Torino - Andrés Orozco Estrada conducts RAI Torino in Rossini, Mozart and Berlioz with Michael Barenboim as soloist

There were some famous musical names associated with Orchestra Sinphonica della RAI, Torino in last night’s programme. Previous conductors of the orchestra had surnames Pretre and Sinopoli and the night’s soloist was a Barenboim. The current principal conductor of Orchestra Sinphonica della RAI, Torino is Andrés Orozco Estrada and it was he who directed them in this concert in Alicante’s ADDA auditorium.

The concert began with one of the most well-known and rousing of Rossini’s overtures. Everyone knows the theme of the William Tell Overture’s final section, but Rossini was always episodic in his compositional style and the quiet sections that preceded allowed the orchestra to show off some of its solo playing. Starting a concert with the sound of a solo cello is hardly likely to be a showstopper, but that is clearly what Rossini wanted for his master work, perhaps indicating that all heroes have first to be born and many of them humbly.

Michael Barenboim was then soloist in Mozart K218 Violin Concerto. This, especially after the tutti at the end of the William Tell Overture was quiet, playful, witty and precise. I can never imagine that Mozart, even as a nineteen-year-old was taking his audience seriously when he wrote these notes. I always feel that the phrase “This is what they can cope with” must have been running through the composer’s mind. Basically, I don’t trust Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It has been a lifelong relationship, and there have been undoubted pleasures along the way.

Michael Barenboim and the orchestra’s playing, however, left nothing to be desired. It was sophisticated, accurate, witty and cute in places, secure and reflective in others. The composer’s ability to balance the solo part in the context of the orchestral accompaniment is a real achievement, for this orchestral part is no mere accompaniment, it presents a real dialogue with the soloist. Michael Barenboim gave the audience an encore of a movement of solo Bach in acknowledgment of warm applause.

The second half featured one work, Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. I confess the Berlioz is another composer whose music remains utterly baffling to me. It remains spectacularly baffling, however. Andrés Orozco Estrada had the third movement begin with woodwind played from high in the royal box, thus rendering the sound “far off”. The tubular bells that feature in the final movement gave a special sonority that I don’t recall from other performances of the work. But for someone who made his name for his orchestration to have called for two harps, just to keep them silent for most of the time, is beyond imagination. Perhaps he wrote the parts and then forgot about them. The orchestral playing was superb throughout, however, especially the muted horns, the brass, percussion and woodwind. Passages in the central movement were surely written by Mahler, sixty years before their time.

The orchestra offered a little piece of Italy to this audience in Spain as an encore. The Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana is a superb way to follow the over-the-top Berlioz.

Denia International Piano Festival - programa 6 noviembre - Congyu Wang

 

ADDA sets off for a tour of Japan with Rimsky-Korsakov, Rodrigo, Tchaikovsky and Khachaturian with Kaori Muraji

 

In the second concert of the new season, ADDA Simfónica under their artistic director Joep Vicent last night offered a mix of perhaps overstated bravura interspersed with one of music’s great understatements. At the start, I will say that no longer is it necessary to describe this orchestra, conductor or venue in glowing terms. Everyone in last night's audience, ADDA regulars, knows that this is now amongst the finest orchestras in the world, and that the ADDA venue approaches perfection in terms of view and acoustics. The orchestra has by now set off on a tour of Japan. Success brings the pressures of demands, but the ADDA project has become a resounding success for all concerned.

Last night’s program opened with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnole. It made a popular start to a concert that did rather concentrate on well-known favourites. But these pieces are well known and favourite because, in the right hands, they continue to deliver unforgettable experiences and this version of Capriccio Espagnole did deliver. I still find Rimsky-Korsakv’s orchestration rather heavy, however.

Then there followed the evening’s understatement. If one is trying to make a noise, then the last instrument to choose is a guitar, which is almost impossible to play forté. The beauty of good writing for the instrument, however, lies in its ability to be totally personal, apparently to make public the player’s inner most thoughts.

Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez is the best known of all guitar concertos. Its fame is often as a result of the separation of the slow movement as a lollipop to sweeten an audience. The practice is mistaken, however, because by itself it can be played mournfully, making it a sad piece of music designed to make everyone in the audience sadder. In its rightful place, between two brightly lit neoclassical allegros, the slow movement becomes merely a time to reflect. Whereas the outer movements present a sunlit landscape, the central movement describes the exact same landscape at twilight. Everything is softer, cooler, gentler, but it is never mournful. The Japanese soloist, Kaori Muraji, who performed last night and will accompany ADDA on the tour of Japan, was clearly enjoying every moment. Rodrigo’s brilliant and sympathetic orchestration never drowns the guitar’s small voice and overall creates a spectacular tense excitement that is never lost. Superb: superb writing, a superb work, superbly performed.

Kaori Muraji offered an encore of one of her own pieces, inspired, she told the audience, by old Japanese temples. The audience heard, I would suggest, especially in the right hand, something that reminded them of more nearby historical sites.

The second half opened with another popular favourite. Tchaikovsky suite from Swan Lake has some of the most familiar tunes in the repertoire. What is often ignored, is how spectacular is the orchestration which, of course, the ADDA orchestra made crystal clear and exciting.

Our evening came to a close with a selection from Khachaturian’s Spartacus. If what had gone before was not sufficiently melodic or rhythmically arresting, then this selection from Khachaturian’s ballet was a perfect was the perfect solution. The grand, Romantic string theme, at least for British ears, remains associated with sailing ships on a Sunday evening, and the viciously rhythmic sections almost bit the ears. And this superb playing of the ADDA orchestra was offered twice, as they repeated the upbeat section as an encore.

Denia International Piano Festival - programme 30 oct Vasco Dantas, from Bach to Queen

 

An evening of firsts - Martin García García and Josep Vicent plus ADDA orchestra in Cano, Chopin and Tchaikovsky

In their first concert of a new season, the ADDA Orchestra under the direction of Josep Vicent began with a first performance. Composer Ximo Cano is from nearby La Nucia and his piece Ithaca Overture opened the concert. Ximo Cano’s piece embraces minimalism, but also lyricism and spectacular use of orchestral sound. Basically an overture in the Italian style of fast-slow-fast, it begins with a complex rhythmic figure in the strings which gradually disintegrates into a climax before the central slow section imposes calm on the process. There is extensive use here of the sonorous vibraphone, with the piccolo sustaining some of the higher notes’ overtones. Momentum then reasserts itself, and the piece burns bright until its end. Ximo Cano’s style could be likened to John Adams, but here there is a complexity in this work that comes across paradoxically as simplicity. This world premiere of Ximo Cano’s Ithaca Overture thus presented a perfect opening for a new season, being positive, affirmatory and celebratory.

On seeing the rest of the program, Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, this particular concert goer felt that it might seem like a repetition of works heard hundreds of times before. How wrong can you be? What we heard was both fresh and enlightening. No matter how many times you have heard a piece of music, in performance it always has the potential to surprise anew, and both these works did just that, and to an extent that this listener, with literally thousands of concerts behind him, heard both pieces as if for the first time, so surprising were their effects.

Soloist in the Chopin concerto was Martin García García, a young man still in his 20s from Gijon. To say that his touch was delightful would be to understate the pure artistry he brought to this work. His playing was not only faultless, it reached a level of communication with the audience that one rarely witnesses. Especially in the slow movement, he engendered such a degree of concentration amongst the audience that even the most pianissimo of touches were heard, absorbed within a story that unfolded, told by fingers pressing on keys. This performance rendered a familiar work newly fresh, newly moving and completely satisfying musically. Memorable? Life-changing.

An encore of Tchaikovsky’s October followed. This is Tchaikovsky using understatement, in reflective mode as mists appear and trees colour, and then shed. For the first time I noticed in this piece the main theme of Scriabin’s Prelude And Nocturne For The Left Hand. Another first. I do hope that this first time to hear the playing of Martin García García will not be my last.

And then to Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. It was for me personally to be the second time in performance in five months. Nothing from the past, however, could have prepared me for the surprise I felt during every moment of this performance by the ADDA Orchestra. Artistic director, Josep Vicent, had the orchestra sculpt literally every phrase. Nuances of feeling, musical details, and indeed overall structures within the work were revealed as if I had never heard the work before, so fresh was the approach, so energised and at the same time subtle was the playing.

Examples could fill a book, but particularly memorable was the way in which the main theme of the slow movement was phrased. It is far too easy, it seems, for an orchestra to rely on the overall beauty of the theme rather than pin down the transitional emotions that make it up. This performance did exactly that. The overall theme still worked fine, but it worked because its individual elements created an emotional journey that was complex and sophisticated, and made perfect sense.

The scherzo, also, provided its surprises. It again is easy to regard the whole movement as a piece of orchestration first and a piece of music second. We all expect to hear the episodic contrast between pizzicato strings, decorating woodwind, and firm brass. What we do not regularly hear in this work of the details that remind us of Slavonic dances, and variations of dynamics in the pizzicato of the strings that add shape and texture. I may have heard hundreds of performances of this work, but this was completely new, as if hearing it for the first time.

As an encore, Josep Vicent offered his audience Guridi’s Amorosa, a simple plea for people everywhere to share love for one another. The overall effect of this concert first was to underline yet again the fact that this ADDA Orchestra, created by the direction of Josep Vicent, is now among the first rank of world ensembles. Bravi!

Denia International Piano Festival Programme 2 oct Duo Bringuier-Monakh

 

Denia International Piano Festival 2025 - five concerts from great pianists from October to December

 

Ars Alta Cultural is pleased to announce details of this year’s Denia International Piano Festival. In its third year, for the first time this festival will receive generous support from the Ayuntamiento de Denia and Ars Alta have therefore been able to invite some very well-known pianists.

The festival starts on October 2 with a concert of music for four hands. Husband and wife team, Nicolas Bringuier and Olga Monakh will present a concert entitled “Along the Danube”, in which they will play two works written for four hands, the Mozart Sonata in D Major KV381 and Fanz Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor D940 and then Liszt’s Second Rhapsody. In part two, they will play three Hungarian Dances of Brahms, three Slavonic Dances of Dvorak and will finish with the spectacular arrangement of Smetana’s tone poem, The Moldau. Though we are aware that the Danube does not reach Prague, we are sure the Denia audience will overlook that and just listen to the music!

Sharing the same love for the repertoire of four hands, it was after their meeting in 2002 in the class of the great pedagogue Klaus Hellwig at the Berlin University of the Arts that the Nicolas Bringuier and Olga Monakh began to play together. United on stage as in life, they quickly made a name for themselves for their virtuosity and the originality of their programs. In 2005, they played at a reception given by the President of the Republic of Germany and have toured many countries, including concerts across China. Their extremely extensive repertoire includes most of the original works for four hands, as well as many transcriptions of symphonic works.

In the Denia Festival’s second concert on October 30, Ars Alta proudly presents Vasco Dantas from Portugal in an evening titled “From Bach to Queen”. A Gramophone review of a recent recording by Vasco Dantas praises “his unusual programming and captivating artistry”. In this Denia concert, he will offer a guided tour of three hundred years of writing for keyboard, including pieces from Bach’s Art of Fugue, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, a Military March of Schubert, Schumann’s Arabeske, a Chopin Polonaise and favourites of Liszt, Satie and Debussy. Prokofiev’s Montagues and Capulets will follow and then, to conclude, he will play Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. If the audience is lucky enough to receive an encore, it will surely be a Portuguese Fado.

Vasco Dantas was born in Porto in 1992 and attended London’s Royal College of Music before completing his doctorate in Münster. Since then, he has performed on all five continents is the most prestigious concert halls, receiving excellent reviews.

On November 6, in the third of this year’s International Piano Festival concerts, Ars Alta is proud to present Congyu Wang for the second time in Denia in a programme entitled “Romantic Encounter.” Singapore-born Congyu Wang trained in France and now lives in La Reunion. He will play a movement from a Concerto by Mozart and then three Chopin Nocturnes followed by the four Ballades. If that were not enough for an evening’s work, he will then play Liszt’s Rigoletto Paraphrase, which is probably as virtuosic as it gets.

He himself says that he loves to play the classical repertoire, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Liszt, but his repertoire goes way beyond this and includes his own compositions. He also says he tries to change his repertoire in the same way a restaurant would change its menu, and concert goers in Denia can look forward to this menu based on Chopin and Liszt. Congyu Wang is a Steinway Artist.

On November 26, in a concert entitled “La Reina”, Ars Alta Cultural is proud to present the legendary Turkish pianist, Gülsin Onay. She has many years of experience at the top of the international concert circuit, is recognised as a State Artist in Turkey and has played with many top orchestras and conductors. She is described on Wikipedia as having “long been a household name around Europe and beyond, with an international career spanning more than 80 countries, and including collaborations with many of the most esteemed artists and musical institutions of our time.” She is also famous for championing the music of Turkish composer, Ahmed Adnan Saygun and indeed she will play two of his Preludes in Denia. Alongside the Saygun, she will play a Bach Partita BWV825, the Sonata K331 of Mozart and the Chopin Sonata in B minor, op58.

Widely renowned as one of Turkey’s most acclaimed cultural exports, Gülsin Onay has been enchanting audiences around the globe for decades, starting with her first official concert when she was six years old. She has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and now spends her time between touring and giving concerts, leading masterclasses at various venues, and sitting on the jury boards of multiple international competitions. We are very lucky to hear her play this fourth concert in the Denia International Piano Festival.

In her own words, “it is not enough to just play, but a pianist needs to create meaning, to say something with the piece. Each note that they play has to have a meaning, it cannot just be playing mechanically, that’s not enough.” She advises every pianist to “ensure that each musical phrase should be a new creation and a creation of magic.”  The audience at this fourth concert of the Festival can judge Gülsin Onay against her own personal standard, when she observes that playing the piano “is without question always such a great experience to go through, it’s such a joy for me, and I always feel so immensely thankful every day that I can still play!”

The fifth and final concert of this third Denia Internation Piano Festival on December 4 is given by a young pianist who recently won first prize at the Franz Liszt Center Piano Competition. With the title “Mastermind”, Serbian Milan Slijepčević will play a demanding and ambitious programme that promises a rich and varied musical experience, with a few fireworks at the end.

Milan Slijepčević’s concert will start with Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze op6, eighteen characteristic pieces from the composer’s early career. He will follow with a Debussy Prelude “La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune”, and then the lyrical Fifth Sonata of Scriabin. Then to finish, he will play the Second Sonata of Prokofiev.

Born in 2000, Milan Slijepčević has been described as performing the Schumann “with his customary sensitivity and mastery.” He is described as “a young pianist who has already conquered the international music scene with his virtuosity and ability to interpret works with great expressive maturity.”

Ars Alta Cultural gives priority to the promotion of young artists and in this fifth concert of the festival, our organisation is achieving its goal. Milan Slijepčević, however, is an amazing pianist and already a seasoned performer. He will certainly not disappoint and has the potential to bring this third Denia International Piano Festival to a rousing and spectacular conclusion.

Ars Alta Cultural has presented two previous festivals in Denia. In 2025, with the generous support of the Ayuntamiento de Denia, we are confident that in 2025 the Denia International Piano Festival will achieve a new level of excellence.

 

Ars Alta Cultural se complace en anunciar los detalles del Festival Internacional de Piano de Denia de este año. En su tercera edición, por primera vez este festival contará con el generoso apoyo del Ayuntamiento de Denia, lo que ha permitido a Ars Alta invitar a pianistas de gran renombre.

El festival comienza el 2 de octubre con un concierto de música a cuatro manos. El matrimonio formado por Nicolas Bringuier y Olga Monakh presentará un concierto titulado «A lo largo del Danubio», en el que interpretarán dos obras escritas para cuatro manos, la Sonata en Re mayor KV381 de Mozart y la Fantasía en Fa menor D940 de Fanz Schubert, y a continuación la Segunda Rapsodia de Liszt. En la segunda parte, interpretarán tres Danzas Húngaras de Brahms, tres Danzas Eslavas de Dvorak y terminarán con el espectacular arreglo del poema sinfónico de Smetana, El Moldava. Aunque somos conscientes de que el Danubio no llega a Praga, estamos seguros de que el público de Denia pasará por alto ese detalle y se limitará a escuchar la música.

Nicolas Bringuier y Olga Monakh, que comparten el mismo amor por el repertorio a cuatro manos, comenzaron a tocar juntos tras conocerse en 2002 en la clase del gran pedagogo Klaus Hellwig en la Universidad de las Artes de Berlín. Unidos en el escenario como en la vida, rápidamente se hicieron un nombre por su virtuosismo y la originalidad de sus programas. En 2005 tocaron en una recepción ofrecida por el presidente de la República de Alemania y han realizado giras por muchos países, incluyendo conciertos por toda China. Su amplísimo repertorio incluye la mayoría de las obras originales para cuatro manos, así como numerosas transcripciones de obras sinfónicas.

En el segundo concierto del Festival de Denia, el 30 de octubre, Ars Alta se enorgullece de presentar a Vasco Dantas, de Portugal, en una velada titulada «De Bach a Queen». Una reseña de Gramophone sobre una reciente grabación de Vasco Dantas elogia «su programación inusual y su cautivador talento artístico». En este concierto de Denia, ofrecerá un recorrido guiado por trescientos años de composición para teclado, incluyendo piezas de El Arte de la Fuga de Bach, la Sonata Claro de Luna de Beethoven, una Marcha Militar de Schubert, el Arabeske de Schumann, una Polonesa de Chopin y temas favoritos de Liszt, Satie y Debussy. A continuación, interpretará Los Montesco y los Capuleto de Prokofiev y, para concluir, Don't Stop Me Now de Queen. Si el público tiene la suerte de recibir un bis, seguramente será un fado portugués.

Vasco Dantas nació en Oporto en 1992 y estudió en el Royal College of Music de Londres antes de completar su doctorado en Münster. Desde entonces, ha actuado en los cinco continentes en las salas de conciertos más prestigiosas, recibiendo excelentes críticas.

El 6 de noviembre, en el tercer concierto del Festival Internacional de Piano de este año, Ars Alta se enorgullece de presentar a Congyu Wang por segunda vez en Denia en un programa titulado «Encuentro Romántico». Congyu Wang, nacido en Singapur, se formó en Francia y ahora vive en La Reunión. Interpretará un movimiento de un concierto de Mozart y, a continuación, tres nocturnos de Chopin, seguidos de las cuatro baladas. Por si eso no fuera suficiente para una velada, interpretará la Paráfrasis de Rigoletto de Liszt, que es probablemente lo más virtuoso que se puede tocar.

Él mismo afirma que le encanta tocar el repertorio clásico, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin y Liszt, pero su repertorio va mucho más allá e incluye sus propias composiciones. También dice que intenta cambiar su repertorio de la misma manera que un restaurante cambiaría su menú, y los asistentes al concierto en Denia pueden esperar este menú basado en Chopin y Liszt. Congyu Wang es artista Steinway.

El 26 de noviembre, en un concierto titulado «La Reina», Ars Alta Cultural se enorgullece de presentar a la legendaria pianista turca Gülsin Onay. Con muchos años de experiencia en la cima del circuito internacional de conciertos, es reconocida como Artista del Estado en Turquía y ha tocado con muchas de las mejores orquestas y directores. Según Wikipedia, «es desde hace tiempo un nombre muy conocido en Europa y fuera de ella, con una carrera internacional que abarca más de 80 países e incluye colaboraciones con muchos de los artistas e instituciones musicales más prestigiosos de nuestro tiempo». También es famosa por defender la música del compositor turco Ahmed Adnan Saygun y, de hecho, interpretará dos de sus Preludios en Denia. Junto con Saygun, interpretará una Partita BWV825 de Bach, la Sonata K331 de Mozart y la Sonata en si menor, op58, de Chopin.

Ampliamente reconocida como una de las exportaciones culturales más aclamadas de Turquía, Gülsin Onay lleva décadas cautivando al público de todo el mundo, desde su primer concierto oficial cuando tenía seis años. Ha sido embajadora de buena voluntad de UNICEF y ahora divide su tiempo entre giras y conciertos, impartiendo clases magistrales en diversos lugares y formando parte del jurado de múltiples concursos internacionales. Tenemos la gran suerte de poder escucharla tocar en este cuarto concierto del Festival Internacional de Piano de Denia.

En sus propias palabras, «no basta con tocar, un pianista debe crear significado, decir algo con la pieza. Cada nota que toca debe tener un significado, no puede limitarse a tocar mecánicamente, eso no es suficiente». Aconseja a todos los pianistas que «se aseguren de que cada frase musical sea una nueva creación y una creación mágica».  El público de este cuarto concierto del Festival podrá juzgar a Gülsin Onay según su propio criterio personal, cuando ella observa que tocar el piano «es sin duda siempre una gran experiencia, es una gran alegría para mí, ¡y cada día me siento inmensamente agradecida por poder seguir tocando!».

El quinto y último concierto de este tercer Festival Internacional de Piano de Denia, que tendrá lugar el 4 de diciembre, correrá a cargo de un joven pianista que recientemente ha ganado el primer premio en el Concurso de Piano del Centro Franz Liszt. Bajo el título «Mastermind», el serbio Milan Slijepčević interpretará un programa exigente y ambicioso que promete una experiencia musical rica y variada, con algunos fuegos artificiales al final.

El concierto de Milan Slijepčević comenzará con Davidsbündlertänze op6 de Schumann, dieciocho piezas características de la primera etapa de la carrera del compositor. A continuación, interpretará el preludio «La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune» de Debussy y la lírica Quinta Sonata de Scriabin. Para terminar, tocará la Segunda Sonata de Prokofiev.

Nacido en 2000, Milan Slijepčević ha sido descrito como un intérprete de Schumann «con su habitual sensibilidad y maestría». Se le describe como «un joven pianista que ya ha conquistado la escena musical internacional con su virtuosismo y su capacidad para interpretar obras con gran madurez expresiva».

Ars Alta Cultural da prioridad a la promoción de jóvenes artistas y, en este quinto concierto del festival, nuestra organización está logrando su objetivo. Sin embargo, Milan Slijepčević es un pianista increíble y ya un intérprete experimentado. Sin duda, no decepcionará y tiene el potencial de llevar este tercer Festival Internacional de Piano de Denia a una conclusión emocionante y espectacular.

Ars Alta Cultural ha presentado dos festivales anteriores en Denia. En 2025, con el generoso apoyo del Ayuntamiento de Denia, estamos seguros de que el Festival Internacional de Piano de Denia alcanzará un nuevo nivel de excelencia.