It was Piotr Anderszewski’s parents, his father Polish and his mother Hungarian, who decided that he should learn the piano. He began when he was six years of age, continuing his studies at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, at the Lyons and Strasbourg Conservatoires, and at the University of Southern California. Anderszewski came into the public eye when he left the stage during the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1990. At that particular moment he felt he could not give a performance of Webern’s Variations Op. 27 that would satisfy himself, but he is aware now that self-criticism can be destructive. A recital at London’s Wigmore Hall followed where he played Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli’ Variations Op. 120 and he immediately gained a reputation for the...