Andreas Haefliger’s ‘Perspectives’ series has been a model of thoughtful and occasionally provocative programme-building. This fifth instalment leans more towards provocation. You get a heavy, unbalanced 100‑minute musical meal when you juxtapose Beethoven’s heaven-storming and cumulatively fulfilling Hammerklavier Sonata with Liszt’s musically disparate and uneven Années de pèlerinage Book 1, especially when served up by as suave and solid yet not so consistently engaged an artist.

Given the passion and drama that Haefliger brought to Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata (6/08), I find the Hammerklavier’s first movement too soft around the edges and lacking in forward momentum, replete with sectional ritards that sound more generic than purposeful: one case in point is the climactic build-up before the recapitulation in alternating fifths and sixths, where Haefliger opts for the ‘safe’ A natural reading that Kempff, Brendel and Lewis favour, rather than the ‘dangerous’ A sharp option observed by Rosen, Arrau, Schnabel and Solomon.

A few fussy tempo adjustments in the Scherzo can be forgiven in light of Haefliger’s linear clarity, and despite his dynamic inhibitions in the great Adagio sostenuto, the pianist bravely honours the composer’s exposed left-hand rests in the accompaniments while spinning out the increasingly elaborate right-hand cantilenas with numerous legato shadings and ultra-discreet pedalling. What the fugal finale lacks in inner urgency and combative temperament, Haefliger more than makes up for in linear interplay and a left hand more to the fore than usual.

Liszt’s Swiss journey gets off to a fine start, as Haefliger takes trouble to give shape and meaning to Chapelle de Guillaume Tell’s tremolos and uses his pedalling mastery to convincingly project the composer’s request for vibrato. However, the choppy accompanimental water filling Au lac de Wallenstadt is not quite up to Liszt’s dolcissimo egualmente specification. While Pastorale’s dynamics are generally too loud, at least Haefliger’s tempo approximates a real vivace (Bolet, for example, is impossibly slow), and his slight slowing down for the un poco marcato sections provides characterful contrast to what came before. Haefliger’s fidgety tempo fluctuations throughout Vallée d’Obermann obscure the impact of those marked by Liszt (Arrau’s steadier patience pays off to stronger dramatic effect). The final two pieces clock in slower than most pianists, yet are expressive and well sustained. Avie’s engineering captures Haefliger’s piano and the 1200-seat La Chaux-de-Fonds’ gorgeous acoustics to perfection.