• F. Chopin: 2 Nocturnes, Op.55
• F. Liszt: Funerailles, S.173
• J. Haydn: Sonata in F Major no.38, Hob.XVI:23
• L. van Beethoven: Sonata no.14 (‘Moonlight’), Op.27/2
• F. Chopin: Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise in E-flat Major

Great to hear Andrzej again after such a long time .A flying trip for both of us with he barely touching ground before returning to Warsaw and me too just four days in the sweltering heat of London having left the rain in Rome just two days ago

Andrzej playing for his great friend and mentor Roger Nellist on a Schiedmayer piano made the year the Titanic went down.Perlemuter would have referred to it as a ‘casserole’.

Richter used to enjoy the challenge of finding the secrets of the many pianos he found on his whistle stop tours of Russia .Because in every piano there is buried ,sometimes deeply, a soul of the person who had assembled a box of hammers and strings with love and artistry .

It was the great artistry of Andrzej today that with the very first notes of Chopin he could turn a bauble into a glowing gem.
Cherkassky’s favourite nocturne op 55 n 1 that opened the programme showed immediately that Andrzej had come through a period of transition with an artistry that was a voyage of discovery.A freedom but always within the parameters of the composers wishes – it is the pianist’s Nirvana and a state that only the greatest of artists can ever perceive.

We are all taught from an early age that playing the piano is like shaking hands but it is more like swimming on a wave of sumptuous sounds.
Volodos I have always regarded as the absolute model of a pianist who can paint pictures with sound .Playing ,that like a painter are continuous natural inspired movements where the visual and audio are one and the same -a marriage made in heaven of technical mastery but above all of undying love of the sounds they are creating.
There was the great beauty of Andrzej’s hand movements as they barely stroked the keys uttering whispered tones of ravishing beauty with aristocratic playing of refined good taste.There were bell like sounds as the coda gradually took flight and the tenor melody entwined with the ethereal weaving of the golden strands of sound as they bade a magic farewell at the top of the keyboard .
The second nocturne of op 55 where Chopin’s knotty counterpoints are entwined with a searing intensity igniting this most poignantly ecstatic of all Chopin ‘s nocturnes .There was magic in the air as the modulations and bell like sounds mingled together with heart rending beauty.

Another world opened up with Haydn’s Sonata in F from a world of the more formal civilised elegance of an earlier period .There was immediately a clarity with crystal clear ornaments that sparked like jewels as they spun from Andrzej’s well oiled fingers as he played with a real sense of characterisation and a dynamic drive of operatic vivacity
There was a beautiful luminosity to the Adagio which was played with disarming simplicity and a kaleidoscope of subtle inflections .
The Finale was an explosion of civilised ‘joie de vivre’ with its rhythmic drive and scintillating brilliance.

‘Funerailles’ in Andrzej’s hands became a tone poem of great intensity and passionate triumph .
The great bass gong just supporting the funeral march with tremolandos that were part of the architectural line.The deep whispered entry of the melody in the bass was answered by the emotionless rhythmic comments of the right hand in a truly religious procession before the radiance of a melodic line where glimpses of paradise are seen from afar.
A magnificent sense of balance on a not easy piano brought this heavenly outpouring to a sumptuous climax awaiting the entry of the cavalry.
And what cavalry were in Andrzej’s hands today with the blazing horn calls rising above this might battle cry.A tour de force of technical mastery brought us to a breathtaking climax played with aristocratic control and sumptuous orchestral sounds.A coda of melting beauty on a cloud of whispered bass notes building up to the final cry and dying gasps.

A ‘Moonlight ‘ Sonata of great beauty with hands barely synchronised which gave great colour and delicacy which is what Beethoven would have wanted on pianos of that period ‘con sordina’ .
A new work for Andrzej together with the two Chopin nocturnes but played with an intelligence and mastery of quite extraordinary simplicity and beauty.It was the sign of the birth of a great artist free from the constrictions of formal training and now free to show us works afresh on his voyage of discovery as a great interpreter .I am fond of quoting a phrase used to describe Cherkassky in ‘Le Monde de la Musique’ :’Je sens,je joue,je trasmets’ which is exactly what we were treated to today.
A beautifully playful Allegretto and a Trio of startlingly original contrast .
A Presto agitato that in places was almost too passionate but played with a demonic drive and intelligence as the coda melted into the distance before the final tumultuous eruption.

Chopin ,of course, was played as to the manner born . An Andante Spianato was a mellifluous outpouring of sumptuous bel canto beauty and aristocratic good taste .The Polonaise was played with beguiling,scintillating streams of jeux perlé played with the brilliance that Chopin seduced the Parisian salons with and that had Schumann declare ‘Hats off Gentlemen a Genius’

Andrzej Wiercinski at Hatchlands – The Cobbe Collection Trust.A great pianist on a wondrous voyage of discovery

Andrzej Wiercinski at La Mortella Ischia The William Walton Foundation – Refined artistry and musical intelligence in Paradise