The Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is a multifunctional complex built to replace the old Teatro Comunale and was designed by architect Paolo Desideri .It is the main venue of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino , and hosts various types of musical and cultural events.It is located near the Parco delle Cascine and the Firenze Porta al Prato station and is equipped with a hall with 1890 seats, intended for the opera theatre, an auditorium, named after the maestro Zubin Mehta , with 1200 seats, for symphony concerts and concert music. room, and an outdoor auditorium with 2000 seats work was undertaken from 2009-2021and opened on December 21, 2011
We came to hear Beethoven with Lupo and Gatti but it was Brahms that stole our hearts. After a performance of Beethoven’s first piano concerto of dynamic brilliance and refined beauty Benedetto by great insistence was enticed into playing an encore. It was as though the heavens had opened as he caressed the keys with an aristocratic sense of style and a kaleidoscopic range of sounds in the Brahms Intermezzo in A op 118 n.2.
The whispered opening almost unnoticeably grew in sound and weight to a sumptuously rich climax.The duet between voices in the central episode was of orchestral proportions as they wove together with a golden glow of warmth that seemed to entice us in to the sublime world that was evolving from Benedetto’s hands.The gradual disintegration of the ending was played with barely audible sounds that seemed to shimmer and gleam with poignant poetry in this visionary landscape. A Beethoven where Benedetto had defined the opening with a driving rhythmic insistence that contrasted so well with the whispered legato of the central episode. The Largo was played with such intimacy but at the same time the notes were projected into the upper reaches of the Zubin Mehta hall. Daniele Gatti too was a sensitive partner who was able to create such an initimate atmosphere from the superb young players he had before him.
The rondo just shot from Benedetto’s hands where his artistry in knowing how to shape and sculpture the sounds brought this movement so vividly to life. Mention should also be made of the delicacy of his playing in the ‘little’ cadenza of the first movement but even more beautiful were the final notes from the piano that he allowed to glisten as they flowed like jewels from his fingers before the final explosion from the orchestra brought to a conclusion a remarkably refined performance of what was infact Beethoven’s second Concerto!
The sumptuous foyer of the new Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino The Sala Zubin Mehta The new hall near to the old Teatro Comunale that I knew so well from my student days and that has now been demolished to make way for the new
Considered by international critics as one of the most interesting and complete talents of his generation, Benedetto Lupo made his debut at thirteen years of age with Beethoven’s First Concerto; he immediately earned distinctions in numerous international competitions, including the Cortot and the Ciudad de Jaén competitions in Europe, and the Robert Casadesus, Gina Bachauer, and Van Cliburn competitions in the United States. In 1992, as his intense performance activity brought him to the Americas, Japan, and Europe, he won the Terence Judd Award in London.
Benedetto Lupo has played on numerous occasions at New York’s Lincoln Center, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Tanglewood Festival, the Lanaudière Festival, the Oxford Festival, the International Festival in Istanbul, the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, and at Copenhagen’s Tivoli Festival. He has been guest of the leading Italian theatres –Teatro alla Scala in Milan, San Carlo in Naples, La Fenice in Venice, the Teatro Comunale theatres of Bologna and Florence, Turin’s Teatro Regio, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, and Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari – and of the major national concert institutions, including the Orchestra dell’Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Verdi in Milan, I Pomeriggi Musicali, the Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Unione Musicale in Turin, La Società del Quartetto in Milan, the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Amici della Musica in Florence, Festival Pianistico Internazionale in Bergamo and Brescia, and the “Micat in Vertice” season of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana.
Of the world-famous orchestras he has played with, in North and South America, mention may be made of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the New World Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, Les Violons du Roy, and the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira; in Europe, he has performed with the London Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchester in Leipzig, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Hallé Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, the Orquesta Nacional de España, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Slovak Philharmonic, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, and the Bruckner Orchester Linz. The conductors he has worked with most frequently include Yves Abel, John Axelrod, Piero Bellugi, Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Fabio Biondi, Daniele Callegari, Christoph Campestrini, Aldo Ceccato, Nicholas Collon, Yoram David, Vladimir Delman, Gabriel Feltz, Gabriele Ferro, Ed Gardner, Andrew Grams, Giancarlo Guerrero, Lü Jia, Vladimir Jurowski, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Pavel Kogan, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, Marko Letonja, Alain Lombard, Nicholas McGegan, Fabio Mechetti, Juanjo Mena, Kent Nagano, Daniel Oren, George Pehlivanian, Zoltan Pesko, Michel Plasson, Josep Pons, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Lawrence Renes, Corrado Rovaris, Joseph Silverstein, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Michael Stern, Gregory Vajda, Alexander Vedernikov, Antoni Wit, Hugh Wolff, Kazuki Yamada, and Xian Zhang.
In addition to his recordings for numerous radio and television broadcasters in Europe and the United States, Lupo has recorded for TELDEC, BMG, VAI, NUOVA ERA, and the complete works for piano and orchestra by Schumann for ARTS. In 2005, a new recording of Nino Rota’s Concerto Soirée was released for Harmonia Mundi, winning no fewer than five international prizes, including the “Diapason d’Or.”
A pianist with an enormous repertoire, Benedetto Lupo can also boast a major chamber and teaching career; he holds master classes at major international institutions and is often invited to the juries of prestigious international piano competitions. Since the 2013/2014 academic year, he has been professor of piano in the master courses at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where, in December 2015 he was named “Active Academician.”
Some more remarkable playing from this young musician who I had heard in the early stages of his student career at the Guildhall.It was a Beethoven competition streamed during the pandemic where he played very musically and diligently and did in fact win the competition.I would never have imagined though that he would mature ,even under such superb musical guidance from Martin Roscoe and Ronan o ‘Hora,into the artist that we have now witnessed twice at St Mary’s within the last ten days.His performance for the Liszt Society as winner of their previous competition revealed an artist who had grown in stature since the previous years victory.Now again after only ten days I am astonished by his even more mature mastery of style and pianistic colour allied to a security both technical and musical.Not only giving note perfect ( in every sense) performances but being able to share his obvious love and passion for music with such eloquent and intelligent words.The exquisite sounds of chiselled beauty are those that only a true believer like Messiaen would dare write with such fervent devotion.Deep mediative sounds combined with a very devout atmosphere where layers of chiselled sounds would be thrown on top with heart rending meaning and untamed devotion.The performances of two of the Preludes showed a kaleidoscopic sense of colour allied to a musicianship that could guide us so directly to the very core of the creation where William had told us that so few notes could mean so much.The number of notes was to increase quite considerably as Messiaen matured and his devotion became ever more intense.The ‘Regard de l’Esprit de Joie’ is a well known tour de force for any pianist.It was Jean- Rodolphe Kars who brought it to our attention in the rounds of the first Leeds Competition over 50 years ago.Substituting for Michelangeli at the last minute too at the Royal Festival Hall we had a chance again to hear this clean clear brilliance that allowed the music of Messiaen to hypnotise us with his religious and his ornithologic obsession.Kars became a Trappist Monk as he obviously felt the music in the same way as Messiaen!William played it with the same clarity and ‘Aimard’ type brilliance and precision that was quite remarkable for a live performance from memory .Anyone who has seen the score of Messiaen’s works will appreciate what a tour de force that truly is.To all this was added the ‘Spanish’ part of the recital with insinuatingly tantalising performances of Debussy in Spanish mood( how right William was to note that it takes French composers to write convincing Spanish music!) .A Mompou that can be better appreciated in this context and in smaller quantities than we are being exposed to these days.
There was a simple beauty and a gracious sense of style that he showed in the Haydn Variations that he brought vividly to life with each variation given its own character but within a framework that was masterly held together.Even the slight addition of ornaments was done with subtle good taste that just added to the refined beauty of these variations.Mozart too and even the appoggiatura played as acciaccatura in the last movement was the choice of a thinking musician who could bring Mozart’s characters centre stage with such evident bucolic enjoyment and joie de vivre.The Andante too was played with profound simplicity and a wondrous range of sounds but always with the sense of style and graciousness that were of their time.No encore was possible after the tumultuous ending created by his Messiaen but it would not have surprised me if he,like Serkin,would have sat down and played the Aria from the Goldberg Variations ………followed by their thirty or so off spring!Chapeau indeed dear William onwards and upwards!
Messiaen: ‘La Colombe’ from Preludes
William Bracken is in high demand as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and teacher. The Wirral-born pianist has won numerous awards including 1st prize at the 2022 Liszt Society International Piano Competition and 1st prize, press prize and audience prize at the 2023 Euregio Piano Award international piano competition. He is currently continuing studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where he also holds a position as assistant professor of classical improvisation. Concert highlights include several concerto performances at The Barbican, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, St. John’s Smith Square and recitals at Chipping Campden Festival, LSO St. Luke’s and most recently Wigmore Hall, where he was praised by the Telegraph for his “courage and stamina and musicality in abundance” and “an ability to hold an audience in the palm of his hand”.
William has worked with many of today’s leading musicians including Stephen Hough, Richard Goode, Simon Trpceski and Paul Lewis. In 2022 William was made a scholar of the Imogen Cooper music trust which involved participating in a week of intensive study in the south of France with renowned pianist Dame Imogen Cooper – that summer he also won a full scholarship to attend the Aspen Music Festival and Summer School in Colorado U.S.A, studying with Hung-Kuan Chen and Fabio Bidini. William performs a large and diverse range of repertoire and also has a keen interest in jazz and improvisational elements of performing classical music. He is supported in his postgraduate studies with profs. Martin Roscoe and Ronan O’Hora by the GSMD.
Ileana Ghione 3rd December 2005. Joan Booth 3rd December 2017
“She passed away the same day as my wife (12 years previously) in the light of the Super Moon and I like to think that Ileana opened her arms to light the way for my dearest friend.”
It was just a year since Ileana had died and I decided to dedicate a mass to her in the Cathedral of her home town of Asti.She felt her roots very deeply and we wouid often come to Asti to see her mothers sister and grand children who we were glad to have helped when their father died and they were still teenagers. Massimo Scaglione,her lifelong friend and distinguished television and stage director, would often invite Ileana to performances in Asti -The photo is from an evening he dedicated to Ileana a few years before. I came back now a year later which was just enough time to be abandoned by ‘our’ family who we had shared everything with so generously over our thirty years together with esteem and love and much else besides. Parassitic greed meant that I now arrived in ‘our’ city alone with terrible rumours spread by Ileanas brother and sister of my evil machinations and intentions Milena Vukotic and Renzo Rosso two such warm faithful friends spurred me on to commemorate my adored wife who had left me alone too soon. The cathedral was full to the rafters and I decided ,spurred on by Milena to talk about Ileana and our love story of thirty years. No sign of our ‘cousins ‘ or close family was very hurtful but there are so many things that are revealed when a close family member dies. The next morning in the hotel in the main square that we had always stayed in together I was having breakfast feeling very alone when the waiter asked if he could talk to me.A friendly respectful voice ‘Of course’……’I just wanted to tell you how moved we all were when you spoke about your love for Ileana ….we come to church so often and hear about people in distress or disasters but we never could have imagined a love that you described to us last night ‘. The next year Eugenio Guglielminetti the great set designer and artist ,also from Asti ,designed a garden in the centre of the city to be dedicated to their illustrious citizen Ileana . Eugenio who had advised and designed Ileanas homes,theatre and stage sets died before the opening ceremony but we went ahead dedicating the garden to them both.
Ileanas brother and sister ,cousins and family members were nowhere to be seen and after their evil machinations have joined Ileana in the family tomb that I care for.There are the lemons that I went to our home to collect in Sabaudia to make the tomb more beautiful . Ileanas mother had built it much to our amusement at the time .It now needed to be cared for and a beautiful garden created to house our beloved Ileana who after all had also paid for it and given the world so much of herself.
Eighteen years on the Foundation that we both wanted to create has been abandoned . It was created immediately after her death so our thirty years dedication of bringing culture to the Eternal City could continue and flourish long after we were no longer on this earth and above all give a much needed platform to aspiring young actors and musicians . This ,after years of wrangling with a legal system that is so slow and unjust,has not been possible.A system where you are guilty and have to prove your innocence becomes fodder for professionals with enormous fees .Guilty or innocent depending on which way the wind blows over a fifteen year period as fees reach sky high proportions without any guarantee of success.The vultures were all around waiting to zoom in for the kill knowing how to take advantage of a legal system that does not protect the innocent or the accused . But thanks to my adopted family of Roberta Blasi Ercole Palmieri Luca Palmieri ,Matteo Palmieri Francesca Langella and Ilaria Gregori the Teatro Ghione is going from strength to strength and hopefully our wishes will be respected despite such unexpectedly despicable opposition from within. I can now begin to mourn in peace knowing that I have completed our mission the best I could!
Today I lay a wreath on the grave of Joan in Ewelme deep in the heart of Oxfordshire ……..Ileana knew and loved Vlado and Joan and their idyllic love nest in Ewelme that we visited so often.
They will both be looking on today with a knowing smile as I await to join them
Ewelme church where Joan was celebrated in 2017St Anne’s Kew Green where Ileana and I were married on 28th July 1984Photo taken by Bianca Galvan a friend of Ileana who had persuaded her to go to Siena together in 1978 for the course of Lydia Agosti ‘Da Schoenberg ad oggi’ .That is where we met and our life became entwined forever more Our ‘ baby’ that we created together with love and devotion .A cultural centre of excellence for Rome , providing a much needed recital hall for many musicians just searching for a space where to perform in the Eternal City
Life is indeed a mystery as the waiter asked me what dessert I would like and then coming back again he said we have banana split today . Little could he have known the significance of the very first thing that united Ileana and I 45 years ago . It came the day after Ileana’s birthday . We were travelling down to Siena together Ileana driving the young repetiteur flown in from London to help his old teachers wife Lydia Stix Agosti with her inexplicably named course for actors :From Schoenberg to today’. Driving her own car and singing operatic arias on the way we stopped for a snack and she had a banana split that she said was her favourite desert. In the Campo later that evening we were having a welcome drink with the class and I ordered a banana split for Ileana . She was so moved that I had remembered that this was the first seed of a love that was to last almost thirty years. Ileana had suffered as only those that have had a loved one commit suicide can understand .Her beloved husband Ezio Gagliardo had suffered from depression and had decided to take this drastic step leaving Ileana shocked distraught and mistrusting.The idea that someone could have remembered something so trivial as a love for banana split was the first step in eventually being reborn and able to live and to love life again. The waiter today could never have known why a banana split should have brought tears to my eyes !
Banana Split at the Ritz Abano Terme Vlado’ s last concert where I was backstage with Joan – Ileana in the audience A letter from Vlado before he became our great friend
Unforgettable try through recital on Perlemuter`s piano with the amazing 104 year old companion for so many years of Vlado . And the astonishing Mark Viner . Wonderful,sounds.Wonderful music.Wonderful company.Thank you to all .February 2017
Oggi 18 anni senza Achille Millo, pseudonimo di Achille Scognamillo (Napoli, 25 novembre 1921 – Roma, 18 ottobre 2006) Image of Ileana Ghione and Achille Millo in Dress the Unknown
Minkyu Kim was born in South Korea in 1995. In 2017, he began his studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he is currently studying for a Doctor of Performance. Minkyu has performed piano concertos with the Scottish Ensemble and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and has had several chamber music concerts with Seoul National University Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a specialist in the sublime music of Franz Liszt
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3
I. Presto II. Largo e mesto
III. Menuetto: Allegro
IV. Rondo: Allegro
Alkan: Le festin d’Esope op 39 n.12 from Douze études dans toutes les tons mineurs en deux suites.
Liszt:
En rêve — Nocturne, S207
Trübe Wolken – Nuages gris, S199
Bagatelle sans tonalité, S216a
Grosses Konzertsolo, S176.
An unexpected improvised introduction to the Beethoven Sonata op 10.n.3 that Minkyu was later to talk about .He explained about concert practices in the eighteenth century when it was the norm to add an improvised ‘prelude’ to link the keys of the works together in order to prepare and accustom the ear when appropriate.There was a dynamic drive to the Beethoven with a great sense of character and startling contrasts in a work that was already revealing the genius and originality of Beethoven.It was the profoundly moving Largo e mesto that Minkyu played with a sense of line allowing the music to flow so naturally with its quartet like strands of harmonies interwoven with such poignant beauty.The entry of the Menuetto was like a breath of fresh air and was played with a simplicity and ravishing beauty that contrasted so well with the bucolic good humoured Trio .There was a sense of question and answer in the Rondo with ever more a feeling of improvised freedom.Minkyu’s wonderfully fluid fingers just adding a glow to the streams of golden sounds that accompany the opening theme as is disappears into the depths of the keyboard with a refined ending that even now can take the audience by surprise as it did indeed on this occasion!
An extraordinary recital by Minkyu Kim in Florence An eclectic programme played with the simplicity and humility of a great musician with a voracious appetite for many neglected masterpieces.With a transcendental technical commmand he thrilled the audience in the library of the celebrated aesthete Harold Acton with Beethoven’s early Sonata op 10 n. 3 where his genius was already beginning to manifest itself with its profound and intense slow movement.Alkan’s pianistic genius was revealed with astonishing brilliance as his animals were let out of their cage and allowed to sprawl all over this 1876 Bechstein.
‘Le festin d’Esope’ by Alkan is one of the composers most played works (even if all too rarely) from an enormous range of compositions that are still being discovered.It is a work that needs a sense of imagination and above all a virtuoso technique to be able to cope with the composers original demands.And astonishing demands they are too in this 12th and last of his studies op 39 that includes a Symphony,Concerto and Overure for solo piano. Such was the startling originality of Alkan that we see the score scattered with unconventional but very apposite indications for performance.Written in not perfect Italian but their meaning is clear and nowhere more so than in Minkyu’s transcendental performance. The theme to be played ‘without any license whatever’.’Marziale- Scampanatino (tinkling),Trombato,Leggiermentebut then leggierissimamente’ meaning ever more scintillating as we would have noticed from Minkyu’s well oiled and delicate fingers.’Lamentevole’ as octave’s are played in gasps leading to simple fortississimi chords ‘impavidé?!’ ‘Senza arpeggiare aleuramente’And then on to the ‘caccia’ played with stirling precision and rhythmic drive by Minkyu before the startling ‘Abbajante” (barking) .Leading to ‘tempestoso’ and ‘Tronfalmente’ in a finale of astonishing chordal demands on poor Minkyu who showed no signs of tiring,quite the contrary as he built the excitement to fever pitch with the control and musicianship of a true showman. This was a quite remarkable ‘tour de force’ of virtuosity in the hands of superb intelligent musicianship.
But it was the Genius of Liszt that Minkyu was to demonstrate to us with the ‘Grosses Konzertsolo’,the much neglected monumental forerunner of the B minor Sonata .He played it with towering committed artistry that will surely astonish the Professors of the Royal Scottish Academy where he is about to complete his doctorate before embarking on an obligatory military career in the Korean army!
There was no prelude to link Alkan to Liszt as Minkyu wanted to talk about the Genius of Liszt and in particular about the three visionary pieces he was about to perform before the final Konzertsolo. Liszt was always looking to the future and nowhere more than in his later pieces when his youthful showmanship was transformed into penitence and devotion and he was able to anticipate the direction in which music was moving developing ,leading eventually to the twelve tone music of Schoenberg etc.A world where there is no formal or tonal centre but sounds that create a form in themselves.Nowhere is this transition more clear than in the three late pieces that Minkyu offered today. ‘En rève’ is a beautiful nocturne played by Minkyu with ravishing glowing sounds of delicacy but it is a nocturne,barely a page long,that has no ending as it finishes with a question mark. As does the extraordinary ‘Nuages Gris’ with its strange meandering phrases of such desolation with glimpses of melody that shone like stars sparkling in the mist. The opening dissonance of what was to be the Fourth Mephisto Waltz is nothing like the famous First Mephisto Waltz that we are used to hearing from the hands of dashing virtuosi.There is a tantalising jeux perlé of dancing notes but short lived as this work too ends in suspense with Liszt opening a door to who knows what is to come next. The ‘Grosses Konzertsolo’ is a fairly early work in comparison and is Liszt trying ,thanks to Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy, to find a less formal form than the standard ‘Sonata’.A form where the themes represent an image or personality and are part of a story that are then in themselves transformed as the story progresses – the so called Leit motif . It was to open the door for Liszt’s son in law Richard Wagner just a few years later.A performance where the leit motif was so clearly outlined in Minkyu’s very intelligent hands that we could appreciate the final extraordinary pages where the motif becomes heartrendingly exhausted after its long journey.I hope one day Minkyu will record the performance and place it where it belongs side by side with its monumental twin the B minor Sonata.Only now recognised as a masterpiece even though Clara Schumann on receiving it ( it was dedicated to her husband who was already institutionalised ) described it as a horrible noise.Brahms famously fell asleep listening to it .It is now considered together with the Schumann Fantasie a pinnacle of the romantic piano repertoire.Minkyu introducing his choice of Liszt ‘Il Penseroso’ for his Florentine recital In 1520, the Medici came back to Michelangelo with another grand proposal, this time for a family funerary chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo.For posterity, this project, occupying the artist for much of the 1520s and 1530s, was more fully realised. Michelangelo used his own discretion to create the composition of the Medici Chapel which houses the large tombs of two of the younger members of the Medici family, Giuliano,Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo, his nephew. It also serves to commemorate their more famous predecessors, Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, who are buried nearby. The tombs display statues of the two Medici and allegorical figures representing Night and Day ,and Dusk and Dawn .The chapel also contains Michelangelo’s Medici Madonna.In 1976, a concealed corridor was discovered with drawings on the walls that related to the chapel itself.Minkyu in front of the tomb of Lorenzo de’Medici with ‘Il penseroso’ at the centre
“Il penseroso” a poem and sculpture by Michelangelo that sits in the Medici Chapel that had inspired Liszt to write a piece for his ‘Years of Travel’ when he visited the city in 1838 .Minkyu had learnt it especially as a homage to Liszt and to Florence on this occasion …..an encore from an eclectic thinking musician and superb virtuoso pianist.It was fascinating to hear him explain the ‘preludes’ he had improvised between pieces as was the practice in the 18th Century to prepare the public for the next piece.And to know that the ‘prelude’ to the Grosses Konzertsolo was from the orchestral introduction of it that Liszt had insisted be played before his orchestral version (left unfinished by Liszt but completed and recorded by Leslie Howard )
Minkyu admiring the statue whilst listening to Leslie Howard’s recording The Medici Chapel Cupola From the first edition of Liszt ‘Il Penseroso’ that was inspired by Michelangelo’s sculpture of the same name. There is also the poem by Michelangelo on the front page of the first edition The statue is actually part of a tombstone made for the Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino. Michelangelo shows Lorenzo as a man deep in thought. Liszt must have interpreted these thoughts as a dark place, as if he were receding into the shadows. Matching this depiction, Il penseroso is a very dark piece. There is not much movement, and it is confined to the the lower registers of the piano, with many slow chords.
With Sir David Scholey a great admirer and follower of the Keyboard Trust pianists.The unbounded enthusiasm of Michael Griffiths OBEA very warm welcome from an admiring public A sumptuous after concert feast hosted by the ever generous Sir David with on his left Jennifer Gammell Simon Gammell OBE director of the British Institute with his daughter on a surprise visit from Tel Aviv The programme in Milan included Liszt’s three Petrarch Sonnets in place of the Grosses Konzertsolo .They were played with sumptuous sounds from whispered asides to passionate outpourings .A technical brilliance of embellishments always incorporated into the overall shape of Liszt’s extraordinarily evocative melodic and poetic outpourings.Minkyu presenting his encore of Liszt’s ‘Sposalizio ‘ which was inspired after seeing the painting by Raphael in Milan .It was played with ravishing sounds and passionate conviction The Marriage of the Virgin, also known as Lo Sposalizio, by Raphael was completed in 1504 for the San Francesco church in Città downtown Castello it depicts a marriage ceremony between Mary and Joseph and since 1806 it is housed in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan Sposalizio is the title of the first piece in Liszt’s Deuxième Annie de Pèlerinage :Italie (Second Year of Pilgrimage: Italy), published in 1858. The composition starts out with a simple pentatonic melody, described as a “bell-like motif”,turning into a complex musical architecture. The melody then changes to a type of wedding march, continually embellished leading to the grand climax before ending quietly.Minkyu had found time on his way to the airport to visit the Brera Gallery and see the original Maura Romano ,director of Steinway Milano ,far right with her assistant Alessandro Livi far left and guests Alberto and Ioana Chines,Minkyu Kim and two guests from the perfume shop opposite By great demand Minkyu played a second encore and this time in the spirit of S.Ambrogio with an improvised version of ‘Jingle Bells’ with flashes of astonishing technical brilliance.It brought this last recital on Minkyu’s short Italian tour to a festive ending on the feast of the patron saint of Milan when preparations begin in earnest for the Christmas festivities and by tradition La Scala Opera House opens it’s new season .Maura Romano with the famous ‘Do di petto’ cakes inspired by Katia Ricciarelli An after dinner treat for Minkyu.Beethoven in 1796; designed by G. Stainhauser; engraving by Johann Josef Neidl, executed for the publisher Artaria (Haydn published more than 300 works through Artaria. The value of Haydn’s works helped push Artaria to the top of the music publishing world in the late 18th century. This important relationship helped Artaria secure the rights to the works of other important classical composers such as Luigi Boccherini and, most notably, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. During his lifetime, Artaria was Mozart’s principal publisher and starting in 1793, Artaria published several early works of Beethoven until a bitter dispute over the publishing rights of Beethoven’s String Quartet op 29 which culminated in a court case from 1803 until 1805.Yet, Artaria also published Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata in 1819. The dispute with Beethoven highlights the role the company played in helping determine early copyright laws. Artaria continued to be a leading publisher through the 19th century, until it finally ceased its music publication business in the twentieth century. Artaria publishing house was dissolved in 1932. The art dealership closed in 2012.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10, No. 3, was dedicated to the Countess Anne Margarete von Browne, and written in 1798. This makes it contemporary with his three string trios op 9 , his three Op. 12 violin sonatas, and the violin and orchestra romance that became his op 50 when later published. The year also saw the premiere of a revised version of his second piano concerto whose original form had been written and heard in 1795.The three Op. 10 sonatas are usually described as angular or experimental, as Beethoven began moving further and further away from his earlier models. This third sonata of the set is the longest and is the only one of the Op. 10 sonatas that has four movements and Beethoven’s pupil the teacher of Franz Liszt described it as ‘grand and significant’
First edition of op 10 Sonatas Facsimile of the sonata op 28 Charles -Valentin Alkan ( 30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Chopin and Liszt among the leading pianists in Paris, a city in which he spent virtually his entire life. In 1848 Alkan was bitterly disappointed when the head of the Conservatoire,Auber,replaced his teacher the retiring Zimmerman with the mediocre Antoine Marmontel as head of the Conservatoire piano department, a position which Alkan had eagerly anticipated, and for which he had strongly lobbied with the support of Sand, Dumas, and many other leading figures.A disgusted Alkan described the appointment in a letter to Sand as “the most incredible, the most shameful nomination”;and Delacroix noted in his journal: “By his confrontation with Auber, [Alkan] has been very put out and will doubtless continue to be so.”The upset arising from this incident may account for Alkan’s reluctance to perform in public in the ensuing period. His withdrawal was also influenced by the death of Chopin; in 1850 he wrote to Masarnau “I have lost the strength to be of any economic or political use”, and lamented “the death of poor Chopin, another blow which I felt deeply.”Chopin, on his deathbed in 1849, had indicated his respect for Alkan by bequeathing him his unfinished work on a piano method, intending him to complete it , and after Chopin’s death a number of his students transferred to Alkan.After giving two concerts in 1853, Alkan withdrew, in spite of his fame and technical accomplishment, into virtual seclusion for some twenty years.For many years it was believed that Alkan met his death when a bookcase toppled over and fell on him as he reached for a volume of the Talmud from a high shelf.The story of the bookcase may have its roots in a legend told of Aryeh Leib ben Asher , rabbi of Metz,the town from which Alkan’s family originated.
Le festin d’Ésope (Aesop’s Feast), op .39 No. 12, is the final étude in the set Douze études dans tours le tons miners (Twelve studies in all minor keys), Op. 39, published in 1857 (although it may have been written during the previous decade). It is a work of twenty-five variations based on an original theme and is in E minor. The technical skills required in the variations are a summation of the preceding études.
The work requires exceptional virtuosic skills, with extremely fast overlapping octaves, fast scales with left accompaniments, enormous leaps, rapid octave chords, tremolos, double octaves and trills. A typical performance of this piece lasts 10 minutes.
Introduction to the Piano Music of Alkan by Raymond Lewenthal who was the first in modern times to present Alkan in public recitals in London.At the Wigmore Hall together with Liszt , three recitals completely sold out with queues all around the hall when rumour spread that there was something very special going on.On this success he later gave a recital in the Royal Albert Hall (that his agent Wilfred Van Wyck – also Rubinstein’s agent- advised against) A strange affair where Lewenthal presented himself alone with a cloak and top hat on the vast stage with just a lamp standard like in a living room or 18th century salon .He played the Liszt Hexameron and before the interval Chopin First Ballade and Moonlight Sonata trying to emulate a scene from the previous century – Van Wyck was proven to be right !A portrait of Alkan for the 110th anniversary of the birth published by Mark Viner ,an emeritus KT artist and expert on Alkan.
At a later stage in his life Liszt experimented with “forbidden” things such as parallel 5ths in the “Csárdás macabre”and atonality in the Bagatelle sans tonality (“Bagatelle without Tonality”). Pieces like the “2nd Mephisto-Waltz” are unconventional because of their numerous repetitions of short motives. Also showing experimental characteristics are the Via crucis of 1878, as well as Unstern!, Nuages Gris and the two works entitled La lugubre gondola of the 1880s.
En rève (‘Dreaming’) was composed in 1885 and unlike in many of the works from the last years of Liszt’s life, nothing disillusioned or bleak, but rather a note of acceptance and reconciliation.
Nuages gris or Trübe Wolken,was composed on August 24, 1881. It is one of Liszt’s most haunting and at the same time one of his most experimental works, representing , “a high point in the experimental idiom with respect to expressive compositional procedure.” Yet it was only in the second half of the twentieth century that the significance of Liszt’s late experimental works began to be appreciated. “Arguably, Liszt was the first composer to establish the augmented triad as a truly independent sonority, to consider its implications for modern dissonance treatment, and to ponder its meaning for the future course of tonality. Liszt’s accomplishments were summarised in Busoni’s phrase, as the ‘master of freedom’.Debussy probably had Nuages gris in mind when he composed his own Nuages .On a more mundane note it was used in the shocking scene at the morgue in Stanley Kubrick’s last film Eyes Wide Shut.
Bagatelle sans tonalité was written by in 1885. The manuscript bears the title “Fourth Mephisto Waltz”and may have been intended to replace the piece now known as the Fourth Mephisto Waltz when it appeared Liszt would not be able to finish it; the phrase Bagatelle ohne Tonart actually appears as a subtitle on the front page of the manuscript.
While it is not especially dissonant, it is extremely chromatic becoming what Liszt’s contemporary Fétis called “omnitonic”in that it lacks any definite feeling for a tonal center.Like the Fourth Mephisto Waltz, however, it was not published until 1955.
Années de pèlerinage S.160-161-162-163is a set of three suites for solo piano by . Much of it derives from his earlier work, Album d’un voyageur, his first major published piano cycle, which was composed between 1835 and 1838 and published in 1842.Années de pèlerinage is widely considered as the masterwork and summation of Liszt’s musical style. The third volume is notable as an example of his later style Composed well after the first two volumes, it displays less virtuosity and more harmonic experimentation.
The title Années de pèlerinage refers to Goethe’s famous novel of self-realization, whose original title Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre meant Years of Wandering or Years of Pilgrimage, the latter being used for its first French translation.Liszt clearly places these compositions in line with the Romantic literature of his time, prefacing most pieces with a literary passage from writers such as Schiller, Byron or Senancour, and, in an introduction to the entire work, writing:
“Having recently travelled to many new countries, through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry; having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights did not pass before my eyes as pointless images but stirred deep emotions in my soul, and that between us a vague but immediate relationship had established itself, an undefined but real rapport, an inexplicable but undeniable communication, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions.”
Deuxième année: Italie” (“Second Year: Italy”), S.161, was composed between 1837 and 1849 and published in 1858 by Schott. Nos. 4 to 6 are revisions of Tre sonetti del Petrarca which was composed around 1839–1846 and published in 1846.All three are based on Sonnets, or Canzone, by the Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374). They are meditations on love, specifically the poet’s passionate love for Laura de Noves. In the first, Benedetto sia ‘L giorno -Blessed be the day…., Canzone LXI, sometimes erroneously noted as Sonnet 104), he prays for divine blessing on the joys and sufferings of love. The second, Pace non trovo – I find no peace….. Canzone CXXXIV; sometimes erroneously noted as Sonnet 47is more agitated. In it, the poet ponders the confused state love has put him in. Enthralled to his lady, he feels imprisoned yet free, he burns with love, yet feels he is made of ice: in modern psychological parlance, a true state of ‘limerence’. The third, lividi in terra angelici costumi – I Beheld on Earth Angelic Grace…., Canzone CLVI; sometimes incorrectly listed as Sonnet 123, is an ardent love poem in which the poet describes the perfect beauty and purity of his love and its effect on all of Heaven and Nature.
In 1851 Breitkopf & Härtel published the solo piano work Grosses Konzertsolo S.176. Though not as popular as the later Sonata in B minor the work achieves significance by the fact that it anticipates the Sonata as a large-scale nonprogrammatic work. It shows structural similarities to the Sonata and obvious thematic relationship to both the Sonata and the Faust Symphony.
One unpublished earlier version of the work exists, titled in French in the manuscript Grand Solo de concert (S.175a). This version differs structurally from the published Grosses Concert-Solo, thus revealing the existence of interesting material for a study on the genesis of Liszt’s gradual innovations in constructing a large-scale musical organism, which were to come to full fruition in the Sonata.
In 1866 a two-piano version was published under the title Concerto pathétique (S.258/2) which, though not differing structurally from the Grosses Concert-Solo, introduces a more effective layout of the musical thoughts, mainly due to an innovative concerto-like treatments of the two piano version.The fact that the solo Grosses Concert-Solo has been overshadowed by the later two-piano version has obscured the importance of the former as one of Liszt’s largest and most ambitious original works for the instrument. The Grosses Concert-Solo anticipates several of the most salient features of Liszt’s undisputed masterwork, the Sonata in B minor , namely the nonprogrammatic “four-movements-in-one” form.The piece was written between 1849 and 1850, and dedicated to Adolf Henselt who professed himself unable to play it, even though Liszt had intended it as a competition piece for the Paris Conservatoire.
Leslie Howard the noted Liszt expert having recorded all the works of Liszt on over 100 CD’s .He is an Artistic Director of the Keyboard Trust and is president of the Liszt Society in London and is seen here talking about and playing the Grosses Konzertsolo :
The South Bank with the Festival Hall far right and National Theatre illuminated in red !!!!
Bartók 14 Bagatelles, Op.6
Liszt Bagatelle without tonality, S.216a
Beethoven 15 Variations and Fugue on an original theme in E flat (Eroica), Op.35
Interval
Bach Chorale-prelude, Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein, BWV.734 arr. Kempff Bach Chorale-prelude, Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland, BWV.659 arr. Busoni
Dowland In darkness let me dwell (a recording for voice & lute)
Thomas Adès Darknesse visible
Beethoven Sonata in A flat, Op.110
It was a sign of the esteem that Imogen Cooper has earned over her long career ,in which musical standards have reigned sovereign over the transcendental pianism that has taken centre stage over the past forty years ,to see so many illustrious musicians in the audience on this particularly cold last month of the year. In the audience was Alfred Brendel who with great difficulty negotiated the freezing temperatures and endless steps to salute one of his greatest protégées.Dame Janet Baker ,Dame Jane Glover ,Gyorgy Pauk and many young musicians from the Imogen Cooper Music Trust ,including the now distinguished pianist Cristian Sandrin,that she has so generously helped to advance in their musical understanding.
The long hike to the Green Room
It was Imogen who after her much criticised studies in Paris as her father ,Martin Cooper,the great musicologist and critic advocated the great British Musical Institutions for study rather than the almost obligatory period ‘abroad’. He had sent his daughter to study with Yvonne Lefebure ,though,in Paris .On her return after hearing Brendel play she told him that she would commit suicide if he would not become her mentor. In the very first lesson twenty minutes were spent on perfecting just one chord ! I remember Imogen who had just returned from Paris and delighted Vlado Perlemuter in his Dartington Masterclass in 1967 not only with her superb playing of Ravel ‘Valses’ but also on her perfect French. In the audience tonight there were also many young pianists including the winners of the Leeds ,Alim Beisembayev and Ariel Lanyi , where Imogen has taken over the reigns from that other great Dame: Fanny Waterman. At the end of the recital it was Lady Weidenfeld who exclaimed to me what marvels had been heard and she should know having known two of the greatest musicians of our time .She has for long been associated with the Rubinstein Competition of which Janina Fialkowska had been a top prize winner in the very first edition.
Emil Gilels and Artur Rubinstein with Janina Fialkowska in 1977 in New York
Rubinstein himself had supervised a career that she was not expecting.She just wanted to meet her idol before taking up a career in law but had studied in Paris too with the remarkable Yvonne Lefebure and she and Imogen became lifelong friends. They both have something in common ,that Rubinstein and Brendel had noted: they think more of music than themselves. A humility and integrity and above all their artistry is placed at the service of the composer.’Je sens ,je joue je trasmets.’ It was this that came across today and left the many musicians present moved to crowd to the green room to thank our adored Dame for her unflinching dedication to values that are fast evaporating .Quantity rather than quality is the name of the game these days.Instant communications where a photo on a mobile device can be seen instantly the other side of the globe and where a recording of a performance can be kept forever.It was Gilels who said that the difference between a recorded performance and a live one was the difference between fresh or canned food.Mitsuko Uchida refused (gracefully) an enthusiastic fan who wanted her to pose for a ‘selfie’ and exclaimed so astutely that it is the memory of a performance or an encounter that is so much more important than having a printed copy of it.
The most remarkable parts of the recital for me were those that are not really associated with Imogen.Dame Imogen has long been associated ,as one would expect from the class of Brendel ,with Schubert and Beethoven.So it came as a surprise to hear Bartok with a kaleidoscopic range of sounds and a chameleonic sense of character.There was the precision of Webern with the feeling that every one of the notes had a fundamental part to play in a musical discourse.They were reminiscent of Prokofiev’s early Vision Fugitives or dare I say Beethoven Bagatelles, largely written towards the end of his life, where so little can say so much.Imogen had distilled the very essence from each of these fourteen miniature jewels that kept her audience in rapt silence of wonderment.The Liszt Bagatelle just entered on the trail of the Bartok which was immediately apparent by the sudden jeux perlé brilliance and scintillating sense of dance of what was the originally projected Fourth Mephisto waltz.
Plunged into pitch darkness as we listened with baited breath to Dowland’s ‘In Darkness let me dwell’ in a recording of voice and lute.The curtain was gradually raised to the pungent multicoloured sounds of Thomas Adès’s atmospheric ‘Darknesse visible’.Here again Dame Imogen had a range of colours helped by a masterly use of the pedals that made the music speak just as eloquently as her Beethoven.And it was Beethoven this time that crept in on these magic sounds and they gave a golden glow to the opening of a work that Dame Imogen has made very much her own over the years.There was a warmth to the sound of the whole Sonata that seemed to be sheltered under a dome that contained within its walls a world of intimate beauty and as Dame Imogen so eloquently said in words and even more in music ‘affirms the return to life that gives us hope and strength to go forward’.It was the same sound world that the Eroica variations had inhabited where even the more strenuous variations were incorporated into an architectural sound world and not played as gymnastic exercises. If she missed the ravishing sense of elegance and sheer physical exhilaration that Curzon brought to the variations – that he too played from the score as time and tide wait for no man in long and illustrious careers – It was though the beauty of the sound that was so convincing as Imogen ,like her illustrious predecessors Dame Myra and Dame Moura both from the class of Uncle Tobbs,has like those of the Matthay school an infinite variety of sounds in every note that can make the music speak with such eloquence.The two chorale preludes by Bach -Kempff and Busoni I well remember Kempff playing in this very hall fifty years or more ago……Busoni unfortunately I never heard live but I have heard his recording and quite frankly what we heard tonight was even more enlightened as I am reminded of what Dame Mitsuko said about printed photos!Moved by the audience reaction and overwhelming ovation Dame Imogen gave an even more convincing performance of Bartok with his Durge op 9 n. 1.
There is obviously nothing like a Dame !
Dame Imogen writes:
“The construction of this programme has two strands to it, clearly in each half. The Bartók /Liszt group is a little teaser around tonality; the Liszt Bagatelle sans tonalité is a fantastic piece but difficult to programme as very short and not really belonging anywhere. After choosing the Bartók Bagatelles Op.6 – a masterpiece so rarely heard – it occurred to me that Bartók too was playful with tonalities and keys – the first bagatelle is written with the right hand in C sharp minor and the left hand in C minor (fairly novel for 1908) and in the successive bagatelles, he hardly stays in the keys he initially chooses. It seemed the obvious work into which to insert the Liszt, not least as, surprisingly, there were only around 25 years between the two compositions – and both composers were of course from Hungary. I like the idea of a certain aspect of destabilisation when listening, and my insertion of the Liszt in the body of the Bartók work is randomly placed in the sequence. I hope that this does justice to the wit and originality of both composers. It certainly makes the return to full tonality in the Beethoven Eroica Variations all the more startling, with the call to arms of the opening E flat major chord. There is wit aplenty in this work too, as so often in this particular form of Beethovenian composition – a certain wild energy too, and little melancholy. In the second half of the recital, I have an image of a descent from joyfulness into dark depths followed by a kind of triumphal resurrection. The first of the Bach chorales is ebullient and optimistic, the second reflective and sombre. Dowland then takes us into real blackness with his extraordinary poem, from which Adès’ glittering rejoinder emerges, with its final two lines a direct quote of Dowland’s music. Somehow the only exit from there has struck me as being Beethoven’s Op.110 Sonata, which comes as balm to the soul as it starts on its own journey, not without profound grief in the two great Ariosi, but terminating in an affirmative return to life that gives us hope and strength to go forward.”
Béla Bartók (1881–1945) 14 Bagatelles, Op.6 i Molto sostenuto ii Allegro giocoso iii Andante iv Grave v Vivo vi Lento vii Allegretto molto capriccioso viii Andante sostenuto xi Allegretto grazioso x Allegro xi Allegretto molto rubato xii Rubato xiii Elle est morte. Lento funebre viv Valse: Ma mie qui danse. Presto.
Béla Bartók was 27 when he composed his Op.6 Bagatelles in 1908, and reeling from romantic rejection by violinist Stefi Geyer, who’d infatuated him for quite some time. He vents his despair and anger in the last two of the 14 pieces: No.13 is a sinister funeral march named ‘Elle est morte’, while the final bagatelle, ‘Valse (ma mie qui danse)’ is a bitter, grotesque waltz. The rest of the set of pithy miniatures, however, are similarly forward- looking, and daringly experimental, from the pianist’s hands playing in two unrelated keys in No.1 to the bracing folk tunes of Nos.4 and 5, from the bare unisons of No.9 to the driving rhythms of No.10.
Franz Liszt (1811–86) Bagatelle without tonality, S.261a
At a later stage in his life Liszt experimented with “forbidden” things such as parallel 5ths in the “Csárdás macabre”and atonality in the Bagatelle sans tonality (“Bagatelle without Tonality”). Pieces like the “2nd Mephisto-Waltz” are unconventional because of their numerous repetitions of short motives. Also showing experimental characteristics are the Via crucis of 1878, as well as Unstern!, Nuages Gris and the two works entitled La lugubre gondola of the 1880s.
Bagatelle sans tonalité was written by in 1885. The manuscript bears the title “Fourth Mephisto Waltz”and may have been intended to replace the piece now known as the Fourth Mephisto Waltz when it appeared Liszt would not be able to finish it; the phrase Bagatelle ohne Tonart actually appears as a subtitle on the front page of the manuscript.
While it is not especially dissonant, it is extremely chromatic becoming what Liszt’s contemporary Fétis called “omnitonic”in that it lacks any definite feeling for a tonal center.Like the Fourth Mephisto Waltz, however, it was not published until 1955.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) 15 Variations and Fugue on an original theme in E flat (Eroica), Op.35 From supposedly lightweight bagatelles to something far weighter, and more heroic. Beethoven clearly loved the theme he used as the basis for his 1802 Op.35 Variations: it began life entertaining Viennese dancers as one of the 12 Contredanses he composed in 1801 for the Austrian capital’s ballrooms, and he went on to use it in his ballet score The Creatures of Prometheus, and, most famously, in the finale of his Eroica Symphony (the piece that gives today’s piano work its nickname). Perhaps it’s the tune’s very simplicity that inspired him, or the way he could explode it and explore its potential across a whole range of moods and settings – something he did in the Symphony, and something he similarly does in tonight’s Variations. Beethoven opens with just the theme’s bassline, offering three variations, before moving on to 15 contrasting settings of the tune as a whole, ending with a richly decorated slow section, a mind-bending fugue, and a dazzling conclusion. With hand- crossings, athletic runs across the length of the keyboard, and free-flowing cadenzas, it’s a piece that’s clearly designed to show off the skills of its performer.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) Chorale-prelude, Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein, BWV.734 arr. Kempff Chorale-prelude, Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland, BWV.659 arr. Busoni After pioneering bagatelles and virtuosic variations, there’s a slightly more sober, even spiritual mood to the concert’s second half. JS Bach wrote no fewer than 46 chorale preludes for organ, works that take well-known hymn tunes and elaborate them with rippling accompaniments, unusual harmonies and more – often to prepare a congregation to sing the hymn in question itself. A tradition of reworking these organ pieces for piano has continued since the 19th century, bringing Bach’s creations out of the church and into concert halls and even private homes. Pianist and composer Wilhelm Kempff made his piano version of Bach’s ‘Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein’ (Now rejoice, dear Christians) in 1926, reimagining the original organ piece from Bach’s Weimar years between 1708 and 1717 as a brisk and joyful piano creation. Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni – a devoted admirer of Bach – saw transcribing, adapting and freely composing as part of the same musical continuum, and one that Bach himself had also explored. The original Chorale Prelude ‘Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland’ (Come, saviour of the nations) weaves a web of sometimes anguished lines around its 1524 hymn tune, with words by Martin Luther. Busoni’s piano version maintains the original’s poignant interplay of melody and accompaniment voices in music that’s sometimes dramatic and despairing, other times moving and meditative.
John Dowland (1562/3–1626) In darkness let me dwell (a recording for voice & lute) Composer, lutenist and singer John Dowland was a musical superstar in the 16th and 17th centuries, with an output of often deeply troubled, melancholic lute songs that charmed and captivated admirers across a growing English middle class, who’d even take up the instrument to emulate him (Henry VIII, for example, insisted that his three children – who’d become Edward VI, ‘Bloody’ Mary and Elizabeth I – each learned the lute). Published in 1610, ‘In darkness let me dwell’ is one of Dowland’s most bleakly beautiful creations, a setting of an anonymous poem (see below), included in the 1606 Funeral Teares collection by John Coprario, whose writer abandons light, music, or any sense of consolation, preferring the peace of the grave. The song’s grinding dissonances, halting structure and apparently premature, cut-off ending only serve to emphasise its overall despair and resignation.
In darkness let me dwell In darknesse let mee dwell the ground shall sorrow be, The roofe Dispaire to barre all cheerfull light from mee, The wals of marble black that moistened still shall weepe, My musicke, hellish, jarring sounds to banish friendly sleepe. Thus wedded to my woes, and bedded to my Tombe, O let me living die, till death doe come.
Thomas Adès (b.1971) Darknesse visible
Thomas Adès is one of the world’s most celebrated musicians. A composer, pianist, and conductor, Adès’s comfort in thinking through his works both structurally and pragmatically (though his personal virtuosity often begets scores with an unforgiving level of difficulty) yields music that is not only smart but incredibly moving and communicative. While he is definitely a British composer, Adès has spent a great deal of time on both coasts of the United States, both in his ad- opted second hometown of Los Angeles and in Massachusetts, where he serves as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s artistic partner as well as director of the Tanglewood Music Center’s Festival of Contemporary Music. Darknesse Visible is Adès’s “explosion” of a lute song by the composer John Dowland, “In Darknesse Let Mee Dwell,” composed in 1610. Adès writes: No notes have been added; indeed, some have been removed. Patterns latent in the original have been isolated and regrouped, with the aim of illuminating the song from within, as if during the course of a performance. In darknesse let mee dwell, the ground shall sorrow be, The roofe Dispaire to barre all cheerful light from mee, The wals of marble blacke that moistned still shall weepe, My musicke hellish jarring sounds to banish friendly sleepe. Thus wedded to my woes, and bedded to my Tombe, O let me living die till death doe come. Dowland ends the song with a restate- ment of the opening line.
His austerely powerful work is a far more radical transformation than Kempff and Busoni’s piano reimaginings of Bach, though its piercing accents, its wavering tremolos and its ghostly, blurred harmonies provide a compelling contemporary perspective on Dowland’s deep melancholy.The World premiere: October 1992 at the Franz Liszt House, Budapest, Hungary, with the composer as piano soloist
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Piano Sonata in A flat, Op.110 Moderato cantabile molto espressivo Allegro molto Adagio ma non troppo – Fuga allegro ma non troppo From darkness and death to spiritual transcendence. Beethoven the young pioneer, out to demonstrate his compositional and pianist prowess in the earlier Eroica Variations, had become a very different composer two decades later, when he came to write his final trilogy of piano sonatas: more contemplative, philosophical, even otherworldly. Op.110 is the middle sonata in the trilogy, composed in 1821 and published the following year, and it packs a huge amount of drama, insight and innovation into its relatively brief 20-minute span. A prayer-like theme (marked ‘amiable’) opens its tender first movement, whose ethereal beauty is quickly dispelled by the boisterous, earthy second movement, based on two German folksongs. To end, Beethoven effectively combines two separate movements: first a tragic, song-like lament (you might even hear certain resonances from Dowland), and second a vigorous, life-affirming fugue that builds to a shattering climax. The lamenting song returns, exhausted, only for the music to gather confidence (Beethoven indicates ‘little by little gaining new life’) as it heads towards its joyful, transcendent climax.
The legendary Guido Agosti held summer masterclasses in Siena for over thirty years.All the major pianists and musicians of the time would flock to learn from a master,a student of Busoni,where sounds heard in that studio have never been forgotten.He was persuaded by us in 1983 to give a public performance of the last two Beethoven Sonatas.The recording of op 110 from this concert is a testament,and one of the very few CD’s ever made,of this great musician .
A new concert series to commemorate Guido Agosti in his home town where he was born and is buried – ‘Guido Agosti musicista’ is the simple inscription for one of the greatest musicians of his age
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 sonatas.
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
Some of the young musicians who have been so generously helped by The Imogen Cooper Music Trust :
Some superb playing from the Trio Lalique in an unusually full St Olave’s Tower Hill.Gathered to hear Trios by Brahms,Schubert and Shostakovich played by three refined chamber music players.An interesting juxtaposition of works from a Schubert that sounds like Beethoven and a Shostakovich that sounds like Brahms and of course Brahms …………..that sounds like ………….Some beautiful playing with the piano lid fully opened that helped integrate the sound so well with the violin and cello.It was very interesting to hear this very early work of Schubert that although obviously influenced by Haydn and Beethoven even at this early age shows a mastery and an individual voice.It was played with charm but also with the solidity where the harmonic polyphony became so much part of its structure.It was in the Brahms Trio though where the three artists were able to play with grandiosity and eloquence.The Andante con moto with the unison between violin and cello producing a mellow outpouring of searing intensity.There was a fleeting urgency to the Scherzo as the piano seemed to be taking wing only to be thwarted by the soaring melodic line of the violin and the sumptuous full sounds of the trio.The insinuating urgency of the Allegro giocosa lead to an ending of grandeur and nobility.The Shostakovich was like the Schubert a very early work written when only sixteen .It already has an unmistakable voice that was exulted by the passionate virtuosity of Ilya matched by the equally inspired Yuri and Julia .All three united with passionate sounds that filled this beautiful church and brought an ovation from a public that had followed these fine performances with rapt attention.
Benjamin Grosvenor piano Hyeyoon Park violin Timothy Ridout viola Kian Soltani cello
Frank Bridge (1879-1941) Phantasie Piano Quartet in F sharp minor (1910) Andante con moto – Allegro vivace – Andante con moto Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor Op. 15 (1876-9, rev. 1883) I. Allegro molto moderato • II. Scherzo. Allegro vivo • III. Adagio • IV. Allegro molto Interval Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor Op. 25 (1861) I. Allegro • II. Intermezzo. Allegro ma non troppo – Trio. Animato • III. Andante con moto • IV. Rondo alla Zingarese.
The Phantasie Quartet a rhapsodic piece by Frank Bridge (1910) that his pupil Benjamin Britten would later describe as ‘Brahms tempered with Fauré’ Music making by the Magnificent Four …..we know that Benjamin Grosvenor is one of the finest young pianists – the presence of Stephen Kovecevich just underlined that – but what stood out for his equally animal like passion was the viola of Timothy Ridout as he with such glee in his eye courted first Hyeyoon and then Kian before soaring into the heights together with endless streams of sumptuous sounds. Ben crouched over the keyboard about to pounce into any crevace that needed filling …the magnificent violin of Hyeyoon crooning with Tim Ridout before passing it over with a knowing smile to the aristocratic golden sounds of Kian Soltanti. Memorable the solo cello of Fauré’s adagio played with such golden nobility. But it was the soaring searing passion that enveloped the west wind that had carried them along in the Allegro molto that was breathtaking as it reached an almost unbearable intensity . Four magnificent players united as one …what a privilege to be able to evesdrop on such X certificate stuff ….the butler never saw anything like this and neither has this hall for a long long time……..and there was more to come …….. Brahms with the breathless heart beat of the cello while the violin and viola embraced each other engulfed by the sumptuous sounds of the piano There was a burning intensity to the Adagio that left Timothy Ridout visibly overcome with emotion but his fellow brethren left him no time to dally as The Gypsy Rondo just shot out of their hands with demonic glee. It was only matched by the tingling coda when all four threw caution to the wind as they were united in their intent -now we know the real meaning of strepitoso !
The usually sedate ‘Wiggies’ were reduced to animalesque cat calls as if they had received an electric shock of unimaginable intensity. By insistent demand Kian announced they would play the Andante Cantabile by Schumann from the Quartet in E flat.
Here they reached truly sublime heights as all the rich layers of sound of Brahms were left long behind and only the deeply intense love that Schumann and Clara were to know was shared with an audience visibly moved by such naked passion ….minutes of aching silence spoke much louder than any words could do. I had just stepped off the plane from Eindhoven and am in two minds to step back on to hear them all over again when they repeat the programme there on Thursday Some marriages are made in heaven and it is so so rare as to be truly unique.Surely this is married bliss
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/11/04/park-grosvenor-a-sumptuous-duo-spot-on-at-st-johns-where-their-light-was-shining-brightly/Bridge was born in Brighton ,the ninth child of William Henry Bridge (1845-1928), a violin teacher and variety theatre conductor, He studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others. According to Benjamin Britten , Bridge had strong pacifist convictions, and he was deeply disturbed by the First World War,[Bridge privately taught Benjamin Britten, who later championed his teacher’s music and paid homage to him in the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937), based on a theme from the second of Bridge’s Three Idylls for String Quartet (1906). Britten spoke very highly of his teaching, saying famously in 1963 that he still felt he hadn’t “yet come up to the technical standards” that Bridge had set him. When Britten left for the United States with Peter Pears in 1939, Bridge handed Britten his Giussani viola and wished him ‘bon voyage and bon retour’; Bridge died in 1941 without ever seeing Britten again.[13]Blue plaque, 4 Bedford Gardens, Kensington, London
Bridge’s Phantasy Piano Quartet in F sharp minor built on his success in the first two of Walter Willson Cobbett’s Phantasie competitions, promoted under the auspices of The Worshipful Company of Musicians. The archaic spelling reflected Cobbett’s intention of establishing a new British chamber music genre, combining the ingredients of a standard chamber work into a single span, that would pay homage to the Fantasies and Fancies for viols that flourished in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. In 1905 Bridge was runner-up in the first competition, with a Phantasie for string quartet, and he won the second in 1907, with his Phantasie in C minor for piano trio. A few years later, in 1910, Bridge was one of a group of eleven British composers Cobbett commissioned to write a chamber music Phantasy: among them, Vaughan Williams contributed a Phantasy Quintet for strings, and Bridge the Phantasy Piano Quartet.His pupil Benjamin Britten revealed the essence of this work perfectly: ‘Sonorous yet lucid, with clear, clean lines, grateful to listen to and to play. It is the music of a practical musician, brought up in German orthodoxy, but who loved French romanticism and conception of sound—Brahms happily tempered with Fauré.
Fauré in 1875 Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) born in Palmiers ,Ariège, in the south of France, the fifth son and youngest of six children.His mother was advised to send the boy to the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse (School of Classical and Religious Music), better known which Louis Niedermeyer was setting up in Paris.After reflecting for a year, Fauré’s father agreed and took the nine-year-old boy to Paris in October 1854.When Niedermeyer died in March 1861, Camille Saint-Saens took charge of piano studies and introduced contemporary music, including that of Schumann,Liszt and Wagner. Fauré recalled in old age, “After allowing the lessons to run over, he would go to the piano and reveal to us those works of the masters from which the rigorous classical nature of our programme of study kept us at a distance and who, moreover, in those far-off years, were scarcely known. … At the time I was 15 or 16, and from this time dates the almost filial attachment … the immense admiration, the unceasing gratitude I [have] had for him, throughout my life.”
In 1877, after wooing her for five years, Fauré had finally become engaged to Marianne Viardot, daughter of the well-known singer Pauline Viardot . The engagement lasted for less than four months, and Marianne broke it off, to Fauré’s considerable distress. It was in the later stages of their relationship that he began work on the quartet, in the summer of 1876.He completed it in 1879, and revised it in 1883, completely rewriting the finale. The first performance of the original version was given on 14 February 1880. In a study dated 2008, Kathryn Koscho notes that the original finale has not survived, and is believed to have been destroyed by Fauré in his last days.It is considered one of the three masterpieces of his youth, along with the first violin sonatas and the Ballade in F sharp for piano
Brahms in 1889 7 May 1833 Hamburg – 3 April 1897 (aged 63) Vienna,
The Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor op 25 was composed between 1856 and 1861. It was premiered in 1861 in Hamburg, with Clara Schumann at the piano. It was also played in Vienna on 16 November 1862, with Brahms himself at the piano supported by members of the Hellmesberger Quartet.In January 1863 Brahms met Richard Wagner for the first time, for whom he played his Handel Variations op 24 which he had completed the previous year. The meeting was cordial, although Wagner was in later years to make critical, and even insulting, comments on Brahms’s music.Brahms however retained at this time and later a keen interest in Wagner’s music, helping with preparations for Wagner’s Vienna concerts in 1862/63,and being rewarded by Tausig with a manuscript of part of Wagner’s Tannhäuser (which Wagner demanded back in 1875).The Handel Variations also featured, together with the first Piano Quartet, in his first Viennese recitals, in which his performances were better received by the public and critics than his music..
I have followed Ignas’s career over a number of years since I was invited by Alim Baesembaev’s teacher Tessa Nicholson to hear him play the Mozart Double Concerto together at the Royal Academy Piano Festival .Alim has gone on to win the Gold medal at the Leeds International Piano Competition having had a strong task master behind him to guide his remarkable talent winning first the Junior Van Cliburn Competition and going on to the most highly prized goal of all aspiring pianists.When I first heard them together of course I noticed the remarkable talent of Alim that already had been channelled into a disciplined highly professional performance.Ignas on the other hand I had noticed what remarkable gifts he had but he was still like a wild horse waiting to be tamed.
Piano playing , as Curzon would often say, is 90% hard work and 10 % a God given talent of the blessed few.Ignas has that talent and through the years although I have never actually met him I feel as though I got to know him ever more through his performances.As he mentions me in his very open and honest interval discussion (which can be seen in the link here :https://youtube.com/live/RkpJGXuzQ0c?feature=shared). I feel I can also reply in kind.His interval discussion revealed the same open and innocent person of youthful humility that I have come to know through his music.I hope one day that we will meet in person and add a few well chosen words to our musical acquaintanceship.It was lovely to hear about his musical family and the trio he has formed with his brother and sister who are also studying at my old Alma Mater.Another brother too studying Liberal Arts in California where brother and sister have been to perform Brahms violin sonatas.It has left me curious to know more about their mother and father.
An interesting programme but was completely different from the one we heard which was Schumann Fantasie in C, 1st movement (11min) Chopin Nocturnes Op. 27 (11min) Alvidas Remesa – Stigmatas (very exciting Lithuanian piece ) 8min) Chopin: Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op.61 (13min)
INTERVAL conversation with Clive Walters
Schubert Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960 (40min)
I have known quite a few Lithuanian musicians studying in the UK Rokas Valutuonis,Milda Daunoraite and Gabrielé Sutkuté all blessed with an openness ,simplicity and all playing with a wonderful natural fluidity that gives such luminosity to their playing.I am reminded too of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra under Saulius Sondekis playing in my Euromusic Season that I organised for thirty years in Rome.I have never heard an orchestra play so quietly or musically as in Shostakovich 10th Symphony or as colourfully as in Busoni’s arrangement of the Spanish Rhapsody with Mikhail Petukhov playing also as an encore with strings of gossamer lightness in the Wedding Cake Caprice by Saint Saens.
Since coming to London Ignas has realised the responsability he has to his talent and has begun to dedicate all the hours necessary and it has been a huge privilege to see his talent blossom and to hear the arrival of a great artist at the Wigmore Hall just a few months ago.It was with pleasure that in his open discussion he had interpreted my words of ‘responsability to his great talent ‘ as meaning maturing from a carefree student in the great metropolis to a mature artist aware of the burden that he bears and the sacrifice he has to make as he dedicates his youth to his art.
Hats off dear Ignas I am full of admiration for you as a person and as an artist ….onwards and upwards the world awaits ! Sacrifice it may have been but what rewards await you !
Review of Remesa and Schubert at the Wigmore Hall
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/09/13/ignas-maknickas-opens-a-wondrous-box-of-jewels-the-magic-world-of-a-true-artist/Strangely enough the only caption that was correct was the new work in Ignas’s repertoire.One of Chopin’s last works for piano in which Fantasie and Polonaise are united in a unique work of almost improvised nature.Like the other great work that preceded this ,op 60 the Barcarolle, it is a great outpouring of song.Even the Polonaise element is of canons covered in flowers as Chopin’s extraordinary pianistic genius is mixed with an often overlooked mastery of poetic form.Ignas from the very first notes allowed the opening chords to vibrate across the keys with a natural fluidity that brought a loving glow to such seemingly simple arpeggios.A Polonaise that did not erupt as it does in so many lesser hands but seemed to just vibrate with more urgency as it moved forward on a great wave like in the fourth ballade evolving with a most intricate poetic form which was transformed into the knowing and loving glow of the central episode.It unwinds gracefully and nostalgically looking back as it leads to the climax almost as unexpectedly as in the Barcarolle to lay exhausted and spent with only just enough breath left for the final A flat almost as a dying gasp. All this was portrayed in this young artists hands as I am inspired to try to describe such a performance as best my poor words can do!https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/07/06/ignas-maknickas-and-wouter-valvekens-music-at-the-matthiesen-gallery-if-music-be-the-food-of-love-pleaseplease-play-on/Interval discussion from on line listeners with Clive Walters Review of Schumann Fantasie and Schubert B flat
William Bracken ,winner of the 2022 Liszt Competition revealed only a year on to be a musician of mastery and remarkably committed artistry.I have heard this young artist over the past few years as his studies progressed at the Guildhall and was astonished and delighted today to hear how he has developed into a mature artist of stature .With a kaleidoscope of sounds he brought a fluidity and luminosity to the ‘bells’ as portrayed by Liszt and Debussy.It was a very interesting juxtaposition to hear Liszt’s rarely played ‘Les Cloches de Genèvre’ with Debussy’s bells from Images Bk 2 and as William very eloquently said they were both at different times in history painting pictures through music.Liszt in a more formal way whereas Debussy was more fragmented and improvisatory.
The two Liszt opening pieces were revelations of simplicity and beauty. ‘Au Bord d’une source’ is a miniature masterpiece and obviously was the inspiration for Ravel’s ‘Jeux d’eau’, but has been neglected in the concert hall since the famous recording of Horowitz .It is a perfect miniature tone poem and a continuous flow of jewels glistening over a constant stream of gentle sounds like water flowing over a mountain stream.Williams sound world was of a clarity and cleanliness never hard but always luminous even in the gently exciting climax.It was a sound that reminded me of Tamas Vasary and the very fluid Hungarian school of playing of Anda ,Kocsis or Ranki.
William has some strange rather eccentric ways though of taking his hands off the keys and leaving the sounds to finish the piece with the pedal still on or throwing his hands in the air like a cat on a hot tin roof ( better than last time I heard him but wonder if they are really necessary).He would do good to take Brendel’s own advice to himself as he said he did not sing or moan like Gould but he did make grimaces that he too was aware of and tried to cure by having a mirror next to the piano in the practice studio. A small point when a young artist actually listens to himself with sensitivity and intelligence and at times great passionate involvement.His passionate vehemence was especially noticeable in ‘Les Cloche de Genèvre’ where his magical embellishments and sense of balance also allowed the melodic line to shine with purity and beauty.The ending of this remarkable work was pure magic as he had endowed this tone poem with beauty combined with architectural shape.
The three Debussy Images were played with a luminosity and bathed in pedal but still managing to keep the utmost clarity with a wondrous sense of balance and superb use of the pedals .The moon shone as never before as it illuminated so magically the remains of the distant temple and it was a true jewel box of sounds as William’s touch was so varied with gong like precision as he struck the keys with such sensitivity.The ‘Poissons d’or’ were allowed to flitter fleetingly in absolutely clear waters unimpeded and at ease ,at times in very suave French style.
In the Chopin Fourth Scherzo he brought a sense of discovery and living a story to every strand.The quicksilver changes of character were revealed with virtuosity and passion – some strange pianistic jiggery pokery in fast passages but always with the musical meaning uppermost in mind.The mellifluous central episode unwound with simplicity and aristocratic fluidity and contrasted with the subtle refined virtuosity that surrounds it.The grandeur and nobility he brought to the final pages was quite breathtaking.
‘En rève’’ a late piece by Liszt that ends on a question mark pointing into the distance with such optimistic uncertainty .It was a piece that my old teacher Gordon Green used to enthuse about and insist that we all play – it is only a page long and is of the same simplicity of Mozart such had Liszt distilled his musical thoughts into a few essential notes of such poignant meaning.
The Variations on ‘Weinen,Klagen,Sorgen,Zagen’ were given a monumental performance where Williams mastery both technical and musical were exposed to the full as this work unfolded with its beseeching descending chromaticism .His astonishing virtuosity contrasted with the simplicity of the chorale melody before the triumphant ending in the blaze of glory of a fervent believer.
Les Cloches de Genève (The Bells of Geneva), was composed by Liszt in celebration of the birth of his and d’Agoult’s eldest daughter, who was born in the Swiss city. Prefaced by yet another quote from Byron (“I live not in myself, but I become / Portion of that around me”). Opening with imitations of bells then later accompany the lyrical Quasi allegretto melody. Between statements of the theme, Liszt interjects a remarkable passage imitating deep bell tones. Much of the piece, however, is contained within the beautiful Cantabile con moto section that sings out above an accompaniment of descending arpeggios, pausing occasionally to break forth into brief, florid cadenzas. The music builds to a fortissimo statement marked con somma passione culminating in sweeping arpeggios that span much of the keyboard, the music recedes into the quiet imitations of bells with which the piece opened, bringing the first volume of Années de pèlerinage to a peaceful close. Au bord d’une source (“Beside a Spring”) is the 4th piece of the first of Années de Pèlerinage, There are three separate versions of Au bord d’une source. The first version appears in Liszt’s set Album d’un voyageur (1834–1838), and the second in the first suite of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage (1836–1855). The last version is almost identical to the second, except for the final nine bars, which were added by Liszt as a coda for his Italian piano student Giovanni Sgambati (who was the composer of the popular transcription of Gluck’s Orpheus ) this lengthened the piece by about 30 seconds. The coda was written in 1863. The second version of Au bord d’une source is often regarded as the most popular. In the first version the technical difficulties are considerably higher to the pianist, whilst the last version adds the coda.In 1911, when he was almost 50, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) wrote in a letter to composer Edgar Varèse (1883-1965), words that reveal how much he understood about the nature of his creativity: “I love pictures almost as much as music.” Debussy first heard Javanese musicians at the Paris Universal Exposition and the sounds of the gamelan they played stayed with him, surfacing in the allusions to the instrument in 1907 in these first two pieces from Images Book 2: ‘ There was once, and there still is, despite the evils of civilization, a race of delightful people who learnt music as easily as we learn to breathe. Their academy is the eternal rhythm of the sea, the wind in the leaves, thousands of tiny sounds which they listen to attentively without ever consulting arbitrary treatises.’ Debussy dedicated ‘et la lune…’ to Louis Laloy, an authority on oriental and ancient Greek music. The poetic wording of the title confirm what Debussy referred to as the search by the poets and painters for “the inexpressible, which is the ideal of all art.” A painting of two gold-colored fish on a small Japanese lacquer panel that Debussy owned was the inspiration for Poissons d’or . In order to suggest the darting movements of these tiny water creatures, a pianist must be both the master of grace and elegance as well as of freedom of expression. Debussy’s images, whatever the subject, have a fantasy that is as closely related to mental images as to the physical reality of pianistic bravura.
The Scherzo No. 4, Op. 54, was composed in 1842 in Nohant and published in 1843 It is one of Chopin’s most elegiac works, and without doubt contains some of the most profound and introspective music the composer ever wrote and the only one of the four in a major key .A particular favourite of Saint Saens ,which is hardly surprising as jeux perlé abounds to ravishingly meaningful effect.En Rêve -Nocturne, composed in 1885 and dedicated to Liszt’s pupil August Stradal. Over a gently rocking accompaniment, a beautifully sculpted melody lulls and soothes us – but then an unexpected dissonance disturbs the mood … just briefly … peace is restored, the melody returns, and its final turn of phrase modulates down and down again and again … below quiet trills the pulse slows … silence … and the final chord hovers on the second inversion of the tonic without resolving onto root position. It has been suggested that the Answer lies within the Question. Food for thought indeed where the late works of Liszt are a fascinating collection of pieces which look far into the future.Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing),BWV 12, is a church cantata composed by J.S.Bach in Weimar for Jubilate ,the third Sunday after Easter with the first performance on 22 April 1714 in the Schlosskirche, the court chapel in Weimar. Variations on “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen,” S. 180 is one of Franz Liszt’s most significant works. 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.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.
Some superb technical control and passionate involvement but lacking the legato and real weight that would give a greater architectural shape to ‘Weinen ,Klagen ….’ Some beautiful things but a greater sense of balance would allow the melodic line to sing more naturally above his superbly played embellishments
‘Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este’ from Années de pèlerinage – Troisième Année – Italie, S163
Variations on a theme from Bach’s ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’ S180
2. Spencer Klymyshyn (Canada, b.1999) 2nd Prize
Some really musicianly playing of great sweep and architectural shape.Two of the most beautiful works by Liszt were played with attention to detail allied to an overall vision that especially in Bénédiction brought this masterpiece vividly to life with sensitivity and great artistry.
Petrarch sonnet no 104 from Années de pèlerinage – Deuxième Année – Italie, S161
‘Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude’ from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S173
3. Hedong Li (Hong Kong, China, b.2004) Highly Commended
Passionate commitment and wonderful pianistic hands but strangely fragmented as the whole story has yet to be told .Some very beautiful deeply felt passages but were not allowed to flow more naturally and to be incorporated into the whole story.Rigoletto in particular while bravely negotiating all the pianistic fireworks missed the feeling of bel canto and the opera stage that would have lifted the music off the page and into our hearts .
Rigoletto concert paraphrase S434
‘Après une lecture de Dante – Fantasia quasi sonata’ from Années de pèlerinage – Deuxième Année – Italie, S161
4. Fang-Lin Liu (Taiwan, b. 2001) Highly Commended
Some very beautiful playing of great sensitivity and musicianship.The extraordinary lugubre gondola where the etherial beauty was combined with sensitivity and soaring intensity.If Chasse Neige was missing the sweep and drive of a truly virtuoso performance it was compensated for by the beauty of her phrasing.It was the same beauty and intensity she brought to the 12th Hungarian Rhapsody where the devil may care gypsy element was too earthbound to have us cheering on our chairs at the end as we were for Rubinstein.A real musician not yet with virtuosity to spare.
La lugubre gondola (I) S200/1
‘Chasse-neige’ from 12 Études d’exécution transcendente, S139
Hungarian Rhapsody no 12 in C sharp minor S244
5. Letian Yu (China, b.2008). First Prize
An enterprising eclectic choice of programme and at 15 years old a remarkable mastery of the piano and above all of the musical meaning behind the notes that seemed to flow so effortlessly from his youthful hands.
Valses oubliées, S215 No. 1 in F sharp major No. 2 in A flat major No. 3 in D flat major
‘La Campanella’ from Études d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini, S140
‘Danse macabre’ – transcription of Saint-Saëns Op 40 S555
The jury members
Performances will be followed by Jury Deliberation and Winner Announcement Jury: Melvyn Cooper, Leslie Howard, Minkyu Kim and Mark Viner.
It was a unanimous decision to award first prize to the fifteen year old Letian Yu
Contestants and jury members Minkyu Kim as winner of the 2021 Liszt Competition will be playing for the Keyboard Trust in Florence on 5th December and 7th in Milan
Some musicianly playing from Jeremy Chan with a programme of two of the pinnacles of the keyboard repertoire.The Liszt B minor Sonata and Beethoven’s op 110. In both he allowed the music to unfold naturally with an architectural sense of shape and a scrupulous attention to the detailed indications of both composers.It was fascinating to hear the opening of Beethoven immediately after the visionary final pages of the Liszt Sonata. Liszt had been kissed by the master when he was a pupil of Czerny who had been a pupil of Beethoven.Of course the last three Beethoven Sonatas are visionary as the composer had at last found peace at the end of a tumultuous life. Now completely deaf he could hear the celestial sounds that awaited just around the corner ,very similar to Schubert who found solace in the most mercurial outpouring of song in his final months on this earth.
In the Liszt Sonata it was Jeremy’s musicianship that allowed the music to unfold naturally without any rhetoric or unnecessary showmanship.There was a rhythmic energy and nobility and above all a sense of balance that allowed the musical line to shine out so clearly even in the most transcendentally difficult passages.The single movement unfolded naturally from the opening three motifs that are then developed and incorporated into a quasi sonata form but in which the three characters from Faust are clearly defined and developed.Liszt was searching like Schubert in his Wanderer Fantasy for a new less classical form that eventually would be transformed into the Symphonic poem or by Wagner into the leit motif of the Ring cycle.
Jeremy at key moments would add deep bass notes that obviously opened up the sound of the piano and just showed his versatility and musicianship as he looked for the sounds that are not always easy to find on some difficult instruments.But they are there for those that seek! It created an atmosphere of serenity and religious fervour that was to build into a passionate outpouring beautifully balanced and shaped ,incorporated as it was into the entire overall form of this monumental work.Bass notes added too at the end of the Sonata as the visionary final pages opened up new vistas for music .Liszt himself had realised this and crossed out with the same vehemence as Beethoven his original ending in flaming virtuosistic glory.The knotty twine of the fugato was kept beautifully under control as the music moves inexorably to the climax and the recapitulation.Not sure that his rearranging between the hands of fast passage work is a good musical idea but it was done discreetly and in any case there was no way of cheating with the tumultuous final octave passages that he played with virtuosity and wonderfully controlled passion.
There were so many beautiful things in his Beethoven performance with a deeply felt sensitivity to the mellifluous sound world of the masters last thoughts.The magical change from the E flat to the D flat for the development was beautifully played and if the left hand was sometimes in muddy waters it was because the melodic line was uppermost in Jeremy’s sensitive fingers .There was a rhythmic energy to the Scherzo and the treacherous trio held no terror fo such a musician who endowed the whole movement with the same mellifluous sound of the entire sonata.The Adagio just floated on the long held chordal link between the movements and the Arioso dolente was shaped with poignant beauty as the pulsating left hand was merely a heart beating from within.There was a gossamer glow to the fugue that returns in inversion as it leads to the glorious affirmation of hope that Beethoven declares with passionate conviction.
And it was with this passionate conviction that Jeremy ended a memorable hour of masterworks played with great intelligence and sensitive artistry .
Liszt Sonata in B minor original ending
Liszt noted on the sonata’s manuscript that it was completed on 2 February 1853,but he had composed an earlier version by 1849.The Sonata was dedicated to Robert Schumann in return for Schumann’s dedication of his Fantasie in C op 17 (published 1839) to Liszt.A copy of the work arrived at Schumann’s house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium. Pianist and composer Clara Schumann did not perform the Sonata despite her marriage to Robert Schumann as she found it “merely a blind noise”.The original loud ending crossed out by Liszt and replaced with the visionary afterthought of a genius
Liszt Sonata part of the exposition
The Sonata was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854and first performed on 27 January 1857 in Berlinby Hans von Bulow.It was attacked by Eduard Hanslick who said “anyone who has heard it and finds it beautiful is beyond help”.Brahms reputedly fell asleep when Liszt performed the work in 1853,and it was also criticized by the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein .However, the Sonata drew enthusiasm from Richard Wagner following a private performance of the piece by Karl Klindworth on April 5, 1855.Otto Gumprecht of the German newspaper Nationalzeitung referred to it as “an invitation to hissing and stomping”.It took a long time for the Sonata to become commonplace in concert repertoire, because of its technical difficulty and negative initial reception due to its status as “new” music.
No other work of Liszt’s has attracted anywhere near the amount of scholarly attention paid to the Sonata in B minor. It has provoked a wide range of divergent theories from those of its admirers who feel compelled to search for hidden meanings. The one generally recognised is :
The Sonata is a musical portrait of the Faust legend, with “Faust,” “Gretchen,” and “Mephistopheles” themes symbolizing the main characters.
The Liszt Sonata and the Chopin fourth Ballade are together with the Schumann Fantasie pinnacles of the Romantic piano repertoire
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.
The legendary Guido Agosti held summer masterclasses in Siena for over thirty years.All the major pianists and musicians of the time would flock to learn from a master,a student of Busoni,where sounds heard in that studio have never been forgotten.He was persuaded by us in 1983 to give a public performance of the last two Beethoven Sonatas.The recording of op 110 from this concert is a testament,and one of the very few CD’s ever made,of this great master. This is a recently made master of op 111 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zdb2qjgWnA3HyPph_6FxnxjLHy7APc_f/view?usp=drive_webThe facsimile of the manuscript were given to the Ghione theatre by Maestro Agosti.They still adorn the walls of this beautiful theatre ,created by Ileana Ghione and her husband,that became a cultural centre of excellence in the 80’s and 90’s.
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.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 