The D major Sonata, D850, can often seem too explosive, but Barenboim gives as convincing an account of it as I've heard. He is even finer in the Sonata in G major, the most lyrical of them all...There is noble music-making here, but it is less consistent than we expect from this great artist.

Given the heroic scale of his pianism, this was always going to be an assertive, romantic Schubert – highly charged grandeur contrasted with expansive lyricism.

The first word that comes to mind, after extensive listening, is 'unflinching'. These performances don't prioritise finesse per se but they are fiercely honest.

Barenboim’s magisterial trajectory encompasses the youthful elation and romantic melancholy of the early and intermediate works, but it is in the great final triptych — the C minor, A major and B flat major sonatas, D958 to D960 — that a lifetime of pondering these transcendent masterpieces reaps most dividends.