Tchaikovsky’s piano music has always posed problems for concert pianists. There’s the First Concerto, which everyone knows, if only for its famous ringtone opening; there’s the Second Concerto, which even now is rarely heard outside of Russia; a few Schumannesque miniatures and then there are a brace of sonatas, including the Grand Sonata in G Major, which again you’ll be hard put to find on a concert programme.

English pianist Freddy Kempf put it in a nutshell when he introduced the first of two back-to-back recitals for the Utzon Series at Sydney Opera House. Playing a passage which relies heavily on one note repeated several times, he said, “This would work perfectly for an orchestra, maybe with French horns repeating the note, but for the piano it doesn’t work.”

At another point in the sonata Tchaikovsky has the pianist play a mysterious chord pianissimo in the bass, only to demand an enormous crescendo seconds later at the top of the keyboard. “How do you do that with a piano?” Kempf asked with a wry shrug.

But despite the work being one that demands a lot of interpretation and ingenuity from the pianist, this was a splendid and satisfying opening to Kempf’s double feature...