Jayson Gillham

As ‘the ideal Romantic pianist’ (Limelight), Jayson Gillham is perfectly placed to launch 2024’s Festival with a programme of works by the Romantic pianist–composer par-excellence, Frédéric Chopin. Chopin’s elegance and poetry will be on full display in a menu that pivots on two sets of the composer’s Études. Were these works – lyrical and attention grabbing, impassioned and miraculous – designed to test finger technique or enchant listeners? They do both, as do the big beasts that bookend Gillham’s recital: the pure virtuosity of the composer’s breathless E flat Rondo and the grand heroism and pianistic panache of his A flat Polonaise.