Back when the stampede was on and all the original-instrument orchestras were eager to record fortepiano concertos prior to the moment when it seemed market interest was about to peak, Melvyn Tan was the man of the hour. Singapore-born, a pupil of the Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music, he had experience on the modern instrument, harpsichord and fortepiano. He recorded Beethoven and Weber with Norrington and Mozart with McGegan. In recent years, however, as Tan has tended to return to the modern piano, it has not always been clear what he brings back to the exercise from the HIP experience. This well-recorded though distantly miked new Onyx released is a case in point.

Tan wreathes the last set of Beethoven Bagatelles in a lovely sound though, musically speaking, they are self-effacing to the point of impersonality. The same preoccupation with metrical precision at the expense of expressive freedom impedes the beautiful Op 109 Sonata. Following a cosseted Prestissimo, the exquisite theme and-variations finale never quite becomes airborne.

With reams of not-bad Czerny to choose from, the choice of pieces here seems idiosyncratic. That said, they are the highlight of the disc. The Rode Variations, in particular, sound as though Tan is having fun.

In the Liszt Sonata, sequential patterns come off as identical rather than building or diminishing in urgency as the case may warrant. Fortissimos lack mass and are occasionally brittle. At the introduction of the Grandioso second theme (3'24"), Tan permits himself a tiny bit of rhetorical freedom, but by then it’s too late. Ritardandos and rallentandos are largely ignored, and Tan isn’t much concerned with phrase shape or direction. The ‘grand style’ this is definitely not, and with B minor Sonatas by Angelich, Cohen, Hamelin, Le Guay, Muraro, Ohlsson and Várjon out during the past decade, the chances for this one seem slim indeed.