In any given recital you usually get one showstopper, maybe two, but when the performer is Liszt specialist Leslie Howard you get no less than six. Make that seven when you add an encore, a favourite of his mum who was in the audience for this Utzon Series concert.

At 68 the Melbourne-born virtuoso is the ultimate exponent of the Hungarian Abbe’s fearsome works. Your young generation of Lisztomaniacs like Daniil Trifonov or Kirill Gerstein may dazzle and thrill with their takes on the showcase pieces like the Transcendental Studies, but Howard is the only pianist to have recorded the entire output – including more than 300 premiere performances. And what’s more, he does it all from memory and with lashings of energy and authenticity.

He seemingly lives and breathes Liszt, who was, he says, “one of the most generous people to walk on this planet”. Although the six works he chose for this recital were skilfully analysed in the program notes, you really didn’t need to consult them because Howard is also the consummate Liszt scholar, as well as a funny and erudite speaker.

The afternoon started with the opening chords and “deep sense of boredom” Liszt ascribed to the meditative...