Volume 6 in Ronald Brautigam’s Beethoven cycle offers stunning performances that are technically breathtaking, stylistically astute, emotionally intense and musically alive in every moment. What is more, they make the most compelling case on disc for period instruments in this repertoire. Go to the Waldstein’s Rondo, for example, to hear uncommon textural differentiation from register to register, where Beethoven’s controversial long pedal markings make sense, the left-hand figurations emerge with rare shape and purpose, and the octave glissandi in the coda are light as feathers.

In both the Waldstein’s and Appassionata’s first movements, Brautigam’s fast tempi generate drama and tension, not so much through sheer speed (although they’re pretty darn fast!) as by way of characterful thematic contrasts, pointed accents and subtle yet expressively powerful modifications of the basic pulse. The slightly militant edge with which Brautigam phrases the graceful main theme in the Op 54 Sonata’s first movement makes the subsequent octaves in triplets sound less jarring in context. At first one fears that his brisk pace for the second movement leaves Beethoven’s humbler Allegretto directive at the starting-gate, but the clarity of the toccata-like part writing and off-beat accents make Brautigam’s conception work.

By contrast, the little Op 79 Sonata’s outer movements are comparatively sedate and graceful. Not since Glenn Gould’s studio version or Rudolf Serkin’s live BBC Legends recording have I heard Op 78’s Allegro vivace dispatched with the joyful irreverence and comic timing that Brautigam serves up here. Wonderful sound quality too, in both SACD and conventional two-channel formats. Don’t pass up this amazing release!