A reissue of Igor Zhukov's recording of Medtner's First Piano Concerto immediately preceded this recital for review. The change from torrid and exhausting passions to Mendelssohn's mix of elfin magic and urbanity could not have been more extreme. At the same time, the three piano sonatas, while hardly audacious, are much less conventional than expected. The gently cascading figure at the close of the E major Sonata's Allegretto makes a magical reappearance in the Adagio, a movement which moves via recitatives to a serene Andante before an exhilaratingly busy finale. The G minor Sonata has a startlingly taut argument for a 12-year-old composer, its central Adagio alive with experimental rather than tentative ideas, its finale a gloriously urgent scamper. The B flat Sonata mischievously apes both Beethoven's Hammerklavier and Moonlight Sonatas before opting for gentler ambitions. Bright and ceremonial, the opening Allegro vivace finally recedes in a distant, fairy-tale fanfare showing, like the reminiscence which closes the E major Sonata, that Mendelssohn often resolves even his most hyperactive ideas in a haunting peace and tranquility.
Frederic Chiu hardly erases memories of Murray Perahia or, indeed, Lydia Artymiw in the E major Sonata, where his Minuet is clipped rather than elegantly pointed yet his affection and dexterity are never in doubt. And all these performances are sufficiently stylish to survive the cramped and airless sound. Chiu's quicksilver reflexes in his 'encore', the evergreen Rondo capriccioso are a brilliant compensation for his eccentrically literal and halting way with the preceding Andante. He has also written some excellent accompanying notes.'