CD: Brahms: Sonata Op 5, etc: Evgeny Kissin

Brahms's beefy F minor Piano Sonata is better able than most works to withstand Kissin's shock-and-awe tactics, which nowadays seem determined to cow every piece into submission. There is little below a generous mezzo forte to be found anywhere on this disc.

In the slow movement and the intermezzo of the sonata, the rubato seems to have been learned by rote rather than instinctively felt, and you sense that Kissin is much happier when he can assault the music as he does in the outer movements.

Even he realises, though, that such an approach is counterproductive in the arrangements (from two pianos down to one) of Hungarian Dances; instead they sound slick and routine, like encore pieces that have been encored just a few times too many.