MUSICAL OPINION REVIEW
Claudio Records has what promises to be a winning series here, since this except­ionally satisfying CD is described as a First Volume of Brahms' piano works. Romain Descharmes is not yet thirty and has notched up some significant Competition prizes, including the 2006 AXA, which presumably have helped him to win high praise in New York and London, as well as in both China and Japan, What this recording shows, however, is an artist who has learned to use a well disciplined technique to enable him to communicate true musicianship. For both these works, the first a relatively early but seriously considered Sonata cast in the challenging key of F minor, and the collation of six deceptively individual pieces, four Intermezzi embracing an evocative Ballade and an expressive Romanze, are gems.

With his six Klavierstücke the composer knew that they would all gain from being ingested as a whole meal, although capable of existing alone from time to time, or even occasion­ally in new company. Descharmes understands that many of his CD listeners know and love this music and he also knows that what he has gleaned from studying them has given him new facets of interpreting Brahms' writing which it is his need to share. Which is exactly what he has done and Claudio have brilliantly put on disc. The good news is that he will be giving a recital in St John's. Smiths Square, on 25 January, having been interviewed on Radio 3's In Tune the previous evening. His programme includes Schubert's A minor and Scriabin's 10th Sonata, Brahm's Opus 118 and Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody. I shall be there.
Denby Richards - MO Magazine