LLYR Williams played three concerts at this year's East Neuk Festival and I heard two of them: a programme of Beethoven's late sonatas (Ops 109, 110 and 111) and, the next day, 11 of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words and his Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, Op.

35 No 1.

There are elements of Williams's playing that aren't always to my personal taste. I find his touch harsh, for example; the sound he draws from the keyboard can be blunt, steely-edged. His delivery is so direct that it borders on abrupt, and every gesture is delivered with such deliberateness that it sometimes lacks a sense of spontaneity.

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