ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

“Music has the power to bring people together, no matter race, gender, sex, or religion, and it creates emotions unable to be felt in everyday life. It is important to me because it gives my life a new flavour, a new colour, and a new spectrum.” Shunta Morimoto aged 14.

Shunta Morimoto just arrived from Japan to play at La Mortella before concerts in Ireland and London, at the beginning of what will be a very busy season for this twenty year old pianist. Unanimous winner of Hastings International Piano Competition when he was seventeen, and now embarking on a career that has already taken him to Los Angeles to play Brahms 2 having played Beethoven 4 and Liszt 1 with the RPO in England, and when he was only sixteen Rachmaninov 3 with the Tokyo Philharmonic.

https://youtu.be/beUHzao-ZXw?si=3VnixlgUlEftm3G6

A rising star indeed with an insatiable appetite to discover ever more about the mysteries that are hidden within the scores. A quite extraordinary artist that Stanislaw Ioudentich ( winner of Van Cliburn in 2001 and distinguished teacher in Oberlin ,Como and Madrid ) declared quite candidly ‘ is the greatest talent I have ever known.’

https://youtu.be/wLOeKop2-AA?si=VYA6–NdWwGGNYgF ) https://youtu.be/8wJlO0l2BxM?si=jeCmQIH9wBYnVpYY

Here is Shunta aged fourteen in Fort Worth – Van Cliburn. ” Shunta Morimoto has won first in his category three times in the Piano Teachers’ National Association of Japan Piano Competition, as well as other competitions in his home country, which has led to multiple performances in Tokyo, Yokohama, and his home town of Kyoto. He also placed first in the 2018 Aloha International Piano Competition and subsequently gave concerts in Hawaii, including with the Hawaii Youth Symphony. He says that experience helped him believe in the “magical power of music,” because he could use it to communicate easily where a language barrier may have prohibited him. A student at Momoyama Junior High School, Shunta currently studies with Shohei Sekimoto.”

Shunta has a hand that has been moulded by superb teaching in Japan from a very early age, giving him a flexibility and true weight that never attacks the key but sucks the life blood from each one with beautiful natural horizontal movements , it is like watching a painter in front of his canvas. Delving deep into the scores having been mentored by William Naboré in Rome and Como for the past five years, he has an insatiable appetite to acquire knowledge and share inspiration as he tries to find the true meaning behind the notes bequeathed to posterity by the great composers.

And it was the Great French Overture by Bach that opened Shunta’s two recitals in Ischia. Often known as the seventh Partita, it is a work of great significance and appears on programmes of only the most eclectic musicians such as Andras Schiff or Angela Hewitt. In eleven movements lasting over thirty minutes it opens with an Overture of monumental proportions. Shunta played with commanding authority as the opening flourish immediately held our attention with its nobility and grandeur. Subtle ornaments unwound like springs from his fingers never interfering with the overall outline. It was like a great Gothic Cathedral taking our breath away as we are overwhelmed by such a man made construction. Bursting into life in a spectacular rhythmic way with energy that came from within the notes with a buoyancy and elan of extraordinary eloquence. The genius of Bach bringing back the opening with an ever more poignant nobility. There was a delicacy to the meanderings of the ‘Courante’ and a deliberate fluidity to the ‘Gavottes’ and a decisive brilliance to the ‘Passepieds’. Shunta brought a subtle veiled beauty to the ‘Sarabande’ contrasting with the boisterous dance of the ‘Bourées’. A ‘Gigue’ that just flew from his fingers, but it was above all the ‘Echo’ that Shunta played with impish good humour and enticing rhythmic characterisation. A ‘tour de force’ of concentration and intellectual understanding of a maturity, way beyond Shunta’s twenty years.

It was followed by some of the greatest works by Chopin. Truly masterpieces that the genius of Chopin had created for a piano that had evolved from the earlier keyboard instruments, that now had a sustaining pedal that became the very soul of the piano – to quote Anton Rubinstein. It becomes a full orchestra capable of a variety of sounds where above all Chopin could create new art forms of refined elegance and fantasy. It was this full orchestra that Shunta showed us today choosing Chopin’s only two Fantasies that are art forms that do not conform to the standard practice of the day.Following in Schubert’s footsteps trying to find a form that had logic and cohesion but also the character of operatic proportions where there is a wondrous story to tell. No longer tied down with formal tradition but able to bring a personal spirit to the music as the Romantic era broke away from the formal constraints of the baroque period.

Shunta played the Fantasy with expansive beauty, nobility and delicacy. The opening was like a sunrise with the unfolding of the drama about to explode. A passionate outpouring of extraordinary mastery and a remarkable palette of colours. An unusually long wait before the opening of the central episode that was of extraordinary poignancy. A vision of paradise was opening up with startling simplicity and purity. The passionate return of the opening was played with even more burning intensity disintegrating to a beseeching cadenza with its simple whispered beauty. It was interesting to note the keys that Shunta held silently in the bass to allow the harmonics to reverberate without the cloud of pedal. It was greeted by a miraculous wave of sounds to the final imperious closing chords.

The G flat Impromptu was played with a beguiling beauty of aristocratic good taste. Shunta added another level of fantasy to this work with an extraordinary range of subtle colouring and shaping of the phrases. The gentle whispered return of the opening, after the ravishing noble beauty of the tenor voice of the central episode, I will cherish for a long time. I have always Rubinstein in my ears when I hear this work as he played it with that same aristocratic French heart that he brought to his friend Poulenc’s music. Shunta showed me another side today with a dream like fantasy world of glistening beauty, without loosing any of the refined elegance that is so extraordinary in this wondrous Impromptu.https://youtu.be/mB9MgedVR3o

It was the same magic that he brought to the Barcarolle op 60 which is one of Chopin’s greatest creations. It is a true ‘Lied von der Erde’, starting from the deep bass C sharp that just opens up the piano so that all that follows can float on the continuous gentle wave of the lagoon, creating pure magic. A magic land indeed of a story told with refined beauty but also with passion. Barely touching the keys in the miraculous bel canto central episode as he allowed the music to gradually engulf him as the temperature rose. The extraordinary thing about Shunta’s playing is the depth of sound that is never ungrateful or percussive but comes from deep within the very soul of the music.There was a refined beauty to the final meanderings as we near the sad farewell , with the gentle tenor melody just glowing in the distance.This was a passage that Ravel, the absolute master of colour, so admired. A cascade of notes leading to the final simple vision to this wondrous land of dreams.

Two encores showed off the wonderful jeux perlé and also the beguiling sense of showmanship that is so much part of the Waltzes of Chopin. Op 42 with its intricate knotty rhythms was played with an extraordinary sense of dance and freedom . https://youtu.be/QTebZVST-oM?si=sipmtOeJ3v0EuXrr

The Prelude op 28 n. 3 just flowed from Shunta’s fingers with disarming simplicity as this extraordinary jewel in a crown of 24 problems ( according to Fou Ts’ong) was shaped as the miniature tone poems of each one should be, and that Shunta will treat us to in the National Liberal club in London for halloween .

The second recital was with the addition of the Polonaise- Fantaisie op 61 ,the twin of the Barcarolle op 60. Fantasy was the word for the first chords just opening up a magic world of wondrous whispered sounds. Playing these ‘vibrations’ with one single movement it became truly an undulation of the senses both visual and audial. A Polonaise that burst onto the scene with unusual vehemence and that Shunta played with passionate drive, but there was also a feeling of tenderness and wonder. A beautifully free,almost improvised, central episode where the melodic line passed from the tenor to the soprano register with poetic beauty and tranquility .Gradually trills appeared magically vibrating with ever more intensity until the opening chords return with even more etherial vibrations. Suddenly the intensity increases as Chopin reaches for a climax of exhilaration and nobility played by Shunta with extraordinary power and passion. Octaves flying as the tension diminishes and this fantasy world of genial creation comes to a close on a single isolated A flat.

Shunta added to his encore of op 42 that he had played yesterday too, with a magical account of Chopin’s Berceuse.Whispered tones made us listen even more intently to the beauty of the magic web of variations that Chopin could weave,adding to the most beautiful of all lullabies with a rocking motion of sumptuous innocence and beauty.

The Overture in the French style, BWV 831, original title Ouvertüre nach Französischer Art, also known as the French Overture and published as the second half of the Clavier Übung II in 1735 (paired with the Italian Concerto ), is a suite in B minor for a two-manual harpsichord.

Movements: Ouverture. Courante. Gavotte I/II. Passepied I/II

Sarabande. Bourrée I/II. Gigue. Echo

The term overture refers to the fact that this suite starts with an overture  movement, and was a common generic name for French suites (his orchestral suites  were similarly named). This “overture” movement replaces the allemande  found in Bach’s other keyboard suites. Also, there are optional dance movements both before and after the Sarabande. In Bach’s work optional movements usually occur only after the sarabande. All three of the optional dance movements are presented in pairs, with the first one repeated after the second, but without the internal repeats. Also unusual for Bach is the inclusion of an extra movement after the Gigue, the “Echo,” a piece meant to exploit the terraced loud and soft dynamics of the two-manual harpsichord. Other movements also have dynamic indications (piano and forte ), which are not often found in keyboard suites of the Baroque period, and indicate here the use of the two keyboards of the harpsichord. With eleven movements, the French Overture is the longest keyboard suite ever composed by Bach. It usually has a duration of around 30 minutes if all the repeats in every movement are taken.

Bach wrote an earlier version of the work, in the key of C minor (BWV 831a) later transposed to B minor to complete the cycle of tonalities in Parts One and Two of the Clavier-Übung.The keys of the six Partitas  (B♭ major, C minor, A minor, D major, G major, E minor) of Clavier-Übung I form a sequence of intervals going up and then down by increasing amounts: a second up (B♭ to C), a third down (C to A), a fourth up (A to D), a fifth down (D to G), and finally a sixth up (G to E).^[1] The key sequence is continued in Clavier-Übung II (1735) with two larger works: the Italian Concerto, a seventh down (E to F), and the French Overture, an augmented fourth up (F to B♮). Thus a sequence of customary tonalities for 18th-century keyboard compositions is complete, beginning with the first letter of Bach’s name (B♭, in German is B) and ending with the last (B♮ in German is H).

The Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat op  61, was dedicated to Mme A. Veyret, written and published in 1846.This work was slow to gain favour with musicians, due to its harmonic  complexity and intricate form . Arthur Hedley  was one of the first critics to speak positively of the work, writing in 1947 that it “works on the hearer’s imagination with a power of suggestion equaled only by the F minor Fantasy ore the Fourth Ballade ” . It is intimately indebted to the polonaise  for its metre, much of its rhythm , and some of its melodic character, but the fantaisie  is the operative formal paradigm, and Chopin is said to have referred initially to the piece only as a Fantasy. Parallels with the Fantaisie in F minor include the work’s overall tonality, A-flat, the key of its slower middle section, B major, and the motive  of the descending fourth.

The Barcarolle in F sharp major op 60 composed between autumn of 1845 and summer 1846, three years before his death.^[1]

Based on the barcarolle  rhythm and mood, it features a sweepingly romantic and slightly wistful tone. Many of the technical figures for the right hand are thirds and sixths, while the left features very long reaches over an octave. Its middle section is in A major , and this section’s second theme is recapitulated near the piece’s end in F-sharp. It is also one of the pieces where Chopin’s affinity to the bel canto  operatic style is most apparent, as the double notes in the right hand along with spare arpeggiated accompaniment in the left hand explicitly imitates the style of the great arias and scenas from the bel canto operatic repertoire. The writing for the right hand becomes increasingly florid as multiple lines spin filigree and ornamentation around each other.

This is one of Chopin’s last major compositions, along with the Polonaise – Fantasie op 61 is often considered to be one of his more demanding compositions, both in execution and interpretation.

The F minor Fantasy  is an expansively constructed work belonging to the sphere of such epic-dramatic genres in the Chopin oeuvre as the ballades and the scherzos. Yet it occupies a distinctive, exceptional place among them. Discounting the rather trivial fantasies of the potpourri type written to operatic or other themes, such as were fashionable in Chopin’s day, we immediately perceive his Fantasy  as a work referring to the most splendid and most ambitious traditions of the piano fantasies of Mozart and the Wanderer-Fantasie of Schubert . From Chopin’s letters, we also know that he employed the name ‘fantasy’ to describe works that broke with the canon of unambiguously defined genres (e.g. the Polonaise – Fantaisie ). The term ‘fantasy’ unquestionably implies some sort of freedom from artistic rules and a peculiar, Romantic expression. It was completed and published in 1841. Through its narrative it insistently draws the listener into an expansive musical tale. But can we answer the question as to what this tale is about? In the interpretations of many commentators we find the conviction that Chopin’s work might be an echo of improvisations on national themes (as is indicated by some of the Fantasy’s  melodic strands). So Fantasy would contain a distinctive patriotic message, leading from the elegiac tone at the beginning of the work to the triumphant accents in its closing climax.

In the construction of this fascinating composition, we find elements of various forms (e.g. sonata form combined with the principle of cyclical form), yet defining the form of the Fantasy  is no easy task, even though the work does display a rigorous logic of construction. We find here moments that are very precisely formed (particular themes) and others of a looser character, akin to improvisation (especially the figural passages). In general terms, the flow of the work may be presented as follows: an introduction with two ‘march’ themes, a sort of exposition of the rich thematic material, a middle section (lyrical, at a slow tempo, in the key of B major), a sort of reprise and a coda (a reminiscence of the middle section). Of course, there are other possible interpretations of this work, which represents a real challenge for performers.  It is one of Chopin’s longest pieces, and is considered one of his greatest works.

Shunta Morimoto at Brighton Festival The sublime inspiration of a poet of the piano

Shunta Morimoto takes London by storm ‘I have a dream’ a poet speaks through music

Shunta Morimoto- Pitti Piano Festival Florence – The inspired recreation of a great artist

Shunta Morimoto – A colossus bestrides Villa Aldobrandini as it had when Liszt was in residence – complete review with Tokyo link to Schumann op 13

The 12 Finalists of the 65th Busoni Piano Competition:

Ennian Bai. Elia Cecino Christos Fountos Yungyung Guo Dongyoung Kim Sandro Nebieridze Shion Ota Zeyu Shen Jakub Sládek Zhonghua Wei Yifan Wu (2005) Jialin Yao

The Solo Finals will be held on August 30th & 31st!

The six candidates selected for the Chamber Music Final are:

Sandro Nebieridze, (2001), Georgia – Shostakovich Quintet

Zeyu Shen, (2000), China– Franck Quintet

Zhonghua Wei, (2008), China– Brahms Quintet

Yifan Wu, (2005), China – Shostakovich Quintet

Elia Cecino, (2001), Italy – Dvorak Quintet

Christos Fountos, (1997) Cyprus – Franck Quintet

From September 2 to 4, the candidates will have the unique opportunity to shine both as soloists and as chamber musicians, performing masterpieces by Schumann, Dvořák, Brahms, Shostakovich, and Franck with the prestigious Simply Quartet quartet from Vienna.

Teatro Comunale Stadttheater

FINALISSIMA

Orchestra Haydn Orchestra George Pehlivanian Direttore Dirigent Sandro Nebieridze Sergej Rachmaninov Rapsodia su un tema di Paganini, op. 43 Rhapsodie über ein Thema von Paganini, op. 43 Yifan Wu Ludwig van Beethoven Concerto n. 3 per pianoforte e orchestra in do minore, op. 37 Klavierkonzert Nr. 3 c-Moll, op. 37 – Intervallo – Pause – Christos Fountos Sergej Rachmaninov Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra n. 1 in fa diesis minore, op. 1 Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 fis-Moll, op. 1

Lista completa dei premi | Vollständige Preisliste

1st Prize  Yifan Wu 2nd Prize  Sandro Nebieridze 3rd Prize Christos Fountos 4th PrizeZhonghua Wei 5th PrizeElia Cecino 6th PrizeZeyu Shen Audience AwardYifan Wu Premio Maurizio Pollini Preis Yungyung Guo Premio Fryderyk Chopin Preis Jialin Yao Premio Senior Jury Preis Zhonghua Wei Premio Junior Jury Preis Sandro Nebieridze Premio speciale musica da camera | Sonderpreis für die beste Interpretation eines KammermusikwerkesChristos Fountos Premio speciale per la migliore l’interpretazione di musica pianistica contemporanea | Sonderpreis für die überzeugendste Interpretation zeitgenössischer Klaviermusik Zhonghua Wei Premio per l’esecuzione di un’opera di Busoni | Preis für die überzeugendste Interpretation eines Werkes von Busoni Yangrui Cai Keyboard Career Development PrizeYifan Wu Premio Alice Tartarotti Preis Yifan Wu

Grazie a FORST, Main Sponsor della Finalissima | Danke an FORST, Hauptsponsor des Grand Finale

Piano Competitions a consideration

And then there were three The Busoni Competition- The Final Part 1 and 2

And then there were six ….all the excitement of the Circus – The Busoni Competition

All the fun of the circus.The Busoni Competition

Busoni International Piano Competition 2021

Genius is certainly not easy to live with as we have experienced today from a young man who I have followed and admired for some years whilst he has been studying with Dmitri Alexeev. A young boy who could master some of the most complicated works ever written for the keyboard from Bach’s Goldberg Variations to Beethoven’s Diabelli. Then we experienced the rebellious youth with flowing locks and individual ideas. Today we are experiencing a young man where every sound he makes on the keyboard touches him almost painfully. I remember Graham Johnson with whom I shared chamber music lessons with John Streets, who would tell him that he did not have to play as though a knife was being driven into him with every note he played. But there was a super sensibility to sounds that touched him so deeply and is why and how he has become the Gerald Moore of our day . I often tell aspiring young ‘virtuosi’ to listen to Graham to learn how to make the piano sing.

Jackie’s is a very exciting talent because it is a real voyage of discovery that is continually evolving. Of course what comes across is his passionate love of the sounds he is making and how they touch him so deeply. Sometimes with exaggeration as there are no half measures with his all or nothing playing of searing intensity.But as Barbirolli was to say in defence of Jacqueline Du Pré, often criticised for playing with too much passion and extravagance, ‘ If you don’t play with passion in your youth what do you pare off in maturity?’.

Certainly to see Jackie hit the final three D’s of the preludes with his fist is hard to accept or his strange arrangements of notes in the third prelude or the jiggery pokery of alternate hands for the vibrating flourishes of the Polonaise – Fantaisie.This was a small price to pay for a Chopin Nocturne op 62 n.1 that had a rare sense of freedom with a wondrous range of colour. Less successful was the Polonaise -Fantaisie op 61 where his playing lacked an overall architectural shape, sacrificing it for some memorable moments.Proven by the fact that he played the final A flat like a shot in the dark instead of like a gentle closing of fantasy as it had opened.The Barcarolle op 60 the twin of the Polonaise too, starts with a deep C sharp that just opens up the sonority of the piano and closes with the same sound. The actual climax of the work, as with the Polonaise Fantaisie comes long before the end.

It was in the smaller forms that the true genius of this young man rang out so memorably. Fou Ts’ong called these Preludes 24 problems because they each have problems, whether interpretative or technical, and Jackie imbued each one with life or death intensity that kept us enthralled.These well known preludes were reborn as he recreated each one with burning passion and ravishing beauty. Nowhere in this consideration have I spoken about the technical mastery and perfection of this young man, which was remarkable. It was just the means to allow him to express the deep inner meaning that the music provoked in him.

Waving his hands like a painter before they actually stroked the canvas with the improvised freedom of the first prelude. A deep brooding to the second where the accompaniment almost eat the melody live as it was allowed a voice of its own. No idea why he wanted to play the opening of the third with two hands when he has a technical mastery the envy of most! He allowed the melodic line, though, to float above this wave of sounds.The famous fourth prelude was played with a drama enacted with riveting intensity followed by the subtle brilliance of fifth and the ravishing beauty of the melodic line in the sixth. The seventh may be the shortest prelude but when played as Jackie did it became a breath of fresh air of glowing beauty.

It was the eighth which ignited the passion and burning intensity within this young man where he was allowed this outlet with playing of mastery and conviction. The grandeur of the ninth with its sumptuous climax and miraculous ending was followed by a brilliant fleeting jeux perlé just ornamenting the sumptuous melodious chords of arrival. A beguiling rubato to the eleventh where the branches of Chopin’s trees were allowed to flow with extraordinary natural beauty and freedom. A burning intensity to the twelfth with its dynamic drive. The thirteenth in many ways the most strikingly beautiful of the preludes was played old style with broken hands because he was searching for the magic sounds that the great pianists of the past knew lay in the cracks. Jackie listening to every note with quite extraordinary sensibility. The wind of the fourteenth ,a mere breeze as it built in intensity only to burn itself out revealing the radiant beauty of the ‘Raindrop’. A real tone poem opened as the central episode unwound with disturbing turbulence.The sixteenth with its study like brilliance was played with the amazing assurance of a young virtuoso who must now listen more to the bass which will give more meaning and depth of sound to this study that is above all a miniature tone poem. Beautiful long lines and ravishing freedom to the seventeenth was greeted by the dynamic cadenza of the eighteenth. The nineteenth is one of the technically most difficult of the preludes ,but in Jackie’s masterly hands it became the Aolean Harp of Chopin’s dreams. The mighty C minor was played with the enormous conviction of this young artist as it disappeared so magically, leaving the beautifully mellifluous twenty-one to lead us to the final three preludes , played with poetic fantasy and passionate persuasion. A remarkable performance full of blemishes and exaggerations but the preludes have never kept me riveted to the seat as much as they did today. This was a young man with a poetic soul gradually coming to terms with his youthful passion and mastery , where his deep love for music was overpowering and deeply moving. I look forward to the next instalment in Jackie’s thrilling voyage of discovering himself through his music.

The waltz op 18 was an unexpected encore. It was played with brilliance rather than charm, starting with chiselled notes that might well have broken the toes of Les Sylphydes!

Jackie is a great artist who is living, searching, suffering every moment as he strives to recreate the vision of his poetic sound world.

Jacky Zhang is a young composer, pianist, songwriter, and producer. Still only 17 he is a fourth year undergraduate currently studying piano and composition at the Royal College of Music. He has won the first prize of the UK Piano Open International Competition in 2020, Premio Alkan International Piano Competition in 2022, and both Classical and Romantic sections at the Cantù International Piano and Orchestra Competition in 2023 and was a finalist in the BBC Young Musician 2024. Jacky has performed at many festivals and venues and has played concertos by Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff with well-known world-class conductors.

Jacky Zhang in Perivale musicianship and virtuosity at 16 triumph with clarity and artistry

Jacky Zhang at St Mary’s the birth of a great artist and the start of a long voyage of discovery

The back of beyond -Bright future for the class of Dmitri Alexeev -Jacky Zhang-Alexander Doronin-Nikita Burzanitsa-Thomas Kelly -JunLin Wu

 

 

  

Beethoven Piano Society of Europe | Jed Distler Concert Wednesday, September 3, 1.10 pm sees the latest in our St James Piccadilly lunchtime series. We were lucky enough to be able to secure a date for the extraordinary New York-based pianist and composer Jed Distler on his current European tour. Many of you will also know Jed as perhaps the world’s leading authority on piano recordings, historical and modern. 

Julian Jacobson ,President of the Beethoven Society UK ,who had invited Jed to play whilst on his European tour was quite rightly intrigued by this eclectic and quite unique programme consisting of: 32 piano sonatas in one minute. Julian plays them all in one sitting too but it takes him over 16 hours and is a ‘tour de force’ of memory and stamina. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/06/12/kapellmeister-julian-jacobson-reveals-the-debussy-preludes-at-the-1901-arts-club-with-integrity-and-old-style-musicianship/

Jed after all the Beethoven Sonatas was quite happy to add the Funeral March from the Eroica Symphony before entering into his unique sound world.

I had met Jed at a musical fair in Cremona and we hit it off immediately but then who wouldn’t ! Jed knows more about pianos and pianist than anyone alive or dead and is also one of the nicest people I know .It is an honour to have him as a guest in my house but he asked me not to write about his concert today so as not to be accused of conflict of interests. So ‘mum’s’ the word but the recording is here and can be enjoyed at your leisure without any words from me !

So I am not writing any more than to say I have rarely heard this Fazioli- or any other come to that – sound so beautiful as it did today!

I look forward to his performance of Shostakovich ‘Leningrad’ Symphony with Cristian Sandrin next week ,and there I will let rip with unconstrained praise and admiration for two such eclectic musicians

Presented in association with The Beethoven Piano Society of Europe

The rebirth of a global network in Cremona -If music be the food of love please please play on

Cremona the city of dreams – a global network where dreams become reality

Cremona a city where passions are ignited and shared and dreams become a global reality ….2023 Day 1 – 2 and 3

A letter from Cremona ,the eternal city of music where dreams become reality.

A city in love – Cremona Music Festival Parts 1,2 and 3 the day of reckoning

I have heard Tessa and Ben play many of the Scharwenka transcriptions of the Beethoven Symphonies over the past seven years. It is very touching to see the old battered copy of the Symphonies on the piano stand and know that it was the very copy that stood in her mother’s studio when Tessa was growing up.

Tessa and Ben are both highly esteemed artists not only in their homeland but also in their adopted home in London. Since those early days when I first heard them they have been discovered and have now made some highly acclaimed CD’s as a piano duo. As Dr Mather said St Mary’s may be too small for an orchestra but Sharwenka has proven him wrong, as today we heard the Pastoral Symphony in all it’s glory on this newly restored piano that is more used to Sonatas than Symphonies.

Tessa and Ben over the years have truly learnt how to play as one with an extraordinary sense of balance created by two great artists that listen to themselves and adjust accordingly. Tessa may have been at the bass end for the Beethoven but even when she played at the top the balance was just as superb.

I have written many times about their Beethoven performances but today I was overwhelmed by their superb performance of Elgar. The Introduction and Allegro like the violin or cello concerti have something so unique about the sound world that one can envisage the green pastures and wondrous landscapes that surrounded the composer as he wrote music that fits the era of Bernard Shaw or Constable and fills it with such sumptuous rich sounds.

The British Brahms you could almost call him and when I hear this music I immediately envisage Sir John Barbirolli or Sir Adrian Boult who I was lucky enough to experience in my student days at the Royal Academy and Royal College that I frequented almost daily in my teenage years. I remember Barbirolli when I, like Tessa, was a student at the Royal Academy, and I followed his rehearsals with the student orchestra. I can still see this short very passionate man walking through the cello section and looking the players in the eye to get them to play with more passion. The first recording of the cello concerto with Jaqueline du Pré is legendary but she was often criticised for playing with too much passion. ‘ But if you don’t play with passion when you are young what will you pare off later in life?’ Little was he to imagine that we would never know ,as she was struck down at only 28. Luckily she had Daniel Barenboim at her side who had managed to give her the maturity and security that only true love between genius can provide. A Golden couple indeed!

Boult on the other hand at the college would stand on the podium like a Military gentleman waving a very long stick. But the intelligence and passion that the stick contained was a great lesson indeed and it was his recording of the Elgar Introduction that I would play over and over again as a student.

Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony is one of the marvels of creation and the fantasy and imagination that Beethoven was able to portray was made even more poignant by the titles he gave each movement.

It was such a good idea to play these two ‘Pastoral’ gems one after the other. Not to compare but to wallow in genius that can portray in music such wondrous scenes. Tessa suggested, as a future project , Bruckner Symphonies in the arrangement of Otto Singer which sounds like a wondrous voyage of discovery .

I know that Jed Distler ,who will shortly play in Perivale is preparing Shostakovich Leningrad symphony with Cristian Sandrin that they will play in London shortly.He is also playing four hands all the Mahler Symphonies. St Mary’s may be redundant no longer !! Watch out Hugh ……….as the little one said move over !

In 2010, Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman established a duo partnership after being invited to give a two-piano recital at the Royal Over-Seas League in London. Ever since, they have performed regularly at music societies, festivals and at the BBC. They have recorded six volumes encompassing the nine symphonies by Beethoven arranged for piano duet by Xaver Scharwenka, alongside two-piano works by Schumann, Saint-Saëns and Busoni for SOMM Recordings. They have received praise for this “landmark” project, and it has been described as a “tour-de-force” in the BBC, Gramophone and International Piano Magazines.  

Tessa Uys Born in Cape Town, Tessa Uys was first taught by her mother, Helga Bassel, herself a noted concert pianist. At sixteen, she won a Royal Schools Associated Board Scholarship and continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied with Gordon Green.  In her final year she was awarded the MacFarren Medal.  Further studies in London with Maria Curcio, and in Siena with Guido Agosti followed. Shortly after this Tessa Uys won the Royal Over-Seas League Competition and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. During the past decades, Tessa Uys has established herself an impressive reputation, both as concert performer, and as a broadcasting artiste, performing at many concert venues throughout the world. She has performed at the Wigmore Hall, Southbank, Barbican and St John’s Smith Square, and has played under such distinguished conductors as Sir Neville Marriner, Walter Susskind, Louis Frémaux and Nicholas Kraemer. https://www.impulse-music.co.uk/tessauys/ 

Ben Schoeman Steinway Artist, Ben Schoeman was the first prize laureate in the 11th UNISA International Piano Competition in Pretoria, winner of the gold medal in the Royal Over-Seas League Competition in London and was also awarded the contemporary music prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition. He has performed in prestigious halls on several continents, including the Wigmore, Barbican and Queen Elizabeth Halls in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Gulbenkian Auditorium in Lisbon, Cape Town City Hall and the Enescu Festival in Bucharest. As a concerto soloist he has collaborated in over 40 works with conductors including Diego Masson, Gérard Korsten, Yasuo Shinozaki, Bernhard Gueller, Jonathan McPhee and Wolfram Christ. He studied piano with renowned musicians such as Joseph Stanford, Michel Dalberto, Boris Petrushansky, and Eliso Virsaladze, and obtained a doctorate in music from City, University of London and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a thesis on the piano works of the composer Stefans Grové whose African-inspired music Schoeman has premiered and performed in numerous countries. Over the past decade, he has been a senior lecturer and research fellow at the University of Pretoria. He has served on the jury of international music competitions and his students have won top prizes. www.benschoeman.com 

Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman. Ode to Joy triumphs in Perivale

Tessa Uys Part 2 at St Lawrence Jewry and at St Michaels’ Highgate with Ben Schoeman in Beethoven 5th and 9th.

Happy Birthday Beethoven – Uys/Schoeman at St Lawrence Jewry

Franz Xaver Scharwenka was born on 6 January 1850 at Samter, near the Polish city of Poznan, which was then in East Prussia. Both Xaver and his older brother Philipp (1847–1917) showed early signs of musical talent and were much encouraged by their father in their first music lessons. In 1865 the Scharwenka family moved to Berlin where the two brothers were enrolled at Theodor Kullak’s Neue Akademie der Tonkunst. Xaver made rapid progress, studying the piano with Kullak himself, a pupil of Carl Czerny, and composition with Richard Wuerst who in turn had studied with Mendelssohn in Leipzig. This formal musical education, together with his own natural ability and dedication, ensured Scharwenka’s success as both pianist and composer, and in 1869, a year after his pianistic debut at the Berlin Singakademie, his first compositions were published. Before 1874, when he took up a career as a travelling virtuoso, he had already been on Kullak’s teaching staff for some five years as professor of piano, and the experience thus gained was to prove invaluable in later years when he turned his attentions more to teaching, opening his own conservatory in Berlin in 1881, and subsequently a branch in New York in 1891 following his successful American debut. By the middle of the 1890s that institution had become one of the world’s largest, universally acknowledged as offering the highest quality of musical education. It was the outbreak of war in 1914 which forced Scharwenka’s retirement from the international concert platform after some forty years, during which time he had achieved the highest reputation worldwide, not only as a pianist of exceptional quality but also as a fine all-round musician, receiving numerous decorations and orders from most of the crowned heads of Europe, as well as many honours from various educational institutions. The last few years of his life were spent in semi-retirement in Berlin, where he died, a much respected man, in December 1924.

 Otto Singer Jr., (September 14, 1863 – January 8, 1931), composer and conductor, produced piano transcriptions of all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies, at least 57 of Liszt’s songs, all four of Brahms’s symphonies, vocal-piano reductions (vocal parts plus solo piano) of 12 of Wagner’s operas (as well as instrumental solo piano versions for some of them), as well as transcriptions of other works by Richard Strauss, Brahms, Beethoven, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and Mahler, among others including this Elgar

  

  

 Pedro Salas is a very fine pianist whose playing I have long admired, following his career during his studies in London with Norma Fisher and Vanessa Latarche.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/07/07/pedro-lopez-sales-at-the-royal-college-of-music-a-poet-of-aristocratic-refinement/

He has now graduated with considerable honours and is perfecting his studies at home in Spain with Stanislaw Ioudenitch in the Conservatory in Madrid where he also holds a teaching post. Winner of numerous important International Competitions Pedro has set his sites on the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Having been a top prize winner in the Paderewski Competition his presence in Warsaw was guaranteed for the 2025 Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/08/25/impeccable-living-mozart-as-queen-bodicea-drives-her-flaming-chariot-to-meet-grieg-salasswigutpastuszka-and-the-ohorkiestra-take-warsaw-by-storm/

It is wonderful to hear these young musicians preparing for the circus ring and in doing so, delving ever deeper into the scores of Chopin with a mastery that I do not envy a jury who has to make a comparative choice. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2016/05/16/piano-competitions-a-consideration/

The good thing is that it will lead to a feast of wonderful performances and the discovery of so many marvellous young musicians dedicating their youth to perfecting their art.

I have heard recently some wonderful things from Andrzej Wiercinski, Diana Cooper, Jackie Zhang, Ryan Wang ,Yuanfan Yang and now Pedro Salas .All wonderful performers many playing the same Chopin Polonaise – Fantaisie op 61 and Preludes , but all completely different.

Chopin’s late Nocturne op 62 was played with great sensitivity and an extraordinary almost improvised freedom creating a bel canto of beauty and timeless wonder.

Chopin’s very youthful Waltz B 150 is full of nostalgia and the refined elegance of it’s time ( I had infact chosen it to accompany some scenes in Ibsen’s Doll’s House) and it was very moving to hear the unmistakable genial voice of Chopin played with the aristocratic good taste that was Chopin’s birthright. The second posthumous Waltz is of scintillating brilliance of liberation and freedom where even here Pedro found some magical inner counterpoints that he underlined with subtle prism like rays of beauty.

The Polonaise-Fantaisie opened with imperious sounds that reverberated so naturally over the entire keyboard. Pedro played them in just one sweep taking the last note (like Wiercinski) with a slow descending left hand where harmonic and visual beauty went hand in hand. It was this poetry that Pedro was to imbue in this extraordinary original creation where ‘war and peace’ are combined in a flow of beauty of sumptuous sounds and dynamic rhythmic drive arriving at the final explosion of exhilaration and aristocratic control. Pedro allowing the music to calm until the final whispered notes hovering over deep bass reverberations are greeted by a plaintive single A flat. It completes this perfectly shaped work that like its partner the Barcarolle op 60 , finish in paradise not in crowd pleasing triumph. Pedro chose the six preludes from 7 to 12 instead of 13 to 18 like many of his colleagues. Chopin never played all his twenty four Preludes together choosing ( as Sviatolasv Richter was to do ) a selection as obviously has been requested by the competition rules !

A beautifully simple n. 7, the shortest of all the preludes was followed by the passionate outpouring of the 8th ( obviously of great inspiration to Scriabin ). Full rich sound to the 9th was followed by the delicate cascades of notes of the 10th. The beautiful flowing line of the 11th was played with a beguiling beauty and contrasted with the stamping militaristic 12th . Pedro played each one like miniature tone poems shaping them with sensitivity and poetic inspiration .

It was at the end of the recital that Pedro like all great performers had created an atmosphere where every note was being shadowed by an audience totally seduced by this hot blooded young spaniard. An ‘Andante spianato’ of ravishing beauty with a subtle sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to sing so naturally above the hovering waves of sound in the bass. A simplicity and clarity that allowed Chopin’s bel canto to rise above this delicate wave with the natural shape of Monserrat Caballé! A mazurka that was played with a glowing simplicity and subtle freedom before the entry of Pedro’s orchestra, and a complete change of character, as the Grande Polonaise Brillante was allowed to take wing. Even here there was a subtle bel canto which turned into streams of jeux perlé that were played with a beguiling mastery and palette of colour. Powerful octaves and agitated chords but always with the brilliance and masterly sense of elegance with which Chopin conquered the salons in Paris on his arrival as a teenager escaping the political unrest in his homeland.

Pedro is a great musician with a refined tonal palette and rare good taste but he also has Spanish blood in his veins and can raise the temperature with imperious showmanship and mastery. An ovation from this lunchtime audience and an unexpected encore where Pedro’s great artistry was allowed to lead the audience through a most beguiling ornamented version of Chopin’s famous E flat Nocturne. Embellishments recently published in the most complete edition of Chopin’s works and are original embellishments that Chopin would give away as presents to his pretty aristocratic pupils. Kochalski recorded some of them in 1938, and recently ornamentation has become more and more common place.

https://youtu.be/cW-VRsOeIwM?si=DvXdkbRHMv4X7ajb

Pedro played this magic web of sounds with such beauty and mastery that the audience held their breath as we used to do when Caballé would sing a chain of notes with such perfection of unbelievable breath control.

The entire audience were on their feet to thank this young man for the beauty he had shared with them this lunchtime and to wish him a voyage on the same wings of song to Warsaw.

Born in 1997, Pedro is a Spanish pianist who is currently studying the Master of Performance Degree with the legendary pianist and pedagogue Norma Fisher at the “Royal College of Music” in London (RCM), awarded with full scholarship and the title of the “Leverhulme Honorary Arts Scholarships”. He is a “Talent Unlimited” artist, as well as a “Keyboard Trust” artist, both from the UK.

He has been awarded with more than 40 prizes at International and National piano competitions (among them, the First Prizes at the Malta International Piano Competition; International Piano Competition “Composers of Spain” CIPCE (Las Rozas, Madrid); “Joan Chisell” Schumann Prize of the RCM (London), etc.) 

He has also received crucial inspiration from internationally renowned masters such as Dmitri Baskirov, Dmitri Alexeev, Alexander Kobrin, Pavel Nerssesian, Marianna Aivazova, Pascal Nemirovsky, Pavel Gililov and Ludmil Angelov. 

He has performed throughout Spain and Europe in auditoriums such as the “Manuel de Falla” in Granada, “Teatro Circo” in Albacete, Aachen Theater, “Wiener Saal” in Salzburg and as a soloist with the Orquesta de Valencia (OV) in the “Palau de la Música” in Valencia and with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla (ROSS) in the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, he has been praised by the critics as “more than an excellent pianist, he is a soloist and almost a conductor, judging by his scenic development” (Ritmo magazine) or “enormous security and great capacity of the young pianist to endow Liszt’s concerto number 2 with expressiveness and poetry” (El correo de Sevilla). Also, in the “Miguel Delibes” of Valladolid, playing with the OSCYL (“Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León”); “Teatro Canónigos de la Granja” of Segovia and “Centro Cultural Nicolás Salmerón” of Madrid and with the CSKG orchestra, performing the second piano concertos of F. Chopin and F. Liszt, etc. Among his scheduled performances, it deserves an specoal mention the “Rhapsody in Blue” by G. Gershwin at the ADDA in Alicante and the “Auditorio Internacional de Torrevieja” with the OST (“Orquesta Sinfónica de Torrevieja”), as well as having been invited to perform Rachmaniov’s concerto number 2 again with the ROSS at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, given his fabulous previous reviews with Liszt’s 2. In addition, in 2022 he will make an international concert tour in the UK (London), Russia (Severodvinsk and Arkhangelsk), as well as Spain (Lleida, Albacete,etc.). 

He has offered numerous interviews for international and national press, radio and television. “Three encores, standing audience and a long line of spectators lined up to congratulate the young Spanish pianist. Pedro López Salas brightened up the evening in Milan” (Cultura di Milano). 

Pedro Lopez Salas at the Royal College of Music – A poet of aristocratic refinement

Pedro Lopez Salas at the National Liberal Club with aristocratic style and artistry

Pedro Lopez Salas in Paradise .A standing ovation at La Mortella – The Walton Foundation

Pedro Lopez Salas -The style and authority of a great artist -The Keyboard Trust in Florence goes British

Pedro Lopez Salas -The style and authority of a great artist -The Keyboard Trust in Florence goes British

I have heard Diana Cooper many times over the past few seasons in London, as she unknowingly prepared to participate in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2025. There has been a very drastic selection of videos sent in from the hundreds of applicants who wanted to follow in the steps of Bruce Liu who was the winner in 202I. Diana is one of the lucky few selected to go to Warsaw, into the ring where the gladiators will fight to the end in this Circus arena that these competitions have created. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2016/05/16/piano-competitions-a-consideration/

Diana is a great artist but working on her Chopin programmes I have noticed that added to her intelligence and pianistic mastery, she has acquired an authority that is made of the humility and respect for the text of Chopin that he had bequeathed to the world, mostly written in his own hand. A so called Chopin tradition has grown up since his death where the idiosincracies of great pianist – entertainers has sometimes turned Chopin’s so called rubato into a grotesque distortion aimed at titivating the senses and arousing the approval of the audience. Chopin has no need for that because he was able to create a new art form for a piano that now had pedals, and a soul of its own that lies within the very notes, and needs no external icing on the cake! It was Rubinstein who broke away from this so called tradition and as Perlemuter once told me there is no-one who knows the scores better than he.

Diana realises this and her superb musicianship and sensitivity give her playing a strength and nobility that allows Chopin’s own voice to shine through. I have quoted from some of my past reviews below but there were a few works that I had not heard her play before. The Polonaise Fantaisie,the Berceuse ,three Mazurkas and the Waltz op 42 that I have added an appreciation to, below each piece.

A Polonaise – Fantaisie played with strength and passion with a superb use of the pedals that allowed Chopin to create this new form in the last year of his life, where the Polonaise and fantasy were inextricable interwound. A very noble opening but I would think twice before splitting the long vibrations between the hands as it ruins the impression of an artist making one stroke with his brush. Diana however could create of this extraordinary work one great architectural shape, that took us to the beautiful central episode with such inevitability and a sense of riding on a wave of sounds always moving forward. Leading to the return of the opening declamation and with dynamic drive to the sumptuous climax of glorious exultation and aristocratic nobility.

 ‘Diana Cooper at Bechstein Hall – ‘freedom and flexibility of rare artistry’ – ‘ravishing sounds of refined delicacy mingled with robust declamations’. This is what I jotted down as she recreated the Mazurka op 30 n. 3 that opened this extraordinary Chopin Recital.She shared with us in just a few minutes a tone poem with a kaleidoscope of colours and emotions. ‘Canons covered in flowers’, never have Schumann’s words come so vividly to life. A piano that I have heard played by many very fine artists, but today the sounds she found with a miraculous sense of balance and sensitivity , a subtle palette of colours, I would never have thought possible. A bass that resounded with the deep velvety resonance reminiscent of a Bosendorfer or Shegeru Kwai – a middle register of Bluthner or Fazioli richness – an upper register that of the Hamburg Steinway of yore.’

What a joy to hear the other three Mazurka’s that make up this set . The beguiling nostalgia of the C minor never forgetting the refined elegance and fantasy of this dance so deeply embedded in Chopin from birth. The boisterous dance of the B minor was played with exhilaration and excitement. There was ravishing beauty and an extraordinary range of sounds in the C sharp minor mazurka with it’s ever questioning phrases.

There was the same sense of style and refined elegance in the waltz op 42 that she played in Perivale as an encore .

‘The Fourth Scherzo, an elusive work of extraordinary fantasy and chameleonic changes of character that have made it less accessible to all but the greatest of interpreters. Diana played it today with a kaleidoscope of sounds as she took us into a fantasy world of fleeting quixotic fancy and ravishing washes of sumptuous melody. In Diana’s masterly hands even the glistening jeux perlé that abounds was played with a clarity starting with the pedal but then continuing without, that was quite breathtaking in it’s audacity.The bare notes of the introduction to the ‘più lento’ central episode I have rarely heard played with such poignancy, where one could feel the collegiate atmosphere created and of her leading us by the hand into a wondrous land of beauty .The radiance and sumptuous beauty of the imperious final few bars gave us that rich sound of a truly ‘Grand Piano’ with a depth and richness of magisterial authority. ‘

I have never forgotten a performance of the Chopin ‘Berceuse’ that I had heard from Norma Fisher in the London Piano Series at the Wigmore Hall in the sixties. I had been taken by ‘our’ teacher Sidney Harrison, who had taken me under his wing as a schoolboy and wanted to introduce the winner of the Liszt Scholarship at the Royal Academy to his prize student, now and established artist worldwide. It is Norma Fisher who has been mentoring Diana and it was this rich aristocratic sound that I was reminded of today. A refined simplicity almost a classical style ( Mozart A minor rondo comes to mind) as the variations evolved glistening and shimmering with silvery sounds of glowing beauty. The beauty of C flat floating with subtle beauty into the atmosphere creating a magic aura of sublime beauty taking us to the whispered ending.

‘It was this same authority that opened the B minor Sonata,with the power of a drama that was about to unfold. Searing passion and breathless declamations gave way to a bel canto with an inner energy, as Diana had conceived the whole movement in one glorious architectural whole. Moments of extraordinary beauty as counterpoints just shone like jewels catching the light.There was no repeat but straight into the development with overwhelming drive and authority. The Trio of the Scherzo was given unusual importance with contrapuntal strands that all made such sense and were the guiding light for this movement that can sound, in lesser hands, so disjointed. An imperious opening to the Largo played with extraordinary intelligence and sensitive musicality as she gave a monumental shape to passages that can seem like senseless beautiful meanderings. She brought a breathtaking climax played with her extraordinary ability to feel and search for a balance that would allow beauty, passion and delicacy to live under the same roof. The ‘Presto non tanto’ was played with beguiling menace as it became ever more excited and exhilarating, all leading to the final tumultuous explosion and the triumphant left hand fanfare taking us to the final chords of breathless inevitability.’

Winner of numerous awards including 1st Prize at the Brest Chopin Competition, 1st Prize at the Halina Czerny-Stefanská International Competition in Poznan (Poland) and 1st Prize at the Concurso Internacional de Piano de Vigo (Spain), Diana Cooper has been invited to perform in various venues and festivals in France and abroad, including the Nohant Chopin Festival, the Festival Chopin à Paris, the Salle Cortot, the Hrvatski dom Split in Croatia, Chopin’s manor in Zelazowa Wola in Poland, the Teatro Filarmónica de Oviedo… In 2023 and 2024, she was selected to take part in the project Un été en France avec Gautier Capuçon, for which she performed solo and chamber music in several open-air concerts across France, including in Corsica. She was invited in 2018 to take part in the radio program Générations Jeunes Interprètes on France Musique and, in 2023, performed as a trio in the television programme Fauteuils d’orchestre, broadcast on France 5. In 2024 she was chosen to take part in a masterclass with Yuja Wang, filmed and produced by the BBC for the art series Arts in Motion. She appeared with several orchestras including the Orkiestra Symfoniczna Filharmonii Kaliskiej, in Poland, performing Chopin’s 1st concerto under the baton of Maciej Kotarba. Born in Tarbes (France), Diana is a graduate of the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP), the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot and the Royal College of Music in London. Her main professors include Norma Fisher, Philippe Giusiano, Rena Shereshevskaya, and Marie-Josèphe Jude. Diana has recently recorded her first CD, featuring works by Haydn, Chopin and Ravel, after winning 1st Prize in the Concours d’aide aux Jeunes Artistes organised by the Festival du Vexin.

Diana Cooper in Perivale Chopin of rare intelligence and poetic understanding

Diana Cooper ‘Miracles at Bechstein Hall’

Classical D International Piano Festival of Hao Yao ‘Martin Garcia Garcia triumphs at Bechstein Hall’ with ‘Chinese Stars shining brightly in London ‘

Luigi Caroccia flying high on wings of song.

The art of Chopin’s bel canto seduces the senses in the Riviera di Ulisse

The two Chopin concerto’s ignite the perfumed air in the Teatro Romano of Minturno as the ravishing melodic invention of the young Chopin was allowed to unfold on the golden web with which they were born.

Players from the orchestra da camera di Mantova were ready to join this wondrous voyage of discovery, as the jewel like sounds of the chiselled beauty that Luigi sculptured with his refined fingers wafted over the centuries of history that surrounded us.

Players from one of the finest chamber orchestras in Europe were : Filippo Lama and Filippo Ghidoni ,violin; Tessa Rippo,viola; Leonardo Notarangelo,’cello; Alessandro Schillaci,double bass. I have heard the Chopin Concerti several times with a chamber ensemble of string quartet but this is the first time with a quintet. The double bass gave a depth of sound that gives so much more strength to the ‘tutti’s’ where one can easily miss the full climactic moments of the piano continued into the orchestral tutti’s. It was the superb viola of Tessa Rippo who could even imitate Chopin’s horn call in the second concerto and the sumptuous beauty of the first violin of Filippo Lama that could give such full radiance alone. The ‘cello and second violin too filling the textures with chamber music subtlety but there were one or two strange non legato phrasings where we missed the weight of the orchestra.

What we gained of course was a superb chamber ensemble of musicians listening to each other and especially listening to the freedom of bel canto that allows the melodic lines to blossom with radiance and beauty. Becoming free as the soloist ,as Chopin himself described to his aristocratic lady pupils. Music should be like a tree planted in the ground, with the branches free to move as freely as they like. Music in this formation became a precious jewel that was allowed to glisten and gleam as is rarely possible when you have a ‘policeman’ at the helm of an orchestra that seems to have little to do ! https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2016/05/30/chopin-concerti-at-the-chopin-society/ https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/01/chopin-reigns-at-the-national-liberal-club-and-st-marys-perivale-the-triumph-of-misha-kaploukhii-and-magdalene-ho/

Chopin concertos that have never been allowed to sing so eloquently and vibrantly. Even the brilliant jeux perlé became but streams of wondrous sounds greeting an audience that this theatre has not seen since the Romans found and inhabited this wondrous paradise.Hopefully this rediscovery of well known classics in chamber formation will continue next year with the 3rd Season of the Riviera di Ulisse. I have heard recently the Beethoven Piano concertos being reborn in the arrangement for piano and quintet by Vinzenz Lachner There is of course the supreme magic of Mozart’s own three concerti K413,K 414,K 415 for piano and quartet that I had heard years ago from Fou Ts’ong and the Allegri Quartet and that I have never forgotten.

Luigi Carroccia ‘The poet of the piano’ Chopin Concerti op 11 and 21 in Rome Orchestra delle Cento Città directed by Luigi Piovano

Chopin’s compositions for piano and orchestra   originated from the late 1820s to the early 1830s, and comprise three concert pieces he composed 1827–1828, while a student at the Central School of Music in Warsaw, two piano concertos , completed and premièred between finishing his studies (mid 1829) and leaving Poland (late 1830), and later drafts, resulting in two more published works. Among these, and the other works in the brilliant style which Chopin composed in this period, the concertos are the most accomplished.

Variations on ‘Là ci darem la mano’in B♭ major (1827), Op. 2.

Fantasy on Polish Airs , in A major (1828), Op. 13.

Rondo à la Krakowiak , in F major (1828), Op. 14.

Piano Concerto n. 2 in F minor (1829–1830), Op. 21.

Piano Concerto n. 1 in E minor  in E minor (1830), Op. 11.

Grande polonaise brillante (1830–1831), in 1834 expanded with an introductory Andante spianato for solo piano, and a fanfare-like transition to the earlier composition, together published as op. 22

Drafts for more concertos, ultimately resulting in the Allegro de Concert for solo piano (1832–41), Op. 46.

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, was written  in 1830, when he was twenty years old. It was first performed on 12 October of that year, at the Teatr Narodowy (the National Theatre) in Warsaw, with the composer as soloist, during one of his “farewell” concerts before leaving Poland

It was the first of Chopin’s two piano concertos to be published, and was therefore given the designation of Piano Concerto “No. 1” at the time of publication, even though it was actually written immediately after the premiere of what was later published as n. 2. The presenter of the concert form S. Cecilia Academy in Rome , told us that it was published as number one because the orchestral parts of the other concerto could not be found!

The premiere, on 12 October 1830, was “a success…. a full house”. There was “an audience of about 700” and the he concerto was premiered with Chopin himself at the piano and Carlo Evasio Soliva conducting. The piece was followed by “thunderous applause”. Seven weeks later, in Paris, following the political outbreaks in Poland , Chopin played his concerto for the first time in France at the Salle Playel . It was received well, once again. François-Joseph Fétis  wrote in La Revue musicale the next day that “There is spirit in these melodies, there is fantasy in these passages, and everywhere there is originality”. Opinions of the concerto differ. Some critics feel that the orchestral support as written is dry and uninteresting, for example the critic James Huneker , who wrote in Chopin: The Man and his Musicthat it was “not Chopin at his very best”. Sometimes musicians such as Mikhail Pletnev feel a need to amend Chopin’s orchestration.On the other hand, many others feel that the orchestral backing is carefully and deliberately written to fit in with the sound of the piano, and that the simplicity of arrangement is in deliberate contrast to the complexity of the harmony. It has been suggested that the orchestral writing is reminiscent of  Hummel’s concertos in giving support to the piano rather than providing drama. Harold Schonberg , in The Great Pianists, writes “…the openings of the Hummel A minor  and Chopin E minor concertos are too close to be coincidental”.However, Schumann  took a rather different view when he reviewed Chopin’s concerti in 1836 declaring that “Chopin introduces the spirit of Beethoven into the concert hall” with these pieces.While composing it, Chopin wrote to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski, saying “Here you doubtless observe my tendency to do wrong against my will. As something has involuntarily crept into my head through my eyes, I love to indulge it, even though it may be all wrong”. This sight may have been the well-known soprano Konstancja Gladkowska, believed by some to be the “ideal” behind the Larghetto from Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto, although some believe Chopin may have been referring to Woyciechowski

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, . op. 21, was written in 1829. Chopin composed the piece before he had finished his formal education, at around 20 years of age. It was first performed on 17 March 1830, in Warsaw, with the composer as soloist. It was the second of his piano concertos to be published (after n. 1), and so was designated as “No. 2”, even though it was written first.

A star shining brightly in Fondi as the artistry of Jonathan Fournel shows how passion poetry and mastery can intoxicate and mesmerise the audience of the Riviera di Ulisse Festival of Luigi and Natalie Carroccia .

Bach played with a kaleidoscope of colour and aristocratic nobility.The Bach Italian Concerto was played with extraordinarily refined colouring that was respectful of the period it was written. Full of fantasy and dynamism in every note but with a very refined musical palette without ever loosing the dynamic drive that is so much part of the genius of Köthen. The slow movement was very expressive but strangely very orchestral with rich but delicate sounds (as Jonathan was to find in Brahms later too). Here there was an architectural shape of the nobility and authority of a thinking and feeling musician. The last movement sprang from his masterly fingers with dynamic drive and a rhythmic energy of exhilaration and ‘joie de vivre’, Counterpoints that were so clearly differentiated by contrasted dynamic levels of sound. There was also no rallentando or grandiose ending to ruin the architectural shape that had been created by the master of knotty twine so perfectly differentiated by Jonathan’s true pianistic mastery.

Brahms played with almost orchestral richness that was both tender and passionate.Three Intermezzi op 117 that Brahms described as ‘three lullabies of my grief’ were played with whispered luminosity and a delicately chiselled orchestral beauty. Op 117 n.1 is based on an anonymous Scottish Ballade : ‘lie still and sleep; 
It grieves me sore to see thee weep’ ,where Jonathan found a beautiful gentle doubling of the tenor register. As the melody returned the gently rocking from the bass to the soprano created a frame of pure magic, with barely audible final notes placed with infinite delicacy and breathtaking beauty.There was the insinuating beauty of the second in B flat minor with a richness but also a tenderness and an ending of exquisite beauty. A central episode that has been described as :’man as he stands with the bleak, gusty autumn wind eddying round him’ was indeed played with a rich full tone of glowing beauty and timeless wonder. The third in C sharp minor is the most disturbing with it’s almost oriental feel to the opening doubling of the melodic line and which Jonathan transformed into a wondrous tone poem of beguiling insinuating beauty.

And finally the Liszt Sonata played with fearless abandon and respect for the pinnacle of the romantic piano repertoire.

Restored to its rightful place with breathtaking beauty and earthshattering conviction but above all the respect for the genius of Liszt, as Jonathan recreated this masterpiece as rarely ever heard since Gilels. I have never experienced the almost religious rite of the opening with hands poised as he was about to embark on a truly wondrous voyage. The dynamic values within forte may have been slightly the same but this was a man playing with passionate commitment and quite extraordinary technical mastery. As Barbirolli famously said of criticism of Jaqueline Du Pré ;’If you don’t play with passion and love when you are young what do you pare off when you are older’. Jonathan,like Du Pré, is a great musician and always foremost in his playing was the sense of line and an overall sense of balance. Sometimes at the height of passionate involvement suddenly reducing the sound so it could lead to the climax without any hard or ungrateful sounds. The sign of a great musician is the meaning that is given to the rests or silences between the notes and it was this that became so noticeable as Jonathan began the descent into the recapitulation after the searing intensity of the central movement. The gradual disintegration into descending scales like glistening jewels just coming to rest after such a traumatic experience was truly memorable for the energy that he could install in notes of such seeming simplicity. There were terrifying contrasts between the enormous sonorities of the chords and the touching delicacy of the recitativi. Passion and poetry combined in a truly memorable performance of this pinnacle of the romantic piano repertoire. The fearless mastery of the treacherous final octaves were played at a speed that would have put fear into any other pianist as they passed from the right hand to the left with quite extraordinary passionate involvement and remarkable accuracy.

The final visionary pages were played by a true poet but also a thinking musician, where rests I have never noticed before became as eloquent and meaningful as the notes. There were moments of aching silence as Jonathan reached the heights with three delicately placed chords, the last one played quieter than the others , as Liszt asks, and barely touching the final B. Moved by this moment of recreation as he involved us in this act of mutual communion that can only happen in live performance. Again it was the aching final silence that spoke even louder than the notes because we were all involved in this almost religious rite of recreation.

As Gilels so rightly said ‘live performance is like fresh food and recorded performances like canned food’. And as the ‘Bard’ said : ‘If Music be the food of love, please oh please play on’.

Exhausted but not completely spent this young man could still create a magic spell with the Bach-Siloti Prelude in B minor.The shadow of Gilels watching from above as this young man recreated the magic that was his many years ago.

A star was truly born tonight with Jonathan Fournel’s much awaited return to Italy after winning the Gold Medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competion in 2021 .

The very first competition in 1938 was won by Emil Gilels, could that be a coincidence or is great artistry born on these wings of song?

This is Gilels playing the same Bach-Siloti that Jonathan treated us to as an encore :

https://youtu.be/Yu06WnXlPCY?si=2W06QQaMd1O7Zc_a

The Piano Sonata in B minor S.178  is in a single movement . Liszt completed the work during his time in Weimar, Germany in 1853, a year before it was published in 1854 and performed in 1857. He dedicated the piece to Robert Schumann , in return for Schumann’s dedication to Liszt in his Fantasie in C major op 17 .A copy of the work arrived at Schumann’s house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium. Clara Schumann   did not perform the Sonata despite her marriage to Robert Schumann as she found it “merely a blind noise”.The Sonata was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854 and first performed on 27 January 1857 in Berlin by Hans von Bulow. It was attacked by 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, and it was also criticized by the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein . However, the Sonata drew enthusiasm from Richard 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 commonplace in 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 Liszt’s repertoire and has been a popularly performed and extensively analyzed piece ever since

The complexity of the sonata means no analytical interpretation has been widely accepted. Some analyses suggest that the Sonata has four movements, although there is no gap between them. Superimposed upon the four movements is a large sonata form structure, although the precise beginnings and endings of the traditional development and recapitulation sections have long been a topic of debate. Others claim a three-movement form, an extended one-movement sonata form, and a rotational three-movement work with a double exposition and recapitulation. Liszt effectively composed a sonata within a sonata, which is part of the work’s uniqueness, and he was economical with his thematic material. The first page contains three motive ideas that provide the basis for nearly all that follows, with the ideas being transformed throughout having been inspired by Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy and the transformation of themes that Liszt’s son in law Wagner was to make his own.

The quiet ending of the Sonata was an afterthought; the original manuscript contains a crossed-out ending section which would have ended the work in a loud flourish instead. Vladimir Ashkenazy considers these final two pages to be the most inspirational of all the romantic piano repertoire .

Richard Zhang was born in Jiashan, China in 2005 and showed a great interest in music at a very early age. He began playing the piano when he was six, studying with William Zhou

Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne No.1 , Op 55.

Although rather slow Richard’s aristocratic musicianship shone through this most beautiful of all Chopin Nocturnes which was in fact the favourite of that magician of the keyboard Shura Cherkassky.https://fb.watch/BNojHde30K/

It was obvious that Richard has had some wonderful training from the Menuhin School where he has been studying with Marcel Baudet who has instilled in so many young musicians a real sense of musicianship and respect for the score. Damir Duramovic and Can Arisoy are both products of Marcel Baudet at the Menuhin School and have both received a real grounding in true musicianship going on to graduate from the Royal College and The Guildhall .https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/03/29/brazil-200-and-keyboard-trust-30-a-collaboration-born-on-wings-of-brazilian-song/

Many years ago I had the honour to be on the jury of the Monza competition with Marcel and could witness the musical integrity and humility that he now shares with his lucky students. It was this musical integrity that allowed this nocturne to sing with simplicity and a superb sense of balance where the bel canto could sing sustained by a discretely placed bass. Even the coda unfolded with refined colouring in which the bass melody was allowed to emerge with great beauty.

Claude Debussy: Images, série I
I. Reflets dans l’eau
II. Hommage à Rameau
III. Mouvement

A beautiful fluidity to the sound in ‘Reflets’ as there was a gradual build up to the passionate climax but always with control and an architectural sense of line. The final page was of refined beauty and ravishing colouring. There was an aristocratic poise to ‘Hommage’ with some beautiful atmospheric pedal effects and a haunting sense of line to the final page before the sotto voce of ‘Movement’. Played with transcendental control and fantasy as it wove its way into the stratosphere with refined brilliance.

Robert Schumann:  Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op 26
I. Allegro, (Sehr Lebhaft), B-flat major
II. Romanze (Ziemlich Langsam), g minor
III. Scherzino, B-flat major
IV: Intermezzo, (Mit Größter Energie), e-flat minor
V: Finale, (Höchst Lebhaft), B-flat major

There was a great sense of forward movement and an overall sense of line even in the differing interludes of the ‘Allegro’ that was played with a dynamic drive of passionate intensity.There was a simplicity and beauty to the ‘Romanze’ that was contrasted with the capricious driving rhythms of the Scherzo where lightness and beauty were given to the musical line. The ‘Intermezzo’ just burst from Richard’s fingers with controlled passion but always with a superb sense of line and phrasing of refined elegance. The ‘Finale’ showed off Richard’s remarkable ‘fingerfertigkeit’ that together with a relentless drive even in the mellifluous contrasting episodes finally exploded with exhilaration and excitement in the coda of the final bars.

A full church greeted this young man with a justly deserved ovation and it augurs well for his studies that will continue with Ronan o’Hora at the Guildhall – another superb trainer of so many remarkable young musicians.

In October 2015 he met the harpsichord maker Ferguson Hoey at the China Music Exhibition, and tried a harpsichord for the first time. Immediately realising his exceptional talent, Mr. Hoey arranged for him to come to the UK and audition at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Here he continued his piano studies with Marcel Baudet. 

Richard has given various solo performances in China and Europe, taking part in a number of concerts in the Menuhin Hall and other venues since joining the school. In December 2017 he was the soloist for a performance of Finzi’s Eclogue with the school’s Junior Orchestra, a mature performance much praised for its meditative qualities. In February 2018 he performed Liszt Transcendental Studies in Amsterdam to considerable acclaim. 

His love of chamber music came to the fore in the Menuhin School’s Summer Festival 2018, when he performed Schumann’s Piano Quintet with other pupils. In March 2019 he progressed to the finals of the Aarhus International Piano Competition in Denmark and in June performed with other students at London’s Wigmore Hall. In the Summer Festival he joined string players at the school in a dazzling performance of the Dvorak Piano Quintet. Then in October he partnered Alina Ibragimova in the Violin Sonata by Debussy at Zamira Menuhin Benthall’s 80th Birthday Concert in the Menuhin Hall. In 2021 Richard was awarded Distinction in the Tunbridge Wells International Music Competition. 

Richard has taken part in master classes with many distinguished teachers including Cristina Ortiz, Angela Hewitt, Klaus Hellwig and Jacques Rouvier. His musical interests and repertoire are wide-ranging, from early C17th keyboard masters up to contemporary composers. He also composes and has been a contributor to the “250 Piano Pieces for Beethoven” international composition project. 

He has been awarded a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and in addition to this generous bursary, he has been selected by the Keyboard Trust to receive the 2024 Dr. Weir Legacy Award to help support his further studies. 

He will also be joining Talent Unlimited since his study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 

Presented in association with Talent Unlimited