After four bars of the opening Bach prelude, Stephen Kovacevich almost gave up, stopping while a woman in the back rattled her tissue paper. Staring gloomily at the piano, he waited while she finished, and then continued what he was doing.
What he was doing was living up to his reputation as one of the most respected pianists in the world.
His Bach prelude was played coldly, but the momentum of the following fugue began to show just why a recital by Kovacevich is a rare and wondrous gift.
For seldom does one hear solo playing so clean, so elegant, so thoroughly competent, and at the same time so completely informed with all the qualities that are called 'musical'.
Kovacevich is that unique artist who can hear and play, understand and render. He has no vulgarity and no weakness: one encounters no affectation, no clumsiness, no wilful distortion.
He plays straightforwardly music's emotional content without exaggeration or timidity.