Classic CD: Valentina Lisitsa; Scriabin

Valentina Lisitsa plays Philip Glass (Decca)

Scriabin, Complete Poemes (Hyperion)

Verdict: Trance music for different times, but entrancement is not guaranteed

Philip Glass is the man who gave Minimalism its highest profile and brought it some of its worst press. The American composer is known for spinning chains of mostly tonal harmonies in relentlessly chugging rhythms, offset here and there by flickering syncopation.

Glass' music can be effective, illuminated by orchestral colours, or providing ambience and atmosphere for movies like Koyaanisqatsi and Kundun.

Relegated to solo piano, as it is on Valentina Lisitsa's new double album, it can be a dispiritingly monochromatic affair. Here we have a surfeit of Michael Riesman's mushy arrangements of film scores. Tracks from The Truman Show and The Hours too often come across as self-indulgent keyboard doodlings, with the occasional banal tune floating above.

Steven Thrasher's booklet essay starts off by quoting the composer's canonisation by esteemed critic Alex Ross, who stated "Philip Glass' place in musical history is secure". Yet no context is given for Lisitsa's first offering, the piano solo that launches his 1982 Glassworks, which should be followed by five movements for chamber ensemble.

We are not told very much about another piece, How Now, that pulsates away for almost half an hour. In fact, this 1968 work was the composer's very first recording, playing the piece himself on organ.

Acknowledgement that How Now is hardcore historic Minimalism may make listeners more sympathetic to its first 30 seconds of five repeated notes and persevere for the half hour.

Those looking for more substantial musical trance trips should search out Garrick Ohlsson playing the complete Poemes of Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915).

It is impossible not to submit to the transcendental extravagance of the Russian composer, especially in these high-octane performances.

Scriabin's wild orchestral canvases have made it to our concert halls -- Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra gave us The Divine Poem three years ago -- and evoking the same fire and ecstasies with two hands on a keyboard is a challenge that Ohlsson meets brilliantly.

You'll be enchanted when the American deals out tender dreams, and feel the lure of a flame to a moth, when you join him for an exciting ride through the vertiginous Vers la flamme.