Album: Joyce Yang, Collage (Avie)

Rather than the customary set devoted to a single composer – usually Chopin – the gifted Korean pianist Joyce Yang has devised an intriguing programme for her debut, interspersing contemporary pieces among complex works by Scarlatti, Debussy and Schumann.

The intention is a sort of two-way illumination, most effectively achieved in the juxtaposition of Sebastian Currier's "Scarlatti Cadences" with Scarlatti's own sonatas. Yang's touch is featherlight but sure on the sonatas, fast and clear even in the most detailed passages, with a punchy rhythmic command subsequently echoed in Currier's playful investigation of Scarlatti's motifs. A brave and challenging debut.

DOWNLOAD THIS Sonata in D Minor; Scarlatti Cadences; Pagodes; Gargoyles