When did I last sit through the consecutive performance of two major piano works lasting more than one hour in all with an impression that the time had flown by? Yesterday when Victor Rosenbaum played the Haydn F minor Variations and Beethoven Sonata in C, Op. 2, No. 3.

Mr. Rosenbaum is an attentive, meticulous musician whose respect for the score is total. But he goes beyond that, unearthing the essence of each work as it comes to life on the piano--ah!! that's the tricky part.

This is the aspect of piano playing that most interests me. The result, especially in the Beethoven, was revelatory: I heard the piece in a whole new dimension which is there to be revealed. Mr. Rosenbaum did not invent or contrive it. By respecting the score and by plunging in to its excesses of contrasting speed and slowness, bravura and intimacy it became clear that the piece has its basis in sound, not in a theoretical analysis.

Bravo Rosembaum!