Spain’s Javier Perianes is a fairly frequent visitor to Australia. A year ago, he played Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the SSO, and later this week he will perform Beethoven’s Second and Fifth Piano Concertos with Simone Young conducting.

On this occasion, he joined that small clique of pianists to give a solo recital in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Perianes’s fascinating program was divided in the first half between early pieces by Manuel de Falla and music by Frédéric Chopin. The parallels were deliberate, illustrating the strong influence Chopin had on the young composer.

Javier Perianes and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (2025). Photo © Ken Leanfore

Written at the age of 20, the first selection was Falla’s Notturno, which was openly Chopinesque in its melodic lyricism and gently arpeggiated accompaniment. Perianes played it with exquisite refinement.

This was paired with Chopin’s Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 27, No. 2, composed 60 years earlier. Other than a touch of modal “Spanish” harmony in the Falla, they could have been written in the same year by the same composer.

These were followed by mazurkas from both composers before each went...