It’s ironic how a composer like Viktor Ullmann, who was persecuted and killed by the Nazis, wrote seven piano sonatas (the last three composed in the Terezín concentration camp) that fully embrace German keyboard music’s rich traditions. First movements employ strict sonata forms, while other movements consist of variation sets and fugues. The First Sonata contains a funeral march in Mahler’s memory that pushes the older composer’s forward-looking tonality even further. Yet one can also infer more than a tinge of Prokofiev in the Second Sonata’s march-like finale and the motoric rhythms of the Fourth Sonata’s Allegro vivace.

Christophe Sirodeau is the third pianist to record all seven Ullmann sonatas and his interpretations generally differ from his cyclical predecessors Jeanne Golan (Steinway & Sons) and Konrad Richter (Bayer). His virtuosity is more vital than Golan’s in the First Sonata’s opening movement, yet the latter’s finale proves more textually scrupulous in contrast to Sirodeau’s fanciful nuances. He projects the Second Sonata’s variation movement’s inner voices to greater effect than in Golan’s steadier reading, although Richter offers clearer balances between melody and accompaniment. Neither Sirodeau nor Golan match Richter’s firmly upbeat tempo and attention to dynamic markings in the Fifth’s fugal finale, although Sirodeau’s contrapuntal control and decisive trills surpass Golan’s softer-grained pianism here. Sirodeau is steadier than Golan in the Sixth’s fourth movement but Golan makes more of an attempt to articulate the soft staccatos. Here, however, Richter’s slower tempo allows the syncopated phrases to truly register. In the Seventh’s hefty last-movement fugue, Richter bests his colleagues for linear clarity but Sirodeau’s sustaining power holds equal interest, as well as Golan’s close observance of Ullmann’s martellato sempre directive.

Sirodeau includes the piano version of Ullmann’s Variations and Double Fugue on a Theme by Schoenberg for strings and his ardent, commanding performance may well tip the Ullmann cycle scales in his favour. Sonically speaking, BIS’s resonant brightness contrasts with Steinway’s close up warmth. A worthwhile release; but Richter’s more consistent artistry and pianistic finish remain reference points.