A pianist of the people: from the moment Piotr Anderszewski walked onto the stage at Winthrop Hall on the 14th of November, the room was overcome by an artistry not arrogant and self-aggrandising but warm and unpretentious. Without speaking a word, Anderszewski held the audience captive in a soft, focussed embrace from the gentle smile at the beginning, to the final note of his lyrical Bartók encore; he delivered precisely what Musica Viva promised of this tour – a ticket into Piotr’s world.
The first half of the concert featured a selection of 12 pieces from Brahm’s Op. 116-119. Most moving feature of this selection was the way in which Anderszewski curated its performance. Instead of the somewhat arbitrary chronologically or harmonically arranged programs one may be accustomed to in recitals such as this, Anderszewski presented Brahms as a seamless journey, capturing a lifetime of emotion. Flowing back and forth between pieces from each suite, Anderszewski blurred the lines between one and the other, turning 12 distinct pieces into one single beating organism. Anderszewski’s technical virtuosity brought out clear and lyrical voices which filled the hall in the upper register of the piano, while the lower register was played with such delicacy, bordering on imperceptibility, it left me unsure whether it was accidentally lost or deliberately sequestered…
Following the interval, two Prelude and Fugues from Book II of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier graced the stage. Anderszewski’s take on Bach was a romantic and emotional one with a degree of expression uncommon in the interpretations of the baroque composer. This romanticism was fitting of the understated elegance and stateliness of the E major (BWV 878) with swaying melodies in the Prelude and the gentle openness of the Fugue. In the G-Sharp minor (BWV 887), the perpetual, Shepard tone-like motion of the piece that is, to me, its great strength was lost as the tension was broken by the stretched and pulled temporality deployed by Anderszewski. This uniquely performed selection of Bach fugues served as a subtle, foreshadowing entrée to the main course of the concert.
Piotr Anderszewski – Photos by Claudio Raschella
With but a breath between it and the Bach, Anderszewski stepped gracefully into Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major. The clear and shimmering upper register of the piano seen in Brahms was now displayed in its full form. Anderszewski’s LH sat like a soft bed onto which his RH danced through dreams until the genius of the concert’s programming was revealed. The clear cycle of fifths toward the conclusion of the Brahms and the fugue’s of Bach each lead to the Sonata, capped with Beethoven’s own romantic fugue. Anderszewski sunk deep and emotionally into the finale, letting each note breath until it strained for the next, ending as he began with palpable tension in the ‘in between.’
Still without saying a word, Andersewski departed the stage to rapturous applause with scattered standing ovation. His encore, a birdsong-like rendition of one of Bartok’s Folksongs from the Csìk District, caused the taut, tense energy present even after rounds of applause to dissipate as if by magic out of the hall. Released from his spell, a final, now gleeful applause was given by the audience. Anderszewki’s performance is among the most intimate and moving I have seen from a solo piano recital and while I was at first disappointed by the absence of some of his 20th century repertoire, I could not fault this emotional and personally curated program. Anderszewski and Musica Viva now take this program to Queensland, Victoria, the ACT, and New South Wales where he will undoubtedly move audiences once again.