A return to Bechstein Hall having opened the Young Artists Season and now returning in the ‘Roast’ Series on Sunday afternoon. Having heard the Haydn B minor Sonata last time Thomas opened this time with the most beautiful of Busoni’s transcriptions of Bach Chorale preludes, that of ‘Ich ruf zu dir,Herr Jesu Christ’. It was a sumptuous opening with beautiful rich sounds from which arose one of the most poignant of Bach’s chorale preludes. It was played with quiet authority as the melody was allowed to unfold with the heartrending beauty of a true believer.

There was a crystalline clarity to the Haydn B minor sonata with a rhythmic drive and sedate ornaments enriched by the scintillating passage work that they unravelled like a finely woven web from his delicate well oiled fingers. Grace and charm of the Menuet was contrasted with the turbulence of the Trio before the dynamic drive of the Finale.Here the brilliance of the jeux perlé was contrasted with the dynamic insistent drive of it’s surroundings, ever more impetuous as the final declaration was punched home with great style and authority.

In his last recital Thomas had played the Chopin B minor Sonata and today he chose the last of Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas op 111. In both works he showed his musicianship with an architectural understanding that allowed him to give an overall shape to these two monumental works without ever wavering from the great rhythmic wave that carries us through from the first note to the last. The opening of op 111 immediately showed his understanding of the struggle that Beethoven implies with the three great leaps fearlessly played with one hand, leading to the true opening of the sonata where at last we arrive at the home key.The ‘Allegro con brio ed appasionato’ was played with great clarity and the drive of water bubbling over at boiling pitch only to find relief in the recitativi that allow a breathing space before the struggle recommences.These recitativI were played with glowing beauty and a shape of improvised freedom.The development too was played with a clarity as it built up to the great declaration of the main theme.There was serene beauty to the coda that allowed the struggle to die down as we reach the major key for the peace of the ‘Arietta: Adagio molto semplice e cantabile’. Thomas played this opening theme with glowing beauty and a string quartet texture that gave great strength to this most poignant of melodies.The variations were allowed to evolve with a natural fluidity as more and more notes were added before the turbulent explosion of the third variation. Even here Thomas managed to keep the same sound world even though playing with such dynamic drive that he allowed to fall away so naturally leading to the gradual disintegration of the theme.

Whispered wafts of melody floating above a gentle murmured bass were played with great control and a perfect sense of balance.The dynamic interruptions were soon dispelled as Beethoven reached for the ‘star’ with a passionate outpouring of radiance and beauty.Thomas always playing with aristocratic control ,the music to dissolving onto gentle vibrations of sound where his beautifully pure trills allowed the theme to be heard on high for a final time.It was the true vision of the beauty that Beethoven could already foresee in the not too distant future.

Siloti’s transcription of Bach’s B minor Prelude was the ideal encore of refined sumptuous reverence where Thomas’s perfect balance allowed the melody to resonate with the purity and beauty that had pervaded the eternal magic of the final bars of Beethoven’s last monumental sonata.

Thomas Masciaga opens the Bechstein Young Artists Series with canons covered in flowers