Music / A Child’s Dream, Alexandra Dariescu. At the Snow Concert Hall, October 16. Reviewed by THAYER PREECE.

In the crowded field of professional pianists, it takes something special to stand out among the throng.

Romanian-born pianist Alexandra Dariescu certainly possesses that special quality that sets her apart. From the moment she walked on to the Snow Concert Hall stage, Dariescu’s poise and charm suffused the room even before her fingers touched the keyboard.

Dariescu is one of the most sought-after performers in her field, having appeared with major symphony orchestras around the globe. After recently making her debut with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and returning to perform with the Melbourne Symphony, Dariescu arrived in Canberra to present an intimate solo recital at the Snow Concert Hall as the finale to her Australian tour.

The program for Dariescu’s recital, titled A Child’s Dream, was lengthy and diverse. Eschewing longer-form works such as sonatas, the program sent the audience on an auditory reverie across space and time, with composers spanning Europe, North, and South America, and ranging from the Baroque period to today.

This recital was designed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dariescu’s debut concert. Each piece selected for the program was special to Dariescu in some way, which made the program an intensely personal one. The connection between pianist and repertoire no doubt contributed to the emotion that was suffused into each individual piece during her stunning performance.

The first half of Dariescu’s recital program consisted of an impressive collection of 15 different works for solo piano, all performed from memory. Dariescu is known for championing the works of lesser-known composers, particularly female ones, and it showed in this intriguing selection of works. Nine of the 15 pieces were composed by women, and several by people of colour. Dariescu’s adept renditions proved why the more obscure works deserved a position next to their more renowned companions.

As she worked her way through two sets of short works with only a slight pause between each, Dariescu’s fingers danced across the keyboard. Her technique proved equally nimble in playful and humorous pieces such as Florence Price’s The Goblin and the Mosquito, as it did in lushly romantic works such as Clara Schumann’s No. 2 Notturno from Soirées Musicales Op. 6.

The second half of the program was a piano reduction of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, which has become one of Dariescu’s signature works. Her multimedia performance, The Nutcracker and I, which involves a ballerina and digital animations accompanying her piano arrangement of the popular work, is one of Dariescu’s most popular concert programs, though only the piano part was on display in this concert.

The piano arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet was impressively virtuosic – a natural result of condensing a full orchestral score down to a single instrument. The suite of dances showcased Dariescu’s ability to layer sound, with melodies ringing clearly over the intricate accompaniments spilling from her other fingers.

Alexandra Dariescu’s passion and skill on the piano were impressively on display throughout this delightful program. The crowd at Snow Concert Hall was smaller than it should have been, given the calibre of the performance. The audience was clearly moved by the performance though, sending Dariescu off-stage with a standing ovation.