Adès’s account [of On an Overgrown Path] eschews sentimentality and refuses to duck the suppressed violence that occasionally erupts…His care shown over Janáček’s inner part writing is often revelatory, and he seems very much at one with the near improvisatory nature of these pieces. There is perhaps less delicacy in his approach to the more elusive soundworld of in the Mists, but his performance is impressive for its clarity and cohesion.

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...Adès seems less interested in colour or moody subtext than rendering text with intensive clarity in the two-movement Sonata…An illuminating release.

Adès’s understated but hugely engaged and engaging playing on last year’s recording of Winterreise with Ian Bostridge was a welcome reminder of what a wonderful pianist this eminent composer is, and his Janáček shares many of the same virtues: his clarity of voicing, rhythmic precision and ability to summon such a range of colours that you’d swear he was switching between different instruments in the blink of an eye illuminate this ‘overgrown path’ to perfection.

It’s always fascinating to hear composers interpreting those who have been significant influences on their own work, and Thomas Adès’s music certainly owes much to Janáček. Adès’s performances...certainly project the originality and freshness of the piano writing, even if there is not quite the range of keyboard colour of Rudolf Firkušný’s classic accounts for DG.