Throughout this Brahms recital, Alexandre Kantorow throws down an epic gauntlet, casting his sights on dynamic and dramatic extremes. The pianist broods over the first Ballade’s Andante, and builds the central triplet section with such overwhelming ferocity that the music runs away from him. However, he is one of the few pianists to successfully articulate the staccatos as a true sotto voce upon the main theme’s reiteration. No 2’s distinctions between legato and detached phrases gain considerable intensity through his liberal yet clearly thought-out rubato.

Kantorow adopts a slower tempo for No 3’s central F sharp major episode, substituting desolation for delicacy; I find the pianist’s unorthodox gambit plausible, although others may not. No 4’s phrases seem to float independently of each other in an improvisatory state of mind, oblivious to bar lines. Imagine a similarly free-floating yet less hectic parallel to the partial recording of this piece featuring Brahms’s associate Ilona Eibenschütz and you’ll understand what I mean.

The pianist zeros in more on the maestoso than on the Allegro in the first movement of the F minor Sonata, milking the second theme for all its worth and extracting every ounce of meaning from the repeated triplet figurations. By contrast, he takes the slow movement’s Andante espressivo to be an animated alla breve, where the long lines gorgeously sing out no matter how transparent or thick the textures may be.

Lest we forget that this work was composed by a confident 20-year-old, Kantorow dives into the Scherzo with appropriate abandon. While the Intermezzo transpires beautifully and sensitively, Kantorow’s labelmate Jonathan Plowright’s far slower interpretation better captures the music’s anguished subtext. Likewise, Plowright’s fusion of power and transparency conveys a unified and classically poised finale, whereas Kantorow’s more volatile, exploratory reading often gets too loud too soon.

For all Kantorow’s impressive finger independence, his Bach/Brahms Chaconne for the left hand gets bogged down in detail, lacking the architectural discipline and cumulative momentum that pianists as disparate as Leon Fleisher, Daniil Trifonov, Ivan Ilić and Idil Biret bring to this transcription. In short, this generously filled release stands out for the Ballades and 3/5ths of the Sonata.