Mozart she plays with great authority and conviction. To try to place her style more precisely I got out another recent Decca contender, Andras Schiff, in K475 and K457. From him the composer emerges a bit younger, more mercurial, more vulnerable, whereas she seems to see this C minor drama through Beethoven's sturdier eyes. Her opening movement sounds less fleet, and her faster tempo for the central Adagio elicits unusually rich cantabile.

The outstanding performance for me is nevertheless Bach's Chaconne. Firm rhythmic underpinning is perhaps its basic source of strength. But the sumptuous tone she brings to it without any loss of textural clarity, coupled with her intimate response to its spiritual confidences no less than its grander gestures, and all with so sure a view of its overall architectural shape, somehow doubled my respect for Busoni as much as Bach. The recording (made in London's Henry Wood Hall) is closer and more full-bodied than what I'd call the usual Decca "house" sound, but it's somehow right for this warm-hearted artist.

-- Joan Chissell, Gramophone [9/1987]