Autore: ChristopherAxworthyMusicCommentary

An amazing evening again in the company of the genial,mercurial and unique Martha Argerich.In the historic Laeiszhalle she chose to play a solo performance of Chopin B minor Sonata inbetween two violin and piano sonatas by Beethoven and Franck.Here is the review from Bachtrack that I found on line today and gladly add to the photos that I took whilst watching the streaming live .

It seemed like the right moment to add some pieces of mine of her performances over the past few years in Rome and London just to add to the legend that is Martha Argerich.

Mercurial Martha: Argerich springs a surprise in recital with Renaud Capuçon in Hamburg

https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/the-sublime-simplicity-of-angela-hewitt/10157048438647309/

 For the Glory of God to refresh our spirits

Angela Hewitt’s most moving recital at the Wigmore Hall.

Visibly moved as we all were as she allowed her own transcription of “All men must die ” BWV 643 to fill this hallowed hall with the hope and joy that she has been sharing with us for the past 35 years.

                                           

In the month when Angela Hewitt would have performed the final concert of the multi-season Bach Odyssey, she presented a special live broadcast programme including her own arrangement of a 1714 chorale.

PROGRAMME  Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Toccata in C minor BWV911; Sinfonia No. 5 in E flat BWV791; English Suite No. 6 in D minor BWV811 I. Prelude; Capriccio in B flat major (Capriccio on the Departure of his Most Beloved Brother) BWV992 III. Adagiosissimo: Ist ein allgemeines Lamento der Freunde; Fantasia and Fugue in C minor BWV906 I. Fantasia; French Suite No. 5 in G BWV816 III. Sarabande; Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor BWV903 ;Alle Menschen müssen sterben BWV643 (arr. Angela Hewitt)

                                                                                         

There are times when words are just not enough and music takes over as the complete silence and stillness at the end of Angela Hewitt’s recital demonstrated today.

Capturing in the few final lines a contemplative faith,joy and musical perfection.

As Schumann exclaimed to Mendelssohn when he listened to a Bach chorale …….’a melody laced with garlands of gold evoking the thought that if life were deprived of all trust and faith this chorale would restore it to me’

                                                                                         

A recital in place of the final Art of Fugue that would have brought her 12 recital Bach Odyssey to an end and the highest award that the hall could humbly offer to an artist.

As John Gilhooley in his citation declared: ‘Angela in  35 years of performances at the Wigmore Hall has shown a timeless curiosity,technical flair and an overriding sense of artistic integrity.’

A recital that demonstrated the art of Angela Hewitt from the opening grandiose introduction of the C minor Toccata to the magic stillness of the Adagio.The supreme delicacy of the Toccata theme in the left hand answered so eloquently by the right and its return where the mischievous counterpoints were played with a delicacy that allowed this knotty twine to glisten like jewels in the sun.

The sinfonia was a miracle of purity of line with a staccato accompaniment that demonstrated her mastery and technical prowess.

                                                                                         

The grandiose opening of the D minor English suite with the multicoloured strands that she went on to extract with such obvious delight and joy.The expressive yearning one could almost hear in the way she played the right hand downward phrases in the Capriccio for a dearly departed brother.

The Fantasia in C minor was just the shimmering almost Scarlatti precision  that was needed before the sublime beauty of the Sarabande from the 5th French suite.

The grandiose flourishes of the Chromatic Fantasy soon died away as she drew us in to her world of Bach where every strand made such sense and was imbued with such character.

                                                                                         

The final Chorale created even over the air that magical moment when you can almost feel the listeners sharing an experience together that can only happen in that moment.

It was Mitsuko Uchida who told me once after a concert in Perugia that  it is the memory of such an occasion  that is to be cherished – no photo or recording will ever capture that magic moment again.

Tuesday 23 June 4.00 pm

Streamed ‘live’ concert in an empty church

Patrick Hemmerlé (piano)

Bach: Toccata in D BWV 912
Mendelssohn/Hemmerlé: Scherzo from the Midsummer Night’s Dream
Schumann: Toccata Op 7
Chopin: Ballade no 4 in F minor Op 52
Liszt: Transcendental étude no 10 in F minor
Fauré: Nocturne no 6 in D flat Op 63
Severac: Les Baigneuses au Soleil
Debussy: L’Isle Joyeuse.

Acclaimed for the originality of his concert programmes and the depth of his interpretations, Patrick Hemmerlé is a French pianist living in England. He can often be heard performing such works as the 24 Chopin Etudes, the 48 Bach Prelude and Fugues, or    lesser-known composers. Recent engagements have taken him to New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and Prague, as well as many festivals and music society in England.Patrick has published 3 CDs, which have been well received by the international press. His latest recording project, to be issued in 2020 is a pairing of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and Fischer’s Ariadne Musica.  He is in demand as a lecturer. He has given talks for the Cambridge University, as well as a cycle of concert-lectures on French music, presenting composers little known to the general public,. This led to the recordings of the piano music of Jean Roger-Ducasse and Maurice Emmanuel. Patrick is laureate of the international competition of Valencia, Toledo, Epinal, Grossetto, and more recently the CFRPM, in Paris, where his interpretation of Villa-Lobos’s Rudepoema, raised a great deal of interest.  He was trained in Paris at the Conservatoire (CNR), under the tuition of Billy Eidi.

                                           
They say miracles do not strike twice but listening to Leonora Armellini from Pordenone yesterday and today to Patrick in Perivale I would not have believed such sounds possible on a Yamaha piano!

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/23/leonora-armellinis-glorious-chopin-piano-city-pordenone/

I was told off by the Yamaha dealer in Milan for saying that yesterday.I told him that I prefer the great German pianos of Steinway or Bosendorfer but a great artist can sometimes convince us that the Yamaha is just as good.
The difference is that even a beginner on a German piano can convince whereas he cannot on Yamaha.
I remember Richter playing exclusively Yamaha in the latter part of his career.I heard a Schubert recital in the RFH in London with four sonatas.
I was sitting not in my usual choir seats used to being as near to the piano as possible. I was in the gallery stalls escorting my future wife for the first time in London and to the RFH where we could feel the full atmosphere and see the hall but I could not see what piano he was playing.
I was astounded when I went to the stage afterwards and saw that it was a Yamaha.
The same thing happened with Mariam Batsashvili at her Wigmore Hall debut.Such wondrously delicate sounds I assumed it was the usual hall Steinway and I could not believe as I went to greet her in the green room that it could have been a Yamaha.https://www.facebook.com/notes/christopher-axworthy/a-star-is-born-mariam-batsashvili-at-the-wigmore-hall/10154367837552309/

You see miracles can happen and today in Perivale it certainly did!

                                                   
Not only wondrous colours and magical sounds but a programme where each piece led into the next in a succession that was astonishing.He had after all told us in his brief introduction that the programme would be eclectic and coherant and was designed to be played without a break.
The one place where they did not quite fit  so perfectly together he added an arpeggio link ,like the old virtuosi of the past.It managed to join the frenzy of the F minor study by Liszt so naturally to the pure magic of Fauré’s D flat nocturne.
A little piece by Severac suddenly became the world of Debussy’s L’Isle joyeuse.
And joyous it was as after a series of fleeting  melodic glimpses the clouds parted and the work erupted with the overwhelming passion that I have only once heard from another pianist.
That pianist was Annie Fischer and it has remained with me for over 30 years as I am sure the recital today will too.

The Toccata in D by Bach rarely have I heard played with such sense of character .The song and the dance indeed but also much more besides .A sense of nobility and architectural shape with some very delicate ornamentation and adding some stops here and there where it gave great depth to the sound.Not the barnstorming transcriptions of Busoni that are wonderful in their own right but here was a musician who knew so well the organ and the harpsichord stops that the piano lacks.There was a great contrast too between non legato and a cantabile played seemingly and miraculously without smudging the sounds with the pedal that would have been totally out of character. The recitativo and almost orchestral comments were captivating.The part playing in the Adagio was of astonishing clarity with such  a flexible rubato that came so near but never overstepped the boundary of good taste and style.There was a truly magical transition passage with added bass stops making a great question and answer seemingly  between two keyboards and then the joyous overflow of the toccata played with an infectious rhythmic drive.What an opening……what a personality!

His own arrangement of Mendelssohn’s Scherzo from a Midsummer Night’s Dream had more colour than Rachmaninov’s famous transcription.This was more Mendelssohnian with such a fleeting will’ the wisp filigree it was indeed a dream of  Midsummer just past.

It led straight into the grandiose opening of Schumann’s Toccata op 7.Almost the same world as  Mendelssohn when placed side by side like this.With its fleeting virtuosity and beguiling bursts of cantabile.Of course Schumann’s harmonies and modulations turn this toccata into the masterpiece  that it undoubtedly is.A showpiece for a master technician but above all for a musician.Impish good humour mixed with almost pastoral colours.The fugato was a miracle of clarity whilst in crescendo  and the climax was played with a magnificent richness of sound and passionate involvement.The most remarkable thing of course was his perfect legato throughout which is the real test of this work.Certainly one of the finest performances that I have heard in years.

Dying away as Schumann asks to almost a whisper and Patrick’s hand all ready for the magical opening notes of the Fourth Ballade by Chopin.Here there was above all a luminosity of sound as the theme shone out with bell like clarity and simplicity.I thought the arpeggiated left hand chords though were a little exagerrated and throughout the Ballade became a little mannered.Like the good old Chopin tradition  of yore!But even so it was a remarkable performance for many other reasons .The superb return of the main theme and the magical build up to the climax  and the adding of a bass octave to the great final arpeggio swirls of passion as great pianist often do in public performances at this point.Perlemuter showed me once that Cortot arranged his left hand so that the first bass note of the arpeggio he would play with the thumb to get extra power.It is easier and more effective to add an octave though as Patrick did today!The five final  defusing chords were beautifully shaped and the coda entered as a swirl of musical sounds rather than the usual rumbustuous showpiece that seems to be attached as an afterthought by Chopin.It was certainly no afterthought here in the hands of this superb musician as it led so naturally into the gradual passionate build up in Liszt’s F min transcendental study that followed on  almost without a break.A magnificent melodic climax before the demonic build up to the ritornello swept us up in a breathtaking display of romantic pianism.But even in the quieter more lyrical passages there was a sense of colour even within the same hand.Between the thumb and the little finger just as Cherkassky would do as he searched for the elusive secrets hidden within the seemingly  percussive chords and octaves.The animal excitement generated at the ending was indeed breathtaking even over the air!

This is where an arpeggio link was necessary to transport us into the magical world of Fauré with his most famous nocture- that in D flat.Perlemuter lived in the same house as Fauré and would try out the nocturnes whilst the ink was still wet on the manuscript.It was the only time he wanted me to tell the public  before he played some of the nocturnes in my series in Rome.He bequeathed to me  his score of the nocturnes with his precious legato fingerings and it is one of my most treasured possessions!Patrick played it exactly as Perlemuter insisted it should be played.Not sentimentally but with great noble sounds also of great delicacy but with a crystalline clarity and sense of legato.How much more  moving it is to hear it played in this almost masculine  authoritative way.The undulating final chords I had never realised until today how unbelievably beautiful they are .

It was the first time that I have heard the Severac  and it was played with great charm and character with washes of colour through his superb use of the sustaining pedal.It was the same world of Debussy and the L’Isle Joyeuse with its fleeting melodic line appearing and disappearing in a maze of fantastic sounds.A wondrous sense of colour that produced jewel after jewel of sounds glistening and gleaming in the wonderful liquid atmosphere that he had created as if by magic.

Annie Fischer springs to mind …no greater compliment is possible!

 

                                       

Happy 75th birtday to Dr Hugh Mather with his wife of 48 years  Dr Felicity who together with his team of volonteers have turned St Mary’s into one of the most exciting show places for amazing young talent to perform and be streamed worldwide.

 

Tuesday 16 June 4.00 pm

Streamed ‘live’ concert in an empty church

Mishka Rushdie Momen (piano)

Schumann: Impromptus on a theme by Clara Wieck Op 5
Mozart: Rondo in A minor K511
Scarlatti: Sonata in F minor K519
Schubert: Fantasie in C major D 760 ‘Wanderer’

Mishka Rushdie Momen studied with Joan Havill and Imogen Cooper at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has also studied with Richard Goode and Sir Andras Schiff, who presented her in recitals in Zurich Tonhalle, New York’s 92Y, Antwerp deSingel, and several cities in Germany and Italy for his “Building Bridges” Series. A committed chamber musician whose partners have included Steven Isserlis, Midori, and members of the Endellion, Belcea, and Artemis String Quartets, she played in the Marlboro, Krzyzowa and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festivals and regularly participates in Open Chamber Music at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, Cornwall. She has given solo recitals at the Barbican Hall, the Bridgewater Hall, St. John’s, Smith Square and major venues across the UK, as well as abroad in New York City, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and India. Recent and future concerts include performances at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria, and include world premieres of commissions by Nico Muhly and Vijay Iyer. Her debut solo recording, “Variations”, a recital disc of works by Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Nico Muhly and Vijay Iyer, was released on the Somm label in October 2019. She is currently studying at the Kronberg Academy as part of the Sir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Pianists. This study is funded by the Henle Foundation.

“Sublime  sounds  of ravishing beauty and delicacy”  as Dr Mather so eloquently expressed his appreciation of the recital by Mishka live streamed from an empty church in the beautiful setting of Ealing Golf Course.He and the tecnician were the only ones in the church to listen live like that other courageous venue the Wigmore Hall -which has opened it virtual doors to live music making too.There may only be two people in the hall but they are in company of  a vast audience worldwide of people in need of live music and a message from the heart to the heart as only music can provide.Words are not enough and it is music for those willing to appreciate it  that fills those cracks that have in these strange times been getting wider and wider.This is a new way of sharing music and both Wigmore Hall and Perivale have managed to perfect a system that so many musicians have been searching for from their homes in these past three month.

It was Imogen Cooper who played the day before her pupil Mishka at the Wigmore Hall.It was she after a very moving return to the Wigmore stage (where she had celebrated her 70th birthday last november with the last three sonatas of Schubert) had said that people needed the  message that Schubert and Janacek could offer and which joined  two such different composers together in the quest to send a message from the Heart to the Heart.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/imogen-cooper-heart-to-heart-at-the-wigmore-hall/

Mishka too had played with the cellist Steven Isserlis the week before at the Wigmore Hall where she was every bit an equal partner to this very distinguished cellist.A cellist who has much in common with that other very distinguished musician Sir Simon Rattle.Not only their very Beethovenian hair style but more importantly that burning desire to enter into the very spirit of the composer with a fire and energy that is mesmerising. https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/08/steven-isserlis-and-mishka-momen-rushdie-live-at-the-wigmore-hall/.Simon was in our class with Gordon Green  at the Royal Academy who would often exclaim how talented Simon was but oh how he wished he would practice the piano more!Simon had a burning desire to conduct and hours spent at the keyboard searching for that elusive perfection was not for him.

Mishka on the other hand has dedicated  her youth to searching for that perfection that allows the composers wishes to be turned into sound.Like her mentors Imogen Cooper and Andras Schiff she concentrates on what we know as the three B’s:Bach ,Beethoven ,Brahms which of course is a world that includes Schubert, Schumann and others.

The percussive  Russian school, so much in vogue these days ,is not for them.Artur Rubinstein used to have great discussions with his friend Mr Stravinsky trying to convince him that the piano was not just a percussion instrument but that in the right hands it could sing as well as any bird on the tree!Rubinstein comissioned a piece by Stravinsky and was appalled when he received his Ragtime music that he refused to play.Petroushka,though, was dedicated to him and he played it with the composers approval very much in his own unique way!

The Impromptus on a theme of Clara Wieck by Schumann opened the recital.From the first solo left hand notes one was aware of Mishka’s superb musicianship in the way she shaped this beautifully expressive opening.The scherzo type impromptus were played with fleeting lightness and Schumann’s somewhat tiresome dotted rhythms where shaped so beautifully and delicately as maybe Clara herself may have done.There were some sumptuous sounds in a work that already shows the seeds of his Symphonic Variations op 13.If it missed something of the passion and forward drive of Floristan  it was a small price to pay for such a beautiful Eusebian opening.

Beauty too in Mozart’s great masterpiece that is the Rondo in A minor.It was played with a simplicity and attention to detail that was quite exquisite.If Floristan was not allowed his full share of the stage it was because Mishka did not want to stir these magical waters with any other characters that might appear in Mozart’s miniature opera scene that he so clearly depicts.

It was in the Scarlatti Sonata that suddenly ignited the stage .A brilliant refined and subtle almost Mendelssohnian Sonata played with an infectious energy and lightness that was quite ravishing.

Could it be that she had put her scores away and  felt ready now to throw herself into the fray.

Many artists have said how difficult it is to play to an empty hall knowing that there are cameras watching your every move .Both Paul Lewis and Imogen Cooper at the Wigmore Hall had used an I pad as an ‘aide memoire.’ So hats of to Mishka who threw caution to the wind as she plunged into Scarlatti and Schubert with the vigour and impetus that had been missing up until now.This is what live music is all about .The fact that anything could happen.Not only slight  blemishes which are of no importance when on the other side of the rainbow miracles begin to appear as much a surprise for the artist as for the audience.

Re- creation indeed that we have so much need of in these strange times.In Stephen Hough’s opening recital at the Wigmore Hall I had spoken exactly of this  reawakening of the senses.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/4406/.

She gave an exemplary performance of the Schubert Fantasie in C D.760.A work given to advanced students together with the 32 Variations of Beethoven and Brahms Handel Variations that have so many technical challenges but always with musical values of shape and colour to the fore .Not the stale exercises given to students in early days to train their fingers very often at the expense of their ears.Rubinstein used to practice them eating chocolates and reading novels.But once aquired at an early age one has fingers of steel but wrists of rubber and an orchestra of ten wonderful players that will do exactly what the heart and mind require.

And this was the wonderful orchestra that Mishka used with such refined intelligent musicianship.The Allegro con fuoco was restrained as Schubert asks in order to make the final explosion of the Allegro even more overwhelming.If she did not quite have the burning rhythmic impetus that she had found with Steven Isserlis she rose to all the quite considerable hurdles with great assurance .She shaped the most energetic passages with the same beautiful lyricism that she brought to the many sublime passages in the first movement in particular.The Adagio Wanderer theme was played so exquisitely and kept moving in 2 not 4 as the composer so clearly indicated. There was great passion and  delicacy and the final tremolandos were quite magical before the rude interruption of the Presto.She threw herself into the great flourishes  of this movement that created even more contrast with the beautiful lyrical central section.It led to the excitement of the final Fugato of the Allegro where her ease and naturalness as  she threw off the most technical challenges brought yet another of her superb recitals at St Mary’s  to a tumultuous end.

No encore ..their time was up …but it will live on in the memory, as Mitsuko Uchida says it should.It can also be heard though on the web site of St Mary’s Perivale together with an archive of over 400 performances from the past ten years.

Tuesday 9 June 4.00 pm

Streamed ‘live’ concert in an empty church

Amit Yahav (piano)

A Chopin recital :
Polonaise-Fantaisie Op 61
Nocturne in B flat minor Op 9 no 1
Nocturne in F Minor Op 55 no 2
Scherzo no 1 in B Minor Op 20
Mazurka in C sharp minor Op 6 no 2
Mazurka in F minor Op 7 no 3
Waltz in A flat Op 34 no 1
Ballade no 4 in F Minor Op 52

Multi-award-winning pianist  Amit Yahav  is much in demand as a recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist, having earned his reputation for interpretations that grip and move audiences with passion and intellectual insight. His interpretations of the music of Chopin and Schumann in particular have received high praise. Alongside his performing career, Amit also conducted research into Chopin with the generous support of the Royal College of Music’s Polonsky Award. In performance, Amit’s interpretations are historically informed, and often made accessible to the audience by spoken introductions which place the works in a historical, social and cultural context. Amit is keen to programme well-known and loved repertoire along lesser-known works. Amongst Amit’s success are the  Anthony Lindsay Piano Prize,  the  Special Jury Prize  at the Northwood-Ruislip Concerto Competition, the  György Solti Award for Professional Development , and the Brooks-van der Pump Pianist Prize at the Royal College of Music. Amit also won the 1st International Israeli Music Competition in London and consequently performed Zvi Avni’s  On the Verge of Time  in London’s Southbank Centre in the presence of the composer.In 2014, Amit released his newest CD “ Amit Yahav Plays Chopin “, containing the four Ballades alongside the 2 Polonaises op.26 and the C# Minor Scherzo op.39. This release follows Amit’s tour showcasing the four Ballades in an explained recital, which was selected by the Royal College of Music as part of their  Insight Series  of soirees offered to their donors. In 2018, he earned a Doctor of Music degree for his thesis investigating interpretation in the music of Chopin.

And Hugh Mather replied after the concert:

“A fantastic LIVE piano recital by Amit Yahav this afternoon at St Mary’s Perivale. A delightful all-Chopin programme. Slightly strange without an audience but very satisfying nonetheless.  And about 200 viewers (inc Amit’s family in Israel) have seen his recital online so far.”

And so it is that music will out.No matter the disasters and calamities that befall the world music will always find a way to enter our lives. It enters a secret territory that we have a need of.It reaches places where words are just not enough.Some people might even call it our ‘soul’It has taken only three months from the last concert in London on the 17th March (https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/03/17/the-last-recital-luka-okros-at-st-johns-smith-square/)  to arrive via various desperate  home attempts at hausmusik , at the formula of live music streamed into our homes wherever that may be in the world. Hats off to Hugh Mather and his team who were one of the first to continue  concerts even in lockdown with  Teatime Classics from their archive of over 400 performances to choose from.Realising that these young artist had not only lost a platform and in a sense their raison d’etre but also any source of income.The artists were paid for their archive recordings.With the official opening up of the Wigmore Hall live streamed BBC Lunchtime recitals from the 1st of June  Dr Mather, ever vigilant to respect the self distancing rules that have become so necessary, felt free to do likewise at his mecca in Perivale.

And so it was today not only lunchtime with Hyeyoon Park and  Benjamin Grosvenor  at the Wigmore( https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.wordpress.com/2020/06/10/hyeyoon-park-and-benjamin-grosvenor-live-at-the-wigmore-hall/)but also a Chopin recital by Amit Yahav for tea!A magic carpet that took me and many others from one concert hall to another.

  A beautifully shaped all Chopin programme within a framework of two of his last and most profound works: the Polonaise Fantasie op 61 and the Fourth Ballade op 52.With a substantial filling of  two nocturnes op 9 and 55 and mazurkas op 6 and 7;  the first Scherzo op 20 and the scintillating waltz op 34 n.1 .Infact in just one hour of music a complete panorama of the magic world of Chopin.It is hardly surprising to read that in  2018, he was awarded a Doctor of Music degree for his thesis investigating interpretation in the music of Chopin.

A beautiful shape to the opening of the Polonaise Fantasie,the arch of his left hand poised to await the arrival of the magic wave of  sounds created by the right.There was a great architectural shape to the work with a forward movement that allowed for all the nostalgic nobility without any sentimentality.A beautifully shaped central section with some poignant counterpoints that glistened from the left hand leading to  a magical return of the opening waves of sound after some truly majestic trills.A heroic ending played with all the aristocratic nobility of one of Chopin’s greatest and most original works.

There was a beautiful sense of balance in the hauntingly  simple musings of this first of Chopin’s  nocturnes.The first performance I ever heard was on a piano roll by Josef Lhevine in the archive from the Brentford piano museum just down the road from Perivale. The  same haunting nostalgia has remained with me all these years and it was from Amit’s mellifluous  hands that I was  so poignantly reminded.The nocturne op 55 n.2 in F minor was the favourite of Shura Cherkassky who  played it in a much more serene and fantastically coloured way than Amit.I found his performance just a shade too fast to allow  full range to the fantasy of  the  final flowing arpeggios that pass like the wave of sound that he had found so perfectly in the Polonaise Fantasie.

The central work of the recital was the tempestuous first Scherzo in B minor op 20 .Amit played it with great passion and precision and brought a beautiful contrasting stillness to the simple Polish folk melody that Chopin quotes in the central section.The return to the tempest and coda were played with technical assurance and great excitement.The two early Mazurkas were played with all the infectious dance rhythms and contrasts of Chopin’s nostalgia for his  beloved homeland.And the Waltz op 34 n.1 was played with all the ‘joie de vivre’ and infectious gaiety of one of his most joyous waltzes.One that Rubinstein loved to play as an encore with great final elan  in his many all Chopin recitals.

The fourth Ballade in F minor op 52 is like the Sonata in B minor by Liszt and the Schumann Fantasy op 17 one of the pinnacles of the  romantic piano repertoire .Amit gave an impeccable performance from the beautifully liquid opening as though a door had just been opened leading  to the  purity of sound that he found for the theme.A control and intellectual understanding that did not preclude some exquisite playing.From the return of the opening and the magical cadenza to the sumptuous lead up to the passionate final triumph of  such a seemingly simple melody.After the five calming chords a coda of great technical assurance but shaped liked the true musician he revealed himself to be  today.