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The pianism is top-notch on a new Métier CD featuring James W. Iman, but the musical collection here is somewhat off-putting, despite the skill with which Iman presents it. Iman is devoted almost entirely to music of the 20^th century and 21^st, focusing especially on serial and modernist works that, even 100 years after their composition, tend to come across more as dry mechanical productions rather than exercises in effective communication. They do communicate, to be sure, but while the Romantic era brought emotional communication, pieces such as the four on this disc are more in the realm of intellectual communication. That is, the abandonment of the emotive was largely by design – but that does not help make the pieces any more appealing than if their largely unemotional approach had been accidental.

Schoenberg’s Op. 11 set of three pieces, dating to 1909, is an early example of his use of atonality and sounds considerably tamer than some of his later work or, for that matter, the other pieces on this CD. Iman gives the pieces an appropriately intense, brooding quality that stands them in good stead. Pierre Boulez’ Troisième Sonate pour Piano is a much later work (1955-57) that was never completed and has aleatoric elements. The movements Iman presents, Trope and Constellation-Miroir, are quite extended, lasting 24 minutes altogether, and suffer from a common modernist-music syndrome of being carefully created but sounding as if they were thrown together haphazardly. Webern’s 1936 Variationen für Klavier, on the other hand, show the meticulousness and miniaturization that are the composer’s hallmarks. The three movements last a total of eight minutes and have a kind of concise intensity that is engaging if not in any way emotionally moving.

Finally, Iman offers a sonata by Gilbert Amy (born 1936, the year Webern’s work was composed). Dating to 1957, essentially the same time as Boulez’ Troisième Sonate pour Piano, Amy’s piece is in fact closely tied to the older composer: Amy created it under Boulez’ direction. The work is not imitative of Boulez and does not quite come across as any sort of homage – in fact, in its widely separated short notes and patterns of atonality, it resembles Webern more than Boulez. But Amy spins out his material at far greater length: the sonata lasts 25 minutes, which is more than enough. There is nothing especially compelling in it, or indeed in any of the other music on this CD, but it has to be said that Iman is a fierce and forceful advocate for the material and that he handles it with both understanding and technical skill. For those to whom material like this already appeals, this release will be very welcome indeed – but it will not be found particularly appealing by listeners who are not already committed to what Iman here puts on offer.