Like its predecessor (9/04), ‘Perspectives 2’ reflects Haefliger’s thoughtfulness in programme-building, as well as his musicianship and selfless virtuosity. He conceives Beethoven’s Sonata No 27 on a large scale, with pronounced dynamic contrasts and rhetorical underpinnings. Although No 22’s first movement doesn’t quite match the inner swing of Gulda’s recently reissued 1967 traversal, Haefliger colours the main theme’s decorative manifestation with exquisite shadings, though the finale’s ritards and broadenings at ends of phrases get old quite soon. His mastery in Bartók’s Out of Doors suite comes as no surprise: notice in the finale how his animated left hand clarifies the music’s polyrhythmic momentum more cogently than Zoltán Kocsis (Philips, 7/97R). As for the Brahms, compare Haefliger’s more probing distensions of phrase (the first movement’s second theme, the Scherzo’s trio and chunks of the Andante espressivo) alongside more directly phrased, long-lined counterparts from either Arthur Rubinstein or Earl Wild, and see who sounds like the older pianist. Yet in fairness, moments abound where Haefliger gives in to Brahms’s unbridled energy: listen to him gather steam en route to the finale’s coda and simply let things rip.