Concert pianist, Yuanfan Feng, hosted the Waterman Piano Recital in the Winter Garden, Ilkley on Wednesday 10th June 2026.
Geoffrey Mogridge has written this review.
This is the 4th annual recital promoted by Wharfedale Festival of Piano to celebrate the legacy of Dame Fanny Waterman (1920-2020). Fanny founded the famous Leeds International Piano Competition back in 1961. Her life was dedicated to the nurturing of young and beautiful talent, whether entrants to the Piano Competition that she directed or the pupils she mentored.
Ilkley’s elegant Winter Garden provided an intimate setting for this very special occasion. The evening was hosted by concert pianist Yuanfan Feng who is the Wharfedale Piano Festival Ambassador.
The recital opened with performances by winners of the Waterman Gold Medal at last year’s Festival. Nine year-old Enxia Han beautifully played a rarely performed Impromptu by Germaine Talleferre.
Next came thirteen year-old Allan Zeng who performed Chopin’s Variations Brillante, Opus 12. Allan clearly relished the spectrum of colours in this piece.
Lastly, Yuxuan Fen, a music scholar at Bootham School in York chose to play The Cat and the Mouse, by Aaron Copland. This engaging narrative demands characterful insight as well as technical agility. Yuxuan’s animated performance displayed the requisite qualities in abundance.
These assured young pianists projected a breathtaking level of artistic accomplishment, for which much credit must go to their inspirational teachers.
Tamila Salimdjanova was just nine years old at the time of her concerto debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 15 in B flat, K450. She was a semi-finalist at the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition and is currently Artist in Residence with the Nova Linea Musica Concert Series in Chicago. Tamila had chosen to perform Schubert’s Four Impromptus, Opus 90, in the 1st half. The (surely) tongue in cheek title ‘Impromptu’ belies the depth of feeling and romantic intensity of this set. Schubert was a master of the piano miniature. The songlike No 3 in G flat is the best known. How wonderful Tamila made this music sound in the resonant space of the Winter Garden. It felt just as though we were enveloped by every feeling that could possibly be expressed in music.
After the interval, the depth of Tamila’s artistry was projected in her performance of Robert Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze, Opus 6. Music that conveys its composer’s volatile and spontaneous temperament.
Some virtuosic light relief with which to end as Yuanfan Feng produced three brilliant improvisations suggested by the delighted audience.
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