Blind pianist Lucy stuns Royal Albert Hall with breathtaking Debussy debut

Blind pianist Lucy stuns Royal Albert Hall with breathtaking Debussy debut | Classic FM Live

By Kyle Macdonald

 

Watch a very special performance, as the exceptional pianist who won Channel 4’s ‘The Piano’ plays deeply emotional Debussy to an audience of 6,000 in London’s iconic theatre. 

Monday night saw an incredible piano debut on one of the world’s biggest and most iconic stages.

Playing at Classic FM Live with Viking was a musician whose talent and deep relationship with music has stunned the classical world. Teenage pianist Lucy played Claude Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1 to the packed hall.

The remarkable young pianist won the Channel 4 series The Piano earlier this year, aged just 13. Her opening performance of a Chopin nocturne on a train station piano left judge Lang Lang stunned and lost for words.

From that moment, a new piano star was born. Lucy played in May’s Coronation Concert for King Charles at Windsor Castle, and has now continued her incredible journey with this Classic FM concert and a Royal Albert Hall debut.

Lucy, from West Yorkshire, is blind and neurodivergent. She is taught by Daniel Bath, a teacher who she first met when she was three years old. Daniel was beside his student on stage as she made her debut on Monday.

Watch her performance above. Her interpretation of the French composer’s music captivated the huge audience, holding them in an awed silence before a huge ovation at the end. What a moment it was.

Lucy plays at Classic FM Live with Viking. Picture: Matt Crossick

The Arabesque is a piece Lucy has made her own. In March, she played it at London’s Royal Festival Hall, as part of the grand finale of the TV series where she took top honours.

The concert saw a night of incredible solo performances, with British-Iranian pianist Arsha Kaviani, guitarist Miloš Karadaglic, and brilliant young violinist – and Classic FM Rising Star – Luka Faulisi all sharing the stage with Lucy.

Along with the Debussy, Lucy also played Bach’s beautiful C-major Prelude from the Well-tempered Klavier.

You can hear her performances and all the night’s musical magic by catching up on Friday’s exclusive broadcast of Classic FM Live with Viking here on Global Player. YOu can also watch the full concert soon on Sky Arts.

An epic ‘Nessun Dorma’ that leaves a Royal Albert Hall audience in awe

By Kyle Macdonald

 

One of the great singers of our time, brings Puccini’s timeless opera masterpiece to an iconic concert hall. It’s a performance not many will ever forget.

“Vincerò!” or “I will win!” – it’s the famous and always moving climax to the aria from Puccini’s opera Turandot.

The aria is one of those very special moments of music that has gripped and enchanted millions over the years. It found truly global fame in the 1990s thanks to Luciano Pavarotti, Italia 90, and Three Tenors CDs that were on virtually everyone’s shelf.

Its drama and power, combined with that enduring public appeal makes it a natural show-stopper in live performances.

And so it was on this night, before 5,000 people at London’s Royal Albert Hall, during an opera-themed Classic FM Live with Viking.

But there’s always more than just those high notes at the very end of the aria. And on that night, there was a singer perfectly matched to reveal every glorious, moving moment of ‘Nessun Dorma’. Watch above.

Michael Spyres at Classic FM Live. Picture: Classic FM

Michael Spyres is an American opera singer. He’s rare for the fact that he can sing in both baritone and tenor voice types. His range spans from the rich and resonant baritone register, up to the highest notes of most agile Bel Canto tenor. Alongside the Puccini, he also gave us a Rossini baritone aria that night.

It’s one of the reasons why this performance was so special. 

Michael Spyres and conductor Paul Daniel at Classic FM Live with Viking. Picture: Matt Crossick

Puccini sets the scene with hushed orchestra, on this occasion it played by English National Opera and conductor Paul Daniel. The singer then enters, pleading ‘Nessun dorma’ – first in the middle of his register, and then low. Then that powerful lyricism starts. This is all perfect territory for Spyres to show off that sonority and voice.

From these opening cries, to the final ‘Vincerò!’ on that winning high B, it’s a journey like few others in music. Spyres held that hall in rapt silence, before everyone erupted. ‘Nessun dorma’ does it every time.

 

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber to write new work for King Charles III, as coronation music announced

18 February 2023, 22:30 | Updated: 20 February 2023, 12:03

Music at His Majesty the King’s coronation at Westminster Abbey. Picture: Getty

By Kyle Macdonald

 

Twelve new works will form the musical centrepiece of King Charles III’s coronation at Westminster Abbey, casting a spotlight on leading British composers and performers.

Buckingham Palace has revealed the music at His Majesty the King’s coronation will include a new Coronation Anthem by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and eleven other pieces personally commissioned by King Charles.

Lloyd Webber said he hopes his new anthem, which is scored for the Westminster Abbey choir and organ, and the ceremonial brass and orchestra, “reflects this joyful occasion”.

The new works for the service at London’s Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6 May 2022 are each by world-renowned British composers. They will be performed by leading classical artists of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Westminster Abbey’s recently appointed organist and master of the choristers, Andrew Nethsingha, will direct the music of the service and oversee all musical arrangements.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and King Charles III. Picture: Getty

Joining Lloyd Webber in composing music for the historic occasion are Master of the King’s Music, Judith Weir, Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Paul Mealor, Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Shirley J. Thompson, Roderick Williams, and Classic FM’s Composer in Residence, Debbie Wiseman.

Wiseman said it was “an immense honour” to have been asked to compose music for the coronation.

“Bringing together composers, musicians and singers from every corner of our richly varied and colourful musical culture, this momentous ceremony marries the new and diverse with the established, well-loved and traditional,” she added. 

There will also be a new commission for solo organ, weaving together musical themes from countries across the Commonwealth by British organist and composer Iain Farrington.

‘God Save the King’, sung by soprano Alexandra Stevenson

Performances in the service will be led by some of the finest operatic voices of our time, with Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel, South African soprano Pretty Yende and British baritone Roderick Williams all named as soloists.

A special coronation orchestra will be conducted by Royal Opera House conductor Sir Antonio Pappano.

The official Royal Harpist Alis Huws will perform as part of the orchestra, in recognition of The King’s long-standing affection for Wales and the country’s musical traditions.

His Royal Highness and Sir Antonio Pappano at the Royal College of Music in 2020. Picture: Getty

Before the service, Sir John Eliot Gardiner will conduct The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque soloists in a pre-service programme of choral music.

This programme is expected to feature the music of William Byrd, George Frideric Handel, Edward Elgar, Hubert Parry and Sir Karl Jenkins.

The service will be sung by The Choir of Westminster Abbey and The Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, together with girl choristers from the Chapel Choir of Methodist College, Belfast and Truro Cathedral Choir.

The Ascension Choir will sing gospel music as part of the service, which will also feature Greek Orthodox music from the Byzantine Chant Ensemble in tribute to his late father, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Fanfares will be played by the State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry and the Fanfare Trumpeters of the Royal Air Force, and the King’s Scholars of Westminster School will proclaim the traditional ‘Vivat’ acclamations.

When Luciano Pavarotti sang with his 88-year-old father in an emotional duet

Updated: 3 January 2023, 19:55

Luciano and Fernando Pavarotti. Picture: Facebook / The Tenor / Rai Uno

By Kyle Macdonald, ClassicFM London

 

The touching moment when a father joined his son for a very special performance of a beloved sacred song. 

When a former baker took to the stage with opera’s biggest star, it was a story about music spanning the generations.

Legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti was born in 1935 in Modena, Northern Italy. His father, Fernando Pavarotti, was a baker, and his mother, Adele Venturi, a cigar factory worker.

Fernando Pavarotti was an amateur singer with a fine tenor voice. Years later, his son said Fernando had turned down the possibility of a singing career because of stage fright and nerves.

The family was poor in those early days, but his father’s passion for music opened a new world for his son. Luciano’s first encounters with singing and opera came through both his singing and listening to his father’s collection of albums from the great tenors of the day.

Luciano Pavarotti went on to study singing and began singing opera roles in the 1960s. Legendary breakthroughs at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden and New York’s Metropolitan Opera made a huge star of the opera world.

A few years later, thanks to the 1990 Football World Cup in Italy, The Three Tenors, and his always-glistening high notes, he became a true household name.

But he never forgot where he came from, or his musical roots.

In 2001, 88-year-old amateur tenor Fernando joined his son for a duet. Together they sang César Franck’s ‘Panis Angelicus’.  

Nearing 90 years of age, Fernando’s best singing voice may well have been behind him. But it’s the looks of love and pride between the two of them that make this a very special moment of music.

They have duetted in previous years. Here’s another performance of the same sacred song, recorded in the cathedral of their home town in 1978 (watch below).

A baker who loved his music, and a tenor who changed the course of classical music. Two Pavarottis, bravo to you both.