Superb performances by Dinara Klinton of two masterworks:Beethoven op 111 and Prokofiev’s Eighth ,the last of the ‘War’Sonatas.It was the Rachmaninov Elegie that ,she chose to thank her audience with, that summed up her supreme artistry that had been so apparent in this short but very dense lunchtime recital for the RCM as beneficiary of the Benjamin Britten Piano Fellowship.
Seemless streams of golden sounds that with her extraordinary control and sense of balance made the piano sing as rarely heard these days. Radu Lupu and Wilhelm Kempff spent their life searching for the secret of a true legato in which the percussive nature of the piano was disguised by a transcendental control of sound that could make the piano sing and breathe as well as any singer. Dinara joins those ranks where the glorious outpouring of Beethoven’s last Sonata was allowed to glow as the Aria hovered over magic sounds that the master could have only imagined in his private ear.It was on this magic wave that the sumptuous melody of Prokofiev’s 8th Sonata ravished and seduced in a performance of such intensity and beauty that one was not aware of the technical difficulties.A performance where there were streams of golden sounds woven with a mastery I have rarely heard before.Gone were the usual note picking percussive sounds as the radiance and kaleidoscopic colours depicted a landscape similar to Beethoven’s vision of paradise.Even the Andante sognando took on a different significance and if the Vivace came to an irascible tumultuous ending it was only a passionate affirmation of all that had come previously.
Before the final Elegie she had included a ‘song’ by a Levko Revutsky played with such grace and charm to remind us of her roots that are firmly in the Ukraine.In fact the whole of the recital had been a moving testimony of War and Peace a great message that was obviously weighing on her heart today where senseless suffering and distress are being reported daily from her homeland.
An extraordinary initiative that Dr Peter Barritt has promoted in Shrewsbury .Five recitals of which Dinara gave the closing recital last Saturday ……………..Ever generous he writes:’Thank you so much for your help with the Ukraine fund-raising recitals. We should raise over £10,000 which will be matched by the government. The five recitals would not have happened without your kind support and help and I am very grateful to the KCT.
Playing of great authority and musicianship in a programme dedicated to his new CD ‘Shreds of light’ .Victor Braojos illuminated all that he played.From the reflective heartfelt melody of the sun rising in Granados Maiden and the Nightingale through the traces of lightness in Brahms’s mournful Intermezzi .The link with the UK premier of Marc Migò’s Epitaph that took us to a performance of radiance and burning intensity of Liszt’s monumental Sonata in B minor.The simplicity and beauty of the Epilogue from Granados’ Romantic scenes brought us full circle as we were embraced by the luminosity of this young man’s dedication and light to give us hope after the pandemic.
Goyescas op 11, subtitled Los majos enamorados (The Gallants in Love), is a suite of seven pieces written in 1911 by Spanish composer Enrique Granados and was inspired by the work of Goya .The fourth piece in the series (Quejas, ó la maja y el ruiseñor—The Maiden and the Nightingale) is the best known piece and resembles a nocturne but is filled with intricate figuration, inner voices and, near the end, glittering bird-like trills and quicksilver arpeggios.It was played with sumptuous sound and luminosity with a sensual atmosphere that contrasted so well with the clarity of the nightingale figurations that disappeared in a flourish at the end before the final gentle chord that was placed with such loving care.
The Three Intermezzi for piano, Op. 117 were described by the critic Eduard Hanslick as “monologues”… pieces of a “thoroughly personal and subjective character” striking a “pensive, graceful, dreamy, resigned, and elegiac note.” They were composed in 1892.The first intermezzo, in E♭ major, is prefaced in the score by two lines from an old Scottish ballad, Lady Anne Bothwell’s Lament: ‘Balow, my babe, lie still and sleep!It grieves me sore to see thee weep.’It was played with great beauty and shape and a delicacy as the gently shaded accompanying chords were spread over the entire keyboard.The second intermezzo in B flat minor was played with great weight where the musical line was allowed to unravel so simply on a wave of mellifluous sounds.The unison legato chords of the third were played with great freedom and sweep as waves of sumptuous sounds flowed with such exquisite shading in the central section.
Epitafi by the Catalan composer Marc Migò is the link that Victor found that takes us from the mournful nuances of Brahms to the intensity and emotional demanding Liszt Sonata .As Victor says :‘……..without a shadow of doubt this is probably one of the most striking piano pieces I have ever played ……..from the initial static naiveté of a children’s song through more fiery moods to reach a final state of inner piece which does not exclude pain,acceptance and resilience.’It was given a totally convincing performance of both luminosity and rhythmic energy with the composer listening from New York to the UK debut of his work from the hands of such a devout performer.
Marc Migò receiving a Deutsche Grammophon CD collection from his grandfather for his 16th birthday, Marc Migó (1993, Barcelona) became unexpectedly and passionately drawn to its contents. This discovery led him to seek out guidance from pianist Liliana Sainz and composer Xavier Boliart. Three years later, he enrolled at ESMUC (Superior Music School of Catalonia). In 2017, thanks to a scholarship issued by Fundación SGAE, Marc moved to New York in order to continue his musical studies. He pursued his Masters at The Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2018 Orchestral Composition Prize. In 2019 he received The Pablo Casals Festival Award for his Cello Sonata “Cerdanyenca”, a Morton Gould young composers award by ASCAP and the New Juilliard annual commissioning competition award. He also has been a fellow at the 2020 Minnesota Orchestra Composer’s Institute and a winner of the George Enescu Prize 2020, among other international recognitions. Marc Migó is currently a C.V. Starr fellow at Juilliard, where he is earning a DMA in composition under the mentorship of John Corigliano. He has received commissions from leading institutions, ensembles and performers, such as UrbanArias, the Dutch National Opera, Liceu Opera House, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, l’Associació Joan Manén, Fundación Pro Arte Córdoba, and duo Isas-Kwiek, among others.
The Liszt Sonata was dedicated to Schumann in return for Schumann’s dedication of his Fantasie op 17 (published 1839) to Liszt.A copy of the work arrived at Schumann’s house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium.His wife Clara did not perform the Sonata as according to scholar Alan Walker she found it “merely a blind noise”.It was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854 and first performed on January 27, 1857 in Berlin by Hans von Bulow .It was attacked by the critic Eduard Hanslick who said “anyone who has heard it and finds it beautiful is beyond help”.Brahms reputedly fell asleep when Liszt performed the work in 1853.However, the Sonata drew enthusiasm from Wagner following a private performance of the piece by Karl Klindworth on April 5, 1855.Otto Gumprecht of the German newspaper Nationalzeitung referred to it as “an invitation to hissing and stomping”.It took a long time for the Sonata to become accepted into the concert repertoire, because of its technical difficulty and negative initial reception due to its status as “new” music. However by the early stages of the twentieth century, the piece had become established as a pinnacle of the romantic repertoire.
As Victor was right to point out the first page includes the entire ingredients of the sonata where their transformation forms the framework of a new form that was later to be taken up by Wagner and many others.Victor played with remarkable intelligence and sense of architectural shape.Carefully noting Liszt’s very precise dynamic markings of piano,mezzo forte and forte so often overlooked by pianists ready to vent their passion and virtuosity on a work that contains much more than just that.
Page 11 of the original manuscript
Victor’s musicianship was allied to a technical control and kaleidoscopic sense of colour.There were moments of great passion too from this fiery young Spaniard but always with such care of balance that allowed the musical line to be shaped so clearly and not submerged by technical hi jinx as a vehicle to show off lesser pianists ‘virtuosity’ .The ‘quasi adagio’ was played with great sensitivity but allowed to flow so simply as it led to a great passionate outpouring that was played with such architectural understanding.The fugato too was so clearly played as it gradually built up ‘ più crescendo’ and ‘ energico’ leading to the recapitulation and the final tumultuous octaves played with extraordinary command and sumptuous sound.The final remarkable bars were played with a sense of atmosphere as the final three chords disappeared into the distance – even here Liszt marks diminuendo so rarely noted but in Victor’s hands gave such meaning to what Hugh Mather described as a ‘towering’ performance.
Usually praised for his highly poetical, intense and original performances, Víctor Braojos studied his BMus (Hons) at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (Barcelona), supported by a scholarship by the Anna Riera Foundation. He later moved to London, where he pursued his Master in Piano Performance (Distinction and Concert Recital Diploma) and Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, working with Martin Roscoe and thanks to an Excellence Scholarship Award given by this institution. Over these years, he has completed his musical formation working with world-acclaimed performers such as Imogen Cooper DBE, Stephen Hough CBE, Robert Levin or Stephen Kovacevich, being chosen at the same time to join the roster of artists supported by renowned institutions, such as the Imogen Cooper Music Trust, Talent Unlimited and the Keyboard Charitable Trust. He has won several prizes and awards in National and International Piano Competitions, such as the 1st Prize in the Catalunya Piano Competition (youngest winner in the 50 years of history of this competition), the 1st Prize in the Barcelona Piano Competition, the 1st Prize in the Girona Musical Competition or the 2nd Prize at the prestigious “El Primer Palau Music Competition”. Along his career he has performed in several venues across Spain, the UK, Italy, France or Russia, among which we could remark concerts at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Palau Maricel de Sitges, the National Auditorium of Barcelona or the London Steinway Hall. Over the season 2021-22 he will make his début recitals at the Ribble Valley International Piano Week, Granollers Auditorium or 30, Pavilion Road Hall, a part from releasing his new CD, named Shreds of light.
Shreds of Light – Victor Braojos new CD The officialpresentation in London will take place on Monday 13th June 2022, at 7pm (doors open at 6.15pm) at: Arts Club 1901 7 Exton St. London SE18UE United Kingdom The event is expected to last approximately 1h and I am delighted to be joined by Martin Roscoe and Dr. Elena Vorotko for an initial conversation which will be followed by a short performance of some of the pieces included in the CD. After this performance, you are more than welcome to join us to share a casual chat with a glass of wine in the wonderful salons of the same venue (located on the first floor). Really looking forward to see you there, All best, Víctor Braojos http://victorbraojos.weebly.com/
A small but illustrious audience for Lisa Peacock’s series of lunchtime piano recitals in memory of Lady Solti. Lorenzo Adamo was the pianist entrusted to play in the Solti Studio on the Maestro’s magnificent concert grand.The score of the St John Passion open as the Maestro had left it and his presence could certainly still be felt.
Sir George Solti’s score of the St John Passion
From the class of Norma Fisher and now in his final year of Masters with Alexander Romanovsky.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/04/13/romanovsky-a-miracle-in-the-eternal-city-the-reincarnation-of-richter-and-rachmaninov/ Lorenzo kept us enthralled with a Waldstein Sonata of such rhythmic tension and extraordinary technical command.I have seen the final octaves played with two hands – Serkin used to lick his fingers before playing glissando but Lorenzo remarkably played them as octaves with one hand!It makes me wonder how he would manage with the first piano concerto!But there was so much to admire in a performance where Beethovens precise indications had been scrupulously observed and incorporated into an interpretation of intelligence and architectural shape.Delius dismissed Beethoven as scales and arpeggios (Bach he described as knotty twine!).It is true that there are unrelenting technical challenges in the first and last movements that are not for the fearless.Lorenzo brought also great dynamic control and dramatic contrasts without altering the continuous rhythmic impetus that is the real key to this sonata.There were ravishing sounds in the Adagio molto that Beethoven calls simply an introduction to the final rondo. The original slow movement -Andante favori – he decided to keep as a separate work.The pedalling in the final rondo was played with an intelligence and understanding that brought a sense of luminosity to the beautiful theme that after many tumultuous interruptions of transcendental difficulty returns on a stream of wondrous sounds before the final excitement that conclude this key Sonata.After this there was the Appassionata as a new world opened up to Beethoven that miraculously he was able to share with posterity because it was a world that only he could hear in his head being by now totally deaf.
The Scriabin fourth Sonata was of a luminosity as it reached for the ‘star’ with passionate intensity and transcendental piano playing of quite athletic agility.This was Gilels’ Sonata with his sumptuous rich sound but Lorenzo too entered the same sound world of a beauty of velvet richness and luminosity added to a transcendental control and passionate intensity that was quite breathtaking in its sweep and drive. The same qualities of dynamic rhythmic energy that made Solti one of the most revered and feared of conductors after Toscanini.
Mrs Hochhauser congratulating Lorenzo after his sumptuous performance of Prokofiev’s 8th Sonata.
I almost forgot to mention the two encores offered to a very enthusiastic audience.Chopin’s Study op 10.n.8 and Kapustin’s study :Intermezzo op 40 n 7 played with the same relish and mastery that his teacher,Romanovsky had offered in Rome.Much more generous though with eight encores.Lisa Peacock our amiable hostess was looking at the time and no doubt thinking that a lunchtime concert might well last until teatime if she did not pull the plug after such a scintillating performance of Kapustin’s rumbustuous Intermezzo study.
A transcendental performance of Prokofiev’s extraordinarily evocative and overpowering eighth Sonata that even took the breath away from Mrs Hochhauser who remembers only too well the first performances in the west by Gilels and Richter.
Lorenzo Adamo is a pianist from Milan, Italy. He is twenty two years old and and since the age of four he has been passionate about music.His first teacher was Katya Genghini who taught him the basics of the piano and helped him achieve the first results, such as – among others – winning the first prize in the “Musica in luce” Competition in 2009 (with concert at the Teatro dal Verme of Milan), the second prize in the “American Protegé” in 2011 (with concert at the Carnegie Hall of New York) and the first absolute prize in the “Oleggio” Competition in 2012. Recognising his constantly growing passion and devotion to the instrument, in 2013 she encouraged him to apply to the Conservatory “G. Verdi” of Milan, where he got accepted in the class of Professor Silvia Rumi.
With the distinguished critic Bryce Morrison
Five years later, in February 2019, Lorenzo graduated with first class honors, with a dissertation on Franz Schubert and his Piano Sonatas. He has always been particularly interested in receiving a culturally diverse and internationally comprehensive training: in 2018, he and his Trio were selected to represent Italy at the Kyoto International Music Festival in Japan. In 2019, after winning the first prize both in the “Riviera della Versilia” Competition and the first prize in the “Premio Rancati” Competition, he was determined to continue his studies in the multicultural and world-leading Royal College of Music in London. Lorenzo got accepted to study on the Master of Performance course with Professor Norma Fisher in September 2019.
Last year, he also started studying privately with Maestro Alexander Romanovsky, who will now be his Professor at the RCM together with Professor Fisher. In 2020, participating in live and online competitions in different countries, he won the first prize in the “International Krainev Competition”, the semi-finalist prize in the “Virtualoso Competition for young artists”, the second prize in the “W.A. Mozart Competition of Lugano” and the third prize in the “Rising Stars Online Competition of Berlin”.In October 2021, Lorenzo was selected to be the accompanist of the “Stauffer Center for Strings” in Cremona. Since then, he has worked with renowned musicians, such as: Volkhard Steude, Olga Volkova, Julian Rachlin, Sarah McElravy, Avi Avital and Vesko Eschkenazy.Presently, Lorenzo is one of the artists supported by the charity “Talent Unlimited”, that offers financial support and concert opportunities to talented musicians who need help in developing their careers.
Lorenzo Adamo was born in Italy in February 2000. He recently graduated from the Royal College of Music gaining a Master of Performance with Distinction, where he studied with Professors Norma Fisher and Alexander Romanovsky. Lorenzo has won numerous competitions. Since 2019, he has been supported by the charity Talent Unlimited.
At the age of 19, Italian-born Giordano Buondonno won 1st first prize at the Clara Schumann Competition and 1st prize in the PianoLink Concerto Competition in Milan. He is currently studying for an Artist Diploma under the guidance of Sergio De Simone and Deniz Gelenbe at Trinity Laban.
Wednesday 25 May at 1pm
Jacky Zhang, piano
Bach Goldberg Variations
Liszt Don Juan
13 year old pianist and composer Jacky Zhang is prize winner of many international competitions, including London Open, Classic Piano Dubai, Vladimir Krainev in Moscow and EPTA Composition Competition. His interests also include conducting as well as historical performance. Currently he is studying piano with Prof. Dmitri Alexeev and Jianing Kong, and composition with Prof.Kenneth Hesketh
Chopin Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante op. 22
Described by Classic FM Magazine as a “sensationally gifted” musician of “stunning artistry”, Rustem Hayroudinoff has performed to critical acclaim worldwide. The disc of the Rachmaninov Études-Tableaux was hailed as a ‘benchmark recording’ and became BBC Music’s Instrumental Choice of the Month, as well as being nominated for the Best Instrumental CD of the Year award. It was also selected as the finest existing version of these pieces by BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’.
Bryce Morrison the illustrious critic admiring the memorabilia in the Solti Studio
Wednesday 15 June at 1pm
Emmanuel Bach, violin/Artur Haftmann, piano
Beethoven Sonata No.7 in C minor, Op.30 No.2
Ysaÿe Solo Sonata No.6 in E, Op.27 No.6 (Manuel Quiroga)
Paganini Caprice No.24
Chopin Nocturne in F sharp Major Op. 15, No. 2
Chopin Ballade in A flat Major Op. 47
Tchaikovsky Valse-Scherzo, Op.34
Emmanuel has been awarded many prizes in international competitions He has performed in London’s major concert halls as well as across the UK and widely in Europe. His recent third CD ‘Lennox in Paris’ was described by Pizzicato magazine as ‘an intense journey through time’.
Alexander Boyd gave his first concert at the age of 11 and has since then performed at many of the world’s leading concert halls. He has been appreciated by audiences for the sensitivity and integrity of his interpretations. He has also made numerous critically acclaimed recordings.
Wednesday 29 June at 1pm
Victor Maslov, piano
Rachmaninoff 6 Etudes-Tableaux op.33
Medtner Sonata-Reminiscenza op.38
Godowsky 3 pieces from “Java Suite”: I.
Gamelan, X. In the Kraton, XII. A court pageant in Solo
Bach’s great five part fugue was played with the profound weight of a true believer.After a gloriously flowing prelude of luminous sounds the great bass notes of the fugue subject were intoned with poignant meaning with playing of such clarity and architectural shape.Bach’s thoughts expressing a world of meaning with a mathematical precision of such genius and humanity.Arriving at a startling dissonance where the fugue seems to unravel as it finds such peace and its final resting place.It was the great understanding that Ariel brought to this masterpiece that was remarkable for his maturity .
At 115 measures in length, and in five voices ,written here in Bach’s own hand , this is one of Bach’s longest and most densely-crafted fugues. While it contains three themes,it is not properly structured as a triple fugue because only the first idea receives exposition..The other two themes are more in the nature of countersubjectsThe five voices are heard at the beginning of the fugue in ascending order, starting with the bass. The subject is heard in stretto in m. 55, and again densely so in mm. 94–99.
It was to be the hallmark of the entire recital where every note was pregnant with meaning.Even Schumann’s rarely heard Allegro op 8 seemed to have a ravishing shape of burning intensity.Played with a romantic fervour and technical brilliance but with a sense of line and poetic meaning that I have always missed from lesser performers.
It was originally intended to be the opening movement for a never-completed sonata and was Schumann’s first major attempt at mastering a more expansive form showing the integration of virtuosic material into sonata form. In addition to the many colourful enharmonic modulations throughout the developmental sections, one notable feature of the piece is the transformation from the dark, B minor opening, to the beautiful B major ending.Nearly the entire first decade of Schumann’s output as a composer was dominated exclusively by the piano which he approached from a performer’s standpoint, often composing virtuosic works that demanded superb skills from the performer.The Allegro opens with a powerful cadenza serving as an introduction to the succeeding sonata form with a conclusion of brilliant arpeggios and energetic dotted rhythms.Alternating moments of beauty with feux follet streams of golden sounds of romantic beauty.Ariel played like a man possessed as he threw off the considerable technical challenges with consummate ease and showed us the true architectural line whilst pointing out the many passages of sublime beauty and passionate intensity.
It was the Kinderscenen,though,that was remarkable for its poetic simplicity with a reading of such immediacy and absolute authority. It was of an originality where all the rhetoric of tradition had been shorn away and the bare bones were exposed as Schumann had intended.Scenes of childhood as seen through the innocent eyes of youth .A timeless reading that left us all breathless at the end with minutes of aching silence after the poet,Schumann,had spoken.It just demonstrated the spell that this exquisitely sensitive young man had cast today.’Of ForeignLands and People’ was played at a more flowing tempo than usual as it made the melodic line so clear and simple ,flowing like the introduction it is A curtain raiser that made one curious as to what was to be revealed next!
Ariel’s beautiful hand movements should be mentioned too as he seemed to paddle in serene waters that were to take us on a magical journey of discovery.’A strange Story’ opening with seemingly rather clipped rhythms but contrasted so well with the mellifluous legato bursts of melody that alternate and that were played with such a delicate sense of line.’Hare and Hounds’ was played with fleeting lightness and sense of ‘joie de vivre’ with a jeux perlé that seemed to pour so naturally from his fingers.’A Pleading Child’ was played with haunting beauty and sense of ravishing shape.There was great sweep to the melodic line with subtle counterpoints in a duet between the voices that was indeed ‘Quite Happy’.It led to ‘An important event’ that had such shape as it came into focus only to disappear as quickly as it had passed us by.Played with sumptuous rich sound but never moving away from the magic cloud of sound on which these miniature gems belong.
‘Dreaming’ was played with ravishing sound and a sense of balance where it’s many mellifluous strands were revealed with such natural beauty.It led to ‘By the Fireside’ where Schumann’s final impatience brings us back to the child’s world of simplicity.He rode ‘The Knight of the Hobby-horse’ with remarkable rhythmic energy and forward propulsion – a wake up call when things seemed to be getting almost too serious!Only momentarily as the beautifully poised melodic line of ‘Rather serious’ took us to the quixotic ‘Frightening’.It was the startling changes of character that Ariel brought to this remarkable piece that contrasted so well with the sublime beauty of his playing in the penultimate :’ The Child Falling Asleep’.The gentle clashing harmonies were played with poignant beauty as Ariel’s fingers seemed to be pointing us to the jewels that were sparkling so radiantly and the magic land that was to take us to the utter simplicity of ‘The Poet speaks’.Here the slow chorale was played with enviable control and a cadenza of such radiance that the final few utterances held us breathless with anticipation.The silences spoke even louder than the magical sounds .Ariel afterwards spoke of his admiration for Alfred Cortot performances of this and the Cesar Franck that was to follow.What could I say :Cortot is Cortot and you are you but a poet is always a poet!
What a surprise to hear Franck’s rather pompous Prelude Aria and Finale played with great authority and total conviction.Whereas the Prelude Chorale and Fugue that we heard two days ago from Jonathan Ferrucci was an exultation of a humble believer. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/05/02/jonathan-ferrucci-the-essence-of-music-with-aristocratic-intelligence-and-passion-at-st-marys/. The Prelude ,Aria and Finale is a declaration of faith where there is only God on high and not the God who was sent to redeem us.High church rather than the church of the people.Nevertheless a truly remarkable performance played with astonishing technical assurance and an impeccable sense of style but we were more astonished by the nobility and reverence than seduced by any subtle humble persuasion.There was a beautiful sense of balance from the very first notes and the great beauty of the entry of the tenor voice leading to such passionate almost Elgarian vehemence.It was played with overpowering conviction that the gentle prayer of the ‘poco ritenuto’ came as a relief as it built up with great agility to the triumphant March like transformation of the opening theme.The plain chant of the Aria was played with a luminosity of sound and serenity that Ariel conveyed with moving conviction.The sublime ending ‘dolce ma cantabile’seemed to be pointing on high until the rude interruption of the menacing bass rumbling of the finale.Here the triumphant transformation of the Prelude was exhilarating with streams of golden sounds that cascaded around the noble counterpoints that this master craftsman had depicted.There was a sublime change of key as the melody floated dolcissimo on streams of sound with some ravishing playing that almost reached the glorious heights of Franck’s other great masterpiece for the piano.It led to the gradual exultation of the main theme on glorious left hand octaves played with such nobility and grandeur in the greatest of the church chorale tradition but ,of course,alla Busoni or Liszt.The surprise was the gradual whispered finale reaching and almost attaining the heights that it had aspired to.A remarkable performance where the intelligence and musicianship of Ariel almost convinced me that this was undeniably a wrongfully neglected masterpiece.
In 2021, Ariel won third prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, and was a prize winner in the inaugural Young Classical Artists Trust (London) and Concert Artists Guild (New York) International Auditions. Over the last year Ariel has made his debut at Wigmore Hall and participated in the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, alongside renowned artists such as Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss. His recording of music by Schubert for Linn Records was released, and he gave live concerts (for release online) for the Vancouver Recital Society in Canada and the Banco de la República in Colombia. As soloist he performed Brahms Concerto No.2 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Concerto No.2 at the Royal Academy of Music. This season Ariel returns to give performances in the Miami Piano Festival and at Wigmore Hall, as well as recitals in Rome and across the UK, and performances with orchestras in Israel and in the US, playing concerti by Mozart and Brahms.Ariel has performed widely in Europe, previous highlights including recitals at the deSingel Arts Centre in Antwerp (stepping in for Till Fellner), Salle Cortot in Paris and a performance of Mozart’s Concerto, K.491 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Conductors whom he has in the past collaborated with include Yi-An Xu, Peter Whelan, Andrew Manze, and Trevor Pinnock. He regularly appears in concerts broadcast live on Israeli radio and television and on Radio France. Born in Jerusalem in 1997, in 2021 Ariel completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Ian Fountain, having studied with the late Hamish Milne. Prior to this, he studied at the High School and Conservatory of the Jerusalem Academy of Music, first with Lea Agmon, later with Yuval Cohen. Whilst there, he also studied violin and composition.An avid chamber musician, Ariel has collaborated with leading members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, as well as with eminent musicians such as Maria João Pires, Marina Piccinini, Charles Neidich, and Torleif Thedéen. Festival appearances include the Hvide Sande (Denmark), Ravello (Italy), Ausseer Festsommer (Austria), Bosa Antica (Sardinia) and Israel Festivals.Ariel has received extensive tuition from eminent artists such as Robert Levin, Murray Perahia, Imogen Cooper, Leif Ove Andsnes, Steven Osborne, and the late Leon Fleisher and Ivan Moravec. Awards include 1st Prize at the 2018 Grand Prix Animato Competition in Paris and 1st Prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition, as well as a finalist award at the Rubinstein Competition. Ariel is a Countess of Munster Recital Scheme Artist
A monumental performance by Ariel Lanyi of Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’op 106 from Perth Concert Hall.Ravishing sounds combined with vigorous attack and dynamic contrasts.Caught up in the spell he cast with the Adagio Sostenuto I was not expecting the transcendental difficulties of the fugue to be played with such clarity but unexpectedly such beauty.You see Mr Delius knotty twine can be as embracing as a Bernini statue.
I remember Richter not happy with his performance in the Festival Hall sitting down and playing it again as an encore.
Annie Fischer has gone down in legend playing the fugue as an encore after giving a magnificent Beethoven recital standing in at a moments notice for an indisposed Louis Kentner.
André Tchaikowsky was memorable too and his discussions about the order of the movements was as stimulating and provocative as Hans Keller and an integral part of this great thinking musician.
Serkin too was unforgettable not only for the sublime sounds in the Adagio but for the energy and frenzy that seemed to keep him in a trance.He was still shaking,as we all were,on the earth shattering last chord.Lightning does not strike twice….but when it does it certainly leaves its mark!
Listening to Ariel today in the heat of the Mediterranean sun I just realised what a privilege it is to know that this great legacy is being perpetuated with such seriousness and humility by this young virtuoso.A younger generation who too often think that quantity rather than quality counts as they plough through the myriad of notes in yet another Rachmaninov 3 or Prokofiev 2
Probably the same amount of notes but Mr Beethoven puts them in a different order!
Nice to be back in the Mecca for pianists in West London. Especially when Jonathan Ferrucci plays Bach.It was the much missed Peter Uppard who had told me about his wondrous Bach at the Jacques Samuel’s piano competition six years ago.
Under the guidance of Angela Hewitt it has matured and he has become an ever more inspired interpreter of the genius of Bach. Three toccatas ‘a playground of ideas’ to use Jonathan’s own words were played with a hypnotic rhythmic intensity and sense of improvisatory freedom that was quite remarkable. Every note was given a just meaning of such burning intensity that the all to brief Adagio in B minor by Mozart became a startling contrast where so little could mean so much. The bare opening notes where Tristan or even Schoenberg sprang to mind.
St Mary’s Perivale
And a Prélude,Chorale and Fugue by Franck that was played with such red hot intensity and overwhelming commitment that even here it could have been Messiaen with the extreme exultation of a true believer. Every note of the recital was so pregnant with meaning that the mutual concentration and sense of discovery created a tension that made my journey to Perivale an absolute imperative despite the superb streaming facilities that Dr Mather and his team offer with Roger Nellist at the helm today
The Toccatas for Keyboard, BWV 910–916, are seven pieces for clavier and although the pieces were not originally organized into a collection by Bach himself (as were most of his other keyboard works ) the pieces share many similarities, and are frequently grouped and performed together under a collective title.The toccatas represent Bach’s earliest keyboard compositions known under a collective title.The earliest sources of the BWV 910, 911 and 916 toccatas appear in an important collection of keyboard and organ manuscripts of various composers compiled by Johann Christoph Bach between 1707 and 1713. An early version of the BWV 912 (known as the BWV 912a) also exists in another collection compiled by Johann Christoph Bach known as the “Möller manuscript”, from around 1703 to 1707.This indicates that most of these works originated no later than Bach’s early Weimar years, though the early northern-German style indicates possible Arnstadt origin.
Toccata in G-minor, BWV 915(Toccata)Adagio Allegro Adagio Fuga
Toccata in D-major, BWV 912 Presto Allegro Adagio (no tempo indication) Con Discrezione Fuga
The three that Jonathan chose started with the glorious exultation of the C minor Toccata with the final Presto played in a very deliberate unrelenting way.I have never forgotten Martha Argerich opening her recital in Florence followed by the Liszt Sonata with the same unrelenting forward movement and almost chiselled non legato phrasing just as Jonathan today.The G minor Toccata was crystal clear with a continuous question and answer sometimes of great vehemence but full of ‘joie de vivre’.The fanfare opening of the D major Toccata and an unusually virile Adagio and recitativi led to the hypnotic toccata and the scintillating final acrobatics played with absolute clarity and rhythmic drive by Jonathan. The final flourishing chord seemed to come as a complete surprise as Jonathan tried to apply the break on such an exhilarating journey.Thirty minutes of music played in a masterly way with a clarity and an overall architectural shape that was remarkable and made an important opening statement from the very first notes.
The Adagio in minor K 540 Mozart entered it into his Verzeichnis aller meiner Werke (Catalogue of all my Works) on 19 March 1788 just three years before his death in 1791 at the age of 35.It is only 57 bars long plus repeats and the key of B minor is very rare in Mozart’s compositions; it is used in only one other instrumental work, the slow movement from the Flute Quartet n.1 in D major K.285 and as Jonathan said in his introduction that after the radiance of the Bach we were now submersed into a world of ‘sturm und drang’.Drama and tears indeed as the Adagio is a startlingly original work where so few notes could mean so much.Jonathan played them with ravishing tone and impeccable timeless phrasing where the four times repeated three chord call to arms just opened the door for ever more poignant thoughts .Even the question and answer between the bass and the treble was played with such aristocratic sense of style and added an operatic touch to the whispered confessions of meaningful simplicity that makes one wonder whether Mozart had some premonition of his fate just a few years on.
Prélude, Choral et Fugue, FWV 21 was written in 1884 by César Franck with his distinctive use of cyclic form.Franck had huge hands (evinced by the famous photo of him at the Ste-Clotilde organ), 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 mere pianistic mortals ever since have been obligated 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.
There is a radiance to the Prélude ,Chorale and Fugue that although in B minor I found very little of the promised despair or human suffering in Jonathan’s passionately committed performance.The etherial opening was like a ray of sunlight after the Mozart .The passionate freedom of the following passages marked ‘ a capriccio’,and later the voicing,was of a clarity and poignancy where Franck’s organ texture on the piano was given the same shape and colour that Jonathan had brought to the contrapuntal strands in Bach.The added bass note giving a subtle gentle stop before the rather pompous opening of the chorale which contrasted so well with the feather like arpeggiando chords that followed.Gradually growing with more sumptuous sound as Jonathan gave great prominence to the bass on which the chorale could float so magically.The improvised opening of the fugue was played with astonishing technical brilliance and excitement before the utter simplicity of the fugue subject.Building up with ever more intensity and virtuosity with Jonathan’s final airborne flourish before the passionate intensity that Franck marks ‘come una cadenza’.There was a sublime radiance to the sound as Jonathan allowed the opening motif to float so magically on the wondrous fluid sounds that Franck creates out of his searching cadenza.There was some transcendental playing of great virtuosity in the build up to the final climax until the explosion of joy in the mellifluous coda.The final added bass note B just gave the perfect sense of grandeur to a quite remarkable performance.
Italian-Australian pianist Jonathan Ferrucci has given concerts throughout Europe, Australia, the US and Japan. In London he has performed in Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall. As winner of the Jaques Samuel Competition in 2016, his Wigmore recital was professionally recorded and he was invited to play at Fazioli Concert Hall in Italy. In 2018 he made his debut at Carnegie Weill Hall as part of the “Guildhall Artists in New York” project and was a winner at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig. In 2019 he was a Rising Star for Portland Piano International and gave a masterclass and recitals throughout Oregon.
Jonathan’s early teacher Giovanni Carmassi whose remarkable thoughts on music are outlined in this ‘Bible’ every bit as important as that of Neuhaus
Jonathan studied at the Conservatory of Music in Florence with Giovanni Carmassi, then in London with Joan Havill at the Guildhall, where he completed a masters degree, Artist Diploma, and Artist Fellowship. His studies have been supported by the Leverhulme Trust, Jessie Wakefield Award, Guildhall School Trust and Tait Memorial Trust.Jonathan’s artistic development has been profoundly influenced by Aldo Ciccolini and Robert Levin, and by his ongoing studies with Angela Hewitt, as well as masterclasses with Murray Perahia, Richard Goode, Peter Frankl and Christian Zacharias. è co-founder of Made in Music, a non-profit, he organized two festivals bringing together musicians from eight countries. He believes that music is a universal language that can unite people from different cultures and backgrounds.Alongside his time at the piano, Jonathan practises Ashtanga yoga and considers it an integral part of his work, and essential in his life.
It has now reach the penultimate concert with Liszt the transcriber of Beethoven .A very interesting short introduction by Prof Stefano Catucci was followed by a remarkable performance by Ivan Donchev.I am indebted to Leslie Howard the renowned Liszt expert for his detailed description of this transcription below and can only add that listening to Ivan’s performance I was totally amazed by how faithful Liszt’s transcription is .Not only,but the magical sounds and tumultuous virtuosity brought the symphony vividly to life .The Thunderstorm showed Ivan’s quite amazing technical prowess but always at the service of the music as it described the drama of the storm so clearly.The gentle lilt to the ‘Scene by the Brook’ was beautifully captured and the birdsong that Leslie Howard describes so well was played with such clarity and colour and showed off Ivan’s quite remarkable technical command.The beauty he brought to the ‘Shepherds song and the Joyful,thankful feelings after the storm ‘ was ravishing in its luminosity and subtle whispered fluidity of tone.
What more could one ask after such a transcendental performance by a pianist who has recently become a father to a son that he has very aptly christened ‘Leo’.A Lion indeed as Ivan astonished and seduced us with a performance of such ravishing colour and style and above all a transcendental command of the piano.I have heard and admired Ivan many times but today his performance was quite overwhelming .It was even more astonishing as it was played without the score, something all too rare in these times of the ever more invasive ‘ I Pad’.
But this was by no means the end of the recital as he had obviously thought very carefully about an eventual encore.And it just shows his great artistry as he sat at the piano and intoned Schumann’s Abschiedfrom Waldscenen op 82 .It was the perfect link that just enhanced Beethoven’s own thanksgiving and created the same magic that Ivan’s mentor Aldo Ciccolini would create at the end of his memorable recitals.It was played with ravishing whispered sounds with the streams of golden counterpoints weaving their way around the beauty of the melodic line.After such a moving experience an ever more insistent public was rewarded with a scintillating performance of Chopin’s ‘Cat’ waltz where Ivan’s sense of style and charm completed a memorable evening.
Prof Catucci speaking so eloquently about Beethoven and Liszt
I am indebted to the Liszt expert Leslie Howard who I quote from his learned writings of this transcription of the Sixth Symphony. “Liszt had a great success with the Sixth Symphony from the beginning. It was probably the first of the Beethoven symphonies that he set himself to transcribe, and he played at least the last three movements at many a public concert. Beethoven completed the work at about the same time as the previous symphony, in 1808 and the Sixth remains perhaps the most congenial of all of Liszt’s symphonic transcriptions from a pianistic point of view.In the ‘Awakening of joyful feelings upon arrival in the countryside’ (Liszt gives only French titles in the first version) one revels in the joy of finding all of Beethoven’s textures not a ripple or birdsong is missed in the ‘Scene by the Brook’ – to the extent of some dangerous left-hand stretches simultaneous with combined trills and melodies in the right hand. And tranquil athleticism is the only way to describe the requirements at the recapitulation with its added clarinet and violin arpeggios.Liszt apparently told Berlioz that he played the second eight bars of the ‘Happy gathering of the country folk’ slightly slower because they represented the old peasants – in contrast with the young peasants at the opening and it seems like an excellent idea to have in mind whilst performing the piece. High points of the transcription include the wonderfully mad bit with the fiddle ostinato, the oboe melody and the artless bassoon – quite a challenge at the keyboard – and the whole 2/4 section which imitates the bagpipe and brings the flute counterpoint into much finer prominence than most orchestral balance usually achieves.’The Thunderstorm’ is an inspired piece of virtuoso writing. Just as Beethoven extends the demands on his orchestra in the interest of special effects, so does Liszt mirror them in equivalent pianistic devices, and the relief when the storm subsides is almost tangible in both cases.’Similarly, the ‘Shepherds’ Song. Joyful, thankful feelings after the storm’ finds Liszt at one with Beethoven’s spirit.”
A quite astonishing recital from Andrea Molteni with a performance of Beethoven’s mighty Hammerklavier Sonata that was monumental in its relentless forward movement and total authority. His intellectual and architectural understanding of this great masterpiece was of someone of a maturity way above his actual 23 years.There was a clarity and unwavering vision that from the very first opening fanfare demanded our attention.The treacherous leaps played as Beethoven asks with one hand as this is a work only for fearless musicians that are ready to risk all with Beethoven.There were moments of sublime beauty in the Adagio sostenuto that Beethoven implores to be played with passion and great feeling.And as if that was not enough Beethoven demands the near impossible in the mighty final fugue which ends this the longest of all his thirty two sonatas. I will never forget the monumental performance of Rudolf Serkin in London many years ago where the tension and endless struggle of playing op 106 left him in a state of complete abandon on the final great chord as at the end of a momentous journey he was emotionally in pieces as we in the audience were too. Serkin was well into his sixties then and Andrea is only in his early twenties.As Andrea matures he will sweat more blood and tears over the superhuman feats that he now performs with astonishing mastery. Menuhin as a child prodigy could play all the greatest concertos when he was in his early teens .It was a natural mastery and musicianship that he never questioned in his innocent successful youthful career.It was when he was well established on the world stage that he began to question all that had been so natural in his youth and began to delve deep into the inner meaning of all he was doing.
Andrea’s is one of the most remarkable performances I have heard for its clarity,musicianship and architectural understanding it will now grow in stature as life’s struggle begins to take over. It will undoubtedly open an even deeper understanding of Beethoven’s own great struggle with life which culminated in this Hammerklavier Sonata. After this sonata was to come the final great trilogy where Beethoven was at last to come to peace with life and himself and hear in his private ear the paradise that awaits us all. The incredible genius of Beethoven was that when totally deaf he could find a way of notating the sounds for posterity that only he could hear in his head.
The three Scarlatti Sonatas that Andrea played (two in the programme and one as an encore) were scintillating jewels that just poured from his fingers with such ease and delicacy.The infectious rhythmic drive and banging of the drum in K 131 was played with such drive and precision contrasting with the graceful beauty and delicate colouring of of K.266 where the ornaments glistened like jewels in his remarkable hands. These are all from his new CD of some of the lesser known Scarlatti sonatas chosen with such intelligence and care from the 550 or more that Scarlatti had left us.
There was aristocratic playing too of great passion and excitement in the F minor fantasy of Chopin that prefaced the Hammerklavier.The Lento sostenuto was played with such simple beauty and the great technical challenges of the outer episodes were incorporated into the musical shape with great style and beauty.
Two encores from a very insistent audience brought not only another scintillating Scarlatti Sonata but a performance of Chopin’s Study op 10 n.4 that was quite hair raising in its audacity and passionate technical authority.
Prof.Franco Ricci artistic director and creator of the concert series in Viterbo now in its twenty fifth year.It is in his beautiful hall in the Tuscia University of Viterbo where the Keyboard Charitable Trust has found a home for so many of the remarkable young musicians that it encourages at the beginning of their career with tours in Italy,Germany,USA and many other parts of the world. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2021/01/15/alberto-chines-a-musician-in-viterbo-for-the-keyboard-trust/
With COVID restrictions there have been some inevitable cancellations and Franco Ricci a great friend of forty years often asks me on these occasions if I can suggest a substitute.Something I am very happy to do as artistic director not only of the Keyboard Trust but also of the Euromusica Concert Season at the Ghione in Rome which has enhanced the cultural life of the Eternal City since the opening of the theatre with my wife,Ileana Ghione ,in 1982.
Ileana Ghione in the theatre that bears her name with Lydia and Guido Agosti
Some of the greatest musicians have found a home in Rome where before the opening of the Parco della Musica there was only one concert hall to satisfy the needs of so many artists who had been excluded from Rome for lack of space.The International Piano Academy in Lake Como was created by another friend in Rome ,William Naboré in 1993 .
Bill ,who I had heard give a memorable performance of the Diabelli Variations at the Gonfalone in 1972,would often ask me if I could persuade some of the great artists playing for us in Rome to give up a week of their time to live and work with some of the greatest young talents who had flocked to his new mecca of piano playing.
William Naboré at home with Andrea Molteni a pianist who he has taken under his wing for the past three years.
Bill lives and teaches also in Rome so when Franco Ricci sends out an alarm signal I discuss with Bill to decide who best might be ready to stand in usually at short notice.This season it has happened three times and Shunta Morimoto and Andrea Molteni both studying with Bill were recommended by him.
Their extraordinary success has been noted not only in Viterbo but also worldwide due to the excellent streaming that the University still provide even though public is now permitted to attend.
What a refreshing thing it was to hear Yulia Chaplina’s Chopin recital at St Mary’s today.An improvised solo recital instead of the advertised violin and piano duo.It is something of a rarity these days to hear an all Chopin recital but I remember the recitals of Smeterlin,Askenase and Rubinstein filling the Festival Hall on a Sunday afternoon.Rubinstein would add four mazurkas by his friend and compatriot Szmanowski to cleanse the air for the second half of his all Chopin recitals.How could one ever forget Rubinstein playing a recital at the Fairfield Hall Croydon,dedicated to his compatriots of the Polish Air Force.He sat at the piano and immediately intoned the Polish and English national anthems before embarking on a memorable all Chopin recital.Croydon comes to mind too as it was where Peter Katin lived,in St Peters Road,a pilgrimage that all aspiring pianist would make in that period.We should not forget his annual Chopin recitals in a sold out Festival Hall that were memorable even though not particularly admired by Joan Chissell of the Times.It was a miniature Chopin painted in porcelain not blood and tears but nevertheless very beautiful and we should not forget the stature of this rather underrated English pianist. It was the same love that we heard today from an artist who has lived and loved these pieces for a long time and could add freedom and timelessness to her artistry in works we know so well.
Yulia’s playing was certainly not miniature as she carved out a programme that showed the evolution of Chopin’s pianistic genius.
Mozart ,together with Bach,was one of Chopin’s most admired composers and opened the programme with his D minor Fantasy.It was played with a refreshing simplicity and sense of improvised discovery and was an ideal introduction to the early Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise that Chopin would have ravished the audiences of the Parisian salons with,as a twenty year old Polish émigré.
The Grande polonaise brillante is a work for piano and orchestra, although the piano part is often played on its own. The Andante spianato (spianato means “even” or “smooth”) for solo piano was composed as an introduction to the polonaise after Chopin received a long-awaited invitation to perform in one of Habeneck’s Conservatoire Concerts in Paris. This was the only time Chopin had ever used the term spianato as a description for any of his works.There was beautiful cantabile and superb sense of balance in Yulia’s playing with very delicate embellishments and an aristocratic sense of timelessness.There was great rhythmic impulse to the Polonaise but a feeling that there was time to allow the music to unfold in a beautifully natural way.Even the dramatic octave flourishes and scintillating passage work were incorporated into the overall shape with such loving care and dynamic control.
The arpeggio study op 10 n.11 too was allowed time to unfold as the marvels that Chopin unravels were revealed with such subtle colouring and sense of style.It became in Yulia’s sensitive hands a miniature tone poem – ‘canons covered in flowers’ indeed.
The Polonaise-Fantasie in A-flat major, Op. 61, is dedicated to Mme A. Veyret and was written and published in 1846 just three years before Chopin’s untimely death. It was slow to gain favour with musicians, due to its harmonic complexity and intricate form.But as the great Chopin expert Arthur Hedley wrote in 1947 it ‘works on the hearer’s imagination with a power of suggestion equaled only by the F minor Fantasy or the fourth Ballade’.It is indeed a remarkable work more Fantasy than Polonaise with its magic opening of washes of colour that pass over the entire keyboard preparing us for the gentle first appearance of the Polonaise rhythm.There was an architectural shape to Yulia’s playing but also a sensitivity and sumptuous beauty especially in the mellifluous central episode before the explosive trills that lead to the triumphant climax that dies away to a mere whisper with a final resigned A flat on high.
Manuscript of the Polonaise op 53
The same A flat that opens the Heroic Polonaise op 53 written only four years before the Polonaise Fantasie
George Sand in one of their private letters wrote passionately, “L’inspiration! La force! La vigueur! Il est indéniable qu’un tel esprit doit être présent dans la Révolution française. Désormais cette polonaise devrait être un symbole, un symbole héroïque!” (“The inspiration! The force! The vigour! There is no doubt that such a spirit must be present in the French Revolution. From now on this polonaise should be a symbol, a heroic symbol”).
Chopin daguerreotype taken around 1847 in the studio of Louis-Auguste Bisson
Yulia played it with great energy but also with beauty and sumptuous rich sounds.The left hand octaves of the military charge were played with absolute authority but never overpowering the melodic line that rides above it.There was such subtle colouring to the build up to the final triumphant outpouring of the Polonaise theme and a coda of great excitement and transcendental technical command.
The last two studies from op 25 were played with great technical assurance and ravishing sounds with an aristocratic sense of architectural line.It brought this refreshingly simple Chopin recital to a wonderful end and as Dr Mather said is a good preview for the 17 hours of Chopin’s works that will be played by many different pianists over a weekend next October.
My mother with my wife Ileana Ghione in our garden in Kew
As a final note to remember my mother whose 109th birthday it would have been today.When I was still a child she would accompany me to many Chopin recitals of Jan Smeterlin at the Festival Hall which was where my passion for music was born.
Yulia Chaplina is the winner of 7 international piano competitions. Since winning the First Prize & the Gold Medal in the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Competition for Young Musicians, she has performed regularly as a soloist in many of the world’s finest venues, including the Wigmore Hall and the Southbank Centre in London, Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Grand Halls of the Moscow Conservatoire and the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, Bunka Kaikan Hall in Tokyo and many other concert halls. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Arts (Berlin), Masters in Music & Fellowship from the RCM (London). Yulia received music coaching from Mstislav Rostropovitch, Andras Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Paul Badura-Skoda, David Waterman, Steven Isserlis, Thomas Adès and Liliya Zilberstein. She has been invited to participate as a jury member in several music competitions in the UK, Russia and Italy. Her students have won prizes in many prestigious piano competitions. Yulia is the Artistic director of the Prokofiev Festival in London. Yulia is a regular music contributor for Russian Arts & Culture and has written extensively for many UK music publications, including Gramophone, Pianist, International Piano and BBC Classical Music magazine.
Some superb playing from Davide Ranaldi a student of Magarius and Romanovsky and recent winner of the prestigious Premio Venezia. Thanks to Roma Tre and its enlightened artistic director we are able to hear these superb young talents in Rome in the Aula Magna or in the beautiful theatre of Villa Torlonia. Hats off to Roma Tre for bringing in a superb new Fazioli concert grand for this series entitled :’Primavera Musicale in Aula Magna’.
On a wonderful summers day here in Rome I could enjoy a Roma Tre protogee Pietro Fresa playing in the UK and a couple of hours later Davide Ranaldi live in Rome. More of Pietro Fresa in my next review but first I would like to express my astonishment at the performance of a Haydn Sonata by this young Italian musician. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2021/10/30/mozart-triumphs-at-torlonia-with-jonathan-ferrucci-pietro-fresa-sieva-borzak/ A performance of searing intensity and total commitment that from the very first noble outcry it was evident that we were in the presence of a master. From the very first notes we were taken by storm and held in his hands until the final Presto.There was great authority and weight to his performance with a breathtaking rhythmic energy that held us captivated as he brought such character to each of the genial episodes of this still much underrated composer.There was a colour and sense of style that left no doubt about a great musical personality showing us the way.
It was interesting to see Davide as Kabos would say ‘all curled up like a croissant’ his head down in total concentration on every note that he played with animal like conviction.Was not Richter just as anti conventional as he attacked the piano with the same demonic energy and commitment? Even the Adagio had a beautiful full sound and there were great contrasts as he lived every moment of the drama that was unfolding.The Presto was played with enviable clarity and control. To watch his high fingers seemingly pointing the way like a pointillist painter was to watch his teacher Romanovsky who had enthralled us in Rome recently with his complete Rachmaninov series. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/04/13/romanovsky-a-miracle-in-the-eternal-city-the-reincarnation-of-richter-and-rachmaninov/ The other two works in Davide’s recital were the Chopin Fantasie in F minor and the Liszt Sonata in B minor.
It was here that Davide’s great temperament and physical approach to the keyboard put a barrier between his emotional stylistic approach and the supreme musical intelligence that he showed in the Haydn Sonata. It could lead to moments of great excitement and animal involvement and sometimes sublime discovery but at the price of loosing control and sometimes almost allowing the boat to subside. Of course his great professionalism saw him through the moments of panic and the overall impression was of searing intensity and animal excitement.If you look more carefully,though,at the opening of the Liszt Sonata it is marked more piano and at the most forte and certainly not fortissimo .The rests too have great significance and in the great fortissimo recitativo later were completely overlooked.Details that in the Haydn were observed with the same temperament but with a microscopic control and intelligence that he forfeited in the Liszt and to a lesser extent in the Chopin for a self pleasing approach rather than that of a servant being at the service of the composer and the music.The Siloti Prelude in B minor was a fitting bridge to the Bach aria that he played as an encore where the simplicity,luminosity of sound and musical intelligence showed the supreme artistry of Davide in the classical repertoire and a maturity that I am sure he will bring to the romantic repertoire as his career progresses.
A concert dedicated to Maestro Fabiani,present in the hall, to thank him for the love and respect that he had shared with his student Marco Scolastra.
Reading from various sources including Chopin’s diary in which it was never in doubt that the soul of Chopin always belonged to Poland. He had left his homeland as a teenager seeking recognition and inspiration in Paris which was the centre of European culture. He never returned to Poland but he never forgot his roots which fill his music with nostalgia and the folklore of his homeland. It was this nostalgia allied to the aristocratic atmosphere of the Parisian salons that make his music unique .Creating new art forms that like Liszt were to revolutionise the concept of the piano. A piano that could now sing as eloquently as the greatest bel canto singers of the day.
It was fascinating to hear that the middle section of the Polonaise that opened the programme had been inspired by an aria from Rossini’s ‘Gazza Ladra’.A polonaise written by the 17 year old Chopin ‘Adieu a Guil.Kolberg’.It was played with scintillating virtuosity but it was the eloquence and beauty of the central episode that touched the core or should I say the ‘cuore’ of Chopin. A heart that after Chopin’s early death was transported back to his homeland where it had always belonged.
This led so naturally to the nocturne op posth in C sharp minor with its unmistakable Chopinesque bel canto of such subtle aristocratic beauty. It contrasted well with the Nocturne op 37 n.1 where the chorale central episode was played with religious calm and deep meditation. The two waltzes from a later period showed the elegance and brilliance of the Parisian salons of the period.But even the middle episode of the A flat waltz op 69 n.1 showed the dance element that was always hidden inside Chopin’s soul.
The so called ‘minute waltz’ op 64 n.1 was played with great elegance and style and may well have been the two minute waltz as Marco brought such timeless beauty and shape to a piece often timed with a stopwatch by lesser artists. ‘Canons covered in flowers’ is what Schumann described Chopin’s mazurkas.Miniature tone poems where the feeling for his homeland were allowed space as he indulged his longing,creating what are considered to be his finest works. A whole world captured in such a short space that in sixty gasps and tears show the absolute mastery of Chopin. Marco played them with beauty but also with great strength that was of heartfelt sentiment but never sentimental. For nine years Chopin’s name was linked to that of George Sand the pen name of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin. Her estate at Nohant was frequented by the most famous poets and artists of the day and it was on her suggestion that Chopin was persuaded to spend the winter in warmer climes in Majorca. Unfortunately the humidity and confusion only exacerbated the tuberculosis that was to claim him at the age of only 39. It was here that he wrote his Preludes op 28 in the damp room of the abandoned Monastery of Valldemossa. Marco played the so called ‘raindrop’ prelude where the obsessive repetition in the middle section was obviously the continuous rain that greeted Chopin every day on this ‘magic’ island. Marco brought great contrast between the fleeting glimpses of sunlight overshadowed by the continuous storms overhead. It was though the sublime beauty of the Berceuse played with ravishing beauty and measure,where Chopin had found peace and could await only a few years later to join the celestial angels that were already showing him the way.
A past season of music at the Ghione Theatre
The ‘military’Polonaise was a fitting way to finish the concert with a refined call to ‘arms’ especially on the very morning when France is being called to the ‘urns’. Some very robust playing with sumptuous bass notes that have been missing for too long from this hallowed hall. An encore of one of Chopins Polish Songs -the second – dedicated to the Spring was played with golden streams of sound which added even more magic to a memorable morning in the company of Chopin.
Following on in the tradition of great music at the Ghione Theatre Marco Scolastra with Maestro FabianiAndrea Tidona part of Ileana Ghione’s Theatre Company returned to the stage he knows so well – now well known for being part of the Montalbano films on the right Giulio the son of his companion Carla Cassola
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 