Newspaper
L'Est-Républicain, June 2016 by Didier Hemardinquer
"Liszt in the heart of Laxou"
It was supposed to be an open-air concert, but due to the weather, it was decided that it would be given at the Salle Luis-Colin, at the Cité des Provinces in Laxou. So, as a backdrop, azure blue boat sails had been stretched over the piano.
But as Laurent Garcia, the mayor of Laxou, said as a prelude: "We have the happiness that we build ourselves" and the recital of the pianist Axel Lenarduzzi knew how to give happiness to the public. However, the program was not easy. Stéphanie Muel, cultural assistant, had made the bet of the requirement, by proposing a Liszt recital, with certainly “Un Sposalizio”, and, “Un Sospiro”, which are works of a romanticism flush with the keyboard, but "The death of Isolde" according to Wagner and especially "After a reading of Dante" are pages of a deep interiority, in which one does not penetrate immediately.
Very nice touch
There was, however, a remarkable quality of listening in the room. No screams, no whispers. The artist's beautiful touch and his sense of poetic harmonies won the hearts of listeners. During intermission, Jacqueline, 82, who has lived on the edge of the Provinces since 1966, confessed her pleasure to be there. Former social worker and former volunteer in several associations, she expressed her regret at not having been able to learn to play an instrument. “I am delighted that my grandchildren are making music. I think it is important. I encourage them to continue. "
The octogenarian also welcomed this initiative of offering a quality concert free of charge. “We don't know what it can trigger in people. It can germinate desires among young people, ”she concluded.
A few ranks from her, Maxime 23, who is in the process of enlisting in the Navy, came with his companion from Laxov. If he is not a music lover he listens with pleasure to this kind of music. In fact, he recently attended another piano recital in Nancy.
Yesterday afternoon, the students of the Laxou Conservatory of Music played the stars and had the privilege of putting their fingers on a large concert Steinway. This morning from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Axel Lenarduzzi will lead a master class, open to the public.
Last night, in the second row, a distinguished listener attended the concert. It is Bajan Aghamatou, vice-president of the National Assembly of Mali and brother of Bajan, the former mayor of Anderamboukane, a town twinned with Laxou, cowardly assassinated by the Islamists. The surviving brother knows how culture can be a weapon against fanaticism.
L'Est Réplublicain (June 2016)
Journalist Lysiane Ganousse
Liszt is a formidable man. "Was" would you correct me, on the grounds that the musician has been dead now for 130 years… all round. But Liszt remains a formidable composer who puts the pianists' speed to the test in addition to their virtuosity.
"It's true, only Liszt also had a very humanist, very social approach," said pianist Axel Lenarduzzi. "He wanted to bring knowledge, culture to everyone, while keeping high standards when it comes to this art he wanted to defend. And I find that the strength of his music, of his colors, can grab everyone. Absolutely everything. the world."
Liszt was therefore naturally imposed on Saturday evening in the program of an exceptional concert in every way.
A concert programmed at Place de l'Europe (a first for classical), free, open-air, where there will be no other relationship than that of the pianist on the piano and the piano to the public.
No platform, no decorum, not even a roof, and above all no restraint, whether cultural or social. Saturday evening is on the road to the democratization of what is called classical music.
It's been a long time since we wanted to take this music out of its places a little, let's say a little "padded", underlines Stéphanie Muel, assistant to the culture. "To exhibit it in the public square, in complete freedom, and in front of as many people as possible. But for that, we needed a meeting like the one we had with Axel Lenarduzzi. The place is obviously chosen on purpose. this district of the Provinces, residence of some 3,000 inhabitants in Laxou, and freshly spotted for urban renewal among some 200 other districts in France. "A popular and endearing district, which deserves just as much as the other districts of the city, and of the agglomeration in general, to access talented performers ", insists Laurent Garcia." We have weakness "
"Thirst for excellence"
This "weakness", Axel Lenarduzzi readily takes it up on his own, as an intimate interpreter of Liszt, a professor at the conservatory of the 17th arrondissement of Paris, and a follower of concerts in their purest form. "The purest there is: a pianist, a piano, without sound effects. Some would consider it almost old-fashioned, when in my opinion, it is the most beautiful."
And it is the "best" of music that he wants to convey to himself, wherever the place, whatever the audience. "All audiences thirst for excellence, I have lived it. We certainly talk a lot about democratization, but sometimes we go so far as to distort the offer on the grounds that people may not understand. I am me, intimately. convinced of the contrary, especially if we compose a program that is both very sentimental and very energetic, capable of reaching everyone, like Liszt therefore, but also Tchaikovsky, with beautiful and large flamboyant phrases ".
To defend the classic in this way today with so much passion, one could almost guess a spirit at the bottom ... very rock!
The Republic of Seine et Marne (02/11/2015)
Axel Lenarduzzi delighted the audience of Misy sur Yonne
Sunday, October 25, Axel Lenarduzzi, concert pianist, returning from a tour in the USA and Canada, invited by the Art and Culture association Misy sur Yonne, gave his recital "Vibrations Mystiques"
The audience, enchanted and upset, was able to hear a program at the same time, mystical, in the spirit of the place, the church of Misy, with in particular the great Toccata for organ by Bach in piano version, the Ave Maria by Schubert , but also, deeply moving, with other melodies by Schubert, the famous Bergamasque Suite by Debussy… The concert then ended in apotheosis, with Rachmaninoff; her music reminding us that she comes from the heart and returns ...
Midi-Libre: Interview (07/02/13 - Pascale Lajous)
Grabels a concert rich in emotions
Axel Lenarduzzi, Parisian pianist, is the major guest of the 4th festival "the piano in all its bursts". Grabels discovered it in 2011. The musician delivers his happiness to return to the south and unveils the program of the concert he will give on Friday at 8:30 pm, salle de la gerbe.
In 2011 you played Liszt, what program this year?
It will be a powerful program, rich in feelings, images and colors. With a work by Grieg, Morning Mood, which I see as a hymn to dawn, a symbol of the openness that music can create, in our hearts and minds. Then I will perform Brahms' first sonata, the composer's early work. Then will come works of Sergei Rachmaninoff, so that German romanticism, we make a passage through the impulses of the Russian heart. Then we will go into the image, into impressionism, with the music of Ravel and Debussy, making a pictorial journey, through sound paintings, in Asia, and in Granada.
Since your last visit, what have you done?
Since my stint at Grabels, I had the chance to record my Liszt Invocation album, I continued to play in Festival in France, and I was again invited to the United States to lead master-classes, play several French music programs and give a lecture on my vision of piano technique in the period of musical impressionism. I also had the chance to continue to collaborate to play in chamber music with several talented violinists.
A few words about your projects?
I continue my thoughts on the piano and a certain philosophy of life. Thus was born a collaboration with a sophrologist to work on the liberating capacity of music and its help in self-awareness. Finally next March my Brahms album will be released.
Le Midi libre (02/04/2011) - Presentation of the grabels piano festival
PascaleLlajous, journalist
The piano festival which opens tonight offers the opportunity to listen to an internationally renowned concertist. French-Italian, the young virtuoso Axel Lenarduzzi has been trained in the most prestigious establishments, including the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Academy of Saint Cecilia in Rome.
In the small room of the Gerbe, the musician more accustomed to the big European festivals, will come to express his admiration to Franz Liszt.
2011 is also the jubilee of Liszt's birth.
"It's an important year for me because Liszt is a composer who marked me and still marks me, through his compositions, the energy that emerges from his music, its depth, and its ability to convey emotions, to tell or suggest stories. You should know that Liszt became the master at the time, of Program music, which is to say narrative. " The pianist says he owes him a lot: "A composer but also a genius pianist, he literally revolutionized pianistic technique to lay the foundations of modern playing, which all of us virtuoso pianists now cultivate." The program carefully prepared by Axel Lenarduzzi promises to be a dazzling fireworks display. Thanks to the immense work of Liszt, these three days of festival called "the piano in all its splendor is already announced very well baptized."
Concert of April 26, 2009
Music critic, by Mr. Claude Taelman Musicales de l'Arbousière
The impressive talent of Axel Lenarduzzi.
This young Franco-Italian pianist clearly did not choose the easy way in composing the program for his recital. First with the so-called “appassionanta” sonata, the one that Beethoven considered his greatest, and whose outburst of all the elements did not in any way disturb his performer. Very judiciously contrasted, it quickly took on tragic accents in a finale often described as "torrent of fire".
Axel Lenarduzzi then showed the same ease with Liszt's 13th Hungarian Rhapsody, which, beneath his fingers, enjoyed a dazzling light. Three short pieces qualified by Brahms de Klavierstucke started the intermission. The charm of their writing which combines elegance with melancholy did not escape their interpreter, visibly very inspired by this style stripped of all mannerism. What can we say about the “Prints”, one of Debussy's masterpieces, if not that they were the strong point of this recital.
The fabulous richness of all their sounds in evocations as brilliant as oriental tones, or its rhythms of Spanish folklore, without forgetting the gardens in the rain, shone in broad daylight. As if inhabited by the genius of Debussy, the young pianist enchanted his audience, both by the accuracy of the tone and by the delicacy with which all the notes with luminous resonances were struck.
Superb interpretation that will not be forgotten by the “Spanish Rhapsody”, also by Liszt and played at the end of the concert. His only merit was to highlight the high virtuosity of Axel Lenarduzzi who appeared sovereign in all registers. This is the mark of genuine talent.
Concert of 23 May 2008
Journal "l'alsace" - May 2008 Breitenbach
joy, generosity and romanticism!
“The Espace Belle Epoque in Breitenbach is ideally suited to host a recital similar to that of Friday 23 May, organized by Alsace Terre de Culture as part of the Musiques en fête festival, for which Axel Lenarduzzi, classical pianist, was the 'guest.
To speak of high level would be an understatement when we know that in addition to the deep natural dispositions in the artist, there is a plethora of years of diligent work.
Marie Jaëll is the spirit of the composer seeking to go beyond the limits of pianistic writing of the time, that is to say to decode the cause and effect relationship between the mind that conceives, and the fingers that activate the process, of which Axel Lenarduzzi has reproduced a sonata with discernment and refinement.
The works of Debussy, Prints, Pagodes… the themes are scattered, scattered, the harmonic research daring, the infinite nuances and the complex rhythm. His game is above all sensory and aims to make the public experience particular sensations, by translating precise images and impressions into music.
The pianist has a meditative character, and the cadences are masterful according to the emotions carried by the notes. What is striking is the extreme flexibility with which Axel Lenarduzzi modulates the phrasing, calling on a “pictorial” use of the pedal. "
Concert of September 23, 2006
Journal de la Ville - PL - November 2006
“This evening, the church of Dormelles and the ASPHD welcomed Axel Lenarduzzi, 31-year-old pianist, residing in Cannes-Ecluse and already internationally renowned for a Romantic Recital. These dark tonal works were interpreted with all the energy and emotion necessary to convey the pain of the composers and of the proposed program: Sonata n ° 1 by Brahms, Funeral and Reading by Dante by Liszt, Mort d'Iseult by Wagner. "
The Republic - May 29, 2006
“The Cultural Association of Larchant continues its artistic invitations. Saturday evening, the Saint Mathurin church welcomed the pianist Axel Lenarduzzi.
Following the commission of a romantic concert, his choice fell on composers of this musical tendency with a remarkable and noticed interpretation. But before that, Axel Lenarduzzi wanted to pay tribute to the place by performing the Ave Maria by Franz Schubert, transcribed on the piano by Franz Liszt.
It was then Kreisleriana by Robert Schumann, a composer particularly appreciated by the artist. A change of sound atmosphere followed with Sergei Rachmaninoff's Second Sonata, more intellectual and with different influences. And to finish, a more festive piece with the Hungarian Rhapsody of Franz Liszt. "
The Republic - July 9, 2007
The Cultural Association of Larchant organized last Saturday, at the Saint-Mathurin church, a piano concert, with the pianist Axel Lenarduzzi as a guest.
His performance, already very noticed last year, was once again remarkable. In the first part, he performed the "Sposalizio" by Franz Liszt, followed by the sonata "Appasionata" by LV Beethoven.
In the second part, he continued to conquer the public with pieces from Brahms' opus 118, the brilliant transposition for the piano by Liszt of the death of Isolde by Wagner, and "after a reading of Dante" by the same Liszt. .
The public did not want to stop there and before parting, Axel Lenarduzzi performed a work by the Spanish musician Isaac Albeniz.
Larchant welcomed a talented artist, confirmed by his success in several international competitions. In 2006, he traveled to the United States for a triumphant series of concerts, conducted two Master Classes, and recorded two Records produced in the United States.
Country pianist Murphy a visit
Murphy Hi Times - Jessie Kotis - April 2006
“On February 10, 2006, pianist Axel Lenarduzzi gave a small performance to a few select students in the auditorium. Hailing from France, Mr. Lenarduzzi came to the US to record a CD with Robert Holm, a music director at the University of South Alabama, and decided on hid visit that he had an opportunity to educate local students by playing the piano.
At the beginning of the program, senior Marcus Grove began by playing Ballade n ° 1 in G-Minor, Opus 23 by Chopin; then, junior Collin Webster played Sonatine in F-Minor by Ravel and later, La Campanella - Etude n ° 3 by Liszt. After each student played his piece, Mr. Lenarduzzi would then critique the student's work by having him play the composition again and offer advice as each played. Then, Mr. Lenarduzzi played a piece himself, Franz Liszt from Dante. And, finally, after a little persuasion, Mr. Holm played K330 in C-Major by Mozart.
Soon after the performances, students asked Mr. Lenarduzzi questions that ranged from his piano career to how he likes America. Mr. Lenarduzzi seemed very good-natured and spoke with much enthusiasm about his career. He started playing piano at the early age of seven, and later in life attended several music conservatoires, where which he received high honors in Piano, Chamber Music, Music History, and Theory and Analysis.
As far as liking America, Mr. Lebarduzzi said he actually felt very much at home in Mobile, AL. Later that week, Mr. Lenarduzzi played two other concerts: one in Mobile, AL, and another in Pensacola, FL. Everyone who attended could easily agree that Axel Lenarduzzi had a way with music. "