Haydn’s very grandiose Sonata in E flat has long been the one favoured by great virtuosi such as Horowitz or Richter and it was good to see a musician like Inna opening her programme with such a noble work. She imbued it with measure and musicianship from the opening imposing declaration to the haunting playful fairy horns that Papà Haydn could depict with a such subtle genial use of the sustaining pedal. The piano was in evolution and Haydn took advantage of the many new features to add special effects in his later sonatas. The Sonata n. 50 for example has a music box effect where Haydn specifically asks for long held pedal effects. Inna has a palette of colours in her very sensitive fingers that she used with knowing good taste and musicianship. Everything she played had a luminosity and sound of timeless brilliance. From the arresting opening to the magical horn calls and the seamless stream of notes that flowed so naturally from her hands. An ‘Allegro moderato’ which she played with control and simplicity allowing the music to unfold with great fluidity. There was a simplicity to the ‘Adagio’ that she played with refined delicacy and embellishments that were thrown off with knowing ease as she played with authority and beauty, where rests became as important as the actual notes in creating a musical line of poignant significance. The ‘Presto’ Finale was thrown off with masterly ease as the questioning opening was allowed to take wing with a ‘joie de vivre’ of irresistible exhilaration and impish good humour.

Chopin’s Fourth Ballade is the Pinnacle of the romantic piano repertoire and it is a poetic unfolding of a theme and variations from an innovative genius. Inna played it ,from the first notes, with a beautiful flowing tempo allowing the opening introduction to sing with aeolian harp radiance. The theme was played with luminosity and simplicity the deep bass notes adding a reassuring anchor to the variations as they unfolded with ever more passionate intensity. There was a natural crescendo to the work which never drew attention to itself but was a vibrating natural forward movement leading to the final embellishments that Inna allowed to bloom with jewel like beauty. Building to the climax with remarkable control and musicianly understanding and final chords played with sumptuously fulfilling exhilaration. A silence that was as potent as the passionate climax and five whispered chords before the transcendental antics of the coda where even here, Inna could steer her way though this maze of notes with masterly control and architectural understanding.

This was a performance like the scherzo, that restored the original inspiration of a composer of innovative genius, who could create such masterpieces of extraordinary poetic originality.

Inna brought great clarity to these three tone poems that make up Debussy’s Images Book 1. Her limpet like touch could extract a kaleidoscope of sounds within the keys without ever having to alter the rhythmic drive of the music that Debussy could describe with the precision of a composer who had also edited all the works of Chopin. Inna gave a flowing sense of architectural shape of great emotional strength with cascades of notes on which she floated the melodic line with masterly clarity. A very poignant ending of delicacy and glowing radiance with the final cadence depicted by Debussy with knowing mastery as we could almost see the fish disappearing into the depths with this final limped plunge. ‘Hommage a Rameau’ was played with aristocratic nobility as she phrased in large spans that depicted the monumentality of this extraordinary piece. A dawn awakening of whispered beauty gradually built in intensity until dying away to an ending which was floated on a cloud of dreamlike mystery. Driving rhythms to ‘Movement’ played always with a glowing beauty of inner intensity never frenzied brutality. A melodic lined etched on these glowing sounds of luminosity was shaped with masterly control as it spread over the entire keyboard only to disappear into the distance as the vibrating sounds continued.

Some aristocratic playing of glowing beauty and radiance from a pianist who could restore this much abused work to its rightful place as a masterly work of great orginality. A musician more concerned with interpreting the composers very precise indications than using his work as a showpiece for empty virtuosity. Inna is a master pianist as she was able to demonstrate with a jeux perlé brilliance in the central episode. After the opening of drama and the radiant beauty of her glowing bel canto she was able to play with great simplicity the chorale like central episode imbuing it with poignant meaning as discreetly, and with refined good taste, she underlined inner counterpoints giving great depth to the sound. Building in intensity and brilliance but always under the control of a musician who can show us the overall architectural line. There was exhilaration and excitement too in the final pages but always listening to the sounds she was producing and shaping the music with masterly control .