His playing is stunningly beautiful with some wonderful varied timbres, particularly when the music modulates to distant keys…There are brilliant moments, too, in Hamelin’s performance of the D935 Impromptus. I was particularly bowled over by the variety of sound and character that he extracts from the Rosamunde Variations.

This is spacious Schubert, secure, august and unrushed... it may be in the Sonata’s Andante that the originality of Hamelin’s reading becomes fully evident. With perfect poise, exquisite voice-leading lends the opening theme a chaste, heroic, noble character.

There are outstanding recordings of these works by artists such as Schnabel, Lupu, Brendel, Curzon and Richter. This recording by Hamelin is exceptional and it deserves to be placed in the pantheon of great Schubert recordings alongside these artists.

Hamelin brings both his renowned technical command, a gorgeous poetic temperament and a crispy unsentimental approach in matters of tempi to the other Impromptus and the B flat Sonata.