Curzon listened to every sound that he made and consequently his playing is finely controlled yet full of colour and interest, all within the boundaries of the composer's work. For me, Curzon is one of the greatest of all pianists and woefully under-rated. His Decca recording of the Liszt Sonata is wonderful. All the things that Curzon does so well, are the things that Lang doesn't do at all. Lang bangs outrageously and there is just no sense of the music having an over-arching shape.





I haven't heard his Gaspard and so I reserve judgement on that (although I like Perlemuter best in Ravel), but I have heard his Tchaikovsky 1st concerto and some of his Chopin and, to me, his expressiveness is so extreme that it works in opposition to the music. Why listen to Pogorelich pulling Chopin around beyond recognition when there are such wonderful recordings by Lipatti, Rubinstein, Arrau, and Zimerman to enjoy which are all the more convincingly expressive for their greater restraint and understanding of the score.