A Chopin period piano winner at the Charterhouse

Naruhiko Kawaguchi, now aged 34, holds the distinction of having been the first winner of the inaugural International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments that was held in Warsaw in 2018.

Thirty pianists from nine countries took part and were able to choose from five different pianos from the nineteenth century.

It is therefore appropriate that he should be performing in Valldemossa, where a Pleyel piano from that century is housed in the Chopin and Sand Cell and is played by virtuoso pianists invited for the ongoing series of Pianino concerts.

Kawaguchi, originally from Morioka in Japan, will be performing works by Chopin as well as Robert Schumann's Arabeske, Op. 18 and pieces by three lesser-known composers. One of these is Charles-Valentin Alkan.

Along with Chopin and Liszt, he was considered to have been among the leading pianists in the Paris of the 1830s, but his music was to become neglected. Since the 1960s it has undergone a revival.