The fifth and final volume of Simon Barere’s live Carnegie Hall performances includes a fascinating, typically vertiginous performance of Rachmaninov’s Second Concerto supposedly dating from 1944. Here Barere’s reflexes make even today’s most seasoned keyboard athletes seem arthritic in comparison, and his dizzying changes of pace to the conclusions of both the first and third movements (the former happily flouting Rachmaninov’s meno mosso instruction) must have left orchestra, conductor and audience alike breathless.

Alas, elsewhere the senses are quickly dulled rather than stimulated by Barere’s relentless speeding. True, there are intermittent reminders of artistry (most notably in the Scriabin Etude) but for the greater part Barere sounds like the White Queen, ever anxious to hurtle forward in order to stay in the same place. Scarlatti’s wit and charm are largely negated by such velocity and the opening of Chopin’s Third Scherzo is wildly eccentric. A great pianist, then, but hardly a great artist.

APR’s sound has come up remarkably well and the disc is rounded off with a brief talk in which Barere struggles manfully to answer some inane questions by his New Zealand interviewer.