A level exams are not often a spectator sport, but Music A level includes a public performance which is recorded and the recording sent off to the exam board.

I was glad to be able to join an audience of 30 to 40 people in Millfield's Music School to hear Hoong Ern Ng play his 20 minute piano recital today.

He began with four of the six pieces that make up Bach's first Partita: Praeludium, Allemande, Sarabande and Gigue. He gave a fairly romantic account of the Praeludium, with sustaining pedal, which is an unfashionable thing to do, but the result was musical. The slow Sarabande likewise got its full share of feeling, and here I felt that Bach would definitely have approved. The faster dances were lively and for the most part accurate: it was just in the opening of the final Gigue that the breakneck speed led to a couple of small slips; but these were soon forgotten as the whole work came to its breathless end. Because the music was being played for the exam, there were no repeats, so the Gigue was over in a flash. I should very much like to hear Hoong play the Partita in full, with all repeats.

Because of exam conditions there was no applause between items, which highlighted the world of contrast between early 18th century Bach, and the young firebrand Beethoven about 100 years later. The sonata in A, part of young Ludwig's Opus 2, is a piece of violent contrasts, and fiendishly hard to play cleanly and accurately. Hoong played the first movement, and brought it off with great success, emphasising the violence of the loud passages and bringing out the contrasts. A fine performance.

Again, no applause allowed. We were taken without anything except a few seconds of silence into the new and strange sound world of Debussy's La Cathedrale Engloutie, an evocation of the bells and chanting that one hears, or imagines one hears, from the depths of the sea where a cathedral has been submerged. It was another 100 year gap, and once more the music had changed beyond imagining. This was an entirely convincing performance, with complete technical mastery, so that the pianist was able to concentrate on painting the musical picture.

The pent-up applause at the end of the short recital was loud and long, and well deserved. Hoong looked pleased, as well he might, and members of the audience were able to add personal congratulations as they left.