Guestbook

Sent by Magnus Liedholm, 2010-08-07 08:08:11 Heard you at The Consert Hall, Warzaw last week. Breathtaking performance.
Sent by Andy Williams, 2010-08-03 22:02:38 Fantastic concert tonight at the Warsaw Philharmonic - very appreciative audience - although shame we couldn't fill it for you! Come back to Poland soon!
Sent by Jake Eady, 2010-07-20 14:08:10 I went to your St. Georges Bristol Recital a couple of Saturdays back. It was absolutely stunning! Your Chopin C sharp Minor Nocturne (posth.) is the best I have ever heard it played. The Lizst B Minor Sonata was breathtaking! and the Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit was enchanting! how do you make the piano sing like that?! of which I very much envy you!!! You are a true magician of the piano. Thankyou.
Sent by Stephen Haufe, 2010-05-27 02:50:56 Your May 23 Schumann Concerto performance at the Cadogan Hall was wonderful. I found the performance to have a wonderful freshness,vitality, and unforced, natural lyricism, all in great balance, a balance very hard to achieve in this concerto. Very effective light touch, yet maintaining good tone and drama where needed.Absolutely first-rate cadenza and delightful conclusion to the first mov. Wonderful mood,nuance and color in your scherzo-like Intermezzo mov. with again the same qualities that made the first mov, successful.Most other readings I've heard of this mov. are almost one-dimensional compared to yours here. Nice transition to the finale, where the variety of touch and range of dynamics were impressive, as was the momentum, a very joyous romp it seemed, magnificant. Bravo ! Do not "study" this concerto too much lest you lose the spontaniety and sense of discovery. My references are early Serkin,Von Sauer,Rubinstein,Fiorentino, Cortot and Michelangeli, so I'm not cutting you any slack. Bon chance.
Sent by Shawn Chua, 2010-04-07 01:47:32 I've bought my ticket to your recital at the Singapore International Piano Festival in June. I'm so looking foward to the Liszt B minor sonata. I'm going prepared to be blown away.
Sent by Ernst Haase, 2010-03-08 11:59:42 Last night, on an awesome winter evening in the Bavarian Alps my companion Hanni and I attended your concert here in Fischen. It was an unforgettable evening and we felt that after the concert even the peaks of our Allgäu mountains were glowing with excitement about your performance!! Thank you and we hope your own wishes will all come true.
Sent by richard haynes, 2010-02-21 16:04:01 I heard Benjamin at Lincoln on the 14th Feb 2010 the day before the Wigmore Hall concert. Thank you Benjamin for a performance which captured the light and dark, good and evil, life and death sides of Listz. The whole programme was exciting. Kapustin was new to me but a revelation in your hands and the Chopin was beautiful. Here's my poetic tribute to you!!!!!!imperfect and amateurish but meant to offer respectful thanks: Listz’s Piano Sonata in B minor We were thrown without warning into formidable current Swirling and gushing at every moment And suddenly began a musical journey For which we questioned this young man’s strength and ability; Where bound? We asked. We could not know If he would, where others did not, dare to go. So strong the battle, towards darkness bent, Listz and he began their slow descent Of unusual repeated intervals Till the new complexity unfolds Developing a shape which was formed anew In which structure and meaning grew. Then when an initial fight was over And energies had blown their cover An idea emerges, so tentatively, And so overwhelmingly disconcertingly That the listener asks if the way is sure And if this illness might find its cure; Worry was not necessary; composer and player Stripped off yet another harmonic layer And plateaued out in relative composure When strife gave way to easy leisure; The arms relax and the head uplifts As this beauty slips into lighter shifts. The moment is unstable The pianist who proves himself unfalteringly able Allows his spirit and directs his hands Into yet more of Listz’s troubled lands And the boat in which we had all been travelling Is unsettled by this journey’s unravelling. Now torrents and waterfalls are ahead Into deep dangers we are led The boat is almost overturned Our bodies, once cold, are nearly burned, The highs and lows are like an airborne swift— Then we suddenly slow and aimlessly drift……. Seeming without purpose, stranded, Music from no-man’s-land is handed Us, bereft of energy and direction: We ask ‘what is the point of this subjection?’ Is it a moment for reflection? Recollection? To stabilise dejection? But the levels remorselessly start to rise As if watching a morning sunrise All is now laid out before our eyes Anticipation leads to wonder and surprise And though confused we may be by this ride We are lifted increasingly on a rising tide. Up here the world is full of wonder The world asunder is firmly under Body and mind become superior The spirit becomes finer, surer Than any mortal state can give And by which a common man can learn to live. Here the light is bright, and the air pure Here every ailment has its cure High on some plateau above the clouds The angelic company sings aloud Certain as the depths of sea, Stronger than ordinary certainty. But drop, dropping, down we sink Our progress has now tipped the brink, The boat is struggling once again The body once more is feeling its pain As we dive into a new assertion Of malevolence and coercion. The light has faded and the waters move in The boat is unavoidably sinking All seems lost as we struggle for our lives We count the cost as the boat dives…. Are we bound to be drowned, out of control, Then sealed inside a water-hole? But then blasted out, geyser-like, Out of a spout the water jets strike, The boat is blown up into the air, And what was an all consuming despair Now becomes fear of the incredible height Which suddenly dominates our plight; And then gently, and darker, and going lower The music becomes softly slower We are transported back to where we started On the sinking ground from which departed, The grimmest blacknesses of the piano resume And in that dark descending scale the room Is once again consumed.
Sent by Paul Maher, 2010-02-15 14:06:05 Just listened to your recital at the Wigmore Hall. I've heard many great pianists perform the Liszt B minor; yours was electrifying, i'm only sorry I wasn't there to hear it in person. Thank you

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