Pianists I Like

A Work In Progress

I once said rather grandly to Tim Lihoreau when he visited me a couple of years ago at my home, that whilst the Russian tradition is alive and well as exemplified by the overwheming Evgeny Kissin, I didn't think there were any modern pianists at all who understood the romantic repertoire and that with the deaths of Claudio Arrau  in 1991, Jorge Bolet in 1990, and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in 1995, the last connection with the the great European 19th and early 20th century tradition of players was lost. How truly pompous of me - and how wrong.

When I sat down to watch the last Leeds piano competition final, I wasn't expecting much out of the ordinary. I was therefore amazed to witness the playing of Alessandro Taverna, a young Venetian pianist from Padua. There is no doubt whatever in my mind and that of many others that he was head and shoulders above the others and but for the inevitable politics of piano competitions, particularly the Leeds, he would have walked away with first prize. Guardian review.

Watch/listen to him  Liszt Tarantella di Bravura  and Chopin - Nocturne in E Major, Op. 62, No. 2