For all his talent Cuban-American Santiago Rodriguez remains a sadly inconsistent, unfocused pianist; almost as if his mood changed from hour to hour. On the one hand Rachmaninov's central Adagio is taken too briskly for its Russian heart-ache to tell, on the other, the finale of Chopin's Second Concerto sounds sluggish and (in the scintillating coda) uncertain. The orchestral tuttis in the Chopin are congested and unrefined, both performances are pockmarked with small but irritating errors and so although Elan's sound has proved immeasurably these performances are not seriously competitive.

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