Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, 24 years old when this album appeared in 2016, has made a splash with his seemingly effortless technical mastery and his ability to put across a feeling of suppressed energy. There are many technical difficulties in these Romantic showpieces, but Grosvenor lets them roll off his fingers without raising the temperature much until the end, in the Liszt Tarantella from the Venezia e Napoli (Venice and Naples) set of Années de pèlerinage. It's an impressive display of control, said to be matched by considerable charisma in live performance. The program, which might have been played a century ago, is almost refreshing for that reason, but it's not totally coherent: the first three "Homages" are to Bach, while the last two are not homages to a person, but to cities, and to a pair of them at that. Still, the individual pieces work well on their own terms. César Franck's Prélude, Choral, et Fugue, FWV 21, benefits greatly from Grosvenor's ability to suggest currents of passion beneath the surface, and the Mendelssohn set of Six Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35, are sharply characterized and infused with an unusual degree of contrast for the collection, which often suffers from over-academic performances. This release showcases a young pianist with the potential to become a star in the time-honored Romantic virtuoso mold.
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