From long form to short form: that seems to be the voyage Jean-Nicolas Diatkine leads us in his new CD, from Sonata no.3 to the 24 Preludes. Yet this impression is partially deceptive. Granted, these preludes are miniatures, however they also form a whole twice as long as the sonata, when considered in their totality.

Jean-Nicolas Diatkine’s version of the preludes is neither a performance (although literally speaking it is one), nor a demonstration, but possesses rather a quality that may seem unreasonable: spontaneity. This interpreter’s spontaneity is not an intrusion of his own self into the composer’s ideas, nor substituting a hermeneutic inspiration to that which gave rise to the work. No, his spontaneity is the clear-sighted audacity to believe in interpretation where a musician can be so immersed in a piece (or in 24 for that matter), as to take the liberty of showing the listener what the work has revealed to him, what it has opened him up to.