If you regard Beethoven's two little Op 49 sonatas as easy on the fingers, simple and unpretentious, then András Schiff's not your piano man. There may well be historic reasons for him to embellish the repeats but the overly tapered phrases, underlined inner voices and telegraphed subito dynamics leave a fussy, over-interpreted aftertaste. Why the exaggeratedly clipped left-hand accompaniment in No 2's Menuet - anything Gould can do, Schiff can do better? By contrast, in the Op 14 works, the freedom to which Schiff aspires proves more plausible, especially in his vocally oriented phrasing throughout No 2's first movement. Although the same sonata's finale is a tad sedate and rounded-off for the scampering scales and unpredictable silences to achieve their witty potential, No 1's slow movement stands out for Schiff's surprisingly terse, refreshingly unsentimental treatment, with the fortes more “in your face” than usual. Schiff's gift for polyphonic definition also serves him well in a marvellously articulated account of Op 22, albeit without Stephen Kovacevich's impetuous dynamism. ECM's crystal-clear, naturally resonant sound does Schiff's controversial conceptions and cultivated pianism full justice.

The hit-and-miss quality of Gerhard Oppitz's earlier Hänssler Beethoven sonata releases prevails in Vol 4, along with the slightly diffuse, hollow-bodied sound that holds the pianist's instrument at arms length from ye lowly home listeners. Controlled freedom and tightly knit tempo relationships distinguish the Op 26 Sonata's opening variation movement, although more rhythmic discipline and concentration would have benefited the Funeral March movement. Of the two Op 27 works, No 1 fares best; but the drive and momentum Oppitz generates in the Moonlight's finale follows the most stodgy and limp account of the middle movement I've ever heard (and that includes Oppitz's early, far better engineered Moonlight on DG). If Oppitz's traversal of the D major Pastoral Sonata yields to his one-time teacher Wilhelm Kempff in regard to nuance and tone-colour, genial lyricism abounds nonetheless. Both Schiff and Oppitz observe all major repeats.