It is refreshing to find a young pianist who, despite being a multiple prize-winner, is not afraid to let his fingers do the talking.

There is nothing showy about Alessandro Taverna: he channels all his energy into the keyboard, shunning histrionics completely.

The result is strangely compelling. Without visual distractions the listener is drawn inexorably into Taverna’s sound-world. Intoxicating it is, too. This deeply talented Venetian had devised for the British Music Society an intriguing programme of fantasies, fantasias if you like, or flights of fancy if you prefer the Elizabethan slant.

Early fantasias offer a composer licence to improvise, as in Beethoven’s Sonata “Quasi una fantasia”, Op 27 No 1.

Later ones become little more than variations, often on someone else’s themes, as in Busoni’s fantasia on Bizet’s Carmen. Opening with the Beethoven, Taverna at once revealed a sharp mind and a technique to match, typified by the lively repartee in the last movement’s Vivace section.

There were fresh ideas throughout Mendelssohn’s F sharp minor Fantasy, with delectable shadings in the closing Presto.

In Chopin’s F minor Fantaisie, he dallied so teasingly that we felt the composer’s listlessness in searching for ideas. But Taverna made sense of them. His staccato virtuosity in the Busoni was breathtaking.

Schumann’s Fantasie in C is a hard nut to crack and its opening movement lacked definition. Clarity re-emerged boldly thereafter. Despite taking some latitude with Schumann’s “soft” marking, Taverna’s finale twinkled seductively. Definitely a name to watch.