In Brahms’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, should a pianist zero in on the overall grand design and try to build cumulative momentum? Or, instead, focus on the intricate contrapuntal textures and subtle rhythmic felicities? Or perhaps both? Leon McCawley is less of a big-picture person than a detail maven. Cases in point: his affectionate accentuations and inner voices in Var 2, the strict adherence to Brahms’s dynamics and articulations in Vars 7 and 10 (easier said than done), Var 16’s carefully voiced canons and the beautiful, bell-like sonorities he obtains in Var 22. A few miscalculations lead him to fall short of the reference standards set by Perahia, Ohlsson and Arrau’s strikingly different interpretations. He softens the rhythmic build in Vars 23 and 24 by slightly slowing down for the latter, while Var 3’s off-beat right-hand accents throw Brahms’s intended phrasing off-kilter and Var 13 moves too fast to allow the triplets and quintuplet figures to speak comfortably.

McCawley lets his hair down in the Waltzes, allowing himself less leeway than the relatively rhapsodic Cédric Tiberghien and Gerhard Oppitz, yet retaining plenty of dynamism and passion. However, the Op 118 Piano Pieces showcase McCawley’s most consistent and inspired playing. Listen, for example, to the A major Intermezzo’s conversationally phrased outer sections, the F minor Intermezzo’s fascinating interplay between the hands (many pianists maintain the textures at a uniform level) and how the E flat minor Intermezzo’s registral extremes seem to emanate from two very different instruments. Clearly McCawley’s artistry is evolving.