Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
One of the hallmarks of Peter Donohoe's pianism has always been the sheer breadth of his musical sympathies, ranging across more than two centuries right up to the present day. His programme in the Southbank Centre's International Piano Series gave some sense of that range, with works by Debussy, Brahms and Bartók grouped around the centrepiece of Donohoe's recital, the complete first, Swiss, book of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage.
Liszt is a composer who polarises opinion, and the way Donohoe plays him – boldly, without any apology for the music's bombastic moments – is likely to confirm everyone's prejudices. Fans will delight in the sweep, grandeur and sheer ferocious intensity of his playing – his account of the fifth movement, Orage, had a terrific physicality, the climax of the opening Chapelle de Guillaume Tell a terrific swagger. But sceptics will suspect that all the sound and fury does not really signify much at all, and Donohoe is not one of the modern-day Lisztians who emphasises the music's other qualities – the harmonic daring, the refinement and colours of the piano writing.
In fact, there is sense about Donohoe's playing altogether that seems, if not old-fashioned exactly, then tending to emphasise the traditional musical virtues of integrity and intelligence. It can also sometimes seem rather brusque, and his opening Debussy, Estampes, had been distinctly lacking in atmosphere. But by the time he returned to the composer for his encore, with a terrific account of L'Isle Joyeuse there was no lack of character at all, and that had followed what was in many way the real highlight of the recital, Bartók's 1926 Sonata. It packs all the energy and aggression of Bartók's modernism into a 13-minute span that Donohoe judged perfectly, while finding the space for a reminder that Bartók owed a debt to Liszt, too.
Available on BBC iPlayer until 6 March.