Among younger piano personalities breaking through the international scene, Jeremy Denk has garnered attention for ambitious recital programmes juxtaposing Ives’s Concord Sonata and Beethoven’s Hammerklavier, or playing Ligeti’s Etudes alongside Bach’s Goldberg Variations, not to mention his clever blog. His first Nonesuch release sandwiches Beethoven’s valedictory C minor Sonata between Books 1 and 2 of Ligeti’s Etudes. The pianist’s reasons for doing so concern both composers’ pronounced use of syncopation and rhythmic dislocation, along with the connection between ‘Beethoven’s vast, timeless canvas and Ligeti’s bite-size bits of infinity’.

As it happens, Denk swallows Ligeti’s bite-size bits whole, with a slightly heavier touch in relation to the more transluscent Aimard and Ullén recordings, although this could result from producer Adam Abeshouse’s closer, slightly strident sonic perspective. For example, Denk boasts impressive rhythmic vitality throughout ‘Touches bloquées’ (No 3), yet there’s more dynamic contrast and stronger legato/staccato differentiation in Aimard’s more lilting rendition. By contrast, Denk’s more animated pace and firmer projection of inner voices and pedalling contrasts add extra degrees of colour and character to ‘Galamb borong’ (No 7). Although Ligeti requests that one play the overlapping chromatic lines throughout ‘Vertige’ (No 9) prestissimo and molto legato at the start, Denk’s slower, more overtly articulated conception better allows the listener to absorb the music’s harmonic tension.

Jaded listeners who’ve sat through umpteen Beethoven Op 111 recordings will be surprised and (hopefully) convinced how Denk will not linger over freer passages yet, within them, strategically and specifically lean on a specific note. However, in the Arietta, Denk’s tiny speed-ups and expressive emendations sometimes distract from the variations’ inherent breadth and cumulative trajectory. In fact, Denk’s pushing ahead in Var 3 causes the very syncopations he loves to even out. The long chains of trills would also benefit from more breadth and serenity. I should mention the pianist’s occasional breaking of hands (playing the left hand slightly before the right) – all right, Jeremy, you provoked my attention!