I am lost for words.I listened by chance to Sophia intrigued by Prof Paleczny saying that she was a name to watch .That must be the understatement of the century !I remember Serkin telling Richard Goode off after he had heard Murray Perahia .’You told me he was good ,but you did not tell me how good!’. Here is a young lady who plays with the same phenomenal mastery as Kevin Chen and Yunchan Lim both of whom were absolute revelations at Duszniki and have gone on to conquer the world.Both Kevin Chen,Bruce Liu and now Sophia are from the remarkable Canadian school of piano playing.Both Sophia and Bruce with Dang Thai Son in Montreal and Kevin with Marilyn Engle in Calgary.But if one adds up all the Canadians from Glenn Gould,Janina Fialkowska ,Angela Hewitt,Marc André Hamelin ,John Kimura Parker to the present day one begins to realise that there is something special in the air in Canada that can produce pianists of such intelligence ,stylistic and technical mastery with such a relaxed natural way of playing.

Sophia opened with Liszt ,not the barnstorming virtuoso but the poetic pianistic genius who like Chopin and Thalberg had created a completely new world for a piano that had evolved from a percussive instrument to one where the pedals became ‘ it’s very soul ’ .A black box of hammers and strings could give the illusion of being able to sing with the same beauty as the human voice or become a complete orchestra of ten wonderful players that could multiply into an infinite number of orchestral musicians.A pianist that must be an illusionist and know the secrets of balance,touch and of course fingerfertigkeit.

This used to be a novelty for the virtuosi of the nineteenth century where playing with sounds and teasing of sentiments became the power of an entertainer over an audience.Gradually this new technical mastery was placed at the service of an interpreter whose only wish was to transmit the composers wishes into sound.Leschetisky accused Schnabel of being a musician not a pianist.De Pachmann used to talk to the public whilst he played his ‘lollipops’ to let them know how it was going.There appeared out of this the great pianist who was above all a great musician.As students we would buy the recordings of Brendel or Pollini to hear exactly how the score could be translated into sound.Rubinstein too broke away from the so called ‘tradition’ where the tricks of the trade of pianists became more and more distant from what the composer had actually bequeathed to us on the printed page.

All this to say that the phenomenal technical command of this young lady was always at the service of the composer whether it be Liszt or Chopin.Liszt edited the works of Beethoven and knew exactly the importance of the indications the composer had written in the score.Chopin’s scores are of a clockwork precision and especially his pedal markings that give a clear indication of the phrasing and type of touch required.Debussy edited the works of Chopin and the precise detail in Debussy’s works is of quite extraordinary clarity.

A Mephisto Waltz with an inner energy and extraordinary command of the keyboard imbuing all she did with character and authority.Crystalline fingers allied to a great temperament.A poet too with the way she gently phrased the entry to the ravishingly beautiful central episode.Brilliantly clear bird calls were played with sparkling clarity .A driving passion but with a masterly control where the treacherous leaps held no terror for her because it was part of a musical language .A red hot passion ignited the piano with sumptuous sounds as Mephisto reached it’s climax with notes soaring across the keyboard with masterly ease .The control at the end where she managed to reduce the sound before unleashing diabolical double octaves showed a maturity way above her actual years.

The sonetto 123 del Petrarca was a wonderful oasis of luminosity and delicacy.A great architectural shape to poetic musings with a beautifully whispered but etched melodic line of breathtaking beauty .Exquisite arpeggios of radiance created a poignant atmosphere to the final prolong sigh.

There was nobility and authority to the opening of ‘Norma’ as a tale was about to unfold of quite extraordinary theatrical intensity.There was a kaleidoscope of colours and a ravishing sense of balance but also a clarity where the melodic line is accompanied by octaves as the piano ignites with burning intensity.There was a subtle beauty to the recitativi answered by the orchestral tutti’s as the music melts into a deep lament of radiant colour. Building in beauty with the barely audible whispered bass drum on which the haunting Bellinian melodies unfold with breathtaking virtuosity but above all a sumptuous beauty and absolute control.

Digging deep into the keys for the ‘war’ theme that was played with extraordinary rhythmic precision and a virtuosity of amazing elasticity and fluidity.A wind blows across the keys on which the melodic line sings out with ever more exultation and excitement.The genial combination of the two themes together I have never heard played with such fearless abandon and clarity.I remember being astonished by Kevin Chen but today I was truly astounded!

After the interval Sophia dedicated the recital to Chopin and it was here that she showed her aristocratic sense of style with four Mazurka’s that were for me the highlight of all I had heard in Duszniki this year ….or others if it comes to that .

Some things cannot be taught but natural instinct can be deadened instead of being nurtured! There was a National outcry in the ‘50’s when a Chinese pianist was awarded the coveted Mazurka prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw.But as Fou Ts’ong pointed out the poetic soul of nostalgia and melancholy are the same sentiments as in Chinese poetry ( of which his father was an expert and the first to translate them – both parents later committed suicide in the cultural revolution ).You see a ‘soul’ knows no frontiers !

Roberto Prosseda pays tribute to the genius of Chopin and the inspirational figure of Fou Ts’ong

The first Mazurka was played with crystalline clarity and beguiling rhythms with an especially hauntingly capricious central episode.A heart rending nostalgia inhabited the second with a ravishing sense of style and delicacy.A haunting melodic line to the third with exquisite embellishments played with disarming poetic simplicity and exquisite finesse.Arsenii Moon had just played op 17 n. 4 very beautifully but Sophia played it with even more refined delicacy and above all a poetic simplicity that was deeply touching.

There was a beautiful natural freedom to the Nocturne in G op.37 n.2 where Chopin’s exquisite bel canto in this nocturne resembled more an Impromptu.Unwinding with ravishing harmonic changes with refined sensitivity and above all simplicity.The beautiful lilting central episode, so reminiscent of the second Ballade glistened with refined streams of sound with a pastoral feeling of subtle nostalgia.A miraculous performance from the refined delicacy of Sophia’s sensitive fingers . I had not heard this nocturne for too long and was made aware of it by the artistry of this young artist.

The variations of ‘La ci darem la mano ‘ from Mozart’s Don Giovanni I have not heard since Cherkassky used to play them in his recitals for us in Rome.It is a ‘tour de force’ of refined technical mastery but it is above all a piece that needs a supreme stylist to keep up with the chameleonic changes of character allied to subtle technical difficulties.Sophia played the introduction with simplicity and refined elegance of half lights.Magic colours illuminated the piano as never before as intelligence and fantasy combined with such style.Even the simple statement of Mozart’s theme was full of subtle colouring that it became truly a thing to cherish .There was an amazing jeux perlé of another age which not even Cherkassky could rival ,because Sophia also had a youthful spirit of discovery and exhilaration as the notes just spun so magically from her well oiled fingers.There was an amazing dexterity too as the the leaps were thrown off with such ease.The final Polonaise was played with refined beauty and the same scintillating brilliance that had Schumann declare ‘Hats off Gentlemen a Genius’ when Chopin first played them as a teenager to the aristocratic audiences of the time.

Three encores each more astonishing than the other .Chopin’s rarely played Ecossaises were played with brilliance and exquisite style.The Black Key Study op 10 n.5 will never be forgotten by those that heard such a miracle.I have no idea what the last encore was but it is enough to say that at last this rather staid audience were on their feet to cheer one of the great pianists of our time as they had Kevin Chen and Yunchan Lim