Some listeners may regard it as a chance to confront their prejudices against the fortepiano. Those listeners may relax: the instrument which this South African player has chosen is an unusually fine example, with a singing warmth of tone. The repertoire is well-chosen…His use of rubato is dramatic without being obtrusive, and he brings to the finale a triumphal richness of texture.

The listener is drawn in by the myriad subtleties of Bezuidenhout’s playing and by the glorious sounds he draws from his instrument...Soon you’re hanging on every note of this sequence that seems to travel from darkness to darkness...Most important, though, is Bezuidenhout’s playing itself. Technique is obviously not an issue...Decoration, too, is sparing rather than trowelled on. This is the very opposite of ‘look-at me’ pianism.

The period sound of the fortepiano may not be to all tastes, but the instrument’s brilliance in the allegro and presto movements of the sonatas is difficult to resist.

The sonatas flourish with the crisp sound of the piano, a copy of an 1805 Walter, and the argument of the C minor sonata is compelling.