Anton Batagov is a still-young Russian musician who has abandoned his piano career to become a composer. When he was playing, he recorded only 20th century music. Batagov plays all of this music with great poise and color, and much of the time he is mesmerising. It"s just that, eventually, one realizes that whatever is intriguing us, it isn"t what Ravel intended. We know enough about Ravel"s intentions, from his piano rolls, performances by his friends, and his indications in the score, to realize that Batagov is playing everything way too slowly. But he certainly does it with conviction. These Ravel performances are bound to be controversial. --Leslie Gerber