Andreas Henkel can be pleased: his piano recital in Dresden's Königshof Strehlen found great interest. The hall was well filled and the audience was obviously highly satisfied with the programme just as with the presentation. The Dresden Pianist, who has developed a good reputation in and outside of Germany, totally avoided contemporary music this time and we enjoyed well known works starting from Bach to Mozart, Chopin and Liszt.
Henkel himself is not a highly emotional and passionate keyboard virtuoso. He is however a wise balancer. His interpretation shows him to be a reflective musician who strives for a personal stamped presentation. He does not set himself in the foreground but puts the work itself there. This attitude is reflected in his whole character, which although appearing rather reserved, almost introverted, served more to delight the pieces.
Henkel chose for the beginning a group of Preludes and Fugues from Bach's Well-tempered Clavier I (1-5). Here, determined by the composition, he submitted himself to a strict discipline.  Above all the Fugues were almost didactically understandable. Extremely plastic articulated themes moved understandably through the different voices and made structure and form evident. With this way of playing the Preludes and Fugues were sometimes a little bit short of a greater line of conception. This was compensated however in  the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue d Minor. Here pulsed a wide breath, which avoided the danger of focusing too much on details but lead to a compelling whole.
In Mozart's  Pariser Sonata F Major KV 332 careful detail work reigned, as did the attentive use of dynamics and  sensibility - remember the sensitive Adagio - and, in the Finale, an almost over the top shooting agility. In the group of Chopin pieces, especially the Impromptu G Flat Major, was lively distinguished characterisation. Until now all pieces showed, beside the musical profoundity, the high technical standard of the pianist. He revealed this also by avoiding typical "veil-arts" in difficult passages. However he finally crowned the evening with the virtuosity of Liszt, who's "Rhapsodie Espagnole" developed into a firework of artistic pianism, which included the tremendous virtue of cultured sound just like a shot of bold Spanish temperament.
Striking brilliance (Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, study) and contemplative introversion (Bach transcription of choral prelude) distinguished the encores.

Gerhard Böhm