Sergey Tanin was born in 1995. He is a graduate of the Bosikov High School of Music (in the far-east Russian republic of Yakutia) and, since 2014, a student at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. His website acclaims him as ranking ‘among the most promising artists of his generation’, that he ‘gained international recognition at the Géza Anda Competition in Zurich, 2018’ and, in 2020, ‘won first prize at the prestigious Kissinger KlavierOlymp’.

Obviously, I have been asleep at the wheel, having previously heard neither of Tanin nor of the prestigious competition in which he triumphed. I might be more inclined to accept his ranking had he made a better fist of the Brahms C major Sonata. My benchmark is Julius Katchen (Decca) who, right from the opening bars and unlike Tanin, presents the work as a dramatic narrative. Listen to how he caresses the theme of the slow movement (it is, after all, a song – ‘Furtively, the moon rises, blue, blue flower …’). In the finale, its stabbing off beats are the angry snaps and snarls of a guard dog. Tanin, by comparison, though blessed with bags of technique has little imagination, and his glassy fortissimos do not help. Jonathan Plowright, perceptive and convincing on BIS (12/17), trumps both as far as piano tone and recording are concerned.

I was far more impressed by Tanin’s selection of six Schubert-Liszt transcriptions – not all of which are well known – in which he produces a lovely singing tone, playing with an easy grace that is most attractive. Others (Yuja Wang, for instance – DG, 6/12) have found a lighter touch for Gretchen’s (almost) relentless spinning wheel but it is good to hear fine renditions of ‘Sei mir gegrüsst’, an atmospheric ‘Der Doppelgänger’ and, best of all, ‘Die Taubenpost’, one of Liszt’s most delightful and ingenious transcriptions, which we hear too infrequently.

Completing the somewhat random programme are Prokofiev’s Ten Piano Pieces (or Klavierstücke) written between the ages of 15 and 22: embryonic works in which many elements of the composer’s maturity are strikingly on display. Much as I enjoyed Tanin’s reading, the same lack of dynamism and variety of colour that affected the Brahms is present here. Compare his final Scherzo (with its apparent reference to ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’) with that of his compatriot Lukas Geniušas (Mirare, 4/19) and you’ll see what I mean.

The CD, incidentally, with a good booklet, is beautifully presented in sturdy cardboard covers, so much nicer than those horrid plastic jewel cases.