Here is irrefutable proof of Arcadi Volodos’s genius and versatility. True‚ he has given us in his live recital from Carnegie Hall (Sony‚ 10/97) a memorable performance of Schumann’s Bunte Blätter (a neglected and hallucinatory masterpiece) but Schubert is a wider step from Volodos’s revival of Horowitz and Cziffra transcriptions‚ his outrageous re­working of Mozart’s Turkish Rondo or his lavishly ornate transcription for solo piano of the slow movement from the Rachmaninov Cello Sonata. Naturally‚ lovers of long­cherished recordings by Schubertians of the stature of Schnabel‚ Kempff‚ Pollini and Brendel will hesitate‚ equating Volodos’s sheen and perfection with an external glory rather than an interior poetic truth. But such witnesses for the prosecution will find themselves silenced by an empathy with Schubert’s spirit so total that it would be extraordinary in a pianist of any age‚ let alone one still in his twenties. The jubilant burst of scales and arpeggios that launch the E major Sonata are given with a deftness and unforced eloquence that are pure Volodos‚ while the Andante’s sighing chromaticism and surprise modulations have a tonal translucence that will make lesser mortals weep with envy. But it is in the G major Sonata‚ that epitome of Schubertian lyricism‚ that Volodos erases all possible doubts. His opening has an unforgettable stillness and mystery‚ his velvet­tipped sonority and seamless legato a reminder that Schubert’s vocal and instrumental inspiration were for the most part one and the same. Listen to the way he tapers the final skyward ascent before the un poco più lento conclusion to the finale and you will be made aware of an incomparable young artist and a virtuoso in the only sense that matters. For Volodos and for his listeners this is a true dance of the gods. As an encore and replacement for the lack of a finale in the early D157 Sonata‚ Volodos plays Liszt’s transcription of ‘Der Müller und der Bach’ from Die schöne Müllerin where he conveys the young miller’s despair with a poise that few could approach let alone equal. The recordings are as flawless as the playing; this is among the finest piano discs to have come my way for many years.