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So much for London having a comprehensive claim on tyros for Scherbakov won the first Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow back in 1983

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So much for London having a comprehensive claim on tyros, for Scherbakov won the first Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow back in 1983, and he's already made a fair number of CDs. On Sunday he played Rachmaninov's five Fantasy Pieces, Op 3, with a dazzling range of colour and technical finesse. He also showed a sophisticated sense of proportion, so that, far from puffing up the famous C sharp minor Prelude, the second piece in the set, he gave it a sense of rhythmic freedom as well as tonal depth. The concerts are designed to introduce established musicians who have not yet performed in London. There are plans to make a simple cafe in the courtyard and open up the basement for educational facilities and conservation.Right on cue, a new series of six Sunday morning recitals in the Long Picture Gallery was launched at the weekend by the Siberian-born pianist , who now lives in Switzerland. The dignified 19th century building escaped the tacky modernisation programmes which messed up larger London galleries in the 1960s - only to be reversed - but recently the Wallace has started a discreet process of refurbishment, and already the magnificent early 18th century staircase, originally imported from the Banque Royale in Paris, has been restored.

Konstantin Scherbakov Wallace Collection, London Tucked away behind Selfridges, the Wallace Collection is a quiet retreat, full of the accumulated treasures of the Marquesses of Hertford, bequeathed to the nation 100 years ago. Partridge would be much less funny without his ability to act out the pain of a failing career as if it was a tragedy rather than a joke. The beady look of rising panic that came into his eyes when he realised none of his programme ideas was going to get the go-ahead (not even educational projects like Knowing M.E., Knowing You) was really almost moving.. Like a few of the jokes in I'm Alan Partridge (BBC2), this is quite funny but not well-observed - the restaurant they were in wouldn't plausibly have had it on the wine list.

But the moments when the forensic precision dips a little for the sake of a gag are made up for by Coogan's performance. In this six-part follow-up to Knowing Me, Knowing You, Steve Coogan's grotesque hybrid of ambition, inadequacy and string-backed driving gloves is desperately trying to keep the guttering flame of his celebrity alight, though that isn't easy when the BBC won't commit to a second series and his only broadcast outlet is Up With the Partridge, Radio Norwich's graveyard shift. Alan doesn't even have a talent for brown-nosing; when he discovers that the new commissioning editor is something of a wine buff he attempts to impress him by ordering half a bottle of Blue Nun with his lunch. It's true that the new girl did have some difficulty in keeping a straight face while Alan explained exactly which swear words had been spray-painted on his Rover but that was surely forgivable. How was it, for example, that the rather overblown young lady, ejected by Eileen after a pursuit through the hotel's bars, was filmed arriving with her equally blowsy friends? Just good luck or a spot of private catering on the producer's part?The receptionists in the Linton Travel Tavern are much more conventionally respectful of their guests - even when the guest in question is Alan Partridge. This kind of confrontation is meat and drink to the soap-doc and every now and then the dark thought crossed your mind that care had been taken to ensure that supplies didn't run out.

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