Reviews

2011, Little Gaddesden Music Club. Piano Recital.

Maybe he left Andalucia when he was only four, but something Spanish must have entered his bloodstream to judge by Sebastian Stanley's superb playing of Granados and Albeniz on the 27th November (2011). Starting with the more familiar fare of Haydn and Schubert he immediately revealed delicacy of colouring, nimble fingerwork and a sure sense of style. But it ws when he turend his attentions to Spanish music that he made us realise that his was an exceptional gift. In case we were too carried away by such seductive sounds he finished by giving a polished and indeed flawless performance of the second book of Brahms-Paganini Variations than which there is no greater technical challenge.

We were indeed fortunate to expereicne this young man's playing so early is his career for he is certainly destined for the finest concert-halls. Even so, we hope he will have fond memories of the room at Bridgewater House so kindly made available by Mr and Mrs Pratt. I am confident that they will never hear their piano played more beautifully. Antony Hopkins, Little Gaddesden Music Club

2011, MUSO Magazine, April/May issue. Album 'El amor y la muerte'

Pianist and Royal College of Music graduate Sebastian Stanley's first recording for the Madrid-based label EMEC Discos is a collection of suitably passionate pieces by Granados (Goyescas), Albéniz (Iberia, of course) and Mompou... his performances are sturdy and forthright... Appropriately to its title, the disc is obviously something of a labour of love for Stanley, who has written the sleeve notes himself and to whom, being of Spanish origin, these pieces are clearly deeply meaningful. At the tender age of 26 and with three more discs for EMEC in the pipeline, Stanley is one to watch.

2011, New Classics. Album 'El amor y la muerte'

The young English pianist Sebastian Stanley was born in Andalucia, southern Spain and moved to Britain aged four. He had his first piano lesson aged 13 and later graduated with Distinction from the Royal College of Music. as well as teaching and giving masterclasses in schools around England, he has been a regular accompanist for many instrumentalists and in partnership with Jonathan Parkin on clarinet the duo has given many recitals around Britain. Sebastian Stanley has performed as a soloist in the USA, Germany and venues throughout the UK with a repertoire that includes Liszt’s First Piano Concerto, Rachmaninov’s Second, Beethoven’s Fourth and numerous Mozart concertos. He has already released two commercial CDs and this first release under his three year contract with EMEC Discos of Madrid features entrancing twentieth century Spanish music by Granados (El amor y la muerte - segundo cuaderno nº 5 - and El pelele), Albeniz (the sparkling Iberia) and Frederico Mompou (his delightful Variations sur un thème de Chopin). Sebastian Stanley plays with expressive tenderness and an innate sympathy for this beautiful, timeless music, redolent of light breezes and the warmth of summer. Highly recommended. New Classics

2011, MusicWeb International. Album 'El amor y la muerte'

I imagine most music lovers do what I do when I hear a piece of music I don't immediately recognise. I try to identify the country of origin then the era it comes from then try to home in on style in order to identify the composer. The music on this disc would not prove any problem with either the country of origin or the era in respect of two of the composers - their music is so obviously Spanish and from the first half of the twentieth century. Then, if you really didn't know the works it might be more of a poser to identify which Spanish composer was responsible for five of the tracks. Suffice to say that all three would be among the principal contenders. I just adore this music and, having just returned from my escape from our awful winter - well most of it - after five weeks in Andalucía, it is incredibly evocative of so many aspects of Spain today just as much as it was yesterday. It made me want to rush out and buy each composer's complete works for piano.

It is so sad to know how short some composers' lives were and to think of what might have been written had they lived longer. Granados was a case in point as he was drowned aboard the Sussex in the English Channel in 1916. He travelled around Europe with Thibaud and Casals - just imagine what a dream team they must have made in the days before Cortot replaced him. His music is full of melody and feeling and as C. Jean Aubry put it "He created themes with the long-lasting character of folk-tunes - without borrowing them from folk music". Pedro G. Morales summarised this skill by saying that "Seldom has the soul of Spain revealed itself so vividly in music ...". His set of piano pieces inspired by Goya's paintings, resulting in the title Goyescas is probably best known among his piano works and deservedly so. How wonderful it would be to look at the paintings while listening to the music!

Albeniz was another composer whose life was cut short far too early by Bright's disease, a chronic liver disease suffered also by people such as Alexander III of Russia, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Bram Stoker. He was a child prodigy and had completed several tours of Europe by the time he was 15. His music is again extremely evocative of Spain. The first piece of the three taken from Albeniz's suite Iberia is aptly entitled Evocacion and echoes the Fandango and Jota which perfectly reflects the colours and spirit of his native land. The second piece describes the dance steps of the Zapateado and was inspired by the port of Cadiz - hence its title of El Puerto. I visited the port in January and can see how one could draw inspiration from it, busy and delightfully set in an impressive bay. The last of the three and the final piece in the set is a representation of the Corpus Christi procession in Seville in which a statue of the Virgin Mary is carried through the streets accompanied by marching bands and songs and staring. It gently eventually builds to an exciting climax. Both Debussy and Messiaen were huge admirers of Albeniz's work - what better approval could one wish for!

Federico Mompou was, unlike Granados and Albeniz, extremely long-lived, dying at 94. The pianist on this disc, Sebastian Stanley, has written the extremely informative liner-notes and explains that Mompou was an early minimalist in that his melodies are delightfully simple in construction. They fuse various influences from Debussy for colour with sound, Ravel for a fascination with childhood, Satie who showed the young Mompou that simplicity was acceptable and finally drawing inspiration from Poulenc in respect of harmonics. All those influences are evident in the work represented here, the 12 Variations sur un thème de Chopin. My feeling is that while his music may be difficult to categorise this work sits very well along with several composers' variations on themes by others. In any event it is a perfect treatment of Chopin's A Major Prelude which ably dissects it into its constituent parts and shows how wonderful a piece Chopin wrote - not that we didn't know that already! What higher praise can one give Mompou than that!

Sebastian Stanley was born in La Linea which shows his Spanish roots and, I think, results in a close love and affinity for Spanish music if this disc is anything to go by. It is always sobering to learn that so prodigious a talent stems from a desire to learn the piano following a concert he attended only 14 years ago! When I say prodigious talent I mean it for this young pianist is a perfect exponent of this beautiful music, knowing when to be quiet in relevant passages but able to roar when necessary. I have really enjoyed reviewing this disc and will eagerly look out for more of them from this wonderfully sensitive young pianist. Steve Arloff, MusicWeb International

2011, The Pound Arts Centre. Recital.

A talent to watch!!!

It’s wonderful every so often to find someone who stands out from the crowd, from the ordinary.

And this young man certainly does that.

He was born in Spain but is not Spanish; yet his playing of Albeniz and Granados – on a piano, remember – shows that the Spanish musical genre runs through his veins.

He opened with Haydn’s Fantasie in C Major, which I don’t think is his forte. But, the Spanish marque certainly is. He has the emotion (to match his wonderful tie!), the texture and, at times, the soulful touch that Spanish music needs.

His placing of grace notes so echoed the guitar, his gentle, rolling left hand base formed an imperturbable anchor and to think that this was his first public performance of pieces from Goyescas – “I didn’t feel comfortable with it before now” – makes me think that if he persists in his fluid interpretation of Iberian music he could well carve out for himself a most attractive niche.

He finished with Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No 12: Fine, a little hurried, but yet another string to an impressive bow. Reg Burnard, The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald.

 

2010, Newport Music Club. Recital

Newport Music Club began its new season on Saturday with a return visit of the young pianist, Sebastian Stanley, whos deft touch and sparkling choice of repertoire entranced his audience. His understanding of the piano was immediately evident when he introduced and played fluently, Haydn's Fantasie in C, written, as he explained, for an intrument quite unlike its modern counterpart.

This was followed by a work close to his heart, the late Schubert Sonata in B flat, D.960, if 'late' is the right way to describe a last piece in this composer's tragically short life. The cyclical nature of Schubert's soulful themes was expressed admirably with Mr Stanley's sensitive approach, the piece ending with an almost mischievous last movement, interrupted suddenly by bell-like single tones, moments perhaps for poignant reflection.

The dazzling elements of the concert followed after the interval with a little known, but nevertheless interesting, work by the Catalan composer, Mompou, whose jazzy variations on the familiar Prelude in A by Chopin, entertained us greatly. Several themes of Chopin's in fact, seemed to underlie certain of Mompou's varied interludes which were originally composed for the Royal Ballet.

As well as Schubert, Liszt was a favoured composer of Sebastian Stanley and what an amazing, technical display he gave of an embracing arrangement of Wagner's Isoldes Liebestod, never brash, but the whole of that consuming, climactic, orchestral work of Wagner's was expressed through keyboard alone under Mr. Stanley's capable hands.

As if that was not enough, he launched finally into Liszt's Tarantella, dashing up and down the keys, reminiscent, though not as showy, as Liszt himself in that cartoon of the composer playing to rows of adoring ladies. To cap it all, there was no gentle nocturne as encore, but another flying piece, not on common broken chords this time, but on extremely unresolved, though playful, dissonances in the form of Kapustin's Study on Minor 2nds. The audience were certainly impressed. Richard Smythe, Newport Advertiser.

2010, Aldenham School. Recital.

At the beginning of March, Aldenham School’s music department played host to what was an astonishing display of virtuosity, from a young and talented artist, Sebastian Stanley, an international soloist who also teaches some of the top piano students in the School. Refinement, excitement, and sheer musicianship were laid before his audience as Sebastian engaged with the music of Haydn, Schubert, Liszt, Albeniz, Chopin, Mompou and Wagner, at the school’s Yamaha grand piano, kindly donated by the Davis family two years ago. Having studied under such names as Olga Kern, John Lill, and Christopher Elton, Stanley proves himself worthy of the highest praise.

The programme opened with Haydn’s C major Sonata (Hob. XVI:50), giving Sebastian the opportunity to show off his superb musical balance, and excellent control over the keyboard. Yet for all its refinement, this performance lacked nothing of fire and life – a rousing third movement, and some explosive ornamentation in the opening made sure of this.

Having dealt with the classical era in one fell swoop, Sebastian moved on to the romantic masters, with a focus on the transcriptions of Franz Liszt. Beginning with two of Liszt’s beautiful song transcriptions of Schubert’s creation, Sebastian opened our eyes to a sudden outpouring of colour and emotion. The shimmering qualities of these transcriptions were mesmerising both to the ear, and to the eye.

This was followed by three movements from Albeniz’s notoriously difficult Iberia Suites (book 1) and Mompou’s Variations on Chopin’s A major Prelude, the shortest of the preludes at only 8 bars long. Despite this, Mompou’s extensive andendless creativity takes the listener through a whole world of variations, reminiscent at one moment of Rachmaninov, and at another, of Gershwin, drawing not only on the A major Prelude, but also on others of Chopin’s masterpieces. Sebastian’s imagination provides the perfect backdrop for this astonishing work.

To close the evening, Sebastian returned to the Hungarian Virtuoso, Franz Liszt, to his transcription of Wagner’s “Liebestöd” (from Tristan und Isolde), and to his own Tarantella. Both were stunning. Wagner’s vast orchestration was vividly brought to life by one man, with awesome control of dynamics and musical phrasing. Liszt’s Tarantella was breath-taking in both its speed and its accuracy, and in its delicate shaping – an all too rare combination!

After much applause and cries for more, Sebastian showcased a most brilliant and recent work by Ukrainian pianist-composer, Nikolai Kapustin. Kapustin’s Etude in Minor 2nds (2004) – a work exploring the technical and expressive possibilities of the smallest (traditional) musical interval – left the audience in wonder. Sebastian jokes, “the piece lasts about three minutes...and took me about 4 months to learn. I’m going to be using this encore for a while now!”

Our thanks go to Sebastian for his fine recital. We wish him all the best for what should be a very exciting career. George Rose, Watford Observer.

2010, West Linton. Recital for Pentland Concerts.

The first concert of 2010 in a snowy West Linton featured a young pianist, Sebastian Stanley. Liszt, who's music is notoriously difficult to play, was the mainstay of the programme. Sebastian's mastery of these Liszt arrangements and other pieces was utterly phenomenal, and merits recognition. His lively interpretation, amazing accuracy and sensitive touch sent rapid repeated notes, trills and arpeggios over the keyboard in an effervescence of wonderment, leaving the audience to question if the performer had more than his allotted number of fingers. Peebleshire news

2006, RCM Concert Hall. Rachmaninov Variations on a theme of Chopin.

The Rachmaninov was another story with a most affecting sense of warmth and engagement. Variations 4, 7 and 14 were notable successes and so, too, were Variations 18, 20 and the beautiful 21. But the entire performance, wisely cut and without the flashy alternative coda, was a touching and exhilarating success. My congratulations. Bryce Morrison