Astonishing virtuosity scaled Everests of piano repertoire

ANDREY GUGNIN LAKESIDE

- By WILLIAM RUFF

JUST reading what Andrey Gugnin was going to play at his Lakeside recital left me feeling short of breath and in need of a lie-down.

On the morning after hearing him scale some of the Everests of the piano repertoire I am still in a state of recovery.

His choice of Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Liszt meant full-blooded Romanticism: heart-on-sleeve emotion, all the colours of the sonic rainbow and astonishing virtuosity.

Gugnin has the sort of all-encompassing technique which is as much a marvel to watch as it is to hear, his hands often lost in a blur as he hurled fistfuls of notes into the audience.