One of the monuments of the piano repertoire, Beethoven’s 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli traverses the whole spectrum of human experience.

One minute we’re battered with thunderous eruptions of terrifying power; the next beguiled by inward-looking meditation, charm or humour.

Stephen Kovacevich, who has long inhabited this music (he recently recorded it for the second time) is the master of these conflicting elements. Last night he powered almost recklessly through the virtuoso variations. The fact that every note was not precisely in place or perfectly balanced was less important than the sheer drive, intellectual and emotional, with which he invested it.

The three minor-key variations near the end (Nos 29-31), on the other hand, plumbed spiritual depths of such gravity as to transport one beyond the physical world. This was piano playing of exceptional mastery and insight.

His Bach playing (Partita No 4 in D), by turns vigorous and introspective rather than historically informed, may not be to everyone’s taste. But it prepared the way for a pensive reading of Schumann’s Kinderszenen. Rarely have these pieces redolent of the nursery, fireside and child’s storybook seemed so tender, so artlessly innocent.