Ardent Daniil Trifonov fans may have felt a little short-changed when it was announced there was a program for his second Sydney Symphony International Pianists in recital with star German baritone Matthias Goerner.

Instead of Franz Schubert’s last piano sonata – the perfect complement, one would think, to the Schwanengesang song cycle in the second half – the 34-year-old Russian maestro started the concert with Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album, 24 miniatures written for his favourite nephew Vladimir ‘Bob’ Davidov.

Charming though some of these cameos may be, others are pretty bland and none of them tax a concert performer too much. I don’t think I was alone in wanting a more substantial work to show off the talents of the man who has been described as the most astonishing pianist of his generation.

As it was, we did see his supreme artistry and flashes of brilliance – the rapid juddering rhythms of Playing Hobby-Horses, the Chopinesque funeral march for a favourite doll and the mercuric trills and lovely phrasing of Lark Song.

There was warmth and affection in Mama and an attractive lilt to Neapolitan Song, and the hymnal block harmonies of In Church...