Leon McCawley’s Haydn series on Somm, begun in 2016, has reached its third instalment with six sonatas dating from 1767-84. As a group, they provide an interesting overview of Haydn’s works for keyboard while in the service of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. The earliest dates from around the time Haydn was made Kapellmesiter, following the death of his predecessor at the Esterházy court. The previous year Prince Nikolaus had begun construction on Eszterháza, the sumptuous rococo palace which, with its formal gardens and elaborate surrounding structures, would come to be known as the Hungarian Versailles. In McCawley’s vivid realisations it’s easy to imagine these pieces born in such a milieu. Each sonata emerges as a succinct, self-contained drama, with airtight plot and an endless variety of characters.

In the exquisite Adagio of the A flat Sonata (HobXVI:46), for instance, McCawley is all artful simplicity, letting Haydn’s eloquent polyphony speak unimpeded. The Presto finale that follows exudes such a sense of sheer fun that you may find yourself laughing out loud. The D major Sonata (No 33) is at once robust, elegantly poised and rambunctiously witty.

The latest of these pieces are a pair of two-movement sonatas written for Princess Marie Esterházy, the newly wed daughter-in-law of Haydn’s patron. It would be difficult to conceive of anything more ebulliently joyful than the second movement of the B flat major Sonata (No 41). McCawley never invites complacency. Things are always liable to take unexpected turns, as in the moderate first movement of the D major Sonata (No 42), when a sudden collapse into an extended minor section not only occludes the sunlight but suggests some unanticipated tragedy may be at hand. Yet all is dispelled with the frolicsome high spirits of the Vivace assai finale.

McCawley plays a modern Steinway but brings such clarity to Haydn’s textures than one never feels them thickened or heavy. He’s a thoughtful, keenly intelligent artist in peak form, who brings a wealth of pianistic resources to this incomparable music. Haydn was never a virtuoso pianist on a par with Mozart or Beethoven but, as McCawley brilliantly demonstrates, his piano works are an inexhaustible source of artistic riches.