Given the assertive profile distinguishing Peter Hill’s 20th- century music interpretations (Messiaen, Stravinsky, the Second Viennese School), his recordings of Bach’s French Suites (3/16) and the complete Well-Tempered Clavier (6/12) are relatively understated and intimately scaled to the point of blandness. Ditto his Goldberg Variations. Hill contains dynamics within a mezzo-forte/mezzo-piano comfort zone, while a soft edge prevails throughout the pianist’s contrapuntal contouring. His command of the cross-handed variations (originally deployed on two harpsichord manuals) betrays occasional unevenness, replete with increasingly thickened textures and progressively slowing tempos as the music unfolds, alarmingly so in Vars 21 and 23.

There are, to be certain, attractive details. Hill’s soft staccato articulation in the Fughetta Var 10 couldn’t be more centred. Some of the canon at the second’s fluid bass lines take on attractive jazzy inflections, while subtle tonal shadings in Vars 13, 15, 21 and the celebrated ‘Black Pearl’ minor-key Var 25 compensate for the pianist’s plain-spoken austerity. I also like the slight hesitancy of Hill’s upward scales in Var 27 (the canon at the ninth), and the way he ignites Var 29’s toccata-like patterns with just enough mobility and animation. However, Hill’s undeniable musicality and sensitivity convey an overall reticence that does not communicate the music with the immediacy of Murray Perahia’s incisively joyful pianism (Sony Classical, 12/00), Angela Hewitt’s multi-level phrasing (Hyperion, 11/16), Lori Sims’s lithe spontaneity (Two Pianists) or Alexandre Tharaud’s ardent drama (Erato, 11/15). In fact, I found Hill’s extensive and perceptive booklet note essay on the Goldbergs more engaging than his actual piano interpretation.