Hearing Thomas Pandolfi live in recital is an experience one is not likely to forget. He doesn’t sound like any other pianist we have ever heard. He is an original!...His two Chopin Nocturnes, Op. 9, No. 2 and Op 15, No. 1, his Mazurka, the Waltz in C-sharp Minor, and the more lyrical of the Chopin Etudes were elegant with lovely shaped phrases and such a richly vibrant cantabile it almost convinced me that the piano sound was being amplified...

After intermission Pandolfi surprised us by inserting a piece not listed on the printed program — Intermezzo No. 1 by Manuel Poncé. This was a remarkable performance full of color, exquisitely controlled dynamics and Pandolfi’s amazing trademark super cantabile. The following work, Paderewski’s Minuet, Op. 14, No. 1, was played with the same kind of bold color and imagination, so that the piece just seemed inevitable in his hands. It was difficult to imagine it being played any better...It was the last three works — the solo version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Panndolfi’s own amazing arrangement of themes from “The Phantom of the Opera” and his clever embellishment of Zez Confrey’s “Dizzy Fingers”– that truly brought the audience to its feet with a round of spontaneous bravos and prolonged applause...inch by inch, sound by sound, Mr. Pandolfi won me over in a big way.

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