Piotr the Hammer

I never realised Piotr Anderszewski was such a heavy-handed pianist, but then again, I've only ever heard him play on his own.  Placed side-by-side with Henning Kraggerud (one of my great favourites, as you all know by now), as he was at the Wigmore last night, he sounded a bit like a child having a temper tantrum, and I doubt that's the effect Janáček was going for when he sat down to write his violin sonata.  Henning's playing was, as it usually is, terrific, and full of all kinds of subtleties that were virtually drowned out by Anderszewski, and I found myself wishing they'd do us all a favour and put the piano to half stick.  No such luck, I'm afraid.  Incidentally, Kraggerud isn't exactly a retiring milksop where sound projection is concerned.  He produces some pretty significant volume, so it takes quite a lot to overpower him.  Anderszewski managed the trick, but I don't think he meant to, which is a sort of backwards way of saying he's not used to accompanying people.  He's a soloist by nature, and perhaps one accustomed to fronting orchestras in large concert halls where projection is of the essence.  I certainly never noticed any great defects in his playing when I've seen him perform concertos, or even when I've seen him on his own in smaller venues, and last night's concert's second piece, Szymanowski's Metopes for solo piano, was fairly pleasant to listen to, provided of course you like Szymanowki, which I half do.  There were a few moments in the first movement where I'd have sworn someone had tipped a box of dishes down a flight of stairs, but they were short-lived, and quickly supplanted by a nice sonic richness.  This was especially true of Anderszewski's playing in the second and third movements, where his big sound actually contributed to the music's character, and I began to suspect order had been restored to the proceedings.  It hadn't.  The last piece before the interval -- and the last one I stuck around for -- was Schumann's sumptuous Märchenbilder, which brought Kraggerud back on stage, viola in hand, to fight another round with Anderszewski.  He lost, and so did the rest of us.