The programme for Paul Lewis’s latest recital was structured round two works with much in common, despite stylistic differences: elements of emotional extremism that push against the boundaries of convention and form; slow movements that underpin chordal progressions in the right hand with staccato figurations in the left; and finales that close in a mood of quiet serenity, assuaging the turmoil that has gone before.

Lewis brought his customary intelligence and intensity to bear on Beethoven’s Fourth Sonata in E Flat, Op 7, dating from 1797, and Weber’s infrequently performed Second Sonata in A flat, Op 39, completed in 1816 in interpretations of great insight and power. His Beethoven combined muscularity with tenderness, launching the volatile opening movement with restless energy, and bringing tragic depth to the largo, with its brooding tone and sudden plunges into silence. Weber deals in gradations of mood, darkening and intensifying his expansive thematic lyricism in ways that seem theatrical, even operatic, and Lewis responded with endless shifts in colour and weight. The fearsome technical demands, at times prefiguring Liszt, were met with unshowy dexterity, superbly vindicating a rather neglected work.

Lewis placed Bach’s First Partita before the Beethoven, while a short group of Chopin waltzes prefaced the Weber. The Bach was forthright and unfussy, austere and eloquent in the Sarabande, tense in the closing Gigue. Refinement and poise characterised the Chopin: Lewis closed the group with the Minute Waltz, graceful and unhectored, done with elegance and wit.