‘Be careful with Scriabin’s music; don’t go too far or you might end up losing your sanity.’ So a teacher once warned me. On the other hand, don’t go far enough and you’ll have no real Scriabin experience at all. Certainly the psychedelic journey through the 10 piano sonatas deserves a trigger warning or two. So I fastened my seatbelt and prepared to be whisked away on a magical mystery tour by Vincenzo Maltempo. Alas, it never really took off. Maltempo has an excellent command of the instrument and is responsive to the multi-dimensional texture and complex harmonies of the music. But for the mind-altering Scriabin potion to work, it has to come with a higher dose of individualism and risk.

Already with the early sonatas it’s clear that Maltempo is no match for existing recordings. The upheavals and protests of No 1, for instance, have far greater dramatic charge in Norma Fisher’s BBC recording, and Maltempo’s caution in the funeral-march finale pales before the earth-shattering Lazar Berman. The Second Sonata’s volatile poetry finds more perceptive advocates in Yevgeny Sudbin (BIS, 12/07) and Håkon Austbø. Austbø’s Fourth is also far more playful and flirtatious in the first movement, leading to a true ‘flight of liberation’ towards the ‘flamboyant sun of triumph’, as Scriabin put it. Despite his considerable élan at the start of the Prestissimo volando, Maltempo doesn’t approach the ecstasy and abundance that come naturally to Gilels, Sofronitsky and, more recently, Hamelin.

The competition when it comes to the mature Scriabin is no less fierce. First there are uneclipsable accounts such as Richter’s Icarus-flight (without the crash-and-burn) in No 5 or Horowitz’s hair-raising exaltation in Nos 9 and 10 (Sony, 5/15). In all of these Maltempo is stylish and reliable but never prepared to court danger. In their complete sets, Ashkenazy and Austbø display a richer palette of colours, while Hamelin’s intensity is electric. The sorceries of the Sixth and Seventh Sonatas and the comparatively less played and musically ferocious Eighth are the real bonus of complete sets such as these. Maltempo’s survey has the advantage of presenting the sonatas in order (unlike Austbø’s), taking us from personal late-Romantic outburst to dissolution and unification with the cosmos. Also in Maltempo’s favour is a piano sound that is a good deal more pleasant than the over-projected Ashkenazy. The main problem is that if you already have the Scriabin fever, you will probably feel frustrated, whereas if you come from a position of scepticism it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be converted.