Review: Alessandro Taverna

We hailed the Italian pianist, Alessandro Taverna, as the outstanding poet of the keyboard during his progress through the Leeds International Piano Competition, but nine months later he arrives at the Northern Aldborough Festival bristling with extrovert virtuosity.

By The Newsroom

Published 2nd Jul 2010, 10:52 BST

Updated 2nd Jul 2010, 10:53 BST

He opened with Bach's Fifth English Suite, a composer with whom he seems to have so little musical relationship, and things did not get that much more exciting with a very ordinary account of Chopin's Introduction and Rondo.

Then everything moved up a few gears with a display of pyrotechnics in Liszt's incredibly difficult Tarantelle di Bravura, flashing around the keyboard creating moments where it appeared he had three hands, the mercurial and sizzling runs the length of the keyboard of staggering brilliance.

Maybe two huge pieces by Liszt was asking too much, but he met the demands of the Reminiscances de Norma. By the time he reached the three dances from Stravinsky's Petrouchka it was inevitable fatigue would tell, yet he shone bright and encores were much in demand from the capacity audience.

Aldborough Church