"The book teems with subtle cross-references, like the sudden reappearance in the last volume of the amazingly Debussian gesture that launched the whole cycle. There are other echoes, too, from Schumann, Bartok, even folk music and rock. It adds up to something rich, strange and utterly riveting. The recording is beautifully fine-grained and warm, and the performances from Noriko Kawai have just the right combination of cat-like energy and delicate inwardness."
