Although totally forgotten today, Muscovite Iosif Genishta was a renowned composer and pianist in his day. His artistic friendships included Alexander Pushkin, Princess Volkonskaya, Robert Schumann and Hector Berlioz when the latest visited Russia. He was also active as a teacher and organiser of musical events: the earliest performances in Russia of Beethoven's piano concertos were the result of his skills as a promoter of large-scale musical events. Most probably a cellist himself, Genishta wrote three cello sonatas, reminiscent in style to early Beethoven. The second one was particularly praised by Schumann.
Programme
I. Genishta (1795-1853):
Sonata for cello and piano in C minor, Op. 6 (1834)
Sonata for cello and piano in A, Op. 7 (1837)
Sonata for cello and piano in D, Op. 13 (1847) UK premiere
R. Schumann (1810-1856):
Drei Romanzen, Op. 94
Ariana Kashefi (cello)
Alexander Karpeyev (piano)
Premiered online 7 March at 6.00pm GMT and now available to watch on demand until 14 April 2021.
Biographies
Ariana Kashefi
Praised for her innate musicianship and captivating stage presence, British-Persian cellist Ariana Kashefi is in high demand as a chamber musician and soloist performing in such venues as the Wigmore Hall, Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin Philharmonie and more.
Ariana has a true love and passion for chamber music and regularly performs with many renowned artists. Upcoming performances include collaborations with pianists Bruno Canino and Maksim Stsura – with whom she was awarded the first prize at the 2019 Luigi Nono chamber music competition in Turin, Italy. Though she regularly performs Classical cello repertoire, Ariana is also very keen to perform and explore modern pieces for the cello and expand the cello repertoire. She recently performed a solo cello recital of 21st century music at the South Bank centre, including the premiere of a new solo cello piece ‘From Night’ by Deborah Pritchard, which was written and dedicated to her for the occasion. She is a Talent Unlimited Artist and the winner of Making Music’s ‘Awards for Young Musicians’ (AYCA) as well as being a City Music Foundation Artist. She is also a top prize winner in the International Rubinstein cello Competition held in Berlin, a finalist in the Pierre Fournier Award which took place at the Wigmore Hall in London and a ‘Villa Musica’ scholarship recipient where she was also awarded the loan and use of a fine Gagliano cello.
Ariana received the prestigious ‘Julius Isserlis Scholarship’ for instrumental studies abroad from the Royal Philharmonic Society which allowed her to study for her masters at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin with professor Claudio Bohorquez. In Berlin she was chosen on two separate occasions to perform in the prestigious ‘Excellence Concerts’ for exceptional students and graduated with the highest possible mark for her final recital. After completing her masters, Ariana was hand picked by Maestro Barenboim to study at the prestigious Barenboim- Said Akademie where she received an artist diploma under the guidance of Frans Helmerson.
She began her studies with Robert Max at the Junior department of the Royal Academy of music where she won all available prizes and later completed her bachelors of music with first class honours at the Royal College of Music with Melissa Phelps as an Amaryllis Scholar. At the College she won the ‘Anna Shuttleworth’ cello prize in her first year and was named an ‘RCM rising star’ after performing Prokofiev concertino with the RCM symphony orchestra.
Recently she has appeared as a soloist live on BBC radio 3 ‘In Tune’ performing a selection of works including excerpts from Poulenc’s Cello sonata, Debussy cello sonata and Schumann Fantasiestucke. As an orchestral player, Ariana has worked with the London Symphony and has been invited on several tours with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Ariana frequently performs as a soloist with orchestras across Europe: this season included performances with the Southgate Symphony orchestra, the Janus ensemble, the Narva Symphony orchestra in Narva, Estonia, the Bristol Metropolitan Orchestra and the North London Symphony Orchestra.
Apart from her main teachers, Ariana has also received invaluable guidance over the years in masterclasses at Kronberg Acaddemy, IMS Prussia Cove, and Siena Chigiana academy, from Steven Isserlis, David Geringas, Ralph Kirshbaum and Gary Hoffman
Alexander Karpeyev
Featured as ‘One to watch’ in International Piano magazine, Alexander Karpeyev is a Russian pianist resident in the UK, who has performed throughout the UK and Europe and toured in the USA, Canada and Russia as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.
Karpeyev trained at the Moscow Conservatory with Vera Gornostayeva and Alexander Mndoyants and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama under Joan Havill. He is the winner of the Dudley International Piano Competition as well as the Norah Sande Award and the holder of a Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In 2014 he completed a performance practice doctoral degree at the City University, based on the Edna Iles Medtner Collection at the British Library. Karpeyev is often asked to give masterclasses and lectures on Russian performing practice.
‘Sasha’ is passionate about communicating his ideas on Romantic 19th and early 20th-century piano repertoire, and in particular exploring the works of virtuoso pianist-composers. A Medtner specialist, he became deeply immersed in Medtner’s music and approach to music-making while working on his doctoral degree, and his contact with unique performing practice evidence informs his own playing. In 2019 he gave the Algerian premiere of Chopin’s F minor Concerto with the Algerian National Opera Orchestra under Maestro Amine Kouider.
He devotes considerable time to promoting Russian music in London as the Music Curator of the Pushkin House Music Salon in Bloomsbury, where he appears both as a soloist and collaborator with guest artists. He also has a mission to devise and direct music festivals that imaginatively combine performance and scholarship.
As well as performing and speaking about music, Karpeyev is actively engaged in recording projects. The first, entitled ‘Russian Émigré Composers’ (Claudio Records, 2018), commemorates the centenary of the Russian Revolution and, in particular, highlights some of the achievements of the pianist composers who emigrated to Europe and the USA at that time. The second is a recording of ‘Composers at the Savile Club‘ (SOMM Recordings, 2019). The recording celebrates the 150th anniversary of the founding of the London club. Among those featured are Elgar, Parry, Stanford, Howells and Walton. In addition to works for solo piano, the recording includes trumpet fanfares by Savile Club recent and current members Sir Malcolm Arnold and Julian Anderson. This critically-acclaimed recording was at the top of Spotify, Apple Music and Primephonic releases in August 2019, as well as the Album of the Week at KUSC and KDFC radio stations in the US. The latest project is a CD of Medtner Songs, Opp. 36-7, 45-6, recorded with the Russian soprano Sofia Fomina, offering the first complete version of Opp. 36 and 46, with Russian texts by Pushkin, Tyutchev and Fet, and German texts by Goethe, Eichendorff and Chamisso; it was released by Chandos Records in 2021.
