The sensitivity, tonal refinement and occasional micromanagement typifying Amir Katz’s Chopin Nocturnes, Ballades and Impromptus (Oehms) and Mendelssohn Songs Without Words (Live Classics) prevail throughout his Schubert Impromptus. After stretching the first-note fermata of D899 No 1 for a daringly long time, Katz launches into the piece proper and pursues a deliberate, rock-steady course that at first seems obsessively literal (those slightly precious staccato chords), yet the carefully built climaxes and increasing variety in character generate assiduous momentum. In this context No 2’s rapid scales and hurling central minor-key section are surprisingly bracing and angular, forgoing the rippling poise Perahia and Zimerman bring to this particular piece. Like Schnabel, Katz rightly takes No 3’s alla breve marking on faith, but unlike the older pianist, Katz subjects the long melodic lines to gratuitous taperings and ritards. Katz executes No 4’s cascading right-hand runs as Schubert wrote them, without slurs, and is unusually meticulous elsewhere, yet the overall effect is rather cut and dry, compared alongside Maria João Pires’s ravishing lyricism, to give one example (DG, 5/98).

In the D935 group, No 1 stands out for its unusual lightness of texture and animated sweep. No 2 beautifully showcases Katz’s legato mastery; notice how he resists the ‘traditional’ temptation to push down the proverbial accelerator and crank up the volume in the Trio section. Ironically, Katz’s overly detailed articulation throughout No 3 often leaves a finicky impression and prevents the final variation’s passagework from taking wing. On the other hand, No 4’s brisk basic tempo, stinging accents and sharply projected cross-rhythmic interplay are exactly what this music needs, and rarely receives (but which we do get in Rudolf Serkin’s pulverising live 1957 performance from Lugano – Urania et al). In all, this well-engineered release does not consistently satisfy, yet Katz’s best performances certainly are worth hearing.