Pianist Julius Drake spent many years occupied with solo piano repertoire and later achieved renown as one of the world’s prominent collaborative pianists in song literature. So it makes sense that he devotes an entire CD recital to “song-like” works, most of which are as lyrical, leisurely paced and relatively subdued as Drake’s interpretations. His tempi are on the slow side and he tends to keep textures on an even keel. As a result, much of the playing is beautiful on the surface but uneventful.

I’ll give an admittedly unfair example via the two Mendelssohn Songs Without Words, where Drake’s gentle introspection and soft-grained phrasing is a far cry from Ignaz Friedman’s melody/accompaniment differentiation and robust rhythm. Similarly, the Brahms E flat Intermezzo’s displacement of phrases against the metre could have been more sharply etched, while greater animation and shapely lines might have imparted the very singing quality to the Schubert selections that they lack here. Interestingly, Drake fully digs into the grit and dissonant edges that the Bartók pieces offer, and, for once, the music takes on genuine stylistic vibrancy. Ironically, this solo recital may serve its most useful purpose in an accompanying role, for sophisticated background piano music at a small gathering or dinner party. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…