Some were even whispering the magic name "Horowitz," possibly because Halim has been coaching with the great man, whom he slightly resembles –that familiar look of a sleek wolfhound ready to pounce was unmistakable.  He also played on Horowitz's personal Steinway grand, loaned for the occasion, which might explain why the piano tone was so painfully glaring much of the time.  I suspect Halim would be heard to better advantage if this fleet fingers could race up and down the keyboard of a less brilliantly roiced, more easily tamed instrument.

And race they did, infallibly if often too excitably, through a conventional but musically consequential program:  a Bach-Busoni Toccata, Chopin's Third Sonata, a Schubert Impromptu, Schumann's Humoreske, and the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12.  The Schumann came off best, its moody restlessness and poetic fantasy both intelligently defined and sensitively communicated by a musician who has provocative ideas of his own.  Halim is definitely a pianist to watch out for.