Is there a version of all the Rachmaninov Preludes that is completely satisfying? Moura Lympany’s 1951 account comes closer than most but elsewhere and with the present disc there are glories and disappointments in equal measure along the way. For me, the ideal way of hearing these miraculous miniature tone-poems would be a compilation made from the recordings of several different pianists, including those played by the composer himself and, from the early 1940s, by Benno Moiseiwitsch.

Berezovsky, with all his impressive Rachmaninov credentials, begins with a thoroughly flat-footed C sharp minor Prelude. Indeed he is, rather strangely, at his least persuasive in the better known ones (compare him in the G minor Prelude with, say, Richter or in the G major and B minor Preludes with Moiseiwitsch). But the second of the Op 10 set is the first of a string of acutely observed, finely graded readings of great character and textual clarity (listen to the C minor and G sharp minor Preludes for example, two truly outstanding performances). No 4 (D minor) is beautifully paced. Ashkenazy rather dawdles here, though it’s vice versa in the A flat major and, especially, the E minor Prelude in which Berezovsky is decidedly less than allegro con brio. The piano is set in an intimate, natural acoustic and is well recorded by Mirare, which also offers a decent booklet in four languages. All in all a recording that, despite misgivings over individual Preludes, is one to savour and live with, combining the passion, grace and poetry we have come to expect from this compelling artist.