Thomas Kelly ‘Hats off to a genius’
Playing of great authority and the subtlety of the Golden Age of piano playing
Some extraordinary playing from Tom Kelly standing in at short notice for Filip Michelak who had badly damaged a finger packing his bags to fly to the UK ! As Tom told me ‘everything relearnt in a few days, hope it didn’t sound like it!’ Tom has now decided to concentrate on playing concerts, having been given precious performing opportunities by recognition in previous competitions in Hastings and Utrecht. Working now on repertoire rather than competing on the rather soul destroying International Competition circuit. As I told him competitions are for race horses not pedigree stallions like you!
An artist is known by his programmes and to look at the programmes of Claudio Arrau or Rudolf Serkin is to know immediately that these are real thinking artists that one can trust to shed new light on great works, bringing them to life with humility, integrity and intelligence. It was exactly his programme today that showed a fascinating mix of familiar and less familiar works placed together in a satisfying combination focused around Schumann’s First Sonata op 11.
