The veteran music critic John Amis, who died last month, could spot exceptional talent well before it became known to a wider public.

He saw it in the 17-year-old conductor Simon Rattle, and at the end of his long life, Amis recognised the same star quality in the young Australian pianist Jayson Gillham.

Jayson will be at the Brighton Dome on Sunday afternoon to perform Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Barry Wordsworth.

As a finalist in the 2012 Leeds International Piano Competition, Jayson’s performance of the Emperor won warm praise from conductor Sir Mark Elder. “He plays Beethoven in a very open, honest way – with a sort of glow. Always a lovely sound – gorgeous.”

The Brighton Philharmonic’s all-Beethoven programme, the first in their new season of concerts at the Dome, opens with the Overture, Leonora No 3.

One of four overtures written for what was to become Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera, it transports the listener from the depths of despair in a lonely prison cell to overwhelming outpourings of joy as the unjustly incarcerated hero gains his freedom.

In a sense it is Beethoven’s own story – isolated and oppressed by increasing deafness, he found his own freedom through music itself.

The Pastoral Symphony, the final work in the concert, was inspired by the beautiful countryside north of Vienna, where the composer walked and composed each summer.

Here he found himself, and conveyed what he found in some of the most lyrical, life-affirming music ever written.

  • Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra will perform at Brighton Dome Concert Hall, Church Street, on Sunday, October 6. Starts 2.45pm, tickets from £10. Call 01273 709709