The young pianist poised to tap the first quiet notes of one of the most powerful keyboard works in the classical repertoire, seems, to begin with, too slight of frame for the task. Perhaps even too young.
For the Liszt Sonata in B Minor is a colossal work in every sense. With its intense emotional, intellectual and technical demands, it is the kind of work one expects to hear from only the most seasoned of pianists - not a music student.
But after the first gentle, suspended notes, the music is unleashed in all its power and beauty, and you lean back knowing you are in the strong, assured hands of a pianist who knows what he is doing.
Chang Tao, 25, was giving a private concert at the Chinese Rhenish Church in Yau Yat Chuen. He was on holiday in Hong Kong, taking a rest after several months of intense preparation for an international music competition.
The Sunday afternoon recital was, in fact, a kind of thanksgiving service. A month earlier the same congregation had said a prayer for Chang Tao, wishing him well at the Third J. N. Hummel International Piano Competition, held in Bratislava, Slovak Republic.
An outstanding piano student who graduated with distinction from the Hong Kong Academy For Performing Arts, Chang Tao is now the pupil of the renowned concert pianist and teacher Sequiera Costa, at the University of Kansas in the United States. He is in the final year of his Master's Degree in Piano Performance.