"Iconoclastic or perverse?" was doubtless the question in some minds at the end of Evgeny Kissin's latest recital. His playing has always provoked extreme responses, rousing some to an adulatory frenzy, others to something approaching rage. Much has been made in the past of the disparity between his overtly bravura technique and a troubling absence of emotional depth or consistency in his interpretations. Such comments no longer quite hold true: each piece in this concert was cogently presented and given a sharply defined character. The real problem with Kissin's playing now lies not so much in emotional waywardness as in interpretative inappropriateness.

He kicked off with two Beethoven sonatas - the C major, Op 2, No 3 followed by Op 81a, Les Adieux. His way with Beethoven is violent, unyielding and often very loud. The C major Sonata dates from 1796 and requires elements of classical restraint. Kissin, however, attacked it with such unremitting weight that the slow movement seemed sluggishly stolid. Les Adieux works fractionally better on such a scale; Kissin conjured up vistas of uncompromising bleakness in the figurations of the Andante.

Chopin's Scherzos came after the interval. The dynamic range of Kissin's performances was striking, aptly reminding us that there is more to Chopin than muted eloquence. The encores included Liszt's 10th Hungarian Rhapsody, delivered with remarkable delicacy. That he plays early Beethoven with more weight than he plays Liszt indicates, of course, that Kissin, contrary to some people's assumptions, is making conscious interpretative choices as he goes along. The jury remains out, however, on whether those choices are the right ones.