There’s no sense of a flagging of energy or commitment as Miklós Spányi reaches the 23rd and 24th volumes of his survey of the music of CPE Bach, a survey that celebrates the clavichord as much as the music itself. The ones that Spányi uses are recent, beautiful-sounding instruments made by Joris Potvlieghe, captured in a warm, not to say generous acoustic.

Vol 24 concentrates on works written in his late twenties, by which point CPE was already a seasoned composer. It ranges from the D minor Sonata, Wq62/4, with its straightforwardly galant opening movement, to the far more experimental B minor Sonata, Wq65/13. Spányi displays throughout a profound understanding of this music, tempering his approach to each piece accordingly.

It’s in the slow movements that I found myself wishing for a more yielding approach, particularly in the Andante sostenuto of the D major, Wq62/3, and the Adagio of the B minor. Here, the effect is a little too careful, though there’s precision and neatness to his playing and a terrific understanding of the niceties of the period. And in the outer movements of the glorious E major Sonata, Wq62/5, the dramatic changes of texture and dynamic are slightly underplayed. Sometimes I wished Spányi would let his hair down a little more.

But Vol 23 is a veritable box of delights. Here, sonatas from the 1750s rub shoulders with all sorts of fascinating oddments. We can revel in the sheer variety of JSB’s most outlandish son, with music from the frankly weird to the exultantly brilliant. The D minor Fugue, Wq119/2, is rendered particularly obsessive in Spányi’s hands, while the fleeting fantasias and solfeggios make an impact out of all proportion to their duration. In the more substantial D major Fantasia, Wq117/14, the delight comes as much from Spányi’s instrument as in the brilliance of CPE’s imagination. To finish, the rhetorical A major Sonata, Wq65/32, full of the idiosyncrasies that makes CPE Bach such a compelling character. If you’re following this series, you’ll want both volumes. But as a taster, Vol 23 is the one to go for.