ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

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

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

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

A history of the Konzerthaus Berlin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The work has three movements:

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

The unfinished sonatas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Barbican presents Piotr Anderszewski:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.