Opening his programme with Alban Berg’s emotionally intense Piano Sonata, Kissin delivers a powerfully controlled interpretation that places the greatest emphasis on structural cohesion and textural clarity, but at the same time tends to minimise the dramatic contrasts in mood and tempo indicated in the score...With its generous selection of works by Chopin, the second half of Kissin’s recital finds the pianist on much more familiar ground.

It would be hard to imagine the previous Kissin briefly forsaking the classical gods for six minutes of Gershwin (the Three Preludes, mostly performed with aplomb)...There’s only one word for it: socko!