ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

Bach-Busoni  Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659
Beethoven   Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110
Chopin   Two mazurkas: Op. 6 No.1 & Op. 17 No. 4
Chopin  Barcarolle Op. 60
Rachmaninov  Etude-Tableaux Op. 39 Nos. 2 & 5
Debussy Cloches à travers les feuilles
Debussy  Feux D’Artifice
Liszt  Mazeppa

Arsenii Moon (Mun) on his first ever visit to London invited by the Keyboard Charitable Trust to play before a select audience as part of their Career Advancement Prize for the winner of the Busoni Competition in Bolzano. Arsenii with his charismatic looks and breathtaking pianism took the 64th competition by storm and was awarded the prestigious Michelangeli Award after it had lain fallow for almost three decades .

Noretta Conci ,founder with her husband John Leech of the Keyboard Trust , had not only been Michelangeli’s assistant for many years but had followed the competition from its start just after the war in 1949.
First prizes were rarely given out in those first years and Alfred Brendel was adjudicated fourth in the very first edition.
The Keyboard Trust has been honoured to be associated with the competition and has recently been presenting the last four winners in London but also in Florence : Ivan Krpan,Chloe Jiyeong Mun,Emanuil Ivanov and Jae Hong Park .

Ivan Krpan Busoni 2017 in Florence Mastery and simplicity at the service of music

Chloe Jiyeong Mun in Florence-A musical feast of whispered secrets of ravishing beauty

Emanuil Ivanov premio Busoni 2019 Al British in the Harold Acton Library A room with a view of ravishing beauty and seduction

Jae Hong Park in Florence and Milan – ‘The poetic sensibility and virtuosity of a great musician.’

Today we could add the fifth to this illustrious rota and it was a privilege to see Sir David Scholey in London to hear the one pianist that he has not yet hosted in his adopted city of Florence.

An illustrious audience of many celebrities including the distinguished film director Tony Palmer.Many pianists too including Alim Beisembayev ,winner of the last Leeds, together with many from the KT roster of superb young artists.

From the very first notes there was a kaleidoscopic sense of colour and stylish playing of immediate communication where Arsenii seemed to be on a voyage of discovery as the music had an improvised freshness. The deep bass notes of one of Busoni’s most contemplative transcriptions of a Bach Choral Prelude :’Nun Komm,der Heiden Heiland’ was full of chameleonic changes of colour bathed in pedal as his hands delicately searched out the deep poignant expression within the notes.

It was the same delicacy that illuminated the opening of Beethoven’s penultimate sonata with a glorious outpouring of sounds of beauty and simplicity. There was drama too as the deep throbbing bass notes cast a shadow on this most mellifluous of the last trilogy of sonatas.The Scherzo broke this spell with Beethovenian vehemence and fervour where the treacherous Trio held no terror for Arsenii who even managed to find some hidden counterpoints whilst notes were flying from one end of the keyboard to the other with playing of fearless abandon.There was a longer than usual pause before he barely whispered the opening of the ‘Adagio ma non troppo’. Beethoven’s etherial pedal indications were played with the fantasy of an artist recreating the sounds that Beethoven must have imagined in his head.The pulsating heart beat of the Aria ,though,was rather too accommodating to the refined beauty of the melody that miraculously Beethoven could just float above it .

As Chopin told his pupils music should be like a tree with its roots firmly planted in the ground and the branches free to move as naturally as a breeze blowing through the foliage.Arsenii is a supreme stylist and although there were many beautiful ideas the simplicity that he had found in the first movement was sacrificed for more of sentiment than monumental solidity. Of course the entry of the fugue was played with mastery as he allowed the music to unfold with transcendental control .Becoming ever more enflamed with Beethoven’s last cry for joy as the glorious A flat chord was spread over the entire keyboard. I wondered what Imogen Cooper would have made of his performance as an enthusiastic jury member in Bolzano.She via Brendel has arrived at a monumental maturity in these late Beethoven works which Arsenii will eventually find as he too matures on the world stage that awaits.

A Chopin group that was played with loving care and sensual colouring .An improvised freedom which he has attained from his mentor Serghei Babyan who is more concerned with the feeling behind the notes at the moment of creation than just reproducing the notes as printed on the page .https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/05/21/sergei-babayan-artist-in-residence-bewitchedbothered-and-bewildered/

It is music making of improvised immediacy and I remember Fou Ts’ong finding this freedom especially in the Mazurkas. There was a great surprise for the Polish contestants in the Warsaw Chopin Competition in the ‘50’s when a Chinese pianist won the coveted ‘Mazurka’ prize.Ts’ong would often say that the soul of Chopin’s music was the same soul that was to be found in Chinese poetry, after all music knows no frontiers. And Arsenii delved deep into the music and with the same love as Ts’ong revealed colours and sounds that made one realise why he had been awarded the coveted Michelangeli prize in Bolzano.His great love for Chopin was evident but it is a love that can sometimes overwhelm the senses in longer works .Chopin’s greatest masterpiece is surely the Barcarolle with it’s outpouring of song from the first to the last note.It needs to be anchored to the earth though and Arsenii’s waves in the lagoon were strangely distorted and tended to disturb the overall architectural shape .Of course there were many ravishingly beautiful moments but again missing the monumental for the more immediate sentiment.

Rachmaninov unleashed the true virtuosity and the astonishing improvised freedom that his transcendental technical command allowed him.Sumptuous colours and a fluidity of sound in the Etudes- Tableaux op 39 n. 2 and breathtaking nobility and beauty to op 39 n. 5.The melodic line always to the fore with an extraordinary sense of balance as this young man had entered a world where he truly belonged.

The right hand just resting on the piano in Debussy whilst the left hand gently allowed the bells to shine with refined beauty and delicacy as the sun shone through the leaves with ever more radiance. A transcendental control of sound allied to a sensibility and fantasy that created a wistful magic of hypnotic beauty. Feux d.Artifice and fireworks there certainly were, not least the opening that was played without any pedal and with a whispered clarity as the fireworks shot off in every direction with absolute precision and drive. This was obviously the world that had astonished and amazed the jury in Bolzano.A supreme stylist with a transcendental technique but above all a soul inspired by his five years of study with Serghei Babayan who we spoke about afterwards in a brief conversation that we had at the end of this presentation recital.

Brief it was because his performance of Liszt’s Mazeppa had left us all overwhelmed as this young man astonished us with his breathtaking virtuosity but also with the ravishing subtle beauty of the melodic central episode.A young man who is obviously going to take the world by storm with the same excitement and exhilaration of Trifonov who had also been mentored by Serghei Babyan.Recreative artists who risk all for that momentary inspiration and need an audience to inspire them to heights that even they are not expecting. A circus arena where up on the high wire they are prepared to risk all for moments of such exhilaration and discovery.

Arsenii Moon is highly gifted. He is an extraordinary virtuoso
capable of capturing the listener’s attention with a
fascinating and breathtaking story. He is equally at home
with the deepest pages of Bach as well the
transcendental etudes of Liszt and mazurkas of Chopin – Sergei Babayan

Arsenii Moon won the 64th Busoni Competition in 2023 and was also the winner of the competition’s prestigious Michelangeli Award (which had not been awarded for nearly three decades).
He was born in St Petersburg in 1999 and began to study the piano at the age of six, initially in the Special Music School of the St Petersburg State Conservatory and subsequently at the Conservatory itself.  He is currently completing his degree as a student of Sergei Babayan at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.Concert tours in the 2024-25 season include more than 50 solo performances and with orchestras in major venues and festivals in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, South Korea and Japan, in such halls as the Konzerthaus Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Seoul Arts Center and the Tonhalle in Zurich.In February 2024 ARTE TV broadcast live Arsenii’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and Joseph Swensen in a special concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of René Martin’s festival La Folle Journée.Arsenii has been awarded awards throughout his career including the Sviatoslav Richter Grant from the Mstislav Rostropovich Foundation, the Yuri Temirkanov Prize and the Verbier Festival’s Tabor Piano Award. He won First Prize in the Horowitz Competition in Ukraine, Second Prize in the Cliburn Junior Competition in the USA, First Prize in the Artur Rubinstein in Memoriam Competition in Poland and First Prize in the St. Priest competition in France – and has performed at the Mariinsky International Piano Festival and at the Yuri Bashmet Festival in Minsk.Arsenii Moon has performed with many international orchestras including the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the Orchestra Sinfonia di Bari, the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra. He has collaborated with conductors such as Stanislav Kochanovsky, Joseph Swensen, Mei-Ann Chen, Mark Russell Smith, Ian Hobson and Valery Gergiev, among others.

And then there were six ….all the excitement of the Circus – The Busoni Competition

And then there were three The Busoni Competition- The Final Part 1 and 2

• F. Chopin: 2 Nocturnes, Op.55
• F. Liszt: Funerailles, S.173
• J. Haydn: Sonata in F Major no.38, Hob.XVI:23
• L. van Beethoven: Sonata no.14 (‘Moonlight’), Op.27/2
• F. Chopin: Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise in E-flat Major

Great to hear Andrzej again after such a long time .A flying trip for both of us with he barely touching ground before returning to Warsaw and me too just four days in the sweltering heat of London having left the rain in Rome just two days ago

Andrzej playing for his great friend and mentor Roger Nellist on a Schiedmayer piano made the year the Titanic went down.Perlemuter would have referred to it as a ‘casserole’.

Richter used to enjoy the challenge of finding the secrets of the many pianos he found on his whistle stop tours of Russia .Because in every piano there is buried ,sometimes deeply, a soul of the person who had assembled a box of hammers and strings with love and artistry .

It was the great artistry of Andrzej today that with the very first notes of Chopin he could turn a bauble into a glowing gem.
Cherkassky’s favourite nocturne op 55 n 1 that opened the programme showed immediately that Andrzej had come through a period of transition with an artistry that was a voyage of discovery.A freedom but always within the parameters of the composers wishes – it is the pianist’s Nirvana and a state that only the greatest of artists can ever perceive.

We are all taught from an early age that playing the piano is like shaking hands but it is more like swimming on a wave of sumptuous sounds.
Volodos I have always regarded as the absolute model of a pianist who can paint pictures with sound .Playing ,that like a painter are continuous natural inspired movements where the visual and audio are one and the same -a marriage made in heaven of technical mastery but above all of undying love of the sounds they are creating.
There was the great beauty of Andrzej’s hand movements as they barely stroked the keys uttering whispered tones of ravishing beauty with aristocratic playing of refined good taste.There were bell like sounds as the coda gradually took flight and the tenor melody entwined with the ethereal weaving of the golden strands of sound as they bade a magic farewell at the top of the keyboard .
The second nocturne of op 55 where Chopin’s knotty counterpoints are entwined with a searing intensity igniting this most poignantly ecstatic of all Chopin ‘s nocturnes .There was magic in the air as the modulations and bell like sounds mingled together with heart rending beauty.

Another world opened up with Haydn’s Sonata in F from a world of the more formal civilised elegance of an earlier period .There was immediately a clarity with crystal clear ornaments that sparked like jewels as they spun from Andrzej’s well oiled fingers as he played with a real sense of characterisation and a dynamic drive of operatic vivacity
There was a beautiful luminosity to the Adagio which was played with disarming simplicity and a kaleidoscope of subtle inflections .
The Finale was an explosion of civilised ‘joie de vivre’ with its rhythmic drive and scintillating brilliance.

‘Funerailles’ in Andrzej’s hands became a tone poem of great intensity and passionate triumph .
The great bass gong just supporting the funeral march with tremolandos that were part of the architectural line.The deep whispered entry of the melody in the bass was answered by the emotionless rhythmic comments of the right hand in a truly religious procession before the radiance of a melodic line where glimpses of paradise are seen from afar.
A magnificent sense of balance on a not easy piano brought this heavenly outpouring to a sumptuous climax awaiting the entry of the cavalry.
And what cavalry were in Andrzej’s hands today with the blazing horn calls rising above this might battle cry.A tour de force of technical mastery brought us to a breathtaking climax played with aristocratic control and sumptuous orchestral sounds.A coda of melting beauty on a cloud of whispered bass notes building up to the final cry and dying gasps.

A ‘Moonlight ‘ Sonata of great beauty with hands barely synchronised which gave great colour and delicacy which is what Beethoven would have wanted on pianos of that period ‘con sordina’ .
A new work for Andrzej together with the two Chopin nocturnes but played with an intelligence and mastery of quite extraordinary simplicity and beauty.It was the sign of the birth of a great artist free from the constrictions of formal training and now free to show us works afresh on his voyage of discovery as a great interpreter .I am fond of quoting a phrase used to describe Cherkassky in ‘Le Monde de la Musique’ :’Je sens,je joue,je trasmets’ which is exactly what we were treated to today.
A beautifully playful Allegretto and a Trio of startlingly original contrast .
A Presto agitato that in places was almost too passionate but played with a demonic drive and intelligence as the coda melted into the distance before the final tumultuous eruption.

Chopin ,of course, was played as to the manner born . An Andante Spianato was a mellifluous outpouring of sumptuous bel canto beauty and aristocratic good taste .The Polonaise was played with beguiling,scintillating streams of jeux perlé played with the brilliance that Chopin seduced the Parisian salons with and that had Schumann declare ‘Hats off Gentlemen a Genius’

Andrzej Wiercinski at Hatchlands – The Cobbe Collection Trust.A great pianist on a wondrous voyage of discovery

Andrzej Wiercinski at La Mortella Ischia The William Walton Foundation – Refined artistry and musical intelligence in Paradise

Scarlatti  Piano Sonata in A major, K. 208
Mozart  Sonata No. 8, in A minor, KV. 310
Rachmaninov  Variations on a theme of Corelli, Op. 42
Ravel  Pavane pour une infante défunte
Chopin  Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op. 22

George Todica at St Jude’s Prom from the whispered delicacy of Scarlatti’s Sonata K 208 to the dynamic drive of Mozart’s K 310 he immediately demonstrated the refined tone palette of an artist who lives every moment of creation as if discovering the music for the first time. Luminosity and radiance of sound struck deep in Scarlatti as he allowed the music to speak with disarming poignancy especially the whispered beauty of the ritornello where it was the occasional deep bass note that helped illuminate all the stood before it.

There was a dynamic drive to the Mozart Sonata K.310 one of only two in the minor key and particularly dark and dramatic as was Mozart’s life in that period,with the tragic loss of his Mother whilst he was far from home.The music sprang from George’s fingers with elegance and beauty but also with a scintillating coloratura of subtle shape with the operatic characters that entered and exited with the same air of theatre that figures in all of Mozart’s works.

There was a crystalline beauty to the Andante cantabile played with disarming simplicity and delicacy with absolute clarity as the drama unfolds in the extraordinary central episode .Orchestral colours of civilised times but of searing intensity and extraordinary architectural sense of line.There was magic in the air as the Andante cantabile returned after such turmoil with ever more simplicity and ornaments of grace and lightness with the question and answer of the leaping turns I have never heard played with such eloquence .The Presto entered with whispered urgency with a ceaseless flow of notes like a torrent of water on which the genius of Mozart could suddenly reveal glowing golden sounds as the music changed from minor to major.To watch George’s face as the music moved back to the minor was to be witness to the way he was living the drama that was unfolding from his hands with mastery and quite considerable artistry.

Eloquence and charm too as he likened the Corelli Variations to the star of Rachmaninov that is born, transformed and in the end redeemed.
Not only in words but a performance of breathtaking beauty and transcendental control. A clarity of playing ,as of thought ,always building up sumptuous sounds from the bass ,of this magnificent Steinway Concert Grand.This ,of course, is the key to the great school of Norma Fisher with whom George had completed his formal studies and who lives just a stone’s throw from this magnificent Central Square in Hampstead.’La Follia’ theme was played with extraordinary poignancy and was to lead to a kaleidoscope of colours but also chameleonic changes of character.The third variation was played with impish characterisation before the ravishing beauty of the fourth with it’s whispered asides of harmonic comments.Dynamic eruptions of five,six and seven were played with scintillating virtuosity from ‘marcato’ to ‘leggiero e staccato’ until the nobility and cascades of notes on the pedal note of D .The ninth ‘un poco piu mosso’ was extraordinary for the sense of line that George found in the bass and the twelfth was of almost Prokofiev like sarcasms. The sense of line in the ‘Intermezzo’ cadenza was extraordinary for how the melodic line could continue in George’s hands,unimpeded by the myriad of notes that Rachmaninov adds in between.

The theme returning in D flat was quite magical as was the gentle prelude like variation that follows.The final three variations were remarkable for the sumptuous full sounds and the transcendental technical command.But it was Rachmaninov’s ‘redemption’ on the pedal note of ‘D’ that revealed the great sensibility and artistry of this charming young man.

A Ravel’Pavane’ of great intimacy had been promised but it was also of deeply felt sentiment without ever becoming sentimental.It was the last work that my teacher Vlado Perlemuter was to play in public at the age of 91 as he dedicated it to his lifelong friend Basil Douglas in a commemoration at the Wigmore Hall in which Vittoria de Los Angeles ,Larry Adler and many other artists from his illustrious roster paid tribute to a true Gentleman!

It was a genial idea to link the last note of the ‘Pavane’ with the gentle undulations of Chopin’s Andante Spianato. Of course how could it be otherwise as one ends and the other begins in G. Aristocratic elegance and timeless beauty moulded this early Chopin work with the same magic that Caballé used to weave with her wonderful voice.George with only two hands and two feet wove the same magic because it is the soul not the means that arrives in places where words are just not enough.What fun he shared with us as he relished every moment of Chopin’s poetic virtuosity where delicate fiortiori and crisp acciaccaturas went side by side in a Polonaise of aristocratic elegance and style.The breathtaking jeux perlé of the final pages had subtle pointed left hand chords surfacing like jewels shining in the bright sunlight as the excitement increased and the key of E flat was embellished with notes that sailed up and down the keyboard with the exhilaration and excitement of a pianistic Genius.

A Ravel ‘Pavane’ that George thought could achieve more intimacy on the piano than in its better known orchestral version.His playing certainly proved his point as out of this magic land floated the ethereal sounds of Chopin’s Andante Spianato.Played with chiselled delicacy and refined aristocratic good taste and even George had no idea that one would evolve from the other .A true voyage of discovery sharing with us with unstinting generosity and a characterisation that was truly hypnotic .The great orchestral introduction to the Grande Polonaise erupted out of such ravishment as George with relish let his hair down and with scintillating bravura and streams of golden notes gave us the same beguiling and tantalising brilliance that Chopin himself would have shown as he took the Parisian salons by storm and had Schumann declare ‘Hats off ,a Genius’
George Todica a name to remember of a great artist with a star in ascendence and also one of the nicest people I know.
How old is he the elderly lady next to me asked as she was charmed and delighted to find such a magical midday performance at St Jude’s.She was delighted to know that he is just 30 ,but not a little sorry when she saw a wedding ring on his finger!

He and his wife , the soprano Charlotte Hoather, had tried to get married during the pandemic and only succeeded afterwards but not before they had given recitals together on their balcony for all their neighbours unable to leave their homes in that tragic period .
When they did get married they were inundated by gifts from neighbours who were only too happy to thank them for their wonderful music in such a bleak period.
An infectious ‘joie de vivre’ where life is music and music is life and his delight of sharing such discoveries with us all was demonstrated by the utter simplicity and mastery that we were witness to today.

A red rose was a fitting gift from one of the young volunteers ,dressed like the ball boys at Wimbledon, for such a joyous occasion .

Romanian pianist George Todică completed and Artist Diploma degree from the Royal College of Music in 2019 after previously undertaking his Bachelor of Music and Masters of Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating in 2017. George had his Wigmore Hall debut in October 2018 as a Tillett Trust Young Artist, and his competition success includes first prizes at the Norah Sande Award in England, the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in Wales, ‘Stefano Marizza’ Piano Competition in Italy, the Moray Piano Competition in Scotland and 2^nd prize at the International Piano Campus Competition in France, as well as the Ligeti prize and the prize for the best performance the contemporary work for piano and orchestra.

During his studies in Glasgow, George was also winner of the RCS Classical Concerto Competition, the Walcer Prize Competition for Chopin repertoire and the Governors’ Recital Prize for Keyboard. He studied under Jonathan Plowright, Norman Beedie and Graeme McNaught and his training was supported by two scholarships from the RCS, scholarships from The Tillet and Colin Keer Trusts and two ‘Britton Awards’ from Help Musicians UK. His Artist Diploma Course at the Royal College of Music was supported by the Charles Nappier Award and the Tillett Trust, and he was under the guidance of Norma Fisher. George was selected to be a Tillett Trust Young Artist in 2017 and is currently being supported by Talent Unlimited where he has been featured as Artist of the Month in August 2019.

His international performances include prestigious halls such as the Philharmonic Hall in Trento, the Mozarteum Concert Hall in Salzburg, the Dôme de Pontoise in France. His UK appearances include concerts at the Wigmore Hall, St. Martin-in-the-field, Yamaha Music London, Charlton House, Lichfield Festival, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Buxton Festival, King’s Lynn Festival, Brunton Theatre, Inverness Town Hall, Ardkinglas Castle, Theatre Clwyd and various other venues. George is also a keen chamber musician, performing regularly with soprano Charlotte Hoather, and with violinist Maria Gîlicel and cellist Jobine Siekman as part of the Chloe Piano Trio.

George had his orchestral debut at the age of 14, with the Moldova Philarmonic Iasi playing Haydn’s D Major Concert. He has since been performing as a soloist with the New Edinburgh Orchestra, the Cambridge Graduate Orchestra, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Chamber Orchestra, Cergy Pontoise Orchestra Paris, The Learig Orchestra from Aberdeen, and Stewart’s Melville College Orchestra.

 Born in Iasi in 1993, he started his musical training when he was six, under the guidance of Silvia Panzariu. He went on attending the Octav Bancila School of Arts, later joining the classes of Raluca Panzariu, Andrei Enoiu-Panzariu, and having private lessons with pianist Iulian Arcadi Trofin. He started going to piano competitions at the age of 8 and has since obtained over 20 prizes in international piano competitions. In 2010, George won the ‘Constantin Silvestri’ Scholarship which allowed him study for one year at the Stewart’s Melville College in Edinburgh. A year later he entered the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he would study for the next six years.

George Todica at St Mary’s-Duality and Transformation

George Todica Master Musician at St Mary’s

Martha Noguera in Rome to show us what it means to be a pianist of class. And what a class,that of 38/39/40 with Martha Argerich,Daniel Barenboim etc in Buenos Aires where the Neapolitan school of playing had been brought over by Vincenzo Scaramuzza. Martha Argerich was in Rome just last week with Beethoven and it was Beethoven that Martha Noguera brought too.

Martha Argerich is back in town and there is magic in the air in the Eternal City

Martha Noguera in Rome in the beautiful Sala Baldini with a programme that would scare most pianists half her age.
Two works by Chopin,the first considered one of the most technically difficult and rarely performed :The Allegro de Concert op 46 and the second a work ,the first Sonata op 4 that I can only ever remember hearing once in the concert hall played by Cherkassky ( as part of a Chopin Trilogy for the students at the Royal Academy ). An early work more in style of Schubert than the Bel Canto that was shortly to follow. After a very short break Martha embarked on Beethoven’s most momentous journey with the Sonata op 106 ‘Hammerklavier’.

Performances that reminded me of Magda Tagliaferro or Vlado Perlemuter for their roots firmly embedded in the harmonic structure and the great architectural line played with chiselled beauty and projection.Like her great colleague Martha has a remarkable arch of the hand and fingers of steel but with wrists and body movements of rubber that can allow the music to flow through her from a lifetime’s experience projecting the musical thought with a concentrated authority and the passionate conviction of a great artist.There was an imposing opening from the very first notes of what was probably to be Chopin’s 3rd Concerto.Full rich sounds resounding in this beautiful and unique hall in the very centre of the Eternal City. An aristocratic sense of spaciousness and timeless beauty where the music was allowed to unfold with simplicity and directness with a chiselled beauty to the melodic line with ornaments that were just streams of ravishing sounds embellishing the beauty of Chopin’s bel canto. As Chopin described to his students,Martha has a rubato where the roots are firmly planted in the ground but the branches above free to flow and move naturally with playing of real weight of a mastery of incredible harmonic cohesion.Playing of sumptuous beauty that filled this beautiful hall with ravishing sounds and the unmistakable beauty of Chopin’s mellifluous outpourings.

The Chopin Sonata op 4 is a very early work but already showing signs of genius but more linked to a formal Schubertian pattern.An imposing first movement played with great clarity and dynamic drive followed by a playful ‘Menuetto’ .But it was the rich chordal opening of the ‘Larghetto’ that spoke so eloquently leading to a mellifluous flowering not yet of Chopin’s bel canto style but of a poignant simplicity and inevitability that was allowed to unfold with such eloquence.The Finale unleashed an explosion of virtuosistic declamations and sparkling brilliance that was played with enviable authority and fingers like limpets that belong to the keys after a lifetime spent of dedication and artistry at the keyboard.

There was a call to arms with the momentous declamation of the ‘Hammerklavier’.The first movement was played with much less pedal that the Chopin which allowed absolute clarity of Beethoven’s knotty twine but also of his overpowering thoughts.There was a dynamic drive with colours of orchestral proportions played with such inevitability and nobility.A searing intensity and contrasts in dynamics that were breathtaking in their daring and rhythmic intensity.A scherzo that seemed rather slow and deliberate for the ‘assai vivace’ indication but it left room for the following ‘Presto’ indication which turned a Brahmsian opening into pure Beethovenian frenzy.

There was a deep rich sound of string quartet proportions to the ‘Adagio Sostenuto’ that was played as Beethoven asks ‘appassionato e con molto sentimento’ . It is the very core of this monumental work and was played with nobility and passion and with a sense of line as the melodic line was allowed to unfold with ever more intensity and deep profundity. A poignancy only broken by the refreshing waves of sounds out of which emerged the monumental Fugue.’ Allegro risoluto’ it was indeed as Martha played with driving rhythms and fearless abandon one of the most difficult works for the keyboard. Richter had played it in London and not being satisfied with his performance he played it all over again as an encore! No encore was necessary tonight as Martha had made a statement that only an artist of her maturity and mastery could offer.Breathtaking,fearless playing of almost improvised freedom as the work evolved from her masterly fingers, as if for the first time ,on a heroic voyage of discovery of one of the greatest works ever written for the keyboard.

Martha Noguera in Sorrento at the Villa Fondi on the terrace overlooking the Bay of Naples.
And it was here that the Adagio sostenuto ,the very core of Beethoven where he reveals in his last years the profundity that he tried to conceal with his irascible temperament, and it was in this beautiful spot on a piano with amplification that Martha managed to communicate the deepest thoughts and feelings of the Genius from Bonn.
A silence and feeling of mutual communication with an audience not expecting to be treated to one of the greatest works of the piano literature .
Persuaded by our genial host Paolo Scibilia to offer a small encore that would allow us to share in the perfumes of her native Argentina.

Martha sat at the piano and it was magic as she gave a gentle farewell to this unforgettable evening with a little piece by Guastavino full of the beguiling charm and insinuating emotions of the ‘Schubert of the Pampas’. It calmed the red hot air of 30 degrees but also the tension created by Beethoven’s mighty fugue where the composer throws open the gauntlet to those few pianist who dare tread into such forbidden territory .

Chopin’s Allegro de concert, Op. 46, was published in November 1841. It is in one movement and takes between 11 and 15 minutes to play. The principal themes  are bold and expressive. It has a curious place in the Chopin canon, and while its history is obscure, the evidence supports the view, shared by Robert Schumann  and others, that it started out as the first movement of a projected third piano concerto, of which the orchestral parts are either now non-existent or were never scored at all. There is no evidence that Chopin ever even started work on the latter movements of this concerto.

Chopin published his two piano concertos in 1830. That same year he wrote that he was planning a concerto for two pianos and orchestra , and would play it with his friend Tomasz Napoleon Nidecki if he managed to finish it. He worked on it for some months, but he had the greatest difficulty with it, and this work never eventuated; however, he may have used ideas from it in later works.

There is also evidence that Chopin started work on a third concerto for piano and orchestra. In Chopin: The Piano Concertos, Rink quotes from an unpublished Chopin letter, dated 10 September 1841, offering Breitkopf & Härtel  an “Allegro maestoso (du 3e Concerto) pour piano seul” for 1,000 francs.In November 1841, Schlesinger published the Allegro de concert, which has a tempo indication of “Allegro maestoso”, and Breitkopf & Härtel also published it in December of the same year. The work has the general characteristics of the opening movement of a concerto from around that time. It contains a lengthy introduction , with the section corresponding to the original piano solo commencing at bar 87. It seems clear that the “Allegro maestoso” Chopin referred to in his letter was the piece published two months later as Allegro de concert, Op. 46.

The first few notes of the piece were drafted around 1832,but it is not known when the rest of the piece was written. Chopin dedicated it to Friederike Muller ,one of his favourite pupils, who studied with him for 18 months (1839–1841). Franz Liszt  gave her the nickname “Mademoiselle opus quarante-six” (“forty six”, the work’s opus number, in French).

The Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 4 was written in 1828 (probably begun around July).It was written during Chopin’s time as a student with Jozef Eisner , to whom the sonata is dedicated. Despite having a low opus number, the sonata was not published until 1851 by Tobias Haslinger in Vienna , two years after Chopin’s death.This sonata is considered to be less refined than the later 2 sonatas, and is thus much less frequently performed and recorded.It is in four movements Allegro maestoso ;Menuetto; Larghetto ;Finale :Presto

Beethoven’s  Piano Sonata No. 29 op 106 (known as the Große Sonate für das Hammerklavier, or more simply as the Hammerklavier) is widely viewed as one of the most important works of the composer’s third period and among the greatest piano sonatas of all time. Completed in 1818, it is often considered to be Beethoven’s most technically challenging piano composition and one of the most demanding solo works in the classical piano repertoire.The first documented public performance was in 1836 by Franz Liszt  in the Salle Erard  in Paris to an enthusiastic review by Hector Berlioz Dedicated to his patron, the Archduke Rudolf , the sonata was written primarily from the summer of 1817 to the late autumn of 1818, towards the end of a fallow period in Beethoven’s compositional career. It represents the spectacular emergence of many of the themes that were to recur in Beethoven’s late period: the reinvention of traditional forms, such as sonata form ; a brusque humour; and a return to pre-classical compositional traditions, including an exploration of modal harmony and reinventions of the fugue within classical forms

The four movements are:

1. Allegro
2. Scherzo : Assai vivace
3. Adagio sostenuto
4. Introduzione: Largo… Allegro – Fuga :Allegro risoluto

 

From the very first notes it was clear that Salome has a strong personality and hot blooded temperament.A supreme stylist of intelligence with an unobtrusive technical mastery that allowed the music to flow so naturally from her sensitive fingers.

A Schumann Arabesque that was played with liquid sounds of great fluidity bringing a subtle sense of character to all she played. A temperament of searing intensity that in this beautiful gem could be more simple and less hanging onto every note as if her life depended on it. But nevertheless it was playing of great beauty and as she matures she will allow the music to speak with this same beauty but without disturbing the natural flow that comes from it’s very roots.

The Chopin Waltz op 34 n.1 a favourite of the great Chopin pianists of the past,in particular Rubinstein, who would play this waltz with the same beguiling charm and character that Salome brought to it today. It could be a little simpler but the ‘joie de vivre’ and wonderful phrasing were the same, and if there were one or two impetuous moments it was a small price to pay for such spontaneity and ‘joie de vivre’.

Rubinstein used to often play the F sharp major nocturne op 15 that Salome played too .It is too rarely heard in the concert hall these days but in the hands of a true poet and supreme stylist like Salome it is of a poignant simplicity and beauty.If her temperament took her to places that she will eventually discard , her superb musicality will win over her intense temperament.

The Scriabin Satanic Poem suited her style today as she made it seem like a free improvisation with a kaleidoscopic sense of colour and driving passionate temperament.A continuous flood of mellifluous ‘satanic’ sounds and a true tone poem of great beauty and intensity.An intelligent programme too that could show us the influence that the Liszt Sonata was to have on all the composers that followed in it’s wake.

Strangely enough it was the two works by Liszt that were played with disarming simplicity and a sense that the music was born from the very roots of it’s inspiration.A harmonic progression that gave great solidity and stability to all the beautiful things that floated on this sumptuous wave of sound. What a beautiful piece ‘Les Cloches de Genève ’ is when played like today.An opening of ravishing beauty as she barely stroked the keys.A ravishing beauty to the melodic line which floated on washes of sumptuous sounds and although played with great intensity it was also played with disarmingly simple beauty.

 

The Liszt Sonata in B minor – the pinnacle of the romantic repertoire and where Liszt had created a work after the Schubert Fantasie in a new form where the opening themes announced at the beginning are transformed like characters in an opera.Breaking away from the traditional Sonata form Liszt manages to create the same overall architectural shape but all stemming from the opening page.Salome here showed that she is indeed a musician to be reckoned with as she followed scrupulously Liszt’s meticulous indications of dynamics and tempo but at the same time imbued the music with the passionate intensity from which it was born.Her performance showed a maturity and intelligent musicianship that is rare where all the momentous technical challenges are usually played like gladiators entering the arena without contemplating the genius of Liszt who could combine emotion and intensity with the intelligence of a supreme architect.Liszt was looking to the future always and it is the final two pages of this sonata that are prophetic and were played by Salome with rare understanding of artistry and maturity.

Winner of New York Concert Artists Worldwide Competition, Georgian pianist Salome Jordania has appeared as a recitalist, chamber musician as well as concerto soloist in different cities of Germany, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Italy, Spain, Austria, Israel, Ukraine, The Netherlands, France, Russia, Mexico and various states of the USA. She had a successful debut recital at Berlin Philarmonie Hall in March of 2023. The same year, she was also chosen as one of the finalists at Classeek Ambassador Programme. Her upcoming concert tour in 2023-2024 includes solo recitals and performances with orchestra in Switzerland, France, UK, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Japan and the US. 

Pianist Salome Jordania began her studies at the age of seven with renowned professor Natalia Natsvlishvili in her native Tbilisi, Georgia. Since young age she has won multiple national and international competitions including 1st prize at Chopin National Competition in Georgia and was granted a special prize by the Mayor of Tbilisi naming her “Cultural Ambassador of Georgia” at 13 years old. Salome earned her Bachelor Degree from The Juilliard School of Music with Prof Julian Martin and her Master’s degree from Yale School of Music with Boris Berman graduating with the Charles S. Miller prize as a distinguished pianist and with Yale Alumni Prize award. 

During recent years, Ms. Jordania was awarded the Norma Fischer Prize in Wideman International Competition; won silver medal at IKIF competition in New York City; First Prize at Golden Key Competition in Frankfurt, Germany; won bronze medal at the Jose Iturbi International Piano Competition, where she was awarded three additional special prizes for best Performance of Mozart, best performance of Chopin, and best interpretation of the commissioned piece, received Finalist Prize, Yamaha Prize and EDHEC prize at Etoiles du Piano, France and the Georges Cziffra Award by the Cziffra Foundation in Vienna, Austria. She is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma degree at Guildhall School of Music in London, UK with Prof Ronan O’Hora, where she is a recipient of Steinway and Sons scholarship. Salome is managed by ICM Management worldwide.

Keyboard at Eight ‘Stars shining brightly at Milton Court ‘ Rose Mclachlan ,Jeremy Chan and Salome Jordania

Roma Chamber Music Festival celebrates 21 years as the brain child of Robert Mc Duffie takes up residence again in the antique Teatro Argentina where Rossini’s Barber of Seville first saw the light of day .
Young musicians united from every denomination to make music together under renowned masters .

Tonight we were treated to Brahms early Serenade op 11 played by these youthful players but even their superb playing could not dissuade us from the fact that Brahms had been right to wait until maturity to reveal his true genius.

The second work ,that Liszt had dismissed so unexpectedly ,was Schumann’s crowning glory after a lifetime of writing for only solo piano.His Piano Quintet op 44 was played by master players .
Lucchesini’s measured but masterly poetic playing was even outshone by the sublime beauty and aristocratic musicianship of Enrico Dindo.I have heard many great pianist play the Schumann Quintet that together with Brahms Quintet op 34 are the two major chamber works for piano and string quartet.

I remember listening to Rubinstein play both in the same programme together with the Fauré C minor quartet when he was well into his ‘80’s and had decided to play more chamber music during his Indian Summer.Of course he had fallen in love with Guarneri Quartet and it was a mutual love affair that they shared for some years with the world. Rubinstein came running on stage and immediately began the Schumann much to the surprise of his much younger colleagues who were still catching their breath!Remarkable performances that like today were played with five players that were listening to each other and weaving in and out with chameleonic drive.Andrea Lucchesini has matured since winning the Dino Ciani competition and being promoted by his teacher Maria Tipo and also Luciano Berio.I remember Cherkassky being very impressed by a young boy playing to him at Berio’s house when he had given a recital the day before in nearby Empoli – the birth place of Busoni. Andrea is a true musician who listens to himself – something so rare these days according to Shura.Joined by equally masterly colleagues they were watching each other waiting to pounce or enter places where lesser mortals dare to tread.There was a continual movement of all players like riding on a wave – unified and of celestial sounds contrasted with passionate outbursts and quite considerable virtuosity in the Scherzo.

I had been made aware a few years ago of this continual cat and mouse movement in Budapest when Peter Frankl gave what was to be his last public performance with the other two great Piano Quintets with a group of musicians ready to pounce with a electric hypnotic zeal as today .https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/11/27/peter-the-great-peter-frankl-with-the-kelemen-quartet-in-budapest/

I had been at the Dindo brothers Wigmore debut in London many years ago and it has been wonderful to watch in particular Enrico mature into the great artist that he has become today.There were moments in the second movement of quite breathtaking beauty from the ‘cello that I had never been aware of before.The sublime beauty and passionate response from the viola of Leonardo Taio was matched by the violins of Amber Emson Leoni and Sebastian Zagame.What a wonder it was too to see Andrea looking at his colleagues rather than the score as the ravishing delicacy in the last movement reached celestial heights.It contrasted with the rather over zealous precision of the little fugato that shows its head for a moment before bursting into the radiant song from Andreas magic hands.A remarkable performance and obviously a remarkable instrument prepared by that other great magician Mauro Buccitti the technician for Alfonsi Pianos.

Wonderful players,sumptuous selfless music making in one of the most beautiful theatres in the world in certainly the most Eternally beautiful of cities.To leave such beauty exhilarated and uplifted and to find the warm evening air to embrace you makes ‘Music not War’ spring to mind and long for the music never to end.

The McDuffie Scholars are from many differing ethnic backgrounds and we were sitting on the site where Julius Cesar had met his political demise!

Will we never learn!

‘If Music be the Food of Love – Play On ‘ The ‘Bard’ was always right .

Andrea Lucchesini the supreme stylist conquers all in Ninfa

Five players that played as one and could hold this high society audience spell bound wanting to applaud after each movement such was the jewelled perfection of these master musicians .

Andrea Lucchesini ‘ Giovani Artist dal Mondo’ Scuderie del Castello Caetani.’The Hills Resounding to the Sounds of Music’

Rome Chamber Music Festival 2024

Where history meets the future of classical music.
The Rome Chamber Music Festival returns to Teatro Argentina June 17-20 , 2024 .Now in its 21st year, the Rome Chamber Music Festival has delighted audiences with carefully curated programs framed by the majesty of the Eternal City.

This was last years’ festival : https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/06/14/rome-chamber-music-festival-superb-music-making-returns-to-teatro-argentina/

Acclaimed classical stars join 32 young artists and young professionals – stars-in-the-making – to perform the beloved masterpieces of Vivaldi, Brahms, Schumann, Copland and Dvorak as well as contemporary icons Philip Glass. André Gagnon, Mark O’Connor, and Italy’s own rock music sensation, MÅNESKIN.

De Simone Young Artist Programme

Dedicated to nurturing new talent, the Rome Chamber Music Festival invites each year a select number of promising music students under the age of twenty-five from the United States, Europe, and Asia to take part in its De Simone Young Artist Program. American participants were selected through auditions at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, and European and Asian participants were selected from video auditions and evaluated by Jacopa Stinchelli and committee, with final approval by Robert McDuffie. This year the Festival welcomes 32 participants to the program.

Access to world-renowned artists and the opportunity to perform alongside them is invaluable to a young musician’s professional growth and aspirations.

Steven Della Rocca Young Professional Programme

The Steven Della Rocca Young Professional Program was established by longtime friend and board member Courtenay Hardy in memory of her husband Steven Della Rocca, who was an ardent supporter of education, the arts, and the Festival. The Steven Della Rocca Young Professional Program aims to provide mentoring and employment opportunities to these artists who are beginning their careers and attempting to establish their livelihoods during these challenging times. The Festival is privileged to honor Steve’s legacy by fostering the next generation of great performers. This year, the Festival is pleased to welcome nine talented performers of the Steven Della Rocca Young Professional Program.

Schumann composed his piano quintet in just a few weeks in September and October 1842, in the course of his so-called Year of Chamber Music. Before 1842 Schumann had completed no chamber music at all, with the exception of an early piano quartet composed in 1829. Following his marriage to Clara in 1840, Schumann turned to the composition of songs, chamber music and orchestral works. During his year-long concentration in 1842 upon chamber music he executed the three string quartets, Op. 41, the piano quintet, Op. 44; the piano quartet, Op. 47; and the Phantasiestücke for piano trio, Op. 88. Schumann’s work in that year was buoyant in character; 

Schumann had begun his career primarily as a composer for the keyboard; after his detour into writing for string quartet, according to Joan Chisell, the “reunion with the piano” which the piano quintet provoked gave “his creative imagination … a new lease on life.”

Schumann dedicated the piano quintet to his wife Clara . She was due to perform the piano part in the first private performance of the quintet on the 6th December 1842 at the home of Henriette Vogt and her husband Carl.However she fell ill and Felix Mendelssohn stepped in, sight-reading the “fiendish” piano part.^[5]Mendelssohn’s suggestions to Schumann after this performance led to revisions to the inner movements, including the addition to the third movement of a second trio.

Clara Schumann did play the piano part at the quintet’s first public performance, which took place on the 8th January 1843 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus . Clara pronounced the work “splendid, full of vigor and freshness.” and often performed the quintet throughout her life.A notable performance came in 1852, when Schumann asked that the younger pianist Julius Tausch replace Clara in the quintet, explaining that “a man understands that better.” Franz Liszt heard the piece performed at Schumann’s home in 1848 and described it as “somewhat too Leipzigerisch,” a reference to the conservative music of composers from Leipzig, especially Felix Mendelssohn . Schumann took enormous offense at this remark, especially because Mendelssohn, who was a great friend of Schumann’s and whom Schumann somewhat idolised, had died only a year earlier. By some accounts Schumann rushed at Liszt and seized him by the shoulders. Liszt eventually apologised.Schumann did not forget Liszt’s offhanded insult, and mentioned it several times in letters to Liszt. Liszt’s relationship with the Schumanns was never entirely mended.

The two Serenades, Op. 11 and 16, represent early efforts by Brahms  to write orchestral music. They both date from after the 1856 death of Robert Schumann  when Brahms was residing in Detmold and had access to an orchestra.

Brahms had a goal of reaching Beethoven’s level in writing symphonies, and worked long and hard on his first symphony , completing it only in 1876 when he was 43 years old. As preliminary steps in composing for orchestra, he chose early on to write some lighter orchestral pieces, these Serenades. The first serenade  was completed in 1858. At that time, Brahms was also working on his Piano Concerto n. 1 . Originally scored for wind and string nonet  and then expanded into a longer work for chamber orchestra, the serenade was later adapted for orchestra;Brahms completed the final version for large orchestra in December 1859.In the orchestration of the Concerto Brahms had solicited and got a great deal of advice from his good friend Joseph Joachim . For this Serenade Joachim also gave advice, although to a lesser extent.The first performance of the Serenade, in Hanover  on 3 March 1860, “did not go very well” in Brahms’s opinion,^[7] but evidently the unusually large audience of 1,200 did not notice any mistake during the performance. At the end, applause “persisted until I came out and down in front.” After every piece in the concert “the audience was shouting.”This was a vastly better reception than the Piano Concerto had in either of its first two performances. But at its third performance, 24 March, also in Hamburg, it had been a success, perhaps not to the same degree as the Serenade. 

The Serenade consists of six movements

1. Allegro molto
2. Scherzo . Allegro non troppo – Trio. Poco più moto 
3. Adagio
4. Menuetto 1 – Menuetto II 
5. Scherzo. Allegro – Trio
6. Rondo . Allegro

Scorings for Serenade 1 are:

• Nonet: flute, 2 clarinets in A (movements I, V, VI) and B flat (movements II, III, IV), bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, double bass
• Orchestra: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (as in the nonet}, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings (violins I and II, viola, cello, double bass)

Martha in town and it is pure magic
Some enchanted evening – how does your garden grow ? Ever more beautiful with glowing warmth and the simplicity of an artist whose whole existence is music.

A 30th birthday performance of solo Bach for the quite extraordinary first violin of Andrea Obiso opened the evening that was to close with Beethoven’s 9th with a glittering array of soloists and Lahav Shani at the helm .

The youngest ever conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic who I had heard just a few days ago there conducting from the keyboard Prokofiev 3rd Concerto .

So hardly surprising that he should share the piano with ‘our’ Martha for a gentle stroll together in Ravel’s magic garden.
Tomorrow’s performance will be recorded for radio and television.
Beethoven’s second concerto that I had only once realised what a gem it is and that was from the hands of Gilels when he played all the Beethoven Concertos with Sir Adrian Boult. I was won over too by Pletnev and Von Dohnyani again in the days when Pletnev was less distracted and a pianist who Sandor could not believe would ever want to be a conductor!

It is those gentle arpeggios up and down the piano in the first movement that sort the men from the boys or a great artist from a good musician.Martha like Curzon has this way of highlighting notes in a scale that is nothing short of miraculous.Curzon used to sweat blood over every note and his scores are witness to the amount of work that went into the seeming simplicity of his interpretations.I bet Martha has not seen the score for years because the music is in her heart and soul as it has been from her youth when she went at the age of 16 from Geneva to Bolzano astonishing all that heard her and was justly covered in Gold medals.

But glory from a very early age has never changed Martha for whom warmth,friendship and communication are her ethos.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2016/12/13/a-birds-eye-view-of-a-very-happy-occasion-martha-argerich-and-alberto-portugheis-wigmore-hall-75th-birthday-celebration/
Of course she knows who she is as an artist before a doting public but it is always her disarming simplicity and sincerity that shines through all she does.

From the very first notes of the Beethoven played with the ease and simplicity of a child with the final question mark thrown over to her colleagues with a nonchalance that Beethoven himself must have used with improvised genius.Missing the last whispered note she just went and added it a fraction later and am sure no one even noticed except for her and it brought a smile to her face for being so silly ( I was sitting almost next to her,by the way !).Sudden injections of dynamic rhythmic drive and the searing intensity of the more virtuosistic passages were helped with the pedal to build up a larger sonority without any mechanical hardness or flamboyance.The clarity of the fugato in Beethoven’s cadenza was played with such glowing beauty as the entry of each voice shone like a light touching a prism.It was done with such subtlety and purely with fingers ( and what fingers and an enviable arch of the hand that she possesses still ) receiving of course an unconscious message from her superb natural musicianship where fingers ,mind ,heart and soul unite in one of the greatest artist before the public today.

A radiance of sound to the Adagio living every moment of the opening orchestral beauty under the watchful hands of her young colleague .He too using his bare hands to sculpt the sounds aided by the quite extraordinary participation of the birthday boy first violin. Martha,Lahav and Andrea inspiring their colleagues to heights and places they rarely visit I was reminded of the trio of Pappano,Jansen and Gonzales a few years ago on this very stage.

Martha barely touching these notes of Mozartian purity but which miraculously reached into the farthest corners of the vast hall.Martha like a great actor or singer who can transmit the same emotion to the front row as she can to the farthest.It is called artistry and I am reminded of Martha’s great friend Nelson Freire who had this same gift and would also sometimes add the occasional note to open up the sonorities hidden within the depths of the piano.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/11/02/nelson-freire-rip/
I remember when we were on tour in Venice at the same time that Nicolas Economou had arranged a festival for Martha at La Fenice.On a day off from our sold out performances of ‘The Importance of being Earnest’ at the Teatro Ridotto – now Benetton showroom- we went to hear one of the concerts . Martha had played only the first concert and then left much to the surprise of Hans Fazzari of the Milan Serate Musicali who used to follow her around. We heard of course Nicolas Economou who was to die so tragically at the age of forty in a car accident a little while later and who Martha out of friendship had agreed to take part in his mini festival.The technicians though showed us around the theatre backstage and pointed out that under the orchestral pit were some meters of broken glass because the Venetians had realised that it was a natural substance that would reflect the sound into the hall. Artistry,mastery ingenuity call it what you will but it created a warmth of natural sound that no acoustically assisted sound could compete with these days!It is this same natural God given artistry that we are witness too each time that Martha arrives on stage.

There were big sonorities too to the Adagio as the left hand weaved its way underneath the melodic line in a question and answer with the orchestra.
Impetuous as ever Martha ,with a twinkle in her eye, immediately entered with the impish rondo melody of the Molto allegro last movement. A ‘ joie de vivre’ where any idea of numbers could be instantly forgotten as Martha was a coquettish young maiden teasing and beguiling her colleagues into playing ball with her. Even the last chords were played like bells throwing her hands into the air as though being burnt by the glistening sounds that were coming from the piano and that were taken up exactly the same by the orchestra before the final rumbustous ending.

‘Ma mère l’Oye’ I have heard Martha play with many of her colleagues even with the addition sometimes of percussion to add orchestral colour.Today we were treated only to the last of the five pieces that make up this suite for piano duet : ‘Le Jardin Féerique’. Lahav added some subtle deep bass notes ( as Nelson would have no doubt done) and it opened up the sounds of the piano allowing Martha to barely whisper the notes at the top of the keyboard but with a glowing warmth that gradually built up to the streams of sounds of glissandi that she played with the beauty and grace of all she did tonight.

Next stop for Martha ever youthful with an artistry that just grows and grows on every occasion and is of mastery and simplicity – like Rubinstein.

https://www.symphonikerhamburg.de/en/martha-argerich-festival

Another ‘tour de force’ from Julian Jacobson from the 32 Beethoven Sonatas played on the same day and without the use of the score which was indeed a feat of memory, stamina and intellectual daring. He had also helped prepare the new Barenreiter Beethoven Edition together with Leslie Howard and Jonathan De Mar.

Barenreiter Beethoven of Jonathan Del Mar

It is of course impossible to assimilate all the Beethoven Sonatas at one sitting but it does give one a chance to have a panorama and an overall view of Beethoven’s evolution throughout his turbulent life.

Today it was equally interesting to be reminded of the 24 Preludes of Debussy in one sitting.These Preludes were never meant to be played together and Debussy was even careful not to give a title to each one until it was over. However they are now so well known through the historic performances of Richter and Michelangeli and those more recent of Zimmerman, Fou Ts’ong and strangely enough Daniel Barenboim.I remember very well the very first performances of Richter in London where,seated on the stage , I could appreciate not how powerfully he could play in terms of volume but the power and control of sound at a whispered level that we in the west were not yet used to.There was such control but also a temperament that could be unleashed with savage abandon without warning.

There was also the chiselled perfection of Michelangeli the very opposite of Richter and of course Zimmerman was able to combine both worlds with extraordinary perfection.Rubinstein would often play Ondine in his recitals and it would be a tone poem of dynamic drive and ravishing beauty.His ‘terraces du Clair de lune’ was one of the marvels of my concert going experience. Fou Ts’ong too in a documentary about his life showed the camera slowly moving around his beautiful house in Hermitage Lane with Ts’ong playing ‘Canope’ that was truly unforgettable. Agosti too arrived at the Chigiana in Siena for his annual masterclasses announcing that it was his 80th year but did not wish to be celebrated. It was he indeed who celebrated but with the second book of Debussy Preludes that went on late into the night as he wanted to talk about each one in turn (this is one of the few recordings of the legendary musician that are available) Lya De Barberiis and many other illustrious admirers were ready even at 1 am to uncork the forbidden Champagne for a musician of such extraordinarily simplicity and integrity.

You see Julian with this ‘tour de force’ has allowed me to stop and think about past performances as I in turn admired his playing too. From the austere lightness of the Delphic Dancers and the easy wind and calm sea of the Sails where even the wind on the plain seemed strangely calm too .

It was soon to be ruffled when the West Wind blew in after a visit to Anacapri of urbane aristocratic brilliance and it was good to be reminded of Richter at this point too. His gentle steps in the snow reminded me of Moura Lympany with her extraordinary kaleidoscopic touch that thanks to Uncle Tobbs could make simple notes gleam and shine like precious jewels. Julian treated the flaxen haired girl of Debussy’s dreams very gently and beautifully as Debussy had requested – ‘sans rigueur’. The Serenade was played with real Latin aplomb and boiling controlled passion.The great Cathedral of Mont S .Michele was played with aristocratic control and wonder just ready for Puck to poke fun at these serious goings on before the plodding gait of Minstrels ended this parade of twelve picture postcards.

A slight break ,more for the audience than for Julian, and we were immersed in the whispered mists of ‘Brouillards’ as Julian gently allowed the dead leaves to drift slowly around the keyboard. A much needed wake up call from Spain brought us to Debussy’s magic fairy land . Such simplicity and elegance to ‘Bruyère’ , a piece we have all played in our youth.Suddenly Julian was a Jack in the box with ‘General Lavine’ striding on to the scene and if Rubinstein could create more of a magical tone poem of La terraces and Ondine it was also because he chose the two closest to his warm heart and never attempted the feat that Julian has embarked on today.

Clockwork precision and musicianly shaping of the double thirds was followed by the etherial magic of Debussy’s fireworks where the misty vision of La Marseillaise was a wonderful way to close 24 picture postcards of such ravishing colour and character.

And to salute a musician who is a real kapellmeister especially in these days where so often the mechanical has taken over from the human element in the concert hall! Diaphragm has been replaced with a microphone and memory has passed into the feet and is no longer the feat we were witness to today!

Claude Debussy’s Préludes are 24 pieces for solo piano , divided into two books of 12 preludes  each. Each book was written in a matter of months, at an unusually fast pace for Debussy. Book I was written between December 1909 and February 1910, and Book II between the last months of 1912 and early April 1913.On 3 May 1911, pianist Jane Mortier premiered the first book of preludes at the Salle Pleyel  in Paris.German-English pianist Walter morse Rummel , a student of Leopold Godowsky , premiered the second book in 1913 in London.The first complete recording of both books was made in England in 1938 by South African pianist Adolph Hallis^.

In the original editions, Debussy had the titles placed at the end of each work,allowing performers to experience each prelude without being influenced by its titles beforehand.

Two of the titles were set in quotation marks  by Debussy because they are, in fact, quotations: «Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir» is from Baudelaire’s poem Harmonie du soir (“Evening Harmony”), from his volume Les Fleurs du mal “Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses” is from J.M. Barrie’s book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens,, which Debussy’s daughter had received as a gift.

At least one title is poetically vague: The exact meaning of Voiles, the first book’s second prelude, is impossible to ascertain; in French, voiles can mean either “veils” or “sails”.

Kapellmeister Jacobson informs and delights with mastery at St Mary’s

Well Dr Mather said it all when he exclaimed that he could not understand why this unique artist is not better known on the concert platform worldwide.
Endless amounts of CD’s of some of the most interesting repertoire receiving unanimous praise from the critics and live performances like today of impeccable artistry.
Sharing amazing insights into the life and times of musicians we have only before read about in books he also brought them vividly to life not only in words but above all in music.A critic in Vicenza could not believe her ears when she heard him playing Alkan and certainly found it hard to believe her eyes when she saw his score with a finger on every note – and there were many many notes scrawled across the page.

Today a Beethoven that we have often seen mentioned in books and thought of as a curiosity and a sort of try out for the Choral Fantasy – Mark showed us how wrong we could be with a performance of dynamic drive and luminosity and a chameleonic change of character that would have put Gilbert and Sullivan to shame .The last laugh of course was Beethoven’s with a final right hand slap in the bass !!

Two miniatures by Alkan of glowing fluidity and simplicity of a composer that Mark has long been championing.Ier recueil de chants op 38. A superb sense of balance in ‘Largement,quoique asset vif ’ allowed the left hand to provide washes of sound supporting a bel canto melody of great originality unlike any other composer although Mark had likened it to Mendelssohn seen through a dark lense! The repetitive motif in ‘Barcarolle:Andante ’ was of hypnotic beauty with neither piece of transcendental difficulty but both of quite exquisite simple beauty in Mark’s very sensitive hands.Fingers like limpets that dug deep into the keys to reveal secrets that had been hidden for too long.

Debussy’s refreshingly simple ‘Suite bergamasque ’ reborn with its original title and was of pure grace and charm.The grandiose Prelude opening was followed by the impish good humour of the Menuet and the limpid simple beauty of Clair de lune originally entitled ‘Promenade sentimentale’. A Passepied that Mark thought was the real highlight of this suite with its beguiling half lights and insinuating playful ‘joie de vivre’. A true lesson in style and control with a mastery of sound that brought this charming suite vividly to life.

Chopin’s Polonaise Héroique played as Chopin wrote it with nobility and aristocratic control.Such well known works as this can fall into a rhetorical tradition in lesser hands .Mark looks at the score with disarming innocence and can reveal secrets hidden by years of layers of dust and show us just exactly what Chopin wrote.A transcendental technical control that allowed him to master the cavalry into orderly legions so the bugle calls could ride so nobly in its wake.A finale of breathtaking nobility and exhilaration showed us the refreshingly insightful musicianship of a master.

And finally Liszt’s ‘Carnaval de Pesth’ that finished this glittering Carnaval Promenade with a performance of such mastery that as Dr Mather exclaimed he made one of Liszt’s longest and most complicated Rhapsodies seem so simple.
His introduction to the Liszt encore was so enticing that the magic was set even before he touched the keys.Faribolo Pasteur S.236/1 I have only ever heard from Leslie Howard’s hands and it is enough to say that Mark and Leslie are colleagues.Both with an insatiable appetite for delving into the archives and bringing long lost masterpieces to the fore.
Mark is chairman of the Alkan society and Leslie of the Liszt Society and the world is without doubt a better place with them at the helm.

Described by International Piano Magazine as “one of the most gifted pianists of his generation”, Mark Viner is steadily gaining a reputation as one of Britain’s leading concert pianists; his unique blend of individual artistry combined with his bold exploration of the byways of the piano literature garnering international renown. Born in 1989, he began playing at the age of 11 before being awarded a scholarship two years later to enter the Purcell School of Music where he studied with Tessa Nicholson for the next five years. Another scholarship took him to the Royal College of Music where he studied with the late Niel Immelman for the next six years, graduating with first class honours in a Bachelor of Music degree in 2011 and a distinction in Master of Performance 2013; the same year which afforded him the honour to perform before HM the King. 

After winning 1st prize at the Alkan-Zimmerman International Piano Competition in Athens, Greece in 2012, his career has brought him across much of Europe as well as North and South America. While festival invitations include appearances the Raritäten der Klaviermusik, Husum in Germany, the Cheltenham Music Festival and Harrogate Music Festival in the United Kingdom and the Festival Chopiniana in Argentina, radio broadcasts include recitals and interviews aired on Deutschlandfunk together with frequent appearances on BBC Radio 3. His acclaimed Wigmore Hall début recital in 2018 confirmed his reputation as one of today’s indisputable torchbearers of the Romantic Revival. 

He is particularly renowned for his CD recordings on the Piano Classics label which include music by Alkan, Blumenfeld, Chaminade, Liszt and Thalberg, all of which have garnered exceptional international critical acclaim. His most important project to date is a survey of the complete piano music of Alkan: the first of its kind and which is expected to run to some 18 CDs in length. Aside from a busy schedule of concerts and teaching, he is also a published composer and writer and his advocacy for the music of Alkan led to his election as Chairman the Alkan Society 2014. 

Mark Viner at St Michael and All Angels bringing mastery and discovery to Chiswick

During his earlier years, Beethoven’s powers of improvisation were legendary. As Czerny later recalled: ‘His improvisation was most brilliant and striking. In whatever company he might chance to be, he knew how to produce such an effect upon every listener that frequently not an eye remained dry, while many would break out into loud sobs; for there was something wonderful in his expression in addition to the beauty and originality of his ideas and his spirited style of rendering them. After ending an improvisation of this kind he would burst into loud laughter and mock his listeners for the emotion he had caused in them. ‘You are fools!’, he would say. No piece of Beethoven affords a more vivid picture of what his improvisations must have been like than this one.

The autograph score of the Fantasia for Piano op. 77 is a fair copy. As the manuscript itself was the engraver’s model for Breitkopf & Härtel’s original edition, Beethoven wrote out the autograph score in a neat and orderly manner, and it contains almost no corrections. Even Beethoven’s contemporaries noticed that the composer had again departed from tradition with this fantasia and begun to use new, unusual forms and harmonies. The reviewer for the Viennese newspaper Wiener allgemeine musikalische Zeitung wrote in 1813, “The talk is often about new works by Beethoven, but almost anyone who is only partially acquainted with Herr B-s compositions will see this new work under two aspects; 1) as being wholly original in its harmonies, form and modulations 2) as being very difficult to perform. This double expectation is perfectly suited to the above Fantasia.”

Another aspect of the Fantasia op. 77 is also referred to in the review, the “illusion of improvisation”. Although it was the essence of a fantasia to imitate free improvisation and not to follow a fixed scheme, a fantasia was nevertheless a piece, which only imitated improvisation and did not create the impression that the performer was actually improvising. This was not the case with op. 77 – the deception was almost complete for the listeners. Listeners at the time who had already heard the composer improvise freely said that the Fantasia for Piano almost sounded like his free improvisations.

Franz Liszt and Countess Caroline de Saint-Cricq

When reciting his Franconnette, Jasmin sang the “Siren with a heart of ice” song to a melody that he composed himself Liszt named his Faribolo Pastour composition after the first line of the song, rather than using Jasmin’s title. Here are Jasmin’s original score and lyrics.

Faribolo pastouro,
Serèno al cò de glas,
Oh! digo, digo couro
Entendren tinda l’houro
Oun t’amistouzaras.

Toutjour fariboulejes,
Et quand parpailloulejes
La foulo que mestrejes,
Sur toun cami set mèt
Et te siet.

Mais rés d’acos, maynådo,
Al bounhur pot mena;
Qu’és acòs d’estre aymado,
Quand on sat pas ayma?

O frivolous shepherd maid,
Siren with a heart of ice,
Oh! tell us, tell us when
we can expect the time
when you’ll finally be subdued.

Always fluttering and flirting,
And when you hover over
the crowd that you control,
upon your path they’ll fall
at your feet.

But nothing comes of this, young maid,
To happiness it never leads;
What is it to be loved like this
If you can never return that love ?

Young Franz Liszt’s love affair with his pupil Caroline de Saint-Cricq is a prominent item with all his biographers. The following compiled description provides the essence of their romance as we know it today:

Countess Caroline de Saint-Cricq has been described as nothing short of an angel come down to earth, without worldly desires of whatsoever kind. Besides, she was very beautiful and very rich. Liszt became her piano teacher in spring 1828. While talking exclusively of holy things, they quickly fell in love. Supported by Caroline’s mother they wanted to marry. Shortly afterwards, on June 30 or July 1, 1828, the mother died. Despite a promise to his wife on her death bed, Caroline’s father, French Minister of Commerce Pierre de Saint-Cricq, then acted as antagonist, showing Liszt the door. Caroline fell ill and Liszt suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1830, by her father’s arrangement, Caroline married one Bertrand d’Artigaux in Pau in southern France, where she led an unhappy married life.

Documents that were written close to the time of young Liszt’s idyll with Caroline, are mostly of an idealized romantic nature and contain significant omissions with respect to listing of sources. Many later biographies have blindly copied these stories.
The catalyst for gaining a new understanding is Liszt’s piano composition named Faribolo Pastour. Liszt wrote it during a concert trip to Southern Europe in 1844. At a concert series in Pau in October that year, Liszt was reunited with his childhood love Caroline Dartigaux (née Saint-Cricq).  During his two week stay at Pau, Liszt created two compositions which he dedicated to Caroline. The works are rarely performed.

Up to now, the title Faribolo Pastour has been interpreted using the French language, where it means Pastoral Whimsy. However, the poet Jasmin who created the song did not write in French but in a local patois: the Languedocien d’Agen.

• In this language, the word faribolo is etymologically translated as frivole (frivolous), with fariboulejes meaning flirtatious, fluttering about — like a butterfly
• Rather than pastoral, the correct translation of the word pastouro from the Languedocien d’Agen is bergère (shepherd girl).

This seemingly minor language difference changes the song from Pastoral Whimsy to Frivolous Shepherd Girl. This offers an exciting new perspective on Caroline de Saint-Cricq.

Why did Liszt dedicate a song about a frivolous girl to his first major love Caroline who has always been described as virtuous and angelic?

In 1875, Liszt stated to his biographer Lina Ramann:”These two little transcriptions are hardly known, and I have entirely forgotten them”.

This is a bold statement if we consider that he dedicated them to the girl that, according to all of his biographers was one of the most important loves of his life and key to his further development as a human being and composer.

Suite bergamasque

Debussy was initially unwilling to use these relatively early piano compositions because they were not in his mature style, but in 1905 he accepted the offer of a publisher who thought they would be successful, given the fame Debussy had gained in the intervening fifteen years.While it is not known how much of the Suite was written in 1890 and how much was written in 1905, it is clear that Debussy changed the names of at least two of the pieces. Passepied had first been composed under the title Pavane, while Clair de lune was originally entitled Promenade sentimentale. These names come from poems by Paul Verlaine .The title of the third movement of Suite bergamasque is taken from Verlaine’s poem “Clair de lune’ which refers to bergamasks in the opening stanza:

Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.

Your soul is like a landscape fantasy,
Where masks and bergamasks, in charming wise,
Strum lutes and dance, just a bit sad to be
Hidden beneath their fanciful disguise.^[3]

Playing of great clarity and sterling musicianship allied to a technical command of brilliance and authority.It brought a welcome breath of fresh air to the Chopin B minor Sonata and earned this young man a standing ovation from the eclectic audience that Dr Mather has nurtured over the years with his many seasons that give a platform to young musicians at the start of their career.

Schubert’s Moment Musicaux in F minor and Impromptu in G flat had the same simple musicianship that allowed the music to speak so directly as did the Eleven Bagatelles by Beethoven op 119.
Eleven jewels that did not quite glitter and shine with the composers impish personality but which glowed with a light of purity and precision.

It was Chopin with his Barcarolle op 60 and Sonata op 58 that illuminated this young man’s soul and using more pedal ,which is indeed the soul of the piano, he allowed the music to unfold with even more authority and poetry. A remarkable clarity and technical mastery but in Chopin allied more to a world of fantasy and artistry that obviously touched this young man more than the respectable beauty of his Schubert and Beethoven.

A kaleidoscope of colours though were saved for the encore by his fellow Croatian, Dora Pejacevic ,with a Nocturne of fantasy and ravishing shimmering sounds.It was here that this young Croation pianist allowed us a glimpse into his inner world of fantasy and imagination with a freedom that he had held remarkably under control until this final heartfelt glimpse of his homeland.

Croatian young pianist Zvjezdan Vojvodic made his concerto debut at the age of 15, as a laureate of the 50 th prestigious international piano competition “Virtuosi per musica di pianoforte” in the Czech Republic where he got the opportunity to perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto in f minor at the opening concert of that competition in the following year. Zvjezdan was born in Croatia in 2003, where he completed his primary and secondary music education in the class of professor and excellent advisor Ivanka Kordic. Since the autumn of 2021, Zvjezdan has been studying at the Royal College of Music in London, UK. His teachers are Ian Jones and Dinara Klinton, and Zvjezdan is now 3 rd year student at RCM as William Mealings Scholar supported by the Cosmina and Douglas Liversidge Scholarship.

He won over 80 first and special awards at national and international competitions. At the Croatian national competitions (2015-2021) he continuously won four first prizes in the piano category and twice in the piano duo. Among international awards we can point some 1 st prizes: “Merci maestro”, (Brussels, 2017); „Jurica Murai”, laureate of the competition (Varaždin, 2017); “Ars nova”, laureate of the competition (Trieste, 2017); “Isidor Bajic”, (Novi Sad, 2018); “EPTA” (Osijek, 2019).
At the renowned XII. Darmstadt International Chopin Piano Competition, held in Autumn 2022, as the youngest competitor he reached the final stage and was one of the prize winners. And in 2023. Zvjezdan won 1 st prize at the Watford International Piano Competition held in the UK.