THERE is nothing like playing your trump card first. The British Music Society of York opened its 92nd season on Friday with the most spectacular success of its 89th season, pianist Imogen Cooper.

Last time she played Schubert, intoxicatingly. This time she gave us early Haydn, early Beethoven, Brahms (early and late), and Bach, in that order, a much broader palette.

Haydn’s first piano sonata, albeit written when he was nearly 40, is a restless piece, and Cooper took advantage of that, starting with a more forthright Moderato than might have been expected, firmly voiced. Her eloquent slow movement, recalling much earlier techniques, was balanced by a dashingly dramatic finale.

A fiery development section in the Presto and her strong left hand in the Largo gave the opening two movements of Beethoven’s Op 10 No 3 a portentous feel. Thereafter all was comedy: a pleasingly buffo trio to the minuet and a delightful, throwaway ending to the Rondo.

Even Cooper’s best efforts could not relieve the heavy textures of Brahms’s Theme & Variations, Op 18b. But she kept the Three Intermezzi, Op 117 remarkably light, irradiating them with soulful warmth.

Bach’s Second Partita was much more than the icing on the cake. Though it is effectively a suite of dances, Cooper sustained and built the tension throughout, from a sternly transparent Sinfonia to a breathtaking climax in the Capriccio. She had played her trump card last.