Schubert: Piano Sonatas in C D840; in D D850; in G D894; Impromptus D899; Klavierstücke D946

Paul Lewis (piano) Harmonia Mundi 902115.16 (2 CDs)***

Paul Lewis began his solo recording career with late Schubert and after a prolonged dalliance with Beethoven, he's back where he started, offering demonstrative performances of three quite problematic sonatas as well as the first set of Impromptus and the three pieces known just as Klavierstücke. There's an old-world kind of flexibility in his playing and, often, a tone of an appealing, rounded character to match. The downsides are moments when the rubato draws too much attention to itself, as in the Sonata in D, D850, where the effect is of a kind of see-sawing. And some of the heavy-weather style climaxes, suggesting that the music can't quite contain the vehemence Lewis wants to express, don't quite come off.

A sometimes wonderful, intriguingly mixed bag. See url.ie/55ay