<p>PAN Linzi </p><p>Chopin Nocturne Op.48/1: Please do not “try too hard”! The Nocturne was SO weighted to sound portentous – giving the impression that you were perhaps trying to seem extra mature! Of course you can play, but this came across as somewhat artificial. Somehow like someone who has heard and watched the great pianists and endeavours to make a great copy. But this is not a funeral march! Very good to hear some genuinely soft playing in the C major section- even if it was just a little too static. Once you get to the octaves you actually become so much more natural and gifted. Your pianistic ability and sense of natural performance suddenly become impressive. And it actually sounds fully engaged musically – and really talented.</p><p>EtudeOp.10/8: The Chopin Etude was really delightful. A lovely natural pianism and something that went well beyond the “normal” technical gloss one so often hears here.  Energy – but controlled within stylistic boundaries. The lovely change of character in last page could have been more enchanting and relaxed. But I really am captivated by the sheer sense of enjoyment that you convey as you play this!</p><p>Liszt B minor Ballade: Impressive sense of space and presentation.  Atmosphere well created and the start of the Allegro was well judged. One senses a real ear for sound and colour. Electric, without being too over the top. And there is real pathos / pain in some of the rhetorical utterances. Increasingly I am drawn to this playing and sense a real passionate musician who can convey - without any affectation or contrivance – the ability of music to convey emotion and something deep in concept. So often this work can sound brash and unappealing, but there is a sense here of this coming from “deep within” and penetrating far below the notes.  This is someone who plays with quite unusual intensity and a sense of having “been there and experienced” something special. Also one who can communicate. Curiously in the B major final section again I was somehow conscious initially of a certain less than natural impression that you were trying to be musically “mature” and less naturally yourself.  But once able to release through your fine pianism this slight artificiality disappears. The very end was not SO well controlled.</p><p>Overall, this is impressive and mature playing. There is a real sense of involvement and communication. One hears a committed and passionate musician as well as clearly an extremely capable pianist.</p>