James Brawn’s traversal of Beethoven’s piano sonatas has reached its eighth instalment, with a selection of sonatas composed between 1800 and 1804. The E flat Sonata, Op 27 No 1, always overshadowed by the Moonlight Sonata with which it shares an opus number and subtitle, Quasi una fantasia, is here given a creditable performance that highlights its formal audacity. Some of the sforzandos seem subdued but it soon becomes evident that Brawn generally eschews the marked contrasts that are the hallmark of many Beethoven players.

None of the humour inherent in the first movement of the G major Sonata, Op 31 No 1, is slighted and the Adagio grazioso abounds in beautiful and varied articulation. The Allegretto Rondo sounds closer to an Andante con moto, with a tendency to accord each beat of the bar equal emphasis, impeding the sense of forward momentum.

My favourite performance on the album is of the great E flat Sonata, Op 31 No 3. The first movement is appropriately spacious and morning-fresh. Following the brusque jauntiness of the Scherzo, the graceful and gracious Minuet is the perfect foil. Brawn does himself proud in the Presto con fuoco, with its devil-may-care, galloping life affirmation.

Last of all is Op 54, the relatively unassuming two-movement sonata separating two leviathans, the Waldstein and the Appassionata: a Tempo d’un menuetto followed by a congenial Allegretto, all of which surrounds Brawn with some of the most salubrious waters of the disc. I regret having caught up with this Beethoven series so late, but with two more discs presumably yet to come, there is much to look forward to.