Elisabeth Leonskaja weaves magic with piano sonorities: her touch is refined, direct, and still wonderfully mysterious. Her unique style caused admiration when she was still quite young; in the 1980s, she emigrated from Moscow to Vienna. Today, after 60 years of giving live performances, she continues to mesmerize multitudes of music lovers. Leonskaja has been devoting intense scrutiny to Schubert’s piano sonatas throughout her entire life, in recordings and as well as in the concert hall. With quasi-seismographic sensitivity, she becomes part of the music, bringing minimal nuances to light with her transparent touch. At the core of her recital programme for her 26th appearance at the Ruhr Piano Festival, Leonskaja has chosen Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy, a work she has often performed onstage with resolute sincerity. As she explained to us in our podcast AnTasten, she still gets excited before a concert, but not nervous. The difference is important, since repeated concert performances of a work allow one to fathom its depths more profoundly. Above all, one should “bring the truth of the heart and absolute frankness onstage”. With that credo, this wonderful artist manages to explore Schubert’s music with a constantly renewed approach, penetrating even further and moving her audience more deeply, as shall surely occur in her recital in Mülheim!