He is back again: Ingolf Wunder and he deserves the attribute “most precious”. From the first second on his touch represents intensive musicality. Technique he surely has, others have that too, but he immediately elicits sounds that one has rarely heard, each note a precious rarity. He plays like in a frenzy, almost like in trance, his face muscles show his expressive tension. Wunder presents notes like jewels and the piano sounds almost like a whole orchestra. This virtuosity is an outflow of artistic thinking and doing that he learned also at the University in Vienna. The pianist, who was born in Carinthia, prepared his career exemplary, although he comes across almost modest, almost shy.
The 25 year old Wunder had his success at the Chopin Competition, which is held in Warsaw only every 5 years. The discrepancy between the Jury and the public opinion (he won the prize of the public also) created a fierce debate. Overall it didn’t harm him, he plays amongst others with Polish Orchestras and has himself no hostility towards the competition. He plays in the most prestigious concert halls of the world, but his affinity to Poland is evident, most probably because of his love to Chopin. In his biography one can also read, that he was a violinist first, but switched later to the piano.
At the Mozart Saal at the Konzerthaus Vienna he impressed me especially with Liszt’s Sonettos. Liszt, the bon vivant, composed a lot of works in his lifetime, is sometimes ridiculed by specialists but Richard Wagner cherished him. The artists mood swings must have had quite a big influence on the quality of his works. The monumental Sonata in b minor, Wunder plays inimitably like an elemental force. The fundamental commitment results in both a centrifugal force and the most transparent tones. He is an aesthete, without a question; he has the confident license for musical perfection. Three encores made the public very happy. More of that is in demand, more of Ingolf Wunder please!!
Liszt.
The works by Franz Liszt were Ingolf Wunder's first love in the piano repertoire. Transcendental Etudes. Piano Sonata. Sonetto and Hungarian Rhapsodies. These are the compositions that very much inspired the 14-year-old Wunder to become a pianist.