Volodos always proves his mastery by making optimal use of his breathtaking virtuosity: on a tireless quest for musical depth, he oscillates between poetry, rigorous asceticism, and passionate flights of temperament. “Joy, love, passion, and melancholy: the lives of great composers are full of such moments”, Volodos remarks, “but those emotional states attain a higher plane in music, where they are sublimated and refined”. Whether it be in Clementi’s Romantically tinged F Sharp Minor Sonata or in Schubert’s uncompromising Gasteiner Sonata, Arcadi Volodos shapes the music to give it a true form; at the same time he is not only a poet at the piano, but a narrator who knows how to tell a musical story. What this artist loves and needs for himself and his audience is “pure energy”.