"Most important is the staggering maturity in evidence here"

Filippo Gorini’s star is in the ascendant: winner of a number of prestigious awards, he also studies with Brendel. Gorini’s intellect is way beyond his tender years. This is a Hammerklavier to cherish, sculpted beautifully with full structural awareness, one that nevertheless bends with the wind. Gorini’s grasp of Beethoven’s contrapuntal workings in the outer movements of this gargantuan sonata are exemplary. The Adagio sostenuto is unhurried, emerging slowly like a butterfly from a chrysalis; the final fugue finds trills displaying their own generative energy. Op 111 is no less impressive, dynamic in a first movement marked by sterling finger strength and superb contrapuntal awareness. The Arietta again shows Gorini unafraid to allow space when the music demands.

Gorini won a Borletti-Buitoni Award to support a project on The Art of Fugue: counterpoint is clearly dear to him. But most important is the staggering maturity in evidence here.