William Youn is a young Korean pianist who plans to record the complete Mozart piano sonatas over a five-year period. And, placing all my cards on the table, I have to say I have rarely heard Mozart-playing more graceful, fine-toned and inward-looking. Seeking far beyond an ‘Appollonian view of things’ (Youn), his hypersensitivity to underlying drama, to the composer’s most subtle emotional shifts, makes you more aware than ever of Mozart’s genius.

His flawless dexterity allows him a poetic freedom to explore every facet of the music’s character. How supremely he captures the vibrancy and unrest of the A minor Sonata, K310 (for him the opening left-hand chords are like ‘a nervously hammering heartbeat’). Hear him in the haunting grace and solace with which he opens the central Andante cantabile con espressivo, a true oasis of calm after the first movement’s agitation before the music is once more clouded with intensity. What whispering menace and desolation he finds in the windswept finale, though with everything, however prophetic, achieved within a perfectly classical context. Again, in K330 and K570 I felt grateful for every repeat made, so that you can you can relive Mozart’s quality. At about five minutes into the B flat Sonata, K570, you will hear one of many moments where Youn weaves a truly magical spell. Such a sense of Mozart’s stature, the need for poise, transparency and an inclusive musicianship, is special indeed. Youn is finely recorded and I can scarcely wait to hear him in further Mozart, and perhaps most of all in the concertos.