Pianist Freddy Kempf's survey of the five Beethoven piano concertos as both soloist and conductor initially had the whiff of showmanship about it.

He performed the first three in Cardiff last October and completed the job at this concert with the fourth and fifth (the 'Emperor'), on both occasions with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The second had a Beethoven overture thrown in for good measure (Fidelio), with Kempf secreting his conductor's baton inside the piano and sometimes, but not always, taking it up as he leapt from his seat to direct the orchestra in the piano-less bars of the concertos.

What's been interesting is to watch an historical throwback - the soloist also directing the orchestra - and to hear sounds that were by today's standards almost totally inauthentic.

The conclusions might be that the soloist's double-headed role is now of only academic concern, the enterprise merely saves on the conductor's fee and the spectacle is essentially visual.

However, it was a dynamic performance all round and Kempf made a strong case for suggesting that his approach was largely responsible for it. What that says about the traditional orchestra-soloist-conductor set-up is debatable. Certainly the idea wouldn't work as well with the big Romantic concertos and their heavily-armed orchestral requirements. Cynics might say that the arrival in music history of the sometimes temperamental conductor with a baton gave the soloist more space and time to think fully about the solo part; Kempf would say that he's not just playing the piano but embedding it in a surrounding orchestra ambience, which he needs to influence. All grist to the mill.

At the very least, it's been entertaining. In spite of those instances when the momentarily-free left hand was waved at the orchestra to little purpose as Kempf returned to the keyboard, the results were seamless if a little hectic.

Also, the seven-month gap between his first essay in the capital and his final one was too wide to make any meaningful estimate of his progress or the variable manner in which individual concertos lent themselves less or more to the soloist-director plan.