Ensemble Photo Simon Jenner
Simon Jenner, February 8th 2025
SMC tonight threw open its space, as it does evert February, to young musicians, presented by their mentors. A far shorter evening than formerly. Previous evenings had proved exhaustingly long (and almost impossible to write about!) This on the other hand was almost too brief. But certainly worth concentrating on.
Gregory Zubkov taught by Zhanna Kemp started with what was one of those Soviet/Russian warm-up staples from the 1970s-80s, C.P.E. Bach (the other, more ubiquitous, was Domenico Scarlatti). Here Zubkov plays the brief, darkly rapid Solfeggietto in C minor (H 220, Wq. 117: 2) from 1766.
So the new style C.P.E. Bach called into being evokes sentiment but also classical poise: indeed this piece heralds the storm und drang minor-keyed angst of the 1770s: Zubkov makes a fine case for it. Bach’s second son invented the classical era more or less and this is its undertow; sensitive too to instrumental timbre and colour.
There’s a kind of wager on playing this a fast as possible but Zubkov played it at an expressive tempo and made it expressive, with enough characterisation to let C.P.E’s individual genius seep through. A delicious opener.
Ensemble. Chapel Royal SMC Brighton. Photo Simon Jenner
Michael Wang, taught by Joe Ward is someone who’s already becoming a little better-known. Here he offered a thoughtful reading of Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20 in C Sharp minor Op posthumous (1875) from early (1830) in Chopin’s career: dedicated to his elder sister Ludwika “to help her practice” his Piano Concerto No. 2!
Wang plays these declamatory chords more thoughtfully and softly than some, in keeping with the rest. So its now less dramatic opening fittingly preludes an aria of trills and regrets over four minutes, with a full singer’s de capo effect taken delicately here by Wang. The end, a dark minor-keyed glissando up and down, is darkly thrilling, heralding a new sensibility in music fully established.
Wang brightens the palette (just slightly) with Poulenc’s late (1959) Novelette in E minor (one of three), a slant to melancholy with Poulenc’s slight shrug, as he sadly makes his way to or from a café in Montmartre. But it‘s more layered than that, carrying a musical quote, almost a superscription from a work by his late friend Manuel de Falla: lamenting the century, perhaps the aesthetic that’s gone. Poulenc was in the bright new world of Boulez, out in the cold, though still performed. This is a substantial 2-plus-minutes piece with some valedictory trills in the coda which ends with a crump and flick of the wrist.
This piece particularly suits Wang’s sensibility. I hope he mines more Poulenc, and perhaps that vein of French pianism, from Les Six figures (at its most assertive, Auric’s Piano Sonata), and that whole gamut of late Romantic-early 20th century French pianism.
Ensemble Chapel Royal SMC Brighton. Photo Simon Jenner
A trio of performers nurtured by Poona Loubnina follows. The brothers Richard and Edward Sherbourne, both on violins, and Ivan Hladushevskyi on piano offer an enviably varied palette.
Shostakovich’s Five Pieces for 2 Violins and Piano – a selection (i Prelude and ii Gavotte) of which are played here by all three soloists. The Prelude sounds almost late-Romantic, full of expressivity and weight here, indeed throbbing melancholy: the violin accompanied with restraint by Hladushevskyi, who nevertheless elicits a deft chiming from the piano.
Then followed the skittish Gavotte: which kicks in with a vodka coda before reverting to the original tempo. A vigorous, and one might say spirited rendition. They’re a heterogenous group, and their history’s interesting. I quote:
Five miniatures from this group of works have been masterfully arranged for two violins and piano by Shostakovich’s friend Lev Atovmian and compiled as Five Pieces. Alongside excerpts from the incidental music to The Human Comedy (1933/34) and music of the ballet The Limpid Stream (1934/35) are the film scores for Hornet (1955) and the now lost animated film The Tale of the Priest and his Servant Balda (1933/34).
Chapel Royal SMC Ensemble Brighton Photo Simon Jenner
Hladushevskyi alone storms Rachmaninov’s Moment Musical in E minor Op 16/4, the set dating from October-December 1896; luckily just before that disastrous performance of his Symphony No 1 in D minor Op 13 early the next year: which crushed Rachmaninov’s confidence for three years. Its railroad-like left-hand is struck through by the right-handed declamatory melody. This work could easily sit with the Op 23 Preludes of 1903, and in its three minutes shows that at 23 Rachmaninov’s late-romantic style was fully-formed; though would undergo further change in exile. This is a heaven-storming performance of astonishing maturity and panache; rock-steady left-hand and an authoritative weight and power in the right with that gesturally minimal storm of a few notes.
Chapel Royal Photo Simon Jenner
Nelly Zhang taught by Maggie Grimsdell offered the brilliant Andante spinato and Grande Polonaise Brilliante Op 22 an exuberant earlyish work of Chopin’s from 1830-34. It’s from piano and orchestra, but often played as a solo. It’s unusual too, yoking the Andante’s G major with the Polonaise’s E flat. Zhang has panache tone and style, some lovely glissando and a headlong way with the piece that’s very winning, though she occasionally rushes her horses here in a way she didn’t apparently, in practise. The last ounce of poise – and public confidence – will come.
Indeed a very brief night, lasting under 40 minutes, but an invigorating snapshot of tomorrow’s musicians.
Sussex Musicians Club Chapel Royal
Chapel Royal, North Road Brighton
http://www.sussexmusicans.co.uk
C. P. E. Bach, Chopin, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich played by six young artists. A very brief night, lasting under 40 minutes, but an invigorating snapshot of tomorrow’s musicians.