There is a lot going for the pairing of Scriabin and Scarlatti, and this DG debut album is nothing if not thought-provoking. The trouble is, the thoughts it provokes are far from those intended. The 27-year-old German pianist’s concept involves bookending a few seconds from the finale of Scriabin’s First Sonata (the passage marked Quasi niente) with six of Scarlatti’s sonatas, themselves interjected with a handful of Scriabin Preludes as well as his complete First Sonata. There are also two Transitions, which according to the booklet were first improvised, then refined on paper. Given their aimless meandering here, I suppose we should be thankful for small mercies.

The order of play seems to be based on tonalities: two C minor sonatas follow a C minor prelude; Scriabin’s F minor Sonata precedes a Scarlatti F minor, and so on. But given the diversity of styles and aesthetics, the overall impression of monotony is remarkable. Sadly, the performances are limited both in dynamics and character, both within each work and between them. For Asal it seems to be a question of evoking a dream-within-a-dream (as in Christopher Nolan’s Inception, namechecked in the booklet essay). However, the desired sense of déjà vu, as he puts it in the notes, has the undesired effect of mere ennui. Using two different Steinways (as the press statement attests) doesn’t seem to have contributed much by way of variety.

Asal is at his best where the music clearly calls for reverie, as in Scriabin’s B major Prelude. He is not lacking in agility and clarity either, as the Scarlatti C minor sonatas attest. Occasionally there is even the promise of élan, as in the Scriabin E flat minor Prelude. But for the most part, the playing is deflated and earthbound, especially when Scriabin is at his all-consuming fieriest. The First Sonata suffers the most. The flames of the first movement’s con fuoco never really ignite, and where the music should flare up and burn, it sounds contrived and directionless. The cry of pain at the end of the funeral-march finale is no more than a whimper.

Asal is still young, and it may be that for a DG debut (not his actual recording debut though), he has overestimated the importance of the concept as opposed to its realisation. Here’s hoping his actual pianistic gifts will shine more brightly next time.