January 21, 2025 6:30 PM

The London debut of the award-winning Italian trio featured Schumann’s stormy first piano trio and Fanny Mendelssohn’s, rarely heard, only work for the ensemble.

The Trio Hérmes was selected by the Fondazione Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena to be part in the Giovani Talenti Musicali Italiani nel Mondo project, an initiative established in collaboration with Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale and CIDIM – Comitato Nazionale Italiano Musica.
Also within the Chigiana Musical Academy, the Trio received the Giovanna Maniezzo Award 2024, granted to them for their outstanding artistic qualities, promotion, and initiative within the contemporary musical scene.The ensemble has received the prestigious recognition of “Ensemble of the Year 2023” instituted by Le Dimore del Quartetto, being selected from over 92 ensembles from the best chamber music academies in Europe, and awarded for their rapid and consistent artistic and professional rise, thus receiving a scholarship and engagements at significant seasons and festivals.

The superb Hermes Trio were making their London debut in the refined atmosphere of Fidelio.

Having heard them last in the vast space of the President’s Palace in Rome, with a concert recorded live for the radio, it was refreshing to see these three young ladies in a more intimate space where their searing passion and musicianship could be savoured to the full.

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Paired with the Trio by Schumann in the same key of D minor that was played with the superb ensemble and technical mastery bringing this luxurious hors d’oeuvres to a sumptuous end. A first movement of romantic sweep and searing mellifluous intensity was followed by the excitement and exhilaration of the ‘Lebhaft’.It was played with superb ensemble and an hypnotic rhythmic drive. A beautiful solo for piano and violin opened the ‘Langsam’ with long languid lines where the cello and violin entwined their soulful playing with ravishing intensity.The dynamic drive and total conviction of the ‘Mit Feuer’ brought this well known masterpiece to an exciting end with our three young ladies playing with ever more passion and drive.

Just one short morsel added by great demand as an encore :‘Sguardi’ by Domenico Turi, as the air filled with the perfume of the cordon bleu menu that followed .

Programme:

F. Mendelssohn Hensel Piano Trio in D minor Op. 11
R. Schumann Piano Trio in D minor No. 1 Op. 63

Another beautiful space, curated with the same love and refined good taste as Raffaello in London, was with Maura Romano in Milan.It was where I first had the opportunity to listen live to the trio in a short cameo appearance at the annual Christmas festivities in the flagship of Steinway & Sons Milan ‘we could have danced all night’ Christmas is a comin’
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/13/steinway-sons-milan-we-could-have-danced-all-night-christmas-is-a-comin/

The debut of this superb prizewinning trio in London was in the warm atmosphere of Fidelio. Created by the conductor Raffaello Morales where his love of music is evident in every corner of this refined space opposite the Italian church in the centre of London. Here are a few articles that I have written recently about this new important space in London for intimate music making :

Diabelli is box office at Fidelio where Genius meets Genius -Filippo Gorini and Raffaello Morales breaking barriers
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/10/30/diabelli-is-box-office-at-fidelio-where-genius-meets-genius-filippo-gorini-and-raffaello-morales-breaking-barriers/

Angela Hewitt plays Bach and Brahms with the Fidelio Orchestra of Raffaello Morales
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/03/10/angela-hewitt-plays-bach-and-brahms-with-the-fidelio-orchestra-of-raffaello-morales/

Jonathan Ferrucci Touching Toccatas and much more besides
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/01/17/jonathan-ferrucci-touching-toccatas-and-much-more-besides/

Samson Tsoy: Mastery and restless conviction reaching for the skies with Fidelian courage
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/07/18/31232/

The Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor op 63, by Robert Schumann was written in 1847. It has four movements :

1. Mit Energie und Leidenschaft
2. Lebhaft, doch nicht zu rasch
3. Langsam, mit inniger Empfindung
4. Mit Feuer

The first piano trio (first of three works with this title plus the Fantasiestücke Op. 88 for the same forces) is in an intensely romantic style, and is the most celebrated of Schumann’s trios in the modern repertoire. The opening movement begins with a surging theme that is heard in counterpoint initially between the piano’s bass and the violin; the scherzo’s driving dotted rhythm shares its smoothly ascending contour with the flowing trio section. The third movement features a duet between violin and cello, and moves without pause to the heroic tonic-major finale.

The Piano Trio in D minor op 11 by Fanny Mendelssohn  was conceived between 1846 and 1847 as a birthday present for her sister, and posthumously published in 1850, three years after the composer’s death.

The trio is in four movements:

1. Allegro molto vivace
2. Andante espressivo
3. Lied: Allegretto
4. Allegretto moderato

In 1847, an anonymous critic in the Neue Berliner Musik Zeitung found in the trio “…broad, sweeping foundations that build themselves up through stormy waves into a marvelous edifice. In this respect the first movement is a masterpiece, and the trio most highly original.” Fanny Mendelssohn shared many of the same advantages of education and travel as her younger brother Felix, and was every bit as obviously talented and precocious a musician as he. But while some highly gifted women did forge public careers as performers, composing – or rather, publishing compositions – was almost exclusively a male domain at the time. Felix’s own attitude seems characteristic: “From my knowledge of Fanny,” he wrote in 1837,“I would say that she has neither inclination nor vocation for authorship. She is too much all that a woman ought to be for this. She regulates her house, and neither thinks of the public nor of the music world, nor even of music at all, until her first duties are fulfilled. Publishing would only disturb her in these, and I cannot say that I approve of it.”

Nonetheless, brother and sister consulted each other regularly about their music, and Felix allowed several of Fanny’s songs to be published under his name (an open secret). Fanny’s husband, the painter Wilhelm Hensel, was even more supportive and Fanny eventually took over the long-running Sunday musicales at the Mendelssohn home in Berlin, where her works were often performed. (Over 460 works survive, mostly songs and solo piano works.)

That was the scene for the premiere of her last major work, the Piano Trio in D minor, written for her younger sister Rebecka’s birthday in 1847 amid great political unrest and food riots. Fanny died a month later after suffering a stroke while rehearsing Felix’ oratorio Die erste Walpurgisnacht for a musicale; Felix followed her six months later from the same cause, which had also claimed both of their parents and their grandfather Moses Mendelssohn.

Some extraordinary playing at St Mary’s with a programme of two of the most perfect masterpieces from the piano repertoire.They were played one after the other in an effusion of beauty that was truly miraculous. I have heard Ariel many times during his period of study in London at the Royal Academy with Hamish Milne and Ian Fountain, and have always been impressed by his scrupulous musicianship and selfless dedication to the composers he is serving. On many occasions though I have found this intensity and seriousness compelling but also overpowering.

I have heard him play Schubert on numerous occasions,solo and in piano duet, and have found his playing always masterly but often rather Beethovenian. Beethoven was more driven by the orchestra whereas Schubert by the song which on occasion did come across.

Lanyi-Berecz at the Matthiesen Gallery ‘Notre amitié est invariable’
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/28/lanyi-berecz-at-the-matthiesen-gallery-notre-amitie-est-invariable/

Today Ariel with this Fantasy Sonata was touched by the Gods and driven by the mellifluous outpouring of song that in Schubert was seemingly endless.

The Schubert G major Sonata opened with Ariel caressing the keys producing etherial sounds of radiance and beauty.There was a wondrous sense of balance within the chords that allowed the melody to sing as never before. Barely touching the keys and after the delicate intricacy of dance that Schubert magically conjures out of the opening heartfelt palpitations, Ariel threw his hands in the air allowing them to return to the keys only to create even more beauty. This time sustained by a gently underlined bass and allowing us to indulge once again in the magic that had filled the air at the opening. Suddenly the minor key and an intense passionate commitment from chords of questioning insistence, where they had been of passive acceptance. Finding paradise again as these demanding chords were allowed to cool down almost to a stand still as the miraculous vision of beauty was once more on the horizon.There is no rallentando in the score but Ariel’s poetic imagination knew instinctively what was in Schubert’s soul at this point. Everything Ariel played in this sonata sang as rarely before, as he even approached the coda on tip toe hardly daring to disturb such a heavenly place.

The ‘Andante’ was played with aristocratic beauty even if the opening up beat seemed a little too important. He allowed the music to flow with simplicity and beauty, but there was also great intensity, not of orchestral colour but of the song that was in his heart today. Some beautiful tenor counterpoints gently underlined in the chordal transitions made the etherial balance of the melodic line even more ravishingly beautiful.

The ‘Menuetto’ opened with Beethovenian vehemence but was here calmed with a beseeching reply and became part of its Forestan and Eusebius character. The ‘Trio’ was of restrained and whispered beauty with a glowing sound of delicacy and desolation.The ‘Allegretto’ was of true pastoral elegance where Ariel seemed to be enjoying the teasing eloquence of Schubert’s mischievous meanderings. Suddenly they were interrupted by one of those melodies that Schubert ,like Mozart, can illuminate a work, out of thin air, with genial magic and wondrous beauty. There was a slight hesitation that Ariel brought each time to the reappearance of the rondo theme, that was like a call to attention in anticipation of what would come next .The final few bars were of pastoral beauty and peace as this miracle was brought to an end with chords that were but reverberations of sound. A performance where the piano was allowed to sing its heart out, almost without bar lines, such was the mastery of Ariel today.

The Chopin B minor Sonata would seem an impossible task after such a monumental performance of Schubert. In Ariel’s hands all is possible as the opening Allegro Maestoso rang out with imperious authority. Ariel gave a sense of architectural shape to a movement that can often seem fragmented, but the slight freedom he gave himself in the Schubert was here in Chopin rather misplaced. Why add a rallentando before the sostenuto of the second subject or slightly delay the last chords of the opening phrases or draw out the embellishment a fraction too long? These are just minute details in what was without doubt a masterly performance where the scrupulous attention to detail and Chopin’s very precise phrasing and dynamic markings were a refreshing reminder of a work that has been so manhandled by so many so called Chopin specialists! Ariel played like the great musician he is, and if he turned corners occasionally with style it was the style of someone who loves the music deeply. Playing the repeat in the first movement ,as he did in the Schubert, as would a Serkin ,Arrau or other great thinking musicians. In Ariel’s hands it all made such musical sense and made the passionate outpouring of the development even more gripping. Chopin in Ariel’s hands today sang with a timelessness and the recapitulation was played with even more beauty with the second subject played as Chopin implies, with more intensity the second time around ( there is no diminuendo as in the exposition ).

The ‘Scherzo’ was played with a melodic jeux perlé and not just thrown off with easy brilliance. It linked so perfectly with the ‘Trio’ which had a shape and sense of direction with an energy of its own, before the return of the mellifluous ‘Scherzo’.The Imperious opening chords of the Largo were played almost without a break and Chopin even marks a crescendo and no rallentando on the last chords before it is allowed to melt into the ravishing cantabile and the gentle lapping of the barcarolle that accompanies Chopin’s simple bel canto.The ‘sostenuto’ was played with poignant meaning with gentle undulations shaped with masterly understanding and there was magic in the air as the last arpeggiated chord heralded the return of the theme with an even more pronounced rocking accompaniment. There was the beauty and clarity of the left hand in the coda, like a cello gently meandering towards the final farewell which was of two chords placed with the timing of a true master.The Finale :’Presto non tanto’ was given an aristocratic performance of extraordinary control as each time the ‘Rondo’ theme returned there was a slight pause as Ariel dug deeper and deeper sometimes even adding an extra bass note.The final time using Chopin’s own pointed fingering to give even more animal exhilaration and excitement. Igniting the atmosphere until the final explosions of technical bravura and even adding final octaves to give more emphasis to the burning energy generated in this masterly performance.

Born in Jerusalem in 1997, Ariel studied with Lea Agmon and Yuval Cohen. Based in London, he recently completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Hamish Milne and Ian Fountain. He has received extensive tuition from eminent artists such as Robert Levin, Murray Perahia, Imogen Cooper, Leif Ove Andsnes, Steven Osborne, and the late Leon Fleisher and Ivan Moravec. Awards include 1st Prize at the 2018 Grand Prix Animato Competition in Paris and 1st Prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition, as well as a finalist award at the Rubinstein Competition.In March 2023, Ariel Lanyi was honoured to receive the Prix Serdang, a Swiss prize awarded by the distinguished Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. The prize is endowed with CHF 50,000 and is not a competition, but a recognition of a young pianist’s achievements and an investment in their future. Prior to this Ariel won 3rd Prize at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition. In the same year he was a prize winner in the inaugural Young Classical Artists Trust (London) and Concert Artists Guild (New York) International Auditions. Highlights this season include a recording with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under the auspices of the Orpheum Stifftung as part of their Next Generation Mozart Soloist series. Further afield Ariel takes part in the Bendigo Chamber Music Festival in Australia, gives concerts in the USA, and undertakes a tour of Colombia. In 2023 he was nominated as a Rising Star Artist by Classic FM. Over the last year Ariel returned to Wigmore Hall (as soloist and chamber musician), the Miami International Piano Festival, and Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. He undertook a tour of Argentina and gave recitals in the Homburg MeisterKonzert series in Germany, the Menton Festival in France, Perth Concert Hall (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), and across the UK including the Brighton and Bath Festivals. In 2021 Linn Records released his recording of music by Schubert to critical acclaim. 

Ariel Lanyi illuminates Richmond Concert Society with the integrity and humility of a great artist
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/05/22/ariel-lanyi-illuminates-richmond-concert-society-with-the-integrity-and-humility-of-a-great-artist/

Franz Schubert 1875 portrait, after an 1825 original
31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828 (aged 31). Vienna

The Piano Sonata in G major D. 894, op. 78 by Franz Schubert was completed in October 1826 The work is sometimes called the “Fantasie”, a title which the publisher Tobias Haslinger, rather than Schubert, gave to the first movement of the work. It was the last of Schubert’s sonatas published during his lifetime, and was later described by Robert Schumann as the “most perfect in form and conception” of any of Schubert’s sonatas.

The sonata is in four movements 

Molto moderato e cantabile 

Andante with two trios.

Menuetto :Allegro moderato – Trio 

Allegretto 

The original concept for the second movement was quite different from the version known today. Evidence of this can be seen in the score that Schubert sent to his publisher. 

The original manuscript, which has survived and is currently digitized in the archive of the British Library, reveals that after completing the minuet, Schubert decided to rewrite the second movement. He tore out the original version from the manuscript and replaced it with the version we know today. The first and last pages of the original movement remain, containing the end of the first movement and the beginning of the third movement, respectively.

Allegro maestoso

Scherzo: Molto vivace 

Largo 

Finale: Presto non tanto 

CHOPIN: Polonaise-Fantasie Op.61 

SCHUMANN: Humoreske Op.20 

I. Einfach – Sehr rasch und cehilt – Noch rascher – Wie im Anfang 

II. Hastig – Nach und nach immer ei mi Anfang lebhafter und starker – Wei vorher 

III. Einfach und zart – Intermezzo 

VI. Innig 

V.  Sehr lebhaft 

VI. Mit einigem Pomp 

VII. Zum Beschluss 

BARTOK: Piano Sonata SZ.80 

I. Allegro Moderato 

II. Sostenuto e pesante  

III. Allegro Molto

Nice to see Terry Lewis in the hall he has fought hard to bring to life, enjoying an aspiring young musician in the refined space that is the new Bechstein Hall.

Just a stones throw from the old one that after our victory (!!), in the first World War, was confiscated and rechristened Wigmore.There is also Bob Boas’s sumptuous salon nearby,where regular concerts for a select audience have become very much part of the musical scene .

After the initial pre Christmas lull it is good to see this new hall gladly being accepted by an eclectic public, adding a much needed space to the near capacity audiences of the other two nearby venues.

Many artists that are denied a space in the world’s capital of music are now included in this sumptuous new space. It is also opening its doors to the superb young musicians who have dedicated their youth to art and just crave an adequate space where to perform in this wondrous city. An added bonus is,of course, the sumptuous cuisine offered before or after each hour long performance.

For thirty years I too created a theatre in Rome which was a centre for cultural excellence. Be it the stage direction of authors of the stature of Beckett or the performances and master classes of Stockhausen and many of the greatest musicians of our age.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/03/20/christopher-axworthy-dip-ram-aram/

It takes time and selfless commitment to overcome the hurdles of the first few years. Infact my wife and I were much criticised because as most theatres were closing down we were opening up!

Ileana Ghione died on stage acting the part of Hecuba in 2005, but after many years of maintaining high standards, in 2001 was knighted by the President of Italy .’We have become a Dame’, I told my English friends. Rosalyn Tureck who became our dearest friend after her triumphant come back to the concert stage in 1990, praised and admonished us, saying whilst recognition was a great satisfaction it is the work and our mission that counts (the RAM my old Alma mater did give me a special award in recognition of our work promoting music and musicians in Rome, and it came by post to the theatre! )

So it was very warming to see our host greeting the public as we were told over the air by Sir Edward Fox to hold onto our seats for take off!

And take off it was with the Polonaise -Fantasie, one of Chopin’s most revolutionary late masterpieces, where in the last year of his life he could marry his beloved polish Polonaise with the fantasy of a true poetic innovator of the keyboard. Fillip played it simply and with one gentle movement of the arm as the opening imperious chords reverberated over the entire keyboard. Sensibility and a kaleidoscope of colours illuminated his playing as the Polonaise rhythm could gradually be seen advancing from afar.There were also pauses for serene poetic reflection as he regained his breath for ever more aristocratic musings, mixed with passionate outpourings of technical mastery. Sometimes, though, he could let go more, and allow the music to pour from his fingers simply, like the streams of liquid gold that Chopin carves out of thin air, throwing off notes that like the opening are but reverberations of sound. A beautifully sung ‘poco più lento’ was allowed to expand with sumptuous beauty before the gradual build up to the passionate climax of exultation and nobility. Leaving the music exhausted and spent as it barely made it through the final whispered bars, drawing to an abrupt close with a final dying gasp.

The Schumann Humoresque has only in recent years, thanks to Richter and Horowitz, become as popular as Carnaval or Kreisleriana. It is a very elusive work full of fantasy and sudden quixotic changes of mood that Phillip understood completely.

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Opening with a beautifully expansive luminosity, surely one of Schumann’s most beautiful ‘songs without words?’ Leading into a fleetingly wistful passage of driving rhythmic energy with abrupt changes of mood and tempo, before going full circle to the ever more ravishing beauty of the opening: ‘Wie in Anfang’.

‘Hastig and ‘innere Stimme’ ( as described below) followed without a break, where Fillip could have allowed the slowly opening melodic line more timeless weight and simplicity, but the passionate outburst that followed was played with dynamic drive and fearless conviction.

A sedate chordal declaration was interrupted by the sudden changes of harmony that streaked across this march like interlude and brought it to rest on a series of celestial chords, that Fillip played with extraordinary poetic sensibility. A glimpse of the heaven that had taken Schubert ten years previously, and would take Schumann before his fiftieth year. A gloriously lazy ‘Einfach und Zart’ expanded with style and character where Phillip could have indulged even more to enjoy the sumptuous rich sounds of refined lyricism. The eruption of an Intermezzo of knotty twine was held firmly under control and the treacherous octaves were heroically thrown into the fray. The quixotic changes of mood of the ‘Innig’ were played with impish good humour contrasting with rich expansive beauty. The ‘sehr lebhaft’ was a passionate outburst of sumptuous sounds spread over the entire keyboard with mastery and architectural shape. The red hot passion of the climax giving way to a coda of demonic meanderings. ‘Mit einigem Pomp’ is one of those extraordinary passages in Schumann that like the three handed pianist can create two different characters and link them together. Fillip played it with great sensibility but it is the balance here that is so important. It is enough to say that Sokolov did not seem to understand this passage at all, whereas Fillip did, but could have experimented with the pedals more to create this rather special effect.This is a passage that only Richter or Kempff could truly reveal.The final ‘Zum Beschluss’ was played beautifully and expansively with great freedom and fantasy, with the gradual cooling down of the chromatic counterpoints before the eruption of the final triumphant Allegro.

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The Bartók Sonata was played with a remarkable musicality, where the percussive outbursts and rugged edges were answered by the traditional dance motifs of Transylvania.

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There was a hypnotic insistence to the ‘sostenuto’ as luminous sounds echoed around the magic atmosphere of this hall, with desolation and searing intensity.There followed the driving insistence of the Allegro molto that was played with great urgency but also giving an architectural shape to the final dramatic outbursts.

An encore for a very insistent audience was rewarded a romance by the Czech composer Josef Suk : Spring Song op.22a iii.V očekáváni ( Awaiting ), played with great conviction and warmth.

Phillip James Leslie at St Mary’s Perivale ‘On wings of song’ with artistry and integrity
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/03/30/phillip-james-leslie-at-st-marys-perivale-on-wings-of-song-with-artistry-and-integrity/

“All week I’ve been sitting at the piano and composing and writing and laughing and crying, all at the same time,” wrote Schumann to his beloved Clara Wieck from Vienna in March 1839. “You will find this beautifully illustrated in my Opus 20, the great Humoreske.” 

Schumann needed some happy diversion in his life at that particular time: he was very unhappy being separated from Clara but somehow she wasn’t able to heed Robert’s plea for her to come to Vienna to join him. Further, his reason for being in Vienna was to be able to establish in the Austrian capital his journal, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik,which he had founded in Leipzig in 1833. But the city fathers said a resounding “No.” So, what to do other than compose a new keyboard masterwork. In fact, Schumann in 1839 was close to the end of the line of works for the keyboard. His creative life had centered virtually exclusively on music for the piano, the instrument on which he envisioned becoming a virtuoso. This dream, however, was shattered when he injured his hands with a machine he used to strengthen his fingers.. But after his marriage to Clara in 1840 he turned to songs and then symphonies and chamber music.

The conflicting emotions Schumann felt while composing his Humoreske are reflected in the music’s contrasting moods. In a letter of 15 March 1839 to his Belgian follower Simonin de Sire, Schumann provided a hint as to the meaning of the work’s title when he pointed out that the word ‘humoreske’ couldn’t adequately be translated into French. ‘It is a pity’, said Schumann, ‘that there are no good and apt words in the French language for such deeply ingrained characteristics and concepts as Gemütlichkeit, and for humour, which is the happy fusion of the gemütlich and the witty. But it is this that binds the whole character of the two nations together.’ Adding that ‘The human heart sometimes seems strange, and pain and joy are intermingled in wild variegation.’in fact Schumann described humour in music as “a way of looking on the emotions with ironic detachment.”

The score features a third line, an ‘inner stimme’ which is not to be played, merely implied, in the accentuations of the two given accompaniment parts. Generally it seems that this move is either taken to be a part of the gradual diminishment of the voice in Schumann’s work (related to his mental illness) or perhaps a tribute to Clara and one of her works. The Humoreske was composed in 1839, and a few years previously the pianist Sigismond Thalberg together with Liszt was considered the most famous pianist in Europe and the impact of Thalberg’s playing largely depended on his ‘three-handed technique’. On the newly established pianos with sustaining pedals the melody could be played by the thumbs in the middle register of the keyboard with ornate arpeggiated figuration in bass and treble, creating the illusion that three hands are required.Could Schumann have been influenced by, or even been referring to this ‘three-handed technique’?

The Bartók’s Piano Sonata, BB 88, Sz. 80, was composed in June 1926 a year that is known to musicologists as Bartók’s “piano year”, when he underwent a creative shift in part from Beethovenian  intensity to a more Bachian craftsmanship.It is tonal  but highly dissonant and has no key signature , using the piano in a percussive fashion with erratic time signatures . Underneath clusters of repeated notes, the melody is folklike and each movement has a classical structure overall, in character with Bartók’s frequent use of classical forms as vehicles for his most advanced thinking. Dedicated to Ditta Pásztory- Bartók, his second wife, he wrote it with an Imperial Bösendorfer  in mind, which has extra keys in the bass (97 keys in total). The second movement calls for these keys to be used (to play G sharp and F).

The Polonaise-Fantaisie op. 61, was dedicated to Mme A. Veyret, written and published in 1846.

Although slow to gain favour with musicians, due to its harmonic complexity and intricate  form. One of the first critics and a renowned expert on Chopin ,Arthur Hedley, writing in 1947 said that it “works on the hearer’s imagination with a power of suggestion equaled only by the F minor Fantasy or the Fourth Ballade”.It has been suggested that the Polonaise-Fantaisie represents a change in Chopin’s style from ‘late’ to ‘last’ and that the formal ambiguities of the piece (particularly the unconventional and musically misleading transitions into and out of the lyrical inner section) are the most significant defining qualities of this ‘last style’, which only includes this and one other piece—the F minor Mazurka op 68 n. 4, Chopin’s last composition

Refined elegant and intelligent Mozart from a young virtuoso.

Living fearlessly every note as he brought the music vividly to life as is rarely experienced except in the opera house.

Overwhelmed by his Mussorgsky, I am now astonished by his Mozart,but then real artistry has no frontiers.

Paul Mnatsakanov ‘s monumental Mussorgsky ‘Pictures’
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/02/09/paul-mnatsakanov-s-monumental-mussorgsky-pictures/

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Paul Mnatsakanov graduation recitals at the Royal College Music
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/05/24/paul-mnatsakanov-graduation-recitals-at-the-royal-college-music

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Misha Kaploukhii with the Apollo Sinfonia play Brahms Second Piano Concerto with a little ‘wisp’ of a scherzo. After performances of Rachmaninov 1 at 18, Liszt 2 at 19 and Rachmaninov 3 at 20.

Misha has taken the plunge with the biggest challenge that any pianist can face with Brahms’s ‘little’ piano concerto, with a little ‘wisp’ of a scherzo, as he described it to Clara Schumann on completion of one of the longest and most complex concertos certainly of its’s time.

Misha Kaploukhii plays Rachmaninov Beauty and youthfulness triumph
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/13/misha-kaploukhii-plays-rachmaninov-beauty-and-youthfulness-triumph/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/28/misha-kaploukii-plays-liszt-at-the-rcm-a-sea-symphony-concert-youth-and-music-a-joy-to-behold/

I remember in the sixties when anyone who could even attempt Rach 3 or Prok 2 was considered a hero. This was of course before the Russian invasion of virtuosi who were allowed to come to the west.

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I remember the arrival of Ashkenazy with two presentation recitals of all the Chopin Studies and the Beethoven Sonatas op 31. Astonishing enough for the mastery and beauty of sound. But what really created a furor amongst so called pianists was his orchestral debut with both Rachmaninov and Prokofiev in the same programme !

I remember all the articles in the press about a young pianist of the RCM who came from a poor east end of London family, not only playing Rach 3 at 18 but playing the largest of the two cadenzas that the composer had written .

‘Greater than Ogdon’ cried the Evening Standard. John Lill went on to take first prize in Moscow as Ogdon had done (tying with Ashkenazy). He won first prize not with the obligatory Tchaikowsky, but with the Second Concerto of Brahms.

It is a concerto that many great pianists have attempted, but then left, as the combination of chamber music and hidden virtuosity did not convince. Finding the first concerto, with the piano against the orchestra, far more congenial than a concerto with a piano that is very much part of the orchestra. Memorable performances that I have heard were by Rubinstein, Arrau, Ashkenazy and above all Geza Anda. Arrau had the weight that could emerge with a sound larger that the greatest of orchestras, as it could dissolve into a chamber ensemble of poetic intelligence. Rubinstein, the grandest and noblest was ‘The Prince of Pianists’ to quote Joan Chissell. I remember the performance he gave in the Brighton Festival with Barenboim conducting together for the first time. There had been a luncheon party before this afternoon performance in the Brighton Dome. Well, even Barenboim looked down at his mentor and idol as he struck any notes he could find in the opening cadenza! The long orchestral tutti gave the master time to recover and from then on it was the magnificent performance that the world had appreciated for decades. Ashkenazy, I remember for the poetic perfection and of course it was this that gave the game away when Joyce Hatto stuck her name on his CD!

I remember,too, Ashkenazy conducted by Klemperer in what must be the slowest performance on record. Geza Anda, looking like a prim English gentleman, gave unforgettable performances of luminosity and poetry with Sir Adrian Boult ( the same conductor as for John Lill at the RCM) although his recording is with Karajan. Of course, for all those present at the Festival Hall, it was Gilels who gave the most beautiful account of poetic and aristocratic nobility. He preceded it with the one movement Tchaikowsky 3rd concerto. At the rehearsal this had lead to quite considerable tension between the conductor and pianist. It was during the Cold War and Boult, very much of the English Institution, got very irritated when Gilels was not happy with the opening horn solo of the Tchaikowsky. ‘Would you please explain what you mean Mr Gilels’ and then they never uttered another word throughout the whole rehearsal. How could one forget Serkin opening the refurbished RFH with the two Brahms Concert, and with his impatient excitement entering too early with the grandest of declarations of the second subject. Probably the most poetically beautiful and noble was Curzon with the Concertgebouw at the Proms. I was standing next to him as he sweated blood over his loving performance, playing without the score that brought an animal excitement to his playing in those days. I remember my mentor Sidney Harrison, who had heard it on the radio, exclaiming wondrous appreciation of such a great performance. Strangely the recording of Horowitz and Toscanini is rather crisp,clean and technically perfect, but it was not the Brahms of his Rach 3!

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All this preamble to say what a remarkable performance Misha Kaploukhii gave today. Still in his early twenties he played with a mastery and musicality that bodes well for his 3rd performance that will be on the 19th February in Cadogan Hall.

He needs now to sweat blood and tears over every note, (something that the mastery of Volodos did not allow him to do ) .

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Remarkable mastery of the ‘wisp ‘of a Scherzo lead into the sumptuous simple beauty of the Andante

Youthful energy and romantic sweep with an orchestra made up of very fine colleagues at the RCM. Of course a performance that could now be played slower and given time to breathe and expand as Brahms’s sumptuous sound envelope us in a reassuring cocoon of passionate abandon.

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Beautiful playing from the cellist, James Dew,of simplicity and beauty answered by the ravishing beauty and measure of the piano .This is the heart of the concerto, and it was the most successful movement in a performance that will expand and glow with the maturity of performances to come.

Nok Him Chan was the fine conductor holding his ensemble together with expert ease, but sometimes choosing tempi that were a fraction too fast for this most difficult of all concertos. I was sorry to miss the Schoenberg, but judging from the ovation he received it was a just partner to the succulent opulence of the Brahms B flat.

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat op 83 was written 22 years after his first concert. Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near Vienna. It took him three years to work on this concerto, and he wrote to Clara Schumann: “I want to tell you that I have written a very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo!” It is dedicated to his teacher, Eduard Marxsen and the public première was in Budapest  on 9 November 1881, with Brahms as soloist and the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. It was an immediate success and he proceeded to perform the piece in many cities across Europe.The concerto is in four movements:

1. Allegro non troppo
2. Allegro appassionato
3. Andante
4. Allegretto grazioso—Un poco più presto

The additional movement of a Scherzo second movement results in a concerto considerably longer than most other concertos written up to that time, with typical performances lasting around 50 minutes. Upon its completion, Brahms sent its score to his friend, the surgeon and violinist Theordor Billroth, to whom Brahms had dedicated his first two string quartets, describing the work as “some little piano pieces.” Brahms even described the stormy scherzo as a “little wisp of a scherzo.”

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/14/misha-kaploukhii-in-florence-and-milan-for-the-keyboard-trust-and-robert-turnbull-piano-foundation/

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/

Jonathan Ferrucci with a CD launch in the refined space of Raffaello Morales’s Fidelio café.Two Italians bringing culture and elegance to a city where quantity is fast taking over from quality.

Raffaello, a trained musician, who has had the courage and vision to open a space where his love and passion for music are even expressed in the wallpaper that adorn the bathrooms, made of the scores of Beethoven and Schumann- the Hammerklavier no less!

A green room that I would gladly move into tomorrow, such is it’s haremesque warmth and restrained opulence.

Raffaello Morales not content with just this space opposite the Italian church in the centre of London, has created his own orchestra that plays in the beautiful church of St Luke’s in Holborn and regularly invites superb solists to join in the ‘fun’

One such artist is the distinguished Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, who also resides in Italy, and wanted to add a third ‘B’ to her worldwide fame with the other two! Her Brahms First Concerto with Raffaello at the helm was indeed a special occasion for all concerned.

Angela Hewitt plays Bach and Brahms with the Fidelio Orchestra of Raffaello Morales Angela Hewitt plays Bach and Brahms with the Fidelio Orchestra of Raffaello Morales
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/03/10/angela-hewitt-plays-bach-and-brahms-with-the-fidelio-orchestra-of-raffaello-morales/

Angela is also the mentor of Jonathan and their deep love of Bach and the refined beauty and nobility of the Italian renaissance has cemented a friendship of mutual respect for their art. I have heard many of Jonathan’s concerts since he moved to London to perfect his studies at the Guildhall with Joan Havill, and his passion and refined good taste have always astonished me.

A love for music that was ignited by Giovanni Carmassi whose book ‘A pianist prepares’ is the bible for all aspiring pianists and musicians, only on a par only with ‘The Art of Piano Playing’ by Heinrich Neuhaus. Luckily Jonathan’s psychologist father realised the value,in human terms, of such an inspirational influence on young musicians, that he and his Australian wife have translated it into English. In in my opinion it should be obligatory reading for all serious artists.

It opens with a quote from Celibadache :

“Art is beautiful….Nevertheless I soon distanced myself from this idea.

Without seeking the beautiful, no one could create a work of art. But beauty is not the goal: it is only the bait.

What is truth? You cannot define it rationally, but you can experience it personally’

The final words in the CD booklet that accompanies the Toccatas Jonathan exclaims: ‘Ashtanga Yoga is an integral part of my work as a musician and with music, essential in life.’ Only a Florentine could express that, where the beauty of the bodily movements and the beauty that surrounds Tuscany and indeed the whole of Italy, are reflected in the beauty of movement that can recreate such masterworks at the keyboard. Like a painter or sculptor creating things of beauty that will be a joy forever.
Beauty that recreates beauty!

Rostropovich simply exclaimed that Italy is the ‘museum of the world’.

It is enough to admire the cover of this CD to know of the mine of gold that must be hidden within.

I have heard Jonathan many times over the past years and have expressed my feelings in the few poor words that could describe such beauty.

Jonathan Ferrucci plays Bach in Florence A room with a view with a whole world in his hands.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/09/27/jonathan-ferrucci-plays-bach-in-florence/

It is worth listening to such masterworks to discover things where words are just not enough.

And an encore, this time a Poulenc of refined elegance and style.

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Jonathan Ferrucci KCT American Tour – Goldberg – A voyage of discovery
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/22/jonathan-ferrucci-kct-american-tour-goldberg-a-voyage-of-discovery/

Magdalene Ho, a star shining brightly in the Rising Stars concerts of Warren Mailley Smith’s series at St Mary Le Strand. At only twenty she is already winner of the Clara Haskil and German Artists’ Awards, not to forget the Chappell Gold Medal at the RCM, where she is still in the class of Dmitri Alexeev.

At every appearance she shines more intensely. Never looking at her hands, but listening to every sound and nuance they are carving out. Creating a magic carpet of sounds, never knowing what wonders are to be discovered on a hypnotic voyage together.

Inspired and inspiring as the warm generous acoustics of this beautiful jewel of St Mary’s, and with Warren’s own Steinway, allowing the music to unfold in a miraculous way. Bar lines disappeared as the music like a choir of celestial angels enveloped us with a reassuring warmth, guided by a masterly interpretative intelligence of simplicity and humility. An artist who thinks more of the music and her role as medium than any self ingratiation. A small insignificance in life but a giant when touching the hallowed notes of the composers of whom she is but a faithful servant.

An eclectic programme of Gibbons, Adès and Schubert played almost without a break such was the magic she could create from the very first notes. An audience that included a member of the Adès family; Gibbons and Schubert were obviously listening from afar too, in wonderment of the golden sounds that poured from this tender young waifs miraculous hands !

Performing today, for me and Patsy Fou ( the widow of Fou Ts’ong and her childhood mentor) despite illness, flying off to Switzerland and Holland tomorrow for a series of concerts that includes the Saint – Saens Egyptian Concerto and much else besides.

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Gibbons that unfolded on a gentle wave of sounds, but with the grandeur and civilised nobility of a past age. A beautiful subtle movement to the Galliard with its whispered strands of knotty twine.

Three mazurkas by Adès opened our ears in a refreshing way, like a sorbet in a sumptuous meal. Rubinstein, too, would often include the four mazurkas op 50 by his friend Szymanowski, in an all Chopin recital, which would be like a breath of fresh air in a sumptuous feast of masterworks by a fellow countryman. Luminous sounds filled the air of almost jazz improvisation in which the insinuating teasing mazurka rhythm was lurking, ready to emerge within this kaleidoscope of sounds. A magical music box of delicacy and gentle murmurings of great atmosphere.

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Nothing, though, could have prepared us for the miracle that was yet to unfold. ‘Fantasy Sonata’, Schubert writes on the score and it was this fantasy and voyage of discovery that created a spell that will long linger in this magnificent Wren edifice. The opening like palpitations of a heart that was to cease beating within a short amount of time. Could Schubert have known that at 31 he would no longer be on this earth? I think the answer, of course, is in the music for all those that have the ears and the sensibility to understand some things where words are just not enough. Beethoven’s final trilogy, too, points in the same celestial direction.

Roberto Prosseda pays tribute to the genius of Chopin and the inspirational figure of Fou Ts’ong
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/01/13/roberto-prosseda-pays-tribute-to-the-genius-of-chopin-and-the-inspirational-figure-of-fou-tsong/

What an inspiration Fou Ts’ong was in trying to explain the fact that the soul has no frontiers, and with his searing enthusiasm could inspire so many young musicians and whose message has shaped their lives. The ‘Andante’ was played with gentle mellifluous sounds of refined beauty, with a coda that was of breathtaking etherial wonderment. A dynamic drive to the ‘Menuetto’ with its eloquence and elegance miraculously intact. A haunting pastoral beauty of the barely whispered trio. And finally the questioning beauty of the ‘Allegretto’, where the delicacy and subtle colouring of Magdalene’s playing was nothing short of miraculous. The opening of a ray of sunshine as Schubert’s glorious outpouring of song (like in Mozart’s C major Concerto K. 503 with an unstoppable outpouring of melodious beauty at every corner) was where Magdalene allowed the music to pour like water over a brook, gently and beautifully with simple inevitability.The ending usually played so heavy handedly was exactly like this bubbling pastoral heavenly paradise that Schubert could describe so wonderfully in sounds.

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Of course the opening of the G major sonata is impossibly difficult to sustain on the modern piano which thinks more vertically than horizontally. Richter,even at his legendary snail’s pace, could miraculously sustain these palpitations without hardness but with subtle meaning. The miracle of Richter was not how fast or loud he could play, as we all imagined when Gilels told us to wait until we hear who comes to the west after him. It was how slow and quietly he could sustain what is fundamentally a percussion instrument. Fou Ts’ong too would play the opening over and over again, and if he loved the music so much that he could sometime suffocate it, was not asphyxiation for love not a small price to pay for such inspirational dedication?

When I heard Mitsuko Uchida play it in the RFH, I was informed that she was repeating the programme in Perugia and I just had to go to meet the person who could play so miraculously. I remember her reply to us in the green room after this commemoration for Paolo Buitoni. A concert should remain in the memory like a wondrous dream that gets more and more beautiful with the passing of time. Not like a printed photograph that with time fades at the edges.

On Wings of Song – Mitsuko Uchida’s sublime Schubert
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2017/11/29/on-wings-of-song-mitsuko-uchidas-sublime-schubert/

Magdalene Ho A musical genius in Paradise

Today Magdalene ,for me, came of age as she joined the ranks of the greatest interpreters and at only 20 will fill so many people’s lives with the joy and wonder of the great masters that pass through her hands.

Chopin reigns at the National Liberal Club and St Mary’s Perivale The triumph of Misha Kaploukhii and Magdalene Ho

Warren Mailley- Smith’s amazing activity with his City Music Promotions, filling these beautiful churches in London, Manchester and Edinburgh with celestial sounds. He himself playing the Archduke Trio just an hour after Magdalene had ignited the atmosphere for him in St Mary’s tonight.

Warren Mailley- Smith A man for all seasons A love of music illuminated by candlelight
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/09/21/warren-mailley-smith-a-man-for-all-seasons-a-love-of-music-illuminated-by-candlelight/

Whilst just next door the Lion King is still packing them in at the Lyceum Theatre,one of the most antique theatres in London.Little could they have imagined what real Lioness was roaring in St Mary’s tonight

The Piano Sonata in G major D. 894, op. 78 by Franz Schubert completed in October 1826 The work is sometimes called the “Fantasie”, a title which the publisher Tobias Haslinger, rather than Schubert, gave to the first movement of the work. It was the last of Schubert’s sonatas published during his lifetime, and was later described by Robert Schumann as the “most perfect in form and conception” of any of Schubert’s sonatas.

The sonata is in four movements

Molto moderato e cantabile

Andante with two trios.

Menuetto :Allegro moderato – Trio

Allegretto

The original concept for the second movement was quite different from the version known today. Evidence of this can be seen in the score that Schubert sent to his publisher.

The original manuscript, which has survived and is currently digitized in the archive of the British Library, reveals that after completing the minuet, Schubert decided to rewrite the second movement. He tore out the original version from the manuscript and replaced it with the version we know today. The first and last pages of the original movement remain, containing the end of the first movement and the beginning of the third movement, respectively.

This peculiar aspect of the manuscript offers valuable insight into how the second movement might have originally sounded. The preserved fragment reveals a theme that is rhythmically characteristic of Schubert’s music, though it was ultimately replaced by a more dynamic orchestral episode in the final version. This change allowed for a greater contrast between the first two themes, which was crucial for the movement’s structure and overall impact.

Orlando Gibbons (bapt. 25 December 1583 – 5 June 1625) was an English composer, virginalist and organist who was one of the last masters of the English Madrigal School. By the 1610s he was the leading composer and organist in England, with a career cut short by his sudden death in 1625. As a result, Gibbons’s oeuvre was not as large as that of his contemporaries, like the elder William Byrd, but his compositional versatility led to him having written significant works in virtually every form of his day. He is often seen as a transitional figure from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods.

Throughout his professional career, Gibbons had increasingly good relations with many important people of the English court. King James I and Prince Charles were supportive patrons and others such as Sir Christopher Hatton, even became close friends. Along with Byrd and John Bull, Gibbons was the youngest contributor to the first printed collection of English keyboard music, Parthenia, and published other compositions in his lifetime, notably the First Set of Madrigals and Motets which includes the best known English madrigal: The Silver Swan. Other important compositions include This Is the Record of John, the 8-part full anthem O Clap Your Hands Together and 2 settings of Evensong. The most important position achieved by Gibbons was his appointment in 1623 as the organist at Westminster Abbey which he held for 2 years until his death on the June 5th, 1625.

He contributed six pieces to the first printed collection of keyboard music in England, Parthenia (to which he was by far the youngest of the three contributors), published in about 1611. Gibbons’s surviving keyboard output comprises some 45 pieces. The polyphonic fantasia and dance forms are the best represented genres. Gibbons’s writing exhibits a command of three- and four-part counterpoint. Most of the fantasias are complex, multi-sectional pieces, treating multiple subjects imitatively. Gibbons’s approach to melody, in both his fantasias and his dances, features extensive development of simple musical ideas, as for example in Pavane in D minor and Lord Salisbury’s Pavan and Galliard.

Glenn Gould championed Gibbons’s music, comparing Gibbons to Beethoven and Webern:

…despite the requisite quota of scales and shakes in such half-hearted virtuoso vehicles as the Salisbury Galliard, one is never quite able to counter the impression of music of supreme beauty that lacks its ideal means of reproduction. Like Beethoven in his last quartets, or Webern at almost any time, Gibbons is an artist of such intractable commitment that, in the keyboard field, at least, his works work better in one’s memory, or on paper, than they ever can through the intercession of a sounding-board.

In a biographical headline, Thomas Adès is described as ‘composer, pianist, conductor.’ Although he made his earliest success as a pianist, winning second prize in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1989 (at age 18), he considers composing his primary musical strength. “When you come to see me play the piano,” he has said, “you’re seeing a composer who is a pianist.” 

As composer his success has been impressive. The orchestral work Asyla won the Grawemeyer Award for Composition in 2000, making Adès the youngest composer to have won this prize. His operas, orchestral works, chamber music, concertos, and piano music are performed frequently all over the world and have been recorded. He has done an “On Location” residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall and next season will be the subject of a festival, “Aspects of Adès.” For a musician not yet 40, his achievements have been extraordinary.

The Three Mazurkas were premiered by Emanuel Ax in February 2009 at Carnegie Hall, one of the co-commissioners of the pieces along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Barbican Centre (London), and Het Concertgebouw NV.

After Chopin, composers were understandably satisfied to give that master the final word on the mazurka. Yet Thomas Adès, with his keen interest in early music, has sought to make a contemporary statement on this distinctly historical Polish dance form. The likeness of his Mazurkas to the Chopin model is seen primarily in the matters of rhythm: the three-quarter time signature is most often used, although the time changes in the second mazurka are a stylistic departure; the direction for rubato (the Chopinesque characteristic rhythmic freedom), and the use of the drone, or consecutive-repeated bass that is typical of folk music. 

Can Arisoy became aware that there were actually no recordings of the transcriptions for solo piano of Schumann’s Dichterliebe even though there exist the transciptions of the Italian composer Gian Paolo Chiti. The transcriptions of Frédéric Meinders with Gian Paolo Chiti are strictly transcriptions but the pieces that Can wrote are solo piano arrangements where there was more freedom in the creative process.

Liszt seemed to ignore the better known songs of Schumann and as Leslie Howard notes : ‘Some of Liszt’s Schumann transcriptions have withstood all vagaries of fashion and have featured in the repertoire of every generation of pianists, while others remain sadly unknown, as do some of the Schumann originals. Liszt’s choice of Schumann seems largely to ignore the well known and to investigate some of the later, most intimate works. Andersen’s ‘Christmas Song’ is really a very simple hymn, and ‘The Changing Bells’ is a straightforward setting of a little moral fable by Goethe in which a recalcitrant boy is frightened by a dream of bells into going to church as his mother has told him.

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It may have been due to the appalling rudeness eventually shown to Liszt and his music by Clara Schumann—she removed his name from the dedication on Robert Schumann’s Fantasy, opus 17, and she rejected Liszt’s dedication to her of his Paganini Études. However Can has for sometime been preparing these transcriptions for piano solo and it is thanks to the encouragement of Coach House Pianos that there is a project to add a piano solo version of Dichterliebe to the CD catalogue.

Can a true musician having received remarkable early training in musicianship from Marcel Baudet at the Yehudi Menuhin School,has dedicated his energy to creating these pianistic versions of Schumann, some more elaborate than others ( indeed one seemingly inspired by Pletnev). But basically the poetic message has been transformed into pianistic terms where so often music speaks much louder than words. How many great lieder are completed by the solo piano especially in the Dichterliebe reaching places where even the poetry of Heine is not enough? Playing a selection of 14 songs from the 16 of the Cycle, Can’s poetic playing created an atmosphere that filled the air, on his 25th birthday, with the rarified sounds of this magnificent Bösendorfer Imperial offered so generously by Can’s mentor at Coach House Pianos, David Halford.

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Opening his birthday party with one of the most perfect of Liszt’s operatic transcriptions, that of Verdi’s ‘Rigloletto’. Played with operatic abandon and great style with ravishing sounds and scintillating virtuosity. Everything Can plays is pure music and never a hard or ungrateful sound is to be heard from his agile fingers. Following with two Impromptu’s from Schubert’s second set, written in the last year of his all too short 31 years, Can showed his musical pedigree as he shaped these final mellifluous outpourings with heartrending simplicity and architectural understanding.

Drama and poetry united as indeed he has aspired to do in his own transcriptions of Schumann.

Brazil 200 and Keyboard Trust 30 a collaboration born on wings of Brazilian song

Can Arisoy Keyboard Trust New Artists Recital

Can Arisoy Elfida su Turan Damir Durmanovic at St James’s Talent Unlimited presents music making at its most refined

Dichterliebe, A Poet’s Love  op 48 was composed by Robert Schumann in 1840. The texts for its 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine, written in 1822–23 and published as part of Heine’s Das Buch der Lieder.The songs were composed in 1840, and the first edition of Dichterliebe was published in two volumes by Peters, in Leipzig , in 1844. In the original 1840 version with the 20 songs (originally dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy), the cycle had the following, longer title: “Gedichte von Heinrich Heine – 20 Lieder und Gesänge aus dem Lyrischen Intermezzo im Buch der Lieder (“Poetry by Heinrich Heine – 20 Lyrics and Songs from the Lyric Intermezzo in the Book of Songs”)”. Though Schumann originally set 20 songs to Heine’s poems, only 16 of the 20 were included in the first edition. Dein Angesicht (Heine no. 5) is one of the omitted items. Auf Flügeln des Gesanges, On Wings of Song (Heine no 9), is best known from a setting by Mendelssohn.

The famed introduction to the first song, Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, is a direct quotation from Clara Wieck’s Piano Concerto in A minor (1835). It comes from the third beat of measure 30 through the second beat of measure 34 of the second movement. Robert uses the same key, same melodic pattern, similar accompaniment textures, tempo and rhythmic patterns in measures 1 through 4 of the opening to Dichterliebe.

Although often associated with the male voice, Dichterliebe was dedicated to the soprano Wilhelmina Schröder-Devrient^] so the precedent for performance by female voice is primary. The first complete public recital of the work in London was given by Harry Plunket Greene , accompanied from memory by Leonard Borwick, on 11 January 1895 at London’s St James’s Hall.

1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (Heine, Lyrical Intermezzo no 1). (“In beautiful May, when the buds sprang, love sprang up in my heart: in beautiful May, when the birds all sang, I told you my desire and longing.”)
2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen (Heine no 2). (“Many flowers spring up from my tears, and a nightingale choir from my sighs: If you love me, I’ll pick them all for you, and the nightingale will sing at your window.”)
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (Heine no 3). (“I used to love the rose, lily, dove and sun, joyfully: now I love only the little, the fine, the pure, the One: you yourself are the source of them all.”)
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (Heine no 4). (“When I look in your eyes all my pain and woe fades: when I kiss your mouth I become whole: when I recline on your breast I am filled with heavenly joy: and when you say, ‘I love you’, I weep bitterly.”)
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (Heine no 7). (“I want to bathe my soul in the chalice of the lily, and the lily, ringing, will breathe a song of my beloved. The song will tremble and quiver, like the kiss of her mouth which in a wondrous moment she gave me.”)
6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (Heine no 11). (“In the Rhine, in the sacred stream, great holy Cologne with its great cathedral is reflected. In it there is a face painted on golden leather, which has shone into the confusion of my life. Flowers and cherubs float about Our Lady: the eyes, lips and cheeks are just like those of my beloved.”)
7. Ich grolle nicht (Heine no 18). (“I do not chide you, though my heart breaks, love ever lost to me! Though you shine in a field of diamonds, no ray falls into your heart’s darkness. I have long known it: I saw the night in your heart, I saw the serpent that devours it: I saw, my love, how empty you are.”)
8. Und wüßten’s die Blumen, die kleinen (Heine no 22). (“If the little flowers only knew how deeply my heart is wounded, they would weep with me to heal my suffering, and the nightingales would sing to cheer me, and even the starlets would drop from the sky to speak consolation to me: but they can’t know, for only One knows, and it is she that has torn my heart asunder.”)
9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen (Heine no 20). (“There is a blaring of flutes and violins and trumpets, for they are dancing the wedding-dance of my best-beloved. There is a thunder and booming of kettle-drums and shawms. In between, you can hear the good cupids sobbing and moaning.”)
10. Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen (Heine no 40). (“When I hear that song which my love once sang, my breast bursts with wild affliction. Dark longing drives me to the forest hills, where my too-great woe pours out in tears.”)
11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (Heine no 39). (“A youth loved a maiden who chose another: the other loved another girl, and married her. The maiden married, from spite, the first and best man that she met with: the youth was sickened at it. It’s the old story, and it’s always new: and the one whom she turns aside, she breaks his heart in two.”)
12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (Heine no 45). (“On a sunny summer morning I went out into the garden: the flowers were talking and whispering, but I was silent. They looked at me with pity, and said, ‘Don’t be cruel to our sister, you sad, death-pale man.'”)
13. Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (Heine no 55). (“I wept in my dream, for I dreamt you were in your grave: I woke, and tears ran down my cheeks. I wept in my dreams, thinking you had abandoned me: I woke, and cried long and bitterly. I wept in my dream, dreaming you were still good to me: I woke, and even then my floods of tears poured forth.”)
14. Allnächtlich im Traume (Heine no 56). (“I see you every night in dreams, and see you greet me friendly, and crying out loudly I throw myself at your sweet feet. You look at me sorrowfully and shake your fair head: from your eyes trickle the pearly tear-drops. You say a gentle word to me and give me a sprig of cypress: I awake, and the sprig is gone, and I have forgotten what the word was.”)
15. Aus alten Märchen winkt es (Heine no 43). “(The old fairy tales tell of a magic land where great flowers shine in the golden evening light, where trees speak and sing like a choir, and springs make music to dance to, and songs of love are sung such as you have never heard, till wondrous sweet longing infatuates you! Oh, could I only go there, and free my heart, and let go of all pain, and be blessed! Ah! I often see that land of joys in dreams: then comes the morning sun, and it vanishes like smoke.”)
16. Die alten, bösen Lieder (Heine no 65). (“The old bad songs, and the angry, bitter dreams, let us now bury them, bring a large coffin. I shall put very much therein, I shall not yet say what: the coffin must be bigger than the great tun at Heidelberg. And bring a bier of stout, thick planks, they must be longer than the Bridge at Mainz. And bring me too twelve giants, who must be mightier than the Saint Christopher in the cathedral at Cologne. They must carry away the coffin and throw it in the sea, because a coffin that large needs a large grave to put it in. Do you know why the coffin must be so big and heavy? I will put both my love and my suffering into it.”)

The young British-Chinese pianist Noah Zhou, currently a Master’s student at the Royal Academy of Music, is the recipient of many awards including the Young Pianist Foundation European Grand Prix, Horowitz International Competition, Drake Calleja Trust and the Hattori Foundation. A first prize winner at competitions in Rio and Valsesia in Italy, recent concerto performances include appearances in the Netherlands, Ukraine and Brazil. Noah’s virtuosic lunchtime recital ranges from Rachmaninov’s magnificent Etudes-tableaux to the elegance of Clementi and Liszt’s stormy imagination – a literature of dark and turbulent ecstasy.

Noah Zhou at St Mary’s A tiger on the rampage with artistry and total mastery

Christopher Axworthy writes

Noah Zhou, another star pianist from the studio of Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy, giving a recital in their piano series at the Wigmore Hall. Nice to see that other Elton supporting this remarkable young musician with a scholarship .

The RAM is surprisingly Sir Elton John’s own Alma Mater.

It was even nicer to see the indomitable Eileen Rowe mentioned as supporting this young man’s childhood studies. In death, as in life, Eileen Rowe has meant so much to so many aspiring young musicians.

A house full of pianos in Ealing and generously giving a days teaching to starving future stars like Katherine Stott,Tessa Nicholson, Danielle Salamon and myself. Not only a days teaching, but a full roast dinner cooked by her lovable housekeeper with vegetables grown in her own garden. Miss Rowe would listen outside my room in any pauses between students, when I would work at the Norma Fantasy or Danielle would play through a Mozart Concerto. Her star pupil was Vanessa Latarche who indeed shines brightly in the piano world.

Piano and tennis were Miss Rowe’s passions, and sometimes went hand in hand with a TV perched on the piano so she could not miss a match, but also not miss a note of her pupils. She would be so proud to witness the standing ovation that awaited Noah after his breathtaking last encore.

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As if Liszt’s Norma Fantasy was not enough! Noah was persuaded to play an encore, which was a mind boggling transcription of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. No idea who concocted such a cocktail of pianistic gymnastics, but at a guess Volodos ,Horowitz.Cziffra and I suspect Noah were all in there somewhere. Noah writes : ‘The encore is the Ginzburg transcription on Figaro’s aria.’

But this was not just mindless note spinning, because whatever Noah played was of overwhelming beauty and musicianship

Eight Etudes Tableaux op 33 that were miniature tone poems, where Noah turned these seeming baubles into the gems that Rachmaninov had bequeathed to the world. Noah showed us Rachmaninov’s world of scintillating streams of gold and silver sounds. Moments of overwhelming Russian nostalgia and finally a cauldron of Scriabinesque sounds that were quite breathtaking in their demonic dynamism.

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Clementi’s Sonata in A was a breath of fresh air after such devilish sounds . Streams of notes as Clementi played with his new found toy. Sometimes almost Mendelssohnian in the way they just flew from Noah’s fingers with such mellifluous ease. But there was also a great sense of character that brought a smile for the insolent charm of the first movement .

The great Norma Fantasy opened with the just operatic gestures, but then the left hand octaves that I have never heard played with such mastery, was where he sacrificed the nobility and grandeur of the grandest of grand operas for the incredible speedy Gonzales!

It was in the subtle beauty of the lyrical central episode that Noah allowed the music to breathe again with sumptuous beauty. The deep sound of the bass, like a heartbeat, on which floated the magic of Bellini’s Bel Canto .

Liszt on the warpath found Noah now completely in charge with a sumptuous transcendental display of three handed pianism, played with burning temperament and fearless abandon.

After Emanuil Ivanov, Kasparas Mikuzis this combination of the RAM at the Wigmore is fast becoming a collectors item.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/10/09/emanuil-ivanov-sensational-performance-at-the-wigmore-hall-of-rzewski-the-people-united-will-never-be-defeated-a-staggering-performance-of-total-mastery-and-musical-communication/

Kasparas Mikuzis at the Wigmore Hall Masterly playing of fluidity and ravishing beauty

Franz Liszt
Réminiscences de Norma  S 394

During the 1800s opera had a lot of appeal to audiences. From big dramatic storylines to emotional arias, opera was in its prime during this century. Although opera was perceived to have a glamorous aura, it was actually quite inaccessible for a large part of the public due to price and cultural differences. Therefore it is not surprising that many pianists sought to gain more audiences by composing, arranging and performing their own operatic fantasies. Liszt undertook the challenge of diluting Bellini’s opera Norma into a 15 minute solo piano work in 1841. The work easily equals the dramatic impact of the original opera through Liszt’s dynamic and highly virtuosic writing. No less than seven arias dominate Liszt’s transcription of Norma which are threaded together to create a nearly continuous stream of music.The title role of Norma is often said to be one of the hardest roles for a soprano to sing, and this adds to the drama and intensity of the music. ‘Norma, a priestess facing battle against the Romans, secretly falls in love with a Roman commander, and together they have two illegitimate children. When he falls for another woman, she reveals the children to her people and accepts the penalty of death. The closing scenes and much of the concert fantasy reveal Norma begging her father to take care of the children and her lover admitting he was wrong.”Liszt, arguably the most charismatic virtuoso of all time, was challenged for supremacy by Sigismond Thalberg, a pianist who could apparently not only counter Liszt’s legendary fire and thunder with subtlety but who played as if with three hands. Three hands were heard, two were visible! A confrontation took place in the Salon of Princess Belgioso and although it was diplomatically concluded that ”Liszt was the greatest pianist; Thalberg the only one”, the outcome was inevitable. Liszt continued on his protean and trail-blazing course while Thalberg was consigned to virtual oblivion.

Liszt offers a concentrated summary of the dramatic core of the opera by selecting melodies from Act I to evoke Norma’s leading role in opposing the Roman occupiers, and from the finale of Act II to represent her selfless renunciation of love, and of life itself, to further the cause of her warlike people.

The work opens with a series of stern chords and martial drumbeats, echoed high above by sparkling arpeggiations, to set the stage for a tale of war on earth and reward in heaven. These musical motifs recur midway through the piece as well to transition between opera’s Act I mood of heroic resolve and its tragic outcome in Act II.

Liszt’s treatment of the lyrical Qual cor tradisti, with its three simultaneous layers—melody, pulsing chordal accompaniment, and martial triplet drumbeat—has been described by musicologist Charles Suttoni as “one of the most ingenious and sublime pages ever written for the piano.”

The Études-Tableaux (“study pictures”), Op. 33, is the first of two sets of piano études  composed by Rachmaninov . They were intended to be “picture pieces”, essentially “musical evocations of external visual stimuli”. But Rachmaninov did not disclose what inspired each one, stating: “I do not believe in the artist that discloses too much of his images. Let [the listener] paint for themselves what it most suggests.”However, he willingly shared sources for a few of these études with the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi when he orchestrated them in 1930.

Max Harrison calls the Études-Tableaux  “studies in [musical] composition”; while they explore a variety of themes, they “investigate the transformation of rather specific climates of feeling via piano textures and sonorities. They are thus less predictable than the preludes and compositionally mark an advance” in technique.

Rachmaninov initially wrote nine pieces for Op. 33 but published only six in 1914. One étude, in A minor, was subsequently revised and used in the op 39 sett; the other two appeared posthumously and are now usually played with the other six. Performing these eight études together could be considered to run against the composer’s intent, as the six originally published are unified through “melodic-cellular connections” in much the same way as in Schumann’s Symphonic Studies

Differing from the simplicity of the first four études, Nos. 5–8 are more virtuosic in their approach to keyboard writing, calling for unconventional hand positions, wide leaps for the fingers and considerable technical strength from the performer. Also, “the individual mood and passionate character of each piece” pose musical problems that preclude performance by those lacking strong physical technique.Rachmaninov wrote nine études-tableaux at his Ivanovka estate  in 1911. Six of them, the original Nos. 1–2 and 6–9, were published that year. The original No. 4 is lost; the piece was revised and published as op 39 n. 6. The original Nos. 3 and 5 were published posthumously within Op. 33.

Playing of great authority and superb musicianship by Massimiliano Grotto where the elegance and Viennese charm of Schubert’s ‘Valses Nobles’ were answered by the deep meditation of his second ‘Klavierstücke’. Heralding his extraordinary vision, like Beethoven’s final pianistic trilogy, of what he could forsee at the end of an all too brief terrestrial existence.

Massimiliano playing with commanding assurance as the Beethovenian call to arms at the opening of his C minor Sonata was enacted with overwhelming impact.

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So many differing emotions that could be conveyed as one complete whole of conviction. There was an extraordinary clarity and demonic rhythmic drive of intensity and profound understanding of this dark place that Schubert was to envisage before the vision of peace and light that he was to find in the final sonata of his trilogy, written in the last year of his 31 years on this earth.

Even the ‘Adagio’ was penned with great strokes of burning intensity and poignant meaning always with the menace looking on from afar. But there was the glorious relief of the gentle return of the opening melody with a barely etched accompaniment. Some playing of masterly control and use of the pedals as the theme was allowed to float with simplicity and innocence leading into the beautifully fluid ‘Menuetto’ and richly textured ‘Trio.’ The Tarantella finale took flight with the same authority and conviction that I remember from Richter many years ago in London. Even the sudden rays of sunlight that Schubert‘s genius could never fully suppress had the same feeling of whirlwind energy.

A remarkable performance from a pianist who is above all a superb musician. One that can see the burning genius of Schubert in an architectural shape with four seemingly diverse movements, transformed into a unified visionary journey of discovery.

The second of the ‘Klavierstücke’ rarely heard just on its own, in Massimiliano’s poetic hands was turned into a tone poem of ravishing beauty and searing intensity. A beautiful mellifluous outpouring with a kaleidoscope of subtle colours allowed to flow so gracefully on not always untroubled waters. There was the dynamic menace to the driving rhythms of the first contrasting episode and the passionate outpouring of the second with a melodic line etched with great intensity. Many interesting bass counterpoints were underlined with refined good taste and brought the music vividly alive as Massimiliano’s masterly musicianship knew that Schubert’s roots were firmly created from the bass upwards.

The twelve ‘Valses Nobles’ were played as a whole with contrasts that ranged from Viennese elegance to rhythmic drive and the delicacy of bel canto. Nobility and majesty too and one in particular that Liszt could not resist turning into his own ‘Soirée de Vienne.’

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The Moment Musicaux n 3 in F minor, offered as an encore, was played with beguiling rhythmic insinuation and also a certain freedom to elaborate on Schubert’s own ornamentation.

Jerome Rose, Massimiliano’s mentor in New York, played Schubert in a recital in my series in Rome some years ago and I can only endorse what he has said about Massimiliano : ‘ one of the finest pianists of his generation. You will be hearing more of him in the future.’

Bravo too, Valerio Vicari, and his dedicated team who offer a platform to so many wonderful young players who after years of dedication all they crave is an audience with whom they can share their considerable artistry..

Schubert  wrote about a hundred waltzes for piano solo. Particularly well known among these are two named collections, the 34 Valses Sentimentales (op. 50, D.779) and the 12 Valses Nobles (op 77 Op.D.969).The Valses Sentimentales were written in 1823, and the Valses Nobles are believed to have been written in 1827, the year before Schubert’s death, although the manuscript is undated.

The last three sonatas, D. 958, 959 and 960, are his last major compositions for solo piano. They were written during the last months of his life, between the spring and autumn of 1828, but were not published until about ten years after his death, in 1838–39. Like the rest of Schubert’s piano sonatas, they were mostly neglected in the 19th century. By the late 20th century, however, public and critical opinion had changed, and these sonatas are now considered among the most important of the composer’s mature masterpieces. They are part of the core piano repertoire, appearing regularly on concert programs and recordings.The last year of Schubert’s life was marked by growing public acclaim for the composer’s works, but also by the gradual deterioration of his health. On March 26, 1828, together with other musicians in Vienna, Schubert gave a public concert of his own works, which was a great success and earned him a considerable profit. In addition, two new German publishers took an interest in his works, leading to a short period of financial well-being. However, by the time the summer months arrived, Schubert was again short of money and had to cancel some journeys he had previously planned.

Schubert had been struggling with syphilis since 1822–23, and suffered from weakness, headaches and dizziness. However, he seems to have led a relatively normal life until September 1828, when new symptoms such as effusions of blood appeared. At this stage he moved from the Vienna home of his friend Franz von Schober to his brother Ferdinand’s house in the suburbs, following the advice of his doctor; unfortunately, this may have actually worsened his condition. However, up until the last weeks of his life in November 1828, he continued to compose an extraordinary amount of music, including such masterpieces as the three last sonatas.

Schubert probably began sketching the sonatas sometime around the spring months of 1828; the final versions were written in September. These months also saw the appearance of the Three Piano Pieces D .946, the Mass in E flat D.950, the String Quintet D.956, and the songs published posthumously as the Schwanengesang collection (D. 957 and D. 965A), among others. The final sonata was completed on September 26, and two days later, Schubert played from the sonata trilogy at an evening gathering in Vienna. In a letter to Probst (one of his publishers), dated October 2, 1828, Schubert mentioned the sonatas amongst other works he had recently completed and wished to publish.However, Probst was not interested in the sonatas, and by November 19, Schubert was dead.

In the following year, Schubert’s brother Ferdinand  sold the sonatas’ autographs  to another publisher, Anton Diabelli , who would only publish them about ten years later, in 1838 or 1839. Schubert had intended the sonatas to be dedicated to Johann Nepomuk Hummel , whom he greatly admired. Hummel was a leading pianist, a pupil of Mozart, and a pioneering composer of the Romantic style (like Schubert himself). However, by the time the sonatas were published in 1839, Hummel was dead, and Diabelli, the new publisher, decided to dedicate them instead to composer Robert Schumann, who had praised many of Schubert’s works in his critical writings.