Freddy Kempf at The Sage

Two concerts over Easter from this British pianist who has been attracting much favourable critical comment.

The first, in Hall 2, was a BBC Sunday Morning Concert and will be broadcast on Radio 3 as a Lunchtime Concert towards the end of April. Kempf opened with Mussorgsky's "Pictures from an Exhibition". There was much to admire in this, particularly the dramatic depth of tone but there were a disconcerting number of mistakes. Runs were often smudged, fast passage work shed the odd note along the way, trills were consistently uneven and there was more than the occasional wrong note. The gentler Glinka pieces that followed fared rather better. The concert ended with Balakirev's fiendish "Islamey". This last piece produced some superb virtuosity but again rather too many 'lost' notes for a pianist of this standard.

Kempf returned on Monday evening, this time to Hall 1, to join the Northern Sinfonia in Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto number 2. His playing seemed much more assured in this evening concert although not perhaps quite big-boned enough for this late romantic music. He was not assisted by the Sinfonia's insensitive accompaniment. They were consistently too loud in the first movement leaving Kempf often struggling to make himself heard. Things settled down thereafter but this was not a vintage night.