HOT: Daniel Barenboim Beethoven Piano Sonata Series (Concert 3), Royal Festival Hall

You know you have a hot ticket when scalpers start touting 'any spare tickets' in front of Royal Festival Hall for a classical piano recital. I'd been looking forward to this particular concert as Barenboim was playing the Pathetique, one of my AMUS exam pieces. I know the hours of work I had to do strengthen my fingers and wrists for those repetitive rolling octaves and to perfect the clarity of the descending trills, so could appreciate his fluidity and stamina. When you know a piece inside-out you can spot the wrong notes and minute changes in tempo, but his playing of the most difficult movement of all the Beethoven's sonata was an extraordinary triumph.