Pianist Ana-Maria Vera vindicates the unwritten rule that child prodigies should be taken more seriously when they've grown up.

She created lots of predictable excitement as a nine-year-old when she performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra and two years later with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, with whom she recorded for the Philips label.

Now an adult, she records for Signum, the progressive independent company attracting lots of top performers to its stable, including pianists John Lill and Llyr Williams.

Essentially a musician with a light, sure touch and not given to over-excitement, Vera seems to have reached maturity while avoiding the pitfalls of unreasonably high expectation.

The discerning Merlin Music Society at Monmouth spotted her potential as a soloist last year when she appeared at one of their recitals accompanying American cellist Bartholomew LaFollette and giving notice, as many pianists sharing duties do, of wanting more of the limelight.

Her strengths as a soloist on this return visit were comprehensive. Chopin’s Sonata No 3 would have been a fine, if slightly under-projected, performance had it not been marred by a few lapses, though her brilliantly-delivered encore - his Fantaisie-Impromptu Op 66 - made amends.

In Mozart's Sonata in F (K 332) she sandwiched reverie between rugged outer movements and on the Op 16 Preludes of Scriabin she focused an exquisite sensibility.

The high points were Ravel's Sonatine, Debussy's Estampes and the latter's L'Isle Joyeuse, to end formal proceedings. This was perfect musical impressionism, the colours awash but the delineations firm.