The Théâtre du Nord has also given us the opportunity to listen again to Guillaume Vincent in a programme combining the sonata Les quatre âges by Alkan and Rachmaninov’s preludes. The French pianist-composer’s 200th anniversary has allowed the re-examination of an artist whose virtuosity has often been misunderstood. Vincent is quite at ease with Opus 33: he overcomes all its technical difficulties and his rendering of it is as deep as it is differentiated, from youth’s passion to old age Prometheus Bound. One could not possibly resist the Russian’s Preludes op 32 (from No. 9 to 13) either, whose beauty the young pianist emphasises with as much gracious humility as imaginative sonority.
Tenth Lille Piano(s) Festival, Alain Cochard, ConcertClassic.com, , June 2013