Alexander Kobrin, born (in 1980) and trained in Russia, now based in America, was the winner of the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The booklet’s fulsome biography reveals an impressive list of past engagements throughout America and Europe, but its claim that he ‘has placed himself at the forefront of today’s performing musicians’ is, with respect, a little wide of the mark.

There are several excellent recordings of all three Chopin piano sonatas on a single disc: Howard Shelley, for instance, playing them on an 1849 Érard – a fascinating release from the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (11/11) – Idil Biret (Naxos), Joseph Moog (Onyx, 12/16) and Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca) among other favourites. The average playing time is about 77 79 minutes. Kobrin clocks in at 80'36". The label has decided this is too long for a single CD, so the three sonatas are spread over two discs. If only he hadn’t taken such an inordinate amount of time over the C minor Sonata’s first movement. (Ashkenazy is persuasive at 8'47"; Kobrin is an enervating 11'01".) This notwithstanding, he makes an eloquent case for the other three movements. The B flat minor Sonata, too, is mostly convincing, though for my taste the Scherzo’s opening subject is played too pesante, and the central section of the Funeral March has an applied artificial sentiment about it.

The opening of the B minor Sonata, marked Allegro maestoso, is neither allegro nor maestoso, and is played without sufficient dynamic gradation. Kobrin is at his best with long singing lines (try the second subject) and could not make an ugly sound if he tried, but especially with the exposition repeat it’s a long journey and simply not as interesting as Shelley (who doesn’t take the repeat). The same goes for the Largo third movement. The finale, after an oddly reserved opening, is dispatched well enough but – and this applies to Kobrin’s recording as a whole – without the personality of, say, Dinu Lipatti, Percy Grainger or Martha Argerich. The recorded sound and presentation are out of the top drawer.