Whatever troubles were in mind when you entered Adelaide’s Her Majesty’s Theatre, it’s safe to say that by the end of this concert, you had forgotten them. Dutch pianist Jeop Beving’s music is good for what ails you.

A towering figure, Beving ambles on to a darkened stage and takes a seat at an upright piano. By his side, a small lamp and a foldback monitor. Facing upstage for the entire concert and without a word of introduction, he begins to play.

He tells us during a laconic monologue between movements that he prefers the piano, not its player, to be the focus of our attention. Beving says nothing about the huge mobile work of sculpture looming above him – one that comes increasingly into play as this concert unfolds.

Joep Beving: Hermetism. Image supplied

Beving’s set (the first he’s played in Australia in four years) takes the form of four movements, each a compilation of his gentle neoclassical-ambient numbers drawn from several albums. As the final note of each fades away, almost to nothing, he begins the next. Applause, Beving said in his first address, is best contained to movement intervals,...