Jonathan Biss begins the third volume of his Beethoven cycle with an animated and beautifully inflected account of the Pastoral Sonata’s opening Allegro. He takes the Andante at a true alla breve tempo, delineating the woodwind-like keyboard-writing with pointed distinction between legato and detached articulation. In the Scherzo, Biss provocatively prolongs the first notes, then speeds up for the quick three-note phrases, an effect that helps to establish the movement’s characterful lightness. He brings comparable transparency and shape to the Rondo, suavely dispatching the treacherously difficult final pages.

The pianist’s playful yet discreet pulse bending in Op 31 No 1’s Allegro vivace recalls Richard Goode’s recording (Nonesuch), and I like the variety with which Biss shades the ‘kerplopping’ broken chords allegedly written to mock pianists incapable of playing chords with hands precisely together. A slightly affettuoso yet appropriately graceful central movement follows, with a similar mood sustained in the Rondo. The Waldstein’s Allegro con brio features firm, decisive repeated chords at the outset, a clear, contained development section and a few mannered tenutos that nearly pull focus from the driving momentum. After the sensitively sung-out Introduzione, Biss gently sets sail in the Rondo, observing Beethoven’s controversial long pedal markings. It contrasts with his tauter, slightly dry presstissimo coda, where my only quibble concerns a superfluous, rather obvious ritard just before the celebrated glissando octaves.

The warm sonic ambience and Biss’s intelligent annotations make this release all the more worth consideration, even in a catalogue awash with world-class Beethoven sonata recordings.