The Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has been accorded a distinct honour by DG, the company for whom he has recorded since 2010. His new three-disc set of the five Beethoven concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields was recorded live at the Berlin Konzerthaus last December and is destined for inclusion in DG’s forthcoming 123-disc ‘New Complete Beethoven Edition’. It’s the sort of project that would be a feather in the cap of a musician of any age, and most certainly is for the 24-year-old Lisiecki, who here records Beethoven for the first time.

Given that these performances were captured, according to the publicity, during rehearsals and performances, their presentation on discs is remarkably sleek and finished. Balances between soloist and orchestra are generally good and ensemble precision, while far from perfect, is laudable, given the absence of a conductor in these challenging scores. (Few pianists today lead from the keyboard as Beethoven did when presenting his concertos.) There are moments when one wishes for greater tension in the music-making, as in the otherwise beautiful dialogue of the Fourth Concerto’s slow movement or in the de-clawed Allegro con brio of the Third Concerto. Overall, it is the rondos which are most appealing in their infectiously playful abandon. The Rondo of the Fourth Concerto is especially beautiful, with the interplay of soloist and orchestra in sharp focus and just the right blend of scherzando agility and lapel-grasping earnestness.

The slow movements, particularly of the first three concertos, are hampered by Lisiecki’s still rather limited arsenal of touch strategies, which restrict his expressive range and can render his sound somewhat shallow. The end result is slow movements, so often the locus of the musical crux in Beethoven, that seem somehow lacking in gravitas. Matters aren’t helped by Lisiecki’s curious tendency of pulling back at the crown of phrases. There are also odd instances when an unconventional interpretative choice stands out. One is the opening of the Fifth Concerto, at the end of the soloist’s third cadenza-like flourish, where Lisiecki shortens the minims of the three cadential chords to crotchets separated by rests. Fortunately these moments are few and far between.

There remains a great deal to enjoy in these performances, their freshness certainly, but perhaps, most of all, their promise of greater things to come.