Tomasz Marut already with a Doctorate and Professorship at the Karol Lipiński Academy in Breslavia and demonstrating his musical pedigree and mastery with Debussy Suite bergamasque L 75 and Chopin’s 24 Preludes op 28.

The Debussy played with a crystalline clarity from a pianist listening to every sound and creating a luminosity with the ecstasy of the Minuet bursting into a passionate outpouring of sumptuous sounds. Contrasting with the simplicity and ravishing beauty of Clair de lune restored to its aristocratic beauty of poise and wonderment. And the Passepied that just flew from his fingers with beguiling insinuation

It was in the Chopin Preludes that he showed his true pedigree and these were certainly not the 24 problems that Fou Ts’ong used to talk about. Playing of great clarity and beauty from the very opening Prelude with controlled freedom leading to the mysterious whispered left hand of the second where he listened carefully to the balance between the sombre melodic line and the disturbing turbulence of the left. The third was played with a technical brilliance helped of course by sharing between the hands, but his masterly musicianship allowed the melodic line to sing out above this brilliant wave of sounds. What poise and poignant beauty he brought to the fourth with its left hand heart beating so intensely as it accompanied the simple beauty of Chopin’s bel canto. A clarity and architectural shape to the busy fifth was followed by the wonderful sense of balance in the sixth. The tenor melody allowed to sing with luminosity as it was accompanied by the delicate palpitations of the right hand. The seventh is the shortest but which Tomasz gave a particular voice to of utter simplicity. A timeless passionate intensity to the eighth where he could shape the melodic line giving time and space to its passionate nobility. The seventh was played with weight and although rather slow was imbued with aristocratic significance. The brilliant jeux perlé of the tenth caught the melodic line shaping it into a whole with cascades of notes. A beautiful legato to the eleventh which contrasted with the boiling turbulence and passionate intensity of the twelfth. A radiance and beauty of the most beautiful bel canto of the thirteenth was savoured with extraordinary sensitivity. The wind blowing so musically too in the fourteenth before the radiant beguiling story that unfolded as the ‘Raindrop’ prelude was allowed to sing with extraordinary luminosity. The disturbing question and answer of the central episode just highlighted the heart rending return of the droplets falling ,once more, from heaven. A deep added bass to the opening brilliance of the sixteenth that he played with fearless abandon and mastery. A stream of undulating notes that were played with a technical and musical perfection that was astonishing . The seventeenth was allowed to unfold without any rhetoric but with a simplicity as great lines were allowed to undulate with great beauty. The cadenza of the eighteenth was played with a sense of improvisation that led so beautifully into the ‘Aeolian Harp’ of the nineteenth. One of the technically most difficult to play but that Tomasz allowed to unfold with disarming radiance and beauty with the melodic line floating on a wave of wondrous sounds. He brought great poise to the C minor Prelude that has been used as a basis of variations by many composers. Playing very slowly and deliberately, but with an extraordinary mastery of sound as three layers were unfolded with ever more whispered radiance. The beautiful bel canto of the twenty first was answered by the tempestuous octave intensity of the twenty second. The twenty third just flowed from his well oiled fingers with aquatic simplicity before the masterly turbulence and fearless abandon of the twenty fourth.

I cannot understand why such a masterly pianist would play the final flourish with alternating hands, though. Surely this is like a painter with a single brush stroke from the top to the bottom of the keyboard, with one horizontal stroke to the final mighty three, so final ‘D’s’.

An encore by great demand from a very full hall, was greeted by more Chopin. The waltz op 34 n.1 played with the same extraordinary style and mastery that I remember from Artur Rubinstein’s unforgettable performances fifty years ago.