Pianist Michael Korstick takes all of this music in stride. It ranges from the fairly easy pieces written for Milhaud's own use, to the extremely complex and difficult. All of the music requires plenty of character, a certain insouciant boldness, and no mean degree of poetic sensibility in the slow movements. The main reason we never hear this music probably stems from the fact that most of these concertos are quite short--around 20 minutes or less. This makes them difficult to program in concert, though Ravel's Left Hand Concerto lasts about the same time (but then it's a tour-de-force; Prokofiev's very brief First Concerto doesn't get much play either).

In any event, none of these considerations matters on disc, and I can imagine that many listeners will welcome the music's brevity as much as its vitality and pungent lyricism. Some of these concertos have been recorded previously, but never with such authority (or ready availability) as to challenge the supremacy of this set. The engineering also is very good, letting the music speak with the clarity and brightness that it needs, but without undue hardness. Music like this is a tonic. A little may go a long way, but Milhaud is one of the very few composers who understands that and writes accordingly. Highly recommended.