The colour and sensitivity of Saskia Giorgini’s Liszt raise high expectations for her Debussy – expectations she meets, even surpasses, with her exquisite playing here. What to praise first? The lift of her Danse, with her gossamer textures, her refined moulding of the syncopations, or – best of all – her ability to give each line a separate tint? The striking lucidity of the layered voices in ‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’, brilliantly creating the impression of multiple bells at varying distances seeming to come from different directions? Or the touch of her Second Arabesque, a rainbow of articulations, where at times she seems not to be hitting the keys but simply breathing on them? This may seem hyperbolic, but her Images are, in terms of sheer sound, as discerning as Michelangeli’s – and, with her insinuating rubato, more flexible, too.

Not that her playing is in any way weak: her Debussy has power as well as perfume. The climax of her L’isle joyeuse may not slam you against the wall as Horowitz’s does, but its ecstasy certainly leaves you fulfilled. There’s plenty of passion at the heart of her Nocturne, too; and while ‘Mouvement’ is – like most of the music here – on the slow side by the stopwatch, it has the momentum to make your heart race.

Still, the key to this release is the intimacy, often merged with yearning, at its core: the sighs of ‘Reflets dans l’eau’, the timeless delicacy of ‘Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut’. Of course, there are over a century’s worth of notable recordings – by pianists from Leopold Godowsky and Ricardo Viñes through Walter Gieseking on to Marc-André Hamelin – that extract different beauties from this repertoire. Suffice it to say that Giorgini’s is as rewarding as any, and more rewarding than most.

This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2024 issue of International Piano. Never miss an issue – subscribe today