★★★★★ Compelling programme proves the Finn is, as promised, a “triple threat”.

Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall
September 20, 2015

I have often wondered at the chiseled clarity of Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen’s fingerwork on disc. Now, having seen him play, I can understand it. He literally pounces on individual notes on the keyboard, even in fast scale passages, driven by a manic energy that is nevertheless strictly focused. (Only twice in this entire concert did he pounce and produce a little extra something that the composer may not have recognised.) He is indeed a formidable musician and, as we saw in this compelling programme, a “triple threat”.

The first half of the concert consisted of two works for piano and strings. Bach’s D Major Concerto was not written for a Steinway, of course. Despite his non-romantic, marcato playing, Mustonen took a modernist approach, molding phrases in great detail and even introducing a crescendo and diminuendo within a single phrase. Needless to say, the responsive ACO musicians were with him all the way. Even so, the result did seem slightly fiddly in the outer movements, while the Adagio movement could have benefited from a more consistent legato. Hindemith’s...