Giulia Contaldo’s New Artist Recital at Steinway Hall
There was magic in the air at Steinways as Giulia Contaldo filled the air with refined sounds of perfumed succulence as ‘Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air de l’apres- midi” where ‘Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses’.
A transcription by the English pianist Leonard Borwick, a student of Clara Schumann whose London debut was on 8 May 1890, at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert with Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor. His performance of Brahms D minor was greeted by Shaw, the Basset horn critic ,as ‘a hash of bits and scraps with plenty of thickening in the pianoforte part, which Mr Leonard Borwick played with the enthusiasm of youth in a style technically admirable’. Giulia had more problem pronouncing his name than playing his sumptuous transcription full of subtle half colours hinted at through a haze of golden harp like arabesques.
