Ms Issakadze is a young Georgian pianist who studied in Munich and Hanover (with Vladimir Krainev), finishing in 2003. Unlike many Russian pianists I have heard, her sound is quite buoyant. She has no difficulty inflecting Bach with extreme phrasal rubato and sudden, dramatic changes. To name two, from the third partita (in A minor): the opening movement makes several subtle but convincing tempo changes, and various arrival points are lingered on as one might with, say, Chopin (the movement is called a “Fantasia”, after all), while she heavily pedals certain chordal passages in the gigue, also to good effect. She savors Bach’s polyphonic textures and will not hesitate to emphasize one of the inner voices (Minuet 2 of Partita 1); but the emphasis is never overdone (as it sometimes could be with Glenn Gould). I thoroughly enjoy the first disc (Partitas 1, 3, and 4); the performances of the remaining suites seem less deeply considered and in some cases nonsensical (as in the Rondeaux of Partita 2—willfully distorted and frenetic—and the Passepied from Partita 5, which is absurdly slow).

For comparison, I turned to Murray Perahia on Sony (July/Aug 2008); his playing is less dramatic but no less nuanced (Fantasia from Partita 3); sometimes tempos are slightly slower, which makes for more convincing phrasing (Praeambulum from Partita 5). All in all, Perahia’s playing is more elegant and suave. I can’t imagine anyone could play Bach on the piano better than he.