Polymath pianist delights the Dome

The polymath pianist (also a alcomposer, singer, producer, songwriter, actor and screenwriter) looked suitably rakish as he returned to Brighton Dome and took his place at the grandest of Steinway grand pianos, dressed in a black silk dressing gown and slippers.

Initially he kept his counsel and performed some solo compositions, with Gershwin-esque rhythms, flamboyant flourishes, and beautiful playing. But the self-confessed entertainer wasn’t likely to stay quiet for too long and was soon describing one piece as being like Chopin: “But the kind of Chopin you’d get in Aldi, not the good stuff!”

Gonzales went on to demonstrate the relationship between pop tunes and classical music - including Nirvana via Bach, and the bleakness of Britney’s Hit Me Baby One More time.

Raconteur could be quite possibly be added to his long list of expertise (although his ‘rapping’ isn’t perhaps his strongest suit).

He basks in the limelight and has one-liners and snappy anecdotes by the bucketload, and teased and toyed with the doting crowd throughout (“I refuse to manipulate you but London was better.”)

Although he did, entirely understandably, become a bit irked at the constant coming and going the of Dome concert-goers: “This song is about four-and-a-half minutes long, let’s see if it’s possible for nobody to get up. Consider it a test of your bladders.”

That was however a blip in an otherwise near-love-in between the performer and largely adoring gathering, who presumably hoped he wouldn’t wait another 18 years before returning to the city’s favourite concert hall.