Adam Davies, Tuned In, Redcar

A WELL-FILLED venue welcomed this young pianist on a bleak February afternoon.

Adam Davies is in his final year at the Royal Northern College of Music and intends to study for his masters at university.

He is another of those youthful prodigies who start learning music at an early age. In Davies’s case this was at eight years old under the tutelage of his mother, who is a music teacher.

He described the initial resistance to practising, the tantrums, etc. which those of us who have tried to encourage our offspring to learn a musical instrument are all too familiar with.

By the time he achieved Grade 8, however, he had long been converted to the joy of playing the piano, and enrolled as a pupil under Irena Glushenkova, formerly of the Moscow Conservatoire before continuing his studies at the RNCM.

Davies introduced and demonstrated certain features of his programme, which he opened with two sonatas by Scarlatti, Sonata in A major K332, and Sonata in A minor K175, two nicely contrasting pieces though very demanding in their different moods, ranging from lyrical to dramatic.

The young performer did not spare himself in these very energetic Scarlatti works. The delicacy and dexterity of his fingering techniques were amazing.

He went on to play works by Debussy, Scriabin and Chopin. In the Pour les arpèges composés, by Debussy, the composer himself described them as a "warning to pianists not to take up the musical profession unless they have remarkable hands".

The Scriabin – Two Études and Deux Poèmes also featured technical challenges for the pianist with what are described as "treacherous stretches", with many left-hand jumps and abundant octaves.

This was great piano music – full of variety and emotion – and Davies gave a brilliant performance. We shall undoubtedly hear more of this young man.

The next event at Tuned In! is on Wednesday, March 11, with clarinet and piano duo Sarah Hall and Philip Sharp. Tickets cost £5 from Tuned In! Performing Arts Centre, Redcar.

Irene MacDonald