Heaven for piano­buffs. Here is Michelangeli on top form in one of Beethoven’s grandest early sonatas‚ his magnificent technique displayed in breathtaking close­up. What marvellous preparation and address for each phrase; what fabulous transfer of weight through the knuckles and wrists; what amazingly economical body language‚ and yet what stunning effect when the noble bearing occasionally allows itself a fraction more freedom. To the tutored eye the famously impassive features actually reveal much‚ especially towards the end of each movement‚ when Michelangeli responds to new details in the music by glancing in new directions. Richter is altogether more uptight. Hunched over the keyboard and prone to lurching from the left shoulder or jutting his jaw‚ he is nevertheless just as able to channel the essence of the music through his mind to his fingers. His Brahms is gravely austere‚ his Prokofiev grimly determined. His rattle through Jeux d’eau may be hard to warm to‚ but his razor­sharp ‘Alborada’ is harder to resist. For both performers the cameras are mainly trained on face and hands‚ panning just occasionally (and surely distractingly to these notoriously touchy artists). The slow movement of Richter’s Prokofiev is shot initially from floor­level‚ memorably capturing his facial intensity Only five­and­a­half years separate these two Canadian telecasts. Yet there is a world of difference between the black­and­white picture and blistery sound­quality for Richter and the rich colour and bell­like tonal clarity accorded to Michelangeli. There is even an apparently unrepairable 10­second electronic glitch in the first movement of the Prokofiev‚ to which the DVD insert candidly alerts us. Otherwise there is no information on the music‚ merely short artist biographies. It is certainly not true that this is ‘the only extant visual document of Michelangeli playing Beethoven’‚ but that does not make this DVD any the less inspiring.