It was a performance of two halves for pianist Yuja Wang in her Usher Hall appearance. And not just for the midnight blue to ivory interval change of backless, split-to-the-thigh haute couture concert dresses that are part of Wang’s USP. Switching things from the published listing of Shostakovich and Samuel Barber in the first half, with the four Ballades by Chopin in the second, made programmatic sense. Instead of being heard altogether, the Ballades were divided, two sitting alongside a selection from Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues and two paired with the Piano Sonata Op 26 by Barber.

What didn’t work so well was the different approach in each section. Ballades Nos 1 and 2 sounded subdued at times, especially when the quicksilver upper register passages were knocked off balance by more prominent playing in the left hand. Yet, in the second half, the poetry of Ballades 3 and 4 was richly intimate with subtleties of shading projecting across the huge and packed auditorium. Barber’s only piano sonata came alive through its storytelling, mystic and dreamy moments of delicacy contrasting with impassioned pleading and a sense of an unstoppable force.

Yuja Wang reviewed at Usher Hall as part of Edinburgh International Festival.