<p>Liu Pinxin<br />Liszt’s ‘Waldestrauschen’ was beautifully fluid and executed with apparent effortless ease.  Phrasing could be even more sensitive and seamless in the melodic contours throughout, and overall the tone could be more subdued and reserved in order to project even more evocation, tenderness andwonder.  Exceptional technical facility and bravura by any standards. </p><p>Beethoven’s op 2 C major sonata showed excellent finger work, but from the opening bars much more care was needed to avoid accents and thuds on weak beats and resolutions of dissonances.  But there was no doubting the command and confident authority here.  Solid and sound playing throughout.  What was missing was a sense of wonder and discovery. Phrasing was consistently angular and marred by unnecessarily forced and even at times aggressive accents.  Some triplets were corrupted into quavers followed by semiquavers.   There is much more subtlety and variety of tone in this music.  There is also much more bravura and daringly iconoclastic writing than this approach implied.  Try for much more humour and wit and variety throughout.  This seemed less like music from a youthful revolutionary than it should have. <br />Chopin’s second scherzo was realised with sparkle, enthusiasm and drive.  Brilliant finger work accompanied by warmth and a real sense of communication.  Rhythmic discipline needed more attention so that a real sense of the music’s four bar construction can remain intact throughout. More leggiero and magic in the quieter playing needs to be cultivated.  Again, as in the Beethoven, triplet rhythms were not always convincing, tending to be corrupted into a totally different rhythm.  The central climax was thrilling and accurate to a large extent, but became rather bland in terms of phrasing and sound- there was nothing unique in the tone to make the music stand out as being specifically by Chopin as opposed to by Liszt or indeed by any other romantic composer.  Much more searching and experimentation in the practice studio could yield far better results.  At the end the sound became overly forced and over-pedalled, with many smudges and wrong notes.  Untidy and rather agitated, unfortunately.</p>