Il pianista Pedroni ricorda Morricone

Note da camera sotto il Rosa

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Alagna, torna la rassegna organizzata dal maestro Pedroni in Valsesia.

Un programma eclettico che spazia da Bach all'americano John Williams...

Il pianista novarese Pedroni “a lezione” da Williams, il premio Oscar delle colonne sonore

Music of John Williams, unplugged

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Anyone seeking evidence that great film music deserves a worthy place in the standard classical repertoire need look no further than “John Williams: Themes and Transcriptions for Piano,” an extraordinary disc just released on the Varese Sarabande label...

...That's why I was so intrigued by the new disc "John Williams: Themes and Transcriptions for Piano" from Varese Sarabande. The performer is pianist Simone Pedroni, who won the gold medal at the 1993 Van Cliburn Competition. He performs a wide range of selections from famous films in piano transcriptions by himself and by Williams. The selections are beautifully performed and offer a fresh take on Williams' artistry....

John WilliamsThemes and Transcriptions for Piano (2017)

Pianoforte Simone Pedroni

Varèse Sarabande

Review by Robert Trate

Forlì Open Music 2017

... L’apertura del programma è affidata al romanticismo di Chopin con la Sonata in sol minore op. 65 del 1846 e al post-romanticismo di Rachmaninov con la Sonata in sol minore op.19 del 1901, interpretati dal duo Luca Franzetti al violoncello e Simone Pedroni al pianoforte .Evidente la totale padronanza della materia, di complessa esecuzione, tra le mani di interpreti talentuosi che la trattano con un trasporto emotivo e di intima partecipazione tale solo di chi ama profondamente ciò che sta suonando e della perfetta coesione interpretativa del duo.

John Williams
Themes and Transcriptions for Piano (2017)
Pianoforte Simone Pedroni
Varèse Sarabande

Review by Roberto Pugliese

Nino Rota: A Franco-Russian Alliance

...Pianist Simone Pedroni plays with a soft touch and plenty of pedal, and shows metal in the first-movement cadenza...

Da Bach alle note di «Star Wars»
Quando la musica è senza confini

Star Wars – A Musical Journey
Reportage del concerto tenutosi presso laVerdi di Milano il 14 Luglio 2016

Una bacchetta laser sul podio

Simone Pedroni dirige con la Verdi la colonna sonora della saga con brani in prima italiana

Reportage

Reportage

Un’orchestra che suona le musiche di Star Wars è l’esperienza definitiva

Il trionfo della fantasia al concerto Star Wars: A Musical Journey

STAR WARS: A MUSICAL JOURNEY – Una sera, nel tempio della musica, voliamo lontano

Musica stellare con Jedi e laser

La Verdi viaggia tra le galassie sulle note di Guerre Stellari.

Suonare nella mia città è sempre una grande sfida...

The magic of Williams in the piano of Simone Pedroni

La magia di Williams nel pianoforte di Simone Pedroni

Debussy e Harry Potter: il piano magico di Pedroni

La colonna sonora da Bach a Williams

ALAGNA MUSIC FESTIVAL
«From Bach to Williams»
Teatro Unione Alagnese

Four concerts 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of August 2014
For more than 20 years I have been lucky enough to know one of today’s most
outstanding pianists: Simone Pedroni.
In 1991 he was awarded the first price in Queen Sonja International Piano
Competition in Oslo, Norway.
Since that I have tried to follow his career and been highly impressed. When I
learned about his festival in Alagna, I knew I could not miss that chance to hear
him perform and to observe his way of organizing such an important event. The
fact that the festival should be staged in a village in the Alps was likewise
intriguing and tempting. So we left summer in Norway to be able to see, hear
and learn.
The experience was overwhelming! Music performed by the most outstanding,
top qualified artists, enthusiastic crowds filling this beautiful, small theatre. An
audience absorbed in thorough joy and wonder by the intensity and greatness
of the performances.
The Teatro Unione Alagnese, with its interesting theatrical scenery and its
unique acoustics, is perfect for the purpose! A real gem of which Alagna surely
must be very proud. Hopefully there will be many such performances in the
future!
Coming from Norway and working with and being deeply involved in
international classic music life, I know that a festival of the quality we enjoyed
in Alagna this August, is an extreme asset for a village primarily known for its
ski resorts. Alagna is a most beautiful place! Unique for its Walser culture and
for its dramatic country side and of course the Monte Rosa. With an offer to
visitors, domestic and foreign, of music performances the same high quality as
the surroundings, Alagna – also during the summer - stands out as the ideal
resort for any tourist who seeks value for the time spent.
The wonderful people who helped make this festival possible, must now be
very happy, proud and grateful for its magnificent success!
An extra special ‘thank you’ to Simone and Elisa Pedroni!
Bibbi Bøhn
Aure, Norway, August 2014

Simone Pedroni affronta la pagina con scultorea disinvoltura e sapienti ripiegamenti intimistici

In Rachmaninoff echoes of water and symbolism…

Simone Pedroni è anch’egli presenza ricorrente all’Auditorium in quanto pianista “in residence” de laVerdi. Il secondo concerto per pianoforte di Rachmaninov, richiede un mix di doti impressionanti per essere portato all’eccellenza esecutiva. Lo stile pianistico di Pedroni non manca certamente di una di queste doti: il carattere. Fin dai primi accordi si è mostrato interprete attento alla ricerca della particolarità, con una scansione molto lenta e imprevedibile che ha ricordato il ticchettio di un pendolo inquietantemente fuori orbita. Introspettivo, meditativo, analitico, articolato e marcato nel fraseggio ma delicato nelle timbriche.

Bis: Elegia op.3 dello stesso Rachmaninov, che è stata insieme alla romanza l’altro momento eccellente della serata. C’è grande intensità nel timbro scuro di Pedroni, che lascia le corde gravi molto risonanti ma ovattate, mentre fa squillare le note acute come singhiozzi non trattenuti di dolore in un clima di generale malinconia. La ripresa in pianissimo è infine estremamente poetica, stagliandosi come momento sincero e autentico della voce del singolo.

Alberto Luchetti

Piovono note russe sull’Auditorium

A volte le parole non sono in grado di esprimere l’emozione suscitata dallo scivolare delle note, quando queste sono legate tra loro in un’armonia perfetta che raggiunge il sublime. E’ il caso della sentita esecuzione di Simone Pedroni nel “Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra n.2 in Do min. op.18”, che apre, dopo il breve prologo di “Vocalise”, la prima parte del programma della serata de laVerdi.

Una sola cosa con il pianoforte, Pedroni ci ha regalato un’emozionante e delicata interpretazione di alcune tra le più celebri melodie di Rachmaninov. Il pubblico è letteralmente sopraffatto. Un’esecuzione di Rachmaninov perfetta, nella quale il pianista è concentrato al massimo e in alcuni passaggi sembra dirigere lui l’orchestra che lo segue puntualmente.

Direttore per questo programma, che potremmo definire, “dalla Russia con amore”, il direttore valenciano Gustavo Gimeno che nella seconda parte della serata, propone “Shéhérazade op.35”, dando particolare risalto non solo al violino solista Luca Santaniello, ma alle percussioni, probabilmente vista la sua vocazione personale come percussionista, per il quale riveste in maniera permanente un ruolo principale nella Royal Concergebouw Orchestra di Amsterdam.

Un concerto ben strutturato, che ha lasciato spazio a lunghi e ripetuti applausi premiati con un fuori programma, sempre in chiave Rachmaninov, da parte del generoso Pedroni, che pare sia nato con le mani al pianoforte e al quale auguriamo lunga e intensa carriera. Semplicemente grandioso nel suo essere così completo, espressivo ed empatico.

(Adele Labbate)

Pedroni estatico

A virtual recital from Scarlatti to Horowitz

The spirit of Vladimir Horowitz hovers over the last cd of Simone Pedroni. A spirit only suggested because Pedroni, an excellent virtuoso, Gold Medalist of the Van Cliburn Competition in 1993 when only 24-years-old, is wise enough not to challenge the unattainable virtuosity of Horowitz. If the unattainable cannot be reached it can anyway be suggested.

Horowitz is evoked in pages like Scarlatti’s Sonata K.87 in B minor which was one of the favourite miniatures of the great Russian pianist and in the acrobatic Variations on a theme from Carmenwhich Horowitz composed as an encore for his concerts without ever bothering to write it down.

A veil of subtle and sweet melancholy pervades Scarlatti’s Sonata. Sweet and without despair because Pedroni’s solid sensibility and self-control prevents him from dissolving the concrete musical material in the sensual and decadent fragments of Horowitz’s iridiscent vision. This Scarlatti so piano-centered and modern, far from a philological reading and also far from excesses, does work. It works because of the intuition of the pianist who is able to combine a solid technique and a rare quality of interpretation. He can pass from the incisive touch of the Sonata K.184, an almost harpsichord touch with the character of a regular piano phrasing, to the rythmic vitality of the Sonata K.127, reminiscent of ancient popular dances.

Far from a commonplace choice it is also the intelligent programme of this virtual recital which was recorded early in 2009 in the Basilica of S. Gaudenzio in Novara, the town of Pedroni. Scarlatti to start with and a piece of great virtuosity like the Variations on Bizet’s Carmen to finish. In between some pages from Chopin’s to please the large audience but also Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), an American glory, composer of brilliant and technically difficult pieces for the fashionable recitals of the past; he too is rendered by Pedroni with the usual lightness, brio and impeccable virtuosity.

Then the majestic and organ-like execution of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue BWV 532 in Busoni’s transcription with a perfectly “a tempo” Fugue, quite impressive for the incisive touch and the power of sound.

The piano technique of Pedroni reaches the power of sound of an orchestra also in Chopin’sPolonaise n.1 op.40, a dimension of sound reached without forcing timbre and the natural fluency of phrasing. The same volume of sound in the Nocturnes, precisely in the central part of the Nocturne op.48 n.1, comes out with force whenever it can even after a very sweet and modulated phrasing.

After all these remarks it is obvious that Horiwitz’s Variations cannot but be the apex of the recital. The surprise is that, unlike Denis Matsuev, another first-rate virtuoso, Pedroni does not aim at the rapidity of execution but at an incisive touch and at the emphatic stressing of the rythm. Once again Horowitz is evoked but not imitated, instead of his sublime lightness we are offered an overwhelming crescendo in rythm and an extremely clear and precise interpretation of every detail, including the inner voices

Luca Segalla

Pedroni’s surprising Schubert

This interpretation of Schubert’s Sonata in B flat major D.960 is surprising. First of all because it is performed by a pianist who is basically a virtuoso and usually the virtuoso pianists are not at their case with Schubert in the difficult research of the right balance of timbre and movement. Then it is a surprise because it is original and new in spite of the several interpretations given by almost all the great pianists. Richter, undoubtely an extraordinary virtuoso, was  able to render this Sonata with sharp emotional involvement and Pollini too, who may not be defined as a Schubert-inclined pianist, when really inspired, succeeded in performing it with incomparable bravura. But Richter was Richter and Pollini is Pollini.

After these two mythical pianists the critical analysis might be concluded, but with Pedroni a new reading of the text is given. Pedroni seems to be able to fully perceive Schubert’s ambivalent melancholy, its constant dissolving sadness into serenity, suspended between refined intellectual reminiscences and remote memories of popular dances and rythms.

The beginning of the Sonata in B flat  major is pervaded by that dreaming melancholy made more precious by the delicate and suasive touch of the pianist. Nothing remains of the desolate existential interpretation of Richter or of the dark meditation of Radu Lupu. Pedroni as usual captures us  with his innocent and natural phrasing and with the accurate reading of every detail in the composition. Just listen to the countermelody of the left hand which in the initial bars echoes the theme of the right hand. The repetition of the theme in G flat major, at the the bar 19th and the following ones, is enchanting and dreamy as if coming from another world. And yet this is only a seeming innocence: in fact when the theme returns in a dark C sharp minor the atmosphere changes radically.

The second movement is slow and lirical. A very slow tempo is not a problem, but to keep it up is certainly very difficult: a problem that Pedroni solves in a splendid way thanks to a light and elegant phrasing. And then the Scherzo, lively and robust, is fresh air after the nightmarish “rêveries” of the first two movements. The Allegro ma non troppo marks the detachment from the initial melancholy in an ascent towards light which Pedroni is able to render with extraordinary sensibility.

Great sensibility again in the execution of some among Schubert’s most celebrated Lieder in the transcription by Liszt. Outstanding is the execution of Der Leiermann which like a heavy tombstone concludes the cycle Winterreise. Good Ständchen, very sweet in its dim timbre, and the Ave Mariawhere Pedroni enjoys without hesitations the total pleasure, physical and spiritual of singing confirming that also an excellent virtuoso like him is able to reveal a delicate touch and a light phrasing when necessary. At the end the nightmares of Erlkönig rendered with overwhelming dramatic force amphasizing in particular the theatrical dimension of the text.

Luca Segalla

ROMA PARCO DELLA MUSICA

ORCHESTRA E CORO DELL’ACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DI S. CECILIA

direttore, VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY

pianista, SIMONE PEDRONI

Nell’ultima “tre giorni” della stagione 2008-2009 Santa Cecilia ha puntato sul prestigio dei nomi; ma ciò che più contava era il Beethoven di raro ascolto, l’”esploratore” della Grande Fuga op.133 per quartetto d’archi, proposta nella trascrizione di Weingartner.

Nella Fantasia op. 80 di Beethoven era la sperimentazione dei generi a stupire, come l’effetto emotivo generato dall’improvvisa esplosione corale, proveniente (lo giuro!) dalle viscere dell’organico strumentale, come nel caso della IX Sinfonia. Insomma un assaggio di ciò che Beethoven stava sperimentando tra sé e sé.

Vladimir Ashkenazy si concede ormai solo dal podio, ma la Fantasia in do minore comprendeva anche ben altro: la partecipazione di un virtuoso solista al pianoforte, il giovane Simone Pedroni. Di qui il successo.

Mya Tannebaum

ENGLISH VERSION

ASHKENAZY AND PEDRONI IN SANTA CECILIA

In the last three days of 2008-09 season Santa Cecilia has totally relied on the prestige of great names, but what really mettered was the Beethoven not so frequently heard, the “explorer” of the Fugue op. 133, proposed in Weingartner’s transcription.

In the Fantasy op. 80 for piano, orchestra, soli and chorus, it was the experimentations of genres to amaze, such as the emotional effect created by the sudden choral explosion which was coming (believe me!) from the innermost soul of the instruments: just as it happens with the Ninth Symphony.

By now Vladimir Ashkenazy appears only at the conducting stand, but the Fantasia op.80 offered also something more: the participation of a virtuoso soloist at the piano, the young Simone Pedroni, which means success.

Mya Tannenbaum

The Ninth Symphony and Pedroni’s Outstanding Piano

A hearty wish of happiness and brotherhood for the oncoming 2009 and the traditional Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony were offered by the Orchestra Verdi at the Auditorium in the final concert (…).

But it was Simone Pedroni’s piano the true poet of the soirée. The piano was the protagonist of the rich initial part with the performance of the Fantasia op. 80, the perfect counterpart to the Symphony for the several ethical and thematic analogies.

Pedroni is masterly at lingering over extremely refined shades of interpretation even in the fire of the highest elan. He is skilful at interweaving gentleness and heroic pride. “Lieb’ und Kraft”, as Kuffner verses say: “Love and Force”. A great wish for the oncoming year.

Gian Mario Benzing

LISZT Vallée d’Obermann; Mazeppa; Consolations n. 3-4; Rigoletto Paraphrase; Variation.
LISZT/BUSONI Fantasy and Fugue on “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”
CD La Bottega Discantica 167

Liszt by Pedroni: virtuosity, powerful technique, lion-like force and great freedom of phrasing.

A solid and powerful technique, a lion-like force dominates the Liszt interpretation offered by Simone Pedroni in this Cd which cannot be missed because of the superb performance of Fantasie und Fugue uber den Choral “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”, a page of majestic sound with a complex superimposition of polyphony and timbre.

It is a mighty work which Liszt composed in 1850, drawing inspiration on the atmosphere and on the themes of Mayerbeer’s Prophet, and which was transcribed by Busoni in 1897. A double transcription made by the two most brilliant geniuses of the nineteenth century dedicated to re-creating other composers’ music.

A page of so high virtuosity and emotional depth demands not only the qualities of a great virtuoso but also the sensibility of an extraordinary interpreter. Pedroni, the winner of the 1993 Van Cliburn piano competition, succeeds in the task, showing a perfect command of the vast polyphonic structures of the Fantasy as well as of the refined lyrical atmosphere of the central Adagio and of the complicate final Fugue.

The pianist, born in Novara, possesses a great freedom of phrasing together with a virtuosity aimed rather at achieving great sonority than at rapidity of execution.

Then we find a Paraphrase of Verdi’s Rigoletto made of hesitations and bursts just from the bizarre and sparkling opening bars with a phrasing more similar to a murmured parlando than to a full voice song. An interpretation mutable and variable like the game of seduction and just like the mutable Duke of Mantua who embodies the leading theme of Liszt’s Paraphrase.

Restless is the phrasing of Mazeppa too, perfectly rendered and reproduced by a technically excellent recording.

Great charm in the opening theme of the Vallée d’ Obermann, filtered through a thoughtful lyricism rather than through the usual attack which is so often chosen.

In the end Pedroni gives back with a delicate and supple phrasing, and in a quite convincing way, two frail pages like Consolations n.3 and n.4, which might be easily spoilt by a pianist not so sensitive.

Luca Segalla

Liszt e Pedroni, il piano oltre il piano

Simone Pedroni, artista dalle mani d’oro

Fresco di diploma, Simone Pedroni vinceva il secondo premio al concorso Arthur Rubinstein di Tel-Aviv e il primo al Queen Sonja di Oslo. Tutto bene per un ragazzo poco più che adolescente, ma era il Texas a rivelarsi la terra promessa con quella medaglia d’oro al Van Cliburn che lo portava immediatamente alla ribalta. Seguiva il giro di concerti-premio negli Stati Uniti, concerti dunque denaro, esperienze e notorietà.

Così, Simone Pedroni, di Novara, studi a Milano e poi a Imola (naturalmente all’Accademia di Franco Scala) brilla fra i più bei pianisti di casa nostra. E brilla in un’epoca in cui case discografiche, direttori artistici e di riflesso anche i media, tendono a concentrare attenzioni ed energie vuoi sui fenomeni venuti dall’estremo Oriente – alla vigilia delle Olimpiadi in Cina sta impazzando Lang Lang, per esempio – vuoi su artisti-personaggio scelti spesso in virtù di storie umane intriganti.

(da Il Giornale.it)

Pedroni al piano con Brahms

E’ una delle pagine più trascinanti del repertorio romantico il Secondo Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra di Brahms: un concentrato di temi carichi di passione. La scelta dell’orchestra Verdi all’Auditorium è caduta su uno dei pianisti più rappresentativi del repertorio tardo romantico, Simone Pedroni, solista di solida e ammirevole profondità espressiva.

(da la Repubblica.it)

Music – The pianist Simone Pedroni with the Orchestra Verdi conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

An outstanding and really intriguing interpretation of Brahms

At the piano there was Simone Pedroni who threw himself into Brahms ‘ Concerto in B flat major with great passion and enthusiasm.
Passion and enthusiasm which are necessary to explore and extract the essence out of the complex and even obsessing world of themes and motifs that mark most of Brahms chamber music.

But the piano, in Concerto n. 2, is not the soloist instrument that flies over the orchestra in absolute freedom bending it to its needs. Not only must the piano take the orchestra into consideration but it is itself an integral part of it. A sort of far -wide network comes out where every single element contributes to the general plan and where no one of them can override the others: the dialogue between soloist and orchestra must be uninterrupted.

Pedroni, who had the lucky chance of meeting a conductor essential and innovative like Slatkin and an Orchestra quite precise and supportive like the Orchestra Verdi, has given us an outstanding Brahms, really intriguing and, above all, rich in details.
Warm applause and a light and exquisite Mazurka by Chopin as an encore brought the soirée to a brilliant end.

Roberto Zambonini

Simone Pedroni, recital memorabile.

Simone Pedroni, memorable recital

LUGANO. For late nineteenth-century Italian composers the grand opera tradition, pride of the whole nation, was felt like a prison from which to escape.

Martucci was one of the musicians who looked at the Mitteleurope of Beethoven and Wagner, at the Romantic and late Romantic flowering of Symphony: among his works there is not even the title of an Opera while vast is the repertoire of piano compositions and symphonies highly appreciated by great artists such as Liszt and Rubinstein. Pages which were seldom performed in the past, have begun to appear in concert programmes: it is a chapter of Italian music history exceptionally rich and full of unexpected discoveries.
Last Friday we had a confirmation of that with the Italian Switzwerland Orchestra (OSI) conducted by James Gaffigan and with Simone Pedroni as a soloist in the First Piano Concerto by Martucci.

Mr. Pedroni, born in Novara but musically educated in Milan, is a musician capable of joining a rock-solid technique with a refined sensitivity in chiselling the cantabile passages. Above all he is a musician endowed with overwhelming capability of communication.

After the Nocturne by Martucci too, a delicate and touching flower that the OSI offered as the opening piece, Pedroni, well accompanied by Maestro James Gaffigan, sculptured the Brahms remiscent themes of the first and third movement, letting himself go to the neverending melancholy of the second movement, a sort of Neapolitan canzona that sounds like a sweet homage of the composer to his land: Martucci was from Capua and died in Naples.

Pedroni will come back to Lugano on the 23rd of April to show another aspect of his skills as a communicator. By renewing an experience that has been extremely successful in Milan and reminds us of the mythical Discovery Concertos by Leonard Bernstein, he will present Mussorsgky’s ” Pictures from an Exhibition”. Before the complete performance of the work, Pedroni will illuminate the spiritual and visual journey of the composer with the support of significant musical examples.

ENRICO PAROLA

LUGANO. Control and passion. In the technical language of music these two words have almost always sounded as contradictory terms: the former implies an attentive and accurate performance respectful of the rules of playing, the latter allows a chance of eluding the technical dictates in order to achieve a complete emotional identification between he who plays and what is played.Using an analogy we might distinguish between precision and sensitivity.

Among the several shades of colour in the transition from control to passion there is a median line that may be regarded as the ultimate and highest aim of the art of interpretation. That line is where the artist fulfils both emotional trance without blurs and clear-cut precision that opens to overwhelming passions.

Just along this challenging route,impracticable to the majority, did the pianist Pedroni set off last Friday by giving to the audience of Concerti Pubblici ReteDue the encore of the Elegy from Morceaux de Fantasie Op. 3 by Sergej Rachmaninov. Poignant was the emotion for those who listened, strained between two sensations: to enjoy the piano expertise shown in the scientific use of the pedal that created amazing effects of closeness and remoteness and to become aware at the same time that a musicality of powerful pathos was flowing above the technical perfection.

The encore was the apex of a fine concert which, in line with the theme of the Festival “A Passage in Italy” offered two pages by Giuseppe Martucci (the Nocturne op. 70 and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra n. 1) and the Symphony “Italian” by Mendelssohn with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conducted by the young Maestro James Gaffigan.

The repertoire of Martucci is not very often performed but it is of great quality and effect. It is the admirable output from a minority current of Italian late nineteenth century composers who were not interested in opera. It strikes in Martucci’ s works a clear connection with German late-romantic music: in the Nocturne he reflects the harmonic richness and the wide development of themes typical of Wagner, in the Piano in the Concerto the Liszt-like rhapsodic virtuosity.

The lyrical force of the Nocturne has been perfectly interpreted by Gaffigan as well as by our Orchestra , whose principal clarinet and the cello acted as very brilliant soloists.

The rhapsodic and manyfolded character of the Concerto was rendered very well by the orchestra who accompanied the histrionic Pedroni.

A successful performance, in conclusion, both for conductor and soloist.

ZENO GABAGLIO

The Orchestra which disappeared and the pianist who won!

As the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra had to cancel its performance, with Pedroni as soloist in Rachmaninov’s piano concerto no 2, because more than 40 % of the musicians came down with serious flue, Simone Pedroni went on stage alone and gave a recital which totally hypnotized the public. The audience realized that this was indeed a worthy substitute for the cancelled concert.

Not all pianists can do this. But Simone Pedroni is one of very few who succeeds in making a piano recital an adequate and convincing substitute for a symphony concert. That is what the performance in Olavshallen yesterday showed, as Pedroni gave a demanding program which was both thoroughly prepared and delicate. We listened to an overwhelming Busoni-adapted Bach, a touching and dramatic Chopin, a disrespectful Ravel, and a descriptive Musorgskij. All of this with a personal presentation whereas the musical embroidering went to the greatest possible length in the direction of both bodily gestures and vocal groaning. Because Pedroni is an artist all through, with him the details create the perfection, and the perfection projects anything but a trifle.

It is this embroidering the details which creates the music. Because music is primarily structures capable of carrying most everything. Especially does this go with the music of Bach. Therefore this invites to a liberal adaptation, which in this case is carried through and completed by Pedroni. He is totally free in his interpretations. This also expresses itself in the two nocturnes from Chopin’s opus 48. Here the most dramatic music is created in the chromatic melodic lines that could easily lead up to the most ferocious ends, but Chopin is the master who leads it all to safety in the most matter of fact way.

But the one who really thrives in common musical memories is Ravel, as in “La valse (poeme choreographique)” where he creates an almost disrespectful interpretation of the Wiener- waltz. In this piece Pedroni showed himself as a totally unprecedented master. Such colourful variations and eminent virtuosity have hardly ever before been shown in the OlavsHall. The disrespect never goes into any kind of parody, but first and foremost it shows an incredible complex way of communicating, wherein endless layers of meaning is passed on to the audience at the same time. Again Pedroni succeeded in communicating with his whole self, combining the music, the gestures and the vocal expression into descriptive perfection by which nobody could leave the Hall untouched.

Hroar Klempe

Il trionfo del romanticismo

South America Tour 2006 with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, conducted by Roberto Abbado.

Buenos Aires

La hiper romantica exposiction del adagio ahogò el visceral impulso brahmsiano con una exposition demasiado contemplativa del segundo tempo. El pianista un tecnicamente muy apto Simone Pedroni fue premiado con una ovacion que lo obligò a un bis. Eligiò la Eligia de un ampliamente expresivo Rachmaninoff.

Un concierto fuera de la rutina.

El major momento de Simone Pedroni fue el segundo movimento, cuanda pido demonstrar su esquisitez y poesia, algo que tambien exhibió con holgura en la Eligia de Rachmaninoff op. 3, ofrecida fuera de la programa. (Bablo Kohan).
LA NACION 12/06/2009

Santiago del Chile

El programa ofrecido por los jóvenes en su única presentación en Chile fue potente, con una obra de Maderna, un Concierto de Brahms y una Sinfonía de Beethoven.

De Brahms se ofreció el gran Concierto N° 1 para piano y orquesta, con la participación de Simone Pedroni como solista, en una versión que pasó las más exigentes pruebas.

El solista fue muy bueno (ofreció un bello nocturno chopiniano como encore) y el director también lo fue.

Domenica 3 Settembre 2006, spettacoli p. 35

Straordinario recital di Pedroni che spazia da Ravel a Chopin

Il vincitore del «Van Cliburn» del 1993, Simone Pedroni, è stato protagonista l’altra sera di uno straordinario recital nella sala «Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli» del Conservatorio di Bolzano: chiamato a sostituire l’infortunato Alexander Kobrin, Pedroni ha interpretato brani di Chopin, «La Valse» di Ravel e i «Quadri di un’esposizione» di Musorgskij: una serata assolutamente eccezionale grazie alla bravura, al temperamento di questo interprete che ha avuto vere e proprie ovazioni da parte del pubblico di Bolzano. E ci stupisce che un pianista di così grande valore abbia una grandissima carriera all’estero e che in Italia sia praticamente sconosciuto, anche agli appassionati che seguono con attenzione rassegne e festival.

Sicuramente – come diceva il maestro Andrea Bonatta, direttore artistico del “Ferruccio Busoni” – bisognerebbe prestare maggiore attenzione ad artisti come questo, spesso costretti a emigrare letteralmente all’estero.

Luigi Fertonani

Are you happy, Felix?

Lugar: Teatro Cervantes.

Intérpretes: Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga y Simón Pedroni ( piano)

Dirección: Christian Badea.

Fecha: 7 y 8 de mayo.

NOTAS ITALIANAS

MANUEL DEL CAMPO

PROGRAMA italiano -autores italianos- el que la Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga ofrecía en su ‘reaparición’ en el teatro Cervantes en jornada que se repetía el sábado por la noche. Obras de Giuseppe Martucci y Ottorino Respighi, maestro y discípulo, aquel un tanto wagneriano influenciado por Listz y éste, brillantísimo orquestador, con antecedentes clasicistas que tampoco da la espalda a Wagner, al mismo Richars Strauss, a los impresionistas y a los rusos. El espléndido piano de Simone Pedroni brilló con frescura con su toque elegante con regusto romántico al servicio de los melódicos pentagramas del ‘Concierto num. 1 en re menor’ en una primorosa versión estupendamente acompañada por la OFM y el maestro Christian Badea. Pedroni prolongó su actuación con el bis de un bello ‘Nocturno’ -piano solo- del mismo Martucci.

Un diluvio di applausi per Simone Pedroni…

Tenerife, XX Festival de Canarias
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano conducted by Riccardo Chailly

Pedroni, a true giant of the keyboard

As a perfect prelude to the vigorous ‘Ninth Symphony’, Chailly presented, in the first part of the program, an inspiring and luminous interpretation of the ‘Fantasy for piano, chorus and orchestra of Beethoven, rendered even more grand thanks to the perfect collaboration of pianist Simone Pedroni, a true giant of the keyboard, who’s ‘Fantasy’ brought to light fully the piece’s expressiveness and stylistic depth.

(Justo Romero)

Interview

Trieste, Teatro Verdi

Pedroni seduce con le Variazioni Goldberg

Con l’esecuzione delle Variazioni Goldberg il giovane Simone Pedroni ha chiuso in bellezza il Festival Pianistico “Giovani Interpreti e Grandi Maestri” (…). Un gran finale molto atteso dagli appassionati in quanto le “Variazioni” costituiscono un punto di arrivo sia per chi esegue che per chi ascolta. (…).

Simone Pedroni ha dimostrato chiaramente che le si poteva attraversare evitando di percorrere il canale forse fin troppo scontato della vitalità meccanicistica e dell’astrazione a tutti i costi, evidenziando invece come i diversi segmenti della partitura trovano adeguato risalto anche in una certa tolleranza e morbidezza di perimetro.

Tocco vellutato, fantasia timbrica, un fraseggio variegato e sorretto da raffinata dinamica sono gli elementi che Pedroni ha messo in campo per ammaliare la platea tanto nel cruciale Bach che nei due generosi fuori programma: lo stupendo e commovente “Isoldes Liebestod” di Wagner trascritto da Liszt e il corposo “Notturno” in sol bemolle di Giuseppe Martucci, in un crescendo di seduzioni sonore che hanno stregato lo scelto pubblico.

(Patrizia Ferialdi)

…La florida fantasia di Pedroni fluisce con tutta la libertà indispensabile per dare alle Variazioni Goldberg un’impronta fortemente personale… 

Passau, Sala grande del Municipio.

Un’interpretazione che commuoveva e rapiva

(…) Dopo i maestri italiani Simone Pedroni ha eseguito il Concerto Italiano di Bach (1685-1759). Una grande interpretazione, la sua: il primo e l’ultimo tempo, furiosi e focosi, l’Andante, così pieno di sentimento, proprio come una preghiera, come il colloquio solitario di un credente. Nell’ultimo pezzo del programma, le Fantaisies et Finale di Robert Schumann (versione originale di Studi Sinfonici), le sue mani hanno cominciato addirittura a cantare. Plasmata da un tocco forte e consapevole, la musica è cresciuta fino ad una grandezza sconosciuta.

Pedroni faceva risorgere l’immagine grandiosa dei XIX° secolo, ricolma di tedesca melanconia. Ci siamo ritrovati in un salotto con il compositore stesso che tormentava il pianoforte a coda, immerso nel suo mondo spirituale e nei suoi sogni. Un’interpretazione di questo genere ci ha fatto rivivere tutte le difficoltà e le tragedie che furono proprie della vita di Schumann, il dolore di un amore struggente, il lutto per una persona, il rimpianto della felicità, la tristezza di un’anima vulnerabile, sensibile, la nostalgia di un ideale trasfigurato, la rabbia per la propria inadeguatezza, ma anche un’incommensurabile ricchezza d’idee e di poesia.

Pedroni ha messo in risalto i tratti melodici in modo incantevole, correva, in apparenza senza fatica, ad una velocità pazzesca sopra i tasti, sebbene questo Schumann contenga tutte le difficoltà pianistiche immaginabili. L sua interpretazione commuoveva e rapiva, trascinava con sé in un mondo lontano.

(Stefan Apfelbeck)

Fort Worth, Texas Christian University/Cliburn Piano Institute

Pedroni shows maturing talent

Pedroni presented an exemplary concert which, though entirely made up of 19th-century romantic music, showed a huge range of artistry, musicianship and technique.

Whether in the whispered, immaculately voiced beginning bars of Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat (D. 960) that opened the evening, or in the thunderous octaves that closed Liszt’s Rigoletto paraphrase at the end of the recital, Pedroni showed constant command of the piano as well as an imaginative intellectual and emotional approach to the music.

Never betraying Schubert’s purposely lean texture, Pedroni achieved, through careful pacing, an epic effect in the sonata; its mammoth length, an obstacle to performers and listeners across the generations, became an advantage, as Pedroni created an intimate adventure.
After intermission, he “sang” six of Liszt’s solo piano transcriptions of Schubert songs, including the particularly (and deservedly) famous Gretchen am Spinnrade (“Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel”), Ave Maria and Erlkonig (“The Erlking”). Again, Pedroni revealed new depths in these old favorites, underlining at some times psychological revelations (for example, the spinning wheel’s motion as a metaphor for emotional agitation) and at other times spiritual aspects (as in the continual thickening of textures in the Ave Maria as a musical representation of heightened consciousness).

While pure artistry was the mainstay of most of the recital, virtuosity took center stage for the grand finale in Liszt’s paraphrase of Verdi’s Rigoletto. His encore was a Lisztian Tarantella by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Martucci and a delicately mournful Mazurka by Chopin.

(Wayne Lee Gay)

Pictures repainted by Simone Pedroni.

Italian pianist Simone Pedroni returns with a discographic testimony of great prestige. This time, it’s the turn of ‘Pictures in an Exhibition’, repainted by Pedroni with a investigative touch, shunning all routine and banality, impregnating the whole with characters of newness suggested directly from the music. Pedroni’s version, technically brilliant, as is to be expected from a Van Cliburn winner, conquers above all for its new flows, colors, and gradations with which Pedroni gives shape to Musorgsky’s masterpiece. It is a reading which must surely find its place amongst the best, completed with gorgeous and moving versions of selected works of Arvo Pärt.

Milano, Teatro Dal Verme
Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, Aldo Ceccato

Pedroni “illustra” il Brahms di Ceccato

(…) C’è un ottima ragione per andare al Dal Verme, oggi alle cinque: Aldo Ceccato guida l’orchestra de I Pomeriggi Musicali in un programma che contrappone la Quarta Sinfonia di Schubert al Primo Concerto per pianoforte di Brahms, e soprattutto un pianista che lascia il segno.

Simone Pedroni ha offerto una splendida esecuzione del concerto brahmsiano; suono cristallino, tecnica perfetta, e la capacità di rendere i malinconici chiaroscuri che ammantano la partitura di Brahms, per riversarsi in un appassionato finale.

(Edo. To.)

…Una tensione arcana e avvincente, appassionata e frugale insieme… 

Pure Bach

Paradoxically, the pure and integral Bach of Pedroni surprises and even irritates the most orthodox custodians of a certain Bachian interpretation. Pedroni frees himself of useless historicisms relishing in a simple and natural manner the spiritual and expressive genius which permeate the ‘Goldberg Variations’. Pedroni, a mystic of the keyboard, reveals in these 2 CDs the infinite beauty and sentiment that the world of Bach can unveil, even when performed on a modern piano. The sensitive and virtuoso Italian pianist reaches nirvana in the Aria, slow and profoundly spiritual, which in his hands is converted to a prelude to a prodigious sequence of sonorous images through which the music reaches the level of sublime. A marvel for the ears and above all, for the heart. Bach-Pedroni, in this version which is not to be missed, form a binomial as indissoluble as Chopin-Rubinstein or Albeniz-Alicia del Larrocha.

(Justo Romero)

Simone Pedroni transmitted his music to us with luminosity, technical perfection and lyrical impulse…

Finesse and mastery

Madrid, Auditorio Nacional
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano conducted by Riccardo Chailly

Virtuosity and expressive values

In the interpretation of the young Italian pianist Simone Pedroni, accompanied with attention and richness of color and tone by Chailly and his instrumentalists, the more lyrical moments struck us (the second movement was splendid), without diminishing the awareness of form of the grand late-romantic concert. The music was performed with due virtuosity by soloist and orchestra, always however giving precedence to expressive values, in a splendid marriage of intents.

Interview.

Un’avventura dello spirito… 

Simone Pedroni brings clarity to 19th Century classic

Una lettura lucida ed emozionante

Di cheOgni suono, ogni frase, ogni armonia sono ricondotti da Pedroni ad una unità primigenia che regola lo scorrere musicale… 

Simone Pedroni, the keyboard poet

Del pianista Pedroni hay que decir que extrae una gama infinita de volúmenes y matices sonoros…

A profound and even audacious artistic understanding

La coppia beethoveniana Pedroni-Noseda, al confronto con i due più delicati concerti per pianoforte, si è buttata, ottenendo un risultato da incorniciare.

Fort Worth, JFK Theatre

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Ron Spigelman

Rarely heard Tchaikovsky

(…) Mr. Pedroni was the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, which may be the most-played work of its kind. (…) Overplayed the Concerto may be, but this performance of it was no cliché.

It was remarkably varied, with Mr. Pedroni finding a moltitude of moods beyond the excitement of sheer virtuosity. There were times during reflective passages when the pianist’s lyrical and fluid approach, with generous use of rubato, would have suited a Chopin Nocturne. There was the usual thunder and lightning as well, but he never let his listeners forget that this is a multifaceted composition. Another reason it did not seem a cliché is that Mr. Pedroni and the orchestra were using the original 1874 version of the Concerto.

(Olin Chism)

Milano, Società del Quartetto, Sala Verdi

L’elegante pianoforte di Pedroni.

Abbiamo riascoltato il pianista Simone Pedroni, esibitosi al Conservatorio per le Serate Musicali, a quasi due anni di distanza da quando, con l’aurea medaglia del Van Cliburn ancora appuntata sul petto, era salito sul palcoscenico del Verdi. Seppure il programma fosse stato allora differente nella sostanza pianistica (Bach, Schönberg e Chopin se la memoria non ci inganna), è oggi apparso evidente il progressivo consolidarsi di un processo di maturazione ed approfondimento artistico in atto che sta inesorabilmente trasformando il giovane pianista da laureato vincitore di concorsi a concertista “tout court”, dotato di gusto e personalità assolutamente originali.Pedroni ha dedicato tutta la prima parte del concerto alla Sonata in Si bemolle maggiore di Schubert della quale ha offerto una lettura ammirevole per la minuziosa analisi psicologica cui ha sottoposto questa significativa opera pianistica, ricavandone fiotti di poesia prontamente restituiti attraverso delicate sfumature timbriche e preziose mezzetinte sonore.Così è stato sia nel primo movimento, “Molto moderato”, condotto esaltando le pause ed i respiri che continuamente interrompono il discorso musicale, ridotto a frammenti lirici che faticano nel trovare una conclusione (suggestivo e misterioso il trillo della sinistra, quasi un minaccioso rombo di tuono avvertito in lontananza) sia nel secondo, “Andante sostenuto”, dove il canto della destra è stato incastonato fra lievi arpeggi dell’altra mano. (…)

(Paolo Tarallo)

Simone Pedroni lives up to his reputation.

Pedroni received a standing ovation and everyone was convinced of the extraordinary powers of the young pianist.

Indianapolis, DeHaan Fine Arts Center

Prague Chamber Orchestra

Prague Orchestra-goers blessed with superior music-making

(…) The music-making was of a superior quality and the Indianapolis debut of Simone Pedroni must be counted one of the important musical events of this or any other season. (…) Pedroni’s playing was marked (in Mozart’s 24th Piano Concerto) by a sparing use of sustaining pedal on the one hand and singing legato phrases on the other. Most pianist can’t do the latter without relying heavily on the former.

And his was a passionate interpretation but one that achieved that passion without resorting to sloppy romanticizing. While the 24th is not a showy concerto, the Busoni cadenza the small, pale, youthful-looking artist used in the first movement gave him ample opportunity to display his fine technical wares. And for an encore he did wonders with a transcription of the March from Prokofiev’s opera, The love of Threee oranges.

(Charles Staff)

Milano, Teatro alla Scala

Five encores and enthusiasm for Simone Pedroni

Through thought in sound, the pianist Simone Pedroni conquered his prevalently young audience in the Teatro alla Scala, dragging their enthusiasm to five encores. And yet he is not an aggressive or bewitching concert player, but rather a convincing artist who works at the compositions making them his own. In Bach’s English Suite n.6, behold the line that stretches out with the watermarked sound of the prelude, runs along the smoothness of the grace notes, and becomes strong in that typical manner in which Pedroni raises the sound.

The suite runs through history, suggests Pedroni, and proves it with Hindemith’s Suite 1922, where the

alternation assumes the frenzied rhythm of daily life and of american dances, where the sound becomes accent, scratch, percussion; the smooth, well-shaped line suddenly starts to waver, nostalgia for Nocturne, gust of Waltz, steady rhythm of Jazz.

In Pictures at an Exhibition Pedroni delves into Mussorgsky’s magical, telluric and popular universe, he stresses the rhythm of the Promenade with the progressive awareness of a visitor who is taken by the visions. He strengthens it dramatically with the progression of sound, insistence on provocative notes, and the expected pictures appears liberating deep secrets of Russian tenderness.

(Franca Cella)

Genova, Teatro Carlo Felice

Pedroni, pianist with “grinta”

(…) Warm was the welcome for Simone Pedroni’s young hands. This rising star unsheathed such determination and personality that it is probable – if not at all possible – that his name will be short-listed among the great players and musicians who have left a trace of their artistic adventure.

This is because from him there emerges a markedly personal interpretative nature, which is strongly communicative and poetically sensitive. He offered a great wealth of shades of tones creating strong effects, a large assortment of staccati and a wide range of pianissimi, the best moments in Hindemith. Enormous was the enthusiasm at the end of the recital concluded by two encores.

(Giorgio De Martino)

Pedroni’s original Bach-style interpretation saw the union of a very unique and wholly piano sound with a practical harpsichord-type execution. Harped chords and richly creative agrements, abounding in refrains often led on a tenuous thread of sound, conferred the spectator unexpected surprises.

Then, with great mastery Pedroni played Schoenberg’s difficult Suite. Also with Mussorgsky large contrasts and images, as though reflected in deforming mirrors, suddenly took on all sorts of shapes characterizing a very personal interpretation.

Münich, Herkulessaal.

Child of Romanticism.

Silently he stares at the keys. Simone Pedroni requires quite some time to concentrate, to take heart for his appearance at the Herkulessaal. But one can notice: it makes a lot of sense for him to take his time, to quietly concentrate. With the first note Pedroni comes to the point, there are no warm-up rounds, we are immediately engulfed. Starting with the Bach’s solemn C-major Adagio BWV 968, he follows this with the lively Prelude of Third English Suite. He plays it very slowly, it almost sounds like Brahms. (…) But Pedroni had the nerves, the technical confidence and the musical charisma to see it trough, and to convince the audience of his seemengly old fashioned yet properly suitable manner. He showed his feelings easly when hearing Bach’s music, and behind the veiled pedalling we saw the musical framework, the strict order of feelings. (…)

He painted the Hindemith 1922 Suite in strong color, and thoug heard rarely, he brought out the melodic r

ichness of Hindemith (…)

He showed wath great musical talent he has: the eloquence of his piani, the superior art of small gestures alone make him stand out from musical mediocrity.

He showed himself courageus in his encore. With Liszt transcripion of Isolde’s Liebestod, with wich he dreamed alomg as if lost to the world, he constructed effects which again made clear: Pedroni let Wagner’s soundwaves collapse again and again – in the clarity of historic distance one can continue to dream Wagner who remains timelessly in the present.

(Helmut Mauró)

Pedroni makes the most of Mozart in DSO concert.

New York, Carnegie Hall

Romanticist ignites ivories

The Van Cliburn Competition brought his most recent winner, Simone Pedroni, to Carnegie Hall on Monday for his New York debut and he clearly demostrated that the judges had their hears well tuned when they presented him the 1993 Gold Medal.(…)

His command of the instrument is awesome and his views of works by Bach, Schoenberg, Haydn and Rachmaninoff are individual and decisive. He is not just another competition winner stamped out by the cookie-cutter. In Bach’s English Suite n.6 he quickly dispelled any notion that the work should be made to sound like a product of the harpsicord.

Pedroni was all-pianist – a caressing, velvety touch, phrases shaped with a flowing freedom, an overall sense of poetry overriding construction thought the underlying shape was never obscured. In a deft bit of programming, the pianist turned next to Schoenberg’s brilliant, fractured Suite for piano op.25, the composer’s first major 12-tone work. Pedroni made the sparks fly, and managed to give shape – and wit – to each movement despite their craggy contours and broken-glass surfaces. His touch was by turns fine-spun and deep-digging, and he made a dazzling case for a generally prickly piece of music. His Haydn was virtuosic and mercurial, revealing in Rachmaninoff Sonata n.2 the full extend of his powers and delivering a wonderfully colorful performance, volcanic, full of rhythmic strenght and conveying a sense of improvisatory freedom. An encore, the Liszt’s transcription of the “Liebestod” from Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde”, reinforced the impression of an impressive romantic sensibility.

(Shirley Fleming)

Mr. Pedroni made a good case for virtuoso playing without a display of virtuosity.

…Simone Pedroni: a master of warmth and intellect.

Pedroni vola da Bach a Schönberg.

…Musikalische Innerlichkeit… 

Moussorgsky par Pedroni: l’apothéose! 

Pianist Simone Pedroni lets color, texture flow

Pedroni already a young master. 

Review of CD Philips 438 905-2

Simone Pedroni shows, with classic strength and maturity, that it is possible to invest every nook and cranny of Mussorgsky’s Pictures with vivid and imaginative life without recourse to wilful idiosyncrasy or distortion (I am thinking of RCA’s recent reissue of Horowitz’s extraordinary conflation-to be reviewed). “Baba-jaga”, most deeply feared of all Russian witches, is truly feroce, the concluding “”Great Gate at Kiev”” exultantly maestoso, and, throughout, Pedroni’s towering technical resource rescives every difficulty with magisterial ease.

He is no less convincing in Rachmaninov’s Second Sonata (played, alas, in the composer’s still fashionable revision), and his performance of Hindemith’s lurid 1922 Suite is highly impressive. (…) [His performances] represent a much needed injection of musical vitality into the heavily maligned competition scene.

Inspired, informed playing confirms Cliburn winner as awesome musical talent.

…Una fantasia inventiva vivacissima… 

Un pianiste cultivé

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Janos Fúrst

There was power, temperament and fire in Pedroni’s playing. He was not afraid to show his enthusiasm, but this is just the way this Concerto has to be played. And then – as an encore – an unbelievable account: “Isoldes Liebestod” by Wagner/Liszt”.

(Tore Lund)

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Janos Fúrst

There was power, temperament and fire in Pedroni’s playing. He was not afraid to show his enthusiasm, but this is just the way this Concerto has to be played. And then – as an encore – an unbelievable account: “Isoldes Liebestod” by Wagner/Liszt”.

(Tore Lund)

Tel Aviv Museum

Israel Chamber Orchestra, Menahem Nebenhaus

(…) In Mozart’s G major Piano Concerto K.453, Simone Pedroni revealed a very interesting and original approach: he exposed us to an exciting dualism. His performance was a continuous alternation of light and shade, of exaltation and grief and of ringing laughter and gloomy meditation.

(Benjamin Bar-Am)

Die Entscheidung der Jury zugunsten von Simone Pedroni kam so selbstverständlich vie das Amen in der Kirche.