There was more warmth in the Largo, with its beautiful, meditative opening, but it was still defined by a certain neatness. Yet his cadenza was dazzling and in the moment when the orchestra came in again it felt as if he was playing with the resonance and delicacy of spun glass. Very occasionally, in the more virtuoso passages, you were aware that Lisiecki was a whisper ahead of the orchestra. The recurring dotted rhythms of the opening theme were deployed with military strictness and the ornaments were as crisp as they were vigorous. Throughout this opening movement there was a sense of such precision, you could almost hear each bar line. After an authoritative delivery of the opening C minor scales, he brought a rich sheen to the lyrical passage accompanied by triplets before graduating to a more detached rendition of the rising G major arpeggios in the bass. When he wasn’t playing he was scrutinising them as if he was a fascinated member of the audience, often swaying in time to the music. Lisiecki is an interesting pianist to watch, not least because of his relationship with the orchestra. Right from the start, the BBC Symphony Orchestra – conducted by Elim Chan ( pictured below) – indicated that this was going to be a deft, elegant interpretation, more stern than heroic, with a rigorous sense of structure. It was tellingly different to the account he gave of Beethoven’s stirring C minor concerto – a key deployed by the composer in some of his most dramatic works, including the Pathétique Sonata and Symphony No. Now, at the age of 28, this impromptu delivery gave a full sense of the range of a performer who first recorded both of Chopin’s piano concertos when he was just 15. It was a moment that seemed to show where this remarkable pianist – who made his professional debut aged nine – feels spiritually at home no surprise, perhaps, given that the Canadian was raised by Polish parents. There was a rapt silence as he played this intimate work to the packed hall, perfectly balancing the golden singing tones of the upper notes with the ebb and flow of emotion driven by the rising chords in the bass.
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