Classical - Nadene Fiorentini
In choosing this particular programme, 23-year-old Donegal pianist, Nadene Fiorentini amply demonstrated why the adjudicators at the 2012 Dublin International Piano Competition chose her as the highest placed Irish competitor, awarding her a number of prestigious prizes. She is already a serious artist and met the technical, intellectual, emotional, and structural demands of the music with a maturity that belies her years.
Only at the beginning of the opening Intermezzo of Brahms’ Six Pieces, Op 118 did she show any sign of her youth, misjudging the touch and feel of the particular piano she was playing. It took almost a minute for her to discover the rich, singing tone that was to be heard afterwards. She captured the longing and deep emotion of these pieces that Brahms dedicated to his adored ‘elder sister’, Clara Schumann, pieces that Clara loved deeply. My favourite was the final mysterious, harmonically complex, dramatic E flat minor Intermezzo that finishes so deliciously gently.
