By using Schumann’s Novelletten to draw a broad dramaturgical bow over the whole evening, Martin Helmchen stands on his own as a bold and highly creative pianist.
Almost a year after it started, András Schiff’s Bach project in New York is finally coming to its conclusion. He began on the Upper East Side, at 92Y, with both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier. His performance of Book I, I wrote, was “of the highest quality and depth of thought”.
Young British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor has been much in the news lately: the recipient of two Gramophone Awards (Young Artist of the Year and Instrumental Award for his debut disc), and winner of the Critics’ Award at the 2012 Classic Brits. And he’s in great demand as a performer, if his diary is anything to go by.
The word 'prodigy' is unavoidable when writing about Benjamin Grosvenor, or so it appears for the headline writers. Having eschewed many big concert dates and growing as an artist in smaller halls, he is clearly setting himself up for the long haul. This ambitious, sold-out Cambridge concert showed both how brilliant a pianist he already is, and hinted at how far he could go in the future.
