Magnificent Beethoven from Murray Perahia and the Academy of St Martins in the Fields tonight at the Barbican in London. Beethoven Concertos n.2 and 4 in their complete concerto series together.
Starting with a riveting performance of the Coriolan Overture this magnificent complex playing without a conductor .Each individual player listening intently to the other to produce a performance of hypnotic tension.
This orchestra founded by Neville Marriner I heard many times in rehearsal in the Dukes Hall in my Academy student days. In a break from hours of practise I would listen to Brendel rehearsing Mozart with them.
Wonderful memories relived today with Murray Perahia certainly the equal of a Brendel or Serkin at the total service of the music that they have lived with and serve with total dedication.
In this hall I well remember the Mozart cycle with Serkin and Abbado and seeing Serkin returning to the auditorium to listen to Abbado conducting.
Such is the unselfish total dedication to music that comes across with the truly great performers.
And so it is tonight.
No histrionics but total command and absorbed in making music together. We the public privileged to be able to eavesdrop on this communion between such musicians.
Beethoven second concerto in such a robust performance.
Gone are the usual rather feline niceties for the rough and tumble in the true spirit of Beethoven.
The second movement in particular robust but for that even more expressive .
The communion between the questioning piano and poignant subdued string reply was even more moving.
The great cadenza in the first movement, written by Beethoven at the time of the fourth for the performances by Ries, played with all the surprising musicianship that has made this musician one of the most highly revered of our time.
I remember Serkin remarking when he was asked to listen to Perahia the young student “you told me he was good but you did not tell me how good”.
The last movement played with such joy and rhythmic ebullience it created an infectious almost party spirit.
The sublime fourth concerto given a truly masterly interpretation that caught not only the audience by surprise but above all the musicians themselves.
A spontaneous standing ovation and a general embarrassment amongst the musicians exhausted,exhilarated and totally overwhelmed that they had produced such a performance.
Perahia conducting where necessary from the keyboard but in the Orphean declarations of the orchestra in the second movement there were no gestures from Perahia to the orchestra as he beseeched them from his wonderfully moving replies from the keyboard.
In the first movement such real rhythmic passion ,almost frenzy, that I have not seen in this concerto since the memorable performances of Perahias mentor Rudolf Serkin. Combined with such melting moments of sublime poetry as in the gentle unfolding at the end of the cadenza and the truly magical question and answer between the orchestra leading to such a passionate vehemently final two chords.
The last movement Rondo theme thrown off with a little too much frivolousness for my taste but how can one complain when it was played with such overwhelming conviction.
Perfection can never be totally satisfying but it can certainly be sublime as it certainly was tonight.
Much looking forward to Murray Perahias “Hammerklavier” in Rome on the 6th March. The eternal city does not know what is awaiting its lucky inhabitants.
We who heard it in this very hall a while back know that we are in the presence of a true master.
André Gallo at Viterbo University today for the collaboration between the distinguished musicologist Prof.Franco Ricci and the Keyboard Charitable Trust.
A yearly appointment where we already heard such stars as Alexander Ullman and Vitaly Pisarenko and now it is the turn of Andre Gallo.
Already noted by Noretta Conci-Leech and Bryce Morrison at Steinway Hall last year when Andre made his debut for the trust.
In fact Bryce Morrison,one of the most highly respected of critics, described his playing “a superb pianist with an intriguing and daring personality” . In 25 years of the Trust he cannot remember hearing a more masterly performance from the Trusts performers .
Having already performed in the meantime in Cyprus where his concert and masterclass were received with enormous admiration and enthusiasm it was with great anticipation that we were able to hear Andre again in a recital in Viterbo .
Next friday he can be heard again in a live radio broadcast of an hour of music and interview for the Italian Radio Rai 3 at 22.30 .
Immediately apparent was the way that he caressed the piano, a true act of love that was transmitted immediately to an enraptured public overcome by the sheer beauty of the sounds he produced.
This way of caressing the piano very much in the mold of the Tobias Matthay school of playing personified in the playing if Myra Hess and Moura Lympany.
Gone is the aggressive ,percussive almost brutal way of attacking the keyboard by the so called lions of the keyboard and is replaced even in the most dramatic outbursts by a sound that is never allowed to be forced
Anyone who has read of Chopin’s insistence when teaching that was not to start with a C major scale where the hand has to be held in a restricted way .It was to start with the C sharp scale where the hand was allowed to be in a more natural position.
And so it was today a joy to behold the sounds we were hearing reflected in the shaping of his hands on the keyboard .
A real lesson of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.
Something so rare to see and hear in these days of super resilient instruments where projection of sound is no longer a question of balance but of brute force.
A single encore was enough to put a seal on what has been described by the Prefect of Viterbo as the finest pianist they have heard in the past twelve years since this remarkable series began.
The first little piece from Kinderscenen by Schumann where we could marvel at the wonderful expressive sounds produced and by his aristocratic sense of line and balance. This had been evident from the very first piece in this extraordinary recital . The Arabeske op 18 by Schumann in which the magical coda so reminiscent of the codicil of his songs and was the natural consequence of all that had so rightly gone before.
Chopin’s famous posthumous Nocturne in C sharp minor he had reverted to the original Feuille D’Album where the central section, so seemingly out of place in the eventual published nocturne , does not exist .And so this nocturne together with Grieg Das Wander and Mendelssohn’s sublime Song Without Words op 19 n.1 were played as a whole .
For not only is Andre a masterly pianist he is also a thinking musician discussing his ideas with other such distinguished musicians on the faculty of that extraordinary Academy in Imola where Andre is already on the faculty.
So many of the works presented I had never heard before in all my years of playing and frequenting concerts.
Such is his probing mind to seek out new repertoire and present it in his own seemingly simple inimitable way.
This was the case of the “Suite Francaise d’apres Claude Gervaise” by Poulenc played with all the aristocratic elegance that can restore this music to its rightful place in the piano repertoire .
Such suave nonchalance in the Novelette n.1 too and true transcendental clarity in the difficult Toccata.
It was only matched in the other unknown piece to me of Dutilleux’s “Au gre des ondes” Where the scintillating rhythm of the Claquettes and Etude were electrifying.
The two well know Arabesques by Debussy were played with just the right sense of improvisation that is so difficult for some to gauge.This though combined with the rarely heard Ballade of rare beauty .
Ravel’s Menuet Antique was given a truly enchanting performance where the subdued middle section of such sublime sound was the total foil for this hypnotic Menuet.
The Danzas Argentinas op 2 by Ginastera in which the wonderful languid cantabile of the middle dance was contrasted with the savage rhythmic impulse of the other two.
The bubbling over of subtle rhythmic energy was unmasked in the final dance played with a virtuosity and seemingly endless resilience that quite took this totally bewitched audience by storm. .
Wonderful to be back in this beautiful hall where my old teacher Vlado Perlemuter used to play regularly when he was well into his eighties.
The hall that Richter loved too and would often spend hours working on his programmes that he would record in nearby Mantua.
The same magnificent Steinway “D” of 1954 that Emanuel Rimoldi played this morning in a programme of Mozart Sonata K.310,Liszt Aida paraphrase and the Ten Preludes op.23 by Rachmaninov.
The scene was set by my dear friend Filippo Juvar responsable for inviting some of the finest musicians to Padua over the past 40 years.
I well remember the telephone call after Perlemuter’s Italian debut in my theatre in 1984 at the age of 81.
Incredulous that this leggendary pianist,pupil of Moskowski,Cortot and Ravel was alive and still playing in public.Perlemuter had lived in the same house as Faure who used to pass him his latest compositions to try out.
Would he play in Padua?
Thus started his Italian career that lasted until his 90th year.
We shared Annie Fischer too.
They felt “en famille” and so looked forward to making music amongst old friends.
And what music!
So it was to Filippo I looked as Emanuel Rimoldi sat at the same piano this morning.
Fresh from his Wigmore Hall and Manchester camerata debut for the Keyboard Trust only a week ago.
There was certainly magic in the air in Padua today and I think I can quite rightly say that rarely can Padua have heard a more beautifully ravishing recital than today.
In Hollywood lingo you might say “A star is born”.
A Mozart as though hearing it for the first time.
So unexpected but oh so right the different layers of colours that he found in a truly noble Allegro Maestoso.
Quite startling the sheer beauty of sound combined with a sense of style and structure that I have not heard since Rosalyn Tureck and been so taken aback by the seemingly simple way the music is allowed to speak.
A glorious delicate cantabile in the Andante con espressione that was just as Mozart indicated.
The tempestuous middle section always kept perfectly in style and the magical minor section was truly memorable .
One could almost feel the public gasp in astonishment.
The murmurings of the Presto at just the right tempo that made the magical major section in Mozart’s seemingly endless invention so unusually right.
With the statement of the theme in the left hand we were made aware too of what invention there was in the right.
Instead of the usual “starter” this was a performance that like those of the much missed Curzon one never wanted to end.
He made us realise what a true genius Liszt was in a performance of the Danza sacra e duetto finale da Aida di Verdi S.436.
A work in which gone is the ceremonial march and pomp that is usually associated with most productions of this much loved opera.
Liszt has seen into the heart of this work which is one of the most touchingly moving chamber operas.
Just as Zeffirelli had realised in his memorable production in Verdi’s little jewel of a theatre in Bussetto.An Aida restored to its touchingly intimate atmosphere as Liszt too had totally understood.
So it was with the meltingly moving statement in the left hand that Liszt had brought this neglected masterpiece to a close, just as Verdi had intended.
Some amazing feats of delicacy and transcendental virtuosity that was totally at the service of this very poetic atmospheric piece.
Finishing in the same key as the first of Rachmaninov’s op 23 preludes begins was only one of the very memorable things hidden in this artists subtle musicianship.
Art that conceals art one might say.
Preludes as only once before heard in such a musicianly whole and that was from that very first recording that astonished and ravished us all years ago.
That of Sviatoslav Richter.
We marvelled at the seriousness and total dedication to the score of pieces that had been up until then used as a vehicle to show off many a pianist’s technical bag of tricks.
Here as then they were restored to their rightful place at the pinnacle of the piano repertoire.
The delicate strands of the first prelude in which all the various layers made total sense coupled also to a ravishing piano sound.
The second famous”cavallo di battaglia” of so many pianist played with such grandiose virtuosity and temperament the wonderful left hand melody in the central section allowed to sing because the ravishingly subdued accompaniment was held so much at bay.
The gentle disintegration of the Tempo di Minuetto so poignantly nostalgic .
Unbelievable sense of control in the D major cantabile where the filigree accompaniment in the right hand seemed to float in the air as the melody was allowed to sing with such poise and good taste.
The famous Alla marcia played with such solid rhythm and shape and some very violent climaxes played with almost military precision always timed to perfection that led to the most thrilling performance .The elusive ending at last made such sense as I am sure the Paganini variations would in his hands too.A sense of being thrown off but with the real musical meaning always foremost in mind .
Wonderfully nostalgic sixth prelude with an awesome sense of balance that allowed the piano to reverberate in an extraordinarily expressive way .Led to the enormously busy C minor prelude where the melody shaped with such care seemed to soar above the most intricate of weavings .
The enormous difficulties of the ” feux follets ” prelude played with a seeming ease .This was the only one I felt could have had a little more old style teasing rubato at the cadences The last Largo played with such understated sense of line and balance it really was a lesson in its self in true cantabile playing .
Total silence with the rapt attention of an almost full house brought an ovation that was thanked with the little Waltz Melancolique by Rebikov that I remember Cherkassky playing in my theatre as an encore .
Here it was again with just the same charm and colour of that other much missed magician of the keyboard .
What amazing people true artists are .
Emanuel who had played the same programme well enough in London just a week ago had now reproduced a performance and a piano sound in Padua the like of which I just never thought I would live to hear again after the passing of Rubinstein and Cherkassky.
All together an overpowering emotional experience totally unexpected …..
The young Italian pianist gave a beautiful recital today in Hugh Mather’s Tuesday young virtuoso series.
From the first notes of the Mozart variations on a minuet by Duport K.573 it was obvious that we were in the presence of a highly sensitive musician.
The exquisite shaping of the theme and the purity of the trills caught our attention from the very first notes.
Such pure crystalline tone gave just the innocent simplicity that can be all too elusive for any but the finest musicians.
Each variation was shaped not only with great technical skill but there was much more besides in a performance where every note had a meaning.
Great character to the final variation gave even more poignancy to the final re-emergence of the theme .
So it was no surprise to see on the programme of a real thinking musician Schumann’s late Gesange der Fruhe op 133 very rarely heard in public but much admired by that great musician Guido Agosti.
No one who ever heard him playing and intoning the magical fourth piece in his studio in Siena will ever forget those magical sounds.
Somewhat similar to the 4th Ballade op.10 of Brahms in the hands of that other Italian magician Michelangeli
It is an elusive piece that Costanza managed to hold together making the five movements into one whole .
Not sentimentalising Schumann’s romantic musings but giving an almost classical performance that worked extremely well in this very complex piece.
Now she must find the magic that her illustrious predecessors have shown us in the past and imbue these magical pieces with the same wonderful tone colour that was so much in evidence from the very first notes in the Mozart variations.
The second part of the programme was given over to a monument of the piano literature : Brahms Variations and Fugue on a theme by Handel op 24 .
An innocent theme which is a rock on which the 25 variations are built leading to the triumphant return of the theme and a massive final fugue almost in the Bach Busoni style. Wonderful lead up to the final statement of the theme played with a relentless rhythmic impulse that led to some transcendental playing in the infamously difficult fugue .
It might have been better to have played the opening theme almost coldly without any of the warmth and shaping that was so much part of Costanza’s musicianship so as not to anticipate what was to come later in Brahms’ hands .
In the second variation the two’s against three’s give us all the rubato we need already written into the score.
Some very robust octave playing in the 4th variation contrasted so well with her true legato octaves in the 6th and the majesty of those of the 9th.
A great sense of rhythm in the 7th and 8th contrasted so well with the maestoso of the 13th.
The extreme technical difficulties of the 14th and 15th,reminiscent of the Paganini variations,was thrown off with just the right musicianly rock solid virtuosity that this piece needs.
The beautiful lyricism of the 19th was only surpassed by the luminosity of her sound in the little music box that is n.22 that comes before the storm.
The very revealing trills and ornaments in this seemingly innocuous opening theme were absolutely perfect which is no mean feat as was noted with envy by our connoisseur host and piano expert Hugh Mather.
I gather she is about to go on tour throughout Europe with the Turkish Symphony Orchestra playing nothing less than Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto which in my day was only for the bravest of men.
She even finds to play a different recital programme in her home town of Milan this weekend.
Remarkably she is till to graduate with her Masters from the Royal Academy this summer where she studies with that renowned teacher Christopher Elton.
Another very fine recital in this very well attended Tuesday series of some of the finest young musicians of our time .
Beautiful concert at Somerville College in Oxford yesterday .
A series of concerts organised by Dani Acosta to create funds to send pianos to the Conservatory in Havana where they are sadly lacking. Somerville the Alma Mater of Margaret Thatcher and Vera Britten,was also the college of AnnLiebeck one of the leading lights of this project.
She was the soprano solist who together with the remarkable Cuban pianist MarcosMadrigal gave a concert of Cuban and Argentinian music.
A very resonant hall in the antique chapel which suited ideally the powerfully expressive voice of Ann Liebeck.
A very fine Steinway ,newly acquired, will provide a splendid venue for all the future concerts that will surely take place in this intimate space.
Marcos listening very attentively with a real musician’s ears gave a very robust but never overpowering performances of the enormously difficult accompaniments to these ravishingly evocative songs by Lecuona and Ginastera.
Some wonderful sounds in Ginastera`s “Triste”,reminiscent of Bartok`s evocative Out of doors suite,provided the ideal foil for the singers wonderfully evocative performance. Some songs by the lesser known Cuban composers:Guerra,Vitier,Prats and a truly rousing ending with Roig `s Salida de Cecilia Valdez given a truly operatic performance by Ann Liebeck who had performed the entire recital in perfect spanish.
Not bad for an Oxford girl !
Allowed a well earned breathing space with two short piano solo interludes in which Marcos Madrigal was allowed to let us admire some of the solo piano works of Lecuona which are to be found on his new very well received CD.
A small but distinguished audience on this cold and wet day and we very pleased to welcome the distinguished Professor Reinhard Strohm who came to support and admire his former student Ann Liebeck
The next event for Marcos Madrigal is his exciting new chamber music festival in Havana in April .
He has come a long way since Claudio Abbado discovered his talent and enabled him to study abroad
A very stimulating and interesting afternoon at St Mary’s today in Hugh Mather‘s Sunday afternoon recital series at St.Mary’s Perivale.
Mark Viner the young Oxford born virtuoso,trained at the Purcell school under Tessa Nicholson and at the RCM under Niel Immelman presented a fascinating programme of Alkan and Liszt.
There was hardly a single piece that I had heard before so it was much appreciated Mark’s very learned introduction to these rarely if ever heard works of Alkan and Liszt.
It was very interesting to learn that the Alkan Nocturne op.22 was somewhere between Field and Chopin and to know from Delacroix’s diaries that Chopin,Liszt Georges Sand and Dumas had been in the audience when Alkan himself performed it in a Paris salon.
To have also Alkan’s original pedal markings pointed out too.
A beautiful piece that thanks to Mark’s discovery may now be performed more often as with the Trois Andante romantiques op 13 n.2 that opened this recital.
In both we were treated to sumptuous sound on a not easy piano that showed to the full Mark’s mastery not only intellectually but above all technically.
With a sound palate that went with his complete immersion in a genre that has not been delved into since the time of Raymond Lewenthal and Ronald Smith.
Both of whom were considered pioneers to have discovered and brought to our attention the figure of Alkan that up until then had just been a name in history books of the so called Romantic era in the salons of Liszt and Chopin .
Some amazing feats of virtuosity in the study op 35 n.10 “Chant d’amour- chant de mort,”with its amazing shift from light to dark from a sublime cantabile to a funeral march finale.
These studies,”dans tous les tons majeurs”, we will be lucky enough to savour in April when Mark’s recently recorded CD should be available.Probably a first recording as far as I am aware.
Quite a feat when one considers that at only 27 his 2 CD’s of Thalberg and Liszt Paraphrases have already been on the market for some time.And justly to great acclaim. The research and preparation necessary for such an operation requires just the total dedication and enthusiasm that Mark exudes on the platform .
Quite happy to give the most amusing erudite introductions and then to be able to produce in sound what many intellectuals have only been able to describe in words.
The Paraphrase de Concert on Ernani de Verdi S.432 by Liszt which completed todays recital was given a truly astonishingly grandiose performance that made one wonder why it has not been heard as often as the famous Rigoletto paraphrase .
The charming Pastorale – Schnitter- Chor aus dem Entfesselten Prometheus S.508 has only ever been performed by that other champion of Liszt’s music Leslie Howard.
Here given a beautifully clear precise performance to contrast with the much more complex sound world of the Chaconne and Ernani Paraphrase in this second half of his programme that was dedicated to Liszt.
It was good to hear for only the second time in concert the Chaconne und Sarabande aus dem Singspiel Almira von G.F. Handel S.181 .An amazing piece with quite a remarkable build up beautifully achieved by Mark today as it had been by Mariam Batsashvili recently at the Wigmore Hall.
It was good to see the original scores too after the concert and to realise just how important it was to get back to the original source to appreciate how much more precise the composers were with their indications than some of the editions that have sprung up over the years since .
All thanks not only to Mark Viner but also to Hugh Mather and his faithful trusting audience that have for some time championed this young pianist who is fast making a name for himself as a very unique english trained virtuoso.
Emanuel Rimoldi with members of the Manchester Camerata .Rachmaninov Trio Elegiaque,Cello sonata 2nd movement Schumann Quintet ,Ysaye Obsessions,Wolf Italian Serenade.
A new venture ,the idea of Geoffrey Shindler ,chairman of the Manchester Camerata, who wanted to invite some of the finest young pianists from the Keyboard Trust stable to perform with some of the exceptionally fine musicians that make the Camerata one of the most sought after chamber ensembles in Europe.
Initiated last november with Alexander Ullman (winner of the Liszt /Bartok International Piano Competition at only twenty and now five years later fast making a name for himself as an unusually musical virtuoso) at the revolutionised Whitworth gallery whose innovative director has just been appointed director of Tate Britain.
Last night was the turn of Emanuel Rimoldi.
Winner of the Tromso “Top of the World” and Manhattan “Pogorelich” International Competitions who was invited to play the Schumann Quintet,Rachmaninov Trio Elegiaque and the slow movement of the Cello sonata .
Together with the Italian Serenade by Wolf for string quartet, a solo violin sonata by Ysaye and a short arrangement of one of Jimmy Hendrix’s best known songs for violin and cello it made for a very stimulating and varied evening.
It was in fact the musicians from the Camerata themselves that had chosen the programme.
These superb musicians were Caroline Pether and Rakhi Singh,violins,Ulrich Eichenauer,viola and Hannah Roberts cello.
In any combinations these were extraordinary musicians that had passed three days together with Emanuel Rimoldi preparing this programme together.
A great warmth and friendship had been born on “wings of song” and it was this that was felt and transmitted in this intimate four hundred seat theatre in the recently opened arts centre called” Home”.
Opened only eighteen months ago on a site that was once the gas works and tanning factory it has already attracted over a million visitors of people from all walks of life searching for a “Home”.
For that is the name it has been christened.
A “Home” that Manchester under its enlightened young Mayor has created an Arts Centre where people can enjoy cinema ,theatre and mix socially.
Now it was being used for the first time for classical music.
A concert grand in pride of place on stage in this subdued atmosphere .
Every member of the audience near the stage such is the construction of this intimate space.With two galleries and seating in reds,blues and beige that gives a great feeling of warmth.
A theatre acoustic but remarkably good for chamber music or recitals and a large appreciative audience that were taken by surprise by this sudden gift of music.
A lady in the scramble at the bar in the interval exclaimed that she had had such a hard day at the office but she had not expected to be so uplifted by what she was experiencing this evening for the first time .
With a theme of “Darkness and Light” a brief explanation of the life and suffering of the composers by and actor over the loudspeakers in the half light led to an even greater understanding of what was about to be performed.
Occasionally also introduced by the performers too it led to an atmosphere of complete audience participation and self awareness which for many was their first experience of “serious” music .
Bringing music to the people is what Simon Rattle did too in Birmingham and what has been happening in Venezuela with “The Experiment” of Abrau that Abbado discovered and brought to our attention with such enormous success.
Here in Manchester The Times has described the Camerata as “probably Britain’s most adventurous orchestra”.
They have hit the nail on the head at last.
Here we were experiencing tonight just that.
With an enthusiastic and dedicated young team led by Bob Riley and Sam Morgan the Camerata are taking music to the people and creating a new audience that has perhaps never fully understood or had the opportunity or wish to experience what they thought was probably not for them.
Of course the music making was on an extraordinary level .
It was Bob Riley that in the interval was taken by surprise too and had to express how overcome he was by the sublime beauty of the music making in the hands of Emanuel with these players.
The sound of the piano so tender and yet so alive like quick silver that reached into the very depths of every member of an audience who listened with rapt attention.
The early Trio Elegiaque that opened the programme, after the speaker had told us of the depression that Rachmaninov had suffered and that his music reflects this love and sorrow.It was so poignant with it’s subdued string opening in which the sounds of the piano appear so crystalline clear but so expressive and projected so beautifully by Emanuel Rimoldi.
Emanuel who had written the programme notes too had pointed out that in the score the opening has the indication “Lento Lugubre” and finishes with a “Funeral March” and has an illusion of death much as the Trio Elegiac of Tchaikowsky.
Followed by the short Italian Serenade for string quartet so ably introduced from the stage by Caroline Pether who went on with her colleagues to give a superb performance of this short sunny peace.
We passed from darkness to light indeed.
Back to the Russian gloom with the sublime slow movement of the Rachmaninov cello sonata .
Hannah Roberts gave a heartfelt performance from memory in almost total darkness ,the only light being that of the music on the the piano.
Emanuel was inspired by Hannah to create the most sublime sounds that had moved Bob so much that he had so poignantly described to me in his enthusiasm during the interval.
And a lighthearted piece by Jimmy Hendrix brought us back into the light again.Expertly played by Caroline Pether and Hannah Roberts .
After the interval with some very interesting comments from the people now feeling totally part of this new experience a single light for the Ysaye’s solo violin sonata “Obsessions” so expertly performed by Rakhi Singh.
The Dies Irae and hints of Bach very much in theme on this moving occasion.
And finally all the musicians together for Schumann’s Quintet.
A monument of the Chamber music repertoire by a composer who suffered from mental illness all his life .Something that gave birth to his duel personality of Floristan and Eusebius .
Some superb ensemble playing from this group that after only three days had become one. The throbbing passion of the viola answered by the passionate reply from the pianists left hand .The etherial passages in the slow movement so poignantly played by the violins who allowed the music to breathe and live with remarkable unanimity.
“Lets love it a bit more” suggested an enthusiastic and inspired Caroline in the rehearsal at the “con anima” indication in the last movement .
It was exactly this love and understanding that united these young brilliant musicians that together were able to enter into the hearts of all that were present.
Music, you see, enters where words are just not enough.
As the programme states the Camerata in not about learning music- it’s about using music to enable people to make positive changes in their own lives.
It was like an end of term party in the foyer afterwards with these musicians excitedly exchanging addresses with their newly found colleagues who were all imbued with the same passionate devotion to sharing their musical conversations with each other .
Final concert in this short experimental series is on 2nd May in Manchester Cathedral with Iyad Sughayer playing in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time .
Haydn’s Seven last words of Christ on the Cross will bring this magnificent adventure to a moving conclusion
Mitsuko Uchida at the Royal Festival Hall tonight.
Nice to have Mitsuko Uchida back again after having to cancel her recital last April due to a recurring health problem. A very full hall showed with what esteem this great artist is held .
Beginning with the little “Sonata facile” by Mozart in C K.545 she immediately showed all the exquisite musicianship for which she is renowned. Played with beautiful almost music box tone and shaped in a way that allowed the music to speak in a totally simple and immediate way.
It was Schnabel who declared Mozart too easy for children but too difficult for adults but Mitsuko found the ideal path between simplicity and her ability to imbue the seemingly childlike melodies with such meaning as a singer would do in the sublime perfection of Mozart operas. Her exquisite sense of balance allowed the pure beauty of the slow movement to sing out and totally captivate her audience.The last movement was thrown off with a charm and childlike simplicity that was disarming.
Kreisleriana that followed was played with all the passion and colours that these multifaceted fantasies require. The first one shaped almost like waves of sound but unlike Trifonov the other day held together and given a great sense of line and direction .The beautiful middle section was allowed to sing in a simple way with a subtle sense of rubato one was not even aware of .
The second and fourth,of course ,were just made for an artist of this stature and they received some beautifully shaped real legato playing .The fifth instead of sounding like an etude as it can in lesser hands was played as great blocks of sound erupting with great rhythmic impetus .The final fantasy was played with an almost feline grace that I would have preferred (as Trifonov showed us the other day ) more attention to the deep syncopated bass notes which gave a much more meaningful structure to this rather elusive ending.However a notable performance of a very problematic piece that can all too often seem a series of Fantasies instead of a whole .
After the interval just one work of Schumann:the great C major Fantasie dedicated to Liszt (Liszt in return dedicated his B minor Sonata to Schumann) Here it was unfortunately obvious the muscular problems that have obviously bewitched this great artist. The sense of balance was lost in her attempt to find larger sonorities.
Exaggeratedly distorted climaxes and drawn out ritardandi led to a rather uneven performance . Could it be that this very generous and sincere artist in not wanting to let her public down again took on a too long and arduous a programme. The second movement strangely was the most successful musically although even here there was too much pedal and rather muddy splashing that one would not have normally expected. The great climaxes in the final movement – a great outpouring of love for Clara – Schumann’s future wife- sounded very angular and laboured.The final chords were almost inaudible as were the final chords in the first movement. A great artist in difficulty who had given her best in the first half and the very appreciative audience greeted even this Fantasy with the warmth and generosity with which Mitsuko has always shared her music making.
Flowers and an ovation for this much loved artist brought her back with a page of music in her hand that she placed in the piano and did not even glance at. She proceeded to offer as an encore an atonal piece of nonsense that consisted of a very slow almost inaudible downward scale in which every so often a rocket would explode. Mercifully short and presented like a naughty girl teasing her audience we much look forward to hearing her again when she is full recovered .
Martha Argerich with Yuri Temirkanov and the St Petersburg Philharmonic at the Royal Festival Hall today.Prokofiev Concerto n.3,Khachaturian Spartacus,Shostakovich Symphony n.5.Thursday at S.Carlo in Naples.
Some years ago Shura Cherkassky used to play regularly in my theatre in Rome . On his triumphant return to Paris there was a double page article in Le Monde de la Musique under the title:”The Man I Love” signed Martha Argerich It was the same love that was felt in a sold out Festival Hall yesterday. Love for her by an adoring public but also her undying love for the piano. So unusual these days when many artists appearing before the public with their ungrateful percussive tone and lack of communication seem to almost hate it . It was most evident in a ravishing performance of Schumann`s Widmung. Astonishingly a new addition to her repertoire.(How I would love to hear her play the much neglected Blumenstuck)
The whispered opening allowing her to give a passionate and tumultuous final outpouring before disappearing as it had started in a few heartrending phrases. Every note pregnant with meaning,with a subtle rubato and astonishing sense of colour reminiscent of that great lieder singer Elisabeth Schwarzkopf . Totally seducing not only the audience but also the superb musicians of this magnificent orchestra.
This as a thank you for the ovation she received after a truly astonishing performance of the Prokofiev Concert. A young womans performance all the more astonishing when you realise that she has recently celebrated her 75th birthday at the Wigmore Hall with her lifelong friend Alberto Portugheis.
The same liquid sound and flexibility allied to a musicianly sense of line where every note speaks that was also so memorable a few months ago in the Albert Hall in a duet encore with her childhood friend Daniel Barenboim after a memorable performance if Liszt n.1.
In the dress rehearsal that aristocrat of conductors that is Temirkanov asked Martha afterwards how she would prefer some passages and what tempos she would like. With great humility and simplicity she said she did not know but what did he think. He suggested a slightly slower tempo in the coda of the last movement and asked whether she would like a long or short final note to the second movement. Of course she could not know she lived for the moment ,listening intently to every sound and adapting and adjusting with her great musicianship guiding her in her voyage of discovery. Just as Cherkassky and the legendary musicians of the past have done. Yet another title in Le Monde de la Musique about Cherkassky with the title “I listen,I feel,I transmit ” just as Martha was doing before our very eyes.
Transcendental feats of virtuosity with a rhythmic impetus that the orchestra had a hard job to beat.Such clarity in those bare opening scales but with an energy that was totally mesmerising.Some wonderful colours matching perfectly the superb wind players .In fact the final flute scale in the very atmospheric orchestral encore was exactly matched by Martha in the concerto.
The end of the second movement with such perfect timing it brought a wry smile from Temirkanov.The speed allied to the rock steady rhythm and intricate detail of the last movement coda was breathtaking and took the conductor and maybe also Martha totally by surprise.
The concert had started with the theme of the television programme The Ondine Line and this Spartacus by Khachaturian showed off the sumptuous strings of this magnificent orchestra.Never slipping into the vulgar but under Temirkanov we were assured of a refined nobility in the great Russian tradition.
The same was true with the great opening statement of Shostakovich `s Fifth Symphony .The scherzo played straight and all the more effective for that.The long poignant murmurings of the slow movement where the long lines were tightly held together.The last movement was the great moment for the brass to bring this monumental work to a shattering ending. If only there was a magic carpet to carry me off to hear it all again .Instead of having to consult the BA timetable to Naples!
The rock that is Leonskaja was immediately apparent just glancing at the programme. Three great monuments:Beethoven op 109,Brahms op 116 and Schubert Sonata in D D.850. It was immediately apparent that we were in the presence of a Master.
Much like Nikolaeva that I had heard by reputation and in fact invited her to my theatre in Italy many times knowing that my old teacher Guido Agosti had heard her in Moscow and invited her to play in Rome for the first time.
She too was a master musician just the same as now Elisabeth Leonskaja.
Such noble generous sound played with a simplicity and such unassuming stage presence. In fact she seemed quite embarrassed that she should be applauded. Were we not all here to share in the feast of music? Just as Richter did not want to be seen on stage as he considered himself as only a medium through which the music was revealed. Leonskaja her arms outstretched that allowed the music just to pour out. And what music!
Could the opening of op 116 ever have sounded so grand and passionate .
Enormous sonority on the piano but never a hard or percussive sound.
I have heard this same piano two or three times this week but this was a full orchestra as rarely heard.
The Brahms with a passion of someone seemingly discovering the piece for the first time. And so it continued each piece a revelation.
From the ghostly sounds of the fifth intermezzo in E minor to the subtle rubato of the sixth .
The Capriccio of the last of the Fantasies played with the same passion as of the first as if by someone possessed . Drawing the cycle to an astonishing end as it had begun.
Never have I been so totally mesmerised by these Fantasies by Brahms as in this performance with Leonskaja’s total identification pf this almost orchestral sound world. In her hands this evening she convinced me of what a masterpiece this work can be.
Beethoven op 109 played with a simplicity and nobility.
Always the sounds anchored to the bass which gave her an enormous but most natural dynamic range.
The seemingly inevitability of what was unfolding in her hands was totally absorbing resolving so many interpretative problems in such a simple and noble way.
The second movement ,Prestissimo,breaking the spell of the serene opening movement with an almost obsessive rhythmic propulsion that broke the spell of the opening and prepared the way for Beethoven’s sublime final movement of theme and variations.
In this last movement there was never less than a noble generous cantabile that led to the famous final long trill in which the theme was heard disintegrating before our very eyes . The final reinstatement of the theme played with such dignity and in an unsentimental way it reminded me of an inscription on a tomb stone in a centuries old churchyard in Devon:”A life’s work nobly done” …this for me summed up the performance of such total overwhelmingly moving simplicity.
The Schubert D major opened with a great Beethovenian flourish to finishing forty minutes later with the most simple music box like finale in which the final statement was like a melancholy nostalgic fragmented memory.
The total difference of sound in the last movement was in itself remarkable .
The sense of balance that allowed her to play this little theme in such a simple almost music box way was such a contrast to the preceding movements.
The different lines in the slow movement showed an extraordinary sense of orchestral colour with the right hand cantilena accompanying so poignantly the melodic line in the left.
A scherzo again adding such a violent contrast to the long drawn out slow movement.
A single encore from an ecstatic full house elicited a full blooded performance of the famous Sonneto del Petrarca by Liszt .Full of wildly different colours but played with a nobility and directness that had been the hallmark of this great artist’s recital ..
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 