Love and Death

JS Bach: Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (arr. Busoni); Granados: Goyescas – El amor y la muerte; Hess: Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring; Liszt: Petrarch Sonnets; Liebesträum No. 3; Prokofiev:

Piano Sonata No. 7; Wagner: Isoldens Liebestod (arr. Liszt);

R Schumann: Widmung (arr. Liszt) Martin James Bartlett (piano)

Warner Classics 9029546320 74:16 mins Hopes have run high for this young British pianist’s debut disc, and he does not disappoint. At the programme’s centre stand several ‘love and death’-themed pieces (Schumann’s ‘Widmung’ includes the line ‘Du bist mein

Grab’, leading to Granados’s ‘Love and Death’ and the Wagner/liszt Liebestod), surrounded on one side by a journey from sacred love to human, and on the other by the cataclysm of Prokofiev’s second ‘war sonata’. The jolt into Soviet Russia might seem abrupt, but the contrast, though extreme, is welcome after plenty of Romantically expansive repertoire and the Sonata shows a whole different side of Bartlett’s very classy pianism.

And classy it really is: there’s a dark, cushioned depth of tone, beautifully layered voicing, and a special eloquence that comes from the ability to phrase as a singer might – especially valuable when so many of these pieces are connected with the human voice. This expressive sophistication could bestow on Bartlett a firm place in the current new golden age of young pianists who are inspired by the individuality and musical integrity of the early 20th-century greats.

One could quibble with minor details such as, in the Liszt, moments of overlavish pedalling, or slightly abrupt endings; but Bartlett at 22 seems to have more to say, and more individually, than many twice his age. And in the breathtaking Prokofiev – which overflows with virtuosity, atmosphere and colour – resistance is futile. Jessica Duchen PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★