American Record Guide (July/August 2006)

Viscoli is an associate professor of music at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and studied with John Perry and others. He is a fine pianist with excellent technique and compelling musicianship. This release collects some familiar and not so familiar piano works in concert performances, including Rachmaninoff's E-flat-minor Etude-Tableau, Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, two sonatas by Scarlatti (K 146 in G and K 132 in C), the first movements of Beethoven's Sonata in F-sharp, the Bartok Sonata, and Fauré's Theme and Variations, Op. 73.

Although all the playing is on a high level, the best of the lot is the Bartok, which maintains an almost frightening precision of rhythm, tone, and gesture. Clearly Viscoli relishes punishing virtuosic repertoire; but he's capable of tender, understated lyricism as well, as in the gentle reading of Scarlatti's K 132. I would love to hear him perform Liszt's B-minor Sonata or Transcendental Etudes.