Thibaudet has a gorgeous tone and touch. His musical styling, however, is sometimes accurate, sometimes phlegmatic. He plays the Song of the Doll in "Children's Corner" a little too fast, and in both "Golliwog's Cakewalk" and "Clair de lune" he employs an odd sort of rubato that seems to add a half-beat to certain measures. (In these pieces I know because I used to play them). Despite these quirks, however, his playing has charm, color and a dashing technique reminiscent of Gieseking. The reason I only gave this set 4 stars instead of 5 is because the Etudes are trashy music, mere technical exercises without any redeeming (to me) musical value. If you feel differently, however, I suppose you will rate this as a 5-star album, but to me it was a half-hour of listening time totally wasted. Otherwise, a beautiful album that you will listen to again and again.
