This being Olympics month, it was only apt that Vladimir Ovchinnikov gave City Hall's Steinway the kind of workout which would leave Olympian athletes exhausted. From the first notes of Scriabin's First Sonata to the last tumultuous measures of Stravinsky's Petrouchka movement, Ovchinnikov almost made the piano perspire. If this was a heroic recital muscle-wise, it was an audacious, sometimes questionable one in terms of its music. Not that one could have anything but admiration for the Rachmaninoff Second Sonata in its original creation (more on that later) or the sadly single selection from Lizst's Transcendental Etudes. But from such an astonishing musician, one could have asked for more substantial music. The Scriabin, for instance, is the longest of his sonatas - not for original content but for self-indulgence and hyper-activity. Ovchinnikov rightly took the first movement by storm and made the scherzo a tumultuous affair. But perhaps too much exercise made the original double-pianissimo centre of the funereal finale less than mystical. The Rachmaninoff Chopin Variations, based on the famed funeral march was nervous, agitated, a performance at its most opulent and intricate. The challenge is to get through some of the less original variations. So when he came to the great moments - namely the massive 17th and 21st variations - the lines seemed etched deep in musical stone. Stunning stuff. I wish Ovchinnikov had jettisoned the Scriabin for more Liszt Etudes, as he has both the power and poetry to make it live. The Night Harmonies was an all-too-brief indication of his great talent. But the astounding work was the Rachmaninoff Sonata, which the composer once 'simplified' for Artur Rubinstein. Ovchinnikov defied simplicity with the aggressiveness of a warrior. The music was combative, thick, stormy and - most amazing of all - played with unashamed dramatic conviction. New Russian Pianists II, Vladimir Ovchinnikov; City Hall Theatre, July 9