is so difficult to hold together as one and give at the same time an architectural shape to so many differing multicoloured episodes.
In so many of Schumann’s works his split personality of Floristan and Eusebius are only the components of a whole.

The opening of Chopin’s Andante Spianato was like a great painter with a brush about to delicately add colour to his canvas.There was ravishing beauty with the same sense of balance that I have only ever heard from Brailowsky or Stefan Askenase.A fluidity and clarity with ornaments played with jewel like precision and sparkling beauty.There was a delicacy and beauty to the mazurka episode that entered as a whisper rather than the more usual brass band!
But of course here is an artist of great sensitivity and astonishingly refined technical preparation.The Polonaise just sprang from his fingers after the short orchestral introduction.There was brilliance and a freshness as the music unwound with jeux perlé ease and shape.His wonderful well oiled fingers gave an ease and fluidity to all that he did and he knew too when to be a showman in a work that Chopin would have astonished and seduced the noble ladies with in the fashionable Paris salons.
I have heard some wonderful Chopin from artist such as Ashkenazy,Barenboim or Fou Ts’ong so I do not think because Andrzej is Polish he automatically understands the composer better than others.
Fou Ts’ong likened the sentiment in Chopin’s music to the same sentiment in Chinese poetry.You see the soul is universal and knows no barriers!
Chopin spent most of his life in Paris where his refined sensibility and artistry could find it’s ideal milieu to grow and mature.Of course there was deep inside him the nostalgia for his childhood and Polish roots.
But Chopin’s is such refined music it takes a great artist to have all the complex facets to make the music live with aristocratic sentiment and musical intelligence.Andrezj has these components and happens to be Polish che ‘non guasta’ – which does no harm!Rubinstein was the prime example before him of course. And who like Chopin spent his formative years in Paris a long way from his homeland.

Andrzej Wierciński is a semi finalist of the XVIII International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2021. Over the last decade Andrzej has earned an impressive string of awards at prestigious Polish and international piano competitions – most notably winning 1st Prizes at: the International F. Chopin Competition “Golden Ring” in Slovenia (2014), the International F. Chopin Competition in Budapest (2014), the International Neapolitan Masters Competition in Naples (2018), the First ViennaInternational Music Competition (2019), the International Piano Competition in Saint-Priest in France (2019) and the 46th Polish F. Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Those prizes have included many concert engagements abroad, golden medals and cooperation with recording labels in Europe and the Far East, as well as gaining for Andrzej an expanded following of listeners to his music. For example, during the visit to Japan in 2015 of the President of Poland (H. E. Bronisław Komorowski), Andrzej played a Chopin recital in Tokyo in the presence of Princess Masako Owada. In 2015 the KAWAI company invited him to play in Asia whilst in 2019 Andrzej performed a special recital for the Cobbe Collection Trust of historic instruments at Hatchlands Park in the UK, then playing on the 1845 Erard used by Thalberg. He has played concerts in most European countries – including several in the UK – as well as in Canada, Japan and Indonesia. He has performed at significant venues throughout Holland – Het Concertgebouw, and in Slovak Philharmonic and in Warsaw at the Łazienki Królewskie (Chopin’s statue). Andrzej has also collaborated with the best orchestras in the country, such as the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In developing his music career Andrzej has taken part in international master courses conducted by eminent pedagogues such as Michel Beroff, Dmitri Alexeev, Akiko Ebi, Andrzej Jasiński, Lee Kum-Sing, Anna Malikova, Dang Thai Son. He has also benefited from invaluable advice and encouragement from Daniil Trifonov. Andrzej Wierciński holds Artistic Scholarships from the Sinfonia Varsovia Foundation, the Krystian Zimerman Scholarship and the YAMAHA Foundation. In 2016 he released his first CD (of works by Chopin, Schumann and Scarlatti).

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/05/26/andrzej-wiercinski-at-st-marys-the-making-of-a-great-artist/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/08/16/andrzej-wiercinski-in-poland-from-the-ridiculous-to-the-sublime/

Tuesday 29 November 3.00 pm

Some superb playing from Noah Zhou of great musicianship and astonishing technical prowess.
An encore of Chasse Neige where virtuosity and poetry are combined in a tone poem of delicacy and passion.It was here that all we had heard before was summed up in this the last of Liszt’s Transcendental Studies.Musicianship,control,passion and fantasy all played with natural fluid movements of ease and grace.

An encore after an astonishing performance of Liszt’s Norma Fantasy where the funabulistics that Liszt requires were played with sumptuous sound and astonishing ease.The drama he brought to the opening fanfare with the drum roll opened the door for one of the greatest of Liszt’s paraphrases.It was full of conflicting emotions and ravishing beauty.The final combination of the two main melodies was played at astonishing speed and with such radiance after cascades of notes had swept across they keyboard with the melodic line amazingly appearing in the middle of these streams of golden sounds.

Liszt undertook the challenge of diluting Bellini’s opera Norma into a 15 minute solo piano work in 1841. The work easily equals the dramatic impact of the original opera through Liszt’s dynamic and highly virtuosic writing. No less than seven arias dominate Liszt’s transcription of Norma which are threaded together to create a nearly continuous stream of music.It is probably for dramatic reasons that Liszt ignored the famous aria ‘Casta Diva’ (which Thalberg used as the basis for his fantasy) a triumph of understanding of Bellini’s masterpiece.The title role of Norma is often said to be one of the hardest roles for a soprano to sing, and this adds to the drama and intensity of the music. “Norma, a priestess facing battle against the Romans, secretly falls in love with a Roman commander, and together they have two illegitimate children. When he falls for another woman, she reveals the children to her people and accepts the penalty of death. The closing scenes and much of the concert fantasy reveal Norma begging her father to take care of the children and her lover admitting he was wrong.”

His musicianship had been evident from the opening notes of the Clementi sonata that he played with elegance and style with streams of notes that flowed so mellifluously from his well oiled fingers.The Presto too was played with great delicacy and rhythmic drive.

Muzio Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi (23 January 1752 – 10 March 1832) was an Italian composer,pianist,teacher and 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. It was on one of these occasions, in 1781, that he engaged in a piano competition with Mozart.On 12 January 1782, Mozart reported to his father: “Clementi plays well, as far as execution with the right-hand goes. His greatest strength lies in his passages in 3rds. Apart from that, he has not a Kreutzer’s worth of taste or feeling – in short, he is a mere mechanic.” In a subsequent letter, he wrote: “Clementi is a charlatan, like all Italians. He marks a piece presto but plays only allegro.”Clementi’s impressions of Mozart, by contrast, were enthusiastic saying of Mozart: “Until then I had never heard anyone play with such spirit and grace. I was particularly overwhelmed by an adagio and by several of his extempore variations for which the Emperor had chosen the theme, and which we were to devise alternately.”In 1810, Clementi stopped performing in order to devote his time to composition and to piano making. On 24 January 1813, together with a group of prominent professional musicians in England, he founded the “Philharmonic Society of London”.Meanwhile, his piano business had flourished, affording him an increasingly elegant lifestyle. As an inventor and skilled mechanic, he made important improvements in the construction of the piano, some of which have become standard.In 1826 he completed his collection of keyboard studies, Gradus ad Parnassum, and set off for Paris with the intention of publishing the third volume of the work simultaneously in Paris, London, and Leipzig returning to London in the autumn of 1827.He moved with his wife Emma (née Gisborne) and his family to the outskirts of Lichfield,and rented ‘Lincroft House’ on the Earl of Lichfield`s Estate from Lady Day 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 wife Emma.

The Beethoven Sonata op 22 was played with an understanding of the architectural shape and style.Already there was from the first notes the differing character of the fleeting opening rhythmic comments answered by the beautifully shaped melodic line .There was a driving rhythmic insistence in the development dissolving into the opening melodic line now in the bass where there was a constant flow of notes played with a superb sense of balance .
The Adagio con molto espressione was played with aristocratic weight full of poignancy.It was this movement that a critic had said of Richter’s magical performance that it was inexistent but that was certainly not the case today.A beautiful cantabile on a throbbing bass making the sudden pianissimo of the central section so astonishing.There was elegance in the Menuetto and a fluidity of the trio that was in perfect harmony without any exaggeration.The gentle pastoral rondo was allowed to unfold so naturally contrasting with the drama of the central episode before the gentle fluidity of the final pages that flowed so easily from the hands of a true artist.

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 11 in B flat major op 22 was composed in 1800, and published two years later. Beethoven regarded it as the best of his early sonatas, though some of its companions in the cycle have been at least as popular with the public.Sir Donald Tovey called this work the crowning achievement and culmination of Beethoven’s early “grand” piano sonatas. (The “grand” modifier was applied by Beethoven to sonatas with four movements instead of three.) Subsequent sonatas find Beethoven experimenting more with form and concept.

Born in London, British-Chinese pianist Noah Zhou has since established himself as one of the leading talents of his generation. He began learning piano at age 5 with Tra Nguyen before moving on to study with Hilary Coates. Currently, he holds the full fees Margaret Kitchin Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music where he studies with the Emeritus Head of Keyboard, Christopher Elton. He is also generously supported by the Eileen Rowe Musical Trust, a fund headed by Vanessa Latarche, Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music. In 2018, Noah was awarded the prestigious Duet Prize for Best Young Instrumentalist by the Royal Philharmonic Society of Great Britain, before going on to be awarded the top prize at the first edition of Coach House Pianos’ UK National School Piano Competition a year later. He was awarded the Third prize and Bronze medal in Kiev at the 2019 International Horowitz Piano Competition (edition XII), where he was also awarded the Jury’s Special Prize for the best interpretation of a solo Ukrainian Work. Following this, he was invited to perform live on the Ukrainian Radio Channel ‘Aristocrat’, and his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 2 was featured on national Ukrainian Television. Later that same year he was also named as one of six finalists in the Manchester International Concerto Competition (edition VI). Noah frequently performs in concerts, and has appeared at many venues all over Europe, including London’s St John’s Smith Square, Southbank Royal Festival Hall, BBC Hoddinott Hall and Steinway Hall (UK), Kiev’s Philharmonia Hall (Ukraine), Gothenburg’s Operan and Konserthuset (Sweden), Budapest’s Danube Palace (Hungary) and Bayreuth’s Steingraeber Kammermusik-Saal (Germany). He was worked with many orchestras, including the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, the Danube Symphony Orchestra and the Manchester Camerata, and similarly has performed under the batons of conductors such as Vitaliy Protasov, András Deák, Ronald Corp and Stephen Threlfall. As a growing talent, Noah has also participated in the masterclasses of many eminent figures of the musical world, including Leonel Morales, Andreas Weber, Pavel Gililov, Barbara Szczepanska, Pascal Devoyon, Craig Sheppard, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Imogen Cooper and Andreas Froehlich, to name a few.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/01/04/noah-zhou-at-st-marys/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/07/01/hao-zi-yoh-the-luminosity-and-delicacy-of-a-great-artist-at-cranleigh-arts/

I can do no more that repeat my impressions just a month ago in the mecca of pianists in Perivale.A message of simplicity and beauty from the magic hands of this young pianist .

Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 15 in F major K. 533/494 (finished 3 January 1788)is in three movements :Allegro – Andante – Rondo: Allegretto.The Rondo was originally a stand-alone piece composed by Mozart in 1786 (Rondo No. 2, K. 494 ).In 1788, Mozart wrote the first two movements of K. 533 and incorporated a revised version of K. 494 as the finale, having lengthened it in order to provide a more substantial counterpart to the other two movements.There was clarity and a disarming simplicity to Hao Zi’s playing with crystal clear articulation and a rhythmic drive that was spellbinding from the first notes.Great elegance in the beautifully shaped Andante was played with an aristocratic sense of style.There was drama too but always within the confines of the overall shape of the movement that unlike Beethoven was just a passing cloud until returning to the serenity of the opening melodic line.The cascading arpeggios replying one to the other at the end were played with a refined delicacy that was absolutely ravishing.The purity of sound and child like simplicity gave such charm to her playing of the rondo.The ever more vivacious ornamentation just added to the rhythmic impetus with her sparkling jewel box full of kaleidoscopic colours.A coda deep in the bass in such reflective mood as the rondo theme just dissolved before our eyes with the magic that Hao Zi had recreated.

The Masques op. 34 by Szymanowski was written from 1915 to 1916.In 1914, the composer took refuge in his home village in Ukraine and remained there until the Russian Revolution. He had returned from a long stay in Europe, Sicily and North Africa, where he drew his inspiration for these years’ works. Here his style approached the Impressionism of Debussy.The Masques were written in a different chronological order than that of their publication, with Scheherazade initially completing the cycle. Tantris is a corruption of Tristan, taken from the myth of Tristan and Iseult and retold in a piece by Ernst Hardt where Tristan masquerades as a jester to meet his sweetheart.A fascinating glimpse of this still elusive composer.There were the capricious sounds of the jester alternating with passionate outpourings and a spectacular final flourish.of transcendental difficulty.Hao Zi seemed to delight in bringing such character to this very evocative piece.

Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-sharp minor op.19, also titled Sonata-Fantasy) took five years for him to write. “The first section represents the quiet of a southern night on the seashore; the development is the dark agitation of the deep, deep sea. The E major middle section shows caressing moonlight coming up after the first darkness of night. The second movement represents the vast expanse of ocean in stormy agitation.”There was sumptuous beauty of the opening statement with gentle meanderings of ravishing sounds and delicacy.A melodic line embroidered in Hao Zi’s hands with streams of gold and silver.The second movement with its cascades of notes was played with such ease as they slowly shape themselves into a sumptuous melody of romantic sweep.A tumultuous climax was allowed to die away to a mere whisper before the final triumphant chord.Bringing this extraordinary recital to an exciting conclusion.

Malaysian pianist Hao Zi Yoh was born in 1995 and began her music studies at the age of 3. By the age of 12, she already performed at Carnegie Hall as a gold medallist of the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition. Most recently, Hao Zi is selected as participant in the Preliminary Round of Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw 2021. In Malaysia, Hao Zi studied under Chong Lim Ng, who showed her the path into the classical music world. She explored composing and her composition “Bustling City and Peaceful Suburb” was selected to represent Malaysia at the Yamaha APJOC concert 2007. At the age of 14, she moved to Germany to study with Prof. Elza Kolodin at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. It was then she won top prizes in many international competitions including EPTA Belgium, Enschede, RNCM James Mottram (Manchester, 2012) and Concurso internacional de piano Rotary Club Palma Ramon LLull, Mallorca (Spain 2013). This led her to performing as soloist in festivals around Europe, USA, China, Japan and Malaysia. Besides, she also performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Nova Amadeus and Baleares Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, she came under the tutelage of Prof. Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music, London, generously supported by Lynn Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, Countess of Munster and Craxton Memorial Trust. She received 3rdPrize at Roma International Piano Competition, the Phillip Crawshaw Memorial Prize for an Outstanding Musician from Overseas at the Royal Overseas League Competition. She was also recipient of prestigious Martin Musical Scholarship Trust Philharmonia Piano Fellowships on the Emerging Artists Programme 2017/18. During her studies, she explored her relationship with music and her interest in creating sound colours: her MMus Project 2016 involved collaborating with percussionist Daniel Gonzalez to create a version of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit for Piano and Percussion. In her interpretation of “A Distant Voice of the Rainforest” by Chong Lim Ng, she included improvised extended piano techniques as well as improvised singing to draw the audience into the soundworld of a rainforest. Apart from this, Hao Zi also participated in creative outreach projects led by the Open Academy for children and elderly with Dementia, where she performed in Music for Moment Concerts at the Wigmore Hall. She collaborated with author-illustrator David Litchfield and improvised to his storytelling of award-winning book “The Bear and the Piano”. Hao Zi remains in close contact with the music scene in Malaysia. She has given talks, performances and masterclasses to the students of University of Malaya, Bentley Music and Persatuan Chopin in hope to share her experiences and help the younger generation. During the Covid-19 lockdown, Hao Zi held online livestream and fundraiser for St. Nicholas’ Home for the Blind, Penang, Malaysia. A Young Steinway Artist, Hao Zi is currently based in London and has performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Southbank Royal Festival Hall, Salle Cortot, Steinway Hall London, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (Malaysia) and Teatro Quirino (Italy). She is further developing her performing career being part of the Keyboard Trust London, Talent Unlimited. Hao Zi is also a piano tutor at King’s College London and gives masterclasses at Imperial College London. Currently she is studying with Martino Tirimo, after being awarded full scholarship to pursue an Artist Diploma at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, generously supported by the Bagri Foundation and Gladys Bratton Scholarship .She will tour Italy with the Keyboard Trust with concerts in Venice,Padua,Vicenza and Florence in January 2023

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/24/hao-zi-yoh-at-st-marys-the-simplicity-and-ravishing-beauty-of-a-great-artist/

Saturday 26 November 12 noon – 6 pm

The Liszt Society Annual Day and Competition

Some superb playing from this young ‘local lad ‘.His temperament and artistry were evident from the very first notes of Schubert’s Impromptu in E flat.The streams of notes that flowed from his fingers with such ease were shaped with infinite care and with a fluidity and washes of colour that contrasted with the second episode with its driving forward movement and dramatic ending.The beautiful G flat impromptu was played with a sumptuous sense of balance that gave the melodic line great poignancy as it rode on an accompaniment of such fluidity.It was the same ease and shape that he gave to the shimmering streams of notes in the fourth impromptu.A middle episode played with passion and temperament with the deep bass notes allowed to appear and sustain with great effect.

There was beauty too in Schubert’s Standchen with the shadowing of the melodic line in Liszt’s beautiful transcription played with ravishing sound and utmost delicacy.There was much busy weaving in Liszt’s Bagatelle sans tonalità with a technical control and architectural shape that made one wonder why this work is not more often heard in the concert hall.

It led without a break into the ‘Dante’Sonata that was given a performance that was remarkable for the sense of character he gave to each of the episodes.From the dramatic imperious opening to the hauntingly beautiful central episode.He gave the work a dynamic sweep with an extraordinary technical control that conquered all Liszt’s demonic passages with such ease.A vision of the whole work that gave weight and importance to the architectural shape and drama that was being enacted.Performances of superb technical control but above all of artistry and musical intelligence allied to a temperament that was totally convinced as it was convincing .

Connor Heraghty was awarded a place to study piano performance at the Purcell School of Music sponsored by scholarships from the government’s Music and Dance Scheme and the Mackintosh Foundation. He went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he completed the BMus (Hons), MMus and MPerf postgraduate degrees followed by the Artist Diploma (2019-21).Concerts have included recitals at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Venice, in London at the Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the Fields, St James’s Church Piccadilly, Milton Court Barbican, Drapers’ Hall and Buckingham Palace in the presence of Prince Charles. During his studies at the Guildhall Connor studied with Senior Professor of Piano, Joan Havill and he has also enjoyed participation in masterclasses given by such artists as Sa Chen, Peter Frankl and Stephen Hough.His studies all through have been supported by scholarships from the Guildhall Trust, Leverhulme Arts Trust, Countess of Munster and the Alec Beecheno Bursary Award. During 2021/22 Connor is the Guildhall Artist Fellowship holder of the keyboard department and is sponsored by Talent Unlimited

Shuri Masuda (Japan)
Danse macabre (Saint-Saëns) S.555
Rapsodie espagnole S.254

Thanh Nhat Vu (Vietnam)
Études d’exécution transcendante No.12 “Chasse-neige” S.139
Ballade No.2 in B minor S.171

Miriam Gómez-Morán (Spain)
Un sospiro S.144/3
Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude S.173/3

William Bracken (UK)
Sonetto del Petrarca 104 (from Années de pèlerinage II: Italie, S.161)
Sonetto del Petrarca 123 (from Années de pèlerinage II: Italie, S.161)
La lugubre gondola II S.200
Sposalizio (from Années de pèlerinage II: Italie, S. 161)

Minkyu Kim – mastery exults to the glory of Liszt

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2019/12/01/liszt-comes-to-perivale/

Minkyu Kim a pianistic and musical genius at St Mary’s

Miracles do happen even in Wimbledon especially when Louis Lortie is invited to ravish,seduce and astonish with his aristocratic authority and sensitivity.
Chopin Preludes of real weight where every one of these 24 ‘problems’ as Fou Ts’ong was won’t to say ,was given the time and shape to be moulded into gems in a crown of glorious poetic beauty.

Schumann having famously announced the arrival of Chopin with ‘Hats off ,gentlemen ,a genius’ when he heard Chopin’s op 2 ‘La ci darem la mano ‘ variations ,strangely exclaimed of the Preludes : “they are sketches, beginnings of études, or, so to speak, ruins, individual eagle pinions, all disorder and wild confusions.” Liszt’s opinion, however, was more positive: “Chopin’s Preludes are compositions of an order entirely apart… they are poetic preludes, analogous to those of a great contemporary poet, who cradles the soul in golden dreams…” Chopin wrote them between 1835 and 1839, partly at Valldemossa in Mallorca ,where he spent a disastrous winter of 1838–39 having fled Paris with George Sand and her children to escape the damp.Chopin himself never played more than four of the preludes at any single public performance.Nor was this the practice for 25 years after his death.Nowadays it is more usual to hear the complete set than singly and Alfred Cortot in 1926 was one of the first to record them all.

Each prelude in Louis Lortie’s hands was a miniature tone poem of such poignancy and weight that this much loved worked still could take us by surprise.The grandeur and overwhelming climax to the ninth really did take me by the scruff of the neck!Largo ,legatissimo ,forte ,molto tenuto but then fortissimo to piano and yet again fortissimo at the end.Chopin’s indications are very clear but rarely followed with real poetic intent with a feeling that there is a narrative and a real story to be told.That was after the disarming simplicity of the fourth in E minor starting with barely a whisper but then gradually the melodic line more chiselled with the beating pulpitations of the left hand with jewels every so often allowed to gleam with prismatic importance.The silence too before the last three chords where Louis put his hands in his lap until with aristocratic dignity he placed them on the keyboard and allowed them to make the final poignant statement of farewell. The third too with the fleeting lightness of a gently flowing breeze on which sailed quixotically the melodic line which even drew a smile on Louis face as he too was enjoying this voyage of discovery.A voyage that he told me he had not made for fourteen years .It was this sense of discovery and recreation that was so enrapturing for all those present.There was the gentle weaving of vibrating sounds in the fifth building in intensity until finally disposed of with two impatient chords.There was red hot passion in the eighth played with burning intensity and superb control.The almost flippant jeux perlé of the tenth where the cascading notes just interrupted a sombre bass chorale.There was beautiful fluidity in the eleventh where his richness of texture gave such depth to the simple melodic contour.The twelfth played with rhythmic intensity and excitement only burning itself out with two very final fortissimo chords.I have never heard the fourteenth played with such character and red hot temperament like water boiling over at a hundred degrees ending quietly and surprisingly abruptly as though he had just had enough of that mini drama!The ravishing sound and sumptuous rubato in the middle section of the gloriously mellifluous thirteenth was quite magical as was the opening of the fifteenth ‘Raindrop’ prelude.

Always in Louis’ hands the richness of texture created by balance and subtle use of the pedal made the gradual appearance of the menacing central section so inevitable as it moved to dissonant clashing chords of heartrending anguish.The brilliance of the B flat minor Presto con fuoco was quite breathtaking not only for it’s control but for the washes of colour and shape he gave the endless stream of notes above the insistent left hand which was not allowed to falter for a moment until the all too final chords where in desperation he threw his arms in the air with wild abandon!The seventeenth was bathed in pedal that gave it a richness of texture where the final deep bass pedal notes allowed the melodic line to float on this wave of sound.The cadenza type prelude of number eighteen was played ‘piano’ as Chopin asks but rarely gets!In Louis hands it built in a gradual more agitated crescendo towards the tumultuous split chords and a leap from on high to the insistent bass notes hammered out with anger before complete silence of desolation and the final tumultuous fortississimo chords ………what a statement that was today!It was strange though that the nobility of the C minor twentieth prelude came in three layers each an echo of the other until the final chord that Louis hammered home with rather too much vehemence,especially considering that Chopin had indicated it to be played piano.But Louis is a human being of great temperament which on the spur of the moment can sometimes overwhelm even him!The octave prelude,number twenty two, where the melodic line was firmly planted in the bass with passionate drive and intensity before the disarmingly mellifluous penultimate prelude – jeux d’eau indeed.The final Allegro appassionato needed no prompting for our magnificent guide.Streams of notes like rockets shooting off in all directions with the throbbing insistence of the bass and the chiselled intensity of right hand octaves before the final last three bass notes.Should they be three hammered home or one note made to vibrate three times depends on the temperamenti of the artist.Here we were in no doubt that we were in the hands of a master whose every move we had to follow .A pied piper who is above all a poet with a unique story to tell-cradling the soul in golden dreams.

The subtle colours and quixotic changes of character that he brought to Scriabin’s op 11 opened a whole new sound world as Scriabin commenced his long journey in a quest to reach the stars.The 24 Preludes, Op. 11 were composed between 1888–96,being also one of Scriabin’s first published works with M.P. Belief in 1897,in Leipzig, together with his 12 Études, Op. 8 (1894–95).They were modelled after Chopin’s and they also cover the 24 major and minor keys following the same key sequence: C major, A minor, G major, E minor, D major, B minor and so on, alternating major keys with their relative minors, and following the ascending circle of fifths.Louis created a sound world out of which grew these sometimes fleetingly personal musings.A cocoon of velvet on which lay these ravishing little gems.There was also great passion in the fourteenth and hints of Chopin in the misterioso sixteenth.Great virtuosity in the Allegro agitato of number eighteen with its dynamic left hand octaves and the passionate outpouring of the twenty fourth.From the first to the last a ‘halo’ of sound was created of velvet richness that gave such architectural shape to such fragments of delicate thoughts and disturbing dreams.

What better way to celebrate Cesar Franck’s 200th anniversary than with his Prelude Chorale and Fugue when it is played with such weight and authority.A prelude bathed in mysterious colours with clouds of pedal and a chorale that was allowed to shine on high above magisterial spread chords.The bold entry of the fugue and its climax on which the sublime opening theme in this cyclic work floated into the air of St John’s ,as it must have done in St Clotilde in Paris , creating a magic that was to lead to the triumphant and nobly emphatic exultation of a true believer.

Prélude, Choral et Fugue, FWV 21 was written in 1884 by César Franck with his distinctive use of cyclic form.Franck had huge hands ,wide like the span of emotions he conveys,capable of spanning the interval of a 12th on the keyboard.This allowed him unusual flexibility in voice-leading between internal parts in fugal composition, and in the wide chords and stretches featured in much of his keyboard music.Of the famous Violin Sonata’s writing it has been said: “Franck, blissfully apt to forget that not every musician’s hands were as enormous as his own, littered the piano part (the last movement in particular) with major-tenth chords… most pianistic mortals ever since have been obliged to spread them in order to play them at all.”The key to his music may be found in his personality. His friends record that he was “a man of utmost humility, simplicity, reverence and industry.” Louis Vierne a pupil and later organist titulaire of Notre-Dame, wrote in his memoirs that Franck showed a “constant concern for the dignity of his art, for the nobility of his mission, and for the fervent sincerity of his sermon in sound… Joyous or melancholy, solemn or mystic, powerful or ethereal: Franck was all those at Sainte-Clotilde.”In his search to master new organ-playing techniques he was both challenged and stimulated by his third and last change in organ posts. On 22 January 1858, he became organist and maître de chapelle at the newly consecrated Sainte Clotilde (from 1896 the Basilique-Sainte-Clotilde), where he remained until his death. Eleven months later, the parish installed a new three-manual Cavaillé-Coll instrument,whereupon he was made titulaire.The impact of this organ on Franck’s performance and composition cannot be overestimated; together with his early pianistic experience it shaped his music-making for the remainder of his life.

A standing ovation was treated to Chopin’s ‘Tristesse’ study op 10 n 3 ( having played all 24 Etudes in Paris last week )……’How sweet is your heart……,’what a question to ask after a masterly recital by one of the greatest pianists before the public today and also one of the nicest most considerate of people we at the Kew Academy are privileged to know.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/01/09/beethoven-la-chapelle-offers-an-ode-to-joy/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2016/11/05/louis-lortie-in-rome/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2018/02/28/the-fantasie-of-louis-lortie/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2018/02/06/the-funambulism-of-louis-lortie-in-rome/