The insert-note stresses the new personal tone in these sonatas, and the importance of mood. Ranki's playing stresses clarity and continuity, however. So the finales of the two Op. 27 sonatas quasi una fantasia are very straight, even when they appear to invite recitative-like eloquence or bravura eruption, and the finale of Op. 28 is controversially slow, as if to defy any hint of the conventionally rustic.
There is much to be gained from this self-effacing approach, and it would be unkind to dismiss it as merely well schooled (the technique is in fact extremely well schooled, coming as it does from the same stable as Zoltan Kocsis and Andras Schiff). Much of the playing is satisfyingly shaped and tasteful, and there is a real sensitivity to fine detail; the only stylistic bone I would pick is with the tempo for the finale of Op. 27 No. 1 which feels a notch or two fast, especially since it is not coupled with much sense of rhythmic enthusiasm. But if you have ever felt the soothing capacity of the E flat Sonata slow movement, or the gentle good humour of the first movement of the Pastoral, or the deep-seated experience behind the outward formality of the following Andante, you may find it difficult to warm to an interpretation which passes over those things and puts nothing in their place. It seems to me, in short, that Ranki could do with a modest infusion of rebelliousness. Recording quality is pleasant, if lacking in bloom.'