Alfred Brendel is one of the most familiar figures of the piano world. His integrity as an interpreter of the core classical repertoire is legendary, as is his command of the intellectual dimension of his craft. And his latest Royal Festival Hall recital proved that he is continuing to question and evolve as a musician.

Brendel's Mozart has always been famous for its transparency and thoughtfulness. But those expecting his performance of the C Minor Sonata, K457, to evince only those qualities would have been disappointed. Brendel's tempi in the outer movements bordered on the wild. He launched into the opening arpeggios with white-hot energy. But for all this extraordinary velocity, Brendel reined in the expressivity of his playing, especially in the first movement. This sonata is sometimes played as a prototype for Beethoven's famous C minor pieces, but here, Brendel contained Mozart within strict, classical limits of dynamics and articulation. He was even willing to forego absolute clarity in favour of the overall sweep of the movement.

The method behind Brendel's approach was revealed in the central slow movement. Here, every phrase was lovingly nurtured. Where in the first movement the emphasis had been on the large-scale, in the second, Brendel focused on the finesse of each note of Mozart's lavish ornamentation. He savoured the florid appearances of the main theme. Brendel created a greater range of colours and timbres, allowing the instrument to blossom in the meltingly simple melody that appears halfway through the piece. The final allegro returned to the blustery, C minor world of the opening movement.

There were more surprises in Haydn's E Flat Major Sonata. Brendel is peerless in communicating the subtle games Haydn plays with his listeners and performers. With minute changes of emphasis and tempo, Brendel led us through the richnesses of Haydn's musical imagination with complete assurance. Mozart's Adagio, K540, was startling for other reasons. Brendel revealed a disturbing obsessiveness in this self-contained slow movement, and hinted at an archaic and private soundworld, altogether removed even from the intimacies of the C Minor Sonata.

Schubert's A Minor Sonata, D845, closed the programme, in a performance that created an unstoppable and ever-changing musical momentum. As Brendel approaches his eighth decade, there is no sign of him taking any aspect of his music-making for granted.