Ida Pelliccioli (piano).  Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham., 02 March 2025,

5☆☆☆☆☆.  Review: William Ruff.

“A recital where planning was as illuminating as execution.”

If you meet any of Nottingham’s classical music lovers in the next week, please don’t be surprised if there are a bit pale and forlorn.  They will probably be suffering from withdrawal symptoms following the final concert in this year’s Piano Series at the Royal Concert Hall.  No more Sunday morning keyboard pyrotechnics until the next season begins in October.

It fell to Italian pianist Ida Pelliccioli to give the Series’ concluding concert on Sunday.  She has more strings to her bow than most international virtuosos, holding (amongst other things) higher degrees both in Italian literature and in the practice of music in Ancient Greece.  She is an eloquent speaker about music too and her introductions to each piece revealed fascinating connections between the composers and their works.

The recital started with three Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, an Italian who spent most of his life working in Spain.  He wrote hundreds of these short sonatas, using just about every keyboard device imaginable: dazzling virtuosity, crossing of hands, crashing dissonances and poignant, heartfelt lyricism.  Ida captured the spirit of the music with sparkling articulation, strong dynamic contrasts and a poised control of decoration.

Next came crisply performed Mozart: his Prelude and Fugue in C major and his Fantasia in C minor, leading the way to two Sonatas by the Spanish composer Manuel Blasco de Nebra, again in C major and C minor.  He is another 18th century composer but his work has only recently been rediscovered.  Ida Pelliccioli describes the Sonatas as little gems, and it was easy to see why: lyrical melodies, intricate harmonies, and technical brilliance. Although his compositions are steeped in the influence of the Spanish baroque and classical traditions, they also exhibit a unique voice, blending traditional Spanish elements with the innovation and expressiveness of the classical era, especially in his love of sharp dynamic contrasts and rhythmic complexity.

Some listeners have found in Blasco de Nebra’s music seeds of what was to grow in the next century.  And so Ida Pelliccioli ended her concert with the Drei Klavierstücke, one of Schubert’s last compositions.  Hers was a richly expressive account, the three pieces full of dramatic incident and intense lyricism.  Although she had no difficulty in projecting the singing lines into the very public space of the Royal Concert Hall, she never lost the essential quality of intimacy, the private musical thoughts of a man nearing the end of his tragically short life.

Ida Pelliccioli’s exploratory programme was generous in every sense, even extending to two encores: another Scarlatti Sonata and another by Blasco de Nebra.

And so another Piano Series ends…with another already planned and keenly anticipated.  This regular fixture in Nottingham’s musical year goes from strength to strength.  Artists clearly enjoy the Royal Concert Hall, its enthusiastic audiences, superb Steinway and the way they are looked after by classical programme manager Neil Bennison and his team.  The large audiences enjoy a wide range of musical personalities and programmes which balance the well-loved and the excitingly new.  If this weren’t enough, coffee and cake are also part of the deal, as well as the chance to meet artists afterwards.  It is a winning formula and mouths are already watering at the thought of what musical delights next October will bring.

Ida Pelliccioli performing in the Sunday Morning Piano Series at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall.