Two star performances at the Steinway Hall last night for the first recital for the Keyboard Trust of Evgeny Genchev .Sure it will not be the last after last nights showing.

The other star performance from a witty little speech by Leslie Howard pleading the cause for the KT.”After such  poetic performances as we have heard tonight, a pound in the pot is really not enough!”

At this point we had heard Mozart’s F major Sonata  played with a rare sensibility and nuance that has become only a memory, unfortunately of other times.Two  Liszt pieces from the Annees de pelerinage played with a palate of colours that I have rarely heard in that small space .  And then the Liebestod restored to its rightful place as the masterpiece it is . Full sounds  but never harsh in the climaxes and such beautiful cantabile.A ong silence at the end of a totally enraptured audience .He had us in his hand – seduced by exquisite sounds .

Sturm and Drang.Lots of Drang but  not much sturm up to now.

But after Leslie’s little speech we got the main piece in the programme Scriabin’s 3rd Sonata.

Sturm and Drang in abundance here but also a rare intelligent sense of structure combined with the most beautiful intricate  melodic web  that only Scriabin can spin.Every line so clear and beautifully sung.He almost made us believe that this is a great work and not the usual vehicle for pianists that should know better.He had done the same with a remarkable Dante Sonata the other day at St Martins.

I was waiting for a little piece that he had been looking at the night before.The last notes that  Wagner had written …….unfortunately after his exquisite Scriabin Poem the applause stopped ……probably because the audience were  counting their pennies after Leslies speech and diving even deeper into their pockets after performances of this calibre.He is a poet ………thats all one can say.