There may be no definitive way of programming a cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas, whether it's in strict chronological order or with a balance of early, middle and late works in each recital. But undeniably the chronological approach does result in two final evenings of some of the most extraordinary piano music ever composed.

András Schiff completed his survey at the Wigmore Hall with two concerts in which he played the last six sonatas in unbroken triptychs, without intervals.

Both were exceptional experiences, for Schiff's Beethoven is wonderfully truthful and thoughtful. The music is always his starting point, without any attempt to impose preconceived ideas or to make anything other than what is. Though he is capable of conjuring up the most ravishing colours and crystalline transparency from his instrument, he doesn't shy away from more forthright, rougher sounds when appropriate. The uncomplicated way in which he presented some of the themes in both the E minor sonata Op 90 and the A major Op 101 was beautifully contrasted with the limpid purity of his lyrical playing, while in the Hammerklavier Op 106 Schiff's grace under pressure, his clarity of thought among the welter of the outer movements and in the depths of the Adagio, was hugely impressive.

There had already been an extraordinary foretaste of the final recital when Schiff played the whole of the E major sonata Op 109 as an encore after the Hammerklavier. That performance was more relaxed and unbuttoned than the official one four nights later, where everything seemed conceived as part of his profoundly searching totality, with the A flat sonata Op 110 raptly unfolded and the C minor Op 111 beautifully balanced between rugged assertiveness and transcendence. Totally compelling.

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