A strapping Russian pianist in full flow can be either an exhilarating or an alarming experience.

Evgeny Kissin dazzled at the age of 12 but too often spoils the poetry these days with clangorous tone.

The young Russian Eduard Kunz is a recent addition to the BBC Radio 3 New Generation roster and as he demonstrated in yesterday's lunchtime recital, broadcast live (available for rehearing on the Radio 3 website), he, too, runs the entire gamut from sensitive introspection to fullblooded, muscular pianism.

When he introduced himself with an exquisitely modulated account of Scarlatti's Sonata in B minor Kk197, I warmed to him immediately.

It was a reading full of character, with a touch of whimsy, and like the whole Scarlatti group executed with unimpeachable technical wizardry.

The Haydn Divertimento in A (HXVI:12) also began evocatively, with a beguilingly dreamy Andante, followed by a poised Menuetto and a playful Finale. As with the Scarlatti, the pointing up of dynamic contrasts enhanced the inherent drama.

There was drama, too, in Debussy's virtuoso tone poem L'Isle Joyeuse, where Kunz deployed tight figuration to depict the swirling waves, the excitement mounting towards the exuberant ending.

With the set of Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux, Op16, one sensed that he was once again on home ground - in every sense. The second piece was tumultuous but firmly disciplined.

The fourth and sixth were powerful outpourings of sound though never harsh of tone. The third and fifth - the latter a placid barcarolle - explored the more inward side of Rachmaninov's sensibility, but without ever quite recapturing that sense of discovery that characterised the opening Scarlatti.

An artist of remarkable talent, then. But one fervently hopes that it is the poetic aspect of his pianism he develops rather than the massive and the muscular.