Pianist Kirill Gerstein began his 2024 Australian tour with this Hobart recital. He commands a superb technique combined with a remarkable variety of touch, dynamic range and feeling for textural variety in the piano sound.

He was at his very finest in the Liszt and Schumann pieces – Liszt’s Polonaise in E major, s. 223 No. 2 (1850-51), and Schumann’s Carnival of Vienna, Op. 26 (1839), the concluding work on the program.

The Liszt Polonaise was thrilling in its flashing virtuosity and imaginative phrasing while the Schumann was beautifully shaped and warmly rendered with the musical contrasts masterfully navigated.

Kirill Gerstein. Photo supplied

Sydney-based composer Liza Lim composed her Transcendental Étude (2023) for this tour and it here received its world premiere. No direct Lisztian references are discernible and the inspiration is the movement for women’s rights in Iran. There is a feeling of great agitation and complexity in this music which Gerstein responded to with stunning technique and finesse.

Gerstein was marginally less effective in the Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, Op. 61 (1846) and Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49 (1841). The pianist’s studied phrasing in the quieter sections of...