Anne Gastinel and François-Frédéric Guy, both formidable artists, share a common view of Beethoven. The phrases are finely drawn, with tone that is never inappropriately heavy or too powerfully sustained. The rhythms are poised, the articulation clear and crisp, and in the variation sets as well as in the early sonata there’s an element of wit and playfulness that’s an essential part of the young Beethoven.

In many parts of this programme one couldn’t ask for more, as in the finale of the First Sonata, for example, where the combination of virtuosity, elegance and high spirits is a winning one. The three sets of variations, too, inspire performances that are happy to accept the music as light and entertaining; even the moments of greater profundity, like the two minor-key variations in Op 66, are played without any undue weight, as though to stress that this sombre, reflective episode is no more than a passing mood.

It’s in the first movement of the First Sonata, and more generally in No 3, that the limitations of the Gastinel/Guy approach become apparent. In the first movements of both sonatas I longed for Anne Gastinel to play the long arching melodies more soulfully. For instance, not many bars of Miklós Perényi’s recording of No 1 elapse before we’re struck by the much greater expressive warmth of his playing. And in the Scherzo of No 3, he and András Schiff allow the syncopated motif to generate a wild spirit, making Gastinel and Guy’s neat, lively playing seem, by comparison, a little tame. Even in the finale, which Gastinel and Guy perform with an exhilarating brilliance, they are eclipsed by the equally virtuosic and much more dramatic playing of Maisky and Argerich.

Bright, stylish performances, then, but somewhat too cool and reserved for a top recommendation.