Key-board wizards at the Royal Festival Hall

By Gwen HERAT in London

I am submerged to find myself in an atmosphere containing a plethora of events in the huge programme arranged by the Royal Festival Hall (RFH) for the year ending with the season's best events. There is a real buzz about the place and the refurbished Royal Festival Hall is a haven for classical music lovers. I will be going through the season's events, especially the ones who go solo on the key-board.

Towering figures of the European avant-garde, some of the world's leading composer-conductors and key-board wizards are all billed for the asking. It was after much debating I decided to relish the artistry of Paul Lewis, Pascal Roge and Yundi Li, These distinguished pianists explore the Masters in their own inimitable ways. Their playing is universally hailed as unique. When they play the Masters, it is easy for us to forget that when Haydn first wrote, it was to earn a living. Today's programme explores that notion with performances of symphonies commissioned by his employers. But today Haydn is a much sought-after composer at the RFH.

Last evening I heard Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' and it was so gorgeous I felt heady as after a glass of wine.

This year's season find pianists from as far as China, Turkey and Switzerland among many other countries. The international line-up of performers join the resident pianists of RFH and others and enjoy a world-class reputation. Like me, one has to be present to inhale its fine aroma and be intoxicated by their playing. It is sensational to watch them caress the keys with wizardry. They bring out what has been stored away in repertories.

In my last visit just two months ago, I saw Norwegian pianist, Leif Ove Anderson and South African artist, Robin Rhode turning the RFH into a contemporary art gallery. It was unique and dramatically different.

The endless pleasures of discovering today's masters challenge me. I do not know with whose music I end up with. The RFH drives me crazy because of the greatest joys of classical music that seem a bottomless treasure.

I have always been one of those people who positively enjoy music and ballet. I do my own research. I even like reading programme notes at concerts to find out whether I had missed something along the way. The more information I have, easier for me to write. For me music is ballet where my dreams was to dance one fleeting moment with Rudolf Nureyev if I had to practise even for two decades to do so. I imagined I would one day play the key-board in an orchestra but that was like ballet, a pipe-dream and the cost I had to pay for it (my finger knuckles being at the mercy of my music teacher). But I am happy that I have done much better than my colleagues at music and ballet where very few made it to somewhere.

I ended being a music/ballet critic/reviewer. Something for my mother who saw to it that I did my diploma in the arts. I recall all these childhood memories as I sit and await the entrance of Paul Lewis at the Royal Festival Hall tonight and think though I did not make it to the top, it paved the way for me to sit at the RFH and do some reviews. My colleagues say I am the luckiest of the lot and my teacher says, she is proud of my achievement.

Suddenly, there is excitement as applause brings down the roof. Enters Paul Lewis, dapper and confident.

Paul Lewis

Hugely celebrated British pianist, Lewis is considered for his profound interpretations of the Viennese classics which won him the Schubert Sonata series and the Beethovan cycle. When he debuted at the Royal Festival Hall, he performed Mozart and Beethovan along with two examples of overwhelming romanticism of Schumann's Fantasie in C and List's explosive Byronic Vollee d'Obermann. Tonight, he directs and plays Mozart with Jacqueline Shave at the Violin.

R. Strauss - Prelude to Capricio OP 86

Serenade in E flat OP7

Mozart - Piano concerto No. 12 in A.K. 414

Piano concerto No. 27 in B flat K. 595

Pasacol Roge Plays with clarity of texture and sense of momentum within stasis that the great Debussy intended. Tonight Roge plays Chopin. The romantic composer Chopin left his native Poland when he was barely 20 and spent most of his adult life in France where his piano writing proved a profound influence on the next generation of French composers. One of today's best loved pianists, Pascal Roge links the worlds of Chopin, Debussy, Faure, Ravel and Poulence. Tonight Roge is billed to play an original and enchanting programme. I have to rush from one end of the other at the RFH to watch him playing.

Yundi Li This dynamic, profound young Chinese pianist is like a volcano awaiting to spit lava. The magnitude with which he plays make China proud of her young pianist. He plays with passion and forgets the rest of us who are watching. Compelling, he demonstrates a poetic sensibility rare in such a youthful pianist. This young superstar launched his international career by winning the first prize in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2,000 while only 18 years of age. Since then, Li has been showered with pop-star status in his native land and at the RFH. His pristine technique sensitivity and passion may have made Chopin proud had he lived the day to watch this miracle player. Royal Festival Hall's debut today is on the verge of presenting to the world one of the greatest young pianists who will attain the status of Chopin. He will revel in this repertoire for which he is already celebrated. I am only three hours away to watch him create history in modern classical history. So much for China.