This Brahms and Schumann recital shows John Lill at his very finest. Self-conscious shows of sophistication and virtuosity he leaves to others, always allowing the composer his own voice while maintaining an unruffled mastery, grandeur and musical authority. In the Schumann Fantasie he forges music which can all too easily become merely episodic into a superb symphonic whole, his reading unarguably strong and sensitive.

Again, in Brahms’s Handel Variations there is nothing to detract from a continual sense of wonder at the way such a masterpiece develops and unfolds. After a sombre start, Lill is humorously rumbustious in Variation 1, inward and thoughtful in 3, bold and resolute (as marked) in 4, direct yet expressive in 5. And in the same composer’s Op 117 Intermezzi his playing is, once more, blessedly free of all affectation. True, there are others more intimate and pleading in No 2 or darker and more communing in No 3 (which Brahms considered ‘a cradle song for all his grief’); yet Lill’s musical clarity brings its own special rewards.

Signum’s sound is clear as a bell and even in a catalogue bursting with fine performances (Richter, Pollini and Argerich in the Schumann; Kovacevich, Katchen and Solomon in the Brahms Variations), Lill’s performances carry distinctive weight and authority.