An exchange of views with Valerio Vicari,the enlightened Artistic director of Roma 3 University.Not content with helping young musicians find a platform for their solo performances for the past 15 years he has united them in an complete orchestra.A noble gesture and one that has needed an expert guide with much patience to guide them through all the problems of ‘convivenza’-living and working as an ensemble.
Starting later than advertised I was worried that the live stream might have started in the caverns of my computer without my being aware of it.So I was desperately in comunication with Rome from my home in London.
I had just heard Zimerman and Rattle play on DG live stream Beethoven 3 and 1 and was anxious to hear 2,4 and 5 and also Barenboim live on Radio 3 from Bonn with Beethoven 1 and the Fifth Symphony.It was ,after all,Beethoven’s birthday.
But a promise is a promise and I have been supporting with much admiration the splendid platform that Valerio has been giving so selflessly,for so many years,to needy young musicians.The same dedication and support that they find here at St Mary’s Perivale from Dr Hugh Mather and his valiant team of volonteers.
Not entirely happy to hear that it would be streamed twenty minutes late and Zimerman and co would just have to wait their turn.
Here is my surprise exchange at the start of the concert:’What a difference with this Bronzi and some vibrato,real style of sound and dynamics – a great sense of balance.Superb musicianship they are listening to each other like with Pappano and his Rome Orchestra.’-‘Yes he is great’-‘ so are they ….just listen to the difference.This is a real orchestra that you can be proud of’-‘and I am ,Very much.They are like my children’-‘Sign him up Valerio don’t let him get way…..you will not regret it!’-‘already planned another concert with Bronzi for the Spring’-‘how many rehearsals did he have?’-‘two only ,three days of work together’-‘but you brought in other players too’-‘no,they are my top players’
An unbelievable transformation of the Roma 3 Orchestra under Enrico Bronzi who also conducted from the cello.Streamed live from the Teatro Palladium in Rome An orchestra that listens to itself is an orchestra to be reckoned with indeed! Superb cello playing too from Enrico Bronzi in Strauss’s rarely performed Romance. Some superb ensemble in the opening Sextett from Strauss’s Capriccio. But it was in the Schubert hinted at in the Entr’acte from Rosamunde but then more than confirmed in their gloriously sensitive performance of the ‘Unfinished’Symphony.Such refined sounds from the strings as one might have expected with such a distinguished cellist at the helm. But superb wind soloists too. All listening to each other as Enrico Bronzi shaped with such loving care this Unfinished masterpiece.A sense of dynamic control and range as they seemed to breathe as one with such united feeling.
One of the marvels of our age Mitsuko Uchida playing Schubert. Sublime perfection that had me hurrying to Perugia to hear the marvels again that she had created in the Festival Hall .Now for the world to hear thanks to the Wigmore Hall live streaming.
In Perugia backstage she said she wanted no pictures or films as a concert should remain as a beautiful thing in one’s memory.Could it be that this COVID epidemic has made her rethink her philosophy and feel that in these sublime performances there is a message that no politician’s words could even begin to evaluate ?Hope you were listening.That is truly such masterly playing that technique become irrelevant as she produces with the minimum of movement an enormous range of nuances and sounds.From the enormous climax of the Gmajor first movement played with the same vehemence that I remember from Serkin .To a barely audible piano that becomes even pianississimo.I thought Volodos was the only pianist alive who could find those sounds .But she who seeks finds as she has proven today.I did not want to say it but I went to Perugia to try to meet this most remarkable lady who stands as a Tureck or Fischer in this very barren landscape.
Joint recital with the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe completing their survey of all 32 sonatas during 2020 on Beethoven’s 250th birthday – today ! Julian Jacobson
Beethoven: Piano sonata in C minor Op 13 ‘Pathetique’
Beethoven: Piano sonata in C minor Op 111
Beethoven 250 celebration on what is presumed to be the actual birthdate.The final concert of the complete Sonatas programmed over the year by different pianists for the Beethoven Society.Today was to have been the final recital with the last Sonata op 111 to be played in a public concert at St James’s Piccadilly.It was cancelled for the new COVID Tier 3 restrictions brought into place last night.
Thanks to the generosity and passion of Dr Hugh Mather and his team the concert was rescheduled and streamed live from St Mary’s Perivale.So as not to upset Beethoven who was also celebrated with an opening flourish by Julian Jacobson,the chairman of the Beethoven Society.He gave musicianly performances of the Sonata in C minor op 13 and in Hugh’s own words a very poignantly moving performance of the last Sonata op 111.Julian is the only person I know who has played the entire cycle of 32 Sonatas on the same day all from memory …..or at least as he corrected me all but the Hammerklavier op 106!
Julian Jacobson enjoys a distinguished career as pianist, composer, writer, teacher and conductor. Trained classically at the Royal College of Music London (where he now teaches, as well as at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) and Oxford University, he was also the inaugural pianist of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Great Britain. Julian has performed in more than forty countries on five continents. Frequently apppearing in China, he is Guest Professor at Xiamen University, and gives masterclasses internationally. A large and varied discography includes rarities such as the four sonatas of Carl Maria von Weber and the Violin Sonatas of Georges Enesco. He is Chairman of the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe and is in the process of recording the 32 sonatas. In 2003 he made history by performing all the sonatas from memory in a single day, repeating this in 2004 and 2013; he his planning one final “marathon” for 2022. He has composed several film and TV scores including To The Lighthouse and We Think The World Of You, as well as instrumental pieces and songs. His virtuoso transcriptions for piano duet of Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Second Rhapsody, published by Schott/Bardic Edition, have received rave reviews; Julian recorded them in August for the SOMM label with his duo partner Mariko Brown.
Grave – Doppio movimento / Scherzo / Lento / Presto
Nocturne in F sharp op 15 n.2
Variations Brillantes Op 12
4 Mazurkas Op 24 no 1 in G minor / no 2 in C major / no 3 in A flat / no 4 in B flat minor
Ballade in A flat major Op 47
Polonaise in A flat major Op 53
It is some time since I heard a young Polish boy at St James’s Piccadilly give a recital that had such an impact on the usually staid lunchtime audience that he was called back time and time again to play encores for almost another half hour.I remember being so impressed that I spoke about him to many musician friends but this was just the beginning of a young Polish boy’s first adventure outside his homeland. He was in London for an extensive period of study at the Royal College of Music with one of the mostly highly respected Professors Dmitri Alexeev.He has had to cope with the inevitable transition from an innocent instinctive highly talented young boy to becoming a mature experienced artist able to cope with the difficult world that awaits.Similar indeed to the young Chopin who also left his homeland and was accepted into the Parisian salons as a virtuoso until Schumann exclaimed in an article about his op 2 Variations ‘Hats off ,Gentlemen,a Genius.’
It was in his recital dedicated to his compatriot Chopin that Artur was able to show how this highly talented young boy had been transformed over a four year study period (with two former Leeds Piano first prize winners Dmitri Alexeev and Sofia Gulyak) into a mature artist adding wisdom and considerable technical assurance to his natural juvenile talent.
It was in the four Mazukas op 24 that it became obvious that here was an artist who felt these dances as only a native could.As Dr Mather commented at the end of the recital daring to say that Polish born pianists seem to understand so instinctively the Mazurkas of Chopin . A whole world is described in the 52 little tone poems that were penned a long way from his homeland and are full of delicacy,nostalgia and hypnotic dance rhythms.
The first Mazurka was played with ravishing delicacy and a real sense of natural shape and direction with some very subtle changes of colour.The whispered return of the opening theme was pure magic.The crisp and clear dance of the second opening to a flood of melody bursting out in the bass reminded me of the memorable Chopin recitals of Smeterlin that I was captivated by as a child.The gentle musings of the third Mazurka disappearing into the distance from where the fourth emerged so poignantly.In anyone else’s hands the rubato would have seemed excessive but here in Arthur’s hands it was captivating.The beautiful question and answer in the middle section with it’s echo effect was so compelling.A beautiful ending clouded by the pedal as the mazurka disappeared into the mist.It is so rare to hear Mazurkas included into recital programmes these days that it became today like a breath of fresh air between the two more substantial parts of the programme.
Of course part of being a mature artist is to know how to make up a programme so it did not worry me in the slightest the unannounced addition of the F sharp nocturne after the opening Bflat minor Sonata.It just made such sense as did everything he played today.
Especially as this second most played nocturne can sound very sentimental in the wrong hands.It was Rubinstein that showed us how aristocratic sentiments can add such power and emotion to these delicate bel canto works that can slip so easily into sickly sentimental rhetoric.Artur played them in just such an aristocratic way .The mellifluous middle episode played with some unexpected but ravishing tenor counterpoints building to a sumptuous climax before dying away to the return of the opening melody and the final delicate notes high in the piano descending so magically to the single final note that was placed to perfection with such knowing care.
The B flat minor Sonata opened with passionate energy contrasting so well with the beautifully shaped second subject.I would have been interested to see how he would have played the repeat but he decided to go straight into the development section.Played with almost Beethovenian contrasts as he built up to the mighty climax where the all important bass notes gave such nobility to the sumptuous full sounds that he produced so effortlessly.One or two small stumbles were immediately remedied and forgotten and were in any case much less than on occasion in Rubinstein’s hands where the search for discovery and inspiration could lead to momentary stumbles that were of no overall importance.There was great shape to the Scherzo played with exhilarating rhythmic release but it was the meltingly beautiful middle section that showed his aristocratic Polish heritage.A melodic line fully sustained by the tender harmonic colours and trills that were mere vibrations of sound in such sensitive hands.The somber Funeral March in which the melodic line seemed to appear above a growling bass finally finding voice for its wailing lament.There was a release of tension in the sublime Trio where even here there was a full sonority from the bass on which the melodic line was allowed to float.The final ‘wind over the graves’was played with a relentless forward movement showing remarkable control as he hinted at the melodic line in this turmoil of wailing sounds weaving it’s way to its glorious fate.
The early variations op 12 were played with all the brilliance and elegance that I am sure Chopin would have demonstrated as he charmed the salons of the day with his scintillating playing.The opening was thrown off with an easy elegance and beautifully shaped fiortiori.Leading to the Ronde de ‘Ludovic’theme that was played with a simplicity full of ravishing sounds.The beautifully mellifluous first variation in which the right hand spun it’s magic web and the second played with a hypnotic Mazurka rhythm before the beauty of the third.Ravishing arpeggios led to the intricacies of the fourth and the exhilarating finale played with scintillating virtuosity of such subtle inflections and colouring.It reminded me of the Rondo op 1 that Dmitri Aleeev had played so magically at the Chopin festival in Warsaw this summer.These early works have all the innocent charm of youth but with Chopin there is always the unmistakable voice of the genius that was to emerge in his later works.
The third ballade ,the most pastoral of all four,floated in on a wave of sound.There was such subtle colouring and sumptuous sounds .The embellishments flew from his fingers as they spun a golden web of sound.Passionate climaxes of another age led to the gradual build up to the final glorious outpouring that was played with a passionate involvement that was quite overwhelming .
The famous Polonaise Héroique op 53 opened with sparse use of pedal and very clear and clean sounds.This was just to contrast with the superb later famous declamations that built up in ever growing intensity.His magnificent cavalry rode so intrepidly across the field with the military band sounding out above the charging brigade.Some transcendental playing never forgetting the long architectural lines that were driving us on to the climax and the desolation and yearning as we were led to the triumphant final tumultuous outpouring of the Héroique theme.
It is always good to see what artist emerges from early promise.Artur was a lean young man with his mother taking photos of his first London concert when I was struck by his talent.Now four years on and in a dapper matinée idol red velvet jacket he looks and plays like he is enjoying the good things in life just as his famous Polish namesake with whom he obviously has much in common!
Artur Haftman is a Polish pianist and is currently studying for Artist diploma at the Royal College of Music under Professor Dmitri Alexeev, Jianing Kong and Sofya Gulyak. He began playing piano at the age of seven with Ewa Kubiak-Kubacka and Jolanta Reszelska and made his début performance with an orchestra at the age of eight. Due to great opportunities, teachings and talent, he has received numerous awards in international competitions including 1st prize in the International Music Competition “Musicaclassica” in Moscow, 7th in International Chopin Competition in Narva – Estonia, “Gold Parnas” (The Grand Prize) at International Piano Forum “Bieszczady bez granic” in Sanok, 2nd in “Cesar Franck International Piano Competition” in Brussels, 2nd in Music Club of London Music Competition and 2nd in III International Piano Competition ”Villa de Xàbia ”. Recently he was awarded with 1st prize at Thomas Harris International Piano Competition in London (November 2019).
Since young, Artur has built his international reputation by participating in masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Russell Sherman, Janina Fialkowska, Arie Vardi, Jacques Rouvier and Meng-Chieh Liu. He has also performed solo recitals across the United Kingdom, Poland, France, Estonia, Lithuania, Italy and Slovakia. In 2018, he has launched his debut CD in London, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Poland’s Independence and performed in various venues such as Steinway Hall, Lancaster House, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Mary’s Perivale, Delbridge Hall in Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Boston (USA), Culture Center in Stargard, Gallery 13, and Artist Homes in Berlin and Renaissance Hotel for for Nobel Prize Winners.
Artur’s talent is recognised by many. Namely, he is RCM Gary and Eleanor Brass Scholar, supported by Henry Wood Trust and a recipient of Carnwath Piano Scholarship awarded by Worshipful Company of Musicians. He is also supported by Drake Calleja Trust, Talent Unlimited Musical Charity, the Hanna and Zdzislaw Broncel Charitable Trust and “Konfraternia Artystów Polskich.” Currently, upcoming concerts include Grand Tour in China and Recital in Royal Albert Hall.
It is only fitting that it should be Paul Lewis to crown this Beethoven 250 year at the Wigmore Hall in the very month of his birth on the 16th or 17th December 1770.Paul Lewis has long been in the forefront of the concert world since he inherited the mantle for his integrity and understand of the great master of Bonn from his mentor Alfred Brendel.Continuing in the line of past masters from Schnabel,Backhaus,Kempff ,Gilels,Arrau and Serkin through Perahia,Goode,Ashkenazy and Brendel to today.It also interesting to note the significance of the key of C for Beethoven.Especially when one thinks of the 3rd piano concerto,fifth symphony and his final substantial piano works with his last Sonata op 111 and the Diabelli variations op 120.It is significant too that Paul Lewis should have chosen Haydn’s early C minor Sonata as companion to the Diabelli variations.It is in many respects the most Beethovenian of Haydn’s vast output of sonatas and was written in 1771 the year after Beethoven’s birth.
It was played with utmost delicacy and absolute fidelity to all of Haydn’s most precise indications.It brought the notes vividly to life with a wonderful sense of colour and fantasy.It was Serkin who told his disciples that if you do not discover something new every time you play a work then something is wrong.And in fact it seemed that Paul was discovering the work afresh with such subtle inflections and changes of colour reaching some truly sublime moments in the development section.Strangely it was more the warmth of a Curzon than the sweet bitterness of a Brendel.Every note was played with such devoted care but at the same time not missing the overall architectural shape and characterisation.The Andante con moto was played with a touching aristocratic rubato with a very telling hesitation before the final cadence.And how he breathes with the music like a singer just taking that fraction of a second between the question and the answer.There was a hidden melancholic sadness to the Allegro as he so poignantly allowed himself the time to lean on the expressive notes.The tongue in cheek reply to the last reprieve of the rondo theme was a delicious final stroke as was the real Beethovenian beefy final two chords – C minor indeed.No doubt anywhere.
50 years later Beethoven was conjuring ‘the sublime from the ridiculous’when he produced 33 variations on a little tune by Diabelli instead of just the one asked for. As Mahler was to say ‘all of human life is here’The work was composed after Diabelli, a well-known music publisher and composer sent a waltz of his creation to all the important composers of the Austrian Empire including Schubert, Czerny, Hummel , and the Archduke Rudolph, asking each of them to write a variation on it. His plan was to publish all the variations in a patriotic volume called Vaterlandischer Kunsterverein and to use the profits to benefit orphans and widows of the Napoleonic Wars .Franz Liszt was not included, but it seems his teacher Czerny arranged for him to also provide a variation, which he composed at the age of 11.
Alfred Brendel has described it as “the greatest of all piano works”.Martin Cooper says: “The variety of treatment is almost without parallel, so that the work represents a book of advanced studies in Beethoven’s manner of expression and his use of the keyboard, as well as a monumental work in its own right”.In his Structural Functions of Harmony, Arnold Schoenberg states “in respect of its harmony, deserves to be called the most adventurous work by Beethoven”.Beethoven’s first biographer, Anton Schindler, says that the composition of this work ‘amused Beethoven to a rare degree’, that it was written ‘in a rosy mood’, and that it was ‘bubbling with unusual humour’, disproving the belief that Beethoven spent his late years in complete gloom. According to Von Lenz,one of the most perceptive early commentators on Beethoven’s music, Beethoven here shines as the ‘most thoroughly initiated high priest of humour’; he calls the variations ‘a satire on their theme’.
There was a great sense of character from the very first note and a subtle sense of colour even in the ponderous first variation with a slight leaning into the bass on the repeats.The syncopation of the second was allowed to speak for itself so simply,drifting into the sweet melodic third even though shortening the left hand quavers!The sheer fun he had with the Allegro vivace of the fifth variation placing the notes with such impish glee.It was contrasted with the seriousness of the insistent trills of the sixth with its busy semi quavers chattering amongst themselves before taking wing with the seventh with its great resonant bass notes ringing out.The eighth was played with such tender care and with such a perfect sense of balance and clarity.There followed the ever insistent ninth and the rhythmic liberation of the tenth with some truly transcendental playing of great clarity and remarkable agility.Answered by the sly comments of the eleventh and the superb finger legato of the twelfth.It was indeed hilarious the way he played the thirteenth with two fingers poking fun at the almost too serious chordal exclamations.
This led to the beautiful sumptuous sonorities of the Grave with its whispered vibrating notes.A charming contrast between the staccato question and legato reply in the fifteenth and the explosion of the sixteenth and seventeenth played with great contrasting seriousness and vehemence.(Paul’s head moving idiosyncratically like his mentor Brendel at this point).The beautiful question and answer of the eighteenth was played with an operatic freedom and startling change of colours.The sheer fluidity of the nineteenth with its abrupt end led to the most profound series of chords played with painfully poignant feeling as it charts its way from 3/2 to 6/4.The spell was immediately broken by the trills bursting in and a meno allegro of startling expressive freedom.Immediately contrasted with the utmost baroque precision of the Allegro molto that Beethoven prefaces with ‘Notte e giorno faticar’ by Mozart.The transcendental activity of the twenty third was played with relentless nervous energy answered by the utter simplicity of the ‘Fughetta’.It was played with a beautiful sense of line and touching sentiment very reminiscent of op 110 Sonata.The buoyancy of the twenty-fifth was of an almost infectious dance rhythm and the gentle unfolding of the twenty-sixth was followed by the rhythmic impetus of the twenty-seventh.I can still remember Brendels unforgettable performance at the Royal Festival Hall which together with Serkin’s performance was so memorable for the jagged edges of the twenty-eighth and the frenzied abandon of the fugue in the thirty second.But the Adagio of the twenty ninth I will never forget Andrè Tchaikowsky for the way he made the rests really speak so eloquently.Paul as most other pianists here pedal over the rests that is far less poignant.Gradually descending or is it ascending to the heart of the work with the thirty first variation.And it was here that Paul made the rests speak so movingly as he played the embellishments with seemingly infinite inflections of almost bel canto proportions.There may have been just a fraction too much weight on the espressive top notes that showed that this was the vision still of a young man.The Fugue of the thirty-second variation was played with a clarity and rhythmic energy but just missing the total abandon and frenzy of Serkin but leading more gently to the final explosion,the burst of tension and the disarming search for the lost theme.
Diabelli’s little tune started as a waltz and finished as a minuet as Beethoven draws his last piano masterpiece to a poetic conclusion after having explored the most complete range of human emotions imaginable.
A magnificent performance by one of today’s leading musicians.
We can now look forward to another of today’s leading musicians, Angela Hewitt as she plays on the 19th December at St John’s Waterloo Beethoven’s mighty Hammerklavier sonata op 106 and his last sonata op 111 in C minor.The two works she has just recorded in Germany completing her recorded survey of the 32 Sonatas.
Some very fine playing from this orchestra created within Roma 3 University by their indomitable artistic director Valerio Vicari.Determined that his quest not be broken in this very bleak COVID period and that his mission should carry on, in spite of seemingly insurmountable hurdles, to bring a new younger generation to classical music.In this lockdown period it is remarkable that Valerio has still found a means of offering work to these young artists providing concerts beautifully streamed live whilst Rome struggles with the closure of all artistic venues .A very interesting juxtaposition of two keyboard concertos by Bach with the brilliant young pianist Scipione Sangiovanni.The original concerto n.5 in f minor BWV 1056 and Bach’s transcription for keyboard of Alessandro Marcello’s oboe concerto in D minor S.2799.To open the concert was Bach’s Suite n.1 in C BWV 1066
Giorgio Matteoli
The four orchestral suites (called ouvertures by Bach), BWV 1066–1069 in which the name ouverture refers only in part to the opening movement in the style of the French overture.The seven movements were played with much regard to the style without vibrato and with a rhythmic impulse that gave great shape to the whole suite.In the expert hands of Giorgio Matteoli he was able to guide his orchestra of young musicians in a fine performance that showed off in particular their fine woodwind section.
This was the curtain raiser for the two keyboard concerti played by a young musician who I had heard in Monza when he won first prize in the International Competition in 2012 of which I was a jury member.There were some very fine young musicians that year in the Rina Sala Gallo competition that included Julian Brocal and Menyang Pan who are fast making names for themselves. It remember above all ,however, the encore that Scipione played after his prizewinning performance of Liszt second piano concerto.It has remained in my memory as the highlight of a very busy week of listening to some fine performances.A baroque keyboard piece that was played with a clarity and crystal like precision that was the best thing that we had heard all that week.It was that same crystalline clarity that he brought to the two concerti that he offered at the Teatro Palladium for Roma 3.
The Oboe Concerto in D minor S.D935, is an early 18th-century concerto for oboe,strings and continuo attributed to the Venetian composer Alessandro Marcello.The earliest extant manuscript containing J.S. Bach’s solo keyboard arrangement of the concerto, BWV 974, dates from around 1715.In his Weimar period (1708–17) Bach arranged several concertos by Venetian composers, most of them by Vivaldi , for solo keyboard, known as his Weimar concerto transcriptions.In three movements the Andante spiccato and Presto were played with a crystal clear clarity and precision by Scipione.But it was the Adagio that was so beautifully projected with a sculptured precision that rose above the gentle accompaniment and was quite memorable.
That is until we heard the original concerto number 5 in f minor where the masterly genius of Bach was immediately evident in comparison. The works BWV 1052–1057 were intended as a set of six concerti shown in the manuscript in Bach’s traditional manner beginning with’J.J.’ (Jesu juva, “Jesus, help”) and ending with ‘Finis. S. D. Gl.’ (Soli Deo Gloria). Apart from the Brandenburg concertos it is the only such collection of concertos in Bach’s oeuvre, and it is the only set of concertos from his Leipzig years.
Even here in Bach’s own concerto the outer movements probably come from a violin concerto which was in G minor, and the middle movement is probably from an oboe concerto in F major; this movement is also the sinfonia to the cantata Ich Steh mit einem Fuss im Grabe .BWV 156 This middle movement too closely resembles the opening Andante of a Flute Concerto in G major (TWV 51:G2) by Telemann; the soloists play essentially identical notes for the first two-and-a-half measures. Although the chronology cannot be known for certain, It would appear that the Telemann concerto came first, and that Bach intended his movement as an elaboration of his friend Telemann’s original.This of course was how music was written for occasions for the court or the church and the composers had to oblige sometimes transcribing other works to suit the occasion.However the genius of Bach shines through in this fifth concerto and it was indeed in the Largo that Scipione’s artistry was allowed to shine.Some very subtle inflections brought the golden thread of melodic invention vividly to life as it rose so eloquently over the orchestral accompaniment.The outer movements were played with rhythmic energy and precision that only made more poignant the Largo when time seemed to stand still.
Scipione Sangiovanni is a graduate of Italy’s Conservatory “Tito Schipa” of Lecce and the Mendelssohn Piano Academy of Lecce. To complete his studies, he took masterclasses with Emilia Fadini, Arie Vardi, Franco Scala, Aldo Ciccolini, Vincenzo Balzani, Marcello Abbado, Sergio Perticaroli, Fabio Bidini, Marcella Crudeli, Enrico Pace, Leonid Margarius, Alexander Lonquich, Paul Badura – Skoda as well as with Angela Hewitt. He won numerous top prizes at renowned international Piano Competitions, including 1st prize at “Città di Marsala”, 1st prize at “Premio Monopoli”, 1st prize at “Premio Chopin” and 1st prize at “Svetislav Stancic”, as well as at “Concorso Rina Sala Gallo”. He was awarded 2nd prize at International piano competition “Ricard Viñes” as well as at 52nd Concurso Internacional de Piano “Premio Jaén” and finished as runner up in many competitions.
Nuno Lucas and Dillon Jeffares with Kumi Matsuo at St James’s Piccadilly.
Nuno Lucas with Canan Maxton
Thanks to Talent Unlimited at last a live concert with public. Public with social distancing means we get to really appreciate what must be the most beautiful concert hall in London.Every angle used for social distancing means the chance to explore this magical space. With it’s very fine Fazioli piano chosen a few years ago by Alberto Portugheis but above all such welcoming hosts led by David McClee’ry Usually these days concerts held with public allowed in,are with the suspicion of the accused going to the gallows that makes streaming seem like a blessing in disguise.
Here in my wife’s favourite church we are not only welcomed with open arms but regaled with such wondrous sounds as the carefully chosen artists by Canan Maxton demonstrated today. The truly magical sounds of Carl Vine’s Threnody found in Nuno Lucas a true poet. A tenor melody shadowed delicately from the top of the piano whilst sumptuous bass notes just opened up this Pandora’s box to show us the glistening jewels it contained.I was waiting for some explosion in a piece I do not know but Carl Vine was happy just to seduce us with sounds that one only expects in Puccini arias and is so unexpected in pieces that all too often follow an ABA design.
Nuno Lucas
This was the ideal aria with which to take us to the full opera house with Verdi’s Rigoletto in the famous transcription of Franz Liszt. Here was true theatre in this young Portuguese pianist’s hands. Scintillating streams of seamless sounds accompanied the potpourri of well known melodies. Played by a true musician as one would expect from a student of Leon McCawley but with all the expertise of a man of the theatre who knows how to pass the footlights and hold the audience in the palm of his hand like a Flores or Domingo.Breathtaking sense of timing with the technical challenges not even considered as the curtain opened and all the drama and seduction was enacted to our delight and astonishment.
There had been a hint of his remarkable artistry in the beginning of the Mendelssohn variations that had opened the programme. But the faster variations were hampered by tempi that did not take into consideration the very resonant acoustic.The slower variations were played with ravishing tone and superb timing as he listened so lovingly to the sounds he was cherishing.Brilliance and youthful exuberance were not yet substituted for the superb display that was to come later in the programme.
Chausson’s beautiful Poeme was played with superb refined musicianship but was missing the passion and theatricality that had seduced us in the Rigoletto paraphrase.We were not seduced and ravished so much as looking on with admiration at such fine playing from Dillon and Kumi. It was in the Chopin Nocturne op post in the arrangement by Nathan Milstein that they created the missing magic. The final fiortiori were so much more magical on the violin than they have ever been on the piano!
Dillon Jeffares and Kumi Matsuo
A breath of fresh air in these difficult times and Beethoven op 111 and op 13 to look toward to next week on the 16th here at St James’s. On the 19th at St John’s Waterloo Angela Hewitt will regale us for Beethoven’s 250th birthday ( which is officially on the 17th) with the Hammerklavier op 106 and his farewell to the sonata with op 111.The two sonatas recorded in Germany last month to complete her complete survey of the 32 .A path that shows so clearly Beethoven’s early influence of his teacher Haydn to the true visionary of his last works written when he was completely deaf. Out of human suffering true art is always born.Q.E.D Please take note Signori Politicians as it is art that will replenish our souls after this cruel calculation of numbers is long forgotten.
Janacek: Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 From the street Foreboding-con moto Death-Adagio
Some very fine playing from this young Russian pianist that showed off his ultra sensitivity to sound and a quite remarkable finger legato.
The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue was played with masterly control .The opening played without the help of either pedal but played with such ravishing sound and perfect legato.The addition of the pedal for the swirling arpeggios and recitato was of startling effect as was the whispered entry of the fugue subject.A remarkably refined performance and what it missed in dramatic contrasts it gained in aristocratic control of subtle delicate sounds.
The Schubert Cminor Sonata D958 is the most Beethovenian of Schubert’s last great trilogy.D.958, 959 and 960, are Schubert’s last major compositions for piano and they were written during the last months of his life, between the spring and autumn of 1828, but were not published until about ten years after his death, in 1838-39.Schubert had been struggling with syphilis since 1822–23, and suffered from weakness, headaches and dizziness. However, he seems to have led a relatively normal life until September 1828, when new symptoms appeared. At this stage he moved from the Vienna home of his friend Franz von Schober to his brother Ferdinand’s house in the suburbs, following the advice of his doctor; unfortunately, this may have actually worsened his condition. However, up until the last weeks of his life in November 1828, he continued to compose an extraordinary amount of music, including such masterpieces as the three last sonatas.
Played with superb control and ravishing sound of great introspection which missed the full dramatic impact of the first of the trilogy that was to end with the sublime outpouring of song of the Sonata in B flat.The Adagio was played with a quite remarkably sensitive tone palette as was the Menuetto and Trio.The swirling frenzy of the tarantelle like last movement I remember so well from the drive and rhythmic urgency of Richter.Andrei has the same fantastic control but the drive and passion he substitutes for ravishing beauty and calm.All Eusebius and Floristan only occasionally looking on from afar.A remarkable sense of architectural shape and impeccable musicianship but lacking in contrast and character.
The Janacek Sonata on the other hand found the perfect interpreter with the magical sounds and deep introspection of this profoundly felt masterpiece .Only in two movements Foreboding and Death the third Funeral march had been destroyed by the composer as he had thrown the entire work into the river.It is only thanks to the first performer who had made a copy that the works exists today.
Janáček intended the composition to be a tribute to a worker named František Pavlík (1885–1905), who on 1 October 1905 was bayoneted during demonstrations in support for a Czech university in Brno.In the work, Janáček expresses his disapproval of the violent death of the young carpenter and he started to compose it immediately after the incident occurred and finished it in January 1906. The première took place on 27 January 1906 in Brno (Friends of the Arts Club), with Ludmila Tučková at the piano. Janáček also wrote a third movement, a funeral march, which he cut out and burned shortly before the first public performance of the piece in 1906. He was not satisfied with the rest of the composition either and later tossed the manuscript of the two remaining movements into the river Vltava. He later commented with regret about his impulsive action: “And it floated along on the water that day, like white swans”.The composition remained lost until 1924 (the year of Janáček’s seventieth birthday), when Tučková announced that she owned a copy. The renewed premiere took place on 23 November 1924 in Prague, under the title 1. X. 1905. Janáček later accompanied the work with the following inscription:
“The white marble of the steps of the Besedni dum in Brno. The ordinary labourer František Pavlík falls, stained with blood. He came merely to champion higher learning and has been slain by cruel murderers.”
Some remarkable playing of a true poet of the piano
Described as a “pure and sensitive musician” by the Chopin Magazine (Japan), Andrei has been performing as a soloist in various renowned concert halls throughout the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Japan, Norway and the UK, as well as collaborating with orchestras of London, Moscow, Rostov, Yaroslavl and Shenzhen. Following his London debut on stage of Wigmore hall in October 2015 as a finalist of Jaques Samuel Piano Competition, Andrei gave a recital at the prestigious St. Martin-in-the-Fields as the winner of Intercollegiate Beethoven Piano Competition, as well as various concerto performances at St. John’s Smith Square (for Parkinson’s UK and the 75th Anniversary of the Siege of Leningrad). Showing a great interest in a chamber music, Andrei was invited to perform in Encuentro de Santander chamber music festival (Santander, Spain). He was also honoured to perform J. Brahms’ Piano Quintet with Maxim Vengerov at the Royal Academy of Music. He is a recipient of Beethoven Silver Medal and Carnwath Piano Scholarship, both awarded by the Worshipful Company of Musicians. After his successful performances in 10 th Hamamatsu Piano Competition and reaching semifinal, he received an award of Outstanding Merit.
Beethoven: Sonata in C# minor Op 27 no 2 ‘Moonlight’
Adagio sostenuto-Allegretto-Presto agitato
Liszt: Sonata in B minor S178
Lento assai-Allegro energico-Grandioso-Adagio sostenuto-Allegro energico-Lento assai
A fascinating recital of two masterworks recreated before our very eyes with the simplicity and directness that only a great musician could achieve.Always anchored to a solid bass that gave such weight and depth to whatever she did.Schenker is what Murray Perahia calls it but whatever name you give it the end result is what counts.It is the feeling as Chopin puts it of having the roots of the tree so firmly planted that the branches are seemingly free to move as they please .A very poetic way of putting it of course.We all know that baroque music is based on the figured bass and I remember a masterclass with Murray Perahia explaining that the phrasing of the Bach Partita being excellently played was simply decided by the bass harmonic movement.Arrau was of course a master of this and the weight and depth of sound that he could produce has rarely been equalled by lesser mortals!
It was exactly that logic that Caterina Grewe brought to the two works she played today.There was delicacy,passion,pyrotechnics and simplicity with a complete technical command but the rhythmic undercurrent was what swept us up and would not let us go from the first note to the last.The final three beseeching chords of the Liszt sonata had the same magnetic power as the superb earlier passionate outburst of transcendental octaves.
It was the utter simplicity of the Adagio sostenuto of the so called ‘Moonlight ‘Sonata that was so poignant .It was interesting to learn in Caterina’s charming introduction not only about the title which was not Beethoven’s invention or according to Caterina,intention.I did not know though that the theme was taken from Don Giovanni by Mozart from the orchestral interlude after the stabbing .So maybe Funeral March might have been a better title although commercially not quite as enticing!I have searched for evidence of this in Tito Aprea’s very entertaining and informative book ‘Rubato,ma non troppo’!He missed this most obvious case as had I too .I have had plenty of time to think about it as it was the set piece almost 60 years ago for my Grade 8 exam!
The absolute stillness of the opening movement,never forcing the tone but was seemingly allowed to speak for itself with such disarming simplicity.It translated into modern terms the long pedal indications that the composer had written in the score for the instruments of the period and certainly not those of today two hundred years later.A beautifully shaped Allegretto and Trio and I particularly admired the bass voicing that followed the melodic line.The typical Beethovenian sforzandi were a bit understated though and would have given more character and a change from the pastoral mood already created in the previous movement.The Presto agitato flew from her fingers with irresistible forward impetus and was played with such unsmudged clarity due to her sparing use of the sustaining pedal.It made even more contrast with the mellifluous second subject that although riding on a relentless bass,because of her superb sense of balance,it was beautifully shaped without loosing the driving rhythmic force.The tumultuous final cascades of notes were played with a full sumptuous sound before the momentary release of tension before the hard driven end.
The Liszt Sonata was dedicated to Schumann in return for the dedication of the Fantasie op 17.A copy of the work arrived at Schumann’s house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium. Schumann’s wife Clara,an accomplished concert pianist and composer in her own right, did not perform the Sonata; according to scholar Alan Walker she found it “merely a blind noise”.
And it can be indeed in the wrong hands.When Annie Fischer came to Rome with the Liszt Sonata in her programme she asked on arrival if she could substitute it with Brahm’s F minor Sonata op 5.She had just been on the jury of the Franz Liszt competition in Budapest where she had heard it so many times she never wanted to hear it again!In the hands of mere virtuosi it can loose its value as the pinnacle of the Romantic piano repertoire.It takes a great musician to lead us from the first to the last whispered notes in this work where Liszt’s transformation of the opening three ideas is what illuminated the path for Wagner – who also became his son in law!It takes a great musician that can unite this single movement work into a great arch of such power and subtlety without loosing the elusive thread.It can so easily turn into a series of episodes instead of a whole in continuous transformation.Many great virtuosi are seduced by the technical feats required and loose sight of the very meaning of this masterpiece.
Caterina showed us today the path that she strode with absolute clarity and great sense of forward movement that left no time for sentimentality or showmanship.In her attempt at absolute clarity some of the more dramatic octaves could have had more substance – the difference between a violin and a horn where staccato or marcato make entirely different sounds due to the very nature of the instruments.But the sumptuous sounds in the first Grandioso were unforgettable in the power she produced without any hardness- the secret of the past age of a Youra Guller or Magda Tagliaferro .The stark recitativo chords had a hollowness to them that contrasted so well with the ritenuto ed appassionato replies.There was an absolute stillness on which entered the Andante sostenuto heralding a great change from the demonic to the imploring.It made the passionate outpouring in the middle section even more breathtaking.With its almost indecent passion before the bubble bursts and we are plunged into a magic land of whispered scales played with a delicacy but also a forward movement that took us almost unawares to the return of the opening motif.One could also talk about Caterina’s transcendental technical command in the most demanding of passages.The final treacherous octaves were played with total assurance because she gave them like everything else a meaning and a place in this great jigsaw puzzle.There are no technical difficulties when a true musician can show us the way as Caterina did quite remarkably today.
German-Japanese Pianist Caterina Grewe, born in Tokyo, has performed to great critical acclaim throughout the world. She has won numerous prizes at world-renowned piano competitions such as third prize at the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona and the Dublin International Piano Competition where she was a finalist and prize winner in 2015. Other prizes include First Prize at the 2010 Lagny-Sur-Marne International Piano Competition in Paris, First Prize at the Norah Sande Award in Eastbourne in 2010, First Prize at the 2011 Mayenne International Piano Competition in France, and First Prize at the 2014 Rhodes International Piano Competition in Greece. She studied at the Hamburg Conservatory, at the Chetham’s School of Music and completed her studies at the Royal College of Music in 2013 where she graduated with distinction. She is now a Piano Professor at the Royal College of Music and also teaches at the Purcell School and at St Paul’s School.
The nineteen year old Davide Scarabottolo was streamed live from the Teatro Palladium on a wonderful sounding Schimell piano recently reconditioned by that true technical magician Mauro Bucitti.This series started 15 years ago on the passionate belief of Valerio Vicari in young musicians and trying to give them a much needed platform .Even in these difficult times he has found a way of helping them to their goal with these superbly filmed performances. This young musician certainly demonstrated that Valerio’s faith in the talent of youth is fully justified.
A performance of the Haydn Variations in Fminor played with superb clarity and delicacy.The jewel like ornaments shone so beautifully as he arrived at the final climax without any exaggeration.The beautiful reappearance of the theme and delicate ending just showed his complete sense of style and architectural line.
Following with the great romantic outpourings of the young virtuoso Liszt. Four of the transcendental studies were dispatched with a sumptuous sense of sound and a transcendental command of the keyboard as he allowed his youthful passion full display. The opening Preludio nothing more than an opening flourish to the 12 studies of great poetical content.The wonderful bass notes resounded with the same magnificent resonance of a Bosendorfer. The study in F minor was played with a sense of line and colour that belied the technical difficulties involved.The gentle opening leading to the most passionately rhetorical outbursts and a savage no holes barred coda.Davide rose to the occasion with the same demonic passion that Liszt would have astonished his salon audiences with.
Harmonies du Soir is one of the most poetic of the studies and was played with a languid sense of awakening leading to the most passionate declarations with the final disintegration dissolving so magically.It was beautifully and most poetically played as was the evocative 12th study : Chasse Neige.Emerging with barely a murmur the beautiful bell like melodic line shining above the delicate tremolandi.The passionate climax with swirling chromatic scales like the wind over the snowy wilderness.
They were the perfect introduction to Liszt’s Dante Sonata that was given a monumental performance of almost orchestral stature.The great declarations alternating with passages of utmost delicacy as Davide showed us the great architectural line. Slightly tiring towards the end he almost lost control of the treacherously difficult final leaps but he managed brilliantly to maintain the line and brought this very fine performance to a thrilling end.
Two encores of jazz or at least rag time with Gershwin and Morton were thrown off with the skill of a seasoned jazz player and brought this short highly enjoyable performance to a brilliant end.
Nato il 19 agosto 2001 ha attualmente 19 anni e vive in provincia di Padova. Dal 2015 frequenta il Corso Pluriennale presso l’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale di Imola “Incontri col Maestro” dove tutt’ora studia regolarmente con il Prof. Leonid Margarius. Dal 2010 ammesso con il nuovo ordinamento al conservatorio “Pollini” di Padova, studia con il Maestro Massimo De Ascaniis e a Luglio 2020 consegue il Diploma Accademico di primo livello con il massimo dei voti e la Lode. Attualmente, iscritto al Biennio Accademico di secondo livello di Pianoforte, studia con la Maestra Lorella Ruffin. Ha iniziato lo studio del pianoforte a sei anni con il M° Giacomo Dalla Libera con il quale continua a suonare repertori a quattro mani.
Partecipa a numerosi concorsi di esecuzione musicale nazionali ed internazionali vincendo più di quaranta primi premi e numerosi riconoscimenti. Tra i Premi citiamo solo alcuni tra i più recenti: 2018: primo premio assoluto cat F al XVI Concorso Città di Riccione, primo premio assoluto al IV concorso Internazionale “Antonio Salieri” di Legnago (VR) con assegnazione del Premio “Giuseppe Magnani”, “Premio Musica Romantica” e “Premium Virtuosité”, il primo premio assoluto al concorso internazionale Città di Spinea (VE), il 2° premio cat. A al prestigioso concorso “Bramanti” di Forte Dei Marmi (LU), il primo premio assoluto al Concorso Città di Piove di Sacco (PD), il primo premio assoluto al concorso “Laszlò Spezzaferri” (VR), il primo premio al concorso “Premio Crescendo” (FI); il Premio ‘Ave’ a Padova; a settembre, presso il Conservatorio di Bari il terzo premio con assegnazione di borsa di studio e seconda menzione speciale al concorso “Premio Nazionale Delle Arti” indetto dal Miur; a ottobre Borsa di studio Geron per giovani Talenti a ‘ I Venerdì musicali di Villa da Ponte’ (PD); a novembre assegnazione Premio musicale Giovani Talenti da parte di Lions club di Bologna in collaborazione con l’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale di Imola. Nel 2019 : 1° premio assoluto con 100/100 cat. F al XIV Concorso Musica Insieme di Musile di Piave VE; il primo premio assoluto ex aequo cat. F al Concorso Internazionale Città Murata di Cittadella PD, il secondo premio al concorso internazionale Stanze nell’Arte a Canneto sull’Olio (MN), il primo premio cat. C al concorso La Palma d’Oro di San Benedetto del Tronto (AP); assegnazione borsa di studio Bartolomeo Cristofori-Salvatore Lo Bello a Padova; primo premio al Concorso Maria Labia Prize a Malcesine (VR); primo premio al Concorso Pianistico ‘Premio Sergio Cafaro’ presso il Conservatorio Santa Cecilia di Roma. Nel 2020: a Pontoise (Francia) conquista il terzo Premio al prestigioso Premio Campus France Journée Internationales de Piano a febbraio 2020; a settembre 2020 il primo premio assoluto cat. C con il punteggio di 100/100 al Concorso Premio Giuseppe Alberghini di Bologna con assegnazione Premio All For Music ed ex aequo Premio Speciale F.Molinari-Pradelli al Miglior Pianista.
Tiene regolarmente numerosi recitals da solista e concerti a quattro mani. Nel 2014, selezionato tra gli studenti dei conservatori del Veneto ha suonato presso l’auditorium della “Central Music School of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory”di Mosca. A febbraio 2018 ha suonato presso la Weill Hall della “Carnegie Hall” di New York in occasione del concerto dei vincitori della “Crescendo International Competition”. All’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale di Imola ha tenuto ha marzo 2018 un concerto per la rassegna “Genio e Gioventù” riservata ai giovani talenti dell’Accademia di Imola. Partecipa a manifestazioni musicali con esecuzioni da solista e di musica da camera in trio, quartetto e quintetto. Con il ‘Trio Antenore’ di cui è il pianista ha vinto a novembre 2018 il Concorso di musica da Camera “Proviamo insieme” a Rubano (PD).
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 