One could spend time discussing why a composer of Thomas Adès’s prominence is compelled to record Janáček’s piano music, but that’s a job for pundits, not reviewers. It’s apparent from the get-go that Adès is determined to check all expressive clichés at the recording studio door, accept Janáček’s plain-spoken syntax and lack of artifice for what they are, and simply play the music straight. No gratuitous taperings, emphatic accents or ritards where the composer indicates none.

The very first piece in On an Overgrown Path says it all: compare András Schiff’s artful tonal shadings or Jan Bartoš’s brooding between the lines to Adès’s direct, straightforward approach. Because he takes Janáček’s directives on faith, the sudden sforzando staccatos gain intensity and surprise. And by not overplaying ‘Come with us’ as if it were extroverted Schumann, the subtle harmonic quirks truly read, as do the differences between piano and pianissimo. In Book 1’s final movement, Adès pays more attention to dynamics and rests than most pianists, and does not prettify the chorale-like sections with mellifluous voicing.

Adès seems less interested in colour or moody subtext than rendering text with intensive clarity in the two-movement Sonata. Notice, for example, how the pianist gives prominence to the first movement’s repeated-note counterline, possibly to a fault. His gaunt sonority hits hard in the second movement’s climax where listeners might expect more ample resonance. Again, Adès’s attention to dynamics reinforces the unsettled lyricism throughout the opening Andante of In the Mists, although he doesn’t quite commit to Janáček’s cantando and dolcissimo requests. On the other hand, he deftly plays up the contrasts between the second movement’s initial ‘fragmented ragtime’ theme and presto flourishes. The Andantino’s quasi-nursery rhyme character benefits from Adès’s variations in touch and articulation, as do the finale’s jaggedly declamatory writing. You can say that Adès’s Janáček emphasises truth over beauty, whereas Bartoš, Schiff and Firkušný find a happy medium between the two. An illuminating release