Having last year become the first pianist in the history of the BBC Proms to play all five Beethoven piano concertos in one season, Paul Lewis has now switched to Schubert. In its current season, Music at Oxford is presenting Lewis in three Schubert programmes, the middle one also including tenor Mark Padmore.

The first concert featured two sonatas, plus Drei Klavierstücke as the multi-flavoured middle of the sandwich. The opening work, Sonata No 15, was composed as Schubert sketched his Ninth Symphony. Like the Ninth, it’s a spacious work, and was played accordingly. From the start, Lewis also underlined the fact that Schubert is arguably the greatest song composer of all time, by employing great clarity of expression, and with the piano seeming to sing the music. In each of the two movements — frustratingly Schubert never completed the work — there was also an emphasis on the rhythms that bind the music together.

Also composed in 1825, Sonata No 17, is a brighter composition than its sibling, and Lewis introduced it with an arresting start, featuring joyful cascades of notes. This time Schubert completed all four movements, and Lewis infused warmth and colour across the whole work — even in the slow movement, which is unusually cheerful. The finale is built around a catchy tune, which Lewis made sure was still dancing round in my head days later.

The recital’s central work, Drei Klavierstücke comes from the last year of Schubert’s life. By now the composer has met with success, and gained considerable confidence in his abilities. There is much exploitation of new colours and styles here, which Lewis in turn exploited by using the full expressive range of the modern concert grand. I cannot imagine anyone going home less than greatly satisfied by this recital. Paul Lewis returns to Oxford on May 27 and June 17.