Ludwig van Beethoven [1770 –1827]
Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1
Piano Sonata in E flat major, Op. 31 No. 3

Fryderyk Chopin [1810 –1849]
Rondo in C minor, Op. 1
Berceuse in D flat major, Op. 57

Ferenc Liszt [1811 –1886]
Années de pèlerinage. Première année. Suisse, S. 160

An extraordinary recital from a pianist whose debut recital I had heard some years ago at the Wigmore Hall in London as winner of the Rubinstein Competition.I remember the discussions between Menahem Pressler and Peter Frankl during the interval talking about his phenomenal performance of ‘Petrushka’. We were all astonished and amazed until Pressler gently pointed out that it is a dance and it would have been impossible to dance to his performance without breaking a leg!

Tonight we heard two Beethoven Sonatas played with enviable technical assurance and scrupulous attention to the composers wishes.Trills that were like springs,staccatos that were scrupulously played as such and above all a clarity and fingerfertigkeit that was truly phenomenal.But one felt that this was such a classical performance that any personal feelings or participation were swept away by an exemplary exposition of the notes on the printed page.But it was rather black and white and by choice lacking in colour or any personal fantasy.

After the interval Maestro Nehring appeared without the rather formal jacket that he had worn for Beethoven appearing in a painter’s ample tunic and he was suddenly freed of all the formal restraints that he had imposed on himself in the first half and now played with a freedom and ravishing sense of colour that were breathtaking .

A rubato of such beguiling beauty in the Mazurkas and the true vision of a great artist .If the Berceuse was a little fast and one feared that his precision and clarity might again obscure his artistic soul ,that was completely forgotten when the end of the Berceuse magically became the start of Liszt’s ‘Au Lac de Wallenstadt.’

Here the doors to heaven truly opened as this young man gave some of the most personal and beautiful performances of Liszt that I have ever heard.The ravishing beauty of ‘Au Lac ‘ where the waves were barely audible as the melodic line glowed and glistened as it was shaped with extraordinary sensibility.A rubato that was barely noticeable but drew you in to his magic spell which is where we remained for these four pieces from ‘Années de Pèlerinage’.

Obviously he had chosen the most poetic pieces as we passed from the ‘Lac’ to a ‘Pastorale’ bathed in pedal and of a luminosity of sparkling purity. ‘Les Cloches de Genèvre’ was revealed to be the miniature masterpiece that it truly is and the ‘Vallée d’Obermann’ was quite breathtaking and simply the greatest performance I have ever heard.A poetic understanding of a truly great tone poem where he passed from breathtaking passion to barely whispered confessions of heartrending poignancy.

The entire second half had been played without a break ,from the early Rondo op 1 played with a real sense of character and style and Chopin’s heartrending last piece for piano the Mazurka op 68 n. 4 through the Berceuse to a Liszt of remarkable poetic freedom even adding some embellishments that added even more poignancy and potency to such overwhelming;y convincing interpretations.

Two encores showed off the phenomenal technical mastery of this young musician with a minute waltz that I have never heard played with such clarity and precision but allied to a beguiling rubato and infectious sense of style.’Etincelles’ a famous encore of Horowitz was played with breathtaking charm and virtuosity with some additions that sounded as though they could have been by Volodos and an ending that was even more ‘tongue in cheek’ than Horowitz himself.

An artist who is really the incarnation of Florestan and Eusebius where the duel personality of severely classical on one hand and visionary mastery on the other could exist in the same person with only an interval and a change of clothes to separate them! Astonishing ! I know which one I prefer and am sure as he matures as artist he will combine the two worlds into the one glorious whole of his choice.

Considered to be the most gifted and promising pianist of his generation in Poland, Szymon Nehring is the only Pole to have won first prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv (2017). He was also a finalist at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw at only 19 .

Szymon performs with orchestras such as Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Hamburger Symphoniker, Orchester philharmonique de Marseille and Orchestre Paseloup in France and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, collaborating with conductors such as John Axelrod, Lukas Borowicz, Sylvain Cambreling, Karina Canellakis, Pablo Heras-Casado, Marzena Diakun, Lawrence Foster, Giancarlo Guerrero, Jacek Kaspszyk, Grzegorz Nowak, Pawel Przytocki, George Tchitchinadze, David Zinman and Omer Meir Wellber. He also performed and recorded with the late Krzysztof Penderecki, among other works his piano concerto.

Szymon Nehring has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Tonhalle Zürich, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, the Musikverein in Vienna, as well as the Herkulessaal and the Prinzregententheater in Munich.

Many recordings have already been released, in recital and with orchestra, including Chopin’s two piano concertos under the baton of K. Penderecki. During the 2024/25 season, a new minimalistic recording will be released, as well as the first Volume of a Chopin Solo Works Cycle for the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, a project meant to last several seasons. Amongst halls he will perform in this season are Bozar in Brussels, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg and La Seine Musicale in Paris. He will also perform Szymanowski´s 4th Symphony at home and on tour with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop.

He started his education as a student of the M. Karłowicz’s Primary School and then the F. Chopin’s Secondary Music School in Cracow (2008–2014), which he graduated with distinction, being in the piano class of Olga Łazarska. Then he graduated from the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz under the guidance of prof. Stefan Wojtas and in the period of 2017–2019 he has completed the Artist Diploma program at the Yale University in New Haven in the class of prof. Boris Berman. Since 2020, he has been a PHD student at the Doctoral School of the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz in the class of prof. Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń.

In 2015, he was awarded the Krystian Zimerman scholarship.