This group of four Haydn keyboard sonatas was recorded by the underrated British pianist John Lill in 2000 (in Hong Kong) but was lost in the shuffle of the recording industry and not released until 2007. It was thus made a bit in advance of the remarkable Haydn recordings of Marc-André Hamelin and of a group of others that have gradually been elevating the composer's keyboard music to a level of prominence comparable to his works in other genres. That makes it all the more remarkable, and the recordings taken as a group show something of how Haydn's sonatas, often seemingly slight, have enough in them to stand up to widely varying interpretations. Those interpretations vary especially in regard to the earlier sonatas, which many pianists have treated as light divertissements and Hamelin treats as drastic, edgy experiments. In the Piano Sonata No. 49 in C sharp minor, Hob. 16/36, and the Piano Sonata No. 32 in G minor, Hob. 16/44, Lill finds subtle craftsmanship and a good dose of Haydn's quirky spirit. His readings are modest in scope but hang together beautifully in their small details of articulation, and he is as insistent as Hamelin (and Alfred Brendel before him) in not taking anything Haydn did as conventional -- he's just quieter about that insistence. Sample the tension in the Minuet finale of Hob. 16/36. He is sparing in his use of the pedal, and his crystal-clear textures create vivid contrasts even as the temperature is generally kept low. In the two late sonatas on the disc, true precursors of Beethoven, Lill's experience as a Beethoven specialist shows through; he adopts a bigger sound and, especially in the closing Piano Sonata No. 62 in E flat major, Hob. 16/52, emphasizes the daring, revolutionary spirit. The E major slow movement of that sonata is drawn out with Beethovenian pathos, and the lickety-split finale becomes a real virtuoso showpiece, not a parlor entertainment. Nicely recorded and consistently compelling, Lill's long-awaited disc offers a valuable addition to the growing shelf of Haydn recordings by top-rank pianists performing Haydn on modern instruments.