People either love or loathe Evgeny Kissin. His admirers see him as the embodiment of pianistic brilliance. But to his detractors, he remains the precocious wunderkind whose expressive powers have failed to develop with time. This concert, the first in Kissin's Beethoven concerto cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra and Colin Davis, predictably generated a divided response. Some stood to applaud at the end. Elsewhere, there were mutterings of dissent.

Kissin has elected to perform the five concertos over two nights, in compositional order (the Second, confusingly, was written first). The idea is that we can follow Beethoven's gradual development of the form. Even so, what we are ultimately being asked to contemplate is a feat of stamina, memory and endurance. Taken purely on these terms, Kissin did not disappoint, tackling the first three concertos with the tirelessness of a well-trained athlete.

The results were thrilling, but also machine-like. These were performances of great weight but little passion. There were, it is true, flashes of insight in the preening, self-confident phrasing of the outer movements of the Second Concerto and the brooding yet lyrical centre of the Third. Kissin's dynamic control can be breathtaking: the coda of the first movement of the Third was remarkable in its quiet limpidity. Elsewhere, however - notably in the finale of the First - the contrast between loud and soft became an end in itself, robbing the passage of drama and meaning.

Cadenzas were hammered home with occasionally inappropriate heft, while finales were launched with a heavy ferocity that precluded elation and wit. Davis's magisterial conducting and the LSO's beautifully shaped playing were sometimes left to carry the emotional weight.

· Continues at the Barbican, London EC2, tomorrow. Box office: 0845 120 7550.