Jonathan Biss is a 23-year-old American pianist, winner of sev-eral awards, and heard here in EMI’s Debut series his performances are superbly bold, confrontational and brightly lit. Most enterprisingly, he chooses Beethoven’s Op 77 for his curtain-raiser, revelling in its explosive whimsy, in every scalding scale and abrupt change of direction. There is a suitably raw energy, too, in his Appassionata Sonata even though he takes an oddly open-ended, even brazen view of the central, magically evolving variations. Over-anxious to blaze forth, his playing lacks the necessary degree of variety, of complementary grace and inwardness – failings more obviously exposed in Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze. Clear, articulate, purposeful and intense, he nonetheless leaves a far less memorable impression than multi-faceted artists such as Perahia or Berezovsky (let alone the ever-endearing Cortot).

Characteristically, Florestan (Schumann’s man of action) receives more due than Eusebius (man of dreams) with a wild und lustig response to No 13, a blistering attack on No 15 and an engulfing assault on the coda of No 17. But the little valedictory waltz, so potentially touching (and unforgettable from Radu Lupu, whose transcendental performance remains sadly unrecorded), is more bracing than fully engaging. Time and again, one dynamic (forte) tends to swamp another (piano). Overall, it will be interesting to see whether Biss’s remarkable dynamism and articulacy can develop into something more subtle, personal and mature.