There was enough electricity in the air of the auditorium to provide enough power to light up a large city and the source of all this energy was one of the most unassuming men I have ever seen.

He could have been a scientist, perhaps, a laboratory technician, or an office manager, except for one thing - his phenomenal ability to play the grand piano.

The man was Andras Schiff, born in Hungary in 1953 and a world-renowned expert in the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

He is to Bach what Alfred Brendel is to Beethoven and Murray Perahia is to Mozart - a genius of interpretation and a magician as he plays.

For almost two-and-a-half hours Schiff soothed, calmed, hypnotised and mesmerised me in what seemed to be a masterclass in Bach's six English Suites, which date from around 1714 when the composer was concert master at the Weimar Court.

It was like sinking into a hot, scented bath, being slowly relaxed and letting the weariness be drawn out from my bones.

This was a ravishing treat of a recital which left me utterly at ease but also highly energised.