ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

I have heard Misha play many times over the past four years since I was invited by his teacher Ian Jones to listen to him playing Rachmaninov First Concerto at Cadogan Hall whilst he was still just a ‘fresher’.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/13/misha-kaploukhii-plays-rachmaninov-beauty-and-youthfulness-triumph/

It has been a great pleasure to see this young student turn into an artist of considerable importance as he has now reached the final stages of his student career. Important friendships with other musicians at the RCM have played their part in this formation. In particular that with Magdalene Ho frequenting each others concerts with a mutual respect and admiration learning from each other as the road to perfection becomes ever more an impossible dream but also the raison d’être of their lives. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/01/chopin-reigns-at-the-national-liberal-club-and-st-marys-perivale-the-triumph-of-misha-kaploukhii-and-magdalene-ho/

It was just a few months ago that I heard Magdalene Ho give remarkable performances of this same Davidsbündler together with Schubert’s magical Fantasy Sonata. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/01/17/magdalene-ho-a-star-is-born-on-the-rising-sun-of-inspired-mastery/

Today Misha coupled the Schumann with Liszt’s masterly entry into the operatic world of Bellini. Listening to Bellini in Sicily obviously takes on another meaning ( I am writing from Trapani where the 3rd International Piano Competition,Domenico Scarlatti is taking place), but the mastery and transcendental command that Misha showed today must have been the similar to that of Liszt who was to take Paris by storm, together with his great rival Thalberg.

Their three handed pianism was just one of the wonders that could be created on a piano where the addition of pedals allowed sounds to be held and create effects that had Liszt’s pupil Anton Rubinstein declare that the pedal was the ‘soul’ of the piano! The pedal too allows for a sense of balance where the melodic line can be floated of a wave of sounds ( as Chopin’s playing of his study in A flat op 25 n.1 was described as a melody floating on an Aeolian Harp of sounds).

For a young musician simplicity is the thing that is so difficult to find, especially after years of study and hard work now being able to master the works that have inspired him to take the long path of becoming a professional pianist. Of course a certain showmanship and bravado is only natural but it can also lead to not listening to ones’ self and relying on physical euphoria to take command. Today Misha showed that he has passed through that difficult phase as the music was revealed with simplicity and flowing beauty. A masterly performance of understatement in the sense of real poetic understanding and commitment. It was summed up so succinctly by Artur Schnabel talking about Mozart being too easy for children but too difficult for adults!

There was a mastery of the pedal nowhere more apparent than in the the very first dance where Florestan and Eusebius combine with their legato and non legato escapades so clearly played with not a little rearranging of the hands too! Refined beauty and luminosity of the second sprang to life with the grandeur of the third. There was passion but also intelligence of the fourth as the melodic line was beautifully etched with searing beauty and authority.Timeless phrasing of great mastery with the simple grace and beauty he brought to the fifth.There was clarity to the sixth but also a dynamic drive and refined aristocratic phrasing and the seventh just unfolded with poignant tenderness like a flower slowly opening.The eighth, too, was played with deeply felt sentiments of beauty contrasting with the ‘joie de vivre’ and rhythmic buoyancy that Misha brought to the ninth. A beautiful architectural shape to the tenth was followed by the sumptuous Brahmsian richness of the eleventh.There was the beseeching questioning of the twelfth as the melodic line is doubled and given slightly more weight allowing more depth and poetic sensibility to this dance that ends with a question mark. Quixotic playing of great character and technical mastery of the thirteenth was contrasted with the fourteenth. A rare sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to sing in the right hand before the sumptuous rich sounds of the middle section of unsentimental mellifluous strength making such a telling contrast to the outer sections.The fifteenth, one of Schumann’s most perfect creations was played with etched beauty allowing the music to speak for itself with poignancy and deeply felt meaning. The opening majesty and authority of the sixteenth just opened the flood gates for an emotional outpouring of sumptuous passionate beauty. There was busy chattering between the hands, of the seventeenth,as they chased each other around the keyboard before gradually dissolving, as Schumann finds the Eutopia of his dreams and we are enticed into a world of sublime inspiration ( only to be found later by Ravel In the final epilogue of his noble and sentimental waltz world!). A magical performance with a kaleidoscope of sounds and a masterly use of the pedal that made one think deeply of how right Anton Rubinstein was. The final waltz played with that simplicity that Schnabel knew was so difficult to capture but that Misha today had found the key, as the final gentle chimes in the bass merely vibrated with his extraordinary poetic understanding.

Leonid Desyatnikov was born in 1955 in Kharkiv, Ukraine and is a graduate of the Leningrad conservatory , where he studied composition and instrumentation. Misha chose four of his preludes.Typical traditional dances of his homeland were played with great commitment and the second was very similar to the Schumann’s Romance in F sharp played with languid beauty as the third entered in mazurka style of questioning rhythmic improvisation. The opening deep bass chimes of the fourth brings to mind Liszt’s Funerailles but with its chiselled folk melody with impish syncopations and dynamic ending.

There was an imperious opening to the Liszt Norma Fantasy followed by luxuriant sumptuous sounds and a gradual build up played with a masterly control of dynamics as fragments gradually linked together until arriving at the triumphant outpouring of the main melody. A glorious melodic outpouring played with rich full sound where Misha never lost sight of the melodic line, even though accompanied by cascades of octaves, that could easily be overpowering in the hands of a lesser artist. There was a languid brooding and passionate commitment to the central episode as it gradually builds to an eruption of dynamic drive and energy. A technical mastery that even though the intensity and drive of the music are taking over the emotional sensibilities, Misha was always in control with a command and seemingly endless technical reserves of fearless virtuosity .Even the final where Liszt combines the two main themes with diabolical technical wizardry the music moved inexorably forward and swept all before it. A quite remarkable performance of one of the great warhorses of the romantic virtuosi par excellence.

An encore would seem superfluous after such and extraordinary performance but Misha managed to pull even more magic out his hat with a beguiling, teasingly titivating performance of Liszt’s elusive Bagatelle sans tonalité.

Misha graduates from the RCM this summer as a great career ahead obviously awaits.

Born in 2002, Misha Kaploukhii is an alumnus of the Moscow Gnessin College of Music. He has recently completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal College of Music and is an ABRSM award holder generously supported by the Razumovsky Trust, Eileen Rowe Trust, Talent Unlimited Charity, The Keyboard Charitable Trust, and The Robert Turnbull Foundation. He is now studying for a Master of Performance with Professor Ian Jones and was incredibly honoured to receive the LSO Conservatoire Scholarship 2024/25. His recent prizes include RCM Concerto Competition, International Ettlingen Piano Competition, Hopkinson Gold Medal at the Chappell Medal Competition and the 1st and Audience prizes at the 2024 Sheepdrove Piano Competition. Misha has gained inspiration from lessons and masterclasses with musicians such as Claudio Martínez Mehner, Dmitri Bashkirov, Jerome Lowenthal, Dinara Klinton, Konstantin Lifschitz, Dame Imogen Cooper. 

His performances with orchestras in UK include debuts in Cadogan Hall playing Rachmaninov’s 1st Concerto with YMSO and James Blair, Liszt’s 2nd Concerto with RCM Symphony orchestra with Adrian Partington and very recently, Rachmaninov’s 4th Concerto performed with the Albion Orchestra.He has performed in the UK, Italy and France at the venues including St Mary’s Perivale, Razumovsky Recital Hall, Leighton House, Cadogan Hall, Sala dei Notari and Giardini La Mortella with a wide range of solo and chamber repertoire. Misha’s future engagements include solo recitals in St Mary Le Strand, 1901 Arts Club, British Institute in Florence and Steinway Hall in Milan. In February he performed Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto in Cadogan Hall with James Blair.

Misha Kaploukhii in Florence and Milan for the Keyboard Trust and Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation

Misha Kaploukhii plays Brahms 2 with passion and mastery

  By Moritz von Bredow, Hamburg 6 April 2025

Italian pianist Andrea Molteni, born in 1998 in Como, played four recitals in a row (!) for the London based International piano foundation, The Keyboard Charitable Trust (hereinafter referred to as KT), in Germany. Having completed 3 degrees in Como, Milan and Lugano resp., the latter being a Distinction Master’s degree in advanced piano performance, Molteni is currently a high profile student of the legendary American pedagogue William Grant Naboré’s at the International Piano Academy in Como. This astonishing pianist left a lasting impression on audiences and organisers alike. 

It was the first KT concert tour organised in his native Germany after the death at 99 years of John Leech MBE, the KT’s revered founder. After each of Andrea Molteni’s recitals, trustee Moritz von Bredow from Hamburg remembered John Leech, without whom and without his wife Noretta Conci the KT would not exist. Blessed be his memory.

The concert venues were:
1)
Augustinum Hamburg (Very many thanks to Dr. Christian Bendrath and Mr. Malte Frackmann for the wonderful organization, gratitude to Kammersängerin Reri Grist for a long, inspiring conversation)

2)
Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Amburgo (Great thanks to Dr. Francesca Fazion and all staff of the Italian Cultural Institute for their meticulous preparation of this recital)

3)
C. Bechstein Center Cologne (Heartful thanks to Ms. Monika Hermans-Krüger and Mr. Torsten Röhre for providing their hall as well as a magnificent, brand new Bechstein D!)

4)
Orangerie Schloss Rheda, Rheda-Wiedenbrück (Profound thanks to Her Serene Highness Princess Marissa zu Bentheim-Tecklenburg, indefinite gratitude to our longstanding friends Inge and Bernd Jostkleigrewe who once again prepared this 13th KT recital over a period of 12 months, and thank you to all the ladies of Inner Wheel Rheda-Wiedenbrück)

Andrea Molteni’s programme for this KT tour was audacious, beautiful and very intelligently chosen. Instead of making himself the centre of interest and showing off some velocity of fingers (as unfortunately many young and often mediocre pianists tend to do), posing with lots of drama and playing only romantic pieces (nothing against Brahms and Liszt, please!), Molteni decided to allow the listeners to travel with him on a musical journey through almost 270 years. Well done, very well done indeed! 

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) composed his Toccata No. 6 in G Minor, BWV 915, between 1707 (when he was 22) and 1713. Written by a still very young Bach, largely almost like an improvisation in character, the toccata culminates in a strict, rhythmic, gigue-like fugue. Molteni was able to deliver both the improvisational atmosphere, almost resembling a fantasy, and the stringency of the fugue in a highly idiomatic way. His piano playing was crisp, transparent and delicate, the fugue metrically enchanting, a profound understanding of baroque polyphony so beautifully displayed. Molteni is a wonderful Bach interpreter! This was already a great achievement, a convincing beginning, but there was much more to come.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) wrote his too rarely played Sonata No 28 in A Major, op 101, in 1816 (published in 1817), at a time when he was already nearing complete deafness. Only four more sonatas were to follow. He dedicated this sonata to his pupil Dorothea von Ertmann in Vienna, a German born pianist who never performed in public. The dedication reads: “Receive now what was often intended for you and which may give you proof of my attachment to your artistic talent as well as to your person”.
The four movements are inseparably linked together, although very different in character. The first movement, beginning of the dominant, is very lyrical and poetic, the 2nd movement a vivid March, the third is a very beautiful, pensive Adagio ma non troppo, and the 4th movement brings, after Bach, another fugue, rather a Fugato. 
Andrea Molteni succeeded in fully bringing out the exceptionally beautiful, singing, and lyrical character as well as the colossal fugue of this enchanting late Beethoven sonata without any exaggeration or kitsch. He used the left pedal sparingly and only as Beethoven had suggested, so that in the lyrical passages one could hear an extremely cantabile and very even piano playing. The third movement was a divine revelation, purest, meditative silence. The march and fugue were both resolute and compelling—a completely convincing performance from the beginning to the end.

Goffredo Petrassi (1904-2003) was an Italian composer and professor of composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome where her died in 2003 at age 98. Petrasssi’s style began in neoclassicism before he turned to his own tonal and formal language over the years through his encounters with serial and twelve-tone music. Andrea Molteni captured the lyricism as well as the horrendously difficult passages of Petrassi’s music (written between 1933 and 1976), especially in his Toccata (Molteni’s second toccata!), with absolute control and an obvious love for the virtuoso challenges that Petrassi’s music pose.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote his Variations on a Theme by George Frederic Handel, Op. 24, in Hamburg in 1861, when he was 28 years old. They are based on a theme that Brahms borrowed from a Suite for harpsichord by Handel (1733). At Richard Wagner’s request, Brahms played these variations for him in Vienna in 1864 during their only encounter, whereupon Wagner paid him the following praise: “One sees what can still be achieved with the old forms when someone comes along who understands how to handle them.” – Brahms dedicated these variations, which stand on equal ground with Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, to Clara Schumann: “I have made you variations for your birthday, which you still have not heard, and which you should have practiced for your concerts long ago.” Clara Schumann would play these variations in Hamburg the same year, in December 1861, even before their publication. – Andrea Molteni, performing this large and challenging piano work in public for the first time in ten years, once again delivered a truly outstanding performance after the interval. His ability to adapt instantly to the diverse characteristics of even the smallest pieces of music, and the variations are such, and to render them with great tonal beauty and technical bravura is unusual. His great pianistic talent was particularly evident in the fugue (already the third fugue that evening!) which poses great challenges not only to the technical mastery of the instrument, but above all to the understanding of the musical context and thus to the musical expression itself. No pianist of Molteni’s age (or of any age!) will be able to easily reach that level of his performance.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886): Fantasy on Themes from Vincenzo Bellini’s Opera ‘La Sonnambula’ is hardly ever played or recorded. However, the great Australian Liszt champion Leslie Howard has produced a sensational reference recording. Liszt wrote the fantasy on ‘La Sonnambula’ years after Bellini’s untimely death at the age of just 33 in 1835. For his repertoire, Andrea Molteni chose the 3rd and by far most difficult version of this fantasy, written in 1874. Liszt brings together the opera’s three main story lines: Amina, a young, impoverished Swiss peasant girl, falls in love with the rich farmer Elvio, and their wedding is planned. Then rumors arise of Amina’s alleged infidelity, and Elvio abandons his fiancée. Amina is talking of her love for Elvio when sleepwalking and nearly drowns, but is eventually rescued. She is rehabilitated, and Elvio and Amina are ultimately reunited. – The immense drama of the plot is brilliantly realized in Liszt’s third adaptation of Bellini’s opera. However, the horrendous technical difficulties of this piano version are only one aspect of the Sonnambula fantasy – it demands not only great virtuosity and complete mastery of the instrument based on an infallible piano technique, but also a profound musical understanding which is indispensable in order to produce the vitally important musical expression. Andrea Molteni possesses all of these prerequisites to a high degree and played incomparably (yes, he did!!) so that at the end the audience, completely electrified, leaped to their feet to give him a standing ovation that lasted for minutes. Would Amina live today, and had she heard Andrea play this fantasy, she would have immediately left Elvio for him! 

Summary
Andrea Molteni is an unusually expressive, technically extremely sophisticated and utterly musical pianist with a strong stage presence and a high level of intelligence. This latter quality is evident not only in conversation, but also in the selection of his fascinating programmes. A certain inherent nervousness is noticeable offstage, but it disappears completely as soon as Andrea Molteni walks up to the piano. His absolute concentration and focus during his performances, combined with great dedication to the composers and fidelity to the grandeur of their works, are deeply impressive. Andrea Molteni is a very distinguished pianist.

The four piano recitals in Germany, performed on four subsequent nights on four different pianos with hour long train travels on the last two of the four concert days have demonstrated Andrea Molteni’s resilience, his capability of handling considerably strenuous demands and that he would not allow these to deter him from the excellence of his piano artistry.

If there were anything to criticise – and it is not so much a criticism but more so a piece of advice – it would be this: the balance of sound, the recognition of the correct tonal language for each respective work, and the ability to empathise with the listener’s perception are the most important prerequisites to play a beautiful recital on any piano or grand piano, whatever size, age and make it may be, and in any hall. The pianist’s ability to adapt the piano tone, timbres, volume, and musical expression to the respective circumstances develops differently for each musician and only over time. These complex skills are something Andrea Molteni will certainly continue to work on. Within just a few days, he has already demonstrated how magnificent his underlying pianistic abilities are in every respect, how fast he understands, learns and adapts, making the last two evenings in particular perfectly balanced, overwhelming experiences.

I hope that Andrea Molteni will have a long, distinguished career ahead of him, in which he will continue to inspire and delight audiences. Above all, may he continue to expand his repertoire and, over the course of his life, become a grand pianist, an artist, and a great musician with something to say, no, with very much to say. He is well on his way, and he has given great honour to the Keyboard Charitable Trust and its goals.

I am sure that John Leech has been watching and listening to Andrea Molteni from heaven during these days with a gentle smile and great happiness in his heart. 

Copyright: Moritz von Bredow, Hamburg, April 2025

Below is a report on the KT activities in Germany in 2024 – I am glad I was able to hear three of our best pianists in one year!

1) Gabriele Sutkutė

In April 2024, I had organised 4 recitals for Gabriele Sutkutė. She played at 

– Representation of Hamburg in Berlin

– Augustinum Hamburg

– Bechstein Centre, Cologne

– Orangery o Castle Rheda, Rheda-Wiedenbrück

PROGRAMME:

Prokofiev – Piano Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29:

Haydn – Fantasia in C major, Hob. XVII/4, “Capriccio” 

Ravel – “Miroirs”, M. 43: II. Oiseaux tristes

Ravel – La valse, M. 72

I N T E R V A L

Janáček – Piano Sonata “1. X. 1905” (“From the Street”): 

Rameau – Suite in D major (Pièces de Clavecin)

Liszt – Venezia e Napoli, Années de pèlerinage II, S.162 

Gabrielė is a very mature, highly musical pianist, of deep underdstanding for the works she plays, of insight into the historic background – and she has a magnificent natural stage presence. Her pianistic art is simply beautiful – she can perform works from the Baroque to contemporary music at ease and on the highest musical and technical levels. Her performances were captivating and brought the audiences to their feet. Conversations with Gabrielė were delightful and vibrant. 

Gabrielė’s playing is crystal clear, with tremendous technical skills, yet those are always in service of musical expression. Her jeu perlé is breathtaking, and her expression of colours and dynamics, in combination with her phenomenally idiomatic understanding of the works she plays, make her a true artist with a very promising future. Full marks!

2) Giovanni Bertolazzi

In November 2024, I organised 4 recitals for Giovanni Bertolazzi:

Sunday, November 17,

New Living Home, Hamburg

Tuesday, November 19

Augustinum Hamburg

Thursday, November 21

Bechstein Centre, Hamburg

Friday, November 22

Bechstein Centre, Cologne

PROGRAMME:

Bach/Busoni: Chaconne from Partita d Minor for Violin 

Beethoven: Sonata N0. 4 E flat Major  op. 7

PAUSE

Nicolai/Bach/Busoni:Choral-Prelude “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” 

Beethoven: Sonata No. 21 “Waldstein” C Major op. 53

Giovanni Bertolazzi played a very beautifully and intelligently chosen programme of works only by Bach/Busoni (100 death anniversary) and Beethoven.

Giovanni Bertolazzi is a very elegant and noble pianist, reminding me of Michelangeli  in many respects. His command of the piano is astonishing, and his tonal language beautiful and never exaggerating, not even in the tremendous build up during the Chaconne or the Waldstein sonata. HIs Beethoven is reminiscent of Michelangeli’s unparalleled Beethoven performances. A sound full of colours, strict adherence to rhythm and tempo, with the rubato very distinctly chosen. Scarce use of pedals and a strong as well as calm inner centre that would never allow him to lose control. And yet an ever so expressive interpretation of both sonatas. – Bertolazzi’s Busoni interpretations were equally beautiful, never forgetting Bach’s polyphony and allowing to understand what Busoni really wanted: to show Bach’s works as the epitome of music. Bertolazzi most definitely was the perfect pianist to perform this programme. Full marks!

3) Magdalene Ho 

On Dec 14, Magdalene Ho played at Laeiszhalle Hamburg (Small Hall)

PROGRAMME:

Beethoven

Six Bagatelles op. 126

Franz Schubert
Sonata G Major D 894 

Extraordinary, very idiomatic performance of Beethoven’s Bagatelles op 126 and Schubert’s late sonata in G.  Very subtle, amazing colours, the piano always singing, all pianissimi constantly without left pedal. Absolute control of rhythm and phrasing, beautifully chosen rubato, no kitsch, no wrong romanticising of expression, no exaggerations anywhere – very, very impressive. Beethoven had been completely deaf since 1819 (op 126 written in 1824), and his heavy heart which never succumbed to his depression was in Magdalene’s interpretation, and so was Schubert’s melancholy less than 2 years before his death – but he, like Beethoven, would always move on “against all odds”.  I spoke to the astonishing pianist Magdalene briefly before and after the recital, thanking her on behalf of the Keyboard Trust. She did not say much, but her eyes said all when I told her my deep impressions afterwards.  What an amazing, true artist! So shy, so quiet – and yet (as someone once said about Grete Sultan), at the piano she became a queen!

Peter Donohoe with a full house at Bechstein Hall and a fascinating programme based on Chopin’s C minor prelude op 28 . A second half with two sets of variations on that very prelude that Peter had played together with the other 23 in the first half.

 

SCHUMANN: Abegg Variations, Op. 1 

CHOPIN: 24 Preludes, Op. 28 

Intermission 

BUSONI: Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22 

RACHMANINOV: Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22

Variations by Busoni and Rachmaninov both coincidentally their op 22 .

The concert had begun with Schumann’s op 1 Abegg Variations played with a jeux perlé of beguiling charm and rubato that made this Bechstein glow with an intimate warmth.The starlit ceiling seemed to shine ever more like will o’the wisps with the fleeting charm that the youthful Schumann could exert on his lady admirers. Peter too played with a fluidity and subtle kaleidoscope of sounds that belong, all too often, to a past age.

The Chopin Preludes ,a new work to Peter’s repertoire, and if they did not yet have the same familiarity as the Schumann each one was sculptured in marble full of individual character and deeply contemplated emotions.The deep brooding of the second with the disarming simplicity of the shortest, the seventh, with its fleeting gasps of seeming innocence. It followed the mellifluous third where the washes of sound in the left hand merely accompanied the simple radiance of the melody. There was a dramatic opening to the fourth and the sixth soon evaporating to ever more whispered sounds.

The long lines of the sumptuous eighth ( obviously a great inspiration to the earlier studies of Scriabin ) were sacrificed for the gasps of a heart that beat with such searing intensity throughout his interpretation. Ravishing jeux perlé of the tenth was with a sense of improvised ease after the majestic nobility of the ninth and the beautifully sung eleventh with its beguiling rubato. The twelfth so often played like a bull in a china shop was played with masterly lightness and an architectural shape that could add exhilaration without hardness. The thirteenth surely one of Chopin’s most original bel canto creations, was played with radiance and beauty.A glowing bel canto and left hand meanderings of poetic simplicity with a central episode with moments that touched the sublime . Dynamic pulsating and ferocity were soon spent as the fourteenth fell to one side to make way for the simple radiant beauty of the so called ‘Raindrop’ prelude. In Peter’s hands it became a real tone poem of poignant beauty. The sixteenth feared by all but the bravest was played with quite extraordinary mastery and clarity which could only have been more exhilarating with more participation from the pounding insistence of the left hand. A beautiful flowing tempo to the seventeenth where the deep bass notes from the opening were the anchor on which such radiance could flourish.The improvised cadenza, that is the eighteenth, was played with insinuating insistence but the nineteenth ( perhaps the most technically difficult of all twenty four) was rather too slow to allow us to imagine the Aeolian harp on which the bel canto can simply float. A very rude awakening for the C minor, that is to become so important after the interval, was played with extraordinary vehemence but allowed Peter to judge with great sensitivity each recurring layer of sound until it became a dying whisper, simply discharged with a single glowing chord.The twenty first was shaped with great beauty if a little too ponderous to allow the melody to breathe with simplicity.The twenty second with the great bass octave declaration was played rather too staccato instead of the legato line that Chopin so clearly indicates. It was played with great clarity but sacrificing the grandeur and nobility before the disarming pastoral simplicity of the twenty third. Peter played this with ravishing fluidity and delicacy before the final mighty twenty fourth. Again sacrificing grandeur and nobility for clarity and remarkable technical authority where Chopin quite clearly indicates long pedal notes. The last three imperious ‘D’s’, though, were played with the undeniable authority of a great pianist .

After the interval we were treated to two very unfamiliar works of which Peter is an authority. I well remember our old piano teacher Gordon Green telling me about a fellow student in Manchester who could play anything even the Busoni Piano Concerto. Gordon had studied with Egon Petri a pupil of Busoni and his enthusiasm for Busoni was contagious and was passed on to all his students, John Ogdon and Peter amongst many others.

Two works I have rarely heard in the concert hall and both were played with mastery and total conviction. A fluidity that was missing in the original Chopin op 28, but here in both works there was a kaleidoscope of colour and chameleonic changes of character. One could even sense Brahms in one of the Busoni variations and the quixotic lightness of Schumann. Both had a ‘fugato’ towards the end that Peter played with clarity, but in Busoni there was the unmistakeable atmosphere of impersonal intellect ,whereas in Rachmaninov, whatever he did, was tinged with his unmistakable Russian nostalgia.

Two masterly performances greeted by a full house with a standing ovation and Peter only too happy to play Chopin’s miraculous Prelude op 45 as a thank you on his auspicious debut at the Bechstein Hall.

Greeted by Lady Rose Cholmondeley and many distinguished guests who were in a hall that has the courage to invite great artists to play in London with such fascinating eclectic programmes.

The Nine Variations on a Chopin Prelude resulted from a substantial revision of a large set of Variations and a Fugue on the celebrated Prelude in C minor (Op 28 No 20), which Busoni wrote in 1884 at the age of eighteen. In 1922 he added an introductory fugato and reduced the number of variations from eighteen to ten for inclusion in the first edition of the Klavierübung (1922), and then reduced it further to nine (by dropping the ‘Fantasia’) for the second edition (1925). Its final pages consist of a ‘Scherzo finale’ in tarantella style with an ‘Hommage à Chopin’ in waltz rhythm as its middle section

Rachmaninov’s Variations on a theme of Chopin, Op 22, emerged during one of his most productive periods, in the wake of the second piano concerto. It was in these years that he developed his own distinctive voice, which comes through clearly in this piece. Chopin’s well-known C minor prelude (No 20 from his set of 24 Préludes, Op 28) gave rise to a stylistic challenge: how to transform Chopin into Rachmaninov and was also Rachmaninov’s first large-scale piece for solo piano, exploring an wide range of pianistic elaborations of great technical difficulty .It was dedicated to the world-famous virtuoso piano teacher Theodor Leschetizky.

The simplicity of Chopin’s Prelude lends itself to use as a variation theme and Rachmaninov returned to Chopin’s original conception, in two phrases (the repetition of the second phrase was only at the behest of Chopin’s publisher). The enormous set of twenty-two variations falls into three distinct phases: 1-10, 11-18 and 19-22.

Rachmaninov premiered the Chopin variations himself in 1903, but the audience showed much more enthusiasm for his Op 23 Preludes, which he played in the same programme. This put doubts in Rachmaninov’s mind, and he gave performers options for shortening the piece; he would himself cut several variations when he felt his audience was restive.

The Variations on the name “Abegg” was composed between 1829 and 1830, while as a student in Heidelberg, and published as his op 1  The name is believed to refer to Schumann’s fictitious friend, Meta Abegg, whose surname Schumann used through a musical cryptogram  as the motivic basis for the piece. The name Meta is considered to be an anagram of the word “tema” (Latin). Another suggestion is Pauline von Abegg. Apparently, when he was twenty years old, Schumann met her and dedicated this work to her, as witnessed in Clara Schumann’s edition of her husband’s piano works.

The first five notes of the theme are A, B♭ (B), E, G, and G. This use of pitch names as letters was also used by Schumann in other compositions, such as his Carnaval .

It is composed of:Theme and 5 Variations.

Chopin’s 24 Preludes op.  28, are a set of short pieces for the piano, one in each of the twenty-four keys , originally published in 1839. He wrote them between 1835 and 1839, mostly in Paris, but partially at Valldemossa,Mallorca, where he spent the winter of 1838–39 and where he, George Sand , and her children went to escape the damp Paris weather. In Majorca, Chopin had a copy of Bach’s ’48’, and as in each of Bach’s two sets of  Chopin’s Op. 28 set comprises a complete cycle of the major and minor keys, albeit with a different ordering. Whereas Bach had arranged his collection of 48 preludes and fugues according to keys separated by rising semitones, Chopin’s key sequence  is a circle of fifths, with each major key being followed by its relative minor , and so on (i.e. C major, A minor, G major, E minor, etc.). Since this sequence of related keys  is much closer to common harmonic practice, it is thought that Chopin might have conceived the cycle as a single performance entity for continuous recital of his préludes .Chopin himself never played more than four of the preludes at any single public performance. Nor was this the practice for the 25 years after his death. The first pianist to program the complete set in a recital was probably Anna Yesipova for a concert in 1876. Nowadays, the complete set of Op. 28 preludes has become repertory fare, and many concert pianists have recorded the entire set, beginning with Ferruccio Busoni  in 1915, when making piano rolls for the Duo-Art label. Alfred Cortot  was the next pianist to record the complete preludes in 1926.

They were actually already finished before setting foot on Majorca, however, he did finalize them there, as referenced by him in his letters to Pleyel: “I have finished my préludes here on your little piano[…]”

The manuscript, which Chopin carefully prepared for publication, carries a dedication to the German pianist  and composer Joseph Christoph Kessler. The French and English editions (Catelin, Wessel) were dedicated to the piano-maker and publisher Camille Pleyel, who had commissioned the work for 2,000 francs (equivalent to nearly €6500 in present-day currency). The German edition of Breitkopf & Härtel was dedicated to Kessler, who ten years earlier had dedicated his own set of 24 Preludes, Op. 31, to Chopin.

Fou Ts’ong called them 24 problems such are their quicksilver technical and poetic challenges

Peter Donohoe is in high demand as a jury member for major international competitions, including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Hong Kong International Piano Competition and the Artur Rubenstein Piano Competition. Peter Donohoe is one of the UK’s most respected and sought-after pianists; we are honoured to welcome him to Bechstein Hall

Peter Donohoe was born in Manchester in 1953. He studied at Chetham’s School of Music for seven years, graduated in music at Leeds University, and went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music with Derek Wyndham and then in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique.

In recent seasons Donohoe has appeared with Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and Concert Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonia, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Belarusian State Symphony Orchestra, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has undertaken a UK tour with the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as giving concerts in many South American and European countries, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Russia, and USA. Other past and future engagements include performances of all three MacMillian piano concertos with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; a ‘marathon’ recital of Scriabin’s complete piano sonatas at Milton Court; an all-Mozart series at Perth Concert Hall; concertos with the Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestraat Royal Festival Hall; and a residency at the Buxton International Festival.

Donohoe is also in high demand as a jury member for international competitions. He has recently served on the juries at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow (2011 and 2015), Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels (2016), Georges Enescu Competition in Bucharest (2016), Hong Kong International Piano Competition (2016), Harbin Competition (2017 and 2018), Artur Rubenstein Piano Master Competition (2017), Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition and Festival (2017), Alaska International e-Competition (2018), Concours de Geneve Competition (2018), Ferrol Piano Competition (2022), and Hong Kong International Piano Competition (2022), along with many national competitions both within the UK and abroad.

Donohoe’s most recent discs include six volumes of Mozart Piano Sonatas with SOMM Records. Other recent recordings include Haydn Keyboard Works Volume 1 (Signum), Grieg Lyric Pieces Volume 1 (Chandos), Dora Pejacevic Piano Concerto (Chandos), Brahms and Schumann viola sonatas with Philip Dukes (Chandos), and Busoni: Elegies and Toccata (Chandos), which was nominatedfor BBC Music Magazine Award. Donohoe has performed with all the major London orchestras, as well as orchestras from across the world: the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Vienna Symphony and Czech Philharmonic Orchestras. He has also played with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Sir Simon Rattle’s opening concerts as Music Director. He made his twenty-second appearance at the BBC Proms in 2012 and has appeared at many other festivals including six consecutive visits to the Edinburgh Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron in France, and at the Ruhr and Schleswig Holstein Festivals in Germany.

The 23/24 season kicked off with Peter Donohoe performing as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle with four performances of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie in London, Edinburgh, and Bucharest. In January 2024, Peter returns to Philadelphia for performance with the Ama Deus Ensemble and will then travel to Dubai to adjudicate the 3rd Classic Piano Competition 2024.

Music making of rare dedication and searing commitment .There has been no greater example of selfless dedication and humility than the Beaux Arts Trio and it was the image of it’s founder Menahem Pressler that cast a shadow over the last two days of music making at the Wigmore Hall.

Last night the Lozakovich/Kantorow duo and tonight the Schumann Quartet.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/04/02/daniel-lozakovich-alexandre-kantorow-burning-intensity-and-passionate-mastery-ignite-then-wigmore-hall-as-never-before/

A sixteen year old Lozakovich in Berlin, the Deutsche Grammophon’s yellow lounge and the early formation of the Schumann brothers with whom Pressler gave many concerts including one of his first Franck Quintet’s when he was well into his 90’s!

For two consecutive nights the Wigmore has resounded to music making of rare mastery and commitment and which just demonstrated the perfect size and famous acoustic of the Wigmore Hall for listening to chamber music.

The Schumann quartet playing with authority and masterly musicianship. Ken watching closely his brother as they united with the ravishing sounds of Mark’s cello and the subtle beauty of Veit Benedict Hertenstein’s viola.

Flying in from Frankfurt with not a little difficulty. Lost baggage, hence improvised concert suit for Mark, not to mention the booking for the cello unable to be found and only thanks to BA’s caring staff allowed to arrive for the concert

I think the relief to sit down and make music added a different dimension to their playing and gave a driving intense feeling to all they did.

Nowhere more than in the Weiner String quartet that was played with ravishing colour and a driving masterly intensity. A true discovery of a quartet that had the same astonishing mastery of writing for all four instruments that was so evident in Beethoven’s Razumovsky op 59 n.2

What a joy to see the relish on Ken’s face as his brother added such Razumovskian charm to Beethoven’s final Presto op 59 and to the early op 18 played as an encore .

Haydn is alway a revelation and this string quartet op 54 n2 was astonishing for it’s mastery of writing that just pointed his pupil,Beethoven, in the direction of his inspirational final thoughts of his late quartets op 127 to 135

I look forward to hearing more Beethoven from them on their next visit .

This summer they are performing the 16 Beethoven quartets in their first complete cycle and are even tonight back in Frankfurt with their first ‘Harp’ quartet op 74.

The Wigmore resounding to quartets this week with their International Competition that moves from the early rounds at the Royal Academy onto this hallowed stage on Saturday and Sunday for the semi final and final. All streamed live and not to be missed.

Sensational would be too little to describe what we have heard today. I was here when Vengerov made his London debut at the age of fourteen and we stood on the chairs and cheered in disbelief at the end of Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy just as they did with Horowitz . It must have been like that with Liszt and Paganini with an overwhelming mastery and commitment that has a hypnotic effect on anyone within range.Tonight though was different because not only was there a violinist who could lean back with sounds of sumptuous piercing beauty but there was also a pianist whose mastery and humility are conquering the world.

A potent combination that now in the interval I can contemplate what wonders I have just experienced. Grieg and Schumann sonatas played with overwhelming power and united burning intensity, combined with a poetic beauty of ravishing authority .To see Daniel on his 24th birthday lean back just as actors are told to do arching their back to appear even more imposing than they are in life ,but playing with the intensity of an Arrau, with real weight .Yes I know Arrau was a pianist but he more than any other knew what weight and intensity allied to interpretative mastery really meant. Kantarow with streams of notes just thrown off as if he too was playing a magnificent Strad. Such was their unity that the actual instruments became one glorious voice of a communicative mastery that reached every one of us in this sold out hall .The unified silence and tension was more palpable than I have ever felt with such intensity. in the concert hall. Now after the interval our two young heros arrive without the score because they have the music engraved in their being .The magic opening notes of the Franck played with a glowing luminosity answered by the whispered barely audible reply of the violin . A continual building of intensity until reaching an unbearable pitch of passionate dynamism that I have rarely experienced in the concert hall. Unbelievable virtuosity in the second movement that made the mellifluous outpourings such a relief, as we could feel this turbulent cauldron about to erupt again. And erupt it certainly did where suddenly Kantarow reduced the sound to prepare us for the breathtaking race to the final dramatic note. A recitativo played with audacious authority by both players but diffused with the simple ravishing beauty of the Allegretto. Chasing each other with pastoral ease until they caught up with each other and sparks really were ignited in a burning passionate outpouring of quite extraordinary potency.

Liebesleid was the only antidote for such youthful passionate mastery and with a twinkle in their eye they played with irresistible charm and with a sense of colour and refined phrasing truly of the age of Kreisler

After a confab at the keyboard where someone from the audience shouted out Happy Birthday and Kantarow looking incredulously at his partner as this was news to him! So Brahms it was, the Scherzo from the FAE sonata, played with sumptuous sounds but of kaleidoscopic insinuation and the devilish rhythmic motif chiselled out of the bass by Kantarow like a devil in disguise enticing his partner to even greater heights. And heights there were with a climax to beat all climaxes leaving these two lads to go off arm in arm discussing what heights they had achieved together and judging by the queue of people backstage I should think this should be some birthday party .

Alexandre Kantorow bestrides the Wigmore Hall like a Colossus.

Tuesday 1 April 2.00 pm 

Sonya Pigot (piano)

Haydn: Sonata in B minor no 47 Hob:XVI:32
Allegro / Minuet / Presto

Chopin: 2 Nocturnes 
Nocturne Op 9 no 1 in B flat minor
Nocturne Op 48 no 1 in C minor  

Liszt: ‘Lyon’ from Album D’un Voyageur S 156/1

Weber: “Invitation to the Dance” Op 65   

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody no 17 in D minor  

Some very intense music making from Sonya Pigot today, but what an interesting choice of repertoire. Fresh from playing in the semi finals of the Utrecht Liszt Competition. Every year Leslie Howard delves deep into the enormous amount of works by Liszt that are still lying on dusty shelves in the archives and makes them obligatory set pieces to all those that wish to participate. It was the two works by Liszt that particularly ignited the fantasy and dynamism of this young pianist who has so much passionate commitment to share. On occasion it is this desperate need to communicate that can lead to moments of uncertainty but it is a small price to pay for the ravishing sound and beauty that she can combine with moments of real inspiration.

The Haydn B minor sonata showed off her well oiled fingers with streams of jeux perlé runs and trills that were like tightly wound springs that just gave a glitter to Haydn’s impish civilised sense of humour. If the Minuet was rather slow it was because she felt it more of a beautiful song than a dance. The Presto finale,however, took wing with dynamic drive and great character and was played with great style where even Haydn’s final declamation was played with the civilised voice of its time.

The Chopin Nocturne ,his first, was played with great expression but lost some of Chopin’s aristocratic nobility to more earthy emotions of dramatic intensity. A beautiful sense of balance allowed her to play with ravishing sound of glowing beauty. The C minor Nocturne is one of Chopin’s longest and a tone poem of majestic proportions. Nobility and beauty combined in Sonya’s performance and although rather slow at the beginning it was played with sensitivity and beauty.The gradual build up to the climax was played with masterly control as the octaves were just underlining the musical line that explodes into shimmering vibrations on which the melodic line floats with golden beauty.

Weber’s invitation to the Dance I think I have in Tausig’s arrangement but I certainly know Schnabel’s most unexpected recording.Weber is a composer much overlooked but which both Gilels and Richter were great admirers and would play the second and third sonatas which are of great originality and beauty.I remember hearing Claudio Arrau,another great thinking musician, playing the Konzertstück at the Albert Hall together with Liszt Totentanz .He is a composer that could well do with a revival and is a cross between Beethoven and Schubert with Sonatas in four movements even. The Invitation to the dance was often included in programmes of the virtuosi of the Golden age of piano playing and was played by Sonya with great style and charm and she even managed to catch the audience out with the surprise whispered coda that Weber adds mischievously at the end.

The two Liszt works are new to me and they were very impressively played even though they seemed rather bombastic showpieces rather than the introspective genius of Liszt’s later works or the ravishing beauty of Liszt the seducer of his early years.However well worth hearing them at least once and hats off to Sonya for presenting them with such conviction and authority.

In January 2025 sonya was a semi-finalist in the Liszt Utrecht International piano competition at the TivoliVredenburg, Netherlands and her performing career has taken her world wide to prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, Steinway Hall, the Royal Albert hall and concert halls throughout Asia, Australia and Europe. While studying her Undergraduate, Masters and Artist Diploma Degrees at the Royal College of Music she has studied and worked with renowned professors that include; Norma Fisher, Sofya Gulyak, Ashley Wass, Dimitri Alexeev and Ian Jones. She is now on a scholarship studying a PhD that explores the relationship between personality and the interpretation of music at the RCM. 

As well as having performed for members of the British Royal Family, Sonya has won and taken part in many international music competitions across Australia and Europe; most notably the Busoni International piano competition, semi-finalist in Liszt Utrecht International piano competition, First prize in the Grand Prize Virtuoso International music competition, Gold Medal in the Berliner International Music competition, First prize in the Hephzibah Menuhin Memorial Award piano competition and First prize in the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Rising Star competition. She is generously supported by the Talent Unlimited Charity and she is looking forward to performing at Steinway Hall, London as a “New Artist” for the Keyboard Charitable Trust. 

Sonya has had concert engagements with orchestras since she was 15, most notably the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Gill AO and the Perugia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marius Stravinsky in Tuscany. Sonya has performed for and been in masterclasses with many international artists, such as: Alfred Brendel, Boris Berman, John Perry, Ewa Pablocka and Pavel Gililov. Alongside her solo career she is looking forward to performing with the violinist David Nebel, Concertmaster of the Berlin Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the upcoming 25/26 season. 

Sonya Pigot a magic wonderland of sounds at St James’s Piccadilly

A return to Bechstein Hall having opened the Young Artists Season and now returning in the ‘Roast’ Series on Sunday afternoon. Having heard the Haydn B minor Sonata last time Thomas opened this time with the most beautiful of Busoni’s transcriptions of Bach Chorale preludes, that of ‘Ich ruf zu dir,Herr Jesu Christ’. It was a sumptuous opening with beautiful rich sounds from which arose one of the most poignant of Bach’s chorale preludes. It was played with quiet authority as the melody was allowed to unfold with the heartrending beauty of a true believer.

There was a crystalline clarity to the Haydn B minor sonata with a rhythmic drive and sedate ornaments enriched by the scintillating passage work that they unravelled like a finely woven web from his delicate well oiled fingers. Grace and charm of the Menuet was contrasted with the turbulence of the Trio before the dynamic drive of the Finale.Here the brilliance of the jeux perlé was contrasted with the dynamic insistent drive of it’s surroundings, ever more impetuous as the final declaration was punched home with great style and authority.

In his last recital Thomas had played the Chopin B minor Sonata and today he chose the last of Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas op 111. In both works he showed his musicianship with an architectural understanding that allowed him to give an overall shape to these two monumental works without ever wavering from the great rhythmic wave that carries us through from the first note to the last. The opening of op 111 immediately showed his understanding of the struggle that Beethoven implies with the three great leaps fearlessly played with one hand, leading to the true opening of the sonata where at last we arrive at the home key.The ‘Allegro con brio ed appasionato’ was played with great clarity and the drive of water bubbling over at boiling pitch only to find relief in the recitativi that allow a breathing space before the struggle recommences.These recitativI were played with glowing beauty and a shape of improvised freedom.The development too was played with a clarity as it built up to the great declaration of the main theme.There was serene beauty to the coda that allowed the struggle to die down as we reach the major key for the peace of the ‘Arietta: Adagio molto semplice e cantabile’. Thomas played this opening theme with glowing beauty and a string quartet texture that gave great strength to this most poignant of melodies.The variations were allowed to evolve with a natural fluidity as more and more notes were added before the turbulent explosion of the third variation. Even here Thomas managed to keep the same sound world even though playing with such dynamic drive that he allowed to fall away so naturally leading to the gradual disintegration of the theme.

Whispered wafts of melody floating above a gentle murmured bass were played with great control and a perfect sense of balance.The dynamic interruptions were soon dispelled as Beethoven reached for the ‘star’ with a passionate outpouring of radiance and beauty.Thomas always playing with aristocratic control ,the music to dissolving onto gentle vibrations of sound where his beautifully pure trills allowed the theme to be heard on high for a final time.It was the true vision of the beauty that Beethoven could already foresee in the not too distant future.

Siloti’s transcription of Bach’s B minor Prelude was the ideal encore of refined sumptuous reverence where Thomas’s perfect balance allowed the melody to resonate with the purity and beauty that had pervaded the eternal magic of the final bars of Beethoven’s last monumental sonata.

Thomas Masciaga opens the Bechstein Young Artists Series with canons covered in flowers

A dream programme for the Bechstein Young Artists series this morning.

Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring and Sheep May Safely Graze were the opening to Schumann’s most inspired ‘Davidsbündlertanze’.

Played by the recent winner of the Chappell Gold Medal at the RCM and just last week a top prize winner at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig

Mariamna Sherling seems to have been kissed by the Gods with beauty and talent in abundance.

Under the starlit sky at the New Bechstein Hall she opened with Bach’s chorale in the much loved transcription by Myra Hess of Jesu Joy of mans Desiring and she even added some further details that brought it even closer to Bach’s original. But it was the Petri transcription of ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ that showed off her true artistry with the noble poignancy of Bach’s simple melodic outpouring that she allowed to sing with flowing beauty ornamented by Petri’s discrete ethereal accompaniments. It is not quite as magical as Grainger’s ‘Ramble’ but both were influenced by Busoni,their mentor, in different ways. Petri is more sombre and respectful and it was this noble beauty that Mariamna showed us today.

Thanking Terry Lewis and the Bechstein Hall for giving her an opportunity to play three of the most cherished works in her repertoire.

Schumann opened with gasps of wonderment as Florestan and Eusebius competed with beguiling emotions. It was Eusebius who shone brightly with the second dance of whispered beauty of intimate secrets. Florestan springing onto the scene as Schumann indicates ‘mit Humor’ that Mariamna played with a capricious style of great drive and insinuating rubato disappearing fleetingly into the distance. She brought an unusually delicate opening to the fourth ‘ungedulig’ gradually becoming ever more passionate with sumptuous beauty of golden sounds. Freedom and poignant beauty brought Eusebius with a chiselled melodic line.

In fact every one of these dances was imbued not only with technical perfection but with a sense of style and very strong personal commitment. Mariamna gave Eusebius a ravishingly beautiful voice just as she gave Florestan a robust personal capriciousness.

Nowhere more was her technical mastery evident than in the sixth dance played ‘sehr rasch’ but with a clarity and scrupulous attention to Schumann’s very awkward phrasing.The coda was thrown off with a romantic abandon to the final tumultuous D where Eusebius was waiting with gentle beauty of hesitant expectancy. The question and answer of the eighth was played with disarming simplicity and a very strong personal identification.

Momentarily Florestan seemed to have taken over with the ninth of a playful dance duetting with itself with relish, and just disappearing to two final quiet chords played with insolent nonchalance, very similar to Carnaval’s Pantalon et Colombine, written shortly after this work. There were robust Brahmsian sounds to the tenth with a sumptuous richness of romantic fervour. Beseeching simplicity of Eusebius in the eleventh where slightly underlining the shadowing of the melody gave great depth to a sound of luxuriant beauty .The twelfth just flittered in gleefully capricious with playing of extraordinary dexterity. What wonders there were when Florestan and Eusebius combined in the thirteenth with the rich chorale beauty constantly moving forward to a coda of lightness and charm ‘immer schneller und schneller’ paving the way for one of Schumann’s most beautiful melodies .The fourteenth dance was played with ravishing beauty, the counterpoints just shimmering like gems from within .The fifteenth started in such a spiky decisive way before succumbing to a glorious outpouring of changing harmonies played with fervent conviction and passionate abandon. The playful sense of character of the sixteenth was played with extraordinary control as it dissolved into one of Schumann’s most heavenly inspirations.The seventeenth entering on a mist of sound where etherial recollections of the past waltzes are floated and which Mariamna played with a poetic mastery that could allow her to fearlessly take flight to the tumultuous climax that disappeared just as fast as it had arrived. The final waltz was played with hesitant beguiling nostalgia as we joined in the slumbers of Florestan and Eusebius in a land of dreams of wondrous beauty.

Mariamna played the entire recital with fervent conviction and a great musical personality whilst scrupulously following the composers very precise indications.

An encore of one of Beethoven’s most rumbustious bagatelles op 33 n. 7 was played with gleeful dynamic drive and exhilaration.

The New Bechstein Hall after its initial launching is now accessible to all with a Sunday morning Young Artists Series at only five pounds, with as much coffee as you need at 10.30am!
Thomas Masciaga opened the Bechstein Young Artists Series with canons covered in flowers
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/02/02/thomas-masciaga-opens-the-bechstein-young-artists-series-with-canons-covered-in-flowers/
Evening concerts starting from 18 pounds and a sumptuous restaurant that is also opening for luncheon.
A beautiful new hall that is just complimenting the magnificence of the Wigmore Hall and the sumptuous salon of Bob Boas.Providing a much need space for the enormous amount of talent that London,the undisputed capital of classical music,must surely try to accommodate
Here are some of the recent performances :

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/02/vedran-janjanin-at-bechstein-hall-playing-of-scintillating-sumptuous-beauty/ of a remarkable artist’

Axel Trolese at Bechstein Hall ‘Mastery and intelligence of a remarkable artist’

Diana Cooper ‘Miracles at Bechstein Hall’

Yukine Kuroki at Bechstein Hall ‘A star shining brightly with genial poetic mastery’

Federico Colli triumphs at the new Bechstein Hall as it comes of age

Nikita Lukinov conquers the Bechstein Hall with masterly music making

Guy Johnston and Mishka Momen Rushdie conquer Bechstein Hall in the name of Beethoven

Donglai Shi at Bechstein Hall ‘Young Artists Series’ with playing of clarity and purity of a true musician

Phillip James Leslie debut recital at the long awaited rebirth of Bechstein Hall

Dmitri Kalashnikov at Bechstein Hall ‘Canons covered in Flowers’ of poetic mastery

Andrey Gugnin at Bechstein Hall ‘The pianistic perfection of a supreme stylist’

Jeremy Chan Young Artists Recital at Bechstein Hall ‘Intelligence and Artistry combine with words in music’

William Bracken at Bechstein Hall Mastery and Mystery of a great musician

Margaret Fingerhut reminding us of the rich heritage that is gradually being devoured by aggressive neighbours

Playing of ravishing beauty where even Silvestrov has turned to whispered beauty, as an antidote to his previous percussive style, when the bombs started dropping on his homeland

A fascinating journey through works that were much influenced by Liszt, Rachmaninov , Scriabin and even Prokofiev.

But it was Lysenko who closed the programme being the first composer to express Nationalistic pride in music with a Ukrainian Fantasy much in the style of those of Liszt .

Beauty, mastery and solidarity shone through playing of searing commitment and glowing beauty.

A grandiose opening with Bortkiewicz dissolving into a chorale with droplets of water just suggested as the music opened to an expansive Lisztian outpouring and a heartrending duet of sumptuous rich romantic sounds. A grandiloquent ending worthy of the grandest of Liszt’s creations and was a beautiful way to end this great romantic picture. ‘Sorrow and Loneliness’ indeed of great density for one of the rare pieces to survive the cancellation of his works by an intolerant regime .Folk indioms were woven into the mellifluous outpouring of two preludes by Lyatoshinsky and there was Rachmaninovian inspiration for the virtuosity and sumptuous sounds of Kosenko’s ‘Nocturne Fantasie’ op 4 .’Three Bagatelles’ by Silvestrov, whose music I had heard from the hands of Boris Berman in Cremona and was surprised at the complete change in style as the invasion of his homeland was taking place.
(https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/09/26/cremona-the-city-of-dreams-a-global-network-where-dreams-become-reality/)

Works of percussive prickly violence are now so quiet with indications in the score never to be louder than the quietest whisper.They were pieces of ravishing beauty of glowing fluidity and romantic insistence. Anna Fedorova had recently opened her recital in Florence with barely audible sounds that drew us in and made us listen with new ears at such childlike musings of simple radiance. (https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/03/02/anna-fedorova-in-florence-the-triumph-of-a-supreme-stylist-in-la-pergola-the-temple-of-music/) The final work in her recital, Liszt springs to mind again ,as she played Lysenko’s ‘Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes’ with romantic fervour and sumptuous bravura and he was the first Ukrainian composer of note with a strong National identity. An encore of exquisite beauty by a composer whose name I did not catch but obviously of the Ukrainian romantic tradition and just showed us what we have been missing all these years. Let us open up our ears and hearts and include some of these beautiful works into our rather standardised concert programmes.

Here is her choice of composers and descriptions in her own words

A dream team at the Royal Festival Hall ……..the golden eagle of Petrenko swooping in with such elegance as he hovered over the Royal Philharmonic .Teamed with the refined playing of a young star Bruce Liu winner of the last Chopin Competition and shining now ever more brightly.

Korngold played with the swooping and swooning style of Hollywood as the film star good looks and masterly baton technique of Petrenko delved deep into the very soul of this magnificent ensemble.

Recreating the great era of Cinema when all the greatest composers were sheltering in California and providing funds for the inhumane suffering that was being handed out just the other side of the pond .

Bruce Liu with refined phrasing of exquisite delicacy delved deep into Rachmaninov’s score and revealed many gems that often go unnoticed by less sensitive artists.

Korngold and Rachmaninov were neighbours in Los Angeles and they have much in common with masterly orchestration and heart on sleeve sentiments.

Surrounded by fans at the end of a near perfect performance of the Paganini Rhapsody, Bruce did not need much persuasion to show us what he really could do!

Have Liszt’s bells ever sounded so luminous or perfect as they sparkled and shone in this young virtuoso’s delicate hands? Little did we expect the demonic roar of a Lion of the keyboard at the end of Campanella and an astonished audience, which by now included the players of the RPO, gave him a well earned standing ovation .

In the Green Room with Yisha Xue to thank Bruce before he flies off early tomorrow morning to delight of audiences in every part of the world.

Bruce Liu at the Wigmore Hall London A supreme stylist creating a new Golden Age of piano playing of mastery and refined good taste

Bruce Liu and Sir Antonio Pappano take Warsaw by storm

Stars shine brightly in Warsaw with Dang Thai Son,Bruce Liu and Lukas Geniusas

Bruce Liu’s triumphant debut at the Edinburgh Festival

Bruce Liu takes London by storm