Sunday 8 September 3.00 pm 

The opening of the season in Perivale with the first of 42 concerts before Christmas . Andrzej Wiercinski gave a long concert containing two major Sonatas by Beethoven and Chopin plus many shorter works of Chopin and Bartok, §culminating in Liszt’s 12th Hungarian Rhapsody. During the summer break the piano that has seen some 1500 concerts was given a major servicing which included replacing all the bass strings.

Andrzej has been busy too playing all over Poland and in Texas and had just flown in last night to play what is the tenth anniversary of his concerts at Perivale. A wide ranging programme on a newly reconditioned piano is certainly not an easy thing as a piano like a car needs to be run in before embarking on a long and hazardous journey! Hats off to A.W. For more than rising to the challenge with such charm and style.

The first half was dedicated to Chopin, of which Andrzej is a master, with playing of aristocratic authority and deeply felt emotions that only Chopin’s fellow natives can fully appreciate. There was the passionate outpouring of the Nocturne op 55 n. 2 where Andrzej caressed the keys with delicacy and poise and it was followed by the 13th Prelude op 28 which is of a similar nocturnal beauty with its flowing gentle accompaniment.

This was the first of six preludes from the set of op 28.The 14th Prelude was played with the same agitation as the last movement of the sonata which was to follow at the end of this Chopin group.There was an exemplary clarity but with subtle shading created by his fleetingly sensitive fingers.The famous ‘Raindrop’ prelude was played with a glowing fluidity and beauty and the sombre central episode came to a touching almost chorale type ending before the innocent opening returned with ever more simplicity and whispered beauty.The 16th Prelude is the one that strikes terror even into the most consummate of pianists. Andrzej rose to the challenge and threw himself into the swirling spiral of continuous notes with passionate drive and fearless scintillating virtuosity.The heartbeat that resounds throughout the 17th Prelude was played with flowing beauty and a melodic line that rose and fell with exquisite simplicity even as the final deep A flats ,one of the 28 bass strings that had been replaced,chimed as in many works of Schumann. A melodic line that was just floated so magically on this cloud of a pedal note. The 18th just crept in with its desperate cries and passionate outbursts bringing this selection of Preludes to a very satisfying end. We live in an ‘Urtext’ age where we are so used to hearing complete collections of pieces that it is sometimes refreshing just to hear a few of the components on their own as Chopin himself always did in his few public performances!

The 3rd Ballade is the most pastoral of all four and it was played with aristocratic charm .There were fleeting arabesques and passionate outbursts as the music moved inexorably forward to the final glorious climax and a cascade of notes that goes from one end of the keyboard to the other. A masterly performance that was played with an exemplary simplicity and ravishing sense of colour.

The opening of the B flat minor Sonata was played with passionate drive and masculine strength that denied any ‘Chopinesque excentricities’ and gave such inner strength to this monumental masterpiece.Chopin is often criticised for not understanding bigger forms but with this Sonata he shows just what a master of structure and architecture he was. Andrzej played with just the right architectural shape that gave real weight to the second subject that became in his noble hands part of a bigger whole. There was no repeat ,something which is often hotly debated by some,but is best left out . Chopin plays with the motifs of the ‘doppio movimento’ and opening ‘grave’ introduction that become the left hand pivot of a sumptuous development.There was a rhythmic drive to the Scherzo that was played very clearly and powerfully with a Trio of aristocratic good taste and full ravishing sound. The ‘Funeral March’ was played with simplicity and the Trio grew so naturally out of it filling the air with a rarified glowing cantabile. The last movement was played like the 14th Prelude with almost no pedal but with sensitive fingers that could shape the notes of a movement that Schumann described as ‘the craziest of children’. Others since have had a vision of the wind passing over the graves. A brilliant performance not without a blemish or two, because the piano had not been run in. That is a detail when one is privileged to be in the company of an artist who can play with such authority and conviction.

The second half of this opening recital of the season included a superb performance of Bartok’s Suite op.14 played with rhythmic precision and clarity and there was the mysterious unmistakable voice of poignant beauty of Bartok in the final ‘sostenuto’.

Beethoven’s op 110 was played with beauty and supreme style that admitted both poise and poetry. One or two slips were of no importance as this was a performance of great integrity and architectural authority. The opening of the Adagio was so beautiful and the long whispered vibrating notes (bebung) were superbly played before dissolving into the sublime ‘arioso’. There was a great climb to the climax after the knotty twine of a fugue that also appeared in whispered inversion.the final grandiose flourish was played with a grandiloquence worthy of an artist who could see way beyond the notes and into a far better future that awaited Beethoven just a few years on.

The 12th Hungarian Rhapsody was the last piece on the programme and it was played with Lisztian grandeur and heart on sleeve beauty before erupting into spectacular fireworks and a whirlwind of notes. It brought this extraordinary opening recital by a much loved veteran of Perivale to a brilliant conclusion.

 

Andrzej Wiercinski was born in Warsaw in 1995 and graduated with distinction from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice (2014-2019) and in 2020 received a postgraduate diploma from the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. From September 2023 he will be pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Royal College of Music in London, with Professor Norma Fisher. Andrzej has won 1st Prize in numerous piano competitions, including: Saint-Priest International Piano Competition (2019); First International Music Competition in Vienna (2019); Masters Neapolitan Piano Competition (Naples, 2018); International Chopin Competition “Golden Ring” in Slovenia (2014); International Chopin Competition in Budapest (2014); and the Polish National Chopin Competition (2015). He was a semi-finalist in the 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2021), He is the recipient of several international Scholarships.In recent years he has given recitals in most European countries as well as in Canada, Indonesia and Japan. This year he performed Chopin’s F-minor Piano Concerto in Darmstadt with the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck Orchestra and in 2022 Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto in the Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall with the Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra. Andrzej released his first CD in 2015, playing solo piano works by Scarlatti, Schumann and Chopin. 

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

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

Andrzej Wiercinski in Ruislip A great artist free to conquer the world