Work: Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus

Messiaen’s language is a blend of the numinous, the sentimental and the splashy.

Alasdair Beatson presented a dazzling programme of 20th-century piano music, with Harrison Birtwistle at its centre. 

By using Schumann’s Novelletten to draw a broad dramaturgical bow over the whole evening, Martin Helmchen stands on his own as a bold and highly creative pianist.