Romantic Variations: Piano Works by David Frost

... [David) Frost offers performances impressive enough to hold their own even in the company of such masters as Horowitz (Mendelssohn, Schumann), Richter and Perahia (Mendelssohn), Vasary (Brahms), and Frager and Peter Serkin (Chopin). [He) handles difficult passagework effortlessly, and his sonority, though not "col­oristic," is vibrant and, for all its commanding weight, pellucid. He shows an impressive sense of formal structure: Tempos, though never metronomic, are con­trolled and well interrelated, essential if these variation sets, built with small blocks, are to emerge as larger edifices. He manages to give convincing breadth and shape to material that--notwithstanding the record's title--straddles romantic and classical terrain (the earliest work, the Chopin, surprisingly proves the most innovative in form and content, not to mention key relationships). In these readings one always has an unequivocal idea of where the material is going dramatically--where the climaxes are, the points of repose, etc ....

The sonorous acoustics of the SUNY-Purchase Recital Hall have been beautifully captured by the pianist's father, the veteran producer Thomas Frost, formerly of CBS and now a busy free-lancer. The pressing is first-rate, and David Dubal furnishes good notes. Highly recommended.