Christa Landon’s numbering 1 to 62 is followed. But her 1960s edition was superseded in 2009 when Wiener Urtext published Ulrich Leisinger’s updated revision. He explains: ‘Landon’s idea of establishing a verified chronological order has proved impossible to realise. For the new edition a pragmatic rule was chosen to facilitate finding the individual pieces; the sonatas are numbered consecutively and are ordered according to the Hoboken numbers.’

At the outset Denis Kozhukhin doesn’t promise much. His tempo for the opening movement of HobXVI/49 (Landon’s No 59) – too fast for Allegro – is glib, the first theme isn’t slurred as marked and his response to a rich harmonic range is neither thoughtful nor analytical. He improves; the slow movement is a real Adagio with a sharply contrasted B flat minor section, the finale an intelligently assessed Tempo di menuetto.

The remaining sonatas, perhaps written for harpsichord, don’t have dynamic markings; but Kozhukhin treats them as piano music, offering his own dynamic variants. The first movement of HobXVI/23 (No 38) has no tempo indication and Kozhukhin’s choice of Allegro isn’t as credible as Tzimon Barto’s slower, malleable option. Nor is he as credible as Alfred Brendel, whose tauter control of the first movement of HobXVI/32 (No 47) better evokes its minor-key character. But again Kozhukhin rises to the occasion in the remaining movements of these works; and is really at his best in HobXVI/24 (No 39), spaciously expressive in the Allegro first movement, melancholy in the Baroque-type Adagio and pointedly rhythmic in the final Presto.