Geoffrey Mogridge reviews the 2025 Waterman Piano Recital - Khanh Nhi Luong at the King’s Hall, Ilkley on Wednesday 11th June 2025.
Many aspiring young pianists among the near capacity audience at last week’s recital, given in honour of the late great Dame Fanny Waterman, would be too young to have met the legendary founder of the Leeds International Piano Competition. Though she has touched their lives and the lives of tens of thousands more.
Dame Fanny lives on to inspire this generation of young artists, the next generation and the one after that in their quest for excellence. Following speeches of welcome and shared memories of Fanny from Ed Anderson CBE, Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and Adam Gatehouse, artistic director of the Leeds, the music commenced.
[Alexander Benstead - winner of the 2024 Junior Waterman Recital Medal (Photo: Wharfedale Piano Festival]
Each half of the recital opened with a piece played by a promising young prizewinner of the Wharfedale Festival of Piano. Alexander Benstead, a 13-year-old winner of the 2024 Junior Waterman Recital Medal played the delightful Merry-go-Round of Life by Joe Hisaishi. Caelan de Senna Fernandes Godden is 17 years old and hails from Macau on the South Coast of China. Caelan charmingly introduced and beautifully played Schubert’s Minuet & Trio in A and Schubert-Liszt’s Standchen. I was reminded of Dame Fanny’s lifelong search for pianists who best revealed the poetry in the music. Here is one such talent.
[Caelan de Senna Fernandes Godden (Photo: Leeds International Piano Competition)]
The headline performer was of course Khanh Nhi Luong, 28 years old and from Vietnam. Nhi, as she likes to be known, was awarded the Lady Rosalyn Lyons Bronze Medal at the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition Finals, staged in Bradford’s elegant St George’s Hall. Nhi’s deeply personal spoken introductions to the music gave us a glimpse of her humanity and above all, a message of love that she so movingly conveyed to her audience.
Nhi’s chosen works reflected that message. There would be no bombastic pianistic fireworks or bravura set pieces. Beethoven’s Andante Favori in F, Schubert’s Sonata in A, Brahms’ Six Pieces for Piano Opus 118 all revealed so much more about this sensitive artist. For this writer at least, Nhi’s insightful playing had a sublime limpid quality and yes, pure poetry. She concluded with Bunches of Flowers of Vietnam, an evocative contemporary work by Đặng Hữu Phúc, born Vietnam 1953. It was great to see so many families from the Vietnamese communities in Leeds and Bradford vociferously supporting their heroine.
The Lord Lieutenant, the Lord Mayors of Leeds and Bradford and the Mayor of Ilkley were all present in their official capacities. A welcome show of unity.
A huge thank you to Linda Wellings for planning and organising this auspicious event and to the King’s Hall team for their beautiful stage presentation.
Geoffrey Mogridge
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