He won a British Government Post Graduate Scholarship to the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest and it was recognized that he had a special gift for the music of Franz Liszt long before that time. After a year of study in New Zealand he made a recording of Haydn which was broadcast nationally. In Australia he became a national celebrity, recording regularly for the national Radio television, and giving recitals in major centers. He has never taught, either individually or in an institution, and holds unusual views regarding the preparation of professional performances, closer to methods that Heinrich Neuhaus used in the former USSR. In Europe, in the eighties and nineties he acquired a substantial reputation as a recitalist appearing in major centers, and replaced both Claudio Arrau and Arturo Michelangeli in recitals, artists with whom he is sometimes favorably compared. It was at this time he became regarded as the most convincing interpreter of Franz Liszt of all time. He has an expanding catalog of fifteen compact discs, on the Voyager Legends label. Masterpieces of Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Schumann and Debussy are represented in the solo repertoire. He is the
first artist to produce an unedited, live recording of the Complete
Transcendental Etudes of Liszt, in London in 2000. Critics regard that
disc as the finest available version and the Liszt masterpieces as the
most convincing in recorded history. He will tour China and Europe again
this year with recitals and lectures in major centers. |