On track: Lone explorer's discoveries

By WILLIAM DART


Do not be fooled by the date on the "new" Virgin Classics release from Piotr Anderszewski. This recital of Bach, Beethoven and Webern was the pianist's first recording, made in Warsaw in 1996.

With hindsight, now that Anderszewski has distinguished himself alongside his contemporaries, Olivier Bellamy might well wax purple in his booklet essay, describing the pianist as "a lone explorer guided by nothing but his own inner compass".

When it comes to Bach's English Suites, Anderszewski must compete with Angela Hewitt playing all six divinely on Hyperion, but perhaps some punters might prefer to focus on just the one work.

The Polish pianist's feeling for Bach's all-important line in the D minor Suite is utterly distinctive, whether emerging from the deliberated chords of the Prelude or propelling the final Gigue to its last thrilling cadence.

The Sarabande is provocatively slow, but not so much that its sighs aren't as potent as ever. Within minutes, when you move on to the ensuing Double, with its hypnotic train of melody, you realise the tempo choice was perfectly considered.

Beethoven's A flat Sonata Opus 110 is the composer's penultimate work in the genre and one of his most searching utterances for the instrument.

Anderszewski searches, too, and makes discoveries, unearthing inner lines and the truths that fit them; in the first movement, surging chords are transported from the bass register to rare, delicate heights.

The exciting Allegro molto could have warning signs reading "Beware: fortissimo ahead" and Anderszewski revels in the physical impact of the sound.

At the other end of the spectrum, the slow movement, with mercurial shifts of mood and style, has a hushed beauty, and the Fugue is pure poetry.

The centrepiece is the Webern Variations. Stravinsky spoke of the Austrian composer "cutting his dazzling diamonds, the mines of which he knew to perfection". Anderszewski makes one think of opals or moonstones, such are the colours he draws from his instrument.

Less clinical than Pollini and not as romanticised as Uchida's more recent 2001 recording, Anderszewski effortlessly places the work in the tradition that inspired it in this finely considered programme.

* Piotr Anderszewski plays Bach, Beethoven and Webern (Virgin Classics 545632)