When I welcomed Isata Kanneh-Mason’s Clara Schumann disc (Decca, 8/19), I made special mention of her ingenious but literal transcription of 30 of her husband’s songs and expressed a hope that others might dig out the remaining numbers. Here we are with a disc that includes a further six from that collection, another duplicated on Kanneh-Mason’s disc and four more from a collection of 11 discarded song transcriptions that did not see the light of day until 2012.

The rest of the programme is of Clara’s reworkings of seven of Robert’s Studies for the Pedal Pianoforte, the Overture to his opera Genoveva (a transcription that pianistically ventures hardly beyond Grade 7), an Andante cantabile by the Schumanns’ friend Sterndale Bennett reduced by Clara from four to two hands, and two short movements from the works of another friend, Brahms. The latter two were also not printed until 2012 and, like the majority of works here, are first recordings.

The Belgian pianist Jozef De Beenhouwer is not, frankly, a compelling communicator of arresting individuality, rather a reliable and proficient artist, qualities that serve him well in his mission of promulgating Clara’s works: unshowy, conservative and just a little bit worthy. The same is true of Ira Maria Witoschynskyj playing a Steinway Model D of 1901, a reissue of an MDG recording made back in 1996 when, to the great credit of the pianist, 14 of the 17 tracks were premieres. Among these are two titles common to both discs (one of the Studies for Pedal Piano and the Menuetto from Brahms’s Serenade, Op 11) and four of the transcriptions of her husband’s songs including ‘Mondnacht’ so beautifully recorded by Kanneh-Mason; in ‘Frühlingsnacht’ I found myself missing Liszt’s more elaborate setting. Three of Clara’s own modest but charming solos are also found a place. Somewhat anachronistically, Witoschynskyj includes Franz Liszt in Clara’s ‘family’ (the two enjoyed a mutual antipathy). Liszt was generous enough to transcribe three of Clara’s own songs, one of which is presented here. Three early works by Clara’s half-brother Woldemar Bargiel follow, before his Drei Fantasiestücke, Op 9, dedicated to Clara and by far the most substantial works here. Brahms, whose F minor Sonata was published a year earlier in 1853, is hovering over Bargiel’s shoulder.

Both discs are recorded to MDG’s customary high standards and come with excellent booklets, but I can’t help thinking that, despite the commendable advocacy of these two pianists, only a handful of the works will secure a permanent foothold in the repertoire when the bicentenary floodlights have been switched off.