It was under the banner of War and Conflict that H.E .The Hungarian Ambassador presented the programme with the RPO at Cadogan Hall last night.

Three Hungarian composers Kodaly,Liszt and Bartok to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the end first world war – the war to end all wars!

Who better to be at the helm with the Liszt First Piano Concerto than Mariam Batsashvili The young winner a few years ago of the Liszt Competition in Utrecht and fast making a name for herself after a London debut a few years ago that seemed to go un noticed.

Please read my comments on that occasion.

She is now receiving the world recognition that this minuscule Piaf like power house truly deserves.

Selected by the BBC as a Young Generation Artist,tours in the USA for the Keyboard Charitable Trust and now in demand to play with the major Orchestras throughout the world.

She completed her studes at the Weimar Liszt Academy and she now lives in Budapest  as near as is possible to the roots of her beloved master : Franz Liszt .

In only twenty minutes she had shown us the grandeur,supreme delicacy and a her total mastery of the piano.

An aristocratic Liszt that only Arrau used to show us.

Even in the thundering octaves and glittering passage work there was a total respect for the composers wishes.

Restoring the sometimes superficial sounding Liszt to his place with Beethoven as one of the most revolutionary and visionary composers of all time.

It was a remarkable display of intelligence ,passion and delicacy .

She had the audience in her hand from the first to the last note.

Very well aided by Alexander Shelley ,a conductor fast making a name for himself as befits the son of such a distinguished father as Howard Shelley.

An encore of the famous Paderewski Minuet in G .

Played with such subtle rubato and an infectious sense of dance.

The fast embellishments thrown off with an ease and charm that is of the great pianists of the past.

She plays it better than the great pianist/ statesman himself and I can only imagine that that might have very well  been the case with the concerto too!