Obra: Lyric Piece, Op.12, no.1 “Arietta”

Nothing quite ordinary or indeed comforting here, the heavy mixture of acid colouring in Lindberg, Ustvolskaya and Stravinsky not tempered by any opulence in Rachmaninov.

The Russian pianist's nuanced approach bears most fruit in Schubert and Grieg, less so in Beethoven and Ravel.

Some of Kozhukhin's trills were as rattling thunder – but there was much delicacy and poetry on offer in the many lyrical episodes.