I once read an article where a recording or performance by Karajan and Walter Legge’s peerless Philharmonia Orchestra was described, ambivalently, as having the qualities “of a perfectly formed icicle”. I was reminded of this when I encountered the somewhat tardy release of Maurizio Pollini’s Second Book of Debussy’s Preludes: the First appeared as long ago as 1999.

Pollini’s recitals have recently attracted some scathing reviews and I was interested to detect any deterioration in his playing. Not at all! He still conveys the crystalline clarity and aristocratic poise of Michelangeli but, that said, and without wanting to overdo the mythological allusions, his reading is high on Olympian aloofness and Apollonian composure, but slightly lacking in Dionysian abandon. In the more “impressionistic” pieces he is superb, but in the character pieces he is distinctly short on humour. I also wonder...