Album: Leif Ove Andsnes, Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition/Schumann: Kinderszenen (EMI Classics)

Though lacking an important element when separated from the visual settings devised by artist Robin Rhodes, Leif Ove Andsnes' performance here has much to recommend it. There's his delicate, fluttering touch, almost like a hammer dulcimer, on the "Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle" section, and particularly the way the gossipy, chattering tone of "Limoges – Le Marche" is sustained until it founders on the funereal opening chords of the "Catacombs", in whose sombre progress can be glimpsed the promenading art-lover himself.

Download this Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle; Limoges – Le Marche; Catacombs; Reverie