ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

It is wonderful to note that this year, John’s 100th, was with a record of recitals worldwide of young artists selected by the Keyboard Trust, all receiving ecstatic praise and just recognition. John’s legacy will live on from a life extraordinarily well lived with his adored Noretta always by his side. The season had begun with the Italian tour that John and Noretta had organised many years ago in Venice,Padua,Abano and Vicenza and is now flourishing with stars such as Nikita Lukinov, a pianist whom Noretta admires enormously and who played for John and Noretta at their home last summer.

The year had finished on 14th December in the historic Laeiszhalle in Hamburg with a recital by the quite extraordinary Magdalene Ho (Weir Award holder), winner last year at the age of 19, of the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey. A few months later she also won the Chappell Gold Medal, the most prestigious accolade of the RCM. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/02/17/hats-off-the-chappell-gold-medal-has-uncovered-a-genius/

Just a few weeks before Moritz von Bredow (KT Trustee and Concert Manager in Germany) had organised a tour in Germany for Giovanni Bertolazzi with three concerts in Hamburg (New Living Home, Augustinum and Bechstein Centre) and one in the Bechstein Centre in Cologne. A report on these concerts will follow shortly but this was Giovanni opening the season at the Maggio Musicale in Florence last September:

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/09/08/matvienko-bertolazzi-borgato-in-florence-and-the-season-opens-with-a-triumph/

An amazing success in Germany and a recording of the encore of the concert in Hamburg on the 2Ist was relayed to John in hospital who passed away peacefully on St.Cecilia’s day, the patron saint of music.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/06/02/the-gift-of-music-the-keyboard-trust-at-30/

A gift of music indeed and what a poetic ending to a beautiful, selfless life.

This is just a personal view and there are many concerts that time and space could not accommodate here, but many others can be found on my music commentary website: christopheraxworthymusic commentary.com.

Pip Rolfe, Music Director at the Erin Arts Centre on the Isle of Man writes: ‘A huge thank you to Nikita Lukinov for an incredible recital on Saturday evening, plus a fascinating masterclass in the morning which introduced the audience to his programme and particularly to his favourite composer Mussorgsky. We’re glad the weather finally let you get home!’

In the meantime, Filip Michalak had been playing in our series in the Harold Acton Library in Florence and at the Tuscia University in Viterbo

Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia had given the first of the six debut recitals that we hold at Steinway Hall in London thanks to the generosity of Wiebke Greinus and Craig Terry. Giuliano is from Forlì in Italy where Guido Agosti (Leslie’s and my mentor) was born.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/01/03/forli-pays-homage-to-guido-agosti/

Giuliano has created a music festival dedicated to Forlì’s illustrious but much neglected citizen, Guido Agosti. It was nice to see Agosti united with his wife in the cemetery there. Lydia Stix Agosti died ten years after her beloved husband whom she had married late but brought much excitement into a life spent almost exclusively at the keyboard.

I had met my own wife, Ileana Ghione, in Siena thanks to her course of teaching actors how to use their diaphragm ( replaced by microphones these days much to the exasperation of lovers of real theatre!) .https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/02/08/diamonds-are-forever-at-steinways-giuliano-tuccia-for-the-keyboard-trust/

Our annual series in Haslemere for Stephen Dennison’s HHH series saw Damir Durmanovic (21st February ), Gabrielé Sutkuté (22nd) and Victor Braojos (23rd) give three lunchtime concerts. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/02/24/youth-and-music-a-winning-combination-in-haslemere-for-stephen-dennisons-hhh-concert-series/

Magdalene Ho played in our series of complementary concerts in Florence (27/2 ) and Milan ( 29/2). Magdalene, still only 20, was formed by Patsy Toh, the widow of Fou Ts’ong who passed away during the covid pandemic. Magdalene is currently studying with Dmitri Alexeev at the RCM.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/01/13/roberto-prosseda-pays-tribute-to-the-genius-of-chopin-and-the-inspirational-figure-of-fou-tsong/

Ts’ong used to play and give masterclasses every year in my Euromusica series in Rome. Patsy used to thank me for being so faithful, but it is we who should be grateful to have known a genius who has touched so many people’s lives, above all Patsy’s! Magdalene is the living proof of the energy people emanate during their lives and remains long after they are no longer on this earth.

My wife used to have long discussions with Stockhausen about this when he directed his music many times for us in Rome. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/02/28/magdalene-ho-in-florence-and-milan-the-exquisite-finesse-and-noble-style-of-a-musical-genius/

In March, Pedro Lopez Salas gave a recital in our prestigious series at the National Liberal Club thanks to the generosity of the Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation and Yisha Xue’s NLC Asia Circle

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/03/05/pedro-lopez-salas-at-the-national-liberal-club-with-aristocratic-style-and-artistry/

On 13th March there were two concerts on the same day. The first at Temple Church with an organ recital by Godfrey Leung and the second at Steinway Hall with the eclectic Mikhail Bouzine.

Power and Drama from Temple Organ Godfrey Leung for the Keyboard Trust by Angela Ransley

On 16th March, Ivelina Krasteva gave a masterclass and concert in our series at the Erin Arts Centre on the Isle of Man

A highly successful German tour with Gabrielé Sutkuté took place from the 9th to the 12th April in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Rheda Wiedenbrück.

Giulia Contaldo gave a recital on 15th April at the National Liberal Club supported by the Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation and the NLC Asia Circle.

Giulia Contaldo at the National Liberal Club ‘Mind and heart at the service of the music ‘

Mark Viner gave one of several recitals in Bedford Park. Mark, a tireless promoter of the much-neglected world of Alkan, Blumenthal, Chaminade and many others, has a string of CDs to his name (at least 10 at the last count), all received with rapturous reviews by the critics.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/04/18/mark-viner-at-st-michael-and-all-angels-bringing-mastery-and-discovery-to-chiswick/

Mark playing on Perlemuter’s piano in Joan Flockhart Booth’s house in Markham Square https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/12/05/ileana-and-joan-3rd-december-2023/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/04/25/sherri-lun-at-steinway-hall-for-the-keyboard-trust-masterypassion-and-intelligence-of-twenty-year-old-pianist/

Sherri Lun played in the third in our series at Steinway Hall in London and she also visited John and Noretta together with Elias Ackerley (Weir Award holder). Both played to them at n.8 much to the delight of our founders, and are promoted by the Keyboard Trust.

Elias Ackerley gave six highly acclaimed recitals in the USA in October 2024, as part of the KT’s annual US Tour. Venues included Lorin and Dietlinde Maazel’s private theatre in Castleton,Virginia, the Arts Club of Washington, Klavierhaus in New York and several venues in Philadelphia and Delaware.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/10/23/elias-ackerley-keyboard-trust-usa-tour-12-20-october-2024-a-supreme-stylist-of-refined-poetic-potency/

Sherri Lun playing in our Rising Star Series in collaboration with Warren Mailley-Smith’s City Music Promotions at St Mary Le Strand in London.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/10/25/the-strand-rising-stars-series-sherri-lun-the-magic-and-artistry-of-a-star-shining-brightly/

On 25th April another concert in our collaboration with the Brazilian Embassy at the Brazil ( ex Cunard) Hall in Trafalgar Square.

A Celebration of ALMEIDA PRADO The Embassy of Brazil in collaboration with the Keyboard Trust

Andrea Molteni gave a recital on 7th May in Florence at the Harold Acton Library at the British Institute

Andrea Molteni in Florence – A live wire of Mastery and Poetic sensibility.

The fourth in our series of debut recitals at Steinways was with the brilliant Israeli pianist Tom Zalmanov, currently studying with Ian Fountain at the RAM .

We were very pleased to see his mentor Murray Perahia present with Lady Weidenfeld and his current teacher at the RAM, Ian Fountain (the only British winner of the Rubinstein Competition who tied with another British pianist – Benjamin Frith – in 1989)

Tom Zalmanov at Steinway Hall for the Keyboard Trust

In May, both Misha Kaploukhii and Magdalene Ho were invited to play at La Mortella on Ischia for the Walton Foundation. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/05/05/misha-kaploukhii-mastery-and-clarity-in-waltons-paradise-where-dreams-become-reality/ https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/05/12/magdalene-ho-a-musical-genius-in-paradise/

The KT is delighted to be able to showcase some of its top artists in the ‘Music al British’ Series, at the British Institute in Florence, managed by Director, Simon Gammell. Past performers have included four Busoni Competition winners.

Sasha Grynyuk, an emeritus KT artist, performed at the Institute for Sir David Scholey in Florence and at Steinway in Milan, managed by new Manager, Maura Romano, in May.

An enthusiastic and much loved supporter of ‘Music al British’ as exemplified by the series the KT have been invited to offer including four of the past Busoni winners.

Sasha Grynyuk in Milan and Florence Mastery and musicianship combine with poetic sensibility and intelligence

For several years, we have been very happy to be part of ‘Proms at St Jude’s’ in Hampstead Garden Suburb. This year George Todica was chosen to play on the 25th June to a very enthusiastic full house.

George Todica at St Judes Prom ‘A star is born of eloquence and masterly communication’

Victor Maslov played for Peter Barritt’s series at St Alkmund’s in Shrewsbury on the 25th June.

In July, Victor Maslov was invited to play in the prestigious Michelangeli Festival in Rabbi in Italy. The festival, held every year in the north of Italy, was particularly loved by the great Italian pianist whose Assistant for over fifteen years was our Founder, Noretta Conci Leech who also lives in that area.

Stefan Biosa writes: ‘14th edition of the International Festival“Omaggio all’Arte pianistica di Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli”. As has been the tradition since the first edition (2012, recital of Vitaly Pisarenko) also this year we plan to invite various artists from the Keyboard Trust, both young and very young (2024 Edition): Lilit Grigoryan, Victor Maslov, Alexander Ullman, Vitaly Pisarenko, Emanuil Ivanov, Gala Chistiakova, Evelyne Berezovsky, Chloe Mun and Arsenii Mun.’

Victor Maslov was invited to play at the Wingham Festival in Kent on 4th August ( via an introduction by Sir Geoffrey Nice, Trustee and founder member of the KT). Ben Bevan, Festival Director, commented:  ‘Victor was a sensation. People were openly weeping during his concert. A true Tour de Force.’

Nicholas Fairbank writes :’It was a privilege to listen to the talented Victor Maslov perform at the Wingham International Concert Series this afternoon. His musicality shone through as he displayed total mastery of some of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s most ambitious works – a selection of the Études-Tableaux (Op. 33 and 39) and the colossal Piano Sonata no. 1 (Op.28). The Études-Tableaux, or ‘study pictures’, are tone poems for the piano that present a range of rhythmical and harmonic progressions whilst haunting melodic lines pass between the voices, often within full chord structures as is characteristic of Rachmaninoff. Composed as individual studies, there is a flow to the two suites which seems quite natural in Maslov’s hands. Asymmetrical rhythms abound – from the outset with Op. 33 no. 1 and present throughout the works. I particularly enjoyed the percussive accelerando of Op. 39 no 9 leading up to its formidable presto, all balanced by delicate, almost ethereal, melodies, for example in Op. 33 nos. 2 and 7. ‘Mere’ virtuosic technique is only the minimum prerequisite for a successful performance of these miniature musical masterpieces. Maslov presented a masterclass.By contrast, Piano Sonata no. 1 is a mountain of a piece. At some 35 minutes it demands much of the performer both physically and mentally. After the scene-setting allegro moderato first movement, particularly enchanting was Maslov’s interpretation of the tuneful slow movement, the calm before the storm of the final movement which was a veritable tour de force.Maslov dedicated his closing words to the memory of his pianist colleague Pavel Kushnir who died of starvation just two weeks ago in a Russian prison. His ‘crime’? Daring to speak out against the war in Ukraine. A most moving epilogue to] an outstanding afternoon of music.’ Nicholas Fairbank
4th August 2024.

Arsenii Mun, the charismatic winner of the Busoni Competition and prestigious Michelangeli Award, played for us at Steinway Hall in London on the 26th June.

Gabrielé Sutkuté was invited to play at the Deal Festival on the 5th July. Here are the programme notes I was very happy to prepare for this very fine young artist: https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/05/01/programme-notes-for-deal-gabriele-sutkute/

On 9th July, Milda Daunoraite (another Lithuanian pianist) was invited to play at the En Blanc et Noir Festival at Lagrasse in France. Milda writes: ‘I think it went well! Everyone seemed very positive, some said it was the best concert for them out of the whole festival, and someone said they weren’t a fan of Liszt and I have almost changed their mind.

I felt very relaxed and confident performing yesterday and I hope I can go back sometime to such a charming little village! The people there are living the dream! And all so kind and generous.’ This is what I wrote about her a little while before: https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/05/28/milda-daunoraite-at-st-marys-a-joyous-journey-of-beauty-and-poetry/

Timothy Stewart gave our annual organ recital at Westminster Abbey on 14th July.

Timothy Stewart a 20 year old master organist triumphs at Westminster Abbey A review by Angela Ransley :’HIGH ROMANTICISM AND THE UNSEEN MASTER’

Noretta and John’s beloved Leslie Howard gave his annual recital at Wigmore Hall and, despite health problems, gave the recital of his life with a typically eclectic programme of forgotten masterpieces from the Russian repertoire.

.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/07/17/leslie-howard-the-prince-of-pianists-50th-anniversary-concert-at-the-wigmore-hall/

On 10th August, Avinoam Shalev gave a harpsichord recital at St. Cecilia’s Hall in Edinburgh .

On 17th August, Nikita Lukinov played at Lyddington in Rutland

Nikita is currently touring Scotland, a tour that he has arranged himself, bringing music to areas often with little ‘live’ music. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/?p=33516

Nikita also gave a recital on 25th November in the historic Armourers’ Livery Hall. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/27/nikita-lukinov-a-knight-amongst-the-armour-shining-brightly/

On 23rd and 24th August, Zala and Val Kravos, and Ellis Thomas, gave concerts both late at night in the open air and in the Orangerie for the French Festival ‘Un Piano sous les Arbres’ at Lunel-Viel near Montpellier.

On 16th September Mihai Ritivoiu, a KT emeritus, played in the magnificent cultural oasis that is the Fidelio Café in London. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/09/17/mihai-ritivoiu-at-fidelio-the-poet-speaks-in-an-oasis-of-elegance-and-eloquence/

On 28th September, Neo Hung, winner of the Liszt Competition UK, gave a masterclass and concert for the Erin Arts Centre on the Isle of Man.

‘What a lovely, easy-going young man and such a fantastic pianist. The masterclass was detailed and informative and the recital was absolute dynamite. Everybody was fully engaged throughout the show and all shook his hand afterwards (there were about 60 of them!) and thanked him for coming. Once again thank you to you and the Keyboard Trust for finding ANOTHER exceptional young talent; we’re really happy to help give them a foothold’ – Pip Rolfe, Erin Arts Centre.

And from Neo: ‘I had a most unforgettable experience performing at the wonderful Erin Arts Centre on Isle of Man on 28th September 2024 in addition to presenting my first ever masterclass! First and foremost, I would like to thank the artistic directors of the Keyboard Trust for offering me this unique opportunity which has increased my exposure to a wider audience. I had a most unforgettable time performing for such an enthusiastic and warm audience who reacted positively as I shook hands with one by one post-concert. Thank you to everyone who has come to either or both of my masterclass and recital that day with such attentiveness and passion. It has been an absolutely fantastic day! ‘

 

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/10/03/mark-viner-cooks-a-dish-fit-for-a-king-ravishing-beautysupreme-artistry-and-total-mastery-served-up-on-a-casserole-by-a-cordon-bleu-maitre/

Mark Viner at St Mary’s Nobility and radiance on a voyage of discovery

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/?p=33506

George X. Fu, another KT emeritus pianist, gave a stunning performance at the Pharos Arts Centre in Cyprus of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards Sur l’Enfant Jésus including a masterclass. George writes: ‘I had a wonderful trip to Cyprus to perform the entire cycle of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus. From the moment I arrived, I was looked after warmly by Garo and befriended many new people affiliated with the festival. On the day of the concert, I gave a morning educational lecture-recital with students from a local music school, playing excerpts from the Messiaen while answering questions about my life and career. Afterwards, Saskia conducted a brilliant, challenging interview of me on the radio ranging on many topics, from the work that I was to perform to philosophies on education and the arts. Finally, I performed the recital to a wonderfully appreciative audience who I dined with afterwards. On the following day I visited a gem of a bookshop, called the Mouffalla, run by someone who attended the recital — Ruth, who very graciously gifted me several books on Cyprus and various other interesting topics. I leave the country with many wonderful new friends and memories.’

‘The exquisite pianist George X. Fu, gave a dynamic but at the same time heartbreaking interpretation of the monumental Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus by Messiaen’ – Yvonne Georgiadou, Artistic Director, Pharos Arts.

And on the same day in London, at Wigmore Hall, Emanuil Ivanov gave a breathtaking account of Rzewski’s Variations in the Royal Academy of Music Series where Emanuil and George are both Fellows. 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/

On the 10th October, Nicolò Giuliana Tuccia gave a recital in Florence which was rapturously received.

Nicolò Giuliano Tuccia ‘sensibility and mastery ignite the Harold Acton Library’ including a long distance review.

On 13th October, Ivelina Krasteva played in a festival of women composers ‘L’Une, Elles in Lunel’, France. She performed: Clara Schumann – 3 Romances, op. 11; Mel Bonis – Desdemona op.109, Ophélie op. 165 and Barcarolle op. 71; Pauline Viardot – Two pieces for piano ; Teresa Carreño – Mi Teresita (Petite Valse) ; and Clara Schumann – Sonata in G minor.

Le matin, il faudra se rendre à l’orangerie du parc de la Ville de Lunel- Viel pour écouter la pianiste Ivelina Krasteva qui interprètera des compositrices du 20e siècle.

Mikhail Kambarov at Steinway Hall London Poetic sensibility of a Master

Mikhail Kambarov, star pupil of Michail Lifits (winner in 2008 of the Busoni Competition and Emeritus KT artist) in Weimar, made his Steinway Hall debut for the Keyboard Trust after his sensational win in two international competitions this year: https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/04/11/trapani-the-jewel-of-sicily-where-dreams-can-become-reality-the-international-piano-competition-domenico-scarlatti/

The extraordinary class of Michail Lifits.Nine young pianists of artistic integrity and refined musicianship who illuminated the beauty of Chopin’s 21 nocturnes

On 17th October, Victor Braojos gave a recital for Imperial College.

Victor Braojos at Imperial College ‘The voice of Spain with love,authority and passion’

On 18th October, Tyler Hay played at the North Fylde Music Circle – with thanks to the Robert Turnbull Foundation for its support.  Apparently, it went super well and the piano was ‘gorgeous’.  The only spanner in the works was our lovely train system with two cancellations in two days – but hero Tyler made it there and back with only a dry comment that only one of the 30+ trains he had travelled on recently had run ‘on time’.  He had one night at home, after 5 weeks away, and is now in France.  The life of a travelling pianist!!  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=e365e67791&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1813709325067314547&th=192b97058e736573&view=att&zw&disp=safe

On 3rd November, Louis-Victor Bak played in the Elgar Room in the Royal Albert Hall on Elton John’s Red Yamaha Tour piano. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/03/louis-victor-bak-at-the-royal-albert-hall-aristocratic-music-making-of-refined-good-taste/

On 5th November, Paul Lewis, one of the very first to be helped by the Keyboard Trust in 1992, gave a masterclass at Milton Court for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/06/paul-lewis-at-the-guildhall-on-a-wondrous-voyage-of-discovery-to-find-the-heart-and-soul-of-schubert/

Emanuil Ivanov gave two more concerts for us: one on 9th November at the Erin Arts Centre on the Isle of Man with a masterclass and recital.

And the other at the Pharos Arts Foundation Cyprus on 28th November where Garo Keheyan, in presenting Emanuil Ivanov, announced the very sad loss of his close friend, John Leech.

‘An extraordinary Pharos Arts Foundation evening for those fortunate enough to attend last night’s piano recital with the remarkable young pianist Emanuil Ivanov at The Shoe Factory – the most recognised venue in Cyprus for chamber music and recitals. A tempestuous tour de force that included Beethoven’s Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues Op. 87 and Rachmaninov Etudes-Tableaux, Op.39.

Ivanov delivered thunderous fortissimos that were full of depth and emotion, seamlessly morphing into the most delicate and nuanced pianissimo, all within coherent, well thought out architectural infrastructures.’ Yvonne Georgiadou adds: ‘ As I mentioned on Pharos’ Facebook page, Emanuil’s recital was absolutely thrilling. He is undeniably one of the finest pianists we have collaborated on, and it was a privilege to present him. Emanuil is on par with any big name out there and he has the qualities for a celebrated career ahead. His technical command is unparalleled, and his introspective sensitivity is rare to encounter. He performs with such natural elegance, free of any pretentiousness or affectation – a true artist.

Beyond his remarkable talent, Emanuil is a genuinely wonderful person – humble, grounded, and impressively mature for his age. We’re already looking forward to inviting him for another recital in the future.’

https://fb.watch/wJbY8VR4wu/?mibextid=WC7FNe

On 23rd November, The Liszt Society held their Annual Liszt Day at St Mary’s, Perivale.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/25/the-liszt-society-day-in-perivale/

On Thursday, 20th October Sherri Lun opened our Rising Stars Series in collaboration with City Music Promotions at St Mary Le Strand ( see above). The second concert in the series was with Kyle Hutchings on 20th November.

Kyle Hutchings The troubadour of the piano illuminates St Mary Le Strand

And another candlelight concert in the church where I was married !

On Sunday, 10th November, Giovanni Bertolazzi gave a sensational recital in Rome for the Roma 3 Orchestra series, to evaluate the lesser- known museum heritage, including the complete paraphrases of Verdi operas by Liszt. Shortly after this, Giovanni gave four recitals in Germany in Hamburg and Cologne ( see above).

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/10/giovanni-bertolazzis-spellbinding-mastery-ignites-and-excites-roma-3-orchestra/

Misha Kaploukhii gave two recitals in our Florence and Milan series. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/14/misha-kaploukhii-in-florence-and-milan-for-the-keyboard-trust-and-robert-turnbull-piano-foundation/

And a few days later at the National Liberal Club he played the second Chopin Concerto with a Chamber Ensemble. Magdalene Ho played the first Chopin Concerto.

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/

Misha Kaploukhii also played Brahms’ 2nd Concerto with the London Rehearsal Orchestra at Bishopsgate Institute on the Bechstein Concert Grand that had belonged to Myra Hess. He will play Brahms’ 2nd Concerto again at Cadogan Hall on 19th February.

Our last Steinway Hall recital this year was given by Jeremy Chan on 13th November. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/14/jeremy-chan-at-steinway-hall-for-the-keyboard-trust/

Axel Trolese came to the UK from Italy to give two concerts. One in Shrewsbury in Peter Barritt’s series on 26th November and one in the newly opened Bechstein Hall in London on 24th.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/27/axel-trolese-at-bechstein-hall-mastery-and-intelligence-of-a-remarkable-artist/

‘The Italian pianist Axel Trolese visited Shrewsbury on Tuesday 26th November 2024 to perform for the first time in Shropshire, arriving hot-foot from playing his debut recital in London at the new Bechstein Hall. This recital in the Tuesday lunchtime St Alkmund series was the first recital sponsored by The Keyboard Trust and the Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation, who plan to support two Shrewsbury International Piano Recitals per year, in recognition of the welcome given to young international pianists by the town. Axel comes highly recommended from his homeland, where he is a regular recitalist and esteemed teacher. His programme was influenced by his recent achievement of reaching the second round of the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. Axel explained to the audience that his programme demonstrated how the piano has been used to illustrate different genres of music. He started with J.S. Bach’s Italian Concerto, with the piano acting in orchestral fashion. As the first movement got underway, it was obvious that we were listening to a master of his craft, with immaculate technique, light pedalling and melodies singing from both hands. Repeats were adorned with intricate and subtle ornaments and variations in dynamics that seemed effortless and added to the freshness of his interpretation. The slow movement was achingly beautiful, played in a manner faithful to the period yet full of colour and interest. No surprise, then, to learn that Axel is a keen student of period instruments such as the fortepiano and harpsicord. The final movement was played with infectious enthusiasm, full of joy. What future pleasures await us as Axel delves into the vast treasure trove of Bach’s music for keyboard! Next up, from the baroque we moved to the watery depths of romantic repertoire of Franz Liszt, exploring the beautiful fountains and gardens of the 16th Century Villa D’Este in Tivoli near Rome. There were handfuls of notes pouring out of the piano in cascades of sound, soaking the audience in torrents of notes. Those of us lucky enough to have visited the Villa were reminded of the sculptural beauty of the gardens and fountains, which Liszt visited on three occasions. Axel then switched from the heavenly to the demonic Transcendental study in F minor which he  played with seemingly effortless bravado.In my limited experience, it is rare to find a young pianist equally at home with Bach and Rachmaninov but it was the breadth and complexity of Axel’s repertoire that was so impressive in his recital. With technical challenges seemingly brushed aside, he could concentrate on the essence of the music, taking the audience with him on an exhilarating adventure. Rachmaninov Etude-Tableau? No problem.Axel has a deep love of French and Spanish music. He has recorded the complete Iberia by Albéniz and he played a composition based on the life of a busy fishing port, busy with sounds of a fish market and a young girl singing. Why an Italian feels so grounded in the dance and passion of Spanish music is a mystery, but Axel relishes their music and passion. St Alkmund’s was not only full of an enthusiastic audience but characteristically bathed in winter sunshine. It was something of a jump of faith to get into the mood of the gothic world of sinking mermaids, hangmen and the night terrors of Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit. Ravel is Axel’s favourite composer and he relished disappearing into this spooky sound world, full of foreboding. Finally the recital ended with the flourish of De Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance, played with customary panache and passion. The Shrewsbury audience was on its feet, having enjoyed a world-class performer at the top of his game. The audience has no intention of letting Axel go without an encore and we heard the hauntingly beautiful Canción y danza no 6 by Federico Mompou. The simple beauty of the piece was a perfect end to an outstanding performance from a musician bound for greatness. Thank you Keyboard Trust and Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation for sending such a treasure for Shrewsbury to enjoy.’ https://petebarritt.wixsite.com/shrewsbury-internati

​On 23rd November Filippo Tenisci played at Tuscia University in Viterbo: https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/11/24/filippo-tenisci-in-viterbo-with-mastery-and-refined-generosity/

​On 4th December, Kasparas Mikužis played in Wigmore Hall’s Royal Academy Series. Another quite sensational Lithuanian pianist who gave a memorable performance of Rachmaninov’s much troubled First Sonata: https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/04/kasparas-mikuzis-at-the-wigmore-hall-masterly-playing-of-fluidity-and-ravishing-beauty/

And on 21st December, in Villa Borghese, for Roma 3 Orchestra, a recital of Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage Italie by Maurizio Baglini, a KT emeritus artist from 1996.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/21/maurizio-baglini-plays-liszt-with-the-poetic-understanding-of-cordon-bleu-mastery/

On 17th December Andrea Molteni gave a recital at St Mary’s Perivale: https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/17/andrea-molteni-at-st-marys-the-extraordinary-clarity-and-mastery-of-a-thinking-musician/

It would not be Christmas without the special party that Steinway holds every year in the beautiful flagship in the centre of Milan.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/12/13/steinway-sons-milan-we-could-have-danced-all-night-christmas-is-a-comin/

What greater tribute could there be to our founder than a concert for Ukrainian Medical Charity in the Lansdowne Club where John’s family and a few intimate friends had gathered shortly before to say a sad farewell to a friend and father figure to us all.

Sasha Grynyuk and Katya Gorbatiouk, who have been closest to Noretta and John over the past few years, know better than any the poignant significance of this concert on this very special day.

Gen Ukrainian Christmas Gala Concert ‘Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme’

The Liszt Society Day and International Competition 

 

1.10 pm The Liszt Society and the Keyboard Charitable Trust 
present a recital by 

Letian Yu 

(First Prizewinner, 2023 Liszt Society Competition)  

Liszt: Danse macabre – Poème symphonique de Camille Saint-Saëns [opus 40], S555  

Liszt: Années de pèlerinage -Deuxième Année -Italie, S161
no 5: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca

Liszt: Années de pèlerinage-Troisième Année- Italie, S163
no 4: Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este (9′) 

Liszt: Rapsodie espagnole – Folies d’Espagne et Jota aragonesa, S254 (13′) 

Chopin (1810-1849) Nocturne in B major, opus 62 no.1 

Liszt: Grandes Études de Paganini, S141
No. 3 La campanella

Letian Yu, at the age of 15, became the first Chinese winner of the Liszt Society International Piano Competition, having been brought to London by the redoubtable CIPMF piano festival director Hao Yao. He has returned to Perivale give this prizewinner’s recital. He was born in Shanghai, China in May 2008. He started learning piano at the age of 5. In 2020, he went to study at the Special Piano Department of the Genius Class of the Affiliated High School of Tchaikovsky Academy in Russia. He has successively studied under teachers Hongyi Fu, Xiaoou Qiu, Ye Feng, Ying Cai, Maxim Kazitskii, Professor Nianqiu Liu, Qingxia Pu, Professor Natalia Trull and Daniil Tsvetkov. He has also received careful guidance from Kate Liu and Xinyuan Wang, and since 2023, has also been in Leslie Howard’s masterclasses.

During his years of piano study, Letian Yu has won more than 20 honours in domestic and international competitions. He has won the gold medal in the Shanghai Student Art Individual Competition many times, the first prize in the 28th Chopin International Youth Competition in Shanghai, the first prize in the Gloria Factum and “Friendship Cup” International Piano Competition held in Moscow, the first prize in the adult category of the St. Petersburg International Young Pianist Bartolomeo Cristofori Competition, the first prize in the American Youth Musician International Piano Competition held in the United States, the first prize in the professional category of the 28th Japan PIARA International Piano Award China Division, the first prize in the Clara Schumann International Piano Competition held in Germany, and he won the Young Euregio Piano Award 2024. 

2.0 pm Lunch break 

3.0 pm The Liszt Society International Piano Competition Final 2024 

Sebastian-Benedict Flore (Italy and United Kingdom) (b. 2002)
Großes Konzertsolo S176 (21′)

Catherine Chang (New Zealand) (b. 2002)
Deuxième Ballade S171 (15′)
Deux Légendes, S175: (17′)
1 St François d’Assise: La prédication aux oiseaux 
2 St François de Paule marchant sur les flots

Michele Taraborrelli (Italy) (b. 1999)
Venezia e Napoli – Supplément aux Années de pèlerinage 2 d volume, S162
1 Gondoliera; 2 Canzone; 3 Tarantella (17′)
A la chapelle Sixtine – Miserere d’Allegri et Ave verum corpus de Mozart, S462ii (13′)

Shiv Yajnik (United States of America) (b. 2002)
Großes Konzertsolo, S176 (21′)
Dritter Mephisto-Walzer, S215 (8′)

Xuanxiang Wu (People’s Republic of China) (b. 2007)
Douze Études d’exécution transcendante, S139:
No. 11 in D-flat major Harmonies du soir (9′)                         
Réminiscences de Don Juan (Mozart Don Giovanni ) S418 (17′) 

The adjudication by jurors Melvyn Cooper, Mark Viner and Leslie Howard should take place at around 5.30pm.

Some very fine musicianly playing of clarity and authority. Beethoven’s penultimate sonata was played with great architectural shape and a simplicity that allowed the music to seemingly speak for itself. A pastoral serenity to the first movement of sublime simplicity with a glowing fluidity. An Allegro scherzo of exemplary legato that made the treacherous trio a continuous stream of mellifluous sounds where technical difficulties were absorbed so naturally into an architectural shape of mellifluous forward movement .Dissolving to a whisper as the ‘Adagio’ was intoned with religious intensity.The pulsating left hand like a heartbeat on which Beethoven floats an aria of celestial beauty.The fugue that evolved with the same serenity as the aria returned with ever more glowing beauty. A whispered return of the fugue delicately inverted as it reached for the heights with the passionate conviction of a composer tired of the struggles he had suffered and is ready to exult and embrace his future.

The Medtner Sonata was given an exemplary performance where Amit’s musicianship and technical mastery allowed him to steer through the composers sometimes foggy textures with an architectural line that allowed us to appreciate the trees in an overcrowded wood .

It was the same musicianship that he brought to Chopin’s B minor Sonata where he managed to maintain the same pulse in the ‘Maestoso’ first movement that gave such nobility and strength to the radiant beauty of the bel canto of the second subject .A scintillating ‘Scherzo’ of refined jeux perle and a ‘Trio’ with a sense of line given to the intricate counterpoints of knotty twine that Chopin weaves into the texture.The noble opening of the ‘Largo’ grew out of the exhilaration of the Scherzo. A bel canto played with ravishing beauty and whispered intimacy which dissolved into a web of golden pulsating sounds where Amit’s intelligent musicianship could weave his way with such mellifluous clarity. A Presto finale played with ever more excitement exhilaration and remarkable technical control restoring this much maligned masterpiece to the pinnacle of the Romantic repertoire.

It was however in the scintillating encore of Gershwin, Earl Wilde style that Amit let himself go with all the improvised mastery of a born jazz player . His intellectual reticence given second place with an animal like freedom pouncing like a true ‘Kitten on the Keys’ .

Multi-award-winning pianist Amit Yahav is much in demand as a recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist, having earned his reputation for interpretations that grip and move audiences with passion and intellectual insight. His interpretations of the music of Chopin and Schumann in particular have received high praise. In 2018, he earned a Doctor of Music degree from the Royal College of Music for his thesis investigating interpretation in the music of Chopin. Amongst Amit’s success are the Anthony Lindsay Piano Prize and the György Solti Award for Professional Development. Amit also won the 1st International Israeli Music Competition in London and consequently performed Israeli composer Zvi Avni’s On the Verge of Time in London’s Southbank Centre in the presence of the composer. In 2014, Amit attracted much positive attention with his CD “Amit Yahav Plays Chopin“, containing the four Ballades. This release followed Amit’s tour showcasing the four Ballades in an explained recital, which was also selected by the Royal College of Music as part of their Insight Series of soirees offered to their donors. Most recently, his newest disc featuring Romantic piano fantasies by Mendelssohn, Schumann and Chopin appeared on the GENUIN label. 

Amit Yahav a a master musician at St Mary’s

Surrounded by a collection of De Chirico paintings Maurizio Baglini shared with us the divine sounds that Liszt had captured in music during his Years of Travel in Italy.

The Raffaello ‘Sposalizio’ was played with the same radiance and kaleidoscope of colours that Genius could inspire.His masterly use of the pedal – the soul of the piano- allowed him to create etherial sounds of sublime poetic beauty .Here poetry and sumptuous regality were united in a tone poem of searing fluidity . The morbose sounds of pure marble as sculptured by Michelangelo were captured with the same deep intensity as his ‘Thinker.’ Deep moving bass notes were of overpowering potency. A jaunty interval with the countrified simplicity of the Canzonetta del Salvatore Rosa with its infectious lilting jig like dance was followed by subtle whispered confessions of the poetic inspirations of Petrarch. A very subtle sense of balance and architectural shape made these three tone poems into works of intimate confessions and searing emotions.And finally the call to arms of Dante with his demonic sonata of heroism and submission.A masterly control and aristocratic sense of style of timeless beauty with an extraordinary range of emotions. His understanding of the meaning behind the notes allowed him to play fearlessly with breathtaking power and technical mastery.Even the treacherous octaves at the end were thrown off with the ease of someone who had something important to say where problems simply dissolved in the face of the message he had to transmit.

Playing of aristocratic control and masterly poetic understanding with a range of colours on an old ‘casserole’ that had never been aware that it was capable of such cordon bleu mastery until it was placed in the inspired hands of Maurizio Baglini.

‘Widmung’ by Schumann transcribed by Liszt was an encore that summed up the artistry that we had been witness to in this short Sunday morning recital. A wonderful sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to sing with fluidity and beauty full of the same subtle inflections as the human voice. A technical mastery that allowed him to embellish Schumann’s outpouring of love for Clara with fearless abandon just as he was able to share with us Schumann’s whispered and most intimate thoughts.

Années de pèlerinage  (S.160,161,162,163) is a set of three suites for solo piano by Franz Liszt. Much of it derives from his earlier work, Album d’un voyageur, his first major published piano cycle, which was composed between 1835 and 1838 and published in 1842. Années de pèlerinage is widely considered as the masterwork and summation of Liszt’s musical style.Surrounded by beauty with an inspired and inspiring recital by Maurizio Baglini in the Bilotti museum in the sumptuous park of Villa Borghese.

The title Années de pèlerinage refers to Goethe’s famous novel of self-realization, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, and especially its sequel Wilhelm Meister’s journeyman Years (whose original title Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre meant Years of Wandering or Years of Pilgrimage, the latter being used for its first French translation). Liszt clearly places these compositions in line with the Romantic literature of his time, prefacing most pieces with a literary passage from writers such as Schiller,Byron or Senancour, and, in an introduction to the entire work, writing: 

‘Having recently travelled to many new countries, through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry; having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights did not pass before my eyes as pointless images but stirred deep emotions in my soul, and that between us a vague but immediate relationship had established itself, an undefined but real rapport, an inexplicable but undeniable communication, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions.’

Deuxième année: Italie

“Deuxième année: Italie” (“Second Year: Italy”), S.161, was composed between 1837 and 1849 and published in 1858 by Schott. Nos. 4 to 6 are revisions of Tre sonetti del Petrarca , which was composed around 1839–1846 and published in 1846.

1. Sposalizio  (Marriage of the Virgina by Raphael) in E major
2. Il penseroso (The Thinker, a statue by Michelangelo)
3. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa ( this song “Vado ben spesso cangiando loco” was in fact written by Giovanni Bononcini )
4. Sonetto 47 del Petrarca 
5. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca 
6. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca (Petrarch’s Sonnet 123)
7. Après une lecture du Dante:Fantasia Quasi Sonata

Leslie Howard writes :’There are many similarities in the genesis of the first and second books of Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage: most of the pieces in both books were conceived in the 1830s during his travels to and from Switzerland and Italy with Marie d’Agoult, a time which saw the birth of the couple’s three children, Blandine, Cosima and Daniel, and for Liszt a period of intense compositional activity, punctuated by a good many concerts. The two books were eventually prepared for publication in their final form by the early 1850s, in Liszt’s busiest period as a composer/conductor at the court of Weimar. Their story is also paralleled by that of the Transcendental Etudes and the Hungarian Rhapsodies, which achieved their final form at about the same time. In the case of the Swiss volume, Liszt had selected all but one of the pieces from the previously published Album d’un Voyageur; with the Italian set only three of the pieces had appeared in print in earlier versions—the Petrarch Sonnets—although all but one of the remaining pieces had been drafted in the late 1830s. The supplementary volume Venezia e Napoli had been ready for publication in about 1840, but was withdrawn by Liszt at the proof stage. The later set of pieces with the same title discarded two of the earlier set, revised two, and added a new piece between them. The important difference between the two books lies in the source of inspiration: although various literary references lie in the background to the Swiss volume, the principal imaginative spring is the landscape of Switzerland itself; the second Année draws entirely upon Italian art and literature.

The Marriage of the Virgin, also known as Lo Sposalizio, by Raphael was completed in 1504 for the San Francesco church in Città downtown Castello it depicts a marriage ceremony between Mary and Joseph and since 1806 it is housed in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan 
Sposalizio is the title of the first piece in Liszt’s Deuxième Annie de Pèlerinage :Italie (Second Year of Pilgrimage: Italy), published in 1858. The composition starts out with a simple pentatonic melody, described as a “bell-like motif”,turning into a complex musical architecture. The melody then changes to a type of wedding march, continually embellished leading to the grand climax before ending quietly.

Sposalizio was first written in 1838 or 1839, and the manuscript shows at least two levels of revision before the version finally published. Liszt composed the work in homage to Raphael’s eponymous painting of the betrothal of Our Lady and St Joseph (which may be seen in the Brera Chapel in Milan). We know from Liszt’s later use of the second theme (G major, Lento) in the work for voices and organ called Zur Trauung (‘At the betrothal’) and otherwise catalogued as Ave Maria III that this melody honours Mary, but Liszt offers no further clues to the musical characterization. The uncanny presentiment in the closing phrases of Debussy’s First Arabesque has often been noted.

Michelangelo’s sculpture Il penseroso may be seen on the tomb of Lorenzo de’ Medici in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. The music is amongst the simplest and most stark of Liszt’s early mature works, and appears to have been incorporated as it was originally written in 1838/9. The work was later revised and extended to form the second of the Trois Odes funèbres: ‘La notte’ (in Volume 3), and both works bear Michelangelo’s quatrain:

Grato m’è il sonno, e più l’esser di sasso.
Mentre che il danno e la vergogna dura.
Non veder, non sentir m’è gran ventura
Però non mi destar, deh’—parla basso!

Sleep, nay, being made of rock,
makes me happy whilst harm and shame endure.
It is a great adventure neither to see nor to hear.
However, disturb me not, pray—lower your voice!

Of course, Salvator Rosa (1615–1673) was primarily a painter, but he was also an actor, a poet, a satirist and a musician. Nonetheless, the saucy little Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa is not his music, although the text may be by or about him. The work (originally for voice and basso continuo) is listed in The New Grove amongst the cantatas for solo voice of the once greatly celebrated Giovanni Battista Bononcini (1670–1747)—under the title of its opening line ‘Vado ben spesso’, and unaccountably described as unpublished. Liszt’s version, undated, but at any rate completed by 1849, ranks as one of his lightest and happiest numbers, and exemplifies a catholicity of taste which does not differentiate between wholly original music and music based upon existing source material. The original text is laid out above the music: 

Vado ben spesso cangiando loco,
Ma non so mai cangiar desio.
Sempre l’istesso sarà il mio fuoco,
E sarò sempre l’istesso anch’io.

I very often go about to various places,
but I never know how to vary my desire.
My fire shall always remain unchanged,
and so (therefore) shall I.

In adapting the Tre Sonetti di Petrarca for their final piano versions Liszt changed the order from the first publication, reversing the first two, so that Sonetto 47 happily takes up the chord with which the Canzonetta finished. The long introduction to Sonetto 104 is replaced with a passage almost identical to that in the first published vocal setting. The three pieces are intense love-songs rich in passionate harmonies, and generous in their melodic flight, and they have long been amongst Liszt’s most beloved works.

‘Pace non trovo’ Sonetto n. 47

Pace non trovo, e non ho da far guerra,
E temo, e spero, ed ardo, e son un ghiaccio:
E volo sopra 'l cielo, e giaccio in terra;
E nulla stringo, e tutto 'l mondo abbraccio.

Tal m'ha in priggion, che non m'apre, nè serra,
Nè per suo mi ritien, nè scioglie il laccio
E non m'ancide Amor, e non mi sferra;
Nè mi vuol vivo, nè mi trahe d'impaccio.

Veggio senz'occhi; e non ho lingua e grido;
E bramo di perir, e cheggio aita;
Ed ho in odio me stesso, ed amo altrui.

Pascomi di dolor, piangendo rido,
Egualmente mi spiace morte e vita,
In questo stato son, Donna, per Voi.

I find no peace, and yet I make no war:
and fear, and hope: and burn, and I am ice:
and fly above the sky, and fall to earth,
and clutch at nothing, and embrace the world.

One imprisons me, who neither frees nor jails me,
nor keeps me to herself nor slips the noose:
and Love does not destroy me, and does not loose me,
wishes me not to live, but does not remove my bar.

I see without eyes, and have no tongue, but cry:
and long to perish, yet I beg for aid:
and hold myself in hate, and love another.

I feed on sadness, laughing weep:
death and life displease me equally:
and I am in this state, lady, because of you.

Sonetto n. 104 ‘Benedetto sia ‘l giorno’

Benedetto sia 'l giorno, e 'l mese, e l'anno,
E la stagione, e 'l tempo, e l'ora, e 'l punto
E 'l bel paese e 'l loco, ov'io fui giunto
Da'duo begli occhi che legato m'ànno;

E benedetto il primo dolce affanno
Ch'i' ebbi ad esser con Amor congiunto,
E l'arco e la saette ond' i' fui punto,
E le piaghe, ch'infino al cor mi vanno.

Benedette le voci tante, ch'io
Chiamando il nome di Laura ho sparte,
E i sospiri e le lagrime e 'l desio.

E benedette sian tutte le carte
Ov'io fama le acquisto, e il pensier mio,
Ch'è sol di lei, si ch'altra non v'ha parte.

Blessed be the day, and the month, and the year,
and the season, and the time, and the hour, and the moment,
and the beautiful country, and the place where I was joined
to the two beautiful eyes that have bound me:

and blessed be the first sweet suffering
that I felt in being conjoined with Love,
and the bow, and the shafts with which I was pierced,
and the wounds that run to the depths of my heart.

Blessed be all those verses I scattered
calling out the name of my lady,
and the sighs, and the tears, and the passion:

and blessed be all the sheets
where I acquire fame, and my thoughts,
that are only of her, that no one else has part of.

Sonetto n.123. ‘I’ vidi in terra angelici costumi’

I' vidi in terra angelici costumi,
E celesti bellezze al mondo sole;
Tal che di rimembrar mi giova, e dole:
Che quant'io miro, par sogni, ombre, e fumi.

E vidi lagrimar que' duo bei lumi,
Ch'han fatto mille volte invidia al sole;
Ed udì' sospirando dir parole
Che farian gir i monti, e stare i fiumi.

Amor! senno! valor, pietate, e doglia
Facean piangendo un più dolce concento
D'ogni altro, che nel mondo udir si soglia.

Ed era 'l cielo all'armonia s'intento
Che non si vedea in ramo mover foglia.
Tanta dolcezza avea pien l'aer e 'l vento.

I saw angelic virtue on earth
and heavenly beauty on terrestrial soil,
so I am sad and joyful at the memory,
and what I see seems dream, shadows, smoke:

and I saw two lovely eyes that wept,
that made the sun a thousand times jealous:
and I heard words emerge among sighs
that made the mountains move, and halted rivers.

Love, Judgement, Pity, Worth and Grief,
made a sweeter chorus of weeping
than any other heard beneath the moon:

and heaven so intent upon the harmony
no leaf was seen to move on the boughs,
so filled with sweetness were the wind and air.

Just as there is inconsistency between the title page and music head titles of the sonnets—in one place ‘di’ and the other ‘del’ Petrarca—the work commonly called the ‘Dante Sonata’ is described both as ‘une lecture de’ on the title page and ‘une lecture du’ at the head of the music and in the amended title on the manuscript. The original title of the piece was Paralipomènes à la Divina Commedia—Fantaisie symphonique pour piano, and the first version (which is in two parts) is probably what Liszt first played in 1839. A first layer of revision in the principal manuscript may well belong to the second projected title Prolégomènes (still in two parts), and Liszt seems to have performed a version of this work under the title Fantasia quasi sonata (Prolégomènes zu Dantes Göttlicher Comödie). A further, much more extensive layer of revision carries the final title and one-movement structure, but a good many final corrections and alterations were made at the proof stage to produce the present work.

The principal manuscript with its revisions in Liszt’s hand is actually in a copyist’s hand and contains several errors which went uncorrected by Liszt through the various stages of revision. Problem bars include: 65 (first left-hand group may be incorrect—the second left-hand chord should perhaps have a B flat instead of an A); 102 (second harmony should surely have E sharp—MS has a (redundant) natural sign); 255 (first left-hand chord should probably have an F sharp instead of an E); 262–3 (almost certainly B flats and hence E flat major—otherwise the augmented triad is the only such chord in the work in all versions, and it is a chord to which Liszt normally grants particular importance in a musical structure—furthermore, this theme is always extended elsewhere by common triads); and 297 (the right hand should certainly have G sharps on the third crotchet, as in the earlier version—the lack of them in the rewriting, which otherwise preserves exactly the same progression, is clearly a slip of the pen).

Many commentators have essayed a description of the particular reading of Dante which Liszt has chosen to represent, although he himself gave no specific clues. (The case of the Dante Symphony is quite another matter: each movement represents Liszt’s reaction to Inferno and Purgatorio, with a hint of Paradiso in the concluding Magnificat, and the musical text is laid out upon occasion to fit various quotations of Dante’s work.) Clearly, the diabolus in musica tritone—heard at the outset, and at all the important structural junctions—suggests Inferno, and suggestions have been made concerning the Francesca da Rimini episode. But calling the reprise of what amounts to the second subject (10 bars of ethereal tremolo at bar 290) a representation of Paradiso as some commentators have done is surely wide of the mark, and the piece as a whole is much less celestial or purgatorial than it is relentlessly infernal. Formally, the structure is a much tighter sonata-form than the epithet Fantasia might suggest, and the musical form outweighs any attempt there might have been to convey a poetic narrative rather than just a general reaction to Dante’s work. Leslie Howard Hyperion Complete Liszt recordings

Che festa! The joy of music!Maurizio Baglini project at Roma 3

Dudamel and the Nutcracker a potent mix for the Christmas festivities in Rome .
With the ballet at the opera house too ,Tchaikowsky reigns in the Eternal city.

The very first time I heard Dudamel was many years ago on this very stage with his Bolivar Orchestra from Venezuela and Abreu’s El Sistema that Claudio Abbado had discovered and brought to Europe .
An infectious joy of making music and turning concerts into an exhilarating party experience showing the power of music to conquer even the most desperate situations.
Gustavo had been first violin of that orchestra when Abreu took the kids off the most desperately poor streets and got them making music together. And what music it was when the lights were lowered at the end and suddenly all the youthful players donned their multicoloured jackets and intoned their native music throwing their instruments into the air while they played with an infectious ‘joie de vivre’ that gradually conquered all the capitals of Europe and the world .

Dudamel has learnt the ropes with his friends as did Rattle in Birmingham or Pappano in Rome and like his illustrious colleagues he too now conducts the greatest orchestras in the most hallowed halls worldwide .
In London Dudamel signifies a queue for tickets as we used only to do for Rubinstein or Klemperer.

And Dudamel at the helm of the magnificent Santa Cecilia Orchestra had sparks flying in all directions .Dancing on the podium ,just as the ballet dancers are at the Costanzi Opera House ,with the music deep in his heart as he brought a scintillating Nutcracker to the magnificent Parco della Musica. S.Cecilia’s youngest ever leader Andrea Obiso like Dudamel when he was leading the Bolivar Orchestra looking his colleagues in the eye as his spontaneous music making ignited his whole being.

Even the children’s choir magnificently prepared by Claudia Morelli came marching on just before the interval to join in the fun. Dudamel like a father to each and every one that he saluted as he encouraged them to sing their youthful hearts out .

A reception for our friend Gustavo that was worthy of a football stadium,with stamping of feet and cheering not only from the audience but also from an orchestra that has rarely had such an exhilarating and uplifting experience.

Dudamel in Rome – The Joy of Music

 

Some quite extraordinary playing of radiance and clarity. A technical command of such natural fluidity that makes all he plays sound so natural and effortless.A precision and brilliance that makes his playing in particular of the Sonatas by Scarlatti so scintillating and brilliant.It was indeed only as an encore that we could admire his quite extraordinary dexterity with ornaments that like tightly wound springs seemed to glisten and glow with an inner life of their own.

But it is not only Scarlatti that this young man excels in because the clarity and his superb simple musicianship illuminate all that he does.He has recently recorded an all Beethoven CD with the ‘Hammerklavier’ op 106 and as a fill up the ‘Grosse Fuga!’ greeted by the press with five star reviews.

An opening with grandiose flourishes but also where everything he played sang with such fluidity.A sense of style as you would expect from his mentor Willian Grant Naboré but allied to an architectural shape that gave a sense of grandeur to this opening ‘Allegro’ of regal importance.I found the left hand of the ‘Largo’ rather sparse where I have always thought of the deep bass notes as marcato not staccato but it did allow Bach’s bel canto to sing with extraordinary flexibility and glowing beauty.There was an infectious ‘joie de vivre’ of the final ‘Presto’ with a clarity to the part playing that I have rarely heard played with such conversant musicality.

Beethoven’s little F sharp Sonata op 78 often known as ‘A Therese’ because of its opening movement with it’s beautiful simple ‘Adagio’ opening up to a florid ‘Allegro’ with a continuous outpouring of song.The ‘Allegro’ second movement was played with dynamic drive and superb phrasing which gave it a continuous forward movement of bucolic drive.

There was radiance and fluidity in Debussy’s ‘Pagodes’ with subtle colouring building up to a climax that burst into streams of notes that Andrea spun with ease as the golden sounds he created filled the perfumed air. A whispered ‘Soirée dans Grenade’ of great atmosphere was followed by the sparkling clarity of ‘Jardins sous la Pluie’.

Leslie Howard had indicated to Andrea this work which he considers to be one of Liszt’s best but most neglected of all his paraphrases. A work that needs a fearless champion with a technical mastery that can allow Bellini’s bel canto to sing above the most transcendental pyrotechnics.Andrea could play with featherlight clarity as he could also play with orchestral fullness but never loosing sight off the melodic line that weaves it’s way in and out of such demonic pianistic elaborations. Missing a little of the sumptuous Philadelphian fullness of sound Andrea made up for it with a dynamic drive and clarity that was breathtaking in its fearless abandon. In Andrea’s hands,as those of his mentor Leslie Howard, it is obviously a work that deserves to be better known and put side by side with the much played Norma Fantasy.

An exciting young Italian piano talent, the 26-year-old Andrea Molteni is building his international profile with performances in the US, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Three albums, recently released on Brilliant Classics and broadcast on France Musique, Germany’s MDR Kultur and Radio Classica in Italy, have received international praise: the complete piano works of Petrassi and Dallapiccola, a selection of Scarlatti sonatas, and Beethoven: Con alcune licenze, featuring Hammerklavier, Op. 110 and The Grosse Fuge, never before recorded in a piano solo version. Andrea Molteni enjoys the artistic guidance of William Grant Naboré and Stanislav Ioudenitch. He has also participated in master classes with Andras Schiff, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Pavel Gililov, Dang Thai Son, and Vladimir Feltsman. 

Mr. Molteni began his career at the age of 15, when he participated at the Bayreuth Festival celebrating Wagner’s 200th anniversary and performed in France and Monte Carlo. Since then he has played at Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Scriabin Museum in Moscow, Esplanade in Singapore, Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, National Opera Center and DiMenna Center in New York, Chopin Music University in Warsaw, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, among other venues. The pianist regularly performs with orchestras, such as Orchestra Antonio Vivaldi, Orchestra Filarmonica Mihail Johra di Bacau in Romania, and Orchestra of the Costa Rica University. In the coming season he will give 25 concerts on three continents, including tours in China and Australia and recitals in Milan, Bergamo, Cremona and other Italian cities.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/05/08/andrea-molteni-in-florence-a-live-wire-of-mastery-and-poetic-sensibility/

Estampes (Prints),L. 100, was finished in 1903 and the first performance of the work was given by Ricardo Viñes at the Salle Érard  in Paris on 9 January 1904.

This suite with 3 movements is one of a number of piano works by Debussy which are often described as impressionistic , a term borrowed from painting. Pioneered by Ravel in Jeux d’eau written in 1901, was soon adopted by Debussy (for example in the earlier numbers of Images), but Debussy did not himself identify as an impressionist.The three movements Pagodes, La soirée dans Grenade (An evening in Granada) and Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the rain) create a poetic world of landscapes and distant lands. Written in the summer 1903 while he was staying in Bichain in the north of Burgundy. As he wrote in a letter at the time: “If one cannot afford to travel, one substitutes the imagination.” 

Leslie Howard writes: ‘Discounting the first publication of Liszt’s Sonnambula fantasy, which differs from the second by having virtually no dynamics or performance indications, there are three versions of the work, which first appeared in 1839, and then shortly afterwards with a few alterations, and finally in 1874, with a German rather than the original French title, ‘Grosse Concert Fantasie S 393.’ This last ignores the middle version and was clearly made by altering a copy of the 1839 version (all the errors missed in proof-reading are to be found in the passages which remain identical to both texts). Unusually in a late Liszt revision, the changes make the piece more rather than less difficult to perform. The work is constructed about five themes from Bellini’s opera, and really presents the drama in miniature by concentrating upon the principal story-line of the sleep-walking Amina who is presumed to be unfaithful to her betrothed Elvino, her rejection by him, her narrow escape from death by drowning whilst sleep-walking, her vindication, and the lovers’ reconciliation. Liszt captures the whole spirit of the piece in what amounts to a three-movements-in-one form whose last section, based on the triumphant ‘Ah! non giunge’, deftly draws all the elements together. It is altogether one of his best fantasies and long overdue for revival in the concert hall.’

‘A major revelation of nineteenth-century ideas and techniques. There is musical nourishment here as well as entertainment’ (Gramophone)

Christmas comes to Frascati The gift of music illuminates the city.

A celebration for Marylene Mouquet’s daughter Patrizia who died in a tragic road accident 20 years ago on the 10th December.

A concert in which Mara Gualandris tells the tragic Victorian tale of Enoch Arden. Richard Strauss providing the very important score for piano which was played by Valerio Premuroso. I had met Valerio in 2008 when he was the Deus ex machina of the Rina Sala Gallo International piano competition in Monza and have not seen him since.

A road accident has left him semi invalid but it certainly did not stop him from playing the very difficult piano part with mastery and poetic understanding. Still able to pedal but only with the left foot he was able to create marvels of kaleidoscopic sounds following very closely the story that was unfolding as Mara told the harrowing story of Enoch and Annie.I have had the privilege to play this work with my late wife,Ileana Ghione, all over Italy and could appreciate the hold this work has on audiences of all ages. I remember a young girl being comforted by my wife after a performance we had given in Lucca. Bruno Cagli had translated the text into Italian as only a superb musician could possibly hope to do. We only made one addition to his version and that was to make sure that the last words that were uttered were indeed Enoch Arden. Bruno was thrilled with this addition that made a very moving close to this ,the most successful of melologues or musical declamations.After my wife’s death Milena Vukotic performed the work in many cities in celebration of the only actress that has ever opened and managed her own theatre for over thirty years.Mara Gualandris recited this. moving tale with clarity and simplicity allowing the harrowing tale to unwind without any rhetorical exaggerations.Valerio too listening so carefully and adding music where words were just not enough.

Today Frascati was in festive mood as Christmas approaches and what better way could there be for a mother to celebrate a daughter than with superb music making?

Enoch Arden is a narrative poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson , published in 1864 during his tenure as British poet laureate The story on which it was based was provided to Tennyson by Thomas Woolner.The poem lends its name to a principle in law that after being missing for a certain number of years (typically seven) a person may be declared dead for purposes of remarriage and inheritance of their survivors.

Fisherman-turned-merchant sailor Enoch Arden leaves his wife Annie and three children to go to sea with his old captain, having lost his job due to an accident; reflective of a masculine mindset common in that era, Enoch sacrifices his comfort and the companionship of his family in order to better support them. During the voyage, Enoch is shipwrecked on a desert island with two companions who eventually die. (This part of the story is reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe.)Enoch remains lost for eleven and half years. Ten years after Enoch’s disappearance, Phillip Ray asks Annie Arden to marry him, stating that it is obvious Enoch is dead. It was not unusual for 18th-century merchant ships to remain at sea for months or years, but there was always news of a ship’s whereabouts by way of other ships that had communicated with it. Phillip reminds Annie that there has been no word of Enoch’s ship. Annie asks Phillip to agree to wait a year. A year passes, and Phillip proposes to Annie again. She puts him off for another half-year. Annie reads her Bible and asks for a sign as to whether Enoch is dead or alive. She dreams of Enoch being on a desert island which she misinterprets as heaven. She marries Phillip and they have a child.

Enoch finds upon his return from the sea that his wife is married happily to his childhood friend and rival and has a child by him. Enoch’s life remains unfulfilled, with one of his own children now dead and his wife and remaining children now being cared for by another man.

Enoch never reveals to his wife and children that he is really alive, as he loves her too much to spoil her new happiness. Enoch dies of a broken heart.

The use of the name Enoch for a man who disappears from the lives of his loved ones is surely inspired by the biblical character Enoch. In fact, also the entire chronological structure of the protagonist’s life with its cycles related to the biblical symbolism of the “days of Creation” binds to the name of Enoch, as demonstrated by the analysis of an Italian thinker long interested in this work,and denotes Tennyson’s ability to insert theological intentions into simple elegiac mode with an unprecedented complexity in English literature.

In 1897, Richard Strauss  set the poem as a recitation for speaker and piano , published as his Op. 38. On 24 May 1962, Colombis Records a recording of Enoch Arden (recorded 2–4 October 1961) with Glenn Gould  on the piano and Claude Rains  as the speaker. The LP was made at a cost of $1500, and only 2000 copies were released. It remains a collector’s item.In 2010, Chad Bowles and David Ripley released a CD, and in 2020 a recording was made in German by pianist Kirill Gerstein and Swiss actor Bruno Ganx Conductor Emil de Cou arranged a version for chamber orchestra and narrator. This was performed with the Virginia Chamber Orchestra and actor Gary Sloan in 2010.The British actor Christopher Kent and pianist Gamal Khamis performed a semi-staged livestream performance during the 2020 lockdown and subsequently recorded a critically acclaimed CD for SOMM Recordings, which was released in 2022.

The poem is also the basis of the opera of the same name  by composer Ottmar Gerster and librettist Karl von Levetzow, which had its premiere in Dusseldorf on 15 November 1936.

Magdalene Ho: an appreciation from Moritz von Bredow

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!

I also spoke to Maria Busch and Andrea Meyer-Borgwardt of Laeiszhalle as well as to Mrs Hiege of the Palmer Foundation. All were full of awe.

And the audience – so many bravos! One encore, perhaps Brahms (I did not ask).

Now I am off to Mark Viner’s second house concert tonight!

Much love, very dearly remembering John and thinking of Noretta.

Moritz xxx

Elbphilharmonie/Rising Stars – Magdalene Ho: Ihr Spiel entführt uns in ihre eigene Welt

Christmas comes to Milan and Maura Romano had a treat in store for us at Steinways again this year Not only a sumptuous buffet and abundance of champagne but more importantly giving as stage to young musicians to play the magnificent Steinways on show in the Flagship store that sits in the heart of Milan.

Maura ,Alessandro and Luarda , our genial hosts and more importantly Steinway representatives, were almost dwarfed by a cake that was ceremoniously wheeled into the centre of this sumptuous showroom. Like newly weds our genial trio dissected a small part of this monument and distributed it like in church to all those lucky enough to have been invited to such an extraordinarily enlightening event.

There may be the next door neighbours singing their inexhaustible hearts out as they exhibit their ‘Force of Destiny’. Here at Steinways ,though, there is a ‘Force of Nature’ in play with the twelve year old Marina Meola and veteran fifteen year old Gabriele Rizzo sharing their remarkable gifts with a discerning public . Moments of superb music making were interspersed with a sumptuous culinary feast. The Trio Hermes ,winners of the Chigiana Award this year and ready to play at the Quirinale on Sunday, gave a radiant and passionate account of a movement from Brahms Trio op 101 on a designer piano that also had a sumptuous voice of it’s own and is ready and waiting to be possessed by an eclectic piano connoisseur.

After the extraordinary fun that Francesco Parrino offered us playing duets with the phantom Spiro piano, a monster cake suddenly appeared.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/09/26/cremona-the-city-of-dreams-a-global-network-where-dreams-become-reality/

Sara Costa’s spellbinding story of Clara Wieck- Robert Schumann-Johannes Brahms – the eternal triangle

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2017/05/28/emanuel-rimoldi-us-tour-for-the-keyboard-charitable-trust-2/

When the Queen of the Keyboard greets the Prince of Pianos there is the magic of a lifetime in music that ignites the air. The musical world congregated in Pescara to salute and thank Angelo Fabbrini in his 90th year ! A duo recital between friends to celebrate the 90th year of Angelo Fabbrini and the 100th anniversary of Fabbrini pianos founded by Angelo’s father Giulio.

A spontaneous concert of music making to honour and celebrate a man who has dedicated his superb artistry to some of the greatest pianists of our time escorting them around the globe offering a finely tuned piano that could even satisfy Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.I would often see Angelo Fabbrini tuning the piano during the interval of concerts for Pollini in Rome,London or even New York.He even insisted one year that I come back stage to meet Sokolov.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2018/03/15/the-sublime-perfection-of-sokolov/

An attention to detail that allows a great artist to share their supreme artistry with a world that is always hungry for quality rather than quantity.

Cremona Musica ….2023 Day 2 Angelo Fabbrini the crowned Prince of Cremona

Tonight Martha Argerich had flown in especially to pay homage to a man who has meant so much to her and so many great artists. A concert with her childhood friend Eduardo Hubert with a spontaneous choice of repertoire that lead to some friendly discussions on stage.

Opening with Ravel’s two piano arrangement of Debussy’s magical ‘L’Après-midi d’une Faune’ there was immediately the magic that only Martha can create the moment she sits at the piano.The first movement of Ravel’s ‘Ma Mère L’Oye’ :’Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant’ was played with the same exquisite beauty of rarified sounds and refined poise.

Solo piano too for both pianists before they joined forces for Eduardo’s own arrangements of Tangos by Guastavino and Piazzolla. Friendly discussions over which order they would play them lead to some sumptuous performances of beguiling insinuating sounds full of the atmosphere of Buenos Aires where they had both spent their childhood.

Eduardo had earlier appeared with a drum stick to play one of his solo compositions – looking Angelo Fabbrini in the eye as he very discreetly searched for sounds under the bonnet of Fabbrini’s own magnificent Steinway ( the first piano that he had restored and has never allowed to leave his shop).

Eduardo is a very sensitive artist who I have known for over fifty years since we were all pianists studying in Rome in the early 70’s with Zecchi, Agosti or Zadra.Some beautiful sounds played with great respect for the beautiful instrument that stood between him and Angelo!

Martha appeared and played some solo pieces which she rarely does except on very special occasions.The ‘Gavotte’ from Bach’s English Suite in G minor was played with a kaleidoscope of sounds but always of great style which is the marvel of this giant of the keyboard that she can be so free but also so respectful of the composers wishes.This was Bach where the ink was still wet on the page.

Swopping over pianos to be near Angelo Fabbrini and Lucio Fumo (who created the Society dedicated to Theatre and Music in the ’60’s and is still very much at the helm!) ,Martha played with youthful energy Schumann’s Traumes Wirren from op 12. Played with bewitching colour and enticing jeux perlé, the same that her great friend Shura Cherkassky had done on this very stage thirty years ago when I brought him from Teatro Ghione in Rome to play for Lucio Fumo. Our theatre company lead by my wife Ileana Ghione was often invited to play in Pescara by Dr Fumo who became a great friend and admirer of our activities in Rome. Martha had now joined in the party atmosphere and played the Scarlatti Sonata in D with dynamic rhythmic energy and lightness turning a bauble into a gem of jewels that sparkled as never before.The first of Schumann’s Kinderszenen of ‘Distant lands and places ‘ was played with a poetic freedom that only the greatest of artists can share.

Flowers for Martha and Eduardo from which Martha took a beautiful red rose to give to her lifetime friend,Angelo.

There had been, though ,short interviews with Lucio Fumo about his activities of bringing culture to Pescara and both had expressed the difficulties of finding a suitable space for serious culture in a city that has had to adapt to converted cinemas rather than a better equipped concert hall or theatre.Fabbrini too, suffering from a bad cold and apologising for wearing his overcoat on a stage that was not heated.(We know a lot about that as actors regularly wear ‘long johns’ to cope with the cold that they often found on stage. Nikolaeva once even wore boots to play the Art of Fugue with a bitter wind blowing in from the stage ) Angelo,now on his feet ,to say how important music was for a caring society and finished with a heartfelt plea :’Viva La Musica- Viva Italia’ !

Marco Patricelli had attempted an interview with Martha who was much more interested in playing to Angelo than talking.

Angelo ,father of Michelangelo wanted to publicly hand over to his son the tuning fork that in turn had been given to him by his father Giulio.

Many friends backstage ,much to the consternation of the theatre manager ,to salute the artists but above all to thank Angelo for a lifetime of dedication to music .

William Grant Naboré creator and director of the International Piano Academy Lake Como of which Martha Argerich is honorary president. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/10/03/william-grant-nabore-bestrides-the-rcm-like-a-colossus/

Photo with Angelo Fabbrini, Michelangelo Fabbrini and ten year old grandson Luca .

The great cellist leader of the Orchestra of the Accademia di S Cecilia, Luigi Piovano with his father – William Naboré with the distinguished pianist Riccardo Risaliti

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/09/02/luigi-piovano-luigi-caroccia-mastery-and-miracles-in-fondi/

Bill Naboré with Angelo Fabbrini’s manager Luca de Romanis

Leonardo Pierdomenico star pianist from the Academy in Lake Como who will give a recital in this very hall next week.

Leonardo Pierdomenico A master at St Mary’s A memorable recital by a great artist