This release is billed as Vol 1 of the complete music for solo piano of Mélanie Hélène Bonis, known as Mel Bonis (1858-1937). Even among some pianophiles, her name remains unfamiliar, though she is increasingly well represented on disc, if not in the concert hall. There are already a handful of recordings dedicated exclusively to her piano works, which number roughly 150. If you have never heard any of her music, what can you expect? As a rough guide, I would put her in the same bracket as Chaminade, Chausson and Chabrier, with elements of Fauré, Chopin and Debussy inevitably in the mix, while maintaining her own distinctive voice. Whatever, Bonis falls decidedly into the ‘unjustly neglected’ category.

Mengyiyi Chen (b1993, Wuhan), a name new to me, is a US-based pianist. Hers is a well-chosen programme with which to introduce newcomers to the composer. The opening Barcarolle, Op 71, is typical of her graceful lyricism, Il pleut! (among the disc’s highlights) an example of a quirky, unpredictable side. Overall, I had hoped that these 29 short pieces might have elicited a more imaginative response from Chen. Her playing is sincerity itself and pleasant enough but tonally monochrome and consistently overpedalled. Compare, for instance, her handling of the lovely G flat Romance sans paroles, Op 56, with that of Nicolas Stavy on the recent Husum compilation (Danacord, 10/23). In addition, the extravagantly named Margot and Bill Winspear Performance Hall of Murchison Performing Arts Center at the College of Music, University of North Texas, Denton, is not a recording venue with the sympathetic acoustic of Husum, let alone the Potton, Henry Wood or Wyastone halls here in the UK.

The premiere recording of the eight Scènes enfantines (1912) is most welcome. There is something prescient of Poulenc about these charming miniatures designed for young pianists to play (No 5, ‘Marche militaire’, quotes the Soldiers’ Chorus from Faust and No 6 is a witty take on ‘Frère Jacques’), a suite that can stand beside both Schumann and Tchaikovsky’s Album for the Young. But here, as elsewhere, tempos tend to be cautious and Chen falls well short of assez vite in ‘Cache-cache’ (a timid way to play hide-and-seek) and crotchet=184 of ‘Carillon’. William Melton’s impressive 26-page booklet essay is everything you expect of Toccata.