Jianing Kong's terrific achievement was to make the piano suit the period of his chosen programme.
An initial set of two Domenico Scarlatti Sonatas, a very thesaurus of harpsichord invention and device, born of the spirit of the instrument, spun, rattled and shone on a modern Steinway.
Kong's formidable technique dealt deftly with trademark note repetition and lightning scalic passages, producing the baroque echoes and terrace dynamics of 18th century keyboard music in featherweight brilliance that recalled Horowitz.
An entirely different sound characterised his performance of Chopin Op.35, a composition which forever gives the lie to the composer as an etiolated consumptive. It is a powerful masterpiece requiring strength, stamina and the ability to switch instantly from poetic melody to dazzling virtuoso sweep: Kong kept the thunderstorms in check with controlled emotion, finely judged.
Final contrasting compositions were three pieces from Ravel's Gaspard De La Nuit. The piano, not entirely under water as a contemporary critic described Debussy was, nevertheless, a maelstrom of impressionist harmonies and smudged clouds of music, great waves of which were almost flung into the atmosphere in a breathtaking display of stunning pianism.
Scarbo is not just difficult: it's impossible.
Four stars
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