Master symphonists do not always master sonata composers make. For every Haydn and Beethoven there is a Sibelius or Nielsen whose sonata production was decidedly uneven. Bruckner, too, despite writing 11 symphonies, essayed a piano sonata just once, completing a single movement, and only then as a mature student exercise. Most of Bruckner’s roughly 40 piano pieces were written during 1861‑63, as were almost all the 16 pieces here. Anyone expecting Bruckner’s G minor Sonata movement to sound like a keyboard harbinger of the symphonies will be disappointed. To the innocent ear it is Beethoven that comes to mind, and Mari Kodama brings it to life in a fiery performance. The contrast with the Minuet and Trio, WAB220, written a month or two earlier, could not be starker: a stiff emulation of Haydn or Mozart. Mind you, the Theme and Variations, WAB223 – the fifth in a collection written largely back to back – shows the lessons of such Classical forebears had been well learned. (Listen for the imitative third variation, Influences abound throughout this endearing collection: Mendelssohn in the Klavierstück (c1856) and Stille Betrachtung an einem Herbstabend (‘Quiet Contemplation on an Autumn Evening’ – a miniature Bruckner tone poem!), and Chopin in the G major Étude and Erinnerung. In the G major Fantasie we glimpse the mature creator, not the Bruckner sound we all love (or hate) but in the assured assimilation of style and technique. Kodama is an eloquent guide throughout these admittedly minor pieces: ‘I am deeply convinced that they are worth hearing,’ she opines in the booklet. Fascinating, not least the Polka, Mazurka and four Quadrilles. By Bruckner?!