“Putting onto disc Schumann’s essentially elusive music is somewhat risky,” writes Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in the notes for his latest release. The French pianist, known for his astute programming and enviable technique, confesses to a “thirst” for Schumann’s music but adds that its inspiration is so spontaneous that it becomes “changeable”. For this listener he certainly captures the composer’s spirit in his performances of the four works on this admirable disc.

It opens with Grande Sonate No 3 – composed in 1834-35 and revised almost 20 years later – with its charming set of variations on an andantino written by his beloved Clara Wieck as a teenager. The Frenchman first came across the work on a Horowitz...