Kyle Hutchings ‘A pied piper casts his spell in Perivale’
I have heard Kyle play quite a few times and each time I remain struck by his selfless humility and total concentration as music just pours from his almost stationary fingers without any showmanship or physical exertion. More Eusebius than Florestan, that is for sure, but there is a hypnotic sense of communication to the secret world of sounds that he chooses to share with all those that allow themselves to come under the same spell as him. The Pied Piper of the piano indeed or as I have so often said before the poetic troubadour of the piano.
A choice of programme that immediately shows that we are to hear pure poetry, not rhetorical declamations. I have rarely heard the six consolations by Liszt in the concert hall and was quite surprised to hear the famous D flat in their midst today, as I am so used to hearing it as an encore! Liebestraum and Mendelssohn’s Spring Song used to sit on every piano stand when the piano not the television took pride of place in the living room, but in the concert hall these days is a rarity. I can still remember the first time I heard the hauntingly beautiful César Franck Prelude, Fugue and Variation and not being able to rid it from my head for days afterwards!
