ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

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

Impossible to arrive on time for this concert with Erica Piccotti who was recently a guest in my house in London with Leonardo Pierdomenico for concerts together at Bob Boas Salon and at the RAM for the prestigious Cello Gold.

I am happy to enclose an article I wrote about them on that occasion.

I was supporting a very talented young pianist Jacopo Petrucci from the school of Benedetto Lupo who I had recently heard in Florence in his complete Beethoven Series :

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/12/07/lupo-gatti-in-florence-lift-up-your-hearts/)

Jacopo unfortunately for me was performing the other side of this ‘Infernal’ City for Roma 3 ‘s magnificent ‘Young Artists Piano Solo Series’ that offers a platform to many super talented young pianists (https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/01/25/__trashed/) Jacopo had also been a student of Orazio Maione in l’Aquila before taking wing and flying down to Rome .Orazio whose mother’s 100th anniversary we celebrated in Naples recently.

Naples pays homage to Annamaria Pennella

I had done my homework though for one of my favourite works .

The Double Concerto op 102 was Brahms’ final work for orchestra. It was composed in the summer of 1887, and first performed on 18 October of that year in the Gurzenich in Cologne, Germany.Brahms approached the project with anxiety over writing for instruments that were not his own.He wrote it for the cellist Robert Hausmann , a frequent chamber music collaborator,and his old but estranged friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim .The concerto was, in part, a gesture of reconciliation towards Joachim, after their long friendship had ruptured following Joachim’s divorce from his wife Amalie ( Brahms had sided with Amalie in the dispute.)

The concerto makes use of the musical motif A–E–F, a permutation of F–A–E, which stood for a personal motto of Joachim, Frei aber einsam (“free but lonely”).Thirty-four years earlier, Brahms had been involved in a collaborative work using the F-A-E motif in tribute to Joachim: the F-A- E Sonata of 1853.

Joachim and Hausmann performed the concerto, with Brahms at the podium, several times in its initial 1887–88 season, and Brahms gave the manuscript to Joachim, with the inscription “To him for whom it was written.” Clara Schumann reacted unfavourably to the concerto, considering the work “not brilliant for the instruments”.Richard Specht also thought critically of the concerto, describing it as “one of Brahms’ most inapproachable and joyless compositions”. Brahms had sketched a second concerto for violin and cello but destroyed his notes in the wake of its cold reception.Later critics have warmed to it: Donald Tovey wrote of the concerto as having “vast and sweeping humour”.

Casals and Thibaud recorded it with Cortot conducting in 1929: https://youtube.com/watch?v=90h1x-Rd9bE&feature=shared

Words cannot do justice to the three monumental performances we heard today from Evgeny Kissin.Who would have thought that Beethoven op 90 and Chopin Nocturne op 48 n 2 and the F minor Fantasie would appear like new as they were recreated before our incredulous eyes by a pianist who from a leggendary child prodigy passing through sometimes questionable interpretations has now in his first half century become one of the greatest artists I have ever heard.
This is a man in love above all with the sound of the piano but also with his evident joy to be able to share his voyage of discovery with an audience. Only from Sokolov have I heard such pianistic and musical perfection.If sometimes the tempi were slow and the music was not allowed to take wing it was because every note and every rest was pregnant with meaning.’Tempo di Marcia’ the Fantasie it was not ……but it was by a strange paradox that it was mesmerising in the way that in convincing himself he drew us in to this recreation and we too were hypnotised ravished and following with baited breath the conversation between interpreter and composer.The central episode of the nocturne became monumental instead of incidental but as Curzon said on hearing Radu Lupu in Leeds :thank God I lived to hear that!

Beethoven op 90 where the punctuation was so precise but orchestral in its precision and contrapuntal clarity.There were remarkable contrasts between the military and the liquid purity of the melodic.Beethoven’s search for a way back became a hide and seek of suspense. The second movement flowed so mellifluously with a truly wondrous sense of balance as the melodic line floated indeed on magic wings of song.The left hand rests too became so important and infact every detail was noted like a Toscanini or Boulez at the helm of the Philharmonic.
The lights dim and this voyage of discovery continues ……..

I thought nothing could have ever compared to my memory of Michelangeli playing Brahms Ballades until tonight where there was obviously magic in the air.The sublime heights Kissin reached will remain with me for a long time as Michelangeli had over fifty years ago.The fourth Ballade, ‘Andante con moto’ it was not but what does that matter when he could delve into the very soul of this sublime creation.Reverberations appeared as if the whole piano was vibrating out of which emerged a melodic line that was truly breathtaking .The Ballades had opened with such delicacy and beauty with the bass sustaining and adding another dimension to the wonderful legato that defied the fact that this black box was merely hammers hitting the strings.How was it possible that in Kissin’s hands tonight it became a wondrous box of jewels that glittered and sang with the same expressiveness of a Schwarzkopf.This is the illusion that a great artist after years at the helm can arrive at :Nirvana finding a wondrous world that others can never reach.A gradual rise in tension was suddenly released with the return of the opening theme even more legato with staccato left hand like pizzicato strings of an orchestra that suddenly took on a sinister appearance .Yes, Kissin with just ten fingers could find the sounds that only Walter could find with a full Symohony orchestra.In the second Ballade the clouds parted and the rising sun illuminated a beautiful pastoral scene and there was a ravishing beauty of poignant purity.It contrasted with the orchestral central episode only to have an even more wondrous appearance of the opening melodic line but with calm and reconciliation after the storm.The third Ballade opened with a startling reawakening of rhythmic precision and insistence but also with kaleidoscopic sounds.Purity and luminosity of religious intensity was of disarming simplicity in the central episode.

Prokofiev’s Second Sonata immediately followed after rapturous applause for Brahms but Kissin deciding to stay on stage this time.A completely different sound world opened up of the fantasy of a true world of dreams.A melodic line of amazing clarity appeared amongst the multicoloured sound world that had suddenly been unleashed.Rhythmic drive of the second movement with its spiky notes pointed with deadly precision was followed by the restless driving meanderings of great intensity of the Andante.The final movement brought this great gust of wind to an exciting end.
An ovation from a hall that I have rarely seen so full even for other pianistic giants like Sokolov or Volodos.Kissin who indeed had been ‘kissed’ by the Gods tonight played a Chopin Mazurka op 67 n.4 in A minor of refined purity and ravishing beauty that you could feel two thousand people united in following every subtle move that the melodic line was allowed to take with an almost improvised freedom and elasticity that I have not heard since Rubinstein.
Prokofiev’s March from ‘The Love for Three Oranges’ of course was a staggering tour de force of control and of dynamic range but it was the Brahms Waltz in A flat op 39 n.15 ,that Kissin wanted to send us away with,that was of such sublime beauty that I never expect to hear the like again ………until this masters next appearance!
Like Richter he can take a melodic line at such slow tempi because he can find so many different sounds within each note .It may mean some unorthodox changes of tempi that are hardly noticeable or of importance because the voyage is so beautiful that to stop and stare like with his Rachmaninov 3rd just a month ago is such a refreshing change from the usual speed mongers that occupy too often our concert halls.A thing of beauty is indeed a joy forever applies here stronger than ever.
The first time I heard Richter in London it was not his demonic energy or unorthodox technical genius that surprised so much as how quietly he could play and what control of sound never loosing the overall architectural shape of the music.
Kissin has arrived at a maturity now that for me marks him out as the only reason why live performance of well worn masterpieces can still be one of the most stimulating artistic experiences.

Most of Beethoven’s piano sonatas are in three or four movements, but this one has only two. Both are provided with performance instructions in German. A few of Beethoven’s works of this period carried similar instructions in place of the traditional Italian tempo markings.

1. Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck (“With liveliness and with feeling and expression throughout”)
2. Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen (“Not too swiftly and conveyed in a singing manner”)

The restless character of the first movement has been described by Tovey as “full of passionate and lonely energy “ and Charles Rosen , wrote of its “despairing and impassioned” mood.Andras Schiff hears Bach’s influence in the “beautiful counterpoint ” that unfolds in the development^.

The second movement is a gentle sonata – rondo movement in E major
where its Romantic character, foreshadows Schubert as has long been noted by numerous musicians.

According to Wilfred Mellers , “Opus 90 belongs neither to [Beethoven’s] middle nor to his late phase and Denis Matthews sees it as having “more claim to kinship with the great sonatas of the last period than to the previous ones.” Hans von Bulow declared that this is the work “with which the series of pianoforte works of the Master’s so-called ‘last period’ begins.”Schiff has drawn attention to the apparent connection between the ending of this sonata, which closes in the key of E and the E major chord that opens the Sonata in A major, Op. 101, composed in 1816n declaring that : “If I go into the next sonata it sounds like a continuation of the previous one.”

The Ballades, Op. 10, were written by Brahms in his youth. They were dated 1854 and were dedicated to his friend Julius Otto Grimm. Their composition coincided with the beginning of the composer’s lifelong affection for the pianist and composer Clara Schumann, who was helping Brahms launch his career. The Scottish ballad “Edward” from J. G. Herders anthology of folk songs “Stimmen der Völker in Liedern” made such a deep impression on Brahms that, as he told a friend, the melodies came to him effortlessly.

Dein Schwert, wie ist’s von Blut so rot? Edward, Edward!
Dein Schwert wie ist’s von Blut so rot, und gehst so traurig her? – O!
O, ich hab’ geschlagen meinen Geier todt, Mutter, Mutter!
O, ich hab’ geschlagen meinen Geier todt, und keinen hab’ ich wie er – O!

Why does your Brand sae drop wi’ blude, Edward, Edward,
Why does your Brand sae drop wie blude, and why sae sad gang ye, O?
O, I hae kill’d my hawk, sae gude, mither, mither,
O, I hae kill’d my hawk, sae gude, and I had nae mehr but he, O

“Edward” provided the motif for the first of four ballade compositions, musical tales of a dramatic romantic nature that were linked with memories of Clara Schumann for Brahms. Julius Grimm, to whom the pieces were dedicated, also said that “the Ballades are really for her”. Robert Schumann was very enthusiastic about his young colleague’s composition. Chopin had written the last of his four Ballades only 12 years earlier, but Brahms approached the genre differently from Chopin, choosing to take its origin in narrative poetry more literally.

They are arranged in two pairs of two, the members of each pair being in parallel keys . The first ballade is one of the best examples of Brahms’s bardic or Ossianic style; its open fifths, octaves, and simple triadic harmonies are supposed to evoke the sense of a mythological past.

1. D minor. Andante
2. D major. Andante
3. B minor. Intermezzo. Allegro
4. B major. Andante con moto

The tonal center of each ballade conveys an interconnectedness between the four pieces: the first three each include the key signature of the ballade that follows it somewhere as a tonal center, and the fourth ends in the key signature of D major/B minor despite cadencing in B major.

Brahms returned to the wordless ballade form in writing the third of the Six pieces for piano op 118 . His Op. 75 vocal duets titled “Ballads and Romances” include a setting of the poem “Edward”—the same that inspired Op. 10, No. 1.

Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 14, was written in 1912 and published 1913, it was premiered on 5 February 1914 in Moscow with the composer performing.Prokofiev dedicated the work to his friend and fellow student at the St Petersburg Conservatory, Maximilian Schmidthof, who committed suicide in 1913. It covers a huge emotional range: from Romantic lyricism to aggressive brutality’.

1. Allegro ma non troppo – Più mosso-Tempo Primo
2. Scherzo.Allegro marcato
3. Andante
4. Vivace – Moderato – Vivace

The Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49, by Chopin was composed in 1841, when he was 31 years old and the most harmonious year in his stormy relationship with the author George Sand (the pen name of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, Baroness Dudevant) From Chopin’s letters it is known that he used the name “fantasy” to show some sort of freedom from rules and give a Romantic expression.Frédéric Chopin continued the tradition of a self-contained movement in his Fantaisie.This Fantaisie is considered one of his greatest works.Scholars have long been trying to figure out the mystery of Chopin’s one and only solo Fantasie. The highly individual form is a puzzle to all who prefer more traditional genre concepts. Is it a sonata movement, a rondo, or even a free combination of character movements such as march, recitative or chorale? Chopin lovers have no need of such considerations, seeing that nobody would ever dare to doubt that this Fantasie is one of the greatest works from his pen. After completing the composition, Chopin wrote “The sky is bright, but my heart is afflicted by sorrow”. This gloomy contrast pervades the Fantasie. It is an exceptional work from every point of view

Kissin the Conqueror

Kissin- The Conqueror

Sasha Grynyuk never fails to surprise and astonish with his superb musicianship and impeccable technical mastery.Today was even more astonishing to learn that he had transformed one of the most awkward piano concertos into a beautiful chamber work that could stand by side with one of the great works in the chamber repertoire.He not only played the Dvorak Concerto without the score but he had also reduced the full orchestral part to a string quartet so this beautiful concerto can be heard more often in the concert hall.Richter too never failed to astonish on his first appearances in the west not only with his pianistic perfection but also with his repertoire choices.He chose this concerto for his London orchestral debut and went on to make a landmark recording of it with Carlos Kleiber.I have never seen it programmed since in London or at least so very rarely.So it is thanks to Sasha for allowing us to hear this beautifully mellifluous work today.An orchestra of four beautiful young lady musicians who played with the same superb musicianship ,listening to each other as in the concerto there was a question and answer between the soloist and the orchestra.There is a pastoral character to the concerto that I had never been aware of with a continuous outpouring of melodic invention unmistakably traditional Czech .There were moments of passionate outbursts but like Grieg they were never overpowering but more of intensity than dramatic.The Andante in particular where the chiselled beauty of the piano rose above the harmonious warm background of the strings who were always ready to burst into melody .The dynamic opening of the solo piano in the Allegro reminded me of Brahms’ first Concerto with its dance like energy.There were moments of brilliance from Sasha but played with such musicianship that the actual technical mastery never drew attention to itself but just added to the overall architectural shape of the ‘quintet’.The cadenza too was astonishing for its pure musical shape created by cascades of notes played with such ease and naturalness.

Some superb playing from his four companions too with the searing intensity of Urska Horvat’s cello matched by the simple beauty of Kesari Pundarika’s viola.The superb violins of Sue In Kang and Ana – Elisabeta Popesu- Deutsch.

They all joined together in a performance of the Schumann Quintet that I have rarely heard played with such simplicity and clarity.What it lacked in the burning intensity of Rubinstein and the Guarneri Quartet all those years ago it gained in an architectural shape with playing of simple superb musicianship.Rubinstein as his solo career was coming to an end played the Brahms and Schumann Quintets in the Festival Hall and I remember Rubinstein well into his 80’s running on stage as he plunged into the first chords of the Schumann taking his colleagues very much by surprise.But of course he had this way of injecting energy into his beautiful playing like sudden electric shocks when he would even lift himself off the piano stool.Today there was the same superb playing but with musicians listening to each other and with modesty and humility showing us the simple beauty of all they played.

Winner of over ten international competitions, prizes and awards, Sasha was chosen as a ‘Rising Star’ for BBC Music Magazine and International Piano Magazine . His successes also include First Prizes in the Grieg International Piano Competition and the BNDES International Piano Competition, in addition to winning the Guildhall School of Music’s most prestigious award – the Gold Medal – previously won by such artists as Jacqueline Du Pré and Bryn Terfel.Sasha has performed in many major venues including Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bridgewater Hall (Manchester), Wiener Konzerthaus, Weil Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall, New York), Teatro Real (Rio de Janeiro) and Salle Cortot (Paris). He has performed with such orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic and Orchestra Sinfonica Brasiliera. His recording of music by Glenn Gould and Friedrich Gulda for Piano Classics was chosen as the record of the month for the German magazine Piano News and shortlisted for the New York Classical Radio Award. Among Sa sha’s ongoing projects are performances of Shostakovich’s original piano score for the 1929 silent film The New Babylon , which he premièred at LSO St. Luke’s and later performed at Leif Ove Andsnes’ Rosendal Festival, Norway. Born in Ukraine, Sasha studied at the Guildhall School in London. Sasha is a Keyboard Trust artist and currently benefits from the artistic guidance of its founder Noretta Conci-Leech.

Dvořák composed his piano concerto from late August through 14 September 1876. Its autograph version contains many corrections, erasures, cuts and additions, the bulk of which were made in the piano part. The work was premiered in Prague on 24 March 1878, with the orchestra of the Prague Provisional Theatre conducted by Adolf Czech with the pianist Karel Slavkovsky . The first performance in England was with soloist Oscar Beringer at the Crystal Palace on October 13 1883.

While working on the concerto, Dvořák himself realized that he had not created a virtuosic piece in which the piano does battle with the orchestra. Dvořák wrote: “I see I am unable to write a Concerto for a virtuoso; I must think of other things.” What Dvořák composed instead was a symphonic concerto in which the piano plays a leading part in the orchestra, rather than opposed to it.

In an effort to mitigate awkward passages and expand the pianist’s range of sonorities, the Czech pianist and pedagogue Vilem Kurz undertook an extensive rewriting of the solo part; the Kurz revision is frequently performed today.

The concerto was championed for many years by the noted Czech pianist Rudolf Firkusny , who played it with many different conductors and orchestras around the world before his death in 1994. Once a student of Kurz, Firkušný performed the revised solo part for much of his life, turning towards the original Dvořák score later on in his concert career.

Leslie Howard who has recorded all of the works of Liszt declared “… there is nothing in Liszt that is anywhere near as difficult to play as the Dvořák Piano Concerto – a magnificent piece of music, but one of the most ungainly bits of piano writing ever printed”.

The concerto is scored for solo piano and an orchestra consisting of 2 flutes ,2 oboes , 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons , 2 horns, 2 trumpets , timpani , and strings .It has three movements:

1. Allegro agitato
2. Andante sostenuto
3. Allegro con fuoco

• Championed by Sviatoslav Richter which he recorded with Bavarian State Orchestra conducted by Carlos Kleiber . EMI Great Recordings of the Century (catalog no. 66947)He also made his much awaited orchestral debut in London with it in the Royal Albert Hall together with the Chopin Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise

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 Phantasiestückefor piano trio, Op. 88. Schumann’s work in that year was buoyant in character as he 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.”

He 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 Voigt and her husband Carl.However she fell ill and Felix Mendelssohn stepped in, sight-reading the “fiendish” piano part.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

Sasha Grynyuk Anniversary recital of a great pianist in Perivale

https://youtube.com/live/qDyZy3ZN0wk?feature=shared

Wonderful to watch these two very fine pianists and to know that the life and music of their piano duo has kept apace with their growing family.A programme from the Russian repertoire of succulent Rachmaninov and sumptuous Tchaikowsky with a complete change of mood for an encore of Piazzola’s hypnotic and sizzling Libertango.

The Six Morceaux are among the earliest of Rachmaninoff’s mature works. Rachmaninov had graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892, and-only two years later had already made a reputation for himself as a pianist and composer. These little pieces reflect themes of yearning and display some of Rachmaninov’s famous intricate passagework. The Morceaux are often considered as the forerunners of his later 13 Preludes, Op. 32, from 1910.They were played with sensitivity,colour and character.The ‘Barcarolle’ with the beauty of the melodic line ever more intense and cascades of arpeggios from Gala accompanying her husbands majestic chordal melody in the tenor register of this fine Steinway piano .I too had played this instrument some years ago in duo with Lydia De Barberiis and it has aged well – like good wine,a fine vintage matures especially if looked after with the love and care of Professor Ricci,the artistic director and creator of this series for almost thirty years

A rhythmic drive and crystalline sounds in the ‘Scherzo ‘ and some delicate colouring from Gala with Diego offering an abrupt surprise ending.’The Russian melody’ was played with simplicity and childlike innocence and just contrasted with the delightful dance of beguiling charm of the ‘Valse’.A delicate accompaniment from Diego and the elastic fluidity from Gala.A passionate outpouring in the ‘Romance’ was contrasted with the etherial pedal effect of the echoing in ‘Glory’ a traditional Russian melody.

And so to the Ballet music of Tchaikowsky which they have recorded.A very fine CD which they had invited me to write the sleeve notes for and that I was delighted to have the opportunity to delve into the archive and find out more about such famous melodies.

There was the drama of the opening of ‘Swan Lake’ as the story unfolds.The ‘Dance of the Swans’ with the delicacy of Diego’s accompaniment to Gala’s charm and kaleidoscope of colours bringing vividly to life the deliciously elegant swans before the excitement that they brought to the ‘Hungarian Dance’ finale.

‘Sleeping Beauty’ made a brief appearance in an early transcription by the youthful Rachmaninov with an opening of great expectation and its beautifully shaped melodic line.A curtain raiser for the ‘Nutcracker’ that we are more used these days in hearing in the two hand virtuoso arrangement by Pletnev rather than the more sober but no less exciting four hand arrangement of Langer.A ‘Sugar plumb fairy’ of wistful lightness and a build up of sound as cascades of notes passed from one player to the other with ease and sense of showmanship that this music demands.Beautiful bell like sounds of a luminosity and gentle insistence with their hands barely touching the keys and a whirlwind of rhythmic drive.Diego brought great character to the bass strides on which Gala added the magic melody of Chinese delight!A glorious outpouring of familiar melodies with the ‘Flower Waltz ‘ with arabesques of Romantic delight and exhilaration.

I have said it before but it is even more remarkable now how these two artists can play as one with a sense of balance as they listen to the music they are creating together with such sensitivity and love .

Il Duo pianistico a 4 mani Gala Chistiakova e Diego Benocci si è formato nel 2014, quando i due pianisti si perfezionavano presso l’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale di Imola.

Diego Benocci è nato a Grosseto, ha iniziato gli studi musicali presso l’Istituto Musicale della sua città con il M° Giuliano Schiano. Si è diplomato presso il Conservatorio “G. Frescobaldi” di Ferrara e ha concluso il corso di laurea presso il Conservatorio di Stato “L. Cherubini” di Firenze nella classe della Prof.ssa Maria Teresa Carunchio e l’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale “Incontri col Maestro” di Imola sotto la guida del M° Enrico Pace e del M° Igor Roma.Tiene regolarmente concerti in tutta Europa e in Asia come solista, musicista da camera e suona con orchestre in importanti festival.

Gala Chistiakova è nata a Mosca in una famiglia di musicisti. Ha iniziato i suoi studi di pianoforte a 3 anni con sua madre Liubov Chistiakova. Dal 1993 al 2005 ha studiato alla Scuola Centrale del Conservatorio di Mosca intitolato a Pëtr Il’ič Čajkovskij con i professori Helena Khoven e Anatoly Ryabov. Nel 2014 Gala ha terminato il Conservatorio di Mosca e un corso post-laurea in una classe del professor Mikhail Voskresensky. Nel 2011 ha iniziato i suoi studi presso l’Accademia Pianistica Internazionale “Incontri col Maestro” (classe del Prof. Boris BorisPetrušanskij) in Italia. Vincitrice di oltre 30 concorsi internazionali, vive oggi con il marito Diego Benocci a Grosseto dove dirigono insieme il Festival Musicale Internazionale “Recondite Armonie” e il Progetto di Scambio Culturale “Giovani Musicisti del Mondo”. Nel 2022 sono stati nominati codirettori artistici e docenti del festival IMOC a Grosseto.

Il duo ha un vasto repertorio e ha tenuto concerti in Russia, Italia, Francia, Portogallo, Germania, Regno Unito, per numerose stagioni musicali internazionali riscuotendo ovunque grande successo di pubblico e di critica.  

Nel 2021 in duo hanno vinto la borsa di studio all’Accademia Chigiana nella classe della prof.ssa Lilya Zilberstein. Hanno collaborato come duo con orchestre sinfoniche e da Camera e recentemente si sono esibiti al Conservatorio Čajkovskij di Mosca, alla Weston Recital Hall di Oxford, al Festival International de Musique de Chambre Est Ouest in Belgio, al Madeira Piano Festin Portogallo e in un concerto straordinario per G. Armani a Londra. 

Il loro primo CD con musiche di Čajkovskij è stato pubblicato nel 2021 dall’etichetta italiana OnClassical e le loro registrazioni sono state trasmesse in più occasioni su Rai Radio 3. 

Di recente il duo è risultato vincitore del primo premio assoluto e del premio “Marche Musica” al XXXI Concorso Pianistico Internazionale “Roma”

Gala Chistiakova and Diego Benocci in Viterbo A duo that plays as one with beauty and style.

The tour continues …….The Ritz Abano Terme Sala dei Specchi…….we could have danced all night !

The lap of luxury but here more than any other venue on this tour a very small but appreciative after dinner audience ……as Boris Berman would say :’If they don’t want to come you can’t stop them! ‘
Well we didn’t but joined them in the hot outside pool and fabulous White Glove’s Restaurant .

A shorter programme was heard resounding from the beautiful Steinway in the sumptuous Sala dei Specchi.Our dashing young Russian /Scottish virtuoso played his heart out as always and the Schumann Studies were even more full of the subtle sounds and beauty of a supreme stylist.The posthumous studies were indeed strands of gold as they found their real home in this refined atmosphere where beauty was reflected a thousand fold.

‘Sleeping Beauty’ was just the right piece to send us on our slumbers contemplating the multi-coloured breakfast that awaited accompanied by the delicate sounds of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata discreetly played.Wafting our way again into the hot springs and for those who were foolhardy enough to raise their head there was a minus one temperature waiting to bite it off .

Now ready for the most important concert of this short KT tour for the Squeglia’s historic ‘Incontro sulla Tastiera ‘ in the Teatro Comunale in Vicenza.

Here is a very fine review of a special occasion on what Nikita described as the best instrument he has ever played on – Sokolov likes it too – che non guasta as they say in these parts!

Nikita’s Schumann ‘studies  are canons covered in flowers because he is a supreme stylist …as Schumann was a supreme poet and called them ‘Symphonic’ ……………Studies.

The study ‘Presto Possible’ that everyone fears and more often than not stumble through  he plays perfectly and it just goes to  show his pianistic credentials and  artistic choices- in a word :a real artist.A fine review from someone who really listens but just  needs clarifying on one or two rather fundamental artistic points .

The ravishing ever youthful Marie Antonietta Squeglia, a long – time friend and colleague of Noretta Conci, invites one of the most enticing pianists from the KT stable to give a recital in her prestigious concert series that she holds every season in the Teatro Comunale during the winter months and the historic Teatro Olimpico in the months where heating is no longer needed or indeed allowed.

It was only Rosalyn Tureck who was allowed heating in this historic wooden edifice of Palladio but surrounded by good looking young firemen though …which of course she loved! She was less enamoured by the Borgato piano seated on stage that she was told was Radu Lupu’s favourite instrument .’Tureck only plays Steinway ‘ was her imperious reply as a match worthy of the cup final was played out to the bitter end !

The final concert of this short KT tour with Nikita’s sparring partner Isabella Rossellini in the extraordinary cultural centre that is the Teatro Comunale in Vicenza.

The main 900 seat theatre full to the rafters for a new one woman play and the smaller 400 seat theatre almost as full for Nikita’s final recital for the KT’s 20th Anniversary concert with the Incontri sulla Tastiera.
A concert dedicated for the past eight years to the memory of the mother of Ermanno Detto the ever generous sponsor of the concerts that Fernanda Muraro Detto used to frequent.

Maria Antonietta Squeglia the driving force behind the Incontri concerts was unfortunately laid low with broken vertebrae but her daughter Raffaella was there in her place as was Antonella Bartolomucci who introduced the concert.
Ermanno Detto was our genial host as was the President of Incontri Enrico Hullweck ,ex- Mayor of Vicenza who had battled for many a year to bring to completion this extraordinary modern complex.

A magnificent new Steinway concert grand from the son of Zanta whose father is still the custodian of the magnificent old Steinway in the Sala Dei Giganti in Padua .This piano is the preferred piano of Sokolov and Nikita too said he had never played such a fine instrument .

What could be better for this final concert and Nikita rose to the occasion with performances of subtle beauty and a feeling of recreating works that he had played for four consecutive days.
There were some very subtle shadings and more time taken as certain corners were given an elasticity that can only happen when the performer and audience are united as one.This is surely the reason for live performances especially of well worn masterpieces.
There is an interaction between artist and audience which can illuminate and still find unexpectedly new things without distorting the overall structure or betraying the fidelity to the composer’s intentions .The ‘Gothic Cathedral’ variation ( n. 7 ) was a case in point as the opening majesty gave way to a timelessness like looking in wonder at a monumental edifice.

Nikita could also play much quieter (strange paradox on a larger piano) with whispered sounds of ravishing beauty that drew the audience to him rather than he having to project the sound to them.
Longer silences and held chords daringly allowed more time without breaking the subtle line that holds an interpretation together.Like the man on the high wire daring to risk all in moments when everything seemed to come together so naturally right.One must have the courage to risk and dare as a solo performer – playing safe is something you do in the recording studio as you search for the perfect performance .On stage you are in the circus arena which is only for the very few courageous souls that are prepared to risk all for moments of discovery and recreation.Not necessarily the note picking accuracy that are essential for studio recordings that are going to be listened to over and over again.

Public performance as Nikita showed us today needs to have an element of the showman that can reduce the public to tears and at the drop of a hat have them laughing or seduced by refined sounds and atmospheres.The music must be a living thing when the curtain goes up and the audience must be in your hands to be led on a voyage of discovery together into the very world of the composer they are transmitting.
I often quote the title of an article written in ‘Le Monde de la Musique’ about Shura Cherkassky which summed up in few words his extraordinary artistry : ‘Je joue, je sens, je transmets.’
Nikita today proved himself worthy of this supreme stylist but also with an extraordinary intelligence that could hold together as one Mussorgsky’s monumental ‘ Pictures.’ They were multi-coloured pictures of extraordinarily different character but at the same time pictures that were housed under the same roof of this gallery.There were moments of almost inaudible sounds in the ‘Old Castle’ as there were terrifying outbursts when ‘Baba Yaga’ comes into view.The final pages of the ‘Great Gate’ were breathtaking in their gloriously rich sounds allowed to reverberate around the hall like the echo in a great Cathedral.
The charm and ease that he gave to the encore ‘Un poco di Schumann’ by Tchaikowsky was with the same ease and style that he had brought earlier to three pieces from ‘The Sleeping Beauty Suite.’
It was piano playing of another age where showmanship is combined with the real technical mastery of a kaleidoscope of sounds in each finger.A heart and soul of gold but a mind and fingers of computer – like precision and intelligence – another paradox but then music is a world which is born and takes flight where words are just not enough.

Two triumphs under one roof Isabella Rossellini and Nikita Lukinov united in this magnificent city where Palladio had constructed the first covered theatre. And so as not to frighten the audience he painted clouds on the roof …Italy really is the Museum of the World as Rostropovich so rightly declared and like all art a true Voyage of Discovery.

A stage at the Comunale that we will be sharing with Isabella Rossellini who will be performing her much awaited one woman show on the stage next to ours.

And so a magic carpet will fly our dashing young prince away to the Isle of Man where he will delight even more enthusiastic KT followers with his superb performances of Schumann,Tchaikowsky and Mussorgsky -and also a masterclass and introductory talk for the enthusiastic music lovers on this sceptered Isle

The Symphonic Studies Op. 13, began in 1834 as a theme and sixteen variations on a theme by Baron von Fricken, plus a further variation on an entirely different theme by Heinrich Marschner.The first edition in 1837 carried an annotation that the tune was “the composition of an amateur”: this referred to the origin of the theme, which had been sent to Schumann by Baron von Fricken, guardian of Ernestine von Fricken, the Estrella of his Carnaval op. 9. The baron, an amateur musician, had used the melody in a Theme with Variations for flute. Schumann had been engaged to Ernestine in 1834, only to break abruptly with her the year after. An autobiographical element is thus interwoven in the genesis of the Études symphoniques (as in that of many other works of Schumann’s).Of the sixteen variations Schumann composed on Fricken’s theme, only eleven were published by him. (An early version, completed between 1834 and January 1835, contained twelve movements). The final, twelfth, published étude was a variation on the theme from the Romance Du stolzes England freue dich(Proud England, rejoice!), from Heinrich Marschner’s opera Der Templer und die Judin based on Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (as a tribute to Schumann’s English friend, William Sterndale Bennett to whom it is dedicated )The earlier Fricken theme occasionally appears briefly during this étude. The work was first published in 1837 as XII Études Symphoniques. Only nine of the twelve études were specifically designated as variations. The entire work was dedicated to Schumann’s English friend, the pianist and composer, and Bennett played the piece frequently in England to great acclaim, but Schumann thought it was unsuitable for public performance and advised his wife Clara not to play it.The highly virtuosic demands of the piano writing are frequently aimed not merely at effect but at clarification of the polyphonic complexity and at delving more deeply into keyboard experimentation.

• Theme – Andante [C^♯ minor]
• Etude I (Variation 1) – Un poco più vivo [C^♯ minor]
• Etude II (Variation 2) – Andante [C^♯ minor]
• Etude III – Vivace [E Major]
• Etude IV (Variation 3) – Allegro marcato [C^♯ minor]
• Etude V (Variation 4) – Scherzando [C^♯ minor]
• Etude VI (Variation 5) – Agitato [C^♯ minor]
• Etude VII (Variation 6) – Allegro molto [E Major]
• Etude VIII (Variation 7) – Sempre marcatissimo [C^♯ minor]
• Etude IX – Presto possibile [C^♯ minor]
• Etude X (Variation 8) – Allegro con energia [C^♯ minor]
• Etude XI (Variation 9) – Andante espressivo [G^♯ minor]
• Etude XII (Finale) – Allegro brillante (based on Marschner’s theme) [D^♭ Major]

On republishing the set in 1890, Johannes Brahms restored the five variations that had been cut by Schumann. These are now often played, but in positions within the cycle that vary somewhat with each performance; there are now twelve variations and these five so-called “posthumous” variations which exist as a supplement.

The five posthumously published sections (all based on Fricken’s theme) are:

• Variation I – Andante, Tempo del tema
• Variation II – Meno mosso
• Variation III – Allegro
• Variation IV – Allegretto
• Variation V – Moderato.

• Moderato.

In 1834, Schumann fell in love with Ernestine von Fricken, a piano student of Friedrich Wieck, and for a time they seemed destined to marry. The relationship did not last—Schumann got cold feet after he learned that she had been born out of wedlock—but it inspired some notable music. Carnaval, Op. 9, a set of character pieces for piano, is based on a four-note motive derived from the name of Ernestine’s home town. The Etudes symphoniques, Op. 13, are variations on a theme by Ernestine’s father, Ignaz Ferdinand von Fricken, a nobleman and amateur composer. Of course, Schumann eventually transferred his affections to Clara Wieck, and it was she who gave the first performance of the Etudes symphoniques, in 1837. The piece was published by Haslinger that same year, with a dedication to the English composer William Sterndale Bennett rather than to Ernestine. A revised version appeared in 1852.

Our manuscript is a sketch that includes the theme and variations 1, 2, 5, 10, 12, as well as five others that were not published until 1873, in an appendix edited by none other than Johannes Brahms. It formerly belonged to Alice Tully (1902–1993), the philanthropist whose name graces a concert hall in Lincoln Center. She gave it to Vladimir Horowitz (who counted Schumann’s music among his many specialties in the piano repertoire), and two years after his death, his widow Wanda Toscanini Horowitz donated it to Yale. The other principal manuscript source for this piece belongs to the library of the Royal Museum of Mariemont, in Belgium.

Pictures at an Exhibition is based on pictures by the artist, architect, and designer Viktor Hartmann. It was probably in 1868 that Mussorgsky first met Hartmann, not long after the latter’s return to Russia from abroad. Both men were devoted to the cause of an intrinsically Russian art and quickly became friends. They met in the home of the influential critic Vladimir Stasov, who followed both of their careers with interest. According to Stasov’s testimony, in 1868, Hartmann gave Mussorgsky two of the pictures that later formed the basis of Pictures at an Exhibition.

Concert Suite from the Ballet ‘The Sleeping Beauty’
Prologue
Dance of Pages
Vision
Andante
Fairy of Silver
The Pussed Tom-Cat and the White Cat
Gavotte
The Singing Canary
Little Red Riding Hood and Wolf
Adagio
Finale

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION Promenade l
The Gnomes
Promenade ll
The Old Castle
Promenade lll
The Tuileries: Children’s dispute
after play
Bydlo
Promenade IV
Ballet of the unhatched chicks
Two Polish Jews: Rich and poor
Promenade V
The market at Limoges
Roman Catacombs – With the dead
in a dead language
Baba Yaga: The Witch
The Heroes Gate at Kiev

Hartmann’s sudden death on 4 August 1873 from an aneurysm shook Mussorgsky along with others in Russia’s art world. The loss of the artist, aged only 39, plunged the composer into deep despair. Stasov helped to organize a memorial exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in February and March 1874. Mussorgsky lent the exhibition the two pictures Hartmann had given him, and viewed the show in person, inspired to compose Pictures at an Exhibition, quickly completing the score in three weeks (2–22 June 1874).Five days after finishing the composition, he wrote on the title page of the manuscript a tribute to Vladimir Stasov, to whom the work is dedicated.The music depicts his tour of the exhibition, with each of the ten numbers of the suite serving as a musical illustration of an individual work by Hartmann.Although composed very rapidly, during June 1874, the work did not appear in print until 1886, five years after the composer’s death, when a not very accurate edition by the composer’s friend and colleague Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was published.

Mussorgsky suffered personally from alcoholism, it was also a behavior pattern considered typical for those of Mussorgsky’s generation who wanted to oppose the establishment and protest through extreme forms of behavior.One contemporary notes, “an intense worship of Bacchus was considered to be almost obligatory for a writer of that period.”Mussorgsky spent day and night in a Saint Petersburg tavern of low repute, the Maly Yaroslavets, accompanied by other bohemian dropouts. He and his fellow drinkers idealized their alcoholism, perhaps seeing it as ethical and aesthetic opposition. This bravado, however, led to little more than isolation and eventual self-destruction.

Padua today is resounding with music played by young musicians at the start of their careers.
The opening season of the Pomeriggi Musicali series for Agimus at four and the eleven o’clock opening season of the Domenica in Musica Series that the genial Artistic director Filippo Juvarra has envisioned over the past 33 years to give a platform to young winners of major Italian competitions.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/07/15/two-young-giants-cross-swords-in-verbier-giovanni-bertolazzi-and-nikita-lukinov
Giovanni Bertolazzi had played in Padua last month ( https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/12/13/giovanni-bertolazzi-homage-to-zoltan-kocis-a-giant-returns-to-celebrate-a-genius/) and Nikita Lukinov invited by the Keyboard Trust ( https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/11/07/nikita-lukinov-at-the-national-liberal-club-a-supreme-stylist-astonishes-and-seduces/) will play for Agimus in Padua for Elia Modenese later today ( and Monday at the Ritz Abano Terme) he will also play in the Teatro Comunale in Vicenza on Tuesday where Jakob Aumiller had recently been awarded first prize in the 12th edition of the Lamberto Brunelli Competition in the historic Teatro Olimpico of Vicenza.It was as winner of that competition that he was asked to open the season today.A very tall young man trained at the conservatory in Trento and headed he tells me to complete his studies in America.

The distinguished professor of piano at the Padua Conservatory Lorella Ruffin (the mother of Leonora Armellini) was also with us today to applaud this young musician.
An almost full hall in this historic Sala dei Giganti where the true star is a piano the like of which I have never heard before.Kept in trim by that magician Zanta it was the preferred piano of Richter on which he would often prepare his programmes for his recordings in the historic Teatro Bibiena in Mantova where he was obliged to play the Yamaha that was to follow him wherever he went in the last years of his life.

Perlemuter had played here too in 1983 when Filippo rang me up to ask if this great pianist of whom Italy had only read about in books would play in Padua in his season.

Vlado Perlemuter and the inseparable Joan became friends after his debut in the Ghione theatre and then in Padua and Filippo or I would accompany them around Italy to play until his 90th year!
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2017/12/19/in-praise-of-joan-2/
I was backstage in the Wigmore Hall at the last concert he gave in a long and difficult career .Joan was with me and I was left holding Vlado’s stick as he raced onto the platform (thus allieviating his ‘guillotine syndrome’ from which he had suffered all his long life) to play the Chopin Four Ballades for the last time.

Jakob from the very first notes of Scriabin’s Fifth Sonata revealed his artistry and mastery in a performance of dynamic drive and subtle sense of colour.A fluidity of whispered beauty contrasting with a dynamic almost diabolical rhythmic energy with his fiery temperament allowed full reign.A youthful passion where on occasion his heart took over from his head and we momentarily lost the sense of line that pervades all of Scriabin’s subtly perfumed sound world.The deep bass notes of this magnificent instrument were merely touched by Jakob’s sensitive hands and just opened up the sonorities adding ever more luminosity to this magic world of colour.

Let me just say that Jakob is more a Brahms man than Beethoven and it was the youthful Brahms Scherzo op 4 that gave us today one of the finest performances I have ever heard of a work unjustly neglected in the concert hall (It was the work that preceded the oft over played F minor Sonata op 5!).Jakob gave a performance of style and colour but also of precision and dynamic drive.There was a great sense of character that he brought to each of the contrasting episodes with orchestral colour and an architectural line that gave an orchestral strength to this youthful work.There was a rhythmic drive that did not exclude moments of repose before bursts of dynamic energy.The opening motif was played with a precision and weight that was to be the hallmark of this remarkable performance.

Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata almost justifies Delius’s rather clever dismissal of Beethoven as being all scales and arpeggios! It is of all the middle sonatas the one that requires an unrelenting sense of drive with a rhythmic precision of Swiss manufacture.Jakob gave a fine performance but his sense of style and musicality was added to a performance where weight and Toscanini style precision should have been the sine qua non of this extraordinarily energetic and virtuosistic work.The slow movement – the introduction to the Rondo – was played too delicately and beautifully as was the Rondo theme that is transformed so magically from the last note of the introduction.It was played with a beauty that was on the surface and not deep down in the very roots of these miraculous almost orchestral outpourings of Schubertian mellifluous beauty.The tempestuous episodes were played with the precision and drive that the Rondo theme lacked.The coda was played at a very fast pace but there were moments when the energy sagged as he tried to make Beethoven’s arpeggios too beautiful instead of bursting with energy.The first movement Allegro con brio was played at a speed that he managed to maintain without having to slow down for the second subject but was just too fast for the intricate weaving around the second subject to be anything but atmospheric.

Anyone who had heard Serkin play this work will never forget his burning energy and drive and a coda played at the same breakneck speed of Jakob but without conceding any stylistic smoothing out of Beethoven’s rough edges.Not only Serkin was exhausted after such a performance but we,the audience,were too!
The silences in Beethoven are so important and full of energy as Alim Beisembayev showed us the other day in London with an Appassionata ( the twin of the Waldstein ) in which the silences created the energy for what came immediately afterwards.( https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/01/06/alim-beisembayev-at-the-wigmore-hall-bewitched-and-enriched-by-the-man-on-the-high-wire/).
However it was a fine if rather immature performance that with his exciting studies that he said were in view in America will add weight and depth to his already quite considerable talent.
Three Etudes Tableaux op 39 by Rachmaninov closed the programme and showed to the full Jakob’s kaleidoscopic sense of colour and passionate commitment together with a technical mastery that brought these miniature tone poems vividly to life.

The first in E flat minor was played with searing intensity and a dynamic range that was remarkable.Helped by this magnificent instrument the return of the theme in the tenor register with tumultuous accompaniments above and below was breathtaking in it’s youthful passionate commitment.The whispered ending just prepared us for the beauty of the study in C minor where the melodic line was allowed to float with such ravishing beauty on a wave of mellifluous changing harmonies.Even an unexpected tumultuous interruption was incorporated into a picture that Jakob knew how to share with us.The final call to arms of the D major etude showed off the technical mastery and passion that this young man was able to convey as the chimes of the great bell tower nearby began striking the hour.(Filippo always advises the artists to finish just before midday to their peril ).
A mystery encore had us all trying to guess who the composer could be of this beautiful harp like salon piece .Was in Sinding,Grieg,Chaminade or even early Debussy?
The riddle was solved in the Green Room afterwards and it turned out to be an early Prelude from the pieces op 12 by Prokofiev!
It was played with the charm,colour and natural musicianship that had been the hallmark of this very talented young artist.

Tuesday 9 January 2.00 pm

Some very musicianly and intelligent playing from Víctor Braojos as you would expect from the class of Martin Roscoe at the Guildhall where Victor now holds a junior fellowship.A fascinating programme that as he so eloquently told us was based of improvisation and free form.

Opening with the beautiful belcanto of Schubert’s G flat impromptu his credentials were immediately revealed in a performance of simplicity and beauty.A sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to sing so eloquently over the crystal clear flowing accompaniment.There was subdued passion and ravishing moments but above all an aristocratic sense style keeping the tempo until the final poignant notes with masterly control and intelligence.

Three preludes by Cortes were a UK premiere and only the second public performance,the first having taken place in the USA.Three beautifully crafted pieces of sadness and melancholy played with the same simplicity as Schubert .An outpouring of fantasy and beauty, played without the score,these three works by his compatriot obviously had a deep significance for Victor.

All these short pieces were but a’ prelude’ to the two major works on the programme:Cesar Franck’s Prelude,Choral and Fugue and Beethoven’s last of his 32 Sonatas ,op 111.Both were played with remarkable control and architectural shape.
The Cesar Franck was played with fluidity and flowing tempo as one complete whole with a great sense of line and drive .Silences that were so poignant in meaning as they punctuated the fragments that Franck so masterly combines into one tumultuous climax of exultation and burning excitement.The superbly played knotty twine of the fugue lead to an exhilarating climax and the explosion of a cadenza that gradually dissolves into the wafts of lapping sounds of the opening Prelude. It was on these wonderfully fluid sounds that the magical reappearance of the opening theme is allowed to float.It was all played with superb control and beautiful articulation but also with artistry and poetic significance.It was the same beauty that he had brought to the choral with its regal outpouring of chiselled sounds before the celestial spread chords on which floats the melodic line.It was played with great authority and purity of sound the same that he was to find for Beethoven’s great Arietta and variations that close the Sonata op.111.

I was surprised that he split the hands in the opening three declarations of op 111 but it in no way diminished the grandeur of this opening before the burning cauldron of the ‘Allegro con brio ed appassionato’.Both the introduction and the Allegro were played with solidity and rhythmic control and a clarity that gave great authority to all that he did.Even slight blemishes were absorbed into the burning driving energy that Victor was able to produce.The Arietta was played with a flowing tempo that never seemed to fluctuate as each of the variations grew so naturally out of the previous one.There was a driving energy and aristocratic control in the mighty third variation before the final whispered meanderings of Beethoven’s world that he could see so clearly spread out before him.Even the triumphant final outpouring of the theme was soon forgotten as Beethoven reaches for the celestial heights that like Scriabin would find solace in vibrations of sound on which fragments of melody could be floated as if on a celestial cloud.This was a performance of a great authority and aristocratic control with the final chord in C major placed with poetically sensitive care.
What can one play after that?Victor had the solution with a beautiful beguiling Epilogue by Granados from his Romantic Scenes

Víctor Braojos obtained his BMus (Hons) at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (Barcelona)m Later, he moved to London, where he pursued his Master in Piano Performance (Distinction and Concert Recital Diploma) and Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, working with Martin Roscoe and thanks to an Excellence Scholarship Award given by this institution. He has won several prizes and awards in National and International Piano Competitions, among which we could highlight the awards in the Maria Canals Int. Piano Competition, the Catalunya Piano Competition (youngest winner ever in the 50 years of history of this competition), the Barcelona Piano Competition, the Girona Musical Competition or the prize at the prestigious “El Primer Palau Music Competition”. Along his career he has performed in several venues across Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Russia or the UK, among which we could remark concerts at emblematic venues such as the Palau de la Música Catalana, Palau Maricel de Sitges, the National Auditorium of Barcelona, London Steinway Hall or the Frédéric Chopin Museum in Warsaw. His most recent and future engagements include internationally acclaimed concert halls and festivals, such as the Conservatoire International Concert Series at South Hill Park, the Bloomsbury Festival, National Liberal Club, the International Masters Series of Leon City Auditorium or North Fylde Music Circle. In September 2022, Víctor was appointed Junior Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Víctor Braojos at St Mary’s authority and intelligence illuminates ‘Shreds of light’

After receiving a Deutsche Grammophon CD collection from his grandfather for his 16th birthday, Marc Migó (1993, Barcelona) became unexpectedly and passionately drawn to its contents. This discovery led him to seek out guidance from pianist Liliana Sainz and composer Xavier Boliart. Three years later, he enrolled at ESMUC (Superior Music School of Catalonia).

In 2017, thanks to a scholarship issued by Fundación SGAE, Marc moved to New York in order to continue his musical studies. He pursued his Masters at The Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2018 Orchestral Composition Prize. In 2019 he received The Pablo Casals Festival Award for his Cello Sonata “Cerdanyenca”, two Morton Gould Young Composers award by ASCAP and the New Juilliard annual commissioning competition award. He also has been a fellow at the 2020 Minnesota Orchestra Composer’s Institute, a winner of the George Enescu Prize 2020, the recipient of the first ever Dominick Argento Fellowship for Opera Composition (2022), and the 2023 Leo Kaplan Award by Ascap, among other international recognitions. 

Marc Migó is currently a C.V. Starr fellow at Juilliard. He has received commissions from leading institutions, ensembles and performers, such as UrbanArias, the Dutch National Opera, Verità Ensemble, Liceu Opera House, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, The Cabrillo Festival, l’Associació Joan Manén, La Fura dels Baus, and CUNY University, among others.

Franck’s original plan, according to his pupil Vincent d’Indy, was to write a plain Prelude and Fugue ,

The decision to include a central section, separate from, yet linking, the Prelude and Fugue, came later (again according to d’Indy).However this central section became the emotional core of the work, its ‘motto’ theme used as a symbol of redemption and as a unifying principle at the climax of the Fugue.

Saint-Saëns made his tart observation about the piece that the ‘chorale is not a chorale and the fugue is not a fugue’ (in his pamphlet ‘Les Idées de M. Vincent d’Indy’).Alfred Cortot described the Fugue in the context of the whole work as ‘emanating from a psychological necessity rather than from a principle of musical composition’ (La musique française de piano; PUF, 1930). It is as if a ‘fugue’, as a symbol of intellectual rigour, was the only way Franck could find a voice to express fully the hesitant, truncated sobs of the Prelude and the anguished, syncopated lament of the Chorale. Not that the Fugue solves the problem—this is the function of the ‘motto’ theme; but the rules of counterpoint have given the speaker a format in which the unspeakable can be spoken.

There are two motivic ideas on which the whole work is based: one, a falling, appoggiatura motif used in all three sections and generally chromatic in tonality ; the other a criss-crossing motif in fourths (the ‘motto’ theme, which appears first in the Chorale section and then again as a balm at the point where the Fugue reaches its emotional crisis. The first motivic idea is clearly related to the Bach Cantata ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’, and also to the ‘Crucifixus’ from the B minor Mass; the other idea appears as the ‘bell motif’ in Wagner’s Parsifal.

Beethoven’s last sonata op 111 was written between 1821 and 1822.

It was dedicated to his friend, pupil, and patron, Archduke Rudolf and consists of only two contrasting movements . The second movement is marked as an arietta with variations that Thomas Mann called “farewell to the sonata form”.Together with Beethoven’s The Diabelli Variations op.120 (1823) and his two collections of bagatelles op 119 (1822) and op 126 (1823) the sonata was one of Beethoven’s last compositions for piano. Nearly ignored by contemporaries, it was not until the second half of the 19th century that it found its way into the repertoire of most leading pianists.^.Beethoven conceived of the plan for his final three piano sonatas (op 109.110 and 111 )during the summer of 1820, while he worked on his Missa solemnis. Although the work was only seriously outlined by 1819, the famous first theme of the allegro ed appassionato was found in a draft book dating from 1801 to 1802, contemporary to his Second Symphony .Moreover, the study of these draft books implies that Beethoven initially had plans for a sonata in three movements, quite different from that which we know: it is only thereafter that the initial theme of the first movement became that of the string Quartet n.13 , and that what should have been used as the theme with the adagio—a slow melody in A flat – was abandoned. Only the motif planned for the third movement, the famous theme mentioned above, was preserved to become that of the first movement. The Arietta, too, offers a considerable amount of research on its themes; the drafts found for this movement seem to indicate that as the second movement took form, Beethoven gave up the idea of a third movement, the sonata finally appearing to him as ideal.

Aleksandr Skryabin (1872-1915)

Piano Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor Op. 19 ‘Sonata Fantasy’
(1892-7)
I. Andante • II. Presto

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Kreisleriana Op. 16 (1838)
Äusserst bewegt • Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch •
Sehr aufgeregt • Sehr langsam • Sehr lebhaft •
Sehr langsam • Sehr rasch • Schnell und spielend

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)

Scherzo No. 1 in B minor Op. 20 (c.1833)
Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor Op. 31 (1837)
Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor Op. 39 (1839)
Scherzo No. 4 in E Op. 54 (1842-3)

Boris Giltburg at the Wigmore Hall with a first half of all fantasies :Scriabin Second (Fantasy) Sonata and Schumann’s Kreisleriana.Some beautifully sensitive playing of the first movement of Scriabin with ravishing colours and a sense of balance that allowed the melodic line always to be revealed wrapped as it was in sumptuous golden streams of sound.The second movement was played with dynamic drive and throbbing passion with a kaleidoscope of sounds that allowed for a dynamic range of searing passion mixed with subtle delicacy . Playing with an I pad heroically in view he gave an exemplary performance of one of Scriabin’s most loved Sonatas.
I had heard recently a recording from the Wigmore Hall of Boris Giltburg giving a magnificent performance of Chopin’s 24 Preludes.Although he had the I pad as an aide memoire he never seemed to need it as the 24 problems,as Fou Ts’ong used to call them ,were 24 jewels in a sumptuous crown of nobility,elegance and grandeur.
So it was with great expectancy that I awaited a similar performance of Chopin’s Four Scherzi preceded by Schumann’s eight fantasies that make up Kreisleriana.

Not helped by a rather metallic sounding Fazioli piano Kreisleriana sounded rushed and rather erratic with exaggerated contrasts not only of sound but also tempo.There were of course many beautiful moments such as the central episode of the first fantasy or the beautiful simplicity of the first part of the fourth ( where surely ‘bewegter ’ means moving not actually slower?)The third sound strangely disjointed and although the central episode was played with great beauty it seemed strangely divorced from its surroundings.The fifth whilst being rhythmically very clear seemed to lack any real substance to the sound in the more lyrical passages that follow.The sixth was so whispered as to be almost inexistant before the rather unhinged attack of the seventh that like the first had seemed strangely out of control.The central episode was played by the left hand alone and revealed an absolute technical mastery that made its surroundings even more incomprehensible.Surely the final chords are part of what precedes them and is just a way of slowing down the tension?The eighth was the most successful where the absolute clarity of the right hand was beautifully judged contrasting with the long bass held notes.The first contrasting episode though was strangely sotto voce whereas the second was anything but sotto voce and made one wonder whether Floristan had suddenly woken from a deep sleep with a start.

Unfortunately the Chopin Scherzi fared no better with hurried frantic passage work in the first that although played with great drive and accuracy seemed strangely out of control.The beautiful Polish carol of the central episode was almost inaudible as more attention was shown to the top notes of the accompaniment than to the beautiful melody in the tenor or alto register.The second was played with great rhythmic energy and contrast but the central episode so divorced from its surrounding as to make any architectural sense of this well known masterpiece impossible.A very exciting ending and as at the end of the first had Giltburg happy to interrupt the continuity of this quartet of Scherzi with applause.The opening of the third I have never heard played so well but then the octaves that followed were like guns going off and totally divorced from the magnificent introduction that had preceded them.The chorale was played so sotto voce that even for Giltburg made it difficult to control the cascades of notes that illuminate this glorious almost religious outpouring.The fourth scherzo in a way suited Giltburg with its fleeting silf like changes of character but again the glorious cantabile of the central episode was barely whispered and the octaves at the end were more worthy of Tchaikowsky than poor old Chopin!
An almost inaudible and mannered performance of Clare de lune was cheered to the rafters by the ever generous Wigmore Hall audience and I was just sorry to have eavesdropped on an occasion that was so very different from the one I had been expecting.Chopin plus it was billed as from an illustrious artist in residence which was obviously not the case tonight.

Boris Giltburg an avalanche of Diabolic suggestions take the Wigmore by storm

Kreisleriana, op 16, is a in eight movements and subtitled Phantasien für das Pianoforte. Schumann claimed to have written it in only four days in April 1838^[and a revised version appeared in 1850.It is dedicated to Chopin , but when a copy was sent to the Polish composer, “he commented favorably only on the design of the title page”.

1. Äußerst bewegt (Extremely animated),
2. Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (Very inwardly and not too quickly). This movement in ABACA form, with its lyrical main , includes two contrasting intermezzi.In his 1850 edition, Schumann extended the first reprise of the theme by twenty measures in order to repeat it in full.
3. Sehr aufgeregt (Very agitated),
4. Sehr langsam (Very slowly), B♭ major/G minor
5. Sehr lebhaft (Very lively), G minor
6. Sehr langsam (Very slowly), B♭ major
7. Sehr rasch (Very fast),
8. Schnell und spielend (Fast and playful), G minor. Schumann used material from this movement in the fourth movement of his first symphony

Kreisleriana is a very dramatic work and is viewed by some critics as one of Schumann’s finest compositions.In 1839, soon after publishing it, Schumann called it in a letter “my favourite work,” remarking that “The title conveys nothing to any but Germans. Kreisler is one of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s creations, an eccentric, wild, and witty conductor.”

Like the kaleidoscopic Kreisler, each movement has multiple contrasting sections, resembling the imaginary musician’s manic depression , and recalling Schumann’s own “Florestan” and “Eusebius,” the two characters Schumann used to indicate his own contrasting impulsive and dreamy sides.

In a letter to his wife Clara , Schumann reveals that she has figured largely in the composition of Kreisleriana:

‘I’m overflowing with music and beautiful melodies now – imagine, since my last letter I’ve finished another whole notebook of new pieces. I intend to call it Kreisleriana. You and one of your ideas play the main role in it, and I want to dedicate it to you – yes, to you and nobody else – and then you will smile so sweetly when you discover yourself in it.^’

Chopin’s four scherzos were composed between 1833 and 1843. They are often linked to his four ballades , composed in roughly the same period; these works are examples of large scale autonomous musical pieces, composed within the classical framework, but surpassing previous expressive and technical limitations. Unlike the classical model, the musical form adopted by Chopin is not characterised by humour or elements of surprise, but by highly charged “gestures of despair and demonic energy”.Schumann wrote of the first scherzo : “How is ‘gravity’ to clothe itself if ‘jest’ goes about in dark veils?”Starting in the early 1830s, after his departure from Poland, Chopin’s musical style changed significantly, entering a mature period with compositions of exceptional single-movement pieces on a monumental scale, stamped with his unmistakable signature. There were ten of these extended works—the four ballades, the four scherzos and the two fantaisies (op 49 and 61) This musical transformation was preceded by Chopin’s new attitude to life: after adulation in Warsaw, he felt disillusioned by lukewarm audiences in Vienna; then his prospects as a pianist-composer seemed less inviting; and lastly nostalgia and the recent 1830 Polish uprising drew him back spiritually to Poland. The musical form “scherzo” comes from the Italian word ‘joke’. In its classical form, it is usually part of a multi-movement work, in triple time with a lively tempo and light-hearted mood. Beethoven’s scherzos perfectly exemplify this type of movement, with characteristic sforzandi off the beat, clearly articulated rhythms and rising or falling patterns.Chopin’s four scherzos enter into a different and grander realm. They are all marked presto or presto con fuoco and “expand immeasurably both the scale of the genre and its expressive range”. In these piano pieces, particular the first three, any initial feeling of levity or jocularity is replaced by “an almost demonic power and energy”.

Each of the four scherzos starts with abrupt or fragmentary motifs, which create a sense of tension or unease. The opening gestures of Scherzo No. 1 involve texture, dynamics and range: strident chords are followed by rapid will-o-the-wisp passagework, rising with crescendos—motifs that recur during the movement. In Scherzo No. 2, the initial fragmentary sotto voce rumblings are followed by a dramatic forceful response, all of which are repeated. The gesture that begins Scherzo No. 3 is similar to that of Scherzo No. 2, but less pronounced. The beginning of Scherzo No. 4 alternates two contrasting textures and harmonies—first subdued chords and then faster arched figures that rise and fall with the dynamics. In summary, Chopin established the one-movement scherzos as a genre in which the piece grew out of the opening fragmentary gestures, heard at the outset in the initial short and contrasting musical ideas.

Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-sharp minor, (op. 19, also titled Sonata-Fantasy) took five years for him to write. It was finally published in 1898, at the urging of his publisher. ‘You’ve had that piece long enough! Send it to me right away.’ Skryabin’s publisher and friend, Mitrofan Belyayev, was referring Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor Op. 19, a work that,despite its modest length, was almost six years in the
making. ‘It has been revised seven times’, the
composer remarked, before finally submitting it to
Belyayev in 1898.

In 1894 he had agreed to pay Scriabin to compose for his publishing company (he published works by notable composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov- Korsakov and Glazunov). In August 1897, Scriabin married the pianist Vera Ivanovna Isakovich, and then toured in Russia and abroad, culminating in a successful 1898 concert in Paris. That year he became a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory and began to establish his reputation as a composer. During this period he composed his cycle of etudes , Op. 8, several sets of preludes , his first three piano sonatas, and his only piano concerto , among other works, mostly for piano.

For five years, Scriabin was based in Moscow, during which time his old teacher Safonov conducted the first two of Scriabin’s symphonies.

P.S.

Christopher, your review of the Giltburg recital was one of the most honest and accurate that I have ever read. Last evening, I began to worry that my hearing was defective, but your review this morning has encouraged me to believe that I am retaining my faculties. I was tempted to leave at the interval after the divine Schumann was so badly mangled.

David Carhart thank you dear friend he is only the second person that I have allowed my feelings to take over but I had heard his Chopin Preludes on the Wigmore Website and thought that after the awful mangled Schumann he would give us some insights …but alas this was not the case and the encore summed up his musicianship that is on a par with Babayan …..the only other person I have allowed myself to describe what horrors were being enacted on such a hallowed stage …….I was incensed of the ignorance of taste of a public who could give him an ovation after such a feast ….it gave me indigestion and I hurried home as fast as I could thanking God that I had heard Alim the other day with hard work and humility transmitting the composers wishes to us …I just hope he survives the sharks that are out to cash in on artists who are ready to sacrifice their artistic integrity pushed by the machinery that can offer them concerts ………..quantity rather than quality …..the pressure and temptation is great.But of course I remember Brendel playing K271 and with that saying farewell to the concert platform before his powers diminished ………….what is this I pad thing that is so readily accepted in solo concerts …….even concertos now and no one remarks on it ………….

Alim Beisembayev piano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor Op. 57 ‘Appassionata’ (1804-5)
I. Allegro assai • II. Andante con moto •
III. Allegro ma non troppo – Presto

Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat Op. 110 (1821-2)
I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo •
II. Allegro molto • III. Adagio ma non troppo – Fuga.
Allegro ma non troppo

Interval
Aleksandr Skryabin (1872-1915)

4 Preludes Op. 22 (1897)
Prelude in G sharp minor • Prelude in C sharp minor •
Prelude in B • Prelude in B minor

Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Prelude in B minor Op. 32 No. 10 (1910)
Etude-tableau in D Op. 39 No. 9 (1916-7)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Gaspard de la nuit (1908)
I. Ondine • II. Le gibet • III. Scarbo

Alim Beisembayev in a major London recital at the Wigmore Hall .
A programme that already showed the credentials of great artistic integrity.
When these days do young musicians play two Beethoven Sonatas as an opener to an important London recital?
Only a fool or a great artist would dare open with the ‘Appassionata’ followed by Beethoven’s antidote to a turbulent life with the mellifluous, sublime outpouring of his penultimate sonata op 110.

Alim is certainly no fool and is quite simply one of the finest musicians I have heard since Serkin.A rhythmic precision and attention to the minutest details in the score of Boulezian clarity. Silences that were truly golden and were the anchors that we could hold on to inbetween the marvels that were being recreated before our very eyes .
An ‘Appassionata’ of startling contrasts that had us on the edge of our seats as if newly minted. The opening of op 110 after the extraordinarily relentless onslaught of the Presto ending of the ‘Appassionata’ was of such sublime beauty as Alim waited until he could feel we were all with him before gently caressing notes that like the fourth Concerto are of celestial genius.
There was magic in the air indeed and a great artist treating us with humility and mastery to performances the like of which has been missing too long from the concert hall .
We are getting too used to artists appearing before the public with the I pad in a desperate attempt to keep up with the speed with which concert artists are obliged to be entreated by people who are more interested in quantity than quality.
But it is the tension that is missing as was so evident today as this young man played with simplicity and humility what the composer had actually written .He had digested the score but more than that because it was the very meaning behind the notes that was both enthralling and enlightening . There were no nice conveniently turned corners to this young man’s Beethoven but the sinuous tempestuous impatience that we know was the man Beethoven.
A live performance should be like the man on the high wire holding us in his hands with electrifying suspence as was the wont of a Serkin or a Brendel.The surprise element ,the voyage of discovery that can unite strangers gathered to share in such experience is what we were treated to today.

As Gilels used to declare the difference between live music and recorded is that between fresh or canned food .I will never forget Serkin at the end of the ‘Hammerklavier’ in London holding onto the last chord as though his life depended on it,shaken as we all were after a tumultuous and even tortuous voyage of discovery together.Or Arrau at the end of the Beethoven Trilogy so overwhelmed as we all were he could never have had a quick cup of tea and repeated such a miracle to appease the crowds who demanded a return fight!

What a lesson we were treated to tonight by this young man who was trained in British Institutions that have nurtured his great natural talent and imbued him with a technical mastery that allows him to delve deep into the very heart of the creative genius of the composers he is serving .Je sens,je joue je trasmets has never found a greater advocate……..

What a superb start to the second half of the concert with a very short survey of Russian music with ravishing beauty of nobility,sensuality and nostalgia.Four preludes op 22 by Scriabin that with Alim’s chameleonic sense of colour and mood was a multicoloured feast of fluidity and luminosity.The sumptuous hidden passion of the first was followed by a mere page of sublime simplicity and the capricious play with sounds of the third.They lead so naturally to the Romantic effusions of the last in B minor and behold a miracle that this was transformed as if by magic into the ‘Return’ by Rachmaninov in the same key.The Prelude in B minor with its improvised searching character was a favourite of the composer and his great friend Moiseiwitch who had delved deep into this miniature tone poem and found the same poetic meaning as the composer intended.The gentle opening lead to an overpowering climax that was so gradual and well balanced that we were not aware of how overwhelming it would be .Immediately there was a desolate nostalgic calm like a light being turned off . Such was Alim’s mastery of sound he could lead us where he wanted to as he had a story to tell with his sensitive fingers and kaleidoscopic sense of colour.Of course the final word was from Rachmaninov with the extraordinary sumptuous outpouring of the Etude – tableau op 39 n. 9 .Even here though there was a story to tell as the dynamic opening energy subsided and there was the contrasting episode of crystal like clarity where all the strands of counterpoint could be heard chattering amongst themselves as the excitement grew to fever pitch and the final gloriously sumptuous outpouring of grandeur and nobility allied to an almost animal pitch of excitement.

Gaspard de la nuit was the closing work of the recital and it held no terror for Alim .His only concern was to transmit Ravel’s extraordinary recreation of the poems by Bertrand even though Ravel had set out to test the technical prowess of pianists by writing a piece of equal if not more difficulty that Balakirev ‘s notorious Islamey.Technical considerations just disappeared as we were taken into a magic world of sounds with the delicacy and fluidity of Ondine.There were ‘puffs’ of colour that appeared as if by alchemy when least expected.An extraordinary sense of line that no matter how complex the texture Ondine shone through as she darted from one end of the keyboard to the other with silf like precision.After the tumultuous climax Ondine was left on her own barely a whisper bathed in pedal .In Alim’s hands ,like his long pedals that Beethoven demands,suddenly made sense and added some quite extraordinary colours to an instrument that is after all a box of hammers and strings.How can one possibly persuade us that it can sing as beautifully as the human voice ?By artistry,technical mastery but above all a supreme sense of balance .Alim is not only a courageous high flyer but a supreme illusionist as were the pianists in the so called Golden Age of piano playing .Was it not Matthay who said that in each note on the piano there are a hundred different gradations of sound depending on how the keys are touched.

Seeing Stephen Kovacevich in the audience applauding his younger colleague I am reminded of his great mentor Myra Hess – the star student of Uncle Tobbs at the Royal Academy.The desolate sounds of Le Gibet were of such insistence and the bass notes gave the needed anchor on which the gallows could swing with such frightening isolation.Scarbo entered in this desolate atmosphere with a remarkable clarity.The deep bass notes I have never heard so clearly defined as the vibrating chords – like in Beethoven’s aria of op 110 – unbelievably were like blowing on the keys such was their extraordinary unpercussivness.I remember Agosti pushing my fingers nearer the keys never to hit but caress and pull sounds that are hidden deep within the black and white keys of this great black beast.Perlemuter too changing fingers many times on one note like an organist to feel the weight within the keys as you slid from one to the other never letting go.

Here again it was the silences that were so overwhelming in their impact not only of the silence but what came immediately afterwards.In the central episode I have never been aware of the fact that this is Ondine again raising her head before being dragged into the infernal furness of the triumphant Scarbo.Extraordinary technical mastery and passionate involvement from Alim who like the great masters of the past would show and guide us to the one and only climax in a piece and it was this that gave such architectural authority to his performances.Rubinstein of course was the prime example who even in his late 80’s would suddenly inject a work with electric energy sometimes even rising from the seat to do so.

The tricks of the trade my old teacher Sidney Harrison used to call them.But what trade ?That of master musicians who are totally dedicated to their art.That is what I was reminded of today as Alim was cheered to the rafters by the discerning Wigmore Hall public and persuaded to play two encores that were indeed the cherry on a sumptuous cake.

Chopin Prelude op 28 n.17 .The deep A flat in the bass created a sound where the melodic line could appear as an apparition from afar a ‘Cathédrale engloutie’ indeed .And finally a ‘Chasse Neige’ by Liszt that made one realise what a true genius Liszt was when his works are played with the intelligence and fantasy that we heard today.Every bit as frightening as Scarbo as the whispered chromatic scales built to a terrifying climax – never hard or ungrateful but the sumptuous and ravishingly beauty of a truly ‘Grand’ piano.

Alim Beisembayev – The poetic vision of a great artist

Gaspard de la nuit (subtitled Trois poèmes pour piano d’après Aloysius Bertrand), M.55 was written in 1908. It has three movements , each based on a poem or fantaisie from the collection Gaspard de la Nuit – Fantasies à la manière de Rembrandt e de Callot completed in 1836 by Aloysius Bertrand . The work was premiered in Paris, on January 9, 1909, by Ricardo Vines.

The piece is famous for its difficulty, partly because Ravel intended the Scarbo movement to be more difficult than Balakirev’s Islamey . Because of its technical challenges and profound musical structure, Scarbo is considered one of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the standard repertoire.

The name “Gaspard ” is derived from its original Persian form, denoting “the man in charge of the royal treasures”: “Gaspard of the Night” or the treasurer of the night thus creates allusions to someone in charge of all that is jewel-like, dark, mysterious, perhaps even morose.

Of the work, Ravel himself said: “Gaspard has been a devil in coming, but that is only logical since it was he who is the author of the poems. My ambition is to say with notes what a poet expresses with words.”

Aloysius Bertrand , author of Gaspard de la Nuit (1842), introduces his collection by attributing them to a mysterious old man met in a park in Dijon , who lent him the book. When he goes in search of M. Gaspard to return the volume, he asks, “ ’Tell me where M. Gaspard de la Nuit may be found.’ ‘He is in hell, provided that he isn’t somewhere else’, comes the reply. ‘Ah! I am beginning to understand! What! Gaspard de la Nuit must be…?’ the poet continues. ‘Ah! Yes… the devil!’ his informant responds. ‘Thank you, mon brave!… If Gaspard de la Nuit is in hell, may he roast there. I shall publish his book.’ ”

Beethoven’s A flat major Sonata, Op 110, was his penultimate sonata, written in 1821, 

The outward gentleness of the opening movement belies its tautness of form, and the contrast with the brief second, a scherzo marked Allegro molto – capricious, gruffly humorous, even violent – is extreme. Beethoven subversively sneaks in references to two street songs popular at the time: Unsa Kätz häd Katzln ghabt (‘Our cat has had kittens’) and Ich bin lüderlich, du bist lüderlich (‘I’m dissolute, you’re dissolute’)! 

Facsimile of last movement p.43 

But it’s in the finale that the weight of the sonata lies, and it begins with a declamatory, recitative-like passage that starts in the minor, moving to an emotionally pained aria-like section.Beethoven introduces a quietly authoritative fugue, based on a theme reminiscent of the one that opened the sonata. Its progress interrupted by the aria once more, its line now disjunct and almost sobbing for breath. The way in which the composer moves into the major via a sequence of G major chords is a passage of pure radiance, that Edwin Fischer described as ‘like a reawakening heartbeat’. This leads to a second appearance of the fugue in inversion culminating in a magnificently triumphant conclusion.

In the summer of 1819, Adolf Martin Schlesinger from the Schlesinger firm of music publishers based in Berlin sent his son Maurice to meet Beethoven to form business relations with the composer.The two met in Modling,where Maurice left a favourable impression on the composer.After some negotiation by letter, the elder Schlesinger offered to purchase three piano sonatas for 90 ducats in April 1820, though Beethoven had originally asked for 120 ducats. In May 1820, Beethoven agreed, and he undertook to deliver the sonatas within three months. These three sonatas are the ones now known as Op. 109,110, and 111 the last of Beethoven’s piano 

Beethoven’s own markings with the ‘bebung‘ or vibrated notes in the Adagio of op.110

The composer was prevented from completing the promised sonatas on schedule by several factors, including his work on the Missa solemnis (Op. 123),rheumatic attacks in the winter of 1820, and a bout of jaundice in the summer of 1821.Op. 110 “did not begin to take shape” until the latter half of 1821.Although Op. 109 was published by Schlesinger in November 1821, correspondence shows that Op. 110 was still not ready by the middle of December 1821. The sonata’s completed autograph score bears the date 25 December 1821, but Beethoven continued to revise the last movement and did not finish until early 1822.The copyist’s score was presumably delivered to Schlesinger around this time, since Beethoven received a payment of 30 ducats for the sonata in January 1822.

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, op 57 , known as the Appassionata, was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick. The first edition was published in February 1807 in Vienna

The ‘Appassionata’ was not named during the composer’s lifetime, but was so labelled in 1838 by the publisher of a four-hand arrangement of the work. Instead, Beethoven’s autograph manuscript of the sonata has “La Passionata” written on the cover, in Beethoven’s hand.

Alim Beisembayev won First Prize at The Leeds International Piano Competition in September 2021, performing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Manze. He also took home the medici.tv Audience Prize and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society Prize for contemporary performance, with The Guardian praising him as a “worthy winner” with a “real musical personality”.Announced as a BBC New Generation Artist 2023-25, in summer 2023 Alim made his Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms debut performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and recorded for BBC Television.Further highlights in the 2023/24 season include debuts with the BBC Symphony (Jonathan Bloxham), BBC Philharmonic (Joshua Weilerstein), Bournemouth Symphony (Tom Fetherstonhaugh) and Enescu Philharmonic as well as returning to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Domingo Hindoyan) to perform the World Premiere of a new piano concerto by Eleanor Alberga.Recent concerto highlights include with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (Pablo Rus Broseta), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Case Scaglione), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Clemens Schuldt), Oxford Philharmonic, SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart (Yi-Chen Lin), RCM Symphony Orchestra (Sir Antonio Pappano), National Symphony Orchestra of India, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov” and Fort-Worth Symphony.As a recitalist, Alim has made notable debuts at the BBC Proms at Truro, the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Oxford Piano Festival, Wigmore Hall, Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris) and Cliburn Concerts in addition to a tour of Europe in association with the Steinway Prizewinner Concerts Network, and Korea, with the World Culture Network. Upcoming recitals include his debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Birmingham Town Hall and return visits to the Seoul Arts Centre and Wigmore Hall among others.In December 2022, Warner Classics released Alim’s debut album: Liszt Transcendental Études, featuring all twelve of the composer’s etudes which was met with critical acclaim.Born in Kazakhstan in 1998, Alim’s early studies were at the Purcell School where he won several awards, including First Prize at the Junior Cliburn International Competition. Alim was taught by Tessa Nicholson at school and continued his studies with her at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2023, Alim completed his Masters’ and Artist Diploma in Performance at the Royal College of Music where he studied with Professor Vanessa Latarche. He is generously supported by numerous scholarships such as the Imogen Cooper Music Trust, ABRSM, the Countess of Munster, Hattori Foundation, the Drake Calleja Fund trusts, and belongs to the Talent Unlimited charity scheme.

A homage to one of Forli’s most illustrious citizen’s ,Guido Agosti,with a series of recitals organised by a fellow citizen and pianist Giuliano Tuccia.

I could not imagine a better way to celebrate one of the greatest musicians of his age than with the concert I heard last night by Serena Valluzzi.
A eclectic programme of Debussy,De Severac and Albeniz that created a magic atmosphere of foreign lands joined by a poetic link of subtle ravishing sounds.It was though the musicianship of Serena that allowed her to delve deep into the heart of these atmospheric works and get to the very core of the creation with the respect and musicianship that were the fundamental principles of Guido Agosti.
Serena I had noted at the Busoni Competition and had been impressed by the simplicity and beauty of her playing of ‘Gaspard de la Nuit’.It was later that Louis Lortie,who had been the chairman of the jury,who confided how impressed he too had been by her extraordinary musicianship and sensitivity to sound.She was infact awarded a top prize in Bolzano.

‘Gaspard’ has long been a war horse for virtuosi to show off their wares at the expense of the poetic content that Ravel had depicted.
Agosti in Siena in exasperation would exhort the pianists who flocked to his studio every year from all over the globe not to play too loudly and to follow exactly what the composer had written.
The rock on which an interpretation is founded are the indications left by the composer in the score.It is only when that is understood and mastered that a performer can add his own colours and personality like a painter to his canvas.

Agosti was a great admirer of Debussy and he chose the Preludes book 2 as the programme he gave at the Chigiana in Siena for his 80th birthday.It is one of the few recordings of this great pianist whose humility and dedication to music made public performances a torment for him.

The world would flock to his studio in Siena for thirty years where he was in total command and at ease and it was there that we would hear sounds we would never forget.
A legend was truly born.
And it is this legend that the young pianist Giuliano Tuccia wants his fellow citizens to remember and recognise.

What better way than with Serena ,a complete musician,playing Debussy’s magical ‘Estampes’.The subtle sounds of ‘Pagodes’,the beguiling insinuating ‘Soirées dans Grenade’ and the delicate patter of ‘Jardins sous la Pluie’ was turned into a magic land of subtle sounds and ravishing technical mastery.

A very interesting choice was of a fascinating work by Deodat De Severac :Cerdana ,Cinq etudes pittoresques.What a kaleidoscope of colours and sensitive virtuosity she showed us with a transcendental control of sound that was indeed the principle hallmark of Agosti.
I remember hearing Richter for the first time in London and being astonished at how quietly he could play and with what control between pianissimo and mezzo forte .Of course there were the passionate animal like explosion too but it was here that I began to truly understand Agosti when he would exhort the pianists with ‘troppo forte ….no…..no….piano …piano ‘ as he would push the students hand nearer to the keys so they could feel the sound in their fingertips rather than falling from on high like a sledge hammer.

Serena told me afterwards that it has been Aldo Ciccolini who had discovered the music of De Severac and had recorded the entire piano works too.It is good to see another great musician like Serena continuing this campaign for music that is inexplicably rarely heard in the concert hall.
The beguiling constant pitter patter of El Albaicin by Albeniz was exactly the right work to finish this short homage to the genius of Agosti.
I have heard him teach and explain this work many times and can hear him now as he intoned the music with his passionate hypnotic humming as he demonstrated and ignited the passion in the students before him.And how he would suddenly inflame the piano with passionate abandon as Serena did today too with flames of the same searing intensity.

Another miniature by De Severac was the enchanting encore that Serena offered today and will have me rushing back home to find out more of this greatly neglected composer.

Giuliano writes :’Non posso fare altro che dire grazie a Daniele Ceraolo per la bellissima performance di ieri sera. Un recital focalizzato su Beethoven e Debussy con una padronanza e ricchezza di suono ineguagliabili. Pubblico molto attento alle atmosfere sonore create all’interno della Fabbrica delle Candele. Felice di confermare Daniele per il prossimo anno!’

The third recital in this festival dedicated to Guido Agosti was given by the Russian pianist Roman Salyutov.A pianist who received his early training at the St Petersburg Conservatory where he graduated in 2008 .He continued his studies in Cologne at the Hochschule where he obtained his Masters in 2010 and in 2011 a doctorate from Paderborn University with his thesis on the pianistic works of Cesar Franck.

Since then he has pursued a career not only as solo pianist and chamber musician but also as conductor of various orchestras that he has founded.
In 2018 he was decorated with a distinction for his cultural activities from the city of Bergisch Gladbach where since 2013 he has been principal conductor of the Symphony Orchestra in that city near Cologne.He has also founded the first German – Israeli Orchestra -the Yachad Chamber Orchestra that performs not only in Germany but also in Israel,Lithuania,Poland and France.As a musicologist and pianist he also is regularly invited to give masterclasses.An eclectic musician who on this occasion had driven from Zurich to take part in this new festival in Forlì organised by fellow pianist Giuliano Tuccia.

A programme that demonstrated to the full his extraordinary qualities as virtuoso and musician.

The concert opened with the poignant virtuosity of Liszt’s variations on Bach’s ‘Weinen,Klagen,Sorgen,Zagen’.A work written by Liszt in a very difficult time of his life with the death of his two children.It is an outpouring of grandiose moments of great exuberance contrasting with moments of intimate reflection and beauty .This massive set of variations was written by Franz Liszt when two of his three children had died within three years of each other; he had resigned his position of Kapellmeister to the court of Weimar due to continued opposition to his music, and finally his long sought marriage to Princess Caroline Wittgenstein had been thwarted by political intrigue. Written after Liszt joined the Third Order of Saint Francis and during a time of deep personal tragedy, it reflects both Liszt’s religious journey and his coping with suffering and shows daring explorations of chromaticism that pushed the limits of tonality. It was arranged for organ one year after the piano version was composed and became one of his best-known compositions for organ.The work dates from 1862 and was motivated by the death of Liszt’s elder daughter, Blandine and is dedicated to Anton Rubinstein.

Roman gave a truly virtuoso performance with his long relaxed arms hovering above the keys like eagles swooping in on their prey.A totally committed performance of great technical command and of course being also a noted conductor he could see the whole architectural shape of this heart rending masterpiece by Liszt.His technical mastery and facility together with a great sense of style was to bring the concert later to an exciting conclusion with the 12th Hungarian Rhapsody that Liszt had penned for himself to play when he and Paganini were the considered to be the greatest showmen on earth.Roman in almost improvisatory mood could shift from the seductive zigane melodies to the wild traditional dance to the complete brass band .There were moments in which he created the delicate atmosphere of seduction with searing melodies of sumptuous colours and with his chameleonic sense of style could switch to the breathtaking rhythmic excitement that had the refined ladies of the salons of the day reduced to screaming wild animals trying to get a snatch of this Devil’s hair perchance to dream of their idol.

It was after such a scintillating ending to a long concert that Roman played as an encore Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor op posth and the heavens opened to show us a world of refined elegance and bel canto playing of quite exquisite beauty.Roman had laid aside his indefatigable technical resources to show the pure simple beauty that were also in his long delicate fingers.

The main work in this excellently presented programme was the last of Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas: op 111.Part of the final trilogy of Sonatas that had followed Beethoven’s career from the first Sonatas op 2 dedicated to his teacher Haydn through the tumultuous ‘Appassionata’ op 57 and ‘Hammerklavier’ op 106 to the sublime climax after a tumultuous and difficult life .This final trilogy op 109,op.110 and op 111 were written when Beethoven was completely deaf and he could only hear the music in his inner ear .The marvel of such genius is that he could still write down in the score such minute indications of his intentions for posterity.Roman played the opening ‘Maestoso’ with grandeur and intelligence playing the mighty opening leaps with one hand and throwing down the gauntlet that was to allow him to risk and push to the limits Beethoven’s Allegro con brio .Music boiling at 100 degrees (as Perlemuter described it to me) with only momentary gasps coming up for air with simple ravishing moments of peace.Roman threw himself into the fray with heroic abandon maybe just a little too fast for comfort but it had us sitting on the edge of our seats as he brought this first movement to a close without ever conceding the tempo .The Sonata in C minor ending in C major the key for the celestial heights that Beethoven was to reveal in his final ‘Arietta’ and variations.’Adagio molto,semplice e cantabile’ was played with beauty and simplicity the variations allowed to flow so naturally .There was a continuous hidden undercurrent that was to take us to the tumultuous third variation before the fragmented disintegration of the Arietta only to return triumphantly before ascending into celestial heights .Celestial heights where trills were mere vibrations on which Beethoven could float the beautiful arietta having arrived at a vision of sublime beauty that only Beethoven could foresee.Roman managed to see the entire movement as one and showed us with his superb musicianship the architectural shape of this revolutionary sonata.

Roman took Chopin at his word with a Polonaise that was made of pure fantasy.Deeply felt,there were moments of great beauty and passionate abandon but the title Polonaise – Fantasie had signified for Roman a freedom and liberty with the score that slightly dissected a revolutionary new form into a series of beautiful episodes rather than a complete whole. Many of Chopin’s indications were played in the ‘traditional’ way of a different era.

It was to the Etudes- Tableaux that Roman came into his own with his superb technical command and ravishing sense of colour.They were six miniature tone poems with the call to arms of the E flat op 33 followed by the glorious simplicity of the G minor op 33.The A minor op 39 was bathed in pedal with it’s beautiful nostalgic melody leading to an overpowering climax of passion and excitement.There was something of monumental grandeur to the final C sharp minor Etude – Tableaux op 33 that was breathtaking with it’s tumultuous orchestral sounds.

Tonight our host plays a duo recital with the violinist Emiliano Gennari that I am sorry to miss.But Giuliano will make his solo recital debut at Steinway Hall in London on the 7th February for the Keyboard Trust that I will certainly not miss.I will shake the hand of a talented young musician who has been the first to have the courage and skill to organise concerts in their home town of Forlì dedicated to Guido Agosti one of the greatest and most influential musicians of his age .

Giuliano Tuccia writes : ‘Bravissimo Emiliano Gennari, è riuscito a distinguersi in un recital per pianoforte e violino con grande entusiasmo. La Rassegna Guido Agosti si conclude in bellezza, con musiche di W.A.Mozart e L.V.Beethoven. Ringrazio amici, parenti e le poche persone che hanno preso parte a questa splendida rassegna di altissimo livello. Ringrazio anche Christopher Axworthy, che ho avuto modo di conoscere dal vivo ed ospitare a casa mia. Abbiamo fatto visita a Guido Agosti al cimitero monumentale di Forlì ed è stato veramente toccante; un evento che non dimenticherò mai. Ringrazio il mio consiglio direttivo formato da Chiara Bolognesi e Arcangelo Pinto. Ringrazio Marco Viroli perché forse è stato l’unico ad appoggiare questa iniziativa, e senza il quale, questo non sarebbe potuto accadere. Non vedo l’ora di organizzare la seconda edizione ad aprile/maggio 2024. Grazie!! A presto.’

Guido Agosti (11 August 1901 – 2 June 1989) was an Italian pianist and renowned for his yearly summer course in Siena frequented by all the major musicians of the age.It was on the express wish of Alfredo Casella that Agosti took over his class which he did for the next thirty years.Sounds heard in his studio have never been forgotten.

Agosti was born in Forli 1901. He studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni Bruno Mugellini and Filippo Ivaldiand earning his diploma at age 13. He studied counterpoint under Benvenuti and literature at Bologna University. He commenced his professional career as a pianist in 1921. Although he never entirely abandoned concert-giving, nerves made it difficult for him to appear on stage,and he concentrated on teaching. He taught piano at the Venice Conservatoire and at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome.In 1947 he was appointed Professor of piano at the Accademia Chigiana Siena .He also taught at Weimar and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

His notable students include Maria Tipo,Yonty Solomon Leslie Howard,Hamish Milne,Martin Jones,Ian Munro,Dag Achat,Raymond Lewenthal,Ursula Oppens,Kun- Woo Paik,Peter Bithell.He made very few recordings; there is a recording of op 110 from the Ghione theatre in Rome together with his recording on his 80th birthday concert in Siena of Debussy preludes .

He first studied in Toulouse, then later moved to Paris to study under Vincent d’Indy and Albéric Magnard at the Scuola Cantorum , an alternative to the training offered by the Paris Conservatoire . There he took organ lessons from Alexandre Guilmant and worked as an assistant to Isaac Albéniz. He returned to the southern part of France, where he spent much of the rest of his rather short life. His native south was a region that attracted a number of his contemporaries—artists and poets he had met in Paris.His opera Héliogabale was produced at Bézier in 1910.Séverac is noted for his vocal and choral music, which includes settings of verse in Occitan (the historic language of Languedoc) and Catalan (the historic language of Roussillon)as well as French poems by Verlaine and Baudelaire .His compositions for solo piano have also won critical acclaim, and many of them were titled as pictorial evocations and published in the collections Chant de la terre, En Languedoc, and En vacances.

A popular example of his work is The Old Musical Box (“Où l’on entend une vieille boîte à musique”, from En vacances). His masterpiece, however, is the piano suite Cerdaña (written 1904–1911), filled with the local color of Languedoc.His motet Tantum ergo is also still in current use in church settings.

Selected compositions

Operas

• Les Antibels (1907, lost) based on a novel by Émile Pouvillon
• Le Cœur du moulin, poème lyrique in two acts (1908)
• Héliogabale, tragédie lyrique in three acts (1910)
• Le Roi Pinard, opérette (1919)

Works for Piano

• Le Chant de la terre (1900)
• En Languedoc (1904)
• Le Soldat de plombe (1904), for piano duet
• Baigneuses au soleil (1908)
• Cerdaña. 5 Études pittoresques (1904–1911)
• En vacances. Petites pièces romantiques (1912)
• Sous les lauriers roses (1919)
• Où l’on entend une vieille boîte à musique (An Old Music Box)

Chamber music

• Barcarolle (1898), flute and piano
• Élégie héroique (1918), violin/cello and piano/organ
• Trois Recuerdos & Cortège nuptial catalan (1919), string quintet and brass
• Minyoneta (1919), violin and piano
• Souvenirs de Céret (1919), violin and piano

Choral music

• Sant Félix (1900)
• Mignonne allons voir si la rose (1901)
• La Cité (1909)
• Sorèze et Lacordaire (1911)
• Sainte Jeanne de Lorraine (1913)

Songs

• numerous art songs, including À l’aube dans la montagne (1906) and Flors d’Occitania

Aldo Ciccolini plays Cerdana :https://youtube.com/watch?v=O2QvORxyGvk&feature=shared

Guido Agosti