It beings us great pleasure to report that Elisabeth Leonskaja was awarded a glowing review for her performance of Beethoven’s final three sonatas at the 2022 Gŵyl Machynlleth Festival.

Rian Evans of the Guardian described Leonskaja’s form as ‘foreful and majestic’ writing that this pianist’s ‘ability to produce the most powerful sound and allow it to resonate fully suggested an artist fully conscious of the privilege of giving aural expression to what the stone-deaf Beethoven had heard only in his extraordinary imagination’.

Leonskaja’s emotive performance left the audience enraptured: ‘Here was innate pianism, with musical sensibilities and a daring honed by a lifetime of experience. She was cheered to the rafters.’

It was an true honour for the Festival to host this memorable performance, as Evans aptly explained: ‘Machynlleth can claim to have been the ancient capital of Wales and, such was the calibre of this particular evening, the town certainly felt like a cultural capital’

We look forward immensely to welcoming Elisabeth back in August 2023 for an all Schubert recital, joined in the second half by our Festival Artistic Director Julius Drake to perform two of Schubert’s most celebrated piano duets.