Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Dumka - Russian rustic scene in C minor for piano, Op.59

This is no Liederabend with singers taking their turn to file up to the piano. It’s a fully staged drama in which baritone Vladislav Sulimsky’s character reflects on his past loves and losses.

The young Japanese pianist Mao Fujita offered an intriguingly diverse recital program, highlighted by a rarely-heard – and marvelously difficult – work by Alkan.

The antithesis of the flamboyant virtuoso, Kolesnikov displayed extraordinary eloquence in a reflective programme built around the Brahms Intermezzi.

His build is blocky like the hockey defense-man he once was, but Denis Matsuev’s fingers can touch piano keys lightly as butterflies landing on begonias. The mood of his solo recital opened blissfully, like the January night by the fireplace described in Puskin’s poem “By the Hearth” which inspired the first of the twelve monthly miniatures Tchaikovsky published as The Seasons, Op. 37b.