[The recital] has all the light and shade expected from such a varied programme…Li’s style is thoughtful and expressive, rather than exciting, and the concert recording gives the performance a directness. The 21-year-old produces an exquisite tone in Consolation No. 3, melting into the keyboard with incredible technique. (This also to the fore in the Hungarian Rhapsody). The Haydn is beautifully delineated.

[Li’s] smile might well find itself transferred onto the customer’s face when they hear the Haydn sonata which begins his recital…It’s the kind of dextrous, bubbling, life-affirming performance that cannot help but lift the spirits and make one eager to hear what follows.

Li’s Haydn is stylish but muscular, with no apology for the choice of modern piano, the finale of the Sonata in B minor HOBXVI:32 perfectly judged in both velocity and staccato. Yet it is his Chopin Sonata No 2 that first points towards his stature: this is a performance of muscularity and technical perfection married to lyricism. Tempos flow perfectly, the Scherzo dances devilishly and the funeral march rises naturally to its climax. A winner of a debut disc.