Andresz Wiercinski told me that he was going to hear Lubimov at the Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw .(https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/05/11/andrzej-wiercinski-at-la-mortella-ischia-the-william-walton-foundation-refined-artistry-and-musical-intelligence-in-paradise/). I saw it was being streamed and not having heard Lubimov before said I will be with you!What an amazing lesson in simple pure music making.Brahms op 79 Rhapsodies spoke as never before and were monuments constructed on this 1878 Ehrbar piano with a luminosity and subtlety of sound that I had forgotten could exist.Each note had a meaning as a song might have a different word.There was no need to do anything but just let the music pour from his fingers unimpeded by personal effects.If I was bowled over by his monumental rhapsodies I was enraptured by his op 116 as never before.Emotion added to emotion in an outpouring of unbearable searing beauty and poignant meaning.Seduced by op 117 and enriched and ennobled by a Chopin Barcarolle of aristocratic simplicity and beauty.Mozart D minor Fantasy opened up a complete world with a tone poem of unimagined contrasts from the improvised to refined elegance and brilliance and a pastoral ending of unimagined purity and simplicity.Some added embellishments I could have done without and it was the only thing is his masterly performances that did not convince me.His Schubert E flat Impromptu just poured from his fingers in such a civilised measured way.It must have done that too in a similar fashion before the police had carried him off in Moscow!Announcing with his human voice this time a Lullaby by Silvestrov as he wanted to show his solidarity for Ukraine at the end of his programmes.There was a resonance to his left hand that reminded me of the desolation of Le Gibet or Des Pas sur la neige and just showed how much could be expressed with so little by a true poet of the piano.On a more mundane note it was a marvel to see the perfect arch of his no longer young hands and with completely relaxed arms siting so still before this great black beast.I am reminded of Rubinstein in his Indian Summer when sitting in his favourite armchair in front of a black box of hammers and strings he could seduce the world with the stories he still had to tell.

Alexei Lubimov (born 1944 as Алексе́й Бори́сович Люби́мов, Alexey Borisovich Lyubimov) is a Russian pianist, fortepianist and harpsichordist he studied at the moscow Conservatory with Heinrich Neuhaus and Lev Naumov .After successes in several competitions, he gave the premieres in the Soviet Union of several pieces by composers such as Schoenberg,Stockhausen,Boulez and Ligeti .His commitment to western music was criticised by the Soviet authorities and he was prevented from leaving the Soviet Union for several years, during which time he concentrated on working with period instruments.He is a founder of the Moscow Baroque Quartet and the Moscow Chamber Academy as well as the music festival “Alternativa”. Apart from giving solo recitals throughout the world and appearing with leading symphony orchestras, he works regularly with early music ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. And among.his partners in chamber music are Andreas Staier,Natalia Gutman,Peter Schreier,Heinrich Schiff,Christian Tetzlaff,Gidon Kremer

In recent seasons he has given concerts with the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra in Moscow and the Tonkünstlerorchester. He toured with the Haydn Sinfonietta playing Mozart and played Haydn with the Camerata Salzburg under Sir Roger Norrington in New York and gave performances of Scriabin’s Prometheus at the Salzburg Festival. In November 2010 he gave two recitals at Lincoln Center, returning in 2011 on tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by Ivan Fischer.

In April 2022, police raided an anti-war classical concert by Lubimov at a Moscow cultural centre, interrupting his performance. In dramatic fashion Lubimov finished playing the final bars of Schubert’s Impromptu op 90 n. 2 as two police officers took the stage.