I've been blown away by the piano artistry of Jacky Terrasson at today's Toronto Jazz Festival performance

Jackie Terrasson performs inside the concert Steinway at the Glenn Gould Studio on June 27, 2011. Photo: John Terauds

I'm just back from concert no. 2 in the TD Toronto Jazz Festival's four-date presentation of top solo-piano masters at the Glenn Gould Studio.

I was totally blown away by the art of Jacky Terrasson. The 44-year-old puts absolutely everything into his unorthodox interplay of keys, harmonies and rhythms. often, it sounds as if his right hand knoweth not what his left hand is up to -- but it's all part of his incredible art.

This was not on tonight's programme, but is a beautiful example of what Terrasson does. Here is Dame Felicity Lott presenting Francis Poulenc's "Les Chemins de l'amour," (with accompanist Maciej Pikulski at a 2008 recital recorded at the Château de Compiègne), followed by Terrasson's reimagining which, somehow, manages to retain the full meaning and feeling of the text, without ever giving us a single word.

First, Jean Anouilh's text about the elusive traces of love:

Les chemins qui vont à la mer
Ont gardé de notre passage
Des fleurs, des feuilles et l'écho sous leurs arbres
De nos deux rires clairs.

Hélas, des jours de bonheur,
Radieuses joies envolées,
Je vais sans retrouver traces dans mon coeur.

Chemins de mon amour,
Je vous cherche toujours.
Chemins perdus vous n'êtes plus
Et vos échos sont sourds.
Chemins du désespoir,
Chemins du souvenir,
Chemins du premier jour,
Divins chemins d'amour.

Si je dois l'oublier un jour,
La vie effaçant toute chose,
Je veux dans mon coeur qu'un souvenir
Repose plus fort que l'autre amour.

Le souvenir du chemin,
Où tremblante et toute éperdue,
Un jour j'ai senti sur moi brûler tes mains