The 34-year-old pianist Julian Jaeyoung Kim keeps a vice-like grip on the dotted rhythms in the first movement of Brahms’s F minor Sonata, with a martellato definition of inner voices and counterlines. It’s not an interpretation that builds the sonority from the bottom up with strong attention to bass lines in the manner of Arrau, Curzon, Rubinstein or Ax. Kim’s flexibly shaped alla breve treatment of the Andante espressivo is akin to Nelson Freire’s recordings, minus the late Brazilian pianist’s tonal warmth and floating legato. The Scherzo shoots out from the starting gate with boisterous energy, even though Kim never plays softly enough when required. He also keeps the volume up and the mystery down throughout the Intermezzo. While Kim’s finale is not the most colourful or dynamically contrasted around, one must credit his effortless command and intelligent balancing of the cascading runs and the gnarly coda.

In Op 35, Kim takes Book 1’s double-note Variation 1 at a slower tempo than the one set out in the theme. The pianist gets Var 3’s leggiero marking right but underplays the sforzandos. Still, he does convey Var 5’s cross-rhythmic tension in regard to how the phrases are displaced against the basic metre. The pianist observes the dynamic hairpins in Vars 6 and 7 as if being pursued by the Urtext police. Yet he presses ahead full sail in Var 10, pays mere lip service to Var 11’s dolce directive and takes Var 13’s octave glissandos gingerly. For whatever reason, Kim seems more comfortable and committed in Book 2, where he launches into Var 1 bypassing the theme. Granted, his perfunctory, literal-minded Var 4 is anything but con grazia, but the supple élan in Vars 5, 6 and 7 compensates. However, the frequent pauses between variations dissipate momentum and flow in both books. Needless to say, these performances face considerable and superior catalogue competition.