Balakirev is best remembered among pianists today for Islamey, one of the most fiendish pieces in the repertoire. Nicholas Walker reaches this famous, perhaps infamous, work in a milestone recording, the sixth and final instalment of his survey of Balakirev’s complete piano music. The British pianist embarked on his remarkable and to date unique journey in 2012, reaching its end in 2020. Now the Grand Piano label has brought all six discs together in a boxset. It’s an indispensable guide for anyone wanting to get to know the Russian composer’s work.

Balakirev

So who was Mily Balakirev? With not one, not two but three piano sonatas in B Flat Minor gathered on Walker’s first disc, we enjoy our initial introduction to a composer who did, it’s true, have a fondness for key signatures with many flats or sharps. There is a slight twist. Even though they span several decades, all the sonatas are related to one another – Balakirev often took his time over his work. We begin with the Piano Sonata of 1905, a work that emerges from the two earlier sonatas...