If a single word could describe Evelyn Glennie's second Hong Kong recital, it wouldn't be generalisations like 'genius', 'astounding', 'entertaining' or 'magical'. The purest adjective would have to be 'intense'. Whether sailing through a Brazilian concerto, playing hard, raw jazz, playing the contrasting sonorities of some marimba variations on Japanese children's songs, or playing a wonderfully schmaltzy encore of a truncated Liszt Hungarian rhapsody, Glennie has the concentration and energy for vitally intense music. Glennie and her long-time accompanist, Philip Smith, do have an advantage. Playing contemporary music for instruments which are almost never in the concert repertoire, their music has been composed directly for them. Obviously the challenge for any composer, then, is to make the music as difficult - and as delicious - as these two deserve. Thus, Icelandic composer Asko Massan's concerto for snare drum and orchestra has a fascinating solo. The snare drum has no notes, of course. But in a long, involved crescendo, acceleration and deceleration, Glennie showed an almost fierce and totally mesmerising discipline. Thus, New Zealand-Greek composer John Psathas wrote two works played here which were drivingly vivid. For the first, piano and tom-toms imitated and played against each other. For Drum Dances, pianist Smith played like two Art Tatums at the same time, with Glennie sitting like a Buddy Rich until both played the most titillating tintinnabulations on piano and finger xylophone. The first half was dissonant and difficult, the second half more consonant but no less fascinating. Besides the Japanese songs and the Psathas, Glennie played Javier Alvarez' Temazcal, a work involving electronically produced Latin American poly-rhythms, featuring Glennie on maracas. It all seemed so right and so interesting - and then, with a stroke of genius, the pure rhythms became the most touching Mexican harp-guitar ending. After all this, the Brazilian marimba concerto which finished the recital was anything but showy. It was tuneful, nostalgic, a product of colour, sound and wonderful musicality. EVELYN GLENNIE, percussion, PHILIP SMITH piano, City Hall Concert Hall