Apekisheva has fabulous technique, with lovely rounded sound and deeply wrought legato…

Cards on the table: Katya Apekisheva is a young pianist who has already achieved artistic greatness. Not even Emil Gilels, in his legendary DG Grieg recital, played more magically or, astonishingly, with greater finesse. How thrilled Irina Zaritskaya, Apekisheva's teacher, would have been if she had lived to hear the fruit of her work with this profoundly gifted artist. A sonority of beguiling warmth and refinement and a rare poetic empathy quickly make you listen mesmerised as Apekisheva captures the very essence of Grieg's genius.
Here, in her mixed programme, she tells you with an often painfully beautiful and unforced eloquence of how Grieg's romantic temperament was easily clouded by depression and unease, of the way, for example in 'Homesickness' and 'Vanished Days', a heartbreaking state of mind is only temporarily modified by memories of happier times. The sense of the LyricPieces as Grieg's confessional diary is everywhere in Apekisheva's recital. In the Aria from the Holberg Suite she is deeply sensitive to the way Grieg's love and respect for the 18th century is coloured by a near-Franckian chromaticism and dark introspection. These works and everything else on this beautifully recorded album suggest an artistic fervour and commitment given to very few in any generation.

Katya Apekisheva is a young pianist who has already achieved artistic greatness. A sonority of beguiling warmth and refinement and a rare poetic empathy make you… listen mesmerised as Apekisheva captures the very essence of Grieg's genius.