ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary

lunedì 12 dicembre ore 20.30
Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone – Roma

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/07/25/mikhail-pletnev-in-verbier-fakefool-or-genius/

It was in the encore teasingly offered to an enthusiastic public that the art of Milhail Pletnev was summed up.
I mean the Pletnev of today not the supreme virtuoso who had taken the world by storm with his triumph at the Tchaikowsky Competition in 1978.Not even the conductor that thanks to Gorbachev founded his Russian National Orchestra.I remember Gyorgy Sandor perplexed as to why one of the world’s finest virtuosi would want to become a conductor!
Life has turned full circle now and despite serious personal problems that it is rumoured were only resolved thanks to Putin’s personal intervention,Pletnev has become a recreator of the music he chooses to play.
Certainly the great musician is still present as could be seen with his recent Masterclasses of the Geza Anda Foundation.Classes on conducting from the keyboard with four of the finest young pianists of their generation.The pearls of wisdom and technical expertise will not be forgotten by all those that were present on line.

Recreation is something all artists crave for and some succeed in their Indian Summers .With their by now intimate knowledge of the repertoire and a lifetime of delving deep into the secrets of the piano.They manage to combine absolute fidelity to the composers indications as is their legacy written on the page but with a sense of naturalness and discovery in an almost improvisatory way.
Kempff,Fischer and Rubinstein come to mind.

There is another school that think it is the inspiration behind and beyond the notes that should be the criteria.Taking the notes and using them to create what they think was the inspiration of the composer in that moment.This was epitomised by artists such as De Pachmann and these days by many artists from the East ,until recently deprived of access to historic archives or the recordings of the masters .De Pachmann used to famously talk to the public whilst he was playing to keep them informed on how the performance was proceeding. https://youtube.com/watch?v=xREDG_KggLE&feature=share

There is a line,which can even be very fine,between the interpreter and the entertainer and it can be a subject of heated debate.
Karl Ulrich Schnabel on encountering a prize student from the East who followed this recreational method exclaimed :’Ah so you are a composer.You take the notes of Beethoven and use them for your own creation !‘ Charles Rosen,the great musicologist and also great pianist ,a student of Moritz Rosenthal,simply exclaimed :’he plays like a whore !’ That young student has now become a star having created various scandals in International competitions.Once he even walked off the stage during a competition because he was not happy with how he played.Another shot to fame over night when a famous jury member resigned over the fact that such a star pianist had not been admitted to the final round of the competition.They are convinced of the path they have taken and on occasion can be convincing .Alas they are not artists of integrity and honesty ready to suffer in their quest to find the real meaning behind and beyond the notes of the composers they are trusted to interpret.The difference is between interpreter or entertainer !

‘To be or not to be that is the question!’

Pletnev is somewhere in between.A perfect miniaturist in the style of many great virtuosi of the Golden Age of Piano Playing.But with a larger canvas,as recently with Beethoven op 110 and 111 in Florence,chooses not to see the wood for the trees .

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/02/16/the-return-of-a-legend-pletnev-in-florence/

This sort of multifaceted searching for hidden sounds and colours is exactly what Jazz pianists are so good at.Not being tied to the interpretation of the music of others they are free to improvise and search deep in the piano for the kaleidoscope of sounds that are hidden inside.They can be found with the skill of a illusionist adding a palette of colours and shapes and giving a new dimension,a minefield,that the classical trained musician dares not risk.

And so it was with his encore that he teasingly indicated to the public would be the only one as he was already too tired from this long programme.The famous Nocturne op 9 in E flat by Chopin was played with teasing half lights contrasting with operatic projection.Fiortiori that would have done Caballé proud .But above all a sense of balance that allowed the musical line to shine with ravishing beauty.Whispered secrets contrasting with chiselled projection as the spotlight fell capriciously wherever Pletnev chose to point it.Pointillist indeed like an artist ready to point his brush and illuminate hidden corners with the eyes of an artist of exquisite sensibility.
And so it was today with a programme of miniatures alternating Brahms with Dvorak.An epic performance of the Rhapsody in B minor by Brahms with the occasional discreetly added bass notes that just opened up the possibility of even more subtle sounds.(Nelson Freire did that at the opening of the Chopin F minor concerto in the Albert Hall – placing a deep bass note just added to the sonority of the high first entry of the piano.Rubinstein too would very discreetly,in live performance,add a bass note to open up the sound of the piano in the high register and project the sound more fully in vast opera houses with their natural sound and not the acoustically assisted sound of most modern concert halls).I was once shown around ‘La Fenice’ theatre in Venice and told that under the orchestral pit there was one and a half meters of glass that was known to reflect the sound naturally into the hall.Actors too used to have a diaphragm that’s could project the voice with the same intensity to the first row as to the last or even the ‘Gods’ (loggione or paradiso).Nowadays the actors have a microphone !All this to say that there is much to learn from an artist of Pletnev’s stature who is also searching for natural sounds.Recreating the music,keeping it alive and fresh.Gilels famously likened recorded and live performances to fresh or canned food.Today many performances reproduce what one can find on their CD’s .The element of the audience adding another exciting dimension to the performance is lost in their quest for what they consider perfection.If only they too would listen and learn from artists such as Cortot or Fischer !

Of course the choice of programme is very important for the true artist.It is their canvas on which they share their voyage of discovery.Today Pletnev showed us a very interesting side to Dvorak of piano miniatures many of which are tone poems of great character and beauty.Grieg Lyric pieces are sometimes included in programmes and much loved by great pianists.Dvorak is almost unknown as a composer for piano except for his gargantuan concerto for Piano and Orchestra that sometimes features in concerts .Richter chose it for his debut in London in the 60’s and went on to make a famous recording with Kleiber.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/11/22/leif-ove-andsnes-mastery-at-the-wigmore-hall/

Leif Ove Andsnes just played the complete Poetic Tone Pictures op 85 in London and has recorded them recently too.To play them all in one is a big mistake as they are such concentrated tone poems that together their individuality cannot be immediately appreciated.Pletnev today realised that and played just a carefully selected group that with his sense of colour and characterisation was the revelation of the evening.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/02/16/pletnev-in-bari-streaming-of-ravishing-beauty-and-seduction/

Vladimir de Pachmann or Pachman (27 July 1848 – 6 January 1933)Pachmann was born in Odessa,Ukraine as Vladimir Pachmann. The von or later de as was most probably added to his name by himself. Pachmann was one of the earliest performers to make recordings of Chopin,beginning in 1906 with recordings for the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano and in 1907 for the gramophone.He was also famous for gestures, muttering and addressing the audience during his performances characterised as the “playfulness of his platform manner”.Critic James Huneker called him the “Chopinzee”, and George Bernard Shaw reported that he “gave his well-known pantomimic performance, with accompaniments by Chopin.”In April 1884 Pachmann married the Australian-born British pianist Maggie Okey (Annie Louisa Margaret Okey, 1865–1952), who was later known as Marguérite de Pachmann. They did concert tours of Europe together and had three sons – Victor, who died in infancy, Adriano and Leonide (called Lionel). The marriage ended after seven years.

Vladimir de Pachmann died in Rome in 1933, aged 84.

lunedì 12 dicembre ore 20.30
Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone – Roma

pianoforte Mikhail Pletnev

Brahms Rapsodia op. 79 n. 1
Dvořák Minuetti
Dvořák Eclogue e Allegro
Dvořák March
Brahms Intermezzo op. 118
Dvořák 4 Humoresques
Dvořák Eclogue
Brahms Tre Intermezzi op. 117
Dvořák Eclogue
Dvořák Moderato in la maggiore
Brahms Ballata in sol minore, op. 118 n. 3
Dvořák Quadri Poetici: selezione

Continua la sfilata delle grandi star del pianoforte con il ritorno di Mikhail Pletnev, vincitore nel 1978 del celebre concorso pianistico Čajkovskij di Mosca, e che da anni si esibisce anche come direttore orchestra, oltre ad essere un raffinato compositore. Nella sua lunga carriera è stato ospite delle maggiori sale del mondo; a Santa Cecilia debuttò nel lontano 1981 mentre la sua ultima presenza risale al gennaio del 2016.
Dotato ditecnica brillante e capace di interpretazioni che uniscono istinto e razionalità, nel concerto in programma nella stagione da camera Pletnev accosterà la produzione pianistica di un gigante come Johannes Brahms a quella meno nota e di rara esecuzione di Antonin Dvořák, di cui Brahms fu amico e sostenitore e al quale fece anche ottenere una borsa di studio statale a Vienna nel 1875, oltre a fornirgli egli stesso aiuto economico. Pletnev eseguirà celebri brani come la Rapsodia op. 79 n. 1, gli Intermezzi op. 117 che trasudano commozione e che Brahms definì la “ninna-nanna dei miei dolori” e una selezione dai Sei pezzi per pianoforte op. 118. I brani verranno intervallati dalle composizioni del boemo Dvořák, pagine dal linguaggio fresco e animate dal folklore, come le Humoresques op. 101, i Quadri poetici, composti nel 1889 e forse tra le composizioni più avvincenti del compositore, e il Moderato in la maggiore.

PIANOFESTIVAL

Emanuil Ivanov. Premio Busoni 2020

Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757). Cinque Sonate:F major K.150 ;in C minor K.303 ;B flat major K.192; A minor K.188; D major K.137

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Sonata n.17 in D minor op.31 n.2 ‘Tempest’. Largo – Allegro; Adagio ;Allegretto

Emanuil Ivanov. (1998)

Tema e variazioni

Ferruccio Busoni. (1866 – 1924)

Sonatina n.6 BV 284 / Super Carmen (Fantasia da camera sull’opera di Bizet)

Franz Liszt (1811 – 1896)

Après une lecture du Dante – Fantasia quasi Sonata S.161 (dal secondo volume degli Années de pèlerinage)

The bells were certainly tolling brightly in the city of 100 churches as Emanuil Ivanov took Capua by storm.
A recital of scintillating piano playing of dynamic energy and passion that was truly overwhelming.
His extraordinary technical command though was always at the service of the music he was playing.
A scrupulous attention to Beethoven’s indications turned the ‘Tempest’ sonata into a declaration of the sturm und drang of the composers tormented soul.
Startling contrasts from the opening flourish that was played with such delicacy and concentration. The opening phrases perfectly shaped but rudely interrupted by tumultuous outbursts and beseeching replies.
Even Beethoven’s pedal indication in the recitativi were scrupulously ‘interpreted ‘.

Barely touching the keys with the right hand whilst his left rested above the keyboard.Emanuil crouched over the keys listening to the magically evocative sounds that reverberated in Beethoven’s soul.The magic only awoken by menacing staccato chords before bursting into flames ….the same fearful flames that were to ignite Liszt’s Dante Sonata that closed this cyclic concert programme.
The reverberation of the final bars that like his final thought in op 111 was a chord made to live with a long held pedal that was a mere vibration to the final pianissimi chords.
The weight he gave to the Adagio in what he revealed as a beautiful chorale with comments above and below was a revelation of clarity and musical vision.
I have never heard it so clearly expressed since Ashkenazy’s magical account of the op 31 sonatas together with two books of Chopin Studies taking London by storm half a century ago.I still remember this very movement as I will Emanuil’s today.The astonishing orchestral clarity of the vibrations of notes with such dry sterile clarity with the sumptuous Philadelphian string sound of the chorale.Even more extraordinary was the final bar with no ritardando but so wonderfully shaped with the final bass B flat barely touched to close this remarkable statement.
The infectious forward impulse of the Allegretto was accompanied by a dynamic drive .This was Beethoven with a capital’B’.Sforzandi like gun shots such was the surprise of the contrast from the mellifluous gentle flow and even music box colours to a most tumultuous rhythmic insistence.
When I saw this Sonata on his programme I was not expecting to be totally overwhelmed by a performance of such identity and character.In Capua today it was restored to its place amongst the greatest of Beethovens thirty two sonatas.Hallelujah!

The concert had opened with five Scarlatti sonatas with all the ritornelli as with Beethoven scrupulously observed which meant the Scarlatti was not the usual ’opener’. Like the great musician Emanuil has become,the Scarlatti Sonatas were given a weight and character that brought these gems vividly to life.With the elegance and crystalline clarity and ornaments like well oiled springs.Bright lights ignited as the light touched this prism of digital perfection in K.303 with trills of delicacy and brilliance like jewels shining with the question and answer between the hands.The Imperiously busy K.192 almost Haydnesque in its operatic characterisation.There was a joyous outpouring of rhythmic energy in K.137 played with burning intensity and drive.

When I heard Emanuil rehearsing just before the concert I exclaimed ‘so you are playing a jazz encore too’.’No it is my theme and variations’ he exclaimed.And what a beautifully shaped work it is with the subtle colouring of the mellifluous theme played with the sumptuous colours that Jazz pianists seem to be born to find often more than classical trained musicians.It is a freedom to experiment with colour and sounds that was immediately noticeable.A theme that returned so beautifully at the end after some variations of hair raising brilliance and quixotic character.It was the perfect foil for Busoni’s Carmen Fantasy that burst on the scene with a brilliance like a gust of wind suddenly blowing over the keys bustling and vibrantly alive .Giving way to the sumptuous tenor melody – con amore dolcissimo cantando – accompanied by jeux perlé cascades of notes and a hair raising Habanera of astonishing delicacy and brilliance.A build up to the complete brass band – quasi Tromba- of excitement before waves of notes spread over the keyboard taking us to the final tragic scene -Andante visionario – that was played with orchestral colour of heartrending beauty.The final staccato chords over a long held note were the perfect way to close this astonishing miniature tone poem .This was Busoni’s flurry at looking back with nostalgia to the world of the virtuoso before Liszt’s final prophetic years looking to the future that heralded the real birth of his true heir,Busoni.

The Dante Sonata was overwhelming in Emanuil’s complete identification with a world from the Inferno to Paradiso.Astonishing tumultuous sounds contrasted with intimate secrets.With never a light on his astonishing virtuosity as it was a story he was telling with total commitment and astonishing youthful passion.

We were witness today to one of the most remarkable reincarnations of what it must have been like to hear the master himself recount in music the world of Dante.

By great request from a discerning audience in this unique Museo Campano Emanuil let leash one of the most astonishing feats of pianism I have ever heard in public.The Rondo Toccata by the Georgian composer Revaz Laghidze.I have not heard the like since as a boy I used to listen astonished to the improvisations of Cziffra.’A Maiden’s Wish’ the transciption of Chopins Polish Song was a second encore of scintillating subtlety with passionate mellifluous outpourings of beauty that I have not heard since Moritz Rosenthal’s historic recording from the ‘Golden Age of Piano Playing’

Revaz Laghidze was a famous Georgian composerwho was born in 1921 in Bagdadi district. In 1939, he graduated from Tbilisi IV Music School, after which he continued his studies at the Vano Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatoire.He died in 1981 in Tbilisi,Georgia

I had been impressed by Emanuil’s digital clarity in Bolzano when he gave a ‘short back and sides’ performance of Brahms Handel Variations that missed the colour and weight of orchestral sound .His prize winning performance of Saint Saens second concerto where his scintillating trills and clarity were quite extraordinary. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2019/09/07/viva-busoni-the-final-parts-1-2-3-with-interlude/
Three years on Emanuil has matured into a master musician using his phenomenal digital dexterity to enlighten the composers message.

It has been inspiring to see his gradual maturity from the extraordinary streamed recital in a La Scala ,emptied by the pandemic, https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/02/27/emanuil-ivanov-at-la-scala-to-the-glory-of-god-and-beyond/. To a recital he gave at Steinways in London for the Keyboard Trust. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/10/16/emanuil-ivanov-at-steinway-hall-for-the-keyboard-trust/

His mentor Pascal Nemirovski has often thanked me for my comments on Emanuil’s playing but it is we that should thank him for allowing brilliant young pianists to mature,keeping their own personality as they dedicate their youth to the interpretation of great art.

The Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, was composed in 1801–02 and is usually referred to as The Tempest (Der Sturm ), but the sonata was not given this title by Beethoven, or indeed referred to as such during his lifetime. The name comes from a reference to a personal conversation with Beethoven in which Schindler reports that Beethoven suggested, in passing response to his question about interpreting it and Op. 57, the Appassionata sonata ,that he should read Shakespeare’s Tempest .Some however have suggested that Beethoven may have been referring to the works of C.C. Sturm, the preacher and author best known for his Reflections on the Works of God in Nature, a copy of which he owned and, indeed, had heavily annotated.

In Busoni’s hands Bizet’s masterpiece is sculpted with breathtaking creativity. This re-imagining forms the basis of Busoni’s sixth sonatina, the Kammer-Fantasie uber Carmen completed in 1920. It was premiered by the composer in the same year at Wigmore Hall. The work takes its thematic material from the opening chorus of the fourth act, Don José’s ‘Flower song’ in Act II, the Act I ‘Habanera’ (in its minor and major forms), and the prelude to Act I. The Kammer-Fantasie über Carmen bears all the Busoni hallmarks:

Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata (French for After a Reading of Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata; also known as the Dante Sonata) is a sonata in one movement , completed in 1849 and was first published in 1856 as part of the second volume of his Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) and was inspired by the reading of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.The Dante Sonata was originally a small piece entitled Fragment after Dante, consisting of two thematically related movements, which Liszt composed in the late 1830s.He gave the first public performance in Vienna, during November 1839.When he settled in Weimar in 1849, he revised the work along with others in the volume, and gave it its present title derived from Victor Hugo’s own work of the same name.

Emanuil Ivanov attracted international attention after receiving the First prize at the 2019 Ferruccio Busoni Piano Competition in Italy. This achievement was followed by concert engagements in some of the world’s most prestigious halls including Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Herculessaal in Munich.Emanuil Ivanov was born in 1998 in the town of Pazardzhik, Bulgaria. From an early age he demonstrated a keen interest and love for music. He regards the presence of symphonic music, especially that of Gustav Mahler, as tremendously influential in his musical upbringing during his childhood. He started piano lessons with Galina Daskalova in his hometown around the age of seven. He later studied in and graduated from the Bertolt Brecht language high school in Pazardzhik. Ivanov studied with renowned bulgarian pianist Atanas Kurtev from 2013 to 2018. He is currently studying on a full scholarship at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under the tutelage of Pascal Nemirovski and Anthony Hewitt.Ivanov has won prizes in competitions such as “Alessandro Casagrande”, “Scriabin-Rachmaninoff”, “Liszt-Bartok”, “Young virtuosos” and “Jeunesses International Music Competition Dinu Lipatti”. He was also awarded the honorary Crystal lyre and the Young Musician of the Year Award – some of the most prestigious awards in Bulgaria. In 2022 he received the honorary Silver Medal of the London Musicians’ Company and later in the same year became a recipient of the Carnwath Piano Scholarship.His participations in masterclasses include those of Dmitri Bashkirov, Dmitri Alexeev, Stephen Hough, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Peter Donohoe, etc.
In February 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ivanov performed a solo recital in Milan’s famous Teatro alla Scala. The concert was live-streamed online and is a major highlight in the artist’s career.Emanuil Ivanov has also performed at many festivals in Bulgaria and has also given solo recitals in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Cyprus, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Poland. He has played with leading orchestras in Bulgaria and Italy.

Nel 2019 si è affermato in due tra i più importanti concorsi pianistici internazionali, ottenendo il Primo Premio al Concorso Busoni di Bolzano e il Secondo Premio al Casagrande di Terni.Precedentemente era stato premiato in vari concorsi – Vivapiano, Scriabin-Rachmaninoff, Viktor Merzhanov, Pavel Serebryakov, Liszt-Bartók, Young virtuosos e Jeunesses International Music Competition Dinu Lipatti a Bucarest, e il secondo premio al Concorso Chopin di San Pietroburgo.È stato anche insignito di alcune tra le più prestigiose onorificenze bulgare: la Lira di cristallo e il Premio Young Musician of the Year; nel 2022, inoltre, ha ricevuto la medaglia d’argento della London Musicians’ Company e la Carnwath Piano Scholarship. Ha studiato con Galina Daskalova e con Atanas Kurtev, si è perfezionato al Birmingham Royal Conservatory con Pascal Nemirovski e Anthony Hewitt ed ha partecipato a masterclass di Dmitri Bashkirov, Dmitri Alexeev, Andrzej Jasinski, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Ludmil Angelov, Pavel Egorov. Ha tenuto concerti in Bulgaria, Italia, Austria, Regno Unito, Germania, Francia e Polonia, Russia, suonando in sale prestigiose, tra cui il Teatro alla Scala di Milano, La Fenice di Venezia, l’Herkulessaal di Monaco nonché al Festival Moscow meets friends. Ha suonato con l’eminente pianista bulgaro Ludmil Angelov al Palazzo Reale di Varsavia e ha debuttato a Sofia con la Classic FM Symphony Orchestra diretta da Grigor Palikarov, nonché con le migliori orchestre italiane e bulgare.

 

                                                  All Saints West Dulwich

The Dulwich Symphony Orchestra brought its 2022 season to a triumphant close with a performance of three 19th century favourites: Berlioz Carnaval Romain, Schumann Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s fervent Symphony no 2. The evening concert was conducted by Dwight Pile-Gray, with the Keyboard Trust’s own Adam Heron as soloist before a packed house.

 

Dwight Pile-Gray

Adam responded to the many pianistic demands of this densely-written Concerto with, by turns, finely-detailed articulation, soaring melodic lines and forthright conviction. Most notable was how Dwight Pile-Gray skilfully wove soloist and orchestra into close musical dialogue – ‘like chamber music’, as Adam noted later. During the long solos, the players maintained their rapt involvement. The verdict was both rapturous and unanimous: ‘It’s my favourite concerto! ‘Adam must return!’.

 

                                                          Adam Heron

Two other features of the programme extended our horizons. It was a special fundraising concert in aid of the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal. Prayer for Ukraine by Mykola Lysenko was performed most movingly in its original 1885 version – and in Russian – by the All Saints Choir after which we heard a stirring version for orchestra arranged by the Music Director at All Saints, Ruth Holton.

We were also privileged to hear two outstanding artists who champion Black Classical Music. In a week where, sadly, racism has made news, I am happy to report that in West Dulwich, only the music  matters…..

Tchaikovsky’s sister went to live near Kiev after her marriage and Pyotr visited most years, finding the peace to compose and also inspiration in Ukrainian folk tunes, a number of which feature in his Symphony no 2. Its nickname Little Russian is no longer acceptable and was sensitively omitted from the programme. Dwight Pile-Gray drew a committed, passionate performance from the orchestra with fine solos from the woodwind and brass sections and thrilling pyrotechnics from the percussion.

Programme notes from Frances Barrett, Adam Heron and Jeremy Crump added vital information and this final message:

‘Our thoughts in playing this music are with those who have suffered, and our hopes are for peace to return’.

ANGELA RANSLEY IS DIRECTOR OF THE HARMONY SCHOOL OF PIANOFORTE AND LIVES IN WEST DULWICH.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/11/17/adam-heron-at-steinway-hall-for-the-keyboard-trust/

A mysterious voice over the intercome was intent on creating the right atmosphere for the ritual that was about to unfold.
Imploring us to savour two minutes of absolute silence,in complete darkness,in preparation for the sounds we were about to receive -sounds were born before words we were told !

And out of the darkness a silhouette appeared as a shadow slowly advancing onto the stage and sitting at the piano as the light gently appeared.
The show was about to begin with the sounds of the poetically imperious chords of Chopin’s Polonaise Fantasy
This was just the introduction to Alexander Gadjiev’s rapturously received Rome debut for the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.

An interval where there was just time to swop over pianos -Fazioli for Chopin but Steinway for Schumann !
This for Alex was an adventure that he wanted us to share and be part of.

His almost improvised freedom was allied to a search for sound and the inspiration that had ignited Chopin and Schumann in their moments of creation.
There were moments of ravishing sounds and washes of colour -has Chopin’s ‘wind over the graves’ ever sounded so impressionistic and terrifying?
Schumann’s youthful passion for Clara unbridled a red hot ‘ruin’ where the right hand was called into play to strike fear into Clara’s fathers refusal to acknowledge true love -a love that was to produce eight children!

But it was the solitary Prelude op 45 by Chopin that showed the true artistry of this young top prize winner at the last Chopin competition .
Sounds that spread like a flow of lava over the entire keyboard.Full of shifting harmonies but allowing a deeply expressive melodic line to unravel with sumptuous ease.
Alex had penetrated the soul of an audience who clammered for more after he had revealed the secret message that Schumann had woven into his greatest masterpiece.A message for his ‘distant beloved’ that Alex had so passionately portrayed.

Five encores and wanting more shows how successful Alex was in demonstrating that music can and must speak louder than words.
Could that voice in the darkness have been this poet of the keyboard that had so enraptured his fellow travellers tonight in the Eternal City?

The red hot passion of the Schumann Fantasie.Written as an outpouring of love for his future wife Clara Wieck .Alex plunged in with a passion and savage rhythmic intensity that was quite overwhelming .The burning passion and unrelentless forward movement found momentary respite in the ‘Im legendenton’ played with such a mellifluous freedom that the bar lines ceased to exist as it built in tension to the true climax of this movement. The right hand once again found itself in foreign territory as it added to the enormous sonority being created.Schumann’s quote from Beethoven’s ‘An die ferne Geliebte ’ was played with great liberty and I wonder if Alex knows something more than is just printed in the score as the movement moved to it’s magical conclusion

The original title of Schumann’s work was “Obolen auf Beethovens Monument: Ruinen, Trophaen, Palmen, Grosse Sonate f.d. Piano f. Für Beethovens Denkmal”. The movements’ subtitles (Ruins, Trophies, Palms) became Ruins, Triumphal Arch, and Constellation, and were then removed altogether before Breitkopf & Härtel eventually issued the Fantasie in May 1839.Dedicated to Franz Liszt , who replied in a letter dated June 5, 1839: “The Fantaisie dedicated to me is a work of the highest kind – and I am really proud of the honour you have done me in dedicating to me so grand a composition” Liszt in return dedicated his B minor Sonata to Schumann – two pinnacles of the Romantic piano repertoire .The piece has its origin in early 1836, when Schumann composed a piece entitled Ruines expressing his distress at being parted from his beloved Clara Wieck (later to become his wife). This later became the first movement of the Fantasy adding later that year two more movements to create a work intended as a contribution to the appeal for funds to erect a monument to Beethoven in his birthplace of Bonn.So it was hardly surprising the imperious opening of Alex’s second movement – Triumphal Arch indeed .Although written mezzo forte in the score it was of truly orchestral proportions building unbelievably in sonority each time it reappeared.The beauty of the ‘etwas langsamer’came as a true relief from the relentless rhythmic drive and enormous sounds that Alex coaxed out of this beautiful Steinway piano.

An even greater relief was the pianissimo scherzando before the mighty build up to the infamous leaps that Schumann demands in the ‘più animato’coda.Even here there was a total command and authority that the transcendental difficulties just disappeared in a resonance of overwhelming power and majesty.

“Resounding through all the notes. In the earth’s colourful dream.There sounds a faint long-drawn note.For the one who listens in secret.”is the poem that prefaces the Fantasie and nowhere can it be more appropriate that in the final ‘Langsam getragen Durchweg leise zu halten’.The enormous sforzando E flat chord,ending the second movement,was allowed to die away before the magical opening in C major just seemed to appear from afar.I remember Agosti writing in my score ‘Cla …ra’over the long held A and G as a sign that this really was as Schumann wrote to Clara: ‘the most passionate thing I have ever composed – a deep lament for you.’They still had many tribulations to suffer before they finally married four years later.In Alex’s hands there was a continual outpouring of ravishing sounds always with deep,true feeling never for a second becoming sentimental or weak.The three carefully judged final chords brought this miraculous programme to a close ………or so we thought ……not counting on the generosity of this much loved artist.

Five encores of Debussy and Chopin.The octave and arpeggio study of Debussy were played with ravishing colours and a quixotic control that brought these late masterpieces vividly to life and were in fact the highlight of the concert.The waltz op 42 by Chopin was played with jeux perle nonchalance and charm.Two of the shorter Preludes from op 28 gave us the emotionally charged n.4 and the whispered charm of the shortest of them all n.7.

Around 1837 Chopin composed a Funeral March , a piece which most likely reflected the musician’s profoundly mournful mood following the breaking of his engagement to Maria Wodzińska. When he then went to the island of Majorca,at the end of 1838, he began to write a piece, Grave , which will later be the first movement of the sonata, and a Presto which will be the finale; this time in composing Chopin was influenced by the worsening of his illness and influenced by the gloomy ruins and cemetery of the Certosa di Valldemossa,certainly not cheerful visions in the pouring rain that gave no respite. The Scherzo was written when the musician returned to Nohant in the second part of 1839.

In a letter to his friend Fontana he wrote: “I am composing a Sonata in B flat minor in which the Funeral March that you already know will be found. There is an Allegro, then a Scherzo and, after the March, a small Finale, not very long, in which the left hand chatters in unison with the right hand”. In writing the Scherzo , the musician had thought of collecting the pieces already composed in a Sonata, perfecting and polishing them.

The Sonata in B flat minor was published in 1840 in Paris by Troupenas, later in Leipzig by Breitkopf & Härtel and in London by Wessel. The piece is one of the few by Chopin that does not feature a dedication, perhaps it was actually a tribute intended for George Sand, to be kept private. Contemporaries were rather baffled by this Sonata. In the first place Robert Schumann who, while recognizing the beauty of the piece, even found “something repulsive” in the Funeral March and defined the Finale as “something more like an irony than any other music”. Even Felix Mendelssohn, not understanding the modernity of the Finale, declared that he abhorred it.Later Vincent d’Indy even went so far as to argue that Chopin had chosen certain keys not for strictly musical reasons, but only for executive convenience. The Funeral March was performed, in the version orchestrated by Reber , together with the Preludes op. 28 no. 4 and 6, played by the organist Léfebure-Wély, at the composer’s funeral on 30 October 1849. Of the Sonata Schumann wrote: “It might be called a whim, if not a hubris, that he called it the Sonata , for he brought together four of his most bizarre creatures, to be smuggled under that name into a place where they otherwise would not have penetrated “. The Sonata op. 35 has also been taken to support the view of many critics that Chopin had found himself in difficulty with the sonata and its formal construction.Others have found the composition to be defective in poetic unity and continuity, constructed with limited technique, judgments based mostly on an outward view of the work rather than an examination of its content. It was interesting to note that in this performance Alex did Chopin’s repeat to the doppio movimento and not to the much debated introduction as he had done so miraculously in other of his performances I have heard.Tonight it obviously felt right for him to accept the traditional repeat rather than the much debated ambiguity of the original score.

The Polonaise Fantasie in A flat major, Op. 61, was published in 1846 with dedication to Madame A. Veyret. Its complex form, the fact that it displays characteristics of both a fantasie and a polonaise, its advanced harmonic development and technical level, made it a piece that was slow in gaining favour from pianists.Alex’s was a very poetically imperious performance with mists of sound and atmospheres.Perhaps a little too free with the final reverberations of the opening chords before the tumultuous build up to the glorious final outpouring of triumphant passion.But it was in the last few bars that he found the magic of Chopin’s final whispered gasps with the last bell note just allowed to toll with such luminosity.A bell that was already tolling with this last masterpiece from the pen of the poetic and genial innovator of the piano that was Fryderyk Chopin.

The Prelude in C sharp minor, composed at Nohant during the summer of 1841 and published in the autumn as a separate Opus (45). When sending the manuscript to Fontana for copying, Chopin could not hide his satisfaction, expressed in the words: ‘well modulated!’.The Prelude does not have an a priori form. It gives the impression of being a notated improvisation. The four opening bars set the mood. There follows a dreamy spinning-out of two slowly formed themes: the principal theme, in which the boundary between melody and accompaniment melts away in the overall sound, and a second theme in which the distinctness of the melodic contour holds sway over the colouring, emotions over impressions.The charms of pure sonority are brought by the cadenza, but that too swells towards emotional ecstasy. The opening theme returns, before dissolving away in softening strains.Chopin composed the Prelude in C sharp minor for the Paris publisher Maurice Schlesinger. At the beginning of October, in Paris, Fontana proofread the work. It appeared as Opus 45, with a dedication to Princess Elisabeth Czernicheff, one of Chopin’s pupils.

Alexander Gadjiev streamed live from the Wigmore Hall

Beethoven La Chapelle offers an Ode to Joy

Domenica 4 dicembre in tournée a Rieti, per Reate Festival
Lunedì 5 dicembre ore 20.30 Teatro Palladium
Una Rapsodia Ungherese
B. Bartok: Divertimento per archi BB 118, SZ 113
F. Liszt: Malédiction, per pianoforte e orchestra d’archi, S 121
F. Liszt: Rapsodia spagnola, versione per pianoforte e orchestra d’archi a cura di V. Petukhov
Giovanni Bertolazzi, pianoforte
Roma Tre Orchestra
Luca Ballabio, direttore

La musica ungherese è sinonimo di ritmo, brio, color gitano, allegria. Non si può, inoltre, parlare di Ungheria in musica omettendo la figura di Franz Liszt, autentico aedo di questa terra. Proponiamo dunque un programma che ci porta in giro per questo Paese, dai colori di un brano giovanile di Liszt come Malédiction, ai ritmi compositi di Bela Bartok e del suo Divertimento.
Con noi Giovanni Bertolazzi, interprete raffinato di Liszt, recente secondo classificato nel prestigioso concorso di Budapest che proprio a questo autore è intitolato e per la prima volta sul podio di Roma Tre Orchestra il giovane direttore d’orchestra Luca Ballabio.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2022/01/17/giovanni-bertolazzi-in-rome-liszt-is-alive-and-well-at-teatro-di-villa-torlonia/
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/07/15/two-young-giants-cross-swords-in-verbier-giovanni-bertolazzi-and-nikita-lukinov/

A concert with a very Hungarian air to it as Giovanni Bertolazzi winner of top prize at the Liszt Budapest International Piano Competition showed us once again that he is undoubtedly one of the most gifted artists of his generation .

It was when Giovanni was at the helm that we felt the undercurrent of rhythmic drive and passionate involvement.Not only of Liszt the showman but also of Liszt the innovator.The Malédiction is a very early work where Liszt is feeling his way with orchestration at the expense of melodious lyricism.One can hear so many passages and orchestrations that are then used in his second piano concerto.But it is a work really of great difficulty for the orchestra as it is for the piano .Giovanni drove the work forward with astonishing technical ease and musical understanding .There was an undercurrent to his playing that was present even in the few most ravishing lyrical episodes.The drama of the opening with solo piano was like a call to arms but his astonishing technical prowess and authority was always at the service of a musical line and sense of colour.Although a rather hollow work compared to the masterpieces that were to come from Liszt’s pen just a few years later,the rhythmic force and dynamic drive that he gave to the score almost succeeded in us wanting to hear it again before putting it away on the shelf where it really belongs.

Liszt began experimenting writing for piano and orchestra and one of his earliest compositions for this combination was what is now called Malédiction, written for piano and string orchestra or string sextet. Malédiction means ‘curse’ , this word was written over the first part of the work in the manuscript by Liszt. There is no other title on it. It was given this title by musicologists who found the piece in 1915. It is an experimental piece, as Liszt was learning how to orchestrate and write a concerto for piano and orchestra, not an easy thing to do especially with the pianos of the day.It shows an expanded idea of harmony, especially in the first part, the part marked Malédiction. Some of the chords in this section are quite striking in their dissonance, especially when we know the piece was written in 1833-1834. Liszt was in his early 20’s, fresh from meeting Berlioz and attending the premiere of Symphonie Fantastique in 1830. As a composer, Liszt was in the avant-garde of the era almost immediately.

Malédiction is in one movement, and originally may have had a programme to go with it. A tone poem for piano and orchestra essentially, that changes moods and shifts tempos throughout. It begins in a minor key and ends in a major key and has a lot going on in between. It is a glimpse into the creative mind of the young Franz Liszt.We do not know if Liszt ever heard his Concerto for Piano and Strings—the so-called Malédiction—even in rehearsal.This powerful single-movement piece is among Liszt’s earliest efforts at finding a way forward for the sonata principle where its outlines conform to the general pattern of exposition,development and recapitulation, There is a similarity of the opening motif (it is just this motif which Liszt labels ‘Malédiction’),with the later Orage from the first of the Années de pèlerinage .The strings first accompany this menacing first theme with quiet trills, and next build a sinuous chromatic line around it. The opening motif generates the livelier transition material, the last much calmer section Liszt writes: ‘Pleurs, angoisse’ (‘Tears, anguish’). The tonality has ranged quite widely from the initial E minor by this stage, but a recitative introduced by piano and cello brings us to the second theme proper, in the traditional relative major, and to material which Liszt would recall in the late Valse oubliée No 3 of 1883. The recitative is fully incorporated into this theme before the livelier tempo Vivo is reached,which Liszt marks ‘Raillerie’—and a full close in G major is reached. The development immediately moves to E flat, concentrating upon the first theme and leading to a cadential recitativo where the introduction is recalled. When the orchestra reappears we are at the recapitulation, but the order of events is somewhat altered. The earlier transition material is first, followed by the opening motif from piano and orchestra. The first theme now appears in E major, and the tempo increases. The cello motif is now incorporated into the first thematic group before a further increase in tempo brings the second subject material, transformed into the coda, with just a brief recall of the first theme in the last four bars.

Rhapsodie espagnole (Spanish Rhapsody), S.254, R.90, was composed by Liszt in 1858. The work is very suggestive of traditional Spanish music, and was inspired by Liszt’s tour in Spain and Portugal for six months from October 1844, and it was certainly on this trip that he became acquainted at first hand with some of the melodies he was to incorporate into various piano pieces.Liszt never visited this part of the world again but maintained contacts through his music and his Iberian students for the rest of his life.Liszt told Lina Ramann that he had written the piece in recollection of his Spanish tour whilst in Rome in about 1863. The work was published in 1867—subtitled Folies d’Espagne et Jota aragonesa.After the opening flourishes variations on La folia form a passacaglia in C sharp minor. The last variation slips gently into D major for the delicate presentation of the jota, mostly in the upper register of the piano.

Ferruccio Busoni arranged the piece for piano and orchestra in 1894

Mikhail Petukhov played his version for piano and string orchestra in Rome at the Ghione Theatre on 13th November 1989,with the Orchestra da Camera della Lituania conducted by Saulius Sondeckis

The well known Spanish Rhapsody was full of melodic invention and fantasy.I remember hearing Gilels playing the original solo version in London with a unrelenting rhythmic drive that had us sitting on the edge of our seats.Giovanni has the same drive and almost brought this reduction for string orchestra by Petukhov to life with ravishing colours and an irresistible sense of style.But Petukhov like Busoni allows too much importance to the orchestra at key moments of high tension and instead of driving the music forward it tended to sag.Certainly no fault of the orchestra or piano.It was Busoni’s transcription for full orchestra that was the first to appear.Petukhov played his version for string orchestra in Rome in the ‘80’s in a programme that included the Saint Saens Wedding Cake Caprice and ending with an encore of Liszt’s unashamedly virtuoso transcription of the overture of the Barber of Seville !

Giovanni tonight gave us an encore of the Ritual Fire Dance.A slightly less flamboyant version than that of Rubinstein but nevertheless breathtaking.The range of sound and colour together with his passionate involvement brought these two works by Liszt vividly to life and showed off the artistry and seriousness of this young musician .There was no I Pad to be seen as here was an artist who was convinced of the value of these works and prepared them with great seriousness very nearly managing to convince us too.

The concert had started with Bartok’s very complex Divertimento for Strings written at the outbreak of the Second World War.There were the pungent rhythms and folk melodies of the Allegro non troppo followed by the atmospheric Adagio with its whispered sounds evoking emptiness and spaciousness.There was a dynamic rhythmic drive to the Allegro assai full of complex Hungarian folk rhythms and even a pizzicato episode that took us to the excitement of the ending.

Expertly conducted by Luca Ballabio and some very fine solo playing from the first violin of Leonardo Spinedi and the cello of Angelo Santisi.Luca took a lyrical approach to the score missing the burning drive that Solti could bring to this work which can give it more of an overall architectural shape and direction.The Roma Tre Orchestra ever growing in stature as it reaches its twentieth anniversary.An orchestra created by Valerio Vicari,Artistic director and Roberto Pujia ,President to give professional experience to exceptionally talented young musicians at they start of their career .

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/02/15/giovanni-bertolazzi-in-london/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/02/22/giovanni-bertolazzi-a-giant-amongst-the-giants/

Nice to see Michael Aspinall back in via di Grotta Pinta where in the Teatro De Satiri all the great singers that he imitated came to see themselves mirrored in his inimitable performances.
A great musicologist immersed in the world of song and delving deep into the archives still rich with material from the eighteenth and nineteenth century Golden Age of Song.Let’s not forget that it was Aspinall who provided Monserrat Caballé with her cadenza embellishments with which she ravished the operatic world following on from the Belcanto of Callas and Sutherland.

Is Belcanto Dead ? What is Bel Canto ?These were on the table,turning back the clock,as we entered this magical old curiosity shop that is the Oratorio Orsini.

No sign of the Teatro de Satiri in this same square where Benny Margiotta filled this historic family owned theatre with delights that were sure to tittivate all the senses.
Arnaldo had the restaurant next door where artists performing in Rome would congregate after their performances relaxing with their artistic colleagues as they delighted in Arnaldo’s speciality of cream of chestnut pudding!

I remember bringing eighteen year old Vadim Repin and Margaret Price there after their performances just down the road at the Ghione Theatre. Dino Villatico,the distinguished music critic of La Repubblica lived above the restaurant.

It was the Ghione Theatre that Aspinall chose for his last public performance as the ‘Gentleman Soprano’ in 2010 – his seventieth year.
Now 13 years on,time has stood still for him as he is still flying high on Wings of Song !Well he did say he would come out of retirement if the money was right!

Here,this weekend, he came up from the Naples that has adopted him with open arms ,on the invitation of one of his former singing students and will be giving a masterclass too on the 4th .
Today there was a fascinating and very amusing talk from three passionate advocates of Belcanto.

Michael Aspinall “Cantare bene é facile”

Francesco Izzo “Belcanto dopo il belcanto:il caso Verdi”

Stefano Vizioli “Suonare il palcoscenico”Esperienza di un regista con donne e prime donne

QUIET AUTHORITY AT  TEMPLE CHURCH

                                                     

                                                             Elli-Mae  McGlone

IN ITS ROLE AS PROMOTER OF EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG TALENT, THE KEYBOARD TRUST HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE REGULAR WEDNESDAY LUNCHTIME ORGAN RECITALS AT THE TEMPLE CHURCH FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS. THE LATEST YOUNG ARTIST, BILLED AS ‘A RISING STAR OF THE ORGAN WORLD’, IS ELLI-MAE McGLONE. STILL A STUDENT AT THE ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATOIRE, ELLI-MAE HAS  HELD THE POST OF ORGAN SCHOLAR AT BURY ST EDMUNDS CATHEDRAL AND IS ALREADY A MUTLIPLE PRIZEWINNER.

30 MINUTES DOES NOT SEEM LONG IN WHICH TO MAKE ONE’S MARK,  BUT ELLI-MAE PROVED THAT IT CAN BE TRANSFORMATIVE, OFFERING TWO MAJOR  WORKS: PRAELUDIUM IN C BY BUXTEHUDE AND THE CHORALE AND VARIATIONS FROM MENDELSSOHN’S  6TH  SONATA, INTERSPERSED BY SHORTER ROMANTIC PIECES BY BRAHMS AND FRANCK AND A 20TH CENTURY BARNSTORMER BY LANGLAIS TO FINISH.

BUXTEHUDE IS BEST KNOWN AS THE CELEBRATED ORGANIST THE 20-YEAR-OLD JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH TRUDGED 250 MILES TO HEAR IN LUBECK IN NORTH GERMANY. MUCH OF HIS ORGAN REPERTOIRE IS NOW LOST, BUT THE  WORKS THAT REMAIN JUSTIFY HIS REPUTATION AS THE GREATEST ORGANIST AND COMPOSER OF THE LATE 17TH CENTURY. THE 19 REMAINING PRELUDES DEMONSTRATE IN THEIR VARIETY THE VOGUE FOR STYLUS FANTASTICUS INCORPORATING A VARIETY OF COMPOSITIONAL TECHNIQUES INCLUDING IMPROVISATION AND FUGUE. PRAELUDIUM IN C  IS IN THREE SECTIONS: PRELUDE,  FUGUE AND CHACONNE. THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE OF THIS STYLE WAS FORMAL FREEDOM AS DESCRIBED IN A CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT:

 

 

          ‘Players should not play strictly according to the score, but imitate the                    singer more. Now swift, now hesitating, now in one voice, now in many                  voices, now for a while behind the behind the beat, but not without the           intent to please, to overtake and to astonish’.

WE ARE NOT TO BE SURPRISED, THEN, BY THE DRAMATIC PEDAL SOLO THAT OPENS THE WORK, EXTENDED  FUGAL PASSAGES, VIRTUOSIC SEMIQUAVER FLOURISHES AND  A DANCE-LIKE CHACONNE TO FINISH! WHILE OBSERVING THE NORMS OF BAROQUE REGISTRATION, ELLI-MAE USED THE FULL RANGE OF THE 4-MANUAL ORGAN TO HEIGHTEN THE UNEXPECTED: CLARITY OF VOICE-LEADING IN THE FUGATO AND  BRIGHTER STOPS  INCLUDING TROMBA AND CLARION IN THE MORE IMPROVISATORY, VIRTUOSO SECTIONS.

Buxtehude manuscript in organ tablature, an early form of notation also used by JS Bach

BRAHMS CHORALE PRELUDE HERZLICH TUT MICH ERFREUEN MADE A SKILFUL LINK BETWEEN THE BUXTEHUDE AND THE MENDELSOHN CHORALE AND VARIATIONS, DESPITE BEING A LATE BRAHMS WORK OF 1896. IT IS WRITTEN IN TRADITIONAL CANTUS FIRMUS STYLE WHERE THE CHORALE MELODY SINGS SLOWLY ABOVE .COMPLEX FLOWING LINES. THE GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN, BASED ON A SECULAR SONG ABOUT THE RETURN OF SPRING, IS HEARD JUST ONCE. ELLI-MAE GAVE TO THE MELODY JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF RUBATO TO EMPHASISE ITS BEAUTIFULLY SHAPED LINES AND FINELY JUDGED, RESTRAINED REGISTRATION LENT THE ACCOMPANIMENT JUST THE RIGHT  ELEGIAC, BRAHMSIAN SOUND.

 

Mendelssohn with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at the organ

 

          ‘His execution of Bach’s music is transcendently great, his extempore

           playing is very diversified – the soft movements full of tenderness and

           expression, exquisitely beautiful and impassioned. In his loud preludes

           there are an endless variety of new ideas  and the pedal passages so

           novel and independent  as to take his auditor quite by surprise.’

MENDELSSOHN’S  ORGAN PLAYING WAS JUST AS LEGENDARY IN HIS NATIVE GERMANY AS IN ENGLAND, WHICH HE CALLED HIS SECOND HOME. THE CHORALE AND VARIATIONS CONSTITUTE THE FIRST MOVEMENT OF SONATA NO 6 IN D MINOR COMMISIONED BY THE ENGLISH PUBLISHER COVENTRY IN 1845. THEY WERE ORGINALLY CONCEIVED AS ORGAN VOLUNTARIES AND THEN WERE COMBINED INTO SONATAS –  NO 3 WAS WRITTEN FOR MENDELSSOHN’S SISTER’S WEDDING. HE WAS INVITED TO PERFORM THEM AT THE 1846 BIRMINGHAM FESTIVAL BUT THE STATE OF ENGLISH ORGANS  LAGGED BEHIND THOSE IN MAINLAND EUROPE, AND MENDELSSOHN WOULDN’T RISK IT:

‘The last time I passed through Birmingham the touch of the organ appeared to me so heavy that I could not venture to perform upon it in public. If however it is materially improved I shall be happy to play one of my sonatas; but I should not wish this to be announced before I had tried the organ myself’.

MENDELSSOHN CHOSE THE LUTHERAN CHORALE ‘VATER UNSER IN NIMMELREICH’ (OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN) ON WHICH TO BASE A SHORT SET OF VARIATIONS WHERE THE TUNE IS STATED IN FULL IN ALL REGISTERS AND ONLY IN THE FINAL, THRILLING TOCCATA IS IT SHARED AFTER APPEARING DRAMATICALLY IN THE PEDALS. DESPITE THIS SIMILAR CONSTRUCTION, EACH VARIATION HAS ITS OWN  CHARACTER, HIGHLIGHTED BY ELLI-MAE IN THE CHOICE OF REED STOPS FOR THE CHORALE AND WELL-BALANCED REGISTRATION FOR THE  FLOW OF COUNTERPOINT.

THE EARLY PART OF THE RECITAL FEATURED MUSIC FROM THE GERMAN LUTHERAN TRADITION FROM BUXTEHUDE TO BRAHMS, TAKING  CHORALES FFROM THE LATE RENAISSANCE AS THEIR INSPIRATION. THE SECOND PART MOVED TO CATHOLIC FRANCE IN THE MUSIC OF CESAR FRANCK AND JEAN LANGLAIS.  WE ENTERED NEXT THE PERFUMED WORLD OF FRENCH ROMANTIC MUSIC  DOMINATED BY THE MIGHTY ORGANS OF ARISTIDE CAVAILLE-COLL. CESAR FRANCK DEMONSTRATED THESE ORGANS THROUGHOUT FRANCE FOR HIM AND PLAYED HIS OWN IN THE BASILICA OF ST-CLOTHILDE IN PARIS. CANTABILE IS TAKEN FROM TROIS PIECES POUR ORGUE  WRITTEN IN 1878. THE DATE IS SIGNIFICANT AS AROUND THIS TIME FRANZ LISZT PRODUCED HIS BAGATELLE SANS TONALITE.  WHILE ROOTED IN  CLASSICAL TONALITY AND THE  RELIGIOSE SWEETNESS FASHIONABLE AT THE TIME  – FAURE’S IN PARADISUM  FROM THE REQUIEM  BEING A PRIME EXAMPLE – , THE HAUNTING MELODY AND UNEXPECTED HARMONC PROGRESSIONS HINT OF CHANGE TO COME.  ELLI-MAE SEEMED MOST AT HOME IN THIS MUSIC, USING A FINELY DISTINGUISHED PALETTE TO CAPTURE THE MOOD OF MELANCHOLY NOSTALGIA.

The Cavaille-Coll organ at the Basilica of St Clothilde, Paris

TE DEUM  FROM HYMNES ACTION DE GRACES  BY JEAN LANGLAIS BROUGHT THE RECITAL TO A FITTING CLIMAX. DESPITE BEING BLIND FROM THE AGE OF  TWO DUE TO GLAUCOMA, LANGLAIS LED A SUCCESSFUL LIFE AS  CONCERT ARTIST, PROFESSOR AT THE PARIS CONSERVATOIRE, PROLIFIC COMPOSER AND SUCCESSOR TO FRANCK AT ST CLOTHILDE. HE DESCRIBED HIMSELF AS ‘BRETON, FOI CATHOLIQUE’ AND THESE TWO  ELEMENTS FUEL THE HEART OF HIS MUSIC.

IN  TE DEUM HE REACHED BACK FURTHER THAN ANY OF THE OTHER COMPOSERS REPRESENTED TO EARLY PLAINCHANT AND PRESENTS IT AS A CATHOLIC RESPONSORIAL PSALM. THE CHANT, WHICH WOULD NORMALLY BE SUNG BY A CANTOR, IS HEARD SOLO IN THE PEDALS WITH THE RESPONSE IN THE UPPER REGISTERS. AND WHAT A RESPONSE! THE TEXT OF THE 4TH CENTURY LATIN HYMN OF PRAISE INCLUDE THESE LINES:

              ‘To Thee all Angels cry aloud, Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty                  of  Thy Glory’

THE CRIES ARE MOUNTING CHORDS OF ANGULAR DISSONANCE, CERTAINLY LOUD ENOUGH TO BE HEARD IN HEAVEN.  ELLI-MAE USED THE FULL POWERS OF THE BRIGHT BRASS STOPS –  TROMBA, TRUMPET, CLARION – TO  ANIMATE THE DRAMA.

                                                                  Jean Langlais

FOR HER DEBUT RECITAL, ELLIE-MAE CHOSE  A LARGELY REFLECTIVE PROGRAMME WITH ONLY THE MENDELSSOHN TOCCATA  AND THE LANGLAIS GIVING THE ORGAN  ITS FULL POWERS. SHE PLAYED THE  MELODIC LINES WITH CLARITY AND OFTEN  A LINGERING AFFECTION AND DEMONSTRATED A KEEN EAR IN HER SUBTLE TONAL LAYERING. ALL CREDIT TO HER INSPIRATIONAL TEACHERS AT BRIMGINGHAM, DANIEL MOULT AND NICHOLAS WIERNE, FOR DEVELOPING SUCH INTUITIVE ARTISTRY AND ENABLING US TO HEAR A RECITAL OF QUIET AUTHORITY.

                                                       Temple Church, London

ANGELA RANSLEY IS DIRECTOR OF THE HARMONY SCHOOL OF PIANOFORTE AND ALSO WORKS AS A FREE-LANCE ORGANIST.

Magic again at the Ghione Theatre in Rome with the return of Alistair Wroe and Raffaello Moretti in an evening dedicated to poetic movements and music.
The ultra sensitive sounds of the piano in music from Scarlatti to De Falla with the poetic movements of dance.

Appearing on the wings of song as Alistair appeared out of the mist vibrating to the music as he delved deep into the very soul of creation.
The aria from the Goldberg Variations was exquisitely played by Raffaello and was brought movingly to life by the subtle movements of Alistair.

Scarlatti sonatas of delicacy and luminosity were but scintillating jewels made to glow ever more radiantly by poetic movements of subtle grace.

Exotic sounds and drumming of feet in De Falla’s Fantasia Baetica with its clashing pungent harmonies astonishingly illuminated even more with the entry of Alistair in the final few moments.

Satie’s barely whispered Gnosiennes were merely washes of colour and shape where atmospheres and sounds were combined in moments of pure magic.

The first twelve of Chopin’s preludes op 28 were played with ravishing sounds with Alistair making his appearance only in the fourth where one of Chopin’s most beautiful melodic inventions was shaped by them both with great intensity and ravishing beauty.It was the same beauty in a little Chopin Mazurka that they shared as an encore with an enthusiastic audience demanding more after the final sublime gasps of the Bach Aria of his monumental Goldberg Variations.

A concert of music and movement recalling the golden age of the 1920’s when music and movement could still speak louder than words.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/04/11/alistair-wroe-raffaello-moretti-in-concert-at-teatro-ghione-rome-illumination-and-exhilaration-of-a-new-art-form/

Alistair Wroe: Originario del Worcestershire, Alistair Wroe ha iniziato la sua formazione di ballerino presso il Center for Advanced Training di Birmingham e la Worcestershire Youth Dance Company. Ha completato un-BA (Hons) in Danza Contemporanea al Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Durante la sua laurea ha lavorato con diversi coreografi tra cui Gary Lambert, Struan Leslie e Marie Gabrielle- Rotie. Inoltre, Alistair ha lavorato a stretto contatto con Alison Curtis- Jones e la Dott.ssa Valerie Preston-Dunlop, in particolare su nuove realizzazioni delle opere di Rudolf Laban Nacht e Green Clowns. Ha quindi continuato la sua formazione presso la London Contemporary Dance School, dove ha conseguito il suo Master of Arts, seguito da un tour internazionale come membro di EDge. Alistair ha avuto l’opportunità di lavorare con Philippe Blanchard, Alexander Whitley, Dazed Magazine per Craig Green, Tom Rosenthal, Tom Roden e Joseph Toong, rivelandosi come uno degli artisti più̀ talentuosi ed interessanti della nuova generazione di ballerini britannici, per carisma, presenza scenica, tecnica, eclettismo e profondità̀ di interpretazione.Si è esibito a livello internazionale in Svizzera, Malesia, Norvegia e Italia. Attualmente continua ad esplorare ulteriormente il suo ruolo di interprete ed é inoltre interessato ad acquisire una profonda comprensione della pratica coreografica.

Raffaello Moretti: Diplomatosi a 18 anni con il massimo dei voti e la lode, Raffaele Moretti é stato allievo prima a Parigi di Aldo Ciccolini e Marie- Françoise Bucquet, ed in seguito di Alicia de Larrocha (Master triennale presso l’Academia Marshall- Barcellona) e Tatiana Sarkissova (Master biennale presso la Royal Academy of Music – Londra).Ha inoltre studiato per quattro anni presso la International Piano Foundation- Lake Como, presediuta da Martha Argerich, seguendo le lezioni di William Grant Naboré, Leon Fleisher, Claude Franck, Menahem Pressler, Charles Rosen, Dmitri Bashkirov, Fou Ts’ong ed Andreas Staier. Ha quindi lavorato intensivamente con Galina Eugiazarova, a Madrid. Masterclasses press il Mozarteum di Salisburgo (Andrzej Jasinski), la Foundation Yamaha di Parigi (Elisso Virsaladze) e lo Schwelzig Holstein Musik Festival di Lubecca (Bruno Leonardo Gelber). Laureato della Fondazione Cima in Toscana, ha inoltre vinto il Primo Premio assoluto presso diversi Concorsi Internazionali (tra cui Moncalieri e Mondovì). Concerti in Italia, Francia, Spagna, Germania, Inghilterra, USA, Messico ed Argentina. Ha inoltre collaborato per diversi anni con il Quintetto de I Solisti Aquilani. Laureato in Filosofia con il massimo dei voti presso la Università Statale di Milano, dove ha discusso con Carlo Sini una tesi su Nietzsche, ha seguito altresì le lezioni di Jacques Derrida presso l’HESS di Parigi. Sta completando un PhD su Alfred Cortot presso il King’s College di Londra con Daniel Leech- Wilkinson.

Looking forward to their next performance in Rome on 1st December with the Goldberg Variations.
Nice to see Alistair and Raffaello in one of the most beautiful concert venues in London.
I have admired their recent performances in the equally beautiful Ghione Theatre in Rome.
Raffaello is a masterly pianist who has created a new formula of dance movements that add such atmosphere to the beauty of his playing.

Alistair Wroe and Raffaello Moretti in Concert
Alistair Wroe
DANCE
Raffaello Moretti
PIANO
C. Debussy
Preludes, Book One
Terry Riley
The Heaven Ladder, Book 5 (Etude from the Old Country)
J. S. Bach
Fantasia and Fugue in A minor, BWV 904
M. Mussorgsky
Pictures at an Exhibition
In their second Autumn Concert at St John’s Smith Square, Alistair Wroe and Raffaello Moretti will explore an eclectic and exciting program that returns to Johann Sebastian Bach and then goes to the Preludes of Claude Debussy and the Pictures of Modest Mussorgsky, with a foray into the minimalistic repertoire of Terry Riley, for an evening of dance and music to remember.

ALISTAIR WROE
Originally from Worcestershire, Alistair completed his BA (Hons) Degree in Contemporary Dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and went on to join EDge at London Contemporary Dance School where he worked with choreographers including Alexander Whitley and Philippe Blanchard. After completing a Master’s degree at London Contemporary Dance School, Alistair has had the opportunity to perform and present work at venues including Halle am Berghain (Berlin), Trauma Bar und Kino (Berlin), Szene (Salzburg), The Place Theatre (London), KLPAC (Kuala Lumpur) and Venue Cymru (Llandudno). As a dance artist he has worked with Möbius Dance, Matan Zamir, Gal Naor, Jack Philp Dance, Alexandra Green, Craig Green for Dazed Magazine, The Irrepressibles and Tom Rosenthal, amongst others. Alistair is one of the top emerging artists of his generation, distinguished by his technical skills, eclecticism and magnetism on stage.

RAFFAELLO MORETTI
Having graduated in Piano Performance in Milan at the age of 18, Raffaello then studied in Paris with Aldo Ciccolini and Marie-Françoise Bucquet; in Barcelona with Alicia de Larrocha and finally in London with Tatiana Sarkissova, acquiring a Master’s degree from the Royal Academy of Music. Meanwhile, he studied at the International Piano Academy Lake Como – directed by Martha Argerich- and worked intensively with Galina Eguaziarova, in Madrid. He has a broad international performance experience in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, USA, Mexico and Argentina. Raffaello also graduated in Philosophy with top marks at the University of Milan and followed the lessons of Jacques Derrida at the EHESS in Paris. Recently, he has completed a PhD from King’s College in London with Daniel Leech-Wilkinson.

The music of Oswald in the Brazilian Embassy last night .What a discovery when played with such scintillating virtuosity and ‘joie de vivre’ by Tyler Hay and the Mitsu Trio.
200+ 30 has proven once again to be a winning combination with the Brazilian Embassy and the Keyboard Trust anniversary celebrations in perfect harmony.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2021/10/06/brazil-200-celebrations-with-the-keyboard-charitable-trust-on-wings-of-song/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/03/29/brazil-200-and-keyboard-trust-30-a-collaboration-born-on-wings-of-brazilian-song/

In this concert, The Mitsu Trio remembered and celebrated Oswald’s legacy, with a selection of his most distinguished pieces, including Il neige, which gave Oswald his spectacular victory in the Composition Contest promoted in 1902 by Le Figaro in Paris, where the Brazilian composer beat more than 600 other competitors.

Henrique Oswald (1852-1931) was recognised as the most accomplished Brazilian composer before Heitor Villa-Lobos. He wrote in almost every genre and was the leading pioneer of chamber music in Brazil.Trained in Europe, being especially influenced by French, German and Italian traditions, he spent several years in Florence, where he taught at the Musical Institute and met Liszt and Brahms. Back in Brazil in the early 1900s, he directed the newly founded National Institute of Music, tutoring and inspiring a generation of pianists and composers, being one of the most influential figures in Brazilian musical life in the first decades of the 20^th century.

Henrique Oswald
Elegia (for cello and piano)
Feuilles d’Album Op.20 No. 4 – Désir Ardent (Allegro con fuoco)
Six Morceaux Op.4 No.5 – Barcarolle
Il Neige
Album Op.33 No.3 – Pierrot
Album Op.36 No. 2 – Pierrot se meurt
Polonaise Op.34 No.1
Piano Trio Op.9

The Mitsu Trio was formed in 2020 and, for this concert, comprises British pianist Tyler Hay, Japanese cellist Akito Goto and Russian-born British violinist Aleem Kandour, virtuoso rising talents who met at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and continued their studies in major UK conservatoires. Between them they have performed as chamber musicians and soloists in distinguished venues across the UK including Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

TYLER HAY has been awarded prizes in many competitions, including First Prizes in the keyboard section of the Royal Overseas League and the Liszt Society Competition and just last week First Prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition.He has released CDs of Liszt’s piano music, John Ogdon’s unpublished works and Kalkbrenner’s Etudes Op.143, available on the Piano Classics label and have all received critical acclaim. As well as having given concerts in Spain, Italy, Germany, Cyprus and South Africa, Tyler continues to perform regularly in the UK as both a soloist and chamber musician.

AKITO GOTO has appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the London Mozart Players, Windsor and Maidenhead Symphony Orchestra and Orpington Symphony Orchestra. He has given solo and chamber performances in major concert halls around the world including the Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo and  and Wigmore Hall in London. He has won numerous prizes and awards, including First Prize in the Japan Player’s Contest, and he was also the youngest winner of the Izuminomori Cello Contest. Akito recently received a generous scholarship from the Raphael Sommer Music Scholarship Trust.

ALEEM KANDOUR has performed at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and Buckingham Palace. As an orchestral musician, Aleem performs regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and the Bath Festival Orchestra. He has been awarded several prizes including First Prize in the Mozart Junior Competition. In 2019, he became a violin tutor at Prince’s Gardens Preparatory School in London. In 2021, Aleem was selected to become one of the Ambassadors for the Benedetti Foundation.

Oswald was born in Rio de Janeiro.His father was a Swiss-German immigrant and his mother from Italy. The family name was changed from “Oschwald” due to concerns of discrimination. In 1854 the Oswald family moved to São Paulo. His mother taught music privately to aristocrats and by age twelve he had his first recital. In São Paulo, he also studied with Gabriel Guiraudon. His “farewell recital” occurred at age 16, after this he went to study in Europe spending several years in Florence.In 1902 he won a piano composition competition sponsored by Le Figaro with a piece Il neige!..(“It’s snowing!”).He then left his family in Europe (they moved to Brazil much later) and from 1903 to 1906 directed the Instituto National de musica in Rio de Janeiro. He also served as Brazilian consul in both The Hague and Genoa.He died in 1931, just several days after his birthday festivities.

Oswald’s best-known compositions today are numerous small pieces for piano (usually arranged by him into small collections). However, he was a prolific composer of chamber music: his list includes a violin sonata, 2 cello sonatas (op 21 and 44),3 piano trios, 2 piano quartets (op 5 and op 26 )a piano quintet op 18,4 string quartets (op 16,17,39,46) and a string octet. For orchestra he wrote a suite, a sinfonietta and a symphony. There are also two concertos by him, one for piano, another for violin. Concerning vocal music, he composed three operas (La Croce d’oro,Il Neo and le Fate ) ,a mass and a requiem. By the time of his death, his major works remained unpublished, a fact that contributed much to the his neglect for half a century.His work fell into disfavour after the “Semana de Arte Moderna” manifesto, but has experienced something of a revival recently. In late 1970s Brazilian musician José Eduardo Martins began his struggle to revive Oswald’s output. In the last 30 years he published some of his compositions and recorded many of his major works along with piano miniaturesAmong his recordings is Oswald’s Piano Concerto in an originally arranged chamber version (piano with string quintet). Another Oswald pioneer is pianist Eduardo Montero,whose thesis was dedicated to the composer.

Thursday 1 December 3.00 pm

A superb recital from a great artist.
From the first note to the last his supreme natural artistry kept us on the edge of our seats as he guided us through a world of colour,style,passion and intelligence with a technical and musicianly assurance.It made this quite simply one of the finest recitals that I have ever heard from the many masterly recitals in the mecca of pianists that is St Mary’s.In fact a Master of Masters and it just confirmed my opinion from the last times I heard him .

Scarlatti’s F minor sonata where the delicacy and luminosity of his sound created a musical line that was mesmerising.It transformed a bauble into a masterly gem of great weight and unusual importance.Repeating each episode with very subtle ornamentation that just added intensity to the poignancy of this seemingly simple sonata.

Mozart’s much loved but too often badly played F major Sonata was reborn in Andrzej’s sensitive hands.From the first note it was played with a rhythmic energy and an operatic sense of character with a charm and grace allowing the music to unfold so naturally.A clarity and precision but above all a luminosity and radiance that allowed the music to speak with a directness and simplicity that made Schnabel’s famous dictum so apparently true.
A child like simplicity that can be so difficult to attain as we are contaminated by life.There was beauty to the Adagio where his natural flowing movements and caressing of the keys made for refined music making where every note and every phrase was to be cherished.
Pure opera was the last movement as it burst onto the scene with irresistible fervour where one could envisage the different characters taking the stage one after the other.Of course the genius of Mozart had a secret or two up his sleeve and the surprise quiet ending was thrown off with breathtaking nonchalance.A sense of style that allowed clarity and precision but also colour and shape that brought Mozart vividly to life with an invigorating freshness and ‘joie de vivre’.

Kreisleriana burst onto the scene with driving energy and passionate involvement.
Precision too with some trecherous leaps that were negotiated as a musician not a technician!The central episode was beautifully mellifluous but still part of an architectural whole that made the return of the first episode so inevitable.
The subtle colouring and legato of the second movement was a technical feat that is rarely encountered in what is one of the most difficult movements to play convincingly and above all to allow the music to speak with the same inflection as the human voice.An octave that is made of two separate voices as today is rarely heard which can make this movement seem overlong and rather ponderous in lesser hands.
There was great rhythmic energy in the first episode and a passionate sweep to the second.
The fleeting beauty of the central episode of the third movement was ravishingly beautiful and contrasted so well with the rhythmic impulse of the opening.The passionate outpouring of the coda was breathtaking in its wild abandon.
The fourth ,a prayer of hope,was played with aristocratic weight,a feeling that every note had an infinite number of gradations as the beauty of his hand movements were testimony enough of the kaleidocopic range of sound that was in his fingertips.
The quixotic fifth was played with lightness and drive before the gentle musings of the sixth.There was a quite magical transition and ravishing beauty to the final bars with tenor colourings like jewels sparkling deep in the soul.
The seventh usually an excuse for virtuosity and speed was here played with clarity but without any heaviness.Of course the central episode was played with fearless technical prowess which passed unobserved as his musicianship was concerned with architectural shape and style rather than showmanship.The staccato chords came as a surprise until he gradually added colour and weight that made the contrast so movingly poignant.
There was a lightness in the eighth where the staccato right hand made the long legato of the left so disturbingly right.There was a startling contrast with the long legato sweep of the first episode and the passionate outpouring of the second as the lightness returned with ever more present legato long held notes before the end with the light notes just dancing their way into the depths of the keyboard.
An extraordinary performance of a work that is so difficult to hold together as one and give at the same time an architectural shape to so many differing multicoloured episodes.
In so many of Schumann’s works his split personality of Floristan and Eusebius are only the components of a whole.

The opening of Chopin’s Andante Spianato was like a great painter with a brush about to delicately add colour to his canvas.There was ravishing beauty with the same sense of balance that I have only ever heard from Brailowsky or Stefan Askenase.A fluidity and clarity with ornaments played with jewel like precision and sparkling beauty.There was a delicacy and beauty to the mazurka episode that entered as a whisper rather than the more usual brass band!
But of course here is an artist of great sensitivity and astonishingly refined technical preparation.The Polonaise just sprang from his fingers after the short orchestral introduction.There was brilliance and a freshness as the music unwound with jeux perlé ease and shape.His wonderful well oiled fingers gave an ease and fluidity to all that he did and he knew too when to be a showman in a work that Chopin would have astonished and seduced the noble ladies with in the fashionable Paris salons.
I have heard some wonderful Chopin from artist such as Ashkenazy,Barenboim or Fou Ts’ong so I do not think because Andrzej is Polish he automatically understands the composer better than others.
Fou Ts’ong likened the sentiment in Chopin’s music to the same sentiment in Chinese poetry.You see the soul is universal and knows no barriers!
Chopin spent most of his life in Paris where his refined sensibility and artistry could find it’s ideal milieu to grow and mature.Of course there was deep inside him the nostalgia for his childhood and Polish roots.
But Chopin’s is such refined music it takes a great artist to have all the complex facets to make the music live with aristocratic sentiment and musical intelligence.Andrezj has these components and happens to be Polish che ‘non guasta’ – which does no harm!Rubinstein was the prime example before him of course. And who like Chopin spent his formative years in Paris a long way from his homeland.

Andrzej Wierciński is a semi finalist of the XVIII International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2021. Over the last decade Andrzej has earned an impressive string of awards at prestigious Polish and international piano competitions – most notably winning 1st Prizes at: the International F. Chopin Competition “Golden Ring” in Slovenia (2014), the International F. Chopin Competition in Budapest (2014), the International Neapolitan Masters Competition in Naples (2018), the First ViennaInternational Music Competition (2019), the International Piano Competition in Saint-Priest in France (2019) and the 46th Polish F. Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Those prizes have included many concert engagements abroad, golden medals and cooperation with recording labels in Europe and the Far East, as well as gaining for Andrzej an expanded following of listeners to his music. For example, during the visit to Japan in 2015 of the President of Poland (H. E. Bronisław Komorowski), Andrzej played a Chopin recital in Tokyo in the presence of Princess Masako Owada. In 2015 the KAWAI company invited him to play in Asia whilst in 2019 Andrzej performed a special recital for the Cobbe Collection Trust of historic instruments at Hatchlands Park in the UK, then playing on the 1845 Erard used by Thalberg. He has played concerts in most European countries – including several in the UK – as well as in Canada, Japan and Indonesia. He has performed at significant venues throughout Holland – Het Concertgebouw, and in Slovak Philharmonic and in Warsaw at the Łazienki Królewskie (Chopin’s statue). Andrzej has also collaborated with the best orchestras in the country, such as the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In developing his music career Andrzej has taken part in international master courses conducted by eminent pedagogues such as Michel Beroff, Dmitri Alexeev, Akiko Ebi, Andrzej Jasiński, Lee Kum-Sing, Anna Malikova, Dang Thai Son. He has also benefited from invaluable advice and encouragement from Daniil Trifonov. Andrzej Wierciński holds Artistic Scholarships from the Sinfonia Varsovia Foundation, the Krystian Zimerman Scholarship and the YAMAHA Foundation. In 2016 he released his first CD (of works by Chopin, Schumann and Scarlatti).

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/05/26/andrzej-wiercinski-at-st-marys-the-making-of-a-great-artist/

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2020/08/16/andrzej-wiercinski-in-poland-from-the-ridiculous-to-the-sublime/