As a Bach lover, and always ready for a bargain, I bought the three CD Sony set of Murray Perahia playing "all" the Bach keyboard concertos. Most of the concertos are not for solo keyboard, or are adaptations by Bach of the original violin concertos (notably, the G minor, A minor and E major). One is a triple concerto, one the fifth Brandenburg, and one the "Italian" concerto for solo keyboard. In the concertos, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields fills in discreetly in the background, but the lion's share of the oral spectrum is given over to Perahia.

These performances are much praised, but I don't like them much. I long for the more personalised playing of Edwin Fischer or Alfred Cortot (inter alii). There is something relentless about Perahia's playing and a lack of warmth, humanity and love. These are recordings that will be shelved. I am also becoming tired of the cult of personality that invades so much classical music. Murray Perahia's photo always adorns every bit of publicity for him, and the sleeve notes of the CD set are plastered with the same photo. Since he is even uglier than Salman Rushdie and Andrew Lloyd-Webber, I can't think why. Perhaps the same misguided publicity craze that always sees Angela Hewitt photographed displaying all her 98 teeth; her grinning gnashers leer at us from every photo.