The second instalment of Gerhard Oppitz’s projected Beethoven cycle contains some of the best playing I’ve heard from him on disc, specifically in the first and third sonatas. He brilliantly ignites the hard-hitting intensity within their outer movements in a way that easily absorbs all rhetorical asides and modifications of pulse.

Even though the First Sonata’s Menuetto may appear slower than the composer’s Allegro directive, Oppitz’s dynamic surges and angular phrasings keep your ears on edge. Conversely, the Third Sonata’s great Adagio unfolds with sustained simplicity and directness (if you want brooding deliberation, go to Arrau or Barenboim).

However, the Second Sonata finds Oppitz relatively workaday. Next to the crisp articulation and rabble-rousing character that Stephen Kovacevich (EMI) and Richard Goode (Nonesuch, 3/94) bring to the first and third movements, Oppitz’s comparative diffidence makes a blander impression. Oppitz bears heavily on the slow movement’s downbeats, dragging the music uphill, yet at least he phrases the Rondo’s main theme without the prissy distensions that too many pianists deem necessary.

Unfortunately, the engineering captures the piano through a ‘wrong end of a telescope’ perspective that lacks the impact and dynamic contrast distinguishing the more incisive Kovacevich (my first choice for the Op 2 Sonatas on a single disc). Oppitz observes all repeats.