For the past year, the mother of all earthquakes was predicted along the San Andreas fault and on March 25, the big one struck, and again on May 20, when the City of San Francisco was plunged into a state from which it will certainly take time to recover.  Two 34-year-old immigrant-Aussie pianists were responsible – Alexander Gavrylyuk, who currently lives in Amsterdam with his wife and daughters and Edward Neeman, who recently took up residency in Canberra on its ANU campus with his wife and son. The polaric opposites were born in 1984, less than a month apart, in the USSR and North America, and for their San Francisco debut appearances, performed within a few blocks of each other – Gavrylyuk, at the recently refurbished Herbst Theatre, Van Ness Avenue, (where the original United Nations Charter was signed) and Neeman, at Nob Hill’s magnificent First Old Church, in Sacramento Street.

Alexander Gavrylyuk. Photograph supplied

Except for a handful of cities including San Francisco, it has become an increasing rarity to sight students, pianists and teachers alongside non-specialist music lovers, clamouring for box-office cancellations. But following Neeman’s stunning debut and judging...