In 2019, at the age of 22, Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition. Before then he had released three acclaimed albums, awarded distinctions such as Diapason d’or de l’Année and Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice and earning Kantorow descriptions ranging from “Liszt reincarnated” to “a fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm and innate stylistic mastery.” The present recital, his first release since the Tchaikovsky Competition, offers plenty of scope for virtuosity, poetry, and charm. The program is built around three rhapsodies, a genre whose improvisatory character corresponds perfectly with the spirit of Romanticism but here interpreted by three highly distinct artistic temperaments: Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, and Béla Bartók.