He did not follow the predictable career of a keyboard virtuoso, at times withdrawing from the concert stage to concentrate on teaching, much of the 1950s being given to that element. Latterly his ill-health, or a psychological problem appearing in public, saw him cancelling as many engagements as those he fulfilled, leading to him being regard as a recluse. That he was a genius is never in question, and that he offered the degree of technical accomplishment others could only dream about is plain to hear from his recordings. Just go to the fourth track, Busoni’s arrangement of the Chaconne from Bach’s Second Violin Partita, and admire his sheer brilliance and clarity. He did not come from that age when period correctness had become important in performances of Scarlatti’s Sonatas, Michelangeli’s approach to four of these updating the style to the last century. I had not previously heard his 1948 account of the Brahms Variations on a theme by Paganini, a massive concept bristling with strength and virtuosity. It is here reproduced as originally recorded with the omission of three variations, and the order of the variations is different to that in the printed score, a change he repeated in concert performances. For that reason it could not be your library copy, but no lover of great piano performances can afford to be without it. Shorter pieces by Granados, Marescotti, Albeniz and Mompou show that he could be a very personal pianist not afraid of massaging rhythms. Made in unknown Italian venues in the early 1940s and in London in 1948, the sound is surprisingly good for the era and has been lovingly restored and transferred to CD.