John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique are due on at 7.30.Evgeny Kissin at the Proms: 3pm tomorrow, Royal Albert Hall, London SW7 (0171-589 8212) and live on BBC Radio 3. Kissin's new recording of Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos 2 & 5 is released this week on Sony Classical (SK 62926). The trick of any sort of whodunit or who-is-it novel is the sly revelation of clues to the reader without blowing the plot altogether. Equally, if one is to create any faith in the hero, then he or she has to be at least one jump ahead. In the case of Patrimony the reader is bellowing "Look Behind you!" from about page 150, but the heroine remains stubbornly unaware. Heavy breathing on her answer phone, four burglaries which no one reports to the police, the disappearance of a colleague, all fail to disturb our heroine with the notion that something is Up. What is Up is the slow uncovering of a secret history of a World War One poet, a contemporary of Sassoon and Owen.

Disastrously, his poetry is quoted in the novel: He vowed to serve his countryFor King and common goodBut no pledge prepared him for the foe he metStumbling out there in the mudAdvice to all non-poet authors: never invent poetry and hail it as great literature. Among Kissin's press cuttings is the story of a recital in Bologna where fire officers were forced to turn off the electricity at midnight after his 13th encore His Prom is at 3pm. It's my business to keep them interested and attentive..."A minute or two pass The conversation has moved on.. "Please, I would like to add something... Because I love the music I play so much, I want to share it with my audiences.

In no way are they an intrusion." Another "official statement" Just to make sure But it really isn't necessary. "And as tour guide you are showing the same things to different people, over and over again And you have to keep them interested Just like playing..."He sometimes plays for friends Just for friends. It's the nearest he gets to those solitary childhood days when he played just for pleasure. Does he ever feel that the audience is an intrusion, that even one listener is too many? "NEVER." (The emphasis he places on that one word speaks volumes.) "I play for those who come to listen to me My audiences are an inspiration to me And if they are not, then it's usually my fault. And you're purring in agreement - "Ah, yes, long country walks..." - when he adds, "fast walks in cities".He reckons if he weren't a musician he would either be a journalist or a tour guide How so? Exploration Discovery Different places, different cultures, different languages Just like music. I simply can't say..." Any more than he can say what it is about 18th-century French painting and Italian opera (yes, even Verdi, particularly Verdi) that he so dislikes Kissin is full of surprises He likes walking.

The Chopin pieces - the Two Nocturnes, Op 27, and the Sonata No 3 in B minor - are among his most favourite in all music He can't explain why He is reluctant to try I probe. Could it be the solitary nature of this music (private passions secretly indulged in public)? Could there perhaps be something about the man (he has dutifully devoured the letters) that he secretly identifies with? "I think if I could express why it is I love Chopin so much, then it would not be love but something else.. Maybe one day a psychoanalyst will discover why. On a podium which will place him right at the heart of the action - that is, in the arena, in the bosom of the promenaders -Kissin will play a programme of Haydn, Liszt and Chopin. But, for now, it's too personal a feeling to want to analyse. I played it, and I still play it, in the way that I feel it." But less self-consciously? "I think it's a mistake to treat it as a showpiece." And so do I, but I find it hard to believe that your performance - or rather your view - of the piece hasn't changed since then? "You rightly corrected yourself: my performance must have changed but my view hasn't." Checkmate, I think.Tomorrow afternoon, Kissin becomes the first pianist ever to give a solo recital at the Proms. The Edinburgh Book Festival had two first class carriages, stacked with free food and booze, reserved for London's literary folk on a Scotland-bound Intercity 225 leaving King's Cross.The trip was intended to be a party My ticket even had a "plus guest" on it But I was travelling alone.