Nikolaas Kende… He is the gifted son of the charming piano duo who met at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow: the Hungarian Levente Kende, a pupil of Eliso Virsaladze and a late-Liszt and early-Bartók expert, and the refined Antwerp-born Heidi Hendrickx. Levente became a leading figure and sought-after piano teacher at the Antwerp Conservatory. Nikolaas, in turn, forms a musical couple with violinist Jolente De Maeyer, and together they are building a worldwide career. On Friday 13 June — yes, a 13th — they crowned the 52nd season of the Festival der Voorkempen in Werf 44.

The programme led from Bach to Schumann and Brahms, from solo to ensemble playing, and began with a moving piano version of the Siciliano from Bach’s Sonata No. 2 for flute and piano BWV 1031, arranged by the keyboard icon Wilhelm Kempff. The tone was set, and the desire for “even more piano” grew.

Schumann’s Fantasy in C thus became a gift from heaven. The sublime performance by Nikolaas Kende had everything to do with that. I myself have held this work in the highest regard ever since I heard it six decades ago, played by our beloved piano teacher, Bach and Schumann specialist Frédéric Gevers. But never — never with such intensity and layered depth — had I heard it performed. The passionate drive Kende brought to it reflected the struggle Schumann had to endure for his beloved Clara.

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