Italian-Egyptian pianist Francesca Khalifa performed for Bangalore’s International Music & Arts Society at Bangalore International Centre recently. It was a welcome offering after a fairly long period without any concerts. Francesca raised exotic expectations, though her appearance turned out to be normal southern European — with a number of striking tattoos!
A co-founder and artistic director of EXTENSITY Concert Series, that aims at “the disruption of gender, racial and cultural inequity in the classical music world”, Francesca has not found herself excluded because of her mixed background, nor has that created a special niche for her. If it did define her, she would not mind if it also created an opening for others of ethnic multiculturalism. She has found being a woman more of a problem, “the gender challenge is still difficult to overcome in the western classical music world”.
Two Bach pieces were an unusual opening for a recital. Bach is heard less frequently on the concert platform because performers often doubt whether the transcribed versions can successfully evoke the essential quality of the original work. Francesca had thought carefully about how best to convey the harpsichord’s limited range on the more mellow temperament of the modern piano: “Does one use the pedal, for example, which the harpsichord did not have?” (Francesca, notably, did not pedal for either of the Bach pieces). Bach is also not a recital favourite as “… memorising him is difficult because almost all of his writing is polyphonal, in lateral layers”.
The Bach-Busoni cantata, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 104/II is best known for its famous hymn, the beautiful ‘Sleepers Awake’. Busoni allows Bach’s reverent writing to resonate in its rich melodic and rhythmic phrases, while rendering the majestic key of B flat with reserve and restraint, to retain the original spiritual and emotional impact of what Alfred Dürr called ‘Christian mysticism’.
In the Bach Partita #1 in B flat BVW 825, the complicated polyphony spoke clearly, the tempi and register capturing the characteristic counterpoint. In both Bach pieces, Francesca’s touch was light but sure, imbuing both with delicacy and tenderness.
Two Bach pieces made for an unusual opening for Francesca’s concert.
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: BIC
Her effortlessness did not betray the difficulty of the piece, a tour deforce of keyboard technique, unparalleled in Bach’s day: for example, the whole right hand continually jumping over the left. A critic of the time, Mizler, observed, “He who cannot move his fingers … will scarcely be able to learn to play … the elegant flourishes and ornaments of the Partitas.”
In fact, the whole programme was notable for high technical quality of the keyboard method which Francesca rendered effortlessly, instead of being purposefully apparent – always the hallmark of great artistry, making the difficult look easy!
Unfortunately, the thin, almost tinny sound quality of the piano deprived the second half of the programme of its rightful beauty. Where was the sonorous impact of Haydn’s Sonata XVI/20L33 in C,described as ‘Haydn’s Appasionata’? The Sonata, marked for its harmony, symmetry and Strum und Drang dynamics, needed a rich sound quality, which even judicious use of the forte pedal could not produce. (Francesca’s voluminous trousers obscured her feet, but one could hear her use of the pedals].
The introspective and emotional yearning of the lovely Schumann Op. 17 Fantasywas masterfully captured, though again, the instrument was not equal to its raw passion, from deep, introspective, quieter moments to the langsam’s tonal beauty. Her flexible phrasing added great expression, with fingers lingering, for the merest pause, on choice notes.
Unfortunately, the slatedSaint-Saens/Liszt Danse Macabre had to be cancelled, with Francesca finding the available instrument unequal to the piece’s demands — another that commands phenomenal technique, with Liszt at his diabolical best.
As an encore she chose to repeat the Andante of the Haydn Sonata.
A pity that the piano’s quality could not do justice to this musician keyboard mastery, leaving the evening with a feeling of disappointment.
Published – August 25, 2026 07:03 pm IST
