One is seldom fortunate to encounter the metaphysical powers of an artist like @alexandrekantorow.

Yesterday @wigmore_hall a programme featuring Liszt’s Variationen über das Motiv von Bach, Nikolai Medtner’s 1st Piano Sonata, Chopin’s Prelude in C sharp minor, Hillborg’s Kalamazoo Flow (commissioned by the pianist himself as recently as 2025))and Beethoven’s Opus 111, left me acutely aware that I was in the presence of a Neoplatonic divination.

In moments like these I often turn to comparable artistic mediums to seek a reflection of their poetic truth: The actor Mark Rylance is capable of revealing the inner voice through the iambic pentameter of William Shakespeare; the soprano Irmgard Seefried deconstructed Germanic Lieder as a natural and consequential expression of spontaneity and feeling. Alexandre Kantorow is capable of both, and dare I think it, far, far more.

As I was leaving the Wiggy, a friend of mine passed by and tapped me on the shoulder. Reeling from his encore performance of the Liebestod, transcribed by Liszt, possibly as a delayed reaction I choked up and was about to break down: it is so rare for a solo instrumentalist to have this effect on me.

wigmorehall #wigmore125 #piano #concert #alexandrekantarow