Beethoven and Scriabin don't often feature on the same programme but, in Llyr Williams's recital opening Gower's annual festival, the pairing of the Op 27 No 2 Sonata with Scriabin's Second Sonata was a reminder that the young Russian had, almost a century later, consciously emulated Beethoven. He took the unusual movement structure, quasi una fantasia, and even incorporated an evocation of moonlight (albeit the famous title was not Beethoven's). In each, Williams balanced poetic colouring with the passionate drama of the fast finales, where Beethoven's quasi cadenza carried an explosive fire, while the Scriabin presto's myriad agitated strands were crystal clear.

Rachmaninov wrote his colossal Second Sonata just 16 years later than Scriabin, revising it in 1931. Williams – like Vladimir Horowitz and others more recently – opted for his own amalgam of the original and revised versions. Bringing all his experience of the Rachmaninov concertos to bear on this performance, Williams combined virtuosic brilliance with his penetrating insight, so that, even more than usual, the sonata's grandeur and its thematic connection with The Bells – the symphony conceived at the same time – emerged powerfully, and without sentimentality. A more playful side to Rachmaninov, and Williams, was evident in the note-whirling arrangement of Kreisler's Liebesleid and Liebesfreud.

This year sees the centenary of the birth of Daniel Jones, composer, Bletchley codebreaker and editor of the poetry of Dylan Thomas, his childhood friend. Williams astutely interleaved Bagatelles by Jones with those of Bartók, emphasising the metrical complexities they both favoured, as well as an elegiac strain. It was on a gently reflective note that Williams ended, with a Mendelssohn Venetian Gondelied, in memory of the festival's artistic director, composer Gareth Walters, who died six weeks ago.