Serious forethought and scrutinised detail inform Shai Wosner’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, sometimes getting in the music’s way, notwithstanding many moments of illumination.

The pianist’s fussy pointing of the first variation’s dotted rhythms undermines the sudden dynamic contrasts and funeral-march gravitas, and Wosner brings out the cross-rhythmic intricacy of Var 2’s broken chords but not the melodic implications that Martin Helmchen uncovers (Alpha, 4/18). The lack of a resolute basic pulse in Var 4 dissipates the rollicking spring in Var 5’s repeated notes. Wosner’s strong left-hand up-beats reinforce Var 7’s inherent swagger, which, however, tends to soften when the pianist rushes during crescendos. By contrast, Wosner deftly yet firmly navigates the Presto Var 10’s rapid broken chords, although I’ve heard more airborne lightness from pianists as divergent as Julius Katchen and Peter Serkin. Granted, the X ray clarity of the pianist’s linear interplay in Var 19 is more Bachian than Beethovenian, yet why not allow Wosner to channel Glenn Gould?

Var 13 most tellingly exemplifies the conflict between intention and realisation that I often glean from Wosner’s playing. This variation alternates forte chords in dotted rhythms with rests followed by piano responses. The effect can be deliciously deadpan when played absolutely straight, as in Charles Rosen’s recording (4/78), although Rosen’s unexpected elongation of a single rest on the B section repeat is a masterstroke of comic timing. At the opposite end lies Mitsuko Uchida’s pompous overstatement (Decca, 5/22); she’s Jerry Lewis to Rosen’s Jack Benny. By comparison, Wosner’s inflections are either tentative or misjudged.

In Var 22 Wosner similarly misses the caustic subtext characterising Beethoven’s burlesquing of ‘Notte e giorno faticar’ from Mozart’s Don Giovanni by overarticulating the appoggiaturas, which sound brasher and far more effective as quick upward brushstrokes. The pianist also reduces Var 23’s ‘bang/scamper’ wildness to note-perfect caution, whereas he really lets loose and makes an appropriately big noise in Var 32’s fugal textures, even to the point of overpedalling at times. It is in the slower, introspective variations that Wosner’s sensitivity and sustaining powers unambiguously shine. Note, for instance, Var 24’s three-dimensional voice-leading and timbral diversity, and how the songful rumination of his cantabiles in Var 31 is anchored by a strong left-hand presence. It is for this reason that I prefer Uchida’s comparable yet fuller-bodied shaping of Var 14.

If my critiques seem unduly picky, it’s simply because this artist’s considerable pianistic and interpretative gifts deserve to be evaluated in world-class company. For as this excellently engineered release makes perfectly clear, Shai Wosner has a great Diabelli Variations in him, and I hope he’ll continue to live with this work and record it anew down the line. In the interim, Uchida, Helmchen, Rosen, Daniel Shapiro (Azica), Igor Levit (Sony, 11/15) and Stephen Kovacevich (Onyx, 1/09) remain my top recommendations.