The consummate artistry, musicianship and keyboard mastery of American pianist and academic John Roberts were much in evidence at this concert. The apparent effortlessness with which he deployed these qualities in Liszt’s Eb Major Piano Concerto seemed to banish any sense of the piece’s technical difficulties. The grandeur and continuity of the work’s motivic and cyclical argument, including atmosphere and picturesque detail, were certainly brought to the fore. Young pianists so often crash through the Lisztian undergrowth, proclaiming a formidable technique. With Roberts, however, the stylish and relaxed playing proved a refreshing contrast. The many poetic touches, for from being immature and brash, instead spawned beautiful singing lines often against carefully weighted accompaniment figurations. His double octave passages made a dramatic impact because of the secure rhythmic underpinnings. How well he avoided the hypermanically tempestuous outburst of the last movement which was nevertheless charged to the full with muscular energy. The integration of demonic intensity and bitter-sweet languor was almost perfectly matched. Cascades of varied rippling arpeggios were convincingly articulated, timbre and dynamics finely graded and passages of incipient Lisztian banality all rendered without a hint of indulgence.