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‘Truly Bach is the Alpha of pianoforte composition and Liszt the Omega’.— Busoni, 1900

https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/live-streams/kirill-gerstein-busoni-and-liszt

• Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924). Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

For so many reasons the recital by Kirill Gerstein was a remarkable event.Firstly because the performances he gave were sensational for their musical authority and technical mastery.Even the seemingly obscure works by Busoni were brought to life by someone who had entered so fully into this mysterious sound world that was described by Gernstein with a quote from 1901 :’A musical sun that set at Liszt’s death and shines again through Busoni.‘It was on this very stage known then as Bechstein Hall that was inaugurated by Busoni and Ysaye on 31st May 1901.

It was fascinating to hear Gerstein talk about Busoni as he took us on a journey from his Elégie n.1 ‘ after the turning’ where Busoni had finally freed himself from the romanticism of his early piano concerto and was reaching out to find a new musical voice.It was the voice that Liszt hints at in his late works and is a voice made of mists and colours ,music without key signatures or bar lines.Again quoting Busoni:’Music is born free and to win back it’s freedom is it’s destiny.

And so it was with the Second Sonatina of 1912 ‘senza tonalità’ where all boundaries are removed.

The mists of sound of the Berceuse – 7th Elégie which Mahler had included in the orchestral version in his last concert.Mysterious sounds out of which emerge a melodic line ,similar in many ways to the searching sound world of late Scriabin.I have not heard it played in recital since Serkin included it with the Toccata in London in the 70’s (together with works by Reger in a programme including the Schumann Carnaval and Beethoven op 111).

The sixth sonatina that followed is known as the Carmen fantasy as it was Busoni’s recreation of the opera he had seen in Paris in 1920.The ending he even marks Andante visionario which of course it is.Like Liszt’s transcriptions or paraphrases this was someone who had understood the very core of the work and was able to transmit it’s inner message more clearly and in Liszt’s case sometime improve on it by changing the order of appearance.Thomas Ades was present in the audience and a close friend from whom Gerstein had recently commissioned a piano concerto (with funds from the prestigious Gilmore Trust).He describes Busoni’s music as a ‘suitcase with a false bottom’.The last piano work that Busoni wrote was the Toccata where he prefaces it with a quote of Frescobaldi:’Not without difficulty will we come to the end” Busoni had exchanged Frescobaldi’s ‘effort’for ‘difficulty’.Busoni’s last appearance at the now renamed Wigmore Hall was in 1922 when he was already suffering from a kidney disease no doubt due to his love of Champagne – he died two year later.Greatly disturbed by the First World War exclaiming :’The uninterrupted arch of our life has been interrupted!”These were only the fascinating introductions to the works that Gernstein played with such overwhelming mastery.Playing of such extraordinary sounds where notes did not seem to exist as we moved from one shimmering atmospheric planet to another.There were moments of breathtaking virtuosity as in the opening of the Carmen Fantasy taken at a breakneck speed but with such character and clarity – bright sunlight – before the amorous and ominous clouds overtook.

The toccata too was played with extraordinary authority and technical command.But it was the overall understanding of a sound world that was so remarkable and a sense of balance that could make the musical landscape of Busoni so clear.Indeed the world that Liszt so prophetically had pointed to at the end of his life suddenly came alive with sense and reason and just underlined the opening quote between the sun setting with Liszt and rising again with Busoni.A fascinating journey of pure music where the fact that we were listening to one of the great pianists of our time was secondary to his overwhelming musical authority.I think that could also be the way of describing Busoni himself!

What seemed so remarkable and indeed visionary in the first half of the concert opened the door for Liszt’s transcendental studies.They were played with the same sense of colour and architectural shape that the feat of being able to play so many notes paled into insignificance before the musical message that was being transmitted.I remember listening to Lazar Berman play the studies in one of his first concerts in the Festival Hall in London.There was such overwhelming sound that I quickly left the hall after the third one as my ears could just not take so much continuous sound.A school of playing where every note is played right to the bottom of the key ….and beyond ………exemplified by master virtuosi such Alexander Toradze and Denis Matsueev.A school that turns the piano back into a percussion instrument whereas Liszt and Busoni had pointed us into the direction of multicoloured sounds.A world where notes were transformed into shapes and atmospheres.A magic world where a box full of hammers and strings could be turned into a kaleidoscope of sounds and emotions.Was it not Thalberg who when he played was accused of having made a pact with the devil as it seemed he had three hands,such was the illusion he was able to create by the subtle use of the pedal,balance and technical control.It was Anton Rubinstein who had said that the pedal is the ‘soul’ of the piano We seem these day to have lost what was known as the ‘Matthay touch’,where every note could have at least one hundred different gradations.I remember Rosalyn Tureck who if the lid of the piano was not left shut before a concert she would spend time brushing off the minutest particles of dust that could impede her from weighing up each key.It was this that made Kirill Gernstein’s performance today so remarkable.

We were treated to twelve miniature tone poems where Paysage became just as significant as Der Wilde Jagd because the passionate involvement and sense of line was the same .

The ravishing beauty of Ricordanza – ‘a bunch of faded love letters tied with a pink ribbon’ to quote Busoni and the incredible fleeting impression of ‘Will o’ the wisp’ Feux Follets .One of the most technically challenging of all piano pieces was played with such a haze of sounds that blew across the keyboard with a left hand that was like a jewels sparkling in the night air.

Has Vision ever sounded as noble or ‘visionary’ with such sumptuous sounds?The whole opening page played by the left hand alone before the streams of sounds where even two hands did not seem enough!

The octaves in Eroica after the quixotic opening were like vibrations of sound and we were certainly not aware that they were the notoriously difficult octaves that we all wait for.

Mazeppa too was played with astonishing energy but also a sense of balance where everything was so clear as the excitement grew to breathtaking proportions.The central episode,sumptuous tenor melody with streams of golden sounds cascading around it.Has the Fminor study ever sounded more passionately abandoned or beautifully phrased with a coda of terrifying brilliance? Harmonies du soir was played like Paysage with ravishing sounds and passionate involvement.The final left hand arpeggios so reminiscent of Busoni’s own Berceuse with just a mist of sound on which floated the melodic line.

Chasse Neige ,considered by many to be the finest of the set ,was played with an extraordinary sense of balance and forward movement building up to a breathtaking climax before dying away with swirls of sound.It died away to end this extraordinary performance with a simple bare chord.

Minutes of aching silence at the end as the audience tried to come to terms with what they had experienced and Kirill Gernstein had a moment of recovery.

The only encore possible after that could be by Bach-Busoni!It was in fact the chorale prelude ‘Nun freut euch ,Lieben Christen gemein’ played at incredible speed but with such clarity,the melodic line miraculously emerging above the joyous outpouring of brilliance.

The sublime mastery of Kirill Gerstein at the Wigmore Hall

His programme includes a work by the Russian composer Alexander Vustin, who died of Covid complications in 2020 at the age of 76. Unusual, too, are Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures – an extended cycle of 13 pictures all with a descriptive title, composed in 1889. His younger compatriot Janáček wrote his sole piano sonata in response to the death of a young carpenter killed while demonstrating for a Czech university in Brno.

Aleksandr Vustin (1943-2020). Lamento

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928). Piano Sonata 1. X. 1905 (‘From the Street’)

Valentin Silvestrov (b.1937). Bagatelle Op. 1 No. 3

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat Op. 110

INTERVAL

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904). Poetic Tone Pictures Op. 85

Leif Ove Andsnes on an all too rare visit to the concert platform these days reminded us of his absolute mastery and impeccable musicianship.

We hardly dared breathe as the first part of the concert unfolded in one long line from the whispered insistent left hand lament of Aleksandr Vustin .Creating the same magic as Bartok in his ‘Night Music’ with an atmospheric haze on which arose the chiselled purity of Messianic inspired bird calls.Leading so naturally into the beautifully mellifluous outpourings of Janacek’s Sonata of 1905.
An undercurrent of menace ever present and surfacing with dramatic outbursts of foreboding.The beauty of the lament of death was with luminous sounds of great intensity ending in a mere whisper out of which grew the simplicity of Silvestrov’s innocuous little Bagatelle.
Of course this was leading to the climax of this first great arch with a performance of Beethoven’s supremely mellifluous op 110.His extraordinary mastery and masculine beauty together with a sublime sense of balance where Beethoven’s indications were revealed with scrupulous naturalness and became as if heard for the first time.
The Allegro molto was played with driving energy and the end of the treacherous trio just drifted into oblivion as the Allegro was allowed to return.The silences too between the movements were pregnant with suspense as he placed the opening notes of the Adagio with heart rending perfection.

There was an underlying menace that he brought out too in the counterpoints under the sublime arioso with the whispered return of the inverted fugue that gradually arose out of the depths to the febrile joy on high.A final flourish of such force that needed some extra Beethovenian weaving between hands to produce the sumptuous richness of sublimation desired,
Not since the early appearances of Pollini have we heard such musicianly perfection.
Mastery and perfection brought the little known 13 Poetic Tone Pictures op 85 by Dvorak vividly to life.
What a wonderful collection of pieces,each one a miniature tone poem played with such imagination and colour.
Cascades of notes just flowed from his fingers like gold dust in Night Journey and what scintillating old style virtuosity in Joking.He brought contemplation and atmosphere to the Old Castle and the flowing melodic line of the Spring Song ended with deliciously subtle charm.
The frenzy of the Peasant’s Balllad was followed by a Reverie that flowed like a Mendelssohn Song without Words with an accompaniment of supreme delicacy.
Furiant indeed were the double octaves before the music box of the Goblins.The languid melodic line of the Serenade was greeted by the whispered energy of Bacchanalia.Tittle-tattle was indeed just that with such vivid story telling and there was bleak nobility in the Hero’s grave.And finally cascades of sumptuous notes accompanied the melodic line at the holy mountain.

What a discovery with an hour of music where time stood still as he held the audience in the palm of his hand with a voyage of discovery of works I have never heard in the concert hall before.
I know that the Dvorak Piano Concerto is a notoriously difficult work that Richter with Kleiber recorded many years ago.Rudolf Firkusny made a point of delving into the works of Czech composers and he too recorded the Dvorak Concerto with George Szell even before Richter.
But never could I have expected a discovery as today.
I had looked at Pletnev’s programme this year in Perugia of Brahms Intermezzi alternating with the Dvorak op.85 and thought it to be one of the eccentricities of a pianist who is infamously unpredictable.
But listening today to these 13 beautiful pieces I certainly hope they will be included in the future programmes of other pianists not only the sometimes genial Pletnev
An encore of a savage dance by a Russian composer whose name I did not catch built up to an enormous climax of sumptuous sounds and brought the audience to their feet.

Interesting to note that he has a specially made stick to hold the piano lid up higher than usual which obviously gives more resonance to the sound.In fact it was his mastery of tone production that was so noticeable today

Tuesday 22 November 3.00 pm 

Some very refined playing of great musicianship.A scintillating Haydn with ornaments that sparked and shone with such purity and freshness.An Allegro that was played with exemplary clarity and some subtle changes of register with a purity of sound and well oiled fingers.Lacking legato and shape that was obviously what Haydn had to accept on the instruments of the day but on the piano and with Gabriele’s temperament perhaps she could have allowed herself a little more pedal to add a greater sense of shape and beauty within the phrase.The Menuet was played with a touching simplicity and purity of finger legato which contrasted with the drama of the trio which again could have been helped by a touch of pedal.However it made the reappearance and the simplicity of the Menuet even more poignant.The presto was a tour de force of clarity and rhythmic energy to the last mighty statement in octaves and the two tongue in cheek final chords.An extraordinary finger technique allied to a musicianship and sense of historic style where she could discreetly added a touch of pedal to give more colour especially to the repeated notes in the Presto.Whilst rhythmically exhilarating they lacked a sense of direction due to their similarity and a more horizontal and less verticale approach would have allowed her more flexibility.However a remarkable performance where she preferred to look backwards to the harpsichord rather that forwards to the piano forte that was just on the horizon in the 1770’s.

Her beautiful lyricism in Prokofiev’s early fourth sonata was overshadowed by it’s ominous clouds and deep brooding bursting into the Poulencian joie de vivre of the finale.There were spine chilling ornaments in the opening meanderings of the Allegro molto sostenuto.Here she allowed herself full reign of the pedal and it gave a sense of colour and ease that allowed the music to unfold so naturally to the final decisive chords.There were deep bass chimes at the opening of the Andante assai that Prokofiev marks serioso before opening up to vibrating chords on which the melodic line floats so magically.She brought ravishing beauty to the tranquillo e dolce episode before the absolute dead wooden chords and a momentary respite.It contrasted so well with the return of the vibrating chords of the opening and the magic bell like sounds in the poco meno mosso before the end.The last movement just shot from her superb fingers with such ease as Prokofiev at last writes con brio in this up to now rather sombre sound world.Her playing was exhilarating and exciting with an astonishing technical ease that allowed the quixotic character of this movement to spring so easily from her fingers.

There was ravishing beauty in the Franck/Bauer with its haunting opening melody that pervades the whole work.It was played with a luminosity of sound bathed in pedal that with her very sensitive sense of balance allowed the melodic line to emerge unimpeded but sustained by rich bass harmonies.A subtle flexibility gave a moving but aristocratic shape of great sentiment but no sentimentality.Great flourishes of magical arpeggios announced the fugue that was played with simplicity and luminosity as it gradually grew in intensity.Some wondrous changes of colour building to an overwhelming climax out of which floated the opening theme on high on a cloud of quivering sonorities – a very similar moment of pure magic as in his Prelude,Chorale and Fugue written for the piano.A superb performance full of atmospheric colours and ravishing sounds.

Ravel showed off her kaleidoscopic sense of colour and considerable technical prowess.But there was also great control and sense of line and a natural musicality that turned even the astonishing glissandi into part of an architectural whole that kept us spellbound throughout her recital.Performances that showed her masterly control of sound and fearless virtuosity all with sterling musicianship and impeccable good taste.

Lithuanian pianist Gabriele Sutkute has already established herself as a musician of strong temperament and “excellent precision and musicality” (Rasa Murauskaite from 7 days of Art ). She has given many concerts and performed in numerous festivals throughout Europe and appeared in famous halls such as the Wigmore Hall, the Steinway Hall UK, the Musikhuset Aarhus, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building and Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall. In addition to being a soloist, Gabriele frequently performs with chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras. In 2018, she had a trio performance alongside distinguished cellist Adrian Brendel in the RAM Summer Piano Festival and was also invited to play with the renowned Kaunas String Quartet in Lithuania. In 2020, she performed Rachmaninov’s 2 nd Piano Concerto with the Grammy-nominated Kaunas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Markus Huber, and in 2019, performed this concerto with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Modestas Pitrenas, at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic. Gabriele is a winner of nineteen international piano competitions where she also received numerous special awards. In 2022, she was awarded 2 nd Prize and the Audience Prize at the Birmingham International Piano Competition. For her musical achievements she received Lithuanian Republic Presidents’ certificates of appreciation six times. The pianist is also an artist at Talent Unlimited and is the recipient of the prestigious Mills Williams Junior Fellowship 2022/23 and the Jacob Barnes Award 2021. Gabriele has had masterclasses with professors and pianists such as S. Kovacevich, I. Levit, I. Cooper, S. Osborne, O. Kern and many more acclaimed musicians . From 2016-22, she has been studying with Professor Christopher Elton and received her Bachelor of Music Degree (First Class Honours) and Master of Arts Degree with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. For the outstanding performance in her Postgraduate Final Recital, she also received a Postgraduate Diploma (DipRAM). Gabriele was awarded a full scholarship for the Artist Diploma course at the Royal College of Music and began her studies there with Professor Vanessa Latarche and Professor Sofya Gulyak in September.

Salut d’Amour, what better way to lift our spirits in the Elgar room .Tit for tat you might say : Elgar for Elgar ,as Jack thanked his teacher Dina Parakhina for teaching him not only the piano but about art and life .
Joined by his wife for an encore in a touching performance of a work that filled Elgar’s coffers much as Farewell to Stromness had done a century later for Maxwell Davis .

It was the encore of his recital that had been the exultation of the Fugue with fine performances of Bach,Mendelssohn and Franck.

Jack ,a late starter at 21,is certainly catching up for lost time helped of course by his masterly teacher.
He too with his own young students in the hall who had come to applaud their teacher and who he asked to count how many fugue subjects they could spot .He even prefaced his recital programme with Bach’s deceptively simple C major Prelude that his young students had struggled with in their lessons

Asking us to Google Mendelssohn and Queen Victoria so we could appreciate the historic value of where and what we were enjoying today .
What fun we had together with some masterly music making .
A truly enjoyable morning for the entire family .

• JS Bach French Suite no 4 in Eb major BWV815
  (1685-1750) i Allemande ii Courante iii Sarabande iv Gavotte v Air vi Menuet vii Gigue
• Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in E minor op 35 no 1
  (1809-1847)The Melodious Mendelssohn: Tea with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
• Franck Prélude, Chorale et Fugue
  (1822-1890) i Prelude
  ii Chorale iii Fugue

Jack’s Bach was of a clarity and precision with almost no pedal relying on his limpet like fingers for a touch from legato to non legato ,notes inégales and staccato.Whilst allowing admirable rhythmic impetus and buoyancy it did rob the music of its colour and shape.Bach’s music is based on the song and the dance and whilst of course needing absolute clarity it also needs the same contours and inflection as the human voice.Jack gave us a Bach of remarkably clear lines and architectural shape like a monument to admire rather than be moved by.There was much to admire though.The absolute clarity of the Allemande and the rhythmic buoyancy of the Courante.His superb finger legato in the Sarabande or the beautifully phrased Gavotte.The natural flow of the Aria and the infectious rhythmic insistence of the Gigue .

The French Suites, BWV 812–817, were written by Bach for the clavier (harpsichord or clavichord )between the years of 1722 and 1725.Although Suites Nos. 1 to 4 are typically dated to 1722, it is possible that the first was written somewhat earlier.The suites were later given the name ‘French’ Likewise, the ‘English’ that was popularised by Bach’s biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel , who wrote in his 1802 biography of Bach, “One usually calls them French Suites because they are written in the French manner.”This claim, however, is inaccurate: like Bach’s other suites, they follow a largely Italian convention.There is no surviving definitive manuscript of these suites, and ornamentation varies both in type and in degree across manuscripts.

Taking his jacket off after the Bach it was as though he had removed a straight jacket .Suddenly he moved with a horizontal freedom that gave such fluidity to his playing.Bathed in pedal,Mendelssohn’s brilliant prelude flowed from his fingers with ease.A sense of balance that allowed the sumptuous melody to ride on these waves of sound with passionate commitment.Beautifully shaped and with a technical prowess that carried the music ‘on wings of song’.There was clarity in the fugue but now he brought a colour and architectural shape that had been missing in his performance of Bach.Knotty twine,as Delius described Bach’s counterpoint but there is beauty too and it just took Jack to remove his jacket to relish the sounds that were now pouring from his sensitive fingers.

Mendelssohn took the opportunity to experiment with the so-called ‘three-hand effect’, in which he embedded a melody in the middle register of the piano and framed it with arpeggiandi above and a bass line below. The effect was that three, instead of two, hands were playing, a virtuosic trompe l’œil made fashionable in the 1830s by Sigismond Thalberg, and then widely imitated by other virtuosi, including Liszt. In contrast, the fugue, built upon an angular subject launched by the dramatic leap of a falling seventh, impresses as another example of Mendelssohn’s Bachian pursuits, so that, taken together, the prelude and fugue juxtapose the new with the old.

Cesar Franck’s Prelude ,Chorale and Fugue closed the programme .In his introduction Jack spoke of this masterpiece as spiritual and profound being of darkness and light,pain and hope.He gave a very fine performance showing great musicianship as he allowed the music to unwind so naturally.If the opening seemed rather earthbound he gradually found the atmosphere and colour that was to illuminate his whole performance.The chorale emerged from the prelude with ravishing sounds and a florid sweep that opened up the full sonority of the piano with overwhelming effect.A technical assurance that allowed the music to move forward with authority,negotiating the notorious leaps with true technical mastery.A sense of improvisation gave a respite before the bald statement of the fugue subject.A fugue of grandeur and nobility with a relentless forward movement.The reappearance of the opening theme on a cloud of etherial sounds was in great contrast to the tumultuous build up to the glorious final exultation played with masterly authority and control.

I cannot do more than quote Stephen Hough’s fascinatingly learned words: “Franck’s original plan, according to his pupil Vincent d’Indy, was to write a plain Prelude and Fugue, the venerable form made immortal by Bach and neglected since Mendelssohn, a visibly serious alternative to the plethora of virtuoso pieces which were so popular at the time. After almost forty years writing mainly organ music and works inspired by sacred texts, the example of Bach was an affirmation that secular music could still retain a spiritual identity in an abstract form. In fact it is significant that the further Franck moved away from specifically sacred music (his liturgical works are particularly lifeless) the clearer and more pure his spiritual vision seemed to become.The decision to include a central section, separate from, yet linking, the Prelude and Fugue, came later (again according to d’Indy). Perhaps Bach was the influence with the poignant slow interludes of his Clavier Toccatas to say nothing of the very word ‘chorale’ which was eventually used. In the event, however, this central section became the emotional core of the work, its ‘motto’ theme used as a symbol of redemption and as a unifying principle at the climax of the Fugue.When Saint-Saëns made his tart observation about the piece that the ‘chorale is not a chorale and the fugue is not a fugue’ (in his pamphlet ‘Les Idées de M. Vincent d’Indy’), he was completely missing the point. The forms here have become symbolic, the apotheosis of their academic counterparts; and, furthermore, Alfred Cortot described the Fugue in the context of the whole work as ‘emanating from a psychological necessity rather than from a principle of musical composition’ (La musique française de piano; PUF, 1930). It is as if a ‘fugue’, as a symbol of intellectual rigour, was the only way Franck could find a voice to express fully the hesitant, truncated sobs of the Prelude and the anguished, syncopated lament of the Chorale. Not that the Fugue solves the problem—this is the function of the ‘motto’ theme; but the rules of counterpoint have given the speaker a format in which the unspeakable can be spoken.There are two motivic ideas on which the whole work is based: one, a falling, appoggiatura motif used in all three sections and generally chromatic in tonality ;the other a criss-crossing motif in fourths which appears first in the Chorale section and then again as a balm at the point where the Fugue reaches its emotional crisis. The first motivic idea is clearly related to the Bach Cantata ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’, and also to the ‘Crucifixus’ from the B minor Mass; the other idea appears as the ‘bell motif’ in Wagner’s Parsifal.”

Jack Tyndale-Biscoe’s unorthodox musical background spans three continents, two instruments and encompasses performances from Bach to Britten.He holds diplomas and degrees from the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Sydney, Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-I) and the Royal College of Music, with additional studies undertaken at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany.He has performed in concert venues and halls across Europe, the United States and Australia, with recent live performances at Steinway Hall UK, Jacqueline du Pré Hall at Oxford University, St. James Piccadilly, The International Albéniz Festival in Barcelona, The International Mendelssohn Festival-Akademie Leipzig, Fairfield Halls, St. Paul’s (Covent Garden), Westminster Music Library Hall, and featured in live performances of Albéniz’s Iberia Book One on WUSF Radio 89.7 FM, Classical Radio.Other achievements include winning first prize at the Croydon Performing Arts Competition, and first prize for the Concerto Competition with the Symphony Orchestra (BYU-I). During the 2022-2023 season, Jack will be recording with KNS Classical and presenting a unique programme at concert venues across London and Europe, entitled The Divine Spark of Bach.As an official Talent Unlimited UK and DEBUT Classical Artist, Jack is grateful for the support of both organisations in their promotion of London-based artists.

Situated directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music (RCM) is a world-leading music conservatoire with a prestigious history, contemporary outlook and inspiring location. The RCMtrains gifted musicians from all over the world for international careers as performers, conductors, composers and other significant leadership roles within the arts. With around 1,000 students from more than 60 countries studying at junior, undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral level, the RCM is a community of talented and open-minded musicians where creativity, innovation, collaboration and diversity are prized.

The first public performance ever given by RCM musicians was in the Elgar Room. On Wednesday 2 July 1884, in the West Theatre (as it was called then), “Mr. Barton”, a piano student, performed Chopin’s Ballade in A flat to open a programme that also included operatic arias by Mozart, Handel and Gluck, and also chamber works by Schumann and Haydn. We’re delighted to be still here over 130 years later!

Some superb music making in one of the most atmospheric churches that is St James’s in the heart of London .

The scene was set for three extraordinary musicians from the stable of Talent Unlimited directed by the indomitable Canan Maxton: Can Arisoy,Elfida Su Turan and Damir Durmanovic.

In the illustrious company of the Turkish Consul who had come to applaud in particular his compatriots Can Arisoy and Elfida Su Turan
It was Can who opened the concert with an ultra sensitive performance of Beethoven’s ‘Les Adieux’ Sonata op 81 a.
A refined tone palette that created an atmosphere of such emotional impact in the introduction that the explosion and rhythmic energy of the Allegro came as a blessed relief.
There was a technical prowess that was not just of notes but of multicoloured streams of sound and magical echo effects of the coach horns replying to each other on their long journey .
An absence that was so delicate and subtly shaded with the bare whisper of Beethoven’s yearning for the return expressed so poignantly.

And return there certainly was,as after Beethoven’s long held pedal and whispered asides Can attacked the piano like a man possessed.
There was extraordinary power and superlative technical control that gave such exhilarance to this most bucolic of movements.
It was the same control and mastery of sound that he brought to the second work on his programme with Debussy’s Feux d’artifice.
A distant murmur of sounds as the fireworks drew nearer and nearer until they were there with us at our feet.Explosions of sound and glissandi where you could almost see the smoke rising out of this magnificent Fazioli piano.

Bathed in pedal until just before the coda where there was a startling unexpected clarity before the final smokey ending with fragments of the Marseilles just recognisable in the distance.
A remarkable performance where Can could create such magic out of so little.
A pianist has to be both artist and magician if he is to persuade us that a box full of hammers and strings can create a world of dreams and desires.
Can Arisoy proved today that he is both.
Follow that !One might say . https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/03/31/can-arisoy-keyboard-trust-new-artists-recital/

Elfida Su Turan and Damir Duramovic were ready to take up the gauntlet.
Damir standing in at the last minute for Can,his school friend from Menuhin days together, who preferred not to play a double role today.

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

Damir is a natural where everything he plays becomes part of his being as he moves with cat like stealth over the keys .A natural musicality that was truly mesmerising as Elfida reached for the passionately resonating notes that abound in Chausson’s score.
Watching and listening to them together as they intoned this inspired poem was like being present at the improvised creation of a masterpiece.
A fascinating voyage of discovery together recounting a fairy tale of ravishing beauty and passion.

Szymanowski’s cruelly complicated scores are always a test of the technical prowess and imaginative artistry for all those that dare trespass into such a minefield.
Not so for Canan Maxton’s carefully chosen artists who from the very first notes of the Notturno created the atmosphere of a wondrous landscape.
Playing as one they brought vibrant energy also to the treacherous Tarantella.
The same energy I am sure Paul Kochanski and Artur Rubinstein would have displayed a century earlier when the music of their friend was still wet on the page .

Critically acclaimed pianist Can Arisoy was born in 2000 in Turkey. Can is the 2nd prize winner in the 2016 Beethoven Junior Intercollegiate Piano Competition in London and 2016 Nilüfer International Piano Competition. He was awarded The Young Talent Prize at the Ibiza International Piano Competition and was a finalist at the 2020 International Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarships. Can started his piano studies at the age of 5. In 2006, he was accepted to The Bilkent University’s junior music department with a full scholarship. He gave his first concert at the age of 7 and his first orchestral concert as a soloist at the age of 11 with Bilkent Youth Symphony Orchestra. At the age of 14, he was invited to the Turkish National Radio 3 Ankara for a recital and interview. At the same age, Can gained a place at The Yehudi Menuhin School with a full scholarship to study with Prof. Marcel Baudet. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/03/31/can-arisoy-keyboard-trust-new-artists-recital/

Can has worked with greatly acclaimed pianists such as; Boris Berman, Paul Roberts, Murray MacLahclan, Edith Fischer, Idil Biret, Robert Levin, Gülsin Onay, David Dolan, José Ramón Mendez, Markus Schirmer, Paul Coker, Jeremy Young, Pierre Réach and Jean Bernard Pommier in International Masterclasses.
Since the age of 14, Can gave concerts in England, Turkey, France, Spain, and Austria. Performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Steinway Hall, Champs Hill, Clapham Omnibus, London King’s Place, Gloucester Music Society, Bilkent Concert Hall and Saygun Hall. He played with The Pelly Concert Orchestra in 2017 and The Dorking Chamber Orchestra in 2018 as a soloist and performed in music festivals including The Gstaad Music Festival, ISA Piano Festival, Gümüslük International Piano Festival, Music Alp International Music Academy and Cheathams Piano Series.
Can also performed and gave an interviews at the Karnaval Radio, Turkish National Radio 3 Istanbul and Borusan Classic Istanbul. In 2018 his performance of Brahms’ Horn Trio was chosen for The Yehudi Menuhin School 2018 Highlights CD. In the same year, Can became a “Talent Unlimited” artist in the UK. In 2019 December he gave his first Masterclass at the Izzet Baysal Fine Arts University in Turkey. Can is continuing his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Prof. Caroline Palmer.
Can is generously supported by Zetland Foundation, Talent Unlimited, Keyboard Trust and Sevda-Cenap And Music Foundation.
Presented in association with Talent Unlimited

Born in Istanbul in 2002, Elfida Su Turan started studying the violin at Istanbul University State Conservatory with Veniamin Varsavsky. Elfida, has been performing as a soloist with orchestra since the age of 10 with orchestras such as; the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, İzmir State Symphony Orchestra, Başkent University Orchestra, Başkent Academy Orchestra, Aşkın Ensamble, and the Bakırköy Municipality Orchestra. Elfida has had the ultimate pleasure of giving multiple concerts at the Akbank Art, Istanbul Culture University, Istanbul Philharmonic Society, Uludag University Auditorium, Sarajevo Music Academy Auditorium, Hikmet Şimşek Culture Center, İş Sanat, Milli Reasuans, Presidential Symphony Orchestra, France Bastille Opera Hall, Yehudi Menuhin Hall, Auditorium of the Fitzwilliam College inCambridge, Gestaad Festival, Conservatoir Royal de Bruxelles, Audotorio de Zaragosa, Juan March Foundation Madrid and Jeju Festival. Having been invited to master classes both in Turkey and abroad, Elfida has had the opportunity to learn under Itzhak Raskovsky, Rodney Friend, Davide Alogna and Ani Schnarch, Akiko Ono, Cihat Aşkın, Bomsori Kim, Michelle Kim, Lutsia İbragimova.
She entered her first national violin competition when she was 10 years old and was awarded the 2nd prize as well as best interpreter of the mandatory piece the competition demanded which gave me the opportunity to play with an orchestra yet again. I was also announced prizewinner in; International Violin Competition organized by Serbian Music pedagogues in March 2013 won first place. Won first place in the 7th Agimus Firenze Premio Crescendo in June of 2015, first place in the 13th Individualis Competition held in Kiev, Ukraine in August of 2015, and won first place in the GrandPrize Virtuoso Competition held in France in November of 2015 and I won third place in the 2nd İlona Feher İnternational violin competition June 2018 in Budapest. And this year March, I was announced a finalist in the 13th Grumiaux Violin Competition. Sadly, the final round did not take place due to the worldwide pandemic.
In 2014 she was also awarded the Joseph Guarini 1883 violin by the Çağdaş Eğitim Foundation.
In February of 2016 she was invited to audition in the world renowned music school, which is considered to be one for the top 3 schools in the world for pre University, The Yehudi Menuhin School. She got accepted with full scholarship.
In November 2019, she auditioned for Royal Academy of Music and got accepted and was also awarded the Entrance Scholarship which covers the entire tuition fee for the full course. She feels incredibly lucky to have Talent Unlimited support her as a musician.

As an internationally sought-after performer, Damir Durmanovic has performed in venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, Champs Hill Studios, YPF Festival Amsterdam, Wimbledon Music Festival, Renia Sofia Audotorium Madrid, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Derby Multifaith Center, Flusserei Flums, ‘Ballenlager’ Vaduz. He has won prizes in numerous international competitions including The Beethoven Intercollegiate Junior Competition in London, Adilia Alieva International Piano Competition in Geneva and Isidor Bajic International Piano Competition in Novi Sad.
He has performed in masterclasses with Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Dmitri Bashkirov, Pascal Devoyon, Jacques Rouvier, Robert Levin, JeanBernard Pommier, Tatyana Sarkisova, and chamber ensembles such as the Emerson Quartet. Damir is also a scholar at the ‘Musikakademie Liechtestein’ and participates annually in the courses offered by the Academy.
Damir began his studies at age of eight with Maja Azabagic before commencing his studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he studied with Professor Marcel Baudet.
Damir is an ABRSM scholar and is kindly supported by the Talent Unlimited Scheme. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music in London with professor Dmitri Alexeev. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/04/damir-duramovic-reveals-the-true-soul-of-the-slavic-people-at-pushkin-house/

A fascinating programme from an eclectic musician of refined taste and eloquence.Not only on the piano but in his short conversation with Elena Vorotko he showed off the same charm and remarkable scholarship that we had heard in a very stimulating and informative programme.

Adam who after a two year absence from the concert platform is making his return to the Keyboard with style and aristocratic bearing.
Born in Hong Kong of Nigerian Filipino descent with early success at the BBC Young Musician of the year in 2018.He graduated from the RAM under that master trainer of so many fine musicians,Christopher Elton, followed by a masters degree at Cambridge.He is also a conductor and composer but his piano career was halted for two years when struck down unexpectedly with tendonitis.

This concert marks his come back to the concert stage as a pianist and Christopher Elton and many other distinguished guests were there to applaud him and to witness his complete recovery.
A sold out Steinway Hall for the Keyboard Trust with an audience that was treated to refined performances in a voyage of discovery of works from the completely neglected to the ridiculously overplayed!

As Adam said in his fascinating post concert conversation:’a musician should be able to master the great works of the repertoire as well as delving into the archives to find inexplicably neglected works of great value.’

And so it was with a Schumann Arabesque flowing so simply with great attention to the bass harmonies that gave such depth and freshness to this most radiant of pieces.The ravishing beauty of the coda astonishing us by its intimate intensity.

It led immediately into four short pieces by Adam of beguiling charm and character.
‘Why did he include Vaughan Williams?’asked Elena .’The simple answer is because it is his 150th anniversary year ‘ Adam replied with knowledgeable charm,’but also because there is a considerable amount of piano music by him that is totally ignored’.

And so it was with the same charm and delight in discovery that he shared the Suite of Six Short Pieces with us.
Thomas Arne too much of whose music was destroyed in the great fire at Drury Lane but there survived a considerable amount of Keyboard works of which the 3rd Sonata is only one of eight.Written in 1756 the year that Mozart was born it is a piece that could easily be confused for Scarlatti with its keyboard brilliance and sense of dance.
Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint Georges will have us delving deep into the archives to find information about a composer whose Adagio in F minor was of a disarming simplicity and poignant charm.

Of course Chopin’s First Ballade hardly needed any explanation.
But in Adam Heron’s virgin hands it received a performance of refreshing simplicity.An aristocratic performance of great breadth and grandeur together with a touching simplicity.
It was shorn of all the rhetoric when used as a vehicle for virtuosistic showmanship.Instead Adam gave us a spacious reading where Chopin’s own words were allowed to speak without any unnecessary indulgences.

I heard Adam also in 2019. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2019/03/27/adam-heron-at-st-mary-at-hill/

A recital that was like opening a window to let in a blast of fresh air with a true musician of such charm and scholarship at the helm.
The recital will be streamed live at a later date on the Keyboard Trust you tube channel via their website :keyboard trust.org

Thursday 17 November 3.00 pm

A masterly recital from a great pianist.
The fluidity and luminosity he brought to the Allemande of Bach’s first French Suite was contrasted with the absolute clarity and rhythmic energy of the Courante.The same harpsichord quality where all the strands of knotty twine merge to create a fullness of sound and a rich texture of absolute clarity.It shows a transcendental technical control where each finger is independent and at the same time dependent on the others.There was simplicity and beauty in the long melodic lines of the Sarabande with the ornamentation only adding to the poignancy within the notes themselves.This was no imitation of a harpsichord but a reinvention on the modern piano but with the elegance and style of another age.A remarkable feat of reinventing Bach on the keyboard with the same skill that had been mysteriously bequeathed to the High Priestess Rosalyn Tureck.
The absolute delicacy of the Menuet 1 with the high lifting fingers with the same elegance as the dance itself and the beauty of the bass in Menuet 2 that seemed to be plucked out of thin air.
The nobility and regal authority of the French overture rhythms in the final Gigue brought this rarely played gem to an exhilarating end from the authoritative hands of a master.

Richter was one of the most recent pianists in my lifetime to discover the variations in F by Beethoven.
It takes a great pianist to bring their multifaceted character to life with simplicity ease and strangely for Beethoven with an elegance and almost operatic delicacy.
From the bel canto ornamentation of the first variation contrasting with the march like energy of the second dissolving into the mellifluous fluidity of the third .The quixotic question and answer of the fourth followed by the inquisitous mystery of the fifth.
A final variation that was pure opera buffa as it dissolved into the magical return of the theme in the tenor register with the delicate embellishments of the final few bars.
It is hard to contemplate that the next work from Beethoven’s pen would be the mighty Eroica variations op.35!

A masterly performance of Tchaikowsky’s Grand Sonata was breathtaking in its sweep and authority.A range of colours from the most majestic full sonority to delicate whispered moments of great introspection.This was indeed a performance to cherish and even make one wonder why this grandiose sonata is not more often heard in the concert hall.

In Rome it had been Tatyana Nikolaeva who had played it for us programmed with Mussorgsky ‘Pictures’.this was in between programmes that included The Goldberg Variations and The Art of Fugue.It is a work that requires not only a virtuoso technique and a certain amount of showmanship but above all a musicianship that can see the wood from the beautiful trees.There is an underneath driving force that must never be broken and it is this that gives it a monumental architectural shape.It is exactly this unrelenting forward movement in Roman’s hands that made the performance so overwhelming in its nobility and subtle musicianly virtuosity.Breathtaking indeed when performed like today .

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/11/12/roman-kosyakov-hastings-prize-winners-concert-with-the-rpo-at-cadogan-hall-under-kevin-john-edusei/

Roman Kosyakov is a Russian concert pianist, and Ambassador for Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition. He is a laureate of many nationals and international competitions: 2 nd prize in UK Piano Open International Piano Competition (London, 2020), 1 st prize in the 14th Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition (2018), Gold Prize of the 3 rd Manhattan International Music Competition (2018); 1 st prize and the audience prize in the 10th Sheepdrove Piano Competition (2018). He studied at the Central Music School in Moscow and at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatoire. Since 2017, he has studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with Pascal Nemirovski. Roman’s performance career includes engagements in prestigious venues and festivals across the UK, US and Europe. He is regularly invited to perform with the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Symphony Orchestra and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In January 2019 Roman received “The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire – Silver Medal” by the Musician’s Company in the UK, became a member of Musician’s Company Yeomen Young Artists’ Programme. Roman is a winner of The Denis Matthews Memorial Trust award, Kirckman Concert Society Artist Prize and is a scholar of the Drake Calleja Trust. He has recorded a debut CD for “Naxos” with works by Liszt which was released in late 2020.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/04/22/roman-korsyakov-for-the-keyboard-trust/

Tuesday 15 November 3.00 pm

Some extraordinary playing from one of the youngest members of the McLachlan clan.
A family where music is part of everyday life as they affront the most amazing activity as a united family with a freshness and disarming humility as they allow their music to flow so naturally from their being.
There is also a younger member of this remarkable clan ,the only one who does not play the piano professionally,but has instead chosen the path of professional goalkeeper.He has been chosen to be a junior member of the team in New York.
Matthew surprised even his mother last year when he ran off with the most prestigious piano prize at the Royal College of Music -The Chappell Gold Medal,when only in his second year.
To think it was by a hair string that he too had not followed his younger brother into the arena but as a professional boxer!
This is a family that if they decide to do something,they dedicate their heart and soul to it as we were only too aware today in Perivale.
A programme that would be enough to strike terror into the hearts of most pianists.
Brahms’s First Sonata op 1 and Chopin’s darkly brooding E flat minor Polonaise.Ending with the tour de force that is Stravinsky’s own arrangement of Petrushka dedicated to Rubinstein who rarely had the courage to play the three dances in public!
No sign of fear from Matthew today but just a glimmer every so often of being touched by the beauty of sounds that were pouring from his fingers.
Sitting back ,listening to his playing as he brought full orchestral sounds to this early work of Brahms.The rhythmic energy of the opening as he pounced on the keys dissolved as if by magic into the ravishing beauty of the second subject.A kaleidoscope of sounds and a sense of balance that never lost sight of the musical line and architectural shape as this symphony for piano was allowed to unfold .An Andante of rare beauty and simplicity, never allowing the pulse of the music to sag but the multi colours from a palette of sounds giving shape to this most pastoral of movements.
There was dynamic energy to the Scherzo contrasted with the Trio of the mellifluous richness of the finest of string orchestras.A final Allegro with a nervous energy that never let up until the final triumphant notes.
Chopin’s most mysterious and melancholic of Polonaises op 26 was played with whispered threats until a ray of sunlight brought things out into the open with spontaneous dance rhythms.The ever present cloud however was hovering over this work until the final shriek at the closure after a subdued vision of a distant military march.
There was no sign on this young man’s face of how deeply he felt the music but he was able through great technical control to share his hidden inner feelings with an audience following in rapt attention.
The infectious sense of dance in the three movement from Petrushka belied the technical hurdles that Matthew was scaling with seeming ease.Each dance was full of character as his range of sounds allied to a constant forward drive was indeed hypnotic.A tour de force of transcendental piano playing of great musicality and sense of character.
I don’t know how he would have been as a boxer but as a pianist it is evident his artistic soul and ease at the keyboard are remarkable gifts.

Matthew McLachlan was born in 2000 and started piano lessons with his father in 2008. At 11 years of age he passed grade 8 and entered Wells Cathedral School as a specialist musician, studying with John Byrne. After two years in Somerset he entered Chetham’s in Manchester where he studied piano with Dina Parakhina and Cello with Gill Thoday. After gaining the ATCL and LTCL recital diplomas with distinction in 2014 and 2015, Matthew was awarded the FTCL in 2016. This followed on from winning third prize in the senior division of the first Scottish International Youth Prize Competition, held at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in July 2016. In 2014 Matthew’s performance of Ravel’s G Major Piano Concerto was commended in the Chetham’s Concerto competition and in the same year he was a prizewinner at the 2014 Mazovia Chopin Festival in Poland. As a result of his performance in Mazovia, he was selected to perform a 60-minute solo recital at the 2015 World Piano Teachers’ Conference (WPTC) in Novi Sad, Serbia. In 2016 Matthew gave many recitals and was a finalist in the Chetham’s Beethoven Piano Competition for the second year running. In March 2017 he was awarded first prize in the Chetham’s Senior Bach competition. In August 2017 he performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in the Paderewski Festival in Poland. In Autumn 2017 he had a tour of concert performances featuring Brahms’ Sonata no. 1 in C major. Matthew is currently on a gap year, but before leaving Chetham’s he won the school’s Bosendorfer competition, playing Stravinsky’s ‘Three movements from Petrushka’. In 2018 he performed Mozart’s 13th concerto in Trieste, Haddington and Rhyl as well as Tchaikovsky’s first and Beethoven’s fourth concerto in Buxton with the orchestra of the High Peak. In the winter of 2018, the Knights of The Round Table awarded Matthew with a full scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London, where he now studies.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/02/21/murray-mclachlan-at-st-marys/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/08/24/rose-mclachlan-at-st-james-piccadilly-je-sensje-joue-je-trasmet-artistry-and-poetic-imagination-of-a-musician/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/03/13/callum-mclachlan-the-troubadour-of-the-piano-at-st-marys/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/06/07/matthew-mclachlans-own-goal-at-st-marys/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/03/22/rose-mclachlan-and-the-amazing-clan-at-st-marys/

Astonished and amazed by the authority and superb musicianship of Taige Wang.A 12 year old pianist from California playing to a society audience,including HRH the Duke of Kent ,in the Polish Hearth Club to raise funds for the creation of The London International Chopin Competition for young pianists.

From Bach’s Aria Variata played with style and weight .Impeccable ornamentation and architectural shape were the hallmark of such a mature interpretation .
Chopin shorn of tradition gave us a Chopin Nocturne op 9 n.3 that was allowed to flow and speak so naturally with ravishing sound and tantalising rubato.Not since Lhévinne have I heard such a beguiling performance.

A B flat minor Scherzo of rhythmic precision , heart melting cantabile but above all an excitement that had us sitting on the edge of our seats as the finale exploded with a sumptuous display of pyrotechnics.
Mendelssohn’s Variations Serieuses were played with a driving rhythmic energy and kaleidoscopic sense of colour but above all an architectural shape that gave such strength to the work that Mendelssohn had donated to Liszt as his contribution to the proposed statue of Beethoven in Bonn.
Liszt’s Paganini Study n 6 and the 11th Hungarian Rhapsody showed off this young boy’s mastery but above all his impeccable musicianship in works that in lesser hands can seem like vulgar show pieces.It took these tiny hands today for them to be restored to their rightful place as masterpieces of their genre.
A Mendelssohn song without words op 67 n.2 showed off the subtle sense of style as the haunting staccato accompaniment became filled with all the charm and grace of pianists of another era – The Golden Age of Piano Playing .

Aria variata alla maniera italiana in A minor, BWV 989 is a keyboard work by J.S.Bach from around 1709 It consists of a theme and 10 virtuoso variations, each of them in binary form (two sections, both repeated). The work was probably created for a harpsichord,but there are numerous recordings with other instruments, notably with piano and organ. It shares many formal similarities with the later Goldberg Variations.The aria, for instance, is repeated at the end, although it is not an exact reiteration but rather another variation (the last, No X) with some slight changes. Still, it is moving to return to the mood of the opening, especially after the brilliance of the preceding two variations. Also like the ‘Goldberg’, the variations are based on the harmonic outline rather than on the opening melody. Each variation is in binary form (two sections, both repeated) and often requires subtle ornamentation to sustain the interest.

Variations sérieuses, op 54, by Felix Mendelssohn consists of a theme in D minor and 17 variations . It was completed on 4 June 1841.Many of the variations require a virtuoso technique. Mendelssohn’s good friend Ignaz Moscheles stated “I play the Variations sérieuses again and again, each time I enjoy the beauty again”.Mendelssohn is known to have written three sets of piano variations, but only this one was published during his lifetime.

The Scherzo No. 2 in B♭ minor, Op. 31 by Chopin was composed and published between 1835 and 1837,and dedicated to Countess Adèle Fürstenstein. Schumann compared this scherzo to a Byronic poem, “so overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt.” Chopin said that the renowned sotto voce opening was a question and the second phrase the answer: “For Chopin it was never questioning enough, never soft enough, never vaulted (tombe) enough. It must be a charnel-house.” The critic James Huneker “exults”: “What masterly writing, and it lies in the very heart of the piano! A hundred generations may not improve on these pages.”

The Grandes études de Paganini, S 141, are a series of six étudesfor the piano by Liszt,revised in 1851 from an earlier version (published as Études d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini, S. 140, in 1838).The pieces are all based on the compositions of Niccolò Paganini for violin, and are among the most technically demanding pieces in the piano literature (especially the original versions, before Liszt revised them, thinning the textures and removing some of the more outrageous technical difficulties). The pieces run the gamut of technical hurdles, and frequently require very large stretches by the performer of an eleventh (although all stretches greater than a tenth were removed from the revised versions).Étude No. 6 in A minor (Quasi presto, a capriccio) – after Caprice n.24,with a slightly altered theme and 11 variations. A technically demanding work abounds with rapid octaves, scales, and arpeggios.

The Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt S.244 R.106 are a set of 19 miniature tone poems based on Hungarian folk theme’s during 1846–1853, and later in 1882 and 1885. Liszt incorporated many themes he had heard in his native western Hungary and which he believed to be folk music, though many were in fact tunes written by members of the Hungarian upper middle class, or by composers such as Jòzsef KossovitsJózsef often played by Gypsy bands. The large scale structure of each was influenced by the verbunkos,a Hungarian dance in several parts, each with a different tempo.Within this structure, Liszt preserved the two main structural elements of typical Gypsy improvisation—the lassan (“slow”) and the Frisia (“fast”). At the same time, Liszt incorporated a number of effects unique to the sound of Gypsy bands, especially the pianistic equivalent of the cimbalom.He also makes much use of the Hungarian gypsy scale

Luca Lione playing for Rome University in their splendid new venue,an important rationalist palace which is now part of INPS social services.

A programme that combined Beethoven with Schumann and Granados with Ginastera.
Schumann had written his fantasy and given it to Liszt to create funds for a monument to Beethoven in his home city of Bonn.
It is above all a deep lament for the love of his life Clara Wieck from whom he had been isolated by her wicked father …the piano teacher of both Clara and Robert.
The Andante Favori ,on the other hand,was written by Beethoven for his beloved Countess Josephine Brunsvik whose family considered Beethoven a ‘commoner’ whom she could never contemplate in marriage!
The Granados work from Goyescas,is the description of Love and Death which was unexpectedly to strike Granados and his wife when they both perished as he tried to save her from the water when their ship was torpedoed in the English Channel.
A haunting premonition with a tone poem full of ravishing beauty and dramatic virtuosistic eruptions.
A Beethoven played with all the grace and charm with which the composer had hoped to entice his lady friend.Played with a scrupulous attention to the composers indications and with character and kaleidoscopic colour as it led to the final beseechingly moving phrases.

In the Schumann Fantasy there was no doubt that this was a heartfelt lament for his future wife and mother of their eight children. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/11/05/the-house-of-schumann-clara-wieck-piano-concerto-rana-pappano-triumph-at-s-cecilia-in-rome/
Luca played it with passionate conviction which came across so vividly in a performance that demonstrated their anguish.He led us on a journey that was shared with spectacular and moving participation allowing his red hot Latin blood full range to seduce and ravish.It may have been too loud too soon and some details overlooked but Schumann’s passion was shared by Luca in an all or nothing performance which certainly reached his audience today and was greeted by spontaneous applause after each movement.It just demonstrated so vividly this young man’s unusually communicative showmanship.
His extraordinary participation certainly passed the footlights – passa la ribalta -the dream of all great communicators.
The dark somber ruminations and transcendental outbursts and washes of notes in Granados were played with equal conviction and spectacular virtuosity allied to a deep poetic understanding .
It was the same overwhelming conviction that brought Ginastera’s Three Argentine dances vibrantly to life.The Dance of the Donosa Girl was particularly poignant with its chiselled beauty that really penetrated our hearts before the ‘Outlaw Cowboy’ strode across the keyboard with astonishing technical prowess that was at times breath taking.

Rachmaninov’s Etude Tableaux op 39 n.1 was Luca’s way of thanking this very attentive audience with cascades of notes that streaked up and down the Keyboard with great nervous energy and mastery.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/07/01/luca-lione-in-london-23rd-june-2022/

Domenica 13 novembre 2022 ore 19 Complesso Vittorio Locchi
(I concerti si tengono all’interno del Complesso, NON più nel cortile esterno)

Luca Lione, conclude gli studi di biennio ad indirizzo interpretativo – compositivo con la votazione di 110/110, lode e menzione d’onore, presso il Conservatorio “C. G. da Venosa” di Potenza sotto la guida del M. Vincenzo Marrone d’Alberti. Successivamente, si perfeziona a Colonia con la pianista americana Nina Tichman.
Risulta essere vincitore di oltre quaranta premi in concorsi pianistici nazionali, internazionali e recentemente ha ottenuto la medaglia d’oro al concorso Gran Prize Virtuoso di Bonn, la medaglia d’argento ai Global Music Awards in California ed è stato citato nel libro di Luca Ciammarughi “Da Benedetti Michelangeli alla Argerich” fra la “meglio gioventù” italiana.
La sua esperienza concertistica annovera recital in Italia , Germania, Austria, Belgio e Regno Unito.

Ha debuttato, in qualità di finalista del “Premio Internazionale Annarosa Taddei” con l’orchestra “Roma 3Orchestra” al Teatro di Villa Torlonia, eseguendo il Terzo Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra di L. v. Beethoven.
Di recente, inoltre, è stato pubblicato il suo primo album dedicato interamente alla figura di R. Schumann, edito dalla casa discografica giapponese “Da Vinci Classics”, il quale riceve lodevoli apprezzamenti dalla critica nazionale ed internazionale, meritando le 5 stelle sulla rinomata rivista musicale italiana “MUSICA” e lodevoli recensioni su “Pizzicato”e “PianoNews”.
Attualmente è Docente di Pianoforte Principale presso il Conservatorio di Musica “S. Giacomantonio” di Potenza.

The Andante favori was written between 1803 and 1804, and published in 1805. It was originally intended to be the second of the three movements of Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata op 53 .A friend of Beethoven’s told him that the sonata was too long, for which he was terribly taken to task by the composer. But after quiet reflection Beethoven was convinced of the correctness of the criticism. The andante… was therefore excluded and in its place supplied the interesting Introduction to the rondo which it now has. A year after the publication of the sonata, the andante also appeared separately.It was composed as a musical declaration of love for Countess Josephine Brunsvik,but the Brunsvik family increased the pressure to terminate the relationship so she could not contemplate marrying Beethoven, a commoner.The reason for the title was given by Beethoven’s pupil Czerny, quoted in Thayer: “Because of its popularity (for Beethoven played it frequently in society) he gave it the title Andante favori (“favored Andante”).

Danzas Argentinas Op. 2, is a set of three dances for solo piano written in 1937 by Alberto Ginastera , one of the leading Latin American composers of the 20th century.The first piece, Danza del viejo boyero (“Dance of the Old Herdsman”), immediately strikes the ear as being odd. The reason is as simple as it is strange: the left hand plays only black notes, while the right plays only white notes. This means it is composed of two modes , with the right hand in C Major and the left in D♭ Major. Danza de la moza donosa (“Dance of the Donosa Girl”) is a gentle dance in 6/8 time. A piquant melody meanders its way through the first section, constantly creating and releasing tension through the use of chromatic inflections. The second section introduces a new melody, more assured of itself than the first.With directions such as furiosamente (“furiously”), violente (“violent”), mordento (“biting”), and salvaggio (“wild”), Ginastera left no doubt as how to play the third dance, Danza del gaucho matrero (“Dance of the Outlaw Cowboy”), should be performed. Ginastera makes use of gratuitous dissonance in this piece, opening it with a 12-tone ostinato and frequently using minor seconds to harmonize otherwise simple melodies

Goyescas, op 11, subtitled Los majos enamorados (The Gallants in Love), is a piano suite written in 1911 by Spanish composer Enrique Granados . It was inspired by the work of the Spanish artist Francisco Goya.The piano pieces have not been authoritatively associated with any particular paintings with two exceptions:

• El amor y la muerte (Love and death) shares its title with one of Goya’s prints from the series called Los capricious
• El pelele (The straw man) is one of Goya’s tapestry cartoons

The piano writing of Goyescas is highly ornamented and extremely difficult to master, requiring both subtle dexterity and great power. Some of them have a strong improvisational feel, the clearest example of this being the fifth piece, called El amor y la muerte (Love and Death). The suite is in seven episodes :Los requiebros (The Compliments)Coloquio en la reja (Conversation at the Window)El fandango de candil (Fandango by Candlelight)Quejas,o La Maja y el ruisenor (Complaint, or the Girl and the NightingaleEl Amor y la muerte (Balada) (Ballad of Love and Death)Epilogo: Serenata del espectro (Epilogue: Serenade to a Spectre)El pelele: Escena Goyesca (The Puppet: Goya Scene)

This piano suite was written in two books. Work on Goyescas began in 1909, and by 31 August 1910, the composer was able to write that he had composed “great flights of imagination and difficulty.” Granados himself gave the première of Book I at the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona on 11 March 1911. He completed Book II in December 1911 and gave its first performance at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on 2 April 1914.El pelele (The Straw Man), subtitled Escena goyesca, is usually programmed as part of the Goyescas suite; Granados gave the première in the Teatre Principal at Terrassa on 29 March 1914.Such was the success of this work that he was encouraged to expand it. He wrote an opera based on the subject in 1914, but the outbreak of World War I forced the European premiere to be canceled. It was performed for the first time in New York City on 28 January 1916 and was very well received. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to perform a piano recital for President Woodrow Wilson before leaving New York.By accepting the recital invitation, caused him to miss his boat back to Spain. Instead, he took a ship to England, where he boarded the passenger ferry SS Sussex for Dieppe , France. On the way across the English Channel, the Sussex was torpedoed by a German U boat. According to witness Daniel Sargent, Granados’s wife, Amparo, was too heavy to get into a lifeboat. Granados refused to leave her and positioned her on a small life raft on which she knelt and he clung. Both then drowned within sight of other passengers.However, according to a different account from another survivor, “”A survivor of the 1916 torpedo attack on a Cross channel ferry, Sussex, recognised Spanish composer Granados in a lifeboat, his wife in the water. Granados dived in to save her and perished.”The ship broke in two parts, and only one sank (along with 80 passengers). Ironically, the part of the vessel that contained his cabin did not sink and was towed to port, with most of the passengers, except for Granados and his wife, who were on the other side of the boat when it was hit. Granados and his wife left six children: Eduard (a musician), Solita, Enrique (a swimming champion), Víctor, Natalia, and Francisco.

The Fantasie in C, op 17, was written by Robert Schumann in 1836. It was revised prior to publication in 1839, when it was dedicated to Franz Liszt . Liszt in turn dedicated his B minor Sonata to Schumann .They are the two pinnacles of the Romantic piano repertoire

Its three movements are headed:

1. Durchaus fantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen; Im Legenden-Ton –
2. Mäßig. Durchaus energisch
3. Langsam getragen. Durchweg leise zu halten.

The piece has its origin in early 1836, when Schumann composed a piece entitled Ruines expressing his distress at being parted from his beloved Clara Wieck (later to become his wife). This later became the first movement of the Fantasy.Later that year, he wrote two more movements to create a work intended as a contribution to the appeal by Liszt for funds to erect a monument to Beethoven in his birthplace, Bonn.Schumann offered the work to the publisher Kirstner, suggesting that 100 presentation copies could be sold to raise money for the monument. Other contributions to the Beethoven monument fund included Mendelssohn’s Variations Serieuses^.

Schumann prefaced the work with a quote from Friedrich Schlegel:Durch alle Töne tönetIm bunten ErdentraumEin leiser Ton gezogenFür den, der heimlich lauschet.

(“Resounding through all the notes

In the earth’s colorful dream

There sounds a faint long-drawn note

For the one who listens in secret.”)

A phrase from Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte in the coda of the first movement was not acknowledged by Schumann, and apparently was not spotted until 1910.The text of the passage quoted is: Accept then these songs [beloved, which I sang for you alone]. Both the Schlegel stanza and the Beethoven quotation shows his sorrow at being separated from Clara . Schumann wrote to Clara: The first movement may well be the most passionate I have ever composed – a deep lament for you. They still had many tribulations to suffer before they finally married four years later.

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