The piano sonatas of Sir Michael Tippett are not on the same level of inspiration and invention as his string quartets, symphonies or concertos. The lyricism of long-spun melodies is impossible to sustain on the piano, and the rhetoric of hammered chords, thrilling when orchestrated, can seem a mere mannerism, as in the finale of No. 3 and the middle movement of No 4. Yet there are memorable features here which no other composer could have devised; the balance between the poetic slow movement and the headlong scherzo of No. 1; the echoes of tonal melody in the abrasively dissonant No. 2; while Nos. 3 and 4 both embody Tippett's own rethinking of a late-Beethoven style overflowing with trills and intricate ornamentation until, at the end of No. 4, the simple basic theme returns unadorned, as if in homage to Beethoven's Op. 109.
Paul Crossley has had a unique association with Tippett's music, commissioning the Third Sonata and giving the first performances of Nos. 3 and 4. He has also been a fine advocate of the Piano Concerto, not so far recorded by him. In the sonatas, warmly recorded. Crossley is as effective in the searching ruminations of the slow movements as in the steely toccatas. Other pianists may take more obvious risks, and therefore create a higher dramatic voltage, and a more explicity capricious effect. But Crossley's authority and technical scrupulousness have their own special value. My main complaint about this set is that CRD have not properly updated the notes, and the actual printing of the booklet leaves much to be desired. In particular, each moment of the Fourth Sonata, on the second disc, is given a separate track, whereas the booklet states that the fourth and fifth movements are run together.'