Cheers for the bubbly virtuoso

RACHEL CHEUNG ROYAL CONCERT HALL

- By WILLIAM RUFF

THE new season of Sunday morning piano recitals was launched by Rachel Cheung, who had flown in from Hong Kong especially for this Nottingham performance.

And it's not as if she's desperate for work: she's in demand everywhere, having won awards and rave reviews in Asia, Europe and America. One of the many feathers in her cap is the Audience Prize in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, one of the highest accolades that the USA has to offer a classical musician.

Her Sunday morning programme couldn’t have been better judged for a season launch. Anyone new to the Nottingham Classics Piano Series would have been delighted and encouraged by the mix of great (and generally familiar) music together with dazzling virtuosity. There was an added ingredient too: Cheung’s bubbly personality, evident not only at the keyboard but when chatting to the audience about the repertoire.