Arcadi Volodos is hailed worldwide as a “wizard of the piano,” a “virtuoso magician”. Yet the Russian pianist always proves his mastery by making optimal use of his breathtaking virtuosity in his unrelenting quest for musical depth, Volodos 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,” he remarks, “but those emotional states attain a higher plane in music, where they are sublimated and refined”. For his 18th appearance at the Ruhr Piano Festival, Volodos has chosen to explore a gem from Schubert’s piano output: the “Gasteiner” sonata, which “grips us or carries us away, blow by blow”, as Schumann once remarked. Volodos pairs the Gasteiner sonata with Schumann’s Kinderszenen, a series of Romantic miniatures that are only simple at first glance, and which never cease to evoke lost childhood.