This disc was recorded in Bolzano in December 1992. The sound is firm and immediate, if a bit strident at the top, and Bonatta clearly has a feeling for the scope and depth of the music as well as the technique to encompass its demands. However, his tempo for the first movement of the Sonata is slower than I like it (it is, after all, an Allegro), and with its exposition repeat observed and a good dollop of rubato along the way, it seems portentous and overlong. In this five-movement work, the second and fourth are the slower and more intimate; here the close recording deprives the music of mystery and the pianist, too, does not fully enter Brahms's world of hushed tenderness. Predictably, the Scherzo and finale are more successful, but this respectable performance enters a strong field and, especially at full price, cannot challenge the likes of Murray Perahia, who brings a fine balance of authority and poetry to the work and is very well recorded. I should also mention Idil Biret, whose enjoyably natural playing comes in the super-bargain range coupled with the Four Ballades, Op. 10.
However, Bonatta's disc does offer useful accounts of the two sets of variations. The work based on Schumann's wistful theme comes across quite strongly, with only its deeper magic remaining unexplored, partly because the recording allows no really soft tone; here and in the vigorous Hungarian set, which makes a fine contrast, I would have welcomed index points marking the numerous short sections.'