Kenneth Hamilton’s writings about Romantic performance practice are always erudite, insightful, vividly expressed and delightfully witty, and this holds true for the wonderful annotations gracing this release centred around Handel. The big question, however, is whether or not Hamilton’s verbal brilliance extends into his pianism. Having previously reviewed several of his discs, my answer always has been and remains: it depends.

For example, he delivers the opening Handel-Alkan and Handel-Liszt selections with appropriate spirit and sufficient virtuosic sweep, and channels Percy Grainger’s pianistic gusto in the latter’s transcription of the Water Music Hornpipe. By contrast, close scrutiny of Beethoven’s C minor Variations reveals smartly unified tempo relationships alongside fleeting moments of uneven articulation (scales, repeated notes, cascading arpeggios) and a limited dynamic range. Yet the Handel-Kempff Minuet’s tonal shadings and subtle shifts in balance between the hands proves worthy of this piece’s transcriber, while Hamilton displays excellent finger legato and voice-leading in the completed movements of Mozart’s Suite in the style of Handel. He zips through Mozart’s delightful Gigue, where his attention to the cross-rhythmic phrasing compensates for his occasional rushing.

While Hamilton’s light textures and generally fast tempos throughout Brahms’s Handel Variations are a welcome antidote to some of the catalogue’s more ponderous and staid renditions, many salient details of articulation, phrasing and dynamic contrast go by the wayside. He ignores Var 1’s accents altogether, while not consistently and distinctly articulating Var 2’s three-against-two rhythm. Conversely, Var 3 is refreshingly gentle and crisp at the same time, and the pianist truly takes Var 4’s risoluto directive on faith, if not quite giving the sforzandos their biting due. As much as I love the brisk and unbridled qualities of Vars 7 and 8, the dotted rhythms occasionally veer off centre. Var 18 is dry and notey, far removed from the grazioso long-lined warmth one usually expects. There’s nothing remotely leggiero e vivace about Hamilton’s clunky and arthritic Var 19, while the gathering momentum of Vars 23 and 24 pushes Hamilton’s fingers to their limits. Notwithstanding more than a few snatched-at passages, Hamilton’s sensitive dynamic shadings and controlled headlong tempo keep the final Fugue alive and afloat. However, the adrenalin doesn’t subside for a rather hectic, unsettled Brahms-Gluck Gavotte that stands in marked contrast to the relaxed elegance of such past masters as Josef Hofmann and Ignaz Friedman. In all, a release that’s both admirable and frustrating.