An ideal Liszt Sonata performance requires transcendental virtuosity, prodigious colouristic resources, a sense of drama and narrative flow and a gift for fusing both architecture and passion. Benjamin Grosvenor’s interpretation embodies these qualities and then some, splitting the difference between Marc-André Hamelin’s unflappable poise and Joseph Moog’s volatility, to cite two recent reference-worthy contenders. Piano mavens will notice the unusually well-aligned textural thickets prior to the exposition’s famous octave onslaught, where Grosvenor’s fingers focus dead of centre, albeit with a bass-line tilt. Like Hamelin, Grosvenor shapes the lyrical D major theme by allowing the right hand just enough espressivo due, while playing the left-hand triplet melodic ‘answers’ relatively ‘straighter’. The Andante sostenuto’s rhetorical climaxes alternately and judiciously broaden and surge ahead, and the Fughetta gains excitement and momentum by way of Gosvenor’s strong left-hand presence, firm yet never rigid dotted rhythms and stinging accents. The musicality of Grosvenor’s leaping chords belies their whiplash accuracy, while the pianist emphasises the octave peroration’s melodic trajectory as a logical extension from the preceding music, rather than treating this passage as the usual athletic stunt. One may miss Arrau’s golden-toned largesse or the gaunter classicism of Fleisher, Curzon and Brendel, yet Grosvenor’s Liszt Sonata clearly belongs in such company.

Grosvenor’s lilting ostinatos and translucently shimmering double notes in the Berceuse keep one’s mind tuned in and ears entertained in a completely different manner from Bertrand Chamayou’s darker, weightier conception (Erato, A/20). His intelligently scaled dynamics and vocally orientated phrasing stand out in the Petrarch Sonnets Nos 47 and 123, as well as in his deftly voiced Schubert/Liszt Ave Maria, although his slight holding back in No 104 doesn’t quite tap into the music’s underlying yearning and angst.

Hamelin’s Hyperion remake of the Norma Fantasy (10/20) synthesises breathtaking finesse and unbridled exuberance as few others have done in this criminally difficult work. However, Grosvenor not only matches his older colleague but also proves more characterful in transitional moments, such as anticipating a change of mood or theme with a telling diminuendo or a stage-setting ritardando. In other words, Grosvenor is the opera conductor complementing Hamelin’s symphonic podium mastery. That said, let’s hope Grosvenor will not stray from the keyboard, at least not just yet!