ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

A sumptuous feast of exhilaration and seduction surrounded by beauty in Mary Orr’s salon at the Matthiesen Gallery in Mayfair

A trio of Mendelssohnian delight from a composer who after being summonsed to play to President Wilson after the enormous success of the premiere of his opera Goyescas which turned out to be Granados’s last performance before returning home on a ship that was torpedoed in the English Channel.

Piazzola on the other hand bringing the seduction of the night life and ravishing sleeze of Buenos Aires into the concert hall with the tangos of San Martin brought to life with passionate conviction by the Khong,Kaslin,Sandrin Trio.There was the unmistakable smoky atmosphere of Argentina missing slightly the slightly larger ensemble and of course the bandoneon but made up for with the choice of the more refined Tangos of insinuating melodic outpourings.Enyuan Khong adding some very expressive slides to her superb violin playing and Charlotte giving just that much more throbbing rubato.Cristian of course like the chameleon he is was able with the twitch of his shoulder and the switch of his foot to create just the sleeze that Mr Matthiessen had contributed to by turning down the house lights!

The Granados Trio an early work only discovered in 1976 and rarely programmed since.A great sweep and passion to the first movement in which the violin and cello play together with searing intensity of sumptuous sounds but of course the piano has the last word that in Cristians hands were of a purity and disarming simplicity.A ‘Scherzetto’ very much in the style of Mendelssohn with its lightweight rhythmic energy played with an evident ‘joie de vivre’.The musette Trio was full of buoyancy and life but interrupted by a solo piano recitativo before the return to the ‘Scherzetto’ with its impishly capricious ending.There was a veiled beauty to the ‘Duetto’ of a real ‘song without words’ and showed the superb ensemble of this newly formed trio.A finale truly ‘Dumka’ style followed with its infectious dance rhythms.
I wonder if Granados would have published it had he not perished so ignominiously near to our shores.
I imagine it was eventually found right at the bottom of his cupboard 80 years after it’s premiere in 1895 with the seventeen year old Pablo Casals.Forgotten about as he discovered his true genius for his native Spanish idioms wrapped up in transcendental pianistic trickery.

The Trio op. 50 in C major by Enrique Granados, one the most important Spanish works for piano was written in 1895.It was inspired and an attempt to reconcile the grand late-romantic Central European musical forms with a distinctly Spanish language based on the teachings of Felipe Pedrell. A work with a very complex musical structure in consonance with the late-romantic European tradition and an inspired content of a personal and poetical nature.

The Granados trio was premiered in Madrid with the composer himself at the piano, the violinist Julio Francés and a 17 year-old cellist Pablo Casals, at the time a student at the Madrid Conservatory. The work was never again performed during Granados’ life. After his tragic death it remained in complete oblivion until its publication in 1976 by Unión Musical Española.

A delay in New York, incurred by accepting a recital invitation from President Wilson caused him to miss his boat back to Spain. Instead, he took a ship to England, where he boarded the passenger ferry SS Sussex for Dieppe France. On the way across the English Channel , the Sussex was torpedoed by a German U boat , as part of the German World War I policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.According to witness Daniel Sargent, Granados’s wife, Amparo, was too heavy to get into a lifeboat. Granados refused to leave her and positioned her on a small life raft on which she knelt and he clung. Both then drowned within sight of other passengers.However, according to a different account from another survivor, “A survivor of the 1916 torpedo attack on a Cross channel ferry, Sussex, recognised Spanish composer Granados in a lifeboat, his wife in the water. Granados dived in to save her and perished.”The ship broke in two parts, and only one sank (along with 80 passengers). Ironically, the part of the vessel that contained his cabin did not sink and was towed to port, with most of the passengers, except for Granados and his wife, who were on the other side of the boat when it was hit. Granados and his wife left six children: Eduard (a musician), Solita, Enrique (a swimming champion), Víctor, Natalia, and Francisco.

The personal papers of Enrique Granados are preserved in, among other institutions, the National Library of Catalonia.

The Trio by Granados is an inspired and solid attempt to reconcile the grand late-romantic Central European musical forms with a distinctly Spanish language

— Juan Carlos Garvayo,

The Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas, also known as the Estaciones Porteñas or The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, are a set of four tango compositions written by Astor Piazzola ,which were originally conceived and treated as different compositions rather than one suite, although Piazzolla performed them together from time to time. The pieces were scored for his quintet of violin (viola), piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneon.By giving the adjective portenoreferring to those born in Buenos Aires,the Argentine capital city, Piazzolla gives an impression of the four seasons in Buenos Aires. The order of performance Piazzolla gave to his “Estaciones Porteñas” is: Otoño (Autumn), Invierno (Winter), Primavera (Spring), Verano (Summer). It was different from Vivaldi’s order.

The Seasons

1. Verano Porteño (Buenos Aires Summer)
   written in 1965,originally as incidental music for the play ‘Melenita de oro’by Alberto Rodríguez Muñoz.
2. Invierno Porteño (Buenos Aires Winter) 
   written in 1969.
3. Primavera Porteña (Buenos Aires Spring)
   premiered in 1969,contains counterpoint.
4. Otoño Porteño (Buenos Aires Autumn)
   premiered 1969. Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango , incorporating elements from jazz and classical music A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles. Described as “the world’s foremost composer of Tango music”.At Ginastera’s urging, on August 16, 1953, Piazzolla entered his classical composition “Buenos Aires Symphony in Three Movements” for the Fabian Sevitzky Award. The performance took place at the law school in Buenos Aires with the symphony orchestra of Radio del Estado under the direction of Sevitzky himself. At the end of the concert, a fight broke out among members of the audience who were offended by the inclusion of two bandoneons in a traditional symphony orchestra. In spite of this Piazzolla’s composition won him a grant from the French government to study in Paris with the legendary French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau conservatory. Piazzolla was tired of tango and tried to hide his tango and bandoneon compositions from Boulanger, thinking that his destiny lay in classical music. Introducing his work, Piazzolla played her a number of his classically inspired compositions, but it was not until he played his tango Triunfal that she congratulated him and encouraged him to pursue his career in tango, recognising that this was where his talent lay. This was to prove a historic encounter and a crossroads in Piazzolla’s career.With Boulanger he studied classical composition, including counterpoint which was to play an important role in his later tango compositions.

Cristian Sandrin https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/05/22/cristian-sandrin-at-the-national-liberal-club-a-voyage-of-discovery-of-nobility-and-timeless-beauty/

A triumph at Hatchlands but it was Chopin’s Erard that stole Andrzej heart before his concert on George IVs remarkable 1823 Streicher Viennese piano.A piano beautifully restored and it was Alec Cobbe who explained to Andrzej how to drive it .Six pedals needs some working out.Fazioli now has four pedals and if playing with an I pad you can add another two which equals six.But this piano was built two hundred years ago when there were certainly no I pads and pedals had a completely different meaning and usage.

With just an hour to get used to driving the left and the right pedals Andrzej though had fallen in love with the veiled beauty of sound of the Erard that Chopin had used in Scotland on his final tour just a year before his death.Andrzej spent most of his precious rehearsal time entranced by the sound of this instrument .However it was quite remarkable how on the Streicher piano he was able to immediately adapt the sound via the pedals during the concert that gave clarity and delicacy in the Bach and Mozart and depth of sound in the Chopin.A musician who listens to himself and can instantly search for and find sounds that can bring the music alive with intelligence,scholarship and passion is a musician to be reckoned with.

The Bach Prelude and Fugue in D Book 1 immediately showed us the refined tone palette he could find with delicacy and a rhythmic dance from the bass that I remember very well from Rosalyn Tureck’s much more robust performance on the modern Steinway.An infectious lilt to the music almost like riding a horse but on this instrument there were some very subtle shadings and colours .The Fugue,too,unusually staccato but the short note never accented which gave a beautiful rhythmic propulsion to the fugue that was shaped with the same care as a tone poem and not just allowed to bounce along on its own as we are all too often used to hearing.A Prelude and Fugue shaped into a wondrous overture with the great artistry that was to be the hallmark of the entire concert.

The Chopin Fourth Ballade which had sounded ravishingly veiled on the Erard was here much brighter but Andrzej allowed the music to breathe so naturally with the variations gaining each time in nobility with masterly control.The return of the introduction with the inner tenor register slightly highlighted gave such depth to the sound as it spun into the heights with an etherial cadenza before the contrapuntal return of the theme that was played with ever more crystalline clarity.The final variations were played with passionate commitment but also a remarkable control of texture that made the final glorious full sonority so overwhelming.The five adjoining chords leading to the coda were played with disarming simplicity without any fuss just five simple chords to diffuse the sumptuous climax before a busy coda of transcendental difficulty.But even here the remarkable time and shape he brought to this afterthought revealed the genius of Chopin that this was not just empty virtuosity but textures of passionate poignancy as the temperature rose to boiling point before cascading to the final noble chords of one of the greatest most poetic creations of the Romantic piano repertoire.

Back to Mozart and a shift to the left with the pedals to find that beautiful clarity of Bach once more.A clarity with a delicacy of sound that suited the intimacy of Mozart’s Rondo in Aminor.Andrzej later was to experiment on J C Bach’s piano on which Mozart himself had played his A minor Sonata ; but in the concert on the Streicher piano he had found the ideal colour that revealed the disarming simplicity and poignant beauty of this jewel in Mozart’s crown.

He chose Chopin to finish this short lunchtime concert and it was the early youthful Polonaise published after his death that was able to demonstrate the restrained grandeur with the delicate jeux perlé virtuosity that Chopin would have astonished the salons of his youth with.Exquisite charm of the central musette contrasted with the return of the refined showmanship of the Polonaise.Andrzej was to play another Polonaise by a contemporary,Kurpinski,as an encore which demonstrated the same charm and style of the period

Karol Kazimierz Kurpiński (March 6, 1785 – September 18, 1857) was a Polish composer,conductor and pedagogue .A romanticist and one of the most revered composers before Chopin who he met in 1828. He helped to lay the foundations of a national style and prepared the ground for Polish music of the Romantic period particularly Chopin. He contributed to the development of Polish opera, introducing new musical devices and achieving a novel mode of expression

This was to be no ordinary concert but a voyage in time to find the very source of the creative process which in no way limits fantasy,passion or commitment but puts it into the context of the age in which it was born.What a surprise Alec Cobbe had,to discover a Polonaise by Beethoven that Andrzej played on Haydn’s own piano.A piano that Beethoven too would have known in the period of the first three Sonatas op 2 that Beethoven was to dedicate to his teacher.

Surrounded by so many beautiful instruments all wonderfully restored and to be able to play the same instruments that composers had used to create eternal masterpieces is a lesson indeed.But all these instruments are in rooms that are a size that allows them to be fully appreciated and not, as so often happens,antique instruments being brought into halls that can accomodate many more than these poor instruments can comunicate with in the same manner.To quote myself :’…….an example to us all of how Mozart could be played respecting the period but not being intimidated by it…….. becoming one,as the very operatic meaning of Mozart was transmitted through them to us thirsty for such enticing musical integrity and inspiration and dare I add ‘authenticity!’(https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/08/25/impeccable-living-mozart-as-queen-bodicea-drives-her-flaming-chariot-to-meet-grieg-salasswigutpastuszka-and-the-ohorkiestra-take-warsaw-by-storm/).

The final work in this all too short recital was the Sonata in B minor op 58 by Chopin.A performance in which architecture and artistry combined with poetry and passion bringing to life a masterpiece written towards the end of Chopin’s short life.A subdued opening of the Allegro Maestoso as Alec Cobbe had advised.The more restrained you play the greater the effect on this instrument.There was a subtle aristocratic shape to the second subject ‘sostenuto’ as Chopin writes but not a change of tempo and it was this overall architectural shape that gave such nobility to a work that in lesser hands can sound so fragmented.The left hand in the development was like a recitativo leading to the triumphant return of the opening this time in all its blazing glory.A Scherzo of clarity,like quick silver, as it weaved a wondrous shape with such luminosity of sound.A Trio that was with a gloriously replenished full sound of unusual brooding nobility but also wistful and beseeching as it searched for its way back to the Scherzo that in the end just seemed to evolve out of thin air.Straight into the mighty opening chords of the Largo before the purity of the melodic line on a pulsating accompaniment like a constant and reflective heart beat.The long and expansive meanderings that follow were of poignant beauty and the sudden unexpected appearance of the tenor and bass voices were revealed as if by magic.The opening melodic line returning with an even mellower sound leading us to the poignant beauty of the final duet between the two beautiful worlds with which Chopin had so entranced us.The Finale grew out of the final chord of the Largo building up to the agitato Rondo with very carefully controlled and phrased octaves spread over the entire keyboard.A masterly control of sound and tempo left Andrzej time to even add an ornament to the second appearance of the rondo theme as it gradually built to a climax of extraordinary technical mastery.A building of tension and excitement that that finally burst into flames with the treacherous final page played with the security and total abandon of a young virtuoso on the crest of a wave.

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

Andrzej Wiercinski at St Mary’s the making of a great artist

Amazing seance at Steinways today where Rose McLachlan had comissioned 22 female composers to write a nocturne inspired by Chopin.
So not like Rosemary Brown but a much more eclectic choice. To give a voice to some of the woman composers of the day of which far too little is known.
Rosemary Brown would receive music from the hereafter and Peter Katin would perform it at the Wigmore Hall.
The difference is that these are living composers writing music inspired by Chopin and performed by a young pianist whose father had infact been a student of Peter Katin.
But Rose is indeed a Rose and making her way in the music profession with performances that are already being noted by the critics for their authority and musical integrity.
Inspired by a project that she had to present for her master’s degree she decided on this project of creativity to give a voice to a category that has lain silent for too long.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/08/24/rose-mclachlan-at-st-james-piccadilly-je-sensje-joue-je-trasmet-artistry-and-poetic-imagination-of-a-musician/

Some beautiful playing for composers inspired by the world of Chopin.
With the amazing McLachlan family at the helm we heard fourteen of these nocturnes by composers that were also present.

With Father Murray presenting ,brother Matthew page turning ,Mother Katherine coordinating and last but not least Rose dedicating her extraordinary artistry to presenting each of these composers with total commitment and artistry .
Some very distinguished guests and the entire concert with interviews all streamed live giving a platform to some dedicated women composers of whom we speak all too rarely.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Op. 1 (1852-3) I. Allegro
II. Andante (nach einem altdeutschen Minneliede) III. Allegro molto e con fuoco – Più mosso
IV. Allegro con fuoco – Presto non troppo ed agitato

Piano Sonata No. 2 in F sharp minor Op. 2 (1852)
I. Allegro non troppo, ma energico
II. Andante con espressione
III. Scherzo. Allegro – Trio. Poco più moderato
IV. Finale. Sostenuto – Allegro non troppo e rubato

Interval

Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor Op. 5 (1853) I. Allegro maestoso
II. Andante espressivo
III. Scherzo. Allegro energico
IV. Intermezzo. Andante molto
V. Finale. Allegro m moderato ma rubato

Elisabeth Leonskaja the Queen of the Keyboard .Music pure music just erupted from the depths of her soul and struck us with unusual force .
Not since Tatyana Nikolaeva or Annie Fischer have we experienced a direct communication between the composer, the music and the audience.
Rushing on and off as she was a lady on a mission with total self effacing authority.Gradiosity,Majesty,Etherial ,Orchestral,Nobility and above all seductive …….breathtaking in its architectural shape with the construction of three great monuments before our astonished eyes.
We are not used to such overwhelming authority and music pure music.
It puts us all to shame as we listen enraptured seduced and totally overwhelmed ……Why are there no others like this left from the days of Wilhelm Kempff ,Edwin Fischer ,Rudolf Serkin?A musician where the medium becomes almost irrelevant and is the means through which music can live and breathe as it did when the ink was still wet on the page.Alexei Lubimov was a revelation recently too ,in Warsaw, but with out this Leonine temperament that I also remember from Wilhelm Kempff when he played op 5 in London in the 70’s before his Indian Summer of sublime introspection.

Kapellmeister Lubimov leads us to the very heart of music with simplicity and mastery

There was a beauty and flexibility of her arms and wrists as she seemed to be swimming in a tide of sounds with a naturalness that was extraordinarily beautiful to see.There was an etherial beauty to the question and beseeching answer in the Andante of op 1 followed by the grandeur of the Scherzo and the contrasting fluidity of the Trio.An opening of great orchestral sounds played from on high with a dynamic drive that was like a Lioness being let loose to devour the keys.There was colour and mystery added to the declamatory outpourings of the Allegro non troppo,ma energico op 2 .Absolute desolation of the Scherzo again contrasting with the fluidity of the Trio.The veiled luminosity of the chorale in the Finale of op 5 I have never heard so whispered as she drew us in to listen as the music became ever more noble and passionate.Her control of sonority and sense of balance allied to a passionate wild abandon was surely the sum of a great master.
A vision of space and timeless wonder.
Curzon and Rubinstein are the only memories I have of the coda of the Andante espressivo of op 5 with sounds that I never expected to hear again until today. The final arpeggios thrown into the air to capture that luminosity but then catching the sound as it reverberated within the piano and nourished our souls .
A Scherzo that shot from these ethereal chords like someone igniting a rocket.
The aristocratic grandeur she brought to the last pages will resound in the walls of this hallowed hall for long to come .
But seated at the piano and visibly exhausted she allowed Chopin’s Nocturne in E flat to flow from her fingers like water flowing over some celestial stream .To watch her fingers on high play every note like bells being caressed and to hear such whispered secrets made one wonder was it just a dream that we had just experienced the greatest performances of Brahms this hall has ever known!

In the autumn of 1853 having met some of the biggest names in music, the young man travelled to Düsseldorf and rang the Schumanns’ doorbell.
The visit was life-changing. Robert and Clara Schumann could not have been warmer or more extravagant in their praise.

Schumann’s famous description of the young Brahms appeared in the Leipzig Neue Zeitschrift für Musik of 28 October 1853, in an article headed ‘Neue Bahnen’ (‘New paths’). Less than a month earlier, Brahms had called at the house of Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf. (‘He played us sonatas, scherzos etc. by him, all of them full of effusive imagination, intimate feeling and masterly form’, wrote Clara in her diary.)

Seated at the piano, he began to reveal wondrous regions to us. We were drawn into ever more magical spheres. In addition, the playing was absolutely inspired, transforming the piano into an orchestra of lamenting and loudly jubilant voices. There were sonatas, more like veiled symphonies; songs, whose poetry would be understood without knowing the words, although a profound vocal melody runs through them all; individual piano pieces, some of them demonic in nature while graceful in form; then sonatas for violin and piano, string quartets—and each work so different from the next that it seemed to stream forth from its own individual source. And then it seemed as though he were uniting them all like a stream roaring forth into a waterfall, with a peaceful rainbow above its tumultuously descending waves, and butterflies flitting about on the banks accompanied by the song of nightingales.

Two of the ‘veiled symphonies’ (Robert Schumann’s words) that Brahms played to the Schumanns were the first two works in tonight’s programme. The Piano Sonata No. 1 in C (dedicated to Joachim) was completed after the Piano Sonata No. 2, but was
published first.

The Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, Op. 1, was written in Hamburg in 1853, and published later that year. Despite being his first published work, he had actually composed his Piano Sonata n. 2 first, but chose this work to be his first published opus because he felt that it was of higher quality. The piece was sent with his second sonata to Breitkopf &. Härtel with a letter of recommendation from Schumann who had already praised Brahms enthusiastically, and the sonata shows signs of an effort to impress in its symphonic grandeur, technical demands, and dramatic character. It was dedicated to Joseph Joachim

The sonata is in four movements:

1. Allegro
2. Andante (nach einem altdeutschen Minneliede),
3. Allegro molto e con fuoco — Più mosso
4. Allegro con fuoco — Presto non troppo ed agitato

Text of song

Verstohlen geht der Mond auf.
Blau, blau Blümelein!
Durch Silberwölkchen führt sein Lauf.
Blau, blau Blümelein!
Rosen im Tal,
Mädel im Saal,
O schönste Rosa!Stealthily rises the moon.
Blue, blue flower!
Through silver cloudlets makes its way.
Blue, blue flower!
Roses in the dale,
Maiden in the hall,
O handsomest Rosa!

The first movement is in conventional sonata form with a repeated exposition. The opening of the first theme resembles the opening of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier Sonata . The second movement is a theme and variations inspired by the song Verstohlen geht der Mond auf. Brahms was to rewrite it for female chorus in 1859 (WoO 38/20). The third movement is a scherzo and trio. The fourth is a loose rondowhose theme is noticeably changed at every recurrence. It is highly technically demanding on the performer, with toccata-like intensity and rapid thirds throughout. The form of the rondo is a palindrome ABACACABA.

The Piano Sonata No. 2 in F♯ minor, Op. 2 of was written in Hamburg but in 1852, and published the year after.

It was dedicated to Clara Schumann

The sonata is in four movements:

1. Allegro non troppo, ma energico
2. Andante con espressione
3. Scherzo: Allegro — Poco più moderato
4. Finale: Sostenuto — Allegro non troppo e rubato — Molto sostenuto

The first movement is in the conventional sonata -allegro form. The second movement is a theme and variations based on the German Minnesang “Mir ist leide“. Like the theme and variations of the first Sonata ,the variations move from the minor mode to the parallel major. The third movement is a scherzo and trio whose beginning theme is almost identical to that of the second movement. The finale begins with a brief introduction in A the relative major of F sharp minor. The main subject of the introduction serves as the first theme of this movement, which is in sonata form and contains a repeated exposition. The codaof the finale, marked pianissimo and to be played with the soft pedal, returns to and expands upon material from the movement’s introduction.

The Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 of was written in 1853 and published the following year. The sonata is unusually large, consisting of five movements as opposed to the traditional three or four. When he wrote this piano sonata, the genre was seen by many to be past its heyday. Brahms, enamored of Beethoven and the classical style, composed Piano Sonata No. 3 with a masterful combination of free Romantic spirit and strict classical architecture. As a further testament to Brahms’ affinity for Beethoven, the Piano Sonata is infused with the instantly recognizable motive from Beethoven’s Symphony n. 5 during the first, third, and fourth movements.Composed in Dusseldorf , it marks the end of his cycle of three sonatas and was presented to Schumann in November of that year; it was the last work that Brahms submitted to Schumann for commentary. Brahms was barely 20 years old at its composition. The piece is dedicated to Countess Ida von Hohenthal of Leipzig.

Brahms worked on his Sonata No. 3 in F minor while staying with the Schumanns as a guest. Its most obvious feature is the addition of an Intermezzo between the Scherzo and the Finale. This casts a look back to the passionate Andante second movement, at the top of which Brahms briefly quoted a poem by CO Sternau about lovers in the moonlight. The closing bars, where the measure changes from three to four beats in a bar, magically discharge some of the most erotic music Brahms wrote.

The sonata is in five movements:

1. Allegro maestoso
2. Andante Andante espressivo — Andante molto
3. Scherzo . Allegro energico avec trio (F minor – D♭ major – F minor)
4. Intermezzo (Rückblick / Regard en arrière) Andante molto
5. Finale. Allegro moderato ma rubato (F minor, ending in F major)

The second movement begins with a quotation above the music of a poem by Otto Inkermann under the pseudonym C.O. Sternau.Perhaps symbolizing the two beating hearts in this Andante are its two principal themes which alternate throughout the movement.

Der Abend dämmert, das Mondlicht scheint,
da sind zwei Herzen in Liebe vereint
und halten sich selig umfangen
Through evening’s shade, the pale moon gleams
While rapt in love’s ecstatic dreams
Two hearts are fondly beating.

Elisabeth Leonskaya at the Wigmore Hall. True Queen of the keyboard

Elisabeth Leonskaya – The Oracle Speaks

At the centre of Mihai Ritivoiu’s recital is the timeless music of that greatest of composers, J.S. Bach and the influence he had on many composers through the ages. Father of the fugue, Beethoven was to emulate this musical device in his Op.110 sonata, and Busoni was inspired to make his own transcriptions of many of Bach’s works. Similarly Mihai himself brings us right up to date with his own variations on one of Bach’s Chorales as well as performing a new work by Stephane Delplace, which he recently premiered.

The concert with an almost obligatory title these days where packages are easier to sell Mihai had decided on : “Inspirational Bach.” Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is unquestionably the most revered figure in the entire history of western classical music, “The Father of Music” , and often being referred to by other composers, like Frédéric Chopin ,Ludwig Van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as a key inspiration.

Simple grand Beethoven at St Martins.
I was thinking how proud Joan Havill would be to hear Mihai Ritivoiu blessed by the Gods today as he took us into realms of beauty and mystery that dreams are made of with Beethoven’s penultimate Sonata op110.
A Brahms op 116 n 4 floundering ,perchance to dream on a magic wave of sounds posing questions of unanswerable poignancy.
An artist of quite extraordinary powers of communication.
A musician who thinks more of the music than himself is an artist to cherish indeed these days.

Beginning his recital with one of the most sublime of Busoni’s transcriptions of Bach’s Chorale Preludes BWV 639 ‘ Ich ruf zu dir,Herr Jesu Christ’ and creating an atmosphere of beauty and serenity that was to pervade the whole recital.There was a purity and clarity of sound with a sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to float on a sumptuous cloud of golden sounds created deep in the bass with delicacy and richness of sonority.The final phrases were of a whispered beauty of the revelation of a true believer.With the radiance of the sun shining through the great glass window behind the altar it was indeed a poignant start to a recital of beauty,simplicity and contemplation .’Light is suspended in a veil by the etching of the clear glass with a swirl of flecks; and at dusk, as daylight fades, the central oval glows, mysteriously self-lit.’The painting of The Veil of St Veronicaby Zurbarán is cited by Shirazeh Houshiary as a source for her East Window which was installed in 2008 .Zurbarán’s image of a piece of cloth bearing a likeness of the face of Christ connects with Houshiary’s idea of the veil that underlies her design of the steel grid of the window. Here, abstraction and representation merge into an iconic whole that invites contemplation.’

Mihai followed Bach with a fascinating work by Stephane Delplace.There was a recurring leit motif reminiscent of bells chiming out of which emerged Bach like contrapuntal passages of nostalgia and beauty.There was also a mellifluous outpouring of continuous motion of purity and simplicity that was a wash of pastoral innocence.

Stéphane Delplace was born 11th November 1953 (age 69) in Bordeaux France ,and is a composer ,teacher and pianist .He studied piano under Pierre Sancan , as well as Harmony (Alain Bernaud), Counterpoint (Jean-Paul Holstein), Fugue (Michel Merlet ), and Orchestration (Serge Nigg) at the Conservatoire de paris from 1979 to 1984.Delplace began to compose in the mid-1980s, with a firm conviction, though unpopular at the time, that tonal music still hides infinite unexplored territories.Never parting from this ideal, his music finds its roots in that of Bach,Brahms,Faure,Ravel,Prokofiev ….

Bach’s mighty Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue followed with a performance of great authority where Mihai’s vision of line was of a flexibility that made the weaving stream of notes a living and searching sound with recitativi of poignant beauty of searing significance .The beautifully embellished final phrases leading the way to whispered secrets as the fugue subject emerged from the final chord much as Beethoven was to do in his op 110 Sonata that we were to appreciate later in the programme.There was a rhythmic buoyancy to the fugue as it gradually built in fervour with layer upon layer added until the final glorious explosion of arrival at it’s goal with the final note placed with such an aristocratic sense of timing deep in the bass.

Not to be outdone Mihai had written his own variations on the chorale from Bach’s St John Passion:’Herzliebster Jesu,was hast du verbrochen’ (‘Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended?’).Its text is a Passion hymn by J Heermann, famously found in both the St John and St Matthew Passions. A melancholy affect is created by the slow-moving counterpoint, spiced with suspensions and chromatic lines and the final notes of the melody are filled in chromatically, highlighting the poignancy that is at the heart of both the theology and the music of the prelude.The tune has been used many times, including settings by J.S. Bach : one of the Neumeister Chorales for organ, BWV 1093,two movements of the St John Passion, and three of the St Matthew Passion .Brahms used it too for one of his Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ, Op. 122: No. 2.Max Reger’s Passion, No. 4 from his organ pieces op 145 (1915–1916), uses this melody. Mauricio Kagel quoted the hymn, paraphrased as “Herzliebster Johann, was hast du verbrochen”, in his oratorio Sankt- Bach-Passion telling Bach’s life, composed for the tricentenary of Bach’s birth in 1985. Mihai’s variations were very impressive and I was trying to guess the various composers that maybe had inspired each variation. The 2nd was Rachmaninov,3rd Debussy water nymph,4th chiselled beauty of notes being shadowed alla Poulenc or Schumann,5th was certainly De Falla,6th Ravel,7th Debussy -Rachmaninov ,8th was the return of the original chorale this time with comments and the 9th Russian maybe Prokofiev.A fascinating work that just showed what a real thinking musician Mihai is and am sure that my comments on an innocent first hearing will bring a smile to his face but it showed what a rich palette of invention he could bring to his own composition.

His performance of op 110 by Beethoven was simply one of the most beautiful and convincing that I can remember hearing.As he said Beethoven’s use of the extremes of the keyboard could be considered the search for the infinite in what was to be his penultimate sonata.Op 111 the last of the 32 Sonatas finishes with a glimpse of paradise as the trills take on an etherial significance much as they were to do for Scriabin a century later.The amazing thing was that Beethoven was totally deaf but the sounds that only he could hear in his head he was able to write down with such meticulous care able to share this great testament with eternity.The only sonata without a dedication as it was thought it might be a secret memorial for his ‘Immortal Beloved’.Published without a dedication, there is evidence that Beethoven intended to dedicate Opp. 110 and 111 to Antonie Brentano (Op.111 was eventually dedicated to the Archduke Rudolf) and 110 very significantly left without.Mihai’s was a performance of purity and pastoral innocence with a wondrous musicianship that can say so much with so little effort or personal intervention.There was a great contrast with the Scherzo of almost wild abandon and masterly control in the treacherous Trio where his remarkable restraint made the return of the Scherzo even more of a contrast.Ravishing beauty of the Adagio and a subtle use of the pedal and the bebung effect of allowing a single note to vibrate – not easy on the modern day instruments.It lead to an aria of subtle poetic significance almost as though Beethoven was at last at peace with himself and the world.The great bass entries in the Fugue were every bit as breathtaking as the bass pedal stops of a church organ.The return of the fugue subject in inversion floated in on the vibrations left from the huge sonorities of repeated insistent chords.It was so noticeable too the way that Mihai caressed the keys never hitting but stroking with horizontal movements never vertical.The whole effect both visual and in sound was of luminosity and sublime beauty as Beethoven built the final pages to a colossal climax of passion and the fervent conviction of someone who could see the light that awaited him just six years on.

Programme

Bach/Busoni – Chorale Prelude BWV 639, “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”
Stephane Delplace – Sisyphe
Bach – Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903
M. Ritivoiu – Variations on a Bach Chorale – “Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen”
Beethoven – Piano Sonata in A flat major op 110

Mihai Ritivoiu Piano

Born in Bucharest, Mihai Ritivoiu is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, most notably the George Enescu International Competition.

Mihai leads an international career performing solo and chamber music recitals in Europe and Asia, and has played concertos with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra and the MDR Leipzig Radio Orchestra. He collaborated with conductors such as Joshua Weilerstein, Robert Trevino, Michael Collins, Cristian Mandeal, Christian Badea and Horia Andreescu. He has been invited to play at prestigious festivals, including Young Euro Classic in Berlin, George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, St Magnus International Festival, and appeared on stages such as Cadogan Hall, Barbican Centre, Konzerthaus Berlin, Studio Ernest Ansermet Geneva and the Romanian Athenaeum and Radio Hall in Bucharest. 

Regularly invited to play on BBC Radio 3’s programme ‘In Tune’, his performances have been broadcast on Radio Romania Muzical, Radio Television Suisse and Medici TV. His debut album “Transcendence” with solo works by Franck, Enescu and Liszt has been praised as “beautifully recorded, handsomely played – a solo recital to cherish” (The Arts Desk).

A graduate with the highest honours from the National University of Music in Bucharest and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, Mihai studied with Professors Viniciu Moroianu and Joan Havill. He has taken part in masterclasses and lessons with Dmitri Bashkirov, Dominique Merlet, Emmanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Jean-Claude Pennetier and has been mentored by Valentin Gheorghiu and Christopher Elton. Most recently, he has pursued directing from the keyboard with Ricardo Castro at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.

In addition to his solo recitals and concerto appearances, Mihai has a rich chamber music activity. His partners have included Corina Belcea, Antoine Lederlin, Roland Pidoux, Oleg Kogan and Alexander Sitkovetsky. He forms a duo with the cellist Yoanna Prodanova, with whom he has performed in the United Kingdom, France and The Netherlands. Their first album as a duo, with works for piano and cello by Chopin, Fauré and Janacek was recently released on the Linn Records label.

Mihai is a City Music Foundation artist and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He has received generous support from the Liliana and Peter Ilica Foundation for the Endowment of the Arts, Erbiceanu Cultural Foundation and Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation.

Mihai Ritivoiu’s triumphant recital signals a musical renaissance at the National Liberal Club

April 22, 2023

ALEXANDRE KANTOROW

A truly breathtaking and exhilarating performance of Brahms first Piano Sonata op 1.
From the very first notes there was a sumptuous richness to the sound with the deep bass harmonies opening up endless possibilities of colour.
Infact the melting whispered cantabile of the second subject had a fluidity of ravishing beauty.Here was a true musician the same one that had mesmerised me in the performance he gave to an empty Philharmonie in Paris during the Covid pandemic.An oasis of beauty and hope for the future.A performance of Rachmaninov’s seemingly ungrateful first sonata that in his hands revealed a hidden masterpiece.

Alexandre Kantorow takes the Philharmonie de Paris by storm

It was the same today in the bustle of Naples on a Saturday night where he created an oasis of beauty revealing a masterpiece every bit as noble as the better known third sonata.Revealing a true symphony for piano with transcendental command and a technical mastery at the service of the composer.Here was a Furtwangler at the piano commanding attention and revealing the very soul of recreation.The Schubertian questioning and answering of the Andante was unforgettable for the portent that was concealed in so few notes.A truly magical duet between the tenor and soprano voices was a celestial ending.A spectacular Scherzo immediately broke the spell with its dynamic driving energy contrasting with the beautifully fluid trio.The finale was indeed Allegro con fuoco with it’s burning intensity and driving bass energy.Above all there was clarity and precision not only technically but of the mind of a great artist that can give us the complete architectural shape of a very complex work

A selection of six Schubert Lieder in the transcription of Liszt.Miniature masterpieces recreated by the genius Liszt.In Kantorow’s hands they were indeed imbued with the magical atmosphere of Schubert that Liszt had miraculously recreated.Six miniature tone poems in this artist’s sensitive hands where each one was a true ‘song without words’.Avoiding the more obvious well known Erlkonig,Standchen etc Kantorow brought us the rarely heard ‘other six’.I imagine he may have chosen them at the last minute like Schiff and Richter preferring not to be pinned down to a specific programme years in advance.’Sei mir gegrusst,Du bist die Ruh’,Meeresstille,Die junge Nonne,Rastlose Liebe,Der Wanderer’ by process of elimination were the Lieder he actually played.I have rarely heard them in concert and they were a revelation of sumptuous golden sounds,melancholic simplicity,mystery but above all a sense of balance that allowed the melodic line to sing out no matter the glittering ingenious cascades of notes that Liszt envelopes them in.They sparkled and shone like the jewels they are but above all communicated the emotion of the poetry and digging even deeper,revealing a world where the actual words are just not enough.Hypnotic performances that showed the extraordinary sensitivity and artistry of this youthful poet of the piano.A remarkable technical command of hands and feet! Yes,it was Anton Rubinstein who said the pedal was the soul of the piano and nowhere has it been more apparent than in the series of wondrous sounds and atmospheres that surrounded this beautiful black box on a stage that is used to welcoming the greatest voices of the age.A public that had escaped to a world of pure magic as they surrendered to the beauty and passion that was filling this historic temple of music that has resounded to some of the greatest performances ever heard.

The Wanderer Fantasy continued this Schubertiade without a break (probably because we were expecting all twelve Lieder as printed) but also because it had created an atmosphere that Kantorow was happy to maintain to the tumultuous ending of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy.A Fantasy that had opened the door for Liszt with it’s newly created form created with the transformation of themes.Liszt was to continue and pursue this new form bringing to it to even more Romantic self identification.He was happy to inspire his son in law Richard Wagner who was to bring it to unheard of heights of inspiration.To quote Badura Skoda :’It is Schubert’s most monumental piano piece and stands as a guidepost to the future not only in the matter of form ,but also in its grandiose ‘orchestral’ use of the piano’.Kantorow imbued it with orchestral sounds and even the scales and arpeggios that abound were linked to a bass that was the anchor that guided us through a work written in the same year as Beethoven’s visionary last thoughts in the evolution of the Sonata from op 2 to the final Sonata op 111. The four movements are developed from a single thematic cell ,a rhythmic motive taken from the song Der Wanderer (that we had heard earlier in Liszt’s transcription ). All the themes in the Fantasy are developed from a single Leitmotiv as in the symphonic poem of a later era.Here the classical symphonic order of movements -Allegro,Adagio,Scherzo,Finale – corresponds to the principal sections of one larger sonata movement (exposition,development,recapitulation and coda).

It was this architectural shape that was missing in a performance of great beauty and transcendental command where he chose rather fast tempi that meant there was a continual relaxation of tempo in the more lyrical passages that rather fragmented a work that in many ways anticipates the symphonic sonata of the Brahms op 1.In Brahms Kantorow had kept a bass anchor that was like a great wave that took us from the first note to the last and gave great weight and authority as in fact he had done in the Rachmaninov Sonata from the Philharmonie.His Schubert of course was played with the same artistry and sensitivity but I missed this undercurrent that could have given great weight and authority to this most Beethovenian of all Schubert’s piano works.I found the opening of the Scherzo – Presto rather fragmented and the last movement too fast for it’s Allegro indication.The last movement lost something of it’s accumulation of grandeur and crescendo of excitement that was so telling in Arrau’s artistocratic hands.This was a Schubert Fantasy of a young poet that I am sure will gain in weight and authority as it enters his soul.

Amazingly only the night before Kantorow had played a magnificent Rachmaninov First Piano Concert in Turin with Barenboim’s assistant Thomas Guggeis – two artists in their twenties who can be heard in this link to the live radio broadcast:

https://www.raiplaysound.it/audio/2023/04/Radio3-Suite—Il-Cartellone-del-21042023-99a3944b-9d83-4ad2-9378-0e65eb224d08.html.

Three encores in a crescendo of acceptance as Kantorow treated us to another Schubert transcription of sumptuous beauty.

It was followed by the encore he had played the night before in Turin :Vecsey/Cziffra ‘Valse Triste’.Played with passion and insinuating style together with all the jeux perlé ‘tricks of the trade’ associated with the heir to Liszt that was the extraordinary Cziffra.Like the ‘bel canto’ stars that have ignited this stage for the past two centuries Kantorow knew how to ignite and excite an audience that was now following his every move with rapt attention and adulation.Realising like the great artist he is that he could not leave his audience yet he gave them what they were craving for with the greatest circus act of our age :Volodos’s revisitation of Mozart’s ‘Turkish March’.It sent the audience into delirium with everyone on their feet cheering this great new star that had arrived in their midst.

https://youtu.be/iwLnSGPtero

Some superb musicianly playing from Giulia Toniolo as you might expect from the class of Norma Fisher and Maddalena De Facci.St Olave’s an oasis of peace amongst the ever changing landscape that now surrounds the Tower of London.

An old Bosendorfer piano acquired some years ago from Wilfred Parry at the Royal Academy of Music and surrounded by the beautiful historic interior of St Olave’s so cruelly treated during the war but that now what has survived belies the fast moving world on its doorstep.
I had heard Giulia a few years ago in the masterclasses in Siena of Lilia Zilberstein and listening now two years on I am amazed by the authority and technical command she has acquired in these years of intensive study with Norma Fisher.

It is of course a question of musicianship and understanding the very structure of music – the very rock on which it is constructed.It is on this rock that a musician can grow and sow the seeds of interpretations of honesty,integrity and authority. Chopin would describe the word rubato as roots firmly planted in the ground but the branches free to move every way the wind will take them.
I well remember Norma’s playing from when our mutual teacher in our early years,Sidney Harrison,would to take me to listen to his star student as she became a household name in the concert halls of the world.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/05/12/norma-fisher-at-steinway-hall-the-bbc-recordings-on-wings-of-song-the-story-continues/
I remember so vividly a performance of the Brahms Handel variations of a richness of sound and orchestral colour that I had not heard before from other ‘pianists’ and it was the same rich full sound that she found in Chopin’s Berceuse.Sounds that were formed from the bass and gave such a solid foundation to the exquisite sensibility of what floated above.

It was just this solidity that made everything Giulia did speak with such authority and inevitability.There were no frills or thrills but there was transcendental drive and masterly control with an architectural coherence that gave such shape to the edifice that was being constructed before our very eyes.

Her technical command was demonstrated by a performance of Bartok’s Suite Out of Doors that I
have rarely heard played with such authority and drive but also with an exquisite kaleidoscope of sounds that could bring Bartok’s extraordinary Hungarian peasant landscape to life.The barberic attack of the Drums contrasted with the extraordinary fluidity of the Pipes, and the strident final outcry was of devastating effect.A Barcarolle that was a moving plasma of weaving sounds before the delicate pungent dissonances of the Musette.Giulia’s transcendental control of sound brought the Night’s music to life with its desolate atmosphere of total darkness out of which the sound of night animals would hoot,sing or scratch but never interrupt the constant night atmosphere made of liquid pianissimo sounds, whereas the animals were making shrieks in the night.I have heard Radu Lupu play it in the first round of the Leeds that he went on to win.It was the first time that I had been aware of sounds from pianississimo to mezzo forte – Richter was soon to show us what this acute mastery of sound could lead to.

Giulia had a beautiful old but badly regulated piano with a broken string from the Rachmaninov Anniversary concert that another of Norma’s former students had given the day before.It was an even more extraordinary ‘tour de force’ from Giulia because the very roots were so firm not even a broken string could shake them.Her playing of the final Chase was breathtaking for its command and relentless drive .An interrupted impromptu seemed just the right encore to offer in the circumstances !Thank you Debussy!

The concert had begun with one of Clementi’s 110 sonatas of which we very rarely hear any in the concert hall.I think if it was played with the authority and conviction as today we would hear a lot more of a composer who was known as the ‘Father of the Piano ‘ and who was mostly active in England.His music is a mixture of the solidity of Beethoven and the mellifluousness of Mendelssohn.Giulia’s sense of balance allowed the melodic lines to sing unimpeded and her total conviction was quite overpowering in its authority.It was interesting to hear one of Mendelssohn’s major works for piano afterwards and it was the deeply felt sentiments of Mendelssohn without any sentimentality that gave great strength to a performance of colour and great fluidity.The last movement were simply streams of sumptuous sounds that poured with such ease from Giulia’s masterly fingers

Amazing there is a piano genius is in our midst ……….Thomas Kelly a new Ogdon ………piano playing the like of which is a once in a lifetime experience .
Rachmaninov’s first sonata was performed in the very room where the master gave his last London performance in 1939 ( you can read my review from a recent performance here .

Thomas Kelly at St James’s Piccadilly musicianship and mastery mark the return of a Golden Age but of the thinking virtuoso.

I know the Ogdon recording that was one of the first to appear commercially and I have heard another two remarkable Russian pianists play it recently .They all play with remarkable clarity and phenomenal technical mastery but there is a secret line in this work that is very hard to find.It can turn a problematic work – for Rachmaninov too – into a tone poem of extraordinary poetic potency.

It was Alexandre Kantorow who I heard recently who had found that elusive thread that weaves a maze of notes into a cauldron of potent sounds of great significance.A leit motif that appears throughout and is the thread to this up until now elusive work.Listening to Thomas Kelly recently I was overwhelmed by the importance of a work I had up until now always thought of as the poor brother of the Second Sonata.Thomas Kelly and Alexandre Kantorow had found the elusive thread that gave great cohesion and architectural shape to this early work.They also had a kaleidoscopic range of sounds and a phenomenal technical mastery.

I was amazed last night to watch Tom play with such assurance and mastery hardly moving but watching and listening with absolute authority .There was not a moment of doubt about where all the nuts and bolts should go and like Sokolov he would lean over to strike a bass note at exactly the moment of most impact emotionally and architecturally.I think the Sonata deserves to be in the Guinness book of records for the most notes in the shortest space of time and it was an amazing feat of piano playing of genius from this pianist still only in his early twenties.But there was much more besides as there was a sense of colour and balance and a range of sounds and touch that turned this magnificent Steinway Concert Grand into an orchestra of Philadelphian proportions.

But that was just an opener for the four Liszt Paganini studies of breathtaking virtuosity with the beguiling charm and colours of the masters of the Golden age of piano playing.Rachmaninov’s devilish transcription of the Mendelssohn Scherzo was thrown off with the same ease that Moiseiwitsch (also a member of the Liberal Club) managed to record by the skin of his teeth. Ravishing beauty of Rachmaninov’s own Lilacs was followed by the Mephisto Waltz played with devilish virtuosity and some extra notes added by Busoni and even later by Horowitz.I was surprised that I actually thought the original Liszt was superior to these slight alterations or additions that Busoni ( a pupil of Liszt) had made and the addition of Horowitz that rather spoils the ending with too much sound rather than Liszt’s rather terse single note of much greater effect.Liszt had after all changed the ending of his Sonata from a crowd pleasing triumphant ending to one of the most genial visionary pages in all the romantic piano repertoire.Busoni’s slight additions to La Campanella are quite teasingly and tastefully done whereas his triumphant ending to the Goldberg Variations I find hard to accept just as I found unnecessary in a masterpiece that is Liszt’s original version of the First Mephisto Waltz.

Scarlatti’s little Sonata in B minor was played with the jeux perlé of other times.Tom had by now entered another world and his Scarlatti had entered this world too and was for my taste a little too ear teasing and unlike the performance i had heard recently as an opening to his concert before the Rachmaninov rather than after .But what artistry and what a musician that can adapt and change like a chameleon to the atmosphere and perfumes of the moment.One expects De Pachmann to talk to the public to tell them how he is getting on or guide them through a performance pointing out moments that might be influenced by this or that colleague.But De Pachmann was an old man and much feted artist – Thomas Kelly still has fifty years to go before he reaches that status!

What extraodinary ravishing beauty he brought to the Thalberg Don Pasquale Fantasie A work wrapped up in piano trickery of such ingenious invention that in his day it made him a serious rival for Liszt the virtuoso.Liszt’s genius prevailed though and took him to a visionary world that opened up new vistas that were then taken up by Busoni and so into the next century.Tom’s mastery of style, colour and balance are a potent mixture that with his complete technical mastery can bring this world back to us with beguiling authority.Thomas Kelly – Piano Man !

Dr Hugh Mather comments:’Couldn’t agree more. We hear all the up-and-coming pianists at Perivale and I have no doubt that Thomas is in a league of his own. Simply phenomenal. Will be exciting to watch his progress over the next few years.’

David Earl ,the distinguished pianist comments :’This is phenomenal playing of a work I know well, and was inspired to learn thanks to the Ogdon RCA recording. Thomas’s layering of the 3rd movement’s paragraphs, and lyrical inner voicing is possibly the finest performance yet of Opus 28. Truly great. Thank you for posting Christopher.’

In 1939, Rachmaninoff gave his last ever UK recital in the David Lloyd George Room at the National Liberal Club, London. Now, in the very same room, 2021 Leeds finalist Thomas Kelly marks the 150th year since Rachmaninoff’s birth, and the 80th year since his death, with a programme of virtuoso repertoire celebrating Rachmaninoff alongside other legendary pianist-composers.

Rachmaninoff’s formidable Piano Sonata No.1 comprises the first half of his impressive programme, with Liszt and Thalberg highlighted in the second half, culminating with Horowitz’s transcription of Busoni’s arrangement of Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1 – an emblem of the rich history of virtuoso performers and their role in the creation and development of piano repertoire, fittingly delivered by one of the most exciting young virtuosos of today.

Programme:

Rachmaninoff Sonata No.1 in D Minor Op.28

INTERVAL

Liszt Paganini Etudes No.2, 3, 4, 6

Thalberg Grande fantasie sur des motifs de l’Opera “Don Pasquale” by Donizetti

Mendelssohn/Rachmaninoff Scherzo from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

Rachmaninoff Lilacs Op.21 No.5

Liszt/Busoni/Horowitz Mephisto Waltz No.1

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.’

The Mephisto Waltzes (German: Mephisto-Walzer) are four waltzes composed from 1859 to 1862, from 1880 to 1881, and in 1883 and 1885. Nos. 1 and 2 were composed for orchestra, and later arranged for piano, piano duet and two pianos, whereas nos. 3 and 4 were written for piano only. Of the four, the first is the most popular and has been frequently performed in concert and recorded.

The first Mephisto Waltz is a typical example of programme music taking for its program an episode from Nikolaus Lenau’s 1836 verse drama Faust not Goethe. The following program note, which Liszt took from Lenau, appears in the printed score:

There is a wedding feast in progress in the village inn, with music, dancing, carousing. Mephistopheles and Faust pass by, and Mephistopheles induces Faust to enter and take part in the festivities. Mephistopheles snatches the fiddle from the hands of a lethargic fiddler and draws from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating strains. The amorous Faust whirls about with a full-blooded village beauty in a wild dance; they waltz in mad abandon out of the room, into the open, away into the woods. The sounds of the fiddle grow softer and softer, and the nightingale warbles his love-laden song.

In 1843 Thalberg had married in Paris the daughter of the famous bass Luigi Lablache, widow of the painter Boucher. Attempts at operatic composition proved unsuccessful, with Florinda, staged in London in 1851 and Cristina di Suezia in Vienna four years later. His career as a virtuoso continued until 1863, when he retired to Posilippo, near Naples, to occupy himself for his remaining years with his vineyards. He died in Posilippo in 1871.

Some mystery surrounds the birth and parentage of the virtuoso pianist Sigismond Thalberg, popularly supposed to have been the illegitimate son of Count Moritz Dietrichstein and the Baroness von Wetzlar, born at Pâquis near Geneva in 1812. His birth certificate, however, provides him with different and relatively legitimate parentage, the son of a citizen of Frankfurt, Joseph Thalberg. There seems no particular reason, therefore, to suppose the name Thalberg an invention. Legend, however, provides the story of the Baroness proclaiming him a valley (“Thal”) that would one day rise to the heights of a mountain (“Berg”). Thalberg’s schooling took him to Vienna, where his fellow-pupil the Duke of Reichstadt, the son of Napoleon, almost persuaded him to a military career. Musical interests triumphed and he was able to study with Simon Sechler and with Mozart’s pupil Hummel. In Vienna he performed at private parties, making a particular impression when, as a fourteen-year-old, he played at the house of Prince Metternich. By 1828 he had started the series to compositions that were to prove important and necessary to his career as a virtuoso. In 1830 he undertook his first concert tour abroad, to England, where he had lessons from Moscheles. In 1834 he was appointed Kammervirtuos to the Emperor in Vienna and the following year appeared in Paris, where he had lessons from Kalkbrenner and Pixis.

Paris in the 1830s was a city of pianists. The Conservatoire was full of them, while salons and the showrooms of the chief piano-manufacturers Erard and Pleyel resounded with the virtuosity of Kalkbrenner, Pixis, Herz, and, of course, Liszt. The rivalry between Thalberg and Liszt was largely fomented by the press. Berlioz became the champion of the latter, while Fétis trumpeted the achievements of Thalberg. Liszt, at the time of Thalberg’s arrival in Paris, was in Switzerland, where he had retired with his mistress, the Comtesse Marie d’Agoult. It was she who wrote, under Liszt’s name, a disparaging attack on Thalberg, to which Fétis replied in equally offensive terms. The so-called “revolutionary princess”, Princess Belgiojoso, achieved a remarkable social coup when she persuaded the two virtuosi to play at her salon, in a concert in aid of Italian refugees. As in other such contests victory was tactfully shared between the two. Thalberg played his Moses fantasy, and Liszt answered with his new paraphrase from Pacini’s opera Niobe. The Princess declared Thalberg the first pianist in the world, while Liszt was unique. She went on to commission a series of variations on a patriotic theme from Bellini’s I Puritani from the six leading pianists in Paris, to which Liszt, Thalberg, Chopin, Pixis, Herz and Czerny contributed. This composite work, Hexaméron, remained in Liszt’s concert repertoire.The first of these operas was written in the winter of 1842 and performed early in January the following year in Paris. The elderly Don Pasquale attempts late marriage, with the purpose of siring children and thus disinheriting his nephew Ernesto. He is induced to see reason by what he supposes to be a real marriage to his nephew’s betrothed, disguised and behaving as an untamed shrew. All ends happily, when Don Pasquale agrees, with relief, to allow his nephew to marry the girl. Thalberg’s fantasy captures something of the spirit, humour and romance of its source

Lilacs (Siren) was composed by Rachmaninov in April 1902, along with ten other songs that were then combined with an earlier piece, Fate (1900), into the opus 21 set of 12 Songs published by Guthiel in December 1902. Rachmaninov was married to Nathalie Satin in April 1902 and wrote this set largely to help pay for their honeymoon, which lasted until August. In June,he wrote to his friend Nikita Morozov, “these songs were written in a hurry and are quite unfinished and unbeautiful. But they’ll almost have to stay this way, as I don’t have time to tinker with them further. It would be nice to get done with all this dirty work by the July 1st so I can get to work on something new.”

In the morning, at daybreak,
over the dewy grass,
I will go to breathe the crisp dawn;
and in the fragrant shade,
where the lilac crowds,
I will go to seek my happiness...

In life, only one happiness
it was fated for me to discover,
and that happiness lives in the lilacs;
in the green boughs,
in the fragrant bunches,
my poor happiness blossoms...

The poem is by Ekatrina Beketova , an eighteenth-century Russian poet; it describes bunches of lilac flowers as “where happiness lives.”

Around 1908, Rachmaninov began to receive bouquets of lilacs at his performances from an anonymous admirer at every concert or recital Rachmaninov gave, no matter where he was appearing in the world, through 1918.Madame Felka Rousseau of Russia identified herself to Rachmaninov as the mysterious donor of the lilacs. She stated that she would’ve preferred to have remained anonymous, but was curious as to why so much time had gone by since he had appeared in Russia.He explained that as long as the current political situation remained as it was in Russia, it was unlikely that he would be able to return at all. Soon after that, the lilacs stopped coming.

Lilacs was one of only two of Rachmaninov’s own songs that he adapted into solo piano transcriptions. He made the arrangement around 1913 and often used it as an encore piece. He recorded it three times, the first such recordings being made for Victor in 1920, the second as an Ampico piano roll sometime in the 1920s, and the last time at his final recording session held at the RCA studio in Hollywood on February 6, 1942. This last version would not be released until long after Rachmaninov’s death.

Thomas Kelly was born in November 1998. He started playing the piano aged 3, and in 2006 became Kent Junior Pianist of the Year and attained ABRSM Grade 8 with Distinction. Aged 9, Thomas performed Mozart Concerto No. 24 in the Marlowe Theatre with the Kent Concert Orchestra. After moving to Cheshire, he regularly played in festivals, winning prizes including in the Birmingham Music Festival, 3rd prize in Young Pianist of The North 2012, and 1st prize in WACIDOM 2014. Between 2015 and 2021 Thomas studied with Andrew Ball, firstly at the Purcell School of Music and then at the Royal College of Music. Thomas has also gained inspiration from lessons and masterclasses with musicians such as Vanessa Latarche, William Fong, Ian Jones, Tatiana Sarkissova, Valentina Berman, Boris Berman, Paul Lewis, Mikhail Voskresensky and Dina Yoffe. Thomas began studying with Dmitri Alexeev in April 2021, with whom he will continue whilst studying Masters at the RCM.Thomas has won 1st prizes including Pianale International Piano Competition 2017, Kharkiv Assemblies 2018, at Lucca Virtuoso e Bel Canto festival 2018, RCM Joan Chissell Schumann competition 2019, Kendall Taylor Beethoven competition 2019, BPSE Intercollegiate Beethoven competition 2019 and the 4th Theodor Leschetizky competition 2020. In 2021 Thomas was a finalist in the Leeds International Piano Competition. Most recently, he was awarded 2nd prize and special prize for best semi-final performance at Hastings International Concerto Competition 2022.He has performed in a variety of venues, including the Wigmore Hall, the Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Steinway Hall London, Holy Trinity Sloane Square, St James’ Piccadilly, Oxford Town Hall, St Mary’s Perivale, St Paul’s Bedford, the embassies of Russia and Brazil in London, the Poole Lighthouse Arts Centre, the Stoller Hall, Leeds Town Hall, at the North Norfolk Music Festival, Paris Conservatoire, the StreingreaberHaus in Bayreuth and separately at the Teatro Del Sale and the British Institute in Florence.Thomas is supported by the Kendall-Taylor award. He has been generously supported by the Keyboard Charitable Trust since 2020, and Talent Unlimited since 2021.

Thomas Kelly takes Florence by storm Music al British

Thomas Kelly at St Mary’s a programme fit for a Prince

Thomas Kelly at St Mary’s Masterly playing from the Golden Age

Thomas Kelly plays Beethoven 4 at the RCM cat and mouse with Sakari Oramo

Thomas Kelly at the Royal College of Music A star shining brightly

Ignas Maknickas – finds a home in an artistic oasis between the Gherkin and the Shard

Ignas Maknickas and Wouter Valvekens Music at the Matthiesen Gallery “If Music be the food of love please,please play on”

Fascinating to be at Ignas Maknickas Wigmore debut after hearing him at the beginning of his studies here in London when he played the Mozart Double concerto with Alim Baesembayev in the RAM Piano Festival.
Alim has gone on to a glorious victory in the Leeds and judging by what we heard today it is just a question of time before Ignas too receives his just recognition
A young enormously talented Lithuanian pianist with a fluidity of sound and an enviable ease and fluency at the keyboard who has gradually realised that as Curzon said,playing the piano is 90% work and 10 % a God given talent possessed by a rare few.
Showing now a mastery and authority that could allow him to take us into a magic sound world that is of those very few blessed artistic souls .
Sounds that not many even know exist or imagine that can be conjured out of a box of hammers and strings with the ease of a master magician .
This is what we heard today from the very first magic notes played with an ease and fluidity the belied the tension that he must have been suffering with a major London debut in his hands .
I have heard him play the Schubert Sonata several times this year but never as today.It was Fou Ts’ong who said that it is easier to be intimate in a big hall than vice versa.The Wigmore hall is the ideal size with its resonance and walls that have been witness to some of the greatest chamber music performances of the past century.
Ignas rose to the challenge and obviously relished every minute as was obvious from the ravishing opening colours to the aristocratic ‘joie de vivre’ he brought to Schubert’s final Allegro ma non troppo.
A scherzo that was a lesson on how to play with charm, grace and beauty and not just speed and the worst sort of Beethovenian brutality.Has the Trio ever sounded so absolutely right just as did the rude interruptions of G in the last movement?
Everything fell wonderfully into place in a musical conversation that held us mesmerised for almost thirty five minutes.
It should have been forty had he not decided to leave out the bars that Schubert penned to return to the opening exposition.
Arrau and Serkin would not have been amused.Schiff simply says who are we to decide that we know better than the composer?
Richter clocking in at almost an hour with slower tempi that lesser mortals would ever have thought possible also never excluded the composers repeats.
Ignas’s sense of flow and architectural shape was remarkable and accounted for a faster than usual ‘Molto moderato’ first movement that after the initial surprise worked so beautifully without any artificial tampering with the overall pulse.Wondrous colours would appear very discreetly in the tenor or thumb register that would be like jewels glittering in this golden paradise.The Andante sostenuto was played simply and beautifully with again flowing tempi that allowed the music to unfold with such naturalness.A central episode like a corteo constantly and respectfully moving forward .

To make a London debut playing Schubert’s last Sonata is throwing down the gauntlet indeed especially here in the Wigmore Hall where only the most serious musicians are allowed to tread.
Ignas came out triumphantly …….But no it was Schubert that came out triumphantly – Ignas was simply the medium between us and the composer!There can be no greater compliment than that for a debut recital!
One knew four or five years ago that here was a remarkably gifted young man.
I am reminded of what Serkin remarked to Richard Good on listening to Murray Perahia :”You told me he was good but you did not tell me HOW good!”
Bravo Ignas you have done justice to your birthright.
You don’t choose to be talented it chooses you and it is a big responsability to give up your youth to create a thing of beauty that brings joy to others.
What better way to finish this recital than to return to the wondrous sound world with which he had opened so we could begin to realise that the magic box of jewels he had shared with us had come full circle perchance to dream once more.

Ignas Maknickas at St Marys.A poet speaks with simplicity and fluidity

Ignas Maknickas at St James’s Piccadilly a great artist in the making

Ignas Maknickas fluidity and romance for the Imogen Cooper Music Trust

Gabrielé Sutkuté in ‘Some a chanted evening.’ Astonishes and bewitches at the Landsdowne Club.

Even the cats came out to see what was going on !Was it just a coincidence that the first piece on the programme is from the folk song ‘A farmers wife had lost her cat ‘ this one seemed very much at home to me and a very fortunate cat indeed.

Haydn to cherish,Scriabin to ravish,Liszt to astonish ,Rameau to admire but above all Debussy and Ravel to seduce.
Kapustin to leave us breathless.At only 24 hours notice (substituting an indisposed colleague ) this young Lithuanian beauty took Bluthner at the Lansdowne by storm at the start of their season and of of her professional career that is heading for the heights in the fast lane .

I can do no better than quote from Elena Vorotko’s review of a performance that Gabrielé gave recently for the Keyboard Trust of which she is c/o artistic director:

Gabrielé Sutkuté at Steinway Hall for the Keyboard Trust

‘Passion and power with Gabrielė’s complete technical freedom, acute musical intuition and impeccable sense of style that made her performance an exhilarating experience for the audience.Haydn’s Fantasia in C major, the main theme of which is a folk song ‘the farmer’s wife had lost her cat’.This was masterfully played with an impish sense of humour, stylishly articulated and with great rhythmic drive.’ ‘In Scriabin’s 2nd Piano Sonata Gabrielė found yet another, totally different soundscape. A warmer and more velvety sound created mesmerising moments of delicate lyricism.The powerful and unpredictable second movement was brilliantly executed, with great ease and yet total involvement in the musical narrative.’’In Ravel’s ‘Oiseaux Tristes’ and ‘La Valse’ she created much more transparent, ‘glassy’ sonorities, so well suited for French repertoire. With a perfect sense of musical timing she achieved a moving rendition of the saddest of birds. La Valse showed off her total command of the instrument in this fiendish and highly complex virtuosic arrangement of a large scale orchestral work.’

Her Rameau and Liszt were new additions to her repertoire for me.The beauty of these miniature tone pictures by a genius almost three centuries before the so called ‘impressionists’ always astonishes.What a wonder ‘Les Tendres Plaintes’ is when played with such ease and colour not intimidated by a style of concealed passion and drive but consumed by it and transmitted with musical integrity and inspiration and dare I add ‘authenticity!’The gentle awkward steps of Les Cyclopes designed to bring a smile not a frown to our face.

Of course her intelligent musicianship brought us two of Liszt’s Venezia e Napoli with the Canzone linked as it is to the Tarantella by the composer himself but rarely even noticed by virtuosi anxious only to show off their wares.A ravishing Canzone full of Italian fervour and Latin seduction linked by the pedal to the Tarantella that was not only astonishing for it subtle refined virtuosity but above all for the beauty of the central mellifluous outpouring .In such a masterly way it gradually unwound into show stopping pyrotechnics of unheard of virtuosity that could turn the seemingly refined nobility of the day into a hysterical mob rushing to the piano to grab any souvenir that they could cherish in their dreams.

I have heard Gabrielé play many times during her student days at the RAM and RCM and admired the Lithuanian school of playing that is of well oiled ease where sounds are always liquid and beautiful and never hard or ungrateful.Milda Daunoraité ,Rokas Valuntonis and Ignas Maknickas are the other three pianists who have appeared on the scene in London all demonstrating this purity of sound and natural way of playing the piano .It was infact exemplified also in the Hungarian School in particular of Geza Anda.It is early training and discovery that is so important ,fundamental I would add,and is the basis of a life of dedication to which can be added to these first foundations later a more intensive study of interpretation and performance practices as one aims for artistic heights.Gabrielé I have heard in much of this repertoire and also a masterclass on the Grieg Piano concerto with Inna Falik’s (https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/03/10/inna-faliks-love-of-life-the-extraordinary-story-of-a-great-artist-told-with-masteryintelligence-and-beauty/).

It led to a public performance in one of the major halls in London. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/03/22/gabriele-sutkute-plays-grieg-with-the-ymso-under-james-blair-at-cadogan-hall/

All masterly performances including her triumph at the RCM when she was awarded their highest honour of the Chappell Gold Medal .A distinguished jury of Alex Ullman ( Britten Fellowship holder and winner of both Liszt International Piano Competitions), Deniz Gelenbe and Diana Ketler had no hesitation in awarding her the top prize for a performance of Franck /Bauer that was truly memorable.

Her performances have always been impeccable of an intelligence with a refined musical palette but there were moments when one felt she could sit back and be an observer rather than always be in the driving seat.Now having finished her studies and embarking on the first steps alone of the hazardous path of a solo career she has found those moments .It was with Debussy’s beguiling ‘La plus que lente’ that she allowed the music to flow of it’s own evolution with sumptuously subtle sounds and ravishing rubato.As the sounds enveloped us all another cat was seen to take a peek into the ballroom.Enticed no doubt by the scene of decadence and the sight of desolate birds lost in the atmosphere of fluidity and luminosity that Gabrielé was evoking with such kaleidoscopic artistry.

They left in a hurry as the distant rumblings of menace and insinuating decadence gradually spun out of this brilliant Bluthner piano.The daring virtuosity of Gabrielé ignited the atmosphere with the rather evil smell of an époque that was to lead to unheard of evil and terror.Glissandi in all directions spun from her fingers as the cauldron of sounds built to boiling pitch that finally had to be switched off as abruptly as possible so as not to contaminate the world again.A stunning performance of devilish virtuosity and brilliance where the tension was only released with one of Kapustin’s Jazz Etudes played as I imagine only Oscar Peterson could have matched.

Exhilaration ,virtuosity and charm cleansed the air and allowed us to cheer this beautiful young artist on her journey reaching for the heights.

Gabriele Sutkuté at St Marys Refined musicianship and artistry