Pianist Jonathan Powell has died

[4candles]

Very sad to hear today of the passing of Jonathan Powell on 27 December.

An adventurous, even daring, pianist with penchant for Russian music and a unique stage presence, he will perhaps be best remembered for his championing of the music of Sorabji, but he left us many valuable recitals and recordings, not least his series of disks on Toccata Classics, which include much wonderful music and music-making.

I saw him perform only twice, but both events were unforgettable - especially the first in 2013, which was a mammoth recital of Alkan's Concerto For Solo Piano, Sorabji's Le Jardin Parfumé and Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica.

Gone at just 56 years of age.

[tuatara442442]

I'm sorry to hear his passing. Though a major part of recordings are repertoire out of the remit of this forum, I treasure his surveys of lesser known early 20th century Russian piano music most, as others may thank him for his recordings of Sorabji.
In 2024 CPO also started a new Xaver Scharwenka piano concertos series, in which he is the soloist (I actually mistaken the soloist for Jonathan Plowright until just now, who is a Polish romantic music expert). With his passing I can only hope another pianist who is willing to learn the rest concerti would be found.
Also, he was actually active in this forum for sometime before. If I judged rightly his alias is Isokani.

[eschiss1]

He also participated in a festival at Levoča (in Slovakia) from which his contributions to the piano quintets by Bax and Medtner can be found on YouTube, iirc... (I don't mean just his contributions- the entire quintets, of course )

(I am also very sad at the news.)