It seems extraordinary that this is Steven Osborne’s first release of a Schubert sonata, so long have they featured in his live programmes. But the wait has been more than worth it, for his account of D959 has a wonderful maturity to it, a distilled sense of musicianship that is temperamentally at the opposite end of the spectrum to Uchida (Decca), whose febrile reactivity can be a mixed blessing.

One of the key elements of Osborne’s success is his purposeful pacing of each movement. The opening Allegro is aptly monumental, its opening utterances transporting us from a mere keyboard to full orchestra. And the way he balances the rhetoric with Schubert’s constantly shifting moods, articulation and dynamics is a thing of beauty. Again, the Andantino’s pacing is innate, the mood as guileless as can be, which makes the nervous breakdown (Brendel’s description) all the more shocking. As the music rights itself once more, Osborne brings out the fragility of its lyricism. The Scherzo sets off with twinkling charm, the contrast between registers deliciously humorous, while the Trio’s quiet chorale is given a wonderful range of colours. The finale has an inner warmth to it, the pace leisurely, but with a sense of inevitability. Osborne is alive to every detail, the outbreak into violence (around five minutes in) reminding us of the breakdown in the slow movement. The teasing ambiguity of the closing minutes, finally swirling into affirmative A major, has a sureness that is masterly.

The Moments musicaux can seem rather slight after such mighty fare, but the same attention to detail illuminates and characterises every bar. From the first one, with Osborne alive to its horn calls, he seems a kindred spirit to Pires (DG), haloed beauty never getting in the way of narrative, whereas Lupu (Decca) tends to marvel in his inimitable way at inner details (check out his way with the fourth). In the driving fifth, Lupu is steady, whereas Osborne thrills with a truly hurtling Allegro vivace, but never at the expense of inner detail. He’s faster than Lewis (Harmonia Mundi), who is telling, too, with perfectly gauged dynamics and a sense of massiveness within the chords.

Richard Wigmore’s notes are a class act, and the recording is ideal. I hope there is more Schubert to come from Osborne.