On the cusp of completing her Beethoven sonata cycle for Hyperion, Angela Hewitt makes a detour of sorts with a broad-ranging representation from the composer’s variation sets. Her broad pace and serious stance in the opening theme of the C minor Variations, WoO80, signify the deliberate trajectory and resolutely unified tempo relationships that follow. Hewitt gives the introspective movements extra wiggle-room, adding a dash of espressivo to Beethoven’s dolce directive, not to mention a multitude of exquisite pianissimo shadings. Yet overtly virtuoso variations never manage to soar beyond the pianist’s scrupulous attention to detail in the manner of, say, Murray Perahia’s ‘The Aldeburgh Recital’ (Sony, 4/91).

However, the Op 34 Variations find Hewitt on rare form. Her lapidarian, multilayered fingerwork and witty inflections throughout Var 2 are simply to die for, especially those ear-tickling trills. The unique quality of Hewitt’s late, lamented Fazioli concert grand (it was tragically destroyed in a moving accident following the sessions for this release) particularly tells in the multi-hued staccatos shaping Var 4’s ascending and descending left-hand double notes. At first I wondered why Hewitt clippped Var 5’s motto dotted notes short. Then I gradually warmed to the gesture, since it appropriately darkens the music’s foreboding march character.

The Eroica Variations ideally suit Hewitt’s contrapuntal acuity. Her asymmetric phrasing catches the ear off-guard in the canonic Var 7, together with just enough vehemence in the repeated chords. Her broken-octave technique rises to suave and flexible heights in Var 6, while the pianist controls Var 9’s right-hand double notes with uncommon evenness and consistency.

In Var 8, the Fazioli’s timbral distinction in each register gorgeously reveals itself. She eschews the mincing tenutos pianists love to sprinkle across Var 11 and doesn’t allow Var 13’s heavy chords to overpower the melodic grace notes. Hewitt discreetly yet noticeably wrings out the harmonic tension from the minore Var 14. Her concluding fugue is as clear and lucid as one would expect from a master Bachian, although I prefer the more incisive rhythmic spring that Emanuel Ax gets from his slightly slower tempo (Sony, 7/13). Slighter though the remaining variation sets may be, Hewitt lavishes them with comparable care, consideration and dignity, while her informative booklet notes once again showcase the pianist’s knack for thorough research and readability.