Here in the Chopin Preludes, the second volume of what promises to be a complete Chopin cycle for Sony Classical, Cyprien Katsaris's playing is as dazzling as ever, recalling in its high profile and voltage the idiosyncrasies of his fiery mentor Gyorgy Cziffra. Boldness rather than subtlety is his forte, yet even at his most self-conscious or over-emphatic his performances are never less than vivid and compelling. The second of Op. 28 is too fast and unimaginative for such morbidity (try, if you know somebody who has it, Sergio Fiorentino's early Saga disc—7/61, nla—for a truly macabre response) and there are some abrasive moments in say, Nos. 3, 11, 13 and 23 (which is neither piano nor delicatiss. as marked), but elsewhere—where Chopin has his dander up—his playing boils and sparks with a magnificent aplomb. Even Martha Argerich will have to look to her laurels in No. 16 where Katsaris is just as vertiginous but more controlled. In No. 14 his rapid crescendos within the bar—like so many grenades tossed into the piano—again evoke Cziffra and his left-hand octaves in No. 22 are of an astonishing force and velocity.
For encores Katsaris adds the two extra Preludes (the one cloudly and poetic the other blithe and frothy) before continuing with a garland of oddities of which no less than three represent first recordings. These are hardly buried treasure, but the canine frolics of George Sand's dogs in the Galop marquis, the Scotch snap of the Ecossaises (offered in two versions), a dour attempt at a fugue and the Bolero (in which Chopin after a pale attempt at Spanish colouring, quickly nails his Polish colours to the mast) are all interesting discoveries and reminders. So, although there are more consistently satisfying accounts of the Preludes (a recent one from Garrick Ohlsson—see above) and others of classic status (Cortot on Music and Arts, 1/89 Pollini on DG, 4/85; Argerich also DG, 4/88 and Perahia 1/76 nla), there are few more wild or exhilarating. The recordings are successful and—dearly—the age of virtuosity lives on.'