Marios Popadopoulos chose demanding works for the core of this recital - pieces which test the performer's technical and musical abilities. His readings were thoughtful and persuasive and he left the audience in no doubt of his physical mastery of the keyboard.

The concert opened with Beethoven's Op. 90 - a work which contains elements of the romantic warmth of Op.78 as well as looking forward to the last five sonatas. Popadopoulos's performance emphasised the forward-looking elements. This was a serious and searching interpretation, at times almost troubled. The lyrical second movement was played with great feeling. Turgenev in Virgin Soil speaks of "those peculiar sensations of spring which in the hearts of young and old alike are always mixed with a certain degree of sadness". The mood of this piece had something of that quality.

The second work was an earlier Beethoven sonata - Op 53 - the first sonata written after the composer's deafness had led him to give up public performances. This is music of contrasts - passages of furious energy alternating in the first movement with a stately chorale-like theme, and in the rondo with a theme based on the folk song the Grossvater's Lied. Popadopoulos again gave a deeply felt and thoughtful reading of the work. The searching, almost tortured, sequence of chords in the Introduzione which precedes the Rondo were beautifully played. The Grossvater's Lied theme rang out in the final movement with wonderful percussive assertiveness.

Liszt's Sonata in B Minor took us to a very different sound world. Regarded by many as Liszt's greatest work for the piano, the sonata demands not only physical virtuosity but a highly developed architectural sensibility in the performer. Written as a single movement and lasting more than half an hour, the work is built around the continuous transformation of a limited number of motivic themes. Papodopoulos impressed with his dexterity and in the way he gave the work a sense of cohesion. This was bravura playing.

To round off the evening the audience had the additional pleasure of hearing as an encore the delightful Chopin Nocturne Op. Posthumous, played with great feeling.