ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

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.

Ashley Fripp’s 37th appearance at St Mary’s since 2005 was marked quite rightly by an unusually full and appreciative audience.Ashley is one of the finest most serious musicians I know who I had first encountered in the village of Sermoneta in Italy where every year during the summer months the Pontine Festival brings some of the greatest musicians to the hills near to Rome to give concerts and masterclasses.A festival that had started in the ‘60’s with Yehudi Menuhin and Josef Szigeti and every year since brings great music to where I luckily have a holiday home on the seashore.He had come to study with Eliso Virsaladze,the great Russian pianist and pedagogue much admired by Sviatoslav Richter.It was she who pointed out to me a young very talented British boy who had joined her class and she was very impressed by his pianistic and musical artistry.I later found Ashley in Fiesole overlooking Florence where Eliso was holding her masterclasses five times a year.Ashley was already on the threshold of a career in music in London ,having won the Gold medal at the Guildhall School of Music ,but was still keen to perfect his skills with one of the greatest musicians of our time.

Ashley Fripp in Florence – A walk to the Paradise Garden

While he was there he also gave a recital in the Harold Acton Library,part of the British Institute ,where he gave a truly memorable performance of Chopin’s B minor Sonata.It was he who introduced me to this beautiful venue and the director and thanks to him we now hold a series of concerts there every year for the Keyboard Trust.

Today Ashley presented two major works and his eloquent introductions illuminated the journey we were about to take together with simple clarity and intelligence.It was the same qualities that he brought to his performances with superb technical control and artistry.An architectural shape to all he did and an impeccable sense of style that made for a great contrast from the non legato world of Bach where the song and the dance reign to the sumptuous romantic sounds of Rachmaninov. But even in Rachmaninov he was able to link the ten miniature tone poems or preludes into one emotional whole.As he pointed out there was a link between the first prelude in the minor and last in the major with the first prelude in F sharp minor and the last in G flat ( F sharp) major.The same sense of unity and form that Bach had brought to his Partita Ashley’s superb musicianship could see in Rachmaninov too.Superbly played throughout without any showmanship but with simplicity and an attention to the composers wishes that gave great strength and authority to all he did .

British pianist Ashley Fripp has performed extensively as recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and Australia in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. Highlights include the Carnegie Hall (New York), Musikverein (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Philharmonie halls of Cologne, Paris, Luxembourg and Warsaw, the Bozar (Brussels), the Royal Festival, Barbican and Wigmore Halls (London), the Laeiszhalle (Hamburg), Palace of Arts (Budapest), the Megaron (Athens), Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Gulbenkian Auditorium (Lisbon) and the Konserthus (Stockholm). 

He has won prizes at more than a dozen national and international competitions, including at the Hamamatsu (Japan), Birmingham and Leeds International Piano Competitions, the Royal Over-Seas League Competition, the Concours Européen de Piano (France) and the coveted Gold Medal from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Ashley was awarded the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ highest award, The Prince’s Prize, and was chosen as a ‘Rising Star’ by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO). He has also performed in the Chipping Campden, Edinburgh, Brighton, Bath, Buxton, City of London, and St. Magnus International Festivals as well as the Oxford International Piano Festival, the Festival Pontino di Musica (Italy) and the Powsin International Piano Festival (Poland). Ashley also gave an open-air Chopin recital beside the world-famous Chopin monument in Warsaw’s Royal Lazienki Park to an audience of 2,500 people. 

Ashley Fripp studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Ronan O’Hora and with Eliso Virsaladze at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole (Italy). In 2021 he was awarded a doctorate for his research into the piano music of British composer Thomas Adès. Future engagements include his debut at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (Germany) and a commercial film production of Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 with accompanying concert tours in Germany and the Czech Republic with the Prague International Youth Orchestra.

The Partita for keyboard No. 2 in C minor, BWV.826, is a suite of six movements written for the .It was announced in 1727,issued individually, and then published as Bach’s Clavier-Ubung in 1731.

Ten Preludes, op 23, was composed in 1901 and 1903. Together with the Prelude in C sharp minor op 3/2 and the 13 Preludes op 32 this set is part of a full suite of 24 preludes in all the major and minor keys.Rachmaninoff completed Prelude No. 5 in 1901. The remaining preludes were completed after Rachmaninoff’s marriage to his cousin Natalia Satina: Nos. 1, 4, and 10 premiered in Moscow on February 10, 1903, and the remaining seven were completed soon thereafter.The years 1900–1903 were difficult for Rachmaninoff and his motivation for writing the Preludes was predominantly financial.He composed the works in the Hotel America, financially dependent on his cousin Alexander Siloti , to whom the Preludes are dedicated.Of the comparative popularity of his Ten Preludes and his early Prelude op.3 n.2 ,a favourite of audiences, Rachmaninoff remarked: “…I think the Preludes of Op. 23 are far better music than my first Prelude, but the public has shown no disposition to share in my belief….”The composer never played all of the Preludes in one sitting, instead performing selections of them, consisting of preludes from both his Op. 23 and Op. 32 sets which were of contrasting character

Ashley Fripp ignites Bach and Chopin with supreme artistry and musicianship

Ashley Fripp at St Mary’s poetry and intelligence of a great musician

• Serghei Rachmaninov 1873 -1943
  • Suite from Violin Partita in E by JS Bach:
  • –II. Gavotte

• George Xiaoyuan Fu b. 1991
  • Transformation on Gigue from Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2

• Matthew Aucoin b. 1990
  • The tracks have vanished (world première) Commissioned by the Irving S. Gilmore Piano Festival for Kirill Gerstein

• Claude Debussy 1862-1918
  • Etudes Book I:
  • –Pour les cinq doigts
  • –Pour les tierces

• Etudes Book II:
• –Pour les agréments
• –Pour les sonorités opposées
• –Pour les arpèges composés

• Etudes Book I:
• –Pour les octaves
• –Pour les huit doigts

Etudes are an endless source of fascination, inviting composers to push both physical and musical possibilities – from the ethereal to the virtuosic. George Xiaoyuan Fu presents Debussy’s Etudes alongside three works by pianist-composers that discover possibilities through transcriptions for solo piano.

Promoted by the Royal Academy of Music

The amazing Mr Fu must be amongst these Fra Angelico Ognissanti as after all it is All Saints today.
Lent to the Wigmore Hall by the Royal Academy for a lunchtime concert where he astonished and amazed us with his superhuman feats of musical trickery and mastery.
The centre piece an absolutely mind boggling world premiere of a ‘friend ‘ Matthew Aucoin.Just a years’difference united them and it would need a year for any mortal to master a work of such diabolical intricacy.
George only early thirties with degrees from Harvard,Curtis ,a Fellowship from the Royal Academy and recently married amazes and delights us all with his simple open intelligence and complete mastery of music matters.
He is also one of the nicest people I know and I am proud to call a friend.
The only defect is his applauding with hands raised high, so be sure to never sit behind him in a concert !

Claude Debussy’s Études ( L 136) are a set of 12 études composed in 1915. Debussy described them as “a warning to pianists not to take up the musical profession unless they have remarkable hands”.They are broadly considered his late masterpieces.

George Fu his joy and exhilaration saves the day and uplifts our spirits

George X Fu ravishing the senses as a young eagle descends on St Mary’s

Beautiful music surrounded by magnificent paintings and played by a beautiful young pianist .

Thank you Mary Orr for arranging such a treat for Halloween.
In the sumptuous Matthiesen Gallery in Mayfair Varvara Tarasova started her programme with the shortest but most mellifluous Sonata by Schubert of pure innocent beauty.
Schumann’s monumental Carnaval filled this rarified atmosphere with a parade of mignons aided and abetted by Schumann’s duel characters of Florestan and Eusebius.
Scintillating charm and exquisite playing of two of Liszt’s most beguiling miniatures:.Liszt’s irresistible elaboration of Schubert with his Soirées de Vienne n.6 and one of his three concert studies ,La Leggerezza,completed this oasis of peace and beauty on La notte delle streghe (The witches sabbath)
Rain and confusion all around but reinforced by such beauty after only an hour we are ready to go into battle in the big city outside.

The Piano Sonata in A major D.664, op posth 120 was written in the summer of 1819.The manuscript, completed in July 1819, was dedicated to Josephine von Koller of Steyr in Upper Austria, whom he considered to be “very pretty” and “a good pianist”. The lyrical, buoyant, in spots typically poignant nature of this sonata fits the image of a young Schubert in love, living in a summery Austrian countryside, which he also considered to be “unimaginably lovely”.

Liszt was very fond of the Soirées and they featured in many of his performances in the mid-19th century. His Soirée No. 6 in A minor was based on themes from Schubert’s 12 Valses nobles, D.969, and Valses sentimentales, D.779, and was revised at least twice. The final revision, done in 1869, was said to be part of the last recital he gave in Luxembourg, in July 1886. The 1869 revision was made for his pupil, Sophie Menter, who, after the death of Liszt was ‘regarded by some as the incarnation of Liszt’. Liszt himself proclaimed Menter as his successor (on the other hand, she wasn’t the only one of his pupils that he so declared).In the Liszt cycle Soirées de Vienne, composed between 1846 and 1852, Liszt looked at Schubert’s dances for his inspiration. He chose Schubert’s Waltzes, Ländler, Ecossaisen, and German dances, all of which were Viennese dances in ¾ time. For the nine parts of the Soirées, Liszt chose themes from Schubert’s 38 Waltzes, Ländler, and Ecossaises, D.145 (composed 1815–1821); 36 Originaltänze, D.365; Wiener Damen-Ländler und Ecossaisen, D.734 (1816–1821); Valses sentimentales, D.779 (ca 1823); 18 German Dances and Ecossaises, D.783 (1823-1824); and 12 Valses nobles, D.969 (1826).

Three Concert Études (Trois études de concert), S 144,were composed between 1845–49 and published in Paris as Trois caprices poétiques with the three individual titles as they are known today.

As the title indicates, they are intended not only for the acquisition of a better technique, but also for concert performance. Liszt was himself a virtuoso pianist and was able to easily play many complex patterns generally considered difficult. The Italian subtitles now associated with the études—Il lamento (“The Lament”), La leggierezza (“Lightness”), and Un sospiro (“A sigh”)—first appeared in the French edition.

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 order.

Elisabeth Brauss at the Wigmore Hall with Schubert,Ravel and Schumann with playing of intelligence and artistry.Superb technical mastery allowed her to delve fearlessly into the depths of three master works and extract their very essence with an innocent ‘joie de vivre’ that brought everything she played vividly to life.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Piano Sonata in A D664 (?1819)
I. Allegro moderato • II. Andante • III. Allegro

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)Le tombeau de Couperin (1914-7)
I. Prélude • II. Fugue • III. Forlane •
IV. Rigaudon • V. Menuet • VI. Toccata

Interval

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)Carnaval Op. 9 (1834-5)
Préambule • Pierrot • Arlequin • Valse noble •
Eusebius • Florestan • Coquette • Réplique • Papillons • Lettres dansantes • Chiarina • Chopin • Estrella • Reconnaissance • Pantalon et Colombine •
Valse allemande • Paganini • Aveu • Promenade • Pause • Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins

The pianist Elisabeth Brauß has been praised by Gramophone Magazine for “the maturity and sophistication of her thoughtful interpretations” which “would be the pride of any pianist twice her age”. Born in Hannover in 1995, Elisabeth is quickly establishing herself as one of the most exciting and versatile musicians of her generation.

As a former member of the BBC New Generation Artist Scheme, Elisabeth continues to appear regularly with solo, chamber and concerto engagements across the UK. In 2021 she made her debut at the BBC Proms, performing Mozart Piano Concerto No.23 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. In a new partnership between this scheme and the Hallé Orchestra, she was awarded the Terence Judd-Hallé Award, given to a NGA graduate considered to be on the cusp of a major international career. 

This season, Elisabeth returns to Staatsorchester Stuttgart and makes debuts with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, London Chamber Orchestra and Staatstheater Meiningen. She will also tour Germany with Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra and trumpeter Simon Höfele, and will tour Australia with her recital partner, the violinist Noa Wildschut. A renowned chamber musician, Elisabeth will have a three-day residency at Belfast Arts Festival comprising of a solo recital and chamber collaborations. She appears regularly at Wigmore Hall and this season also appears in recital at St George’s Bristol, St John’s International Piano Series Oxford and Royal Welsh College of Music.

Further recent highlights include Finnish Radio Symphony, The Hallé, BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony and Ulster Orchestras, in addition to dates with Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg in her native Germany. During the 2022/23 season, Elisabeth was Artist in Residence at Edesche Concertzaal, performing both solo and chamber concerts. Elisabeth also collaborates with the composer Max Richter, and has appeared in his Reflektor Festival at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. 

In May 2017, Elisabeth’s debut CD featuring works by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Chopin and Denhoff, was released by OehmsClassics. It received critical acclaim and was named ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone Magazine. Since then, she has gone on to release three more albums, collaborating with Valentino Worlitzsch, Simon Höfele, and the Beethoven Orchester Bonn featuring compositions by Max Richter to commemorate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary. Elisabeth’s most recent recording of the Bacewicz Double Concerto with Finnish Radio Symphony, Nicholas Collon & Peter Jablonski was awarded 5* and Concerto of the Month by BBC Music Magazine. 

In addition to winning first prize at the International Steinway Competition in Hamburg, and the International Grotrian Steinweg Piano Competition in Braunschweig, Elisabeth was awarded the Prätorius Musikpreis Lower Saxony Prize in 2012. Further accolades include the main and audience awards at the TONALi Grand Prix in Hamburg (2013) and first prize at the Kissinger KlavierOlymp (October 2016).

Le Tombeau de Couperin (The Grave of Couperin) was composed between 1914 and 1917. The piece is in six movements, based on those of a traditional Baroque suite. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a friend of the composer (or in one case, two brothers) who had died fighting in world War 1.Ravel also produced an orchestral version of the work in 1919, although this omitted two of the original movements.

Written after the death of Ravel’s mother in 1917 and of friends in the First World War, Le Tombeau de Couperin is a light-hearted, and sometimes reflective work rather than a sombre one which Ravel explained in response to criticism saying: “The dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence.”

The first performance of the original piano version was given on 11 April 1919 by Marguerite Long , in the Salle Gaveau in Paris . Long was the widow of Joseph de Marliave, to whom the last movement of the piece, the Toccata, is dedicated.

Prelude in memory of First Lieutenant Jacques Charlot (transcriber of Ma mère l’oye for piano solo)

Fugue in memory of Second Lieutenant Jean Crupp

Forlane. in memory of First Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc (a Basque painter from Saint-Jean-de-Luz)

Rigaudon in memory of Pierre and Pascal Gaudin (two brothers and childhood friends of Ravel, killed by the same shell in November 1914)

Menuet in memory of Jean Dreyfus (at whose home Ravel recuperated after he was demobilized)

Toccata. in memory of Captain Joseph de Marliave (musicologist and husband of Marguerite Long)

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 order.

The Piano Sonata in A major D.664, op posth 120 was written in the summer of 1819.The manuscript, completed in July 1819, was dedicated to Josephine von Koller of Steyr in Upper Austria, whom he considered to be “very pretty” and “a good pianist”. The lyrical, buoyant, in spots typically poignant nature of this sonata fits the image of a young Schubert in love, living in a summery Austrian countryside, which he also considered to be “unimaginably lovely”.

Piers Lane the Nightingale of the piano ravishes and delights the Chopin Society in London.
Has the piano ever sounded so exquisite as in the poetic hands of this great musician?A sense of balance that could make us believe that this black box of hammers and strings could sing as eloquently as that bird in Berkeley Square!
Sporting a pure silk jacket one of only ten – the other nine,he tells me with tongue in cheek,Elton John got – his refined musicianship and superb technical finesse defied this rather outlandish garb (note matching socks ) that he had brought back from Sydney (where he is chairman of the International Piano Competition) to astonish and amaze us as his playing certainly did today.

A fascinating programme introduced,by this much loved pianist,with intelligence and charm.Rachmaninov for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations of the composers birth but with an eclectic twist of a discerning musician who could dare include the rarely played Chopin Variations .Chopin of course made up the whole of the second half.But another intriguing choice of many of the works of Chopin that had been arranged for the Ballet ‘Chopiniana’ by Glazunov and not just a pot pourri of well know pieces.Adding his own touch at the end with a performance of the D flat nocturne where he reached the heights that I have only heard from Rubinstein with a timeless performance that touched something of the sublime.

Piers Lane AO, who lives in London, is one of Australia’s most renowned and engaging performers. 

Always in demand worldwide as soloist and collaborative artist, highlights include a performance of Busoni’s mighty piano concerto at Carnegie Hall, premieres of Carl Vine’s second piano concerto and double piano concerto (with Kathryn Stott) Implacable Gifts, both written for him, and annual solo recitals at Wigmore Hall. His 2023 engagements include appearances in Dubai, New Zealand, Portugal, the UK, the USA and throughout Australia.

In July he chaired the jury of the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition and has recently adjudicated the Horovitz Kyiv-Geneva Piano Competition, the Michael Hill Violin Competition in New Zealand and the Clara Haskel International Piano Competition in Vevey. He has been Artistic Director of the Sydney International Piano Competition since 2015 and is responsible for recent initiatives like the 2021 Online Piano Competition, the Piano Lovers’ amateur competition and Composing the Future.

Rachmaninoff:

• Prelude in C# minor Op. 3 No. 2
• Preludes Op. 23: Nos. 1 in F# minor;
• 4 in D major; 6 in Eb major and 10 in Gb major.
• Variations on a theme of Chopin Op. 22

Chopin:

• Polonaise in A Op.40 No.1
• Nocturne in F Op.15 No. 1
• Mazurka in C# minor Op. 50 No.3
• Waltz in Gb Op. 70 No.1
• Nocturne in Ab Op. 32 No. 2
• Mazurka in D Op. 33 No.2
• Tarantelle
• Mazurka in C Op.67 No.3
• Prelude in A Op. 28 No. 7
• Waltz in C# minor Op. 64 No.2
• Valse Brillante in Eb Op.18

Dame Patricia Routledge and Piers Lane integrity and humility ravish and enrich

Piers Lane a nightingale ravishes us at the Wigmore Hall – A Christmas treat from a true poet of the piano.

Variations on a Theme of Chopin op.22, is a group of 22 variations on Chopin’s Prelude in C minor op 28 n.20 composed in 1902–03. In the first edition, it is noted that 3 of the variations and the final Presto section can be omitted if the performer wishes.

Ten Preludes, op 23, was composed in 1901 and 1903. Together with the Prelude in C sharp minor op 3/2 and the 13 Preludes op 32 this set is part of a full suite of 24 preludes in all the major and minor keys.Rachmaninoff completed Prelude No. 5 in 1901. The remaining preludes were completed after Rachmaninoff’s marriage to his cousin Natalia Satina: Nos. 1, 4, and 10 premiered in Moscow on February 10, 1903, and the remaining seven were completed soon thereafter.The years 1900–1903 were difficult for Rachmaninoff and his motivation for writing the Preludes was predominantly financial.He composed the works in the Hotel America, financially dependent on his cousin Alexander Siloti , to whom the Preludes are dedicated.Of the comparative popularity of his Ten Preludes and his early Prelude op.3 n.2 ,a favourite of audiences, Rachmaninoff remarked: “…I think the Preludes of Op. 23 are far better music than my first Prelude, but the public has shown no disposition to share in my belief….”The composer never played all of the Preludes in one sitting, instead performing selections of them, consisting of preludes from both his Op. 23 and Op. 32 sets which were of contrasting character

Original production

Chopiniana, staged by Fokine, had a different musical composition. Also, Chopiniana was originally a compilation of dramatic or character dances set to Chopin’s piano music. The Glazunov suite upon which this original version was based had only four Chopin pieces; Fokine wanted to use a waltz as an addition to the suite and was able to get Glazunov to orchestrate this to create his ballet, also called Chopiniana.

1. Polonaise in A major op 40.n.1
2. Nocturne in F major op.15 n.1
3. Mazurka in C sharp minor op.50 n.3
4. Waltz in C sharp minor op 64 n.2as added by Michel Fokine
5. Tarantella in A flat major op 43

The newly orchestrated waltz would be Fokine’s inspiration to re-choreograph the ballet into its nearly-final form, selecting different Chopin pieces to go with it and getting these orchestrated by the Maryinsky répétiteur Maurice Keller.

Ballets Russes production

When Fokine’s ballet premiered in Paris as part of Diaghilev’s “Saison Russe” in 1909, Diaghilev commissioned re-orchestrations of all the dances, except for the Glazunov-orchestrated Waltz, by Anatoly Lyadov,Sergei Taneyev,Nikolai Tcherepnin and Igor Stravinsky .This version, now titled Les Sylphides, was first staged at the Theatre du Châtelet on 2 June 1909.

A beautiful programme for Riccardo Natale who was substituting at the last minute another indisposed pianist.The Handel Suites are a rarity in the concert hall but both Richter and Gavrilov included them in their repertoire and have even made recordings together but they are always considered unjustly in the shadow of Johann Sebastian Bach .So it was refreshing to hear the second suite open the programme and played with great clarity and rhythmic energy with very discreet contrasts in dynamics. I was only able to listen to the last two movements due to a technical problem with the streaming but they showed Riccardo’s superb musicianship and understanding allied to a technical skill which certainly demonstrated that Handel was quite a virtuoso too in his early years.

The first Sonata op 109 of Beethoven’s last trilogy of 32 Sonatas was played with great understanding and temperament.It was sometimes this temperament and freedom that did not allow for the simplicity that is the very essence of this last oasis of Beethoven when he had come to terms with a turbulent and difficult life.Riccardo’s playing was always with a very solid beautiful sound but sometimes his temperament in the first movement took over from his head which disturbed the continual undercurrent that flows through these sonatas.The Prestissimo was played with real Beethovenian fire and technical assurance and was the bridge that was to lead to one of Beethoven’s most beautiful melodic outpourings.Here in the last movement Riccardo played with simplicity and beauty allowing the music to unfold so naturally.I would have actually played the ornaments in the first variation on the beat but that was a mere detail when his understanding of this movement was so complete.The Allegro vivace third variation was played at a furious pace with great technical assurance but the fourth was a little too fast for Beethoven’s indication to be played a little slower than the theme.It rather gave the game away for the fifth variation where the non legato long notes sounded rather out of place lacking the contrast with the knotty twine that follows .But it was in the last variation that all came together with a superb performance allowing Beethoven’s trills to resonate like mere vibrations on which the theme magically evolves.Dissolving so beautifully into the final simple beauty of the theme where Beethoven had at last found the peace that had long been denied him.

The Chopin Mazukas were played with great style and contrast but wonder if the phrases should be less disjointed and a more overall architectural shape should prevail.It was however in the great F sharp Minor Polonaise the Riccardo showed his true colours with a performance that was heroic,noble and passionate.The long Mazurka central episode was superbly interpreted with beauty and simplicity allowing the long lines to shape into an architectural whole.A very fine performance that showed the technical and poetic mastery of this young musician a student of Delvayan who is himself such an individual musician of great fantasy.

The fourteenth dance from Schumann’s Davidsbundler op 6 was played as an encore with ravishing sound but not allowing the utter simplicity of Schumann’s genius to speak for itself without any personal effusions.

GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL (1685–1759)

Suite No. 2 in F major HWV 427

from 8 Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin, 1720

1. Adagio

2. Allegro

3. Adagio

4. Allegro [Fugue] Handel was known as a superb keyboard player, and these dance suites exploit the expressive and technical resources of his instrument with no less mastery than that of his Leipzig counterpart, and with a joie de vivre that makes listening a constant diversion and delight. Suite No 2 in F major is closer to an Italian slow–quick–slow–quick sonata than to a French suite proper. F major was traditionally a pastoral, ‘down-to-earth’ key, but Handel’s first movement, far from being a quasi-improvised keyboard exercise, is a civilized and highly ornamented quasi-operatic aria, while the bustling allegro which follows is a vigorously Italianate two-part invention, more urban than rustic in harmonic solidity and neatness of texture. The next movement, in the relative, D minor, has the pulse of a sarabande, but it is also an operatic aria in miniature, ending with a written-out, quasi-vocal cadenza. This leads back to the tonic F major and into a powerful fugue, initially in three parts but introducing a fourth after chromatic intensification.

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.

The three movements of this sonata are:

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

The mazurka is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple meter , usually at a lively tempo, with character defined mostly by the prominent mazur’s “strong accents ,unsystematically placed on the second or third beat “.The mazurka, alongside the polka dance, became popular at the ballrooms and salons of Europe in the 19th century, particularly through the notable works by Frederic Chopin .The mazurka (in Polish mazur, the same word as the mazur ) and mazurek (rural dance based on the mazur) are often confused in Western literature as the same musical form.Over the years 1825–1849, Chopin wrote at least 59 Mazurkas for piano .Chopin started composing his mazurkas in 1825, and continued composing them until 1849, the year of his death. The number of mazurkas composed in each year varies, but he was steadily writing them throughout this time period.In 1852, three years after Chopin’s death, Liszt published a piece about Chopin’s mazurkas, saying that Chopin had been directly influenced by Polish national music to compose his mazurkas. Liszt also provided descriptions of specific dance scenes, which were not completely accurate, but were “a way to raise the status of these works [mazurkas].”However, in 1921, Bela Bartok published an essay in which he said that Chopin “had not known authentic Polish folk music.” He suggested that Chopin instead had been influenced by national, and not folk music.The soprano and composer Pauline Viardot was a close friend of Chopin and his lover George Sand , and she made a number of arrangements of his mazurkas as songs, with his full agreement. He gave Viardot expert advice on these arrangements, as well as on her piano playing and her other vocal compositions.The Polonaise op 44 is often considered the first of three “grand polonaises”, (the other two being the Polonaise ‘Heroic’ op 53,and the Polonaise- Fantasie op.61) in which Chopin largely abandoned the old formula derived directly from dance practice. The time had come for polonaises subjected to free fantasy, for more heroic dance poems.In fact, Chopin was known to have said to the publisher, ‘I have a manuscript for your disposal. It is a kind of fantasy in polonaise form. But I call it a Polonaise’.

Riccardo Natale intraprende lo studio del pianoforte all’età di 4 anni e si diploma sotto la guida di Marino Mercurio nel 2012 presso il Conservatorio “Nicola Sala” di Benevento con lode e menzione speciale. Sin da giovanissimo si è affermato in concorsi nazionali e internazionali tra cui: “Rassegna Spoltore musica”, concorso nazionale “Hyperion”, concorso nazionale “Antonello da Caserta”, concorso internazionale “Luigi Denza”, concorso internazionale “Note in Armonia”. Recentemente è risultato finalista al concorso internazionale “Arcangelo Speranza” di Taranto.

Ha frequentato le masterclass tenute da Marino Mercurio, Boris Petrushansky, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Roberto Plano, Filippo Gamba, Ferenc Rados, Aleksandar Madzar, Benedetto Lupo, Enrico Pace, Alessandro Deljavan, Giuseppe Andaloro e da Lilya Zilberstein presso l’Accademia Chigiana di Siena.

Come vincitore del Progetto IMC, nel 2013 esordisce come solista con l’Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese presso il Teatro Ridotto dell’Aquila eseguendo il Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra n. 3 di Beethoven.

Si dedica anche alla musica da camera e si esibisce sia come solista che in formazioni cameristiche in tutta Italia. Si è esibito, tra l’altro, per il “Maggio dei Monumenti” di Napoli, presso l’Università “Sapienza” di Roma, presso lo showroom Fazioli di Milano, per “Polincontri classica” presso il Politecnico di Torino, a Portogruaro per il Festival internazionale di musica, per il Monferrato Classic Festival, a Spoleto per musica in casa Menotti, ad Alassio per l’Associazione Pantheon, presso la Sala Chopin di Napoli per l’Associazione Napolinova. Nel 2015 si è inoltre esibito presso il teatro Sanzio di Urbino accompagnato dall’orchestra “I cameristi del Montefeltro” ed eseguendo il Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra K. 467 di Mozart.

Ha frequentato i corsi di Direzione d’Orchestra e di Composizione presso il Conservatorio “San Pietro a Majella di Napoli” e il corso di alto perfezionamento pianistico presso l’Accademia musicale Varesina sotto la guida del M° Roberto Plano. Nel 2017 ha ottenuto una borsa di studio dall’Associazione “De Sono” di Torino e ha terminato il Master in music performance presso la Hochschule für Musik di Basilea sotto la guida del M° Filippo Gamba. Ha studiato sotto la guida del M° Enrico Pace presso l’Accademia di musica di Pinerolo.

Dal 2017 ha frequentato il corso di Pianoforte tenuto dal M° Benedetto Lupo all’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia dove si è diplomato nel 2020, contestualmente ha frequentato il Master di Musica da Camera con il M° Andrea Lucchesini. Da qui si è formato il Trio Wieck, insieme alla violinista Fjorela Asqeri e alla violoncellista Silvia Gira, con il quale si è esibito per l’Accademia Filarmonica Romana e il festival di musica camera “Classiche Forme”.

Recentemente ha inciso il disco “Poiesis” in collaborazione col violinista Rocco Roggia con musiche di autori napoletani quali Martucci, D’Ambrosio, Curci e De Felice. 

Attualmente prosegue i suoi studi sotto la guida del M° Alessandro Deljavan.

Concerto inaugurale XIX Stagione Concertistica Università della Tuscia dedicated to the genius of Mozart

Video courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon

https://fb.watch/nXsxmEoAWW/

Refined sounds of rarified elegance and luminosity.Whispers that drew the audience into his magic chameleonic world with a kaleidoscope of sounds.
The marvel is that like Richter before him his range and control of sound between pianissimo and mezzo forte is of a quite extraordinary finesse.A sense of character and architectural shape that when needed was in his fingertips too.Forte became an astonishing revelation as it was also within his palette of sounds but used only when his superb musicianship had need of such a pivotal point.

The sonata in E minor by Haydn crept in as it also disappeared on high at the end of the first movement but it was the rounded golden sounds of the Adagio that became the heart beat of this wonderful gem.A finale that was played with such tantalising charm and exquisite finesse with refined sounds of elegance and incredible scintillating shared secrets.
Such a refined tonal palette and aristocratic control were exactly the world in which the magic of Ravel could reveal its clockwork precision and evocative perfumed sounds.
A genial link to the magic of Ravel’s Miroirs was the subtle elegance of his Menuet on the name of Haydn.Followed by Miroirs where the title exactly described his performance.The fleeting insistence of moths,the sultry lament of the birds.The exquisite calm before the sweeping waves of the storm.The sweltering hi jinx of Alborada with its glittering glissandi of opulent streams of sound.But it was the absolute calm of the bells in the distance that was ultimately so moving in this young man’s poetic hands.
It was the same link that he was to find between Mozart’s B minor Adagio and Liszt’s Three Petrarch Sonnets.They were in turn the link to the burning intensity of the Dante Sonata in which demonic technical mastery was suddenly exposed with devastating effect.A final chord that needed both hands to pummel the red hot intensity into the bottom of this magnificent Fabbrini Steinway.

The boyish good looks of this youthful musician never seemed to become ruffled or disturbed by the wonders that were pouring from his fingers.No crowd pleasing showmanship or unnecessary moving around because the magic that he was creating came from within a soul of exquisite sensibility and intelligence.
The Liszt Consolation in D flat was played as an encore for an audience who had sat in awed silence throughout the recital not even daring to clap between pieces.

An audience that erupted with pent up emotion at the end of the Dante Sonata and little could they have imagined such a miracle as his recreation of Liszt’s exquisite little tone poem as we were consoled in D flat.

The annual festival of Cinema was everywhere to be seen as we entered the Sala Santa Cecilia but little could the glittered presence outside have imagined what gold lay within.

Tuesday 24 October 2.00 pm

A Chopin recital

A fascinating programme composed with key relationships in mind as we were in the company of a real thinking musician with playing of aristocratic weight.Sentiment without sentimentality.The simplicity of Art that conceals Art as Dr Hugh Mather very rightly said at the end of this extraordinary recital A great pianist playing the great works of Chopin that seemed freshly minted as his limpet type fingers delved deep into every note to extract the beauty that is hidden within.Music making of such sensibility and nobility that reminded me of Gilels or Arrau .They were able to delve deep into every key without ever creating a harsh sound as they never hit the keys but seemed to squeeze the sound out of them like a sponge.The climax of the recital was a performance of the Barcarolle that I have never heard played with such beauty as this last great song poured from Chopin’s pen with a mellifluous simplicity that was a distillation of all that had gone before.

A Polish pianist and conductor, Michal Szymanowski graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz and studied further at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. He now works as an assistant lecturer at his alma mater. He has won top awards in a number of national and international music competitions, including Moniuszko International Competition of Polish Music in Rzeszow (2021), Darmstadt International Chopin Piano Competition (2017), MozARTe International Piano Competition Aachen (2016), and Asia-Pacific International Chopin Competition in Daegu (2015) etc. In 2015 he was the highest placed quarter-finalist in the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Michal has performed in many concerts across Europe and throughout the world, including the Palace of Nations in Geneva, the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican (a concert for Pope Benedict XVI),as well as major festivals in Poland and abroad. He has released two solo albums for CD Accord (Naxos), featuring compositions by Fryderyk Chopin, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Karol Szymanowski and Józef Wieniawski. The recordings were critically acclaimed. One reviewer wrote: “this is heartfelt music-making of the type one associates with such luminaries as Uchida, Schiff and Brendel”.

Michal Szymanowski at St Mary’s To be or not to be?

From Nigel Rogers at the London School of Economics where Michal gave another recital :

“We’ve just had Michal Szymanowski at the lunchtime concerts I put on at LSE. Thank you so much for the recommendation, he really has something. The Barcarolle and the op.59 Mazurkas and the A flat waltz were really exquisite, he’s a very refined poetic player spurning virtuosic show. Has a wonderful sense of line and colour. We’ll definitely have him again.”

An eclectic Sienese pianist bringing intellectual curiosity and mastery to Roma 3.
Ludovico Troncanetti playing to the manner born rarities of Saint -Saens ,Halevy/Liszt and Rubinstein.
Totally dedicated to discoveries from the vast piano repertoire often overlooked by less curious musicians.
It is hardly surprising to learn that he has been under the wing of Leslie Howard ,that master of eclectic musicians, since his teens.

The Saint-Saens ‘Souvenir d’Italie’ was written when the master was visiting Florence and Siena in 1887.It is based on popular Italian songs and is a salon piece of great effect especially when played with the beauty and shape with which Ludovico endowed it.Cascades of embellishments thrown off with an ease and sense of style but one remained a little perplexed that the recital should start with an encore!
It was immediately apparent why as he struck up the imposing opening of Liszt’s early paraphrase of Halevy’s ‘La Juive’.Two much more substantial works where the pill was sugared with the genial Saint-Saens.This Liszt paraphrase is a remarkable work for the amount of notes that Ludovico consumed with ease but one could not be totally involved or convinced as one is with Liszt’s later masterly paraphrases of Norma and Don Giovanni.However it was courageous to present such an unknown paraphrase and to prepare it in such a convincing professional way.
The Fourth Sonata of Rubinstein left me even more perplexed as I could not seem to find a musical line to follow for the enormous amount of notes involved and tempestuous virtuosity that seemed to get in the way of real musical thought.I cannot see yet the wood for the trees like I found with Rachmaninov’s First Sonata.That also seemed to lack form until I heard revelatory accounts by Kantarow and Kelly where the form had been hidden in a leit motiv that pervades the whole Sonata.Even Rachmaninov had sought help with the form of his first sonata.I had found the same with Thomas Kelly’s remarkable performance of the Reubke Sonata for piano – a much admired student of Liszt who died at only 24 leaving only two Sonatas – one very well known for organ and the other completely neglected for piano.It is the second or third time I have tried to get to grips with this work that by many is considered Rubinstein’s masterpiece and I will try again until I am able to break the code.For now I can’t help thinking of Clara Schumann’s words :”I was furious, for he no longer plays. Either there is a perfectly wild noise or else a whisper with the soft pedal down. And a would-be cultured audience puts up with a performance like that!” But she also called the masterpiece that is Liszt’s Sonata (dedicated to her husband) a cacophonous noise when presented with it at home,her husband was already in an asylum.
Vieuxtemps,violinist and composer,on the other hand said:”His power over the piano is something undreamt of; he transports you into another world; all that is mechanical in the instrument is forgotten”.It was Anton Rubinstein who said that the pedal was the ‘soul’ of the piano.Ludovico certainly played with remarkable authority and mastery where there was not a moment’s doubt of his total belief in all that he was doing.A master on a crusade – Hats off !

Roma 3 Waltzing with Ludovico Troncanetti

Leslie Howard and Ludovico Troncanetti at St Mary’s A wondrous voyage of discovery

“Rubinstein’s features and short, irrepressible hair remind me of Beethoven.” Liszt referred to Rubinstein as “Van II.” This resemblance was also felt to be in Rubinstein’s keyboard playing. Under his hands, it was said, the piano erupted volcanically. Audience members wrote of going home limp after one of his recitals, knowing they had witnessed a force of nature.

Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory.

As a pianist, Rubinstein ranks among the great 19th-century keyboard virtuosos. He became most famous for his series of historical recitals, seven enormous, consecutive concerts covering the history of piano music. Rubinstein played this series throughout Russia and Eastern Europe and in the United States when he toured there.

Although best remembered as a pianist and educator (most notably as the composition teacher of Tchaikovsky), Rubinstein was also a prolific composer; he wrote 20 operas , the best known of which is the Demon. He composed many other works, including five piano concertos, six symphonies and many solo piano works along with a substantial output of works for chamber ensemble.

LESLIE HOWARD WRITES :In the more than a quarter of a century which separates the third from the fourth of the Rubinstein sonatas (the fourth appeared in 1880) lie only two of his major works for piano—the Fantasy, Opus 77, and the Theme and Variations, Opus 88, both of which are larger than any of the earlier sonatas and show a very different weight of thought from the dozens of character pieces which otherwise fill the Rubinstein piano œuvre. The fourth sonata turns out to be in this grand mould, on a much broader scale than the others, and is almost leisurely in its expansiveness.

Once described as the French Mendelssohn, Camille Saint-Saëns was talented and precocious as a child, with interests by no means confined to music. He made an early impression as a pianist. Following established French tradition, he was for nearly 20 years organist at the Madeleine in Paris and taught briefly at the École Niedermeyer, where he befriended his pupil Gabriel Fauré. He was a co-founder of the important Société Nationale de Musique with the patriotic aim of promoting contemporary French music in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-01, in which he had served in the Garde Nationale de la Seine. Prolific and versatile as a composer, he contributed to most genres of music, but by the time of his death in 1921 his popularity in France had diminished considerably, as fashions in music had changed.

LESLEY HOWARD WRITES :’As he did so often in the early fantasies, Liszt composed his piano work within the year of the first performance of Halévy’s most celebrated work La juive. Using motifs from Acts 3 and 5, Liszt produced a work of much originality; the shape of the opening Molto allegro feroce is entirely his, even if the thematic fragments are Halévy’s, and it is not until the recognizable martial chorus (Marziale molto animato, from bar 131) that he uses a whole theme. The succeeding Boléro is only loosely based on Halévy, but is the theme for two variations. The Finale (Presto agitato assai) begins as if it were a third variation but gives way to frenetically foreshortened recollections of the march and the introductory material. The ferocious opening foreshadows the ‘infernal’ music of Liszt’s Weimar period, but also shows immediate kinship with the Valse infernale from Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable, with which the La juive fantasy was reissued—along with the Huguenots fantasy and the Don Giovanni fantasy—in about 1842.’

Ludovico Troncanetti, senese, si diploma al Conservatorio di Milano, dove studia anche Composizione con il M°Gianni Possio. Segue corsi di perfezionamento con i M° Pier Narciso Masi, Andrea Lucchesini ed Henri Sigfridsson. Nel 2009 l’incontro a Londra con il M°Leslie Howard, pianista di fama mondiale noto anche peressere l’unico ad avere inciso l’integrale dell’opera pianistica d Franz Liszt in più 100 CD, con cui si forma e successivamente creerà, nel 2016, un duo stabile (2 pianoforti e 4 mani). Collabora anche con il pianista portoghese Artur Pizarro.Come solista ha suonato in varie importanti realtà concertistiche sia in Italia (Società del Quartetto Milano, Orchestra Sinfonia Città di Milano, Amici della Musica Trapani e Mazara del Vallo, Camerata Musicale Sulmonese, Società Filarmonica Messina, Roma Tre Orchestra, Palermo Classica, Monteverdi Tuscany, Pienza International Music Festival etc) che soprattutto all’estero (Germania, Spagna, Inghilterra, Bulgaria,Portogallo, Russia, Uzbekistan, India, UAE etc) ed ha suonato con prestigiose orchestre tra cui la St Petersburg Northern Sinfonia, Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Gyumri State Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan.Il suo ampio repertorio spazia da J. S. Bach ai grandi compositori dei primi del ‘900 con particolare focus sul periodo romantico. In autunno 2019 esce sulla rivista AMADEUS il suo primo disco per l’etichetta Movimento Classical sulle 4 Sonate per pianoforte di Anton Rubinstein, compositore e pianista russo dell’800 per cui si adopera nel revival musicale pianistico anche con il M°Howard; sempre dello stesso compositore ad agosto 2023 pubblica il secondo disco, per la rivista SUONARE, con le ciclopiche Tema e Variazioni opus 88

Ludovico Tronconetti at Roma Tre