What was strange about this recital by pianist Yefim Bronfman was that a prog-ramme that ended excitingly with Prokofiev could have started so unpromisingly with the same composer.

Bronfman is to some extent a Prokofiev specialist, but he gave little reminder of that in the opening movement of the Sonata No 2. This is a youthful work, and the opening melody demands a heart-on-sleeve sweep for which, bashing out the top notes hastily, he seemed unwilling to allow space. The ensuing calmer passage was more convincing, but the melody couched within the outer lines sounded shapeless and unloved.

Things did improve. By the second movement, Bronfman was sustaining a melodic line in the midst of all the restless figuration, and the climbdown to the close of the third was ethereally gentle. The fourth, though, was again more about effect than shape, with Bronfman hammering out notes loud enough to make us wince.

The gentleness returned, aptly, for the opening episode of Schumann's Op 20 Humoreske, and was also put to good use his Arabeske in C; this almost reticent, weightless soft playing is one of Bronfman's best points. The Arabesque - a relatively uncomplicated work Schumann wrote "for the ladies" - came off better; the mercurial changes of mood in the Humoreske didn't seem spontaneous enough, and it could have used a touch more wit.

In Prokofiev's Sonata No 7, however, Bronfman was a different pianist to the one who had begun the evening. The first movement had clarity and poise, with lots of menace; the low, warm melody of the second gained passion as it blossomed up the keyboard; the finale's cacophony of quickfire chords, was an exhilarating technical display.

Yet there was never much heart or soul. Bronfman needed little encouragement to give three encores; predictably, some gentle Scarlatti came over well, but some showy Chopin and Schumann sounded impatient and scrambled.