It's something of a red-letter day when a pianist of the stature of Andras Schiff starts performing the late Beethoven sonatas. Why has the 48-year-old delayed so long? Partly perhaps to make the point that they should not be undertaken just because they are there; partly, by Schiff's own admission, because he has long been in revolt against the Beethoven-worship of his Budapest professors.

At Snape Maltings Concert Hall there was a distinct air of reverence in his performance of the three last sonatas - Op 109, 110 and 111. Usually the differences between them are highlighted. But Schiff was at pains to make them an immense triptych, remaining on the platform between them and shaping each as a single broad span with barely a pause between movements. Yet even while driving the music forward - reinforcing Beethoven's emphasis on the final movements as the emotional and spiritual heart of the music - the playing was characterised by an intensely lyrical tone.

Schiff communicated a powerful sense of Beethoven using the keyboard to create new expressive means, pushing well beyond the classical into the Romantic era. But in underlining the element of experimentation with sound, Schiff sometimes used the sustaining pedal to bring a soft-focus blur, which contrasted uncomfortably with the overall clarity of vision. By the final variation of Op 111, though, there was a feeling of inhabiting a rarefied world - one that may prove addictive.