Here‚ at last‚ is the fifth disc of Gordon Fergus­ Thompson’s Scriabin survey‚ which has been inching along for years‚ and it comes in the shape of the series’ second volume of Preludes. The pianist’s account of the later Preludes is‚ like his earlier volume (4/95)‚ very fine‚ with a refined tonal elegance and innate feeling for Scriabin’s superfine intricacy and exotically perfumed pianism. The Romantic lyrical fullness of his playing perhaps suits early Scriabin more than it does the later‚ more enigmatic‚ bleak or visionary pieces here‚ yet he responds with evocative and colourful imagery to Scriabin’s unusual and diverse musical language. Two alternative versions have appeared since Fergus­Thompson’s first volume of Preludes‚ from Piers Lane on Hyperion and Evgeny Zarafiants on Naxos. Lane is in places more dramatic and impetuous than Fergus­Thompson‚ but his rhetorical boldness and preference for clarifying Scriabin’s complex textures sometimes dilutes the kaleidoscopic mystique of this music. Zarafiants is at one with Scriabin’s strange‚ hallucinatory soundworld‚ and his rhythmic and tonal flexibility allows a broad yet subtle expressive scope‚ where dreams and nightmares juxtapose disconcertingly‚ and lyrical reflection and neurotic premonition are part of the same language. The final choice between Fergus­Thompson and Zarafiants is a matter of personal choice‚ and much of it is swings and roundabouts. In the ‘Sauvage belliquex’ of Op 59 No 2 Zarafiants is far more menacing and makes Fergus­Thompson seem too laid­back; in Op 48 No 3 Fergus­Thompson’s swifter tempo and more acute characterisation makes Zarafiants seem stodgy. Comparisons of individual Preludes swing preferences from one to the other‚ but while Fergus­Thompson excels in pianistic elegance and refinement‚ and is given excellent recorded sound‚ he doesn’t quite match Zarafiants in encompassing the nightmarish side of Scriabin’s vivid and unique imagination.