I have fallen in love with a violinist. Madeline Mitchell knocked me sideways immediately she stepped on to the stage and before she had even played a note.

She has a beguiling Edith Piaf style - a little sadness around the eyes and an air of vulnerability.

But when she moved that bow across the strings of her instrument, you knew she is nowhere near as fragile as you might think. She plays like a demon.

From the first note of that first Prokofiev song without words from his Opus 35b, I fell deeper and deeper. Mitchell is a mesmerising musician, a world-class violinist. I doubt I have ever heard a violin played so well.

From the Prokofiev, this former Fulbright scholar moved on to fellow Fulbrightian Stephen Montague whose Folk Dances was given its first public performance outside a special concert at the American Embassy in London.

It is a dissonant but exciting piece which Mitchell gave full reign showing the richness and dexterity of her talent.

The piece also called for some odd work from the pianist, Andrew Ball having to reach deep inside the piano to strum and pluck strings, giving it something of the sound of an Aoelian harp.

But excellent as Andrew Ball's music-making was, it was the violin that totally dominated my mind.

Montague swiftly conjured up images of Norway with its mountains and fjords and you could almost see muscular Vikings running around with battle-axes in both hands.

In Eugene Goossens' Violin Sonata No. 1, she revealed an unknown masterpiece, English certainly but with a wonderfully-expressive Continental edge to which she reacted with boldness, deep understanding and great delicacy in its slow movement.