Toad Lane Concerts: Giulia Contaldo piano

Giulia Contaldo

The lunchtime audience at St Mary in the Baum was astonished at the brilliance of the Italian American pianist, Giulia Contaldo.

She was described as a “dashing pianist” by The Guardian after she recently performed Schumann's Piano Concerto in a live BBC Philharmonic broadcast from the Bridgewater Hall. What made this all the more remarkable was that she was standing in at three days’ notice for the legendary pianist Elisso Virsladze.

Giulia came to the RNCM in 2019 with a scholarship to the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma course, graduating with distinction, and is continuing with the highly selective International Artist Diploma.

Giulia had previously graduated with a Master's with honours from Florence and also studied in Vienna.

She has received numerous top prizes throughout Italy, and in Portugal and Munich. At the RNCM she has won the Concerto Competition, the Piano Duo Prize, and the prestigious Gold Medal.

She has performed throughout Italy as well as in Paris, Vienna, Portugal, and the UK’s Bridgewater Hall and Wigmore Hall, etc. (See www.giuliacontaldo.com). Before the pandemic, Giulia played at the Toad Lane Concerts, so Rochdale appears on her itinerary too!

She began with a Nocturne by Respighi, a charming and romantic number but one that requires considerable pianistic mastery.

The rest of the programme was played from memory with charming introductions. Impressionistic pieces Pagodes (Pagodas) and La Soirée dans Granade (Evening in Granada) by Debussy were beautifully coloured pianistic prints.

It was a rare treat to hear the monumental last Sonata, Opus 111, by Beethoven played live, it is such a tour de force for pianists, and this was magnificent.

The Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in the transcription by Franz Liszt rounded off a glorious hour of pianistic passion, lyricism and intensity.

The award-winning Toad Lane Concerts are every Wednesday at 12.30pm at St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane, Rochdale, OL16 1DZ. Entrance fee is £6. No refreshments available now, but the venue is Covid-19 compliant. Contact 01706 648872 for further information.

To see the March & April 2022 programme, click here.

Dr Joe Dawson