PITTVILLE PUMP ROOM
CHELTENHAM SPA
24 JUNE
2025
Today’s Artist
Vitaly Pisarenko (born 24 July 1987) is a Ukrainian pianist, based in London. He was the winner of the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in 2008 and came third in the Leeds International.
Vitaly was born in Kiev, and performed for the first time in public at the age of six. He studied in Kharkiv and Kyiv, and in 2005 entered the Professor Yuri Slesarev’s class at the Moscow State Conservatory. He also studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory Codarts, under Aquiles Delle Vigne. In September 2012 Vitaly joined the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with Professor Dmitri Alexeev. He completed his Master’s degree with distinction in 2014 and his Artist Diploma degree in 2015.
In January 2020, he became a principal study teacher at the Purcell School for young musicians. Since September 2023, he has been a professor of piano at the Royal College of Music, London. He has appeared solo and with orchestras in London, Vienna, Brussels, Beijing, Shanghai, Salzburg, Paris, Budapest, Amsterdam, Seoul, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and now here in Cheltenham.
Today’s Music
F. Schubert Two Impromptus from Op. 142
R. Wagner Overture to Tannhäuser (transcribed F. Liszt)
V. Bellini Reminiscences de Norma (transcribed F. Liszt)
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) lived his brief life in Vienna in the shadow of Beethoven, whose funeral he attended only 18 months before his own death. A prodigy, he had written a symphony and 14 works for string quartet before his 17th birthday. As well as songs, symphonies and chamber works, he wrote many piano pieces, usually for home performance. The Impromptus you will here today were published after his death and are large-scale formal works rather than the sketches their title might suggest. Richard Wagner (1813–83) was born in Leipzig, Germany, into a theatrical family. He was committed to opera, writing both music and words, and hoping to create Gesamstkunstwerk, a union of multiple arts. He was an overwhelmingly influential figure in the latter half of the 19th century, not least on the emerging English composers. Tannhäuser, a mythological tale of a wandering minstrel, was staged in 1845. Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35) was a Venetian contemporary of Rossini and Donizetti. Norma is considered his greatest opera, elegantly melodic rather than grand or comic. Franz Liszt (1811–86) was born in Austria, near the Hungarian border. The most celebrated and virtuoisic pianist of the 19th century, he transcribed nearly 300 works by other composers, achieving astonishing recreations of orchestral effects and power.
About 24 June
24 June is the Feast of St John the Baptist, widely celebrated around the world. In some traditions there are bonfires the night before and it is also connected with celebrations of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, which falls on 21 June. The pagans of Aquitaine, in southern France, rolled a burning wheel down a hill to celebrate a sky god. A similar ritual was witnessed by a monk in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, 1,000 years later, on 23 June. It must be true: it’s in Professor Ronald Hutton’s wonderful The Stations of the Sun. Let us hope Professor Hutton, emeritus professor at the University of Bristol, will once again be MC at the reenactment of the Battle of Tewkesbury on 12-13 July. Unmissable. Take a tin opener to assist any veray parfit gentil knight being boiled in his own armour.
Tannhäuser (1886) by Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904) from Cleveland Museum of Art. Good luck finding the minstrel, almost completely overshadowed by his divine playmates, courtiers of Venus, by whom he has been distracted. It happens.
Cheltenham Music Festival Society
There will be more Young Musician Concerts in Pittville Pump Room this autumn, arranged by the Cheltenham Music Festival Society in collaboration with the Cheltenham Trust. The concerts take place on Tuesdays at 1:00pm during school term-times; entry is free and no tickets are required. There is a retiring collection to help cover the charge from The Cheltenham Trust for the use of the Pump Room and, where applicable, pay travel expenses for some of the individual performers. For more details, contact Andrew Auster: a.auster30@gmail.com.
NEXT SEASON’S ATTRACTIONS
23 September Robin Smith (piano)
30 September Hilary Cronin (soprano) & Will Mason (piano)
7 October Tim Rumsey (piano)
14 October Bridget Yee (piano)
4 November Solihull School
11 November Pate’s Grammar School
18 November Bournside School
25 November Cheltenham College
2 December Ottilie Wallace (violin) & Winnie Chan (piano)
Credits
Programme and webpage by J. Morrish as usual. If you’d like to know how I do them, just ask. If you’d like to help, even better. Portrait of Vitaly (above) © Andreea Tufescu. Contact me at 2 Priory Mews, Sidney Street, Cheltenham, GL52 6DJ, mail@johnmorrish.com or 077 88 515387.