Whatever the rationale behind Alice Sara Ott’s hybrid programme, her Beethoven is enlivened by some fascinating interpretative touches. She greets the first solo in the Concerto with a twinkle in her eye, as if to make the piece instantly her own. Everything thereafter is deft and energetic, but the first movement’s central section is especially daring in its rich pedalling and veiled timbres. None of this damages the breadth of Ott’s conception; nor does it pre-empt the still greater freedoms of the cadenza. There is charm as well as dash in the orchestral playing, too, and I particularly like the sense of sharing, challenging and dialoguing that animates the finale. Some might find the piano tone a little harsh at the opening of that movement, or wish that there weren’t quite so many sparks flying around. But I can well believe the DG blurb that the piece was rehearsed, performed and recorded on the same day, because it radiates spontaneity.

From the joyful C major conclusion of the Concerto to the sombre C sharp minor opening of the Moonlight Sonata is quite a jolt. That aside, the performance is subtle and without a whiff of over-calculation. Its most distinctive intervention comes towards the end of the finale, where Ott puts on the brakes for the last appearance of the second theme. Others have also introduced a note of pensiveness at this point, but I don’t recall hearing it being done quite so boldly, and to my mind it’s a cracking idea, not just for the way it seizes the attention in the moment but for the connection it makes with the introspection of the first movement.

The four concluding miniatures are again informed by moments of unexpected inwardness or caprice, and I applaud an artist who can do this without the slightest suspicion of mannerism.