ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

Tuesday 9 February 4.00 pm 

Patrick Hemmerlé (piano)

Vierne: Nocturne Op 34 no 3
Liszt: Les jeux d ‘ eaux à la Villa d ‘Este
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
(Ondine / Le Gibet / Scarbo)
Granados: Goyesca no 7 ‘El Pelele’
Villa Lobos: Rudepoema

Another truly amazing recital from Patrick Hemmerlé who every time he plays demonstrates such mastery and undemonstrative musicianship that his tour de force almost goes unnoticed such is his gift of communicating the very essence of the music.I well remember being astounded a year ago by his performance of the 24 studies by Chopin.Today he took on Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit that had been written with the desire to outbid Balakirev’s notoriously difficult Islamey.This was only a magnificent warm up for the savagery and outrageous demands that Villa Lobos made on his friend Artur Rubinstein with his Rudepoema.
Wonderful luminous sounds opened the programme with Vierne’s Nocturne only to be interrupted by the playful splashing of the fountains of the Villa d’Este.After a sumptuously atmospheric and exciting Gaspard a quick click of the heels with El Pelele before the absolute savagery of Rudepoema.
Astonishing mastery at the complete service of music leaves me once again speechless with admiration.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/23/patrick-hemmerle-miracles-at-st-marys/

Beautiful crystal clear cantabile opened the recital with the last of Louis Vierne’s three nocturnes for piano.”La lumière rayonnait des astres de la nuit, le rossignol chantait… »is placed above the music .Some very atmospheric playing full of fascinating colours with a very refined sense of balance.A passionate climax with cascades of notes that showed the influence of Fauré that Patrick had pointed out in his introduction .The magical return to the main idea bathed in sumptuous sounds that Patrick also likened to Delius.Even the unusual construction in episodes or ideas that return Patrick likened to the same sort of construction as in some works of Michael Tippett,which is food for thought indeed from this remarkably informed thinking musician.

Louis Vierne was the organist of Notre-Dame de Paris from 1900 until his death during a recital there ,in 1937, on the very organ that he helped to raise funds to restore touring Europe and the United States as a concert organist. His students included Nadia Boulanger.He wrote mostly for the organ and very little for the piano but in the 1914 World War, his son Jacques, still a minor, enlisted in the army.Vierne who was partially blind at birth was away in Switzerland in 1916 for glaucoma treatment, expecting to be away for four months but ,due to complications, he returned only four years later.In May 1917, Jacques was transferred to the 44th Field Regiment as a driver and committed suicide on 12 November 1917 in Prosne in the Marne. Vierne composed the Piano Quintet, Op. 42, in commemoration. His brother René died at the front too on 29 May 1918, remembered in Solitude, a poem for piano.The three nocturnes op 34 for piano received their first performance in Lausanne in 1916.

The Liszt entered on the same wave that had been created with Vierne and the delicacy of the drops of water at the Villa d’Este were played with almost chiselled clarity.From the third book of Années de pèlerinage over the music, Liszt placed the inscription, “Sed aqua quam ego dabo ei, fiet in eo fons aquae salientis in vitam aeternam” (“But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life,” from the Gospel of John) One of Liszt’s most poetic descriptions of water as is the piece from the first year ‘Au bord d’une source’ where Liszt quotes Schiller:’In the whispering coolness begins young nature’s play.’Some playing of sumptuous beauty with a single drop of water passing from top to bottom on the piano leading to a tumultuous build up played with passionate involvement until bursting into octaves and cascades of notes before dying away so magically and allowing the water nymph Ondine to enter the scene in Ravel’s Gaspard.

The three well known poems by Aloysius Bertrand opens with Ondine ,the water nymph,singing to seduce the observer into visiting her kingdom deep at the bottom of a lake with the sounds of water falling and flowing, woven with cascades.The melodic line was so clearly etched with such atmospheric washes of sound building to the climax and the overwhelming cascades of notes that die away to a murmur where Patrick caressed the notes so tenderly as Ondine disappeared from where she had come.There was a wonderful insistence of the tolling bell in Le Gibet with a bleakness that created an atmosphere with sultry sounds that almost evoke the dissonances of Messiaen in many ways.The observer is presented with a view of the desert, where the lone corpse of a hanged man on a gobbet stands out against the horizon, reddened by the setting sun. Meanwhile, a bell tolls from inside the walls of a far-off city, creating the deathly atmosphere that surrounds the observer. All so beautifully depicted in sound with Patrick’s command of colour via his masterly use of the pedals.There was such a sinister opening to Scarbo with the repeated notes just a vibration of sound.It was played with a relentless driving rhythm fearlessly allowing the movement to evolve with such passionate virtuosity.It exactly depicts the nighttime mischief of a small fiend , flitting in and out of the darkness, disappearing and suddenly reappearing. Its uneven flight, hitting and scratching against the walls, casting a growing shadow in the moonlight, creates a nightmarish scene for the observer lying in his bed.

After such a monumental performance it was a good idea for Patrick to completely change the mood with as he said a lighthearted and delightful piece from the suite Goyescas by Granados.A suite of seven pieces written in 1911 inspired by the works of Goya.El pelele (The Straw Man), subtitled Escena goyesca, is usually programmed as part of the suite although written after.It was played with refreshing sense of Spanish gaiety, lightness and colour with driving dance rhythms and some transcendental octave playing in the left hand of a feathery lightness ending with such a joyous clicking of heels

All ready for Rudepoema by Villa Lobos with its amazing sounds and vitality of such astonishing virtuosity .As Patrick said it is the Brazilian Rite of Spring with a succession of dances extreme and excessive as Villa Lobos tried to draw the portrait in music of his friend and great admirer Artur Rubinstein.An amazing collection of sounds and notes with long held pedals just adding to the atmosphere until Patrick’s fist was plunged into the final note with such terrifying vehemence that brought the baccanale to a fatal end indeed – I expect the piano might need some careful attention after this piece!A savage poem indeed.When Rubinstein asked Villa Lobos in 1926 if he considered him a savage pianist, he said excitedly, ‘We are both savage! We don’t care much for pedantic detail. I compose and you play, off the heart, making the music live, and this is what I hope I expressed in this work'” It was Patrick’s breathtaking performance that showed us just why this magnificent work is not heard more often in concert – It’s phenomenal difficulties are indeed for a chosen few.

Acclaimed for the originality of his concert programmes and the depth of his interpretations, Patrick Hemmerlé is a French pianist living in England. He can often be heard performing such works as the 24 Chopin Etudes, the 48 Bach Prelude and Fugues, or lesser-known composers. Recent engagements have taken him to New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Prague, as well as many festivals and music society in England. Patrick has published 3 CDs, which have been well received by the international press. His latest recording project, to be issued in 2020 is a pairing of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and Fischer’s Ariadne Musica. He is in demand as a lecturer. He has given talks for the Cambridge University, as well as a cycle of concert-lectures on French music, presenting composers little known to the general public,. This led to the recordings of the piano music of Jean Roger-Ducasse and Maurice Emmanuel. Patrick is laureate of the international competition of Valencia, Toledo, Epinal, Grossetto, and more recently the CFRPM, in Paris, where his interpretation of Villa-Lobos’s Rudepoema, raised a great deal of interest. He was trained in Paris at the Conservatoire (CNR), under the tuition of Billy Eidi.

What a wonder Mozart is.
Two concertos in B flat K.450 and 456 so different but so similar in their almost operatic sense of depth and charm ,easy elegance and sublime beauty.
A clarity of sound that both pianists brought to these concertos with a simplicity that allowed the music to unfold so naturally.
The Roma 3 Orchestra that artistic director Valerio Vicari has been nurturing with such loving care since it’s creation 15 years ago playing with such spontaneity and character under the excellent baton of Sieva Borzak.

The rhythmic precision of Filippo Tenisci with an almost chiselled cantabile of poignant beauty in K 450 was complimented by the subtle shading and nuances of Francesco Grano in K 456.With Sieva Borzak incorporating his splendid musicians into a chamber ensemble listening so carefully and responding to his every indication.

This of course must lead to the final concerto K.595 the 27th and Mozart’s crowning masterpiece also in B flat,written in the last year of his short life

Filippo Tenisci played with such clarity and sense of style each note like a jewel enveloped in the sensitive sounds that the orchestra under Sieva Borzak were providing.It was a performance of pure chamber music – each player listening to the other in an interplay that gave great buoyancy in particular to the Rondo finale.The beautiful flowing Andante showed Tenisci’s superb musicianship and technical control He could even relax more now and follow the contours of the magic sounds he was producing with flowing,more natural movements like an artist’s brush across the canvas.The cadenza in the first movement was played with great authority never out stepping the style and above all musical qualities.

Mozart had composed this concerto for performance at a series of concerts at the Vienna venues of the Trattnerhof and the Burgtheater in the first quarter of 1784, where he was himself the soloist in March 1784.In a letter to his father, Mozart compared this concerto with K 451 in D :”I consider them both to be concertos which make one sweat; but the B flat one beats the one in D for difficulty.”Many pianists consider this to be one of the most difficult of Mozart’s piano concertos,and the last movement is among Mozart’s most challenging works for the keyboard.He even began to use the term “grand” to describe concertos such as K.450 which features a prominent wind section of a “newly intricate and sophisticated” character compared to his previous ones.The difficulties were played with consummate ease by Tenisci who together with Borzak and his orchestra imbued the finale with an irresistible charm.

The concerto K .456 was written in the same year of 1784 and is scored for strings plus flute,two oboes,two bassoons and two horns for a long time believed to have been written for the blind pianist Maria Theresa von Paradis to play in Paris.Francesco Grano gave a very sensitive performance full of delicacy and colour.The embellishments in the last movement were played with a teasing charm and irresistible sense of style.

https://www.medici.tv/en/concerts/martha-argerich-renaud-capucon-play-beethoven-franck/

Pure gold Renaud Capucon with Martha Argerich from Gstaadt with the Kreutzer and Franck Sonatas streamed live but watchable as a guest on Medici web site .Tomorrow Martha Argerich with Nelson Goerner and Sunday Capucon in trio with Kantorow.

https://www.medici.tv/en/concerts/martha-argerich-nelson-goerner-play-debussy-rachmaninov/

Stunning with more gold dust from Gstaad
Martha Argerich and Nelson Goerner magic and much more in the rarefied mountain air.
Eternal youth and great artistry combine to ravish us with beauty and astonishing virtuosity.
Available as guest on Medici Gstaad Sommets musicaux

https://www.medici.tv/en/concerts/renaud-capucon-alexandre-kantorow-and-victor-julien-laferriere-play-tchaikovsky/

Even more wonders from Gstaad with a monumental performance of Tchaikowsky’s Trio in A minor.Barely looking at the score as Capucon eyes shut soared into the heights just as Kantorow dissolved to the final desolate bass note.Laferrière and Capucon joined in such burning intensity with Kantorow providing such sumptuous sounds before dissolving to an aching silence each of the three exhausted after a such ravishing and harrowing experience

https://www.medici.tv/en/concerts/michel-dalberto-plays-schubert/

Wondrous Schubert played by this almost forgotten winner of the Leeds Piano Competition in 1978.
A star student together with Cristian Zacharias of Vlado Perlemuter and today there was no doubt that we were in the presence of a master.
Looking much like Pollini and with the same intelligence and seriousness but with a voice that has something truly personal to say.Sitting very low with beautifully arched hands that etched out the most ravishing colours but also what passion.Has the opening of the Cminor Sonata ever sounded more intense with the sheer brooding intensity of the development?A coda of such ominous rumbling in the bass moving relentlessly to the final chords.
The same legato as Perlemuter in the slow movement played with real weight and such wondrous sounds when the melody is repeated legato with the non legato bass,all played with such poignancy and poetic freedom.The frantic pace of the whirling tarantella finale was breathtaking but always with the divine intervention of Schubert’s endless unexpected outpouring of song.
The subdued richness of the opening of the B flat Sonata was a marvel indeed.Passionate declamations mingled with such intimate confessions,the menacing bass trill like in the Appassionata always present.A whispered coda ending so mysteriously with the bass trill ever present but barely audible.The intimate passionate luminosity of the slow movement and the sheer delicacy of the Scherzo contrasting with the unbridled menace of the Trio.The joy and drama in the last movement called to order by a single bell like chime.Some truly magical lyrical moments played with all the great personality of a Schwarzkopf or young Dieskau.
One has to ask but why has so little been heard of this great pianist on the very shores that brought him to public recognition in 1978?

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/11/04/victor-braojas-at-wesleys-chapel-the-passion-and-delicacy-of-a-poet/

Victor Braojos the young Spanish pianist is working with Martin Roscoe at the Guildhall in London so it came as no surprise his superb musical credentials in two of the pinnacles of the piano repertoire : Schumann Fantasie op 17 and Beethoven ‘Appassionata’Sonata op 57.
Very interesting choice of piece by Josep Maria Guix to separate these two monumental works.A short piece full of the same colours as in Beethoven’s Bagatelles op 126 which was the inspiration for this contemporary Spanish composer.
It was a courageous choice too by a true musician that after the sturm und drang of the Appassionata the mellifluous Bagatelle op 126 n.3 was the solution where Beethoven had finally found the peace that had been so elusive for him in his earlier years.

Talking with one of the artistic directors the distinguished keyboard player Elena Vorotko Victor spoke very movingly about the health crisis he had suffered at the age of 17 that made him decide on a career in music instead of a prospected medical one.As he charmingly said it was the best decision of his life which we were also able to witness by the total commitment that he demonstrated with his playing.
He is preparing a new CD in this dark lockdown pandemic with a title that says it all :’Shreds of light’ with Bach 2nd Partita ,Brahms op 117 and the Liszt B minor Sonata.

Tuesday 2 February 4.00 pm 

Domonkos Csabay (piano) 

Bach-Busoni: 9 Choral Preludes

-“Komm Gott, Schöpfer, heil’ger Geist” (“Come God, Creator, Holy Ghost”) BWV667;

-“Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme!” (“Awake, the Voice commands!”) BWV645;

-“Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland!” (“Now come, the Gentiles’ Saviour!”) BWV659;

-“Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein!” (“Rejoice, beloved Christians!”) BWV734a;

-“Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” (“I call on Thee, Lord Jesus Christ”) BWV639;

-“Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf!” (“Lord God, now open Heaven’s Gate!”) BWV617;

-“Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt” (“All is lost through Adam’s Fall”) BWV637;

-“In dir ist Freude” (“In Thee is Joy”) BWV615;

-“Jesus Christus, unser Heiland” (“Jesus Christ, Our Saviour”) BWV665;

  

Liszt : Three pieces

-‘Ave Maria’ or “The Bells of Rome” S.182; 6min 

-La cloche sonne (A French folksong) S.238; 2min 

-Faribolo Pastour (“Pastoral Whimsy”) S.236/1; 5min

Schumann: Sonata no 2 in G minor Op 22

So rasch wie moglich – Andantino-Scherzo-Rondo.Presto

More superb playing at St Mary’s and Dr Mather says they will never stop!
What a treat to hear the Choral Preludes played so expertly on the piano .A real musician with that clarity of sound one can associate with the Hungarian School that gave us Foldes,Anda and Vasary.
Liszt too with three pieces that were unknown to me but revealed the same mellifluous outpouring of sounds.In Liszt’s hands,the scenic beauty and pastoral atmosphere with Bach a glimpse of God in all his mysterious ways.
All thrown to the wind,of course,with a whirlwind performance of Schumann’s much neglected second sonata.As fast as possible and even faster the young passionate Schumann exhorts as Domonkos threw himself fearlessly into this passionate outpouring of notes .But it only contrasted with the exquisite magic of the Andantino where Schumann pauses for a moment to share his song Im Herbste with us amidst his youthful yearning passions.Powerful and yet sensitive playing from a very fine musician.

Komm Gott immediately was the rousing call full of the sounds of pealing bells with great bass organ notes played with such clarity.The simplicity of Wachet auf with the tenor line allowed to emerge so naturally above the continuous flow of awakening that Bach so magically weaves.Nun komm’ too played with utter simplicity which led into the intricate weaving of notes in Nun Freut euch.The continuous stream of notes played with a clarity and precision above which the chorale was clearly etched leading to the triumphant close.Ich ruf zu dir is one of the most beautiful things that Bach wrote and was played with heartrending simplicity on a sumptuous plate of velvet bass sounds.Herr Gott was a mellifluous outpouring of sumptuous sounds. As Dr Mather,a confessed organist said, this afternoon he was almost convinced that they sound even better on the piano than the organ when played like this.

Three short atmospheric pieces by Liszt had me searching for information about them:Subtitled “Die Glocken von Rom (The Bells of Rome), Liszt’s Ave Maria was composed in 1862 at the request of Dr. Siegmund Lebert and Dr. Ludwig Stark who established the Stuttgart Conservatory. This work was written for the fourth part of a series of piano tutors, Grosse theoretish-praktische Klavierschule, assembled by Drs. Lebert and Stark for Conservatory students. A short but moving work, this piece shows Liszt’s leanings toward a compositional style that showcases the virtuoso abilities of the pianist and yet does not overshadow the simple theme of the prayer upon which this work is based. It was beautifully played the melodic line allowed to sing out amidst a kaleidoscope of shades and colours depicting the poetic atmosphere of Rome.

La cloche sonne S 238 is a little French folk song with a beautifully shaped tenor melody surrounded by the pealing of bells.

Faribolo pastour (‘Pastoral Whimsy’) is the title of a song by Jacques Jasmin (1798–1864) who wrote the dialect poem Françouneto in 1840 and may have invented the melody himself or else adapted it from a folk song. Liszt met Jasmin whilst touring at Agen in September 1844 and improvised upon Jasmin’s romance. Jasmin returned the compliment with an improvised poem which was later published with a dedication to Liszt.A haunting melody beautifully embellished when it appears so magically in the middle register of the piano.

The Sonata in G minor op 22 was Schumann’s last full-length attempt at the sonata genre, the other completed ones being the Sonata n.1 in F sharp minor op 11 and the Sonata No. 3 in F minor (Op. 14); he later wrote Three Piano Sonatas for the Young Op. 118. Because it was published before the F minor sonata, it was given an earlier sequence number (No. 2) but still kept its later opus number (Op. 22). It used to be the most often performed of the three but has fallen into neglect with the first sonata being performed almost too frequently!It was refreshing to hear it played by such a musician who could throw himself into the passionate outpourings with a great sense of drive allied to a sense of architectural shape.Schumann marks the score to be played as fast as possible and then to be played even faster indicating the driving energy that he wanted alternating with melodic outburst of great beauty.The development was played with great clarity and precision gradually leading to the passionate climax before the return of the main theme.There follows the coda that boils over like water at a hundred degrees.

Domonkos showed superb control in a work that all too often can loose clarity and sense of line as it sweeps across the horizon.The Andantino was pure magic as a perfect sense of balance allowed the melodic line to sing out so simply the elaborations just adding to the intensity of feeling that Schumann imbues this most beautiful oasis in a work driven by such passionate impulses.There were great contrasts in the Scherzo ,’very fast and marked’Schumann asks here too.The syncopated chords and melodic March just added shape to the general bustle and excitement that Schumann demands.Domonkos swept straight into the final Presto like a wind blowing in from afar.But there were beautiful melodic passages that Schumann does ask to be played slower and were beautifully played and lovingly shaped before bursting again into the intricate web of continuous sounds.Interrupted by an enormous dissonant chord which is where the fireworks really start.A whisper of sounds played prestissimo like a cadenza always faster and faster Schumann exhorts and Domonkos has the technique and above all intelligent musicianship that can interpret the real meaning behind Schumann’s excited exhortations.

Domonkos Csabay is a Hungarian pianist based in the UK since 2015. He is giving recitals as a concert soloist in many countries, while he also performs a wide range of classical repertoire as a chamber musician and accompanist. He has been on stage at many important concert venues such as Town Hall and Symphony Hall in Birmingham or Queen Elizabeth Hall and Milton Court in London, and collaborated with renowned artists and companies such as the CBSO, Orchestra of the Swan or Longborough Festival Opera. His versatility is well illustrated by diverse competition successes: besides winning the Birmingham International Piano Competition in 2016, prizes won as a composer in Romania and as member of a Lied duo in Wales. After finishing his piano studies with Pascal Nemirovski and John Thwaites at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, his interest towards collaborative pianism led him to continue studying for an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in r é p é titeurship under Paul Wingfield and Robin Bowman. Domonkos was selected to become an accompanist at Samling Institute for Young Artists. During his years in Birmingham, he has started a career as a free-lancing musician, working with orchestras, choruses and other artistic groups. He has made several concerto appearances and has been invited to events such as Lichfield Festival, Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival or the Budapest Spring Festival. He made his debut on BBC Radio 3 broadcasting Beethoven. His debut CD is recorded and to be issued by the label Naxos in 2021. Domonkos is currently based in London, where he holds a position as accompanist fellow at the Royal College of Music.

Some superb playing from a real musician.All played without the score except for the final Choral Prelude that he obviously added to complete the set of 9.Unfortunately the score lay open on the piano for the full recital that could have given another impression.

Sensational is the only word to describe Kantorow streamed live from the Philharmonie de Paris.Wondrous playing of such ravishing beauty and passionate drive.
Brahms Ballades reminded me of Michelangeli’s magic that he brought to the Festival Hall on one of his rare visits to London.
But then a Rachmaninov first sonata that I never thought of as a great work until today.
An unbelievably majestic Bach Chaconne played as only a great musician could understand the line as carved out by Brahms for the left hand alone.The final bars played with sumptuous rich sound where the big bass notes were only allowed to illuminate the final great chaconne .
Ending not in triumph but almost in anger as he glared at the last chord as if to say: ‘if looks could kill I would gladly die having discovered such a masterpiece of creation.’

Not since Zimerman have I heard such richness,purity and meaning from the piano and he was mentored by Artur Rubinstein.Those who heard Rubinstein live will forever search for that sound that was his alone.
Today I have found it.

Wonderful cinematic unobtrusive camera work just added to the atmosphere.
Available on the Philharmonie de Paris web site thanks to Medici and on line still.

https://live.philharmoniedeparis.fr/concert/1121222/?fbclid=IwAR3VCdxDHhFRFN9eLoeUXaZ6dYnZ-FpLxsjXzxlT57DjoDt-oB-iXArcs30

What great temperament in the Brahms Ballades of such sumptuous beauty .The passionate outburst of the third,contrasting steely precision with sounds of pure magic.A plain chant that seemed to appear from nowhere was interrupted by a magic bell pealing.The fourth I will never forget as he revealed such unearthly sounds from a beautifully mellifluous melodic line miraculously accompanied by detached notes of featherlight delicacy.A deeply moving melodic line in the tenor register answered by the angels above with a deep rumbling bass of almost unbearable intensity and beauty.I was reminded of Michelangeli’s legendary performance in London years ago.

I would never have thought that the Rachmaninov first sonata could have such overwhelming drama with an opening of such ominous foreboding that gave way to wondrous luminous sounds.Notes that seemed to spin out of his hands like a golden web of subtle brilliance and just added kaleidoscopic colour to such a clarity of line.There was a seductive beauty to the sound with a wondrous sense of balance that never excluded dramatic power and passion.The ending was of never to be forgotten beauty.The Lento was full of languishing,haunting nostalgia with his sumptuous sense of sound and cadenzas that poured from his fingers like wafts of magic colours.The Allegro molto had a demonic rhythmic drive but in its midst a crystalline voice sang out.We are in the hands of a master musician who listens so carefully to every sound as he shapes the notes with such loving care and excitement.The final majestic chords were played with a sense of total abandonment that was truly breathtaking.

Bach’s mighty Chaconne was played with such personality with a passion and rhythmic drive from within the notes themselves.Brahms decides they should be played with the left hand alone to give the same sense of miraculous virtuosity and triumph through a world of emotions,as Bach demands of a solo violinist.Infact the last chords were played with a sense of relief and disbelief instead of Busoni’s triumph and glory.

Listening to this recital one is prompted to ask but where does he come from and who were the influences in his youthful formation:

Alexandre Kantorow (born 20 May 1997) is a French pianist.^[Described by Gramophone as a “fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm”^[2] and by Fanfare as “Liszt reincarnated”,he won the first prize, gold medal, and Grand Prix at the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019.With this win, Kantorow became the first French winner in the history of the competition.

Kantorow was born in Clermont-Ferrand to a family of musicians; his father is the violinist and conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow and his mother is also a violinist.^[He began to study piano at the age of five at the conservatory of Pontoise. At the age of 11, Kantorow began studies with Pierre-Alain Volondat, who was the winner of the 1983 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, and continued training with Igor Lazko at the Schola Cantorum de Paris, as well as with Frank Braley and Haruko Ueda. When he was 16 years old, Kantorow was invited to play at the La Folle Journée festival in Nantes and has since appeared at such festivals as the Festival de La Roque-d’Anthéron, the Festival Chopin à Paris, and the Festival Piano aux Jacobins.At the age of 17, he performed at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Pasdeloup Orchestra at its inaugural season to an audience of about 2,500.He has since appeared at major concert halls including the Konzerthaus Berlin, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the BOZAR in Brussels, and the auditorium in the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Kantorow currently studies with Rena Shereshevskaya, who was also the teacher of Lucas Debargue, at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.

In 2019, Kantorow won the first prize, gold medal, and Grand Prix at the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition, becoming the first French winner in the history of the competition. He was the only finalist in the competition to play the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major, and also performed Brahms‘ Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major.

Happy to report Michael Morans equally enthusiastic review of a musical genius

Saturday, August 3 CHOPIN’S MANOR 8:00 PM

Piano Recital ALEXANDRE KANTOROW 

Winner of the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow 2019

Alexandre Kantarow

This recital was without doubt one of the truly great piano recitals at Duszniki Zdroj, if not the greatest. I believe it was his first public concert after winning the competition. An authentic ‘Duszniki Moment’. This unassuming young man has all the nascent qualities of a great artist in the process of maturing. He is only 22 and in possession of a gift and talent bordering on genius.

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)

Piano Sonata No. 1 in D Minor Op. 28 (1907)

Allegro moderato

Lento

Allegro molto

Rachmaninoff wrote to his friend Nikita Morozov on 8 May 1907: 

‘The Sonata is without any doubt wild and endlessly long. I think about 45 minutes. I was drawn into such dimensions by a programme or rather by some leading idea. It is three contrasting characters from a work of world literature. Of course, no programme will be given to the public, although I am beginning to think that if I were to reveal the programme, the Sonata would become much more comprehensible. No one will ever play this composition because of its difficulty and length but also, and maybe more importantly, because of its dubious musical merit. At some point I thought to re-work this Sonata into a symphony, but that proved to be impossible due to the purely pianistic nature of writing’. 

It is said that Rachmaninoff withdrew this reference to literature and certainly the music contains other associations.

The ‘literature’ he referred to is Goethe’s Faust (possibly with elements of Lord Byron’s Manfred) and there is convincing evidence to believe that this plan to write a sonata around Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles was never entirely abandoned. of course there are other musical elements present as it is not programme music. The pianist Konstantin Igumnov, who gave its premiere performance in Moscow, Leipzig and Berlin, visited Rachmaninoff in November 1908 after the Leipzig recital, the composer told him that ‘when composing it, he had in mind Goethe’s “Faust” and that the 1st movement related to Faust, the 2nd one to Gretchen and the 3rd was the flight to the Brocken and Mephistopheles.’

Faust in the opening monologue of the play:

In me there are two souls, alas, and their 

Division tears my life in two. 

One loves the world, it clutches her, it binds 

Itself to her, clinging with furious lust; 

The other longs to soar beyond the dust 

Into the realm of high ancestral minds. 

A man whose soul is rent between the hedonistic pleasures of the earth and spiritual aspirations – Sacrum et Profanum. Exploring this all to human dichotomy, Rachmaninoff builds almost unbearable tension. 

In the Allegro moderato as Faust wrestles with his soul and temptations. Kantorow constructed and extraordinary edifice of unique sound, each note of each the massive chord weighted perfectly against the others to create a richness of great magnificence and splendour, rather like an organ His tone is liquid gold and even in passages of immense dynamic power he did not break the sound ceiling of the instrument. There was superb delicacy here. The delineation of eloquent melody and the dense polyphony of Rachmaninoff’s writing was miraculously transparent.

The Lento second movement could well be interpreted as a lyrical poem expressing the love of Gretchen for Faust. Kantorow was so poetic here yet managing the dense polyphony once again with great artistry, tenderness and delicacy. His melodic understanding was paramount. The legato cantabile tone was sublime, the execution carrying with it an uncanny feeling of lyrical improvisation. A fervent and impassioned love song…

The wildness of the immense final movement Allegro molto with its references to a terrifying Dies Irae and death can well associate this massive declamation to Mephistopheles and insidious and destructive evil. Kantorow built a Chartres Cathedral of sound here with immense structural walls embroidered with the most delicate of decoration relieved by moments of refined reflection. Are we exploring the darker significance of Walpurgis Night?  Kantarow extracted and expressed a diabolism seldom encountered in any piano recital. All my remarks are assuming his towering technical ability and nervous pianistic concentration of a remarkable kind. Overwhelming.

Walpurgisnacht Kreling: Goethe’s Faust. X. Walpurgisnacht, 1874 – 77

Gabriel Fauré  (1845–1924)

Nocturne in D-flat major Op. 63 (1894) 

Known for his songs and solo piano works, Fauré wrote this beautiful and profound piece after a long dry spell of some eight years where he had not written a keyboard composition. Alfred Cortot considered it a masterpiece. Kantarow gave us a poetic and sensitive rendition of the work. The only reservation I had was programming it after the Rachmaninoff (from which I was still recovering!) and could not turn my full musical attention to the Fauré. Perhaps it should have preceded it as a gentle introduction to the recital….

INTERVAL

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)   

Piano Sonata in A major Op. 2 No. 2 (1794–1795)

We then heard the seldom performed youthful but harmonically new and exploratory Beethoven Piano Sonata in A major (1770–1827) Op. 2 No. 2 (1794–1795). I heard this difficult work performed in recital in Duszniki last year by RÈMI GENIET. This was also a fine performance that indicated he understood the classical style of the work (dedicated to Haydn) and the harmonic originality of Beethoven’s modulations. He experimented a great deal with articulation and tempo in the manner of improvisation. The staccato he introduced in the left hand in the Largo appasionato however, tended to reduce the lyricism of the passion for me. His golden tone and refined touch and articulation were often evident. However a little more delightful Viennese charm in the Rondo (the lightweight charm he brought to the Scherzo in fact) would have been appropriate in this Haydnesque movement. I was hoping for the deeper classically disciplined expressiveness that comes with time. I know as a young man I hated to be told that by older musicians but it is true except in the rarest of cases where musical maturity emerges fully formed in youth. Yehudi Menuhin springs to mind.

During my researches before writing this review, I came across the most inspirational, humorous and insightful lecture on this sonata (in fact all the sonatas of Beethoven) given by Sir AndràsSchiff in 2006. His original conclusion is that Beethoven intended that the three sonatas of Op. 2 make up a type of  ‘Trio under Op.2’ –  No. 1 being ‘dramatic’, No. 2 being ‘lyrical and tender’, and No.3 ‘a brilliant concert piece full of humour’. Schiff nearly always thinks of the piano in orchestral terms, especially the Beethoven sonatas. Not imitating orchestral instruments but associating with them in his mind. Kantarow seemed to do much the same but far less conventionally and with much more variety than the warmly classically inclined Sir Andràs Schiff.

Allegro vivace

Largo appasionato

Scherzo.

Allegretto Rondo Grazioso

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)

The Firebird K 10 (1910)

This work is most familiar from the orchestral version. The piano reduction Stravinsky made is rarely performed. The work almost defies translation from the orchestral version.

The ballet is a mixture the stories of the Firebird and Kashcheithe Immortal, two of Russia’s most well-known legendary stories or fairy tales. Prince Ivan comes into an enchanted garden and captures the Firebird. The bird wants to be released and promises Ivan it will assist him in the realization of his desires.

Ivan falls in love with one of the thirteen princesses he meets. She informs him that he is in the realm of Kashchei the Immortal, a powerful wizard who captures and imprisons passing travelers making them slaves. Ignoring her warning, Ivan approaches Kashchei to request her hand in marriage. Kashchei orders his magic creatures to attack the prince and tries to turn Ivan to stone. The Firebird comes to Ivan’s aid, enticing the creatures into a dance and then putting them to sleep. The bird bewitches Kashchei in the same manner.

Kantorow was possessed of some sort of force of nature as he embarked on the Danse infernale of this piece. The screech at the beginning as the bird precipitously attacks was deeply disturbing. Then the ‘infernal’ dance rhythms with their relentless intensity begin to wear the attackers down. This movement is of immense pianistic difficulty with leaps at fortissimo and huge glissandi. One could easily visualise the bird in its various tempestuous rhythmic transformations during this demented attacking dance. 

The creatures then fall asleep as depicted in the Berceuse. Kantarow created and hallucinogenic, hypnotic atmosphere during this sleeping, poetic dream – a magical word beyond. The triumphal wedding celebrations of the Finale developed in overwhelming dynamic joy and the clamorous ringing of orthodox bells flooded us with Russian emotional storms – magnificent, almost possessed yet under control and unprecedented in my experience of the sound capabilities of the piano.

The encores were Tchaikovsky’s Méditation Op. 72 No 5 which Kantarow played with ardent depth and glowing cantabile which developed into deep expressive, passionate rhapsodic feeling. 

He then spoke to the audience: ‘I am feeling rather tired so I will only play Liszt Chasse-neige as an encore.’ We did smile and some laughed with pleasure at such an understatement. 

It was the greatest performance of this work I have ever heard – the icy flurries of wind- driven snow in the left hand are indescribable in the lightness of their electrical virtuosity. The control and gradual culmination and augmentation of pent up cataclysmic energy towards the conclusion was beyond ordinary mortal comprehension. I have never heard such a terrifying sound from the piano – a force of Nature unleashed.

J.M.W.Turner Valle d’Aosta Snowstorm, Avalanche….

This was surely one of the great recitals that is of the most value at Duszniki. The first exposure to the birth of a great and immensely gifted musical talent is priceless. It will be fascinating to see how Kantarow develops. We already have the extraordinary precedents of Daniil Trifonov, Seong-Jin Cho and Igor Levit.

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
• Fantasia in D minor K397
• Rondo in D K485
• Adagio in B minor K540
• Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
• Piano Sonata in D D850 Allegro-Con moto-Scherzo:Allegro vivace-Trio-Rondo:Allegro moderato

My old teacher Gordon Green often used to talk about his star student Christian Blackshaw and news travelled fast when he was the first UK student to be accepted to study at St.Petersburg Conservatory and also won the Casella International Competition in Naples in Italy.
After my student days I lost touch with the concert world in London – this was before the advent of internet.I married an Italian actress and we gave birth to a very demanding son in the form of Teatro Ghione – a theatre in the centre of Rome.Thirty years spent with stage productions and as a sideline a concert season – Euromusica of more than 60 concerts a year with many artists young and old able to be heard in Rome that was sadly lacking in concert venues in that period.
We became in Italy what the Wigmore Hall is today- a centre of excellence in Europe.With the advent of internet though I was able to see programmes of all the major venues worldwide and was very pleased to see the name of Christian Blackshaw with his Mozart being promoted by the Wigmore Hall ,as they had done for Mitsuko Uchida or Andras Schiff.
I wondered why he had not made more of an international name for himself since his auspicious early days mentored by no less than Clifford Curzon.I later learned of the tragic death of his wife and deciding that his duty as a father,with three small daughters,took precedence over career.
I learnt only recently that his late wife was the star pupil of Fanny Waterman that I remember playing in Dame Fanny’s showcase masterclass on the Southbank,exclaiming that the copy of the Chopin B minor Sonata was the third one that she and Nicola Gebolys had got through.
So it was a treat to be able to hear Christian playing Mozart.Looking more like Liszt than Mozart but when he touched the keys I understood immediately why such a perfectionist as Clifford Curzon had taken him under his wing.

Three short works by Mozart placed together to form a whole.Not quite a sonata as the excellent presenter Ian Kelly suggested because the group started with the Fantasia in D minor and ended with the Adagio in B minor taking in the Rondo in D as the central movement.The Fantasia immediately showed his exquisite phrasing and very careful pedalling that only added colour without smudging the crystal clear notes that he was so carefully shaping.A sense of improvisation pervaded the opening with a freedom allied to the flexibility of the human voice.The simplicity of the final rondo was truly of a child like innocence so difficult to capture,as Curzon’s teacher Schnabel is often quoted as saying.A surprise return to the opening fantasie improvisation gave a wonderfully satisfying ending to this seemingly simple piece and allowed the opening cloud to cast its shadow upon the proceedings again.I wonder if there is some mention of this ending in Mozart’s letters that Christian had discovered and like Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto where the opening chord Beethoven mentioned that he spread gives an authenticity to a not usual performing practice in these days of absolute faithfulness to the original score!The Rondo in D was played with absolute charm with the appoggiatura type phrasing so reminiscent of the much missed Clifford Curzon’s impeccably refined playing.Articulation and voice like inflections in a piece that we have heard many times in piano lessons but very rarely brought to life in such a joyous way.The Adagio in B minor one of Mozart’s most profound works is also one of his shortest.Mozart could express so much with so little where every note has a significance never more so than in this piece written towards the end of his short life.There was a great sense of time standing still in Christian’s performance where every phrase was given time to breathe so naturally.It was a great treat on the Wigmore’s superb streaming to be able to see with what care his fingers articulated like a Swiss clock hammer just carefully striking the keys and producing such magic out of the few notes actually written on the page.Every strand was given its just weight as in a string quartet.The opening theme moving to the bass before the beseeching question and answer that followed.The refreshing simplicity of the melody that magically emerges from Mozart’s pen after some almost too serious questioning chords.Time stood still in a performance of pure magic where Mozart’s 57 bars were doubled in a performance to quote the poet Shakespeare :’if music be the food of love – play on.’

The other work on the programme was the Sonata in D by Schubert known as the Gasteiner,as it was written during August 1825 whilst the composer was staying in the spa town of Bad Gastein .A year later it became only the second of three of his piano sonatas to be published in his lifetime.Four movements in which Christian observed all the repeats pushing Schubert’s sublime length maybe to the limit.Andras Schiff says that if the composer wrote repeats who are we mere performers to know better?Others suggest that it was the form to repeat certain sections and that if the composer really meant it he would write 1. and 2 .over the bar line.The first movement was played with driving rhythm and crystal clear articulation in this very busy opening movement.Exquisite phrasing and attention to the minutest detail much as I remember from Curzon’s famous recording or Perahia’s memorable performance that I heard in Rovigo – a beautiful town in the north of Italy.There was in both these performances the contrast between Floristan and Eusebius (to borrow from Schumann) that gave a more satisfying architectural shape.Christian concentrated more on the Eusebius side with such exquisite things as in his Mozart but missed the great sweep that a work of over 30 minutes needs.Schubert’s rarely writes double forte or double sforzandi,but here he does,and Christian diluted them down to suite his vision of poetic beauty at the expense of the real storm und drang.A sumptuous string chamber orchestra but where are the wind,the brass and percussion ?

The ‘con moto’ slow movement was played with such beauty especially when the theme returns in the left hand with barely hinted shadowing from the right that was truly a sublime moment to cherish.The coda too was absolute magic in this poet’s delicate hands.The contrast in the Scherzo between the march like opening and the delicate ländler reply was beautifully shaped as was the subtle rubato in the Viennese waltz type passage that follows.The pianissimo chords of the trio were played with delicate sumptuous sounds.The almost clock like simplicity of the Rondo was played just a pointedly as I remember from Curzon with an irresistible simplicity and charm that is ever more elaborate on its return until the perpetuum mobile played with an astonishing jeux perlé to the final impish comment.Much as Rachmaninov does a century later in his Paganini Rhapsody signing off after breathtaking antics with such childish simplicity.

Would one ever associate breathtaking beauty and delicacy with Tchaikowsky n.1 ?Beatrice Rana playing with the Philharmonie de Paris with Paavo Jarvi demonstrated last night to a hall that may have been empty of an audience but it was full of subtle emotion and daring.An almost chamber ensemble of magnificent musicians listening to each other as they recreated this much maligned work and demonstrated why it is still one of the most popular concertos in the repertoire.An orchestra that was allowed to breathe in the same extraordinary way as Beatrice Rana aided and abetted by a conductor such as Jarvi who was flying on the crest of a magnificent wave of sumptuous sounds and allowing the music to unfold so naturally.Tomorrow I see Kantorow is playing Brahms …..strange coincidence as he won the last Tchaikowsky competition!

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/02/08/beatrice-rana-takes-the-wigmore-hall-by-storm/https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2019/11/21/beatrice-rana-in-rome-the-supreme-stylist/

Thursday 28 January 4.0 pm 

Tadasuke Iijima (violin)
Mikhail Shilyaev (piano) 

Wieniawski: Polonaise de Concert Op 4

Sarasate: Caprice Basque Op 24

Rachmaninov arr. Kreisler: Marguerite(Daisies) Op 38 no 3

Wieniawski: Polonaise Brillante Op 21

Kreisler: La Gitana

Kreisler: Tambourin Chinois

Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen Op 20

Bazzini: La ronde des Lutins, Scherzo fantastique Op 25

von Paradis arr. Dushkin: Sicilienne in E flat

Tadasuke Iijima was born in Japan, and has previously studied under the guidance of Hitoshi Maezawa, Boris Kuschnir, Toshiya Eto, Zakhar Bron, Mayumi Fujikawa and Rivka Golani. He has won numbers of competitions, including the highest award at the Tokyo ‘ s “ New Stars of Music ” Competition, First Prize at the Toshiya Eto Violin Competition, First Prize in the Soloist Competition with the Hamamatu Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Special Prize for performing a Contemporary Piece at the Heifetz International Violin Competition, and First Prize at the Uralsk International Violin Competition. He also awarded the Harold Craxton Prize, and David Martin Concerto Prize at Royal Academy of Music, and the Vera Kantrovich Prize, Vivian Joseph Classical Concerto competition, and the trinity laban Soloist’s Competition at Trinity College.Tadasuke has also appeared as a soloist alongside the Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo New City Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the Kanagawa Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, and West Kazakhstan Orchestra. He also attended the masterclass by Ida Haendel and Edith Peinemann. He is currently giving performances throughout UK and worldwide. 

Mikhail Shilyaev was born in Izhevsk, Russia. He started learning piano at the age of six and won several regional piano competitions at a young age. He studied in Russia in Moscow State Conservatoire, in Germany and in the UK. As a soloist with orchestra, he has performed with Musikkollegium Winterthur, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra among others. He has worked with leading conductors including Christopher Warren-Green, Pascal Rophé, Nikoloz Rachveli and Gianluca Marcianó. In July 2010 Mikhail won the Bronze Medal at the prestigious Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition in Lisbon. Mikhail lives in London and plays mostly in the UK and Europe. He has been taking part in numerous festivals across Europe including Zaubersee festival in Lucerne and Suoni dal Golfo in La Spezia, Italy. Among his chamber music partners are Boris Brovtsyn, Anastasia Kobekina and Natalie Clein. He is interested in historical performance practice and often g ives recitals on fortepianos. Mikhail is also known for his collaboration with singers including the rising stars Anna Gobachyova, Nardus Williams , Tuuli Takkala and Anush Hovhannisyan. Mikhail’s repertoire stretches from early Baroque to contemporary music with its focus on J. S. Bach, Viennese classics, German romantics and Chopin. He has recently released two critically acclaimed CDs on Toccata Classics and Stone Records. His new record made on historical Bechstein has been released by Willowhayne Records.

Nice to be reminded of some old violin warhorses.Ruggiero Ricci used to come often to play and give classes for us in Rome.Uto Ughi and Rodolfo Bonucci were always to be seen cheering in the audience.
Vadim Repin and Natalia Priscipienko students of Zahar Bron in Siberia both made their debuts as teenagers in my theatre in Rome.So it was refreshing to hear all these old pieces again all played together so brilliantly in this unusual teatime lollipops concert from St Mary’s

Thanks Christopher Axworthy. I was very pleased with the concert, although it was certainly unusual. Tadasuke Iijima is an amazing violinist and to play all those hair-raising pieces, one after another, was quite a feat. Not many other violinists would attempt it. And his quiet playing was ravishing. And – just to be clear – it was me who suggested he play some old warhorses, rather than the Ravel sonata yet again – didn’t realize then that the whole concert would be that sort of fare. We will be getting him back again… Here’s the link in SD

Oh so it was your fault Hugh.Some people do not approve as you may have noticed the exchange between Tyler Hay and Stephen….the distinguished critic.Cherkassky was once invited to Milan by the ever eccentric Hans Fazzari ,who has the most important piano series in Milan .He ordered a programme of transcriptions and encore pieces ending with Schulz Evler Blue Danube taking in Godowsky’s Wine Women and Song.The review from a highly respected critic was “Juggler of notes “Giocaliere delle Note”it did not mention his unique artistry but criticised the programme.Shura would never allow an organiser to choose his programme again.He offered two different programmes a season and you could ask for any order or as we slyly did,have him play both together !

Strange how a programme can provoke such heated discussion.It was a ‘tour de force’ of virtuoso violin playing not to say also some fine accompanying for a pianist who could more than stay the course without stumbling on any of the numerous hurdles.A concert ,of course ,that could not be played looking at the score because the pieces were written as showpieces for the virtuosi of their time.With a seemgly sedate audience mostly aristocratic,they would be whipped up into a screaming mob, trying to get as close to their idols much as in the ‘pop’ world of today.But there was much more than just note spinning for there was infinite charm ,passion ,style and colour .Can Daisies ever have sounded so beautiful as with the muted cantabile today.Or the hair raising antics of ‘La ronde des Lutins’thrown off with such consummate ease.The two Wieniawski Polonaises played like a jack in the box full of astonishing surprises from the sumptuous to the spectacular.Of course I missed Schon Rosmarin from his group of pieces by Kreisler who I was pleased to hear is Tadasukes favourite violinist ever.Mine too for the sheer charm colour and natural beauty of sound.This together with Dushkin’s famous (and perhaps like Kreisler much questioned) transcription of Von Paradis with the sublime beauty of his Sicilienne gave an idea of the artistry and not just the acrobatics of this remarkable young violinist.Not quite the devil in disguise but we shall see next time when hopefully he will display all his diabolical artistry with Paganini Caprices and much else besides.

Here is a short extract of some comments – so far – from distinguished musicians :Only heard from pianist FB friends so far, who have a slightly biased view of this repertoire, from the piano stool ! Anyway this is getting slightly out of hand. I am obviously not decrying the music of Liszt or Rach – just pointing out that the repertoire offered by over 100 violinists in over 1000 concerts at Perivale over the last few years has rarely included any of the old showpieces which used to be played frequently. They seem to have become very unfashionable, and to me, that is a great pity. Still haven’t heard from violinists as to why this has happened. The wider question of the attractions of virtuosity, empty or otherwise, is best left to another post. Sufficient to say that I enjoy hearing say Mark Viner or Tyler Hay playing unbelievably difficult piano music supremely well, regardless of whether the musical content is profound or (relatively) superficial !

Stephen Pettitt:Horses for courses but I really don’t like pieces that are showy-offy for the sake only of showing off. Despite (often) gobsmacking skills. There’s got to be (for me) more of a point to music than that and I don’t need a cheap thrill at the end of a concert of deep things. I want to go out into the night (or up to bed if online) full of food for thought. Weird I know.

Tyler Hay :Stephen Pettitt thank you! All that we can ask is that people give things a serious and fair listen. Worth pointing out that we don’t just play any old thing.I’ve told this story so many times but it’s worth thinking about. When I studied in Manchester, I had a 15 min slot to fill during a recital and I decided to find a group of 5 Cimarosa Sonatas. I sightread through about 50 of them and found a dozen that I really liked. I took the score to the bar and pondered over which ones to do, vodka and tonic in hand! One of the best pianists in the department came over and criticised me for choosing Cimarosa over Scarlatti on the grounds that the former is “just a poor man’s Scarlatti.” I thought about it and came to the conclusion that even though it’s true that Cimarosa isn’t Scarlatti, it’s equally true that Scarlatti isn’t Cimarosa. That was a very important moment for me and since then, I’ve loved every minute of finding forgotten and neglected gems. They might not always be “great” but they are certainly at least “very good” and that’s more than enough for me to be getting on with.

Tuesday 26 January 4.0 pm 

Victor Maslov 

Haydn: Sonata in B minor HobXVI/32 Allegro moderato – Menuetto – Finale:Presto

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

• Promenade
• The Gnome
• Promenade. (2nd)
• The Old Castle
• Promenade (3rd)
• Tuileries (Children’s Quarrel after Games)
• Cattle
• Promenade (4th)
• Ballet of Unhatched Chicks
• “Samuel” Goldenberg and “Schmuÿle”
• Promenade (5th)
• Limoges. The Market (The Great News)
• Catacombs (Roman Tomb) – With the Dead in a Dead Language
• The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga)
• The Bogatyr Gates (In the Capital in Kiev)

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/victor-maslov-at-the-royal-albert-hall/

A superb recital from a Victor Maslov in St Mary’s today.He has not only changed appearance with a very becoming beard but has matured into an artist with a great new temperament and something important to say.From the child like simplicity of Haydn almost Haebleresque in its chiselled porcelain precision and complete control of sound and colour.It was a model of quite extraordinary style.Every note made to speak so eloquently almost on tip toe until the last movement that erupted on to the scene like an unleashed spring.Mussorgsky I had no wish to listen to but in his hands today I was totally mesmerised by a performance from an artist that listens so carefully to every sound with a sense of balance and complete mastery that allowed him to give in Dr Mather’s words a ‘towering’ performance.A local lad whilst he perfects his studies with Dmitri Alexeev,resident in Ealing since winning the Leeds competition where he took first prize over Mitsuko Uchida and Andras Schiff.Victor has been helped by the trust set up after her death of that much loved teacher of generations in Ealing.Eileen Rowe was also the teacher of Dr Mather and his children as well as the very young Vanessa Latarche who has become head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal College of Music where Victor is a star shining brightly

The Haydn sonata No 32 is one of a group of six published privately in manuscript copies in 1776, and moves away from inspired galanterie to the vehement astringency characteristic of Haydn’s music in B minor (compare the string quartets Op 33 No 1 and Op 64 No 2). A very stately opening like a solemn procession played with an almost porcelain doll like simplicity and some beautifully subtle colours and sounds.The music box delicacy of the Menuet with some charming added embellishments that was contrasted with an almost too serious Trio.The finale :presto entered on the scene like a spring unwinding with its insistent rhythmic drive .His superb sense of style kept the left hand octaves perfectly placed above a very busy right hand and even the final double octaves were played with such grace and elegance to the final matter of fact two chords.

Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite of ten pieces (plus a recurring, varied Promenade) for piano by Modest Mussorgsky written in 1874.The suite is Mussorgsky’s most-famous piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists based on pictures by the artist, architect, and designer Viktor Hartmann.It was probably in 1868 that Mussorgsky first met Hartmann, not long after the latter’s return to Russia from abroad. Both men were devoted to the cause of an intrinsically Russian art and quickly became friends. They likely met in the home of the influential critic Vladimir Stasov, who followed both of their careers with interest.Hartmann’s sudden death on 4 August 1873 from an aneurysm shook Mussorgsky along with others in Russia’s art world. The loss of the artist, aged only 39, plunged the composer into deep despair and Stasov helped to organize a memorial exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg in February and March 1874. Mussorgsky lent the exhibition the two pictures Hartmann had given him, and viewed the show in person. Later in June he was inspired to compose Pictures at an Exhibition, quickly completing the score in three weeks (2–22 June 1874).The work did not appear in print until 1886, five years after the composer’s death, when a not very reliable edition by the composer’s friend and colleague Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was published. It was only in 1931, marking the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death, that it was published in a scholarly edition in agreement with his manuscript.

Victor gave a very impressive performance of a work that all too often is misused as a vehicle for empty virtuosity.That was not the case today as with scrupulous attention to detail Victor brought this work back into the realms of the great works of the piano repertoire as Richter had done in the 60’s,and Horowitz had done with his own inimitable rearrangements in the 40’s.The simple statement of the opening promenade led straight to the grotesque outburst of Gnomus depicting a little gnome, clumsily running with crooked legs.There were beautiful legato octaves in the meno mosso with a very impressive crescendo.The left hand trills were mere vibrations of sound leading to the final cry and transcendental outburst of a final scale passage played by Victor exactly as the composer asks ‘velocissimo con tutta forza.’A mysterious ethereal promenade leads to ‘The old castle’ played so delicately but with a rich sound palette with magical counterpoints and a gradual disappearance.A more decisive promenade leads to the Tuileries,an avenue in the garden near the Louvre, with a swarm of children and nurses.Played with an infectious lilt and playful asides thrown in with great nonchalance.Bydlo is obviously hanging next to it and depicts a Polish cart on enormous wheels, drawn by oxen.Never slackening its constant pace but building in volume to a very impressive climax as it comes into full view.Played with overpowering weight but never any hardening of tone only to die away to barely a whisper.I had never been aware until today in Victor’s knowledgeable hands of the two staccato notes in the melodic line that gave great character to this lumbering old cart.After such fatigue a promenade made in heaven led so peacefully to the audacious chatterings of the ‘Ballet of unhatched chicks’ which is based on Hartmann’s design for the ballet Trilby where the famous variation by Petipa for the male dancer in the Le Corsair from Gerber’s score shows a painting of dancers from the ballet in costume (as fledglings emerging from the shell).In Victors hands there was such a playful sense of fun that contrasted with the beautiful bass counterpoints,that he played so pointedly,in the middle section.The grandiloquent Samuel Goldenberg burst on to the scene with the gloriously reverberant beseeching of Schmuyle.The last Promenade was played this time with much vehemence as it led to the featherlight chatterings of the market place in Limoges depicting French women quarrelling violently in the market.A tour de force of repeated notes thrown off with great ease by Victor as it led to a startling climax interrupted by the mighty entry to the catacombs.Mussorgsky’s manuscript of “Catacombs” displays two pencilled notes, in Russian: “NB – Latin text: With the dead in a dead language” and, along the right margin, “Well may it be in Latin! The creative spirit of the dead Hartmann leads me towards the skulls, invokes them; the skulls begin to glow softly.”

In fact it was just this magic glow that Victor was able to illuminate with such vibrating sounds of great delicacy with long held pedal notes of real beauty.Only to be interrupted by the ferocious Baba -Yaga where even Victor was taken aback as he threw himself into the whirlwind sounds of the chase.Only finding an oasis of peace in the middle section with a serene bass melody over a constant wave of vibrant sounds,the spell being broken ,though,by the cries of the witches flight.A tumultuous build up of double octaves suddenly was abruptly abated by the vision of the Great Gate of Kiev in all its majesty. Hartmann’s sketch was his design for city gates at Kiev in the ancient Russian massive style with a cupola shaped like a slavonic helmet.The beautiful colours of the plain chant were interrupted by the constant joyous pealing of bells.The build up to the last glorious outpouring was indeed very impressive .Victor perfectly judged the gradual build up with a tension that finally exploded with a cascade of scales leading to the sheer orchestral outpouring of glorious sounds with which he brought this ‘towering’ performance to a shattering end.A memorable performance that I ,for one,would be quite happy to listen to again.

Russian pianist Victor Maslov was praised as “one of those people who is close to all-round mastery of his repertoire” by the New York Concert Review, following his performance at Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall), New York in 2010. Victor is currently studying at the Royal College of Music, London, with Prof. Dmitri Alexeev and Prof. Vanessa Latarche as a Carne Trust Junior Fellow supported by the Ruth West Scholarship. In 2020 Victor received Munster Trust Award. In 2017 he became an Eileen Rowe Musical Trust Award Holder. Victor began his studies at the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music, where he was taught by his mother Olga Maslova. He later became a scholar of the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation and has received masterclasses from Dmitry Bashkirov for several years.
Victor has been a prize winner in several international competitions, including the First Prize at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition (Paris 2004), the First Prize at the Musicale dell’Adriatico piano competition (Ancona 2007), Overall Prize Winner of the 47th Concertino Praga International Radio Competition for Young Musicians (2013), Two times winner of Concerto Competition (Royal College of Music, 2015, 2018), the First prize at the 2nd International Rachmaninoff Piano Competition (Moscow 2020), and the First prize at the AntwerPiano International Competition (Antwerpen 2020).
Additional prizes include Fourth Prize at the Vladimir Horowitz International Competition for Young Pianists (Kiev 2012), Second Prize at the Astana Piano Passion (Astana 2015), Second prize at Joan Chissell Schumann Prize (London 2019) and Third prize at the 6 th Umanitaria Societa Competition (Milan 2019).
He gave his concerto debut at the age of nine with the State Symphony Orchestra of Moscow and has since performed with orchestras such as RCM Symphony, RCM Philharmonic, Symphonic Orchestra of Czech Radio, Astana Opera Symphonic Orchestra, Kostroma Symphonic Orchestra, Penza State Symphonic Orchestra, State Orchestra “New Russia”. Victor has given solo performances at international music festivals across the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Israel, and the USA. Venues have included Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Weil Recital hall at Carnegie Hall, Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatoire, Smetana Hall and Rudolfinum.

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