His name is Marc Yu, he is 9 years old, and they call him the “Little Mozart”. So all the more fitting that the Californian piano prodigy, who is now the Proms’ newest star – and one of the youngest in the history of the festival – should make his UK debut in a rather natty frock-coat.

Before he’d even played a note Yu had wowed us on cuteness points alone: part “Little Mozart”, part Bertolucci’s Last Emperor, he stared out at the capacity crowd with a delightful mixture of wide-eyed wonder and bravura enthusiasm. Asked by his mentor and duet partner, the Chinese pianist Lang Lang, whether he minded playing to a packed arena of scruffy Prommers, he gave a precociously diplomatic response: “I don’t care how important the people are – when I play the piano I try my best.”

Certainly, there were few signs of nerves before his big moment – partnering Lang Lang in Schubert’s great duet, the Fantasia in F Minor. And once the performance began, watching the two figures – Lang taking the lower part, Yu the higher – move in sync provided a remarkable image: the diminutive Yu already adopting his master’s posture, gestures and even his breathing patterns.

This was not, after all, a Yu recital – though this little boy has already given dozens of them as a solo artist. And nor, in truth, was this a complete Schubert performance. The F Minor Fantasia is only 20 minutes long, but it’s a questing work of turbulent force and numinous power. Yu’s passagework and basic tone, though polished and precise, couldn’t quite give the pure muscle a red-blooded piece like this needed, even with Lang Lang providing sympathetic support.

What emerged instead was a rather delicate take on a bigger masterpiece: not quite a triumph, but definitely the first sign of a bucketful of talent.

As for Lang Lang, the remainder of his glitzy recital encompassed the full range of his freewheeling brilliance and completely infuriating mannerisms.

When it worked, it was tender, supple and, even in the cavernous Royal Albert Hall, surprisingly intimate.

Mozart’s Piano Sonata in B Flat Major unfolded with dream-like spontaneity.

Two thunderous Rachmaninov preludes, by contrast, were as bold and invigorating as a shot of double espresso. But, frothed into a gilded soufflé, Chopin’s Andante Spiniato and Grande Polonaise can have seldom sounded so empty.

Two traditional Chinese melodies were soupily played and tediously prolonged.

Even Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No 2, something of a party piece for Lang, screeched tediously between slow and fast, soft and loud. Extremes simply aren’t extreme if they’re this predictable.

Still, who else could summon up a sold-out Albert Hall but this impish musician, who somehow seems to entice and repel in equal measure? As Mr Little Mozart turned back into a kid and cheered his guru hoarse from the sidelines, I wanted to encourage him to widen his field of mentors.

However, judging from about 30 minutes of encores and ovations – which included a cameo part for Lang Lang’s father, playing the traditional Chinese erhu – his current choice seems to be doing just fine.

Young and brilliant

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote more than 600 compositions. He began playing the piano at the age of three and by five had formulated several meaningful compositions

Yehudi Menuhin began violin instruction when he was three. He performed with the San Francisco Symphony in 1923, at the age of seven

Frederic Chopin learnt to play piano in his small Polish village. He performed his first concert at seven and was a notable composing force by the age of 15

Raphaël Sévère is a clarinet player born in France in 1994. At the age of eight, Sévère was one of the top talents at the Conservatoire of Nantes, and by 10 he had won the first prize and special jury prize at the Lempes National Competition. Since the age of 11 he has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world

— Source: Times database

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