A warm welcome for Nikolai Demidenko’s return to the studio after a long absence is qualified by too many reservations. Heard here in the most witty and profound of all keyboard variations, this formidable Russian pianist is so intent on leaving his personal mark that Beethoven becomes marginalised in the process. Nothing is left to chance, everything is meticulously worked, and pianists will marvel at Demidenko’s gunshot virtuosity in, for example, Variations 19 and 23.

However, musicians with wider concerns may feel entitled to ask critical questions. Why such an elfin piano alternative to Beethoven’s robust forte marking in Variation 7? Why that pattering left-hand staccato in Variation 8 when it is marked sempre legato? Again, Demidenko’s generous view of Beethoven’s double-dotting in Variation 14 weakens the rhythm; and if he creates a hypnotic sense of darkness and solemnity in Variation 20 it is achieved by replacing the composer’s andante with adagio. Why omit the jocular piano/forte contrast in Variation 22 and why so much italicised detailing in the concluding minuet? Such contrivance and diversion hardly allow Beethoven his own voice.

A similar niggling sense of interference mars much of the Op 78 Sonata where, once more, self-conscious underlining and point-making replace musical transparency. ASV’s recording of Demidenko’s Fazioli is admirably clear and lucid. But there is little comparison here for the richer, less personalised rewards of Brendel (heard live in 1977; Philips – nla), Kovacevich (Philips, 9/98) and, more recently, Anderszewski (Virgin, 8/01), to name but three, in the Diabelli Variations.