To Bozar again for a second wonderful musical experience in the space of four days. The highlight of the evening was seventeen year-old Polish-Canadian Jan Lisiecki’s sublime rendering of Robert Schumann’s piano concerto (with an even more sublime rendering of a morsel of Chopin as an encore). He was accompanied by the accomplished Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the good-humoured baton of Antonio Pappano. If I were a young piano prodigy I think I would love to have Pappano as my conductor. He is so smilingly, encouragingly, winningly expressive. The starter on the bill of fare was an extract from Verdi’s Luisa Miller, and the second half was an extraordinary rendering of Schumann’s second symphony. For good measure, there were three encores, including Elgar’s Nimrod and two extracts from Rossini’s William Tell (including the famous overture), before the ever-cheerful Pappano gestured that he was off to bed. It was a humbling experience to watch a man-child, Liesiecki’s luxurious shocks of blonde hair emphasising his youth, so in command of his material, so assured in his performance and already so distinctive in his technique.
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