Daniil Trifonov, at Queen Elizabeth Hall, review Having swept up prizes at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Rubinstein in Tel Aviv and the Chopin in Warsaw, the pianist Daniil Trifonov is already preceded by an exciting reputation wherever he appears. But not even a CV like this guarantees the musical maturity the 21-year-old Russian displayed in his Southbank debut recital, where he made Liszt's massive Sonata in B minor the centrepiece in every sense. Between the power required in this work's demonic flourishes and the phantasmagorical musings called for elsewhere in its huge single-movement span (both magnificently achieved), the most impressive aspect was the sense of epic space Trifonov brought to the music. But then he had already found the elusive pulse of Scriabin's Second Sonata, beautifully weaving together its pensive fragments resembling half-remembered Chopin Nocturnes. When it came to Chopin himself and a complete traversal of the Twenty-Four Preludes, Trifonov launched the opening "Agitato" without undue agitation. Bound together by a natural sense of pianistic colour and meticulous pedaling, these were understated yet never under-characterised performances.