Mark Swartzentruber’s rare balance of sense and sensibility in this Debussy recital strips away all possible vagueness or accretion. Scrupulously true to the score yet entirely personal, his playing leaves you once more in awe of Debussy. Choosing the virtuosic L’isle joyeuse (even Rachmaninov found it difficult) for his curtain-raiser, he touches off page after page with the sort of imaginative freedom and detail that often eludes French pianists, exultant, sultry and atmospheric as required. Hear him at the close of Reflets dans l’eau, magically sensitive to the composer’s receding vision. His rubato in Hommage à Rameau is subtle and pervasive, quickening and relaxing the music’s mood and pulse with an aristocratic ease and naturalness; in the whirling enigma of Mouvement his clarity and focus are the reverse of superficial display. In the Prélude from Pour le piano Swartzentruber’s rhetoric is arrestingly novel but always convincing, and all these performances show an enviable mix of clarity and lucidity, colour and variety. This pianist’s slowly evolving discography is of a special distinction and his Fazioli instrument adds a distinctive quality and tang to Solo’s exceptionally refined sound.