The opening of a much needed Young Artists Series at the new Bechstein Hall that is fast making it’s mark as an important new concert venue in London, just complimenting its next door neighbours of Wigmore Hall and Bob Boas Salon in nearby Mansfield Road. An important new venue especially for young musicians who have dedicated their youth to art and are just in need of a public to continue their voyage of discovery together.

What better choice could there have been than a young man perfecting his quite considerable skills at the Guildhall under such esteemed musicians as Charles Owen and Lucy Parham ,who we have recently applauded in this very hall.

Thomas Masciaga ,a young Italian from Ivrea whose evident love for the piano shone through everything he did.

Just two Sonatas both in B minor and both played with ravishing sound and a musicianly sense of style. I have rarely heard the Chopin scherzo from the B minor Sonata played as beautifully with a jeux perlé so exquisitely shaped.

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The mighty Rondo Finale: ‘Presto non tanto’ was so beautiful that each time the rondo returned it was played ever more radiantly and not just treated with the usual brutal force and lack of finesse of lesser artists . The cascades of notes after the imperious chords were truly like wafts of golden sunlight shining on the ever more exciting forward drive.

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The opening of the sonata was indeed Maestoso and if his love for Chopin’s glorious outpouring of Bel Canto meant that he had to sacrifice the overall architectural shape of the movement , it was the price he had to pay for having such an exquisitely sensitive heart .

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The mighty chords at the opening of the Largo were the consequence of the final notes of the scherzo and heralded a bel canto of beguiling freedom and beauty.

This was playing of a supreme stylist who could bring to life a work so often manhandled by so called virtuosi.Thomas has all the same virtuosity but it was canons covered in flowers!

The Haydn Sonata too was played with exquisite style but also with a kaleidoscope of colour with a first movement of beauty and grace and an architectural shape that suited the style of its age. A ‘Menuetto’ of beguiling delicacy and pastoral innocence with the spell broken momentarily only by the imposing ‘Trio.’ The return of the ‘Menuetto’ was gracefully embellished, as is the vogue these days, but wonder whether an artist who can make the modern piano speak with such an exquisite voice needs to add embellishments that were of an age when the magnificent voice of the Bechstein of today was not yet envisage.The ‘Presto’ was played with brilliance and grace with lubricated fingers of crystalline clarity. The ritornello here (he had ignored it in the Chopin) just added to the sumptuous enjoyment that he was providing this morning.

Hats off to the director Terry Lewis, present this morning ,to applaud this young artist in a hall he has fought for many years to bring to fruition.