ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

Steven Osborne

The ‘most thoughtful and questing of British pianists’ (Telegraph), Steven Osborne will perform Schubert’s Six moments musicaux and the late Sonata in A, D. 959, separated by a short Beethoven Bagatelle, Op. 33 No. 4. It is ten years since he was declared Instrumentalist of the Year by the Royal Philharmonic Society, but he remains one of Britain’s finest musicians, and a recent Wigmore Hall concert celebrating Rachmaninov’s 150th birthday received 5 stars in The Guardian and The Independent.

Park- Grosvenor ‘A sumptuous duo,spot on at St John’s where their light was shining brightly’

Another magnificent concert for spotlight at St John’s Waterloo.I have not heard such wonders since Zimerman or Uchida .Playing that drew us in to a secret world of ravishing beauty but also of startling contrasts.All with a palette of sounds that was truly a marvel, creating a world in which music evolves directly from the composer to the public through the hands of a supremely sensitive artist.One that with the humility of someone who thinks more of the music than himself and with superhuman mastery can communicate the music as if the ink was still wet on the page.
I have heard great things of Steven Osborne in repertoire of Prokofiev and Messiaen and never would have imagined what miracles he could produce with Schubert’s elusive Moments Musicaux D .780 and the great A major Sonata D .959.They were linked together with a single Beethoven Bagatelle op 33 n.4 of simple innocence.A monumental performance of the A major sonata in which time seemed to stand still. We were transported by this great artist to a much better world than the one we live in and it was only the sumptuous whispered sonorities of Schumann’s Romance in F sharp ,played as an encore, that prepared us for the world that awaited outside after this hour of escape to a much better place than we have ever known.

Schubert Moments Musicaux Op.94 D 780 (Piano)

1. Moderato in C
2. Andantino in A flat
3. Allegro moderato in F minor (ending in F major)
4. Moderato in C sharp minor
5. Allegro vivace in F minor (ends in F major)
6. Allegretto in A♭ major (ends on an open octave in an A♭ minor context)

Schubert’s well-known collection of “Moments Musicaux” was published in 1828, during the last year of the composer’s life, but some of the pieces date back to the beginning of the 1820s. In 1823 he published his extremely popular “Air russe” which later became the third piece of the “Moments Musicaux” and during the following year the chordal sixth piece entitled “Plaintes d’un Troubadour”. The multi-faceted lyrical atmospheric pieces similar to Beethoven’s Bagatelles in their brevity and quixotic character and were written to satisfy the Viennese public’s growing appetite for Albumblätter – literally “album leaves” – short pieces which could be played and enjoyed at home. Like the Impromptus these short piano pieces seem to owe a debt to the Bohemian composer Tomasek and his pupil Jan Vorisek. The third of the set is in Rosamunde vein and the fourth in Baroque style.

The Bagatelles, op .33, for solo piano were composed in 1801–02 and published in 1803 through the Viennese publisher Bureau des arts et d’industrie. The seven bagatelles are quite typical of Beethoven’s early style, retaining many compositional features of the early classical period.Beethoven wrote three sets of Bagatelles : 7 op 33;11 op 119;6 op 126 written between 1801 and 1823.

Schubert’s last three piano sonatas D 958, 959 and 960, are his last major compositions for solo piano. They were written during the last months of his life, between the spring and autumn of 1828, but were not published until about ten years after his death, in 1838–39.Like the rest of Schubert’s piano sonatas, they were mostly neglected in the 19th century.The last year of Schubert’s life was marked by growing public acclaim for the composer’s works, but also by the gradual deterioration of his health. On March 26, 1828, together with other musicians in Vienna .Schubert gave a public concert of his own works, which was a great success and earned him a considerable profit.Schubert had been struggling with syphilis since 1822–23, and suffered from weakness, headaches and dizziness. However, he seems to have led a relatively normal life until September 1828, when new symptoms such as effusions of blood appeared. At this stage he moved from the Vienna home of his friend Franz von Schober to his brother Ferdinand’s house in the suburbs, following the advice of his doctor; unfortunately, this may have actually worsened his condition. However, up until the last weeks of his life in November 1828, he continued to compose an extraordinary amount of music, including such masterpieces as the three last sonatas.

Schubert played from the sonata trilogy at an evening gathering in Vienna on September 28th .In a letter to Probst (one of his publishers), dated October 2, 1828, Schubert mentioned the sonatas amongst other works he had recently completed and wished to publish.However, Probst was not interested in the sonatas,and by November 19, Schubert was dead.

In the following year, Schubert’s brother Ferdinand sold the sonatas’ to another publisher, Anton Diabelli ,who would only publish them about ten years later, in 1838 or 1839.Schubert had intended the sonatas to be dedicated to Hummel , whom he greatly admired. Hummel was a leading pianist, a pupil of Mozart .However, by the time the sonatas were published in 1839, Hummel was dead, and Diabelli, the new publisher, decided to dedicate them instead to composer Schumann who had praised many of Schubert’s works in his critical writings.The negative attitude towards Schubert’s piano sonatas persisted well into the twentieth century. Only around the centennial of Schubert’s death did these works begin to receive serious attention and critical acclaim, with the writings of Donald Francis Tovey , and the public performances of Artur Schnabel and Eduard Erdmann .During the following decades, the sonatas, and especially the final trilogy, received growing attention, and by the end of the century, came to be regarded as essential part of the repertoire One of the reasons for the long period of neglect of Schubert’s piano sonatas seems to be their dismissal as structurally and dramatically inferior to the sonatas of Beethoven. In fact, the last sonatas contain distinct allusions and similarities to works by Beethoven, a composer Schubert venerated. However, musicological analysis has shown that they maintain a mature, individual style. Schubert’s last sonatas are now praised for their mature style, manifested in unique features such as a cyclical formal and tonal design, chamber music textures, and a rare depth of emotional expression.

Scarlatti 2 Sonatas B minor K 27. D major K 96.

Hummel. Rondo Favori E flat major op 11.

Chopin Ballade n.1 op 23 G minor

Mendelssohn/ Rachmaninov Scherzo from a Midsummer Nights Dream

Rachmaninov. Lilacs op 21 n.5.

Liszt Paganini Study. N.2 in E flat major

n. 3 La Campanella ( Liszt arr Busoni )10 min

Liszt / Busoni/ Horowitz Mephisto waltz n.1.

Thomas Kelly in Hampstead today with a programme fit for a King with scintillating show pieces by Scarlatti,Hummel,Chopin,Mendelssohn,Rachmaninov and Liszt.
A programme from a modern day heir to the Golden age of piano playing that included transcriptions by three of the greatest showmen from the past Liszt ,Busoni and Horowitz .I have reviewed Thomas’s performances recently on Ischia in Italy and in the National Liberal Club in London .The more detailed reviews you can read here:

Thomas Kelly on Ischia – The Walton Foundation at La Mortella -‘The Devil and the Deep blue Sea’

Thomas Kelly at the National Liberal Club The ‘outrageous’ virtuoso with a heart of pure gold.

It must have been a long time since the sedate respectable ladies of this garden suburb were seen to cheer and clap with such fervour!
Just as the refined noble ladies of the Parisian salons of the eighteenth century were transformed into wild admirers of Liszt with animalesque fervour.Or the critics in the 1920’s exclaiming on the the arrival of Horowitz in their midst as ‘the greatest pianist alive or dead!’
This surely was the Hampstead Garden Suburb’s equivalent as they were astonished,amazed and seduced by piano playing that had such a bewitching power over the audience.

A ‘Campanella’ of Busoni proportions or a Midsummer night in Rachmaninov’s dream hands .There followed a ‘Mephisto Waltz’ of Horowitzian contortions but above all the calming balm of Ravel’s Jeux d’eau that revealed even more the remarkably delicate artistry of this young virtuoso.

While in Germany, Hummel published A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instruction on the Art of Playing the Piano Forte (1828), which sold thousands of copies within days of its publication and brought about a new style of fingering and of playing ornaments. Later 19th-century pianistic technique was influenced by Hummel, through his instruction of Carl Czerny who later taught Franz Liszt . Czerny had transferred to Hummel after studying three years with Beethoven. Liszt himself idolized the work and influence of Hummel and often performed his works.Robert Schumann also practiced Hummel (especially the Sonata op 81) and considered becoming his pupil. Liszt’s father Adam refused to pay the high tuition fee Hummel was used to charging (thus Liszt ended up studying with Czerny). Czerny, Thalberg and Henselt were among Hummel’s most prominent students. He also briefly gave some lessons to Felix Mendelssohn.

The Rondo is an early work that dates from 1804 .It was played with a beguiling jeux perlé full of grace and sparkling notes of a ‘joie de vivre’ of irresistible charm

A standing ovation for the 2021 Busoni Winner in the Harold Acton Library in Florence with a ‘Bouquet of Flowers ‘ from Scriabin with his 24 Preludes op 11 and the Canons covered in Flowers of Rachmaninov with his elusive First Sonata op.1 . The last in the present series of Busoni winners presented by the Keyboard Trust going British in Florence.

A quite extraordinary ‘tour de force’ of poetic sensibility and virtuosity but above all intelligence from the refined palette of a deeply dedicated musician.Jae Hong had swept the board in Bolzano with a ‘Hammerklavier’ that will go down in the history of the competition.

Busoni International Piano Competition 2021

His Scriabin was full of insinuating perfumed sounds and sudden bursts of passion.His extraordinary control of sound allowed these 24 gems to glisten and shine on a 1898 Bechstein bequeathed by that never forgotten aesthete Harold Acton.
Not an easy task , as he said later, this is a piano with a unique voice for Beethoven and Schubert but for the Russian school it was missing a few gears!

Such was his mastery that he was able to persuade us,as Richter could do,that this was an instrument that could detonate the bomb shells and range of sounds that this repertoire demands.
Like a man possessed he threw himself into the cauldron of sounds that make up Rachmaninov’s early sonata.As he explained to me afterwards he had to pace himself and find the point of arrival in both Scriabin and Rachmaninov that would give a coherant architectural shape to these two hidden masterpieces.

It was Rachmaninov himself in 1908 who had had such difficulty in finding a form for his op.1 as he struggled with the idea of a sonata based on Goethe’s Faust.He was persuaded to abandon that idea for a more formal form by Medtner and other colleagues trimming down the sonata from 45 to 35 minutes.But little did they realise that this leit motiv was so ingrained that it is there for all those that can find this secret web.It is the formula for a master work that has been misunderstood for too long. It takes the intelligent searching minds of the young super sensitive virtuosi of today to show us the way.
For me it had been Kantarow recently who illuminated a work I had always struggled with since Ogdon brought it to light ( by coincidence with 50 years difference both winners of the Tchaikowsky Competition in Moscow ).It was a light like the ‘star’ in Scriabin that had been shining brightly but only for those with super sensitive antennae able to follow its seemingly impenetrable rays.
Jae Hong with his complete mastery and ultra sensitivity brought it vibrantly alive to all those lucky enough to be present in the cradle of culture that is Florence.
A breathtaking performance where a Guinness book of record of notes were turned into shimmering sounds of gossamer gold and silver out of which emerged fragments that gradually were pieced together to give a coherant form to this gargantuanly sprawling work.

A spontaneous standing ovation greeting this ‘tour de force’and with disarming simplicity this extraordinary artist simply said :‘and now I will show you what this instrument can really do!’
The heavens truly openened as he unlocked the intimate secrets of Brahms’ Intermezzo op 117 n.1 with rarified luminous sounds of delicate whispered secrets.The minutes of aching silence that greeted the last chord were golden indeed .
Lucky Milan that will be able to experience such wonders today in the magnificent new Steinway Studio in the hands of Maura Romano the true saviour for all discerning musicians.

Jae Hong Park at Steinway Hall

And so to the adorable Maura Romano in the new Steinway Flagship in Milan with Jae Hong Park …..a triumph pre-announced with breathtaking performances of Scriabin and Rachmaninov but then really letting his hair down Debussy style with Flaxen locks of ravishing colour.The last word of course went to the miracles that only Bach can offer with the Prelude in B minor bathed in the Russian sound world of Rachmaninov in Siloti’s magical transcription.

A joyous occasion for the first collaboration between Milan and the Keyboard Trust.Jae Hong spending the day hypnotised by the most beautiful piano that Steinways keep for special guests.A day that heard all five Beethoven concertos and the trilogy of late sonatas from the hands of a young master about to play them in two day cycles in Seol on his return on Monday.

All that before his beguiling, breathtaking performances of Scriabin and Rachmaninov for a select invited audience on the magnificent Concert Grand that sits in this magnificent new Steinway Flagship just a stones throw from La Scala.
Next concert on the 7th December with Minkyu Kim.

Minkyu Kim a pianistic and musical genius at St Mary’s

Jae Hong Park was the First Prize Winner of the 2021 Busoni-Mahler Foundation Competition.

He was also the first-prize winner of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition for Young Artists and the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists. He was also Finalist Prize winner at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition and fourth-prize winner of the Ettlingen International Competition.

He has performed recitals in many countries including Italy, Argentina, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the United States. He has performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerusalem Camerata, Utah Symphony Orchestra and many other orchestras.

He has been invited to the Washington Piano Festival, the Gina Bachauer Piano Festival, Grachten Festival and other festivals to give recitals. He is currently studying in Korea National University of Arts under Prof. Daejin Kim.

Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor op 28 was completed in 1908.It is the first of three “Dresden pieces”, along with the symphony n.2 and part of an opera, which were composed in the quiet city of Dresden.It was originally inspired by Goethe’s tragic play Faust,although Rachmaninoff abandoned the idea soon after beginning composition, traces of this influence can still be found.After numerous revisions and substantial cuts made at the advice of his colleagues, he completed it on April 11, 1908. Konstantin Igumnov gave the premiere in Moscow on October 17, 1908. It received a lukewarm response there, and remains one of the least performed of Rachmaninoff’s works.He wrote from Dresden, “We live here like hermits: we see nobody, we know nobody, and we go nowhere. I work a great deal,”but even without distraction he had considerable difficulty in composing his first piano sonata, especially concerning its form.Rachmaninoff enlisted the help of Nikita Morozov , one of his classmates from Anton Arensky’s class back in the Moscow Conservatory, to discuss how the sonata rondo form applied to his sprawling work.Rachmaninov performed in 1907 an early version of the sonata to contemporaries including Medtner.With their input, he shortened the original 45-minute-long piece to around 35 minutes and completed the work on April 11, 1908. Igumnov gave the premiere of the sonata on October 17, 1908, in Moscow, 

Lukas Geniusas writes about his premiere recording of the Rachmaninov Sonata n. 1 to be issued in October : ‘About a year ago I came across a very rare manuscript of the Rachmaninov’s Sonata no.1 in its first, unabridged version. It had never been publicly performed.
This version of Sonata is not significantly longer (maybe 3 or 4 minutes, still to be checked upon performing), first movement’s form is modified and it is also substantially reworked in terms of textures and voicings, as well as there are few later-to-be-omitted episodes. The fact that this manuscript had to rest unattended for so many years is very perplexing to me. It’s original form is very appealing in it’s authentic full-blooded thickness, the truly Rachmaninovian long compositional breath. I find the very fact of it’s existence worth public attention, let alone it’s musical importance. Pianistic world knows and distinguishes the fact that there are two versions of his Piano Sonata no.2 but to a great mystery there had never been the same with Sonata no.1.’

Lukas Geniušas Maturity and mastery in Duszniki

Alexander’s 24 Preludes, Op. 11 is a set of preludes composed in the course of eight years between 1888–96,being also one of Scriabin’s first published works with M.P.Belaieff in 1897,in Leipzig , together with his 12 Études, Op. 8 (1894–95).

Scriabin’s 24 preludes were modeled after Chopin’s own set of op .They also covered all 24 major and minor keys and they follow the same key sequence: C major, A minor, G major, E minor, D major, B minor and so on, alternating major keys with their relative minors, and following the ascending circle of fifths .

I think Dr Mather said it all when he thanked Dmitri for a phenomenal performance of spectacular proportions and that it was a privilege to have heard such playing.Playing that reminded me of the young Tamas Vasary or even more Sokolov of today .There was a sound that was very clean,crisp and clear but also multi coloured and in the greatest of climaxes sumptuously rich and never hard or ungrateful.A technical mastery allied to a musicianship that could change with chameleonic speed from the purity of Franck to the clarity of Scarlatti and Haydn and then turn the piano into an orchestra with Tchaikowsky and Saint- Saens.I have heard many remarkable hands play on this very instrument, in this extraordinary series that the genial Dr Mather and his team are dedicated to offering to young musicians,but I have never heard such sumptuous sounds as in the hands of this piano genius.A name that defies the beauty ,poetry and total mastery he has in his hands but surely a name to remember!

Dmitrii Kalashnikov was born in Moscow in 1994. He graduated with distinction from the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music (2012; classes of Ada Traub and Tatiana Vorobieva) and the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (2017; class of Elena Kuznetsova). In 2021 he completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music in London (class of Vanessa Latarche). He was a prize-winner at the Concours International de Piano du Conservatoire Russe Alexandre Scriabine (Paris, 2008; 1 st prize), the Jaques Samuel Pianos Intercollegiate Piano Competition (London, 2019; 1 st prize) and the Beethoven Senior Intercollegiate Piano Competition (London, 2021; 1 st prize). He is a grant-recipient of the New Names foundation, the Yuri Rozum International Charitable Foundation and the Homecoming Culture Development Fund, and has received the Prize of the Support for Talented Youth of the Government of the Russian Federation, the City of Moscow Prize and the George Stennett Award. He was also supported by a Neville Wathen Scholarship. He gives recitals at the Moscow Conservatory, the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, the Moscow International Performing Arts Centre, London’s Wigmore Hall and at various venues in France, Austria, Poland, Estonia, Italy, Belgium and the United Kingdom. He has appeared on several occasions with the Russian National Orchestra under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev and in a duet with Pletnev on two pianos (conducted by Mischa Damev). He regularly performs at the Mariinsky International Piano Festival. In December 2018 he appeared at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre with the Mariinsky Orchestra. He has taken part in various projects of the State Tretyakov Gallery. For several years he ran artistic soirees with the artist Gavriil Kochevrin for charitable events for orphans at the Marina Tsvetaeva House Museum (Moscow). These concert performances have seen the participation of Yevgeny Knyazev, Alexander Rudin and Boris Andrianov. In September 2019 he took part in the opening of the season at the Nizhny Novgorod State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after A.S. Pushkin.

Dmitry Kalashnikov at St Mary’s Mastery and intelligence with explosions of virtuosity at the service of the music.

Franck was inspired to write this organ piece for the instrument at the church of Sainte-Clotilde. While it sounds majestic on the organ, it is also frequently heard in Harold Bauer’s transcription for the piano.The Prelude, Fugue and Variation, Op. 18 is one of Franck’s Six Pieces for organ, premiered by the composer at Sainte-Clotilde on 17 November 1864. They mark a decisive stage in his creative development, revealing how he was building on the post-Beethoven Germanic tradition in terms of the importance given to musical construction.
The Prelude, Fugue and Variation is dedicated to Saint-Saëns. Years earlier, when Franck published his Op. 1 trios, Liszt was among their admirers but had advised his younger colleague to write a new finale for the third of the trios and create a separate work from the original finale – this became Franck’s Fourth Piano Trio, Op. 2, dedicated to Liszt. In spring 1866, the Hungarian composer was in Paris for the French premiere of his Missa solennis for the consecration of the Basilica in Gran (Esztergom) at the Église Saint-Eustache on 15 March, a work about which Franck was enthusiastic. At the beginning of his stay, Liszt had come to listen to Franck improvising at Sainte-Clotilde and, apparently at Duparc’s instigation, a second private performance took place on 3 April. Franck wanted to play Liszt’s Prelude and Fugue on the Name BACH but the latter asked instead to hear Franck’s own Prelude, Fugue and Variation.
The piano transcription of this organ work was made by Harold Bauer (1873-1951), the British pianist who gave the world premiere of Debussy’s Children’s Corner and was the dedicatee of Ondine, the first piece in Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit.Harold Bauer made his debut as a violinist in London in 1883, and for nine years toured England. In 1892, however, he went to Paris and studied with Paderewski for a year.In 1900, Harold Bauer made his debut in America with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, performing the U.S. premiere of Brahms’Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor. On 18 December 1908, he gave the world premiere performance of Debussy’s Children’s Corner Suite in Paris.After that he settled in the United States.He was also an influential teacher and editor, heading the Piano Department at the Manhattan School of Music . Starting in 1941, Bauer taught winter master classes at the University of Miami and served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Hartford Hartt .Students of Harold Bauer include notably Abbey Simon and Dora Zaslavsky.

The 55 Haydn Sonatas are perhaps the least-known treasures of the piano repertoire. In them one can hear Haydn virtually inventing the classical style, from the early, somewhat tentative beginnings, through the bold experiments of the 1770s, to the adventurous late works. As with Beethoven (Haydn’s somewhat recalcitrant student) each sonata is a new exploration, and the element of surprise is ever present. Haydn delights in abrupt transitions, twists and turns, sudden pauses, and apparent non sequiturs; listening to him demands a constant alertness.

The 1770s, when Haydn’s Sonata in B minor was composed, was the age of Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) in German culture, an age when aberrant emotions were all the rage in music; and what better tonal avouring than the minor mode to convey these emotions?

It is also important to note that the 1770s was the period in which the harpsichord was gradually giving way to the new fortepiano, precursor of the modern grand, and there is much in this sonata to suggest that it still lingered eagerly on the harpsichord side of things, at least texturally.

This cross-over period between harpsichord and fortepiano plays out in the nature of the first movement’s two contrasting themes.

In place of a lyrical slow movement, Haydn offers us a minuet and trio which features thematic material as dramatically contrasting as the first and second themes of the first movement. The minuet is in the major mode, set high in the register, sparkling with trills

The trio is daringly in the minor mode, set low, and grinds grimly away in constant 16th-note motion.

Haydn wouldn’t be Haydn if he didn’t send you away with a toe-tapping finale and such a movement ends this sonata. To that end, Haydn’s go-to rhythmic device is repeated notes, and this nale chatters on constantly at an 8th-note patter, interrupted at random, it would seem, by surprising silences and dramatic pauses – as if to allow the performer to turn sideways and wink at his audience.

Danse macabre, Op 40, is a symphonic poem for orchestra, written in 1874 and was first performed on 24 January 1875. It started out in 1872 as an art song for voice and piano with a French text by the poet Henri Cazalis , based on the play Danza macàbra by Camillo Antona-Traversi.In 1874, the composer expanded and reworked the piece into a symphonic poem, replacing the vocal line with a solo violin part Shortly after the premiere, the piece was transcribed into a piano solo arrangement by Franz Liszt S.555 a good friend of Saint-Saëns in 1942, Vladimir Horowitz made extensive changes to the Liszt transcription and it is this version that is played most often today.

Genius is hard to define but when you hear it there is no doubt of it’s presence .Tonight Magdalene Ho kept us enraptured by her total concentration and burning intensity mixed with an obvious shyness when her hands left the keys and she had to join us mortals on equal ground .
I remember hearing an 18 year old fresher at the RCM electrifying the audience at the Joan Chissell Schumann Competition with the Eighth Novelette of such luminosity and ravishing beauty but also total commitment to the sounds that were pouring out of her minuscule frame .
The next I knew Patsy Fou rang me during the night to say she had won first prize in the Clara Haskil competition in Switzerland.(Haskil one of the greatest musicians of her time similar today to Pires)
Now in the great hands of Dmitri Alexeev her playing has grown in strength and nobility as a young girl becomes a sensitive woman more aware of the world around her.
Bach playing of such clarity and architectural strength .
Beethoven’s op 109 of radiance and searing aristocratic beauty. But it was the Schumann Carnaval of extraordinary character and authority ,where Florestan and Eusebius could finally live together in such secure sensitive hands,that showed us what the word genius can really mean.

Carnaval. Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes Robert Schumann

Carnaval had its origin in a set of variations on a Sehnsuchtswalzer by Franz Schubert , whose music Schumann had discovered only in 1827. The catalyst for writing the variations may have been a work for piano and orchestra by Schumann’s close friend Ludwig Schuncke,a set of variations on the same Schubert theme. Schumann felt that Schuncke’s heroic treatment was an inappropriate reflection of the tender nature of the Schubert piece, so he set out to approach his variations in a more intimate way, working on them in 1833 and 1834.

Schumann’s work was never completed, however, and Schuncke died in December 1834, but he did re-use the opening 24 measures for the opening of Carnaval. 

The 21 pieces are connected by a recurring motif . The four notes are encoded puzzles, and Schumann predicted that “deciphering my masked ball will be a real game for you.”

Both Schumann and his wife Clara considered his solo piano works too difficult for the general public. ( Chopin is reported to have said that Carnaval was not music at all.Chopin did not warm to Schumann on the two occasions they met briefly and had a generally low opinion of his music.) Consequently, the works for solo piano were rarely performed in public during Schumann’s lifetime, although Liszt performed selections from Carnaval in Leipzig in March 1840, omitting certain movements with Schumann’s consent. Six months after Schumann’s death, Liszt later wrote that Carnaval was a work “that will assume its natural place in the public eye alongside Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which in my opinion it even surpasses in melodic invention and conciseness”.

Sphinxs consists of three sections, each consisting of one bar on a single staff in bass (F) clef, with no key, tempo, or dynamic indications. The notes are written as breves . The pitches given are the notes E♭C B A (SCHA) and A♭C B (AsCH) and A E♭C B (ASCH). Many pianists and editors, including Clara Schumann, advocate for omitting the Sphinxs in performance.

These are musical cryptograms , as follows:

• A, E♭, C, B – German: A–Es–C–H (the Es is pronounced as a word for the letter S)
• A♭, C, B – German: As–C–H
• E♭, C, B, A – German: as Es–C–H–A

The first two spell the German name for the town of Asch (now As in the Czech Republic), in which Schumann’s then fiancée, Ernestine von Fricken, was born.The sequence of letters also appears in the German word Fasching, meaning carnival. In addition, Asch is German for “Ash”, as in Ash Wednesday , the first day of Lent. Lastly, it encodes a version of the composer’s name, Robert Alexander Schumann. The third series, S–C–H–A, encodes the composer’s name again with the musical letters appearing in Schumann, in their correct

Fantasia and fugue in A minor as is often the case with Bach, little is known about the origins of the piece. It is not even clear whether he intended it for organ, clavichord or harpsichord. In his interview about the work, The Fantasia begins with a series of descending notes in the bass, and descending lines continue to dominate the rest of the piece. The Fugue builds up steadily to a four-part web of harmonies. Then halfway through, there is a chromatically descending line as a second theme, which takes the idea of the descending bass in the Fantasia one step further. And then Bach weaves both themes together to form a rich harmonic whole. Rather than dexterous virtuosity,

The three movements of the sonata op 109 :

1. Vivace ma non troppo — Adagio espressivo
2. Prestissimo.
3. Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung. Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo.

The Sonata op 109 is dedicated to Maximiliane Brentano, the daughter of Beethoven’s long-standing friend Antonie Brentano for whom Beethoven had already composed the short Piano Trio in B flat Wo039 in 1812.There is an April entry in Beethoven’s conversation book describing a “small new piece” that is, according to William Meredith, identical to the first movement of Op. 109. In fact, the outline of the movement makes the idea of a Bagatelle interrupted by fantasia-like interludes seem very plausible.Beethoven’s secretary Franz Oliva then allegedly suggested the idea of using this “small piece” as the beginning of the sonata that Schlesinger wanted.The date of the first performance is unknown. The first pianists to undertake bringing Beethoven’s last sonatas, including Op. 109, to public attention were Franz Liszt,who regularly included them in his programs between 1830 and 1840,and Hans von Bulow, who even included several of the late sonatas in one evening.

Lukinov Gramophone review review and Lagrasse festival

A full house for Nikita Lukinov at the Liberal Club with a display of a supreme stylist blessed with an elegance and a kaleidoscopic range of sounds.
Schumann’s Symphonic Studies that shone like newly minted jewels that astonishingly they could still take us by surprise with his sensitive artistry and passionate commitment.
Moulding such well known phrases into streams of sounds of ravishing beauty where even the posthumous studies seemed at last to have found their true home as he incorporated them into the whole with such sensitive intelligence.
Five of Tchaikowsky’s little pieces op 72 ,having such fun at the end of his life baking his little ‘pancakes’ ,were transformed into miniature tone poems of striking beauty and mastery.
Pletnev’s transcription of four pieces from Sleeping Beauty by contrast paled into insignificance even though played with the mastery that had held us mesmerised from this dashing young Russian who had flown down from his home in Glasgow to enchant and seduce us.
He is by the way the youngest staff member at The Royal Conservatory of Scotland and of all UK’s Music Conservatories.
He and his companion Anastasia ,a renowned novelist,are truly a golden couple who relish the Glaswegian air.

Nikita Lukinov plays breathtaking charity recital for Ukraine in Berlin.

Nikita Lukinov at St Marys The charm and aristocratic style of a star

Nikita Lukinov at St Mary’s a masterly warrior with canons covered in flowers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tchaikovsky’s 18 Pieces (18 Morceaux), Op. 72 were his last works for solo piano, completed in April 1893 at Klin.Returning to Klin on 3/15 February 1893 after a long period of absence, Tchaikovsky straight away set to work on composing his Symphony n.6 At around this time he also assembled materials which were to form the basis for a series of piano pieces. On 5/17 February the composer told his brother Modest : “In the meantime, in order to earn some money, I will compose a few piano pieces and romances”

Tchaikovsky only began to compose these pieces in April, after completing the sketches of his Symphony n.6 and fulfilling a number of concert engagements, from which he returned on 5/17 April 1893.On 5/17 April 1893, Tchaikovsky wrote to ilya Slatin from Klin :’I have been on holiday in Saint Petersburg with my family, which was very nice. I came back today and began collecting my thoughts to compose a whole series of miniature

By 15/27 April, ten pieces had already been written. “In the 10 days since returning from Petersburg , I have decided, for the want of money, to write a few little piano pieces, and have conditioned myself to write at least one a day during this month”, Tchaikovsky wrote to Ilya Slatin on 15/27 April :”I’m continuing to bake my musical pancakes”, he wrote on the same day to Vladimir Davydov : “Today the tenth is being prepared. It’s remarkable that the further I get, the easier and more enjoyable the job becomes. At the beginning it went slowly, and the first two or three items were merely the result of an effort of will, but now I cannot stop my ideas, which appear to me one after another, at all hours of the day”

Some superb playing advertised as a duo but they truly played as one.Have the etherial passionate sounds of these last utterings of Debussy ever sounded so fresh and improvised?There was magic in the air with the lightness and insinuating sounds of the second movement that were rediscovered together as though for the first time .The concealed passion and throbbing heart beat of the last movement drew this world – Debussy’s – to a conclusion in only thirteen minutes.There was passion too in the Grieg sonata but it was the heartrending intimacy that was so touching. Looking at each other and both on the same wave just waiting for each other to emerge and submerge with a continual movement.Each swaying with the music indeed as Chopin said :the roots firmly in the ground but the branches free to move in the breeze.I did not think the ravishing beauty of Jae Hong’s Allegretto could be more lovingly tender or beautiful but then Esther’s violin took over with different sounds less luminous but of even greater intensity.An exhilarating prestissimo was played with extraordinary rhythmic energy bringing these two Sonatas to a magnificent end.Rachmaninov’s Vocalise was pure magic as the violin gently conversed with the piano in a duet of ravishing beauty but also of extraordinary balance.Jae Hong playing with the piano lid fully opened but there was never any moment when he might have overpowered this single violin.Two superb musicians listening to each other as they created a single unified whole .A lesson in humility and artistry as they thought more of the music they were making together than themselves.Yankee Doodle was a way to release the tension that had been created by so much wonderful music making.Jae Hong patiently accompanying the hi jinx of his partner and every so often letting the brass band in his hands and feet take over ……it was fun but it was the desolate Korean Melody and the deeply nostalgic Morning Song by Elgar that stole our hearts.

Jae Hong Park at Steinway Hall

The Debussy sonata for violin and piano in G minor, L.140, was written in 1917. It was the composer’s last major composition.The premiere took place on 5 May 1917, the violin part played by Gaston Poulet , with Debussy himself at the piano. It was his last public performance.

The work has three movements:

1. Allegro vivo
2. Intermède: Fantasque et léger
3. Finale: Très animé

The unfinished sonatas

Six sonatas for various instruments (French: Six sonates pour divers instruments) was a projected cycle of sonatas that was interrupted by the composer’s death in 1918, after he had composed only half of the projected sonatas. He left behind his sonatas for cello and piano 1915), flute, viola and harp (1915), and violin and piano (1916–1917).Debussy wrote in the manuscript of his violin sonata that the fourth sonata should be written for oboe, horn,and harpsichord and the fifth for trumpet, clarinet, bassoon and piano.

From 1914, the composer, encouraged by the music publisher Jacques Durand intended to write a set of six sonatas for various instruments, in homage to the French composers of the 18th century. The effects of the First World War and an interest in baroque composers Couperin and Rameau inspired Debussy as he was writing the sonatas.

Durand, in his memoirs entitled Quelques souvenirs d’un éditeur de musique, wrote the following about the sonatas’ origin:

‘After his famous String Quartet, Debussy had not written any more chamber music. Then, at the Concerts Durand, he heard again the Septet with trumpet by Saint-Saëns and his sympathy for this means of musical expression was reawoken. He admitted the fact to me and I warmly encouraged him to follow his inclination. And that is how the idea of the six sonatas for various instruments came about.^’

In a letter to the conductor Bernard Molinari, Debussy explained that the set should include “different combinations, with the last sonata combining the previously used instruments”. His death on 25 March 1918 prevented him from carrying out his plan, and only three of the six sonatas were completed and published by Durand, with a dedication to his second wife, Emma Bardac.

For the final and sixth sonata, Debussy envisioned a concerto where the sonorities of the “various instruments” combine, with the gracious assistance of the double bass.

Grieg began composing his third and final violin sonata in the autumn of 1886. Whereas the first two sonatas were written in a matter of weeks, this sonata took him several months to complete.Although there were only two years between the first two violin sonatas, the Violin Sonata No 3 in C minor, Op 45, was not to follow for almost two decades: the last piece of chamber music Grieg completed, it was composed—at Grieg’s home, Troldhaugen, outside Bergen—in the second half of 1886, just spilling into the first days of 1887.The sonata is in three movements The second movement opens with a serene piano solo in E major with a lyrical melodic line. In the middle section, Grieg uses a playful dance tune. It also exists in a version for cello and piano that Grieg composed during the same time as the violin version and given to his brother as a birthday gift in May 1887, but appeared in print only in 2005 (by Henle).

Allegro molto ed appassionato – Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza – Allegro animato – Prestissimo 

The sonata remains the most popular of the three works, and has established itself in the standard repertoire. The work was also a personal favorite of Grieg’s. Grieg played the piano part in the premiere, in the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 10 December 1887; the violinist was the eminent Adolph Brodsky, who had given the first performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto six years earlier (and was later head of the Royal Manchester School of Music)To a certain extent, Grieg built on Norwegian folk melodies and rhythms in this three-movement sonata. However, Grieg considered the second sonata as the “Norwegian” sonata, while the third sonata was “the one with the broader horizon.” This was the last piece Grieg composed using sonata form.

“Vocalise” is a song composed and published in 1915 as the last of his 14 Songs or 14 Romances, Op.34.Written for high voice (soprano or tenor)it contains no words, but is sung using only one vowel of the singer’s choosing It was dedicated to soprano singer Antonina Nezhdanova. It is performed in various instrumental arrangements more frequently than in the original vocal version.In this case arranged by Jascha Heifetz.

The French violinist Henri Vieuxtemps wrote Souvenir d’Amérique, opus 17 for violin and piano, in 1843, during his first concert tour in the United States. This set of variations, based on the melody of the popular song Yankee Doodle, became the entertaining surprise encore piece at Vieuxtemps’ recitals. Its humorous spirit, together with its virtuosic firework displays and imaginative use of playing techniques, made Souvenir d’Amérique an instant audience favorite.

Cristian Sandrin triumphs last night in Berlin with the ‘Goldberg Variations’ dedicated to his father the distinguished pianist and pedagogue Sandu Sandrin who would have been 77 years old this day.A commemoration for him a year on took place in Bucharest on the 5th November (the actual day is the 15th )

Cristian Sandrin Visions of Life dedicated to his father Sandu Sandrin .

Cristian Sandrin plays Goldberg Variations the start of a lifetime journey of discovery from Perivale to Bucharest

A history of the Konzerthaus Berlin.

Designed by the famous Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who oversaw the rebuilding of Berlin after Napoleon’s comprehensive defeat at Leipzig and Waterloo. The concert hall is in restrained and elegant Noclassical style, the perfect setting for the music of the period. It was ceremoniously opened in 1821 with a prologue specially written by Goethe and saw the premiere of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz. Prussia was determined that Berlin would vie with Vienna and Prague as the cultural centre of Europe.
The building was completely destroyed by fire in the last weeks of World War 2 and Berliners were torn with whether to faithfully rebuild Schinkel’s masterpiece or build a modern concert hall. We can only be grateful that they chose the former option that recaptures the moment when the Age of Enlightenment meets the spirit of Romanticism.

Cristian’s rendering of the Goldberg Variations could not have taken place at a more fitting venue. The packed audience was hypnotised by the performance. After Cristian had soaked up the rapturous applause and the shouts of bravo, bravo he said it had been the best moment in all his life.

Photos show the Kleinersalle, the Bechstein concert grand – which had been tuned to perfection – the bells rang and the keys sang. Cristian loved the piano.

Photos of Dr. Rainer Braunschweig with Gerlinde Otto, Professor at the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar since 1992 and now emeritus lecturer.

https://bachtrack.com/interview-cristian-sandrin-new-goldberg-variations-bach-kettner-society-december-2024/amp=1

The ‘Spotlight’ was certainly on St John’s Waterloo tonight with a superb concert by Hyeoon Park and Benjamin Grosvenor
Superb chamber music playing each listening to the other as they played with cat and mouse like attention.

A continuous stream of music making that was like circus entertainers on the high wire who with superb balance and control manage to stay on high without ever even the thought that they might fall off. Ravishing sumptuous sounds from the piano were matched by the searing intensity of the violin.
From the piano’s very first sombre chords of quiet brooding intensity in the Vaughan Williams the violin just soared into the heights.A magic spell was cast from the Lark allowed to ascend into truly celestial regions on high.
Passing through Takemitsu’s evocative ‘Distance de fée’ we were treated to an astonishingly insinuating performance of the Debussy Sonata that was a very welcome addition to the programme .It was remarkable for its ravishing colour and passionate intensity.
Even Grieg’s C minor Sonata was played with the care,burning intensity and intelligent musicianship usually reserved only for the ‘Kreutzer’.
A monumental performance where the piano’s heart rending delicacy in the second movement was matched by the ravishing intensity of the violin.
A magnificent performance of a much neglected work that tonight was restored to all it’s glory by these two great artists that was eagerly devoured by all those lucky to be present.

But the best was still to come with a heart rending performance of Elgar’s ‘Salut D’Amour’ that will remain in my memory for long to come.

The Debussy sonata for violin and piano in G minor, L.140, was written in 1917. It was the composer’s last major composition.The premiere took place on 5 May 1917, the violin part played by Gaston Poulet , with Debussy himself at the piano. It was his last public performance.

The work has three movements:

1. Allegro vivo
2. Intermède: Fantasque et léger
3. Finale: Très animé

The unfinished sonatas

Six sonatas for various instruments (French: Six sonates pour divers instruments) was a projected cycle of sonatas that was interrupted by the composer’s death in 1918, after he had composed only half of the projected sonatas. He left behind his sonatas for cello and piano 1915), flute, viola and harp (1915), and violin and piano (1916–1917).Debussy wrote in the manuscript of his violin sonata that the fourth sonata should be written for oboe, horn,and harpsichord and the fifth for trumpet, clarinet, bassoon and piano.

From 1914, the composer, encouraged by the music publisher Jacques Durand intended to write a set of six sonatas for various instruments, in homage to the French composers of the 18th century. The effects of the First World War and an interest in baroque composers Couperin and Rameau inspired Debussy as he was writing the sonatas.

Durand, in his memoirs entitled Quelques souvenirs d’un éditeur de musique, wrote the following about the sonatas’ origin:

‘After his famous String Quartet, Debussy had not written any more chamber music. Then, at the Concerts Durand, he heard again the Septet with trumpet by Saint-Saëns and his sympathy for this means of musical expression was reawoken. He admitted the fact to me and I warmly encouraged him to follow his inclination. And that is how the idea of the six sonatas for various instruments came about.^’

In a letter to the conductor Bernard Molinari, Debussy explained that the set should include “different combinations, with the last sonata combining the previously used instruments”. His death on 25 March 1918 prevented him from carrying out his plan, and only three of the six sonatas were completed and published by Durand, with a dedication to his second wife, Emma Bardac.

For the final and sixth sonata, Debussy envisioned a concerto where the sonorities of the “various instruments” combine, with the gracious assistance of the double bass.

Grieg began composing his third and final violin sonata in the autumn of 1886. Whereas the first two sonatas were written in a matter of weeks, this sonata took him several months to complete.Although there were only two years between the first two violin sonatas, the Violin Sonata No 3 in C minor, Op 45, was not to follow for almost two decades: the last piece of chamber music Grieg completed, it was composed—at Grieg’s home, Troldhaugen, outside Bergen—in the second half of 1886, just spilling into the first days of 1887.The sonata is in three movements The second movement opens with a serene piano solo in E major with a lyrical melodic line. In the middle section, Grieg uses a playful dance tune. It also exists in a version for cello and piano that Grieg composed during the same time as the violin version and given to his brother as a birthday gift in May 1887, but appeared in print only in 2005 (by Henle).

Allegro molto ed appassionato – Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza – Allegro animato – Prestissimo

The sonata remains the most popular of the three works, and has established itself in the standard repertoire. The work was also a personal favorite of Grieg’s. Grieg played the piano part in the premiere, in the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 10 December 1887; the violinist was the eminent Adolph Brodsky, who had given the first performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto six years earlier (and was later head of the Royal Manchester School of Music)To a certain extent, Grieg built on Norwegian folk melodies and rhythms in this three-movement sonata. However, Grieg considered the second sonata as the “Norwegian” sonata, while the third sonata was “the one with the broader horizon.” This was the last piece Grieg composed using sonata form.

The Lark Ascending was inspired by the 1881 poem by the English writer George Meredith . It was originally for violin and piano, completed in 1914, but not performed until 1920. The composer reworked it for solo violin and orchestra after the First World War and it is this version, in which the work is chiefly known, was first performed in 1921.

The composer’s second wife, Ursula wrote that in The Lark Ascending Vaughan Williams had “taken a literary idea on which to build his musical thought … and had made the violin become both the bird’s song and its flight, being, rather than illustrating the poem from which the title was taken”.At the head of the score, Vaughan Williams wrote out twelve lines from Meredith’s 122-line poem:

He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.

For singing till his heaven fills,
‘Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes.

Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.

The soloist for whom the work was written and to whom it is dedicated was Marie Hall ,a leading British violinist of the time, a former pupil of Edward Elgar and celebrated for her interpretation of that composer’s violin concerto ^.She gave the first performance with the pianist Geoffrey Mendham (1899–1984) at the Shirehampton Hall on 15 December 1920 and was again the soloist in the first performance of the orchestral version, in the Queen’s Hall , London, on 14 June 1921, at a concert presented by the British Music Society. The british Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Adrian Boult

“Distance de fée” created in 1951, one of the best pieces of Takemitsu’s early period. The spirit of Debussy and Messiaen are fully felt in this work of approximately 7 and 1/2 minutes duration. Messiaen’s octatonic scale is used in the tonal language. The opening lyrical theme is repeated several times, and finds a new pathway upon each return – this is a version of variation as well as rondo form, two of Takemitsu’s favorite compositional procedures. This piece, like many others by Takemitsu, was inspired by poetry, in this case, a poem of the same title by Shuzo Takiguchi (1903-1979). This work describes, with lightly mythological imagery, an elusive, transparent creature living in “air’s labyrinth … it lives in the spring breeze That barely resembled the balance of a small bird”

Elgar’s Salut d’Amour (Liebesgruß), Op. 12 was written in July 1888, when he was romantically involved with Caroline Alice Roberts and he called it “Liebesgruss” (‘Love’s Greeting’) because of Miss Roberts’ fluency in German. On their engagement she had already presented him with a poem “The Wind at Dawn ” which he set to music and, when he returned home to London on 22 September from a holiday he gave her Salut d’Amour as an engagement present.The dedication was in French: “à Carice”. “Carice” was a combination of his wife’s names Caroline Alice, and was the name to be given to their daughter born two years later.Salut d’amour” is one of Elgar’s best-known works and has inspired numerous arrangements for widely varying instrumental combinations. There are also versions with lyrics in different languages, for example the song “Woo thou, Sweet Music” with words by A. C. Bunten,^[5] and “Violer” (Pansies) in Swedish.

Benjamin Grosvenor at the Proms The reincarnation of the Golden Age of piano playing

Johann Sebastian Bach Partita No 6 in E minor
1. Toccata
2. Allemande
3. Corrente
4. Air
5. Sarabande
6. Tempo di Gavotta
7. Gigue
Karol Szymanowski Mazurkas, Op 50
No 3 Moderato
No 7 Poco vivace
No 8 Moderato
No 5 Moderato
No 4 Allegramente, risoluto

Anton Webern Variations, Op 27
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No 31
1. Moderato cantabile, molto espressivo
2. Allegro molto
3. Adagio, ma non troppo – Arioso dolente – Fuga: Allegro, ma non troppo – L’istesso tempo di Arioso – L’inversione della Fuga

Performances of ravishing beauty with a kaleidoscope of sounds.An extraordinary palette of colours that gave new life to Bach’s monumental 6th Partita.There was delicacy and poise but nobility and clarity always with refined good taste and with very little use of the pedal.His fingers seemed instinctively to search out sounds and colours without ever disturbing the overall pulse or architectural shape.
A whispered luminosity he brought to Szymanowski’s extraordinary Mazurkas op 50.A subtle world of insinuating sounds and dance rhythms.
This was the ideal world for Webern’s variations too where the delicacy and multicoloured sounds drew these seemingly isolated notes into shapes of eloquence giving meaning to such a seemingly abstract art.There were pungent sounds too but rarely called upon as Anderewski inhabited a secret world that he chose to allow us to eavesdrop on.
A change of piano during the interval but the palette of sounds and whispered secrets were still the same .
Beethoven too slipped in on the final ethereal wave of the Webern variations.
But by now we had experienced his secret world of refined multicoloured sounds and in some way I found in need of something with more backbone and contrast.
This was Beethoven as seen from afar.A world of ravishing beauty and refined whispered sounds but was it the real Beethoven if we moved in closer?
An audience that sat in awed silence as he drew us in to a secret world that even the three encores inhabited.(Bach and Bartok)
The only chiselled sounds above mezzo forte were momentarily in the Beethoven Scherzo but with hard ungrateful sounds that had no place in the world he inhabited.
A final note of the evening hammered into the bass which reminded me of his Schumann Piano Concerto that he had played with Pappano with such chiselled ungrateful sounds that I turned to a friend and said I thought he must hate it.It was obviously not part of the world that he inhabits.
A master pianist and a cult figure with a great following of admirers but who lives on a cloud of his own of extremes of sound that somehow do not always seem to connect.
A concert inhabited by Eusebius ………but Florestan where were you!
A concert full of wondrous things and a unique world that is wonderful to visit occasionally but a world where it would be hard to take up permanent residence.
A standing ovation for a unique artist and I too found myself on my feet.
Chapeau Maestro!

The Barbican presents Piotr Anderszewski:

From Bach to Webern, pianist Piotr Anderszewski finds fascinating connections between composers whose visionary ideas would change keyboard music forever.

Anderszewski is renowned for his interpretations of Bach and brings that special affinity to the monumental Partita No 6 which, in the words of musicologist David Schulenberg, is ‘the crowning work of the set and Bach’s greatest suite’. Rooted in traditional European dance styles, this is music that reveals Bach’s awe-inspiring ability to weave whole worlds of sound from the simplest ideas.
Fast forward 200 years, and Szymanowski – from Anderszewski’s homeland of Poland – infuses his mazurkas with the mind-bending rhythms and melodies of Polish folk dance. With his Variations, Webern takes an historical form and places it firmly in the 20th century, and Beethoven brings us full circle in his emotional penultimate piano sonata – a piece with echoes of Bach but that’s peppered with Romantic innovations.

Piotr Anderszewski is an artist who has long embraced the unexpected, whether in his repertoire choices or his interpretations. Bach has long been central to his art, but always with a fresh slant – as in his most recent recording of the composer’s music, where he boldly took selected preludes and fugues from the Second Book of the 48 and presented them in his own re-ordering.

Bach’s E minor Partita, BWV830 – the final one in a set of six that the composer proudly published as his ‘opus 1’ in 1731. Although it’s actually one of the earlier partitas to have been written, it’s easy to see why Bach placed it last, with its striking combination of sweeping brilliance and profundity.

For one of the greatest colourists of the 20th century, Karol Szymanowski the piano functioned as both inspiration and musical laboratory throughout his composing life. The 20 Mazurkas of Op 50 (1924–5), from which we hear Nos 3, 7, 8, 5 and 4, are from the final phase of Szymanowski’s style, one in which his own musical language became inextricably suffused with Polish nationalism.

A decade later Anton Webern was taking piano writing to a new level of concision in his Variations, Op 27 (1936). Webern was a member of the Second Viennese School, the movement founded by Arnold Schoenberg whose founding principle was that of ‘serialism’ (in which, unlike in time-honoured system of traditional tonality, all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are used to create a ‘row’ or ‘series’, determining not only the melodic lines of a piece but also its harmonies).

Webern’s three brief movements are all built from the same tone row.The yearning opening phrases of the first movement, via the capricious spikely energetic second, to the contrasts within the last, from introspection to buoyancy.

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’)! 

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.

Piotr Anderszewski is regarded as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation. 

He appears regularly in recital at such concert halls as the Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. His collaborations with orchestra have included appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin Staatskapelle, London and NHK Symphony orchestras and Philharmonia Orchestra. He has also placed a special emphasis on playing and directing, working with Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Camerata Salzburg, among others. 

He has been an exclusive artist with Warner Classics/Erato (previously Virgin Classics) since 2000. His first recording for the label was Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which went on to receive a number of prizes. He has also recorded Grammy-nominated discs of Bach’s Partitas Nos 1, 3 and 6 and Szymanowski’s solo piano works, the latter receiving a Gramophone Award in 2006. His recording devoted to works by Robert Schumann received BBC Music Magazine’s Record of the Year Award in 2012. His disc of Bach’s English Suites Nos 1, 3 and 5, released in 2014, went on to win Gramophone and ECHO Klassik awards in 2015. His most recent release, featuring a selection of Preludes and Fugues from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2, won a Gramophone Award in 2021. 

The intensity and originality of his interpretations have been recognised with the Gilmore Award, the Szymanowski Prize and a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. 

He has also been the subject of several documentaries by the film maker Bruno Monsaingeon. Piotr Anderszewski plays Diabelli Variations (2001) explores his particular relationship with Beethoven’s iconic work, while Unquiet Traveller (2008) is an unusual artist portrait, capturing Piotr Anderszewski’s reflections on music, performance and his Polish-Hungarian roots. 

In 2016 he got behind the camera himself to explore his relationship with his native Warsaw, creating a film entitled Je m’appelle Varsovie. 

Last season he gave a new recital programme at the Philharmonie de Paris, Vienna Musikverein, Alte Oper Frankfurt and other major concert halls in Europe and Asia. He also performed with leading orchestras including the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Finnish Radio and NHK Symphony orchestras and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. 

This season includes solo recitals throughout Europe at prestigious venues including the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Konserthuset Stockholm, Gulbenkian Portugal and Philharmonie Cologne, as well as on tour in Japan and Singapore. Concerto highlights include concerts with the Zurich Tonhalle, NDR Hamburg, Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and a tour with Sinfonia Varsovia.