Album: James Rhodes, Bullets and Lullabies (Warner)

With disarming candour, Rhodes reveals "what it's like to live in my head for 24 hours".

B&L, his double-disc piano recital, is divided into morning and night, with the "Toccata" from Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin a brisk alarm call. Infectious as Rhodes' enthusiasm is, Alkan's hiccuping "Grande Sonate" is especially unflattering. In the end, this pianist is a night-bird, most persuasive in the blue-mauve moods of Rachmaninov, Debussy and Chopin.