It was enough to see who was in the audience ,at the Keyboard Trust concert of Tom Zalmanov at Steinways last night, to know that we were in for something special.
In fact this young Israeli pianist was the first to thank his Professor Ian Fountain (Rubinstein winner in 1989 together with Benjamin Frith – two British pianists winning joint first prize that year!) and a special thanks to Murray Perahia and Lady Weidenfeld who are following his career with helpful interest.
Studying for his Masters at the Royal Academy he not only demonstrated his notable pianistic credentials but also his intelligence and eloquence in the short conversation he had with Elena Vorotko,one of the artistic directors of the KT,at the end of his short showcase recital.

A programme based around Schubert’s revolutionary Wanderer Fantasy, the inspiration for the genius of Liszt and Wagner where already Schubert was pointing to a future that he was destined never to see.
Tom showed us the strength and tightly knit construction with a sense of architectural drive and shape that held the four movements as one glorified whole.
Even the whispered ‘Wanderer’ that the composer quotes in the Adagio was played with a string quartet texture that became part of a symphonic whole. Variations that were woven with beguiling whispered tones with a jeux perlé that flowed with such ease from his well trained fingers.

Not an easy task on this magnificent Steinway D which a hall of two thousand would be proud to have on stage rather than in a room for just forty lucky people.
Tom was determined to show us the Beethovenian side to Schubert and threw caution to the wind as he plunged into this mighty work with youthful energy and passion .In a less stressful situation he might have tamed and kept his enormous technical reserves for a hall much bigger than this one.
It was Fou Ts’ong who exclaimed that it was much easier to find intimacy in a big hall than in a small one.

But Tom is a refined artist of good taste and aristocratic style and there were many moments to cherish as there were indeed in the contemporary work (written for the Rubinstein competition I believe) Memory and Variations by Tal-Haim Samnon.
Here Tom opened his Pandora’s box of jewels that he had kept concealed in Schubert and brought these eight short variations beautifully to life with sounds and different touches that illuminated ‘baubles ‘ and turned them into gleaming gems.

The three Rachmaninov Preludes were played with a kaleidoscopic range of sounds with the beautiful D major prelude allowed to reverberate with ravishing colours around this beautiful room .The final G minor Prelude too Tom allowed the glorious duet between voices in the central episode to beguile and seduce but again his youthful passion rather overwhelmed in the dynamic excitement of all that enclosed it.

The Busoni Carmen Fantasy opened with the featherlight hustle and bustle that Busoni depicts so precisely with a babble between conflicting octaves .Dissolving into the sumptuous seductive Latin sounds from a French composer who understood the Spanish idiom better than any of the native Spaniards. A Habanera that with Tom’s superb fingers unravelled with spider like precision and delicacy as it led with the addition of Busoni’s genial inventions to the marzial triumph and the heart rending ending of such a tragic tale.

It was played with real fantasy and colour and the same sense of style that had opened this short recital with the three Novellettes by Poulenc. Tom had immediately shown us from the very opening what an intelligent highly professional pianist this young man already is.
His choice of programme ,as he so eloquently told us in the after concert conversation ,showed a real thinking musician where music is for him a way of life.

He had us all baffled by an encore that resembled more Rameau than a movement from a Bach Suite and just showed his inquisitive mind and remarkable musicianship not to mention his teasing sense of humour!
Murray Perahia knew he had played it himself which gave us the clue that is was Bach not Rameau.
It was Tom,though ,who had to put us out of our misery before joining in the fun and games over a glass of two of Champagne and more intimate conversations with a remarkable artist who has much to reveal on and off the stage.

I have known and admired Murray Perahia since the first time I heard him in Rome in 1972/3 substituting for Serkin in a duo recital of the Brahms violin sonatas with Pina Carmirelli.
I had much later seen and followed him as he rose to the heights where he truly belongs and I was also touched to see him and Alfred Brendel at Cherkassky’s funeral.Two completely different schools but it was Shura more than any other who could find sounds in the piano that others never knew existed .
He confided to me one day after listening to many young musicians covered in international accolades that he thought they just did not listen to themselves.
Of course he meant with that inner ear, the one of a true illusionist or magician who can turn a box of hammers and strings into a treasure trove of beauty.
Tom is a remarkable young musician but the hunt is on for that ever elusive Pandora’s box that was truly Shuras.

https://thirtyseveneast.com/cherkassky-bis/

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZFumJqMprEA&feature=shared

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRcqcPh3IZ0